Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend, we went to Bryan/College Station. We stayed the night at Mimi's house. We went out to eat at Double Dave's with Mimi, my Aunt Dee and Uncle Bob. We visited Grandma (Anthony's mom) and Uncle Able and Chris. We also went to visit with Great Grandpa and headed over to the hospital to see Great Grandma. There we got to visit with Aunt Rachel and cousins Penelope and Tisha. On Sunday, we headed over to the besties' house. We stayed all day there with the Ely's! It was long over due and oh so much fun!
They of course fed us. While Bart was outside slaving over our lunch, Deyanira, was making hand squeezed lemonade for the kids... I say for the kids, because the mommies got this:
MARGARITAS! YUM!Sam and Austin.Anthony, Austin, and Sam went to Game Stop, but SAM DROVE THEM...in HIS OWN CAR!Tyler and Christian.Emily chilled on the trampolinewhile Carli jumped!Deyanira got the girls matching puppies.Carli and Emily.Carli and her Godmother.Birthday present time!We had a very nice time in Bryan. As always though, we wish we're able to see everyone when we go.

Sprinkler fun!

Carli loves to be outside! Pools and sprinklers are her favorite! She has so much. Especially when big brother Tyler joins in!!

Deja vu?

The other evening, I walked into Carli's room and found her like this:I ran and grabbed my camera and as I took it, I had a deja vu moment. Then it hit me, I have had this moment, twelve years earlier, with another lil' four year old...AUSTIN!Awww...big lump in my throat!

Memorial Day

Remember why you have this day off and live in a free country. It's because of those men and women who died while fighting for our country. Take the time out to honor them AND to thank those who have served and serve now. My Paw-Paw and brother Chad. Both 101st Airborne, Screaming Eagles.

My Mommy

I don't even know what to say. I miss my mommy!
I feel weird knowing that I'm older now than she was when she passed away. I'm 36. She was 34! A mom passing away at age 34?! She never saw her little boys grow into the men they are now and meet their wives. She never got to meet her son in law. She never got to play with her grandkids! Grandkids...I can just picture her with them!
Today marks 18 years without her! I've been without my mommy for as many years as I had her! Wow!
Yes, I know there is no better place to be than in the arms of our Father! She is healthy now, no longer in pain, laughing and dancing around Heaven...we all know that woman loved to laugh and dance! I know she can see us and that she is with us. I totally feel her with me. There are always reminders of her. I DO KNOW that one day we'll all be with her! Selfishly though, I wish she was still here, physically!
Today will be a little different than years previous. I didn't plan on this day being the weekend we go to Bryan, it just happened that way. I will be at Mimi's (my grandmother) house most of the time. She's older now and dates tend to slip her memory, so I'm sure this date may be one of them. I will not remind her. I will put on a brave face. I will let her enjoy her great granchildren today and think of nothing else.

Tyler's choir concert

In our town, when the kids get to 6th grade (which is middle school here-5th & 6th grade) they have to pick an elective. Tyler picked choir. This makes his daddy pretty proud, being he was in choral in high school and loves to sing as well.Tyler even goes early to school once a week to choir club. Tyler's school won first place at their first choir competition! Last night, he had a concert.Tyler and Mr. S (choir teacher)

Tyler and friends. The two boys on either side of Tyler are on the same step as him...yep, when my Tyler tells you that he's one of the shortest boys in school, he's not exaggerating. :) But he's so darn cute!
They sang good! One of the songs was Green Day's, "Wake me up when September ends". Green Day is Austin's fave! One of the boys played the electrical guitar during that song, pretty impressive!
Then, before the last song, his teacher told us that a couple of weeks ago, he had been hearing some of the guys in the hall way singing, Don't stop believing" by Journey. He thought that was odd...12 year old boys...the year 2010...singing a song that Steve Perry sang?! So finally he asked them about it and well, one thing led to another and so they started learning it in class and sang it last night. I did record almost the whole song, but it's taking blogger forever to upload it! I will try later today to upload it.
Last year was Mr.S's first year, so this is his first graduating class. Everyone loves him. Not only did Tyler learn in choir, he had lots of fun!

Austin's picnic

Tuesday, Austin had his end of the year picnic. All of the middle and junior high schools' special education classes meet up every year at a park in the town next to us. The teachers grill burgers and hotdogs and a game of kickball is a must! It's a big hit! Austin has the best best best teachers in the world! We love Mr. M and Coach C!
Special Education teachers and aides go above and beyond! They've got some big hearts and major patience! They are amazing! Not sure how things would be without them!They are exactly what Austin needs. They are truly God send! Right after this picture was taken, Coach C broke a water balloon over Austin's head! Mr. M quickly gave one to Austin and you can see below that Austin nailed 'em!

