Oh...you gotta see this!

At an Express baseball game that had gone into extras, the entertainment staff was filling some time in between innings. My crazy husband was asked to participate in a dance off (yeah, you read that right) with a young intern. The following video is why my dear, dear husband is now the reigning champ. Enjoy!

More modeling!

I finished a dress for Emma this time. She thinks she's ready for the catwalk!

I know I shouldn't brag (especially about myself) but I just can't help it. Today, with a lot of guidance from Grammie, I finished the outfit that I started for Pook earlier this week. To say I am pleased with it would be an understatement and as you can tell by the photos, she likes it, too! My mom will tell you that my sister and I were some serious hams for the camera when we were kids, so I wonder who my kiddo takes after?

K-man's Father's Day present!

I will return to add more to this post later.

Little Rewards

I quite often get shots that capture our children in the exact way I don't want to, but every once in a while I actually get it right. While taking a little excursion to the local arboretum I, of course, carried my camera and was completely rewarded with this...


Pleased as punch doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this one!

I'm working on week 2 of being a stay-at-home mom and it's just so weird. Talking to my mom the other day I told her it I felt like I was running a race a full speed and then suddenly came to a complete stop. It is nice to slow down though and I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with the kiddos.

We're still trying to sell this house. We had an open house last Sunday and, according to our realtor, had 2 really interested couples. Unfortunately, she's not been able to reach either one by phone to give them the follow information they requested. Please, please, please continue praying that we will sell the house very soon. I don't think I need to tell you how badly we need to get to where Daddy is in a big way!

Work in progress

You'll have to pardon the state of my blog. I'm currently working on new stuff for it and since it's late, I'm going to bed.

fly-by post for pics

First, a precious pic of my almost 90 year old grandmother and two of her great-grandkids!


A pic of Diesel in the recovery room. Taken by K-man with my cell phone, but it was just too sweet not to post.

"Mommy, I'm following in your path."

Talk about words that will stop you dead in your tracks.

While walking my darling daughter down the hallway to Sunday School this morning, she looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I'm following in your path." She, of course, was talking about our walk down the hall, but it gave me pause. It made me stop and contemplate the bigger implications of those 6 words. Is the path I'm walking, the path she is following, the right one? I pray. I pray earnestly with all my heart that I am. That the example I am setting for her is one that is pleasing to God and one that I would be proud for her to follow. It's no secret to me or to other moms all around the world that our goal in motherhood is to be the best mom we can be. I am so extremely blessed with my beautiful children, with a terrific partner in life, with a wonderful extended family and friends. I pray that I can do my blessings justice...to be the absolute woman God wants me to be...to be the best mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend that I want to be.

Diesel's surgery

Please keep us in your prayers tomorrow. Diesel has his procedure for tubes in his ears tomorrow morning at 8:45 a.m. I'll confess to being a little anxious. I guess that's completely normal, but it still makes me nervous to think about my sweet boy being under anesthesia even if just for 15 minutes.

Hold on to your hats, people....

There's a lot to cover in this post.

First, the good news...there have been some major (and I mean MAJOR) developments with Khalil's job. After just 2.5 months in Corpus, he is being bumped up to the AAA affliate in Round Rock. Yep, that's right, we are no longer moving to Corpus Christi. We will be making our new home in the Round Rock area instead. He starts with the Express on June 2. Crazy stuff, right? I am just so extremely proud of my husband! It is such a wonderful answer to prayer that someone is finally recognizing the incredible talents that he possesses. Of course, he jokes that he had to make the move because nobody would come visit him all the way down in CC. He's funny, that man of mine. Now...if we can just get our house sold and be able to join him! This living apart is for the birds if you ask me. We all miss him terribly and I can tell you that being a single mom is really no fun at all. Being the only one to say no, do all the disciplining, and still make time for fun stuff with them is completely taxing. Thank goodness for the power of prayer!

Next, in order of occurrence, would be the news that we have scheduled the appointment to have tubes put in Diesel's ears. After 9 weeks of fighting the same ear infection, we paid a visit to an ENT and he concurred that tubes would be the best course of action. Seems that his ear infections have cleared, but they left a mucus the consistency of rubber cement behind his eardrums. It would probably clear on its own in 4-5 months if...and that's a big if...he didn't get another ear infection. So June 2 it is! Busy day for us.

