Pfour Pflugerville Pfreaks

Christmas Portraits 2011

2011-12-20T15:47:00.001-08:00

We went and had our annual portraits made. This year we went to JCPenney. I bought a groupon which turned out to be a bit of a dud. I wasn't thrilled with the place and definitely won't go back, but we got some cute pics. It's getting harder as Logan gets older to have him smile genuinely. As many of you know, this is a bit of an art form and something lots of people have to learn. He's one of those people!

It was really hard to pick out which prints I wanted and in what size, etc. So I bought the disc and am printing more on my own.

Christmas cards are going out tomorrow for most of you! Merry Christmas!

Ellie's piano recital

2011-09-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

Ellie had her first piano recital on Monday. It was a very small, casual recital at the music store where we take lessons (Danny Ray's in Round Rock). The recital only included Ellie's teacher's students. Her teacher teaches many different instruments (trombone, clarinet, french horn, etc.), so not all the kids there played piano. Also most of them were fairly new at learning so Ellie wasn't totally out of her league since she's only been taking lessons since the beginning of August.
She did great! She didn't seem nervous at all. It kind of freaks me out actually since as most of you know she's incredibly shy much of the time. On stage though, she seems right at home.

She actually played 3 short songs. The video just shows one of them.

We're so proud and hope she continues to want to play. We also hope that she will smile occasionally and not look so solemn while she plays!

Hard Week

2011-09-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough few weeks. Adjusting to my new schedule has been hard. Learning my new job has also been challenging. And to top it off, after almost 14 years, we lost Frank. It's been an adjustment getting used to the fact that he's gone. Several times a day, it will dawn on me that he's not here anymore to let in or out, feed, etc.

I'm glad he's finally able to rest and not be in pain. I don't think we'll be getting another dog anytime soon. The kids are already asking of course. I'm glad I had the distraction of work this week and wasn't home all the time to be reminded that he's not here. He was our first "baby" before we had any of our own. We got him about 6 months after we got married, so he's been a "Smith" almost as long as I have. It's weird without him. I'm sure we'll get used to it, but it will never quite be the same.

Rest in Peace, my buddy... Blaine Franklin Smith ("Frank").

Our First Day back to school!

2011-08-23T15:11:00.001-07:00

The kids and I both had great days back to school today. I have to be at work at 7 am everyday now! Yes, I know that's insane. However, we're adjusting our morning schedule and luckily Stuart's able to finish them getting ready and walk them to school everday! Yay, Stuart!

Here I am heading out the door at 6:45 am. I'm going to have to get used to this one! No more late nights for me. Today at work was good. It was a looong busy day. We haven't started our regular schedules yet with the kids since we have to get everyone adjusted. Hopefully things will settle down soon.
Don't they look cute!! The kids both had good days too and liked their teachers and the after school staff. Whew! Glad that's over. I'll be glad when this week's over!! It only gets better!

It's official...

2011-08-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's nice to see it in writing!
Here's a quick shot of our classroom!

Woo hoo!! I got a job!

2011-08-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought there was nothing to wish for... I got a job!! It's not a classroom teaching job, but it's a great step in that direction. It's an Aid job in an Autism unit. I know it will be challenging, but I know it will also be a great learning experience for me and will help me get a classroom teaching job next year!
I'm going to be working with 2 kindergarten boys mainly. They'll spend time in our classroom as well as their "inclusion class". That means they'll be in a regular classroom sometimes as well and I'll be in there with them to help.
I'm just really excited to be an official employee of Riojas. I already know everyone that was there last year and they have all been really nice and seem genuinely happy that I'm back.
Even though I've been searching for a job since last summer, this all wound up happening rather quickly. I didn't even really interview for this position. However I had been interviewed there 2 other times, so I guess they figured they knew everything they needed to know! Basically Wednesday around 2:00 I was called and asked to come in and by around 3:00, I had a job! Crazy, but good!
I'm going to take some pics today and post later!

So that's where hope went...

2011-08-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

I knew I must have put it somewhere... hopefully I'll find it again soon. :-)

Yay! I passed!

2011-08-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

No news on the job front, but I did pass my ESL test. So at least that's one less thing to think about!

Things, Life, Whatnot...

2011-08-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

So I've really been trying to soak up the summer. I've been staying up late and sleeping late and being as lazy as possible because I know once school starts... it's all over!

Now if I could only find a job! I'm still working on that. All hope is not lost. Although with this whole mid-life career change , I've taken a massive blow to my ego. Growing up most things came relatively easy for me. I'm not trying to brag, just being honest. I didn't have to work really hard at much to do pretty well. I wasn't #1 at everything, but I did OK. So, going through the past 2 years of rejection and searching has been a little difficult.

I'm sure in the long run I'll say it's been worth it, but man while you're in it, it just plain old sucks!

In the meantime... this summer I joined weight watchers. Erica encouraged me (yes, she does it too. You know she had those 4 lbs to lose!) I knew things had gotten out of control when I finally replaced the batteries in my scale (after about 4 months) and learned I had gained about 10 lbs since Thanksgiving. To be fair, I had lost 5 before T-giving. So the net gain was only 5, but still! How did that happen? I blame it on working at the elementary school and eating too much!! They like to feed the teachers you know. :-)

I'm happy to announce that even with all the pitfalls of summer, (being home all day with the entire refrigerator and the pantry, going on vacation, etc.) I was able to lose that 5 extra lbs!! Woo hoo!! So now, I'm working on another 10-15 I'd like to lose. I'm hoping it will be easier once school starts now that I have a good action plan in place. We'll see.

Anyway, I just had a few things to get off my chest. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my ESL (English as a second language) test. It would enable me to have kids in my class who speak English as their second language. It's another teaching certificate that hopefully will make me a little more marketable. I hate these tests. But at least it will be over and done with (unless I fail!) Ha! Failure is not an option!! These tests cost $120 to take!

Wish me luck!

Breaking Dawn trailer? How'd I miss this?

2011-07-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Here it is if you haven't seen it!!

It looks great!! I'm getting excited. They've made us wait too long!

The layout of my blog cuts off the right side. If you'd like to see it in it's entirety, click here.

One last pic...

2011-07-14T08:33:00.001-07:00

Somehow I forgot to post this crazy pic of Logan. Or maybe he should be called "rubber man"! Did I mention he's double jointed?

Susan's house

2011-07-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at Aunt Susan's. We swam 2-3 times each day... so much that Logan came home with swimmers ear. :-(

Here are a few pics of our fun!

Going...

Going...
Going...

Gone!

Cannon ball!!

Uncle Ray taught Logan to do a back flip off the boat recently, so he had to try it here too!

It's hard to catch the shot just right with my cheap little camera. Susan took most of these and she did a great job!

The kids loved getting out and drying off in Susan's big hammock!

Thanks Sue for a great time!

Gordan's release

2011-07-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

We decided that after having Gordan the bullfrog for 1 year, it was time to let him go have a good frog life at the pond in our neighborhood. They keep water in it all the time, so there's no need to worry about his habitat drying up.

We got him on 6-16-10 (right after Logan's birthday last year.) This is how he came in the mail. Needless to say I was a little surprised at how big he was as a tadpole.

We watched him grow (quickly!). It was really awesome.

Within just a few days of sprouting his legs, his tail disappeared. Magic!

Here he was the morning we took him to the pond 6-19-11. Almost a year to the day after we got him.

We made sure he was well fed leading up to his release just in case it took him a little while to get adjusted. Once we felt like he was ready we carried him in his little carrier down to the big pond.

Logan gave him a little kiss goodbye!

Miss El had to hold him one last time too.

Look how well he blends in! Hopefully he'll be safe.

There are tons of waterlilies and other lovely plants surrounding the pond, so he has lots of places to hide out and hunt for food! He'll finally get to stretch his legs.

I know he's in froggie paradise right now!! Wouldn't you be if you were a frog?

Ellie's 7th Birthday Party

2011-07-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

On our way to the party in her new dress!
The cool stiletto chair where they got their nails painted.

Getting her hair done.

Ta da!

Beautiful!

Standing around chatting like little socialites!

Lined up waiting to "strut their stuff" on the red carpet.

Ellie was embarrassed by this as well and didn't really strike much of a pose.

These girls on the other hand had no problem with it!

Here are all the little beauties fully made up! Lovely!

Ellie doesn't like to be the center of attention and was making quite a face when we were singing to her.

Opening presents!!

A great Birthday!

Logan's field trip

2011-07-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

I know I'm waaay behind on posting, but I'm going to try and catch up. Logan had his field trip 2 days before the end of school. They went to the Capitol and the Texas State Cemetery. It was a great time, but really hot! Here are some pics.

Looking up into the dome. Apparently that star in the middle is over 6 feet across!

Looking up through the sky light from the under ground section.

This is the floor directly below the dome.

The Texas State Cemetery. Beautiful! All those small headstones are from the Civil War.

I can't remember who this guy was, someone from the Civil War, I think. Anyway there's a fantastic statue carved of him inside.

All the kids found a hill at the end of our tour and had a great time running up and rolling down. The teachers and parents weren't sure if it was really "cemetery behavior", but there weren't any graves or funerals happening, so we figured it was OK.

This is the 9-11 memorial. It's an actual piece of the twin towers in the middle there. Pretty neat.

If you haven't been to either of these places, they are both worth a visit. Very fun and educational!

Deutschen Pfest '11

2011-06-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

One of our annual traditions is going to Deutschen Pfest every year here in P'ville. It's just a little german heritage festival with a carnival kind of like a little Wurst Fest. The kids love it. This year we decided to invite our neighbors kids to go along. That way each kid had a built in playmate and someone to ride the rides with. It was hot, but really fun!

The bus on the way!! The kids love it because it's one of the only times they get to ride a school bus!

They have possibly the best petting zoo there every year. It's actually located outside the "gate" so you don't have to pay to get into D'pfest to go to it. It's great. Tons of really sweet bunnies, chicks, ducks, goats, baby pigs, donkeys, usually a calf and more!

Want to getout some aggression? Smash a truck!

