We're Still Here!!!

I know it's been forever since there has been an update, but they're not nearly as much fun when it's just "Everybody is busy doing their own thing." But, we have managed to do a few things in the OVER A YEAR since I last updated. It really is all on me. I've had a lot of people try to get me off of lazy and update here. Sooooo, here goes:

Wyatt is still busy with school. He's finishing up his junior year right now.

Abigail is still working as a flight attendant and enjoying it.

Kirsten has come to work with Dax and I. We'll make an accountant of her yet. Her resistance is futile!

Addison is still working in a preschool and enjoying the kids.

Wyatt drug invited us to a symphony performance on campus.

 

I think Dax and I get invited so that we'll pay for the tickets. I don't have any solid proof, but I'm pretty sure I'm onto something here.

Addison bought her first car last summer. After much looking around and test driving, she settled on a Volkswagen Tiguan. She's happy with her choice.

After all of the excitement (read: stress) of car shopping, Dax and I got away for a long weekend in New Orleans. We visited some neat places in the Quarter and found some great places to eat. But, really, how can you not in New Orleans.

Dax found this pearl in some oysters he was eating. Should have made him keep eating until I had enough for a bracelet. Ha!

We had our annual trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival. It's always a good time and makes for some great people watching.

 

Then, just like that and with no warning at all, the kids turned 21 in November. TWENTY ONE!! 

We took them out to dinner on their actual birthday. 

Those 'first' drinks at 21 probably cost more than the meal. LOL It was all good and we had a great evening together. It gets more and more difficult to get everyone together as they get older and have their own things going on.

But, dinner out for their birthday wasn't enough celebrating of 21. So when Dax and I were out in Las Vegas for our annual conference, we had the kids come out over the weekend to celebrate. I think a good time was had by all.

 

A good time and food. Lots and lots of food. These are from my favorite place while we're out there. Hash House A Go Go. Do yourself a favor and eat there if you are near one. You can thank me later.

 

 Oh, and you'll probably want to share. The servings are huge. Just the pancakes are 14 inches.

 

We felt like we barely got back home, before Christmas was already upon us. We had a good time with everyone and had our annual gingerbread house decorating contest.

 I have to say, we're getting better at it.

We didn't even have time to recover from Thanksgiving, birthdays in Vegas, and right into Christmas before we headed up to Dallas to the hockey Winter Classic.

It was crowded and cold, but it was fun. And the Dallas Stars won, which made it even better.

So now Dax and I are back into tax season and it may actually feel like rest after the busy holiday season.

So that's pretty much the fun stuff we've been up to. We've had all of the not fun stuff to deal with, too. One of our dogs has signs of dimentia and has lost his hearing. We hate to touch him when he's sleeping because it scares him, but that's the only way to get his attention.

In October, another one of our dogs had a stroke. She's been slow to recover, but still gets better every day. She started out not being able to do anything but blink her eyes, but she's recovered all the way back to her back legs. She still can't stand up, but is trying and continues to get more movement in her legs. We've gotten her a doggie wheel chair, but that takes a whole lot of work on its own.

.........and on it goes.

I know I say it every time, but I'll try not to go quite so long without at least some kind of update.

Exciting Opportunity

Addison recently received an exciting offer, which she gladly jumped on. She'll be a regular blogger over at Hearts of Hockey.

She is beyond excited and her first post is up here. Go check it out. I'm sure she'd love it!

Entrepreneurial Spirit

I love the fact that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in our kids.

Kirsten has made several items and has opened a store on Etsy. It's called The Messy Bun and you can find it here.

Right now she's only got cup cozies listed, but she's working on more.

 

Addison has started her own YouTube channel. I don't know if she'll be the 'next big thing' or not, but it's worth a shot, right?

You can find her here.

Oh, and just for the record, I'm a non-paid spokesperson.

Soccer Season

Soccer season is over for both teams that Addison played on this Spring.

The high school team did a great job. They finished second place in the district. They did not advance in the Regionals, but this is the best finish the soccer team has ever had.

