Britten's 5th Birthday

While Lindsay, Justin, Britten and Ellie were here in Texas, they were able to have Brittens 5th birthday. I can't believe that girl is 5 already!! Taylor and Britten are inseparable and love each other very much! I had so much fun watching them play together over Christmas. Britten, we love you and your mommy, daddy and sister very much!

Taylor - before Britt's party

Ryan in his cool rocker shirt from Cami

She's 5!!!

Sweet cousins!

Britt blowing out her candles. Notice the Texas Flag cake my mom made. She wanted a Texas cake because all her favorite people live in Texas! I love that girl!!

Why did Ryan get a red piece of cake?!

Ellie and Ryan

4 cousins - best picture we could get!

Ryan giving Ellie a five!

Austin Trip and fun Taylor-stuff

Last weekend, Dustin and I were able to go to Austin for the Girls State Basketball Tournament. We had a fun-filled few days!! We left on Wednesday afternoon, watched 18 basketball games in 3 days, then came home on Sunday. We got to see lots of great basketball, eat WELL (without a 2-yr old reaching on my plate every 5 seconds), see the capitol, and do LOTS of walking! We mostly ate at the 2 restaurants within walking distance of the Super Drum, but did leave Friday between the last 2 sessions to go to Pappadeaux. I LOVE that place!! We walked to the capitol to pass time during a break on Saturday and had fun sitting outside and enjoying the awesome weather! But by far, the most exciting thing we saw was a 6'8" girl from Houston that could dunk it. Rather, I should say SLAM it with AUTHORITY!! I've never seen anything like it! The entire Super Drum of probably 8,000 people went CRAZY! She has signed to play for Baylor next year, so if you keep up with Big 12 Women's b-ball, you will be seeing more of her. Her name is Brittney Griner. I know there was some You Tube footage on her, and I believe ESPN even did a story on her. Oddly enough, her team lost in the finals. They just didn't have anyone but her and the opposing team had a couple of 6-footers that double teamed her. She had 44 points the first night and 19 the second night and goodness knows how many blocks and rebounds!!

Here are a few pictures I got of the 6'8" girl dunking. They're not great...just taken with a point and shoot camera, but you get the idea...

I had to take a picture of this van Dustin and I saw while walking after lunch one day...hilarious! Please notice that the window is up!

Now, onto some Taylor updates. I know this will surprise most of you (ha-ha), but my daughter has become quite the little ham! :-) She loves to pose for pictures and make funny faces. She loves her jewelry and dress up clothes and anything princess!! I think this next picture of her proves my point exactly!

It's funny, though because although she is MAJOR prissy, she also likes to play rough, get dirty and be ornery. She's such a crazy little girl!

All throughout basketball season, Taylor loved singing the National Anthem at the basketball games. We also have a CD of the Cactus Cuties (whom she loves) singing it that we have to listen to all the time. No matter what we are doing, if she decides to sing it, you have to stand up and put your hand over her heart. She's really starting to pick up on a lot of the words. Here she is one day dressed up and singing it for me.

The best part of her singing the National Anthem is how she confuses some of the words. Here is parts of the song as I hear Taylor sing it...

Jose can you see

By the dollars eve light

What so proudly we hailed

At the twilight's last gleaming

Whose bright stars and bright stars (she insists on singing it this way)

Then she skips to the end...

Ore the land of the THREE

And the home of the BRAIDS!!!

I love it! She totally cracks me up! The girl LOVES to sing and knows so many songs. She's actually starting to carry a bit of a tune and some of her songs are understandable.

Also, her Aunt Lindsay and cousin Britten are in town for a few weeks. Taylor sure loves her cousin. They get along MOST of the time and it's fun for them to play with each other. I took them to Legacy Play Village the other day. They both had to wear their sunglasses...too cute!


They could see each other in the sunglasses...too funny!

What sweet girls!!

Cousin Time

Lindsay and Britten are in town and Taylor and Britten have been able to have lots of cousin time! Britten has come over to our house to play almost every day! We converted our back living room into a complete play room. The kids all really seem to love it, including Britten and Taylor. Britten and Taylor have also gone swimming together! Here are some pictures from the last week...



Taylor wore her first ponytail the night Lindsay and Britten came in

Taylor and Britten inside my dad's entertainment unit
Bathing Beauty!
Britten giving Taylor kisses
After a long day swimming in the sun, it was time for ice cream and snow cones. Naturally, Britten had to have a Dora ice cream.

Taylor eating a lime off of Dustin's cherry lime ice. She loves lemons and limes!

We attempted to do their pictures at Tech tonight. It was hard! Britten wanted nothing to do with my camera and Taylor kept crawling away. Here are a few of the better ones...

This is as close as we could get them together. It only lasted about 5 seconds

Taylor showing off her pig-tails

Kissing cousins

Britten laughing in the grass

This is the best picture I got of Britten all night. She is at Gammy's house watching Dora. She was so fixed on the TV, she didn't even know I took the pictures.

Georgia Pictures

TONS and TONS of pictures...I could not decide! So, here are the highlights of our vacation in pictures...

Tybee Island, just outside of Savanah was beautiful! Britten LOVES the beach, but Taylor was a little unsure. We never really got her very far in the water. She did enjoy playing in the sand. It was Dustin's first time in the ocean and he really liked it! We were thankful for the pretty weather because it poured the entire day before.

These next few pictures are on River Street in downtown Savanah. What a cool place! We went to a really yummy candy shop and looked in different shops. We ate good burgers and took pictures by the river. It was chilly and we were thankful we had bought the girls these little jackets the day before at Old Navy!
The parks in Savanah are so beautiful. The trees are huge and the grass is so green. The girls had fun playing in this park after they woke up from a good snooze in their strollers.

The girls had lots of fun playing together at home. Here are some pictures one day after baths. I actually got Britten to smile in some! She's not too fond of the camera these days.

Britten playing video games with her daddy

Lindsay bought Britten this new horse while we were there. She LOVED it! I wish I had not cut off her head in this picture, but her smile is so cute!