Our Little Fish

At the beginning of the summer Addie was terrified of swimming. I took her to a playgroup at a pool in April. She refused to touch the water at all. She wouldn't even sit on my lap if I had my feet in the water.

At playgroup last week I was sitting next to Addie on the stairs and was talking to another mom. All of a sudden I realized Addie was kicking her way across the pool to get to a ball she had spotted. I couldn't believe it! Ever since then, she insists on treading water (with the occasional back float attempt) the entire time we're at the pool.

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She can be a chicken sometimes. Which is why we are so proud of how far she's come. She's turning in to quite the little fish! If you tell her to go get her swimming suit she shouts, "Swimmin, swimmin!!!!" and starts running around.

The best part about it is the look on her face. She knows she's accomplished something hard and she's so proud of herself. Her swimmer parents are proud of her too!

Our Humble Abode

Welcome to our new home!

Okay, so we've lived here for 2 months now, but I keep getting requests from some family members to put up a little tour.

So, here it is!

The front entrance.

My piano finally has a place!

Our living room. The view from the front door.

More of the living room.

The dining area.

Our table now has room to spread its wings!

Our spacious gally kitchen.

I didn't think gally's were spacious, but this one has soooo much room!

I love that I can watch the news while I'm getting dinner ready.

The 1/2 bath off the kitchen.

Very difficult to get a picture of.

Now, off to the upstairs.

Addie's room.

With plenty of room for the rugrat to run.

Of course, the princess needs her own attached bathroom.

I love not having to step on her toys in the shower anymore!

Our room.

Big enough for me to lay an entire quilt on the floor to work on.

It's actually so big that it looks a little silly with the small amount of furniture we have in there.

It's definitely a problem I can live with;)

Our bathroom.

Behold, the double vanity!

*cue the chorus of angels*

The massive tub and separate showers are also big loves of mine.

The patio, that hasn't seen much use.

Maybe by the time Thanksgiving rolls around it'll be cool enough to enjoy some time out there.

Now, for the grand finale.

The whole reason we moved.

My little beauty...

THE GARAGE!!!!

My life has officially been changed.

No more hauling a toddler and millions of bags of groceries up 3 flights of stairs in the sweltering heat for me.

I think I earned this baby:)

We LOVE our new place, and in case you didn't notice, we have plenty of room for visitors now, so start packing your bags!

Just a Little Milestone

Yesterday marked our 4 year anniversary! When we first got married, 4 years seemed like forever away, turns out, it's gone by pretty fast. It snuck up on us!

To celebrate, we decided to go back to the place where it all started, 4 years ago.

The Temple.

(To find out more about temples, go here)

Okay, so it didn't actually start in the Houston temple, but that's the great thing about temples, the same thing happens in all of them!

What a blessing to be able to go back and be reminded of the promises we made with each other and the Lord on that hot August day in Salt Lake.

I wanted a little snapshot of us in front of the temple to look back at in 30 years.

First pic was a fail because of our ridiculous faces.

Second pic was also a fail due to us drifting out of the photo.

Third pic I tried my hand.

Also fail because I cropped out the most important part, the temple!

Finally a passerby took pity on us and offered to take a pic.

Finally got it!

We're both so glad we made the choice we did 4 years ago.

We can't believe all the places that life has taken us.

It's been such a fun journey and will continue to be!

How could it not with this little cutie in tow?!

*Thanks Kristin, for the babysitting*

Beach Bums

We've gone down to Galveston to go to the beach many times since we've lived here. Our friends told us about another beach, Surfside. They raved about it! Scott and I were wondering what the big deal was so we headed down with them last week.

Amazing!

We couldn't get enough of it. Addie let us stay 'til way past bedtime and she didn't even have a single meltdown.

Notice the clear water so you can see the bottom!

The nice sand that you can play in!

The absence of seaweed and jelly fish carcasses.

You can drive right onto the sand.

No more lugging coolers!

Addie had a blast getting messy.

The boys had a blast launching water balloons and playing a mini football game.

We of course did some grilling!

Needless to say, we are now on the Surfside bandwagon. We can't wait to find another weekend soon to go back!

A Present for Me...

Errr, I mean Addie.

There's been some talk about moving Addie to a big girl bed. There's no rush, but the bed's in her room and we read books on it all the time and talk about it being the big girl bed. The problem, and boy is it a problem, is that I don't have a comforter for the bed that matches her room!

What's a girl to do?!

After telling my mom about my quandary, she decided that she wanted to get Addie a comforter for her birthday (which isn't for a long time)! Sidenote: I LOVE sewing quilts. My mom, knowing this about me, suggested we go and pick out fabric while we were in Utah and I could make Addie the comforter.

Best idea ever! Really, this is more a present for me!

I had the best time in the fabric store with my mom picking out all the fabrics. We grabbed about 30 different bolts and kept swapping things in and out. I'm sure the workers loved cleaning up after us.

I've been working on the quilt over the past week and wanted to show the progress so far. It's only halfway, but it's coming together really quickly!

Scott asked me what my favorite part of my trip was and I told him it was picking out fabrics and designing this quilt with my mom. I had so much fun doing it with her and am still having fun calling her on the phone and consulting her about it. Thanks mom!!!!!

A post wouldn't be complete without a silly pic of Addie.

The girls loves swimming suits and when she found mine, she BEGGED me to put it on her.

Notice how the crotch drags on the floor.

In the back her rear end sticks out the hole for my back.

It's adorable.

Goodbye Utah!

Sadly, our week in Utah had to come to a close. There was a Daddy back in Texas really missing his little red head. Before we said goodbye, we went to dinner at Brick Oven!

Notice how Sadie always manages to work her way in right next to Addie

We caught these two red heads munch on crackers and watching TV.

Seriously, they looked like two peas in a pod.

Addie sat still for an entire show, which NEVER happens!

This little workaholic couldn't go a week without checking her email.

Before our flight I thought it'd be a good idea to get a picture of Addie with each person in the family.

Of course, Sadie was right there and ready to go first.

The future Elder Clark was next and it didn't go so well.

This picture sums up how Addie felt about her uncles.

She was terrified of them.

She was even scared of Grandpa for awhile, but he worked hard and eventually won her over. But not the uncles. After this pic, Addie was done, so I didn't get any others with the family:(

We had soooo much fun! It was great to be all together again (minus Scott) one last time before all the siblings headed in different directions. In a few weeks, my siblings and I will pretty much have all the regions of the United Stated covered. Sorry Mom!

We can't wait to come back for Christmas!

Having a Ball

Playing kick with Grandpa

It's impossible to catch this kid in action. Once she sees the camera she runs to get it. I promise, it was really cute watching them kick the ball back and forth

Slam dunkin' with the Aunts.

The cutest bat girl I've ever seen.

Making sure Sadie had her ball ready to go on the mound and pitch.

Having a ball with Grandma on the playground.