First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school.  Brooklynn and Josh were so excited and Ty - well he said he wasn't, but who knows!  We got up nice and early and finished packing lunch, ate some breakfast and headed out the door.  All of the kids teachers seem wonderful and since we are new to the school I am pretty clueless anyway.  I dropped Ty and Brook off and then walked Josh to the gym to get in his line.  He was just a little hesitant, but once I took one last picture, gave him kiss and a hug and left, he was fine.  He didn't know, but after dropping some supplies off in his classroom, I came back and watched him.  He was busy making friends and just as happy as could be.  I have to admit that I actually got a little choked up leaving him at school for the whole day!  I was so ready and he is so ready to be at school, but he is just growing up faster than I want and it makes me sad!

I love this silly picture - it is just so Josh.

My beautiful little girl!

When the kids got to the car after school Brooklynn gave me a huge hug and said, "I LOVE MY TEACHER!"
On our quick drive home, she said, "School was the best, and that is all I have to say!"

Ty said his day was good, I'll take that as it was really good because he said it with a smile on his face!

Josh gave me this run down of his good day!  "Um mom, lunch time was first before snack, you didn't tell me that."  Then after I asked him what he did, he said, "We went to lunch, we had recess, we had a snack and I don't remember the rest!"  Haha that is just so typically Tater. 

One Last Hurrah!

A BIG group of Ladies decided to head out to a near by lake last week and have one last big day before school started.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but decided getting the kids out of the house and having a fun day at the Lake would be good for all of us.  It turned out to be perfect and we all had a great time!

Noah loved floating in the lake on his back! He is so funny...

Baseball!

We got lucky - we got some tickets to the Frisco Roughriders Game last week. (Thanks Brian Rawlins).  There were four tickets - there are six of us and 5 of us require tickets!  After much debate it was determined that the Mom (that's me) and the 3 oldest kids would get to go to the game.  The Dad (that's Steve) was going to stay home with the Noah. 

The best part about this game/stadium is that it is 10 minutes from our house.  So the kids and I headed out and had a great evening.  To make it even better it was the ONLY day in the last 40 or something that the Tempurature did not make it over 100.  It was actually the best night to enjoy some baseball!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL???

We are certainly getting ready around here.  Ty starts practice tomorrow and could not be more excited!  Some of his excitement comes from the fact that he won't have to get up at early o'clock with Steve to get his conditioning in!  Steve has been putting him through some drills and a whole lot of running every morning to get him used to the heat and in good condition. 


With all that excitement Ty got some tickets to the Cowboys first PreSeason game last night!  Steve, Tyler, Ty's friend Tanner and I all got to go.  Cowboys Stadium is absolutly AMAZING!  We didn't stay for the whole game, but we had a good time and I think it will be something that the boys remember.

A Family Reunion! Windermere 2011

We got to escape the heat of the Texas Summer and head North for a week!  I LOVE heading to Canada and out to the Lake, my kids and Steve love it as well!  This year it just so happened that All of my siblings were going as well!  So, what is better than a not really planned, but planned family reunion??? I would venture to say not much! 

While everyone else drove, we (the Texans) saved our frequent flier miles and flew into Calgary and drove out to the Lake with Granddad.  It was amazing and beautiful and as always I felt blessed to be there!  I really did grow up in a beautiful place. 

We didn't get as much time on the boat/beach as we would have liked, but we really had fun when we did!  The kids LOVED the tube, except for Noah that is (he screamed), Tyler turned into a wild man this year and was daring Granddad to throw him off.  Granddad did not diappoint and sent Ty flying.  It was awesome!  Noah also loved driving the boat with Granddad, but as is the norm with him he just couldn't resist trying to touch all the buttons and pushing the throttle down while pulling the kids on the tube - needless to say they went a little faster than they wanted for a minute! 

With the kids getting older we also had alot of fun on the beach!  One afternoon the kids and some of the parents had some great volleyball match.  Sadly due to my lameness, I did not take any pictures with my camera!  I was too busy using Marilee's much more cooler and better camera.  As soon as she sends me copies, we'll be in business (hint, hint)

One night the Sista's headed out to a beautful evening to ski.  Sadly this is as far as Julie and I got! In the water I mean.  Marilee, the older and much more better sister actually got up and had a great ski!  Come to find out besides the fact that I am a wimp and had no arm strength, I put my ski on with the wrong foot forward!  Seriously, what a nerd I am!  Despite the fact I couldn't get out of the water, it was a great evening on the Lake with my sisters and my dad!

With the weather not being quite as lovely as we wished we opted for some other fun activites!  We tried some fishing, unfortunately nobody caught anything except for a turtle or two!  Still it was fun watching Uncle TJ get his line stuck up in the tree and the kids had some fun!

Since Granddad has become the great Hunter that he is, he brought his guns along.  There is a shooting range not far from the cabin so one night he took some of the older kids and dad's so that they could all try out his rifle.  The boys had fun, but thought it was a little loud. 

We also had the chance to go out and go Clay shooting!  I got to tag along this time, thanks to Nana staying home with my sleeping boy!  Can I just say - IT WAS SO FUN!  I was a terrible shot, but I had fun.  Tyler did great and shot 6 or 7 out of his first 10, but then he realized he was holding the gun on his bicep instead of his shoulder and he got a little bit of a bruise and a dead arm!  He still had a great time though!  Josh had to watch most of the time, but he got to take one shot at the end.  I was busy taking some video so again Marilee and JuJu have some pics of him.  Needless to say, he wasn't a fan of the gun kicking back at him!



These two (Logan and Josh) got to watch from the tower and had fun playing with the shells!



Ty getting some instruction from Granddad!

Me!  Let me just say again - LOVED IT~

Steve had never been clay shooting before and loved it!

A few more of the pictures from the week!

Miss Avery and Noah pretty much ignored each other until the last day.  They are so cute!

The Fraser crew came up and Campbell and Brookie had a great time together! Campbell is gonna come visit us with Nana sometime!

Me and Poopsie - this girl could not be any cuter!!

Heading back to Calgary.  So beautiful!

We stopped at this little canyon that is right off the highway. Never in all my life did I know it was even there!

Once we got back to Calgary I took the kids on a little tour of my world!  We had a whole afternoon/night to hang out and play because we didn't fly out until the next day.  Calgary has changed so much since I lived there, but it was fun to show them my Highschool, get a shake at Peter's Drive In and stop at a few other great places!  We also drove by the site where the new Calgary Temple is being built.  Growing up this was down the street from my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Don's house - way out in the country.  Now it is a big huge community and the temple is well under way!

We had a wonderful time and hope that we can go back again next year!