El Rancho Dominguez

Just in time for Valentine's...

2012-02-12T22:14:00.000-06:00

. . . the rest of the Christmas pics. I'm not even going to attempt to write a post...I'm bleary eyed and have to be up and at 'em early tomorrow. But, here's the rest of the photos from our Christmas break.

Chopping cherries up for Santa's Shortbread Cherry Cookies that we made.

Jonathan adding the sugar.

Jonathan was glued to NORAD all day on Christmas Eve.

Decorating the "Happy Birthday, Jesus" Birthday cake.

Carving the bird for Christmas Eve dinner.

Wishbone....Jonathan won this time.

Opening presents.

Someone was excited that brother went shopping at Legoland!

Sweet expression...

And mommy got the item on her wishlist.

For dessert, we made Bananas Foster...mmmm. There are actual flames in the photo...it's just hard to see them. It put on quite the show for us.

Santa came and brought new bikes, a DS for Jonathan and lots of DS/Wii loot for Benjamin.

Yay for Christmas morning!

The rest of the break we did a lot of lounging & movie watching....

...and staying up super late every night.

Benjamin also got bunk beds over the break...which amounted to a lot of sleepovers for the two weeks school was out. They talked and giggled & DSed themselves to sleep every night.

Overall, a great break. David said it was our best break ever since we didn't have much of an agenda. We just needed to lay low and recharge the batteries.

Honor Roll...YeeHaw!

2012-02-03T21:43:00.000-06:00

We interrupt this drawn out series of Christmas posts (can we really call it a series if it's only been one post thus far?) with a big YEEHAW for Benjamin who made the All A Honor Roll for the first semester. He was awarded on Wednesday at his school's awards assembly. Way to go, Buddy Bucks...we are proud of you!!

Getting his certificate from Mr. Coleman

And receiving the ribbon that they gave to all of the straight A students from Mrs. Daniels.

In other school related news...they've incorporated a gigantic Wii Just Dance 2 screen/thingy into Benjamin's gym class. Because of this, he now knows all the lyrics to "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

He likes to sing it. All. Day. Long.

Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.

Christmas Catch Up: Part One (of I don't know how many)

2012-01-31T23:05:00.001-06:00

Oy. Apparently I'm now a once-a-month poster. The following are a random smattering of photos from our Christmas celebration with my family. I have no idea why I took such random photos. I feel like I missed a lot...maybe the thing is that I didn't miss a lot. Maybe I was too busy enjoying it all that I didn't take photos, perhaps? Nonetheless, here's what I got...

This was our family photo from that day...I think it turned out great!! Everybody was there...every niece, nephew, grandkid, grandparent, etc....the whole bloomin' bunch. And that tree only looks like this about three days of the entire year before all the leaves are gone. What luck! ;)

I also discovered a couple of funny out takes since my camera was in timer/auto mode....(I don't think Dale moved a muscle from the "real" photo to this one...LOL).

Also discovered this one of Benjamin (& Kayla in the background)....not 100% sure if I took it or if it was still in timer mode and he posed either way.

Trevor & Benjamin could be seen doing this most of the day...especially after Benjamin opened his new Mario Kart DS. They linked up to each other and battled all day!

Amber, Amanda & Grandma

Again with the DS play-a-thon!

Alyssa & Jonathan (aka, Darth)...these two are just a few months a part in age.

The light saber....the favorite gift of the year for Jonathan

Amanda

(see...told ya it was random)....whose hand is this reaching for a goody?

This just made me laugh!

Lots of hide & seek played by the cousins...

Aunt Cherie & baby Addyson

Aaron....at the kiddie table!!

Addyson isn't too sure what to think...she's just sad to have to leave. :(

And Benjamin got to take a cruise in Uncle Mike's vette.

Fun times! Wish I would have captured more of them.

Hanging with the Callaways

2011-12-30T13:36:00.001-06:00

I think for the last few years, Lori & I have tried to get together during the holidays without much success. This year, thanks to a cub scout campout at the Dallas Museum of Natural History (think Night at the Museum), we pulled off a FUN little visit earlier in December! Lori was the ultimate hostess of course and showed Jonathan and I a FABULOUS time!

We had known about this campout for months, so we were so excited for the weekend to arrive. Lori was too thoughtful and put together an equally awesome weekend for Jonathan so he didn't feel like he got the short end of the stick since big brother always gets to do cool scout stuff.

---

Here are the photos David texted me from the museum campout:

And of course, in usual Kristi fashion, I went a bit overboard with photos from our day:

Started off the fun with a trip to Legoland for the boys! Jonathan and Jackson (Lori's son) had a BLAST!

Getting ready to watch the Lego 4D movie. Lori & I concluded that to be a FOUR-D movie, you must get actual "stuff" on you (i.e.: snow, rain, that sort of thing). It was hilarious. And, for the record, Lego people have their own language which is not too different than the adults from Peanuts. ("WaWaWaWa")

J-man on the ride at the beginning of Legoland where the car takes you through the castle & you shoot the bad guys (VERY cool!). All four of us went on this one...the photo they take of you during the ride (surprise) was probably one of the funniest I've ever seen. And definitely one NOT to be purchased. Yikes.

Jonathan and Lori on the big spin-ride thing. Lori was too cool to take my place on this one since this mama can't handle a spin around ride for the life of her. Bleh.

After dinner, we headed down to see the lights in Frisco square. LOVED this. So fun. It's one of those where you tune your car radio to their station and the lights are all choreographed/synchronized to the holiday music (which made taking photos a bit challenging, since they only stay on a few seconds at a time!). We also parked and walked around a bit to see the sights. Little sister came along with us this time. Pictured above is Jonathan, Jackson and Madelyn.

Santa was there! Seriously considered Photoshopping Benjamin into this one and calling it good for the year. Don't worry...I'm not that mean. We made it to the Killeen Mall to see our Santa, too, with big brother in tow.

There's a big, beautiful tree in Frisco Square, too.

I tried really hard to go flash free on these, but haven't mastered that, nor did I bring a tripod to reduce movement. But...you get the idea! ; )

Frisco even made SNOW for us to enjoy!

Thanks for a great time, Callaways!! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

ON A SIDE NOTE: One of my favorite parts of this trip was the hilarious conversation that developed between Lori & I while all three kiddos were in the backseat of her car as we headed to Frisco. One kiddo was having a mini-meltdown and the other two's comments regarding said meltdown were cracking us up. The car was loud and busy and full of both laughter and tears all at the same time. I looked at Lori and said, "Picture us fifteen years ago, in the front seat of a green Camaro or black Explorer driving through McDonald's in Abilene to get hot fudge sundaes. What would those two girls have done if they had seen this scenario in their future?" We had a GREAT laugh on that one and shared it later with Bobby, who also couldn't get over it! Life certainly takes you down lots of wonderful paths. Love having good friends like Lori that, although they may live a few miles away now, we can still have the same great times as always. Love you, Bestie.

Thanksgiving in New Mexico

2011-12-28T00:45:00.000-06:00

We had a nice Thanksgiving with David's family. We headed over to Hobbs, where his brother, Daniel & his family live. We were able to hang out with all of the cousins & grandparents and had a great time!

The 2011 Dominguez Family Photo

Grandma & the gang hanging out & playing

Spider-Nathan

Great Grandma & Great Grandpa with Uncle Daniel

Thanksgiving dinner at the Davidson's home. Fun times were had by all.

Doug & Debbie (our sister-in-law, Syndi's parents) were so gracious to host us all.

Poor Everet...the tryptophan kicked in fast.

Our boys with Grandma & Grandpa

All the grands!

David snapped this sweet pic of Benjamin.

We ended our Thanksgiving with a swim with the cousins at the hotel pool! Doesn't everyone end their Thanksgiving with a dip in the water?

A Career in Acting...

2011-12-12T12:12:00.000-06:00

I know I said I would be posting Thanksgiving pics....and I will, these are just already edited and ready to go since the preschool requested them (that's what I get for arriving 45 minutes early and sitting in the front row...deemed the photographer). So I pulled these out of iPhoto first and already edited them (and by edited, I mean that I use the easiest Photoshop preset action and call it good).
--

We were so excited about Jonathan's role in his preschool's Christmas play this year, he was Joseph! And he did a wonderful little job. Mary was played by a sweet friend of his, and they just ate it up! Instead of walking down the aisle, tired, weary and looking for a room at the inn, these two were busy waving and smiling to all of their adoring fans. Awesome.

Last year, he was one of the shepherds, which I posted about here.

The children put on a fantastic show! We were just so proud of our little Joseph. Just one more reason we will miss St. Christopher's preschool so very, very much!

Catch Up, Part 2: Cub Scout Ceremony

2011-12-03T13:48:00.000-06:00

I somehow neglected to post about Benjamin's award ceremony at Cub Scouts from October. I had the photos ready and everything! ; )

Benjamin was pinned with his Bobcat Badge which makes him an official Tiger Cub Scout.

The patch is pinned on upside down. Once the scout has done a good deed on his own, the parent may turn the patch right side up and permanently attach the patch to the uniform.

(With all these patches, I may have to learn to sew. Our bill at the tailor is adding up from Benjamin's uniform alone!)

Getting his Bobcat face paint during the ceremony.

Our official Tiger Scout!

(There's blue paint under his right eye & gold under the left...the colors of the cub scouts)

Heehee...love the buddy rubbing the paint off on Benjamin's left! ; )

Catch Up

2011-12-03T00:55:00.000-06:00

Our one month blog absence quickly turned into two. I decided to participate in one more bazaar on December 1st which ended up keeping life a little hectic. I think I'll just get the highlights down so when I'm reading this in twenty years I don't wonder what happened to the fall of 2011. I'll have to do our Thanksgiving photos in the next post...the following is everything up to Thanksgiving.

Jonathan's preschool participated in the St. Jude Trike-a-Thon at the beginning of October...we {painfully} realized that JonJon has way outgrown the good ol' bike. Santa has already purchased a new one to leave on Christmas morning.

All of the friends in Jonathan's class this year have a really special bond...it's so sweet. They are all really close friends and the mamas are getting close, too! Love this class so much!!

Football season didn't come to an end without the Dominguez boys hanging out with Ellie the Eagle...we brought our buddy Owen to one of the games with us...

The boys could barely take their eyes off the game....at least not the ones on the DSIs:

Running (& being silly) on the field after the game:

David & Benjamin went on a cub scout campout in October. Although I didn't get too many photos, I've heard a great (& chilly) time was had by all. Benjamin earned lots of belt loop awards on this trip.

Jonathan was a bit sad to not go along....but we had a fun weekend of our own! ; )

We also made it to the pumpkin patch (we didn't get to our favorite patch, but we still had fun):

It was actually a really HOT afternoon...

John & Owen and their mama, Sandy joined us for the fun!

We had lots of Trunk or Treat fun on Halloween with John, Owen & Sandy again (their dad was actually at a training in SA for a bit)

November brought Jonathan's sharing feast at his school:

A good time was had by all!

Up next....Thanksgiving....

Happy Halloween from Mario & Luigi

2011-10-28T19:56:00.000-05:00

Once again, we're partying like it's 1989.

See ya in November {I Hope!}

2011-10-07T23:27:00.000-05:00

Don't you hate when people constantly tell you how busy they are? You think..."well, you did this to yourself, friend. Don't come complaining to me...." (on a side note, I really need to work on compassion)

Yes, I'm about to be one of those people that is super annoying. And I take full credit (or half credit....it's a family affair around here) for doing this. Avert your eyes if you don't want to hear my poor, poor pitiful me, boo-hoo, how did this happen- rant.

I probably won't be blogging much, so I thought I'd bid my two readers adieu for a few weeks. October is filled with our first cub scout campout (we're so new to this...we literally have to purchase camping stuff...as in a tent, sleeping bags, lanterns....clueless scout parents are we!), bajillions of cub scout commitments (ummmm...had no clue cub scouts required quite this much time), Jonathan's trike-a-thon, Ellison's homecoming and hosting our Life Group once a week (I don't know why hosting LG is somewhat of a stresser...but trying to keep my house spotless all week is rough when we're so crazy...but I do enjoy it and we feel very called to do this).

I am also frantically trying to get ready for my first bazaar ever. I just invested in all of the printing I had to have done for it....and now I am terrified after that spending spree. I'm a digital shop, so this is all new to me. I have to cut, package, beautify and hopefully make some sort of profit. David has reassured me it's okay if I don't....we'll just have 3,750 lunch notes for our kids; 2,000 fill-in-the-blank thank you notes for our boys to use (princess ones included...nice), countless sheets of Paper Pals, celebration enclosures and a big fat headache. But, honestly, the ExCiTeMeNt of this event is over-the-top! I just want to be *somewhat* successful.

And the last and probably most significant item on the agenda, we *might* be looking at a possible surgery this month or next. And believe it or not, it's not me this time. If you recall, we like to have surgeries: my gall bladder, his gall bladder, my thyroid, and now a possible hernia surgery. We're not sure how or why, but David has a very visible hernia that doesn't hurt one bit. In fact, I was the one that spotted it...David hadn't even realized it was there. Our family doctor is sending us to see a surgeon on Wednesday. David's hoping this can be scheduled around school breaks...we'll just wait and see what they say. Our doctor wasn't 100% sure that it absolutely has to be fixed. But, David's not sure he wants to walk around with a hernia from here on out. Doesn't that sound fun?

So, friends...hugs, kisses and good wishes for the next few weeks. Hope we are still smiling at the end!

It's A-Me, Mario!

2011-09-26T22:23:00.001-05:00

Benjamin turned the big SEVEN last week!
We celebrated the weekend before since it was our bye week for football.
We celebrated with our favorite guys...the Mario Brothers.
We invited three close friends for a sleepover/party/Wii tournament.

Thursday morning, we had our traditional breakfast cake and sent our big guy off to school...full of sugar!

David went up and joined Benjamin for lunch and I came a bit later for a cupcake celebration.

