Aggie Tailgating

Now that Aggie football is back in full swing we have had our first Freedom tailgate! We typically have a few of these a year for the college students and it's pretty fun. We are out there for 3 hours before the game time so it can get long and HOT but the kids really do a great job. They really like watching the band march through and to see the Corps and the players before the game too. I'm a good sport and wear my maroon shirt (with my orange bracelets).

We took the kids to a game the next week... I'll blog about that next!

School Days

So school is BACK!!!!!! I'm so super excited about this!! Can you tell?
The Summer is LONG when there are not breaks and no regular "things". We had the kids in gymnastics all summer and that was so great. They loved it and it was a nice routine to have. All the kids seem to love their teachers and classrooms so they are really excited to go to school every week. H&H go Mondays and Wednesdays and Brooke goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Here they are on their first day of school.



Brooke insisted on taking this photo of us... even though I have NO make up (sorry!) on I really like the picture. It's classic Hallie... so serious.

Labor Day

The kids went up to the family lakehouse over Labor Day with Nanny, PawPaw and Momo. George and I had to both speak at a high school retreat for our church and were going to the A&M football game on Saturday night so my parents were kind enough to take the kids up with them Friday and we met them there on Sunday after church. My cousin and her family came up from their place outside Marble Falls with their two kids, Lance & Karlyn. We try to get a cousin picture everytime we are together...here's our best attempt!

George & I (mainly George) took the kids out on the jetskis. Hudson & Brooke loved it from minute one. Hallie on the other hand needed to warm up to it a bit. George said he could hear her giggle everytime they went over a wave.

Brooke was certain she did NOT want to swim...but once she got down there and saw how much fun her brother and sister were having she decided to get in...that's why she's wearing clothes!

We were SUPER lucky to have Momo with us for the weekend. If only Hallie were smiling in this picture it would be so much cuter!

We took a TON of family pictures but not a single one was that great. This is the best we got.

Momo with 2 of her 7 great grandkids

Nanny with her grandkids

PawPaw with his grandkids

It is FOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember when I told you about my lost charm bracelet? Well I am super super super excited to tell you it has been FOUND! Best day EVER...okay well maybe not ever...but it was a really great day. I really thought this thing was lost forever. I'd gone through stages of grief (haha) and was finally at the acceptance phase.

Enter our garage sale...

Two weeks ago we were getting ready for a garage sale and in the process of going through boxes of things to set aside and price I found it! I decided right then and there that it didn't matter how the garage sale went... I just made about $900 by finding it. Remember this thing had over 20 James Avery charms!!

(see it in the corner of the box?)
Somewhere along the way since December the kids must have put this in a box we had in the office where we were collecting garage sale stuff. I would NEVER have found this without the garage sale.

Of course it is fitting that once I found this my UT class ring is now missing. And unlike the bracelet I honestly have no idea the last time I wore it. Did I mention how much I love my kids. : )

Blue Bell tour

A couple of weeks ago I went with some friends to Brenham to the Blue Bell factory tour. It was an adventure with 4 moms and 10 kids! The kids did pretty good and everyone enjoyed their free scoop of ice cream! Yummy.

We ate at the Airport in a little diner and were able to see a few airplanes take off and land. All in all it was great fun and a really good way to spend a very hot summer day.

Waco Children's Museum

In an effort to make it through these long HOT HOT HOT summer days some friends and I took our kids to the children's museum in Waco. It was our first time there and let me tell you I was MORE than impressed!! We spent over 4 hours there and the kids loved every minute of it! Mine have even asked to go back already.

Here's Hallie in the communication room. The back wall behind her has all sorts of typewriters...some that I used at some point in my life which makes me feel REALLY old! It's crazy to me to think that one day our laptops will be in a museum as 'antiques'.

Hudson stamping away. Each table had different forms of communication: Braile, Hobo, Hieroglyphics, etc.

They had this really neat room with a big yellow bus, fire truck and car that the kids could dress up and pretend to be driving. Brooke is a mailgirl driving the kids to school. :)

Construction worker Hudson on the fire truck

Imitating real life ... This room had all these little cars they could drive around to different places in a "town" - Brooke's filling her car up with gas.

This was the pioneer room. They had dress up clothes and utensils to show how pioneer women/men lived.

Brooke working her modeling pose in the tea party room. She cracks me up!

The water room had this cool bubble that kids could stand under. I was never successful in making it work...thank goodness for friends and a museum worker! Here's Hallie with Jake & Elana.

Brooke turned 4!

I'm finally getting around to blogging about Brooke's 4th birthday. You may have seen it over at That Village House but for those of you who haven't...here ya go!

We had a Carnival themed party (thanks to a friend who loaned me her decor & ideas!). I had a great time planning it all and getting the front yard all set up. George helped me get the signs up and once the kids came he managed a lot of the little activities. My mom was a huge help and made sure all the refreshments were kept filled and helped find so many of the decorations. I couldn't have pulled this off without them!

We had several "booths" for the kids to play... Can Knock Down, Bowling, Pin the tail on the donkey, ring toss, beanbag toss, duck pond & a photo banner.


I made the banner & the cupcake toppers to coordinate with the carnival theme.

These cute boxes were found at Oriental Trading and I filled them with homemade chocolate covered pretzels, playdoh, stickers & fruit snacks.

We had the party on a Sunday night so it was a little late for George's family to make the trip...but we were glad to be able to spend Friday with them swimming and celebrating Brooke's birthday in Dallas while we were there for a wedding.

It's obvious Hudson & Hallie enjoyed ring pops, huh? We kept Brooke from doing that so she wouldn't have a blue or red mouth for the pictures I wanted to take of her opening presents. She was SOOO patient!