This Is Getting Serious!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-27T10:08:00.007-06:00

I thought I would try to get back to blogging...we will see how long this will last!! This was our first Christmas in our new house and it really does feel like we have been here forever. We have made so many great friends in the neighborhood and our neighbors are wonderful!! We were surprised before Christmas with a beautiful plant and a hurricane lamp from our next door neighbor that we don't see very often, but their daughter is in Blayne's class at school. I am sure we will see more of them in the next year as the mom quit her job and will be home more. Tayah and Blayne are becoming fast friends. Another neighbor was out delivering "Texas Trash" one day and we received fudge another day! We are loving this neighborhood!!

Our Christmas started off a little different than usual. We were invited (or I invited us, I can't remember!!) to join the Stanga siblings for a little before Christmas celebration. Little did they know that there would be lots more to celebrate:) Head on over to the Stanga Train to read the story of Molly's engagement!! It was such a great surprise and so much fun to be a part of!!

This was followed by a Stanga family brunch the following day which, of course, turned into an extended celebration for Molly and Larry!! It was all so perfect and nobody even knew that Larry was going to propose!!

Of course, Christmas continued from there as usual. We went to Christmas Eve service with Chris' family. We took our annual picture of the kids in front of the church Christmas tree:

After Christmas Eve dinner, the kids were ready to open presents!! Once the last present was opened, it was time to walk over to the Dailey's to take them their gifts. Chris and I partook in our annual buttery nipple shot with the Dailey's!! Yes, even 87 year old, Oma, still takes a shot on Christmas Eve!! After all of that fun, we headed home to get ready for Santa!!

Santa came to visit, but Miss Blayne didn't get out of bed until 9AM on Christmas morning!! She said that she forgot that it was Christmas!! She woke up to all of this:

Blayne must have been really good this year because she got lots of great presents including her favorite gift...an itouch!!

We spent the rest of Christmas day celebrating with food and fun at the Stanga's!! As usual, we had a fabulous Christmas dinner, gifts for the kids and LOTS of wine!!

We have been very blessed this Christmas and have created lots of new memories in our new home...I couldn't ask for more!! Although I am going to miss my favorite Christmas decoration this year:

You just can't beat all of our family and friends smiling faces as soon as you walk in the door!! Maybe I'll just leave those up a little longer:)

Writer's cramp?

2010-06-30T09:51:00.004-05:00

So, I am dusting off the ole' blog for some really big news!! We are MOVING!! We are very excited that after over a year of searching, (our realtor actually told us that she first came out to our house in Feb '09!!) we have finally found a house that will work for us. The house actually went on the market while we were on vacation and we made an appointment to see it as soon as we got home. It didn't take any time to decide that this was it. We put an offer in on the home last Thursday after meeting with the realtor to list our home on Wednesday night. Then we prepared for a busy weekend of showings...not my favorite part!! They did let us sleep in Saturday, but we had to be out of our house by about 11:30. We had 3 showings scheduled on Saturday all back to back and were cleared to go back home by 2pm. Until we got a call asking if the last realtor could schedule a 2nd showing that evening. This time we stalked them!! We were next door meeting with our realtor, so we just kept an eye on who was there. We were relieved that is was a nice older woman and what appeared to be her adult children. They would be a perfect fit for our neighborhood and we were quite pleased. The same realtor scheduled a 3rd showing of our home on Monday evening and we were notified promptly after that we would have an offer by morning!! After a day of negotiating, a price was agreed upon and the contract was signed!! Such a huge relief that it only took 5 showings (3 from the same person!!) and 5 days to sell our house!! Now we will prepare for a mid August move...the perfect time of year to move in Texas;) While we are very excited about this new chapter in our lives, it is very bittersweet to be leaving behind a home that holds so many precious memories. We can't wait for all of our friends and family to come visit us, but here is a sneak peek at our new home:

Happy 6th Birthday, Blayne!!!

2010-04-18T23:07:00.006-05:00

It was another successful birthday for Miss Blayne!! I have to admit that I was a bit of a slacker mom this year. Blayne wanted to have her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and I was really dragging my feet. I am not a fan of CEC on a regular day, but I refuse to step foot in that place on a weekend!! Of course, there was also the debate of who to invite and who not to invite. I finally came up with a solution...I would bring treats and goodie bags to celebrate her birthday with her class and we would not invite any of those friends to her party, then we would have a fairly small party at CEC on a Friday afternoon (did I mention that I already had word from 2 other moms that we were going to be invited to a bday party on both sat and sun of the weekend of her birthday which left us pretty limited??). This agreement made all parties happy; however, it meant that I had work to do!! She wanted to bring cupcakes to her class, but I told her that it was made clear by the teachers that they could only bring cookies due to the mess. I convinced her that cookies shaped like cupcakes would be the next best thing!! I think they turned out pretty cute and her friends liked them!!

My mom and I got to eat lunch with Blayne at school and stay for her little party right after. Her teacher passed out the bags in the afternoon.

I always plan to do something fun for Blayne after school on her actual birthday and this year was no different. I had to get creative this year since I usually default to CEC. I decided to take her to Paint N Party and let her paint a ceramic before meeting family for dinner. She LOVED it!! I think we might make this a new tradition!! In fact, when I asked her before bed what her favorite thing that she did on her birthday was...she pointed to her new piece of art in her room:) Here are a few pictures of her beautiful art!!

Once she had finished her masterpiece, we were off to have her birthday dinner at the restaurant of her choice. Who am I kidding...if she had HER choice we would have been at McDonalds!! I told her she had to pick a REAL restaurant and she then chose Chili's...I'll take that over McDonalds any day!! We had a wonderful dinner with her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents....well, most of them!! A before tax day birthday keeps the CPA grandpa away:( He is always sure to catch up with us on the weekend though!

After a long day of birthday celebrating, we headed home and to bed because I still had LOTS of work to do to get ready for the birthday party!! Birthday party post....coming soon!!

10 years?? My time flies...

2010-03-03T20:50:00.003-06:00

So today marks a big day in our lives...today is Chris and I's 10th anniversary!! Who would have thought that he would put up with me for 10 years?? vice versa?? I have blogged about what a bittersweet day this is for me and this year is no different. I am always in awe over the short period of time that the greatest men in my life overlapped. Having both my dad and my husband beside me in those short 8-9 hours were a precious gift and while I wish that time would have been longer, I have always felt the presence of both of them.

While we have plans to celebrate our anniversary this weekend and we have both already received anniversary gifts, I thought it would be fun to surprise Chris with a yummy meal at home. Blayne and I had a mission this afternoon!! I told her that we were going to get all dressed up and have a fancy dinner...in the dining room!! That's right, the dining room!! Blayne was very excited about our evening and at one point told me, "Mommy, I am going to go play quietly in my playroom so that you and Daddy can have a nice dinner alone!" How sweet is she?? I said, "Absolutely not!! We are going to have a fancy dinner together as a family and you are going to eat with us!!" Blayne also decided that she would pick out my clothes and told me that I MUST wear my cheetah print heels. She also chose her dress and wore her 'heels'. We had a wonderful dinner consisting of sockeye salmon with lump crab meat, wild rice (garlic mashed potatoes for me!!), sauteed mushrooms, and creme brulee for dessert. While I was cooking dinner, Blayne was busy making decorations to hang in the dining room. You know, signs that say 'Happy Anvrsre!' and cut out hearts that said 'I love U'. She was so proud of her decorations!! Wish I had taken pictures of them:( Blayne also helped me out by setting the table, making sure that we had lit candles on the table, clearing the table when we were done, and bringing our desserts to the table. I also need to add that she made a request for Chris to bring home some 'fresh flowers' to put on the table, but apparently he did not abide by her request and did not arrive with the flowers!! I really don't know where she gets this stuff, but she was so incredibly sweet tonight. She was on her best behavior and had great table manners for our fancy dinner. Apparently we need to do this more often!!

I could not have asked for a better ending to an gorgeous day and I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing family!!

Tubing...Texas style!!

2010-02-12T16:40:00.005-06:00

So, our totally snowfall came in at 12.5 inches...record snowfall for us!! Today was officially a 'snow day'. We don't get to say that too often because most cancelled school days are not officially 'snow'...usually ice. Having the day off with actual snow is way more fun!! Blayne was up early this morning and ready to get outside. We quickly told her that she would have to wait until after breakfast. Just as I was starting to get my stuff done (I had LOTS planned to do today...big weekend coming up and I expected her to be in school!!), she asked if she could go out again. I finally let her out and told her that I would join her soon. It didn't take too long for her to start yelling for me from outside. I decided that if I gave her a few minutes, I could get back to what I was doing and I could get a few pictures of her in the snow. It didn't take long and we were back inside and she left me to my chores:) I finished my chores and we sat down to have a big bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup...perfect leftovers for our snow day!! I knew when I was done that I was going to have to come up with entertainment...she had been good all day!! I decided we were going to go find a hill and go tubing!! We don't really have a sled and I KNEW my child would not go down a hill in her pool floaty with her bottom dragging in the snow, so we got out the floaty and threw a black trash bag over it....worked perfectly!! We might have been a little ghetto, but we are not above ghetto by any means!! Needless to say, Blayne had a blast!!! We even went down together!! What a fun 'snow' day!

SNOW much fun!!!

2010-02-11T19:14:00.002-06:00

We have had 14 hours of nonstop snow here in North Texas and it is supposed to continue for the next 5 hours!! We have gotten about 6-7 inches of snow so far...the most we have in over 30 years!! Here are a few pictures of Blayne, Daddy and their snowfairy!!

Christmas shopping with Blayne

2009-12-30T20:12:00.007-06:00

Blayne's school doesn't have a traditional 'Santa's Secret Shop' which I am really quite happy about (especially after hearing a friend's kid spent $55 this year!!), but I love the idea that the kids get to go and pick out a special gift. I decided this year that it would be great fun to take Blayne to the local Dollar Tree...where EVERYTHING is a dollar!! I gave her a 1 gift limit for each of our family members which meant a $13 investment for me. It was well worth the investment!! And since, I couldn't be there to pick out my own gift, I enlisted a friend to help with the process. I stayed to help shop for all of the other family members until it was time for my gift. I exited and left Molly in charge of my gift and, of course, the paying part. I know, I know...I left MOLLY in charge of my kid, IN a store, CRAZY!! I headed next door to hobby lobby and waited and waited and waited for a phone call saying that they were done. After 2 phone calls to check and make sure that everything was okay and that they had enough money, I gave up and headed to sit in the car. I think it took them 3 times as long to pick out my gift as it did EVERYONE else in the family!! They finally arrived and we went home to start wrapping!! But before wrapping all of these precious gifts, we had to take a picture of each one and why she bought them!! Here they are:

Uncle Kenny so lovingly got a package of silly straws because 'he is soooo silly!!'

Aunt Heather received a beautiful new coffee mug because 'she loves hot chocolate!!'

Jacob got a great play motorcycle (which I totally thought she would get for grandpa), but no good reason!

Lauren got a squishy octopus which I think she really just wanted for herself:)

Grandma got this lovely LIME green kitchen towel which everyone immediately turns to see if it has a Christmas decoration on it. Ummm...it does not and no, it does not really match her kitchen!!

We specifically went straight to the candy aisle to shop for Grandpa because 'he loves chocolate!!' and got him this.

For Uncle Todd, she picked out a nice game because 'he likes to play games!' which I quickly told her that he also cheats:)

Nicole got a great apple, cinnamon candle which will probably not have a whole lot of smell when burned, but oh well!!

Carly received this lovely baby doll that is not creepy AT ALL!!

Daddy got a bag of animal crackers because 'he LOVES animal crackers!!' And for the record, he does...eats them every night!!

Here is my lovely gift which Molly had to inform me later why it took so long to pick out...because they had to smell EVERY smelly lotion/perfume in the entire store to pick out the PERFECT smell for me...all 3 aisles of smelly stuff!! I probably owe Molly big for this, but I ended up with some sweet cherry smelling lotion that I love soooo much:)

My mom got a lovely plastic, Christmas goblet...not really sure why...she doesn't even drink wine!!

And my favorite gift was for Richard!! She did not really explain why she was getting this gift and who were we to ask? I was trying to let her make her decision and not persuade her at all. So, when he opened it on Christmas morning and Blayne ran to him and yelled, "Tickle time!!", we all figured it out. He is constantly playing 'tickle time' with the girls...he will look at my mom and ask her what time it is and the girls immediately run to him and yell, "Tickle time!!". This is their thing and I just loved that Blayne put it all together and got him this fantastic, green, plastic watch so that he will always know what time it is!! LOVE HER!!!

Blayne's school winter party!!

2009-12-17T23:19:00.003-06:00

Blayne and I spent last night preparing for today's winter party by baking cookies (I decorated them after she went to bed!!) for her school friends and a few teachers. My mom and I both went to her party and I think the kids had great time!! They had four 'stations'...the cooking station where they made donut snowmen, the craft station where they made ornaments with their pictures, and 2 games stations playing a snowball game and musical chairs. Once the party started winding down, we passed out cookies to each of her friends. Then, we let Blayne decide who would receive the rest of the cookies. We started with the principal, assistant principal, secretary and nurse. After dropping those off at the office, we headed to the librarian, the music teacher (there are 2, but only one was there and it wasn't her favorite one!!), and the art teacher (once again, there are 2, but only one was there and it wasn't her favorite one!!). I should have made a few more cookies, so she could have included a few more people. Oh well, I think it was good enough to have made 30 of them!! Here are a few pics...

The cookie making process:

Blayne enjoying her donut snowman:

I would have taken more pics of the party, but my camera broke after taking 3 pictures!! It is now fixed and all is well...thank goodness!!

Fairy first visit

2009-12-14T21:20:00.004-06:00

UPDATE again: When Blayne got home from school, she asked about the letter from the tooth fairy!! Apparently it bothered her a little bit. She added a note back to the tooth fairy and put it back under her pillow the next night. She was relieved that the tooth fairy took her letter and left her a silver dollar!! Here is a picture of her letter to the fairy:

UPDATE: Apparently, the tooth fairy was not too amused by the way that Blayne lost her tooth and wrote her a letter. Blayne came to our room early this morning with the letter and money in hand. She asked me to turn on the light and began reading, "Dear, Blayne I heard you were not very nice..." That is as far as she got, when she promptly crumpled up the letter and threw it across the room!! Guess she was not interested in what the tooth fairy had to say!!