The birthday Bento box:

I loved this little thing they did in his class. Benjamin picked seven friends to stand around him as his "candles" while the rest of the class sat around them as the "cake". We all sang to him and the "candles" fell down at the end. So cute!! And for a September birthday, they already had this little routine down pat.

Loving that cupcake!

We finished off the day with dinner out at Rudy's BBQ with my parents (Benjamin's pick...we went there twice last week!). Can't believe time has flown like it has. Love that buddy so much.

Pre-K...Hooray!

2011-09-17T00:35:00.000-05:00

It's official...only one more year with a preschooler in the house!

Jonathan started school the very last week of August. He's continuing at St. Chris T-W-Th like last year. He's really enjoying being in the "big kid class". The Pre-K class operates a bit differently than the others at his school: he calls his teachers by "Mrs." and their last name instead of their first as in the younger classes; they also don't hold hands in the Pre-K classes...they walk in a line with a pretend bubble in their mouth; and the biggie (or Jonathan's favorite), the restroom facilities are down the hall instead of in the classroom. Apparently this is "way awesome".

We do have to take the obligatory pic on the pretty grounds at school on the first day.

His teachers, Mrs. Carthey and Mrs. Bickford.

So far he's gotten a good behavior award every day except one. That day he spent nap time whispering to the gal on the nap mat next to his. He didn't understand how he could have gotten into trouble for whispering? As he tells it, "nobody can hear me whisper!"

Came through loud & clear to me! ; )

He is super excited that the best gal friend, Katie, is in his class!

His Bento for this first day of school. Which was completely gone when he got in the car! Success!

Just one more year. I keep begging the preschool director to start a kindergarten class. If only....

Angry for the Birds...

2011-09-12T21:45:00.000-05:00

I know I'm waaaaaay behind on this blog (hello, little man is starting his third week of PreK tomorrow and I still haven't put the photos up of that), but I just really wanted to post this.

I'm super excited about the boys' Bento lunches tomorrow. I made this Angry Bird out of a Babybel cheese and some other scraps (cucumber peel, provolone, cheddar) and am so happy with how he turned out! I can't wait to hear their reactions after school tomorrow! ; )

First Grade is Here!

2011-08-30T22:02:00.000-05:00

I couldn't be any happier to get the first week of school behind us: it was a rough one. Poor Benjamin couldn't catch a break last week. The week started off with his anxiety doing a number on him, bless his heart. His first day at school did not go without a few tears. We got through days 2 and 3 with a little ~~bribery~~ incentive from mom and dad. On Thursday (his best day, yet), he got quite sick in the middle of the day at school and I got a phone call. He spent Friday at home, still pukey and the rest of the weekend getting over this horrid stomach bug that defied all odds and took out our family for a few days. (Not even my grape juice was a match for this one).

This week has gone MUCH better! Happy smiles and a kid with so much cabin fever...he practically did cart wheels into the school Monday morning!

This was at Meet the Teacher with Ms. Mikeska. We are thrilled to have her as a teacher. She is actually the mom of Benjamin's good buddy from his class last year. Benjamin adores her. And after Thursday's yucky mess that we left behind, we've now given her two Starbucks cards to stay in her good graces.
Forgive Benjamin for being in Chandler Bing mode for this photo.
Lately, 90% of our photos look like this:

Um. Yeah.

First grade has desks...not tables! He loved unloading and organizing (that's my boy) all of his new school supplies into his own, personal desk.

Love these buddies so much! You may remember many of these faces from this post from last year. These are the kiddos from Benjamin's Bible class (he's been with most of these kids since he was two....for Sunday school, play group, preschool, and more!) We had our 2nd annual blessing for our grade the Sunday evening before the first day of school (LOVE that tradition and LOVE the Hubbards for always taking it on). The new little boy to Benjamin's right (your left) is Owen, who also happens to be in our Life Group and is quickly becoming a bestie. The new little girl on the far right also has a high school principal for a daddy! Her family just moved here from Marble Falls (of all places...ha!).

Cutting Loose!

We did our traditional "Puff-Up Pancake" breakfast for day one. And boy, did our pancake put on quite the puffy show! It's soooo good. We had to mix up our traditions a little bit since Jonathan didn't start school until a week after Benjamin. So our books that we give the boys every year were now left on their pillows the night before their first night of school (so as not to make the sibling feel left out).

The official first day photo.

And my newest "hobby" (or insanity?)...LOVING Bentos. If you need to know what they are just google "bentos for kids". I'm keeping a photo folder on Facebook with all of my daily creations and it's turned into a fun thing for several other mommas, too! Love that before preschool today we were all comparing Bentos and getting ideas! Is that not hilarious?

Plotting the Big Three-Eight...

2011-08-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

I was super excited about David's birthday this year. Since our bathroom project, David's been dropping hints and dreaming up a little workshop space for himself in the garage. He's also been pining away for a compound miter saw...he's mentioned tackling some other type of moulding project in the future.

For the last couple of months, he would show me (and my dad) the area he thought a workbench could go in our garage. He asked my dad all about how to put one together and chatted with me about different styles of workbenches. Once August rolled around and his job got cRaZy again, he kind of put the project (as in...the project to help with other projects) on the back burner.

BUT I DIDN'T!!

The official spot David had mapped out.

And without him knowing, my dad and I had measured and remeasured and schemed about.

My parents told me they'd like to give David the workbench as their birthday gift to him. I decided to take on the miter saw (which I bought all by myself in a big, scary hardware store!).

We decided to set everything up for David in the garage and have it waiting on him when he got home from work on his birthday. Here's Benjamin the Builder helping grandpa wheel the super-heavy, super-duty workbench in place (dad said it was so heavy duty that we could park a car on it...we'll try that later).

Then my dad was kind enough to put together the saw that I'd been hiding in the back of my closet for the last few weeks.

Ready for the surprise!!

We hid my dad's truck over at the elementary school across the street and waited in the garage until David came home.

And he was totally SURPRISED!!!

He had absolutely no clue.

In fact when he initially walked in, he was a little confused as to why my parents were there, that it took him a couple of seconds to shift the direction of his view to the work bench. When he saw it, he actually jumped a couple of inches backwards!

My dad installed a vice on the end of the workbench that the boys are infatuated with.

David now has big plans for peg boards & shelving on the wall behind the workbench.

The most special thing about the workbench? My dad planned it and built it all himself...David loves that and has mentioned on more than one occasion that the workbench will be with us forever and have such a neat history. I totally agree.

We finished the celebration with David's traditional birthday dinner of Mexican Chicken Spaghetti. There's a story behind why it's his favorite...but that's for a whole other post.

Yep, did ALL of the candles again.

I was standing by with a fire extinguisher.

David loves key lime pie. I recently found a recipe for a Key Lime Cake and knew it was the cake for this birthday! We all loved every bite of it...yum!

Happy birthday, David!! We love you so very much!!

So Long, Farewell

2011-08-16T00:02:00.000-05:00

Oh, summer, we're going to miss you for sure. You've been mighty good to us. But, in less than a week, the lazy-hazy-crazy days will come to a screeching halt. School starts Monday for Benjamin.

The routine-oriented-type-A-personality in me is craving that structure again. The mom in me is sad to not get to hang out with the boys all day and just play. Because boy did we play this summer. I think I can count on one hand the number of days we didn't actually do anything (besides stay home and play Wii and avoid the heat). We packed it in and lived it up. But, all good things must come to an end. : (

Just a few of our favorite highlights:

Lots of play dates with precious friends

Lots of fun at an evening picnic...

...and watching the "Movie in Your Park"

Lots of lunches in the fort (before it got so miserably hot every day)

Lots of fun on our annual stay in Austin at the "hotel with the big red H" (as the boys call it).

Lots of time spent with "the girlies" as the boys call them. These are some of our good friends, the Doherty family. We've hung out quite a lot this summer! Love 'em!

Loads of fun spent in the Hill Country.

Absolutely LOVED our getaway to Horseshoe Bay. LOVED.

Wishing we were back there right now! ; )

Lots of good visits with special people. Like this guy.

Love you, Dad.

Lots of tears shed (not just by Miss Camryn) over our close friends, Brian & Beth Kelly moving to Arizona. And lots of time spent on the phone between between us since they've left!! Miss you, friends.

Lots of backyard fun

Lots of memories made at the beach

...and Corpus Christi

...and at the condo

Lots of hours put into our bathroom redo

Lots of time in the UMHB pool for swimming lessons...

....with Chris

...and Katie

Lots of time with some special new friends in our life...

In June, we were a part of a group from our church that launched a brand new Life Group that meets over here in Killeen, often in our home. We're already smitten with all our new Life Group members (but still miss our besties from our previous group, too).

This photo was taken yesterday afternoon at our Swim Party at Paula's home. We have several families that are very committed to this group. And among us are EIGHT little boys and ONE little girl...cRaZiNeSs! But the kids are really enjoying each other as are the adults!

Thanks for the memories, Summer 2011! We loved every minute of ya!!

Only 3 weeks...

2011-07-30T16:55:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe, school starts for Benjamin three weeks from Monday. I have to say, this has been a wonderful summer, but seems to be coming to a close way too quickly. I can really tell a huge difference in the way I've felt this summer than in years past. It has enabled me to do so very much with the boys this year. We've packed our weeks with lots of play dates, trips to the pool or splash pad, library story times, many movie theater visits (our theater has a great summer movie program Tuesday and Thursday mornings...we haven't missed too many shows), and just great family time.

One thing the boys have been trying to decide on is what type of activities they want to participate in for the upcoming school year. We've always tried to keep after school activities to a minimum, since Benjamin also has therapy one day a week after school. This past April, Benjamin was actually discharged from Physical Therapy. We expect that the exact same thing will be happening with his Occupational Therapy at the end of August as well. This will do HUGE things for our schedule! Yay! Our days of driving all the way to Temple for therapy are coming to a close...hard to believe after doing this for several years now.

Jonathan is wanting to start gymnastics in the fall (haven't been there since B's arm break) and he's wanting to do winter Soccer starting in January. Benjamin has decided that he wants to pursue more swimming (if you had told me this a year ago, I would have fallen over). We've found a place that does year round swimming (of course, it's all the way in Temple: same song, second verse), but it comes highly recommended by our new babysitter (who is on the swim team at Ellison). It's a Blue Dolphin Swim School and we're thinking we may be visiting there once a week with our little Michael Phelps. Benjamin is also thinking about doing Boy Scouts with the group at his school.

So, with what little time we have left, we are squeezing every last drop out of summer that we can. Here's the rest of our swimming lessons photos. Looks like we may be seeing the pool quite often with Benjamin this year! ; )

Double Dippin'

Diving

Swimming to Chris

Look at that form!

Swimming down to the bottom.

Climbing the platform.

Fun times!

Summer Swim 2011

2011-07-12T17:05:00.000-05:00

Summer Swim is in full effect for the Dominguez boys. And it's been GREAT already. Benjamin has just turned a major corner with his fears this year and is already jumping off the platforms and working on fine techniques...rather than just praying to get to the end of of swim lessons as we have in past years. SO proud of him. We were sad that our usual instructor, Jordan, did not come back to teach this year.

According to Benjamin, "These college guys are busy, mom. I understand." Whew. Dodged a major bullet there. His new instructor is Katie and they are getting along great. It helps that she is adorable...his word, not mine. {Blush}. Funny, he finds her adorable, yet can't remember her name from lesson to lesson.

Working on launching into the backstroke from the wall.

Jonathan loves the kickboard. He calls it his surf board. Surf board, kick board....it's all the same, right?

Jumping off the platform!! YAY!

Benjamin's version of the cannonball....and he yelled "Cannonballlllllllll" every. single. time.

Chris (J's same instructor from last year) helping him tackle the platform.

The landing.

I'm sure I'll have a few more photos after these two weeks are over!

New Blue Board & Batten Bath for the Boys

2011-07-09T15:35:00.000-05:00

We just finished a make-over of the boys' bathroom. It's been a long time coming. And after seeing all the great board & batten tutorials out there, we were hooked (I was at least....David came on board last night at 3 am when the last piece of hardware was installed).

Absolutely no natural light to speak of so the pictures aren't what I dreamed of...oh well.

The mirror inspired by the House of Smiths!! They rock. Although David hopes they stop doing so many awesome projects so I stop getting so many awesome ideas that become "the next thing on the list"!

It was fine, but nothing to write home about.

And the lighting? Seriously? This home is only six years old...whose "bright" idea was this?

Interesting Aqua...loving it!!

The first board to go up....fingers & toes crossed!!

Thank you, Hilton, for my shower cap from our last hotel stay. It enabled me to not have to painstakingly pick paint out of my hair for the next week. A necessity when painting a ceiling.

Don't laugh. It was 106 here all week. We moved our "woodshop" to the entryway and kept the shop vac ready at all times to deal with the dust. We also learned that our circular saw makes 45 degree cuts...nice to know.

Yay!! The mirror frame fits!

Loving the hooks vs. the towel bar.

Hardware....we live in one of those homes where the builder opted for a hardware-free home...so nice to finally have proper pulls and handles.

Still need to replace the faucet...but that's for another day. We're pooped.

So happy to have this all done. It was quite a bit more difficult than we originally thought it would be. But, it gave us confidence to tackle other things of this nature. Our next biggie is transforming our kitchen island!!

Mustang Island, Summer 2011

2011-07-02T00:36:00.000-05:00

We had a great vacation in (on?) Mustang Island. We just got back a couple of hours ago and I was really wanting to get photos up (so it's not hanging over my head for the next week)!

It was a wonderful week with not much of an agenda. We rented a condo on the beach and LOVED it so much. The condo had three wonderful pools that the boys spent a ton of time in....probably more than their time on the actual beach. We cooked most of our meals in our condo and the boys have now decided they want bunk beads like they had in Mustang Island.

Be prepared....it's picture city.

