mission..

This year the Preteen has gotten involved with her middle school youth group at church. She had an amazing opportunity to go on a mission trip this summer with the group. They went to New Orleans for 6 days and then wrapped up that week with a few days in Gulf Shores, Alabama for beach camp.

They spent a lot time in the lower ninth ward cleaning up debris, garbage, tearing out, hauling off and just working hard in an area that, still after all this time, is in such bad shape and needs help. These kids had a chance to meet the people in the neighborhood, hear their stories, and serve them by getting their hands dirty and doing the work that needed to get done.

In the afternoons, the group would go to the projects and play with the children there. She said that as soon as they'd show up in the park, all the little ones would start trickling out to play with them - she said it was her favorite part of the whole trip.

It was a great experience for her, she learned a lot, she met a bunch of people and made tons of friends. She was touched by what she saw and learned there, I can tell by hearing her talk about it. She grew up just a little bit more. She wants to go back next year, says she can't wait..amazing!

first day of school, last year in middle school..

In preparation for the first day of school, I sent the preteen to bed early on Sunday, had her set her alarm, made her breakfast Monday morning, offered to make her lunch (she declined, she wanted to buy on the first day), I offered some fashion advice (it was warranted**) drove her to school FULL of excitement..... what am I forgetting, what am I forgetting???? Oh yeah,

I FORGOT THE PICTURE!!!!!

First day of 8th grade and I got no picture! WORST.MOM.EVER!!!! Sigh...

So when she got home, I made her put her outfit back on. She had just gotten out of volleyball practice, nice and sweaty - cute hairdo in a ponytail, but she looked cute anyway. She had a great first day, is excited about her last year in middle school!

**update : I just want to say for the record, I did not offer fashion advice when putting this outfit together, I give her FULL credit for that. I persuaded her (gently) from wearing the hideous, nonmatching, totally goofy shoes she had on when she first came downstairs. Oh, if I only had a picture of that!

summer vacation...

Last summer was rough, Little Miss had just been born so I was exhausted and sleep deprived with an infant nursing every 2-3 hours, all the kids were home and bored, I fell in early July and badly twisted BOTH my ankles, plus it was a bajillion degrees outside so no one wanted to go out. Needless to say, we were homebound and had major cabin fever. Worst. Summer. Ever.

I was really looking forward to a better summer this year, I think we all were. We've had a couple of Disney vacations, and although they can be fun and memorable in lots of ways, they are just not relaxing, and Orlando in the summer is a nightmare - HOT, crowded, humid, HOT. We wanted a vacation that the kids and adults could both enjoy. J and I thought that Washington D.C. would be a great trip to take, he hadn't been in years and the girls and I had never been, and the Pre-teen especially was at the perfect age to appreciate D.C.

Little Miss stayed with Nana and Papa, which we were so grateful for, she loved getting 100% attention all week and we loved that we had more freedom and flexibility in the activities that we were able to do on the trip.

Now it was definitely warm there, but not like Florida hot, ok well sometimes it felt that hot, but the difference was that we were indoors a lot of the time. We rode the Subway/Metro all over town - it was very clean, seemed safe, and was cheap and easy to use. We saw so much! We did a great guided walking tour and saw all the monuments, we visited the White House, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum, American History Museum (mainly just the First Lady dresses exhibit), we went on a guided tour of the Capitol (awesome!), we saw a Presidential motorcade drive out of the White House (awesome!) We walked and walked and walked - thank God we took the little stroller for Miss Priss, she would NOT have been able to keep up with all the walking we did.

Kids in front of the Capitol

The girls and I in front of the National Art Museum - we didn't see much art here unfortunately, we ate lunch in the cafe and enjoyed their A/C.

The fountains at the National Sculpture Garden. The building directly behind is the National Archives.

Natural History Museum. This is the elephant that was in the movie Night at the Museum.

Washington Monument. Notice the stone changes color half way up, they ran out of money during the Civil War and construction was halted for several years until they could raise enough to finish it.

Family picture in front of the White House.

The girls at the Lincoln Monument

Lincoln Monument. I'm pretty impressed that my camera got such a nice picture of it, almost looks like a postcard.

J and Miss Priss at the Lincoln Monument

Stephen F. Austin statue that Texas contributed to the U.S. Capitol. TEXAS!!

Dome in the Rotunda inside the Capitol. Beautiful!

Miss Priss on the Metro. Her favorite part of the trip!


All in all it was a great vacation! There is so much to do, there is no way to see everything in just a few days. Miss Priss was a little bored in the museums, but luckily she kept busy and was happy to be on vacation. Her favorite parts? The airplane to get there, the train to get into the city, the hotel and the subway. Ha!

swim lessons..

