Cousins Weekend

We had a bittersweet last weekend at the lake. It was great to hang out with most of my family! We only took the boat out for a very short sunset cruise because the lake is so low. There are sand bars and islands everywhere. We desperately need rain. But we were still able to jet ski, swim in the pool and eat some great summer favorites, including hamburgers, deviled eggs and homemade potato salad and ice cream with strawberries. It was super yummy! The perfect summer meal! Our second cousin Wendy, came down with her kids this time, so the babies got to meet their third cousins for the first time.

Me and my love!
Loving all the gadgets on the boat!

Wendy, David and Lamby

A likes the sunset too!

Wendy, Kailee, David and Logan

We tried to give Logan the football and Alexis her lamby so they both would smile, but A wanted the football. So, she went after it!Sweet girls! I can't believe Kailee is ten! I still remember her baby shower. I had to drive through Tropical Storm Allison to get to it! I was SOAKED!!

Enjoying the "breeze"

This just might be the biggest fish ever caught here and Kailee nabbed it! But this is as close as she was getting to it!

This water is so funny!

Notice the island behind A! Typically water, but this is why we have to stay to the left. People have been sitting in their lawn chairs and fishing. I wanted to take Alexis out there but I got vetoed!

Pool Time!

Logan is a mad man! He was doing flips and dips and jumps right over the edge into the pool. It scared me to death and he would just giggle everytime!

So pretty!! She spent most of the day on the jet ski with Kelsey and had a blast!

Sweet baby Kynlee just a snoozing. She will be in on the action next summer!

Oldest and youngest 2nd cousins! I can't wait for next summer! Welcome back Aunt Debbie and Unlce Mike! Thanks for memories in DC but we are glad ya'll are moving home!

Mrs. Independent

And yet, still a Mommy's girl! It is going to break my heart to go to work in just eleven days! Not only is Alexis walking all over the place, but she is VERY stubborn too! If she wants something she is going to grab it, yank it, spill it or hit it! I know, not very good habits. But, we are working on it. But, she also knows to sit when it's time to put on her shoes and she has mastered going up and down steps. She now has eight teeth; and if she doesn't learn to eat anything other than junk food and fruit, they aren't going to be there very long. Thankfully she loves milk more than juice, so that makes me feel a little better about her picky eating habits. Her favorite thing to do at the lake is to ride the Ranger. She now points at it and wants you to buckle her in and "go for a ride." She hears those words and she is walking right towards it.

The lit oven is very interesting!

Alexis was a tad bit more interested in Kynlee this time.

She was trying to be sweet to her. It really isn't her fault that A is so much bigger than K!

Kynlee had enough. I promise Alexis didn't hurt her!

Mommy's new car! Thank you Daddy for washing it after it went through a bug storm, on the way home from the dealership!

A loved helping Daddy. Or she just loved the soapy water!

Eating dessert while we at dinner! She wasn't happy for too long. That's what she gets for not taking two naps! She has refused her afternoon nap for almost the last two weeks. I keep putting her down but she just screams! I'm hoping that this next week we can go to bed earlier, wake up earlier and hopefully she will get back to two naps a day. I'm not ready for back to school but we need to slowly get out of the lazy days of summer and get used to waking up early again!

Hanging with the Hagartys

This past weekend Jac and Darren came down with the kiddos! Jac bought these swimsuits because she knew that Alexis had it as well. So, what do we do? Have a watermelon photo shoot of course! I love these little girls! Their personalities are so very different! Hayden loves to please and take photos and Logan is just not happy about much of anything! Last summer she wouldn't even look at Brian and I and this year, I GOT MULTIPLE HUGS! I was so excited! She was so sweet and not afraid of us! However, she was not a fan of the photo shoot! But, can you really blame her? She is still so very cute and those curls are just darling! Hayden cracks me up! She loves commercials and infomercials. I think she is going to be in sales when she grows up because she was pitching us all sorts of gadgets, including the gyro bowl. It was hilarious!

Alexis loves watermelon but it still has to be on the rind.

I mean, really??? Look at that beautiful face! She is so sweet!

She may be grumpy, but she is so cute! I couldn't resist this photo!

While the boys HAD to go shoot shotguns, we had some fun in the pool. If you notice the top right picture, I actually got Logy to smile for me! I had to bribe her, but I got the picture and she looks like she is having fun. Hayden LOVED posing for the camera underwater.

Once again we had some fun out on the lake. This drought is really hurting us. If we don't get rain soon, we aren't going be able to get the boat out and we aren't going to be able to swim in the water anymore. In the last week we have lost so much water and it is only going to get worse if we don't get LOTS of rain.

Ryan and Kristen came up Saturday afternoon last minute and we all had a blast. I can't wait for next time, hopefully it won't be a whole year before we can do it again. I can't believe summer is almost over. We've had tons of visitors and I'm sad to see the summer slowly coming to an end. This weekend we are hanging with the cousins and hopefully we can get the boat out.

