Happy New Year!

My friend Holly posted on her blog some things that I might not know about her so that in 2008, those things will be known. I decided to do the same thing :)

1. I am a Native Texan - born at Presbyterian Dallas.
2. I am petrified of snakes.
3. I read all the time. I keep a book with me during doctor's appointments, in my car for carpool pickup, and in my school bag. I read probably 5 books or more a month.
4. I hate talking on the phone and most importantly I HATE calling people back that I don't know. It makes me nervous and I start stuttering.
5. I have a true addiction to shoes and purses. The other day I was looking at this Louis Vuitton that I have been drooling over and it actually crossed my mind that $800 wasn't that much for a purse.
6. I am a very impatient driver. I tend to yell (to myself) at people that don't do what I think they should.
7. I have a serious weakness for chocolate and wine. I also could probably give you a critique of every restraunt's chicken salad within a 50 mile radius.
8. I don't like to be too cold or too hot.
9. I leave my shoes all over the house.
10. I HATE to do laundry. I don't mind the putting the clothes in the washer and dryer part, it's the folding and putting away that I really don't like to do.

Okay, that's enough for now. I hope that you guys are all enjoying 2008. It's been nice to relax and run around with the kids. We go back to school on the 7th. Actually, the kids and Chris all go back to school on the 7th. I am looking forward to everyone starting back and me having a few moments to myself!

What a Crazy Flurry of Activity!!

I feel like the last month has just been a fast forward button through time. Rushing from one activity to the next and making sure that I have everything that we all need to get from point A to B. Craziness . . . it was worth every 10pm trip to Wal-mart to hear the kids on Christmas morning.

Santa left a trail of tinsel from the chimney to both of the kids' bedrooms. Grace woke up first - at a respectable 7am - and came running into Caden's room. (I had been sleeping in there with him because he has had a horrendous cough that has kept him awake from about 1-3am for several nights) "Santa left Caden a green bike and I have a whole bunch of stuff too!! And he left sparkles all over our house!!"

It's the best to experience this all through their innocent little eyes. I had to go in and wake Caden up so that we could open presents at our house. They were opening so quickly that I had a hard time figuring out what was from whom. It was all about tearing into the package, glancing at it, and moving on to the next one. After we opened everything at our house, we went to my mom and dad's house next.

My brother Tom and his family came down from Duluth, MN. Dylan is 19, Matthew turns 17 on the 31st, and Cassie is 15. It was so great having everyone here for the holidays. Ann also came on the 23rd and stayed until the 28th so she was here for all the festivities as well. My kids scored big at my parent's house. The kids (including Chris) all got a Wii for Christmas. My dad lucked out and was able to get one for us and one for my brother Mike and his family. Chris stayed up until 2:30am the other night playing and I believe he has as many games of his own as the kids have :) They also each got their own Nintendo DS. I really was worried that Caden was too little for it, but he is loving it. We had avoided the whole video game scene until now with the kids, but this was an electronic Christmas :)

The day after Christmas my mom hired a photographer to come to my house and take family pictures. He's supposed to be getting us all a disk, so I will post them when I have them so that you can see how big all the kids are. These last few days have been a lot of fun hanging out with everyone at my parent's house and not having anything to do or anywhere to go that we didn't want to. My brother Tom and his family leave tomorrow morning. It's going to be sad to see them go! My brother Mike and his family met my sister in law's family up at their house in Gunnison, CO. the day after Christmas. We had an invitation to come and join them, but we decided to enjoy this week off and take some time to just stop and relax rather than heading out of town again. Can't wait to hear about all of your holidays!

Merry Christmas!

We took the kids to Stonebriar Mall yesterday to tell Santa what they wanted. It seems just like yesterday we were doing this for the first time:) Merry Christmas!

SAD NEWS . . .

The night before we left for Vegas in October Sadie developed a lump on her left leg right at the top where her shoulder socket is. We took her to the emergency clinic and they gave us some shots, xrays, slides, etc. The lump has progressively gotten bigger so I took her to our vet on Monday. It's a VERY aggresive form of cancer and our vet has given her 4-6 months from when it was diagnosed. That would be October :( There is nothing that we can do for her now except make her comfortable. If the tumor continues to grow as it has in the last month, it will be orange size by the end of January and grapefruit by February. We will then have to decide when to put her down.

