Happy Birthday ... kind of!!

So ... the blogging is very far behind indeed, but I promised that I would blog TONIGHT, so blog I will!!

We had the super fun privilege of attending John Wesley and Emma's birthday party tonight. The best part about the party is that while Emma's birthday was on Sunday, John Wesley's birthday was in February!! Shellee ... that is one of my favorite things about you ... that the birthday party doesn't necessarily correlate with the actual birthDAY at all!! So awesome!!

Anyway, the party was perfect ... swimming, kids, great night to just sit outside and enjoy!

There were some crazy tricks going on in the pool

That would be Luke!!

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the actual party because there was some other really, REALLY cute stuff going on right close to me . . .


Like this sweet little girl ... how cute is she?? Poor Abri had swimmers ear and couldn't swim but it didn't seem to dampen her spirit!!

(Notice Glory's buns in the background of the pic ... that was a whole other something cute!!)

And look what I got to do . . . I had forgotten how much I enjoyed little baby girls with yellow polka dotted swimsuits who will fall asleep right in your lap!! So much cuteness!!! Daylee Grace is a doll!!

But this is the best . . . the combination of all the cuteness . . . Abri holding Daylee and having so much fun!!!

Thanks for a fun night, Powell family . . . even though I felt a little weird as I told John Wesley "happy birthday" when we left!!!

He's got some moves

Landry's school does a program every Spring and it was well worth the price of admission (if there was one!!).

I've seen a few school programs in my day and this one never disappoints!!

My pictures of him on stage never turn out but at the end of the program this year, all of the kids came out to line the audience and do one more song. Crazily enough, Landry ended up right in front of us and I got some great pictures (minus the red eye, of course!!).

BOYS!!!

Someone informed me tonight as we were getting ready for bed that . . .

"One time . . . I looked in the potty and the lid to the toothpaste was in there!!!!" (insert big wide smile here)

I responded with an "Eeeewwwww!!"

He went on to add, "I reached in to get it . . . and I got to feel the water!!!" (insert another big wide smile here).

I said, "Please tell me you put it in the trash??"

He says, puzzled, "No . . . I just put it here on the counter!"

Which means I probably put it back on the toothpaste the next time I saw it!!

A visit with the animals

When Ryan and the girls were here, we all took a day off from school/work to head to the zoo!! It was a super fun day!!

The new part, affectionately called "The Snake House," was really cool!! Here are all the kids in front of it.

The aquarium was really neat ... you could see it from outside or inside and on top of or under the water.

Checking out a crocodile from under the water.

Yikes!!

Luke and Lou enjoy a little ice cream!

Funny how there are NO animals in the background!!

Landry and Luke with the giraffes . . . I know it's cliche, but they are TALL!!

Luke handling some snake skins!! Eeewww!!

Meagan and Alex with the flamingos . . . not sure about that face!!

All in all, a very fun day. Thanks to Nana and Poppy (how did yall not make the pics??) for a great time!!

What'd you say???

Luke just came into the office and asked me if I knew what H.E.B. stood for. I misunderstood what he said so I didn't give a very good answer. (if you don't know what it stands for, go look it up ... it's a name a little boy can't resist laughing at!)

Anyway . . . I told Luke that he should be thankful his parents gave him a really cool name!! He said, "and it's a Bible name." I agreed and asked him if he remembered what the Luke in the Bible did for his job. He said that he was a doctor and I told him he was right.

Then he thought for a minute and he said, "but he was also a fusipican." I gave him a funny look and said a WHAT?? He started laughing and said, "you know ... a fusipican ... that's what it says in the Bible." By this time, I'm cracking up and I made him say it over and over because it was so funny!!

Finally I say, "Luke, I think you're thinking of PHYSICIAN!!!!"


fu-sip'-i-can - n. a Bible name for physician

Use that in a sentence!!

Easter 2010

This Easter was a really great one!!

Ryan and the girls being here made is extra special and the boys just always clean up so nicely!!!

The boys had a choice this year with their clothing options. The choices were 1) plaid short with a solid shirt, 2) plaid shirt with solid shorts, or 3) a shirt and tie. I only threw in Option 3 because I knew one little boy would happily make that choice!!

And, just for the record, one little boy didn't go with any of those options, but it was ok because he looked so handsome!!

I had the awesome privilege of straightening Lexie Lou's hair that morning!! And that was a LOT of fun!!! I fixed a lot of hair that day!!

It was a great day!!

Fun with the Fam

Ryan, Meagan, and Lexie came to visit over their Spring Break which fell from Easter weekend through the following weekend. They stayed with us the first weekend and we had SO much fun!! Cousin time is hard to come by and they made the most of it!!

Friday night, we had some friends over to hang out. Saturday, we woke up and Ryan took over the kitchen and made us all a huge breakfast! On the menu was eggs, bacon, and pancakes!! Yum-o!!!

