Road Trip to Jackson, MS

09.02.12

For some reason, it took us FOREVER to pack up everything we wanted to take to the beach on this lovely Sunday morning.  In fact, the kids got so antsy that they put themselves in the truck, Beck buckled himself in the car seat and Kinsey did her normal thing...got into Daddy's stuff.  Then, she did what every parent dreads and locked the doors!  Luckily the truck was running so they had ac but we could not get her to push the unlock button.  Poor Beck was very upset and could not unbuckle his two straps.  At this point, both kids are crying and I talked her into pushing the lock button but I couldn't get her to push the unlock button.  Thankfully, Daddy has a spare key but he had to unload all of the stuff that he had just loaded in the truck!  Not the best way to start our long journey to Jackson, MS.

About an hour into our drive, the kids started fighting and naturally one of them got hurt which was Beck.  He was crying and he told us that Kinsey took his skin.  That's when I noticed a little bit of blood on his hand from where she had scratched him.  After calming Beck down, we laughed at his phrase, "Kinsey took my skin."  After this much drama, both kids crashed.  Needless to say, Brent and I enjoyed the next two hours.   By the way, Kinsey held on to Minnie Mouse the entire time she napped.  She loves Minnie Mouse!

Last night, Alabama played at Cowboys Stadium (aka Jerry's World) in Dallas and the majority of the cars on the road had Alabama license plates.  We even saw two vehicles pulling a trailer with decked out Roll Tide golf carts on them!  It was quite impressive to see Alabama's alumni on I-20!

We had time to kill so we stopped in Vicksburg, MS to visit the National Military Park which was amazing to see.  This park consists of 1800 acres and the tour road is 16 miles with over 1,300 monuments and markers, a little over 140 cannons and a restored USS Cairo.

The following pictures show the one monument that we all enjoyed seeing the most.  It is all marble and gorgeous!!!  Beck and Kinsey had fun running in here and yelling loudly to hear their echo.

Beck enjoyed seeing this restored river boat too...

A sweet lady offered to take a family picture...

We finally checked into our hotel and the kids were so excited to put their pj's on and watch some tv!  We still have many hours to drive tomorrow and we are planning on stopping to see the U.S.S. Alabama. 

Last Night in Texas

09.01.12

We spent all of Saturday morning getting ready for our week-long trip to Perdido Key and that afternoon we got invited to Leigh's Dad's house.  This was my first time to his house and it was so peaceful and relaxing.  I especially love the patio plus the big yard!

I also love that our kids are about the same age and they love getting together.

We ate cheeseburgers, chips, Sondra's homemade onion dip (I couldn't get enough of this!), fruit and I brought banana pudding.

This biggest hit with the kids is the tractor!  Beck got on it first and he was acting like he was seriously driving it.  He was cracking me up!

Then, Mr. Taylor gave each kid a ride except Kinsey because she was too scared to ride it.

Once it got dark, Leigh busted out the glow-in-the-dark bracelets and they all had fun with these.

Leigh, thanks for inviting us over for dinner!  We had so much fun!

First Week of School

08.27-31.12

Today is the very first day of school for many kids such as Ava, Noah and three newbies in Beck's preschool class.  Beck has a three month start on preschool so we told him to show the new kids what to do.  This week's theme is Ready, Set, Go and Mrs. Mason will begin lessons when we return from our trip which makes me happy that he won't miss anything.

Kinsey had her second dance class tonight and Daddy picked up Beck so he didn't have to sit there the entire time.  She did a great job!  I snuck out after Carla started teaching the class which consisted of 12 girls.  I peeked in after Beck left and it was so cute watching her mimic Carla's dance moves!  When the girls changed from tap shoes to ballet shoes, I went in to help which was a big mistake.  Kinsey got really clingy.  I stayed in there because it looked like Carla could use my help.  She informed me that she's splitting up the class so I'm looking forward to hearing from her.

One day this week, I decided to let the kids make puffy paint and it turned out to be a mess but not as bad as the finger paint project we had a few weeks ago.  It's super easy to make and the kids enjoyed mixing up the ingredients.  After making our puffy paint, I put them in snack size zip-lock bags and cut a corner of the bag WAY too BIG which is why it got really messy.  Oh well, we had fun and that's what matters.  After making a picture, simply pop it in the microwave for 45 seconds and you instantly have a dried painting!  We will definitely do this project again!

Beck really loves to paint and I finally got some new water color since the other one got ruined by mixing all of the colors.  Kiki gave me some good advice on how to keep the colors.  (Wipe them off when you put them up and the yellow will stay yellow and so on and so forth.)

On Thursday, we went to story time at the library and Beck found a brand new Star Wars counting book.  He was so proud of it!  Afterwards, we went to the pizza place and Beck fell asleep.  He must have been really tired.

On Friday, I made Stephen's favorite dessert...banana pudding which was oh-so yummy.  On the way to Longview, Beck asked me to take a picture of me with him.  Aw, this kid just melts my heart.  We met Daddy for dinner at McAlister's which is our new favorite place now that we know kids eat for $0.99!!!  Bonus!  Then, we went to Neena and Stephen's house to eat dessert.  On the way to Neena's, Kinsey wanted my phone to watch Barney on Netflix and I told her to take one picture with me and then she could have it.  This girl gave me the biggest smile!  She really wanted the phone!  Anyway, this was their first time to eat my banana pudding and they loved it.  Neena wanted to know how I made it because it was so fluffy and she had never had pudding like that before.  I love making things that people like to eat!  I must get that from Mom.  Stephen will be going back to Costa Rica while we are on our trip so this will be the last time we see him until who knows when.  He might have to stay until January or he might get to come back sooner if their house sells.  I'm just so happy that Mom is staying here!

It's been a fun and busy week!  I've been doing stuff here and there in preparation of our trip such as taking the kids to visit Nanny, doing laundry, going to the grocery store and packing clothes for me, Beck and Kinsey.  It's a lot of working getting ready for a week long trip but totally worth it! 

Beck's First Talk in Primary

08.26.12

Today is the big day...Beck gives his very first talk in his Primary class on keeping the sabbath day holy.  He practiced several times Sunday morning and was so excited about his talk.  When class started, he sat in his chair wearing a yellow ribbon which is President Thomas S. Monson's favorite color and held onto the piece of paper that had his talk written on it by Daddy.  Unfortunately, they did not have the microphone on the podium so it was very hard to hear Beck because he talks so softly.  I guess he was talking softly because Daddy was whispering the words to him.  It was very sweet of Pops and Kiki to come in and watch him. 

Kinsey was also there to see her brother and she loved being in his class! In fact, she cried when we left his class.

This is Beck's drawing of President S. Monson and the ribbon he received for it.   

We are so proud of you Beck Lee Bishop!

One Fish, Two Fish

08.25.12

What's the best way to spend Saturday evening?  Fishing, of course!  Beck was so excited to use his Transformer fishing pole again!  Stephen gave us a ride to the pond...

We started on one side (the sunny side) but we didn't catch anything and knew we'd have better luck on the other side.

We moved to the shady side and had much better luck catching fish.  Stephen had the best luck out of all of us!

We didn't have worms to use as bait so we used hot dog wienies and tortillas.  Beck caught one fish and surprisingly touched it...

I caught a branch and then I actually caught a fish!!!

Then, Kinsey caught a fish all by herself!  It was incredible watching her reel in the fish!  Looks like we need to get Kinsey her own fishing pole.

This was a lot of fun and I can't wait to go fishing again!