New Ford Focus

Look what Daddy brought home!

After carefully researching cars,

and coveting anything made in this century...

Larry finally brought home a new car.

For the past 3 years he has been driving our

little white 2000 (purchased in Nov 1999)

toyota corolla without any a/c or heat.

It's been a pretty hellish experience to bare

in a suit, in traffic and summer heat.

We were so blessed to have our previous car

last as long as it did.

I truly believe that it should have died ages ago.

But it stuck it out until we were able to afford

something new.

Heavenly Father has blessed us immensely!

Sydney's Day with Dad

Sydney takes her turn to be treated with

a Day With Dad!!

After donuts for breakfast and a few hours at work,

they head off to lunch at the Galleria Mall.

Sydney enjoys her chocolate just like Daddy.

A stop at the coveted American Girl store.

Daddy and Sydney pulled their funds together

to buy a special outfit for her doll.

The New Mexico American Girl 

SAGE!

The drive home ended up taking hours!

There were major car wrecks and fires on all 3 freeways

that lead back from Dallas to our home.

Sydney and Dad stopped for dinner instead.

Ben Goes To Work

Ben was very excited to spend

a special day with dad at his work.

Ben was all about trying something new.

He even insisted driving in

dads car with no a/c.

I guess he wanted the FULL EFFECT

of what it was like to be Daddy.

He learned all about the courtroom

and how it works.

Then out to lunch at the mall.

He even insisted on sitting on the patio.

(a place we never sit)

Feeding the birds.

Make your own Lego person

at the Lego store.

A special ice cream treat!

To cap the day off,

they stopped at the movies too.

Neighbors Pool

Daddy joined us for a swim at

our friends house!

We are so blessed with dear friends,

that share their pool with us.

Summer Memories!

Loving Moments With The Boys

Playing games on dad's phone while laying on his back.

Shaving with dad.

He hates posing for pictures!

Can you tell?

Mommy using the camera to entertain Dan.

Hugs with dad.

Emma's Special Day With Dad

Daddy decided that each kid should spend a 

day with him at work.

Some quality time with him and a glimpse

at his life from home seemed like

a fun summer activity.

Emma started her day with a breakfast of donuts

and then a co-worker gave Emma

the largest gumballs ever!

She spent 2 weeks slowly taking bites

of her gumballs.

Yum.

Then a special lunch with dad.

And a little shopping.

And of course,

a movie, too!!

Father's Day 2013

We were so excited to have Grandpa Jeff join us for

this Father's Day holiday.

The kids had a blast finding candy to fill up

their "dad" jars and making homemade cards for them.

Daddy loves his cinnamon rolls and cards.

Sydney and Emma made him special homemade

ties out of star-bursts at Activity Days.

Mommy got Daddy some cologne.

Summer Journals

For our summer chores the kids write in

a journal daily.

Mom printed out strips of paper with

journal "prompts".

After Dad read these 2 entries from Keira

and Emma, he decided it was necessary

to spend some more time with the kids

at work!

"Daddy eats at work.  Daddy reads books."

"My Dads jobs is a lawyer. He goes to a court room

and helps jail people. We give him alllllot

of pictures to him because we miss him.  I am glad

my dad has a job because he earns money

for us."

Sunday - Daddy Style

This is what happens when mom leaves Dad in charge for a few hours on a Sunday.  All the kids are dressed in their pj's and every single Lego we own is spread all over the kitchen table.  The kids LOVE IT!

Spring Is Here

It's not spring until my mantle says it's spring!

I finally got around to making the mantle

 "JUST PERFECT" for the new season.

  I spruced up a jar with some paint to make the

 perfect colored vase for the flowers. 

And used Sydney's beautiful present from Mother's Day

 with the Family Rules plaque.  

Then I traced and painted our own

 family "R" to balance it out!

And it's not spring until soccer season is over

and we can finally do our traditional

6 month carpet cleaning!

Don't laugh!

With 5 kids cleaning the carpets every

6 months is a serious MUST!!

Couples Group Date

Do you remember these books?

Where you could pick how the book would go?

We are lucky to have some fun couples that love to 

different things for date nights and found

this great idea from a "couples group dating"

website called Dating Divas.

So one Saturday night 3 couples got

together to Choose Our Own Adventure!

Larry and I

Spencer and Tammy

Alfer and Camille

To start the men were handed envelopes with poems in them.

They had to solve the poem that was a clue to different

restaurants to eat at.

Then they chose "sCRUMBScious" as our dinner for the night.

Tammy handed out more slips of paper to each of us.

They told us funny things to do while we drove in the car.

Like honk and wave to a stranger.

Find a out of state license and shout at them

"welcome to TEXAS ya'll"!!

During dinner there were more slips telling us different 

experiences to share or funny things to say or do.

Larry had to do 1 verse of the hokey pokey.

I had to answer the waiter when asked if I liked

my meal..."this is the best night of my life!"

After dinner the girls were give envelopes

with poems that gave us clues to our next stop.

We choose playing "walmart bingo".

We split into 2 groups Boys vs. Girls.

And to prove that we found one of the squares

a picture had to be taken with one of the

players in it.

THE GIRLS FOUND...

Someone with sunglasses on?

CHECK! 

A person wearing camo?

CHECK 

A kid playing in the toy aisle?

CHECK

A couple flirting?

CHECK

THE BOYS FOUND....

A child playing with toys?

CHECK

A couple wearing matching shirts?

CHECK

Someone wearing overalls?

CHECK

We had such a fun night.

We were laughing so hard at all the pictures,

we ended up calling it a night

before we got in trouble!!