A First

Julia participated in Fast and Testimony Meeting today. I was SO proud of her.! She asked me if she could bear her testimony, and I told her that if she wanted to, she would have to do it all by herself. She did a great job, I wish I had a picture of her; although, I understand why pictures are not allowed, it would definitely detract from the spirit if people were constantly snapping photos of their kids bearing their testimonies. Anyway, I feel like it was a parenting milestone. It was a great day.

4 month stats

13 pounds 12 ounces 26 inches 3 shots and she didn't even cry! The shirt was a Christmas gift from Uncle Nathan. If you can't read it, it says, "If you think I'm good lookin' you should see my uncle."

Artistic

Julia, I think, shows great artistic potential. Maybe it's just because my only previous experience was with Ryan, whom I had to force to color and draw and he got frustrated quickly. It seems to come naturally to Julie. Maybe she'll become an amazing artist like my brother Jeff!

Egg hunt

We went on an easter egg hunt. I, like usual was a procrastinator and threw this together ten minutes before we did it with things I bought on a whim Saturday night. Oh, well, the kids had fun anyway. The last picture is of everyone enjoying their loot!

Look what the bunny brought!

Look what the Easter Bunny brought to our house! Go Cougars! The elementary school here actually has a day at the first of the year where you are supossed to wear your favorite college's shirt. Every year I have been unprepared, but no more! Next year my kids will wear the blue and white with pride! They even know some of the words to the fight song, but that's neither here nor there.

backaches, layouts and webkinz

Well, this is my newest layout. Everything I used is from Kay Miller's Happy Hearts kit. Right now, for some reason, I am fascinated by who looked like who at what age. This is all five kids at one month old. See if you can tell who is who without cheating (I put their names really small somewhere in the picture).
I am totally obssessed with Webkinz. www.webkinz.com. I got my kids each one for Easter because I happened to be at the hospital and the gift shop was selling them for 50% off. It looked like so much fun, and in my estimation my kids were doing it all wrong, so I went and bought myself one. Now I have two--Geraldine the turtle and Ponchovilla the Gorilla. It's all I want to do. I actually had Webkinz dreams last night, sad, I know!
I also forget how hard it is on the back to have a fairly new baby. She's at that phase where she wants to be held upright all the time so she can see what's going on. Her swing and bouncy seat frustrate her because it lays back too much. Her walker frustrates her because her feet don't touch the floor and she always ends up too far forward. When I lay her on her back on the floor on a blanket she immediatley rolls over to her tummy, and then she gets frustrated because her face is in the blanket. Aaaahhhhh! MY BACK HURTS! I either have to try and do everything one handed while holding Hadley, or I have to listen to her cry. What's a mommy to do? And when I'm holding Hadley the big kids always want to be right where she and I are. They talk to her and oogle and google at her, and then I can't turn anywhere without bumping into someone or having to reach across Hadley and the other kid to get something. I'm always twisting and turning in odd contortions. Oh, well, I really went off on a tangent. But I actually feel MUCH better now, so, thanks for listening. If anyone out there has helpful back solutions, be sure to leave a comment. May the force be with me this week as Scott leaves tomorrow for Minneapolis Minnesota and won't be back until Friday. Then next week he leaves Tuesday for Salt Lake City and won't be back until late Friday night. Any and all prayers in my behalf will be gratefully accepted! (Especially considering that last week was Spring Break! I'm a little frazzled already!)

Newest Layout

I love the way this one turned out!. The solids are by Bren Boone. I used Kay Miller's Over the Rainbow kit. And the pink and blue are Raspberry Road's Vintage Baby kit. The Acrylic Alphabet is by Claudia Campbell.
I love it because it shows all five of my kids when they are just one day old. I used all of their hospital pictures. It's not my favorite picture of Ryan, he looks a bit like an alien. I'm going to do a similar picture of them when they are all a year old. So, tune in again in November when Hadley turns one. Maybe I'll do one at six months too!

Rolling

Today was the day! She did it! She's getting SO big. She rolled over all by herself. She's getting SO big and she's just growing WAY too fast.

Bowling

We dropped $50 at the bowling alley today to give our kids a new experience. They loved it! There was a weird couple next to us, with two little kids and one on the way, smoking with miscellaneous body piercings, you can imagine it I'm sure. I actually won! Scott came in second, with Ben (thanks to my help) a close 3rd.
Julia got herself into all different kinds of strange contortions trying to get the ball to go the way she wanted.
Ryan watches his ball creep down the lane.
See, strange contortions. (Last photo)

The Herd

We found this sign as we were walking back to the car. I thought it was interesting, but didn't really have time to read the whole thing so I snapped a pic.
Flat Drew watched the cattle from the diaper bag on the wall that is in front of the Visitor's Center.
Here they are, those famed Texas Longhorns.
One of the cowboys who were herding the. . .well, the herd.

Ft. Worth Stockyards (cont.)

The Grapevine railroad line runs from the Stockyards to Grapevine. It was pretty cool to see an old train there.
I kind of wished we were taking a ride on the train instead of waiting for cattle to parade through the street.
Julia found this saddle and wanted a picture with "Flat Drew" on it. Do you see his Texas marshall's badge. We got that at the Visitor's Center.
They also found a little ride they told me was "free". "We don't need any money," they insisted. I hope they didn't break it pushing it around without putting a quarter in.

Ft. Worth Stockyards with Flat Drew

 
We took our cousin's "Flat Drew" to the Ft. Worth Stockyards. It was a fun day. We found this neat mural.
 
We held Flat Drew for a photo op.
 
We saw an indian and his horse.
 

Reptile Island

 
This is Ryan's school project. We patterned it after a Kimodo or Komodo Dragon (from everything I looked at it was spelled half one way and half the other, so who would know). He's learning all about mapping. Compass Rose, Legend, Peninsulas, Islands. It's pretty cool actually. I just really hate the school projects that are more like mom projects. I swear I did most of the work, and I was even trying hard not too. We followed their advice and started at least two days before it was due so it could dry, but we must have made our map too thick, because it wasn't dry by the day it was due. We had to name cities and rivers on pieces of masking tape. Ryan got an 84% and it was all my fault. I got so frustrated that I asked Scott if he'd be willing to help. BIG mistake. I don't know exactly what happened, but Ryan didn't get enough "guidance" on the Legend, he didn't name the ocean and he didn't write a paragraph about his island, thus the 84% on an easy squeezy project he should have kicked butt on. Oh, well, at least I'll know better for next year when Julia does the salt dough mapping project.

Another one bites the dust

 I'm not sure I'm loving this bicycle riding thing. I'm losing all of my control over everything. It scares me to death thinking that they're going to get hurt. And it seems like it's all that Ryan and Julia want to do these days. On the other hand, it is excellent exercise and I'm glad that Ryan wants to do something other than play on the computer and watch power rangers. Today I went out and Julia was riding her two-wheeler all by herself. What is the deal?
  I remember it taking me like two weeks to learn how to ride, and my kids both learned in a matter of days.
  Here are Ry and J riding together.
  All the kids get in on the action.

The Fruits

Here are the fruits of Julia's labor. I think her decorations turned out pretty cute!