In true Blayne form, she lost her first tooth in a fit of drama tonight...on Carly's 5th birthday!! We celebrated Carly's birthday tonight with our family at Chili's. Everyone was having a great time until the end of our meal. I had asked Blayne several times to stop kicking Grammy's feet under the table and to stop sliding under the table. She was behaving HORRIBLY! I don't think I have had a meal that bad in months!! She was not holding her fork correctly and waved it in Nicole's face several times. i was repeatedly asking her to stop until I had had enough!! Finally, I told her that was it...if she didn't stop, she would not get any dessert. I continued to have to ask her to stop several times, so off to the bathroom we went!! We don't have to go to the bathroom often, but tonight was definitely a bathroom visit kind of night. She continued to mock me, hit at me and even try to bite me in the bathroom. I took her outside the bathroom and sat her in a chair for time out. She sat for a few minutes (probably NOT long enough!!) before heading back to the table when I informed her that she had indeed lost dessert. We had already ordered both of the girls a brownie fudge sundae, but Blayne was not going to be eating hers (I totally scored a brownie fudge sundae!). She was not real excited about this news and turned to bite my shirt again. I sat her in my lap and ate a few bites of the sundae...it was pretty good, too bad she didn't get any!! She continued to fight me and then went over Nicole to try to get some of Carly's dessert. I had had enough when she spit at me across the table. I was mortified...possibly the worst restaurant behavior EVER!! I don't know what her problem was, but she was not fun. I decided it was past time for us to go, so I told her to put her shoes on. She refused to put her shoes on, so I picked them up and drug her out of the restaurant by the arm. She resisted, tried to kick, tried to bite, and hit me as I drug her out...we were quite a site:) We made it to the car and I let go of her in order to open the car door. She then bolted around the backside of the car to get away from me. I met her on the front of the car and marched her back to the car. I got her in her seat and was ready to buckle her in when she bit (hard) on the seatbelt because she was mad!! Then, in the blink of a second she looks up at me all innocently and says, "I lost my tooth". Huh?? I don't believe her until I look in her mouth and sure enough, there is an empty space in the bottom of her teeth. Yep, she lost her first tooth in a fit of rage like no other and all of the sudden everything was forgotten!! She was so incredibly happy to have lost a tooth. I don't know if the tooth had been loose or not, but the one next to it is a little bit loose. I am assuming it would have been coming soon, but probably not quite this soon!! We couldn't find the tooth in the dark parking lot and really I didn't know which of her biting tantrums it had fallen out in...the bathroom, the car or the parking lot!!! When we got home, we got out the flashlight and there was a little white tooth laying on the floorboard of the car...it had fallen in between the two seats. She was sooooo excited!! She couldn't wait to go in a show Daddy and I couldn't wait to go in and tell Daddy how HORRIBLE my dinner was!!!

We had a little talk when we got home and called to apologize for ruining everybody's dinner. Needless to say, the tooth fairy will be making a visit to our house tonight:) I just hope there is not this much drama involved every time she loses a tooth because I don't think I can handle it!!!!

Here is what the tooth fairy brought!!

Kindergarten is hard!!

2009-11-02T21:01:00.004-06:00

Whew!! ~~We are~~ I am worn out tonight!! I didn't blog about our 1st kindergarten family project...I have a picture on my phone, so I will get it here soon. Our 1st project was to dress up 'Buddy Bear' (he is the kindergarten mascot!). Our project went very smoothly. I took Blayne to the craft store, we picked out the supplies, came home and put him together. Our 'Buddy Bear' was dressed up in a pumpkin costume, stuffed and everything. So, our 2nd project came home last week. We were supposed to receive it on Tuesday or Wednesday, but Blayne went home sick on Tuesday and was out of school on Wednesday. Once I got questioned about my family project from another mom, I realized that we had not received it...that was on Thursday afternoon!! Needless to say, we did not receive our instructions until I asked the teacher about it while I was at school volunteering on Friday. And yeah...it was Halloween weekend...seriously?? Like we were going to have a bunch of spare time this weekend to do that. So, of course, the project was saved for tonight...yeah!!!! We were sent home with a turkey to cut out and disguise, so that he wouldn't be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. I went to the craft store this morning in order to buy the supplies to disguise our lovely turkey. I also remembered on Halloween night (Caitlin was a 50's girl!!) that we had a paper sent home about Tuesday being the 50th day of school. The kindergartners were going to have a sock hop. Looking at Caitlin's cute little costume, I decided on that my sewing machine was still out and surely I could throw together a poodle skirt, right?? Why not?? So, I picked up a few supplies for that too!! After all of the errands I had to do during school (without Blayne), I had absolutely no time to start either project. So guess what?? I would just start the skirt at 4, stop to cook and eat dinner and finish everything else after dinner...no problem!! What was I thinking?? After dinner, I sent Chris in to help Blayne with her project while I finished her skirt. That went over well!! It was getting late and after a few meltdowns, I decided to take action!! I finished up the skirt and finished the turkey...did I mention that I fed us and the in laws tonight...oh, and read to Blayne before bed!! And now I am here to blog about it...crazy day!! Well, let us know what you think of OUR MY projects!!!

Happy Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T09:14:00.004-06:00

Can we just always have Halloween on a Saturday?? That would be great, huh? It was so nice this year to be able to stay out late, let the kids eat candy, and enjoy some fun adult treats too(and the extra hour was a bonus!!)!! Just like all holidays with our family, we have a tradition, but this year was changed up a little bit. I normally host a kids party at our house before we head out and take the kids trick or treating around our neighborhood, but I decided not to have it this year and we didn't even trick or treat in our neighborhood!! We headed over to a friend's neighborhood, where we all had dinner and let the kids run crazy...maybe a little too crazy?? Somehow, catastrophe struck before we were ready to hit the streets!! About 45 minutes before we were ready to leave, a few of our kids found a great hiding place...in the shed, on the side of the house, that also happens to have spilled gasoline in it!! Needless to say, our kids came in from their great game of hide and seek and filled the entire house with the smell of gasoline. Fun!! We were thrown a little bit off schedule by cleaning up gasoline, but soon we were off!!

Here is my little powerpuff girl, Buttercup, ready to fight crime!!

All of the fierce powerpuff girls!!

Sometimes they are not so fierce.

The whole group, ready to get the candy!!!

Hittin' the street!!!

After our stroll around the neighborhood, we rushed off to the Dailey's!! Chris has been a part of the 'crew' that puts on this famous Los Rios Haunted House for nearly 25 years!! A house that I went to trick or treat as a kid and didn't know any of the people involved are now like family to me. We love this part of our Halloween tradition!! It is so fun to see our kids grow up with it and not be phased by how scary it is!! Most kids their age are terrified of going up to the door to get candy, but our kids LOVE it and want to be a part of it!!

Blayne and Caitlin relieving Oma from candy duty!!

Mr. Dailey does such a great job of putting all of this together!! He spends weeks getting all of the stuff out of storage, placing everything just right and running all the electrical it takes to run this!! Kids come in carloads to see it!! By the neighbor's calculation, we had well over 150 kids this year!!

I hope everyone had as much fun on Halloween as we did!! And now, the Holidays are in full swing...

Kids say the darndest MOST EMBARRASSING things!!

2009-10-08T23:04:00.003-05:00

Blayne has successfully embarrassed me twice this week!! First off, my 'friend' (which will remain anonymous and I am quite sure she won't read this, but Hi!! if you do!!) came by our house to pick up her child whom I had been watching. We were out on the driveway and Blayne looks at her and says, "I think your getting fat!!!" Ummm...how do you recover from that?? I promptly told Blayne that you don't say things like that because it is not nice!! We had a little discussion later to reinforce that telling someone that they are getting fat is not appropriate!!! For some reason, I thought that we had an understanding. Apparently not...because two days later we were at another 'friend's' (a different anonymous friend) house before walking to school in the morning. We were standing on the front porch looking into the house and Blayne says, "Your house is messy!!" She took me by surprise for a minute because I didn't really hear what she said. Once I knew that I heard it right, I told her that their house was no messier than ours!!! That is when she pointed to the laundry laying in the chair. I then told her that it was just laundry and the only reason our house doesn't look like that is because I fold laundry in my bedroom so that I HAVE to put it away in order to go to bed!!! Ugggghhhh...two VERY embarrassing moments all in the same week!! Luckily, both times were with friends that *know* kids and neither took it personal!!

It's hard being a kindergartner parent

2009-10-01T22:12:00.007-05:00

I know it has been a LONG time since I have posted, but what can I say?? We have been busy!! The new schedule has thrown me off a little bit!! I am used to staying up until 11:30 or 12 every night, but when getting up at 6:30, it is not so easy to stay up so late. Obviously, this has cut into my blog time. This post is probably going to be all over the place!! My mom was scheduled to go home on the 10th of September until we found out that the very next day would be grandparents day!! She was going to miss it by about 14 hours!! Of course, this meant that a ticket change was in order...along with the $200+ fee!! The Friday morning of Grandparents Day ended up being a horrible day of pouring rain that continued the ENTIRE week that my mom had extended her trip!! We were soaking wet by the time we arrived at the school, but it was all so worth it. Here are a few pictures of the day..

Grammy and Blayne

Grandma, Grandpa and Blayne

Blayne working on the picture of what she likes to do with her grandparents...yeah, umm, she drew Target and said that she likes shopping...that's my kid!!!

This is Blayne introducing her grandparents to her class (Grammy won her a water bottle for traveling the furthest distance!!)

Grammy and I had an extra week and we definitely needed it!! We had a couple of unfinished projects that we completed during all of the rain!! Blayne has 'quiet time' for the first several weeks of school and they have to bring a towel to lay on...more for boundary issues than anything else!! We thought that Blayne needed a cute, personalized towel to lay on, so we decided to make one. And then, of course, Carly will be in kindergarten in a year, so she needed one too!!!

Grammy finally had to go home and we got back to life as normal...well, kinda!! Jen and I have been working on starting our own party planning/cake business and got the first of our joint effort 'jobs' (you know, the kind you get paid for!!). We have collaborated before, but never really getting paid. One of our friends requested a cake to feed 30 people in addition to 30 cupcakes for her sons Star Wars birthday. Jen and I work really well together and I think our finished product turned out great!! Of course, you can decide for yourself....

It is hard to believe that we are ending the 6th week of school. We have our first parent/teacher conference scheduled in 2 weeks which will also be Chris' first day of his new job. We have a busy 2 weeks ahead of us and I hope to keep better updated!! I am going to start my weekend early with a lunch date with one of my favorite people...SALLY!! So excited to see her and her precious baby!! Then we have this year's school fundraiser...a school carnival!!

Blayne's first day of kindergarten!!

2009-08-26T08:17:00.004-05:00

I am a little late, as usual, but Blayne's first day of kindergarten went great!! We were up on time and not too rushed (still can't get her to eat breakfast, but I think that is a loosing battle!!). Grammy, Chris and I all walked her to school.

She walked right in, turned her homework in, put her backpack in her locker, and settled in coloring a picture. She gave us all a hug and kiss and that was it...easy!! No tears for Blayne and no tears for mommy!!

She didn't have much to say about her day when we picked her up, although, she did fill us in on the many rules that she learned:) She was singing 'make the marker click, so it doesn't get sick' while coloring at home that afternoon. She also informed us of the proper way to use the bathroom at school, including a reenactment!!! She had a good day and was excited about going back!!
What am I going to do now that Blayne is in school, you ask?
Well, I plan on volunteering at the school quite a bit and if I am going to be at the school, I thought that I needed to get to know Blayne's teacher! And what better way to do that than look her up on facebook?? I mean, every good parent does this, right? Well, maybe just me, but whatever!! So, I find Blayne's teacher's name on facebook, but am not sure if it is really her or not because she was private, as I would expect!! I couldn't tell if it was for sure her, but her pic appeared to be an engagement pic and I do know that she is newly engaged. The odd part of this research is that we have a mutual friend on facebook!!! I don't really have that many friends on facebook and I definitely don't have many that are 26 years old!! This may get a tad confusing!!! It just so happens that Blayne's teacher went to high school with my friend, Janee (who is actually a friend of Lane's); however, Janee was part of a running group that Chris was in. I don't know Janee well, but Blayne and I have most definitely spent some time cheering and photographing her at various races!! It's a small world after all, huh? I still don't know much about her teacher, but I've got all year to figure that out!! And I can't wait!!

still here!!

2009-08-23T17:29:00.002-05:00

WOW!! Has it really been a month since I last posted? I am getting worse and worse at this blog stuff!! A lot has happened in a month and I am not going to be able to catch up right now, but if you really want a S-L-O-W play by play of our Alaskan cruise vacation, go here. Lane is doing a great job of recapping over there and I have WAY more important things to do....like get my kid ready for kindergarten!! Did I really just say that? I can't believe that she is going to go to kindergarten!!! Last week, if you asked her if she was excited about going to kindergarten, she would tell you, "No, I am not going to kindergarten. I am going to stab the teacher with a pencil!" Ummmmm...I am not really sure where the violence comes from, but I think that she was a bit nervous and honestly didn't want to go because she had no idea what it would be like. However, that has all changed since we went to meet the teacher on Friday night. She loved checking out the kindergarten wing and going to see where she will go for music, art and PE. She is VERY excited to go now!!! Her favorite things were her locker and the cafeteria because they are 'just like on Hannah Montana, except Hannah's locker is bigger!!' I still have lots to prepare for tomorrow, but I will try my best to blog about our first day tomorrow!!

And I hope all of our friends out there that are starting school have a great first day!!!

San Francisco

2009-07-23T18:27:00.004-05:00

I know I am a little bit behind, as usual!! We had a great time in San Francisco!! We arrived on Monday and Chris had to go straight to work after lunch, so that left Blayne and I to navigate the city on our own. We were conveniently located in the Union Square area (where ALL of the downtown shopping is!!) and used public transportation or walked everywhere...this was quite an experience for Blayne!! When we first arrived, I explained to her that she will see homeless people, people with colored hair, and street performers. I explained that it is not nice to point at them and that if she has any questions, she could quietly ask us. I am sure it was a pretty big culture shock for her, but she was very good and only asked about a few people and there were plenty of crazies out there!! Blayne and I spent half of Monday and most of the day Tuesday just wandering around the city and shoping...we had a great time!! We found this indoor carousel:

My mom came on Tuesday evening, so we joined them for dinner at Fisherman's Wharf (where their hotel was). Here is Blayne's first cable car experience on our way to dinner with Grammy and Richard:

My grandpa arrived on Wednesday, so we spent the day walking around the wharf...checking out the sea lions, did a little bit of shopping, and of course, eating:) We ate lunch at one of our favorite places, Scoma's, and it was sooo good!! Blayne and grandpa giving eskimo kisses at Scoma's:

We ended up running down to the wharf to pick up dinner from another favorite, Boudin, for dinner because all they had available was outside seating and it was freezing!! It is amazing how cold it is there in July!!! Thursday, we all met for a wonderful breakfast at Sears Fine Foods. It was delicious!! We had to do a little walking around and picture taking before sending grandpa on his way home. (He was very tired from working Tuesday night at the Coldplay concert...it just cracks me up to hear my 80 year old grandpa talk about all of the bands that perform at the amphitheater that he works at...he takes care of giving breaks and water to about 80 parking attendants and has done this for 10 years!! He really has no idea who they are, but it's fun to hear him talk about them!!). A few of pictures of grandpa:

The rest of us headed home on Friday after such a fun week!! It was great to get out of the heat and our normal day to day routine. It was an extra special treat to have grandpa, grammy and Richard join us!!