Okay, so the above pic is probably a bit odd. But the one thing about our condo that had us in stitches was the CrAzY shower/tub/jacuzzi that required gymnastics to actually get into. I just had to take a pic. All four of us (if not a couple of extra people) could fit in this 1982 monstrosity. And you felt a bit "on stage" when in the shower since it had this huge glass window (covered in seashell beads?) that opened into the bedroom. BUT, you could watch the Today show while showering.

We loved grilling out by the pool. (The boys little heads are bobbing in the water in the back).

Mmmm. Why does charcoal-grilled food cooked by a beach taste SO good?

We logged in lots of hours of beach time. We even braved it when there was a high rip tide warning....the water was all the way up to the dunes because of Tropical Storm Arlene.

Heehee....this little fellow somehow ended up in Jonathan's swim trunks. He stripped right on the beach to get him out! We laughed so hard....Jonathan of all people! ; )

Lunching it up...

followed by afternoons at the pools...

And a mandatory REST time....even Benjamin (who hasn't napped in a few years) was so tuckered out and needed that sleep every afternoon.

We were also THRILLED to catch up with our friends, the Hills, who now live in Corpus Christi. They drove out to the island one night to have dinner with us. It was wonderful to hang out!

The Hills lived in Muleshoe at the same time as we did. We had some super fun times!!

And the boys adored Nathan & Melanie's precious daughter, Hadlea. They all had a blast together!

We made these crabbie sammies that my friend, Amanda, made famous on her beach trip.

And Melanie brought over yummy strawberry shortcake...which apparently needs no spoon for!

Melanie & I caught a great sunset walking back from the pool! Pretty!

Another night, we headed out to Port Aransas for a great dinner at a place called Beaches.

And we went to a great candy store where Benjamin found....LEGO CANDY!!

Thursday was overcast (and the rip tide was even worse) so we headed to Corpus to the aquarium.

Jonathan especially loved the dolphin show.

We headed down to the underwater observation area to see the dolphins even closer. Is it just me or is the dolphin smiling?

A peek-a-boo tank!

Petting a starfish.

Touching a stingray.

Du-Nuh....Du-Nuh....

Since the last time we visited this aquarium, they added a great splash pad. The boys loved it!

Getting soaked!

Soaking others!

After the aquarium, we headed to Doc's on the bay for a great seafood lunch.

Then back to the condo to make homemade ice cream for supper....a new vacation tradition!

And it was goooood!!

We also purchased two new friends to come home with us from the beach.

HOWEVER, we were sad that one of them went to that great painted hermit crab shell in the sky when we were dumb enough to leave them in the hot car while we had lunch at Cracker Barrell. Doh!

Rest in peace, little friend.

One absolutely wonderful vacation. Wishing we were back there right now!!

cRaZy PeOpLe and VBS

2011-06-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

For the record, we saw Cars 2 FIRST. (Well, okay, we didn't beat our friends in Dubai who have the whole time zone thing on their side.) But, yeah...we pulled one of the craziest stunts we've ever done and pulled the boys out of bed in the middle of the night to go see the {much anticipated by the Dominguez boys} CARS 2 movie.

Yep. It started at 12:01...AM.
(horrible photo....darn phone camera)!

And...what we were most pleased with....it wasn't crowded. A good crowd, but nothing too wild. David did manage to see some of his students...who are always surprised to see their principal out and about (probably even more so at a midnight movie). And we were relieved there were other crazy people who brought their young children, too.

3D was really cool for this movie. I actually enjoyed the racing scenes...soooo realistic!!

We had a blast and definitely made a memory. But, oh me, those stinkers woke up at 7 am today. And we did see some adverse effects tonight when Jonathan was obviously over-tired and wouldn't go to sleep! But, all is well now. And we'll hopefully be *normal* again once we leave at the beginning of the week for the coast.

We got back in town in time for the last couple of nights of VBS at our church. If you know our church, it goes all out for VBS!! It was AMAZING! Since we weren't able to help the entire time, we were "floaters" for the nights we were there. I thought I would be on camel duty, but I was happy to work in the nursery and be a tribe leader for the Tribe of Dan. After I saw those on camel-duty, I was very relieved my sweet friends had already found other spots for me! ; )

Benjamin was appropriately in the Tribe of Benjamin.

He had a BLAST!! His leaders were our friends, the Moores, and he adored them and all the FUN they had and the awesome stuff they learned!

The Tribe of Benjamin in the carpentry tent. The man leading them in this photo is one of our favorite elders, Bill Nabors.

Jonathan was in the Tribe of Simeon. He had a great time, too, and is already ready for next year!

Jonathan and his tribe buddies.

Fun times. Now this crazy lady needs to head to bed.

HSB Summer 2011

2011-06-20T23:28:00.000-05:00

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

We're baaaaack. I feel like we're just here to turn around and leave again in a few days. But, I'm feeling productive....everything's unpacked, clothes are all washed & put up and we even managed to cobble together a grocery trip and replenish the fridge so we're not driving through every place in town the next few days.

And I'm super excited that tomorrow we get to join in the VBS fun that's been going on at our church. Wednesday, I'm working the "petting zoo"...or what I originally thought was a petting zoo. It's actually camels, donkeys and other animals from the Jesus days. Way cool, eh?

I took a boat-load of photos on our Horseshoe Bay trip and am ready to get them off my desktop! ; ) The boys joined us on Sunday so they could enjoy the fun (after spending a couple of days there and seeing all the kids' amenities, I was feeling a tad bit guilty and wanted them to see it all, too!) Plus, I got some fun Father's Day shots of them & David.

I did manage to walk around the resort Saturday morning and take some fun photos of a breath-taking place.....

.....right after a leisurely wake-up and breakfast in the room!! What a treat!!

There are numerous kids' activity tables set up around the resort. The boys made some fun Father's Day gifts and Jonathan made a cool wooden lizard craft.

melt. my. heart.

Racing each other in the pool.

Benjamin chatting it up with the parrots.

Whoopsie. Not sure you're supposed to pick the flowers.

Summertime and the Living is Easy....

2011-06-17T17:43:00.002-05:00

....well, maybe if you're 4 or 6. Or Sam Cooke. I'm starting to think we may have *slightly* overbooked June. And part of July. But, it's all fun. And the memories the boys will have from these fun times are what it's all about. But, whew... I'm getting a bit worn out. After spending five days in Austin for David's Texas Association of Secondary School Principals conference, we have headed to the second part of that conference at the Horseshoe Bay Resort out in the Hill Country. When we get back in town at the beginning of next week, we're headed straight into VBS at church followed by our beach trip the week after that. My mom offered to do our laundry today (Horseshoe Bay is literally 10 minutes from their front door), but I declined that not wanting to put her out. She may have had a good point.

This part of our trip is an adult-only retreat....we're having a big dinner & schmoozing event out at the Yacht Club tomorrow night (this way intimidates me, still stressing over what to wear to that), David's invited to the golf tournament at some point over the weekend (if you know him, you know that's not really his thing) and the rest of the weekend is packed with meetings and such. This retreat is actually for those on the committees that do a lot of the planning & extra work and such for TASSP. David was named the head of the "Urban Schools Committee" for this next school year, which is why we were extended a very gracious invitation to this part of the conference. We're feeling very humbled and honored to be here.

My kids were delighted to see my parents this afternoon when we dropped them off. It's been a long time since they've stayed with them since my dad's surgery and all. They barely told us bye. They were ready for their own G'ma/G'pa Retreat of sorts.

David rushed off to his first meeting at four. I had BIG plans to head to one of the pools. When I looked at the pool and saw how overly-crowded it was, I've revised those plans to include a chair, ottoman and the non-wireless (grrr) connection to catch up on blogs (mine & yours). I do have a pretty incredible view behind me....there's a bunch of palm trees, bougainvilleas, and a huge shuffleboard court right out the window. It's like Hawaii in the Hill Country. Kinda okay with the crowded pool with my nice set up in the room. And the fact that it's silent and I'm alone is very enjoyable for this mama.

Took this in the photobooth program....excuse the overly grainy-ness of it all.

Trying to decide what David would think if I bust open that $6 bottle of Fiji water....hmmm.

The past week has really been enjoyable. I've had a great time with the boys and we enjoyed the evenings when David was able to join us for some fun times, too.

We did a whole lot of swimming. I really saw Benjamin turn a corner this week in his swimming. He would swim in the deep end by himself, jump in without someone catching him and basically navigate the pool effortlessly. I think his swim instructor will be blown away in July when lessons start (yes, we've requested that same guy....again!)

Jonathan was Mr. Daredevil...no surprises there. Thankful he's still in floaties...not sure he's aware of his skill-level yet. He just wants to keep up with big brother.
Is it just me or does the guy directly to the right of J look super annoyed that I'm taking this photo?

A little walking (or running) on water....

Indeed....the living is easy.

Oh, to be six again. Not a care in the world.

We ate at some great spots in Austin. I feel like every time we're there I drag everyone to one of my old haunts, Kerbey Lane Cafe. I grew up on their fare. It's sooooo good. They're open 24/7 and serve bfast around the clock. LOVE it. And so did the boys!

We also tried a chicken & waffles place I had purchased a Groupon for (is anyone else as into Groupons as we are?...We probably buy a few too many!) This place was pretty tasty, too! Benjamin just likes any kind of "bone chicken" as he calls it.

Here's to a fun-filled, meeting-packed and relaxing time in Horseshoe Bay!!

Just received a note under the door that the other two pools on the grounds are open for the weekend as well. Three pools?
Where's that pool bag? I'm outta here.

Summer, Summer, Summertime...

2011-06-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

On to First Grade...

2011-06-04T15:10:00.001-05:00

Can't believe it's over!! When the year started, we weren't sure how Benjamin would do in kindergarten. I do have to say...the first three weeks, we had a VERY tired boy on our hands. He enjoyed it, but wanted to know "why is it so long everyday?" When you go from preschool that's two days a week from 9-2:30 to five days a week from 7:45-3...WHEW!! It was a big adjustment.

But, around October, it really clicked with him.

At Meet the Teacher back in August

First day of school....flowers for Mrs. Weatherford

Kindergarten Fall Ball

No Christmas Party Photo due to Strep Throat!! : (

Valentine's Party Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Field day...wet t-shirt race

More field day fun

Field day was very wet! Probably good since it was almost 100 degrees.

Kite day fun with buddies

Graduation program.

Kinda bummed that they only did caps and not gowns. They did gowns for the "official picture". Perhaps it was just one gown that got shared...oh, Purell...take me away! ; )

Isn't he handsome? The boys only seem to wear their ties at weddings and Easter...love seeing them this dressed up!! The polo & khakis for Sunday church is okay...but this really melts my heart!

Getting his diploma from his second favorite principal in the whole wide world, Mr. Coleman.

A quick pic with Mrs. Weatherford before he got to check out of school early and celebrate! (The school actually encouraged it...we weren't playing hookey!)

Daddy had to head back to Ellison and Jonathan headed to his last day of preschool. But, my parents took me & Benjamin to Cracker Barrel to celebrate! He was excited to not only eat pancakes & sausage..but to open up some fun celebratory gifts. He's been pining away for a Nintendo DSI (that we're making him save his own money for), so grandma & grandpa gave him some cash towards that. He was more excited about that than the Phineas & Ferb and Super Mario loot he got from us! ; )

Last day of school fun. His class did a "Step Routine" in the Talent Show (parents actually weren't invited to this....boo! There's lots of space restraints right now as they finish up construction in the "cafetorium", so it was just a school kiddos event.)
He did the routine later for us at home...it included a step called the "stanky leg" and several shout-outs of "Whuuuuut".... Um, yeah.

Giving Mrs. Weatherford her present. We made the crayon monograms that my friend Becky posted on her blog several years ago. (LOVE those, Becky...we make them every year)!

Cookies, cake & fun!

A little more groovin'. Jonathan is just to the left of Benjamin...he just had to join in! ; )

Saying goodbye with a t-shirt signature. She's moving up to the third grade...so in 2013, we will be hoping to get in her class again! Love this lady so much. AND she had an extra special last day of school since her husband was headed home from Iraq that evening! Hooray for the Weatherfords!!

We love you, Mrs. Weatherford's Kindergarten class!
What a wonderful year. Can't wait to see everyone in the fall!
Whuuut.

A feat of engineering...

2011-05-30T21:48:00.000-05:00

With determination...

...and thought...

...he engineered...

...an afternoon...

of serious fun.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the yard...

ALMOST Summertime....Almost

2011-05-28T12:23:00.000-05:00

I will be posting about Benjamin's big kindergarten graduation soon...but the fact that he still has three more days of school left next week makes me want to wait until the "for real" end. I'm pretty sure we're the only district in the country that has school three more days after the Memorial Day weekend. I'm just very ready to be in all-out summer mode. We've got trips planned, play dates booked, now if we could just get past this minor detail of you know, school getting out, we could actually start enjoying those lazy, hazy crazy days! ; )

But this past Thursday was the official last day of preschool for Jonathan. It doesn't quite seem over since we're so in love with our St. Chris peeps that we've booked time with them three days this next week. And four days the week after that. Yeah. We're all in complete denial about going our separate ways for three months. It's kind of sappy, really.

Do you remember where this journey began? I was really apprehensive about moving Jonathan from our church's preschool (where he'd already been for two years) over to one here in Killeen where we literally didn't know a soul. Since Benjamin was starting school over here, we wanted all of us to be in the same city and St. Christopher's was highly recommended.

And let me say for the record...IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!
This year has been amazing in so many ways and St. Chris has been a HUGE part of it. I've made three very close friends myself through our new school. Ladies who live within a mile from me who love my kiddos like their own. It's just wonderful the doors this has opened up in our life! AND....one of these gals is a lifer (in Killeen speak...her husband is out of the army and they are planning to stay here for good! Whoop!)

We are very sad to say goodbye to one of our teachers this year. Although, Mrs. Susan will be teaching at preschool again next year, Mrs. Mary's family received orders to move to England in July. She will be missed so very much. Tea, crumpets & pinky fingers up, Mrs. Mary. We adore you!

Mrs. Susan & Jonathan showing his "All about Me" collage back in September.

