First Soccer Game

The wind-up.


The follow-through.


And she's even having fun!

College Station Cousins

The kids and I spent the first two days of Spring Break in College Station with my sister Emily. We had such a great time! Addie and Jack loved playing with their cousins and I thoroughly enjoyed letting Emily cook yummy food for me and be completely in charge of entertainment! The bulk of the entertainment: a tent in the backyard. Oh the joys!


The girls took baby dolls and princess clothes outside the whole time. They were in heaven aside from the annoying two year old boy with his golf club/weapon.


These two girls really play well together. One afternoon while the little boys napped, Emily and I actually napped on the couches while the girls quietly colored. They just discussed what color the princesses should be and complimented each other on their fine work.


We went to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell ice cream factory. Little did we know that this idea was VERY popular. We got there at 11 and had to get tickets for a 12:30 tour time. So we found a great park in town to picnic and let the kids run around.


This park was really fun. If we'd known it was there we would have planned more time for playing. The factory tour was also really cool. I would do it again. I've always had a thing for watching food on conveyor belts I guess, and the free ice cream in their new ice cream parlor was a nice touch too!



Emily has a talent for catching Jack's many faces.






We will be crashing College Station again asap!

Gardening

One of the most exciting parts of finally being settled now is that we can plant a GARDEN! Yay! For the past three summers we have moved mid-summer so the fruits of laboring in a garden were not worth the trouble. Not so this year and Anthony has been hard at work. I have been hard at work with my opinions...I really love the idea of gardening, just not the ensuing allergies I get from getting down and dirty with Mother Nature. Here they are planting some petunias.


The beginnings of Anthony's garden. Pictures and details of the finished product will follow!


The first rose bloom of the season.


Spring brings out some of the best things about our house. I absolutely love our yard, and we've had little to do with it really. The former owners really worked at the yard so we just get to enjoy the mature landscape they worked on for 16 years.

First Soccer Practice

I am kicking myself today that I didn't have the organization yesterday to document Addie's first day of soccer practice with a photograph. She walked out the door with her pink cleats, pink chin guards, and a first aid kit in case she got "scrapes and bruises" while she was playing. It was all I could do to get her to leave the first aid kit in the car. We have Daddy to thank for giving the kit to her and explaining the dangers of soccer!

She had a good time, despite being the youngest on the team. I think at least 7 of the 9 girls there played last year, too. So she's a little behind but it made me glad we went ahead and put her in this year. She ran behind the pack, dribbled all of her drills the slowest, and frequently stopped to give me hugs and kisses (I was assisting the coach.) Despite all of this, when Anthony asked her how soccer went she indicated that she had done really well and she was pretty sure she had won. Ahhh, the confidence of a 4 year old!! I wish I could put it in a bottle and save some for later.

Phone Dump 2011

Between Christmas and our anniversary, we've had a lot happening. I just haven't formally documented it here on the blog. My sister does an occasional phone blog entry that I think is in order here because a lot has been happening worth noting.

Like these fantastic foamy Valentine pencils. Really, you say? We are exciting around here...this was actually some desperate entertainment during a snow day. I think these beauties actually had a well thought out purpose when I bought the kit at Michael's, but alas they were made gleefully on a snow day and discarded after Valentines day.


Moving on...Jack got a haircut and was pretty stinking cute in the process. Love this boy a little more every day.


Addie's ballet class tried on their recital costumes. Oh, the sweet excitement! Little pink ballerinas were flying all over the room.


We went to Will Dickinson's birthday party at Bouncin' Around. Talk about a kid's DREAM birthday party and an awesome business idea. It was just a huge room in a warehouse with maybe 6 bounce structures and some picnic tables in the middle for the parents. This was the best picture I could get of Addie finally being brave and going up to the top of the biggest bouncy house slide.


Addie painting her toenails on the driveway.


Warm weather and popsicle kids.


