VANS Book Signing!

About 2 weeks ago we went to Memorial City Mall for the VANS book signing. VANS has a book out and a few skateboarding legends were there to meet fans and sign autographs. We got there super early to just walk around and then so Wade could get in line early. Good thing we did, because it ended up being hundreds of people there!! We were second in line to enter the store.

Wade and the kids at the front of the line. The guy in the blue shirt is one of the executives of VANS, Steve Van Doran - his father was the man who started the company. Next to him (the grungy looking guy) is Tony Alva - a skateboarding legend - he is one of the first professional skateboarders.

Wade meeting with Steve Van Doran.


Here is Andy talking with legendary skateboarder, Steve Caballero. Wade grew up watching him skate and this is the guy Wade was excited to meet. He is a very nice Christian man and was super nice to the kids!

Avery waiting to have Steve Caballero sign her poster.

Wade and Steve Caballero!

Andy and his new VANS hat! They gave out ALL kinds of free stuff - hats, glasses, stickers, posters and more. The kids loved that :) Right before we were about to leave, one of the femal employees walked over to me and said that they had something to give us for having waited so long in line. She gave me a gift card for a custom pair of VANS shoes!! You go online and get to pick out the fabrics, etc. Wade was nice enough to let me have the shoes, so in 5-7 weeks they should be here - yay!! These shoes normally cost over $60, so I was really excited about it! They said that Austin's cuteness had something to do with why they gave us the gift certificate - can't say I blame them, LOL!!

Avery - fast asleep after being on the rode home for only a few minutes!

Austin too :) We had a lot of fun that day! Wade got to meet someone he admired, the kids behaved and Memorial City Mall is a really nice place :)

Trip to the Downtown Aquarium!

Saturday was a lot of fun! We went with the Brown's and Mosley's to the downtown aquarium! The kids all had a blast together and all things considered, the weather wasn't too bad - not as humid as normal :)

We were all on the train getting ready to go - here are the boys all squished together! From the left - Micah, Andrew, Dolan and Parker. They are all adorable, but little Micah's smile melts me!!

And here are the girls! From the left - Isabel, Grace, Avery & Katie :) Grace and Avery are in the same class and Andrew and Katie are in the same class. Isabel will be in Kindergarten next year :)

Up high on the ferris wheel!! Austin has actually been on this once before, but he was in my tummy the last time :) Katie is sitting next to me.

This is called the Lighthouse Drop. From the left - Grace, Avery, Katie and the biggest kid of them all, Wade:)



The boys were on the other side! From the left - Parker, Micah, Andrew & Dolan.




Austin's first ride on a carousel!! He did really well and only cried once :)

Avery as a deep sea diver......

Andrew as a deep sea diver!

This is one of the 4 white tigers they have at the aquarium. I learned that white tigers are born to regular orange tigers, they are not a separate breed. In the wild though, if an orange tiger has a white baby tiger, it will be abandoned - so sad!! These are beautiful and HUGE! We got to see feeding time while we were there.

One more of the tigers! They were so massive that Avery could ride one and it would look like she was on a horse :) They said that if the biggest of their white tigers stood up, it would be around 14 feet tall - HUGE!!

3 Videos :)

A while back I watched Nathan when Jen was substitute teaching. All of a sudden, he started picking up toys and putting them away. It was TOO cute!! Here's what I managed to get on my digital camera :)

Here is Andrew at Kindergarten graduation. They are reciting some poem about being too sick to go to school by Shel Silverstein - too cute!

And this is Avery getting her certificate for High Honor Roll at the Graduation Service at church. High Honor Roll means she made straight A's ALL year long! Way to go :)

2 Months Worth of BUSY!!

Okay, it's been a long time since I've posted, so here goes!

Andrew and the Easter eggs he dyed.

Avery and her Easter eggs!

Wade and the kids on Easter morning before church.


Andrew playing at one of his soccer games.

The cake I made for Avery's birthday! It's a purse and was supposed to stand up, but no matter what I tried, it would not, so I just laid it down :)

Avery opening some presents from her friends.

More presents!

Avery had Grace and Kendall over for a sleepover for her birthday. I took them all to see the Hannah Montana movie at the Silverado theater. Here they are before the movie!

Wade's dad gave us some great tickets to an Astros game! We were 8 rows back from 3rd base - best seats we've ever had!

Me and the kids at the game :)

A picture of my handsome first born son :)

This was the view from our seats - Awesome!!

Austin at his first birthday party!! I opened his gifts and he played with paper :)

Hey cutie!

Cautiously checking out his cake.....

He at all of the little cookies off of it first, one at a time!

Getting messy!

This is the monkey cake I made for his birthday! I think it turned out pretty well :)

And monkey cupcakes! These were super easy and so adorable :)

Messy baby!

He was just squishing frosting between his hands - yuck!

Standing by the couch (well, daddy put him there!).

Playing in the gameroom.

And again!

Austin will fall asleep in his daddy's lap pretty easily. He won't do that for me. Sit him in his daddy's lap and he will just "chill."

Nonny and Poppy gave Austin this sweet ride for his birthday! This was his first time to ride in it and appropriately it was at the weekly car show :)

He L-O-V-E-S his little car and got quite a few comments as we walked along!

Avery in front of a very bright green Mustang Mach 1 :)

Andy and a cool blue truck!

Avery and a pretty lavender car :)

And Avery and the pink Mustang!

Andrew and sweet cousin Nathan as we waited to have pictures done at Portrait Innovations! Nathan is going to be a big brother soon!! Jen is pregnant and due in January 2010!

2 brothers :)

Andrew and some of his soccer team. From L to R - Bailey, Taylor, Christian, Andy, Crystal & Liam!

Austin all excited at a soccer game!

Daddy and Avery at a soccer game :)

Andrew going for the ball.

And again!! The last 20 seconds of his final game, one of the kids on his team fell and had to sit out. His team was down 2 to 1 and coach put Andy in. I told him it was his 15 seconds of glory. He ran the ball down the field and scored right away!! It was really awesome for him to end the season that way :)

Kindergarten Graduation! My camera's battery went dead early on, so I didn't get many pics!

Avery all dressed up and ready for school graduation night.

Andrew reading a "challenging" book!

Avery and Andrew before the school graduation service!

Andy and the bear at Gander Mountain.

And, Avery and the bear!

Avery and the elephant!

And Andrew and the elephant!

And one absolutely adorable little redhead :) Those blue eyes just melt me!