The kids got to explore a fire truck early in the year. I'm amazed at what a baby face he has in this pic. He has certainly grown up a bunch this year.

Getting ready to trick-or-treat in the preschool halls.

Trike-a-thon day

Jonathan & his sweet friend, Brighid at the Thanksgiving feast.
With the traditional Capri Suns. Just like the pilgrims.

Christmas Play

Valentine's with the BFF Artem (we miss you, buddy!)

Easter Egg hunting.
And hand-holding.
Funny, nobody else is holding hands.

Family picnic day at preschool

Splash day!

Oh, St. Chris....thank you for a WONDERFUL year full of precious memories and amazing friendships. Can't wait to return in August. For just one. More. Year. Gulp.

May? Really?

2011-05-11T16:21:00.000-05:00

Where has the time gone? It seems like all of the end of the school year activities have kept us super busy. And, of course, it's banquet/graduation/prom/awards ceremony season for David...we realized the other night that we probably won't see him too much until June. This week alone, he's only home one evening. We're getting more used to the high school life, though. And we know in June the schedule will be a lot easier and he'll get his Fridays off again! Wahoo!

A couple of weeks ago, David & I joined Jonathan at his preschool for "Family Picnic Day". The weather was gorgeous, food was great and the visiting was even better. Here's Jonathan with a couple of boys from his class.

The mom with the bubble machine was very popular.

Enough with the pictures, mom. Let's eat.

To say our preschool spoils us would be an understatement. Last Thursday was the event I had been told so much about...it's all the moms' FAVORITE event. I was eagerly anticipating the Mother's Day Celebration! It did not disappoint at all. It was such a lovely event and all the moms felt so special.

The tables were decorated and lined with handmade gifts from all of the children. I've been enjoying my homemade (by JonJon) bath salts, my flower pot & pen and of course, the poem.

Me & my sweet JonJon at the Mother's Day Celebration

Last Friday was Career Day at elementary school (actually it was a week full of dress-ups, but this one was the most fun). Can you guess what he is? A principal. Complete with his own smartphone to fiddle with. He said he had the best day ever as a principal. His own principal, Mr. Coleman, was so impressed with his get-up that Benjamin was invited to the office to help with the morning announcements. He also got to help sing the school song over the PA. It was one awesome day.

Mother's Day was wonderful, too! The boys made me breakfast in bed and after photos, we headed to church.

David made us reservations at our new FAVORITE restaurant, Megg's (we went there on Easter Sunday, too). I can't describe how YUMMY this place is. We had Crab Cakes Benedict this time...WOWZERS. Our waitress also brought us a BIG sample of a Brown-Butter Pancake. I WILL find that recipe.....MUST have it.

*****

And the BEST part of Mother's Day....a gift certificate for an afternoon at the spa. What an incredible surprise. I didn't wait long at all....I redeemed it today!! I am so blissfully relaxed right now I can hardly keep my eyes open.

(for the record, this isn't actually me in the photos. I mean I know I take my camera everywhere, but I draw the line at the spa). I enjoyed a "Berries & Bliss Pedicure" and an hour-long deep-tissue massage. And the best pomegranite tea I've ever had....another recipe I'm after.

Ahhhhhh.

Love that husband of mine. Could he be any more thoughtful?

A Great Easter Week

2011-04-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe Easter's already come and gone. Wait. No, it's not. It was sooo late this year that it's almost summertime now. It was a fun week with school parties, a visit to grandma & grandpa's in Marble Falls and a great Easter day today.

Started off on Thursday with Jonathan's par-tay at his preschool.

Melt. My. Heart.

Look at my gentleman holding Miss Katie's hand. Katie's mom is a good friend of mine and she's been saying she thinks there's been a little sumpin' going on between these two for awhile. Confirmed.

It was actually raining during his class hunt, so they hunted in the church auditorium. Jonathan was a powerhouse when it came to collecting the eggs!

The whole class.

There's so many sweet friends we've made through this class. Very blessed by them!

Benjamin's egg hunt was on Friday. His school has a super strict policy about no siblings at parties, so we had to miss out. David did run over to his school and have lunch (Pizza Hut Fridays!) with him.

My dad had surgery last week and we headed over there for a visit on Saturday. We love getting to hang out in Marble Falls when we can. It's super relaxing. Mom fixed us a big & delicious lunch and even made cupcakes for the boys. It was a really, really good visit!

Grandma & Benjamin cuddling up for a movie.

Saturday evening we were back home & doing our traditional "Easter Eve" activities.
Here's Benjamin & David dying eggs.

Jonathan is Mr. Kitchen Helper lately. Instead of dying eggs, he wanted to work on the Resurrection Rolls with me. He's actually a great help in the kitchen to me these days.

Hiding the marshmallow in the "tomb".

And....the tomb is empty! Not only do these have a precious story, they're quite delicious with all that cinnamon, sugar & buttah!

David wanted to add one more thing to our Easter tradition Saturday night. He read from Luke 24 (he used the Message so the boys would understand it a bit easier). This has been the year Benjamin really got the Resurrection story. It's pretty precious to see your six year old realize Jesus died for all of us.

The Easter bunny made his visit, too! The boys wanted to leave carrots out for him this year! ; )

Jonathan & his Thomas bubble blower thing. It's pretty cool. But does make the kids look like they're smoking a pipe. Kinda weird.

Ready for Easter Sunday services. We were rockin' the Fedora look this year. David was just frustrated that he didn't get a matching one, too! ; )

Our awesome preacher, Jordan Hubbard, had a wonderful sermon on the Game Changer! Loved it. It should be up on our church's sermon site, soon. You can find that here.

After church, we spent the rest of the day with just the four of us. Since Life Groups were canceled for the holiday, we were very leisurely! This is me & B at brunch at Megg's Cafe. YUM. Didn't realize it was owned by one of my doctor's daughters. Dr. McCaffrey was helping out for the day and cleared some of our plates....kind of weird to have your doctor waiting on your table. He's the best, though...met him last summer with the whole ordeal.

We came home and hung out and played for hours on end out in the back yard. Saying we love the new playscape would be a huge understatement. The boys can't get enough of it. David grilled out burgers. The boys & I made banana pudding and we continued our great evening outside. An absolutely wonderful Easter sunday all around!

Growing up so fast!

2011-04-20T11:49:00.000-05:00

It's been quite the month for our Benjamin Bunny.

We've lost another tooth, learned to ride with no training wheels and had some fun events at school!

The one next to it isn't far behind! ; )

David was able to capture the bike riding on camera.

Today was Benjamin's "Kite Day" at school. I was able to join him and we flew out kite super high! Yay!

Here he is with his new friend Manny, who just recently moved here.

And here with his main group of buddies from his class. A fun day was had by all!

He also has field day next week and kinder graduation next month!

As we say often, the days are long, but the years are short. Can't believe he's almost a first grader.

A Weekend with the King

2011-04-09T11:20:00.001-05:00

I was really blessed to get to go on our church ladies' retreat again this year. We held it at the Inn on Baron's Creek again, in Fredericksburg (the 2nd happiest place in Texas, next to Canton).

Just like last year, it was an AWESOME retreat....focusing on REST! ; )

Some of our fearless planning committee!

Our speaker for the weekend, Paige Henderson, giving her lesson on Friday night.

All the gals! We had a bunch of ladies from other churches joining us this year, too. I made a good friend from a small town north of Waco who happens to be....a principal! (Just can't get away from school life, can I?)

Our speaker, Paige

My official retreat photo.

I can't put into words how much these retreats mean to me. I am grateful for all the logistics that have to fall into place to get to go....aka, my sweet husband taking an entire day off of work so Marcy & I could leave early Friday morning (and make our traditional stop at Circle E candles on the way!).

Benjamin's BIG Game!

2011-03-26T16:48:00.005-05:00

Benjamin had his absolute personal BEST game of the season today at his last soccer game. Although he really wanted to play soccer back when we signed up in December, as the season has progressed, he's decided to hang up the cleats next year and head to piano lessons instead.

We're just proud of him for sticking it out and still going to every game and practice with a smile and positive attitude.

But, today...man oh man. What a PROUD moment we all had when he had his special time to break away with the ball and dribble it halfway down the field. He almost made a goal! We are blessed to have one of those AWESOME teams where the parents cheer for ALL of the kiddos...not just their own. When Benjamin had his big moment, it kind of took us all by surprise and the stands went WILD for our guy! David & I even had some pats on the backs and congrats. Sure will miss this amazing group of parents. (Happy that they're all Timber Ridge parents as well and we still get to say hello every school day!)

I was over the moon that I got all of it in photos!!

And what's a last game without awards and a pizza party at the park?

Benjamin got the award for the "BEST ATTITUDE". Coach Anna said he was the "easiest to coach on the team!" That's our boy! We {big puffy heart} our coaches! There's a slight possibility that they may be Jonathan's coaches next year (fingers & toes crossed).

(Oh yes...Jonathan is beyond ready to play soccer next year. He missed this year's age cut off by two months.)

David was Drink Daddy for the par-tay.

The Texans' Chant (on video below):

Who are we? TEXANS

What are we? CHAMPIONS

One: FASTER

Two: MEANER

Three: STRONGER

1-2-3-TEXANS!!

The REAL El Rancho Dominguez

2011-03-23T21:20:00.003-05:00

We were so blessed to spend the afternoon and evening out at our sweet friends' ranch on Sunday. Robert & Jane Dominguez have the biggest hearts. They invited our Life Group out to their ranch in Milano and boy, did we have a great time. From time to time, people think we're related to Robert & Jane with the last name thing and all. We're just so stinkin' in love with them that we're about to start telling people that we are related. They're that great. They went above and beyond to show all the kiddos (and grown ups) one great time. A perfect end to spring break.

Lots of fishing.

Jonathan & Robert

Jordan & Jenae

So bummed that Jenae's little sister had pink eye and half of the Hubbards missed the fun day. We missed you, Debbie!

Jordan's reeling in THE BIG ONE with the princess pole.

Jonathan petting the horse while Blair's petting Jonathan.

The kiddos pretended that the gator was a roller coaster and squealed with delight the whole time!

Aren't these faces precious?

Cowboy Benjamin on the hayride. The hat blew off the hayride more than once.

The three cowpokes: Truitt, Benjamin & Jonathan

A little swimming in the hot tub.

And jumping in off the side.

Sweet Benjamin

Jenae & JonJon

And some serious eatin'!

After a great spring break and a super fun weekend, there's a bit of a hitch in our giddy-up this week. 48 school days until summer...

Spring Break 2011...it ain't over yet!

2011-03-19T11:59:00.004-05:00

We have one more fun day planned tomorrow as we spend the afternoon out at Pirtle Pines Ranch (or as we call it...the real El Rancho Dominguez) with our awesome Life Group. The boys are excited to go fishing and ride horses with all their favorite friends.

We've already had a full week of fun (and craziness). Secretly, I am *somewhat* ready to get back to our normal routine. This whole hanging out thing has been fun and all...but I'm a routine-oriented kinda gal. My schedule has been thrown off...I usually try to do small loads of laundry everyday and keep the house picked up. Those ideas have flown out the window the past few days and I'm in for it Monday when I catch up on all of it.

The BIGGEST (and I mean BIG) thing we did was our new playscape construction in the backyard. We've been researching and pricing playscapes since December. We settled on a new line that Lowe's is carrying and our "load" of fun arrived on Monday. In about three. zillion. pieces. We had made prior arrangements with the handiest man we know, aka my dad (seriously he's Mike Holmes & Bob Villa rolled into one...can build or fix ANYTHING), to come help us. Even he was a bit shocked at the sheer magnitude of pieces. We had estimated 1-2 days and put in a good 4 in the end...not including the day it has spent drying from the sealant we applied.

I was a HUGE help in the building process. I walked around with my camera each day capturing the progress. SO helpful, eh? I did manage to fix/or purchase lunch every day and keep bellies full and bodies hydrated.

Day one of building...lots of "groundwork". Literally. Laying everything out on the ground.

Day two...actually looks like a playscape.

Freckles!

Midnight the dog even helped out. She basically laid down in the middle of the action and let everyone work "around her". Helpful.

Day three let the rock wall and ladder go up so the boys could start playing on the finished areas.

Lean mean playing machine

Annnnnd done. The slide (day four) proved to be the trickiest part. They also added the monkey bars (in the back) that day. Whew. This is David & my dad with the "extra pieces". Always nice to end up with those.

This also proved to be a very pricey week as my dryer finally gave up the ghost, too. Not sure how many visits to Lowe's we made this week. We kind of saw the dryer nearing its end. It's been taking two 75 minute rounds on med-high heat to dry an average load of clothes. Not exactly efficient...for my chores or our electric bill. We actually had the washing machine/dryer fiasco of the century back in October (and I mean FIASCO). Long, complicated story. The "short version" amounted to us literally moving in and out three different sets of machines from this shop in Austin that we thought was giving us a good deal. They finally told us we must have damaged the sets in the transport from Austin to Killeen (because people never have to move washers & dryers?) and they wouldn't service it. So, after paying for a set from this shop, we ended up at Lowe's buying a new washer anyway in October. And now...the dryer from that shop has gone out. So, we've now purchased the mate to the new washer. All in all, for the money we spent with this ordeal, we could have just walked into Lowe's and bought the nicest set they had and saved a whole lot of time and aggravation. Instead, we have a nice, new, high-efficiency set, but not quite the "top of the line". Kind of makes me want to throw up. Major lesson learned here. While we're all about helping mom & pop shops, this put a very bad taste in our mouths and we're sticking to Lowe's from now on. We purchased the super extended warranty after this whole thing, too. David has told me he will never again move another washer or dryer.

So, the big Lowe's truck will be here on the 28th. Amen & hallelujah.

And now I'm off to HobLob to drown my sorrows in new fabric and Easter decor. Just sayin'.

Dad-- thanks a bajillion for all you do! We would have been clueless without you this week! There aren't words enough to show our appreciation. And mom...thanks for coming along and keeping me company. And going to Walmart with me and not being overly-embarrassed of the massive coupon binder that rides in the buggy at Walmart with me. Love you guys.

