Wheels and Weather

Last weekend my mom was able to come down and visit us. Since Miss M's birthday is coming up, she decided that she would give her her birthday present. Since the rest of the family has Razor scooters, she decided it was time for Miss M to graduate up to her own Razor.

Miss M LOVES pink, and I mean LOVES pink. So, she got a pink Barbie scooter, with the best part of all...(get ready for it) SPARKLE wheels!!!

I think she likes it!

She got to ride it around outside this weekend also.

We really lucked out on the weather over the weekend. So on Sunday, after church, we packed up a picnic and headed over to one of the rivers in our area.

The river was so soothing to listen to while we ate our lunch.

I can't wait to have more days like this so that we can have more picnics.

After eating, we decided that it was such a pretty day and we had to get lots of pics. Here are some.

My little boy isn't so little anymore. By the way, this was taken before we realized that there was a huge ant pile just to the right of his foot.

Family picture time. You just don't get much better than this.

Look at those eyes!

Well, I guess we have been properly introduced to southern Texas this week. Now that you've seen pictures of the beautiful day we had Sunday where the high was near 70 degrees. Take a look at pictures from Tuesday, where our high was 34 degrees and snowing!

This is what I walked out to find when I was headed to pick up the kids from school. It started out as rain and hail. Later the snow mixed in.

Check out the roof line where they meet up. See all of the hail and snow that has collected there and what is in the flower beds?

If you look closely you can see the snow falling.

And of course, we had to try to catch some snow on our tongue.

So, now you know what the weather in south Texas can look like. I hope your weather isn't too bad. I've heard that there is more snow out there this week. Be safe! 

Please Pray

I have a couple of prayer requests from anyone who happens to read my blog.

First off, I have a dear friend that I met while I was an AOII (she's actually my lil sis) in college. Her and her husband have a little girl and a 6 month old little boy named Parker. Parker was born with a rare form of craniosynostosis. This is the premature and abnormal fusion of 1 of the 6 suture lines that form the skull. When these structures fuse prematurely it causes excess pressure on the brain as it grows, with no place to expand. This can lead to many developmental problems if is not surgically corrected. This means the surgeons will remove a portion of Parker's skull in order to make more room for his brain to expand. The surgery is expected to last most of the day. The doctors have said that he will have to be in the hospital for about 1 week for recovery and observation. Parker and his momma and daddy have a long road of recovery ahead of them. I am so proud of Andrea and her husband, Josh, for how strong they are being through this process. Please, keep them in your prayers. And if you get a chance, click on Andrera's name to read their story.

Another prayer request I have is for two families that I have never met. On Tuesday morning just after 7am, up in Indiana 2 teenage seniors were killed in two seperate car accidents. The first was an 18 year old girl who was on her way to school. She was on her cell phone, Myspacing, and veered off of the road. The truck flipped and she was partially ejected and kill almost instantly. This happened right in front of my mom's house. 20 minutes later, an 18 year old boy, her classmate, was driving on his way to school and hit an icy patch on a bridge. He lost control of his car and crossed the line, hitting a tow truck. He was killed instantly. My mom just went on a mission trip with him and from what I hear, he was a very good, christian kid. The community that this happened in is a small community (2 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school). It has affected this community and surrounding communitites strongly. I can't imagine what the families and friends of these two teenagers are going through. Please keep them all in your prayers. I have been reading on the internet that the viewings and funerals will be in the next couple of days. I'm sure that this week has been extremely hard.

Sorry for such a somber post, but both of these prayer requests have been weighing heavy on my heart and I wanted to make sure to get people praying for each person involved.

Go Colts

We were rooting the Colts on Super Bowl Sunday. We are sad that they lost, but we are happy that the Saints won for two reasons. 1- Drew Brees went to Purdue right around the same time R was there and 2- the Saints had never won the Super Bowl. So, at least it was a good team that won.

