finally... the zoo

i kicked caleb out of his "nap room" so that i could finally get these pictures up as promised. sorry it has taken so long.... you don't even want to know what our schedule has looked like the last 10 days. however, despite it all.... here are the zoo pics. as a refresher - we went to the zoo on easter weekend with lance's parents and the kids. the following pics are just a few highlights of a really great afternoon!

this was probably our favorite moment... caleb recognized the rhinos (he sleeps with a stuffed rhino named crash and it is his world). he was soo excited to see this rhino and kept waving, smiling, and repeating Ra Ra Ra for the word rhino. So cute!!

this was his first time to the zoo and he just soaked in every animal and every sounds... he loved it. i think this picture was when he was watching the monkeys... but really he had this face all day so it doesn't matter!

here is the girls taking a break... you can see that karen and i are grateful and allie is irritated that we stopped.

another cute moment was when this precious giraffe kept peaking at us over the fence. caleb really wanted to touch him!

we put a quarter in the machines so that we could buy some fish food. allie loved watching the fish eat, but caleb was not happy that we kept throwing it in the water.... he thought it was a snack!

this is allie watching the fish... we laughed at her because she would run by animals that she hasn't seen much without so much as a nod, but the fish captured her attention for a while! silly girl!

thanks for a fun time at the zoo grammie and poppy! we love you!

***blog to look forward to: backyard overhaul!***

baby hudson!

i had a fast trip to austin on sunday. my friend, ashley, and i met up in corsicana and then drove on to see ashley (yes, they are both ashleys... it's fun) the purpose for the trip was the cutest bundle of joy named hudson. we were able to visit and meet him for the first time! here is a picture of their adorable family and of the four of us. it is hard to imagine that just ten years ago we were just college students working together at pine cove and now we are all happily married and have four great kids between us... WOW! God has been good... really good!

** those zoo pics will come soon, i promise... we just have to stop doing fun things until i can get to it!

ncaa, family, and fun!!

we headed to simonton for a visit with the folks before camp begins (it is fast approaching!) and it didn't hurt that my dad had tickets to the ncaa finals in houston. lance really enjoyed going to the games!

we were also able to take advantage of the amazing pool and outdoor kitchen that my parents have just completed. we spent the afternoon swimming and then ate dinner outside. upon putting allie to bed, she said, "mommy, i've fun at pool and at da picnic" while grinning really big. this was the first time we've ever seen her reflect on something at the end of a day... pretty cool!

sidenote: sadly, you won't see any pics with my parents in them... i don't know what happend. i will say that we've had some really bad luck with sickness... as my dad was sick all weekend and didn't get much time with the kids... that is twice now on the grandparent front!

the kids also enjoyed dancing on the trailor and swinging on the swing in the back yard. and, just like every other grandchild in the family, we could not keep caleb off the tractor. he, however, was a very serious tractor driver!

we were also able to swing by lance's aunt and uncle's house for a quick visit with them and lance's grandmother (affectionately refered to as gigi... for great grandma). they have a lovely home and the kids enjoyed sticking their feet in the pool and playing with the dog!

here are a few pics of gigi! isn't she stunning! she is a great example of living to the fullest well into life! we love her LOTS!