Wedding Fun

Andrea's youngest sister got married in the Houston Texas temple. It was a beautiful wedding and a great excuse to get family together. Here are a few pictures of the fun!

From outside the temple...
From their reception...

My great dad with cute little Eme. Hard to imagine her getting married some day! Yikes!!!
Hard to have a bad party as long as there's food...right Eme? :-)

The sisters and sister-in-law.

I love the way this picture captured the moment!

Grandparents Visit

Andrea's parents came by for another quick visit. It's great having them so close. Know what else is great...getting help maintaining the garden and working in the yard! Yep, we're pretty lucky...

The Value of Grandparents

When you see a smile like this, you know the value of grandparents. This is a fun picture of my dad giving Eme the biggest smile ever. We always love having the grandparents visit. After all, someone has to spoil our kids...and it can't be us (at least not any more than we already do!).

A White Christmas

We had a great time visiting my family up in Dallas for Christmas. It's nice to be within driving distance (it definitely saves on the travel budget!). The kids are to the age now where they really appreciate getting to see and play with their cousins. And between my two sisters, there are plenty of cousins to play with! (Ok, maybe not that many, but six is a lot to me.)

And did I mention that it even snowed? Who says it doesn't get cold in Texas. What the schnikes?!



Our semi-serious time was when we dressed up and enacted Christ's birth.

Our cute little shepherds.


Our silly time was when Andrea and my mom and my sisters did a skit to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" with my dad singing alternate lyrics with reference to JuicePlus and the like (for those of you who know my mom, she's a big fan of JuicePlus).



We don't have Wii at home, but Mackay loves playing it at his cousins' house. Here's a fun little video of the kids steering their cars, with a bit of commentary by Beckett.

Water Fun

In mid-July we headed to my parents home for a little summer fun. The boys had a great time playing on the slip and slide, swimming in the hot tub, and riding on grandpa's boat. Nothing like a little water fun in the middle of summer to stay cool.



A little fun on the slip and slide.

A not-so-hot hot tub. Note Mackay's bruise on his hip from the water slide.


















Beckett loves his little sister!


















Mackay and Grandpa taking the helm.























Eme and Grandma enjoying the ride.























A fun trip.


















My great parents!

Independence Fun

We celebrated Independence Day with more family than I can ever remember! Andrea's parents and sister and her husband came down. So too did my sister and her family (check our her post on the fun). We had a full day of fun on the 4th. We started out by going to Hamilton Pool, a natural swimming hole about 30 minutes southwest of Austin. After that we came home and let the kids (and some of us "adults") play in the water slide. You should have seen the bruise Mackay gave himself on his hip from the way he flopped down on the ground. We opted not to go see the city fireworks this year because of the kids bedtimes, instead doing our own "show" on our culdesac. All in all, it was a great weekend. Yet another advantage to living here--being close to family.

Our cute little guy.

Beckett and I had fun floating around the "pool."

Mackay and Hannah loved playing with Julie and Jimmy.

A cute little girl.

Mommy and daughter.

Mackay going in for the kill!

Mackay and Hannah are the best of friends.

A full house!

It's getting harder to get everyone to look at the camera!

Amy's family stayed an extra day. The kids always love playing together.

Sweet Garden

Andrea's parents came by to help us make a sweet raised garden. And they're not just two normal grandparents coming to help. Her dad is an organic agronomist and her mom is a "master gardener." It was pretty simple to make really. We created boxes out of 2x12's, added high-end soil, added awesome organic fertilizer from her dad (we're now "distributors" if anyone wants to buy some--it'll make your plants grow REALLY big...seriously), added seeds and water, and presto! I think Andrea took some more recent pictures. Trust me...the plants have gotten huge!

Fun at Seaworld with Grandparents

We had a great time at Seaworld with Andrea's parents. As you can see from the pictures, Andrea's mom even climbed into action at the play area.

Harder to walk up than it might seem!

Best buds!

Not just a 3-D movie. 4-D with water and other effects too!

Andrea's Officially Old!

Can you believe Andrea is 30 already! She's almost as old as me! I made this little picture montage in honor of her first 30 years. In case you're wondering, the song I set it to is her favorite--it's called Juliana and talks about what a bad girl Juliana is..."Juliana que mala eres." If you look closely, there's a chance you might be in it too. Love the new iPhoto '09! (Note that you should be able to watch the video in HD by pushing play and then clicking on the triangle at the bottom right of the video and clicking on the HD option.)

Pre-Christmas Fun

We had a great time with my parents and sister, Amy, and her family, who came to visit the weekend before Christmas. Amy's kids and ours get along amazingly well. Mackay and Hannah are the best of friends. I wonder how close they'll be when they're teenagers...

Beckett and Austin seemed to get a long pretty well...sand is always fun.
Is Grandpa under there or is that a dead body??
"Look at me Grandma! I'm cute!"
Sometimes it's just more fun if everyone gets to open the present together!