big icicles

here are the HUGE icicles by the front door. we are going to have to knock them down so they don't poke an eye out!! i held my hand beside them so you could see how big!!

the ice was easily 3/4" thick on my car. clarence is having to break in to try and melt some off.

lexi's ice pictures

lexi really wanted to take pictures of the ice today. since it is SO cold outside and i don't want to contribute to her cough, i let her only take pictures from indoors.

so presenting: ice pictures from lexi....

narration performed by: lexi...

that is the playscape. i was so excited that this picture got so well inside.

this one is on the deck. all of these pictures were inside and i was impressed that they turned out SOOOOO well.

this picture was on the house. the icicles were SOOOOO huge!!

this is on the chair. they were pretty huge on the chair.... i was impressed!

these, if you look really closely, you'll see some icicles on the cooler and on the chair. i'm sorry i didn't take it so well.

now this is how i see the deck. it was SO icy... i think if i take one step on it, i would go "BOOM"!

now this is the grill. i have never seen so many icicles on a grill before!

now this is me... i just wanted to take a picture of me so you would know who took the pictures. i know i have a little bit of crazy hair, but it's ok....

the end....

it's snowing!!

it is snowing here!! woo-hoo! here are the first images of the snow:

here's icicles hanging off the house.

here is cooper's attempt at a snow angel. he is NOT down for all this cold weather. as long as clarence picks up balls of snow and gives it to him, he's fine! he thinks that's REAL funny!

here's lexi's snow angel! she LOVES it and is SO excited. she's taking a nap right now and i can't even believe she fell asleep!

cooper made me laugh.... he just looks miserable.

here's lexi trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue. too bad i didn't catch her when she fell down... that was pretty funny.

here are the kids sitting in their almost-complete playscape! they can't play on it because it is super slick, but they got to sit in it for the picture.

it keeps snowing off and on. so,... hopefully it'll stick and keep snowing. i'll post more pictures if that happens!! it should be interesting!

it's my birthday!!

today is my birthday!!

it is the first day of my last year in my 20's! it's a big deal!! clarence surprised me with a godiva chocalate cheesecake from cheesecake factory. it was absolutely delicious last night! and this morning!

here we are! lexi really wanted to take a picture.

here's me and the kids. fortunetely neither one of them like cheesecake, so it's all me! maybe that's a bad thing? oh well,... i only get a birthday and cheesecake once a year.

living room - new floors

i know that these pictures aren't the greatest... trust me, it looks so darn good in person!!! the strip that's under the tv, is all we have left! we should be getting that done tomorrow! which is a good thing, because all of these squats are killing me!

before:

after:

New flooring - hallway

we have been working our tails off getting the flooring done. here is the hallway:

before:

after

i am SO excited.... it is looking good!!! thanks to rollie - "the saw man"

cheetah girls

for Christmas, lexi got tickets to go see the cheetah girls (minus raven). she was SO excited!! we went with a friend of mine and her two daughters, sarah and rachael, and the dad, scott.

we were very close to the stage. we even had floor tickets!! we missed the opening band, due to horrible traffic, but that didn't really matter! the girls LOVED being there and lexi was just in awe!

lexi didn't sit down the entire concert. she was dancing and singing and loving life and loving music! we were asked by the people behind us to please sit down, but guess what.... i don't come to a concert and sit down. lexi was enjoying herself.... so we stood the whole time!

here's what lexi looked like right when the cheetah girls came out. a little creepy, but i think her she didn't know if she was going to laugh or cry!

new year's

we spent new year's eve with some great friend's of ours. the kids went to the grandparent's, so we could be as loud as we wanted! we were complete goofballs!! we ate and played games ALL night! (5:30am to be exact)!! i am getting WAY to old for that! i was hurting for like 3 days. SERIOUSLY!!

but, it was WELL worth it!

Christmas

Christmas was SOOO much fun this year!! we had 5 kids with us, that were ALL excited about the holiday! we had a blast! Chritmas eve we were able to open presents and we all had a good time playing. here are "the boys" - aka cooper and cylas tackling lexi!!

here is another rare photo,... getting all of the kids together to take one picture... and you can see all of their faces!! well,... with clarence's help, we were able to get daniel in the picture!!

everything went SO great!! we all ate too much, laughed too much, and stayed up WAY too late! but,... that's what it's all about. getting to spend time with family!!

Chritmas with granny and grandaddy

the week before dec. 25th, we celebrated Christmas with granny and grandaddy. the kids woke up early in the morning and we headed straight there. the kids were so excited!! granny and grandaddy had the house decorated so nice. we opened up presents and then got ready and went and ate at kerbey lane (YUM!!). the highlight was lexi getting an i-pod and cooper getting a power wheels quad! they had SO much fun and played and played all day!

here is one of our rare family pictures. we were ALL well and dressed!!

WOO-HOO!!

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"!!