Summer is Here!!

I am so excited that summer is finally here. These last few months of school have been so busy and this momma was ready for some down time. This weekend we took the opportunity to do just that. My family got together for a crawfish boil at my brother's house. Doesn't this spread look delicious. Crawfish, shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, potatos, onions and mushrooms. YUM!!! This is a look in the cooler before we boiled those little suckers. This one was showing his stuff.
Hogan officially finished kindergarden Friday. For his kinder graduation he got a new big boy fishing pole. He was able to take it out and fish while we were there. I can't believe he is already so big.

He mastered the new pole like a champ.

Gates caught a stonefish. He was not sure about it and stayed far away from it once he reeled it in. Stonefish are very poisonous if you get poked by one so it was probably good he stayed back.

This was his happy face after he reeled it in. He didn't care how ugly it was.

Ugly fish but fascinating. Once again, I am in love with Gods creativity.

Hogan had to kiss his first catch. What cracks me up about this picture is that earlier that day they (my four children; they call themselves the Leftwich four) had formed a band and Elisabeth drew earings on him with a marker. If you look carefully you can see that they are still there. He had a mohawk and the word ROCK written on his forehead but I made him clean it off before went out. He must have missed the earings. He was small but Hogan was so happy.

In this case, size doesn't matter.

The littlest fisherman trying so hard. He wanted to catch a fish so bad. He even baited his own hooks.

The BIG fisherman. Hogan fished the longest and got the most fish of the night. He caught three. He was such a big boy with his new fishing pole.

To Eat Out or to Eat In.......

I love to eat out....I know I know it is so bad for us...but I don't care. I just really love to eat out. There are so many things that make it GREAT. Like the fact that when one of my four children ask me for more to drink, I don't have to stop eating and get up and get it we just ask the wait person to bring us more. Not to mention the fact that there is no mess to clean up. No dishes to wash, no floor to sweep. Ah....so nice. However, the practical person in me knows we need to be better. It costs us tons of money and it is such a big waste. So I'm turning over a new leaf....Instead of eating out 60% of the time, I am aiming for 10% of the time. It is much healthier for us and will save us so much money. It will be a hard habbit to break but here it goes. I am turning over a new leaf....So my friends....if you see us out to eat next week, shake your finger at me and remind me of my new leaf.

If the first time I posted about this wasn't enough....

to convince you to take your little girl...Then maybe these will help.

While we were in Dallas for Josh's pawpaw's funeral, we made a quick trip back to the American Girl store with our cousin Shelby. I couldn't help but want to go back after our last experience. and I am afraid Elisabeth is going to not want to play with dolls anymore really soon. She turns eight this summer.

So....here are the girls walking up to the store together. In true Shelby fasion, she was a little unsure about this new adventure.

Elisabeth began showing her what was inside this store....
...Here we go!

"Look Shelby....dresses just for Ellie!"

The trip wouldn't have been complete with out a trip to the bueaty shop. Kit got her hair done with a ribbon.

Ellie got a spa treatment (ie a good old wipe down) and a ribbon in her hair.

Here are the girls at the table waiting for their food.

Ellie in her high chair ready to eat. Kit in her high chair ready to eat.

The food there is delicious!
These happy faces are enjoying ice cream sundays. Oh yeah!

Shelby had to stop and change Ellie's diaper with her new diaper changing stuff.

Elisabeth got a bag for Kit to go in and Kit got a bag just like it for mini Kit to go in. Yeah a little much. This store knows just how to appeal to these little girls.

We all had a great time. If you were thinking about going anytime, I would highly recommend it! I think ages three in up would have a blast!

P.S. I did like it better when we went during the week because it was less crowded.

Beach Blast

Yesterday, was a beautiful day!

The sun was shining and God's creation was beaming!

I love watching my children enjoy his miraculous works!

Here's a peek of some of what we did....

Beck fished ALL day!

We went with two other families. One family has 6 kids and the other family has 4 kids. Plus my 4 kids...we had 14 kids. The boys extracted ghost shrimp with the ghost shrimp extractor. Elisabeth watched....and made sure they did not get near her with them.

Beck was still fishing. See the shadow of that sea gull? He ended up catching it on his pole. It was quite funny. It definately freaked him out!

