Rylie's birthday and family weekend

We celebrated my niece Rylie's first birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I cannot believe that she is already one!  Our whole family came in town to celebrate, and we had a great family weekend.  The theme was "My little sunshine" and Allison did a great job with the party decorations.  After the party we had a big extended family picture session, and I am so excited to see the pictures! Allison and Rylie stayed with us for a few days last weekend, and it was so nice to spend so much time with them.  And the kids loved to play together.

I am in Houston all week for a trial (my first trial since I started practicing law), and I really miss my family.  I have been working 17+ hour days and staying at a hotel downtown while my kids stay with my parents.  Frank is in Ohio this week for the air force, so we are all really missing each other.  I have not seen any of them since Sunday, but thank goodness we should be finished tomorrow.  We are taking a long weekend to go to San Antonio, and I AM SO EXCITED!

Lily's counting

Sweet Lily Mae was reading her book "Ten Friendly Fish" tonight, and she counted all the way to 19 by herself!  She is a little sponge, and she is soaking up absolutely everything these days.

Circus circus

This weekend we made the last minute decision to take the kids to the circus!  We took them two years ago when Lily was an itty bitty baby, but neither kid remembered and we figured they would love it.  We had tickets way up in the nosebleed section, but it was great!  We had such a fun family day.  We rode the "choo choo train" to the circus and then headed out to Denton square for some amazing ice cream.  I got back from Houston late Friday night, and I actually cried when I saw the kids, because I missed them SO much!  I have been very fortunate that I have not had to travel much for work since I started at AK, but this month is going to be tough for me, as I currently have almost three full weeks of travel away from home.  I am trying to soak up as much fun summer family time as I can when I am home!

Frank's fish Shiny!

This weekend Frankie got his first pet fish, Shiny!  Frank took him to Petsmart last week, and they bought the fish food, water preparing drops, and aquarium supplies.  We told Frankie he could earn the fish if he behaved well all weekend, and he did a great job so we went and picked up Shiny.  Frankie was sooooo excited, but he is also very concerned that the fish is going to die.  So far, it has been 3 days and Shiny is still going strong!  Lily is fascinated by the fish too.  She will pull out Frankie's step stool and climb up to peer over the counter and look into the fish bowl.  It is so cute!  Frank had reserves this weekend, so I got to spend some good quality time with the kids.  Lily was sick Friday and Saturday, but by Sunday she was doing better (thank goodness!).  She is still getting the "mystery" fevers that she started getting last summer.

I am writing this from Houston, where I am staying all week working on depositions for a big case.  I miss my family!