so thankful..

Yesterday marks TWO years since Jason's aneurysm incident. It feels like a long time ago and yet it feels like it just happened. I ran through the whole day in my head..'right now we were at the first emergency room, now we're in the ambulance, now we're at Parkland, wheeling you into the operating room....'

It was a great day yesterday, we were lazy, we cuddled, we played and we just enjoyed being with each other, and for that I am so grateful. I am so lucky, we all are. My girls have had their Daddy for two more years !! I thank GOD because I know it is only because of his grace and love that we were given this gift.

A couple of weeks ago Miss Priss and Jason went on another Indian Princess campout. It was a huge success with 10 girls and dads participating - a cabin busting at the seams with 20 people in it. Campfires, smores, BB guns, hikes, boat rides, horseback rides, and not a lot of sleep. They both had a great time, but they walked in the door, straight into the bath/shower and were pretty much exhausted for the rest of the day. I took this picture of them knocked out later that day and smiled because I know Miss Priss is going to cherish these memories with her Daddy and all the things he did to spend time with her and make her feel special. I was so grateful that she got to make this memory with him. Every day is a gift to us..

this child...

This child, this angel, this sweet delicate princess... she makes me laugh and keeps my on my toes every second...I've got a ridiculous amount of grey hair these days...

She decided to draw a masterpiece on herself during naptime..

Balanced on TOP of her sit and spin toy..

She travels with her goggles and rain boots, just in case..

This room is too bright for my nap..

halloween 2011

Halloween in our new neighborhood was fun! The lack of sidewalks and distance between the houses made it a bit tricky for little miss and her little legs, but we had the wagon to help us out. They collected a pretty good amount of candy and we handed out a bunch so all in all it was a great night!

fourteen

The teenager turned 14 this August! She is growing up so fast. She loves her new high school and her grades are great. She is doing amazingly fantastic on the swim team and is having a ball with her swim friends. She loves going to church on Wednesdays and Sundays with her high school youth group. She is very busy and has a ton of energy. She wants to participate in everything, be everywhere, hang out with everyone. She is the best big sister and we all love her tons! Happy Happy Birthday Sissy!

little miss starts school ...

Little Miss started school this year too, she goes Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours and she LOVES it! She did not shed one tear on her first day and barely looked back to say goodbye to me.

She had been very anxious to start school since we used to pick up big sister there last year. She looks forward to it all week and gets a little irritated with me on the days she gets to stay home with me because she wants to go to school too!

Smiling with teeth, haha

Look at that HUGE backpack! She picked it, she wanted DORA

Posing with Mommy!

Playing by the big tree

Her teacher, Miss Karen

new beginnings..

Monday was the first day of school for the Teen and Miss Priss. They were nervous and excited respectively and they both had a fantastic first day. I almost shed a tear when I hugged Miss Priss goodbye, but she was cool as a cucumber!

High School and Kinder in one year, and in two weeks Little Miss will start her Kids Day out two days a week! Everyone is growing up and it's happening fast! We are so blessed and grateful for our sweet, beautiful and smart girls. Here's hoping for an amazing year!

beach bums...

Summer vacation planning planning fell on my shoulders (as usual) and I thought it would be great to take our family to the Destin FL area - we had never been and I have many friends who have raved about the beautiful beaches and great family trips they had taken.

We decided on Seacrest Beach which is right between Seaside and Rosemary Beach. Originally we planned to fly with our benefits, unfortunately the flights were too full for us to go that route and since we'd already booked a beach house, we just decided to drive...14 hours... with all our kids (plus some, the teenager took friends). It was a looooong drive, we cut it in half and spent the night both directions in Jackson, MS to give everyone a break.

Overall, we had a great trip, the kids loved the beach (most of the time), we had so much fun just not doing much of anything but swimming, playing, napping and just relaxing! Perfect vacation!

Our little beach cottage for the week..

Teenagers! They had so much fun..

Little girls playing in the sand..

Jason's only quiet time that day..

Look, I was there too! We went shopping one day in the cute little town of Rosemary Beach just down the road..

Beautiful sunset..

graduation..

Miss Priss graduated from Pre-K last week. She was SO sweet! She's officially ready for Kindergarten, I can't believe it!