The girls had a great time together!

This was a ride that Logan did repeatedly. Instead of "Freak Out", I thought it should have been called "Insane"! That big arm swung all the way back and forth to where they were practically upside down!

It was a great time and something we look forward to every year!!

Daisies

2011-06-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Ellie's Daisy troop (soon to be brownies) went to the Cameron Park Zoo and the Mayborn Children's Museum in Waco (well worth going to, by the way). We had a great (but long) day! Here are some pics! When I loaded them I did it in reverse order and didn't feel like moving them, so you may want to start at the bottom and scroll up!

The very last pic of the day!! Boy were they tired little girls!

Cool bubble stuff!

Ellie's favorite dress-up as a prairie gal!

Some really cool weather stuff!

Munching some nachos!

Up close and personal with a jaguar!

Our little monsters!

Mr. Pickles

2011-05-20T15:09:00.000-07:00

Logan's after school program held a talent show today. We found out about it on Tuesday. He came home and wanted to go buy drums to be in the talent show. I said no to that for obvious reasons and because he doesn't know how to play the drums and probably wouldn't by Friday. I didn't think that would be his best "talent" . So then we tried to figure out what he could do. Hmmm...

On Wednesday he signed up for the talent show and said his act was called Mr. Pickles and the category was comedy. OK, what does that mean. I was pretty worried that he was going to get up there and not know what he was doing. So on Thursday after school I decided that we needed to plan his act so he didn't look like a fool.

We ended up planning out a clown/magician act that turned out pretty funny. He was a silent clown, so he just acted out everything. He dropped his briefcase a few times on his way up to the stage and then stumbled over it. Then he "realized" that he wasn't wearing his hat, so he had to look in his briefcase and tried on a bunch of silly hats before he found the right one. He found a rabbit in it too. Then he "sneezed" and went to get a handkerchief and of course there was a whole string of them ending with a pair of underwear that he didn't realize was underwear until after he'd used it to blow his nose! What a little entertainer!

He ended up getting FIRST PLACE!! Way to go Mr. Pickles!

I have a video of it, but we're having technical difficulties with it. Stay tuned...

My Mother's Day adventure

2011-05-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day weekend thanks to my Wonderful husband and kids. They really did everything they could to make me happy and we did whatever I wanted! Woo hoo!

I decided it would be fun to go to the Capital of Texas Zoo outside Bastrop. A few weeks ago we had bought tickets on Living Social so it seemed like as good a time as any to use them.

So we got up, got ready (Stu went to the local taco joint (El Taquito) to get us some yummy breakfast tacos) and off we went.

We didn't know a lot about the zoo other than what I had seen on their website. I wasn't expecting a lot. I knew it would be small. I guess I was expecting something like the Austin Zoo which we love. We drove out toward Bastrop and turned on Pope Bend Rd to get to the zoo. Further and further back we twisted and turned (more and more into the middle of nowhere). Again, I wasn't too worried since it's like that getting the to Austin Zoo as well.

At last, we make our last turn down a 1 lane gravel road. (I so wish I'd had the presence of mind to take pics of all this). Stuart and I turn and look an one another... Hmmm... it's a long road. You can't see anything around except fields and a few houses. Finally we get to the "parking lot". I use that term loosely as it looks as though it may hold a maximum of about 20 cars and there are currently 4 parked there. In front of the parking lot is a small building. It has a large sign on the door that reads, "Welcome! Honk and come on in!"

We walk in to a small, dingy little room with a make-shift office on one side and a bunch of aquariums on the other side. All of them were filled with reptiles of one sort or another. A rattle snake on the bottom row was shaking it's tail at us relentlessly. And there were no people there. OK, I guess that's why we needed to honk. We wait a few minutes and no one comes. So I go out and honk again. By this time another family had arrived. They come in as well. Now there are 10 of us in the small, dim room. Again, no one comes to the office. So we give it one last long honk. Just as we're about to give up and just go in, the owner and another man show up to let us in.

Once they arrive we are told that we will still need to pay the sales tax on the tickets we bought on Living Social. OK, no problem. Also we are offered some food to feed the animals (but could we please return the cups so they can reuse them when we are finished. Also would we mind donating our change to their new habitat they are building. In other words every penny counts at this place where basically this guy is taking care of all these animals and trying to do it on very little income.

The peacocks here have run of the place. I thought this white one was really cool.

Lovely, but very loud creatures. From what Erica was telling me, apparently it's mating season.

A capybara.

The Zoo Man was also really proud of his guinea pigs. When he let us in he was sure to tell us that he had the largest guinea pig enclosure of any zoo in the country. It was quite amazing to see all these little guinea pigs running around. The peacock was in the enclosure when we first went by. He was doing quite a little dance with all his tail feathers out. He was really shaking and making a terrible racket. It was cool.

You could even reach down and touch them. I'm not sure if we were supposed to though.

As you can see from these pics there were also some goats running around. There's a small "petting zoo" area with goats and a donkey. You don't go inside it, but you can feed these very enthusiastic creatures through the fence and a couple had apparently escaped.

There was also a Camel,

And some absolutely adorable pot-bellied piglets!!

There were lots more animals including a lion, white tiger, monkeys, lemurs, bats, prarie dogs, and more I can't even think of!

I hope my telling of this tale hasn't scared anyone off because it's a lovely little zoo with lots of animals. It was just a very strange experience getting there and getting in! You should all go visit the Capital of Texas Zoo!!!

Afterwards on the way home we stopped at Berdoll's Pecan Farm. I had been driving by this place literally for almost 20 years and had never stopped. I decided Mother's Day would be a great time to ask to go. So we stopped and discovered it's a great little place. I got some peach preserves and some old-fashioned dried sausage! Fantastic!!

Finally we end the day at one of our new favorite places. The Good Luck Grill in Manor. I know that sounds far away, but it's really not. And the food is fantastic and reasonably priced. They have counter service too so there's no tip! Highly recommend if you're ever in the area.

It was a great Mother's Day!!

New Car

2011-04-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a while. I'm not sure if anyone will even read this anymore, but here goes. I've just been crazy busy. I'm usually gone from the house from about 7am to between 4:30 and 5. This is obviously a huge change for me in the last 9 years or so. It's taken a little adjusting and we're still not quite there.

Anyway, we've had Stuart's car for probably about 5 years now and it was having a few problems. It was a 1998 Mazda 626. So we figured it was about time to get another car instead of fixing his. We had been meaning to go down to CarMax for the last few weekends, but have been really busy. So last Monday, I left school early and we went without the kids. We picked a car we liked and bought it! I know it seems somewhat impulsive, but we had been looking online for about a month. We got it home and thought about it and drove it, etc. and decided to take advantage of CarMax's 5-day return policy. So on Friday (when we were all off) we took it back. Seemed simple enough at the time. Unfortunately what was simple for CarMax wasn't as easy for our Credit Union where we had our loan.

So after going to CarMax where we returned the car and picked out another one, then to the credit union and back to CarMax (totalling about 3 hours) we went back home with no car. The CU needed to have more verification of the funds being returned by CarMax before we could close that loan and open a new one! What a pain!! But, I'm glad we did it because today we went by picked up our check and then got our new (to us) car all in about 30 minutes!

It's a 2008 Nissan Altima with only 17,000 miles. It's lovely. And we're very sure this time that we're keeping it!

Snow Day

2011-02-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

Here are our pictures from our snow day!! Logan hadn't been feeling too well, so I tried to keep him from doing too much outside. We just got back from the doctor and he has an outer ear infection. I'm also glad to say that the doctor said it was fine that I let him go play, so I don' t feel guilty.

We did throw some snowballs, but they were hard to make since the snow was so powdery.

We played twice before the snow started to melt. It was wonderful snow as I'm sure a lot of you found out. So fluffy and soft! The kids had a blast just throwing it around and feeling it rain down on them.

Trampoline snowman! The snow up here was awesome!! So clean and soft since it wasn't all mixed up with the grass or slushy like on the porch.

Then we came in and warmed up by the fire with hot cocoa!

While Ellie was playing with a friend, Logan and I built this snowman. The snow was still very loose and powdery, so it was not the easiest thing to do. We didn't finish decorating him until just a little while ago though. He fell apart shortly after this pic was taken.

It was a great snow day. I'm glad it is nice and warm and sunny now too! I've had enough cold for a while. Hope you all had great snow days too!

The book- Water for Elephants

2011-01-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to read the book before the movie comes out in April. Luckily for me, the book's been out long enough and there's not that much press for the movie yet that I was able to find it relatively easily at the library. Which was good for me since I got it and was finished with it the next day. It was really good! And I liked being able to picture the actors who are playing the characters while I read rather than making them up myself.

As for my "review", 4 stars!! Definitely worth your time!!

Before I could find Water for Elephants to read, I came across Sara Gruen's latest book Ape House. It's about a scientist who works with Bonobo Apes. I had recently heard about these apes on Oprah. They are amazing and can communicate with humans through American Sign Language and lexicons on a large board or computer. It's unbelievable. The author did a ton of research on them for the book so it's really very educational as well as entertaining. I really enjoyed it.
Although I have to admit, I would probably have liked it better being able to picture Rob Pattinson in the lead male role like I did in Water for Elephants!! Ha!

Saturday night with the kids

2011-01-15T17:26:00.001-08:00

Grace and Carter are over to spend the night tonight. So far the big thing is Wii of course. We got some new games and another remote for Christmas and they're having a great time playing.

As you can see they're paying close attention to what's happening on the screen.

Logan was punished from playing Wii today, so it's been hard for him to sit back and just watch them having fun. As a result he's been acting crazy to get attention. He was jumping around and wanted me to take his picture. It's hard with my cheap little camera since it takes a second after you push the button for the actual picture to take.

When I looked at the pictures guess what I saw? My sweet little boy? No... Demon Logan, complete with red eyes!!
Think again, it's see-through Ghost Logan. Guess that's what happens when you have a cheap camera! It is a cool effect though!

