Our Life in DFW

Our Life in DFW is moving!

2011-11-09T22:18:00.002-06:00

We've started a new chapter in our lives... both of the kids are in school and I'm going to nursing school... so we're starting a new blog!
Join our family over at http://ththeschoolyears.blogspot.com/ to keep up with our latest adventure :)

Little Miss and Little Man

2011-11-09T13:02:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking for a while now that I need to change my kids "screen names". Little Miss has blossomed into a beautiful young girl and Little Man is my handsome "strong boy". Trying to come up with names that encompass their personalities is a challenge.

Little Miss is growing like a weed (or a bean plant :)) and Little Man is obsessed with all things dirty and crawly so...

I think I've settled on "Bean" for Little Miss and "Bug" for Little Man. It's short, sweet, and to the point! So from here on out that's what I'll be calling them :)

Little Man is playing soccer!!

2011-08-12T23:05:00.001-05:00

Little Man's first soccer practice was tonight and he did great!! He's a natural :)

Last Day with Shelley and Sophie

2011-08-09T22:58:00.001-05:00

Shelley and I met back in the Fall of 2006 when our girls started their first year of preschool together. The girls were 2 and became fast friends. While in preschool our 2 year old class, 3 year old class, and 4 year old class pretty much stayed the same and we had playdates once or twice a month. Not your regular playdates - super fun, field trip worthy playdates. Preschool was a BLAST for the kids and the moms!
Little Miss and Sophie have played together for years and Shelley and I have been best friends for all of those years too!
Shelley's husband got a promotion and now they are moving to West Virginia and we are very sad!!!
Today we got the girls (and ourselves) together for one last afternoon before they head out. While we're sad they are leaving - we're excited that we now have a place to crash should we ever head out to West Virginia :)

Sea World 2011

2011-07-31T23:15:00.009-05:00

Fabulous trip to San Antonio this weekend to visit my high school besties and take the kids to Sea World.

Day #1 - We decided that it was Water park day today. The kids had never been down a water slide and it took some convincing but once they tried it they loved it! We also spent a lot of time in the wave pool. For lunch we took in the show at the cafeteria and then dried off for some animal fun. We took in the beluga whale show, the Shamu One Ocean show, the Codfish Cafe show and then hit up the roller coaster and merry go round before calling it a night.

Day #2 - Sea World Day - Lots of fun at Sea World today but our favourite activity by far was feeding the dolphins!

High School Best Friends reunite - Amy, Becky, and I were best friends in high school (Go Dragons!) We got together and chatted about high school and various other random things until around 2am. We are in frequent contact but it's great that we are close enough to be able to actually see each other frequently!

Now these pictures are hilarious! Amy found an old picture of when we were dating our husbands :) The picture on the left is from 1998 or 1999 and we took the picture on the right this past weekend - July 2011. LOVE IT!!

Little Man and his first pair of glasses

2011-07-19T21:10:00.003-05:00

I scheduled the kids for eye check ups this morning before we all get back into school. Little Miss and I checked out pretty good (although apparently glasses are in our future). When Little Man had his exam they told me that he's nearsighted and astigmatic and definitely needs glasses. Yikes! I was definitely not ready for that. They fitted him for frames (he picked out these blue frames and loves them) and made the lenses in house. We picked them up this afternoon.

Here he is in his new fabulous blue glasses - he looks so handsome and I'm so proud of him for wearing them all day today :)

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 4

2011-07-04T22:28:00.007-05:00

Happy Birthday America!

What a great day :) Kids played (loudly) this morning while Ryan and I slept in. We went to the La Garita for pancakes with the family and then it was time for showers for all and curlers for my hair! Then I went to Ronnie and Barbara's cabin to do some online quizzes for my computer class while Ryan and the kids fished the ponds.
Little Miss caught a fish all by herself and Little Man caught a couple with dad's help and they skipped rocks and saw a red-tailed hawk and a golden eagle which they said was really cool!
Then we all went back to our cabin and took a good long nap.
We all left for the Lake City Fourth of July Celebration around 4:30pm. We stopped and watched a moose and her baby for a bit on the way. Once we got to town we did a bit of shopping and then found ourselves a nice place on the grass in the town square.
It was (as always) a great small town America 4th of July celebration - street band, street dancing, lawn chairs in the town square, kids playing at the park, glow sticks, blankets on the ground, and a fantastic fireworks display that boomed super loudly in the valley and lit up the surrounding mountainside. I LOVE coming here for the 4th!
Fireworks started around 9:15pm and ended around an hour later - best fireworks in Lake City yet! There was a LONG stream of cars and trucks leaving town to go back to their various mountain cabins.
What a great evening!

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 3

2011-07-03T23:53:00.010-05:00

Fun and Relaxing Day

* Breakfast at the La Garita with the family
* Fun colouring sets from Meme for the kids
* Kids fished at the ponds with Ryan while I read my book back at the cabin - They caught a total of 7 rainbow trout - Little Miss caught 4 & Little Man caught 3.
* Naptime for all
* Little Man fished the streams with Ryan and caught 2 brown trout for the fish fry - Little Man was so excited to catch some fish for the fish fry and to gut his fish for the first time!
* Lara and Ryan came in today - Lara in her car and Ryan riding in on his Harley
* Lara and I cooked dinner - chicken, potatoes au gratin, broccoli and cherry cheesecake for dessert

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 2

2011-07-02T23:03:00.011-05:00

Kids were up at 6:30am bouncing on the beds and chatting with each other. After a couple of attempts to get them to go back to sleep, Ryan and I decided that we'd have to get up. We got ready, had breakfast at the hotel and then went down to the City Market for our groceries.
After filling our cart with the necessities along with a couple of wind catchers, we ate lunch and headed up the mountain.
This year we decided that our family is just too big now to share one room in the big cabin so Ryan, the kids, and I stayed in the Alabama. We loaded all of our stuff into the cabin and then mom and dad and Bill and Rita showed up an hour later so we headed next door to the La Garita to help them unload.
The kids had fun using their binoculars and playing Old Maid and dressing the paper doll horses that Little Miss brought. Dinner was yummy flank steak and potatoes. After dinner we headed back to the Alabama for some much needed sleep.

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 1

2011-07-01T23:53:00.004-05:00

Day 1 - Driving to Colorado

We left DFW around 10 am with the car topper (with the broken string) loaded and the obligatory family photo snapped by a neighbor. If we don't have it - we don't need it - although we did forget our Scrabble and Quiddler games at home!
My friend, Nicole, called me about 5 hours into the trip and told me that the Nursing School exam results were posted - lowest score accepted was a 74 - so with an 87 - I am officially accepted to nursing school (Nicole is in too!)!
The hills going over Raton pass were scorched from the recent wildfires and the sunset outside of Trinidad was beautiful - there were numerous mammatus clouds (my favourite kind) hanging around from the recent thunderstorms and the light through the clouds and around the mountains was spectacular this year.
We stayed the night in Alamosa (got in around 11:30pm). Both kids were asleep when we got there but Little Man woke up when we took him out of the car and was so excited to be there that it took a little while to get him back to sleep :)

Kaplan Nursing School Entrance Exam

2011-06-30T11:17:00.007-05:00

Yikes! It's been on my mind for the last month and the day has finally come and gone - the day that I took the Kaplan Nursing School Entrance Exam (when you put it in all caps like that it makes it look very official and very scary :) ).

This is the picture I call: The door to my future. Here is where I sat as I waited for the door to open to I could go in and take the test.

Back story: I've been thinking about going to nursing school for a while now. I thought about it the first time I was in college and then again after I became a stay at home mom and it really came to the forefront when my brother in law decided to take his pre-reqs and go to nursing school. So a year ago I started taking a couple of pre-reqs that I would need in order to be able to apply for nursing school. I took A&P I last fall, A&P II and Developmental Psychology this past spring, Speech over the Maymester, and am currently finishing up my last pre-req, computers. I applied for nursing school last month and received a letter stating that I had made the first cut and was invited to take the nursing school entrance exam.

My test day: Wednesday, June 29th at 1 p.m. in Room 518.

I started studying for the test last week using a Kaplan study guide (which ended up being useless), the Little, Brown Book to study for grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, and all of my Anatomy and Physiology notes from the last two semesters.

The test consisted of 91 questions divided into four sections: Reading Comprehension, Math, Writing/Grammar, and Science. It was an online test (I hate online tests!) and each section was timed.

I showed up around 12:30pm as prepared as possible and I was so nervous.

