Birthday celebration!!

For sweet Susannah's birthday celebration dinner, we went to the Magic Time Machine, in Dallas, with our good friends, The Thompsons. It was amazing...as always. And this time...we got to eat in...THE BUS!! The kids were so very excited. They all got to have fizzy drinks with their dinner and they liked that, even more!

Sorry for the stinky pictures...I took them on zoom with my iphone and it was kinda dark inside of the bus. The kids loved it.

Our waiter this time was Peter Pan. He was pretty funny and like all the waiters there at The Magic Time Machine, very quick and whitty. The kids loved that.

Here is the birthday girl and the "birthday hat" that they gave her to wear! We love to do birthdays at the Magic Time Machine. Come and visit...we will let you take us for your first visit, too!!

Putt-Putt

We are horrible parents. Okay, not THAT horrible, but Parker got to play Putt-Putt Golf for the first time this past weekend. Grace was invited to a birthday party for a girl on her softball team and we tagged along and took the littles on their own adventure.

Susie wasn't really into the whole thing...no big deal. She was more into posing in her new outfit. But Parker...WOW. He loved it and kept running ahead to try and get the ball into the next hole! It was pretty cute.

Of course, Aaron and I turned it into a competition. He beat me by one stroke. Argh. Oh well, I can claim that I had to hold the score card in my mouth and couldn't concentrate on the ball completely. HA! It's worth a try, anyway.

After the party, we stayed after with one of Grace's friends and they played video games. They won 1000 (yes, one thousand) tickets in one game....just in case you ever wondered what one thousand tickets looks like....here you go. The girls were sooo excited that they won.

And here is what 1000 tickets at this place gets you. 2 pairs of wacky glasses, 2 crazy squashy balls, 2 packs of pop rocks and I think they got something for Susie and Parker. Pretty good. :) A fun day was had by all...oh and Aaron got to go and watch the first game of the American League Championship Series of Baseball at Ranger Field with his best buds. I was totally jealous...they had a great time and the Rangers won!! :) Of course, they had a 110 minute rain delay, which I was NOT jealous of when I was sitting on my nice and dry couch watching the Rangers win. he he he.

Eight is GREAT!!

Eight years old. Really? This time 8 years ago, I was about to hop on a plane with my husband, a 2 year old and a newborn baby girl. THIS newborn baby girl who turned 8 years old last week. Crazy much? Yes, we are! Aaron's job has taken us on some fun adventures, but getting on a plane and moving to Alaska with 2 little ones has to take the cake. For now, anyway! Susie Q has been filling our lives with laughter and love for 8 years and I don't see any changes coming soon. She is so funny and has the best laugh of any kid that I know.

This morning she woke up, made her bed and rushed down to breakfast in her new birthday outfit. Grace and Parker could care less what they wear day to day. Susie....uh, no. She cares what she wears down to the headband on her little head and it's just precious. I love the way that God has made each one of my children so completely different and so special to Him and to us as parents.

Aaron was out of town and came back into town at 7:45 that night. Susie would have nothing to do with eating dinner without our dear family not being complete so we snacked and met Aaron at Chili's at 8:00 that night for dinner. It's a great thing that her birthday was on a Friday this year or we would have been skyping dinner with daddy and going to bed! ha ha ha

The waitress was so nice and Susie loved getting sung to at Chili's and of course, the Chocolate Molten Cake wasn't too shabby either.
We love you, SusieQ, our little fashion diva!!

Growing so fast!

I don't really like that things are moving so quick. When Parker was born, we moved here to Ft. Worth for the first time. He was 5 months old. Now, moving back here, he is 5 years old. I know people always say to not blink, because your kids grow up before your eyes. I totally believe it. Not that I don't see it in Grace and Susannah...but with the baby of the family, it's WAY more noticeable!

This morning in the car on the way to pre-school...and yes, I kept my 5 year old boy home an extra year. Sue me. He's a summer birthday boy. As a former teacher, I wish ALL mothers of summer birthday boys would keep them home an extra year. Don't get me wrong, Parker is a super super smart kid. But, he's my baby and I can keep him home an extra year to work on that boy "maturity" thing if I want to....and....he's' my baby. I think I said that already...so there.

