Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Monday at the Aquarium

Getting snacks ready before we head to the Houston Aquarium.

Playing together...Trinny took her fishing pole to the Aquarium in hopes of catching a fish. I think she was a little disappointed.

Gabrielle checking out some of the beautiful fish.

The group stopping to watch more fish displays.

Cheeese!

Gabrielle's been closing her eyes when she says "cheese".
Looks like the first picture was a lot better...

So, of course I tried another shot, and this is what I got. Nice!

Spotted sting rays. Interesting and pretty!

Trinny pointing out the seahorse in this display.

Sean showing Trinny one of the open displays of fish.

Getting to touch some fish in the water.
I even got brave enough to touch a sting ray--they were soft!

Holding Trinny up to see more fish.

Nick as a deep sea diver--who knew?

Gabrielle had to get a picture in there too since daddy did it.

The last display was a beautiful white tiger.

Strutting his stuff before we got to watch him have lunch.

The Sears Family--Moneisa, Trinny, and Sean.

Gabrielle sooo excited that we bought carousel tickets.

Getting ready for our ride.

Look at the pretty carousel.

Gabrielle enjoying her alligator ride.

Waving at daddy taking our picture.

Check out the alligator and dolphin!



Trinny spilled some of her goldfish on the ground and a bird swooped right in and started his lunch.

The Houston Hard Rock was just down the street...
more yummy food!

Giving hugs before we headed back to our house.

Gabrielle taking a nap in the car on the way home. She stared the trip home with her arm up over her head, lamb in grasp. When she fell asleep her lamb stayed on her head...it was too cute for me to resist taking a picture.

Sunday fun with the Sears'

We started the day by visiting their church (way cool that one of the Avalon singers was leading worship!) at Fellowship of the Woodlands. It reminded us a lot of our church that we went to in Odessa, but on a much bigger scale.

After we were done eating lunch at Culver's (yum!) the girls got up and started dancing together--too cute!



Sorry there is a lot of background noise on this video, but don't turn the volume too low, or you will miss Gabrielle's giggles while she's having sooo much fun dancing with Trinny.

Posing together in the front doorway.

A little pose just by herself.

Walking around the market after supper.

One of the fountains that had periodical "shows" to music.

The girls checking out one of the fountain shows.

Dancing with my daughter to the music.



One of my new favorite pictures of Gabrielle and I!!!

Kisses for my little angel.



One last family picture before we headed "home" for the evening.

Hangin' out in Houston

We had a few days of vacation time, so we headed into Houston (The Woodlands to be exact) to spend a couple of days visiting with the Sears Family.

After we got there we headed out to eat...
Love this picture of the daddies with their precious daughters.

There was a small "splash" area nearby that the girls really enjoyed playing in. Gabrielle loves anything that's got water, so she jumped right in.

Gabrielle showing Trinny that playing in the water is lots of fun.

Seriously...she loved putting her head down on the water sprays and letting her hair hang down the opposite way. Interesting, but she was having lots of fun!

Fun!

Trinny got wetter than usual...must be early peer pressure.

CHEEEEESE!

This was fun...what's next?

More cheesy smiles.

The little park had some statues...the girls really liked this donkey.

More fun on the donkey...the girls really got along well.

Landscaping clean-up

The pile of leaves, branches, and weeds that the two dudes trimmed out of our yard. They did in only 6 hours what would have taken me weeks to accomplish.

The front tree all trimmed up.

The front flower bed on our house. They completely pulled out some bushes that were basically dead, weeded the beds, and then trimmed the remaining bush. They also edged the grass by our driveway...I'm so glad that it's finally starting to look better! I'll have to get some pictures of the backyard later.

Super Diva

Three pair of sunglasses at one time, and then she found another pair in the drawer after I took this picture. What a diva!

Cookies...yummy!

Showin' off her new hat--backwards.
BTW, she's wearing another outfit that I wore when I was growing up. It was one of my favorites, so it's super fun to see Gabrielle wearing it too!

CHEESE!!!

Playing with her phone and daddy's cel phone at the same time.

More time at the Bounce

Fortunately this time Daddy got to go with us on his Friday off--yea! We all had a great time climbing, sliding, and jumping.

Gabrielle showing Daddy how to climb up the big slide.

Getting ready to slide down the first time together.

Daddy taking a turn on a smaller slide--wheeeee!

Gabrielle climbing up the wall to get to the slide on the other side.

Taking a break and a quick drink of water.

One last slide with mommy.
I love the way the picture shows us in "motion"!

The Big Bounce with Emmalyn

Heather and I met at the Big Bounce with our girls so they could play. I think that I ended up bouncing with them almost as much as they did too. We all had lots of fun!

Gabrielle working on scaling the wall.

Almost to the top.

Gabrielle and I sitting at the top of the BIG slide.

Givin' each other kisses before we leave.

And more lovin' with some hugs.

Playin' around

Gabrielle loves to be outside...
Can you tell how hot it is here just by the flush on her cheeks?

Blowin' some bubbles like a big girl!


You'll have to turn up your volume quite a bit to be able to hear Gabrielle singing her version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her baby before she puts her to "sleep". I was trying to stay back so she wouldn't see me, but I still think it's too cute, even if she "spied" me in the doorway.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Just like my daddy

Playing guitars together.



Daddy and Gabrielle making up a song.


Daddy and Gabrielle singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".
I LOVE this video!

More yummies...

Strawberry Sensation

2 lbs. fresh strawberries, washed and cut up OR 8 oz. bag of whole frozen strawberries

1 can sweetened condensed milk-lite

¼ cup lemon juice

8 oz. fat free cool whip, divided

12 oreo cookies, chopped

Line a bread pan with foil. Mash strawberries in a large mixing bowl and add condensed milk, juice and ½ of the cool whip. Pour into pan. Top with cookie pieces and press them into the mixture. Cover and freeze for at least 6 hours. To serve, invert onto plate and remove foil. Frost with remaining cool whip. Yields 8-10 servings