More late stuff..........

I think somewhere along the way, I managed to never post that we got our final child out of braces in November last year.

I don't know who's happier.........her or us.

Okay, I'm sure it's her, but still.

Anyway, more stuff that I failed to share earlier. We had our first annual gingerbread house building competition. We competed in pairs and it was a lot of fun.

The winning construction:

And from above. (Ignore the headless gingerbread man. His head was used on another more ominous looking house.)

 

The poor winning house fell apart at least five times during the construction process. But then days later when I threw them all away, all that icing had actually cemented it all together and it didn't even chip in the trash can.

There was a two-story house in the development.

 

A little A-frame model with a tree out front.

 

This house looks pleasant enough from this view.

But if you look closely, the gingerbread man's head is at the peak on the front of the house. Although, the tenants are nice enough to try to warn would be trespassers.

 This is the house that Dax and I built. Based on the others, we played it a little too safe.

 

All in all, we had a lot of fun. We could spend time this year practicing our techniques, but where's the fun in actually being good at this? Ha!

Christmas Traditions

I recently became aware of this life size gingerbread house from the fine folks at The Fairmont in San Francisco. I've never been there, but would you look at that?! Can you even imagine a tradition of decorating something that size? We can't even manage the little gingerbread houses.

Our traditions actually start at Thanksgiving. We make sure the tree is up and ready and the kids decorate it with Busha (Dax's Mom). I readily embraced this tradition because when they were little and they decorated the tree with me they always got into an argument about something. They didn't do that with Busha so it was a great tradition to go with......although at 17 now I would like to hope that would no longer be a concern.

From Thanksgiving until just after Christmas the Trail of Lights is set up at The Emily Ann Theater here in town. The light displays are set up by different groups and organizations in the area. It's always fun to see what they come up with each year. We usually walk through once or twice during the Christmas Season to see the lights, listen to the band, sit around the campfire roasting marshmallows, and drink hot chocolate. The weather has been very agreeable this year so it was packed.

Somewhere along the line the kids managed to talk us into letting them open a gift on Christnas Eve. That one gift is always pajamas (Dax loves this one pair if pajama pants so I occasionally wrap them up and give them to him again.) We usually open those pajamas and them watch Christmas Vacation together.

This year we were blessed with a visit from 'Cousin Eddie'.
 

We generally head to bed far too late and then get up far too early to see if Santa has come. Dax likes to open the last gift, so our challenge is to sneak one aside to have it to open once he is through. Some years he's paying more attention and it's a tough thing to do.

After all of that, we start what usually turns out to be an all day eat-a-thon. There is always too much food, but we do our best to eat it all. A few years ago we decided we just didn't want turkey again so close to Thanksgiving so we've opted for steaks cooked out on the grill. I can't tell you what an amazingly great choice that has been.

Summer time

Our summer started with big fun!!

The first week out of school, Kirsten had her wisdom teeth removed.

(Look at those swollen little cheeks)

Sounds fun, right? This was the most she could smile.

Then, Addison and Abigail went to church camp. They had a great time. They did all kinds of fun stuff, including playing in the river. The one that recently flooded our town and is full of germs and disease. So, it was no big surprise when Abigail got sick. Fortunately she is now well, and back to hockey lessons with Wyatt.

Their Grandfather has been through some scary stuff which has had him in and out of the hospital. We're hoping that the doctors are going to get things under control soon, and that life can get back to normal for him.

They did go stay with their other grandparents for almost two weeks and they had a lot of fun with that. They went to the movies 1 1/2 times (the power went out in the middle of the movie) to the museum, did some shopping, and some eating out. They were returned to us as happy little campers.

The summer is half way over, and we're still trying to figure out what we're going to do for vacation. Nothing like planning ahead!!

Thank goodness that's over

It was a long and very stressful tax season this year. I'm still not sure we've recovered.....possibly because there is still so much work to be done.

