When you care enough to send the very best

or something like that. Here is our conversation in the car yesterday.

Kilian: Moooommmm, Lucy has a marker.

Me: Lucy, are you using it on paper?

Kilian: Yes, she said she is making a card for me.

Lucy: How do you spell "horrible"?

Well, she might be nesting...

Lucy, asking about her "due in September" cousin: When is Aunt Moo going to lay her baby?

Gettin' ready for school

We had school registration/uniform sales/booster club joining/etc. at school Monday. Lucy was so excited to go to the school building she insisted on wearing her uniform (kids didn't need to be there, of the ones that did go, no one else had theirs on). *notice the super short bangs. She cut her hair for the second time on Sunday. She wouldn't look at the camera for me.



I left the kids with Brad in his classroom while I bought the shirts, filled out paperwork, and don't tell him, but chatted with other moms.

When I made it around the corner to get the kids and go....this is what I found...

Cactus Cuties

** Updated ** This video is not a couple of years old, it was from January of 2008. They just look younger with their hair like that.

Friday night my mom, Lucy and I went to a concert to see these local girls perform. (It is absolutely worth watching.)



This video is actually 2 or 3 years old, but these girls have recently been singing the national anthem at places like a San Antonio Spurs playoff game, Texas Ranger baseball games, and will be in Atlanta for a Braves game later this week. You tube has lots of newer videos of them, but the crowds make it harder to hear the whole thing.

There are only four of them now (ages 14, 11, 11 and 9). Their show was AMAZING! Lucy waited in line afterwards to get an autographed picture and the girls were so nice!! I knew to put new batteries in our our kids microphone as soon as we got home. Lucy is one singing little girl!

More beach pictures

In case the thought counts - I considered making these into a slide show with a Beach Boys song in the background....but I decided against it. So, go ahead and sing "Surfin U.S.A" or something to your self while you scroll down.

Things to do when a hurricane interferes with your beach trip:

Hurricane Dolly made us stay indoors for a couple of days while we were on vacation, but as you can see - we kept ourselves busy by...

Ooohing and aaahing over the desserts made by Grammy. This is brownie pizza.

Watching Little Einsteins on the little DVD player. They don't look related from this angle, do they?
Playing a serious game of Sorry
Playing a serious game of Connect 4. I had forgotten how fun this game is!
Sculpting clay to make a family portrait (plus Pippin, our puppy)
Making cool glow-in-the-dark jelly fish art (Aunt Angela's idea)

Taking a nice, long cousin nap.

Wait. Who are those goofballs out in the water after "no swimming" was advised??

The Return of the Tea Party

Lucy's tea set was such a huge hit last Christmas that Camille now has her own (thanks Grammy and Pawpaw!).


Click here to see the December version, where Camille was too little to participate at 18 mo.


Here is the new summer version. With this more sturdy set, a 2 year old Camille gets to dive in! I love to see how "proper" my girls can act with tea and miniature cookies.





* note to self - wash spaghetti sauce off face before taking pictures to post here next time.

4 Thumbs Up

A few weeks ago we received an "Edible Arrangement" while Brad was out of town. I highly recommend this for some good, cold, juicy, nutritious summer fun. Thanks Noni and G-Pa!

Cars and Trucks

I just wanted to remember this one.

I think it was a few days before we made our very long drive to Houston and back that Camille started a new game with me. When we are in the car she asks, "How do people do cars?"

My answer (imagine all sorts of exaggerated gestures along with the words): 'Well, they open the door and get in and put in their key in and turn it, and push the pedal with their foot to make it go and turn the steering wheel. That's how."

She always nods and immediately asks "How do people do trucks"

I give the same long response, and she's satisfied. She does this each time we get in the car now, and sometimes in the house.

Last night Brad asked, "Camille, how do people do cars?" and she just nearly repeated it back to him!

A ringing noise

I lost my cell phone in May and gave up finding it after we moved in July. So now I have a new one and am loving it.

Unlike my old one, this one allows me to set different rings, depending on who calls. So far I have set about 4 different rings. Most of them are songs.

I have not received enough calls to recognize what songs play. So I find myself jumping up and looking for my phone a lot: like when our Little Einsteins Rocket toy plays its classical music, when the ballerina music box is turned on, when a cartoon in another room makes an odd beeping sound, and even sometimes when my phone actually rings!

Back from the beach

We're home again after a wonderful visit to the Houston area. We spent a week with Brad's family on the Gulf of Mexico (Surfside Beach) and loved every minute of it, except the two days spent inside thanks to Hurricane Dolly. The other week was spent at Grammy and Pawpaw's house - which is always delightful!

I'll post lots more pictures soon, but I am a little overwhelmed with the amount of work waiting for me here. We have tons of unpacking to do (boxes from the move, at least suitcases from the trip are done though). I'm also behind with my part-time job.

Here are a few pictures (thanks to "Tia" Angela- who has a couple of great posts about our visit).

The James cousins (not including my niece or nephew due in November)

L to R, Kilian-6, Lucy-4, Phillip-6, Camille-2, Max-2, Ryan-7