Fun at the Lake

This weekend we spent a wonderful day out at the lake with all of our friends from our Sunday School class - the Evans family has a beautiful home on Cedar Creek Lake that they graciously opened up to us all and we had a blast!

Meredith and Sarah being silly in the hammock

Here is a view of how Jillian spent the day - in the arms of one of many wonderful friends! Leah loved holding her so much and even took her with her mom so Neal, Meredith and I could check out the lake on the boat!

Meredith couldn't wait for her turn on the boat! She was also excited about swimming in the lake until it was time to get in it - too bad Daddy was already in waiting for her - oh, well - maybe next time!

Meredith held onto Daddy for dear life the whole time the boat was moving...

...but she also had a perma-grin that showed how much fun she was having!

Neal tested out the tube and the Jetski - he had lots of fun on both and Meredith loved watching him and cheering him on!

On the way back to the lake house, Meredith insisted on sitting next to Camron (who is 5 and the big brother of her best friends Sarah and Rachel !) and we caught them cuddling! Too cute - that night after Neal asked if he was her boyfriend, she also made sure we said special prayers for Camron before bed!

Smiling with the Sooks

Last week we had a fun day going to visit Aunt Sandy and also getting to see her two girls who were home for a break from college - so this was the first time they got to meet sweet Jillian.

Jillian and Laura

Poor Vic hadn't been feeling well the day before so her mom made her wrap up to be able to hold Jillian - Meredith thought this was hilarious!

She loved dancing and singing with Aunt Sandy
And here are her wide open-mouthed smiles that we are getting lots of lately - love it!

I love the ribbon Great Grandma!

My dad went to see my grandparents this past weekend and brought home a beautiful quilt that was hand pieced around 1856 by my Grandma great-grandma (not sure how many greats that is for me!) My grandma and her quilting group worked to quilt the top over the past year or so so that she could give it to me - I love it so much especially because it has so much family history! But with the quilt came an enormous ribbon that the quilt won! And what a prize this was for Meredith! She immediately wanted to wear it and of course didn't want to take it off even at bed time! I convinced her that it might hurt to sleep in it, so I hung it on her wall. Apparently in the middle of the night, she got up and played with it and took it all around her room because she showed me all the places that it had gone when she got up! So, Grandma - who knew that the ribbon would make Meredith as happy as you working so hard on something for me! Thank you - we love you!

Proudly wearing her ribbon!
She wanted to make sure Baby Jillian saw it too!
Papa cuddling with his two girls - oh and the ribbon!

Memorial Day

We celebrated Memorial Day at Gigi's pool - and Meredith could not have been more excited! She has been talking about the pool forever and was so excited when we told her that she could swim on Monday! She kept telling me and anyone that would listen "I swim at Gigi's pool on MONDAY!" She loved the floaties and especially loved watching Uncle Neil and Daddy do flips and dives from the diving board! She even got brave enough to jump off the diving board herself (of course I spotted her down into loving arms below!)

Meredith loving her pink hippo float!

Jillian catching some rays!

We were doing great until I got too confident in her ability to float in this TINY car float that she thought was great. I was already sitting on the side of the pool, wrapped in a towel, when she went tumbling over upside down! I jumped in quickly, but she was doing great getting her little feet free of the littler holes and making her way to the top of the water. She was of course pretty scared and was done with the pool - I am hoping it hasn't scarred her, but she does still keep talking about it! I just tell her that she looked like Ariel and was a beautiful mermaid in hopes that she might try out the pool again soon!

The culprit of the water tumbling...
And post swimming it was time for a fun bath with Landon - they splashed and played letters so happily!!

Is there anything better than...

..a long nap with an adorable baby?

Recreating a favorite

This is one of my favorite pictures of Meredith from the same time as we are currently getting to spend with Miss Jillian...

Meredith at a little over a month old in the cutest little blue dress and hat

Since this is a favorite, when I pulled out this dress for Jillian to wear, I wanted to have one of her in it too...

Jillian at close to 6 weeks

Cousins at the Zoo

Today was such a beautiful day that we decided to take a trip to the zoo with Gigi! The zoo, of course, is one of Meredith's favorite places, so she was very excited to get to take her baby sister and to meet up with Aunt Katie and Landon.

Jillian loved the giraffes!

Meredith was very happy to get to feed the fish - this morning she kept telling me how hungry they were and that they needed her to give them food!

Have I mentioned before how much Meredith loves to ride teh carousel?

Jillian thinks the zoo is a great place to nap!

Gigi and her girls on the train

Prom dates and roommates

My college roommate and maid-of-honor Julie and her husband Marc have been a huge part of our lives for the past ten years and we have had fun watching Meredith and their daughter Anna (who is about 9 months younger than Meredith) become close friends! One of Meredith's first words was "Annannananna" and now Anna loves to see "Mermiff." We are sure that one day they will be sharing a Jester dorm in Austin!

