Thanks Dad!

My dad helped me create this family history wall that I have been longing to put up! The left side are pictures from Neal's family and the right is pictures from mine. I can build onto it, which I plan to do very soon. Thank you, Dad!

Finally . . .

We finally got Blogger to comply. You can see pictures of Audrey's party here! There's also a picture of a certain superhero here.

Our Little Girl is Growing Up!

Here she is on her first birthday!

Here's number two!

Three

Four

Happy Birthday to Audrey! She had her pony party today and it was a great success. Perfect weather for a birthday party. For more pictures, check out her blog here. We can't believe she's already five and that we are old enough to have a five-year-old! She got five big hugs from Pa this morning and is very sure that she is taller today than she was yesterday. What a girl. We love her to pieces and hope her life is as happy as possible. And if it's not, she's gonna make it that way, no doubt about it.

Duck Nests

The kids raked leaves together in the front yard and pretended they were ducks sitting on their nests. Well, laying on their nests. Parker laying face down on the pile of pokey leaves was Audrey's idea, surprise surprise.

A Most Satisfying Work

Here is a genealogy chart I filled and popped in a frame today, to showcase the work that I (and mostly others before me) have begun. I have never done anything so satisfying and fascinating, and if you haven't given Family History a try, you ought to. Just go to google and type in the first ancestor's name you can think of. Maybe you already have the dates of their lifespan, but often you can find interesting facts and life stories and pictures that others have compiled for you. I discovered that I am the 30th great-grandchild of William the Conqueror. How cool is that? Neal and I are both related to rival royal clans from Scotland centuries ago. You may even find long, lost cousins, as I have, and make connections around the country or even further away. Either way, it's a great way to spend your free time. I haven't had much of that lately, but when the time comes again, the fever will hit me just as it has in the past. There are still LOTS of blank spaces on my chart!

Hmmmm . . .

Some results of Neal's hard work, along with a little help from Mother Nature:

some pretty lilies Neal planted in the backyard

a shot of our garden plot, a little bare right now since seeds were just planted

a pretty flower in the front yard

our little baby fig tree has sprouted leaves!

And just one example of my hard work, thanks to a little help from my washer and dryer.

Oh, and some happy news, I have felt the first little flutters of baby movement these past few days. I'll feel it and think, "Oh, that felt like a baby!" Wait, it is a baby. I'm telling you, my brain is leaking out of somewhere!

Boy Scouts and Blonde Jokes

I don't know if it's pregnancy brain, my newly-refreshed blondeness, or just plain ditziness, but it's gotten quite scary lately. I surprise myself sometimes with my absentmindedness. I'm only 28, so I can't blame it on age yet, but here are just a couple of many examples which I could list:

1. The other day, Neal and I were driving and thinking of baby names. (We have serious problems since the only two names we both like are Audrey and Parker. Any and all suggestions would be quite welcome.) So I come up with this brilliant idea, "Hey, we could name a boy James! I love that name!" Neal quickly responds, in his "why is she so ditzy" way, "James is Parker's middle name." Me: "Oh yeah." I seriously forgot that.
2. On Saturday, Neal and the kids waited in the car while I ran into Kroger for some groceries. The boy scouts were outside selling little coupon books, and I told them I'd buy one on my out, when I had some cash. So I made good on my word and came out with $10, put my purse down on the table, and entered my name in a drawing to win a new car. I walked away inspecting the coupon book, pushed my cart to the car, and hopped in while my gentleman of a husband loaded the groceries in the back.
   

So today, I decided to reward the kids with a trip to McDonald's because they were quite the little angels at church yesterday, considering we stayed after the 4:00 dismissal for a baptism, which lasted until 6:30. They were so quiet and reverent, they earned the trip to MickeyDee's. As I'm loading them in the car, I'm looking for my purse, can't find it anywhere, decide to call my cell phone to locate the purse in my house, blah blah, can't hear the phone. My purse was gone. Now you know that is a horrible feeling. I realize the last time I had it was Saturday at Kroger. I called them up, the heroic Boy Scouts turned it in to Customer Service. Phew! Thank Heavens for those honest little boy scouts and their equally honest dads. I know it's not that interesting of a blog entry, but I was so grateful today for honest people. That's my story. My brain is leaking.

Our Prophet

If you haven't checked out this site yet, I recommend it for a good Sunday activity. There are some really interesting old pictures and documents that are fun to browse. Click on Resource Center. They really did a good job with this site. This is a good one, too! Happy Sunday!

Hot time, summer in the city . . .

