First Day of School

Gibson, Grace and I started our first day of school today. They were so nervous they could barely eat any breakfast and Grace talked non-stop all the way to school. As we were headed across the parking lot to the school this morning, Gibson finally told her to,"please stop talking! You are making me so nervous!" We stopped for donuts for the first day and everything seemed to go well. Gibson only got in trouble a couple of times and nothing came home in his folder. His teacher told him to line up at one point and he told her, "Naa, I don't want to..." That wasn't met very favorably! Other than that, I think that it was a successful first day!

Saturday Rides

Olivia (Shane's programmer and my friend!) and I have been riding our bikes every Saturday morning all summer. We ride the Trinity Trails and either head in the direction of downtown or out to Benbrook Lake. We usually ride around 20 miles and try to make it in about two hours. We meet at 6 am to beat the heat. We have seen some really pretty scenery in the morning and some interesting things! Last weekend, Olivia slowed down on the trail in front of me as a skunk ran across the trail. Our biggest gripe on the trail are the bugs in the morning! They get in our ears, eyes, and mouth and generally make us miserable! A couple of weeks ago, I had a pretty spectacular crash and was a complete baby as all of my cuts and bruises healed. We've had lots of fun and has been a great way to get in shape. We are going to ride the Cowtown Classic in a couple of weeks. Olivia is convinced that we can make it 40 miles. I'm pulling for the 20! I'll keep you posted...

Here is a view of downtown in the morning. It's alot prettier in person...

Imagination

I love the ingenuity of kids and their imagination. Grace has been going to day camp with Shane all summer and one of her favorite things to do is to play pool. She has really tried to become a little pool shark because the kids would play for the right to keep the table. She lost every time, but has become obsessed with trying to play better. I turned around the other day to see that she had created her very own pool table at the house and had a killer game going. Gibson wouldn't give her the time of day, so she convinced Hayden to play with her. They used Landry's balls from her ball popper, her stacking boxes and skinny baseball bats.

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Grace cracks me up! She is always very inquisitive and says the funniest things to people. She is much more observant than I give her credit for. One of my favorite sayings from her was from last year. She was on a field trip with her class and was sitting with her teachers on the bus (goody, goody!). They were talking about signs that they had in their houses and she told them, "We have a sign in our house that says, 'As for me and my horse, we will serve the Lord.' The funny thing is, we don't even have a horse!"

Today she was with Shane at work and the conversation went something like this:

G: "Dad, what is it that you do at work anyway?"

S: "Well, I'm a supervisor. I make sure that the center is running well and that my employees know what to do."

G: "So what do you do?"

S: "I make sure that when I get tasks that we are supposed to take care of, that each employee knows what they are supposed to do and I make sure that everyone is completing their job."

She looked at him very seriously for a minute and then said, "Hmm, you don't do anything do you."

My Cowboy

For those of you that know Shane, the thought of him as a cowboy is enough to make a person laugh out loud! He is anything but a cowboy. Well, his brother Terry is getting married this next month and is very cowboy and country. They are getting married in boots, tuxs and black felt cowboy hats. Since Shane is anything but a cowboy, we had to make a stop in Stephenville (sorry Ashley!) on our way back from Brownwood, at a western outlet this last weekend. The sales guy behind the counter felt very sorry for us and fortunately gave us a deal. Here is the finished product! He keeps walking around the house saying things like, "Howdy, ma'am." and "Hey there little lady." It's pretty funny...

Loves to Eat!

Landry (along with Hayden) really enjoys eating. This brings me great joy as Gracie is just coming out of a very long picky eating stretch in her life. There were days when I didn't know how she was alive off of what she ate. Gibson survives off of milk, boogars, and cereal. He has recently decided that he doesn't like pizza because it has sauce and is tired of chicken nuggets.

Hayden really enjoys eating and will eat pretty much anything. (Have I mentioned how happy that makes me?) Landry is the same. She hasn't figured out yet that she might be picky and I'm hoping that she never does...

Anyway, we were at a pool party and Hayden was sitting next to her on the patio eating chocolate cake. She reached over and grabbed a huge handful of cake and went to town! She enjoyed every last bite! I love a girl that knows how to eat...

Love those doctors!

Today I took all four kids to the pediatrician's office by myself. We were getting our before school checkups. I had thought previously that Grace and Gib were both caught up on all of their shots and that this would just be a regular checkup. Boy was I wrong! First of all, our pediatrician (we've been there for a year) is so much better than our previous office. They did hearing and vision screenings in addition to everything else. I was impressed! Anyway, we got in there and Gib decided right as the doctor came in that he had to pee (story of my life!). The doctor walked him down the hall to the bathroom and on the way down there, Gib informed him that he didn't really need a checkup, he was fine. When he got back to the room, we found out that Gib had to have five shots and Grace had to have two. Grace immediately started crying and freaking out, Gib was clueless. When the nurse came in for the shots, Gib hopped up on the table thinking we were about to play another one of the "games" that we had played earlier. I told him as he was leaning back that he was going to have just a little "ouchy." His face went from smiling and happy, to a look of horror, to screaming bloody murder in the span of about two seconds. Meanwhile, Grace was crouched in the corner screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. Hayden was pushing himself into the chair, trying to blend in and hoping that nobody noticed him and Landry was playing with the blocks on the floor and completely oblivious to everything. Of course when Grace got on the table she completely lost her mind. I'm sure that the other patients in the office assumed that a child was being murdered. After everyone was semi-calmed down, we did the walk of shame out of the office. I felt like I could have done with a stiff drink after that ordeal!