July 4th

We stayed in town for the 4th this year.  We spent the majority of the day at the pool - cooking out and playing.  Afterwards, we went over to mama & daddy's house for some of Papa's famous Bloody Mary's and burgers.  I am still so incredibly thankful that my family chose to move out here with us!  We love having them here, and I love that my children get to spend so much time with all of them!

 Chase loves Papa G.!

 the grill master

 Even Honey jumped off the diving board!

 and, of course, Grandaddy, was also up for the challenge

Eating the Dove

Along with the great memories of dove hunting goes the memories of eating them!  And who better to fry them up and make some biscuits and gravy to go with them than my daddy?!

Uncle Phillip

The cool thing about having a trucker in the family is that you get to visit with them with they swing into town!  Uncle Phillip is one of my dad's baby brothers!

What does Grandaddy do?

While visiting with Grandaddy one day over spring break, he showed the kids what he does when he's at work...building projects.  

Happy Birthday, Honey!

We celebrated mama's birthday at Pappadeaux!  It is a fabulous New Orleans - style seafood restaurant!  It has been so much fun to celebrate with our family in person.  We are so bad about birthdays from a distance, but when everyone works together, it has been fun to get together and go out!  Papa went with us too, but every picture we took of the group was BAD!  We had a lot of lighting problems and bad photographers! :)

Jessica and Daddy ate frog legs.  The thought of slimy frogs was a little too disgusting for my taste buds, and then, to top it off, they brought these huge legs.  Where do they get frogs that big?  

My Daddy

Best daddy in the world!  My sister and I are so blessed to have a daddy who loves us!

Texan Day at the Preschool

Chase's preschool Bridge class performed some rodeo songs for the parents and grandparents this past week. They were so cute - especially since his class is made up of only 8 boys! Mrs. Zarazee loves her boys, and they love her back! Aren't they too cute?? (Chase is fourth from the left.)


My BABY!
We were so excited to have Grandaddy there! It was so nice to have some family there for one of the kids' events. That has been one of the hardest things for me living so far away from family!
Chase adores Grandaddy...
and Ms. Barb, his music teacher for the past 4 years...
and Mrs. Zarazee! He has had a fun year in the Bridge program, and we are so excited we decided to let him wait one more year before kindergarten. He has definitely matured and will be ready to do GREAT in kinder!

Go Upward Basketball!!

We played our first season with Upward Basketball, hosted by our church! It was a fun season, and the kids had a blast!


I think Thomas has found his game - running not stop!! He was fun to watch - and pretty good and making baskets, too!
Mary Frances kind-of enjoyed cheering, but an hour is a really long time to stand up and cheer! :) So, next year she wants to try basketball!?! Hmm... We're still looking for her sport!


Go Thomas!!

On the Ranch with Honey & Grandaddy

Honey and Grandaddy came for a week after Christmas. Since Ray C. had the week off, we went to San Marcos to stay in our friends' ranch house. It was such a great, restful week. I love that the kids can just run around outside without me worrying about cars and people!Check out my mom! She is looking so good!


The kids think the ranch is the best place in the world! Why not? With four wheelers, guns, and a fire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, what else do you need?




It rained several days while we were there, but we were prepared with plenty of board games to play and books to read!

Rodeo Houston Salutes the Military

Mary Frances and I got to go to the rodeo with Grandaddy last week. It was the night that they recognized the military. So, there were men and women in uniform everywhere. Each branch of the military brought in an exhibit. So, we saw tanks, jets, and all types of things! Mary Frances wanted her picture in the top of the tank!Of course, there was plenty of bare-back riding, bull riding, and mutton-bustin' (that's when 5-6 year old ride sheep). We also got to see Trace Adkins in concert! He put on a great show! I was surprised at what a great performer he was on top of his bass voice that vibrated the stadium! That was really cool!

In the last few years, Texas fairs have become well-known for frying EVERYTHING! Check out this menu - as if Snickers, Twinkies, and Nutter Butter didn't already have enough calories and fat! The day we went to the rodeo, the radio station had a nutritionist on the air talking about rodeo food. She said the best thing to eat at rodeo is the Cotton Candy with only 200 something calories. In fact, she said cotton candy is practically a health food compared to everything else! One of those fried oreos has 156 calories in it!
Yeehaw!
Everyone is excited that Grandaddy has been able to spend so much time with us the last few weeks!

My favorite part of the rodeo was when the Special Ops guys rapelled down from the rafters of Reliant Stadium along with the American Flag! It was an amazing sight!

In response to a picture of my dad with his deer, Mary Frances said, "when you lose your job, you should do things you like more often - to make you feel better!"

Grandaddy's Workshop

Anyone who knows my dad, knows how much he loves to build! He builds amazing things, too! So, naturally he enjoys sharing his hobby with the kids!

For our most recent visit, he planned a pretty big project to complete with Thomas - a Soapbox Derby Car! He worked hard for weeks before we even arrived prepping the project and even putting it all together to be sure it worked before taking it all apart so he and Thomas could build it together!They spent all day that Saturday building the car, and I documented most of it in pictures. My favorites are the ones of my dad smiling as he enjoyed spending the special time with Thomas!


I think this is the coolest things for a granddad to do with his grandkids! This will be a lifelong memory!

After our visit earlier in the summer, Granddaddy built three treasure chests and filled them with pirate booty (gum coins)! Then, the kids used their compasses he had given them in June to find their chests in the yard! He is so creative!!

Building with Grandaddy

Whenever something breaks at our house, the first things my kids say is, "Well, we have to wait for grandaddy to come back to Texas to fix it!" They know how good he is at fixing things. He loves to build things, and we are blessed to have several beautiful pieces of furniture that he has built for us over the years.

Before we came, he went to Home Depot and got aprons, hammers, and building projects - for FREE!! They gave him two different projects to do with the kids that they usually do in their Saturday workshops. I don't think they are usually free, but he caught them on a good day!

They had so much fun. They built these flower pots and race car shelves!

Check out Mary Frances' pink hammer that Grandaddy painted just for her!

That's my dad's fantastic workshop! Every man's dream!!