I am so lucky to have such a great cousin and friend. Becky has come to visit us in Houston the past 4 years. Every year it gets funner! I hope she can keep coming and we can head to Hawaii to visit her soon too! Get ready for a long post, here we go!
This is how the visit began. Rachel welcomed Becky from the minute she got into the car! Yeah right! These are the eyes Becky got for the whole first day or so. In the beginning in the car she wouldn't even turn her head to look at her, just her eyes. And they were more intense than this. 
Livy loved her from the second she got here and they were good buddies the whole time. Becky is a librarian at BYU-Hawaii and got the girls these shirts. 
First night dinner at Chili's.
Riding on the carousel at The Woodlands Mall. Looking for daddy, who was sitting down, every time we passed him. They love that game.
One of Rachel's funny faces.
Hugs from my Livy.
Rachel, as she now calls herself. She has always called herself Rae Rae but the last day of Becky's trip she started calling herself Rachel and has ever since.
Enjoying the fruits of her labors! (see below)
Doing our exercises. I usually do any sort of workout while they are napping but we did an old school ab video called The Firm (1980's) while they were awake and they loved it. They would ask for more every time it was done! Becky and I were laughing at them so much it was hard to actually do it. Rachel would say the cutest stuff when she saw me doing things that looked cool, "Wow Mommy" was the funniest when I was doing this bicycle move, I guess it looked pretty good to her! They were so cute trying and every once and a while they would just get up and plop on your stomach which put an end to your workout for a minute.
Becky is so crafty these past few years. Here are the girls birthday presents. she made them blankets with their names and butterflies on it.
Enjoying some sister time while we cleaned up after making cookies. Sitting reading together. I am finding them sitting together a lot more often these days and it is so cute every time.
After making cookies in their new aprons Becky made for us for our birthdays! Mine is cute too but they look especially adorable in these aprons! 
Birthday aprons! Sorry all the pictures are not int he right order. I always upload them backwards on accident! oops.
This is only the second time we have done cookies and the first time was for Valentine's Day at April's house and they didn't do anything really so I don't know if that counts. This was their first official time. And they loved it.
Enjoying the cookie dough.
It was quite a rush though. We had to have everything measured and ready to go.They were really good and more patient than I thought they would be. They had turns dumping, stirring and tasting!
Another 1st. Getting their nails painted. They were excited while doing it and sat really good for Becky. They didn't care too much about it later. I think Rachel will be requesting it before long. She is a girly girl and already love lip gloss.
Pretty pink nails.
Watching so intently.
We also made tutus for the girls but ran out of material so I just finished them the other day. I will put pictures of them up later.
Cheese.
My Rachel and me.
Story time with Becky. As you can see Rachel warmed up well to Becky!
Rachel and her "wips" or lips as you may know them. That is short for lip gloss! She carries at least one with her all the time now. She has traded carrying her babies for her lips so at least it is a smaller pile of stuff to carry.
Livy's new fascination is changing diapers and potty time. I think she will be ready to potty train soon. The question is will I! She tries to change barney and ducky. She says they are stinky and have poopy. Proceeds to wipe them for like 10 minutes straight and then tries for another 10 minutes to get a diaper on them. The other day she was trying to change Rachel. Rachel laid down for her and they unzipped her pajamas, and Livy already had the wipes and diaper out. They got stuck on the diaper!
Again, sorry about the backwards order of the pictures. We had their family birthday cake on the Sunday after their birthday so Becky could be here too. This is a picture of the bottom of the Carvel ice cream cake we got. I left it to soften up a little too long before we ate it so by the time I was cutting it, the bottom was melting all over. Finished product looks like I put the cake strait on the counter, don't worry, there was the bottom cardboard under the cake.
For anyone who did not have Carvel ice cream cakes growing up like we did in NY, I strongly recommend trying one. They are a little pricey but yummy too! It is only ice cream no cake in it in layers: vanilla, chocolate crunchies, chocolate ice cream, frosting. Yum. You can already see the bottom melting out before I even cut it.
Enjoying their b-day cake! I was cutting and didn't notice poor Livy got a fork instead of a spoon can could barely eat any!
Happy Birthday again.
Actual proof that Rachel is not scared of Greg all the time! She goes back and forth with him. Scared to death one day, playing the next!
I throw an awesome party! Two packs of 59 cent cat shaped balloons and they had a ball! Just kidding, melted cake, an allergic reaction, and poo smushed into the carpet is how it really went!
You saw the cake already. Katelyn got licked on the eye by Pebbles and it blew up swollen bad. Poor kid. After everyone left Rachel pooped, pulled her diaper off and smushed some that got on her foot from the diaper on the way off into the carpet. But they really did have a ball with the balloons! Good times!
Carousel at the zoo. They love love love the carousel or the "neigh-neighs" as they call every carousel, even the zoo one with no horses on it! They scream and shout and jump and run to the carousel and they when they are on it they just sit there almost emotion less!
Fun in the backyard. Beck is so good with the camera. She was taking pictures all the time, thanks Beck! Her kids are gonna have such good recording of their lives!
You can never get sick of bubbles! Livy kept shooting Becky with the bubbles right in the camera. "Ready....set.......GO!" She would say every time!
The diaper comes in very handy for holding things when your hands are tied up with more important things!
Becky got to see lots of their shenanigans. On this day Rachel managed to pull the pool out from behind the grill. Her and Pebbles were sitting in it together while Rachel took a little taste of Pebbles pig ear. Totally make me vomit why don't you. Becky took it away from her and of course there was waterworks and as she was crying a raisin came shooting out of her nose! Don't worry it was only from that morning, not days before-if that makes it any better!
And Becky helped me see the bright side, for some kids around the world pig ears are delicacies! She has so much patients and love and just an ease about here. Just calmer than me and that is something I am striving to be. I always learn how to be a better person when she is around. Thanks Beck!
Look at my sweet face, I would never eat a pig ear!
Livy taking care of her little sis. It is hard to see but Rachel had her legs crossed while sitting there getting her hair brushed. Too cute!
Story time again with Aunt Becky! Good thing she loves books! And Rachel and Olivia!
We saw Toby Keith at the rodeo and although it was way too loud the concert was good. I knew all the songs which I was surprised by and he sounded good. We would have liked to see Taylor Swift or Keith Urban but we only had a few nights to choose from while Becky was here.
Becky at her first real rodeo! Our favorite part was the mutton racing or something like that it is called. These little 5 year olds try and hold on to the back of a sheep and they let the thing run. Most of them fell of in one or two seconds but they were so cute these little kids. They would show them on the big screens and you could see how happy they were when everyone in the whole place cheered for them.
Good times and good food.
My hubby and me. Eric and I hadn't been to the rodeo for the past two years so it was fun to do again. And to have a night without the kiddos. Thanks Brenda!
Oh what a fun trip with Beck! I am so happy you came Becky and I miss you. We really wanted Cassie to come too but it just didn't work out. We missed you Cass. Can't wait to see everyone this summer again! Thanks for a great trip Beck and all of your help with the girls. They still talk about you going home on an airplane. At least they haven't forgotten you! There were many cute things the girls said over and over again while Beck was here but that list will come later. My next post is going to be about things they are doing now, a 2 year old list so I can remember what these 2 year olds were doing and saying. Our best discovery this trip was an awesome lentil soup recipe. We know we are old because we like lentil soup! Never would we have eaten it when we were little but it is a good one!
