Double Whammy

Every year, our wedding anniversary lands right around the corner from Father's Day. It's not something either of us thought about when we picked the date, but now it's like a double whammy for Ryan every year when I celebrate what a great husband he is AND what a great father he is consecutively. If I were a guy I'd probably get one gift for both things (hehe) but I try really hard to seperate the two. So here we are Friday night on our anniversary...

6 years together isn't exactly monumental so we didn't do anything big. One of these days we'd like to redo our honeymoon since we didn't really get one, but for now we just went out to dinner. We went to Sardines, apparently dubbed the "most romantic" restaurant in Fort Worth. I haven't been there since high school and the location has changed since then, but it was pretty cool - nice lighting, a live jazz band, and way good Italian food.

On to Ry's fun filled Father's day weekend! It started off with some daddy/daughter time at the primary activty day. Then we headed down to C-town where Kaydree and Carver took their dad to see a movie. Toy Story 3 was sold out, so they saw Shrek instead. Saturday evening, they walked down to the creek with Uncle Jepprey (as Carv calls him), Uncle Nathan, and Efy Tom for some fishin'. I guess it's true what they say, the longer you're married the more your personalities mesh...Ryan documented the whole weekend on his blackberry by taking pictures every step of the way (i wonder where he gets that from). So here's a view from his perspective...

Primary Activity Day

Gone Fishin'Trying to keep Carver from jumping into the creekDouble Trouble

We went to Cleburne for the weekend to be there for the blessing of Nikki and Nathan's baby - Linkin Nathan Abraham. It was fun to get together with everyone...

Nana got matching dresses for all of the girl cousins...

All 4 with Dear Old DadKaydree made Ryan a special tie to wearMaking Father's Day Cookies with NanaRy loves his new Nolan Ryan shirt

So there you have it, a super spoiled weekend for a super special guy. Here's where I could go into all the reasons Ryan is such an amazing husband and father, but since I'm not really into the mushy gushy stuff, I'll just leave it at this: we think he's pretty great...I guess we'll have to keep him.

If you can't beat 'em join 'em

We could be sitting at home in the air conditioning looking for things to do inside. We could be trying to beat the heat indoors. We could be complaining about how HOTT (yes, 2 Ts - HOTT) the summers can get here. We could be doing all that...but instead we have been out in the sun making a splash!

Splash Day with our neighbors Hailey, Emma, and Matt

We painted and colored the fence with sidewalk chalk/paint, we ran through the sprinklers, had a blast in the kiddie pool, and of course ate popsicles...

Splash Park with Elizabeth, Jami, and kids

Carver was entertained by this froggy slide the entire time...at least, when he wasn't getting in trouble with the life guards for trying to go UP the slide.Cute Emmi taking care of all the babies...
Shadi kept begging me to take her "picshee," the camera loves her!

Splashin' at the pool with Nana, Caitlin, Nikki, and kids

Here's my best attempt at getting a picture of all 4 at the pool together...

My little water babies, E & A...

When someone figures out a way to keep sunglasses on babies, let me know. Yeah, we're going through sunblock like there's no tomorrow, but we can't make the heat go away so we might as well embrace it.

Oh what do you do in the Summer Time?

We go to Rangers Games...Great seats (5th row actually, I heard we even made TV!) and perfect weather (we didn't even break a sweat)! Here's Ry and me, Nikki, Nate, and Baby Linkin...We go to the outdoor movies at Sundance Square... This was actually a first time attempt. I learned 2 things...#1: It's way too hot to have outdoor movies in Texas in JUNE (yes, even at 9:00 at night) and #2: Where the Wild Things Are is WEIRD (although it's debatable, I like to think that I have a greater attention span than my kids, and even I couldn't follow that movie). Good thing our friends the Stamps were there to keep us company during that adventure.
We meet up with old friends for a day at the Museum...

Above are me and my sis and our besties growing up Jami and Elizabeth...and our combined total of 12 children - yikes! Would you believe that there wasn't much catching up and chatting like we thought there would be? We were too busy chasing around our crazy kiddos...

E

A

Carv in choo choo heavenK brushing up on her shopping skills

We also go to the pool in the summer time. Believe it or not, I think I have perfected the art of taking 4 kids to the pool by myself (yes, that is an art - if you don't believe me you should come see for yourself!). I have yet to juggle all 4 at the pool while taking a picture though, but I guess I have the rest of the summer to figure that one out.

I'm just a kid who's 4

"Each day I grow some more, I like exploring, I'm Caillou"...Ahh the joys of parenthood...getting annoying songs stuck in your head! (And might I just add: who names their kid Caillou anyway?). Kaydree is 4 going on 5 and loving every minute of it...
She recently finished another year of preschool. With 10 kids in her preschool class this year I opted to pay-in instead of taking my turn teaching, and it turned out to be a GREAT thing for K. It was good for her to get away from our crazy monkeys a little bit and play with kids her own age. I know that big group was tough on the moms who did teach, but we are so grateful that we have so many good families and friends that we can co-op with. A few weeks ago, we had a zoo field trip and everyone had a great time... It made me want to have lots more adventures like this next year for Kaydree's last year at home before kindergarten. Here are some of the kids, including some brothers and sisters. We love all of our Justin friends...
We had a pool party for preschool graduation and each of the kids got a framed picture of the class and a diploma. On the back of the frame was a few fun facts about Kaydree: favorite color - pink and purple (why choose between the 2?) when I grow up I want to be - a "real" princess (still not sure what exactly that means) if I had a super power it would be - flying. Most of the kids will be off to kindergarten next year, we're really going to miss this group... We also just finished another semester of swim lessons. K can now swim the width of the pool independently, back float, do a kneeling dive, and more. Don't get me wrong, she still needs to be watched carefully and sometimes assissted, but she has sure come a LONG way. At first, we weren't even sure that she'd get in the water at all, let alone have some random stranger teach her how to swim. Now, it's so nice to be able to take the kids to the pool without worrying about her every second. Kaydree might actually get her driver's license before she learns to ride a bike, so it looks like that's our next big feat!