on our way

first road trip in the 5. we're all headed to uncle tim and aunt andrea's for the weekend.

can't wait to see everyone and to have mojo and jerry meet for the very first time!

friends

under the sea

this little lady LOVES to stand in her exersaucer!

sleepy girl

someone is getting some quality cuddle time in with dad!

go redskins!!!

we may live in dallas..but we're still raising redskins fans!

first foods

such a big girl!

cereal day 1....seems to be a success!

rock-a-bye baby

she does this at school in her little bouncy/rocking chair too!

4 months

weight: 13 lbs. 8 oz. (33%)

height: 24" (27%)

head: 16.8" (94%)

still wearing size one diapers

still wearing size 3-6 clothes

still eating about every 3 hours or so...and mommy is still nursing strong!

you can now hold your head up high when doing tummy time

took your first trip to the beach club and thoroughly enjoyed it

you LOVE to sleep with your hands behind your head. you'll even put them there when you're still awake and we know it's time for a nap.

celebrated your first fathers day!

only getting up once at the most....thank you!

you're a morning person

you watch me eat my breakfast every morning...so cereal for you is not too far away!

you love to cross your feet all the time...just like your brother did

dave

so not sure if dave is an imaginary friend, someone that's in his dreams, or what...but today he definitely was talking all about him.  apparently he's graham's brother.  :)  he started singing songs and we realized shortly after he started that they were about dave.  we caught this ditty!

say hello....

....to my new wheels!!!

leave it to my dad to take a casual "we eventually want to get a mazda 5, we just can't find a good deal" conversation and find deal. and not just a good deal...an AMAZING deal!

i absolutely love it!

2012 mazda 5 grand touring

fully loaded

3rd row seats (that are easy to get in and out of!)

sliding passenger doors on both sides (perfect for the kiddos!)

this is going to be the perfect road trip vehicle

oh...and good gas mileage too for a 6 seater!

these boots were made for....TEXAS

red white and blue

thank you to the members of my family and to all the americans who have put their lives and sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.  to that we are forever grateful.

we headed to the square in downtown mckinney to watch the annual 4th of july parade. we got there 30 mins early and got a great seat. kids were well behaved the whole time and graham had a great time looking at all the classic cars driving by. i think he also enjoyed seeing all the horses painted up so patriotic!

hannah even got into the spirit!

loving texas

without a doubt, this pooch loves texas just as much as we do.

okay, well maybe she enjoys mom working from home everyday...but working from home in texas nontheless!

good morning

this little girl is definitely a morning person. 

every morning with a smile on her face as she waits to head to school!

belting it out

hinge texas

my coworkers finally decided to show up for work!

at the bar

we found some bar stools that fit under the counter and look who is enjoying eating 'at the bar!'

getting stronger

this development literally happened overnight.  she would hold her head up a little bit during tummy time. but now we're full on using our arms for support and holding our chest and head up for extended periods of time.  you go girl!

beach club

so the cool think about the development we live in is that they have a private beach club for all the residents to go to.  we weren't sure what to expect when we heard about it, but we figured it's only about 5 minutes from our house, so we would check it out.  but uhhhh, yeah, this is pretty awesome!

this was little miss' first experience with a large body of water too! she loved it.  was a little cold at first, but we all got used to it.  we even went underwater once and she did great. we're going to keep at that so she's an old pro in the water.

so the beach club is basically a sandy beach surrounding a pool that is no deeper than 4 feet or so in the middle.  there is a great splashpad next to the big pool beach part, plenty of chairs along the perimeter, and even little picnic pavillions that would be great for parties or if you were planning on staying all day.  what we also found out is you can bring canned beer and drink it there too! jackpot!

so we may not have a pool in our backyard...but we have a beach! 

tummy time and brother love

i still can't get over how much this guy loves his baby sister.  he always wants to be close to her and helping her do something, even if it is just hanging out!

but oh wait...who started holding their head up high for longer periods of time!

big girl!!!

relaxing part deux

i'm telling you...the girl is stressed!!!

right!!!!!

a day late

daycare was a day late with their father's day gift....but OMG...how cute is this!

we can't stop looking at it.  

and girl...you are quickly working your way into the depths of your daddy's heart!!!

father's day fun

happy father's day (and happy belated anniversary to tim and andrea)!!!

the gang will be heading back home later this afternoon, so i thought why not try to wear the kids out for them.  so off to the splashpad we go!  oh my gosh, perfect weather!!  the kids had a blast, and we enjoyed relaxing and taking in the cool breeze.

to top things off, we wanted to take everyone to three stacks to get filled up to the brim with bbq! oh...and we did!!  it was delicious as usual.  

after lunch we said see you soon!!

they've arrived!!!

not long after we got home from the birthday party did the whole gang arrive.  we were so excited they were here!!

