Dallas Snowpocalypse 2010

Snow started falling early in the morning on Thursday, Feb 11th. I think it began falling around 2am. No, I wasn't actually awake, but that is what the oh so trusty weatherman said. (Actually, I probably was awake either readjusting my pillows to get comfortable or to empty the ole bladder that happens numerous times a night.) Alarm clock goes off at 6:20 for Jason to get up. I usually try to sleep for another 10-15 minutes, but I decided to turn on the news. Within 10 minutes of watching they announce that our school district has closed for the day. Not really sure why they did bc it wasn't that bad out. Jason and I both went on to work. It snowed ALL.DAY.LONG. I swear it was like I was teleported to Colorado or something. The flakes were HUGE.Jason's work closed early...around 315. I could hear my bosses at the end of the hall making calls to our branches advising them of procedures for the morning. The procedures - be at work on time. Sad, but true. I was told that b/c I wasn't 'essential staff' I could come in when I felt it was safe. I took my laptop home so I could do a few things that I needed to get done before 10am. The snow continued to fall and was still falling when I went to bed at 9pm. It was soooo pretty. DFW airport got 12.5" of snow. We don't live far from DFW airport, but my guesstimation is we got right around 9". The boys had an absolute blast playing in all of the snow. I think they changed clothes 3 times yesterday and went through 15 pairs of socks. Guess who is folding the laundry basket today........the boys! HAHA! Their school along with probably EVERY OTHER school in DFW is closed today, so they are enjoying a snow day with Dad. Colby was supposed to have a baseball tournament this week, but it obviously has been cancelled. (I'm secretly excited about this!) Below are a few pics from my phone.

View from my 8th floor window at work at 9am

Trees by my work on the way home

Colby's snow man - with a mouth made of beer caps and pennies. Really? It isn't like we didn't have oreos or fruit snacks or SOMETHING else in the house besides BEER CAPS?!? LOL!

Backyard - morning of Friday, Feb. 12th

Picture of our neighborhood as I'm leaving for work

View from my parking garage at work on Friday.

-- Post From My iPhone

New Year's 2010

We celebrated New Year's Eve by going out with some friends to The Cheesecake Factory and then to Dave and Buster's. It was a low-key night, but it we had a blast. It honestly is all about the people you surround yourself with.


I know most people do New Year's Resolutions, but I don't. I refuse to. We have many exciting things coming up in 2010 and can't wait to experience them all.

• Birth of my niece in February


• Finding out the sex of Little Peanut in March - then preparing everything once we find out the sex


• Busy, busy baseball season (March - July)


• Birth of my other niece in April


• Boys finishing up school in June


• Little Peanut's arrival in July


• My 30th bday in August


• Experiencing life with a newborn and infant

Updates from my lack of blogging...

I'm pretty sure I forgot to update on the boys' first report cards of the year. Both boys made the A/B Honor Roll. We are already 4 weeks into the 2nd 6 weeks, and they both had all A's and B's on their progress report, which is FABULOUS! They are both doing great in school and we couldn't be more proud of them and their hard work.

Jason's dad was recently diagnosed with Kidney Cancer. The good news is that is Stage 1 and is contained to one of his kidney's only. At this point, they do not believe it has spread. There are 2 spots on his lung that they will continue to watch with monthly scans, but right now they are too small to even biopsy. We will know later this afternoon when his surgery will be scheduled to remove the kidney and surrounding lymph nodes. Last Wednesday and Thursday were scary, emotional, and every other emotion you feel with the big "C" word affects someone close to you. Fortunately, Jason's dad is local so we are able to see him often and visit him in the hospital.

Tristen's 13th birthday is rapidly approaching. Oh my oh my! Can't believe he'll be 13. He is having a sleepover and boy am I in for it!!!

The holidays are coming up and I cannot wait. This is my favorite time of year. I told Jason last night that he might as well get the Christmas decorations down when he puts the Halloween deocrations in the attic. The tree will for sure be up and the lights on the house before we have Thanksgiving at our house.

We are doing family pictures on Sunday and while I'm excited about them, I still have no idea what we are all wearing. We haven't had family pictures done since our engagement pictures 3 years ago. I'm hoping we get some good pictures! :)

Halloween 2009

Halloween this year was pretty uneventful. Tristen's friend was hosting a Halloween party so he went to that. Colby didn't want a costume but had his mind set on a baseball mask that ge saw last year. We couldn't find it this year (I'm sure it didn't help that we shopped 3 days before Halloween), so he opted for paint and hair color. Here is the result of his baseball face. Looks kinda like a zombie. Jason decided to dress up as a greasy farmer (chainsaw, wheelbarrow and all were in the front yard) with some random stuff he found around the house. The overalls were from a drama class project for Tristen. Lol!

