I Cracked YouTube!

Well tonight I figured out how to upload videos to YouTube. It only took me 12 years. 

I'm having an anti-social media moment as of this month (excluding personal blogs, obviously) but still want to share videos for family, so I am now the proud owner (?) of a YouTube Channel. Yessssss. We will see how this goes. 

You can find it right HERE!

All Fall, All The Time.

The weather in Texas FINALLY seems to be cooperating (a little), and we've had some beautiful, crisp weather this last week! The kiddos and I have been outside pretty much every day taking it in.

Lily has been very into her babies lately--making sure they are tucked in a certain way, asking them "You okay?", feeding them all of her food (this ends badly at times), etc. I caught this little moment a few days ago and thought OF COURSE the rest of the world needs to the opportunity to enjoy this cuteness.

I bought some plastic Christmas plates last year to use for all the kids meals and they LOVED them, so I was very happy when I saw some cute Halloween plates at Homegoods a few weeks ago--they were obviously destined for our dinner table. And Hayes? I actually took this photo of Hayes because I was SO PROUD that he cleaned his plate and was talking it up big time (you know, to make him feel all important, of course!)....and this is the look I got in return. I'm really awesome at this parenting thing, obviously.

Another outfit! (With my hat!) I wore this on Friday for Parker's pep rally at school and to the Harvest Hoedown later on that night. (ALSO: elementary school pep rallies may be my new favorite thing.)

It was "Sports Day" which is why the principal is sporting a Romo jersey, and there was also line dancing, so ya know...#texasforever. 

I literally managed ONE photo of the boys playing games during the Harvest Hoedown (mostly because I was on Cake Walk duty) but unfortunately Hayes's cute little booty was hanging out (HA) so I am omitting that photo for this post-hoedown-sigar-highed-Lily goodness.

On Saturday, the weather was again beautiful (a little warm, but not humid!), and we ventured out to the Fall Carnival at Hayes and Lily's KDO church. 

I know I'm officially old because all I said on the drive over was "KIDS, look at the fall colors on the trees!"

My (younger) sisters are busy going to Coachella and I'm taking approximately 40 blurry photos of the fall foliage in my mini-van. (Don't tell them but I wouldn't trade any of of my mom nerdy-ness for Coachella.)

We have a policeman and a blinking Bumblebee! (and FALL COLORS in the background, hahahaha.)

Moana was quite the animal whisperer. (Once again: Do we need a farm? I think yes.)

BELLY.

The boys played lots of games and rode a bouncy slide maybe 80 times. 

We were tired and sugared up but having a lot fun. 

After the carnival we took a trip to Spring Creek for some BBQ and ROLLS. 

After we got home, Bryan (bless hime) took the kids and I made my very first trip to ALDI! I was super impressed with how cheap everything was, although the jury is still out on whether it's all as good as my usual name brands...if anyone reading this blog has Aldi do/don't buy tips, give 'em to me! I made Santa Fe Soup tonight and was not a fan of the $.20 taco seasoning which made me a little sad. I still remain hopeful, though!

Moving on....I'm really loving the Halloween decorations in the boys room (although it would appear that my Trick-or-Treat banner and garland are disappearing....spooooky.) 

I'll be sad to take them down in a few days!

OH, also: I don't know if I've mentioned this, but we have recently acquired two goldfish thanks to a certain sucker Dad who really likes to make his kids' days. ;) Their names are Piston and Goldie (okay, that's cute), and they are very dirty, their food smells gross, AND LAST NIGHT Hayes spilled the entire tank on the carpet. Yes. 

I'll let you process that.

It was super (not) fun. Anyways! Looking at the photos of their bedroom reminded me of that. Many beach towels and a hair dryer were involved in the clean-up. Piston and Goldie seemed a bit annoyed but were otherwise unscathed.

In case I don't have enough cute in this post, here is a video of Lily playing hide and seek (her new favorite). You are welcome!

Giving all the thanks to this man right here for getting me through this busy time of year! We are so tired!

State Fair of Texas!

Two weekends ago, we bribed my mom (Nonnie) and my sister (Aunt Julie--or as Lily says, "Guwee") into making a trip to the state fair with our crazy crew. Despite all of us being from Texas and/or having Texas roots, my mom was the only one in our fair group who had previously attended, so we were all very excited to see what the fuss is about.....welllllll, let me tell you, it was quite the event! 

They say everything is bigger in Texas....and the State Fair of Texas is for sure one of those things. We could not have covered even half of the fairgrounds if we had tried, but we did see a good little portion of it!

When we arrived, the weather was SO perfect. And Hayes obviously was not into the photos...

After a quick trip to the cotton candy stand however, we had a much happier child! Have I mentioned before that I'm not above bribing when at large public events? Because that is definitely true!

After walking around and getting extremely overwhelmed by the variety of rides/games, we decided to do what we always do when stressed....eat.

I always hear about Fletcher's Corny Dogs so that happened and they were, of course, delicious! (And gone in about 2 minutes!)

We rode A LOT of rides for the first few hours (and spent A LOT of money buying tickets for those things, too.)

