laughs and a mustache...

This kid is a hoot! We had some great laughs together this day. He got this mustache out of a machine at a restaurant. He loved it! He wore it all day. He wore it shopping for halloween costumes (two stores). He wore it to take cookies to a friend. He knocked on another neighbors door just to say... "hey, look at me". And picture #1 and #3... not my ideas (that was all him). Where did he come up with those poses and looks?

Playing our piano.

Dawson started piano lessons one month ago and he is so excited about it! He has expressed interest in the piano for about 6 months. I was hesitant to sign him up because Dallon didn't start lessons until 3rd grade, and I wondered if it would be harder starting Dawson a year younger. But he is doing so great. He loves to practice and is so proud of the songs he can play. He can practice all on his own and needs little help after his lessons. Which is so nice for me. His favorite song so far is Mary Had A Little Lamb. And I think he does an awesome job at Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.

I had a piano tuner come to our home this week to tune the piano. We had an ivory come off of one of the keys a lot more ivory's are lifting. Also, a couple keys have been sticking and not playing well. The piano tuner was able to glue the ivory back on and taught me how to do it when more start to lift off. He also was able to fix the couple keys that were sticking when you'd play them. It's all fixed up and in perfect tune too. I am so excited about that. While the piano tuner was at my home I found out just how old our piano really is. I knew it was old. I knew it originally belonged to my great grandmother, Elizabeth Lindsay. Then it was handed down to my grandma, Vilate Lindsay Wall, then my mother, Shirla Wall, and then to me. So, it's been in our family for 4 generations. So how old is it, you ask? It was made on September 24, 1895. So, it's 115 years old. So happy birthday piano! We love you.

I've always cherished this piano! It is a treasure to me because it belonged to my mom... because she loved it, and because she spent so much of her time playing it. She was a voice teacher and she sat at this piano for hours a day playing it while she taught voice lessons to her students. Each day when I would come home from school there were lessons being taught. I took lessons from her too. We sang around this piano together often. There was always music in our home. I grew up with that sound being a constant. To this day I can't stand for my home to be quiet. I love to hear the sound of music in my home. It makes me feel like I am at home... at my childhood home. It makes me feel closer to my mom. Like a part of her is still here with me. She loved music. She was very talented too. She had a beautiful voice. And I loved to listen to her play the piano.

And I'll finish up this post with a little about Dallon. He has been taking piano lessons for 3 years now. I love for him to play the piano. I love to listen to him. I love that he has blessed our home with music for the past few years. He was starting to lose interest a little... but his teacher has saved the day. She went and got him lots of new music. Now he is playing music from some of the movies he loves like... Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.

Galveston Beach

We met Mammy, Banner and Stetson at the beach the last few days of summer break. We got rooms side by side in the same hotel right there at the beach. It was so fun to get away together and spend that time with them. Galveston was awesome. Dallon and Banner had tons of fun boogie boarding together and playing football. Dawson loved doing anything that Stetson was doing. Whether it was collecting sea shells with him, going for walks along the beach with him, or playing football. As long as uncle Stetson was in... he was game for it. And Easton... well, he had a great time. He was a total brat. He threw fits and was definitely challenging... thank goodness for Uncle Stetson and all his energy. He spotted at least a half dozen airplanes during just the couple days - trying to distract Easton from throwing fits. It works... but I won't say anymore... don't want to tell all, just in case Stetson really does write that parenting book he's been talking about. Ha ha! We ate at the Rainforest Cafe. While there Easton kept seeing the waitresses bringing out the Volcano Cake with the sparkler on top. He kept saying he wanted to eat "fire cake". So, we ordered us some fire cake to share. We chatted, and relaxed, and hung out. We played in the sand and the boys brought home way too many shells. This was the first time we've been to the beach this summer. I can't believe that. We usually go several times... but I'm glad we got this one trip in. It was fun.

Love this!

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

3,516. He knows. He counted every single one. He saw the commercial that asked that very question. He decided he had to know just how many licks it did take to get to the center of a tootsie pop.

post surgery

Aaron had his knee surgery on August 27th. Everything went really well. He stayed at home recovering for a week and a half. It was a crazy busy week for me with Aaron down, Dallon and Dawson getting a stomach bug, and then the usual running kids around and cooking and cleaning, etc. But, it was so nice to have Aaron around and be able to take care of him too. Aaron was so good to help me by reading lots of books to Easton and helping Dawson with homework each day. And that was nice. That is the picture I should have captured... oh well. Anyway, he just went back to work yesterday. He saw the doctor today and got the staples removed. He will start physical therapy next week.

Road trip to Iowa (August 1st - 8th)

Our family made the road trip to Iowa this last month to spend a week with Jaron and Em and their boys. And I have to say... it was totally worth the drive!!! We had the best time being there. Boy oh boy, do they ever know how to show a family a good time! We did so many fun things that I seriously didn't even get to post all of them. And when you see all the pics in this post you will understand that there was lots of fun packed into one week. We went to a beautiful lake, that had sandy beaches. We built sand castles, swam and chatted while the kids entertained themselves. We did dinner out as families, and another night we had date night as couples without the kids... so fun! Wish we could double date more often. We went to an awesome pool/water park that totally rocked. Jaron, Dallon, Dawson and I had a blast "getting flushed"... most times getting dumped out head first into the pool below. We loved splashing and riding the water slides. Em made delicious food - and we were introduced to the most delicious waffles we've ever had in our life. I think Jaron calls them "good morning" waffles... says they are so good they make you want to say... "good morning!" We had the whole bottom level of their home... great accomodations - we give it a 4 star! We played at parks that had carnival rides. Went to the Childrens Museum. Ate ice cream. Stayed up late playing cards. Em and I went walking most days on some of the most beautiful trails I've ever seen. Iowa is beautiful! There was biking and scootering each day. Jaron even taught the kids how to drop into his half pipe on their skateboards. He has an awesome ramp that he built in his back yard. Both Dallon and Dawson were able to drop in after some great coaching. We went to Jaron's big cycling race and cheered him on. He did so awesome - taking 5th place. It was so fun to see their darling home, and the city they live in. We loved being a part of their world for a week.

***We had planned to take this trip about 6 months in advance. Knowing Jaron's schedule is so busy - both families set aside the time early this year to make sure it would happen. So when Aaron had a bad basketball injury one week before the trip we were devastated. He had xrays, an mri and the day before we were to leave he met with the doc to find out the results. He found out that his injury was worse than expected. And he did indeed need to have surgery. That night (friday) when Aaron returned home the trip was called off. We were so bummed - but thought the trip would just be too hard on Aaron to travel so far. By sunday afternoon, after Aaron had watched hours and hours of t.v., he got out of bed and said... "Pack your bags... lets go! I'm sick of watching t.v." The kids and I started cheering and we all packed our bags as fast as possible. Aaron was a trooper the whole trip. He never complained. He wasn't able to do all of things we did. But he went every where we went enjoying being in the company of family, and watching his children spend time with the cousins they love so much. Each day we were there - at some point during the day - one of us would always say... "I'm so glad we are here. So glad we we made the trip!"

Thank you Sullivan Family for a wonderful week! We love you so much and miss you already!