Father's Day

Better late than never right? I'm not sure what we've been doing this summer, but it seems like it's flying by. It's almost July 4th! Yikes! Anyway, father's day was very dad-filled...we started by cooking out at my in-laws house with my brother-in-law and his family. Then we moved to the soccer field where Princess had her last game and the whole family came to watch. Our day ended by going to my parents house to hang out with my dad and eat dinner with my sis and her family.

The day started with my kiddos snuggling with their daddy in bed...he got to sleep in and then they watched cartoons with him.

My hubby with his dad at lunch...serious business going on here...I think they were talking golf. :)

The cook for the day...my brother-in-law, Jason


My favorite father-in-law and me. :)

His other married-in daughter, Tara

Giddy and Princess getting ready to eat.

Moving on to the soccer game.....Uncle Adam and Little Man playing around after the game

Princess enjoying (?) cooling off after the game by being drenched with cold water

My dad lovingly pointing out how big my sis is getting. :) Both me and my sis get really big during our pregnancies and he's never been very sensitive about it. Labor and delivery?, yes, but being big and overgrown?, not so much. :) I think it freaks him out to watch his baby girls get so big. It's out of character for us and I think he has trouble seeing us so different.

Grand-papaw and my nephew Jaden

The coach getting the traditional water thrown on him after the season is over.....

...even though he was "warned" I think the cold water still took him off guard. I do believe this expression is genuine. :)

So once again we had a great day with family and got to make some good memories. Hope all of your fathers had a good day and made some good memories too. :)

Fair Trade

I told you earlier how my hubby went to San Antonio to trade off his car to get another pick-up. We absolutely loved his car and so had a hard time being okay with seeing it go. However, the choice he made to replace it with was quite alright with this truck driving, Texas girl! I've only owned one car in my life and I didn't like driving it while I did so I understood why he was ready to change. But....he did make an agreement with our kiddos that if he quit dipping, they wouldn't complain about the change. Seemed like an awesome idea at the time. We've been through this before and I forgot how hard it is on him and on US! It's been a "walking on egg shells" type of week and while he's doing great, we're still not quite there yet. So, every time I look at this new truck, I remind myself that it will be worth it! :)

This is the car he traded in.....

And this is what he came home with the next day....

See? It's beautiful! And really big! So big that it doesn't fit in the garage. So since this week hasn't been the easiest on any of us, I knew that it would be weird when Saturday came around. It was our 11yr anniversary and I really didn't expect anything. I knew I'd be lucky if I got a smile out of him that day much less anything else. But as always, he surprised me by fighting through his grumpiness and walked in with these. I think his exact words were, "You at least needed flowers." Of course I needed flowers! What woman doesn't want flowers on her anniversary!? I smiled and hugged him and inside was melting. No matter what we go through, its obvious that we'll be together forever when I can see past the grouch and melt when he gives me flowers. I'm so easy. :)

Here's to eleven more wonderful years plus some honey! I love you!

Current Goings....

This last week my kids got to go to basketball camp at one of our local churches. I can't tell you how excited my hubby was to learn that his Princess wanted to attend this year. His dream for her is to be a tall basketball player and be so intimidating that no boy wants to talk to her. :) He can dream right? Anyway, she's done cheer leading for this organization twice before but never interested in playing the sport. So it really pleased him that she wanted to try. So for four solid days, the kids had to get up, get ready and be there by 8:30a.m. That may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but for us, it was a big deal. We don't even get up at a set time during the school year. I would be surprised if my kids even knew what alarm clocks were. :) So anyway, needless to say by Friday, Princess was very tired and this is what I found when I went in to wake her. So precious! And yes, I did have to smooch on those lips after I took this.

Since Friday was their last day, they invited all us parents to come watch them play a scrimmage. This was the "little" girl that Little Man had to guard. Not sure that's a fair match-up.....he may not be big, but he is very aggressive and took care of himself very well out there. And he used her height to his advantage....more than once I watched him duck under her arms and get out of her guard. Smart boy....

Princess was so proud to be able to throw in the ball.

So after basketball, we switched gears on Saturday and Princess had her very first belt test. I've talked about the academy they attend in previous posts so I won't go into how great I think they are, but...they are. She got to show off for us on what she has learned and she was very excited to finally get to change her belt. We're very proud of her...she can go from ballet shoes to karate chops very well. :)

It's good to see she stands at attention for some people....I wonder what that's like?

Breaking away from her "stranger"...he did end up on the floor eventually. Good girl!

Getting her new belt....

"I DID IT!!!!!"

Her two instructors that work so well with those kiddos.

Congrats Princess!!

Revealing

Just when you thought the world was full of ugliness and misery, God reveals himself to us in mighty ways. This is the view out our back window tonight. Too good not to share! :)

I have to say, this is one of the very FEW reasons I enjoy Amarillo. We do have beautiful sunsets.

Have a good night's sleep and may God bless your socks off tomorrow!

Cookout

Sunday was the cookout at my cousin, Kara's house. Her brother, Michael, and his family were here from Austin so it was a good excuse to get together and eat. :) My Memaw came and she really enjoyed it I think. She's pretty weak but kept up with us pretty well. We've created a blog to keep people updated with her progress if you'd like to visit it:

http://lovingmemaw.blogspot.com

Here she is with Little Man waiting to eat...