Our sweet Pook gave me quite a scare tonight. I got a call from school to tell me that she was running a 100.4 temp. Picked her up and she felt fine, but as the night wore on her temp went up and up, finally peaking at 104.2. Grammie came over because I was about to head to the ER. A second tepid bath and another dose of medicine seemed to take the steam out of that train and now my precious girl is sleeping peacefully in our bed. It absolutely breaks my heart when my kids are sick. I hate feel powerless to just be able to snap my fingers and make it go away. Pook is a little upset because she'll be missing her field trip tomorrow at school. However, she is even more upset that we won't be able to go and see her cousins tomorrow. We'll be praying that we can head up on Saturday for the Memorial Day weekend.

For my mother...

I have neither the time or energy to post about our trip to Corpus Christi, but needless to say we had a marvelous time. Nonna, these pics are just for you!

Anyone want to buy a house?

Hello! It's me again. Yes, it's really me. Back among the land of the bloggers...at least for today. It has been a wild time around our house since the announcement of the big move. Preparations to get the get the house on the market have caused quite the flurry of activity. However, I am proud to say that it is finally up for sale! Yeah!!!! I'm even posting some shots of it for you. We refinished the kitchen cabinets, updated all the hardware, new cook top and oven and finally got new countertops. We've stripped the house down for staging...yada, yada. All just in time for the move. I could go on and on about the endless hours spent doing all this (how in the world did we accumulate so much stuff in 5 years?) but I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

The aforementioned kitchen



The den



Formal living



Dining room



Pook's room



Diesel's room



Our "pared down" bedroom



I hope to be back again tomorrow with pics from our time with Daddy on the beach and the tale of the fried avocado.

Please pray

I know that it has been a while since I have updated my blog, but there has been so much happening here as we prepare for the move. I just had to take the time to post and share another blog with you. Please visit Bring the Rain: The Story of Audrey Caroline and join me in lifting up this amazing woman and her family in prayer. Start from her first blog entry and read forward so that you can fully understand their story.

I promise to try and update you on our lives soon (with pics even).

Until next time...

Big...HUGE news!!!

We are moving! Not just across town... but across the state and back to baseball! We are moving to Corpus Christi! K-man is going to be the Director of Facilities and Stadium Operations for the Corpus Christi Hooks. They're the double A ball club for the Astros. It's an incredible oppurtunity for K and we're so excited we can hardly stand it! There is so much to do now though it's a little overwhelming. Getting ready to put the house on the market, finding a school for Pook and day care for Diesel, finding a house in Corpus, and doing most of this while being without K for a little while. He'll be down there by March and we'll stay behind until the end of the school year. Wow! It's all still a little surreal! I'll do my best to keep you posted on the developments as they happen.

The Diesel is now walking...everywhere! He's also got a total of 4 teeth now. Two on top and two on bottom. He looks like such a little boy now. He'll be 14 months old next week and time is just flying by. Oh, and have I mentioned that the boy eats like a horse. I shudder to think what our food bill is going to be like when he hits his teens.

The Pookster is still loving pre-k and has recently begun having sleepovers both here and at her friends' houses. It really is the cutest thing. She excited about moving to the beach. Although, to tell the truth, I don't think she's really grasped the concept of "moving." Pray that this transition will be smooth for her. I'm not the least bit worried about her making new friends there, but she's going to miss the ones here terribly much.

So that's our big news! WOW!

How 'bout those Bears?!?!?!?

If you haven't heard...
Baylor Bears and ESPN

Oh, and the boys returning to the Ferrell Center last night.

What an awesome game & win for our Bears! Sic 'Em, baby!

Few new/old LOs

I've posted some pages I've been working on. Mostly older pictures that needed to be scrapped. Link is on the right.

Guess who is walking?

Not hard to figure out since the Pook is 4, huh? Diesel started taking steps this week. He hasn't taken off across the room yet, but he's not afraid to let go and take 3 or 4 steps to get to something he wants. Most of the time that's me or K-man. It's so cute! We're going to be in a world of hurt when he really gets going though because I have the feeling he break out in a run and we won't be able to keep up with him!

