Another Fun Filled Weekend…

We had another full weekend!  Had some people over on Friday evening to look at the Charger.  Brandon and PaPa had the car in it’s first car show on Saturday in Wharton.  It won 1st in 60s muscle cars and also got the Participant’s Choice award so they were pretty proud!  It was so hot on Saturday so we stopped in at the show for a little bit to get some pics, then headed to Bay City for a little boutique shopping – found some cute stuff for the kiddos!  Then, we got home and changed and made it to 5:00 mass, then got home and changed again and headed to Greek’s to celebrate Brandon’s aunt’s birthday – so fun!  This morning we woke up early and decided not to waste a minute of the beautiful day, so we headed to ATX – my FAVORITE place in the world.  The kids were soooo well-behaved –no crying on the way there or on the way home.  We just headed to the drag and browsed a few shops, then headed to Hula Hut to enjoy the beautiful view of the water and some yummy food.  Then, went by the greatest place on earth – Hey Cupcake – and picked up the best food you’ll ever put in your mouth and headed home.  Very quick trip, but Brandon and I can’t go too long w/o going back to Austin, so we got are fix for atleast until Cassie pops :)  Got home, rested a bit then headed to the Zabodyns and my parents to deliver cupcakes.  Ate some crawfish for probably the last time this season :( and took a dip in the pool.  Got home and ran and now we’re calling it a night/weekend – whew!!!!  Here are pics! :)

 

Let me take this time and these beautiful pics to do Mallory’s 7 mth update – she turned 7 mths this past month.  Right now here’s what she’s up to:

-crawling

-still just two bottom teeth

-pulling up on everything

-likes to eat paper

-says “Mama” but in a very whiney way – just used to get what she wants; not in reference to me

-starting to also put her “bas” together, as in “baba”, but not in reference to anything

-plays Pat-a-cake and can clap on her own

-eats all fruits and veggies and oatmeal and rice cereal – stage 2

-drinks “juice/water” from a sippy cup

-wears 6-9 mths clothes

-still sleeps through the night but loves to cuddle w/ Mommy and Daddy around 6 every morning

-hates taking naps but is finally starting to develop a morning nap time :)

-thinks her brother is the best thing in the whole world

-loves splashing in the water

This is my first camera strap cover that I made the other day – turned out quite nice.  I’ll be making more soon as soon as I get some new material!!!!

How do you like my new bow?  My Mommy made it for me to match this adorable outfit ;)

MeMe and Date enjoy swinging – ha!

This picture looks really great blown up – just happened to catch the sunset in the reflection of the car on Friday evening…

That is Date’s reflection on the side of the car…

We have LOTS of patriotic apparel, so since the theme of the car show was “Freedom Fest”, we dressed the part – of course!  (check out another bow by Mom, and she also had matching shoe bows to wear on her new sandals…)

Date decided this was “his” bike and asked Brandon if he’d build him one like Scotty’s – oh great…

Dayton liked the cars, he loved the bikes, but he ADORED the tractors ;)  He was in his element and the Chappels were nice enough to let him “try” theirs out!!!

Scotty and Mr. Rice had their bikes down for the show and it was so great to see them.  Here are their awesome bikes – they are super great!!! :)

The Boys and their Toy…

Picture from Austin today.  As you recall, we have pics of Date in front of this giant Bevo from almost every time he’s been to Austin starting when he was 6 months – so Mallory, you’re a month late, but it’ll do – here it is – Mallory’s first trip to A-Town…  Don’t worry, we showed her all of the most important spots – this is where you’ll go to school, this is what the mascot looks like, this is where you buy clothes to support the greatest team around, here’s the stadium, here’s the awesome tower, here’s a great restaurant called the Hula Hut and here’s where you get great cupcakes (which she did get to taste – shame on you Mommy!)

Okay, not the greatest picture, but just in case you ever wonder where our kids get their eyes – they’re MINE! :)

Look at my old boy – wow…

Notice her new pull toy on her carrier – a cute little bevo that plays “The Eyes of Texas” – how great is that?

What’s my guilty pleasure – omg – these outrageously wonderful cupcakes from Hey Cupcake on S. Congress.  Don’t ask me how many points they are – too many to count – that’s why I ran when I got home tonight ;)  That is their new Sweetberry one – strawberry w/ strawberry cream cheese icing and the other is the Michael Jackson (It’s been called that forever) – chocolate w/ cream cheese icing (that’s my absolute favorite)!!!!

Okay, sweet dreams :)

Bittersweet…

Last night, we had the chance to have a wonderful dinner w/ some great friends, but the only problem was that it was a “going away” dinner for Traci and Charlie.  I have loved having Traci so close to us the last few years and she’s really been there for me and helped me so much.  Between having babies (me) and getting married (her), it seemed like life was just starting to settle down and now it’s time for them to leave – boo!!!  They will truly be missed but we promise to make the long, boring drive up to Tyler to go visit ;)  Here’s to hoping that this stepping stone in the journey of life brings them one step closer to home (EC)!!!!  Here are some pics from our 3 hour dinner:

 

Rachel, Neil and Alicia:

Neil popping the cork on the good-bye bottle of champagne:

 

Wonder if I tipped my good waiter? haha!

The girls – me, Alicia, Traci and Rachel

The gang: Rachel, me, Brandon, Neil, Alicia, Traci and Charlie

We’ll miss you guys dearly!!!!  We haven’t broken the news to Date yet; wonder how that’s going to go down…

More crafts…

Okay, so summer has led to me thinking I need to be crafty.  Not only have I taken up sewing, I’ve now moved on to bow making.  Took a tutorial on it on youtube and now I’m a pro!  I decided to do this b/c I ordered Mallory some of the cutest little sandals that have slots for bows on both feet so you can change them out – I mean come one, these were made for Mallory – something else to attach bows to, we are so in!  Can’t wait to get them in, but I’ve started making bow pairs to use in them.  I also made Bryn a little shirt yesterday while she was over at the house.  She just got a sewing machine, too and I’m sure she’ll be better than Aunt Jenna in no time at all!

