A Perfect Pair

THE LAST Post- prebaby!! Yes, OCD girl is caught up!

2009-07-26T12:34:00.021-05:00

I'll end on a picture of my beautiful daughter! Next time you hear from the Palmer fam, we will be plus one!! A family of 5! I cannot wait! I DO still hope it's a girl, since the nursery is done and clothes washed. Please pray for the delivery, for a healthy baby, and for me. I always have some crazy things happen after I give birth. And pray we can adjust halfway normally! Love to all of you blog readers! I'm out....

Dare I show this picture of me? Please don't post this somewhere super embarrassing! I do have proof that I am hanging out with my kids! In fact, about 2 days a week I take them to the pool all by myself, thank you very much! And I endure all the stares from people, who are really thinking, "Lady, you are crazy! Please don't let your water break here at the pool!"

Can't beat the summer! Swimming, ice cream, not so many crazy TV shows to watch! Being outside with the fam is so fun!

More pool time at the gym with Daddy! Saturdays are a blast because Josh can come with us to the pool! Brady finally got brave enough to do the slide in his area of the pool. He really has to warm up to adventurous things while Grace goes full throttle!

Sweet girl doing the lazy river!

The park did have a huge enclosed water slide that Grace was big enough to ride! She's 2 inches shy to do the ones at our gym. I think she did this continuously while we were there! She's so independent and wants to do her own thing, by herself. She wants no help from me! Where did my baby go?

Our Sunday School class has playdates about once a month. This month was at a city waterpark, similar to our gym facilities. The kids had a blast, thank goodness. Besides the pool, mommy hasn't been to adventurous this summer! Poor darlings are probably having a boring summer.

Isn't my diaper bag beautiful!!! I cannot believe they got this for me! It's super big and cute, and came with a bottle warmer, changing pad, and zip up bag for dirty diapers! Sweet! It was a great night and I am so thankful for these hilarious girls!

I got some super cute clothes and Target gift cards! Score!!!!

Even more sweet friends!

More sweet friends!

On July 16th, some of my church choir buddies threw me a dinner party for the baby. Since it's my third, it's kind of impractical and rude to have a shower. We just had fun eating together and I got a couple of really cute things!! Most of these girls have recently had babies too, so it's been a fun fall, spring, and summer!

We got to go to a huge brunch in the hotel the next morning. It was fabulous! We ate so much we didn't want to swimming. Josh rigged up our camera and got a picture of us off our balcony before we left. Happy 10th anniversary, honey! I got an updated wedding ring, that I should've taken a picture of. It's gorgeous! And I got another band coming for it when the baby gets here. After my swelling goes down, I'll post a pic of it! What a sweet hubby! Maybe we can take the cruise next year.

After we checked in Friday night, we went to an Italian place to eat. I love Italian, but Josh, not so much, so we don't eat it often. Then we came back and walked around the hotel and people watched. This Cowboy was on stilts and next to him was a lady all covered with greenery on stilts. People didn't realize she moved, so it was hysterical to watch people freak out! Once it got dark, there was a fireworks show outside over the lake. Embarrassingly, I couldn't walk all the way out to the fireworks, so Josh got me a wheelchair and wheeled my pregnant self out to the festivities. Talk about devotion!

Here's a replica of the Alamo. It's a snack bar/coffee bar inside!

If any of you have ever been to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, this place was built by the same people. Indoor water features and lots of plants, but with a Texas feel! So fun to look off your balcony and watch everything!

July 10th was Josh and my anniversary!!! We were celebrating 10 years! I am so blessed to be married to such a great and patient guy! He provides so well for us, and plays with the kids constantly! He bathes them for me, and we sure enjoy all our family time together! We were supposed to go on a cruise for the anniversary, but since I am hugely pregnant, we had to stay in Dallas. But we got to stay at the Gaylord Texan! It was awesome!

Here's a picture of us visiting the Frisco Snow Cone lady after supper one night. We frequent her about once a week, because the snow cones are $1.00 and huge! Who has $1.00 snow cones anymore?? And she's a widow trying to make money. By the length of the lines, we think she makes about $150.00 an hour! That's pretty good in my opinion. Boy, are they yummy!

America's Birthday! So glad we're still free!

2009-07-23T09:35:00.011-05:00

Once it got darker, the kids were throwing those little pop-its. Not really fireworks, but good enough for them. They don't know any different, and it made a loud noise without fire!

I can't believe I don't have any pictures of this...but Carrie's parents had bought a ton of fireworks. It's illegal in Texas to shoot fireworks in a neighborhood, but what did they care? Carrie's mom was telling Carrie's dad, "Light this, shoot off that!" There were a couple of 7-10 fireballs that would shoot off, supposedly only supposed to go 15 ft. high. Well, those puppies were going 50 ft. and exploding over the house. All us young people were telling them to stop, that the cops might come, but the older folks sure didn't care. They were lighting up all sorts of fireworks! It was hilarious! Finally, Carrie's dad said that was enough...he didn't want to be arrested! It was a super fun day/night!

We drove to see the Frisco fireworks once it got really dark, and we waited and waited and nothing was happening. Finally, hot pregnant momma had enough and we went home. We did get home in time to see them out of Brady's bedroom window. Oh well, maybe next year we'll see a better show! The next day the kids were telling everybody, "We didn't see the fireworks because my mom wasn't feeling good." Thanks! Blame the party-pooping on me!

Family Pic- July 4, 2009. Ignore my huge, sweaty self!

Roasting S'mores in the chiminea.
The kids also got to roast s'mores for the first time! They loved the roasting, but not the s'mores so much! They just wanted the Hershey's chocolate! Yummy!

We had TONS of food! There were hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, grilled corn, 2-3 salads, fruit, chips, beans, brownies, cupcakes...on and on! Carrie and her mom did us right! Good thing I can eat what I want for a few more weeks! Brady loved the iced brownies!

The kids and Josh got to swim again

Our sweet friends from church, Ross and Carrie, invited us to Carrie's parents for a party! How nice! We had a super good time!

On the 4th, we were really bummed because we actually had no plans. Josh wanted us to have a big cookout and invite a bunch of friends over, but with 4 weeks left until I deliver, I wasn't really up for a big shin-dig at our house. We had been swimming the day before and TRIED to make homemade icecream. What was left to do?

Here's the normal holiday pic where the mommy who used to teach has to dress her children up for every holiday! And I decorate the house for every holiday too. Just ask my college roomies! :) What is it about teachers? Always into holidays, wearing festive sweaters, etc.

The end of June!

2009-07-23T09:09:00.010-05:00

Grace cares nothing about mowing! She usually rides her bike or looks for rollie pollies. Oh the life of a 5 year old...so stressful!!

I love when kids get about 3 and they start to mimic whatever their same sex parent does. Every time Josh mows, Brady has to get his mower and follow him all over the yard. Precious!

Our evening fun mostly consists of hanging out in the front yard. It's a bit cooler, so the kids can ride bikes, play with the neighborhood kids, eat popsicles, etc.

Sibling rivalry! Grace pushing Brady off the slide, while Paxton and Bowman innocently watch!

We had a playdate one day with Amanda and her kids Paxton, Bowman, and Kerrington. The kids played, did the slip-n-slide, then we all trekked to McDonald's. Summer is so fun with friends!

Pacey loved the slide! Sweet thing! We were glad she and Rachel were able to come over from Ft. Worth!

Caleb has only been to these playgrounds a couple of times, but he enjoys it! He doesn't seem to be too afraid of much!

One day we went to the mall to eat and play inside. Brady's cousins Caleb and Pacey got to come.

Brady is trying to enjoy indoor skating! As I get bigger and it gets hotter, the poor kids are having to entertain themselves more INSIDE! We do go swimming a couple of times a week. Thank goodness they play well together!

June- low key...sort of!

2009-07-15T19:47:00.018-05:00

Floating! The best thing is that now she's a swimmer. I wouldn't go off and leave her totally unattended, but I don't have to be in the water. She can swim around and even dive for sticks!

She was learning to kick her legs with more strength.

Grace had swim lessons at Ms. Leslie's house for 2 weeks. These were so much better than the city lessons. She took with these other 4 kids, and really learned to swim this year!

Me and how I'm going to look in 40 years! This is my dad's mom, Mamaw!

Kelli and her husband Danny and his little boy, Daniel. Sweet new family!

My Daddy came from TN to sing the Lord's Prayer. He did a great job!

My cousin Hutch, Kelli's new hubby Danny, Jill's husband Alex, and my cousin Seth. All major cut-ups!

Kelli and her mom, my aunt Sheila. Whenever we need a break from life here, we go south an hour to my aunt's house. There's never a lack of excitement with her!!

June 12-13 was super crazy! We had had VBS all week, and I worked it like a crazy woman! On Saturday, my sweet, sweet cousin Kelli got married south of Ft. Worth so I stayed here. Josh's grandparents were also having a 60th anniversary party in Lubbock the same day and time, so he took the kids and went to West Texas. I guess you can see who got the camera. This is Kelli, her sisters Jill and Haylee, and my cousin Seth's wife, Jeannine. It was a family affair for sure!

Here's just an example of how I used to look (back in mid-June). I look even bigger now if you can believe it!

The team listening to Coach Josh's post-game speech! Really they were looking forward to the snacks!

June 6th Grace had her last t-ball game. She was sort-of into it. Daddy was super into it. He really wants her to play one more year so he can coach. Brady still won't be old enough to be on a team. We'll see what she has to say about that next spring.

Sweet girl on 2nd base. Unfortunately, we can already see that Brady will be the real ball player.

Alot of times after supper, the kids want to play outside with Daddy. Sometimes they ride bikes or eat a popsicle, but a lot of times they like to play t-ball.

We found a super duper slip n slide at Target, so we set that up a few times. My kids don't know how to slide on it, but they have fun anyway!

Memphis Trip- May 21- June 3

2009-07-15T18:00:00.002-05:00

Love my brothers!!
I think it's hilarious that kids and adults want my brother's autograph! He signs balls and other things after every game.

Ole Miss ended up doing great in the Regionals and made it to Super Regionals. It was so exciting! #1 is giving the crowd high fives. They ended up losing one game before the College World Series. So close!!

At more baseball...

The kids waited patiently to get on each truck. Eventually it got way too noisy with all the horns blowing, so we headed to McDonald's instead.

Amber and Elaine met us at "Touch a Truck" along with the Woodard family.

Germantown has the coolest day called "Touch a Truck." The city brings all sorts of vehicles for the kids to get in (police cards, fire trucks, haulers, hummers, diggers, etc.). We met friends there and it was so neat!

They have to see Zachary after the game. He's always all smiles!

Supa Star!!

Brady would yell, "Go Zachary!" He was actually really into the game!

Here's our first trip of many down to Oxford, MS to watch Uncle Zachary. We love baseball!!

I got to have breakfast with my sweet friend Karen. We always have a lot to catch up on!

We got to watch Uncle Micah play softball too! He and his buddies act like they are playing for the World Series, but it was fun!

We tried to get a group snap shot. Brady and Drew didn't cooperate. Isn't baby Jacob the cutest?

Poor Drew busted his lip while we were there. I think he still had a good time though!

Look how freezing Brady is!!

Josh drove in with Brady, so they got to come. Poor Josh only comes to Memphis about once a year. Somebody has to work to let me travel all over the country!!

We always have the best time with Kelly and her kids! We picked a super cold day to go to the sprinkler park, but the kids kept playing! Grace and Sarah hilariously pick up where they left off each time they see each other! Reminds me of me and Kelly in high school! So funny!

Here are only some of our kids!!! Kennedy, William, Caroline, Sammy, Hope, and Grace. We are missing Jacob and Brady.

One of my sweet high school friends, Jennifer Kennedy Tircuit had moved back to Memphis, so she and I and Denise all got together for a playdate. I just love when you can pick right back up with someone. God has blessed me so very richly with high school friends I still keep in contact with. Who knew we would still all talk after this many years. Please ignore my growing belly.

Micah was trying to make poor Riley dog go down the slides, etc. She was having none of it!

Memorial Day was fun! We went to Micah and Erica's house and walked to the park. We also had a cookout and lots of yummy food! Granna was trying to make us gain 10 lbs. over the 3 day weekend!

Crazy Uncle Micah! He's always a laugh a minute!

The plan was for Grace and I to have sort of a girl's trip before she goes to school every day in the fall. We were going to AL to see a friend of mine and go to the SEC baseball tournament and watch Uncle Zachary. Well, Ole Miss stunk it up in the tourn., so we landed in Birmingham and got right into the car and drove to Memphis. So much for a girls trip. Oh well! We were in Memphis a few days before Josh and Brady came. Grace LOVES her Aunt Erica!!

Grace's Graduation

2009-07-15T17:52:00.004-05:00

Mommy only cried a little bit. I know this is the first of many experiences like this. Can I take it??

Grace with her teacher, Ms. Irene

Grace had her graduation from preschool. What will they come up with next? She didn't get a car, jewelry, or a trip. They were super cute saying their pledges, singing, and getting their diplomas. We will miss Prestonwood CLC. It was a great experience!

Dance Recital- May 16th

2009-06-18T11:54:00.012-05:00

I couldn't pass up posting this picture. Brady is wearing her costume from the previous year! I have lots of these pictures to bribe him with later!

Grace got a medal and a doll with the same costume on. Her dance studio is great!

Palmer Family

Granna and Papaw came from TN to the recital too! The t-ball game got rained out, so they didn't get to see that, but I'm sure the recital gave them memories of the thousands of recitals they sat through for me!