Thompson Train Comes to Town

My friend Joy came back to town last week and we got to have two play dates! We had so much fun. I hosted the first one with all the kids and most of the moms and dads. I think some of the dads were a tad bit overwhelmed but it was a lot of fun. We were only missing Megan's group, but it was the first time that the majority of us could all get together and allow the kids to play. Then the Bains, Jaime's parents, allowed us to spend the day on their lake. It is AWESOME out there! There was fishing, swimming, jet skiing and even tubing. Gage and Keely tubed for the first time and Anna even caught her first fish. The water is boiling by their pier, as Daddy would say. All you have to do is cast the pole and with in seconds you've got a bite! I love watching kids catch fish, they get so excited!

Keely, Jaime, Alexis and I, Nate, Joy, Gage, Anna, Melissa and Cole. I love having play dates with my friends. I still can't believe we all have kids! I'm so sad that I only have a month of summer left! We have had the best time and I don't want it to end!
Keely isn't one for group pictures, so this was the best I got. All of the other pictures had one adult or another putting a kid back up and making sure one didn't fall off the dock!

This picture is so sweet. Cole is making sure A doesn't fall and Alexis looks like she is having the time of her life. Anna is loving having Nate in her lap and Gage is just doing his own thing! Typical kids!

I tried out Alexis's puddle jumper for the first time and she loved it! I think I love it even more. I don't have to hold on to her and she just swims on her own. She was in the water for several hours, with me near by, of course, but she was so dependent and she can keep her face out of the water. It is perfect because it teachers the kids how to balance their torso and keep their heads up or they can lay on their stomachs and actually swim. If you don't have one and you are trying to get your child to learn how to swim, I'm telling you this is the tool! I truly believe that this helped Anna, Cole and William learn how to swim and I'm already starting A in it! It is perfect for the lake since we spend hours out in the water. Alexis even tried her first Popsicle and she seemed to love it! Cole enjoyed the driving shipwrecked boat. This boy loves his boats!

Everyone caught a fish!

We had so much fun tubing! All four of us girls got on it, but I don't have a picture. We were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe! We tried several positions, including on top of each other. I'm sure it looked even funnier than we thought it was! Of course, Peggy wouldn't let us catch our breaths long enough from laughing and that didn't help us any when she was trying to throw us off, and she was trying hard! We all ended up in the water at least twice!

Ok...So, these pictures seriously crack me up. Notice, no Keely! So we had to figure out a way to get her in the picture and have her Mommy close by. So, we made Jaime start on the right and run across the group. Sure enough Keely came running. Hilarious is all I have to say! Every time I look at these pictures, I giggle just a little!

Admit it, you are laughing! I am!

This is parenting at its finest! On this particular day, I could do nothing to please A. So, what do I do? I hand her a bag of snacks. And where do they end up? On the floor! Do I stop her from eating them? Absolutely not!! She was satisfied and not crying so I let her go to town! Again, no judgements, people.

A month of Posts

We've been on the go since I've been off work. Between the visitors at the lake and parties at home, I've hardly had any down time. It's been a great summer. Here's all the Mannion happenings over the last month. Hopefully I will be better next month.

Kynlee Rae Comes Home

Fourth of July

A Weekend of Celebrations

June Play Dates

Alexis 11 and 12 Month Pictures

Welcome Home Kynlee Rae

Introducing Kynlee Rae Brown! Home from the hospital and ready to pose! Thanks to Deanna for taking her newborn pictures.

Oh this post holds so many memories! Jamie, Rachel and I have been close our whole lives. I have to admit, they pretty much admired me my whole life! We grew up spending almost every holiday together, no matter how far away Jamie lived. We have looked forward to our kids growing up together and sharing hoidays since before I can remember. I think God had a plan when he decided to give us girls for this time in our life! The only thing missing is Brody, Bryce and Bubba. But they are having the times of their lives in DC with their MeMaw. We have been waiting for this photo shoot since Good Friday, when Kynlee came 12 weeks early! In keeping with the tradition, she came home just in time for July 4th! She already weighs 6 pounds and 13 ounces; she's a fighter, just like Alexis. I think she is a perfect mixture of Moulder and Brown. I can definitely see Uncle Kenny, partly because she has no hair, and she has Rachel's jaw line. I guess that leaves the middle for Trey! She is just so precious. I can't wait for Thanksgiving so we can get them together again.

As you can see, Alexis wasn't digging the pictures with her cousins. It was like she KNEW we'd been dying to get the perfect picture. She wasn't digging her cousins that much either. The strange thing is, normally she is all over Laureli! I typically have to pry Alexis off her! Oh well, she can't be perfect all the time!

Just trying to get her to look at the camera.

As good as it gets with today!

She is thinking about loving on her.

Laureli and Kynnlee for the first time!These are the outtakes for the day. Alexis decided if we were going to keep taking pictures then she was leaving! Kynlee is already over the pictures!

Time to celebrate the Fourth of July! I love the one of Alexis with the phone! It reminds me of Rachel! Her favorite memory of me is when I would sit on the cordless phone, I guess they were rare back then. So the only thing that would keep A's attention is the cell phone!

Welcome to your first fourth of July Kynlee and Laureli!