Just for Laughs

It is a bleak and rain day here, but this cheered me up.

Elizabeth must have gotten those moves from her father. The girls are getting more use out of their tap shoes at home then they ever did at dance class.

Counting Sheep?

Last night as the girls were laying in bed talking, Ava asked "Liz, can you help me count to 100." They made it to 39 before it disintegrated into calling each other "meanie" and I had to put the kibosh on all talking.

32nd Birthday

All of the family visits are over and Ryan is working in Ohio this month, so it was a pretty quiet birthday for me. Ryan sent some beautiful tulips and tasty chocolates to help me celebrate the day. Since the kids can't use the stove yet, and I didn't really want to settle for a plastic piece of cake from their play kitchen, we set out on a mission to find a yummy ice cream cake. Three places later, success!

The girls sang me happy birthday, and then we dug in.

The damage!

No cooking, no clean up...Happy Birthday to Me!

Oma and Opa

The next round of visitors were my grandparents, the kids' great grandparents, Oma and Opa. They came for a week and quite quickly adapted to our hectic lifestyle. The kids were more than happy to entertain Oma and Opa with songs, dances, books, toys, and games. The girls made Oma play Uno a million times. Opa gave me a hand fixing the "slide of death" in the backyard. Still there was plenty of down time for them to relax and enjoy their great grand children as they zoomed by on a bike in a blur. I was so happy that they could come down and just be a part of our lives, everyone was sad to see them head back to Pennsylvania.

Little Bit of Lovliness

A lot of hours of work but it looks awesome on the new owner, goddaughter and niece, Reina.

Ryan's brother, Bill was had to come to town for a medical conference and he brought the rest of the crew with him. It was great to spend time with Annie and the kids Reina and Liam. We took in a play at the children's theater, rode the train in the park, and went for a dip in Gram's hot tub, among many other things. Annie was in charge of picture taking, so pop over to her blog at The Wee Knights to read and see more.

End of (Another) Season

Gummy Bears Winter T-Ball Team These kids played so hard this season and I am very proud of them. Due to the shortage of players and teams for the winter season, we played the 5-6 year old age division as well as the 3-4 year olds. As soon as the little kids saw the big kids hitting without a Tee, they had to try it also. By the end of the season, the two Elizabeth's were consistently hitting coach pitches and even Ava (my youngest player) hit a pitch at the last game. The boys weren't bad either. They excelled at throwing with distance and accuracy. Best of all, the kids just really got along well and enjoyed playing together.

See ya next season!

Beautiful Day

Immediately following Elizabeth's Birthday party, a cold front blew in. I am not kidding. The temperture dropped 20 degrees in 20 minutes and we were stuck indoors for the next few days. Luckily before Grandpa had to head home to mountains of snow, we did get to go out and enjoy one day of beautiful San Antonio weather. A trip to our favorite (and closest park) was in order, so that the kids could stretch their legs and Elizabeth could try out her new birthday scooter. Next year, she wants a skate board! I am not sure how my dad managed to elude all pictures, but I promise he really did come for a visit and the great pictures above are compliments of him.

The Big Event

The nice thing about having your birthday on Valentine's Day is lots of parties and sweets. On Friday, Elizabeth had a big Valentine's Day party at school where the kids sang Happy Birthday to her and they dined on a Fruit Pizza that I made and numerous goodies that other kids brought into share. Sunday was her private party with her friends at the Little Gym. Lots of running, jumping, and just acting crazy. Since February is rodeo time here in San Antonio, her birthday cake request was a cowboy hat. After a couple of false starts, Ryan finally pulled it off but then had to depart for work, so I ended up doing the final decorating. Overall, I think it turned out pretty awesome and tasty too. P.S. Ryan did get off of work in time to make the end of Elizabeth's party. Despite Snowmagedon 2010 on the east coast, my dad (aka Grandpa) flew in for Elizabeth's special day as well. She was happy to spend time with him, playing card games, showing off every toy she owns and trick she could do. I was just happy to have an extra set of hands. This same weekend, my girlfriend went into the hospital for emergency surgery and I was watching her 9 month old and 4 year old boys in addition to my own kids. Grandpa volunteered to be the party photographer, while I wrangled kids.

5 Years Old!

Growing Up

February 14, 2005

February 14, 2006

February 14, 2007

February 14th, 2008 February 14, 2009

Backlog Blog

Wow, I can't believe that so much time has past. Life has really flown. Other than my kitchen and work calendars (which have about 10 things per day on them), I haven't taken the time to document it. I guess I will start where I left off and try and post a new update each night until I am back on track. However, I need to hurry because more big events and adventures are coming up. Where I left off was with Ryan and Houston and myself playing single mom to three. I don't recommend this to anyone for long periods of time because you will lose your mind. We had a such a fun weekend in Houston the first time, the kids and I decided to make another trip out there half way through Ryan's rotation. The weather wasn't as nice, but that didn't stop us from driving out to Galveston Island to visit the aquarium and catch a 3D sea movie. Casey was bored, Ava kept thinking the fish were going to eat her, and Elizabeth was captivated and kept reaching out to grab things. It was a great aquarium, but it was a bummer that it wasn't a good beach day. We also checked out Houston's Museum of Natural History. It was overpriced and boring. They were suppose to have a good dinosaur exhibit, but it paled in comparison to the one we saw just this past weekend here in San Antonio. At the tail end of the Houston trip, Ava came down with a virus and I got to spend the rest of the week staying home with one sick kid after another while it passed through the family. Ryan came home the following week having missed all the fun, but just in time for Elizabeth's 5th birthday. P.S. The kids want to know when the can go back to Houston, so that they can get some snacks. They now equate long car trips with gas station pit stops for potty breaks and special treats.