WE ARE TWO!! And it's Terrific!

Full disclosure: Rob worked overtime to get this video done before their birthday....and then it takes me a month to get it up on the blog! 

My girls are 2!!  Their birthday arrived at the busy end of a very busy July, but we managed to squeeze in a little party with our Ellis grandparents, Auntie Emily, and some friends who were staying with us for the weekend. 

Things I don't want to forget about life right now:

• How Lily chases Savannah around saying, "I'm gonna tickle! I'm gonna tickle!"  Followed by hysterical laughter and screams.
• How Savannah likes to jut her chin out for emphasis whenever she's pretending to be dramatic
• How Lily is "Nie-Nie" and Savannah is "Sanna"
• How they both RUN to Rob when he comes home from work...screaming and squealing.
• How Lily is constantly singing--twinkle twinkle, happy bird-day, spider (eensie-weensie), abcd's, mountain (I love the mountains), popcorn, temple (I love to see the temple), God (I am a child of God), etc etc.  Seriously, she sings ALL OF THE TIME. 
• How Savannah loves to pray while we pray, folding her arms, muttering under her breath and finishing with a big "AMEN!"
• How we are loving puzzles, books, sidewalk chalk, the pool, crayons, dancing, smoothies, and apples
• How they LOVE to help me throw things away in the garbage 
• How "share" means "give it to me now." And how they think that saying "please" pretty much guarantees them anything they want.
• How they are best friends and great playmates. 

Basically, I am loving this 2-year old phase!  It is so stinking cute watching them learn to express themselves and making connections about this big world around them.   And now is the time that having twins is really paying off; I don't know how people keep a single 2-year old entertained.   

Now, just when life has settled into a pretty great routine, we're going to shake things up with a new baby!  Does anyone have any good tips or strategies to help toddlers welcome new additions to the family?  Any ideas of what I can expect? 

The 2-Year Break

We learned by sad experience this month that it is very, very, very common for 2-year olds to break bones...by doing nothing other than being a 2-year old!

A week before her birthday, Lily was running, tripped, and fell on our kitchen floor.  The end.  No big deal, right?  Except she wouldn't stop crying and wouldn't put any weight on her leg.  And when she wouldn't even watch a show we knew something was really wrong.

We took her to the urgent care center and sure enough, she had fractured her right shin!  Prognosis: 4 weeks in a purple (waterproof) cast and she should be as good as new. 

This is the first time ever she's fallen asleep while normal life proceeds around her.

The first 2 weeks were pretty rough.  She wouldn't put any weight on her cast and got frustrated quickly with not being able to move around like she was used to.  We were both very, very, very happy at the beginning of week 3 when she finally realized that her leg didn't hurt anymore and first started hobbling, then walking, then running around.

Lily the Casted Cowgirl

This week, when the cast finally came off, she barely noticed anything had changed.  Now I just want to wrap these girls in bubble-wrap for the next few weeks.  Because as fun as hauling around a crippled toddler in my 8th month of pregnancy was, I can only imagine how fun it would be during this last month!  Anybody want to help me cover my house in pillows? 

The Super Friends take New Braunfels by Storm

July started with a BIG bang.

(Almost) the entire Ellis clan congregated in New Braunfels, TX for a week of relaxing on the Comal River, playing games, and lots of crazy cousin time.  (We missed you, Aup, Mark, & Spencer!)

Super Friends in a Super Family = Super FUN

On many days our itinerary was as follows:

1.  Wake up, eat breakfast, put swimsuits and sunscreen on.

Tubing with Papa Stan, Rob/Lily, Christa/Savannah, Mama KK

2.  Grab tubes, walk down to the river.

3.  Hop in tubes, leisurely float, observe the wildlife, and let all of your cares drift away

Stress?  What stress?

4. Walk back to our rooms to play games, do crafts, eat, take a nap, etc.

Doing crafts in the main lodge

5.  Rinse.  Repeat.

And in case any of us were getting TOO relaxed, we had a few day trips planned.

The place we were staying was right down the road from Schlitterbahn water park, so one full day was spent playing playing playing at the park.  

Savannah, Lily, and Mauri bonding in the water

Mostly Lily and Savannah spent their time in the shallow kiddie pools.  But Rob discovered that Lily has the heart of a daredevil when he took her on a not-very-lazy river ride....and she LOVED it.  She had no problem sitting in her own tube and holding on for dear life through all of ups and downs and rapids. 

Plumb tuckered out

After we left New Braunfels we spent a day at Sea World in San Antonio.  It was beastly hot (especially for my poor pregnant self), but the girls have been asking to see "the animals" every couple of days since we got home.  So I guess it was worth it. 

And when we got home we discovered a sweet-potato in the pantry that looks EXACTLY like a sea-lion (one of the BIG hits at Sea World).  The girls keep petting, kissing, and hugging it.  I'm definitely not going to have the heart to actually eat it now...

