Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Fast, Busy June!

Taylor displaying one of her end-of-the-year awards.  She received two awards for reading, a PE award, a music award and a certificate for completing kindergarten.

 Nana and Grady celebrating Taylor!

 Just days after school's out, the kids are at Nature Camp!  Here they are on the first morning.  Taylor looks the part of the confident veteran camper, while Grady looks the part of the newbie!!

Middle of camp and the kids are having a great time!

 Final day of camp!

 Hanging out at the family reunion in Bandera.

 Grady turned out to be quite the social butterfly while he was at the reunion!  He just talked to, played with, and hung out with whoever he wanted to!

 Taylor, on the other hand, mainly stayed attached to Hudson!!  If she wasn't swimming, then she wanted to be with her little cousin.

 Last day of swim lessons!!  This was the first year where both kids really enjoyed the lessons!  

 Grady practicing his floating!

 Taylor jumping out to her teacher.  It doesn't look like much....but this is huge for Taylor.  A year ago, she wouldn't do anything!!

 Here's Grady jumping off the side to his teacher.

 And here's Taylor jumping off the diving board!!  




Thursday, June 13, 2013

Harlem Shake....Family Style!


Thursday, May 23, 2013

May Happenings

 Taylor spotted this baby turtle underneath our car.  Thankfully, the kids didn't want to keep him!

They did, however, want to keep this guy!!  We picked up this little dog that had been roaming around our neighborhood.  We ended up taking it to a shelter (sadly).  Now Grady thinks we have to rescue every dog or cat that we see!!

 Grady and I went on Taylor's class field trip to the zoo.  I assumed that Grady would stay attached to Taylor's side, but he's pretty much a rock star to Taylor's classmates!!  They LOVE him!!

 Finally!  Sister and brother got to hang out!

 Taylor was the "Clap-Out Star Student" for the six-week period.  Students get selected based on a number of reasons.....basically, Taylor is just awesome and got the award!  

 Sorry for the picture quality, but this gives you an idea of what the "Clap-Out Star" got to experience!  All of the students lined the hallways and clapped, cheered and high-fived Taylor.  It was pure craziness!!

 We spent Mother's Day weekend at Jellystone Park camping with Nana and Doodah, Uncle Alan and Aunt Marsha, and our cousins Steffanie, Vayley, Sadie, Luke, Chad, Alisha and Vaughn.  Even Jack and Ben got to hang out for a day with us!  First morning out and Luke is teaching the kids how to catch turtles.

 Catching turtles requires lots of patience....something that my kids don't have a lot of!!

 Two of my favorite people!!  Taylor taking a break from playing in the awesome play area located behind her.  I wish we could turn our entire backyard into that play ground!!  The kids loved it!

 Doodah just thought he could sneak in a nap!

 The kids got to play putt-putt golf for the first time!  Ben was by far the most natural putt-putter!

 From putt-putt to riding scooters!  There was also a cool swim area with all types of waterslides that the kids loved playing at.

 I think Taylor's favorite part of the trip was making s'mores for everyone.

Grady enjoyed the s'mores, too!

 Breakfast with the early crew!

 Taylor's first field Olympics day!  This particular group of kids was selected to run the torch around the stadium.  Notice that Taylor is the ONLY kid that has her heart on the right-side of her chest!!

 Receiving the torch and....

 She's off!!  She was the final runner so she got to stand in front everyone holding the torch!

 Here's Taylor doing the sack-race relay.

 The hoola-hoop relay.  It's only natural that Taylor (the shortest kid in the class) stands next to her good buddy who happens to be the tallest kid in the class!

 The water-bucket relay.  There were lots of wet shirts and pants!

 Taylor's number one fan!

 The relay races weren't as fun for Grady!!  Luckily he found other ways to stay entertained!

Grady Grady Grady!!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Easter and Birthday Camping

 The kids playing a game at an Easter celebration at one of our local parks.

 One of Taylor's crafts....that's supposed to be Jesus!  Apparently he used to wear blue jeans!

 Grady's cool cross craft.

 Easter egg making time!!  The hard part was trying to keep Belle from eating them.

 Dressed in their Easter best!

 We took the kids camping for Taylor's birthday.  It was a beautiful place with a cool waterfall area.

 My beautiful six-year old!

 I told them specifically NOT to get wet.  Guess who couldn't help themselves!!

 Grady is my sweetheart....who NEVER listens to me!!

 Taylor was excited to eat "birthday hotdogs" for her birthday dinner.  Trust me...they didn't taste any better than a regular hotdog!

 Taylor had to hold her broken candle together....dang Walmart candles!!

 Grady (and Belle) likes camping because you get to eat Smores for breakfast!

 Out on our morning hike.

 We finally let the kids get in the water.  It was only a matter of time!

 Even Taylor couldn't resist getting in the water.

 I think the kids' favorite part of camping is playing in the tent.  

I guess next time we could just set the tent up in the backyard so we wouldn't have to go anywhere!