Familypalooza

What a great family weekend.

Nothing major planned.

Good times for sure.

1. Trysten had his final basketball game of the season.
We're so proud of him.

2. The boys...and I mean all the boys...logged countless
hours of outdoor playtime:

3. There was also some educational fun.

I know...I'm mean like that.
Preston and Trysten did word ladders which are actually pretty fun.

4. I called a friend at about 11:30 last night in a panic

after finding this in Austin's shorts pocket:

Okay.
This might not seem like a big deal to you,
 but here is what went through my mind:
Who is Ericca?
What does she mean she equals fun?
Why is she giving this information to my son?
I am not ready for my son to be receiving notes from girls.
Girls are so different from boys.
Girls are waaaayyyyy more forward than when I was little.
What is "The Teenager" going to do with this information?
When I called said friend, I read the "note" to her,
and she asked her husband what he thought.
His answer further supported my worst fears.
Details to come later after a discussion from the "note's" recipient.

5. I did some more research this weekend
for our trip to NOLA next month.
I'm totally psyched about my discovery of
Blood Mary's Tours.
We are so taking a haunted tour.
Ryan is totally in on this.
Cannot wait.

6. We also confirmed dates for our New York trip.
The plan is to leave December 26th and return January 2nd.
Let the itinerary planning commence.
To me, that part is just as much fun as the trip itself.
This trip to NY will be much different from last year's,
in that there will be no children.
Oh, the possibilities are endless, my friends.

7. "The Teenager" just found out that he
made the basketball team at school!
Fifty five kids tried out, and only 22 made it.
We are very proud of him, and he's super excited.

That's our weekend!
Hope yours was just as good!

A Sneak Peak!

A sneak peak from our photographer!

I heart everything about this crazy family.

Have a great weekend!!

Randomness...

1. This first bit of random information is NOT for the faint of heart.

Just warning you.

I have been scarred for life thanks to Sara.

She informed me of the fact that

doctors have reported removing from patients

cysts and tumors containing teeth and hair.

WTH.

I have not been the same since finding this out.

Gag.

Just be glad I didn't include a visual

because they are out there.

2. Speaking of teeth, after leaving the orthodontist Tuesday,

Austin...AKA "The Teenager"...asked me the following question:

"Mom, a friend told me that our teeth are made out of goat horns. Is that true?"

Really?

I responded with, "Austin, how could part of an animal be in our bodies?"

Really?

3. Preston has been correctly using words in daily conversation like

flabbergasted, ricochet and catastrophic.

Makes a mama proud.

I remember when he was 4, and Austin was bullying him

in the back seat of the car, he said:

"Mama, Austin is antagonizing me!"

Love it.

4. Yes, I did change my blog.

Again.

I was sick of the yellow color.

Sue me.

5. I am looking forward to a family weekend

without a bazillion sporting events.

Trysten has a basketball game on Saturday evening, but that is it.

This is a huge change from our weekends as of late.

Speaking of Trysten,

he is loving basketball and wants to play again next season.

This is also huge.

We are all very proud of him.

Most importantly, he's proud of himself.

Awesome.

6. Ryan and I are planning another trip for December.

New York!

Since we will be childless from December 26th until January 2nd,

we thought what better chance to go visit his parents in NY!
Maybe New Years in the city again?
Who knows!

Carol and I chatted it up via text last night,

and Carter asked if he could send a message too.
Sweet boy.

7. Thank you to all the VETERANS for doing whatever it
took to make sure we live in FREEDOM.
You are appreciated beyond measure.

8. Today is my sweet sister's 40th birthday!
Happy birthday, Shelley!
I love you...I'm only 3 years behind you!

9. Last but certainly not least,
Carter was putting puzzles together last night and asked
me to "put them on the blog".
Here you go big guy!

Happy Thursday, friends!!

In About 40 Years

While running senseless errands today,

I saw myself...or who I'd like to be...in about 40 years.

It was awesome.

