morning walks

I like to go for walks in the morning after I take the older kids to the bus stop.  Sawyer does not love it at much as I do, he says that he gets bored.  Also the fact that he gets hot.  So....

I started to bring bread so he could feed the ducks and the turtles.  The first few times we went, the ducks were a little shy and the turtles just hid under water and never came up. but after a few times...

The ducks started to swim to us when they would see us coming and the turtles got a lot more brave.  If you look closely you can see one turtle coming all the way out of the water to get a piece of bread.  The funny thing is Sawyer was always so disappointed that we never see the turtles, and the time that this one came out of the water he turned and started running toward me, he was scared.  Funny guy!!!

Stingrays

After the Space Center, which turned out to be a short trip, due to lack of interest, we went to Galveston, 20 minutes away, to go to the beach.  I will say that everyday that we have gone to the beach it has been cloudy weather.  I t makes me so grouchy, it has been warm, just cloudy!!  Anyhow, this trip to the beach we were swimming in the ocean and Dennis thought he saw a fish, which we discovered later was actually a stingray.

They were just little ones, but they were all over.  Nobody knew why they were there, maybe spawning, no one knew because they had never seen them there before.  Some people though it might even be the oil spill that is pushing them to differrnet places, who knows.  Anyhow, we did see some people catching them and were able to get a close view.  It was a lot of fun, although it did keep me on the beach, I did not want to get stung.  Dennis and the kids still swam, but I stayed on safe ground, I am afraid of fish afterall. 

Some fun pictures of the cute kiddos!!

Houston Space Center

In a rush to see everything that we want to see in Houston before we move to Oklahoma, we have been busy visting numerous sites.  This weekend in May we made a visit to the Space Center.  It was fun, but probably more suited for older children.  There were some great exhibits, but the kids were more into the playland.  Also the whole space thing is not as cool as it was when I was little. 

Ryans did get a kick out of laying on this bed of nails.  Everyone, execpt Julia, tried it.  I will say, it looked really scary, like it would hurt, but it did not hurt at all.

We all did get to touch a real moon rock, I found that to be super awesome. 

It was a place I am glad we went, I would like to bring the kids back here when thay are older and maybe have more interest in space stuff.

Jumping!!!

Ryan's new favorite trick.  To stand on the fence around the pool and jump in.  He thinks he is pretty cool, and so does Dad.  I get super nervous everytime I see him up there.  Boys will be boys. 

and then there is Julia, loving to jump, but loving even more the opportunity to get her picture taken!

Sawyer was also enjoying jumping in the pool, but I love this picture a ton!  Sawyer loves his daddy.  More often than not, Sawyer chooses Dennis to be his helper, pal, sleeping buddy, and wrestling partner.  I love the relationship that they have.  I love my boys!!

Picnic in the park

One night the beginning of May, the 3rd, we decided to have a picnic at the park for dinner.  I had went with Sawyer earlier to this park and I knew that the older two would love it.  It was huge and had a long obstacle course.  I was right, they loved it!!!  The only downer, it was soooo hot.  (Well at least I thought it was tooo hot, now that it is June and I know it gets this hot, I was crazy to think it was hot then!)  We had a lot of fun.  The kids love tire swings and Dennis did  a lot of pushing, while I took some pictures.

This was part of the obstacle course and Julia was having a lot of fun. 

Super cute picture of Sawyer.  Probably the only picture that I have of him lately without some goofy pose.  I guess when your hands are busy holding you up, you cannot use them to pose.  Note to self, take more pictures of Sawyer on a swing!!! ha ha

Dennis and the kids!

The kids and I, oh and also Dennis's legs!!

And a picture to show how hot it was.  Do you see all the wetness around their heads? it was Humid and HOT!!

