My Mini Dirk

Water Day

The next to the last week of school, the boys had water day. It was Rylan's favorite day of the whole year!!! 90% of the time they were using the water shooters! They also had a water balloon fight, in which the teachers got soaked by the pre-schoolers! hee hee They also had a slip-n-slide and popsicle galore. It was an exhausting day, but OH SO FUN!!!

Mr. Connor got the 5 super heroes together for a big water shoot-out! Jacob and Rylan were on Mr. Connor's team and thought they were the coolest kids ever.

Water Day = Pure Joy!

Rylan's New Chair

Yep...that's Jason's legs. And yep, that is Rylan's new favorite chair! During Mavs games or Peter Pan, this is where Rylan wants to sit. :)

Weekend with Grandpa and Grandma

Jason's folks came down a few weeks ago for a nice weekend visit! After playing at the park, we went to eat fajitas. They were delicious!!!Our little cheese sauce boy was especially great!!!
On Saturday we went to the Museum of Science. As soon as we arrived, we watched the Texas IMAX. Colby from Survivor narrated and it made us all proud to be Texans!

Then we were off to see the Texas exhibit that drew us to the Museum in the first place.
Photography was not allowed, so this is the only photo. The exhibit started with the Indians and went to present day. The boys loved seeing the Indian clothes and pottery. The part about the Texas Revolution was especially wonderful! They had Sam Houston's sword, Santa Anna's vest, the real "Come and Take It" flag from Gonzales, the Gonzales cannon, Sam Houston's battle of San Jacinto battle report (in his own hand) and more! The boys were "So excited they could hardly handle themselves!" They flitted from artifact to artifact. It is here until Sept. 5, so if you are local, you should go. It is a little pricey, but very worth it!
After touring the Texas exhibit, we toured the rest of the Museum. Rylan was THRILLED to find Lambert!
Momma and Jacob eating Mickey D's for the second time in their life! It wasn't too bad.
Onto the dinosaurs...
And then the weather station... They had it set up so that the kids (or grown-ups) could tell the weather on the screen. It was a riot to watch them!!!
More dinosaurs...
Grandma and Grandpa bought them a Wild West set which was played with for hours that evening!
Thanks for a great weekend visit! :)

Mother's Day 2011

To celebrate Mother's Day, we had a wonderful family dinner down at Granny and Popa's. Jason fried shrimp, I baked potatoes and threw together a salad and made a Pioneer Woman sheet cake. It was all super delicious! We all declared that Jason needs to make a habit out of frying shrimp!!!
After stuffing ourselves silly, we opened some wonderful gifts! Popa gave Granny a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Mom and Dad gave her 3 new tops.
And we gave her a new robe! She was excited for all!!!
Mom got money from Granny and Popa and Dad went in with us for a menagerie of fabulous stuff... Vera backpack, Sharpay movie, new Crocs and some other little things. She was so excited about the backpack (which was solely motivated just so she won't use her regular purse as a fanny pack on outings!)

The boys made me oodles of treasures at school... plaster handprints, mobiles, hot pads and sweet cards. They were so proud and I cried! Jason and the boys gave me a shopping spree at Loft Outlet... yipee!!

We had a great evening celebrating motherhood...the greatest blessing! On real Mother's Day, all 4 of us watched the Mavs game. It was perfect!!!

Go Mavs!

The boys have been Mavs fans since the womb... the first time I felt them moving was during the Mavs-Spurs series of 2006. Jason and I were whooping and hollering and then I felt them. We got silent and both laid hands on my belly. Jason's reactions..."I knew it! They are already Mavs fans!" And he was right!

On Mother's Day we watched the Mavs SWEEP the Lakers. It was perfect...me and my favorite 3 boys whooping and hollering for the Mavs on Mother's Day! Jacob took about 45 photos of the TV during the game.

So now we are ready for the OKC series and another Mavs victory! We are hoping to take the boys to a Mavs game this fall or winter. It is so fun to see the love for all things Mavericks go on!!!

Sno-cone mouths

The day we went to get sno-cones with Blaine and Lauren, the kids mouths were so funny. I had to document the shades of red caused by the tiger's blood sno-cones. Rylan said he had a sno-cone go-tee!And Jacob looked a little like the devil...
But I still LOVE my boys...red mouths and all! :)

"Good Old Days"

One of my friends has a plaque at her house that says. "These are the good old days." I've become a little obsessed with that thought. These days while the boys are young and at home... they are the days that we will be talking about for years to come as the "good old days." We will fondly remember all the battle scenes, poopy diapers, vacations all over the USA, playing Candyland for 2 hours straight, and on and on. These are the times that Jason and I dreamed about for 3 years before the boys came. So as I get tired and frustrated, I want to remember that these good old days will pass and become a memory before I know it. I want to savor and enjoy these days and even these trials. As another slightly older lady once said to me, "A quiet house is not all it's cracked up to be." And I think she is right... so bring on the happy noise, bring on the games, the laughter, the tears, and all the fun because these are the good old days and I want to savor them!

