Kade and Heather's Visit...so far...

Heather and Kade drove in on Memorial Day to stay for a week. They really came to see Bryn, Grandma-Grandma and Grandpa-Grandpa (Phil's family), but we have the privilege of having them stay with us. Here are a few pictures from our adventures so far:

Brett and Kade coloring at Grandma's:

Here are lots of pics from our zoo trip today:

Checkin' out the fossils:

Kade on his rock:
Heather feeding the lorries:

Heather was nice and bought food for Brett and Kade to feed the ducks and fish at the zoo. Brett just knew that Heather had another quarter in her back pocket for more food and proceeded to look!
After feeding the ducks and fish, Brett was watching the birds behind the fish and said, "Oh no! That one lost his head!" He seemed accepting of my answer that the bird was sleeping with his head down:

Brett finally smiles for the camera:

Heather and Brett on the lion statue:

Silly faces on the train:

During the train ride, Brett told us all about how he and Grandpa camped at the driving range (behind him in this picture)...apparently, he and Grandpa have plenty of adventures together that we don't know about:

Jace's and Brett's Music Show

Jace and Brett decided they wanted to put on a music show for the rest of us (Heather and Kade are here for a visit). Here is a video of part of their performance with Heather on piano (listen to that accompaniment...she's a good one!) Oh, and thanks to Kat for Brett's Star Station...see? They do use it!

Jace's Field Day

On Tuesday, Jace had Field Day at school. They had all kinds of games and activities set up in the courtyard, in the gym, out on the blacktop and on the field. Here he is doing his thing with his best friend, Abdula:

Brett's End-of-the-Year Picnic

The day after his graduation program, Brett's school had an end-of-the-year picnic. Here are a few highlights:

Brett's Preschool End-of-the-Year Program

So, last week, Brett had his little preschool graduation program. He did great considering that the program started at 7:00 PM which is bedtime. They came out marching and playing rhythm sticks and as they got to the front at the end of the song, someone flashed their camera and Brett, my little clown, said, "Hey! No cameras!" All the parents started laughing and as Brett looked around and realized that they were laughing at him, he got this little look on his face like, I'm funny! The rest of the program was pretty entertaining. Brett did very well singing all the songs and doing what he was supposed to do while entertaining everyone...here are a few pictures:

Jace and his friend Ryan got to be greeters and hand out programs at Brett's program since they both went to preschool and kindergarten at Mrs. Elliott's school:

Brett doing his thing:

Congrats to Lindsey!

So we went to Corpus last weekend for Matt's sister's graduation from college. We had a great time with her and Matt's parents. Lindsey took us out on a jetty to see some dolphins and we also fed pelicans and sea gulls (a little scary since they fly right at you). The boys enjoyed wading on the beach and collecting shells. The next day we made it through graduation (whoever decided to have that over lunch doesn't have kids...luckily, we know better since we have church over lunch and we brought lunchables for the boys). We took pictures by the sea wall and then went shopping. The next day we ate a leisurely breakfast before heading back to San Antonio. We had a great time. Here are some pictures:

Tagged by Bryn

4 Jobs I've had
~Coffee Shop Waitress
~Engineering Intern
~Engineer (EIT for 2 years before Jace was born)
~Mom

4 Movies I can watch over and over
~While You Were Sleeping
~Dan in Real Life
~Toy Story
~Tommy Boy

4 Places I've Lived (notice I just kept going south...I hate cold!)
~Dumas, TX
~Amarillo, TX
~Lubbock, TX
~San Antonio, TX

4 TV Shows I have to watch
~American Idol
~So You Think You Can Dance
~Deserving Design
~Sweat Equity

4 Foods I can eat anytime
~M&Ms
~Honey Nut Cheerios
~Pringles
~Red bell peppers with ranch for dipping

4 Places I have vacationed
~Disney World
~Corpus Christi
~Virginia
~Wolf Creek, CO

4 Places I'd rather be
~Not cleaning house (which is what I'm supposed to be doing)
~Sleeping
~On a date with Matt
~On a cruise

I tag...whoever hasn't done this yet!

Mother's Day...

So I had a really nice mother's day weekend. Matt took the boys on the father/son campout Friday night, so I had a girls night out with a couple of friends. We went to a really yummy Mediterranean place to eat then came back here to watch a movie and eat brownies! Saturday was kind of busy cleaning up after camping and such (I still have a tent in the living room...grrrr). And Lindsey came to visit for a day on her way to surprise her mom for Mother's Day.

