Yee-haw! The Rodeo is in town!

David took Thursday and Friday of Spring Break off, and we took the kids (+1) to the rodeo carnival. We didn't get to go last year because of Regan's broken arms, so she was really wanting to go this year! This was David's first time to go with us, so it was nice. We got the kids wristbands and sent them on their way. David and I went to the other side of the fairgrounds and got to spend time together walking around and checking things out, and a friend of mine's daughter is doing a Flat Stanley project, so we took a bunch of pictures of Flat Stanley with Texas Longhorns, and all the rodeo animals. It was a lot of fun just being goofy! The weather was great, nice and cool, until we got home and realized we got sunburned!

New Years in Jacksonville

New Years in Jacksonville

Well, David and I have been trying to get out to see Elise for a while now, and it just hasn't happened. He doesn't have a lot of time to take off yet with the new job, and to get Hunter boarded, and take care of all the other pets around here, well, it just hasn't worked out yet. But, finally, I decided to just do a girl's road trip! Regan and I got up, I did some laundry, we packed and left town around noon. Stopped at Target to get a few things for the trip, and got into Jacksonville by dinner time! Had dinner with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Danny, got to meet and hold baby Mason (he was born on my mom's birthday, December 4th, so he's still a tiny little guy!) and see Elise.

I wasn't sure if she would remember me, or even want to be around me! She does have some stranger anxiety, but once I sat down on the floor and played with her present a little bit, she came over and put her forehead against mine and started talking to me! It was precious. After that, we were BFF's again. She loved to take Regan into her play house and have Regan read to her.

On New Year's Eve, we went to lunch with Nancy (Trista's BFF) and she had some friends over and we played games, 5 Second Rule and Mexican Train, watched some movies, and tried to stay up till midnight. Elise didn't make it much past 8, I barely made it to midnight, after falling asleep on the couch around 11! Then on New Year's Day, we went back to Aunt Kathy's for lunch of roast, black eyed peas and cabbage. Regan ate a whole head of cabbage just about, it was yummy! I always hate to leave, I feel close to my mom with that side of her family.  But I know we will be back soon. Regan and I made good time getting home, and I think the boys missed us a little bit!

Annual Decorating of the Gingerbread!

Our Girl Scout troop has been doing this for years now, one of our leader's church hosts a Gingerbread House decorating event, and we've gone for 5 or 6 years. Our whole troop goes, and it's a nice fun family event. But, they made some changes this year and the houses were much smaller, and the icing was WAY runnier! And the kids just weren't as into it as before (growing up, they need to stop that!) So, Regan sat with her friends and they decorated their houses while Riley and David goofed off. It was still fun, but a little sad that it will be our last year to do it.

And Regan boxed her house up before I got a picture of it, and then it didn't quite make the ride home too well. It kind of tilted and some of the roof fell off. So, these are the only pictures I got.

Six Flags for Black Friday

I am SO anti-shopping on Black Friday. I don't care if other people do it, but I hate crowds, and there's nothing I need that badly!! I just don't feel it.

So instead, we headed off to Six Flags! It was great, no lines, and it's the "Holiday in the Park" so there was yummy cocoa. It didn't open until 4, so we had a lazy morning at home and then headed down to San Antonio, hit the rides the kids wanted to ride, had some cocoa, met Bugs Bunny, bought some capes, and headed home. We have season passes that we got last year, and this was our first time to use them. We are planning on using them again over Christmas break too. It's fun because it's not crowded!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! David and the kids were off Wednesday, so David and I went grocery shopping to get all the food we needed, and checked out the new Costco. David smoked a practice turkey just for us Wednesday night, to make sure the wood wasn't wet, and it would taste okay! So Thursday morning, we didn't have much to do, smoke the second turkey and I made sweet potato casserole. We headed over to Pam and Dave's around 1, and they had a house full! We had 31 people there with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. The kids had fun playing the Wii, and we had so much food.

It was fun to catch up with everyone and just spend time together. It wasn't a crazy busy holiday and we came home with a lot of yummy leftovers :)

And I didn't take one picture. Shame on me!

Mystery Meat Lunch and Progress Report

Regan's school was having a special "Thanksgiving" lunch for parents, so I went and met her, but "forgot" to order a lunch from the school! It didn't look like I missed out on too much either! But it was fun to sit there and talk with her and hear about her day.