Preparation and countdown for Alaska has begun!! And school starts a mere 10 days after our return from Alaska!! We have another busy month ahead and hope to update as much as possible!! I am sure it is going to fly by...

4th of July

2009-07-06T23:25:00.004-05:00

We had a fantastic 4th of July holiday!! Nothing beats good friends, good food, cold beer and fireworks...in that order!! The Welock's hosted us and the Bergman's at their house where the kids played outside on the motorized vehicles, played in the blow up pool and had a water balloon fight! We all had delicious bbq and I made these fun, little desserts:

Blayne and I had such a fun time making them and not only are they cute, but they tasted great too!!

We finished up dinner and decided to go to the local middle school parking lot. Of course, we arrived an hour early and staked out our area...well, there really wasn't THAT many people there and we were most definitely the 1st to arrive. We pulled all the blankets and chairs out and watched the boys throw a football, the girls color and when the sun went down, we ALL played with glow bracelets:) It was a great location...lots of room to play and no bugs:) PLUS, from our location, we could see TWO fireworks shows as well as random individual fireworks from out in the 'country'!!

We don't have a whole lot going on this week, but I will spend the week getting us ready to go out of town. Chris has a business trip to San Francisco next week, so Blayne and I are going to join him. I am most excited because my mom and Richard are going to meet us there AND my grandpa is going to drive in for a night!! I am VERY excited to see my grandpa and am so excited for Blayne to spend time with him as she has only met him once when she was about 16 months old!! I will definitely have pics to post next week:)

Summer days!!

2009-07-06T22:59:00.008-05:00

I can't believe that it has been another 2 weeks since I last posted!! Our summer is just flying by...I feel like I am going to blink and Blayne will be starting school. In the mean time, I am trying to savor every moment with her home for now (except when I am ready to ship her off!!)

A couple of days after my last post, our first butterfly was hatched. By the next morning, we already had two and as I was eating breakfast, I heard a cracking sound from the counter where they were. Sure enough, another one had busted out and later that day, all five were flying around. It was pretty difficult to get pictures of these guys because of the netting on the habitat. I had a couple of escapees while trying to get pics!! They didn't get far, but I didn't really enjoy chasing the butterflies! Here is what I could get:

We fed them sugar water on some fresh flowers from our yard and also set orange wedges in the habitat for them. We kept them for a few days before deciding it was time to release them (or I got tired of feeding them!!). I thought it would be lots of fun to release them. You know...I could take some great pictures and Blayne could hold them. So many picture taking ideas in my head did NOT work out like I had planned. Basically, Blayne chased the butterflies around the habitat until she got one...they immediately fled her hand and headed to China (or wherever they went, since they did not sit in my landscaping so that I could take pictures of them like I had planned!!).

Maybe next year we will try again and I will figure out how to take beautiful butterfly pictures:)

I just have to post this picture. Blayne had a great time with Aunt Patti and Uncle Rich here!! This was taken on their last night ...she was cuddled up with Uncle Rich on the couch watching Hotel for Dogs:)

VBS week

2009-06-18T15:20:00.007-05:00

I can't believe that we are almost at the end of another week of summer!! It is going by sooo fast!! I feel like I am going to blink my eyes and Blayne will be in kindergarten...our fun summer will be over:(

I made a deal with Heather this week that if we signed both of the girls (Blayne and my niece, Lauren) up for VBS at 'Grandma's church', I would pick them up each day. I am still trying to decide if 3 hours of free time was worth the trade of 2 (or 3 or 5!!) kids for 6 hours afterwards was a good trade:) It is worth if for all of the cousinly love!! Needless to say, we have stayed pretty busy this week once again!!

In true Blayne fashion, as soon as Blayne saw the VBS shirt that was issued, she immediately stated that she was NOT wearing it!! This is not surprising as Blayne has never been one to wear the 'issued' shirt!! (I am very interested to see how 'spirit day' goes next year in school!!) Being the 'green' mom that I am (ha!), I decided that we will make use of this shirt by making it 'girly' and 'princessy' (is that a word?). So, after VBS on Monday, Blayne, Lauren and I headed to the craft store to get some supplies. The girls had a great time decorating their shirts and were so proud of themselves!!

On Tuesday, I offered to watch a few extra kids...a neighbor, Connie's, grandkids (Myles,7 and Anna, 10) that are visiting from California...they are good kids and played well with each other!! So, I picked up 5 kids from VBS and took them all to McDonalds. Then, we all came to my house to change into swimsuits and go to the pool! After 3 hours with 5 kids at the pool, I was exhausted!! All of the kids were too, but I think they all had a good time!!

We were back to Blayne, Lauren and I on Wednesday, so we went to lunch and then just came back to hang out at the house. The girls put on a fashion show for me!!

It was nice to just have a quiet day!!

Today, I had plans to pick up Blayne, Lauren and Jacob and take them to have lunch with Grandma. We picked Grandma up from work and met Connie (with all the other kids!!) at ChickfilA for lunch. I invited Myles over to hang out and entertain Jacob which has worked out wonderfully!!

This may be incredibly crazy, but I think I am going to offer to take all of the kids to the pool again tomorrow...we will end this week with a BANG!! I might as well wear them out!! Next week will the be the first of 8 Summer Fun Days at Blayne's preschool...I don't know about her, but I am sooo looking forward to it!!!

Oh and what else we have been doing this week?? We have been growing butterflies!! For preschool graduation, Grammy bought Blayne a butterfly kit and we received the caterpillars in the mail last Friday. I could have sworn when we got them that they were dead, but they sure did fatten up quickly!! There was not a whole lot of movement until the last couple of days and we now have 5 chrysalides!! They are pretty amazing to watch and so much fun!! Here are our first chrysalides:

I watched this morning as the last caterpillar made it's chrysalis. You can only see 4 in the picture because the 5th one made his at the bottom...he must have been too lazy to crawl up!! We will transfer them to the netted habitat this week and we should have 5 painted lady butterflies in the next 10 days!!

Tea Party for 4!!

2009-06-12T13:11:00.008-05:00

This week has been MUCH more laid back than last week and I am so glad!! I love lazy summer days with no bedtime and sleeping in...ahhhh!! Blayne and I had a job this week. We were responsible for sweet little Zoey!!

She is the sweetest little dog...although not sure she can really be counted as a dog!! She is a whopping 3 pounds and is sooo stinkin' cute!!! We had a great time lovin' on her....especially Blayne!! We were sad to see her family pick her up yesterday, but can't wait for the chance to watch her again.

We have also been busy with Aunt Patti and Rich in town, although Patti has been working a lot of the time! We have really enjoyed our time with them and will be sad to see them go soon.

After our busy week of running around, I decided that Blayne and I were just going to hang out at home today. She has been begging to have a tea party, so today was the day!! We prepared our food and invited our friends, Brianna and Gianna. We decided on a fancy meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches shaped like stars and hearts (grape jelly for Blayne and Lesley's homemade strawberry jam for me....YUM!!), cheese puffs, pink lemonade and brownies for dessert.

Here we are all set to have a tea party!! Note our friends Brianna and Gianna:)

Here is Blayne with her tea party guests!! (please ignore the bedhead...like I said LAZY summer day...I mean at least she IS dressed in real clothes!!)

Blayne pouring our tea...or umm, pink lemonade:) Hmm...I think she need a manicure too!!

Cheers!!

Ahh...yummy lemonade:)

I've got to get back to my lazy day now:)

Summer Fun!!

2009-06-05T21:31:00.002-05:00

As the first week of summer comes to a close, I am officially exhausted!! Our week started early Monday morning with Carly at our front door. She was out of school Monday and Tuesday while Nicole worked, so I offered to watch her. Blayne LOVES spending time with her cousins!! I had lots of plans for the week because, while Blayne was out of school, most of the local school districts were still in school for one more week. This meant we could enjoy less crowds from the 'big' kids!! The plan for Monday was to join our friends and try out our Hawaiian Falls season tickets for the first time this season. We had a great time until I agreed to take Caleb on the half pipe (named that because it looks like a large skate board ramp with a 45ft drop)!! That was a mistake! I have been on it before, a few years ago, but I don't remember it giving me whiplash!! I don't really know what it was about the ride because it seems I am the only mom that felt the pain!! I don't know if it was the way that I sat (leaning back, so that the kids could hold my legs?) or the fact that I HAD to ride it 3 times or the fact that I am getting old!! Of course, as soon as Caleb and I got off, Blayne and Carly were begging to ride it and I couldn't very well disappoint them!! Either way, I won't be riding that anytime soon because my neck was sore for 3 days!!! And you know that was by far Blayne's favorite ride of the day!! We had to rush out of the water park at about 5pm because we had dinner plans at 6pm. Oh yeah, those dinner plans included me making dinner for Aunt Patti and Uncle Rich at my house!! Oooppss!! Dinner was delayed a little bit, but our chicken piccata for dinner was yummy. Tuesday morning, we woke up to a pretty rainy, gloomy kind of day. Blayne had been begging to go to Amazing Jake's (an indoor amusement park), so I thought I would look it up online and see what kind of deals they had. They just happened to have $12 Tuesdays!! Perfect or so I thought until we drove up and saw 5 school buses in the parking lot!! It actually wasn't too terribly crowded and the kids were pretty well behaved...one even played air hockey with the girls!! I asked what the graduating 5th graders did to get a trip to AJ's and the answer was 'we had to pay'!! Hmmmm...I don't remember doing anything quite that fun in school!! As soon as they left, we practically had the whole place to ourselves!! We even had to wait for other kids to show up to play laser tag. Once again, we rushed home to feed our guests!! Wednesday morning, I had decided that we had enough activity and that we were just going to hang out at home to enjoy our first 'lazy' day of summer...until I got an email from jen!! She invited us to join her and some friends at Chuck E Cheese. Since school was not out yet (you know, no 'big' kids!!), I decided to get that out of the way too:) I am hoping she doesn't ask to go back to these places for the rest of the summer:) I can hope, right? Thursday morning, we really did have a 'lazy' day...not because we didn't have anything planned, but because I think Blayne was exhausted by this point, did not get enough sleep the night before and had meltdown after meltdown. I haven't had a day like that in a LONG time and it was rough!! But we made it through the day and got up this morning ready to hit the water park again!! We met friends there as soon as it opened and spent most of our day in the fun bucket area or the (new found favorite) wave pool!! While we were in the wave pool, they announced that they were going to have a hula hoop contest, limbo and other games at noon. Blayne was sooo excited and wanted to compete in the hula hoop contest so bad, but when we got back from eating at our table it was already over. We happened to be over there when they had them again at 1pm. Blayne competed against 12 other kids of all different ages and WON!! She was so funny...she was concentrating so hard on her hula hooping that when the guy came over and bumped her hoop, she kind of gave him a dirty look because he messed her up!! Then he told her, "You won!! It's over!!" She ran over to get her prize...a blue dolphin necklace!! So cute!! We ended our week at dinner with Aunt Patti and Rich at Covino's. Yummy dinner and even better dessert...homemade cheesecake!!

***I have also spent the week taking care of Aunt Nancy's dog while they are out of town which means a couple of daily visits to her house to walk, feed, and play with Spunky!!

***Next week, we will have our friend's 3lb yorkie, Zoey!!

Maybe next week, we will have some lazy daze of summer...ahhhhhhh!!!

Blayne's 'do

2009-05-26T16:32:00.004-05:00

For the last few years, Blayne has really had a preference on how she wants her hair. Not just your normal ponytail, pigtails...she has a say in the cut, style and even color!! When she saw the movie Kit Kitredge, she wanted her hair JUST like Kit's..cut short and blonde. Ummm...the cut we could do, coloring it blonde?? I don't think so!! Recently, she has really been into Hannah Montana. I don't really think that Hannah's hair changes much besides being brown when she is Miley and blonde when she is Hannah; however, Hannah's best friend, Lilly, has quite a few color changes. At first Blayne would just say that she wanted a pink 'hairwig' and I had no idea where she got this from until I sat down and watched Hannah Montana one day. It progressively changed from a 'hairwig' to just wanting pink hair. A conversation we had a few weeks ago, sitting in the car after dropping Grammy off:

Blayne: Can we go to CVS?

me: Ummm, no. Why? We don't need anything at CVS?

Blayne: I want my hair pink!!!

me: What? (not really getting what this had to do with CVS!!)

Blayne: We need to go to CVS, so that we can buy the stuff that makes my hair pink. You know, like the stuff Grammy has to make her's brown.

me: Ahh...no we are not going to CVS get something to make your hair pink..sorry!! (silently thanking Grammy for sharing all of her tricks with my child!!)

Yes, she had gone as far as to tell me where to buy product to make her hair pink...she was serious about this!! I have looked at a few places for spray on hair color just to appease her and have a little fun, but apparently they only sell that stuff during Halloween!! So, I found this little product:

I decided that I would allow her to return one of her duplicate birthday gifts and purchase this!! She couldn't decide which color, so we did blue on one side:

And pink on the other:

So, I wonder how long this will appease her and am really scared of the teenage years!!!

Back from Boston and the laundry is done!!

2009-05-18T08:23:00.017-05:00

I know this post should have been done last week, but I am just now downloading the pictures. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend!!

Friday afternoon, we drove in to Boston from Worcester and decided to take a little tour through Cambridge. We ate at a little pub there and walked around a little bit. We didn't spend too much time there because we were a little anxious to get checked into our hotel and dump the rental car!! Chris driving around in the city is not a fun experience!! He dropped me off at the hotel, so I could get checked in while he took the rental car back to the airport and rode the bus back. I got to relax and read in the nice, quiet hotel room:) Here are a few pics of our hotel:

This was the view from our room:

Chris returned from the airport just about the time that most Bostonians were getting off work. The streets were just starting to fill with people, so we decided to join them!! We had no real destination, but just decided to stop at the first place we found. This is the first place we came across:

It was great!! They had a patio and beer! We ordered a bucket of beer and an appetizer before deciding it was time to head to the next place. Our next stop was here:

This was a rock inspired bar with good music, cold beer and 1/2 price appetizers. We decided that sliders would be our entree!! On the ceilings of the bar were hand written song lyrics. I had to take a picture of this one:

I am certain that it could be photoshopped to match a certain blog:)

We finished our pub hopping off with dessert at our hotel which was delicious!!

Saturday, we got up and walked to a local bakery that I had heard about on Food Network called Flour. It was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay for their sticky buns. I had to try them and they were pretty darn good!! I even got a couple to bring home for our mom's:) After our sticky bun adventure, we went back to the hotel in order to plan our day. We took the subway a few stops up to go to the beginning of the Freedom Trail.

