Last week we had fun dressing up like cows and eating free chicken!

There was a special McDonald’s story time (which was absolutely amazing) at the library the same day… I felt a little guilty we were headed to Chick afterward!

 

Having fun with some fast food marketing! (Anna Kate won’t go near these guys)

My cute little cows!

Rose is getting so big and expressive – I can’t believe it!

 

 

The girls couldn’t stop talking about cow day (they seriously LOVE it!), so we dressed back up and headed to Arlington to meet Daddy for dinner and free sundaes!

Noelle’s having a great week at Poppa and Rara’s house on “vacation.”  She and Poppa even made the paper!  It’s so cute, they titled the picture, “Let’s Dance, Poppa!”  Missing my girl! (but it’s her turn, and she’s having the time of her little life)

http://jacksonvilleprogress.com/

Photo by Faith Harper from the Jacksonville Daily Progress

It’s hard knowing how to be the kind of friend I need to be for Cindy right now.  I try to tell her dorky stories and keep talking about my silly little problems that she is always so great to help me solve.  But, I ache.  Underneath the day-to-day conversations, we ache together.  All of us are in so much pain.  I ache for things to go back to the care-free happy way they were, I ache for my friend who is slowly watching her love slip away from the world every single day she wakes up. 

Curt and Cindy are an amazing couple!  They are soul mates.  They truly deeply madly love each other without abandon.  I prayed for their kind of love when I was a teenager.  I desired so strongly to find a man I could love as much as Cindy loves Curt.  Curt had a lot to do with me falling in love with Mike.  They share many of the same character qualities that are so incredible.  Who can imagine the pain and the agony life is putting them through!?!  It’s like Romeo and Juliet realizing that one of them is poisoned over and over again every single day, with no chance of waking up from the nightmare.  It goes on and on.  I think about what it would be like to be Curt all the time.  I would try to psych myself up by saying, “This is the ultimate human challenge.  Can you take it!?!”  Sort of like an endurance race, except there is no reward for the suffering and sacrifice at the end of it.  It seems all for naught.  What the hell?  Who should ever have to experience this kind of torment? 

Curt is the most compassionate gentle humble guy out there, who would never look down on a soul or not offer help to someone in need.  None of us are exempt from this heartache; excruciating pain hits us all at some point or another in life.  It’s the way of the world, our human condition.  And yet, we fight for the good we know exists, for the beauty revealed to us in the little things, for the hope that tomorrow will be better.  Please bring peace to us in our tomorrow.  Some way.  Some how.  We keep breathing for it.  God, I beg of you to hear my prayer!

Check out her blog for an update: http://curtziemke.blogspot.com/

*My blog is a great little online scrapbook for the kids, but, from time to time, I may choose to share with you all some of the harsh realities we are facing, if I feel good can come out of it.  Then, when the girls look back, they will not only see all of the fun things we did, but also understand a little more of our story…

On the way home from Horseshoe Bay, we stopped by to see the bears!

  

The kids really enjoyed eating at Fazoli’s and driving around Baylor!

             

Well, this is the fam all “decked out” for a fun 4th of July!  Noelle told me the other day that teenagers are always “decked out.”  I asked her what that means and she said, “Fancy!”

Here are the stars of the parade!

 

 

Anna Kate and Jayne, and Noelle with Brittany, Griffin’s (Jayne’s son) girlfriend.

So proud to get to ride in the parade this year!

 

Jayne made us breakfast (thank you) and Rara made this flag bouquet full of glow sticks to play with after dark!

Duke (Mary Arnett’s sister, Polly’s oldest son) and Fay stopped by to wish us a happy 4th on their way to the hill country to see their grandkids!

Noelle is ALWAYS playing with Rose and keeping her happy.  She is the best biggest sister EVER!  I sing her praises!

Look how entertained Rose is… she’s really concentrating on those ribbons!

 

Poppa and Rara arrive on the scene Monday morning after greeting baby Harper into the world.  We were all really excited to see them!

Can you tell!?!

              

I really love this picture!

 

Our Rosies and one very happy camper who’s learning what the 4th of July is all about!

 

 

Check out Noelle’s hands… she is so prissy!

  

So, right as everyone was heading out to the pool, Uncle Andy pushes Poppa in… which, as of this year, has become a tradition to the start of the day!

 

But someone was not at all happy about it, and it wasn’t Poppa!

Anna Kate was screaming and crying and yelling, “Don’t do that!”  “Get out, Poppa!” in the sweetest little angry voice you have ever heard.

When Poppa came up he thought something else had happened while he was under water because Anna Kate was so upset; I think it made him feel pretty special!

 

But within minutes, we got Anna Kate in the pool and she was as happy as she could be!  And isn’t our little firecracker cute!!!

In this picture, Anna Kate was on the “sh” part of “fish.”  Can you tell?

Check out those great chunky legs!!!  Love.them.

 

More baby greatness.

Tag teamin’!

Rose takes baths and showers with me, so she is very comfortable in the water with her Mommy… she LOVES splashing, playing, and relaxing in the water!

And so do we!

Here’s Anna Kate with “the 4th of July lady” as the girls call Aunt Elsie… can’t say thank you enough to her and Uncle Andy for making this happen for all of us – it is such a great time for everyone!

 

Noelle trips me out in this picture!  As far as the game went, I think our highest number of continuous hits was 27!

This is some baby lovin’ right here!

I had to include this picture because this is what Rose looks like when she just wakes up.  Her little eyebrows squint down and she looks at me like, “Why in the world would you wake me up – I love it!

One happy girl!

 

Our girls were LOVING all of the special attention this weekend!!!

 

My girls don’t like guacamole (leaves more for us so it doesn’t bother me – lol), but I thought this was funny to put these pictures side by side – lol, I’m dorky like that!

