Welcome Hudson Taylor!

What a busy, wonderful week! My cousins, Scott & Patty, had a beautiful, healthy baby boy, and Nick came home from Iraq last Thursday! Sunday, I drove him to Oklahoma so he could see his family and get his car. We had such a great visit!

Blessings,

Leslie

The Joy of a Box

I bought Mandy a booster chair so we could put away the high chair. Thomas and Grace had WAY more fun with the box than Mandy did with the new chair!

Blessings,

Leslie

Fabulous Friday

At the kids school Friday's are called "Fabulous Friday's." This Friday was Grandparent's Day. The kids grandparents were invited to join them for lunch. Mom and Dad came and brought him lunch. He was so excited. I have to say...the placed was packed! They had so many grandparents RSVP that they had tables put up in the gym to accomodate everyone. For Grace, today was nursery rhyme day. They had to dress up and recite a nursery rhyme. Grace did Little Miss Muffett. She had a spider that we tied to a stick with fishing line and a bowl and spoon for the "curds and whey." Gretta came over this evening and she and Grace are having a sleepover. They played for a long time and then we had makeovers and did our nails. Next came the popcorn and the rolling on the floor laughing! They have now crashed in Grace's room while watching "Dora." Thomas and Scott have gone over to help Erin and Larry move into their new house. Although I'm not sure how much "help" Thomas is being!

When I was taking Grace's picture today doing her nursery rhyme, Mandy refused to be left out! She jumped in front of the camera and started hamming it up!

Blessings,

Leslie

Catching up...

I thought I'd take a minute and get caught up! Last weekend Scott and Grace went to Tampa Bay to visit Scott's sister, Robyn, who moved there in June. Since he had taken Thomas skiing in March he wanted to do something with Grace too. So, they decided they would go visit Aunt Robyn. They all seemed to have a great time. They played at the beach and the park and the Magic Kingdom!
On Saturday, Thomas went to Clay's birthday party. They all went to play Laser Tag, which Thomas described as,"Awesome!" He stayed with dad while mom, Jane and Judy and I went to Patty's baby shower in Oklahoma. We picked up Aunt Gladys on the way and all had a great time!

Blessings,
Leslie

RAIN!!!!!!!

It's raining!!!

We spent the night at mom and dad's last night because it was late and we were all exhausted. Mom, Christie, Nana and I had spent all day Saturday decorating the inside of the house, while Russell and Scott put up the tents and power-washed the patio. Then last night after the party we had to take it all down!! David stayed after the party and helped Scott take down all the tents and put the furniture back in the house. The whole thing was definately a team effort!

Anyway, when we got up this morning it was raining! The kids went outside on the patio and Mandy thought the rain was facinating. She went out and sat down in a puddle and just let it rain on her!

We came home after breakfast and have spent the day not doing much of anything!

Blessings,

Leslie

Happy Anniversary!!

Mom and Dad celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary Sunday. We had a great time celebrating with friends and family!

We put up big tents and tables in the yard, and were blessed with no rain and weather that didn't get over 85 degrees. The day was perfect!

Mandy and Elliott Eddie Deen catering fed us GREAT food and Greg was a fantastic bartender!

Dance & Karate

Thomas LOVES his karate class. I took these last Thursday after he got home. He was so excited about the uniform!

Grace had to have her picture taken before dance class. Apparently this is how a dancer poses for pictures! She too was excited about what she was wearing. (It IS all about the clothes you know!!) She loved everthing about dance. Her teacher, Miss Valerie, the ballet bar, the sound of her tap shoes on the wooden floor....all of it! She's asked me everyday since last Wednesday if she goes to dance today!! She was so happy when she asked today and I told her she goes tomorrow. She's already planning which of her new leotards she's wearing!

And of course, not to be left out...is Mandy! You can tell by the picture below that she isn't about to be left out of ANYTHING!! I threw this picture in because I think she looks so cute wearing her brothers old clothes and her Harry Potter disguise!

Kindergarten

Grace's kindergarten teacher sent us some pictures of Grace's class as they studied the book "Chica Chica Boom Boom" at school today. They searched all over the school for clues.Grace is the letter "D" in the center of the above picture.
This is of Grace in the reading center.

They are both LOVING school. Tomorrow evening we have first grade parent orientation.

It rained here today. For most of the morning. A steady rain. Mandy was quite mystified by it, since I'm not sure that it's occured during her lifetime. It was also under 100 degrees here today for the first time in something like 28 days. Hallelujah.

