Misty this is just for you

Annual Family Aggie Game

J goes to most of the Aggie football games in the fall, but every year he picks a game to take the whole family to. We went last weekend and had a fun day.

This is my buddy, Amanda, I randomly ended up running into her that day. It defiantly made the day more fun for me! So glad you were there Amanda!!!!

These are my girls playing with Amanda's girls- Abby and Ellie Grace. The kids loved playing together.

Raegan and Abby are in the same grade and at the same school. They are so cute!

Lukes's 4th Birthday!

Luke just had his 4th b-day and because our family has so many birthdays to celebrate in the month of September, we had 1 big party for them all. Luke is on the left with his ugly store bought cake (at least it was an ice cream cake-don't judge me Rebecca), Amelia(5) has her cute barbie cake (she was so excited about her cake that DeAnn made), Conner(2) had a really cute monkey cake that Dawnette made and Mason(4) on the end.

Conner has the most angelic face I've ever seen! I swear he's the cutest baby ever!!!!

My cute sis-in-laws, Jenny and Carianne

Jenny, thank you for bringing your camera! I've got to be the luckiest girls alive!!!!! Loved the pics!

Buddies Mason and Luke

Aunt Carrie showing the boys how to do a cannonball.

I love this kid!!!

We have a home!

I know many of you already know, but for those of you who don't...WE HAVE A HOME!!!!!! I can't even explain the relief I feel knowing that I'm (almost) not in limbo anymore. For all those enquiring minds, here's the official story. I personally think it's interesting enough to blog about.

Here's a picture of our best friends, Johnny and Carolyn Fjord:

We met about 5 years ago and once we started hanging out, we clicked fast. Johnny and Jared had similar minds in business and about 4 years ago became business partners. They are great together in business, but of course also have similar interest in many other things like boating, hunting, golfing and cars. Then there's Carolyn and I. We also have many of the same interest as well such as tennis, decorating, shopping and the need to get babysitters at least once a week! Carolyn and I even drive the same car. But, that was our husbands doing- they bought "company cars" for us about 3 years ago and surprised us with them. That was one of my favorite nights of my whole life!!!! We had gone out to dinner on a double date to Cheesecake Factory and when we were done, the valet drivers pulled around in front of the restaurant in 2 new suburbans they had just bought us. Carolyn and I FREAKED out! So fun, I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it.


Anyway, the Fjord's have had their house on the market for several months and have had a house nearby that they were planning on moving into as soon as their old house sold. In the mean time, Jared and I got the moving bug. We really wanted a bigger backyard and a pool. We put our house on the market, and after a month or 2, it sold. On the other hand, unfortunately, the Fjord's house still wasn't selling. We considered buying their house, but in the end decided against it, mainly because it was a little out of our price range. In the mean time, we moved into a small rental house which I hate, but am grateful for, we put an offer on a house in Sienna Plantation- the offer got accepted and were really excited about it. Several weeks into the deal- getting closer and closer to closing, Johnny talked to Jared about lowering his sales price (right to where we needed it). Jared asked me what I thought, I said, I love that idea and so did he. We talked to the Fjord's and agreed on us buying their house, then Jared let the sellers agent of the Sienna house know that we were backing out (not too happy). And everything happened fast from there.


We closed on the house last week and will be moving in mid-Oct. The Fjords house that they bought is a BIG fixer-upper and as soon as they get all the work done over there, they will move out. It can't come fast enough for me, I can't wait! Poor Carolyn has to listen to me say, hurry and get out of my house" at least once or twice a day. Seriously though Carolyn, hurry up! haha. By the way, Carolyn, thank you for being such a clean freak! It will be so nice to move into a house I know is clean!

So this is the story. Hope you all enjoyed. And tell all your friends so they'll quit asking me "so where are you moving to?"

Idaho

This is Raegan and William(who we call Petey) up on this huge stack of hay.

We went on our road trip this summer to Idaho to visit J's sister, Stephanie. It has taken me a long time to get these pics posted, but better late than never. Here's Katelyn on the left with Stephanie and Papa.

