Lexi's Dance Competition

lexi had dance competition this past weekend.

she had SOOOOO much fun and it was very relaxing this year because of our schedule!

she had LOTS of people to show up for support, and even more that really wanted to come, but showered her with phone calls, cards, and e-mails.

she is one lucky lady!!

here she is with "aunt suzie"...

lexi and grandaddy...

lexi and her daddy...

lexi and granny....

lexi and mommy....

lexi with grandma cissy and big daddy....

lexi with her cousins. i made them all shirts that said "shining stars" on the front and "go lexi" on the back.

it was SOOOOO cute!!

suzie even brought them all blue clappers!

lexi's teacher even came! we didn't see her, but she had a flower delivered to her room! lexi was VERY excited!

it was a great day!

snow day

lexi had a field trip to an ice rink.

they had a "snow day".

they were able to play on the ice and even in a big pile of snow (the scrapes from the zimbone).

here she is with two of her friends.

she thought she was being funny, and threatened to throw a snow ball at me.

here is another pic of her with her friends. it was REALLY hard for me to keep up. i was not quite as fast as they were on the ice.

coop's got skills!

cooper has recently taking up a new hobby,... break dancing. well,... he's really just flinging himself all over the floor, but it is still quite amusing!! and,... who knows,.... it might could turn into something wonderful! i can't wait until he's old enough to teach him the caterpillar!! that's going to rule!

since the turkey fry was cancelled b/c of the horrible weather, we were totally bummed!

we were, however, able to celebrate our birthdays with a few friends.

our buddy, jax came. he partied with the best of us, and kept the party going with his smooth dance moves!

isaac was the quiet partyer! but, apparently he was partying harder than all of us, since he was the only one that threw up!!

clarence seems to be SO excited over his cool camo shorts. meanwhile, coop is passing around the flask, (i am guessing to isaac).

jason found a great gift for me,.... "bring it on 2".... i seem as giddy as a teenager!

here is me and bridget.... we were fighting over this bottle of wine. we only stopped, like any retired "bulldog belle", to put on our big smiles.

and here is me with suzie.... i am trying to smoosh my face as close as possible to hers.

it was a super fun time!!

i do apologize for not having pictures of paul and jason, but i didn't think you would want to see them swinging off of the ceiling fans. it wasn't that amusing!! just an every day thang!

clarence's birthday

clarence made me promise i would not post pics of him on his birthday. i didn't want it to go by and not be recognized,.... so.... here is the cake i made for him.

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!!