I got Lily (who was sooooo ready for a nap) on the Dumbo ride with me and although it definitely does not look like it here, she LOVED it and laughed almost the whole time. 

Hayes was our thrill seeker and rode the BIG ferris wheel as well as the log flume (twice). He was the cutest little thing to watch!

I'd give 500 tickets for those smiles! (I kind of did, too...)

Parker was decidedly more reserved, but he still had fun, especially after Bryan took him on a  trip to all the games. (He won a stuffed animal and was super proud.)

Fair life with three kids...

We ate some more food (including funnel cake, caramel apples, a "Sponge Bob" popsicle (why), fried oreos, and a whole lot of diet coke) and then we headed to the new children's petting barn which was HUGE and so cool. 

If Lily Mae could really talk, I bet she would say this was her favorite part. That girl loves her some animals (kind of unfortunate since her mother is very anti-pet). 

I wish I'd gotten more photos in this section, because we got feed ALL sorts of animals--a zebra (that was my favorite), an ostrich, a llama, and all the other usual farm animals. 

I love family photos but the whole little-kids-who-need-food-and-naps thing kind of ruins it a lot of the time. ;)

We got a few selfies with Big Tex....

And headed home to comfy couches, football, and order-in pizza. Thank the Lord for Dominos. 

Lily Mae Turns TWO!

Our precious baby girl turned a whole two-years-old on September 29th and right now seems the perfect opportunity to share! We had a fun, family-filled weekend with all of our girlfriend's favorite things, namely---food, family, toys, chocolate, and Chick-fil-a! 

On Friday night, (her birthday eve) we met Aunt Abby who was in town for work (super lucky timing) along with Grammie and Bee (Bryan's parents) for dinner at Uncle Julio's (which was de-licious). 

You know who's also de-licious? This baby girl right here.

It was a fun evening complete with queso, tamales, AND a chocolate piñata! I think it's safe to say we were all hating ourselves as we waddled out of the restaurant. ;)

We got home and I finished up my party prep--mostly decorating cupcakes, hanging a birthday banner, setting out gifts, and admiring my very own DIY piñata--Y'ALL I am so proud of this thing! Unfortunately it seems the only crafts I like to make are the kind that get thrown away immediately or destroyed by 4-year-olds but hey it is what it is, right?

On Saturday morning we woke up to find that our Lily Mae had turned two overnight! How dare she! We got her one of those kiddy plastic roller coasters which she was so excited over she was practically shaking but of course I have no photographed evidence of this cuteness. 

We had breakfast and hung around the house for a bit (mostly because it was pouring down rain) and then Bryan and Bee took the boys to a friend's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese (it was a HIT and I was thankful for a bit of quiet and alone time with my girl!) 

My Mom and my Aunt Cindy met me, Judy, and Lily at Chick-fil-a where Lily was, of course, and much to her delight, the center of attention.

Then we went home, put the birthday girl down for a nap and began our party prep for her "Two Sweet" birthday dinner.

(As you can see, Chuck-E-Cheese was obviously very exhausting for the boys...BAHAHA.) I LOVE YOU, BRYAN. YOU'RE STILL SO HANDSOME EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE SECRET NAP PHOTOS TAKEN OF YOU.

I win at taking the same photograph from 75 different angles. ;)

Lilybug LOVES her grandmas!

We had a taco bar for dinner and then cupcakes and an ice cream sundae bar for dessert. I TRIED to keep things simple, but of course, I am kind of horrible at that. 

Everything turned out perfectly with the help of the grandma's and aunt in the kitchen! I wish I could keep them here with me every day--then this mom thing would be a piece of cake, wouldn't it? 

The piñata's minutes were numbered so it of course had to be the centerpiece of the table.

My cupcake frosting kind of sunk/melted but they still looked pretty cute!

Naps, football, and the anxious anticipation of tacos.

Our precious Lily Mae!

After dinner we opened presents. Lily is really starting to understand how fun toys are (although I'm not sure if that's good or bad) so she had a lot of fun with her new stash of girl stuff. Pink is about to throw up in my house guys, and I am HERE for it.

Multi-tasking like a boss.

I wrangled her into her first PRINCESS COSTUME (I was way more excited than she was, can you tell?) and then she took a ride in her new baby doll stroller.

Then, the time had come...the time to kill the piñata. Parker seemed overly excited. Probably letting out some repressed anger towards me since he watched me work on it all week. (I'm only kind of kidding?)

The little princess taking her goodies. (And Hayes the candy hoarder.)

It was such a fun day. We cleaned up (alright, the grandmas and aunt cleaned up), put our baby two-year-old to bed, and then fell into our own beds completely exhausted. 

Bryan and I are unbelievably thankful for the gift that is Lillian Mae Roberts. God sure did know what He was doing when He made her. She is hilarious, smart, beautiful, curious, caring, brave, adventurous, compassionate, mischievous (in the cutest ways), and the absolute perfect addition to our family. I cannot wait to see how God uses these little gifts I already see in her as she grows up. What a blessing it is to have children and to be able to celebrate them growing older! We love you, Lilybug!