Carley and Campbell's Corner

Happy Birthday, Steve!!!!!!

2011-01-30T14:32:00.000-08:00

Today is our first-born's birthday - Steve is 11 years old (77 in dog years). :) To celebrate, we took him to Pet Smart to cruise the aisles and pick out some treats! And how else do you celebrate a birthday party than with birthday hats! So Carley, Steve and myself wore the hats around the store, Campbell put his hat on his Buzz Lightyear and Chris just flat out refused to wear one!! PARTY POOPER!! I haven't seen him that embarrassed in a long time, actually! HA!!! Oh, well. The things we do for our children!! :) You can't tell me Steve wasn't smiling in these pictures!! He loved every minute of celebrating his special day with his his embarrassing family.

Christmas Pics

2010-12-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some Christmas pics to go along with the rambling on and on and on and on and on post below...... can you tell I was a tired little puppy when I posted that one?!?!?!?

Our big 7 year old

2010-12-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

Carley turned 7 yesterday, December 30. I know I say this every year and about both kiddos, but I CAN'T BELIEVE she is already 7 years old. Time flies by so fast on one hand, but on the other it seems like your children have been with you your entire life! We celebrated with breakfast in bed and then opened gifts. We have wanted to get a trampoline for quite a while now, but didn't think our back yard was level enough. We decided to bite the bullet and get her one anyway and so far, it has been a blast! Her birthday party was small this year, but a lot of fun! We took five of her little friends to the movie to see Tangled (loved it!) and then for pizza. Since she is so used to having big parties, I was afraid she may be disappointed but she actually had a great time with her besties!! :) I hope you had a wonderful birthday sweet Carleybear!!!!

I know, I know....

2010-12-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't posted anything since Halloween, big deal! HA! I was doing so good, too, at keeping current, but time just got busier and faster and I honestly forgot about it most of the time. But at any rate, I'M BACK!

We had a great Christmas! We celebrated with Chris' family the 18-20th and then came back home to our house until going to Nana and Papa's (my side) Christmas Eve-Dec 27. As usual, no matter how many pictures and/or video I take, it just can't capture the fun memories we have each year at Christmas.

Like...
1. We stop to eat at the same McDonald's in Corsicana every time we go to Sealy. It's just so funny at Christmas because we are so packed in between all four of us, presents, luggage and the dogs that we look like we are moving to a new state or something. And of course we have to sit close to a window so Chris can see the van (or truck this time) to make sure no one takes anything (because our big black dog is just not scary enough!) :)

2. On Chris' side the extended family all participate in a White Elephant style gift exchange and the kids all draw names. So, when we all get together and put all our gifts under the tree, they pour way out into Great Grandma's living room. The kids "ooh and ahh" and constantly ask when it is time to open them. The adults then go on to our gift exchange where everyone usually fights over a battery charger of some kind, bungee cables for the back of a pick up truck, Academy gift cards or as was the case this year, a cooler full of beer! (why is Jeff Foxworthy in my head right now?) We brought a coffee pot and ended up picking it as our gift. ( I needed a new coffee pot really bad, and frankly, no one else seemed interested!) ha! It really is a lot of fun!

3. We pack back up the next day and head back to McKinney, except my "snack bag" is really low because we (I mean Chris) eat all the snacks on the trip down!

4. We have tried to make ice skating at the Galleria a tradition, but missed it last year for some reason. So we have really only been one other year. However, I am an Aggie so that counts as "tradition" for me. :) We went ice skating this year and had the best pizza ever afterwards right by the rink. Carley gets really good at it after she gets her bearings, and Campbell did well too hugging the rail all the way around.

5. Christmas Eve we head to Whitehouse leaving behind our beautiful decoration inside and out! When we get back after Christmas they just aren't as pretty as they are when we leave!

6. At Nana and Papa's, Carley loves to run in and see Papa's Christmas Village set up and this year Campbell ran straight for the tree because there were presents everywhere!!!!!!! There is also Nana's traditional saying, "Enjoy it because we're not doing this much next year!" She says that every year and we just laugh and say, "whatever!"

7. We celebrate Papa's birthday on Christmas Eve right after dinner. I have a great picture of he and the grandkids! They love their Papa!!!!!!!!

8. I think the kids all slept better Christmas Eve than I did. I could NOT go to sleep and heard every noise imaginable, I think. Maybe I was just so excited about Santa that I just couldn't sleep!!!

9. Christmas morning is just mass chaos. Between our kiddos and my nieces there are toys, wrapping paper and gifts galore!! SO MUCH FUN, though!

10. Chris hunts out at my dad's land in Troup, but never sees or shoots anything (other than a big hog the year Campbell was born, 2006, but I am sooooo over that story!!!!)

11. Then the Clampitts, I mean Pawlak's, pack everything back up in some magical way that fits everything in and we head home. I never figure out how Chris gets it all in... must be a little Santa magic.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas filled with lovely traditions, lasting memories and tons of LOVE!!

Halloween

2010-11-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween!! Campbell was a fireman, Carley was Taylor Swift, I was Carley (in her soccer uniform) and Chris was Campbell (in his tball uniform). The capri sun is what really completes the look! HA!!

Lots of fun stuff!

2010-11-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Lots has happened in the Pawlak household since our last post. Where do I start? We are wrapping up all the sports seasons this week. T-ball ended a couple of weeks ago and Campbell LOVES his trophy! Carley's softball season ended last week and her end-of-season party is tonight at On The Border! YUM!! Sorry, Nana!! (She had to take Campbell to his party while we were in Connecticut and it was at Chuck E. Cheese! hehehe! ) Carley's last soccer game is this Saturday! It has been a fun few months, but we have to say we (Chris and I) are ready for a break! Give us a week of nothing, though, and I am sure we will be ready to sign them up for something else. :)

My birthday was October 25. The big 33!!!!!! Ugh! But it was a great birthday weekend with a trip up to Connecticut to see our friends, Dan and Carrie, who were transferred up there back in the spring. As you can the imagine the fall foliage was outstanding!!!!!!!! So pretty! That is exactly why we wanted to go in the fall! Next time, we will go either in the winter or summer and bring the kids with us. If we go in the winter, they can sled down the hill in their backyard to the whole time and play in some "real" snow all weekend. OR, we could go in the summer time and take a day trip into NY City (only an hour and a half away) or drive 4 hours to see more of New England. Either way, they would love up there as much as Chris and I did. I wish I could post all our pictures, but that would take to long. They are all on facebook already so you can see there. Here are a couple of my favorite!

First Hunting Trip

2010-10-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

Chris took Campbell on his first dove hunting trip last weekend. Carley was going to go, but had a make up soccer game. Chris asked which she wanted to do and she said play soccer. That's my girl! :) The dog in the background belongs to the guy they went hunting with. Seeing the dog in the truck makes me feel like they were cheating on "Steve" since he is too old to hunt now. :(
Campbell loved it! He didn't like blood on his hands, but who does really??? :)

The cutest first-baseman EVER!

2010-10-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Go Rangers!

2010-10-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

Last night was a great night indeed! I was a nervous wreck during the Ranger game. Chris had a meeting so he didn't get home until the 9th inning. The whole game I kept turning the channel when I got nervous! HA! What a wimp, huh? Even though the game was exciting, I was more excited to see the Rangers celebrate the win with sparkling cider and ginger ale instead of champagne so that Josh Hamilton could celebrate with them! I was SOOOOO mad when they celebrated clinching their spot in the playoffs with Josh having to wait out in the hallway because of the beer and champagne. Are you kidding me?!?!? He is huge reason of why they are there in the first place! It made the team look so unsupportive and selfish. However, the team is off my S$@# list and back on my good side now! GO RANGERS!!!!!!

Such a Blessing!

2010-10-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

The last miner was just pulled out of the mine! It is such a blessing that they all have made it out and are all relatively healthy. Can you imagine being trapped 2,000 feet below ground for 70 days, in the dark, only eating 2 tsp of tuna each day and battling psychological affects of not knowing when you would be found or rescued?!?! I just can't even begin to comprehend what that must have been like. Just the 15 minute ride up in that amazingly narrow capsule would make me hyperventilate while being pulled up completely surrounded by nothing but rock! I can see myself banging on the cage right when I got to the surface breaking the whole thing. They were all so calm and collected. It is truly amazing.

Thank you, God, for their determination and safety, for the talent you placed in the engineers and rescuers that figured out how to get them out and for blessing their families with their safe return. You are amazing! Amen.

On Strike!

2010-10-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

As of today, October 1, I am officially on strike from toilet cleaning. Apparently, four-year olds and 35-year olds both have a hard time hitting a target without splashing all over the place. Then, throw in a 118 lb black lab that likes to drink from the toilet (even when his water bowl is full!) and I END UP CLEANING TWO BIG, YELLOW & HAIRY MESSES!!! NO MORE! It is time to put the disinfectant wipes out for both boys to see and use after each flush. The chick is done with toilets!!!

