Summer 2011: Part 3 Farm Fieldtrips

Charles’ Grandfather (Dad’s Dad) recently bought a house in Derrider with a lot of land, and some horse stables!  Audrey is our little animal lover (you’ll notice in a later picture that Will takes more after me…likes them from a distance.)  My mother-in-law drove us along with Angela (charles’s sister).  I don’t have any living grandparents and think it is wonderful for the kids to get to know their “greats” so off we went!   We had a great time visiting grandpa and his horses.

The kids hadn’t seen him in quite a while, but never skipped a beat.  I was surprised at how quickly Will took to him – They were buds from the first minute we got there.   Audrey of course remembered grandpa and was just as sweet with him.

 

HA! Will got up to the horses and froze!  He was not so sure about them and hid behind Angela.  His little face was so concerned.  His movement around the horses was so cautious and calculated.. We laughed so hard at him.

Grandpa showing Will that the horses are “nice”

Audrey of course didn’t need any convincing… she was very comfortable around them and enjoyed every minute!

The future veterinarian.. or crazy cat lady.  who knows.

The horses were so beautiful!

Audrey loving on Grandpa while looking at me, Grandpa affectionately looking at Will, while Will is staring into space. such a boy.

Home, Home on the Range… very western looking picture

Angela is finally making me an Aunt! I’m super thrilled about this!!! We have had the only kids on both sides of our family for the last 5 years… I adore the relationship my kids have with their Aunts and Uncles and have been wanting to be one for so long. YAY for sweet Alivia Clair arriving late October!! maybe she’ll land on my birthday (19th??).  I just know will be her favorite Aunt. {WINK WINK}

Audrey was so excited to feed the horses and do anything she could to be near them.

This guy, however, was absolutley hilarious – He was playing in the grass {not too far from this gate} and the horse very casually meandered over near him and barely barely barely, unintentionally touched Will’s back with his nose.  Will never moved so fast.  he JUMPED up with an arch in his back so deep - ran over to the gate, squatted down with his arms straight out and dove behind it.   you had to be there. we all cried we laughed so hard.

I’m sure the horses were telling each other how funny it was too.

sweet old man hands with prissy little girl hands.. love the contrast of the two.   By just glancing at his hands, you can see the godly wisdom,  hard work and life experience right thru them.

Getting one last hug before leaving!

A couple of days later we decided to do another Farm-type fieldtrip and go feed some chickens.  This one still makes me nauseous.  Chickens are dirty, y’all!

I wish I could activate the smell thru the blog, well, actually no I don’t.  But guess who it didn’t bother a bit?! Miss Audrey. She just loves those animals.  She fed the chickens, pet the hens and loved it.  Will and I were only feeling the tall itchy grass, the mosquitos, the gagging smell of chicken doo doo and worried about salmonella.   I would have paid $50 for some hand sanitizer after this outing. LOL… I know my mother in law is hurting she’s laughing so hard reading this.

Ok. this one wants to collect eggs at this point… so the nice lady got all the eggs from the stalls (not sure what you call them) and gave audrey an egg carton.  On our way home I see her touching and playing with all the eggs and I instantly had to remind her that those come out of the chickens “bottom’s” and they were not washed.. hand. sanitizer. pleeeaase!!!

We made some funny memories and had a great time!

The next 4 pics are just for fun.. here is the “lady in waiting”  Also sitting on her egg waiting for it to hatch:

Here is a 3D Ultrasound pic of Alivia:

PRECIOUS PRECIOUS!!

Here is my (great) Aunt Audrey {my mom’s aunt} and My little Audrey.   My aunt Audrey is always soo thoughtful and hand paints ceramics for my Audrey every time we are in town.  I love that she has a collection already and it continues to grow.  Aunt Audrey always goes out of her way to see us and visit with us while we are in town… we appreciate it so much!

This is sort of a recurring theme… sound asleep!

Stay tuned… Summer 2011 Part 4 will contain my mom’s surprise 50th birthday party, Charles’ visit, Audrey’s birthday and Audrey Skiing.  Part 5: is PARRRISS!

Summer 2011 Part 2: SUGAR LAND!

Ah, sweet sweet sugar land! I had no idea how much I missed this most wonderful town until I arrived. GOSH, I love this city. The home of mine and Audrey’s closest gal pals. After Will’s ‘stellar’ behavior in Shreveport, my mom suggested I leave him behind in Lake Charles – great idea. I loved the freedom of not having to work around naptime and just having one very low maintenance child, it was a much needed and welcomed break. Did I mention we had a BLAST?!

