Stink Face and Kid Pics

For about a week now, Landon has been making, what I call, Stink Face. He makes it all of the time. Almost everytime I take his picture and anytime he wants to make someone laugh. Here is one picture of him making the face. I think it is precious.

These are just some pictures I took of the kids after Julie's shower. They are getting so big so I just wanted to take a few of them together.

Julie's Baby Shower

Julie came down this weekend for her baby shower. She is looking really pregnant right now and she still has 3 months to go. She had a very nice shower at Aunt Cathy's house this weekend. It looked like she got a lot of really great stuff. Her baby should be set for a while. It was great to get to see her again.

Dance Recitals All Weekend

This weekend was full of pretty girls. Elena had her dance recital on Friday night and Hailey had hers on Saturday night. These girls looked beautiful. Elena was so excited about dancing. I was afraid that she would do like she does in class and not dance. But she surprised me. She did the routine and she smiled from ear to ear the whole time. She loved it. As soon as she walked off of stage she screamed "Let's do that again". I cried the whole time she was on stage. It was the sweetest song and the cutest routine but watching her do it is what brought tears to my eyes. (I am such a crybaby.) Her class did a ballet dance to Cinderella. She looked so beautiful out there doing her dance. Hailey got to do two routines on Saturday night. Her first was tap and the second was ballet. When the curtain opened for her tap routine, she looked like she had a little stage fright. She got over it and by the time her ballet routine started, she had this performing thing nailed. Elena kept screaming at her "Hailey, I am right here." I really enjoyed going to the recitals and seeing the girls perform. I am definitely signing Elena up again next year. This one night made all of the expense totally worth while.

Brooke's Graduation Party

Yesterday was Brooke's graduation party. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pics. It was great to get to see everyone again. Except holidays, we don't get to spend a lot of time together. This was a fun day. The kids all had a good time playing. Elena was having fun with Allison. I can't believe Brooke is old enough to be graduating from high school. Every time someone graduates, it just makes me feel like I am getting older as well. It just seems like they are all, or should all, be young still. Anyway, Brooke got a lot of great stuff. Aunt Amy had a great idea by putting together an inspiration book for Brooke. All of the women in the family submitted an inspiration quote and a favorite recipe. Aunt Amy put all of this into a scrap book for Brooke. It came out really cute. This was a good idea. I like reading it though and seeing who came up with what. You could definitely tell who came up with their own ideas and who took a little from others [I won't name names. You know who you are! :) ] This was a great way to get everyone involved. The best messages, I think, came from Melinda and Melissa. These girls are still experiencing all of the things Brooke is going to face so their messags probably hit closer to home for Brooke. All of our messages probably will not apply until later in her life.

Weekend in Texas

We left early Friday morning and drove to Lindale, TX. It is about 30 minutes outside of Canton. We spent Friday afternoon and all of Saturday in Canton going to the First Monday Trade Days and doing a little shopping. A lot of us went up there. Aunt Cathy, Uncle EJ, Melissa, Kesli, Tina, Mike and Gabe went up on Thursday. Barrett, me and the kids went up early Friday. Aunt Linda, Uncle Joey, Moma, Daddy, Krissy and the kids came up late Friday. Elena loves when we take weekend trips like this. She loves going on vacation. The whole way up there she kept asking who all was going to be there and who was going swimming with her. She loves the thought of everybody spending time together in one place. The whole point in our trip though was to visit with Uncle Sidney, Aunt Peggy and their whole gang. Uncle Sid and Aunt Peggy opened up a restaurant in Mt. Vernon, TX. It is about 1.5 hours from the hotel we were staying in. We all went up there to surprise them at the restaurant. Everyone knew we were coming except Uncle Sid. He looked shocked to see all of us in there. They have a great place over there. The name of the restaurant is Mickey's and it is right on Main Street in Mt. Vernon. The food was great and the atmosphere was even better. It looked like they knew all of their customers. It is a nice family business. Amy was serving, Shelly was helping in the kitchen, Aunt Peggy was cooking, everybody was doing something. It was great to get to see all of them again. We don't get to see them very often. I didn't bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures but maybe next time. Great weekend. I can't wait to go again. We always have such a good time when we go away, even if it is just for a couple of days.