I'm pretty good at taking tests though so I knew that once I got into it that my nerves would calm down a bit :) I got logged in and started the reading comprehension part of the test and 2 hours later emerged with an overall test score of 87% and a critical thinking score of 88%. My individual scores were Reading 95, Math 89, Writing 86, and Science 75. From what I hear from others about this test those are really good scores. The nursing school will post score cut offs for final admission on Friday afternoon so I'm hoping for the best!

Kaplan Test Info:

Reading Comprehension: Kaplan study guide was good practice for this. There were long passages to read with 3-5 questions per passage.

Math: SUPER easy. All fractions (add, subtract, multiply, divide), percentage conversions, percentage calculations, and a couple of nursing dosage calculations (given this much medicine at this rate of flow, how many minutes should you give this medicine if patient needs to receive this amount)

Writing/Grammar: Long passages to read just like the reading comprehension. It asked questions like: look at sentences 4, 7, 9, 13 - which one has a subject/verb that do not agree or which of the following sentences has the comma in the wrong place. There were also a couple that said where should the following sentence be added in the passage to clarify information.

Science: This was the hardest one for me because there were only 20 questions but 5-6 systems that were covered so there really wasn't a good way to study. I read through my A&P notes 2 times and really made sure to pay attention to the major points in each and that's all I did. Some of the questions that I can remember (these aren't exact but the main ideas):
* What are the three compartments in the body where water is held?
* Which of the following statements is the primary function of the circulatory system?
* Which body system is the main system used for the homeostasis of pH?
* Where does oxygen exchange take place?
* If a person has chronic hypertension, which of the following illustrates problems in their vascular system?

I did find that doing the quizzes at http://www.learningnurse.com/content/view/25/39/ was a helpful study tool and illustrated the types of questions that might be asked on the exam.

BBQ at Mom and Dad's

2011-06-11T22:59:00.011-05:00

Mom and Dad are in Alaska so Lara and I decided that we should put their new pool to use! We invited our friends, Greg and Melanie, and their kids and headed up to parent's house for some fun in the sun. Got there around 2:30pm and the kids hit the pool. We grilled up some food around 5:30pm and then back into the pool! Lara and Ryan left around 7:45pm. We left at 9:30pm! The kids were so worn out. Super fun BBQ though!

Last Day of 1st Grade

2011-06-09T22:58:00.002-05:00

Little Miss is officially a 2nd grader!

What a great year she had in 1st grade. Her 1st grade teacher, Ms. H, is an excellent teacher. Little Miss has progressed so much this year especially in math and reading. She is a year ahead in math and will start her 3rd grade math program next year and she is reading above 1st grade level. I'm so proud of her. While she has gotten a bit "rushy" with some of her work this year - her reading has really progressed. She can now read chapter books like Mercy Watson and Magic Tree House by herself. We got her a new Bible for Easter this year and she loves reading it each night in bed. I get onto her for reading too much before bedtime and not going to sleep on time but she actually reminds me of myself at her age.

Great job Little Miss ~ can't wait to see what next year brings!

Bill & Bill Retirement Party

2011-05-28T22:57:00.012-05:00

Today we had a surprise retirement party for Bill (of Bill & Rita) and Bill (of Bill & Linda). The funniest part of the afternoon was when we all went to give them their retirement cards. Apparently there are only so many retirement cards and with 6 different families giving cards each Bill got three of the same version of two different cards. It was hilarious!
Then after everyone read all of their cards Mark read a poem that he wrote for the occasion - in a Jamaican accent :) Excellent!

On the way home from the party we saw a Hot Rod car show at one of our local restaurants so we stopped to check out some of the cool cars!

Little Man's Last Day of School

2011-05-26T22:55:00.007-05:00

My Little Man is officially a Kindergartener!

What a FABULOUS year he had this year. His teacher, Mrs. B, is one of the best teachers ever! She was definitely the best teacher for him this year. She loved my son and really understood all of his craziness. Little Man is SO smart and extremely funny. He needs some work on listening and keeping quiet during class and line up time. Mrs. B really focuses on the positives and tries to make sure that all of the kids in her class are successful and really love school. We are so happy that Little Man had such a wonderful teacher for his last year in preschool.

We also decided this year that we are going to send Little Man to Kindergarten at the private school her currently goes to. One more year in the fabulous school with the small teacher/student ratio will really let him continue to mature and master his listening skills :)

We love you Little Man and are so excited to see what next year brings!

Daisy Scouts Bridging Ceremony

2011-05-18T22:54:00.002-05:00

Little Miss has graduated to Brownies! We had her Daisy Scout bridging ceremony this evening. This Daisy troop is so amazing ~ our leaders are so organized and they plan fabulous activities for our girls. So excited that we're going to be with the same troop next year.

Spring Piano Recital

2011-05-14T17:07:00.002-05:00

Spring is here and it is time for our Spring Piano Recital. The kids have now been taking lessons for a year and are doing SO great!

Little Miss played Rusty Old Bike and Square Dance.

Little Man played C for Cat, G for Girl and I Can Do It.

Dunlap and the Brain Girls - A&P I & II 2010-2011

2011-05-11T22:07:00.016-05:00

A&P I and A&P II have been such a blast! Early on in the first semester of A&P Kim gave me a call (because Darby was busy :) ) and we did a study session on the phone before the first quiz. Since then Kim, Darby, Alicia, and I have been getting together on Monday nights for A&P study sessions. We started out at IHOP but ended up at Cafe du Luxe because the food was better and the staff there is fabulous. We did the last two months of Monday night study group up at school so we could use the white board to learn the information.
There is no way that I would have done nearly as well without them. I ended up with a 99 average in A&P I and a 98 average in A&P II. It was the regular study sessions and the different takes on certain topics that someone in the group had that really enabled me to make such great grades. It was also the expectations of the group that kept me on my toes. I made sure to do my Excell reviews and come to study session prepared because the group expected it. That really helped me stay on top of the workload.
Somewhere in the middle of A&P I the owner of Cafe du Luxe made us a sign to reserve our study area at the cafe. We were studying the nervous system and more specifically the brain at the time and so he dubbed us "Kim & the Brain Girls" and the name stuck!
Thank you Kim and the Brain Girls for all of the studying and amazing fun that we had this last year! I'm going to miss seeing you all so often!

Here's a quick ditty for the best A&P study group ever!
This last year has been awesome in A&P class
Kim & the Brain Girls we became while we studied & laughed
We each go our own way, moving on to new things
But we will stay in touch as we see what the future brings

Here we are in October 2010 for our first study session at IHOP & a month later at Cafe du Luxe.

Studying the brain in the lab and the beginning of Kim and the Brain Girls.

We take too many group pics :) Here we are in Nov 2010 and in March 2011.

Darby loves the white board and here we are teaching about chromosomes and their duplicates.

We love Dr. Dunlap who is an excellent A&P professor and here we are at our last study session.

1st Annual Mother's Day Crawfish Boil 2011

2011-05-07T23:58:00.012-05:00

So today we had our first ever Mother's Day Crawfish Boil 2011!
The crawfish were delivered via FedEx this morning around 10am. My in-laws and my dad came over around 11am to get everything ready for the afternoon's boil. Everyone else arrived at 4pm ~ in all there were 18 people - Bill & Rita, Lara & Ryan, Jennifer and her two kiddos, Linda & Bill, Bill, Mom & Dad, Mark & Lynda, and me & Ryan and the kids.
After dinner we all came inside to exchange Mother's Day presents and Mark (my father-in-law) read us all the following poem that he wrote:

The Wiz

It's 'bout Mother's Day and I been thinkin' just who it IS that is
the Wiz who keeps the family boat from sinkin'.

Now it's sure not Obama, no it's your sweet Mamma,

you know what I'm saying is right.

She's always there full of love and care

so lovely but so fulla dynomite.

She solves the problemas but nobody does she blame-a

she's kind 'n just 'n fair.

But when we get sassy, you'd think she was gassy

She just wanna pull out her hair.

So on Mother's Day, whatta you say,show her you love her and don't be sappy

'Cause when Momma don't smile I'll bet you a pile

That ain't NONE of us gonna be happy.

So on the last verse I will be terse and I'll tell it just like it is.

We love you MOM, you're just the BOMB

And we all know that YOU be the family WIZ !

~Mark --on the occasion of the First Annual HTP Mudbug Madness Pre Mother's Day Party

Little Man's End of the Year School Program

2011-05-03T22:47:00.003-05:00

Little Man had his end of the year program tonight - fun as always - Little Man wasn't feeling great but did pretty good :) Cookies and juice after the program seemed to cheer him up!

