Summer Lovin

Summer 2013 flew by in a flash!  I love my job, but I really love summer break.  We decided not to put Ruston in Mother's Day Out this year, so I got to spend a lot of fun time with my buddy.


We cleaned out his drawers and closet one day.  It's more fun when you try things on and make faces. :)

Ruston got to have some slumber parties with Gigi and Rocky.

Bastrop has a Dinosaur Park that we'd never visited.  I was amazed at how clean it all was! haha  They have life sized dinosaurs all throughout a wooded trail.  Then they have a little playground and gift shop.  There's a little spot to dig for dino bones too.  It was pretty fun and definitely worthy of another trip.

The boys went out to the hayfield a couple of times to do some work.  This particular time, Diesel thought he was going too. :)

Ruston took swimming lessons for the first time.  He's definitely not a water baby when it comes to deep water.  He was pretty hesitant with most of the things the teacher wanted him to do.  He would hold his head up as high as he possibly could and was very stiff.  He'll probably need to repeat this class next year.

But hey, he passed! :)

We went up to the Blake Manor library on most Tuesdays for story time.  Ms. Lybecker always had a fun activity planned to go along with the book she read.  This is his 'Creepy Carrot.'

I had tickets to a concert in Dallas at the end of June.  Ruston and Danny came along and we stayed with Amanda.  During the day on Friday, we did some exploring at Fair Park.  We went to the Children's Aquarium first.  It was small, but still fun.

We walked around the garden for a while.  Lots of pretty flowers and things to climb on . :)

Then we checked out the Science and Nature Museum before heading back to Amanda's apartment.

That night I went with Kat to New Kids on the Block, Boys II Men, and 98* for her birthday. SO FUN!! I wish I would have taken my big camera because my phone didn't get anything good.  I loved all those groups at one point during my life, so it was a blast hearing all those songs again.  Once NKOTB came on, we never even sat down again. B.L.A.S.T.

Amanda took Ruston and Danny to Medieval Times.  Danny said Ruston couldn't take his eyes off the show.  They videoed him watching one of the fights and he kept jerking and saying "oh!" over and over again.  I'm glad they got to have some fun too!

Taylor and Kase turned 1 in July!  We got to celebrate their birthday with them and all their other friends.  It was HOT, but the kids had tons of fun.

Project 365: January

I don't remember where, but I saw a Project 365 post on one of the 12,000 sites I waste time on each day. :)  Basically, the challenge is to document your life by taking a picture every single day of the year.  I'm going to do my best! Rather than upload them each day to Facebook or Instagram, I'm just going to compile them here each month.

So here goes.... January!!

1

The only way I was able to convince this stinker to eat his black-eyed peas was to smother them in ketchup. He is his father's child.

2

Sweet Masyn Lee made her debut on December 30th!  She spent a couple days in the NICU and then I wasn't feeling well, so we didn't get to see her right away.  Big sis' Kenzie Pearl and Braelynn Faye are so proud of her!!

3

We met Gigi and Dillon at the movie theatre to see Walking with the Dinosaurs.  It was a cute movie... I laughed more than I thought I would. :)  The theatre also has black light mini-golf course.  Ruston and Dillon walked through it after the movie.  It was hilarious watching them run around on the cameras.  We sent them back in and told them to wave at us so we could snap a good picture.

4

We've got a silly boy on our hands.  He loves playing with and beating up his stuffed animals.  Here he is with Brown Bear "dancing".  

5

Snapped these after church this morning.  A cute one for mommy and a "Hulk-smash" one for Ruston. :)  Ruston is in my Sunday School class at church and we give the kids an opportunity to pray each week.  Ruston normally doesn't pray, other than the generic "God is great, God is good...".  This morning though, he wanted to pray!  It was the sweetest little prayer. "Dear God, Thank you for Mommy and Daddy.  And please let Diesel not be dead anymore."  And that was it.... he was done.  Got up and walked off to play.  Sounds like a prayer after Mommy's own heart.

6
It was back to school for Ruston and me today!  He was so happy to be back with his buddies.  He didn't even realize I was there when I came in to pick him up.  He was much too busy building a track with Payton and Padric!

