Happy Father's Day

I know this is late, but we wanted to still wish all the dudes out there a Happy Father's Day!

Gabrielle with Nick's dad, Chuck, and Grandma Judy too.

Gabrielle with Uncle Joe (Judy's son). Praying for him as he's been going through the court process to even be able to get visitation rights with his kids (obviously his ex-wife isn't being very nice about their situation).

Showing Grandpa Chuck her Little Einstein toys.

CHEEESE!

Every time I see this picture it freaks me out because it looks like a first-day-of-school picture. I'm soooo not ready for that to be here, although I know time will fly by before I know it. She's such an independent little girl, and I know that she's going to love school. But, I'm just not ready for that day to even be close yet!

Exploration

We took a couple of car rides around the area with Nick's dad, Judy, and Joe while they were here. Check out some of the scenery around here.

Enjoying the backseat with other people.

Joe--smile!

Our wonderful driver.

A bridge that we went over...

looks more intimidating from an angle.

Not the biggest bridge in the area, that's for sure!

From the side...

As you drive south, the houses seem to be raised off the ground.

Must be a learning process to have your "garage" under your house. But, as you can see, there's lots of water in their backyard. I'm sure this house was rebuilt after the hurricane last year!

A view of Port Arthur from the top of the bridge. As you can tell, there's a lot of "industry" in their town as opposed to Nederland being more residential.

Smelling or licking her feet...who knows.

She sure was giggling though!

Cheeeeese!

Outdoor fun with G & G Walker

Here's some of the pictures from Father's Day weekend when Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Judy (Walker) came to Nederland for a visit...

Daddy and Gabrielle headed up to the BIG slide.

Uncle Joe coming out of the slide.

Gabrielle on one of her favorite slides at the park.

Grandma Judy testing out some of the equipment.

Swings are probably Gabrielle's favorite!

Family picture on the slide.

Getting a big drink before we left...it sure was HOT!

Spending some time in the pool after nap.

Gabrielle with daddy...silly!

Grandpa Chuck helping us seal our shed. The former owners were supposed to "redo" the shed. They did three of the four walls, but couldn't get to this one I guess because it's right up next to our neighbor's fence. So, Chuck used some expandable foam stuff to seal some of the cracks and then sprinkled some bug repelant to hopefully keep the little critters away. THANKS for your help!

Pop, poppity, pop!

Gabrielle having some fun with some packing materials.

We really need to stop buying her toys and just let her play with all the "free" stuff around here! :)

The best Daddy ever!

Gabrielle helping Nick open his Father's Day gifts...a couple of CDs.

AND, the Godfather DVD Collection...just hope that he doesn't make me watch them with him again like he did when we were dating! :)

I know that I am going to hear it from Nick on this one, but I think this picture is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE. Not because Nick is "dressed up" and it makes me laugh a bit. But, because he's the greatest daddy for our precious little girl that I know. Who else is married to a man who's willing to wear a skirt and dance-shoes just for his daughter? Mine is! :)

Family picture

Not bad for a timed-picture before church one day, huh?

LOVE to SWIM

So I finally got Gabrielle's pool blown up for the summer, and she's been playing in it almost every day. I rigged up the plastic piece that was supposed to go on top (but keeps falling off anyway) so that she's in the "shade". Otherwise it's just plain TOO hot outside already for us to be out for very long.

Bonus picture of Gabrielle climbing the tree while we were at the Splash Park in Groves (near Nederland). Go figure that she followed that big boy in the background up there. She's definitely my little monkey!

All in a day

"Helping" mommy in the kitchen.

That chocolate cake was tasty...obviously!

Playing with daddy after supper.

More rough-housing with daddy--yea!

"Dancin' with my daddy!"

(imagine them singing this to a tune Nick made up)

Oh, and check out the "dance" shoes she insists on wearing...may be we've been watching too many reality dance shows on TV?!

Just a lot of CHEEEEEESE!

Big Bounce

One day last week we were invited to join some other new friends at a place down the street from our house called "BIG BOUNCE". I was sooo excited that it only cost $3 for Gabrielle to play, but it was super hot in there since they just turned the air conditioner on when we got there...boo. Hopefully next time it will be a little cooler, and I won't have to sweat just watching Gabrielle play (plus she got tired much quicker!).

Having a blast on the huge slide.

Making her way through an obstacle course.

Climbing up one of the inflatables...sliding down the other side!

Mommy's little helper

Gabrielle's been asking to "help" me with a lot of things around the house lately...here are a few of the pictures that I have taken when I thought about it. Hopefully I will be able to get her used to "chores" while she's young so that she doesn't whine about them later in life...I'll just have to remind her how much she begged to help when she was little, I guess!

Helping with the toilet brush.

Notice she's even smiling...

Helping wash the dishes.

Getting the pitcher rinsed.

Washing the dishes turned into "playing in the water".

But, she still did a great job with the dishes anyway!

Trying to figure out play dough.

Concentrating...

Yea, this is fun!

Weekend trip to Houston

A bridge that we drove over.

I'd have to say that there are some "pretty" bridges around here!

A little closer to the bridge.

We had a great time shopping, playing at the McDonald's play (in space decor since we were near the Space Center), and swimming in the hotel pool.

Can you believe that these are the only pictures I got?

Cheese!!!

Who knew that the hotel room dresser drawer could be so entertaining? She even wanted to go to sleep in there...