She had flowers in her hair

Texas Tech Girls

Fight Raiders Fight!

Emily Dancing

Video of Ana Crawling

Uncle Steve

I found out yesterday that my Uncle Steve (my moms brother) got hit by a pickup while riding his bike and died.   I found this to be crazy.  We all knew that his time on earth was limited due to brain cancer, so when I was told that he had died  I naturally thought it was from the cancer.  Then to find out that he had died from injures he sustained because of an accident was just... well...odd. 
I was never particularly close to Uncle Steve, as he and his family rarely came to visit and we did not go visit them either.  I know that we all have to eventually die and I am glad that he ended up losing his life while doing something he loved instead of dying of a long slow painful death from cancer. 
My heart goes out to his children and grandchildren.  I am so sorry for the loss of their father and his wife for the loss of her husband. 
May God be with my entire family while we grieve.

We have crawlers!

So on Saturday Ana finally crawled her first few crawls.  She only does a few steps at a time still because she gets to what she wants and then stops and moves arond on her belly like she does.
So once again, Ana is the first to hit a major milestone!
But to keep with tradition one day later Emily figures it out! 
So both girls are crawling!  They are still in the beggining stages and only crawl for a moment before they get back down on thier bellies and move that way!
I keep trying to put what they want just a little farther away so they actually have to crawl.

Emily is getting bored lately and we have been trying to come up with things to keep her entertained and learning.
Phew!  That is a full time job for sure and one that I have no experience with so if anyone out there has any ideas on keeping little girls busy, feel free to drop a line or call! 

After church! They are always so cute in thier little dresses!

Downward facing dog!  Emily is doing Yoga.

First little crawling steps!

Two little girls just hanging out.

Yup, I'm cute!

no words...just cute! lol

noises

The girls have started doing a smacking thing with their lips that is so funny.  And one will start and the other one start too.  It is actually pretty cute.  They do it all the time;  in their cribs in the morning, in the car in their car seats, just whenever.  So I took a video.  Little Ana was too busy with other things to pay attention for too long, but you will get the idea!

Girls Lunch Date

One of my girlfriends here was going to take a pedicure lunch, and I told her I would like to come too!  It has been so long since I got a pedicure.  I miss them! 
So we went and got our toesies done! 

And then she paid!  So awesome!

Big girl pj's

So we have had to actually buy some big girl pjs for the girls.  They have outgrown most of their 9 month footed pj's.  It was kind of a sad day when we put Emily in the 12 month top and bottom pjs she looked so grown up. 

Butch

Butch has been so sad having to play 5th fiddle now, but an addition of a recent event in our household has gotten him pretty excited!

Happy Mothers Day

I hope that all the mothers out there have a great day! This is the very first mothers day where I can actually say that I qualify! Here are some pictures of my qualifications!

and what would a post be without a short movie clip as well!  It has been a fun day of grumpy teething babies who don't want to take their naps and who just want to fuss and pull at their ears and cry.   Poor Ana has the worst diaper rash that we can not seem to get to heal.  It has gotten to the point now where when she gets a dirty diaper the minute the diaper filling touches her little bum she starts crying.  So it has been many rough diaper changes,  I hope we can figure this out soon.  I feel terrible for her. 

Here is the link to the mothers day movie!

http://youtu.be/JANBrWpdMUIhttp://youtu.be/JANBrWpdMUI

Happy Mothers day!

Updates on the girlies

I finally got a picture of Emily's little chompers! Also we got some new floor covering puzzle pieces and the girls LOVE them!

Garden

Planter boxes are built thanks to Ben and our friends here.

First little sprouts are growing!

Cute little garden! Cant wait to eat it!

Herbs! Cilantro/Basil/Garlic/Oregano

and....now!  Our garden is growing thanks once again to Ben !  He is taking good care of it.

Our cucumbers had a little fight with the wind this past week. We are not sure which one has won yet.

And our jalapenos also had a fight with the wind...We hope they end up winning!

Onions and tomoatos and carrots.  We are not sure about the carrots and we have a stinky cat that keeps trying to use our garden as a litter box.grrr.  if any one has any ideas about how to get rid of that pest, please enlighten us!

Green Beans.  Just starting to sprout.


Ben has done an awesome job getting our garden ready and growing.  I hope we can enjoy the fruits of his labor!

