Blue Bell Creamery

There are many nice things about summer break, but the one I love most is that my girls get to spend time with their cousins. Today we made a trip (a first for me) to the Blue Bell Factory in Brenham. Had a short little tour then enjoyed a cup of deliciousness for lunch.

My sprouting girls enjoying all the ice cream decor.

The cousins and Durr kids, minus baby Krew.

Riding the cow...too bad I didn't catch it's name...

I know everyone loves Blue Bell, but I am still a Dreyer's fan if I have to eat ice cream.

Blue Bell ice cream is the 3rd selling ice cream in the nation...go Blue Bell.

"How's that different from any other day?"

There are so many quotes that we have taken from tense moments and incorporated into our lives on a daily and even weekly basis that make us laugh. The title of this post is one of them. It's from Daniel Lawton...thanks, man. So it's Father's Day and both Mark and I would like to say, "How's that different from any other day?" In asking what "special" meal he wanted, he rattled off a list of 5 or 6 ideas, stating that everyday is Father's Day because he gets fed daily. So I make him hiyashichuka.

Hiyashichuka

He eats, then cleans up the dishes because that is what he does on his "special day" and everyday. Then we have FART time on his "special" day (FART stands for Family Afternoon Rest Time)...it's something we do every Sunday, except for this Sunday I rest for longer than he does. And to make the day even more "special", we have FHE and then play games...well, we do that every week, so really, how's that different from any other day?

Here is how it is different...he got BREAKFAST!

Homemade cinnamon rolls, hot out of the oven!

But truly, it is a special day because I have been blessed with a wonderful husband of twelve years and my girls have the best father. On his special day, we are reminded that he is actually our special gift. We love you Marklavious! Thanks for being the best of the best! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

June Recap

Will I ever become a true blogger? Probably not...so here goes, another month's recap of what has been going on in our little world.

The end of May was fast and furious. I met with a childhood friend for lunch. She was in town for a museum conference. Hadn't visited with her since before my mission so it was a nice treat to see her. Thanks, Katy Knight for taking time to watch me eat, literally!

May 26th-27th was a fast trip to Dallas for Mark and I and while we were gone my newest nephew decided to arrive, Krew Dalton Erwin! We met with our new accountant and felt a little blown away with what we need to do to prepare for the future, but it was very good and we are excited for the challenge. Thank you Sabrina for watching our kiddos!


May 31st-5th Grade Party...need I say more. Leilani along with the other 5th graders enjoyed a day in honor of them with a talent show, Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and tons of water fun outside! They are celebrating the last days of elementary school...can you believe I have a middle schooler now?!?


June 1st-The last day of the 2010-2011 school year. It's been a great year for the girls and we are so ready for SUMMER!

Swim practice is now every Tuesday through Thursday in the morning and the girls are loving spending time in the water to escape the hot Texas heat. It's a great way to start the day.


June 3rd-4th-Mark leaves for Port Aransas for a High Adventure fishing trip with the scouts. He leaves with 22 boys, 8 canoes, 1 trailer, and 3 cars. He comes home with the same, minus one scout tub...oops! While Mark is gone, we decide to go on an adventure ourselves. We team up with Miss Penny and her clan and head to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. We come home with everyone we left with and all our gear! Haha!

The week of June 6th is a reminder that I am getting old...on the 6th I have a doctor's appointment with the hand specialist to see what's growing in my left hand...it's just a ganglion cyst and he removes it right on the spot...not expecting that at all but now it's gone. Just some numbness and pain in my hand a few weeks later. The following day I am at another doctor's appointment, I want to get my pterygium removed from my eye, but the doc wants me to wait....not happy. Then Thursday I go in for my mouth...yes, a sign that I am getting older and not neccessarily wiser as I was unable to tell the opthamologist that I wanted to proceed with the eye surgery. I'll wait till school resumes and then I'll see if I've gained any wisdom to voice my opinion.

11th-Finally returned the canoes from the scout high adventure and spent the day in Beaumont with Grandma and Grandpa Lawton, and Uncle Dave. It was awesome and relaxing! Enjoyed some yummy eats and lots of pool time.

17th-We celebrated Aidyn's 7th birthday with a ton of kids in the backyard, two waterslides, an above ground pool, a fun relay, pizza, pizza and more pizza and lots of presents from generous friends. Thank you all!!!

18th-The girls have their last dual swim meet and Aidyn places first overall for her freestyle! Way to go Ai!

