Lake Trip - Memorial Weekend

We love that our family has a place at the lake. Its a 3 hour drive for us, so we don't get to go as often as we'd like. But when we do get the chance to go, its always a blast. Lots of fun on the water, some relaxation, and always lots of food. This Memorial Day Weekend we loaded up the car (it seriously looked like we were moving) and made the trip on Friday after work. Of course it took us longer than expected, we had to stop too many times, and each stop lasted way longer than it should have. I guess with 3 kids I should be used to this, but I always seem to forget. But we eventually made it and had 3 full days of fun in the sun. 

Headed out on the boat the first day.

Brooks DESPISED his life jacket!!

Had to take his mind off of it. 

First attempt at fishing...

No luck that time...so we moved on to this....

Brody and Matt tubing...Brody LOVED this.

So it was my turn to try it out with him. I was surprised at how much fun this tube actually was.
Not pictured...My sis Shelley and I rode together, and our little brother was driving the boat. Apparently he had lots of built up aggression towards us that he took out on us on this ride. I thought I was going to die multiple times.

I don't have any photos of day 2. After church, we headed down to the sandbar/beach area. We had packed a lunch and had a beach picnic. We spent the day playing in the water and out on the fast boat and tubes. By the end of the day, we were all pretty exhausted but it was loads of fun!!

On the boat ride back to the house.

Sleeping while sitting up

Carson didn't sleep, of course, so he got to drive.

On Monday we headed out for one more attempt at fishing so we could have a fish fry for lunch before we headed back home. 

2 of my cute boys

Waiting patiently....

And it paid off! They caught one at the same time!

Still examining his fish

Catching one more. The boys caught quite a few fish and were loving it. Looks like we have some pro fishermen on our hands. 

Not a great pic from my phone, but they also loved riding the golf cart around everywhere. 

Hopefully we'll get to head back to the lake again this summer!!

August Lake Trip

The weekend of Matt's birthday we planned a lake trip with my parents and Matt's parents. Its so great that our parents all get along so well. It allows us to do fun little trips with both sets of parents and allow them all to get to experience fun things in their grandchildren's lives. 

So, on that Friday, Matt's parents squeezed in with us into our loaded down Expedition and made the 3 hour trip to the lakehouse. My parents had gotten there earlier and had all our rooms ready for us. We stayed Thursday night through Sunday and had a great time playing in the water, tubing and wakeboarding and getting way too much sun. 

Brody closes his eyes to block the wind when the boat goes fast. He closed them so long that he fell asleep at the wheel! 

Carson trying to decide if this mud thing is going to work out. 

Not pictured: The mud was a hit. He was covered in it!

Brody giving Papa a mud bath.

This boy LOVES the lake. We had to drag him on to the boat to head back to the house.

Daddy and Carson

Learning how to pull in the anchor

The boat ride back to the house at the end of day 2. 

Sweet boy was worn out after 2 days playing in the sun. 

The last morning the guys (minus Carson and Brody) went out and caught a bunch of little yellow bass. 

Brody is keeping an eye on them while we take a picture.

And when one jumped, he WAS NOT happy about it.

Thanks mom and dad for being such great hosts! We had a great time! Can't wait to come back!

Happy Birthday Car-Baby!

I can't believe you are ONE! (you turned one on July 16th..Momma is just a little late on the post) You have been such a joy to us this past year. Your contagious laugh, your care free laid back attitude (most of the time), your love for your big brother, the way you snuggle, your love of books (mommy really loves that you like to sit in her lap and "read"), the way you light up when daddy walks in the room...I could go on and on about all the precious things we love about you. You are truly a little gift from God. I can't believe that you are almost walking and are even saying a few words. This past year has FLOWN by. We love you so much Carson Jace (Sharson Jace according to Brody!)

We celebrated your first birthday with a POOL PARTY! We joined in with Cousin Cole and had a joint family party for you both. Cole turned 2 5 days after you turned 1! How fun is that!! Trent and Andrea let us use their super nice apartment pool for the party and it was a hit! We all had so much fun relaxing in the pool, splashing and celebrating your life.

Our Party Pavilion

Carson swimming with Nina

You boys loaded up!

Leigh Ann and I worked hard on these cute pirate cupcakes!

Carson was a little unsure at first! Brody was ready to help you out.

Cole knew exactly what to do!

He finally got the hang of it

Opening gifts..a book of course!

Cole checking out his new puzzles!

Summer Rewind

We've had a great summer so far. Trips to the pool, trips to the lake house, a getaway for mom and dad and more. The boys beg to be outside everyday. No matter how much sun screen we put on, these little ones just get darker and darker by the day. Thank goodness they have their daddy's skin! Here's a photo recap of a couple of our summer adventures.

The New Family Lakehouse - June 18-20

Matt and Carson headed down to the boat house to see this...

Brody catching his first fish! 

He was so proud of this big catch..and the many more he caught!

Mom and Dad's Weekend Away in Arlington - June 25-28

For Father's Day, and just because I have a wonderful husband, I surprised Matt with a trip away to Arlington. We left the kids with our parents for 4 days and got some time away just for us. I had a few things on the itinerary, but mostly wanted a relaxing time for us to get away together. 

We saw this monstrosity of a football stadium.

Supporting the former Aggies who now play for the Cowboys. WHOOP!

The LARGEST tv/big screen/whatever in the world! It has to be right?

I was much more impressed with the Ballpark at Arlington. Beautiful :)

We saw Josh Hamilton hit the longest home run in park history at this game! We love him bc he loves Jesus and has a great testimony which he is not ashamed to share with anyone, even the media.

The rest of the trip was spent shopping, eating, more eating and just enjoying some time away without kiddos. Thank you Matty for going away with me!

And last but not least....

Carson took 5-6 steps one night. He hasn't done it since. But I think he'll take off any day now! 

Upcoming posts...Carson turned 1!

Its Summer..Its Summertime. ITS SUMMERTIME! (Thank you Yo Gabba Gabba)

This is just a few pictures of the fun we've been having this summer! Today is a rainy, nasty day so we're stuck indoors. The boys just stare out the storm door, watching the rain. Brody says "Its raining. Yuck" and Carson just looks up at me with those big eyes as if he's saying "Mommy, why can't we go out?" So here's what we wish we were doing!

Here's some fun rainy day activities. Building a big boat!
(See those cool underwear? We gave it a try. After 3 weeks and talking to some moms at church, we decided that we weren't ready. We're going to try again in a few months after we figure out what's going on with all of his medical stuff.)


Playing Peek-A-Boo when Mommy comes to get you up.