After breakfast, we loaded up and headed to the mall because us girls needed a pedi!! Not sure why I don't look very happy in this pic, but it was a very happy time indeed!!

After the pedis, we were standing around talking and thinking about what to do next when Ryan noticed that Carter was having a blood drive. If you gave up some blood, you got 2 tickets to the Rave! Ryan was planning on giving blood at some point while he was in town anyway so it just seemed like the thing to do!! After much paperwork ... seriously LOTS of very interesting questions that make me hope I never need a transfusion ... we were ushered upstairs to the special room where the magic happens!!

The kids were all tagging along, as this was a very interesting twist in our day!! Emily and Ryan began the process, talking one on one with a person, taking of vitals, etc. I brought up the rear and before we knew it, we were all hanging out together and the blood was aflowing!!

The kids took turns with the camera and this is the best shot we got of the three of us! The funny part of this little story is that Emily and Ryan were going strong when I sat down but my blood was apparently very ready to leave my body because it just came on out!! I was finished and cleaned up before Ryan or Emily finished!! While I was basking in the glow of finishing first even though I started last (as though it was a race!!), the technician calmly mentioned that if I were ever in a serious trauma situation, I would probably bleed out before I could be helped!! That put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm!!

Another interesting part of this little blood giving adventure was that you could call after a couple of days and get your blood type and cholesterol reading. The cholesterol wouldn't be exactly accurate because we had eaten that morning but it would give a ballpark figure. Ryan and I discussed the fact that our huge breakfast might skew our numbers so imagine my surprise when I called and my cholesterol was 126!! Yay me!! All that healthy eating I do is totally paying off!! Ha!!

All in all, it was a great weekend! Easter's next!!

Landry-isms

On Easter morning, Landry comes into my bathroom as I'm getting ready and says, "Hey Mom -- Look! There's a bug over there!" So I look and he says, "Happy April Fools!!" I laugh and kind of look at him confused and he says, "Oh man ... I mean Happy Easter!!"


On the way home from PuttPutt, Landry says in his super whine-y voice . . . "MOM ... I keep burping and I can't put my sucker in my mouth!!!" He's got some real problems, that boy!!


Tonight at the supper table, Landry says in a puzzled, Valley-girl voice . . .

"Everyday, Alex says he's cool . . . . . but he's not!!!
Every day!!"

Everyone should have a little brother!!

It's baseball season

These guys aren't having too much success in the Win column, but they are having lots of fun!!

And look how cute they look!! I really like their red shirts!!

(that totally sounded like something Deneise would say!!!)

Good buddies . . . Luke and John Wesley . . .

More Baylor Bears

The Bears had such an awesome season that they found themselves in the Elite Eight during March Madness!! How awesome is that??

One very special person to our family found this extremely EXCITING . . . so exciting that she bought tickets for the big game(s) in Houston and made not one, but TWO trips to Houston in three days!! Any ideas who that might be???

Not only did she go, but she took along two of her favorite kiddos and they were happy to put on their Baylor gear and cheer for the Bears!!

Emily took Alex, Reagan, and Shane to Houston on Friday, March 26th to watch the Bears kill St. Mary's. That earned them an opportunity to play again on Sunday.

So, after early church, Emily, Reagan, Alex, and I loaded up and headed south. It was a very fun trip, including Sonic onion rings and Dairy Queen blizzards!!

Getting to our seats proved to be a little difficult as Emily and the boys weren't really that happy with where our actual seats were. So....we had to do a little sneaky, possible illegal stunts to get into a section with better seats. It was VERY stressful for me hanging out with these rule-breakers. My favorite Emily quote during this time of the day was this ... "It's not like you have to sit in YOUR seat when there's all these empty ones." This was the line she was planning on using when asked by security why we weren't in our seats!! I almost wish we would've gotten caught so I could have heard Emily say that!!

But finally, we got to some seats that we hoped we were going to get to stay in and settled in for a great game. The biggest negative about our upgraded seats was that they were right in the middle of Duke territory!! This fact is kind of fun when Baylor was doing well and was stomping on Duke. But, in the end, it didn't work out so well for us as Duke ended the game ahead of the Bears.

It was a somber drive home, but we made it and were all very happy that we'd made the trip. It was a super fun day!! Thanks to Emily for sharing her excitement with us!!

Baylor Bear Basketball

On the first Saturday of March, we had the awesome privilege to head south to Waco to watch the Baylor Bears take on the Texas Longhorns. Of course, our favorite Baylor Bear went with us . . .

and her little brainwash-ees!!

It was an awesome game with the Bears coming out on top!! If I had blogged anywhere near the time that we actually went, I would remember what the score was!! If my memory is right, it wasn't even really that close!! But it's always fun to see some great college basketball in person!!

After the game, we went down to the floor . . .