Mr. Jack is not a champ when he wakes up sometimes. Well, most times. We work on it pretty much all the time - the concept of getting up happy. He's not really getting it. Why should he really? Mom just snuggles his cute self if he's frowny so why bother being happy on his own?


I liked these so much that I took a picture and sent it to my sister. It is gluten free and super good. Worth documenting.


Jack got some new shades. "Lightning McQueen Ka-chow" shades. He frowns pretty bad when the sun is in his eyes, then he goes and gets his shades and all is well.


I found a bench I liked for my entry way. I sent this picture to my husband. He said, "let's just get past the kitchen..." So happy to be past the kitchen!

We went to the aquarium at Fair Park in Dallas. It was good for kids and much better priced than the Dallas World Aquarium. I think I drop $32 just to take my kids to that one which seems insane for looking at fish. This one was $14. Much better. And, the kids get to touch crawly things in one tank and stingrays in another. Pretty cool.


That's all I've got. My phone is clean now! Ahhhhhh. These were in no true order. So many pictures to upload and Blogger always scrambles them. :)

We go to Emily's house next week. I will take pictures. Or maybe she will. I will post them. Or maybe she will and I'll put up a link to her blog. We'll see!

Niner

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
~Albert Camus

Nine years ago today our little family began in Houston, Texas. What a great day and what a wonderful nine years! I'm so happy to have Anthony by my side in this life. This has been a great year full of opportunities for growth and I'm so grateful for every bit of it. Now I can start planning the 10 year getaway...

Kitchen

We've been busy! It's been fun, but stressful, to do some changes in our kitchen. I'm so glad we did it, but equally happy that there is nothing else in the house I want to do any major work in!

It could have been a lot more demo and a lot more rebuild. We felt like our cabinets were classic enough to go with what we wanted, so we replaced countertops, backsplash, appliances, sink, faucet, and some hardware.

The "before" picture:


Our kitchen now:

A couple of my favorite things in this next picture: the pot filler and the new stove. The pot filler is mostly neat looking, but it's handy.

There's a story with the stove though. I was really disappointed that gas was going to be such an ordeal. We'd pretty much have to re-do the gas for the entire house if we were going to get gas into this one little corner so we decided that the additional cost and the idea of tainting so many other areas were just not worth it. We got a Bosch induction stove, thanks to Anthony's brilliant research. It is pretty cool. It heats up insanely fast, the temperature is very precise and easy to control, and if you boil anything over you just lift up the pot and wipe it away. No scrubbing.

We traded out our porcelain double bowl top mount sink for a large single bowl undermount out of Silgranit, a granite composite that is really easy to care for. I love it! We also switched out our crazy faucet that would turn on and off when it felt like it (spraying you all over in the process) for this one with a pull down nozzle. It makes cleaning out the sink really easy. Just in case this one decides to turn on and off when it wants to, at least it is pointing down. The deep sink is awesome. I can hide a lot of dirty dishes in it and you can't even tell! ;)

Just another view of the kitchen from our eating area. We bought some saddle stools for the peninsula, which the kids love. I love the inexpensive addition of 4 extra seats when we have people over.

Materials used: soapstone countertops, white subway tile, and platinum grout.

Ready for vacation now...

Christmas 2010

We had a great 2010 Christmas. Once again I am calling it our best ever. The kids were so fun, we had great company with our friends, the Gardners, and it was really a relaxing holiday. I'm excited to be into 2011, working on my reading list for the year, looking forward to summer swimming...so much ahead!

Just a few picture to document our Christmas:


The halls were decked, stockings hung, Christmas tunes playing...


We had Turkey a la National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...the only person who ate it was Anthony who insisted on some meat on his Christmas dinner plate! Anthony and Brent were so excited to fry something that I guess they forgot to check on it. The bird was over cooked by at least 30 minutes. Luckily the side dish I made was a big macaroni and cheese instead of potatoes. Otherwise, potatoes would have been our main dish!


Cute boys sitting at their table just waiting for some food.


The Christmas Story, finger puppet style.


After opening their Christmas PJs, the kids watched Polar Express.