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T15:47:00.004-05:00

We decided to go to Easter service on Saturday afternoon this Easter. A little different, I know, but definitely the best thing this year. We were able to have a relaxing Easter morning ~ checked out our Easter baskets, and had an Easter egg hunt in the yard complete with Mexican confetti eggs! We had brunch at Ryan's parents house later in the afternoon ~ great Easter :)

Little Man's Easter Party

2011-04-21T15:46:00.002-05:00

Little Man's school class had their Easter party today. They made Easter wreathes out of marshmallow bunnies, decorated cookies, had a visit from the Easter bunny, and went on an Easter egg hunt in the classroom due to rain :)

Church Family Picnic and Kite Flying

2011-04-17T20:45:00.010-05:00

Our church had its annual Family Picnic today. Burgers and dogs ~ games for all ~ lots of fun at the park. On our way back to the car we stopped to fly our kites at the football field.

Planting our Garden

2011-04-03T20:44:00.005-05:00

We planted our garden today.
Ryan and the kids pulled the weeds and prepped the garden this afternoon - Ryan also cut back some of our landscaping and fixed up the yard. Once finished we all went out to our local farmer's market and picked out the fruits and vegetables that we wanted to plant.
We got tomatoes, green beans, okra, cantaloupe, green onions, white onions, strawberries, green bell peppers. Then we laid them all out to figure out where they should be planted and then got to work getting them into the ground.
I made some garden stones to mark them and it looks great :)

Before and After shots of the garden

Little Miss and Little Man helping to plant their vegetables

Ryan cutting back one of our plants & Little Man and Daddy

Family Game Night

2011-04-02T22:32:00.008-05:00

We love Family Game Night!

We've always played games with our kids but tonight was the first time we got to play a board game that my family used to play when I was younger. We finally got to play Sorry :)
Super fun family game - kids are getting better at strategy - Little Man won tonight but we all had a great time!

Little Miss sells Girl Scout cookies & Little Man goes to a Carnival

2011-03-05T22:11:00.006-06:00

Busy day today! Ryan took Little Miss to her Girl Scout cookie selling day today and I took Little Man to his school carnival. Then later this afternoon we headed to Frisco for a birthday party. Busy and fun day for sure :)

Here are Little Miss and Ryan at the Girl Scout event

Little Man getting his face painted with flames and throwing the baseball at his school carnival

Little Miss, Ryan, and Little Man at the bowling birthday party

Little Miss, me, and Little Man at the party

Little Miss's picture

2011-03-04T12:34:00.001-06:00

I just love this picture that Little Miss drew for her page in her class's Texas History book.

Little Man Turns 5 today :)

2011-02-27T23:59:00.003-06:00

My son is awesome! Today is the day that he was born 5 years ago and he is so awesome! I'm so blessed to have such a handsome, talented, funny, loving son. He "holds the door for the ladies", has just started to read (Bob books), draws fabulous people pictures, and is stinking hilarious. Can't wait to see what this year brings. Happy 5th Birthday Little Man!

Ryan decided he'd write a little something about Little Man as well:

Our Little Man, turning 5, half a decade. He has grown by leaps and bounds. He is taller than most and people usually do not believe he is just turning five. He has adopted in the last few months the saying of “remember when I was three?” I fear the day when he says “remember when I was 15”, of course the older we get the shorter the distance to the past we venture. He is still sporting the blond hair and blue eyes which will continue to get him out of trouble. He and his sister have recently started quoting Monty Python. His favorite line is “Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?” A year ago my son could not swim across the pool or play the piano…now he can. He could not color in the lines…now he can…if he wants to. Another year has flown by. He helps us cook and bake and is always eager to help as long as it does not involve cleaning up. He loves the bubble machine, sticks, his family, cuddling with Mommy, sittin’ with sister, going for a walk to the “story benches”, science shows including “Hunt for the Giant Squid”, learned how to do the monkey bars, out grew his first pair of Carthart overalls, experienced a 12” snow fall in Dallas (once and a life time event), went roller skating for the first time, can climb a tree like a monkey, journeyed across the sea to Hawaii, wore a tuxedo, loves swords, went to his first Texas Tech game, and has continued to excel at life. We will see what great adventures the next year brings!

Celebrating on Little Man's Birthday

2011-02-27T23:57:00.004-06:00

With my sister getting married we've added some new family members and new birthdays to celebrate. It turns out her mother in law's birthday is the same as Little Man's and my dad's birthday is the week before Little Man's so we all got together tonight to celebrate :) Lasagna, salad, garlic bread and cake and ice cream along with a lot of chatting and playing outside - excellent night!

Cirque du Solei - Ovo

2011-02-20T23:23:00.001-06:00

Ovo! Tonight we got to finally take the kids to see Cirque du Solei :)

My beautiful son's 5th birthday party

2011-02-19T23:01:00.006-06:00

My beautiful boy's actual birthday is not until next week but we had his birthday party today.
I say this every year but it's always so true ~ where does the time go ~ how in the world is my beautiful boy almost 5? More reflection when he actually turns 5 ~ for now I'll stick to the party :)
Today we had Little Man's party and it was so much fun ~ we called it his 5th Bakugan Bash because he wanted a Bakugan cake and decorations. For the past two years we've had Grisham Farms come out to our house and do an animal presentation for Little Man's birthday. I decided that this year we would do something different but apparently we were meant to have them out again. I randomly won a birthday party animal presentation from Grisham Farms a couple of months ago. So since it was free we decided to have them come out again for his birthday. As always they were fabulous. They had some new animals that we hadn't seen before like the armadillo lizard and some old favourites like the pot bellied pig. We ended up learning about the gecko lizard, guinea pig, bearded dragon, blue tongued skink, ball python, sugar glider, and the hedgehog. It was a wonderful presentation and the kids LOVED it! After the presentation we had pizza and cake and then let the kids play outside for the rest of the party. The weather was phenomenal and I think everyone had a great time.

Happy Birthday Little Man!

They're here!

2011-02-18T23:12:00.003-06:00

Yay! My brother and sister in law are in town and we finally get to meet (and hold and kiss on) my nephew!

Me and my nephew and Little Miss and her cousin

My super funny and fabulous brother and sister in law and Ryan with his nephew

The family in the yard and Little Man and his cousin

Ryan and Denver

A&P II Studying

2011-02-13T19:03:00.000-06:00

Studying for A&P II is turning out to be more difficult than we imagined. Not because of the material but because the weather's been so bad that we haven't had class in two weeks!! Nevertheless, "Kim and the Brain Girls", as we have been dubbed at our local hangout, have been meeting every Monday night for our weekly study session. I've also been studying with another one of my friends who is in the Tues/Thurs. A&P II class. Our first test is this Wednesday so hopefully all of this studying will pay off :)

Father/Daughter Dance

2011-02-12T22:08:00.004-06:00

The Father/Daughter dance got canceled last week due to the ice storm so they rescheduled it for tonight :)
Little Miss wore her flower girl dress from Lara's wedding and Ryan got dressed up in a suit and they headed out to the dinner/dance. Little Miss said that they had a fabulous time!

"We had a nice dinner of chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and corn. We got our picture taken and had fun with some of Little Miss's buddies. We danced the last dance and had a wonderful evening. Nice time with my gal! " ~ Ryan

Valentine's Day card making

2011-02-09T18:49:00.006-06:00

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and since we had ANOTHER snow day today the kids and I decided to make our Valentine's Day craft today :)
We've done the same craft for the last 3 years because we all LOVE this craft so today I got out my silicone heart shaped mold and a star shaped mold that I borrowed from a friend and we got to work. We made heart and star shaped crayons to give away at the kids Valentine's Day parties. We've also decided that this year we'll make necklaces out of them and change up the card a bit.
We soaked the crayons in hot water to get the paper off of them and then the kids broke up each crayon into 4-6 pieces. Once we got all of the crayons broken and dried off they each got to work filling up their trays. Then we put them into the 250 degree oven for 14 minutes, took them out and let them cool. They turned out great!
Ryan drilled holes in the tops and the kids threaded black ribbon through the holes. We cut circle shapes (and by we, I mean my friend Shelley who has a fabulous machine that cuts exact circles!) out of red and pink scrapbook paper and wrote "You color my world" on each circle. Then we used double sided sticky foam circles to attach our crayon necklaces to the cards and the kids each wrote to and from on the backs.
Cute Valentine's cards and the kids and I had a super fun snow day making our crayons!

Snow Days 2011

2011-02-04T13:21:00.023-06:00

It's Friday morning and the kids have been out of school since Tuesday for SNOW DAYS 2011! We had a huge ice storm here on Monday night and temperatures haven't been out of the teens and 20s since then.

