Exciting Breaking News!!

We've been waiting all summer and they've finally arrived!!!

Betty Crocker has come out with a GF cake mix, GF brownie mix, and GF chocolate chip cookie mix!! We finally found them at a Kroger today and we all did a little dance in the aisle when we found them!!

We ran home and Luke decided to go for the cake first! So, here he is ...

Here's the finished product, and I must say, it was good!! Of course, most cake still warm from the oven with chocolate all over it is good!!

Luke said it was the best cookie, brownie, or cake he had ever had IN HIS LIFE!! When I smiled in response, he said emphatically, "I'm SERIOUS!!"

Totally worth the wait!!

Pretty Scenes

New York is such a beautiful place. It's really hard to capture with pictures.

Here's the view from our trailer --

A very common site as we drove through the mountains --

The boys' thought this baseball field, was one of the more beautiful sites in the state!!!

Cool Days

What are kids to do when it's too cool to go swimming??

This was a new dilemma for us Texans!!

Thanks to Uncle Nathan, the kids still had some good clean, albeit cold, fun!

This is what Landry looked like when I begged him to go one more time so I could get a picture of him ... ain't no way!!

Binghamton Mets

I'm feeling some great guilt about not finishing the New York trip. It really was a fun trip and I'd like to remember it by this time next year, so here goes . . .

On Sunday, July 5th, everyone had left except our little family. So, we decided to go to a minor league baseball game. This was a fun little outing for a lot of reasons, but especially because when Luke played baseball last year, this was the team he was on. Needless to say, he really felt like he was a part of the team, wearing his old jersey!!

It had been a big July 4th weekend for the team and so by Sunday, there wasn't much of a crowd! In fact, we spent most of our game here - -
>

This was a great day!!

The Farmers' Museum

One morning while in Cooperstown, we had the opportunity to go to the Farmers' Museum. Scott and I had been once before, a very long time ago, and I was excited to get to take the boys to see this neat place.

It is basically a series of buildings, farmhouses, shops, fields, and activities that depict life in the 1840's. The people who work there are dressed in that era's clothing and all do their jobs in a way that people of that time would work. It is really fascinating to see how creative people were but also interesting to see how much harder they had to work than we do now.

Our first stop was the Baby Animal Barn because we got there right about feeding time.

We then went on to see some scenes from normal life, stopping by the blacksmith's shop (making nails)

and visiting the printing press. This was a really neat stop because the lady explained that each case of letters was organized in exactly the same way so that no matter what font you were using, the letters were always pulled in the same way. The case on the top held capital letters and the bottom case held lower case letters and that's why we call them "upper" case and "lower" case letter. Cool!!

Next stop was the apothecary and we watched as the man made pills from ginger. It was very interesting to see the tools that were used to make medicine before machines came along.

Here are the kids enjoying chasing some chickens around the grounds. We found out later that the chickens really don't like being chased!! Oops!!

Later in the afternoon, we had the opportunity to meet Daisy Mae.

This would prove to be an experience like no other!! Little did we know that there are not many cows left on the planet who are hand milked. Did you know that cows don't like to go back and forth between being hand-milked and machine-milked?? Well, they don't!!

Here are all the kids waiting for their once-in-a-lifetime experience!! (That's how Farmer Wayne described it!!)

And here's Luke giving the milking a try --

Here's Parker --

Alex --

Even Landry did this - Amazing!!

Scott seemed to enjoy it!!

Me?? Not so much!! Two words that kinda freaked me out a bit -- HAIRY UDDERS!! Just something not right about that!! But I did it and lived to tell about it!!

All in all, this was an awesome experience...fun and very educational too!!

One last pictures shows Ella (3) having a great time with the goats. They obviously loved her!!

Lots of animals

Sunday found us heading to the zoo that was in a nearby town. It was a nice zoo, but I really didn't take lots of pictures. The monkeys here look pretty much like the monkeys there!! They did have a few goats to pet and I got this really cute pic of Lauren - the resident animal lover!!

Here's the crew -

On the way home from the zoo, we passed a dairy farm in the area. Scott had taken the little boys by it when he was visiting a couple of years ago, so we all stopped in to see how it worked. The cows were on this big rotating milking machine and as their cycle ended, they stepped off and headed back out to the pasture. This wasn't like a big learning/feel-good kind of dairy. People were welcome to stop by and see it, but there wasn't a lot of explanation and questions/answers going on. (The two ladies who were working the cows didn't speak English!!)

Having been a lactating mother once upon a time, I really felt for these girls!! They were almost bursting with milk and they didn't seem to get a lot of relief even when their cycle was over.

Definitely a learning experience and a little bit of sympathy/empathy for the girls!!

Happy 50th

We have spent the better part of the last two weeks in New York celebrating the 50th anniversary of Scott's parents. While I was hoping to blog as we went along, that just didn't happen. So, now I have the monumental task of blogging about all the fun we had!!

We left early Friday morning and arrived late Friday night and lost most of our day to the great city called New York City!! I'm trying to block out the details of that terribly long day, but suffice it to say that flying into the city and driving out of it on a Friday afternoon made for a very bad combination!! Very bad!!

Saturday was the big day of the 50th Anniversary celebration and here's the happy couple!!

Those two people made these five people . . .

Who then gave them all of these people . . .

And here we are . . .

After the official cutting of the cake, we all changed our clothes and went outside for a little cook-out. We swang and played and ate a lot!!

Here are Bernadine and Grandma Rachel (notice the jackets and blankets . . . it's a theme you will see often!!)

Here are Luke and Landry playing a little ball with Ella watching on.

The picnic area behind the house

Heather swinging Madeline and Ella

See those jackets again??!