The Christmas morning discovery process was fun, as always.


Two of Addie's favorite presents were her Ariel necklace (the one that sings ahhahhhAHHH ahahahhahhhaahhhhhhhh) and Hello Kitty chapstick. It's always the little things!


Strait to the table to paint a wooden jewelry box.


And crazy Jack enjoying his trains, cars, and a cowboy hat.

It was a great time for everyone! We felt very blessed to have our healthy happy children to enjoy Christmas with. After a month of trying to keep Christmas as simple and hassle free as possible, I also enjoyed relaxing on the actual holiday. Very nice!

Now we have hit the ground running...next week we will begin work on our kitchen, which the people we've hired say will not take long. We'll see if that's true. Either way we are excited to see the finished product!

Feedback: 12 Days of Christmas

We got this follow up email from Ian on the 12 Days of Christmas today. It reminded me of how much we can lift those around us with really very little effort.

All,

I just got off the phone with Joe, and wanted to pass on to all of you some of what transpired.

I asked Joe how things have been going for him, and he said that it was shaping up to be the best Christmas his family has ever had. I feigned surprise and said "Really?".

He said "Yeah, you know, things were looking pretty rough this year, and we had pretty much accepted the fact that there would be one present under the tree for each of the boys, but something is going on, and I am just amazed. You should see under our Christmas tree, it's fully stocked!"

"Are you serious?" I said.

"Yeah man!", Joe replied, "You know when it started, it took me a while to catch on, but after about the third night, I realized this was a pretty well thought out thing, because someone has been leaving presents for the boys, and for me and Rose every single night since last Monday!"

I said "Wow! That is amazing!"

"I know!", said Joe. "I was at church yesterday asking people 'Is it you?', 'Is it you?', and nobody even knows what I'm talking about! I don't know who is doing this, but it has been such a great experience. I really see God working in this, and it really has been a spiritual experience for us."

Joe and I talked for a few more minutes before I got off the phone.

I can't tell you how much it means to me that each of you has been willing to participate in this and come through so admirably with your commitments. I hope you have all realized by now that this is not just a material exercise. The temporal gifts that you give are important, but the thing that you are giving Joe and Rose and their kids that is infinitely more meaningful is hope. I can hear it in the way Joe talks, and I am sure that it has changed things in their home this holiday season. That kind of gift is priceless.

Thanks to all of you for being a part of this. It's the same every year. My family and me benefit more than any of the families we have ever given to. I hope that each of you will think about this experience in years to come and feel good about what you have done.

Ian

I thought this was a perfect way to head into Christmas Eve. "Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace" (O Holy Night, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, 1847).

Merry Christmas!

The Trains at Northpark

Have I mentioned I have a new camera that I'm just getting to know? The timing on our new point-and-shoot camera is a little different than our old one. I'm not loving it at the moment. Can you see what I mean?


We went to the "Trains at Northpark" display yesterday with friends and had a great time. There is a huge line, even right at opening, but it goes pretty fast. It is a little crazy inside though, hence the one try for a group picture...



Maybe I'm just a little kid inside, but this is one of my favorite things to do during the holidays that my kids also enjoy. I am fascinated by the train displays and can't wait for my children to be old enough for us to do real trains. If Anthony ever sees fit to have a room in our house just for trains, I will be okay with that!



The center of the display was this Christmas tree that had a train winding up and down. Very cool. From where I was standing to take this picture, I could see 4 or 5 trains winding in and out of the scenery. I can't believe someone gets paid to play with trains!



Jack's little face was pressed up to the plexiglass most of the time. I just had to not think about the germs...






All of the kids loved the Fair Park display. We pass Fair Park every time we go to and from Dallas, so my kids LOVE the ferris wheel.


Fun, fun times. Afterward we went to the Scrooge Puppet Theater, which proved to not be as cool as I thought. It was only 15 minutes long, and only Ebenezer Scrooge performed. Not bad if you are there anyway, but I wouldn't make a special trip for it!