California's Legoland!

This year for our family vacation we took the boys to Carlsbad, California to visit Legoland. To say that they were excited is an understatement. This was the perfect boy vacation. Since we spent a whole week there and I have way more pictures then I could share, I thought we'd show you the ABCs of our trip:

Aquarium fun

Brotherly love

Chasing the tide

4D movies

Elic's favorite ride

Family of five
Gotcha!

Holden's second plane ride

I can't believe I'm a knight!

Jousting fun

Kiddin' around

Lots of luggage

May the force be with you

Napping in the stroller

One-hundred-and-four fever (had to go to the doctor and get meds)

Preston's favorite part of the park- Star Wars!

Quite interesting- the USS Midway

Roller coasters rock!

Swagger wagon (I'm asking for one for my birthday!)

Turning around and around

Preview

Up, up, and away
Volvo driving school

Water, water everywhere!

X-citing wave racer

Year-long plans coming to life!

Zoom!

We had such a fun time! We even got to have a few dinners with Darren's good friend Lenny (how did I not get one picture with Lenny?). Legoland was a great first theme park for our little guys. Now we're ready to take on Disney (well, maybe in a few years).

My teacher heart loves this!

Holden LOVES books. I often will find him alone in his room "reading" all through out the day. I tried to catch him in the act, and although you might have to turn the volume up to hear him, I think he's doing a great job! At least now we know what to get him for his birthday.

This just in. . .

Look what came in the mail:
Preston's kindergarten all took pictures in the cap and gown. How adorable is that?! I love the little tie and everything. Kindergarten is such a special year.

Happy Father's Day!

We just returned from California where we visited Legoland (so much fun!) and I'm working on that post, but for now here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
We kicked off Father's Day a little early by meeting Darren's parents, Shawn, Kim and the kids at Babes for dinner Saturday night. What's not to love about Babes? There's fried food, fluffy biscuits, loud atmosphere (so my kids fit right in) and dancing to boot!



Two of the dads being celebrated.
Every dinner should include the hokey-pokey. My favorite part of this picture is Elic's pout (on the far left).
Darren woke up to a few treats from his boys (and me). He loves rootbeer and I thought the tag was super cute.
Sprites with ties- perfect for our tie-riffic dad! The kids made him a coupon book and gave him an itunes gift card that they are hoping he'll use to buy more games for them to play on his phone.
Every holiday needs a banner and I think this is one of my all time favorites (such fun colors).
The main gift we got each of our favorite dads- Darren, Pops, Papaw and GranDan was this updated shot of the boys. This scanned version doesn't do it justice because it really turned out so cute. I think it shows each of their fun little personalities.
After church on Father's Day, we went to Uncle Shawn's house for a pizza lunch and some swimming.
Little Miss Autumn is quite the swimmer. She was giving my boys a few pointers on how to put your face in the water.
You really have to watch Holden because he has no fear of the water. He loves to jump in and sometimes even jumps when no one's there to catch him (YIKES!)

I realized after we got home that I didn't take one picture of Darren and all his boys. Sounds to me like we need another family photo shoot so I can take care of that! Darren, you are an amazing husband and father. Thank you for being such a Christ-like example everyday for all of us. Happy Father's Day!

From Kindergarten Graduation to High School Graduation

I really can't believe that my niece Samantha graduated from high school a few weeks ago. I was 16 when she was born and truly spent most of my high school weekends babysitting her. She will be a freshman at A&M next fall- WHOOP!!! We are so proud of her and all her accomplishments. We traveled with all kiddos to Denton to watch her walk across the stage to receive her diploma.
She's the one in red (haha)!
That's her at the beginning of the stage. . .
. . . and there she is getting her diploma.
We brought lots of things to entertain the boys while we waited, but really the ceremony went quick- as quick as it can when you're graduating class has over 600 in it.
Sam picked a fun little pizza place on the square in Denton for us to eat and celebrate with her until she needed to head home to get ready for Project Graduation. Boy, that really brings back memories for me!

Gig 'em Ags!

People have always said that they think Samantha and I look alike and how I wish that were true. She's super thin, gorgeous, and very fashionable!
Elic and Holden fell asleep while driving the 5 minutes to the pizza place, so we switched off sitting in the truck with them while the other parent ate and enjoyed the family time. Congratulations Samantha! We're so proud of you and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for your future!