Coleman for the Weekend

This weekend we went to Coleman, Texas for the annual PRCA rodeo. It is always such a great time and so fun to see all of our friends down there. We love to get away and go hunting down there and this time I came away with no chiggers from Chigger County!!!! Can't believe it!

Unfortunately I did not get a single picture of the rodeo but I got some cute pictures of Caitlyn driving the car up the deer lease hill to fill the feeders. She had a great time and we had a blast laughing at her driving skills and listening to her ramble on and on, jumping from subject to the next!

She might have even started catching on to which way was left and which was right - well maybe not. On the way leaving our friends, uh, mansion we let her drive down his driveway (street) and she had us going all over the road and grass on either side of the road. We were laughing hysterically. Good memories!

Here is Jeff fishing on the hottest day ever. We fished several different ponds for about 5 minutes each. It was too hot to stand still and luckily it had rained 2 nights before so the ponds were very muddy (well lucky for me so we could keep moving!).

Keep reading the next 2 posts, I've posted 3 times today to try to catch up!

7th Anniversary

Jeff and I spent our 7th anniversary in Daytona Beach on June 9th this year. We had a great day.

Side note: As I'm writing this post Brent is chasing a big Diego Ball around the house. I wish I could describe the look on his face every time it gets away from him. His mouth drops wide open as if he has heard the biggest, most amazing news in the world. Then he will turn and look at me as if to say "did you see that?". Then he breathes real loud and chases it again - it is the cutest thing!

Anyway, we got to Florida on Saturday late afternoon and our anniversary fell on a Monday. So as we were driving around looking for a place to eat (and we were starving) we passed by some gorgeous hotels. Jeff nonchalantly said, I think that is the place you and Kristy are going on Wednesday to get your massages.

We were shocked! It ends up that Kristy and I got to spend a half day there getting a massage, facial, soaking in the hot tub, having lunch and getting a pedicure and manicure. It was so wonderful and luxurious!

Now I am not sure which was better the day at the spa or the fact that my husband surprised me by planning ahead and setting it up in advance. He said he spent days checking out different spas comparing them and then he took care of the kids which wasn't easy while we were at the beach.

He is the best husband ever and I don't know how I got so lucky but I am so blessed to have in my life!

Brent 9 months

Watch out! He can come and get you now!!

Poor thing has to put up with Caitlyn just "trying" to play with him. That is her new word now!

Oops! You caught me playing!

He loves to crawl up on his toy and dance on it. He will shake his little rear to the music, it is so cute. I got it on video but apparently the video was too long and too big for every program out there so I can't share it with you - sorry!

Brent now has 4 teeth, loves to pull up on anything he can, and this morning he even took a few steps and started cruising! He loves to giggle and play with his sister. He loves to eat and demands to eat whatever you have in your hands at the time or he will cry bloody murder, which is pretty much the only time he cries. Well that and then whenever, I (mom), leave the room. He has the funniest crawl ever. He pushes off with his right foot and then crawls regular. He tolerates his sister being overly loving and is probably scheming of several ways of getting her back one day! He is so kissable and huggable and I love him so much and thank God everyday that he has brought Brent and Caitlyn into my life!

Florida Vacation

Our vacation was wonderful and we had a great time. Both Caitlyn and Brent did great on the airplane and with all the traveling. We went to Daytona Beach first and stayed in a condo right on the beach. Lastly we went to Disneyworld and stayed on their grounds in a beautiful hotel. We met our friends from Colorado and their two daughters in Florida and it was just a blast. For fun, or because it's the way my pictures are loaded I will tell the story in reverse! Here is Caitlyn watching a show of all the characters, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofey, and all the princesses! She loved it - Jeff probably not so much, it was sooooooo hot! But the smile on her face is unforgettable.Here we are at the Disney Coronado hotel, you can see the lake and other beautiful buildings behind us. We had been to swim earlier in the day. Our swimming pool had a large water slide. Caitlyn went down several times alone and once with her dad. She swam with a life vest on and finally got the hang of moving her legs and swimming on her own (and not hanging on me!). Anyway on our way back she told me she wanted to get her picture on this rock. She had seen us take a picture of Collin's family there the night before - she has such a memory.

We did several "fair" like games at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Her dad won her a large dinosaur playing basketball. That was fun to pack for the plane trip back!

Here is a good picture of the both of us. I believe it was at Disney's Magic Kingdom the first night. Once we got to Orlando we stored our luggage at the hotel (our room wasn't ready yet) and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. We stayed late that evening and enjoyed their awesome fireworks show!

Here is Jeff and Caitlyn on the Dumbo ride, that they had to wait in line forever to get on!

Just a cute picture of Mr. Brent. We were commenting how he is such a good baby and our friends corrected saying he is not good, he's a great baby! He really is. The week we were on vacation he started pulling up on everything, the coffee table, his stroller seat (I know there's a buckle to prevent that), basically anything he could pull up on he would.

Here we are at restaurant on the hotel grounds overlooking the lake, while we are waiting to get checked in. This is Hayden, their oldest daughter holding Brent.

