Happy Birthday Pops!!!

02.20

We met Pops at the Mexican restaurant on the square, Las Fuentes, tonight to celebrate his birthday. Beck, Kinsey and I did a little prepping for this little celebration...while taking the kids for a walk, Beck and Kinsey picked flowers. Beck couldn't wait to give the flowers to Pops.

I know how much Pops loves pecan pie so I made one but it had a little twist...it also had chocolate chips in it! So yummy!

In typical Beck fashion, he created soup for us by using chips and salsa.

It's hard for Kinsey to sit still too long so this is what she did while we ate...played with the condiments at another table.

Like father like son! While the camera was snapping, Beck and Brent were making funny faces!

I think Pops enjoyed his evening!

Happy Birthday Wendy!

02.17

We usually meet Heather and the girls at the park on Friday mornings but it was raining so we headed to the mall to meet up with Neena, Aunt Wendy and my Aunt Vickie. Vickie picked up Wendy the day before her birthday and she spent a couple of nights with her. She took her to the salon on her actual birthday and got her hair cut and colored. I love what the girl did to Wendy's hair!

After shopping, we ate lunch at Wendy's favorite restaurant, Pappacita's then Wendy opened the present from us...she loved everything especially the Sonic gift card!

Beck enjoyed making soup with the salsa...

And, Kinsey had fun throwing the plastic egg that we got out of a coin machine on the ground...

Neena and Vickie took the kids to the pet store while Wendy and I got our brows waxed. They sure love petting the animals! I'm getting the itch to get one because I love watching them play with the cats and the dogs.

I think Wendy had a fantastic birthday and I know that Mom being in town made her day even more special.

Happy Valentine's Day!

02.15

Actually, Valentine's day was yesterday and I was surprised to find roses, a box of chocolates and a very sweet card on table. What a great way to start the day! After feeding the kids breakfast, we made the hour long trip to Henderson to spend the day with Neena and Stephen. They took us out to eat for lunch then Brent drove to Henderson after he got off work and we enjoyed a meal without kids! It was an awesome day! Except for coming home and smelling like smoke. Yuck!

Heather talked to several moms about doing Joy Preschool with her and we ended up with a really good group of kids. This is a 9-month program but Heather condensed it to only last for five months. The kids get together every Monday and Wednesday from 9:30 till noon and Beck has really enjoyed it. Each mom is suppose to rotate but since Heather is due in April, she wanted to knock out her part before the baby comes so I actually don't get the kids until April. Anyway, today the kids did a Valentine exchange so Beck worked hard preparing treats for his girl friends. We started by placing the decorated baking cups in the cupcake tin then we added the strawberry batter.

I got an icing decorator set at Target after Christmas marked half off which is a steal! I was super excited to use it! And, Beck wanted to help put icing on the cupcakes too. Kinsey couldn't wait to dig in!

We put the cupcakes in a clear cup to keep it from getting crushed then added heart toppers.

Beck loves to help and he is so proud of his pretty cupcakes. We placed each cup in a decorated cellophane bag and tied it with a red ribbon that had a heart shaped note on each one that said, "Will U Be My Valentine? Love, Beck". Since the batch made 24 cupcakes, we passed out cupcakes to Kiki, Pops, Neena, Stephen and Nanny as well as his Joy Preschool class. I think the girls loved his Valentine!

(Lydia, Beck, Rebeca, Claudia, MacKenzi and Grace)

They each decorated a bag then it was filled with all of their Valentine goodies.

After Beck and Kinsey enjoyed a few cupcakes, Kinsey was on a major sugar rush and she reminds me of Rambo in these pictures!

She's also a shoe freak!!! She will wear any shoes she can get her hands on and here she is wearing my new flip flops. She is a mess!

It was a fun-filled couple of Valentine's days!

Snowballs!

02.13

The only time I get on the computer is when the kids take a nap or after they go to bed which means I'm up pretty late on some nights...I usually end up going to bed at midnight after checking emails, Pinterest, Facebook or working on the blog. On this particular night, I had just shut down my computer at midnight and looked out the window to see giant snowflakes falling!!! I was so excited! I grabbed Brent's iPad and made a video of it falling because I didn't know if it would still be on the ground by the time the kids got up.

I was like a little kid when it was time to get up! I was dying to see if there was snow on the ground but unfortunately it has been too warm and it didn't stay cold enough. But, we do have some icy/snow mixture around the trees and on Nanny's ramp to the shed.

He was so excited to go outside and throw snowballs that we immediately put on our winter clothes before eating breakfast. (Notice that Kinsey also put on a tutu and she won't wear gloves!) Poor Kinsey has a runny nose and she did not enjoy the snowball. This was the only time I've ever seen her want to go in the house. Usually, she's the one wanting to play outside and Beck wants to stay in the house.