Grace got tons of flowers from her family! Grammy and Pops came to the recital!

They used these umbrellas with string on them to show how they can walk on their tiptoes. The ribbon bounced and they loved it!

The theme was "Under the Sea" and the girls had no idea that Ariel was going to show up. Grace was in heaven dancing next to her!

The room was very dark, so it was hard to get good pictures. They did both tap and ballet and also showed us what skills and positions they had worked on all year. The little girls have their performance at the studio, but next year it will be full throttle with all the other big girls at a performance hall!

Sweet precious girl could NOT wait for her dance recital! She was excited because her tutu was bigger this year! She's not as shy this year, so she was all about performing! She actually had a lot more balance than some of the girls.

Mother's Day Weekend

2009-06-18T11:25:00.011-05:00

Each child made a placemat that had their handprints, and a MOM keychain. I think ours broke that very day! Oh well. I also got a precious glass plate that said my #1 job was being a mommy.

Right after Mother's Day, Brady had his Mother's Tea at school. He was SO excited to have me come to his class. They had a huge spread of food and sang a song about Spring. Too cute!

All the men had to have a picture too.

All the mothers!

Sunday we had Mother's Day lunch at the Palmers. We had secretly had the kids' picture made for Grammy of her 3 grandkids. She loved it, of course!

I always love these pictures of kids eating their first cake! Caleb loved it!

Cousin Caleb had a cowboy 1st birthday party! We ate yummy fajitas and had a cowboy boot cake!

Poor brother! He wants to play so bad, and sometimes just sits on the bench wishing he could be out there! He's pretty good already!

Mommu and Grandad came in from Lubbock for the weekend. We had t-ball, our nephew's first birthday, and Mother's Day. It was a packed weekend! Josh's grandparents are the most precious people! So far they have been able to make one game per season for each great grandchild and every one of their birthdays. They have 16 great grandkids under age 6 and 2 more on the way! What troopers!

Grace looks so thrilled to be out in 100 degree heat in pants! At least she has pink shoes!

May, Part I

2009-06-16T19:15:00.012-05:00

That night we had random ducks and rabbits in our yard! The kids loved feeding them!

The portraits of all the mommies were posted on the wall. I picked mine out right away. Not because I am THAT good at knowing my daughter's artwork, but because she knows me so well. Look at the eccentric clothing with tons of color, stripes and polka dots! That's me!! Loud colors and big earrings! Hilarious!

Grace and her class reciting Psalm 139, "For you created my inmost being...you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." They can quote the whole chapter. Amazing, and it makes each mommy cry!

On May 7, Grace had a Mother's Day Tea at school. I love going each year. This year they made us bonnets, jewelry boxes, and portraits. They had cookies and punch for us, and showed us a little of what they learned this year.

Precious girl!!! How can she see anything coming her way with her hat like that? At least she's "ready!"

The cutest player, by far!!! She made it on base every time, however, she didn't hit too many balls off Daddy. She mostly used the tee.

The league this year was still through our church, but they got pitches from their coach, and then could hit off a tee if they didn't hit the thrown balls. We made progress each week. Here's the stellar player, Coach Josh!

T-ball began at the end of April, and boy was Coach Josh excited!! He planned, made spreadsheets, and thought about how each practice would work. Our friend, Matthew, coached with him. We had bascially the same team as last year, but we recruited another girl to play.

The kids' first swimming outing was to our Athletic Center's indoor pool. Brady was nervous again this year, but Grace is a real swimmer! They enjoy the little play area, but Grace already feels she's too big for that! Yikes!

April Happenings

2009-06-16T17:33:00.018-05:00

We went to a playdate one Friday, and hadn't been there 3 minutes when Brady fell through the monkey bars and split his chin open. That was great! We spent the rest of the day in the ER. He ended up getting the liquid stitches, although now I am not a big fan of them. I don't think the wound closed good. Brady was only crying because he had to leave the park! That's a boy for you! He was awesome in the ER! I'm guessing this is our first of many trips to that place with a rowdy boy!

Grammy and Pops with the grandkids after the program. It was super cute!

Just to give you a feel of how big our church is, this group of kids is all 4 and 5 yr olds. And this is our chapel. It's insane! Grace's choir class was only 3 months of birthdays, and her Sunday class is only Feb, 2004 kids. Needless to say, our children's area is a madhouse!

Brother was great at the performance!! He watched sister perform with intensity!

The Sunday after Easter Grace had her spring choir program. All of the songs had to do with God's love, so they were supposed to wear pink, red, or hearts. In the fall program, Grace sang, but didn't look like she enjoyed it. She did NO hand motions. This time she was really into it. And she was also the girl with THE biggest bow in the show!

Aunt Marisa and sweet cousin Caleb! The kids can't wait until he can run and play with them!

He got a lot of eggs!! Unfortunately it had been a rainy morning, so we had to hunt inside. Not the greatest experience, but they didn't seem to mind.

Cousin Caleb has a great first experience of egg hunting. He really enjoyed shaking the eggs to hear the candy inside. What a cutie!!

The kids got huge easter baskets from us and goodies all week from Granna and Papaw.

After an awesome church service, Grammy, Pops, Marisa and Caleb came over for lunch. It was a good day to spend together.

Palmer Family- Easter 2009

Here's a better picture of the cute vest my mom made with the bunny on it!

Easter morning! Grace is once again wearing one of my outfits, and one my mom made for me years ago. They sure look sweet to be so mischievous!

Buddy mainly watched the shenanigans!

The kids enjoyed dying eggs with Daddy. We got 2 kits and they thought it was pretty cool! However, no one ate one hard boiled egg! That was a waste! Don't know if we will do that again!

Random and EXCITING Happenings

2009-04-08T09:36:00.006-05:00

The finished product. Lovely!
Second, we decorated a gingerbread Bunny House (from Target). I was very skeptical that this would work, but it actually turned out great! The icing really stuck to the walls, and the kids each decorated a side.

Of course, Grace's looked more realistic and she knew where to put the stickers.

Last Friday we began our Easter activities. First we used stickers and they each made an Easter scene of Jesus, the cross, the tomb, etc. Then we read the Easter story from the Bible.

Josh has always vaccuumed the stairs for me, since it's hard to hold the vaccuum and do a good job. However, lately he has taken over most of the other vaccuuming too. What a good hubby! Every time one of us gets it out, Brady has to get his vaccuum and help too. What a cutie!

Grace had Donuts with Dad at school. They got to wear a sports shirt, so they chose their t-ball shirts so they would match. She loved that Daddy could go to her classroom and have breakfast!

What are we having??

2009-04-08T09:31:00.002-05:00

It's a sister!!!! Grace is thrilled!
I am back-stepping a little bit, but this was the morning we went to the doctor. We took the kids to Chick-fil-A for breakfast, then off to the doctor to find out if we were having a brother or sister. Brady didn't really get it, but Grace really wanted to know. This was before the appointment.

Spring Break in TN

2009-04-08T08:36:00.020-05:00

In a police car! It was a great day for all! We stayed there so long they were really worn out!

There was a Kroger set up like a real grocery store. The kids could push their basket around and shop and then check themselves out. Denise had to help.

Grace was wearing piles of fabric. We didn't really know what she was.

There was a dress up area with a stage where the kids could perform. Go Buzz Lightyear!

We also got to go to the Children's Museum with Denise and her 3 kids. We were very adventurous that week. It was a great place for the kids to explore. First they went fishing.

She was super happy the next morning to find 4 quarters in her bag. She said in such a bewildered voice, "Mommy, I didn't even see that lady come in my room!" The tooth fairy, AKA "Mommy", didn't have the heart to take the tooth out of the bag after she was so scared she would lose it.

Pitiful thing!

Later that night we had a big occurrence in Grace's life- her first lost tooth! I don't think I wrote about this, but a few weeks ago we heard her crying in bed and went to check on her. She said her tooth was loose. We talked to her about it, that it was a big girl thing to happen, and all kids lost their teeth. She just kept saying, "what if it falls out in the carpet and I can't find it!" She had heard people saying "you lost a tooth" and she thought she would really misplace it and not be able to find it again. It scared her to death!

On this night, Uncle Micah was wrestling with her, and flipped her over the back of the couch. She didn't even hit her head, but somehow the tooth came out. Everybody was so happy for her, but she was crying. We were trying to tell her about the tooth fairy.

Grace loved the panda bear, but she informed me it wasn't real. It was someone in a costume. Little stinker!

The kids just HAD to ride the carousel and poor Miss Kelly offered to ride with all the kids. What a nice, thoughtful friend to let the pregnant lady rest for a minute! Good thing Sarah and Drew's Mimi was along for the journey too.

This was Brady's first zoo trip, sadly. But he enjoyed himself soo much! He was enthralled with all the animals and had a lot to tell me about each one. The giraffes were one of his favorites!

Sweet friends! Sarah and Grace act like they see each other every day! Poor Drew didn't want to be in the picture. As you'll notice, zoo day was also St. Patrick's Day.

Watching sea lions swim around

Once we got back to Memphis, we got to have more fun times with my high school friends! They are just so awesome! We got to go to the zoo with Kelly, her mom, and her 3 kids! It was a great day! L-R: Drew, Brady, Grace, and Sarah

Like I said, little climber! He would only stop to yell, "Go Zachary!"

I don't know what to say about little kids and 5 hour baseball games! We packed a bag full of balls, coloring pages, and lots of snacks and they went through it all! Grace does pretty good, but Brady is all over the place. We try to sit away from the other people so he has room to climb around, but a small child can only be confined for so long! Thank goodness my mom helps or I would be insane!

Uncle Zachary playing second base. The 3rd baseman got hurt, so he has been playing that position some also. Too bad Vanderbilt put us way way back from the field on some bleachers.

The precious neighbors that used to live next door to my parents also moved to Nashville. Therefore we had a nice, warm, free place to stay. It rained a lot of the weekend, so we hung out at their house. Their daughter Elaine also lives nearby. She is one of my best friends from high school and was my maid of honor. It was great to see her and her newborn son, David.

We had a whirlwind trip to TN for our spring break! We got to ride with our friend Amanda and her kids! It made the ride go so much faster! The day after we got to Memphis we rode to Nashville with my parents to watch some baseball. Ole Miss was playing Vanderbilt. Here is our famous player, Uncle Zachary!

Baby #3

2009-03-28T14:16:00.002-05:00

We went to the dr. on Monday, March 23rd for our 20 week ultrasound. The doctor said the baby looks great and healthy and we saw 2 feet and 2 hands and legs really kicking. The whole family of 4 went because Grace is really into this whole baby thing. We found out that...

It's a Girl!!

We really, really didn't care too much what sex it was. Grace was the only one dying for a sister, so she got her wish. We are overwhelmed with thankfulness that the baby seems healthy and is doing good. We are so blessed to have 2 other healthy, vibrant children. I am still scheduled for a c-section at 7 am on Monday, Aug. 3rd. So weird, but maybe I'll go into labor on my own for once.

Frisco Fire Safety

2009-03-28T14:07:00.004-05:00

They had a very old firetruck on display that all 25 kids got on. It is so neat to see how our community works. Next to the fire station they have built a "safety town." It is a child size town that looks like an adult's world. A miniature wal-mart, post office, bank, church, etc. on 2 lane marked roads with street lights. The kids can bring bikes and learn safety on the streets and tour the buildings. We didn't get to do that on this outing because we had to have an evaluation meeting with Grace's teachers. We found out she is doing excellent and can progress to kindergarten with no difficulty. Whew!!! Glad to hear that one!

Grace (in green) climbing onto the ambulance.

On March 6th, we planned a playgroup outing with our adult SS class. We went to the Frisco Fire Station. It is a new station and we got to tour their kitchen and bedrooms. They talked about fire safety and showed a firefighter putting on all his gear. They really reassured the little ones that a fireman is nice and not scary in the mask and all. Then we got to tour the fire trucks and ambulance. Grace was all about it, running off in her independent way, and Brady was apprehensive, like always, wanting Mommy to hold him the whole time. He did explore a little.

Q & U Wedding

2009-03-28T13:54:00.007-05:00

The kids sitting in their rows during the ceremony
Here is Grace's teacher, Ms. Irene, who did the ceremony. She talked about how Q and U always go together and should never be separated. Notice the altar and the arch behind her.

Here is Miss Q and Mr. U in their veil and bow tie. These two kids were chosen to carry them and hold them during the ceremony. The hilarious part was that Gracie's dad came from work in a suit and walked her and Miss Q down the aisle.

The beautiful wedding cake and little favor bags with jelly beans in them. They served punch and everything!

Waiting to walk down the aisle and throw her petals down.

One of the greatest things about teaching at the kids' preschool is that I can peek in on them during the day. Grace is learning so much in her class, and the week they studied Q, they had a Q & U wedding. Since q and u always go together, they had a wedding to join them in union. And boy was it a full out wedding. So cute!! Grace got to wear her flower girl dress from Micah and Erica's wedding.

The Party

2009-03-28T12:01:00.017-05:00

We were super glad our cousins from Clyde could come and play and swim with us! Rebecca and Lou's 4 kids: Jacob, Madilyn, Benjamin, and baby Noah

Grace got to open all her gifts at home after the party. She got many craft kits (put together jewelry, painting, etc.), along with clothes and Barbies, etc. Too many gifts for a child of 5, for sure!

From L to R: Grandad (Josh's), Benjamin, Grammy with Brady, and Aunt Rhonda with Madilyn

Our cousin Pacey came over to watch the gift opening.

