Two Day Vaca

Last weekend, Dave and I took the girls on a whirl wind trip to visit San Antonio and the Guadalupe River State Park. We had a ton of fun and totally wore our kiddos out! It was nice that the girls slept for 2.5 hours in the car on the way home from the State Park, and then went down easily after we got home. The only problem was that Dave and I also wore ourselves out. I think we're still catching up! But, I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything (...well almost anything).

Day 1: San Antonio- The Alamo and the River Walk

I took this while Dave drove around down town San Antonio. He was looking for the cheapest parking available....we're used to this now.

The building behind the Alamo

Julia can not stand still lately! She just dances, and grooves to no music. (She does not get her constant movement from me!)



Me and my sweet Lyddie girl at the Alamo.

  The girls were pretty bored with the whole Alamo experience. They were sick of taking pics, but we made them take a few more than they wanted to.

Sweet Julia and Me.

My handsome husband and 2 of his 3 girlies.

San Antonio River Walk

The girls sleeping on the crib mattresses we brought. This an easy solution when only rooms with a king size bed is available.

Day 2: Guadalupe River State Park: Hiking and Picnicing 

Guadalupe River

 I was really shocked to see that the river's water is clear. We could really see the fish swimming. It was great! The water was so low though. I'd love to go back after we've had some rain in Texas.

Look at those roots! They were fun to climb on.

 Being under the trees on the river reminded me a lot of when I used to salmon fish with my dad in Anchorage. Of course it was twice as hot, and the trees weren't pine and aspen; but, the water was clear and I was there with my two pipsqueaks. --It just made me think of the time I spent at the riverbank when I was a pipsqueak myself.

Picnic on a blanket with a picnic basket- Julia's specific request

We saw two roadrunners at the Park. - So Cool!

The sky looks beautiful, doesn't it?

We hiked during what is usually the girls nap time. Poor Lydia was so tired, and it was so hot.

Here I am with Lydia almost half way through the 1.7 mile hike.

Here's Dave with the girls after my arms gave out. Dave let them talk him into this. I piggy backed Julia for a while about 2 minutes later.

One more pic of the sky. It doesn't look like it packs a 100 degree punch, but it does.

Well, there you have it folks--our family's fun times in San Anton and at the state park! We still need to make it to the beach and the pool a few more times before summer is officially over. I truly wish our neighborhood pools stayed open until October....because that's how long it'll be hot for. No long sleeves for us as we carve pumpkins and drink hot apple cider....(And poor Julia keeps asking me when it'll snow here. I told her we would try and visit a place that has snow....probably not gonna be seeing any snow in these parts....) Even so, we are loving life in Texas, and enjoying all we can. Hope your lovin' your life too, Amber.

Mommy Mind Lapse

A lot of the time, mostly when I'm tired, my brain goes into this wierd mom default. Have any of you ever experienced this? (Whether you are a mom or not, does your brain revert back to something?) Need some examples? Okay, so Lydia came down stairs whiney and out of sorts a few minutes ago. I took her back up to bed, thinking she would be fine. On my way back downstairs, Lydia started crying. My first thought: "Does she need her pacifier?" (She hasn't used one for about a year now.)
Another exmple: I was holding Lydia today, and I looked over and realized that she is much taller than my lap is.

......And there you go, people. I started this blog about 5 days ago and completely forgot about it. Ironic? I don't think so. My brain is gone. --I have NO idea where I was going with that second example....

(I promise I won't forget how much I love you all though!)

-Amber

Stewart Weekly - Funnies

Summer has been flying by for us! (It seems like it has been for everyone.) In the midst of the "organized" chaos, our girls have had some pretty hilarious things to say. Here are a few of the tidbits:

Me: "We're going to a birthday party today at a pool."
Julia: "Which pool is it, Mommy?"
Me: "Well, it's a pool in Greatwood."
Julia: "What? That sounds creepy!"
Me: "No, it's not creepy, it's just not in our neighborhood."

A few hours or so later we were at Target, getting a birthday present.

Julia to  Lydia: "Lydia, we're going to a birthday party at a pool in Sweet Cheese!"

Me, laughing: "What? No. It's called Greatwood."

We are working with Lydia and Julia on staying in bed after we put them there. (They prefer to sneak out of bed and play, get a drink, look at a book or what-have-you. ) So, while Dave was reinforcing the stay in bed rule a few nights ago, Lydia piped up, "Daddy, I promise I'll stay in bed."
Dave: "You do, Lydia? Thank you."
Lydia: "Daddy, I promise, my promise."
Dave: "Okay, good. Thank you...."

