Splish splash!

One day this past week we filled up the princess pool for the girls to play in!
Cooper wasn't too much of a fan - I think I should have filled it up earlier in the day and let the sun warm the water up!

Love fun nights at home!

Out for a walk!

Even though walks with these two girls don't really count as exercise because we stop every three steps, I love love love them!!

Usually when I take both of them on a walk these days, I push Cooper in the stroller and Kendall rides her tricycle. We walk one time around our block, checking out all the flowers, unusual sights, listening to the birds, and making our way to the waterfall...a water feature at the house on the corner. This is Kendall's favorite part! I love going on these adventures with them!

Cow Creek 2011

Last weekend we made our annual trip out to Aaron's family's place at Cow Creek! We have been each summer for three years now and we love it every time! This year we had a committment on Thursday night, so we left early Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. It was just our family, the Beams, and the Sanders. Smaller crew, but we still had a blast and the kids loved it.

Something about having two kids makes me take less pictures (ha!) so I hardly have any from our time there this year! Friday we got there after lunch, and even though it was naptime, Kendall was ready to go get in the creek! Randy sacrificed and stayed up in the cabin with Cooper while she napped and Holly, Stephanie, and I went down to the creek with the kids. I think Jason and Aaron were also up helping Ran watch Cooper...napping. :)

The creek was super low this year, but it actually made it better for walking down there and then sitting out in the middle on a sandbar. Kendall was totally my child this year and didn't really want her feet to touch the bottom. :) She eventually warmed up to it though and started playing.

We did a lot of eating in the two days we were there! Here are Kendall and Cooper eating a popsicle!

Cooper loves Holly! So thankful for sweet friends who love our kids!
We ate dinner Friday night and then put a movie on and let the kids watch that together while we stayed up late talking. Love those times! We laugh a lot and just enjoy hanging out!
Saturday morning was our turn to cook - Randy made chocolate chip pancakes, I made eggs, and Holly made bacon. The pancakes were a hit! After breakfast we went down to the creek and played more. Cooper and Randy came down to the creek this time!

We ate lunch and then cleaned up, packed up, and took a picture of the kids before we left!

Ella, Aubrey, Ethan, Lawson, Brynlee, Cooper and Kendall!

We love Cow Creek weekends! So thankful for sweet friends and relaxing days together as a family.

Bandit Reunion 2011

Two weekends ago we had our annual college friends reunion!! Every year we get together with the Vests and the Mitchells, Michelle when she's not in Africa and sometimes Alden and Scott. We were all great friends when we were at A&M - Michelle and I were roommates and Amy and Courtney were roommates - and I love that we still get together to hang out every year even though we are spread across the state now!
This year was a little quieter than normal though. Courtney and Trent are expecting again and Courtney has just been too sick to travel. Trent had an unplanned, last minute football camp to go to the weekend we were meeting, so they had to skip out this year. We missed them a bunch but can't wait to see that sweet new (boy??) in January! And, like last year, Michelle is in Mali doing awesome awesome things and we miss her terribly! We're hoping for an extra big 2012 reunion with everyone back!
Randy, Cooper, Kendall and I drove up to Longview to spend the weekend with just Amy, David, Kate and Hannah, though, and we had a great time! This was our first time to get to meet Baby Hannah and their first time to meet Cooper! Hannah is just a few months younger than Coop, so they had a good time doing baby things together.

We swam a bunch over at David's parents' house in their pool. They have a great walk-in beach area and when Cooper was in her float, her feet touched and she just walked all around! She loved the freedom! Here she is hanging out with Kate.

Love those sweet little feet sticking out of the bottom!

One night at dinner, had finished feeding the babies and were cleaning up, but they were still wanting more food, so we gave them some puffs....yes...on the floor. We're awesome like that. The little girls shared...

...and then the big girls decided to get in on it. With a little help from Kendall, who poured more puffs out when they were all gone.

Randy said this video reminds him of those little wooden toys where you pull the strings and there are chickens on the end all pecking at the kernals of corn. Are you with me? Not sure what those toys are called. :) We have cute little chickens.


We enjoyed just spending a lot of time hanging out and not doing a whole lot. Kendall loved playing with Kate's toys and Cooper loved sharing Hannah's toys! Amy and David moved into a new house (that David built!) right before Hannah was born, so we loved getting to see their new place!

Friday afternoon, Amy made cookies with the big girls. She even had them put a stick in it and then they got to decorate them and eat them like suckers! What a great idea!

Friday night after we ate dinner at Randy's favorite Longview place - Big Dave's Barbque home of the Hot Pucker - we went to a park that had a splash pad and fun playground. Cooper and Hannah enjoyed swinging next to each other.

