aloha

We went on an amazing trip to Hawaii with my entire family. Everyone was there. We had a wonderful time.

We were pretty worried about traveling for so long (11 hours of travel time, plus one hour drive on each side of the flights) with two lap children. Thankfully, the kids did much better than I expected but worse than Lonnie expected (I guess I had pretty low expectations). We were lucky enough on the long arm of our flight from Phoenix to Honolulu to have an extra seat, so Lonnie and I were actually able to sit next to each other with an extra seat in the middle for the babies to share. (Normally, two lap children can not sit in the same row because each row only has one extra oxygen mask). We kept the kids busy with lots of food and water and several zip lock bags filled with new small toys from the dollar store.

Instead of getting lots of hotel rooms this is where we stayed. The house was beautiful and had amazing views of the beach and ocean. We spend our time swiming in the pool, snorkling, hanging out at the beach and spending time with our wonderful family.

We learned the hard way that due to the fact that sand in Hawaii is made from coral and is quite coarse it is best to not let

LOST-cation

I have so many things to write and many, many photos to post. But here is the easy post. We knew before going to Oahu that

my grandfather had gentle hands

Wallace A. Allred, Jr. was born on October 7, 1917 in Preston, Idaho and died August 4, 2009 in Escondido, CA.

new floors

We had new hardwood floors installed in our living and dinning rooms. I think they look great, the color adds a lot to the rooms and they are easier to keep clean that our old carpet. We had a new ceiling fan installed too.





We also had our wetbar/ wine rack turned into an entertainment center, which much more useful in our house.

If you live in Katy and are looking to have some remodel work done we would recommend using Atkin Remodel. Chris did a great job on our house.

The only near disaster that came from all this work in a home with two babies was Maya opening a cupboard and pouring out a pint of paint onto the carpet. I would have gotten a photo but we were worried she would also start eating the paint. Thankfully we were able to get it all cleaned up before too much damage was caused.

fan club meeting

Our sweet babies are pretty popular. It helps that there are two of them which means that there is always a baby that need or wants to be held. They are also quite friendly and will approach people and ask to be picked up.

Our friends Ashley and Rachel, who attend church with us, have been super friendly and nice to us since the babies were newborns. When Max and Maya were only a couple months old the girls came over and offered me some much needed help. Not only did they help feed the babies back during the time that it would take almost 45 mins to bottle feed them less than 3oz of milk, but they even helped me clean the house.

The girls came over again last week and played with the babies while I made dinner. The babies were thrilled to have so much attention and I was able to fix a nice dinner. Thank you so much Rachel and Ashley!

The babies find out one of the best things about tweens: cellphones!

backyard fun

The red-head twins' favorite activity these days in exploring the back yard. They like to pick up rock and grass and see what fits in their mouths. Unfortunatly we live in Houston were the weather is hot and humid most of the day. Even at 7am it is often over 80 degrees and by midday over 100 so we don't stay out too long.

beach babes

We drove down to Galveston on Saturday to give the babies their first trip to the beach. They loved it. The water was warm, and the waves and sand were soft. We didn't get to stay long because a thunder storm blew up.

cowgirl and cow-twins

Please vote for our babies on the Chick-fil-a cow photo contest: VOTE HERE!!! Hopefully we will win more free chicken. :)

Yes, we all dress up like cows, along with our friends the Cosbys, just to get free lunch at Chick-fil-a. It was pretty fun. Almost the entire restaurant was dressed up and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The babies didn't seem to bugged by their cow ears, tail and noses. Maya even wore her sunglasses almost the entire meal (maybe she was hoping that no one would recognize her). I only have a short while before the babies start asserting their Independence and making wardrobe choices of their own. I've got to take advantage of the cute factor while I still can.

ranch house

We had a wonderful weekend at a beautiful ranch house in Blanco, Texas with some of Lonnie's friends from his BYU days. It was so nice to have adult conversation with some wonderful people while the babies slept. Although it was very hot it was also very nice to leave behind the humidity of Houston. Saturday morning we sat out on the back porch and the babies loved being able to hang out outside. I should have taken more photos.....

king and queen of the hill

The babies are learning how to climb and they are thrilled about it. Thankfully they are also learning how to get down from their conquests. They are both getting pretty good at climbing down the stairs on their bellies and they even know how to get the off the bed after they breastfeed in the morning.