. . . back of our necks gettin' nice and pretty. Okay, I don't think those are the real lyrics to that song, but summer is speedily on its way to Texas. It was 81 degrees in our house today. The a/c is about to get switched on. Some of you freezing folk may think that sounds lovely, and it was an incredibly beautiful day today. Once again, we got lots of work done in the yard and the kids became completely covered in filth from rolling down hills, but if you knew Texas summers like we do, heat is not a welcome thing. It is an ominous reminder of things to come. Oh, and I'm going to be great with child all summer. Great with child and in a swimsuit. I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

PS. I just looked up the lyrics to this Joe Cocker song, the words are as follows: "back of my neck gettin' dirt and gritty." I like mine better.

The Bookstore

The whole time we have lived in Texas, Barnes & Noble has been a big part of our recreational life. It often serves as a fabulous date night, post-dinner activity, but more often, it is a great place to take the kids, either as a reward for good behavior or just for fun on a Friday night. When Audrey was younger, we would go to the one nearest our condo for weekly story time, complete with free snacks and a craft to make.
This weekend, we went yet again to browse the books, play with the Thomas table, and have some nice family time in a quiet place. Neal and I thumbed through a baby name book, wherein (What a Pa word, wherein. Love you dad!) we found a couple new "maybes." Parker found a Batman book that made sound, and Audrey had a terrible time deciding on which book to take home. She finally settled on Rosemary Wells' Max's Chocolate Chicken. Parker took home Curious George Has a Dream, since we don't really like making-sound books in our house. Ever since we saw that adorable Curious George movie, (which I highly recommend, as there is not one ounce of trying-to-be-funny-adult-humor), Parker has a new favorite character. We're not complaining, at least Curious George doesn't fight any bad guys.

Parker in the sale section

Looking through the paperback rack

Audrey reads to anyone who will sit still long enough to listen.

In this case, it was this sweet little girl!

Can y'all say A-do-bay?

Here are some shots from our weekend trip to San Antonio. We had so much fun in that great town, Audrey was mad at us the whole way home because we don't live there. We stayed in a lovely little place on the famous Riverwalk, which goes right through downtown, and even got lost looking for the Alamo. Since it took us so long to find it, we were too late to see Pedro and Inez, and we didn't have time to look in the basement, but we did get some fabulous Mexican food!

The next day we went to Sea World, where we had loads of fun seeing all the animal shows and riding rides. Shamu did not disappoint; there were actually 5 Orca whales in the Shamu show! It was pretty incredible to see what those big things can do.

Audrey and Parker with Shamu!

Audrey and the stinky Sea Lions

On the Riverwalk

Parker eating blue cotton candy

Only in Texas! Breakfast at our hotel

Neal and Parker with lorikeets on their heads.

Audrey is very proud of herself that she rode the Shamu rollercoaster ALONE!

The kids at the Alamo. Isn't it beautiful?

Audrey and me in a freckle-counting picture

Parker and Neal on the penguin-egg ferris wheel.

Saturday

On Saturday, Audrey went from this:

Her first official soccer game as part of Team Green Thunder, to this:

Another fancy birthday party at the princess place. All this happened before 11:30 in the morning. What a life!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Yesterday we did a lot more yard work, beginning the transformation of our front yard. We had lots of neighbors asking us why we were ripping out bushes; we had to promise amazing results in the future, so hopefully our yard man, Neal, can deliver. I'm sure he will. While Neal and I worked (mostly Neal), the neighbor kids came over offering popsicles in return for time playing My Little Ponies. So out to the driveway the ponies came. Parker and his Buzz Lightyear guy were a part of it until Audrey (in a very Audrey way) told him to go play in the garage because "that's where outer space is."

Anyway, our yard looks a bit different, but the most disconcerting thing about all that yardwork is that I am very, very sore. From pulling weeds. Are you guys all in as bad a shape as me? Please say yes.

Audrey and her Horse

Isn't this a lovely picture? This is Audrey feeding Hunter a carrot. He's the horse she rides for her lessons on Tuesdays. We like to say Hunter looks like he's glowing like a unicorn would. Apparently, he's a very lazy horse, but we're okay with that. We don't really want our teeny little girl on an energetic one.

housework

After our extremely emotional and frightfully long evacuation last summer because of the threat of Hurricane Rita, we returned to an amazingly pristine house and yard, just a few limbs down, and very empty grocery stores. I felt so incredibly unworthy of our good fortune and the blessings we have spilling out of our ears, and promised my mom that I would never again complain about doing housework. I was, and still am, mind you, so unendingly grateful just to have a house standing. I'm only saying this because if I hadn't made that promise to my mom, this is where I would complain about housework.