Guadalupe River

Well, it stays hot around here for awhile and we wanted to enjoy the nice weather before it got down in to the shivering 50's. We took a day trip with our friends the Easton's to Guadalupe River. This is a great place, and only about 45 minutes away. Unfortunately we decided a try a new route with our friends and we caravaned some 2 1/2 hours getting lost on little TX back roads that the GPS didn't recognize. I think there was a short period of time where we wanted to give up but it didn't last too long. I think we were just so frustrated, we concluded that we would find this place no matter what. So we ate our picnic lunch in the car instead of the river, but we finally made it there and we had a blast!

Lillie was in heaven. She floated all afternoon down tiny natural rapids, made friends with total strangers (which I have never seen her do), and practiced her underwater swimming skills. The girl is a fish and completely taught herself to swim this summer.
Samuel and his friend Aydia.
Grant and Genvieve sharing river rocks.
Good ol' Samuel boy and those goggles. He never sticks his head under the water but he is absolutely convinced that he needs these things to swim. Always be prepared right?

1st Day of School 2010

We had a blast this summer and it was the first summer in TX in my own personal history that I didn't get to tired of the heat... MIRACLE! I think after Lillie going to Kinder last year I really enjoyed all of the relaxed down time and fun hanging out. It was hard to give it up, but the kids were really excited to get back to school.

Here's Handsome Sam ready for his first day of Pre-K. Though you can't see it he has a Spiderman lunch box that we was super excited about.
And here's our gorgeous girl all ready for 1st grade. She has really enjoyed herself so far this year and has truly blossomed in 1st. She's at the top of her class in all subjects and has really lost a lot of the shyness she used to have. I love to see that newborn confidence in her!
Here are the kids with some of their friends on one of the last days of summer. That's a $10 pool and a stepladder that all 6 of them are playing in/on. Amazingly it kept them occupied all summer.

Grandma and Grandpa come for a visit

Grandma and Grandpa came for a week to see Uncle Brian's Army Medic graduation and to have some fun time with the TX Doolittle's. We were all really excited to have them come out. Samuel was so excited about it that he jumped on the bed, slipped, hit his eye on one of the awesome food storage cans that pose as our bed frame, and nearly lost his eyeball. Pictures of course never do things justice and I can only promise you that the whole eyeball situation was way worse than it looks here. Boys.

Here is my beautiful Lillie waiting for her dinner at Outback.
The whole crew. Congratulations Brian on your graduation. We are so proud of you and we know that you will be so successful!
Grandma playing tea party with the kids. She taught them how to hold their pinky up and spea with a British accent!
Grant snuggled his way in.

There were lots of fun things that I didn't get pictures of: We had a great day at San Antonio's famous Broadway Kiddie Park. It's this old amusement park that's been around since the 1920's. It has all the same old rides, just restored, and you still buy individual tickets for the rides. It's mostly marketed towards kids 6 and under but luckily that's us and L and S had a blast. We also had a really fun time going to Brian's graduation and celebrating with him. The kids were so good during the whole things and thankfully it wasn't too hot! We also had a great time shopping, going out for breakfast, and just generally relaxing and visiting. We had a great time guys and we are so glad you could come for a visit! We can't wait to see you soon!

Summer Fun with the Zufelt's

We have been enjoying another spectacular summer with our family BFF's, the Zufelts. We are super lucky to have friends as awesome as they are!

Here are a couple of pics of us celebrating Austin's 1st birthday at Big'z. Strangely there are no actual pics of Austin. Sorry buddy! But here are some of the kids playing in the awesome fenced in "yard" they have.

Samuel and Tristan are so cute together! They are always so excited to see each other and hold hands practically everywhere they run off too!
Ashley invited us to swim with them at Spectrum's awesome pool this week. We went swimming 3 days in a row! I am swimmed out, but I finally have some semblance of a tan! We had so much fun at this pool. It was especially cool because the whole thing was shallow enough for the kids to stand in and of course there was the fabulous water slide. After day one Samuel was brave enough to go down by himself and then I was able to start taking Grant down. He was a little unsure for the first ride but then he really got the hang of it and he had a blast!
The Girls
Grant also had a great time splashing around in the super shallow part. Him, Tristan, and I had some pretty good water fights.
Here's Lillie just coming off the slide and Samuel swimming in from his recent trip down.

Great summer fun you guys. We love hanging out with you!