The next day, I had a 504 meeting with her teachers and the school staff and it was a very good report. They re-evaluated her dyslexia and dysgraphia and she has shown so much improvement! They look for an 80 point increase in one program over a years time and Regan made over 180 point increase! They were all very nice and had wonderful things to say about Regan and her dedication to her education. She's doing so well in math and has really been getting into reading, and is on book 5 of a chapter book series, which is a big deal for her! She and I have been reading Harry Potter together in the evenings too, because she's been wanting to read them but I think the size of them has been a bit daunting. But I don't mind, it's probably my 5th time reading the books, I love to read and gladly read them to her!!

I'm just proud of her for sticking to it, and not getting discouraged, and making such huge improvements. She wants to be a vet so bad, loving reading and math will make that so much easier for her in the long run!

Veteran's Day Parade/We Are Girls

It's been a bit of a "divide and conquer" weekend. One of our Girl Scout leaders had something come up, so they asked me to take her place at the "We Are Girls" Conference today. Riley had a fundraising hike for ROTC but he also had a parade for Sea Cadets, and he's color guard, so he really HAD to be there for the parade. We did raise money for ROTC, but he went to the parade. David met them out there so he could take pictures for me.

So Regan and I headed out with the troop bright and early this morning, and the keynote speaker was a young lady that was on the Olympic Boxing team. She was pretty inspiring, and it was neat to see a girl do so well in such a male dominated sport. Then we had several breakout sessions, but it was pretty unorganized and we weren't able to get into the sessions we really wanted, but overall, it wasn't too bad. We all got to wear our new troop shirts, and they were cute!

And then David went out to Cedar Park for the Parade and he said Riley did great. He look so dog-gone handsome in his dress blues! AND, I got to use my sewing machine again right before he left for drill, he got a 3 stripe instead of a 2 stripe (I don't know what that means except it's a rank up) so I got to sew the new patch on, and being a small sleeve, I think I did pretty good!

So we have about an hour of down time before we head off for our small group. We are now entering the "busy season" of our lives! From here till Christmas, it seems like it's just non-stop activities!

Regan's 'Role Model' she said, "My mom, she's nice, careing and loves me!" Aww!

Regan's Veteran's Day Ceremony

Regan's school has a special Veteran's Day Ceremony every year. She's in the choir so they sing a special song, "To Those Who Serve" (it's very good and always makes me tear up!) And then being a Girl Scout, she and the other Girl Scouts in her school present a wreath to the Veterans. It's a nice ceremony, and they invite the veterans to a reception afterward. Regan really wanted to invite her family veterans, but we have none that live close by! Riley's school ROTC Color Guard presented the colors (they had the girl's team this year!) so it was neat to see them there.

So here is Regan in choir (she's second from the left on the back row, hard to see her), and helping present the wreath.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween costumes were a little rough this year. Regan isn't into the "little girl's" things or sizes anymore, but the women's and junior's sizes are WAY to provocative!! So, we had to really shop around to find one that she liked, and that I agreed to. The one she picked was WAY too short, but paired with black leggings, I figured it would pass. She really liked it, and was excited to be a "Zombie Bride". Riley decided about 2 days before Halloween that he wanted a horse head mask. Of course I couldn't find one anywhere and had to order it on Amazon, overnight (thank God for Amazon Prime!)

So, here's the little darlings on Halloween. Riley had a football game, so he got a late start. He only ended up going to a few houses, I think he just wanted to feel like a little kid again for one night. Regan went around with her friends while I stayed home and tried to keep Hunter from going crazy with all the doorbell rings. And I added a picture of Elise on her "first" Halloween! She had fun!

Pictures!

Prepare for an onslaught of pictures from the Arkansas trip!

This is the Crater of Diamonds State Park:

Crater of Diamonds State Park

Garvan Woodland Gardens, and the chapel where Regan wants to get married!

