Hair cut & earrings...sniff, sniff

For several months, Andi had been asking me to get her hair cut short.  I resisted for a long time & finally caved in.  Surprisingly, I didn't cry!  But she almost did.  As soon as we drove away from the haircut place, she said 'Mom...I wish I would have left my hair long like Rapunzel.'  It will grow back eventually & we have enjoyed how much easier short hair is to manage!

 Cutting off about 8 inches!

And...she also decided she wanted to get her ears pierced!  So I totally jumped on that one cause I didn't want her to chicken out, and off to the mall we went! We had Mamaw, my Mom, meet us there for moral support. Here she is getting her ears cleaned before the piercing.  All smiles beforehand...

 And...tada!  Pink sparkly earrings. She really did great!  She started to cry right when the girl finished & I said 'Well, don't cry now...she's already done.'  And she said 'Okay.'  And that was the end of the tears.

 The prize Mamaw got her for being a brave girl.

 Posing in front of Claire's afterward.

With Mamaw afterward

And, striking her 16-year-old pose later that day!  My baby girl is growing up!

1st mani/ pedi

Over the summer, Aunt Hettie treated Andi to her first manicure & pedicure.  As you can see from the picture, she wasn't a big fan.  She did love the foot soaking part at the beginning, but the rest of the experience she spent trying not to break down & cry.  I think it was just a little overwhelming for her.  I also think that with how much of a girly girl she is, she is going to totally love having these done some day!  Before we know it, Aunt Hettie will have her a nail salon buddy!

Road Trip!

The first weekend in August, the Porters joined us for a weekend trip to Abilene to see our friend Tahj get married.  We arrived around 5 pm that Friday, just barely in time to tour a couple of new campus buildings before they closed at 6pm.  It was mine & Derek's first time back in 10 years since we had graduated.  I really enjoyed just strolling around campus, except for the fact that it was SO HOT!  I had forgotten how unbelievably hot west Texas is in August.  It was over 100 degrees the entire weekend, even at night!  Okay, it did cool down to 98 degrees the second night we were there.  It was of course very windy, but not a nice cooling breeze.  It was a breeze of really hot air hitting you, maybe like being inside a microwave. Well, on with the post...just know it was horiffically hot.

 Our first time to see Jacob's ladder.

 Derek & I being goobers at Echo point.

 My FAVORITE spot on campus, the admin building.

 Us in front of the admin

 The Porters after our amazing steak dinner at Perini's Ranch in Buffalo Gap.  Weeks before the trip we figured out exactly how many meals we were going to eat there, and which restaurants would get those  cherished limited spaces!  It was so hard to choose because they sure do have some good eatin' places in Abilene.  However, we knew Perini's was where we were eating dinner Friday night.

 Us after dinner at Perini's

Saturday morning, Alicia & I got pedicures and then we all went downtown to stroll through the shops.  Then we ate a huge lunch at Joe Allen's BBQ.  After that, our good friend Anna joined up with us & we hung out by the pool at the hotel until it was wedding time!

Alicia, Tahj, Anna & me at the wedding.  We were all in the drama group Seekers of the Word while at ACU, and it was awesome to all be together again!  Didn't Tahj look gorgeous!  The only sad part of the weekend was that we had to get back on the road first thing Sunday morning, which meant we didn't get to go to church there.  I guess we will have to do that on our NEXT visit back!

Introducing Batcat

In late July, Batcat joined our family.  He showed up one day at Granna's house while the kiddos were over there playing.  They begged & begged to bring him home, and I eventually caved in.  Dawson wanted to name him Batcat, which was fitting because of his ears, and cute since it kept a superhero pet  theme for our house. I knew Derek was going to be LIVID with me.  And he was.  But, Batcat was just so ugly with those HUGE ears, that he was cute somehow.  He did eventually grow into those huge ears.  And, Spidey Dog loves him!

I think we should have named him Toothless,  after the dragon from 'How to train your dragon.'   He looks just like him!

Andi with Batcat as a baby

He was obviously the runt of the litter because he is just such a petite cat.  This basket is a tiny basket that only holds two remotes!  Welcome to the family Batcat!  (His welcome was kind of short lived...he is now an outside-only kitty since he developed a bad habit of peeing on Derek's shoes!)

Here is a cute video right after we brought Batcat home

 And, a cute video of the animals wrestling!

