Trip to Texas, sorry no pics. I forgot my camera!

Lots and lots has been going on since Easter. Day by day it feels like nothing is new, and I don’t have much to say, but since it had been a while I do. First off, is Emily. She is not walking yet, but she is VERRY VERRY close! Em is so different in so many ways from Kaitlyn. It has been fun watching her learn to walk. She went about it pretty much backwards from all the other babies I’ve seen. Most babies learn how to pull up on couches or whatever first, Em did do that. But usually the next step is to walk along things, then start to let go a little- move from one support to another, start taking steps and then way last they learn how to stand up from the middle of the room. Well, not my Emmy. It doesn’t matter haw everyone else does things, she does it her own way and in her own time. There was no pushing her on this. She learned by pulling up first, but then she went to learning how to stand in the middle of the room! She is crazy, I love it. She learned how to stand and had INCREDIBLE balance (for a baby) before she would walk along things. She could stand for at least a few weeks before she decided to start taking steps. It is so funny to watch her. She stands up so perfectly and is very graceful, then she’ll stand there for a few seconds before she gets the courage to move one of her tree trunk legs. The other funny thing about Em is she does not like to practice when ANYONE is watching. Not even mom can watch. She would only walk if she thought no one was looking. The way Ryan and I realized for the first time that she could take more than 1 or 2 steps was Ryan heard her little feet padding across the kitchen and caught her taking 5 or 6 steps! And anytime she relizes someone is watching she’ll stop, smile at you all shy like, and then sit down! No more walking someone is watching. It’s pretty funny.
A few weeks ago we (the girls and I) got to go to Texas! It was so wonderful to visit everyone. We got to go down because my little sister JULIA had just had her first baby, so we went to see him, Cooper, blessed. (More on that later)
We have some friends here in Lancaster, the Staders, who have family in Oklahoma. So I called Danni and told her we were going down to Texas and we decided to carpool. It was WONDERFUL to have a friend to drive down with. She has 3 children: Emily (6), Noah (4), and Lilly (2). Emily-big Emily just LOVES that baby Em and her have the same name. She just loves to help take care of her and play with her. It is so great. And Noah and Lilly like to play with Kaitlyn, so everyone is happy and it worked out great. So we had 2 moms and 5 kids! It was a little crazy, but Danni is a very organized mom and her kids helped out a lot with my kids. It was nice to spend the 13 hours of driving getting to know each other better. We left on a Thursday right after MOPS (mothers of preschoolers- a Christian mom group similar to Enrichment, that meets once a month) and drove down to Kansas City on Thursday, and then from Kansas City to Oklahoma on Friday. I got to meet her parents and let the girls run around while we waited for Ryan’s mom to come and pick us up from Danni’s moms’. My poor mother in law got stuck in HORRIBLE traffic JUST before she reached us and a 3 hour drive turned into a 4 hour drive. She brought Kaitlyn and Emily’s cousins Collin and Cameron with her. The girls were so excited to see Grandma and cousins. It was great. We went out to eat and then drove back to Texas. It was nice to spend some time with Mom D. When we got to my parents house it was like 11, so we spent 2 full days traveling. Consequently Saturday is a blur to me. I really have no recollection of what we did that day. Spent time with family and trying to get settled I’m sure. Sunday was the big day. We went to Julia’s branch (church) and got to watch Cody (Julia’s husband) bless baby Cooper. He did a great job, the spirit was very strong. I’m so proud of my sister and the little family she has. She is such a good mom and it was so fun to spend time with her. Kaitlyn and Emily were very clingy and whinny because of all the change, Emily getting 4 molars and having breathing problems, and because Daddy wasn’t able to come, so Kaitlyn ended up coming to Sunday School with Em and I. It was fun to watch my parents with the girls. The girls are so much bigger every time we get to go back to Texas. Mom and Dad especially were enjoying cuddling with Em and watching her stand. Kaitlyn was being really cute. We had her blocked in one row of chairs so she would be close and not disturb the other adults. Kaitlyn