UP, UP, AND AWAY!!

The kids had fun this week in the backyard with the pool. We did alot of hanging out and relaxing. School was over last week so we've enjoyed not having a schedule. This summer is going to be lots of fun. The kids have really started to play together and enjoy each other's company. Garrett couldn't get enough of Courtney spraying him with the water hose....or watching her run and jump into the pool. He thinks that she is so cool!

Hep!

Every time Garrett goes into the backyard, one of the first things that he does is try to climb the HUGE tree. Calls of "Hep!" (help) then follow. How in the world he thinks that he can get up there is beyond me, but I like his spunk.

Cute little pictures

You'll NEVER guess what these little kitties were doing...

Can you believe that they were watching Courtney take a nap? She set them up on the coffee table like this and then laid down on the couch and took a nap. I walked in the room and about fell out. It was the funniest, cutest thing that I think I've ever seen.

Cute Little Boy Feet

"UMBINE Daddy, UMBINE"

These are the words heard daily around here....OVER AND OVER. Garrett is one happy boy when he is out in the country. It used to be "tows Daddy, tows" (cows). Now that wheat harvest has started it is "umbine Daddy, umbine" (combine). He would ride for hours. Quite impressive for a 19 month old. Courtney lasts 30 minutes tops.

I'll try to get some better pictures of him riding. It's just too cute.

The sheep are in the meadow, the cows are in the corn...

....and I'm in FLIP FLOPS. I know you are all jealous. Don't you dream of running around a pasture, crawling through barbed wire fences, chasing cows out of the corn....(actually they go back into the corn and it's so tall you can't see them) all in your flip flops? Fun.

I really should take on the boy scout motto of "always be prepared". At this time in my life I'm pretty much thinking that I would be kicked out of boy scouts if I were in it. I shouldn't even drive out toward the cows without binoculars or a pair of tennis shoes. My trusty pink Aggie flip flops did get the job done though.

Congratulations Allison!!

Last weekend Allison graduated with her Masters in Nursing. We all went to Corpus Christi to watch her graduate and celebrate her accomplishment. I'm not sure how she worked full time and went to school at the same time....she was busy, busy, busy!!! She'll be a nurse practioner in Temple at a new Scott & White clinic. YAY Allison!!

Here she is walking across the stage!

We went out to eat and they sang "Happy Graduation" to her and made her act like a bird....I don't think this was her favorite part of the weekend, but she was a good sport!

Courtney the Gymnast

These pictures are from show-off day at gymnastics. Courtney had lots of fun this year in her class.
Balance beam is probably her best thing.

She has the front roll perfected.


Of course, she's a monkey on the bars!

Handstand with help

More bars....her favorite.

Look at that form! Watch out Olympics, here we come! ;)

Awards week....I told her how proud I was of her medal and she said in her most matter-of-fact voice...."Mommy, everybody got a medal, don't you know?!"

On the "awards" stand

Her class

New flowerbed!

Before

After

We cleaned out a big flowerbed last year that was really not very pretty and then it just sat vacant for a long time. We've finally planted (well, Justin planted them....they were not your little flower pots...they were big ole pots of plants!) This was my Mother's Day present and I just LOVE it! Right now they are small, but by the end of the summer they will all probably be double their size. I'm glad I took pics so I can go back and compare. :) The picture really doesn't do it justice...there are lots more flowers on the part on the right hand side now. You just need to come over and see it, it's super cute!

Celebrate!

Friday was a fun day as we celebrated Anne's birthday, Mama's birthday, and Mother's Day with a girl's day out (well, Garrett joined in the fun, too). We went to a great little cafe that we like on the square in Lampasas and then shopped some of the little shops in town. It was soooo HOT...so the day ended with a dip in the Cowhouse Creek, which the kids LOVED!

The Birthday Girls!!

A fun time in the water.

The kids and I....Garrett did not want to pose, he wanted to be in the water!

Splashin' around

We finally just gave in and let them get all wet....Garrett has that "am I going to get in trouble?" look on his face.

Mama and Courtney walking the creek bed....it was so pretty!

Garrett would have thrown rocks from this spot allllll day if we'd let him.

Race for the Cure

The walk

All the Texas sisters were able to make it....Aunt Susie, Mama, And Aunt Phyllis

Drew and Andrea

Our group trying to stay warm....Mama, Drew, Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Susie, Me, Uncle Jack, Anne holding Courtney, and Andrea.

We lovingly remembered Aunt Margaret today as our family walked in the Race for the Cure. She's been gone from us for 5 months now and it still really doesn't seem real. I still hear her voice in my head and there are always little things that come up everyday that remind me of her....one of them being my Mom. They are alot alike in a alot of ways. BUT, one of the ways that they were very different is that Aunt Margaret was ALWAYS on time and Mama....not so much. BUT, Mama was the first to arrive at our house bright and early Saturday morning to head out for the walk. She said that she could not be late to this....and she wasn't! Here are some pictures of the COLD morning that we walked to hopefully one day find a cure to this beast we call cancer. AND, don't let that cane that Aunt Susie has fool you in the pictures....she was FAST! We couldn't keep up with her.

If you could spare a prayer, tomorrow morning our friend David is having surgery at St. David's hospital in Austin at 9 AM. Please pray specifically that his heart is doing what it is not supposed to do at the time of the surgery so the doctors can better fix the specific areas that need fixing. (I know that may sound wierd, but that's the scoop in a nutshell) xoxo