Colby went trick or treating around our neighborhood with some of his friends, while Jason and I sat in the front yard and passed out candy. After the trick or treaters died down, we enjoyed the fire pit in the backyard. The boys love it and I'm sure it will get plenty of use.

Oh the house was decorated, but I failed to take pictures before we took down all of the decorations yesterday. Oh well! We had spiderwebs on all the windows, Frankenstein in the yard, and ghosts and spiders hanging from the tree. We forgot to do our pumpkins this year! OOps! :)

-- Post From My iPhone

I'm Going To Be An Aunt X 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both of my younger brothers' wives are expecting. I am so very excited for both of them. They are both expecting little girls and I am beyond thrilled to have 2 new nieces to spoil and doll up! I can't wait to have sleepovers at Auntie A's house....even though that is a few years down the road. I'm very, very excited!

Sam and Annette are due February 14th and Bear and Haylee are due early April (don't know the exact date). So, next Spring and Summer are going to be fun-filled with new babies!!! YAY!!!!

Where We've Been.....

It has been another one of those times where we get busy and I neglect to update the blog.

This week has been the busiest, by far. Monday - Tristen's football game. Tuesday - Colby's baseball game (which ended up being cancelled b/c of rain) Wednesday - Colby's baseball game (we didn't get home until 10:30pm) Thursday - Tristen's weekly Counselor appt. Friday - Jason softball game. Saturday - 5K JDRF (Juvenille Diabetes) Walk for work. Trying to plan dinners on weeks like this is insane. Sure we could eat out every night and that'd make it easy, but that gets expensive, especially with 2 boys who eat regular size meals now and not kiddie meals. Yesterday, I rushed home from work, changed clothes, and started dinner. Jason got home, saw me in the kitchen cooking spaghetti AND checking over math homework (which required a calculator). (I wouldn't be surprised if some spaghetti sauce didn't splatter on the homework. Oh well if it did!) He said, 'Are you REALLY checking over homework and cooking at the same time?' Captain Obvious! I said, 'Yes, I have no other choice. We have to leave in an hour, and their homework needs to be corrected before we leave since we won't be home until after 10!!!!' He then told me I was Supermom. HA! Whatever. It is called multi-tasking!

Here's a quick update on each one of us. Next time, I'll try and have some pictures.

Tristen

• He is doing GREAT in football. The first game he rotated in and out with another Quarterback. The last game he was the sole quarterback and punter! He did AWESOME! Most plays are running plays, but he did make 2 passes that were very catchable, his receivers just let him down.
• He had all A's and B's on his 3 week progress report and has maintained his A's and B's. We are very proud of him. He has acclimated himself to 7th grade very well.
• Tristen is no longer doing band (which I'm glad) and he is now doing Drama as his elective. Drama couldn't suit this kid any better! He has his first 'skit' coming up on Monday. We went and bought his costume and he is all set. I can honestly see Drama class as something that he'll continue to do. He really enjoys it!

Colby

• Colby's baseball season just started back up. Well, actually, they've been practicing for the past month and their games just started last night. Colby made some awesome plays at 2nd. He had a line drive to short stop that was a hard hit and then he had an AWESOME RBI bunt down the 3rd base line. Even though he is on a new team this season, and I won't get into the reasons why his other Select team fell apart since I might go off on a tangent, he is doing great.
• Colby has adjusted very well to 6th grade and is enjoying it. He had all A's and B's, with the exception of Math, on his progress report. He is back on track though, and he's brought his Math grade up to a B.

Jason

• Jason is still enjoying his new job, well, new place of employment. Same position, just different work environment and NO weekends! YAY!
• He has started working on The Bug, and he hopes to have it on its wheels soon. How soon? Who knows!
• Jason had a birthday and while we didn't have a party or get together, he went and played golf with is Dad and friends. He got a new iron set for his birthday and this is he wanted to do with his birthday.

