Breaths of Heaven: It's Summer Time!!

Yay, summer is finally here! I say that one minute and then gripe about how hot it is the next :-p ....I have changed my work schedule up a bit so I have afternoons with the girls and I am loving it!! I don't die of a heat stroke working (its not too bad in the morning) and I get to do fun things with girls in the afternoon (I also have time to cook so Michael isn't complaining ;). Soooo lets get caught up!!

Baby Reid turns 1!

Reid turned one in May and Jamie and Russell had his birthday party at our Mom's..It was perfect and Reid LOVED his cake!! These kiddos grow up way too fast...


My favorite

Jax sharing in the fun

Cece and birthday boy

Im his favorite!

apparently I'm not her favorite :/


Kai and her baby blues

So my friend Heather sews and quilts and is super creative so I asked her to make a quilt and little pillow for Reid's first bday and it turned out so cute!! Thanks again for your talent Heather!

Trip to see the Leatherwood's

On Mother's Day weekend we headed to Kingwood to see our best friends, Kendl and Brian and baby Grey. We had so much fun just hanging out and being surrounded by kiddos, man how life has changed. We love it and embrace every moment we have to be around each other's growing family. The girls played in the sprinkler while we drank mimosas and played games.

"see-food" Kai being Kai

This is what we call a belly display...they came up with this out of nowhere and do it when they get excited...weird, I know.

Mother and son <3

I swear he does like me

Love this picture even though it looks like a bunch of aliens are attacking Grey

pretending to be babies again :(

Bath time!

Happy first Mother's Day to Kendl!!

Mary got Confirmed!!

Mary asked Michael to be her sponsor for confirmation awhile back and he was stoked! We have been praying every since and were so thrilled to be able to spend this special time with her and the whole family..the pictures say it all...

All sponsors :)

Awww love them!

Uncle LJ with Jax and Uncle Gregory with Kai

Grandma and Grandpa Motl

All of us <3

some of the audience ;)

Of course we took full advantage of our trip.....

attempting to teach them how to embrace always having a friend to play catch with..I'll let grandpa Alan tell you how that went ;)

fearless on big slides

dad likes to swing too

da plane!

just a little friendly horse game between brother and sister

Kai peeking

Kairyn Mae

Jaxyn Nicole

Jax dominated


"I'm going to conquer this whole playground!"

brushing teeth with Aunt Mary

loving their Grandpa and Grandma Lou

Auntie Am is fun too ;)

"maybe I did it but I probably didn't"- Jax

Beach Trip!!

We were so excited to introduce the beach to the girls...so we planned a trip to do just that! We went with Heather, her husband, Greg and Grady of course (we don't do much without Grady these days ;). We were able to stay in Rock Port at Michael's bosses condo so the kids got some pool action too. Saturday we woke early and went to Port A for our beach adventure...

like mother like daughter

perfect for us...Thank you Mike!!

The night before we left...they threw the biggest fit when I took these off...

bffs before the beach

Kai is too cool for school

Jax

Kai

"what in the world are we stepping on?"

always eating dirt....why??

Precious beach baby

Favorite

me and Jax

Dad with Kai

the whole gang

Favorite

Beware: we went a little crazy with the videos:

This was the first time for the girls to wear the little puddle jumpers and attempt to swim with them...they did well! By Sunday Jaxyn was jumping in without counting and catching us off guard...I think we have some fish on our hands!

Wedding season has begun.....

My dear friend Elsa got married in San Antonia a few weeks ago so we were excited to have a night out without the kiddos and I got to see old friends from the company I worked for in SA. It was a beautiful night witnessing love and sharing stories with good friends.

Amalie Graduates!!

Amalie (Michael's sister) graduated from Marcus High School in Flower Mound on June 10th. Me and the girls were unable to attend but Michael got to go and watch his sis walk across the stage. We are so proud of her accomplishments and can't wait to watch her grow in the next chapter in her life..we love you Am!!

Potty Training....

So we decided to start potty training the girls a couple of months ago because they were growing out of their fuzzie bunz (reusable diapers) and I refused to buy diapers for two months before we started potty training. We started one weekend thinking we would do a potty training boot camp and in three days they would be pretty close to potty trained. I laugh now even as I type..silly notion for kiddos that aren't even 2 but I'm more hard headed so we set out with good intentions and soon realized that they had not a clue what going on the potty meant. I swear the first day was better than the third! We did a lot of sitting on the potty for a good month before they got the slightest clue. I can now proudly say that we take them every hour and they go in the potty!! We have even had a few days with no accidents at all!! There were moments in which I thought I would pull every hair out of my head, but we survived and it was all worth it so then we decided tooo....... (see next heading)

we stop wherever we are to potty ;)

Get Rid of the Pacis!

