A Fun Night Away

Mark and I took off yesterday for our first night away since before Lyla was born. Needless to say, we were excited to leave the girls in the very capable hands of Mousey and Poppy and head away for the night. The occasion was the wedding of Ashley Payne, the daughter of Mark's long time boss, Kevin, and his wife, Pam, who we have enjoyed being friends with over the years. Mark and some of the guys from work left very early yesterday morning to golf with Kevin, the groom-to-be, and some more friends at the golf courses at the resort where the wedding was held. They had a beautiful day for golf and an even more beautiful day for an outdoor wedding!

The fun got started while we were still at the hotel and waiting for the shuttle to arrive. The shuttle took us to the resort where we got on another shuttle that weaved down the golf cart paths to a beautiful location on the water where the wedding and reception were to be held.Kevin and Pam were very proud and happy parents of their lovely daughter.

Ashley and Alberto had an amazing backdrop for a beautiful wedding ceremony.Then it was time for us to snap a few pictures of our own and with friends, enjoy some great food, drinks, fun dancing, and a great celebration of marriage. It was a wonderful evening away.

A Close Call

Every person has close calls in life that really make them stop and think. Today we had one of those on the way home from the playground. Nina was riding her tricycle and I was pushing Lyla in the car. When we're walking down the sidewalk with driveways on it, I always make sure Nina doesn't ride too far ahead of me, and on this occasion today we were almost home and Nina was riding about 6 or 7 feet in front of me when I hear a garage door open. I hear the sound of a car, and look up to see the white lights of a car in the garage telling me the car was in reverse. It was the driveway directly in front of Nina, and I yelled, "Nina, stop!" while leaving Lyla and running forward to grab the back of her tricycle. Nina listens and stops just as I reach her; meanwhile the driver of the car zooms backward out of her driveway without ever looking behind her. On the street when she goes to put the car in drive, she looks up and sees us standing there at the edge of her driveway, and the shock on her face was evidence that she, too, realized it was a close call.

You can try with everything in you to protect your kids, and sometimes you can, but ultimately you just have to trust God to take care of them. But, imagine if you were never given the opportunity to try? Imagine if your kid(s) were taken away from you and placed in deplorable and horrifying situations and you were never given the chance to save them? That is the plight of so many parents and children in the world right now. The book I'm currently reading, Not For Sale, highlights the plight of many in that situation. If you don't believe me, check out the latest goverment released Trafficking in Persons report for 2009 for some sober reading this weekend. However, if you want to be inspired, check out the "Heroes" section of the report where people from all over the world are doing really great things to try and help solve this problem. It inspires me, and I hope it inspires anyone that reads this blog also. So, lesson learned from close call: Thank God for his protection on my kids, always be conscious of their safety, and remind myself every day that all kids need someone to look out for them too, and ask myself what more I can be doing to be a part of a happy ending for them.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

It all started with a bow for Lyla. Her hair is getting longer in the front, and I was trying to see if these little bows I got would hold back her hair and stay in. This one thing led to the following in Nina's mind: 1.) Lyla needing an outfit to match her bow, 2.) Nina and I needing to try multiple colored bows on Lyla to see which one we liked, 3.) Nina wanting to find a bow for her own hair, 4.) once finding a bow (the only one she has for her hair) needing to find an outfit to match the bow, 5.) finding a red and white dress in her closet, 6.) then needing to find her red dress up shoes to match. That is the world of girl! But, back to the original issue of Lyla's hair...no, the bow doesn't really help since there is not much hair for it to hold, and when it does hold, she pulls it out anyway. It is cute though!If you're wondering, we don't have "strike a pose" sessions in our house. :)

Happy Father's Day

With Mark having been out of town for a week, the girls were looking forward to seeing him yesterday for Father's Day.

He made it home Sunday evening - just in time for the Father's Day celebration with the family (minus the Williams crew who was out of town). The girls were very happy to see Mark, and I know Mark was happy to see them, and we had a great evening eating man food while the guys enjoyed the last part of the U.S. Open.