This year the theme for the reunion was Super Friends so many of our crafts/activities were superhero themed.

All the cousins made their own super-hero capes

Each family made a Super Friends movie to show at our Oscars Night

And Kit made everyone AWESOME shirts to wear to remind us of our true identities.  

7 months pregnant, carrying two 2-year-olds.  Just another day for Super Mom!

By the end of the week everyone was pretty partied-out, but that is to be expected when you are a part of one of the most funnest families around.  We're excited for the next big reunion b/c the girls will be old enough to really enjoy all of the cousin time, instead of being mostly shell-shocked at all of the action around them.

Tribe 6 is turning out to be pretty super indeed!

And this picture just makes me smile...

April 19: The Last (probably) Manhattan Schneiber Wedding

My baby brother (now 22--when did I get so old??) married his high school sweetheart, Megan in the Manhattan temple this spring.

Waiting for Megan and Erik to come out of the temple

Quick family photo-op

Megan is seriously one of the most awesome girls ever. She began investigating the LDS church as a teenager in high school and decided to get baptized during her freshman year at college. She is one of the sweetest people I know, but she has an incredible amount of determination and drive. We are SO SO SO glad she is now officially part of our family! Erik is seriously one lucky dude.

Wahoo!!

The Huets: Awesome family!

Schneibers

Our new SISTER!!

The temple wedding was Friday afternoon (Rob had to come straight from the airport and BARELY made it--like with less than 5 minutes to spare!), followed by a wedding party/family luncheon. Then on Saturday night the Huets threw a beautiful reception out in CT.

Megan is her mom's mini-me. 

Passed out at lunch after a long morning

The reception was absolutely perfect. They had a lovely ring ceremony, explaining a little about what had occurred the day before at the temple, followed by a delicious dinner and tons and tons and tons of AWESOME dancing. Seriously, I've never been to such a fun wedding reception!

Dinner

And watching my little brother, who has had to overcome so many challenges in the past few years, being the life of the party and dancing up a storm was one of the sweetest things to see. I'm so proud of and happy for him. He and Megan really deserve nothing but the best from life.

Dancing

One of the best traditions that has sprung up around these Schneiber-Manhattan weddings has been the involvement of some of our closest family friends in CT. When Rob and I got married, his entire family was hosted by the Checketts and Quigley families. When Katie got married, my parents no longer lived there, so the entire Schneiber and Hill families were hosted by the Pratts and Quigleys and Quinns. And now, when Erik got married we all descended (again) on the Quigleys and Pratts, for (probably) the last time. At this point, these wonderful friends probably receive every Schneiber-family wedding announcement with mixed feelings, but I absolutely LOVE getting to spend time with them. It's amazing how being somewhere where people love you can still feel like home, even after all these years.

After a long, FUN night

My Mom is glad that Jacqueline will probably NOT be getting married in the Manhattan temple (b/c it's been so long since we've lived there now), so we won't have to impose on all of her friends, but I kind of hope she does so we can have one more excuse to make it back there to visit. :)

*Megan's uncle was their wedding photographer and did an awesome job.  You can see more of their pictures here*

April in UT: Family, General Conference, and the Stomach Flu

When Rob and I were going to BYU, we loved going down to the Conference Center in SLC twice a year to participate in our church's semi-annual General Conference.  It's such a neat feeling to be a part of the crowds of people coming together to receive instruction and inspiration. And the music! The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is just so awesome to listen to in person that the chest-reverberating, goose bump-inducing music is worth the trip alone.  But since we've moved away we've had to be satisfied with watching Conference on the TV/Internet.

Rob and I have been talking about how much we wanted to actually BE there again, and decided we'd better go in April when we'd only have to buy 2 plane tickets instead of 4.  Then we found out that Rob's Dad was going to give one of the talks during the Conference and that ALL of Rob's siblings were going to be there too!   Great, great timing.

Some of the boys

The trip was fast, but in addition to going to watch General Conference, we managed to squeeze in some GREAT grandparent/cousin time, lots of game-playing, a bridal shower for my new sister-in-law Megan, and lunch with some old friends.  Oh, and we did all this while poor Savannah was super sick with the stomach flu. 

After Papa Stan's talk

While it wasn't the most relaxing 4 days I've ever had, we were so glad to be able to see all of our family and support Stan during his talk.  He did a great job.  Even though I felt like I wanted to sleep for about a week when we got home, there's something really special about being with the people you love most and feeling like you are growing closer to God.  I'd do it again in a heart beat! 

Easter in Austin

This year we showed Joy we weren't kidding around when we threatened to come back to Austin for every Easter from now on...

