OUCH!

We have a family get to gether every year at my cousin's house. We have tons of fun eating and swimming and eating and eating and eating. This year was lots of fun. Especailly getting to watch Maddi and Emily as they grow and interact more.
But apparently some people don't like settling for a quiet day, enjoying the pool and visiting with family. Sure as you can see in this picture he gave it a shot. He tried the little kid float. But it was just not enough to satisfy him. He had to find a way to bring more excitment to this dull party. Soooo....
Boy did he! Yep, he was doing some stunts on the diving board. A little later we all heard a CRACK...it was his head against the board! Yuck, huh? Will was the one kind enough to take a picture of the split open head while everyone else was trying to figure out if they should load him up for the ER or call 911. Cody....cody....cody! We love you :)

Here to entertain you :)

Please take just a moment to view these two very short clips....it will be well worth it! Then tell me what you think, who takes the GOLD?

So first- my mom on Easter doing the bunny flop....I mean hop!

Next Emily from a couple of weeks ago..

Here are the after pictures:

Fishing with Daddy!

Here is Emily with her BIG FISH!!! Will took her fishing on Saturday July 26th. She had been begging to go fishing for months and it was just one of those things that was hard to actually make happen. You know? But this was the day and just look at her smile!




Here is Emily and Billy together. Looks like friendly competetion to me. Oh well, give them time, they'll learn :)
There were also some games arranged at this activity where they were fishing. She did pretty good in the sack race. Does anyone know if the sack race is an olympic sport?



Guess Daddy forgot about the nap sweetie!

Ridem' Cowgirls!

We went to a "play day" in Jacksboro a couple of weeks ago. Emily and Kaylee's cousins (Hunter, Dylan and Payton) are part of a riding club that meets each month for competitions. We've wanted to go before but this was our first time. The girls had a lot of fun. Emily even entered and event or two.


Kaylee didn't like this arrangement so much.


C'mon don't all cowgirls ride with a pacifier?


Emily won a ribbon and a fun basket of goodies.
I was most surprised by Kaylee. She got to ride on this little pony. She LOVED it. To the point she did not want to get off. Every time it stopped she would grunt and lunge her body forward thinking that is the way to get it to go. She kept pushing my hands away when I tried to get her off. It was a great time!!

White Monsters!

It was one of those days I had a lot to do. And how lucky I was (or so I thought) that the girls were cooperating by playing together so well. In fact I has not heard a beep out of them. At first I was just relieved. Then I was suspicious. Then I was worried. So I went to make sure everything was okay. This is what I found. Emily had a full tube (now close to empty) of diaper cream and had covered Kaylee and some of herself.





My first reaction was "Emily, what in the world are you doing??". She looked at me so innocent and said, "It's okay Mom, we are White Monsters, but we're nice!". I could not be mad any longer. Both of my girls looking up at me grinning so happily. I ran to get the camera. I think it is funny the last time I saw Kaylee she was dressed. I guess Emily thought the outfit was not suitable for a baby white monster.
It was obvious that Emily was the brains behind this one, but I didn't see or hear any evidence of Kaylee putting up a fight. So I say the two were in cahoots.

Beware of the little white monsters!!!


Yep it's things like this that keep me in the running for "Mom of the Year". I really should have known after 5 minutes of peace there was trouble brewing.

Kaylee Kaylee Kaylee!

Although she won't show you and don't even think about forcing a peek, she does have some teeth finally. No matter how hard I try I can get a good shot of them. She has 2 on the bottom and I think just one on the top, but like I said she likes to keep these new things to herself. She started cutting them on the 4th of July. That was lots of fun :)

Oh well, it's still a cute smile, huh?

Here she is with her cousin Payton and big sister Emily. She loves to go for rides on Bebo's golf cart. Those rosey cheeks are so sweet. And I'm not sure what that is on her face.

Once again, hiding the teeth. I got to tell you these two kids are night and day. Kaylee is so much more adventurous than Emily ever was at this age. I never had to safety lock a cabinet or anything. Emily never got into things that weren't hers. Not so with Kaylee. She is into EVERYTHING. She is also a climber! She climbs everything...and fast! The other day she pushed one of Emily's little chairs over to the front door, climbed on top of it and hung by the doorknob. Will came into the room and caught her, she just grins and laughs or starts shaking her head side to side and saying "nononono". At least she is smart enough to predict our next words. She even climbs up the fridge shelves if I leave the door open for a second. She is a mess!

