Just Another Day in Paradise

My sister and her family rented a cabin on the Sabinal River in Utopia this week and invited Dwaine, the kids and I to join them for a day. So we packed up and headed to paradise for a day of fishing, swimming, rope swinging, eating and visiting...

We started off with a little fishing. Alli insisted that she knew what she was doing and would not let Dwaine or I help her at all. Needless to say, she didn't catch any fish, but she had fun anyway.

Maddy with her fish. The Barbie fishing pole really works!

And, TJ with his fish. Apparently, the Scooby Doo fishing pole is the real deal also.

Daddy showing TJ just how it's done...

More success!!

And then for some rope swing fun...

At first Alli thought hanging on the rope was lots of fun until she realized she couldn't drop down without being in the water not knowing what to do from there (the water was deep right off the bank). We assured her the life jacket would keep her afloat, but she wasn't buying it and began to panic, so Maddy and Uncle Russell had to pull her back to the ground. It took quite a while after that for her to get back in the water at all.

Dad's got rope swing skills!

And so does 4 yr old Lainey!!! That girl was fearless.

You Tarzan, Me Jane

TJ and Alli watching the fun safely from the sidelines.

Finally back in the water for Alli!

I thought this pic was funny cause it looks like I'm a momma duck with her ducklings trailing behind. Actually, the girls were the "rescue team." Every time someone would jump in or float to the other side of the river, they would quickly swim to the rescue. It was very cute.
TJ running back to the cabin to show me the "apple" that he found while he and Daddy were hiking around. It was actually a pepper of some kind, but he calls every fruit an apple.
Time for smores. Not a good idea in August- the chocolate was melted before we got it out of the package so my job was to squeeze chocolate onto all the crackers. And as you can imagine, it was already hot outside, so that fire- well, you understand. Let's just say we hit the river for some more rope swing fun right after that. Mmmm, roasted marshmallows are still very yummy though.
Oh and there were cupcakes too!
For Alli, there was cupcake icing (that's how she typically eats a cupcake).
Maddy getting her fill of the icing too. I think she has a better idea with the spoon.
And of course the peaceful ride home. Both kids sacked out. They were filthy, but we took them home and put them straight to bed anyway.

You just can't beat days like that!!!!!

Locks of Love

So, here it is- my big reveal! After about 2 years (much longer than I expected when I decided to do this), my hair was finally long enough to be donated to Locks of Love and I was finally ready to part with it....

The before and...

the after!!!!

That ponytail is 11 inches long! It felt so weird to be holding it in my hand but great to know that it will be used to help a child feel better about herself in what can be a very harsh, critical world.

That's our boy!!

Beautiful Girl!

Alli got into my purse the other day and when I told her to get out of it, she looked up and this is what I saw...
I had to laugh. Not that bad of a job being that she doesn't have the biggest lips to work with. At least it wasn't all over her face.

Stamp it up!

This is what you get when you let toddlers play with stamps on the patio while you're inside making dinner...

To make it worse, that ink was not washable.

Blue hands, blue bellies, blue legs, blue faces. Oh boy.

Wook mama!

Probably won't do that again. However, making dinner was a lot more peaceful than usual, so it is a little bit tempting. Maybe with some washable ink stamps. Maybe.

Boys, boys, boys!!

Alli is staying at Grandma Elsie's this week and I kept Grant and Jake for a short while today, so it was boys only!

As soon as Grant saw the camera, he busted out with a big "CHEEESE"

TJ and Jake also provided a cheesy grin or two, but I never could catch all 3 at the same time.

TJ playing peek-a-boo (copying momma behind the camera). Then I tried peek-a-boo with a blanket to hopefully get more of a reaction. Instead, Grant decided it looked like fun and took it for his own game of peek-a-boo...
Snack time with Sesame Street...

And, my favorite- jumping with Sesame Street. They popped out of their seats when the song came on and had an absolute blast as you can see...

Notice how TJ so easily becomes distracted from dancing by the site of Grant's bag which he knows is always full of yummy snacks. "Eat food" he says. That boy would snack all day if I let him.

Oh, and sorry about my blaring voice in the middle of the video. For some reason I feel I just have to narrate even when it is totally not necessary.

Our 4th of July

We headed up to San Marcos (Dwaine's old stompin' grounds in college) for the July 4th holiday. Alli has been wanting to see fireworks for the last couple of months, so Dwaine and I thought it would be fun to take the kids up to San Marcos for the town celebration.

We decided to make a full day out of it and take the kids to Wonder World for some added fun. Wonder World is a little amusement park with a cave tour and a train ride through a petting zoo. After discovering that the cave tour is an hour and a half long, we opted out of that and just took the train ride.

We knew it would be cheesy but figured the kids would love it anyway. And, we were right. It was very cheesy- think 70's style amusement park- but the kids still had lots of fun...

