Roddy Tree 2011

After skipping a year, we were back at Roddy Tree Ranch this summer. A Loveless family tradition that the kids just love. It is a great place to relax and have fun, that is for sure.
The drought this summer caused the river to be low and the fishing pond was barely hanging on, but there were still fish to be caught and we found a new fun place to swim in the river.
Of course we danced the night away at the Lazy Days Canteen, while the guys played hoops. No telling how much money got dumped into that expense jute box! We played lots of oldies as usual, but this year our time at Roddy Tree will be remembered with Rolling in the Deep by Adelle! Thanks Olivia.....
The entire Armstrong clan joined us this year, which made for more fun!
With a stop at Buc-cees on the way there and a stop in Gruene on the way back our trip was loaded with fun. Of which most of I did not capture in photos this year. I will have to rely on the photos of others this year to remember the trip!

We survived our first church camp!!!

Olivia and I took off for Pre-teen camp this past week. Her first time to go and my first time as a counselor! Daddy has wanted Olivia to go practically since she was born. He has so many memories of church camp and he wanted the same thing for Olivia. Olivia wasn't ready to go until this year and probably because her mother was coming along.
I have to say I was very proud of my little girl. She did not cling to me at all. She went off and made new friends and had a great time. I thought I would see her at meal times but usually she and her friends were sitting together and her mother was an after thought and I was thrilled.
At first I was concerned she was going off to camp without a friend and not really having many friendships with the kids there. In retrospect, that is the way to go. When you bring a friend or already have a friend you want to hang with you don't get out of your comfort zone and make new friends!
Olivia crossed a big hurdle this summer and realized just what she can do on her own. I know the thought of having her mom close by was comforting but I think next year she can make it on her own, though I had so much fun, I just might want to go back. This time with a eggshell for the plywood I had to sleep on!

Another 4th of July

We had an even bigger 4th of July celebration in our neighborhood this year! Daddy is the president of the HOA and he and the others work hard too make things fun in the neighborhood. This year we had two fire engines come for the parade. And this year we had lots of people riding in the parade, which made it a lot of fun for everyone. Afterwards we had hot dogs, snow cones and a watermelon eating contest at the clubhouse!
Jenna came to enjoy the festivities with her cousins! The join in on the watermelon eating contest. Abby was going after it......unfortunately she was competing against teenage boys and had no hope of winning!

We Have More Cousins......Yea!

My cousins and uncle from Minnesota came to visit for a few days and brought their children as well. The girls were so excited to find out they had cousins their age they didn't even know about. I had prepped them ahead of time. Showing them pictures on facebook, telling them names and ages of their cousins. Everyday they would ask when are they coming, how many more days until they get here? The big day finally arrived. Our first meeting for the kids was at the Children's Museum, not the best place to get to know people, but later that night at the Astro's game they got acquainted and friendships began!
We had a great time while they were here, swimming, eating, playing, going to the lake, more playing! The girls were sad their trip wasn't longer.
The Minnesota cousins made them special bracelets to remember them, which was really sweet. Olivia and Eli exchanged email addresses and they all asked if they would ever see each other again? We sure hope we do!

End of the school has come and gone......

I let the end of school come and go without a mention of it's passing, which was kind of a big deal......after 8 years at Trinity Lutheran Early Childhood Center, our time there has come to an end. Hard to grasp that time in my life is over and all my girls are big now. I vividly remember the first day I dropped Olivia off at Mother's Day Out. Her teacher, hand picked by God, Mrs. Sharon. was and still is the sweetest of teachers. She sent the mothers off with a sweet little packet that had a tea bag, cotton ball, kleenex and the sweetest poem you have ever read ( if you are a first time mom dropping your first child into the the hands of a stranger)

So Your Baby Started Mother's Day Out......


After you've dried your eyes


Sit back, relax, and have a cup of tea.


Hold the warm fuzzy in your hand and


Think of the gentle spirit of you child.



Thank you for entrusting your child to me.....



Okay, well maybe it's not the sweetest poem you have ever read but it is the sweetest something.....I sat there in the car with tears coming down as life was moving on.


Fast forward 8 years......walking out the door that last day of school for Emily, I thought our years here have been wonderful. My children were blessed with teachers that loved the Lord and loved them as well. We have the best of memories and our time there will be cherished forever.

