A birthday and Anniversary

Last weekend we went down to Corpus Christi for two very very important events. The first was for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. 60!!! There are not many couples out there who can boast 60 wonderful years of married bliss. I am incredibly lucky (and thankful) to still have my grandparents in my life. I love that they have gotten to meet and enjoy my children and I love that my children have gotten to meet and enjoy them.

The second reason we were in Corpus was to celebrate my grandpa's 87th birthday. Oh my grandpa! Words can not say how wonderful and amazing this man is. I am so grateful to have had another year with him. We all had a great time at the party and it was good to see my family and extended family (some of which had still not met Samantha). I love that we throw him a family birthday party every year for his birthday but it makes me sad (b/c I am selfish) that he has again gotten 1 year older. I know that it is in God's plan for all of us, but I have to admit that I absolutely fear the day/s that he decides it is my grandparents time. I am not sure how my family will survive it. BUT, this post was not meant to be sad it was meant to tell you about the celebrations we have just had so Happy 60th Anniversary to one amazing couple who I am lucky enough to call my grandparents and Happy 87th Birthday to one of the greatest men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and loving!! :)

Me and my grandpa

Me and my grandma

The cake that my Aunt Connie made them for the celebration

My grandparents together

My family with my grandparents

The gift my mom gave her father. It is his High School Letter from Hebbronville High School. He graduated in 1941. He was the first track athlete from that school to make it to State but he did not get to attend b/c the school district was to poor to send him. My brother Joshua is a cross country runner and his team made it to state this past year. In honor of my grandfather my brother wore the number 13 (my grandpa's number) pinned to his jersey.

My grandparents with all but 1 of their great-grand kids (Nicholas was out of town). They also have an 11th great-grand child on the way. Baby Marks is due in November.

Samantha's Baptism

Today was Samantha's baptism. Everything went beautifully. She did such an amazing job and didn't cry when they put the water on her head. She was baptized in the Methodist church that we attend here in Pearland, but, because I was raised Catholic (and really like some of their baptismal traditions) we gave her godparents. Derrek's brother Wesley is her godfather and my cousin Miranda is her godmother. The funny thing is that they are both attorney's and we had to laugh at the fact that at least she will be very well legally represented. haha :) My cousin lives in CO and we were so excited that she was able to fly down to be a part of the ceremony. We were so blessed to have so much family in attendance for this special occasion. After the service we all headed to Las Rosas (a local Mexican restaurant in Pearland) for lunch. The restaurant did a great job AND they even let me take the cake to them the night before to keep in their fridge b/c it had a filling :) Speaking of the cake I got it from a local bakery called Cakelicious. I had never tasted anything from their bakery before and I have to say that I was very impressed. It was delicious!! To all my Pearland friends I would definitely recommend them and will mostly likely use them again. Well I hope that everyone had a blessed Sunday. Here are some shots of ours.

Samantha and her godparents. I had to laugh at this since my cousin and I resemble each other so much she could be their baby. haha :)

Samantha with my parents. Her Yaya and PoPo Ne.

Our long table shot of all the family.

The Cake! It was chocolate with bavarian cream filling. Delish!

Let the crawling craziness begin

Well Samantha is officially crawling. She started right at about 9 months. Its funny how two kids from the same parents can be so different. By 7 months Mason had 2 teeth and Samantha still has NONE. Mason crawled at 7.5 months and Samantha just started at 9 months. One thing that they do have in common though is the fact that I coerced them into crawling with electronic untouchables. For Mason it was the camera and for Samantha it was the laptop. haha! Dont get me wrong, I do NOT mind that it took her longer to start then it took Mason. I was not looking forward to the day she became mobile and would be able to get into his toys :) Which is EXACTLY what she has done haha. We hear a lot of " No Samantha thats mine" around here now. We are officially up close and personal with the lesson of sharing :) I figure this is one lesson that no matter how old they get they will always have a difficult time with. Who can blame them though, I am a grown woman and there are still things that I dont particularly like to share :) Here is the best part about it though, she is a peg leg pirate crawler HAHAHA!! It is hilarious!! She bends the right knee and keeps the left leg straight to push off with. I dont think I have a decent picture of her doing it but it sure is a sight. She has also mastered the art of pulling herself up on things. I cant believe that we are already at this point in her life. It just flies by in the blink of an eye and she will be 1 before I know it. So amazing and so sad all at the same time :)

This is the best I have of the peg leg crawl. Right knee bent and left leg pushing :)

Getting closer

And closer

SUCCESS!!!

The new do

So if ya'll saw my post about Samantha no longer keeping her headbands in her hair then you all know that I was faced with the challenge of finding a new way to do her hair. Well, I managed to get her hair (the little bit that she has) into a tiny little pony tail in the top of her head. WAHOO!!! So now she wears her bows up there. This has been tons better and she has not been reaching for them as often.

