June 15

Happy Father's Day JC!!!

JC wanted to have breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.

What a rowdy lookin' bunch.

And watch out for Bacon Boy.

Back to the stockyards where JC and the kids beat our original time through the cow maze.

E tries her skill on the bull. She didn't like it to much.

Now as you can tell, S loved the bull.

Taking our photo with a 'real live Indian'.

This is the same cowboy and cow that we took a photo with when Heather and I went on vacation with the kids two years ago.

Finally home and they the girls change into their best cowgirl duds and play.

The boys were playing cowboy and indian, but you'd never guess it by the costumes.

June 14

This is nuts. I guess I didn't realize how nutty I am until I actually saw this all in black and white. Here we go...

Drove S to Plano to meet his buddies at the Eisenberg SkatePark to help Celebrate MW's b-day.

Happened upon a children's festival in Plano. M and C had a blast riding the train, touring the old steam train, getting their faces painted and visiting the Disney Radio booth. Here they are meeting Elsie the Borden cow. (The girls are with Tom and Val doing the 2008 Autism Walk.)

Cane pole fishing in the pond.

Matching balloon hats. (That is a lighting bolt.)

Grab up all of my kids and leave Lewisville to meet S and co. in Plano at the Zumiez Couch Tour skate demo and festival.

Sweaty hot boys that have been skating all afternoon.

Super b-day mom with kids that she has driven from Austin to Plano for a skate-a-riffic b-day bash.

Back in Fort Worth getting ready to head over to the X-Fighters. Happen upon the horse riding cowgirls that will carry the flags during the show. They were all so sweet and very happy to take a picture with our girls.

Pretty tired, but all still smiling. Happy to be at our first ever motocross event. Thanks DAD! :)

Horse rider girl up at the top of the hill holding the American flag. Gotta love it!

Not many good pictures of motorcycle stunts - they were just too fast.

Me and kids in front of huge X-Fighter banner.

Highlight of the whole night - meeting Travis Pastrana. S had been talking about him all week. The greatest motocross athlete ever. And on top of it - he is a sincerely nice fellow. Everyone in our family was thrilled to meet him. Naturally, I was in the bathroom and missed the whole thing.


JC always works so hard and is always so happy to share the perks of his job with me and the kids. We are so thankful. What a great night and a great opportunity to do something that we wouldn't normally get to do!

June 13

Day of fun with the Dallas Janiks.

Start the day off by taking the kids to a waterpark in Lewisville. A great time was had by all - especially me and Val cause we got to gab all day long! Of course, my favorite part was the shopping. I normally HATE to shop, but Val makes it all seem a little better. The last time I bought a pair of shoes was Spring Break 2007 with Val. This time I bought two pair and some bling bling sunglasses! Thanks Val. :)

Little Thomas and Little Jeff.

Girls having so much fun being together!

Again with the extreme sports - S ran all the way across these floating lily pads and never fell in!

Big fat buddy.

Val trying to lift Sam over the wall to unlock the bathroom door. It didn't work.

Big Jeff, Big Thomas and Big Beer.

Fuzzins. (Hear J saying in her best valley girl voice - 'you know mom, like friends that are cousins')

Not a bad lookin' one in the bunch!

Big big treat. C got to come back and stay with us in the hotel and the girls went back to the Janik house. What a load of fun!

June 12

JC is going to Fort Worth to work the Redbull X-Fighter competition. We are lucky enough to get to go along.

Thursday - The kids and I spent all our time at the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Cool kids wear sunglasses (and sunscreen).

Cattle drive through the stockyards. Fort Worth is the only city left in America that still has a daily cattle drive (and in their case, it's twice a day).

JC is always smiling and working hard while we goof off. God Bless him.

These are some of the cowboys and cowgirls that work in the stockyard. We spent a lot of time talking with these folks. I LOVE the fact that they are city employees - their horses and clothes are provided by the city. They get to meet people from all over the world, wear a costume and ride around on a horse all day long. Maybe we need to move to Fort Worth so I can do that job. :)

Last stop before heading to the hotel pool - Fort Worth Water Gardens. A little smaller than I remember from when my cousin Teresa took me there as a kid. Still incredible and our kids really loved it. Thank goodness JC could take us - cause I was pooped!