Some of what has happened in our lives:

Two of our dogs got into a fight. It was awful. They both had lots of wounds but one of them has to be in the hospital for a few days. She had a wound that had to be made even bigger because of the tissue damage which left a gaping hole on her neck.  It took a long time to get to the point where it finally started to heal. But once it did, it healed very quickly. Unfortunately, the vet told us that we will have to keep those dogs separated from now on.

In late March, my Aunt and Uncle were killed in a car wreck. It's always a shock to lose someone so suddenly, but to lose them both still seems unreal. It was good to see everyone at the funeral. I just wish it had been for a better reason. We have to make a better effort to see each other and to make sure everyone knows how much we care. It seems that we all get too busy with 'life' and all too often things get put aside when they're too important to do so.

After all the stress, it was all the better to have all of our family with us for Easter. And to take a little time to do this.

It's sometimes hard to understand why life works the way it does, but maybe it's not for us to figure out. Overall, it's all good.

Thanksgiving

Wow! I never got around to posting about Thanksgiving.  Dax and I leave the day after and are gone for 10 days getting in a big chunk of continuing education hours. As you can imagine, it's crazy at the office when we get back. And this time of the year is always full of activities anyway.

So, we were short a few people this year for Thanksgiving. Dax's parents had an emergency come up in the extended family so couldn't be here with us. Their absence was definitely noticed. Thankfully things there are better now.

Kirsten and Grandma made these cute little turkeys.

I didn't manage to get it in the picture, but ine if those little turkeys has his head on upside down. Poor thing.....then we ate him.

After she did such a good job on the turkey's, we put Kirsten in charge of hors de vours.

She's really just slicing Little Debbie snacks. I guess we'll give her an 'E' for effort. 

I did make these crackers this year. I like to try something new each year.

They taste delicious and are super easy to make. It's a Ritz cracker wrapped in bacon with a little brown sugar on top. Then you put them in a 250 degree oven and bake them for (here's the kicker) 2 HOURS. But, trust me, they're worth it!!

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves. We ate too much, but the food and the company were good.

Keeping Busy

We are certainly staying busy. The end of the school year seems to bring it's own kind of chaos. It's like everything that wasn't scheduled before then gets crammed into the last two weeks of school.


We attended my niece Kate's graduation from the University of Texas.

I still can't believe she's old enough to have graduated from college!!

Addison had a soccer tournament in San Antonio (or more accurately, the far southwest side of San Antonio which made it about a two hour trek from our house.) She's always played in a defensive position, but this year she's been playing more midfield. Well, we look out at the field when the second game is getting ready to start and see this....

Addison was playing goalie! What?! She's only played once before and she was about 7 at the time. She played hard but they got two past her so she was pretty upset.

Regardless, they were pretty wiped out by the end of the two days.

Kirsten had her end of the year  Show Choir Banquet. This was the first year for the Show Choir program and she's glad that she participated. Here she is stealing my date for photo ops. (But aren't they cute?)

Even though it gets busy, it's nice to see them participate and enjoy some of the different things that are available to them.

It's a Tea Party

My oldest niece is getting married in June and the girls and I recently attended a wedding shower for her.

It was a tea party theme so we all had to don tea hats. Luckily I just happened to have a suitcase full of old hats sitting around.

Abigail, me and, Kirsten

 

 Sophie, Addison, Lexi (who just did Brave the Shave where she had her head shaved in order to raise money for childhood cancer research), Kirsten, Kate (the Bride), and Abigail

It was a good nice time and good for everybody to get together. We all seem to be busier as the kids have gotten older so don't see each other as often.

Just stopping and taking a deep breath

It's been a busy last couple of weeks. The past week has been crazy busy and emotionally draining. Some days it seems like I need to be in fifteen different places all at the same time. But, I guess that's the life of parent, right?

Addison was in another pageant at the end of February. She was supposed to play in a soccer game in a town several hours away, but that got cancelled. She would have hated to just stay home and let us take it easy for a change, so she went ahead and registered for a pageant.

I guess that was a good thing since she won!

With this win, she will once again be doing a year of service and volunteering. Can't complain about that.

