Christmas in July June

Some people love Christmas. I mean, really LOVE Christmas. The celebrating, the decorations, the lights, the gifts, the music, the food...I can understand it. And then there are those who are obsessed with Christmas. Sam definitely falls into the latter category. He feels that Christmas is so great that it should be talked about all year long. Christmas music? In his mind it should be played any time-why limit it to December? The day after Christmas is always the most depressing day of the year for him, as he says, "Now it's 364 days until next Christmas!" At least every day after that is a good one, because it's one day closer.

So this year my adorable husband began a new tradition in our home. We celebrate HC, or Half Christmas. The typical 'Christmas in July' thing is no good for us though....why celebrate in July when June is actually the half-way point? :)

The kids were quite surprised to wake up to this on June 25th...

We set up a small tree in the living room (of course not the big one, it's only half Christmas!), had white powdered donuts for breakfast, played Christmas songs on Pandora, and had a blast.

Sam read the kids The Night Before Christmas...

And then we opened presents. It was extra special this year; not only was it the first Half-Christmas celebration in our family, but we got to share it with my mom and Jim! They were here for the weekend, and Sam worked it out so they could be a part of it all too.
One of the gifts Mom and Jim brought was matching Old Navy flag t-shirts...so of course we had to get a group picture!

Happy Half-Christmas to you! Only six more months to go! :)

Henry's 8th Birthday

My little cowboy turned 8 this year! I can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone? When Henry was just little (maybe a year and a half old) I made him a cowboy costume, complete with cowhide-print chaps and vest. Way back then, we never dreamed that the cute little cowpoke would grow into a REAL Texas cowboy as the years went on.

This year (as in year's past) Henry decided he wanted a cowboy themed birthday, so we invited all of his friends to get duded up and come on out for a hoe-down.

We set up the party underneath our camper canopy. I threw hay down on the ground, put out folding tables with red-checked tablecloths, decorated with cowboy boots and black eyed-susan's found around the house, and hung 'wanted' posters around the area. Party favors included cowboy hats and bandanas. Our neighbor (who happens to be a cowboy!) brought his guitar over and played a little poem for Henry during cake time.

It was so much fun! The kids all had a blast. As Henry requested, we had a cactus cake with vanilla ice cream...

We decorated with some 'real' cactuses (cacti?) too...as you can see, Henry poked himself on one of the extra sharp needles. LOL. What a comedian.

My wonderful sister-in-law spent a day with me cutting up and painting old appliance boxes (acquired from the very helpful people at Lowe's) to make what Henry dubbed "Cowboy Town."

And of course there was a jail! I think that was the most popular area during the party. There was always some poor child being hauled off to jail. Here the boys are pretty proud to have arrested their sister for one reason or another.

The kids had a blast! We missed out on some of the cousins being able to come because grandkids camp was scheduled to start the same day as Henry's party. As you can see though, there was no shortage of fun kids at the party!

Happy Birthday Henry D! We love you so much and we're very proud of the cowboy you're growing up to be! :)

Spring 2011 Sports

Spring sports are always so fun...this year Henry played soccer for the Jayhawks again. His coaches (Coach Dave and Coach Lyle) are so incredible, patient, loving guys. They really make being a part of their team fun. And all of their hard work paid off...this year the Jayhawks won every single game they played!!! The kids were all pretty pleased to be on an undefeated team.

Henry is the one in blue, kicking in a goal. He had quite a few goals this year and was one of the leading scorers for his team.

2011 Spring Jayhawks
(Coach Dave, Jayden, Quinton, Cody, ?, Kaylee, Tyler, Brett, Dillon, Henry, Bella, Kiana, Coach Lyle)
Jonah was back in action on the t-ball field this spring. Jonah just adores the game of baseball. He loves every little part about it and gets so excited about every practice and game.