How Cool Is This?

2011-03-17T19:53:00.001-05:00

I'm beyond amazed by the talented Brittany of Grey Grey Designs (her awesome event planning company) who took the Easter Kit I designed for her (and YOU) and worked some serious magic! Check it out:

If you head over to Brittany's post about our Printable Panache, you can find out a way to get a great discount on this pack. Just in time for spring, this kit contains a banner with precious egg-shaped penants, menu cards (that can be personalized for $3 more), cuppycake clothes (includes picks and wrappers), water bottle wraps and treat bag toppers.

Order your pack today for only $12. Email me at designingkristi@gmail.com

A little something for all the peeps! ; )

21 Of My Favorite Things About Canton

2011-03-09T22:58:00.006-06:00

SIX new cabinet pulls for my favorite piece of furniture.

FIVE chocolate-covered cake balls....mmmm! They included red velvet, chocolate & white cake. To be clear...I did only have four of them. I was trying to be *somewhat* good. Not that good. Just somewhat.

FOUR flowery things...2 on a headband, 1 on a pin and my favorite on this hair clip. I MUST learn how to make these. Loving 'em.

THREE new canister toppers. Goodbye, apples....hello, fleur-di-lis! I am sensing a theme, here with the fleur-di-lis. One more item makes a decorating scheme.

TWO of my favorite things ever....the bff, LORI along with my new crown. Lori helped me see its true beauty by telling me that "when you're having a bad day, just put it on." Amen, girlfriend.

ONE full heart after a great visit with Lori and a fabulous trip to the happiest place in Texas. My very first trip to Canton (in like 1997?) was with Lori and both the friendship & shopping have just gotten better with age. Love you, bestie.

Nobody puts Baby in the corner...

2011-03-07T19:40:00.002-06:00

...or in a Goodwill donation receptacle. I know this since I was knee-deep in a Goodwill receptacle this afternoon digging for our beloved Baby.

If you know us, chances are you know Baby. He is the Tigger stuffed animal who has been Jonathan's lovey since he was 10 months old. He is a constant-companion that doesn't leave Jonathan's side except for when he's at preschool (because what drama that would be if he were left at preschool one day).

Seriously, looking at this photo, what mama wouldn't dive head-first into the big bin of junk to search for this sweet boy's Baby?

All afternoon, I cleaned out closets to switch clothes around for spring/summer. I went to hang out with the bestie this weekend and she sent me home with a huge bag of clothes for the boys and I had to make some serious room in their unorganized closets. I managed to get a heaping pile of stuff from their closets to take over to Goodwill. I scooped it all up and put it in a bag and took it over there (this is out-of-character for me...usually, it makes it to the bag and then to the garage to wait until I decide to take it. I was just in a spring cleaning mode).

After getting home from a play date and the Goodwill drop-off, Baby was nowhere to be found. He goes missing from time to time, but quickly turns up in someone's hamper. Or Tupperware cabinet. Or china hutch. Or tool box. I could go on and on with this.

This time was different. We checked ALL the usual hide-outs, and Houdini still wasn't making his presence known. And then it dawned on me...Baby had been on the floor in Jonathan's room this morning. My mind started racing as I pictured myself inadvertently scooping him into the bag with the stuff from the closets. I honestly started to tear up at the thought of losing Baby (don't even get me started on when we lost Benjamin's beloved Bunny at the La Quinta in Abilene...I cried more than he did over that one).

So, I phoned Goodwill. Believe it or not, they had three Tiggers that were recently dropped off. When I got there, I realized none of them were our Tigger. : (

Then they told me about the reject bin. And that's when I went dumpster diving for the first time. And last. Bleh. I guess Goodwill's screening process is very lenient because the only stuff in the "reject bin" was absolute trash. Some of which really made me wonder what in the hee-haw people were thinking about donating it to Goodwill? This ain't no soup kitchen....no food items, please! Gag.

I was somewhat relieved to not find Baby in that bin. Not sure his well-loved self would have survived the clean up process he would have undergone to be welcomed back into our home after being in there.

Came home and about the time I was putting Jonathan to bed, the search began again. He went to bed without him. And moments later, Baby made a relatively boring appearance underneath all the clean clothes in the laundry I was folding. Of all places. Quite the irony that he was in such a clean place while I searched in what I concluded to be the dirtiest. place. ever. Darn you, Baby. You're about to get an eviction notice if you don't quit that.

We Have (Thoroughly) Celebrated

2011-02-26T23:16:00.002-06:00

From his actual birthday on Monday to his Toy Story birthday bash today, Little Man has lived it up. And mommy is tired!

Monday morning we had our traditional breakfast cake. Nothing like a bunch of sugar to start the day off right.

Since his birthday fell on President's Day, David was off of work. Yipee! We all went to Red Lobster (Jonathan's pick) and played with toys from Grandma & Grandpa Pecos (this is what my boys call David's parents), Brian & Beth and Great Grandma Dominguez. I always think that you should open a few gifts on your actual day when your party is another day! ; )

Today was the day of the par-tay. And I was so excited that Jonathan chose a "Buzz & Woody" party. There's just SO MUCH you can do with it (and most of the decor can be found in your toy box)! A big THANK YOU to my good friend, Jami, for her help from afar! She did the same theme a year ago for her son, Jaxon!

I learned how to make tissue paper pom-poms...and used them everywhere I could think of! Tried to stick to Buzz's colors.

Celebrate Banner

Barrel of Monkeys banner....there are small monkeys nestled in the points of the triangles.

I even found a place for my oops item! I ordered two etch-a-sketches thinking they were full size and this is what arrived. They hung out in the bathroom.

Pizza Planet Pizza, T-Rex's Dino Nuggets, {Mr.} Potato {Head} Chips & Dips, Rocket Ships (fruit skewers) and Planetary Pretzels were on the menu!

We served tea for the moms & dads and "Jessie's Juices" (Capri Suns) for the little Space Rangers.

I found the idea for Buzz's Rocket Ships somewhere online.

Pez Party Favors

One of my favorites....the Photo Booth!
Woody & Buzz

Our friends, the Bolays

John Paul

The Stewart Brothers

Abriella

Avery & Jenae

Artem

Andrik

The Army Men Hunt! I stole this idea from Jami. It was like an Easter egg hunt, but with Andy's Army Men from the movie. We told the kiddos that Andy's mom was bustin' out the trash bags before he was leaving for college. They could help save the army men from their doom by collecting them all and taking them home! I was also super excited to find all the camo buckets at Dollar Tree!

Susan, Andrik & Artem hunting

John Paul even dressed the part!

Annie

Originally I created a poster for a "Pin the Badge on Sheriff Woody" game. Long story as to how that got scrapped...had to do with hours uploading to print! So we played HOT {Mr.} POTATO {Head} with music from Toy Story.

Passing the potato!

Jonathan & his cake

Opening some super thoughtful treats

He slept through the whole thing!

It was a fun time. I love home parties. They're a bit more work (cleaning, planning, etc.), but totally fun. I dread the day when the boys are too old for me to plan a fun party with lots of neat details and such!

The Big FOUR!

2011-02-20T21:53:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow we celebrate four years of Jonathan Miles. It has been a wonderful four years with a spunky little boy full of personality and love. We love you, Jon Jon...you've completed our family in a way we could never even dream of! ; )

"May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you...

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young...

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you...

May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young...

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift...

May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young."

(lyrics from Forever Young by Bob Dylan)

Because my camera isn't in the shop...

2011-02-19T10:55:00.002-06:00

...I'll be forcing more soccer photos on you.

Today we have not one but two soccer games. Whew. We are on a little break at home and I thought I'd get these up while I can.

And....BREAK!

Doing his thang.

Benjamin's not actually in this photo. I just loved the other team's goalie mom. She didn't put that Starbucks down for anything. A mom after my own heart.

Benjamin (under arrow)...getting in there and turning it around toward our goal! WTG!

That bench isn't going to keep itself warm, people.

Jonathan had a little sideline game going on.

"goodgamegoodgamegoodgame"

Break. My. Heart.

2011-02-18T17:23:00.003-06:00

Living in a military-dominated town, we're painfully aware that people come and go. And come and go. And come and go. Our previous Life Group was full of favorite faces that are now in new places. It's just kind of the way it is.

But, today, it's breaking my child's heart. Up until August, the majority of our friends were based in Belton since our church is there. And that's been great...not too many moves so far. We're keeping somewhat tight-leashes on our friends. : )

But our new schools over here in K-town have brought with it some wonderful new friendships. And for Jonathan, it's brought a best buddy in the little boy pictured above with him, Artem. He spends every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday getting to hang out with the bff at school. We've gone on several play dates and just really soaked up what little time we have left with our friend.

Today I picked Jonathan up from playing at Artem's for the afternoon. We started on the way home and I mentioned how Artem's family was only two weeks away from their big move to Dubai in UAE.

And then it happened. Jonathan wept. And wept pretty hard over the fact that his buddy would no longer live close by. We've chatted about the move before, but today was a bit different. Being at Artem's house, seeing the boxes, chatting with his mom about how there's just two weeks left. I think it just felt a bit more real.

I was also telling Jonathan how far away Dubai is. I mean having friends move to San Antonio is one thing...we can see them when we go see Shamu. But, we probably won't be making a lot of road trips to the UAE.

So how do we deal with this? I know this is probably the first of many BFFs moving away since this is where we plan to stay (until everyone has graduated from Ellison at least. Did you read that David? Until EVERYONE is through Ellison). But, will it get easier?

My heart's just hurting for my little buddy who is losing his little buddy in a couple of weeks. Sniff, sniff.

Artem....you sure will be missed, sweet friend. We hope to Skype with you as soon as we figure out how! ; )

Snowpocalypse 2011

2011-02-04T12:55:00.006-06:00

While a lot of you have had it MUCH worse than we have (I keep reading of frozen pipes, no electricity or water and roads covered in slabs of ice), we got our first real snow late last night. All week, Benjamin has been hoping and praying for a snow day, and he got it today! (And this year, Daddy did, too-- YAY!) When David's phone rang at 4:30 am to tell him of the district closing, I knew our kindergartener's wish came true. It was nice seeing as how all week the temps were below twenty...kind of nice to have the fun part of the cold, too!

And as quickly as it came....it went. We took these photos about three hours ago. And now, it's all melted and gone. That's kind of how I like to enjoy snow. Fast and furious. And then on with the show.

We frolicked, played and then came in for hot chocolate. A lazy afternoon is forming now...in front of the fire and movies. Snow days are so nice.

Oh....and luck of all lucks: last night at about 7:30, I got the call I'd been waiting for a month to get. My camera was finally fixed and ready to pick up at the Geek Squad counter. Amen and hallelujah. Just in time for snow pics. I missed the camera so much. So glad she's home. And well again.

Soccer Saturday...for the next 7 weeks!

2011-01-22T14:41:00.002-06:00

The Texans were awesome today!! We won our game and the kids had a great time.

Getting instructions from Coach Anna.

Ready for action!

Lots & lots of running

About halfway through the game, I realized a little something about myself....apparently I'm competitive. In every other area of my life, I'm pretty non-competitive. But, put my kid on a sports team and I become that mom. The one who doesn't sit down the whole game who is yelling for her team. Did not see that one coming.

More running.

Jonathan under the blanket....it was a chilly one!

Not sure if Benjamin was more excited about winning or the snacks that come at the end of the game. He also mentioned after we got home, "You know at the end of the game, they make the other team congratulate you. They tell you 'good game'." I asked if he told the other team's players "good game" as well. "No. They didn't win." Sheesh. We'll be working on some good sportsmanship for next weekend.

Things I have learned in the past of week...

2011-01-15T16:01:00.003-06:00

- Jonathan is uber-athletic. Or maybe just uber-Wii-athletic. He can birdie the third hole in golf. Beat me at tennis. And take us all down on bowling. It's scary. The flip-side: he's the biggest sore loser you'll ever meet. We're working really hard on that one.

- Benjamin cannot scarf down pizza, chug a capri-sun and immediately bounce in a bounce house. He will throw up. Six inches from the garbage can. In front of an entire birthday party. And he will do it at the exact moment his brother is being hauled out of the bounce house screaming by daddy. Leaving mom to clean up the puke. So sorry we ralphed at your sweet party, McKenzie. Please invite us back next year.

- David finally realized he is overly-addicted to his smartphone after watching a documentary called "Crackberry'd". Thank you, CNBC. Thank you.

- My youngest is almost four....wow. Where did the time go? We're pretty much 99% sure we're done and we're good with our family of four. But, sometimes, you just miss those baby times. So much so that you try to rock a 40-lb. almost-four-year old to sleep, only to have to wake him up when you're done since he's so heavy you can't get up out of his rocker to carry him to his bed.

- Benjamin is one good kid. We've been bringing a friend of his home after school every day while her mom finishes up a class. Yesterday, I watched her try to get Benjamin to break a rule I had just stated. She whispered to him to do this thing anyway. He turned right around and told me. While I'm not a fan of tattle tales, I am a fan of a kid not bending to peer pressure.

- I can't make a Wii Mii that resembles me at all. It just can't be done. I hate the Mii channel. It just frustrates me.

- I really, really miss my camera. It is in the shop for the second time in the last six months. But, I am still keeping up with the 365. Keeping my word to my husband to make it happen. Blurry, out-of-focus photos and all.

The Holidays, Pt. 2

2011-01-05T13:46:00.003-06:00

We had such a great time ringing in the new year in Pecos with David's whole family. It was great that we were all able to be there at the same time. The cousins all had a B-L-A-S-T! Benjamin said it best Thursday night when he said, "I just love it when the whole family is together!"

The whole bunch:
(L-R) David & I with Benjamin & Jonathan; David's brother Daniel & his wife Syndi who is holding their youngest, Everet, along with Eli, Elena &, Ema; David's parents, Fred & Nyla; our sister-in-law, Arly, holding Nathan with David's youngest brother, Sam.