My other little guitar hero

2011-01-12T06:08:00.001-08:00

Logan has gotten really good at guitar hero in the last 2 weeks. Yesterday he got 99% on the easy settting on "Love Gun", I think. I was laughing when I looked over and saw him playing like this...

He looks so casual. He also likes to do "guitar moves" while he plays like bending his knees and doing little kicks, etc. Sooo funny!! I need to take a little video.

Water for Elephants

2011-01-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

I didn't start out as a fan of Robert Pattinson. I always loved Edward. But somehow the 2 have morphed for me and I really like him now too! I wish he would do a movie where he uses his natural English accent though. I like the accent and I get distracted knowing he's altering it in all these movies where he's "American".

I just saw a preview for his new movie Water for Elephants (also with Reece Witherspoon). It looks great! And he looks great in it. Not so white. Really clean-cut with short hair. Me like. It takes place in the 30's and I liked the look of the men back then. The clothes, hair, etc.

What's really funny is that his name in the movie is Jacob!

It comes out on April 15. Who wants to go with me?

Frank

2011-01-06T06:33:00.001-08:00

I'm getting a little worried about my old basset hound, Frank. He turned 13 in October and his health has been declining for a while. The last 2 weeks or so though, he's been acting very strange. He wanders around the house a lot and just seems confused. Can dogs get Alzheimer's? On top of all that he's deaf and has a hard time getting around. He falls down sometimes especially on the tile. What to do?

I think another trip to the vet is in order. But what will happen? The last time we went I was worried about the same thing and that was over a year ago. Maybe they can help him without it being too big a deal? He's just so annoying. He wakes us up a LOT at night now. It's getting to be a problem. I know we're suffering, but is he? Hard to say. Dogs don't complain a lot. He's got to be suffering some though. Uuugghhh!

Aren't they cute laying on the rug like that? You'd think I'd posed them. But they did it on their own! Look at that lovely, fat cat, Jack! He's magnificent! Too bad he likes to poop on the garage floor. We got him a new litter box hoping that will help. We'll see...

I'll keep you posted on Frank. I think a trip to the vet is imminent.

Christmas in Houston

2011-01-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

We went to Houston on Christmas Day to see all of Stuart's family that lives there. Stu's Dad took this pic of our family that I think turned out pretty good for a snapshot in the living room!
That's Stuart's brother Garrick. Cute how Logan was mimicking him!

On Monday we went to the Houston Zoo. Although it was a cold day the sun was out so it wasn't so bad... at first. They had some new little elephants that were just adorable. Especially the little one!

What a cute picture of the kids with their Grandma!

This big male orangutan came right up to the window and was staring at all the people. It was really cool.

Of course the kids had to ride the big carousel.

The children's zoo has a petting zoo and they give you brushes to brush all the goats. That's all there were... goats. But they were really nice!

I like this guy's idea! Sleep right in the food bowl!

I guess you can't expect all the pics to turn out great!!

Our little "Rocker"

2011-01-01T09:03:00.001-08:00

Who knew that Ellie would like Logan's new guitar hero game as much as he does. She says she's "addicted" to it! So cute! She's pretty good at it too. She's scored as high as 84% in the beginner mode.

On a side note, I made beef stew in my new dutch oven. Delicious! Today we're making black-eyed peas. Yummm!

Christmas card photo shoot

2010-12-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

When I finally decided to take pictures for our Christmas card (on the 19th!) we went out back to the greenbelt for some natural light and pretty scenery.

Logan's idea of a good pose!

I think the pics turned out pretty well. The kids cooperated and we picked out the clothes in about 10 minutes. I hadn't planned ahead for these outfits only the ones at the photographer. December is nuts! I'm glad it's almost over!

Christmas Portraits

2010-12-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

We just went for our annual portrait session and I think they turned out pretty well.

I didn't get all of these poses, but they were my favorites.I like the new place we've been going the last 2 years called Portrait Innovations. The only "problem" is that they take sooo many pics! This year we ended up with 74 taken. That's a lot to whittle down.

Overall, I couldn't be happier. This was very little planning on my part and not a lot of expense, so I really can't complain!! I know I'll be glad that I did this every year once they're grown. It's definitely worth the hassle (what little there was this year)!

Merry Chirstmas!!

Coolest Christmas lights EVER!!!

2010-12-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

You have to go check out these lights in the Lake Forest subdivision in Round Rock. It is worth a drive from anywhere in Austin. Amazing!!! They have their already amazing lights synchronized to Christmas music playing on a radio station. You sit there in your car and watch while listening to the music. It's mesmerizing!! Below are some you tube videos of the lights. You really need to see it in person though!

https://sites.google.com/site/listentoourlights/videos (watch the Wizards of Winter song. It's awesome! Mele Kalikimaka is pretty good too.)

Grandma's Pillows

2010-12-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

Erica just mentioned Grandma's pillows in her blog. Here are the originals. Keep in mind they're probably at least 40 years old. I've always loved them. They seem like they'd be hard to make. She did them out of velvet which seems especially difficult to work with since it's so thick. I like the shiny ones Erica found too. I may have to go pick some up! It's nice to have some reminders of Grandma all around. She was an amazing lady.

She was always so crafty. She painted, sewed, crocheted, and did all sorts of other crafts as well. You never knew what you were going to find her working on when you went to visit. I wish I would have been able to know her longer and learn more from her.

Love and miss you Grandma!!

School Pictures

2010-11-21T16:12:00.001-08:00

What happened to my babies?! Where did these big kids come from? They look so old! Way older than 9 and 6. Crazy!!

These are pictures of their pictures and thus not the best representations, but I think they're pretty good. School pictures are kind of a gamble. You're not there to supervise, so you never know what you're going to get and you have to order ahead of time. I was pretty happy though.

Angels and Demons

2010-11-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pics from Halloween.
May I just say that those of you who still have little kids that let you either pick out their costumes or at least steer them in the right direction... you too will one day have little control over their choices and may end up with something gross like this! Let me also say, that I didn't buy that mask. It was a hand-me-down from his Uncle Garrick. Many thanks, Uncle Garrick. Logan did add the blood dripping from it's teeth. Who am I to stifle creativity?

Logan with a couple of friends before we started.

Ellie still let me help pick her costume out. I'm not looking forward to the day when she wants to dress up like some little tart, which I'm sure is coming.

Here's Ellie's little friend from down the street dressed as a "cheerless leader". We "had to" trick-or-treat together this year. They're pretty cute together.

We had fun. The weather was great! My hat even stayed on. I realized too late that no one took a pic of me! Oh, well. We even got to bed at a decent time since it was a school night! Hope you all had a great night too!

Spooktacular Halloween!

2010-10-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Our annual haunted castle! This year we got a Halloween house (chocolate cookie) and a Christmas gingerbread house at Sam's. It's a great kit that even came with colored, flavored fondant! It has become one of our favorite holiday traditions!

This kit gave a good tip that I'd never done before. You decorate the sides before you put it together. It works a lot better. We each had our own sides, then we let them dry and put it up! Voila! I highly recommend it!

Pumpkin patch

2010-10-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

We went on a great trip today to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm's Pumpkin Festival. It was great. They charge an admission fee ($7/adult, $5/child and you can download a coupon for 1 free child admission on their website), but everything inside is free. So I think it's a pretty good deal. Also, their pumpkins are really cheap!! I think tomorrow is the last day of the festival. Here's what was included in the price:

Face painting and pumpkin painting
Live music with a Bluegrass flavor
Scenic hayride
* NEW * Permanent Crazy Maze (wood post and netting)
Hay jump (cancelled because of drought, no hay)
Hay maze
Animals to visit
Antique tractors to see
Children's play area
Kid activities (carnival games)
Rubber duck races
Kiddie train ride
Great fall/pumpkin photo opportunities
Visit with the Elgin Humane Society puppies

First was the "crazy maze". Good for the little one's since it's pretty simple to get through, but still fun!

Here's the hay maze. The kid's loved it!

Outside the hay maze, they had this goat tied up all by itself (weird). It was really nice and didn't mind being petted.

The pumpkins were OK, not the best selection, but you don't really go there for the pumpkins, it's all the other stuff that's fun!

Like free face paint.

Picture opportunities.

A corn field maze. This one was fun because it was hard to find your way through.

And the hay ride. It was great. It took you through the farm with 3 different stops and stuff to do at each place.

Overall a great day. On the way there we stopped in Elgin and ate at one of our favorite BBQ places Meyer's. Awesome! In the car on the way home I asked Ellie, "So did you have a good day?" Her response, "It was an unbelieveable day!" Nice to hear once in a while.

Sleepover!!

2010-10-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Ellie and Logan have made friends with some kids that live right down the street by the park. Cameron and Cayden. Cameron's in 2nd grade and Cayden in 4th. It's a perfect set up, one playmate for each of them. They've been going back and forth between our houses for the last few months. The idea of having a sleepover has been in the works for a while now. Tonight's the big night.

It started out to be just Logan staying with Cayden. But Ellie really wanted Cameron to come to our house. At first I resisted this only because Ellie has a Daisy sleepover tomorrow night and I didn't want her sleep messed up 2 nights in a row, but what are you going to do? So we decided it would only be fair to have Cameron come to our house if Logan was going to theirs. So that's what were doing.

The girls are having a great time and I can only hope that Logan is being nice and polite over at their house. This is his first time to have a sleepover with anyone but family. I'm sure he'll be fine though.

Wish us luck for a night where everyone sleeps well!!

I also wanted to throw in a few pics of the ever growing Gordan! He still doesn't croak or do anything annoying. And I still think he's cute. Go figure!

Spring by Ellie Smith

2010-09-25T09:52:00.001-07:00

Ellie's been playing school today. She's the teacher. Stuart and I are the students. We've done worksheets, read, been read to, etc. Ellie just brought me a book she made. It's the cutest thing and I think it's worth sharing.

Spring

I love spring it is fun and there are flowers
I do not love snow no no

Spring is the best season in the world to me
I do not love winter no no

When it rains I love it
the plants grow after

I love flowers you see
Now I told you about me

I think that's a pretty good poem by my 6-year old!

