This post basically covers everything since the last post, which was on June 17th. So, yep, a lot of stuff. It starts out with our trip to Houston (which included Vacation Bible School and the Quinceanera), then our trip to Port Aransas (where we celebrated 4th of July), and then all the stuff we've done at home since then (WWII Museum, Zephyrs game, etc.) :o)
So here we go!
Saturday, June 22:
We started our Houston vacation week with a trip to the beach!
But there was way too much seaweed in our way, so we had to clean that mess up.
Get to work kiddoes!
Yeah, we got our exercise that day. ;o)
Emmy wanted gloves like the boys, so we gave her plastic baggies.
Lol!
Nice work guys. :o)
Working her new sunglasses. :o)
We had so much fun!
Jump!
I think Emily was trying to swim away, haha.
Evelyn and Zoey made sand-dough.
Hi Joshua!
Matthew worked on his tan. ;o)
While Joshua searched for some buried treasure!
Hehe. Unfortunately, he didn't find any. :oP
Tia and the girl.
:o)
Sunday, June 23 - Friday, June 28:
These are our favorite pics and moments from the following week -
Emily liked hangin' with her cousin Ava. :o)
And they all liked getting to visit with Vanessa. :o)
And dude - my new camera has a feature called "Fish-eye Effect" which I think I'm supposed to use for wide landscape shots or something... whatever, I tried it out on the kids.
Haha!
Ahahaha!
Bahahahaha!
Ohmygosh! I seriously can't stop laughing!!! :oD
Man, those kids are such great sports.
Nice hat Emmy.
"It match my dress!"
J says, Whad up homes? ;o)
Every night, the big midgets got to go to Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church in Houston.
Kingdom Rock!
At the end of each night, Emily would join them for a finale of singing and dancing.
They had such a great time and were really excited about going!
Even the big boy! :o)
Pics with the Queen of the Kingdom. Hi Booger! ;o)
Yo Matt-dog - what's up with that face?!
Hahaha!
Okay, that's a little better.
:o)
Every time I did my make-up, Emily would get her make-up bag out (full of my empties) and do hers too.
Hehe. Silly copy-cat girl.
Matthew decided to make a dog/stuffed animal house out of a cardboard box.
Dude! Not too bad mijo!
He stuck a dog treat in there to try and lure Wae in...
Lol - yep, it worked, but only long enough for her to get the treat, but then she stayed far away. ;o)
So Matthew decided it would make a good house for Peanut.
Emily was very excited about his project and added her monitos to the house too. :o)
Then he pumped air into the back of the house so they would have air conditioning...
Lol!
When I picked them up from VBS that night, he showed me how he could balance this eagle toy on the end of his nose.
Hehe - yes, it's on his nose, not in his nose, I promise. :oD
J lounging pool-side.
Haha!
:o)
Last night of VBS.
Emily and I decided to hang around, so she got her own name tag.
Stand Strong! :o)
Saturday, June 29th:
Time for Alicia's Quinceanera!
Yeah, we were all dressed in our best. :o)
So Emily fell asleep on the drive over, and yep, she stayed just like that for the whole ceremony, haha!
Earlier that week, the kids were asked to be the altar servers!
Woohoo!
They just look so adorable. :o)
Okay, maybe they're not that cute, maybe I'm just really proud of them. :oD
And yes, they did great. No wrong turns or candles dropped at all! Woohoo! ;o)
Awww, and the ceremony was so great too!
Time to party!
I got Sprite. Mmmm. :o)
We love Sprite. ;o)
Matthew was very happy to discover the fruit bar. I think he finished off the strawberries by himself. ;o)
:o)
Dance lessons with Aunt Bonny for Emily!
And then lessons for Evie with Booger!
Now give them girls some balloons, cuz it's time to party!
:o)
They had soooo much fun out on the dance floor.
Evelyn was out there the rest of the night gettin' down with her bad self. :oD
Me and Emily with her balloon necklace.
I know this is kinda hard to see, but that's Joshua out there learning the macarena!
