Summer tan lines

Kind of hard to show them since Lily is the only one really comfortable with nudity these days. But they are there. If you look closely at the last picture Lily is trying out her fish lips for the first time. As always we tried to outdo our sun exposure this year. Frequenting the pool almost daily chilling and playing with friends. I could always be caught floating around the pool in a pink tube. Hey!, grownups still love to swim too.

This year Luke even took off his life jacket and is now a full fledged swimmer! At times it closely resembles drowning but no matter. He loves it and makes his way all around the pool and loves doing cannon balls off diving boards too. Lily paddles her way all around the pool chasing either me or her brothers. Owen continued to improve his swimming skills and can be frequently seen doing his strokes. Freestyle, breast, back and his favorite the butterfly.

The best compliment I've ever been given.

Months ago Chad gave me the best compliment ever. I remembered it the other day and it still brings a big smile to my face. He simply told me that I'm more beautiful today than I was when he married me. It wasn't just his words that made me feel amazing. He was sitting down looking at me right before he said it. Doing the kind of looking that incorporates, appreciation, love, gratitude, desire. . .all of it. Feels so wonderful to be loved so well.

Silence is golden.

Look how sweet. Lily and I, together for the first time. She has been growing and growing and growing lately. All I want is for her to slow down (and just maybe stop destroying things, terrorizing the cat, screaming, seeking out permanent writing instrument, etc). She has been talking a lot more lately and we're finally able to understand much of what she says. Now I'm just wondering if clarity is all it's cracked up to be.

Today I was cleaning out my car, a messy car is one of those things that makes me crazy. I was all finished and it was time for us to go inside and get showered, dressed and run some errands before the boys got home from school. I tell Lily, "Come on it's time to go inside and get dressed."

Her rebuttal, "I NEVA gonna go inside, GO AWAY!"

Ah, was this one of those sweet mother/daughter moments they always talk about?

Theis two womens sitting next to me.

Luke is always great for a memorable lines and stories. His perspective just gets my funny bone working. Yesterday I over heard a conversation between he and Owen while they were unwinding with a little WII.

Owen, "How was your first day of school?"

Luke, "Gweat."

Owen, "Who do you sit by, any friends?"

Luke, "No, I sitting by two womens."

Owen, "Luke! You don't call them womens yet. Their too young and short. You don't call them womens till there old like mom. You call them girls."

Luke, "Huh! No they womens cause they girls."


They went back and forth for a few minutes on this point.

Owen, "I give up. But your wrong just so you know."

Exit through the gift shop

Well I've sure enjoyed the sound of my own voice this past week, how bout ya'all. Chirp chirp chirp? Now I feel all caught up from the summer's events. As this is my journal and I print it out at the end of each year. Every ounce of fun that we've had this past summer has now been recorded. Phew. Except for everything I forgot.

School days school days.

Do you hear that? It's the school bell! Hip hip hooray. I'm trying to look on the bright side of it since I adore summer. Sleeping in, your own schedule, lots of fun activities, sleeping in, you get the picture. Last night we had our annual back to school feast, except the menu hardly resembled anything I would call a feast (Chad and I are both on diets, boo-hoo). We ate, toasted to the new school year and to each other. Talked about school, friends, working hard, being a loyal friend, looking out for each other and choosing the right in tough situations. I love this tradition and even when the menu is ho hum the kids still look forward to it.

The top pictures are of the boys this morning before the first day of school. They were so excited about riding the bus and seeing all their friends. A great start to a new year of school, they walked home together all the way. Warms my mothers heart seeing Owen not ditch Luke and run home without his slowly littler brother.

Back to school fashion show.

One of our traditions round these parts is our annual back to school fashion show. The kids LOVE it and want to try on every single piece of clothing we bought. Luke tried to expedite the process by putting on three pairs of pants per time and four shirts. At first Lily wanted nothing to do with her new clothes, preferring her preferential state of nudity. But once she saw her brothers working the runway she changed her tune and put on her new cardigan.