I think the whole trail is about 2.5 miles long, but I am sure that we ended up walking about 5 miles on this day!! We kinda of lost the trail a little bit after the Old North Church because the market got in the way, but we quickly found our path only to discover that the groups of people walking the trail along the way were gone...apparently nobody actually walks across the bridge to see the USS Constitution and Bunker HIll. We just kept on going and walked the way back!!

The USS Constitution was very fascinating. This ship is 211 years old and is still in commission!!! Because it is still in commission, there are about 50-60 active duty soldiers assigned to the ship. It is being renovated right now, but they have plans to have it sailing in 2012. People were apparently really short in 1795...the ceilings were about 5'.

This is their sleeping quarters:

It was fun, but by the time we walked back we were starving!! We were heading back to eat at Feneuil Hall, but stopped at this little restaurant instead:

We also stopped to watch a street show:

Chris and I split a lobster roll which was okay, but the beer was great!! We decided not to eat much because it was late and we had dinner reservations that night. We were exhausted after all of that, so we went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner.

Before walking to dinner, we stopped to check out the festivities at Fan Peir. The Volvo Ocean Race was in town, so we had to see what that was all about. The Puma compound was most impressive!!

We didn't have much time to walk around before dinner, so we decided that we would go back after dinner. We went to Legal Seafoods for dinner and it was so yummy!! I finally got my lobster!!

We never made it back to the pier because it was pouring when we finished dinner. We got a cab back to our hotel and just hung out which was fine since we had a 8AM flight!! No sleeping in or breakfast in bed for me on Mother's day, but that is okay...I am pretty sure I made up for that the 3 days of relaxation before!! We were excited to get home and hang out with our mom's and see our girl which was exactly what we did:)

Please come to Boston...

2009-05-06T22:05:00.002-05:00

Chris has a business trip this week in Worcester (about 30 mins from Boston) and my mom happens to be in town, so guess what?? I joined him!! We had a slow start this morning with all of the bad weather, but we finally made it. My mom explained to Blayne this morning on the way to school that we were on our way to the airport to get on an airplane to fly to Boston. My child's response? "I hope their plane doesn't crash!" I sure appreciate her confidence!!

I called my mom several times throughout the day to update her on our (delayed) status and during our layover. Blayne was uninterested in talking to either one of us until bedtime when I asked to tell her goodnight. She got on the phone and told me that Allison on American Idol was gone. I told her that she was gone, but that we would see her sing again. I told her that she would come out with an album and we could buy it. All of the sudden, she was no longer on the phone, but I could hear muffled crying. Awww, she's crying because she misses us, right? Nope. She is full on crying because Allison was no longer going to be on AI!!! I think she is gonna make it through the weekend just fine without us!!

Dance Recital

2009-04-27T22:44:00.009-05:00

Our busy April comes to an end with the last weekend being the busiest! Blayne's dance recital this year happened to be on Chris' birthday or as I like to say, "I got 128 girls to dance for him for his birthday!!" He was less than thrilled about spending his birthday at a dress rehearsal and dance recital, but anything for his girl!! Every year at the recital, the board gives away 3 scholarships for the following year. The first is to a high school student, the second is won in a drawing and the third is given to the dancer who had someone travel the furthest to see them. They start out by asking who traveled from outside the city to stand up and go from there. They got up to 1300 miles and had 3 people standing...my mom, Richard and another lady. They figured they had a tie and were prepared to give 2 certificates until they asked my mom who she was there to see and she replied, "Blayne Rogers and Carly Taylor". They were pretty confused as to why she would be coming to see 2 girls that were quite obviously not sisters!! They made a quick executive decision to give scholarships to 3 girls, so both Blayne and Carly will be going to dance next fall for FREE!! Thank you, Grammy and Richard for driving 1400+ miles to see our girls!!

Most of the pictures taken are from the dress rehearsal because you are not allowed to take pictures or video during the performance...it will distract the girls!! I am completely happy with this because it means that I get to completely enjoy the show! So, here are a few of the pics!!

Blayne with Carly

Blayne with Caitlin

Blayne's tap dance (crossing her arms was part of the dance...she wasn't rebelling!!)

Blayne's ballet dance

Blayne's dance class

Blayne in the finale (when we aren't supposed to take pics...ooops!!)

Blayne with her flowers

Blayne with Lauren

Blayne with Lane

Blayne with Daddy

Blayne with Mommy

Blayne crying that it is all over...until next year!!

Blayne's 5th birthday party

2009-04-24T14:54:00.009-05:00

I decided to have Blayne's 5th birthday party at a place called Little Harts pony parties with a 'my little pony' theme. This was NOT her choice, but I didn't really like her choices so they got vetoed...isn't it fun being the MOM?? She really wanted to have a roller skating party, but I decided that she has plenty of years to have a skating party and I wanted to do something a little bit 'younger'. I really started to doubt my decision to have an outdoor party when it was STILL raining at noon and the party was starting at 3:30. For those that don't know, I planned an outdoor party at the park for Blayne's 3rd birthday and it was about 35℉ that day in April!! I just knew that if I planned a party outside, it would be horrible and it almost was!! Not only did it rain for about 12 hours before the party, but Blayne also came home sick from school on the Thursday before. We took her to the doctor on Friday morning. We were told that she had a viral infection and should be fine for her party on Saturday (until the strep culture came back on Monday with a positive for strep...oops!!). Good thing it was an outdoor party, so that everyone was less susceptible to catching it!! Miraculously, it stopped raining at about 2:30!! We even had the sun come out during the party and got a little warm!! She ended up being perfectly fine with the pony party...as I knew she would be:) The kids seemed to have a great time!! We started out with pony cart rides!!

Lexi and Ben on a cart ride

Caitlin holding on to Landry (much to her father's dismay!!) taking a ride!

Blayne and Carly enjoying a ride

While some of the kids were enjoying cart rides around the parking lot, others were waiting their turn to ride a pony!!
Riley

Lauren

Caleb

As you can see, they also got their faces painted while waiting for a pony ride or a cart ride! After everyone had a chance to ride a few times, we headed inside for sandwiches, chips and CAKE!!

Finally, it was time for playing on the playground and a fun game of pin the tail on the pony!!

The kids had a great time and I am glad it is all over...until next year!!

Blayne's 5th birthday...the actual day!!

2009-04-19T22:13:00.008-05:00

I know this is a little late, but we have been VERY busy celebrating birthdays and getting ready for recital!! Blayne's birthday was last Tuesday and she had quite a busy day. The day started off by Grammy and I dropping her off at school. She really didn't want us to leave her there, but knew that we would be back soon!! I have been mentally preparing her birthday at school for months because she happens to share a birthday with another little girl in her class, Ella, and another little girl, Madison, has a birthday the day before when they are not in school. After a quick discussion with Ella's mom, I decided that instead of the bringing the usual cupcakes for all the kids, I would bring happy meals!! This was a HUGE hit with all of the kids!! They LOVED having a special 'catered' lunch. Ella brought cupcakes, so we all sang happy birthday to both of the girls and had a great celebration. I would love to post some pictures of this, but I didn't take any...I know, I even brought the camera! Just never took it out...bad mommy!!

After school, Blayne and I had a few hours before we had to be ready and out the door to go to dance. We had to be there a little early because this was the day that they received their recital costumes. The moms have a quick meeting to get specific instructions on all the costume preparation...lots of recital pics soon!!

Then, we headed to Doughy Joey's for Blayne's birthday dinner. We were joined by Grandma, Aunt Heather, Uncle Ken, Jacob, Lauren, Grammy, Richard, Nanny, Rich, Taylor, Carly, Laney, Mark, Leslie, baby Claire, and Kirk!! Lots of family and lots of fun!!
We all ate lots of yummy pizza and they even made Blayne a special chocolate chip cookie pizza cake for her birthday. Here she is blowing out the candle on her pizza cake!!

Here she is in her special balloon birthday hat!

She was most excited about her DS from mommy and daddy:)

Here she is opening bendaroos from Nanny and Rich

She loves these things!!

And apparently the entire table was pretty fascinated by them!

Even the guys were intrigued by what these little strips of wax are made of and had a spend a few minutes burning them to figure it out!!

Blayne couldn't end the day without first trying on her new skates...in her pajamas, of course:)

I think she had a PERFECT 5th birthday...party post coming soon!!

Early Birthday Surprise!!

2009-04-12T00:31:00.004-05:00

Although Blayne's birthday is not until Tuesday, we had a big surprise for her today. Daddy and Richard spent the afternoon putting this together:

I took her to Grammy's this afternoon, so she could dye Easter eggs with Grammy and Carly...and to keep her away from the house!! This evening, we had Grammy, Richard, Grandma (Grandpa had to work), Nicole and Carly over for dinner and the big unveiling of her birthday surprise. I sat outside and waited for them to open the door for her, so that I could get pictures of her faces when she saw it!! She first looked straight at me and didn't notice the new addition to the backyard. When she looked up, her face lit up!!

And off she ran!!

And this is the face of one happily, swinging little girl!!

I am sure we will now be spending much of our time outside in the backyard! This kid LOVES to swing!! We often go to the park and ALL she does is swing. I have to tell her to go play because umm...swinging doesn't really exert much energy and we all know that is why I take her to the park:)

This is the first of many surprises for Blayne this week!! We have a full week of birthday festivities after we kick off the week with a visit from the bunny and Easter dinner with family!!!

Thank you Grammy, Richard, Grandma and Grandpa!! As you can see, she is BEYOND excited about her new swing set.

***wish I would have remembered to wipe her face!! This was right after her dinner of hot dog, cheetos and strawberries...she was a mess!!

What have I been up to?

2009-04-02T12:54:00.003-05:00

We have been pretty busy around here lately. I have always said that making cakes is a labor of love and not worth the money to sell them and I stand by that!! However, several weeks ago, I had a cute little 4 year old ask me if I would make his 5th birthday cake. I couldn't resist, but I told his mom that I would make him a cake ONLY if it was an easy cake and ONLY because we are a few weeks out from Blayne's birthday. Jud's mom, Kelly, agreed to make the cake easy by buying toys to be the main decoration of the cake. It also helped that they came over to entertain me (and Blayne) while I decorated. I think it turned out pretty cute!!

We all had a great time at Jud's birthday party...chick-fil-a nugs and chicken salad sandwiches followed by cake...YUM!!

Last weekend, Blayne was invited to a skating party for a little girl at her school. I completely dreaded going to this party and made a last minute decision to suck it up and go. I don't know many 4-5 year olds that can roller skate (the birthday girl was a great skater!!), so that meant that many Mommy's would be donning some skates...good times! I probably haven't roller skated since, I don't know, maybe 8th grade!! We actually had a good time and there were no injuries!! Blayne decided on the way out that she wanted to have a skating party for her birthday. As tempting as it sounds, I am not going to do that just yet...but girls (you know who you are), you better start practicing because we will all be skating next year!! And the most important part...pics from the roller rink!!

Check out the sweet carpet on the walls...circa 1982?? I didn't even know this skating rink existed, but it has obviously been around for a while. They had a hard time finding me skates because they were all ripped and torn...when I put them on I could feel the hardware on the bottom!! We will not be going back there anytime soon, but lookout Thunderbird!!

And doing the hokey pokey...yes...can you believe they still do that and the races?? So funny!!

kindergarten really?

2009-03-27T10:08:00.002-05:00

Chris and I attended our first ever 'parent meeting' at our local elementary school last night. Does that mean that I am a grown up?? It was kind of scary!! I can't believe that I have an elementary age kid!! Anyway, we learned about a day in the life of a kindergartner and are both quite sure that Blayne is going to LOVE kindergarten next year. We were introduced to 5 of next year's 7 kindergarten teachers...can you believe 7 kindergarten classes?? Geez, that's a lot of 5 year olds!! We also got to meet the principal, Mr. Speck. Of course, I remember Mr. Speck as Coach Speck when I was in high school. I never really had a class with him nor do I know what he really coached...probably football, but I do remember him policing the 'Warrior Center'. Chris remembers nothing from high school and I am pretty sure he has just blocked it all out (although he did say that his voice was very familiar). Chris is standing there and Mr. Speck looks at him and says, "Do I know you?" Chris explains that he may know him from high school and that he probably had a class with him. I totally don't get this....how do you NOT remember who your teachers were?? Anyway, I do remember him and, in fact, I remember his oldest (only at the time) daughter running around in the stands. She was about 2 at the time...yeah, she is now a senior at UNT!! I am sooo old!! He showed us a picture of his family and told us to make sure that we brought Blayne by his office to meet him and to let her know the connection.

Next week....kindergarten round up!!

Bad Blogger!!

2009-03-26T10:53:00.004-05:00

I'm sorry, I have been such a bad blogger lately!! I will have plenty to fill the blog in April, if I can find the time!! For now, here are a few recent pictures of Blayne:

And this is how she comes out dressed when she dresses herself...she is supposed to be 'Lily' from Hannah Montana, by the way!!

Laney's Birthday

2009-03-10T22:48:00.003-05:00

Lane bought me this cute, little cake pan for my birthday. What better time to try it than her birthday?? Now, just to let you know...I didn't have a lot of time to spend on this and just kind of threw it together!!

It makes a pretty cute cake and I can't wait to have the time to get creative with it!!!

We had a great time at Laney's birthday bbq...you can read about it here!!

Q&A by Blayne

2009-03-04T20:52:00.004-06:00

1. What is something Mommy always says to you? I love you

2. What makes Mommy happy? not being mad or throwing any tantrums

3. What makes Mommy sad? when I am mad and having tantrums...throwing a fit

4. What does your Mommy do that makes you laugh? makes funny faces

5. What was your Mommy like as a child? liked to play with dollys

6. How old is your Mommy? 34

7. How tall is your Mommy? 222 big

8. What is her favorite thing to do? get on her computer...on it right now

9. What does your Mommy do when you're not around? sit down and watch your computer

10. If your Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for? a medal or a trophy

11. What is your Mommy really good at? playing on her computer

12. What is your Mommy not very good at? playing on dad's computer

13. What does your Mommy do for a job? she pays with money

14.What is your Mommy’s favorite food? whispers dickey's

15.What makes you proud of your Mommy? cleaning up my playroom

16. If your Mommy were a cartoon character? the news girl with blonde hair

17. What do you and your Mommy do together? play Barbie in my playroom

18. How are you and your Mommy the same? because we are family and you love me and I love you

19. How are you and your Mommy different? we were born on different days

20. How do you know your Mommy loves you? because she tells me always, you are the bestest mom ever

21. Where is your Mommy’s favorite place? DIckey's and Taco Bueno

22. What is your Mommy's favorite store? Target

23. What does your Mommy like most about your Daddy? kissing him

Happy Anniversary!!