Kirsten is in show choir and was busy with that during the week too. They will be participating in a festival the first weekend in April so she had practice during the week. The group also did a two-day 'camp' for elementary age school children where they taught them a few numbers which they later performed in a show for their parents. She loved it! She enjoys the choir and she really likes working with the younger children.

When I was dropping her off for the camp, Wyatt and Addison were doing this:

(lunch money shake down.....or two smart alecs)

 

They're such rule breakers!

 

In other news, my Dad had surgery last week to remove a cancerous prostate. We had planned to be there for the operation, but the weather caused the highway that we would be traveling one to be closed. However, there were some complications and he had to go back into the hospital (where he still is) so three of the kids and I went late Saturday and came back home late last night.

 

Dax's Mom has a surgery scheduled for later this week, so he'll be heading to Houston to be there with her.

 

The concern for those we love coupled with the busy-ness of daily life is enough to be exhausting. But then add to that some emotional hurts inflicted by family members that are selfish and uncaring, and it just made for an overwhelming week. I guess the time has come to put some people behind us and move forward. There can only be better things in our future when we let go of those that hold us back and drag us down.

 

 

 

 

A Very Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas season! We've been crazy busy, but it's all been a good kind of busy.

We started off our Christmas time off with Addison volunteering again at the Ronald McDonald house in Austin. This time we were making stew for lunch. This is part of the charity work that comes with one of the pageant organizations that she participates in. I think it's a great thing that they require something so good from these girls. Unfortunately, it's usually the same handful of girls that show up for the charity work.

I did lots of cookie baking for the boxes of cookies that we deliver to our monthly clients. As usual, we ended up with a lot of leftover cookies so we've all gained weight and are also sick of cookies, but I'm sure we'll get over that!

We had a wonderful Christmas spent with family with lots of thoughtful gifts, food, and laughter.

I hope your Christmas was merry as well.

It's a miracle!

It's a miracle!


Dax had State Guard duty this weekend. You know that something seems to go wrong EVERY time he's gone (or at least that's how it feels.)


Well, NOTHING went wrong this time!!


WOOHOOOO!

I told the kids on Saturday morning that Dax was gone and there would be no mishaps.


For once they listened. Our only excitement was a trip to Target and to the library.


That's the kind of excitement I can handle.

Another whirlwind weekend.....

This weekend was the state tournament for Addison's soccer team.


This time the games were in Houston so we had to pack up and head out of town.


Of course, that means boarding the dogs.


So, all of our trips out of town start off looking something like this......

Jealous aren't you?


It gets a little cramped with 4 kids and 5 dogs, don't you think?


We got the dogs dropped off and headed to Houston. About 1-1/2 hours into the trip we stopped at McDonald's to grab a bite to eat. Abigail had been feeling bad when she got back to school from her field trip earlier in the day. She had been sleeping most of the time we were in the car. While we were standing in line waiting to order she told me that she felt dizzy so she was leaning against me and I had my arms around her. It was a good thing too, because she passed out!!! Dax came and got her out of my arms and carried her to a chair and sat with her. She was running a fever but we had no way of knowing how high. I made her take some motrin and made her eat something. I don't think she had eaten much all day and I really think that's what made her pass out.


Once we left there, we were able to make it the rest of the way to Houston without incident.


Addison had two games on Saturday, with the first one starting at 7:30 am.  I'm certain that the people doing the scheduling must have lost their minds!!! We had to be at the fields at 6:30....... on. a. Saturday!


They lost the first game and won the second game.


The Grandparents all came to the 2nd game and got to see their victory and we all went out to eat after the game. Then, we headed back to the hotel and most of the team hit the pool.


Abigail started running a high fever again on Saturday night (after she had been fine all day) and I had some trouble finally getting it to break. Bless her heart, she certainly didn't get to have much fun on this trip.


Sunday, Addison played again at 7:30 in the morning. (Happy Mother's Day, right?) They tied that game, but it was enough to move them into 2nd place for State.


The girls are all very excited and we're very proud of them!!!


