Art Camp!!

My friend Summer put on a FABULOUS Art Camp for kids this week. She has done this a few times in the Ft. Worth area, and I am SO glad that she brought it to Abilene! Kaitlyn absolutely loved it. They learned about a different artist each day, and learned different techniques and art styles. I was very impressed with the art work she did! Today was the last day, and there was a little Art Exhibit to showcase all of their work. Summer did a fantastic job and even awarded each child a certificate. I am SO MAD because all of the pictures that I took today turned out blurry (I think my flash was switched off). However, I'm still going to post them - so sorry in advance!

I think this was my favorite. I think I'll even frame it.

For this, Summer had a real vase with fruit at the front of the room and they had to draw it. Not bad!

A little abstract art..they paint on one side of the paper and then fold it over to make it identical on the other side.

This is her paper mache (sp?) bowl decorated with tissue paper. She said she wanted to attach some straps to it and make it her bicycle helmet. Yep.


A stepping stone for the beautiful garden that we have. I mean, our front porch that is a slab of cement.

Her self portrait. Hers are to YOUR left. The first is on the first day of camp with no instruction or direction, and the second is on the 4th day with a little more knowledge of what to do.

Kaitlyn and Mara... (btw..aren't their aprons soooo cute? they got to keep these along with their bucket of art supplies)

Also, please note that I dropped Kaitlyn off right after we had been swimming and she refused to let me put her hair in a ponytail....

Summer handing out their certificates.

Thanks Summer for such a FUN week! Kaitlyn is already talking about going next year!

As soon as we got home Cora and Claire wanted to get right into Kaitlyn's art bucket and use some of her new supplies!

Such a serious artist...

And speaking of creativity...I NEED A BLOG MAKEOVER!!! I am so bored with the way my blog looks. Everyone has such cute ones now and I am just not up with the times. Can anyone out there do this for me, or know of someone who can? Do all these fancy schmancy blogs cost money..or is there a free way to do it? I'm clueless..help a girl out.

Top 10 Things (in random order) that made my 30th Memorable...

10. I was woken up by Kaitlyn who was wearing a Home Depot apron with a note pad in the pocket, and a nice napkin draped over her arm. She said "Good morning, Ma'am. What would you like for breakfast?" I thoroughly enjoyed my fruity pebbles, banana, and Sunny D.

9. Kaitlyn also sang a song for me that she wrote. It was SO sweet and a really pretty tune! She later told me that she heard it on a TV show awhile ago, but I didn't care. It was sweet hearing it from her voice.

8. James got into my Google Reader and emailed everyone who's blog that I faithfully read. He asked them to post a Happy Birthday blog to me...and so many of them did it! I was SHOCKED when I woke up and saw that all of the titles were about me. Crazy...It was so thoughtful of everyone to do that! I will print them out and keep them forever!

7. Cora decided to tell me (many times throughout the day) all of the things that God made. I just loved her list:
* trees
* birds
* coconuts
* Barbies
* Sprite
* lemonade
* dogs
* fish
* lip gloss

6. My mom called me at 9:05 AM. The exact time I was born. She does it every year and I love it.

5. I got to keep Ava and Pierson for the day. I LOVED listening to Ava sing all of her Annie songs. She said some HI-LARIOUS things throughout the day that literally made me laugh out loud. We set up a tent and she crawled in there by herself and just starting singing (at the top of her lungs) "DESPERADO!!!!!"

4. My friend Holly brought me a TON of balloons! I don't remember the last time I had balloons on my birthday! I loved it!

3. I got to spend some quality time with Halsa and left with a great new haircut. (Not much different, just trimmed up a bit)

2. Some shopping time by myself, thanks to a generous gift card from my parents!

1. Got to see The Proposal with a couple of fun friends. Great movie...go see it if you haven't!

It was a wonderful day, and I feel ready to face a new decade! Thanks again to all of my blog friends for your sweet words yesterday!!!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY LESLIE !!!!!!

Just so you know this is James. I wanted to do something special for my wife today because she deserves it.

As I write this she is watching the Bachelorette.

