Gabbie!

What a cheese ball!

Hanging out:)

All dressed up and nowhere to go....they have also bathed themselves in make-up...classy:)

Today Abby's friend Gabbie that moved away in December:( came to town to visit and we got to spend the whole afternoon with them! The girls were so sweet together. All they wanted to do was "hangout" and chat it up....they are such girls aren't they?:) I love to see them together because Abby just comes to life when Gabbie is around and it makes me so sad to think they will never go to school together again:( Boo!! I have really missed Gabbie's mom too, it's pretty rare to find a friend like Tanya and I miss her dearly! Thanks for coming up girls, we hope to see you both again real soon!!

New Bikes!

A few months back my Mom and Dad called and asked the kids if they wanted new bikes. Every summer my parents like to get a gift for the kids that they can enjoy and use while they are off school. You can imagine what the kids said (YES:) and they were thrilled. Greg and I have been meaning to go pick some out with them but hadn't had a chance until tonight due to traveling and such.
The kids thought it was so fun to tryout all the bikes and it didn't take them long to decide either...they are very decisive:) We were shocked how big they were....they both got a 20 inch mountain bikes--when did they get so big? Wow!
What we didn't think about was getting the bikes home....lets just say Reese was breaking the law the way he was sitting, we just couldn't get the bikes in our car any other way! Thank goodness he is safe and we only had a few blocks to get home:)
Here ya go Granny and PaPa-- Reese and Abby wanted to pose with their new bikes and say a big THANK YOU!!!!

Happy Anniversary with the Rangers!

Last night Greg and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary at the Rangers game!:) It's not actually our anniversary until July 7th but the kids and I will be in KC for the week so we wanted to make sure to do something special now! Greg worked his magic and was able to get 1st row behind the visitors on-deck circle and we got to eat in the Diamond Club beforehand. It was so fun and relaxing (without the kiddos;) It was pretty funny before we were leaving the kids were both sad that we had such good seats....too funny!
It was so fun being so up close to all the players and I was a bit starstruck...I know I'm a little pathetic;)
Anyway, we had something pretty cool happen about half way into the 1st inning. We overheard an usher tell someone that Chuck Greenberg (one of the guys buying the Rangers with Nolan Ryan) and the owner of the Pirates (the team we were playing against) were going to be sitting in the seats right next to us. How cool is that? And what was even cooler was we got to chat it up with the Pirates owner, an adorable 80 year old man wearing a fanny pack (guess when you are that rich you can wear whatever you want huh?:) After a few innings he invited us to come to his ballpark and said, and I quote, "You ever make your way to Pittsburgh you give me a call and we'll set you up and take care of you right!" WOW! I definitely see a trip to Pittsburgh in the near future!
Well as you can tell the evening couldn't have been better. Believe it or not the weather was not hot at all and we were close enough to catch an occasional air conditioning blast from the clubhouse ;)
Greg and I were laughing about how far I have come in my love for baseball. I mean seriously how many wives beg their husbands to go to the Rangers for their Anniversary? (I used to bring magazines to the games 4 years ago:) Honestly I just decided that loving baseball was something I could do to love Greg more and show him I will do anything for him! Who knew I would love them this much though? I sure didn't;) Go Rangers--44-28, yep that's right folks we have the 2nd best record in baseball! Amazing!

Greg's big foot and a picture to show you how close we are....jealous? Ok, maybe not but you can at least be excited for us right?:)

McCutchen, center-fielder for the Pirates --he's an amazing athlete! He's on the ESPN top 10 plays alot....he's fun to watch!

A very excited me:)

Me sitting next to the Pirates owner--check out that fanny pack:) and that's Chuck Greenberg's leg:) Very exciting isn't it?--ha!

That's my boy Josh Hamilton....we're tight;)

One Happy Couple!

VICTORY! Walk-off hit to win the game!

Vlad, the man that made it happen....he can hit a homerun with one arm if he had to! Crazy!

Houston

Me and Michelle

Jonathan teaching Reese to pitch (Jonathan was a pitcher in college)

Entrance to Minute Maid Park--love this picture!

