family visits and spring in texas

we have not been very good about seeing cody's family in houston this year!  we've been pretty good about it, but this year started off so lousy and busy we haven't made it down there.  lucky for us breann, joseph, lucy and blake came up to see us last weekend.  we had such a great time!

mae was so excited to get to play with lucy.  i'm so grateful that she has cousins close in age that she can visit and play with. 

 of course mae and izzy had to introduce lucy to the blanket ride.  they got rides from mom, dad and uncle joseph!  the giggles were so hilarious and wonderful.  they're the reason i keep pulling those kids around on a blanket.  but when mae had a friend to do it with, it was even more fun!

 i just love the way mae is looking at lucy in this picture.  so cute!

we've got some tall girls in our family!  i'm glad mae won't be the only giant walking around at family reunions.  izzy loved blake, just like she loves all babies.  but, she only made him cry a minimal amount. 

i'm so glad that we live close to family and can have fun days like these.

it has been HOTTTT.  yes it requires four T's.  because it was in the 90s this week people.  it's march and it's already in the 90s?!  it was not that warm the last two years i was here.  oh well.  bring it on.

so we've spent a lot of time outside this week.  one of the parks that we go to sometimes has a volleyball court with sand.  so i thought it would be fun to bring the sand toys with us one day.

these girlies had a great time.  especially izzy.  she played there longer than mae.  i'm hoping she's getting closer to walking.  because really, kids crawling at the park and in the sand is not fun.  she's starting to walk on all fours whenever there's mulch, sand or concrete.  but then she stops after a few feet and just cries for me to pick her up.  

tuesday was free cones at Dairy Queen.  they were celebrating they're 75th anniversary.  and of course we had to hit that up!  this girl cracks me up.  she had to eat hers with a spoon.  but, she loved every bite of it.  izzy did as well.  but, it's harder to get a picture of a baby when you're feeding them.

we also went down to the lake one afternoon.  and it was bumpin.  i forgot it was spring break, so there were tons of people there.  

this was izzy's favorite spot.  with a snack of course.

mae had a blast swimming.  last summer it took a lot of time and coaxing to get her into the water, but this year she walked right in.  

 this kiddo loved the water too.  she splashed and played for a long time.

 but, then she started eating the rocks and sand so, we had to go play on the blanket.  and she must have eaten way more than i thought she did.  because the next day she had a TON of sand in her diapers.  so much that i had to put her in the bath to wash it.  crazy kid.

this was basically all i saw of mae for the most part.  she was just floating around out there.