snapshots....on a sunday

Been super busy for the last 2 1/2 weeks...maybe longer it seems. Someday, it will all slow down right?? Right??? Oh well, here are some pictures to catch you up.

Joshua got his fourth haircut, but only his second professional haircut in June. My longer wavy haired kid would soon be replaced with a shorter, non wavy haired version.

For July 4th weekend, we went to the cabin in Arkansas. My step-dad, David, wanted to make sure we had enough fireworks....we did. And had lots of fun blowing them up. Joshua was indifferent to them, he just wanted to play and ride the 4-wheelers all weekend. Let me put it this way, he would not have gotten off the 4-wheelers if I hadn't made him.

On July 4th, my family trio went up the mountain to Queen Wilhelmina State Park. We stopped at the sign and took a timed family photo...not the best, but the best we could do in 10 seconds.

The whole purpose in going up to the State Park was to ride the miniature train. Joshua thought it was really cool and actually it was a tiny bit cooler at the top of the mountain.
Here he is at the engine.
Also on July 4, we of course went down to the Cossatot River for a swim. The first day we went, Joshua was all excited about going to the river, then we got down there started the hike to the water and he panicked, "no water, I no want water". On Day 2 he couldn't wait to get in the water.

Here he is sporting his new shirt he got at the Cossatot River visitor center, they do not often have little people shirts. Doesn't he look excited to be waving around that American flag? Yeah, I thought so too.

We stopped at the Texas sign for a family pic. Again in 10 seconds you don't get the best. Jeff stepped in a bed of ants when he got out of the truck. So in my running from the truck to the sign, I was having to leap over huge ant beds. I barely made it there in time for the shutter.

The weekend before July 4, we got a trampoline from my mother's neighbor. They have older triplets and were ready for a larger trampoline. It is a perfect size for our backyard and for Joshua. The shed in the background will be coming down soon, as well as, the sun room (you can't see it in the picture). My brother and his friend Josh and my cousin Daniel came over to help cut down some tree limbs in the backyard to make room for it.

On Friday the 10th, my 3-day team had a fundraiser at Baxter's in Hurst. We will have a Pink Bra Contest there on the 31st. You should come out if you can. They are always a lot of fun. On Saturday the 11th, my 3-day team had a fundraiser at the Grand Prairie Air Hogs game. It is a nice stadium. As we were leaving, the Air Hog was coming back around. He said he could take a picture with Joshua and then offered to hold him. Joshua willing leaped into his arms.

snapshot sunday

Father's Day Edition of Snapshot Sunday.

Just over two years ago, Jeff became a father. Here he is showing Joshua off. He had just brought Joshua out to the nursery. Can you see his smile behind the mask?
This past week has been Father's Day week for Jeff & Joshua. Last Monday, they mowed the grass together. Joshua got to use his Bubble Mower we got him for his birthday.

This morning, Joshua helped Daddy to shave.

After Joshua's bath tonight, they were posing for a picture. Jeff had put his arm around Joshua and without missing a beat, Joshua did the same to Jeff. He loves his Daddy. And without my prompting today, he has been all about Daddy all day today. I had them dressed alike, blue shirts, jean shorts and flip flops. They have the same feet. They were cute dressed alike all day.

snapshot Sunday

It has been a busy week...

Wednesday night - baked cake

Thursday afternoon/night - turned cake into cake pops and made choco pretzels

Friday night - Pappa G's fundraiser for the 3-Day Breast Cancer walk

Saturday - worked on bras for Sunday

Sunday worked on bras until time for the 8.0's fundraiser for the 3-Day Breast Cancer walk

The 3-Day Breast Cancer fundraisers are taking a lot of my time lately.

Also on Thursday, I went to see my OB-GYN and guess what.....I am not pregnant. Duh!!..I knew I wasn't. He had me start Metformin. It tastes nasty...I hate chalk-y meds.

Now...time for Snapshot Sunday (on a Sunday!!!)

Tonight at 8.0's in downtown Fort Worth, we had a 3-Day Breast Cancer fundraiser that included at Pink Bra Contest.

Here is Joshua dancing to band playing. At the end of the video he has noticed the lights that were hanging from the trees.

Here are the bras that Steph and I got decorated.

And here is Steph and I modeling them at 8.0's.

snapshot sunday on a monday again

Here it is Monday again and Snapshot Sunday is late...well...at least you are getting it!!!