Anyway...back to the ride this morning. We are in the car and talking about the upcoming New Muppet Movie.

Parker says, "Mom! I tried to watch another Muppet movie on Netflix this morning and when I clicked on it, it said (in a computer voice) "Go to Redbox...we don't have this movie" So, can we go to the Redbox and get the Muppet Movie?" Oh my...so funny. I love that kid.

It's beginning to look like fall!

I love fall! I do...I think it's my favorite season. Actually, I love all the seasons. Yes, I just wrote that. For several years, we lived in Alaska...you know what season you have there most of the time. Then this past move, we were outside of Houston, Texas. Just about the opposite of Alaska. Pretty warm for most of the year. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE warm weather. I prefer warm over cold. After the summer that we've experienced in Houston and now here in Ft. Worth, I am so very thankful for some cooler weather.

I've been playing on a website called, Pinterest. Love, love, LOVE that website. There are some wonderful ideas and recipes on that site that I've already used and am in the process of using more and more. Here is a link to my page on Pinterest. Check it out....I am a great copier of cute ideas. Not so much with coming up with the ideas...but give me a guide and I can run with anything!

This week I was so very excited to see that the pumpkins were out at Wal-Mart! YES!! I love it! So, I promptly purchased some pumpkins and then drove myself over to Hobby Lobby where all their fall stuff is on 40% off. Yep. I made the wreath and the little stuff in the pots on the porch. So very proud of my artsy self today. Of course, now I just realized that the pots are two different colors. Oh well...I found them in the back yard covered in dirt. Thank you old owners of this house! Maybe that is why one is cleaner than the other. That might have to be a Parker job for this weekend.

Welcome Fall...I am so thankful that you are finally here!

New team, fun times!

Grace is loving her new team. She plays for the Texas Shock 2001 out of Mansfield. They are a great group of very talented girls and Grace (and the rest of the family) is fitting in just fine! This weekend we were in Grand Prairie for a 24 team, single elimination tournament. Translation: You lose once, you go home.

The main problem was that it rained Friday night. I'm not complaining one little bit! I am soo very thankful to God for the rain...every little tiny drop of it. In fact, I would have loved for it to have rained all weekend, but I'll take Friday night, too. So, when we arrived on Saturday morning a little before 7 am for warm-ups, they informed us that we were all going to be delayed until 11:00 so that they could work on the wet fields. We promptly drove home. The kids enjoyed a quiet morning, I went to Wal-Mart and fixed breakfast, while Aaron took a nap. We then headed back to the fields in Grand Prairie (a 30 min. drive from our house) when they told us that we had another delay until noon. No big deal. The girls played the biggest game of Sally Walker I've ever seen, played steam-roller and then finally got to warm-up to play ball. Fun times with new friends. My kids loved it. The girls are really great about including the little brothers and sisters and that really makes me one happy mama.

Then we started winning. We didn't lose Saturday or Sunday. In fact, we won the whole tournament! Grace, Brinklee and Reece pitched all weekend and were just fantastic. The team played great defense and hit the ball like crazy. Grace had a stand up double and triple. She also bunted in a run that helped us win a really close game on Sunday afternoon. She had her dad write it in her big accomplishment book. "a bunt to win a game" is what she called it. It was a pretty bunt. ha ha ha

After the games, the girls come over to the fence and do a little cheer with stomping and clapping with the crowd. It's really cute and Grace really does enjoy being on this team. I was wondering at first because she loves her Cobra buddies so very much, but she is fitting in just right with these new girls. I'm very thankful.

You can't leave out the funny pictures now, can you? They sit still for the group picture in the anticipation of the silly picture and I love it!

Here's our girl and her First place trophy. We are going to have to invest in some shelves with this team....we already have 3 huge trophies and it's only been 2 weekends! I guess it's a great problem to have. Go Shock!!

World Series 2011

I decided that I better blog about this because if I don't, I will look back later and wonder why I didn't. Crazy, I know. Grace's select softball team from Katy was pretty good. When we were the 8U Katy Cobras, they won the Texas State Championship and we went to the World Series as an 8U team. Now that they all had birthdays and made the jump to 10U, we didn't know how good they would be...well, they were good enough to go to the USFA World Series and do great!! :) Grace pitched a no-hitter in our first bracket game and loved playing in Panama City. Here are a few pictures from our trip. The girls wrote out, Cobra's 01 in the sand..the letters were about 8 feet tall and you could see them from our 25th story window of our condo! :) They filled in the sand with seaweed. There was a ton of it in the water and on the beach this year.