My kids were so embarrassed I did this:) I couldn't resist!

Sweet Daddy before the game


God Rangers!


Silly Abby after a long game...she's a trooper!


This past weekend Greg, the kids and I went to Houston to hangout with some friends and see the Rangers play the Astros--we swept the Astros by the way--Go Rangers!!!:) We had a great weekend (overall:) and really enjoyed our time with Michelle and Jonathan (friends from OBU). We got in kinda late Friday night but ended up staying up until about 2am talking and catching up on what we have missed since the last time we saw each other! We got to sleep in the next morning, thanks to the best kids in the world that also sleep in and appreciate the goodness of a lazy Saturday:) We spent the day hanging out in downtown Houston at this city park that had water fountains for the kids to play in--bonus:) It was super HOT and humid but surprisingly in the shade it only felt about 95 instead of 105--gotta love TEXAS:)
We then headed home for some naps because we had the big Rangers/Astros game that night!
The game sadly ended up being slightly disappointing. First, we decided to buy cheap seats because we normally can move down and sit in some empty seats a few innings into the game BUT surprisingly the game was SUPER packed and we couldn't find an empty seat anywhere! Can you believe we actually had to sit in our nosebleed seats?? Crazy!:)
About the 5th inning we then just started walking around and thats where the wheels started to fall off! I spilt a whole Sprite on Reese and I (due to him bumping me during a little fit his was having...not trying to pass the blame or anything but it's true:) then Greg started to get frustrated because this was supposed to be awesome and nothing seemed to be going right. I felt bad for him because no matter what we tried it seemed to just keep getting worse! Needless to say I am not a fan of Minute Maid Park! I don't like the atmosphere or the dome---who wants indoor baseball besides the air conditioning it was worthless anyways because heat rises (remember we were 12 rows from the TOP:( Geez this is terrible I sound so negative--ha! Sorry but I want to blog real life not just the good stuff:)
Well I would like to say if got better but really it was sad, I felt bad for Greg because this was part of his Father's Day and it was pretty lame....sorry honey hopefully we can make it up and take you to a Rangers honey game real soon--Love you:) Happy Father's Day!:/

Tubes!

All ready to go!

Really bad tasting giggle juice:(

about as goofy as she got....she kept saying "E.T. phone home!" (p.s. she's never even seen that movie she just hears me quoting it from time to time:)

Best part of surgery!

She was very embarrassed to have to ride in this...but when we stood up she realized she might just need it:/

Wednesday morning Abby had to get tubes in her ears for the first time. She has never had any trouble with her ears until recently. We have watched Abby struggle with allergies since we moved back from DC 3 years ago and nothing has seemed to help. About 6 months ago I got Abby an appointment with an allergist and thats when we realized her ears were in bad shape!
Thankfully we have been able to get her allergies under control but her ear infections have never let up. Well our last resort was surgery but we were so tired of the antibiotics that Greg and I decided this was our best option.
She did great during the surgery, a bit scared but her sweet brother talked her through the whole thing since he's had tubes TWICE:( We brought the camera along to catch her being goofy with the sleeping drug but she never got goofy she was pretty chill and then fell asleep fast.
The only concern she expressed was that she would all alone during surgery which made me so sad to think about:( The procedure only lasted 10 minutes tops and then she woke-up pretty quick and we got to go back and see her. Her first words were, "Mom, where were you? I woke-up to a ton of nurses and doctors starring at me!" Awe, I felt terrible...poor girl she must have been so scared!
Well, she recovered really fast and was eating a popsicle within 15 minutes and was all smiles.
We are so grateful both the kids have been able to get relief from their ear infections they are so painful!!
Greg and I are really hoping this will be our last time EVER in the hospital with the kiddos...the next time better be in 15-20 years and there better be a grandbaby to show for it;)

Grad Student Greg!

