Free Icecream!

I found out through Money Saving Mom 's blog that Wal-Mart across the US is giving out FREE icecream tomorrow, Saturday, May 30th. Yummooo!!!!

Check out...

...Ava's new dance.

What do you think?

It's her creation.

Choreographed by Ava herself.

I think it could be BIG!

Riley.

I took Riley's 6 month pictures in Wichita on Memorial Day.

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?

These are some of my favorites...

Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

It was definatly a happy one for us!

We decided to have a family day in Wichita.

We started the morning off by meeting my friend Lori G. at Eastbourough Park to take Riley's 6 month pictures. He did so good and was such a trooper. Thanks Lori for letting me capture his sweet face! I told Lori i wouldn't post any pics of him until she is able to look at them, so stay tuned for a Riley blog post :)

After pictures, we headed over to Village Inn for a late breakfast. Ava and I shared Strawberry Crepes-yum!!! I think she ate more than me-which is unusual because i've been such a pig since being pregnant ;)

After brunch, we told Ava we were going to a 'suprise' place. When we pulled up at All Star Sports, she was so excited! We decided on a family fun game of mini-

golf. Not one of us was very good, but we just had SO MUCH FUN watching Ava have a blast. Its fun to see her try new things. Of course after we played golf, we had to check out all of the cool arcade games inside. We tricked Ava into believing she was actually playing. I have a feeling once Ava starts reading we won't be able to pull that one for too much longer!

After All Star we hit Starbucks! This was only because i have a giftcard from my birthday-thanks mom! A Grande iced Caramel Macchiato with cool whip on top-YUMMMOOOO!!!

Our last stops were at World Market where i purchased a very cute BIG decorative bowl. I scored that purchase off of the 50% isle for $5. Then we hit Target and browsed.

What was fun about today was that we didn't really have a schedule or specific things we needed to do-we just had fun being together! Sorry for no pictures-i did realize that i had my camera in the car the whole time and there was no excuse for a photo-less blog!

Hope you all had a restful Memorial Day!

Love.

I normally don't post pics of my photography clients (i may change that so i have more to blog about!), but these were just too cute. I took them at Autumn Glen (behind the Grabers)-a great place for picture taking! Just don't step in the Geese/Duck poop :)
Awww...love was definatly in the air this day...

Wedding Bells.

Collin's sister, Traci, is getting married and we are so excited! Kevin is a cool guy and we're so happy to have him in our family. And since they are family, i have to post some of the engagement pics i took of them a few nights ago. I didn't ask permission, so hopefully they won't be too mad!

*sorry Kevin & Traci! I posted this one because its too cute :)*

Biker Chick.

Say hello to our new biker chic.

This girl can sure cruise on her new bike! Goodbye to putting her in the stroller when we go one walks-i get a good work out keeping up with her on her bike! We went on an hour walk yesterday and she did not slow down one bit! She wasn't even tired when we got home.

This is all we do when we go outside now. Ride. Ride. Ride.

Well, she rides. Luke and I just watch. Can you not tell that Luke is excited?

Here's a short video of Ava on her bike. Sorry a little blurry-wind and hair was in my face and i couldn't see because it was so bright! Ava pushed on though, wind and all!

Look What I Got...

For my Birthday! I have wanted one of these for quite a while. I am not usually a sucker for infomercial products, but this one i have always wanted! You can cook chicken, make omelets, bake cakes. All in 10 minutes and under! I made omelets for Ava and I this morning. They were SO good! Do any of you own a GT Express 101? If so, do you have some favorite recipes?

Favorite Friday: Cravings!

These are my favorite snacks today because in the last several weeks i eat them all of the time!

With Ava, i don't remember being so hungry and having cravings-but with this child everything is different! Some say maybe it's a boy...

What are/were your pregnancy cravings?

What? Free Chocolate?!!!

Go here to receive coupons for free chocolate from Mar's.
What girl doesn't want free chocolate!!

Where do...

Babies come from?

Ava and I had a good discussion this morning. A very simple discussion since she's 3, but good none the less. She's been on this kick that she has a baby sister in her tummy and I have a baby brother in mine. Today she asked me why her tummy wasn't getting bigger yet? How do you explain that? I told her that you have to be big like mommy to have a baby. Of course there was the 'why' question. So i said, 'and you need a daddy to love you so that baby will grow.' And then the ultimate question: Where do babies come from mommy? I finally just ended with 'from God'. That answer seemed to satisfy her, so that was the end of that. Until next time that is...
I would love to hear if any of your kids have asked these questions and how you responded :)

10 reasons you know you're in Texas...

(in no particular order)
1) When you pass a 'horse-shoeing' school. I didn't know they had those!

2) Everything is green. No dead trees or grass. I'm sure its the warmth and humidity that does it.

3) There are toll booths every couple of miles! From the outskirts of Houston all the way to Galveston (maybe an hour drive all around) we paid $1.50 SIX times! I think we spent about $40 on tolls the whole time we were there.

4) When you are already going 5-8 miles over the speed limit to keep up with traffic and people are still whizzing by you!

5) We HARDLY ever saw cops. They probably figure why bother.

6) Their pop is 'soda' and its way sweeter then here.

7) Those southern accents

8) There is a fast food place called Jack-in-the-Box. Actually quite good and are everywhere you turn.

9) When the GPS can't even keep up with the changing road construction and is way confused.

10) You know you have been in Texas when you are ready to come back home to get away from traffic and heat!

There you have it. My last post on Houston. I'm sure i'm boring you by now...