LOTS of fun Wii time!

And being mesmerized by Uncle Sam's game skills.

Lots of cooking...here's Everet helping his mama make deviled eggs. Syndi's deviled eggs are just like Great Grandma Dominguez's...she adds deviled ham to them!

Great Grandpa Forrister slicing up the ham for our big dinner.

Mmmm....these are probably one of my ABSOLUTE favorite holiday treats. And my mother-in-law makes them BEST. Fudge Marshmallows. She always makes a big tray of them and leaves them in the fridge so we can graze on them 'til our heart's delight. So good.

Jonathan & Eli

I just thought this was hilarious. This photo was an accident. David was messing with our camera to figure out how to put it in timer mode. Benjamin walked by "locked & loaded" as the camera took the photo. We didn't even realize it until we got home. Not sure who he was tracking down, but he was on a mission.

Sweet sisters: Elena & Ema

Lots of present unwrapping. Go, Nathan, go!

It's been the year of Iron Man for Jonathan...he loves him!
Thank you Uncle Dan & Aunt Syndi!

Benjamin received this awesome safari vest & Ema had hers, too. They were spying a bird nest!

Eli hard at work.

Aunt Syndi brought crafts!! We had a blast making snowpeople out of socks!

Ema's snowman in the works.

Benjamin's, Jonathan's, Ema's & Elena's
Aren't these so cute? They were so fun to put together.

Sleepy guy.

Benjamin got a bit of shiner/rug burn when he took a little tumble down the stairs at Great Grandma & Great Grandpa's house. He didn't let it slow him down too much!

Grandpa & Everet

Saturday morning, before we headed home, Great Grandpa fixed us all a big breakfast. Here he is at the waffle station! YUM!

Good times!

Back in the 365 saddle...

2011-01-01T23:19:00.002-06:00

The last couple of months, David has been looking through the 365 from a couple of years ago. He is convinced that we should do it again this year. While I'm not so sure I can totally keep up with it, we'll give it a go. And as a disclaimer, I'll add that I may just post weekly, even though I will *try* to actually take the photos daily.

I have a bunch of photos from this weekend to post, but so far, I've just loaded a favorite from this morning onto the new 365.

Feel free to follow our year in photos.... El Rancho Dominguez 2011 Project 365

The Holidays, pt. 1

2010-12-28T00:28:00.006-06:00

It makes me a little sad to see everyone putting their Christmas decorations away on Facebook. I am one of those hold outs that actually keeps it up as long as I can (usually until my birthday in early January). It does feel good to actually get it put away and have a (somewhat) orderly house. But....I still plan to wait! We actually are still in the midst of Christmas celebrations. We plan to head out to Pecos for Dominguez Christmas this weekend.

We've had a fun few weeks. And we are really enjoying the time David and Benjamin have off of school. Actually, Benjamin stretched his vacay out a little longer by missing the last two days of school (including his Winter Party Day, boo!) because of strep throat. It seems like every time David goes out of town, I end up with a puker. I can't tell you how relieved I was that it was strep instead of a tummy bug (is it weird that I am relieved by that?). But, hey, a shot of antibiotics and he was better in 12 hours. My kids are so rarely on antibiotics (I can't even remember the last time I had to refrigerate a nasty bottle of pink medicine) that I don't worry too much about the whole antibiotics affecting their immune system too much. We escaped the whole ordeal with only Benjamin & I getting sick (knockin' on wood, people).

We kicked off the holiday season one of the first weekends in December with Benjamin inviting some of his classmates over for breakfast (in your jammies) and a movie. It was a fun time. We even got to know a couple of the parents from his class better.

Kindergarteners' feast!

These were a couple of the friends that came over for the fun! Kaden & Abbigail. We spread out quilts and pillows to watch the Polar Express. Although, most of the kiddos ended up playing with the train table in Benjamin's room! Oh well. They still had fun!

Every year, a local church puts on a live walk-through Bethlehem/Nativity. It was AMAZING! Not only are there dozens of interactive characters and buildings to explore, they also cook for you as you walk through and let you sample food of the period. They make you pay your taxes (a donation of canned food) but then offer you cocoa & cookies afterward! The boys really enjoyed it and so did we. David's been wanting to go for a couple of years and I am so glad we made it this year. It truly was a special night. The photo above is the boys in the synagogue they have set up...listening to the rabbi read from the scroll.

We had Pawlik Christmas on the 19th. My dad is still recovering from surgery, but I think he really enjoyed everyone being around for the day!

These are my parents' grandkids. Quite the age range, huh?

It's so rare that everyone's all together that it was a definite photo op.

Aaron, Andrea, Kayla, Amber, Keaton, Amanda, Jonathan & Benjamin

My brother Dale & his bunch

Amanda took a cookie decorating class and brought us the results. She has convinced me to take one with her in the next month or so. I need to learn to do this. Need.

Alyssa & Trevor....waiting to open presents. These two cuties belong to Aaron.

We're a bit silly when we get together.

Aaron and his youngest, Annika. This baby has the most beautiful eyes. Ever.

Peanut gallery. Amber, Connally & Isaac

Iron Man even made his appearance. And continues to make a daily appearance at our house. This is probably Jonathan's favorite gift of the year.

It was the year of Legos for Benjamin. He and David have been busy building like crazy all through the break.

Hard to believe we only have two teenagers in the bunch right now!

Kayla & Keaton

And being a teenager comes with fun stuff like a new car! Kayla drove her new wheels out here to show everyone! Can you say adorable? She's one cute kid. And now has a cute Jetta to scoot around in.

During our time at home, Jonathan and I did some baking. Benjamin was so involved in building the new Lego city that baking wasn't so much a priority to him this year (sniff, sniff). But, Jonathan was a firecracker in the kitchen. We made red Rice Krispy treats (covered in Christmas sprinkles), Ice Box Cinnamon Chippers, our traditional Red & Green Pinwheels and some crazy banana bread.

We actually baked later than usual and missed all of our neighbors that we usually give cookie plates to. So, we gave them to neighbors we had never met before...a new family that just moved in from El Paso and a contractor who has been working in Iraq for the last three years. We did manage to track our next door neighbor down Christmas eve and give him & his Holiday guests his yearly plate. I actually loved the idea of giving to people we don't know. Always easy to meet someone over a plate of goodies.

David and I also had a treat on the 22nd. We went to Austin to see the Ellison Emeralds open for the Rockettes at Bass Concert Hall. We got a hotel for the night, ordered room service and slept in until ten the next morning. Lazy! And fun!

It was such a fun evening to get dressed up and go see a wonderful show at Bass Concert Hall. It brought back so many memories of going to Bass Concert Hall when I was a little girl, all dressed up to see the Nutcracker with my mom. I only wished I hadn't still been recovering from strep when we were there...we originally had plans to go to Fogo de Chao with some special friends. Wasn't quite sure my tummy could handle Fogo yet. Bummer.

We opened our family presents Christmas Eve. Yes, we are one of those families.

Sweet Kid

Santa came Christmas morning and brought all kinds of goodies...Jonathan got his requested "froggies" and Buzz Lightyear. Benjamin got a Wii and more....Legos.

Santa found a red Wii...how cool is that? ; )

My oldest brother takes my entire family to lunch in Austin on Christmas day. It's great...no body has to cook (or clean up) and we get to sit down and visit over some wonderful food.

Isaac & Amanda

My neice, Amber and my sister-in-law, Lisa

My sister-in-law, Cherie and my brother, Mike

My neice, Andrea and my great-nephew, Austin. Austin was pretty smart this year with his Santa snacks. He left the Man with the Bag a Nutrigrain bar instead of cookies this year! Ha!

He ate the whole thing.

After lunch, we came home and got back in our jammies to have a wonderfully lazy day. Actually, the boys got new Buzz & Woodie jammies in their stockings....it was a great excuse to try them on!

This is pretty much what we've done every day since Christmas. Wii love it!

We did take a break yesterday to go and see Tangled at the theater...and head to Target to buy a new Wii game! (Benjamin's Target gift card from Uncle Mike & Aunt Cherie was burning a hole in his little pocket...he had to have the new Car's Mater's Tall Tales Wii Game!)

Jonathan boxing.

Whew. 31 photos. I'm sure I'll have many more after Dominguez Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

Must. Keep. Up. With. Blog.

2010-12-17T23:40:00.002-06:00

This month has been a bit of a beating. The fact that my business is the busiest during the holidays seems to make the season a bit harder to fully enjoy. But, I love the business and wouldn't trade it for anything. And designing Christmas cards is absolutely my favorite. It is after all, where it all began!
--

It's also been a hard few months for us. And this past week, we really had some heartache when David's sweet grandpa passed away. He had a stroke on Friday morning and passed away Saturday night. For the last couple of years, we've actually discussed what we would do if we lost grandpa and wondered, with David's schedule being what it is, if we would make it out to California. I feel so blessed to say that David was actually able to take a couple of days off of work and fly out there to join his family. He was very blessed by the entire trip.

This was one of David's favorite photo of his grandparents, taken on our trip out there in 2005.
(Excuse the quality...we had a hard drive crash several years ago and this was a difficult photo to track down and "recapture")

David messaged me with some photos from their family dinner after the funeral. This is David's sweet Grandma and his Aunt Mona.

Uncle Charles and his sweet wife, Anna and David

David's Uncle Larry, David, Aunt Charlotte, his cousin, Laura and Laura's boyfriend, Keith.

Although it was a quick trip, since David has been home, he's mentioned a hundred times how thankful he was to be there. He was also honored to lead a prayer at the graveside service.

--

Earlier this month, Jonathan's preschool had their Christmas program, "Show & Tell the Story of Jesus". It was quite precious. And Jonathan was a shepherd...how adorable can you get? And he even knew all the words to the songs he sang!

Here he is in his little shepherd outfit with his class on stage.

Singing the songs!

Love him!

Both of the boys after the program. If I could get my act together and get our own Christmas cards done, a different version of this photo will be in your mailbox....hopefully by New Year's.

---

We also were thrilled to get to see my nephew, Keaton, play in the state play-offs for the Bastrop Bears in Waco. (Although it was kind of weird wearing maroon instead of green...but since it was for the bears and not the Roos...we're okay).

Keaton is #54. (I actually took some football photos....impressive, eh? I still wasn't 100% sure what all was going on. But, I can fake it 'til I make it. And I sure could cheer for my nephew!)

My brother and sister-in-law bought the boys custom Bastrop Bears shirts! Benjamin couldn't wait to wear his to school the following week!
And...wow...we had GREAT seats!

Keaton, #54

Mike & Benjamin cheering the Bears on! (I was having some focusing issues and I was sad that Cherie was accidentally cropped out of this photo when I took it).

Thanksgiving by the Numbers

2010-12-03T00:33:00.002-06:00

15 pumpkins down the middle of the table

12 cousins who haven't seen each other in a while.

10 pounds of potatoes...peeled, boiled, buttered and garlic-ed

1 sweet potato-casserole with blackened marshmallows (again)

3 turkeys...fried, smoked and roasted

2 people who could have done without the spiced tea

6 little ones surrounding the kids' table

26 specially selected songs on an iPod playlist that never got played

2 Floridians that came back to Texas...permanently

1 Texan who is thinking about moving to Florida....semi-permanently

706 miles (collectively) driven from several different cities

LOTS to be thankful for. . .

The grown-up table (with baby Annika)

Jonathan helping prep the rolls

Amanda making her pumpkin roll...so yummy

Kayla & Cherie putting the finishing touches on the trifle....yum!

Pumpkins!

Darn her!

Amber & Connally around the buffet table

My 29-year-old nephew, Aaron "helping" Grandpa.
This is an age-old tradition (or 29 year old one).

The pilgrims & indians...Annika, Alyssa, Jonathan, Benjamin, Trevor & Austin

My nephew, Keaton and Grandpa

I spent quite some time picking out all these lovely background songs to play during dinner....somehow that game was "accidentally" left on.
We were also super impressed with how well the kiddos actually ate! Not much chatting...

Dessert Table

Coffee Bar...so excited to use my antique cups & saucers that came from one of my great grandmas...we think.

Jonathan got a hold of Keaton's hat.

Friday after the eating, Bud, Mike, Cherie, Kayla & Keaton headed up to a little 'ol football stadium in Dallas that Jerry Jones recently built to watch Keaton play in the playoffs! Woohoo! And they won! We are all heading to Waco this weekend to watch him win again.

I just had to stick this in here, too. I love this photo! This was actually taken at Aunt Helen's services, the day before Thanksgiving. I just think it is a wonderful photo of my parents and my brother and his family.

Hope your turkey was as tasty as ours!! Happy Holidays!

End of an era

2010-11-19T09:55:00.006-06:00

I actually never met any of my biological grandparents...as my parents put it, I was a "later in life" child. All of my grandparents passed before I was born (my mom's dad actually passed away when she was expecting me).
I did have my Aunt Helen, though. She was my dad's aunt (my grandfather's sister) and sort of helped fill that grandparent role in some ways. We traveled to San Antonio on many a Sunday afternoon and holiday to visit Aunt Helen. And every summer, she would come to Austin for my dance recitals and to spend a week making homemade noodles, dumplings and banana pudding with me. I always pecked at the raw noodle dough (sounds bleh now), and she always thought that was so funny. I don't think she ever missed a dance recital. And she never missed a chance to ride the train with me at the San Antonio zoo when I was little.
She was a stubborn gal, and quite set in her ways. But, she always made us laugh and was the "keeper of memories" for my dad's side of the family. For a little lady under 5 feet tall, she sure had lots of personality (and opinions, ha!). She lived in the same green and white house on Preston in San Antonio since she was in her twenties, up until just a few years ago when she was moved to her nursing home. It had a pepto-pink-tiled bathroom and only two small bedrooms. But, it was a family heirloom in itself. We celebrated many holidays in "the front room" (a rather formal living room that wasn't touched too much) and always gathered in "the back room" (a small den) when we visited on every other occasion. She kept M&Ms in the freezer and pinwheel cookies and rice krispy treats on a plate in the kitchen. She was a bit of a matriarch-type of figure to my family and all of my cousins.

