A Day at the Aquarium

On Monday, (Clint's day off) we spent the day at the aquarium.  So fun!!  For several weeks now Clint has been mentioning how he would really like to take Raleigh to the aquarium....I of course, made fun of him with the reasoning that she would be too small to enjoy the aquarium.  I WAS WRONG!!!  She absolutely loved it!!!  She talked to the fish, but got a little bit frustrated when she tried to grab the fish and she couldn't touch them through that silly glass.  We had a great day and can't wait to do it again soon!  

Raleigh drove the whole way to the aquarium...she is a crazy driver!!  Not really.  We were giving her a bottle before we went into the aquarium in hopes of her taking the whole thing and not being distracted....it looks like our strategy is working well, or not at all.

Don't ask me why there was a white tiger exhibit at an aquarium, but there was!  RaRa loved the tiger and was not afraid of it at all.  You can see how close she got to the tiger and gave it the evil eye.

Daddy and Raleigh together.  Do you see the baby alligator in the background?

Raleigh trying to catch those crazy fish!  She was unsuccessful, due to the glass.

The look of amazement on the faces of both of them...priceless!

Baby Houdini Strikes Again!!

We don't know how she keeps doing crazy things like this, but it continues to happen.   Many new parents would say, "Our child is so advanced."  We on the other hand would say, "Our child is a sneaky sneak. (don't worry, we do think that she is advanced)."  Raleigh already has a very quiet way of sneaking into the oddest situations.  Take the latest situation for example:

This is the way that Raleigh normally sleeps.  She likes to be cozy.  She sleeps half swaddled in her wedge with two blankets tucked in around her.

This is how we found her the other day after her nap.  During her nap she was silent.  No crying, not a peep.  How does she do this?  What a cute little sneaky sneak!!!

FREEBIRDS!!!!

Finally the Woodlands has put in a Freebirds.  One would think that a community that was founded by an Aggie would have such an establishment much earlier,  but this month we finally got one.  Of course, we had to go on opening day to show our support and love for the burrito.  There were TONS of people there!!!!  They gave away free burritos for a year to the first 35 people...several people slept in tents days before the opening.  It was pure madness!!  We had a super great time eating lunch with our friends and enjoying past memories of A&M.  If anytime you feel the need for a Freebirds burrito, the Ivy's are there!! 

RaRa wearing her maroon tutu....very tired after stuffing her face with a burrito!

She loves her Rice...

Rice cereal that is (ok, she loves the Rice family just as much)!  Recently, Raleigh has fallen in love with Rice Cereal.  The first couple of rounds were a little bit messy, but we pretty much have it down now.  Her first experience with cereal was pretty funny.  There was cereal everywhere!  Our sweet little girl is growing up so fast!

SOLD!!!

We have officially sold our house!!  Before you panic...we are only relocating to the Tomball area to be closer to where we have been traveling for the past eight months for the Northwest Satellite.  With the help of our dear friend, we had people competing on offers for our house.  We are so grateful to be able to sell our house so quickly, considering the market.  We are looking at a house and have made an offer on it.  If all goes well, we will close on both homes on July 30th or before.  We would love for you to pray that everything will go smoothly and we can quickly make the transition to the Northwest Houston area.

My Daddy is Awesome

Happy First Father's Day Daddy!!

You are the best dad in the whole world.  Thank you so much for spending time with me.  I love the way you make me feel special and I will always remember you reading stories to me at night.  I can't help but smile and giggle when we hang out together.  I love you so much.

Love,

Raleigh

It's ALIVE!!!!

As most of you know, before sweet Raleigh came into the picture, I convinced that we needed to buy a super nice camera...it took me a while to persuade him, but in January, we finally bought one.  It was awesome.  A camera that serious photographers have dreams about.  We absolutely loved our new Nikon camera.... until it fell in the Frio River.  That's right, IT FELL IN THE FRIO RIVER!!!  We thought the days of pretending we knew what we were doing when we were taking pictures were over.  The beautiful Nikon would not turn on.  It was looking like we were going to have an expensive paperweight on our hands.  When we got back from Leakey, we took it in to the camera store.  We were just hoping there was something they could do to save it.  She took the camera and turned it on and started taking pictures and then commented, "Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a problem... it is working just fine for me."  Our mouths dropped open.  The Nikon had come back to life!!!  Yipppeee!!   We were amazed and astonished...the people in the camera store thought we were idiots.  Maybe we are, but we have a camera that works baby!!

Lovin' Leakey

Every year my immediate family heads down to the river near Leakey...and every year WE LOVE IT!!  This year was no exception.

Here are our Top  7  Favorite Things about Leaky Vacation:

1. No cell phone reception...that means no email, text messages, or voicemail for Clint or my Dad!

2. Nap times.  This year I was so excited to get to take a nap longer than an hour (if your lucky with Raleigh, you might get a nap during the day, but never more than an hour).

3. Floating the river...that cold water has a way of relaxing you.

4. Coldwater Catfish Restaurant....we eat there every year going to the Frio.....it is awesome!

5. Mason talking trash playing the Wii...seriously, he could destroy anyone out there.

6. Dominoes, Cards, Boche Ball, Washers...all of the games you never play at home.

7. First times.  The first time Raleigh and Ellie sat in the river and played together, the first time Mason fixed so many smores we all wanted to vomit.

PS-  sorry about the words scattered about...for some reason I can't get it to cooperate with me.

High School Camp

Every year the day after the kids get out of school, we leave to go to High School Camp in Panama City, Florida.  It is a little bit of a crazy rush to get everything ready to go, but once you are there it is soooo worth it.  It is always amazing to me to sit back and watch how God shows up in huge ways in our lives that week.  This year was a little bit different because we were taking Raleigh (last year we took Raleigh as well, but that was before she made her grand entrance into the world).  With the help of Mimi in tow, we made the 12 hour trip (16 hours for us) to beautiful Panama City.  Raleigh did awesome in the car, she was a trooper.  We had a great week full of tons of memories that we will carry with us forever.  Raleigh was not a big fan of the bright sunshine and cold ocean water, but quickly became a fan of her fashionable lady bug sunglasses.  We arrived home safely with tons of laundry to do, blessed hearts, and a love for Panama City...we can't wait for next year!

Taking it back in time...

I know, I know, you haven't heard from us in a long while.  There really is no good excuse, except for the fact that we have been so crazy busy!!  So bear with us as we go back in time a little bit to keep you informed of what is going on with this family of three.

Over the last couple of months, I went back to work to finish out the school year.  This by far has been my favorite year of teaching.  The teachers, the kids, it has all been awesome.  It was very hard to go back and leave RaRa, but being able to be paid through the summer was a financial move that we felt our family needed to make.  It was a long month, we made it and thankfully it is summer time!!