Box Turtles and Wolverine

It's not uncommon to find turtles along side the road or near any creek here in Texas. Almost as often as the roadside special, Armadillo. The kids love finding turtles and always want to bring one home and keep it as a pet. It is also not uncommon for Christopher to come home from work or a bike ride, run, whatever, with a turtle in tow for the kids to play with until the next trip to East Texas where they leave it at Granna's and Pa's property. Today was one of those days, although, this day was a little more adventurous.

Today's turtle, which Gavin lovingly named Jakers, was quite the escape artist. The kids had him in a wicker basket with some paper towels laid out. Jakers was out and hiding under Lego tables, behind my bed and even tried to attack Caden once! I did NOT like having it lost in my house, nor do I really like the thought of crawling all over my floors. EW. However, Jakers did provide for some entertainment and amazement. In all, there were about 4 escapes and now it is on its way down to East Texas with the kids and Christopher for its last spring for freedom.

Lastly, Caden got another haircut (it grows too fast on him...no fair!!) this afternoon from Christopher. He really enjoyed having the buzzers on his head and behaved well. The best part came afterwards when we were finished and I started a bath for Caden to get all the hairs off his little body. Gavin comes in and says, "Whoa! Caden looks like a man! Like Wolverine man!" He had us all laughing and Caden did indeed look like a hairy backed man...or Wolverine. Now, if he grows up and starts to look like Hugh Jackman (*dreamy sigh*).....well, suffice to say he'd be what I'd call grande supreme babalicious! Just like his daddy! Love ya, goosey!

Meet the Teacher Day at MDS

Today was Gavin's "Meet the Teacher" day at school. His teacher is Mrs. Wiley and he couldn't be more thrilled. I am too, as I feel she is the best fit for Gavin and his personality. Before he even knew which teacher he was assigned, he already was talking about being in Mrs. Wiley's class. He is even more excited about the fact that his friends Asher and Andrew will be in his class this year as well. He spent a good deal of time checking out all corners of the room (the classroom setting is Montessori in type) and getting a feel for the year ahead of him. There are only 11 kids in his class with Mrs. Wiley and a teacher's aide. Great child to teacher ratio! Love it!
The public school districts surrounding us started school this past week, however much to Gavin's dismay (and mommy's), his school doesn't start until Sept. 4th. A day after Labor Day and a week before his 5th birthday. Can you believe it's that time already?!?

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After meeting the teacher, we went out for our last summertime Chuck E Cheese day with our BFF's the Cooks. Bring on the Fall!!

Caden taking a chance on the ABC bop!

Gavin and his sugar daddy ticket game...Gold Digger!

Reese and Madison being silly with Bob the Builder rider.

Hurricane Katrina Remembered

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the 3rd strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States history. It was also one of the most deadliest disasters with 1836 lives lost. Neighboring Louisiana, we Texans saw a lot of refugees and hurricane victims within our state, towns and shared our homes, clothing and food. Christopher, however, was fortunate to volunteer his time and service and went down to New Orleans (5 hour drive) with a group from our church to work for the American Red Cross in helping cleaning up, etc...whatever was needed. Here are a few pictures from his trip:Christopher and his volunteer group were met with this sight on their way down to New Orleans. EVERYONE in grid-lock getting out, with just his caravan going in.First look of New Orleans from a highway overpass. If you look closely in the left hand side, you will notice the levees for the river are not in place.
A first look at some of the damage on the out skirts of town. A home in the ninth ward.

Another sight from the streets. This picture gives a good reference with water marks on the columns of the house as to the depths the waters reached in this particular neighborhood. This is the first home that Christopher and his group were assigned to work on. They cleaned out the home of basically everything, gutting it all out.

The inside of the house they were to gut out. The black on the floor was mud and soot from the flooding.
More of the flooding disaster on the house he was working on. Can you imagine if this were your house? Yikes!

After cleaning out the house of all debris, they hauled it to the dump and boarded up the house.Then it was time for some shut-eye and Christopher slept in the back of his friend Aaron's truck in the parking lot of one of our church buildings in New Orleans. Fortunately it was in a fairly safe area, as there was still violence from rioting all around.Once morning came, they were assigned a new house. This house had minimal flood damage and they worked with the owners of the house in trying to remove debris and drywall, in hopes of being able to salvage their home so they could continue to live in it someday. None of these people had flood insurance!