Her select team, however, did not make out so well. They didn't win a single game all season. Heck, I think they only had a full team show up for one game. They played the rest of the games ranging from 1 - 3 players down. It's tough to keep going when teammates don't bother to show up for practice or games. I'm proud of the girls that gave it what they had and made the effort to keep their commitment to the team.

I'm also amazed at how aggressive the girls play. It's often more physical than the boys. One girl actually crossed the line and got needlessly physical and aggressive with Addison. So Addison punched her. It caught the girl off guard, but it also caught Addison, and her father and I off guard. While I would never encourage my kids to start something like that, I'm thrilled to know that she is not afraid to stand up for herself....even with someone much bigger than her.

We're not sure where things go from here. She hasn't decided if she wants to play again next year at school and I'm not sure if her select team will hold together. If more girls that are dedicated and will follow through don't join, there's really no reason to keep it going. I guess we'll see what the Fall brings.

Labor Day Weekend

It was a busy first week of school. As you can imagine, there's a ton of paperwork to fill out, even though I filled out a ton online before school started.

We spent the week trying to keep track of what time school starts on which day and when it lets out.

We were all looking forward to a long weekend with plenty of relaxing, but at the last minute, we found ourselves participating in a soccer tournament.

The tournament was in San Antonio which makes it a long drive for us. But, at least this time it wasn't on the far west side so that helped.

Addison's team played in one game on Saturday and two games on Sunday. It was so hot and exhausting for the girls.

On Sunday she got knocked down and managed to scrape her knee all up.....even with the brace on!!

She's talented like that.

She caught a little nap on the way home.

Later that evening we headed to the Gunner Thames Memorial Rodeo. It's great to be entertained for the evening and also help out a good cause.

On Monday we just kind of hung around the house, relaxed a little, and geared up for the weeks ahead. It's back into the full-on crazy, busy schedules.

Been awhile......

It's been awhile since I've sat through a soccer practice for Addison.

Her knee wasn't well enough in time for her to make the soccer team at school so she's decided to play on a select team for the spring. I think she really enjoyed being out there playing again. I guess we'll see where the season takes us.

Busy Weekend

We interrupt this vacation blogging to recap the weekend.

Dax and Wyatt played in a charity golf tournament on Saturday. They played golf, got fed lunch, and won a trophy. What more could you ask for, right?

Except, this is the trophy they won.....

.........because they came in 'dead ass last'. But they did have fun and it's the first tournament outside of school that Wyatt has played in. I think that's good practice for him.

Meanwhile, miles and miles away, Addison was in a Watermelon Festival Parade in McDade. It's a very small town but there were lots of entries into the parade. The parade route was only three blocks long and I know there were over 70 entries in the parade.

And honey was it hot out there!!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon inside trying to escape the heat and then we all went for snow cones after dinner.  It was a kind of long day but it was a fun one.

Sunday we met up with their grandparents for lunch and then the kids went home with them for the week (or more, who knows). They always love to go spend time with them. I would say that it gives Dax and I a break but not so much because now we have their dogs to take care of. lol

What an honor

Addison recently was part of a group that went to the State Capitol to be recognized by Governor Perry for their volunteer work. It's quite an honor!

Time for dinner

On Sunday Addison and a group of other pageant winners prepared a spaghetti dinner for the families that are staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Austin.

It's a really good thing for these girls to do and I like to see them fulfilling their requirement to give of themselves to others.

Addison enjoyed being there and giving (which is no surprise because she has a giving heart) and wants us to sign on to do it as just our family. We'll see if she can get her Dad in the kitchen.

Oh, and the dinner was greatly appreciated by the residents. That feels good too.

Another addition.....

We have yet another new member to our family.

Meet Phrank (or as I like to call him Pa-Ha-Rank....phonetics at work.)

The kids had to design and build roller coasters for science class. One of the groups included fish somehow in their design and this on ended up at my house. I guess because we needed another pet around here.

Addison is responsible for this one.

Since everyone around here has a big heart for animals it makes it hard to say no. Sometimes I feel like we're one more pet away from an episode of Animal Hoarders!!