Tuesday Feb 1 - School was canceled today because of the ice covered roads. I went out to the grocery store with Little Miss and it was treacherous. We got our groceries and then Little Miss and I went over to the Burger King parking lot and slid around on the ice - She had been begging to do it since she saw the Kroger parking lot. Played outside a bit in the backyard with the trucks when we got home and then did some slipping on the ice in the driveway. Then the kids came in and played upstairs. We all watched Alpha and Omega for movie night since we knew school was already canceled again for Wednesday.

Wednesday Feb 2 - All of the sleet from yesterday that melted a bit in the sun has frozen solid. There is a solid 1-2" layer of ice on the driveway so Ryan, the kids and I took a plastic tub top and turned it into a "sled". We had so much fun sliding down the driveway! The kids and I started re-organizing the toys and toy storage today as well.

Thursday Feb 3 - We were finally able to get out of the house today. Ryan went in to work for a bit to catch up and the kids and I ran some errands: took back the Redbox, hit up Petsmart, Walmart, and Target to look for a dog bed for Little Dog and stock up on some groceries and family board games. The sheet of ice on the parking lot at Walmart was all to tempting and the kids and I spent 20 minutes or so slipping, sliding, and "ice skating" on the road. The kids and I made it to piano lessons this afternoon as well.

Friday Feb 4 - Today we got all decked out in snowsuits and gloves and took our tub top "sleds" to the hill down the road to sled. We got too much snow this morning though (around 5 inches) so our makeshift sleds didn't work. Ryan busted it on the ice on the way home - slipped and went down - he's okay and it was kind of funny! We came home and played outside for a bit and now the kids are upstairs playing and getting warm. Ryan made some "snowmen" outside in the garden. The snow wasn't wet enough to pack together to make normal looking snowmen so Ryan decided we needed snow "heads" in the garden. They turned out great! The father/daughter Valentine's day dance is canceled for tonight - rescheduled for next Saturday. It's been a great week of snow days and family fun!

Our New Vehicle

2011-01-18T23:31:00.008-06:00

We finally got a new vehicle!! Wrote a check, paid for it and picked it up today :) Here's us signing the paperwork to sell them our minivan and buy the new SUV.
We've been ready to buy a new car since November. Originally we decided that we were going to get another newer minivan - a 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan but then we started thinking about gas prices and we reconsidered. Minivans only get 16-18 mpg and with all of the driving that we do every month our gas budget has just gotten higher.
So then we started looking at cars/SUVs that got better gas mileage. We looked at the Honda Accord, Honda Fit, the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. The last two are hybrid cars that get 45 mpg but they are pretty small. A big step down from the roominess of our minivan. Then we came across the Mercury Mariner Hybrid. It's an SUV hybrid that gets an average of 34 mpg in the city. After checking it out online and finding one (and only one) for sale in the metroplex we decided that that was the car for us!
I got a little sentimental about my old 2003 Ford Windstar with 150K miles on it when we traded it in but the new car was ready to go so I was only sentimental for a bit :)

Here is our new 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. It has 39K miles and an upgraded interior and we love it!

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T16:31:00.014-06:00

This New Year's Eve Ryan and I went to Lara's house for a "Minute to Win It" New Year's party. We snacked on appetizers and Chic Fil A nuggets and then got the games started. Each couple (4 couples in all) had come prepared with supplies for 2-3 games from the gameshow "Minute to Win It". We set the timer and had some fun! To make it a little more competitive each couple put $10 into the pot and the winner took all. Each team got one point for each game won. Some of the games that we played included: Face the Cookie, Hanky Panky, Go the Distance, Marbles Grande, Caddy Stack, Do You Hear What I Hear, and Drop Sink and Clink.

Here are some random pictures from New Year's Eve...

FACE THE COOKIE

Ryan trying to get the cookie from his forehead into his mouth just using his face.

HANKY PANKY
Lara and Ryan trying to empty the tissue boxes one handed.

GO THE DISTANCE
Yami and Ryan rolling the ping pong balls down the tape measure into the shot glasses at distances of 5, 6, and 7 feet.

MARBLES GRANDE

Lara and Ryan and Yami and Justin trying to knock all of the orange ping pong balls out of the hula hoop by throwing white ping pong balls at the one at a time.

CADDY STACK
Bishop and Ryan each gloating over their golf ball stack holding the necessary 3 seconds.

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR

Marsy and I trying to put the boxes in order from least amount of jingle bells to most. The boxes had 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 jingle bells in them.

DROP SINK AND CLINK
Ryan and I trying to get the quarters into the three shot glasses at the bottom of the fishbowl filled with water.

AND THE WINNER IS....

Welcome to 2011 :)

And the curtains were hung on the windows with care...

2010-12-26T16:30:00.007-06:00

We finally got the curtains in the kitchen made and hung. Maybe the kitchen remodel will be finished in 2011... maybe :)

So... do we need a window treatment over the back door? I can't decide!

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T22:25:00.015-06:00

HOPE YOURS WAS AS MERRY AS OURS!

Impromptu Group Dinner

2010-12-21T22:43:00.004-06:00

We've been trying to schedule a Group Dinner forever but with end of the year parties and such its been impossible. So Lori emailed yesterday and wanted to see if we could all get together this week (she had some leftover desserts she wanted to get rid of from her annual Holiday Sweets party) ~ Sheri & Patrick and our family were available (Krista & Derek were busy bees this week and couldn't make it) so we scheduled it! Tonight with the kids at Kevin & Lori's house ~ spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and wine. The kids played outside, upstairs, and hide and seek throughout the house while we ate. Great night!

The Heard Museum

2010-12-21T16:44:00.004-06:00

The weather today was amazing and not wanting to stay inside (it was 80 today) we decided to find something outdoorsy to do. Having just bought a family membership to the Heard Museum, the kids and I (along with my parents) decided that was where we wanted to spend the day. They currently have the Dinosaurs Live exhibit along with the butterfly garden and the awesome Bugs exhibit so it was a packed 3 hours. We packed a picnic lunch and ate at the table in the woods and then headed into the museum. We toured the Bugs exhibit, excavated a dinosaur and then took the 1/2 mile trail to check out the animatronic dinosaurs. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a blast.

Total Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-21T02:09:00.013-06:00

A total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice ~ 1:30 a.m.

Ryan and I have been in and out since the eclipse started around 12:30 a.m. trying to decide when we should wake the kids up :)

We woke the kids up around 1 am when the moon was a little over half eclipsed and went and laid outside in the front yard under heavy blankets to take in the fabulous lunar eclipse. Kids were cold and a bit complainy (it is one in the morning) but it was cool to be out there taking it in together.

Hope everyone got to see the eclipse ~ it was pretty cool and apparently there won't be another total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice until 2094.

A Year in Status Updates 2010

2010-12-20T10:28:00.004-06:00

It's funny to see your entire year summed up in a handful of Facebook posts :)

Christmas Sugar Cookie Decorating 2010

2010-12-19T22:47:00.016-06:00

We just got home from 5 hours of sugar cookie decorating - a time honored family tradition. This year my family, my in laws and my sister's new in laws all came and we had a blast!!

This year mom made corn chowder and fish stew along with two delicious salads. We ate lunch and then got to work cutting out cookies, decorating cookies, and eating cookies!

Dad, Mark, Ryan, and Ryan got to try out Dad's newly built horseshoe pit and once we all got done decorating we gathered around the baby grand piano to sing Christmas carols.

Mom also got each of us a decorative cookie box to bring home our cookies in :)

School Christmas Parties

2010-12-17T22:24:00.007-06:00

Both of the kiddos had their class Christmas Parties on the same day at around the same time! Got to hit the beginning of Little Miss's party this morning and the end of Little Man's party.

Lots of sugar, snacks, crafts, and book exchanges ~ we are officially out for the year!

Lara's Wedding

2010-12-11T01:47:00.024-06:00

My sister is officially married!

This morning Andra and Vicki threw a Bridal Luncheon for Lara at a winery in Grapevine. Awesome food and wine!

And tonight my sister and Ryan got married. Beautiful wedding, fabulous reception. Little Miss made it through the wedding (that started at 9pm) and then crashed at the reception - she was asleep on a couple of chairs by 10:15pm. Little Man made it a bit longer but crashed on the chairs around 11pm. My toast went great and then we danced the night away!

I don't have any pictures of the actual wedding or reception that I took because I was busy :) but I hope to post some once we get the photographer's pictures! I did steal some wedding pics from Facebook though :)

Here are some of the pictures that we do have from today.