Lillie's 6th Birthday

Man, I hate it when your pictures blog in reverse. Well, here is Lillie's birthday from finish to start:

My parents, our next door neighbors, and Allison and her now missionary came over for cake and presents. We had a nice relaxing evening in the front yard. Amazingly it was only semi-sweltering outside!
Here is the birthday girl with her new set of wheels. She had been waiting a long time for this. (Bonus - you can just catch a peek of our new car in the corner... the gold one. Tim is happy not to be driving a chick car anymore)
Lillie picked Chili's for her birthday dinner and here she is with her favorite guy in the world!
In the morning I took the kids to pump it up to start the day off right. I personally love this place and I love even more that it's free for me but I still get to go down the slides. If you've never gone down a 20 foot high bouncy slide, you've gotta try it. All the kids had so much fun!

Lillie at 6:

Favorites - Barbie, Hello Kitty, Art, Putting on make-up, wearing tights, picking out her own clothes, doing her own hair, being in charge, singing and dancing to the radio, swimming - Lillie has completely taught herself how to swim this summer, and taking care of her brother Grant

Best Friends - Becca and Ruth Holland, Madison and Brooklyn Zufelt, Abby Serenil, Johnathan Hurt, Asher Hardman, and her brother Samuel. Those two play together all day everyday with minimal fights. I love to see that, it really melts my heart!

Dislikes - Mom telling her what to do, not wearing tights, eating her vegetables, mom combing the tangles out of her hair - there are screams about that every morning!

We love you Lillie! We know you'll have a great year in 1st grade!

L & S's Chuck E Cheese Party

This Lillie and Samuel wanted a party at Chuck E Cheese. We had them combine to avoid paying twice for the exact same kids to come to a CEC party 3 weeks apart. They seem to be friends with children that are from the same family and when it's summer it seems that everyone in a family is invited to a party! That's cool with us, but we tried to be creative for our budget's sake! The party was a great success with a huge turnout. Samuel had a lightsaber cake and Lillie had a last minute cake from HEB. She had originally requested a rainbow jello mold. I made one and it turned out cute initially and then I had the bright idea of putting skittles in the last layer to spell her name... yeah, don't ever do that. It was a soupy mess a few hours later.

Here's Grant having the time of his life. With all the party things I was trying to do I couldn't always watch him and I'm very glad he didn't get stolen. He thought it was fabulous to run around by himself. When I did get to play with him though he was really cute. He'd grasp the token in his chunky little hand and work it in to the slot. He thought he was a total big boy. When mom wasn't around to supply him with tokens he had no problem horning in on other people's games.

Here are the birthday kids with most of their friends from the party. They had a super fun time and I am a total fan now of parties held at a location other than my own house!

Happy 4th B-Day Samuel!

Samuel had a super fun 4th birthday. He go to do whatever he wanted all day! (For the most part!) He thinks it's pretty awesome to be four and still, nearly 2 months later attaches the phrase "yeah, I'm 4 so I'm big" to lots of the things that he says. Here are some highlights:

Playing baseball with Grammy after the presents were opened.
Riding his new bike from Mom and Dad. He does have a helmet and is a nazi about wearing it (I have trained him well bwaaaaa haaaa haaaaa!) so it is totally weird that he is not wearing it here. I guess when you've just got the big boy bike you've been waiting for you can't worry yourself about those pesky details.
Showing off his new boots from Grammy and Grandad. He wears these things every where including to the pool and to bed. Totally cute!
At Red Robin with mom and dad for his birthday dinner. He was so excited to eat at this place and even more excited that he got to meet the big stuffed red robin and have everyone sing Happy Birthday to him!
Samuel with his best friend Odell Holland. I took the boys to Brackenridge park to ride the train and get an ice-cream. We had a great time and just finished and got to the car in time for a major rainstorm to hit. I guess the birthday gods were smiling on us! Happy birthday buddy, we love you so much!

Samuel at 4:

Favorites - Spider Man, Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, trains, computer games, swimming - He has gotten so much braver this summer - he has been terrified of water since birth but is now floating around on a noodle and sticking his head all the way under!, band-aids - he puts a band-aid on every little cut!, eating - he has to eat immediately upon waking and several times throughout the day, playing with Lillie and Grant, learning his letters and numbers and spelling them in the air, sucking his thumb, reading, Wii games, riding in the back of the van with Lillie

Best Friends - Odell Holland, Tristan Zufelt, Peyton Billingsley, Zach Payne, and his sister Lillie

Dislikes - naps & haircuts - what an easy going boy!

We love you so much Samuel! You are so fun and wonderful - you are always doing something to make everyone laugh. We know you'll have a fantastic year in Pre-school!