Last weekend was Channing's 4th birthday party. It was a "dress up" party so the guests, which were all girls, dressed up in their fanciest attire and attended the party. Tanner got to wear her tutu that Cassie got for her, which she has had for awhile but hasn't gotten to wear. Ever since then, she wants to wear it. She goes around the house saying "tutu, are you?". It is so cute. She had a great time at the party playing with all of the other girls. She had waaaaaayyy too much sugar, though, between the cake, cupcakes, fruit, and cookies. She wouldn't nap that afternoon at all! She never really got cranky, though, so I was okay with it. She even got to take a turn hitting the pinata. She did really good, too. Caitlyn, one of her friends who is older, tried to help her but she said "no, no". She didn't want any help and, as it turns out, she didn't need any. She hit it with the first try! She was funny gathering up the candy, too. I'm not sure that she even cared about it, but all of the other kids wanted it so she figured it must be worth getting!

Tanner and her boa
I think Tanner enjoyed seeing what Channing got just as much as Channing did. Check out the expression on her face...
She loved this balloon!
For some reason, I think she looks a little like me in this picture. I have never thought this before, so it's kind of a big deal!

The professional
Tawny cutting the cake


All of the little princesses

We were leaving the other day to go somewhere, and Tanner decided that her outfit was not complete. She went and got sunglasses, pearls, and Elmo, and we were ready to go!



I thought this picture was really cute!

Last Monday, Tawny and I took the kids to the beach in the morning. We got up, packed sandwiches and juice boxes, and headed out! The drive is about an hour and a half each way, so the kids were definitely ready to be there by the time we got there. We went to the Radisson in Corpus Christi because they have a private beach with showers to rinse off with. We even swam in their pool, which is right on the beach. There was nobody there that day because it was the day that school started so we didn't think it was too big of a deal. We had a great time. We didn't take a lot of pictures because it was hard to have the cameras out on the beach with the sand. The kids loved playing in the waves and looking for shells. In the pool, Tanner kept trying to get me to let her go. She wanted to swim by herself. She would jump off of the ledge in the pool into the deep part and she would get mad when I would catch her! We drove through Sonic for drinks on the way home and the kids slept. It was a really fun day!

A couple of weeks ago Cassie, Tawny, and I took all of the kids to a place in San Antonio called Funtastic Playland. It is a huge, 13,000 square foot indoor playground! There were so many things for the kids to do there. They had all kinds of bounce houses and play gyms. They had bumper cars and full size cars for the kids to sit in and "drive". It was really really neat. They even had plenty of things for the really little kids to do. We had such a good time. Afterward, we took them to Chick-fil-A and let them play even more! Needless to say, they all napped well that day!

This is the "big-girl" slide that Tanner kept going down. It was about 10 feet high and scared me half to death! She loved it, though.












This is the mini theater. They were playing Finding Nemo when we were there.












Maddie












Tawny, Channing, and Jaxson












Down the slide again












This was the awesome "Under 3" area. There was so much for them to do!












I though this was funny. It looks like Tawny and I are taking pictures of each other but she is really getting one of Jaxson and I was really getting one of Tanner and Channing.












Jax and I






















































































































Tanner and Cassie

Cowboy Homecoming was the weekend of August 13th, and Clinton's parents came in to help us watch Tanner so that we could take part in some of the festivities. Cowboy Homecoming is Pleasanton's big festival every year and we were really excited to go. That Friday night, we went to the dance to see Eli Young Band with some friends. We got to dance and hang out and it was fun. The next morning Clinton, Randy, and I got up to go to the park for the Cowboy Gallop. It is the 5k race that they have every year. I met my friends Cassie, Amy, and Brooke for the run. Clinton and Randy walked to several different points along the route to cheer me on. It was really nice to see friendly faces along the way. It was really hot, but I kept a pretty good pace so I was excited about that. I am currently training for a half marathon in November and it is always encouraging to accomplish distances at a decent pace. After the race, we went home to get Tanner and Cindy and headed for the parade. We met Tawny and Paxton and the kids on Main street and they had a good time looking at all of the floats. The parade lasted a really long time, and it was really hot. Tanner was really scared of the fire trucks but she loved seeing all of the animals and kids riding on floats. All of the beauty queens from the surrounding town festivals had floats in the parade and Tanner liked looking at all of their sparkly dresses.


The scary fire truck


"Horsey!"






Tawny and Tanner




They were bored waiting for the parade to start

Tanner, Channing, and Jaxson


Cindy does breathing treatments and Tanner likes to do them too! Not really, but pretending is fun!