Ahhh - Busted! Don't try to play it off, I totally caught you! ;oD
Time for some more dance lessons!
"Mommy, this is the best dance ever."
I know my girl, I know. :o)
Sunday, June 30th:
After partying so much the night before, Emily woke up with a new 'do.
"Look! My hair stickin' up!" Lol - yes, I see that!
Quick pic before church. :o)
Then we took the kids to see Monsters University.
Joshua was laughing at Emily, who was trying really, really hard to stay awake.
Yeah, she didn't make it. :o)
But she woke up in time for the movie, which they all loved.
Happy to be home:
We headed back to the house for a couple of days to re-group and pick up the Daddy.
"Look - I found my shoes!" :o)
Wednesday, July 3rd:
Then we were on the road again for our Port Aransas vacation!
Yeah, sleepy kids. It was a 10 hour drive, but we only stopped 3 (maybe 4) times, so it was a good trip.
:o)
Hello Port A!
Sorry, I liked both of these pics. :oD
Evie said she was going to sleep up there, but she ended up on the trundle bed all 3 nights.
"Hi Emily!"
"Hi Evie!"
They were sooo happy to spend time with their cousins.
Too busy visiting to even turn around for my picture! ;oP
Thursday, the 4th of July:
We were out on the beach bright and early.
And all those Nutt midgets got right to work.
They had sandcastles to build! And holes and trenches to dig! ;o)
:o)
Nice turtle Matthew.
Emily enlisted her sister's help so she could have her obligatory "rinsing" bucket for her hands. ;o)
Uncle Rodger taught Evie how to play horseshoes.
And she wasn't too bad at it!
Daddy got to do some fishing with his brothers.
Yeah, they were all out there. :o)
The kids dug a giant hole, and then lined it with a garbage bag so they had their own personal pool!
Okay, so maybe it was more of a personal puddle, but it was purdy cool!
Happy 4th of July!
Quick pic back at the house for some lunch.
And then it was back to the beach for some badminton.
Go Joshua!
Evelyn designated herself the line judge.
"In! Out!" Haha. ;o)
She had so much fun in the sand.
Joshua decided that they were in need of a more proper badminton-playing area. So he made one with water.
Haha - can you see it?! It's a court!
Evie's turn to take a few swings.
And J's turn to play line judge. ;o)
Yeah, I guess she was having too much fun in that sun.
Lol! Mid-chip too.
Matthew and Evie constructed a couple of castles and moats.
And they even got the water to go all the way around!
And Emily just slept. :o)
Then we had some fun in the pool!
:o)
When it was time to walk back to the house, Matthew realized he forgot his sandals. So they improvised.
They're each wearing one of J's sandals, and one of Evie's! Lol!
No worries, I made those boys give Evie her sandals back (haha!), and J wore mine while Matthew wore J's. Crisis averted. ;oP
"Hi Daddy. I love you Daddy."
Awww. :o)
Here are a few more pics from the rest of our weekend:
Aunt Stephanie brought lots of crafts for the kids to do.
Even Emily got in on some decoratin'. :o)
So pretty!
Emily loved that Nemo was on this swimsuit. :o)
They really enjoyed playing in the pool.
And Emily really enjoyed playing with this water hose.
"I wash my foot!"
Haha!
Joshua worked on his floating skillz too. :o)
Man, that girl just can't hang!
Paw Paw with those girls. :o)
Emily happily drove us back home.
It was another long day on the road, and despite a few rain showers, it was another good trip.
:o)
Sunday, July 7 - Monday, July 15:
Here are a few of our favorite moments back at our casa -
Evelyn decided to make our movie night into a Grand Event!
The kids recently discovered the Men in Black movies and they love them (that's kinda weird, right??) ;o) Anyhow, we were watching Part 3 that night, so she asked me if she could be in charge of Movie Night. So I said Sure!
Then she put me in a hat.
Lol! Yeah, I was one of the theater's "employees" so she said I had to wear a hat. Hehe, yeah, it wasn't that bad. ;o)
All set up at the ticket counter.
Employee Emily had to wear a hat too.
