Life lately

Life has been absolutely WONDERFUL lately! Dallas has been so good to us. Like I mentioned before, the kids and I have play dates at least once a week and I try and see a friend sans kids every other week. We have been to the pool several times already in the past 2 weeks, and I foresee pool time becoming a twice weekly occurrence. Chris and I are able to go on dates at least twice a month and we are also going on double, sometimes triple dates with our friends. In fact, last night we went to the Rough Riders game with our dear, awesome friends, the Bucheks. There are some people that I thought for sure I would have seen by now, but haven't, and some people who I didn't expect to see, but have. It's been really fun catching up on people's lives and seeing how different our relationships with our friends are now that we, and them, have children. Nashville is slowly becoming a distant memory, and for that I'm thankful. And for those of you who will read that sentence and judge me because I had 2 children there and got to experience life away from home with just the hubs, for that I am  thankful , but glad it's a memory now and not in my present or future (Although I wish we could have taken the Hermans to Dallas with us).
Josiah and Layla do new things every day. Layla started crawling the day I started potty training Josiah (right at 8 months for her), which that right there shows that God DOES have a sense of humor (less I remind you that He chose to make farts have a noise, because he could have made them silent, but that's another topic all on its own). The day after she started crawling she decided to pull up on any and all objects. She thinks she can walk, so if she has to get somewhere she half crawls, half walks. I walked at 9 months, so Layla might follow in my path and be an early walker (again, God's sense of humor is coming out). She talks now, blows raspberries, laughs hysterically at her brother, smiles whenever Josiah is in the room and actually lets her play with him, is becoming extremely independent, throws fits when i take away my keys from her, cries when I leave her (which I LOVE because I know she loves and misses me too!), smiles at strangers... the list goes on and on. Whenever I go out with just me and the kids I get stopped at least three times from strangers telling me how beautiful Layla is and asking me where she gets her eye color (for the record, my mother-in-law, mother, grandmother, aunt, niece and nephews ALL have blue eyes). Yesterday someone told me that I win the award for having the most beautiful children they've ever seen. I choose to believe I am the first person he has ever said this to :)
Josiah is just as awesome, if not awesomer than ever. He talks all the time now. I understand about 95% of what he says, but most people probably only understand 50%. He LOVES being outside, swimming, playing catch, kicking the soccer ball around, making car sounds, hugging his little sister (he even has a baby voice he does for her), his mama, watching movies, riding toy motorcycles, Porter Pace and Brody Buchek. He talks about his Uncle Car Car (Carter) ALL THE TIME! Whenever someone calls me he immediately says "Car Car", then is slightly disappointed when I tell him no. He loves petting animals, being the LIFE of the party, meeting new people, eating chocolate, and reading books at bedtime with mommy. He also has started saying stop it, go away, and EVER (like don't you EVER do that). Those are the only mean things he says, and we are trying to teach him that they aren't nice and are disrespectful. He does take care of his mommy though. Whenever he thinks I'm hurt he will rush to my side, hug me and stroke my face until he knows I'm okay. He finally lets Layla play with him and it brings me such joy to see this. That's the main reason we decided to have children so close in age because we knew he needed a playmate.
Being around family has been so incredible. Chris's parents see the kids everyday (because we live with them) and my parents get to see them often as well. My Aunt Judi gets to see them too because we work together, and she babysat last night while we went to the baseball game. Uncle Scotty lives close by so we have him over for dinner every once in a while. Me and Layla are flying out to San Francisco to visit Aunt Mindy in August with my mom and aunt. We are going to Norman to visit my older brother, Matthew, and his family next weekend and will go down to Austin next month to see Chris's sister, Elyse, and her husband, Carter.
I absolutely love my 3 days at home alone with them and am so thankful Chris lets me do that. I can't wait to celebrate him this Sunday on Father's Day. I know how blessed I am and do not take my life for granted. Pictures to come...