October 2011 - Jeep trip to Marble Falls, TX

Ok, so Drew has wanted me to go on a Jeep trip for like forever......he finally convinced me to go in October. It was a lot of fun, pretty rough riding and the weather was nice. The kids enjoyed it, Shelby loves going "toeing on the rocks" something she made up on her 1st trip - still not really sure what it means, I guess it's just climbing around on rocks?? There were a few nerve-wracking moments, climbing up some steep rocks and going down them. I'm sorry, you just aren't meant to be in a vehicle, on a steep rock looking at the sky and this be fun. LOL We also learned that apparently Joshy sleeps better on trail rides then in the RV in his pack & play. The first day, he slept during most of our morning trail ride (about 1 hour) and then I tried putting him down in the RV for an afternoon nap. He was having NONE of that, which made for a very cranky little boy that night. The 2nd day, Drew suggested we just take him on both trail rides so we did and he took naps on both, go figure!! I do not know how he slept while we're going over rocks, it was pretty rough. But he did!! All in all we had a fun little family trip, it was nice to get away the 4 of us. I just realized that I don't have the pictures from our trail rides on my camera, will have to get from Drew's. Will update soon!!

Campsite - we enjoyed being in the RV.

Shelby is ready to GO!!!

"Oooh rocks....bet these might taste good."

Napping during trail ride.....it was dusty & bumpy, I have no idea how he napped!!

Shelby being a stinker.....she loves Jeepin'.

Headed home, riding in the RV back to McKinney.

September 2011 - Building the Swing Set

So, we finally got the swing set up in September....it was a little hot but not as miserable as the summer would've been in the 100's. The kids just love it and it's been great to have something to do outside in the backyard. Drew did an awesome job sorting all the materials & labeling them, which made it to find what was needed for each stage. He did a great job putting it together....it's a little bigger than I realized, but really, should I expect any less with Drew?? I think his motto is "Go BIG or go HOME". LOL

Ok, ready to get started.....

Base & level 1 are framed out.....starting level 2.

Level 2 & 3 framed out, working on roof.

Joshy really loves Daddy's tools....he loves to sit there & play with them.

Working on picnic table, still have arm to do for swings & ladders.

Most everything is done, need to get swings up, slide & rockwall on.

Guess I didn't get a final picture of the whole thing when done, will put one on another post!

Shelby's Birthday & 1st day Kindergarten

Ok, so rather than trying to put all these pictures in one long post, I broke them up into a few posts (see below posts). I think that was the problem I had the other night (and why I have all that whitespace in my 8/18 post, I have tried to delete it & can't seem to!!). I put way too many pictures and poor blogspot couldn't handle it! It seems this will work better.....it already has seeing as I got these posts on very quickly and the other night it was taking forever to type one sentence!! It goes backward in chronology, Shelby's birthday, then Joshua's and then some summer pics.

Before the party started, Shelby being funny girl. She was soooo excited for her party.



We had a bowling toss game to play, we used tennis balls and the kids really seemed to enjoy it!
We also had another game called "Pin the fin on the shark" (like pin tail on donkey). The kids seemed to have fun w/these old school games....hooray!



Princess cake....CRAZY story on this. I ordered it Wed. before Shelby's party, scheduled for 9am because party was at 10:00. Drew goes to pick up at 9:15 and they have NO cake for us. He talks to baker & confirms what we need and they tell him come back in 30 minutes. He comes home & tells me, I am in a panic. We have no cake???!!! But he assures me all will work out, that one way or another he will get her a cake. I just could NOT believe it. Then he goes back to get it, still working on it, so he asks to speak to the manager. Very calmly explains we have a party & little girl expecting a Princess cake, which I had ordered early in the week AND confirmed on Friday (when I went to order balloons). Long story short, the manager ended up giving us the cake for free and Drew made it back just in time as kids were arriving. Whew!! That is the 2nd year in a row I have had problems w/my cake being ready. Last year, different place, but same problem; I arrived and it wasn't ready. What am I cursed?? Drew suggested next year we order it for day ahead and just put in fridge until party. I'm seriously thinking that might be the way to go.




