HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRANDON!!!

Happy Birthday!! The above picture is of the Surprise 3-n-1 Bagging Lawnmower that Brandon's parents, Christi's parents, his brother Bryan & wife, his Grandmother, and then the boys and I chipped in to get him for his birthday!! As hard as they try, the boys just don't do well with keeping surprises. So, we got the lawnmower on Monday and had it sitting on the front porch with a big red bow on it when he got home from work (before Brady & Nathan could even say a word!!). Brandon got to use it Tuesday morning!! Poor guy, had to work to use his birthday present!! HAHA :) Tonight the boys and I are fixing him his favorite meal, chicken enchilada's, and then we'll do something fun somewhere indoors and out of this 108 degree weather! Friday night we'll be celebrating with Brandon's parents with his 2nd favorite meal, fajita's and then he and some of his guy friends are going to play midnight golf on a lighted 9 hole golf course. VERY FUN!! We love you, Brandon, and hope you have an awesome birthday!! Love, Christi, Brady & Nathan

It's a Buggy Life

Yes, it was inevitable as I am reminded by my family when I speak of it!! Brady LOVES bugs!! I'm not sure if he loves bugs because he has been intriqued with all the bugs on the walls of his room since birth or if I decided to make his room buggy because I could forsee his love of bugs. haha :) Needless to say, with binoculars, a butterfly net and some containers in hand, we headed out this morning on our biggest buggiest adventure yet!! We headed for the Greenbelt - which is a local hiking/biking trail nearby. Right away, we caught a little tiny lizzard snake looking creature - it was tiny and yet Brady eyed it as soon as we stepped foot on the soil! Of course, being a state park there are specific signs everyway that actually mention DO NOT TAKE insects, lizzards, etc.... so Brady was a little heartbroken when we had to return it to it's habitat before we left. We walked a ways and then Nathan spotted a butterfly and just kept running and running down the trail - he was WAY ahead of all of us and not slowing down! We did eventually catch up and convinced him that the butterfly was too far away. So we looked for a new one. We really didn't have much luck catching any more bugs although Brady did catch an interesting looking red and black stink looking bug. He picks up ANYTHING!!! It was definately an adventure and tons of fun with our two little bugs!

Brady Holding a snake skin in above picture

To see pics of our 4th of July Fireworks Fun with our church friends, click link.... It was a ton of fuN!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11135127@N00/sets/72157594189733625/

Happy 4th of July!!!

We've had alot of fun this 4th of July weekend(as always!)!! The boys remember everything from last year and have been SO excited about all the events. We wen't to the traditional Teague (my hometown) 4th of July Rodeo with my parents/brother this past weekend. About the middle of every show, they have the kids ribbon chasing event where all the kids under age 8 get to go into the arena and chase one of three cows with a ribbon. Brady had been saying all week that he was going to do it but we were really surprised when he and Nathan both DID!!! It was so cute watching them run in circles and follow all the older kids. Brady really followed and tried hard!! Nathan was more amazed at watching everyone else and didn't really know what to do, but they had fun being in the arena all by themselves!! Brady got his traditional pickle and Nathan really enjoyed watching all the roping and bull riding events, and especially the clown - Mommy, that's a silly (or funny) clown" was the phrase of the night. We got to the rodeo early and Nathan got to ride on a horse with my cousin in-law during the warming up ride!! He LOVED it! We all had a great night and the boys made it all the way to the end this year- 11:40p.m.!!

This morning we went to the parade and the boys are now loaded up with lots of candy!! Tonight we are going to be watching our town's fireworks with all our church friends!! Lots more fun to be had!! Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th!! ~christi