On our way to church on Sunday, We drove by a "No Parking sign". We drive by it every Sunday, so I don't really pay much attention anymore, but Julia did. She said, "Hey, why are there no P's allowed on that sign?"

I'm working with Lydia on pronouncing her R's correctly. So, today, when she was talking about her woom, I corrected her and said, "RRRRoom. Can you say that, Lydia"

"Puh, Puh, woom."

(Sometimes she gets the reason for my correction mixed up. She decided to add the random letter P to the beginning of the word.)

I explained it a little more to her, so she tried again: "Ewwwwoom!" Afterward, she smiled so big, knowing what a good job she'd done, so, of course, I congratulated her on a job well done.

Last Funny for tonight:

On our way home from the party tonight, Julia and Lydia were bombarding us with questions.

"Can I have some water?"

"Can I have some more peanuts?"

"Can you put the lid on my water?"

"Can you take this?"

"Can I have more to eat when I get home?"

"Can we listen to music?"

Dave and I decided to give it right back to them. After a few measley come back questions, Julia yelled over us. "Hey, we're the kids!" I guess in her mind, kids get ask for a billion things at once and parents get to role with the punches. Interesting.

Thanks for reading! Tata for now! -Amber

Dancing Divas

Last Thursday, after getting back from the grocery store, Julia and Lydia turned on their music while Dave and I brought in the groceries. They immediately started dancing, with their sunglasses on, inside, even though it was dark outside.  It made me laugh. So, I took these pictures:

Here's to dancing the night away! Love, Amber

Prayer Website

I have been praying for my pastor for several years now, following the guide I got from a ministry called Revive Our Hearts. I decided to check out their online ministry today at http://www.reviveourhearts.com/, and found some 30 day guides for husbands, pastor's wives, and whoever else you know who may need prayer. (Type prayer into the search engine.) Please check this website out, and let me know what you think! Oh, and start praying!! Love, Amber

Party Pics - Lydia's 3rd

Strawberry Shortcake at her own party.

POOL Party!

Our sweet friend and pouty Lydia. (It's her party, she can cry if she wants to.)

Aunt Xiaolan and Lydia snitching strawberry cake

My Amatuer Strawberry Cake. :)

I'm throwing this one in from today. Don't the girls look adorable in their church dresses?

The Hill Country

Almost a year ago now, Dave won a free hotel stay. And, we still haven't used it yet! So, this evening on our long family walk, Dave and I decided that we are going to use our free hotel stay and visit the Hill Country near Houston. We've heard many wonderful things about the beauty of this nearby land, and want to stay true to our commitment to explore Texas as much as we possibly can. We plan to be as thrifty as possible by packing a cooler full of home-made goodies and only being gone one night (the night that's paid for). We also thought it would be fun to rent a bird sighting book from our local library so that we can record what birds we see on our sight seeing. Hopefully it will be fun and educational for all of us! Seeing as how my love language is quality time, I am really, really looking forward to this little family get away. I won't divulge the exact date of our departure over the world wide web, but I will let you know when we've come back! Happy summer get aways to all of you! -Amber

Christmas in July

Well, Julia has been requesting a little Christmas in July. She loves to dance to music, and she knows that the #5 disc is a Christmas cd leftover from December. (I promise the other discs are not Christmas ones.) I've come home to her dancing to Christmas music with the babysitter several times now....

I think it's time for a trip to Hobby Lobby. Can you believe they are already putting their Christmas decor out? Julia and I love to go visit Santa several months in advance. We also start talking about the nativity scene and what that means to our family. (We also love to start thinking about fall. You know the fall stuff is already out if the Christmas decor is making it's debut!) I know this sickens most of you, and I'm sorry, but I can't stop loving Christmas!

Here is a video of my girls a few days before Christmas last year:

There are no humbugs in this Stewart family!!  Happy Christmas in July to all and to all, a good night! -Amber

Happy Birthday, Lydia

THREE!

My Little Lydia

Woe is me. My Lyd turns 3!

6 months old, and very smiley.

Tomorrow, our youngest little girl, the baby of our family, our little Lyddie Lou turns 3 years old!! How did this happen? How does time fly so quickly? Where has the time gone? I'm sad, I'm excited, and I'm thankful.

Baby Food firsts

 Lydia is our spunky little second born. She has a sweet heart and a very strong will. She has surprised us in so many ways!
Surprise # 1- God planned for her to come a little sooner than Dave and I had planned.
Surprise # 2- I thought second borns were compliant. I didn't know you could have two super strong willed kids right in a row.
Surprise # 3- She has an onry streak that isn't shy.
Suprise # 4- She's not afraid to jump off of any single piece of furniture that we own, but the least of villains will make her turn her head from a t.v. show, while telling us she can't watch.
Surprise # 5- She's not platinum blonde. (I thought my kids would at least start out blonde.)

