Spring Break

Preston dressing up like a Bronco at the stadium












Bellarose caught her first fish (then a second after that)












Troy and his mom









Ms. Bella












Roasting marshmellows






















Ready for the plane ride.









Okay here are some pictures from spring break... finally. We first went camping with my good friend (and soon to be neighbor) Tana and her family. We went to Concan and had so much fun that we've all decided this is going to become a yearly trip. The day we got back from camping we flew out to Colorado to see Troy's family. It was a nice visit although we didn't do as much as we normally did because Troy's grandpa was so sick. The one "touristy" (if that's even a word) thing we did do was go visit the Broncos stadium - Invesco Field at Mile High. It was pretty cool. We were the only people on the tour so it was really like a private tour of the field. Before we left the kids prayed that there would be snow when we were there and they actually got to see it twice so that was a highlight for them.

I am now two days away from moving and very busy packing - what am I doing on here, right? Actually I know; it's because we won't have internet at our new house so I figured I better post these now - anyhow I'm also at my wits end because of a 4 year old who loves to talk back and have an attitude. I really don't know what's the best way to discipline her on this. The spankings don't help, the lectures don't help, I really don't know what to do. I refuse to let her talk to me the way she does but nothing I'm doing is working. Any suggestions?

I've also got three kids running all over the place - my girls and Nathan, my friends son. Soon to be 4 when I go pick up Preston from early release. I better get back to packing. Wish me luck! :)

Goodbye Grandpa Frank

I have a lot to write about because it's been awhile... During the time since my last post we've gone camping and to Colorado and are now getting ready for our move. But I really don't feel like it right now. We just found out Troy's Grandpa passed away about an hour ago and I'm pretty bummed. This comes just 4 days after finding out one of Troy's close friends died Saturday night in a car crash. I'm just so thankful Troy got to see him when we went to Colorado. Anyone who knows me knows my Naney (paternal grandmother) was like a mom to me. She was who I considered my mom. And I was 9 months pregnant when she died. I was in the hospital, having just given birth the day before, on the day of her funeral. I didn't get to be there with her or the family and it's the hardest thing I've ever been through, or continue to deal with, so I'm so thankful that Troy did get to see his grandpa last week and say his goodbyes. I remember when Troy and I first started dating (8 years ago), the first time I went to Colorado with him. We stayed with his grandparents the first night and after that Grandpa Frank told everyone I was his grandaughter. Troy has so many fond memories of him and the years he spent on their farm as a kid. He was a "cowboy" a quiet, strong, good man and he will really be missed. Most of all I feel horrible for my mother in law. She was a daddy's girl in every sense of the word and is really taking it hard. Here is a picture of Troy with his grandparents when we went to visit in October of 2007.











Goodbye Grandpa Frank.

All grown up

I know I just did a post but felt the need to do another. I just sold Grace's crib. That's it, that was the last of our baby stuff. She's now all grown up, sleeping in a big girl bed. No more crib, no more bottles, half the time she doesn't use a sippy or sit in her high chair - she just sits at the table like a big girl. Soon we will be out of diapers (hopefully) and it's just another reminder that my baby is not such a baby anymore AND that I'll never have those things again. Kinda bittersweet. :) I'm sure any mom can understand that.

Oops...

It's a shame that I have so much to do inside this week, with getting the house ready for our move, because the weather here has just been beautiful. It's perfect; not too hot and not too cold. I've got so much to do and it doesn't help that I leave in two days for a week.

Preston had baseball practice last night and as we pulled up another kid from his team pulled up at the same time. We (the kids, me, and the other kids dad) walked up to the field. We always practice on the same field but yesterday something was off because there were 5 coaches out there and Preston's team only has two. Also, there was a guy standing by the entrance to the field with a clip board and a list of the players names. I thought they really must have gotten organized since the previous practice. Oddly, Preston's name was not on the list. I figured they must have just left it off so the guy added it on. I went and sat down with the other moms but didn't recognize anyone. I didn't pay attention out on the field because Grace was everywhere and I was busy chasing after her. After about 10 minutes I saw more parents come up and still didn't recognize anyone so I walked over to the dad I knew and asked him if his son's name was on the list of players. Nope. You've probably already figured it out by now but I told him " I think we might be playing with the wrong team because I don't know anyone over here." He kinda looked around and realized that he didn't either. So we called the list guy over and told him what we were thinking, and he in turn called the coach over, and yep, you guessed it - we were practicing with the wrong team!!! Oops. I guess I don't feel so bad, though, because their coaches didn't realize it either. We then drove all around the two areas they have and could not find our team anywhere. Finally we spotted the coaches wife and apparently the league double booked our practice field and we got stuck practicing and a piece of grass between two field. Nice. I'm just glad I wasn't the only one who sent my kid out with the wrong team.

On a sweeter note with Preston - On Tuesdays and Thursdays Troy takes Preston to school. This morning I was half awake and could hear them getting ready. Then the door opened to my room and next thing I know somone's getting in the bed with me. Preston hopped on the bed gave me a big hug and a kiss and then jumped down and left for school. (He thought I was still asleep because I didn't open my eyes) I love having a little boy. :)

Tomorrow is Ms. Langfords (Preston's teacher) Birthday. Bella just loves Ms. Langford and when she heard it was her Birthday right away she said she wanted to buy her flowers. So we are going tonight to buy her flowers. Then at 2:00 tomorrow I am surprising her with balloons and cupcakes for the class to share and her real present (a gift card to get her nails done). If you can't tell we all love Ms. Langford.

