It's Raining, It's Pouring

It rained and poured...for about 5 minutes.

It was still such a nice change in the land of eternal heat and sunshine.

UPDATE: The rain came back! It's been raining for about 4 hours. It's wonderful!

I found Easter candy

More pictures from Amy's Visit

We really enjoyed our visit with Amy, Jeremy, and Cole. Here are some more pictures from our time together. I'm just one hurricane evacuation away from visiting them in Seattle.

Things weren't all rosy while Amy was here though. Lydia decided she would come down with croup for the week. We had three very stressful days watching her breathing and praying for her to sleep. After it broke, she was left to recover from a nasty cold and serious congestion. Thankfully, everything cleared up in 7 days and she's back to normal now! Don't worry, we didn't let a little croup get in the way of sharing sippy cups and snacks with Cole.

and the walls came tumbling down

One of my favorite changes we are making to our new house is to open up the front entry. This will allow light to pour, making the entry so happy and welcoming.

This picture shows the original view when you walked through the front door.

After taking down the wall, you see straight through the breakfast room and into the back yard.

As you walk in the front door and look left, you used to see a small entry to the living room.

Now we have a large opening to the dining room instead!

We are getting new windows and dry wall this week. I can't wait to show you more "before" and "during" pictures!

The girls

Girlfriends are the best, especially when they are also your family!

Christina, we miss you and look forward to vising in August.

My girl is so sweet (my first blog ever)

Renee and Aunt Amy decided to go looking through model homes in The Woodlands. This is something I sometimes fear b/c it further builds Renee's case for "all the great things in The Woodlands." But since Amy is in town, the girls went to do their thing and left Lydia and Cole with me and Uncle Jeremy. The playtime started by Lydia waking up 1 hour into her 2.5 hour nap and refusing to go back down b/c she heard her best friend Cole downstairs. Even I know that waking up 1 hour into a nap is a sign of bad things to come. But, aside from Lydia eating some of Cole's food, occasionally drinking his sippie (sp?) cup and taking a few toys here and there, they played really well together. Those two even put the toy rings on the post together-- great teamwork cousins! Cole is such an angel and a joy to play with.

The following melted my heart...Cole had strict instructions to drink a bottle at 3pm and then take a nap. When Uncle J grabbed the bottle from the frig and picked up Cole, Lydia wanted to go to join him. I told her "stay here please." 30 seconds later she walked over to me and gave me kiss. After walking away I asked if Daddy could have another kiss. She walked back over and did it again. To top it off, she then walked ~10 feet to pick up her favorite blanky. She then went to the stairs, waived goodbye to me, and pointed to the stairs. What can I say, even Dad knows what this means. I plopped her in her crib and that was that. What a sweetheart! I rarely have these responsibilities but I must say, my wife is a rockstar. I can't believe my 15-month old is such a good girl. Thanks be to God and thanks to Renee. Sorry for the lack of pics or anything fun, but I immediately felt that I needed to blog about this one. -- Dan

Dinner and Pool Time

The Houston, Seattle, and Corpus Christi area families gathered for dinner on Friday night to celebrate Mom's birthday. Here are a few shots from dinner.

Brian and Lauren (and baby boy due in August)

Emily and Lydia coloring (Lydia's first time coloring!)

Jon and Steph

Mom (Nana) and Cole

On Saturday, we hung out at the house, played in the pool, and ate a yummy dinner.

Dan with his friend, Cole.

Lydia and Cole playing at the window.

Mom and Lydia "talking" in the pool.

Mom and Lydia working out in the pool.

Lydia enjoying her favorite food.

Cole smiling (of course) for the camera with his corn.

Look who showed up?

Ta Dah! Amy and Cole arrived from Seattle this evening to spend a week with us! I am so excited to host my first real "company" ever. Usually when family comes in town they stay with my parents, but since I'm now living in their house I get to be the hostess. Here are the cousins ready to leave the airport. Cole seriously smiles whenever I pull out the camera. I have a feeling pictures from this week will be of Cole smiling and Lydia looking on with all seriousness.
Cole was happy to see Uncle Dan. Lydia was jealous so she got up in daddy's arms for the pictures. I'm just so happy that Lydia finally has more hair than Cole!