WELCOME EMERSON MAE!

Our family was blessed today with a beautiful new addition. My cousin Crystal and her husband Wesley, along with their 3 y/o son Campbell, welcomed a little baby girl...



Emerson Mae enetered the world at a quaint 7lbs, 18inches with olive skin and thick jet black hair (and her mommy's pug nose).





We are so glad that she is here and that mommy and baby are well and thriving! What a lovely family!





AJ and Noah were so excited about going to see her but once we got there they were too rambunctious to really pay much attention to her. Typical boys! However, AJ now seems to think that not only does he want a little sister but that when he grows up he wants to have THREE girls of his own. He has LOTS of time to change his mind!!

INDEPENDENCE DAY

We spent our 4th of July relaxing and taking in nature out at our ranch. We had lots of fun taking short walks (cause boy was it HOT!)...

... going fishing...

...and best of all - catching grass hoppers. Daddy bought us the new little traps that we can catch and keep our grasshoppers in and we thought they were great! Thanks daddy!!

As the sun was starting to go down we did a few small fireworks in front of the house. Daddy was sad he couldn't shoot off his big ones but he felt the ground was too dry and didn't want to start a fire. Then we got in the car and drove on the ranch a bit and watched some big fireworks that other people were doing, they sure were pretty.

The Dallas World Aquarium

So we had a wonderfully fun day at the Dallas World Aquarium on Sunday.... and Nana even joined us too. While the sights were enjoyable, the crowds were not. We do not typically do these types of things on the weekends for this very reason. That is one of the perks of being at home; getting to do things during the week when very few people are there. Still, we enjoyed the outing and all the creatures.

Note the reflection of all the people!!

While we loved every creature we saw, we each had our favorites and least favorites. Daddy could spend ALL day in the saltwater fish tank room! But his absolute fave would probably have to have been the GIANT octopus. He keeps trying to convince mommy that we need another saltwater tank so that we can have an octopus again. Mommy thinks that even though she really liked our octopus, who passed away, they are just too high maintenance and we have plenty to care for already!

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Mommy's favorite thing would probably have to be the Jaguar. She just thought she was beautiful and
moved with such grace. Though the sting-rays and monkeys came in a very close second.

AJ loved everything so much it's really hard to focus on one favorite. He really took the jaguar, monkeys, pink flamingos, and the giant octopus. He wanted to stay and watch them for quite a while. However, the hardest thing to pull him away from were the river otters. It was so cute too! There were two of them and just as he stepped up to the glass they swam up and started "wrestling" and "play fighting" right in front of him. He just laughed and thought it was THE coolest thing. I so wish I could have gotten a pic of his facial expression (but due to the above mentioned crowds, it was impossible).

Noah well, while he thought SO many things were great, his favorites by FAR were the giant fresh-water turtles (not sure of their proper name) and the jaguar. This kid LOVES turtles. He gets so fascinated and excited by them, and always has. He also really liked watching the sharks and sting-rays, especially since they were eating when we saw them.



































Nana, well her favorite thing, without a doubt, would have to have been US!! She just loved watching our faces light up and all the questions we asked because we are at that age where we want to know and understand, or try to, everything.











































I think we could pretty much all agree on our least favorite things: 1)again, the crowds of people, many of whom were quite rude and 2) the smell of the penguins! Those little guys are so cute and fun to watch, but have you smelled them?! Seriously, they should have a warning: TOXIC FUMES AHEAD before you enter that room! PEW-WEE!!































All in all, HUGE crowds and stinky smells aside, we had a great time at the DWA. We worked up an appetite walking through , what seems like miles, of the DWA and so we walked to the West End and ate at Fridays. We (the boys) SCARFED our food down and were quite a mess by the time we left.










































It was a long day full of excitement, and excercise, and treats, and laughs.
Fun was had by all and we can't wait to back again. Though mommy and daddy said it will definately have to be during the week next time!

B U B B L E S!!

Today was a laid back, easy-going day. We played with bubbles in the backyard and had so much fun with Chunk because he kept chasing them, trying to eat them. What a silly dog he is!
Haas just thought Chunk looked like he was going crazy so he stayed out the way... And Rosco, well he was too busy staring at the birds in the tree (typical Rosco) to even notice what we were doing! After blowing bubbles for 30 minutes we thought that maybe it would be fun to blow bubbles in the dog's water bowl/pool. Then we noticed that it made the water soapy and bubbly so we decided to dump the rest in the water. Mom and dad didn't find this to be as much fun...something about the dogs not wanting to drink soapy water. Who knew the dogs were so picky? It's not like Chunk hadn't been eating the bubbles for the last half hour, he must have liked the way they tasted, right?
So daddy dumped the soapy water and filled the pool with some nice fresh water. But being the boys we are, we just wouldn't stay out of it. Dad warned that if we didn't he was going to hose us. Guess we thought he was joking. You know what though, he WASN'T.
At first we got a little upset but then we thought it was pretty cool to be getting soaked while in our clothes so we kept messing with the water just so dad would spray us more. That sure was fun daddy! Can we do it again?!



It was hard to settle down after all that excitement! So to help us wind down mom and dad let us have pizza and a "theater" night, two of our favorite things! Thanks mom and dad! We watched The Spiderwick Chronicles movie. Mommy and daddy read us the series chapter by chapter for our bedtime story and we've been waiting for that movie to come out for a long time now. We sure are glad we finally got to see it. Although, mommy and daddy were upset with how different the movie was to the book. I guess we are too young realize the differences because we loved it!