We had a condo right on the beach this year that saved us money in the eating department, but we had to have one meal at Jimmy Buffett's place.  Nothing like a Cheeseburger in Paradise!! Grace had just pitched a great game in the picture and was so excited with the treat of going out for lunch to celebrate.

Grace doing her thing that she loves the very most....

This is her stance while she is waiting on a sign from her catcher...it's pretty funny to watch her expressions through the mask. And yes, my child wears a mask. Those kids can hit the ball...HARD!!

At this at bat, Grace hit a triple that cleared the full bases!! 3 RBI's and a triple....we won this game 7 to 3. Pretty proud...but of course, I would have been fine with her striking out 3 times in a row.  Regardless of what happens on the field, Grace is a supreme winner in my book with her attitude and actions off the field.  So very proud of her.  Always.

 It rained on and off one game...all the littles (brothers and sisters) stayed under the tent and played their Nintendos.  They all got along so well...it honestly was like we had our own big Cobra family.

This was their last huddle, after their loss in overtime in a game that they had won until that last overtime. We found out before this game that we were getting transferred. I was pretty upset to leave this team of family.

The loss was heartbreaking, but a such a blessing.  The rain started after that game....and didn't stop for 5 days.  Teams from all over the US sat around and waited for it to stop.  For 3 days....and then they cancelled the rest of the tournament.  That could have been us, had we won that game.  We were blessed. Some people were upset that we lost.  There were some bad calls.  The girls were winning the whole game....until that last 30 seconds and we didn't call time out.  We could have called time and stretched out the game and then won.  Our coach was doing other things and didn't call time out.  The Tennessee team got another inning and they took over and tied the game.  Overtime was horrible to watch.  The girls were tired and done.

Grace and our family left it on the field and were so thankful for the experience to get to play and win (and even have a no-hitter!) in the World Series.  Many teams sat and waited for rain to stop...it did.  5 days later.  Some families were out a ton of money with no real ending to the tourney.  We, on the other hand, were on our way to Ft. Worth to hunt for our new home and start another beginning in our lives. 

We miss our Cobra family so much.  We played with them, almost every weekend for 2 years.  That's a lot of family time and a ton of softball.  But, there will be other teams and Grace will play great wherever.  And if she doesn't want to play softball....I'm great with that, too.  God lead us where you want us to go and we will follow....now, can we have some of that rain that we saw back in Florida this summer? :)

We are thankful for that rain and another new beginning in our lives.

I can't decide...

I know...Long time, no blog.  WAY too much has happened since February to even start to catch up, so I am going to give you the short version.

Family, PTA, and the great travel softball team had us WAY busy in the spring and summer and in the middle of the Softball World Series, we got the news that we were getting transferred back to Ft. Worth!!  So very excited we were, the only exception was that our preacher at our congregation had just announced his resignation the Sunday before.  MAJOR letdown, but God is using them all over the place with this move and I know He is working in our congregation from their move as well. 

So...in less than one month...we found a new house (which we LOVE and hope to get to stay forever!!), sold our old house (praise!  We even got what we paid for it...and in this market...that is saying something!!) and got all moved in the Friday before school started.  People, let me tell ya...if you don't see God working in your life, you need to open your eyes!!  He moved mountains for our family in July and August and I am soo thankful.

So...now what?  Honestly....coming back isn't easy.  2 years is a long time.  People have moved on and relationships change.  I know that.  We just have to make ourselves available to our friends and hope that they remember that we are back, too. They are involved in their stuff that happened while we were gone and we aren't a part of that now.  Maybe my not being on certain committees and certain groups is good.  It will give me time to observe and reflect and what is going on around me and choose what I want to get involved in now. 