I'm posting some pictures from Rowdy's Birthday party last weekend (it was a western theme) and from Grace when she decided to play dress up. I dressed her but she brought me what she wanted to wear and was very insistent on it. (The nice arm piece was her doing). Enjoy!! :)

Playing












"not another picture"












Belle at the Rowdy's western party












My other little cowgirl

Nick and Erica's wedding

We had a nice time but I'm sure glad it's over!

It's official...

We officially booked our tickets for Colorado today. We go March 9th to the 14th. We are so excited!!!











And we are officially moving! I am so happy. Here is a picture of the house. It's a two story but from the front of the house it looks like a one. I'll have more pictures to come. It's in Trinity Oaks which is up 281 just past Stone Oak.









Last but not least I am officially in need of about 4 more hours each day. I am exhausted. I have a lot on my plate right now but I love it. As I've mentioned before I am on the board of the PTA, I'm Preston's room mom, I taught his CCD class at church, I am the coordinator for the Kindergarten play that they are having in April and tonight I volunteered to be the team mom for his baseball team (so excited that he started baseball). If I'm this busy now I can't imagine how it's going to be when the girls get in school. Like I said, I love being busy and involved but I sure am tired tonight. That being said I am going to bed. Good night.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Belated Valentine's Day Everyone! We had a nice night. Troy had to work during the day

but at night we headed over to Silvia and Rick's (they were going to come over to our house until they found out we don't have a grill. We always cook our steaks in the oven, and I've never given it much thought because they taste good, but they laughed at the idea so we went over there). We had so much yummy food: steak, lobster, this special salad I make, vegetables, mashed potatoes, chocolate covered strawberries, and sparkling grape juice for the expecting. :) Here are some pictures:

The cooks

The food

After dinner

Well, we've had a house full of sick kiddos the last week and a half. Preston was home from school for a whole week with the flu. Poor baby. Then Belle started to get warm and I thought she was going to get it but to my relief it was just a fever. We had our 6 year anniversary this past weekend which I'm still in shock over; can't believe we've been married 6 years! Monday night I went to the rodeo with my cousin and saw my absolute most favorite singer in the world, Reba, (go ahead and think I'm a dork - my friends have already said so) and then last night Troy and I went with our good friends Tana and Jarrod and another friend Priscilla & Rick to see Switchfoot. We really didn't know who they were but thought it would be fun to go. We were right - we had a blast. Saturday is Valentines day and being that my mom is a newlywed we don't have a sitter so we decided to make it a family event and have a family dinner and make cookies and a Valentines craft. We invited "Aunt" Silvia and Rick and Nathan so they are coming too. I bought cookie dough and heart shaped cookie cutters and the kids look at that dough every day and ask if it's Valentines day yet. If you can't tell cookies are a big hit in our house. We are also booking our tickets to Colorado today. We are going over Spring Break. First we are going camping for 2 nights with Tana and Jarrod and then the day we get back we are going to leave for Colorado. I've been dying to go somewhere because last year we didn't travel at all. Yipee.

That's it for now. :)

Pictures from Grace's Birthday (1-12-09)

Ready to blow out her candle









Me and Grace









My baby is two!









Birthday girl









Happy Birthday sweet girl - her cake was supposed to match her elmo theme.

The Verdicts in :

Here are a few pictures from Saturday night when I had my girlfriends over. There's also a cute video of Bella putting on a concert with her ponies. She LOVES my little pony and has almost every one of them.

Preston started to feel sick yesterday - he was very warm, had a headache, stuffy nose, stomach ace. I sent him to school today but wrote a note to his teacher and told her he didn't feel well and might need to go the nurse. Sure enough 30 minutes after I dropped him off the nurse called and said he had a fever of 101 and he needed to come home. So I went and got him and took him to the doctor and the verdicts in: he has the flue. The doctor said he needed to be home a whole week! I was surprised it lasted that long. I'll keep you posted - I'm just praying the girls don't get sick.

Me & Silvia









Me & Tana












My sweet little princess singing.

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.

Home Alone

Here is the invitation I made for Grace's Birthday party. I didn't have time to order them online like I usually do. This will do though. (If you click on the picture you can see a bigger version of it) I can't believe her Birthday is only two weeks away. Time flies! I feel like we just moved back.

Right now the kids are at my mom's for 3 whole days! This is a first. They never stayed anywhere when we lived away and now that we've been back they go to my mom's to stay the night but only once, maybe twice a month. I really don't know what to do with myself. Troy and I are going to go to the movies tomorrow, I need to clean, I have a bunch of scholarships I want to apply for (for school in the fall) but other than that I don't know. It's so weird to be at home and nobody's here.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas...

Here are a few pictures of Christmas night. Enjoy.

Grace LOVED peanut










Poor dog.










Daddy took off her Christmas outfit and she was running around in her diaper.












Me and my baby.









She's all smiles.









Posing.












Me and my Uncle James









Me and Troy.

Christmas

Here are a few of our pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. They are backwards from last to first (oops :)

Gracieann sitting in her sissy's new Princess nursery.












Grace opening up her gifts. She got lots of her favorite - Elmo.









Preston got a Build-A-Bear dinosaur.









They were SO ready to start opening presents.









More presents.









On christmas Eve getting ready to do a book exchange with their cousins.









My girls.









The tree right before we started opening our gifts.









She's so pretty.









Troy wanted to do a silly picture. It's more his style. :)









Family tradition - Family picture in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.












Me and my cousins Chris and Suz.









Me, Chris, and my Uncle Harry.










Me and my handsome hubby.












Me and Suz.









Me and Grandpa.









Best Friends!!!!









Bellarose and her cousin Hannah in the outfits I made them.












Gracieann in the outfit I made her.












Getting ready for another yearly tradition - making the ginger bread house.