Aunt Shelby – Thanks for my purple I love NY shirt.  I love it!!

 

A day at Nana and Poppy’s pool.

  

This week we rearranged the whole upstairs.  We had to move Emma’s room so when she gets her “big” girl bed, the room will be ready.  For this to happen, we had to move the office, guest room, and Emma’s room.  We made Emma’s room the new playroom, the guest room Emma’s new room, the office the new guest room, and the gameroom the new office.  It was a lot, but it looks great.

 

On Monday Emma started her new school, Pines.  The days leading up to Monday, I started getting really nervous.  At Pines, you drive up the driveway and the teachers come and get the children out of the car.  For those of you that know Emma, understand why this would be a problem…..It wasn’t.  Emma went with no tears.  She still has gotten out at the car.  She may do her fake whining thing, but she will still go.  I have not dropped her off upset or not wanting to go.  I think this is a perfect fit.  Here are Em’s first day of school pictures (this was a tradition in our house growing up, so every year, Emma will have to have a picture in the same spot every start of the year. 

This past weekend Emma, Darby and I headed to Lake Livingston for a weekend of fun in the sun.  Saturday we went out in the boat for a couple of hours.  We drove around, went to the island and played on the beach, tubed, and then came home.  Emma enjoyed playing and making mud pies on the beach.  She even met some friends that shared their toys.  Once we started talking, we found out they lived in Kingwood. What a small world.
After our trip on the lake, we headed back for naps and hanging out at the house.  Emma was a big helper the whole weekend.  She set the table for each meal and helped Grandmother make blueberry muffins for breakfast. Pictures are in their normal spot under Lake Trip

Emma and I headed to the Woodlands Children’s museum with Nana last Wednesday.  I was interested to see how it was.  Emma was so excited.  She was ready to be there the second we got in the car.  She enjoyed showing me the grocery store, turtle races, digging for fossils, the Post Office, climbing stuff, reading corner, the bugs, and much much more.  It was fun watching Emma run around and play/experiment with everything.

This past weekend we had a family reunion with Travis’ maternal grandfather’s side of the family.  This was the first time I have met a lot of these family members.  The reunion was here in Houston down the Beltway to Bissonet.  There was a great turn out for the reunion.  It was a lot of fun hanging out and meeting people.  Emma really enjoyed playing with Tia and running around all day.  She didn’t have a nap, but did great.  She did crash in the car on the way home.  We all had a great time.  We even participated in a white elephant gift exchange.  Some things in the mix were: dental impressions, massaging slippers, a giant frog, a vase, cross, jewlery, etc.  Some was so very um….”pretty”…  Some was really weird.  I can’t wait until next year! Photos under Emma’s Photos (Travis was the photographer this day, so you can see a lot of his unique photos and stuff….)

  With Tia (I think they look a lot alike!)

This July 4th we decided to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  We wanted to have an outing, but didn’t expect the amount of traffic down there.  WOW.  The zoo was a zoo.  We purchased our tickets to the butterfly exhibit.  I thought Emma would really like this part…..WRONG.  She was attached like her life depended on it.  She didn’t care for the butterflies at all.  After wandering around the butterflies, we headed to the dinosaurs and animal exhibit.  Emma LOVED this part.  Of course, huge scary bones and stuffed giant lions and torn apart zebras.  She loved standing next to them and making their appropriate noise and taking pictures.  This just goes to show you never know what you children will like.  Photos are in the same spot as usual under museum.

 Not enjoying the butterflies….

 Roaring like a lion…Yes with a torn off zebra leg that didn’t scare her.

Today we were very lucky to have Travis for a full day.  He told us last week that he would have the 3rd and 4th off.  This was very excited.  I knew we would take advantage and spend the day as a family doing something new. 
After a lot of internet searching, I decided that we would take a trip out to Moody Gardens.  We went to the aquarium and the rainforest.  Em didn’t like it as much as I thought.  I think the glass was to thick, so her depth perception was off, so she was scared.  In the rainforest we saw a lot of birds, a sleeping sloth, and an ocelot.  I was hoping to see more, but oh well.  We also saw Emma’s favorites; lizards and snakes.  I don’t know where she gets that from. 
We had a great day at Moody Gardens.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the weekend holds.  Four full days of family time.  I’m so excited!    Photos: Emma’s Photos, Moody Gardens.