2009-03-03T10:28:00.003-06:00

9 years ago today, Chris and I rushed into a hospital room, crammed with 30 or so of our closest friends and family in order for my dad to be a part of our wedding ceremony. I can't even explain the emotions of that day and I still get a little choked up in telling the story of my wedding. It is a tough story to tell and I don't know what is worse: my reliving the emotions each time I tell the story or that I think the person I am telling will feel sorry for me. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me and I don't tell the story for sympathy. I, in fact, feel like the luckiest girl in the world!! I was fortunate enough to be marrying the greatest guy ever and my dad was there to not only witness, but to give his blessing. No...Chris never asked my dad for his blessing in our marriage. How did I know that we had his blessing? Because he waited to see it through.

It's hard not to think of my dad's death in thinking of our wedding day, but while I lost my incredibly strong, courageous, loving daddy, I was blessed with an equally wonderful husband! Chris was there for me the entire time my dad was sick, he was there for me when he died, and he is still here for me today. He is my best friend and I am forever grateful that he puts up with me:)

Foto Friday!!

2009-02-27T12:08:00.004-06:00

Because I am a horrible blogger and Blayne decided she wanted to have a random photo session...here ya go:

And this is what she is really doing when I am not shooting!!

So, there ya go...Easter pictures in February!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2009-02-14T15:24:00.001-06:00

Valentine's Day party at the pre-k

2009-02-12T11:35:00.005-06:00

You haven't heard much from me lately because I am tediously preparing for Blayne's pre-k Valentine's party!! Well, that's my excuse anyway!! I sent Blayne off to school today with an 'I spy' kit with a ring pop attached for each of her classmates as well as ring pops for her Wednesday class. One of the other moms has offered to pick up happy meals for each of the kiddos for lunch which I love because that means I don't have to pack a lunch:) Their party begins at 1:35 this afternoon and I also made these little treats for each of her classmates:

Of course, after all of the talk about cake balls here, I decided to make a few of my friends a little treat for Valentine's day too!!

out of the mouth of Blayne!!

2009-02-06T09:34:00.002-06:00

Last week we were expecting the title company representative to arrive at our house at 4pm. It was about 3:30, when Chris headed to the bathroom and I quickly told him that I HATE that he always uses our guest bathroom instead of going to our master bath...especially since we were expecting a guest!! A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. I look out the window real quick and tell Chris that it is the title company, so that he can finish up!! I am fighting off Blayne and the dog as I open the door. The woman tells me that she knows that she is a little early and if that is okay we can just start early or wait. Then she says, "Oh wait, is your husband home?" Before I could answer her, Blayne popped up and said, "Yeah, he's goin' poop!!". The lady politely says 'it's okay, I have kids!' as I am dying and trying to control my laughter!! I quickly close the door and warn Chris about Blayne's annoucement!! I guess that is one way to keep a guest from asking to use your bathroom!!!

Random Pics!!

2009-01-30T11:55:00.004-06:00

Here are few pics of Blayne before going to school yesterday! Her school had early release on Tuesday and was out on Wednesday, so she was excited for school on Thursday...she was dressed and ready to go when I got up!!!

I would rather go up in smoke!!

2009-01-27T06:29:00.003-06:00

Kidding...I wouldn't, but seriously? Why do the smoke detectors beep needing new batteries at the worst times?

A couple of weeks ago, on a school/work day, I stopped by the house to quickly run in and grab something. As soon as I walk in, I hear it...the dreadful beep of the smoke detector!! Well, it also happens to be freezing outside and my dog is scared to death of the beeping and quickly retreats outside!! I obviously can't leave my dog inside with the beeping and can't leave him outside because it is freezing, so the hunt in order to figure out which smoke detector it is begins!! I have to pull out the 6ft ladder (because the step ladder is just not going to reach our ceilings), which has to be navigated around my car in the garage...and by the way, I am not fan of ladders!! They scare me!! I get the ladder inside, all set up and yank the smoke detector out of the ceiling. I decide that I am going take the battery out and just leave it on the counter for Chris deal with this when he gets home. I go outside and carry the dog back inside, so that I can be on my way. Well, after carrying the 30lb dog back in the house, reluctantly, do know what happens?? That damn thing beeped!! No battery, no wiring...it's beeping on the counter BY ITSELF!! I wait until I hear a dying beep and then go back outside to once again carry the reluctant dog back in. I put him down, give him a treat (needed one for myself!!), grab my stuff and head out the door. Do you know what I hear as soon as I shut that door?? Yup...the sound of the doggy door!! I decided at this point that the dog could not be dumb enough to stay outside and freeze to death and at this point I am not so sure that I care!!

That brings us to 6am this morning. I am pretty much a pro at this now:) I hear a slight beep in my sleep and immediately know that it is a smoke detector because the dog promptly jumps up and heads out of the room. I wait a while to hear where it is coming from and don't hear it, so I drag the dog back to my room. Until, CRAP, it beeped again!! This time the dog is out of here...headed outside where it is freezing cold and raining!! Again, I navigate the BIG ladder around the car and into the house. I wait for a while until I hear the beep and determine which one it is. It is outside the playroom, so I take it down, take out the battery and throw it in the garage under a pile of towels. Done!!! Oh wait, was that another beep I heard?? Oh yes...the living room one is beeping too!! I repeat the above process and decide that the ladder is just going to stay where it is, so that I can fix this situation later!! Once again, I go outside, carry the dog back inside and LOCK the doggy door!! See, I have learned something! Hmm...that took about 30 mins and going back to sleep doesn't seem likely. If I am actually able to sleep, my child will probably be up early and wake me up in 30 mins or so. I think I deserve a nap today!!!

Another year older...how does this keep happening?

2009-01-22T22:41:00.009-06:00

Yep, I crept into my MID-30's last weekend. About a week before my birthday, I got an instant message from Lane asking if Chris and I would like to join her and a new 'friend' for snacks and drinks at a bar. It took me a few days, but I finally asked Chris if he wanted to go. I bought this story for about 4 days until a few things didn't quite add up. I was a bit suspicious and even called to get details from Molly, even though I knew she wouldn't tell if she did know anything...and she pulled it off pretty well;) I did have a little fun making my husband sweat it while asking why we couldn't leave earlier and why we couldn't just wait for them at the bar because really?? 7:00?? I would be STARVING by then!! Oh, and why are we in such a rush to be there by 7? They aren't going anywhere and they will wait on us...the response? We don't want to keep them waiting because that is just rude!! We got to the bar and went straight upstairs (Chris ushered me to go first, which he NEVER does...he normally just walks off without me and leaves me behind!!) where I immediately noticed Rebecca (the Rebecca with Randy...I just realized that there were 2 Rebecca's there and both of their last names start with W, so I can't distinguish them!!) and Randy, which I definitely didn't expect, Jen and Brett, Nancy and Brian, Rebecca and Blake, Amber and Joe, Kacy and Matt, Lane, Tara and Kirk...and later...Keith:) You get the picture...everyone!! I REALLY didn't expect that all of my friends would be able to get a night out and was very SURPRISED to see 16 of my dearest friends!! We spent a little while at the bar eating and drinking and eating CAKE!! Not only did my husband plan the surprise party, but he also made arrangements (thanks, Jen!!) to have my favorite cake there!!

And it was sooo yummy for days afterward!! Those damn trick candles though...Lane!!!

Then, Chris let me in on a little secret! Not only did he plan a surprise party for me with the greatest friends ever, but we were all going to see the Spazmatics concert!! I have blogged about them before and if you haven't seen them yet?? What's wrong with you?? Buy tickets...go NOW!!! It is the most fun ever and I am pretty sure that you will burn more calories there then you ever will in the gym...well, maybe the drinks are counter productive...but still fun!!! I'll show you!!

aaawww...me and my sweet hubby!

Nancy and Brian and...uh, Jen???

Rebecca, Randy and Keith

Amber and...omg I don't know if I have EVER seen Joe have so much fun!!

Lane and Amber

Rebecca and Blake...this is the best I've got of the two of them!! Also, Brett and Jen must have been unavailable for photos!!

Matt and Kacy

Chris and Rebecca

Kisses for Amber!!

See how much fun we had...and how sweaty we are!!!

Thanks to Chris and all my friends for making my birthday sooo much fun!! I can't wait to do it again!!

Guess what Blayne and I did today?

2009-01-16T17:52:00.007-06:00

Did you guess ice skating?? Yep...that's what we did!! I could never get Chris to help me out on this little venture, so I took Kelly up on her invite. Kelly's son, Jud (also one of Blayne's boyfriends) takes private skating lessons and plays ice hockey. His lessons are on Fridays, so I promised that we would join them for open skate one Friday. This was a great plan as I could also incorporate the help of Jud's dad, Marc, with Blayne's first ice skating experience. And since Kelly hasn't skated since breaking her tailbone on the ice several years ago, it was all Marc and I on this little venture...thanks for the help, Marc;) Blayne was very cautious at first and I have decided she is most definitely bipolar!! When she wasn't whining and crying, she was laughing and smiling. I guess I have to learn to take the good with the bad!! Overall, I think she had a pretty good time, but I am not so anxious to race over there any time soon!! I got a full body workout while skating (feet very wide!) and holding both of her hands up to balance her!!

We started out a little shaky like this!!! Note the little 2-3 year old on her first skating lesson with dad...she was not near as whiney as my almost 5 year old!!

Then, she got a little braver...

and braver with only 1 hand...

finally, by herself, but not letting go of that wall because she fell on her butt!!

Blayne with her date who, obviously, is a MUCH better skater!!!

It was such a tough workout that we had to stop for a snack!!

I think next time, we will stick to roller skating because I am MUCH better at that:)

This is what I did today!!

2009-01-12T21:12:00.004-06:00

We bought Blayne new bedroom furniture about a year ago and STILL haven't finished redoing her room...I know horrible, huh? Partly because I really just can't find what I want, but mostly because of time and money!! So it has been quite a work in progress that I am hoping to complete soon as I have other household things that I want to do...like redo my bathroom. Yeah, the master bathroom that we started to pull the wallpaper off about 4 months ago!! If I were to make new year's resolutions, these projects would definitely make the list:) So, today I started. I put these princess wall stickers on the wall months ago and realized immediately that white sticker thingies on yellowish walls do not show up!! Of course, I made another plan of action...paint over them and peel them off. Here is the today's finished project:

With that done...I am ready to take on the.rest.of.the.house!!! Hopefully, it won't take a year to have another update:)

Did someone say Easy Bake Oven?

2009-01-11T21:49:00.003-06:00

I have to say to all you 'boy moms' out there...I love boys, but OMG it is sooo much fun to have a girl!! It is like I get to be a kid again and play with all of the toys that I used to play with!! It's hard to believe that all these technology advanced kids still want to play with our 'vintage' toys!! Blayne got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas and I was just as excited about it as she was!!

I forgot just how much fun it is to cook your own snacks with a light bulb!! Oh and learned quickly that it doesn't come with a light bulb. That resulted in a trip to Lowe's to find a clear 100W light bulb...didn't just have those laying around and apparently soft white doesn't cook as well;)

We chose the yellow cake with chocolate icing for our first concoction!!

You MUST lick the spoon when you are done stirring! Here is the cake ready to go in the oven.

And the best part...getting to eat your own creation!!

Oh and notice the cute new American Girl outfit she is wearing that she got for Christmas (that has a matching outfit for her doll!) from Todd, Nicole and Carly...um yeah...has chocolate on it:( Hope that comes out!!

Christmas, New Years...Bleh!!

2009-01-10T09:20:00.012-06:00

So I have been a little MIA lately!! Don't get me wrong we had a great Christmas and New Years, but it just all flew by too fast!! I have had a million posts in my head over the last SEVERAL weeks, but just haven't gotten here to type them out. I have totally kept up on all of my friends blogs and read about their family holidays...just didn't feel the urge to get it all on here. So, here you have it...the short version, so that I can move along to the present day life!!

We changed things up a little this year and went to the 5pm Christmas Eve service with Chris' family which meant a candlelight service. It was really pretty and I think the kids really enjoyed it!

Another change in the Rogers' Christmas Eve...we went to eat dinner at Texas Land and Cattle. This was decided after a horrible experience at a San Antonio location during this weekend. They sent us a nice voucher for being out of their signature smoked sirloin, chicken, sweet potatoes, and pasta (don't get me started on why they were out of pasta with 30,000 runners in town!!) and we decided that Christmas Eve would be a great time to cash in! We enjoyed our meal, but had to laugh because on this visit they were once again out of their signature smoked sirloin and corn!! Oh well, we did have a great dinner and the best part...NOBODY had to cook!! After dinner, we headed home for presents!!

Giddy girls waiting to open presents!!

We went to the Dailey's for our annual Christmas Eve nightcap and headed home with a VERY sleepy girl!! We arrived home after midnight with a sleeping girl and a snoring daddy, so I had to get the cookies and milk out for santa by myself, yet again!! Not sure why we don't have a picture of our Christmas tree and all that Santa left under, but I can assure you that I was not in charge of the picture taking:) Santa worked really hard to make it all look so cute under the tree;)
So, here is Blayne coming in on Christmas morning.

I can tell you what was left under the tree, but if you ask Blayne she will most definitely tell you what was NOT left under the tree!! She did NOT receive Kit Kittredge's (American Girl, for all of you out there with boys and have no idea what I am talking about!!) tree house or Ruthie:) She did get Kit Kittredge (the doll), Kit's scooter, Kit's dog, Grace, a couple of outfits for Kit and a purple ipod. She also got one of Ruthie's outfits, so that she can dress her other AG doll, Jess, to look like Ruthie. She pointed out months ago that Jess looks just like Ruthie and that she could just pretend that Jess is Ruthie:) Apparently Santa thought that was a GREAT idea!! Here she is checking out her stocking!

Shortly after checking out all the Santa gifts, my family all came over for Christmas morning. We had breakfast and then opened presents...again!!

Riley LOVED what Santa left him under the tree!!

Finally, one of my favorite family traditions, Christmas dinner with the Stanga's. I don't really know how long this has gone on, but for as long as I can remember, I would talk to Molly early in the morning to see what she got for Christmas. Later in the afternoon, I would pack up my favorite gifts and my family would head over to the Stanga's for Christmas dinner and another gift exchange. This used to result in playing all night with our new goodies and a sleepover. That has turned into LOTS of wine and playing aggravation!!! I think the Stanga sisters were really aggravated this night!!

I know I promised this would be the short version and I guess it wasn't so short after all, but there!! I am done with it and now I can move on to present time!!

Look out Eminem!!

2008-12-29T22:29:00.003-06:00

Chris told Blayne to clean her playroom this evening. This is what we heard for the next 15 minutes or so...lucky for you, we only caught 1 minute on video!! I think Blayne is the next up and coming 4 year old white girl rapper!! What do you think??

LOTS of new posts!!

2008-12-16T22:37:00.001-06:00

scroll all the way down...more to come soon!!!