Clean baby. She was fresh out of the bath in this pic.

 Lydia truly is a comedian. She is quick to laugh, and picks up quickly on what other's find funny. One of my favorite things about Lydia has always been her laugh. One of my other favorite things about her is her reaction to exciting news. Whenever something strikes her fancy, she pumps her fists straight up in the air, throws her head back and bellows, "Yeah!!!" It makes you want to join her in her victory.

This was our first Houston Halloween. Lydia was a little over one.



Lydia looks so different from when we first ventured to Houston. Look at her little bob.

Beautiful little Lydia has the best hair! Her hair is thicker than mine, and still has a curl on the end. I still haven't had to start using conditioner on her hair. After bath, it brushes easily. It's just not prone to tangles. 

This picture was taken last week. Her favorite princess was Snow White up until a few weeks ago. Now there's a tie for favorite between Snow white and Ariel.



As bittersweet as it is to watch my girlies grow up, I am super excited about celebrating them. Tomorrow is going to be so fun! First, Lydia will wake up to balloons in her room and some birthday decorations in the dining room. Dave and I are staying home a little later than normal to start the day off with Lydia's breakfast of choice: Pancakes. We'll also let her open a few presents and put on a birthday dress. For dinner, Dave, the girls and I will enjoy Lydia's favorite foods: mac n cheese and cake. After dinner we'll be headed to Toys r us so that Lydia can spend some of her "hard-earned" birthday money. This weekend, we are having a small get-together/party to celebrate her 3rd birthday. We've only invited a few friends, so I hope that some of them are available to come and help us celebrate my little Lydia. She is such a blessing to us.

Dear Lydia,

I love you to the moon and back!!

Love, Mom



Thanks for reading, Amber

Princessy Princesses

Thanks to pandora.com I'm writing this post to the much loved Lion King Song, "Hakuna Matata". This song came on in the midst of our Disney Princess songs. Sometimes, the girls and I get the desire to listen to princess songs while we do our regular afternoon activities. (Our  afternoons duties usually consist of royal obligations anyway.) For example, before dinner we painted our royal finger nails a very princess pink. Then, while I was making the royal dinner (fit for a King and Queen) I heard Julia and Lydia playing. It was very dramatic and went something like this:

Lydia: "Goodbye!"
Julia: "But, wait,  I don't even know your name!"while looking earnestly at the fleeing princess. As she walked away, Julia said, "Whoever's foot fits this shoe is the girl I'll marry...."

We also do a lot of dress-up.

Julia, the Princess Bride

Lydia as Princess Snow White

Sometimes after dinner, we have a royal ball to the royal music. But, tonight, I think that as queen of the castle, I am going to demand that everyone gets there full amount of beauty rest. That means these royals will be going to bed a little early tonight. So, I'm off to do some royal clean-up, get my two princess in their pajamas, and make sure there are no peas under their mattresses. Royally yours, Queen Amber.

Friends for the Fourth

We had a great Fourth of July! Even though we didn't see any fireworks, our weekend was full of sparkling moments.

Sunday morning. Going to church in Red, White and Blue

Fourth of July lovin' sisters

Lydia requested a picture with Daddy.

 Dave and I spent the Fourth getting ready to have friends from our small group over. Our original plan was to have burgers and dogs at our house, and then go to our neighborhood fireworks. But, our neighborhood cancelled the fireworks a few weeks before our guests came due to a burn ban we have in the area. So, we decided to go ahead and grill out, and then drive somewhere nearby for the works. But, when we got to the Stafford Center, we found out that they had cancelled the fireworks just 30 minutes before we got to the center. Stink.

Our Small Group seperated at this point because we all live so far apart, and the girls, Dave and I came back to the concert in our neighborhood. The girls loved dancing with glow sticks while eating snow cones and eating popcorn. It would have been perfect if they hadn't cancelled the fireworks. :/ Oh well, we'll see some on Labor day, I guess.

The babies in our small group lined up for some yummy food.

Friends

Friends who clean your kitchen up before they leave = Good Friends. Adam, the guy in the red, was especially helpful.

Lydia loved her "after party" treats

Dave remembered at the last second that I asked him to take a picture of me with my girls on the Fourth. Here we are at 10:30, unloading the mini. Smile. :)

Thanks for reading about our holiday here on my blog. I hope that you all had your own fireworks for the fourth. (Whether they were physical or metaphorical.) Love and Happy Belated Independence Day to all! -Amber