Week in Review

Even with all the rain this week we have had a great week. On Monday Todd was off work so we took the kids crabbing. They love it and had so much fun. Here are the boys helping Emily check her net (she checked hers like every 5 seconds so it took awhile before she caught something).

JT stands ready with the net to help daddy pull up the crab from the string.
Here are some of the 14+ crab we caught that day that were keepers.
Emily finally let her net sit long enough to catch something. It was one of the bigger ones for the day.
We brought them home and purged them and cleaned them and then we made seafood gumbo with them and some of the red fish Todd had caught a few weeks ago and some shrimp.
Our big dilemma. The boys have a bathroom that they share. You can only get to if from their rooms. Now Emily's room is by the hall bathroom (guest bathroom) so I guess this is her bathroom. So for awhile I have debated on painting and fixing the hall bathroom for her, but I don't want it to kiddy as it is also the guest bathroom. Todd says who cares and let her have her bathroom cute for her. So I gave in and as part of her birthday present we bought all new stuff for her bathroom and we are painting it. Here is what it looked like before and as soon as we finish it (hopefully this weekend or early next week) I will post the after pictures.

So last Wednesday the kids were bored and wanted to invite some friends over so I let them. Here are some pictures of the boys playing on the slide. The girls didn't want to do the slide so they are in the pool. Emily is in the pink swim cap. She swims so much that the ends of her hair are so green and dry. We have started making her wear a swim cap to help reduce that a little. She only has to wear it at home.

Once again yesterday we had a swim meet. The boys did so good. They both beat all of their past top times. They get better every week. They are such strong swimmers now I don't have to worry about them so much around pools and lakes. Here is a picture of Dylan (green cap in lead lower right hand corner) on his 25 yd freestyle.

Here is Dylan on his push off for the 25 yd backstroke. This is his event. He is a strong back stroker.

This is JT on the last part of the 50 yd free style. He is in the green cap just a little behind.

Here is JT (green cap next to the diving board) on his start off of the 50 yd freestyle.

The meets are kind of long and there is some down time in between the events that the kids swim so they have fun hanging out with their friends playing games. Here is Dylan and some friends playing a travel sized Sorry game.

That is about it for this week. Next week is our last week of swim team. Can't wait to start sleeping in a little. Time for me to get back to finishing Emily's bathroom. I need to go shopping to pick a few more things. Have a blessed week!

Updates

I added several new post so if you want to see why we have been so busy lately make sure you scroll all the way down to see it all. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy sharing it. Thanks for coming and checking us out.

Corpus Christi

We had our annual trip down to Corpus Christi so that Todd could train aboard the U.S.S. Lexington. The kids and I hung out at the beach and hotel while Todd worked. The first day Emily did not like the sand. She would try to walk real slow hoping not to get any in her sandals. She was cracking us up.Here is a sweet picture of Dylan and Emily walking along the hotel towards the boat to go meet daddy for lunch.
There is a pier by the boat that we go to every year and there a tons of hermit crabs. My kids love to get them and watch them. They put them on the sand and the hermit crabs kept trying to walk off so they took their shoes and built a wall around them.
After playing with the hermit crabs we decided we needed to cool off with a snow cone with some friends. My niece Tori went with us too.
Emily and Dylan at the bottom of the ramp that goes to the boat.
On Wednesday we got to go on board and watch some of their training on the out edge of the boat. Here is a picture of Todd waiting to lift some one up.

They each take turns being the patient needing rescuing. This is Jerry hanging on the outer edge of the boat.
Here he is being dropped down to the bottom of the boat.


Here are some of the family of the workers watching Jerry.

On the second scenario Todd was the patient in this basket they had to drop down.
Then carry him to the other side of the boat to strap him to another rope.
Then they had to lift him up to a different level.
We had fun watching. After they were finished we went for a tour of the boat which is a museum. Here are the kids in the brig

And one of them in the submarine like thing.


One of them on a stage with Old Glory.

This is painted on the wall of the barber shop.

We love looking around the boat and it is so neat to see that it is just like a little city. They have a post office, dentist office, doctor office, barber shop,etc. all on board. It is hard to believe that people live on things like this and I have had a new respect for all service people since the first time we went here 3 or 4 years ago. They do great things to make the USA a great place for me and my family and I thank all who have served, are serving or who have had loved ones serve!

Here are some pictures from the beach. We were able to get in the water this year. Last year we didn't because the jellyfish were so bad, not this time. I love this one of Emily.


Here are the boys. After dinner on Wednesday a bunch of us got together on the beach to play some football. Most of the kids got in on the action as well. It is so nice that Todd works with such great people who have wonderful families. We all get along great and really do enjoy spending times like these together.

Playing with cousins

So like I said in a past post the weekend of Emily's birthday we had family in from out of town and they stayed through the weekend. So after lunch on Sunday the kids wanted to cool off in the pool. Dylan, Emily, Lila and Alyssa are waiting for the water to fill up:

Alanna, Alyssa, Lila, Emily and Dylan splash around:
Alanna loved having the water hose, but would cry if it accidentally turned and got her wet. Here she is getting Alyssa, Lila and Dylan.
JT had been playing at Mimi and Popsy's house. He wanted them to take him to the tractor supply so he could buy a trap and trap wild rabbits (there are lots of them out here). I said no we already had one rabbit and didn't need any more especially wilds ones as they may have diseases. He was not happy about that and sat out by the driveway pouting for 30 minutes or more. I guess he thought I would give in, but I didn't.

Father's Day

For father's day we of course went out to eat at Pappasitos again. Here is a picture of Todd with the kids before we left when the kids gave him their card and presents: Here is my dad and I at the restaurant:
Hope everyone else had a great day too!

Emily is 5!!!

It is still hard to believe that my baby is 5! She turned 5 on June 16. We had a little party here at the house the Saturday before her birthday. We were blessed to have lots of family and friends come and feel really blessed by all those who came in from out of town! Thank you so much for making the trip!

Here is Emily at the hospital the day we brought her home:

This is her at her party playing in the little pool with her cousin Linus:Here she is sliding down the slide with some of her friends:Here she is with her 2nd or 3rd cousin (Todd's cousins daughter) Lila eating pizza:All the kids lined up to hit the pinata:Emily with her cakeBlowing out her candles:She got lots of great presents and was so excited over all of them. One of them was that 3D chalk. The kids got up the next morning and tried it out. It really does have a floating (3D) effect, it was really neat!