4 friends going down the slide

Thank goodness Daddy got in the deeper water. What pregnant lady in their right mind would wear a swimsuit at her daughter's swim party?

Brady was a little unsure at first, and never went down the slide, but he loved splashing in the water! Poor buddy still needs to pack on some pounds!

Grace, Greanley, and Katie loving the water!

Some of Grace's friends from school: Max, Maren, and Gracie. Our awesome gym had party rooms right next to the pool. For a small fortune, you could have it decorated and pizza and utensils were supplied. It was great! However, the kids cared nothing about the pizza and cake. They were ready to swim!!

Our great buddies and Memphis pals, Bowman and Paxton! Paxton had his 6th birthday party the next day!

Josh's grandmother and the kid's cousin, Benjamin! We went to Clyde and then they got to come see us! Josh's sweet grandparents have 16 great grandchildren ages 6 and under and they come to every party. Yes, read that sentence again! They are amazing and so loved!

Grammy and Pops, helping with Brady as always!

Focus on the sweet looking 5 yr old..not her mom growing bigger by the day!

We decided to have a swim party in February!! Many of our friends had already had parties at Pump It Up, gym places, etc. and we were looking for something different. Our gym is awesome and has such a great indoor pool/activity area. So we chose that along with Grace's continual love for princesses. This year was Ariel. This was the first year not to have my mom's help with the cake, and it took 5 hours!! The things you do for your kids! Oh well, at least it turned out close to what Ariel should look like....all to be eaten in 5 minutes!

Grace's 5th birthday!!

2009-03-28T11:47:00.007-05:00

At Chili's with the fam- good times! I am so thankful for this precious girl! She loves school, and loves life! She is happy and content with whatever we do each day, and loves to help mommy. She likes to sing and do art and dance. We had such difficulty conceiving a child at first, and I will always be so grateful for Grace and her sweet spirit! I love you, sweet girl!

From Mommy and Daddy...A Disney Princess game for the Wii

From Granna and Papaw she got clothes for her American Girl Bitty Baby, as well as spring clothes for herself. She also got a digital camera, which she loves!!

Sitting in anticipation of what was in those boxes!!

I feel sad for my sweet girl that her birthday is around a holiday. But I can't do anything to change it. On the 12th, her actual birthday, we were able to take pink donuts to her class to help celebrate. We opened gifts that night and she chose Chili's for dinner. Thank the Lord we didn't have to go to Chuck E Cheese again!

Trip to Clyde

2009-03-28T11:37:00.004-05:00

Grace had her Valentine's party at school on the 10th, so I tried to dress them in red. I am still quite frustrated with finding holiday shirts for boys. I guess it could be because I wait until the last minute, or I could make one, so instead we settle for the color scheme.

Here are the kids from the party. My two, 3 of Rebecca's 4, and all 3 of our other friend Randa's kids. We 3 girls were great friends in college, and now our kids get to be also! Fun times! Don't know why Grace looks so gigantic compared to everyone else.

The first weekend in Feb. we went to Clyde, TX to Josh's cousin Rebecca's house. We are all great buddies from college, so we have a blast with them. They have 4 children, and it was Benjamin's 6th birthday. He is really into dinosaurs and actually knows a lot of facts about them. We had so much fun with our cousins!!!

Breaking News....Okay, so a Little Old-

2009-02-05T20:16:00.006-06:00

Here is the little peanut at 12 weeks. It is just amazing what God can do! The legs are already kicking strongly. Yes, we will find out what it is. No, we won't share the name again. Yes, we had to get on fertility drugs again. And yes, we were still shocked! I'm due Aug. 11, but have scheduled C-sections, so the doctor has already called the hospital and scheduled it for Aug. 3. Weird, I know. Talk about planned!

The kids were very happy, or at least Grace was. Brady had no idea what was happening or what his shirt said. Grace declared that it HAD to be a baby sister because she already had a brother. We'll see what happens.

Yep, if you can read the shirt, you got it! Brady is going to be a big brother! We told the kids Christmas morning because we knew they would not keep it a secret. We had him wear the shirt all day, and no one noticed but my mom. She said, "Oh Brady, what a cute Christmas shhhhhhh...what does that say?????" We had to tell my dad and brother. They never clued in.

Other Memphis Happenings

2009-02-05T19:54:00.008-06:00

The reason I stayed in TN as long as I did was for this girl, Regan! She got married on Jan. 10 and I HAD to be there! She looked gorgeous and had the best wedding! She deserves the world and some of us were there to celebrate with her. (L-R: EJ, Kelly, Christy, Regan, Karen, Amber, me and Laura). Fun times!

One night Micah and Erica had us over for dinner, and the kids got into Guitar Hero. Uncle Micah had to help most of the time.

Boo hoo! Does this age thing ever reverse?!

I regretfully turned 32 while in TN. At least my family knows and loves me enough to get me a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake! Yum! We just grilled out as a family and had cake. I got some cards, flowers, and more cartridges to my precious scrapbooking machine!

These are some of the most special people to me, ever! These girls were in my "grade" in high school, and mean the world to me! They really helped me grow in Christ in high school, and we kept each other entertained and out of trouble. We have sort of kept in touch over the years and I wish I had a way to post a pic of us from high school. Scary!! Jennifer, Denise, and Jennifer each have 3 kids and somehow we were able to meet one morning to catch up without ANY children. That's a feat in and of itself! It was so great!

Another day, Kelly so sweetly offered to have a playdate, so EJ and I joined. Are there enough kids in this picture? Even though I stay at my parent's house a long time, I am never bored. My mom comes home for lunch each day, and over holidays my brother is living there too. Then I have a couple of awesome friends, namely Kelly, Denise, and Karen who fill my days with playdates, lunches, etc. It keeps my kids entertained and I'm so appreciative!

I have THE BEST friends...both past and present. These girls, however, are precious! I am the old fogie of the group, but we all went to the same church in high school. Our youth group was quite unique because we constantly hung out together, and kept in touch over all these years. We didn't all go to the same high school, but loved each other anyway. Those that were in town over the holidays met to have dinner together. It was such a sweet time to share, laugh, and enjoy each other again. L-R (Kelly, Regan, Colleen, EJ- Elizabeth, me, and Amber- you might recognize some of these girls from my other blogs!)

Christmas- Part III and IV

2009-02-05T17:15:00.017-06:00

Grace got the Little Mermaid DVD, and several outfits for the American Girl "Bitty Baby" that she got last year. She is really into "dressing" dolls at the moment.

That day Brady got baseball bases and the Little People Nativity

It seemed like we were all getting Ole Miss and Texas Tech gear. Too bad they were playing each other in the Cotton Bowl and Texas Tech stunk it up!!!

Uncle Micah got a suit and a Texas Tech hat!

The Newlyweds

We drove to TN on Dec. 24 and stayed until Jan. 11. That was a long, long time! We had Christmas with Granna, Papaw, and Zachary on Christmas day, and then had it again when Micah and Erica came back into town. Our Christmas this year lasted 2 weeks!

Grace and Granna- Merry Christmas!

Uncle Zachary got a cool new cell phone, among other things.

My dad got my mom a leather jacket. FANCY!

Papaw got GPS. I don't know if any of us know how to set it up, but hopefully he can learn how it works.

I can't believe I'm posting this terrible picture of me, but I just had to show you what I got for Christmas!! A CRICUT! I went on the greatest scrapbook retreat last spring, and a lot of the girls had these machines hooked up to their laptops for scrapbooking. You type in words or symbols, and can print it out onto paper in thousands of fonts! So cool! It's one of the best presents I've ever gotten!

Josh got his beloved Wii. We played that thing for hours on end during our 3 week stay in TN. The funny thing is that Grace could beat almost everyone at bowling. Who knew a 4 yr old would be so good. She even beat Zachary, who I'm sure spends most of his waking college hours playing Wii and Guitar Hero.

Brady got a lot more of his Geo Trax. He loves trains!

Grace got the GREATEST dollhouse- The Loving Family dollhouse. So cool!

Papaw breaks his camera out only once a year, at Christmas. Who knows what funny stuff is on that 1989 camera! The kids had never seen such...

Christmas Morning, Part I

2009-01-30T17:13:00.009-06:00

For the past few years, Josh and I haven't gotten big gifts for each other. We just fill each other's stockings, sometimes over the brim. It's been really fun! He got athletic pants, a movie, cologne, cross word puzzle book, razor blades, etc. I got a new watch, Junior Mints :), a renewed PEOPLE subscription (if you know me, you know how much I love this!), a CD and more. Sorry that there's never any pictures of me. Well, I'm not really sorry. I am always taking the pictures, and what mommy wants pictures of them in mis-matched pj's and no make-up on Christmas morning? Yikes!

I like stockings the best! They are so fun to fill! The kids got candy, markers, chap stick, these mugs with their names on them, and other little trinkets. For first time stocking fillers, Target's dollar section is awesome!

That girl loves to sing!

Does Daddy like Christmas or what??

Grace loved the bike, especially the little bag on the front.

I'm pretty sure Brady's favorite gift was the gun, which made 20 different annoying shooting sounds.

Santa came to our house on Dec. 23rd because we were leaving for Tennessee the next day. Our car couldn't fit 3 weeks worth of clothes, 20 presents, a bike, keyboard, 4 people and a dog with cage! Good thing the kids don't understand yet that Santa is supposed to come for the 25th. Here they are waiting at the top of the stairs to see if Santa really came!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas....at the Palmer's anyway

2009-01-30T16:54:00.006-06:00

Grace got a "big girl" bike whose training wheels will hopefully come off soon. She also got a keyboard and microphone, Perfection game, suitcase, toiletry bag, and Sleeping Beauty Barbie. "Santa", AKA Dianna and Josh, about died putting stuff together. Especially me!! Josh thinks this is the most fun thing in the world, but I was cussing. Does anyone else hate how MANY plastic ties they secure the toy to the box with? Thousands! And tape, and more cardboard than should be allowed in our "green" environment. I couldn't do it! I couldn't un-do one more plastic tie! And the decal stickers! Insane! They sure don't want to help you out in any way!

Merry Christmas to All, and to all a good night, anyway!

"Santa" was pretty good this year. We didn't want to go ALL out since the economy isn't the greatest. My mom keeps saying, "SAVE YOUR MONEY!" like we need to be hiding it under our mattress. I digress.... Brady got the Helmet Heroes police gear, more parts to his train, a Buz Lightyear gun, a semi truck full of matchbox cars, a suitcase, "Jungle Book" movie, and Texas Tech jersey. Pretty good for a 2 yr old. Josh was totally disgusted that "Santa" needed to bring monogrammed suitcases. That's no fun, he says.

Showing their letter to Santa....begging him to leave toys because they were good enough!

They were really concerned for the reindeer as well. I don't know if they knew about this from school or where they got it from. We don't really talk in depth about the reindeer. Anyway, carrots it was!

The kids love making cookies for Santa. I was surprised how much Brady got into it. We're usually in a hurry, so break and bake it is!

Palmer Christmas

2009-01-30T16:23:00.011-06:00

Palmer Family- 2008
Josh got ties, dress pants, golf glove, etc. I got the same kitchen shears as Marisa, giftcards, perfume, and pj's. It was a great Christmas for all! It's really nice that we get to see each other frequently anyway, since we live near one another. But Christmas is always special.

Caleb got a musical tool bench, balls, and a highchair.

Pops got clothes and giftcards, I think. Sadly, it's been to long for me to remember. He likes to help the kids open the boxes!

Grammy got clothes and her necklace. She also made us a nice lunch to eat. I think Christmas is her favorite holiday.

Uncle Gary got lots of giftcards. He wants special parts for guns, which none of us know how to get. Poor Gary!

Aunt Marisa got some kitchen shears, a robe, pj's and giftcards.

Grace got a Cinderella barbie and a baby doll. She loves dressing things right now.

Brady got this cool tool bench and a Cars sleeping bag! Both great gifts!

We had our Palmer Christmas early, on the 20th. We were going to TN and Marisa and Gary were going to Lubbock. Here is uncle Josh holding sweet Caleb. Grace loves to help take care of him.

An X-rated Christmas

2009-01-30T15:59:00.012-06:00

I may be kicked off Blogger for this picture, but it's worth it. If you have ever seen my son in person, you know how very skinny he is. I don't know another 2 yr old with such a defined six pack. Anyway, one morning after breakfast I went upstairs to find this little guy running around. He had taken his diaper and pj's off, and put on my fuzzy socks and this hat. Hilarious! Think this can be bribery during his wedding video?

Because I work at the preschool, I couldn't go to the whole hour of the party. So Grammy came to be with Grace. She helped her decorate a gingerbread house.

Her class recited the Lord's Prayer and sang a few Christmas carols. They are getting so big!

Grace's class wrote on the board for all of us to see their names.

These are all the little brothers and sisters. They got to decorate cookies, but not participate in the story.

The whole crew! My friend does this for her older daughter, who is in public school. She invites all the girls in her class. What a great way to tell little kids about Jesus who may not hear about him at home!

Our friend Sam had the greatest Christmas party! We got to make a craft, decorate cookies, and then act out the true Christmas story. All of the kids invited were Sam's boy friends from school and soccer, but Grace was the lone girl invited. Someone had to be Mary, and no 5 yr old boy would choose that!

