San Jacinto Monument and the Lincoln

Just getting in a little more Texas History before we move to California.

Boys & Mowers

Daddy Time

While I was visiting Grandma in California, Steve had his weekend full of activities for the kids. The girls when to a dance clinic put on every year by the Cinco Ranch Stars Drill Team as a fundraiser. Awesome deal! And the boys went to the community picnic in the park, where they played/wrestled on the bounce house, pet some animals and climbed some walls. It was so much fun they took the girls back later and also got their faces painted.

Girls performing perfectly at their dance clinic.

House Hunting Trip

Well, here we are in Bakersfield, California. Who would have ever thought. Bakersfield is bigger than I thought it would be but still has a very nice small town feel. We spent a week here looking for houses. I'm not sure how many houses I looked at and of all kinds. Coming from a pretty good size house in Katy, Texas to a house in our price range here in Bakersfield was a big task. We had lunch one day with a member of the church, Allen Luthi, who also works for Oxy, and his wife Liesl. We ended up looking in their neighborhood and on our last day here found a house under construction that we liked and were able to make plans for a pool. It is at the end of a culdesac and I think the schools will be good. Our realtor, Lynne Wright, helped us out a lot and seemed to be pretty patient with us.

BlowOut!

Three hours after Steve left for a "boys only" trip to Jicarita Peak, New Mexico with MY Dad and brothers. We had about a 10 minute storm come through. We were out front trying to wind surf on the skateboard when I heard a big crash noise. I walked around to the side of my house and found this:




The side door to the garage was open and the wind was so strong it whipped in through the little door and pushed the garage door out. AMAZING!

With the spring loaded garage door opener all twisted up, it was a little dangerous and my car was still in the garage. My good neighbor and his friend kindly took the door down for me. But then what do you do? My garage was wide open.
I thought I was going to have to buy a brand new garage door, but luckily after a few phone calls and a couple guys coming to look at it, it was just repaired. It did have to stay open overnight, but you know we tend to leave our door open alot at nights forgetting to close them. Now just to add to the story, my good neighbor (secret service man) called the neighborhood police who patrol the area now and then and asked them to keep an eye out on our place. Great! So the next day the police officer stopped by to make sure everything was okay and as I was talking to him I broke down in tears. HELLO!
I think I just a little stressed. I was also so grateful for everyone's concern for us. I had two more visitors. One was my VT who brought me some delicious banana bread and then my cousin Amber brought over some beautiful flowers to say thank you for watching her son. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

A Little Bit of Lauren

Lauren slept in this cute rainbow fairy costume that our neighbor gave her. She is always changing clothes and surprises me all the time with the things she finds to wear. Yet, she looks adorable in everything.

This is just one sample of how she loves to decorate. I find little set ups like these all over the house all the time.

Today she is our Fabric Queen. I got my box of fabric down out of the closet for a Girl's Camp project and Lauren decided to use her decorating talents and taped the different fabric pieces all over the walls and laid it out very nicely on the floor. She did a great job of decorating her palace.

I was sent this cute Thank You e-card from a preschool friend of Lauren's.

She got her face painted at the party like a cat and had lots of fun.

Afterwards, she went to one of our neighbors house to play and was bitten by their cute little hypoallergenic white fur ball dog. I am wondering if it was because she looked like a cat? I am glad to say that she still likes to go over to play and still prays for a dog every night.

These are some pictures I stole from Marci's blog of Lauren and Ella's play dates. So, so adorable!

Special Treatment

After our third year of Cousin's Camp, we decided it was about time to start a tradition for ourselves. So we went shopping, had pedicures and went out to eat at the Olive Garden ALONE. Good Times! Thanks Ladies!

Cheerleaders? Gymnists? or just KIDS?