4th of July

Yep, it is a few days (or weeks) late. But you know my motto, better late than never :) So we had a fun 4th of July. I do have to say this year was different. We always have done the 4th of July Parade in Granbury on the 4th. Then we usually go to Bebo and Bobo's house (Will's parents) for lunch and swimming. Then that evening and through the night we go to the Kings' for fireworks and supper. Well this year Granbury threw us off schedule. For some reason they did not do their parade on the 4th. They did it on the 5th. Oh well, it was still fun.

Here we are at the Parade. As you see we had several tricks to try and keep cool. Have you ever been to this parade? It is SO long. And you have to get there early to get a good spot!


Little Kaylee was so cute waving the flag :)

So glad mom was able to come out for lunch on Saturday. She had to work so she missed the parade (which should have been on Friday when she was off!). At least she got some grub on her lunch break!

Will and Granny playing frisbee
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of our evening on the 4th, but like I said we always go to the King's home for fireworks and fun. This year Emily was SO excited we were going to "THE KING'S HOUSE!" She literally thought we were going to A King's House (like Prince Charming's Daddy I guess) too much Disney! If you don't know they are a family we know through church. It has been a tradition for several years to spend the 4th out there. I guess Emily didn't remember last year. We tried to explain he isn't really a "King" it was just his last name. I said you know, like Brother King (that's what we call him at church). She said "Oh! Yeah, the King's Brother will be there too!!!" I just looked at Will and shruged. I guess she will figure it out when we get there. As it turns out that didn't help much either. They live in a pretty nice area and in a large very nice home. So as we pull up she exclaims "is that the King's Castle?". The best part was we were walking up to the house and the whole time she is saying, where is he? where is the king?? And who walks from around the house? Yep, Bro. King. So that was kinda embarrassing, so what do you do? I just said, Emily there is the King. She was so thrilled to meet him. How funny. We had lots of fun. We all swam and ate and saw the most amazing fireworks. As a special bonus Emily got to eat some Dippin' Dots served by their neighbor who invented Dippin' Dots. Next year I have to take some pictures!

Mother's Day Out

I'm sure all of you know that we put the girls in a Mother's Day Out program this summer. It is two days a week (Monday and Wednesday). I was a little unsure at first because I hate to turn loose of the money, especially on things that are not completely necessary. But WOW how worth it! It is so amazing how much I can accomplish in a few hours alone. It's really a great balance for me. I always had the desire to be at home with my kids, especially when they are small. But I found that I needed a little more "me" time than I was getting. I know there are super moms out there that can do it without any complaint or problem, but I never claimed to be super mom (sorry girls). It really has been wonderful. I learned that I can get pretty much all my "work" done (grocery shop, clean house, laundry, bills, a few meals, errands, yard work, church work, etc. etc.) on the two days they are at "school", which means when they are at home we can have lots more quality time together. It was just a couple of weeks before the program started when Emily had been asking me all day to read a book to her. I kept putting her off all morning as I ran around trying to get everything done. Finally Emily had the saddest little face and said, I wish you didn't have to work all the time. Boy, was that an eye opener. Anyway I do really like this new arrangement. They get to have fun, learn and play with other kids while I "work", then they get to come home and play with me!


An added bonus is we are getting a sneak peak into what life may be like when Emily is really in school. She is sure enough a clown and creative with the things she tells. She has told me her teachers names (there are two) are "doo doo" and "dah dah". I have no idea where she came up with that because she does know their real names. I find myself checking with the teachers for the reality behind many of the stories I hear on a daily basis about school.




Hooray for Mother's Day out and the two saints affectionately named "Doo Doo" and "Dah Dah"!!!

Best Daddy!

How fun to have a whole day dedicated to showering 'daddy' with love!

We had a little breakfast before church and Emily got to give Will the special tie she made for him to wear to church. Yea, Daddy for being so great and actually wearing it to church! You probably can't see in the picture but the tie says "Best Daddy".

