Ain't it the truth?

My Girls

Cue The Temptations . . .

A day at the beach

Sunday after church we drove down to Galveston to spend the afternoon. I have to say that the beach in September has it's merits - less traffic, less crowds, less heat.
Rob & Laney hang out at the water's edge
Kathryn teaches Elena to look for shells

Laney tries her hand at flying a kite.
This kite was the most frustrating part. We've had it for probably 6 years and ever since we bought it we've meant to take it to the beach to get it in some good wind. (It spends most of its time on display upstairs) We forgot it last year and at our trip earlier this summer. This weekend we finally remember and there was almost no wind. This is the highest it ever got and it took some work.

After a couple of hours we got cleaned up and headed into town to a dinner Rob's company was hosting. Part of the deal was they wanted to take group pictures on the beach in matching Hawaiian shirts. Here we are at the resort hotel. Elena was even able to get into the Hawaiian theme, thanks to her Aunt Tara. Thanks for the outfit. Here's the hubby - Secret Agent Rob.
This is what happens when you try to get computer guys to wear shorts!
And I leave you with a family pic. The resort where we took the company pictures and had dinner has some beautiful spots to take photos, it is a popular wedding location. I hit a few of the popular spots and will post some pictures of the girls later in the week.

Happy Anniversary, Derrick & Katy!

Wishing a very happy 2nd anniversary to 2 very special people. We love you, Aunt Katy & Uncle Derrick.

Love, Rob, Heather, Kathryn & Elena

From the Random as All Get out File

Today's blog is brought to you by the letter "ARRR!" and the letter "AYYYE!"

Happy National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Because I'm a follower

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE ? My middle name came from a character in the Pallisers, I think. I never can remember the name of the book.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Friday, at a funeral

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Depends. When I try, I have very nice handwriting. I've been paid to address wedding invitations.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Turkey? I'd rather have chicken salad.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? 1 by birth, 2 by marriage (if the hubby counts) and 3 with 4 legs

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I hope so.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? I'm trying to cut down. I'm in a 12 step program. Really, I'm getting better.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes, much like Tara I never had reason to take them out.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? definitely not, I'm afraid of heights and paying that much for something that lasts a matter of seconds

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? If I have to eat cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No. But I rarely wear shoes that require ties

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? nope. that's why I ask the hubby to come be strong so much.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? french silk has recently unseated mint chocolate chip

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Not sure. Can't really think. At work I tend to try to place accents.

15. RED OR PINK? red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Gee I feel like I should be sitting across from some therapist paying money and waiting for my mother to join us on a conference call.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Several friends I've lost touch with. I was just thinking of a few today.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? If they feel like it. It was a thing to do.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? light blue, no shoes

20.WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? grilled chicken burger

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? the TV.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? green?

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? turkey roasting in the oven, vanilla

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Rob

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I picked it up from Katie and Tara and they're pretty awesome

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Hockey in person. Football and Baseball if I'm in a revved up group

27. HAIR COLOR? brown

28. EYE COLOR? brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? nope

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Shrimp in the Oven (a Mama Leone recipe)

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings. I still get bad dreams from scary movies. Although, they do give me a reason to snuggle with the hubby.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Stardust. IT WAS AWESOME. Gotta re-read the book

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? red

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? winter, if there's decent snow.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Depends on the giver.

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Cold Stone Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Strawberry Mix Ins

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? As much as I hate to admit it - "Deal or No Deal", "The Singing Bee", and "Heros". I'm not ashamed of the Heroes part, but the others . . .

42. FAVORITE SOUND? The sound of my girls playing laughing, squealing until the crying start. Although the silence of my house at 5:15 AM when I am the only one up is kinda cool too.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? the Beatles unless I am in a very specific mood

44. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? I am going to guess The Grand Caymans.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I'm pretty decent at sewing and I like to think I have decent eye for composition. I used to be good writer, but that one's pretty rusty

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Dallas

Extra Credit : Mc Steamy or Mc Dreamy? WHO?

Geeks & God

Our summer break is over, and Rob and I back to teaching Sunday School. We've got a new team teacher, Matt (of mobius strip fame) and the kids are in trouble. We've started up a River's Edge curriculum called "Kaboom! - Discovering Who God Is" Rob and I have taught it before and it is soooooo cool. The idea behind it using simple science experiments as analogies for the aspects of God. It's only downside is sometimes the kids get so busy having fun, they forget the analogy, so we spend a lot of time asking, "Now why did we make slime? How is an exploding 2 liter like God's love?" That and Rob, Matt and I are having such a blast that the kids get a bit bewildered at times.Matt as Dr. Beeker, our brillant host.

God's love fills us in the same way that the gas created by the reaction of warm water, yeast and sugar filled this balloon.

This is what happens when you mix half a box a Mentos with Diet Soda.

This is what happens when you give a die-hard fisherman a pole. He decides to see if anything is biting on Mentos today.

And the reason for the exploding soda - besides an amazing first week that's got the kids begging to come back - Nobody can love us as much as God. When He bestows his love on us, we overflow with love, like the foam overflows out of the soda.

We also learned about King David and how as a shepard boy he provided for his sheep, just as God provides for us. We ended up with slime. That was a trip. It really separated the girls from the boys if you know what I mean. Why slime? Because God's loves moves through us and fills us as slime fills every crevice of its container. Is this cool or what?

