July 4th

We had a great time celebrating America's birthday this year!  We spent a couple of days with Wade's parents in East Texas and then we went to the lake for the 4th.  Wade's Aunt and Uncle have an awesome lake house and they were kind to invite us to spend the day with them.  It was so fun!  Thanks, Joe & Kimi for hosting us!

The lake was really low, so there was a little "beach" area by the docks.  It made for a fun set up.  :)

 Wade took Owen on a short, slow jet ski ride.  He said that O didn't love it...  He was much happier swimming by the shore and chillaxin'.  ;)

 Clayton was a big fan of the water sports.  No surprise there.  :)

Drew liked the jet ski and tubing as well.

 We took a boat ride after lunch and Baby Boy got really still....

 Then fell fast asleep.  Bless his heart.

After the sun went down, it was time for the fireworks to begin!  We had our own little pyrotechnics team - Wade, Uncle Joe, Paul, and Clayton.

It was a fun Independence Day!  We are so blessed to live in the U.S.A.!

Owen's First Haircut

Owen got his first haircut on June 30th.  It was the last of his "baby" milestones.  Sniff, sniff.  He was bald for soooo long - even in his pictures from Christmas he barely has any hair.  When he did get hair, he had the sweetest ringlets.  I just couldn't cut them.  But... as time went on, it got pretty scraggly and multiple strangers referred to him as "she" and "her."  ;)  So, I finally got up the nerve to call my hair stylist to ask if she would cut it.  She has been cutting my hair for 5 years and she has a baby boy that is 5 months older than Owen.  He has long hair, so I knew that she wouldn't whack all of his hair off.  :)

A few "before" pictures

Drew had been teaching him to say, "Goodbye, curls!"  Ugh - dagger in the heart of their Mama.  :(  They both thought it was hilarious to watch me fake cry when they said it.  Once we got to the salon, Owen wasn't laughing any more.  This is his "Hold the phone!  What's going on here?" look.  Ha!

 Ms. Kim let O sit in my lap while she cut his hair.

 A few of the pieces were really long!  This is the first snip...

 And the "after"...

Ms. Kim did such a good job of making it look less straggly, but kept some of the curls.  I was really happy with how she did it.  I am sure that the curls will get chopped at the next haircut, but I needed to ease into it.  I'm happy to get to hang on to my baby's curls for a bit longer.  :)

Happy 4th of July!

Critter Camp 2013

Back in May, I heard about a camp that is held in one of the local junior high schools for elementary students.  The biology teacher at that school started the camp years ago to teach kids about animals.  He loves animals and has literally hundreds of them!  He has tarantulas, bearded dragons, blue tongued skinks, mexican king snakes, Russian tortoise, cockatiels, parrots, chinchillas, ferrets, rabbits, hamsters, rats, African pigmy headgehogs, etc.  The mom that told me about the camp raved about it.  I told Leah about it as well, and we lovingly nicknamed it Critter Camp.  ;)

We decided to sign up Maggie & Clayton for the last week in June.  Then we recruited Leah's niece and nephew as well.  Such a cute little group of campers...

The kids spent the week learning about all different kinds of animals - snakes, mammals, birds, insects, lizards, turtles, etc.  They learned about their habitats, diets, mannerisms, etc.  They also got to interact with them and feed them.  They even dissected a squid.  Pretty cool!

Thursday was the grand finale day when the kids were declared Junior Caretakers and they got to "check out" an animal for the weekend.  They had filled out their preferences and the parents had to sign the form.  I knew that Clayton had requested a Ball Python as his first choice.  After discussing it with Wade, I reluctantly signed the form.  I thought it would be a tiny snake that would stay in its cage the entire time.  It couldn't be that bad, right?

Clayton was ecstatic at noon on Thursday to tell me that he would be able to take Diamond the Ball Python home for the weekend.  I did not share his excitement.  ;)

I walked into the school to see what we were in for.  I had heard all about Rosie the Burmese Python.  Clayton told me that she was 14 feet long and she hung out in a baby pool in the hallway.  I was certain that he was mistaken.

Notsomuch.

By this point I was sweating it a bit.  Just how big would our snake be?  The teenage helpers lead us back to where the animals were.  Drew liked this huge turtle (tortoise???).

 Then they showed us Diamond, our pet for the week.  What a surprise - she was much bigger than I expected and they assured me that Clayton could play with her as much as he wanted and she would not bite him.  She is a "code green" animal.  IDK.

We took Diamond home and Clayton was in hog heaven.  He carried her around all weekend and even sat with her in his lap while he was watching TV.  Yowsa.  I kept a safe distance and refused all of Clayton's offers to touch Diamond/hold her.  No way, Homie.  Not this girl.

 The backpack hold

I became kind of desensitized to Diamond by the end of the week.  She just kinda hung out - nothing too exciting.  She didn't stink at all and only pottied a tiny bit in her cage.  Clayton loved her and was sad to take her back to the school this morning.  

Just before we dropped her off, I decided to play cool mom and hold Diamond.  I'm pretty sure that Clayton has never loved me more.  Ha!  He snapped a quick picture and then I dumped Diamond back in her cage and frantically looked for antibacterial wipes.  ;)

Clayton LOVED the experience and we will definitely sign up again next year.  I'm just going to start praying now that he chooses something that isn't covered in scales.  ;)

13th Anniversary

Wade & I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on June 24th.  It seems like an eternity ago that we stood at the alter...  We were so young and totally clueless.  ;)

There is a sweet couple at our church that had a reception last weekend to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  I was congratulating the wife and telling her what an wonderful example she & her husband are to Wade & I.  She said, "Honey, it wasn't always easy.  There were times when I wanted to shoot him, and I am sure that he felt the same way about me at times.  But, we both knew that we were never going to give up.  Just keep God as your number 1 priority and your husband 2nd, and you'll do just fine."  Good advice from a sweet lady.

I have pictures from every anniversary to document how we celebrated.  This year, our anniversary fell on a Monday.  We had just celebrated on a dinner date on Saturday night, so we opted to make dinner at home on Monday night.  Wade was planning to miss his softball game, which was very sweet.  But, it seemed silly to sit at home when we could be at the ball fields with our friends.  So, I told Wade he should play.  We all went and had a good time.

When we got back home, I bathed the boys and put them to bed while Wade made a delicious dinner.  We ate on our china and talked.  It was a lovely evening.

We have had so many peaks and valleys over the last 13 years...  What a wild ride it has been!  I know that God made us for each other, and I know that one day we will be the couple that is celebrating our Golden Anniversary and giving out marriage advice.  :)