Heavenly Seven

My sweet baby turned 7 months old this past weekend. She spent the weekend with her Aunt Lisa and I think Lisa took her shopping for her birthday. They also swam alot. This baby loves the water. Henlee also started moving forward on all fours. She hasn't mastered it yet but she sure is getting close. She is still the best sleeper ever (I hope I don't jinx us). Around 9:00 I take her to her room, say her prayers with her, tell her I love her, and put her to bed. Then around 7:30 I get her out of bed so I can go to work and she can go to Bobbas. Her favorite things:

1.) She loves to JUMP!!

2.) She likes her new, bigger bathtub.

3.) She likes her babyfood. She hasn't turned her nose up at anything, yet.

4.) She likes to be naked. If she gets fussy, I just take her clothes off. I know my Mom hates this because she doesn't like to hold naked babies, but I like happy babies.

5.) She loves for her sister to make funny noises at her. This always gets her giggling. I think the love is mutual here.

6.) She really likes her blankies. I think she may like them even more than Reagan did. That is saying a lot.

7.) Finally, she LOVES her mom and I absolutely love this. She is my baby for sure.

Darrell and I were just talking the other day how different it is with Henlee than it was with Reagan. We were very uptight and nervous and afraid we would mess up her schedule. With Henlee, we just go and do and role with the punches a whole lot better. Life is good.

On another note, you are probably wondering why I haven't blogged about my biggest baby, Reagan. That is because she has been at my sister's for 3 weeks. I saw her over the weekend when I took her and Bryce and Rylee (my niece and nephew) to Fiesta Texas. She was supposed to stay here this week, but my sister's pool was finally ready and next week Lisa has to start working at the school getting ready for the next school year and Rylee starts practice everyday for Blue Belles. Reality will hit hard next week for Reagan.

We are headed to my sister's this weekend for the grand opening of the pool. Hopefully I will get some good pictures and that will be the subject of the next blog. Until next time.

He Never Saw it Coming

This is Super Dave headed to his Surprise 40th Birthday party. He thought we were headed to the Horny Toad but little did he know that 250+ friends and family were waiting to wish him Happy Birthday. I'm not going to try to list 40 things about my dear friend, but here are a few:

1. Best guy in the world. Call him anytime and he will be there for you (especially when DW is in Cancun and your road is flooded to your house and you are pregnant).

2. Super Dad. It was later in life before he was able to experience this phenomenon but he has embraced it with both arms.

3. Very inventive. Being a farmer, his job requires him to be more creative than others but all he has to do is think about something for a little while and then he can go build it out of junk. Never ceases to amaze me at what he comes up with. Some are tools others are toys.

4. Funny! When he and DW get to going, they are better than Ron White or the Cable Guy. Just bring up Smokey and the Bandit and they can basically replay the movie for you. Also they are known to be the Grumpier Old Men as well - Putz, Moron, other names that are unmentionable here, etc.

5. Prankster. Him and DW can't ever leave well enough alone. When one or the other of us is out of town, you can bet that something will be amiss at the others house - a pile of gravel in your drive so you can't get to your house, advertisements for dirt work, vehicles hauled to the road for sale, it goes on and on and on. This year we decided to invite Super Dave to go on vacation with us to eliminate some of this.

6. Very dedicated to his Church and God. He seldom misses a Church service and since he makes his living off of the land, witnesses and appreciates the gifts God gives us everyday.

Thanks Dave for being our friend and allowing us to celebrate with you. Love ya Super.

Happy Anniversary

Today, Darrell and I have been married for 15 years. WOW! It is hard to believe. For those of you who don't know how DW and I ended up together, I will try to give a short synopsis. We grew up about 2 blocks apart, we went to the same church, etc., but it wasn't until Jennifer (Pendleton) Whitehead and Mike Thompson set us up that we started dating the summer before my senior year. The rest is history.

Let me see if I can come up with 15 reasons why I love ol' DW:

1. His faith and love for God. This is tantamount to a strong relationship.

2. He loves our little girls with all his heart.

3. He loves my family. This is very important to me because my family is VERY CLOSE.

4. He is a Lutheran. This made it very easy for us to build our relationship on. There was no squabbling about where we would go to church or what church we would raise our family in.

5. He has a great family.

6. He is very funny. I know many of you haven't seen this side of him. But he can make me laugh like there's no tomorrow.

7. He enjoys the simple things. A ride in the country, sitting on the porch.

8. He introduced me to NASCAR.

9. He makes very good decisions for the betterment of our family.

10. He is very handsome with his gray hair and long eyelashes.

11. He cares about his appearance.

12. He can cook.

13. He can wash clothes.

14. Did I say he was handsome?

15. He loves me.

Bay Fishing and Shrimping

This is a picture of Reagan, our guide, Mike, and the redfish Reagan caught all by herself. He was too little to keep so we sent him back out to find Mama and Papa. I don't think we spoke fish language because our boat only caught 2 keepers. It was a reall bummer when we got back to the wharf and the other boats caught all of this:
Now for the shrimping story. Since it was our first time down at the Texas coast we weren't aware of all the things to see and do down there. Our first day on the beach we see this guy with this PVC pipe sucking up dirt, shooting it out, and then looking for something. Being the responsible adult that we are, we sent Reagan and Caden to investigate and to report back. Come to find out there are ghost shrimp that bury themselves in the sand along the surf. You use the shrimp sucker to pull them out. Needless to say, we invested in several of these. Of course, we aren't quite sure who had more fun with them, the children or the adults. Please note that I looked through all my pictures and I only have pictures of the adults with the shrimp suckers. If you go to the Texas coase you definitely need to invest in one of these "suckers". Loads of fun.

Cousin Eddy and his friends go on vacation

I don't know how many of you remember Cousin Eddy from National Lampoon's Vacation but that is what the title references. DW took up to calling super Dave Cousin Eddy and it was a big laugh the whole week. Anyway, I thought I would carry it over to my blog.

Summer Vacation 2008 was a blast. There were four families (9 adults, 1 teenager, and 8 children) in all and we all stayed in our RV trailers at an RV park in Port Aransas. Talk about relaxing - we did a lot of it. Here are a few pictures.

This is a picture of the 9 and under group minus Henlee.

Blake, Reagan, Caden, Madison and Gage.

Here is the teenager Rylee. Isn't she Hot!!

I think Reagan and Caden spent a lot of time playing in the sand. Reagan always was covered.

Here is the cabana that took at least 4 people to put together. Vance was the only "man" around that day because all the other ones had gone deep sea fishing. Anyway, he was quite the trooper in helping all us helpless women put the cabana together so that Momo and Henlee could sit in it. Momo and Henlee greatly appreciated everyone's efforts.
Why is everyone in the surf? Don't you know there are sharks out there? Oh, that's right, if you drink a lot of beer or have fruity drink day then all that liquid has to go somewhere right. Please note that Kristi is on dry land taking the pictures because Kristi doesn't like beer and won't drink fruity drinks. LOL
This is the life. Sitting on the beach with good friends and family, reading a book (I think we actually did more visiting that reading), the surf lapping at your toes, and drinking a cold beer.

We had a great time. However, Lisa and Amy say that we are headed back to Mexico next year. For some reason they like the maid that comes and mops your floors everyday to get all the sand out and something about the cabana boys that bring the fruity drinks to you.