Jeweled Crown: January 2012

It is actually 2 years because it's been 2 years since our last phone purchase. We had Blackberries which the quality of the pictures is down right horrible at times but I wanted to capture our day to day lives in a post that I can look back on.

As you will see this is the raw us! Messy house, no makeup and apparently some neglectful parenting on my part (oh what the kids will do when I am not looking).

March 2000

Frita- 5 years old and still in Big Red (the Ford Escape- 3 car seats across).

I was secretly praying that all 3 car seats would not fit and we would have to buy a new car. We went about 3 years without a car payment and it wasn't until a year later that a "new" car would enter into our family. I do miss the closeness that the Big Red brought.

Sweet Dixie and the swing in the living room. Little Lou was just one month old.

Smile Rich and our tiny new born.

Our first pair of glasses. Not so excited.

Mama De treated Frita to a tea party so we took the little ones to the park. And yes we have learned that it is not ok to hit or throw balls in the house.

Capturing pictures of my almost 2 month old that is filling out nicely!

Playing in the yard and loving that my kids like to clean the car!

April 2010

This is when we still shopped at Kroger (before they changed their coupon policy and I got mad and changed to Walmart) and also when I was crazy enough to shop with the whole family. Let me give credit where credit is due. Richard is the best father ever!

Father-Daughter camp out 2010. I was very scared that this weekend would be a disaster. There had been lots and lots of screaming lately and I just knew it would continue with out a break. As soon as Rich and Frita pulled out of the driveway we headed on a Mommy date to get ice cream and play in the fountains. Not one scream was heard all weekend. It was just a beautiful, precious time with my boy.

The beginning of the unloading of our closet. This is a continual thing. I do need to find some lock for my closet!

This is the end of our bottle. I waited a little longer than I would have liked but I didn't want him to associate the loss of a bottle with his new sister. On the right- just like Daddy.

So many fishing trips. That's my girl who is not afraid of anything. She even puts her own worms on the hooks and that of Daddy's friends that are afraid to do it themselves.

Big fish swim in The Woodlands! It's all catch and release but the bass put up a good fight and plus there's no cleaning involved. Gotta love fishing with a tiny one in tow.

We're even proud of the little ones!

May 2010

Bird watching with Papa in Galveston.

Sweet Little Lou 3 months old. Love that double chin.

Such a big boy! Waiting for Daddy down in his lobby.

Cinco de Mayo at Market Street. Yes I want to get my face painted- no wait it's too scary!

Mother's day 2010. We took Mom to Pappa's Seafood and Tres found a new ride. No we weren't driving just sitting in the parking lot.

Our friends got the opportunity to go to Israel for a vacation and we got their kiddos for a few days. It was craziness but such sweet memories!

This was our first caterpillar! We have found many since but it is super fun for the kids to watch them turn into butterflies.

Always fun to dress up your little brother. This is what happens when I'm breastfeeding!

June 2010

Little Lou happy as ever and 4 months old.

This is what our living room looks like on most days! And yes boys will ride anything!

Daddy Daughter Date night at Chick Fil A.

New hair cut! Love love love Veronica!

Mommy date to Sonic. This boy would eat his weight in hot dogs if I let him.

The was for 3 sweet friends of Frita's.

Our 4th of July dress!

July 2010

Fourth of July parade!

See you can decorate boys too, kind of?

And then there was number four added to the sweet family we're friends with.

Dixie, Dixie, Dixie Dog!

This is AWESOME! How many camera's can you spot?

Re-caulking the shower! Looked so much better after it was done.

This is a Toy Story cake for our neighbor! Imagine all the characters.

August 2010

Whataburger had free burgers for everyone who dressed up in orange. So off we went! And no I did not let Bub were his "blue for boys" hat out of the house. That boy needs a brother!

Dixie Light Year to the rescue!

This was one of those moments that I'm not so proud of. He found glitter glue got it all over himself and then magically made the glue disappear. To this day I have not found the source.

