July 4th Weekend

This year we spent the July 4th weekend with our perfect family match, the Westinghouse family. I call them our perfect family match because Dwaine and Corry are good friends and grew up together, Steph and I have been good friends since junior high and our kids are almost exactly the same ages. Everyone has a friend and we all get along great. The only problem is that they live about 4 hrs away and we don't get to see them as often as we would like. So, we really enjoyed getting to spend the holiday weekend together...

And, because Shelby's birthday is on the 3rd, we also had the privilege of celebrating her birthday with her!

Yummy cookie cake.



Shelby and TJ playing Littlest Pet Shop. Who says they are only for girls?

Autumn and Alli looking so adorable in their matching dresses.


Lots of fun was had by all on the water slide.

And I don't just mean the kids...

I love the action shot of Autumn trying to avoid getting wiped out by Corry.

Now that's hot...

I mean the grill of course!

Who likes fireworks?

What's better than celebrating the 4th with the Westinghouse family. Celebrating with 2 Westinghouse families!! Derik and his kids were able to join us for some fun too!

From L to R: Audrey, Autumn, Shelby, Travis, Alli, TJ & Dwaine

What an awesome, fun group of kids!

TJ doing his best to protect his ears and not be scared of the loud noise.

We also got to head to Pearland to spend some time swimming and visiting with my family.

Lainey putting as much style into her jump as possible. These girls are little fish and absolutely love swimming which is great for Alli to be around 'cause then she gets a little more brave in the pool.

Having fun with Lainey. She is one of the sweetest little girls ever!

Dwaine imitating one of Alli's crazy jumps.

My big girl doing her best to keep up with Maddy and Lainey. We were so proud of her and she had a BLAST!

Pawpaw having a little fun of his own spraying all of us while he was manning the BBQ pit.

"Aunt Julie, watch this!"

Loving on all my girls.

TJ enjoyed all the attention from Aunt April.

Then we went back for round 2 of fireworks with the Westinghouse clan and a bath before bed.

Everybody had so much fun. As a matter of fact, Alli asked if we could just buy their house and live there and I'm pretty sure she meant friends, toys and all.

Crazy Neighbors

You never know what you might get when you drive by the Dement house...

Just a typical evening. Our poor neighbors!

Splashin'

The kids having fun at the Pearland splash pad during a visit to see Grandma and Pawpaw. Why do we not have splash pads around here? Seems like they are all over the place in the Houston area and the kids love them...

Cousins

Got some really cute pics of the kids with their cousins, Cade and Gavin on a recent trip to visit them...

TJ, Gavin, Alli, Cade and of course, Baxter (the dog). That's the top of Chili's head at the bottom. They were having quite a little stand off the whole time we were there. They used to absolutely love each other but apparently they are grumpy in their old age.

The boys being silly. Not sure if this was before or after Gavin's "Eye of the Tiger" performance that TJ imitated. HILARIOUS!

Gavin adorably sporting the missing tooth.


I think TJ liked Baxter.

I know he LOVED the playroom full of big boy toys! He was NOT happy when it was time to leave.

Baxter was such a good sport.

Notice Chili in the background staying very close to the door to make sure he doesn't get left behind.

We also got to go to Grandma and Pawpaw's and swim with Aunt April, Maddy and Lainey, but somehow I failed to get any pictures of that (seems to be a growing trend with me).

Port Aransas

Getting ready to head to St. Louis for a family vacation to visit Dwaine's brother, Lonnie. Figured I better hurry and get some pics up from our last family trip to Port Aransas with our good friends, the Roberson's...

Somehow I didn't take a whole lot of pics on this trip. Could have something to do with the fact that TJ and Jake ended up with high fevers and a nasty little bug that kept us from doing as much as we would have liked. But we still had a lot of fun and the kids thought it was so awesome to stay in the beach house with friends.

Helotes Rodeo and Cornyval- May 2009

We went to the local Helotes rodeo for the first time this year. We always make it to the carnival but we've never actually watched the rodeo. I thought that was so much fun!! I would have loved to stay to the very end to see all the events, but it was late and TJ was fading fast so we were doing good to make it through about half of it...

Waiting in the stands to watch the pre-rodeo mutton bustin' event. That was hilarious. Alli says she wants to do it next year. Not sure how I feel about that yet.

She did participate in the calf scramble though...

This was a very last minute decision so she had no idea what she was doing and bless her heart, she is about the slowest runner ever! She was just running around in circles following all the other kids. I asked when it was all over "Alli, do you know what you were supposed to be doing?"

Her cheerful, excited response: "Yeah! I was supposed to be running!!!"

Mom: "Yes, but you're supposed to chase the calves and try to grab a ribbon off of one."

Alli: "I'm not fast enough to catch a calf!!"

We convinced her that maybe next year she'll be bigger and faster. She had a blast regardless. I was just so proud she was so willing to try something new that she knew nothing about.

Dad and TJ watching Alli run.

The pony rides were a big hit this year! I was surprised 'cause last time TJ had the chance to ride a pony, he would have none of it. I guess he's over that fear now.



On the ride home...

We only played 2 or 3 midway games, but apparently we are REALLY good!

The next morning...

At the parade...



Either the firetrucks or the Shriner's in their go-carts were passing by. He does NOT like loud noises!

TJ's Happy Visit to the Dentist!

Mom and Alli had a dentist appointment today and TJ got to come along for his "Happy Visit" as my dentist office calls it. I though that was cute. This means he comes to watch mommy have her teeth cleaned, gets to sit in the super cool chair for a ride, has his teeth counted and practices getting his teeth cleaned if he tolerates it...

Fortunately, he waited as patiently as possible while it was mommy and Alli's turn and then it was his turn to climb up into the chair and don the awesome sunglasses. I was just sure that he would complain about the bright light in his eyes and get scared when the hygienist turned on the electric tooth polisher (bright light in his eyes and unexpected noises are 2 of his least favorite things), but he surprised me just as he has time and time again in the past at the hair salon and the doctor's office. He was very well behaved and thought the whole experience was fun just like Alli did the first time- phew!!

Now that's cooperation!! She was able to do a quick version of the whole nine yards.

So this video is not as long as I thought it was, but I was just so proud of how well he was doing that I had to capture a little bit on film.

We were all in and out in an hour and had some time to kill before meeting Daddy for lunch. We were about 5 minutes away from the zoo so I decided to take the kids to ride the train through Brackenridge park. I've been wanting to do that for a while and this was the perfect time.

Then we enjoyed a yummy Mexican lunch and had a nice visit with daddy. It was a very successful day all around. Yay!