Zoo

I went into town to visit my favorite acupuncturist / chinese herbalist, and decided to take the kids to the zoo (while I was in the area).  Anna Belle was absolutely mesmerized by the elephants.  Similar to Brady at this age, she repeatedly made elephant sounds at the elephant.

 I didn't exactly get smiles, but it makes me smile that they were making ape sounds with the orangutan in this picture. 

 As the orangutan approached, Anna Belle quickly backed up (something her brother would never do).

 The sea lion show is always fun and makes me want to visit Sea World.

 I gotta good one.  Knock, Knock...

Happy Birthday Weekend

On Friday, we celebrated Taylor's dad's birthday.  We had a lovely dinner, and I took some pictures of Brady helping with dessert.

Anna Belle with Grandpa Jim

On Saturday morning, we celebrated Katie Beth's first birthday.

 Anna Belle helped her out with the icing.

 A few weeks ago, Sam (my cousin) gave us his old bunk beds.  Painting them navy blue took more time than I would have liked (isn't that the way it always is?), but I think they turned out really great.  I still need to paint the ladder and rails, but that may be a few weeks away.

 Brady is super excited about his bunk beds.  A friend of mine recommended putting a lamp on a timer, to let Brady know when he could wake up.  It has really helped Brady stay in bed until morning.  In hindsight, I think Brady was waking up and coming to our room in the middle of the night (as early as 11pm) because he didn't want to miss his dad before leaving for work each day.  I set the alarm early enough so they can eat Cheerios together each morning.

On Saturday night, we had my family over to celebrate Becky and Megan's birthdays.  As our kids get older, the kids are playing together more, and we all get to stay up a little bit later.  We had a nice swim and watched the Lorax together.  I'm so grateful to have my extended family near by.  Brady was really sad when everyone had to leave.

Dressing Up

Our family has been a bit under the weather, so we skipped the football game this weekend.  I'm happy we still dressed the kids up and got a few cute pictures of them.

 On Sunday night, we went to Brett and Allison's for dinner.  Anna Belle was really excited about wearing her clip on earrings and a bracelet.

 When we arrived, we saw that Brett and Allison got Yard of the Month!  It really looks great.

 I ordered the kid's Halloween costumes, and they came in today.  Anna Belle's Tinker Bell costume really didn't fit, but Brady's was awesome.  He's excited about it, to say the least.

 Spiderman poses...

Last night, I wouldn't let Brady sleep in his costume.  Therefore he requested that I hang it up in his closet, so he could look at it all night.  When he puts his mask on, he lurks around the corners of our home and spies on us.  These are the moments that I want to hold on to forever.

The Ranch

We went to the ranch for Labor Day weekend.  Brady got to shoot a BB gun for the first time, which he REALLY liked.  Over dinner tonight, he emphasized several times that, "it's not for hunters, it's for children."

Even if it was for children, Brady folded his arms more than usual when talking to Daddy and Grandpa (because that's what the guys do).

 We went to Wimberly to visit the Blue Hole Regional Park.  I don't exactly remember why Brady was shaking his fist at the old bald cypress tree.

 They had chain swings and cool platforms to jump from.  It was really  nice.

 My sweet family.

 Anna Belle loves wearing my jewelry, to the point where it's hard for me to wear any.  In the photo below, she's modeling my earrings.  I put the hooks over the tops of her ears.

 Brady really enjoyed the hammock on this particular trip to the ranch,

 and he also enjoyed taking pictures with my camera.

 Mr. Spiderman shirt tangled up in his web / hammock.

 So... these stray donkeys have been watching over the house lately.  They're really friendly.  They drink out of the fountains, poop by the bottom patio, and grazed the pasture (nearest the house) down to the dirt.  If we shooed them off, they kept their distance.  If we acted friendly, they came up to be petted.  These are called Bethlehem Donkeys because of the cross over their shoulders.  This is a good picture of the three little amigos.

 Brady took the photo above and then I snapped a shot of him hanging over the rail to watch the donkeys.

 Brady helped make ice cream.

 The creek wasn't dry, but it wasn't as high as we would have liked.  We still snapped quite a few pictures.  I remember Brady loving to point out our facial features, and now Anna Belle is in that stage. It's hard to keep those little fingers off my eyeballs,

 but Anna Belle welcomes the challenge.

 My sweet girl lounging on the back patio.

 This is my favorite photo of the kids from this weekend.  They loved playing in the formerly grassy, now dirty, pasture.  The dirt was really loose and dry, which made it great for kicking up the dust and covering his favorite car (Sarge).

 If you look closely, you can see the dirty finger marks on Anna Belle's left cheek.  She was filthy all over, but very cute.

 Bailey enjoyed getting dirty too.

 Sarge

 We bought Texas pecans on the drive up, and Anna Belle hoarded them in her cheeks.

 Taylor and I have been teaching Sunday School for Brady's class this year.  Here are our sweet little kiddos.