Camping with the Fam!

Cowboys and Horses

Pure JOY!

A little skeptical!

Water gun fights!

Ready too RIDE!

That smile says it all

Running down the trail!

tuckered out!

a little face painting 

home town parade 

running for candy!

down home 

been up since 4am

sharing a snowcone

messy face

sticky mess

sipping 

messy girls

loving some s'mores

(british accent required while reading)

Look, we have found them in their natural surroundings.  Do you think the elephants notice the crocodile in the water right next to them??

It's a jungle out there...in our backyard.  I went out to see what Ryan was up to and he had place all of his animals in different habitats through out our backyard.  The lions, cheetahs and giraffes were all in a dry spot in the lawn.  The horses and cows were in between a dry and grassy spot all corralled up with some hay to eat.

While I typically don't let him take these animals outside I thought it was really fun to see his little imagination at work!

Oh I also found a little Jurassic park back there too...

and while we were in the wild mood ryan wanted to join his wild animals and become one of them

i want to be a daddy lion!

I have a couple of great babysitters, which has made date night alot of fun and alot more frequent!

Thanks for a fun night hon!

Look date night is so much fun I was able to get a picture and a smile!!  That's a red letter day!

Thanks Steve and Joann for a fun night out!  We had a great time!

Tattoo's.....Okay so if you know me, you know i have a weird fascination with tattoo's, or maybe more like it I have a weird fascination with tormenting  my husband with the idea that i will get a tattoo some day.  

so for the time being instead of a tattoo, I got a face painting book!!!  It brings back so many memories from childhood, someone got us the Klutz Facepainting book for a gift and it was WELL used!

the other day i got a bee in my bonnet and had to get the book right now!  and so i did!  I practiced last night on my leg and had a blast! 

I fell asleep with them on my leg, and when Ryan woke up it was the first thing he noticed and he wanted it right away!! no breakfast and peeing first, he needed his arm painted first!  after flipping through the book like 3 times and changing his mind about 43 times he finally settled on a snake and Caroline got a cute little flower on her cheek!

Summer fun

We have started Summer off with a busy bang!!

Friday we went to the Museum with Jess and her gaggle of kids and had a blast.  We were even crazy enough to take all six kids out to dinner to La Madeline.  It was so much fun and can't wait to do it again

here's half of them, they had a blast playing in the fountain out in front of the museum!

and i think we were successful because she was OUT!

Saturday we started the day with doughnuts and then a trip out to Mimi's.  We hit up our favorite Thrift Store and got all kinds of great thing for the back yard!  Then it was over to Mimi's to swim the afternoon away.  Caroline really developed a love of swimming and is now ready to go.  She was dunking herself in the water so we would let her swim.

Sunday was of course a low key church day with alot of rest, which was much needed.

Monday, not sure I think we stuck around the house.

Tuesday we headed out on the train to go to the Dallas Museum with Shalene.  We had a great time even though Ryan was less then charming and spent half of the trip buckled in the stroller since he decided it might be a good idea to run off to a different part of the museum while I was attending to Caroline.  He has never run off before, and boy was the scary, I had a good idea of where he went and I was right but still!  Hopefully being locked in the stroller for the REST of the day will nip that on in the bud!!

Hogging all the snacks on the train ride over to the museum.

Not so happy about being in the stroller!

She wasn't so sure about getting in the sand, but got over it pretty quickly!

My little man before he went on lock down!

She is always happy behind the wheel!!  I feel ya' sister!

survived the train ride home from the Dallas Museum, but the lady who tried to hush my 1 year old with two minutes left in our ride almost didn't make it to her car-i'd like to see her keep two kids under three quite for an hour at 7pm with no naps and no dinner yet-oh no you didn't!!!

 I am still annoyed about this lady, really the nerve of some people, what mom like to listen to her own children cry???

Wednesday we went to a fun pool party at a friends house!!  Everyone had a blast!

Today we went to Jump for Fun and Cabelas!

Caroline couldn't get enough of the slides at Jump for Fun

Look at that smile, is that girl having fun or what??

Playing that hard makes you REALLY thirsty!

Next we were off to Cabelas, Ryan had a blast so much so we left with him crying that he wanted to see more animals and that we forgot his gun(which he doesn't have)!

Look at that moose, Caroline was so sleepy her head was buried in the corner of the stroller sound asleep!

the missing gun he was bawling about!

What a fun week we have had!!  Tomorrow we are off to a birthday party, and then next week we are going camping!!

Summer is the best!!!

Dear Waiter at Chili's,
  Sorry for the throw up in your section, but your welcome for the huge tip!  i hope you share with the hispanic women who really had to clean up the mess.

Sincerly,
really embarrassed all my friends had to witness that



Dear Ryan,
   I think that will be our last trip to Chili's since that is the 2 time you have up chucked there,  I think we will just stick to Chick-fil-a buddy.  I know your not to disappointed with that executive decision.

Love,
your mom who is glad you puked at a resturant so i didn't have to clean up the mess



Dear Caroline,
  Do you know that you don't have to scream for very emotion that you have!!  Words work really well, just thought i would pass along the memo!

Sincerly,
my ears are throbbing, and people are going to stop inviting us to do things with them if you keep it up!

I hate staying home!!

I have people comment or ask on a regular basis why I'm always on the go with my kids or how i can go to the zoo or museum 2, or 3 times a week-the simple short answer is i hate staying home, i feel like i haven't done anything with my day if i stay home.  i am not super mom-trust me if i was ryan would know his ABC's color's and number's-none of which he has an interest in learning, some of which he knows sporadically on his own terms.  the long answer is i h.a.t.e all the whining, crying, threats, cleaning, the non listening, stopping caroline from emptying out _________or getting into ___________, mess, tv watching, movie time, time out drama, that comes with staying at home.  yes there is the book reading, the playing, an art project here and there, some flash card(sometimes) the quite time, the naps. if i am out and about with the kids most of drama doesn't happen or not to the extreme it does while at home.  i just had a 45 minute time out battle with ryan for him to sit in time out quietly for 2 minutes, this is way more draining for me then 2 hours at the botanical gardens or swimming in the pool.  I hate the constant clean up of being at home, if i'm gone i can clean up once or twice during the day(and the house doesn't get messier while we are gone all day, although sometimes i would swear it does)  maybe it's lazy of me but at home i have to come up with ideas to entertain and then i have to clean up that mess too!!

So this is why most days are spent out doing something or having some sort of adventure somewhere!

Today we got to go to Shalene's amazing neighborhood splash pad and pool!!  The kids had a blast and we were there for hours!!

Reesie cheesing in up!!

Sweet Jordan soaking up the sun!

i missed the shot of the lip but look at that scowl--she was not happy with me for dunking her under the water!!

swimmy little fish!

chilln' with her katie!

swim my little girl!

everyone is getting all dried off and getting ready to leave!!

about 3 minutes into our ride home-the day was officially a success!!!

eating in her sleep

caroline had been sleep eating this apple for a couple of minutes!! It was totally cracking me up, and she finally fell asleep as soon as I got the camera out, i captured her last bite!!

caroline swimming!!