Ballpark Bonanza



Yesterday afternoon the day had finally arrived.  There had been a five week countdown leading up to Jackson's first trip to the Ballpark in Arlington.  Seriously, he asked me every single day how many days it was until we got to go see the Rangers play!



Boom, Gigi, Poppi, Jackson and I all arrived early so that we would have plenty of time to see the ballpark.  It was awesome--hardly any traffic, Boom valeted the car and we were not rushed in the least.  I'm pretty sure the stars were all aligned.

 


It was so fun getting to see Jackson in the ballpark for the first time.  He was in hog heaven!  My favorite quote of the night was when he leaned over to me and said, "Mom, it's bigger than I thought it would be!"  That right there was worth the price of admission.

 



Boom had told us that there was a fun kid area out in center field, so went to check i tout.  Sure enough, there were all kinds of cool things for little boys to do.  First up, was hitting off the tee--J got a triple!






Next was fielding--he got to play right, center and then left field.

 





Then he got to play some real ball and try to hit it from a pitcher.  He did great and even got a few hits!

 



After playing the games, we went in search of a new Josh Hamilton shirt.  Apparantly Josh is super popular with the kiddos, so they didn't have any in his size.  No worries, J is now the proud owner of an Ian Kinsler shirt instead.  After getting his new shirt, we went to find our seats.  While we were watching the players warm up, Maria and Shane got there.  Maria is Uncle Andrew's girlfriend and since he had to fly out of town last night, she brought her nephew with her.  Shane and J sat next to each other for at least half of the game and had their gloves on the whole time.  They were ready to catch those foul balls! 



In addition to this being Jackson's first Ranger game, it was also Dollar Dog Night.  Bonus!  The kid said he was going to eat two hot dogs and he made good on that promise.  Not sure where he puts it, but the kid can eat.





After getting stuck in a little traffic and then having to park really far away, Uncle Scott, Aunt-to-be Lyndsie and Daddo arrived in the third inning.



Thank goodness Daddo made it in time to see Josh hit a grand slam!  It was one of three times there were fireworks last night.  The Rangers did awesome and it just added to J's excitement.





Towards the end of the game Kinsler hit the last home run.  While we were all up celebratingwe spotted Santa Claus up above us!  Jackson had told me way earlier in the game that he saw someone who looked like Santa.  I had dismissed him thinking that he just meant he saw an old man with a white beard.  Ha!  Who knew Santa was really there?!



We all had a fantastic time.  The Rangers won 9 - 1 and it was a great night. 
Hello Win Column! 
Little guy lasted about 10 minutes in the car before he just gave out.  Game over!



Who needs Bluebell?

This past Sunday the kids and I made some homemade ice cream. Well, maybe I should say that we tried! We were having all of the Hays family over for dinner and thought this would be a nice treat.

Things started out well and I had two very eager helpers.

"Oh no! Jackson is going to add the whipping cream?!"

As it turned out, the two helpers did their part. They added all of the right ingredients. It was the mama that missed the very last step. You must add a lot of milk in order for it to actually be ice cream. Who knew?! Not me. So, as it turns out, who needs Bluebell? We do! We got out our back-up tub of BB added sprinkles and Hershey's syrup and enjoyed our ice cream anyway:)

Memaw and Maddie

For the past two years, Jackson has gone to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) with Memaw every Tuesday morning. This year, he decided to pass, but Madison was all about it! BSF gets the summer off, so today was the first day.

Much to my surprise, Madison was up and at 'em at 7:15! Since she is not a morning person, this was great news. She was in a good mood and very excited about getting to pick out her dress for the day. We had her dressed and on the field before Memaw arrived at 7:55. Hooray!

Even though Jackson didn't want to go to BSF, he still insisted he get a picture with Memaw, too. I hope Maddie had a really fun day--I'm sure I'll hear all about it when I go pick her up in a bit:)

Fan Club

Yesterday morning we went to cheer on Jackson in his third tee ball game. Madison can be quite the tomboy some days, with her love for bugs and creepy creatures, but not yesterday.

T-shirt and shorts? Nope. Hot pink tutu? Why not?!

J always has a good fan base, but today there were a few new faces in the crowd. Like Maria, Uncle Andrew's girlfriend. So very sweet of her to come!

And Papaw, who drove himself all the way from Greenville. So glad he made it!

Even Daddo and I got into the spirit a little more this game by sporting our new Cubs shirts.

The Cubs won again: 16 to 15. It was a close one! Jackson got a really great double and had so much fun playing second, short and third base. Go Cubs!

Little "Big" Girl

Lila has been growing up so fast, it's all I can do to keep up with her. One day she's wearing my heels and purse...

and looking so cute...

then the next day she's "feeding" herself some yogurt while I finished cooking dinner.
Two steps forward, one step back!