Me

• I am still in limbo at my job. Some of you know and some of you don't know what happened at my job. I spoke to my new boss today and plans are for me to be 're-positioned' by the end of the year. A pending position that would be ideal is still on the 'drawing board', but not sure if it will come to fruition. In the meantime, I'm working on special projects for my VP, maintaining what I currently do, and preparing for transition.
• I fell off the running wagon after my 5k got cancelled back in August, along with the fact that school has started for the boys and finding free time to do anything is a lot harder these days. I started running again this week and I hope to be registering for a few 5k runs before the Turkey Trot in November.
• I went kayaking last weekend! I've never gone kayaking, but it was a blast. It was just one of my girlfriends and me. Her and her husband have kayaks and take them out to the lake all the time. We paddled around and drank a few 'mini-beers'. It honestly was a ton of fun. We had some nice girl chat time and caught some sun rays before Fall decided to roll into town.

Hopefully, my next post will be a bit more exciting with some pictures.

Whirlwind weeks...

Well, the past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind with us adjusting back into a school routine. Tristen's football is going well and he has his first scrimmage on Tuesday. Colby's baseball games start back up this coming week, as well. Jason and I are enjoying a well-needed 3 day weekend without the boys. I don't remember the last time we had 3 days off with absolutely nothing on our agenda. No baseball games, no appts, no parties, etc. We aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves.

Our trip to Broken Bow, OK was amazing and loved every last minute of it. My camera was forgotten and so I'm waiting on Kate & Stacy to email me their pictures so I can get some uploaded to here.

This past weekend we had my birthday party here at the house. We had lots of friends over and we had a blast. I'm sad to report that the keg was not floated! HA! This is a sign that we are officially old. Here are a few pics from the party. (Tristen was the photographer for the night...and well, I had to delete 90% of the pictures. He took more pictures of objects (flower pots, wine bottles, balloons, etc. than he did of actual people. I guess he is a 'details' type of kid. HA!)

Publish Post

Life is good.....

Yeah, yeah...there haven't been any updates in almost a month, but nothing really has been going on. Jason recently changed jobs so he no longer works Saturdays, which is so nice! We are finally making headway on projects around the house. Speaking of house.....damn 12 year old house. Thank goodness for home warranties. This week....we thought the a/c was going out, but alas it isn't. Secretly we were hoping it was, so we could get a new one through our home warranty company. Much to our dismay, we were told that that will probably never happen due to the way home warranties work, but whatever. Last night the water heater decided to start leaking. So now...I wait in anticipation for my call from the plumber. Ya know...the 4 hour window I was given. "11-4 ma'am is when we can schedule you, but we'll call you 30 minutes prior to our arrival." Mind you, I took off earlier this week to meet the a/c guy. (This where Jason not working a mile down the street anymore SUCKS!) So....I told the plumber...the later the better. The back patio is finally close to being put together and completed, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Jason is wanting to put a flat-panel TV out there so I guess it will be more closer to completed once that is done. I'm not sure how soon that will happen. We bought furniture, outdoor rug, plants and a few decor items. We have thoroughly been enjoying our covered patio this summer and it was well worth the investment.

The boys are good. They are enjoying their last 2 weeks of summer. Tristen starts band on Monday, so his summer is coming to a close quicker than Colby's. I think he'll enjoy summer band though, since he'll be with his friends that he hasn't seen all summer. Tristen wanted to play baseball in the Fall, but there isn't a division for his age group. He'll be in athletics and will hopefully be playing football. Colby's baseball for the Fall is in limbo. We'll know more on Sunday, but his select team that he was playing on is struggling to find players for the Fall. Of course, football is huge in the Fall, so many kids play football. Granted, Colby could play recreational baseball, but honestly, it wouldn't help him develop any further. We might end up going the Rec Ball route if things don't pan out with his current team and if he doesn't make any of the other teams he is trying out for. Some of the teams he is trying out for are only looking for 3-4 players (if even that). It is a dog eat dog world out there, and I didn't realize how much d.r.a.m.a there is involved with youth select sports. It is insane!

I was registered and ready to run a 5K over the new Lake Lewisville Toll Bridge back on August 1st. I was uber excited b/c I had been training hard for this race. We get out there on race day and my girlfriend and I were in the 2nd wave (there were 5 waves of 500 runners). We were on the bridge ready to get called to the starting line and then the race was called/postponed due to weather. Mind you, we parked a mile away, are on a bridge with 2500+ other people. Jason and the boys came out to watch me, so we had to sift through all of the people to find them. Long story short, they postponed the race for an hour. We went back and the cancelled the race, but were still having the family fun walk across the bridge. WTH? Odd, but whatever. I was really, really, really bummed that we didn't get to run. I'm scoping out other races and very possibly will race on the 29th - my bday.

So....school is about to start. Life is about to get hectic again, but those are the good times. Oh...and Jason and I leave for our mini-vacation with friends on August 20th! Cannot wait!