Quill Awards

2010-09-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-21T19:49:00.001-07:00

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!!!!!!

2010-09-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-21T19:18:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-21T19:08:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

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! :)

Pics!!

2010-04-18T18:33:00.001-07:00

Here are pics to go with the posts below... :) Campbell started soccer practice on Saturday! We are going to have a hard couple of weeks ahead because Carley and Campbell have games at the same times for the next two weeks. Then, Carley is done and Campbell keeps going through the first weekend in June. How do people with three kids in sports or any activities manage?!?!?!?!?!

I did it!!

2010-04-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

The 10K on Saturday went great! It was really hard though. The first 1 1/2 miles seemed to be all up hill. The other hard part was having to go under the crossing streets using the underground walk ways. This meaning you had to go down steep hills then up steep hills and there was A LOT of them since we were going through neighborhoods. My finishing time 1 hour 3 minutes. Not too bad, but my goal was under one hour. So, I missed my goal a little. No worries. The main goal was to just do it and finish it!! Goal accomplished!! :) I will post pictures later. :)

Second time's a charm

2010-04-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Since the whole house was sick the week before the Azalea 10K run a few weeks ago, I couldn't run it in like I had hoped. BUT, this weekend is the Run For Cover 5k/10k event here in McKinney benefitting The Samaritan Inn, Collin County's only homeless shelter. So, I am ready for the challenge! I still have not run over 5 miles, though, so wish me luck!! It should be interesting!!

After the race I am headed back to Tyler to check on Christy and just hang out with her. She is still in so much pain!!! Please pray for her! Hopefully, she will start feeling better in a week or so.

Campbell has his first soccer practice on Saturday! Chris will have to take lots of pictures for me. He is on the Little Twisters, but I have decided to call it just the Twisters. I do not know of any 3/4 year old that likes the word "little" to have anything to do with them. It's time for "big boy" fun!! ;)

One of these days I will upload pics again. HA! Someday soon, maybe!! ;)

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I am pretty behind on my blogging, but hope to catch you all up. Two weeks ago we ALL had a nasty stomach virus that stayed in our house for a week (by the time it got to everyone)!!! It was awful! I haven't been that sick in a long time... well, at least since the Jimmy Buffet concert last year! HA! Anyway, that one little virus caused major headaches and really threw us off our game. The kids missed school and soccer practice and I had to miss my big 10K I have been working so hard on. BUT, there will be another race here in McKinney on April 17 I am trying to make plans for. Hopefully Chris and I can run it together, but we will see. As of yesterday, Carley likes to run with me. It is really fun running with her! I will run my usual then come back to house to pick her up to run a lap around the neighborhood. She did great yesterday, only stopping to walk one time (the neighborhood is .7 miles).

Carley is in full swing soccer mode!! She loves it and is really good. Campbell starts in mid April, but I really don't think soccer will be his thing. He likes to kick the ball, but doesn't like to run much!! He will run for a little bit then go get his whistle to be the coach. Hmm... wonder where he gets that from?!?!? I think he will be our baseball kid... he will start t-ball in the fall after he turns four.

Chris is good.. just REALLY busy. He had to run an 8th grade meet, his varsity/jv meet and go to Austin for Texas Relays this week!! Needless to say he is sleeping right now!! :)

As for me, I am still playing catch up from being out sick a week. Work at church was really busy last week getting ready for Easter, Relay For Life (volunteer work) has been busy as I need to get a press release out each week until April 30. When I get home tonight, I need to create three ads for local media as well!! Plus, I gained a new paying client last week. LOVE me some paying clients! HA!

So, LONG LONG LONG story short.. all is well in our house... FINALLY!! :) We are spending Easter in Whitehouse with my parents. My sister turns 36 next weekend, but we had her party last night because she is having her reconstruction surgery Thursday, April 8. Please pray the surgery goes well and that this will be the last one!! It is supposed to be a pretty painful one as they will be taking a muscle from her back to provide support, plus a skin graph and MUCH more!

Happy Easter to you all and have a great week!

Happy Birthday, Honey!!

2010-03-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday was also Chris' 35th birthday. He's not really handling the "35" bit that well.. he got better Sunday, but then this morning found a gray nose hair and got all upset again! HAHAHA! We had cake and cards and then played the kids' favorite.. pin the tale on the donkey! I hope you had a great birthday, Chris!!

Houston Rodeo

2010-03-15T20:36:00.001-07:00

We took the kids to the Houston Rodeo this past Saturday while we were visiting Chris' mom. IT WAS A BLAST! The kids had a great time. Campbell was a little nervous with all the people. I think he would have enjoyed the animals more if there weren't so many people around us. He still had a good time. Carley, on the other hand, loved it! She loves animals!! The rodeo finally started and I forgot how fun they were! Some of those events are just amazing. Only one cowboy rode the bull for 8 seconds, and even one of them had to get stitches in head because the bull bucked him back while he was still in the chute! CRAZY PEOPLE!!!! The absolute bet part of the day was the Blake Shelton concert. Chris and I knew a lot of his songs, but the kids (and me!) LOVE his new song, "Hillbilly Bone"! It is is so fun!! Especially in concert. I finally saw some of me come out in Carley by the way she enjoyed the concert so much. She and I may become concert buddies!! ;) (these pics are all in random order! Why can't they download in the order you select them in???? UGH! )

My sweet cowgirl! This is Campbell's hat, but he wore it a

total of 3 minutes, so Carley put it on!

Cutie Pie

I'm tellin' ya.. she was a rodeo natural!

Blake Shelton concert

Cheering on the Barrel Racers! This was her and my favorite event

Why do people do this????? Look at those horns?

Did they not ever see the movie "8 Seconds"??

Gotta love the rodeo clowns.

Campbell LOVES police officers, so Chris took him into the security station for him to meet the police officers in there. They gave him a really cool sticker badge. He loved it!

Yummy hot dogs!!

I love this picture!

This llama was so cool. He was huge and just laid there

and let all the kids pull and tug all over him.

This was the funniest pig story (actually I think it may be my only pig story!) Anyway, this pig walked off from his trainer just a few feet in front of us and making his way through the people. He kept going about 100 feet and went right to his pen, laid down and went to sleep. It was really funny. He knew exactly where he was going! (o.k. so I guess you had to be there!)

Look at the cute baby cow eating hay.. he was sooooo cute!

This is at the restaurant afterwards. Carley slept through dinner, but Campbell finally woke up to eat a Quesadilla and watch the waiters sing Happy Birthday to Chris

Chris had to wear this sombrero while they sang to him! It was quite amuzing. Campbell said he would have looked better in a fireman hat, though. ;)

Soccer Season!

2010-03-07T15:11:00.001-08:00

Here is Campbell at the game yesterday pretending he is a bat and using the scarf as his bat wings! He is such a pretender!!! Way more than Carley ever was at that age. She was too practical and logical we think. But Campbell cracks us up with his little imagination!!!

Carley's first game was yesterday! She had a great time and really loves her team. Go Magic!!

Ahhhh.....

2010-03-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

4.5 miles - Check!!! It was hard, but it is done! :)

Relay For Life

2010-03-03T13:55:00.000-08:00

I am joining the fight to find a cure for cancer through American Cancer Society's Relay For Life of McKinney! You can help my team by donating through the link below:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY10PL?pg=team&fr_id=24150&team_id=658840

OR, join my team for a fun night of walking and hanging with friends. The event is April 30 at the Ballfields at Craig Ranch and families are welcome. It is a fun night with lots of activities for the entire family. Join my team going to www.mckinneyrfl.com and clicking on "View all teams" next to the Top Teams box. Our team name is Amy Pawlak (however, I hope to change that to a more snazzy name soon!)

1st Week

2010-02-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I have completed my first week of training for the 10K and so far so good! Today was 3.5 miles and it went really well. I could have kept going a little further, but our friends had the kids at the park playing and needed to leave at a certain time to be somewhere. This is A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT story than the beginning of the week! :) I need to be at 4.5 miles by end of next week. EEK! Talk to you soon!

Carley's Big Day

2010-02-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

Carley had a fun day today! First, she had her first soccer practice on her new team, The Magic! Her team from last year dissolved when we went to T-ball, so she had to get on a new team. But, she LOVES the girls on this team and is so excited! Then, tonight we went to the annual Frisco ISD Art Show. One of Carley's projects she made in art class was chosen to be displayed on the Elliott Elementary wall. We didn't realize it was such a big deal, but apparently each school only chooses about 40 pieces to be displayed. So, below is Carley next to her art work. In true Chris and Amy fashion, we both held back from saying, "That's It?" HA! Our art appreciation is definitely not as refined as it should be. But, none the less this was a big honor and we are very proud of Carley!

Carley with her certificate

Carley and her Art teacher.

Carley standing by her project.

This is a remake of Alma Thomas' work. (whoever that lady is! ) HA!

Go Magic!

Coach Mark with Carley, Ema, Ema, Emily, Emerson and Hanah! Can you believe those names??? I accidentally cut one of the "Em"s out of the picture. OOPS!