Happy Birthday Tia Cuca!

We interupt my home tour (see post below) to give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to Tia Cuca! We love you and hope you have a spectacular day! (Cuca and Tyler!)
I have one of you with Austin as a baby and it's so cute, but I can't find it! But I love this one too!
This just shows a snapshot of Cuca and how she's always lending a hand!

Ta-da!

Okay, okay, you've waited long enough! Here are some pictures of our new home! Since I took so many, I'll show you a few each day. We're all moved in, but there's so much more to be done. For the front of the house, we cut down alot of the landscaping. Next, we're changing out the light fixtures. I forgot to take a close up of the front porch. But if you must see it, there are a few pics of the kids in previous posts on the front porch.

The house looks completely different from when we bought it. We had the whole interior painted, walls,trim, etc.

When you first walk in, to the right is our dining room. In here the plan is to change out this chandelier and change out the flooring. To the left of the front door and across from the dining room is the study, or in this case, Anthony's room to watch TV or play games-man cave. There is nothing I'm doing in there because it's not my room. If you ask Ant, I'm sure he'll say it's perfect and he's not changing a thing.The view front the front door.The hallway behind the couch, to the left of the windows, takes you to the master bedroom/master bath and Carli's bedroom and bathroom.The shelves by the fireplace are not complete. I'm not sure how to decorate that area. The things that are on it are things I already had. I believe we'll be adding another shelf and a cabinet in that empty space at the bottom.

That hallway by the shelves takes you to the boys' bedrooms and their bathroom.Over by the fridge, there's a hallway that leads to the dining room. It has the laundry room on one side and the pantry on the other.We changed out the chandelier. This is our new one. So that's part of the tour. Stay tuned for more tomorrow...

Secret Prayer Pal

On our last day of work, we gathered for lunch and received our last secret prayer pal gifts.
Look at my Luau in a tub! Such fun stuff inside, complete with a real pineapple! I can't wait to throw a little par-tay. I mean luau!Getting our last gifts, also meant that we would get to find out WHO our secret prayer pal was!
I had NOOO idea that mine was TRACY! She's the kindergarten teacher and her son and Carli are in the same class together. She treated me so well this year with all my thoughtful goodies! I will surely miss her. She's not going to be at our school next year. :(
Thank you Tracy! I feel so blessed to have had you be my secret prayer pal!
Oh, and thank you Paula for our mini photo session! Ha!

Off to Pre-K!

Carli and I had our last day of Mother's Day Out on Wednesday. Mixed emotions as it is with the end of every year. Glad to have time off and to see my class grow, but sad to see my kiddos go upstairs to the pre-k world. I feel like this year went by so fast! I had a great lil' class, really great! Carli did too! She blossomed so much this year, especially in just the last couple of weeks. We both had a lot of fun! I say this a lot, and it's true, I feel very blessed to have the job that I do. I get to teach children in an awesome enviroment, where my daughter also attends school. I get to see her interact with her friensds and teachers. Alright, I can't go on, I'm starting to feel a lump in my throat!
I can not believe that Carli will be off to PRE-K in the fall!!!!

Childhood besties!

A couple of weeks ago, I got to hang out with my best friend of, dare I say...33 years! She lives out of state, but her parents still live around here, so she visits them often. We meet about half way at a mall and hang out. This day I had just Carli (the boys were in school) and she had her two babies. Harrison, 3 and Kaitlyn, almost 3months. I was so excited to see them! Gotta love taking the picture of ourselves! These two were great together! We laughed so much over them and kind of were in awe that they belong to us! We took a gazillion pictures for their future wedding rehearsal dinner slide show! Ha! Let's look at the height of these two...Carli is 5 months OLDER than Harrison! So, Carli's got short parents and he's got tall parents!! So funny!Claire, Harrison, and Kaitlyn!!Despite the terror in her face, Carli really did like the carousel! She even rode it TWICE!! Uh, this boy, you could call him, "Don Juan"! He was constantly giving us sugars!!
Aw, I love this baby girl! Oh, look at Carli in the background! Her and Harrison were running around like maniacs! SO FUNNY! You can see we totally cared! Ha!
Claire, I had so much fun that day! I wish you lived here so we could hang out at the mall with our little ones all of the time!
I love y'all and will see you soon!