strawberry pops

I made some strawberry popsicles, or "strawberry pops" last week.



Super easy, and all natural. And messy. Really, really messy.




I love watching them concentrate on eating their pops. That is, watching them concentrate on how good it tastes and keeping it in their mouth. :)

pickle juice

straight from the jar! Nothin' like it. mmmmmm.

new trick

Emory (with the aid of her brother) has recently mastered a new trick.

It is not stuffing half a banana in her mouth...



and it is not smiling at mommy making silly faces behind the camera...




or showing frustration over mommy not putting down the camera and removing the tiny piece of fruit roll up off her face...




Emory can now, on demand, stick out her tongue! The only issue is that I have to stick my tongue out at her, which involves me snapping the pic without looking. And half of her face being cut out of view...





Ashton taught her this nifty and useful trick in the bathtub two nights ago, and let me tell ya, she hasn't stopped since! She especially loves the way it looks in the mirror :) Oh, so sassy!

This Man...

makes me melt. every. single. day.

on the fly

It has certainly been one fine day. The kind that isn't planned. Isn't thought out. Completely "on the fly". Love it. I have a very sweet and dear friend from Tallahassee who lives about 5 minutes away and has two children almost the exact same ages as Ashton and Emory. I was talking with my sweet Steph this morning and mid-sentence said, "Hey! Let's go to the zoo!" She immediately said, "OK!!" So, after about 15 minutes of throwing things in bags and loading up a stroller and wagon, off we went. Our perfect plan was totally in motion until we pulled up to the zoo to, oh, about 50 buses. I am not exaggerating at all. At least 50 school buses. Not be detoured from being spontaneous, we unloaded our gear and hit the park. Park is an understatement. Picture green hills, huge fountains, baby ducks, paddle boats, playgrounds, a rehearsing orchestra and gorgeous views of downtown Houston from every angle. It was fabulous. The kids frolicked, splashed and raced. After roughly 4 hours in the sun we headed back to the cars with four hungry doodle bugs. Steph turned to me and said, "want to go the chick-fil-a?!" To which I replied, "you took the words right out of my mouth!" We are such gamers.

Our gear


Corbin feeding the ducks and Ashton feeding Ashton.

Girlfriends ;)




On the go. AT. ALL. TIMES.

bathing beauties and bubble blowers

What do you do on a day like this?

This.


Unless you are sassy and don't like getting wet.


In which case, you might want to stick to this.


Sweet Zoe Kate was more than happy to share her purple sunglasses with Ashton.





Show me your muscles!

Love days like this. Sweet excitement and fun in the sun.

fruit roll ups

A few days ago I made Darby's homemade fruit roll ups. YUM. They taste just like the real deal. And the kids love them. And, other than a little bit of sugar, they are good for them. Triple score ;) Now, if I could just get a decent picture of my two doodle bugs...

Oh, and as you can see, Ashton is still a very active little man. I promise we do not beat him.

Noculars and American Honey

Ashton discovered some "noculars" (binoculars) that our sweet neighbors left at our house last week. Yesterday they were noculars. Today, they are not so much noculars, but more an extra body part. He has not separated from them except to bathe. I had to sneak into his room last night and remove them from around his neck. When I went to retreive him this morning, they were back. He likes to look for birds. And it has really been helpful because I do not want to be surprised by any birds flying around our house.

*disclaimer-that is not dirt under my sweet boy's fingernails, it's frozen blueberry. I'm just sayin.*

Switching gears, I been really been loving the song American Honey by Lady Antebellum.

This picture makes me think of my favorite line.

"She grew up good. She grew up slow. Like American honey."