Fair Fun

I took the kids to the fair this past Tuesday after school with my mom. We began at the petting zoo. Isaiah loved touching the animals! or... grabbing the animals

Abigail, of course, found the baby animal to pet.

feeding the animals -

Thankfully Isaiah measured right at 36 inches so he could ride most of the kiddie rides. It was going to be very interesting if he wasn't...

Abigail & Isaiah with a crazy carnie!

Brotherly love!

Colby & Gannie!

Dan joined us for dinner and for one ride on the ferris wheel!

Lots of fun was had by all!

Happy Birthday Colby & Abigail!

It is very hard to believe that Colby & Abigail are now 7 & 5!!!

We began the birthday celebrating on Abigail's birthday, September 9th. I visited her Montessori school and brought donut holes for a morning snack, and everyone got 5, of course! The day before Colby's Sept. 12th birthday I brought cookies to his class. Here's a few precious pictures of my son who was quite embaressed to be the center of attention! The teacher first said a prayer for Colby that his classmates repeated. Then, they sang Happy Birthday, complete with "cha-cha-cha"s.

Finally, they all reached their blessing hands out to him and sang to the "Happy Birthday" tune: "May the dear Lord bless you."

Even though it was quite a few moments of embaressment for him, it was such a blessing for me to see such a positive aspect of private Christian education.

Then, the party began! The weather decided to only get into the 60's, but that didn't stop our pool party turned pool-size hot tub party! I turned the pool up to 95 degrees and all the kids got in, as well as a few brave dads!

Abigail & Emily

The attack begins:

Candy grab!

The boys turn:

Cupcake time!

Isaiah enjoying his chocolate cake!

Colby with Hannah (future wife) & Nancy:

Happy Birthday my precious children. The past 7 years has flown by, but I can't imagine my life without each of you. Thank you for all of the joy and love you bring to me. You both are sweet gifts from God. - Mom

Labor Day Weekend at the Ranch

I guess I'm in a once-a-month blogging routine.... somehow there's no time to get everything done & this is one of the last things on my list! But, I like to catalog our pictures and experiences here! So, here goes with many posts to follow!


We all went with Dan's entire family to their ranch over Labor Day weekend & had a blast! The weekend was filled with good food, card games, 4-wheeler riding, fishing, dove hunting & a treasure hunt!Isaiah & Uncle Jimmy:

Isaiah loving on cousin Ross.

All the cousins!

+ Grandma!

School Has Returned

Yesterday after church, I grabbed my camera after noticing that my kids matched! I really like this picture I was able to capture! I love Isaiah's smile with Uncle John.

First Day back to school!!! Colby has started 1st grade!

Isaiah wanted to pose for a picture too... with his gun.

Here's Colby & Abigail before the first day of school. Abigail started Montessori at Colby's school this year. She is completely loving it. It's made for quite a different few days for me at home with just Isaiah. It will take some adjusting getting used to her not being here, but it will be really nice to have some special time just with Isaiah.

Last week we celebrated Jack's birthday with a yummy dinner. I made Beef Stroganoff and Green Bean Bundles. Isaiah was very excited to get to help Jack blow out his birthday candles on a few mini-pecan pie muffins. It actually turned into a 30 minute activity of singing to each person around the table, just so they could blow the candles out! For those who were there last December to experience Isaiah's 2nd birthday, you can see his candle blowing form has thankfully improved! He created his own tune for "Happy Birthday" I hope you will enjoy too!

San Antonio!

Above is the only nap Isaiah decided to take during our San Antonio trip!

Last week, I decided to take the kids for one last trip before school starts. My precious sister agreed to meet us in San Antonio for four nights. The trip took 10 hours, mostly because of Isaiah's newly developed potty training skill as we had to stop 7 times! So, 525 miles later, we arrived. We decided to take them to Sea World each of the 3 days & we all had an awesome time. The kids really enjoyed all of the animal shows and the water park.

One evening we went to the Riverwalk and took the boat ride. Thankfully it was only 30 minutes long, as the history was interested, but not so much to Abigail & Isaiah. Considering it was close to 100 degrees didn't help either! Lisa & Colby:

Isaiah looks a little dazed in this picture, but cute! This was after one of our stays in the water park, going back to the car.

Lisa & Abby - waiting for lunch!

Shamu Show:

Lunch on the Riverwalk at Landry's.

We decided to plan a few inside activities to get out of the heat. We went to the San Antonio Children's Museum. If you are in the area with kids, I highly recommend it! It has many levels, which leads to losing kids, but great if you have a few adults to supervise. We stayed a few hours, but the kids could have stayed all day!

Here's a picture as we were leaving Sea World the last night.

One of the highlights for the kids was getting to feed the dolphins. Of course, I didn't bring my camera over there, but here's a picture after.

We also went to the Witte Museum and enjoyed their kid part of the museum.

This is an awesome interactive panel that has lots of games you can play on it. Colby, Abigail & Isaiah enjoyed the dodgeball!

Thankfully the trip home only took 8 1/2 hours, with 4 stops! I think it also had to do with Isaiah & Abigail taking an hour nap, which was great! It was really nice to get away one last time before school starts & especially to spend time with Lisa before she starts teaching again!

Here's a precious picture I took a few days ago at the park with some friends. Colby's the one in the orange huddling his friends around him.

The countdown has begun - 5 days until school starts!