Now that's a June recap...doubt that pictures will come, but atleast we have a reminder of what's up in our life. Don't you just love it?

May Recap

It's been a while since I've blogged, but it's not because there hasn't been much going on...it's because we have been so busy that there isn't any time! A quick recap of May with details and pics to come.

Swim team started for Aidyn and Mia, Leilani opted not to swim this year

5th-8th: Buffalo New York (Grandin printing press, Smith Family Farm and Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Whitmer Farm) and Niagara Falls

13th: Mia's 9th Birthday

14th: Girls on the Run (GOTR) 5K and Mia's Birthday Party

21st: Girls first swim meet against Spring Cypress and the Memorial Hermann Texas Ironman in the Woodlands, TX

Mia's 9th Birthday Bash

Mia normally has a family party to celebrate her birthday, but this year she decided she wanted a friend party so we had a combined family and friend birthday bash.

It was a full house, or I should say a full yard with lots of food and fun.Xiomara Lira (xiomascakesandmore.com) made this beautiful display of edible yummy's for Mia.

Sugar cookies decorated as beachballs that Leilani and Miguel (Xiomara's son) decorated.

A layerd jello cake with Mia's picture.

An excited Mia. She though the cake was "really cool".

Lots of water games...

waterballoon toss, followed by a waterballoon fight and a drenched Mark, bubbles, chalk, waterslide and water kickball.

Food: Hamburgers and hot dogs, fruit, veggies, and chips

Swimming in the pool

The Ladies (Holly, Cheryl, Sabs, Ai, Mom Lawton & Di)

Grandpa Lawton grilling burgers and dogs

Friends, friends.....

...and more friends!

and finally...presents.

Thanks to all of you who helped us celebrate Mia's birthday! She had a wonderful day!

GOTR 5K Houston

A while back I has asked Mia what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she'd like to run a 5K together. Fortunately for us, there was the Girls on the Run 5k the day after her birthday in the Bridgelands so we signed up to run it. It was Mia and Aidyn's first 5K. They ran the whole thing and finished in 39:05. I was a super proud mom to see what my girls accomplished. Out of the "girls" Leilani placed 3rd (two 35 year old women came in ahead of her) and 12th overall. It was a great time and we hope to run another race together again soon!

My awesome girls who love to run! (They must take after their father!)

Happy 9th Birthday, Mia!

Dear Mia,

Today is Friday, the 13th, and the best day ever because today is your birthday! Today you are 9 and we can hardly believe it. It was a miso soup and rice morning, a sushi lunch and stroganoff dinner with fresh green beans that you picked from our garden...some of your favorites to eat. You are becoming such a lovely young lady and we love being around you. Your laugh is so contagious and fills our home with happiness and your laid-back personality is refreshing and becoming a lifesaver for me with the hormones that we have infiltrating our living space! We love you for your diligence and dedication to do you best at whatever you do, and for the sweet spirit and tender testimony that you have. You are wonderful and we love you, love you, love you! Happy birthday to our Mia, Mia!

Love,
Mom and Dad

Seabrook Half Marathon 2011

Mark is awesome...need I say more. After having limited amounts of sleep because we were camping and staying up late, well, and who can really sleep while they are camping, he woke up at the crack of dawn with Derwin to drive 75 miles to make it to a 7:15 am race start. He placed 1st in his age-group and 4th overall. Way to go old man! We wish we could be like you!

A picture of "the guys" that ran the race L-R (Marklavious, Jeremy Kartchner, Cory Cryer, Brian Crandall, Daniel Erwin). Fast times!

Havasupai Falls Here We Come?

We are planning a backpacking trip to Havasupai Falls this summer...to get ready for it the girls had a mock campout with their sleeping bags and sleeping pads upstairs in the game room.
Their campout didn't last long...they all ended up sleeping in their own beds...the floor just was not comfy enough...perhaps we won't be able to say,"Havasupai Falls here we come" afterall!