Check me out:

She had to be in her mid to late 70's.

How cute is she in her old school convertible with personalized

plates and a Chi Omega Christmas Market sticker on her bumper?!

She didn't even have a hairnet on.

Probably lots o' Aqua Net holding her purple locks in place.

It's hard to tell from the pics, but I saw her up close.

She looked so happy.

Top down heading to Hobby Lobby.
Not a care in the world.

I bet the initials on the plates stand for her and her hubby.

Love it.

This is who my husband wants to be when he gets old:

Actually, I think he'd like to be him right now.
Just sayin'.

Good Times...Now and Ahead!

Good times, friends.

Here's the now part:

The weekend was a blast.

Lots of: baseball:

Lots of this:

Some fun with friends.

{Seven couples to be exact}

This is what happens when the men take the pics:

Let's try that again.

I give up.

Seriously?

And what is this?

A little celebrating my sweet sister's 40th birthday.
Love you, Shelley!

{Horrid pic of myself}

Here's the ahead part:
Ryan planned a little vacay for the 2 of us!
The plane tickets are bought and
the hotel booked.
We are headed to
the Big Easy, the birthplace of jazz and Mardi Gras.
We're going to
NEW ORLEANS next month!!

I cannot wait.

Ryan was originally looking into a beach destination,

but since we're already going on a cruise with my family in March,

he decided to checkout somewhere we've talked about wanting to visit as well.

We're staying at The Bourbon Orleans,

as recommended by resident travel agent, Casey.

She has all the deets on this little abode away from home in the heart of the French Quarter.

Shocker.

I have never been to NOLA but have always wanted to,

and Ryan has only been there for 1 day years ago.

Feel free to pass on any must sees for us, friends!

So that's it!

The now and ahead!

Have a great Monday!!

Welcome to the World!

Baby Hazel is here!!

I was so excited to go see Carrie

today, that I could barely contain myself.

Little did I know, I would be there

right as Carrie's nurse was giving

Hazel her very first bath!
{BTW, I asked Carrie for permission to post pics of Hazel.}

Checkout this little slice of bebe heaven:

Be still my heart.

A few of us bloggies sent Carrie a
little cookie bouquet
to celebrate the occasion.
Darling is the perfect word to describe how it turned out.
I have a feeling Carrie is going to woof
it down before she even leaves the hospital.
Just sayin.

Not only was Hazel beautiful, so was Carrie!

Seriously.

You would never have known she had just given birth.

 Carrie told me that when her doctor placed
precious Hazel on her chest right after she was born,
Hazel socked Carrie in the mouth.
Only Carrie.

Welcome to the world,
Baby Hazel!!

Check It Out

Not much other than school, homework,

baseball, basketball and life going on here.
Drama free is a good way to be.

Check it out:

* I washed "The Teenager's"

cell phone yesterday.

Hello!

Once you put your clothes in the dirty clothes basket,

it's free game for the washing machine.

No, I don't look through his pockets.

He's 14.

We usually don't do laundry during the week, so I was all out of sorts.

Life goes on.
It's just a phone.

Guess Austin will be using one of our old phones for awhile.

* Look what Ryan surprised me with yesterday:

Yeah!

Now we can continue to enjoy our

patio even as the temps get a little cooler.

I have mentioned how nice it would be to have one,

and I guess he was listening.

He does that a lot.

Listens.

It's a miraculous quality for a man.

There's a mom whose son is on

Carter's baseball team, and she has this watch I love:

I had mentioned it to Ryan,

and a few weeks ago we were in Nordy's,

and he told me to pick out the one I wanted.
Kind of a belated anniversary gift I guess.

Hang in with me,

there's a point to this story.

They had sold the last one pictured above,

so Ryan picked out this one for me:

Looooove it.

Fast forward to Carter's baseball game this past Saturday.

I showed my friend my new watch,

and after the game, her hubby stopped

Ryan and I and asked where he bought it.

He said he needed an idea for a Christmas gift for his wife but didn't want to ask her.

