12 years old!

This was JT 12 years ago today. Hard to believe that it has been 12 years since God blessed me with my first bouncing baby boy! I can still remember it all like it happened yesterday, but at the same time I don't remember what my life was like before he was born. He is such a joy in my life, he is very sweet, compassionate, polite, intelligent, and caring. He is a beautiful child both inside and out! It's hard to believe this is the last year before he becomes a teenager *gasp* Here he is now, the fine young man that he has become:

We are very lucky that out of all the people in this world we were chosen by God to be the parents of him. Today he asked if I would come have lunch with him at school. I asked him if he was sure, didn't know that kids still wanted there parents to do that once they got in junior high, he said yes, he wanted me to. Friday night we will celebrate the birth of this miracle by going to dinner with family and friends. Happy birthday JT, we love you more than you will ever know!

Woo hoo

Did you see that Texans game today? If not you missed out! They won, hope they can continue to win, sure would love to see them go to the Superbowl! Yes I am a football fan, some people don't know that about me, but it's almost a requirement if you live down south. I remember as a kid my dad taking us to the Oilers games, we also had the old 45 of the song "Luv ya blue" I listened to it over and over! Now I enjoy watching the Texans, win or lose, but sure love it when they win.

Also happy that whatever little bug Emily had on Friday she is over.

And this is my 3rd post on here recently. Still haven't started the journey back to August, but hoping to maybe the week after next. Next week have a lot to do. On the 11th my oldest will be turning 12 so he wants to go to dinner Friday night and need to get everything done around here before then.

As I mentioned in another post I have stopped using Facebook for now because I was wasting so much time on it and I needed a break to take care of some other things. I am sure I will be back one day, but now I have found a new website that I LOVE! It's pinterest. (Thanks Beckie) I have gotten so many ideas off there that I want to do, now I have to just stay off there long enough to actually do them!

Good luck to the Texans next week against the Ravens. Hope your having a blessed weekend.

Not today

Well I thought I might try and post some of August's happenings, but not today. As anyone with children know things don't always go as you plan. See my sweet princess:

She was up most of the night sick, that is how she is now. I might could get some done,but thinking that I will wait, I never know when she is going to be making another run to the bathroom.

This is how she looked just a little bit ago before she fell back to sleep:

Poor thing looks sad,thinking I might try to catch a few winks while she is napping, was a long night for mommy too! Check back soon and maybe will find time to start catching up. Have a blessed day!

I'm back!

Well, I never really went anywhere. I have just been really busy and have had some life changing events in my life. I will tell all about it soon. Every time I take a break from blogging I debate if I should start back again or not. I always do as I keep saying my kids will get a kick out of seeing all this when they are older, my family enjoys reading it and keeping up with what is going on with the kids, and one day I am going to make a scrapbook out of this blog through that company that turns your blog into a scrapbook! I have left the Facebook world behind for now so I can free up some of my time to do the things I use to do, like this blog or real paper scrapbooking and card making, and other things so I hope to keep this updated more often. Right now I am about 5 months behind, and a busy 5 months it was, so will try to give the short version of it with pictures soon. For now just want to wish anyone who is reading this a Happy New Year! I pray God's blessing of health, peace and joy for all. Check back soon and hopefully will have some updates!

Schlitterbahn

After returning from our week vacation to California, Todd still had almost another week off before having to go back to work. Sunday and Monday we got caught up on house stuff and Tuesday we went and did all the kids school shopping so Wednesday we thought it would be fun to go to Schlitterbahn in Galveston. One of the boys soccer teammate/friend came with us. Here they are getting ready to hit the water:

Emily and I floating around relaxing in the water:

Todd and the kids:

Todd riding the rapids:

The kids coming down the rapids:

The kids love going around by the big waves:

Me just relaxing:

The kids swimming:

we mainly stayed in the area you float around the river:

When the waves would come through the kids would see if they could reach up and touch the top of the wall:

taking a ride up instead of walking:

The kids didn't really ride many of the water slides, they don't like waiting in line, they would just rather float around in the water, but they did get in line and ride the boogie board one time, except Emily, she didn't want to. Here is Dylan:

JT:

Justin:

Even Todd rode:

After swimming for awhile we took a break and got some dippin dots:

We had a great day!

Part 1-San Francisco

One day Mimi and Popsy asked if we wanted to take a trip out to California, we said sure sounds like fun, so we started planning. At first we talked about driving it and going to see Grand Canyon and other things between here and there, but the more we thought about it we weren't sure if we wanted to, so we decided to fly. We left early Saturday afternoon out of Hobby and few into LAX. JT, me and Tyson on the way out:

Popsy, Emily and Mimi getting ready to take off:

Todd and Dylan:

There were several things we all wanted to do and see. Once we landed we got a SUV and decided we would go ahead and drive out to San Francisco. It was a pretty long drive, but we made it Saturday evening.

Sunday morning we got up and headed out to go do some sightseeing. It was cold. Well only like the low 60's but after just leaving the high 90's it felt cold, and good, to us. First stop was the Golden Gate bridge. It was hazy that morning, but we drove across the bridge:

On the other side we pulled over and parked to take some pictures:

Todd and I, you know if he is wearing pants and a jacket, it must be cold, he wears shorts around here year round:

The kids, Emily was cold and tired and didn't want to be in any pictures, but oh well:

We loaded up and went back over the bridge down to Fisherman's Wharf area:

We took a tour of an old submarine and next to that was this old fashioned game room, so we let the kids go inside and play some of the games. Emily played this Adam's family game where you have to hold the handles until you light up the bulb, she did it on low and never let go until the light bulb lit up:

JT was gonna do it, but changed his mind, so Dylan did it next, but he put it on high and hung on til the light bulb came on:

So then JT thought he would try again, he put it on high, hung on, but let go right before he got the light bulb on, he didn't like the way it felt:

This was a cute little farm when you put quarters in came on and all the things spun and danced and sang, etc.:

Then the boys and Todd and Tyson tried out this arm wrestling game, of course Todd beat it:

Right outside the game room on the pier you could see Alcatraz:

We walked down towards Pier 39 and they had this Rockin Jet Boat that went out in the bay, sounded fun, so we took a spin on it. Here we were just getting on:

I couldn't take many pictures on the boat ride, as it was not a relaxing one, the driver took us out spun us around and kept getting us wet, but I did get a few photos while out in the water:

A closer shot of Alcatraz:

The few sea lions that were out as we were coming back in:

Then we walked on over to Pier 39 and went to the Aquarium by the Bay:

Some of the jelly fish in the aquarium:

As we were walking through some divers were inside cleaning the glass:

The kids petting sting rays and baby shark:

After we saw all we wanted we had lunch and then headed over to ride the trolley cars. Emily and JT both wanted to stand up:

Getting ready to leave:

It's a little scary when you have to pass another car coming your way, had to make sure the kids leaned in:

Emily hanging on the front as we head down the hill:

We got off in town and then rode back out to where we were parked, Emily froze being on the front so on the way back she sat and JT took over the front:

San Francisco was nice, we enjoyed all the hills, but we had more fun things to do, so we went back to the hotel to get ready for the next adventure on our trip. We were getting up Monday morning and driving back to LA.