Finally.. soccer season is here!!

Accountability

2010-02-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

You all will probably get bored of these posts, but I am going to use you as my accountability group to help me train for the 10K race and hopefully a half-marathon eventually. April/May maybe??

So, I started running yesterday and actually ran for 30 minutes with only a few 10 step walks! My knee hurts tremendously, but after I found my rhythm it wasn't so bad. It mainly hurt when I changed surfaces (stepping off a curb, grass, sidewalk, etc). We are going this afternoon to get better running shoes. It feels really good to have a fitness goal again!! Tomorrow I rest and then hit it again Tuesday. My luck it will snow on Tuesday like they are forecasting! Grrr....

10K Here I Come!

2010-02-19T14:54:00.001-08:00

I have a goal to run a half marathon at some point in my life!!! So, to get me motivated I roped Kristen into running the Tyler Azalea 10K race with me March 27. If anyone else wants to join us, here is the web site to register. However, sitting here on the computer staring at a bag of chocolate and caramel heart candy is probably not the best way to train! I have GOT to get started!!!!!! Maybe tomorrow?!?!

http://www.tylerazalea10k.com/detailst.htm

New Job!

2010-02-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

Chris got a new job this week as the head Cross Country and Track coach at the new Frisco high school, Lone Star. He is so excited! He knew he wanted out of football towards the end of last season and everything has been kind of up in the air since then.

I wonder how bad the withdrawals will be come August? ;)

Beautiful, Wet, Snowball & Snowman-Makin' Snow!!

2010-02-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

What a fun day today! School, work, then home to play in the snow! Here are some pics. (of course they are in backwards order, but there are too many to switch around. :) )

Family of Snowmen!!

I love Chris' face in this one. It's hard to see, but we really wants to yell "Damn It!" because half the snowman toppled over. It was really funny!
This was Campbell's favorite spot while everyone else made snowmen! HA!

Playing with "the boys"

Snowball fight with Steve

Snow Angels!!

This morning before Carley left for school. There is nothing better than waking up in the morning to snow! Well, I guess waking up around 9 a.m. to snow rather than 6:30 a.m. to snow would be better!

Happy Birthday

2010-01-26T16:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Ronna!!! I hope you have a great one! :)

So confused!

2010-01-23T19:23:00.000-08:00

The kids are at Nana and Papa's for the weekend, so Chris and I have had a very relaxing day. Slept 'till 10 a.m., ate a good lunch, watched movies on TNT..basically, we have done absolutely nothing! :) The only downer was going to Lowes to return all the curtains and rods I bought yesterday because they were all wrong! I was so disappointed! I am having such a hard time finding curtains I like or that fit the windows in the living room.

We then went back to look at the rugs because we need a new one in the living room and foyer. However Lowes or Home Depot kills us every time we go in there! The problem is that our house is now almost 9 years old and we want to replace so many things that is soooo overwhelming on what do first, how to do it, what we need to do to the existing things to make them ready for upgrades, etc. Finding new rugs sounds simple enough, but I cant find the right size, style and thickness we like and can afford. We also need to FINISH the friggin' floors by getting threshold pieces to transition from the tile to the concrete. Again, sounds easy enough - BUT it has taken us two years to do this because noone can tell us the best way to do it. I have resolved to just calling a flooring company and asking them to come out to do it. I can't take it anymore!!

Next we found ourselves in lighting because Chris wanted to see about light sensors that turn lights on/off as you enter/leave a room. (Apparently, I do not do a good job of doing that myself!!) BAD IDEA! We ended up looking at all these cool light fixtures for the kitchen only to realize we are pretty much stuck with our fluorescent light because replacing would reduce so much light that we would have to add light somewhere else. We basically need to put up a frame/box thingy to go around the light. Which looks nice, but ughh- still a fluorescent light! The color of the box is the color of our kitchen cabinets (which I hate) so the sales guy suggested adding dark brown hardware and matching faucet to help tone down the yellow cabinets. (I actually have wanted to do that for while now!) So you guessed it- we went to the hardware isle. Should we do handles or knobs or both? By the time you fund 26 of whatever style we choose, it's a pretty penny! By this time, I could not take it anymore and we left with nothing! All that time and nothing! Grrrr.....

My main problem I need to get over is that I want nice stuff, but do NOT want to pay for it! I know juice will be spilled on it, the dog will pee or throw up on it, the vacuum will frey it, it won't be the right size, it won't match, or we won't like it a few weeks after getting it. I really want someone to just come over and do it all for me!! Any takers?????

Ughh...Time for another glass of wine and a good night sleep before picking up the munchkins tomorrow. They are having such a great time they may not want to come back home with us!

Thanks for letting me vent!! :)

Phenomenal Speaker

2010-01-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

This year I am serving as the marketing and publicity chair for Relay For Life of McKinney again. I love doing it, but today I really did NOT want to go to the city's chamber luncheon to take pictures of RFL committee members making a presentation. This is textbook pr as I will then write up a piece to send to the local media along with the pictures. I was SO not looking forward to it. But, just when you dread things the most, the best moments seem to happen.

Today the guest speaker at the luncheon was a 27 year old man from Australia who was born without arms or legs. He is now a motivational speaker and has had millions of hits on youtube and has been on Oprah. You may have seen him already, but his name is Nick Vujicic and his story is one of, if not THE, most empowering ever!

If you have 4 -5 minutes, click here and pick a video. He has several to choose from. You will be inspired, humbled, amazed, encouraged, empowered and lots more! If the link doesn't work, go to youtube and search Nick Vujicic.

Talk to you soon!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-14T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Yes, I know it has been MANY months since I last posted, but here we go. We had a great Christmas this year. Christmas is always fun, but anytime you are forced to begin new traditions you just never know how things are going to go. This was the first Christmas without my Papaw and pretty much without my Mame, too. FOR YEARS on Christmas morning we rushed through Santa and family gifts so that we had time to get ready and head off to Mame and Papaw's for lunch and more gifts! It was nice to just enjoy Christmas at mom and dad's but boy did I miss hearing "Hey Dollbaby.. are you ready for a glass of wine" from my papaw. (He never believed in the no drinking before noon bit! HA! ) My mame's memory is absolutely gone. We went to see her Christmas day but it was like we werent even there. This is why it is so hard on mom to go visit her because she has noooooooo clue who anyone is. But, she looks good and is being well taken care of and super sweet. I just can't look at her without seeing Papaw sitting in the chair right by her. A fun thing though was my dad turned 60 on Christmas Eve! We had a great party for him out at his friends' house!

On to a happier note, Christy is done with Chemo and healing. Whohoo!! Now she is meeting with reconstruction surgeons and so forth to get her spacers put back in to begin stretching tissue to make room for the reconstruction. OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not fun.

We celebrated Carley's 6th birthday on Dec 30! I can't believe she is that old. She is growing up on us so fast. She got a cd player and cds for Christmas and it feels like we skipped right to the tween age! Campbell is still my "Campbell Bug" and comes into our bed around 4 a.m. every morning. He climbs right up and snuggles up then goes right back to sleep. I know we shouldnt let him do it, but he is toooooo darn cute to send back to his bed! :)

I posted a lot of pics from Christmas on facebook so I will just post a few from Carley's birthday here. I hope you all are doing well! CONGRATS again to Kristen for getting engaged and to my sister-in-law Danielle for being preggo with TRIPPLETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Moly! Chris and I are so happy for you both!!

Until next time....

Titans Win!

2009-09-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

The Titans beat Mesquite Poteet last night and moved to 2-1 for the season. Only a dedicated coach's family would endure a one-hour start delay and sticky drizzling rain to watch the game in its entirety (dedication and the fact Grandma, Chris' mom, was in town to watch)!! The things we do, I tell ya! :)

Our Little "Turtle"

2009-09-08T20:18:00.001-07:00

Campbell started Preschool today in his little Turtles class! He had several friends from last year's Penguin class and then some new friends he is excited about. Some of these are from Meet the Teacher last week and the others today. So cute I could just eat him up. :)

With his friend Rayna from last year.. he is the tallest in the class and she is the smallest. She is such a cutie!!

First Day! Nice smile, right?

Getting to know our new friends.

Ms. Cindy and Ms. Wendy!

Ugghh.. So Close!

2009-09-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

Titans lost tonight to McKinney Boyd. It was a crazy and fun game, but this makes three years in a row to lose a hard fight. Mesquite Poteet next week! Go Titans!

Oh My!!!

2009-09-02T15:13:00.001-07:00

That's pretty much all I can say right now!! hehe
www.people.com

The Season is Here!

2009-08-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Football season officially started last night and the Titans got off to a great start beating the Denton High Broncos 52-22!! Hopefully, this is a good sign of the rest of the season!!! The kids, as always, had a blast. They even got to ride back to the school on the bus with Daddy and just loved it. Good luck the rest of the season and we will be there every week to cheer you on!

