At Home in the Mountains

We did it! The happy groom Maddy at the wedding ceremony Mom and Tam with the bride cowboy :) The three sisters, ready for sister number 4 to join the family. My beautiful sisters. Maddy loves flowers right now. Every time she sees real, fake, pictures of flowers, anything closely resembling a flower she says "Lowers! Lowers!" over and over again. She eventually shredded the one she's holding in the picture. Ethan and Jenna at the rehearsal dinner. Uncle EJ reading to Maddy at our hotel in Abilene. Watching the news. We hardly ever turn on the tv at our house so when it is on Maddy is fascinated by whatever it is no matter how boring. A tired baby who wouldn't take a nap. This baby loves her dog. She is giving Houdini a kiss. Ick! Our dogs are dirty from being outside so much so we've decided that maybe they'll go to the groomer soon. We need to get them shaved for their sakes since it's so hot here right now. Playing downstairs where it's nice and co...

Well the first day of summer is here in typical Dallas fashion. A high of 100 is the forecast for today. Uggg. Fortunately Aaron got me the best summer present for our anniversary--the most comfortable flip flops EVER!! We also went to see Wicked this weekend. It was amazing. Amazing! Aaron thought he wasn't going to understand what was going on because they were going to be singing all the time. (I think he might of been thinking of an opera and not a musical.) Anyway he really enjoyed it too so that tells you how good it was. It was a surprise that we were going. He got Rachel to come watch Maddy for the evening and then took me to dinner at Pappasitos. We had fajitas. Yum! He gave me a card that had the tickets in it. I was super excited about it! It was a great evening. Saturday night we had some of Aaron's former coworkers from UT Southwestern come over for dinner. They are from China so it was neat to get to visit with them and hear their perspectives on America and thing...

The official start of summer is next Monday but it is definitely summer time here in the BigD. Lots of humidity and heat. On Sunday Aaron and Tricia ran a 10K in Las Colinas. I was supposed to run but I got strep throat this past week so decided to sit it out and spectate with Maddy. Aaron cooking up a chicken. He was supposed to pose with a knife and fork but didn't have one. In Las Colinas by a sculpture called the Mustangs. Maddy love watching the water, the people, and the runners. Our garden. This is the best we have done on produce since we've been attempting gardening in Dallas. Yum! Love fresh tomatoes. Not sure what I'm going to do with two pieces of okra. Maddy working on a lemon rind. We had lemon berry slushes yesterday and this was her favorite part. Jessica came by for supper last night and stayed the night so she could catch her flight to WV this morning. We had a great time. I love this picture of Maddy. She is completely happy and relaxed and in her element...

Maddy trying some table food. Blackberry was yummy and she liked the bowtie pasta as well. Maybe it was the lemon flavoring in the recipe but she was a big fan. So far we have gotten 19 of these gorgeous little treasures off of our tomato vines. There are 5 or 6 big tomatoes that will be ready in a day or two. Yum! Our trip to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. This is in front of the nature building where we saw lots of animal dioramas. Maddy's favorite was the polar bear which was actually in the water exhibit in the science building. Maddy perusing the menu at Snuffers. She enjoyed some cheese fries and hamburger bun. Playing in the cabinets. Maddy has figured out how to open and shut cabinets and doors. To distract her from her mission to play with the blender, I got out this water bath pan and let her play inside of it. She had a great time. Another good week of June. The only blot is that I have had some allergy problems and we have been finding dead possums in our yard...

Squash by the end of the week? Can't wait for this big boy to turn red and juicy! The jungle in our backyard that we like to call a garden. Maddy with a few of her favorite things: dag, dog, and pool. Miss Maddy and our garden have both taken off lately. Over the weekend Maddy learned to push herself up into a sitting position straight off the floor and I saw her attempt a 360 on her tummy last night. We have been playing in the pool almost every day and in some strange way I think that has really help her with her movement and strengthening her muscles. So I've really got to watch her now because she sits up and then scoots away. Needless to say we are all very excited and proud of her for making these steps in her motor skills. The Memorial day weekend was great. We went down to Temple on Saturday and saw Stephen, Jennifer, and Abriella, along with others of the Joyner clan and met Colby for the first time. He is a cutie. Maddy really enjoyed playing with all the kids. Then S...