The hardest part of all of this was telling the kids. Initially we thought that we would wait and tell the kids after Christmas, but Sadie came home with a bandage from the vet because we couldn't get the tumor to stop bleeding where he poked it to make a slide out of the cells. We decided to just tell them. I told the kids that we needed to talk about Sadie and the first thing out of Grace's mouth was, "Is she going to die?" That was very hard to say yes. We were trying to give them a time frame so we told them that by the time we went on our cruise for Spring Break, Sadie probably wouldn't be with us anymore. Caden then said, "We don't have to go on the cruise, we can just stay home with Sadie." I bawled. It was very sweet. He then told Grandma Mem on Tuesday that she would be watching Sadie while we went on the cruise. He doesn't really understand it all, but he knows that he's trying to make sure that she is taken care of.

As much as I moan and groan about our dogs, they are family. We've had Sadie for ten years and it is going to be very hard to let go :)

City of Plano Christmas Parade

Chris and Grace were in the Plano Christmas Parade the first weekend in December. They were with their Y Princesses group - the Grizzly Girls. This is a group shot of the girls. This next picture is great. Grace was loving the drill team that was performing in front of them!

December Festivities

I can't belive that we are at two weeks before Christmas!! I have way too much left to do. Every year I promise myself that I am going to start earlier in the year, and every year I don't - ha!

We had a great day on Saturday with the kids. We decided to take them to NorthPark Mall to see the train exhibit. We just happened upon Santa starting to tell a story so we were able to sit for a bit and listen to a Christmas story. The kids were so cute. Caden couldn't see very well (there were well over 100 people in there) and the next thing I know Grace had pulled him into her lap so that he could be elevated and he could see better. I got teary eyed watching them be so sweet to each other. It's very easy to get caught up in the day to day arguing, antagonizing, etc. that you forget to stop and enjoy :)



After we went to NorthPark we went to my niece Emily's birthday party at the ice skating rink at Grapevine Mills. We had so much fun!! Grace had never been ice skating before, but you would never have known it. She loves her roller blades so trying out the ice was only a whole lot colder! I got Caden duty and I was a bit nervous about being on ice skates with him. I hadn't been ice skating in a very long time (like 20 years), but Caden and I had fun. He really liked it when my brother Mike and Chris cruised around the ice with him holding each one of their hands. Caden's only job was to keep his skates pointing forward - no broken bones!!

AXO Weekend

I have not been back to SFA since I graduated in May of 1996. A couple of us have been talking back and forth for a long time about going back and seeing our old stomping grounds. Last weekend was the 40th anniversary of my chapter of AXO being at SFA. A few of us decided that this was our chance and I went back to see the old house and to hang out with some friends. Not as many from my pledge class showed up as I would have liked, but we still had a great time!! I found a plaque with my name on it for Highest GPA in Spring of '94. I had totally forgotten about it and I had to take a picture of it!! My friend Stephanie is in most of the pictures with me. After we ate dinner on Saturday we ended up hanging out with a lot of the AXO actives at a bar. It was too much fun, I am definitely not 21 anymore!! Thank goodness!

Campout

Chris and Grace belong to a group called the Y Princesses. It's a father/daughter group that they started with in kindergarten. The group of girls have become really good friends, which has been great. They meet each month and also do a campout in the Fall and the Spring. Here are some pics from the recent campout. They went to Camp Classen which is where I used to go with my 5th graders when I was in the classroom. Fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

From Grace the flapper and Caden the pirate :)

LOOK MOM - NO TRAINING WHEELS!!

ROCK ON 2 . . .

Full body shot :)

ROCK ON!!

We went to a costume party this weekend and we had a blast getting all dressed up 80's. Grace kept asking me what I was dressing as - she just didn't understand the 80's theme :)

Cadenisms . . .

