In Words.

I've mostly been mobile blogging lately; it is so much easier to upload pictures straight to the blog that way. But it is more difficult to write an entry on my phone. So I'll try to go back a few weeks and put our life into words!Monday, August 1 -- my mom and I had lunch with a dear high school friend who was in town for a short visit from Arizona. My mom and her mom used to work together and Melissa and I were in drill team together. We were also roommates for a short time while she was in CRNA school, and I was working at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. I still CANNOT believe I failed to get a picture of us together -- she is pregnant with her first baby and is glowing! We had a lovely lunch.

Friday August 5 -- I met a Houston friend at the high school to pick up Dade and Luke's friend, Landry. We played at Oakley's house for a while before football practice. Both boys spent the night with us -- they all went to sleep rather quickly after I mentioned that the first asleep would find a surprise under their pillow in the morning (they each got a small LEGO kit). We awoke early, dropped Wyatt off at my parents', took Audrey to the Goforths' and were on our way to LEGOLAND! When we arrived and got in line, we were told the wait was THREE HOURS until we would get in! The boys all did a FABULOUS job waiting! It was only 2 1/2 hours until we were allowed to go in; there were windows into Legoland to look through, a huge tub of Legos to play with and a movie to watch when we got to the front of the line. We spent several hours inside playing and exploring, watching Bob the Builder in 4D, building race cars and riding the rides. Dinner was Firehouse Subs and we headed home. Although the day was long, it was a LOT of FUN! Wyatt enjoyed his day at Gran and Big Daddy's and Audrey was pampered in Tyler (ate a chocolate chip pancake at the Egg and I, got her toe nails painted, stuffed a purple cat, Sugar, dressed her in a Rapunzel dress and silver shoes at Build A Bear, and watched her new Strawberry Shortcake DVD).

Football practice began for both boys. The schedule has changed a little from week to week but pretty much Tuesday and Thursday nights are spent at the little league field. They are both LOVING it! Dade moved up to tackle this year and since Luke decided not to play last year, this is his first and last year of flag. Tommy is, of course, assisting coach both teams.

Monday, August 8 - Friday the 12th -- Both boys went to day camp at Discovery Science Place. Luke went to Lego camp and Dade was in storybook science (they read a variety of books all week then completed a project/craft related to the book). They had a GREAT time and I hardly knew what to do with myself with only TWO kids from nine until four everyday! We stayed most of the week with the Goforths since camp was only a few minutes down the road from their house and an hour drive from ours.
We have started back to school "full-time" -- we continued over the summer with reading and math and are now back to five days a week of our full curriculum. Audrey asks to do her "schoolwork" when the boys are working -- she has learned almost all her letters and wants to know how to spell EVERYTHING! The other day she asked me how to spell her friend Abraham's name. As soon as I finished spelling it for her she said, "why does he have three a's in his name?" She is soaking it all in so I am now spending concentrated time with her and starting to teach her to read.

Wyatt is a little parrot -- in word and action! One of his favorite words to say right now is football! He loves to use sidewalk chalk, pencils, crayons, and markers just like the others. And he LOVES to read. He loves salsa -- he would literally eat it with a spoon if we would let him. He can climb up onto our bed, he jumps off the end table onto the couch, attempts to hop on one foot and loves to play chase.

Tommy had his first closing last Friday! Everything went really smoothly and the sweet family loves their home! I am SO incredibly proud of him!

ELO (with our homeschool co-op) and KIDZ LIFE (at church) both start next Wednesday! I will be co-teaching High School Chemistry Wednesday mornings and will find out tonight which age/grade I will be helping with on Wednesday nights.

Season Opener.

On the road to Jefferson for Purple's first game!

Butterfly Princess.

Dances With Wolves.

Squanto.

Reading time.

Braids.

Audrey's drawing & writing.

"Audrey" and "m" (mom).

Having a ball!

Audrey and Miss E

Reach!

Staying cool in the pool.

This, too, shall pass...

Dade has a little obsession with making paper airplanes these days! He enjoys making them in all sizes and shapes. I had to laugh when I found one last night made from a Dove chocolate candy wrapper!

Huddle.

Dade had his first tackle football scrimmage tonight! He did GREAT!

Dirty boy!

Tree frog!

Visiting.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Rapunzel.

TOUGH!

Firehouse Subs.

Waiting!

Settling in.

Flag.

Luke has his first night of flag football practice tonight!

Tackle.

Dade has his first night of TACKLE football practice tonight!

Hummer.

This little guy was in our garage today and was unable to fly. I mixed up some sugar water and Tommy helped me get it into a shoe box. We brought it inside and in less than an hour we had an escape flying around the kitchen! Tommy caught him again, and we took him outside so he could fly home.

Getting a drink.

My rose.

My SWEET Luke bought me this rose when we were at the grocery store the other day! When we walked past the flowers, he asked me if I wanted a dozen roses. I told him he was very kind and thoughtful to offer but that they were $12 and I did not want him spending his money on me. Then he noticed the single roses; he asked me how much they were. They were priced at five dollars. He asked if I would like one. I told him I love roses but did not want him to spend his money on it. He still wanted to get one for me and asked which color I would like. They were all beautiful so I let him pick. He had the most precious gleam in his eye when he handed me this BEAUTIFUL purple rose! My eyes began to water and I fought back tears in the store. Luke has THE KINDEST heart. I pray that his giving spirit will never fade.