In other news...

Here's Bellarose in the Valentine's outfit I made her. I've already sold several pair on ebay. She loved posing for my pictures. :)
























Ms. Grace acting like a big girl, laying on the bed watching t.v.












Preston after he got his award for good citizenship.












Grace trying to run wild at the awards ceremony.












Trying to get away from daddy.












Me and my cousin Suz on her Birthday at our favorite - Los Generales. We seem to have every family event there.









Bella saw me with my scarf and said "Oh, what's that?" I told her it was a scarf to keep my neck warm since it was so cold. She waited about half a second and then said, "Oh, my neck is so cold; I think I need a scarf."













That's kind of our past week in pictures. This weekend Troy has his best friends bachelor party and I am having my little get together. My mom's babysitting and the kids are excited because it's been a month since they've been to her house.

I'm on the board of Preston's PTA and I'm in charge of hospitality, which I really like. Normally they choose the positions the year before but at the start of the school year, I went an introduced myself to the PTA President and asked if there were any open positions. She just happend to have this last postion available and after taking a vote I got it. I do the teacher appreciation & am the contact person for all of the room moms so it's a pretty easy job. It's now time for nominations for next years board and yesterday the President called me and said Tuesday we are having nominations and that she liked having me on the board and really wanted to have me as an officer and would I be interested in the position of secretary. Of course I said yes, that kind of stuff is just up my alley. I'm excited. I love helping out at Preston's school because you really get to know the teachers and people your child is surrounded by all day. And periodically I run into him in the hall or somewhere which is always nice. It would be weird for me not to volunteer because ever since he's been involved in anything I've always helped out. When he was in Mother's Day Out I used to teach in his class when a teacher was out, I was the teacher for his AWANNAS class, I've been the teacher in his CCD class. I don't know how to not stay involved. I just love being around my kids and being involved in what they are doing. Speaking of AWANNAS we found a new AWANNAS for the kids to attend. They had been going to the one at Community Bible but for any of you who are familiar with that church it is just way to big for me. So we found a smaller church near our house and the kids loved it and so did I. Tomorrow we are going to sign Preston up for Baseball. He hasn't done a sport since soccer and he's really excited.

For the past few months I've really started to feel cramped in our house. Don't get me wrong I love it, but with 3 kids I really think we need more than 1700 sq ft. Bella wants her own room, I have no space for the kids toys, the rooms are so close that they can't play in them when Grace is sleeping because she is such a light sleeper she will wake up, and we really have no back yard so the kids can't go out and play. So we decided that when our lease is up we are going to move to a bigger house. Still in the same neighborhood so Preston doesn't have to change schools, but something a lot bigger. We've got one month until we can really start looking and I looked the other day just to see what was out there and there are several that are a lot bigger so hopefully they'll still be available in a month. We don't want to buy again until I finish school & we sell our house in Harlingen.

In other news I am going to start substitute teaching. I'm really kind of nervous. The reason I decided to do this is because I've been going to school with the goal of teaching History in College. I like the college level because most of the jobs are part time and I don't want to work full time while my kids are in school. Obviously if we had the need for me to I would but if I don't have to.... Anyways, even though I've had this goal I've always kind of wondered if I would like to teach High School or any of the younger levels. Someone suggested to me that I try substituting - I'd be in the classroom with the kids and really get to see if it's something I'd be interested in. Troy's off on Mondays so I don't have to worry about the girls. I just found out my orientation is in two weeks so I'm really excited and, like I said, really nervous. I'll be in the Judson district which is where I went to school so that will be kind of neat.

I guess that's it for now. :)

The next Paula Dean

Today was a day full of cooking for me. I'm having a party with a few of my girlfriends (13 to be exact) and wanted to try out all the stuff I plan on having. I made chocolate covered strawberries, lobster fondue, spinach artichoke dip (just like Zios) and mini cheesecakes. The desserts came out delicious - of course, dessert is my specialty - but the dips were just so so. The lobster fondue was edible but I don't think I'd serve it and the spinach artichoke dip was okay but not quite like the one at Zios. I might have to re-think the menu. Silvia and I went to Homegoods on Sunday and I got all new serving dishes so I'm excited to get to use them and have some fun, girly time.

There hasn't been a whole lot going on this past week. Preston was off of school yesterday, which was nice. I guess it's kind of the quiet before the storm because after next week we will be super busy. It was like this last year; from July until the first of December I had something almost every weekend. We have something going on almost every weekend until the last weekend in March and then Troy wants to go to Vegas. Busy, Busy. It's amazing how different our lives are over here compared to when we lived away and would only have something to do maybe once a month, if that. I feel like I have a life now. Before I always felt like I lived one place and my life was somewhere else.

Gracieann is talking so much - her favorite thing to say right now is: "See ya!" She'll walk out of a room and throw that out there. Today when we were walking home from Preston's school she said "Hi guys". It was too cute. Did I mention I cute Bella's hair? 5 whole inches!!! I am still in shock. Her hair almost touched her bum. It's still fairly long, it falls right below her shoulders, but obviously not as long as it was. I've decided I will never cut it that much again. It's so beautiful, her long curly hair.

Happy Birthday Sweet Gracieann

Grace at her 1st Birthday party










This past Christmas - 2 weeks before she turned 2.













Today is my baby's second Birthday! How time flies. It's hard to believe my youngest child is already two. She's the last of them - I'm so used to having babies around because for the past 5 1/2 years one of my kids has been a baby, but now that the baby is two - that's it. I'll never have a little baby again. It's sort of bittersweet. They are so much easier when they get older and she's so fun to play with and she's starting to talk, but there is something about babies. I LOVE them! I loved having tiny little babies. They were just so perfect. Until Grace was about one I had this persistent feeling of wanting another (another little boy). Troy and I both say that although we know it won't happen we both kind of would have liked another in a few years. But like I said it won't happen - the doctor made sure of that. Anyways my little girl is growing up. We had a fun day today. Me and her and Daddy and Sissy went to an indoor play place called Dynamoze when Preston was in school. Then we went and picked up her cake, picked up Preston from school, came home and took a nap and then got ready for her party. She had her party at Chuck E Cheese and she had so much fun although she was terrified of Chuck E. I have pictures but will post them later. My Cousins Suz and Chris and their families came, My Uncle, My mom and her husband, my grandparents, Silvia & her family, Tana & her family, Danielle, Hayden, and Kaylei and us. It was nice and now the days over and I have a little toddler.

Officially a soccer mom

Okay I am officially now a "true" soccer mom and I've got the van to prove it! We've been looking for a while now and finally found the van we wanted today. It's a Honda Odyssey. It's silver and has so much room, and really cool sliding doors. We all love it. Here is a picture - it's not the actual one but is just like it.









In other news Preston started school again this week and got sick his first day back. Him and Bella must both have had a 24 hour bug because they both were throwing up all day Monday. They are all better now and Grace never got it.