Miss Priss took 4 weeks of swim lessons this year. Her learning to swim was top priority this summer and I think with her awesome instructor, Mr. Ethan, she is doing fantastic. No life jacket at all this summer, maybe she's going to take after her older sister after all.

long days of summer...

It's been a long and busy summer and I have totally slacked on the blog postings it seems like we've been super busy, but then at the same time we have days (like today, and yesterday and....) where it seems like the day is just dragging.

Miss Priss is at a point where she wants to be entertained constantly, all day long, one activity after the other, finger painting, playdoh, swimming, sidewalk chalk (can you say HOT outside?), candyland, chutes and ladders, etc etc. We can't put one activity away before she's asking what we're going to do next, and what can we do after that, and by the way, what are going to do tomorrow???? I'M BORED MOMMY!!!!!

Mix all that together with the Little Miss wanting to get all involved in whatever activity Miss Priss is working on and let the drama begin. MP does not like LM playing with her stuff 99.9% of the time, and that is alllll that LM wants to play with. sigh...

MP has asked and asked and asked and asked when school starts again, and she can't wait until September and neither can mommy!! Holy moley summer's are busy.

The Preteen has been BUSY this summer too - summer vacation with mom, then another trip with dad, then a church mission trip then she's going on a little trip with her BFF and then another trip planned to visit grandma right before school starts. Throw in some sleepovers and other stuff and she's hardly been around, and when she has been, she sleeps until noon. Oh the good 'ol days of childhood summers, how I remember them fondly..

Anyway - i'll be posting some pictures of summer vacation and other fun things. Stay tuned...

my sweet girls ...

Sisters playing and giggling...sweet sweet baby girls.

happy earth day!!

Happy Earth Day! It seems like everything on TV, Radio, in the stores, etc etc is all about the Earth, recycling, being eco-smart, supporting local farmers, businesses, etc.

It makes me happy and sad at the same time.

Happy, that there is such a huge awareness now of things that we've been doing that have been hurting our planet - we are borrowing it from our children and grandchildren and it is so important to maintain it! On a small scale around here, we have done things like changed to flourescent lightbulbs, added insulation, turned up the A/C, turned down the heat (get a blanket!), turned off the lights, recycle everything possible, use cloth bags when shopping, CLOTH DIAPERS (holy moley!), cloth napkins every day for breakfast lunch and dinner, reUSE things or give them to others instead of throwing them out.... I'm sure I could go on. We're not perfect, but we try to do our part and it has been pretty easy just to change a few things here and there.

I get sad when I see how some people are still so wasteful, or in denial that there is a even a problem, or act like it's not their problem. So so sad.

A HUGE goal of mine is to do better supporting local businesses, local food and farmers and to stop giving our money to large scale companies that are industrializing our food production, ruining the Earth and making Americans sick with the junk that is widely produced for us to eat in this country. If you haven't seen it, watch Food Inc., very informative, and I think it is so important to know what we are eating, where that food comes from, how is it produced, and what we are feeding our kids and families. Amazing stuff that I was shocked to learn about. Knowledge is power and I definitely want to use what I've learned to do better for my family (especially the grandchildren that I might have one day!)

On that note, I hope to get out today and plant something nice in celebration of this day!

new wardrobe...

So thanks to Kohl's we have added some new dresses to little Miss Prissy Pants' wardrobe. Also - everything she wears now MUST be T5 (not 5T as I say it and she corrects me). She'll get the item of clothing, and look at the tag first, then say 'No, this is not TEE FIVE Mommy, this (shirt, pants, etc) is TEE FOUR and it does NOT fit me and I'm not wearing that anymore.'

UGGGHHHHHH! REALLY?!?

Definitely on the list for her birthday, more dresses and skirts (maybe skirts might be acceptable to her, who knows) in TEE FIVE. Oh yes and flip flops or basically any new sandal/shoe - she really loves new shoes, but I mean really, who doesn't? She IS a smart girl!

I think it would be wise to start a savings account for her future wardrobe....yikes!

dresses and tights...

So Miss Priss has decided that the ONLY thing that she is happy wearing every single day is dresses and tights. The problem with this is that we only have so many dresses, some of them are more dressy and not suitable for every day wear, and a few of the other everyday dresses we own, she has decided she does not like for some crazy reason. That really narrows our selection.

