Water Wars Returns!

The first water war of the summer took place after swimming last Saturday morning!

"You can run, but you can't hide!!"

Ooops, T man found himself caught in the middle...

"I'm faster than y'all!!" Wahaha!!!!

Thomas is about to get wet!! =)

Belle is about to get even wetter!! Hee Hee!!

Thomas acting like he doesn't feel his sister doucing him with water!!

Daddy thought Shelby needed a shower!!

Then the tables turned and both kiddos attacked Daddy...this was followed by...

THE DADDY'S REVENGE BUCKET!!  Then I couldn't help but notice Thomas's water gun had a little spurt of water coming out about to hit James. I guess this was his sister protection duty of the day.

I'm sure Round Two will be coming up later in the month!!

Daddy/Daughter Date

Well, summer is here for us and school is out so please standy by while I attempt to start catching up on my posting.  Some will go all the way back to my birthday, maybe even Easter, some softball pics, school pics and many things in between.  I'm hoping I can somehow catch up before I go on vacation but we'll have to see.

These few are pics that James took last Friday night of his daddy/daughter date with Belle. They went to the Astros game!! Shelby was so excited!!

Their view...James was able to get the Papa John's season ticket seats close to home plate. Shelby loved the seats!!!!

Daddy with his Daughter...

And Shelby got to see her FAVORITE player...Mr. Hunter Pence!!!

The Astros lost 7-6 but it was a good game and they had a blast!!

No snow, just ICE!

This is what we woke up to this morning...and it wasn't the pretty, white fluffy stuff that the kiddos were hoping for...

A closer view...

James working on getting the ice off his car this AM so he could go into work.

This is my Texas stone in my front garden...you can see all the ice on it and in the grass and flowers...

James pulled a piece of the ice off his windshield to show us...

It was a good 1/4" thick...

Since James works pretty close to home, he had no problems getting to work! The kiddos and I are home today so no school but no snow on this Snow Day either. They are bummed!! Maybe the weather guys will be right next time...

Monster Truck Rally

On Saturday night, James and Thomas went with friends (another dad and son), to Reliant Stadium for the Monster Truck Show.  Thomas' friend, Jaden, is really into Monster Trucks and so they get season tickets to the shows at Reliant every year. They have 4 tickets to every show.  Thomas was so excited when Jaden invited him and because this would be Thomas' first time to see Monster Trucks in person! Here's a few shots from the night (they were gone from 4:30pm until midnight) that James took with his cell phone camera.  No video is allowed there.

Trucks are all lined up at the left end. James said Vince's seats are great, they were only about the 4th row up and you can tell how packed Reliant is for this.  They tarp the first few rows because of flying debris.

One of Thomas' favorite trucks called Superman. Click any of the pictures to see them better.

This truck looked like a spotted Dalmation. Thomas said it has a real tongue on the front that moved in and out and he had a dog tail sticking out the back! =)

This truck is called Nitro Circus...

A cool "air shot".

The infamous Grave Digger...the guy that owns this truck lives right down the road from us in Tomball.

Crushing some cars...

One of the trucks flipped on its side here...I think it's Grave Digger.

They had a blast and I'm sure they will go back again.  Who knows, Belle and I might go next time.

Kiss Me...

I don't know why I got up today with this song in my head and thought I would post.  This song was a hit back in 1999 and it was one of mine and James' wedding songs.  In fact, me and my best friends were dancing to this song in the bridal prep room at the church just before we had to walk out.  This song always reminds me of James, of our wedding day, and him kissing me.  xxxoooxxx  I will always LOVE this song.  Still can't believe it's already been 11 1/2 years...(deep sigh)

I love you James!

T's first NFL Game!!

Here's some highlights that I was finally able to post from T-man's first ever NFL game on 10/10/10...

James took Thomas to Reliant really early that morning so he could explore and check out everything...

A nice man took this picture of my boys!!! Love it!!

Thomas took a lot of these pictures and films himself with my camera (with Daddy's supervision of course!). I think he did a great job.  He took several pictures of Eli Manning, the QB for the NY Giants.  Thomas has always liked the Giants because that was his Flag Football team.

Thomas also took a few pictures of #80...Andre Johnson and also one of his sister's favorite Texans and also the jersey Thomas was wearing that day.

Thank you son for taking lots of pictures of #56!!!  My favorite Texan player - Brian Cushing!!  This game was his first game to be back after a silly suspension.

