Christmas jammies

we are spending Christmas with clarence's parents tomorrow. since we are waking up and immediately driving straight there, i thought it would be cute for the kiddos to show up in their Christmas jammies. they had so much fun taking these pictures. cooper is turning into quite the "poser".... just like his big sister!

From our house to yours: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas with the McClains

What a fun day!! we got to spend a day with some very good friends of ours. the mcclains. there was tons of eating and playing! we even got to decorate some gingerbread things (lexi did a house and cole did a tree). cooper just wanted to play and eat candy!! we all had super fun!

Here is Cooper.... he is SOOOOOO excited he got some fun new cars!!! he played and played with those things for hours!!

here is cole with his gingerbread train! he had so much fun decorating it this year! it turned out great!

here is lexi and her gingerbread house. she had a blast with it this year and definetely added her own sense of style to it!

Christmas with the Pattisons

I am very sad, but I forgot to take pictures this day! we had some friends over who have the most precious two girls. they are 4 and 3 and sweet as can be. the kids played SO great and we had a pretty good spread. the faves were the cheesecake balls and chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick! i promise to post pis of them soon! they are TOO cute!!

the elves have movie night

"sally" and "cooper the elf" got up in the middle of the night, AGAIN!! they made pallets on the floor, popped popcorn, and watched the "santa clause movie".

the funniest.... clarence got up at 4am to get ready for work and realized that the tv was on in the toy room (the movie was still on because i was up wrapping gifts until 3am). he stormed in the toy room and was getting on to lexi for sneaking and watching tv. apparently he was really letting her have it. he bent down to get her up, when he realized it was sally, and not lexi. we still laugh about that!!! so, from now on,.... he gets the old "heads up".

elves attack...

"Sally" and "Cooper".... the elves, got into some mischief the other night. They snuck into the pantry and got into the candy basket!!! What a sight to see! There were candy wrappers ALL over the floor!! Lexi woke up at 4am and realized "Sally" was gone.... she snuck around the house and found her. Lexi left her there.

The next morning, of course, Lexi was the first one up!!! She came and told me what those little elves did! She then told me,.... that the elves had brought them some "Christmas candy".... it was these cute little suckers in the shape of Santa and a Snowman. The words of Lexi..... "I think that Sally and elf Cooper were going to put them in our candy basket, but then they looked in there and saw all of the good candy. They just couldn't help themselves!".

We all got some good laughs!

elves

santa is having a difficult time keeping up with his "naughty and nice" list this year! so,.... he has decided to send some of his elves from the factory into some childrens' home. this way,.... he can get a report how the children are behaving at Christmas eve. i know,.... i am a genius!!! but, i must admit, it wasn't my idea. every few nights, the elves will get the kiddos a gift and move around the house.... get into the cookie jar,..... watch a movie in the toy room, etc....

it really is a lot of fun!!

here is lexi's elf. elf names are hard to say in "human language". her real name is: Eseek Sixela (lexi's name spelled backwards).... but lexi got to give her a "human name" which was

"sally lexi princess".

cooper has named his elf "cooper". it was a b!t@h finding an elf this year. so,... we found a licensed elf.... from the movie. lexi immediatly recognized him, so we have convinced her that "cooper the elf's" relative must be a movie star. seriously..... this is WAY more complicated than anticipated!! but,.... i guess the kids behave for one whole month, so it's SO worth it!!!

lexi is offiicial!!

lexi has become an official girl scout! her is her and her troop taking the offical "girl scout promise"

here is lexi, having to take the oath, all on her own, to be an official daisy!! she LOVES it!! one down-fall,.... they don't sell cookies!! maybe that's a good thing!