Waiting for the train. TJ was playing peek-a-boo behind the bench. The boy can't sit still.
Here it comes...
And off we go
little bags of food in hand ready to feed those animals.
As we passed under the waterfall at the entrance to the tunnel, TJ ducked down really quickly and then slowly looked up to make sure all was OK. He stayed down on his belly until we made it through the tunnel, though.

So there were deer, peacocks, turkey, llama, emu and a few other caged animals. By no means the biggest or most interesting animal park we have ever taken a ride through, but Alli loved feeding those deer anyway. That is until one of them took the bag right out of her hand and swallowed it whole. We replaced it with TJ's bag 'cause he was keeping a safe distance from the animals only to have it snatched out of her hand as well (I hope wax paper bags aren't bad for deer).
Then it was off to meet Grandma and Pop after we killed some time at the awesome city park playground. We had an early dinner at Grins (yum!) and then headed to the river park for the festivities...

There was a bouncy house, bubbles, games, a super fun train ride (2 in one day- wow)...
and of course cotton candy! Yum again!
We headed over to Sewell park after Grandma and Pop left.
Dwaine and Alli did a little more swimming. Dwaine used to take frequent dips in the San Marcos river at this very location in his college days. I'm guessing that he never imagined that 10+ yrs later, he would be taking his daughter for a swim in the same place.
We had 2 hours to kill before the fireworks show. I was really hoping that the kids would lay on the blanket with us and rest a little as they hadn't napped at all. NO SUCH LUCK! They were all over the place and Dwaine and I did our best to keep them under control, but it got a little hairy after their snacks and drinks ran out. Let's just say my head is still a little sore from the sippy cup to the head- from TJ's hand of course (although I do think it was an accident- not the throwing part but the part where it hit my head). Here they are hamming it up while we are all waiting for the fireworks that Alli has been asking about.
Well, 2 firework explosions into it and TJ is on his belly thumb firmly in his mouth and Alli is crying saying she doesn't like fireworks and she wants to go home...
So, here we are. TJ was sound asleep by the end of the show- the finale however woke him out of his slumber in fear. We were at least able to calm Alli down enough for her to watch the show and admit that it was pretty, but those hands stayed cupped over her ears the entire time as well as mom's hands over the top of hers for most of the time.

Another funny thing worth mentioning: just as the fireworks started, we discovered that they were on the other side of the coliseum so that we could barely see them over the top of the building. This was apparently a surprise to everyone else in the park as well because they quickly got up and started walking to the other side. We were obviously going nowhere, but it was kind of nice because the fireworks got higher and we now had the entire park to ourselves.

So, overall we had a great family 4th of July- definitely one to remember!

Theology with a 3 yr old

Alli has become quite the little singer/song-writer lately. She will just randomly start making up and singing songs, some of which are quite amusing. The lyrics to one of my favorites were "CoYOte, CoYOte at the petting zoo." I'm thinking: I'm not sure a coyote is a good candidate for a petting zoo animal, but it would be interesting.

Alli has also really started diving into and absorbing her religious education lately, so the following is a great video that captures the two...

In case you didn't catch those lyrics they go a little something like this:

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus- what are you saying?
hmmm, mmm, mmm, hmmm, mmm, mmm
Jesus, All the power.
Jesus, All the power.
Jesus, Jesus- where are you going?
Jesus, Jesus- where are you going? where are you going?
Before Buzby, before Buzby (Buzby is a character on her Christian cartoon)
The Lord, the Lord...

We have also had some funny conversations about God with her lately. Here are some examples:

1. Alli was on the phone with daddy one day and happened to be very talkative rambling on and in the middle of it all she says:

"Jesus is the Lord of my blessings!"

Before daddy could even finish his response of "Somebody's been going to church," she follows it up with

"AND, Shamu is the Lord of my blessings!"

Daddy responds "Somebody's also been going to Sea World lately"

2. As I was putting Alli down for a nap, she got frustrated with me and shoved her Bible onto the floor. I sternly explained that we have to treat the Bible with extra special care because it is God's book. Her response:

"I want to give it back to Him."

Mom: "No, I mean He wrote it for us..." Nevermind. "Just please don't ever push it to the floor again."

3. At the dinner table, Dwaine and I were explaining to Alli that we can't hide anything from God because He sees everything we do (for what reason we felt we had to tell her that I don't remember). Her response:

"Where is He?"

Hmmm, the abstract concept of God being everywhere all the time even though we can't see Him is a bit too much for a 3 yr old (though I tried). She seemed more pleased with the answer "He lives in heaven" so we left it at that.

At other times, she seems to have just the right words for Him. Her prayers often go something like this "Dear God- Thank you for my blessings. I love you. You love us. In Jesus' name, Amen" How perfectly simple is that?