Busy times

Things have been pretty busy around our house. It seems to be the story of our lives. Colby's baseball finally concluded their Spring/Summer season this past Saturday. While they struggled towards the end of the season, he learned alot and played A LOT of baseball over a 9 week span! They played 12 league play games and then 3-4 games on the weekends for the past 6 weekends. So, while I'm glad that I will have my weekends back, I'm also sad I won't be seeing some of my favorite baseball moms, as much. Several of us became pretty close friends this past season and we've had tons of fun hanging out both at the baseball field and away from the baseball field. Then again, it has been nice that we've become such good friends since we have to see each other so much during baseball. I can only hope that each of our kids makes the team again in the Fall.

Jason wrapped up his clincials for his EMT-Basic course. He has one more test to take and then he will have to take the National Registry Exam to be completely certified as an EMT-B. This coming weekend will be his first full weekend off in over a month. He started his math class last week and seems to be doing ok. It is a fast paced 4-week course. He has his first test tomorrow, so we shall see. In the Fall, he hopes to be enrolling in Paramedic courses.

Other than baseball and Jason's school, we haven't had much time for anything else. Now that baseball is over, we are hoping to do more things on the weekends - home improvement projects, swimming with the boys, enjoying our new patio, etc. I can't believe the summer is 1/2 way over! YIKES!

So busy....

Busy, busy times in the Hopper House. I haven't had the time to update the blog. I have our Memorial Day Vacation blog ready to go, but I'm just need to add the pictures. Sitting down, sifting through the pictures, and putting them on here is the hard part. Actually, finding the time to do all of that is the hard part.

Colby has had either baseball practice or a game almost every other day. Work has been insane with 2 major events coming up. One is tonight, so that will be out of the way. Friday, we leave for Round Rock for Colby's baseball tournament and we'll be there through Sunday. We'll return on Sunday and then I have be up and bright eyed and bushy tailed at my department's Annual Golf Tournament. I need another vacation already.

Tristen tried out for the Wind Symphony band and he made it. While I don't fully understand what the difference b/w Wind Symphony and the Symphonic band is, the Wind Symphony band is the 'better/more advanced' band in 7th & 8th grade. Both bands are combined with 7th & 8th graders, so we are proud of Tristen making the 'more advanced' band.

School is out on Friday! Wooohooo! Colby has his '5th Grade Memories' ceremony on Friday and Tristen has Final Exams today through Friday. Things don't seem to slow down though even once Friday hits. Next week, Tristen has football camp, Colby has a foot Dr. appointment for an ankle that has been bothering him, and then the following week Tristen has a dentist appointment and soon after that an Orthodonist appointment for braces.

Our covered back patio was started the Friday before Memorial Day and it should be finished by early next week. The rain has postponed them working on the patio a couple days, so I'm hoping for no more rain until the patio is done. It is looking great and we can't wait for it to be done. Jason will have his hands full with reviving the grass in the backyard. It is pretty much shot from all of the materials laying on it. Oh well. It will be back to good in no time! :)

I promise to update the blog soon with pictures and our vacation post.

Vacation to San Antonio

We headed out Friday morning after boarding Tigger. We wanted to leave at like 6:30am, but the place where we leave Tigger doesn't open until 7:30am, so that put a damper on us leaving before the sun came up. Kids were packed with their game boys, iPods, word search books and snacks. We made pretty good time and the question, 'Are we there yet?' was only asked maybe 5 times. The first one came - an hour into the trip. We made our first stop in Round Rock to eat lunch and then got back in the car and went to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We had the boys choose between the Wildlife Ranch and the Natural Bridge Caverns. They chose the Wildlife Ranch, thankfully. I went to the Carlsbad Caverns (in Carlsbad, NM) so many times in my childhood, I'm set for life on seeing caverns. We drove through the ranch and had fun feeding the animals. The Emus and Zebras were the best. The Emu scared the CRAP out of me and then Jason decided to feed him out of the bag. While the pictures show just a little bit of it, it was quite amusing. The Zebras were hilarious. They would not leave the car. We had people driving around us b/c the Zebras wouldn't move. I was trying to get Colby to hand feed one of them and he got scared. One of the Zebras got a little friendly with Jason and then sneezed all over him. (Thank goodness I'm a prepared mom and packed the antibacterial wipes.)

