Random Pictures

Truett was watching a show on TV and when I told him to smile for the camera, this isn't exactly what I had in mind! Ummm....could you take your eyes off of the TV for 2 SECONDS?????

Here's Emma brushing up on some light reading. My dad calls her 'T-Rouge', French for 'Little Red'. :)

Emma managed to take a break from reading to pose for the camera, although the expression on her face kind of gives me a feeling that she wasn't too happy about it.

I love this picture because it pretty much sums up the relationship between Truett and Emma. Truett squeezes and loves on Emma and assumes that it's fun times for all involved. Emma, on the other hand, is constantly teetering back and forth between enjoyment and total fear for her life! :) I also love this picture because Emma is sporting Truett's favorite ELMO t-shirt. I love that Emma is wearing her big brother's t-shirts to sleep in. He better watch out....that may be a trend that sticks around for many years to come!

Ever since our 'camp out' a few weeks ago, Truett has spent every night in this tent. There were a couple of nights that he slept in his bed, but that was because he had Jay put the tent ON his bed! I'm just glad that we convinced him to move it to his room and out of the living room!!
We're leaving next weekend to go to the beach for a week, so I'm sure we'll have tons of stories and pictures from the trip....especially since we'll be driving 10 hours with Truett and Emma!!!! Wish us luck! :)

Happy Birthday....Say Cheese!

Okay, so it just dawned on me that I never posted about our birthday picture adventure! :) I may have mentioned it in Truett's birthday posts, but I can't remember, so if I'm repeating myself, sorry!

SEVERAL years ago, when John Daniel was a baby, my dad took all of us to Sears or somewhere to have our pictures taken as a surprise to Mom for Christmas or something. Well, it was such a nightmare trying to get John and Sarah (who was 4 at the time) to smile at the same time, that we never did that again! Thank God the picture turned out so cute! hahahah!

Well, a FEW years ago (pre- Truett and Emma), our church was printing out a church directory and Olan Mills was coming out to take professional portraits of each family. Mom and Dan saw that as the perfect opportunity to attempt another family picture. Yeah, well, it wasn't as NEARLY chaotic as the first attempt years prior, but the picture wasn't NEARLY as cute, either! Sarah has hated the way she looks in the picture since she saw it and has been begging my mom to take it down ever since. :)

This year, for my mom's birthday (which is 2 days after Truett's), Sarah had mentioned having our pictures taken as a surprise for her. Jay and I had already planned to take Truett for his 3 year pictures, so we thought it would be a good time to do it. I made the appointment and one afternoon, after Emily and Jay got off of work, we all headed to the photography studio. It was this big ordeal trying to get my brother and sister here without my mom finding out what was going on, but we managed it.

After our pictures were done, the photographer loaded them up for us to go through and choose which shots we wanted to order. This process is pretty long, only for the fact that so many pictures are taken, but all in all, it's pretty simple. Well, while we're going through the pictures, Truett is getting restless...okay, well, actually he had already reached that point and was passing it....BIG TIME! At one point, he was running all over the studio...LITERALLY, and had gotten a hold of a bottle of their hand sanitizer, which he proceeded to use to 'wash' every free-standing object in the studio! When were just about done, a MAJOR storm swept through, to the point that we thought we were going to have to 'duck and cover' at any moment.

Anyway, the storm had pretty much passed by the time the pictures printed out, so we got the pics and headed to out dinner. In the meantime, my mom had been FRANTICALLY calling all of us to make sure we hadn't been swept off to OZ, but none of us answered our phones because we didn't want her to know we were having pictures made for her. Sorry, Mom!!! :)
Needless to say, once again, I'm glad these pictures turned out because I don't think we'll be doing this anytime soon. :)

Here are just SOME of the pics we took-

The boys showing off their muscles
My sisters and I took this picture for the Gifted Sistas blog (www.giftedsistas.blogspot.com)

My brother, sisters and I

The whole clan

Truett's 3-year-old pictures

A Camping We Will Go!

Truett has been on this 'Let's Go Camping' trip lately. Now, for those of you who know me, know that this child is barking up the WRONG tree if he's expecting ME to jumb on that bandwagon with him. I am so anti-outdoors unless there's a pool and fruity drinks!!! But, for the past couple of weeks, Truett has continued to mention going camping and wanting Jay to take him camping. So, this past weekend, Jay decided we were all going to go camping.

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we all took a trip to Academy to pick out a tent for our camping adventure. (I know...I was AMAZED that Jay didn't already have a tent, too!) After an hour or so in the store, we left with our tent (and SEVERAL other items) and headed to the campsite.

I guess I forgot to mention that the 'campground' was our living room? Yeah...you don't think I'm going camping in the HEAT? It was pretty hysterical! The tent, no kidding, almost filled up our entire living room. This picture doesn't even do it justice!

