Big Birthday Celebration!!!

08.17.13

We are gathering at a very popular catfish restaurant in Ore City tonight for a big birthday celebration.  Happy birthday to Neena, Aunt Trisha, Uncle Dennis and Aunt Vickie!

I think my cousin, Crystal, has found her match!  She and Matt seem really happy together.

Sisterly love...Vickie's daughters, Stacey and Crystal.  (Stacey's boyfriend had to work tonight.)

Girl Power!  Me, Christie, Stacey and Crystal (what's funny is that we are in birth order...oldest to youngest)

All of the cousins sat at one table and all of our parents sat at another table which is why I'm not a big fan of get togethers at a restaurant.  It's hard to have a conversation with everybody in the group.  I'm really looking forward to Joey and Joanie's wedding because I love weddings!  I'd love to be a wedding planner if it didn't take up every single Saturday night!  A big thanks to Kiki and Pops for watching the kids tonight!

Family Fun Friday

08.16.13

We took Wendy home this morning then ate lunch at Neena's house.  The kids played outside and Kinsey didn't make it to the house to use the potty so we had to put her skirt in the dryer.  Look at her cute booty!

We drove back home and ate dinner with Daddy at DQ which is Beck's favorite place to eat because he loves the ice cream.  Ha!

Then, we went to Academy and found these cool football pads for little kids.  Of course, Brent had to put them on our kids!  Kinsey doesn't look happy but she really didn't mind wearing it.

ETBA

08.15.13

The library does a really good job providing educational events for the kids during the summer and we've missed quite a few things this year since we moved but were able to make it to the very last thing planned at the Whitehouse library.  The East Texas Beekeepers Association Queen and Princess gave a great presentation to about 40 kids today.

We saw the suit the beekeepers wear, the steamer used to keep them calm and a real honeycomb.

Princess Martha from Tyler, Beck, Kinsey and Queen Hayden from Big Sandy (both 17 years old)

I'm looking forward to the activities offered here next year!

Birthday, Library and Park

08.14.13

Yesterday, Neena, Stephen and Wendy came over for a dinner that I prepared in honor of Neena's 63rd birthday.  Plus, this was Stephen's first time to see our new home.  Earlier in the day after taking a shower, I opened the bathroom door to find this...maybe Beck thought his toys would protect me in case an intruder tried to enter the bathroom?  Ha!  He is a hoot!

Then, he came into the bedroom and wanted me to take more pictures of his toys.  Wow!  He might end up loving photography like his mommy.

Anyway, my meal consisted of shredded bbq chicken, mashed potatoes and rolls.  For dessert, I made Stephen's favorite which is banana pudding.  They left Wendy here so she can hang out with the kids for a few days.

Today, we went to story time at the Whitehouse library and our favorite reader, Miss Love was there.  Yeah!

I think Kinsey is learning from her big brother to line up toys and I'm pretty impressed.  I think she did a fantastic job!  After her nap, we went to a jump house and they loved it!

After dinner, we took the kids to a really cool park somewhat near our house that also has a free water park.  Beck and Kinsey really like this park.

We went exploring on a trail and Kinsey kept saying that we are looking for a witch.  Beck was a little scared but I kept reassuring him that we would be fine.

Daddy joined us after he worked out and the kids loved showing him the trail and playing with him.

My sister, also known as Aunt Wendy, chopped her hair off again.  She says she likes it short but everybody tells her that it looks better longer.  I always try to do fun things while Wendy is with us and we had a fun-filled day...looking forward to our adventure tomorrow!

Our First Sleepover

08.09.13

Kiki and Pops brought Ava and Lola to our house this Friday afternoon to spend the night with us.  After dropping off the girls, they took Otto to the movie theater.  We are so excited to have our first sleepover!!!  They had a lot of fun in the game room...

Uncle B picked up pizza for dinner on his way home from work.  Yum-yum!

Then, we took them to the city park to burn up some energy.