Bridal luncheon and Lara getting her makeup done...

Little Miss getting her hair sprayed and Lara getting her hair done...

Dad and Lara just before the wedding (Dad is giving her one of his "talks") and My boys getting ready and looking so spiffy...

Dad and Lara walking down the aisle and Lara and Ryan dancing to Low on the way down the aisle

Lara's Rehearsal Dinner

2010-12-09T23:42:00.009-06:00

Tonight was the rehearsal & dinner for my sister's wedding :) I think we are ready for tomorrow!

Little Miss's North Pole Express Field Trip

2010-12-09T23:23:00.007-06:00

Little Miss's class went on a field trip today to the North Pole Express train in Grapevine. The Grapevine Depot was decorated with thousands of lights, animated charactors, and we walked through "falling snow" (it was actually tiny bubbles from the bubble machines) on our way to board the train. Before we boarded the train we went into the holding area where we sang Christmas carols with other schools there for the field trip.

Once on board there was more singing, a story time, and a visit from the man himself - Santa Claus!

After the train ride we headed over to Nash Farms for an outdoor picnic. The kids had a great time :)

Last A&P I Study Session

2010-12-06T23:07:00.001-06:00

A&P I Study Sessions are over! We met tonight for the last night of studying for A&P I. Our final is on Wednesday, December 8th and hopefully we are ready :) We studied Spinal Cord, Autonomic Nervous System, Special Senses (seeing, hearing, & tasting), and Endocrine System. Once the final is done we will be off for the end of the year and then back at the studying for A&P II!

Here is the sign that was up at our table when we arrived to study tonight :)

Christmas Piano Recital 2010

2010-12-05T16:56:00.001-06:00

The Christmas Piano Recital was fabulous :) The kids did great! This was Little Man's first time to participate and he was super excited. Little Man played "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and "Up on the Housetop". Little Miss played "We Three Kings of Orient Are" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". We then went back to their teacher's house for hot cocoa, cookies, and end of the year awards.

Bold Fresh Tour

2010-12-04T22:12:00.003-06:00

I win everything. It's true. To illustrate my point I'll tell you how Dad and I were able to go and see Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly on tour yesterday.

So a couple of months ago the talk radio station that I listen to offered caller number 10 two free tickets to the Beaujolais Wine Festival (tickets valued at $55 each). I called in and won the tickets. My husband was not able to go with me because he had a hunting trip scheduled that weekend so my sister and I went together. It was great. There was a lot of wine to taste and fabulous local restaurants had samples of their food. Awesome night!

My talk radio station was one of the sponsors so I headed to their table to thank them for the tickets to the festival. I talked to the guy for a minute and he asked me if I was a regular listener. I told him that I was an all day listener (which is true because I'm a talk radio nerd :) ) and that I listened to Jeff Bolton in the morning, followed by Glenn Beck, then Dave Ramsey, and finally Chris Croc. Once I got through the names he then asked if I would like tickets to the Bill O'Reilly/Glenn Beck Bold Fresh Tour show that was coming in a couple of weeks! Heck ya I do :)

So that's how Dad and I ended up at the Bold Fresh Tour this afternoon :)

It was a great show!!

Texas Tech Football!!

2010-11-28T23:27:00.007-06:00

This past weekend we finally got to take the kids to see a Texas Tech football game live. It was a bit anticlimatic for the kids but Ryan and I had a blast!

We drove to Lubbock on Saturday morning and got in around 3pm. The kids were super excited already to be staying in a hotel and went nuts when we got to the hotel room and found that our Christmas elf, Frank, had followed us there! Frank shows up the day after Thanksgiving and comes to our house to watch the kiddos behavior and to listen to their Christmas requests. He travels back to the North Pole each night to update Santa and reappears every morning in a different location in our house. The kids LOVE this tradition and so do we!

It was a cold afternoon in Lubbock and the weather was clear and cold for the game so once we got settled into our hotel we piled on the clothing layers and headed out to check out campus and find a great place to park the car for the evening. We lucked out when a police officer doing traffic duty let us park really close to the stadium (in exchange for buying him a cup of coffee - which we did gladly because it was cold outside!).

The game was great although the novelty wore off pretty quickly for the kids and we ended up leaving at half time because they we too cold!

On the way home we went through Abilene so that we could visit with Ryan's grandmother for a couple of hours.

Excellent trip! Go Red Raiders!

What are you thankful for?

2010-11-25T22:48:00.012-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Fa La La La La ...

2010-11-24T21:41:00.011-06:00

Okay - so I know it's too early but it was such a nice day out today (and it's fixing to get COLD) that we decided to put up our Christmas lights this afternoon (We didn't light them though!!).

The kids helped get out the lights, stakes, and Santa on the tractor and we got to work. It took us most of the afternoon but we had a lot of fun doing it together!

Pheasant Hunting Trip to Kansas

2010-11-21T23:06:00.004-06:00

Fun Trip details coming soon :) ...

A & P Study Group

2010-11-18T08:34:00.014-06:00

So I've gone back to school this semester. I graduated the first time from Texas Tech in 1998 but have recently decided that I need a career change so I'm back in school completing prerecs for nursing school. Anatomy and Physiology I is the first class I've taken in 12 years and I'm having SO much FUN!

Yes, the class is difficult but not why you'd think. It's difficult because of the amount of material that we have to learn in the amount of time we have to learn it. The material is actually extremely interesting. I was worried going into the class that I wouldn't study properly or that the class would be too difficult but I've found a FABULOUS study group which makes it 10x easier and a heck of a lot more fun :) We've all signed up for A & P II next semester so study group and the ridiculously fun study sessions will continue!

Here are me and the girls and then a picture of the girls studying

Here is K being an oligodendrocyte and D showing how neurons are connected

Here is A being an astrocyte and me showing how neurons communicate.

Here is D teaching us about the spinal cord and the owner of the place that we study at likes having us there so much that he offered to reserve our "section" each Monday night so that we'd have a place to study. So we showed up this past Monday and he had made this sign :) He made us a name and everything - How fun is that :)

Camping with Friends

2010-11-14T20:18:00.005-06:00

We typically like to go camping a couple of times a year but for one reason or another we've missed the last THREE camping trips with our friends! So when planning this most recent one we were determined to make this one happen. Even when it turned out that we picked one of the coldest weekends yet :)

Ryan found a fabulous place for us to camp called Pilot Knoll Park and we were excited to try it out. So we loaded up the car and headed out to campsite number 22 to set up camp around 2pm yesterday. The weather was actually nice and sunny when we set up camp but once the sun went down we were COLD. I had brought hand and foot warmers for all along with a couple of larger warmers that we all put in our sleeping bags to keep us warm. They actually worked pretty well.

This camping trip was a lot of fun. The kids fished with worms on their hooks, made worm habitats for some of the luckier worms, & fed the ducks.
We all grilled burgers, spider dogs and beans for dinner, made s'mores, snuggled into our sleeping bags at night (made that much warmer by the handy warmers placed at the bottom of our sleeping bags), and had hot chocolate and breakfast burritos this morning.

Everything you'd expect from a camping trip and more!

Halloween & Pumpkin Carving 2010

2010-10-31T23:37:00.008-05:00

Yay! We're all well this year and were all able to go Trick or Treating :)

This year we had a lot of fun in our costumes. Little Miss was invited to a fabulous Halloween party at one of her friend's houses. The next night we had a family Halloween party at a friend's house in Dallas and then we went out trick or treating tonight. Super fun Halloween for our family this year!

As for costumes, Little Miss went as Cleopatra, Little Man was Batman, I was an F-15 fighter pilot, and Ryan went as Poncho Villa. Luckily the kid's costumes still fit! We've had these costumes since last year since we didn't get to go last year because Little Miss and I had swine flu.

Ryan and the kids carved and decorated our pumpkins this afternoon while I was at a friend's house sewing on Little Miss's Daisy scout patches. Once I got home we had dinner and got ready to go out trick or treating. We took the kids door to door in our neighborhood and they were a hit!

Daisy Scouts go horseback riding

2010-10-30T18:04:00.001-05:00

Today the Daisy scouts went horseback riding! The girls had a ball. First the girls learned all about horses, saddles, and what to call different parts of a horse and his hooves. Then we got to go outside and take turns riding a horse.

After that the girls all heard a story about Daisy Scout founder, Juliette Low, because her birthday is this weekend. We learned how she founded the Daisy Scouts and why and then we made a necklace to represent who she was and what kinds of things the first Daisy Scouts did. Very educational and fun afternoon!

