Braids

So it might sound pathetic to some of you glamour goddesses, but I have never french braided anything in my life. I'd like to be able to braid my little girl's hair, so my friend Kesha has shown me how. I'm still no good at it, because Carly's hair isn't the easiest to work with. It's very curly, and thick! I've done a couple other dos that I think are cute, though. I had to take pictures of them so that Jarod would be able to see how cute her hair can be. By the time he gets home, we've done some pretty hard playing, and her tresses are usually fairly windblown. What a cute girl.
View from the back

I just love this face.

I Dream of Harley

Josh loves hats...have I mentioned that before? He loves the new orange Harley hat that Jarod got him, especially. We couldn't get him to take if off for bed time...he slept in it all night.

Daddy's Biggest Fans

I was paying bills one morning, and the kids found something to play with. They were putting Jarod's riding garb on...gloves, helmet, and jacket. Josh would have me open the visor, then close it, open, close, open, close...you get the picture. I think it's fun that they want to be like Daddy.

Cheese!!

Tie Dye Crazy

For a play date a week or so ago we tie dyed, and by we, I mean myself and Chloe's mom, Kesha. Chloe is the little girl that lives next door, that Carly adores. I can't pull up to the house without the kids wanting to run next door and see Chloe. It's great, because now I have adult conversations on an almost daily basis. I forgot to take pictures while we were in the process of dying, but did take some of the finished products. Now that we've tried this once, we know how to do it better next time. The shirts looked really vibrant and pretty before washing and drying, but I think they still turned out well, and Carly isn't very critical of my work....yet...I'll give it another year or so.

No, the pictures of Jack are not at my house. We had to show our duds off to Mama and Papa. I thought Jack posed pretty well for the back of the shirt.

Always a cute smile from him...and from her.
Other than tie dying, we haven't been up to much. I now know though, that not doing anything exciting isn't a good enough excuse not to update my blog. I hope that I am now off Kathleen's X'd list. :)

Peek-A-Boo!

The kids like to play with the comforter when I make my bed. Josh and Carly caught on to the game right away, and Josh was encouraging Jack to join. He would say "come on" and gesture with his arm for Jack to get under the blanket, also.

They'd pop up really fast with the blanket.

And drop again, just as fast.

Jack had a good time. It was great entertainment until I had to put the comforter back on the bed.

Labor Day Fun

Jarod and I took advantage of Labor Day this year by going on a motorcycle ride with some friends. I've never gone on a ride that lasted more than half an hour, I think. We were able to leave the kids with my folks, because of the holiday, and we were gone from about 8:30 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. It was a blast. I was pretty nervous before hand, but so glad I went. I'm sold on it. It's such a fun way to see the country. We headed out to a little town called Llano, for some famous BBQ at Coopers. When you walk up to the door, they have the meat in a huge oven/pit outside where you select what meat you want. They dip it in a large vat of sauce, and then slap the meat on a tray...right on the tray. Then you carry your meat into the store, and select what sides you want, they take your meat, and wrap it up and put in on a clean tray, then you take butcher paper, slap it down on the table and eat it like that...quite the experience...and so delicious. It was worth the ride. We took a different route on the way back...both ways were very picturesque. On the way there we had great views of the lake while traveling through the hill country, and on the way back we enjoyed the winding roads through the hills. At least I enjoyed the views...I don't know how much looking around the drivers did. We took a detour to eat at the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, and sampled some of their famous pie. There was a line to get into the restaurant, stretching into the parking lot...if that gives you an idea of how good their food is. People were willing to stand out in the Texas heat for it! I know why Marble Falls is named so. I never realized that there were marble quarries there. There were huge slabs of marble strewn all around, and I kept wondering how I could pick some up for a counter top. At the end of the day, my bum was more than a little sore, but I was completely sold on the love of riding.

Here is the whole group out side the Blue Bonnet Cafe.
From left to right: Mike, Cheryl, Val, Greg, Jarod, Me, and Jamie.

Cheryl and Mike are friends with Val and Greg. Mike and Val used to work for my Uncle Kevin. Small world.

That's Jarod's new bike off to the left.

I don't think I really fit the Harley profile, but I was sportin' my Harley shirt.

From left to right, that's Greg, Jarod, and Jamie. Greg is Jarod's finance guy, and his right hand man. Jamie works at Harley also, in the motor clothes department.

Ready, Set, GO!!!

Sunday afternoons after church have been filled with slot car races. Jarod remembered playing with slots cars when he was a kid, so when an employee of his told him you can still buy them, he raced over to see what he could get. You can get a lot. Apparently there is an underground obsession with these slot cars. There are leagues and competitions...I'll let you guess what kinds of people are involved in these associations. Anyhow, Jarod thought the kids would like to play with these race cars, and remembering that he always felt the track was too short as a kid, he got the most track available...62.5 feet. It really is a lot of fun for the kids. Josh says "Ready, Set, GO!!!" He likes to run and get the cars when they fly off the track, and Carly likes racing her daddy. We can tell already she's got Jarod's competitive nature.

They sure love their daddy.

Concentrating very hard.

Carly let her car fly because Jarod was teasing that he was going to beat her...she wasn't going to have that!