My celebrity meeting

Ok, so I'm not really one to be star struck, but I think it is too funny that the Bachelor lives in our neighborhood. I've been watching the show for a few years now because I like to laugh at how crazy everyone is when they are infatuated with someone. I've known where his house is, but never seen him until the other day. I was on my way to my weekly doctor's appointment and saw him out talking to the neighbors. I had to do a double take. Then later, I was doing my friends hair and telling her about it and we decided to take a walk so she could see where he lived. As we were passing by, he drove up and was emptying his car. She has no fear and said "Hi Jake! We love your show" and proceeded to ask him if he would take a picture with us. He was really nice about it and we had Katelynn take the pic with her phone, I'm surprised it even turned out. He said he really likes it here and plans on staying, so I will be looking for his new fiancee soon! Anyway, I like to tease Matt about it and think it is too funny, so I thought I would post the pic. Even better that I am 8 months pregnant!

Christmas Slideshow - Finally!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Family Picture

All the Grandkids. A month and a half later and McKinley could have joined us.

Over Christmas my entire family(all 10 of us) were together for the first time in like 6 years. We had all our families with us and it was so much fun. I'm so glad we got pictures to remember this event. I will post the picture of everyone when I get a copy from the photographer. These were taken with my sister's camera. I wish I wasn't almost 8 months pregnant, but what can you do! I had such a great time and feel so blessed to have such an amazing family! Love you guys!

Holiday Traditions

This year we have already had a blast beginning to celebrate christmas. It gets better every year that the kids get a little older and enjoy more. We are so excited to see what the rest of December has in store for us...

December 2nd we woke up to a winter wonderland. We were shocked as this is rare for Texas. Although Katelynn still had school, we had to make it fun for Brennon as this may be the only chance he gets to play in it this year.
We also decorated our tree. The kids both helped and we played our first Christmas music. It was exciting to get to put it out in the open this year as we don't have a toddler to pull it down. Next year it will all change....

Katelynn had a cookie decorating party with her friends. Then they watched Polar Express.

More tree decorating pictures...

We also are making it a tradition to go on a carriage ride at Christmas. The kids of course loved it and it was the perfect weather this year.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. The day before we met Matt at the Fort Worth zoo and spent the 70 degree day seeing all the animals. A favorite family activity. For Thanksgiving we had a progressive dinner with friends and ate way too much and had so much fun we may do it every year!

My little guy turns 3!

Brennon is such a joy in our home. We can't believe he is now 3 years old. He is so fun and always has a smile on his face. He makes me smile every day and there is no greater gift! Love ya bud!

Brennon as a baby just 3 short years ago....

Birthday pictures:

We celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese, the kids favorite.

As you can tell, he could hardly wait to open gifts...

The kids helping make the cake: I love that they enjoy cooking with me...

Halloween 09

Katelyn was a ladybug and Brennon was a skunk. He had a little heart on the bum that said "Lil' Stinker" . So fitting! They had so much fun this year and got way too much candy!

Texas Fall and Pumpkin patch

Just wanted to share some fun fall pictures. We are loving celebrating this year and can't wait to do more!

My Cute Kids!

Just wanted to capture my kids and how adorable they are right now. I couldn't feel more blessed to have these sweet blessings in my life!

Texas State Fair

We had such a great time at the Texas Fair this year. It was our first time and it was definitely worth it! It was the biggest fair I have ever been to, and I have been to plenty in my day. I almost want to go back and see more of it. Its like it's own city! My favorite part was the fire/lights/ and fireworks show. It was amazing. Here are a few shots. They coordinated it with music and a huge screen playing pictures and videos.

I also loved how they had photo places all throughout the fair.

They had a huge mammoth that the kids couldn't resist playing on...

Even Matt had to make a joke out of it.... ;)

They had a "BIG TEX SANDPIT" that the kids loved playing in. It was HUGE!

They had a parade before the show and it was cute. Katelynn wanted a picture with the horses in the parade. Her favorite part, of course!

They had the best free petting zoo. It had tons of animals and lots of newborn babies. Even the Kangaroo had a new baby in her pouch. You can see it peeking out. So Cute!

Feeding the animals was of course a hit!

They had a car show and the kids had to get a picture with the "transformers" car.

New pics to Share

It has bee way too long since i have posted pictures. I just wanted to share some of my favorites from the last month.

I have loved having Brennon at home. We are loving the Mommy/son bonding time. Here are some pics from going to the park with friends...

Katelynn being the great big sister she is and reading Brennon a story.

Brennon's first Chop Stix experience at Pei Wei....

Family fun with a fort, movie, and popcorn....

Days playing at the lake....

My little girl goes to Kindergarten

I can't believe I have a kid in school now. Time has truly flown by. I am so excited for Katelynn to start school, but as most of you know, it is bittersweet. I will miss her fun personality and all the great times we have had side by side as we have experienced aventure after adventure since the day she was born. Now she will be off in someone else's care most every day. Good luck, big girl, I miss you already!!

