One Year Older

I had a fun birthday, especially once I finished renewing my license at the DPS...just a mere 2 1/2 hour wait. I definitely felt older by the time I finished there. But I came home to sweet kids and birthday treats from friends and family, it was great!

Fun with family and presents that evening. Hayley made me a cute as a button bracelet.

Hayley helped decorate the yummy strawberry shortcake and Luke was loving the candles action.

Breakfast with Friends

July 5th I was able to go to breakfast with some wonderful friends.  A group of us used to get together every July to celebrate our summer birthdays and since Lori was in town visiting, we had to go to one of our old stomping grounds and eat at 59 Diner.  It was so fun to catch up, although we missed our sweet friend Candy who was always part of our birthday group.  Oh, how we miss her.  It had just 3 days since Candy's funeral, so feelings were a little tender as we reminisced about the past and celebrated dear, sweet friendships and wonderful, strong women.

Jean, Lori and Denise

Of course, this breakfast was a little different than past years in that we had a few extra people with us... 

Michael and Will were inseparatable from about 18 months old until Will moved to Utah when the boys were 5.  They were Superman and Batman and had so much fun together at church, on the soccer fields, in preschool and just lots and lots of playdates.  It was fun to see the famed duo back together 10 years later!

Michael and Will

4th of July Week-end

Nothing says America like baseball so Michael took in 2 Astros games the week-end of the 4th, both when the Red Sox were in town.  Friday night we all went and Saturday night Michael got to go with one of his oldest friend's Will, who was in town for the week-end visiting (along with his sweet sister Emily and his mom, one of my dearest friends).  They had a great time.

Emily, Michael and Will


My parents came into town for the long week-end and were such a great help.  One of my sweet friends had passed away earlier in the week after a courageous battle with with ovarian cancer, and her funeral was on Saturday.  So Mom and Dad took over with the younger kids while Don, Michael, Trevor and I attended the funeral and helped with some other things for the family.  It was such a blessing to not worry about my kids during everything.  I knew they were in excellent hands - Thank You!!

The 4th of July kicked off with our annual 4th of July Flag Ceremony and breakfast at the church.  Michael and Trevor were involved with their Scout troop in the Flag Ceremony and did a great job.  Afterwards it was a fun breakfast with a few games.  One game included getting signatures of different people at the breakfast who had been to a list of important American places and other fun facts.  Trevor surprised us all and won one of the 3 awards for getting a completed paper first, so he came home with some great candy to share with us!




Happy 4th of July!

 

Loving the donuts!

Enjoying the breakfast with Grandpa

Hayley has been wanting a bike for years, so Grandpa and Grandmommie surprised her with her early birthday present and took her bike shopping.  She was so excited to find a new bike.  Since it has been several years since she had a bike, this is her first bike without training wheels, so Grandpa and Dad spent some time out in the 100+degree weather teaching her to ride.  Grandpa also fixed up Michael's old bike and spent some time working with Trevor before hitting the road to return home.  Thanks for the great week-end!

Birthday Bike



Look at that smile!

Trevor and Grandpa



A&Wesome Dads!

Father's Day was a extra fun day, celebrating Don and all the great fathers in our lives, as well as celebrating Don's dad's birthday the same day.

A great Dad with his kids

We started off with a fun breakfast in bed.

Enjoying a yummy breakfast

Luke serving some bagels

After a great day at church, we gave Don his Father's Day gifts, which included some A&W root beer for our A&Wesome Pop!  Everyone loved the reading of the questionaires, similar to the ones we did for Mother's Day. Favorites included If your dad were a cartoon character, who would he be? and What was dad like as a kid? The responses had us laughing so hard. 

After going to a wonderful baptism for a sweet friend, we went home and had some more family fun.  Grammy and Grandaddy came to celebrate the day and have dinner with us.  We celebrated Grandaddy's birthday with a delicious Texas Sheet Cake.  He had plenty of help with his candles.

Happy Day!!

Root, Root Root for the Home Team...or Not!

In July the Boston Red Sox came to town to play the Houston Astros, our two favorite baseball teams.  Grammy and Grandaddy surprised us all with tickets and we had a great time together.

Hayley having fun

Jake and Luke enjoying the popcorn

We were a split family, cheering on our teams.  The best was singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch.  

Fun with Grandaddy

Talking during the game

It was a fun night - thanks Grammy & Grandaddy!! 

Luke enjoying the game

Michael's Trip

The day after school got out Michael hopped on a plane to Utah to go to BYU's basketball camp.  His flight was delayed quite a bit and he was picked up by an incredibly nice friend at 1:30 am.  Monday morning Michael and his friend Robbie, who lived in Houston a few years ago, checked into the dorms at BYU, and were sorted into their different teams.  Michael also met up with another former Houston friend Tyler who was at the camp and they were able to hang out during mealtime. It was pretty cool that they were all there the same week of camp. 

Michael's assignment team for the week was Arizona from the PAC-10.  He was the rock of his team, and was nominated to the AllStar team at the end of the week.  When Michael wasn't doing drills and playing games, he spent all his free time playing pick-up games...shocking I know. 


The camp was run by the coaching staff and former players of BYU.  Coach Rose talked to them periodically and even Jimmer showed up one day between NBA training camps and spoke with them.  Michael played hard, had a blast and was really sore by the end of the week.

After camp ended, Michael went to stay a few days at my brother Scott's house. The first thing they did was go and play basketball at the church with a bunch of guys until midnight. Michael was in heaven. My sister and her family also came up for the week-end, so Michael had fun bonding with his younger cousins. They loved tackling him and having him pull them around.



Ronnie, Michael and Isaac heading to the movies



Michael, Isaac and Scott

Fun with Cousins

The week after school got out, Michael was at basketball camp and I took the other kids up to Dallas for the week.  We got there just in time to celebrate Anna's birthday in style. 



Getting ready to party!



Anna and Luke excited to get the party started!



Happy Birthday Anna!


We spent lots of time swimming and doing crazy stunts like sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags (Cynthia and Bob might not ever leave me in charge again - ha!)



Abby and Hayley



Abby taking Luke for a swim





Trevor preparing to ride the stairs

Luke loved playing with his cousins and all their fun toys.  This picture was typical Luke for the week, always wearing goggles around his neck when we were at the house.  He loved swimming every morning!

Goggled Luke giving his baby cookies

Trevor, Alex and Bob went to 11 yr old Scout Camp.



Trevor leaving for camp

Alex

We played with Grandpa and Grandma.  



Grandpa



Grandma

Playing Ping Pong with Grandpa

It was a great trip and a fun way to kick off the summer! 

Beating the Heat

With the drought in Houston, we've had to do a little watering, mainly of the foundation.  One night, the kids decided to join in on the watering fun and cooled off a little in the process.

Don spraying the kids down

Trevor teaching his brothers how to work the sprayer

Fun in the sprinkler



Luke discovering the power of the hose



Aiming for Mom!

Luke lovin' the sprinkler action