Tea Party

Grandma got Carleigh the coolest thing for Christmas...a tea party! I finally got around to scheduling and taking her last week. She had a such a good time. Carleigh said she was going to ask for another tea party for Christmas next year. What a great idea! I'm not sure if the girls had more fun drinking the tea or putting sugar in and stirring it! They seemed to enjoy their tea room food and especially loved the dessert...candy bar chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, or banana pudding. What's not to love?!

Bucket List

Summer is in full swing around our house. The kids and I made a summer bucket list and have checked off several things including swimming, having friends over, and going to the movie. We have also done several things that weren't on our list. Makes me want to make a new one so I can check off those too. Have you ever done that? Don't lie... Anyway, we went on our big vacation beginning Memorial Day weekend in Bald Head Island, North Carolina and had a ball! We're also planning on visiting our friends' lake house, making a trip to Rockport, heading back to the deer lease, and going to Garner State Park with some very good friends, one of whom just recently had a precious baby girl and named her Emma. Love that! I can't wait to meet her. I have never been to Garner, and we are so excited. I just hope there's still water running in the Frio River by the time we get there! It's so dang hot, and I don't think that part of Texas has seen much rain. I certainly hope they don't get the flash flooding that New Braunfels got a couple of weeks ago...never a good thing.

The kids got a new (to them) computer the other day and are lovin all the cool games they can play. I'm lovin using it to check email and blog and stuff without having to trek up the stairs and worry about shutting the computer down in the middle of a sentence because I moved the wrong way and made the jalopy mad! Pitiful, I know, especially the "climbing the stairs part," since my rear end isn't fitting quite as nicely as it once did in my clothes. UGH! and Double UGH! Limiting those carbs and making it a priority to get to the gym this week!

Special Moment in Time

Today is our 19th wedding anniversary. Our first date was homecoming, 23 years ago! The slide show below shows pictures from Saturday night, October 26, 2007, when Kelvin totally surprised me with a date to Ross S. Sterling High School's 2007 Homecoming to celebrate our first date, 20 years before. He provided a driver to tote me around town to get a pedicure, an updo with my favorite hair stylist, Veronica, and a new dress at my favorite store, All About You, for the occasion. When I got home, there was a knock at the door, and our parents showed up to help celebrate and take pictures...just like we did 23 years ago. Kelvin went to grap a quick "shower" and came out dressed in a tux. A few minutes later we were ready to leave. As I walked out the door, I thought we were leaving in Kelvin's car, but instead there was a white stretch limo waiting for us in the driveway!! We couldn't get away without taking the kids for a spin around the block in the limo! They were so excited. We got to homecoming (which Kelvin had to get special permission for us to attend) and the sponsors told us our tickets were complimentary. The photographer took us to the front of the line and told us to choose whichever package we wanted on him. We danced a few songs, then left for dinner at Rainbow Lodge where they had rose pedals on the table. Dinner was wonderful! We ended the evening at the Lancaster Hotel in downtown Houston with chocolate dipped strawberries and roses in our room. Kelvin is a gem! I couldn't have imagined such a wonderful evening. I felt like a princess. I will never forget my special moment in time. I love you, Kelvin. Happy Anniversary.

How was your weekend?

Kelvin and I got to get away to Fredericksburg for the weekend sans kiddos. It was fun. Our deer lease landowner and his wife's 50th wedding anniversary reception was Saturday, and we went with Kelvin's uncle. What an accomplishment! So neat to see a couple stay together all of those years. Their entire wedding party was there. They all sat at a table together for dinner. There was a good band that played old country music, and everyone had a good time scooting across the dance floor.

We had a good time in Fredericksburg. I got to read and finish a book, thumb through a magazine, and shop without any distractions, and we both slept two nights in a row without a little one crying and wedging in between us. It was a good break.

Mine and Kelvin's 19th wedding anniversary is tomorrow! I can. not. be. lieve. it!! I must have been 12 when we got married. Actually I was three weeks out of high school, just 18 years old! We weren't even legal to buy champagne to celebrate! Check back tomorrow for a post about our weekend to celebrate 20 years of being together. We started dating in 1987. Kelvin surprised me with a wonderful evening I will not soon forget.

Discovery Green

Last Saturday our crew loaded up and went downtown to Discovery Green to meet a very lovely lady named Jamie, who took some family photos. We had a very fun time, and after the photo shoot was complete, we stayed and played, and played and played some more. We had a ball...

Carleigh was playing some pretty music on the giant chimes

splishin and a splashin

"pee-bo" said the precious little girl in the cutie patootie jumper


Luke was a pro with the remote control sailboat

computer crashed

Our "good" laptop crashed, so we only have the jallopy left. You have to rig the cord just so to make it work. One itty bitty touch the wrong way, and it turns off, which can be incredibly frustrating. Since Kelvin is back in school for the summer session now, he gets top priority. I guess school stuff is more important than blogging. ;) I'm going to try and find some time to post some pictures from our fun weekend later today. Off to finish getting everyone ready for VBS. Didn't you just love going to Vacation Bible School when you were a kid? Ah, good stuff. Summer is so much fun.

Vacation Photos

Here are the vacation photos. I'll try to pick some out to comment on, but I think you can get a glimpse of how much fun we had with this slide show...



Happy Summer!

Extra Extra, Read All About It!

A couple of weeks or so ago, Kelvin and I were in the medical center doing some Emma's Hugs work, and a lovely reporter and her handy dandy photographer were there to interview us, follow us, and take some pics. Click here for the link to the article. Of course, the online version of the article doesn't give you the cool pics, but at least you can read the good article. We thought they did a great job. I think they enjoyed coming alongside us to see what Emma's Hugs does, and everyone is always blessed when they see "hugs" handed out. It was a good day.

Vacation pictures are coming soon!

We're Baaaack!

We're back! Did you miss us?! We just got home this morning, or middle of the night, whichever you want to call it, around midnight. We went on a lovely vacation last week. I decided to take a break from blogging while we were gone, hardly checked emails at all, and rarely looked at my phone the entire week! It was kind of nice. But now we're home, and I'll do my best to get some vacation photos posted whithin the next day or two. We had a great time. How is it that time seems to go by at super fast speeds when you are on vacation? No sooner did we arrive, then we were heading back home. Bald Head Island, North Carolina...gorgeous! Precious people, beautiful slow Southern accents, good service, great views, mucho bueno food, wonderful friends, and tons o' fun! The weather was awesome for the most part. It rained one day in the morning, but we had the kids riding the boogie boards in the waves that afternoon! One day the weather was so perfect you would have thought we were in San Diego! The kids dug holes to China and back in the sand under the beach house, and we could have opened our own beach with all the sand that came out of their hair and clothes. They had the. best. time. Cora enjoyed herself too. She loved the attention from the big kids, and warmed up to the idea of the kiddie pool too. She wasn't so sure about the beach. Poor kid, she doesn't realize yet she was born into a beach lovin' family! Hope she comes around soon. Stay tuned...more to come.