Another Pageant

Addison participated in another pageant in Austin.

Getting ready:

She was in a different age group for this one. I think she was the only one in her normal age group so they combined her with the group that was older. She was by far smaller than the other girls.

She didn't win. She got a Princess title and trophy, but she had fun anyway and that's what it's supposed to be about.

OK, that's better....

This week, although crazy busy at the office, was better.

It will be nice for tax day to come and go so that Dax can come home every night. I think he only slept at home three nights this past week! We've been that busy.

The kids are, as always, busy with school and all that goes with it.

Kirsten and Abigail are still working with the kindergarten kids two mornings a week to help them learn to read. It's nice to see them involved and helping, and the fact that they enjoy it is just icing on the cake.

Wyatt started golf practice last week. I haven't seen the schedule yet so don't know when his first tournament will be. Sometime soon he and Dax are going to go shop for clubs for him. Right now he's using the clubs that Dax used in high school! (And we're not even going to get into how old that makes those clubs -- let me just say that technology has changed a little since then.)

Kirsten and Abigail are both playing tennis and have practice several afternoons a week. They have their first tournament coming up on Saturday. I won't get to see it (but Dax will be there) because Addison has a pageant in Austin. She had mercy on me and held off on entering any during tax season.

I took Abigail and Kirsten to the tennis courts to practice one weekend not too long ago so I'll leave you with this quick video of Abigail.

She's a juggling genius!!! You're going to be blown away!

The Results Are In!

On Saturday they had the UIL competitions for our district.

Addison and Abigail were the only two of my children competing.

Addison was competing in Modern Oratory. She texted me before she was headed into the competition to tell me that she was nervous. I assured her that I had no doubt that a competition that involved talking was certainly the right one for her.

After she was done, she texted me again telling me that she had bombed and forgot her talking points and was all over the place with her speech. She was pretty disappointed about it. However, once she found out that she got fourth place she decided she deserved for me to make cupcakes for her.....which of course, I did.

Abigail competed in the art competition. Her work was sent in prior to the competition so she didn't have to be there on Saturday. But that also meant that she didn't find out the results until Monday. She won 5th place! She's proud of that placement, but we both know that she probably would have placed even higher if one of her more recent watercolor paintings had been used. I think she's got a talent for art over all, but watercolors seem to come quite naturally to her. I'll take some pictures of her recent work and get them posted soon.

Anyway, we're very proud of them for competing and for doing so well. Good job girls!!!

Pageant

Addison participated in another pageant on Saturday.

Here she is waiting for her turn on stage.

I'm not ready for her to be looking this grown up!

Thank goodness she usually just keeps her hair in a pony tail with a t-shirt and jeans on.

And so it begins....

Well, it seems that the bug has bitten the kids.


They all want to start learning to drive!!


Eeek!!


I think they've all had a turn to drive.


Here's Addison's parking:

A little crooked, but not bad overall.


This should be fun for the next couple of years.....

3 Out of 4

Well, Addison got a full set of braces.

That makes three of them (only Abigail remains unbraced.)

A good time was had by all

The kids had a great time celebrating their birthday (I'm still not over the fact that they're fourteen already!!)

I bought Krispy Kreme doughnuts for them for breakfast (mostly because Addison is obsessed with them) and put a candle in the middle and sang happy birthday to each as they got out of bed.

 The girls were the only ones that had doughnuts.

We gave them each a cell phone for their birthday and did that the night before so they could have plenty of time to get over it before we went shopping on their birthday. But before we left the house, they opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. They got lots of good stuff, but I think Wyatt's favorite was this Texas Longhorns watch.

Their class at school went to visit the UT campus (the PTO does it to start getting the kids thinking about college) and all four of them are smitten with the school now.

Then we headed up to Austin for a long day of shopping and dinner out.

It was a good day and I know they enjoyed it.....they keep texting me to let me know.

Cell phone fun

I never know what I'm going to find when Addison gets her hands on my cell phone.

Here's the latest:

 See what I mean?