Brushy Creek Backyard BBQ Cook-Off

Tom, Robert, Bill and Charlie entered the Brushy Creek Backyard BBQ Cook-Off this year! Had a great time hanging out with friends, eating lots of yummy food, and listening to some great live music!

** Brooke and Bailey **
** Part of the McCalmont crew **

** Bill getting his grill on! **

** Joanna and Melanie **

** Karen, Melanie and Jen **

Softball Season

Bailey's team had an awesome season! They were undefeated in regular season play and won the Town & Country Mid-Season Tournament! Way to go, T&C Longhorns!

** Singing "The Eyes of Texas" after a win! **

** Bailey and Emma **

** About to smash it! **

** End of Season Party **

** Coach Jeff **

Happiness

Just finished reading a great book, Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a must-read if you haven't read it. The following is an excerpt from it that really hit home for me:

"People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray, even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments."

Find happiness and hold on to it!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was very nice this year. Went out to Mom and Dad's to celebrate! Made it a combo celebration since Josh's birthday was the next day! And yes, he FINALLY turned 30...maybe one day he'll catch up with me!!! :)

** Mom and her babies and grandbabies **

** Me and my babies **

** The whole gang **

** Happy Birthday, Josh! **

New Camera

My wonderful family got me a new camera for Mother's Day! We'd had our other one for about five years and it had just about pooped out! Anyway, I'm hoping I have time to be able to read up on the manual so I can get some great pictures. Here are a few shots I got today. Check back for more!

Bailey's Braces

Bailey got her braces today...or at least her first phase of braces. She still has her expander in and will wear both for about a year. Then once she loses all of her baby teeth, she'll do phase two...the full set of braces.

Check back next month to see pics of Brody's braces! We just thought we might as well get it all over with at once!!!

New Haircuts

Bailey and I both got our hair cut pretty short last week. This isn't the best of pics, but you get the idea!