Unplugged

2010-09-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

That's how I've been feeling at least-unplugged, detached. I'm at a new "job" right now with a bunch of strangers. It's proving a little harder to make friends here than at the preschool. Or maybe I just don't remember back to when I started there. The teacher I'm working with is perfectly nice, but she doesn't have kids and is a newly wed. Need I say more?

I've realized something about myself lately. After worrying about Logan being a little anti-social in some ways. I realized that I am that way myself. Always have been. I can make good friends, but I'm not good at keeping up with them. Mainly with phoning. I never call people. I'm not sure why. It makes me uncomfortable to do it. I'm always thinking that I'll be disturbing them or something. So I just never do it. Not to mention that it's harder to find times now with the kids, etc. But I still could find time, so maybe that's just another of my many excuses.

And since I started at this new school, I've been completely consumed by this new difficult schedule, so now I'm not even talking to the people I usually talk to- which is only Erica and occasionally my mom. Literally I'll go all week without talking to anyone on the phone. Sad really.

What's wrong with me? I always blamed this anti-social tendency on growing up with a sister so close in age (who needed friend when you had a built-in playmate?) and friends who were long distance. Yes, my best friend in high school lived so far that it was long distance to call each other. I grew up in BFE. So I didn't spend hours on the phone in high school. I'm thinking now that maybe that wasn't my problem.

So what do I do now? Maybe I should start forcing myself to call people. Maybe put it on the calendar or something? Because this just aint workin' for me. I'm feeling isolated and lonely. I'm also worried that the good friends I've made are going to think I don't care about them and we'll lose touch. And that makes me sad.

It's late now. I'm only up because I've been sleeping a lot while recovering from being sick and because I had iced tea with dinner. I'm a wimp with caffeine. So, I'll try and go to sleep and think up a plan to improve my situation. Thanks for listening.

Random stuff...

2010-09-19T15:43:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Things have been really busy since I started teaching. I've really been enjoying it though. I'm sure my body will adjust to the new schedule soon, but until then it's been rough. I've pretty much been in survival mode.

Here are some pics I've needed to post.

Logan jumping off Erica and Ray's boat into the lake on Labor Day weekend. Cool!!

The kids after they came home from a fun day with Ray! Rudy's for breakfast, then the train, Taco Cabana for lunch, then Jumping Beans and face paint! The coolest face paint ever!!

Logan doing a flip.Ellie jumping like a cat!

Our pancakes this morning. We decided to make some initials. S-Smith, L- Logan, M- Mom, D- Dad, J-Jack (the cat), E-Ellie!

Logan's summer basketball league

2010-08-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Logan played basketball again this summer at the YMCA. Basketball is his favorite sport. Although he is by no means really excited about any sports at all. He just doesn't seem to care too much about it yet. Maybe he never will. But he's still willing to play. As long as he's having fun, then that's enough for me!

(The serious Pic)

Last weekend they had their end of season party at Old Settlers Park. I'd never really been back there. It's a really nice, big park. It even has a little lake. They had a good time playing and eating hamburgers and hot dogs!

(The silly pic)

(Logan with Coach Robert and Coach Chris!)

One is the lonliest number... NOT!!

2010-08-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Call me a bad, uncaring mother, but I am LOVING being home alone these last 2 days!! It's just so nice to be able to do what I want, when I want with no interference. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. But after spending the whole summer home with them I know for sure that there most certainly can be too much of a good thing.

It takes a village to raise a child, right? That's just so the Mom doesn't go insane and kill everyone!

Anyway, I'm trying to soak up as much of this as I can since starting Sept. 7th I will be working every school day! And hopefully most every day after that subbing!

I'm very excited to start this new journey. I haven't met the teacher I'll be working with yet, but I'll be in 2nd grade, which is my grade of choice (so far at least).

The kids both had a great day at school yesterday and the after school stuff went fine too. That I know for sure since I was there practically from the start watching. I left them in there to make sure they'd know what to do and where to go. Then we went home. Ellie wasn't ready to go yet. She has several friends there and wanted to play. Logan (the home body) wanted to go!!

They both had a few things they brought home. Mainly they each had a packet (6 or 7) of all the forms the state and school district requires us to fill out. Residency, illness and medications, press release, etc. I sat right down and did it all, so I wouldn't have to think about it again!

Ellie was perturbed because she says they stuff they want her to read is too easy. The paper she brought home had the sight word "see" on it about 12 times. Logan said they didn't really do a lot of "work". I'm sure that first day is just a lot of getting everyone situated and familiar with the classroom procedures, etc. We'll see what today brings!

Right now it's me relaxing and trying to be as productive as possible (while still being able to watch a movie!).

First Day!

2010-08-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

The kids had their first day of school today. It all went great! Except I wish I'd taken more pics! This one's a little blurry. Oh, well.

Poor Logan though. He's been sooo worried about going to YMCA after school. For the last 4 years, I've been picking him up from school everyday and he's not dealing well with the prospect of that changing. Last night about an hour after I put him to bed, he came in my room crying. He was so worried. He worries about any new thing. I just tried to reassure him and remind him of all the other things he's worried about that have turned out fine.

This morning when I dropped him off, I told his teacher how he was feeling. So hopefully she'll take extra care to make sure he's feeling secure. We decided they would go after school today even though I'll be home just so they'll know what to do and where to go. I'll go up right after school ends to get them and make sure they know what's going on with the after school stuff.

I'm sure by now he's feeling a little better and all will be well by this afternoon!

Ellie on the other hand was fine. She popped out of bed this morning and was ready to go!! She's actually excited about going to the Y! She wants more time to play with her friends!

Now I'm sitting home (after walking about 30 extra minutes on the way home!) trying to figure out what to do today! Yay!

Rrrrribbit!!

2010-08-21T06:51:00.001-07:00

Here's a new pic of Gordan. We started feeding him meal worms about 2 weeks ago. They are much easier to deal with than the stupid crickets. And less noisy! They come in a little cup with a lid and you keep them in the fridge. He eats about 4 a day. That's much easier to keep track of too since they stay in a little bowl and you know if they're gone, he ate them. With the crickets you never knew if they'd been eaten or drowned themselves! Plus half of them would wind up dieing before we could feed them to him. What a mess!

Since we switched him to the meal worms he's grown a lot!! I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but he's noticeably bigger. He hasn't started croaking yet, which is a plus too!

Logan has been really great about taking care of him. His tank is in his room, so I don't always remember to feed him. But Logan remembers everyday! Yesterday we cleaned his tank. He still needs a little help with that, but he's improving. I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

To be or not to be...

2010-08-20T14:50:00.001-07:00

Today at my student teacher orientation I found out that I was assigned to an elementary right down the street from my house!! It's literally the 2nd closest school to my house! Out of all the schools in Pflugerville, I got that one! I was ecstatic!

Then when I got home and looked up the teacher's name, it wasn't there. So I called the school- no teacher by that name there. Hmmm.

So I looked up the name (all I had was the last name) and found a teacher by that name at a different school. A much, much farther away school. I was heartbroken. I just knew that it had been too good to be true and my bubble was burst! Then I looked a little closer and found that she was a special ed teacher. That can't be right. This made me feel a little better.

Still I had a knot in my stomach. I called the HR dept. to verify my school and teacher. Three agonizing hours later she called and told me that I was in fact at the close school I wanted and that the teacher had changed her name!!! Yippie!! She teaches 2nd grade and she won Humanitarian of the year last year at her school!

I am so thankful and relieved!! You cannot imagine the roller coaster of emotions I've been on today! I can't tell you how happy this makes me!!! Thank you Lord!! This is turning out to be just perfect and I am even more sure that it's the right thing for me!

Big Decision

2010-08-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

OK, so as you all know I've been looking for a teaching job. It's rough out there. There are just too many people out of work right now that are wanting to teach again and teachers who aren't retiring. So after a few weeks of feeling pretty beat up and hopeless, I've made a decision.

As you know, I wrote my petition to God the other day. And I feel like I've gotten an answer to my prayers. I'm going to student teach. You see, thru my alternative certification program I had the option of either securing a teaching job and using that first year "internship" to gain my standard teaching certificate or student teaching for 14 weeks at an assigned school at the end of which I would have my standard certificate. The latter option is more like a traditional student that gets their certificate while in college.

I feel really good about this. Like it's what I'm meant to do. That is not to say that it won' t be a sacrifice. Financially it will be rough. Student teaching doesn't pay of course and on top of that I have to pay the remainder of my tuition ($3000) to ACT while I'm doing it. So, that may be a little stressful. But I really feel like this is my best option and what I'm supposed to do.

Now we just have to pray that I get assigned a school in Pflugerville since that's really where I want to be when I get a job. The lady I spoke to said it is a good possibility. I hope to find out soon.

The student teaching starts on September 7th and by December 10th I'll be finished and have my standard teaching certificate. Hopefully I'll also have a good place at the school where I student teach to at least sub and possibly get a teaching job in the future.

Say little prayer that my placement will work out favorably for me!!

Rest in Peace Memaw

2010-08-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

Well, after many months of declining health (years really), Stuart's Memaw Louise passed away last night. She was a great lady and will be missed very much. It's hard to believe that this is Stuart's first grandparent to pass away. He still has the other 3 living. It doesn't make this any easier though.

I am going to miss her, but I am really feeling badly for Stu's Paw paw. They were married for 61 years! Amazing right? I'm sure he doesn't have any idea what to do without her.

We're leaving tomorrow to go to Houston for the funeral. Not looking forward to it at all. This is one time when getting all the family together will not be a treat. Please keep Stu and his family in your prayers for me.

My petition to God

2010-08-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have read Eat, Pray, Love will undoubtedly recognize what I 'm trying to accomplish with this. If you haven't read it, well then, just humor me. All I ask is that you read it with an open minds and hearts and that you send your "signature" to my petition in your mind! I need all the positive thoughts I can get!

Dear God,

Please help me find a teaching job. I have had this dream and plan for the last three years and I could really use some help fulfilling my goals. This process is exhausting mentally and physically and is taking quite a toll on my family and I emotionally as well. I am doing everything I can think to do to increase my odds of finding a job.