One of the many things I find cute about her are her little quirks. She has to watch this show on Monday's, it doesn't matter if it's 11:00pm at night. Another thing is her ability to buy barbecue sauce. We must have about 15 bottles at our house right now because she always thinks we're out. I love that because we won't be out till 2020 but its funny to see a new bottle in the pantry.
Diet Dr. Peppers. We love DDP's with a passion. I've had two tonight.

But that's not what this blog is about. It's about how a special women, mother, daughter, friend is turning 30. She has been on this earth and her impact will be felt for generations. I love this. I love that she also thinks I'm checking fantasy baseball scores right now.

She is a special person and God put her on this earth over 10,000 days ago and she has not wasted one of them.

Tomorrow will be no different. I hope she has a wonderful day and I hope she is able to enjoy such a joyous milestone in life.

I love you.

P.S.

Another one of her quirks is reading blogs. I mean big time reader of blogs. However, if I was her, I would check these blogs below out.

Hannah
Kristen
Sara W.
Kara
Meredith M.
Meredith C.
Ann
Alyssa
Summer
Ashley
Sara H.
Jordan
Amanda F.
Courtney H.
Lindsay H.
Martha
Jackie
Brenna
Annalee
Erica
Amy B.
Becky H.
Holly F.

Hope you have a great day.

Angel Fire!

Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation?! We have been gone for about 10 days and I am exhausted! We had such a great time though. My parents took us and my brother and sister in law on a wonderful week long get-a-way to Angel Fire, NM. It was so nice to be away from this Texas HEAT and up in the mountain air. We did lots of fun things and had plenty of time to hang around the house and relax. It was the perfect mix. I'll let the pictures tell the story. True to form for my blog, the pictures are not in order of occurrence...or any order for that matter. And, WARNING - there are a lot of them!

Neil and Claire checking out the lake in Eagle Nest.

Mom and Dad. It was so fun to watch my Dad during the week. The mountains truly are his happy place.

There was a really fun little park near our house that we took the girls to play at. Most of my pictures here turned out blurry, but I'm sooo glad this one didn't. Neil had a blast jumping out of the swing! I'm pretty sure he had more fun at the park than the girls did.

Sweet Cora...

One of our deer sightings. This one was just behind our house.

Kaitlyn in deep concentration while fishing.

This is Claire's scrunchy nose face that she has been making lately..

Paddle Boats! Cora loved leaning over and dragging her hands in the cold water.

Neil, Brittany and Kaitlyn. We had a race between our three boats. This was the team that CHEATED!!! They totally turned our boat around.

Claire gettin' ready to get on the boat. I am SO glad adult life jackets don't have the butt crack strap.

We also got to go on a long horse back ride! Kaitlyn was so excited that she got to ride all by herself. She did SO great with it. She only got a little scared on our way back down the mountain. (It was a little steep) But we had a wonderful guide that helped her feel comfortable. I know she will have great memories from this. Her horses name was Willy Wonka.

One night James and I got to go out with Neil and Britt while my parents watched the girls. I'm pretty sure we hit all of the restaurants in Angel Fire. All 3 of them.

"Fine food and LIBATIONS?" Why can't you just say drinks?

We went into Taos earlier that day to shop around the square and eat lunch. We all got some souvenirs and yummy food!

View of the ski slopes.

Our house was awesome. There was a deck outside of every room! One of the decks we had a great hot tub! The girls used it as a heated pool during the day, and at night it was no nice to relax in.

The house all nestled in the trees.

Pappy and Claire checking out some sticks.

It was obvious that other kids play in the woods by the house. Kaitlyn found a couple of forts, a swing, and even a ladder going up a tree.

This was in Taos on the square. (Told ya my pics weren't in order)

My dad wanted a picture with the girls in front of this random gorilla. I just love what each of them are doing. Especially Claire's arms.

The friendly bear on the porch.
Another view of the house.

Thanks Mom and Dad for such a wonderful trip!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Kaitlyn!!