She said when she grows up she wants to be a teacher :)

Miss Priss with Ms. Lynette her teacher

Best Buds

five ...

happy happy birthday sweet baby girl. I CAN.NOT.BELIEVE that you are FIVE years old!!!! holy cow, it seems like just yesterday you were born and now you are going to be starting kindergarten !!

you are amazing, so so smart, so sassy. you are a girly girl through and through. you LOVE dresses and sparkles, you love being crafty and creative. you always want to help in the kitchen but you also love working on projects and getting dirty in the garage with daddy.

today you woke up with a fever and had to stay home from school, but I didn't mind because I really enjoyed the extra cuddle time, I know before long you won't want to cuddle with me and work on puzzles and paint suncatchers, but today you did, and for that I am grateful. I love you baby girl.

indian princesses ..

J and Miss Priss joined the Indian Princesses program this year (actually it is called the Adventure Guides, but that sounds lame and apparently everyone who participates in the program still refer to it as Indian Princesses). They have been having so much fun at some of their recent events.

They participated in Derby Days and created a wooden race car together. At the big race Miss Priss won 2nd place! Her purple polka dotty car beat some fancy schmancy cars and she won a trophy, a medal and a patch. She was SO proud!




A couple of weeks ago, they attended the Spring campout at Collin County Adventure Camp. They both had such a great time, they got to shoot bow and arrows, beebee guns, they went on nature walks, made smores, went to a bonfire and she earned two feathers - one for being a new camper and one for bravery when she saw a small snake on her nature hike (EEEEEEK!!!)

J can't wait until the next one, he said it was so fun spending good, uninterrupted, quality time with Miss Priss and I know she felt exactly the same :) As I was packing up her things for the campout, I told her I was going to miss her and maybe Little Miss and I could come to the campout too. She promptly informed me that Indian Princesses was NOT for mommies or babies, and I needed to stay home and take care of Little Miss, and that she and daddy would be back soon. sweet sweet girl..

happy birthday sweet little miss...

sweet angel baby, i can't believe it has been two years! some days it really feels like it is just flying by, and some days (I mean, i'm just gonna be honest) it really doesn't!

you are beautiful, playful, cuddly, sweet, loving, silly, sneaky, mischievous, high maintenance, dramatic, picky... and I couldn't imagine our family without you!

you love to watch Dora, and sing and dance. you are the worlds pickiest eater, but your favorites are CHEESE (who can blame you), berries, goldfish, tortillas, frozen peas (weird, but whatever it takes). you adore your sisters. you are a great nighttime sleeper, love playing with playdough and crayons - maybe you're going to be an artist!

thank you for all of your daily hugs and kisses, even when I think I might pull my hair out, you still can make me melt with that little snaggletooth smile :)

love you, sweet girl..

don't forget the 'un-romantic' valentine's date...

I know I haven't blogged in... forever. But I was scrolling back and remembered that this time last year we had our first 'Un-Romantic' Valentine's Date - we painted pottery, and J learned how to make a clay pot on a wheel - verrry Patrick Swayze ;)

Anyway - just revisited the blog, Prudent Baby, that game me the original inspiration, and she just posted about some of the things they have done on their dates, plus there are lots of great ideas in the comments also.

This year, we have childcare (woohoo) and we might swing by Rahr Brewery early in the day - J loves it there. Then we're having sushi (free gift card - thanks Mom), and I think visiting DFW Gun Range for some Dirty Harry practice - I actually think it will be fun! Other great ideas that were suggested, whirleyball, or TopGolf (yuck) but he would have a ball! and in the words of 'Prudent Baby' .. 'The whole point of the day is to plan something you would not ordinarily want to do, something ridiculously manly and out of your comfort zone. Then smile the whole time and act like you love it.'

It should be a memorable date :)
Happy V-day!

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!

my sweet girls ...

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

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 :)

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**

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!

christmas eve!!

Yay! Mom will be here soon, Sister and family coming later. Breakfast for dinner, Christmas PJ's! Gifts wrapped, about to start snowing outside. Gonna be a great day!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Here's hoping for a happy HEALTHY holiday for everyone!

santa 2009

Here's our beautiful girls with Santa.



Merry Christmas!!