I do realize that there are a lot more terrible things going on in the world than my job hunt, but it is not just a "job" I seek. It is an avenue to touch and change lives for the better! (Corny as it may sound).

I want to be the catalyst for change in children's lives. I want them to learn and enjoy it while they're doing it! I want to "make a difference". Truly.

This will also be a huge help financially to my family. It will help take away a lot of worry. The decision for me to stay home with them was easy. But it was also a sacrifice. A sacrifice I didn't mind making at all. But now it's time for me to move on to that next chapter and I seem to be stumbling along.

So I ask with an open heart and mind for you to help me find the right place for me to do all these things I've been praying about.

Sincerely,
Mindy

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

2010-08-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

We decided to go to Fiesta Texas last week since the kids had earned free tickets last year at school in a program called ticket to read. Stuart's sister Becky gave us her ticket that she got as a teacher from that program as well, so we only wound up buying 1 ticket at the special online price of $29.99. We also had to pay for parking which is usually $15, but since we bought it online it was like $13.86.

The Smiths with Scrappy and Scooby Doo! It's nice that they have people stationed to take pictures of you with your own camera!!
The kids with Scrappy Doo!
I'm proud to say that $47 is the total amount of money we spent there!! Ha! For some reason it gives me immense pleasure to know that we got the best of a place that is totally out to get you! A bottle of water there is $4, a kid's meal, $7.99, a refillable soda is $12! Ridiculous! We brought an ice chest full of food and drinks and left it in the car. I also carried a couple of bottles of water and some Capri suns into the park in my backpack. They didn't say anything when they "searched" it upon entry.

We stopped and ate right before we went in, so we were nice and full to begin with. Then after a few hours we went out to the car and ate and drank. Then came back in for a couple more hours. We had a great time.

Logan is a roller coaster rider just like his Mama. Ellie, I'm not sure about yet. She didn't ride anything very big, but she's still little. Stuart, not so much. He'll ride a few things, but mostly was happy taking Ellie around to do her little rides while Logan and I rode the "big" rides.

We had heard some negative things about the park not being clean and having a bunch of punk kids running it, but our experience was very good. Everything was clean, it wasn't crowded at all and everyone was very nice. I'd recommend it to anyone. They have tons of rides for all ages, so even littler kids will have something to do.

We didn't go into the "water park"at all. It just seemed like a lot of trouble and the kids were happy doing all the other stuff. There were several rides that got you wet that weren't in the water park, so we were able to cool off when we got too hot.

They had this little splash area in the Wiggles World that the kids liked to get wet in too.

So my final review is to go to Fiesta Texas!! Especially if you have free tickets!

School supplies!!!

2010-08-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

We're ready!! I bought most of these with the kids in tow. It wasn't a total disaster this year either. We were very orderly about it. I remember going to buy school supplies. It was so exciting. I couldn't wait for school to start!! Little did I know that my mom was probably more excited than I was!

I really like Ellie's messenger bag and lunch box. I just hope she doesn't get tired of carrying it. Logan's agreed to use last year's back pack. :-)

Come on August 24th!! (16 days, not that I'm counting)

What my kids do for fun!

2010-08-07T08:11:00.001-07:00

This is how bored they've become! School cannot get here fast enough!!

Staying positive

2010-08-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Staying positive while trying to find a job- easier said than done! It's up and down from one day to the next. I can only imagine how people feel who have been looking for months or years. It's only really been a few weeks for me and it's hard not to feel defeated. I am so thankful for all the encouragement from everyone though! I really would be freaking out without it!

I'm still plugging away. I've been going to as many schools (23) as I possibly can with what little time I can get away. My mom's been a huge help and Stuart's watched the kids a few times while he's working so I can run by schools. I drove over 100 miles yesterday in this endeavor. And the heat is awful. Getting in and out of the car every few minutes. Uugghh!

I had a little breakdown yesterday after leaving my last school. It wasn't one of my best exchanges. Not smooth or clever as I would have liked to appear. This school was one of only 2 (out of 4 districts) that had actual jobs listed that I was qualified for. I was really tired (haven't been sleeping well). I just walked out to my car and bawled. What a loser.

Today I decided I should start applying for teaching assistant positions, just to be sure I had something since things were looking pretty bad. I told Erica my plan and she said not to put the cart before the horse. And reassured me that there is still time to get a teaching job and said I shouldn't panic quite yet.

So, I decided to listen to her and hope she was right.

Then, tonight at dinner I opened my fortune cookie and this is what it said:

Coincidence? I think not!

Gordan

2010-08-03T19:26:00.001-07:00

Here's a recent pic of Gordan! I think he's pretty cute! He's eating crickets now, which means I'm basically a cricket mom too since I have to keep them alive to feed him. We even have a cricket habitat now. Awesome. The pet fun never stops around here.

Ooops, I did it again!

2010-07-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, we in fact have another new pet. Meet Vivian the betta (isn't he/she pretty?). It's actually a male, but we decided to pretend it's a girl since it's a pinky purple.

Before you judge me, you must realize how much begging I put up with. It's been especailly hard since we've been going to the pet store so much to buy crickets, etc. Everytime we're there, they are looking at all the pets and asking for more.

My main problem was that all the pets we've had, besides Jack and Frank, have been Logan's. All of them. Not sure how that happened. I guess it's because Ellie's 3 years younger. But she was really sad that she'd never had her own pet. So she used some of her birthday money to buy a betta, tank, rocks, etc. We already have one betta and seeing as how they're not too much trouble, I figured what the heck! I know, I'm a sucker!

Out of sheer boredom today I agreed to let the kids make "glook". Logan got the recipe out of this book (Secret Stuff for boys only) that he got last year from Scholastic book clubs. It's just a mixture of 1 c. cornstarch, 1/2 c. water and food coloring. It's messy, but it cleans up really easily.

Logan wanted his to look like boogers, of course.

And Ellie wanted pink.

It was a fun time for them and not a big deal for me. I'm always looking for things like that! :->

Our beach vacation and NASA

2010-07-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

( View from the deck one morning!)

We went on a week long beach vacation to Galveston last week. It was amazing! Ray's friend has a beach house that he is kind enough to let us use. It's a beautiful house and we were very thankful to use it. It's on a canal, so there was always something to see looking out at the water.

We spent a lot of our time sitting in the swings and chairs down below the deck, just feeling the nice breezes.

It's a 3 bedroom, so we decided to ask Stu's mom, Cindy, to come too! She's great and we love her! I'm glad she was able to come and hopefully she had a good time!

We had a great time at NASA while we were there. There was so much to see that we got season passes and are going back in a few weeks!

Here we are in the car on the way. Yes, we all rode in 1 car!

Carter in his "too cool" sunglasses.

We're on the tram going on the tour to "mission control". This is the actual mission control room they used from the 60's all the way until 1995! Cool!This is a model of the Saturn V rocket that we actually got to see.
Here it is!! Amazing. It was so enormous it was difficult to comprehend.
Just the engines alone (there were 5) were HUGE!

My little astronauts!!

I'm going to continue with the beach pics in another post!! This one is too big!

more pets

2010-07-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if you all are tired of seeing these or not, but... Gordan is changing more than ever! He's almost completely lost his tail!

Not just his tail has changed either, his eyes, face and whole body are different.

Check out the progression he's made over the last week!

Taken July 4th.

7-6

7-8

7-9

7-10 (The first time we saw him almost totally out of the water!)

7-11 Today, check out the tail or lack there of. Crazy!

7-11

7-11 (not the best pic, but I wanted one for scale. That's Logan's hand.)

And I just had to throw one in of Jack on our bed last night! What a tub-o-lard!

Crazy Double Rainbow Guy

2010-07-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

The other day on the radio they played this. I thought it was hilarious. Then they played the song that someone made up to make fun of it. Also very funny and a pretty good song too!

DOUBLE RAINBOW SONG!!

2010-07-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the song. Just thought this was too funny!

So, I've played this song like 5 times and totally have it stuck in my head!

All is well...It's just too freakin' early!

2010-07-10T05:14:00.000-07:00

For some stupid reason lately I've been waking up early sometimes. No idea why. Well, the dog usually wakes up for his morning pee around 6:30-7, but I usually am able to go back to sleep afterward. Lately, this is sadly not the case. I'm trying to be as lazy as possible this summer because when (the power of positive thinking) I get a teaching job this year, I'll be waking up very early everyday.

The most irritating thing about it is that it's usually hunger that makes me get up! Is that normal? Right now, I'm sittin' here with my stomach growling!

(yes, I know I need to clean off the thermometer!)

Anyway, as long as I'm up I went ahead and checked the chicks (of course). I've been a little worried since yesterday I went in there in the afternoon and the temp read 111. I have no idea why it got that high... afternoon heating? So I've been checking them a little more often. They're maintaining at about 97 which I'm happy with.

You just never know at anytime that you walk in there what you're going to find. I always am relieved to see them both alive, quite frankly.

M.P. is really calming down. I guess it was all a lot for him to take in Thursday. What with moving and getting a new "sister". He doesn't peck at her all the time anymore and doesn't chirp quite as much. Although it's still more than her. He was even going to sleep in my hand yesterday. So cute!

I hope you all have a good weekend! Hope I do too...

My house is a zoo, literally!

2010-07-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so maybe it's not "literally" a zoo, but it feels like it! Dog, cat, fish, tadpole, and chicks! And let's not forget the kids! They're the worst of all of them! I thought this was a great pic of M.P. Look at his little white toosh!

Ellie made this little sign to hang on their cage. Cute, huh?Awww.

Here are some updated pics of Gordan. We are really enjoying him.

He changes everyday. It's a great learning experience for the kids. And the changes are very apparent, so they notice everything. He's really starting to look like a little frog! He still has quite a long tail, but the rest is very "frog like".

His only major drawback is that his tank gets dirty quick!! And it starts to smell! Yuck. Maybe when he's a frog and eats crickets and stuff it won't be so bad.

