Family Trip Feb 2011

The last weekend of February we had a blast as a family!  We drove (in our new minivan...yes, you heard me say it....minivan) up to Mineola, TX.  It is a small East Texas town that my college friend JaNan and her husband Steve live in.  It was a reunion of all of our families!  The Straznicky's were nice enough to have us all stay at their beautiful new home that they just moved in to on their 46 acres that they own.  It was so fun!  The Pierrel family came up on Saturday and the Luley family came down from Virginia to visit family and made us one of their stops on their trip!  It was so fun to have all of the kids together!  My two are the oldest but Colson, Kingston, Tatum, and Marshall are all within 10 months of each other and enjoyed each other so much!  Brooklyn is the oldest and Stella is the baby of the crew...for now!  Laurie will be having Madeline in a few weeks and Meagan will be having Hallie in a few months!  We spent time visiting, taking care of kids, playing in the dirt, riding the tractors, going in to town for a girls only lunch, watching a fire burn, and just letting the kids run around and have fun!  Here's to many more friend reunions in the future!!!!

Go Texan Day

OK...so Brooklyn came home on Thursday night and told me it was Go Texan Day the next day at the kids' school.  No note had gone out so I texted her teacher.  She said it was and was told that the director was going to send out an email...well...that never happened!  SO we are celebrating Go Texan Day two times this year!  One time this week and again next Friday!  Brooklyn's class had cactus juice to drink, made cornbread during Cooking with Class, and did all kinds of neat activities! 
GO TEXAN DAY....TAKE ONE!

My Cowgirl was ready for the day!

I can never get a good one of the both of them!  Colson threw a tantrum about this shirt...until we said he will look like Woody!!!

Valentine's Day 2011

The kids had a great Valentine's Day this year!  Brooklyn was so excited to pass out her valentines to her friends at school!  She shot right out of bed and that was the first thing she said!  She loved writing all of her friend's names on the box of stickers that each of them gave.  Brooklyn and Colson loved giving their teachers some really cute dish towels and a beautiful picture frame!  Spoil the teachers and they will spoil your children is my belief!  Lorie (LoLo), my childhood friend, gave Brooklyn an outfit she found that was pink with a tutu skirt and had Brooklyn Girl written on it.  She loves to spoil B with girly stuff because she has 2, soon to be 3, boys.  Thank you LoLo!

B loved her card from Mimi and Poppi

They both LOVE their singing monkeys!

Ready for our Valentine's Day at school!

Cheers!  To a great day!  My kids love to do CHEERS!

B loved going through all of her valentines!  Such a girl!

This is the Valentine that Brooklyn make for me last year and saved it in a drawer for this year! 

These are all of the Valentines she made last year for this year!

Once Upon an Ice Day

Well all of Houston was buzzing with the 80% possibility of snow that accumulates!!  Our kids were so excited and Brooklyn even prayed the night that it was supposed to snow, "Dear God, please send the snow so we can play in it in the morning, but keep others healthy who are out in it."  I thought that was such a sweet prayer...well....you know there was a 20% chance that it wouldn't snow and it didn't!  Colson wanted to get up and play in it that morning but Brooklyn just told him that God decided not to send the snow.  She still is praying for snow every night at bedtime.  They dealt with it very well and had fun just going to get icicles off of the car and grass!  We did have ice in the area so it was an ice day at home!!!  For those of you who know us well, you know that are a go-go family and it is VERY rare to just have a lazy day!  We had many fun things to keep them from going stir crazy!  I taught Brooklyn how to play Old Maid and Battle and she loves playing those card games now!  She is very good at them both and laughs hysterically when I am left with the Old Maid!  Crafts, drawing, playing in the Alford band, hot chocolate and many more activities made it a fun home day!

This girl can always color!  Any time and any day!

The whole family off work and school was so fun!

Colson never likes to do anything the "normal" way!

He will draw for about 30 seconds and then off to something greater!

Another craft...

Painting time...

Colson was so proud of this cracker sandwich he made!

Brooklyn's "icicle" off of the water hose!  (notice our new dishwasher in the background!)

You would think Colson's is on the right...but ...nope...that is Brooklyn's creation

drawing again with her hot chocolate near by!

The Alford band!  Little drummer boy!

Using her feet to play the piano while playing her horn

Singing happy birthday after they made cupcakes and pizza for the family!

Ending the night with "The Backyardigans!"

And a mess to clean up!

I am so thankful for a wonderful family day!!!

January 2011 so far...

We have had a January full of birthday parties every weekend!  Lots of January birthdays!!!  It has been a pretty cold January so the parties have given us things to do on the weekends but have also made us very busy!!  Here are some pictures!!

We borrowed our garb...thank you Kuhns!

All dressed up for Ricky's Steelers birthday party

Peek a boo!

Best of friends!

Colson was so independent!

I think they look so much alike!

Our new dishwasher box

has brought hours of enjoyment!

Happy Birthday Emily!

I didn't get any birthday pics of Reese!  Happy first birthday Reese!  We have 4 more parties in the next 3 weeks so more pictures to come!
We got a new dishwasher and are so excited...our other one came with the house when we bought it and it was TERRIBLE!  We got a KitchenAid and are loving it so much!  It is much bigger, much quieter, and has a much better result!!  Curt installed it himself and did a great job!  It is great that he is so handy...I never grew up with a handy man in our house!