Stephanie, Hans and their 5 kids (Katelyn, Jessica, Jake, Petey and Lilly) live in a cute small town named Melba on a couple acres of land. They have horses and chickens which made it really fun!

Raegan fell in love with this miniature horse. She rode him as much as we let her. She was actually really good at controlling him.

Rae and J

Rae and me. Notice I'm riding bareback with flip-flops. Needless to say, I didn't feel completely safe.

This is my mother-in-law Teresa riding bareback also. Something spooked the horse and she took off quickly causing Teresa to loose her balance and fall. She ended up landing wrong on her foot and broke her heal. It was really sad! Unfortunately she's still in pain from that.

Hans was teaching me how to drive this big piece of equipment.

It was fun!

Another thing we did while we were in Idaho, was camp. Not as much fun for me, but the kids loved it.
Jessica
Jake

Petey

They were having a contest to see who could in the freezing water the longest! I only put my feet in. They lasted quite some time, I think because they were all numb!


Here's Hans diving in.



On our way home from camping, we stopped off to do some white water rafting. This was my first time and lucky for me, we had my 3 year on the boat so that meant we couldn't do any crazy rapids. Even though it wasn't the biggest rapids, it was still pretty scary.

We were there over the 4th of July and for some reason I can't find any of those pics. Stephanie threw a REALLY fun party that day full of yummy food, a bounce house and fun games for the kids. I was totally impressed by her party throwing skills! Thanks for such a fun weekend Stephanie and Hans! We had such a fun time!

Destin '09

We went on 3rd annual trip to Destin, FL this week and as always, had a great week! We did a last minute, unplanned photo shoot on the beach. Johnny Fjord took all our pictures and did quite a nice job!

Sydney, Hannah, Abby and Raegan

The cute Fjord family

Loved this cute pic that Marissa Nogales took of Luke. She is the 15 year old daughter of my good friend Jenny and she just happens to have a natural talent for photography.

Johnnie's Maternity Pictures

Too bad Jenny wasn't a photographer when I was pregnant with Sydney. I would have loved some maternity pics of my first pregnancy. After the first, my belly was not as cute and I really wouldn't have wanted pics of the 2nd and 3rd pregnancies.

Jenny just took maternity pics for Johnnie and they turned out so beautiful. Of course the fact that Johnnie is a total hot pregnant girl, makes Jenny's job much easier!

Road Trip '09

(Take a look at the date above. Yeah, I my have started working on this post back then, but didn't actually blog it till yesterday July 28)

I've had so much happening this summer and I'm so far behind on my blog! We've had vacations, a move, a funeral and many more things. I'll try to catch you all up. I'll start with the first half of our road trip to Idaho to see Jared's sister Stephanie and her family.This was our first stop in Utah. We stopped at one of my old roommates from college house, Heather (she's on the left). In the middle is Christy, she has been one of my best friends since we were 5 and she was my roommate in college, too. We have 3 other awesome roomies that we are really close to, but unfortunately, they weren't there.Here's my baby, luke with his favorite boots on. Heather had the same pair so they modeled them together. She's next to her sweet boy, Michael.
Here's all our kids together. This was really fun to see them play because when we were in college we always talked about staying close friends and one day being able to watch our kids play together. By the way, Heather thanks for having us to your beautiful home and feeding us such a yummy dinner!!!

Heather made this collage and put it on her blog. I stole it from her.
This was a stop in Moab. It was beautiful, but REALLY hot!!!
After leaving Heather's, we headed to Christy's house. Her husband is firefighter and we got to take the kids for a special, private tour of the firehouse. That's Jared with Christy's hubby, Brian.

Christy and I took so many pictures this trip and she's got such an awesome camera!

I love this pic of out girls together! In the middle is Morgan, Christy's cute girl!






Christy and I have a picture taken just like this of us when we are around 5. I'll have to try and find it one of these days and post it.

I promise to post more soon!!! I have SOOO many pictures that I'm overwhelmed!