I wonder what our next pet will be? Logan is trying his darnedest to talk me into a bearded dragon. I have a "no reptiles" policy right now though. We'll see...

M.P. and Ms. Cupcake

2010-07-08T14:32:00.001-07:00

We're baby sitting. Or should I say, chick-sitting. M.P. (aka Mr. Pigeon) was the Banty chick that Lisa hatched. He's been at her house the last few days. Erica asked Lisa if she'd like a break from being his "mommy" and she said sure. So she asked me if we'd like to take care of him for a few days. Of course I said yes. The kids are super excited of course.

Erica decided that it wasn't good for him to be alone, so she searched out a feed store in Georgetown that had some Banty chicks for sale and went to buy him a sister. That's Ms. Cupcake. Isn't she cute? She is the sweetest thing. She hardly ever peeps and everytime you pick her up she almost immediately falls asleep in your hands! Love her!M.P. on the other hand is not quite as sweet. He chirps a LOT and he pecks at poor Ms. Cupcake incessantly!

We've held them a bunch already. I want them to get used to being picked up, plus the kids want to do it all the time!! We've been checking on them a lot to make sure their temp is regulated nicely and that they have fresh water and food.

I've got to get a better pic of his little hiney. It's sooo cute. He has a little fluff of light yellow feathers back there. I think he should be called cotton tail!

More from Eclipse

2010-07-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm trying to relive Eclipse in my head. I want to see it again already. It's almost like the other night was a dream and I want to make sure it was real. I went in search of pictures from the movie and these were some of my favorites.

Obviously I love all the Edward pics! Literally makes me sigh...

Always love the scenes in their field. Especially when Edward is trying to convince Bella to marry him and she keeps saying no. Stupid girl!

Ahh, this scene on the bed... very hot!! Then it turns into the best proposal ever!! I Love Edward!!!
I'm not sure exactly what was happening in this one, but why wouldn't I love the idea of cuddling up with Edward?
And, I had to include this one of Seth. He has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen!!

Anyone want to go with me again? Soon?

The Premier

2010-06-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

I know most of you have already seen this, but I too must post our pic from last night. The premier of Eclipse was amazing. And seeing Twilight and New moon first was the icing on the cake! I was commenting to Erica that it was awesome just to be sitting in a room with 500 or so other people that were just as happy and excited as I was. You could feel the energy in that room. It was also nice to know that there were so many other people who loved it as much as I did! And that many of them were my age or older! Yes, there were even middle-aged men there!

It was a great night. One that I won't soon forget. Also, I must say how grateful I am that my kids are at camp right now because I have been absolutely worthless today. I don't do well with little sleep. It was worth it though! Soooo worth it!! Thanks to Erica and Annalynn for experiencing it with me!!

And as for the whole Team Edward, Team Jacob thing... I think we figured it out last night. It seems that Jacob's fans are younger girls and Edward's are more Mom's like me. Here's the reason, Jacob's still a boy. An admittedly gorgeous boy with a smokin' hot bod, but a boy just the same. Edward on the other hand is a man. A mature man who knows what he wants and who he is. God, I love Edward!!

Looking forward to the release of Breaking Dawn part 1 on Novemeber 18, 2011. You can bet that I'll be there!!

The power of the pen

2010-06-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

As soon as my kids learned to pick up a crayon, they have both loved to draw and write. Logan began drawing me pictures when he was just a little thing. He started using them to convey emotion too. Especially when he was angry. Some of those pictures scared me a little (blood and guts!)

Then came the note writing. There are signs all over Logan's door telling everyone who can and cannot come in, if they have to pay, etc.

Ellie, being much newer to writing has really just started using this form of expression. Here are 2 of her latest. The first is hanging on her door. She was mad at Logan when she made it. I thought it was so cute!

If you can't read it (pencil is hard to photograph in a dim hallway) it says, "Logan may never come in my room agin for the holle summr No love (by the heart) Brokcen hart" ( I think the writing and spelling is pretty good for someone who just turned 6!)

The second she gave me last night. Not sure what I did to deserve that, but it was nice to get a fond note rather than an angry one! (translation: Mommy is nice, never mean and thoughtful)

Just love my kiddos (especially when they're at camp! Ha!)

My Edward "collection"

2010-06-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have to justify myself by saying that I didn't purchase ANY of this stuff. The universe just keeps bringing it to me. (Well, actually Erica gave me the doll and the little box). The other 2 things we just got this weekend in Burger King kids meals. Does anyone else think it's weird that they have Twilight stuff as the prize in a kid's meal? I didn't think their fans were that young. Maybe it's more for the Mom's like me!!

The crest is actually a giant ring with Edward's hologram picture inside. Maybe I'll wear it tonight! Ha!

The last item is a wallet. Logan got this one. He's actually using it too! It's not specifically "Edward", but I decided not to hold that against it.

I may just have to take the "kids" to burger king a few more times and see what else I get!

Gordan Alfonzo

2010-06-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

I just love calling him by his whole name. It makes me smile every time. Logan gets mad at me though, so I have to do it in private. I was checking on him today after the kids left. He's been moved onto Logan's desk in his room. Stuart didn't like eating with him on the kitchen table. Can't imagine why? I must admit I've grown pretty fond of him. Who knew? Anyway, Erica suggested that I take another pic with something in it for scale. So I did. He likes to "hide" in the rocks we gave him. Pretty big, huh?This is his little belly. I like his little legs sticking out and his little mouth.

While I was at it, I decided to take one of him with Edward. That made me smile too. :-) Tomorrow, Edward...

It's almost here!!

2010-06-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

22 hours and counting...

"Dad Life"

2010-06-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

This is the funniest freakin' thing I've ever seen!!

Gordan's new legs!

2010-06-26T02:08:00.000-07:00

This is not the greatest pic due to backlighting and murky water (needs to be changed again!). But, you can clearly see his new little legs and even his webbed feet!

I'm hoping watching him grow will help me to like him more than I would if we got him when he was already grown. Like this...

This remains to be seen!

Butterflies and Turtles

2010-06-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

Our butterflies hatched over the past few days. We didn't really get to see any good hatching since it's pretty quiet when it happens and it seems to happen pretty quickly. They leave a long trail of "bloody" stuff when they hatch. It's gross. But they are very pretty butterflies. We decided to let them go today.
Painted Lady butterflyThe last one out actually landed on Ellie's finger. The kids wanted that to happen since they show it on the commercial.

I was surprised that it stayed there for a while and even went onto Logan's finger too!

Yesterday morning I went out for a bike ride (too late- around 9 am). It was already sooo hot! Along the trail behind our house I found a huge turtle. I debated what to do. If I went home to tell the kids, I would be cutting my ride very short. If I didn't, they could miss a really cool thing. So I went home and got them. After we went to see if it was still there and look at it, we went back and told Stuart about it. He's a notorious turtle lover since childhood. I told him I was a little worried that it was pretty far from the pond and I didn't want anything to happen to it.

So we got a bucket and headed down the trail to find him. He had moved and we didn't see him at first. But then, we found him and loaded him up in the bucket.

This is the pond by our house where they live. On the way to the pond we saw another stray turtle. It was in the street, so we added it to the bucket. When Stu first reached down to get it, it peed everywhere! Eeewww!

You're free!! We dumped them out and they scurried down into the water.

Awww!

Loving the "wild" life! (Gordan's (this is how Logan wants to spell it) back legs have really popped out. More pics to come!)

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

2010-06-21T11:17:00.001-07:00

I just read this book online (which I hate to do, but I didn't want to buy it). It was very good. Too short, not enough Edward or Bella. But still enjoyable and a new perspective on things. It takes place during Eclipse and will probably be good background for next Tuesday (Yay!!!) when I finally get to see Eclipse the movie!! I can hardly wait!!!

How do I get myself into these things?

2010-06-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

OK, so for like the last 2 years I've been saying, "No more pets!". And I've been sticking to my guns too. The last pet we acquired was a blue betta named Zach. The only reason we got him was because Logan won a 1 gallon aquarium. I figured a betta wouldn't be too much trouble. He's not, just cleaning the tank is a pain. But it's not too bad.

That's just the tip of the iceberg though. Let me give you a quick run down of all the pets we've had in the last few years. First off, we have a giant cat named Jack and a giant basset named, Frank. Many of you are familiar with them. They are both almost 13 years old and giant pains in the ass!

We've also had a total of 4 gerbils (3 of which were killed by the above named giant cat, Jack because they would escape from their cage!), 1 hermit crab (that lived for almost a year!), snails for a brief period, and if that weren't enough... keep reading!

It all started innocently enough. It was right before Logan's birthday and he was telling me about a boy down the street that had caught a tadpole at the creek and had it in a tank. It had turned into a small frog. How cool, right? So I was at Target shopping and I saw a tadpole habitat (above). I thought, oh, that would be cool to watch (Erica's rubbing off on me again). So I bought it. It had a sticker that said you could send off for a free tadpole. OK, I thought, we can do that. (There was no certificate in the box for the tadpole, by the way). Liars.

First though we went down to the creek to see if we could find a tadpole. No luck. So we look online. The only place to get a tadpole has bullfrog tadpoles. OK, I don't really know anything about frogs or toads. So we pay the almost $15 with shipping for 1 tadpole. A few days later it arrives in the mail... HOLY CRAP!! What have I gotten myself into???

Meet Gordon Alfonzo Smith (Yes, Logan came up with that before he was here and his initials are GAS! ). This thing is enormous!!! I can't believe it!! I never thought I would see a "tadpole" that's this big! How freakin' big is the frog going to be. As you can see, I didn't research this well. I did however think that we may be able to let him go "free" in the creek once he gets bigger! We'll see how that idea goes over!

Once I saw him, I knew immediately that the "habitat" I bought wasn't big enough, so we headed strait to Petco to buy something bigger. Not sure how long he'll last in there though. I put the sunglasses next to him for scale!
Both the kids wanted their pictures taken with him! We just added some rocks to Gordon's tank today. Before this it was just him in an empty tank of water. Once he grows his front and back legs, he'll need to start breathing air, so we'll lower the water level so that the rocks stick out. Just look at that monster up on that top rock!! Crazy!

