Visitors

My baby brother Chad, my sister in law Kayce, and my one and only niece, Amy, surprised everyone by coming in from Hawaii (where he's stationed) to spend Christmas with their families in Texas!

  

 We saw Kayce and Amy last year, but it had been a couple of years since we've seen Chad!

This would be "The Amy" picture! My first name is Amy, my aunt's first name is Amy, my Mimi's middle name is Amy, and then we have our little Amy!

Sweet cousins! I loved having them running around together!

We were happy to have them here for a couple of days! I didn't want to see them go!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We've got somethin' to bark about...

Meet our CHARLIE!

 The newest member of our family!

 He's about 2-3 years old, 15lbs. of preciousness! Very affectionate!

We drove to Pearland/Houston to pick him up from our friend Laura at the Meadowlake Pet Resort. He layed on my lap the whole two hour drive home.

 He's houstrained. He scratches at the backyard when he needs to go out.

He played so hard when we got home and even took a walk, which he did very well with his leash. He went to bed early! Everyone fought over who he would sleep with, so we all camped out in the living room. I think he took turns sleeping with all of us.
He follows us around the house. So good with the kids. He's smart. He loves to cuddle.
We look forward to our life with Charlie!

Christmas Season Catch-up

We've been pretty busy with Christmas festivites and I've hardly taken any pictures.
I do have all of my Christmas shopping done, but no Christmas cards...maybe I'll send out New Year's cards?
Anthony was off from work all last week. The kids were in school, so it was just us two,which never happens. We shopped, went out to eat, and even took in a movie. It was so NICE!
We had a Christmas party here at our house for Anthony's employees. Good time.
Carli had her class party. I made jingle bell necklaces for her classmates. That's always a fave! We filled that cute bucket that Rose made, with fun stuff along with a gift certificate for a massage! It was a fun time! I enjoyed being back in the class room, helping and watching the kids!
The kids are out of school now for THREE WHOLE WEEKS! I can't believe we're half way through the school year! Where has the year gone?

A year

I really can not believe it's been a year that we have lived here. I think back and read all of my blog posts from this time last year and I think, " How has it been that long?" I also can't believe that Anthony was already living away and had started his new job, I was at home with the kids, going to work myself, packing, all during the busiest time of the year! Yes, it was crazy, but I knew then though, I would have to take it one day at a time, not think ahead, make lists (oh I how love and depend on my lists)-just stay in the moment. But yes, there of course were "overwhelming moments". I still prayed and told myself I would get through it...and I/WE did! Thank God for my blog. No matter how busy, late, or tired I was, I blogged everyday. I'm so glad I did! I can go back and read/see what we've gone through.Cause sometimes, those moments are a blur.
We're all settled in, finding our own niche (some taking longer than others) and getting use to being back here. We do still love and miss our old town- everyone and everything in it. It was a fabulous eight years! So good to us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEYANIRA!

Happy Birthday to my best friend of 17 years and God Mother of my children!

1995-Deyanira with Sam and me with Austin



Have a fantastic day Deyanira! We love you so very much!

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday Carli, Tyler, and I went to Carli's school for Breakfast with Santa. The food was yummy, the crafts were fun, the hayride was cold! bikes were raffled and the cakes were auctioned. There was Santa, but Carli had NO desire to go near him.

                                           

Elf TYLER

Tyler's school's eighth grade choir along with the school's eighth grade band, toured a few of the elementary schools on Wednesday to perform for the kids.I of course had to go to two of the schools to watch him! One of the schools was the one Austin went to Kinder-second grade. We loved that school and the people in it. It was so wonderful to be there to see everyone after TEN years! Especially my heart warming visit with Austin's kindergarten teacher/my friend. The second school was CARLI'S SCHOOL!!!
Tyler was Santa's elf. Look at how stinkin' cute he was! They did a great job and he had a blast! Especially the parts about lunch time. In one of our shopping centers, there are a few restaurants. The teacher said they could pick which one they wanted to go to and just meet back at the bus at what ever the particular time was. So him and some friends walked over to Wings and More...he felt so grown! His other favorite part was being at Carli's school!
Carli talked for a week to her teacher and friends about her Tyler coming to sing at school. She was over the moon! She was so giddy and silly when she saw him! At one point, Santa and his Elf walk into the crowd to shake hands. OH MY WORD! Carli acted crazy in love with Tyler! Like he was a rock star! Then at the end when Rudolph came out, some of the singers went and picked kids from the audience to come up and sing his song. Well, of course Tyler went and picked Carli. She would not let go of him-stayed hugging him! She was so proud that HE was HER brother! And who wouldn't be?! He did WONDERFUL and IS WONDERFUL!

BFF's BIRTHDAY TRIP!

Deyanira and I both celebrate our birthdays in December. So we decided to make an annual bff birthday trip. Just us two, celebrating our birthdays. We were beyond excited! We've been friends for 17 years (Austin and Sam were 8/9 months old) and we never get to get a weekend away. We went to our favorite place, San Antonio! Our hotel was on the Riverwalk. All we had to do was walk out of the hotel door and we were already at the Riverwalk!
The weather was actually nice, everything was decorated for the Christmas season, the food of course was to die for, the laughter was non-stop, and conversation was wonderful. It truly was the best time!