The album is out!

the songs have been written...

the music had been recorded...

the lyrics have been sung...

the record has been mixed and mastered...

Introducing the debut album of

Launch Point

Go ahead, check it out on the myspace page... listen, enjoy, buy the cd, and spread the news.

myspace.com/launchpointmusic

a little of this, a little of that...

On Father's Day Jonathon started his day off on the right foot with his favorite...corn pops. I wish I had time to do a little more than just push the new box of cereal in his direction and say "Happy Father's Day", but we were running late for church...as usual.

He opened his present in the car on the way to church because Maddie couldn't wait much longer to give it to him. It was a "Tap Out" shirt--showing out support in his interests and hobbies. :) Thankfully it was more laid back after church and we were able to enjoy a great dinner and two kinds of his favorite cookies...


To Jonathon--You are such an amazing dad. Our kids are so lucky to have a father like you. I love how you just like to be with Maddie and Lyndon and hang out with them. I love the enthusiasm you have for life and the desire you have to share that with me and the kids. I love how gentle and kind you are with them but also how you can play hard and wrestle the energy right out of them. I love how you take any opportunity you can to teach them. I love being able to leave the kids with you for a week knowing that they are in the most capable and loving hands. I love being on this roller coaster we calling parenting with you. (I just wish we could go one more actual roller coasters. :) ) I love you.


And to my own Dad--I can still remember always wanting to sit by you during church (and not just because you always had candy in your suit coat pockets). I remember listening with you to all your "oldies" music on "Solid Gold Saturday Night"..."634-5789...Solid Gold Saturday Night"! I remember going with you to help get wood during the summers and holding the "measuring stick" for each log you had to cut and feeling like I was your best pal and so important. I remember my volleyball game in high school when you yelled at the ref for making a bad call against me. I remember how proud you were of me when I got my Young Woman medallion and how good I felt. I remember how you taught Heather and I the precise way to go up and down looking for and pulling weeds and how much I hated it but what a great work ethic you instilled in us. I remember the ice skating rink you made for us in our backyard. I remember playing Nintendo with you into the wee hours of the morning trying to figure out how to bump that turtle just so to get 100's of lives and when we finally did it how cool I felt to have done that with my Dad.
These are just a few things that I'll never forget and just a few things that still make you an amazing Dad. I love you.





We did a little craft project this week...bags made out of cereal boxes. It was fun. Maddie LOVES bags and stuffing her treasures in them so this was right up her ally. Lyndon enjoyed the thought of it. I think.



Maddie (and Lyndon of course copied her) HAD to mix all the colors together. Being the OCD painter that I am, I didn't want her to mix the colors, I wanted them all in their original beauty. (I know, it's a sickness. ) So to discourage her from mixing them all together I said, "If you mix ALL the colors it will turn yucky brown." to which she replied, "oooh good, I LIKE brown!" I never seem to win with her. FYI: I took a deep breath and just let her go at it. Who am i to say that unmixed colors are more beautiful. It's all in the eye of the beholder, right?

Lyndon didn't last too long with the project. He soon found other interests elsewhere. I look over to find him doing this:

If you can't tell with my blurry picture, he is trying to plug some ear buds into the holes on our shelves. I love watching his mind work. :) He got a little frustrated after no music was heard so I helped him find the I-Pod and listen to some real music.

meanwhile...

Yeah, she quickly switched to finger painting, er hand painting I guess you could say. Looks like were done with that.

They enjoyed their lunch outside while I cleaned up the hand painting...

We've been swimming a few times this last week. Here Maddie was "styling" Jonathon's hair. I thought she did a pretty darn goo job!

I'm not very good at doing the self portrait holding your own camera. After about 6 shots that like this:

We finally got something slightly decent...

More "Maddie and Lyndon isms" to come. This is what has been keeping me extra busy lately. But I love it!

in love

There was nothing we could say or do to convince Maddie to go up and sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" with the other primary kids. I even walked her to the front of the chapel but she wouldn't stay. I knew Jonathon was dissapointed not to see her up there but I didn't know just how much it meant to him until he shared his thoughts with me later today.

"I've been looking forward to seeing my kids sing to me on Father's Day since I was 14.", he said.

he melts my heart.

Best toy EVER.

Without reservation Maddie has one toy that is hands down, the best toy we've ever gotten her. It was by far the most expensive and has been the hardest to maintain/contain but it has taught her social, cognitive, and motor skills. It's improved her social and emotional developement. And has taught her to be less selfish and more loving. It can also keep her entertained for hours on end.

What is the amazing toy?







Lyndon.




They're best friends and the worst enemies. I love watching it all play out.

Hello!

What did you do at 9:00 tonight?

We had ice cream cones. outside. on the back porch.

I asked Maddie to turn around so I could take her picture. Her reply...

"Um, I'm a little busy right now, Mom."

so help me...

Lyndon is our bug watcher. He protects us.

doesn't this just make you want to run to Sonic right now? ...or get the kid a wet wipe?

The kids LOVE to chase and scare each other. (we like it too. except for the high pitched scream they both have on impact.)

Maddie just jumped out to scare Lyndon.