Since this is the city where we “did life” it was a great feeling to be back and pick up where we left off, even if it was just for 4 days… we made ‘em count!

Audrey with the sweet Reed girls.

I got to meet my friend, Megan’s little boy that was born after we moved.  His name is Will too! LOL, I just noticed he is giving me the finger here. wow.. he must take after his daddy, since his mama would never do that

We brought all the girls to Sweet and Sassy, and got them all matching feathers!

Audrey is the oldest in the bunch - 5 girls under 5 years old!

After the fun at Sweet and Sassy, we took the girls to lunch at Chick-fil-A where they could play and we could chat.

We left lunch and headed north to Katy, TX to play with the Stanfields.   Audrey and Deacon have been friends since Audrey was born.  Kenzie actually used to keep her during the day for me when I was working and daycare proved to be too much of a sick haven for Audrey.  We love this family and have been friends for such a long time.  It was great to see Kenzie, Deacon, Faith Clare and baby Scout!  We left the Stanfields and headed back to Sugar Land to get ready for a girls night at a Mexican Restaurant.. yum!  Audrey stayed at the Reed’s house and played while Grant babysat. (THANK YOU Grant!).  The next morning we loaded up the girls and Stephanie and I headed for the Circus!  We were all SOOOOO TIRED since we kept staying up late girl talking… no rest for the weary! We packed something in every minute we were there.

We decided to leave the circus during intermission so the girls could eat and rest before the neighborhood party that evening… Audrey and I squeezed in a little shopping before our naps.  We both napped great and I literally woke her up 5 minutes before we walked out the door.

^^The best neighbors in the world!  I stayed at Stephanie’s house who is sitting next to me in the black dress^^  Ironically, Stephanie is from Iowa, LA (just outside of our hometown – Lake Charles.. must be why we get along so well: we are both Cajun girls at heart who absolutely love Sugar Land, TX.  ALL of these girls are so wonderful and I have special friendships with each of them.

The hostess with the mostess!! Kimberly hosted the “Neighborhood Happy Hour” at her house (which lasted until midnight – Audrey stayed awake the entire time!).  I appreciate her offering her home, since she is preggers with her FOURTH baby.  Her oldest is Audrey’s age.  She has a lot going on to say the least!

During the party, they asked everyone to come inside – I got nervous since I wasn’t sure what they were up to – but much to my surprise (and Audrey’s) they threw a mini (early) surprise party for her!  They had a birthday cake, a cute cute card and the most beautiful James Avery charm bracelet with 5 charms!!!!  I TOTALLY cried.   I had been so sad about her possibly feeling slided for her birthday this year… even thought it was awesome that we were going to be in Lake Charles for her actual birthday, she is at the age where she wants a fun friend party.  How great was it that she was able to celebrate with all of her old friends from Sugar Land!  I thought it was extremely thoughtful and proved again, that we have the most amazing friends. 

Me and my Audrey-Lou

Her precious charm bracelet ^^

So Proud! She played with that card for dayyyys afterwards.  It was one of those cards that had a song playing when you opened it.  She would sing along with Rapunzel.

between all of our families, we have 20 kids and one in the oven (Kimberly’s).

Cracking up with my girls

Laughing now remembering the night.  Loved being with them since I realized I had not had any time with girlfriends in 6 months.  It was so much FUN.

When we got back we headed straight for Choza del Rio – My parent’s camp – My cousin, Byron and his wife and kids were coming to visit! Audrey missed her brother and will missed his “sissy!” (that is what he affectionately calls her all.day.long)

Will loves to ride the jet ski.  He calls it a “boat” – My mom was driving him and Allie (Byron’s daughter).  I wish I would have genetically inherited those legs.  grrr. ah, oh well. everyone has a selling point, and well, my legs ain’t it!

My dad, “Cappy” (short for Captain)….well, that is what his ‘grandpa’ name WAS.  Will decided this trip that his name is now Paw Paw… which I love, since my grandpa’s (dad’s dad) name was Paw Paw and he sadly passed away last year.

Sweet Brennan! Such a great kid!

and so is Allie! She and Audrey had lots of fun together while Brennan learned how to ski!

Audrey loves the river and somehow has the energy to play, swim, tube, boat allll day long (she gets it from her Mere - my mom).  I love that you can see her ‘feathers’ in this picture.

He entertained himself by putting ice cubes in beer bottles. ha. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we catch him dabbling in an ice chest for beer. such the wild little man. {Sigh}

and there’s the attitude. He would yell “HOME” when he was done being on the boat.  Both the kids love the water and did so well on boat / waverunner all summer long.