Christmas Tree Lighting

2008-12-16T22:07:00.003-06:00

Going to the Plano Christmas tree lighting has become a family tradition for us as we have gone every year since Blayne was born. So a couple of weekends ago was no different. We grabbed some dinner and braved the cold. We headed straight to Santa when we arrived because the line seemed quite short. As you can tell, the line was a little longer than we thought and Blayne got a little crazy!!

the elf entertained them for a few minutes

Carly telling Santa what she wants for Christmas

Blayne telling Santa the 4000 things she wants for Christmas!!

just one of SEVERAL pictures of Blayne posing in front of the Christmas tree!!

The Train Came to Town!

2008-12-16T21:38:00.003-06:00

I had never heard of this, but was well informed this year!! For the last 8 years or so, the Kansas City Southern has made several stops along a trek across 8 states in order to deliver gift cards and warm clothing to children in need via the local Salvation Army. The train only stops in town for a few hours and during that time they have tours of 3 of the cars. From what I understand, 3 cars are decorated inside and Santa is present at the end! We got news that the train was in Wylie for a few hours following the girls' dance class, so we decided to head over to take a look. It was beautiful!! Although we were unable to stand in the ridiculous line (at least an hour and a half!!) because it was cold and late, we really enjoyed seeing it!! I don't know if it follows the same course every year (it only had 2 stops in Texas this year!!), but I will definitely be on the lookout for the KCS train next year!!
The front of the train!!

Santa's sleigh and reindeer

The caboose!!

us at the front of the train

Last Dance Decemeber

2008-12-16T20:05:00.007-06:00

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving was Blayne's last dance class of the semester where the parents are invited to watch. Carly's class is the just before, so our group settled in for a 2 hour show!! Sitting on lunchroom tables makes for a long 2 hours, but the entertainment was priceless!! Our group consisted of Grammy, Richard, Grandma, Grandpa, Nanny, Rich, Nicole, Chris and me!! The girls did a great job and we are anxiously awaiting the recital in April. It will be so much fun to see both girls perform this year!! Here are a few pictures of the girls dancing.

Blayne and Carly between performances

Blayne doing ballet

Carly tapping

Blayne shuffle stepping

There is a funny story about Blayne's performance. She brought a bitty baby doll to play with during Carly's class and left it in the care of Grammy during her class. Grammy wasn't very diligent in caring for her baby as Carly grabbed it and started playing with it. Blayne had just finished her shuffle step across the stage when she sat down and noticed that Carly had her baby. She gave multiple dirty looks at us and we couldn't quite figure out what her problem was. Then she proceeded to motion rocking a baby, shaking her head, and pointing at Carly. She had all of us laughing as Grammy took the doll away, so that Blayne could complete her performance!!

Thanksgiving...really late!!

2008-12-16T19:48:00.003-06:00

Molly requested that I post a few of our pictures from Thanksgiving. There weren't many, but I am here to catch up!! Thanksgiving Day was also Chris' mom's birthday, so I made her a birthday cake and, of course, we sang happy birthday. Gaby came by for a short visit with Ryan.

We had a great Thanksgiving Day!! We were thankful that the Stanga's stayed in town and we resumed our 'normal' thanksgiving...among all that other stuff that we are thankful for along with everyone else!!

Happy Birthday, Carly!!

2008-12-14T16:29:00.003-06:00

Wow!! Has it really been 2 weeks since I have posted?? I have had plenty to post about; however, not much time!! This will be short and I will have to catch up later...promise to post pictures of Thanksgiving Day for Molly!! This is what has occupied my time the last couple of days. I made the cake for Carly's birthday party yesterday.

Her birthday is actually today, so we are going watch her open presents and eat some more of that cake!!

Lots of friends in town!!

2008-11-28T18:56:00.007-06:00

Two posts in one day...scan down for 2nd post. I am trying to catch up!!

We had a busy day Wednesday!! Grammy, Blayne, Carly and I met Gaby, Michelle (her sister in law), and Ryan (her sweet nephew) at the train park at Firewheel. The kids had a great time playing on the train!!

this is my favorite of Ryan checking out Blayne

Ryan driving the train

it was hard to get all the kids to look at the camera, much less smile

After playing on the train, the kids went to play on the rocks and walk around the fountain area.

my favorite picture of Ryan

Gaby and her group had to leave, so we stayed at the mall for lunch and then took the girls to build a bear!! Here they are with their final purchases!

We made it home just in time to catch Mandi and Shana and their crew at our house for a short visit before they continued on their road trip!!
please excuse Blayne...can you tell that she was DONE?

Shana's cute kids!!
Mandi and her sweet boys!!
It was so good to see my friends and their sweet kids and nephew!! Can't wait to do it again...with more time!!

Saturday Night Out!

2008-11-28T17:43:00.011-06:00

Yes, we were party animals last weekend and let me tell you, I am too old to be out until after 2am TWO nights in a row!! I couldn't resist this night though. Gaby called several months ago to let us know that she would be bringing her boyfriend home to meet us (and her family) for the weekend. She wanted me to think of a great place to take him. So, where do you take a New York boy who has just fallen in love with a Texas girl?? To the most redneck, country bar you can think of, of course!! There is nothing quite like Southern Junction!! I think it best symbolizes what most non-Texans visualize when they think of coming to Texas. And it did not disappoint!!

Gaby with her parents

me, Gaby, and Keith

We made him cook his own steak...it's a bonding experience!! Here is Chris, Kirk, Gaby, Ray and Keith

But don't think I got out of cooking...I am in charge of the bread!! Well, with my supervisor, Keith

He couldn't come to Texas without experiencing a ride on a mechanical bull!!

We were all impressed with the yankee's skills...

until the fall...OUCH!! Nothing like a little bruise as a souvenir from Texas!!

Gaby even rode a bull for the first time!!

Although this is not a normal Gaby characteristic (ask her to see her bike accident pics), her fall was quite graceful!!

After dinner, Molly and LIz joined us for some serious country dancing. Of course, Gaby had to teach him the great Texas two-step

just the girls!!

We had a great night...I just hope we didn't scare him away!!

Friday Night Out

2008-11-22T11:11:00.006-06:00

Chris' company sponsors the Beaujolais wine festival, so we get tickets to attend this great function. Why is it so great? Because it is free wine...all you can drink (which has been WAY too much a few times!!). We invited Brett and Jennifer to join us this year and then we planned to spend the rest of the evening (as it ends at 9:30!) at the Spazmatics concert. For those that don't know, this is a band from Austin that plays 80's cover tunes while dressed up like the revenge of the nerds...they are hilarious!! Keith and Kirk were already at the concert and called us to tell us that the tickets were sold out...they had only managed to buy one ticket. Several other friends were going to meet us there, but they left upon hearing that it was sold out and before we got there. Brett calmly took some money up to the bouncer and told him that we needed 5 people on the guest list. To our surprise, this totally worked!! We were in!! All I have to say is money talks!! We had a GREAT time!!

A picture of the band

Jen and I on stage with the band!!

The best part of the evening was at the end of the show. Brett stopped someone and asked them to take our picture.
Here is the great picture that the nice stranger took of us:

Not good enough!! Brett asked someone else to take our picture:

At this point I have realized that this has become a game and decide to have fun in the pictures!!

The pictures got more and more fun!

And a little crazy!!

we laughing hysterically at this point!!!

our faces hurt from laughing so hard

I won't bore you with anymore pictures, but I could go on and on!! We had about 25 different random strangers take our picture. Let me tell you that those strangers all think that they are excellent photographers!! I can't tell you how many times we heard the phrase "Oh this is a good one" or "You're going to like this one"!!!

Saturday Night Out coming up soon!

San Antonio weekend

2008-11-22T10:02:00.007-06:00

I know I am so late posting this blog...just can't get myself on here lately!! Last weekend, we went to the Inaugural Rock N' Roll Marathon in San Antonio. Chris was originally signed up to run his first marathon, but because of injuries over the last few months, he decided to just run the half instead. We drove down on Friday and decided this would be a great opportunity to take Blayne to Sea World while we were there. We got up Saturday morning and ate at my favorite breakfast restaurant, The Guenther House! If you haven't been there, go!! Their waffles are to die for!! You can actually buy the mix and make them at home which we do often, but they are just not the same. After our breakfast, we headed to Sea World. Blayne had a GREAT time!! Since it is off season and time was limited, we tried to get in all of the shows first.

The first show we went to was the whale and dolphin show

Blayne was in awe!!

She was absolutely giddy sitting on my lap!!

This is the show that Mommy picked the seats thinking that there wouldn't be too much water in the splash zone (because Hello! it's like 50 degrees outside!!). Wrong!! We got wet and that made for an unhappy daddy and 4 year old...OOPPPSS!! Nothing a little sun and cotton candy couldn't fix:)

See?? Cotton candy fixes everything!!

And you and can't go to Sea World without seeing Shamu!!

Of course, her favorite thing was feeding the sea lions and dolphins

skipping through Sea World!

The next morning, we had to get up early to see Chris run. The morning of the race was much colder than we had anticipated. We had to make a Target run for a few supplies the day before...a long sleeve running shirt, thermal undies for Blayne and a thermal shirt for me!! We bundled up in whatever we had!!

here he is at mile 2.5...handing off one of the shirts he wore

this is mile 7.5

getting kisses from daddy!!

Blayne on the bus ride to meet daddy at the finish line

proud parents

Relaxing weekend

2008-11-09T21:55:00.003-06:00

I love weekends!! And here is how we spent ours!! My two favorite people were up and making me breakfast Saturday morning. I awoke to eggs, sausage and toast...it was yummy!! Especially since I didn't have to make it or clean up. After breakfast, I quickly made a few desserts for later. We lazily got ready for the day and then it was time for lunch. Keith and Kirk joined us for our favorite weekend lunch, Taco Bueno. I know we are real fancy around here! It was just too pretty of a day to just go home, so we stopped at the Stanga's to say hello to Lane and Leslie. We still weren't ready to go home, so we dropped by the Van Rooyan's house (Keith and Leslie). Blayne was more than excited to go over there because they have all kinds of fun stuff. She got to jump on the trampoline and hold their miniature Yorkie puppy, Zoe. Zoe weighs about 2lbs and is the cutest little dog. Blayne loves her because she can pick her up and carry her around...she wants a little dog 'to keep in her room and take care of by herself' soooo bad. Riley is enough for me!! They were heading out to their son's hockey game, so we decided it was time to go home. We watched football at home for a little while and spent more time being lazy before heading to the Adams' to watch the TECH/OSU game. I had a great time hanging out with my friends that I never get to see anymore because of those things that have now...jobs!!

Sunday, we got up and continued our laziness!! It was noon by the time we finally decided to go on a family bike ride. We rode to Los Rios and stopped to play for a little while at 'Grammy's park'. Knowing that Mike, Mark, Maegan and Claire were all out of town, we decided that Leslie wouldn't mind us intruding again and she didn't!! We had snacks and chatted her for a little bit before heading to Chris' parents. They weren't home when we got there, but we called and realized they were on their way home. We had lunch there and then made a plan to go to the other park to feed the ducks. We talked Grandma into dusting off her bike and joining us on our bike ride. We had a good time feeding the ducks, riding around the pond and playing on the playground. We dropped Grandma off at home and decided that we should get home before we ran out of daylight...thanks to that stupid daylight savings crap. I hate that it gets dark so early!! So, 5 hours and 9 miles later, we arrived home!! It was a nice, relaxing weekend and probably the last one for a while. Next weekend, we are headed to San Antonio for the Rock 'n Roll marathon and the following weekend is booked with activities leading into the...holidays!! I can't believe Thanksgiving is in a few short weeks!!!

Blayne's Annual Halloween party

2008-11-02T15:46:00.005-06:00

We had a great time at this year's halloween party!! The party started off with a coloring contest and make your own candy necklaces. After everyone arrived, we started the games!! First, they had to put their hands in the 'blood and guts' (cherry jello) in order to find a prize. A few were not willing to put their hands in there...even if it was for a prize!! Then, we took the party outside and had a cake walk. Each winner of the cake walk was free to go to the cupcake table and decorate their own cupcakes!! Of course, everybody eventually won...it just kept them from all crowding around the table! The next game we played was 'hot' pumpkin...basically hot potato with a small pumpkin. The kids had a great time playing this game!! The rest of the time was spent playing in the bounce house, eating pizza and getting ready to go trick or treating!! I will have to check with the other 'photographers' at the party for pics of all the fun...I was too busy 'hosting' and didn't get to take any pictures until we took group pics at the end:( Oh well, I know there are some good pictures out there...I will have to hunt them down!! Here are a few of the group.

Loving on Landry!!

Trick or treating at Keith's house...or not really because he NEVER buys and passes out candy...SCROOGE!!

And here is my little princess...Snow White

Trunk or Treat!!

2008-10-30T22:56:00.007-05:00

We had a big day today!! Blayne's school had trunk or treating this morning. They asked for parents to volunteer to decorate their trunk with a theme and pass out candy to the kids in the parking lot. Since I just LOVE to help out and I have nothing else to do (please note: serious sarcasm here), I decided on Tuesday to sign up to do a trunk. This gave me all of a day or so to come up with a theme. I threw together a 'princess' trunk and borrowed Jen's Snow White costume to wear. It turned out okay and this is where I would love to insert a picture of it, but I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of my own trunk!!! I'll have to see if Jen took one!!! So, here are a few of the decorated trunks.

And here is Blayne's class trunk or treating at Jen's 'Under the Sea' trunk!!

After 2 hours of trunk or treating, I had about 2 hours to go to lunch with a few of the other moms and then go back to school to participate in the classroom fall party.

After all that partying at school, I took Blayne to get her flu shot. I have said that I would NEVER get this child another flu shot!! Last year, she got the flu and honestly?? the flu SHOT was WORSE than the flu!! But our pediatrician had the flu mist this year, so we opted for that and she did great!! We had lots of practice sniffs on the way to the doctor. I don't think I ever remember a trip the doctor being so easy:)

Now onto tomorrow!! Blayne's annual Halloween party and trick or treating... I will have lots to update, but not until at least Saturday!!

Ok...I guess I will play the game!!

2008-10-20T16:27:00.002-05:00

My friend Shana tagged me...so here it is! For the 5 people that I am tagging, I look forward to reading your answers!

Rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people & posts their names, then goes to their blog & leaves them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged & asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

10 YEARS AGO I...
1. started dating my 'friend' Chris
2. just found out that my dad had cancer
3. was driving a black Acura Intregra...loved that car!!
4. starting a new job in the telecom industry
5.

5 THINGS ON TODAY'S TO DO LIST...
1. clean my bathroom
2. put my sheets and bedding back on my bed
3. go to Kohl's to buy a bath rug
4. make dinner
5. dust, vacuum, pick up toys...LOTS to do today or maybe tomorrow

5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE...
1. complete Blayne's college fund
2. buy a new house
3. buy a new car
4. travel
5. go shopping!!!

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED...
1. Pomona, CA
2. Dallas, TX
3. Plano, TX (3 different houses)
4. Murphy, TX
5.