So, we're learning- all of us. Knowing what to say and what not to say to a small child about God can be very complicated. I think the key is to "plant seeds" as our church calls it. God made us. God loves us. God cares for us. We'll try sticking to those concepts for now, deal with questions as they arise and watch in amazement at how He is at work in our lives!

Sick Days

The kids are a little under the weather today, so this is what a good part of the morning looked like...

I received a little help from Clifford the Big Red Dog (or "ro ro daw" as TJ says). Sitting still on the couch watching a show is rare for TJ, so I can really tell he's not feeling well when he does this.

Already feeling a little better by lunchtime.

Yay! Hopefully this thing won't keep us down for long.

The Boys...

We are so blessed to have TJ's best buds Grant and Jake live just down the road in Boerne. We get to play with them a lot and TJ always gets excited when I tell him we're gonna see them and their mommy, Miss Wawa (Laura). If ever he's giving me trouble getting dressed or getting in the car, telling him that we are going to see Grant and Jake is a surefire way to speed up the process. He's 100% cooperation after that (I only use that little trick if we are in fact going to see them, although it is tempting sometimes when we are not).

Having fun in the water.

Typical boys- loving the Gator!

These 3 guys are going to be best friends for a long time I'm quite sure. I'm wondering how much stress they are going to cause Laura and me with the kind of trouble they may get into. The stories that I hear from Dwaine about the crazy life-endangering stuff he and his friends used to do have me a little worried.

So, I'll speak for Laura and myself when I say that for now, we'll handle the stress of the temper tantrums, the occasional hitting or pushing (usually TJ's doing), wrangling them up for meals, and doing our best to keep them from climbing onto and standing on and jumping off of things they shouldn't. At least we have them right under our noses knowing where they are and what they are up to at all times. We still have some control, most of the time, I think, don't we Laura?

We love you guys bunches!!!!

Lake fun!

We recently hit the lake for some family fun and had a blast....

TJ and Alli LOVE the boat. It was a long, exhausting day for them, but they were having so much fun that they hung in there and were actually very well behaved. I just love days like that!

Alli even had her first tubing experience...

She thought that was the best and didn't want the ride to end. But, thankfully she was also excited about climbing the ladder onto the back of the boat, so that kept her from throwing a fit about the tubing ride coming to an end.

It looks like we're flying across the lake, but trust me, we were not. Nervous mommy instructed daddy to just putt around. But when I discovered that the tube just collects water at a turtle's pace, we had to pick up the speed just a little. What an awesome first mommy-daughter experience. I was really trying to soak it in and was thinking "I can't believe she's old enough to do this with me!" And, I couldn't stop imagining how many more fun times like this lay ahead of us.

And yes, mom and dad had a little fun of their own too!

Above: daddy's second ever wakeboarding experience- he's quite the natural.

Below: mommy's first ever wakeboarding experience!!!!! I can't wait to do it again!

My goal was just to get up on the board, but to my surprise I popped right up there with Dwaine's "expert" advice about how to do it. And then I stayed up for quite a while.

The hardest part about it was getting my feet in those boots- I was pushing and pulling with all my might and was rather tired when my second foot finally squeezed all the way in. The funny thing is that board, boots and all, flew right off when I face planted while attempting a 180. What was I thinking?

Dwaine and I were starting to feel young again with all the fun and athletic recreational activity, but as we hobbled around in soreness and exhaustion the next day, we were reminded otherwise.

Meet Woosy and Efel

I came home from work a couple weeks ago (yes, I actually worked a day) after Dwaine had been watching the kids all day. And the first thing he says when I get home is "come look." I'm not sure what to think- that could either be really good or really bad.

I look out in the backyard and see a half-built chicken coop. So now I'm wondering "is this in preparation for the possibility that we might be getting some chicks soon or do we already have some chicks?"

Sure enough, we had 2 baby chicks. Wow- you never know what's gonna happen at home when you go to work for 12 hours.

So, the next day, Dwaine worked hard to get their little home finished. And it turns out he's not as bad of a carpenter as he thought...

Introducing Lucy and Ethel...

Lucy is the one with the reddish head and Ethel the blonde of course. Funny thing is their personalities match their names also. Lucy is a bit of a firecracker, Ethel more calm.

Alli loves them and always wants to let them out. She's constantly hollering at them "Come here Woosy!", "Get out of the mulch Efel!"...

Today she was even instructing them to share. "EFEL, YOU SHARE THAT OR I'M GONNA TAKE IT AWAY." Then she proceeded to chase Ethel around trying to take something out of her mouth. I can't imagine where she got that from.

This is the girls just a few weeks after Dwaine brought them home. They literally change daily. Yard eggs anyone? We'll have them in no time!