2009 Family Pictures

Time to Play

Dan has this week off for vactaion. He really wanted to go to the beach which is a 4 hour drive. We ended up not going to the beach monday because we didn't want to spend money on a hotel or make it a one day trip. So, we went to the circus in Cedar Park. We had so much fun. It was a great show. We then went to Chickfila and well, I was bummed, speechless, bothered that I spent $18 on dinner and we did not have enough food and I was not going to spend any more money there. So I moped while the kids laughed and played! We headed home and saw Ikea. Thought this would be a good place for the kids to play. Nick is now too tall and Kate is still in diapers. So much for free 1 hour childcare. I used the bathroom and saw the calender on the inside of the stall door. Free dinner today. We are so getting free dinner! You didn't even have to purchase an adult meal! I know, the kids just ate but like I said I don't think the shared 12 peice of mini nuggets will last. So Chloe got and ate all her penne pasta and choc milk. Nick didn't care for his Uncrustable because it had too much peanut butter so I ate it (I was the one still hungry). He did though eat his cookie and choc milk. Kate ate her meatballs , choc milk and her applesauce. I felt so much better. We had a nice walk through the store and then headed home."

Tuesday we went fishing. A family in our ward at church has a pond and they siad we were welcome to come fishing. We headed there about noon and packed a lunch. The day was so enjoyable! Kate had a friend to play with. Chloe and Nick paled around with the 2 boy that were 9 and 10. They roamed the property. Chased the donkeys and the miniture horse. They each fished about a total of 5 minutes. They rather run wild. It was so good for them. Nick learned that climbing trees is hard. He hasn't had much practice since we don't have but 2 trees and they are small oaks. Well we do have 2 larger Crepe Mertles but they are to delicate for climbing. So, Dan and I fished with Becca (homeowner). I caught the first fish. Dan was shocked. He made me hold it while he took 3 pictures. I really was not fond of holding the fish. "One more picture", he would say. Oh so nervous! Then the competition was on. Dan caught one. Okay yes his was bigger than mine. We fished for hours. The task was not to get the line stuck in the trees above or in the grass in the water. That was it. Just the 2 catches. We didn't keep any. The next fun was shooting BB guns at balloons. Becca and I used spray adhesive to attach preblown balloons to the trees. The boys (including Dan) shot at the balloons. That spray adhesive sure was sticky on our hands. We had to wash our hands with WD40 to get the glue off. Yet another use for WD40!

We then went and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at the Weavers while we ate spagetti and meatballs and rootbeer floats.

The kids sure had a busy weekend. Lots of good memories.

Today Chloe begins all day headstart. She has been in half day pre-k but the class schedule changed about 3 weeks ago. Headstart took over the pre-k program. Chloe was going to school at 11:30 eating lunch, having an hour nap and eating snack. There wasn't much time for learning anymore. She no longer had recess. After talking with the principal we decided Chloe should go all day. I will miss Chloe. It was nice to have her home in the morning. As for Chloe she couldn't wait to go to school all day!!!

Here's a little bit of Kate throughout the past couple of months. She is a wonderful baby. So easy going. Here she is eating a Mother's Oatmeal Cookie which is one of my favorites. Good thing she was in a bathing suit. She got rinsed of in Lake Travis to get this mess off. She makes this silly face, scrunching her nose up and breathing loudly through it. The next picture is just too cute.

This is a picture of the first fish Nick has ever caught. I gave Dan a fishing pole last Christmas instead of a video game that he wanted. He REALLY wanted Call of Duty! The fishing pole has come in really handy. We have a pond in the neighborhood that is very convienent to fish in. (Today the water level in very low due to the drought) Dan has even been able to make a few fishing trips to the Gulf of Mexico with some co-workers. Pictured here is a "biggie" that Dan caught when he went to gulf in July. He was so excited. Too bad the meat wasn't good enough to eat.

Easter

Easter 2009

Easter dinner was with my brother's family. Since the children were still in their Easter outfits I thought it would be nice to get pictures of them, the boys in blue and the girls in their white dresses. I love white dresses! In the picture of all the children are Mike's girls, Addie and Elyse and our friends the Yorbrough's.

More pictures of Easter. Auntie Mylie shared some of her chocolate cake with Kate. Her first chocolate cake at 6 months and in a white dress. I wasn't so sure about this.

More and more yard work

Dan is on vacation this week and I have been keeping him busy. When we moved here 2 years ago our yard was just grass (beautiful grass with no weeds). My dad suggested we join the Arbor Day Foundation and get free trees. We joined and got 5 free Crape Myrtles. They came in a long box which was a surprise. Even a bigger surprise was what was inside. Five sticks! Dan laughed. He said he would have nothing to do with the trees. I planted them in the corner of the yard to protect the from the wind as they grow up stronger. Well, the trees have grown and Dan is surprised. It was time to move the trees out of the corner so they could grow better. We barrowed a wheel barrow from one neighbor and barrowed and large post used for digging from another neighbor. Yesterday we planted one tree and today we transplanted the remaining 4. It was quite a job but they do look nice. I would love to take a picture but our camera needs to be repaired first. Now the next step is the vegetable garden which will be another project. It is full of weeds. We have also been working on removing large weeds from the grass by digging them up and putting dirt back in the hole left behind. Seems to be neverending. The yard looks green but that is because the weeds are so plentiful. My front yard looks great and has just a few weeds. I love to garden! Spring time seems to be so busy. The inside of my house gets neglected and I fall behind on the cleaning. I think the reason why I enjoy gardening is because I did it a lot as a child. We prunned trees, shaped bushes, planted flowers, picked fruit and vegetables all together. I want my own family to work together in the yard. Dan takes pride in the grass and the nice lines the mower leaves behind. Today he was such a help moving the trees and he is so happy to have that checked off his list!