Here's Addison getting her medal.

And here's a great team photo....

Do I have a talent for catching people at their best, or what?


We made it home safely with no fainting spells from Abigail. So far, every night at just about 6:00 she starts running a fever again. It's the only time of the day that she does. It's just weird! So yesterday I called the doctor and she has her on a different antibiotic this time to see if we can get rid of whatever is bothering her once and for all.

Saturday silly-ness

We went to another hockey game last night.


But this time Dax's parents and little sister came to the game too.



Poppey has been complaining about being out  in the cold so for Christmas we gave him a scarf and some gloves. He later said something about his ears being cold when he rides his bike.


It didn't go unnoticed..........



Since we all LOVE 'Christmas Vacation' and usually watch it together as a family I ran into my sewing room before we were to meet up and made him his very own Cousin Eddie Cap!

Dax's mother was horrified when he snuck it on once we were inside. (She's leaning away from him in the picture.)

See, ear flaps and all.


We had a really good time. Even if our team lost.



The only really scary thing is that now Abigail is wanting to play hockey.



I'm really not sure how intimidating all 56 pounds of her will be out on the ice.



We're still trying to talk her into something else, but the whole mind control thing isn't really working.

We're back!!!

Did you think we fell off the face of the earth?


We've been gone on vacation (and a few days recovering from being gone on vacation.)


We went on a cruise to Progresso and Cozumel. It was wonderful!!!


Addison started the vacation the same way she starts all of our vacations.

We left out of Galveston on Monday, and since that's several hours away from us, we drove over on Sunday and spent the night at the Tremont Hotel.



It was a really nice place and the kids enjoyed relaxing the night away.

We got up the next morning and met the rest of our party for breakfast before heading over to the ship. We actually had VIP passes so were able to board quickly.

The rooms (which were wonderful) weren't ready for us at that point so we headed off to do one of the most important things that you can do on a ship.

EAT!!!

Later in our room.....

We were on this vacation to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary that happens later this month. I hope that they enjoyed the trip as much as we did.

We saw a lot of beautiful sights.

Sunrise

Sunsets

Flora

Exotic fruit

And, we stumbled on a photo shoot for some hot male model. Woohoo!!

The guy from the Six Flags commercials

Just kidding.

It's our friend Steve.

But he does look like the guy in the commercials

Here he is with his wife Celia.

We stopped in Progresso where we headed shopping and out to the beach.

(Can you see the stud-muffin in the background with his shirt pulled up? I didn't even notice that when I was taking the picture but it makes it all worth while, right?)

After shopping, we got on the bus to head back to the dock.

You can't tell how miserable this bus ride was from the picture. Actually, when I took the picture it wasn't a bus 'ride' yet. It was a bus wait. They wouldn't leave until the bus was full, and if you were 'lucky' enough to arrive early, you had to sit on the bus and wait. Oh, and it was about 190 degrees outside (only a slight exaggeration), the bus was not air conditioned, only some of the windows could still be opened, and there was no breeze to be found. Can you tell that we were some of the lucky ones that arrived before the bus was full?

But, on the bright side, we made it back to the ship most likely a few pounds lighter from our time in the traveling spa. (That's probably how they should advertise the bus, don't you think?)

The next day we stopped in Cozumel and did more shopping and sight seeing.

All of the walking has been hard on Abigail's feet.

But after a pedicure, she was able to find a new boyfriend.

I did have one concern though.

We bought the kids the cards for unlimited soft drinks (we knew that would be less expensive in the long run), but they have to get their drinks at the bar.

Isn't that teaching them a little something I may not want them to know?

Here are Addison and Wyatt at the bar ordering their drinks.

See what I mean?

Maybe Wyatt's had too many?

Or maybe they learned it from me?

After a few nights, though, nobody would sit with poor little Wyatt.

Just kidding, we were the first ones to the table.

And, as you can imagine, we were all exhausted by the time we got back home.

Overall it was a wonderful vacation and I wish we were still on it!!

Unfortunately, while we were gone someone did this to our mailbox.