7
My kids came back to school on the 7th.  It was rough.... everyone was tired... but we survived!  We took lots of "Brain Breaks." :)

8
The gauges on my dash have slowly stopped working.  Looks like my gas gauge is going to be next.  According to the needle, I was going a little over 40 mph while sitting still at a stop light.

It has since completely broken... here I am speeding through downtown Elgin.

And now I'm going so fast, it's off the charts!!

9
Little Buddy loves working on ABC Mouse.com.  He's learning and having fun all at once!

10
Anytime Ruston eats cereal, he requests a straw to drink all the milk up.  Silly boy. :)

11
Ruston is going through a phase where he is OBSESSED with the Wii.  He loves playing all the games, but hates that he can't play them all perfectly.  Lots of laughing, then crying, then laughing, then crying....

12
Nana and Gigi took us to Morelia's after church today.  Mmmmm... Morelia's is our favorite.

13
Made a trip to the dentist today... when I snapped this pic, everything was still fine and dandy.  About an hour after this, I was getting a tooth pulled.  Yeah, no fun.

14
Three men from Senegal, Africa came to our school today for a cultural awareness presentation.  They called all the teachers up for a dance too. :)

Danny is out of town on a duck hunting trip.  Adam came over tonight to keep us company.  Ruston loves getting a chance to play with him.

15
We can't resist Girl Scout Cookies!! (And no, we did not wait until after dinner to open them up!)

16
It was pretty nice outside today.  We've been talking about weather patterns and wind conditions.  It was the perfect day to try out our wind socks!

17
Ruston had his 2nd attempt at getting his teeth cleaned today.  It went great!  I should have taken him to a children's dentist to begin with... he really enjoyed it and was very cooperative.

Tonight we went to the rodeo.  It wasn't very crowded, but we had fun. It was nice to see all of our friends.  McKenzie rode a sheep for the Muttin' Bustin'!  She was so cute.  Maybe next year, Ruston will agree to sign up.

18
We went to Landry's 2nd birthday party today. She had a princess themed party, so the kids got to make crowns.

19
Nana's spending the night tonight! Yay for bedtime stories! (And more room in the bed for Danny and I!;) )

20
We're out of school today for the MLK Holiday.  Perfect day for the circus!  Gigi, Nana, Danny, Ruston and I went to the Shrine circus at the Cedar Park Center.

21
Happy Birthday, Aubrey Catherine!  Little Miss made her debut this afternoon.  She's so stinking precious!

Ruston and I stopped at Walmart on the way to the hospital to get her a birthday cake.  The normal icing writer was on lunch break, but I assured the little helper that she'd do great.  Uhhhh.... I should have trusted her. hahaha!

22
Have you seen this picture floating around on facebook?

Here's a real life version....

23
Meet John Deere.  He's a rather large tom cat that roams the neighborhood.  He stops by and meows at the door when he's hungry.  Then he comes on in for some lunch meat. :)

24
Snow day today!! We didn't get any snow... just ice.  But we had to go check it out!

My little buddy fell asleep on me this afternoon.  Man, I love these cuddles!

25
Don't judge... but our Christmas tree is still up!  I might take it down today.  We'll see.

We went to dinner on the 25th to celebrate Dallas' birthday. 
On the way home, we stopped by the airport and let Ruston climb around the in DPS helicopter.

26
Today we went to Amy's house to visit this sweet baby.  We were there for a little over 2 hours and I cuddled with her the whole time!

27
I was lucky enough to sneak away for a bit and enjoy some relaxing time.  Sometimes you just need a beer, a bath, and a good book. :)

28
We had our 2nd snow day today!  But still no snow.... Just a bunch of ice again.

29
We had an after school meeting today about the benefits of playing Chess.  Next year, Chess is going to be a part of our curriculum.  Lucky for me, there's a "Chess Lady" in internet land that teaches the kiddos all the steps.  Thank goodness, cause I know 'nada' about Chess!

30
We were supposed to go to dinner last week to celebrate Adam and Audrey's birthdays.  But the nasty weather blew in the night we had it planned, so it got pushed back to today.  We went to Ramos and had mexican martinis (and dinner!). Yum!!

31
We're working on Procedural Text in school right now.  Today we followed directions to make Crock-Pot Hot Cocoa. It was amazing!!! So much better than that stuff out of the packages!