Vacation

We've been having some fun the past week and a half. Matt took some time off work and we rented a lake house on Lake Conroe with the Trull's. Mark and Ella had fun with Eva, though all 3 would not cooperate on getting their picture taken. I thought this one captured the chaos the best. After all the babies were asleep, the 4 adults had lots of fun in the pool, cooking, and watching the Olympics.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Believe it or not, but Mark and Ella turned into one year olds yesterday. I don't remember what life was like without them, but its hard to believe its been a whole year already! Ella decided to really make it special by taking her first step! Aunt Valerie came in town for the festivities and I couldn't have done everything without her. I decided to be ambitious and make my own cupcakes for the party (which I won't be doing again), so Valerie and I were extremely busy with that Friday night and Saturday.

Ella didn't really care too much about the cupcakes, which really surprised me. But Mark dove right in! I was expecting to clean up a huge mess, but they were really neat about it. Mark and Ella had so much fun and I hope everyone else did too. Thanks so much for all the fun toys and cute clothes!!

New Toys!

There hasn't been a whole lot going on these past 2 weeks. We've all been sick the past week and Mark has gotten his first ear infection. The doc said it wasn't bad, but he's on antibiotics for the next several days. Mark and Ella's Mimi bought them a walker the other day and they LOVE it. They both just grin as big as can be and are so proud as they walk along, until they hit a wall at least.

Ella has taken to getting inside the tuperware cabinets and its just about the funniest thing. She has a little trouble getting out, so I have to help with that. And the last pick is during their new favorite game right before bath....finding Daddy. Matt ducks behind the crib and then pops out, to a roar of squeels and giggles. Too cute!

Happy 4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. We went to Austin to visit Michelle and her little boy AJ, who is crawling at 7 months!! Mark and Ella had lots of fun playing with their new buddy and can't wait until they get to Houston. Ella and AJ were super cute together and they really like each other. Mark loved Michelle because she fed him some puffs.

We also visited the Trull's and Burns's, but I didn't get any pictures because I was running around after these two. And just to make sure we never get invited back, Ella grabbed the salsa bowl when I wasn't looking and broke it on the floor, which was quickly followed by Mark's meltdown for about an hour. It was great fun. At least Oatmeal wasn't there this time to eat all their dog food and then pee inside (which has happened at their house, too). We just love the Trulls!!! :)

Hair!!

Ella is now sporting a cute pony tail on top of her head in order to keep the hair out of her face. And Mark got his first hair cut last weekend. We did a few posed pictures before the actual hair cut, when all smiles and laughs were gone. Matt and I also discovered that cutting a baby's hair is much harder than we thought. Let's just say that you can tell it was not a professional job!

Goofballs

My friend Leslie came in town last week for a visit and brought her boys Jack and Theo. I can't believe we got such a great pic of all four of them. Last time she was here was in November, so the kids have all grown quite a bit since then.

Mark and Ella have discovered the Tuperware cabinet and they love it. And I must admit, its great to have something for them to play with when they follow me into the kitchen. Mark is all about our stools and loves to pull up on them. He somehow managed to get inside one the other day. He wasn't too happy about it, but I did get him to smile for a picture.

I was looking for a little excitement during bath time on Sunday and decided to play hair dresser. Mark's mohawk didn't show up too well in the picture, but it was pretty darn cute. And Ella's giant curl is just hilarious.

Just Hangin'

Not a whole lot to report in the past 2 weeks. Mark and Ella took forever to get over a cold, but they are feeling pretty good. Mark picked up crawling in about 24 hours and motors around with Ella all over the place. I had to buy a baby gate to keep them contained to the living room/kitchen. Ella sprouted her 2 bottom teeth and the top ones are coming in soon. Mark is no longer The Count since he has his middle top teeth coming in now, too. But thats about all.