Presenting Miss Abigail Elizabeth

A new angel has joined the ranks of us mere mortals. Her name is Abby and she was born on Wednesday August 26. Her family is simply smitten to have a little girl and I actually think she was born with that sweet white bow already on her soft blond-haired head. Us gals in the family of friends are just as smitten and can't wait for her and Summer's baby, Ada-Grace, to be best friends forever! (Aren't we fun planning their lives for them?!) Welcome, Sweet Girl! We love you already!

We went to a most fantastic Pokemon Party the other day! It was full to the brim of Pokemon fun! And who even knew Pokemon was making such a come back? Or maybe it never went out of style....what do I know? What I do know is that we had a great time!

There had to be a Jigglypuff cake, of course. My word, that is one cute cake! Strawberry icing too...YUMMO!

We also had Pokemon Energy PB&J Stars (or something...) and Pokemon Power Caramel Apples Bombs (or something...) for lunch. I may have made those names up tho. I'm really getting into this Pokemon thing! But...Pokemon on the TV and computer may have been overload. I'm just saying.

Ha! This picture cracks me up! Connor is so sweet and nicely smiling and Joseph is craning his neck out eyeballing my camera. Step off, kid.

We even had Pokemon pages to color, Pokemon play dough fun and Pokemon mac and cheese!! It was off the Pokemon hook, yo!




And these last few shots speak for themselves. At least he isn't a blur! What a nut!

When I am with Ethan, it makes me long for a child that will sit still for a picture. This was a rare moment when I captured my son, sitting nicely with Ethan, without having to make faces, waving like a maniac, barking, mooing, or otherwise acting like a fool to get his attention. I miss being able to snap pictures all day of my sweet boy, and now I am lucky to get a rare shot without "the blur"....this "blur" that I am sure you are getting used to seeing more and more on the blog.

And this fine day, the boys discovered the packing peanuts from my Mary Kay orders. I can't say for sure who the instigator was but I have a good idea...

...man, I love this kid. Can't make snow angels in the middle of the summer, but you can make packing peanut angels!

We went to Blake's house to play the other day and do a little Mary Kay. They have a ball pit set up in the play room....and you should have seen the boys jumping around in there! It was the cutest thing! The pictures turned out really blurry and I thought that made it even funnier, since they wouldn't sit still for two seconds for a picture. It was hard to leave for nap time because they were playing so nicely. I think my baby is becoming more independent. *gasp* ;) He plays so well these days and plays especially nicely with his friends - developing such an imagination. They'll run into the kitchen to say hi every so often, and run back out squealing and laughing. We can actually have nice mommy alone time more and more often. It's quite nice! Now I just have to figure out where I can squeeze in one of those totally cool ball pits in our house and we're all set!!

I couldn't resist taking some sleepy head pictures the other day. It's not too often that Joseph falls asleep with us since he is usually in his crib. But this day, Daddy got to hold him and enjoy the precious snuggle time.

I could eat up most any baby during slumber, but when it's mine...I could stare at him for hours. What a sweet little face...free of all worry and stress. Perfectly innocent.

...and then he wakes up and tears apart the house and makes me weep. Ha, just kidding! We love our little Joey Pizza Rolly. Besides, anytime he has made me weep, it's been my own fault. ;)

Made it to Grandma's this weekend! She hasn't been feeling well so we decided to head down and give her a little TLC. We were of course pretty nervous about how Joseph would fare, and he did better than we could ever ask. The drive down went flawless and as soon as we arrived Joseph and his two year old cousin Brianna headed straight for the electronics. Brianna loved Joseph and kept tackling him for hugs! She would grab his shirt like she was going to give him a knuckle sandwich and toss him to the ground like a rag doll...all for a sweet hug. She was so cute! Joseph was cool with her as long as she kept her distance. ;)


Grandma will probably be in the hospital for a bit, hopefully not too long though. We had a great time shuttling back and forth to the next town over to visit - I got my fill of the beautiful Texas country scenery. I am so glad I got to go and keep Grandma company, and get to see all my cousins and Aunt Sheri and Uncle Ray. It means so much to me to get to spend time down there. One of my favorite things to do is just walk around their big yards (Uncle Ray and Aunt Sheri live right next door to Grandma) and check out the veggie gardens. This season Uncle Ray started a small orchard with all kinds of fruit trees. He was telling us about the seriously crazy technique of grafting trees. You have a tree with a good root base and from good stock and literally attach (called grafting) a branch to a bud on the existing branches - the point being so you have good roots with branches from a prized fruit tree. And get this - you could go as far as to graft on all different type of fruit branches! You could have a tree with lemon, orange and plum branches!

We had meals at the famous tile table that always sat in Grandma and Papa's kitchen. It's old school, y'all. Check out the muffin Joseph destroyed! Mom made a killer venison stew with cornbread and it was soooo good! It's always good eatin' around there. (Plenty of fresh veggies, too.)

The drive back home started out looking very ominous. I couldn't help myself from taking some photos out the window as we started back off to Dallas. I thought we were in for a long, rainy drive home.

I've always dug those rainstorms on the horizon where you can see the rain falling, like this picture above. It's good thinking weather!


Soon enough we passed all the rain and I got more of my Texas scenery. The lighting was so pretty on Sunday and everything looked really fresh and green. Road trips are the coolest.

We only had one meltdown on the way home. He woke up and was really mad. He cried for about 20 minutes before we pulled over and let him stretch, and we bought dinner and used the restroom. Joseph did great the rest of the way home and traffic was really hauling so we made good time!


And I had to document the famous painting on butcher paper that my sister did years ago. There is my little star, the pretty blue glass pot that now sits in my hutch. That view (especially the table cloth) would have been ingrained in my memory regardless of whether or not this was ever painted...but now here it is so beautifully documented by my sister!

Grandma definitely seems to be on her way up, thank goodness. I think it'll just be a matter of time before she is her old self again. I wouldn't have missed this weekend for the world and getting to keep her company and visiting. Grandma is such a hoot and has the most beautiful smile in the world. We can't wait to get back down there again in a few months.

Fun at the Pool

I took these fun pictures of our little lizard friend the other night. These little guys are everywhere in the evenings and one usually sits on our window screen by the kitchen sink. I see him often as I clean up after dinner and I've enjoyed his company this summer.

Their coloration is so pretty! I love their little pointed toes, too. I tried to get a close up of his (or her!) feet but I startled him and he ran. Scared the tar out of me, too. Until tomorrow night, Little Friend!