The other problem is that this week the weather is finally becoming Spring-like and beautiful, which really doesn't work well with tights (which she totally does not understand and thinks that I am just crazy). Well now with the change of season, the few dresses that she wanted to wear nonstop are too hot, so I am on a mission this week to add a few more spring everyday dresses to our arsenal. Picking outfits every morning (or the night before) has become increasingly unpleasant when we don't have a dress that is acceptable and **GASP** she need to wear something else like a T-shirt and jeans (jeans also becoming highly unacceptable to her, she prefers leggings, thankyouverymuch!)

WHAT THE HECK?!?!? SHE'S ONLY 3 GOING ON 4!! Wow, I've got some interesting years ahead of me... Lord help us!

happy happy birthday!

Our sweet baby girl, the Little Miss turned one today! Where did the time go? Actually I know where it went and I could rattle a laundry list of stuff that went on this year..

It was just a year ago that we were blessed with such a sweet angel. She is, sweet as can be, just like her sisters, but with quite an attitude and personality as well - she can be a little toot!

She has brought so much joy to our little family this past year (and, ahem, quite a few middle of the night wake up calls, we really need to whip that into shape).

We LOVE you, we thank God for you and we look forward to your beautiful, one toothed grin every day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY sweetie! Mommy loves you more than I could ever say.

Party tomorrow with pictures (hopefully) to share :)

busy busy busy...

I am still here but seems like I have been so busy the past few weeks. I was planning a Spring Break trip for the girls and we just got back! Houston, Austin and the Hill Country, great road trip, we all had so much fun.

I've been busy with Little Miss - she's taking steps now! We're getting about 3-4 before she decides she needs to crawl! She also got one tooth finally! It's a bottom tooth and the one next to it looks like it may come next - she's surely taking her time with those teeth.

Miss Priss is prissier than ever! She is loving school, loving the beautiful spring weather we've been getting. She wants to play outside all the time, either on her tree swing or drawing pictures on the sidewalk, or blowing bubbles. We are all super glad to be out of the house and enjoying the sunlight!

The Pre-Teen is crazy busy! She finished up volleyball and basketball, now she's on to track. She is also in Select and Swing Choir, youth group for church that are ramping up preparations for a summer mission trip that she is very excited about. Friends, homework, projects, performances, track meets, meetings, chores...whew! I'm tired just writing it out, and more tired that i'm the taxi that shuttles her around to all this stuff.

J is fantastic! He's back in the saddle, he got the itch to start some projects at home so he's been working on the kids bathrooms. New tile on the floors, new updated faucets and lighting - everything is looking great! Next up - yardwork! As soon as it finishes freezing this week, I think we'll be all set to start cleaning, digging, planting and getting our yards ready for spring! I can't wait.

Other than that, I'm just trying to get some things done around here. Still need to work on decorating the master bedroom, ugh, will I ever be done??

Little Miss turns 1 this week!!!! I'll post an update on the festivities later.

11 months!!

What?!?! Where has the time gone?? Little Miss is 11 months today!! Can't believe it. She's sweet as can be, and not ;) She's developed quite a little personality and temperament these past 11 months! Oh, how I love her!

She weighs 19 lbs now. She's working on her first tooth! She's crawling ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE! She's opening (and emptying) every drawer or cabinet that she possibly can and tries for days to open the ones that are locked. She's eating all sorts of table food and it feels like she eats all day long. She's getting close to taking a step, won't be long now.

the un-romantic valentine's day..

So it's no surprise that most men, J included, are not particularly fond of Valentine's Day. Hallmark holiday, overpriced flowers, crowded restaurants, yadda yadda. I can't say that I disagree with all of that. I'm waaay too practical for most of that, and actually think the unexpected is more romantic than the planned valentines-y stuff.

I recently read a post over on Prudent Baby about their Un-Romantic Valentine's tradition. I thought it would be nice and fun for us to do something different and not the typical dinner and movie. So I googled, you know me. Somehow I stumbled upon this place, Quiggley's Clayhouse, that had a 'soiree' planned. We had dinner and dessert catered in (Saltgrass Steakhouse), BYOB (yummy German beer!), and we painted pottery (I made a fun serving platter and a trivet, and J made a coffee mug) and then J tried throwing clay on the pottery wheel - just like Demi Moore in Ghost - haha! It turned out to be SO FUN! We sat at a table with two other couples, all worked on our projects, got to know each other, ate and drank. It was a great date, and surprisingly enough, a little romantic :)

This will be our new tradition, J has already suggested the shooting range next year, umm I think I might need to see what other good options I can locate before then.