Removing the debris.

Removing drywall and gunk.Cutting out drywall that was wet and/or molding.They did a pretty good job cleaning out the carpets, flooring and drywall, didn't they?!?! Almost looking like a brand new house in the making.

New Orleans still needs much work and there is much to be said in done in that department, however, I won't go there. We are all thankful for the opportunity Christopher had to serve the people of New Orleans and is an experience he has never forgotten.

Wanna Dance?

Reese has just started her fall "Playhouse" dance class. She goes every Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to 12pm (while Gavin is in school too!! yippee for me!!). While there she does Ballet & Tap classes and then has lunch and playtime, followed by "workbook" time (does pages of ABC's and Preschool work) and Tumbling (gymnastics). Reese has always been our dancing queen so we were eager to get her started in some type of class, but not sure on how well she would actually like the classroom setting for dance and the hours. So, we did a test drive so to speak and took her to a class and let her participate. She LOVED it! She cried when it was time to go home and all night she kept asking if it was time to go back to her dance class.
She protested to any pictures being taken. But I did manage to coax her into a few with the promise of being able to play some computer games afterwards. Here she is in her ballet shoes. Too cute. Of course she had already ripped the bows outta her hair. We can't be too girlie, can we?!?
Here's another ballet pic. She likes ballet, but she's not too excited about it. I didn't think she would be, but I wanted her to experience a broad range of dance.
She LOVED tap dance and will wear her shoes all around the house. However, to preserve the integrity of the soles of her shoes, she's learned that they are only to be worn during her tap class.
Reese even has a fan club already. Julia "Bean" is a monthly sponsor of the Reese Dance Academy and we couldn't be more thrilled!! THANK YOU! Reese is so happy to be doing something while big brother Gavin is starting all of his excitement with going back to school. The other day we were in the car going to Reese's dance and Gavin was expressing (yelling and fighting with Reese really) that he didn't want to go to dance class with Reese and Reese shoots back (screams) "Gavin, you go to school and I go to dance class!" She's got the "tit-for-tat" down already! Boy do they learn fast!
I'm really surprised by how much fun I, myself, am having with Reese and her class. I'm usually not the crazy mom that loves to experiment with all types of bows in her daughters hair daily and spend countless hours shopping for "princessy" (I do spend countless hours shopping!, but not this kind) type clothes (not that those mom aren't cool, it just isn't me). After spending an hour (maybe more...who was keeping time?) online looking for different types of outfits for her class...I was having fun. Surprisingly, Reese was too. She stayed with me the whole time picking out what she liked best and which accessories would work. I love that Reese and I are growing closer as she gets older and that I have the opportunity to raise a little girl. I love it! We'll let you know our "pretty" finds as soon as we win some on eBay and find others that wont break our budget!!

Hotter N' Hell Hundred

This past Saturday, my uncle Paul, my cousin Andrew, my brother Tyler, and I all packed up our bikes and headed out to Wichita Falls Texas for the 26th annual Hotter N’ Hell bike race! There were estimated to be 11,000+ cyclists there! We all started at the same place, but not everyone went the same distance. They had 4 different loops; 25 miles, 50 miles, 100K (62 miles), and 100 miles. They also have running races and dirt trail courses for mountain bikes. It’s huge! In fact it’s the biggest century (100 mile) race in the nation. Meaning more people come to this one than any other. They were very well staffed with volunteers. Every 10 miles they had a rest station no matter what course you took. There you would find ice water, gator-aide, all sorts of fruit, energy bars, pickle juice, cookies, cots to lay on, emergency bike repair, water-misting machines, medical staff, everything you could possibly need to complete this crazy thing… every ten miles. It was incredible. They had teams of “SAG Wagons” driving the courses picking up injured or fatigued racers. They’d just throw your bike in a trailer and you’d climb into their air conditioned truck and they’d either take you to the nearest station or all the way back to the finish.