Abby's last day of school wasn't as earth shattering, she will be leaving Spring Baptist and the best first grade teacher on the planet, but Emily will be there next year for Kindergarten and our memories aren't quite as special there as they are at Trinity! Though we love Mrs. Loftin dearly and have very special memories of Olivia and Abby's first grade years with Mrs. Loftin. Abby is very excited to move and be at the same school as her big sister.
Emily wants to be there as well, but her momma isn't ready to give her up to the public school system for 5 days a week.

Olivia's 4th grade year ended smoothly. Mrs. Brewer and Mrs. Mott were great teachers and she had fun year full of a new thing at school......girl drama! And her teacher said it really wasn't bad this year. She says usually 4th grade girls are much worse than her crew she had this year. Hard to believe. She and I are both excited for her 5th grade year......it should be fun!

Another Tennessee Vacation

The view from the back of our house!

Our awesome house...."Above it All"

Family picture as the Old Mill

We left the day Olivia got out of school we headed east for Louisiana to meet up with David's family and then head off for another Tennessee vacation. How we love Tennessee. Once we finally found the house we were off to a good vacation.Olivia was doing some heavy praying in the backseat! Actually I think all the girls were this time. Being lost in the mountains with no cell phone reception isn't fun! T-mobile your days are numbers in the Simpson household!
Once again we had a great time at Dollywood. Grandkids can talk their mawmaw into riding just about any ride there. That added many laughs to the trip. MawMaw got soaked more than once on a couple of rides but she was a trooper and that made the trip more fun and memorable for the girls.This year we hiked a pretty treacherous trail. We had a few accidents coming down with Emily falling flat on a a pointy rock and 5 seconds later Cameron almost falling down the side of the mountain. Afterwards we went tubing...which was pretty fun,unfortunately we didn't take a camera with us so we have no pictures of that memorable event, full of more laughs! PawPaw got sick on this trip so he spent most of his time in the house and missed out on all the fun. He made it to The Dixie Stampede. The girls loved the show and especially loved getting autographs afterwards on their cowboy boot cups.
The kids made up a bunch of Tennessee songs and put on a show for the grown ups. It was super cute and they made us all laugh as we watched on the balcony of the house, while they were running around the yard singing!
Great memories were made once again in the beautiful Smoky Mountains!


Emily did not care for this ride once it got going. As you can see by her puffed cheeks, she held her breath!

Family pic at Dollywood.....we LOVE this place!

Dixie Stampede Host....the girls loved getting autographs after the show.


The treacherous hike to this beautiful water.....was it worth it????

Happy Birthday Mommy

My girls made me a red velvet birthday cake today, with the help of their daddy! They love birthdays of course and they love baking and candles. Imagine their joy when they discovered we had a 4 and a 6 to put on the cake! Great memories!

Abby's Art Show

Today was Abby's "Gallery Night" for her art class she has been going to since the beginning of the year. Mrs. Angeli is her teacher and she goes to her house every Monday for an hour and has a blast. Today Mrs. Angeli had all the students art on display at her house for all friends and family to see! Nana, Popsie, Auntie and cousins joined us to take a look at all Abby has done this year. She was very proud and excited to show off her masterpieces!

Tea Party Talk!

One of the girls favorite things to do is have tea parties! For Olivia, the planning of the tea party is almost as fun as the tea party itself. The planning part really became fun after Abby discovered the Fancy Nancy Tea Parties book. It has so many adorable ideas for tea parties, I had to buy it for Abby for Christmas.


An added bonus to their little tea parties is the precious tea set my mom bought them before Emily was born while travel in the northeast. Unfortunately it only serves two but it is so cute and the girls just love the little teapot with a princess painted on it. Definitely a toy we will keep forever and they can fight over it when the have little ones of their own.


Today Abby and Emily wanted to have a "special" tea party in their tee pee upstairs. Which normally we do not have tea parties upstairs on carpet with our breakable tea set and real food and tea. But today I decide what the hey.....we will put down a vinyl table cloth and if they spill no biggie.

