Swim Lessons

The girls just finished up there first swim lessons and whew...it went so much better then soccer! They both loved it...smiles at the first AND last practice, I think we found ourselves a hit.







**UPDATE (06/08/09): Swim lessons apparently paid off because over the weekend Kayden went to my mom's neighborhood pool and went off the diving bored and down the slide...you can't do those things unless you can swim to the side of the pool by yourself without any flotation devices. Needless to say I am super impressed! I have not had the chance to take Kaylee swimming yet cause she was out of town with her mom for the weekend, but she is 3 (almost 4, but non-the-less 3) and the fact that she will jump in the water, put her head in and blow bubbles, and swim on her own with a life jacket is quite impressive in it's own right. Way to go girlies!

The First of Many (hopefully)

Looking back on my childhood I would have to say some of my most favorite memories were the mini-family vacations. You know the ones....the kind where you hop in the car for a weekend trip to somewhere different, seeing the sites and hating the car ride. Since officially becoming a family in late 2007 we have really slacked on the mini-vacation department and this is largely impart to my bad attitude. You see I grew up in Salt Lake and miss the scenery, that is Utah (and surrounding areas), terribly. I mean come on, you really can't beat weekend trips to Las Vegas, Jackson Hole, Zion's, Bryce, Yellowstone, Vernal, St. George, etc, and taking a weekend trip to Dallas (driving equivalent to some of these places) is not exactly my idea of a fun mini-vacation (I probably should not mention that I moved to Houston when I was 10 and still don't feel like I grew up here, nor do I know the area as well as I do Utah...again, my bad attitude). Well, for my children's sake I decided to take one for the team and cheer up about the environment that surrounds me daily (even though it is ugly...whoops, there is that bad attitude again).

Ok, so where to??? Well, in middle school I had a friend whose family always went to Fredricksburg, TX. No clue why I remember that as I have not talked to this friend since the 8th grade, but it stuck in my head so I googled away to see what this city was about. It looked mini-vacationesque; a small, German Town, slightly southwest of Austin in the Hill Country. I like hills, I mean, I really like mountains, but hills will do...SOLD.

and off we went

I would personally like to thank the creators of personal electronics...we are not really an electronic family, but anything goes in the car that makes kids happy as far as I am concerned

Rockbox Theater...and I can't stop talking about the "funtabulous" time we had

Exotic Resort Zoo...the place we met our friend Omar and learned that "buffalo have really long tongue" (thank you Kaylee for this daily (sometimes twice) reminder.

i realized after posting that all these pictures are of me...I don't suppose that could be because we have some chickens in the family??? I'm just sayin...

Pool...I LOVE to swim and I am happy that my children have taken on my love of the pool.

Bottom line = AWESOME FAMILY FIRST MINI-VACATION. Seriously, we had a great time seeing the main attractions as well as walking around, hitting up the candy store, going to the over-priced festival and riding the over-priced rides, and roasting marshmallows for stale smores courtesy of the hotel and outdoor fireplace.

Thanks fam...time for round two!

Fredricksburg, TX - May 22-24, 2009

Graduation for the kid and First day of school for dad...

May has been quite the busy month for our little family so I will start of with the first event I have pictures of (cause seriously, who wants to see a post without pictures). May 16th marked the end of school for one and the beginning of school for another.

The breadwinner in the family (although I must say I come in a close second, which is not something I will be able to brag about for much longer) headed back to school, again. Poor kid's plan of getting his masters degree in two years got drop kicked with a year of surgeries, then a wedding and then a baby. Now that baby number 4 is coming it is really now or, who knows when, so he is buckling down and getting his last year done.

You tell me...is he overly excited or overly sarcastic? I'm going with excited, I mean, who doesn't want to kick off there summer with a back to school photo?


next

Also occurring May 16th was Kayden's kindergarten graduation, only to be repeated again next year. The truth is, Kayden is not old enough to be graduating kindergarten. She just turned 5 in January making her officially eligible for the big K this coming September; however, her school thought she was ready to move up and then next step was private Kindergarten and since the public schools in good ol Houston are pretty good themselves, I am not about to spend the $$$ to continue paying for private school, so kindergarten, here we come...again.

ok, it was really not that boring. It was actually quit entertaining, alto ugh they had been rehearsing for two months so I am pretty sure it was old news by the big day.