The girls got little Valentine's treats and just loved them :) It was a great weekend FULL of love :)

**Update - just before I went to sleep I found my Valentine on the nightstand, J made a heart shaped box with 30+ year old Lego blocks (that he's had since he was a kid) and inside was a handwritten note on plain white paper. He wrote the sweetest letter and didn't even have to rely on Hallmark for the words :) It was honestly the best Valentine i've ever gotten. **LOVE**

project

I will (correction...J will) make this for our master bedroom. Not in this fabric, not sure what fabric yet, and maybe (probably) not in this shape. So basically it will look totally different than this, BUT the method and theory is the same. It's going to be fab... one day.

sickos...

Well I'm back to playing nursemaid over here. The little girls caught a cold, it started with Little Miss and what I thought was teething (will this child ever get a tooth?) but turns out might be a cold. Miss Priss jumped on the bandwagon and decided to add to the snot bucket and she threw a little puke in for good measure. uuuuugggggghhhhh...

Little Miss is so tired of me wiping and sucking boogies out of her nose, but the poor thing can't breathe and she cries in her bed between coughs and snorts and hacks, good times over here I tell ya!

I hope things are better today, staying in the house this much isn't good for us (me). We need some fresh air before things freeze over later this week!

J had a GREAT birthday this past weekend and he's super excited about our date to the Mavs game this weekend.

I've got several travel projects on deck... trying to plan a getaway for Spring Break, we must drive since the planes will be waaay to full for us to nonrev, and I'm too cheap to buy a ticket! I'd love some suggestions, i'm kind of stuck. Also, I need to plan a trip for J and I to celebrate our anniversary in May - thinking probably Napa/Sonoma and then maybe Carmel? OR Tahoe, OR Redwood National Forest in northern CA, we've always wanted to see that - so basically we're going west! Then, I need to figure out what we're doing for summer vacation, I know we're spending a few days visiting mom and going to Schlitterbahn in San Marcos, probably July. We have some vacation days (5 weeks!!) to burn so we definitely need to make the most of it!!

Okay, gotta get the day going, hopefully these babies are feeling good and I don't catch the bug!

Two months!!

Yesterday was two months since J had his aneurysm (how in the heck do you spell that ?? i've typed it like a million times in two months and it still is/looks wrong each time).

He is doing great, gained a little weight, back to work full time. We've been enjoying our time together more than ever, because we know we're lucky to have it! I see him looking at the girls with a different look in his eyes. It's the 'I got a second chance' look. It also means that Miss Priss is really getting her way with daddy these days :) He LOVES those girls!!

Saturday is J's birthday - and we'll have some fun celebrating! It won't be a big party like we do each year, we'll have one of those in a couple of months. We're going on a brewery tour in Ft. Worth and then to celebrate with good friends and food! The girls and I are making a chocolate cake and wrapping gifts tomorrow and then next weekend I'll take him to a Mavs game - his favorite!

We're lucky, and we know it! Thank you God!

baby it's cold out there...

It is 16 degrees outside right now as i'm writing this!! CRAZY! Weather like this pretty much means we're not leaving the house. Toting around a wayward toddler and squirmy baby with mounds of puffy coats getting squished into carseats while I"m frrrrreeezzzing my rear off sounds like NO FUN to me!

I REALLY wanted to get out of the house and go to IKEA today. I have a monster list of things I've been compiling that needs to be purchased from there (plus maybe a hotdog and cinnamon roll too while i'm at it... just sayin'). I'm decorating our Master bedroom since we got new king mattresses (YAY!!!) and I need a little bit of everything to pull it together, duvet, shams, dust ruffle, rugs, accessories, artwork, a new dresser, night tables.... yeah, basically our bedroom looks like we're in college, mattress in the middle of the room, and that's about it. It will look awesome once i'm done with it, whenever that is. The poor preteen still hasn't had her room finished and it's been a while now. I will finish decorating this house one day... work in progress.

Well that decorating won't be happening today as we're on lockdown in our warm house. I thank God for our warm house, warm jammies, steaming hot coffee, endless toys in the closet and Dora on the DVR, and for the internets, my lifeline to the outside world...oh how I love thee.

Maybe I should get some cleaning/organizing done...or not.

We had a bit of a scare with J this week and thought something scary was showing up on a head MRI. He had to do another CT scan, and I can only thank God that it was absolutely nothing and am so grateful for everyone's prayers this week! WHAT A RELIEF!!!

As you can probably imagine, J and I are in need of a MAJOR vacation!! We're getting ready to plan a nice getaway soon, lots of ideas, but hopefully someplace that's warmer than Dallas (never thought i'd say that!)