Yes, I know that Father's Day was last month! But I do what I can, you know? For the record we did celebrate on time, just posted the proof late :)

Swimming lessons

This picture just about sums it up. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?




Truth be told she did okay, except when it came to putting her head in the water. She has it in her mind that if your head goes in the water you will drown. There is not much convincing her otherwise. She wasn't that way last year. But this year the fear is very real. She also does not trust jumping into the pool (when someone is there to catch her) because she thinks she may go under. We will just keep trying.

Can I call you that?

This is just a short cute Emily story from a few weeks ago. We had been playing outside and she said she needed to go to the potty. It was one of those times she really wanted help (that normally she does not need or want). So I went inside to help her out and when we were all done she gave me HUGE hug (it was really sweet). But then she said "I love you, owner". What?!?!?! I thought surely I misheard her. I'm sure I had a strange look on my face, because she squinted her eyes at me and said, "Can I call you that?" I said "call me what"? Yep, I was right the first time she said it again "owner". I said "no, i would really rather you not call me that". She said "please I want to call you my owner". I said, "I really prefer Mommy". She said it a few more times that evening, but luckily has not mentioned it since. Hopefully next time it pops into her head we won't be in public. Can you imagine what bystanders would think if they heard Emily calling me "owner"?? I just don't know where she comes up with this stuff.

Cookies for the Firemen

Lately we have been talking quite a bit about 9-1-1 and emergencies and police and firemen. Emily has a pretty decent understanding of it and I think maybe, just maybe if she needed to she could call 911 and relay what she needed to for help. So, a few days ago we were driving into town and passed a fire truck heading in the direction of our house. Will looked in the rear-view mirror to see lot of black smoke just to the south/east of us. Emily caught on to the whole situation and said she wanted to go help the firemen. And boy was she determined and passionate about needing to help them. Will and I did the best we knew how to explain why she really couldn't go help them fight the fire. She wasn't real happy about it. So Will says, Emily if you want to help the firemen you can do something nice for them like make some cookies. So....
We did! She helped me make some chocolate chip cookies. Then I told her to hurry and put on her shoes so we could go deliver the cookies to the fire station. Well she came out of her room wearing tall black leathery boots (that she has never worn before). Of course you can see that went REALLY well with he rest of her outfit! Of course I told her she couldn't wear those boots that she needed to go put on her brown sandals. No, apparently she HAD to wear these boots because they are her FIREMEN boots :) She said firemen where tall black boots. Well she had a point. So I ended up giving in hoping the firemen would not think ill of me.
They were so nice to her at the fire station! They let her in to look around at the trucks and equipment. They even let her sit in the truck and turned on the lights. It was really fun!
She is already wanting to take some cookies to the police as well. Maybe we will have to figure out how to make some donuts :)

Little Bunny FuFu

About two weeks ago we were all outside playing and working. Side note- Will bought MORE grass!! I think he has a problem. Anyway, Will and I had been laying grass and Emily and Payton were playing outside and in the sprinkler. I decided to go check on the garden and I found this little baby rabbit hiding under a big zucchini leaf! It didn't move at all. So I picked it up and let the girls hold it for a few minutes. It was so cute!

Who is that stringy-haired kid? Good grief what mother would let her kid play outside like that :)
Emily thinks she is the "bunny whisperer".
You can really see here how tiny the thing was. Payton (our niece) really enjoyed it!

I'm sure you are all wondering what it's name is and where we keep this new pet. Well the answer is....it DOES NOT HAVE A NAME OTHER THAN WILD CUTE BUNNY and it was PUT BACK IN THE GARDEN WHERE IT CAME FROM :)

Happy Birthday Emily

We had LOTS of fun celebrating Emily's birthday! I can't believe how fast it has all gone by. Just two years away from school. I know it is going to seem like tomorrow. She is such a sweet (mostly) little girl. There is a lot going on in that little head of hers. She really does a great job at keeping things interesting around here. I vaguely remember the days before children when Will and I had to pay for entertainment!

We couldn't get the pool this year at Cherry Park (I waited too late to call). So we had a very simple, small party here at the house. It was mostly family and a few close friends. We had ice cream cone cakes and hot dogs. The kids all had fun playing outside and we had fun watching :)