I'm not normally a very sentimental person. Jared tells me this all the time. But now that we sold our house, I've stared getting sad when I think about all the memories we created here. This is where Luke was born and the girls learned to ride their bikes. I tear up every time I think about it. I'll always love this house!

Too bad the darn backyard was too small for my 3 dogs. I'm sad. I'll feel better once we get out of the small, 3 bedroom rental house we will be living in for the next few months.

Boat Trip

Jenny just got a brand new- awesome camera so she was excited to use it, and you know I was too!!! It sure is nice to have a house guest that is a photographer!!! Let me know if you want her for your family pics.

This is Jared before:

Jared after:

We went with Jenny and her friend Jared

Jared

Me! Weeeeee

Always fun and good quality family time. I love the lake.

Last days of school

Awards day at the girls schoolWe're so proud of Sydney for getting the award for having A/B honor roll all year. She also got an award for being the best actress/most dramatic. What a perfect award for her!

She has 2 teachers this year. We were really happy with both of them. This is her reading teacher, Mrs. Stamper

This is her math/science teacher, Ms. Nyugen

During the awards Luke was getting restless so Jared had to keep busy entertaining him and making him laugh. I sure do love these boys!

This is Rae w/ a few of her friends Grace, Dakota, Claudine and Allison

This is Rae's cute teacher Ms. Stokes. The kids all love her.

RANDOM SHOTS:

Stephanie and Hans Hansen

This is Jared's oldest sisters family. They are such great people! They have 5 great kids and live in a small town in Idaho. We wish they lived closer to us so we could see them more often! We are excited to be taking a road trip this summer up to Idaho to see them!Here is the cute couple Steph and Hans (isn't that an awesome name-Hans Hansen!)From left to right is Katelynn, Will, Jake, Jessie and cute Lilly in the front. This is all the girls
How precious is Lilly's face? I just loved this pic!!!!

They live on a few acres of land and have horses and all kinds of animals (not even sure what they have out there). All, I know is Katelynn has a horse and LOVES to ride! I love all these pics that Jenny took. She is so good!

Jenny's Here!

So I know you've all been waiting for this! We worked long and hard to get J's sister, Jenny, to move back to Texas. All of our efforts have paid off! Jenny arrived to my home last night. My whole family is very excited to have her back!

As most of you know, Jenny does really cool photography and since she just moved back, I'm trying to help her drum up some new clients. So click on here to see her blog which has only a fraction of the beautiful pictures she has taken. She does it all- weddings, family pictures, senior pictures or basically anything you can imagine.

Here are some of the favorite shots she's done of my family: Here's the collage that I put together for my bedroom:

These are some I love and have in my living room:

So if you're in need of new family pictures or know of someone that needs a good photographer, call Jenny. Her blog is http://jenniferrossiphotography.blogspot.com/. All of her contact information is on there if you need to contact her. I really want her to be able to afford to stay here!!!

Eight things

I have been tagged by Amanda to do Eight Things...


Eight Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Summer
2. Tennis (always)
3. For my puppy to quit peeing in my house
4. Family vacation to Destin
5. Seeing my college room-mates in July!
6. Jenny coming to live in Houston
7. Johhnie Michelle having her baby
8. ???

Eight Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Went to tour a couple of private schools- because Raegan's not being treated right and I'm
a mamma bear.
2. Took Luke to the park
3. Got my hair done by Wendy and then I of course did her hair because we trade off.
4. Picked up kids from school
5. Homework with the kids
6. Watered my garden and new sod that replaced the big bare spot under the trampoline
(that we recently took down)
7. Cooked dinner- we had leftover chili and corn on the cob
8. Watched American Idol with Jared

Eight Things I Wish I Could

1. I've always wished I could draw
2. Play more tennis (Jared would say is that even possible?)
3. Wash my hair every other day to save time, but I can't because I'm a grease monkey
4. Sleep less
5. Eat healthier more often
6. Get my kids to eat better food, too
7. ???
8. ???