 We packed these two little cheese-balls up in the car, along with their Easter finery and all of the associated holiday paraphernalia, and headed out to Austin for the long weekend. 

We tried to get a few of the traditional Texas Bluebonnet pictures on the way, but Savannah was freaked out by all of the traffic rushing by, and Lily didn't really get why we wanted her to sit down in a bunch of scratchy grass...  Maybe we'll have better luck next year. 

This was seriously the best shot we got...

Once we got to Austin, the Park clan had such a great weekend planned that it was over before we knew it!

Highlights:

• Going to a very exciting Austin Torro's (SA Spurs' feeder team) game and feeling like Somebody Important b/c of our awesome seats.  

Best Day EVERRRR!

• Watching Savannah and Lily figure out that there was CANDY in these plastic eggs!  And then having them ask me for "eggs" every few hours for the next two weeks...meaning, "Mom, would you please hook us up with some more of that delicious CANDY??" 

Must. Get. More. EGGS!

•  Watching the Park kids collect MOUNTAINS (literally) of eggs....and then watching Darrell tease his sons by pretending to steal their favorite candies out of their gigantic pile. 

Mauri would only pick up pink eggs this year...

• This should really go first, but we had a lot of fun helping Joy stuff hundreds of eggs while watching "Forget Paris."  It just kept getting funnier as the night got later and later...

Nolan's basket was overflowing, so he had to resort to other measures to hold more eggs.

Easter Sunday included a beautiful church service, a delicious dinner, and my favorite game to play with the Parks, "Don't Eat Pete!"

Easter Dresses from Grandma Laura

We, as is totally normal when we go to Austin, had a GREAT time.  I am seriously in awe of Joy and Darrell and their awesome family.  Somehow everything always runs smoothly, even with the addition of Rob, me, and 2 little munchkins thrown into the mix. 

Easter Dinner

I know that eventually, I will probably have to host the holiday at our house, but I'm pretty sure I will never be able to top The Park Family Easter....so we'll just keep inviting ourselves to Austin until Joy eventually puts her foot down.  ;)   Thank you, Darrell, Joy, and crew for the great weekend!

Pretty Woman, walking down the driveway!

Olde Oaks Boys Version 3.0

The third annual Olde Oaks Boys reunion happened during March.

This year's crew: Rob, Ben, Gavin, Grant, Andrew (aka Thor) , Autrey, Jeremy, Taylor

I'm starting to realize why, every time my parents saw some of their old college buddies, they insisted they didn't feel like any time had passed....when CLEARLY (from my perspective), they were a bit delusional reliving the glory days.

I feel like hardly any time has passed since we were all in college together...7+ years and 10+ kids later.  Someday Savannah and Lily will want to give me a good dose of reality!

The Group

People started rolling in on Friday night, but the weekend didn't really get started until Saturday.  It was a full day.  The morning started with cinnamon rolls, and then was mostly spent enjoying the beautiful spring weather in the backyard with volleyball, a kiddie pool, and some golf in Rob's personal driving range.

Lounging

In the afternoon we had hot dogs/hamburgers for lunch, followed by a birthday celebration for Andrew and Brant.

I was SO HAPPY for an excuse to buy Costco's Great American Chocolate Cake.  So, so good.

And an Olde Oaks Boys reunion wouldn't be complete without at least a few taste tests.  This year was:

• French Fries: Sonic vs Whataburger vs Jack-in-the-Box vs Burger King vs McDonalds.  Winner: McDonalds.  Runner-up: Burger King/Jack-in-the-Box
• Diet vs Regular Soda; could you really tell the difference?  Verdict: Yes.  But some people just have a fondness for a chemical aftertaste, so they remained loyal to their diet sodas.  
•  Cereal: Name brand vs Generic.  Verdict: Generic cereals were sweeter and crunchier.  We could tell a difference but the group was split with which they preferred. 

A table full of french fries

And to finish the day off, we put the kids to bed, picked up a babysitter, and went out for some frozen yogurt and a killer game of Laser Tag.  I don't remember who the winner was, but I do know that Shilo has vowed to practice so that next year "EasyTarget" will NOT be such an easy target!  :) 

It really was a pretty exhausting day. 

Sunday, most of the crew was gone, but the Goggins' and Jones' came to church with us before heading home. 

Practically Cousins: Savannah, Sloan, Adele, Lily

And just because it blows my mind that this was life just 1 year ago:

And Adele was just an itty, bitty baby, so she was probably sleeping during this picture. 

I'm pretty sure we all spent at least a week getting caught up on sleep, but it was SO WORTH IT!  We're so glad everyone made the effort to come, and every time we do this I keep thinking, "Why don't we all see each other more often??"  Can't wait until next year!

And a big thank you for Diane and Amanda for loaning us your kids' sunglasses to keep our girls quiet during church!

Cool as a cucumber

How YOU doin'?