Our Egyptian Friends

We have some great friends that live in Cairo, Egypt. Judd is from Amarillo and grew up with Jerrod, but we all went to college together at A&M where Judd got an engineering degree and starting moving around the world. They started in Venezuela, went to Cape Town, South Africa and then recently moved to Cairo, Egypt. Jan, Judd's wife, is great with a camera and does a fantastic job taking pictures of their "life" around the globe. I love to keep up with them through out the year and we get to see them typically for ONE day in June sometime when they make a trek around Texas and Lousiana to see family and friends. We always have fun and this night with them was no different...we swam, cooked out hamburgers, caught up on the latest with them, and had a good time with the Bishop crew!

Here is 5 year old Avery going down the slide.

Fun in trees

This tree has been a real hit at the FBG house! Bailey was the first to climb it (makes Jerrod an absolute mess to see them on it) and Jackson was right behind her, but it has taken Emma a few days to master the "climb". Once she got to the top, she wanted me to take a picture of her in the tree. Eventually, the plan is to hang a few swings from the limbs so they have a place to swing safely.

The move in

We packed up the a few things at the house, scheduled the movers, arranged furniture deliveries from Houston and San Antonio to Fredericksburg and headed out to the new house. We took both cars and left early this morning. Jerrod was in one car and I was in the other- we each had a few kids and extra family members that were willing to be a part of this exhausting event (thanks Karen, Carey, O and Donnie)!

We went ahead of Jerrod while he packed up the last of the items so he was probably a 45 minutes behind us. I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't use the GPS in the suburban and leaned on Jerrod to tell me where to go (he is usually pretty good about finding the back roads and getting us there rather quickly). Well, Jerrod sent me East instead of West in San Antonio so we got a little off track, but he had "tea guzzling" Donnie in the car with him and so he had to keep making stops for bathrooms. In the end, we all got there in just the right amount of time and within 30 minutes of arriving, we had both movers there. It was actually perfect.

I'll include some pictures as soon as I can get them dowloaded, etc. I didn't take pictures of the house empty...I am so disappointed with myself! I would have loved to have taken before and after pictures of the house. The house is just perfect...to us.

a birthday party times 3

This year we had ONE birthday party for the 3 older kids. We rented community pool #3 in Greatwood to host all their friends and it was a lot of fun for everyone. I was able to get a few pictures, but I had a girl with a photography business here in Greatwood to take pictures of the event for me while I tended to party stuff. She did a fantastic job and I highly recommend using someone like her to take pictures so (you the parent) can just enjoy the party, mingle with friends, and tend to the party activities like cutting the cake, etc. It was nice to know that Tiffany was taking care of pictures!! Here is what I got of the cakes:

Jackson's cake was a total fiasco! He has been spotting an Indiana Jones cake at HEB for the last few months. I have mentioned before his fascination with Indy and so there was no chance we would have any other kind of cake for him. So I went to HEB a few days before the party to order "the" cake...everything was good, but as I was leaving the store the girl that took my order came chasing after me. She came to tell me that they did NOT have the Indy cake "package" so I would need to choose something else. Knowing this was not an option, I started brainstorming what could be done to get "the" cake. She said they would be willing to put a picture on the cake so I went home and picked up a DVD case of Indy and took it up there. I added the little Indy characters from Jackson's collection and it all worked out... He was so proud of that cake!! All the boys had fun telling me which piece they wanted from the cake (most of them said Indy's face) and I had the unfortunate task of telling them that Jackson's had already called that one. Oh well, they all enjoyed the cake!!

Bailey and Emma's cakes came from the Nestle' Toll House Cafe in Richmond right in front of the new JCPenney's (Brazos Lakes shopping center). I think they did a great job on the cookie cakes. I took over one of the party plates to show them the colors and I was very pleased with what we got and the only thing left from these cookie cakes were the box! Yummo!

The birthday girl Bailey

I had a great idea to give away "noodles" as the party favor. I wanted the kids to play with them and then be able to take them home. Well, leave it the kids to find something better to do with them. The older kids went around hitting each other!! There were a few kids that enjoyed swimming with them at the party, but you'll have to look really close to find them...

After it was all said and done, this party was awesome and the "noodles" were a great party favor for everyone!!

Teague's get up

So I have been super busy with everything and have been behind on the laundry...so behind that the clothes have not made it to the drawers upstairs in the kids rooms. Most of the clean clothes have been folded and divided up but somehow landed on the stairs for them to take to their rooms. It hasn't made it there yet.

Teague got into the clothes and here is what he came up with:

We laughed so hard that it hurt his feelings and he took off running. Sorry little guy!

Olivia Claire Swims!!

