Beach Bums

Who needs to spend hundreds of dollars on a vacation to the beach when you can go to Granbury, TX?  When you have little ones, it's all the same right?!  It is to them...

A friend of theirs had the cutest birthday party at the beach, complete with pirate and buried treasure...

 

Reese spent almost the entire party digging for buried treasure. I'm pretty sure you ended up taking home most of the gold!  Love that she can sit and do things for hours without getting bored.

 

 Rylan got to come too... she had fun digging, getting messy and then washing it off in the water!

 

 

This was the start of a great summer!  Much of which was spent in the water!

A Day in the Big Leagues

Every year there is a baseball clinic held at Ranger Stadium, and this year Tucker got an invitation to attend.  Since Caden is a big baseball stud, we invited him to go too.  The boys had fun pretending they were in the big leagues, while mom sat in the stands terribly afraid that Tucker would drop his pants and go to the bathroom in the middle of Ranger Field (this is currently an issue we're having... Gotta go? Go wherever).  Luckily, they were prepared for the little guys and had lots of potty breaks.  The boys had a blast....

 

 The bat may have been a tad big for Tucker... of course he didn't care.  Notice that the boys are wearing socks?  We totally didn't get the memo that they wouldn't be allowed to wear their cleats on the field so they had to play in their socks.  Won't make that mistake again next year!

They gave the boys a goodie bag including a Ranger hat, t-shirt, baseball cards, a foam finger, etc.  Plus they fed them some famous Ranger dollar dogs for lunch and they got to go through the dugout and get autographs.

He keeps asking when we can go to a Ranger game... guess we'll have to start taking an annual trip to the ballpark! 

Fun Friday

Reese is enjoying gymnastics this year.  It's totally improving her coordination and she's making friends.  Plus we go on the same night as Emma so it's fun to get to watch her tumble too.  Tucker is dying to do it too, but of course dad says it's just for girls.  Every once in a while, we go to "Friday Night Fun" and Tucker gets to play too.

Rylan thinks she's big stuff when she gets to go.  She jumps right in there with all the big kids. She is the most flexible kid ever!  When Elasti-girl is old enough, she'll definitely be joining Reese in the gymnastics world. 

 

Our kids (well, at least Reese and Tucker) are complete opposites, but Fun Friday is something that they all enjoy.  It's nice when we can finally get them to agree on something.

Honkball Once Again

Tucker was hooked on baseball after going to just one of Caden's games.  He was counting down the days until he was old enough to play.  This spring, we played another season of Honk Ball... and this time he was on a team with several of his friends.  We decided that was better than playing against them b/c he just wanted to high five and help them get the ball last season. 

He was a rock star this year... he improved a lot and is turning out to be quite the little fielder.

The dads worked just about as hard as the boys.  It's funny to watch them trying to be all patient and kind in front of each other when you know they want to scream at the boys for picking flowers and playing in the dirt. 

Weekend with Granny

We finally got Granny to come to Texas.  It's been several years since she was able to visit. We had a great time just hanging out, playing scrabble, eating great food and getting to catch up! 

Four generations of Doyle's...

Granny with her Great Grandbabies...

Granny with her oldest Grandbabies... not such babies anymore.

We miss you Granny!  Hoping for another visit very soon!

Fast & Furious: Off-road Style

People in my family like things that go fast.  It must be in our blood or something.  Whether it's motorcycles, dirt bikes or 4-wheelers, someone is always riding on something.  On this particular beautiful Saturday, we were all fast and furious...

 Love that Amber and Nick took turns on the chopper... I think even Grandma got out there on that thing.

 We train them young...

 Aunt Dee was in town from Michigan.  She's no stranger to off-road vehicles! 

Caden and his "mini-me"... Tucker wants to be just like him!  And that would be fine with me.... he's such an awesome kid and really great to Tucker! 

Good thing Tucker let Chris borrow his goggles.  Safety first!

 

 Reese is especially a little speed demon. She takes after her mama! 

Every once in a while, he'll let me hop on the back with him.... but mostly he just wants to zoom around by himself. 

Such a fun day with the family!  Can't wait until we get moved and the kids can take off riding all day.  Helmets and walkie-talkies required of course.

Really Good Friday & More

I think this was the first Good Friday we had off in like 8 years so we made it a really good one.  Easter weekend was full of all the usually traditions: egg hunts, church, and lots of family time.  We are so blessed to have both sets of grandparents and most of the cousins in town so holidays are busy and fun. 

We started the weekend with some baseball followed by an egg hunt with Grammy & Grandpa in Granbury.  I don't think I'd ever seen so many kids in one place. 

 

After the hunt and playing at the park, Grammy helped the kids color some Easter Eggs.   

 

After a full day of fun, Grammy read the kiddos a book about the true meaning of Easter.  We always have fun with all the Easter traditions, but the kids seem to really understand the real reason we celebrate. 

 

Sunday was full of more family fun.  We all went to church together, followed by lunch and another egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The kids are all about anything that gets them more candy.  We attempted (like we do at every holiday) to get some family pictures.  They will never be RIL quality, but we managed to get a few cute smiles...  

 

 

 

Love these sweet pics of the Bigs with Rylan.  She adores them... and they're pretty good to her too!  She's got two moms, that's for sure! 

We don't take Easter baskets to eggs hunts - we take shopping carts!  I guess she figured she was going to clean house this year!

Rylan loves her gparents!  Especially going on walks with grandma and sitting on grandpa's lap so she can have all the cocalella (coca cola) she wants.