Chris gives Campbell is play sheet after the games and Campbell really thinks he is a coach. It is so cute. Someone will ask him what play he is calling and Campbell will pull out the play sheet (from his shorts where he keeps it since Chris keeps it in the back of his pants during the game) and says a different color each time. Like "I call the Blue!" Chris gets such a kick out of it!

Kindergarten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday it came... the first day of Kindergarten. Carley was so excited and ended up having a great day! Her teacher is Ms. Anderson and she really liked her. I hope this year starts a really fun and happy school experience. My friend sent the below to me and it perfectly states it best....

The Transfer of a Trust by Susan Wojciechowski
The realization has finally hit me - my child is starting kindergarten. The syndrome hits me every year just when school is starting. It's always the same. At 7am, the school bus whizzes to a stop at the end of my driveway. My child waves an uncertain goodbye and climbs aboard. The door whooshes shut and the bus rumbles slowly out of sight. I go back on the porch for another cup of tea, a peaceful cup at last. I spread the paper open in front of me and I start to cry. I snap the paper to attention and pretend to read. My tears blur the words into a muddy jumble. This in nonsense. I should be glad school is back in session. No more sticky kitchen floor, no more sliding door left open, no more trail of Kool-Aid across the rug. It's no use. I want to jump in the car and follow the school bus to school. I want to peek around the corner of the building to make sure my baby has found the right classroom, has not gotten knocked over by bullies, has remembered to carry her lunch box off of the bus. But more than that, I want to glimpse into her classroom. I have no need to check the bulletin board or the lesson plans. I want to look into the teachers soul. I want to find some hint of assurance that she is worthy to continue what I have these past years begun. For, when each of my children turned five, they were suddenly snatched from me. I had, up till then, been the overwhelming influence on their development. Their values were my values, their world was shaped by what I wanted them to see, hear, experience. All at once a teacher, a stranger was taking my place. And so, I cry on the first day of school. I cry because my child is entering a world which I cannot, now matter how desperately I long to, intrude. I cry because some stranger is taking over the job, not of teaching my child math or reading, but of nurturing his development of self. And I wonder if she'll do it with the dedication I demand. Each September I fight an overwhelming urge to rush to school to remind the teacher what a very special little person my child is; that he is not just one of a roomful of pupils - he is MY CHILD, would she please, please treat him/her accordingly. Would she be so kind as to try to get to know his/her complex personality, his/her weaknesses. Would she try never to humiliate him or belittle him; would she notice his bad days and on those days treat him ever so gently because he is, after all, not just one of a sea of little bodies - he is special. He's mine. But of course I can't do that, can't dictate caring to every teacher my children will encounter. I only can hope that each one of them will know that for all the fantastic educational tools a teacher might use and for all her mastery of subject matter and exciting lesson plans, and for all of her intelligence, her most basic responsibility will be unfulfilled if the element of caring is missing. And the key to that, in my mind, lies in seeing each pupil as somebody's precious child. So I sit on my back porch, drinking a peaceful cup of tea and pretending to read and hope that my children's teachers wee them as unique, complex, fragile, vulnerable beings. I can only hope that the reason they are teachers after all, is to bring each student ever closer to his potential, not just as a mind, but as a heart and soul as well.

It wouldn't be Chris without a few tears!!! :)

Looking in through the window. Hopefully, she didnt see us peeking in the blinds from the outside window!!!!!!!! ;)

First day!

With our neighbor, Max! They are only one day apart and were even born at the same hospital! Now, off to Kindergarten together!!

Meet the Teacher Night

Ms. Anderson is so nice!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

2009-08-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Tyler and celebrated Nana's birthday. Carley wanted to stop and get decorations to surprise her, so we grabbed balloons, signs and a Pin the Tale On the Donkey game. It is so sad that none of the kids except Stephanie (9 yrs) had heard of it before!! How long has it been since you played Pin the Tale On the Donkey??!! :) It was a fun morning! Then we went to the zoo and later swam at her friend, Lori's, house. We had to leave early Sunday afternoon to get back and ready for school Monday morning!

Hi Again.. It's Been A While

2009-08-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. I cant believe it has been so long since I posted. Well, I guess I CAN believe it. HA!

We had a great summer with the kids. We just did small things here and there, but it really was a fun summer. Here are some pics of the kids and I at Chuck E. Cheese then at Macy's grand opening in Allen just a few weeks ago. It was such a fun day! They gave away free tickets and did the Hokey Pokey at Chuck E. Cheese and then the kids got their faces painted and a balloon animal at Macy's. I got a free eye shadow set, so it was a good day for me, too! :)

Chemo, Here We Come!

2009-07-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Christy will begin chemo Monday with her first 5 hour treatment. She will have a treatment every three weeks with a total of six treatments (so 18 weeks total.) The doctor tells her she will probably be sick the week after treatment and feel better the following two weeks. Then sick for a week and better for two weeks ... and so forth. SHe should begin losing her hair after the first treatment. We are glad to be continuing through the process, but I know she is scared of being sick and losing her hair. Her fabulous best friend is a hair stylist and will shave it all off for her once it starts falling out. However they are going to dye it all kinds of colors and cut it in all kinds of shapes to make it fun first! Thank goodness for her friends.. they are so awesome. Please keep her in your prayers..

Here's To "8"!!

2009-07-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

Today, Chris and I have been married for 8 wonderful years!!! This time eight years ago I couldn't get out of the bathroom due to a case of the "nervous poos"! HAHAHA! (I had to post that because on top of being nervous for the wedding, I was nervous I wouldn't be able to get of the bathroom long enough to even get married!! A crazy memory, I know, but a funny one at that. ) Then all my girls and I had a wonderful time sipping mimosas and getting our hair done (that none of them really liked, I think) and then a long afternoon before it was FINALLY time to go to church to get ready.

After getting to the church, all I wanted to do was get my dress on!! I made myself wait as long as possible and that was so hard. Then it was time for the ever-memorable photographer that drove us all crazy to start taking pictures. "Oh wait, do that again so I can get a picture!" eeekkk!Then down time AGAIN until the wedding started. We all killed the time by chatting and basically twiddling our thumbs, except for Ronna that is... she was the only smart one and kept sneaking off to the groomsmen room to take shots of Gold Schlogger! ;)

Then they called all the bridesmaids in and I was back there in that big room all alone. I heard my dad go into the church kitchen and I stayed quiet because I didn't want to see him and start crying! :) Then he came to get me and we walked to the sanctuary. My only regret is being so anxious to get down to Chris that I didn't wait for the doors to shut so they could then be reopened when it was time to walk. Oh well. Then I married the love of my life with absolute certainty God created us to be together!

After the ceremony and what seemed to be HOURS of picture taking with the annoying photographer, we finally headed to the most fun reception I have ever been to! It was then and only then did I realize my bridesmaids all HATED the shoes I got them for the wedding - they were all in their own flip flops! HA! (I am so sorry girls!) We loved it and wish we could throw that kind of party again!!! One of our favorite moments was leaving in the Jamaican wigs in the limo. I know it was really goofy, but we are goofy people - you all should know that by now for sure!! :)

Happy Anniversary, Honey!!! I love you the same today as I did on July 14, 2001!!!

Freebie Lists

2009-06-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

This pic confirms Josh Duhamel is now at #1 on my "Freebie List"!!! This might be the best pic EVER of him! (courtesy http://www.people.com/) Chris's #1 is now Jamie Pressly. Both beat out Matt McConaghey and Kelly Preston (which I never really understood anyway!) ;)

Healing

2009-06-23T07:50:00.001-07:00

thank you all for you emails asking about my sister, Christy. She is healing at home now, but I never imagined before now what a HORRIBLE disease breast cancer is. I have known people who have battled it, but of course did not see the levels they had to go through to get better.

Her surgery went well Tuesday and she was home at my parents on Wed afternoon. (She is healing there for a few weeks so her husband can work more to help make up for her time off, which is UNPAID! Can you believe that?) Thursday night she had a whole in one of her drainage tubes so she had to go back to the hospital Friday morning at 5:30 a.m. (the same check-in and waiting area) and go back under anaesthesia for the doctor to replace the tube. She was home around 10:30 again and slept until 4ish. The rest of the evening was one of her best yet, as she was able to go to Dairy Queen in Whitehouse to celebrate Brianna's 3rd birthday with us.

Her morphine pump is out and removed so she is now on regular pain medicine. She has lots of visitors so that is keeping her spirits up and her mind off of things. Along with being extremely difficult physically to cope with (she hates "looking down" because it makes "her feel so nauseated" ) the emotional side is extremely difficult as well.

She will heal for a few more weeks before starting her chemo. Chemo will be 6 treatments, one every three weeks. No radiation is needed, though. Then, after chemo, she will have her reconstruction. She looks to be updating her Caring Bridge site, so if you want to take a look it is
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/christycampbellnorrell.

Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers - and if any of her friends are reading this, THANK YOU for your continued and never-ending support and love for her. It really is helping.