All in all a very fun day to honor a couple of really special people.

The Landry Show

Yesterday morning, three of four great boys loaded up and headed out.

Alex and Parker headed to camp until Thursday.

Luke headed to Dallas for a couple of days with his Nana, Poppy and cousin Lexie.

And that left Landry.

He didn't seem too bothered by the fact that he was left behind. He feels certain his time is coming!!

All Landry wanted to do was go to the mall and play at the "playdround." I knew if I threw in a quarter and a stop by the gum machines, he would be thrilled!

After we got everyone where they were supposed to be, we ran a couple of errands and found ourselves at the mall. The play area was hopping but so was Landry!! He played hard...running, jumping, sliding.

After a while, he came over and decided he was ready to go. (I was so glad that we're not of the age where he falls into the floor in a heap when I suggest it's time to go!!) We went up to eat at Chik-fil-a and then proceeded to stop by a couple of stores. When we came face to face with the carousel, of course, we did it!! He loved it, though riding a horse was out of the question!! (he's so funny with animals - even "fate" ones!!)

On our way out, we stopped to get some "dum". He broke tradition and got the candy bones and pretty much immediately regretted it! I hate it when that happens!

The afternoon had lots of "come play this with me Mom" and "come watch me do this" and "can we do this Mom?"

And this was when I discovered that even though one child is easier in so many ways, having brothers definitely has HUGE advantages!! Besides having someone to play with, I pretty much said "YES" to everything Landry asked to do all day. Now, I know I did that, in part, because I can't always do that. But another part of me thought - why shouldn't I do it? There's no reason he can't get out and walk if he wants...there's no reason he can't play a little longer...there's no reason he can't do everything he asks to do. I have a bad feeling that if Landry was the only little angel in this family, no one would want to be around Landry very long!!


(camera on phone = poor quality pics!)

The funny thing is, that afternoon, Landry came in telling me he had really wanted to go to the mall with the alligator (Grapevine Mills) and do stuff THERE!! Of course, you did, honey!! After a day planned and executed specifically around you, you'd have rather done something else!!

You've gotta love that sin nature!!

Contrary to the ending of this post, we're having a GREAT time. We've got plans today to hit the pool and Walmart. (Landry is the only kid in this house who can go to Walmart without moaning and groaning!!)

Quotable Quotes

Landry ...
I don't want to eat my supper, but I DO want to eat some ice cream!!

Luke ...
It takes a boy cat AND a girl cat to make babies??
(uh-oh! too much information!!)

Parker ... (after a discussion about doing things the easy way - Mom's way, or doing things the hard way and getting in trouble - Parker's way)
You can choose the easy road or the hard road. In the case of the Bagg boys, sometimes the hard road chooses you!! I got that off the Ninja Turtles, Mom!!

It's been a fun week so far. Most enjoyable is being able to stay up late and sleep in without commitments. Good times indeed!!

Today we went to the library so we could keep the love of learning alive!! There are so many fun things to do at the library. We usually go downtown since it's the biggest and has the best selection. And, it's just fun to go downtown!! Landry enjoys the train!

A very energetic librarian strongly encouraged us to sign up for the summer reading program which, of course, we did!! The best part of signing up for that, you ask?? Well, the best part was that each of the boys got a clown nose!! Who knew??!!

Check out the irony in this picture --

Four goofy boys sitting under a sign that reads Betsy R Pepper GRAND HALL OF KNOWLEDGE!!! That is definitely why we were there! We need all the knowledge we can get!!

Here are the crazies playing dress up. Look at how the clothes fit the little boys appropriately while the older boys are squeezed in as tightly as possible. I'm sure Alex will seriously regret letting me take this picture of him as Thomas the Tank Engine at age 12 at some point!! Can't wait for that!!

All in all, it was a great time (except for the ride home, now that I think about it!). A fun day at the biblioteca!!

Good-bye School Year

The 2008-2009 school year is finished!! Yipeeee!!!

It was an interesting year for sure. Going back to work full-time definitely had its drawbacks, but overall, it was a very positive experience. I counted up all of my students today and if I didn't miss anyone, I saw 23 different students this year.

Here's the breakdown of stories: 8 girls had babies, 3 kids had broken legs, 2 had back surgeries, 1 had cancer, 2 had random infections, 2 they never did figure out what was wrong, 1 had a head injury, 1 had a knee injury, and 2 had more problems than I can't put into a couple of words! That leaves one that I can't think of right now!! So, as always, a variety of reasons for kids to need to be put on Homebound.

I really enjoy the job that I do. I love the fact that no two days are ever the same. I love the flexibility that comes with going different places and seeing different kids. I work with a great group of people and have a really great boss who lets me do my job and supports me however I need her to. And the biggest perk? No work in the summer!! Woo-hoo!!

We have big plans to do nothing!! With water park passes in hand, we plan to sleep late, play hard, and have lots of fun!

Bring on the summer!!

Summer's knocking

Look at me blogging twice in two days!! Yay me!!

Anyway, Summer is so close I can almost taste it!! And what says summer more than the Rangers??

Last Wednesday, we took the boys to watch the Rangers take on the Yankees. Evidently, it was a big deal to see the Yankees. Who knew??

There were almost more Yankee fans there than Rangers fans, which I found a little problematic. I mean, come on Ranger fans!! They're doing better than they've done in a really, really long time. Where's the love??!

And the Yankee fans?? Well, they acted kind of like Yankees!! And that's not always a complement if you know what I mean!!

Anyway, here are the cute little boys enjoying the game. The big boys aren't so into their mom taking cute pics of them in public places!!

Just for the record, Luke got those really cool tattoos at Field Day at school that day. I think that's supposed to be a snake running down his right cheek!! Nice!!