Meet the newest addition

to our family – the ‘69 Hemi Charger.  This may be a post you want to share w/ the men…

Brandon is soooo excited after three years in the making, to finally have his baby home.  I am amazed by Brandon’s love for this hunk of steel!  He adores it.  Dayton, like Daddy, is very fond of it, too but doesn’t understand why he can’t even “touch” it at all.  I must admit, it’s a beauty if you’re in to this kind of stuff.  There’s a whole story worthy of a blog all it’s own that goes along w/ this car, so if you’re interested, get in contact w/ my husband – he’d LOVE to sit down over a nice cold beverage and tell you all about it!!!!

 

(Side note:  I took all of the following pics.  I was pretty excited about some of them – I think they made for some great pics.  So, while I may not be that interested in the car itself, it makes for a great shoot subject – it just sits there and doesn’t talk back – love it!)

 

 

This is my favorite pic:

Date’s first ride in the car – if you look really close you can see his hand on the window seal – haha!  The seats are that low – you can’t even see his little head!!!

 

Miss Mallory…

Mallory’s been trying new things – tunnels and popsicles – fun, fun, fun…

Here she is hiding in the tunnel.  Where is my Mallory????  Oh!  There you are pretty girl!!!

 

Mommy and Mallory are in big trouble – they split their first fudgesicle the other day while Date was napping.   Of course, she LoVeD it!!!

Here’s the proof…

Dad Rules!!! and some other stuff…

First and foremost, Happy Father’s Day to all, but especially to the best daddy and husband any family could ask for – we love you Brandon, and I couldn’t imagine our fairytale playing out in any other way – what a perfect life we live.  You are an awesome dad to our two kids and I am proud and blessed to call you my hubby! :)

*Dayton sported a “Mom Rocks” shirt for Mother’s Day so it was only right that we wear a “Dad Rules” shirt for Daddy Day!!!

 

So now on to everything else.  So, here’s what we’ve been up to over the last week.  I could literally write the story of our lives if I just looked back through pictures – we’ve got pictures of every day that we live and breathe – good times!

Now that we’re crawling, we are into everything!!!  Here’s what happens when Mallory gets ahold of one of my magazines.  And, Date doesn’t like these kind of messes, so he immediately goes and picks up all the pieces (including the main chunk of magazine) and throws it all in the trash – so I don’t get to finish my magazines either!

Here is my first attempt at a bib for Miss Mallory.  It’s not the greatest, but I am experimenting every free second that I have w/ my sewing machine.  The only way I’m going to learn is to just dive in and try new things, so until I get decent at it, you guys will have to enjoy my pictures of my home-ly products and poor Mallory will have to enjoy wearing them :)

 

Mallory’s new swimsuit cover up; made from a bath towel by none other than, Mommy…

She woke up from her nap the other day and was eating her snack, so I started snapping away at her in her new bib, when I noticed her shiner – check out the eye.  Not sure where we got that first bruiser, but it didn’t last long and it was rather cute ;)

Here’s a good one of the slight shiner and the cutey-patootey two front teeth!

Chillin’ in her newest bathtub.  I had so many snuggly towel and bath pics of Date when he was little and I’ve really failed Mallory in this area.  It’s just so hard w/ two of them bathing at the same time to get pictures of her during her bath time – sorry.  This isn’t the best pic, but it will do and it does prove that this little girl does indeed enjoy her bath time!

We finished swim lessons on Thursday – thanks Miss Stacey for an incredible time.  Hope you don’t mind me posting these cute pics ;)  Date was hot and cold when it came to lessons.  One day he was all about it, the next day he was screaming his head off.  I have to say that I am proud of him for trying new things and he is so much more confident in the water than he was before he started!

Here is Mallory sporting her cover-up before we went swimming at the country club the other day.  The pool out there is perfect for babies and little kiddos.  We love going over there.  Who needs a pool when we’ve got this one a golf cart ride away????

Brandon and Date practice what he’s been learning at lessons…

So happy to be swinging on Thursday evening…

 

Okay, another one of Mommy’s pieces – I made Dayton some little boxer shorts.  I wasn’t ready to tackle this task apparently, they ran very small in the crouch area and gave him a wedgy – he still insisted on sleeping in them on Thursday night.  Guess he didn’t want to hurt Mommy’s feelings – how sweet.  Not sure why he’s posing like this – I don’t see underwear modeling in his future…

Who wouldn’t love to wake up to this on a beautiful Friday morning???!!!???!!!

This is what happens when Mallory insists on helping Big Bro w/ the Father’s Day cards…  No, don’t adjust your computer monitors, that IS a big blue marker spot on Mallory’s foreheard…

I don’t have any good pictures of it, but here’s my first outfit I made.  It’ s a red print w/ tiny anchors all over  The little bloomer shorts are ivory w/ the anchor trim and blue bow accents – sew fun ;)

We bribed Dayton w/ anything and everything to get him to finish those swim lessons.  Here’s his new waterslide for the bayhouse that DeDe and PaPa got him…  We took it to MeMe’s today where we had lunch w/ some great fathers.  Here they are trying it out!

That’s all I’ve got for now.  No swimming this week, so we’ll be back on our library/museum schedule and I think we’re going to see Toy Story 3 tomorrow! :)