I don't know if it's just Chris and I, or if others also think that Caden is a truly funny child. His perception of events that happen in our lives and his choice of words upon describing those incidents can truly make me laugh like no other. For example, a couple of weeks ago Chris took the kids to McDonald's for dinner. There were a lot of birds in the parking lot and the first thing out of Caden's mouth when he saw all of the birds was, "Holy Shit!" At least he used it in context . . . Today at church he did two funny things. He had colored his paper that they put out every Sunday for the children. He wanted another one and I told him that if he stopped talking then I would get him one after church. So after Father Phil gave the homily and were were about to stand up for the prayer Caden said to me, "I was quiet while God talked, can I get my paper now?" . . . Also during church today Caden was on the end of our family and was standing next to an older woman. During the "Our Father" we hold hands in our parish. Well, the woman next to him crossed her own hands and didn't put one out for Caden to hold. Caden had his hand outstretched and kept inching it in front of this woman - as if to say "can't you see me?!?". He turns to me and says, "Doesn't she know that she's supposed to hold my hand?" It's just little incidents like this that are constantly happening every day that remind me of the innocence of childhood and that he doesn't have a filter yet :)

HOME AGAIN!!

The kids came home this morning!!!! Their flight was scheduled to land at 10:50am. Glad I checked on it this morning b/c they landed at 10:30am instead. I was able to look through the glass and see them get off the plane. We were all excited to see each other so I'm sure you can imagine all of the hugs and kisses that I got :)

Grace got sick on the plane. She had not been feeling well in the airport in Orlando so she and Memrie went to the bathroom 3 times before they boarded, but Grace didn't get sick. About an hour and 1/2 into the flight she threw up. Memrie was glad that they had a plastic bag ready and the flight attendant was very impressed that Grace hit the bag and nothing else! She also got car sick on Wednesday and wasn't as fortunate with only hitting the bag, but she got a new shirt out of it and they went on about their day.

I was supposed to go to a meeting this afternoon for school, but I decided that I needed to stay with Grace instead. I wasn't sure how her stomach would hold up after lunch, but she seems to be doing okay. The kids are both EXHAUSTED!! They had a great week with their grandparents and their grandparents had almost as much fun (if not more) than the kids did :)

TEN YEARS LATER

Chris and I officially celebrated ten years of marriage on Sept. 27th. Time flies when you're having fun!! I am so thankful for him and all that we have created in the last ten years :)

A WEEK WITHOUT THE KIDS

Well, I put the kids on a plane to Disney with Bruce and Memrie last Friday. This is the before picture. I only broke down once before they left. I shut myself in the bathroom and had myself a good cry. It just was a very overwhelming feeling to hand over my children and as Chris was telling them to behave, stay with Grandma and Grand-dad, etc. I excused myself for a minute and got myself together. I know that they are in great hands and they are having a ball!! This is Caden wearing the footies because he didn't want to walk barefoot after taking off his crocs.

When I was driving away from the airport after seeing them through security and numerous air kisses and hugs, the freedom set in. It was 9:30am and I was footloose and fancy free. I caught up on my tv shows - gotta love the Young and the Restless - I went shopping, and I started getting things together for our trip to Vegas the next day.

We got home last night and we had a blast!! I played Texas Hold'em with the big boys and for the most part I did okay. The first day I started with $40 and walked away with $110 - so not so bad. We ended up going to an Andre Agassi foundation show on Saturday night at the MGM (where we stayed) We saw Tony Bennett, Kelly Clarkson, George Wallace (comedian), Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, Jerry Seinfeld and more perform. It was a blast!! A little bit of Vegas goes along way though and I was ready to come home.

We talk to the kids everyday. They are enjoying themselves and have been swimming everyday. They saw the parade at Magical Kingdom and spent the day there on Saturday. They were doing MGM today and Memrie's sister Cindy was coming with them. Fun!

Mom's William Tell Overature

This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time!!! So very true!!

VISIT TO THE DENTIST

Okay, everyone hates to go to the dentist. Maybe hate might be too strong of a word, but maybe not for some. I have been dreading the dentist appointment for Caden. Grace has done fine with it, but for some reason I had in my mind that this was not going to be the same sort of experience that I had with Grace. I had visions of him pulling the dentist's hand out of his mouth or worse - possibly biting to get out of the situation. You name any type of "worst case scenario" and I envisioned it. Of course he proved me wrong - again! He did great. He let them scrape his teeth, polish them, and do the flouride treatment like it was candy. I had him call Chris and tell him what a good job he did and his response to Chris was, "Daddy! I have brand new teeth!" We all got a good laugh out of that one :)

Skating Party with some friends . . .