Julia's field day

The 1st grades teachers were smart and had their field day in April, when it is not torture to go outside.  It was a beaustiful day and the weather was perfect.  Julia and her class rotated through numerous stations, where they got to do different activities.  I think the three-legged race was her favorite.  It is an athletic event, which she likes and she gets to do it witha  partner. 
She is so social.  Sawyer came with me, which is the reason we left early.  A boy was not being nice to him and Sawyer decided to call him stupid, which is not acceptable at school.  It was all down hill from there, so we left with him crying!!  Julia had a great day though!!!!!

We love the beach

Another fun day at the beach.  Julia and Sawyer did a lot of wave jumping... 

and a lot of ocean soccer!!

Ryan found an awesome seashell!!

While the little kids were playing soccer, Dad and Ryan were playing a lot of football.

Dennis had a lot of fun using the boogey board in the waves.

And I enjoyed taking pictures and relaxing while everyone was having fun for many hours!!!

We are going to miss going to the ocean sooooooooooooo much!!!

Bass Pro Shop!!

We love going to Bass Pro Shops.  This particular Saturday they had a lot of Easter stuff going on.  I took advantage of the FREE pictures with the Easter Bunny.  I am not sure how many more years I am going to get Ryan to willingly sit by the big bunny! 

The kids (and Dennis) love to get different types of jerky whenever we go there.  I think it is nasty and refuse to try ostrich and alligator and all the wild animals that they will eat.  Instead I get some yummy fudge!!

It is quite amazing the amount of time we can spend in a store being entertained, without even shopping!!

1st grade egg drop

The 1st graders had egg drop event.  They were instucted to put a egg in a ziploc baggie and then put it in some sort of container that would keep it form breaking.  Dennis help Julia with the engineering of the packet.  Julia had a lot of great ideas and Dennis did mostly what she told him to do. They cut two big sponges in the middle, put the egg in there with some cotton balls and then taped them together.   I helped her with the decorting, her favorite part. 

Here is Dennis practicing the night before.  The first attempt broke, but they made it better....and......

Her egg made it!!!  She was so happy!!!  There were only 5 in her class of 19, that did not break, so I would have to say that she had a pretty good egg protection.. 

School Musical

Ryan's school choir preformed the musical, "It's a Kid's life".  They had to try out for parts and spent many months preparing.  Ryan got one of the main parts as Grandpa.  He had a lot of speaking parts and one solo.  I am so proud of my good singer boy.  He has a great voice and loves to sing.  I am so glad that even though he was called a sissy for being in choir that he sticks with it.  He is gifted and I love that he loves it. 

Ryan did not get glasses, he is just dressed up as "grandpa".  The shirt is borrowed, because it is grandpa-ish, according to 3rd grade kids.  The funny thing is that Ryan chose the shorts to go with it thinking that it matched good.  When his choir teacher saw him she said she loved that his outfit didn't match, very much like a grandpa. Ryan was confused, but decided that his teacher must think like his mom, because I never think he matches, according to Ryan.

The choir preformed parts of the musical at the fine arts festival.  I have no pictures, because those are part of the ones that were ruined on the virus infected sd card.  SOOOO MAD!!

Also, Ryan had an art piece chosen to be displayed at the festival also.  When he gets the piece back I will take a picture and hopefully add it to the blog. 

Pinewood Derby

Well Ryan's first experience with the pinewood derby last year was not the greateet.  So this year he was not as excited, but was determined to do better.  He designed his own car and really did the whole thing himself.  It is a TX Longhorn skateboard.

Thankfully, he did do a lot better.  He was able to win some of his races and he came in 6th overall.  He was a lot happier this year then last year.

His car recieved the "most creative" award! 

Census 2010

Ryan learned about the Census at school and was really interested in it, when it came in the mail.  So i decided to let him fill it out.  He love doing it and was so mature while he was doing it.  I hope he remembers this forever, not to mention that we are going to counted as Texans for the next 10 years!!!