I dont think i got any pictures of the actual pony tail but here are some shots of her with her bow right smack on top of her head :)

You can sort of see the hair peeking out behind the bow in this one.

I realize that I am 100% biased but she looks pretty darn cute if you ask me!!

A Father's Day gift that was a long time coming

Happy Father's day to all the daddy's out there :) We had a great one here in the LeRouax house. The kids and I got Derrek some cards and made him breakfast and we splurged big time on a gift that has been a long time coming. 6 years to be exact. We got him his boot case. Some of you may be thinking to yourselves his WHAT?? A boot case? Here is some quick background info for those who dont know. Derrek was a member of the Corp of Cadets at Texas A&M. He was a proud member of Company K-1 (KAYO-K for those who are familiar). As a freshman you go in to have your feet and calves measured for these boots that you dont even get to wear until 4 years later as a senior. The boots alone cost $1200 give or take a few $100. Anyways, after wearing these boots through out senior year they are then proudly put in a display case (aka a boot case) for all the world to see as they come through your home. Well, its been 6 years since Derrek graduated and in those past 6 years his poor boots have been sitting in their velvet covers in our closet. OUR CLOSET!! How sad is that? So I finally decided that it was definitely time for a display case so that we could bring them out into the world to display proudly. Derrek was thrilled to be getting this as his gift and he found a guy who hand makes them out of Dallas. Mr. Bowen started doing this b/c his son went through the Corp at A&M. He has been doing it ever since. He did an amazing job! To view his work go to www.springwoodworks.com.

Here are some shots of the case with Derrek's boots in it.

This is a picture that Mr. Bowen sent me so that I could see the finished product. These are not Derrek's boots but I wanted to show off the etched Corp symbol that is on the top of the case.

I hope everyone had an amazing Father's Day!!!

OH NO!!!

So this has been the new trend with the headbands.

It's on And then...

its not. AHHHHHHH!!!

She hardly has any hair. What am I going to do now??

Oh and this was also her first NO from me too :)

A ballgame to remember

Last Wednesday we took Mason to his very first Astros game. Thanks to Uncle Wesley getting company tickets we had awesome seats on the club level right in front of the press boxes. As soon as we got there Mason was in baseball heaven. We had been building it up all day for him and he was so excited to go to the game. When we got there I took Mason to our seats and said "Okay Mason this is where you are going to sit." He turned to me with a sad and confused look on his face and pointed down to the field and said "No, I go hit the ball." It was the cutest thing ever! So I told him (as any mother would have) that if he really loved it and he practiced really hard then maybe one day he would be hitting the balls down on the field. :) From the moment the game started he was entranced with it. He was actually watching everything that was going on and giving his own commentary on it ("Oh he hit it!", "Oh he missed it!") It was hilarious!!

Here he is getting ready for the game to start

Watching the game on daddy's lap

Making faces at me while I was trying to take his picture

So moving on through our night we get to the 5th inning of the game and Derrek had just commented about how if a foul ball came our way ( b/c we were in a prime spot for them) then to grab Mason and move quickly. :) Then literally like 2 minutes later a foul ball came our way and landed in the press boxes behind us. So everyone in our section stands up and is asking for this ball and quick thinking Uncle Wesley turns to Derrek and tells him to pick Mason up. Well it was lucky that we did because the guy in the box threw the ball to Mason! It was so awesome!!! Mason got a foul ball at his very first professional baseball game ever!! So he gets the ball and Derrek turns to me and asks me if I knew who just threw Mason the ball. I said no b/c being only 5'2" I couldn't see who was in there :) and Derrek replies "It was Craig Biggio!!" WHAT??? REALLY???? For those who may not know Craig Biggio is a former Astros player who retired a few years ago and just for the record my FAVORITE Astro. So apparently he sits in the press boxes to watch the games these days and he threw my son a foul ball (now I love him even more heehee).

After Mason got the ball he turns to us and asks (as he is pointing to the field) " I throw it?" And in unison Derrek, me and Wesley yell "NOOO!" Poor kid, I think we scared him half to death :) So we explained to him that it was a special ball and he had to keep it forever etc, etc...

This is right after the ball was thrown to him.

In the 7th inning Derrek got up the nerve to go and ask Craig Biggio for his autograph. And being the nice guy that he (Craig Biggio) is he signed the ball for us.

Here is how Mason held the ball after he got the signature. Its like he knew it was even more special and was not going to let it go.

What an amazing night we had and what great luck! Even more cool is the fact that Derrek actually has a Craig Biggio ball from about 20 years ago. How awesome is that? Both balls are going to be put in keepsake holders and put in Mason's room. We know that he will never remember what happened but at least we have pictures and the ball to be able to tell him the story and he in turn will be able to pass the ball down and tell the story to his kids. :)

Mason with his Uncle Wesley

Me and my boys at the game

Oh, to top it off the Astros ended up winning that night. Go 'Stros!!!