After our tour of the ranch and getting to see all of the animals, we were back on the road for what we had hoped to be a short 20 minute drive to our hotel. Well, the short 20 minute drive turned into an hour due to a terrible wreck on our route. We finally arrived at our hotel, got settled in and unpacked. We then headed down to the Riverwalk to meet up with Jason's dad and step mom. The boys got to see the Alamo for the first time, but we were unable to walk through it b/c it closed before we got there. We enjoyed dinner on the Riverwalk at Zuni's. It really wasn't our type of 'mexican' food but it was good. We walked around the Riverwalk for a little bit and found our way to Marble Slab. Yum! We finally called it a night and headed back to our hotel. The following morning we get up and get ready. I opened the curtains and saw in the parking lot, my old high school charter bus! Mind you, we are 400 miles from my hometown. I was determined to see someone at breakfast from Wink. Although, any of the kids that were there probably don't even remember me, since it has been 11 years since I was in high school. I did run into one girl who recognized me and then I ran into my old Computer Applications teacher and my old Biology II teacher/coach. It is such a small world!!

Saturday, we got up, had breakfast and headed to Uncle Mike's house (Jason's Dad's Brother) for Jason's Grandma's 80th b-day. All of Jason's Dad's side of the family were there. There were lots of Uncles, cousins and 2nd cousins that the boys and I had never met and that Jason hadn't seen since they were little kids. We had a fun filled day of hanging out, swimming, hot tubing, and catching up. Uncle Mike smoked brisket and sausage, Aunt Kathy made potato salad, pasta salad, and lots of other goodies. We were all fed VERY well!!!!!! It was great for everyone to be together to celebrate Grandma's 80th bday. She made sure to let us know that we had to do this again for her 90th bday. We can't wait!

After a long day of hanging out with family, we finally called it a night and headed back to the hotel to get some rest before Sea World on Sunday. We got to Sea World right as it was opening. I packed a few snacks and a bottle of water in the boys backpacks. We came up with a game plan to watch all of the shows we wanted to see first and THEN go to the water park. We went and saw Shamu, Sea Lions, Water Ski, and we tried to see the Dolphin show, but not once but twice, we got there too late and the place was packed. We finally headed over to the water park but had to wait 25 minutes to get in. Right as we go to the turnstile to get in, it started raining and thundering. So, we waited under the awning for 15 minutes. I was getting antsy. I'm not a 'crowd' type person and I had all of these people around me trying to get in under the awning. Eck....It grosses me out just thinking about it. They finally started letting people through into the water park, but it was still lightly raining. They couldn't open the pools/water slides until they didn't hear thunder/lightning for 30 minutes. It would be silent for about 10 minutes and then a rumble of thunder would pass. Finally, we said screw it. I went and go a locker, put all of our stuff in it and then went about our way back to the rest of the park. It is still lightly raining and at times raining pretty good, by this point. We made our way over for the boys to feed the dolphins ($5 for 3 little minnows or whatever they are!!!!!) We then went to see the Sharks/Coral Reef area.....trying to stall and hope that it will quit raining. Nope...it was still raining when we left the Shark exhibit. We made our way back over to the Dolphin show, mind you an hour early this time. Guess what.....we got a seat! Whew! It was a long hour of just sitting, but it was worth it to see the dolphin show. The sun finally decided to show it's face again. Thankfully, b/c the radar I kept checking on my iPhone during the dolphin show didn't show to be very promising. We hauled booty back over to the waterpark and thankfully did not have to stand in line to get BACK into the water park. The boys were in heaven! They mainly stayed in the wave pool which they just thought was the best thing (even though they've been in one before). They didn't seem interested in riding any of the slides or tube rides. We finally convinced them to go hang out in the lazy river for a little bit. We are lucky that the boys are at an age where we can give them a little freedom, and not have to be by there side every step of the way. They are pretty good about being punctual and checking in when needed. While the boys were enjoying the lazy river, Jason and I decided it was about time to go. We packed up and hit up the gift shops. We gave the boys a certain amount of 'spending money' each day that they could use or carry over to the next day. (My mom did this with us kids when we went on trips and it worked out well.) The gift shops were the biggest BEAT DOWN of all at Sea World. We went to 4 freakin' gift shops and they boys STILL had the hardest time finding something. They wanted to get SOMETHING, but nothing really seemed to catch their eye. It was a jurassic beat down doing this as the last thing before we left, but I didn't want to lug around whatever it was they bought all freakin' day long. After we finally finished up in the gift shops, we made our trek back to the entrance to leave. We 'had' to take a family pic, but it was at the end of the day...a LONG day, so it really isn't that fabulous of a picture. Oh well! While treking back to our car, we found out that J's Dad, Sisters & Family, and Uncle Rudy were all down on the Riverwalk for dinner. We high tailed it from Sea World to downtown just in time for dinner. We ate at The Original (I think that is the name of it). It was damn good mexican food!