Thanksgiving

well,.... our thanksgiving SUCKED!! lexi was very ill and she and i spent the day at my in-laws. it was definitely worsefor her than me. she couldn't stop puking and all i had to do was hold her hair back and make sure she as drinking ok. later that night, we went to the er, b/c lexi was having severe abdominal pain ("like a knife was cutting her stomach open").... from 10:30pm-5:30am, we had tons of tests and the final outcome was.... take her to the children's hospital and let them remove her appendix b/c she had appendicitis.

well.... we didn't do that (thank goodness i listened to that "mom" intuition) and come to find out, she had strep throat!! believe it or not,.... this is the second time i've heard of this. so beware,.... of round rock medical center!!!

halloween

here are the kiddos before they went trick-or-treating! lexi had SO much fun and cooper HATED it!!! the only thing he liked, was getting candy! but, he wanted to eat it IMMEDIATLEY and got pissed when he couldn't!

cooper went as popeye. he refused to wear his "muscle arms". so, i painted an anchor tattoo on his arm. he was ok with that.

here is loo-hoo as a witch. i was a little surprised by her choice but was THRILLED it wasn't a "barbie, diva, princess". if you know what i mean!!

Lexi's tooth ordeal and more....

Here is Lexi with all of her teeth!

lexi had "oral surgery" and had 4 baby teeth removed to make room for her 2 adult teeth. she was SUCH a big girl and was heavily drugged!

my parents sent her flowers and balloons! she LOVED them!

Halloween 2006 - Adult Style

This is THE

very first year that I was able to get Clarence to dress up!! I went as a "brick house" and he went as a "brick layer". it was simple,.... but oh-so-fun!! i thinkwe were the hit of the party!! we had SUPER fun and we have some good stories to tell! it was fun to have some "adult fun"!!

Lexi's Slumber Party

Lexi had her first all-girls party! meaning, it wasn't a family birthday party,.... only little girls. 12 to be exact! we had a blast!! the night started off as soon as they arrived. First, of course, i made moms fill out a contact information sheet. i know some of you may laugh, but "what if?"..... then the girls made sleep masks. the pizza arrived just in time after that. then, lexi opened her gifts. next was time to paint their nails and suzie and i gave them some crazy hair dos!! along with some glitter spray. but of course. we sat the girls down to take their picture, but wondered...., as cute as they were, something was missing. we quickly realized they were in desperate need of some feather boas. they girls screamed and dove to get one. feathers were flying everywhere! the boas came just in time of the jammie fashion show! after all that excitement, they laid dow for a viewing of cheetah girls 2!

it was a VERY fun night and i can't wait to do it again!





lexi was the last one to pass out!!

Lexi's First Day of School

ok,.... first i would like to apologize for the lack of pittures.... but, i iwll get to that later. today was lexi's very first day of school!! her alarm went off at 6:30am, and she came zooming out of her room, screaming,..."today i am going to school, i'm going to school today...". she was so excited, we all got ready in no time flat. her aunt suzie showed up at 7:00am and we all loaded up and drove to the school. even though we were VERY early, we had to park like 10 miles away!! thank goodness it wasn't snowing and that we weren't barefooted! as we started to get closer and closer, lexi's stride started to slow down a little bit. by the time we got into the building, she was just one scared little girl.... it absolutely broke my heart. when suzie asked her if she was ok, lexi replied with, "yeah, my knee hurts."
whatever.



so, we got to her classroom door, and i could feel the burn starting to happen on my face.... my throat got tight, and my stomach started to hurt. i really didn't want her to see me this way, so my resolution was to give her a quick hug, tell her "good-bye" and turn around and leave! uugghhhh.... seriously.... what about all the parents that are joyfully videotaping their kids in the classroom? why weren't they crying! anyways,.... thank goodness for aunt suzie, because she stuck around and watched lexi go inside. suzie said it was a little depressing watching her in there, looking around, clueless.... to me, she was just too darn small to be in that classroom (even though i think she may be the tallest one). anyways,... that is why there are not anymore pictures,.... i just couldn't do it. afterwards, once we picked her up, she had such a GREAT day and is really looking forward to tomorrow!! that's a good thing!

Symphony Square

Austin is such a great place for things to do. I recently discovered "Kid's Art Park" day held at Symphony Square. Every wed. during June and July, the kids get to attend an outdoor concert. When you get there, there are bubbles, clowns, balloons, and instruments hanging down (with alcohol swabs), so that the kids can try out different instruments.