5 JOBS I HAVE HAD...
1. MOM
2. bookkeeper at Food Lion
3. bank teller at Plano Bank and Trust
4. credit analyst at Caprock Communications/McLeodUSA
5. underwriter at Capital One Auto Finance...ummm...that is ALL of my jobs

People I am tagging...Lane, Boudreaux, Maegan

Ladybug Claire

2008-10-17T17:19:00.005-05:00

I got to take some pictures of this cute baby today at the pumpkin patch!! Of course, Blayne wanted to hold her the entire time, so I had to get a few of that too!

My personal favorite...love the eyes!

And a few with her mama!!

Blayne's Haunted House

2008-10-15T20:38:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, Chris and I bought a Christmas gingerbread kit at Costco. I know it's a little early to be buying a gingerbread house, but we wanted to make sure we one before they were gone. Why did we need *that* one in October rather than waiting to buy one later?? Well, because it comes with WILLY WONKA candy!! Things like bottle caps, nerds and pixie sticks!! So much better than the generic candy that they usually come with. Of course, Blayne wanted to put it together as soon as we got home. I had to put it away and promised to get her a halloween gingerbread haunted house. It has been raining most of the day, so after school today was a perfect time for that project. And, of course, here is our finished project:

I just hope the Christmas one isn't quite so time consuming!! Can you believe that I had to mix the icing myself?? All 3 colors!! Which makes me wonder who in the world makes homemade gingerbread houses anymore?? I mean I was too lazy to even mix the icing!! I can't imagine mixing and baking the cookies and making icing!!

Sally's shower

2008-10-12T23:06:00.003-05:00

I got to spend Saturday morning with some of my favorite friends, good food and fabulous cake!! It was Sally's baby shower! We are all so excited to welcome baby 'no name' and shower him (and Sally!!) with lots of love and goodies. Mandi drove in for the festivities and Molly did not:( We had a great time catching up with Nana (Gab's mom), Mandi, and Paige...we should have gotten Paige in the picture!! I can't believe that the next time I see Sally, she will be a mommy!! Congratulations Daniel and Sally...you guys will be GREAT parents and I can't wait to meet your little guy!!

Oh yeah...Lane and Leslie were there too!! But, you know, I talk to and see them ALL the time!!

Pumpkin Farm

2008-10-11T23:43:00.008-05:00

Blayne and I had our annual trip to the pumpkin farm Friday afternoon. We go to the pumpkin farm every year and every year Blayne loves it!! What do I love about the pumpkin farm? Getting great fall pictures of my kid with all the pumpkins!! Here are a few when we first arrived and she was fairly cooperative.

About this time, she was over the picture taking and ready to get on with it.

And on to her favorite thing to do at the farm...feed the animals!!

The kids were all anxiously waiting to go on the hay ride. Notice Caleb trying to read the sign to the other kids!! We think the sign should 'Do not feed the children'!!

Then, she got to pick out her free pumpkin which took quite a bit of consideration!!

Here is it!!

New Haircut take 2

2008-10-02T16:11:00.002-05:00

This is the haircut that Blayne (and I) actually wanted the last time we got her hair cut about a month ago. Blayne is very particular about her hair and I thought that cutting it that drastic would cause a melt down and, quite honestly, I didn't really trust the lady cutting her hair at the kids salon to do a good job. So, today we went to the big girl hair place!! She did GREAT and I am sooo happy with her new do!!

Nursing home stuff?

2008-09-28T10:24:00.003-05:00

This picture deserves a post of it's own!! The reason for this site is to remember the fun (and CRAZY!) things my child says and this is definitely one of those!

Before I took this picture, Blayne said, "Hey mommy, take my picture with my nursing home stuff!" It took us a minute to figure it out, but yeah kinda looks like nursing home stuff!!

Fun Saturday

2008-09-28T09:39:00.008-05:00

We had a great Saturday!! Blayne and I spent the afternoon at the Rogers' house being lazy with Heather and Lauren while Chris was working. We were planning on riding our bikes to our city's 50th celebration with Chris, but he didn't get home in time. So, we invited Heather and Lauren to go with us!! The girls had a great time!! Here are the girls skipping to get there.

Here is cute fall picture that a local church had set up.

Blayne has been most excited about the hula hoop contest. We told her that they were having a context weeks ago when we first received the flyer and she has been practicing ever since!! She is really quite good at hula hooping and is really fun to watch! I am sure that she would have won if there had been age categories, but she was competing against 15 year olds!! Obviously she didn't win, but she did last longer than at least 10-15 other kids. Here she is practicing before the competition.

And here are a few pictures from the contest...you can see how big some of the kids are in the background!!

We were apparently too late to get Blayne's face painted and Lauren was already in line...don't get me started on this story!! I was quite pissed off about the whole situation and when I figure out what company it was that had that booth, I WILL let everyone know!! So, Blayne and I went to go find something else to do and we found a great airbrush tattoo booth! And those people were fantastic!! They had quite a line and said that as long as they were selling tattoos and making money, they would be open:) Here is Lauren's face painting.

And here is Blayne showing off her tattoo! She wanted it on her face (like a face painting), but I had to talk her out of that since these last about 7 days!!

Here is a cute picture of Lauren and Blayne.

On our way out, we stopped to take a few pictures at the fire station. Here are Blayne, Stephen, and Caleb looking up at the fireman coming down the pole.

Here are Blayne and Lauren driving the fire truck.

And Stephen, Blayne and Lauren sitting on the front of the fire truck!

Do you have a twin?

2008-09-24T16:52:00.005-05:00

When Blayne started school a few weeks ago, she had several kids calling her Haley. They would call her Haley and when she would turn to look at them, they would run away, realizing their mistake. At first this really upset her because she didn't know why they were calling her Haley. A week later, one of the teachers introduced us to Haley (and her mom, who is a teacher there) and we quickly realized why so many people were mistaken! When we took the Wednesday class opening, it just happened to be in the same class as Haley! Haley has become one of Blayne's best friends in the Wednesday class. So, what do you think??

This one isn't a very good picture...I was in a hurry!! Oh, and Haley is about 6 months older than Blayne, but they are pretty much the same size!!

Labor Day weekend cont...

2008-09-20T12:04:00.004-05:00

Everybody managed to sleep in on Sunday...even the kiddos!! We had no plans for the day, but everyone was hungry so that was our first agenda of the day. We loaded up the van and drove around the block a few times and ended up at a pizza place about 2 blocks from our hotel. Chris dropped us off and went to find a place to park...the closest/cheapest parking being our hotel!! That was a fun ride!! After lunch, we walked aimlessly until deciding to take the kids to play Jungle Golf. We all tested out our putting skills and I found that mine were not up to par, but I have to admit that I was still barely functioning at this point!! Of course, 18 holes of miniature golf created some hungry children, so where else do we take 3 starving kids...McDonalds!! While eating our 2nd lunch, we came up with a plan to go on a boat excursion to see the dolphins. We had a great time seeing jellyfish, stingrays, and dolphins. I have absolutely NO pictures of any of the this because the only time I took our camera out of the room was to take pics of Chris running!! Diana is the only one that brought her camera along!! Dick and Diana's flight left shortly after getting off the boat, so the guys took them to the airport while Jen and I stayed to have movie night with the kids. It was quite peaceful!! The next morning, we got up and went to breakfast in our hotel and had to be our of our room by noon. Our flight didn't leave until 6pm, so we loaded up the kids and took them to the Virginia Beach aquarium. We had a great time at the aquarium. We saw a 3D IMAX movie about dolphins and whales. Then, we went on to wander around the aquarium for a few hours. I think the kids favorite part was the kids exhibit where they got to play with all kinds of fun things.

And the nature walk that we took from one building to the next!!

It was great to get back home and get back into our routine, but we had a great time!! Thanks to Dick and Diana for letting us be a part of their family tradition...we love you guys!

Dick's Day 2008 aka Virginia Beach Rock N' Roll 1/2 Marathon

2008-09-11T12:11:00.009-05:00

So, I have to back up to our Labor Day weekend trip. We arrived in sunny Virginia Beach on Friday afternoon and promptly (well, I don't know how prompt the car rental people were) headed to the closest patio on the water for dinner. After dinner, we checked into the hotel and called it a night. Dick and Diana arrived on Saturday, just in time to head to the local bar that was playing the Ohio State game...for those that don't know, all of the Bergman's are HUGE OSU fans!! Since the kids are not big OSU fans (yet!!), Jen and I took Brayden and Blayne to get henna tattoos, ice cream and then to play on the beach. Jen let me escape for a little while (thanks, Jen!) to go with the rest of the crew to check out the runner's expo. We all met up in our hotel's restaurant for some awesome sushi at dinner.

Sunday morning...race day!! The kids slept in with Jen and I snuck off again to get a few photos of Chris running at mile 10.5.

Blayne is so proud of her daddy for finishing!!

Chris didn't finish as well as he would have liked, but it was freaking HUMID and HOT out there!! We were all really proud of Dick for finishing...he was 8 weeks off of knee surgery and hadn't completed more than 6 miles since the surgery!! Dick is also a member of the 100 mile club as he has participated in every race since the inaugural one in 2000. After the race, we went to lunch at our usual place Laverne's aka Chix Cafe (it really has 2 names) and got our drink on! You might remember our alcohol consumption from last year. Well, I have to say that we had that BEAT this year and here is the proof:

Well, that was the first bill as our waitress had to close us out to go home and a new tab was started with a new waitress!! We also had the pleasure of having Sally and Daniel drive down for a day/night of fun in Virginia Beach although Sally did not help with that alcohol consumption one bit!!

The kids enjoyed lunch, coloring, a movie and this:

While the moms went out to do this:

Yeah...Jen is in awe on how I got my mouth around that shot glass!! What can I say, we were told not to use our hands!!

That night did not end well and the 4AM fire alarm wasn't very fun either!! Poor Chris had to carry our 45lb child down 7 flights of stairs after running 13.1 miles just hours before!!

Dick's Day 2008 to be continued...

First Day of Dance 2008

2008-09-11T11:54:00.003-05:00

As you know, Blayne loved dance last year and couldn't wait to get started again this year. Recital will be a really special treat this year because not only do we get to watch Blayne, but Carly has also joined dance! They are in different classes, but both on Tuesday evening. Here are a couple of pictures from their first day!!

Puppy luv!!

2008-09-04T21:42:00.004-05:00

As some of you know, Molly has been here hiding from Gustav for a couple of days. Of course, she has her precious fur-baby, Boudreaux, with her. He is a 17 week old pug and is so stinkin' cute...LOVE him! Our dog, Riley, gets along with him pretty well, but apparently he feels the need to 'mark' him when they are together! The 2nd time he decided to 'mark' his friend, he lifted his leg and sprayed him right in the eye!! Well, I had to make up for my dog's bad behavior so, I set up a puppy playdate for him. My neighbor's happen to have a 15 week old female pug named Chanel. Chanel and Bou hit it off pretty well and if those owners don't watch out, there will be some puppies in their future!!

They had so much fun romping around!

Watch out, Bou!! She is ferocious!!

Molly holding the 2 pups...can you tell them apart?

That's right!! Bou is protecting his owner...look out, Chanel!!

We are really thirsty after all that playing.

I am sure these babies are sleeping well tonight!! We will miss Molly and Bou as they head back to the swamp tomorrow.

Blayne's first day of school 2008

2008-09-04T21:32:00.003-05:00

Blayne missed 'meet the teacher' night and the first day of school while we were on vacation (which I'll have to catch up on later!!), so today was her first day of school. She was a little clingy and unsure of her new class at first, but she loved it!! Her teacher, Ms. Saundra, is her summer school teacher's mother, so I am sure Blayne will love her just as much as she loved Ms. Karen this summer!! Today they talked about their family and their addresses which, ironically, I just drilled her about last night!! She doesn't have it down quite yet, but is a pro at reciting her phone number!! She also attended chapel for the first time today. Here are a few pics of Blayne before school:

"When I look in your eyes, my tummy feels good"

2008-08-28T21:36:00.004-05:00

That is what Blayne told me this evening while snuggling in bed.

Had so much fun tonight...happy hour with OLD (and not in age!!) friends!! Happy hour was not enough time to catch up with Janet and ummm, Gigi (or for those that may know her, Cynthia)...I'll never get used to that! I forgot to bring my camera, but will work to get the one picture taken:) Fun to catch up on the last 15 YEARS or so!! Can't wait to do it again!!

UPDATE: Here's the pic sent to me!!

Not much going on!

2008-08-27T17:39:00.006-05:00

I don't have much to blog about, but just realized that it has been over a week since my last post!! Chris has been traveling a little bit and my mom just arrived back in town. She is here for about 2 weeks this time and won't be returning until November to stay through the holidays. We are getting geared up for the big Virginia Beach trip!! Chris has been training for the Rock n' Roll half marathon for a few months (well, he is always training!!) and is hoping that he can finish in less than 2 hours this year. I am training for ummm....drinking and watching the race...I think I will do well!! We are very excited to just hang out at the beach and be away for the weekend. It should be a good time!! Blayne will be missing meet the teacher and her first day of pre-K while we are gone...I don't really think that she will notice, but I WILL! I am READY for school to start!! She will now be going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and she will also resume her dance class on Tuesday evenings, which she is ecstatic about!! She can't wait to see all of her dance friends (although she does see a few of them at the gym) and Ms Gailyn...LOVE her!! I am ready to be back on a schedule. Well, not much else to update. Hoping to update in a few days...from the beach, of course:)

Blayne's new 'do

2008-08-18T20:23:00.003-05:00

First, I have to say that Blayne's long, stringy hair is not my choice. If I had it my way, I would have cut her hair a long time ago. Anytime I suggested even getting it trimmed (it has only been trimmed twice in her life!!), she would throw a HUGE fit and whine that she wanted it 'long like Lauren's' (her cousin). After seeing the American Girl movie a few weeks ago, Blayne said that she wanted her hair just like Kitt Kittredge's...short and blonde!! I told her short...we can do. Blonde? Not happening. So, when Blayne got news that her cousin, Lauren, got her hair cut short this weekend, she was ready to go!! She wanted to go last night and if I could have found a place open to do it, I would have!! We held off to today and she was ready...until we got there. She was her usual self...would not wear the cape and not cooperative. The hairdresser was very patient with us and after a few threats, we were good!! She even had to cut it shorter twice because Blayne wanted it shorter!! Here is the result!!

***Don't even ask about the fleece, footed pjs she has on!! I mean it was overcast, cool and humid here today (high of like 78), but definitely NOT constituting the fleece jammies!!

model or clothing designer?

2008-08-15T12:48:00.005-05:00

Blayne ran to her room to get dressed for the day and I promise she was only gone for about 2 minutes when she came back in with her 'new' shirt on. She told me that she didn't want her shirt to be plain. So, it's no longer plain and I am pretty sure that no one else has one like it!!! Here is she is modeling the first product for her new clothing line:

We will be taking orders soon!!!