In the meantime, OH I WISH THEY WOULD HURRY UP AN FIND A CURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE!

2009-06-22T10:13:00.001-07:00

Found the tortillas in the pantry, honey! Sorry about that. ;)

Man, I can't wait to receive my "wife of the year" award! I deserve it!

Happy Father's Day, Sweety-Baby-Honey!

2009-06-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

Because of all the chaos last week, we totally didn't realize it was Father's Day! So, at 10 p.m. Saturday night, the kids and our nieces made Chris beautiful Father's Day cards and we hatched a plan for a surprise breakfast of sausage taquitos in the morning! "Dad will LOVE that" Carley said!! To start things off Sunday morning, Chris woke up first so I had to tell him to stay in bed! I woke up the kids and got started in the kitchen. The sausage I pulled out of the freezer the night before was 'game' sausage, so it was packed in like a two pound package - it was like the never ending bowl of sausage! After getting the sausage and eggs made, I went to the fridge to find we were out of Tortillas! NICE! All we had was one can of croissants biscuit things. Then, Chris got up and the kids yelled, "Surprise, Happy Father's Day!" He got so excited to see the taquitos, but then quickly deflated when I told him we had no tortillas to make the taquitos. :( After church, we went to get him a sun hat for football camp this week and then to Wall Mart to get a canning pot and mason jars. Yep, you read that right. He wants to try and make pickles out of the cucumbers he grows in the backyard. It took forever and phone call to his aunt, but we finally found all the supplies. Then his Aunt Betty reminds him it takes about 6 months for the pickles to be ready to eat and all the wind escapes from his sail... and a few choice words took its place! ;) The best part of the day would probably be the 4 hour nap the entire house took Sunday afternoon!! Happy Father's Day baby-sweety-honey!!

Even though your day wasn't quite what you deserve, you are the BEST father and husband a family could ever ask for!!!!!!!! I love you!

Top 10 Reasons You are The Best Dad Ever

10. You throw the BEST birthday parties!

9. You expose us to TONS of things mom would never DREAM of showing us! EW!

#8. You risk your life for us!

#7 We get to beat you up in hotel rooms!!

#6 You show us the world from a higher perspective!

#5 You're a fabulous (a sexy!) chauffer!

#4 Who else would we have fun catching a turtle while mowing a yard with??

#3 You always need a good fishin' buddy!

#2 You teach Campbell how to be suave with the ladies!
and the #1 reason you are the best dad in the world....

Without You There Wouldn't Be Us !

Doing Well

2009-06-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Just giving a quick update on my sister.. she had her double mastectomy yesterday and is actually on her way home from the hospital as I type!! She is doing really well so far, but I am sure the rest of the week will be tough. the doctors confirmed the cancer is not in any lymph nodes, so that is WONDERFUL news. After she heals more, she will start her round of chemo. I am not sure how long that will last yet. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes and keep praying for successful recovery!

WHOOP!

2009-06-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Chris and I took the kids to an Aggie baseball game Sunday. They were playing in the Regional tournament in Ft. Worth at TCU. Although they aggies got stomped, we had a really good time! The kids were soooooo good, too! Sitting in the shade helped with all that, I am sure! They both brought their gloves in hopes of catching a foul ball. Our cousin, Bradley, was there (he is a Senior at A&M) and actually did catch a foul ball. So, he gave it to Carley and Campbell. They were really excited!

Campbell's favorite part of baseball is the catcher! He loves playing the catcher and makes Carley be the pitcher and Chris the umpire. We watched girls college softball on T.V. Sunday night and he says, "I don't want to watch the girl catcher, I want the boy catcher!" It was really funny! Apparently, he is not a softball fan. ;)

Getting the foul ball from cousin Bradley

(They guy in the gray shirt on the back row.

They sat in a different section, so Chris and the kids went over to visit.)

Carley took this one!

Playing baseball just outside the field with our new ball!

Pickin' Sweet Corn

2009-05-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

For years, Chris has looked forward to the kids being old enough to go to his Uncle Leonard's farm to pick sweet corn. He had so much fun doing this as kid himself! So, this past weekend while in Sealy to visit Leona (Grandma), we took the kids into Ganado, Tx (about an hour from Sealy) to Uncle Leonard and Aunt Betty's farm to teach Carley and Campbell (and myself) how to pick corn. They had what looked like miles of crops surrounding their home. Only a few rows were actual sweet corn that we were able to pick, the rest was regular corn and maize that we couldn't go into because we didn't want to damage anything. Uncle Leonard already lost quite a bit of his crop from the high winds this spring.

Campbell loved going in the barn and seeing all the massive farm equipment - tractors with tires bigger than Chris and seed equipment that the kids had to use a ladder to climb up on!! Carley's favorite part was "Champ" the dog! She loved him! Campbell did too and actually wanted us to take him home with us. I think we have enough doggies Campbell, but maybe next time! It was a great experience and so quiet and peaceful out there! We left Leona's Sunday afternoon after church and the kids slept about 3 hours of the 5 hours it usually takes us to get home!!! We had a great weekend! Then, enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day resting and relaxing! :)

Naturally, I uploaded the pictures in the reverse order!! UGGGHH.. why does blogspot upload them this way?!!! So frustrating!

On the way back to McKinney!

Carley bringing in the corn for lunch! YUMMY!
Uncle Leonard and Aunt Betty shucking corn

Carley and Campbell got the hang of it quick! And really enjoyed it, too!

Goofball! (he has had a haircut since then, by the way!!) ;)

Actually in the fields picking the corn.

Carley was so fast - we were amazed.

Man that's a big tire!

Farmer Campbell

Never-ending crop fields!

Pre-K Graduation

2009-05-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time at preschool graduation tonight! Carley has been looking forward to this night since last week! She and I went on Sunday afternoon to buy new graduation earrings and ended up at Children's Place finding a new graduation dress (from the %50 of rack! SCORE!). It was so much fun having some "girl time" to ourselves. Chris and Campbell were home mowing the yard and having a little "boy time" together!

During the ceremony tonight, they called each child up to get their diploma and to tell the audience what they want to be when they grow up. There were some hilarious responses! Carley was sooo cute when she answered, "A Mom!" Oh, it melted my heart and the whole audience sighed with an "Awe!"

Just what I needed to hear after an afternoon of spanking threats, grounding threats, privileges being removed then given back and ultimate life threatening!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Stage 2 Breast Cancer

2009-05-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Christy heard back today that she does have stage two breast cancer. She will meet with the surgeon May 26. Which, AGAIN, we must wait to see what course of treatment she will do. Thank you all for your prayers and emails. Keep praying and I will keep you up to date.

No word yet

2009-05-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hi All! Thanks for your emails checking on Christy. No word, yet, on her biopsy. I am hoping to hear something tomorrow!!!

Fabulous Mother's Day

2009-05-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! My gift ended up being an hour long massage with a small bottle of champagne, lots of beautiful pictures made by my wonderful kids, and truly a day off!!

I am so proud of Chris. He orchestrated a plan with my great friend Melissa's husband to get us both massage baskets/gift certificates so we could go enjoy it together. We also get a glass of wine before the hour of bliss begins! ;) Then it will be off to dinner before heading back into "the trenches" (as Chris calls it)!!!! And if her husband is out of town, Chris even offered to babysit all four kids for us! MAN! I am more impressed with the forethought, than I am the gift, I think. :) What a great hubby! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day as well!

Mother's Day "Hints"

2009-05-07T20:08:00.001-07:00

Chris and Carley have been talking all week about my "Mother's Day Surprise" and how I am going to love it. Carley always says afterwards, "but we can't tell you because it is a surprise!" This afternoon I talked her into giving me hints as to what it could be. Here are my three hints:

1) "There are two things"
2) "The first comes in a bottle and you and Nana like to drink it."
3) "The second thing lasts for a whole hour!"

Hmmmmmm... what could it be????????? I guess we will have to wait and see! ;)

Prayers for Christy

2009-05-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all! We received some pretty devastating news this week that my sister, Christy, may have breast cancer in her right breast. She felt a lump on Saturday (PLEASE remember to do self exams!) and went in to have mammogram and ultrasound yesterday. Both showed a mass in her right breast that appears to be cancerous, but thankfully, nowhere else. She had an MRI today to make sure that was the only spot. She will go in next Wednesday for a biopsy to confirm it is cancer, OR NOT! We are certainly praying for the OR NOT!!!!! Her current boss went through this about two years ago and her biopsy came back benign, so we have hope.

The radiologist feels pretty confident it is cancer, though, and has already recommended a mastectomy! I think that is a little aggressive, but my sister doesn't really want to try a lumpectomy. She said if it is cancer she wants it gone!!!!!! Dont blame her for that!!!!! She is so scared, as are we all. She is keeping her spirits up, though! The best part so far, she says, is that she has already felt God's arms around her twice since this began - once in bed after she found the lump and the other while sitting in the patient room. Amen!! God is always showing us he is with us! :)

I will keep you all posted. We won't really know anything until after the biopsy next Wednesday - which will probably take a few days to come back. UGHHH.. the waiting is awful!!!!!!!! In the meantime we are all praying for healing, strength and trust in God!

