Vet School 2013

There are a few signs of spring around here.  The garden starts growing, the house gets dirtier from bringing all the outside in every day, and there starts to be a little color on everyone's cheeks with the introduction of beautiful fresh air.  But there is one event that Will believes marks spring more than anything else I think -- it's the Texas A&M Vet School Open House.

Thanks to a kind co-worker who had a daughter graduate from the vet school,  we discovered this gem of a Saturday adventure last year.  It's the one day a year that A&M opens the doors to the vet school and display all it has to offer.  It's amazing.  There are jumping dogs and prancing horses, creepy crawlies and farm animals to get up close to, and demonstrations of all things vet.  It's a little piece of heaven to our little guy!

This year we braved the ridiculously loooooooooong line to do the teddy bear surgery.  Luckily while we waited they we got to watch the agility dogs (which has convinced Will that Georgia can be trained to jump obstacles and he wants to set her up in the backyard).  You get to bring your own stuffed animal and perform surgery on it in the small animal hospital.  No surprise, it is a huge draw for all the little ones.  Here's Will's adventure -- 

Here he is getting suited up for surgery -- no going in to the room without the proper attire!

Surgery is serious business!

All ready to head in!

Here he is in consultation with the head surgeon.  Will will be assisting in the procedure.  It was determined that dog had a bad leg in need of a cast.

He was so serious the whole time, like he was really trying to take it all in and remember what to do.

The doctors hard at work.  Surgery was a success!

After taking a walk through all the service dogs and checking out all the beautiful breeds of dogs we headed over to the reptile house.  Yay.

Will was absolutely set on holding a snake.  He got his wish immediately!

The snakes completely mesmerized Bellamy.  She loved being near them until they started crawling on her.  Then she came to her senses and wanted out of there. :)

Not this guy.

We are convinced she just thought it was a necklace until it started moving.  

The girl does love a good accessory!

As Todd and I were still traumatized by the crazy long wait for the very short surgery experience Will came home and got right back to work on some animals that were in need of assistance.  

I guess the wait was worth it after all.  

I mean, you did get to keep your official gloves, mask, and head cover after all.  

Such a good time!  Ready to put next year's on the calendar!  No surprise, Will already has our agenda decided to make sure we hit anything we missed this year...;)

Easter Blessings

I'm not sure that any of these images need much of an introduction or explanation.  They pretty much speak for themselves -- we are blessed.  Beyond words. :)

Spring!

 There are many times that I write about how crazy hot it is here.  But there are also many times of year that it is beautiful -- and now is certainly one of them!  Spring in Houston is always great...awesome weather and tons of activities to help take advantage of it all at the same time.  So sorry for those of you reading this in between snow shoveling sessions...but maybe it will entice you to come visit us, huh?:)

The first sign of spring around here, especially for Will is that the rodeo is in town.  He looks forward to it ALL year.  This year we went a couple of times to make sure to have time for all the stuff he loves to do and introduce Bellamy to all of the fun too.  It is always a blast to see how excited they get!

Our first trip we went with the Simmons/Lewis crew, and it was quite the adventure with five little ones to keep track of!

Here's B and Thomas checking out the pony rides.  They weren't quite ready to ride, but they had a great time watching the big kids and waving at them as they rode by.


The petting zoo...seriously, how many pictures can I take of my kids petting animals??  Bellamy had a great time as long as Todd stayed right next to her...she wasn't interested in venturing out by herself and I don't blame her...a couple of goats almost ate my shirt. ;)














Checking out the mutton bustin.  Her favorite part was definitely the part of the cheerleader because she loved clapping for everyone!  That will work out great since Will is absolutely convinced that he is doing the mutton busting next year when he is finally 5.

Will and Elyse always crack me up -- when you can catch them hanging out without knowing anyone is taking a picture, you really see how much they do love spending time together.  Here they are comparing their crops at Fun on the Farm.

Our little farmer.  This year he asked Todd how old you have to be to raise your own animals.  We asked him what he wants to have and he told us pigs.  Who wants him?:)

 

Bellamy's not quite as ready to get in there with the big ones...she's content petting these cute little (can completely contained) ones for now. 

Grandma and Bellamy getting ready for their Fun on the Farm excursion.  This year's crop -- carrots!  After all their hard work AJ made sure B made a great choice with her hard earned money in the grocery store.

I think the highlight of this year's rodeo experience was Will's tractor pull adventure.  It was a new thing this year and you only had to be 4 -- so he was in!  It was SO fun to watch and he did a great job!

Check out the Astrodome in the background!

Our proud little tractor puller with his hard earned ribbon.  He wore it the entire day.

Okay, moving on from rodeo festivities...

Here's sweet girl with her first real haircut experience at the kids salon.  Obviously Aunt Debbie must be her preferred stylist because she screamed the entire time.  Luckily we were the only ones there!

Did I mention I LOVE the weather this time of year?  Mom and Jess were here for the week of spring break and we took full advantage of absolutely perfect weather.  There was lots of yard work, trips to the park, playing in the backyard, and just plain sitting and enjoying the weather like this...

Here's B enjoying the weather herself...jamming to "She Don't Know She's Beautiful"...I hate to break it to her, but I think she is well aware, don't you?

How is it already Easter?  Gotta kick it off with some Easter egg dyeing of course!  Will found a jungle animal set of egg decorating stuff, so of course he had to invite Elyse over to help him with it.  And we long ago decided that Todd was in charge of the dyeing process -- gotta put all that Art talent to use, right?

 Happy Spring everyone!

Just because

The many faces of B...

         
              Our goofball...                                                                  Our diva...

                                                                  Our explorer...

Our sweet Bellamy Jean! 

The last few weeks we've had some time to just hang out and enjoy some of our favorite family hang outs.  It's getting to be so fun to go out explore some of Will's favorite places and experience them all over again through Bellamy's eyes.  

Here's the big guy giving his little sister the run down on the dinosaur exhibit.  

Checking out the cool weather exhibit at the Science museum.

B and Daddy checking out the Elephants on a beautiful zoo day.  

Enjoying a little backyard relaxation with some favorite friends.  It's so fun to see these two grow up together.  If they love each other even half as much as their bigs, we are in for some interesting times!

Seriously.  This is a gorgeous time of year here.  If you are thinking about a visit (and you should be) this is when you should do it!  

This old house

Soooo....we're in a new house. Which to us means, a whole new building full of projects. ;) We love a good project around here, and this new house has ton of potential for all kinds of them. Enter the stairs. When we bought the house we knew that the carpet needed replaced. And in the way that I do (that I'm sure Todd loves...) I started searching for solutions not long after getting settled. We don't love carpet (dog + kids = dirty!) but I also knew I didn't want to spend money on wood floors quite yet. Sooooo...I might have pinterested a few thoughts....and I might have suggested we paint the stairs. How hard can it be, right? Here are the stairs before. Gross carpet. Pictures don't do the nastiness justice.

   

And here's what we found when we pulled the carpet off. Awesome surprise! Actual wood plank risers and treads, not plywood. This actually might be successful!

   

 Todd the handyman hard at work, sanding. And sanding. And...well you get the idea. Once we realized that the wood was in good condition, he really took care to try and refurbish it and get all the gunk off.

   

A quick pick of the landing before Todd did his handiwork. After further investigation we found out that these planks are under all the gross carpet upstairs. I hear potential, don't you? :)

   

 So after a whole lot of sanding and a little bit of paint and stain, here they are! We are super proud of them. Our temporary fix actually looks pretty good I think!