I feel very blessed in my life with great fathers. I have a great father who has always been there for us kids, taken tons of time for us, and who has always put his family first. I have also been blessed with a husband who is a great father to our girls, who spends meaningful time with them, shows them love, and also puts family first. Happy Father's Day to both of them!

We happen to think the Mouse is ok too! :)

Yeee Haaw!

Emme will be celebrating her 5th birthday this upcoming week, so her party was on Saturday. It was at my parents' house in order to accomodate the ponies that were there for the cowgirl themed party. Here is the birthday girl! Since I remember vividly when she was born, it's hard to believe that Emme is turning 5. At almost five, Emme is energetic, smart, fun, funny, and Nina's most adored kid. Lyla, Nina, and I were very excited for another fun party.
A neighbor friend of Emme's did some face painting for the party goers...

...then Nina and the other kids got to ride "Lady" around the field (with help, of course).

There were several games, but I had to laugh at the parachute game because Nina definitely didn't abide by the rules of running into the middle to get "trapped" when your color was called. She was running into the middle on every chance. I guess that's what happens when you're three at a five year old party. All the other kids obey the rules and the three year old gets to break them all!

After the game, we went straight to RFK to watch DC United beat Chicago Fire. It was a busy afternoon/evening. Today, we took Nana and PaPaw to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. I am so disappointed that I forgot my camera as some of the airplanes, shuttles, and sattelites were spectacular. I guess I'll have to wait until the next trip there to get some photos. Nana and PaPaw leave tomorrow, and Mark leaves on a trip tomorrow for a week, so our fun might be coming to a lull a bit in the next few days, but hopefully we'll have another something interesting to post about in the days to come.

Off to the Farm

Nana and PaPaw arrived yesterday afternoon for few days' visit, so the girls and I took them to the farm today while Mark was at work. We got to check in on how the baby animals have grown since we were there a few months ago. We toured the farm, took a nice wagon ride, had a picnic lunch, and the girls got to play on the playground.

I Love This

Every once in awhile, we'll see some really sweet moments between the sisters. The other morning was one of them. Nina really wanted to feed Lyla her morning bottle. Lyla loves her "baba" so we aren't making her give up her morning and night baba time yet, and Nina really wanted to feed her, so we let her give it a try. Surprisingly, Lyla laid in her lap and let Nina feed her, and it was the cutest thing!

New Diva

Watch Out Elton...There's a New Diva in Town!

A Fun Weekend Away

This weekend we had the rather unusual situation where DC United didn't have a weekend game, so that meant Mark had the weekend off and we could plan to do something fun. We decided to head to Busch Gardens with the Williams family. We stayed at Garland's parents house in Gloucester Point for the weekend. They only live about 25 min. from Busch Gardens, so we spent the day at the amusement park on Saturday. Check out the web album slideshow for all the pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandabeth2/20090607?authkey=Gv1sRgCLK92v-bx43GqQE&feat=directlink

Just For Fun

Lyla was actually interested in my taking her picture today, so I took the opportunity to snap a few shots of her. There were a lot more, but I liked these three the best. She is approaching the 15 month mark (next week) and continues to be a joy. She chatters a lot of baby talk with much inflection in her tone, but she does have a few words she uses frequently: dada, mama, Nina, Lyla, paa (paci), hat, kac kac (quack quack when she sees a duck), chee (cheese), ball, juu (juice), nana (banana), car, and baba. She LOVES peaches, and Mark and I could swear we've heard her say peaches two or three times, but we can't claim that one for certainty yet. She does a lot to make us laugh, and she has been a real joy to our family.

Weekend Fun

We enjoyed a nice weekend with some visits from friends, trips to the pool, and just hanging out. Unfortunately, I didn't get to capture Nina and Emme riding in the wagon to dinner at the town center in their princess dresses, but you get the idea that it was a cute sight. We enjoyed a girls' night on Friday with Mousey, Shen, her girls, me and our girls. It was a lot of fun. On Saturday, P and Jeff came to spend some time with us and spend the night. Jeff was running a race with some friends on Sunday morning, so the visit was short but great to hang with good friends.