. . . and because Scott knew somebody who knew somebody, we were able to go back into the locker room and practice areas and take a little tour. This was our first stop . . . the lockers, complete with little flat screen TV, some kind of fancy computer, and their choice of a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. The boys were sold at this point. At least 3 of them are planning on going to Baylor to play basketball!! But not to worry, Emily will help us pay for it!!

This was a really cool wall right inside the locker room. It has Coach Drew's favorite verses and represents the values that are important in his program. This guy is the real deal and it was really neat to watch him and learn about how he coaches and how he does life as a Godly man.

The boys also got to meet some of the players . . .

That's Quincy Acy . . . #4

These guys were so nice to sign autographs for anyone. . . such great attitudes!!

This is a Damien James, a bigtime Texas player (that's what they tell me!!) who might be going to the NBA.

And this is Dexter Pitman . . . These boys were TALL!!!

This pained Ms. Estes greatly to see Luke do this!!! :)

All in all, this was a super fun day!! The boys had a great time and the Bears won!!! All good!

Happy Birthday LANDRY!!!

This exciting, sweet, crazy little boy turned 5 today!!!

This little boy adds so much joy to our lives . . . can't imagine our lives without him!!!


He has always wanted to be FIVE and now he is!!!! Happy Birthday Landry!!!

How 'bout them Mavs???

This story just HAS to be shared because it's just that good!!

Our good friend Debbie has season tickets to the Mavs games and maybe once a year, if we're lucky, we get to have a girls night to go to the game. So, back in February, she told us the date she had and that we could have the tix. It was decided that Deneise, Emily, Debbie, and I would go to the game and we were sooo excited!!

Sadly, a few days before the game, Debbie's husband, Todd, realized that the night we were planning on going to the game was the night the Mavs would be playing the NBA Champion LA Lakers and that that would be a HUGE waste of tickets for just us girls to be going to see such a great team!!! So, Todd, drawing from his Indian heritage, basically snatched the tickets back from us!!! (as if we'd had them in the first place!!)

So, of course Deb felt terrible and immediately came up with another date for us to go just the next week. We were again all super excited and began to plan for the big night of watching the Mavs play a nobody team!! No matter ... it would still be fun!!

Finally, the night arrives and we decide to eat at Abuelo's. The problem with Abuelo's is that it is in an area of town with HORRIBLE traffic and, of course, we were going during rush hour on a Friday night.

Insert Deneise into the picture. If you know my good friend Deneise AT ALL, you know she has serious issues with carsickness. By the time we got to Abuelo's, Deneise was GREEN!! She looked horrible and felt horrible and I think she promptly went to the bathroom and got sick!!

She hardly ate at all while the rest of us chowed and felt sorry for her!!

We got back into the car to continue on and a little further down the road, Deneise quickly lets Deb know that she needs to pull over. So we pull over and watch and wait as Deneise loses her little bit of dinner on the side of the highway!!

Deneise says there's no way she can go the rest of the way and she decides to call Shane to come and get her. We inform her that we're not going to leave her at the Dollar Tree (her request) to wait for Shane. While debating what we should do, we go into the Dollar Tree so Deneise can buy a toothbrush and some Kleenex!!

After much debate and a walk through Albertsons for good measure, Debbie makes a phone call, gives the tickets away, and we all go home. It is now dark and the traffic is light and all is well again!!

Well, except that we didn't actually make it to the Mavs game for the second time in two weeks!! But . . . no matter!! It was a fun night anyway . . .well, maybe not for Deneise, but for the rest of us!!

The funnest part is we were all wearing our Mavs shirts so when we got back to Deneise's, we decided we should take a picture since it wasn't likely that we would be getting back to the Mavs game anytime soon!!


One of my favorite Emily sayings is . . . it doesn't matter what you do, it's who you're with . . . and that definitely applies to this night. While the plans didn't go anything like they were supposed to, it was a great night with a lot of great memories!!

Thanks a LOT Deneise!!!! :)

Happy 7th Birthday LUKE!!!

Ok ... seriously ... the blog?? Just haven't had the time ... blah, blah, blah!!

So, I'm going to try and catch up!!

I decided to use my camera as my guide to see which pics I hadn't uploaded and then I would know where I had stopped blogging.

And when did I stop blogging???


On Luke's 7th birthday . . . exactly 3 months ago from today!!!


Ironically, TODAY is Landry's birthday!! Crazy!!


Anyway, we went to Pump It Up and had a really great time!

The birthday boy . . .



The birthday friends . . .

Reagan beating Alex up with his amazing muscles!!

Ms. Estes and Emma . . .

Parker . . .
Even Nana got in on the fun with Landry . . .

Luke proudly showing off his new A&M shirt with Reagan . . .

This was a really great party for a really great boy!! Luke is such a sweet, kind boy. He has a softer side to him that none of the other boys have (at this point in their lives anyway!!). He is very sensitive and caring but can be as rough and tumble as anyone else! He loves any sports and plays hard at whatever he does!! He adds so much to our lives!!