Nice Kayden...this is a good image for you (she is third from the right)



Mission: get Kayden to smile at the camera....success!


Kayden and her sidekick best friend Jayden...they are so excited to be going to the same elementary school next fall.

per your request

Dang...I am super great at this blogging business when Michael is out of town; probably becuase a) there is no one to hang out with with the girls go to bed and b) it beats trying to email pictures.

So faja...here you have:

our old married couple

the cutest baby ever (well third cutest in no particular order). ps, I can see one of her top teeth about to poke through, two teeth is about to be no more

and a video of nothing really...the best I could do as we were heading off to bed.

Miss you!

Yo Daddy!

Here is a little somthing to keep you from missing home too much...I am sure Dallas can be quite boring :) (ps, once it's gone...I will kill you if you buy any more ice cream)

A little of this and a little of that

Michael is out of town at the moment and our house is very quiet right now so I figured it is just as good as time as any to update our blog. Although I have really become terrible at this and can't even think of anything to write about, so for the sake of rambling, which I am afraid I am about to do...Ill just post pictures...lots of them

Ahh, it starts so young. Kyler loves to pull down the DVD's, but not necessarily to make a mess. She pulls them down, scrummages through and finds that special one. Yep, High School Musical 3, and then she just stares.

My very, very sick baby...but she looks like such a big girl in this picture.

Such good girls and yet so strange. Oh well, whatever can they do to entertain themselves while I clean the blinds is ok by me.

My cuddle buddy. Despite this picture makes it look like I am holding her down, that is not the case. Kyler loves to just lay on the floor and cuddle with mom...ps, it is really not fair she is like 5 shades darker then me.

I think Ill try some of this...........did I like it or did it scare me........yep, I liked it

A tiny bit of heaven...Michael won Astro's tickets at work, right behind the dugout. We decided the camera (including ours) really does add 10 pounds cause baseball players are not that big.

and the most fun news of all....three pink balloons for 3 cute girls means one this in this house; another little girl is on the way. Ok, truth be told 3 pink balloons for three cute girls meant, is it my birthday? are we going to a party? cause you just love me? and after several strong hits they finally guessed in meant the baby in mommy's tummy is a girl.

Another Happy Easter

A quiet day filled with Faith, Family, Friends and the Eater Bunny. Sounds cliche, but it's true...our morning started early, as mornings tend to do around here, with hunting for easter baskets hidden around the house by the easter bunny. It was terrible weather so unfortunately the easter bunny was unable to leave eggs outside, but much to our surprise (and I am sure to the surprise of every weatherman who said the terrible weather would last all day), when we got out of church at 2:00 it was gorgeous. Seriously...the most beautiful day Houston is capable of producing. It was then time to eat and we were lucky to share our easter meal with Kayden's dad, Kaylee's mom, nana and yaya (my mom and my brother). The day then ended with some fun familiness outside enjoying the weather.

Kayden found her basket faster then I said go...dang it, and her's was supposed to be the most tricky

Kyler was next...it was hidden in her favorite place in the house, the kitchen

Kaylee, in true Kaylee fashion, needed a little push getting into the finding spirit. With the help of Kayden she found her basket in one of the favorite hide-n-seek spots...behind the couch...gotta love 3 year old hide-n-seek.

Love them!

Kyler is OBSESSED with eating and I do not exaggerate. She is more obsessed with food then any child I know, including Kaylee, which is tough competition. This is her begging us to open her treats and no she is not just excited. You see, had we had not opened them, the next picture would be of a tantrum :)

I am really, really loving yellow this spring! Sad this is the best picture we could get, no one was in the mood and the weather was crappy