Colorado Bend State Park in Bend, Texas

Matthew, our adventure man, has to keep busy. Some officers he works with told him about this awesome park with hiking and the breath taking Gorman Falls. With this past weekend being a four-day, sunny and unplanned we jumped at the chance to go hiking. A short hour drive out into Texas 'mountains' we reached Colorado Bend State Park. This 'mountain' we hiked was a hill to us northwesters. Sissy spent the trip in the hiking backpack on Daddy's back (weighing less then his ruck in Iraq), while Buxton and I roughed it on the ground! The terrain seemed to get rockier as the 3+ mile round trip hike progressed. At the end of the trail was a huge, rocky slope we had to get the kids down to reach the falls. The waterfall was gorgeous. It looked like true northwestern scenery. There was green moss, luscious bushes and bright trees. With Buxton laggin behind, we spent more than the average time to finish the trail. He was very busy collecting rocks and sticks. Every so often when his, daddy's and my hands were full, we had him pick a very special place along the trail to start a pile. There were several along our route. It was a "he's growing up" moment for Matthew and I as well as a total boy moment. Matthew remembered doing all those things when he was little. Buxton took a nose dive into a rock on the trail and cut his little noggin up a bit, but with a medic as a Daddy, we don't worry about those things too much! We had a blast. It was a wonderful Saturday and we look forward to visiting the falls again and trying out different trails.

Super Mario Bros Cake

At midnight the night before this cake was due to arrive at the birthday party, I was ready to give up! Then the next morning came. I put the finishing touches on and delivered the cake. When the birthday boy said "wow, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'm gonna eat Yoshi!" and his Mother said how much she loves it and how she is now at ease with the rest of the party plans to come, I remembered why I do cakes... to make people smile. With no schooling, no training in the cake decorating field, I encounter many, many challenges and questions with each cake. But each time, people enjoy the delicious cake I made.

The Pig Tales Are Here

That's right! It took only 14 months before Brayleighs hair was long enough to do... anything with. And so far pig tales is all that really works. Three weeks ago was my first time doing my daughters hair, it was a moment. I cried! My baby girl, she's growing up. I was two before I had ANY hair! Needless to say, Brayleigh never leaves the house without her hair done. She doesn't mind me doing it, she sits pretty still. I love doing it. Although, I'm not fond on adding three minutes to our 'getting out of the house' routine! But now that I'm making the flower clips (http://BBBow-tique.blogspot.com) our Brayleigh is great advertisement!

A Paid Baker!

BB Cakes (that's me!) had it's first cake order; a princess castle for a two year old birthday! This cake feeds 40. I started this (monster) cake Thursday morning and finished Sunday, exactly 45 minutes before we had to deliver the cake, just enough time to shower and go. It was a HUGE project. Matthew is the engineer behind this masterpiece. This was by far the largest, most challenging cake I've done... yet! That's the trick to cake decorating, you've always got to out do the one before! I have two more cake orders over the next two weeks... much smaller, thank goodness!

Once we delivered the cake, we were invited to stay for the birthday celebration. The kids had a blast in the bounce house! Sissy even had her very first cotton candy experience! Buxton, on the other hand, thought is was gross hair.

Our new friend, Delaney!

Brayleigh Sue!

Isn't she just precious! She is evolving into this sassy, naughty, adorable, princess butt! Brayleigh has almost always been our little chunky monkey, but lately (maybe shortly after these pictures were taken) we have noticed she is slimming down... and we're sad! She is growing tall and losing some of that baby-fat!

A Long Distance Connection

Cousin Priest and Buxton enjoy talking on the phone to each other. Some days Buxton is a grump and won't talk, but this day he was on a roll. Some time after the camera stopped rolling I heard him say "my Mommy's so proud you're talking like a big boy now!" It was adorable. This is when being away is the hardest, missing out on families growing. We love you Cousins.

"My Favorite Color is DIRT"

... this is the result of the pool being emptied and the water table being flipped. Matthew and I are pretty relaxed when Buxton is a BOY. We are also anal bath givers!