We went on a picnic

We went out to Belton Lake or Lake Belton for the afternoon and had a really good time.  Braden and Zekey had a blast "exploring", throwing rocks into the water and playing on the playground.  Ailey Grace pretty much slept the whole time.  Sam and I were just glad to get out of the house and have a good time hanging out with each other.

 

Tiffin and To-Go ware lunchboxes

I've totally fallen in love with these little lunch boxes! I would really like to get a set. Its on my wish list, so we'll see. Here are some different versions and the websites I found them on.

This is To-Go Ware 

This is a latch-style tiffin

This one is called a Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless-Steel lined Lunch Jar

This one is a pyramid-style tiffin

Waddya think?  Aren't they interesting?  The only problem is I really don't have any reason to have one...  I'm thinking picnics...yeah!

I gave myself a haircut...again.

Here's what it looked like before I took some scissors to it myself.  (Braden decided to fix my hair up for me):

This is what it looked like after I went to the salon to get my work corrected ;) - 

Oh, yes, and I blinged my phone again.  I took pics when I first did it many, many months ago, but forgot to post it, so here they are:

This was the first bling job - 

This was the second -

Ailey Grace is six weeks old!

Yeah, this is a week late, but it still counts!

I took Ailey to the mid-wife on Monday for her check-up and she was just fine.  The mid-wife weighed and measured her and here are her stats, plus a picture or two.

Weight - 9 lbs 12 oz.

Length - almost 22" (sorry, didn't write down the exacts and am waiting for a call back from my midwife on that.  I'll update when I get it.)

Finally got a smile picture! :)

I'll admit that this was actually taken on Monday and the others on Wednesday, but its close enough...

I also wanted to let you know that Ailey had a fever on Saturday in the early morning. There was much drama on my part and Sam came to the rescue by calming me down and getting a game plan together.  I also made a few phone calls to call in some prayer support.  (Thank you, Mom, Sara, Meemaw & Peepaw and Jennifer!!!) Even though, we desired to take her to the doctor's office, I ended up having to take her to the emergency room.  (That's a longer story than I care to write about right now, but it all worked out in the end.) The doctor and the nurse were absolutely wonderful.  I'm very grateful for them!  They ran tests and everything came back clean so we got to come home and we just kept her cool and administered Tylenol (yay, Tylenol!) and she had no more fever at midnight that same day!  Praise God!!!

Finally...our visit to East Texas and the Baby Get-Together

Are you ready for a deluge of pictures?!  Well, I hope so, because here are all the pics from our visit to East Texas and the meet and greet for Ailey Grace.  Just to let you know, Braden is not in very many of them.  I found out later that he was having a grand old time playing in the mud outside.  Without further ado...

Our visit with my granny, Aunt Peggy and my mom:

I love this hat on her, but she can't stand for it to slip down over her eyes. hehe.

Granny (my mom) and her first granddaughter

For the first hour or two that we were there, Zekey wouldn't go to my granny, but after she took him outside for a bit, he warmed right up!:)

This picture was taken for my mom because it shows the AT & R reflex or something. (She's an Occupational Therapist and is constantly observing growth and developmental stuff.)

One of my granny's dogs kept taking Zekey's digging spoon and pacifier away from him. It was pretty funny. He didn't so much think so.

Braden climbing a tree I used to climb when I was his age. Now that's cool!

Zekey, the digging spoon and pacifier...the dog was waiting in the wings for her chance...

This one just cracks me up.

I love this picture! My Granny is one of my favorite people in the whole world and I love picture with her and my kiddos. (BTW - she HATES having her picture taken, but I made her anyway...mmmwwwaaahahahahaha!)

Ailey and her Gran-gran. (My mom's mom.)

I think Zekers was throwing a fit in this one...

Ailey and her Great-great Aunt Peggy

The Baby Get-together:

Just five more minutes, Ma!

Sandy and her beautiful Granddaughter

Uncle Ben and Zekey

Aunt Jenny and Ailey Grace

Zekers

Sam, Elijah, Ailey Grace and Ben (I've already informed Ben and Jennifer that I want to hire Elijah and Luke for the summer to help with the kids...seriously, Elijah and Luke had Ailey and Zekey in turn nearly the whole time. Whenever someone wanted to get a hold of Ailey, usually they went and got her from one of the boys. Can I get a hallelujah?! Okay, you caught me... I love my nephews and would love for them to get to come visit and hang out with us. :)

Yep, she's got bling already. Even the snaps on the bottom have bling. Courtesy of cousin Beverly.

That lamb is sooooo silky soft!  One of Sandy's gifts.

This is the blanket that Rachel made. Isn't it cool?! Love it...

Mzzterry, me and Rachel at our 12 year reunion!

Our nephew, Michael. Isn't he a cuter-patooter?!

Mzzterry, our nephew Elijah and Ailey Grace

Zekey and Michael checkin' out the goodies.

Zekey was having a real need to be as close to me as possible.

Ailey Grace chillin'

Aunt Jenny and Mollie and Ian's son (our nephew) Michael.

Mollie and her new niece. (Mollie is supposed to be having a girl too! Yeah!)

My sister Mollie, Ailey Grace, Mollie's hubby Ian and Sam's brother Ben

Isn't she beautiful?! (Not me, silly, my sister Jennifer ;)
Beverly and Ailey (Beverly and Sandy are twins and Sam's mom's cousins.)
Sam, his brother Ben and Ben's oldest son, Elijah all spoiling Ailey Grace.
Zekey and his Uncle Ben

Rachel and Ailey bonding. (You know you liked it, Rachel! hehehe...)

This is Aunt Nancy who is such a sweet person! Her presence is like the most relaxing, wonderful balm. She's Jennifer's Aunt aka Grandma Little's sister (there's a lot of aliases in our family...hmmmmm...), but we all adopted each other and she's stuck with us forever! I just love her!!!!

Zekey was VERY intrigued that she had a pacifier that looked an awful lot like his. He kept trying to give it to her. I guess he just didn't know why she wouldn't want it in her mouth always, seeing that is what his view on the whole subject is!

Beverly and Sam with a head shot of my dad.

Meemaw and sweet Michael

This is my precious friend, April and her son Isaac. We've been friends since we met at Movies 9 where we both worked when I was in high school. Both of her boys are about 2 months younger than our two boys..respectively, of course. Fun, huh?

Catchin' a little snoozy.

Our nephew Dakota. He and Michael are brothers.

I'm gonna have to frame this one!

She has such a great laugh! Isn't her smile wonderful? Her daughter totally takes after her! :D

Lots of chit-chatting.

My dad and Ben

Our nephew Luke and his Grandma and Ailey

Meemaw, Mollie and Ian

So sweet.

This is the precious outfit that Kay aka Grandma Little aka Jennifer's mom bought for Ailey the day she was born. I told her I'd dress her in it for this occasion. Laura aka Meemaw aka Sam's mom is on the right gazing in adoration. :)

I think the hat really makes the outfit...

Okay, maybe not?!

Sam, Jennifer, Mr. Little aka Grandpa Little aka Jennifer's Dad and April

If you've made it this far, I am truly impressed...you should probably get a medal.  Since, I don't have any, let's just pretend.  Hope you enjoyed all the pics.  I think it took as long to do this post as it did for you to get through it! :p