Battle Scenes

The boys have recently gotten 2 different sets of soldier figurines. We already had the Alamo set, and now we have cowboys and Indians and Union and Confederates. The little men are rarely the actual side that they are supposed to be. Sometimes it's the TooDoLoos VS. the Veronicles. Other times it's the Big animals VS the baby animals. And sometimes it is a real battle like the Alamo or Gettysburg.
I think that they have more fun setting up the scenes than the actual battles. And now in pretty much every inch of our house you will find a little soldier waiting for the next battle! Gotta love boys!!!

It's a Rylan Burrito!!!

The other day Rylan was helping Jason clean out his work car and he got to this old mat. Rylan was so happy to bring it inside and start playing with it. We call Jacob "the burrito king" because he LOVES bean burritos when we eat Tex-Mex.
However, today Rylan was our little burrito!!!
He thought it was so funny to wrap up in this mat and pretend to be a burrito! It reminded me of when they were little and we would read "Pete's a Pizza" by William Steig and then make them into pizzas for hours. Gotta love his imagination!!

Happy 90th Birthday!

Last week Popa celebrated his 90th birthday! We had a yummy family dinner at their house complete with brownie bottom pies for dessert! He was showered with cards from all over the country and one of his faves was from his two favorite great-grandsons. They both mentioned loving to hear his WW2 stories and stories from his days as a sports radio announcer in OK in the 1940s.When I was a little girl, I went to spend almost every weekend with Granny and Popa. Every Friday night Popa would pop popcorn on the stove in his popcorn pan and then we would eat it out of avacado green Tupperware bowls while watching some sports game. Then on Saturday mornings, Granny and I would hit the mall and Popa would work on the cars. He was really gifted with his hands for many years. He always called me "his favorite grand-daughter" even though I am the only one! haha He is one special guy!
Popa also always reminds us that he had auburn hair before he went gray. Unfortunately their is only one photo of his auburn hair, and it is at the wedding of these two almost 42 years ago!!
Granny was so cute going over to his chair to take this photo. She is very wobbly these days, but she sure did grab Popa's hand and put it around her waist just like old times. It was very cute and sweet! They are almost to their 67th anniversary!
It was a great evening and we had fun celebrating Popa's 90th!!!

Park and Sno-Cones

Last week the local school kids got out of school early, so we met Blaine and Lauren at the park for a picnic and hours of playing! Blaine is 2 years older than the boys and they think he is the coolest kid ever!!! (and they are right!) They watched turtles in the pond for a while. Did you know that turtles can even walk across the lily pads?

There is a caboose at the part, so they played train for at least an hour. They took our tickets, examined the wheels, made the whistle sound, and had great imaginative play on the caboose!
Rylan and Lauren. Sweet girl - she hung with those 3 boys wonderfully! She's a doll!!!
Then Lyndsey and I were hot after 2 1/2 hours at the park, so we went to get a quick sno-cone. Another 2 1/2 hours later, we left! hahaha The mommas solved most of the world's problems and the kids played in the sand area in delight! At this point, they were playing department store.

It was a great afternoon with wonderful friends and we can't wait to do it again!

Happy Easter 2011!

This is late...but better late than never! We had a wonderful Easter this year. After an uplifting worship service, we headed over to Mom and Dad's for hunting eggs and a yummy lunch! Heather and Macy joined us and it was such a treat to share the holiday with dear friends!!!

Here are my two angels...
and what the other 10 photos looked like! hahhahha
Granna and GPop with the boys! This was GPop's first big day since his surgery. He is still weak, but getting stronger every day. He finally has his appetite back and is trying to put on some weight. He had a blast helping the kids find all the 100+ hidden eggs!
Our little family!

Heather, Macy, Me, Rylan and Jacob... such sweet friends and part of the family!

Granny and Shake Shake with the boys. This was a big outing for them too!
Let the hunting begin!!!!
Granna and Rylan
My sweeeeeet boys! LOVE this photo!
Granna and Jacob
Macy - can't believe she is 9! Remember the day she was born and held her that day! Now she is such a sweet, precious girl. Such a good "big sis" figure for the boys. They adore her!

Loot from the Bunny! Coloring books of Cat in the Hat and Toy Story, 64 box of crayons, 4 Arch Bible books each and a Bible DVD each. BIG HIT!!!



Hope you had a much fun as we did! :)