My Princess is 4!

Happy birthday to my sweet Annie! She is so cute when you tell her Happy Birthday because she responds likewise. This afternoon we worked on saying, "Thank you!" when someone wishes you a happy birthday! She got to open her presents just before lunchtime today after we'd done a little bit of organizing in the living room. I think Ben was the most excited about it. She has been waiting and waiting to open the big playmobile box and is very excited about her castle. Tomorrow we will work on putting it together after church. She just played with the people all afternoon and evening.

We are putting some of the pieces together...

Sweet Annie picked a lemon cake mix. We haven't found our cake book that the kids typically pick from, so last night I found a butterfly that looked cute. Annie was just happy to have a cake; she didn't really care what was on it! Although she did quite like the candies...

We had the missionaries from our ward over for dinner as well as a friend's little boys that the kids have fallen in love with! Everyone enjoyed chicken tortilla soup, cornbread, honey butter, and sliced cucumbers on heart-shaped princess plates! Then we had her purple butterfly cake with strawberry ice cream.

While we were finishing our dessert, the kids somehow went out the front door and found the mud. This is leftover from the trench the plumber dug while connecting the house water pipes to the city water pipe. We didn't get an in focus picture of Annie out here, but they all had a great time! I reminded everyone that they only got to play in the mud because it was Annie's birthday and we would not be doing this fun game again!

Happy Happy Birthday Sweet Annie! We love you sooooo much!

My New Weight Loss Program

...mowing the yard twice a week. It's huge. We have a little tiny push mower. I have a blister my palm from squeezing the handle down. I know..wahwahwah. I am very glad to have a large yard. It would just be nice to have some of that nice sod we layed down a few months ago. And not to have the last 10 feet go uphill. And not to be rained on while mowing. And not to have to avoid all of the little toads that hop just out of the lawnmower's way. And not to have to discipline Ben and Annie for purposely killing the frogs by stepping on them. What an afternoon. So HAPPY it was a THREE package day! I really needed that. Hopefully my new weight loss plan will work - it definitely raised my heart rate, especially when I started jogging while pushing the mower because my shirt was soaked, I couldn't see very well from the rain (apparently we were having a tornado warning but I don't have TV yet, so I didn't know that), but needed to hurry and get the last bit done!

As a side note, we met Ben's teacher today, and she seems great! I sure have been praying for him to love school and enjoy his class. She is about 6 feet tall with a huge smile and made cute little cupcakes for each of the kids with a bumblebee on it. I have to admit I was very teary on my way home, overwhelmed with thanks for all of the blessings we have received in the last few weeks. Some friends tonight aren't ready for school to start yet, but I can't wait. Partly because my house will be more quiet, but school is so FUN! I love checking Ben's folder each day and seeing what he is learning. I love the whole idea of learning new things and doing projects and running around in PE. It's always so exciting for a new year to start! Hopefully I'll still feel this was a few more weeks into the school year!!!

Traveling

Since Andy and I both had to drive, we broke up our trip into 3 days, stopping each day at a free entertainment site, care of our Dallas Zoo Pass! The kids didn't do so great in the Little Rock, AR zoo, but I loved the Gorillas there! It was really hot, but I think we had prepped them so much for a long car trip, they were ready to just drive! The second day was Nashville, TN Zoo, which was really cool and very shaded. We only stayed about 3 hours and then everyone was tired. Love that the zoos are free because then we don't feel the need to drag kids around all day to get our money's worth!

The last day we went to a Discovery Museum in Dayton, OH. We stayed about 3 1/2 hours and could have easily stayed another 3 hours. The kids were begging to stay longer, but we needed to get to our house before dark. Everyone loved sleeping in hotels, and I loved going to bed when the kids did!

Our truck arrived Sunday afternoon and needed to be in Columbus early Monday afternoon, so we did a mammoth unloading undertaking Sunday night after a Stake Priesthood meeting. We had so many helpers from our new ward, the entire truck was unloaded in about an hour! The owners that we are renting from came by to meet us and were shocked at all our help, as was the truck driver and the kind next door neighbor that brought over chocolate chip cookies for everyone! I think I knew three people's names of the 20+ that were here. Thank you so much!!!

Dallas Zoo Babies

We were able to make one last Dallas Zoo trip the beginning of August and were shocked to melt! The kids had so much fun running with our friends. Ethan and Emily are five months apart. Brynnley and Annie are 2 months apart.