Ryan's 38th

2010-10-24T22:10:00.005-05:00

Ryan turned 38 today :)

It was actually a pretty uneventful, normal day.

Church in the morning followed by general house stuff (Ryan weeded the garden). Then we went to our group connect meeting (church group) and then it was home for a delicious dinner of hamburgers, baked beans, fruit, and potato salad. Then we all cozied down to watch our newly purchased How to Train your Dragon.

We did presents when we did the group birthday dinner for Ryan, my father in law and Little Miss at the beginning of October. As a family, we gave Ryan a Texas Tech flag to fly on game day :) We've already used it twice! WRECK 'EM TECH!

I hope you had a fabulous day honey. I love you!

Little Miss turns 7

2010-10-03T21:24:00.006-05:00

Today is Little Miss's 7th birthday. She's truly becoming a beautiful, intelligent, sassy and articulate young lady.

We had her 7th birthday party last night and it was so much fun! This year we decided to have a smaller party - she only invited 6 girls. It was a faux slumber party from 6-9pm. The girls were dropped off at 6pm. They ran through the house and played up and downstairs until everyone had arrived. Then we started with our first craft. We all made necklaces with our names on them. This was followed by a dinner of pizza and breadsticks. Next we made sleeping masks out of felt, purple sparkly fabric, sequins, and jewels.

Now time for our fashion show. Little Miss and I had gone to Goodwill and picked out 8 oversized dresses that she liked along with purses, jewelry, and hats. The girls each picked out an outfit and accessories and then I announced each one of them as they came through the sparkly door hangings to show off their ensemble. After the fashion show they ate birthday cupcakes and then it was upstairs to brush their teeth and change into their pajamas. While they were getting ready for bed, Ryan and I got the downstairs ready for "slumber". The girls then came downstairs and chose where they wanted to sleep and we put on the brand new movie "Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale".

Little Miss (and the girls) had so much fun and honestly, so did I :)

Tonight we had Little Miss's family birthday party. We celebrated Little Miss, Ryan, and Mark's birthdays by grilling burgers and hanging out at our house!

Happy Birthday to my sweet young lady!

Bike Rodeo 2010

2010-09-24T11:51:00.007-05:00

Little Miss's school has a Bike Rodeo every year. The local police come out and do a presentation on bike safety and proper bike maintenance and then the kids go through the bike course to practice proper bike riding. This year they did it out on the lawn behind the playground and it was fabulous. The kids had to stop at the stop signs, get off their bikes and walk across the "railroad tracks" and stop at the stop light. Little Miss had a great time riding her razor through the course and she even got her picture taken with her principal, Mrs. M, whom she adores!

Little Miss's Birthday Invites

2010-09-21T16:43:00.004-05:00

We are crazy and we decided to hand make and hand deliver Little Miss's Birthday Party Invitations. So last night Little Miss and I sat down and made the invites and this afternoon we delivered them to six of her little girlfriends. She was so excited and had a blast driving from house to house to deliver them :)

The Daisy Scouts clean up

2010-09-18T21:11:00.007-05:00

Little Miss is loving being in Daisy Scouts this year! At her first meeting 3 weeks ago she learned about being Fair and Honest and earned the Fair and Honest petal on her Daisy Scout Patch. Last week the girls learned about and earned their "Make the World a Better Place" petal.

This morning, to reinforce that lesson, our troop headed over to the local community center for the Keep "Our City" Beautiful day. They gave us trash bags, recycling bags, gloves, and trash picker upper grabbers and sent us out to a local park to pick up trash. We picked up trash a two local parks, learned to identify poison ivy, and then went to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream social. The girls had a great time and learned a little about caring for our community in the process.

Little Man starts 5 days a week...

2010-09-13T10:25:00.004-05:00

I'm sad! We had to move Little Man into the 5 day a week preschool program today. It was such a hard decision but we think it is the best decision for our situation. We had planned on him only going 3 days a week because it is his last year in preschool and because he has the REST of his life to go to school EVERY day. Ultimately, though, we knew that he could handle either program and had to make the best decision for me and school. I simply need more time to STUDY.

So this morning Little Man moved into his new class. It's 5 days a week and he switched teachers and classrooms. His new teacher is great (as was his old teacher) and he does know some kids in his new class already. I'm sure he'll be fine but I'm still sad about having him gone every day.

Little Man's First Day of his Last Year of Preschool

2010-09-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

Little Man has his first day of Preschool today. It's his last year at this school since he'll start elementary school next year. He was super excited, likes his teacher, and I'm sure he'll have a fabulous year!

Daisy Scouts

2010-09-01T23:35:00.003-05:00

Little Miss has joined a new Daisy Scout troop this year and we are SO excited! Tonight was her first meeting and she had a ball :)

Ryan took her to the meeting tonight while I was in class. They made a flower bag to bring their supplies to the meetings and they earned two patches.

Here's to a great Daisy Scout year!

First Day of 1st Grade

2010-08-23T08:29:00.003-05:00

Little Miss looses Tooth #5

2010-08-18T21:57:00.002-05:00

Little Miss lost tooth #5 today (her bottom left, next to the middle). I came to pick her up from gymnastics camp and she ran over and showed me the empty space :) She had been eating a granola bar for her snack at camp and said that her tooth hurt. She put her hand up to feel why and her tooth fell out in her hand.

The Oleo Ranch 2010

2010-08-15T23:08:00.003-05:00

We left Texas this past week for some much needed rest and relaxation (and cooler temperatures) in Colorado at The Oleo Ranch.

We left out of DFW around 9:30am on Saturday morning, August 7th. Drove all day Saturday and stayed the night in Alamosa.

Got up Sunday morning, went grocery shopping at City Market and got on the road. We stopped at a little shop (can't remember the town) that had a live elk and some reindeer before we actually started up the mountain. We bought some elk sausage and some antler tip necklaces for the kids and then checked out the reindeer and the huge elk. Then we headed up the mountin. Just before we went over the Continental Divide we saw a bunch of elk in the valley - many more than we normally see. The kids got out their binoculars (as did we) and we watched them for a bit. We also stopped at North Clear Creek Falls to see the beautiful waterfall which we weren't able to see last year because they were fixing the fence that keeps you from falling off the cliff :)

On Monday the kids and Ryan went fishing in the stream and then later at the ponds while I stayed at the cabins and painted my rocks. I also played a bit of Quiddler with my mom, sister, and mother in law. The kids also finally got to do their "dino fossil dig" activity that I bought and it was a hit!

*Ryan and the kids before they went fishing and Little Miss and Little Man out in the streams*

*Little Man fishing the ponds and Little Miss helping Gramps with his fish. *

*The Great Fossil Dig 2010 - Little Man had his open in abour 3 minutes but Little Miss took her time and really tried to be as slow and patient as a real paleontologist*

Tuesday was Lake City day. On the way down the mountain to town we passed a guy riding a unicycle down the mountain. We stopped at a scenic overlook a little ways down and the unicycle guy ended up stopping there as well. Turns out he was a member of a unicycle group and was unicycling over all of the major mountain passes in Colorado - I believe he said there were 32 and he was on #30. It was great getting to talk to him. We hung around Lake City for a couple of hours. We did some shopping and then hit up our favourite ice cream shop in town. On the way up the mountain Ryan spied some wild raspberries so we stopped to pick a few.

*Me and Little Miss -Here is how we do our hair in the mountains :) -Us at the Scenic Overlook*

*The Unicycler - Lara and I - Ryan and Little Man "They're watching us" *

*My little Rock Hound (I love geology so I'm so excited that she is a fossil and rock lover!)- The Boys ready to fish - Ryan picking raspberries *

Wednesday was definitely fishing day. Wednesday night is Fish Fry night so we needed to make sure that we had caught enough fish to feed everyone. Ryan, the kids and I headed down to the stream to catch dinner. On the way to the streams and on the way back up we stopped by the barn to love on the horses. No luck for us catching fish but everyone else had caught enough over the last couple of days that we only had one fish left at the end of the meal! After dinner we all loaded into the car around dusk and headed down to the valley to look for elk. We came upon the most elk we'd ever seen. They were grazing and "talking" to each other. Kids loved it!

On Thursday we headed down to Creede. On the way down to Creede we stopped to do a small hike up to a pretty waterfall. It was the first time the kids have done a "hike" before. Then it was down the mountain to Creede for some shopping and FABULOUS maple fudge :) Before leaving town we took the kids up to see the old mines which are always incredible to see. Once back at the ranch we took the kids to the ponds for some spinning rod fishing. Little Man reeled one in for Ryan and Little Miss got her boot stuck in the mud. Back at the cabin it was our last night there after dinner we busted out the glow stick bracelets. Then it was time for bed because we had a long day of driving on Friday!