De (our neighbor) took Paisley to the dentist and the dentist told her to get rid of the paci asap because it was moving Paisley's teeth. When she told us this we thought we too better get rid of them! Michael first punctured a hole at the top of them (they had two each) so they wouldn't work correctly so they had "broken" pacis for two days and then one night Jax too hers out said "broke" and I asked her if she wanted to throw them away since they were broke to which she responded by getting up and walking to the kitchen trash can to throw both pacis away "bye bye paci, bye bye paci, bye bye paci". At that time Kai decided she would throw one away but kept the other one ;) smart girl. We wanted it to be their decision so we let her keep the one for another day or two and then we did this..

We have had good success with this...every once in awhile they will ask about the paci and we tell them "remember it was broke so you were a big girl and threw it away". Going to sleep at nap time takes a bit longer because now they try to get away with playing around a little bit. This milestone kinda broke my heart a little bit...getting rid of the pacis mean you have "big girl" children...they are growing up and becoming little people so fast.

Father's Day 2013!

I will take this opportunity to say that Kairyn and Jaxyn have one of the best fathers any girl could ask for. He loves them dearly and shows them daily! He works hard for them and never hesitates when asked to stay home with them while I run errands or go out of town (what he doesn't know is that I know that he loves these times when mom is gone and everyone can lay around in pajamas and not worry about what toy goes where when you are done playing). I appreciate the fact that he is a hands on dad and is always there for us!
Thank you Michael for loving us so!!

Our 4 year Anniversary!

We just celebrated 4 years of being married on June 27th. Michael surprised me by getting our friend Heather to babysit the girls while we went back to where it all began, Texas State! We had a great time looking around at all the changes that are happening (awesome) and reminiscing about our college years. We then went to eat at the first restaurant that we ate at together after Bobcat Awakening (where we met). It was very sweet and a nice dinner without toddlers :) thank you babe!

Michael also surprised me with this picture on Facebook while I was working <3

At the Lake...

Every year a group of Columbus folk go to lake Somerville for a week or more. The last time we were able to go was when I was pregnant with the girls. This time was way more fun! This weekend fell on my mom's birthday so we also got to celebrate with her!! We all decided that we are lake people more than we are ocean/beach people...the girls had a blast just playing in the sand and water..camping in my parent's RV went more smoothly than I thought and you can never beat spending some extra time with family :)

cousin fun!

best way to keep track of two toddlers at the lake ;)

fun with Aunt Jamie

Jax loves her her baby Reid

My attempt at imitating something I saw on pinterest for Cece's Birthday (the second picture is ours)

AdvoCare!!!

Michael and I have started an AdvoCare business and we are very excited!! Michael has been drinking Spark for over a year (Advocare's energy and mental focus drink) and has loved it...we looked into making an extra income talking about AdvoCare to friends and family and started the 24 day challenge to decide just how much we liked the products and the company....WE LOVED IT!! We lost weight, toned up and had extra energy (this is huge with trying to keep up with these girls)!! We wanted to tell everyone we knew how we felt and we wanted everyone to feel as great as we did, so we did... we have decided to intentionally talk to people about AdvoCare. We have since learned so much about not only the products, but the company and the people that are involved. We have checks flying in b/c we love the stuff and tell people about it!! I always said that Michael is the sales person, but I have found myself "selling" too and it comes natural because these products have changed our lives and we want that for all of our friends and family! Don't be surprised if you hear a lot about AdvoCare from us the next time you see us :) If you or anyone you know wants to know more about losing weight, gaining more energy, getting the most out of their workout, or earning more money please contact us @ Nat- 979-732-1935 or Michael- 512-496-7237. Also you can browse around at www.findyoursupplement.com :)

Some exciting events where you will see AdvoCare!

Oh and did I mention that Drew Brees is our national spokes person and that a ton of pro and college athletes use our products!!

In honor of getting healthy here are some good recipes that are popular with our family right now...

I would add a small amount of brown sugar to this...also Cindy (MIL) make it with pineapple sauce instead of applesauce and she said it was really good!

we absolutely love this Pesto Chicken!

**Another thing we have started to do is using an Avocado instead of mayo in tuna ....so good, we won't ever make it with mayo again (unless we don't have an avocad ;)

Happy 4th of July!!

This year we stayed around NB to celebrate Independence Day! Amalie (Michael's sister) came into town to stay with us for a few days so we were so excited to share this holiday with her and to have her stay with us for an extended amount of time. We first went to the parade down town and then went to De's parents house for a pool party! We all had a blast and were worn out by the end of the day...Michael, Amalie, and I went on the roof to watch the firework show we were all suppose to attend but thought better of it b/c we knew the girls wouldn't last past 9:00. Needless to say we all felt blessed and thankful to be living in such a wonderful country! So often we take for granted the simple pleasures we all share in this great country...thank you to all the service men and woman past, present,and future who have set aside their own lives to fight for our freedoms! Grandpa, I miss you and appreciate you more than you will every know...

Proud Jax :)

So since I have already discussed the potty training and paci ordeal there isn't much else to say about our lives with the girls except for they are 2 ...that says enough right?!? enjoy some random pics!