New Years Eve Wedding

My friend Carrie got married on New Years Eve and her wedding was so elegant and beautiful The reception included a delicious meal, wedding cake, a live band and dance floor! So much fun! We were so glad to be a part of her special day and also to be able to ring in the new year with our very good friends, Amy and Chris.

Craig making his goofy face before the wedding started.
Wedding is over and now we are having cocktails and hor dourves before dinner.
Our dinner table
The reception
The menu

Amy and Chris at dinner

The beautiful bride's cake
Cute groom's cake
Eating the flower that came with the gelato... supposed to 'cleanse the palette'. They told us to eat it so I did... I think I was the only one to eat it.
Steak and lobster for dinner
Me, Carrie (the bride) and Amy

About to ring in the new year

Here we are at the wedding luncheon the day after the wedding.

Texas High School Football - RC

I try to attend one football game a year from my home town of Royse City. I didn't get to go last year but we did this year and this was also Craig's first time to go with me since RC built this new stadium. You probably won't appreciate this post unless you are from my home town or unless you appreciate high school football. High school football is a BIG thing in Texas!

My home town used to be such a small town - a population of around 2,000 when I lived there as a kid. Now, I believe the small town's population is around 10,000. All things RC is exploding, no doubt!

The football announcer booth thing is massive and still blows my mind.
RC is really stepping it up and even has a replay video screen.
When I was in high school, I participated in the drill team for three years. This was the highlight of my high school years by far.

When I was in school ages ago ***sigh***, I remember the cheerleaders used to make these decorated/painted, paper banners for the football players to run through along with a spirit line. Once again, they have stepped it up.


Here is a pic of the announcer booth from the inside.

Craig and I
Me and Kelli - my long time friend of 25 years. We have been friends since the 4th grade and we were in drill team together. It was so fun to go to this game together and of course we had to sit near the band and drill team. :)
It was a fun time and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Going Public

For weeks now, I have been contemplating making my blog public. Ultimately, I decided to go public again for multiple reasons.

One, I am hoping this will make it easier for my current readers - I have been told a lot of people forget their user id and password or just forget to check in on our family happenings. So update your google readers and blog lists on the side bar of your blog so you will be alerted when I update.

Two, I miss my fellow moms of multiples that I used to have regular contact with. I miss bouncing ideas off each other. It was and still is beneficial for me to get ideas from other MOM's blogs. Hopefully with my blog being public again, my experiences will help others.

My blogging has been rather unpredictable in the past. Lately I have been blogging regularly and hope to continue this trend. Please leave me a comment when you can and let me know you are reading. I would love to hear from you.

I am going to make this a trial run and as long as things go smoothly "going public", I will keep it that way; if not, I will switch it back.

MOPS & MOPPETS

A friend invited me to join her mops group at a church in Allen and I am so glad I did. The cost is low and it is 2 Fridays a month from September thru April. It lasts for 2 hours in the morning and is very much needed to give me a regular break throughout the month. Each mom helps with the MOPPETS (the children), on a rotation, two times during the year. Today was the first time I have visited (I missed the first meeting) and I really enjoyed it.

Getting the kids and I ready and out the door before 9 a.m. was a challenge as we aren't super early risers in our house. Mommy managed and we even got there early which was a good thing because I had to find where to go and get all the essential paperwork filled out etc.

The kids were kind of clingy at first but by the time I took them to their class they did great and nobody cried when I left them. They had a good time too - playing with other kids and being in a different environment. The teachers do crafts with the kids, learn Bible verses and learn about Jesus.

After dropping the kids off, I went in with the ladies and found my table. Met several new moms in my group and immediately fit right in. Everyone was all very friendly and welcoming. There are about 10-12 ladies in our group and we sit together each time we meet, chat a little over a wonderful breakfast, I might add (the groups rotate bringing breakfast), watched a video (this week), we do crafts (today was decorating aprons for hospitalized children with cancer), we have a speaker (this week - Larissa Linton, the founder of a charity organization called Heroes for Children shared her personal story of losing her first born child to a rare form of leukemia at the age of 3.

This charity specifically focuses on supporting families of children with cancer. She spoke to us about how important it is that we teach our children philanthropy. Here are a few ideas, shared by Larissa, to involve your children in philanthropy: talk to your children about it; create a collection jar of loose change to donate; donate items; create goody bags; make art; hold a lemonade stand, book or cookie sale; donate to a charity in lieu of gifts; attend an event; be creative.)

After the speaker shared about her story and organization, we had a little more time to chat, plan events and discuss the questions from our reading. We have a book to read between meetings called "Momology - A Mom's Guide to Shaping Great Kids". I have quite a bit of catching up to do since I came in late but I look forward to reading it. :)

In addition to meeting 2 Fridays a month, the group gets together for playgroups and mom's night out and I am looking forward to attending these and getting to know these ladies as well as my kids "getting to know" the other kids.