BUT....It's hard to not be SO involved at the girl's school.  I love their school.  It's great and it's tiny.  I love that EVEN more.  Grace really LOVES her new school and I am so very thankful.  Susie is good wherever we put that little one....but Grace was the big bad 5th grader and was pretty much ruling the school at Stanley.  I was really worried when we found out about the move for her.  The 5th grade teachers were all begging to have her in their class and here she was starting all over, with not a lot of time to make her mark.  But, Grace will be Grace and will bloom where she is planted.  I'm not worried now.  She loves her school.

Being up at Stanley Elementary, kept me plugged in and going all the time.  But, the new school doesn't let you bring siblings up to school, so I'm going to have to restrict my "helping days" to Tuesdays and Thursdays when Parker is up at his little school.  When I wasn't up working at school...I was eating lunch with my PTA gals.  I miss them tons.  I'm sure Aaron doesn't miss the lunch bills, but I miss the conversation. 

The past two weeks...I have been dying to have some lunch conversation.  I got to go to lunch with girlfriends a few weeks ago and I didn't want to leave...I'm sure they were sick of me, but I loved it! Hopefully things will start to get back to normal for me, soon.  Goodness, I already have a room mom's breakfast time on Monday and I'm so excited to meet some other moms at our school and get to know them!

Me and Parkerman are having a blast...I just miss all the mommy time.  I think what might just do me in is Wednesdays.  From 10am-2pm, Parker would go to our church and they had a babysitter that was paid for by the women's ministry.  It was awesome!!  All of us mom's did a Beth Moore Bible Study and had great discussion time while our kids were being taken care of by some great ladies.  Then, we all went to lunch KID FREE with each other.  It was SUCH a blessing to me and we got so many other young moms involved this way, too! Our ladies bible study here is pretty short and sweet. Maybe I will come in and stir the pot a little with Parker!! :)  We will see...our first meeting is next Wednesday!

This big house is pretty quiet on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I have to find something to do!!  Just don't tell Aaron yet....he will make me go out and get a real job! I'll post pictures of the new place as soon as I get it all clean and stuff hanging on the walls.  Until then....I'm looking for someone to go to lunch with...wanna join me??

Better now...

Parker and I have had quite the fun filled morning....I wish I could put up pictures!  Soon!  I will go back and put them in...

We made orange (his very favorite color)P homemade play dough, we've played 3 games, made homemade pizza and now we have been watching a movie...so instead of falling asleep, I got here on my little laptop.

Parker declared this, "The BEST day EVER!!" a little while ago...I will have to agree.  The only thing that would make it better would be to have 2 sisters and a daddy here....but we can't have everything, can we??

Off to finish watching a movie with sweet Parkman and wipe his nose...again.  :)
I love my life!!! 

It's Mommy Day!

Parker is 4...a big 4, but still 4 years old.  I love Mondays and Fridays.  Parker calls them, "Mommy Days" and I love that.  If you didn't already know, Parker is a Mama's boy.  Every morning at 6:30 AM, he comes downstairs from his bed and crawls in bed with us.  Aaron says that he comes in earlier sometimes, but most mornings, it's almost on the dot, 6:30.  We don't get up at our house until 7AM.  Just right for a little snuggle time to start out a busy day.  He gets up on his own a tad bit before 7 and runs upstairs to watch something on Netflix in the playroom while I get the girls ready for their day.  He even shuts the door to the playroom because he knows it will get Susie in trouble if she goes in there before school.  So cute. 

So, I'm getting off here....because today is "Mommy Day" and we are going to make the most of our day.  I put a huge roast in the crock pot this morning so I wouldn't have to cook tonight.  We are going to tackle Target and get the cooler packed for this weekend's games.  Grace and her softball team, The Texas Turn 2, are playing in the Winter World Series, so we will be gone all day tomorrow and Sunday.  We will roll back in town just in time for small groups Sunday night.  Pray for warm weather...it's no fun to be out there freezing!!

Parker is also WAY into playing chess right now.  Aaron got a new chess set for Christmas from my parents and taught the two littles to play over the break.  Grace already knew how....I know you are surprised.  So, now anytime we are home (which really isn't that often) the kids want to battle it out in chess.  We lead such exciting lives, don't we???

Well...I'm off.  Let Mommy Day, begin!!

Oh...and I know, there haven't been any pictures....I loaned my laptop to a friend who's computer fried, so I will put pictures up next week when she gets her new one and I get my laptop back.  Promise.