J checked his wallet so he could "pay" for his ticket.
Both the boys were really good sports.
:o)
Then they ordered drinks and food at her Snack Bar.
Joshua ordered a Sunkist, so she's coloring Joshua's "drink" orange for him, hehe. And all that wadded up paper? That's the "popcorn"... That girl thinks of everything! :oD
(No worries, I let them trade in their "popcorn" for some popcorn later on.) ;o)
Emily was a little confused and not really sure what to do with her strawberry "popsicle".
Hehehe.
Well, the movie was actually (surprisingly!) really good, but yeah, we had 2 casualties.
But Evelyn was so happy with how her Event turned out, that it was a great success! :o)
Emmy was rockin' those dress up clothes, haha!
We went to a Movie Day at the Community Center on base to see The Adventures of Tin Tin.
They fed us pizza too! Woohoo!
And even though some of the other kids were kinda noisy, the movie was really cute and we had a good time. Later that afternoon, the kids found the movie streaming on Netflix, so they watched it again! Joshua said, "So this time, we can hear everything they say!" Haha. :o)
Joshua had his final orthopedic appointment and x-rays to make sure his hand was all healed up, and yep!
He's all good!
The doctor said he is now fully functional and back to 100%. Woohoo! Dude - We survived our first broken bone! Woohoohoo!!! ;oD
Yeah, we all rejoiced. (Except Emily. :oP)
Matthew lost a tooth while eating an apple.
Haha!
"Okay Matthew, now hold up the tooth so I can take a picture of it."
So he did, and then went right back to eating his apple! Ouch!
But he said it didn't hurt one bit. :oP
Munch munch. ;o)
Then Uncle Jack, Aunt Jackie, Vanessa, and Ava were headed home from Florida, so they stopped by to say hello!
We had a short but very sweet visit. :o)
However, I guess I forgot I owned a camera or something, because these were the only pics I took! :oP
Ava and Emily had sooo much fun playing together, and yeah, I'm pretty sure they're best friends now! ;o)
Joshua and Evelyn went to an Altar Servers' Bowling Party!
And as I was about to leave with Matthew and Emily, they invited Matthew to stay too! I figured since he wasn't an official Server yet, he wasn't supposed to, but they were all about it! :oD
And a good time was had by all. :o)
The kids were up and dressed bright and early so they could begin a week at another Vacation Bible School at a church near our house!
Yay - 3 1/2 hours of fun every day! They were very excited.
(And I may have been just a little bit more excited than they were. 3 1/2 hours of quiet... every day! *sigh* It was a nice week.) Lol! I love you my midgets! ;o)
Later, Emily played dress up in my new dress.
"Look! It fits me!"
Uh, no. Haha. ;o)
Tuesday, July 16:
Emily and I went to the store, where she spent her dollar on some
M & M's.
:o)
And when the kids got out of VBS, we took a trip to the National World War II Museum!
:o)
Yeah, we've been here for 2 years and had yet to visit, but wow, it was really neat!
The big kids have learned a little about it in school, but to be prepared, we discussed why there was a war, and who were the good guys and the bad guys and stuff.
There was a really neat interactive display where they presented you with a real scenario and then asked What Would You Do?
And the kids each had their own mini-console to cast their vote.
Purdy cool!
They had a few displays on this, like, open walkway at the top of the building.
We were 4 floors up! Don't look down!
But the kids were just fine.
Seriously though, 4 floors! Eek!
They got to listen to some first-hand accounts from different pilots and soldiers.
And they had these interactive maps that laid out different battles fought during the war.
Matthew really liked these. :o)
Even the Coast Guard was represented.
:o)
Semper Paratus!
(Emily was awake and was supposed to be in this picture, but she started throwing a fit about something, so the kids are trying not to laugh at her because I told her fine - she couldn't be in the picture. Haha, case of rum. :oP)
We did the USS Tang Experience, where you get to be on a fake submarine, and each person has a job to do.
J and Evie were on periscope duty.
And Matt-dog was on radar.
It was so dark, and would shake and rumble every time we fired a torpedo or took a hit!
Emily had to get in on the action and helped Matthew push his targeting button, hehe.
It was all good, until a torpedo got us! And the whole freakin' room rumbled and filled up with fog!
Yeah, I don't have any pics of that because Emily freaked out and started crying! :o/ But almost instantly, it was over and she was okay again, but whew - that was intense! And really cool!
We passed by these Air Raid Shelters, and all the kids wanted to get in for a picture...
Well, we thought they all wanted to.
Ahahahaha!
But dude - she's not scared. She's mad because she doesn't want the kids in there with her!
And that's what makes this soooo funny.
Hahahahahaha!
Okay, that's better. What a crazy girl! :oD
They had a lot of weapons and ammunition that the kids enjoyed.
Check out Matthew's eyes in this pic!
Haha!
Another really cool display, a projection of how the battles played out that the kids could watch and understand. :o)
We watched a few of these mini-movies too.
And man, I don't think it was until we were leaving that we could really put into words why we had brought the kids to this museum.
They hear about how soldiers have died for their freedom, and they see war and battles in the movies and on their video games, but after leaving the museum that day, they had a real understanding of exactly what these people have done for us... What these soldiers had to go through, real men and women who died or became heroes when they were still teenagers, all the suffering and all the celebrations.
The museum made it real for them.
And that is a pretty grand thing. :o1
*whew* Okay - sorry for getting so melancholy. (Shake it off!)
Seriously, no worries - the kids asked a lot of questions, and they got a lot of answers, and we all left with more appreciation and gratefulness in our hearts, and smiles on our faces.
:o)
And as we were leaving - we finally found out why the D-Day Museum is in New Orleans!
The company that built the Higgins Boats, those used in the Invasion of Normandy, was in New Orleans. So the boats were built here! Purdy cool. :o)
Wednesday, July 17 - Now:
Emily and I took care of some grocery shopping while the kids were at VBS.
So of course, she slept.
She was still sleepin' when we hit the second store too.
Haha!
The big girl is still going to and loving her gymastics classes. :o)
And I guess Emily was just really, really tired that day or something, because at gymnastics, she fell asleep again. :oP
Look what we found at Wal-mart!
Twinkies!!! Yay!!
We had already checked out and then I saw them as we were walking out, so yeah - we totally grabbed a couple of boxes and got back in line.
:oD
Evelyn made this awesome bookmark at VBS.
It's got pigtails!
Isn't that adorable?! :o)
Friday, July 19th, was Military Appreciation Night at Zephyrs Field, so we got to go to a Minor League Baseball game for free!
And we had the best time!
The kids had tons of peanuts.
And popcorn.
:o)
And we had wonderful seats.
Seriously, no zoom! :o)
The kids all brought their gloves, so when we found out our seats were behind the netting, they were a little disappointed. But then - the other team threw the ball home to try and get our guy out, and it bounced off our guy's helmet, and then it bounced right over to Evelyn!!
Haha - it was so awesome! After she grabbed it, everyone was shouting, "The little girl got it! Hold it up! Hold it up!" And she did - and everyone cheered! And she was sooo happy! :oD
Go Evie!!
Later, they had cotton candy.
And the New Orleans Zephyrs won! Woohoo!
Then it was time for the fireworks show...
And yeah, it was the best fireworks show ever.
They played patriotic song after patriotic song, and yeah, it was really neat. :o)
Even Emily stayed awake to see them! "Wow! Look!"
What a great night. We really think we'll be heading back to this ball field soon. :o)
The next day we went to a birthday party for our neighbor where the kids had pizza, got to go on a water slide, and then we all had a massive water balloon fight.
Yeah, our summer rocks. :o)
And it's not over yet! :o) The kids still have a few weeks before school starts (first day is August 21st!), so we're trying to squeeze in some fun here and there while Daddy finishes out all the Night Duty he's had to stand lately (but he'll be back on days again soon, woohoo!) We hope you enjoyed seeing all the summer fun we've had so far, and hope that everyone's having a great summer of their own! :o)
Laters!