Eight Shows I Watch

1. So you think you dance (my favorite one!!!)
2. American Idol
3. Scrubs
4. Office
5. America's funniest home videos (family favorite)
6. Biggest Loser
7. Real Housewives (any city)- this is my BIGGEST guilty pleasure!
8. Pretty much any reality show hooks me

Eight Bloggers I am Tagging:

1. Christy
2. Lynnie
3. Heats Dunk
4. Leslie
5. Rebecca
6. Carolyn (it'll be a miracle is she does it! She hasn't had a new post since Christmas!)
7. Wendy
8. Angie

Mention the person that tagged you.- Complete the lists of 8's.- Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.- Go tell them you tagged them!

San Antonio Girls Trip

I just realized, I had forgotten to blog about a girls trip I went on a couple of weeks ago. It was a really fun and relaxing weekend away from the kids! From left to right is Jenni K, Allison, Jenny N., Rebecca , Nicole, Brooke and myself. We had a really fun group of girls on this trip and did a whole lot of laughing!!!

The hotel we stayed at was really nice and other than Rebecca's loud snoring, I slept great!

Another fun thing about this hotel is that our rooms were cute little bungalows that were off the site of the hotel so they gave us these golf carts to ride around in. One of the highlights of the trip was riding in the back of cart with Rebecca driving. Nicole and I felt like we were on an amusement ride! It was seriously so much fun!


We had a totally relaxing day out by the pool. Here's Brooke looking adorable! The other day, we went to the San marcos outlits and packed the 2 cars that we had brought with our loot. So FUN!!! I can't wait till next year!

Every time I got out my camera, I could see the girls roll their eyes. I'm not sure how I got Rebecca to smile in this pic. What can I say, I really like to take pics! I need to get better at it. I'm gonna make Jenny Rossi give me lessons when she gets here (next week)!!!

Gone Fishing

We went to Dallas last weekend to celebrate Mother's day with J's mom (I'll post more on that day later- I'm working on getting my moms high school pics). We had a fun afternoon at the lake on Papa and Nini's paddle boat. My kids were in heaven. They LOVE to be with Nini and Papa!

Life doesn't get much better for a 3 year old to be fishing with his grandad! He was so happy!

Trina even got in on the action. After the girls and I took of in the paddle boat, Trina went crazy so we turned around and picked her up. She was the queen of the boat.

Skateboarding in the driveway

We had a great weekend and like I said, I'll post about Mother's Day soon.

Happy 9th b-day Sydney!!!

I honestly can't believe I have a 9 year old child! I feel way too young! Aren't I like 21? Let me tell you about this sweet girl...

She's a typical oldest child in the way of being very responsible, but acts much like a middle child anytime we are need of a peacemaker. Sydney is a huge blessing in my life and I feel so lucky to be her mom! She is quite an angel and J and I adore her!!!!

This was at her Pre-K graduation at age 5. It is one of the earliest pics I have of her on digital. We took a while to come around to the whole digital camera thing. I thought taking in my negatives to WalMart was SOOO much easier. I need to get around to scanning in all of my old pics. This is Syd at age 6.

Here she is last fall at age 8.

This is last November from the pics Jenny took of us. I love this pic. Sydney does not. I have it hanging in my room and she always tells me she doesn't like it. I think she looks precious!

Puppies are so cute!

The Fjord's dog, Cocoa, had puppies while they were out of town last weekend (poor babysitter-Julie Weaver). But, here are these little cuties! There are 5 and they are so adorable!!! Doesn't it look like on of those "fur real" toy dogs? I love it! Do I dare get a new dog? Just kidding!

Last weekend

Jared and I went with the Fjord's last weekend to Matt and Joy Francis' wedding in Salt Lake. I felt bad for them because the weather was wet and cold, but everything turned out great.

Carolyn and I seem to wear similar clothing items very often. It happens so much that it's becoming a joke so when I saw her in this outfit she had on I said J, "get out the camera, I'm blogging this!" Seriously, it's kind of freaky. And our skirts looked really similar, too. I had a full length picture of them, but it didn't turn out too flattering for either of us so I'm not posting it. When I told that to J he said, "Yea, those skirts don't look flattering on anyone, they just make every ones butts look HUGE" Thanks J!From left to right- Izzy, Johnny, Carolyn, Matt, Joy and Brennan

The reception was actually REALLY fun, even though we didn't know anyone. The guys did some excellent dancing (which I got video of). I'd upload the video if it taken take 10 years.

the end!

