Homemade Scarf

Check out what I made yesterday - from a t-shirt!

2011 Mother/Daughter Christmas Tea Party

We had our 4th annual Mother Daughter Christmas Tea Party a few weeks ago.

It is always so much fun to get together some of our friends and be girly! We ask everyone to dress in their Sunday best. We provide hot tea and china tea cups so everyone can get the feel of having real tea, but we also offer pink lemonade since some of the girls just don't like the tea!
One of our traditions is taking each mother and daughter's picture in front of the Christmas tree. It has been so much fun watching some of the girls mature over the last several years. I love taking this picture because I know how rare it is for mommies to actually be in the pictures with their kids! (I'm going to try to set up a rolling collage of all the pictures along with this post! Hopefully it works!)
We were very excited that Honey, my mom, was able to join us this year since my parents moved here in the fall! We are hoping that my sister will make it next year!

Merry Christmas to Jessica

Meet Bentley, my sister's new puppy! My parents got him for my sister as a Christmas surprise, and she was definitely surprised! She has been wanting her own puppy. He is 9 months old and absolutely adorable!!

Needless to say, she was thrilled! They even bought him a plane ticket so he could ride back home to Georgia with her!! Isn't he cute?

The Nutcracker Ballet

Honey treated Mary Frances and I to our first ballet at Wortham Theatre in Houston! It was fantastic!

It was the perfect event to dress up and be ladies for the day!
We were so excited to introduce Mary Frances to the theatre - on the other side of the stage! We're all hoping to see Romeo and Juliet this spring!

The girls

It has been so much fun to have my parents in Texas this fall, and I have loved all of the visits Jessica has made, as well! I sure wish she would hurry up and decide to move out here! I miss her!

Cinderella

Mary Frances and I had the pleasure of being in a Cinderella play this fall! It was so much fun to be in it together! Mary Frances was a natural! I was so proud of how focused she was! Mary Frances was the young cinderella and Ray C. played her father! What a memory for her to treasure forever!
We were also market people who got to go to the Prince's ball and more! It was a lot of work, but it was worth the effort! The play was a fundraiser for our church's new organization, Cy-Hope, and we raised several thousand dollars!

SuperBowl Champions...

Chase's flag football team has been playing hard all season...

so hard that we made it to the SuperBowl!!! The boys got to play in the Berry Center which is one of the two football stadiums that our school system's high schools use to play their games each week.

It was a great experience. How many 5 and 6 year olds can say they've played on terf? They got to go in the locker room, have their names announced on the loud speaker, and even got to see themselves on the jumbotron!
The game was a perfect SuperBowl! It was obvious why the two teams made it! We played the other flag team at our own school, and it came down to the very last play! I am proud to say that Chase was one of two boys who pulled the last flag!
They got new trophies (to add to our ever expanding collection)!
And, Ray C., had a blast coaching, too!

We are VIKINGS!!

Snow much fun

Our neighborhood, Bridgeland, is so good to us! They bring in snow every year for the kids to play in! It is so much fun for all of our southern kids who never get to see any accumulation!The kids had a blast making snowmen...
dancing...
having snow ball fights...
drinking hot chocolate, and, of course, hanging out with Papa and Peppy!
Oh what fun it is....

Here it is...well, almost

It's the church property!! They've been leveling it this week -- getting it ready for 18 inches of fill dirt before we start building in just a few months!! We are so excited!
Tonight, we walked around the property talking about what is to come and praying God's blessings on it all! (We also saw a few coyotes while we were out there!:)

Unique Bridal Bouquet

This is the bridal bouquet from a wedding this past Saturday! All the bridesmaids carried fresh floral bouquets as seen in the background. However, the bride made this unique bouquet with over 100 broaches from family and friends - many who have died! It was gorgeous and such a great idea for her something borrowed and old! There were pieces of jewelry from grandparents, great grandparents, and wonderful family friends! I was so impressed!

School on Friday?

6:30 a.m. conversation with Chase:

Chase: What's today?
Me: Friday
Chase: Do I have school today?
Me: Yes, Honey.
Chase: But, don't we get two days off?
Me: Yes, but you have to go to school on Fridays first.

Afterwards, I realized that I might have forgotten to tell him that Fridays is usually a school day. For the last year, Friday has been his "daddy day" since Ray C. has the day off and he only went to preschool Monday thru Thursday! I guess I just assumed he knew that!

Kindergarten...Again

UPDATE: Everyone made it home safely on the bus and had an AWESOME day! Thomas has a kid in his class that lives 4 doors down from us that we haven't met before! That's exciting! Chase was surprised that he saw LOTS of his baseball and football friends throughout the day, and Mary Frances just loved the whole thing! Looks like it will be another great year!



I just took my BABY to kindergarten! I didn't think I would be emotional, but I couldn't help myself after he cried on the way because his best friend doesn't go the same school!

Sigh....we took Chase in first, and he went straight to his seat. He agreed to a picture with me but wasn't overly excited about anything. He happily sat down and did his thing. So, we left!



Next, we went right across the hall to Thomas who was already sitting in his seat and wanted NOTHING to do with us! When I asked him if he was okay, he said," just go, please!" He wouldn't even take a picture with me...we were actually embarrassing him!

So, off to Mary Frances' class! She gladly took pictures and talked to me. Thank goodness for my one girl to help me feel better.

