Up Close

Hunter Pence, the favorite Astros player of both big kids, was at an Academy fairly close to us today. So I got all three kids dressed in Astros gear and we headed up there. I remember how awesome it was to see Shane Reynolds and get his autograph when I was a kid and I wanted to give that memory to my kids too.

They were excited. Can you tell? ;) (Sorry it's blurry. That's how excited B was.)


When we got there, the line was a mile long and it was outside until the last 10 minutes or so of waiting. So I said no way and we went into the store where we could see him and take pics, but no autographs today. It was the right move. There is no way I would have been able to keep all the kids happy waiting in line for hours in the heat. And we kept hearing that he was only guaranteed to sign for the first 200 people, so we might have waited forever for nothing. We got some good pics and the kids got really close to him, so they thought that was cool enough.



Danielle wasn't nearly as excited as her siblings.

Shoe Obsession

Danielle is obsessed with shoes. She has four pairs and always wants to wear them or carry them around. But she is not just obsessed with her own shoes. She loves ALL shoes.

I took these two pics yesterday within 10 minutes of each other:

(wearing G's shoes)


(wearing B's shoes)

We'll be in trouble in 15 years or so...

Danielle's New Trick- 2

After weeks of trying and the occasional success, Danielle has mastered climbing onto the couch. Crap.

She is so proud of herself when she gets up there:

Today I moved all the furniture around in hopes that I can deter her from climbing onto the couch. We'll see if it actually helps.

Danielle's new trick- 1

A couple weeks ago when I was putting Bradley to bed and Doug was supposed to be watching Danielle, I discovered this new trick of hers. I heard her playing in her room, but thought nothing of it. Her room had very little in it and I wasn't worried about her doing something she shouldn't. I popped my head around the corner while B was getting ready and she was ON THE BED. (We have a twin bed in her room.) Holy crap, my heart stopped. She was in there by herself for a while before I even thought to check on her. She could have easily fallen off. I try not to think about that.

When I called Doug in to see where she was, he couldn't believe she had gotten up there by herself. So we put her on the floor and put her toy back on the bed and in about 20 seconds, she was back up there again. I finally got pics of her doing it yesterday:

Ack! This one is certainly keeping us on our toes.

Class Champion!

Gracie won the music bee for her class for the second year in a row! Yay Gracie!

This year, she got to compete in the school bee. All the winners from 3rd, 4th and 5th grades get to compete in the cafeteria in front of all the other 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. She was very nervous and I was nervous watching her. I just wanted her to get one answer right, but I was thrilled that she got 4 right before she missed one! She did a great job and we are super proud of her!

Gracie turned 9

Gracie has been nine for almost 2 weeks and I'm just now blogging about it. Bad Mommy!

For her birthday, we did a family outing to a local amusement place on Saturday. On Sunday (her actual birthday), we went to Olive Garden for lunch, it was her choice. Doug's parents met us there and ate with us.

After lunch, we all came back and she opened some presents.


This year, she wanted an ice cream cake. This one was cookies & cream ice cream with a cookie crust. Yum!

After cake, she, Danielle and I went out in the backyard in swimsuits to run around in the sprinkler. I think Gracie had a fun day. Our little girl isn't so little anymore.

Hanging out in the 'treehouse'

These pics are from mid-May, before the crappy heat set in. When we could still just hang out outside without suffocating from the humidity.

Gracie reading Harry Potter (#5, she finished it and will read 6 & 7 this summer!).


The kids had a 'picnic' up there one Saturday.

Too bad that nice weather is gone and replaced by this crappy weather that won't leave until October. Blah

Free Labor

The people we bought our house from were DIY people. And they weren't good at it. Everything is half-assed. It sucks as we keep finding more and more of their lovely work the longer we live here.

One thing we knew was an issue when we moved in was the patio cover. It wasn't built correctly in the first place, so parts of it were rotting from rain. So Doug set out to fix the rotted wood and rebuild it in a way that it would hopefully hold up better from now on.

He had lots of help from the kids.
(This mom was freaked out about her girl up there on the roof though, let me tell you.)



My parents came over for dinner when Doug wasn't quite done yet and my dad got up there to help him finish.


It's not quite done, but just finishing stuff is left. It looks so much better than before and the one time it rained since we put it up, there was no leaking. Hoping it stays that way...