I'm a little late in posting..but my sweet girl (that just told her younger sister if she didn't leave her alone she would sit on her face) turned 6 last Friday!!! I truly can not believe it has been 6 years since she was born. She was pretty specific on what she wanted to do for her party this year. She wanted to invite just a few friends and spend the night at a hotel here in town. Pretty fun idea! So my mom and I packed into a room with 7 six year olds for the night. We ordered pizza, had cake and ice cream, made bracelets, and did lots of swimming in the indoor pool.

She also asked for breakfast in bed, but when she decided to wake up at 6:00, I didn't get the chance to make that happen. So, I went to McDonald's and got her some breakfast and let her eat it on the couch. Good enough, right?

Oh, she also had her last day of swim lessons on her birthday. Mr. L and the other 2 kids in her class sang Happy Birthday to her under water. She loved this last year so I was glad they did it again.

We had so much fun celebrating her day. She truly is one of the funniest people I know. She makes me laugh on a daily basis.

We love you Kaitlyn. We are so proud of you!

the pics aren't in order, sorry!

Claire definitely enjoyed the pizza....

Meet Sam!!!

This is what we surprised Kaitlyn with for her 6th birthday! He is sooooo sweet. He is half cocker spaniel, half poodle. The breeder called him a cock-a-poo, but I don't like that name for 2 reasons.

1. It just sounds inappropriate. haha
2. It sounds like the name of a bird.

But whatever he is called, Kaitlyn was SHOCKED. We met the breeders about 40 miles outside of town..she had no idea where we were going. When she saw the man with a puppy, she immediately was like, "Mom! Look at that cute dog!" To which I replied, "Happy Birthday!" She just froze and said, "That's MY puppy?!?!" She was so excited and he immediately took to her. They have been inseparable for the past 24 hours.

In other news.. BRENNA IS HOME! She has been in Egypt working with the youth there for the past year. I could not wait to get myself to DFW to see her! I loved this "hat." Her brother wore that in the airport when they went to go pick her up. Sooo great.

Welcome home Brenna! Come to Abilene soon!!

A Visit with Papa....and nasty feet!

I'll begin this blog on a good note. This weekend we went to Ft. Worth to visit my Papa, my Dad's dad. He's been in a nursing home for awhile and we hadn't been to see him in too long. One of my cousins that I haven't seen in probably 15 years was in town with 2 of her boys..so we decided to try and all meet there to take a BIG family picture with Papa. Unfortunately, we didn't all get there at the same time for the picture, but we did get a few with just our family. It was great to see him...although a little bit hard to see him the way he his. He is so super skinny, on oxygen, has a really hard time walking. But, he can still tell stories and make us all laugh like he always has.

3 Generations...

Cora was not interested in smiling for the camera, but I'm glad I have this one of me and Papa.

LOVE THIS ONE.

Now for the disgusting-ness that is all 3 of my daughters FEET. Cora's happened first. She somehow got the cuticle part of her big toe infected and it caused the whole entire toe to turn pink and purple and swell up real big. Dr. put her on some strong sulfur-based antibiotics and told us to soak it for 10 minutes 4 times a day until it went away.

Then, while we were in Ft. Worth on Saturday, Kaitlyn parked herself in a HUGE fire ant bed long enough for them to take over her right foot and leave lots of lovely swollen ant bites. They are no longer swollen, but they turned into little bruises literally covering her foot.

And as for Claire...yesterday when she woke up from her nap her right foot was very swollen, VERY red, and hot to the touch. She wouldn't stand or walk on it at all. It didn't look like it had a bite anywhere. With it being Sunday, we headed to Dr. J's Express Care and found out she did get bit by something probably a couple of days ago and it had now turned into some kind of staph or strep infection. We avoided getting a shot, but she is now also on a strong antibiotic and we are keeping an eye out for the dreaded "red streaky line" going up her leg. That would be bad.

Other than THAT.... we are doing great! This week we are busy with Kaitlyn's second week of swim lessons, and getting ready for her 6th Birthday on Friday!! ALSO... my cousin Brenna gets back from Egypt tomorrow and I'm going to DFW to see her. It's been a year and I can hardly wait!!!!!