Pay It Forward

My wonderful friend, Melissa, posted a "Pay It Forward" post on her blog last week and now its my turn!

This is how it works......I will send a small fall gift to the first three (3)people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I think its a fun way to give this season and you'll also receive a little something too! So, sign up!

Adventures at Kroger

August 2006(Yes, this was just last year. Not done in jr. high like you may have thought.): My sister, Tara, was visiting. It was late at night and I realized we were out of milk, so Tara and I made a late night trip to the nearby Kroger. I thought, "Hmmm, lets make this trip interesting." Let me emphasize, it was late at night. That is when delirium kicks in. So anyways, I put my digital camera into my purse and well, the rest is history....Fyi, for those of you who know me well, these pictures come as no surprise. For those of you who don't, you may decide not to be my friend anymore. I'll understand. And also, my sister did give me permission to post these pictures. You see, this is just how we roll....

Need a little stool softener? Looks like Tara does.
I've been hooked...this is lame, I'm sorry.

Snake crawling out of the nose. Beautiful Tara, beautiful.

I have an idea!(maybe the idea should've been to put the camera away and just leave the store with our milk, like normal people do)
Two cranky girls
Nothing like a good fat piece of animal. Yes, this is truly a sick picture and I'm sorry you had to see it. But it makes me laugh.

The box says, "Powerfully clean" and I guess Tara was trying to make that statement with her rear end. I really don't expect her rear is powerfully clean, but I'll take her word for it.

I'm shouting-silently of course. Enough people were already looking at us for just being weirdos. I didn't need to scream on top of already looking crazy.

There was a fly there...really! :)

Employees only

Taras not an employee...he he.
It was late at night and we had too much root beer to drink. Thats all I can say. Hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as we did taking them. Either that or I just scared you out of being my friend. If thats true, your loss..... :)

6 Months Old!

Cali is 6 months old today! We can't believe she is half way to one already! She has learned so much this month-she is getting on her hands and knees and rocking now, can practically crawl already, grabs for everything, holds and plays with toys, giggles so much, plays peek a boo with a blanket, is still sleeping like 10-11 hours straight at night, and is just plain happy all the time! Her favorite thing lately- sucking her toes:) I'll post a picture of that soon. It looks so funny. We love this little gal. Her personality is coming out more and more with each day and she is just a sweetie.

So, our tradition with the kids has been to feed them their first solid food on their 6 month birthday, so check out Cali's very first taste of food. The girls loved watching their baby sister, as you can hear from the background giggles....

Our little Star of the Week

Aubrey came home on Friday with a certificate that said she had been chosen to be the Star of the Week for her kindergarten class. They just started this this week, so she was the first, yes, thats right, first one picked.(If I'm being braggy, oh well, its my right as her mom:) They pick a child that has worked especially hard that week, has been a good friend, and has been courteous to others-someone that has shined all week long. So, we are really proud of her! She is spotlighted with pictures and stuff on the classroom bulletin board. We took her out for dessert this past weekend to celebrate. I know she is a very special little girl. She truly is kind and respectful to others and really thinks about other people's feelings. She leads by her quiet example and we are really proud to have her as our daughter. We love you Aubrey! And hope you feel better(poor kid has been sick with a high fever the past 2 days and stayed home from school). She has missed almost half of her week of stardom! :) Here is her cute little All About Me sheet that is posted on the wall....

Thinking about Lucy

4 weeks ago today we lost our precious niece, Olive Lucy. I've been thinking about her a lot today and how much losing her, even though I never had the opportunity to meet her, has really affected me and our family. There have been several times that Aubrey has said, "Mom, I miss Lucy, even though I never met her." Aubrey has really felt the loss too. Ella has talked sadly about the baby too. I even asked Cali the other day if she was playing with Lucy in heaven before she came down and she smiled so big-as if to say, "Yep I did!" I feel like Elliot (my nephew that was born in July) and Cali are probably 2 of the closest beings to Lucy on the Earth right now(besides her parents), since they were just in heaven a few months ago with her. I bet they all had a grand ole time up there:)

I've been reading my sister-in-law's blog lately and I have to say that she and Watson are just amazing. They are having a tough time, but are so strong. Their blog is inspiring-Christine is a talented writer I have found out. Her way of expressing herself through the written word is very thought provoking and inspired. Thank you for continuing to share your feelings as they help so many others out there and even ourselves. I just wanted to tell you guys I'm thinking about you and our little angel today. Though Lucy never got to enter this world, her light and love has enveloped so many people's lives. It will be a joyous day in heaven when we are all together again. That day seems so far away right now, but that day will come, and that day will be absolutely wonderful. I love you Lucy, Christine & Watson and hope you are able to make it through each day-one at a time. Lots of thoughts, prayers & love~ hoLLy

Check this out

My husband thought he'd be funny and make this jib jab video of us. He thought I wouldn't like it, but think again, honey-I love it! Check it out at his blog. Its pretty darn hilarious! I never knew I had such dancing skillz...