Monday, we packed up and headed out. The boys HAD to swim at the hotel pool, so J let them swim while I packed up our bags. We hit some traffic along the way, but nothing terrible. We made a stop in Salado at Dairy Queen. A road trip in Texas isn't complete without a stop at Dairy Queen and a Blizzard!!!!!!!!!

Jason and Amanda Updates

Well, I don't really have any updates. Nothing really new is going on with me. One exciting thing I guess, is I finally hired myself a housekeeper. She comes for the first time in 2 weeks and I couldn't be more excited. If I like her work, I only plan on having her come once a month. Colby's baseball picks up on the weekends starting at the end of May and he has tournaments 7 weekends in a row!!! My normal cleaning routine that I do on the weekends won't exactly be a routine anymore once the tournaments start.

Jason is nearing the end of his semester and will soon after that be a certified EMT-B. He is testing for Denton Fire this Saturday. He plans on starting Paramedic classes in August and possibly doing an online certification for fire, as well. We'll see. He plans on starting softball back up in the next few weeks, too. Busy busy! I'll just be excited when his night classes are over. I know I miss having him at home at night and so do the boys.

I'll try to post some recent pictures soon!!!!

3rd Annual Mardi Gras Trip

So, here it is on actual Fat Tuesday, and I'm finally getting around to posting this. I've had the blogged all typed up, I just haven't had the time to put the pictures together. I finally had the time to sit down and throw some pictures into a slide show. So....here ya go....

We made our trek to Shreveport for our annual trip to watch the Mardi Gras parade and to participate in some debauchery prior to the parade starting. No worries (Mom), everything was kid friendly. People hear Mardi Gras and they think tatas or something like that. No, this is a kid-friendly parade. Granted prior to the parade starting, the adults enjoy a few adult beverages and we have some fun!

Our trip started out Friday afternoon leaving our casa. Jason wasn't supposed to get off until 7pm on Friday, but ended up leaving work early. Tristen doesn't get out of school until 4 so by the time we left the house, it was 5pm. Not really the best idea, leaving on a Friday with rush hour traffic. Whatever though, we bite the bullet and head out. Mind you, I make a dash for the car b/c I did NOT want to drive. I won! We are truckin' along down 35 South living it up in the HOV lane. BAM....we get to 635, conveniently where the HOV lane ends, and it is bumper to freakin' bumper traffic. I look up the route on my nifty little iphone and sure enough the traffic is 'red' from where we are all the way down town. So long story short...................................traffic was a beating and we finally get out of town. We are finally up to normal highway speed and are going for about 20 minutes. The all too familiar annoying question comes flying out of the back seat, 'Are we there yet??????' Jason fielded that question, 'NO, and don't ask again!' LOL! Harsh much? LOL...no b/c with a 11 and 12 year old you've got to be stern. We are on 20 heading east and of course someone has to pee, you'd think it would've been one of the boys, but no...it was Jason. So finally, we get back on the road and we are good to go. We finally arrive in Shreveport in 4 hours instead of the 3 it normally takes. After saying our hellos and chit chatting a bit with Jason's extended family (aunt, uncle, mamaw, etc.) we decide to call it a night and head to our hotel.

This whole trip is about the parade (and of course seeing J's family). One might ask, what is the big deal about the parade. Well, it is all about location. Location, location, location for your parade/bead catching spot. The baracades for the parade route usually open around 7am. Well, Bonnie (J's aunt) always rents a porta-potty for our area since we are out there for 6-7 hours. The porta-potty is just dropped and marked private. This, however, does not prevent anyone from taking your 'spot'. You cannot mark your 'spot' until the parade route is opened. So....at 3:30am, Aunt Bonnie and the crew (Marty, Dennis, & Shane) all headed down to mark off our route. Marty was staying in our room at our hotel and so the alarm went off at 2:50am for her to get up and go to Bonnie's. She leaves, whatever, no big deal, right. Well about 45 minutes later, Jason and I awake to this screeching beeping noise. We both fight with the alarm clock (in the dark no less) to try and get it turned off. Finally, we turn on the bedside lamp and I'm starting to unplug the stupid alarm clock and we both realized at the same time it was the freaking fire alarm. Nice, eh? So, kids are still asleep and I decided to go open the door to see what was going on before I woke 3 kids (Colby, Tristen and Abby). Of course, I don't smell anything except for something that resembled the smell of burnt bacon. We were waved back to our rooms (luckily we were staying on the 1st floor) by the front desk staff. I'm assuming that Night Auditor got hungry and went and made himself some bacon and forgot about it or something b/c the next morning there was not any bacon on the Continental Breakfast. LOL! Of course it wasn't complete, without the fire trucks and all the noise arriving within 30 seconds of me laying back down to try to go back to sleep.