*Little Miss & Little Man on the hike - Little Man hiking with his hiking stick - The waterfall we hiked to see*

*Ryan and Little Miss checking out the waterfall - Little Miss and I through the trees*

*The old mines in Creede - Ryan and Little Man fishing - Me taking pictures of my family*

Friday morning we headed out for Lubbock. We drove through some major storms just north of Lubbock and took some beautiful sunset and rainbow pictures. We got into Lubbock around 9:30pm and headed straight to Mamarita's for some of their FABULOUS chips and queso!

Saturday was Texas Tech day! We drove through campus and reminised - took pictures with the kids and played in the fountain. Then we hit up a couple of our favourite stores to get the kids (and us) some Texas Tech gear :) Before we left town we met up with one of my college girlfriends, Brit, and her family to have lunch and catch up. We're thinking that we might come back to Lubbock for a football game this season and so that the kids can visit Brit's kids and check out their farm! We left Lubbock around 330pm and got into DFW around 9:30pm. Kids did great this trip and we were happy that Lara and Ryan came this time too!

Waco Road Trip

2010-08-04T22:20:00.005-05:00

What an exhausting and fabulous day :)

We headed south to Waco this morning to meet our friends from Austin for a fun filled afternoon at the museum. We met at 11am at the Collin Street Bakery to fill our tummies with lunch and some of their yummy cookies and then it was on to visit the Mayborn Museum.

Our main purpose for the trip was to visit the Lego Castle Adventure exhibit. It was really amazing. There were building stations for old and young, dragons, knights, and even stained glass made completely out of legos, and the kids favourite - a computerized catapult.
After taking in our fill of the Lego exhibit we hit the rest of the museum. We spent 5 hours exploring the 17 themed Discovery rooms which included the Water and Bubbles Room, the Health Room, the Energy Room, and the People of the World Room. It was definitely worth the drive. Super fun summer day!

Lara's First Bridal Shower and Zing Zang Zoom Circus

2010-07-31T22:45:00.005-05:00

What a crazy day!

My sister's first bridal shower was this morning :) Her best friend came up from Houston to help host at my mom's house. Lara invited her best girlfriends and we had a blast. We played "Dress the Bride" and Bridal Bingo, munched on turkey and cream cheese sandwhiches, Chick Fil A nuggets, and fabulous cake and Lara opened some fabulous presents from lingerie to more lingerie! A really fun shower if I do say so myself.

After the shower I headed out because Ryan, the kids and I had tickets for the circus. Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's Zing Zang Zoom circus was great! A wacky, fun filled circus with horses, elephants, and tigers along with the crazy guys who walk around the large spinning circle. Kids loved it!

Pinkalicious

2010-07-30T20:44:00.006-05:00

Pinkalicious came to Southlake today!

The kids and I (along with a couple of our friends) went to see Pinkalicious - a play put on by a local acting company.

After the play (which was fabulous) we headed over to one of our favourite Grapevine parks - the Spider Park. We had a picnic lunch and ran off some energy with our tennis friends.

The Clutter Diet

2010-07-18T13:18:00.011-05:00

OK, so as many people know, my "special talent" is writing ditties. I call them ditties anyways. I'm really good at writing rhyming poems and I write them for all occasions: birthday invitations, baby showers, contest entries, etc.

So last Fall (September I believe) I was reading through Good Housekeeping magazine in a doctor's office when I came across an article about clutter. It was an article that the author wrote because she had found a website (http://www.clutterdiet.com/) that was a service to help you reduce cluttter and chaos in your home. The author subscribed to the website and then wrote an article about how it helped her clean up the clutter in her home.

I got home from the doctor's office and visited the website and found out that they were working with Good Housekeeping (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/) and were having a clutter makeover contest. The contest was to write an essay (250 words or less) about why you need a clutter makeover from Lorie Marrero (CEO of clutterdiet.com and author of The Clutter Diet).

So with the help of my fabulous sister (who usually writes the ditties with me) we wrote a 250 word ditty about the clutter in my home and why I should be chosen to win the contest.

The winner was to receive a signed copy of The Clutter Diet, two days of in home organizing with Lorie Marrero, and a $1000 gift card to the Container Store.

I submitted my entry at the end of October and pretty much forgot about it. Then in June of 2010 a box showed up on my doorstep. I opened it and out falls The Clutter Diet book and a letter stating that I had won the contest and should call to claim my prizes!

Long story short... Lorie Marrero came to my house this past Thursday and Friday to help us organize our office and garage! On top of that, she called in a favor and was able to get overhead garage storage (from http://www.saferacks.com/ - Rich Adams) installed in my garage for free.

Thursday morning at 7:30am Lorie showed up on my doorstep. We had decided in advance that we were going to organize the office and the garage and some small "hot spot" areas in my kitchen and master closet. Thursday morning we got to work on the garage (while it was still relatively "cool"). After lunch on Thursday we started on the office. We left my house at 6:30pm on Thursday night to do some super fun shopping at the Container Store in Southlake. We showed up and they congratulated me and handed me a gift card for $1000! We shopped for 2 hours and ended up spending $725 on storage solutions for the office, garage, kitchen, master bath, and even got something for Little Miss's room. After checking out we headed over to Mi Cocina's for some much needed dinner. She left on Thursday night around 11pm and was back for more early Friday morning.

Ryan worked from home Friday and was able to help with the garage organizing. We finished the garage around 2pm on Friday afternoon, broke for lunch, and then did some shopping at Office Max and Target. The office organization was crazy (and VERY necessary) and we didn't get totally finished until around 1am Saturday morning.

It was an AMAZING two days with Lorie. She was very adament that she didn't want to "organize and run" but really wanted me to learn organizing techniques and routines that worked for us and our life. She wanted to make sure that everything was specifically geared towards fitting into our lives instead of a cookie cutter approach to organizing. I learned some ways to think about items in our home and where we put them that I hadn't thought of but that make so much sense.

My favourite things that I learned included:

* A, B, C, and D - categorizing our items and the location for those items and the frequency with which we use them

* Numbered filing system - this specific system will REALLY work for us and completely fixes my perfectionist problem

* ART - Action, Reference, Trash for papers coming into the house

* NEXT ACTION - What is the NEXT ACTION for this?

By no means is this all that I learned these past two days but these 4 things really changed the way that I think about items in our home and what to do with things as they come into the house.

It was so amazing to have Lorie here for the last couple of days. She really helped me to overcome many of my organizational hurdles and put systems and/or routines into place to keep the house looking as fabulous as it does right now!

Thank you Lorie for all of the HARD WORK and teaching that you did these last two days. I had a blast getting to know you, laughing with you, and learning from you. Thank you for helping us get some sanity back into our home and making our office and garage look so spectacular!

Before and After shots of the garage and office:

My Clutter Makeover Contest Poem (this is my contest entry):

We're a family of four with two young kids

One is six, the other is three

We have a nice big house with tons of space

But when you walk in the door stacks are all you can see

The kitchen counter it seems is where things multiply

Current bills, magazines and old 'to do' lists

The office is where the clutter piles high

Filing papers here doesn't exist

Our office has morphed into the paper cemetery

The piles are put there to die

Trying to run my home business in there is quite hard

My customers just look at me and sigh

Piles upon piles, boxes of stuff

Where to put it of course where we eat

Our dining room table collects frames and old broken lamps

You'll probably never find a seat

Now onto the master bedroom it's one of the worst

With clothes thrown about on the dresser and floor

And books and such overtook the nightstand

Restful sanctuary it's not - I just run for the door

Finally the garage, my husband's retreat

And the home of our family minivan

Problem is you can't find a screw or a wrench when you need it

Because it's buried beneath old saddles and rusting coffee cans

So Lorie please come with your Clutter Diet method

Four years is too long to live in such a mess

Please help us organize our lives and create systems that work

So that we won't have to deal with all of this stress!

Weekend in Nashville

2010-07-12T11:59:00.010-05:00

In continuation of our "Summer of Vacations", Ryan and I spent a long weekend in Nashville this past weekend.

We flew out of DFW Thursday night and got into Nashville around 11:30pm (our flight was delayed because of bad weather in Dallas so we didn't get onto the plane until 9 pm). Friday was a pretty quiet day. Laurie had to work and Denver went up to her work to go to a work baby shower that they had for her. Ryan and I lounged around the house for a bit. Once Denver got home the boys packed up for a quick campout that night. They fished and drank and fished some more.