I like his style.

He will score major brownie points in the husband department on December 25th.

Long story short,

when hubbies need gift giving ideas for their wives,

all they have to do is listen.

We're so easy.
it doesn't even have to be extravagant
or cost a lot of money.
In fact, the best gifts
are those that come from the heart.

* "The Teenager" has a new "girlfriend".
She's very sweet and polite.
She's also a head taller than him.
At least.
Doesn't seem to bother either of them.
Her name is Chloe.
She came over after school yesterday,
and Carter apparently thought she was there
to play with him.
Austin is getting to the age where he says things like,
"Mom, make the boys go in the other room."
Every day is a new experience with a teenager.
One day at a time, my friends.

* We're having family pics done this weekend.
Our photographer, which happens to be the sister
of a sweet girl I taught with the last 2 years, Amanda,
recommended downtown McKinney for our location.
Since Ryan and I love downtown, it sounded perfect.
Now, I cannot figure out what we should wear.
Suggestions?

* I wish Carter and Preston would quit fighting.
That's it.
I just wish they would stop.

Okay...
I'm going to stop rambling and go do something productive.
Happy hump day!

Halloween!

From sun up to sun down,
Halloween was a
blast.

We started the day with a little Halloween craft

because that's how I roll.

We've made these before for different occasions.

Love them because the kids have to

follow the pattern in order

for theirs to turn out correctly.

Cute!

After this, I left to run an errand,

leaving Ryan to carve the pumpkins

with the boys.

The man took pictures.

Well...maybe I reminded him to.

Notice "The Teenager" isn't in the pic.
He's way too cool for this stuff now.

Great job, boys!

 I spent a lot of time in the kitchen on Halloween.

Mummy Cupcakes:

Chocolate covered pretzels:

Witches Brew:

Some cinnamon pumpkin seeds:

Veggies to balance out all the sugar:

Time to put out all the goodies!

After the kids finished their pizza

and gathered up their loot, it was time to take a few pictures
before we hit the streets for some

trick or treating fun.
The whole crew including my 3 precious nieces:

Our boys.

Our neighborhood was packed.
Golf carts everywhere.
People everywhere.
A haunted house, an eerie clown, candy galore.
The kids ran wild.
We painted the neighborhood red.
It was a blast.

My SIL, Jennifer, and her sweet witches.

I drove the golf cart and willingly held "Baby Alli".
Look at her teeny tiny witch hat.

Good times were had by all.

Until next year Halloween.
I heart you.

On a side note,

Ryan had a fantastic time at the World Series game.

So glad he was able to participate in the experience.

Our neighborhood was FULL of wives

manning Halloween without their hubbies.
Here he is at the game:

Holy cow he's hot.

Me love you long time.

That's all I have, peeps.

Hope everyone had an awesome

HALLOWEEN!!!

Just Thought I'd Share

Random glimpse into my day:

 I went for one of my laser

hair removal sessions today.

I might have screamed "Kelly Clarkson!"

and "Holy Mother of Pearls!"

mid way through.

It was painful, people.

Very painful.

Every time I go, the nurse turns

up the laser a wee bit higher.

At one point I told the nice lady,

"I think you just stabbed me with a knife."

She apologized.

It's weird.

I am sitting on this table on a piece

of white paper completely "neked"...as we say in Texas...from the waist down

and this total stranger is going over my skin with

a small torture devise while I am

laughing hysterically to counteract the pain,

and it was all a gift from my sweet husband.

Weird.

Just thought I'd share.
By the way,
I googled "brazillian laser hair removal cartoon"
and this came up.
Whhhhhhhat?

Mama Has a New Pair of Shoes!

Remember when I told y'all about

the pair of shoes I ordered on Saturday?

The UPS guy delivered

them to my doorstep today.

He told me he liked my pumpkins.

Weird.

Check these bad daddies out:

Sassy.
Love them.

Do you love
shoes
as much as
I do?