Our Lazy Summer

I am a horrible person that must just not love my family. For I have not posted one single picture in quite some time. Please forgive me, I do love all my family, and friends who humor me with looking at our virtual photo albums online. I will catch you up on our summer. We have been lazy... that's about it. With a trip to Texas in between. Other than that, laziness, and the forecast until Aug. 12th (when Morgan starts 1st grade)is calling for laziness. We are relaxing & enjoying our summer. Our neighborhood is finally getting more homes built and we are really enjoying the neighbors. (That will work out nicely when it's 2 degrees outside with 10 inches of snow & we just want to see faces other than our own.) We have been doing nothing of significance to write about, but we have some cute pictures of our laziness if you care to look. Miss you all!

Lil Man

Here's a token picture of Cooper, just because my last 3 posts have been of Morgan.

Last Day of School

Here are the pictures of the first day of Kindergarten & the last day of Kindergarten.

Can't a girl find a quiet place to read around here!

Summer officially starts today! Yeah! I have been looking forward to having my sweet girl around again. But I think she is struggling to find some "alone time." Hence, the fact that she is reading books out on the driveway. (Don't worry Mom, I was outside with her so no one would run over her :)

Happy Memorial Day

Morgan had her very own parade outside.

Purdue Spring Fest

Purdue had their annual Spring Fest, only it wasn't so Springy! It was 40 degrees, sleeting and heavy winds. But like any good midwesterners, we went and braved the weather. It wasn't so bad in the tents, but Cooper had a lot to say when we weren't in tents. I can't understand a word of what he says yet, but I can tell you there was some cussing going on. Morgan & Stephen ate chocolate covered crickets. You might ask how those taste, or at least I did. And the answer is: you don't taste it, but you sure do feel it crunch. Gross! I stopped them before the stir fried worms. Morgan had a wonderful time milking cows, petting bunnies & riding horses, Cooper was still cussing when we left and proceeded to the whole way home. Maybe he will enjoy it next year.

Soccer

Our first Soccer Game! Morgan had a blast and played most of the game. We were so proud of her and it was neat to see her so proud of herself. No granted, we did lose 8-1 and pretty much at any given moment there was at least 1 child just standing there picking grass, but it was exciting. At the end of the game all of the parents make a tunnel for both teams to run through. Here is our little Mia Hamm.

It's Gone

They "yea's" outweighed the "neigh's" and I got the rat tail cut off today. Cooper did good for his first haircut. The girl had to have tremendous patience to just let him twist his head all around trying to see all of the t.v.'s. Morgan always does a great job, but it did make me laugh that she passed up the pink car to go straight to the bulldozer. No matter how girly I try to make her, she just isn't. It's pretty cool though.

Rat's Tail

Let's take a vote, basically because I have lost the house vote 2-1. Stephen and Morgan seem to think that this rat's tail on the back of my sweet baby's head is cute. I however think it needs to go. I would love to hear some support for my side. However this was a really bad hair day for the boy, and he is utterly adorable otherwise. (See other pictures :)

Happy Easter

We hope all of you had a great Easter holiday. Although we weren't able to spend the holiday with family, we were blessed enough to spend it with close friends that are just like family. We made the 7 hr. drive to Des Moines, IA and spend a few days with Mike, Misty, Emma Jean, & Alex. It was so great and entertaining to see the kids all together. Sometimes their conversations just crack me up. Cooper, of course, showed off his climbing skills and went up their stairway several times, and fell down them only a couple. (Might I add only once while I was there and Stephen still hasn't fessed up to how many times while I wasn't there) Luckily there was a landing halfway. The girls did great in church and Morgan took communion for the first time. Emma walked her through it and right after they took it, Emma leaned over at the alter and said, "That's good, huh?" It was hilarious.
Then we made a trip to Lincoln to visit my Grandmother & cousin TJ and his kids. It was one fun filled day of Chilren's museum, lunch and topped off with Grammy's homemade chicken noodle soup and brownies. That is worth the 3 more hours of a drive to get there from Iowa. Then we had a 10 hr. drive home. There Cooper exercised his lungs the entire trip, except when he was sleeping to rest up for another round of screaching. But we made it safe & sound with lots of hugs & memories from the trip.

The sun will come out....

Finally!!!! Dreaded February has left and March has rolled in. The snow has finally melted and the temperature even got to a wopping 55 degrees. So we were outside last week. This is one of the first times Cooper has really been able to get out & play. He has been climbing in Morgan's jeep every chance he has gotten, so Morgan decided to take him for a spin. He was sooooo excited to go for a ride, without mom or dad tagging along. Their friendship is already starting to show, and it is such a blessing to see. I am sure there will be many, many times that they drive each other crazy, but it is so nice to see the times that they enjoy together.

Wii Tournament

Well, after a lot of searching and "store hopping" we found a Wii. It took us going to Indianapolis to get it, but we did. We have been making up Wii tournaments until the snow clears. Our first tournament was a tennis one. Morgan won and let me tell you, Wimbledon will be calling that girl. I made her this Tennis Trophy out of aluminum foil and paper. It's the little things in life that make kids happy. She can beat us at tennis, baseball and bowling. And the fact that she has learned to "heckle" us while we are playing is hilarious! She says things like, "I'm going to give you the heat."

Dad's Retirement

I am a bit behind in posting this, but that makes it no less important. My mom retired from teaching last June, and now my dad has retired from the firestation. It has been wonderful knowing that anytime I want to talk, they are just a phone call away. I know they are having so much fun together, as Tracie says, they need supervision. But I wanted to post some pictures from my dad's retirement party. Sorry, no pics of my family, I went alone. One of the bad things about having one kid in school, and one that isn't fit to ride on an airplane.

There are few pics of the two of them sitting still without Morgan wrestling Cooper to not get up. I am so lucky to have such wonderful kids who have such different personalities. They let me experience both the sweet shy one and the outgoing energetic one. But despite the differences in personality, they get along wonderfully ( at least for now.)

Snow Day

Snow! Not something you typically see in Texas at the end of February, but here in Indiana, it is normal. What are these people thinking. I am suprised the Red River isn't swarming with people "jumping ship" from all this cold. But I guess we are still here. So this weekend it was a balmy 38 degrees and we decided to get outside and get some sun. It's actually nice with no wind and if you have the right clothes, which took us years to finally get the right clothes. We went to a sled park and had a blast. Cooper was squeeling and raising his hands while we went down, which just reinforces my beliefs that he will never cease to amaze me in what crazy things he will come up with to entertain himself. Morgan got to go down by herself, she just didn't like climbing that huge hill. Stephen & I didn't like that part either. But all in all, it was a wonderful snow filled weekend. Now we are ready for some warmer weather, but it's suppose to snow 4 inches tomorrow, so we will just have to wait.

Pumpkin Patch

One of the great things about us moving back to the midwest is being able to see our good friends. We met the Slaymakers in Illinois for a Pumpkin Patch weekend. The kids had a ball riding ponies, tractors & feeding the goats.