Greg is in Grad School at DBU--Dallas Baptist University! He started a few weeks back and is already feeling a bit overwhelmed!
He is going for a double masters first, the MACE which is a Masters in Christian Education and then he's going for his MBA. Don't ask us why the MACE and the MBA he just felt like it was the time and the thing to do so he is going for it! We are not sure if in the future he will be in the church ministering again or if he will be in the business world for the next 30years but wherever he does end up he will be all "educated up" ha! God has provided the money and we are praying He will multiple the time too:) Please pray along with us--this is gonna be a LONG road!

Art Class

Look at Reese's face....he does this every time he is proud of himself. Kinda an embarrassed/look at what I did face:)


Last week the kiddos started a clay art class and they both loved it. This is Reese's first time to go to class with Abby and he feels so big...it's cute:)
The class is 2 hours long and when I came back to pick them up they were NOT ready to leave. I told them today that class was on Thursday and they both cheered...it's fun to find something that they both enjoy together!
They were both pretty embarrassed that I was taking pictures and NO other Mom was but that's what they get for being my children, it comes at a price... a very embarrassing price;)
~sorry guys I like to capture it all:)

Cousins Camp 2010

*Guest Blogger Debbie Stamps...aka Maw Maw:)

The cousins & MawMaw & Poppa recently headed out for our annual Cousins Camp. We decided to return to one of our favorite spots—a farm in Glen Rose.

Reese’s t-ball team was in the championship game on the initial night of camp so we decided to enjoy some local fun on our first afternoon & drive down after the game. We went to the Gaylord Texan, where they’re celebrating Alice in Wonderland. Along with the neat Wonderland decorations, including an incredible sand sculpted scene of the Wonderland characters, the cousins scampered all over collecting clues to solve the mystery phrase. When some of our crew didn’t bow to the Queen of Hearts, she ordered “Off with their heads!” It was time for our next adventure!

Reese’s team was leading when the game was postponed because of lightening so we started off for Glen Rose. We had a whole car load of fun on the way down—enjoying activities, our camp CD & beginning reading a book together.

On the farm we found all the animals we’re familiar with & met a few new ones. Otis the one-eared sheep is a favorite. He lost his ear to a former resident, the donkey, several years ago. Graceson, the colt we met 2 summers ago, is growing into a beautiful horse & loved being brushed. We enjoyed making several things, including making & launching rockets, playing in the Paluxy River that runs right by “our” farm house, tetherball, a baseball game & playing lots of “catch,” driving through the pasture & more playing in the river! Discovering crawdads in the river added some extra excitement. And you can never put in too much time on a tire swing!

We all love a good hike & made it to the top of a pretty steep hill. We found lots of special blessings along the way because we all had our eyes peeled: a Texas spiny lizard, a small snake, a beautiful butterfly, spiders on their webs, a cactus that looked like a bunny, to name a few.

Poppa had made a new MawMaw & Poppa video for us that we got to watch for the first time. He’s also always good for a couple of science experiments & projects--& taking us for snow cones. This year he also helped us with a special Cousins Camp production. We worked really hard at learning lines & playing our parts. We got to stay at our camp an extra night & invited the cousins’ parents down because they’d never seen “our” farm. The kids did a great job showing their folks around the farm. Then that evening we surprised them with the premier showing of our Cousins Camp Hee Haw show. They were thrilled as our down home country roots surfaced!

Our final morning we were served breakfast in the barn—with Graceson the horse peeking in at us. We had a great breakfast & got to eat sitting on saddles & bales of hay. After more playing in the river we loaded up & hit the trail to find some good barbecue before heading home. Even the trip home is always a blast when we have all the cousins together! We enjoyed more of our fun songs and more of our book.

Thanks to moms & dads for letting us have a few days for our Cousins Camp. And thanks to some great cousins (or “the grandchildren” as they also call themselves) for a wonderful time. Each one is precious—it wouldn’t be the same without all 4 special personalities.

“You gave a Son to save the world

You gave us love to show all the earth

We lift our voice to the sky, singing praise

Your Name on high…

I believe You created me and everything that I can see

I’ll follow You in all that I do, I love You.”