Noice ordinanace violations are up.

Summertime is coming to an end and I'm at the upper limit of my noise allowances. The kids are officially bored. Too hot to go outside. Can't hardly sit still due to anticipation of school starting. Wearing only underwear around the house. Jumping on furniture to alleviate the boredom. Sometimes I feel like the Grinch, oh the noise, noise noise noise noise noise noise. Please please make it stop. The screaming, the shrieking, the wailing, the whining, the crying, the fighting. Thank goodness for the laughter. And thank you most of all for the QUIET.

Her first braid.

Today I was brushing Lily's hair and thought it was high time for her first braid. She patiently (not) let me braid it. Once it was finished she kept trying to touch it. Ah pwetty. Oh and yes she was naked throughout the morning terrorizing the cat.

Mother.

My mom is the best mother I know. This picture is the worst of both of us but it's the only one from her recent visit. Sacrifices have to be made. There are so many admirable qualities that mom possesses. The one that sticks out in my mind is her willingness to serve. She is always helping with something. Sometimes it's offering good advice, cleaning your fridge, carpets, upholstery, finishing your sewing projects or baking cookies with your children. Everyone who has the pleasure of being around her immediately likes her. Her students have voted her teacher of the year multiple times probably because they too feel her love and service for them.

It is such a privileged to have a woman like this as your mother. Lucky me.

How to get your mothers attention.

Lily has discovered multiple ways. Although her favorite is screaming and I hesitate to use the word screaming. Because I do not think it conveys exactly how loud she is. Soooooo soooo loud. This is her go to approach especially when I am on the telephone. But the way I find amusing is when she comes up behind you takes her index finger and pokes it into your bum as hard as she can. Then just stands there waiting for you to service any need she may have. That is all.

Long weekend in Austin.

Just the TWO of us! A few weeks ago my mom came for a visit! Horray! Let's hear it for mama. Chad and I took that opportunity to go down to Austin for four days. We stayed at the lovely Barton Creek Resort, which was so beautiful. It overlooks a golf course and is situated at the top of hill country. You all know my passion for walking and then when you add "Texas" mountains into the picture, pure nirvana. Chad indulged me and we went for walk/hikes every morning and even one late night where we walked around the golf course.

After we finished our daily activities that night we'd go for a walk or play some tennis and every night we made it to the pool to unwind. Thoroughly enjoyable I must say. For the activites we started the trip out in Fort Worth where we went to the Kimball Art Museum and then made our way over to the Museum of Modern Art. We both were huge fans of the modern art museum. Then we proceeded to have the worlds best ice cream cookie sandwich, still dreaming about it. Enjoyed some Italian food and then got on the road to Austin. Chad is excellent at finding great places to visit, fun things to do, yummy places to eat, etc. He is essential on any trip if it is to have every moment of fun squeezed out.

My strong suit is at the art of conversation. Chad was enraptured by me so much that we got to Austin in the blink of an eye. What can I say, we all have our strengths. That night we saw a theater production called Esthers Folleys. A lot of singing, dancing, but mostly irreverent comedy. Highly amusing. Afterwords we cooled ourselves down with Austin's most delicious ice cream. We participated in our first every food crawl where we went down to Lockhardt and ate BBQ at four different establishments. Don't worry we paced ourselves and had some ah-mazing grub.

We saw four different movies throughout the weekend that we wanted to see, went to the natural springs for a very cool dip (63 degrees to be exact). Had a ball ziplining, attempted to see the famous Austin bat swarms. Supposed there are millions of bats living underneath a bridge that come out in the summer months at dusk. We saw a couple hundred, still neat and the company was great! Of course I managed to get some shopping in while there. And last but not least the Segway tour! IT WAS SO FUN!! We looked like complete tools but we did not care, it was ridiculous amounts of fun. We had races, obstacle courses, and basically acting like a five year old for a couple hours. Highly recommend it and taking a weekend alone with your honey. Great time and memories!