It was drizzling when we were out there and it later rained which totally melted what was on the ground. Beck has seen snow every year and although it's not a lot, at least he got throw a few snowballs this year.

Bishop/Mask Birthday Bash

02.11

Kiki planned a birthday party for me, Brent, Brian, Wes and Jody at Brian and Katherine's house. We didn't think this would happen for a long time but all seven of the cousins enjoyed playing together since the Mask's came into town. Otto is growing up so fast! He'll be close to walking the next time we see him. Noah, Lola and Beck sure enjoyed playing with the lightsabers while Ava showed off her new skates!

We ate barbecue ribs, potato salad and cole slaw for lunch. Check out the fabulous looking cake! Wow! Very impressive! Can you see the football on the 36 yard line for Brent? Again, very impressive!

Kinsey sure enjoyed the cake!

We took the kids down to the creek and keep in mind the wind chill is 24 degrees! It was SO cold! The kids threw lots of rocks in the water to see a big splash.

At one point, Ava said she was freezing and wanted to go in the house but Noah didn't seem to mind it all as you can see...he's really enjoying playing in the icy cold water! I also love that Beck walked in the water...his rain boots came in handy today!

Kinsey really enjoyed Daddy swinging her from side to side...

I wish we could have stayed longer but Marcus and Kinsey needed to take a nap. Thanks to all for the birthday party!

Happy Birthday to Me!

02.10

Today is the Big Day...yep, I'm 39 years young today and looking forward to spending it doing what I love best...shopping! I loaded up the kids after we ate lunch and headed to Big D. They slept half way there and we hit about four stores before going to our Plano house. Beck was so excited to stay at our Plano house. I couldn't get our heat to come on when I got there so that was a little concerning especially since it was going to be extremely cold tonight!

Now for the $25,000 question...where shall we eat tonight? I didn't want to venture to far from the house for several reasons. #1 - Brent would be in town soon, #2 - it's Friday and traffic on any Friday is a nightmare and #3 - I was tired since I had been busy from the time we woke up. We met Heather and the girls at the Spring Hill park for a science experiment and they all sang Happy Birthday to me and we all ate an ice cream sandwich. Unfortunately, it was really chilly so the kids did not want to play. Then, I got an estimate on getting new struts for the SUV, ate lunch, packed up the car with almost everything we own, shopped...needless to say, I was ready for a low key night. Beck informed me that he did not want a burger, hot dog or mac n cheese. Then, I thought of a place that I haven't been to in a long time and they have lasagna which Beck loves so we ended up eating dinner at Olive Garden. It was awesome! The kids did great until they were done eating then they got kind of wild but I enjoyed watching them play with the salad tongs and creating new meals with our left overs!

This was an awesome birthday meal! And, we got home right after Daddy and he quickly fixed our heat problem (needed new batteries) then we ate a cup cake that Neena brought over yesterday. Happy Birthday to me!

My Birthday Celebration with Neena and Aunt Vickie

02.09

The day before my birthday...I enjoy celebrating another year of life but I don't enjoy telling people my age. With that being said, I've decided that I'm going to starting counting backwards...I'm looking forward to turning 38 next year!

Neena and Aunt Vickie met us at the library this morning. The kids received a Valentine goodie bag from Miss Debbie (the librarian) which included a pencil, Tootsie roll, candy conversation hearts and a sucker. Beck and Kinsey immediately wanted the sucker...what a mess!

Neena stopped by the Butcher Shop this morning and picked up cupcakes for my birthday because she knows how much I love them. Beck and Kinsey dug into the red velvet cupcakes and loved them. I can't wait to dig into the Italian Cream cupcakes...so yummy!

Vickie wanted to see the creek behind Nanny's house and Beck really enjoyed showing her how he can throw rocks and sticks in the water to create a big splash.

Beck and Kinsey love to show off when we have company over and boy did they put on a show this morning....they were cracking me up! And, of course, Neena and Aunt Vickie loved it too.

Amanda cut and colored my hair yesterday and I love what she does with my hair.

We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the square then Vickie headed home. Last week, I ventured out one day and had planned on driving to the Gilmer lake but I ended up turning into a newly developed neighborhood to discover over 100 goats and a sheep dog!!! I wanted to show mom what I had found and she couldn't get over the flimsy fence, all of the hungry goats and the poor dog that needs some desperate attention. Can you imagine hearing over 100 goats saying, "baaa" at the same time? Beck thought it was overwhelmingly loud so he covered his ears. I searched through my diaper bag for some food and ended up letting Beck and Kinsey throw cereal and raisins to the goats. Next time, I will bring a lot more food.

Beck couldn't wait to play in the pond in this new neighborhood. It's a good thing he wore his rain boots because he came awfully close to stepping in the water.

What a great early birthday celebration! I got to spend it with the people I love very much.