Garvan Woodland Gardens

Downtown Hot Springs Walking Tour:

Hot Springs, AR

The Haunted Tour (wooooo woooooo)

Haunted Hot Springs Tour

Heifer Village Tour:

Heifer Village

Willow Springs Water Park:

Willow Springs

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls Theme park:

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls

Random Pictures of The Radford Girl Scout House:

Radford House

The Trip down and back:

The TRIP

iFly Austin

We decided to reward Riley for his good grades this year (he ended the school year with all A's and B's!) and with it being Father's Day weekend, we combined it, and did a father/son indoor skydiving trip! This place is new to Austin, and they've been wanting to check it out, and they had a father's day special. Riley was very excited to try it out.

You check in, and watch the experts do it, they make it look SO easy! Then you go to "flight school" where they teach you the basics. Then you get suited up and get ready for your turn. You each get a minute of air time (if you jump out of a plane, it's less than that I guess) and then you get 2 turns. So you end up with about 2:15 in the air, but you can always buy more air time (of course!)

Riley was first, and he did great. The first time you just get flat and get used to it, and learn to stay in place and in form. The second turn, they have an instructor come in and fly you up to the ceiling! That was Riley's favorite part. Now he wants to go back and learn how to do tricks and flips. I took video of them going up, and pictures of them flying. We got a free DVD of their flight too, but I haven't watched it yet.

And then we went to Kerbey Lane for lunch, yummy. It's been a while since we've been there, and the kids love it. By then, Little Bit was awfully tired, so we headed home for nap time!

iFly Weekend

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, we didn't do too much for Memorial Day. Riley had his friend Yosh spend the night, and Regan spent the night with a friend, and we were home with Elise who is still contagious so not going out anywhere. David smoked a brisket and we just hung out at home. Working on crawling and standing with Elise. She's getting better at crawling, not quite there yet, but she has one leg that just won't cooperate! She has been on her hands and knees and her elbows give out and she konks her head! But she just keeps on going, she's a tough old bird!!  So here's a video of her crawling (with a photobomb by Princess), or trying to crawl, to Riley, and of course, a picture of the yummy brisket!

Happy Mother's Day

After our exhausting Diva Day, we headed over to Mimi and Papa's to celebrate Mother's Day a day early so we could all take a nap on Mother's Day!! Hey, it works for us. I made potato salad, we grilled burgers and hot dogs, and ALL the kids and grandkids were there, plus some. It was a house full! Elise enjoyed seeing her cousins that are little like her, they played together a little bit. We played games and just had a good time.


On Sunday, it was my day to do set up and breakfast for the green room at church, so we had to get there pretty early to get that done. Then after church we had a quick bite for lunch and went back up to church to take down and help set up for lunch. Then took the kids to see a house we liked (we are thinking of selling our house and buying a new one) and then took Riley to a friends house, and then home for my Mother's Day nap. No lie, it was probably the best gift I got! It was so nice.

Regan made a bookmark for me at school, and she and Riley gave me the sweetest cards. David bought me a book, and flowers, and a card, and he surprised me with dinner at Perry's Steakhouse! It was super nice! It was a really great Mother's Day.

Happy Easter!

We had an interesting Easter this year. It was pretty low key and just not terribly exciting. Which is good! Our church had 11 services, so we volunteered for 4 of them (instead of our usual ALL). We served the 2 Friday night and 2 Saturday night services. David does Campus Support (which is like the security team I guess) and I do check-in for the kids and pre-k, and Riley helped with the Easter hunt in pre-k, and Regan helped out in her 2 year old class. She also brought friends for the Saturday services, and they had fun. I sat in one grown up service and one kids service. The kids services are just so much more fun!

So on Sunday it was strange to sleep in and not get dressed up in an Easter dress and head to church! Instead we spent some time together and headed to Mimi and Papa's for lunch. Riley brought his bike so he could ride the bike trails at the park near their house, and we just ate and cleaned up, the guys took a nap and Regan watched a movie. Pretty low key!

And the best part about it...leftovers! I love ham leftovers. Then it was time to get the kids to bed early for the week of dreaded STAAR testing. Ugh. I hate standardized tests.

Spring Break

Normally I have tons of fun Spring Break posts and pictures of us going to Six Flags, or the rodeo and carnival, or something, somewhere, anywhere! But, it's been a different kind of spring break this year.