We also tried to take some family pictures, but you know how that goes these days! Amy put Kate with Cooper and Kendall with Hannah though and got some cute pictures of the girls at least.

And of course we lost Kendall when we tried to take a family picture. So here is Mom, Dad, and Cooper....

...and then Mom, Dad, Cooper and a not-too-happy Kendall. Why must a family picture be so hard??

Amy and David, we had a great time and are so thankful for your hospitality! We love getting to see you guys, even if it's just once a year. Already excited for next year! Courtney - stop getting pregnant! :) And Michelle - come home already! We miss you so much! Love you girls!!!

11 months!

Cooper turned 11 months old...last week! This post is a little late, but she was in Ft. Worth on her 11 month birthday visiting Gigi and Peeps! She had a great visit and Mom and Dad had a great few days off! Her and Kendall came back Tuesday night and then we were gone again from Friday to Saturday with our friends at Cow Creek (post on that to come).
I can't believe we are less than one month away now from her turning one year old! I just addressed her birthday party invitations tonight. This year has flown by and she is just getting so so big. I am loving every minute of it though, and can't wait to see what the rest of this month holds!

She is soooooo busy....all the time! She hardly ever sits still, except when she is eating. So her month pictures were a little harder to take this time - so I finally just gave in and shot some videos. They are at the end of the post. :)

This girl LOVES her Daddy!! She is SUCH a Daddy's girl and if he is in the room, she wants him to be holding her or playing with her. I love how much she loves him so much! So sweet.

She is doing great with eating still - we can't ever feed her too much. Thankfully she eats the same things we do, so we just feed her what we're eating and make sure we don't stop for too long, or she will start to fuss!

She is almost finished with nursing. I still nurse before breakfast and before dinner, but she really doesn't eat for that long and she's not too interested anymore. It usually is over after about five minutes. I've been giving her whole milk at each meal and she seems to like it ok.

She is crawling so fast, standing from sitting without holding on to anything, walking FAST along the furniture and the wall, and last night she actually took a few steps without holding on to anything for the first time!!! This was right about when Kendall started walking - 11 months and one week. Randy got a little video with his phone that I will post later.

She still just has her two bottom middle teeth! I like it - I think it makes her look younger and not as big as she is. That and she is just so little! I can't wait to go at the end of the month to the doctor and see what she weighs. She is dainty. :)

Love that last picture! Little munchkin.

Finally, a couple of videos. She makes us laugh so much and is such a joy. We love you Cooper Elyse!!

Starting to talk!

Cooper is starting to say some words! For awhile now, she has said "Mima" or "Ma-ma-ma-ma" for Mommy, and she has said "Daddy." But, the other day, Molly was in the door of our bedroom, Cooper was in the middle of the living room floor, and Randy was on the side of the living room closest to Kendall's door. Randy was calling to Molly to come to him, and Cooper was watching. Randy was saying, "Molly! Come here" and patting his leg. Cooper turned and looked at Molly and did her hand like "come here!" and said "Mi! Mi!!" She was calling Molly!! I wish we had it on video - so cute! She is very interested in Molly. Sometimes I will feed her in our bed in the morning, and she knows Molly sleeps under our covers. When we sit down in bed and she is about to eat or finishing up, she will start trying to move the covers aside and put her head under them to try and find Molly. When she does this, she says the same thing - "Mi, Mi!" She loves her puppy!
Check back soon for a walking update! We have some shuffles, but nothing we're officially counting..yet!

Baby Hudson!

When we were in Ft. Worth last week we got to see the newest Lester!! Hudson was born on Saturday morning, July 16th. He is so precious!
When I was driving up Friday, I knew Joy was close to being ready to have him. I almost texted her and said, "Ok! I'm in Ft. Worth! He can come this week!" He ended up coming that night and we went to the hospital Sunday morning to see him.

Kendall was SO interested in him. She just kept wanting to rub his hair. Sweet girl.

This was their first time to meet Cooper, too! She was all smiles for Brett.

Kendall really really wanted to sit on the bed next to Joy and help her with Hudson. She did a great job of being gentle and moving slow! Look at how great Joy looks! We are just so happy for them all!

I love how Kendall is looking at Katie in this picture. We love Mallory and Katie so much and can't believe how big they have gotten. They are going to be great big sisters for Hudson!

Thanks for letting us stop by Brett and Joy! We love you and are praising God with you for a sweet new baby boy!! Kendall is still talking about Baby Hudson and asking to see him - hopefully we can see you soon!