Both girls were super excited to get to play at our house the week that Jillian was born, but then Anna's baby brother, Joey decided to make an early entrance into the world, so we had to put that playdate off. I was sad that Joey was a month old before I got to meet him, but we had so much fun letting the girls play and meeting each others little ones! We decided that we had to take lots of pictures of Jillian and Joey just in case they decide to get married someday - then we can include this in a slideshow for all their guests! I said I figured they could at least always know they have a built-in-prom date with each other. (Isn't it good to know that we have high expectations not only for the girls rooming situations but also for our babies and their love lives!)

So sweet!

Even sweeter - a "kiss" from Jillian!

The girls loved playing on the swinget

And Meredith really loved having someone to share her glider swing!

Playgroup at the park

We are really enjoying the beautiful weather this week with lots of trips to the park. The first trip was on Monday with our playgroup - Meredith loved riding her bike (and sharing her friend's bikes too!), having a picnic, and playing pile up the rocks at the end of the slide with the older boys!

This is half of Meredith's favorite twins!

At the Carwash

This weekend Daddy and Meredith decided to wash my car - what a treat for me and so much fun for them (ok, so Meredith only "washed" the car for bit but it was still lots of fun and I have a sparkly car to show for it!)

This was also Meredith's introduction to 2009's swimsuit season! When Neal saw her in her cute suit, he said "You look adorable!" And Meredith's reply was "It's not Dora, Daddy, it's a flamingo!" Poor Daddy never gets a break around Meredith! :)

Helping Daddy spray the car was lots of fun!

Meredith and her "Adorable" flamingo scrubbing away (for a minute, anyway!)

She loved all the bubbles!

Main Street Days

Today we headed out to Main Street Days with Aunt Katie and Landon and Katie's friend, Lisa. We had so much fun - the weather was really pretty nice - a little warm sometimes, but there was a good breeze too! Meredith loved the petting zoo (which Jillian got to "enjoy" from my arms too!) until the goats started attacking her for the food - I finally got her to turn it over to me and then when they started attacking me for it, I tossed it far, far away from us and made a mental note to no longer buy the food at these things! While playing at the petting zoo, she eyed the "Teapot" ride and couldn't wait to try it out!

Driving the teacups!
Jillian enjoying watching Meredith's ride.

On the way out when I thought we were home-free, we saw the pony rides. So I gave in and let her take a turn, too! And with as much fun as she had, I am so glad we did!

Meredith riding her pony, Red. She has had a few pony rides before, but this was the first one that she did all on her own!

Jillian is 1 month old!

It is hard to believe that just a little over a month ago we hadn't met our sweet baby yet - she has molded so perfectly to our family and us to her that it seems like she has been with us forever!

To celebrate her "birthday" we made some cupcakes - which, of course, was a highlight for big sister! We also had a special treat of having Daddy home after a dentist appointment so we all went out for lunch - it was nice to see him in the middle of the day - he was excited that he got to join us in eating the cupcakes too! Then last night we got to go back to our couples Bible study for the first time in quite awhile, so Jillian got to dig into Acts at only one month old! :)

Jillian is growing so much and is more alert every day - we love watching her when she is awake just staring at whoever is loving on her at the time. She is still very laid back, which we are very thankful for! We have also been blessed with getting more sleep than I think is probably fair at this point in her life - and again, we could not be more thankful! Here's to hoping that continues!

Rain Boots

Last week we played with Landon at his house - he was decked out in the cutest rain boots since the ground was muddy where we were playing. Yesterday, Meredith wanted to play outside, but since it was muddy, she insisted she put on her rain boots. Problem - she doesn't have any. Luckily, she knew just where the boots were that Aunt Katie gave her for Christmas and decided they would work! When Daddy got home, he asked if she has decided to join the cast of Gossip Girl, but thought she was super cute!

A Day at the Museum

On Monday, Gigi was off of work, so she planned to take all 3 of her favorite grandkids to the zoo. With the threat of rain all day, we decided to try out the museum instead. Meredith was a little disappointed at first, but I told her about all the fun things that we would get to play with and she was sold. There are a limited amount of kids exhibits set up while they redo the museum, but Landon and Meredith did not seem to mind at all! Their favorites were the little house where they could ring the doorbell, play on the phone and flip the lightswitch - plus there were blocks on shelves that you could stack to build walls and the grocery store. Meredith spent lots of time piling her grocery cart full - usually of only items from the same food group (she filled it with only bread then went back for only dairy and then only meat - it was too funny!)

Meredith ringing up her groceries.
Jillian had a great time helping Meredith pick out what should go in her basket!
Jillian and Gigi supervising.

After we finished up at with the Children's section, we checked out the rest of the Cowgirl Museum.

Meredith and Landon riding the horse
Then we tried to add Jillian - not sure she was quite ready for her first horse ride - and Landon thought it made it a little too cramped!
Then everyone tried the horse on their own - much better!

Landon loved the ride and kept saying "Yee Haw!"