He is quite good with casting his pole. I think it was all his practice in the back yard.

Gates rode his boogie board

Hogan built sand castles.

But....

We all enjoyed some jumping....

The whole BIG group took the plunge....

Big and small I watched them fall...

My camera will never be the same....but oh what joy.

When we got in the car to go home....

the kids begged us to come back tomorrow.

But, it didn't take long for them to look like this.....

....and this.

It was a glorious day!

Some Ramblings.....

Beware....I've got lots to talk about...this might get lengthy.

So today I decided to clean my house. My house keeper got pregnant and well I haven't found a new one. I thought we would save the money and I'd just do it myself. Because after all I had to "clean" the house just so the housekeeper could "clean" the house. That always drove me crazy. It just always seemed like the worst possible time to have to pick up the whole house. Well six months has passed and I haven't really done it. But today was the day. I was turning over a new leaf. I am not a cleaner. In fact hate, detest, find every excuse in the book to not clean. Therefore my house was just out of control. So out of control ,that I wanted to clean it. If that makes any sense. So I start in the kids bath room because it smells like pee all the time and I can't figure out why. I go in there and wipe the entire pot and floor around it with clorox wipes all the time and still I feel like it smells like pee. There are just too many boys peeing in there!! I really try to remind them make sure the tee tee goes straight into the water and that if they get any on the rim to wipe it off with TP. However, rules get broken. And well PEE. So back to the subject.....I start cleaning this nasty bathroom. It is terrible. I sprayed the entire potty corner with bleach and let it sit while I scrubed the tub and sinks. I end up spending at least two hours in there scrubbing it from floor to ceiling. When I was finished, I loved it! So I decided to make my way to the next room that needed my undevided attention, the kitchen. Same thing spent another couple of hours working on that. Scrubbed all the cabinets etc. Then I dusted the whole house. Vacuumed....wiped down the blinds. Really deep cleaned. Scrubbed all the door jams and hall walls to get the gray dinge from all those little hands off. I even took our kitchen chairs outside and gave the kids buckets of soapy water and a wash rag and let them scrub them then hosed them off. To do this little task, I let them put on their swim suits and then play in the pool and water hose for a while....thus making lots of laundry. Of which I was way behind on because I was out of town for four days.

Fast forward a couple of hours. I go out for a quick Target fix BY MY SELF. Josh is in charge of getting them showered to bed and all that jazz. I'm not saying that this is his fault I am just saying why I was not home. So when I get home, all that hard work down the tubes. Really. My kids can trash our house in an hour. I know that for the most part the house was still clean as in no dirt but there was CRAP everywhere. Wet towels on the floor, dirty clothes on the floor, tooth paste in the sink. The toilet already had the PEE. (Sorry mom I know you hate that word :))....and it wasn't flushed. There was broccoli and popcorn on the kitchen floor. I feel so defeated. Why did I even bother.

Before I left for Target, I was getting on to the kids and not letting them do anything for fear that all my hard work would get destroyed. However, that is no way to live. They are just kids. Which is another reason why I shouldn't bother cleaning. Then I wont have to be so hard on the kids about messing it up. :)

I really need to spend some time in our bedroom and the play room but......I'm not good with DEFEAT. So I guess I'll spend the day shopping tomorrow instead.

Do you feel my pain? I'm back on cleaning strike. Now I remember why I didn't do it in the first place. Know a good house keeper?

Wow, that was a load off my chest. I feel much better and now I can go to bed seeing how it is 1:20 am. That's right 1:20. I drank this energy drink this morning and well I couldn't go to sleep....ok off to bed.

Wordless Wednesday

PawPaw's Memorial Service

Josh's grandfather passed away this past Monday.

Today we had the honor of attending his service at the veterans cemetery in Arlington.

Bill Leftwich was a wonderful, talented man.

He was a freshman at Texas A&M in 1941. This began the families Aggie traditions.

He designed the Corp Center at A&M and has a life size bronze of the first Reveille inside.

In 1975 he built the house they lived in out of adobe.

Just two years ago, his Christmas ornament was selected to be hung on the white house Christmas tree. Laura Bush sent him a had written letter inviting him to attend the lighting of that tree.

Bill has authored several books and was a fabulous artist by trade. He was just so talented.

We will miss him...