Anyway, Jay set up the tent, complete with sleeping bags, camping chairs, and an air mattress.
Here's Truett giving me the 'tour' of the tent

Emma exploring the camp grounds

My Happy Campers!

Nugs came along to scare away any dangerous wildlife

You always see a bear when you go camping, right?

And what camping trip is complete without S'MORES???? Jay was going to light the fireplace so we could roast marshmallows but Truett didn't want to wait. He didn't want to (as he put it) 'cook his smarshmallows'.

As the three of us laid in the tent (Emma was in her crib...still too young to 'brave the elements' (a.k.a. sleep next to Truett)), in the air conditioned house, watching TV, I told Jay that we had officially ruined camping for Truett. I mean, seriously....when the kid goes camping out in the wilderness for the first time, he's going to think it sucks just as much as I do!!!! :) Not to mention the fact that we didn't actually sleep in the tent.

Truett is one of those kiddos who will stay awake talking and playing if there is someone else in the bed with him....just ask Sarah and John! :) So, after about an hour of trying to get him to settle down, we finally put him in his bed, which was a relief to me because I wasn't too keen on the idea of sleeping on the floor anyway, air mattress or no air mattress!

So, we kept the tent up for one more day so Truett could play and hang out, but the thing was so big, we had to take it down. Jay found a MUCH smaller tent in the garage that was the perfect size for Truett (I KNEW he had a tent! I guess it wasn't a big, manly tent). We set it up in his room last night, and he slept in it all night long. I guess once the weather is cooler, we'll take him on a real camping trip. Maybe Jay and Truett can make it a guys' weekend and Emma and I can stay behind! :)

Pose for the Frame

So, it seems that lately, both of my kids are really in to having their pictures taken! Of course, I am LOVING every minute of it. Now, don't get me wrong....when I say they are 'in to having their pictures taken', I'm in no way implying that they sit perfectly still and smile sweetly for the camera. All I'm saying is that they are willing to sit and look at the camera. It's completely up to me to capture the split second moment!

Here is one example of the two of them cooperating. Okay, so it's the ONLY example of the two of them cooperating, but I'll take it!

I'm Proud to Be An American

Our July 4th celebration this year was a combination of traditional and non-traditional events. Actually, the only non-traditional thing about it was the fact that we didn't watch fireworks, but more on that later.

Anyway, each year, Coppell has a Fourth of July parade and three years ago, when Jay started his business, Praytor Landscape started riding in the parade. The first couple of years, we recruited family and friends to be in the parade with us, handing out suckers, business cards, and flyers. This year, we decided to keep it simple...we all rode in Jay's trucking, smiling, waving and shouting, "Happy Fourth of July!"

Jay, Truett, Emma, Sarah and I all woke up BRIGHT and EARLY Saturday morning, got dressed and headed to the 'starting point' to get our place in the parade line up. When we got there, we walked around (not for long) to look at the other floats and 'riders'.

Truett posing with "Sarge" We wore 'holiday-colored' Praytor Landscape shirts, complete with a yellow ribbon to support our troops, ESPECIALLY since one of the 'troops' is my brother-in-law! :) *Embroidering compliments of Gifted Sistas.

Shortly after we got to the line up, Jay's dad, brother (Jim), sister-in-law (Stephanie) and nephew (Dakota) showed up to join in the festivities. My brother, John, also came along. My parents and Jay's parents had all joined in last year, but my dad was working and both of our moms decided that it was just TOO HOT to ride. :)

Dakota

John

Jay decorated the truck and the 'crew' piled into the back.

After a few minutes of sitting in the heat, Truett decided he no longer wanted to ride in the back of the truck, so he joined us inside the cab...SMART BOY! :)

Truett & Jay getting ready for the parade to start

Sarah getting ready for the parade to start

Jay's dad getting ready for the parade to start

Emma getting ready for the parade to start :)

Soon after the parade started, Emma woke up and joined in all the fun. About half way through the parade, Truett had had enough and decided he didn't want to wave anymore. Here is how he spent the rest of the parade.

Truett riding in Emma's carseat, watching YouTube videos and playing games on my phone!

After the parade was over, we all headed over to the Praytors' for lunch. Ms. Lynda had prepared an All-American menu for the day.

Grilled hot dogs


Baked beans

We all ate, visited and enjoyed the cool indoors!

Truett & I

Mr. James (Jay's dad) & Stephanie

Jay & I sporting our patriotic Praytor Landscape shirts

My mom & Emma

Truett giving Jay a kiss before his nap....before JAY'S nap! :)

After lunch, Jay, Truett, Emma and I headed over to my parents' house for naps and then swimming. Later on, we all went over to my parents' friends' house for more hot dogs and burgers. Their backyard backs up to the park where the City of Coppell has their annual fireworks display so it's the perfect place to be when the show starts. However, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, we were up BRIGHT AND EARLY that morning, so we missed the fireworks. :(

Despite the heat, we had a good time being with family and friends to celebrate. "There ain't no doubt I love this land. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!"