I leave you with this week's memory verse - "Let us love one another, for love comes from God." 1 John 4:7

What's an eight letter word for Laney?

A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E

My petite young thing

First, holding on to summer:
How cute is this? She did this completely on her own. She was in the living room playing with Kathryn while Rob and I got stuff ready for her bath. Next thing you know she comes toddling down the hall, pail over her arm as if to say, "I'm ready to go back to the beach!" It'll be a few weeks, but we're going baby.

Yesterday was Elena's 12 month checkup and thus the post title. She is 30 inches tall and 18 lbs, 15.5 oz. That puts her in the 75% for height and the 25% for weight. The main thing this means is that she's too tall for the infant car seat but too light to face forward just yet. So we installed the big car seat in my car last night and Laney has a new tv chair (eg. her old car seat). I'm still debating what to do with the car seat. We really don't have room for it. I am considering selling it on E-bay. Who knows.

Laney's appointment went well. She is developing on or ahead of schedule. She's discovered that shots suck! (At the past appointments with vaccinations she cried during the shot but was better almost immediately) Yesterday, she fussed for a while after the shots and about the time she was better the flobatomist came in to take her blood - which meant she wasn't happy until sometime after I left her at the day care.

Turns out the little monkey is borderline anemic, so I have to figure out how to get her to eat meat. Wish me luck. We actually have quite a long list of foods to try, there just aren't many she is willing to eat right now. When she first started on table food she was crazy for veggies, now she ignores them. If she had her way, she'd live off of Chef Boyardee and fruit. But I'm in charge, so she's being fed green veggies and lean chicken and beef. To top off these food troubles, I am also in the process of weaning her off formula and the bottle. Fun, fun, fun!

One Year Old Portraits

We took these on Labor Day. They're not the best of Elena (I think that was her 6 month old shoot) but they were still pretty good. She's a bit too active for portraits right now. She had other places to be and why did I keep brushing her hair? She certainly didn't want it brushed. I'm just going to call it realism and be done with it.

We brought along her favorite teddy bear, Ginger. Kathryn made this bear for her at Build-a-Bear last July.


A cake with a velcro candle wasn't the best plan for my velcro obsessed baby. She kept taking the candle off.

This one would have been great if she hadn't decided to run her hands all over her head right before it was shot.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Happy Anniversary Mike & Tara

Wishing you two many, many more years of happiness.



Love, Rob, Heather, Kathryn & Elena

It's her party

And she'll cry if she wants to. I'll get to the story on this picture in a minute.

Sunday was our little monkey's birthday party. It was relatively small - my parents, my brother, and some family friends came over to celebrate. First Elena and Kathryn unwrapped presents. This involved Elena yanking the cards away from Kathryn before she could read them, Kathryn ripping the paper just enough so Elena could finish the job, and playing in the tissue paper that Mama Janie stuffed into her gift (an entire package!).

She got a Popper from Uncle Ronny & Lauren. She spent more time playing with the ribbon than the toy.

Kathryn is showing Elena the gift she got her - a set of Fisher Price Monkeys. The cake for everyone who wasn't having a birthday
Elena's cake - pretty ain't it. It's a small yellow cake covered in Redi-Whip.
The birthday girl and her candle. Kathryn blew out the candle and then the tears began.
We have a couple of theories on this. 1) Sixteen people had just sung at her in sixteen part harmony and were staring at her, clearly expecting something. 2) The day care teacher has told us that she gets stressed when there is too much food on her plate. Once I cut the cake down to size and people backed off and she discovered what was under the whip cream, she dug in, well after she made her offering to the dog (dropping a piece on the floor). And proceeded to be the neatest one year old ever. So disappointing. No two handed smash. No whip cream in the hair. Just a dainty little pincer grip picking up cake and putting it in her mouth. (Sorry to my Mom for catching her putting cake in her mouth) We get more results out of Chef Boyardee.
Kathryn's buddy Natalie joined the party and gave Kat someone to hang out with.

A case of Champagne - almost. Dad, Carl is missing from the shot. Brian is showing Elena how her new magnetic matching barn works. Andrew is torturing my stuffed cheetah.
After the party started to die down, we took the little ones into the back yard to play. We're going to show this picture in their wedding slide show. Andrew is keeper. He refused to go home until he finished "kweening the twile" with the Popper. A boy that vacumns, perfect for my little neatnik. Right, have you seen her eat spaghetti?
My brother the engineer showed Elena how to build a bridge out of Mega Blocks. Elena showed him how to knock it down.
This picture was too cute not to post.

This is the last birthday gift. My friend Neil couldn't make the party, but came over yesterday and brought Neil the Penguin with him. They dress alike, so the name made sense. (Those of you who know him, get the joke) Elena loved this little guy and carried him everywhere yesterday.This was the biggest part of our Labor Day weekend. The rest was shopping, 1 year old portraits, and minor construction. My dad and Rob made plywood covers for all of windows that will install quickly in case of hurricane. Spending that kind of money pretty much guarantees that no hurricane will come near our part of the Gulf before we move. Yup, you have us to thank. But it makes us feel better knowing we could stay put for most storms and not have to take a 20 hour drive to Dallas.