Gloria

2009-01-23T18:50:00.003-06:00

I got to sing again this year in our church's Christmas program, Gloria. It's always such a fun time and so amazing singing with just over 500 people! John Tesh was a part of our program. Entertainment Tonight anyone?? He was pretty good if you like that type of thing, but his little singing assistant girl was so annoying. Anyway.... we only had 4 performances this year, which was much more bearable. Grace and Josh came with his parents, and Brady went to the nursery. Grace really enjoyed the ballerinas that came out of the ceiling. Please ignore our horrendous red glitter tops! Not what I would choose to wear!

We have this little wooden manger scene, and Brady got it one day to play with. He was just in his own world, talking, and acting things out. He seems to know more than Grace did at this age, which is amazing to me, since Grace talks nonstop. What a precious boy!

Bowling and Jesus?

2009-01-23T17:18:00.009-06:00

Santa- 2008- No one is crying! Good enough for me!
The last part you wait in is like you are inside a snowglobe. It's snowing fake snow and the huge train front was coming in. It makes the wait worthwhile! Thank you Willow Bend Mall!

Our mall has the coolest interactive area to wait for Santa. Last year it was the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, and this year it was The Polar Express. As you wait in line, you pass these huge snowglobes that have moving people in them (like the boy looking out his window at the train coming). Lots to look at! Then you go through this tunnel that looks like the inside of the train! The kids could pull levers and ropes and push buttons that all made train sounds. So cool!

This was the day I took the kids to see Santa. I dressed them up all cute, and they were doing the silliest poses. It was driving me crazy because I never got a good one. Oh well, off to see Santa. Hope that goes well....

This is one day before school. The kids are loving this time of year at school because they are learning Christmas songs and hearing all about Jesus' birth. They have Happy Birthday Jesus parties at school and celebrate the Savior's birth. I am so thankful we are still free to go to a Christian preschool and teach our children about God!

Gabrielle, Katie, and Grace partying down like 5 yr olds do!

Grace got to go to her first bowling party! Her friend Gabrielle had her party at a bowling alley, and it was so fun! Grace really enjoyed it and did well with the helpful ramp they provided. The way these places do parties now is insane!

Christmas Card Pic??

Precious children! I could just eat them up! Although I don't feel like the best mom sometimes, I think my kids are pretty well behaved and so sweet! My mom made these Christmas outfits for them!

Tree Decorating!

2009-01-23T17:10:00.003-06:00

Goofball!
Brady loved decorating! He did a pretty good job, although he kept wanting to move the ornaments all Christmas season.

The Palmers are back in the land of the living, and I am finally posting. Some of my friends were about to disown me if I didn't get updated.

Nov. 30th we put up our tree. Josh's family has a tradition of giving ornaments each year, so here are the ornaments the kids got from us and Mom-mu and Grandad, and Grammy and Pops. Grace is so serious!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-19T12:21:00.018-06:00

This is my precious Mimi! I am so close to her and love her so much! She turned 80 in August and you'd never know it. We lived in Lubbock growing up, so I got to spend a lot of time with her. She would take me to the Nutcracker ballet every Christmas and spending the night with her was a treat! She would wash my hair in the kitchen sink, play tic-tac-toe, read many books, play the piano and sing with me, and give me lots of Jell-O pudding ice cream bars. Yum! Being at her house on any holiday is so special because it's what I've known my whole life. Thanksgiving was great and we have much to be thankful for!

This is my cousin, Abbee. She is the youngest grandchild (7th grade) and I am the oldest (won't say how old I am). My Mimi has been to more sporting games, recitals, and graduations than anyone in the U.S. I'm sure. But we all appreciate her so much!

The day we left Lubbock, my mom decided to decorate my Mimi's house for Christmas. So everyone had to pitch in. My grandmother has TONS of decorations, so there's plenty for everyone to do. I'm realizing now that I didn't take very many good family pictures over Thanksgiving. Oh well, I guess that means we were having too much fun!

Grandad with Grace and Brady

This is Josh's granmother, Mommu. They are always so generous to let us stay with them. They have a huge king bed we sleep in and Grandad cooks breakfast daily, including homemade biscuits! We love it there!

Our cousin, Caitlyn. Grace always loves playing with her when we visit.

Erica, Micah, and Josh listening to the same story, 40th verse from Mamaw! Gotta love grandparents!

We spent one day with my dad's mom, Mamaw. She is a hoot! She tells all kinds of stories! We are always glad to see her when we visit Lubbock!

Micah and Erica. Poor Erica has to hang out with us way too much! She is an only child and probably didn't know what hit her coming into such a big family!

Josh tickling Grace

Brady wrestling with my brother, Micah.

Our cousin Ethan

We got to spend one evening with some of our cousin's on Josh's side. This is Blake, Grace, Reaghan, and Brady wrestling with Josh.

Randa has 3 kids, Rebecca had 3 with another one just born, and I have my two. Needless to say, we storm the Chick-fil-A! I sure do appreciate them helping me wear my kids out before we get back on the road.

The kids and I drove to Lubbock, TX for Thanksgiving a little early so I could visit my bestest pals! They live about half way to Lubbock, so it's a great spot to get out of the car and stretch. Not to mention catching up with these sweet girls and all the kids playing! Randa, Rebecca, and I were buddies in college. Randa was my college roommate and little sis in our sorority, and Rebecca is Josh's cousin. We were friends and she introduced me to Josh. So the good thing is that even though I'm stuck with Josh for life, I always get Rebecca at family functions too! :) Rebecca was due 1 week from this picture with her 4th child, and she still met me for lunch!

Prestonwood Tree Lighting

2008-12-19T12:10:00.007-06:00

The family at the tree. This is such a fun family tradition. They even serve cookies and hot chocolate! Good times!

Brady was dead still the entire hour. He was mesmerized by all the action and lights!

Grace loved these dancers the best. The boys is the background have neon sticks they are drumming with. In the dark, it looked awesome!

Our church really outdoes itself at Christmas. With 27,000 members, I guess they have to find a place for everyone to serve. We had our tree lighting earlier this year. Is Christmas sooner than ususal or is it just me? I am frantic! Anyway, the 1-6 grade choirs did the tree lighting this year. They were awesome! They had ballerinas, lots of singing, and lighting up the tree.

Grace's Choir Program

2008-12-19T11:26:00.002-06:00

Our sweet family

Grammy, Pops, Aunt Marisa, and Caleb all came to the program!

Grace had her choir program right before Thanksgiving. She sings constantly, so this was the perfect outlet for her. She sang loud and strong, but did NONE of the motions they were taught! Oh well, it was so precious to see her first choir concert!

Early November Happenings

2008-12-07T16:43:00.005-06:00

November 12th- Happy 32nd Birthday, Daddy!
Josh got a staple gun from his parents. The kids had to help open.

On the day before Josh' birthday, we went to eat at his choice, Babe's. It's a country place that only serves chicken fried steak or fried chicken, and then brings huge bowls of corn, green beans, rolls, and mashed potatoes for everyone to share. Grammy and Pops came too. The waitresses even do the chicken dance and ask the kids to join along. It's a fun place.

This will be bribery for Brady later...like at his wedding! He does make a beautiful Cinderella though!

Taryn's Birthday

2008-12-07T16:29:00.006-06:00

The kids had cupcakes and a carousel ride after the Build-A-Bear store. It was Grace and Taryn and a bunch of boys!

Grace with the birthday girl, Taryn

Pink and white furry bear, white dress with gold accents, and silver shoes. Nice!!

Grace finally got to go to the beloved "Bear store." Our friend Taryn had a birthday party there and it was a hit for Grace. Of course everything she picked out TOTALLY did NOT match, but oh well. She had a great time!

HALLOWEEN!!

2008-12-07T14:50:00.020-06:00

We let them ride this train twice to try and get rid of our tickets. It was a great night and fun for all, but time to go home. Mommy didn't even get her funnel cake. Oh well. At least Brady got to play the games this year. Although he thought you got to eat the candy you were given after every game. Talk about a sugar high!!

Who thinks up these games?? The object is to throw mini dog chewing bones into the dog bowls. Of course Brady loved this game, but not as much as ones with balls.

Grace chatting with her friends like old ladies: Riley (butterfly), Chloe (in pink bow), and Taryn (Snow White back behind). Hilarious!

Grammy and Pops with their 3 grandchildren

Family Photo

Grace just HAD to ride the ponies. Notice Josh's smile. We are all laughing at him because he is walking in all that horse poop! Anything for his little girl, right?

Soccer

Goin' Fishin'

This is Pacey. Josh's cousin Rachel and her husband had her this time last year. Isn't she a cute butterfly?

Our nephew, Caleb. For his first Halloween, he was a pumpkin.

We found Brady's friend, Jackson (or Elmo). They were having more fun rolling in the grass and down the hill than playing any games!

Feeding goats...You would've thought they were wild goats the way they were behaving!

Thank goodness Grammy and Pops come with us to help corral the troops!

First stop: finger nail painting. Brady was NOT interested!

This year Brady was a mouse and Grace was Sleeping Beauty. She has been asking for 2 yrs. to be a princess, so I finally gave in. We were off to our church Fall Festival. In order to visualize what we go to, picture 27,000 people in 5 parking lots with hundreds of games. I can't even count the number of inflatibles to jump in. Thank goodness they have an area for preschoolers and an area for "big kids."

They got a little pumpkin filled with bubbles, so they had to try them out right then!

These are the kids pumpkins on Halloween morning. We try not to give them candy since they will load up later at the Fall Festival, so we gave flashlights, books, glow necklaces, etc.

Cowboys N Pumpkins??

2008-12-07T14:35:00.006-06:00

Cowboy Day #2. Notice the pink and purple hair dryer. Nice!!

The finished product!! Boy, am I behind on posting or what?? It's almost Christmas!!

That night we got to carve our pumpkin. Grace was actually old enough this year to help pull the "junk" out, although she didn't like it. I roasted the seeds with salt on them, but no one liked them except me. Bummer! I thought this was going to be some great family tradition.

Brady got to have cowboy day at school too! He loves playing cowboy at home, so this was right up his alley!

TN trip!

2008-11-17T15:36:00.009-06:00

The kids and I drove to TN over a long weekend at the end of Oct. My friend Karen Miller from high school was getting married (she has the same name as my mom). The kids were SOO good in the car and I was estactic! Karen got married to Ryan at her parents lake house and it was a small, intimate wedding. Beautiful! Our friend Josh has amazing photography skills, and does weddings on the side, so it was good to see him too. Congrats Karen!

Karen and Ryan are major Memphis Tigers Basketball fans. Isn't the cake cool? I wish I could say I made it, but no.

J.Jaye and I cut the cake. I was wondering how many times I have done this at a friend's wedding. I shoul've kept count!

Sweet Karen! She looked so beautiful on her wedding day!

My brother Zachary and his girlfriend, Mallory. They drove up from college just to eat dinner with us. Mallory is such a sweet girl!

Most of the fam. My parents finally got rid of the couch they've had since 1989 and got this much better style.

Brady loves my mom's exercise ball. He pushes it all over the house, breaking things along the way. This trip it was a vase with dried flowers in it. Oops!

Grace plays the piano almost constantly at my parent's house. They don't seem to mind, but it drives me bonkers!

Visiting Cousin Brett

2008-11-10T09:20:00.005-06:00

This is my sweet cousin Jill and her precious baby, Brett. Many of you know of him because I asked you to pray for him for so long. He was hit by a car in April and had to recover from that. Then they found a brain tumor that they removed a couple of months ago. Needless to say, they have had a rough year, but Brett is doing amazing! He is just the happiest and sweetest little boy. He and Brady are 6 weeks apart. Josh went out of town for work, so I drove down to Burleson to visit all my cousins for the day. We had a blast playing, eating, and watching football together! We are so thankful Brett is doing so much better!

The kids were fascinated to be at a real football game. We didn't sit in the stands, so they were able to run around and watch from the sidelines. Brady kept yelling "football". They had a blast at Hutch's game.

My aunt Sheila has 5 kids! They are all so awesome! Haylee is in graduate school in AR and also coaches softball. Her sister Kelli is just the greatest teacher!

My cousin Hutch, who is at Senior at a private school in Crowley. He is the star quarterback!

Cowboy Day

2008-11-03T18:15:00.005-06:00

Can't leave brother out! Look at his hair all slicked back. What a character! He's getting pretty good at this pop-a-shot thing he got for his birthday.

Both the jean dress below and this white and red shirt were mine when I was little. I am so thankful my mom saved all this stuff. Keep in mind though, that sizes must be different now a days because these are size 6 and my 4 yr old is wearing it. Yikes!

Grace was having "Rr" week at school and studying the rodeo, so they had to dress as cowboys/cowgirls. Her boots were too small so we had to get new ones. She really wanted pink, but we made her settle for black and red, so they could be passed down to brother. She wasn't very happy about it. Thursday at school they had a cookout and everything!

Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-03T17:43:00.012-06:00

Everybody on the train

Gary and Marisa- Caleb's parents

Cousins!!

Caleb- isn't he precious?!
This was a huge haystack the kids wanted to climb. I was very impressed they were so brave!

This is Josh's cousin Rachel, her husband Jeremy, and their daughter Pacey. She's almost one, and such a cutie!!

Pops and our nephew Caleb on the hayride

So he's scared of all the inflatibles, but he climbed right up to the top of the jungle gym, no problem!

Brady and Grammy. Brady is really scared of the inflatibles, so Grammy occupied him elsewhere.

One Saturday we went with the Palmer fam to another pumpkin patch. It was totally free and had train rides, hay rides, inflatibles, and many picture opportunities. Another great day!

