Abby is having fun too!

We have had a fun past week with lots of playing outside before it becomes too hot! Abby is also starting to enjoy some of Luke's favorite things, like -

Riding in the car

Swinging

I just hope Luke doesn't teach Abby his way of swinging any time soon. It involves twisting himself as high as possible and then letting go - he makes him so dizzy that he cannot even stand up afterwards!

And Chuck E Cheese!!

This was part of the bribing that was mentioned in yesterday's post after taking pictures. Abby has been many times, but this was her first to participate in the fun! She seemed to really like everything. Great, now we will have 2 kids asking to go to there all the time.

This was from Luke's first time playing at chuck e cheese right after he turned 1. As you can see, Luke was not as excited about Bob the builder :-)

Miracle

I took the kids today to get pictures taken together....and they actually both were happy, smiled, and acted like they love each other!!!! It took a little (umm, a lot actually) of bribing, but I am not above bribing to avoid some of the catastrophic experiences we have previously had when attempting pictures. And thank you Grandma for coming with us and bribing, I mean helping, with the kids! :-)

7 months!

Abigail is 7 months old today, and this age is so fun! She loves sitting on the floor and playing with toys. To Luke's dismay, she is also enjoying reaching out and grabbing his toys! Abby had a big month - she started eating baby food (this is going slowly, she is definitely not as big of an eater as her brother!), she is constantly rolling around and has been making more sounds. She says something consistently that sounds like da da, so I fear that her first word may not be mama!

I was so excited for Abby to wear this dress today - my college roommate, Sarah, MADE it. I have no idea how you do that, I cannot sew a button! It is so pretty and she received many compliments on it this morning. Thank you Sarah for taking the time to do something so special for us :-)

Yesterday, I had a MOPS event all day, so Vic took Luke to Brazos Bend Park in search of alligators. Luke got to pet a little alligator and take a nature walk. Vic said that the guided nature walk was too slow and too educational (I didn't know there was such a thing?) for Luke, but I thought Vic did a great job in finding something fun and new to do together.

Puerto Rico!!!!

About a month ago, Vic found out he had received an award at work, and was invited to attend the "expedition of honor" which is the yearly awards retreat for his company. I am so proud of him, this was a huge accomplishment and I was VERY excited that this meant a totally awesome trip to Puerto Rico for us!!! And since Abby still refuses to take a bottle, she earned herself a ticket to come along too....hmmm, maybe she is smarter than we think :-) We spent 4 days at the El Conquistador resort and it was the most awesome trip I have ever taken - we were treated like royalty and enjoyed every minute of the beautiful setting. Vic had so much fun, he did things I have never seen him do before - gamble in the casino (he came out a dollar richer!) and get "manly" body treatments at the spa (yes, feel free to tease him about this). It was a great escape from our daily routine, but I was excited to come home last night and see Luke again! Here are some pictures.....

Arriving at the resort

The resort is on several levels built into the side of a mountain, so there is a funicular (I still don't really know what that means) to take you up and down the mountain.

View of the lower levels of the resort


Getting ready to swim!

The resort has a private water park, and Abby loved it! This was her first experience with a pool and she just had a blast splashing the water. She also rode with us on floats in the lazy river and watched Daddy make big splashes coming down the water slides!

The water park

While Vic was at the spa, Abby and I lounged by the pool....we could get used to this! While I missed Luke, it was nice to have relaxing time with just Abby.

There is a private island that is accessed by this catamaran to get to the beach.

It was a fun ride (about 10 minutes) and as you can see, Abby liked it too!

Palamino island in the background

The beach was beautiful!

Our last day :-(

More swimming :-)

Pools on upper level

This was from our balcony - it was wonderful to wake up looking at the ocean :-)

Our attempt to get a picture of the 3 of us....

Ready to go home! This trip was Abby's first plane ride. She did great, a little fussy when tired but Vic was a pro at getting her to sleep on the plane.

And a HUGE thank you to both sets of our parents for watching Luke while we were gone, they probably need a vacation to recover from that!

Happy Easter

We have a super fun and busy week preparing for Easter. Luke has been to so many egg hunts I can hardly keep track of them!

This is the best I could get this morning...

Luke had a Easter party at school on thursday. I was 5 minutes late to the party and missed the egg hunt, so his kind teachers tossed a few eggs back in the grass so I could take a picture of Luke hunting for eggs :-)

We had a MOPS Easter egg hunt on friday, Abby enjoyed watching all the kids :-)

We were glad Daddy was off so he could enjoy this event too!

After church this morning, Luke hunted for eggs at our house.

Then we were off to visit Vic's family for more egg hunts!

Abby and Nana enjoying the egg hunt too