Anyways....we had a little party with just us and R's parents Sunday night to watch the game. We had TONS of wings, 7-layer dip with chips, and homemade potato chips (sooo yummy!). It was a good night. 

Our whole family in our Colts attire!

Food out and ready to be eaten. Notice Chase has to be on a very serious beg.

This is how Mr. Man spent most of the first half of the game. He got a new McQueen game for his DS and he was on a mission to unlock all of the locked tracks. I think that he enjoyed the game though.

Miss M spent the game dancing around and just being herself - silly. It was a fun night had by all.

Updates...

You know, I read the other day that a group of archeologists are looking for Noah's Ark and seem to be getting close to finding it. Well...I sure do hope that they find it soon and send it here to Texas. We have been having sooooo much rain lately that I truly am worried that we are going to float away!

On another note, R's parents were in town over the weekend for a visit. We had so much fun together. We went to the Riverwalk Friday afternoon and evening. After 3 days worth of rain, it was so beautiful out. We enjoyed walking around and looking at the scenery and having a wonderful dinner.

Saturday, we went to the SA Stock Show and Rodeo. Now, in Northerner terms, this is the equivaliant of the state fair. Since we've been to the "largest" county fair, and I use the term largest very loosely! This was AWSOME!!!!! This rodeo has been named the best rodeo in the nation for the past 5 years and I totally see why! There were barns full of animals, a huge carnival with rides, tons of food, and a section full of blow up jump houses for the kids. While we were walking through the steer barn we actually saw long horn steer, up close and personal.

Here is a momma and her baby. She did not let that baby move more than 3 feet away from her. She was beautiful! Her horns are so long. We also saw a huge bull cow (as C calls them) that had a big 'ol nose ring. It was just like you see in the movies :)

Did I forget to mention that they had pony rides? Well, the kids won't ever let me forget that there were pony rides there. C rode Dr. Pepper.

And M rode on Daisy. These children are HUGE pony ride fans. They were so excited to get on the ponies that the 45 minute wait was about all that they could handle.

While we were watching the bronco riding Miss M turned to me and pointed down to the arena and asked me "Momma, do you think one of those horsies down there is Daisy?" just as serious as she could be. I told her I didn't think so, then she asked if Dr. Pepper was down there. At this point I had to tell her that only the big horses are down there, not the ponies from the pony rides. This seemed to appease her and we moved on at that point.

Once we had our fill of the outside shanagans, we headed into the actual rodeo part. We got to see bronco riding with and with out the saddles, calf roping where they rope the calf around the neck then jump down and tie the legs, calf roping where one cowboy ropes the neck and the other cowboy ropes the legs, calf wrestling where the cowboy jumps off of the horse and wrestles the calf to the ground, and of course bull riding! We all agreeded that we liked the bronco and bull riding, but did NOT like the calf roping parts of the rodeo and tended to turn our heads at these parts.

But we all agreeded that the cutest thing was the mutton bustin. They had a bunch of little kids ranging in ages from 3 to about 6 that got on a sheep, with only fur around their necks, in their little shoots. Then they would let the sheep out to run around. Most of the kids didn't make it more than a couple of steps. But it was so cute to watch. And the winner was 4 years old. 

Momma and her kiddos ready to watch the rodeo and Tim. Oh wait...I forgot to mention the real reason that we were at the rodeo. We got to see TIM MCGRAW!!! After the rodeo he took the revolving stage and OH MY! What a concert. If you've not see Tim in concert, you need to!  He did such a great job. He has so many great songs to sing and makes it personal.

Daddy and his little man. I love these two cowboys. I was very proud to be at the rodeo with them.

I didn't really get any good pics of Tim so I'm waiting for Grandma B's pics to arrive and then I'll post them. I also got some good videos that I'll post when I learn how to.

Well that's it for now. If you live in the North or East or West (for that matter) enjoy your snow and stay safe and those of us here in the South are going to look for Noah's Ark, or maybe we'll just go get our boat so that when the great flood hits, we'll at least be ready for our family.