It's Prom Night!

Yes, my (oldest) baby is having one of those memorable experiences... his Junior Prom. Tyler is growing up... sniff... sniff. However, I couldn't ask for a better young man. He's a great kid who gets awesome grades, is involved in sports (has already FINISHED a marathon), still love his mama, has a beautiful girlfriend (both inside and out) and... he loves God.

The theme of the prom is "Under the Tuscan Sun." His girlfriend, Brittany, is Junior Class President (does this make Tyler the First Lady?) and had a lot to do with planning everything. Being the dutiful boyfriend he is, he helped her all he could. They decorated the ballroom at the DFW Hyatt Regency throughout the morning and afternoon. Later, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor and had the time of their lives. Here are some pre-prom pictures. (I hope to add some more later!)

After the prom, Brittany's parents invited everyone over to their house to swim, play video games, eat junk food and sit around a campfire to make s'mores.

The Decorations...

Miss Brittany decorating...

At each table, there are letters from Lewisville 5th graders. They ask the junior and senior students not to drink and drive. I love this idea!!

This is when Tyler first saw Brittany...

Yes, Tyler is trying to be a stud...

The pinning of the corsage...

Posing...

A beautiful couple.. (Together for 6 months!)

Words

I've always thought our twins were absolutely adorable and cute. How is that they just keep getting cuter?? This was my favorite age when Tyler was little. And now... I remember why. Did I mention the boys are just so danged cute??

These days, they're changing so fast and learning so much. Every day they come up with something new. Literally, in the past week, they have started saying many new words...

• Juice (David also signs this as he says it.)
• Cold (They laugh about this one because I taught it to them by putting my cold hands on their tummies as I changed their diapers.)
• Shoes
• Bird (Adam signs this as he says it.)
• Mow (Tyler started mowing the yard and they just said this. We didn't even realize they knew the word at all. Later that day, Adam also said it when he saw the lawn mower in the garage.)
• Noooooooo Nooooooooooo (David says this to Adam when he's doing something he shouldn't. I guess this means David will be "the Enforcer.")
• Toes (Mommy's FAVORITE part of their cute little bodies...)
• More

Add this to the words they already say...

• MaMa
• Da (or DaDa)
• "Ka" (Car)
• Hot
• Ball
• Ba-Ba (Bottle)
• Bite
• Bye Bye
• Mooooo (Sound a cow makes)
• Woof! (Hopefully, this one is obvious)
• Ow... (Their version of "meow")
• "Kack Kack" (Sound a duck makes)
• Eeeeee Eeeee Eeeee (In case this one isn't obvious, this is the sound a monkey makes.)

And the words they sign...

• More (Adam uses this one all the time. It may have lost its actual meaning though. To him, this means "Take care of all of my needs... right now" or "Read my mind.")
• Eat
• Bath
• Outside (Their FAVORITE! They sign this as soon as they wake up in the morning.)
• Bird
• All Done and/or All Gone
• Ball
• Light
• Juice

Do you know what this means? They're COMMUNICATING with us! This is totally cool and I'm glad. But! This also means they're growing up... and so fast! With Tyler, I was a young mother. I couldn't wait for him to crawl, to walk, to talk, to go to school. With Adam and David, I have learned to enjoy it. I am living in the moment and enjoying every minute of it. I know how quickly the precious days go by... Sniff...

Roughing It...

We had an interesting weekend. We went camping with about 20 of our closest friends. It reminded me of the old SPF campouts, which might be because we went with a lot of our single parent friends.

I thought it would be fun... the boys LOVE being outside. We just didn't realize it would be so much WORK. (Actually, Randall kinda predicted they would be all over the place.) You see, they are walking (and running) and they wanted to walk (and run) everywhere. Believe it or not, they did not have fenced-in campsites... Imagine that! Therefore, we had to keep an constant eye of each of the boys, following them around everywhere. If we tried to contain them in our laps or in a playpen, they got totally ticked. They had places to go and things to do! The only thing that somewhat worked was zipping them in a small tent with toys. However, if you look at the picture below, they weren't too thrilled with that either.

They wanted to experience everything, and I can't blame them for that. It was so exciting for them... and they LOVED it. We must have heard the words "ka!" (car) and "hot!" (referring to the campfire, grill and laterns) at least a hundred times. They also had fun in the tent at bedtime and naptime. I did too... The weather was absolutely perfect (70s during the day, 40s at night). It was so nice snuggling up to my hubbin under the heavy blankets, with Adam on one side of us, David on the other. I had many precious mommy moments as I turned over and stared at my precious angels when they were sleeping. If only we could put a fireplace in the tent... that would be PERFECTION.

I also enjoyed hanging out with our friends, even if we had to constantly chase the boys around. Our friends were actually a lot of help and watched over them at times so we could have a little break. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was sitting around the campfire at night as it turned cold. Everyone was talking and laughing, as the boys were safely sleeping in the tent.

This camping trip was definitely fun, but I think Randall and I have decided to just camp out in the backyard until the boys learn boundaries, like staying out of the street, and the trash, and the water, and the grill, and the woods, and the campfire...

What a week...

I went to Leesburg, Virginia last week for a conference. We stayed at Lansdowne Resort and all meals were included. I thought I could withstand temptation and do my best to stay on Weight Watchers. I could just make smart choices and stick with grilled chicken, right? I was wrong... I can withstand a little temptation, but this just went waaaaay overboard. I was there for six days and there was a HUGE buffet for every breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food was really good to people who are not picky eaters, but I am. However, they had wonderful cheeseburgers and I pretty much lived on that. And... they had a HUGE dessert table with all kinds of wonderful, wonderful items. Those of you who know me well know I live for sweet stuff. I had no chance at this place... But wait! There's more! We had morning and afternoon breaks during the conference. To sustain us during these trying times, they had tons and tons of snacks. And not just ordinary snacks... there were "Chipwiches" (2 chocolate chip cookies with ice cream in the middle), soft pretzels, candy bars and everything else bad that you can imagine. I didn't have a chance... I gave up. However, I am back on Weight Watchers again and I will succeed!

On another note, when I was gone, the twins got sick. Daddy had to take care of them as he was getting sick himself. Take a look at the picture of Sweet David and see how his little eyes just look sick. Poor baby! And... did you notice the bruise (and knot) right in the middle of his head? He just woke up with it this morning. We were really perplexed with how he managed that one. Then, I remembered an incident that happened yesterday. They were playing with these lightweight little balls. They like to throw them over the gate into the kitchen. My mom was over at the time and we were throwing them back over to them. One time though... my mom threw it and it ended up hitting David right in the head. He cried and cried. At the time, we thought he wasn't feeling well and anything would pretty much set him off. Plus, how much could a little plastic ball actually hurt him? I guess it really did hurt a little bit. It actually made Granny cry when he was crying and she felt so bad. Wait until she sees this... I may have to talk her down from the ledge! It's okay, Granny... we still love you!