And then there was a play/school room. I love that I am blessed enough to have a separate room to enjoy with the kids. And then close it when it's all said and done. IKEA was a life saver!

Richard decided it would be a good idea to decorate a table at the Chairman's Ball. It was a Rock n Roll theme. I bought a Wii guitar off Woodlands Online, decorated it with a rhinestone Edward Jones and Richard even signed it. It was complete with rocky road cup cakes.

Again with the boys riding things.

Yee Haw! And my sweet girls. Little Lou is 6 months old.

Oh the monster trucks of it all! Bub loves monster trucks.

Soccer begins, Rich is the coach.

September 2010

Little Lou 7 months old.

We found out that we would be getting a new Michigan cousin.

A Mommy date on top and dressing up on one of our many trips to Joanns.

Bub has to wear a patch 2 hours a day to strengthen his eye. He's such a champ.

New Mexico 2010! This picture cracks me up with Bub.

Little Lou starts to crawl in Red River.

Gotta love Mama De baths!

Yummy tacos before we head out of town. And the Santa Fe Flea Market. One of my favorite places to go.

Anything to keep a 6 month old happy on the long ride from New Mexico to Houston.

October 2010

Picnics in the front yard.

Richard did you give that baby chocolate ice cream?????

See more proof of the crazy disastrous living room.

Yes I was doing something else when Bub helped himself to the fridge, got out a tub of butter, one spoon and found this cozy seat in our recycling bin. Yuck! I guess he gets this from me because when I was little I used to eat crisco.

Our small group boys got crowns this year.

Waiting for Daddy to come home. Yes we are still in our pajamas at 5pm!

Father Son camp out and we headed out to paint pottery.

Trying on the Chicken costume circa 2006.

November 2010

One of the best tricks we have found is when the kids ask to buy something in the store we say let's take a picture and maybe we'll get it for Christmas. Works great every time.

Monster Truck!!!

Riding horses! And one of Bub's best buds!

The pillowcase dresses! This one was for the rehearsal dinner of Eric and Alyssa's wedding.

Mom I'm ready to go to the store. Yes a diaper, flip flips and the diaper bag. Just the bare necessities.

Banner boy has come to visit! He plopped down right in the middle of Frita's writing lesson. She is not happy. He just wants to be a part of it all. Sweet boy.

Children's festival 2010

December 2010

Frita loves to dress up Little Lou! She's 9 months old.

I made this cute tree skirt. It was a lot more labor intensive than I had planned.

Daisy really wants this bone. Maybe if she gets close enough Dixie will give it up.

Bub dressed in his Christmas pjs and Frita gets a mommy made Bible bag for Christmas.

This is what most walks end up looking like. I'm tired I don't want ride my scooter anymore!

Maxin and Relaxin! But mom it's more comfortable to eat with my foot on my tray!

January 2011

Again with the Father of the Year award. He let's the kids dress him up and every once in awhile he might have pink toe nails.

This is Alfred, he is our pet stag horn fern. One of Richard's clients raised him, which is not easy to do, and gave it to him. Alfred was his given name so we kept it.

Can anyone say ET?

I got my saw, hammer and haw hat (supposed to be yee haw hat)! Rich getting ready for Hawaii with P90X baby! Bub says "I pull up, I pull down."

Look Mom I learned how to do a new trick!

Nice stained hands from coloring fondant black!

Aunt Missy got me a huge cupcake mold. The kids were so excited, "Look Mom Aunt Missy got us hats!"
February 2011

A little break from our Walmart shopping trip.

This year we made and sold cake balls for Valentine's Day!

Mom take a picture of these cool boots! And of course harmonica playing while potty training. The best part of this is Daisy, the boxer involuntarily howling to the harmonica off camera. Yes it is crazy in this house!

Touch a Truck 2011! Every imaginable truck gather so all the kids can touch them.

March 2011

Mom take pictures of us, we want this for our birthday!

