Trip to Missouri

Since we were within a few hours of my family in Missouri it seemed a bit ridiculous not to drive up and visit, the last time we were there Jocelyn had just turned 1 yrs old. We planned a fun family Sunday with Aunt Patty & Uncle Tim, Grandpa Thomas & Kathy, Aunt Alicia, Brandon and his kiddos,and Breanna and her family. The Mabe family are the Owners of the First Show on Branson, The Baldknobbers. Its a great show and I am so bummed that we didn't have enough time to go and see it, especailly now that tons of my family preform in it. Next time for sure.

Our drive up was great and it was so fun to drive through such familiar areas. We got to my Aunt Patty's around noon. We visited for awhile and enjoyed some lunch with them. My Cousins kids and are kids got along famously and had a blast playing and tearing up my Aunt's house. Around 3ish we said our goodbyes as we wanted to take the kids to see some sites in Missouri.

We drove down towards the Branson area and took the kids to the Talking Rocks Caverns. I remember going to these caves when I was younger and thought it would be fun for the kids. Other than being a little nervous about the height on the way down into the cave Jocelyn enjoyed it. Ethan was in little boy heaven and thought everything was just the coolest thing he had ever seen. Caitlyn did not enjoy being held by daddy the entire time but did seem to enjoy the atmosphere and Preston was just along for the free ride. After the caves our kiddos were completely done so we hopped into the car and headed home.

Other than a few whines and complaints about the long drive it was a wonderful day spent enjoying the area and spending time with family.

Jocelyn turns 7 years old

Usually for birthdays I am completely on top of things and make sure there are plenty of batteries in the camera for pictures. This time I dropped the ball big time, not only did I not have any batteries for the camera but my phone wasn't even charged up so I only managed a few less than fabulous pictures.. so my apologies.

Since Jo was away from the majority of her friends for her birthday we wanted her to extra special. We all got up super early and went to IHOP which is becoming a birthday tradition amongst our kids. In a fun coincidence our good friends the Connellys just happen to be going out to breakfast too so Jo got to eat with her friend Ali. After a yummy breakfast we took Jo to Walmart so she could go pick out her present from daddy. We spent the rest of the day playing at the pool and hanging out with friends.

Again, just like Preston we planned a birthday party for her on Sunday so that Daddy could be there to celebrate. Sunday was a blast we had cake and ice cream. The kids played freeze dance, hot & cold, and a few other games they made up. Jocelyn was completely spoiled by friends yet again and had a wonderful birthday.

It seems so crazy to me that she is now 7 years old, she is such a wonderful big sister and is an amazing helper. She amazes me each day by how much she is growing up and becoming such a beautiful young lady. Her favorite things are barbies and playing mommy. She loves strawberry milk, hard boiled eggs and chips & salsa. She is reading like a champ and getting very good at math. We are so grateful that she came into our lives!

My Baby Turned 1!!

So my itty bitty baby turned one years old. I swear each time the first year goes by so much faster. Since Preston's birthday fell on a Wednesday we had a small family celebration minus Dave and then planned a big one for the following Sunday. Preston was in a great mood and super excited to try his hand at a cupcake for the first time. As you can tell from the pics he wasn't to sure about it, but ended up loving it. He is a joy in our life. The kids adore him and he makes me smile everyday. He hasn't really developed any new tricks other than he has ditched baby food and formula and now eats what we eat and drinks milk. Still working on vocabulary and walking but he is doing great!

So we had a Family & Friends birthday party for Preston on Sunday and I pretty much forgot all about pictures. I am sorry we had fun hanging out with our friends and getting the kids all sugared up. Preston received some great gifts from our friends. He really loved the walker the Force's bought him. We got awesome video of his first test run with it.

Our Place in Arkansas

We moved to Little Rock on the 10th of July. Here are a few pics of our place... Its so nice.


Obviously I need to take more pictures but you get the idea. We lucked out this time and got a nice bottom floor apartment. The two flights of stairs to most of the 3rd floor apartments are killer in this heat.

Our Morning at the Water Park

A few days before we left Tyler we went to this really fun INDOOR waterpark just a few miles outside of town. It had a great kids splash parks, lazy river, wave pool and tons of slides. Jocelyn spent her morning running around with the other girls going from the lazy river to the wave pool. Ethan stayed mostly in the kids splash pad going down the green and blue slide. Caitlyn and Preston hung out with me splashing in the water shooters and in the wave pool. It was so fun, we went early enough that Dave was able to hang out with us for an hour or two before the meeting. Here are a few pictures I managed to take:

Caitlyn's first water slide experience.. she loved the slide part but was a little freaked out by the pool of water at the end... she still hasn't figured out how to stay up with a life jacket on.

Preston really enjoyed splashing the water. He was a little starttled by the Tsunami of water that seemed to happen every 15min or so drenching the entire kids splash pad. It was so fun, glad we were able to go before we left town.

Happy Independence day!!

So our 4th of July started off with a Pancake Breakfast at the Church. They did a cute children's parade but I left the stroller at our apartment and Dave had to leave for his meeting, so we ended up going home after breakfast. We spent the rest of the day laying around by the pool and enjoying the sunshine until it was firework time.

Picture of our little family at the Breakfast.

Around 6-7pm Dave came home and we loaded up the kids to go watch the firework show at Lindsey Park. Evidently this is the show to see each year. It was really hot but there were quite a few clouds so it wasn't unbearable. The kids spent their time running around, playing chase and duck, duck, goose.

Just a little bit before sundown the clouds went from nice fluffy white to black... we could see tons of lightening and heavy rain in the distance but had our fingers crossed that it would stay away so we could watch the fireworks.

Right around 9pm the local police came on the intercom and asked everyone to head to their cars because the lightening in the area was too dangerous. It was pretty interesting to see a huge crowded field of people clear out in under 15 minutes. When we got to our car we decided that we'd rather take the kids to get ice cream and watch fireworks on tv than sit around and wait for the series of storms to pass. It worked out great just after we got our ice cream we drove home and noticed the large development across the street was just wrapping up its firework show. We parked in the clubhouse parking lot with our kiddos and watched the rest of the show.

It was really awesome to see natural fireworks (aka- lightening) along with real fireworks... Made my day for sure.


Here is a video of the finale from that fireworks show across the street.

"Ketchup" Time

Here are some pictures and a video from the end of June before I add all the fun things we have done in July.

Just in case we forgot we are in TEXAS... land of Big bugs this very nasty cockroach decided to remind us... He was HUGE and super fast. Honestly, I will kill most bugs but when they run at me.. well it becomes a job for Dave.

Preston trying his hand at diced carrots... not a huge fan...YET!

So I had promised Jo that we would have a mommy daughter day a little while ago.. but with traveling and such we had been so busy. I finally became good on my promise. Jocelyn and I went with a few of the other moms and daughters out here to IHOP for breakfast. Then we had a quick pedicure before the Dad's had to leave for work and could no longer watch the other kids. Jocelyn loves getting all girlie, we had so much fun.

Preston finally figured out how to clap!! YAY!!