On another note, my cousin Casey (33) was just diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer last week and will begin treatment next week. It is only in her cervix, so they will try to zap it with a weak round of chemo and radiation first. If that doesn't work, she will have a hysterectomy. Prayers are needed for her as well.

Whew.. Its been a long week!!!

Happy Birthday Kristen and Lee!

2009-05-04T20:21:00.001-07:00

I want to wish Kristen and Lee happy birthdays!! I hope you both have a great birthday week!! (The fun should never last for only one day! You all know my philosophy!) :)

Campbell's Breakthrough!

2009-04-26T16:46:00.001-07:00

If I haven't said before, Campbell was afraid of all things big a fuzzy - Santa, McKinney Marshall's mascot, the Centennial Titan (Chris' football mascot), Rowdy from the Rough Riders and especially Molar Man at our dentist! :) Anytime something in costume comes within eye sight, Campbell drops what he is doing and runs over to sit in one of our laps!! Once in our lap, he holds on tight and keeps a watchful eye on the mascot until he "gosway".

Even this year, Campbell was sooooo looking forward to seeing the Easter Bunny at Chris' school, but just couldn't muster up enough courage to sit in his lap. He did finally give him a high five after about 30 minutes. Then, the Easter Bunny was at my parent's church and Campbell was a bit more comfortable - not really even that scared. We got a photo and everything! Progress, I tell ya!

This year, I was marketing and publicity chair for the Relay of Life of McKinney event that took place Friday night. The kids came with me for a little bit until Nana got there to take them home. I WAS SHOCKED AND SO PROUD of Campbell because he loved seeing the Chick-Fil-A Cow all over the place. He gave him hugs and high fives every single time he saw him! Yep, I do believe we have hit a turning point! As much as we couldn't understand this fear and wished he would do better around them, now I have to admit I may miss it!! He is such a big boy!!!

Eight Below

2009-04-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today we all had a great afternoon snuggled together watching a movie on t.v. But, let me tell you why.

My mom came up for the weekend and was loading up the car to go home. Campbell and I went outside to help her and Carley sat down on the couch. Chris went back to our room for some reason. Anyway - when Campbell and I came back in from outside to help mom get the last of her things, I looked over and saw Carley crying on the couch. I said, "What's wrong, sweety" and she sobbs, "they had to leave that dog all by himself!" Mom then told me she was watching Eight Below and it was the part where all eight dogs had to be left behind by the researchers and they all seemed to get out of their collars except for "Jack." His collar was on too tight and the others couldn't get it off him. So, they had to leave him there while they ran off to get food. Carley was soooo upset. She had my mom, me and Chris crying for her!!!! I had to tell her that end was actually happy, but for now, lets go out and tell Nana goodbye.

When we got back inside, we were wanting to put them both down for a nap, but she really wanted to watch the rest of the movie. I have seen that movie many times (because it is good, but mainly because of Paul Walker! YUMMY! ) so I knew it would be hard for her since a couple of them die. But, we decided to sit there as a family and watch it together anyway. One minute we laughed, one minute we were amazed at the adventures they go through, and the other minutes we cried our eyes out. Especially Carley! She is sooooo emotional at movies. I have to admit she gets that from Chris who cries quite often in movies if I do say so. However, I am the emotional one at anything related to animals. SO, in this case, she could have got it from me. ;)

I guess the point of this post is that we were reminded of Carley's sweet and caring nature! She would just get so upset for the dogs, and then turn around a laugh and cheer for them! We just love her to pieces!

Easter Weekend!

2009-04-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend and mom and dad's house this year!! We went to an egg hunt at mom's church then to my sister's Cowboy church on Easter Sunday. Naturally, since Blogspot puts photos in reverse order of how up upload them, the sequence is all off. :)

Carley fishing at the lake Easter afternoon

Such concentration!

Boat ride on Ester afternoon

Bath time with "BB"

At the egg hunt at mom and dad's church

Campbell standing in front of the Baptism trough at the Cowboy church. REALLY!!

So handsome in our cowboy hat... and v-neck sweater HAHA!

Pony rides at the egg hunt

Petting zoo at the egg hunt

EASTER BUNNY!!!!!!!!

I love this one! Campbell and "BB" watching the Carley and Blanch play Wii!

Egg hunt at Chris' school

Carley's class at preschool

Campbell's class

Drs. McDreamy and McSteamy Got Nothin' On Me!

2009-04-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

So much to say..

2009-04-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Or, should I just say Hi to Danielle, Stephanie, Kristen and Ronna, as I think they are the only ones who ever read this blog. HA!

We have had a busy couple of weeks lately, but all is well! Carley got her ears pierced a couple weeks ago and looks like such a big girl. My battery is down on the camera, so I will download pics soon. Nana (my mom) and I took her after her soccer game and before we did some spring shopping at the Allen Outlet Mall. I was afraid she may chicken out since the girl doing the piercing had rings all over her body, but Carley sat there like a champ (I guess I was the only one kind of scared of her!) :) Afterwards we went shopping and it just felt like she was so old to me because she had her soccer uniform on with flip-flops - a lot like how you see the older girls sometimes. Crazy, I know, but that combined with pretty ears just made her seem so grown up!

Campbell is his usual, crazy and entertaining self. He has started coming into our bed to sleep by me at nights. Last night I was still watching t.v. when I hear the pitter-patter of bare feet and the swish of his diaper running down the hall. His head was down and he ran right into our room, around to my side of the bed, and climbed up and went right back to sleep. After about 15 minutes, I took him back to his bed. Then this morning, I woke up a little before 6 a.m. and there he was right beside me!! I guess I was cuddling with Chris or something and was more on his side of the bed, which is why I didn't feel Campbell until this morning. A little while later I was up and hear Campbell yelling from my room, "Stanley, get out of the bed! No, Stanley!" It was quite funny!

Fort Worth Getaway

2009-03-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

Chris and I took the kids on a quick getaway to Fort Worth, and had a GREAT time! On Sunday, we went to the Stockyards. After the stockyards, we surprised the kids with a hotel stay so they could go swimming. Our hotel had an indoor, heated pool - it was indoor, but NOT heated! The water was freezing!! The hot tub was nice, though. :) On Monday, we went to the zoo and it was a blast! We saw so many really cool animals. Most of them were awake and moving around making it easy to see.. only the big cats were lazy and sleeping a lot. Here are a few of the 88 pics I took over the two days. HA! They are no order because it took so long to upload that now I really don't feel like switching them all around. :)

The giraffes!!

The kids loved the kangaroos. Here is a fun statue in the "Outback" they liked.
We bought seed sticks to feed the parakeets!

This dude was one of my favorites.. incredible!

Here he is walking in front of Carley.... when we circled back around to see if more of the big cats were awake, there were muddy paw prints that ran down this part of the glass. Can you imagine being in front of the glass when this tiger jumped up on it!!!!!!!

Sunday night after the Stockyards we ate dinner in Billy Bobs. I thought there was a restaurant in there, but it was only a small one. The burgers were really good, though, and that is all we really wanted. Here are Carley and Campbell dancing on their chairs to the music. (At least it wasn't the table and all their clothes were on. :) )

Back to the zoo... have you ever seen a rainbow butt? This just amazes me.

The gorillas were awesome!

Carley teaching Campbell how to stand like a flamingo.

The kids LOVE pillow fights with daddy when we stay in hotels! It is their favorite part.. and the pool, of course!

Back to the Stockyards... this is the daily cattle drive.

I like this one!
Carley dressed up like a "captive white girl"

Campbell would not get on ANYTHING to ride.. except this quarter horse... it really was a quarter.. $25
Posing with Cowboy Gotch!

Go Pink Pizzazz!

2009-03-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

Carley had her first soccer game today and loved it!! Her team, Pink Pizzazz, did so well and had so much fun! Chris and I are shocked at how well Carley did - we didn't really know how it would go since neither of us are soccer fans at all. She is a natural, let me tell you. The coach of the other team even came up to us afterwards talking about her. Her team is awesome.. such sweet little girls and we can't rave enough about her coach. Coach Merry is fabulous with kids, which is probably the main reason they enjoy it so much!

Facebook

2009-03-05T20:40:00.001-08:00

Hi All! I know it has been a while since my last post. First of all, my camera is broken, so I haven't been able to take many pics. Second of all, I have spent the last three nights on facebook! I am NOT addicted, however it is fun to catch up with people I haven't seen a really long time! I don't really understand it all yet, I must admit... From posting on "walls" to sending and "Easter Egg", it is all a blur. But, I am getting better. However, I really don't see the point in updating the world on what you are doing at that very moment. ;)

We are looking forward to Carley's first soccer game on Saturday at 3:30. Her team is the Pink Pizazz and she is really liking it! Campbell had Western Day at school today and looked SOOOOOOO cute in his black cowboy hat I went to Walmart at 10:45 p.m. last night to buy!!!! Oh, the things we do for those we love!

