Murder Mystery Party

Our new friend, Wes recently had a birthday celebration. They had a Murder Mystery Dinner... and it was SOOOOOOOOO much fun! Beforehand, we were given our character names and some background information along with costume suggestions.

I was "Tiny Bubbles" and Clarence was "Ralph Rottingrape" - ha ha ha....

Here are all of the ladies!

The Scottish writer and Tiny Bubbles.

Shannon did a FABULOUS job at decorating the table.

Shannon & her mom, .... Marilyn Merlot.

Here's the Birthday boy, Wes AKA A German "wine guy"

who just discovered a secret clue!

Courtney's B-day

Lexi's friend, Courtney had a rock-n-roll karaoke party!!

It was TONS of fun!!

Here is Cooper chowing down on some cake - I think his jaw bones can unhinge!!

Here are some of the girls - you came dressed up like your fave pop star.

How many "Hannah Montana's" do YOU think there were?

Erin's B-day party

One of Lexi's friends had a horse back riding party for her birthday. I was VERY nervous, but it was pretty cool!

Here they are when they just put on their riding helmets.

They learned how to do some basic things with the horse,...

walk and steer, turn it around, etc...

Sorry about the picture - but their was LOTS of dust and we weren't aloud very close to the horses.

Lexi had a BLAST, and I was scared to death the whole time :)

I just hope she doesn't ask to start taking riding lessons!

NASTY floor!!

We are saying GOOD-BYE to the nasty linoleum in the bathroom!

ADIEU!!

Home Improvements

OK,... so lately I have become very motivated to start improving the appearance of our home. Not that I wasn't motivated before, I was just overwhelmed! Now, I am having a new outlook on it to take it one project at a time - at least it's worth a shot!!

So,... long story short, we had this beautiful brown wall in our living room that was painted with Ralph Lauren's Suede paint. I did paint it about 2 years ago, so I AM capable of doing it. Sine we got a huge tv, I had to remove some shelves, buy something to put our dvd's in, and do some touch-up painting. Well,... suede paint apparently cannot be touched up!

So,... after $35, two quarts of paint, and a moment of insanity that I thought it would just be better to knock the wall out with a sledge hammer, I am waving a white flag to the suede paint. Here's the ugly blob I just can't seem to fix! AND.... OF COURSE it's NOT behind the monster tv.... OH NOOOOOOOOO.... it's VERY visible!!

Here is the "before" picture of this wall... Stay tuned for the "after" pic.

We also had to replace the tub in the kiddos bathroom... which leads me to update the entire bathroom.

Here's the old tub with the old tile.

I actually had quite fun banging it out with a sledge hammer!!

Here's the new tub.




I know... VERY exciting!
But,... it'll look great when we finish!
Just wait!

Lora comes to town!!

Lora came into town recently, which is OF COURSE a great excuse to go out!!

We went by and picked up Bridget and headed to ZTejas.

We had lots of laughs and yummy food.

It was a swell night :)

The Cadillac Car!!

OK... so,... here is the best pic of the Cadillac car with the team I can get.... as of right now!

I think it looks pretty good, and you can see the extent of the car!

Here's Lexi with the Route 66 sign... Lookin' Good!

Valentine's Day 2008

We are not BIG Valentine's supporters... BUT since we have had kiddos, we find ourselves sucking into the Commercialism of it all, and celebrating this "Hallmark Holiday"....

It started off with a gift box sent from my parents... which included many things:

including.... a construction hat with goggles for Cooper...

a FUN Hannah Montana game for Lexi....

Here is Lexi's ultra cool Valentines Box she decorated for school!! Note to self and all of the new moms: When you do this,.... decorate the lid separately because, they WILL open them up in class, and if it's all sealed, then they HAVE to open it! OH the drama!!!



2nd shot!



The kids got a cake decorating kit from GC & BD - here's Cooper's...

And here's Lexi's...

And,.... we got a heart shaped pizza from Mangia's - YUMMY!!!!

It's one of the kiddos (and mine) faves!!!

Plus,... they got gifts from Granny & grandaddy a few days later.... underwear, panties, pj's, and lots of candy!! :)

Hannah Montana Movie

Since I desperately tried SO hard for tickets to the Hannah Montana concert, and was unsuccessful, Lexi got tickets to the

Hannah Montana 3-D movie

OF the concert.

Her friend Courtney had gotten the tickets for us, so we could all go together.

Thank goodness we got them so early, since the MOVIE sold out!