We are so excited to have a few guests in our house even if it is going to be a crazy week for us. We have Carey, Olivia and Nanny here to visit right now and Grand Dad is coming in this evening. We have been busy with dance recitals, swim team practices, a swim meet last night, and a birthday party for all the kids to plan...it has been crazy busy for us!

We took a little bit of time today to just soak it all in. We all swam in the pool and ordered pizza for dinner. We wouldn't have it any other way!

Olivia loved the pool. She even let Carey put her glasses on and they stayed... That's impressive- all of my kids would take them off immediately and put them in their mouth or on the floor! Does she look so cute??

We are so glad to know that she is a swimmer. We couldn't have had it any other way! :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that we are moving a large truck of furniture, etc. from our house here in Sugar Land to Fredericksburg on Thursday and I have been busy coordinating movers, furniture delivery from San Antonio and scheduling all kinds of people to come to the house when we are there.

Swim Meet June 8, 2009

Bailey, Emma and Jackson are enjoying their swim team. Practices everyday and LONG swim meets haven't deterred the girls one bit- Jackson hasn't quite decided if he likes it or not. I guess, we'll just see as the summer goes on. Here is Bailey racing with her relay team in the medley relay. She swims freestyle. Jackson is racing freestyle here.

Emma is getting ready to do the backstroke. She came in 2nd place.

Here is Bailey's relay team. They each swim freestyle and they came in FIRST place!! Yay!Here are some tired kiddos!! We finally go home at 10:30 p.m. We were tired!!

Lauri Wilson dance recital

Emma's big debut was today! She got to show off all her dancing skills (she LOVES to dance) that she learned this year at Lauri Wilson dance. She went every Monday to learn jazz, tap and even alternated every 3 weeks with some tumbling! This morning she asked her Nanny if she was going to get something for her for after the recital...like a gift. When her Nanny asked her if she was supposed to, she said YES. She also went on to say that she was supposed to get a gift or some flowers...whatever she preferred. Alrighty then!

Here she is in her first dance costume before the recital began: Here she is dancing on the stage:

This is the best picture I could get of her second dance (the lighting made it hard to take a picture):

Here she is at the end of the recital with her best friend, Maddie Lucas.

Here she is with her big sister, Bailey and her cousin, Cassie.

We were so excited to have everyone come to see Emma dance. Nanny, Aunt Carey, cousin- Olivia came in from Amarillo and Papa and Cassie drove in from Texas City. I tried to get a few pictures of PaPa at the recital- his hand was holding up his chin most of the time and at one time, we thought he was asleep. We all thought it was so funny...then, Jackson fell asleep on Papa and I was able to get that shot once the recital was over! Boys and recitals, I guess, don't go together!!

We were glad to have them none the less and appreciated everyone coming to see her final dance for the year. I know it meant a lot to her and she worked so hard this year! We are so proud of her.

A final party and then there was a first (for everything)

We had such a good time today at Alex's birthday party at the Long Meadow's Farm community pool. Alex turned 6 and Jackson just adores him so we just HAD to go.

We brought Teague and Emma along for the fun and it was a lot of fun watching them play and play and play! Jackson played with all his friends from Shady Oak (he probably won't see them anymore since they either will stay at Shady Oak or go to a different school than Jackson) so knowing that, it was good to see him enjoy himself. Emma, Teague and I just ran around and did all kinds of stuff. After a few passes with help from me and Emma, Teague figured out how to get to the slide (he had to climb up some "rock climbing" steps to get there and some were under water) and he really liked that. It was really sweet to see Emma all by herself with him...she usually has Bailey to divert her attention from him and anything else so it was fun to see them play together. She really encouraged him to do things with her and of course, he didn't hesistate.

Then this happened. All the kids from the birthday party loaded up into the back of the truck and road from the pool to Alex's house about 4 blocks away. I just about had a heart attack when all the kids loaded up into the truck and Jackson just went right along with them...I guess, there is a first for everything.

He is growing up, but I still don't want him riding in the back of the truck. What do you think? What would you have done? I seriously was about to go and get him and have him ride with us, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings. How crazy is that?!

The last day of school 08-09

Bailey's last day of school party was very relaxed. They watched movies (not really) and just lounged around and had fun with each other. I was room mom this year but by the time I got there, they had already started the "party" and were just having fun chatting and talking with each other. Here are a few pictures of Bailey and her friends- I couldn't get many because they are getting older (ya know) and start to look at me funny when I bring out the camera.

Bailey and Ms. Atkinson

Emma's party was much more lively. They all ate pizza and then played games like limbo and danced. Ms. Parmer even made a movie of the entire class year so we watched that too.

Emma and Ms. Parmer

Emma with her friends Alanna, Maddie and Kaitlyn. When I tried to take Emma home early with me, she wouldn't come. She wanted to stay with Ms. Parmer for every second she could...she just loved her and loved her 2nd grade school year!!