It was so fun to have entire streets shut down for us and to be able to ride down the middle of the road almost the entire race. We had a blast and can’t wait to get together next year, and hopefully recruit a few more Lloyds like Andrew’s brother Anson, and their dad Monty. We’ll get air brushed jerseys that match and be the unstoppable, TEAM LLOYD!

I’m thankful for my awesome/super-human wife who has actually encouraged me, and supports me to be active in these fun sports. She stayed home this time with the kids so I made sure to take lots of pictures. I love my Sariah!

Just as a side note, Tyler (my little brother) and I bought our awesome jerseys at the HUGE vendor expo the day before the race at a great bargain. We wanted to have matching jersey’s since Paul and Andrew already had their matching Texas jerseys. We looked and couldn’t find anything. Then we stumbled across those beauties and I immediately fell in love because orange is Gavin’s favorite color, Reese was named after that candy, and Caden would try to eat it if he saw it. And since Sariah surprised me with money to buy a jersey just before I left, I felt like by wearing it I had my little family with me!

Enjoy the slide show…

Click To Play

Current Addictions

I can't get enough of the following:

• I believe I have an addiction. Oh heavens yes, I do. Unfortunately, only my local Brookshire's carry a few 12 packs every couple weeks of this carbonated delight. So, when I stop to shop, I remove every case on display into my cart. Needless to say, I have an endless supply in my pantry. Food storage? What? I got all I need right here baby!!!
• Christopher and I are Netflix freaks and we are never without a movie waiting for us at home. We watch all genres of movies new and old, documentaries and our current favorite, TV sitcom series (another addiction). We don't watch TV here at our house. In fact, the only time it is on is to play the occasional video game. (We watch all our movies on the projector wall theater.) Therefore, we never started watching these until Netflix and are now anxiously awaiting Season 6 to be released on DVD. Scrubs was recommended to us by Netflix because of our love affair (addiction) to the short lived Arrested Development! (Which we are looking to own all 3 Seasons!) If you are a Netflix junkie too, please let me know and we can add you to our friends and share in movie reviewing and ideas.

• Lastly, I can't get enough of these faces from my children! Seriously, they all make it and it wasn't until the other day that I noticed and made the connection. All three of them make the same face and it doesn't matter the time or occasion. Check 'em all out.

Crazy, isn't it?!?! Never a dull moment raising children! I think I need my children in my life more than they need me!! I love these kids! I am truly blessed.

As I was about to end my post, I saw this picture of Christopher back in '04, BYU, right before Reese was born. I admit, I'm addicted to this crazy love machine as well! Indeed, I'm starting to see where my children get their silly face from above!!! Never a dull moment with this joker around either!! I love you my goosey-face!!

Peek-A-Boo!!!

Here is Caden's version of the game Peek-a-boo!

Ready Mommy! Where's Caden hiding? Where's my baby boy? I can't seeeeeee you! says Mommy (he's "hiding")
BOO!! says Caden for you!

It is his all time favorite game these days and I just can't get enough giggles from this little man! He is such a light and love in my life right now!!! I totally heart you Caden Benjamin!!

Look Who's Walking

Look at Caden gettin' around on two legs!! He's been practicing for a few weeks however, it wasn't until just yesterday that we realized that he walks everywhere now. He only crawls when we are on the ground playing "Red Light, Green Light" for FHE. We crawl so we don't have to run in the house and it's more fun. Of course, Caden rules this game!! So does this mean that he's a toddler?!?! Or do I have to wait until his first b-day? We are all lovin' that he is walkin' around here. Watch out world!!

Cool Cuts

It's back to school hair cutting time. Gavin went in for his at Cool Cuts 4 Kids in Dallas. He had "the usual". Fade up the back, scissors on top with small "lift" or spike. Well, the big to do was about REESE. Her hair has been buggin me for the past...year. I love the curls and have been hesitant to cut her hair, for fear of losing the curl. But her hair has no shape or texture and was getting raggedy. She's never had it cut or trimmed for that matter...ever. After being assured her curl wasn't going anywhere, we sat her down in the firetruck and got cuttin'. Here are the results: (notice Gavin in the background on the first 2)

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Reese with her new do and her favorite magazine in the world...The Friend which she received in the mail today.