We had really nice weather last week. Joshua and I took advantage of one evening and played outside for quite a while. He loves to haul his Cars ball around in his dump truck. On Thursday evening, I left Joshua to wash his hands. He had washed them, I had drained the water out and mopped up the counter and left him to dry his hands. Normally within a few minutes he comes and finds me. Well...this time he didn't.

On Sunday we went out on the my brother-in-laws boat with my sister's family. It was Jeff & Joshua first time out on a boat like this for fun. They both did really well....much better than I who was a nervous wreck about Joshua.

Joshua was like a pro. He had little fear and loved to just stand around on the boat...right in the middle. By the end of the day he was looking over the edge and requesting to "git down" into the water. We didn't get a picture of him in the lake because we were all in the lake then.

This is Jeff tubing for the first time. He had an absolute blast. He held on for quite a long time.

Then my baby went out with his Uncle Brandon. Joshua kept one arm up and extended toward the boat for most of his trip. I will spare you the video...it is pretty hard to video well from a moving boat. When they got back to the boat after the ride, we asked Joshua if he had fun, his response, "no". But he sure did like to watch everyone else tube and ski.

snapshot sunday...

...will be delayed one day. We just got home from the lake and I am exhausted. Will get pictures and a post done tomorrow.

Snapshot Sunday

Here is a dose two of Double Dose Snapshot Sunday.

Joshua tried out the new jogging stroller. We wound up getting soaked because the rain came before we made it back home. The last 3/4 of a mile was in the rain. One morning this week, I think it was Thursday morning...I went to wake Joshua up and he was asleep with his basketball. He must have gotten out of bed at some point in the night and gotten the ball because he didn't have it the last time I went to check on him before I went to bed.

Last night, we kept my nephew & niece...we went to dinner and then back to there house for some pool time. Joshua didn't want to get in the pool and he waited until Mommy came out. Here is Ethan trying to convince Joshua that the pool isn't a bad place to be.

Eventually, Joshua did get in. He was in his float and we finally agreed to let him "get down" meaning out of his float. Once he was out of his float, he wanted to "get down" onto the deck. So, I jumped out and snapped this picture before he got out.

Snapshot Sunday - Memorial Day weekend update

Here is a dose one of Double Dose Snapshot Sunday.

I have been super tired/worn out lately and haven't felt like doing much of anything.

Memorial Day weekend we went out of town to the cabin in Arkansas. It was a good weekend despite some rain. Joshua had lots of fun riding the ATV/four wheelers. And a one point decided that he was leaving. He said his good-bye's to everyone and took off with his dump truck. He got pretty far, nearly to the fence....maybe 100 yards....he would stop about every 20 feet or so to wave good-bye again.

Going for a ride with Uncle Brandon.

Speeding by with Nana.

Alseep on the four wheeler with Mommy.

Video of Joshua leaving.

snapshot sunday on a monday - birthday edition

As promised...Snapshot Sunday on a Monday - Special Birthday Edition.

This is the firetruck couch he got from Buka, Epi, Etan & KD (a.k.a. Uncle Brandon, Aunt Stephanie, Ethan & Kaitlyn.)

He loves this couch and wanted to sleep on it, on his bed last night. Mommy had to say no because it just didn't sound safe.

His birthday cake with smoking candles. After the candles were removed he thought he could just bite the cake.

He had wanted cake all day while it was being decorated. I kept telling him it was too hot and it would have to cool before he could have a bite.

The GeoTrax plane system he got from JJ & Mani (a.k.a. Uncle Jeromy & Aunt Mandy).

It has a remote control and Joshua has been loving making it go...then stop and put the pilot in....then go...then stop and take the pilot out...then go...and so on and so on.

If I can get caught up on some sleep, I will get more pictures up throughout this week.

snapshot sunday

Snapshot Sunday will appear on "Recovering at work Monday". Joshua's party was this evening and it has been a long day. Between Jeff being sick and my lack of planning for the cake. It has been a very L-O-N-G D-A-Y! Joshua's party ended at 9:30 and I am waiting on laundry to get done and I will go to bed. I will post pictures tomorrow night after I recover at work.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