So anyways, fast forward to about noon. We head out to our parade site that was safely secured by our 'crew'. They took shifts sitting out at our parade site from 5am - noon when we got there. I have apparently been nominated to participate in the early rising for this next year. My remarks, 'Well, I might not be able to do it if I'm pregnant!' Nope, I still didn't get out of my nomination. Crap!

The afternoon always starts off slow. We all sit around the fire pit, realtively calm. The gumbo and taco soup arrived that are prepared by the fabulous Mary. The kids are always rambunctious. Me being the OCD mom, always thinks the boys need to 'look nice', so I pack them 'good jeans' (this means fairly new jeans w/no holes in the knee). Dumb mistake and lesson learned. Who cares what their jeans look like...as long as they aren't highwaters! Not sure how many times I said, 'Tristen/Colby - stay off of your knees!" (I was fighting grass stains like no other when I did laundry when we returned.) This year, we were treated to Jello shots! Woohoo. Actually, the jello shots were to try to entice the bead throwers to throw us adults some big beads (in trade for the jello shots). I myself decided to take it 'easy' and drink mimosas. Yum yum! Anyways, shortly before the parade started we had a little dancefest that I've yet to decide whether or not I'm going to post the video. I'm torn on whether to forego my embarassment and post it or save my face and not post it. LOL! It is all 'clean' material, just quite hilarious and not sure that I want it on the intraweb for everyone to see.

The parade was fun. We collected lots of beads and cups. The parade seemed a lot longer this year than previous years. The boys pick out beads they want to keep and then put the other beads in a huge bucket that Aunt Bonnie takes and to an "Old Folks Home".

We headed home Sunday morning and made it back with plenty of time to relax before the week started. Fortunately, I had Monday off due to President's Day! (I love having Banker's Hours/Holidays!)

Abby's Birthday

Abby, our niece, turned 5 on the 4th. She had her birthday party at Going Bonkers in Lewisville. I can't believe she is 5!!!!!!!!!! She is the most girly girl you'll find. Below are a few pics from her big day.

Showing off her 'makeup' from Allen & Kate

Excited to be 5!!!!

Her new Barbie camera!

Colby & Tristen @ Abby's party

2008 In Review

I know it is a few days late, but I had to take the time to sit down and actually write notes for this post. We said goodbye to 2008 and Hello to 2009 with some friends at our house. It was a low-key party, but it was fun and successful. As we sat around the table and talked about babies and kids, we realized how different things are now than 4-5 years ago.

2008 was a great year for us. Here's a quick recap of 2008:

• The boys experienced a Hibachi restaurant for the 1st time (for Allen's b-day).
• My brother and Sister-in-Law moved up to Dallas from Austin.
• Colby turned 10 in February.
• Boys kept us extremely busy with baseball.
• Jason played on 2 softball teams.
• We took our annual trip to Shreveport to see Jason's family for Mardi Gras.
• Our BFF's had an adorable son (our psuedo nephew).
• House hunting, found a house, & closed on a house.
• Jason and I made a quick trip to Wink to see a friend's graduation.
• My 10 year high school reunion - that I was unable to make it to. :(
• Our 1st anniversary.
• Colby tried out for and made a Select Baseball Team.
• Colby was selected as 'MVP' from his team in the Tara Sawyer Baseball Tournament.
• The boys started new schools.
• Tristen began band and worked his way to 1st chair.
• We slowly but surely have been decorating our home.
• Tigger ran away (b/c I didn't latch the gate all the way). Tigger came home 36 hours later.
• Jason bought a 1964 VW bug. (Not that I need a reminder as has taken my garage parking spot.)
• My brother Bear graduated from Dallas Fire Academy.
• Tristen turned 12 in November.
• Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went by so fast.

