First Day of School! and Early Dismissal?

Hard to believe that our eldest is now taking those first steps toward independence and learning. Seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and were cradling her in our arms as the precious gift she is.




Seems like just yesterday, we were cheering her on as she started raising her head off the floor, working her arms and legs to crawl, and then taking those first steps.



And now she's heading out to begin pre-school. To begin her journey of learning that will hopefully lead to her deciding what she wants to do and be when she grows up. St. Mary's Dayschool in Bellville is where it will start, and we hope it will be a good ride.



Ah, but we did get a sharp reminder that we are still the parents and are caring for this little girl. Kiera got sick on her first day. Not sure if that's a good omen or not, but she threw up a couple of times, and Dawna had to go get her. Seemed like she was doing O.K. for most of the afternoon until she threw up again right before bed. Unfortunately, her second day of school will be postponed at least one day.

AAAACHOOOOO!

It's amazing how as parents, Dawna and I tend to do many of the same things our parents did with us--no matter how goofy we thought they were when we were younger.

Last night, I worked most of the afternoon out in the garden, so I neglected to take anything out for supper. Therefore, I decided we were going to go to Dairy Queen to eat. We packed up the truck and headed to Bellville.

Well, whenever we go to DQ, the girls have to investigate everything before sitting down to eat. Kiera is especially drawn to those little machines that distribute worthless crap--I mean kids toys, jewelry, and tatoos. For some reason, someone had forgotten to check their machine and had left a bouncy ball in it. Kiera immediately seized it and began playing with it at the table.

Well, Grandpa had made things "disappear" before, and Kiera wanted me to do the same. So, after making the ball disappear several times and pulling it out of the girls' ears, Daddy decided to do something different.

After making the ball disappear, Daddy started acting like he needed to sneeze. Of course, I dropped the ball from my nose to the table as I sneezed.

Kiera and Kaylee HOWLED. They were roaring with laughter!!! It was too cool.

At this stage, it's cool. In a few years when I do the same thing with Junior, I'm sure the girls will have a different opinion, just like I did as I got older. The cute stuff that was funny became an embarassment. How things change.

But now, the embarassment for me is fun. It brings smiles. Here's hoping you have one of those smiles or laughs today as well.

Oh Yeah!

Memorial Day Weekend + auto dealerships who really need to sell cars + knowing prices are going to go sky high after recession is over = one satisfied buyer.

Decided to go to Ryan Ford Mercury in Sealy to check things out this afternoon. I sat down with the salesman, and we began taking about what I wanted. Supercrew with those automatic pedals, color doesn't matter. He kept trying to pin me down on whether or not I would buy. Wouldn't commit.

We eventually went out into the yard and came across this one. It had all the features I wanted plus quite a few extras. We went back inside and started talking. He pulled up all the rebates ($4,000) and went to talk to his boss about how much the dealership would discount.

They took off roughly $2,500 more off the MSRP. At this point, they were $150 above invoice. I didn't think that was too bad, but at this point, I told them I'd hedge my bets and wait for year end rebates.

Well, the dealership wanted to sell at least one car today, so they asked me what more they could do. I said that they could look at my trade and see if they could give me enough for it. Well, they started looking at my 06 Saturn Vue (5 speed manual transmission). The salesman and I went for a drive in the new truck, and when I came back, they offered me 8k for my Vue AND took off another $600.

That was too good to walk away from. My Vue, according to KBB and NADA was roughly 7K, and we were now well below invoice. I shook hands and went to the financing. We have to make four payments to Ford Motor Credit before we refinance, but all in all, I think everything came together very nicely for this vehicle where the entire family fits including three car seats abreast in the back!

I've already got a few uses for the truck as well including hauling some very natural, very good fertilizer for my gardens!!!

Belated Easter, Kaylee's Birthday, and Trip to Moody Gardens

Just thought I'd show a few pics from Easter. The kids had fun decorating eggs.

Kevin, Jr. even got into the act...sort of.

We actually got a decent pic of the kids at church on Easter morning.

Of course, a few weeks later, we celebrated Kaylee's birthday.

Kaylee's enjoyed her new bike as well as all the other gifts she got; although I think the best gift she received was having her Nona, Grumpy, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Bubba, and Uncle Gardy at her party.

Our house is currently undergoing renovations. The congregation decided their parsonage was too small to accomodate our family, so they are adding another bedroom, bathroom, and storage room to the house. It will be quite nice. Yesterday, they moved the power box, so we were without power much of the day. We conveniently slipped away for a family day out. We headed to Moody Gardens to visit the acquarium. It was worth the long drive and the price of admission to see the kids enjoy everything. The girls took to it, well, like a fish to water, and after a few minutes, Kevin had a blast too. We look forward to several return trips.

Kevin's Birthday Party

What a fun day. We celebrated Kevin's birthday a few days early. It was either do it early or try and do a birthday party on Easter weekend. Don't think my job exactly meshes with the last idea. So...

We had grandma, grandpa, nona, grumpy, Uncle Bubba and Uncle Gardy all come over for a celebration. I bar-b-qued chicken thighs for fajitas, made a pot of refried beans, guacamole, and all the other fixins. Must have been good because there weren't much leftovers.

Kevin didn't seem to want too much of his cake. I think he was pretty full from eating chicken, beans, and fruit. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for the sweet tooth to kick in!

Birthday cake. Dawna outdid herself.

Uncle Bubba and his girls.

New John Deere wagon.

We're In Trouble Now

Sorry it's sideways, but the program won't rotate it.

Bluebonnets 2009

We drove to Brenham today to take pictures of the kids in a bluebonnet patch. Believe it or not, right behind Wal-Mart, there was a giant field filled with the flowers. Several families were out and about snapping their kids. Luckily, we managed to get some pretty good shots of the kids.



Kiera.



Kaylee.



Kevin.



The girls together.

And now, time to get a good picture of all three kids together:











Aw, hell. There's always next year.