Examples are a trumpet, clarinet, oboa, violin, drums, etc. VERY cool!! The cost to get in is $0.50 per child and adults get in free!!!

We all had so much fun singing along and dancing!

Even Granny got into it!

Then, the pied piper leads everyone down "lemonade trail" to these covered tents where you can do crafts, listen to more music being played by some Austin Synphony members, meet some police officers, and lots more. Here's Cooper taking a snack break and drinking lemonade (sold for $0.10 a cup!!). He really had fun!!








Here's Lexi after she got her face painted. It's a cat. The lines were pretty long, but it's what she really wanted.








Bottom line:

We had so much fun! and it only cost us: $1.60!!

Now, is only I could learn how to parrallel park, I wouldn't have to pay to park in the garage!! But, we all know that's probably not going to happen!!

July 4th

We had a great July 4th!! The Rodgers Family and the McGowan Family joined us for lots of good food and great times! The kids loved doing fireworks (well,... not really Cooper. But he watched very leery.).

But, it was the "big boys" who had the most fun!! It was almost a little scary and I think the ladies will have to re-think getting together next year!

Circus Trip

We just had a trip to the circus (Coop's first). Granny and I surprised the kids and took them one afternoon. We showed up early so that we could see the animals "up-close and personal". It was SO hot, it was miserable. That part wasn't worth it and I wouldn't recommend it. There are two fences between you and the animails, for safety reasons, that it was almost like going to the zoo. Then, we were able to go down on the floor of the arena and visit with the clowns and see a few of the acts. Lexi even got to touch an elephant. She LOVED it. Once the show started, the kids were absolutely glued for the entire two hours!! I never knew that Cooper could sit still for that long!! We had such good seats. So, when my battery died on my camera I was crushed. I guess we'll just have to go back next year! That night Lexi had a horrible tummy ache.... it prob. wasn't from the cotton candy, snow cones, and hamburger she devoured. I'm pretty sure.

I have recently met a girl that is starting up her own photography business. She asked to photograph the kids for her newsletter. I thought the print turned out so cute!! Her name is Shannon and her e-mail address is: smbphotography@austin.rr.com

Coop's 2nd Birthday

I cannot believe that Mr. Cooper is now 2 years old! Where in the world does the time go?? We had planned his party at a park. But, to our surprise at 5am my mom and I were awaken by thunder and rain. So,.... at the last minute we decided to have the party at our house. The rain stopped about 10 minutes before we had the choo-choo reserved. So we all caravaned in a rush to the park. The kids (& adults) all had a fun time riding the train.

Here are the big kids (minus Avery) after our train ride.

Grandma Cissy, Granny, and Aunt Dee-Dee enjoyed conversation with each other about their travels,

ecspecially to New York!!

There were so many good times and wonderful pictures, but since I have "wonderful" dial-up, I am unable to put any more pics. Sorry!! Thanks to everyone who helped make Cooper's day special. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family in our lives, even those that wanted to be here, but weren't able to make it.

Hopefully this next year will go

by a little slower

than these past two,

but I doubt it! :(

Adding new floors

We recently worked on the flooring some more. We got the kitchen and some of the hallway done. It was a lot of hard work trying to go around the desk in the kitchen, but it looks SO much better than that old nasty "apartment" yellowish linoleum!!! Now if we can just get the living room done, we'll be all good!! We had a little problem with the gas line... so after a trip to home depot and clarence having to make a tight squeeze, it's good. Hopefully I'll have pics of the living room on very soon.