(excuse our ghetto cabinets. When we first moved in we were super motivated so we sanded and restained our top cabinets a darker color. They look great. But unknown to us at the time, sanding and staining is time consuming...and it sucks. So THREE YEARS later we are FINALLY getting around to the bottom cabinets. Pathetically we've only gone so far as to take 2 drawers off. Who knows, we'll most likely finish it just in time to sell the house. FYI: we have no plans to move any time soon.)

Here's a Wednesday night confession for ya...I was too lazy too put the kids in the bathtub to wash off the ice cream so I just wiped off their bodies with a wet wipe.

okay, one more confession...I was also too lazy/tired/tuckered out (choose the excuse) Saturday night to bath the kids for church the next morning so before I put their church clothes on I rubbed them down with fragrant baby lotion. They smelled clean. (that's what matters, right)

Sunday we had an awesome BBQ at our friends house. Maddie and Lyndon had been in separate parts of the house doing their own things for about 20 minutes or so. Lyndon was with us in the family room when Maddie came in. Here was their interaction :

Maddie: "Lyndon, how are you? I missed you!"

Lyndon: "ya-ya, hi ya-ya!" (he calls Maddie "ya-ya")

Then they ran to each other with open arms and gave one another a tight embrace. It warmed my heart.

Lyndon came into the computer room saying over and over, "tanks, Mom! oh, tanks!" (thanks) As he got closer to me I saw what he was thanking me for. It was a picture of my friend, Mallory, who Lyndon adores. He held up the picture and said, "Mawee, oh, Mawee." I haven't broken the news that Mallory will be going off to college soon. I think I'll make her do the honors.

Some of our friends invited us to watch "Bolt" on a big screen outside in their neighborhood. It was a lot of fun. The kids were quite entertained throughout the entire movie. But toward the end Lyndon felt the need to go explore other people's blankets and chairs. He quickly made friends with this woman who was just about the kindest person I have ever met. In about 5 seconds Lyndon had made himself right at home sitting next to her on her fold out chair, putting his arm around her etc. We knew he had her completely wrapped around his finger when she kindly asked the group in front of her if they move over because Lyndon wanted to sit on their Dora seat and it was too short to see over them. (I'm pretty sure this kid is gonna run for office sometime in his life.) Then the next thing we know this sweet lady has the Dora seat...with Lyndon in it...sitting on her lap just so he would be able to enjoy the Dora seat AND see the movie.

I wish I had half of his charisma.

Yesterday at the pool it was almost time to leave so I said to Maddie,

"We're going to leave in about 5 minutes but we can come back again. Won't that be cool?"

To which she replied,

"Um, it would be even more cool if we just stayed actually."

oh boy.

Some of Lyndon's favorite words are

"Cool!" and "Hoppy!" (happy)

Just about everything is "cool" and when he's really psyched about something or just plain elated he says "hoppy", in kind of a deep voice.

Like tonight when the woman was handing me the ice cream cones through the drive through window, I heard Lyndon in the back seat..."hoppy." "ha ha hoppy."

or

when he wakes up after an especially great nap he'll hug me and say, "hoppy."

Some of Maddie's favorite saying lately have been...

"I crack myself up!" and "silly you" or "silly you, Mom."

It was a proud moment when we heard Maddie singing along to one of Jonathon's songs as we were driving. (they're extremely catchy...just you wait.)

So Jonathon and I went to a Round Rock Express game last Friday evening. We had a blast. I took our point and shoot and actually got some pictures of us. I'm always the one behind the camera so we don't have many of us. Here we are trying to do that thing the "kids" do these days...you know hold it out yourself and take a self portrait. (yeah, I realize that made me sound pretty old.) It took Jonathon and I about 8 tried to get a decent picture. It takes some practice to know where to hold the camera. :)

We were right in the front. ahhhh, it was a perfect view.

However...

We had to be aware of this:

Except, to out surprise this guy...#6 on our team, had a case of the butter fingers. During WARM-UP, before the game even started, old #6 missed a ball and it came FLYING like a bullet out of a gun straight toward us. I'd like to say that I took no thought of myself and shielded my dear husband from the bullet...uh, ball, but no. I'm a coward. My first instinct was to look out for myself and duck. Luckily, I have a selfless husband and he made sure the ball was no where near me. I owe ya one, sweetie. :)

Right after Jonathon grabbed the ball some idiots from the stand yelled, "throw it back!" But good old #6 sheepishly motioned for Jonathon to keep it. It was the least he could do for just about impaling us.

Here's #6 in action...

I liked the way the team was lined up in the dug out leaning on the fence. It was very "A league of Their Own" esque. uh, expect for the fact that it was men leaning on the fence. anyways...

One blurry picture taken by our new friends who sat next to us. They had been married for 30 years and were from Katy, TX. :)

The killer ball. (and handsome hero.)

One last thing...

Literally 3 minutes before I took this picture Maddie was downstairs pleading her case that she "wasn't tired" and was ready to get up from her nap and "play quietly".

I wasn't buying it.

Look how well I know her. :)

and yes, like me, she sleeps with her eyes partially opened.