The Big Event from 2010

Our big event for 2010 was Tamara's wedding. We all love Uncle Chris so much and are very happy for them.

Christmas 2010

I may never catch up but I'm going to give it a try! Here we are decorating our new, smaller tree I bought last year. I love how it looks in our front room and I love that we could decorate it so fast and take it down so fast. I think this is the first year I haven't had to move any ornaments around after the kids finished!

Fall Photo Shoot

This was from a fun fall photo shoot that a friend did of the kids. Jack was 10 1/2, Bailey was 9 and Connor was 4 1/2.

Jack's Baptism

There are no words to describe how truly amazing this felt. This is something you think about from the time they are born. I felt like I was going to burst with joy as I watched my oldest give his confession to one grandfather and the other say a wonderful prayer over him. Then to watch as his daddy baptized him was awesome!

Jack-

Mommy and Daddy have prayed for this day since you were born. We are blessed to be your parents and are so very proud of you.

My Last Soccer Player!

I love soccer, and I love watching my kids play soccer. I've been a soccer mom for 7 years now, Jack started playing when he was 3. Well, now my baby Connor is playing. He is on a team called the Tigers and they have orange uniforms. His favorite color so he loves wearing it. I think he actually enjoys running around the field and playing more than he enjoys playing soccer. He does look really cute in his uniform

Back Tracking, Way Back

I am so behind...
This is Connor on his first day of preschool. He is now upstairs in the 4's. He is such a big boy. He is just beginning to like all things school and this makes me a happy mommy. This is Connor with his teacher Mrs. Stephanie. Such a funny boy!

A Day All For Connor!

The other two are fully back into the swing of things at school. Connor came back from his big trip to Memaw's and G-dad's house last night and decided mommy and Connor needed a day to themselves! He is such a funny little boy. Or I guess I should say big boy. I think he grew an inch while he was gone. So, we named today Connor Day. First, he had yummy waffles for breakfast then we did some school practice, then off to visit with his Mimi and Papa, who hadn't seen him in over a week. After playing with the doggies at the clinic we headed to his favorite restaurant, Old McDonald's. After we got home we went out back to practice soccer. He is playing soccer this fall and is very ready to be a soccer star! He is actually pretty good, I guess having an older brother who plays and plays well has helped him. After soccer and a Popsicle we headed in to watch a few cartoons and rest before we have to pick the other two up. He doesn't want Connor Day to end but I'm guessing the other two won't be as patient as mommy with Connor picking everything we do!

School Again...

Yesterday was the first day of school for the older two. Jack started 5th grade and Bailey started 3rd grade. It is so hard to believe that my sweet kids are that old! We spent the beginning of last week on one last trip to the lake. We swam, played and had a great time with Memaw and G-Dad. When we left on Wednesday we also left Connor to play a bit longer with them. It gave me a chance to get J & B ready for school and to spend some quality time with them.



Here they are on the first morning with our new backpacks and new clothes.

Bailey with her 3rd grade teacher, Miss Bradley. She is new to our school but I think Bailey will have a wonderful year.

This is my big 5th grader with his sweet teacher. He was so excited when we got the letter telling us who he had. Mrs. Petrini is going to be a wonderful teacher for Jack. And somehow I still managed to get him to let me take a picture, I was afraid that this would be the year he told me no.

Greg led us in a family prayer before we sent them to their first day of school.

Then we had our traditional donut shop trip and gave our teachers a fun first day treat.

They both had a great first day and actually got up easy the second day too! I know that will wear off soon!

4th of July...finally!

We spent the 4th out in the country with Greg's family. We saw a fun small town 4th of July fireworks show and it was so good! We ate great grilled food and just hung out and rested. I read a whole book and watched the kids play the Wii. Finally we had our own fireworks one night. It was a fun weekend.

Museum of Nature and Science

The Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park had special rates on every Tuesday in June. Finally the last Tuesday we made it. The hardest part was getting the kids to wake up in time to get there by 9:30 for the cheaper tickets. We started in the science building first. The museum has a special exhibit called Water. It was really interesting and the kids enjoyed the information and fun games. The next room was the dinosaur fossils and fossil dig. This was, of course, their favorite room and we could have stayed there for the rest of the time.

After 30 minutes of digging for fossils I made them leave to go look at other things. After exploring that building for a while longer we finally made it over to the nature building.
After exploring the animal exhibits downstairs we made our way to the dinosaurs and prehistoric exhibits upstairs. See a pattern here. My kids are fascinated with dinosaurs and fossils. When we walked into the Dallas Ocean room we met a sweet older gentleman who walked around with us and gave us detailed information about all the fossils. He suggested we head to the basement to watch the fossil/paleontologist lab because he could tell from all Jack's questions that he is really interested in paleontology.

All in all it was a really fun, educational day!

Baseball and Swimming

Other than our vacation, June was taken up with baseball and swim lessons. April, May and June were filled with baseball games. Jack's team is the Rangers and they were so awesome this year. Here is my little "Kinsler" about to hit. He loved to wear his red socks pulled up just like the Rangers Ian Kinsler, who is his favorite. He ended up with about a 600 batting average and played catcher and 2nd most of the time.

Our Rangers won there division and were headed to the final game but all the rain messed us up and we still haven't played a final game.

The rest of June was spent in swim lessons with Bailey and Connor. I was amazed at the progress that both kids made. Jack had leveled out last summer and didn't need lessons. Bailey really shocked us. She has never loved swimming, playing in the water,yes, but not swimming. She is doing so well. Swimming and jumping in and swimming and she even went down the slide and swam to the side! I am so proud of her.

I never remembered the camera when Connor was swimming so no pictures of him, but he was in this beginning 4's-5's class. He did really well. His teacher told us that he was shocked he was barely 4, he was swimming like a 5 year old. Whatever that means we were really proud of him. I debated putting both kids in the next session for swimming but decided we needed a break more than we needed lessons. So for the next few weeks we will be relaxing, going to movies, hanging out with friends, playing outside and in general just hanging out!