Houston Day # 3: Downtown Houston

On Tuesday we headed downtown Houston. And what a very BIG downtown it is! There were signs everywhere that said 'Absolutly NO free parking!' Go figure. So, we put our money in the meter and treked the sidewalks of downtown Houston. We discovered there is a tunnel that is underground downtown. We found the right building, went down the escalator and walked forever (in airconditioning though!) through small restaurants and businesses until we reached an escalator that took us up to a whole shopping center. Pretty cool. The stores were mainly knick-knack shops-nothing i needed, so we just window browsed. We also went to the Downtown Aquarium. It was fun but didn't think it was worth the money for an all day pass to the rides, etc.

Can you tell we're on our own with no kids?

The tiger exhibit was pretty cool.

These fish were GINORMAOUS! I don't think the picture does the size justice.

Another cool feature (forgot to take a picture) were the tamed stingrays. There were about 10 stingrays (of course had been 'de-stinged') in an oval cement tub looking thing that you could pet and touch. They would seriously clap their bodies against the tub to get our attention. They were very good jumpers too! A lady told us that once in a while they come in there in the morning and one has jumped out and died. Crazy.

And who could forget visiting IKEA! Collin and i had so much fun in this store. Collin with the kitchen stuff and I with the home decor. The store is HUGE but i only came out with 2 shelves and icecube trays (shaped like puzzle pieces and stars for Ava). I would definatly visit again!

We ended this day by eating at Cheddar's (had never been to one yet) and then going to bed. I was SO tired.

Day #4 i did not take any pictures because we just hit a couple of malls and relaxed. On Thursday morning we packed up and made it home by 9:30. The next morning we hit the road again to Nebraska to pick up Ava. We stayed until Sunday for Mother's Day and then headed home Sunday afternoon. Boy are we sick of driving and eating out! We definatly had a great time though and will treasure that time together! Reality will shake us a little bit when the second little one comes along and we know those long vacations will be in the distant future :)

Houston Day # 2: Galveston

On Monday we headed to Galveston, TX. We found out quickly that coming during the week limits tourists to times and things to do. We wanted to go on a boat tour of the island, but by the time we were ready, they were done for the day. We wanted to and did rent a two person trike to drive along the seawall, but right before we were going to leave with it, the owner said they were closing early. So, things didn't go as planned, but we still had fun walking along the ocean shore and picking out seashells for Ava. Pretty much everywhere we went was NOT busy, which is nice, but makes you feel a little out of sorts with what to do!

We toured the Moody Mansion. One of the biggest houses in Galveston. It was very interesting and well worth our time.

While i found seashells....

Collin came across this. A wierd looking dead fish that has washed up. We also saw a jelly fish. Collin told me to touch it but i refused! :)

One sad thing about Galveston is their downtown. Since the hurricane Ike last September there wasn't a whole lot of stores/restaurants open yet. In one antique store they had photos up of the damage last fall. Incredible is the only word i could think of to describe it! I did run across a store named after me (i think). hehe.

We ended our day at Galveston with Chili's (YUM!) and another walk along the seawall. For those of you who don't know, the seawall is a wall/sidewalk that stretches for 10 miles along the coast of the Gulf. Very beautiful!

more posts to come...

Houston Day # 1: Kemah Boardwalk

After the Space Center, we hit Kemah Boardwalk in Kemah, TX-about a 10 minute drive from the Space Center. It was a super cloudy day, but the temperature was perfect. Did i mention how humid it was there? Well, it was so the cool breeze felt good! The first thing i saw after we parked was this cute light tower. You can't see the ocean i the background, but it was so beautiful. Another thing i didn't think I'd see much of in TX is palm trees, but they were EVERYWHERE. We also noticed that trees, grass, plants were much much greener since TX is pretty much warm year round. Kemah Boardwalk is a fun little place that has places to eat, shops and rides. Very fun!

This a ride we DID NOT go on. Way to crazy for me!

Don't you love constantly pulling strangers aside for picture taking?

We DID go on this bucket wheel.

A view from the bucket wheel of Kemah Boardwalk.

Collin and I being silly.


More posts to come...

Houston Day #1: Houston Space Center

So, we're finally home and back into the groove of things after being in Houston for a week! We had so much fun, but are definatly glad to be home! The traffic was crazy EVERYWHERE in Houston and that became old really fast. It made us thankful for our small town of Newton! We are counting our blessings as we were almost in a car accident in Dallas on the way. A car rear ended another vehicle and in an attempt to steal away from the scene cut us off and she ended up loosing control and hitting the median right in FRONT of us! God's hand was definatly on our wheel and those surrounding us that day! Needless to say we were very careful drivers in Dallas on the way back!

We arrived in Houston Saturday night around 9 after a slight delay. We drove to Wellington and realized we had forgot all of our cash and my purse! So, we headed back to Newton, which gave us about a 2 hour delay in our trip.

The next morning (after sleeping in of course!) we headed to the Houston Space Center. This was definatly Collin's territory, but still interesting.

Behind me is a VERY LONG and HUGE space shuttle/rocket thingy-whatever they're called. Anyways-this picture doesn't do it justice, but it was HUGE!

This picture (sorry about the bad reflections!) is of the Nasa Control Center.

Since we were there on a Sunday, we didn't get to see any workers in action. I thought this was one of the most interesting stops of the small tour. This is where the Apollo and another space craft was controlled when the crafts exploded. I can't remember all of the details, so won't even try :)

Collin playing a virtual space landing game. He was pretty good at it. I however crashed it within the first minute. Collin bragged that one up :)

Can you imagine being stuffed in this small shuttle? The orange inside is a dummy astronaut.

More posts to come...