Today when it was time for lunch she told me she wanted to sit in Maddie's booster seat.

I agreed and this little girl did so good! Look at her--using a spoon eating the big kid yogurt. Thank goodness she didn't decide to exfoliate with some strawberry yogurt today.

Just sat right there and fed herself so well. She ate most of her turkey, all of her cheetos and drank her milk. No spills! That's more than I can say most days for the other two rascals that live in this house!

Vegas, Baby!

The hubs and I jetted off to Vegas for a long weekend a few days ago. It was just what the doctor ordered! We had a fabulous time and enjoyed ourselves immensely. A very big thanks to all of the grandparents who watched our kids so that we could go play.

We stayed at the Encore, which is the new tower of the Wynn Hotel. It was uber nice! Big smiles all around at our fantastic view and all of the hotel amenities.

The first thing we did was go check out our hotel. We found this super fancy white peacock and although we never ate at this restaurant, I thought it was worthy of a pic:)

We then set off to tour the Wynn and found the sports book. Pretty cool place to be on the first weekend of College Football, although who knew TCU was going to get beat by Baylor?

This was probably my favorite part of the Wynn--what girl doesn't like twinkle lights in the trees? It was like walking through a fairy tale book.

On our way to dinner we stopped by this really cool waterfall outside the hotel.

The next day we got to hang at the pool all afternoon. Check out that screen behind Jared. Awesomeness.

The pool had it all. In addition to watching the big screen, it had poolside drink service, poolside gambling, and lots of really great people watching! Never in my life have I seen so many people who thought they were starring in Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

After lounging in the pool all afternoon, we got ready to go out to our first show of the weekend. Le Reve is a Cirque du Soleil show and was in our hotel.

While I loved getting all dressed up and going out with my hubby, I can't really say that I would recommend this show!

Sure, there was no denying how amazing the production of it all was. Cool pool, great lights, and very talented performers...but you can only watch so much diving!

This was the end of the show--the whole ceiling looked like a giant garden. Jared would probably say it was the best part:)

The next morning we headed out to the strip in search of a Starbucks. The Encore was really nice, but didn't have any breakfast available under $30. We like nice things, but we gotta draw the line somewhere!

On our way we snapped a few pics that were really pretty. All of the hotels truly amaze me.

The view towards our hotel. After we found a Starbucks and then did a little souvenir shopping for the kids, we went on back.

Once again, it was pool time. We got a kick out of the Euro Pool--and yes, there were a few topless girls in it. I'll let you guess who was the bigger fan of this:)

A view of that crazy pool from our room.

That night we went to see Ron White and had a really fun time. Much better than Le Reve! Guess we've got some red neck in us after all. The next morning we awoke to this beautiful view--the mountains and golf course to our left...

and Wynn Tower and Strip to our right. Not bad. Not bad at all.

We are already planning our next trip back! Vegas 2012. Who's in?

Labor Day - Ranch Style

We took a very last minute trip up to Denison to hang out at the Raines Ranch on Labor Day. The weather was perfect and I'm so glad we went! Jackson put on his favorite t-shirt and the girls both wore their pink boots. All three were so excited!

Right after we got there the kids took turns on the swing.

After a few minutes, it was time to go see the two new baby calves.

"Baby Moo Cows, you say? Oh how fun!"

This little girl loves all of the animals!

Daddo took the big kids in the mule and the rest of us drove down to the barn.

We spotted the mama cows and their babies right away. Let's just say they weren't all that thrilled to see us.

As we walked closer to them, they kept walking further back. Thank goodness there was a fence nearby, so this didn't go on for long.

After we saw how much they didn't really want us to be near them, Rancher Raines had a good idea. Lure them with some sugar cubes. They came running, and fast! Even though Mama Cow loved her a good snack, she still kept an eye on us...

This little guy was only 1 day old, can't say I blame her:)

Isn't he cute?!

After we hung out with the cows for a few minutes, it was time to go feed the longhorns. Lila loved seeing them, too, and wouldn't take her eyes off of them. She waved and said hi in the sweetest little southern voice probably 30 times. Later that afternoon Jackson, Jared and I took off on the four wheelers. We came upon four more cows and a baby. At first we thought this might be the same ones that we had seen earlier that day, but we quickly realized that wasn't possible. Upon further inspection, we figured out that it was a brand new baby calf! As in born in the last few hours! It was still very wobbly on it's feet, but was doing well. A true labor day baby!

Thanks, Gigi & Boom for inviting us. We had an awesome day. I'll end with this great pic. Lila Lou rocking the pink boots and sunglasses--you go girl!

Happy Labor Day!