Baby Hudson!

When we were in Ft. Worth last week we got to see the newest Lester!! Hudson was born on Saturday morning, July 16th. He is so precious!
When I was driving up Friday, I knew Joy was close to being ready to have him. I almost texted her and said, "Ok! I'm in Ft. Worth! He can come this week!" He ended up coming that night and we went to the hospital Sunday morning to see him.

Kendall was SO interested in him. She just kept wanting to rub his hair. Sweet girl.

This was their first time to meet Cooper, too! She was all smiles for Brett.

Kendall really really wanted to sit on the bed next to Joy and help her with Hudson. She did a great job of being gentle and moving slow! Look at how great Joy looks! We are just so happy for them all!

I love how Kendall is looking at Katie in this picture. We love Mallory and Katie so much and can't believe how big they have gotten. They are going to be great big sisters for Hudson!

Thanks for letting us stop by Brett and Joy! We love you and are praising God with you for a sweet new baby boy!! Kendall is still talking about Baby Hudson and asking to see him - hopefully we can see you soon!

Chewing Gum....And Dancing!!

Never a dull moment...

Trip to Ft. Worth: At Granny's and Papas'

On Sunday afternoon we left Pops and Kiki's and moved to Granny and Papas' house! We had a great visit with them, but unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pictures!
Mom was watering one of their neighbor's flowers for them while they were on a vacation, and they had offered to let us use their pool, so we went there Sunday night and Monday night! It was a great pool with a little beach entrance that the girls loved to sit on and play in. Kendall had a lot of fun practicing her new swimming skills and playing on the floats!

I love these girls!

Kendall walking back to the house with Papas - I just love how her swimsuit always does that! Ha!

Monday we got to go have lunch with my Grandma and Grandpa and I didn't get any pictures there with them! We were busy eating Chick-a-lay and ice cream, watching Madagascar, and playing. Kendall especially loved playing on the piano and seeing their puppy. I loved getting to see them and hang out for awhile.

Tuesday was great...Mom and Randy surprised me with a massage and a pedicure!! Mom kept the girls while I went and did that and I had so much fun! Tuesday night we went over to Val and Jeff's to swim with the girls, have dinner, and let Kendall spend the night. More on that to come!

Wednesday we got to go eat Taco Bueno for lunch before we got back on the road. Taco Bueno is my favorite and we don't have any down here in South Texas, so I always love to go there when we're in Ft. Worth! We finally got some pictures with Granny while we were there! Check out her new cute haircut!!

We had so much fun with you guys, Granny and Papas!! Thank you for taking such good care of us while we were with yall! We love you!!

Trip to Ft. Worth! At Pops' and Kiki's

We just got back from a great trip to Ft. Worth! Randy has been in Kenya since last week so we took the chance to go up there for a little bit. We were super sad that Gigi and Peeps were out of town, but we got to see Kiki and Pops and Granny and Papas and Gracie, Evy, Val and Jeff!
We spent Friday through Sunday at Kiki and Pops' house! We had a great visit and Kendall stayed busy the whole time...and kept Kiki and Pops busy!! One of Kendall's favorite things to do with Kiki is play house. They have so much fun. Most of the time Kendall's house is the sauna and Kiki's house is the shower and they go back and forth visiting each other and "cooking" for each other. So fun! This picture was when Kiki was reading to Kendall and her baby. :)

Kendall's favorite thing to do with Pops is to take walks around the property. There is so much to explore! And she loves to walk on this wall.

Doesn't the yard look great! I didn't get a great picture of all of it, but Dad has been working so hard and everything just looks great - even in the crazy heat!

Love that sweet face!

Saturday night Lisa cooked a big birthday dinner for Maegan, Alden, and me. Maegan's birthday was in June, Alden's is this next week, and mine is in August, so we just all celebrated while I was in town. I didn't get a picture of everyone, but we had a great time and it was fun to have a little early birthday!

After dinner we went out and let the girls swim a little. We actually swam Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday night! Kendall just can't get enough!

Sunday we were super excited to get to go visit Brett and Joy in the hospital and see Baby Hudson! He made his appearance while we were in town, which was just perfect, and I loved getting to see them. Kendall really loved Hudson and is still talking about wanting to go back and see him! Brett took some pictures so I will see if I can get those from him and upload those soon.

After we went to the hospital and everyone else got finished at church we went to my Granny's for lunch. She wasn't able to come to the birthday dinner Saturday night, so we were excited to get to see her on Sunday. Kendall had to play with her Noah's Ark! I love how she remembers special things about each place we visit. She was asking to play with that before we even got out of the car!

