Shake Your Booty!

Special times with special friends

We have been lucky enough to see our good friends the Burdens a few times during the last few weeks. They came up to see us one day and we got to go out on the boat with the kids. They all did a great job and had lots of fun hanging out together and swimming in the lake!


One of the kids' favorite things to do: have snacks on the boat!
Katie & Zander enjoying yummy goodies!
Camden, Zander, and Kaya: chillaxin! (Thanks for the great word, Duane!)
Camden and Kaya reading together in Camden's bed...
Then we got to go to their house and have fun in Atlanta!
Here are the kids (well, Camden, Zander & Kaya) playing in the backyard while Katie was out on her special date with Aunt Korisa.
Ben got a little bit of "son" time playing football with Zander!

But the most special treat for anyone was Katie's special date with Aunt Korisa. Here is their "before" shot... all Katie was told was that she was going to get to pick the colors for both of them!
Korisa took Katie to get manicures AND pedicures... and then went shoe shopping to show off their lovely toes! Here is their "after" picture:
And a close up of the finished polished nails and pretty shoes!
It was SUCH a special treat for Katie. She recently got a kids scrapbook that she was filling out, and one of the pages had a prompt like "what would be your perfect day" and she said quickly, "My day with Korisa!" She couldn't think of a better time. And, she's worn these shoes every day since she got them! Thank you for a wonderful time!

Fancy Favorite Pics

Last week we got out to the boat several days. One of the days, the girls got all dressed up "fancy" before we left. This was the day that they had this conversation:
Camden: "Hahaha, I tooted!"
Katie: "Camden, that's not very fancy!"
Here they are in all their fanciness, at home before we left and on the boat.

Baylor Cheer Camp '09

At camp this year, Katie was again the youngest one there and she still watches very closely and looks like she isn't participating much. But, she was doing the cheers at home and practicing what she remembered of the dance (the 1st 8 count). I think she likes it, but she's pretty reserved about performances.

Katie and Camden after her performance Friday:

This is a picture of Katie with one of her favorite Baylor cheerleaders, Hunter. She met Hunter last summer and was so excited that she was back again!


Here is Katie doing an extension. I missed the beginning of it since it was the very first thing and she was the very first one (and I was slow on the uptake!) But here she is...

In this one, Katie was in front for the Go Fight Win cheer, holding the FIGHT sign.


And here's the dance! The song is We Got it Going On. Katie is in the front left until the end when she runs in to the middle stunt.



Hope you enjoyed it! At Baylor, you can try out for cheerleading after 8th grade, so maybe after she's gone to this camp for the next 7 years, she will feel a little more comfortable in front of people... if she's still interested!

And summer's finally here!

Ben's camp is finished, and I'm done with workshops and the lower school makeover for a while. We've gotten to spend a little bit of time on the boat, and here are some pics from it.
Katie "climbing the anchor rope" Camden got in the water with Daddy today. The first moment she was skeptical, but as we thought, once she got used to it, she didn't want to get out!

This is the fun part... seeing the girls laugh and hang out and play together in the "playroom". Of course, what they like about going on the boat is getting to eat snacks!
Here they are, not causing any trouble at all! Can't you tell by Camden's expressions?
And here we are, enjoying some sun. Actually this pic was from a week or so ago when we got out without the girls.
Hopefully you enjoyed the boat pictures, because that's about all we have planned for the summer. If you're coming to visit us, we'll get pics of you in the boat with us. :)

Funny Camden story.... last week one day she says "I be right back, in 1 minute." Then she goes into the bedroom, turns around and comes back to the door and says "I'm pooping. 2 minutes!"

Dear Matt & Adam...

This is probably going to be one of those things that as a parent, I'll look back on and say I shouldn't have done. (Like locking Camden in her room so she will go to bed...but more on that later!) But I just have to! So, if you read this, I hope you enjoy it, and then remember NOT to tell Katie that I put it up....


Ben's cousins Matt and Adam are here this week helping him run Baylor's first ever team and competition wrestling camp. They stayed at our house one night, but are staying on campus the rest of the time. When Katie found out that she wouldn't get to spend much time with them, she was a little disappointed. She wrote them a nice good night note and left it for them to read the first morning. But we really didn't know how attached she was until we found these notes all taped together into a poster the next day.If you can't tell in the picture, here's what our future Dear Abby letter writer had to say: (by the way, I typed it just like she wrote it, spelling & all! I think you'll be able to figure it out!)

Dear Matt & Adam,
I wanted to play with you all week. But I can't. I will have fun with Antty Dian. PS. I will miss you.
Love, Katie

Dear Matt & Adam,
Sometimes after school I play with my friend Lindsay. But I'm not shir if she likes it. What should I do?
r.s.v.p.
Katie

Dear Matt & Adam,
Sometimes I feel like I don't know? like evryone pays atenchun to sompting else and nevr has time for me. What should I do?
r.s.v.p.
Katie

Dear Matt & Adam,
I want to know do you get meny letters? Let me know if you don't I'll send you lots.
r.s.v.p.
Katie
PS. Can I have your adress?

Dear Matt & Adam,
I never get to play with you this week. But I want to. When's the right time?
Katie

Hope you enjoyed these as much as we did! Remember, top secret! No telling!!

Happy Birthday Camden!

We had Camden's party the weekend before her birthday this year. We can't believe how old and grown up she is getting. She is 2 years old already!! We ended up having a Very Hungy Caterpillar party. Here are some highlights of the party:
These really showed up in reverse order than I wanted them to, but you'll still see the fun that was had by all!

The kids wore themselves out so much that they put themselves to bed Saturday night!
The kids in the WonderPets boat (... a.k.a. Ben's favorite obnoxious big gift from Korisa!)
You can see Camden loves it!
Don't they look so sweet reading a book?
Camden, Katie & Darby eating their cupcakes...yum!
Camden's really looking seriously at her cupcake. She got the caterpillar's head!
Katie and her friend Darby dressed like twins at the party.
And here it is... the Very Hungry Caterpillar itself! One of Ben's cutest cake creations, I think!