SERIOUSLY!?!?!

Here's Lexi & Courtney right before we headed out!

They were SO excited and happy!

We made it a "date" - Dinner and ALL!

They looked SUPER cute in their outfits!

Here they are at the theater with their 3D glasses on.

Lexi & I "rockin'" out!

Lexi at a Showcase

Lexi's team got to perform at a Showcase at one of the local High Schools.

They did "Cadillac Car" - check out the cadillac and

the Route 66 sign in the background!

Lexi at Competition

Lexi had dance competition recently.

Like every year, it is VERY hectic and crazy and a LONG day!

But, SOOOOOO much fun!!

Here are some of the girls getting ready for "Wild One".

In between dances, we had about 30 minutes to grab a bite to eat.

Granny, Grand-daddy, Aunt Suzie, Daddy, & Cooper joined us.

Since this is one of the rare moments Lexi gets to see them during the day, I had to take ome pictues. Cooper couldn't tear away from his hot dog!

Here are some of the girls at the night time award ceremony.



Had to et in a Mommy & Me pic - even though we are both about to fall over!

Granny & Grand-daddy got Lexi some pretty pink roses.

We went straight home and went TO BED!!

Clarence's Birthday

Clarence recently had a birthday.

Our friends Suzie and Paul came over to help him celebrate.

I TRIED to make a big cookie, and was going to decorate it,.... however,.... I was VERY unsuccessful! So,.... I made a bunch of small cookies.

Make a wish!

The kids got Clarence the newest Sing Star game - "amped", so... OF COURSE we ended the night playing Sing Star!

Cadillac Car

My mom and I volunteered to construct a backdrop/prop for Lexi's dance team.

It was fun, but we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

It was yucky weather - which didn't help matters!

My mom, luckily is like Bob Vila and Martha Stewart rolled into one!

Here is the pattern laid out on the MDF preparing it to be cut.

After it was all said and done (and even HEAVILY glittered), here is Lexi behind it.

Oh,... it's a cadillac car!

I will post better pictures of the whole thing soon.

We will have glitter in our house FOREVER!!
Here's the bottoms of Lexi's feet!

Cooper LOVES Doritoes!

With Lexi being heavily involved right now, Cooper has been a great trooper!

Sometimes, he's very hard to capture with the camera.

At this particular moment, he had just gotten to go out with his Daddy, an he was VERY excited!! Ecspecially when he got to eat Doritoes!

When he got home, I went to meet them at the car and was

greeted by an orange cloud.

So,... I ran to grab the camera.

Look closely - it's even in his eyebrows!!

Lexi at the Bobby Bones Show

Lexi won a radio contest on our local radio show. It was a lenghty process, but she kept getting to move on to the next level. It came down to 40 kids, and they were going to call and listen to her sing a pop song of her choice - "Cupid's Chokehold". They were going to call in the 3 o'clock hour, so of course, I HAD to pick her up early from school. So,... after my mom printed up the lyrics for her, I downloaded the song on her i-pod, we went to go pick her up. Remember,.... she had NO idea!....




I walked her out to the car and we gave her the news - together!










She was jumping up and down and just couldn't believe it!























When I figure out how to put in video, I will put in video of Lexi singing on her phone call. Then,... we had to wait until the next morning, before noon, to get a phone call....






YES.... she was a top 5 finalist! Video (hopefully) will get inserted here of us telling Lexi the news.

Then,... we had to wait for 2 WHOLE days! OOHHHH.... the agony!

So, the morning of.... we wake up at 5am to get ready to head out to the radio station!









Here is Lexi in front of the station's emblem.

Here is Lexi with the other finalist.

Click on the link below to hear Lexi's Performance:

http://www.967kissfm.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?mps=&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/23782/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/23782/820/richmedia/hannah_kids_bop.mp3?CCOMRRMID=10319855&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=AUSTIN-TX&NG_FORMAT=chr&NG_ID=khfi96fm&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=820&SERVER_NAME=www.967kissfm.com&SITE_ID=820&STATION_ID=KHFI-FM&TRACK=kidz_bop

Here is my quick picture I took. I couldn't look at her for too long. I was so proud of her and so nervous for her... I didn't want to cry!

Here she is laughing at Bobby Bones silly jokes!

Well,... needless to say,.... we walked out of there empty handed,... well.... not totally empty handed.... Well's Fargo was generous enough to give the non-ticket winners and stuffed pony!