Shelby getting ready to hit the pinata!!
Thankfully we had a couple of older kids (our neighbors) and they were able to really whack that thing good to get the candy out. Drew was wondering if he'd have to step in & help because we didn't want to be stuck outside in the heat for long while the little kids kept hitting it. :) But Ayden got it going & then Tyler, our anchor, hit it real hard and all the candy came out.



My scrapbooker friend, Crystal, had the FANTASTIC idea of having the kids pose with the bowling banner, isn't it cute??!! SO can't wait to scrapbook this page!! Thanks Crystal!!



1st day of Kindergarten @ FCA....my baby girl is SO big!!! (sniffle, sniffle....boo-hoo!)

Joshua's 1st Birthday

Yummmm.....cake....it's really best to just stick your whole hand in there too.

I maybe should have rethought the blue icing, it was everywhere, very messy. And I forgot to strip him down too. But thankfully the icing came out of his clothes, so guess it all worked out.

Oh, all these presents, what do I do?? Thankfully his big sister & cousin Mason were there to help unwrap. He honestly had no idea what to do. But the big kids were more than happy to jump in, unwrap gifts & help him play. Whew, crisis averted. :)




He really likes this firetruck toy from Mason, Aunt Kellie & J.R.
It has buttons that make sounds & everything!!
He likes those best and hits them again and again and again......and again.
Anything to make NOISE. :)

Silly pictures from summer.....

Joshy pulled the plate from the table to his tray, I hadn't realized he could reach that far!!

He loooves nutrigrain bars but oh what a mess! ALL over his fingers.


Shelby's lost tooth, kinda hard to see but that red spot is where it was.
Waiting any day for the 2nd one to go, she just can't wait!!

And now arriving, Princess Shelby!!!

Drew will HATE that I put this on here, but it is too funny!! He loves playing w/Shelby's princess crowns, it is so funny. I will say though, he had camo pajamas on but not sure if that makes it better or worse. Ha!!

Birthdays, Teeth & Starting School....

I will try to catch up as best I can. I'm having trouble w/blogspot too, so this may be short & a better update later. We had a good winter, very healthy with a couple of great snow days. Shelby graduated preschool in May & also had her year end Kindertots basketball program. Nana & Papa came to visit & attend. It was so neat to see all the skills she'd learned.

Spring seemed to be a blip and it seemed we were in the hot days of summer very early. Shelby & Drew went to the beach club a lot (our local pool in the neighborhood, there actually is sand for the beach! Both kids took swimming lessons, although for Joshua it was really just getting him in the water, but he loved it! Shelby really enjoyed her lessons & it's been neat to see how well she's doing in the water. And Shelby made friends with 2 neighbor boys and spent evenings outside riding her scooter until dark. And while Joshy got his top & bottom teeth, Shelby lost her first tooth, boy was that exciting for her!! She has another loose tooth that she checks often to see how loose it is.

Joshua turned 1 on July 4th and boy did he enjoy cake! He was very messy and had a lot of fun with that. He also loves ice cream, his Daddy shares with him and he likes it! Shelby turned 5 just a couple of weeks ago. We had a princess party at the house, played games & hit a pinata. It is so hard to believe she is 5, it seems like only yesterday I was a sleep-deprived, stressed new Mom trying to manage just getting a shower each day. How far we've come!! Joshua began crawling in the Spring and is attempting steps now. He stands alone and will lean forward and then CRASH. So, still much to learn there. Shelby started school this week...we are homeschooling 3 days using the A Beka program and then she attends Faith Christian Academy 2 days for their enrichment program (art, music, PE). We work on the core subjects at home and while it was challenging & tiring this week, it was also very exciting to see her learning. We are teaching her cursive writing and looking forward to learning to read.

Ok, well that just about catches things up....life is very busy with figuring out our school schedule, but we're excited about this year and all that it may bring. Oh yea, guess I could update on Drew & I, we do have things going on outside our children! Drew upgraded the lift kit on his Jeep, yes made it higher. He also recently got a promotion at work and while it means working longer hours it's been a great thing so far. I am also still busy with various ministries at church in addition to my Mom/Wife and now teaching duties. I'm going on a scrapbooking retreat for Labor Day and look forward to getting away & enjoying my hobby. Plus football is starting, we are SO excited about that. Boomer Sooner!!