Standing in her new classroom. Her teacher is Ms. Scott and seems to be sweet. Hopefully she will love it and meet lots of new friends. Matt had to pull me away yesterday and tell me "Let's go, she's fine, she doesn't even care we're leaving". That's my independent girl!

I'm alive again! (kind of)

Our trip to VA to escape and let the kids have fun while I rested...

I bet you can't guess what Katelynn did every day for about 4 hours??? Yep, you guessed it! Ride Grandpa's horses. She got really good at riding by herself and getting it to go and even back up. She was in heaven! A few times Grandpa even took her off on a long ride in the fields.


Another favorite part of the trip was going to a wildlife park and feeding the animals. Brennon had no fear!

The kids also got to help feed the animals and even take a ride on a cow.

More horse riding with her cousin Hailey...

Brennon loved it too and by the end wanted to ride and lead the horse around by himself. Too bad he has to wait until he gets a little older
Their cousins came to play for the week and they had so much fun. I wish we lived closer, they got along so well.

This is one of my favorite places in my hometown, the duck pond. We fed the ducks and took fun pictures...

More cousin pics...

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip! It was so needed and well worth the drive.

Why no posting!

OK, so some of you may have wondered why I have been such a slacker lately. Well, it is totally because baby #3 has come to take over my body and make sure I am sick and have no energy whatsoever. Yes, we are excited, but I will be more excited when I am done with the first trimester. I will be up and alive again in about a month, in case anyone is wondering. Until then, don't expect much. Oh, and the baby is due around mid February.

Utah trip

I posted all our pics on facebook, but I know there are some, including my parents that don't go on Facebook, so here is a recap of our trip....
On our way to Utah we stopped in Moab for a picnic. It was so pretty, I wanted to stay longer and explore with the kids.



We were able to go to the temple to see his friend's dad go through for him to receive his endowments. It was so special. After we had a BBQ with everyone. So fun to catch up!

We had a dinner with Matt's family and the kids loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa again...

I was excited to see my Chicago friends again. Thanks girls for a fun day!
We also saw my RFL's, Marlana and McCall. I still miss our roommie days. So fun to see how well you are all doing. And great to see Paul and Bryce of course.
The cousins were unseperable while we were camping with my family. It makes me wish we lived closer




I learned that my kids have no fear when it comes to dirt bikes.
All the kids had so much fun, especially with aunt Jamie.
We got to go boating in the freezing cold lake. Matt made it look good, so that is why there is apicture of him, not me..

We also had an event with our van and had a flat tire and ended up getting stuck in the mountains in the mud and having to sleep in our van! Thank goodness we made it home safely!

THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

OK, so it really wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't THAT good either. I had to have a day to recuperate before I wrote about it, so this all happened Wednesday. Wednesday morning I woke up and felt like I had never even went to bed. Have any of you woke up that way? Its not so fun. Then I rushed around to get ready for a hair apptment. About 15 minutes before my appt was to show up, I remembered I left a bag of a bunch of new hair color out in my car. I went to get it and realized somehow it had been stolen. So, I had to explain this to my first appt and change her color around and cancel my 2nd appt. After this, I sat down to play on Facebook and hit the wrong button and half of my page disappeared. All the pictures and buttons were no where to be found. Just my luck, I thought. Well, then I found out I messed up all of Matt's family plans when we will be out in Utah and had everyone confused and probably upset with me. A little later, I was preparing for another hair appt and someone was knocking at my door. He was dressed in a big yellow suit with a hat that had a glass front(kind of like a fireman outfit). Now what! He said the electric box in front of my house was leaking oil and we would have to leave and would not have power for at least 3 hours. Great! I had to cancel my last appt and take off with the kids. This was just as I was starting dinner as well, hamburger on the stove and all. So, I put it all away and we headed out to eat. After dinner, I was trying to figure out what to do and I began getting a migraine (can't imagine why at this point). My migraines are really bad and I get complete blurred vision and have to take major drugs. So, I am praying I will make it home OK. As I turn around to head home, the radio does the "beep, this is a weather alert and there is a Tornado warning for your county". As soon as I hear this, the wind picks up to like 70-80mph and signs are blowing down and the light is swinging like crazy above us. Then it starts pouring sheets of rain. The tornado sirens are blarring, and the kids are freaking out! I was too. Anyway, I prayed and drove. Someone in front of me actually had something large fly into his car. By gods grace I made it home. Matt was about to leave and I said no way! I needed a break and I finally got it after some fabulous drugs! Now I know how to end a bad day.... Anyway, the week has gotten better, but I am definitely ready for it to be over! Just had to write it all down and still realize that I am blessed to think this is a really bad day when I have a fabulous family, job, friends, and home. Thanks for listening to me rant!

