Take me out to the ballgame!

Every year we go to a Roughriders Baseball Game.  The RR are a minor league team that feeds into the Texas Rangers.  They have a nice small ballpark in Frisco and each summer they do a deal where for $10 you get a ticket to the game, a hat, and dinner at a fast food restaurant.  This year they had scheduled all these deals to be on Sundays and we don't do Sundays so we thought we wouldn't be able to go.  

Last year I gathered a group of about 30 people to go with us to the ballpark on one of these deal nights.  So I now have a sales guy who calls me asking me to "get my group together".  He called me and told me that they were going to do the deal, with just their client list, for the 4th of July weekend, would I be interested to get a group together, no promises, I said I'd try.  Well 64 people later we had a crew, and a blast! Especially when the fireworks ended the night with a BANG!

Grandma and Grandpa came...

 And we liked our hats....

Kaitlyn's friend Katie came along....

 silly Lindsey....the night was sponsored by Cinemark and they were promoting Discpicable Me 2....

All things American!

4th of July 2013 included some of the most idyllic wonderful memories!

We decided to take off Lindsey's training wheels and ta-da!  She did it after too much trying, and then proceeded to make dad run up and down the street over and over again.  She was so proud of herself and now zooms up and down the street super super fast!  We're silently grateful she's not old enough to drive.  Funny moment was just about a week later at a monthly block party, she ran into a stopped car in the middle of the road!  She loves her new accomplishment.

Then on the 4th we celebrated with our good friends the Torpy's who have just moved back to Allen from Colorado.  They've been living in a hotel for almost a month while their house was getting finished and we thought that was no place to celebrate Independence Day.

We invited them along to our family tradition of Sonic drinks (thank you half price shakes) and then to watch fireworks, we loved spending time with them and can't wait to hang out again.....

Suprise Honey!

I am so good and proud of myself.  I totally pulled off a surprise kidnapping of my husband.

When Mom McKneely was in town helping me sew curtains for my home we concocted a plan to take Stephen away for a weekend to celebrate our anniversary and have the 4 "Bedlamites" stay with them.

I really wanted to go here:

 

And so I found a B&B not too far from College Station and Houston.  I secretly worked with Stephen's co-workers to "fill his schedule" with things he could miss.  Mom McKneely had been in Dallas following Clara's first birthday party and we were her ride home.  We arrived at Stephen's work around lunchtime.  I called him and he was at his desk.  I explained to him that the people in his office knew that I was there and that he was to come with me.  That Mom and Dad were watching the kids and we were going away for the weekend.  I had to repeat myself and he said, "OK."  His co-workers instructed him to turn off his computer and come with me.

What was beautiful was that just 2 nights earlier he was complaining to me that he was really wanting to start taking half day Fridays but that someone had booked up his afternoon on Friday.  I was so grateful I was sitting in front of him at the time with my back to him so he couldn't see the HUGE smile on my face, this was exactly what we needed.

Our retreat was a house we had all to ourselves in the country.  It was quiet and secluded and didn't have internet access. =)  We slept and watched movies and just RESTED.  And we went to the Temple.  We hadn't been recently and it was good to go.  I ran into Hermana Daisey Reyes who was a member in my area in Spring.  I remember eating pupusas at her house, YUM!

And then when we stopped for Stephen to change we ran into the sweet Neri family who I grew to love dearly when I served in Conroe, their nephew is about to enter the MTC in a few weeks to serve his own stateside Spanish Speaking mission in California so things kind of come full circle!

Sunflowers in Allen!

We've been enjoying a treat around town....fields of SUNFLOWERS!  I've always been partial to these, they are so happy and cheerful!  A farmer locally has decided to grow these this year instead of their regular corn and it has become a frequent photo op spot.  Although when we tried it, it was sunny and on the way home from church and the kids were tired and not our best models.  No matter, we tried and wanted to remember it anyway!

Arboretum in the Summer

Summertime excursions are fun.  Our Arboretum annual membership was set to expire at the end of June so we made it a point to hit it a couple times after school was out.  One of the times we had a few loved ones along: Aunt Rachel and my adorable niece Clara and Kaitlyn's BFF Kendall

Isn't she the cutest?

And here is another cutie:

 And still another who found a little friend..

 And then there is this kid who is seriously READING NON-STOP!  I love that my kids are readers but he takes it to a whole new level, here is to finding a better balance!  I think he's read 20 books in the first 3 weeks of summer....SHEESH!

Piano Recital

Piano Recital time!  

We're so proud of these two musicians who had a "perfect practice" record at this recital.  They both did so well!

 

Kaitlyn has really found a niche with playing the piano, she's always tinkering on the piano.  She even has started learning simple hymns and one of her recital pieces came from the Children's Songbook.  It's called "Early Sunday Morning".  I guess word got out that she could play and she was asked to play it in Sacrament meeting back in May.  She showed such poise and courage in playing.  She further is learning some simplified primary hymns that appear each month in The Friend magazine.  She even plays prelude once a month in Primary.  Stephen and I feel the Spirit when she plays the hymns, I'm so grateful that we've found this talent of hers and that she's able to find ways to help it bless others.