June 8

Our very favorite Uncle Chris and MarCar. We love them SO much. The kids love them so much. I am so so so glad that they found each other - and that she'll let all of us hooligan's into their beautiful home! :)

And by the way - the people in their neighborhood are on crack for paying this price for gasoline. JUST CRAZY!!!

June 7 #3

I was so tired after leaving Ms. Tracey's house that we decided to stop in Houston and stay with Uncle Chris and Aunt Margot. We couldn't get them on the phone at first, so Jeff took us to the 59 Diner to eat some dinner. It was a really nice treat - we use to eat here all of the time when we were first married. The kids loved it!

P.S. Notice the keys from Ms. Tracey on the table???

June 7 #2

Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.

I am thankful every single day for my Longshore family. Our car is busted and we really couldn't do a rent car much longer, so Tracey let us borrow her truck until ours is fixed.

The kids LOVE Ms. Tracey - she's like a grandparent to them. As always, she gave them each a little trinket from her home - E & J got a load of scrapbook paper, S got a light that you put on the wall and when you touch it, it will come on and M, well, he got a set of old timey keys. He's been carrying them around ever since. He loves them.
I was taking pictures of her house to send to Heather. I got tickled tonight when I looked at this picture because I just noticed what the TV said. Ha ha!

Me and my other mother. The pics. are mostly for my Heather - but we love Tracey so much, that I wanted to so you what a special person she is!

Ms. Tracey has the most beautiful Santa's all around her living/dining area. Well, M LOVES them and is still talking about them. I know he likeS the Santa's, but I especially think that he likes the fact that it isn't Christmas time and Santa is everywhere! :) I told him to pick out his favorite and I would take his picture beside it. So here they are - M and his favorite Santa.

June 7

Piano Recital Spring 2008
Very best teacher - Ms. Jan.
Most delicious food.
Beautiful grand piano to play our pieces.
Thank you Jan!


You might notice there isn't a picture of J - well, that's because she was invited to spend 5 days in South Padre Island with her good friend. It was hard for me to let her go - but man-o-man, was she ready.

June 3

School Talent Show 2008.

Our girls performed a dance routine to a High School Musical 2 song. They worked very hard and with the help of our friend Tamara, it was a great success.
(E is the dancer lime green top and skirt and J is the prop girl in the pink top.) Also, notice the school principal running out to get the beach balls basically as soon as the girls throw them. Hee hee - it cracks me up.


Now these next two videos are of our new rising star. S and his friend J put together a routine all on their own (no parent help), made a budget, bought costumes at Goodwill and BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN! I am SO proud of these kids because this is completely out of S's character to do something like this. It was a surprise - they didn't tell any of their classmates what they had up their sleeves. When they tried out to be in the talent show, one of the adult judges commented that this was the first time they had a cross-dressing act! When we got home the night after the talent show, he had messages from a few of his classmates congratulating him and two of the teachers at school called to tell him how proud they were of him! WAY TO GO S & J!!!

Whole performance - S is the kid on the right hand side of your screen. You might notice how the crowd is laughing the entire time.


Part of performance - closer shot so you can see him better.


And thanks to Kim KaRob and Tim for shooting the videos of our kids. I don't wish we had a video camera very often - but this is definitely one of the times!

May 31 - June 1

For the past few years we have gone to Mo Ranch around the first weekend in June. Well this year our plans were a little goofy since school went into June. We still went - and had a great time with our special Loth/Weaver friends, but we sure did miss our Janiks and Cunninghams. Here is a little glimpse into our very very fun filled weekend.

Who can even believe how big these kids are???

Photo by E - she is turning into a great photographer!

Family photo in our beloved Texas Hill Country. There is no place better than the Guadalupe River!

Extreme frisbee.

Extreme rope swing.

And this is a picture perfect shot of M trying to keep up with S!

Good times with good friends!

Me and my girls just hanging in the river.

Our kids NEVER get tired of their dad throwing them into the river.

Yearly picture on the way out. Always so sad to leave!