During a few games this year, Jonah got to play catcher. While I don't think that is his favorite position (it requires paying attention to where the ball is ALL the time, and that is pretty difficult!), he really enjoyed wearing the 'gear' for it.
Jonah's hitting really improved this year. While last season he struggled with sometimes hitting the tee, this year Jonah whacked the ball right out into the infield every time! It was really great to see the fruit of all his hard work practicing.
The highlight of the games, of course, is the sno-cone. What a way to cool down! :)
We are blessed to live in an area that offers fun, family-friendly sports for our kids to participate in, and we are so grateful for the coaches and officials who donate so much of their time to make it all happen!

Mom's Visit

My mom has lived in another state ever since my kids started sports. While we still get to see her quite a bit, we had never quite worked it out for her to visit during a sports season. So this year she made a point to plan a visit during one of Henry's soccer games and one of Jonah's t-ball games. And we actually were able to time it around homeschool-day at Six Flags Over Texas and take my mom on some roller coasters while she was here!

The kids knew we were picking up Grandma and then going to do something 'fun' but they had no idea that the fun thing would be Six Flags! They were so excited. We picked up Grandma from the airport and headed straight there. We got there just as they were opening the gates, so we stood in line a few minutes and then headed in!

There were plenty of photo opportunities...

...some scary (but awesome) roller coasters...
....and lots of family-friendly rides too. Jon and Kelly, Jordan and Matthew met us there too, so we had a big ol' group to hang out with at the park. It was warm but not too hot, and we all had a blast!
My mom had a great time cheering on the boys at their respective games. Henry showed off by scoring a goal or two for Grandma. ;)
And Jonah was just proud as could be that Grandma came all the way out to Texas just to watch him play.

She spent some time getting to know our sweet baby donkey, Smokey. Mom loved the donkey...how could you not? She is just the sweetest thing, all fluff and cuddles.
We had such a great visit! I love getting to spend time with my mom.

Henry got his new puppy while Grandma was here, so we spent some time at the park with her. The weather was just about perfect the whole time she was here. We took the kid's bikes and rode around the lake, which is where I snapped this great picture:
Thanks for the visit, Mom! It meant so much to the boys to have you see them play their sports, and we had so much fun at Six Flags, playing Ticket to Ride, hanging out and talking. Love you!

Fishing

Sam works at a ranch that has a great lake on the property. The camp uses it for all sorts of water activities (boating, jet-skiing, water slides, etc...), but to Sam, it's greatest benefit is the fishing!

Sam recently took us all out in the boat for an afternoon of fishing. It was planned to be a date-day for just Sam and me but our babysitter canceled at the last minute. It wasn't too disappointing as we just easily made it into a family day!

Sam has taken the boys one at a time and together, but this was our first outing all together. The funny thing was that Bridget was REALLY nervous about being in a boat. We spend a lot of time during the summer at the lake and we are often in and out of boats, but I guess Bridget has avoided any boat time for the last few summers. She didn't want to get in, and when the boat started moving she started screaming. It was kinda funny, but it just made me realize we need to get her out there more often.

Sam rigged me up with two lures on one line...and I caught two fish at once! That was definitely the highlight of my day. :)

Bridget didn't catch anything because she wasn't really interested in fishing, but she did hold a fish that someone else caught. She is so brave when it comes to creepy-crawly or slimy things.

Jonah had quite a few bites and brought a couple fish into the boat. He is by far our most patient fisherman.
Henry got a few bites as well. He loves fishing because it's something he can do with his dad. He's a little less patient, but I think it's just because he doesn't like to be still. :)The weather was beautiful, the fish were biting and it was a perfect day!

Easter Week Camping at Beaver's Bend

This Easter, we continued our tradition of celebrating by going camping. We gathered up our closest friends (Dave & MaryBeth, and Jon & Kelly), packed up some food and our bikes, and headed North to Oklahoma! It was dark-thirty by the time we got there, so Sam and Jon had to park the campers without the benefit of daylight. Dave and MaryBeth had gotten there a little earlier and were already set up, so they helped wrangle the kids while we got everything settled.

