happy bday baby!

well, yesterday was brian's birthday. we had a good day; it started out with the kids and i going to lewisville for my nephew ian's birthday party. (this was the first year since we have been married that brian has not had the flexible schedule that he could take off work for his birthday!) then we headed back to have lunch with brian- we ate at chapps. that night, we were all still pretty full from lunch, so i didn't make a real dinner- we had grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches! we spent the night playing together and spending real quality family time. here are the kids with candy in their mouths from one of the games they played with daddy. audrey really wanted to take a few pictures, so we gave her the camera, and she took a few good ones! i love him so much!
me and kenzie jane. audrey took this one too.
we made a little cake for daddy and sang happy birthday to him. it was so sweet for him to say this is the way he would want to spend his birthday. with his family! and no tv or movies!
here's the way kenzie entertains us now- she puts her hands on the side of her face and laughs, so we all do it back. it is fun!

dryer girl

i unloaded the dryer, carried the clothes into the living room, and went back to transfer the clothes in the washer into the dryer, and this is what i found. she was very proud of herself!

zach's third birthday

saturday was zach's 3rd bday! he had a great day, so i thought i'd share a few pictures...
we ate lunch at red robin with the entire family.... all his cousins, most aunts and uncles, and even grandpa and granny came. here i said lets take a picture, and he put his cheek up against mine- just the sweetest! there is just something different that i share with my son that i don't have with my girls. we have a special bond- i love it! the typical cousin picture
i really wanted to get him a cake from my college friend kara (check out her awesome cakes!), but we had to save where we could, and the cake was one that i had to do myself. i got the idea off the internet, and it came out ok; it was my first time to do anything like this. it was also the first time i've made a cake for a birthday ( i also had to make it because of the whole allergy thing...) in case you can't tell, it is rocket from little einsteins...

my little sister karis works at the ymca so she got us a great deal on their swimming pool. funny thing was, after weeks and weeks of 100+ degree weather, the one day we decide to have a swimming party, its like 80 degrees.
makenzie enjoying her capri sun!
cousin aubren! brian told zach to go clean off in the pool....
most of the kiddos that made it to the party. look at zach, second on the left- he's freezing!
uncle andy with ian and logan, audrey with brian and zach

uncle trey's great photography
audrey just chillaxin!
decorating the cake
the end of the party. he was freezing with blue lips, but didn't want to get out of the water!!!

barnum and bailey circus

yesterday we were sitting around, thinking about what we were going to do that night, and brian suggested we go to the circus, since it was the last night in dallas. so we packed up and went! it was a bit of a splurge, but the kids had such a good time, as you can see on their faces, and they did much better than we thought!

getting ready for the circus to begin! they were enthralled with all that was going on!
makenzie was so good, too. she just sat there with brian like this the whole night! sucking her thumb!
the elephants were neat, the kids loved them.
with mommy
after the circus! family pic!
after the circus, we went out the the square and let the kids run around. they loved the huge screens everywhere.

saturday we went to lunch to celebrate my sister karis and my brother samuels birthdays. we always have to have a photo shoot! here are a few of the cousins.

GIRLS! audrey, aubren, and kenzie

BOYS! zach, tysen, logan, ian
then we always have to put them in birth order for one picture!
logan, audrey, zach, ian, aubren, kenzie, tysen

celebrity sighting

i came about as close to a celebrity as i've ever been last night. there i was, celebrating my little sister karis' birthday with the family. we were eating at la madeleine, enjoying our dinner, when a man walked in the door. i looked at him, and looked at my husband, and said, "that looks a lot like kirk franklin." (brian and i were just at one of his concerts at the bass hall a few months ago.) brian was like, yeah, it kinda does. he is standing there at the bakery department, aparently ordering dessert for his family, and he starts looking around the restaurant. he looks at our table, and then looks down, seeing me looking at him. apparently, i was staring a little more than usual, because he looked back over at us, and gave me a little wave. of course, i was convinced by then, because of my intense staring of the poor man, and i gave a goofy grin and a big wave back. "it is kirk franklin!! i'm positive of it!!" brian looked again, and of course confirmed my suspicions. well, he grabbed his desserts and was out the door into a white range rover before i could get up and go say hi. i'm not a big celebrity person, they all wear their pants the same way i do, and go to the bathroom regularly. i actually feel quite sorry for them and all the stuff they go through. brian laughed and said he's probably not recognized by a lot of white people like us! anyways, it was fun, and all night long i was thinking about what i could have said to him to let him know what a great job he's doing. if you ever get a chance to go to one of his concerts, i would highly recommend it. it was the best concert i've ever been to, and i went to a lot in college. and i'm not even a big concert person, but i really enjoyed it. it was a real picture of what heaven is gonig to be like - all different races joined together!! anyways, thought i'd tell my exciting news... hope you all are having a good day!

here's the pictures of when we went to see him!

free time

well, some days there is just so much free time i don't know what to do. so i went to walmart, got audrey and zach each their own clear bucket, and filled each one with the same items (to avoid jealousy!!). they had so much fun with all the stuff, and they get to pick what they are going to do that day. i put stickers, coloring books, construction paper, safety scissors, paint and paint brushes, water color paints, a spiral notebook with their favorite disney character on it, glue sticks, and one of their favorites... a small dry erase board with a couple of pens. this is going to be fun!

arthur

today we went to barnes and noble for the pre-school story time. they read a couple of arthur stories, and the fun part was that arthur himself stood there. it was fun, and the kids really enjoyed it. he even signed autographs for all the kids. they didn't sit there for the whole time, maybe only a minute, but they were well behaved, which was good, because brian was at work!



this weeks verse is galatians 5:13,14, "for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"