The Show

My kids are pretty funny and they keep putting on these "shows". They all get in costume and out on some kind of production. They cut up all of these little papers and hand them out as tickets to the show. You have to bring the ticket or you don't get in. They have had some pretty amazing shows and then they have also had some...well, not so amazing shows. Sometimes they even have a script that they have written (those are usually the better shows). But no matter what, we know we will laugh.

In this next picture Jaxon is a mouse...or something. Whatever it is it is mighty cute!
This is all of them participating. It was mostly a wrestling match.
Rylan had decided that the costume was not for him. In the background you can see that Averi even gets in on the shows. They even helped her get dressed up.
This was their super secret spy...the racoon. It was one of the highlights of the evening.
I really am so glad that they are using their imaginations and creating such super fun memories.

4th of July and Grandma

It has been a crazy month of July for us. My mom came to visit for a month. The kids couldn't wait (even the us big kids). We wanted visitors since we haven't seen anyone since we moved! So we did all sorts of fun stuff. It really has been a partying summer for my kids. We hung out, went swimming, had barbecues, and even went to the zoo. These pictures are all from the fourth of July. We woke up and went to the parade here in town. To say the least, we were pretty disappointed. It was literally just a big line of cars that were advertising for different businesses. Not a band, or a marching group, or even a piece of candy to be found. Then later in the day Lynds, Jer, Zander, and my mom came down and the men went golfing. The rest of us were going to go swimming but the pool had closed early (who does that?), so we ended up at the splash pad. Then we grilled up some hamburgers, which Courtney makes the best in the whole world (for real). We then proceeded to go watch the fireworks. Here they let them off from the dam, so they are seen over the lake. It is really pretty. It was pretty fun because we didn't have to wait forever for a spot...we cruised right up to the city's water treatment plant where a group of people from Courtney's work let us in the gates and we had front row seats. Their assistant even made homemade ice cream for everyone. The fireworks were going off right by us and it was an amazing show.

Here is Averi right before the fireworks. She was so proud because she got her shoe off for the hundredth time. The girl hates shoes.Rylan was playing and having a great time running around with the other kids...but...all of that changed as soon as the fireworks started. He HATED them. He cried and cried and had to just sit in the truck until it was time to go home. I think it was just too loud for him. (which is silly considering how loud he is on a regular basis)
Kambree and Jaxon are looking quite patriotic. Who knows what they are doing exactly??? But it makes for a pretty good 4th of July picture.
Here is a picture, that my mom took, of one of the fireworks.
And this is where the two oldest watched the fireworks. They were being so silly. But at least we got a picture of them with grandma.
We really are so blessed to live in a free country. The kids are always asking me if such and such a place is free. I am always pleased to tell them that most of the places they are asking about are part of the U.S., so yes they are. They even asked us when we were moving if Texas was free. They were concerned. I also feel such gratitude to all of those people and families that help us keep the freedoms that we enjoy.

Baseball...

My sister and brother-in-law called and asked if we wanted to go to a Texas Rangers baseball game. Jeremy was going to get cheap tickets for us at the school so we decided to give it a try. On the day of the game it was raining like crazy but we headed up to the stadium anyway. We payed, we parked, we walked, and walked. Once we got to the stadium we found out that there was a rain delay but that they should play. Luckily the delay was only about an hour and a half. Nothing that a lot of junk food can't cure. So then we ate, and ate, and ate.
My kids favorite part of the whole experience was jumping in all of the rain puddles until they lokked like this....
Our seats only cost us ten bucks each so we figured that they would be horrible. But they turned out to be pretty good. We were on about the 24th row. Here is a picture during the national anthem. Rylan was so funny the whole time because he refused to let us get a picture of him. So instead I ended up with this amazing picture of me. Beautiful, I know.
The kids got their hot dogs and that is really all that matters to them. Here they are scarfing them down by Aunt Lyndsey.
It was really a pretty good time...until the kids decided to have a break down. Can any of you guess when that was? The fourth inning. We left in the bottom of the fourth and went home. How pathetic is that? In our defense I will say that there were more pitches thrown in the fourth inning than the rest of the game combined. So when you add that with the rain delay and also the other teams pitcher getting thrown out the second pitch of the game, it equaled a little too much for my fam.

End of school

Really my kids had such a weird end of school. When we first got here in mid April we didn't make them start school for a week. Once they started they went to about a week and a half and then the school systems were shut down for a week and a half because of all the swine flu stuff. The part that was pretty sad is that both of the kids had field trips canceled because they were during the swine flu-cation. It was especially hard for Jaxon because he had moved right before his field trip in Utah. When they finally started school again it seemed like they just played.It was actually pretty fun. This is how Averi spent the last few weeks of school. We were over at the school a lot so she had to stay in the stroller.
Here is Kambree and a friend at the park on a day. They were so cute dragging Rylan around...helping him play. He thought he was pretty neat stuff. ....And of course he was. I thought it was such a smart idea that they make the whole class wear the same color of shirt while they were at the activities away from the school. It seemed way easier to keep track of everyone.
Here is Kambree's class at field day.
So, Kambree decided that her favorite part of field day was bouncing with her friends in the bounce house. (of course, I don't have a picture for that.) Here she is getting ready for an obstacle course.
This is Jaxon's teacher, Mrs. Porter. He was receiving his certificate of completion for Kindergarten.
This is at his Luau on one of the last days. They had a lot of fun limboing, making visors, blowing bubbles, and eating ice cream. Jaxon was actually really good at limbo.Here they are doing their coconut race at field day. I thought it was pretty funny that little Jaxon would choose to be paired up with the tallest kid in class.
They really had so much fun. I hope they understand that that is not what school will be like the whole time down here. They are actually going to have to do something. I guess it was a good way to get thrown in to a new school.