Blue Bell Tour

Thursday, July 12, we drove up to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Creamery.  Of course, the weather wasn't very good (rained pretty much the entire drive there), but traffic was rather light.  Once we got to Brenham, the rain stopped and it was nice.  They weren't very busy and we got there about 5 minutes before a tour started.  Perfect timing!!

The boys did great and had a good time.  They were making ice cream sandwiches (regular & mini sizes), fudge pops, half-gallons of several different flavors and 3 gallon tubs of Dutch chocolate. 

The boys each chose Mint Chocolate Chip for their free scoop, Chris chose Southern Blackberry Cobbler and I had Key Lime Pie.  Since additional scoops were only $1 each, I had a scoop of Christmas Cookies in July and Chris got Mocha Almond Fudge & Red Velvet Cake.

Since Bella came with a DVD player built-in, the boys got to watch Kung Fu Panda on the way there and The Incredibles on the way home.  Made for a much better trip!! 

The weather on the trip home was nice and we stopped for a late lunch in Bellville. 

Skull Caps for the boys

I have decided to try my hand at making skull caps/riding caps.  About 2 weeks ago, I made one for Chris and it turned out pretty good.  I created the pattern out of tracing paper, using an old one as a base.  I have since refined the pattern and it is pretty darn great!  When the boys saw the one Daddy has, they decided they wanted one as well.  So, after going through Mama's drawers of fabric, they both decided on a Scooby-Doo camo print. 

Again, they are pretty darn great!  I can honestly say 'I'm good.'

Daddy with his cap

The boys with their new caps.  Looking good....

Hmmm.  Does the cap change behavior? 
Nope, I don't think so!  This is a normal stance for the boys....

July 4th Fun!

Chris had the day off, so we got to spend some time as a family having fun! 

After spending some time with Grandma Lela & Grandpa Dave, we went to Oyster Creek Park in Sugar Land to their Red, White & Blue Fest.  We watched a cowboy do some trick roping, some cultural dancers and ran around in the grass.  Okay, the boys ran around while mom & dad watched.

They had a Foam Fun Area set up for the kiddos to play in and the boys had a hard time waiting their turn!  Once they got to go in, they had a blast!  Since Michael is under 5, Chris had to go in with him (Rachael had the backpack and all the stuff from Chris' pockets that he didn't want to get wet), but he had a good time as well.

After drying off and changing the boys' clothes (we checked the park's website for information and saw that last year they had the Foam Area so we decided to take a change of clothes for the boys in case they had it set up this year), the boys played a couple of the carnival type games that were set up.  They also got tattoos: David got a sprayed on dragon and Michael got a rub-on elephant. 

We left after about 2 hours to go eat dinner at Whataburger down the road and meet up with some friends.  We set up 'camp' in a grassy area near Whataburger to watch the fireworks.  Everyone had a fun time.

It's hard to smile when you have cucumber slices in your mouth!



Having fun while waiting our turn

Having fun while waiting our turn

Even Daddy is having fun, sporting a new skull cap Mama made!

The Foam was bigger than the boys in some places!

We had fun!  Mama says it is time to clean up now....

Meet the newest addition to the family...

Last week we received our Adoption Tax Credit Check from the IRS.  We had already decided to look for a replacement for the 1998 Dodge Caravan when the money came in.  Chris has been looking online for about a month at different cars, vans & SUVs to see what might be available and to give me some options to consider.  It also helped to narrow down where we wanted to actually go and see for ourselves the vehicles we might be interested in.  Last Thursday we went to two dealerships to look at cars.  The second one (Classic Chevrolet in Sugar Land) had a vehicle that Chris found about a month ago and kept going back to when looking online.  We looked at it, looked in it, took it for a test drive around the block, got the Car Fax report on it and told the salesman that we would let him know later if we wanted to look at it again, then went to lunch.  We talked about it over lunch and called the salesman to set up an appointment for Friday morning.  After talking with our mechanic (Robert at Integrity Auto in Richmond), we felt good about the car.  We also printed off the Internet listing to take back with us on Friday. 

Friday morning we met the salesman and told him that we wanted our mechanic to check out the car and with papers in hand, we took the car to get checked out.  They came back with a 'clean bill of health'!  Back at the dealership, we talked numbers and got a really great deal.  We put a down payment on the car Friday and brought it home. 

Today, we paid the balance with a cashier's check and the car is completely ours!  Now all we have to wait for is the license plate, registration papers and title from the state. 

Bella (our new car) is a 2009 Dodge Journey that is pretty fully loaded!  There is a built-in DVD player for the back seat (complete with wireless headsets), a 6-CD changer, USB ports for Ipod or MP3 connections, auto-set for the air/heat, hidden storage under the passenger seat, lots of storage space in the back, a back seat console with cup holders for the boys, electric adjustment for the drivers seat (including raising the seat higher), keyless entry, alarm, remote control start and many more options that we didn't look for or expect!! (We found out about the Remote Control Start yesterday!)

God has really blessed us with Bella!!