Easter 2010

The annual picture of the kids together in their Sunday clothes for Easter.  Sawyer is going through a stage where he cannot just stand for a picture, he has to be doing something with his hands or posing wierd!!  We spent Easter at home.  It was General Conference weekend, so we did not even go to church, just stayed home and watched conference.  We had an annual easter egg dyeing contest, Dennis won all honors, as he was awarded the prettiest and ugliest egg.  Our neighbor Hela was the judge.  Unfortunately I do not have any pictures, because my sd card got a virus and will not let me view the pictures from April, luckily, there were not that many, but there were some important ones!

We had our own little egg hunt in our backyard.  I think that the easter bunny hid about 150 eggs.

The easter bunny just threw some out on the lawn that were really easy to find.

Sawyer came down stairs that morning, looked outside and said with a ton of sarcasm, "the easter bunny did not hide the eggs!"

I guess next year the bunny will have to do a better job.

Later that day we went over to the Svedin's house for dinner and another egg hunt.  They were a lot more clever in the hiding of the eggs and the hunt took a lot longer.  Also instead of candy in the eggs, they placed pennies, and then had a toy shop to buy little toys with their pennies.  Super cute, we might adopt this little tradition!!

Ryan was not feeling great when we took these pictures.  He had a little stomach virus, that Julia had the week before and Sawyer had the week after!  It was a great Easter holiday and we are so grateful; for our Savior and His resurrection, so that we can live again with Him!!!

Swim season

We entered the pool this 2010, on March 27th.  It was definately warm enough outside, but the water was still a little cold.  Dennis and I just put our feet in the water and Sawyer was not as crazy as the other two so he tested it out and then stayed on the side.

Ryan and Julia, however, loved it and stayed in the water for a long time.  The mostly floated on the top, so even though they thought it was warm enough, their actions prooved it was still a little cold. 

After swimming the kids put on a show, displaying their various dance moves.  Too FUNNY!!!

March Madness

For our March event, we went to the NCAA South Regional finals here is Houston.  It was fun, we were really far away, but the excitement of being there was a lot of fun.  WE left the kids with a sitter and I guess Sawyer had a belly ache, so after numerous calls from the sitter, we left the 2nd game at half time to head home.  The joys of parenthood!!  Although, we did decide that with the tickets we had, it is better to be at home watching it on TV.  Next time we stay home, or we good really good seats!!

I'll I want for Easter is my two front teeth

The first day of vacation, Julia lost her right top front tooth.  It was a very dramatic event.  We were at a Jack in the box, having dinner and Dennis decided that she needed it out.  The decision was made because she would not eat her burger, since her tooth was hanging out and it was hurting her.  So Dennis took her to the car and after a lot of pulling and crying, she came it bleeding a lot, but minus a tooth.  She was very happy, a little nervous that the tooth fairy would not find her, but learned that night that the tooth fairy is very generous on vacation.  The last day of our vacation, her top left front tooth was ready to be pulled.  Julia was a lot more brave this time, and there was a lot less blood.  It was kindof neat that she lost one on the first day of vacation and one on the last day of vacation. 

Goodbye Good 'Ole Texas

If it was any other person's blog, besides us, this might come as a surprise.  But, since it us, the Updikes, I am sure no one is suprised that we are moving again!!!  When we moved to Texas, we knew that it was just a pit stop to Tulsa, Ok, but we thought it was a 3-4 year, minimum, pitstop.  Well things with Dennis's job changed and instead of 3-4 years, they want him in Tulsa now.  So.... need-less to say we are "on the road again".  It is bittersweet for me, I never in a million years would have thought I would love TX this much.  It is a great place to live, and did I mention that I live in my dream home!!  Well it actually belongs to someone else now, since we sold it the first day it was on the market!!  We are moving to the Tulsa, Ok area the middle of June, which makes, I think, 5 summers in a row that we have moved.  Since Dennis and I have been married for 10 years and with this move it will make the grand total moves to.........13
That is afwul.
Well this should be the last move for a very long time!!!