Spring Break!

We took a road trip to Red Oak (Dallas) to visit the Braly family. We had planned to stop in San Antonio and take the kids to the zoo but when we got to the zoo the line was out the door. There were about 100 people waiting on people to come out so they could go in. We decided that we would do the zoo this summer! So back in the car we went and decided to stop at the outlet malls in San Marcos to stretch our legs and give the kids a break from the car. We hit a few of our favorite shops...Quiksilver and Coleman Camping Store for Henry, Aeropostale Clothes for Marley and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for Garrett and Kenzie. All my home stores will have to wait until next trip! We then drove 3 1/2 hours straight with a ton of traffic and the crazy truck drivers! It should be a law that all 18 wheelers should have to drive in the far right lane! We eventually made it to Red Oak and had a nice relaxing evening catching up with everyone.

The next night we went to the big town of Garrett, Texas (population 340) on our way to the drive-in movies. Mike took us to the local Police Dept. (a.k.a. a small storage shed!) Garrett was grinning from ear to ear!




Then we were off to the drive-in movies! We saw the Race to Witch Mountain. It was a little chilly so we all snuggled up under blankets. The kids had a blast and made a memory for life. We'll definitely go again when we visit.



We took Makenzie to Build-A-Bear Workshop. She insisted on getting the pink bear with hearts even though Henry tried to talk her into getting a traditional brown bear. She wasn't too sure on the whole stuffing thing and her favorite part was the washing! She had a hard time picking out clothes and shoes because they have so many. Chelsea is now part of the family!



We did a little of this...



and a whole lot of this...



Sadly, our visit with Mike, Melinda, Ryan, Michaela and Samantha had to end. We all had a great time and hopefully will be invited back next year!

On the way back, we made a stop to eat BBQ at the Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas (outside of Austin). Henry was a happy camper! Then we made a quick stop at Garden Ridge outside of San Antonio for me! After a long day of driving we finally made it home. This was Makenzie's longest road trip and she did great!

Meet the newest member of our family...

Emily Rose was born Tuesday, March 10th. Henry's sister, Wendy and her husband Brett are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl! Big sister Amanda is smitten with her! Mom and baby are doing great. Can't wait to meet her!

Happy Birthday Garrett!

Garrett turns 8! And despite the flu in our house, he had a great birthday! Dad made him a banana cake (which I heard was really yummy!) and then on Friday got to take a couple of friends to the new Glow in the Dark mini golf place. It was way cool! Everything glowed including their teeth! Then they went out for pizza and video games. This year he got a new fish aquarium in his room. He picked out an Angel fish and a frog. The sucker fish will be joining them next week.

Kenzie's ABCs

Kenzie has been practicing her ABC's and wanted you to see. This is one of many songs she sings around the house. So cute!

**Turn off music playing to hear video by scrolling down to slide show pictures and clicking on the volume symbol to mute the music.

My Valentines!

We had a great Valentine's this year! It turned out to be a Valentine's weekend which is so normal for our family. We took the kids out to eat Thursday night on Henry's evening off to celebrate. Henry and I got the night out on Friday (thanks mom for Marley, Garrett and Makenzie sitting). Saturday, Henry had to work but got to come home and have dinner with us and see the kids open their little something. They really liked the chocolate the best! Kenzie opened hers all by herself with her "big girl" lady bug scissors and shoved the whole piece in her mouth! It was very entertaining!

Marley has bangs!

Marley has bangs for the first time in years. She's been asking for awhile so my mom cut them last weekend. I think they make her look older. Dad's not quite sure how he feels about it and now we can't get her away from the mirror! Life of an almost teenager!

Baby in the house!

We had a wonderful surprise this weekend. My brother Steven, his wife Tarah and our new nephew Dylan came into town and spent the weekend with us. We had a great time visiting with them and spending time with Dylan. He's growing like a weed! We loved having Dylan around especially since every time he pooped we could hand him back to mom or dad! It's nice not having the youngest anymore! The whole family got together for dinner one night which was a lot of fun. Hope we can do it again soon!

Garrett Performs at the PTA Meeting

Garrett's 2nd grade class performed at the PTA Meeting this week. He did a great job singing Sentence Jingles. They were rhyming jingles about nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc. They were all too cute!

4 ft. 1 inch....#1 Garrett Mangum

Every year when Marley is signing up for all of her activities, we always ask Garrett if he would like to play a sport. The answer is always no. He played soccer a time or two and he was always more interested in playing on the huge dirt hill nearby than on the field. This year when we asked him he said that he wanted to play basketball. Luckily we found Upward Basketball. His jersey number is #1 and he thinks that is the coolest. At the opening game, they turned off all the lights and let them run through smoke to the spotlight as they called their names...like in the big leagues. He's really enjoying playing and has come a long way since the first practice!

Tree Planting

Marley has always wanted a fruit tree and she finally got one! Curley grew this orange tree from a seed and gave it to Marley. Dad helped her plant it in the back yard. (Don't let the picture fool you!) She's been taking care of it and is hoping it has oranges soon!