Pics from the guys camping trip...

Laurie and I hung around the house once she got home and chatted about baby stuff and finally went to dinner around 7pm. We ate some great hibachi and ended up talking for a while with the people sitting next to us (imagine that!).

On Saturday the boys got home around 10am and Laurie and I headed out to her baby shower at 11:15am. The boys fished and hung out while Laurie and I played baby shower games, had awesome cake, and exclaimed "cute, awww, adorable" over all of her baby shower gifts :)

Sunday was Target shopping day and lunch at Red Robin before Ryan and I got on the plane back to Dallas!

Thanks guys for a great weekend!

Independence Day 2010

2010-07-05T23:39:00.007-05:00

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend is one of the only weekends that we'll be home by ourselves this summer :) For the rest of the summer we've got trips planned and friends coming in to stay for the weekend so we made the most of our time this weekend.

Ryan was outside planning out our patio - getting the sand level and determining the placement of the patio pavers that we have. He also put up our big American flag outside the house today and put the small ones all along the walk for 4th of July. I was inside painting our laundry room walls so that we could redo and finish the laundry room. We pulled up the carpet, took out the blinds, knocked out the lower cabinet and prepped the walls for painting. Ryan stained the floor and replaced the baseboards. Next I'll get some cute rugs and window treatments and the laundry room will be complete :)

After I finished painting on Saturday, we took the kids to a new location to go and see our local fireworks show. We sat on the side of a major road near the Kroger and watched fireworks from the nearby baseball park. After fireworks the kids popped their poppers and then it was time for bed!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

AHS Weekend in San Antonio

2010-06-27T23:07:00.014-05:00

What a crazy weekend it's been!

This past weekend my best friends from high school and I decided to have a mini Alconbury High School reunion in San Antonio.

Originally it was supposed to be a reunion for me and my three best friends from high school. But it turned out that we were planning our little reunion when some of the other classes were planning a big 20 year reunion down on the river walk.

Here are Tara, Becky, me, and Amy in front of a British telephone booth :)

Soooo.... I flew in Friday morning and arrived in SA at 9:50am. Amy and her two fabulous kiddos picked me up from the airport and we went back to her house so that she could pack because we were staying at Becky's house for the weekend. Amy packed up and then we dropped her son of with Beau and then we headed to Habaneros for one of their FABULOUS Cheesy Bean Burritos. I have been craving one since the last time we were there. After lunch Amy (along with her 6 month old daughter) and I went to TJ Maxx to do a bit of shopping. Her husband came to pick up her daughter while we were shopping and then we went to pick up Tara from Makeisha's apartment.

We got Tara and then headed to Becky's house to move in for the weekend!

Once settled in at Becky's it was full steam ahead for our crazy weekend! Amy had brought snacks that each of us had introduced to her. She brought Frito Bean dip and Fritos because Becky introduced those to her, Rotel, Velveta, and chips for Tara and Butter Noodles for me :) We chatted a bit about "old times" and then decided we weren't THAT old and should go out to dinner!

We all got dressed for the evening and headed over to happy hour at a restaurant/bar that one of Amy's friends was singing at. Super fun night! Her girlfriend was great and we all had a good time catching up.

On Saturday we got up around 10am, hung around Becky's house for a while and then all got dressed for the day. We headed over to The Shops at La Cantera for a little shopping. We decided to eat lunch at the Food Court first and then shop. After lunch the first shop we hit was Sephora and we were there for 3 hours! Tara, Becky, and I all got our eyes done by Stefanie (who was fabulous) so that we could look great for that night. Then we hit the semi annual sale at Victoria's Secret. After shopping we went back to Becky's because Tara was going to the AHS Reunion dinner at the Holiday Inn La Tropicana with Makeisha.

After Tara left for the dinner we all sat around and looked at old picture albums and laughed about our high school days. Then we got ready for the night. Before we left for the hotel we took some pictures in Becky's kitchen.

When we got to the hotel we hooked up with the rest of the AHS group, got into taxis, and headed over to the Riverwalk. We ended up at Mad Dogs British Pub and stayed there most of the night. There was drinking, dancing, taking shots, more dancing and a ton of picture taking. Then we walked back to the hotel (Becky and Amy walked back barefoot because their shoes were hurting their feet). After hanging out at the hotel pool for a while (that's where the real reunion people were having their get together) we left to go back to Becky's house.

On our way out of downtown SA we ended up passing a Lulu's Cafe and decided to stop and try one of their ridiculously large cinnamon rolls. While there we ran into Monica who came over to have his picture taken with us. It was a crazy night and definitely one that we will never forget!

We've decided to continue the tradition and try to get together once every year or two - next BFF reunion - Atlanta! See you girls in 2011!!

Our 11th Anniversary

2010-06-26T11:36:00.000-05:00

It's our 11 year anniversary today!

11 years ago I married my best friend who I still love with all my heart and after being married this long I've truly been able to discover what an honorable, loving provider I married. Thanks for the best 11 years of my life ~ I'm so lucky to be able to spend the rest of my life with you :)
Happy Anniversary Honey!!

Ryan wrote this on my Facebook page this morning:

After 11 years is life still fun? You bet!
Does the heart still flutter? Like a hummingbird!
Does the world get more challenging the farther you go? Duh!
It is good to have a great wife to share it with!
Happy Anniversary Baby! Love you and have fun in SA!

Mommy, my brother knocked my tooth out!

2010-06-20T18:20:00.003-05:00

While I was updating our blog this afternoon I heard an "Ooof" which was quickly followed with a scream. Little Miss started screaming, "Brother knocked my tooth out - Brother knocked my tooth out!" She was running around the TV room with blood coming out of her mouth yelling about her tooth :)

Aparently she and Little Man had been playing with the two large pillows from our bedroom. They had been playing "Bunk the pillow". Little Man punched her in the face with one of the pillows. Then Little Miss put her hand up to feel her other tooth that had already fallen out because she had felt something when the pillow hit her face. Once she felt there she realized that the other tooth that had been loose (her top right middle tooth) had actually fallen out. Then she yelled.... My tooth came out, Mommy, Daddy, my tooth came out!

Kona Village, Hawaii 2010 - Day 6

2010-06-17T21:24:00.012-05:00

What did we do today??

*Ziplinin'

*Sunset dinner for two

Oh yeah! Ziplinin' in Hawaii today!

This morning Ryan and Denver finally got to do a little snorkling for about an hour this morning. They did some brother bonding and had a lot of fun :)

After breakfast I dropped the kids off with Mark and Lynda (who were kind enough to watch them all day today) and Ryan, Lara, Ryan, Mom, Dad, and I headed off to Hawi, HI for a little ziplinin'.

We drove for north for a little over an hour and arrived at the Big Island Eco Adventures check in station. There we met the rest of our group and our guides. We got the BEST guides!! John Wayne and Amanda were our guides and not only were they extremely knowledgable about the island and it's history and terrain but they were also hilarious, super fun to hang out with and just plain AWESOME guides! We had SO MUCH FUN ziplinin'. The trip to get to the ziplines was a tour in itself. John Wayne and Amanda filled us in on the local information as we drove and even gave us an added side trip to check out the views at the Pololu Valley Lookout. While the views were spectacular, Wayne's driving abilities (including his ridiculously amazing ability to do the turnaround at the lookout) were definitely something to be talked about. After the lookout we headed back to turn into the dirt road that took us up to the zips. I was amazed that the "jeep" we were in made it up some of the "hills" and through some of the "ponds" that we drove into. Super fun trip up!

As for the ziplinin' - we did a total of 8 zips - we did 6 and then stopped at the Mac Nut Hut for a snack/drink/rest. The Hut overlooks a beautiful waterfall. Next we crossed a suspension bridge and did 2 more zips. The second to the last one was our favourite with a waterfall on one side and an awsome ocean view on the other. The last zip was over 1000 feet long with a running jump off a "cliff". It was also the fastest.

Seriously, I can't say enough great things about this tour. I have to thank Lara and Ryan for deciding that we should do this and also for talking mom and dad into coming along :)

After we got back from ziplinin' Mom and Dad were so great and took the kids to dinner and back to our hale for us so that Ryan and I could have a dinner by ourselves. We dined at the Hale Samoa at a table overlooking the beach and had dinner as the sun set. I had the most amazing Chicken Tomato soup and the one of the best steaks I've ever eaten - seriously!

Ryan and I ziplinin'...

Ryan walking the suspension bridge and me about to zip.

These two videos are of Ryan and me zipping :)

Scroll down to the bottom of the blog if you want to pause the music so that you can hear the video.