Greta's party

2008-11-03T17:30:00.006-06:00

These were some mean goats! They were trying to pull the cup and Brady through the fence!

Brady's friend Greta had her 2nd birthday party at the Pumpkin Farm we usually go to each fall. It was a great day, nice weather, and fun for my kids to go there with other friends. Brady is a gray mouse and Grace is Sleeping Beauty. They fed animals, went on a hayride, picked a pumpkin, and ran around.

Grace and Wally

2008-10-15T15:24:00.011-05:00

The night before we returned Wally, Josh made us baked fish for dinner. It was yummy!! Oops, sorry Wally! Maybe he didn't see us eating all that fish!

Playing outside with Wally and riding her scooter

After dance, I decided it was time to REALLY wash Wally. Grace wasn't happy!

Wally watching dance class. He looks thrilled!

Wally at dance class

Putting Wally to bed in her doll cradle, which had to be right beside her bed. Mean ole Mama wouldn't let Wally sleep in her bed. That thing smelled disgusting!

Trying to give Wally a bath

At Chick-fil-A

This here is Wally. Grace got to bring her class pet home for a few days. We were supposed to take Wally with us wherever we went and journal about what we did. Grace was so excited to have Wally that she could barely contain herself. Although it was cute, it was actually mommy who had to take all the pictures, get them developed at 9 o'clock at night, and do all the journaling. What 4 yr old journals? This would be a great idea in K-2. Anyway....

Fall in Texas....What Fall?

2008-10-15T15:07:00.005-05:00

I guess Fall comes around here in Texas in September when people put their pumpkins and scarecrows out, but BOY is it hot down here! Fall is my favorite season and it blows by in a second! So, even though it's upwards of 85 degrees here, we're celebrating fall. And for those of you that know me, the decorations are out!!

Brady's Elmo party

2008-10-10T08:43:00.018-05:00

Sunday after the party...Granna and Papaw going back to TN. We sure were glad we had great family and friends to celebrate Brady with! We all had a great time!

Trying out the baseball machine outside. It cheers for you and the arm lifts up and puts a ball on the black stick. It's amazing!

Josh and Uncle Gary putting together the birthday presents. He got a pop-a-shot basketball game from Uncle Gary and Aunt Marisa, and a loud ESPN baseball machine from Granna and Papaw. He loves both! This boy never slows down until his head hits the pillow. He must be extra active because everyone comments on it, especially his poor teachers!

Granna and Papaw

Grammy and Pops

Our Mommu and Aunt Marisa. Mommu and Grandad still drive from Lubbock for the kids' parties. They are Josh's grandparents and we love them so much!

All his friends and Grace had to help open the presents. He wasn't that interested!

Loved his cake and ice cream. Those icing colors do wonder to a kid's poop! Yikes! The poor thing needs to eat 2 lbs. of cake! He only weighed 26 lbs. at his appt. The dr. wasn't worried.

Loved his cake!

We grilled out burgers for everybody and had sides, along with the cake and ice cream. We still just have mainly family and a few of our adult friends from years back.

This is Pops and our precious nephew, Caleb. They dressed identical for the party, by accident.

Brady and his buddy, Jackson. His mom and I are friends since college days at Texas Tech!

The finished product

Brady had his party a few Saturdays ago. He was saying all morning, "Elmo pawty" and was really interested in his cake. He seemed super excited for a 2 yr.old.

God help us....our 4 yr old is acting 20!!

2008-10-03T21:29:00.002-05:00

We have had a rough week with Grace. It's as if we woke up one day and she had aged 16 yrs. She all of a sudden is getting way too big for her britches!! I don't know if she is learning "too much" from her darling friends in Pre-K, or her mind is just swirling with information. Whichever it is, her backside is learning it's lesson over and over, as well as many talks with Mommy and praying to God to help her obey, and occasional use of "Sassy Spray." If you don't know what that is, it's vinegar and water in a spray bottle. When she uses inappropriate language, we have to wash out those nasty words from her mouth. Now, don't you all go call CPS on me. We are trying to prevent a Britney Spears reaction down the road at 16.

On Tuesday before school, I was doing Grace's hair in her bathroom. All of a sudden she asks me, "Mommy, why do I have light skin and not dark skin?" I tell her that mommy has light skin and daddy has light skin, so when God made her in my tummy she had to have light skin too. And she says, "Well, I want to have dark skin." Bless her little heart!

Then that night, she proceeded to keep using the word "butt", which got her sassy spray. She can use that word soon enough.

Then yesterday she pronounced at dinner that she wanted to get married. We told her she had to wait about 20 more years for that, and she said "no, she was ready now." We told her she would have to move out of our house and not ever live with mommy and daddy anymore. She would have to live with her husband. And she says, "Yes, that's fine. I'm going to marry Court(a boy in her class.) We tell her she will have to live in another house, cook all the meals, and she is still fine with it. We try to act sad like this is really hurting our feelings, but it doesn't phase her. She's still today all about getting married. Sheesh...is she really only 4??

Please tell us this is just a short phase, and not the new personality of our precious firstborn!

Brady Turns 2

2008-09-22T20:23:00.004-05:00

Brady has not done well in recent visits to the picture place, so we just took him out to a field one night and took some pics for his 2 yr photos. I thought they turned out okay.

Tomorrow, Sept. 23, Brady will be two years old. In some ways the time has flown by and in other ways it has been very slow. Each child is such a gift to us, because Josh and I feel like we don't deserve them and weren't sure we could have them. Brady has been more challenging than Grace, however I'm hoping that means he will be a strong man with opinions, convictions, and always stand his ground. I always tell Josh that God made him extra cute with that blonde hair and huge blue eyes so that I wouldn't strangle him! He's a mess! But we love him so much and he brings such joy and liveliness to our family. Brady we love you, buddy!

Labor Day weekend

2008-09-22T18:23:00.006-05:00

Grace was glad her friend Riley came over. They have a lot of fun together, mostly playing dress up. She has two friends named Riley, so she calls them brown hair Riley and yellow hair Riley. Cute!

The kids played on the slip n slide and went zooming down our slide into the pool. They thought it was great fun!

The Snyder and Waddell families came over. Here are all the mommies filling up water balloons.

We had some friends over for a cookout on Labor Day. We finally tried out our ice cream machine that we got for Christmas. It made some yummy ice cream! Josh was busy manning that and the grill!

The kids on Labor Day

Fall Has Begun!

2008-09-22T18:00:00.005-05:00

I am pretty sure I haven't blogged about this, but I have griped on facebook. Months ago, Josh told me how great it would be for me to work at the kids' preschool. I would be there with them, their tuition would be greatly discounted, we could save on gas, and I would make a little "fun" money. At the time that sounded great! Well, being with 19 2-3 yr olds all day is making me insane!! I thought I would be able to use my early childhood education degree and actually teach, but what I am really doing is teaching a bunch of kids turning 3 how to sit on the potty! We'll see how long I can take it. So this is Brady and I with my CLC t-shirt on.

The actual first day of school was here way too fast. I don't know if I was living in a dream world or what, but the day before school I realized Grace's backpack was broken and Brady had no backpack or lunchbox at all! And neither of their tennis shoes fit! What an awesome mom I am! So we headed to Target and got new backpacks for all! I think it's silly that they have to wear tennis shoes EVERY day! It's still 90 degrees here, and they've been wearing sandals and crocs all summer. Not any more. I am partial to cute girl shoes, as is Grace, so it's hard to wear tennis shoes every day!

Brady started school this year! I am feeling really sad about this because he is going 2 days a week and Grace only went one day a week at that age. But he seems to really enjoy it! How they get 2 yr olds to nap on a mat is beyond me! This was "meet the teacher day." So far I like both their teachers. I know Grace's dress is a little old-fashioned. It was mine. When I started first grade, my dad let me pick out a dress with him that I could wear on the first day. Did you get that? I wore that dress in first grade, and Grace is only 4!!!! I don't know if they made clothes smaller back then, or I have a monster child. Anyway, she really liked the apples on the bottom of it.

Here is Grace going to her first dance class of the fall. She has moved up to the Rhythm and Rhyme Class II, but she still goes on Wednesday mornings. She seems to really enjoy it and tries to show the other girls how to dance. What else would you expect?

Sima Phi Lambda, Sisters for the Lord

2008-08-27T16:17:00.006-05:00

This was at the end of the weekend, and there weren't as many girls left. Maybe I ran them all away! Anyway, it was a relaxing time and a nice change from being a mommy all the time.

Now I am almost caught up to this ACTUAL week! Yeah!

These are my very closest friends from college. Some were roommates, others I had classes with, but all were in the sorority. 11 of us stayed in a hotel one night, and other nights some stayed at my house. We shopped and stayed up late and talked for hours on end! Don't the rest of you want to come? :)

This is me and Julie. We were roommates our sophomore year. It was great to reconnect with her and visit in person. She has 2 adorable boys!

Believe it or not, this group of girls has been friends for 12 years!! You read that right! These are some of my dearest friends from college, who all met joining Sigma Phi Lambda, a Christian sorority at Texas Tech. Some of us are older than others and pledged at different times, but we all share the bond of college days and fun times! We had a reunion at my house 2 years ago, and it was much smaller. Well word got around and this thing ballooned! It was great to see people and catch up! This picture was at an Italian restaurant in Grapevine where the majority of us met for dinner. It was great! And like Meaghan mentioned in her blog, there are 5 pregnant women in the pic and who knows how many kids amongst us.

Lubbock 08-08-08

2008-08-22T17:11:00.014-05:00

Grandad making sure no one gets hurt!

Cyla not wanting to get wet

Josh has 7 cousins in his family that are all around his age. All of them have kids, so Josh's Mom-mu and Grandad already have 15 great-grandchildren with one more on the way. Here are Brady, Grace, Caitlyn, Colten, and Caden playing on the slip-n-slide. All 15 of those kids are 5 and under. You should see Christmas time!

Since so much of my family was in town, we stayed at Josh's grandparents' house. We always enjoy staying with them. Grace was making Mom-mu play princess something or other.

My aunt Twila playing the dulcimer. My dad and I sang, and some of my other cousins played their guitar. We are the Original Family Band! :)

Another hilarious and fun thing about our family is that we like to perform and sing. Not to a large group of people, but for each other. Every Christmas, Mimi plays the piano and we all sit around and sing carols. So after the party, my family put on a talent show for my grandmother and her brothers. My uncle Tim's family is very artistic, so they painted a canvas together during a song, and it was a completed picture when they were done.

My Mimi with 2 of her sisters-in-law and her niece

cousins Abbee, Jill, and Josh

my cousins Jeff, Jared and Dan Gibbens-Rickman

Funny story about the cake...we ordered it from this YUMMY bakery in Lubbock. It looked pretty wild and crazy with all the colors on it. Anyway, my uncle picked it up and was driving it slowly to the church. Some lady stopped really quickly in front of him and he had to slam on the brakes. His box of golf shoes fell on the cake, right on my grandmother's face. My mom about died! We had to leave the cellophane on the cake over her picture because the picture was coming up with the plastic. I think even Mimi was a bit embarrassed! We kept the cake hidden and brought it out, sang to her, and quickly cut that baby up. It was funny!

You can somewhat see how we decorated. Colored napkins and the olympic rings. Each table had different pictures of my grandmother. She is the only girl with 4 brothers, so she was and is pretty special! We had the party at her church in their garden room.

Grace listening to her movie

Grace and I drove home from TN on Tuesday and on Thursday the whole fam packed up in the minivan and we drove to Lubbock. My Mimi turned 80 yrs old on 08-08-08 (weird, I know!), so of course we had to have her party that day! It was Olympics themed since it was the day of the opening ceremonies. Here is Brady watching Elmo on the drove across West Texas.

Wedding Day!

2008-08-22T16:25:00.017-05:00

(*sidenote: read this from the bottom up)
I took so many pictures that I ran out of memory! So someone else will have to send me the pictures of them leaving the reception. They went to Jamaica for their honeymoon and had a great time. I have seriously prayed for my brother for about 7 years that he would find the perfect wife for him. If Erica has decided she wants to put up with him, we'll take her! She is one special girl! It was such a fun day!

The kids loved the band and dancing! I think they would've danced all night. Brady really has some rhythym!

Erica and Micah Miller

My dad married Erica and Micah. We're not sure how that was legal, or if they're really married now, but they say yes. We were all so worried about him doing it, because he "preaches" to his Sunday School class each Sunday. He said he was going to start the ceremony with the first marriage of Adam and Eve and end with the last marriage of Christ and the church, and tell everything in between. We were worried we would be in the hot sun until the sun went down! But the wedding was so short. Maybe 30 minutes. He did a wonderful job!

Grace did a really good job as a flower girl! She walked down the aisle with a smile and stood with the bridesmaids for a while. She did tire of that and went and sat with my mom. Poor Josh missed the whole wedding. He was over to the side letting Brady throw leaves in the lake.

I love this picture of my dad and brothers. Zachary was so serious about the whole deal. He had to walk so many people down the aisle, he kept having to ask and make sure he was performing correctly! He hasn't been in as many weddings as the rest of us yet, and he wanted to get it right.

Here are the groomsmen. I thought their suits were nice and didn't get too wrinkled. The ties were blue and green. My brother is in the middle, acting like Ron Burgandy. All these guys are friends from junior high, high school, and college.