Our First Edward Jones Trip!! Kauai here we come!
Richard had been working with Jones for just about 5 years when he qualified for his first trip. We chose to go to Kauai, HI. This was our first trip since our honeymoon, 6 years ago!!! I needed this so bad. Mama De and Grammy split the week looking after kids.

This is the view from breakfast. The first of many rainbows quickly turned into a double rainbow. Wow you can see God everywhere in Kauai.

There were literally thousands of chickens on this island. There are no natural predators on the island so they are everywhere.

View from our Lanai and a sunset that the cell phone just couldn't do justice to the colors.

Look kids we got a yellow jeep!

Kalypso's for happy hour and yes we were tsunami survivors! We got woken up at 2am to evacuate to the 9th floor. It was such a posh hotel they brought in a piano player and had drink stations set up. Pretty sure it felt like the Titantic and we were going down. Seriously though it was kinda scary. Ended up not being dangerous but they had to make sure. Gotta love hearing what sounded like WWII sirens.

Big boy at soccer practice.

This is a portrait from Frita, "A girl about to put her glasses on." Awesome.

Upon arriving home from Hawaii, Big Red had died. We got him fixed and then he began to sputter as we drove down the highway after all he was 11 years old and was a Ford. It was a little before dinner time, I had a migraine and we decided to test drive a few cars to see what we were going to buy. The kids were nuts and ran circles around the dealership, much screaming was involved-so hungry. Somehow in record time they gave us our asking price and terms along with about 10 of the gigantic balloons from the lot. Welcome to the family Blanche. I named her after Blanche Devereaux from the Golden Girls because the color reminded me of her hair!

Getting ready for the big Mexican Birthday Bash!

Oh my goodness! I made this very fun pinata cake for the kids. I woke up at 5:45am to get ready for the day of the party and this is what I found. I thought I was still asleep. Not I wasn't it actually happened. I was able to salvage a good part of it and it wasn't like the original but it made a come back. My first cake mishap.

April 2011

Our first tooth!

Poor Tres was sick and we had made several stops that morning. Since he was sick I let him take Big Bear on the trip. We got back in the car and he was gone!! We re-traced our steps twice and found him at the pediatricians- oh he was so happy.

Father Daughter camp out 2011!
May 2011

This is quite awesome! Guy's A/C does not come across quite the same in a website address.

A diaper bag for a sweet friend.

A few frog cakes!

My first $100 tank of gas.

Hanging out at the chiropractor.

Park day and awesome hair!!

A 30th birthday cake!

A doctor's appointment for a friend I only got 2 of her kids. The kids are 6, 5, 3, 1 and 1. Burger King was very loud!

Diaper bags and Little Man shirts.

Hanging at the fountains at Market Street.

A little Lowe's trip!

June 2011

A date night with my love. Kayaking on Lake Woodlands!

Checking out the hours for the recycling center for dumpster diving.

Mommy date to get a pedicure!

A new friend that made a short visit and Bub thought I would like blueberries in my coffee.

A transformer cake that didn't happen but it was a fun sketch!

The sunset's in June are beautiful. On the way home from a run.

July 2011

Diggin that hair.

An unidentified rash. Ewww.

Then there was Maui. Our second trip courtesy of Edward Jones and a great financial advisor being super at his job! We have been so blessed to be able to be a part of Jones!

We found a Sushi place that had half price sushi on Sunday for 1 hour oh my goodness. We ate ourselves silly.

Black sand beach and the aquarium.

Sand pics and Stanley pics. Stanley is our regional Edward Jones mascot. He goes all over the world and he's quite photogenic.

The one and only rainbow we saw in Maui.

Cool ornaments made with hawaiian sand.

Buzz Light Year is one of our favorites!

Awesome sunset over Faith. I can't help but think it's God smiling down. This was the night that we celebrated the Morgans' coming home from their sabatical.

I want this! Take a pic please.

Muffins and swimming!