Plano Balloon Festival 2007

We went to the annual Plano Balloon Festival on Friday night and loved it even more this year than last. There were over a dozen hot air balloons in the air surrounding us-it was quite the sight! The kids loved seeing all the different types of balloons. We even saw two balloons collide!We also saw skydivers and an awesome Elvis impersonator too. Good times. This year we had friends to share the fun with, The Brysons. Of course, that made it more fun too. :) Joey took almost 200 pictures, I kid you not. It was hard narrowing them down, so I'm warning you there are a lot of pictures I'm posting. These aren't even a fraction of what he took! We had a lot of fun that night!

If you look closely in this picture, you can see the moon

A Deep Thought

This one is just classic....

"When I saw the old bum pushing the grocery cart down the street, at first I felt sorry for him. But then when I saw what was in his cart I thought, well, no wonder you’re a bum look at all the dumb things you bought." Jack Handey

Good times with Nana & Tata

Joey's parents were able to visit for a couple of days this week. We had a lot of fun spending time together. Joe's(Joey's dad) birthday was on the 15th(Happy Birthday!!)which was the day of Joey's graduation. We did embarass him that day with having the Applebee's crew sing to him, but we also celebrated here at our house a couple of days later. The girls loved "surprising" him with a cake and helping him blow out his candles. We miss you guys already!

Trying to make lemonade

We have had a lot of bad luck lately with vehicles. Our Expedition is getting older and up there in miles, so we decided to get a new car and sell the old. So, we purchased a new SUV almost a month ago(new to us) and within one week we had 2 big problems. First, the rear AC would only work a fraction of the time and when it did work it made this loud banging noise, as if someone was stuck inside the unit trying to get out. It was scary. And I mean that literally, Aubrey would actually get scared. A few hundred dollars later, that was fixed. Then the next week it rained, which normally isn't a bad thing, it turns the grass green and all. However, the next morning when I got the kids in the car to go to school, Aubrey said, "My seat is wet, Mom." I walked to her side of the car and her booster was soaked. Then I looked up and saw that the headliner of the car was dripping water and that part of it had come detached from the roof. I went inside to get a towel to dry it and stick in between the roof and the headliner to soak up the remaining water the best I could. Later that day, I was driving Ella and Cali somewhere and Ella informed me, "The TV is dripping water on me." Dang crapit!!! So, that wasn't a good thing. We have come to the conclusion that the moon roof has a leak. It has not yet been fixed yet, so we are hoping it doesn't rain soon.

Then last week Joey calls on his way home from work and says, "My car overheated." I really wasn't surprised and he wasn't either. We kinda laughed about it actually. He wasn't too far from home and he got a nice 30 minute walk home. Luckily that was the day when the weather was beautiful and I think he enjoyed the walk. That car ended up needing a new fan belt. Lovely.

Next, the cherry on this delicious sundae: This past weekend, as you all know, we went to Houston for Joey's graduation. We decided to take the Expedition, since we are unsure of any other problems the lemon Navigator has. Funny thing is, I knew we would have a problem with it. I knew we would have a problem with whatever car we chose with the luck we've had lately. Sure enough, on the way home, this crazy Rex kwan Do looking guy in a jeep is waving at us from behind. For those of you who don't know who I'm talking about, let me refresh your memory of Mr. Rex...Anyways, I thought, what a friendly feller, either that or a looney, but then we realized he was trying to tell us to pull over. We debated doing it because of stories we've heard, but then did(it was still daylight so we figured he probably wouldn't kill us) and he yells out, "You've got a big ole flat tire!" And we did. And yes, I took pictures. The first thing I thought was, "I need to take a picture of this for the blog." You know you are a blognut when that is the first thing that pops into your head. Even funnier is, Aubrey told me, "Mom, you should blog about this." Thats my girl.

Thankfully, Joey's parents were 2 minutes behind us and Joe helped Joey change the tire. Look at these studs!

Joey holding the golden pole from heaven. Seriously, it was from heaven. He needed something like this to access the spare tire and also to crank up the car and we didn't have it. He was thinking he wouldn't be able to change the tire. Then, he looked down on the ground and this was just laying there. It was exactly what he needed! It was a miracle.

Throughout this whole experience, we laughed. Joey and his dad had the best attitude about it and we still had a good time. Me, Cyndi(Joey's mom), and the girls just hung out in the car while the men had some father-son time changing a tire. It was all good. Sometimes life deals you lemons, but you just gotta make some lemonade. Or do what Joe does, order water with lemon, then squeeze the lemon into the water and add a bunch of sugar or sweet n low and make your own. Then, its free lemonade!

Good times with the fam

Here are more pics from this weekend. We had a lot of fun with our families! We went out to dinner after graduation, swam at the hotel and just hung out. Aubrey also got to open some birthday presents from her grandparents and Auntie Nikki. It was like a second birthday party:)

This picture is from the restaurant. Joey got some awesome new Arnette sunglasses from his sisters. He loves them! They sure beat his others, which very much resembled safety goggles:)

Nikki got her a High School Musical 2 book. Aubrey was pretty stoked as you can see.
Cali spending time with Austin and Grandma

She was a perfectly happy baby on this trip. Throughout the car trip and the 3 1/2 hour graduation, she maybe got upset once! She is always such a great baby though, so I wasn't surprised.
A friendly pillow fight(that I'm surprised stayed friendly:)
Grandma, Grandpa & their girls
I just love this picture
Aubrey's gift opening, part 2. Our girls are so lucky to have such great grandparents!!