Look everyone..... I did it! I planted a garden and things (other then weeds) grew in it! Here is J showing off my green onions. Isn't that a beautiful site!? I'm now looking forward to my tomatoes ripening. They are very cute little green balls right now. I also planted basil, cucumbers and red bell peppers- they don't look so good, but you never know they might come around.



Update:
So I thought I'd let you know how our eating out fast went. It was a month long goal we had and it started off so strong! For the first two weeks we were solid! Then a weekend came around- J and I went on a date and... we were weak. We couldn't help it! We went to an old family favorite Los Tios and I've never seen J eat so fast in my life! After he cleaned his plate I said, "I guess you were hungry" and he just said "it tastes so good!" I know he was sick of eating my cooking and pb&j sandwiches. After the 2 weeks, we were on and off. Overall, we cut back majorly on our eating out bill so it was really good for us!

Tea Party

We had a nice evening last night when we went to our towns tea party. It was a good learning experience for our kids. I was surprised at how interested they were in politics. When I explained to them that I felt like there was too much of our tax money being spent on things I didn't agree with, Raegan said, "I don't think it's bad". Then Sydney and her got into because Sydney did not like Rae to disagree with me. Politics even bring out the worst in 7 and 8 year olds. And this is why I don't like to talk about politics!

The kids had fun holding up signs that Rebecca made. They even snuck up on the stage behind the speaker.

My Shelbrz

I had a great weekend! One of my ALL time closest friends, Shelby, came to visit me!!! Her and I became great friends when she moved away from her family in California 8 years ago to come here. After living here 6 years, she left me to move back to Cali. It was a sad day for me and many tears were shed. So you imagine my excitement when (after begging her) she came for a visit. It was like old times. We did lots of goofing off (we are really good at that), lots of eating and a lot of shopping.

This was at a dinner with Amber. A fun night because after dinner, we went back to my house to watch Twilight with Amber (she had never seen it- what the crap?) I love that teenage movie! I'm a dork, I know! We screamed at all the good parts. I still love Edward!

This is from the day we went antique shopping in a town I don't know how to spell. It was good day and many purchases were made (none by me, though).

Shelby, thanks for coming to see me! I miss and love you! Come back soon!!!!!!

Going hunting

This is Jared's favorite hobby! He loves when he gets a chance to take a break from his stressful job to relax for a couple days. He took his parents and Luke this weekend and they had a great time! You see that outfit Luke is wearing? Yea, J bought that for him at the beginning of last week and he has been wearing it ever since. He looks like the cutest WT hick I've ever seen!

Lazy Mom

Don't you love this ring!? Well, I won it on a website. I don't think I've ever won anything in my life so I feel like this is a good start! It's a really cute new site called Lazy Moms and the idea behind it is really cute. It's mom's sharing tips to make our crazy lives easier. Anyways, they do giveaways a lot and you can win by just entering a tip. The topic of the week was "How do you pamper yourself?" and this was winning answer:

My pampering tip is to take it easy while kids are at school. What I mean is- when my kids are at school, I feel like I have to make good use of that time being without them so I use that time to run errands, clean, etc. So to pamper myself, I'll pick a school day when I'm not scheduled to be anywhere and I'll stay at home, relax and catch up on my DVR. It's one of my favorite things! Unfortunately, I only manage to do it once a month because if I did it more i would feel guilty. I hate guilt!

The topic for Lazy Moms this week is Confessions of a Lazy Mom and so I feel like the tip I entered to pamper myself could also fall into the confession category. I know it's not that good of a confession, but my husband and mother-in-law both read this blog so I have to be careful what I say. hehehehe

What was he thinking?