And early this morning, after 95 years on this earth, she went to be with Jesus.

As my dad stated this morning, it is the end of an era.

We love you, Aunt Helen. You will be missed.

Two Posts in One Day!

2010-11-13T23:54:00.002-06:00

One of my awesome college roomies (let's hear it for the Ruswood gang...woohoo), Erin, has embarked on a VERY cool new adventure. I present to you: Erin Shanks Interiors. I was reading through her site recently and realized how blah my entry was. I mean, it wasn't awful. Just needed a little sumptin'-sumptin'. Annnnnd, Erin mentioned these two lamps she had found at Goodwill. I thought, hmmmm, wonder if our Goodwill has anything cool like that. Well, what do you know...

Here's the before...

The table was my parents' old sofa table from their old house in Austin...I think it's almost as old as I am. I painted it black when we moved here.

The Goodwill lamps! Hello, 1990! Erin and I had a few email convos and decided red glossy paint would be perfect. Another awesome idea Erin had...drum lamp shades!

Almost done.....

I placed harlequin black & cream scrapbook paper under the glass of the table.

The End Result:

I know it's not absolutely perfect...I probably go overboard with chachkies and plant things. And I need to do something with the basket of the tree.

But, I am so, so happy with the change!! Thank you so much, Erin! You are so awesome! These lamps were less than $5 each and I already had the spray paint in the garage. I did splurge a bit on the drum shades, but I feel like I saved sooo much on the lamps that I sort of justified it that way. ; )

Look for some fun new ideas for your home on Erin's site!

THE SIDE STORY:

While at Goodwill, I had another interesting find. They have all of their wintery clothes out and on display. This big, puffy sweatshirt caught my eye that was hanging on the rack. Why? Because I designed it in 1999! It was a GATA sweatshirt from my college club at ACU! Not only was it from my senior year, it was from the time period that I did graphics for a local t-shirt shop, and it was one of my old designs!! I about fell over. I had to buy it just to show David! When I was going on and on about this sweatshirt to him and what a crazy coincidence it was that it ended up in a Goodwill in Killeen, he kind of had a weird look on his face. Then he informed me that he had donated a bunch of boxes of old clothes that were in our garage to that very Goodwill. Soooo....

I purchased back a sweatshirt that we donated to Goodwill. So, I'm out $4 and have my sweatshirt back. A sweatshirt I never knew I missed.

Halloween Recap

2010-11-13T21:24:00.003-06:00

Wooweee.....almost half way through November and just now getting to the Halloween pics. We had a fun-filled Halloween time that went all the way into the first weekend of this month. From our church Funival, Jonathan's preschool carnival and party, Benjamin's kindergarten Fall Ball and good ol' trick-or-treating, Snoopy & Charlie are done. And I'm ready for that dog house to hit the curb. Like, say, Tuesday morning when the garbage truck comes? It was fun to have as a "play dog house" for a bit, but I'm really quite over it.

Snoopy & Charlie

Oddly enough, the ambulance was one of the favorite places the boys visited at the Funival. Thankfully, it was just for a tour.

This Halloween was the year we learned Jonathan loved to get his face painted.
He had it done at every event we went to.

This was at Benjamin's Fall Ball. It was actually a dance for all the kindergarteners...although I'm not sure I saw a single kiddo on the dance floor. Wait, I take that back...my Snoopy used it as his landing zone while flying away from the red baron. There were LOTS of other cool activities for the kids besides dancing...crafts, cookie decorating, etc. Lots of fun!

The official Fall Ball photo.

King of the face paint with our favorite teacher, Mrs. Weatherford.
You know you have an amazing teacher when she calls the little brother by his nick name and loves him like her own. Love this woman. She has made my six-year-old fall in love with school.

I think this is pretty funny....this is Benjamin with several of the kiddos from his class. The boy eating the snow cone is his best buddy, Kaden. He also thinks his princess friend, Ava, is very cool....this is what he told me when he saw this photo. So, there you have it.

Trike-A-Thon-Jon

2010-10-29T23:13:00.001-05:00

It seems as though this blog has just become a series of events. I sometimes miss keeping up with the "everyday-ness" of life, too. I wish I was more disciplined to restart a Project 365 again. Probably not going to happen! ; )

On to the event...

A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan's preschool hosted a very cool St. Jude's Trike-a-thon. I learned a couple of things at this event: 1) Jonathan is quite the ladies' man amongst the gals in his class and 2) he's the Lance Armstrong amongst the preschool scene. I was actually kind of amazed. It's one thing to watch him ride his bike here in our neighborhood, but when he was "pretend-racing" his friends (and really winning), I was a little shocked. The boy can go! I see training wheels coming off soon.

The Starting Line

I just love this expression!! Pure joy.

Leading the group (and, not that I was keeping track or anything, but lapping people, too)!

This is Jonathan's class with his two teachers, Mrs. Susan & Mrs. Mary
A fun group of little buddies.

The Pumpkin Patch(es)

2010-10-21T21:32:00.003-05:00

We've had a very fallish month in terms of the trips to the local pumpkin patches we've made...sure wish the weather would catch up with us!

I am captioning a couple of these photos, but other than that, I just like seeing all the orange. Benjamin wasn't in much of a photo mood when we visited patches.

And when we exited Sweetberry Farms, Jonathan threw an all-out fit, allowing us to walk the parental walk of shame to the car, giving nods to others letting them know we truly had it under control. Even though we didn't. Every trip to Sweetberry we have ever made has ended with a Jonathan tantrum. I'm sure they're glad to see us leave.

We went through the kids' corn maze and got totally turned around!

I can't imagine what the adult maze is like!

Hay-ridin' with our church friends at the Silo pumpkin patch/Christmas tree farm.

Is it just me or is this straight out of O Brother Where Art Thou?

We loved the live music out at Silo!

Jumpin' the hay bales.

Off to the Island of Sodor

2010-10-09T17:50:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, we were so excited to go and meet one of our favorite friends, Thomas the Train. He made his appearance in Burnet and we had tickets to the early morning ride! Jonathan is the big Thomas fan around here...but both of the boys were thrilled to meet this cute chugger.

Benjamin was waiting for the conductor to come and punch his ticket. The ride was all very official...the announcer would announce our arrival into and out of Sodor, Thomas music played the whole trip and the boys even got certificates stating they were official riders of the railway.

We even had our own personal paparazzi to come out and watch us ride.

Jonathan & Daddy on their side of the train.

Me & my riding buddy!

A super fun morning! We had to arrive at 7:30 since our train was the first one of the day! Jonathan was worn out by 11 since he had been up since 5:30! It was great, though...we beat the mega crowds! (Over 18,000 were expected at this event for the weekend...Thomas is pretty popular!)

His First "Looth" Tooth

2010-10-05T17:21:00.002-05:00

I am behind on this blog. I know it...(really, Mom, I know). I have Day out with Thomas the Train, Sweetberry Farms Pumpkin Patch and Birthday Hullabaloo to post about.

But, now, I just have to share this very important event that just happened. On Friday, October 1, 2010, Benjamin lost his first tooth! Ironically (or maybe not, we're new at this), it was also his first tooth that came in for him when he was a baby.

Daddy did the official "pull".

And out it came!

Benjamin was so thrilled!

Purely adorable (blood & all).

Happy Sixth Birthday, Benjamin Reagan!

2010-09-20T00:39:00.000-05:00

Wednesday is Benjamin's BIG day! We love this little boy more than words can begin to express...but I'll give it a try:

You were six months old and full of fun,
With a blink of an eye, you suddenly were 1..

There were many things we were going to do,
But I turned my head and you turned two...

At two, you were very dependent on me,
But independence took over when you were three...

Your third birthday, another year I tried to ignore,
But when I lit the candles there weren't 3, but four...

Four was a year that you really thrived...
And shortly after that, you turned a big-kid five!

You've been so ready for books and rules,
This was the year that you went to school...

Your big day came; you were anxious to go,
We walked to the school, going oh so slow...

As you went in your class and waved goodbye,
I felt a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye...

Time goes so fast, its hard to believe,
That yesterday you were home here with me...

Here we are, knocking on the door of SIX
I always need more of my "Benjamin Fix".

And soon down the road when the bus brings you home &  your feet hit the ground
You'll be wearing a graduation cap and gown...

So I'm holding on to these moments as much as I can...

Because the next time I look,
I'll see a grown man.

(This poem has been modified from a collection of Kathrine Jolle Wathne)

Fabulous Friday Nights

2010-09-10T22:43:00.006-05:00

I think we all know what time of year it is....

Eagle Football is back in full force!

We made the first two games and had a blast. Although, we may be jinxing our sweet Eagles, since tonight the (little) boys and I stayed home (the game was all the way in Waco and we were tired). And they pulled off an awesome win without us. David is headed this way down I-35 and those two kiddos have already been OUT for well over three hours. Yeah, staying in tonight was definitely the right thing.

Jonathan giving some love to Eddie the Eagle. We had a bit of a "Uh-Oh" when we were hanging out on the sidelines after the game and saw both Eddie and his female counterpart being hauled out of the stadium in see-through mesh bags. When Jonathan caught sight of a beak peaking out of one of the bags, his eyes were pretty big. Hoping he forgets that sight before the next game.

The kids have an unbelievable amount of spirit! Seriously, it's already been a fun year.

We claimed our usual seats alongside the drum line and the boys picked up where they left off from last year. One of the Band Backers (the EHS Band Boosters) hands us an extra set of drumsticks as we walk to our seats. I love how loved our kiddos are. Can't wait until they are at EHS. No, wait...yes, I can.

The Emeralds looked AWESOME as always.

And they've been invited to perform with the Rockettes during the holidays in Austin. No surprises there. We can't wait!!

The first game was special since we played our rival Roos from Killeen High. Our good friends, the Trckas are Roos...their dad, Dee is one of the coaches over there. Here is Benjamin with his pal, Emily hanging out on the field after the game.

And here is Ty with Jonathan. These two just crack me up.

And to two future Eagles, this is really what it's all about. Running. The. Field.

This is our after-game tradition that the boys just can't wait for. As the crowd clears the stadium, the Dominguez boys take to the turf. I am amazed at the energy they have at 11 p.m. to do this every week. But they absolutely love it.

Woohooo!

It occurred to me about halfway through this post that I don't have any actual football photos. That probably speaks to my completely non-athletic personality. You would think that having a sports fanatic husband and dad as well as three older brothers, I might be slightly inclined to know a thing or two about football, but not so much. And I'm southern on top of that. I know it's wrong on so many levels, but until my kid is on the field (playing not running it at midnight), I still won't know what a down is (I'm praying that's an actual football term). I still adore all the fanfare and fun of it all...I always have. I just don't have much of a clue what in the heehaw they're actually doing down there. Someday....

Happy Friday Night Lights, Y'all!

Nothing like a little second child syndrome...

2010-09-04T14:03:00.004-05:00

Contrary to the blog post to child ratio on here, we do, indeed, have TWO children. And I feel like mom of the year for not having posted these sweet pics of my little man on here on his BIG day. I really intended to get them on here last week. In my, (ahem), defense (can we even really call it that?)...the new kindergarten schedule, combined with a new therapy schedule along with a few crazy doctor's appointments and testing for me have been an absolute beating. I feel like I spend a lot of my day either walking to or from the elementary school or driving the loop to pick up someone or drop them off or heading either direction down 190. Whew. (And, I'm pretty sure there was a major run-on sentence somewhere in there. My apologies to my husband.)

But, Jonathan has also had a very BIG couple of weeks! He started his new preschool, St. Christopher's, the day after B started kindergarten. And he was THRILLED. We have had absolutely no hesitation from him at all this year. I think with all the hype surrounding the big kindergarten year, he was wanting to get in on it, too. And we totally did it up as well...he truly LOVES his new preschool. Honestly, I wasn't too sure how it would go over. He has attended BCP (sniff, sniff) for the past two years, not to mention that BCP is actually at our church building. I really wasn't sure how he would take being moved to a totally new place. But, wow...smooth sailing so far.

These two sweet ladies are a big part of such a smooth transition. God bless them. They make him smile every day he is at preschool and make him say things like "are we coming back tomorrow?" and "I don't want to go home yet" when I pick him up. Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Susan have taken on Jonathan as well as 11 of his cohorts for the next school year. This was taken at his Meet the Teacher.

Yay! First day of preschool. It just breaks my heart that I only have one preschooler now.

I had to show you all his new backpack...I actually got it together (somehow) and put this together for him. I was excited about how it turned out. Truthfully, being the cheapie I have become in the last few years, I was just going to let him carry the same backpack from last year. I mean it is preschool. When I told my mom this, she about hit the roof, painstakingly reminding me of how my brothers and I always had new stuff for the start of school...she told me it is a part of the excitement (nothing like a little pep talk from mom to help me pull out the old debit card). So, I noticed HEB had plain red backpacks for $5 (that I ripped the crooked "Trailmaster" label off of). With a little help from Hob Lob and Jonathan's discriminating taste in all things pigskin...voila. It still came out to less than $10.

I noticed every mom was posing their kid somewhere on the lush grounds at St. Christopher's on the first day of preschool for photo-ops...didn't want mine to feel left out since we'd already done it at home.

Already hard at work on the first morning!

While my heart sure misses my pals at BCP, I am finding the benefits of going to a preschool 10 minutes up the street compared to 30 minutes down the highway pretty huge. St. Christopher's is literally across the street from Ellison. David could be there in 30 seconds if he needed to. And...drumroll...I actually have friends in Killeen now. That might sound so weird seeing as how we've lived here for well-over three years. But, our church and our preschool were all the way in Belton...and that's where my life has been (and still is). When I filled out the paperwork for Jonathan to start preschool over here, we were asked to add an in-town emergency contact. I was so embarrassed that I literally didn't know anyone well enough over here to put them down...except David's secretary! I am really happy to know some super sweet mamas over here now, too! Don't get me wrong, my church friends are the nearest and dearest to me...they know what all is going on with our crazy life right now...and have loved on us so much as we endure. But, it's nice to actually know someone around the corner, too. I even have two friends whose little ones not only go to St. Chris, but whose older ones are at Timber Ridge. I feel so....connected.