Blessings,
Leslie

New pictures!

I finally took the kids to have their picture made together. I know when they are grown I'm gonna wish I'd taken them to have their portraits made more, but I have to say that right NOW, I'd rather have strait pins shoved under my fingernails. It's torture...first you have to find outfits for all three that coordinate, then you don't DARE dress them before you leave the house, so you have to get there 20 minutes before your appointment time to dress everyone. Then there's the painfully slow, stressful moments of having to keep everyone "picture perfect" while they set up the backgrounds....the remainder of the shoot is spent posing Thomas and Grace and at the last possible second setting Mandy down and the photographer trying to capture all three of them smiling simultaneously in the split second before Mandy screams and runs off. Like I said....torture. Nevertheless....Maggie the Miracle Worker managed to get a couple of really good shots...

Not sure why I shared all that with you, other than, I guess I want you to REALLY appreciate these pictures!!!

Blessings,

Leslie

Day Two!

Well, it appears that school is just as exciting the second day as the first! They are so good at getting up in the morning and getting ready for school. Neither complains or drags their feet. I walked them into their classrooms again this morning, but I think that tomorrow I may let them try going in on their own. Thomas is good about walking Grace to her classroom and then going on to his. We'll see.

Yesterday after school I took Grace and signed her up for dance lessons. She'll go every Wednesday from 3:45-5:00. It's a combo class--tap, ballet, jazz and tumbling. She is SOOOOOO excited! I took her today and bought her ballet and tap shoes. She wore the ballet slippers all afternoon. I'll post her picture here tomorrow afterwards.

Scott took Thomas yesterday evening and signed him up for karate. He starts Thursday evening.

Thomas had fun going to P.E. for the first time today. His buddy Sean, our friends Erin and Larry's little boy, is going to school at Hartman this year. They don't have the same teacher, but are both in first grade. They get to see each other at P.E. and on the playground.

Grace said she had a good day and got in the car grinning from ear to ear. After we got Thomas we went for haircuts. We have a new kids place here that we tried for the first time today. Grace LOVED it since after they cut her hair they took her back and gave her a manicure. The whole place is painted lime green, hot pink and has zebra stripes everywhere! Thomas liked it too, because he got to sit on a Harley while she cut his hair!

Blessings,

Leslie

Back to School!!

It's that time again! They were both so excited they couldn't stand it. When I woke Thomas up this morning he said,"This is how I feel when you wake me up to go to the deer lease!" We had gone on Friday to find out whose classes they were in and to meet their teachers. Thomas' 1st grade teacher is Mrs. Packard, and Grace has Mrs. Moore again. Mrs. Moore moved up from PreK to Kindergarten this year. Grace was so excited to have her again!

They all had school PJ's last night, that mom had made them.

We walked them in this morning and they went right into their classes. When we left Scott said,'Well for the 2nd year in a row, you were the only one that cried." And, for the record, I didn't really "cry," I was just a bit teary. This was at Kindergarten orientation, Grace is on the back row with Gretta next to her!

After school, they were both exhausted. Thomas enjoyed eating in the cafeteria for the first time, but said he would like to take his lunch tomorrow, because "there aren't very many choices." He's most excited to go to P.E. and Music. Grace fell asleep in the car and again on the couch after we got home! We met Greg, Annette, Gretta and Trevor for supper at Culver's to celebrate!

'till next year...

It's always so hard to leave and head back home. We got up this morning about 7-ish and finished packing and loading the car. We finally got off about 10:00. Jason and Cathy were headed back to Dallas to meet the youth group from their church for a trip to Six Flags, so we all stayed together until San Marcos. About 4:00 after looking around the outlet mall together with everyone, we said our goodbyes and headed on to Austin. We stopped at out hotel long enough to check in and get our stuff up to the room before heading off to meet Scott's parents and a family friend for dinner at the Macaroni Grill. After dinner I took the kids swimming in the indoor pool while Scott put Mandy to bed. Tomorrow Scott has a meeting in the morings then we are meeting Sue and Allan for lunch. After that we are heading home!

Here are a few more pics from our great week at the beach:

Grace and Mandy sitting on the balcony staring out at the water.This is one of my favorites from the week...Thomas looking too cool in his surfer shirt! Mandy loved the beach, she would run right into the water and sit down.

Parker looking cool in his new surfer shirt!

Blessings,

Leslie