Regan is out of commission with two broken arms, Riley had to have a tooth pulled and a tooth filled on Monday.  On Wednesday, David hurt his back again, this time pretty bad and had to go to the chiropractor. He could barely move. And then yesterday he had a tooth pulled that had broken and gotten abscessed. So I've been nursemaid and entertainer. We did go see The Hobbit, which I really didn't want to see, but it's at the dollar movie and Regan had been begging us to go see it. Regan has spent a night or two with friends, and so has Riley, but other than that, we've barely left the house.

Yawn. I'm mentally making lists of things to do this summer to make up for this suckiness.

I "mustache" you to be my valentine!

Regan was home sick the day before Valentine's day, so I wasn't sure she would make it to school, but thankfully, she ran a low fever for a little bit, and then was fine, so she was able to make it to the party! That also meant I stayed up late cutting out 22 mustaches. Nothing like last minute, right? But, she said they were a huge hit, and they are super cute. There is just something I love about homemade valentine's!

Happy New Year

We found ourselves kidless on New Year's Eve, for the first time probably since we've had kids! Regan had a dentist appointment (another good report for her!) and a friend called to see if we wanted to go get Princess micro-chipped for free at the animal shelter with them, so we went and did that. Then they asked if Regan could just hang out with them, and then, if she could spend the night. I was home waiting for the plumber who never came, so I brought her a bag and she spent the night.

So David and I went to one of our favorite sushi places. After 9 it's half price so we had a cheap, no-kid date! We came home, watched TV and vegged. I twas nice because it was cold and rainy and nasty out.

The next day, we made a nice breakfast, got Regan and then headed over to Pam and Dave's for the traditional cabbage and black eyed peas. Regan said she doesn't like those, but she ate like 3 helpings of each!

Everybody was there, except Riley, which really made me miss him. But we had lunch and played Scattergories and had a lot of fun. We sat around for so long, we all got hungry again and the guys made a pizza run. It was a fun day until we realized everyone had to be at work the next morning so we had to pack it up. We decided we need regular game nights though!

So here's a few pictures of the girls, Makayla wouldn't let me take her picture, so I kept trying to take one when she wasn't looking, which didn't work very well, but Georgia was pretty photogenic! And I just love her pouffy hair! And Regan had fun being the big cousin, they had a blast playing with her. And we brought Princess with us and she got spoiled, her Mimi made her a runny egg, she was in heaven!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day '12

We had a very low key, easy Christmas day! The kids tried to wake us up around 5am, but then crawled in bed with us and went back to sleep until about 8. We rebelled and stayed in bed until about 9am and then they just couldn't take it anymore so we thought we would go ahead and put them out of their misery!

They started with their Santa gifts. Riley got a 22 rifle (that's all I know about it!) and Regan got a horse for her new doll. Then she wanted David and I to open the presents she bought for us at her school fair. She has been wanting us to open them since the day she bought them! She did good, mine was a cute little snow globe with a penguin inside. She got David a little pen and notepad. She told him it was the only thing for a boy in her price range! That girl is too sweet!

Riley got some Navy gear, a new Xbox Live year long membership, a day of paintball (with a friend) a new battery for his phone, and a game. Regan got mostly stuff for her doll, a bed, horse, pony, dog, and a riding outfit, and a new book that she's been wanting.

Then the kids went to play, and I finished up some baking for the neighbors. And then did a million loads of laundry and spent the rest of the day packing Riley for boot camp. I can't believe he leaves tomorrow. I can't think about it, or I will cry!

Christmas Eve

We had a candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. We had attended the day before so we were all signed up to serve at the 3pm service. It was fun in Kids, we had games and carols and watched clips from "It's a Wonderful Life" and had a raffle for presents!

Then we headed to Pam and Dave's for Christmas with them. Regan got an American Girl doll, she wanted the one that looks like her, and it really does look a lot like her! She was so excited, she's wanted one forever. Riley got a new skateboard, he has been needing a new one, and this one is super cool, blood-skull-zombie boy type stuff!

We had a traditional Mexican Christmas dinner, with tamales, refried beans and corn salsa rice. Yum! It was nice with not a lot of clean up to do, and we spent time visiting and eating.

When we got home, the kids got to open their traditional Christmas Eve present (usually pajamas!) and surprise, footy pajamas! They looked so cute in them. They were in a hurry to get to bed, and were out cold by 10pm! I had all the presents wrapped, just had to get the stockings stuffed and let Santa work his magic!