Easter Treats

I have become famous for my mini brownies so when my friend Kimberly (who is the queen of cute holiday treats) showed this idea on her blog I knew I'd found a winner! Very easy to make and super super cute. The kids both have their Easter parties tomorrow with Easter egg hunts. I going to join the fun for them both....more pics to come!

I love these guys!

House Update # 8

We have water (via a freshly drilled water well) and plumbing
Water well is a big milestone b/c of the wet ground its been delayed and delayed and finally it went in and I can tell they hit water since I see it on the ground in this picture :)
No Oil unfortunately!

Every little thing means progress and we are so excited to see it all come together!

Just a little spoiled...just a little maybe :)

One of Kate's favorite movies is BOLT. One day we were dropping Justin off at his office and Kate noticed that there was a giant BOLT poster hanging up at the entrance. Remember Justin works for the cable company that tries to showcase their lineup in order to sell extra channels like Starx and HBO. So Justin asked the office ladies if he could have BOLT when they were finished with it but that been months and months ago so I think we all forgot about it - unless it were those few times we had to drive by Justin's office and Kate would remind us about Daddy getting the BOLT for her when they are finished with it. So last week (finally!) Kate came home to daddy's surprise on the refrigerator. She was thrilled :)And just a note: I thought this was a hanging sign but to the contrary its actually a HUGE STICKER. So it is STUCK to my fridge. Thank God, we are getting all new appliances when we move into the new house and this fridge is going out in the garage :)

All good things must come to an end...

....well maybe NOT!
As we count down the last few hours to our Spring Break 2010, I have to admit I am really really sad to see if over. And not because it means that I go back to work tomorrow but because I really was thrilled to see my munchkins love spending so much time together. I really thought that by 7:06pm on the last Sunday of Spring Break they would be on each others last nerve....but not so much. They absolutely had a blast this past week together! There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't think about their bond and how deep it is and it makes every crazy moment raising two kids absolute fun!

Kate loves MOM

You may remember a few months back Kate made a cute devotion of her love for her daddy
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4779739648961218046&postID=8294592708775664743

Today I went to the refrigerator and she had made this.....and put it up to surprise me :)
It was a very sweet gesture since I know sometimes we as moms feel our hard work goes unnoticed.

House Update # 7

We now have the silhouette of a house :) Or less formally known as 'framing'. It is absolutely beautiful and gives us so much joy to watch the progress! As of today (Saturday) the house is probably 75% done being framed. We had a cold front (aka bad weather) blow through today so I think my next update will be at the end of the week. Justin is out of town all week long so I will be flying solo and probably won't have much time to get out to the house until later in the week. We will miss Dad a lot! =)

SPRING BREAK 2010 or B-U-S-T

We are officially half way through SPRING BREAK 2010 and this is what we've experienced so far....

On Monday we headed to The Woodlands (our home away from home) and spent some time shopping and eating at our favorite places. Lunch = Kobe. Wesley befriended some nice guys sitting by Vanessa....he talked their heads off. Then Kate and Vanessa got hair cuts with our favorite Carmen G. at Visible Changes. We checked into the hotel, Wesley took a cat nap and then we headed back out for more shopping to the outlets in Conroe. While so close to our old house, we just had to drive by and make sure the new owners are taking care of our first house. They are....it was very sentimental. Dinner = Cheesecake factory...yummy yummy.

Under the bright lights of the waterway

All of that good food and fun = back to our hotel room for baths and some comfy snoozing on beds we don't have to make in the morning (woo hoo!)

Here is a picture of my precious enjoying breakfast in the dining room at the hotel on Tuesday morning getting excited about the zoo

While waiting on Shannon and the kids, the front desk lady brought the kids some colors and my future artist took the opportunity to draw the animal she was most jazzed about seeing at the zoo...a giraffe..and I have to admit she did a bang up job
Kate loved the cattle with big horns
The kids at the giraffes...did I mention that it rained off and on the entire time? And it was cold. But the kids were troopers. Shannon was a much better prepared mommy than me and dressed her kids warmly. I ,on the other hand, listened to the weather men who said that it would be in the 60's and not get rainy until the late afternoon.....late afternoon = later morning in Texas weather. So before we entered the zoo we had to purchase long sleeved zoo attire which is nicely priced for moms like me :) Just an FYI the disposable ponchos at the zoo are $2.99 each (smile smile)

Tomorrow is Sea World...hooray!

And then another HOUSE UPDATE as the framers are in town (yes V-town) and by the weekend we should have a completely framed house. More pics to come. Happy Spring Break!