i think someone has an uncle time fan!  ;)

since it had been a long day for everyone, we decided to lay low tonight, bbq, and enjoy a couple drinks together!  cheers to the texas two year plan taking less than expected!!!

waiting

uncle time, aunt andrea, cousin mason and cousin olivia are coming over to our house today.  someone was VERY excited this morning and wanted to sit and wait for them to get here.  hmmmm, it's going to be a little bit buddy.  luckily we have liam's birthday party to go to before the gang gets here!

chill

it makes me smile every time i see this little miss sleeping.  hands behind her head, completely chilled out.  she's definitely got a good life!

frisbee

someone likes their new backyard!

three months

my how you are growing little lady!

three months!!

 we have to wait until our 4 month visit for measurements, but you are definitely growing!

 still wearing size 1 diapers

 still wearing 3 month clothes

you never miss a meal and eat about every 2-3 hours during the day

you're not sleeping through the night yet, but can get 3-4 hour stretches out of you most nights

i'm still doing the no dairy thing and you seem much better

you can sit up propped up pretty well on your own, but not for very long

 celebrated our first mothers day as mother and daughter!

really starting to laugh in response to things now

started going to school!  

started chewing on toys more, no teeth yet thank goodness

survived your first move into our new house. what a day!

like father, like son

from what grady said, he actually sounded decent at times!

he's a natural, watch out!!

ele-fun

we like sophie, but we also like ellie the elephant!

soccer dude

everyone is hyping up the world cup.  soccer fever has infected someone!

first day of school

oh my goodness...my little miss is starting school today!  part of me is happy because i have a feeling she's going to love school just as much as graham, and the socialization will be good for her.  and then part of me is so sad because it's proof that she's growing up...too fast!!

we've met hannah's teachers before today, and just like kindercare, they are awesome.  and everyone seems to be in love with her already! from what we hear, there hasn't been a little little girl in the nursery for awhile.

i know someone who is happy that baby hannah is starting school.  yup...graham!  the nursery is right diagonally across from his room, and he's able to go and see her if he's feeling like he needs some hannah time. 

but one thing that i haven't gotten used to yet, that i'm guessing will take awhile, is the 530 wake up call!  yikes...this is very early!  coffee is going to be my friend i see! but in order to get hannah and graham up and fed, pump, eat breakfast myself, drop the kids off at school by 715 and then home by 730 to log into work (yup...i'm back to work!)...530 it is!  here's to hoping it gets easier!

selfies

can't get enough of these two.....and those toes!!!

i loooooooove.....

....my jeggings!!!!

this is just how happy she is all the time.  i can't get over it!  so far, we have been VERY lucky!

yikes stripes!

this little lady is electric!

cheeky

graham: 'mom, can you take a picture of me and hannah'

me: 'okay, come on over'

me: 'okay, now say cheese'

cheeky, cheeky boy!

summer time...

....and the livin's easy!

snuggle

this is what i'm going to miss when i start back at work.

a wave of calm

i've been thoroughly enjoying my last week of maternity leave with this little lady.  she's laughing and smiling so much more and i can't get enough.  she's gotten so big so quickly though and i often find myself looking at her feet and toes.  rubbing them somehow soothes me.

and not only does she soothe me...but she sends a wave of calm over someone else!  and he's so excited to tell hannah what he's done at school that day.  love how he loves her!

mommy and graham bracelets

so remember when i said i was surprised at how well graham did on his first day of school.  wellllll, the second day wasn't great and neither was the third. we had full on crying both mornings that i left the room.  ugh...hate that feeling!!!  miss melinda was so sweet though and reassured me that he only cries for a couple minutes after i leave and then he's fine.  ok...but i still feel bad.

so i set out for a solution.  i remembered the book the kissing hand and thought i would try that.  but then thinking about it more, i knew graham was like me and would need a physical reminder of mommy during the day. so i went on a mission to find a generic cause band that we could both wear.  nope...couldn't find them. but theeeeeeen, i found these old school jelly bracelets.  and at 2 bucks for like 20 of them, i decided to give them a whirl.

that night i explained to graham that we were going to make bracelets out of two and that we were both going to wear them. if he got scared during the day all he had to do was look at his bracelet and think of me. and if i got scared during the day i would look at mine and think of him.  OK! is what i got from him in return. so we made our bracelets and went to bed.

next morning we were still wearing them and i again, reminded him of what the bracelets were there for.  i was SHOCKED with what happened next. there was no fight getting out of the car, he walked into school, walked into his classroom, walked up to his teacher to show him our bracelets, and then gave me a hug and a kiss and told me to have a good day!!!  SUCCESS!!

i got some kudos from miss melinda on that one!  :)

this is the kind of drop-off i'd been looking for.

love you dude for being strong!

first day

today was graham's first day at his new school, xplore.  thankfully this little guy was pretty excited for his first day.  i won't lie and say i wasn't worried about what the transition back to school would look like after 5 weeks off!  i can't wait to hear how his first day went!

we had talked to three different schools, and visited two of them. graham was with me at each and after we finished visiting the two i asked him which one he liked and which one he wanted to be his new school.  he picked xplore!  i'm glad he picked that one, because that's the one i liked better too!  