A morning at Bounce U

We decided to take the babies to my friend Jennifer's Bounce U indoor bounce house for kids. They opened up for business not too long ago and we haven't made it by there so we wanted to check it out and we also wanted to give the kiddos some different kind of fun.

They had fun for the most part, except for Whitney. She wanted nothing to do with it. I think she was just tired and being super clingy and sensitive. It is a great place for little ones to jump indoors and stay out of the heat and cold. They have a couple of party rooms for private parties and they have two huge bounce rooms.

We put them in the car before we left and they liked it at first but after I started it up, they didn't enjoy it so much.

Tyler's turn after I put the quarter in and he was not happy.

I always forget to load my pictures backwards when the blogger won't let me switch them around like yesterday. So, these are out of order as well...

They are not happy after I put the quarter in.

Before I put the quarter in.

Tyler and Hannah loved putting the balls in this huge basketball bounce house.

Being silly pretending to put Whitney in the basketball goal. Tyler and Hannah loved playing with the balls, Whitney not so much.

Whitney only happy if somebody is holding her.

See... this was before daddy put her in his lap.

They were slipping and sliding all over the place in this bounce house. It was funny! Daddy sliding down this FAST slide with Hannah.

Now going down with Tyler. By the time I could get the camera to take the stupid picture, they were at the bottom!

Me and Whitney going down the slide and man was it a fast ride. Whitney didn't like it at all.

June! What a month!

We've had multiple doctors appointments for Hannah because of recurring ear infections. Thankfully, her ears are all better now. We have also had ECI out twice to get things set up to have them help Whitney with her walking and help all of them with their speech. By the way, Whitney is walking so much better while holding our hand. She is much more stable. I personally think she could walk on her own now but really just lacks the confidence. She is very cautious!

We worked our little booties off, over a one week period, getting this house ready to sell and boy, did we do something right! We had a contract on the house literally 3 or 4 hours later!

Craig has been wanting to get lasik for quite some time and finally decided to bite the bullet and get it done before heading back to work. He is now on cloud nine! Also, Craig will be returning back to work Friday of this week.

For a couple of weeks after the surgery, Craig has to wear these plastic eye pieces that are attached with this sticky tape. He didn't want to use those, so he went to try and find a more comfortable alternative. This is the alternative...

We had a family Father's Day/June birthday celebration, celebrating Craig, Kyle (Craig's brother), Byron (Craig's BIL), and Steve (Craig's dad) for being the wonderful fathers they are. We also celebrated Kyle, Steve and Victoria's (the oldest cousin) birthdays. It was great fun visiting, having lunch, opening presents and cards and watching Michaela (SIL) practice her cosmetology skills on Lisa (SIL) all while sipping on iced coffee with the girls. :) :)

I had a fun play day with one of my oldest friends, Christi and her little girl, Elizabeth. The kids had fun having lunch together, playing with toys together and playing outside in the pool and on the slide. Elizabeth said she liked Tyler! Maybe a crush??? :) :) It was a great day and Christi and I had a great time visiting and catching up.

Whitney, Hannah, Elizabeth and Tyler

Whitney and Hannah were getting tired and whiny so they went inside with Craig and went down for a nap. Tyler and Elizabeth sitting together at the table. Isn't that cute? Tyler is going for older women!
Craig and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary - an extended version. We spent time together just the two of us in Fort Worth and ate at Texas de Brazil for dinner! We caught a movie, strolled through Sundance Square and went to a museum as well. Fort Worth is such a nice city - they have so much going on downtown. Lots of great places to eat, tons of museums, and I was quite surprised by how "alive" the city was even on a week night.

Since we had so much stuff going on with trying to find a house, we didn't have much of a Father's day for Craig. We did get up that morning and the kids painted their first picture for their Daddy. They also colored their first picture for him too. The finger paints was a rather messy project and they weren't quite ready for it but it was still fun (for me).


Then I let him open his cards and they all wore their "my daddy is my hero" stickers as well as Craig got to wear his "best dad ever" sticker. I registered for school and will be taking another 2 classes in the Fall. After that, only 2 left!

A few miscellaneous pictures from the month of June....

Whitney was so tired, she fell asleep on her back, which is so rare.

Daddy with his girls. Isn't Whitney hilarious? I guess she is imitating her Mommy - wearing the sunglasses, with my phone and the remote to the ceiling fan in her hand. Sixteen months going on sixteen!
Daddy and Tyler being silly putting on pajamas before bedtime.
Hannah just hangin' out on the towel right after a bath.


And she's off...
I love these two of Whitney and Craig. So silly...
So serious...