independence day!

em decided she would celebrate her own indepedence this weekend as well.  have i mentioned that my baby girl is a big girl now?  we're talking she doesn't like for me to be in the restroom stall with her when we are out.  when i insist, she relents but then asks if i will turn around and not look.  "i'm a big girl, MOM.  i can do it by myself."  another thing she can apparently do by herself?  oh, run into the ocean.  we took em to galveston for the first time this weekend, and she had a blast!  she'd play in the (wet) sand and then run into the ocean to clean off her hands.  of course we always ran after her so she was never by herself, but this newfound independence she has?  i am not loving it.  people try to prepare you for how quickly time passes when you have kids, but i never fully appreciated it until i had my own.  seriously, i just want to bottle her up and keep her this little forever...especially after this weekend, when her cuteness was at an all-time high.  dare i say it, but i think miss sassypants is leaving the building (or as em would say, the "bew-din'.")

we had such a fun long weekend.  i took off work early on friday and picked em up from school, then we headed to the pool.  avery stayed with my sister for the weekend, and em could not have been more excited.  luckily, i think the feeling was mutual.  all we heard this weekend was, "can we go to aaron's house to play with avery?" 

saturday was a typical weekend day for us.  lots of errands and manis and pedis, yay!  i also did a lot of cooking, which was really fun.  (i made my version of a flag cake, potato salad, smoked gouda pasta salad (that was only okay), ranch and dill pretzels and crackers, and blue cheese puffs (yuummm)). 

on sunday, we tagged along with auntie tina and trey to galveston.  now normally, i would never have gone.  galveston = yuck.  but a new condo with an awesome pool and access to a (may-as-well-be) private beach?  absolutely! 

i brought this flag cake (aka fruit pizza) for our hosts. 

(recipe: sugar cookie crust, frosting: 8 oz cream cheese, 1 tub cool whip, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla)

to our surprise, galveston was not nearly as gross as i remember it being, ha.  okay, maybe the city was, but the sandy beach was almost nice :).  don't get too excited.  the water is still brown.

em loved the water!  she would lay down in it and wait for the waves to splash her.  i was only slightly terrified for her.

jumping waves with trey

having a snack by the pool.  she was starving after the beach, so we cleaned up and headed to lunch on the seawall.

after lunch, we went to explore the strand.  this old fashioned candy shoppe was just as i remembered when our 5th grade class went on a field trip.  (how cute is this target dress on em?)

i wish em was smiling.  should have given her that piece of taffy to bribe her :)

we didn't stay in galveston long and was home in time for an early dinner.  surprisingly, things weren't as crowded as i had expected.

monday the 4th was pretty relaxing as well.  i cleaned em's room some, finished the dishes i made for the party that afternoon, and then we all went shopping.  (they are opening a restoration hardware baby and child store here in a few months!  good thing i'm not pregnant because we could easily go broke shopping there for baby.  i'm thinking em's big girl room is in need of a re-do!). 

later that afternoon, we headed out to the pool for more playtime with aaron, avery, grant, and taylor. 

i know.  so cute!

(that's aaron, em, and grant.  notice that aaron is already helping with the purse).

(this is where i would insert pictures of the cutest monogrammed seersucker bikini and equally cute seersucker crab outfit, also monogrammed...but we seemed to have lost/misplaced our camera :(.  it was just the little point and shoot that i carry around with me, not my dslr, and it was nearing its end.  but the memory card...i am so sad).

at least we have this pic of the crab outfit.  hope i can convince her to wear it again.

yes, i know my child is barefoot.  nasty.

em had such a fun weekend.  unfortunately, she woke up in the middle of the night with a fever.  here's our sweet girl after the tylenol kicked in.

i love her lips here.  when she was a baby, this is the mouth we always saw when she was asleep.

can't have a post about the kiddos without including my newest nephew, who in this picture, is looking a lot like big brother! 

dean is eating like a champ and almost has his baby fat rolls.  i'm thinking those are going to appear within the next week or two. can. not. wait!  happy six weeks precious boy :)