Texas part 3 - last post I promise

 Melissa asked that I take a lot of pictures of her girls cause she doesn't have very many.  That was a hard request to meet. I had a camera and two girls that I couldn't seem to get enough of. Rough.

Here are some more of my favorites and then I'm done posting about the fun weekend in Texas.

  

 

 

When not at TOFW

 What did we do while we weren't at time out for women?

Let's not kid ourselves we ate a lot and I took a lot of pictures (per request of their mom)

but we did watch a movie, pop popcorn and paint nails.

Isn't that what girls are supposed to do?

I'm not entire sure it's such foreign territory for me.

I was trying really hard to put on girly girl A game.

 

 I also learned that Texas has pokey crab grass and fire ants. 
This is the first time that Olivia sat in the grass.

 As you can see it wasn't really her thing. Is that because it poked her and was uncomfortable? Maybe. Or maybe she was bit by the fire ants. Who knows. I know I bent down to take her picture and was bit but we have no evidence that Olivia was also bit.

 So we settled with pictures of her on higher ground. 

As you can see, she liked that better.

 Kate didn't love the grass either this is her saying "No Allye, this hurts" as she is trying to climb right over the fence.

Another highlight of the trip for me was 

the Lion Hunt

 Sunday morning, Marshall and Melissa were both preparing lessons so Kate and I went out to play. 

"Let's go on a lion hunt Allye" she said

She packed her water bottle, some chips in case we or the lion get hungry. 

"See Allye we have to have something for the lion to eat or else he might eat us" Well by all means, pack the chips.

Last but not least we packed a map.

This was our map. 

Luke struggles with this map. 

"Mom, this is not a map! What are you talking about?" "It has butterflies, flowers and rainbows on it, not paths and directions that lead you to anywhere."

"I'm sorry Luke, I drew exactly what she told me to draw"

With a very heavy sigh "Ok Mom"

As you can see this girl time was a hole different world for me

 Back to the hunt.

"Hurry Allye RUN I see the lion"
I should probably add that at this point I'm still in my jamas running down the sidewalk.

Half way down the road we could smell that the lion was hungry. 

So we left him some water and a chip to eat.

and  my favorite part, she picked the lion some flowers, just in case the lion wanted to get married.
Back to Luke - "What? Married? You don't hunt a lion so they can get married?" - "Luke you're going to have to roll with this one."

We then sat behind the neighbors car to see the lion love her flowers and eat her chip.
If I could've been a fly on a wall for their neighbors conversations.
Still so fun.

Texas part 2 - Time out for women

The other reason I ventured to Texas was to attend Time Out for Women and see Macy perform. Macy 

our friend who is our photographer and also a presenter at Time Out for Women. Yes, she is an extremely talented person, one who inspires me every time I'm around her.  

Anyway, her performance was awesome,

It was filled with the spirit, laughter and so much inspiration.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought that.
After the performance I went to buy her cd to give to Melissa and they were completely SOLD OUT.

Way to go Macy!

Because we were Macy's guests we got reserved seats that were seated right in front next to the presenters. Yeah we thought that was pretty cool.

Friday evening Melissa was sitting right next to Brad Wilcox, who was also presenting at the conference.

When he wasn't speaking he was playing with Olivia. It was so cute to see them hanging out. I think they bonded. :)
She was the BEST BABY. She sat through the conference all evening Friday evening and all day Saturday and was SO VERY GOOD. Not a peep and full of smiles.

We were both so glad we were able to go to this weekend filled with so much inspiration and motivation. I think it might have to become a yearly tradition with all the girls in the family!
Thanks Macy for giving me the motivation to help make it happen.

Texas part 1

I got to visit my brother Marshall his wife Melissa and they're beautiful girls, posted in the previous posts, in Texas last weekend.

I hadn't ever been to Texas outside of the airport until now. 

Here's a few things I learned

Texas, at least Houston, has palm trees! We don't have palm trees in New England and I love palm trees so these made my day.

Texas has lots of trees and lots of green. I love these tree lined streets. In my mind Texas had lots of brown and cactus's, not so. In fact they had some amazing big trees that would be so fun to climb.  If Josh ever goes to visit we will never get him out of the trees.

I love the Houston temple, to me it has such a unique look.

We didn't have time to see the inside but I was glad to see the outside at least.

Texans like to EAT. I don't think I've ever seen so many restaurants in my life. We spent a good part of our time in Texas eating out. We ate at

Rudy's BBQ

a few different Mexican restaurants that were so good, so very good. Sorry I can't remember the names, but last night we at out to a Mexican restaurant and it just didn't compare to what I had in Texas. I also had

Chic-filet (holy cow so good)
Sonic Burger (my moms favorite ahhh the memories)

Shipley donuts (I died and went to heaven, they were still hot - Dunkin Donuts you don't hold a candle)

Did I mention we had good Mexican food? So good.

Texas has a lot of spaghetti bowls, basically a bunch overpasses all mixed up together.  I think they look pretty cool.
Last but not least or one to forget, Texas has traffic.

Melissa and I had the opportunity to attend Time Out for Women (next post) while I was there. Friday evening we were driving to the convention center in rush our traffic. Normally this drive would take about 45 minutes but like I said it was rush hour and it took us 2 1/2 hours. It think we got on 3 or 4 different freeways and every one was a parking lot. C R A Z Y.

  A small taste of my night last night

I had Parker cause his mom had her baby, yay! 

Parker woke up from his nap I took him to our house

Fed him

Played with him

Started to clean up the house

Left to pick up Luke and Josh from school

"Hi mom, I'm hungry" 

Home again - "Mom can you help me with my homework?"

I need to start cleaning to get ready for company

"Hon, I'm cutting a big branch down can you hold the ladder?"

"Everyone stay off the lawn because of falling branches"

"Whose in charge of Parker?"

"Mom, I'm still hungry"

"Did someone forget they were watching Parker?

Left to pick up Ben

Home again - "Mom I'm hungry"

Trying to clean the house

"Can we take Jake swimming so Parker can see Jake jump?"

I did my best to keep Parker from jumping in the pool after Jake

"Mom LOOK I made it to the top of the pine tree (who knows how high that was but it was enough to cause me stress) and look mom I don't even need my hands!"

Have I cleaned anything yet?

"Mom is there something to eat?"

Kids fed.

Parker fed

Jamas on Parker

"Mom can I have a friend come over to hang out?"

"Mom can me and my friend make cookies?" "Thanks mom, wait where's the counter?"

My response "Guess you'll have to find it" Maybe my kitchen will get cleaned

Take Parker home to bed, after dad comes home I come back home

"Mom, I'm hungry what can I eat?"

Should be cleaning to tired

Friend goes home

Neighbor kids go home

I'm going to bed, boys in charge of cleaning while I'm at a meeting in the morning.

There response "Mom, define clean"

Calgon take me away

Sometimes all you can do is smile 

 

 I love these pictures too!

Look at her standing on her toes. So cute!