August 2016

Where oh where did summer go?  I really feel like school just got out a week ago.  It does however still feel like summer outside.  It won't cool off until October.  =P

We drove up to Arkansas to visit Nathan's family one last time before school started.  We had a great visit.  The girls are so good in the car and loved listening to me read Ramona the Pest.

We did lots of swimming.  It took LOTS and LOTS of coaxing, but we finally got Abigail to jump off the side and even the board.  We also met several friends at a local splash park.

Our biggest water adventure was a trip to NRH2O.  My sister takes her students there in the spring for an end of year trip/festival.  As a perk they give all the orchestra directors 4 free tickets to use anytime that summer.  Kara was nice enough to share her tickets with us.  Both girls are very cautious so we weren't really sure if they would enjoy it or do any rides.  We had a great time and ended up doing lots of things.  We did have to shove Abigail down a few slide though.  =)  It was lots of fun!

Earlier this summer I bought the girls adorable coordinating dresses off Zulily.  I really wanted my mom to take pictures of them.  So we headed to the college for a mini photo shoot.  It was SO SO HOT!!  We were dripping in sweat by the time we finished.  But the girls were very cooperative and we got lots of really cute shots.  I absolutely LOVE them all, but I'm only going to share a few here.

Hannah lost yet another tooth.  It was super wiggly but Daddy wasn't able to get it out yet.  We went to the dentist and it fell out while they were cleaning her teeth.  So funny!  Now she truly looks like a 1st grader with no front teeth.

And just like that it was time to start school.  Can not believe my sweet girl is in 1st grade.  She was so excited to start school and walked in with a big smile on her face.  Hannah loves her teacher already and has had a great first week.  It's going to be a fantastic year!  We cheated again and took our pictures BEFORE school stated and not on the first day.  This is so the way to go, no crowd, not in anyone's way.  YEAH!

July 2016

Lots of family fun on the 4th of July.  We started off at the Plano Lions Club Parade.  It's short and cheesy, but the girls think it's fun.  This was our third year so now it's a tradition.  Then we headed to Grammy's house where we made fireworks pictures (thank you Pinterest), went swimming, played, and ate dinner.

Last year I had Nathan scout out locations close to our house that we could watch the city of Plano fireworks....without having to go to the actual event and get stuck in traffic.  Luckily the church at the edge of our neighborhood has a decent vantage point and a large parking lot.  So we let the girls stay up late to watch this year. We watched a movie while we waited until it was time to go.  We all enjoyed the fireworks show, we could see about 90%...not bad.  And some storms rolled through that morning that cooled things off so it was actually kind of pleasant outside.

Hannah also lost her 3rd tooth at dinner that night (4th of July). We were eating and she said "Mommy there is something in my food I don't want to eat."  Then looked and realized it was a tooth.  Still not used to the snaggle tooth smile, but LOVE this picture Grammy took.

A few swimming pictures finally!  =)

Other fun activities this month include playing at the splash park, play dates with friends, and playing Pokemon Go with Daddy.  Yes we jumped in on the mania.  Daddy has been playing the nerd precursor version of the game (called Ingress) for almost 4 years.  Pokemon is more kid friendly and Daddy's previous knowledge helps us find Poke Stops.

Splash Park Fun

Play date w/ my college roommate and her kiddos visiting from San Antonio.  This is the 4th summer we've gotten together.  So fun!

Looking for Pokemon on Daddy's phone

Hannah started piano lessons at the end of last month, totally forgot to write about that last time.  There was MUCH debate as to whether Grammy would be her teacher.  In the end we decided to try it for a year and if it was awful then we'd look for a new teacher next summer.  So far it's going really well.  Hannah was totally ready to start, she does great in her lessons, and we've only have a few arguments about practice. LOL!  Here's a picture of her very first lessons.

Grammy bought a toy (but playable) pink guitar online a LONG time ago.  She envisioned it being a really cute photography prop.  It's hard to tune so we put in a closet and kind of forgot about it.  Hannah asks me about it from time to time, but never while we are at Grammy's house.  She finally remembered one day and she happily agreed to be the subject of Grammy's photos.  We got several cute ones, but I'm only sharing one here.  Love how she looks like a little hippie folk singer in her peasant top.  =)