Have a great weekend! I will post more pics after I get a new camera... AGAIN!!!!!!! Hope everyone is doing well!

The Flu Stinks

2009-02-11T17:53:00.000-08:00

What a week! Both kids have had the flu since Sunday night (Campbell started Saturday night) and now Chris came home today with 99.9 temp! He thought he had food poisoning over the weekend, but odds are it was the flu also! Not fun! But, the good news is that Carley will go back to school tomorrow. Campbell can also, but he has been so tired today that he may need one more day at home. We'll see in the morning.

The flu and strep are definitely going around. The doctor's office Monday was PACKED! I have never seen so many people in a waiting room. It took us over an hour and a half to get out of there!!!

So, I hope you all are feeling well and healthy! Happy Valentine's Day in advance!!

Sweet - and a little Crazy - Campbell

2009-01-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

Campbell is really starting to show his little personality. He cracks us up all the time - even Carley can't help but laugh at some of his sayings and faces!!! This age is soooo fun!

Our Five Year Old

2009-01-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

It has been so long since I have posted. I haven't even gotten to post pics from Carley's birthday. She turned 5 on December 30 and Chris and I are flabbergasted at how fast the time has gone. She is growing up so fast and can't wait to start Kindergarten... which brings on its own set of tears from me!!! Today was preschool registration and it was so strange only registering one child!!!!!

So, we had Carley's friends from school out to Chris' indoor football facility for her party. It was Madagascar themed this year, so the kids danced to I like to Move It, Move It and decorated animal masks. Other than that, they just ran around and played games like duck, duck, goose. Pretty easy and she had lots of fun! Nana and Papa surprised her on Dec 29 and came up for dinner and the night then went back home on Dec 30. She loved it!!

Christmas in Whitehouse

2009-01-02T15:42:00.001-08:00

Christmas in Whitehouse was crazy and chaotic as ever, but definitely the best yet!

Ice Skating at the Galleria

2009-01-02T15:32:00.001-08:00

A new Christmas tradition we have is to take Carley to the Galleria to ice skate! Last year was her first year and she did well, but only lasted about 20 minutes. This year, she skated about 40 minutes and even went around twice by herself! She had a great time. Next year Campbell will get to join in on the icy fun!!

Remembering how to skate!

Getting more comfortable...

I am doing it!!Ouch.. that fall hurt!

Christmas in Sealy

2009-01-02T15:25:00.001-08:00

Christmas Program at School

2008-12-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Carley and Campbell's Christmas program at school was today! Carley had a break-out role as "Angel #1"! She was so cute. Campbell's class only sang one song, but they did it so well! Merry Christmas everyone!

Cookie Time with Daddy

2008-12-18T18:23:00.000-08:00

Monday night was FREEZING outside, so Chris and the kids made snowman sugar cookies! They had a blast until they put them on the kitchen table after decorating them, walked away for bit, then heard Stanley pull them all off the table and gobble them up! Then, it was not so jolly times for Stanley.....

An Afternoon with Friends

2008-12-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

Our close friends, Melissa, Taylor and Taryn, spent the afternoon at our house Monday. Melissa brought them both over to play with Carley and Campbell while I went to get my hair cut and colored (I'm a brunette now!). Then when I got home, Melissa went to run some errands. Since they had played so well all afternoon, we put on Polar Express and tucked them all under a blanket on the couch for "movie time." Campbell fell asleep about three minutes into it, but the girls loved it! Christmas time is so much fun!! :)

Good Luck, Ronna!

2008-12-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Ronna running a half-marathon at White Rock Lake. She has worked and trained so hard for this race and I just wanted to wish her the best of luck!! Good Luck Ronna!! You'll Do Great!!!!

The Smell of Virginia Pine

2008-12-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

Chris and I have had an artificial Christmas tree ever since we got married 7 1/2 years ago. I have to admit, they are easier and more economical, but the magic of a live Christmas tree just isn't the same. Chris always had a "fake" tree growing up, so it didn't really bother him that much - But, my family always had a real tree (until I was in college). We would order them through our church every year and I used to love going to pick one up with my dad. A few times, I went out the farm with my dad and the other men of the church to help cut them all down, but since there were so many, I remember it taking forever and usually just having to wait at home until they got back. SO... I told Chris that when the kids got big enough, I wanted to go out to a Christmas Tree Farm and cut one down ourselves. And so today that is exactly what we did!! It was soooo much fun!! We rode on a hayride out from the barn to the trees, looked around for the perfect one (which is not as easy as we thought), cut it down, carried it back to the barn on another hayride, watched the workers shake it out and feed it through the "string machine" (because I don't know what else to call it) and then tie it on top of the minivan!! It was Griswald all over the place!!!!!!!!!!! Even Steve got to go with us - he had a blast and everyone loved him, of course!! When we got home, it took Chris all of two minutes to get it lined up straight in the tree stand (what would have taken me an hour or so to unwind all the branches and leaves of our fake one) and the decorating began!! It is the PERFECT tree! We love it!!! The absolute best thing is that our whole house smells like Virginia Pine!! It is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad we do not have alergies!!

Here are pictures at the Winterland Christmas Tree Farm in Van Alstyne. My battery ran out while downloading, so I do not have the one of the tree on top of the van. I just thought that was hilarious for some reason. If you haven't already put up a tree this year, I highly recommend going to the tree farm and making it a wonderful family experience. :)

(sorry they are small, it was taking forever to upload them tonight for some reason so I had to make them small in size to get them to work. )

Hunting, Turkey, Shopping, Fishing and Pink Eye!!

2008-12-01T19:14:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year - a long week, but a great time with family and friends. We left home Monday night and headed to Whitehouse so Chris could hunt on my family's land in Concord and Gilmer. Then, on Wednesday morning we headed to Sealy to Grandma's house!! We went with Grandma to the extended family Thanksgiving in El Campo on Thursday. This is usually our Thanksgiving every year, however this year my mom and dad met us in Sealy Thanksgiving night so they could go down to Rockport, TX ( on the coast by Corpus Cristi) so my dad, Chris and his uncle could spend the weekend flounder fishing.

So, my mom, dad and I decided to shop Sealy's Wal-Mart Friday morning for a few Christmas presents and because I needed a new camera. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I will never wake up at 4 a.m. to go shopping again! It was a mad house and we couldn't get to any of the good stuff (electronics and toys) for all the people! After grabbing a few things and finally giving up, we left and messed around at a Sears appliance store and Palais Royal (like a Bealls). I actually had a great time in Palais Royal spending my birthday money!! It was finally light outside when we were done there, so I took my parents back to their hotel room, ran by Walgreens to pick up Chris' prescriptions, then decided to run back by Wal-Mart to see if the crowd had subsided any. After all, it was 8:15 a.m. already!!!!!! I JUST WANTED TO LOOK AT A CAMERA FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Low and behold, I parked, walked right up to the camera counter, bought my camera, and left -- all in about 3 minutes! I couldn't believe it!! All that trouble and I should have done in the first place was let the crazies have their time to raid everything, then go in and calmly do some Christmas shopping!!

After that fiasco, it was time to head down to Rockport. We had a great time at Aunt Diane and Uncle Frankie's house. They are such good hosts.. cooked great food and really took care of us. We went to the beach, road on a ferry and played with lots of cousins. My dad had a blast flounder fishing, too!! Only bad thing was that I woke up Sunday morning with Pink Eye!! It hurt so bad... and still does. Nobody else had it, so I guess I picked it up at Wal-Mart in Sealy - don't remember that in their ad!! So the nine hour drive home was quite long, but the kids did great and we had a lot of fun playing "I SPY" and "Paper/Rock/Scissors."

Here are some pics... I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!!

(field of geese and ducks... they are everywhere down in the Sealy/Ganado area!)

(feeding SeaGulls)

(family pic time!! I have never been to beach at Thanksgiving before!)

(Awe.. how cute!)

(I love this pic of Papa and Campbell)

(Sexy Man!!)

(Cheese!)

(beach babe!)

(Ferry Ride)

(Having fun together!)

(Flounder fishing)

Playoffs!!!

2008-10-26T14:31:00.001-07:00

Holy Guacamole... Chris's team made the playoffs for the first time EVER! We will come in fourth in district and four teams go to the playoffs. So, we barely made it... but we make it. How exciting!!

Yesterday was my 31 birthday. I can't believe I am in my 30's now and not just 30! Being 30 was bad enough!! My parents and two of my nieces came into town to celebrate with us. We didn't do much celebrating, though, because I didn't feel well Saturday afternoon and night at all. Must be my old age.....

Have a great week everybody! :)

Oh Boy!