Life Changes

So once again my life is going to be turned upside down! 
My job has been doing some reorganizing of management and they eliminated my position.  They offered me a different position which in the new organization would mean more work.  I have been struggling as it is right now with work/life balance.  I have been leaving most mornings before the girls wake up, and getting home either after they are asleep, or just in time to kiss them goodnight.  I have been getting less and less days off because of the workload expected of me. 
When my boss offered me the new position I asked her if there was any alternative.  She told me that I could accept a severance package and resign. 
Ben and I had know that this may be a decision that I was faced with and had been praying and talking about this decision for about 3 weeks before the offer actually came. 
Neither one of us has been happy up here in this location.  My job has been too time consuming and Ben as much as he likes being Mr. Mom, would really prefer to be head of household and provide for his family by working.
So we made the decision to have me resign.
So after almost 15 years of being moved all over the country and doing everything I could to continue to move up the ranks in the company I am now as of the 18th of May no longer going to be employed.
Yes I am nervous and I don't know how things are going to go, but We felt like this was the right choice for our family.
Ben is looking for jobs back in Dallas and we will more than likely be moving back to Texas.
So farewell to my employer, and hello my little darling girls!  I have never been so excited to take on a new role.  I am going to LOVE being able to be home with my little girls and be a stay at home mom for at least a little while.

Spring has finally sprung!

Our tree that was I am assuming an attempt at grafting.

Our flowering tree.

Tulips a bit old, but still pretty!

Bens little garden!  We are going to have to update this in a post of its own!  His garden has been growing very well.  We will have to post new pics!

This post is a bit late, I took these photos about 2 maybe three weeks ago, but life has been crazy and I just now had an evening free (if you didnt notice from my posting all the updates for the last month in one day!

The Energizer Bunny tryouts

This little girl NEVER stops moving!  I just had the camera handy one day and I took this.  It was going to be just a short little clip, but I couldn't stop! 
It is about 8 minutes long, but good entertainment!http://youtu.be/NQh7cOKhJlo

More Teeth

Ana has just started getting her first tooth now, and Emily has now gotten her second.  All three teeth are on the bottom so far! 
We have not been able to get any pictures of the teeth!  Those are hard pictures to get.  But maybe soon they will give us a big toothy grin!

Pushups too!

http://youtu.be/M2nzyPf_zeI


Emily started this, but I posted her second!  Oh well!  Emily started doing these push ups when she was getting frustrated that she was not able to move forward when she was trying to crawl.  She has actually been getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth since the first week of April...I hope she can figure it out soon.  She is starting to get frustrated by not getting it and crying.  She is also starting to try to communicate.  She hollars a lot now letting us know that there is something she wants!  It is cute that she is figuring out how to communicate, but frustrating that she needs to yell! :) 

Different personalities

Ana doing pushups

Ana just hanging out!

Emily Standing up in the pack and play outside watching us do yardwork

Emily grinning

Emily doing her pushups!

Our girls are so similar yet so different! Emily has turned out to be our more calm taking it as it comes girl who is a little hard to get a smile out of most times. She is very even tempered most of the time. Then there is Ana who never stops moving and smiles and laughs all the time. Emily has gotten one tooth now, and another one is peaking out. Ana still has not gotten any teeth. Emily has gotten to the point where she is now crawling backwards but has not figured out how to go forward. She is trying super hard to figure it out though! It seems like Emily does all the leg work on figuring out how to do new things while Ana watches her then once Emily finally figures out how to do it Ana just does it because she has been watching her and figuring out how to do it by watching instead of doing. That or she secretly practices while we think she is asleep in her crib! Ana has started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking now...so we are soon to have some crawlers in our house. (look of terror crosses my face) I am actually excited to see them gain another milestone, but terrified of how we are going to keep up with them! This past week we have decided to stop giving the girls pacifiers when they sleep. We had already stopped giving them during the day and only giving to them when they went to sleep to help them sleep. but we decided it was time since they kept throwing them out of their crib and them crying until we came back in and found them and gave them back to them. It has been sad and rough for them. Poor little Ana screamed bloody murder for the first 3 nights but the length of time screaming lessened each night. Now she cries for about 5 minutes and then goes to sleep. Where Emily only really cried one night (oddly enough it was the 3rd night without a pacifier) but still has trouble going to sleep without her pacifier. She does not cry, she just "messes". She plays with her crib, then with her blanket, then rolls around, then peaks over the top of her crib at her sister to see if she is asleep, then makes some noise to test to see if she is just laying down, or if she is really asleep. If her sisters head pops up then she makes some more noise (I am guessing it is twin talk telling her sister she wants to play) Then Ana's head goes back down and Emily starts her crib dancing again. It is actually quite fun to watch. I am glad we spent a little extra money and got video monitors. It has been great entertainment on many occasions! The girls had their 9 month appointment this past week, and they did great. They don't like the nurse there because she is always giving them shots, but they seem to do fine with the doctor. Ana almost weighed 17lbs, and Emily almost weighed 18lbs. They are still just about a pound apart.

Push ups!

The girls are still so close to crawling. They have been "almost" crawling for two weeks. Everyday I have left for work knowing that I was going to get a short video sent to my cell from Ben showing me the girls crawling, but they still have not quite figured it out. Here is little Ana doing her pushups that they have started doing now! http://youtu.be/6OIOpbqY-JI

Bouncy Chair Dance

Ana has done this for quite a while, but now Emily has watched her and decided that it looks pretty fun !! These girls are crazy. I love it!http://youtu.be/3OXCHTGYzSQ