The latest and greatest from Crystal, Jared, Jackson, Lila & Cameron!
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:)
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:)
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. 
and looking so cute...
then the next day she's "feeding" herself some yogurt while I finished cooking dinner.
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!
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.
and Wynn Tower and Strip to our right. Not bad. Not bad at all.
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!" 
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:)
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! 
Gigi took them back-to-school shopping and bought them these adorable outfits. We set them out last night, which made getting dressed this morning a cinch!
They got their lunch bags...
and umbrellas (who knew it was going to rain?!)...
and we headed off to school. Here's Maddie in her classroom--all smiles:)
and Jackson in his--a little less enthusiastic, but I know he'll warm up to it! 