What a privilege for Noelle to sketch with the best!

Rosie’s fried okra was incredible! 

Aunt Joe brought the best peaches ever!

Anna Kate wanted to watch Rara fry the okra.

The girls were crazy about these silly metal ants Aunt E had on her coffee table – lots of pretend bug frights going on!

Our little fashion designer, always busy working on little creations.

Next was Bridget’s fried green tomatoes… oh yeah!

Aww, Noelle is such a precious little girl!

Yummy!  Here’s to fried green tomatoes!

“You’ll always be my baby… du da du dah!”

Enjoying a perfect evening with my girls.

 

 

ThePondFam5

This picture is compliments of Uncle Jim – it’s fantastic!

 

This is a picture of the cocktail cruise… everyone except for Jayne, Poppa, Anna Kate, Uncle Andy, and me is pictured.

Poppa really worked with Noelle tonight on the fundamentals of kayaking. 

She’s really getting it down!

 

Aunt Joe (Anna) and Anna Kate were having a blast together on the pier.

Noelle was so proud of herself for paddling for the first time!

Anna Kate was a brave little kayaker too!

And while everyone was on the cruise, she got first dibs on dessert!

 

 

Anna Kate always puts on Noelle’s sun hat and walks around the house saying, “Old lady, old lady” in a really raspy voice.  This is her in the middle of saying, “Old lady.”  She’s the funniest kid you will ever meet, and she doesn’t even mean to be.  

Anna Kate July ‘09

Anna Kate July ‘11

 

Anna Kate (4 mos.) and Rose (5 mos.)

*I obviously don’t shy away from taking pictures of my girls because they love it, but I never want to bother anyone else, so I realized after the trip I had very few pictures of everyone unless they were holding or with the girls.  From now on, I might ask the adults for a few more pictures… I might even get wild and crazy and bring the tripod for a group picture!  🙂

A huge thanks to Uncle Andy and Aunt E for hosting our gathering and Poppa and Rara for paying for the hotel and food – we are so grateful and loved every minute of it!

I got this email from Aunt E the day we got home: “Well, we made the front page of the world famous Marble Falls Highlander!  How ‘bout that!”

Cool, huh?  You can see Aunt E driving and Jayne holding Anna Kate (with her fingers in her mouth, of course)!  I have to admit, I’m always a sorry sport about the parade because it is SO early, but I am so thankful Aunt E goes the extra mile to make it happen because on the way home this year I asked the girls what their favorite part about the 4th of July was, and they both simply said, “The parade.”  Thank you, Aunt Elsie!  We love you!!!

*Last of our vaca pics coming super soon.  The blog is getting harder and harder with three kids. 

The girls were SO happy all weekend long… it was like Christmas for them!  The saddle bar stools were a huge hit to get the party started!

When we first arrived, the girls had some cuddle time with Aunt Joe Joe.  Rose was smiling because she was so proud to be a part of everything!

Brady’s girlfriend, Bridget, was so awesome with all the girls… she’s a natural!

Water toys with Daddy!

Someone’s getting sleepy (and won the finger battle, by the way)!

Aunt E bought these awesome squid swimmers for the kids to enjoy – Anna Kate was mesmerized.

Anna Kate was loving being in the pool, and Noelle and Bridget practiced cheerleading!

Brady and Bridget went all out on the tube – they rocked it!

Uncle Fred and his sister Jayne were awesome with the girls, and they were in heaven!

All fancied up for dinner!

My big girls and me!

I LOVE these pictures!

This series was too precious… they all needed to be included!

Pouty McGee was having a little moment, but Noelle was ready for the cocktail cruise!

We finished the night off coloring with Aunt Joe.  Noelle did her first landscape today.  All in all, it was a pretty perfect day at the bay!

So we arrived at our first hotel Saturday night, and the girls were beyond excited!

When Noelle walked in our standard room, she said, “Wow!  This is so elegant!”  She’s so funny like that.

        

 

Noelle was jumping from one bed to the other and was showing us her tricks…

She asked me to take this picture of her “ending pose” of her jumping trick.

My goodness, she’s such a cutie… and so happy to have “Meow Meow” her kitty in the picture with her!

More Noelle greatness!

And here we have Rosie showing us her best tricks – holding her feet and giving us gorgeous smiles!

This is so Noelle!

After we got all settled in, we went to Chili’s for some not-so-healthy, super yummy vacation food!

Oh yeah!

You remember the movie, “Three men and a baby,”  well, I guess this is, “Three girls and a Daddy!”

 

After dinner, we headed to the hotel pool for some indoor late night swimming – the girls had a blast, and we swam for several hours.

This is Rose so comfy cozy… I thought her feet were so cute!  Night night!

The only time the girls get to watch TV in the car is when we go on a trip, so this was a fun car ride for them… we couldn’t wait to get to Plano to meet baby Harper!

Mike took this cute picture of the gang, and John got one on his camera with Mike in it!

Our babies!

She is such a sweet newborn baby!

The big girls with Fancy Nancy and Harper!  So happy for sweet Nancy!

I love how you can see the size difference in this picture – my baby is getting so big!  And I must say, I am so proud of my brother… he is such a great Dad… you should have seen him in action! 

 

Family time!

The girls are crazy about Harper!

 

This was our parking spot – lol!  We had so much fun meeting our new cousin!

John and Nancy (Brother Man and Fancy Nancy) had their beautiful baby girl this weekend while we were in Horseshoe Bay.  She was born on Sunday, July 3, at 1:49PM.  She is 8 lbs 13 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.  We can’t wait to meet her!

 

Isn’t she a doll!  We are so excited to have another baby girl in the family!