You're The World To Me

THe other night, right before my run, my Dad said something that I couldn't stop thinking about throughout my entire run. He said, "You know Ash, I look at all these pictures of these boys you put up and jeez, I feel like I really KNOW these little guys!" And my reply was, "I know, that's exactly why I do it!" I love the digital era and the fact that it does enable us to share our lives with all the people all over the country whom we love and don't get to see, in person, as much as we would like. And I can't tell you how much I love hearing that some of you can't start your day without checking out blog first, although it does make me stressed when we have not been as prompt as usual with updates ;). But I absolutely cherish all of you and how you go out of your way to make our family, and now even all these amazing kids we spend our days with, a part of your world. It means so much to me because all of you are so much a part of our world.
All day long we talk about all of you and we'll even look pull out your pictures, another advantage of the digital era- I am never without pictures. We talk about your favorite things and find things throughout our daily adventures that remind us of you. If you have ever spent any amount of time around a 3 year old, you should know that they NEVER stop talking! And all of you are our constant topic of conversation. "I'm 3 and Scott is 1 and Lil' Katie is 2 and Tanner is 3, Charyotte is nossing cuz she is actually a baby, right?" "Mom! Mom! Yook, yook at dose birds! I bet Nonna sure would yike dose birds cuz Nonna yikes birds, right?" "Mom, you yike green, right and Holly yikes green but I yike boo and you know who yikes boo, Mom? Grandpa Bi-oow yikes boo, too, right?" "Hey Mom! Yook Mom, yook Mom! She has a cross on her neckyace yike Nana yikes crosses too!!" "I would yike to have a nack, Mom, cuz I yike to eat nacks most of all. Granpa Youie yikes breakfast time, right Mom? But I yike nacktime most of all and I-iie wud yike to have a nack! Ok?" I mean it's nonstop and it's usually pretty random and very hilarious.
They love you all so much and you have all been so wonderful to them and such amazing influences on them already. So I just wanted to say thank you again to all of you who have let us in and made us a part of your world and I hope you all know that you absolutely mean the world to us. We love you all! And here's a little bit of what we've been up to lately.

Goode Company Brunch

We couldn't very well go to Houston without making our regular stop at Grandpa Mike's favorite eatery, Goode Company Taqueria so we had brunch there on Sunday before we headed home and of course the kids had a blast with the fountain.

Supers

Nonna got the kids each a new pair of Super Hero PJs and we were forcing those poor kids into them all weekend long to get pictures of our lil super heros. So cute.

Pool Time in Houston

Oh we had so much fun in Houston for Kyle's cousin, David's wedding. Liz, Parks, Lily Kate and Charlotte came in town for it and we were soooo excited to finally meet Miss Charlotte and see how much of a big girl Lil' Katie has grown into! She is talking up a storm and is so much fun!

Canoe Kids

So these pictures were not taken with the new camera, I didn't want to risk pulling it out on open water. But we took Skyler out to Barton Creek on a canoe ride and had a lot of fun. And I know, I know they don't have their life jackets on but those life jackets basically constrict their movements to laying and rolling only, they're not even capable of sitting up in them. And the water is only like 3 feet deep so we ditched the jackets. With them rolling on the floor of the canoe, tipping over was a definite possibility but once they came off, it was smooth and steady sailing and we had a lot of fun. Check out that giant turtle under those two ducks!

New Camera

Here are some shots with the new Olympus E-410 Digital SLR camera!! It is so cool, and we haven't even figured out really how to use it yet! I'm headed to my first photography class this Thursday, we got 4 classes free with the purchase of the camera. So hopefully the pictures will get better and better! Wish us luck!

Barton Springs Kayak Trip

So on Monday, we didn't have any extra kids and we were pretty bored! So I took the boys on a kayak trip down Barton Creek and into Towne Lake and we had an absolute blast!!

Scotty had to have his hands in the water at all times and Jack had to have his feet in the water at all times and surprisingly enough, the balancing act with the three of us in the kayak wasn't too difficult! We saw tons of turtles and these ducks followed us the whole time we were on the creek side, which the boys really got a kick out of!

After our kayak trip, we went for a dip in Barton Creek. That water is not the cleanest but it is the coldest and it felt pretty good despite the filth!

And we ended our afternoon with some delicious snow cones, which Scotty LOVED and ate all by himself!Jack's keeping one eye on the pigeons, they were pretty vicious and were very interested in his snow cone.

It was a great day!

Ft. Worth Zoo

Here we all are at the Ft. Worth Zoo! That zoo is so awesome, there are so many different things to do and the way it is set up makes getting to everything and being sure to see everything really easy so it's doable even with 5 kids and 4 adults! We had quite a group! It was so much fun and as far as we could tell, Tanner thoroughly enjoyed his birthday!