Us with my pretty Granny! I love her so much and was so happy to see her and spend time with her. She recently had to move Oscar into an Alzheimer's facility, so it has been a rough month for her and our family. It was good to get to give her a hug!

We took some family pictures and then Kendall had to take one by herself. Not too bad! :)

We had so much fun Kiki and Pops! Thanks for playing so hard with us and taking such good care of us!! Can't wait to see you in August!

Look at my new hair Dad!

Kendall got her hair cut today! Swimming this summer has really done a number on her hair and I thought maybe a trim would help. It looks so cute! We had about an inch and a half cut off and it is the most we have ever had cut. I tried to get some pictures tonight before we went swimming at Kiki and Pops. You can't see it real well here, but we wanted to let Randy see her new cut and he is in Kenya!

We love you Randy! Can't wait to show you Kendall's new hair in person!

More Photography by Kendall

Last weekend Pops and Kiki were here and Kendall practiced some of her photography skills!

I think she's getting better!! She loves to take pictures! But she's not a "tographer" - she's just Kendall. :)

July the 4th!

We had a wonderful July 4th! It was a fun day...all day! We started the day by having pancakes - we are out of red food coloring, so Kendall asked for green! Randy even made a pancake for each of us - all of our initials! So impressive.

While Cooper took her morning nap, Kendall and Randy painted some pictures. She loves to paint but we don't do it often, so she was so excited! When Cooper woke up we went to Kendall's favorite place for lunch...Chick fil A! Then we went to the Lake Jackson pool to swim - and Kendall went down a big water slide all by herself! We were so impressed - she was so brave and we had a lot of fun.
After naps we went to our friends the Gryseels' for their annual fourth of July party! Lots of our friends from church were there, so it was a great night of just hanging out and laughing a lot!

Kendall was probably most excited about her best friends Sarah and Caleb being there!

Right away when we got there Kendall was ready to put her swimsuit on and get in the little pools Laurie and Tony had set up!

Then she ate her dinner so she could eat some of the awesome desserts they had!

For so long now, Kendall has been asking me to braid her hair. I don't know how to french braid, but Jenny does and she had braided her Brittany's hair for the party, so I asked her to teach me. I watched her fix Kendall's hair, and Kendall was so excited. She was showing it off to anyone that she saw and she just kept touching it over and over again. I have been practicing but I'm still not as good as Jenny!

Showing her braid to Jeff - he was so sweet to be so interested! :)

Sitting with "President Jeff!" Earlier in the night, she ran up to me and said, "Mom! I just saw President Jeff!" She definitely thinks he is a celebrity. :)

We had a great Fourth of July and the only thing Kendall was sad about was that we couldn't have fireworks! We look forward to maybe having some on Labor Day!

Cute!

Sisters!

Sisters!
There were never

such devoted sisters!

Swimming Lessons!

Kendall had swimming lessons all last week with Mrs. Carol! She went Monday - Friday from 10:00-10:30 and she did so great! The lessons were all by herself, so she got personal attention from Carol the whole time. At the first of the week, she didn't do so well. I had to make her get in the pool and on Monday she cried for pretty much the first 20 minutes. Tuesday she only cried for 5 minutes, but Wednesday she went back up to 10 minutes! So we had a plan for Thursday. We got her this Belle doll and told her that if she got in the pool and didn't cry, we would give her the doll. It worked! She got right in and didn't cry and did well again on Friday! Here is a picture of Belle watching her swim on Thursday. :)

Once she settled down from all the crying, even on Monday, she had a fun time and she did everything Mrs. Carol asked her to do. We just couldn't even figure out why she spent so much time crying! One thing Carol taught her was to scoop her arms and say "chocolate and vanilla" like she was scooping ice cream. She loved that!

She also taught her how to swim to "safety" - the side. She was good at that.

Our goal all week was to get her to put her head in the water while she swam. She was great at moving her arms while kicking her feet and she would blow bubbles, but she was hesitant at first to put her eyes in the water. We tried to talk her into goggles, but she didn't want to wear them. Tuesday night, Randy, Mom, and I took the girls to the rec center to swim and to let Kendall practice what she was learning. She was off playing with Randy and all of a sudden she said, "Dad, want to see me go underwater?? Ok, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" And she jumped under water with her eyes open and blew bubbles! All on her own! We made a big deal about it to her teacher on Wednesday, and for the last three days she was able to practice ACTUALLY SWIMMING! farther and farther across the pool with her eyes under and everything!

At the end of class every day she got to practice diving for princesses. That was her favorite part!

She did such a great job and learned so much! Since Friday, we have been to swim twice, just so that she keeps practicing what she learned. We are so proud of our little fish!