Time with Dad

As a reward for his first report card he asked if he could have a night at Mimi and Papa's land alone with his dad. So on Saturday they drove the 2 hours to Oklahoma for some father/son time.

Just hanging out in Mimi and Papa's cabin.

Hot dog dinner with dad!
Jeremy even made breakfast tacos the next morning. Our son's favorite breakfast!

Sunday they fished, played some baseball and football. They also had a little game of hide and seek - lots of fun places to hide on 10 acres. I am so glad they had this time to get away together.

The little guys and I enjoyed our time watching Kung Fu Panda and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Once they were in bed, I worked on our Christmas cards and watched P.S. I Love You (great movie). It was a wonderful relaxing weekend for us all.

14 Days...

is how long it has been since my last post. Here is what we have been up to...


~We came home on Tuesday the 5th from our dreamy getaway in Savannah. The next few days were filled with laundry, house cleaning and yard work. Fun, Fun. :o)

~Then 08/08/08 arrived and since that point we have been obsessed with the Olympics!! Our Tivo has been on overdrive since that day just taping up a storm. We love Michael Phelps, Shawn Johnson, Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres and our hometown girl Nastia Liukin - just to name a few. We are full of American pride and we have been rooting each night as though we are watching the Super Bowl. We have had a lot of great family time around here - we are kind of sad that swimming and gymnastics are over - now we will focus on basketball, platform diving and whatever else we can soak in before the closing ceremonies on the 24th.

~The 9th was our church's first service on Saturday night. We have switched to Saturdays and love it! At our previous church we went on Friday nights for years and it worked perfectly for our family - so we are thankful for the new Saturday night service.

~11th - 15th was a busy week. Our three year old was in swimming lessons all week and LOVED it! He has always been fearless in the water so we are so thankful that he now has the skills to swim and be safe in the water. My boys have Phelps' fever so our oldest is wanting to begin taking advanced swimming lessons to begin learning swimming strokes. He says he wants to be in the Olympics one day so we are going to enroll him this Fall to get him started toward that dream (remember, this is the son who was terrified of water until earlier this summer - my how far we have come in such a short time). Here is a little video of our three year old at swimming lessons. Day one he was asking to jump off the diving board and on the third day she let him - he was so proud of himself and we were too!



Our oldest spent two days and one night at Blaine and Lesli's swimming and playing with his cousins. He had a great time swimming - he loves bragging that they stayed in the pool one day for 6 hours - he thought that was really cool! I hate that we do not get together with them more often. We only live about an hour away but life just gets in the way.

The 13th was my one year Blogaversary! Wow - a year. I started this blog as a scrapbook for my boys and a way to keep up with friends and family. If you would have told me that I would have formed relationships with people I had never met in person or that I would have arranged to meet one of those people (more on this later) - I would have thought you were crazy! But over this last year I have met several people through blogging and I am thankful for these relationships. People who do not blog do not get it and probably think it is strange to have friends that you have not met in person but I thank God for this year and these new relationships. I hope to meet you all in person someday.

Friday (15th) and Saturday (16th) was our church's Women's retreat. I, along with another lady in our church, are helping get a new ministry off the ground for moms with kids 0-5. At the retreat we shared about this new ministry at two break out sessions so I spent last week doing last minute things for my part of the presentation. I am so excited about this new ministry as I have a heart for moms of toddlers and preschoolers. Moms ministries have played such an important roll in my life so I am happy to be apart of starting this as I know it will be awesome for ladies in our church and in our community.

We have had such a laid back summer with absolutely no schedule and it has been w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l! Since the boys have gone to bed late each night and were able to sleep as late as they wanted most mornings we decided this week should be a trial for the school routine that starts next week. So far so good - there has been no fighting at bedtime.

Friday (22nd) is Meet The Teacher Night - prayers have been lifted up all summer that God will place our 3rd grader with the teacher that is best for him. I have to be honest, third grade scares me ALOT as I have heard it is such a big change from 2nd grade. Ready or not let the 3rd grade adventure begin.

So that is our past 14 days. As Jeremy puts it we have been in a "vacation hangover" and it has been hard getting back into the swing of the routine of life. But I think I am finally back so starting tomorrow I will begin sharing the recap of our vacation. I also plan on reading blogs again. :o)

Hook 'em Horns

We love the orange at our house, but the strange thing is no one is a UT alumni. My dad and his brothers grew up Longhorn fans and I always remember UT games being on the TV whether at home or at my grandparents house. As my brothers and I grew up, we became fans and now we pass the UT love on to our kids. I remember living near Lubbock (Red Raider territory) and asking for tickets to the UT/Tech games for my 17th and 18th birthdays. I was not an athlete growing up, (I am actually pretty uncoordinated) but because of the generations of UT fans in our family, I love rooting for the Horns. Once Jeremy and I married we recruited him and he is now a UT fan.

Last night we had "game foods" and watched the game (we won!). Even though the boys started to lose interest after eating we are instilling the memories of Longhorn Football. I love tradition - Hook 'em!

Week in Review

Sunday afternoon I had time alone with two of our boys. We had gelato at Piccomolo (our new favorite place for ice cream)-- every bite reminded me of Italy. Afterwards we tried out one of the new parks in town. We had a lot of fun.

The boys love to play outside, but with the heat, they are usually red faced and sweating within minutes. Usually they put on their suits and ask for the the sprinklers to be turned on, then play in the water. On Monday, they just shed their clothes and enjoyed the water.

One of my friends needed me to keep her little girl yesterday. My middle son was so excited because she is his buddy. They had so much fun building a clubhouse; then ate popcorn and watched a movie in it. They also played Super Heroes! Our oldest was a great "babysitter"; he likes being in charge. ;o) I had to add some pictures of our youngest; he is so much fun.

Tonight we have "Meet the Teacher". I can not believe our oldest is starting 2nd grade.

Camping

Jeremy took our seven year old camping on Saturday at Jeremy's parent's land. They caught a lot of fish, explored and shot cans with a BB gun. They had to cut their trip a day short, as our son slept (Jeremy was awake most of the night) a huge storm blew in three inches of rain. Poor Jeremy had to load the car early the next morning in the pouring rain. I asked my son what his favorite part was and he said "Being with Dad". I thought that was so telling; all kids want is just a little quality time with mom and dad.

A side note...
There were left over smore ingredients, so for a treat today we made a microwave version. They were pretty close to the real thing.