snapshot sunday with a little extra

Saturday morning, my sister and I walked a Training Walk Kick-Off in Fort Worth. It was a 3 mile walk from the New Balance store through a nice neighborhood and back to Central Market. Again, on this walk, my outer leg muscles tightened up. We slowed down and I stopped and stretched. We slowed down some more and I stopped to stretch again. Finally my entire leg was shaking from the pain and I just kept walking. Another 1/2 mile and my leg pain subsided and we picked up our pace. It was humid but a good experience. I wish that I had brought the camera. My sister scored some new shoes from the New Balance store. I plan to get some in a few more weeks when we walk from The Runner store in Arlington...they carry Saucony's, the brand I prefer. Today, I should have walked, but we have been out running around all day, so I will cross train some tonight. We planned to take my mother for dinner tonight. She wanted Logan's, who of course wasn't taking reservations today. The wait was 1 1/2 hours so we headed down to the Arlington Steakhouse, which turned out to be pretty good. The menu said they had a top voted chicken fried steak in Arlington and judging from my nephew's plate, it must have been pretty good.

Now, for Snapshot Sunday........

We painted with Joshua last weekend. Flowers and hand prints for his Nana and Gamma. Jeff and I had fun doing this project with Joshua and Joshua had fun doing it with us. He loves to color/draw/paint/marker or anything else like this.

snapshot sunday

This has been a crazy week around the our house. With the fire at Mom & David's house on Monday morning they came to stay with us. Monday night they went back down the house to pick up a few more things they would need and their neighbor came out to check on them. He said he had something for their daughter, that would be me. The gave Joshua this Leap Frog desk. They have triplets and had saved the best looking desk for Joshua. It has a LeapPad with it. Joshua thinks it is really cool.
On Tuesday night, during our 'outside' time, Joshua sat down in the grass and said "cheese". So Jeff took his picture.
I also have a video that I tried to upload from Tuesday night. It is not uploading for me, so I will try again tomorrow night.

On Saturday, we went to Adam's 2nd birthday party. It was at Leapin' Lizards in NRH. Here is Adam with our Leapin' Lizard party man...aka Mater. They had finally lit the candles on Adam's cake and he clearly thought that was cool. He even blew out all three candles by himself.
Here is Joshua in one of the tunnels on the playscape.

On Sunday, Joshua, who thinks he can climb anything, climbed up on the window sill in the study to see what Daddy was doing. He knew he was cute and in trouble so he laid on the charm...nice and thick.

More pictures on Flickr soon. Have a great week!

snapshot sunday

Bet you thought, I was skipping Snapshot Sunday again, huh?!?!? Well, I didn't. Here you go.

The weather was so nice out this past week. We did a lot of outside activities after work/school this week. On Wednesday, we played outside not long before the sunset with hot wheels type cars Joshua got from his Uncle J.

On Saturday, I had a Breast Cancer 3-Day fundraiser to attend. Mom & David (Pops) kept Joshua for the day. They were going to stay around home, but instead decided to go out running around. They made a trip into Dallas to the Age of Steam Railroad Museum at Fair Park. Joshua loved the trains. There will be pictures up on Flickr soon.

After the trains, they decided they would head over to see planes at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum. Joshua didn't have quite as much fun here, but he was needing a nap.

Per request, here is Joshua's size compared to Chanci's size. I haven't done pictures like this in a while. Joshua was fresh outta the bath in his p.j.'s and Chanci...well...she could use a bath.

Joshua also got a haircut Sunday by my mom. This is what he thinks about it. And, despite how it looks in this picture, it is a good haircut/trim up.

Snapshot Monday

So I went to bed last night and completely forgot about Snapshot Sunday. Since I am still a little behind on editing pictures here are a few.

Tornado damage DeQueen, AR.

I will get the larger pictures uploaded onto flickr this week with more detail about them.

Tornado damage Mena, AR.
Joshua Easter egg hunt loot.
Sharing a snack with Monkey...this is a couple months old, but cute all the same.

snapshot sunday delayed again

Snapshot Sunday will again be late this week. I forgot to take my camera to Arkansas and had to use my mother's. She just left, but I need to get to bed so...Snapshot Sunday will be on Monday again this week.