Jared thought it would be a good idea to make his wife a little nutty, so he brought home a new dog. Does this sound sane? Seriously, 3 dogs! People are going start calling me the crazy dog lady. You all know our cute fluffy Trina and our big brown bear, Maggie, so I'd like to introduce you all to the newest step child in our family- Molly. That is actually my sisters name, but she was named that before we got her. Molly is a lab and she is a great 2 year old hunting dog- which is why I have her. Maggie just returned from an intense hunting training school and she apparently didn't do that well so J was slightly disappointed and after hearing about a great hunting lab that needed a home, he volunteered. Wasn't that gracious of him? He's such a gentleman.

We took her to the beach over spring break and she preformed for J like a pro. I think this is when J fell in love with her. Look at the smile on J's face, he's obviously in love. I would just like everyone to know if all the sudden you stop hearing from me, it's probably because J sent me to a funny farm. I already feel symptoms of a crazy person coming on with all these dogs around. IT'S NUTS!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!

I loved this shot of Luke on the beach! He looks SO happy, and he was!

Want to see if Jared can sing?

I was making a video of Raegan before her first ever soccer game and as I was taping I heard J and Luke singing the Aggie war hymn (very loudly) in the shower. It had me and the girls cracking up. This song has a special place in J's heart and he taught it to each of our kids as soon as hey could talk. In fact every night (literally EVERY NIGHT) part of Luke's bedtime routine is Jared singing the war hymn to him. I love hearing these two sing and I'm so glad I caught them on tape so you all can hear what I get to hear on a daily basis.

Desserts

I wanted to post these very cute recipe cards that my good buddy, Rebecca made for me. I was having a bridal shower at my house for a friend with Lydia and JoShell and Lyd came up with the cutest idea. She wanted to get 3 family favorite dessert recipes from Jacqueline (the bride) to serve at the shower. She also wanted to make up cards with the recipes on them to give our guests as their party favor (which I thought was the best idea). Anyway, for some reason, Lydia thought I was really creative with scrapbooking so she asked me to be in charge of the cards. I know my limitations, and scrapbooking is a big one in my life! I've never liked- I've tried many times, but in the end I just realized that for me, it's really boring. Back to the cards, I talked to my girl Rebecca and asked her if she'd whip up one of her amazing cards for me so that everyone would think I was really talented. Being the good friend that she is she said yes and she even pretended like she wanted to! Rebecca thank you so much!!!!! Look how cute they are:

I never had a chance to try this one, but my hubby really liked it! He did say that it would have been even better with heath bar on top.

This was really good. It was like a giant yummy cinnamon roll.

P.S. We are on day 6 of our challenge and we are still hanging in there. We went to the rodeo last night and we ate cereal before we left. We did by some toffee and a $4 coke (it was a good coke!) Tonight I made tacos and it wasn't easy because I NEVER cook on Friday or Saturday night (it's a rule a made up about 5 years ago). It just felt wrong to be in my kitchen on a Saturday. Plus, Jared and I played tennis today around lunchtime and I really wanted to go eat lunch with him after, but we couldn't (torture). Anyway, that's my update.

Challenge

J and I just started a new challenge. I'm not sure what made him want to do this, but he came to me and said he wanted to not eat out for 1 month. This is a challenge for me!!! I'm the queen of takeout, girlfriend lunches and Friday date night yummy restaurant food. I must have been in a very peaceful state of mind when he asked me because I accepted his challenge.

This is also difficult for J. He eats out for lunch every single day of the week. J warned me that there may be times when he may really need to take a client out to lunch and so our deal is that if that happens, I get to go out to lunch with a girlfriend to even it up. And listen to this, Friday we are going to the rodeo as a date night, to me the best part of it food. I guess we'll be eating before we leave.

We started our challenge on Sunday and I'm still hanging in there. I even passed on a girlfriend lunch Tuesday after a tennis match and that was hard for me! The whole idea behind it all is to see if we can eat healthier and also to see how much cash we can save. I would hate to really see how much money I waste on eating out (all I know is that it's too much.)