Their menu request.....turkey roll ups, cucumbers, carrots, goldfish, strawberries and Abby wanted chocolate ice cream and Emily wanted vanilla ice cream and tea of course. They said their little Johnny Appleseed prayer and dug in! I wanted to leave the video camera rolling while they ate. I am sure the conversation would have been very entertaining.

Abby lost her first front tooth

The tooth fairy has been busy at our house. Last night Abby finally pulled out that front tooth that had been loose for a while. By the time she went to bed it was very wiggly and once it gets to that point she doesn't quit until it is out. So she got out of bed and started working on it. She went through several bloody Kleenex trying to pull the tooth out.

Success at last. She was so excited to put the tooth under her pillow. This morning she woke up early and of course brought her money and a "her" on hand writing and of course once Abby showed it to Olivia the words were on her pretty little lips in no time flat," I know whose handwriting that is" I gave her the "mother stare" with the big eyes, that means zip it, lock it and put it in your pocket!


After Abby left the room Olivia says parent's shouldn't ruin kids fairytales. I told her to go talk to her dad about that one. If you look back at the Christmas entry when Olivia left her note to Santa....someone tried very hard to make the handwriting unrecognizable, and I might add, was successful! That was how Santa was busted in my house growing up......and I have never forgotten it! Thanks Dad!

Real Camping 101 Simpson Style

We have completed our first real camping trip. Meaning we lived outdoors for over 48 hours. Thank the Lord momma got to sleep in an air conditioned camper and actually daddy did too. The first night Abby did, then the next night we added Olivia and the third night Emily joined us......so maybe the Simpson girls don't like sleeping in a tent after all????
We were celebrating pawpaw's 70th birthday. All of daddy's family was there. The girls had a blast at South Toledo Bend State park. They love being with their cousins. Pawpaw brought his party barge and that made it all the more fun. For me too. Spending a day on the water rather than a campsite is more my speed anyway!
The girls brought there bikes and along with their cousins biked all over. Natalie lead them on hikes and daddy lead them on a hike to see the bald eagles.
They had all the comforts of home set up at camp.( that might be a little strong)but the Keurig coffee pot kept me going everyday! We had no cell phone service but the park had wireless, so every one's computers worked! Not that I ever got on a computer.....but those folks with the iPhone stayed busy! I won't mention names.
We had no major mishaps on this camping trip which was nice. Since our other two trips involved freezing temperatures or pouring rain with mud! It was a bit hot for April, in the 90's but being on the water made it better.
Going back to mishaps.....mishaps might be strong but we did have a few incidents....like getting lost in the dark on the way there, Olivia locking herself in the camper, Olivia getting lost in the campground. Both events ended with tears. A raccoon did get into our stuff one night, but there were no tears there.
The girls had a blast with their cousins and will remember their first "real" camping trip for a long time to come!
And we got to bring the "party barge" home with us, so there will no doubt be more stories from the silly princesses this summer about our adventures in the "party barge" on Lake Conroe! Stay tuned.

No More Training Wheels!

Today was the day.....it finally happened for real. Emily decided she did want to ride her bike without training wheels. David took them off again Sunday and she tried for while and did okay, but said she didn't like it and didn't want to do it.
For some reason tonight she decided she would try again. She did and loved it, so we decide to head out on our bikes and ride around the neighborhood. She loved it, keeping up with everyone else and going all over the neighborhood.
Daddy had told her he would get her a horn and kick stand if she rode her bike. So when we got home we loaded up the car and headed to Target. On the way Emily says, "This is the best day of my life"! On the way back she said, " Do you know what I am going to do tomorrow?" I answered, "ride your bike"....how did you know that momma,she replied......when will they learn....momma's know everything!

Emily's 5th Birthday Party

We celebrated Emily's birthday today with family party at Nana's and Poppy's. The zip line Uncle Steve and daddy just installed made for lots of fun. The pinata was a must have, as that is the one thing you requested.....well you requested a party at Pump it Up but that wasn't in the budget! We played musical chairs and had sack races, which were really fun to watch. MawMaw got to be at your party which made it more special. Of course we had peace signs all over the place.....Olivia and your momma like peace signs, so you do too and that was our theme for your decorations. We had some awesome tattoos that didn't want to come off. Olivia wore hers for at least a week! It was a great day for our little 5 year old!