Yes, he still does the "hook 'em horns". *sigh*

Yes, she loves playing my iphone....angry birds is her fav.

Tea party with jaguar...the rings stand was her centerpiece.

Such a messy boy!! He loves to put messy hands in his hair.

He was so proud of himself crawling up there. Think he will be our climber, oy!!

Busy Winter!

Well, since our last post we have made 3 trips to Oklahoma, one looooong road trip to California, Drew went to Tulsa, we had a garage sale, had 2 Christmases, celebrated New Year's & Mom & Drew's birthdays and hosted a baby shower!! Whew, we have been busy!! I seriously think the past few weeks I have had little motivation to do much because we were so busy and going at such a fast pace. And last week I got sick, but hopefully am past that now. Thankfully the kids didn't catch it....they've had the sniffles recently, but nothing more severe than that.

Christmas was lots of fun, the road trip in the RV was, well how shall I say it, EVENTFUL. We had 3 flat tires, yes THREE, on the trip which made for just a little bit of frustration. But on the bright side, Drew is really fast at changing a flat on the RV now!! :) (Not sure that was a goal in his life, but one he's accomplished!) We had a fun Christmas with Drew's family and then a 2nd one with my family over New Year's. (Shelby was pretty psyched about getting 2 Christmases, ha!!) All in all the holidays were good and we enjoyed all of our visiting with family.

Shelby is very interested in learning & starting homeschooling (she has asked me several times about it), so we are starting some schoolwork. I found a preschool website that had printable handwriting sheets just like what she does in preschool. So I printed the alphabet off along with these simple word searches too and she just loves doing them! We are trying to work on that when Joshua naps in the afternoon, we haven't managed to do it every day but we're working on it. I really need to carve out a weekend to just print things & get organized. Hope to do that soon. Other than that, she loves playing dress up, cooking in her Princess magic rise oven, playing her Barbie guitar (she says "I'm a Rockstar Superhero Cowgirl!!"), making cards for all her friends and recently building a rocket with her Dad. She saw a little bit of Apollo 13 one night and thinks rockets are super cool now. She really enjoyed all the snow we had last week. All in all she is a very busy little girl!!

Joshua is growing so fast, although I am happy to say he's not as big as Shelby was at this age. I'm enjoying that because I want him to be little for a long time!! :) I definitely am trying to take the time to treasure this young age and enjoy him being a baby. With Shelby I was always so excited for the next thing she was doing, I think sometimes I overlooked just enjoying the current stage she was at and treasuring those moments a little more. Since our last update, he is sleeping through the night (Hallelujiah, can I get an AMEN?!?!), taking 2 naps/day (finally!) and eating solids. He has eaten all the cereal, fruit & veggies we've tried him on, only turned his nose up a couple of times at the first few bites, then decided "I think that's ok!". And he seems to love peas the best!! SO surprising to me, a green veggie! But he has quite the appetite, I told Drew we probably need to bump up our grocery budget, ha!! I am still nursing him and now think I probably will until he's a year. He just never really took to the bottle, he will drink one but just a few ounces and he's soooo slow with it. Plus it's faster than making bottles (and then I don't have to wash them either!) and cheaper, so I've just continued to nurse and it's worked out fine. At least I know if I do need to be gone, he'll take a bottle, I certainly am not worried that he'll starve. :) He was 15 lbs, 10 oz and 27 inches at his 6-month checkup. He's just in the 20th percentile in weight but that will always be the case because he started out so small. But his length is 75%, so he's just long & lean. He has also started babbling a lot and Drew swears he is saying "Mom". I think he's just trying to make me feel good, but it does sound like it sometimes. He just loves his sister's voice & playing with her. He loves to roll over and is learning to sit up by himself. We still prop him up with the boppy pillow, but he's getting better at sitting. He is a sweet little guy and I've really enjoyed having a son.

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful holiday season!! I've posted some family pictures we had taken in Dec. We took these in downtown McKinney w/some girls at church that are starting a photography business. I haven't downloaded all our pics from the camera yet, will do that soon & post those too. Enjoy!!