Little Miss's First Day of Kindergarten

Little Miss was SO excited this morning! She was actually out of bed at 6:30 am - came into our room and said "Get up, it's time for me to go to Kindergarten!!"

We picked out her outfit last night along with the socks and shoes that she was going to wear and how we were going to do her hair. It took her a while to get to bed because she was just too excited.

This morning she brushed her teeth, got her clothes on, and came down for breakfast. We got her lunch all together and put it in her backpack (that's the only thing that she had in her backpack) and then went out to take some "First Day of School" pictures. Then it was off to school.

We parked a bit away from the school and then we all walked to the school. Little Man was running ahead and tripped on the concrete and busted his knee on the way in. He must have really hurt himself because he cried the entire time - we ended up taking him to the nurse's office to clean out the scrape and put a bandaid on it.

Once we got to Little Miss's classroom she headed right in, put her backpack and lunch box in her locker, went to her table and started working on the colouring project her teacher had set out for her. That was it - she didn't look back!


Ryan and I left with Little Man and headed to the library for the "Boo Hoo / Yahoo Breakfast" that they had. We didn't get to stay for long though because Little Man was so beside himself about his knee that we had to come home so that he would calm down.

All in all it wasn't exactly as I'd pictured it would be but we got her off to school without any tears! Great morning.... can't wait to hear about her day this afternoon!

Little Miss loses her first tooth!

Little Miss lost her first tooth today!! We were sitting in the car at Sonic. We had stopped to get lunch. She had a hotdog and had eaten most of it. Suddenly she says, Mommy, I have to show you something. She gets out of her booster seat and runs to the front of the car. Then she starts telling me that as she bit into her hotdog her tooth went really far back and as she's telling me the story, the tooth fell out in her mouth. Luckily she didn't swallow it :)
We put the tooth in a ziplock bag so that we wouldn't lose it - it's so small!
Then when I put her to bed tonight, she put the tooth in her tooth fairy bear for the tooth fairy. What a fun day as a parent of a 5 year old :)

Little Miss Plays Tennis

Little Miss started Tennis Camp this week and she loves it! Yeah!
This is her first dabble at tennis and I was really hoping that she'd like it. The first day she learned how to hold the racquet and how to step forward and bring the racquet back. They did a little bit of volleying at the net as well. On Tuesday they repeated the information they learned on Monday and then they started to learn the swing. Today they repeated all that they had learned and kept practicing.

Dentist Appointments

The kids and I went to the dentist today!

It was Little Man's first visit to the dentist today. I was a bit worried about how he'd do - wasn't sure if he'd let them poke around in his mouth :) He did AWESOME! He did everything they asked him to do and his teeth look great.

Little Miss has been to the dentist a couple of times. She got her first set of X-rays today. She went off with the dental hygienist all by herself to get her X-rays and have her teeth cleaned. After she was finished she came running over and told me that she had two loose teeth! Unbelievable! Is she old enough to have two loose teeth? How did I not know? She was so excited :) The dentist said if she kept wiggling them a lot that they'd probably be out in a month or so.


My dental cleaning was uneventful!

Crocodile Dock Vacation Bible School 2009

Fear Not!

This year's VBS theme was Crocodile Dock: Where Fearless Kids Shine God's Light!

What an awesome week we had at VBS. I volunteered to be the director for the second year and it was a lot easier than last year - although still a lot of work!

The kids learned the five daily Bible points (reinforced with Crafts, Snacks, and Chadder's DVD):
Day 1: God is with us!
Day 2: God is powerful!
Day 3: God does what he says he'll do!
Day 4: God gives us life!
Day 5: God cares for us!

And they learned a daily Bible story (acted out each day in Bible Bayou & Games):
Day 1: Moses and the burning bush
Day 2: The plagues come to Egypt
Day 3: God spares the Israelites at Passover
Day 4: Jesus dies and rises to new life
Day 5: The Israelites cross the Red Sea.

They rotated through 5 different stations each day: Dockside Drive-In (Chadder's DVD Adventures), Bible Bayou (Drama), Crafts, Games, and Snacks. Each station reinforced the Bible point and Bible story. My mom led the Dockside Drive-In for the second year and Little Miss and Little Man loved being able to see Nana everyday!

Oleo Ranch Colorado 2009

But the Colorado Rocky Mountain High
I've seen it raining fire in the sky
Shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby
Rocky Mountain High
Rocky Mountain High
~ Rocky Mountain High by John Denver


Just got back from another wonderful family vacation to the Oleo Ranch in Colorado.

We loaded up the car (including my sister, who decided to come this year) and left Dallas on Friday, July 3rd. We drove about 14 hours and stayed the night in Alamosa, CO. We bought all of our food & supplies in Alamosa on Saturday morning and then set out for the 4 hour drive up the mountain.