Jon enjoys cooking over the campfire, so he was our designated camp-cook. He provided the best breakfasts for us all every morning...bacon, eggs made to order, toast, potatoes...yum!

We went on a couple of hikes during the week. The area is beautiful and there are trails everywhere we looked. We actually spent most of one day looking for geocaches that Sam had downloaded to his GPS. We had never done that before and found it to be quite fun! There were a few that seemingly led to nowhere (or had been removed) but we did find three or four. The kids weren't sure about the whole thing, but as soon as we found our first 'treasure' they were hooked! Jonah was doggedly determined and was the first to spot at least two of the caches. The treasures inside were various knick-knacks (I think this next picture shows what the kids picked from one of the more bounteous boxes...a bath toy, a sheriff's badge, and a fishing bobber).

We had quite a bit of rain that week, so everything was fairly wet. On this next hike, we had to go off the trail and into the woods because there was a pond blocking our way!

We were very excited to get our bikes out and go on a few family bike rides while we were there! Bridget was very nervous about riding on the back of her daddy's bike at first, but once she realized how fun it is (and how fast they could go!) she thought it was awesome.

On one bike ride down to the park, Dave and I were waiting on Jonah and we were the last ones to leave. Dave started laughing and I looked over to see that he was holding his pedal in his hand! It had fallen right off of his bike. I rode up and got Sam to come back to help. In the mean time, Dave tried to fix it himself:

Look closely, and you might see that there is a problem in the way that he arranged the pedals. Let's just say it was a good thing Sam came back to help! ;)

The rain didn't really slow the kids down any. We made them stay inside while it was pouring or when there was lightning, but otherwise they just continued on as though the weather was perfect. The loop we were staying on was completely empty (except for one poor man staying in a tent--did I mention it POURED???), so the kids made the camp-loop their 'track'. They had so much fun riding around and around on it. Coming down one side was a fairly steep hill, and we would all sit around the camp fire and cringe as we'd watch Bridget and Matthew come flying down that hill with their training wheels flopping on either side. They never had any major crash, so all was well in the end, but I do recall limiting them to only riding up-hill for a while!

It wasn't hot while we were there, but the kids wanted to go swimming anyway. We rode our bikes over to a nice little rocky area where the kids could wade around and play. The braver ones (Sam, Henry and Jonah) swam out a bit and the younger ones stayed closer to shore. It was chilly but fun!

Dave and MaryBeth wanted to head back to town so they could attend the Easter Sunday service at their church, so they left a day before the rest of us did. Before they left though, MaryBeth prepared and treated us to an Easter Seder. We had the traditional passover meal and learned about the reasons for all that was taking place. It was interesting and educational and we all enjoyed it. MaryBeth also led the kids in washing each other's feet, and she helped them to each prepare a set of resurrection eggs to take home to help them remember the Easter story and Jesus' purpose and work on the cross.

Beaver's Bend State Park puts on a great Easter egg hunt every year, and we participated in it again this year. They separate the children by ages, and then dump hundreds of eggs in sectioned off areas of the park. In each area are hidden a number of special tickets that the kids then get to redeem for a stuffed bunny at the end of the hunt. We left with buckets full of candy and three cute stuffed bunnies.

They also have a new nature/visitor center at the park, so we went and visited that after the egg hunt. It was a great place and we spent longer there than we intended to! We were able to snap a group shot with the self-timer while we were there, including everyone except Dave and MaryBeth (because they had already headed home).

It was a wonderful trip! We made a lot of memories and enjoyed God's beautiful creation. We were reminded just how much we love camping! Living in Texas, we don't tend to look forward to camping in the summer anymore...it is just too hot! So this was one of our last trips of the spring, and now we are looking forward to some nice (hopefully cooler) camping in the fall.