We have a TEENAGER living in our house!

Blake celebrated his 13th birthday on October 2nd.  Wow how time flies!  He is such a good kid.  He even cooperated while I explained that 13 was a big milestone and I wanted some professional pictures taken.  He rolled his eyes quite a bit, but we got a few good ones, especially with his Cougar gear on.  I am so thankful for him and all the happiness he brings to our family.  Happy Birthday BLAKE!

Emily turns 2!

Before this month is over, I just wanted to share a few of Emily's birthday highlights!  It is hard to believe that we have actually had her for two years!  She is definately turning into a very demanding and stubborn two year old.  But her cute smile and funny tricks usually make up for her naughtiness!

This pretty much sums up my weekend!

Why do these things always happen when Bryan is out of town?  Yes... this nice laceration occurred due to yet another disagreement between Jacob and Sarah.  Obviously Sarah won!  This all happened Saturday night while the kids were swimming!  I was mowing the lawn and asked the kids to get the leaves out of the pool.  After only 5 minutes of diving for leaves, both of the kids came screaming to me.  (I should have clued in when Sarah just kept apologizing...she never does that!) I was so mad that I sent them both in the house to sit there and think about what they had done.  About 10 minutes later, Sarah came outside again and asked me if I knew that blood was running down Jacob's neck. At that point, a certain level of guilt and panic set in and I decided to take a look at the poor boy's head.  When I nicely explained that he was bleeding ALOT Jacob began to scream and panic.  I cleaned up his head as best I could and then took this photo!  Nice red highlights!  I knew he probably needed stitches, but I couldn't face the ER lines if I didn't absolutely have to!  So after a few calls to neighbors, I located an ER physician and friend that was home and he walked over to assess the damage.  After nicely cleaning up Jacob's cut in my kitchen sink, he glued him back together as good as new.  Whoever knew doctors still did house calls?  Thanks Dr. Baum...you are awesome!

Sarah's Photo Shoot

Sarah was given the opportunity to take some photos to help advertise a local photo studio.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Here are a few of the results.  Does she really look like she's 10?

Hurricane Ike...Bring it on!

I guess my parents never watched television when I was a child, because we never packed up the car and headed north due to a hurricane or any other natural disaster.  I know Houston was hit hard by at least two hurricanes that I can remember growing up!  According to the most recent weather reports, Hurricane Ike should be heading directly for Tyler after it runs over Galveston and ransacks Houston tomorrow morning.  People here in Tyler are pretty much in a state of panic.  It's pretty fun to watch.  There is no more gas in certain parts of the city and according to reports there are no "D" batteries to be found.  YIKES!  Bryan came home early from work to hook up the sump pump in case our pool overflows and the back porch floods.  Don't worry he also found some bungee cords in the garage to secure other miscellaneous outdoor objects like the fence!!!  I just sat and rolled my eyes.  Poor Jacob has stored food and water in his closet in the event that IKE somehow takes off with our years supply of dehydrated delights in the storage room!  I'm trying not to make fun, but please folks, sit back, relax, and come get some wheat if you need some! 

School Has Started...My life is OVER!

No more sleepin in until 9am or watching the olympics until midnight! It's time to get up at the crack of dawn, make lunches, and sign my name 1000 times to the endless amounts of paper work the teachers send home! I am gearing up for my projects and book reports. Anyone have a good idea for science fair?

Soaking up the Sun in Destin

This will be our Christmas Card 2008...NOT!

As long as Emily was not in the ocean, off of the sand and eating treats, she didn't scream. She still cried A LOT and never did smile once. She pretty much hated the whole beach experience!
Jacob loved the water and got a good tan!
Emily loved the pool. Good thing we traveled so far to find one.
We had a great day at the water park.

The best part was that there were no jelly fish and Emily stayed happy the whole day!

We went boating one day to Crab Island. We had a great time. We found tons of hermit crabs.
Emily wasn't sure of the boat and she sure didn't like the life jacket!

We found lots of starfish.
Sarah even caught a jellyfish...YIKES!

The jelly fish were horrible this year! Luckily we had Jacob there to pee on all our stings.

At night time, we went down to the beach and searched for sandcrabs with flashlights.

The kids and Bryan caught a few.

We even caught a few blue crabs! This one is hanging onto one of the hermit crabs we caught.

To end our summer, we decided to take one last vacation. So... we packed up the car and loaded up the kids and drove all night long. After 10 very uncomfortable hours, we arrived in Destin. Our kids wasted no time, and quickly donned their suits and sprayed their sunscreen and were off to 5 days worth of fun in the sun with their friends. This is our second year to vacation in Destin. It is a huge hot spot for a lot of East Texans to vacation. When my three youngest kids were in kindergarten, their teacher, Mrs. Glover taught a beach unit. My kids had no idea what a beach even was. I was always apologetic to the teacher but would explain that I certainly was never impressed with the beach that I knew...Galveston. So, after a little bit of coaxing from friends, and as not to disappoint Mrs. Glover again, we decided to make sure Emily got to the beach before she started kindergarten. Destin is beautiful, nothing like Galveston. You can actually see your feet in the ocean. You don't have seaweed wrapped around your ankles or tar covering your body when you come out of the water. And most impressive, is the fact that the sand is white and soft. We all had a great time and enjoyed visiting with our friends and just relaxing. If Emily shapes up and decides to like sand, we may even return next year!