Thursday dragged at work. The wildfires west of here left the air hazy and smokey. I expected to have problems with my asthma, but surprisingly, I didn't. We hit the road Thursday night and blew a tire in Rockwall. Spent about two hours at a Love's. Good thing we did, as we were sitting around with a blown tire being fixed, tornadoes hit the two largest towns in the area we were headed too. I don't think we would have been in the middle of them, but our delay helped us not be quite so close. Joshua refused dinner Thursday night and I realized that his ear was draining. He had been having goopy eyes all week. When we rolled into the first of these towns, De Queen, we came over the hill and seen flashing lights. At first we thought it was a road block to check drivers out, but once we were in the lights, we could tell it had been a tornado. The damage looked pretty bad even in the dark of night. By the time we reached the cabin in Arkansas after midnight, I knew I would have to call the doctor Friday to see if they would call in meds for him. Friday morning we all got a later start. I called his doctor and played phone tag with the nurse. They did call in eye drops & ear drops for Joshua so we had to venture back to De Queen. The damage in the daylight was bad. A mobile home park had been hit right along the highway. The homes were thrown about and the trees were whacked off in every direction. We got what we needed at Walmart and headed back to the cabin. I took some pretty good pictures and video...part of Snapshot Sunday. Friday night, Mom and David's air mattress sprung a major leak. We attempted to fix it, but that didn't work. Mom nearly scared me to death when she woke me up in the night to take my air mattress. I had a extra with me but it was twin. We aired it up and I slept on it for the night.

Saturday morning we did Easter baskets with the kids. The Easter Bunny hopped right on by and left them for the kids while they were out for a ride. Joshua's reaction was like "oh, this is mine, ok". Then he realized that E & K were taking their candy out of theirs and he joined in....at least until he found this years Easter Car...seems to be becoming a tradition from his Easter Bunny...a cool new car to play with. A short while later, Jeff called for the umpteenth time, I was bothered that he wouldn't stop calling. He said he just wanted to call and tell me how much he was missing Joshua and I. My response was, "yeah, we miss you too, what do you want". (loving aren't I?) He suggested I look over the hill....and low and behold...there he was. I was shocked. Once he got in the cabin, my next response was, "we don't have anywhere for you to sleep". Remember I had given my big air mattress to Mom & David and was now sleeping on a twin. It was decided that Mom and I would drive over to Mena to get another air mattress. The tornado damage in Mena was worse than De Queen. It was devastating. Homes...beautiful homes....old beautiful homes destroyed. There is nothing quite like a home from the early 1900's...the craftsmanship that went into homes back then is amazing. And to see those homes thrown about......it was hard. The people walking the streets....were heartbroken. Cases of water were set out every 5-8 houses. There was a safe haven, where food and water was near the First Baptist Church...which had damage also, as did four churches close by. We didn't venture to far in to the damage, because it was so bad. It made my neck hurt...the stress, the pain, the damage, the faces of the people.

Saturday afternoon, back at the cabin, we did hunt eggs...again while the kids were gone for a ride. Joshua had a good time hunting, but he wanted to stop and open the eggs to see what was inside. He made out with a good loot of candy. Candy that he doesn't need, nor do Mommy or Daddy.

In the night, Sunday...not long after we laid down, it came a storm. Rain falling heavy and hard. At one point it started hailing and I shot up in bed yelling, "oh crap". I woke up Joshua who then had to be comforted back to sleep...or maybe I needed to be comforted by him. After the devastation I had seen in Mena, I had a hard time sleeping with the storm happening outside. Sunday morning, it was still raining. Problem with this is that in order for us to get out to the highway from the cabin we have to get vehicles to the other side of the pond. Not hard to do when the ground is dry. But had 6 inches of water to the bottom and it quickly becomes difficult. The boys loaded 4-wheelers onto one trailer and got it across safely and then came back to take the other trailer of 4-wheelers across. In the meantime, Jeff and I had loaded up the Camero and decided that I would drive it across the dam to the other side. I slipped and slid my way across the dam, got stuck, then unstuck. Then went a different route. And again slipped and slid and got stuck, unstuck, stuck, unstuck, stuck, laid on the horn for help to head my way, unstuck, stuck, unstuck, stuck, unstuck, stuck and finally made it to unstuckable ground. I headed back to camp and my brother-in-law came over to get me. As we were done loading up the final stuff to head out, the sky got a little blue and the sunshine peeked through. Typical....very typical. Nonetheless, we headed home. Stopped and had supper (lunch/dinner) at Applebee's and made it home around 5:30.

Now it is past my bedtime, I will have Snapshot Sunday on a Monday tomorrow.

snapshot sunday on a monday

Turns out our Internet/TV problems were related to the fence raising. Seems we cut an important wire when digging, causing 4 people on our block to be without their cable services. It all got fixed up today!

Here is the fence after the fierce wind storm from Thursday...

Here is the fence after Sunday's Fence Raising Party...

As another note, Joshua used his potty 4 times this weekend....and I am so excited!!! I will blog more tomorrow night. My new shift is telling me that I don't need to be up past 10.