God, lizards, spiders and the Devil

This is perhaps, my favorite story to tell about my children.  They just say the craziest things, and this story totally sums up their little personalities. One day in the middle of summer, we were outside in the backyard playing baseball.  While I was pitching to Dawson, I kept hearing Andi making a banging noise.  Finally after the noise irritated me enough, I looked over at her to see what she was doing.  It looked like she was just banging the ground with her bat, but I couldn't tell because she was so far away from me.  I asked her 'What in the world are you doing?'  She smirked at me, slung her little pink bat over her shoulder, put her hand on her hip & said 'Oh...just killin' a lizard.'  Dawson yells 'WHAT???'  We both ran over to her to see if its true.  Yup, she was killing a lizard all right.  She had completely demolished it.  The lizard was in about 10 different pieces & it was really a gross bloody sight.  I was trying to think of a profound thing to say to my four year old in this type of situation, but Dawson beat me to it.  He immediately began crying & yelled at her 'ANDI...WHY WOULD YOU KILL ONE OF GOD'S CREATURES????'  So, now I am trying to console him, while still searching for the right thing to say to her.  A few minutes later, we are all calm again & we have all promised to be nice to God's creatures from now on.  We resumed our baseball game.  I pitched to Dawson, and he hit the ball over my head and it landed in the grass by the fence.  As I bent down to pick the ball up, a grass spider about the size of a quarter jumped right on top of the ball.  I yelled for the kids to come look at the ball.  'Look, this crazy spider just jumped on top of our ball!'  They both ran up on either side of me & we were all bending over looking at the spider on top of the ball.  Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dawson's bat swinging down...and he completely smashed the spider.  I yelled,  'DAWSON!!!  You just got all upset with Andi for killing God's creatures, and then you just did the same thing!'  Dawson gave me a little smile & said 'Mom, I don't think God made spiders, I think the Devil did.'

July 4th pics

July 4th photo shoot....oh what a horrible experience!  We finally got some good shots, but Derek & I had to work our tails off to get them!  Andi LOVES the camera right now, but Dawson is SO OVER having his picture taken.  He was in the worst mood about taking pics & that means Mama was in the worst mood...seriously, how hard is it to simply smile????

Spidey Dog paused for a picture in between squirrel chasing.

The infamous scowl.

Andi brought these flowers to the photo shoot because 'they matched perfectly.'

And, isn't this sweet!  You can't see Dawson scowling from the back!

July 4th 2011

 As usual, we had a lazy 4th of July...my favorite way to celebrate.  We swam during the day at The Morse Resort (Derek's parents neighbors), and Spidey Dog spent the day playing with their dog Emma.

 We played lots of games.  Here is Derek playing Headbands with the kiddos.

 Andi striking a pose with Hettie while waiting for the fireworks to start.

 Me with my crazies...Dawson was in a phase where he refused to smile!

 Dawson with his Hettie

And, a firework picture.  I put this on here because Dawson was insane about me taking pictures of the fireworks!  He spent the majority of the time watching me to make sure I was taking as many pics as I could, instead of watching the firework show.  If I would try to take a break & set me camera down for a second he would freak out that I was missing all the good shots!  Funny kid.  So, I ended up with about 100 pics of fireworks this year!

Dawson's 6 year old pics

Since Dawson is obsessed with baseball, it was no surprise that he chose to do his 6 year old pictures in his uniform on the ball field.  We just barely captured his toothless grin because those big teeth grew in fast!!

Dawson's 6th birthday party

Dawson wanted to have a boys-only birthday party this year, and he decided he wanted to have it somewhere where they could go rock climbing.  I did some research, and found an indoor place not too far from our house.  Quite a few of the boys were scared to climb...but not Dawson, he LOVES it!

 His baseball cookie cake that he wanted.

 Climbing...

 Dawson & cousin Holden, who also loves to climb.

 Brett just lifted Andi high up in the air!

 Both my kiddos climbing, Andi didn't get any highter than that!

 rappelling down

 This picture is so funny!  Caleb's Dad just kept pulling him up higher & higher...I love just his little legs dangling down from the top!

 Sweet boy before he blew out his candles. (there really are 6 candles on there, even though it only looks like 4)

 And, Derek & I both tried it out...and we both made it to the top to ring the bell!

Yay for friends & parties!

Beach Time 2011

Derek's family takes an annual trip to Galveston each summer & these are our photo highlights from this year.  We always have such a wonderful time, and my kiddos LOVE hanging out at the beach and at the awesome pool they have at Point West Condos.  It is always so relaxing just hanging out, eating & playing games.

This first picture is their first day at the beach...they were a little timid, taking it all in.

These pictures were from the last day we were at the beach, they sure are warmed up to it now!

On the left, we are catching 'critters' and then on the right Dawson is showing off all the ones he caught.

Here is a cute picture of Andi wave jumping with Gramps. She's very into it.

And a cute shot of Granna just relaxing in the water with the kiddos.

Granna & Gramps with the munchkins feeding the seagulls.

One day, we covered ourselves with mud.  I LOVE Andi's face in the first picture: she is totally covered in mud but is acting grossed out by the mud in Dawson's hands.

The boys always get in LOTS of naps while we are there.

 

The pirate hats were a BIG hit. ARGHHH!

 

 And, on the way home, we let the kiddos stop to get some new pets...HERMIT CRABS!!!  They ended up not being such great pets, because they did not live for very long.  But, the kids sure enjoyed them for a couple of months.  Dawson named his 'Astros' becuase the shell was painted like an astronaut, and Andi named hers 'Kicky' because it was painted like a soccer ball.  They were cute while they lasted!