came up to my Dad and said “suse me” (excuse me) and passed him no problems and then did the same thing to my Mom. Before we realized what she was doing she was free. It was so cute we just let her play in the rows behind us. My parents were very impressed with her manners (so was I!) I try to teach her to be polite, but I’m sure if you’re a mom, you know that most of the time you feel like nothing is sinking in. Well I guess she has been listening to me. It was so cute and she got such good feedback that she kept it up the whole trip. After church we went to Julia’s NEW house (yea Julz!). This was the first time I got to see it not in construction. It is beautiful, and I’m sure they will love it for a long time. Mom and I helped Julia get the dinner ready. It was so good. Julia did a great job getting every thing together, it was delicious. And I love, love, love her kitchen! Julz even had some sippy cups for my girls to borrow. Kaitlyn and Emily had been driving me CRAZY. I couldn’t have an inch of space and they wouldn’t let my parents and siblings help much. Then, Kaitlyn opened up her cup and spilt RED juice all over my sisters brand new WHITE carpet! I almost lost it. Luckily Julia and Cody were very cool about it. I think everyone was more worried about me than the carpet. I banished Kaitlyn outside and my brother Jace was kind enough to make sure she stayed out there by entertaining her, and Emily was taken from me (I don’t even remember who she went to) and I was sat down and given something relaxing to do. That made all the difference in the world. I’m so glad I have such great family to be able to give me some time away from my kids when I NEEDED it. Well Cody was able to clean up the mess. I’m not sure if it left a stain or not, I didn’t want to look. Cody was talking to me and making sure I knew it was ok. He said, oh don’t worry. I’m sure Julia will start spilling things on purpose soon, so I will put in the wood floors sooner. Sure enough a few minutes later Julia says, Hey Cody, looks like you’ll just have to put in the wood floors soon. It was really cute and made me laugh and feel better about things. Later that evening we played a new game Cody and Julia had. It was tons of fun. I was glad to be able to relax and enjoy and not worry about the girls. Julia’s mother in law was there and Julia later told me she felt so bad, she was like, wow, Christi can’t even go to the bathroom. They were that clingy the first couple of days. On to Monday. Monday we got to spend at the Daltons. MINDY came over with her two youngest and the girls had a great time playing with them. After a little while we got to go SHOPPING. Probably my favorite past time, especially if there’s money to spend. Grandma D got all her grandkids some really cute clothes. It was fun to shop with Mom and Mindy, and Kaitlyn LOVED to run around and pick out more things for Grandma to buy. She enjoys shopping WAY to much, I have no idea where she gets that. Lol. It was so great to shop, because the only place to shop near us is Wal-Mart and that gets old fast. Yay for cute new clothes for the girls! Kaitlyn and Em also liked playing outside in Grandpa’s sand box. Tuesday we stayed at Moms. Poor Tiara (my youngest sister, a kindergartner) got sick Sunday night, and ended up being sick ALL WEEK long. Poor girl. Mom and I were pretty tired so we just stayed at home and relaxed all day. Aria came by with Skylar and we got to let our girls play. When Jess and Kurtis (my brother and sister) got home from school, Kaitlyn had a blast running around outside with them. She got to play on the trampoline and in the playhouse. So much fun. Even though it was “cold” for Texas we had a blast and enjoyed the warm weather. Wednesday we got to go to my friend ARIA’s house. JENNY JULIA and I were there with our babies; Skylar, Sophia, Cooper, Kaitlyn, and Emily. It was so nice to see everyone and see all the cute babies. Sophia and Cooper were still new babies and Skylar is a few months older than Em. The girls had a great time playing and I enjoyed sitting and hanging out with some of my high school friends. When we got back Mindy came over with all 3 of her boys. My sisters and her 2 oldest boys are the same ages and they all went outside to run and play. I loved being able to let Kaitlyn just go outside and play. She had a blast! Later that night Mom and I got to go shopping and we met Julia while we were out. Yay shopping! The next day we left at 8 in the morning and started our 2 day trip back to Wisconsin. It was so much fun to go home and visit everyone, but it was over WAY to fast!