Beginning summer

This last Saturday we went to the lake with friends. The kids loved it and the water wasn't too cold. At first Brennon wanted nothing to do with it and the yucky seaweed, but he warmed up....
Katelynn thought of it as a pool and didn't mind going under and playing in it all afternoon.
The sand was a hit, although not quite as good as the real beach.
Brennon is finally into a toddler bed. I was so worried it would be a difficult transition, but a week later, he has been great and not come out of his room yet. Boys are definitely easier in some ways!
A few great summer shots of the kids at Katelynn's preschool swim party....


Katelynn is now a preschool graduate. Thank you to her teacher for keeping her busy and entertained for 2 years (trust me that is a lot to ask, I know!). She will always remember how much fun it was and how much she learned. She is definitely ready for Kindergarten!

The last few weeks

Time has flown by and life has been busy. I have tried to fit in work and play. Yesterday I enjoyed a lunch with my old friends from cosmo school. They are so fun, I miss seeing them every day.
I have also been doing a lot of hair and I love it! Last weekend I did the bride and her bridesmaids for a wedding. It was so fun to be a part of her big day!

We have also been hanging out at the pool with friends. We are so lucky to have so many great pools here in Lantana. This was taken Memorial day with several other families from our ward.
I have also been baking, as always. I've decided I love to bake. However, I am not the best at it, so I feel like each time I do I work on perfecting the recipe. Katelynn asked to make a pie with me and I decided to do a Martha Stewart apple pie and took the time to learn about making the perfect crust and actually took the extra time to do it right (love the internet). It made a huge difference. This was definitely the best pie I've ever made. It was soft and a little chewy, not too flaky, and a crust you actually want to eat. Now I only wish I was this excited about cooking. I think I need to take a class or something to learn more about cooking too.

We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese and let them ride their first roller coaster. As you can see, they loved it!
Our ward had a pancake breakfast. They did such a great job honoring the veterens and then cooking up some great cakes! They even sported chef hats!

Brennon was so hungry, he went after the butter! Love 2 year olds!
And I always have to throw in my favorite picture of the kids this month...

Yes, I'm the new singing sensation!

OK, so if any of you watched Oprah today you would have seen me! Can you believe it, I made it to the Oprah show!! Yes, I put in extensions and became about 10 years younger and got darker skin, but this is all to fool you as to who I really am..... J/K But there is a new singing sensation named after me!!! (Too bad she spells it Charice, but still a cool name) Anyway, if you haven't heard her, check her out, she is amazing!!
http://www.oprah.com/media/20090429-tows-charice (the end is the best part)

She has already sang with Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion. Anyway. I thought it was cool. I have only met one or two in my life. Go girl!

Our life lately

We have been very busy the last month. Even though Matt has been working a lot, we have fit in plenty of fun (you know us!). We just wanted to update everyone on what our family has been up to.

We had another murder mystery dinner and did a Texas western theme. We love how all our friends are always willing to play along and make it a blast!
We have had a lot of rain in Texas this month. So much one day that it created huge puddles on the golf course by our house. I was headed to the store and saw the puddles and ran home to grab the family to go run in them. There were some twice as deep, but our camera died.

The kids are so cute together lately. Katelynn lured Brennon into taking a "rest" with her on the couch.
Katelynn talked me into building a stable for her horses with her. Brennon thought it was a great fort for himself!
We also went to a drive in movie and let the kids overdose on sugar and stay up way too late, but it was worth it!

They also had a fun mini golf place at the drive in...


I redid the play room/waiting room area upstairs and had to show off my great finds. Most of this was from yard sales, including the shandelier($10).

This week's star of "Dirty Jobs"

OK, so I think in all my career of being a mom, I have just today done the dirtiest thing I have ever done (and I've done dirty, trust me; including throw up, spit up, diarrhea). I even hate to admit it, but I know I will someday laugh at it, so here it goes.

First of all, I am trying to potty train Brennon this week. I believe I wrote a long time ago that this is the worst job ever (with Katelynn) and I am reminded all over again. So after 3 LONG days and doing nothing but potty training, I am trying to decide whether to push forward or give up. Anyway, on to today. After dinner Brennon was standing on the chair with nothing on (after many loads of underware laundry we have resorted to this) and I came over to take him down. The chair was all wet along with the floor. It was a big puddle. I, thinking I was being logical thought it was too much to be pee and his cup was right by him with pink lemonade. I assumed he had poured his cup out. So, my tired, not thinking self, smelled it and went on to put my finger in it and taste it. OK, you are all already laughing and know what's coming, so I don't have to spell it out to you. Anyway, I am now mortified and will never be that naive again!

So I am now desperate and about to ask Matt to quit his job and train him for me! He will probably never really appreciate what we women go through to get our kids trained.....