I've been looking into a lot of new recipes and will be trying out lots of new foods so if I come across something good, I'll pass it on. Tonight I made a new recipe- eggplant parmesan casserole and it turned out pretty darn good! I have plenty of leftovers for dinner tomorrow night which will be nice.

Anyone out there want to take the challenge with me??? Come on you can do it! I need you!!! Let me know if you will and we can support each other!!!

My little soccer player

Raegan had her very first soccer game on Saturday. J and I were bursting with pride as we watched our sweet, but surprisingly aggressive Rae play. She is shockingly fast! I hadn't signed up either of my girls in any kind of contact sport. So far they've only done karate (I guess that seems like contact, but it's not at their age), gymnastics and dance. In fact, I've always said I would never put my girls in soccer because of Houston's gross humidity- I mean why would I want to sit outside in that nasty weather on every Saturday if I didn't have to? Then at Christmas time, my bro- Charlie, said to me- you need to put Rae in soccer. And apparently that was all I needed (my big brother to telling me to do something).

Anyways, J and I are thrilled that we decided to sign her up!

We also signed up Sydney and her games start in a few weeks. I'm a little nervous about her because when I asked her if she's liking soccer or not she tells me yes, but I don't like the running part. That can't be good. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a lot of running in that sport?

Sunshine Sweet Peas

My close, close, close friend, Shelby, started a blog to sell some of the MANY cute things that she makes. I wanted to put her link up so you could check it out. She's so talented and creative and she continues to amaze me over and over again. Click here to check it out. I really miss her because she moved to Cali, but I'm looking forward to her coming for a visit in April.

Question

I had a wild idea. I would like a change my hair and I was thinking about getting hair extentions. Anyone out there ever tried it or know anything about it? I looked online and learned some stuff, but haven't found a place to go to. I need help with this. What's your opinion? Am I stupid? Wait don't answer that.

Hi. I'm taking a little blogging break. Not because I'm getting tired of it (I love it too much), but because I have had nothing interesting to talk about.

I will tell you all that I have been LOVING playing tennis! I started lessons last fall and I've been enjoying playing so much. I can't seem to get enough of it. Tomorrow, I'm playing in my first real game. Wish me luck!

Back from Colorado

We are back from our family ski trip we took to Crested Butte, CO. This is our third year in a row to go with our good friends, the Fjord's. This was the view from our back porch. It was so beautiful!

Jared was getting the girls ready to ski. They are so good at it. They're both better and faster than I am.

This is a view from the front of the house we stayed out. I can never get over how beautiful it is!

The kids love to turn on music and dance. They do it almost every night.

Aren't these kids so cute!?

We spent one day going snow mobiling. It was so fun! My favorite day there.

The Fjord's

J and Rae

Carolyn and I

The kids made this snowman by themselves. I was really impressed!

This was the view from our car on our way to the airport. We were driving threw Monarch Pass. Why does anyone want to live up there? It was scary for a little bit, but we made it. It feels so good to be home. Now I need to go change the laudry for the 100th time.

YUM

Check out what my son is eating for breakfast (I'm bursting with pride): He is on a major hot dog kick. He asks for them for every meal. I'm thinking hot dogs are pretty healthy and defiantly a great way to start of the day! Doesn't the saying go... a hot dog a day keeps the Dr. away? Yea, I'm pretty sure that's it!
Now I'm waiting to see what comment Rebecca will come up with to make fun of me.

No Bake

How many of you out there have made no bake cookies? I personally never had. I've always thought that they sound kind of gross. Why wouldn't you bake them? It made no sense to me. Until today. I have officially been with out an oven for a month now. It broke after I turned on the self cleaning cycle, which after having it for 3 years I was finally using for the very first time. BIG MISTAKE! It hasn't worked since. At first, it was kind of fun. A real excuse not to cook. After 2 weeks it was a little annoying. Now it has gotten to the point of ridiculousness! Can you imagine serving a spaghetti dinner with no warm bread? Well, it's just not right and I'm sick of it!

Most of this is my fault. When it initially broke, I didn't call a repairman right away. Like I said- it was fun not cooking. After I finally managed to make the call, it of course took the guy a week to get out here. Then, he of course had to order a part. So now, 2 weeks after the repairman came, I'm still waiting.