Like I said, how do I get myself into these things? I'm a sucker, that's how! Do you know how many animals I've said no to? A LOT!! Just goes to show, if you keep asking enough every once in a while you'll slip one past! Ha!

Anyone want a bullfrog in a few months?

We got stuff hatching too!

2010-06-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

So as not to be completely outdone by big sis, we too have started hatching stuff! No, not eggs, but butterflies!

Ellie got a butterfly garden kit for her birthday. So we had to send off for some caterpillars. We only had them about 2 days before they started changing. They do it in just a few hours. It's weird to watch.

I'm taking them out of their little cup(of disgusting food stuff) to hang in the habitat.
One fell off the paper. Look at it up close. It's got little bits of gold on it where the legs were. Cool!

While we were waiting for these, we noticed a ton of caterpillars around outside. So we decided to catch some and put them in the garden to see what would happen. This is a cool black spiky one.

The second one is my fave. Have you ever seen anything like it? Crazy!

The 3rd is the fuzzy yellow one. I didn't get the greatest pic.

I decided to let these guys go today since our others changed into their chrysalises and we needed the room. I'll keep you posted when they decide to hatch!

More Birthday fun!

2010-06-15T13:23:00.001-07:00

So, I'm finally starting to recover from the birthday craziness. I have a few pics from those days that I haven't shared yet. (Above is Ellie with her new birthday shoes!)

First, here's Ellie at Gattiland on her actual birthday. That's where she picked to go eat dinner. Did you know that they give the birthday boy/girl $5 in free game play? I didn't until we got there and I mentioned that Ellie was 6 that day. Cool, huh?

Here's what Aunt Susan got Logan. He REALLY wanted it! Now he can swim like a shark!Logan wanted me to take a pic of him jumping, so then I had to take one of Ellie too!

Here's Logan on his birthday morning opening his new Daisy Red Rider BB gun!

He wanted to look serious, like a soldier. Then, he did a nice smile for me. :-)

Yummy cookie cake (if you can't tell, it was 2 layers with icing in the middle, yumm!). Not sure why he picked the Texans for the decoration? Whatever the birthday boy wants though, right?

Here's the 2 boys that came to his "party". Stu took them to Main Event then they came back to sleep over.

We wound up having to take one of them home at about 11pm, but that was the only "bump" in the road that night. Everyone was asleep by about midnight. That seems pretty good to me!

Happy 9th Birthday Logan!!

2010-06-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here he is this morning when I brought him his breakfast in bed. He requested cinnamon rolls. I found a better tray to use than I did with Ellie's. Live and learn.

Logan's officially 9 years old as of 10:38PM! We have 2 boys over here right now spending the night. So far so good. One of them is asleep!! Ye haw!! Stuart took them to Main Event this afternoon for a few hours. Then they came back here for pizza and cookie cake. All in all, it's been pretty easy. Knock wood...

Happy 6th Birthday Ellie!!

2010-06-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it was 6 years ago today that I was up at Round Rock Hospital in labor with this little girl!! She made us wait on her even then. I started labor around 3 am and she wasn't born until 9:56 pm.

I brought her breakfast in bed this morning (upon request). Eggs, bacon and cereal!

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!!

There's no accounting for taste!

2010-06-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

This is Frank (huge male basset hound) and Lucy (odd little female dachshund). In case you're not familiar, Lucy is the one sexually harassing Frank. She's been doing this to him their whole lives! It's hilarious! She probably did it to him about 100 times this weekend. Every time you turn around, there she is... gettin' frisky! Can you imagine those puppies?

We think this is her attempt to "dominate him". In other words, she wants to make Frank her bitch! Ha! The thing is, Frank doesn't mind at all. In fact, he hardly seems to notice that she's doing it. He just lays there! Who needs cable?

Why can't we take a decent pic?

2010-06-07T05:35:00.000-07:00

It was the perfect occasion. We were all dressed up and inadvertently, we all matched! But we just didn't manage to get a decent pic! We didn't even really try I guess. It's a lot of trouble. A lot of effort. And too many times, I just don't make it! The effort, that is. It's seems like it takes all the energy I have just to get us all there and stay sane, much less take a decent picture!

Not to mention that it would have been a wonderful opportunity to get a picture of the whole family all nicely dressed.

Here they are in the order we took them. No one mentioned to me that my flash was off until right before the last one! Ooops!
We had to do some bunny ears to start with.I don't know why it's gotten so hard to get them to just smile nicely!

This one had real potential... damn flash!

Oh, well. Maybe I'll make us all put on the clothes again sometime and fake it! (If you look closely, you can see my new necklace!)

Ellie's charm bracelet

2010-06-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

More jewelry posts! I just wanted to show you all how Ellie's James Avery charm bracelet is coming along. She's had it about 2 years now. Erica got the idea to get it started for her and she's gotten charms for every birthday and Christmas since. It's really beautiful now when she wears it!

The flower bouquet is her newest charm that Grace picked out for Ellie's birthday. So pretty! I showed it in the spot I want them to put it in the pictures above and below.

That's Ellie's new beanie baby kitty that Grandma gave her this weekend. Ellie wanted me to take it's picture with the bracelet. Silly girl! We had to go thru Uncle Garricks whole beanie baby collection (probably 30 or so). Remember how popular those were? Luckily we didn't wind up bringing them all back home with us. Just 1 for each of the kids!

I'll have more pics from this weekend coming soon!

My Mother's Day present

2010-06-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

My Mother's Day present finally came!! I decided I wanted a Lisa Leonard necklace. I ordered it the Friday before Mother's Day. It took 3 1/2 weeks, but I finally got it!! It's the open circle necklace. I added a pearl. I thought that was so appropriate since it's both the kid's birthstones!
This is side is the side I'll be wearing facing out most of the time with the kid's names.

Then on the back I had them put Stu's name and my name. I love it!! It's bigger than I'm used to wearing, and heavier. I'm sure I'll grow accustomed to it's feel soon. It will be a nice reminder of the ones I love when I'm away from them.

I don't have a picture of it on me yet, but here is one from the website so you get an idea of how it will look.

Love it!!

My kids accomplishments

2010-06-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

So, I try not to do this too often, but I have to brag a little. The kids just did such a good job this year.

Logan hasn't always had the easiest time. For a little while I regretted my decision to send him to school right after he turned 5 instead of letting him wait a year. Things would have only been easier for him if we'd waited. He's always done well, but it's taken work and hasn't always come easily. Even this year. At the beginning he had some trouble on a math test they gave him. So he went to tutoring with his teacher after school once a week for a about 6 weeks.

He's always gotten good grades on his report card (he ended up with an overall core average of 91), but those state tests were a different story.

I was nervous about 3rd grade since that's when they start taking the TAKS test. I'm so happy to say that not only did he pass, but he did really well. He only missed 3 ?s on the math and 4 ?s on the reading. His math score was actually commended!! (That just means that if you make a certain score they call it "commended") I'm so proud of him!!!

And Ellie! She's been amazing. She started reading in Pre-K and has grown leaps and bounds in Kindergarten. I never used to believe people when they said that their kid just started reading kind of on their own. Especially since that was NOT the experience I had with Logan. We worked really hard to learn to read. But Ellie's a natural at it! It amazes me on a daily basis.

Her teacher did some testing at the end of the year too and she did awesome as well, scoring way above the district passing score in everything! The reading level goal at the end of Kindergarten is a 3 and she scored an 8!! And the math assessment district goal is 35%, she scored 90%!!! I'm so happy that at least so far, things are going so smoothly for her.

So I just have to say, Way to Go Logan and Ellie!! Mom and Dad Love you and are soooo Proud of you!!!

Kindergarten Celebration!

2010-06-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ellie's last day is today. This morning we went up to the high school (right next to our school) to see the Kindergarten Celebration. First they all sang 2 songs. So cute, yes I was crying. Then they called each child's name by class and the principal gave them a little necklace with a cap and 2010 written on it. (That's her in the front row with the blue and purple dress.)

Afterwards we walked back over to the school where they conveniently were letting everyone sign out their kids and take them home! I wasn't planning on taking Ellie home since I have to go pick Logan up at noon anyway. Also, I figured they'd just be playing and stuff. Ellie likes school.

We were standing there watching kid after kid be signed out and leave. I asked Ellie if she wanted to go home and I was about to take her so she wouldn't feel abandoned. Then I noticed that there were only going to be 2 other kids there and they were both her good friends. So I asked her if she wanted to stay and play with them and she said OK.

Then I asked one of the little girls left if she was staying and she said yes. Then started crying. It was soooo sad. I tried to comfort her and I told her Ellie would be staying too and they could play and have fun. I felt so sorry for her. I also couldn't believe how many parents took their kids home. What a scam!! How smart of the teachers!!

So Ellie's up there right now with the other 2 girls left. Her teacher said she was going to have them help her pack up her room. I'm sure she'll have fun. I hope it stops raining before I have to walk up there and get them!!

Congrats Ellie!! I can't believe her Kindergarten year is over! :-(

My Love and devotion to Twilight

2010-05-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

OK, so I know I'm an (almost) 35 year old mom with 2 elementary age kids, but I can't help it... I'm a Twilight Junkie! Somehow I've gotten myself hooked (again) with a fresh new fervor. I've re-read all the books (except New Moon- not sure who has my copy). I just watched New Moon the movie again and will have Twilight soon. And I read online (since it's the only place you can get it, Midnight Sun- the unfinished book that is Twilight written from Edward's point of view.) Which is awesome. Even though you know the story, it's so different hearing it from Edward's side. It's unfinished and I wish she would start writing it again.

Also, I'd really like her to write the story of Renesme and Jacob. I think that would be a great book too!

Sometimes, well a lot of the time actually, I feel like I should be embarrassed to love it so. It brings me so much pleasure though. But when you have to go to the Young Adult section of the library to find it, it seems like that's an issue. The problem is though, that I don't care! Also, I personally know a lot of other mom's, some of whom are very smart, professional people, who love it as much as I do! It's not just me!