Grace decided that this year she wanted to do a roller skating party. Although I kept trying to sway her to other venues, she was steadfast in her decision to stick with roller skating. My main concern was how in the world am I going to find a head to toe kevlar body suit for Caden to go skating in?? Here is a pic of Grace and a couple of her friends. Some of the girls had a soccer game right before the party. Grace scored TWO goals during the game so she was feeling very excited about her weekend!

A Busy Start to September

We celebrated Grace's 7th birthday on Labor Day at My Parent's house. The kids went swimming at my parent's house. Grace:



Caden:


My niece Emily:


My nephew Brandon:



Friday the 7th was her actual birthday. We bought her a new bike and some other toys.


We went to dinner with some friends on Friday night to Cheesecake Factory and then the kids ran around at Dave and Busters for a bit. This about sums up how well behaved they were :)

Being A Mom . . .

My mom sent this to me and I thought it was too good not to pass on . . .


We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions
that she and her husband are thinking of "starting a family."
"We're taking a survey," she says half-joking. "Do you think I should
have a baby?"
"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.
"I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to
decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn
in childbirth classes.

I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will
heal,but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw
that she will forever be vulnerable. I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash,every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching
your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think
that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to
the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of
"Mom!" will cause her to drop a souffle or her best crystal without a
moments hesitation.

I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has
invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by
motherhood. She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into
an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet
smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running
home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be
routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room
rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That
right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children,
issues ofindependence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect
that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess
herself constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that
eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy,but she will never feel the same
about herself. That her life, now so important, will be of less value
to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment
to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not
to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will
become badges of honor.

My daughter's relationship with her husband will
change,but not in the way she thinks. I wish she could understand how much
more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never
hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in
love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women
throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk
driving.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your
child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a
baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I
want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed
in my eyes. "You'll never regret it," I finally say.

Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter's hand and
offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women
who have stumbled their way into this most wonderful of callings.

May you always have in your arms the one who is in your heart.

First Day of School 2007-2008 School Year

Here are some pictures of Grace and Caden as we walked Grace to school on Monday :)



Can't forget Caden . . .


Grandma Mem came with us too . . .


It's time to walk in. The bell has rung and it's 7:30 AM :)


Grace at her desk in her classroom. We had to take a moment and have our picture with our big girl!


Have a good day, Grace!! A little brotherly love . . .

Leg update

Caden's knee is absolutely back to normal. He's bouncing around here like a little bunny rabbit again. He probably jumped off something and landed wrong on it in the first place :)

As of 8am tomorrow summer is officially over for me. I go back to work. I am looking forward to getting everyone back in a routine, but it was sure nice to to have 3 1/2 months of not really needing to be anywhere at a certain time unless I wanted to be be!! Grace's school is still heavily under renovation. They have been working almost 24 hours a day it seems for the last month trying to make up for how far behind they are from all of the rain. We usually are able to go up and meet her teacher before school starts, but because of the construction they are not able to do that this year. The first time that we meet her teacher will be the first day of school. We do get to go up on Friday and see her class list. I have already been reassured by the principal that the little bully girl from last year will not be in her class :)

It's going to be crazy here the next week. Both kiddos have new backpacks (Grace's is the Disney princesses with the matching lunch box and Caden's is Camo with orange piping from the Gap), a bunch of new clothes, and of course new tennis shoes. The most fun is unloading the school supplies. For those of you without kiddos in school yet, there's a really cool thing that the schools do now. You just write a check and on the first day of school the school supplies are on your child's desk!! Gone are the days where you get a list and have to run to 10 different stores to get everything. It's very nice!! My next entry will be 1st day of school pictures of Grace heading off to 1st grade!!

X-RAYS AGAIN!!!!