This year we stayed in the La Garita which is the largest cabin there. It is two stories with one bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and main living/eating area on the upper floor and 3 more rooms and a bathroom on the lower floor. Ryan and I and the kids stayed in the upper bedroom and my in-laws, parents, sister, and parent's friends stayed in the three bedrooms on the lower floor. My brother and sister-in-law came as well but they got their own cabin just down the road :)

We went down to Lake City for the 4th of July festivities this year. It's the second year we've been able to spend the 4th in Lake City and it's a lot of fun. Very small town 4th of July feel. There is a street dance with a band and everyone gathers in the town square for games, ice cream, and ultimately fireworks. The fireworks are shot off the top of the mountain that overlooks Lake City. I really do love spending 4th of July there. The kids danced, played on the playground, ate ice cream, and made necklaces out of the glow sticks that I brought for them!

This year in Colorado was the best yet with the kids. The kids are finally old enough to really enjoy all of the activities there. They were able to do a lot more fishing then in years past. Ryan would throw the line out and Little Miss or Little Man would reel it in. They both caught a lot of fish this year :)

I really enjoyed this year as well. Lara was able to come this year. She hasn't come in about 5 years so it was great having her there. All the women (me, Lara, Mom, Lynda, Laurie, and Rita) had so much fun playing Quiddler, Spinner, and a new favourite, Stupid. We also got read a lot and Lara brought a Nintendo DS this year so we had fun rebuilding our Mario Brothers skills! We were able to get into town on three different occasions this year - once in Creede and twice in Lake City - I always love shopping there!

The guys did a lot of fishing, hiking, and more fishing :) Ryan got to spend a lot of time with his brother and some great quality time with each of the kids.

Little Man ended up getting sick on Wednesday afternoon. By Wednesday night his fever was 102.3 and I was worried. Ryan went cabin to cabin and ended up finding us some Children's Motrin (lesson learned - don't forget the fever reducer!!). Thursday morning I took him down to the clinic in Lake City and it ended up he had Strep Throat AGAIN! While we were in town with Little Man though, Ryan and Little Miss got to spend an entire afternoon together. They hiked down to the streams and Little Miss helped Ryan catch fish. They chatted and fished all afternoon - great Daddy/Daughter bonding time!

We stopped in Lubbock for the night on the way home. Got up the next morning and toured campus. A lot has changed since Ryan and I went there! We stopped at the spirit shops and bought each of us a Texas Tech shirt (even picked up a couple for my Godsister) and then had lunch at Mamaritas (the best queso!). We got home Saturday night around 10 pm.

Overall, I think that this was my favourite Colorado trip in a long time.

Here is Little Miss writing in her journal - she carried it everywhere :)

Little Miss & Little Man fishing ---------------------- Denver & Laurie at their cabin

Bailey

12 years. For the last 12 years she's been my friend, my baby girl, my first dog. And today, I had to put her down.

Sometime in March 1997 while at college in Lubbock, I heard about someone who had lab puppies. They had a couple left and were looking for good homes for them. I went to take a look and fell in love with the super cute butterscotch coloured puppy. The people really needed to get the puppies gone so when I gave them my $25 they threw in an extra puppy for free :)

My future roommate, Christine, took the black lab and named her Morgan and I got the yellow lab and named her Bailey. She was about 15 pounds and SO cute. At that time I lived on the second floor of my apartment complex and Bailey was too scared to go down the stairs outside so for 2-3 months I carried her down the stairs to take her outside.

Bailey has always been super active. She and Morgan loved to dig holes in the backyard in Lubbock. She also loved to play ball in the field down the road from my house. There were many times that Christine and I would come home and find both dogs taking up the entire sofa (it was an L shaped sofa so that says a lot). My mom remembers Bailey and Morgan best from the first Christmas that I brought them both home - we came home from midnight mass and Morgan had taken a bag of the fake snow in her mouth and shook it ALL OVER the living room. It truly was a white indoor Christmas in San Antonio :)

When Ryan and I got married, Bailey grudgingly allowed Ryan to bring his dogs (PJ, Jack, and Little Dog) with him when we moved in together - although she was always the dominant dog and reminded them frequently.

When Ryan and I had kids she was always the one to allow the kids to pull on her hair, tug her ears, and roll on top of her and I never had to worry that she would bite them. She was a great family dog.

I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes thinking about all of the wonderful memories that I'll have of her. She was gentle, loving and loyal - my first dog on my own and the first dog my kids ever knew. I will miss her terribly.

Rest in peace Bailey...

March 1997

Fall 1997 and 2004

2005 with Little Miss and August 2006 with Little Man

Bailey this morning