Oops, I farkled...

Have you ever played Farkle? It is a super fun dice game. If I was as cool as Kareena, I'd take the time to find and awesome link to tell you the rules, but let's face it, there's no chance I could come even close to being as cool as she is... Anyway, look it up! You use six dice and keep score based on the rules - we looked them up on Wikipedia. The game is fast paced and even Dalton loves it, since he is able to roll the dice and there isn't a gameboard for him to mess with and make the rest of us crazy. Here, I'm attempting to put a little mojo on the dice with the rally hat on. I was showing Delyla how it's done, and as you can see, she was really interested.
The boys had to copy their cool mom of course by getting rally hats on and blowing on their dice too. Jon wasn't worried, he always wins everything... That is his, does she have the camera out again for that blog? face. Do your husbands have one??? This is all new to me.
After it all played out, Jon won - of course. He always wins at every game. I tried a last ditch effort to see if Delyla would blow on the dice, but she was not wanting to do anything except eat them. Maybe next time. We try to have a family game night once a week and we were soooo lucky that Jon was home for this one, even if he did win - by ALOT!

Bo's Big Day

July 25th was Bo's 26th birthday (neither of us has aged since our 26th birthdays). He had the day off and of course it rained thanks to hurricane Dolly. We totally lucked out though!! We went to the zoo with umbrellas and saw just about every animal we could have ever wanted to see. There was a funny monkey with a tongue as long as his tail, licking the fence and eating lettuce. The tiger was swimming. A cheetah was just about close enought to touch - and eyeing Delyla a little too suspiciously... It was sooo much fun.


Before going to the zoo, we ate lunch at Fuddrucker's - yummy hamburgers... We ate delicious coconut macaroon cookies there that Jon decided were his new favorite. The next day for the actual celebration, I tried to recreate them instead of birthday cake. We had a tower of macaroons. We used leftover plates and napkins from Dalton's Cars birthday. The boys must have hidden out for 20 minutes to jump out and yell suprise. Jon should win a nomination for an academy award based upon his acting suprised performance. The kids loved it! He's such a great guy!

Fun Friends to the Rescue!

We had unexpected visitors yesterday and it turned out to be such fun! Brianne and her kids Austin and Cali stopped by to play on a rainy day. The boys dressed up in silly combinations of random halloween costumes. It was so funny! They kept switching and would run in for help with costume changes. Dalton's combo of Darth Vader and Batman is my favorite.

We found the giant halloween costume box this morning and I am sure they will be having even more fun as the day goes on. We have a neat costume that could be used as Captain Moroni! Maybe we'll even get a Book of Mormon lesson out of this, who knows?

Jon is home today for a birthday celebration and since the rain is clearing up, we're heading to the zoo. Hopefully no one will be there and all of the animals will put on a special performance just for us!

OOPS!

Not meaning to toot my own horn, Kareena chastised me for not mentioning my singing debut at the Pine Trails Ward... Scary ! Along with my lovely friends Megan and Brianne, we rocked the house with a rendition of Israel, Israel God is Calling - accompanied by the famous (perhaps infamous...) Kareena at the piano. We of course tricked it out by using the words of They the Builders of the Nation for the first 3 verses and ended with an accapella 4th verse from the actual Israel, Israel song. It was really fun to get together with my friends and share our talents. Our tribute to our pioneer heritage.

I never knew what all of the gibberish at the back of the hymnal was talking about where it shows songs with the same meter. We really had fun finding two songs with the same meter and singing the words of one to the tune of another. I guess even old dogs(moms, - same thing right?) can learn new tricks.

On the serious side though, it was a lovely experience and I really felt the spirit as I sang the song. Megan and Brianne have such angelic voices and Kareena tickles the ivories with splendor. Thanks to my talented friends for including me in the plan!

What a week!

I intended to have the picture of Roxanne, my sis at the end of the blog, but here she is front and center as she would probably like it anyway... This picture is from when she came to visit just after Delyla was born. There's more about my cool rocker sister at the end of the blog.