Caden started limping on his right leg yesterday. He woke up crying and not putting any weight on it. I kept thinking - whatever - he'll be fine. Not so. He limped all day yesterday and last night Chris pointed out to me that his right knee was swollen. All I kept thinking is . . . this is my life and I pray that he is okay :)

I made an appointment this morning with his doctor. I wasn't sure whether to go straight to the orthopedic or to go to his primary care physician. He had sinus issues also and I had a bunch of forms that I had to get signed for his preschool, so the PCP won out. Of course he's out of town this week, so we saw the nurse practictioner. She told caden that he won himself an x-ray. I came very close to asking the lady at Medical Center of Plano if she had a frequent flyer program. I think that we would qualify . . . X-ray came back fine. We are supposed to give him motrin 3x a day for the next two days. If he is not better by Thursday, I am supposed to take him to the orthopedic. Maybe they have a frequent flyer program too . . . I'll keep you guys updated. In the mean time please pray that Caden's knee is fine :)

Then and Now

I was looking through some files on the computer this morning and every once in a while I look back at some old pictures. I am feeling a bit melancholy about going back to school in a couple of weeks. Grace is about to be a first grader. I just can't believe that she's going to be 7 years old next month. Time flies!! The second picture is from the group of pictures that I took trying to get one for Caden's announcement. The first one is one that we took this summer. I love Grace's grin and the huge flower on the hat!

Hawaii Anniversary Trip!

Chris took me to Hawaii for our 10 Year wedding Anniversary. It's not until 9/27, but we decided to celebrate a little early while we were both off for the summer. We stayed at the Marriott Beach Club in Kauai. We had the most amazing trip and would love to go back again someday. Here are some of the 756 pictures that Chris took. Enjoy!

Back to Reality . . .

Chris and I just got back yesterday after an amazingly wonderful week together in Kauai, Hawaii. The trip started off shaky ... I haven't set my alarm clock since we got out of school in May and I set it for 5:30 pm instead of am. I guess someone was looking after us because I awoke 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave!!! We had 15 minutes to get ourselves together and out the door. We forgot the laptop, but we had our tickets and our swimsuits so we were good to go! The return trip home pretty much stunk too. We took the red eye out of Hawaii at 10:50pm Hawaii time and were sitting on the exit aisle which you would think was great, but right next to the bathrooms which made for a lot of noise. No sleep for me. We connected in Phoenix and ended up landing in Oklahoma City because our plane didn't have enough fuel to circle the airport with the storms. We sat on the runway in OKC for about 4 hours. An hour and 1/2 of it with no air conditioning. Can you even imagine?? People were passing out and others very much on the verge of getting sick not to mention angry and spouting off. Fun times. What made it all worth it was the smiles and running hugs the kids gave us when we saw them again - all of us were excited to be reunited! Chris purchased a new camera before we left and he took over 750 pictures - too many to share all, but I will chronicle the trip later when I have had more sleep :)

Two Things

For those of you that don't know this little tidbit I am deathly afraid of two things: 1) Bridges 2) Snakes. I encountered the second one today and was very proud of myself for not freaking out!! I took the kids and Grace's friend Cami to my parents house to swim. After about twenty minutes the kids get out of the pool screaming. "There's a snake in the pool." At this point I am freaking out on the inside but staying calm on the outside. It was just me and the three kids so I had no choice, but I really wanted to just go inside and go home!! So against my better judgement I went down by the diving board where the snake was. I was expecting to see a humongous creature, but it was just a little baby snake. So I got the net and a bucket and tried to scoop it up and into the bucket. It kept falling off the net and I kept screaming on the inside every time it wiggled. The kids were safely on the patio standing on the chairs trying to see what was going on, but not getting anywhere near the snake. I finally got it on the net and put it in the bucket. I put the net over the top of the bucket just to make sure that it couldn't get out. I called my dad (he's in Chicago right now) and told him that he had a snake in his pool. He found it a lot more funny than I did. My second call was to Chris to come and take care of the snake. He took it and let it go at a creek near my parent's home. The things we do for our children - become superhuman when you didn't think it was possible :) What a day!!

Hiney Dance

This is a quick video of Caden doing his famous "hiney dance" while Thomas Michael Riley is playing. Enjoy!!

Down at the Ranch

We left for Ann's house on the 25th of June. The two year anniversary of losing Phil was the 29th. It's a hard week for Ann and I and I think that Phil would be smiling down on us that we decide to spend it together doing a lot of fun activities :)

For those of you that don't know- the Ranch is in Junction, Texas. It takes us about 5 hours to drive there. The kids have it clocked by about 3 and 1/2 movies. We got there on Monday in time for the kids to take the mule out and feed the deer. The mule is a 4 wheel drive golf cart type vehicle. Both kids learned how to drive it this trip. Grace could even do the pedals by herself which put her one step ahead in Caden's mind who could only do the steering wheel.