Back to the cookies, after dinner tonight, chili made by J on the stove top, J said, I really want some cookies! I had to say " sorry honey, that's not possible". He then started rummaging through my cookbooks and found an old recipe of his mom's for no bake cookies. I have to say, they were pretty good for "no bake". I would still prefer baked ones, though. But under the circumstances, I did enjoy them!

Oh, and by the way, J's chili was so good! He used some duck sausage from one of his hunts. I was honestly surprised at how good it was. I actually think it was the best I have ever had!

Picture Collage

I did it! My sister-in-law, DeAnn, came over today to help me figure out how to arrange these pics. I'm so lucky to have someone to call for all my decorating needs! DeAnn is well known for her decorating skills! Her house looks like it came right out of a magazine. Thanks D! Anyways, my bedroom is getting closer to being finished! I'm getting really excited! Also, a big thanks to Jenny for taking these pics! I love them!

Lamps

A couple people asked me where I got my lamps so I thought I'd post it. I got them at Z Gallery. They have so many cool things!

Changing the subject:
I also just got a bunch of family pictures framed and I'm about to put them on my wall in a big collage. I'll of course take a pic of it when I'm done and post it. Hopefully I'll have it finished by tomorrow.

New Room

I've had the most boring, undecorated room for my whole marriage. I've been wanting to fix it up for so long, but I just never seem to know what to do to it. Finally, I've been decorating it a piece at a time. I started by calling my friend who is a decorator. I painted the walls blue. Then I ordered these chairs that took 4 months to get here so I call them my labor of love (they were worth the wait!) I got some new bedding from Pottery Barn. The bed frame I've had for about 5 years.

I found this nightstand at Z Gallery. I love that store. Now all I have to do is find some pictures to hang. I have not 1 picture on my bedroom walls.

Baby Noah

This is my cousin, Kelly, and her hubby, Jonathon. I am pleased to announce the arrival of their baby boy, Noah! He was born on Tuesday weighing in at 7lbs 13oz. I don't have a pic of him yet, but I'll get one soon. I'm just excited to have an excuse to post this gorgeous pic of these two at their wedding. I stole it from her blog. Thanks Kelly!

Congratulations to you guys! And also to my Uncle Mike and Aunt Donna, who are over the moon to see their first grand baby, That is going to be 1 spoiled grandchild! What a lucky boy!

Bye Bye Friends!

Yesterday before going to church we made our way to a local pond to release our beloved fish back to their home. When we got these fish, I thought they would only last a few months and we'd be able to move on with our lives fish-free. Nine months later they are still alive and kicking. Apparently, I'm much better at fish care than I thought I'd be. So since they won't just die on their own and I don't have the heart to flush them, we decided to let them live a long happy life in "nature".

Warning***

The rest is me talking and bragging about my dogs. I've been trying to resist blogging about my dogs, but I can' help it. if you don't like dogs, stop reading!!!

After releasing the fish, we went to a park and let the kids and dogs play. Jared taught Maggie to go down the slide. She actually liked it.

I love this pic of Maggie. When she runs, she does this funny pouncing thing and I was able to catch it on camera. She's so dang cute. Except when she's chewing my shoes or peeing on my floor. We are a work in progress and she's getting SO much better. I'm pretty sure we won't end up releasing her to "nature". Actually, I have a lot hope for her because in a month she'll be off to some pretty intense dog hunting/ obedience training. Here's Trina. She's looking like speed racer in this picture. She's pretty fast for being so little. She's a good dog! I feel bad for her because she's timid and Maggie has come in and asserted her dominance. Maggie's always pouncing on her and stealing her toys. One day when Trina was gone to the groomers, Maggie was acting weird all day and I didn't know what the problem was. I thought she was sick because she wouldn't do anything but lay all day and she's a puppy so that is not normal for her. As soon as Trina got home that evening, Maggie was happy and back to normal. I thought it was so sweet! She loves her dog sister!