Our life lately

Here are some pictures to commemorate the last week in the Dillard household:

Oliver graduated from the Aquatots program at Emler Swim School. He did SO awesome. He went from being afraid of the water (would even cry through EVERY bath), to swimming on his own underwater for 10 seconds! Wow. A. Maze. Ing. We were so proud of his courage and hard work. Here he is with his ribbon and t-shirt that he got at the last class!



One of Gabby's sweetest... and pretty much only... girl friends stayed with us one day last week. It was such a fun day! The girls played so well together - they are only a few weeks apart in age. Georgia is such a sweetie and loves Gabby. She even named the baby doll she sleeps with baby Gabby. How cute is that. We look forward to having many more girly times together.




Aunt Natty and Uncle Matt drove up from New Braunfels for a visit last weekend. It was great to see them - we hadn't seen them since Natalie graduated from grad school in May. We had a relaxing weekend just enjoying each others company. The kids played and played with them and wore them out! Oliver revived his favorite Uncle Matt game ("hot chicken" - don't ask) and the kids enjoyed having some big playmates who were willing to play anything they wanted to! Fun times...





And then tonight we celebrated the end of our summer playgroup with an ice cream party at Henry's Homemade Ice Cream. It was a wild time... you can imagine when you see how many kids were there! We were the only people in the place at the time so it worked out well. We've enjoyed meeting with these families once a week all summer and passing the hot summer days together. To celebrate our fun summer, I made matching shirts for all of the kids with cute little Texas cut outs on them. We tried hard to get a good picture in. Check out this good lookin' bunch of kiddos! We love you all!


Starting in September, we will begin our new fall schedule. Back to preschool, MOPS, storytimes, and the kids attending a program at Bible Study Fellowship one day a week with my mother-in-law! Our weeks will be much fuller and more scheduled which will give this exhausted mommy a much needed break from being their personal entertainment director. Good times... but change is good.

What a look!!

Gabriella has always had a lot of hair - always! Even in a late-pregnancy ultrasound, they could see her hair because she had so much already!!! I didn't even know that was possible! I love the curls that have pretty much always been there. Now that she is nearing two, her hair has gotten pretty long. When it is wet, it is well past her shoulders. But you would never know that to look at her because it is normally would up tightly in ringlet curls - which I absolutely adore.

I have recently been trying to branch out in her hairstyles as the top-of-the-head-ponytail look isn't quite looking right on my almost two year old with longish hair. She's quickly leaving baby behind and embracing toddler in every aspect of the word! We've recently enjoyed a lot of half pony tails, side of the head barrettes, regular pony tail, pig tails, and the latest - braided pigtails. Note: all of these hairstyles are made supremely cuter by the ringlets that escape from their hair ties to frame her sweet face.

Below is a half-hearted attempt at a hairstyle collage. I need to get some better pictures...

The ponytail (with ringlet escapees)

Pigtails

Half ponytail

I have yet to capture a picture of the braided pigtails, but believe me, they are darling! But, I could not pass up snapping a picture of the POST braided pigtails look. To. Die. For.

Summertime at Meme and Pepe's House

Pooped after playing hard... and curled up with one of her favorite people - BOSSY! Or as she used to call him "Saucy" :)

Following in Brother's Footsteps

Those of you that have seen my boy in action for very long probably have noticed one of his quirky behaviors. We he's in a good mood and happy, he flicks. When he gets really excited, he flicks. He's a flicker - an ear flicker to be more specific. He usually just does a one hand flick - except in cases of extreme excitement. Then both hands get going flicking both ears! An example: My parents were taking him to a play area at the mall near their house. My Dad said as they got closer and he started hearing the sound of kids playing, his arms started going up by his ears... flick, Flick, FLICK! Every night after dinner, when he's full and happy, this is what we find Oliver doing. Every night. Skipping around the rug... flicking.

A common conversation we have about this routine:

Mommy: What are you doing Oliver?
Oliver: I'm plaaaaying!
Mommy: Ok, have fun!

Here he is in action (and in this video, you get a bonus - his made up song...)

Just last night, a friend told me that her son (who plays with Oliver regularly) was starting to flick every once in a while. He was out playing ball with his Dad and would run around and flick his ears after he threw it. So we were beginning to realize it's contagious nature. And then today, I walked in on Gabriella this morning... and guess what she was doing. FLICKING! I RAN to get the video camera and caught some of it in action. It was so super cute! I asked her what she was doing and she said "play like Oli!"

Cuteness.