ALSO.......

happy anniversary to one of my other loves!  yes, today is our 7 year anniversary!  how has it already been 7 years?!  

and 7 monumental years at that:

 - bought a house

 - bought a dog

 - had a baby

 - had another baby

 - sold a house

 - moved to texas

 - bought a new house

i can't wait to start this new adventure in our lives and spend the next forever years with you!

splish splash

just another day at the splash park

a day at the park

today we met up with a friend and her two girls at a local park. it's a HUGE playground and apparently has a very popular splashpad associated with it as well. graham had a fun time on this circle swing thing, and then in the big sandbox that the girls wanted to play in. hannah, in true form...slept!

happy mothers day

we're getting there with unpacking things.  but we took a moment to enjoy my first mother's day as a mother of two!  and with this face looking at you all the time, how can you not stop and just kiss her all over!

i'm so lucky to have both hannah and graham in my life.  i really can't imagine not having them around.  sure there are some difficult days, but they're all worth it when out of the blue i get a hug from graham, an 'i love you' from graham, or just smiles and funny faces from this little miss.

love all of you!

neigh-bors

hehe...look at that....we have NEIGH-bors in the field behind our house!

looks like a couple white ponies, a donkey and a couple mules.

we will be naming them soon!

move-in day!

today is the day...move-in day!!!

WOW, and what a crazy hectic day at that.  luckily grana and grampa were able to make it up (with all the animals) to help me since grady wasn't able to take off of work. there is NO WAY i would have been able to do this on my own with both kids.  

and who knew we had so much stuff!  but man...having a moving company do everything for you is the way to go!  i know we probably won't be that lucky again if we ever move.  but hopefully we won't have to go through that again anytime soon.  we're liking it already here and can't wait to get settled in.

let the games begin!!

2 months and a house closing!!

what a monumental milestone...

little miss, for your 2 month mark we got you the ultimate present....a HOUSE!  :)
yes, not only is it hannah's 2 month birthday, but our closing as well!!!

you had your 2-month well visit and everything looked great.  the doctor was very pleased with how you are growing and how you are such a happy baby!

weight: 10 lb. 3 oz (23%)
height: 21.8" (22%)
head: 15.8" (94%)
your eyes are still blue
your hair is definitely not blonde like your brothers, but i can't tell if it's going to be brownish or redish!
wearing 0-3 month clothes
still eating every 2 hours or so, and sleeping 2-3 hours at night
started sleeping on your back at the clays house, but still not a fan of sleeping on your back at night
took your first car road trip....to dallas!  :)
starting to smile more and more, especially when mommy is being funny
had your first bottle with no qualms!
figured out you have a little sensitivity to milk, so looks like mom is going to be cutting out all things dairy.  you're lucky you're so stinkin' cute!  mommy loves pizza and ice cream!  ;)
love lounging in your chair outside with all of us while we're in the pool

here's a link to see pictures of our new place
http://www.pinterest.com/katiemsanner/new-chapter/

finally!!

not sure what magic powder the clays have on their carpet...but it makes hannah fall asleep every time!!

hopefully this means she'll sleep on her back in the crib once we get it set-up in the new house.

last night!

hard to believe it's our last night with grana and grampa.  tomorrow morning we'll head up to the dallas area and stay with the clay's until we close on our house.  of course i tried to get a picture of grana and grampa, and loving big brother had to steal the love!

words can't express how thankful we are to you grana and grampa.  you have been a HUGE help and hopefully we haven't driven you completely mad!  we will always remember the past 5 weeks and can't wait for you to come and visit us at our new house!

first bottle

seeing as hannah will be going to daycare here shortly, we wanted to see how she would do with a bottle.  that way if she didn't like it, we had time to get her used to it.  yeah, so ummmmmm, girlfriend  didn't have any qualms!  she downed the bottle like an old pro.  i say it a lot, but this girl doesn't like to miss a meal!

chillin

yup, we're just hanging out!

short vowels

somebody likes thier short vowels!

parade of flowers

so here in san antonio, they get the day off for the parade of flowers.  grana can tell you the whole story, all i know is that it involves a legit parade, floats, bands, and girls wearing VERY sparkley dresses and fancy shoes!  when the floats with the girls go by you're supposed to yell 'show me your shoes' and they lift their dresses and show them off.  pretty fun!

and even though it was pretty darn hot outside, we all managed to have a very fun time!