Cush has his game face on!!!  Great photo!!

The coin toss...Cushing was a captain that day! Very cool...

He took several action shots like this one...

Another cool shot of my boys...as you can see James' company has awesome season ticket seats at the 40 yard line and on the end of a row!!!  They have 4 seats all together but each employee can only snag two for one game.  So, one of his co-workers was sitting in the two seats next to them and took this picture of them.

Players prayer circle at the end of the game...Thomas thought this was cool.  Unfortunately, the Texans were beat badly by the Giants on this day but overall, we are still having a great season so far.  GO TEXANS!!!!

Below is a couple of clips Thomas/James took of the Texans Introductions...

Especially this introduction, of #56 coming out.  He was greeted with loud cheering fans for his first game back.

James and Thomas had a blast together that day!!  Miss Belle gets to go with Daddy next year and sit in those awesome seats.  In a couple of years, we are hoping to get two season ticket seats ourselves!! =)

10-10-10

Today, on this 10th day of the 10th month in the year 2010, my daddy is...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAWPAW!!!

PawPaw and Thomas mowing the grass and riding on the John Deere back in the summer - one of T's favorite things to do!!

To celebrate this momentous birthday, he and Gramms took a little trip to...

this great State...Branson to be exact!!  We hope they are having a blast!!  I know they are golfing and seeing some neat shows!!

 We love you PawPaw and hope you really enjoy this special birthday.  You don't look a day over 50!! We will see you soon!!  Love, James, Karen, Belle and T.J.

Meanwhile, this is where my two boys will be this Sunday, on PawPaw's birthday!!  Yep, Thomas will be attending his first ever NFL football game to see the Texans play the NY Giants!! These are the tickets that James gets once a year through work and since they are $120 each, plus free parking pass, only two of us can go.  I went last year so now it's the football player's turn and he will take Shelby next year.  These are wonderful seats and I can't wait to see what Thomas thinks of everything.  He is SO EXCITED!!!  So, while us girls, along with Grandma Hathorn, are sitting in church praising the Lord Sunday morning, our boys will be heading to Reliant Stadium, and I'm sure they will be praising the Lord in Spirit.  =)

GO TEXANS!!!! WHOOP! WHOOP!! We need a win for Thomas!!!

Next couple of posts, I will share pics and films from the Homecoming parade and from Thomas' game.

Chicago Bound

This is where my honey is heading this AM...Chicago!!!

I really wish I could have gone, I've never been to Chicago!! His boss, Keith, is taking James' group (the office staff) for a couple of days of leisure! Yep, this is not even a "work" trip, this is a "fun" trip. What a nice boss!!! Complete with limousine rides to and from places, a nice hotel, a boat ride, eating at nice restaraunts, going to a theater play, going to the Sears tower and much more. They are packing a lot into 2 1/2 days. If this would have been a summer trip, I would be going too!

Most of the group is actually staying until Sunday, but James has special permission to fly home early. Yep, he is a Daddy that does NOT want to miss Thomas' football game at 9am Saturday morning so he is getting up way early to catch a 6:30am flight home. He lands at 8:05am, if it's on time. But he will still get to do most of the scheduled activities because Sunday is pretty much a day to do what you want.

We hope he has a great time in the "Windy City" but we are already missing him like crazy, especially ME!!! =) He's been instructed to take some pics while there so I should have some stuff to post about it next week. For now, it's just me and the kiddos until we see him at the game Saturday morning. Please pray for safe travels for him. Saturday when he flies home is actually September 11th, a little eerie to be flying on that day but I know all will be fine.

James' 40th Birthday Cake!

And PRESENTING...the specially requested 40th birthday cake...homemade marble or swirl cake with a homemade chocolate frosting!!

The birthday boy LOVED it and I gotta say, it turned out better than I was expecting.

I found this candle set at Party City...

Shelby helped light them...she was really concentrating!!

They are lit and ready to be blown out. We serenaded Daddy too!

Thomas is not a huge chocolate fan like James and Shelby but he really liked this cake!!

Here's a peek at what the inside looked like...

This cake took me three hours to make...a little time consuming but it was fun and worth the look on James' face. I even got a little fancy with my cake decorating kit.

Mmmm...good!! James said it was the best 40th birthday cake he could have ever had!! Awww...ain't he sweet!?! Happy Birthday babe!