From head on.

Side...forgive the Chick-fil-a still stuck to the side of her mouth.

And the back!!

I love her new hair cut and most importantly, she loves it! She struts around parading her hair, tossing it to and fro. She's too cute! And, it looks like her curls will survive! I can't wait to see how it grows and what it will look like as it gets longer. That will be the true test on the curls. Supposedly, with this cut, the curls will be more pronounced and not as weighted down. We shall see!

We can't forget Gavin's picture! Of course, he no longer will smile for pictures. It's all goofy faces and not staying still!!

Lazy Sunday's

I love Sunday's! Probably because it is the one day a week that I can count on to stay some what predictable. Wake up sometime just before 8am, start to get everyone fed and dressed for 10am church. After church (1pm), we eat a quickie lunch (if I haven't made a crock pot type dinner to be eaten right away, like on fast Sundays) and then bliss....naps for all. It is the one day a week that I'm certain to get a nap, or at least choose to take a nap if I want. Today Reese told us that she was going to take a nap with her daddy. Even though I was booted to the couch, I just love watching these two together. I love that she always has to touch Christopher while they sleep and she keeps one eye open to make sure he's really falling asleep and not going to pull a "is she asleep yet so I can leave?". I love the father Christopher is to our daughter and I love the sweet femininity that Reese brings amongst the boys that out number her. I am blessed!

In a Galaxy NOT so far, far away...

Currently there is a Star Wars Special Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. We took advantage of the reciprocity of our Dallas Museum of Nature and Science membership an went to take a look at a deeply discounted ticket price! LOVE how much use we get out of that membership where ever we are!! Being the Star Wars fans that we are (we frequently have double trilogy***that's all 6 movies***marathon movie nights) we really enjoying feeling like a part of the Star Wars world, even for just an afternoon. The kids really had a fun time as well...thanks to video games like Star Wars Lego Trilogy and Galactic Hero action figures the exhibit really came alive for them.

All of the props, costumes, vehicles, etc. were the actual items used in one of the 6 movies made. It was awesome! We took quite a few pictures (Christopher took a shot of pretty much everything they had there) so here are quite a few pictures we'd like to share:

Characters:

Reese posin' with her favorite character (she's a nut) C3PO!

Reese with R2D2 and C3PO.Reese was a little afraid of this snow monster from Episode IV, but warmed up to him after she realized he was behind glass...she still thinks he's real.Gavin was lovin' the Snow Imperial Storm Trooper.Mace Windu and Yoda.Yet another Storm Trooper Gavin laid envious eyes on.More droid action.C3PO naked. Reese kept saying to C3PO through the glass..."you need to put some clothes on C3PO, you naked."I asked Christopher to take a picture of me in front of my favorite character and this is what I got! Me and Chewbacca! Nice shot, Goose! This was what I wanted! Han Solo, my hero! Hubba, hubba! I longed to touch the garments that he wore...cursed glass!The mask set up of Darth Vader, worn by Hayden Christensen in Episode III. Very cool!

Transportation:

Luke's Speeder and Reese. This the actual Speeder model they used for the movies. Battle Droids spacecraft.

Luke's X-wing spacecraft.The Millennium Falcon baby!A close up of the "cockpit".Front of the MF.The "Darksides'" rides.
This bad boy is just cool and we love to take 'em down in our video game!For some reason this little monster just reminds me of Caden! ha!

Weapons:

Chewbacca and his kind use this weapon.The weaponry of the future! The light sabers used in all 6 movies.

Here's a Imperial Battle Weapon droid.

Fun time for the kids:

Gavin used Lego's and magnets to make a speeder float on air.Lukes hand that gets blasted. It was very real looking.

Gavin learning how to build a robot and build it so it can keep his balance. He passed the test! Here Gavin is building his very own R2D2 with spare parts. He had to try to build it so that it actually would function and maneuver over any terrain.Testing the R2G2!

He made it! This was a good activity for Gavin. He is very meticulous and technically inclined and he really enjoyed working on the little droids.

If you made it thus far, you deserve a trip into town with Luke to pick up some new power converters. (Said with Luke little pesky whine!)