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If you ask her what her shirts says she'll tell you "Leah!"

Pretty accurate!

What's on sale in July?

Snow-proof pink boots... size 4. Perfect for Bossy Boots Curley... I ordered them on-line and they came in the mail yesterday! When I showed them to her she said "WoooOOOow!" And wanted to try them on immidiately. Then she did not want to take them off. I just hope she doesn't grow out of them before winter.... or maybe I should hope she DOES. Most other kids her age (and younger) have much bigger feet... if she ever grows taller, lets hope her feet grow too... or she'll tip over!

In our next 30 years

If you know me very well, you know i like to celebrate special occasions longer than most people. I celebrate my birthday week, birthday month and half birthday. It doesn't just apply to my special occasions though. I've been known to give wedding presents on 1st anniversaries, which I think some people have actually really enjoyed! (And baby presents around 1st birthdays... which is way more about procrastination... or disorganization. But the wedding thing is purposeful.) Anyway, all that to say that this post is about Kevin and I turning 30... which happened a few months ago... but I'm still celebrating.

We should be spending our next 30 years doing all that stuff Tim McGraw talks about in that song like eating more salads... not staying up so late... Instead, we'll probably spend more time buying wholesale groceries and riding ATVs.

Kevin turned 30 in March and got one of these for his new deer lease this fall.

I turned 30 in May and Kevin bought me a new camera and a membership to COSTCO! WOOHOO! We have already had some good times at our local costco. If you've ever seen my dear husband try to pry his wallet open with industrial strength tools you have also noticed the layers of dust on the cash inside. Actually pulling the cash out from the pocket causes him severe anxiety. Handing it over to someone else... chest pains.

So you can imagine my delight as we walked around COSTCO for the first time and he was filling up our cart (like a kid in a candy store) with deeply discounted pretzels, ceiling fans, Shiner beer and laser printers. He was loving the bargains!

We thought of alot of ways to celebrate our birthdays together, and eventually decided on just taking a nice little weekend BBQ-n-BEER Birthday Tour of Texas. We LOVE to eat BBQ and believe that we are true connoisseurs whose opinions on the topic are to be highly valued. We were told that "Texas' Best BBQ" was down in Lockhart, TX... so we decided to be the judge of that.

First stop on the BBQ tour 2010: Smitty's BBQ
The ambiance of this one was most definitely our favorite. The people who work there act like they are doing you a favor by serving you BBQ... and like you are a complete dope if you don't know how to order.... even though there is NO MENU. It was lots of good entertainment.

See that old guy in the white apron below? He's on a smoke break...When he saw us heading in he stubbed his cigarette out on the meat smoker right there in the picture below... immediately before putting that same bare hand into a bag and pulling out our ash-smudged slices of white bread and slapping them down on our butcher paper/plate. I think I could actually taste a little Marlboro on my bread... it complimented the smoked meat flavor. We ordered brisket, ribs and sausage. Our report? We agree, Smitty's has the absolute BEST pork ribs we have ever had! EVER!

This was the "office" and it just made me laugh... along with everything else at this place. They do not have sauce at Smitty's and will chide you for asking for it. If you want a
pickle or some onion or a hunk of cheese, they'll sell it to you... but they won't smile about it. WE LOVE US SOME SMITTY'S!

Next Stop: Black's BBQ
We ordered the same thing at this one in order to make the best comparison. We were already fully satisfied by our first "snack" at Smittys... but we were able to get it all down and determined it was the BEST BRISKET we've EVER had.... Truly... (Funny how we always seem to agree on BBQ) The homemade sausages at both places were amazing.

Third stop: Kreuz Market

There's a long story here about a family divided over recipes and other BBQ secrets... you can find it on the internet if you're so moved. We would have ordered the same thing here, but the line was already too long and we were going to be late for our brewery tour. So we just went in and looked around. Getting out of the car was good for our digestion though. (I was SO glad we didn't have time to eat again... I would have taken it for the team, but I might have tossed it on the table... I was SO FULL!) We'll be back for sure...

Fourth Stop: Shiner Brewery

We made it just in time to take the last Shiner Brewery tour of the day. I love ANY factory. Seriously. I will visit any factory with you in the whole world. I love the show "How its Made" and "Unwrapped" is my all time favorite TV show... I think. But there is something especially awesome to me about a bottling assembly line...

Kevin loves beer. I love factories and assembly lines. We're a match made in brewery heaven. Since we were down in the Hill Country we called around to find a last minute place to spend the night. The most adorable inn had a last minute cancellation. We were able to get a room that took up the entire top floor of the inn, complete with this 360 view. (for about $100 off the usual price!!!)

It was so very relaxing. We wished we'd planned to stay longer, and we WILL be back. (This was on our walk down to the cliff over-looking a creek.)

After a delicious breakfast and a little more relaxing, we shopped and toured one of the Hill Country towns before heading home that evening. On our way home we stopped at what we still consider as our ALL-TIME FAVORITE BBQ restaurant.