Sunday morning, Brett and Matt made muffins and they all brought me cards (Jace's and Brett's was of the singing variety). Jace made me a present at school on Friday (a lovely crown that says "I love you Mom"). I got to sleep in until 8:45!!! Wahoo! Well, I got to lay in bed until then dozing in between Brett coming in to tell me things...

Then we went to church...Brett and Jace were to sing with the other primary kids in sacrament meeting. Jace worked on the song all week, but Brett never wanted to sing it. So, they both go up there, the song starts, they start singing, and then Brett starts crying (VERY loudly) that he forgot the words. Well, Matt and I are cracking up while trying to decide if it would be more disruptive to their short song to go up there and try to get him off the stand without kicking another kid in the face (we would have had to lift him over the little wall) or just leave him up there. We finally decided to just leave him up there and then I felt bad because the primary president went and got him (she was up there anyway). Most people thought that he was injured in some way...but we understood his "I forgot the words!". You would think that's the end of the story...but no...he comes back to his seat and I asked him what was wrong and of course he confirmed that he forgot the words! I told him that next time if he forgot the words that he could just smile or just stand there and that a lot of the other kids didn't know the words either. He sat there for a while and then turned to me and said, "Mom? Do you know why the humming bird hums?" I, of course, knew what was coming and thought that Matt had told him this, and I said, "Why?" and he said, "Because he forgot the words! And I can hum next time!" I leaned over to Matt and whispered that we should have taught him that joke before he went up there and Matt told me that he didn't tell him that, but that he heard it on a cartoon a couple days ago when they were watching TV together! Brett was pretty proud of himself and I was a little reassured that maybe we can channel this perfectionism in a positive way...

So, after church, Ryan and Michelle came over for dinnner and we had a nice evening! It was great...

My little future missionaries before church on Sunday:

Camping and Swimming...

So the boys went with Matt to the father/son campout last night. They had a great time having water gun wars, eating lunchables (there's a burn ban, so no fires), and sleeping in the tent. As a bonus, an astronomy club was also camping nearby and they invited anyone who wanted to see the stars to come over and look through the telescopes. Jace and Brett got to see the moon up close (you could even see the craters! they said, Saturn (you could even see its rings! they said), and Mercury, too. Matt said they finally fell asleep at 10:00 PM and were up before 7:00AM, so we had family naptime this afternoon. Unfortunately, I forgot to send the camera with them (Matt asked me to put it in the backpack and I got sidetracked, so it's my fault!).

After naptime, the boys wanted to swim, so I took some video of them swimming for Grandpa:

Brett swimming across the pool for the first time (he didn't think he could do it)


Jace doing a flip (we don't allow this all the time, but he wanted his 30 seconds of fame on the blog, too):

Brett's Parent Day Celebration

At Brett's school, they make presents for the parents and have a parent day at mother's day time to be fair to the dads! Here's a video of the song they sang (I didn't get the beginning because I had to get a still shot first.) I think it's time to pass that shirt on to Bronco...


Brett made placemats for each of us. The placemats had our pictures on it (drawn by Brett...which he was very upset that my stick figure did not look like me) and then his teacher asked them a few questions and these were Brett's answers:

What is a mother? A mother cleans the house.
Why do you love your mom? Because she picks flowers with me.
Why is your dad the best? Because he goes plays outside and waters plants with me.

As if that weren't enough, he also made a washcloth with his handprints on it for me and a mug with his picture on it for Matt. So cute...

And more pictures...

Jace's 6th Tooth Loss...

OK...this is just getting amusing to me...he's lost so many teeth this year all at the same time...I blogged the first one just because it seemed like I should but this is now the 4th tooth post since January!!! :-)

Company Picnic 2008...fun was had by all!

We had a great time as usual at Matt's company picnic. We ate carnival food, played on the big bouncer things, saw a blackhawk helicopter and a tank and lots of other vehicles like fire trucks, etc. The boys had a blast...here's a picture summary of our day:

The truck FINALLY gets a bath...

So Matt decided to finally clean up his nasty truck on Saturday. He and boys worked hard in the yard and then washed the truck. Here are some pictures (Hey Dad...in the first one, you can see Matt's tool box in the background):

Hey Matt! Nice donkey!!! :-)