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Birthdays and Cousins

We had an epic family weekend last weekend! Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Kerri, and cousins Zoe and Sophie were making their annual tour of Texas and blessed us with their company over the weekend. Aunt Katie, G-Mommy, and Granddaddy took the opportunity to join us as well, getting almost our entire family together for the very first time! We were celebrating my, Zoe, and Kerri's birthdays (they say all the coolest girls are born in March).

We kicked the weekend off with a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Chuy's. Here's the birthday girl (me) celebrating with her favorite girl in the whole world!

Mmmm . . . fajitas and Dos XX . . . the dinner of champions.

It was our first time getting to meet sweet little Sophie, Ali's elder by about 3 weeks. The connection the two girls had was so fun to see. They were very interested in each other and were constantly reaching for one another and chatting back and forth with delighted squeals. It was almost too much cuteness!
We took the girls to the park for some outdoor fun. Here is G-Mommy, Aunt Katie, Cousin Sophie, and Ali enjoying the swings.

As you can probably imagine, getting decent shots of two 6-month-olds and a 4-year-old was quite the undertaking. I shot probably 10 outtakes for every decent picture I got. Here are a couple of the best groups shots we got! (I'm considering doing an outtake post following this one to show you what I mean.)

All three girls. So sweet!As you can imagine, G-Mommy and Granddaddy were in grandparent heaven having all three of their grandchildren together in one place at the same time!

It was wonderful having so much of our family together at once. We miss Jonathan, Kerri, Zoe, and Sophie so much when they are at "home" in Boston . . . we're still holding out hope that they'll come back to Texas sooner rather than later!

The weekend held another big milestone for our little girl: we officially started solids! Stay tuned for tons of messy food cuteness!

Awesomesauce

Awesomesauce (adj): A word used to describe something that is more awesome than awesome. It is a modifyer of your basic awesome into a more awesome version.

As in, this video is totally awesomesauce.

Weekend Full of Awesome

I love weekends. I mean, I've always loved weekends, but now I really LOVE weekends. I get to spend all day hanging out with baby girl. And now that the weather is improving, we get to get our a bit more and enjoy the great outdoors. What could be better?

Last weekend was no exception. We spent Saturday afternoon a friend of ours son's first birthday party. They had the brilliant idea of a homemade ball pit in the living room--what a hit! Even though Ali was the youngest party-goer by a solid month or two, even she got in on the ball fun.

I'm not really sure who's having more fun here . . .

Sunday Ali and I met some friends at the park while Alex helped his brother move. It was a gorgeous morning! First Ali just enjoyed sitting and taking in the sites. She would laugh anytime anyone walked by--so cute!
Then we made our way over to the swings! The seat was waay too big for Ali's little body, so we just padded the chair behind her so that she wouldn't slide around too much. She LOOOVED the swing and was kicking and laughing and waving her arms. Another big hit!
Here is Ali hanging out with our friends' son, Luke. Holding hands? Doing wax-on, wax-off? You be the judge.
While at the park, Ali would not stop staring me down as I enjoyed a snack. So I held let her lick the apple I was eating . . . she went crazy for it! When I took it away she squealed and flapped her hands trying desperately to take it back from me. I think this girl is ready for some real food!
Sunday evening we made the trek down to San Marcos to visit Great-Grandma Daigle and Pop. It was the first time all of their five great-grandchildren had congregated in the same spot. As you can imagine, there was lots of picture takin' going on!

Here are my grandparents with their five great-grandkids.

And with the mommas. :-)

Three generationsFour generations :-)
Ali hangin' with her greats.

And the whole motley crew!

After the photo shoot we headed out for a wonderful dinner on the river. Ali got to sit in a high chair for the first time! She's such a big girl!

She was once again staring us down. Since we didn't have any baby-friendly food on hand, we gave her some water out of a straw. Once she got over the fact that (1) it wasn't milk, and (2) it wasn't warm, she loved it! She was like a little baby bird, opening and closing her mouth, begging for more.
As you can see . . . weekends are the best 48 hours of the week! We have another big, exciting weekend coming up, with Ali's cousins, aunts, uncle, and grandparents visiting! Stay tuned!

Did You Hear that Sound?

It was my heart. Exploding.

She kissed me.

After nursing her when we got home yesterday, I was giving Ali kisses. We have a game where I'll say "kisses!" then kiss her right cheek, and then "kisses!" and kiss her left cheek. Back and forth. Quickly. So, "kisses!-smooch-kisses!-smooch-kisses!-smooch-kisses!-smooch-kisses!-smooch..." She loves it (especially when she has a nice full tummy) and it inevitably gets her smiling from ear to ear.

Well, yesterday, after about four kisses, she leaned her head toward me with her mouth open and planted one on my cheek. I thought maybe it was just a fluke--this kid puts everything in her mouth these days, so why would my cheek be any different?--so I did our kisses game again. Sure enough, after about four kisses, she leaned forward, mouth open, and planted another kiss on my cheek. We went back and forth, giving each other kisses, for a couple of minutes.

My heart? Ka-BOOM.

Wordless Wednesday

48 hours later...

Just 48 hours after our lovely day spent at the park and lake . . .

I think maybe Texas weather is controlled by a magic 8 ball.