Grace had the BEST day! She got to wear the dress she waited so long to wear, got to wear lipgloss, and be with "big" girls. She wasn't too fond of the flower ball(don't know the correct term for it), so she wanted to carry my huge bouquet or my mom's little bouquet around instead.

My mom and I. Some people think we look just alike, and some think I look like my dad. She is much more petite than I am. My friends all call her Sally Field, because they think she looks like her.

Here was their cake. I didn't eat any, so I have no idea how it tasted. I really liked their last name initial on the top. I guess that's the new thing! So much better than a plastic bride and groom.

I thought my kids looked beautiful! I am a little biased. Grace's dress looked a lot like Erica's and she loved the headband! The groomsmen wore very light tan linen suits so my mom got Brady this linen short set. Josh thinks all the stuff he wears is so girly, but he's only little once!

Erica got Grace a necklace and a princess CD player for being in the wedding. It is a little portable CD player with plastic CD's that has only one volume-LOUD! Grace loves it, but Uncle Zachary didn't like it for the 7 hr trip home.

All the bridesmaids and Erica got ready at the yacht club. She had these 2 ladies come and do all of our hair. It was raining all afternoon and Erica was getting really sad about that, but it stopped and cleared up before the ceremony at 7. It actually cooled things off and wasn't so blazing hot!

Thursday and Friday, before the Big Day!

2008-08-20T14:43:00.023-05:00

(*sidenote: start at the bottom of this post and work your way up. It will make more sense. Can anyone tell me how to do this correctly?!)
Memories!! (sing the song with me, everybody: "like the corners of my mind"). These 4 teenagers were the flower girls and ring bearers at my wedding 9 years ago! Justin and Adam are my twin cousins who are now seniors in high school. Their sister Jessica was my flower girl, along with my other cousin Abbee. Yikes! I feel so old!

Josh owes a whole lot to my cousins Abbee and Jessica, who helped him entertain the kids. They were so so helpful and I could never repay them!

More fam at the rehearsal dinner (Uncle Scott, Aunt Rhonda, cousin Amanda, brother Zachary). Since so many people came from far away, my parents wanted to feed them at least one meal.

Here is my dad and his mom, my Mamaw. She wasn't going to come to the wedding but decided about 2 weeks before that she wanted to come. Thank goodness my uncle offered to let her stay at his lakehouse. If you want to see me in 40 years, look at her!

Everybody kept coming up to me, telling me what a wonderful husband I had! Some people even suggested I send him on a honeymoon alone to Jamaica (where Micah and Erica went) after this weekend! Josh had to wrangle these crazy kids all weekend by himself. I was so busy documenting the weekend with pictures, singing, helping my mom, being a bridesmaid, etc. that I wasn't a very good parent. Thanks Josh, for being so awesome!!

This is my beautiful cousin, Amanda. She should be Miss Kentucky!! I was so glad she and my aunt and uncle came. We hadn't seen each other in a long time.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!! My dad was praying before the meal, and here is Brady praying too. Precious!

A couple of hours later we had the reheasal dinner. You can't see them well, but that afternoon my mom and I and some of her awesome friends made the centerpieces. They were iron votive holders, and we got fresh flowers to decorate them. There are orchids through the top, and roses and hydrainges in the bottom. My mom is very particular (because she is basically another Martha Stewart), but I thought they were beautiful! We had the dinner at the golf club in the same community where everything else was. It was a big room with windows all around. We had dinner, saw a great slideshow of Micah and Erica growing up, and I sang. Several people got up and talked about the two kiddos also.

Here is Erica and her mom arriving AFTER the rehearsal was over! No, her aunt was supposed to bring her mom, and she had car trouble. So Erica's mom drove herself and got a flat tire! Erica had to go and pick her up, which made them all late. We had practiced some things, but we finished once the bride came! :)

Grace was the flower girl, and here she is practicing for her big day! She was quite serious about it, and had to do everything, say everything, and wear everything just like Erica did.

Fri afternoon was the rehearsal. The wedding was on a lake, actually on a dock. There was a big tent covering where the guests would sit, and the wedding was on the end of the dock in the water. Up behind the tent was the yacht club, where the reception was. Here we are getting instructions on what to do. I could've led this little meeting, seeing how many weddings I've been in.

Erica gave all the bridesmaids these super soft robes with our initials on them. Grace had to wear mine.

It was really hard for Grace to sit at the restaurant for hours, so she played "restaurant" at the table, making a mess for my mom to clean up. She also wandered around the place singing and exploring.

These are some of the girls at the luncheon. Let me point out here that it was Micah who insisted on having 9 groomsmen! Mr. Friendly he's not, but he sure is close to a lot of his buddies. Poor Erica! At the rehearsal dinner, every guy got up and talked and each one said they thought THEY were Micah's best friend. Anyway, the place where we had the luncheon was wonderful! It had the best food!

Friday morning we had the Bridesmaid's Luncheon, so we took Brady and all the men to the hotel where my grandmother and cousins were. They swam at the pool while we lunched.

Josh and Brady finally arrived! Josh had been complaining for weeks about the fact that he had to fly from Dallas to Knoxville with Brady. Never mind the fact that I had done it before, by myself, with 2 children and a layover! Of course, guess what? Brady slept the whole plane ride over to TN! But we sure were glad to see them!

My dad and brothers clowning around while my mom and I do all the work!

Here is my mom, busy as a bee! You can't really tell, but she and I put gift boxes together for all the people staying in different lake houses and at the hotel. They had snacks, candy, and water in them and there was an itenarary tied onto the front of it. My brothers delivered the boxes to the guests the next day. My mom and I also had to wrap 9 (yes, NINE) groomsmen's gifts because of course my brother knows nothing about details! He probably didn't even pick out those gifts.

The 3 bedroom lakehouse where our fam stayed. The kids had plenty of grass to run around on and did singing performances off the big porch out front.

I don't even know where to begin about this weekend! Grace and I drove over near Knoxville, TN with my parents to the lake where the wedding would be on Thursday. All of the festivities were in this little lake village, so my mom got our family a big lake house to stay in. It was wonderful because we weren't sitting in hotel rooms bored for days.

Week in TN

2008-08-20T14:24:00.007-05:00

Regan also went to eat with us. She is a precious nurse at St. Jude Children's Hospital. They provide miracles to some of those sweet kids there with diseases. We all had a good time laughing about how silly we were in high school. I wouldn't take any of those memories back though!

Colleen and Kelly. Both of these sweet girls were from our youth group in high school. We ate yummy Italian food together!

Denise is still one of my very best friends. We met in 10th grade at church. She went to the rival high school and played softball. We have gotten even closer since high school, and the kids love playing together. She is a dear friend to me!

Grace with Hope, Baby Sam, and Jacob

Grace and I drove to TN on July 25 to prepare for my brother's big wedding. I always love going "home" to my parents house because my mom is such a good cook, it's so relaxing there, and I get to see old friends! I could've kicked myself because I left my camera back in TX, so I bought a throw-away camera and took some pictures. I haven't developed it, and have no idea how to get those pictures on a blog. At least I will have some "hard" documentation for our family scrapbook of what we did.

We helped Micah and Erica move some stuff into their house and helped them do a little decorating. Grace was mainly playing with their big dog, Riley, and bossing Riley around. She even made Riley go to Vacation Bible School in a different part of the yard, and would go and pick her up. Another day we helped Erica work in her classroom. She is a 2nd grade teacher at a wonderful school right down the road from their house.

We got to spend a lot of time with my younger brother Zachary. He is at school a lot, or playing baseball, so we don't get to see him that much. He played with Grace, or aggrivated her, and went to Chick-fil-A with us a few times. He is a great brother and really fun to be around.

I got to see several friends that I don't normally see when I go home. My friend Denise has 3 kids and we got to see a lot of them! We had ice cream, swam, and played at their new condo. Grace and I got to go to a summer movie with Kelly and her two kids, Sarah and Drew. They are always hilarious! And I got to eat out with my high school friends twice! Most of these girls didn't actually go to my high school, rather we were in youth group together. We still keep in touch over emails and now blogs, and it was so wonderful to see them in person. Grace and I had a great week before we started our drive across TN for the wedding!

Princess Camp

2008-08-20T14:03:00.002-05:00

Grace making her jewelry box with "real rhinestones" on it!
Please ignore the fact of how skinny Brady is. You can see his ribs from behind! We are hoping as winter comes, he gets fat stores and puts on some pounds. He is just too busy to eat or sit in a highchair for more than 5 minutes.

Brady didn't get to do much the week of Princess Camp, but we did go to Carrollton's City water park with Meaghan and Jackson. The boys have such a good time together, and it gives us mommies time to talk.

She even had a graduation ceremony and certificate for completing Princess Camp. The things people think up for kids to do these days!!

Grace was old enough to attend Princess Camp at our church in July. It is for 4-6 yr old girls, and it is a hoot! All the girls learn something about God each day and how they are a "princess of the King." They see skits with "real" princesses, have song time, art time and even manner time. She learned all sorts of table manners and behavioral manners. She will tell Josh or I that we are breaking a princess manner, like having our elbows on the table at dinner. Hilarious! She had a wonderful time and actually learned a lot!

Other July Happenings

2008-07-24T19:35:00.011-05:00

WOW! This is Grace before church one Sunday. We bought sponge rollers for her hair to try out before the big wedding. The size we used was a little too curly and out of control! But she loved looking in the mirror at herself. We are leaving tomorrow for the big trip to Tennessee and my brother's wedding. We will be gone a while, but will have pics to post when we get back! Congrats Micah and Erica!! Until then, see the rest of you bloggers later!!

I promise we don't swim every day, but we sure love going on Saturdays when Josh can go with us. Grace loves the slides!

The kids enjoyed a morning of mowing with Daddy. Brady is enthralled with bubbles, so he loves his bubble mower.

I don't know if you can tell, but Brady had a run-in with Grace's day bed. He was in there alone jumping on the bed (I know, I can't watch him every second). Well he fell somehow and got a bad cut next to his eye. His eyelid was very red for a few days too, but now he looks much better. Poor buddy!

Grace wanting to help feed her cousin. She sure is a little mommy!

Aunt Marisa and Caleb- Go Red Raiders!

Here is Brady throwing a fit because some kid was playing with something he wanted. He has started these fits lately, and we just ignore him and walk away. We'll see how long that works!

We often go to the mall to play in the soft-play area, but I never take pictures. This day we went to play and eat at Chick-fil-A (of course! Doesn't everyone eat there at least once a week?). We also met Aunt Marisa and Baby Caleb there.

Swim lessons, Part 2

2008-07-24T19:23:00.002-05:00

The past two weeks the kids have been in more swim lessons through our city athletic center. Grace didn't really learn too much since she had already been in private lessons. But Brady and I had a great time and he learned so much! He can kick and move his arms and float on his back. He jumps in, gets his head under the water and feels very comfortable. I couldn't very well leave Grace sitting by the pool, so she took lessons too. Grammy came to watch one day and take pictures for us.

Lubbock Trip!

2008-07-16T15:43:00.026-05:00

Grace and Benjamin chowing down on bbq and homemade ice cream. They had a big churner that was fun to watch! Overall, our trip across West Texas was a hit! We had a great time with many of our cousins and grandparents. Brady is finally getting better in the car, so we will make this trip again. So long, friends!

My friend, Rebecca. I always have to thank/ or NOT thank Rebecca for introducing me to Josh. :) We were in the same sorority together and became friends. She introduced me to her silly cousin Josh and we dated ever since. It's so nice and fun to have a friend that is actually in the family. She married Josh's good friend Lou, so we have a lot of fun together. Now that they moved halfway between Dallas and Lubbock we will visit a lot! It was so fun at their house!

Brady wanted nothing to do with the water. I guess the other kids were too big for him to be bouncing around. He is a lightweight!

Clyde had a great bbq on July 5th that we went to. They had this great band playing old country songs, and these little old men singing and playing. We all loved it! They also had bounce houses and water slides to do.

On our way home, we stopped in Clyde, TX to visit Josh's cousin, husband, and family. They love playing with their cousins Benjamin, Madilyn, and Jacob.

Grace and Brady with their Mom-mu and Grandad

Brady was pretty scared of the fireworks, but looked at a few of them, while having a death grip on me!

The kids watching the fireworks show. It was an awesome show and plenty of fireworks!

Later in the afternoon we went back to the Fisher's for a cookout. We set up our slide there for 8 kids to play on. They all had a blast with all the Fisher's toys.

A moment of affection: Sharing the towel with her brother after the slip n' slide

After the parade, we went back to Josh's Mom-mu and Grandad's. We set up our slip n' slide and Josh once again had to throw the kids down it. Cousin Caitlin loved it and really played a long time on it (unlike our kids).

July 4th we went to the 4th on Broadway parade. It was hilarious; small town parade with people throwing out candy and lots of floats and cars with businesses on them. Josh about died with the Gay and Lesbian float that said "Things are Changin'". The Fishers brought about 100 donut holes that we all ate while we enjoyed the parade. It was fun.

Me and my Mamaw- see the resemblance??

Luke, Brady, Logan, Grace, and Hannah

Brady loved banging the drums

We always LOVE to see our friends the Fishers'. Josh has been friends with Jason since 8th grade and their kids are so fun! We got invited to the Science Spectrum with them, and my kids had a blast. They especially loved the water table!

My Mimi and her only great grandkids. We always have fun staying at her house and boy is she a great cook!

When we got to town, we went to Mimi's house. We had dinner at On the Border with my uncle Scott, Aunt Patti, and cousin Jessica. She is awesome with kids, and entertains Grace and Brady so well!