While at the park, I realized that I needed to pick up a few things at the grocery store...our little shopping trip ended up costing us more due to the "customer in training" buggies for the kiddos!  LOL!  I don't think I've ever laughed so much while grocery shopping!  When it came time to check out, they all stood in line and they each unloaded their buggies.  Ha!  It was hysterical!

Good morning sunshine!!!  Watching cartoons in Uncle B and Aunt Sheri's bed...oh to be a kid again!

Breakfast of champions!  Donuts!

After Brian and Katherine came over to see our house and to pick up the girls, Brent got busy mowing our jungle.  Our landscaper told us to let the grass grow for a while so the roots can get established.

Kinsey quickly grabbed the toy mower so she could be just like Daddy!

Beck rode around on his favorite ride...the 4-wheeler.

We really enjoyed having Ava and Lola stay with us and look forward to many more cousin weekends!

Kindergarten Moms

08.08.13

Yesterday, we took a road trip to Gilmer so the kids can spend the night at Kiki's house with Ava, Lola and Otto. Today, I met Brent at the title company in Longview to close on our house then drove to Neena's house since she moved the same weekend we did.  Since she pretty much left almost everything in Costa Rica, she is already settled in and totally unpacked.  Then, I drove back to our new casa to get ready for a kindergarten mom get-together.  How exciting!

Janna asked the teachers if the kids have placemats for lunch and they have seasonal ones but they don't have any for the beginning of the year.  So, Janna got all of the email addresses from the school, invited all of the moms to her house for dinner and to make placemats for our kiddos.  A couple of nights ago, I did some snooping on facebook and discovered that Janna is married to Jeff...a guy that graduated high school with me!  That means our sons will be in the same class and our girls are the same age and will be in the same dance class.  How crazy is that!  Anyway, she served pizza and the other moms brought stuff to go with that such as salad, fruit and I brought cotton candy cupcakes.  I really wanted to make something but ran out of time.  Janna set up the dining room table with markers, pencils and scriptures.  She also posted what she created for her son so we could get an idea on what to do with ours.  I'm impressed!  I'm in trouble because I'm not the artist in the family...that would be Daddy.  Yikes!

I looked on the internet for a picture of Optimus Prime and did the best job I could.  I also looked up scriptures and found one that I thought was perfect for Beck.  I know he will be so nervous the first few days as he will be making new friends.

I think the other moms did a great job!

It was really nice meeting the moms and big thanks to Janna for putting this together!  Not only did Janna organize this get-together but she also went up to the school and laminated all of them.  I'm writing this two months after the fact and after the first week of school, I asked him about his placemat.  His eyes lit up like it was Christmas and told me about his Optimus Prime placemat.  I asked him if he knew who made it and he said, "no".  He thought it was pretty cool that Mommy made his placemat.  About a week later, Janna told me that she asked her son, "who has the coolest placemat?"  Her son, Cash, said that Beck has the coolest placemat. Ha!  After hearing that, I asked Beck that same question and his response was, "I have the coolest placemat."  Yeah me! 

New Story Time Reader

08.07.13

We have finally met the new story time lady and unfortunately, I didn't get the same vibe that I got from the other two ladies.  She started off by telling us that she does not sing so she pulled up a you tube video of a song to sing along with but it wasn't the same as Mrs. Love singing with hand motions.  However, the craft today is really cute.  They had to color the wings, face and feet of a bird then glue them onto a paper bag.

School will start in two weeks!

David and Tiffany's Sip n See

A new house and a new baby all in one year!  Needless to say, they have been busy especially now that they have three kiddos.  Kinsey is worn out from Ava's birthday party.

Tiffany's good friend, Jaime, put together this gathering for the Davlin's.

Alyssa is growing up!

I'm so glad they live closer!

Sweet baby Alexander was fussy so I took him from Tiffany and rocked him to sleep in my arms. 

Beck had so much fun playing with Andrew that we ended up staying an hour after the party was suppose to end.  Plus, I really enjoyed catching up with my friends.  Looks like these two are completely wiped out.

The next day, we enjoyed spending some time outside and Beck thought it was so funny to shoot mommy with confetti! 

He got me!