Great Weather = Lots of Outdoor fun!!!

This past weekend we all enjoyed some terrific weather, here in VA it was 90-95 degrees all weekend. I think we tried to make the most of the good weather and spent all of our weekend outside, and the girls just loved every moment of it.

Kaylee filling up her bucket

Grace drinking from the bucketBoth girls drinking from the bucket

this was my favorite shot of the day!

The girls trampling throughout the back yard!

Digging up the backyard

Easter Fun!!!

We had a wonderfully simple Easter with the girls and our very dear friends John and Kelly Kent! They came over with lunch and Easter treats for the girls and they helped the girls hunt Easter eggs! thanks Kelly for taking pictures of us!



This is John and Kelly practicing for kids of their own! Someday I am sure, but for now I think they will just borrow ours!
Grace enjoying the mess she made with her Easter grass!

Kaylee giving us a cute smirk!

Yep, it was a mess in the back yard, and thanks John for gladly picking up every strand when we were done!

The Murray's Take on D.C.: Part 2

Our day started off at 7 a.m. and we were out the door by 8 to get on the Metro to go to the Cherry Blossom Parade and Japanese Festival in D.C. Our ride on the metro there was the worst experience we have had, we were suck standing holding the girls packed in like sardines! The girls were so squished that they just screamed... and screamed. We finally got off the metro just to stand in line for 15 minutes to get off the platform and get up the one and only escalator. But we finally made it to the parade route and well lets just say that the parade was less inspiring (the worst parade I have ever seen...) ... it pretty much sucked and we left and had to stand in line for 45 minutes to get lunch. I am sure you could imagine how much fun that was with two 1 year olds... we ate and determined that there was to many people to push strollers through the crowds around the Japanese & Cherry blossom festival, so we went to the war memorials and the Lincoln memorial/reflecting pool!

Overall it was nice just to get out with the family and try something new... but Reed and I both agree that we have earned some major Parental Kudos for braving the Metro and 100,000+ people in D.C. this weekend... but some of those kudos should be taken away because we all got sun burned, even the babies... bad mommy/daddy I know...

The girls were very, very tired after being out all day! This was them on the way home...

The Murray's Take on D.C.: Part 1

So this weekend we decided to be brave and do our first trip as a family and head off to Washington D.C. on the Metro! We set off to visit the National Aquarium, which was a sorry excuse for an aquarium if ever I saw one. I think they said, "hey we have some extra room in this building's basement lets put an aquarium down here and charge people to see the kind of fish they could see at the local pet store! So we were disappointed it the exhibit (if you couldn't tell) and didn't want to just head off home so we walked to the Washington Monument and did half of the Cherry Blossom festival (which was beautiful). We are planning on going back this weekend to see the Cherry festival parade and walk the rest of the Cherry tree path along the Potomac river.

As, always enjoy the photos!

Kaylee smelling the flowers!
the most beautiful cherry tree I saw all day!

Grace and Reed enjoying nature together!



The girls waiting on Dad to get some directions!

The girls playing with an alligator at the aquarium


P.S. If you don't already know by now there is a really good chance (about 95%) that we will be moving back to Texas by the end of this year. I don't have many details to tell you other than the fact that Reed's boss has decided to open a branch in Houston, Texas and he asked us if we wanted to move back and run the branch. We said yes, so now we are just working on the details of when we will go. We will keep you posted!

It's Summer already?

Yep, that's right folks we braved 40 degree weather and went to the local indoor pool to give the girls a taste of the summer to come. I was not very happy to have to get into my bathing suit in March but it was so worth seeing my girls love the water.

Kaylee was very timid and cold the whole time, even though it was like 85 degrees in the room and the water was really warm. I think she was scared b/c there were so many people/kids around her splashing her and not giving her a chance to figure things out before she tired it. So she just hung around our necks and shivered.

Now, Grace, on the other hand loved the water. They had a kid pool that was only 1 foot deep and it had lots of fountains and things to play with in the water. She didn't want us to hold her hand all she wanted to do is run in the water! She would go under every 30 seconds and she drank like a gallon of pool water but she loved it and is a true pisces!

Twins take on the Gym!!

For the last 3 weeks I have been taking the girls to a little gym class twice a week at JW Tumbles. This is the first activity the girls and me have done on our own. It is hard getting all three of us out the door and on time but we do it! Our Monday class is really small and we are the only ones who attend, but on our Wednesday Class three other babies attend. The girls get to climb on all different slides, play with bubbles, learn new songs, push a big rolling mat across the room (aka- "the hotdog"), play in a ball pit, learn to go up/down inclines, swing, and play with lots of new toys. They do well and it's nice to see them enjoy themselves. Now the pictures I am posting are not all that great because it is hard to help the girls do the activites, keep you eye on both of them and take a picture all at the same time but they will give you some idea on what they are doing...

P.S. Swimming pictures comming soon!

Snow Day!!!

About 2 weeks ago we got about 5" of snow on the ground. So we put the girls in their little snow suits... the funny part is they felt like they couldn't walk so they would just lay on the floor and cry... it was really funny.

Grace would just sit in the snow and taste the snow and Kaylee was crawling through it:

Right now the girls have just started their first gym class that they go to twice and week and they are loving all the new activities they get to do like: walking up ramps, climbing up ladders, playing with bubbles, sliding down slides and lots of music. We are loving it and having a ton of fun together.

We also are on our search again for a new church and we went to one this weekend that could work, but we need to go a few more times just to make sure it's the one for us. The girls go into a daycare there and they seem to love it.

The girls also just went to the doctor for their 1 year appointment last week:

Kaylee: 22lb(55-60th percentile) and 32" tall(above 100th percentile)

Grace: 24lb(75th percentile) and 32"tall(above 100th percentile)

so yes the girls are little monsters and growing like weeds. They are starting to talk and they are saying small words like "up", "hi", "mama, dada", and "baba". They are really good with commands such as "come here", "can I have it", "stop"... but we are still working on the big one "NO"... they just smile and laugh at me when I say "no", I am in so much trouble. They are also starting to give out hugs and kisses when you ask them for one... of course the kisses are more like fully opened mouth/tongue facial assaults... but it's still wonderful to get them from the girls, slobber and all.

We are getting ready for spring and looking forward to all our activities we can do with better weather: swimming, visit more of downtown DC, and the other million historical sites here.

Oh, and there is also some talk of moving to Houston by next summer!!! Keep your fingers crossed. Lastly our camera is broken so there isn't going to be any pictures until they mail it back to us.... ugg...