Aaahh! Sleeping children in the car! Could anything be better. This trip looks so relaxing, right? I could only get pictures while they were behaving. There's no time for pics when Mama's driving down the highway at 75 mph trying to stop the fighting in the back, pass out snacks, change the DVD, get someone's dropped sippy cup, etc. We did make it there safely!

Brady intently watching "Elmo's World"

I decided it was about time to go to Lubbock (where Josh and I grew up) to visit Josh and my grandparents, other family, and some friends. We were so blessed to get a new Honda minivan (although I said I would never drive a "mommy car"). So the kids and I packed up and headed out of Dallas. This is how we started the trip. Movies galore! We tried the headphones, but Brady couldn't keep them on, so Mommy had to listen to hours of Elmo. Oh well, it's better than screaming!

June 2008

2008-07-16T15:20:00.009-05:00

Floating
I got roped into being a director for Vacation Bible School, so that took up a lot of our month. We were at church a whole week prior setting up our room and getting prepared. Then we had the whole week of VBS. I taught 4 yr olds, but not Grace's class. Also, during VBS week, Grace started private swim lessons. She really learned a lot from Mrs. Leslie and can swim pretty well. She wouldn't let the parents watch because the kids are so preoccupied, so on the last day they had a show off day. Here is Grace kicking and putting her face in the water.

Poor Presley running away from the ants and fire!

One night we were going to cookout, and took the cover off our grill. We had grilled out about a week before and thought nothing of it. If you look closely, this is an ENORMOUS ant bed under our grill. It was so tall and had millions of ants swarming around. I was freaking out because Grace is deathly allergic and I was scared for our 10 lb. dog. Josh was trying to use all sorts of fluids to blow the whole thing up with fire. Needless to say, this was one eventful meal!

We decided to get a slip n' slide for the summer. Boy was that a mistake. Our kids have no idea how to slide on it, and are terrified when Josh throws them down it. They like to splash in the water and that's about it. Good thing we can go to the city pool for free!

Grace finished up her t-ball season and never once noticed she was the only girl on the team. She says she will play next year-we'll see. Here she is getting her award from Daddy and Coach Matthew. Everyone got one game ball for a trait they possessed. Grace: loudest singer in the field. Maybe she won't be a great athlete!

Where have we been?

2008-07-16T14:58:00.002-05:00

Brady LOVES ice cream!

On Memorial Day, we had a great family day. We went to the pool at our new city Athletic Center, and then had some ice cream. It was a very laid back day. I usually like to travel over holidays, but with gas so high--well, you all know how that is!

Grace and her cousin Owen watching the game.

Josh and Brady and my cousin Seth, and son Cade.

Below is my cousin Jill's little boy, Brett! He is PRECIOUS! Several months ago he was hit by a car when he wandered off the driveway into the street. God has done miracles to heal all his scars, wrist, etc. He is 6 weeks older than Brady. Over Memorial Weekend, his Daddy's police co-workers had a baseball fundraiser to help with his hospital costs. Here is all the fam at the baseball game. Brett still has a spot on his brain that will have further testing soon. If you think of it, please pray that God would completely heal little Brett's brain!

I know you're all beginning to wonder, does Dianna even check her blog? Will she ever update it? Well, I'm finally back. I have GOT to get Josh to teach me how to get the pics from the camera to computer. Our summer is turning out to be busier than our school year, and I am NOT liking that. Here are some pics of what happened in June. The kids are growing bigger and bigger, and playing more together. They are also fighting more! Yikes! How Brady knows how to aggrivate his sister I'll never know. Must be an innate brother thing!

Caleb is born!

2008-05-24T22:09:00.005-05:00

Grace and her Aunt Marisa. Sorry for the picture you probably didn't want on the internet, Marisa, but I had to show the new mommy and the one that did all the work! Way to go, we are so happy for your new family!

Grace holding her new cousin. Brady wanted to hold him too, but that was out!

New Dad (Uncle Gary) with Caleb while he got all his stats. The poor baby didn't have a name for 2 days. But we like the choice that was made.

My kids finally have a cousin! Josh's sister had her baby, Caleb Preston Coats on Saturday, May 10th. He is precious and so tiny (5 lb. 15 oz.). I wish I had babies that small! They are all doing so well. I have cousins who have kids and Josh has cousins who have kids, but this is our first real cousin (the others are real too, just second cousins, I guess. I don't think my kids know the difference.)

T-ball and Tea

2008-05-24T21:41:00.009-05:00

On May 8, Grace's school class had a mother's day tea for all of the mommies. It was precious and so special to me. They sang songs and quoted scripture, then served us all lunch. They made all the mini sandwiches, desserts, and fruit. They even made sweet tea, which was very, very sweetened. They even gave us 2 gifts: a blue apron they made and decorated for us, and a book with pictures of them doing fun things at school all through the year.

These are some of the girls in Grace's class. Their teacher had these aprons monogrammed with their names, and the kids got to pick out the type of lace and sew it on! Their teacher is very hands-on and do it yourself. The other dark headed girl is Grace's best friend, Isabelle. She is moving in June to Florida, "by Disneyworld" Grace says. They have always been in the same school class, and I don't think Grace understands that she won't see Isabelle anymore. The beginning of next year may be tough when she gets to school and realizes there is no Isabelle.

Each child was responsible for passing out one food item that they had made as a class. Grace got to pass out the green cupcakes, and got green icing all over her apron. They thought they were so big carrying around big platters of food to all the mommies.

This is her class quoting sections of Psalms 139 ("You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb...I am fearfully and wonderfully made..."). They memorized around 10 verses of it, with motions the teacher made up. It was so hard not to bawl out loud hearing those precious, tiny children quote so many verses from God's Word. And we can keep practicing it at home. If you can teach them this young scriptures that speak to their heart, I believe they will remember it when they are going through difficult times. How wonderful for a little girl to know she is designed by God and precious to Him! I am so grateful for her school and her teachers that work so hard to teach them in the way they should go.

Good game!

Poor Brady! He is dying to play t-ball. When we even get near the church grounds, he starts yelling t-ball at the top of his lungs. Even if it's Sunday morning or a school day. He sits with the team on the bench, and sits with them for the post-game talk. He is on 3rd base here, wishing he were really in the game. He helps Grace warm up before the game starts. Thank goodness Grammy and Pops come to the games to help me keep him off the field. That is a huge job!

Grace is so happy! Of course this is before the game, when she's just looking forward to seeing her friend Sam and getting snacks and juice boxes. The actual game playing is something she would pass up.

This and That...

2008-05-24T21:09:00.010-05:00

Here is Brady before church in his seersucker suit!!! No hair combed, of course. Josh actually took this picture because he says he is finally wearing something boyish. Josh hates the john-johns/jumpers that I put Brady in most Sundays. Speaking of Josh, please excuse the plethora of You Tube videos. I came home and he had posted Grace's every breath for the past week. We did have to put a small bit of dance recital and t-ball on there for her Papaw to see, but not the whole recital!!

The picture above and below are a typical day at our house. Grace is really into coloring, drawing, making notes for people, writing out her letters and numbers and the few words she can spell, and singing in her spare time. Brady on the other hand is a one man wrecking crew. Here he is playing a recorder, but normally he is throwing balls, hitting things with a bat or golf club, and generally aggrivating Grace. He says the word t-ball seriously about 50 times a day. He's supporting Ole Miss and Uncle Zach with his t-shirt. I haven't bothered to fix up our house very much because everything new I buy, they destroy. There are scratches and dings and crayon markings all over that nice table behind Brady. They sit there and play bookstore or shopping. Grace rings up all the stuff Brady brings her with their Fisher Price cash register. Does anyone else remember playing that stuff with their siblings??

The Tiptons came for a visit at the end of April and we were so glad they did! It was short because they had other friends and family to see, but it was so nice to catch up and let the kids play. My family (parents, brothers, and I) moved to Tennessee in August of 1992 the day before school started. I was NOT happy to leave Texas, and was a 15 yr old at that. The night we got to our new house, our next door neighbors came over to say hello. It was the Cherry family. They invited us to church, and had 3 kids around our same ages. Elaine immediately became one of my greatest friends. We had some classes together in high school, went to church together, did our nails together, and sometimes our homework. We could see each other through our kitchen windows, and it was SO fun living next to them. She was even my maid of honor. We are still great buddies and it was a blessing for them to visit!

The kids drawing with chalk on our fence

Grace had the end of her choir classes recently. I was disappointed because I thought they would have them all stand up and sing for us. But instead, the director had each kid sit with one parent while they showed us how their classes went each week. We sang the songs they sang, did the motions and games the kids worked on. Maybe next year it will be better. Since Grace loves to sing so much, we really want her to learn in choir.

American Idol Season 23 Auditions

2008-05-24T07:32:00.001-05:00

So if you haven't noticed, Grace loves to sing. She made this poster book at school and has been singing the song ever since

The Big Recital

2008-05-22T20:56:00.003-05:00

Here is the video of Grace's dance recital. We heard about this recital for weeks, and as you can see, it took her a while to get warmed up, but when she did it was really cute.

Not Quite the Major Leagues

2008-05-20T20:36:00.006-05:00

This is Grace's 1st year of T-Ball (well... of any organized sport). She really enjoys playing, but keeping attention for the whole game is pretty tough.. not only for her but for the whole team in general

This is our little home run hitter in action. She loves hiting more than fielding (as you can tell from the videos)

Random pictures & Activities

2008-05-01T17:40:00.007-05:00

Grace is winding down her year of dance. She really loves it and wants to be so independent. She begs me to let her go into dance herself, while I watch her from the car. She is one of the oldest in her class, which means she is probably bossing the others around. I am sure we will post many pics of her recital!

Grace and friends!

We have the absolute greatest city athletic center! I am really trying to go 3-4 days a week to lost weight for my brother's wedding, and the kids go to the childcare center for a little over an hour. They are building the outdoor pool facilities, but here is our indoor pool area. They have a lap pool, a pool for aerobics and swimming, a shallow pool for swim lessons, a current channel, and this shallow play area. Grace loves the water and has no fear. I have to watch her very carefully. Brady on the other hand was petrified and wouldn't even let me put him down in the water. He was a baby last year, and I guess doesn't remember the 200 times we went swimming and he was floating in a covered turtle floatie! Maybe he'll get used to it!

This is Brady's new pose for pictures. I don't know where he got the idea that you have to squat and "get ready" like Grace does during t-ball. But he's cute, nonetheless.

I always love pics of my kids before church. Maybe I like them dressed up with their hair slicked down. Anyway, this was a Sunday morning, and Grace wasn't feeling very well. We made it through our morning of activities though.

T-ball, Here We Come!

2008-05-01T17:23:00.008-05:00

Grace was thrilled to be able to play baseball like her Uncle Zachary, so we signed her up with our church league, and Josh decided he wanted to coach. She loves the outfits, snacks, and water breaks, but doesn't care so much about the game. She actually hits well and knows to run to first base. Being in the field is pretty distracting though. She dazes off, or wants to come sit by me, and doesn't really chase the ball down. Maybe that will come in time, or maybe baseball isn't for her. We'll see...

Grammy, Pops, and Aunt Marisa at her first game! Uncle Gary must've been scouting other players. Grace loves all the attention!

If you can't tell, she's the only girl on the team. The other teams we played have had at least 3 girls, and one team was almost all girls. Oh well, she doesn't seem to notice, although she covets the other girl's pink bats and shoes!

Spring Break Week in TN

2008-04-13T17:05:00.019-05:00

I am finally updating my blog with Easter pics. Trying to be hilariously funny or insightful isn't seeming to work, so I am just giving you the bare facts. Maybe next time I'll be more humorous. Part of my problem is that I need to learn how to download the pictures off the camera. I have to wait for my lovely husband to do it, and he has better things to do.

Everyone hunting eggs

Grace knew exactly what to do!

Micah and Erica hid the eggs for the kids. It was bitter cold outside and we were really in a hurry, so I didn't put anything in the eggs. Big mistake! Brady had never hunted eggs, but he was really disappointed that there was nothing in the eggs. He opened every one, and had this look of disgust when there was nothing inside. He started putting rocks in his basket instead. BOYS!

Easter lunch, which was delicious! Notice my mom's Easter table cloth, candles, serving dishes, and even Jell-O eggs, which are a tradition. When you try to eat them, they slide off your plate, but the kids love them!

Uncle Micah and soon to be Aunt Erica

Dianna and her precious kids- Easter 2008

Brady didn't care for his rabbit ears as much as sister, nor did he like his Peeps.

Brady was checking out his basket of goodies (mostly from the $1.00 section at Target). Daddy even sent a card since he was at home in Texas.

Getting a good picture is always hard, but at least they are looking in the same direction

Easter Sunday at my parent's church! He is Risen Indeed! It is so neat to teach your children about why Christ came, and the best part about it is when they begin to understand. We read the events of Christ's last week, and Grace had Resurrection Eggs that she made at school. She could tell everyone in great detail what each egg represented. It is so hard as parents to try and teach your children everything they should know, and you just pray for the day when they will accept Him as their Savior.

Watching more baseball with Uncle Micah. For these types of events, its key to have tons of snacks for the kids. Grace also brings a huge backpack of books, although she does cheer for the team. Without Granna's help, I would be a wreck from trying to entertain these kids!

St. Patty's Day

A Weekend of Baseball

2008-04-13T16:45:00.002-05:00

The talented one

Grace and Granna- Rebel Fans!

