Lucy's Pictures

A few months ago we went to see my brother Sam and his wife Lucy. We took the kids to a park in their neighborhood and Lucy took some great pictures. She just now emailed me a few and I think she did such a great job. It is crazy to see how Kate's hair has changed in that short amount of time. Not much but still enough to notice. :)

My Baby Girl

My friend Lindsey gave me a CD last night with pictures that she took when she came to visit Kate in the hospital right after she was born. All of the pictures just make my heart melt. There is nothing like the precious face of a newborn sleeping. It is crazy to see how much Kate has changed in this short time.



Kate blesses my life every day. We were so excited to have a baby girl and get to experience all things girly. I wasn't sure if I could do it since I had Luke first and boy was all I knew. But, so far it has been so much fun raising a girl. Just wanted to post a few of the pictures from the CD. Thanks Lindsey!







You may be wondering why she is wearing a gymnastics leotard in the next few pictures. I found her one at a garage sale and so I tried it on her today. It was a little big but still pretty cute. She gave me some cute poses.

Look at those chunky legs!

This is Kate's new trick. She likes to wink. Pretty impressive for a 17 month old!

This is her other obsession. Her Belly Button. She is trying to put her finger in her belly button but she can't because of her leotard. I am not kidding when I say I think it is a security object. Hopefully she won't take that one to Kindergarten!

Luke's 3rd Birthday

Luke turned 3 last weekend. I still can't believe it. He is turning into a little boy right in front of our eyes. He brings such joy to our lives and is such a special little guy. There are lots of things that I want to remember about Luke being this age but here are just a few:


-His smile melts my heart. I honestly look at my kids every day and get a little misty eyed. What an honor to be their mom.

-When he sings "I could sing of your love forever" in the car. To hear words of praise for our Lord come out of his mouth is absolutely precious.

-He loves anything about music. All the instruments. He loves to play the air guitar, air fiddle and plays the drums on anything he can find. Very cute yet the drums a little annoying at times :)

-He tries to imitate most things that we say (even if we don't want him too)

-I love when we go in to get Kate from her crib every morning and he is so excited. He always says, "Hey, Kate Girl!"

-His obsession with the Wiggles or Blues Clues. Every paw print that he sees in the world is a blues clue.

-He is so loving with his words and loves to cuddle.

-When he asks for something that he wants he answers before we can with "In a minute" This is his way of guaranteeing that it will happen at some point.

I could probably sit here all day and type about Luke. I can't wait to see what this next year brings and all of the fun new things that we will learn about him.

We had his party at The Jump Around. He loves to jump and we really enjoyed getting to visit with everyone. Here are the highlights:

Luke and Ella hugging.

Meredith, Me, Leah, Brooke

My mom and me and the kids

Meredith and Kate

Sis in law Tara, mom, Lindsey
Granna attempting the slide(notice Luke's face)

Me and my brother Sam
This is Lucy's attempt to go down. Don't really know what happened there. Cracks me up everytime I see it.
Here they are at the end of the fall. I love how Kate Looks.




Gig telling Luke where to go.

So excited he is about to blow out the candle

He finally got to blow out the candle. At every party we go to he has gotten upset that he didn't get to blow out the candle. This time it was his turn!

Happy Birthday Lukers!!!!!

Toilet Fun and Deda's Party

OK. I was going to write a post about Luke's 3rd birthday party which was this past weekend but Blogger is being weird and only let me upload these pictures and no more. Guess I will try later. So, here is what is going on in these pics.

This is Kate's friend Macie. She came over the other day and her mom and I were talking. Macie started calling out to her mama. This is what we found. I love how Kate is really excited about what has happened. She probably told Macie to do it. Kate has a fascination with toilets so this was a great day for her.

Last week we went over to John's grandfather's house to celebrate his 91st birthday. He is such a wonderful man and I feel so blessed that Luke and Kate have gotten to meet their Great Grandfather. Here are all of the great grandchildren that were there.
Here is Deda and "The Boys"

Hair issues

Today Luke got his hair cut and the lady saw Kate and asked if she could put pig tails in her hair. I was excited that she was going to show me how to do it. Some of you may be thinking, how hard can it be, but for me it is a challenge. The lady did it so easy. Kate's hair is still a little short so it isn't the cutest style for her just yet. I didn't get a picture of before but I just had to get one after I took them out. Too funny.

Luke wanted to show off his hair cut also. He LOVES getting his hair cut these days. What more could he ask for. He gets to sit in the toy car while watching the Wiggles and then gets a sucker when he leaves. That makes it a little more pricey for me but I will definitely pay the extra money for a less stressful trip anyday!

4th of July

This year we went to Junction with John's parents to celebrate the 4th. They have a cabin there that they take care of for one of Bishop's close friends so we stayed there. It is right on the river and is really a neat place. We did lots of fishing and swimming and also enjoyed a fireworks show at Junction Lake. It was a great show that the kiddos were enjoying in the beginning but all it took was one huge boom and they were both crying. It was pretty funny. We finally calmed them down and they sort of enjoyed them. O-well. Maybe next year.

Screened in back porch.

Luke loves to watch Gig play music.

Once Luke got his hands on the guitar he didn't want to start. He was pretty good at strumming.

I love this picture of John and Luke's hands.

This was Luke's highlight of the trip. Obsessed with the Mule.

This was John's highlight of the trip. A 40 lb catfish!!! It was the biggest I had ever seen with my own eyes. It was as tall as Luke. Crazy!

Sorry for so many pics. I tried to narrow them down! Happy 4th!

Horseshoe Bay Trip

The past two weekends we spent at Horseshoe Bay. My Aunt Gayla lives down there and my Grandma and Aunt Sandy flew in from California to see everybody. The first weekend just my mom and I and the kids went. We went down there because we were going to bring Grandma and Sandy back to Abilene for a week. The next weekend everyone went including husbands and Sam and Lucy also came in. It was great to get to see everyone. We only see my mom's family from California about once a year so it is always a treat. They are some neat ladies. My mom has 3 sisters and a brother so not everyone got to come. My cousin Michelle and her kids were there along with my cousin Maury and his kids. Here are some pictures:

Aunt Gayla, Cousin Michelle, Me, Aunt Sandy, Grandma, My mom

(Each sibling in my mom's family is spaced 5 years apart yet they all look so young. My Aunt Gayla is 67 and my Aunt Sandy is 62. My mom is 52. They definitely don't look it. All of them try to stay young)


John and Kate at a street dance in Burnet


Relaxing in the Hammock

Kate starting to throw a little fit at the pool. She has become quite the outspoken one!

Just a cute pic of Kate


Kate eating Sand

Luke dancing with 3rd cousins at the street dance. Luke loved it. He is totally in awe of bands.


Family after dance


Aunt Lucy throwing Luke at the pool

Luke ready to jump in


All the kids after Merrick's b-day party


Sam and my dad

Sam and I. Sam was cheesin' a little bit :)