Did you all know that there is a new book coming out in a few days? It's called The short second life of Bree Tanner. Bree was one of the newborns from Eclipse. It's the story (or novella- short story) of her life after she became immortal and ending when she dies in the fight. I'm not sure how much Edward and Bella will be in it, but it's worth a read to me.

I wondered if I would like all of Stephenie Meyers writing, so I read her newest book, The Host. It was good, but it just didn't have the allure of the characters and the love story like Twilight.

I read something today from Stephenie Meyers website about the origin of Twilight and she says how much she loved the characters while she was writing. I can so see that when I read the books. She loves Edward and her writing about him makes you love him too. Or at least it did that for me.

So, I'm not going to be ashamed anymore. I love these books and movies. I'm even shopping around for a T-shirt of some kind. There are about a million and I can't decide which one I like the best! And I'm counting down the days until the movie marathon (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse) we're going to on June 29th!!!

Ellie's Gymnastics Recital

2010-05-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

Ellie had a gymnastics "recital" on Saturday too (It was a busy day). Basically at her age the recital just shows them doing the skills they do at all their practices. We had to pay for her to be in it (which included a leotard) and then we had to pay to get in the door. Yes, it's quite a racket.

We still enjoyed it though. She's doing awesome! She's made so much progress since she started in November.

This video was toward the end and she was getting pretty tired, but you get an idea of what kinds of things they did.

My camera is a very basic thing. For the most part I've been very happy with it. But, it doesn't take the best pictures at distance and in an environment that isn't well lit. So most of my pics are out of focus. But you get the idea.

At the end they got a medal and even got up on a podium. Cool!

Father/Daughter Dance

2010-05-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Girl Scouts had a father/daughter dance on Saturday night. It had 80's themed music, right up Stuart's alley!

Ellie and I went outside to take some pictures and she was so funny. It was like a little photo shoot with her changing poses all on her own between shots. I don't know where she's seen that before, probably somewhere on TV! She came up with these all on her own. I just stood there and took the pictures! Too Funny!

We Love you, pretty girl!!

End of year Daisy Party

2010-05-24T08:34:00.001-07:00

Ellie had her end of the year Daisy party the other night at Lampost Pizza. They don't get promoted since they'll remain Daisies thru first grade. But they received several of their patch petals which once they have them all will make a Daisy on their vests.

Luckily I am no longer the "leader", not that I really did much leading at all. I was waaay overwhelmed with the whole thing especially since I was taking my class to get my certificate and everything. So the co-leader took over for me and has done a fantastic job.

Logan also will be starting his 3rd year in Cub Scouts. Both programs and excellent and I highly recommend them to all of you once your kiddos are big enough. Cub Scouts don't start until 1st grade, but Girl Scouts starts in Kindergarten.

It was a great time and great food! Way to go Ellie!

On Target!

2010-05-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Target's good for everything!

We took these pics outside of our Target. Crazy kiddos!

We Love Target!!

Deutschen Pfest

2010-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

We had our annual trip to Deutschen Pfest this weekend. The kids love it and look forward to it every year.

One of their favorite things is the petting zoo. They have tons of animals and they're all so nice and tame. A few favorites, bunnies, chicks, ducklings, baby pigs, baby goats, calves and miniature donkeys.

They also had pony rides. Fun!!

Of course they had their faces painted and got balloons twisted for them (a sword and a flower).

Then we had to do the rides!! They are both big enough to ride almost everything. Next year I'm getting a wristband too and riding with them. I love rides. They both love them too!!

We stayed this year for over 5 hours!! My only complaint was that it was HOT!!! Sunny, humid the whole enchilada! But, we still had a great time. Can't wait until next year!

Who knew going to the doctor could be so fun?

2010-05-08T08:57:00.001-07:00

Last week we had to take Logan to the allergist for his annual check-up. There is a courtyard outside the building that is just absolutely beautiful. I want to take them back just to play sometime.

It would be a great place for a photo shoot for all of you photographers!

My Sweet Kids

2010-04-29T06:16:00.001-07:00

I just had to snap a shot of the kids on their way to school the other day!! I just love them!!

Fun in Planet Hooston (aka, Houston)

2010-04-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

We went to Houston this weekend for a family reunion/fish fry. Stu's family has these usually at least once a year at his Mom's uncle's house in Cat Spring (near Sealy). It was a lot of fun. Good food, awesome weather and the kids got to swim again!

Stu's sister Becky and her boyfriend Jake.

Ellie and Uncle Garrick (Stu's brother) at La Hacienda.

Ellie and Grandma! Unfortunately Memaw (Stu's grandma) isn't doing very well. She has COPD and we're really not sure how much longer she's going to hang on. All of Stu's grandparents are still living (I know, he's really lucky). I'm just glad that they've been able to get to know our kids as much as they have. We feel really blessed for that. Everyone just say a little prayer for her that she is not suffering and feels at peace with what seems to be inevitable.

Crowe's Nest Farm

2010-04-22T04:45:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from Ellie's field trip to Crowe's Nest Farm in Manor. We had a great time. They've got that place down to a science. We were in and out in no time! On the hayride.

They showed us how to milk a cow!

Watching the cow being milked.

They have a part called the Faerie Wood. It's just a trail through a nicely wooded area. But all around they have little fairies and pretty little birdhouses and all kinds of things. They tell the kids to see how many they can find while they're walking. This one was my favorite. Doesn't she look peaceful and serene. I need to try and get a little of that feeling in my hectic day!!!This was the entryway. A long tunnel covered in vines. It looked like they had frozen in the winter, but were growing back to cover it nicely once again.

Here's a little example of some of the fairies on display."Oooh look Mom, another fairy!"

It was a lot of fun. I'm so glad I was able to go with her!

Baseball on the berm

2010-04-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Baseball + kids = not watching the game at all! We went to our first RR Express game of the season on Sunday afternoon with some friends and Ray, Grace and Carter. We had a great time. I'm pretty sure the Express won, but that was only because I heard the guys talking about it. There is no watching the game when you're trying to keep track of kids on the berm. As an added bonus it was bat day and all the kids got full size plastic bats upon entering the park. This sounds good in theory, but keeping them from whacking each other the whole time gets pretty old! By the end of the game I have to say I was exhausted! But I think the kids had a lot of fun and let's face it, that's why you take them to a baseball game, right?

Chef Logan

2010-04-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

Logan really likes to cook. Always has. Every once in a while he gets the urge to make something. This can get complicated as I'm sure you can imagine. The other day though he decided he wanted to make pancakes. A relatively simple task, so I said sure. He did a great job.
I'm not sure why he has adopted this pose lately, but he likes it. It's kind of like rapper meets chef.

Great job Logan!

Logan's artsonia art

2010-04-10T17:37:00.001-07:00

I know I post his art a lot, but I thought it only fair that I show you all his art work from the artsonia site as well.

He only has 2 posted so far. Cute!!

Ellie's Art

2010-04-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

The kid's school uses an online resource called Artsonia. The art teacher takes pictures of their work and then posts them online. Cool, huh?

This is what they've posted so far for Ellie.

Kindergarten Tic-Tac-Toe

Kindergarten Line Study

Kindergarten Shoe Monsters

This website is such a great idea!

Can you say, Haircut?

2010-04-05T14:28:00.001-07:00

Logan finally let me cut his hair. I guess this warmer weather put him over the edge.

Yesterday...

Today...

Need I say more?

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T17:25:00.001-07:00

We had a great Easter even though the weather this morning was terrible! I'm really glad we went to church yesterday and didn't have to do it today.

We went to brunch at Erica's this morning and had a great time. We even got to see a friend of ours that we grew up with named Wilbur.

The egg hunt was good, but fast. And the confetti eggs were a smashing success!

Somehow while we were there we decided to go with Erica and her family to the UT spring game. We all loaded up in the cars and went down there. It was fun. My kids had never been to the stadium. I know that's practically sacrilege coming from 2 UT alums, but it's true. In fact I hadn't been to the stadium since college!

Now we're home with 2 tired and dirty kiddos who need to go to bed! Hope you all had a good Easter too!

Easter Eve

2010-04-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

That's what the kids are calling today at least! We went to church tonight so that we don't have to tomorrow morn. I wish they had service every Saturday evening! Very convenient! This is the best pic we could get. I realize Logan's giving Ellie bunny ears, but at least it's Easter!

Doesn't Ellie look pretty?
Logan actually chose to wear this outfit. I couldn't get him to smile decently though!

We had some cool dye that was like little rolling paintbrushes in addition to our usual dye cups. I tried the olive oil thing, but I don't think I did it right since my didn't turn out anything like Erica's?

Here the kids are dying eggs yesterday morning! It seems like Ellie's never wearing a shirt, I know.
We had a great time dying them and then eating them this morning as deviled eggs. The kids were having a tea party with them. Yes, their tea pot is actually a gravy boat! I don't have a big teapot and Ellie only has a mini one! Again, Ellie has no shirt on. She does have clothes I promise! We're just about to set out their Easter baskets so the Easter bunny can fill them up for tomorrow morning! He also hides eggs around the house for them to hunt when they wake up. This tradition came from Stu's family, but I like it. So do the kids.

Have a Happy Easter everyone!

What is it with men and guns?

2010-03-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

Actually, I really can't complain. Stuart doesn't have any interest whatsoever in guns. Which is fine with me. I grew up with a lot of guns around and it was never much of a problem with all girls in the house. But I have a feeling that this may not be the case with my very curious little boy!

Last weekend he had a cub scout camp out at a boy scout campground around Bastrop Friday and Saturday night. Well it was supposed to be both nights. If you remember it rained quite a bit Friday night and with the rain came some bitterly cold wind on Saturday. They made it thru the night Friday night and stayed part of the day on Saturday before coming home.

Logan was really excited that they were going to be shooting BB guns. From the pictures it seemed like quite a little shooting range they have there!

Too bad it wasn't this weekend with the beautiful weather!