**Please ignore the hair...we hadn't gotten to that yet!!

Blayne's first cave

2008-08-12T09:55:00.003-05:00

On our way home, we decided to take Blayne to visit her first cave at the Fantastic Caverns. Chris is a really big fan of caves and before Blayne was born, we stopped at every cave along our way. I have continuously teased him about his cave fascination. I am not as big a fan of caves...I mean I enjoy the 60 degrees, but all caves are the same. Stalactites and stalagmites, all grown together to form columns blah, blah, blah!!! But, I did think it would be fun to take Blayne and I am quite sure that this will not be her last cave visit!! If you have never been in a cave before, I'll save you...here is what they always look like:)

Although, this cave was a little different...we RODE through the cave in a trailer pulled by a propane gas jeep!!

And, here is us IN the cave.

Aqua globes

2008-08-02T23:20:00.003-05:00

Tonight my mom, Blayne and I stopped at CVS to pick up a few things. It was just a short trip, but we were wondering around a little bit (mainly because we have nothing else to do on a Saturday night!!). Blayne is sitting in the cart which is parked in the middle of the aisle. She gets my attention and points over to the 'as seen on TV' section...you know where they carry all of the stuff that they sell on TV that looks really cool, but rarely works!! I look over and quickly realize that she is pointing at the aqua globes, which she has obviously seen on TV. So, I pick them up and my mom and I start looking at them because we were both really interested in them. Blayne is holding the box and says 'you put them in your plant for 2 weeks!!' Um, yeah...she just quoted the commercial!! So, do you think she watches too much TV or do you think she has a future in horticulture??

4th of July weekend

2008-08-01T09:42:00.011-05:00

I know it's a little late, but here are the pictures from our weekend in Missouri. We went to attend Chris' mom's family reunion in Chilicothe, MO as well as visit other family members. We spent about 27 hours of our 5 day mini vacation in the car...who knew everything was so far in Missouri!! So, of course, we spent the first day driving north of Kansas City to a campground, where we had the luxury suite, at the Basswood Resort. And by luxury they mean that it has a bathroom with a shower and a kitchen. It was decorated much like my parents house circa 1982!! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the lovely accommadations, although I wish I did!! Our first full day at the 'resort' was the 4th of July, so we decided to make the best of the day and take the kids over to the pool, spray park and playground.

While we entertained the kids, the dads spent their time playing a little horseshoes.

After all of that fun, we headed back to our luxury suite to grill some burgers and rest. We also had to doctor Grandma's toe because she got a little crazy on the playground and decided it would be fun to try out the zip line!! It didn't work quite the way she thought and resulted in a broken toe!!

We decided that our best chance of seeing fireworks (because the resort had no fireworks show and they were prohibited...what kind of campground is that??) was to drive 45 minutes to Chris' Aunt Mary's house. We could see fireworks from all different directions and did a few of our own. The kids had a great time visiting the farm!! Jacob got to drive a tractor and the girls spent their time picking flowers or um, weeds!!

When it got dark, we got the sparklers out for the kids.

We spent Saturday at the family reunion and afterward went to see the house that Chris' mom grew up in. It's pretty small considering she had 7 brothers and sisters!! Oh and it is also the house that Larry proposed to her in...in the bathroom!!
Here are the girls with Grandma in front of the house which her brother now lives in.

After our hour and a half drive back to the 'resort', we built a fire and let the kids make smores!! Of course, Blayne wouldn't even try them...all she wanted to do was eat 'raw' marshmallows!! Once the kids were all settled in watching a movie, the parents (Chris, Heather, Kenny and I) let the grandparents take over and snuck out for a little bit of fun. We headed to Kansas City to the riverboat casino where we spent the next 4 hours or so!! We decided to cash in at about 2am with $300 in my pocket and about $75 in Heather's...too bad those boys didn't win anything!!

We got up the next day and drove about 2 hours to Marshall, MO to visit Chris' grandma (his dad's mom). It was great to see her and for her to see the kids!! Here is grandma with her great grandkids.

Grandma with Larry and Aunt Pat.

I think that is all I have for now. I'll have to save our stop on the way home for later!!

I'm still here!!

2008-07-14T09:43:00.002-05:00

Has it really been a month since I last blogged?? WOW!! I try to blog once a week and I have soo much to blog about, but we have been so busy this summer!! I have lots of pictures to post, but we added a little think called NAS (a server, I think!) to the network. Apparently all of my pictures are now on the NAS and I have no idea how to access it...actually I don't think I can and it needs to be fixed!! However, Chris is out of town, so we will see when we get to that. Recently, Blayne has started the summer program at her new school and absolutely LOVES it!! The last semester at her old school was pretty difficult. She would cry on the days she had to go and it was very hard to get her ready in the morning because she just didn't want to go. She was very uncertain about her new school, but went without a fight. When I picked her up, she was so excited to show me all of the art projects they did and was excited to go back!! I even used not going to school as a punishment and...she cried!!! Probably won't use that one again because really?? her not going to school?? who does that punish? Anyway, we have also gone on vacation, attended a few wedding functions, and much more. I will be back with more updates (and hopefully, pictures!!) soon!!

Thank you, Stanga's!

2008-06-13T15:54:00.004-05:00

Blayne got a gift card to Build A Bear Workshop for her birthday from the Stanga's. We received a flyer in the mail several weeks ago and Blayne decided that she HAD to have the USA Spirit Teddy. Of course, that teddy bear didn't come out until June 12th, so we have been waiting patiently. I have been to Build A Bear when they have run out of a particular bear, so I KNEW we would have to be there soon in order to make sure there were still plenty of USA Spirit Teddy's!! Today was the much anticipated day and Blayne LOVED It!!

Here she is stuffing her bear...she added a heart and a 'magical' sound to her bear.

Then she had to give her bear her first bath in the 'air' dryer.

We have picked out many nice outfits for the bear and we are done checking out!!

We are ready to go!!

One last stop before heading home...to get ice cream!! Blayne chose Ghiradelli chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles which she ate 3 bites of before asking for water. She got her water and was done with the ice cream which, of course, meant that I had to eat it!! At least she didn't get cotton candy this time!!

And here we are on the way home!! Building bears is REAL tiring!!

It didn't last long. When I picked her up to bring her in she immediately had to show off all of her purchases to Dad!!

After we were done, I had to remind her (so that she wouldn't think that she was going to get that much stuff EVERY time she went to build a bear!!) that this was her birthday present from Ms Leslie and she needed to remember to tell her thank you again. Her response? "Well, we can just stop by the Stanga's real quick on the way home, so I can tell Ms Leslie." We obviously didn't get to do that since Blayne was fast asleep on the way home, but if you Stanga's are reading, Blayne says 'Thank you'!!!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

2008-06-12T22:21:00.008-05:00

Tonight was Caleb's big birthday celebration! We were all excited to go to his birthday party because it was taking place at Amazing Jake's....the new addition to our local mall!! It has only been open a month or so and we have been waiting to try it out. They built it in a vacated department store and it turned out to be quite a hit with the kids!! We started out with the pizza, pasta, salad, and a dessert buffet, followed by birthday cake, which (unfortunately for us) was not Jennifermade:( I don't think the kids could have cared less, but we sure did miss Jen's famous birthday cake!! The kids couldn't get out of that party room fast enough!! There were plenty of games and rides waiting for us!! The boys headed in one direction, while Blayne, Riley and Lexie headed upstairs to the carousel.

Here is Blayne posing on her horse!

Lexie and Rebecca on the carousel

Joe and Riley

LOOK...Joe even found a horse!!

Blayne, Riley, and Lexie on the train!

Blayne and Riley had a blast on the star jets!! The were giggling the whole time!!

This is what the Dads did!! I don't know who had more fun, the dads or the kids??

Then, we went back downstairs for a game of miniature golf. Blayne got her first hole in one!!! Watch out Annika Sorenstam..Blayne's hitting the LPGA!!

Joe showing Riley how to putt

We finally all came together to ride the bumper cars. Here is Blayne with the birthday boy!

We continued with lots more fun...go-carts, lazer tag, bowling, etc. However, I don't have any pictures of all that fun because I only had my little camera. It is not near as fun to take pics as it is sooo S-L-O-W and I KNOW that Jen has many great pics that she is going to post on her blogspot as soon as she gets a chance;)

Pretty toes!!

2008-06-07T18:00:00.007-05:00

We were all worn out from getting those trophies this morning, so the girls decided we needed to go get pedicures. Grammy is leaving tomorrow, so Blayne, Carly, Nicole, Grammy and I all went to the nail salon to spend some quality time with her this afternoon.

Here are the colors we chose!!

Getting your toes done sometimes tickles and there were some serious giggles coming from these girls. They had the whole salon giggling with them!!

The girls were GREAT and really enjoyed it!! Makes us moms a little nervous...are we creating high maintenance girls?? I mean every girl should have their first pedicure by 3 or 4 years old, right??

Blastball Closing Ceremonies

2008-06-07T17:50:00.004-05:00

Today was the end of blastball season. Blayne will be too old to play next year and will be moved up to t-ball if she chooses to play again. Here are the kids on her team lining up to get their trophies.

Here they are returning with their prizes.

Here is the team with their trophies! Jud, Amanda, Bradlee, Knox, Carly, Blayne and Bradley

This is Jud, Erika, Blayne and Carly showing off their trophies to each other.

This is Blayne and her friend, Erika, that was in her dance class.

I HEART these girls!

2008-06-04T23:58:00.002-05:00

I got to hang out with my girls tonight!! We started our night out early with margaritas and mexican food at Gloria's and then went to see Sex and the City. Only 2 out of the 6 of us were really interested in seeing the movie, but the rest of us were NOT going to be left out of a girls night!! We had a great time regardless! I just love to get to spend time with these girls. I am soo lucky to have such GREAT friends and I really don't know what I would do without them...love you guys!! Of course, I didn't think to take a picture at dinner when Christy was with us, but here are the rest of us after the movie.

Congratulations Stanga's!!!

2008-06-01T18:44:00.004-05:00

There is a new caboose on the Stanga train!! Mark and Maegan welcomed Miss Claire Elizabeth to the world this morning at 5:26am. She weighed in at 7lbs even and was 19in long. She is absolutely beautiful!! We hope all of the Stanga's are home getting some rest today as last night was quite a long night for all (especially Maegan!!). A BIG congratulations to Nonny, Tini, Aunt Molly, Aunt Laney and Uncle Scott & soon to be Aunt Abby!! We love you guys and are very excited about your new addition!!

New Bedding!!

2008-05-15T11:27:00.002-05:00

I have slowly been redoing my bedroom...and when I say slowly, I mean it's taken like 7 years!! Somehow our bedroom has always been the last on my list to spend time on. A few months ago, I finally got around to painting. The paint swatch had been taped to the wall for about a year. I just bought new bedding this week and while we do still need to do some work (like something on the wall...working on that!!), here are a few pictures of our current 'work in progress'. Let's just hope it doesn't take another 7 years to complete!

She keeps us laughing!

2008-05-08T22:43:00.003-05:00

This whole blog thing was intended to document the funny things that Blayne does and says; however, I haven't been posting those as often as I should. Really this kid keeps us laughing ALL of the time. The latest will only be understood by the few people (not because we didn't want EVERYONE to be there, but we only received 5 tickets at first and got an additional 4 on THAT day!!) that attended her recital this past weekend. Her teacher, Ms Gailyn, performed a tap routine to 'Singing in the Rain'. As you can imagine, she was dressed in a men's suit with an umbrella and a street light on stage. As far as I knew, Blayne really never got to see this performance because she was backstage the whole time. Only after tonight did I realize that the girls were watching from the wings while waiting for the finale and was informed that they saw her practicing in the 'quiet zone'. So, Blayne walks out of her room tonight with an umbrella on her shoulder and a light spring in her step. She proceeds to the living room where she opens the umbrella and spins it just as Ms Gailyn did in her performance!! It was hilarious!! And amazing that she remembered all of that!! I really wish that I would have recorded it...I am sure Ms Gailyn would have gotten a big kick out of it!!

Also tonight, I was standing at the sink and asked Blayne to come to the kitchen. Of course, she didn't come and I had to ask her again...shocking for a 4 year old!! So I said, "Blayne, get your heinie in here right now!" Blayne rounded the corner and promptly turned around and shook her heinie at me, laughing. By that time, Chris and I were both dying laughing and I forgot what I called her into the kitchen for!!

So there you have it...Blayneisms for the day!!

The BIG day!!

2008-05-04T22:25:00.007-05:00

We spent all week preparing for the big dance recital this weekend and was it ever a stressful week. It was so worth it!! We had to go to the dress rehearsal Saturday morning where we took all the pictures we wanted. Pictures and video were not allowed at the recital. I think I was too busy recording during the rehearsal to really enjoy it because it was so darn cute at the recital that I had tears running down my eyes from laughing so hard. These girls were absolutely PRECIOUS!! So, here are a few of the pictures from dress rehearsal Saturday morning:

This is Blayne relaxing before rehearsal started.

With Caitlin before the rehearsal.

Ballet is very serious!!

Check out that 1st position!

The tap dance was to 'Good Ship Lollipop'

Just looking so cute!!

The tongue really helps with concentrating on all those dance moves!

These are pictures of the finale. They were actually in their tap costume, but they practiced in their ballet costume to help with time constraints...that explains the unmatching shoes/ribbons! They danced to 'Grease Lightning' for the finale!

Much needed refreshments after all that tiring dancing!

Our tired little dancer.

I couldn't resist...I HAD to have pictures with my little dancer!! Although Blayne was really crabby after the recital (tired and hungry) and wouldn't take pictures with anyone, I finally talked her into taking a few pictures with mommy and daddy really quick.

The 'Tinkerbell' party!

2008-04-20T12:55:00.006-05:00

This is the party Blayne has been waiting all week for...the party with her friends!! We decided to have the party at ASI Gymnastics this year...probably the best decision I have ever made!! We had her 1st and 2nd birthday parties at our house and vowed that we would NEVER have another birthday party at our house again!! Last year we planned the party at the park and how did that work out? Of course, it was freezing cold and windy!! Where did the party relocate to? OUR HOUSE!! I told Chris that the weather would be perfect this year because I had planned an indoor party. Sure enough it was a beautiful, calm 80 degree day, but I didn't have to worry about that!! Or much else with this party! We were immediately met outside with lots of help to carry in all of our goodies and told that we had one responsibility and that was to relax!! Michael and Austin assured me that they would take care of everything!! This is how the kids spent the first hour of the party...

While the parents and grandparents did this...

I am sure the kids (and adults) were hungry after all that excitement, so we made our way to the party room for chick-fil-a nuggets, grapes and veggies.

And then it was time for cake!! The last two years I have made cupcakes because they are easy (both to make and for the kids to eat). Since I wasn't having the party at the house, I decided that I needed to step it up and make a real cake. I was quite proud of how it turned out:) Here are a few pics of the cake: