Gardening apparel

From almost nothing

to our Sunday best,

the Dallas girls know what to wear for maximum comfort during gardening.

An open apology

Dear Canon 50D,

I REALLY wanted you before I got you. I want to invest more time in you and allow you to thrive and flourish. I am sorry that you often sit at home and feel ignored for weeks at a time. I am infinitely more sorry that I did not zip up the Canon bag. Because of my inattention to detail (or the insane amount of children I am responsible for), I hoisted the unclosed camera bag onto my shoulder and you tumbled onto the cement driveway. I immediately picked you up even as I endured snide comments and nasty looks from your wanna-be owner. At first (maybe because you were still stunned), you performed fine. But later (at a most critical and important moment), you refused to behave properly and my oldest children's baptism pictures will forever be blurred. For this reason and to avoid future memory loss, I sincerely apologize for dropping you. Please accept my apology so that we can continue building our relationship. I promise to take better care of you and be ever vigilant in your presence.

Thanks,

Beth

Mooing on up!

Grant is nine months old today. He has grown and matured so much in the last few weeks.

He:

has four teeth (two on the top and two on the bottom)

weighs 19.3 pounds

is 28 inches long

can pull up to a standing position

refuses to crawl but scoots on his bottom to get where he wants to go

learned to clap last week

cruises along the sofa and the ledge of the fireplace

can say mama and dada

plays peek-a-boo by covering his eyes with his hands

loves to stand on his daddy's hands

has started sleeping through the night (thank you God)

likes to pull his sisters' hair

eats just about anything that is offered

wears size four diapers and 12 month clothing

and

likes to float in the pool.

We recently purchased a new (to us) mini-van. We bought two more car seats so that both of our cars could transport all four kids. Here is Grant in his new cow-covered car seat. Look closely and you can see one of his top teeth.

Grant also likes to eat his grandma's crepes with blueberries.

You decide

a super tired little boy

OR

a neglected fourth child

Baseball update

We finished the season with a 13-1 record! The improvement in most of the kids was nothing short of amazing. Zach can now hit the ball (hard) and steps up to the plate with confidence. Calyn has become quite the second base(wo)man. She can field the ball and throw it to first to get the runner out. She still needs a little work on covering the bag when the ball is in the field.

We had our last regular season game on Saturday and survived the 110 degree heat. Even the cookies I made survived.

We play in the play-off tournament on the 19th. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes.

Days 4 and 5 - Country Living

After San Antonio, we headed to the Kerrville/Fredericksburg area. A friend of Tim's from his grad school days agreed to let us visit.

We arrived Saturday afternoon to this beautiful sight. Brian and his dad BUILT this house. It was amazing. Everything was so quite and even the country air smelled good.

Brian had a wedding to attend in Fredericksburg so we followed him into town. We walked and shopped a little before having dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant had cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. I was excited.
Sunday morning we woke up and took a tour of Brian's ranch. We visited goats and sheep, jumped off the porch 1000 times, rode the 4 wheeler, rode in the golf cart, ate grilled hamburgers and homemade strawberry cake, went for a run, and swang on a tree swing.



After all that, we headed to Brian's other ranch and took a tour. It was 2000 acres, so the tour took quite a while. We saw cows, a working water windmill, and lots of cacti. We also walked or swam in a little stream. The twins thought it was great.

We fed the kids an early dinner and then let them watch a movie while the adults ate. I could have stayed much, much longer. I really enjoyed being in the country and all of the fun my kids got to have. We will have to go visit again and SO appreciate Brian's hospitality.

Monday morning we headed to Austin. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory. So good! Then we headed to Pflugerville to hang out with Aaron and Ashley. The kids played the Wii and jumped on the trampoline all afternoon. Once Dana and Caleb got home, we went to eat at Chuy's. It was a short visit but good to see the Whitmire family (most of them).

On Tuesday we travelled home.

We had such a good time.