babies blessing

Lonnie blessed the babies at church on Sunday. It was a special day! The babies were great. Making it easier on Lonnie, Maya slept through the entire thing and Max made only a sigh.

Maya Catarina

Maya in her blessing dress made of fabric left over from my wedding dress. The lace at the bottom of the dress was on my mom's veil when she got married. Thank you to Susan Combs and my mom who helped make the dress.

Max Elliott

Max's outfit was also made out of wedding dress fabric and was made by my mom. Lonnie hopes that the wedding dress fabric won't encourage him to wear a wedding dress when he gets married.

Thanks to our family members who made the trip down to Houston. John and Cookie Allred came from Danville, CA. Lynne and Patsy Mercer came from Bountiful, UT, and Rob, Zane, Ammon and Zaley Kaelberer came from Murfreesboro, TN.

All of a sudden, there are four of us.

Look at that focus!

In the past couple of weeks, they have both become serious thumb/finger/double fist suckers.

babies meet the alligators, alligators meet the babies

With family in town for Labor Day weekend, we decided to take the kids out for their first hike. There are several reasons we hadn't done this earlier: 1) Houston is REALLY hot this time of year, even at night. 2) Getting out the house with two babies is quite complicated. 3) Because the babies had a hard time getting started with breastfeeding, I was afraid of being away from the breastpump for more than 3 hours. 4) Making milk for two babies wears me out.

We were able to leave the house at about 9:00am. Surprisingly, the weather was not too hot. We went to Brazos Bend State Park, and we walked around 40 acre lake. It is a great park with lots of walking trails and trees covered in Spanish moss. It is also a wonderful place to bird watch and see alligators. The bigger alligators (10-14 feet) are easier to see in the spring, but we still were able to see several medium sized (4-6 feet) alligators and probably over 20 little ones.

Then while some of our group enjoyed touring the visitors center, I fed the babies under a big, shady tree on a park bench. (This mobile breastfeeding is great, it is ready anywhere and anytime.) After working up an appetite, we went to the Swinging Door and had great Texas BBQ. You gotta love a BBQ place that serves baked beans and potato salad as "vegetables".

When we got home, the guys watched football, I took and nap, and the grandmas and Zaley went to the mall.

It was a perfect Texas day.

Max in the carrier with mom.

Maya taking a nap with dad. The blankets were used to shield their fair skin from the sun, not to make them sweat more than they already did.

Small alligator lurking in the mossy water.

The lake was covered with huge lily pads and flowers.