House Update #6

We have a foundation....my princess and little man are standing on what will be our covered porch. The story behind Kate as a princess....well when I was in The Woodlands on Monday, I stopped by the Disney store and picked up this cute Ariel nightgown. Its super soft and adorable. Immediately Kate wanted to wear it (she's really into nightgowns these days..her favorite is her reversible princess and the frog nightgown). In any case she was wearing it when we went to get Wesley from school..she wanted to surprise him with her princess dress. He loved it! His entire class and all his teachers loved it! And just for the record...I am wearing that tiara right now :) She put it on my head earlier when we were playing and I forgot I had it on until I saw these pictures and realized I was still wearing it. Thank God no one has a camera right now :)

Below picture they are playing on what will become our master bedroom.

I didn't ask her to pose..she just did it. Kate normally likes making silly faces and doing anything BUT taking a sweet picture so I had to post this one.

We have electricity!

House Update #5

A lot of people who build houses are not as fascinated with things like cement...but we aren't normal by any means :)
Wesley loves big trucks so what better experience to share with him..and the pump truck was HUGE so they thought it was SO cool. Justin was the most interested of all though. I think he is now convinced our house will not go anywhere if we get hit by a hurricane :)

Some People's Trash.....

Is MY TREASURE!

I am typically a very neat and well together person..I like things nice and tidy. So why does this pile of trash and debris make me so super thrilled....well b/c this pile of trash means that A LOT of progress is being made on our house. More pics to come as they finish our foundation this weekend. HAPPY FRIDAY!

Soccer Mom

I remember when I bought my black 4runner in 2003 (man I loved that car), one of Justin's friends said 'Oh wow....you guys are going to have to have kids soon...that is such a soccer mom SUV'. Well he was right that we would have kids soon (Kate was born October 2004). The 4runner went bye bye shortly after Kate was born and we upgraded to a larger soccer mom SUV. But this year I officially became a 'soccer mom'.

Justin and I were extremely athletic growing up - it was our outlet...where we felt most comfortable. I played soccer in high school and find it a really genuinely athletic sport. A lot of running, control (not just ball control but self control) and true teamwork. It was also a sport where height (not something I was blessed with a lot of) was not an advantage. We've been playing soccer with Kate for years now just kicking around the ball in the yard and now she's old enough to actually participate in the more formal leagues. So we signed her up at her request and she is on a team of 4 girls. Kate has done really really well at practice and is definitely learning the fundamentals of the game (they won't actually play with a goalie until she's 9 or 10 yrs old).

Today was the first time she wore her shin guards at practice and she just LOVED them. She kept going around the house saying 'Hit me Wesley...Hit me...you can't hurt me..hit me' Her first game is Saturday (actually 2 games in one day). First game is at 9am and second at noon. Now I guess I know why they call it soccer mom...b/c you spend all week toting them to and from practice and then spend all weekend toting them to and from the games. Much fun! Love my girl!

House Update #4

Its beginning to look a lot like a house is going up...woo hoo! Its been a tad wet lately so on Saturday the guy came out to frame the foundation. Unfortunately in the process he discovered that they need more dirt to build up the foundation so they had to leave part of the foundation frame open so that the tractor can come back with more dirt. While I would love for the cement to be poured soon I realize that this is part of a process (according to my husband its THE most important part of the process) so I will have patience and keep in mind that we want don't want our house to float away the first time we get a big rain. One of our neighbors stopped by with his new dog to introduce himself so its nice to meet new people. He and his wife are retired. They have a son in Austin and a daughter in The Woodlands (of all places...how ironic?!?). And Cindy - his new dog- has already become quite fond of the kids....and they are fond of her. So maybe we wont' have to get an outside dog b/c we can just borrow Cindy :)

Emeril is on TV and Wesley has a concoction of his own

Our typical dinner time = 7pm ish give or take 30 minutes depending on how much fun we are having. Now that football season is over (boo!) we typically will leave the TV on the FoodNetwork. Emeril is on at 7pm so that is what is on the TV while we are eating. Tonight Kate asked 'Mom..why do we have to have him on AGAIN...he is the same person on EVERY NIGHT'. I explained that he may be the same person but he cooks different things each night. She still was a tad annoyed so I equated it to her loving to watch Tom and Jerry. Its the same cat and mouse cartoon just different stories behind it. She still didn't like my response. She would much rather have American Idol on...I would too except Idol is not on Monday nights!

In the meantime, Wesley decided to create a recipe of his own with his dinner....he called it his birthday cake....a half eaten peanut butter sandwich sat upright with Cheetos as candles. This picture is of him singing happy birthday to us :)