This is our last evening in Daytona Beach and we found the perfect place to get a picture taken.

We played mini golf while we were there and Reagan and Caitlyn had a blast kicking off each hole. Luckily they went really fast and sometimes even picked up their balls and put them in the hole!

Here's my hottie and he is such a good dad, too. Happy Father's Day Jeff! I totally messed up and forgot to tell him while we were on vacation. Finally during breakfast he told his buddy, Collin, Happy Father's Day and finally Kristy and I remembered. They rubbed it in the whole day. Luckily when we flew in that evening I had a present waiting for him.

Here is Brent driving his first video racing game. I think he is winning! This is after eating ice-cream at a joint after a long day the beach.

It was so fun to see Caitlyn change while we were on the beach. When we first got there she was scared of the water and waves. It didn't take long for her to run down to the water by herself and get water for her sand castle.

She soon got brave enough for me to take her out and jump the waves together. She loved it, Brent never did warm up to the ocean waters but he loves to splash in the pool.

Here she is playing at the water's edge.

Brent is now fulling crawling and can get wherever he wants to go quickly. He has a funny crawl but it works for him. He liked the beach, he would take his morning nap on the beach under the umbrella. It did get difficult to have him on the beach though because he would grab handfuls of sand and insert them directly to his mouth. We tried to stop him, then we let him do it and figured he stop on his own - NO. So then we removed him and changed sandy diapers for a day or so! The pool is so much easier!

Here is a view looking down from our condo's patio.

Here is our setup. The condo provided the umbrellas, lawnchairs, beach towels, sand toys and boogie boards. We had a great time jumping the waves on our boogie boards - that is the best fun.

I did forget my camera charger and we had to buy a new one on the trip. Then in Disney World I ran out of memory space on my camera. I haven't taken pictures off my camera since Christmas, yikes. So every once in a while I had to go back through my photos on my camera and delete bad, fuzzy ones, etc to make room for new ones but it all worked out.

I hope you enjoy our pictures, I'm sure I have forgotten cute stories, but this is all for now!

San Antonio Vacation

Well, in my book summer is finally here. It makes no difference that we have 3 days left of school, I have already been on 2 mini vacations and I am ready to start living it up!

Two weekends ago (Memorial Day weekend) I went to Muskogee, where I had the opportunity to visit with my parents and my sister and her children. In the first picture you can see my dad pulling his three granddaughters in the wagon. They love to ride in the wagon!
Here we are in San Antonio. Last weekend I had the opportunity to join Jeff with down in Texas at his conference. We stayed at the Marriott on the Riverwalk right by a mall. It was a gorgeous, convenient, luxerious location. I was able to shop while the kids took naps (of course, Jeff was with them!).

We went to Sea World and got completely soaked by Shamu! Caitlyn was fine the first time we got wet, but the second time she cried because she wasn't prepared for it. It honestly did come out of the blue!

Here we are after the Shamu show. You can see that we are all soaked. Check out my shorts, hopefully you are not blinded by those white knees!

Caitlyn and her daddy went on this cool log ride! They had a blast. Brent could have ridden it too, the only requirement was for him to be walking. Can you believe it? Too bad! I had fun talking to another mom from the same area that used to be a teacher and that passed the time by quickly.

Here are our cuties at the aquarium at Sea World. This is one of the last pictures and they are so tired. Unfortunately when we got back to the hotel we found out they both had 102 temperatures. We had to cut our trip one day early because they were both sick. We left the next day.

Before rushing back home the next morning we went to the Alamo. I was bound and determined to get some updated pictures for my kids. I teach 4th grade social studies and this is a big part of our curriculum. Here is the church, the only original building left.

Here is one of the only original walls of the mission left. Check out the cute tourist too!

So luckily Jeff was able to start the kids on antibiotics on Friday evening so by Sunday afternoon they were finally starting to come back to life. We did battle with ongoing, nonstop fevers. Caitlyn got as high as 103 temperature one time. I found her in the bathroom one night where she had fallen down after going to the bathroom and she was so weak she couldn't get up. She did call out to me. My poor baby!

Anyway, by Sunday evening they were feeling well enough that we were able to go to the Rangers Baseball game. It was a scorcher, but he was kept cool in this sweet little hat.

We had awesome seats, 5 rows up, right behind the home base plate. The owner, I think his name is Tom Hicks, he also owns the Stars hockey team too was sitting right down 4 rows in front of us. Too bad they lost! I did feel like I was in a war zone though, there were foul balls all over the place. A guy behind us caught a ball and I turned around and didn't say good job but instead said Thank You! Kind of scary when you have your two babies there!

This is my last week at school. Tomorrow is our awards ceremony and we our class awards in our classrooms. I have planned a very small speech for each child and a video presentation. I was surprised that it was so long, it is 4 songs long - wow! So I have been very busy with that.

Well this should catch everyone up on the comings and goings on our life. It is a crazy life around here and shouldn't slow down much over the summer by any stretch.