Pronounced "Shuffs" -- This is a fact that has now been verified with multiple witnesses on two separate occasions and I would like to make it known that I WON the argument with Kevin about how the name was pronounced. It truly happens so rarely (my winning an argument) that each occurrence deserves to be documented in history. For fun, we ordered the same thing here... and gave it a "Best Over All" award... it is, after all, less than half the distance from our home than any of the others. Still a ways away from home but worth the drive on 35...

Happy 30th to us! We'll probably be celebrating 30 til next year when 31 happens.

Leah loves NO! She says it at least 600 times a day. I was cleaning up the kitchen just now when I heard her playing and talking on the floor behind me. "No Mama No Mama No Mama No Mama No Mama." I guess she was just warming up for today's No's. Or maybe she just got confused with "No Ma'am" which she has heard quite a bit lately.

nice looking pair

Two months ago today I turned 30. Woo Hoo! I didn't have a problem with it because I have no concept of it! I feel like I'm 20, and I wonder if I'll ever feel any older! Check with me in 30 more years I guess.

Anyway, due to scheduling conflicts, vacations and illnesses, my mom and I had to postpone my day of shopping, lunching, massage-ing and pedicure-ing until this week.... but it was worth the wait! Thanks mom... for the birthday fun... for birthing me and all my 10 poundage, with no drugs, 30 years ago... and for not passing me your "finger-like toes" gene. But I would not rather have had any other foot kicking me in the rear all those years! (I don't mean to leave my dad out, but I don't have a picture of his foot. Thanks to my dad too.)

Speaking of good looking pairs.... are these two not the absolute cutest little Mr & Mrs you have ever seen? I can't believe how precious they looked standing next to each other. Leah is 2 weeks older than E, and I think they are like a little salt and pepper set! (would have to be white pepper... look at all that blond!) They even have matching frowns in this picture!! And matching poses in this one!A difference between boys and girls...

Leah has played with (near) E and his big brother a couple of times and they are so sweet to her. But I have said it before and I'll say it again... Boys are different!!! God love the mothers of 2+ boys! That is ALOT of energy! What fun!

Independence

This year, Independence Day was well illustrated in the Curley household. Leah has been struggling to gain her own lately, as evidenced by a little tantrum-throwing, trying to put on and take off her own clothes, lots of "no's" and "huh-uh's" and demanding to eat her meals with her very own utensils.... among other things.

'
Like last year, for the 4th festivities we joined a few hundred of our closest friends from church at the year's hottest party! (Thank you Lord for wind.) She exerted her independence at the party as well. (Can you believe I didn't have my camera for Leah's very first bounce house experience??? What kind of mother?)'

She watched her friend Kinley get a sucker (or two) out of a big bag of candy laying on the welcome table. After studying Kinley carefully, she reached into the bag, chose a dum-dum, unwrapped it and ate it. ALL BY HERSELF! I just watched the entire episode in amazement. '

She ate the whole thing, only setting it down once to have a bite of her cheeseburger, but quickly realized she could do both at once. '

Then she and her daddy checked out all the animals. '

I think she was the tour guide... pointing and showing her daddy where everything was. '

She's gonna give bull riding a try next. Look! She's already bowlegged!

'

"Is anybody gonna watch me?" '

Hanging on for dear life? Or just relaxing? '

Way more than 8 seconds Tuff Curley!'
Cooling off after a tough ride with the fan that Honey gave her! Thanks Miss Hannah!!

'

And we almost made it to the end of the fireworks, but a fire ant bite on the foot... 2 hours after her normal bedtime... caused a meltdown of revolutionary proportions. So we loaded up our stuff and got to beat the parking jam.'

Some independent reading a little earlier. Well... accompanied by Abby Cadabby, her new bff. DON'T even think about trying to pick out a book for her. She'll do it HERSELF!!
Happy Independence Day, USA!

puffs

Leah has her own box of tissue. She has taken every single tissue out and replaced it at least a hundred times over the last couple of months. Sometimes one by one, sometimes handful by handful. This time she blew her nose with a few of them as she reloaded the box. The next time you are at our house, be careful not to use the tissues from LEAH's box.

At the very end you'll hear Leah's new favorite word. I'm learning to rephrase all of my sentences in order to get any other answer...

Leah prefers Puffs. I prefer Kleenex, but her box has a frog that says "ribbit" and she picked it out at the store.