We started the summer early with a trip to Sweeny. Lexi went right after her spring show and stayed for a week and a half. Cooper and I joined the party just in time to find out who was crowned the next "american idol"... GO TAYLOR!! we were all so very excited (even though still a little sad that "chris was robbed"!). we all got to go on a trip to "build-a-bear". one of lexi's and cooper's fave places to go. i am just a little mad i didn't think of this ingenious place first! here is grandma cissy and lexi giving their bears a bath. so now, lexi has 4 build-a-bears... i was done with 3, but we had to add one more to the mix. we found a bear that is white a blue, so somehow she became a "shining star" bear. gotta love it! the good thing is that lexi does play with them a lot and changes their outfits. so,... no complaining here.





cooper got to hang out with big daddy while at the mall. they had a fun time, even though, at times, it as hard to keep up with the fireball AKA coop. he is something else and always busy.... but oh-so-much-fun!!















the kiddos had so much fun swimming in the back yard! here they are showing off their new goggles... of course coop didn't leave them on for very long, so thank goodness i had the camera ready!














we (me, gc, lexi & coop) drove to rockport for the day. what a LONG day!!! not really sure how we survived. coop is just not a road-tripper. luckily, we got to go to rockport to see my nana. it had been a while. coop had never even gotten to meet her. the visit was too short, but it was a great visit. then we ventured off to portland. my cousin julie's son had his second birthday.






here are the boys!! ok,... even though austin is only 2 mths. older, look at how much bigger he is!! WOW!! and coop isn't a shrimp. they played really well together,.... well, as good as two 2-year olds can play together. but, they had fun. i was really glad we were able to make it.













here is lexi having fun at the party. she would NOT stop blowing this into her cousin, daniel's ear. payback.... hmmm. they are cute and sweet to each other.













ok,... so my father-in-law and i started to lay the wooden floors in the kitchen. WHAT A PAIN! the desk was SO hard to go around! we got all the way past the fridge. i will put up a new pic when we get completed. they are looking beautiful and SO much better than that nasty apartment-linoleum!! HATE it... also, makes the orange in the kitchen look better. until next time....

Homemade Gourmet & Hair cuts

Since becoming a Homemade Gourmet Distributor, I have 2 big-helpers!! Lexi and Cooper get to help make everything and they are my guinea pigs to see if it is "kid friendly".











Lexi even got her own "Homemade Gourmet" apron! She loves to do the training with me..... hope there's no child labor laws I'm breaking!! Cooper is next as soon as he's tall enough to not trip over the apron.







Clarence tried to give Cooper a hair cut, so he wasn't quite so shaggy!! He pulled his hair up on top then used the trimmers at the bottom!!! Notice the hairy shoulders.... once that was over, Coop had a "skater's haircut".... you know, the kind you can pull up in a pony tail and it's all short underneath....eeewwww!! Clarence fixed it and it actually looks ok.... we'll probably take him to a hair cut place this week!

bye-bye

For all of you American Idol fans.... I hope that you all join me as we remeber being able to see Chris Daughtery's face twice a week!! Not too sure what happened.... I surely thought that my 5 million text message votes would have made a difference! Guess not! So,.... we will all patiently wait until the day comes when he is no longer under "american idol's" thumb and come out and be great and we can all buy his posters and t-shirts!!

It was good while it lasted!

Now,.... who will be....

the next....

American Idol??

Canyon Lake

While my brother-in-law, who is in the army, was down for a visit.... we all loaded up and went to Canyon Lake. Our group consisted of: myself, clarence, lexi, cooper, brother-in-law (Herman), mother-in-law, and father-in-law.....yes,....all into a 2 bedroom-condo. We were a little cramped!! Hopefully Cooper will learn how to sleep on an air mattress instead of the pack-n-play....in a room..... all alone!! Yes, the one year-old got his own room!! Clarence and I would sneak in the middle of the night and try and get in the bed, but Cooper would wake up at around 5am and see us,....wanting to play! It was an adjustment!!

While we were there, we played TONS of putt-putt golf! Herman, Clarence and I got to go tubeing down the river. Besides being FREEZING, it wasn't too bad.... we never had to get out and walk,... so that's a good thing! There was lots of shopping in Gruene and TONS of eating!!

One night we went to Gruene Hall. For anyone that has never been

and you're wanting some "good ole'" fun.... head to "Gruene Hall"!!