Cousin Jessica, Aunt Patti, and Granna(my mom)

Uncle Scott and my grandmother, Mimi. She's 79 and still trucked it to Ft. Worth!

Brady and Cousin Justin
For those of you that don't know my extended family, sports is a big part of what we do. Well, my brother Zachary plays baseball for Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi) and they played TCU at the beginning of March. A lot of our family came to watch the action, but the best part was hanging out with everyone. It was still bitter cold and windy in Texas!

Day 5- Still Going Strong!

2008-03-04T09:43:00.012-06:00

Our last day at Disneyworld was very relaxing. We went back to the Magic Kingdom to ride about 3 rides we hadn't gotten to do yet, and do a few again that the kids really enjoyed. We bought a lot of souveniers that day and just walked around. Let me say this, this vacation really was magical! Every single employee is the friendliest person, and everyone is willing to serve you. We even saw construction men working on a road, and they stopped and waved as our bus drove by. It is almost silly just how happy everyone is there. And so clean! If you've been to amusement parks, they can be gross, sticky, and unpleasant. Not Disneyworld- they keep it so nice and clean and manicured lawns and shrubs everywhere. It is a great place and we had a 100% better time than I thought we were going to have. I would really recommend this time of year(Jan or Feb) before Spring Breaks start. The weather was perfect and people were even swimming! Overall, I would say every family has to try this vacation once. It was wonderful!

This was the Mighty Ducks part of the resort, where our room was. We probably wouldn't stay here again, just because of the "motel" feel, but there was nothing really wrong with it. I am just glad the shuttles came right to our door and we didn't have to drive anywhere.

Sweetest picture of the whole trip!

At our resort- we walked by this area every day to get on the shuttles to take us to the different parks.

Here is finally the resort where we stayed. It was called the All-Star movie resort, and there were 3 different parts: 101 Dalmatians, Toy Story, and the Mighty Ducks. The rooms were like motels, where you enter your room from outside, but they were all in a circle around the pool. The main lobby area also had a food court, which had 4 different lines for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was always something different to eat. When we checked into the hotel, we got a credit card type card, that was linked to our Visa. That ONE card was all we had to carry the whole week! We left our wallets in a safe in our room. Disney is awesome! We could use that one card as our room key, to pay for food at our resort or at any of the parks, and it was also our park entrance card. It was used for everything which was so nice!

This was the certificate she got for helping Cinderella decide what to wear

We decided to go into this huge shop that had everything Disney you ever wanted to purchase. While we were looking around, this sales lady came up and asked if Grace could help her. She said Cinderella was going to be in the parade that night, and she needed help deciding what to wear. Grace got to help pick her outfit and she dressed this doll. The lady said Cinderella would come and see what Grace chose and that's what she would wear to the parade. Grace loved it!

This was a great parade that we saw during our last day. Almost every Disney character was in it, and the kids were mesmerized!

Grace and me on the Dumbo ride

Brady and Josh on the Dumbo ride. This was the longest line we waited in, which is crazy! Even the major rollercoaster rides were shorter waits.

Grace finally got to meet Jasmine! She saw little girls all over the park wearing this Jasmine outfit and she really wanted one for herself, but Daddy said no.

Day 4- All About the Magic Kingdom

2008-03-03T20:17:00.014-06:00

We let Grammy and Pops take Brady back to our hotel this night, and we stayed out with Grace. The parade was just amazing, with everything in lights. Then we stayed for the fireworks show, which was good too. It had rained that evening, so not as many people were still at the park. That turned out great for us, because we got to run up to rides and do them again and again. This is when we figured out how much Grace loved the "adult" rollercoasters. Her #2 ride was the Runaway Mine Train and her #1 ride was the Brer Rabbit Log Ride. You not only got wet, but you saw the Brer Rabbit story and took a 50 ft. plunge! She loved it! Too bad I didn't get pictures of those rides!

Cinderella and the Prince in a completely lit up coach! The parade was amazing at night because every float and costume had lights all over it!

Ursula from "The Little Mermaid"

One of the fairy godmothers from "Sleeping Beauty" on a float

Grace in "It's a small world" and loving her new Minnie hat!

"It's a small world, after all...it's a small, small world!"

Let me explain... we were waiting in line for "It's a small world", when I realized Brady's pants were wet. If you've been to Disney, you know you don't want to get out of line. I had to change his diaper IN LINE while moving forward. Aunt Marisa wanted a shot of this. Meanwhile, you're listening to the song "It's a small world" over and over. Josh avoided this ride this time, but it ended up being Brady's favorite, and Grace's #5, so we had to ride it again with Daddy. The funny thing was that when Josh rode it with us, it broke and we were stuck in the last room hearing that song over and over for at least 10 minutes. I thought he was going to jump overboard!

The Peter Pan ride! This was Grace's #4 ride and we rode it 2 or 3 times. Brady actually liked this one, which was rare. And we all 4 got to ride together.

This was Grace's #3 ride(meaning it was her third favorite). It was a Goofy rollercoaster that she rode with Mommy. She rode it again the next day with Daddy. The bad thing is that all these rides are about 1 minute long.

This is the Mad Hatter Tea Party ride. Grace, Marisa, Grammy and Brady were in the slow teacup. Brady cried the whole time. I mistakenly got in one with Josh and Pops, who spun it as hard as they could the entire time. I got a major headache from being dizzy!

We were going to stay at Magic Kingdom all day, and the kids were excited! They knew this is where the most fun would happen! Brady liked his stroller for the most part, and Grace has a place to sit or stand on the back.

Day 3- Probably 10,000th time of hearing "When you wish upon a star"

2008-03-03T19:50:00.009-06:00

Day 3 was mostly spent at the Animal Kingdom. We saw some great hippos, among other animals. They make all of the parks so interesting, and always have things to look at. Even if some things aren't really for small kids, there is plenty to look at. We did go back to our room and nap this day, and finished the day up back at the Magic Kingdom. We rode Aladdin carpets, went on a Jack Sparrow pirate's ride, and a boat cruise. At night Cinderella's castle would light up different colors, which the kids thought was real magic! Here they are actually being nice to one another!

We took an actual safari ride, which was amazing. Brady loved looking at the wild animals, many of which we had never seen before. We got really close to the lion!

This was a "Bug's Life" 3-D show. Not only was the show in 3-D, but water would spray on you when the bugs spit, you smelled different smells, like a dung beetle spraying (which stunk), and at the end of the show when the lights came on, you could hear bugs scatter and felt them run underneath your bottom. Everyone was screaming and it was hilarious!

This was a dinosaur dig the kids loved. They could dig in the sand and find huge, life-size dinosaur bones. Cleaning them up was a challenge for mommy, but hey, isn't that what vacation is for?

This was a great dinosaur park where the kids played for quite some time. They had little slides, big slides, dino footprints and bones.

Disneyworld has this ride in serveral versions. This is the dinosaur one, but their are Aladdin carpets, Dumbo, and rockets. Josh and Grace rode this one. This was the beginning of us finding out that Grace is quite the daredevil. She wanted high and fast! She was scared in rides that were completely dark and had skeletons or ghosts, but rollercoasters and high rides were her favorite! Who knew? Brady was scared in everything, but if he could ride it, we took him on it.

Disneyworld- Part II

2008-03-03T19:29:00.008-06:00

We ended Day 2 at the Magic Kingdom. We took a bullet train from Epcot over to the MK. Then we took a boat across a lake. Magic Kingdom is really where all the action is for little kids to enjoy. We saw a Mickey Show at Cinderella's castle and climbed all through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. Grace kept saying, "Look Daddy, more stairs!"

This was still Day 2 at Epcot, and they had a special building where all the main characters were. I thought that was great! Although it was a little line to wait, at least you could knock out a lot of characters at once. Let me interject here about the Photo Pass you could get. There were employees of Disney all over the park, who had a credit card type thing and a camera. They would give you one card, and you could have your picture made with any character, at the castle, or a number of other places. They would scan your card before they took your picture. Now that we're home, we log on to a website and look at all the pictures that were taken. You can purchase different sizes, or not any! Of course all of these pictures came from our digital camera, which are great I think, but we will order some off our Photo Pass too.

Brady was loving to give each character "high five".

Disneyworld, Here We Come!!

2008-03-03T11:41:00.010-06:00

We had planned on taking the kids back to our room each day for a nap, like our smart friends Kelly and Tim, but we just never got around to it. Brady would eventually wear out and take a 30 minute nap in the stroller. He was surprisingly good, much better than I was expecting him to be. As long as the stroller was moving or he was out running around, he was fine.

Brady really cared nothing about seeing the princesses, but we had to get a picture nonetheless. The Aurora "Sleeping Beauty" was very nice. We also have a picture of Grace with Belle, but she was NOT pleased with Belle. Belle was wearing her blue dress and white apron from the beginning of the movie, and Grace was very disappointed that she wasn't wearing her yellow dress that she wore with the Beast. Funny what kids do!

This is a perfect picture to explain what awe Grace was in everywhere we went. Disney really is a magical place, and the kids had so much to look at! Meeting Cinderella was like her dream come true, and it was so sweet to watch. That one moment was worth the whole trip!

Grace and Snow White.
The most hilarious thing was that all of these princesses talked in the most squeaky, high voice, just as Snow White does in the movie. They called Grace "princess" and had funny little things to say.

Grace and Ariel, "The Little Mermaid"

Our second day was spent at Epcot, because we had special reservations for a lunch with all the princesses. This lunch was the most talked about thing for months before we actually went on the trip. Grace is crazy for the princesses, and dresses in their outfits daily. Here we are waiting for our lunch to begin. Uncle Gary is in the white shirt.

Josh, Brady, Pops, Grace, and Grammy at the Disney Channel Show. Aunt Marisa and Uncle Gary were not thrilled to be at this show. Their little one won't arrive until May, so they don't know the joys of kid's tv shows and the annoying songs they sing. This was the first day we were there, and we spent half a day at Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios.) There wasn't a whole lot for the kids to do there, but we saw some great shows (Beauty & the Beast, Muppets 3-D, Little Mermaid, Disney Channel).

Meeting the Little Einstein's was a real treat! Both kids loved that, along with the Disney channel show that had "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tigger and Pooh, and Handy Manny."

Here we are waiting at the shuttle stops to get on the bus. Disney is a well-oiled machine, that's for sure! There are buses to take you everywhere! From the time we landed at the airport, we were shuttled around by Disney. No car seats needed, thank goodness. They really know how to treat you like you're on vacation. They even deliver your bags from the airport into your hotel room. Genius!!

Valentine's Day

2008-03-03T11:20:00.008-06:00

I am a former teacher, and therefore feel like I need to decorate my house AND my children for every holiday. The aggrivating thing is that you can't find stuff for boys to wear. I can never find shirts for Valentine's, St. Patrick's, Easter, even Christmas was hard. I try to be fair, but Grace has tons of holiday related outfits and Brady is just boring. Any tips from any of you??

Granna also had a scarf made for Grace. She wants to wear it everywhere, and was insistent on taking it to Florida, where I told her she would not be needing a scarf!

The kids got all sorts of candy, cards and stuffed animals from Granna and Mimi. Josh got me a spa day, so that will be awesome!

Valentine's was really a blur this year, because we were leaving on our trip the next morning. Everyone hurried to open their presents that evening, then we all put on our pj's and drove over to Josh's parents house. We spent the night there because it is near the airport, where we were flying out the next morning.

Grace's Birthday

2008-03-03T10:51:00.012-06:00

The Fam at Chuck E Cheese
Daddy was the biggest kid there. All he wanted to do was keep playing games to get more tickets. With 10,000 tickets you can buy a whole pack of gum.

Aunt Marisa

Brother hated all the rides, but enjoyed the pizza.

Daddy brought her donuts for breakfast. It will be a sugary day!!

It was a sad day for Mommy when Grace turned 4 on Feb. 12th. I just can't believe she has grown up so much already. I am already stressing about leaving her with another person all day for kindergarten! She is such a blessing to us, and really a miracle. Josh and I weren't sure if we would ever be able to have children once I was diagnosed with PCOS, but God had a miracle in store for us, and our precious baby girl was born. Grace has always been a joy, very funny in our opinion, and generally wants to please and obey. She constantly sings and amazes us with her memory. She is a big helper to me with Brady, and is loving dance and choir. I could go on and on with what she knows intellectually, but the latest is the Lord's prayer. Kids' memories are amazing!

Anyway, we didn't have a party this year because we were about to leave on our big vacation, so we just took her to Chuck E Cheese. Not the most fun place for adults, but she loved it. Josh's grandparents drove in from Lubbock just to eat with us. That was a wonderful treat! Grammy, Pops, and Aunt Marisa also came. We also took cupcakes to school for her class to enjoy. Princess cupcakes, of course.

January Pics

2008-03-03T10:34:00.009-06:00

After Bath! It is so much easier right now since we can bathe them together.

Here are the kids looking sweet right before Valentine's Day. Little did I know Brady had been coloring on the wall!

I don't know if any of your kids do this, but Grace is nuts at bedtime. Not only is she a crazy sleeper, eats in her sleep, and opens her eyes, but she dresses crazy after we put her down for bed. Here she is in non-matching clothes, with leg warmers on and about 3 pairs of socks! Crazy girl!

Over Christmas, my brothers kept making rude comments about Brady's mullet. I didn't think it was a mullet, and didn't want to cut my precious baby's hair off. But in Jan. we decided it was time. He was a great sport and looks like a big boy now. Daddy took pictures while Mommy snipped away.