August 2011

This one is for the Wedding montage for sure. Buzz shirt, "big woody" underwear on backwards because that's where the picture is and Mom's burgundy heels.

Opthamologist appointment for Bub!

I like these glasses Mom!

All the little one's from a POLO (parents of little one's) outing to Double Daves.

Little Lou does like to get her toes painted.

Ride the Daddy, go t town!

Bub with a lizard listening to Jack Johnson!

Fall Kick Off!

The woods behind a house down the road from ours caught on fire. We were in an extreme drought so extra measures were taken. We walked down to see it because fire engines rate right up there with monster trucks.

September 2011

I would snap pictures of gift ideas for Richard and text him so he had some clues.

Children's museum in The Woodlands.

Our new cheesy smile.

Again with the riding. This time it was t-sip. Bub gives him what for. Notice the almost permanent pile-o-laundry that lives on my couch.

Another opthamologist appointment. Every 2 months right now because his vision has been improving!

Sick babies! Oh I can't wait until they can actually hit the bucket with accuracy.

Mommy date at Red Robin YUM!

October 2011

See I CAN fit!

Poor Bub broke his arm. It was actually a buckle fracture of his radius. Funny thing about that is I called an "experienced in ER visits" friend and from a cell phone pic of his arms and a description of what happened she called it exactly.

This is my expert escape artist for clothes anyways. We now have to put her in footy pj's zipped up backwards. I've not had one of these, declothers yet. I think she also has the world record for her age group in removal of socks and tied tennis shoes.

Richard's parents let us borrow some real cowboy boots for the Cattlebarron's ball. The kids got a kick out of them!

The necklace I made for Cattlebarron's ball.

My super hero husband took all 3 kids by himself to visit his parents in San Antonio. I had 3 days all to myself and loved everyone more when they got back home. Oh and he got to shoot a deer in which we then "had" to buy a freezer to put all the meat.

One of the many shopping trips to Walmart where they like to give me a lot of food for not so much money.

Frita's first halloween costume for 2011. We made this from a plastic table cloth, doilies, staples, glue and tape. It lasted exactly one halloween event. But she was proud.

Our one and only dumpster dive for coupons. Let me specify that it was a newspaper bin so short of black fingers from the newsprint it was pretty clean.

November 2011

Richard starting taking Frita to BSF on Tuesdays so on the first night away the little one's and I ran to Chick fil A for an ice cream. Little did we know Potteryland was there so we got to paint too!

Just like big sister.

Moon flowers! Love these guys. Super easy to grow and huge blooms.

Christmas time is here at Market Street.

Just because flowers!

Went to church with Mom for Thanksgiving and they had a baptism, in the gym in a trough. Whatever it takes!

This one is all girl! I had to run to exchange a pair of jeans and this one was just plain happy to carry not 1 buy 2 purses around with her. At least it slowed her down!

Princess pumpkins, my favorite and on clearance.

This is Frankie, our 17 inch alligator lizard. He's actually quite nice and makes an excellent pet. Richard rescued him from the wild in San Antonio. I was adamant that he was not to stay in my house. He's grown on me and all the kids love him.

Watch out t-sip you are going down!

This is our new tactic so mom won't clean out my nose!

They were frozen looking at all the Christmas trees!

And that was that. Our Christmas tree 2011!

This was hilarious! We went to Double Dave's with our church group and Little Lou decided it would be good to spend a good bit of time watching the workers make pizzas. I can only imagine the conversation on the other side of the window b/c her face wash smushed up against the glass. They eventually added peperoni and cheese to image her face.

DECEMBER 2011

Chocolate mocha cupcakes in Starbucks cups for the big Birthday party for Jesus at Faith.

Little marshmallow men to add to the hot cocoa.

Lowe's baby!

Finally the stockings were done along with the new sign to hang over our mantle.

Tooth number 3! This one did not voluntarily come out. Frita ran across the yard and face first into a metal patio chair. No permanent damage and a visit from the toothfairy was in order.