Kylie and Ben are 7 weeks apart.

And our hearts are never far apart! We love and miss you all!!!!

Ben is 6!

These got a little bit out of order...sorry! Ben turned 6 on the day we left for Ohio, so we celebrated the Saturday before. He had earned a pass to Six Flags for a reading program during the school year and Jamie gave Andy and I two tickets, so we were set! We had a great day just with Ben (and pretty much only riding what Ben wanted to) and came home to a surprise party that the girls decorated for with Grandma and Aunt Jamie! No birthday in Texas is complete without Blue Bell Ice Cream!

It rained for most of the morning, so the tea cups were pretty much the only thing open for our first hour there. Andy couldn't ride most of the round and round rides, so I got to! Ben did okay for the first 20 seconds and then was really nervous for the rest of it!

By far, his favorite ride was Roaring Rapids. After the third ride, Andy and I said, "No more!" since we were all completely soaked!

Ben got to throw darts and earned a batman doll. He did awesome and popped a balloon with each dart!

This was by far the longest wait of the day (and hence, the last ride) but Ben loved it and waited very patiently for his 90 second turn.

He has learned to love Looney Tunes and was so excited to see Bugs!

It was a really fun day - for the most part. I don't know that Ben will ever go on the Runaway Mine Train again. We did the MiniMine Train first and he really liked that. He didn't want to go on one that was faster, but we convinced him that we needed to do at least one roller coaster while we were there. About halfway through the ride, just as we were going up the biggest hill, the car stopped...for about 20 minutes! We were just stuck at about a 60% angle! The train engineer (hehehe) finally came to tell us that the previous train was broken and they would get us off as soon as possible. Thanks... Ben fell asleep on the way home and woke up to balloons tied on the front door. Happy birthday, Buddy! We love you!

Packing and Moving

Wow! Packing up a house is not the funnest thing I can think of to fill summer days, but it much better than UNpacking! Yuck! Many thanks to people who helped watch the kids and helpers who came to stuff boxes! What a faker! He forgets that I packed about 90% of those boxes!!! He did get to load and organize though.

The kids were so excited to climb in the moving truck!

This sight still brings tears to my eyes! We had so much help loading the truck with our friends from church (and a few neighbors too) that it went so quickly! I loved this image!!!

Saying goodbye to our house! Enjoy your new owners that have already painted you inside and given you a brand new fence!

The End of 'Our' Garden

This year I did little more than plant our garden and weed maybe 3 times a month. Apparently that was the right thing to do because everything did so great! The night before we left, we picked the rest of the goodies that we could use and left the rest for the new owners.

Saying Goodbye

We have so many fabulous friends in Richardson that we are already missing SOOOO much!!! We had such a fun time saying 'goodbye' in a whirlwind weekend that still makes me tear up thinking of it! Saturday night was a Texas Party with all of our neighborhood buddies. These are the ladies I've learned from for the past 4 1/2 years as I tried to raise my busy little boy from toddlerhood to school-age without too much permanent damage! We've had so much fun over the years, and it was great to spend one last night including our spouses! So many playgroups together with lots and lots of cute little boys running around (and 4 lone girls that just hung in there)!

These 3 fabulous women (and their husbands) planned a Texas-themed BBQ complete with RUDY'S meat and sauce! Can life get much better?!?

And our wonderful husbands!

Sunday after church we had a potluck goodbye that was so much fun too! I didn't even think to bring my camera to capture the Texas theme there! (Yes, the two things currently hanging on the walls in our new house are our 'Maas Family' sign and my wooden Texas flag; the rest will come soon enough!) I just don't DO goodbyes - I don't like them. We just say that we will see you later and keep in touch with email, blogs or facebook!

Our Favorite Missionary

JJ left for his mission about 6 weeks ago. We already miss him coming over to hang out; we were so spoiled when he came home from school! We loved helping prepare for his mission, reading all the papers/instructions that came with him, shopping for clothes, going through the temple with him, and being there for his setting apart. He is just an amazing young man! Obviously, the kids like him a little bit. He stopped to say bye on the way to the airport that Wednesday morning and was attacked! If you know anyone who speaks Cantonese and lives near Toronto and wants to learn about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, let me know and I'll pass on the information!