Oh, and the fact that the new school is three days a week....um, yeah.

We have an official KINDERGARTENER...(sniff, sniff)

2010-08-24T12:08:00.006-05:00

Several precious children, little boys and little girls.

David helping Benjamin create the keychain for his backpack at the Kinder-Blessing time Sunday at church. The key chain has one side that we put a rainbow of beads on to remind Benjamin of God's promises and the other is full of his choice of beads so he is reminded of the special Kinder-Blessing time. It was a really precious hour that we shared with all of the other kindergarten families.

Have now grown to an age that will soon enlarge their worlds.

At the Kinder-Blessing, one of the other families passed out hands with special messages and, of course, SMARTIES...since these kiddos are smart!

Once little babes they were, but not true anymore.

These are the children from our church that are starting kindergarten this year. This is one precious bunch that we feel blessed Benjamin is a part of!

For Kindergarten is calling them with wonderful things in store.

This about did this mama in! Pictured above is Benjamin (light khaki pants, red plaid shirt, front row) bowing his head and holding his little hands in prayer during the student blessing during the worship service. It was pretty sweet!

First they'll learn to listen and to share with all the others.

One new tradition we started at home was to give each of the boys a new "Back-to-School" themed book the night before school starts. Jonathan got a cute preschool book this year and he loved it!

And go home to share these new things with little sisters and brothers.

Benjamin received a Starting School book that he loves and even requested to read last night after his first big day.

They'll learn to be creative and make a lot of pretty things.

We have had a tradition in place to read The Kissing Hand the night before school (or preschool) starts. Don't the boys look enthralled? ; )

And they'll learn to sing like angels except they won't have wings.

Woo-whee...yesterday was an early one for us. Our boys always wake up early on their own, but before 6:45 was a bit rough. I was up before six to make a special breakfast for the school boy, but today was back to fruit and pop-tarts so this mom could get a bit of extra shut-eye. We loved the Puff-Up Pancake from yesterday, though! It's an easy recipe and was great with sausage and fruit. Just my $.02.

How much God must marvel as He watches them daily learn.

A few minutes to pose for photos in our traditional "photo spot". It was so fun being out in front of our house with all the hustle and bustle of living across the street from our school. Kids were everywhere...walking to school with parents, heading to the bus stop and the busses were pouring into the parking lot! It was a great atmosphere with lots of excitement!

For He places within each little heart a fiery zeal that burns.

While we were standing outside taking photos, some pretty fun Ellison students walked by on their way to their bus stop and cheered on our little guys..."First Day of School" they shouted! It was pretty cool. Jonathan just had to grab his backpack, too, for the 'brothers' photo.

How his heart must overflow with joy when He watches them at play.

And do everything He ordained them to with every passing day.

This precious child wanted to bring his teacher flowers on the first day!

Who among man would dare trespass to bring harm to these little lambs?

And turn their precious innocence into fear that knows no bounds.

We made it! Heading into the classroom.

Better t'would be for that one to be tossed into the sea.

At ease at his table ready to get started!

After we picked him up from school, he said he had a "great" day. He was excited about making a new friend named Michael and the fact that someone else in his class had a Phineas and Ferb backpack. He also really enjoyed eating in the cafeteria...at 10:20 am! Good thing we packed a snack for the afternoon. It was a wonderful first day. We can't believe you are a kindergartener already, Benjamin Reagan. We love you and are so proud of you!

Than to face the fiery wrath of God and suffer eternally.

--Robert Elliott, 2010

This poem was written with love to the little kindergarten lambs of 2010 by a sweet elder at our church for their Kinder-Blessing. What a precious gift to give each of us! Thank you, Robert!

Not so much the neat little package...

2010-08-20T16:49:00.004-05:00

I purposefully have neglected to post on this blog about the elephant in the room, but I was sort of ready for that elephant to exit and we could have our nice little life back and just forget it all ever happened. I truly thought that we would go to the doctor today, get a clean bill of health with a benign thyroid sitting in a lab somewhere and a prescription for a lifetime of Synthroid. That way, we could happily begin this exciting new school year with our kindergartener and preschooler and go back to "normal" (whatever that really is).

Several of you have asked me how this all began, so I thought I would share the nitty gritty of it all. The bottom line is that this was a somewhat neglected problem and I hope that by shedding a bit of light on it, maybe there will be fewer neglected problems for all of you out there in the blog-o-sphere. Because even the smallest neglect of a health concern can lead to much more.

I have actually had thyroid "issues" since I was a pre-teen. My pediatrician sent me on to an endocrinologist early and we got a handle on hypo-thryoidism early. I was told that I would be on Synthroid my whole life, which was no big deal to me, and I took my pill daily from then on.

Sometime when I was in Abilene, ten or so years later, a doctor I was seeing took me off of Synthroid. I still to this day don't remember what the reasoning was, but it happened. And kind of sent me on a very slow downward spiral that, up until this point, I have not really shared with too many people, except my very close friends and family. I am now certain getting off of Synthroid was a huge mistake.

Truthfully, I have been a bloomin' mess for the last few years. I have also been pretty meticulous about trying to disguise it and make everything seem just fine on the outside. But, in the last year or two, it has really started to interfere with our quality of life.

I have been in a complete fog of absolute exhaustion. I have used weekends to "catch up" and sleeping hours upon hours to just wake up more exhausted while my sweet husband entertained our precious boys. I have neglected my family, our home and let things keep slipping away. While we may have seemed pretty okay on the outside, our home life was not quite the dream we wanted it to be. The lack of a functioning thyroid contributed to me putting on a good deal of weight, and I even have a nagging skin problem on one foot that we now know was a thyroid culprit as well.

David had started suspecting it was all related to my thyroid quite some time ago. While I thought, well, maybe...I also just thought it was maybe a bad case of post-partum that just wouldn't go away. . . (hello, my "baby" is three and a half)! So, I put off going to the doctor. And then when my gall bladder came out in December, I figured we solved the problem and that was that.

But, things went back to being pretty gloomy again. And this summer has just been a beating to me. It got to the point that in the mornings I was so tired (after eight or more hours of sleep) that the boys would grab a Nutrigrain bar or Pop-tart and jump in bed with me....watching their cartoons until I could drag myself out of bed.

So in late June, while en route to visit friends and family, we pulled over the car and made a doctor's appointment for me for the day after we returned from our trip.

---

At my appointment, my doctor immediately starting putting all of my numbers from lab work together from my gall bladder incident. She thought they may indicate a thyroid problem, so she sent me for more blood work and an ultra sound on my thyroid. I made a follow-up appointment for July 20th.

When my doctor's nurse called me on July 12th and said they wanted to see me quicker and wanted to rush me in the next morning before they even opened, I started seeing red flags and got a bit panicked. I remember that I called David to tell him about it while I was driving the boys to their first day of swimming lessons. I got so flustered that I missed a turn and was a hot mess by the time we actually arrived at the pool. I was thankful to see my sweet friend Jana at swimming lessons and I started telling her everything. Jana is a cancer survivor and she immediately knew that it didn't sound great that they wanted to see me the next morning.

So, at 7:30 am on the 13th, we saw my doctor. This was the first time the C word was dropped and my eyes were probably as big as saucers. She told me about the calcifications that were all over my thyroid and that I was going to be referred on to a specialist, "Dr. S" (his name is so long that it's just easier to type/say Dr. S....everyone does it.)

Dr. S was great from the get-go. Very patient with me and all of my weird questions. He went over the different tests, including what a thyroid biopsy would be like (um, 15 needles...yikes). My first test was on the 20th. I was soooo thankful to have Lori Callaway, one of my best friends in the entire world, drive down from McKinney to go to all of my appointments for this first test with me.

The iodine uptake scan was pretty easy actually. It was just in three parts and the last part I could have done without, but apparently, that's the main thing so I had to just go along with it. : ) The first part is swallowing a radioactive pill that you're not allowed to throw up. Easier said than done. It's like blinking and swallowing, when someone says you can't blink or swallow, that seems to be the only things you want to do. So, all morning, after being told no throwing up, I thought maybe I needed to? It's not that you couldn't throw up. It's that if you did throw up, they have to call the radiation police to your house to examine your potty for radioactivity. I couldn't make this up if I tried. Lori and I both had our eyebrows raised when the guy told us this. But I made it through the day sans-barf to return that afternoon for a simple little x-ray of my neck. And permission to resume puking if necessary....what a relief to not have to worry about the potty police. The next morning was the part where you lay at a crazy angle on a table that tilts and moves until all the blood rushes to your head, all the while a big white contraption is moving about an inch away from your face taking scans of your thyroid. It was a long jaunt on that table, but I made it through unscathed. Just a little wobbly afterward.

While Lori was here, we went to see Inception and I decided that this entire thyroid issue was probably just a sordid dream that Leonardo DiCaprio concocted to extort my amazing blogger hacking secrets. Just sayin'.

---

David & I returned to Dr. S the following week to find out not much at all. Except that my thyroid was probably the size of an elephant's (do elephants even have thyroids?), that it lacked...well, function, and that the calcifications on the left side of my thyroid made my doctor really nervous. Let me tell ya, if the doctor is nervous, so am I. He was nervous since calcifications were a cancer indicator.

After talking about that 15 needle biopsy that sends me into a panic-attack every time I think about it, Dr. S realized that it would be useless since no nodule was present in any of the scans. If a nodule isn't present, it's hard to determine where to biopsy and there is slim chance you'll actually biopsy the correct spot. This would render a useless result.

Rather than putting me through that (it seriously is an ordeal, so many people have told me how awful it is), Dr. S was ready to remove the thyroid. It didn't function at all, so not a whole lot of point to keeping it.

My surgery was August 6th. Dr. S said when he got to digging (this was the word he used and then realized that I kind of made a face and he sidestepped a bit...I think it was the drugs talking on my part). Anyway, as he was "digging" he said the thyroid just kept on coming and coming. It was HUGE. And wrapped around my voice box. He nicknamed it Super Thyroid. Fabulous. He also noticed there was an actual nodule on it on the right side that had not been picked up in the scan. He said that was a good indicator. I kind of hung my hopes on that nodule and let myself think I was cancer free. Lesson learned.

My incision was bigger than he originally thought it would be...but he did a good job of tucking it into the crease on my neck. And I have a little poofy swelling part that still won't go away. It's so ugly. I think it looks like I swallowed an egg whole. Ugly. And I can't wear my jewelry yet to cover it up. Seriously. Ugly.

But I already feel a bit better...we think the Super Thyroid was cutting off oxygen as well. So even without Synthroid, I already feel more human.

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While I was supposed to get my results back on the 18th, we all know that didn't happen. And I've totally made peace with it and am now happy that I didn't. I think it would have put a cloud over our special day yesterday with Benjamin's Meet the Teacher at kindergarten. I also found out today that it truly was an emergency that Dr. S was called out for. He had to drive from Killeen to Temple to operate on someone who was already on the table. Whoever that poor person was on that table is probably pretty thankful the 32 year old thyroid patient didn't go postal on the Surgery Center demanding results.

Today we went and did get our results. David knew immediately that something was off when Dr. S did not come in with a spring in his step and his usual smile on his face.

His actual words were "I am soooooo thankful we took that thing out. It was cancerous."

While I tried to just hold it together and not turn into a sloppy mess in Dr. S's office, I felt my face get hot and wanted to crawl out the window behind me. But, I pulled it together to listen and ask plenty of my never-ending questions that Dr. S is probably quite accustomed to.

They found cancer in both the left and right sides of the thyroid. The cancers were small...1 mm in the right side and 1.5 mm in the left side. And there was even another nodule that was discovered in the Pathologists' lab...on the left side. There was definitely good news, too. While indeed it was cancerous, it was small. And seemed contained. My lymph nodes were clear of any cancer which is a really good sign.

The part I hate is that I am headed to the oncologist (at least I will be once they call me). An oncologist is the last doctor this gal wanted to see. I mean, what person does? Especially at 32. With little kids and a great life. Sigh.

The oncologist will assess my situation and probably run another iodine uptake scan or 2 or 3. Yay. More radioactive potties to worry about. They will decide if I need to proceed with radiation or if they truly got everything out and I am clean and not in danger of more cancer.

And then will I finally get on that Synthroid. Hoping I won't totally fall apart before then from exhaustion, but so far it's not too awful. The timeline is a little yucky, though. We wait on the oncologist to call us (it will take them a week or two) and then they will set up my first appointment for a week or so after that.

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The most amazing thing about all of this is the love and prayer that has surrounded us through this. We are so incredibly humbled by our Facebook family of friends. And of course, our incredible church family can't be beat. While we may have seemed like hermits the last few weeks, there hasn't been a single instance that has gone unnoticed. From cards, calls, flowers, emails and some seriously yummy food....we are humbled beyond words. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for babysitting our kids and cooking us casseroles and holding us up in prayer. We feel it. There is no way we could go through this without the amazing prayer that has covered us and continues to cover us.

There are several verses that have been so close to my heart through all of this...

"I will make all My goodness pass before you. . .Behold, there is a place beside me, and you shall stand upon the rock, and while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand and you shall see My back; but my face shall not be seen." Exodus 33:19, 21-23

The night before my surgery, I was amazed to open my devotional and read the following verse (which I also found a few days ago on an online cancer-patient Bible study as their key verse):
"And there was a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, and who had endured much suffering under [the hands of] many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was no better but instead grew worse. She had heard reports concerning Jesus, and she came up behind him in the throng and touched His garment." Mark 5:25-27

We sincerely appreciate your prayers and love. We look forward to the day where we can indeed put all of this behind us in a neat little package and move on full speed ahead.