2008-10-12T20:16:00.001-07:00

SHould I be worried?????!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Bowling

2008-10-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we took the kids bowling for the first time! It was fun, but man, I forgot how expensive bowling can be! Being her competitive self, it took a while for Carley to understand that she wouldn't always (and hardly ever) knock down all the pins at the same time. But, she got it - and the ramp helped TONS! Campbell liked it too.. he loved the ramp, but his little ball took FOREVER to make it down the lane. :)

Titans fall to the Bear Cats

2008-10-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not adding last week's update - The Titans beat the Wolverines and moved to 4-1. However, this past Friday we lost to Sherman, making us now 4-2. Still having a great year, though!! :)

Titans 48, Bulldogs 44!

2008-09-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

District opener was last night and what a game!! We lead pretty much the whole time, but not by much. Then the bulldogs tied up in the 4th quarter followed by another field goal to lead. The Titans drove down the field and reached field goal range, when the quarterback through a long pass to a receiver in the end zone! It was awesome! Carley and were jumping up and down and then she said to me, "Mom, you're scaring me!" Campbell didn't really care about anything except when he could go down and play football with Daddy, which he asked seemingly every two minutes of the second half!!!!! Good job, Titans!!!!! Good job, Chris!!!!! Titans are now 3-1 for the season, 1-0 in district play.

Centennial Titans Move to 2-1!

2008-09-14T21:05:00.001-07:00

The Centennial Titans moved to 2-1 on the season as they pummeled the Pirates of Mesquite Poteet 26-14! Yea Titans!!!!!! That's the only commentary I've got this week because the kids and I stayed home. Chris did say the Titans were down 14-15 at the half, then came back big in the second half. Sounds exciting, huh!!!! :)

We didn't go the game partly because Carley had her first t-ball game of the Fall season (and the other part because Mesquite is a good ways away!)! She had a great time and of course, did fabulous! Her team is the Cubs and they have three girls this season, instead of two like last season. So, there is a little more Girl Power in the dugout.

After the game she was supposed to go over to her friend Taylor's house for her first sleep over. To make a long story short, she was back at our house not even 15 minutes after I left her at the pizza place with Taylor's family. It was quite funny, actually. When Taylor's mom and dad dropped her off, their whole car was crying... Carley was crying because she wanted to come home, Taylor was crying because Carley wasn't spending the night and Taryn (Taylor's younger sister) was crying because Taylor wanted to then spend the night at our house. Taylor then tells her parents on the way home, "This is the worst night ever!" :) DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA!

Back To School

2008-09-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Both kiddos started school today! Carley just loves school. The school is in our church, so my office is just right down the hall. Ms. Mary, Carley's teacher, popped her head in to tell me she and the other teacher decided there was nothing they can teach Carley because she knows everything already. She is so smart... it's the ONLY thing she got from me. :)
Campbell had a great day, too. He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays and cried a little, but Ms. Linda took him over to play with the dinosaurs and he was fine. Ms. Kathy told me how sweet and cute he is and that she just loves him. Umm, Yeah!! Tell me something I don't know! ;)

So handsome!

2008-09-09T20:27:00.001-07:00

Here is Campbell's two year old picture (via Portrait Innovations in Plano), even though we took it 2 1/2 months after his second birthday! ;) Such the little stud-muffin!

Ouch, that hurt!

2008-09-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

Chris' Centennial Titans lost a close one last night to the McKinney Boyd Broncos. Since the kids and I had t-ball practice and parent orientation at Carley and Campbell's school first, we didn't get to the game until right at half-time. At that time, the score was 28-7 Broncos!! Not a good sign, but Carley and I knew us three must be the Titan's good luck charm because they scored as we were walking up the parking lot. :)

In the third quarter the Titans came back with another touchdown and in the fourth, another one! Score is now tied 28-28. The defensive battle began and after two or three "3 down and outs" later and with 3 minutes now (I think) left in the game, a Bronco broke through with a great run to score a touchdown, making it 35-28 Broncos. Titans were on their way back, but with 1:06 left in the game, threw an interception and it was all done (other than three little piddly running plays by the Broncos to run the clock out)!

Such a heart-breaker! But, what a great game! Good job, Titans! Next week.... MESQUITE!!!

(How's that for broadcasting skills! I could go up against Erin Anderson ANY day of the week, right honey?!!!!)

Go Titans!!!

2008-08-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

Chris' first football game of the season was Friday night. The Titans won 71-20!!! It was awesome and so nice to be on the winning side for a change. (Sorry, Honey!) Hopefully, this is is a sign of a good year to come. The kids had a blast, of course!

O.K. let me explain - Carley got a new cheerleader outfit from another coach's daughter who outgrew hers. Campbell was NOT happy about Carley getting something new and not him. The only way to calm him down was to get her old outfit out for him. Then, all was well with the world again! He kept that outfit on for hours, too!! A little unnerving, but you have to admit, pretty darn cute! :)

At the game on Friday!

Where do I start?

2008-08-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hello all!! Oh my goodness, where do I start.. it has been SOOOOOO long since our last post, that there is absolutely no chance of catching you all up on everything that has gone on since then! So, I put together a quick glimpse at what we did over the summer all in one post. Then, we will just have to start anew! I promise to do better this time... :)

Carley, Campbell and Chris went fishing pretty much all spring and summer long. They love it!!

This past Spring, Carley won MVP of her t-ball team! We are playing again this fall and will soccer a try in the spring!

Chris and the kids decided to pitch a tent in the backyard and camp out one night. After 2 hours of trying to put a tent up only to find out it didn't have all the pieces - then borrowing our neighbors - the fun was on! 50 minutes later the camp out was over and both kids were knocking on the back door. It was funny at the time, but we will NOT be going to all the trouble again any time soon! :)

Campbell is such a big, little boy - he turned 2 on June 27! Time sure does fly...

Campbell moved up to a big boy bed! It is actually sad to see the empty crib in the corner. But as Carley says, "We'll just save it for the grand kids."

4. We had a FANTASTIC family trip down to San Antonio. It was so much fun having pillow fights in the hotel room and Sea World was amazing!

Picture Time

2008-03-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hi All! It has been soooo long since my last post, I apologize! But, these pics will certainly make up for it. I took the kids today to get their pictures made and they turned out really cute! We were in there for two hours, most of which was me trying to decide on which ones to get because they were all so darn good! Here are the ones we picked, plus a few others. :) They, of course, look better printed since the photographer cropped and resized them all. Enjoy!

Our own Radiator Springs!

2008-01-29T22:52:00.000-08:00

It has been almost a whole month since Carley's birthday party and I am just now getting pictures up!! Pretty pitiful, I know!! ;)

We had such a great party again this year (last year was Dora!)!!! Carley's favorite movie EVER is Disney/Pixar's CARS!! She watches it all the time and quotes lines from it religiously... like "Aw, Dang!" and "She only likes me for my body!" It is so funny to hear her say them and then giggle right afterwards!

So, Chris and I came up with the idea to have a CARS birthday party. Chris made 6 of the characters from the movie out of cardboard copy paper boxes and then painted them to look like each character (Lightning, Mator, Sally, Chick, Doc, and King.) We then marked off a race track and the kids wore the cars as they raced around the track. It was sooooo much fun and the kids all had a blast! We had the party in the indoor practice facility at Chris' school, so there was also lots of other fun things for them to do.... like swing on the rings, role down the practice mats, kick soccer balls, jump on mats, and mainly just run around the place like crazy!

Here are some pics.....

Our baby is 4 years old!

2008-01-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

Carley is a big 4 year old now!!!!!! I just can't believe it. Her personality is changing again and it is so funny to watch her and listen to her now. She sounds so grown up when she talks and is starting to pretend play with things like puppets and barbies and such. Our threes were filled with drama-drama-drama... we can't wait to see what the fours bring!! We love you Carley-bear!!!!!

Here are her birthday pictures we took at Kiddie Kandids last week. I illegally copied them off the email they sent me for re-ordering, but considering only a few people actually read our blog (Hi Stephanie and Ronna!) I don't think they will come after me with an arrest warrant. The pics are a bit blurry, though, to keep criminals like myself from printing them, but you can still see how cute they are. ;) (She had a FANTASTIC birthday party! I will post those pictures soon! )

Santa Came!!!!

2008-01-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was so much fun! My sister's family spent the night at mom and dad's also, so there were gifts and toys everywhere!! We were a bit surprised at Carley's reaction to the "trampoline with a handle" (that's what she kept calling it to us and what she told Santa)... she was happy but didn't go crazy like we thought. As she woke up a bit more, she began to get more excited. I had to wake Campbell up, but perked up pretty quick when he saw all the commotion in Nana and Papa's living room! :)

So, after four straight days of opening gifts, Carley and Campbell's loot had our minivan packed to the roof! We even had to leave Steve and Stan with Nana and Papa for a couple of days because there was no room for them. Poor doggies! They brought them home to us when they came up on Dec 29 for Carley's birthday party!!

Christmas is so much fun, I just love it! As hectic and crazy as it gets with us packing, traveling, packing again and traveling again..... it is all definitely worth it!!!!!!