Quill Awards

Recently, I entered our church's stewardship campaign materials (financial campaign) I created last year (along with three other team members) for a Dallas Quill award given by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Dallas chapter. These are really big awards in the Communications/PR realm. I entered our packet in the contest mainly because the judges supposedly give feedback for each entry. Therefore you have highly respected people in the industry giving you constructive criticism on your work - can only make you better, right? I though of it as free consultation to be used in upcoming projects. To our surprise, we were selected as finalist!! Last night at the Dallas Quill awards banquet, we were honored with an Award of Merit and were in the middle of some BIG company (like Susan G. Komen, leading PR firms in the metroplex and so forth. It was really cool! The guest speaker was Bill Lively, head of the Super Bowl committee. He had to speak quick because he had a 9:15 p.m. conference call with the NFL! HA! Can you imagine?! Chris and I enjoyed cocktails and a great dinner and dessert! It was held at the Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas.

Softball Game

Carley has had two softball games so far and loves it! Here are some pics I took at last night's game. There is also a cool pick of Campbell and Carley together showing they are the same #. Then, we got home and noticed Chris' number at aTm was #11!! Weird, huh? I still like #14 myself!! :)

Star Student

Carley's principal called yesterday to let us know that Carley's teacher nominated her for Star Student for this week. I BIG HONOR!! ;) So Campbell and I went to the assembly this morning and watched her get her certificate and cool new t-shirt. She was SOOO excited! Here is what her teacher wrote about her:
I was so thrilled to give it to her! She deserved it! These are just some of the things I catch Carley doing during class!
· On task all the time
· Stops what she is doing and listens to my directions
· Completes her work in a timely manner
· Helps other friends in class · HELPS ME ALL THE TIME!
I adore having Carley in my class this year!

Music to a mom's ears!! Now we are off to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate. (something Chris and I are a little less excited about!!)

Carley lost a tooth... FINALLY!

Each time Carley hears of a friend loosing a tooth, she gets so frustrated that she hasn't lost one yet. NO ANYMORE!! Her tooth has been loose for a couple of weeks and tonight she let me pull it!! It is so funny how she can be so dramatic about the pain of a tiny scrape on her knee at one moment and then stand there and let me pull out a tooth next! I even had to wiggle and pull a good bit to get it out. She looks so cute now and is SOOOOOOO excited!

Looking at herself in the mirror after her tooth came out!!

So little!!

You go girl! She didnt even freak out at all the blood!

Jailbreak Run

Chris and I ran in the Jailbreak Run in Roanoke this past weekend. It was a lot fun, but we want to get a lot of people together next year to do it with us. Then it would be SUPER fun!! It was a 3.8 mile run combined with 14 obstacles. It was pretty relaxed... not really a race but more so just people having fun. All proceeds benefited the Sower of Seeds organization that helps drill healthy drinking water wells in other countries. Now that the race is over I think I am going to mix it up a bit with my workouts... running really hurts my hips! They have hurt almost everyday since I started running again back in February. Maybe Zumba?? Maybe Hip Hop Abs??? Who knows... :)

Our reward... COLD BEER!

After crawling through the mud to the finish line

before we started

Soccer, Softball and T-ball -- OH MY!!!!!!

I always said we would only do one sport per season per kid, but boy was I wrong. This year Carley wanted to try softball, which I was all for, but I hated to take her off her soccer team because she has a fun coach and really enjoys the girls on the team. If you take them off the team, there is no guarantee they will get back on the same team. UGH! So, since the games and practices didn't overlap, we let her do softball AND soccer at the same time. Partner these two with Campbell's first t-ball season and you get one busy family!!!!!!!!!! But it is so much fun! Since Chris isn't in football, he is able to help in both t-ball and softball and really enjoys it. Campbell struggled through soccer last spring, but LOVES t-ball!! He asks all the time when his next game or practice is. This is soooo good to hear since he didn't like soccer at all! Carley is doing great in soccer and had her first softball game last week - where she hit a double might I add!!! :) Here are a few pics I took at Carley's softball practices, Campbell's game and Carley's softball game. I will post more game pics later. I have them on my phone and can't figure out how to transfer them to the computer!!

Another School Year

This is year is shaping up to be another great school year for both kiddos! They love their teachers!!

Ms. Tammy and Ms. Lauren (in the back) -

Campbell's preschool teachers on the first day of school

Ms. Melanie (Campbell's speech teacher)

Ms. Ross - Carley's 1st grade teacher

Carley walking to her class the first day of school!

1st Sleepover

Carley had her first sleepover the weekend before school started. It was really fun!! Her friend Taylor came over and they played Barbies, Little Pet Shop, watched a movie then went to bed, where they giggled for 30 minutes before falling asleep. In the morning we made pancakes! While the girls played, Campbell and Chris played with Legos!

San Antonio

Our second trip of the summer was to San Antonio with my parents, sister and nieces. We had a great time at Sea World, the RiverWalk, Fiesta Texas and the Natural Caverns. We became theme park pros after a week at Disney then Sea World and Fiesta Texas. I HIGHLY recommend Fiesta Texas!! There was plenty of fun stuff for the kids to ride and of course lots of stuff for my oldest niece, Lora, and us adults to ride. :)

Disney 2010

We certainly had a blast at Disney World this summer. The kids are the perfect ages (we think) to where they really got into it and just loved it. There was quite a bit of whining during the 106 degree afternoons from ALL FOUR OF US, but other than that it truly was a magical vacation. Here are only a few pics.. mainly of the landmarks. I took right at 200 pics, so I can't post them all, but I did make a pretty cool photobook that the kids love looking at! :)

Hollywood Studios (last day.... can you tell by Campbell's face?!?!?!)

Animal Kingdom

Airport

Magic Kingdom

Catching up!

Well, I fell off the wagon again with my blog updates, but here I am again. :) Instead of my blog, I have been just doing updates on facebook instead. But I realized my parents and Chris' mom are missing out on all the pics of the kids because they can't really work the whole facebook thing! And, I have actually missed telling the stories behind the pics or just speaking what is on my mind that day.... so here we go again! These updates are for you, Nana, Papa & Grandma! :)