Brrrr...
We've been hit by a cold spell. It's in the 20s right now and while that may not be cold to some people. It's dang cold to this Texas girl! It's usually about now that I start deluding myself that the summers here aren't all that bad. HA! Still I think I much prefer the sun and warmth to frigid temps any day.

fly by post...for Nonna

I have been so swamped at work that I don't know which end is up, but I had to take the time tonight to post this pic for my mom so she'll quit bugging me. ;-) So...here you go, Mom...a photo of all four of your grandkids together.

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful, wonderful past two days it has been!

It's been so nice (and that's an understatement) to have K-man home, really at home for these past couple of days. We were actually able to get ourselves and both kids dressed and out the door for Christmas Eve service at church yesterday with minimal trouble. K joked that maybe church should start at 5:30 p.m. on Sundays, too. Seriously, sometimes it's nothing less than a sheer struggle to get us out the door on Sunday mornings. But I digress...the service was great. We have a tradition in our church that children participate in part of the service as angels complete with white smocks and tinsely garland halos. Pook was the most angelic angel of them all until they handed her a glow stick before the singing of Silent Night. That's when K spotted her have a sword fight with another little girl on stage. Ha! That's my girl!Diesel sat quietly (well, mostly) through it all. I think that the snacks of Goldfish, Cheerios and sweet corn puffs had something to do with that. However, he was a hungry and tired boy by the time we made it home and was not really interested in the fact that Santa's elves had been to the house and dropped off Christmas PJs for him and his sister. Crazy thing...neither was Pook. That little oddity can be attributed to the fact that our next door neighbors grandkids were coming to the door wanting her to come and play.

We have great neighbors and we always run over on Christmas Eve to socialize for a bit. Mimi and Papa Jack are so incredibly sweet and always include our kids in their gift-giving. Polly Pockets (oh joy!) for Pook and a cuddly snowman for the Diesel.

K-man and I even made it to bed before 1 a.m. this morning! Shock of shocks since I still had to wrap EVERY last present. We got such a late start on the gift buying that I just decided to knock it all out at once and save it for last night.

This morning, we awoke to the sounds of Diesel ready to be out of his crib and had a blessedly peaceful 30 minutes before the Pookster got up and the feast of presents began! After it was all said and done, we had a very excited 4 year old who loved all her new books, clothes, movies, toys and bike and a very tired 1 year old who was more interested in the tissue paper than the opening of gifts. It was on to Daddy's pancakes for breakfast and then the rest of the day has been spent lounging about. Grammie made it over just before the festivities began and we all enjoyed a low key Mexican Christmas dinner tonight. As per request, I made my sour cream chicken enchiladas and we busted out the Dean & Daluca green chile chicken tamales that Bill & Connie sent us for Christmas. Mucho gusto! And now finally, the kiddos are asleep and I'm able to steal some time to get pics uploaded to the computer and post about our day.

I'll leave you with a Pook funny. As you know, we live in Texas and hear Spanish spoken quite often. The Pookster's school is great about incorporating the language into the curriculum. Well, while on the phone with Aunt Sherrie tonight, Emma tells her "Felis Labidaub." Yep, that Feliz Navidad for all you non-speakers! I can't do it justice because you really need to hear her say it. That girl keeps us rolling!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Our baby boy is 1!!!!

Yes, I know I'm a little late with that announcement, but I do have a treat to share to make up for it....


Is he not the cutest thing EVER?!?!? Yes, I know...I'm that Mom! Can't help it.

I'll be back to post more about his birthday in a bit. Off to lunch with Grammie and Janae.

We've got a toofer!

FINALLY!!!! Diesel finally cut a tooth. Woke up on Wednesday morning and I did my usual toofer check and squealed like a little girl! Ten days away from his first birthday and he gets his first tooth. Geez! I hope they all start coming in now. We've got to play catch up.

Not my week
At the ripe old age of 35, I got my first case of strep throat...ever! Let me just put it to you plainly...it blows! Spent most of Tuesday feeling like utter poop and then Wednesday morning woke up with a fever. Finally got in to see the doctor at 1:40 and a shot of pencillin later I was on the road to recovery. Felt like a new woman on Thursday, but somewhere in the early evening I started losing my voice. This may be good news for some people, but for me, not so much. I have to sing a special in church on Sunday. I'm praying I miraculously get my voice back by tomorrow. Guess I'm going to have to Google remedies and try them all.