Summer 2014

I've taken a small break from blogging to enjoy my summer with Farrah before she starts kindergarten.  We've had a great and very relaxing summer and I'm so thankful for that!  Ever since Farrah was born I really felt that as a family we needed to slow down and just enjoy her.  Everyone always tells you that your child's childhood goes by so fast and it truly does!

We started off our summer watching our niece, Quinn play softball in the playoffs.  Her and her team, the Coronado Mustangs made it all the way to state!  What a great experience for Quinn and we are so proud of her and the Mustangs!

The one thing I have truly enjoyed this summer is our walks and being outside every night.  We have found all kinds of critters and have had some wonderful conversations.  I never know what is going to come out of Farrah's mouth.  It could be anything from silly to very serious.

 

We've done lots of sidewalk chalk art!

James has been teaching Farrah how to shoot a bow and arrow...she LOVES it!

It has taken us three months to get these ducks close enough to feed.

Oh this girl.....she has my whole heart!

We've had some really great times at some of the local parks.

She has so much fun playing basketball....I think it might be time to get a real basketball goal!

Farrah and James were both really excited when Cabela's opened!  I don't know who was more excited James or Farrah.

Farrah LOVES styling James' hair.  It makes me smile because my sister and me did the same thing to our dad.

This summer Farrah went to two different soccer camps.  The first one was at Texas Tech.  Farrah liked this one very much.  At the camp they began with soccer drills and finished up with tournament games,  On the last day of the camp, Farrah's little team made the finals and played in the championship and actually won the final game!

The second camp was a British soccer camp.  This camp was so fun to watch.  Their coach played all kinds of games with them.  Farrah didn't feel like she was doing soccer drill just felt like she was playing.  He had them doing games that taught ball control, how to steal the ball and all kinds of other things.  Her coach always picked on Farrah.  She was the only girl with about ten boys and she held her own with those boys.

We also had some great cousin time!

Caroland cousin's

Fortner cousin's
This picture cracks me up!  We were headed to Joyland for Corey's birthday and I had these four girls with me and on the way they all sang Frozen song's....the ages were 20-5 years old.  I love our families!

Farrah took swimming lessons at Texas Tech.  She has been taking lessons there since she was 18 months old.  This year she was in level one.  Her instructors were great with her!  Farrah is very adventurous when it comes to swimming.  At the end of the sessions she was learning to dive off the side of the pool and diving to the bottom of the pool.  She LOVED it!

We took a little vacation to Dallas and took Farrah to her first Ranger's baseball game.  I'm not sure she watched one full inning.  We left in the fifth inning. one because Farrah was done and second was the Rangers were getting killed.  

This is the us on the way back from Dallas.  We didn't have Farrah's DVD player and she was going stir crazy!  This picture cracks me up!  Farrah was wild and crazy and James was ready for the day to be over with...haha!!

We have also enjoyed some much needed rain!  I don't think Farrah has ever really played in the rain so any chance we've had to play in the rain when its safe we do.  I think the puddles were the best part!

Such a GREAT summer!

Even our friend Justin came for a visit.  It wasn't long enough but glad we got to see him!

James and Farrah had a great time at the Father/Daughter dance at our church.  Farrah talked about this "date" for days.  I think she had a great time with her daddy!

Last year some of my friends went to the Kingsbury Women's Football Clinic at Texas Tech and had a blast!  This year was no different.  I have never laughed so hard and my stomach hurt from all the laughing!  All these girls are so much fun to be with!

The Saturday after the clinic, Chanda, Michaela and I were asked to come to Sports Talk Radio to do an interview about the clinic.  It's always fun with these girls!

This pretty much sums up our summer.  Lots of sass and swimming!

I can't believe summer is almost over and school is about to start.  Reality hit when I ordered Farrah's backpack for school....

It's been a wonderful five years at home while by baby grew up.  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to be at home.  I have mixed emotions with Farrah starting school.  I'm excited for her to start school....I know she is going to love school but at the same time it makes me sad that I won't see her all day every day.  

I'm off to enjoy our last week of summer before school starts and squeeze every moment I can with my favorite little girl!

Family fun at the lake!

We had such a great weekend at the lake!  Farrah was so excited to be on the boat and play on the water.  She was also excited about fishing which was fun for about the first ten minutes...haha!

Since there were so many of us we took shifts on the boat.  We let the big kids go first so while they were playing on the lake, Farrah decided she wanted to go fishing.  She has been talking about going fishing for a while now and it was pretty funny to watch her.  At first she wasn't very patient then she discovered the bait...worms!  She was so funny to watch.  She kept asking if she could touch a worm but she didn't just touch one she held a worm and wanted to bring it home as a pet....No!!

After the big kids got back we put her on the boat.  She had a blast!  I loved just watching her.  We took a tour of the lake to see how down the water was and we were going pretty fast.  I look over at her and she has her mouth wide open trying to "catch" air in her mouth.  Such a funny girl!

I wanted to ride the inner tube with her first so she could get the hang of it.  I told her whatever she did not to let go!  I really didn't think Lance was going to go that fast with her on it but he was going really fast.  Lance took a sharp turn and some way so how it took the inner tube and us under the water.  I started to let go but quickly realized Farrah was still hanging on.  I grabbed her hands and started prying her hands off while she was under the water and yelling for her to let go.  She let go and came up coughing up water and looked at me scared and I started cheering "Yay...that was so much fun!"  Even though it had scared me pretty good but I didn't want her scared!  After she recovered she told me she was ready to ride all by herself!

After that we "parked" the boat and just let the kids jump off the boat and swim.  Farrah LOVED jumping off the boat.

We had so much fun hanging out with my family!

This picture of us girls is so special to me.  When we were little girls, we had promised each other if we had daughters we would name them after each other.  So here you have Shawna Nichole and Farrah Nichole and Jennifer Sheree and Reagan Sheree.

  I enjoyed my much needed sister time!  

Thankful for a family who loves the water and being on the lake!

July 4th!

We had a fun July 4th as usual!  This year was a little different then the years past.  We usually go to the parade with my family but this year James had to work, my dad was working and my sister was working.  I knew I wanted to go to the parade but just wasn't sure if I wanted to fight the crowd all by myself but I did. 

I'm glad I did.  Farrah loved the parade.  My favorite part of the parade is still watching Farrah.  The look on her face when she see's something new.  This year we ran into some friends, Jason, Vanessa and Abe, so that made it really fun for Farrah.  

This picture cracks me up of Abe and Farrah!  Their face expressions say they weren't impressed but I promised they liked it....haha!

After James got home we rested and headed out to the firework show.  This is my favorite part of July 4th!  I LOVE all the patriotic music with the fireworks.....I get emotional every time.  Haha!!

Again my favorite part about the fireworks was watching Farrah!

The night before, Farrah and I have a fun tradition.  We go and get our toenails painted for July 4th.  The only requirement is our toenails have to be red, white and blue.  Farrah really loved it this year!  I didn't get a picture of her toes but they were painted white with red and blue chevron.  She make me laugh.....she LOVES chevron because she says that's where her daddy works.  

July 4th is seriously one of my favorite holidays!