Rodeo

The first day of Spring Break did not start with the sun shining or sleeping in...we were up and on the road by 8:20 am so Leilani could have a 90 minute violin lesson and we drove in the most dreary of weather. The sky was dark and the rain came falling down...not what I had in mind. We ran a few errands, had some lunch, went home to crash for 30 minutes and hoped that the rain would let up so that we could enjoy some family fun time in the afternoon at the carnival. By the time we picked Mark up at the office, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and the weather was perfect for playing. The kids had a great time going on rides and playing games. Well, Mia didn't exactly have a good time on rides like this...she gets motion sick too easily!
Aidyn recruited Leilani to go on every vomitous ride with her and loved every minute of it!
This year there was a new exhibit at the carnival featuring butterflies. We went there while Mark checked out the exhibit featuring the Ford trucks!
"Take you for a ride on my big green tractor..." Mark dreaming about owning a big green tractor and the girls singing a little bit of Jason Aldean (yes, I had to google that).
This year we missed the rodeo and barely looked at the livestock but here is proof we atleast had a few sneezes.
The girls spent more time outside playing games and riding rides rather than checking out the livestock show...they are growing up, sad, sad, sad.
Mia surprised us and won a stuffed frog! Fun times for her!
Leilani played a few games and tried to win something, anything, but ended up with nothing (well, Mark gave her the basketball he won).
And look, I am a part of the family! A picture of me and my girls!
Mark holding all the girls "junk" and wondering if spending all this money was worth it.
Ai recruiting Leilani on yet another vomitous ride...oh so fun, especially because there was a boy sitting a few swings behind them that was bawling like a baby the whole time! Hahaha!

It was a fun time, glad we could "invest" our life savings into having an outing that the girls really loved!

I went for a run...

...and came home to see that my backyard was on FIRE. Not really the best thing to come home to...the perimeter of the dark area was lit up in flames about 8 inches high. Can you say random?!? So the first thing I think is, "shoot, I've got company coming on Friday and my yard is on fire", then I thought, I'd better get the fire by the fence under control before the fence goes up in flames too and our neighbor's house burns down. I run to turn the hose on, it is not there so I go on a hose hunt...find it, drag it from by the sportcourt to the spicket and run to the fence, hoping to beat the fire down before it beats my fence up. Fortunately, I was successful and got part of it saturated. In the meantime, I called the office as I was having issues with getting the sprinklers on, told Mark the backyard was on fire and that I needed to have him tell me how to turn them on manually. Imagine, he is in total confusion as I am speaking rubbish about the sprinklers and a fire...I hang up the phone. Eventually the sprinklers kick on (I was doing things backwards) and the fenceline is under control. I am now at ease...

We don't know how or why it started, but are grateful that there was no real damage. The grass will grow back and if it doesn't we'll replace it. Our house is still standing and no one got hurt. It's a little easier to replace grass than a house.

HASSA Musicale

From Janice Kapp Perry to the HASSA Musicale...Leilani performed the Rumanian Dance by Bartok. She played beautifully and I was proud of her for sharing her talent. Though at the end of the day she when I told her how I felt, she responded by saying, "sometimes I wish I didn't have a talent". It was Saturday. She had worked hard all week so she could play on the weekend and that was really all she wanted to do. She woke up early to play at the women's conference and then off the perform at a musical for her teacher. It was nearly 4:00 in the afternoon when we got home and she wanted to enjoy the the day but it was practically over. She was a good sport. When Sunday came around and it was time to play for the stake fireside, she packed up her violin and left with a smile. What a good little girl I have.

Janice Kapp Perry

Leilani was asked a while back to play her violin with a friend, Jarad Cook (on the viola), at the Cypress Stake Women's Conference and a Youth Fireside. The guest speaker would be Janice Kapp Perry. Yes, Janice Kapp Perry. What an amazing woman with an amazing husband. They have both given so much service to the church and to spreading the gospel with her music. I was refreshed by their down-to-earth spirits. I think Leilani will appreciate this moment more in the future than she does now when she fully appreciates who she played for. But for now, she just wants to be a kid and not spend the whole weekend playing the violin.

My DaDDy, by Aidyn

Need she say more? She loves the man! She wakes up extra early so she can eat breakfast with him before he leaves for work. He leaves at 6:00am. She cries on the mornings that she misses him by a few minutes and has to call him on the phone to tell him good morning. She mows the lawn with him. Eats snacks with him. Jumps on the tramp and shoots hoops with him. She's pretty much obesessed him. It's a good thing that she loves her daddy so so much. The End.

3rd Grade Nature Trails

For now, the Cy-Fair school district still has an opportunity to do some fun activities that cater to the kids. Today was one of those days, 3rd grade Nature Trails. Learning outside...does it get any better than that?!? The weather was lovely, the 4 stations were fun and the kids were happy to be outside! I'm glad that I can be a stay at home mom so I can volunteer to help at the "school" for learning activities like this! Mia filling out her worksheet



Lever Station

Some 3rd Grade Friends