The kids also found the biggest grasshopper that I have ever seen. I'll attach a picture of it. Ann has all of the cool bug catching and watching tools that I try to stay away from. Grace was dying to go to the river to swim. She talked about it non stop until we got there. The weather overall during the week was cloudy and rainy so we decided to fit it in when we could. We went to the Library for the last week of the summer reading program that Ann is in charge of on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday we went to the river. We actually had a lot of fun. The water is really high from all of the rain and the kids were able to use the tubes for some little rapids. I have to find the disc that Ann took of those pictures and post them later.

Friday we went to the Torre di Pietra winery in Fredericksburg. Ann's friend Thomas Michael Riley was playing at the winery that day. It was a perfect day for us to hang out, drink some wine, and listen to some great music. We were the first people there and the only table that stayed the whole time. Some visitors to the winery came and went, I guess we were the only ones not working on a Friday at 2pm :)

It's always hard to leave the ranch. The kids have so much fun in the country looking at the REAL deer. This trip we also saw a bunch of turkey hens with about 30 of their babies. The kids are ready to go back!!

A Caden Story

Caden is constantly saying things that just make you want to laugh out loud!! He's the most curious little boy asking a million questions about any little thing. For example, my parents have a raccoon in their attic that has eaten a whole through a soffet in their roof. We showed the hole to Caden last Sunday when we went over to their house for father's day. "How did it do that?" "Where is it now?" "What does it do at night?" and on and on for a good five minutes . . . This is how he is about EVERYTHING and it's pretty darn cute - most of the time :)

Caden has been pretty curious lately about his "part". "Why do only boys have a penis?" "Can I give mine to you (with a smile on his face) then you can be a boy too?" A couple of days ago he was sitting on a stool in my bathroom completely naked waiting his turn to get into the shower. He played with himself the whole entire time pulling the skin out, pushing it back in, etc. Total fascination - Well this morning he wakes up ( with his little erection) and says to me. "Look at my big penis mommy." "It growed" "Sometimes it does that." Instead of laughing out loud, I decided to write it down so that I can show it to him some day :)

Dance Recital

Grace had her dance recital on Memorial Day weekend. It was the last big "scheduled" event we had before summer could officially begin. I was a backstage mom which means that I was the mom in the room with the girls until they performed. It was at the Eisemann center in Richardson on a HUGE stage. The girls waited backstage in the actual room that real performers use with all the mirrors and the lights. During each of Grace's two dances I was able to stand in the wings and watch her do her ballet and tap routines. This is her third year taking dance with Sarasue's and it has been fun to watch the progression of her abilities. I always immediately choke up the minute the lights come on and the music starts. I am so proud of her and it makes me realize that my little girl is growing so quickly!

The Duluth Harbor Expedition!!

All of us had a great time going to the harbor to see the big boat! Duluth posts the times that the boats are expected to arrive and a lot of tourists like us head out there and watch the boats come in. It was a fun time!

Dylan's Graduation Party

My whole family flew to Duluth, MN for my nephew Dylan's graduation party. He is the first one of my nephews to graduate from high school. We had a lot of fun in Duluth, but it was REALLY cold for us Texans. We were not prepared for 40 degree weather when the weather websites before we left said 70's. The next few postings will be about our trip!

Last Day of Kindergarten!!!

Grace went with a bunch of girls to Libby Lu after school on Thursday. It was her last day of kindergarten. She's officially going to be a 1st grader next year!! She had the BEST time. She looked pretty cute and a bit too grown up also!! Here is the whole group of them
all dolled up! I'm thankful that this year of kindergarten has gone so well. I struggled a lot this year being the parent instead of the teacher. Can you say control issues ?? :) But I also struggled to find the right words to let her teacher know how much I appreciated all that she did for Grace this year. Kindergarten is so important. It sets the tone for the rest of their educational career. Grace blasted through it with flying colors :)

Caden's School Program

Could he be any cuter?? I know that I am biased, but he sure looks handsome!! This is at his classroom for his class performance. "R-E-D red, R-E-D red, I can spell red. I can spell red." This song has been going through my head for weeks!
We were really happy with his preschool this year. His teachers

had the most amazing program and we were all able to watch

Caden bloom! He keeps asking when he gets to go to school again -

this could be a L-O-N-G summer!!