We had a really busy and fun week! Jon has a great friend named Randy who came over and helped him rebuild the engine on an old jet ski we have. The kids had a blast riding on it. Dalton is quite a dare devil and wanted to go fast! He is certainly his dad's son... I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't think I can handle two of them. We had a great afternoon bike ride. As you can tell Dalton was entertaining Delyla with something very funny. She is usually a little afraid to be in such close proximity to Dalton - he tends to be a little loud and rough, but they loved riding in the little bike trailer together.
Later in the week we actually loaded them up and rode to the pool. It was a wonderful excuse to not have to carry sooooo much junk (floats, toys, snacks...). We didn't miss anything and by the time we got home, we were pretty dry and Delyla had fallen asleep on Dalton's shoulder. It was just precious.
Darion got a great new bike this week. We ran his old one over with the truck;) The new one is silver and blue like the Dallas Cowboys. Go Dallas!!! He loves the pegs and yes, he has taken it off of some gnarly jumps.
Here I am putting up the facade that I am actually athletic. My bottom is really sore from the bike seat. They aren't very friendly on the rear that's for sure, but neither is having 3 kids...
Along with a double chin, I got a new haircut this week. I told my sister Roxanne I would post a pic of it. Believe me, this will probably be the first and last sort of close picture you will ever see of me on this blog. If anyone had asked other than Roxanne, I would probably have said nooooo way. Jon and I were on the way to have a hot date... I know, big shocker. Our last date occurred when I was about 5 months pregnant with Delyla and she is now almost 9 months old. He takes me out once a year whether he likes it or not... We had dinner and walked around the mall with most of the teenagers in the area. Afterwards, we went to DQ where we were by far the coolest people and had some ice cream. We read the personal ads in those want-ad type news papers and decided that we are pretty lucky to have eachother. If you are a SWF btwn the ages of 30-40 of medium build (as I am), your choices are DWM, 60-70 looking for companionship or GWM looking for a change. Prrreeettttyyy Scary! It was funny to look at and laugh though!

Up top is a pic of my lovely Sister who is soooooo amazing! She has been battleing Hodgkin's Lymphoma for over a year now. She's undergoing intense ICE chemotherapy this month and goes in for a stem cell transplant next month. I've never known anyone as independent as her. We are just like night and day. She's stubborn and brave! There are a million qualities that she has that I envy. She is really able to speak her mind, even if it is about something that will make her upset. She has strong opinions about things. Roxanne is an awesome seamstress and is an artist with a needle and thread. You should see that beautiful needle point, cross-stitch stuff she does. Anyway, she totally rocks from her balding (thanks to chemo) head down to her tattooed toes - well, the tattoos aren't actually on her toes, but who knows, maybe someday right Roxanne? I love you!

The spirit of fear

It is so strange to me how snippets of life here and there end up linking together into big life concepts.

I was talking to my all time bestest friend Alison from Angel Fire last night on the phone and she worriedly told me she wishes we would move back up there. Now, this is a conversation we have just about every time we talk - I think it is a sweet way that we communicate about how much we miss eachother without getting sappy. But this time her request had a grave concern attached to it. She had read an article where the author had stated his opinion that the area around Houston would be the next place for a terrorist attack to occur due to the connection with important ports and resources, as well as the Bush family. I kind of blew off the conversation and we started talking about other things, but her fear for us stuck in the back of my mind.

Today, Jon was home from work on a rare day off and we went back to Kemah - our new hang-out I guess, hoping to experience the fun squirty, splashy fountains with the kids on such a hot day. Much to our dissapointment, they were under repair. We were lucky enough to be able to visit the Sting Ray Reef. It is really neat - you are able to pet and feed the sting rays. They don't feel anything like I expected them to based on their appearance. Darion practically dove into the water after his initial worries were over. No fear there!

Then, this afternoon, I sat down for a quiet moment and being the good little Molly Mormon that we all know I am, I was reading my Ensign. (I opened the plastic mailer cover first...It isn't quite mid-July yet, so I am doing better than usual in my intentions to read it through each month.) I read the first lesson on Heeding the Words of the Prophets by President Uchtdorf. Within the talk there was a scripture from 2Timothy1:7-8. I reads like this:

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord."

This really spoke to me. If we have a sure testimony of the Lord, we have no reason to let our fears take over our lives. We are given the blessing of power, love and a sound mind. We can't let our fears take over, no matter what they are about - political, economical, personal...or simply the fear of a slimy animal.

Anyway, that is my rambling and rare deep thought for now.

I did it!

For those of you that know me well, you'll understand my excitement that I have finally started my blog page. Not only did I find the time, I actually used the computer without the urge to throw it out the window! Miracles never cease... I hope to post often and share our summer fun with family and friends!

These are pics of my spotless, never spoiled, angelic children. Delyla is enjoying her very first cracker - very much... Dalton is piggin out on some watermelon. Darion is actually eating! I thought that some of you might want proof that it does occur and that it wasn't sugar;)

We took these on 4th of July as we enjoyed a huge BBQ luncheon that Jon made - delicious! After that, we went to Kemah and watched a giant fireworks show. It was a fun-filled family day!