My cousin Mike and my little bro Adam

Mike's oldest, Cydney and Kara's youngest Charlie

Princess and Mardi riding the see-saw. They are right around the same age so they got along well. They just don't see each other enough so it took awhile for them to warm up and quit being so shy!



Some of Memaw's "greats" that came to join in on the cousin fun.

It was a lovely evening with good food and fun memories. We have a great family.

Tickled Pink

This last weekend was extremely busy. Hubby drove down to San Antonio to trade in his mustang for a pickup so I was a single mom for a couple of days. Saturday we had soccer, then a family cookout and then Sunday we had family over for lunch, a quick impromptu baby shower, more soccer and then time with the in-laws. :) Hubby was back by Sunday but it's amazing how even though he was gone for 36 hours, I felt like it was fffoooorrrreeevvvveeeerrr! I miss him when he's gone. I say an impromptu baby shower because I knew we were going to do it eventually, but it all depended on how my sis felt when she got up that day. She's been up and down since her sickness scare and so we didn't know for sure until that morning. Thankfully, she felt okay enough to come munch on some chicken and open the gifts that were meant to be opened during our girls weekend but had do be postponed due to her getting sick and coming home. My parents and grandparents came and you could definitely tell that it was their first baby shower. They oohed and ahhed just like we did so we taught them well. :)

My sis at 31 weeks

The proud mom and dad-to-be...again. This is number three for them but this time it's a girl!!! Yay!

My mom found this adorable outfit the day we found out that it was a girl. It's perfect because my sis and her family are very western.

I didn't post the pics of everything she opened...there was a BUNCH! But this shows what the majority of them looked like...a cute little outfit in front of my sister's face. I think she did that on purpose. :)

My hubby was in charge of "tissue paper trash" and he loved having an intricate role in the baby shower. What? You can't tell he's thrilled? Well, you'll have to excuse him, he's trying to quit dipping snuff and was going through major withdraws. :)

That's that! Hopefully that baby will stay in there a few more weeks and then we'll get to see her face to face. I bet she's as pretty and adorable as her aunt. :)

Wheat Girls Weekend

This last weekend Princess and I attended the second annual Wheat Girls Reunion. This is when all the women on my dad's side of the family join together and spend time talking, laughing, and catching up. This year, the men went to the ranch for the weekend and had sounds like they did a lot of shooting of guns. Very much a women doing women things and men doing men things. It was great! Unfortunately, my mom and sister didn't get to attend this year after my sister got sick around Lubbock and we had to bring her home but that' s a whole other story in itself. :) (She and the baby are fine now but it was a very scary 24 hours.....)

So Princess, Mamaw and I drove on to Eastland and joined the rest of the girls. We had people from all across Texas there as well as Kansas and California. Meeting and getting to know those family members that I had never met was a fun privilege for me and my daughter. One of the things we did there was make mosaic crosses. One of my cousins had made one for a Christmas take away gift and I got it but all the others were jealous. So we decided that we would just all make our own. Mine is for my mother-in-law but I already have plans for more around my house. This is my "before" picture of my cross.....my dad had cut out the wood for me but I altered the ends a little with a jigsaw to make them less rounded and more pointy.

This is the "after"

Princess and Avery enjoyed making their very own crosses with Caitlin help. She already has plans for others as well. :)

This is my cousin Ashlee and her cutie Eathan




My hostess, Susan and one of her amazing daughters Kyann.

Mary and Lucy from Kansas....

Miss Avery kept us all in laughs as she was in constant performance.

In between all the cross making and crafting, there was lots of swimming, eating and talking. Princess spent about 6 hours each day in the pools and got pretty comfortable in the water. Of course, she had several older girls at her disposal to help her do whatever her little heart desired in the water. But they could not have been nicer to her and were so patient. She is already planning trips to Kansas and California to see them again. She had such a good time.




Princess and Molly hanging in the pool together.

Caitlin taking care of the little ones in the water. I was able to relax because they took such care to keep these girls safe.

Cousin Keri with my new love...Carson. He is so cute!!! And sweet!

After a full day in the sun, we played Bunko that evening. They let Princess play in place of a cousin that had to go do homework and she thought she was pretty hot stuff. She was treated like a big girl all weekend and that made her feel very special.

It was a great weekend and we will have those memories forever. I got to get to know

"married-ins" that are so sweet and fit right in and got to know those that I had not met before. All in all, it was a success!

Weekend Warriors

Well, I told you we had a big project coming up and here it is...we (as in me and my hubby) built the kids a 4 level swing set/play fort. It came with swings, slide, rock wall and 4 different levels for them to play on. We had one last year but with the help of a very strong wind, the trampoline flew into it and destroyed it and we promised another one.

Here is my dad helping Hubby unload the boxes...there were four of these suckers!

It's hard to see but there is a lot of wood lined up against my fence!

Here is the awning we put up to help with the shade but unfortunately, the wind kept us from using it for long. :( Wind is a big problem where we live, can you tell?

End of day one progress...bottom level of base is together and second level is getting close!

End of day two progress: the roof is on! And all the levels are completed...now for the swing set part.

By the time we finished at the end of day three, it was too dark to take a picture so here it is first thing Tuesday morning. The kids were so anxious to try it out!

Many hours of fun I'm sure will happen on this little project!

On another note, we finished school today!!! I now have a fourth grader and second grader! Good job kids for working so hard and doing such a great job! You are very smart and dearly loved!

Welcome to SUMMER!!!!!