Hola Amigos

I was going to write this post sobre nuestro vacacion Mexicano solamente en espanol, but I don't always conjugate in the past tense correctly anymore (who am I kidding... I never did) and since, sadly, the vacation is in the past... it would be an embarrassment of a post.
'
We began our vacation at 3:30 AM last Thursday after I finally fell asleep for a few minutes some time after 1 AM. I finished packing around 11 PM the night before (I'm good under pressure) but couldn't sleep due to the massive upper respiratory and sinus infection building in the front half of my head. Kevin couldn't sleep either due to all my sniffing, snorting, coughing, choking and nose blowing. But... when our ride pulled up at 4:22 AM I decided once and for all that I WILL NOT BE SICK ON VACATION!
'
Too bad mind over matter doesn't always work. I got sicker on the plane... I'm pretty sure I burst an eardrum... and even sicker on the weaving bus ride to our resort. By the time we got to check in, I thought I might die. I may be exaggerating a little bit, but not much.
'
I laid in the bed for most of the next 24 hours. But did get up on DAY 2 to assist in the "purchase of the pants." Let's just say if husbands listened to their wives instead of each other, we would all be about $70 richer now. That's how much they charge for men's pants at our resort. Pants that are suitable for the dress code at dinner, the dress code that every single wife knew about and tried to convince her husband of while packing to leave. (Each one was either convinced that their wife was incorrect about the dress code, or at the very least, that the rule wouldn't apply to THEM.)
'
So upon finding out that rules do apply to them, they all bought new $70 pants, pictured here.... except for Brandon (far right) who was able to procure "loaner pants" which I'm not entirely sure he ever returned. So he actually left the trip one pair of pants better! (Not to pick on Brandon or anything but he'd been to the resort TWICE BEFORE and was the person we hold ultimately responsible for the boy's lack of pants... he's apparently very convincing... and smart enough to keep his money and get a free pair of pants... I'm starting to think it was all a set up) It's a close race as to who is the bigger ham of the 4 guys. But I'll go with the one who is patting his own behind for the pants photo. '
Here's the whole crew the second night at dinner. I think this is the only picture I have with everyone in it. (I had taken enough decongestant that day to make a horses nose run!)

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There was alot of pool time and the guys and Michelle played basketball... in teams... but if you ask Kevin who won he'll tell you "I did!"

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Mexicans have a hard time pronouncing The Phipps' last name.... so we now call them Mr. and Mrs. Peeps. Their son is about 21 months old and their second could very well be here in approximately 9 months! ;)

'

Dr. Sarah kindly recommended 10 days of Augmentin for my nasty infection, which was lost in translation at la farmacia and I got 10 pills instead, which was only 5 days... but I'm pretty much better anyway. The Morrises sure missed their 5 month old baby girl... but Matt kept reminding us to enjoy our monitor free nights. We did!

'

The Joneses missed their 8 month old baby girl pretty badly, especially since she started crawling ONE HOUR before they dropped her off at her Honey's house. To distract himself, Brandon ate every.single.thing. that was offered in the entire resort. The night we ate Japanese food, the little boys dining at the hibachi grill next to ours pretty much thought Brandon was "the most interesting man in the world." They watched him as he ate 3 plates of sushi rolls and sashimi before ordering octopus with his steak and shrimp. Caviar and calf tongue are just a few of his other taste bud titillations. Lisa was, no doubt, plagued by having to share a room with him throughout the trip. Here she is pretending to like sushi...

'

Now tell me how you really feel about it....

'

And here WE are... Kevin sunburns even when he is covered in SPF 45 under an overcast, rainy sky. Such a white boy! Me... it's DAY 3 and I haven't seen the sun yet... and I haven't tasted a single thing I've tried to eat. Nor could I smell. But I'm still glad to be on vacation and out of bed most of the day!

'

On DAY 4 I was still feeling on the poor side, but at least a little better. We enjoyed a girls morning at the spa while the guys spent their rained-out fishing trip at the pool's swim up bar. Thanks Hurricane Alex! This is probably not the first time you've noticed I don't mind posting unflattering pictures of myself... I was pretty much a wreck. But the massage and the steam room did help some... I wish I had my very own steam room in my house. By the way... Lisa called it early on the trip when she said "Watch... the only time the sun will come out will be when we are in the spa!" Can you see the lovely sunshine outside? Near the end of my treatment, I heard the rain begin to pour again. :)

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If these guys could... and weren't already married to us... I think they would marry each other.

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This couple was having a very Discovery Channel moment right out in the middle of the walkway. He was pulsating and hissing at her... I guess if that's what ruffles your feathers! I got a good video of it. Pretty cool actually.

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The leaning tower of over-indulgence... '

This was the last night at the beach around 10:30. I think the wind was blowing harder than I've ever experienced. This is the wind off the ocean blowing the sand around. '
On our last day in paradise, the sun and I finally saw each other for the first time! I was so excited! I was just going to try and get about an hour of sun so I would at least look like I went on vacation... then I was going to apply the sunscreen and go about the day. But I got distracted by the free, live entertainment that was my husband dancing on the swim-up bar and then cannonballing into the pool... and I forgot the sunscreen. When I saw that others were beginning to get some pink on their skin, I decided to call it quits and go in for my shower. By the time the color fully showed itself... I was a lovely shade of lobster. oops!

'

I'll leave you with this clip... my favorite of all the video footage taken on the trip. I feel like this may be one of those "you had to be there" moments but I literally laugh aloud each time I watch it (for so many different reasons) so I thought I'd share...

Hasta la proxima, Mexico! Fue divertido!