August wrap-up and some favorite pics

This summer has been trying but fun to say the least. Just when I finally get used to school being out, temper tantrums all day long and screaming kids, everything changes. The kids start back to Mother's Day Out/Preschool tomorrow and I will start a part-time/from home, contract position on Sept 8. I'm looking forward to having extra cash so I can start traveling more with the kiddos.

I can't believe Claire is almost 5. How the time flies. She is so much like her daddy but is a mamma's girl. She loves a routine, thrives on order but is bossy as can be. She is always telling her sisters how to play, what to play with and where. I'm not sure if that is because she's the oldest but the other girls sort of just go along... off the subject but today Claire told me "mommie, will you just hold me and make me warm and comfortable?" I am so blessed.

Meggie loves to do exactly what I ask her not to do. She is sly, sly, sly... the other day my mom took her to Target and she was standing up in the basket. My mom told her to sit down because mommie said she didn't ever want her standing up because she would fall and hurt herself. Meg's comment back to my mom was "But, my mommie is not here!" That will tell you her thought process at almost 4 years old! Meggie has the sweetest spirit. She loves the chickens and will spend forever chasing and carrying them around. She gets so excited about such small things. I just love that about her and want her to never lose that joy. She still comes in our bed every night and sneaks in so we don't wake up and send her back to her room. She openly admits the fact that she sneaks so we don't wake up. She snuggles right next to daddy and stays there until he leaves for work. Such daddy's girl. I usually wake up in the morning with a foot or elbow in my eye.

And Emma, I can't believe she is just like the others now. Carrying on such big sentences and so sweet. She's forever telling me "mommie, i like your shirt," "mommie, I like your hair," "mommie, I like your pants." Everything about me she likes and to hear her say "mommie, I love you" is just so precious. I read Pinkalicious just about every night because I have a hard time turning her down. She just loves it time and time again and recites it with me as I read.

On another note, we got 3 eggs from our 2 chickens yesterday. I had no idea they could lay more than 1 egg a day. Boy - we hit the jack pot! :) Dan had to take some of the eggs to work last week becuase we had so many and the girls still LOVE to feed them and get the eggs. Today, Emma must have thought they were really hungry because she dumped out the whole container of food. I'm trying to teach her how to ration it a bit. And of course, not to drop the eggs on the way to the refrigerator. I guess practice makes perfect!

Here are a few pictures from this month:

The Truck

This truck has been in pieces - literally - since I met Dan. He has spent hours and hours in his garage rebuilding every little piece of this truck. Well, here it is. 6 years later (not to mention however long he spent on it before I met him) and it's actually starting to look like a truck. In the picture with Dan is the owner of Ornduff Hot Rod shop. He is helping Dan with some final touches. Looking good.

The newest addition to our family....

My mom picked up Danielle at the airport this morning at 2:30am. Her real name sounds like Young Je but I'm not sure how it is spelled. She chose an American name so it will be easy for people here to pronounce. She is from South Korea and will be an exchange student this year at Concordia and I can not believe how well she speaks English. Today my mom and her came over for a late lunch and she was so sweet to bring the kids their first pair of chopsticks. They are "training" chopsticks and have holes for their tiny fingers. Very cute and Meg & Emm had them mastered by the time lunch was over.

Danielle and Meg really bonded today. Meg sat with her on her lap, next to her on the chair and loved taking pictures with her nice camera. It was so cute to watch Meg instantly connect with her. We are looking forward to spending lots of time with her and showing her lots of fun here in Houston.

Welcome to the world Baylee

Today my mom and I visited one of my best friends Jacy who gave birth to Baylee Reese Barnwell on July 30th. It just so happened that she gave birth when I was out of town and so I've really been itching to get over there.

Baylee is so beautiful, about 6lbs and oh so tiny. She was the happiest baby and I just loved how snuggly and sleepy she was. She woke up once and was just yawning and yawning. It brought back all those happy memories from when my gals were that little. For a second I almost thought I wanted another. Kidding... sort of.

Congrats to Larry & Jacy! We love you.

New Braunfels

The day after returning from Galveston, I took a trip with 12 friends to the Guadalupe. We do this yearly and always have so much fun just tubing, drinking water (he, he) and relaxing in the beautiful hill country. The river was low so it was a bit slow, but we still managed to laugh and meet some really strange folks. We met Tarzan. Seriously, I wish so hard I had taken a picture of him. He had on a black Tarzan wig, black speedos and was swinging from some rope screaming loudly like Tarzan does. Seriously.

Some other highlights of the trip:

My friend LeighAnn brought her karaoke machine. Yeah, we have no Carrie Underwood's in the group. Hilarious.

I don't think I have ever laughed so hard until the Tube Rental guy comes to pick up our tubes after floating the river and Nikki decides to open the door and start dancing with the door instead of kindly showing him to our tubes. She proceeded to sing and dance to him all the way down the stairs.

But seriously, at the end of the evening we would lay in our beds & air mattresses and laugh and laugh. Good times!

Galveston

So the girls have been begging to go to the beach this summer. Since we hadn't planned anywhere to take the girls and Jason's girls were coming to visit, we planned a quick trip to Galveston. I haven't been to the beach at Galveston in years and knew it would be pretty dirty. But boy was it dirty! We went Monday through Thursday and if the girls weren't having such a good time, I probably would have turned right around and came home. The water and sand was distgusting. Of course the girls had a ball though. When Claire saw the water she scrunched her nose up and said "oooooohhhh, the water looks like chocolate!"

I thought I had found such a steal on a beachhouse until we got there and found 4 dead roaches on the kitchen floor. They must have decorated the place in 1981 and not changed a thing since. Not too mention they probably hadn't hired a cleaning crew since the 80's either. We laughed it off though and enjoyed ourselves. Mamo bought the game Twister and that was hilarious. Especially the little one's because their little legs couldn't stretch very far.