Weekend in Dallas

This past weekend we packed up the car, loaded up the Wee Ones and headed to the Big D (Dallas) to visit my bestie and her family. They recently remodeled their pool and hot tub and re-landscaped their backyard, so we wanted to check it out!!! It was beautiful...a total Lagoon. We arrived in Dallas Friday evening and Tam's husband Matt...a fabulous host by the way...had fajitas on the grill waiting for us. We had a scrumptious meal, then sat around for hours talking, laughing and playing with the kids. On Saturday morning, we woke to a delicious breakfast and headed straight the pool. The wee ones along with Cade (Tam's 6 year old) played in the pool all day until nap time. They had a blast!!!

Brynlee wore her new two-piece J and J swimsuit just for her Aunt Tam and she was just precious in it. Look at the belly my baby girl is sportin' these days! Just like her Momma!!! HA! Miss Priss is getting a little too brave these days. After a while, she did not want in the pool, so we let her out to run around (with her floaties still on of course) and she decided to just jump on in the pool. Scared of half to death and thank goodness she had her floaties on. Crazy girl...she has no fear! Chance was just a little unsure of the pool at first, but after we got their floaties on and in the water he was lovin' it. He is our little fish of course. We took his floaties off after a while and let him show off his swimming. He kicked his legs and moved his arms under water from Daddy straight to Aunt Tam. Big boy! He loves to jump off the side and does not think twince before going in. He's crazy!!! Cade Damon is quit the little fish. He loves to dive in the water, swim to the bottom and bring stuff back up. He swam through our legs, dove for rings and did flips off the hot tub into the pool. He is so much fun to watch!!

The Clays (Melissa and Scott with their 2 kids) and Brett, really good friends of the Gulley's came out to hang out with us for a few hours. What fun we had meeting all of them! We swam, ate good food and played a few games of volleyball! The 3 boys played against the 3 girls and Matt and we still lost all 3 games. It really was not fair though, because 2 out of the 4 of us could not touch the bottom in the pool. Kind of hard to smack a volleyball when the water is up to your chin (MATT!) HA! Oh well!!! Go SAINTS (anyway)!!!!

The twins were lovin' all of their attention from Aunt Tam and Uncle Matt. Poor Tam, she had to entertain Brynlee the whole time. Anytime she would leave Little Miss Priss' sight, she would freak out, cry and go looking for her. It was so sweet, but I'm sure annoying for Tam at the same time. Thanks, T for being such a good sport. Chance was lovin' him some Cade. He watches everything that he does and just thinks that Cade is the coolest thing. He would just sit and stare at Cade and soak in everything he was doing. Of course, then he wanted whatever Cade was playing with and Cade was always afraid he would put his toys in his mouth. You can definitely tell the age difference between him and the Wee Ones. Poor little guy, I think he dreads our visits and Aunt Mel always bringing those "stupid babies" with her. HA! Hopefully when they are a little older, he will enjoy them better! But they sure love him right now!

Thanks Bestie for the fun weekend. The pool, the food and the company were all FABULOUS!!!! You guys are the best hosts and we cannot wait to come back and visit again soon!

I love you!!!!

Fedora Hat, we BIG PuFfY HeArT YoU!

Visit from the Gulleys

The Gulleys were in the States for the month of November visiting from the Philippines.  For some of you that do not know the Gulleys, Tammy is my best friend from high school.  Tam, her husband Matt and their son Cade live in Dallas Texas and in 2006 were transferred to the Philippines with Matt's job at Texas Instruments.  We see them at least once a year and this time was a very special visit.  Tam was here to experience a little bit of our pregnancy with me.  This was the first time she has seen me pregnant except for in photos and she was quite amazed at how small I am.  (She is too sweet I know.)   We had such a great visit, not as adventurous as our usual visits, but it is always great to just see them and catch up.  They are doing so great in the Peens and have seen so many things over the past couple of years that most of us could hardly even imagine.  There are so many stories that they have shared with us over the past few years that have all been so interesting, some mind boggling and others I cannot post on my family blog.  hee!hee!  I do have one interesting story that I want to share I know everyone reading will enjoy. And to anyone that knows Tam, you will appreciate this even more.  A couple of months ago the Gulleys went on a 2 week vacation to visit Malaysia and Thailand.  As most of you know, Tam LOVES elephants..always has.  She a tattoo of an elephant and has always collected them.  In Thailand, it is nothing for elephants to be roaming the streets with someone walking beside them or riding on top of them.  For some, an elephant may be their only form of transportation.   Of course, with the love of elephants that Tam has, she was determined to have as much interaction with the large creatures as she possibly could.  Many photos of her were taken standing beside elephants and the family even went on a excursion riding in a basket on the back of an elephant.  A total dream come true for her.  While visiting Thailand, they were at a show in some park of some sort where they saw alligators, snakes, monkeys, all sorts of wild animals that they were able to have close encounters with.  They took photos with chimpanzees, saw a man put his head in the mouth of an alligator and Cade even head a love snake.  They went to an elephant show where there were trainers working with them, showing tricks and all.  The trainer asks the audience for a volunteer and of course Tam stands up, raising her arms to be picked.  Probably being the only blonde in the whole crowd, she is picked and proceeds to walk up on stage with an elephant and his trainer.  Matt has camera in hand and Cade is cheering on Mommy knowing that elephants are a love of hers.  As she approaches the stage, in her mind she is thinking that she is going to get to take a ride bareback on this elephant.  Much to her surprise, the trainer had something completely different in mind.  He points to a mat on the ground and tells her to lay face down on the mat.  Thinking "Oh my goodness, what I am doing?", but to late to change her mind, she lies in the ground and they cover her body with a towel.  Praying, trembling and thinking to herself, "Please Lord, do not let me die in front of my child", this massive elephant proceeds to take a step with one paw over Tam's body to the other side of her.  She buries her head in her arms and just prays as the elephant takes his other paw, puts it on her back and proceeds to give her a "back massage".  While this is going on, Matt is in the audience snapping away on his camera and getting some great shots while Tam is fearful for her life.  ;0)  After the elephant finishes the massage, he steps completely over her and she is relieved to still be alive.  As she proceeds to stand up, thinking that she is finished, the trainer says, "Oh no ma'am, please lay back down, you are not finished yet."  Waiting for her at the other end of the stage are 6 more elephants in line to walk over her.  Needless to say, I think my blonde adventurous friend may hesitate next time to volunteer so quickly for something.  hee!hee!  Enjoy the photos and check out the photos in our family albums!

Love to you all!!!