2008 was fabulous, but I expect 2009 to be even better. Life is about to get pretty hectic for us. Mid-terms for Tristen next week. Tristen leaves for Denver on the 16th. Jason is starting school in later this month. He will be at school 3 nights/week. Colby's birthday in February. Trip to Shreveport for Mardi Gras in February. Colby's trip to Denver in early March. Colby doesn't start baseball until probably late March/early April. Before we know it, summer will be here again! *Possibly* later this (late) summer or (early) fall, we will start trying to have a bebe! :)

Last weekend's fun... (long entry!)

Friday - My youngest brother's graduation from Dallas Fire Academy. He is now offically a Dallas Fire Firefigther and I'm one proud sister. My brother has a passion for what he does and has been involved with firefighting since he was 18. He went on to get his Associate's Degree in Paramedicine. He then went to work for the City of Austin. Last year he began the rigorous process of applying to be a firefighter. After a long 8 months, he was finally offered a position by the City of Dallas. He has been in the Fire Academy since April and he will soon be placed at a Fire Station. The boys got to see him in action and got a tour of the training academy. As soon as Bear gets settled into his new fire house, the boys will have many opportunities to hang out at the station and even go on calls with Bear. They are more than excited!

Boys and I waiting for graduation to start.

Bear drove the truck and set up the ladder as his part in the simulation.

Building on fire...

The little brother and me

Uncle Bear with the Boys

Saturday - Early morning wake up to go to the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes walk in Plano. This is the first time the boys have done a charity event and the loved it. Although, they didn't participate in raising any of the funds, they were able to see and hear stories of kids who suffer from diabetes.

The boys w/Savar - the kids club mascot from my work.

The boys loving all of the paraphernalia from my work.

Tristen - enjoying his apple while we walk.

-Colby -

We finished the 5K walk!

Saturday evening - We had family over to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, Jason's birthday and Bear's graduation. We had a full house - about 25 people. ! This was the first time we've had people over since we've been in the house. I've already deemed that I need a bigger kitchen! Really, I think we just had too many people in the kitchen trying to help prepare the stuff for hamburgers. It was a successful party!

Mom and my youngest brother, Bear

Marty, Christy, and Pat

My awesome 'etch-it' cups! (Scratch your name into your cup!)

Jason and his sisters - Brandie & Marty

Me and Abby

Sunday - We cleaned up and lounged around. That evening we went out to dinner w/Jason's friends for his birthday dinner (a week late). It was a long and exhausting weekend but all in all we had a great time.

Tristen and Abby's self-portrait

Abby - telling her mom that she wants a baby brother! HAHA!
Marty - holding Alex, Kate's precious baby boy

Happy baby boy, Alex and KateJason - after he was sung Happy 21st (*cough* 31st) Birthday!)

Need a good laugh...

Check out our niece dancing! Oh my oh my! The one w/Abby wearing the little mermaid bikini top is h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s. All of the videos will give you a good laugh, so if you are bored...watch all of them. There are more videos on the more recent posts. The videos of her driving are pretty funny too.

Here is their blog - Abby, Marty & Phillip - ENJOY!

1 year ago today.....

1 year ago today, we experienced the best day of our lives, thus far. We said our vows and commited our lives to each other. Never in my 26 years before that day - June 23, 2007 - did I imagine I would have such a beautiful and perfect day. The past year has been filled with ups and down, highs and lows, but it only makes our marriage stronger. We have the joy of parenting two amazing (not so little) boys. They bring us laughter, tears, joy and stress, but most of all they make our family complete. (One day we will add another little one. :) Looking back at our pictures makes reliving the day so surreal. We always joke around about doing it all over again, just so we can relive the day that went by so fast. The entire day flew by and before we knew it we were on our way to Mexico the next morning for our honeymoon.

We celebrated our 1st anniversary with a low-key trip to Frisco (15 minutes up the road from our house). We headed to Frisco Saturday afternoon for some shopping, and then I surprised Jason with an overnight stay in Frisco at the Sheraton Stonebriar Hotel. After winding down from shopping, we headed out to the pool and had a few drinks. When the sun started setting we headed in, got cleaned up and went to dinner. We were both exhausted and decided to call it a night. Jason then got to play a round of golf Sunday morning at Stonebriar Country Club. He truely was surprised that I did this for him. We had a great time, and it was nice and relaxing. When we returned home, he gave me my 'paper' present - it was a message in a bottle. It was a nice little note he had written, tied with a blue and green (our wedding colors) ribbon. I also made out with a new purse and clothes from our shopping trip. His 'paper' present - was his information for his round of golf at Stonebriar County Club. All in all it was a fabulous weekend and we can't wait to celebrate so many more. He said he was in charge of planning next year's anniversary. :) (I will post pics from this past weekend later tonight)