I didn't think I would make it outside without bursting into tears, and to top it off, everyone kept saying the usual, "Hey! How are you?" Thankfully, Ray C. was there to answer. I just gave a polite smile and kept walking with the door in mind!

Now, I'm at home all alone, missing all my babies! It was a great summer with lots of fun packed in! I am really excited about the school year and especially the routine, but right now I just can't believe ALL three of my children are in elementary school!

Sigh...

Armpits

Thomas just asked why his armpits are so sweaty! He said, "my shirt is getting wet. They're like upside-down bath tubs."... And I've been giggling ever since!

Disney World Vacation

Here's a little view of our Disney World vacation! Uncle Glen came along and brought two of the cousins - Abigail and Finley! We were excited they were able to share the fun with us!

Because Finley was too small to ride some rides, we were able to truly benefit from the FunPass system and their "buddy pass" to ride our favorite rides several times with no wait time!!
The Swiss Family Robinson tree was really cool. I tried to convince the kids to read the book. Maybe they'll read it if I just get it for them anyway!
Everyone was excited about the Incredibles, and the "Crew Members" helping organize the pictures loved me! :) I overheard them saying that I should be doing their job...which could have meant I was too bossy....but I told them that I'm a wedding planner which means organizing quick pictures is a must!
Couldn't resist a picture in front of the fake city scape in Hollywood Studios!
Everyone's favorite...After Thomas poked his eye, the monster chased the kids! It was hysterical!
We did everything we could stand in two days! It was a great trip to Disney World! Too bad we have to downsize our house now...just kidding!

Homemade Ice Cream

Mary Frances has been begging to make ice cream. So, we decided we'd make it yesterday and invite the kids in the neighborhood as a "farewell to summer". Because it is still summer, we started our day at the pool...enjoying the outrageously HOT sun for a little while. We met a new family who just moved to Houston 2 weeks ago, and one of the girls is Mary Frances' age. So, at Mary Frances' suggestion, we invited them to our ice cream party.

About 10 neighborhood kids showed up along with the two new girls and their mother! We were so excited they were able to come, and they were so excited to play with some other kids!

We made my great-grandmother's vanilla ice cream in the electric churn and CHOWED down. All of the kids loved it! But before serving it, I asked everyone if I could pray for our new school year. So, we all bowed our heads and thanked God for a safe and fun summer and asked Him to bless our year in school. It was a great experience! I am so thankful that God has sent us to this place to be His light! (AND, I'm thankful for Mama Taylor's Recipe!!)

Here it is if you'd like to try it. I have adjusted the amounts to fit in a modern churn!

Mama Taylor's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1/2 gallon whole milk
1/2 can Borden's Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar

Just mix it all together and follow the directions on your churn! Be sure to have a bag of ice and Ice Cream Salt, as well!

Ah....Summer

Okay..sorry for those of you regulars who keep checking to find nothing! It has been an amazing summer, but I just haven't shown it on the blog! I promise that I will sit down on Monday (the first day of school) and begin recording everything for your enjoyment!

Here are some things to look forward to:

1. Disney World
2. Visiting Community of Hope (the first church in which we served)
3. the Sr. High Mission Trip to Atlanta
4. Visiting with family
5. SOMEBODY IN OUR FAMILY IS MOVING TO TEXAS!!!
6. a new patio
7. There's an APP for that...
8. and more...

Talk to you soon!

You Woke Me Up

Chase is usually the first person up in the morning and has been waking everyone up for YEARS -- usually to get him something to eat! So, you can imagine our amusement this morning when he was the last one to wake up and came down all grumpy, complaining that we had all woken him up!

Funny that he's almost six and this is the first time this has happened! It was 8:00. No one really felt sorry for him! :)

Jessie Turns 30!!!

I flew out to Georgia to spend the week with my sister for her 30th birthday on Wednesday!! What a fun week it has been! We showered her with gifts all day long. We had cake & balloons, and we went out to three different restaurants all in one day!

We surprised her at work when I showed up wearing a sandwich board announcing her birthday and loaded with pictures of her as a child! We sang Happy Birthday to her in the lobby of the doctors office and even offered some of her cake to the patients!!

Then, we took her to lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant where we gave her more gifts, of course!

When she returned home from work, we went out to eat at The Last Resort - a fabulous Athens restaurant - where her friends Beau and Angie joined us as a surprise to her!

Then, after dinner, we decided to walk over to Hiwire, a nice new bar downtown, and surprised her with 20 of her "closest" friends waiting for her in the back room! It was such a fun day and night!


Happy Birthday, Jessica!! We love you!

Enjoying May

It has been so pretty here, lately! We've tried to enjoy being outside as much as possible! We're really looking forward to getting our new patio finished next week - hopefully!!

Growing Up

After a few years of use, my children have all decided they are too "big" for these cups! (sigh.......) Every little step towards independence is both exciting and sad. I'm so proud of who they are becoming, but these little things remind me of the little people I'm going to miss! :(

Bridging to Brownies

Mary Frances' Daisy scout troop bridged to Brownies last week. We had a fun party to celebrate their accomplishments after the ceremony!Each of the flower buckets (yes, I did reuse them) had a portion of the Girl Scout Law sticking out of it to remind us that we are girl scouts at every stage!

The girls actually walked over a bridge to symbolize the transformation.
As they walked over and received their Brownie Pins, they removed their Daisy smocks, and we placed them on the railing of the bridge.
Check out our new "Batch of Brownies"!!