"Meet the Classroom" day at school

This morning it was meet your classroom day at Addyson's new school. It was good practice for us having to get up and out of the house so we could get there by 9:00. We made it(with time to spare, surprisingly) to St. Peter's to see Addyson's brand new school and class! Her age group's class mascot is the dolphin, which Addyson thinks is pretty neat...

We got to see her teachers again, play with some toys, and meet some new friends. The little one wasn't ready when it was time to go, a great sign that she likes it.

Just as I snapped the last picture of the class Ryan says, "Umm, have you taken enough pictures?" I think he was embarrassed by my motherly instinct to take lots of pictures of my baby's first big girl class, oh well, I'm glad I got them! :)

We're excited for her to start next week, it's been a LONG Summer and we're all ready to get back into our school routine!

***The yellow picture is a collage that Ryan made. The teacher had us make a place mat for Addyson to eat her snacks and lunch on, so as you can see we had lots of fun with it!

Happy Birthday Addyson LeeAnn!

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago today our oldest made her big debut into our little family. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were driving pretty quickly from Lake Jackson to the hospital in Houston to have Addyson. On the way Ryan remembered that he didn't have a memory card for our new camera. I couldn't believe that we were going to have to stop on the way when I was having really BAD contractions already, oh that was a nightmare...

Addyson arrived the next morning at 3:45, guess she didn't really want any of us to get any sleep(and not much has changed;-)!

She is such a treasure to our family and we couldn't imagine life without her. She is my best friend, and I tell her daily...She is so funny, she is quick witted and keeps us laughing all the time. She's a great big sister to Delaney, she's so smart, and she's fun to snuggle...

I'm so blessed to have her in my life and I can't wait to see the person that she'll become one day, I know she'll definitely make a place for herself in this world.

I love you little one!

Welcome Fall!

OK so technically Fall is still a few weeks away, but I decided a few years ago that Labor Day was the kick off to Fall in my book.

Yesterday at the store I picked up a really good smelling pumpkin candle, and this morning I broke out my Fall wreath and out it on the front door.

After I lit the candle and put the wreath up I could see Ryan looking at me like maybe I was a crazy person;) I get so excited at the mere thought of cooler weather. I had so much energy this morning and got a ton of stuff done around here. I seem to move faster when it's colder. I know, I know, it's STILL in the upper 90's as far as the temps. around here go, but with my wreath up and the smell of pumpkin I'm officially in Fall mode.

I asked Addyson what she wanted to be for Halloween this year and she quickly responded, "Belle Mom! She is the prettiest princess!"(I started feeling a bit guilty at that moment that we opted not to go to Disney World this year). Then I asked her what Little Lane should be and she says, "A bug...A LADYBUG!" So I hunted for costumes online and found some really cute ones for my girls.

Now for that first fire in the fireplace...Bliss!

**and a cute pic of the little one just after her bath last night:)

Happy Birthday Dad!

We all gathered last night at my parent's house to celebrate my Dad's birthday. I'm not sure if he'd want me sharing what number birthday this was for him;-) The only people missing at the party were Maw Maw, the reason my Dad is here in the first place, and Courtney and her boys, that would have made the celebration complete!

It was a fun time...The kids all swam, we ate yummy steak, and my Mom made a really good Texas sheet cake. I think I could have eaten the cake icing by the spoon full, but my hips wouldn't have appreciated that!

Hope it was a great Birthday Dad!

***and notice his longhorn orange shirt, Go Horns!!!

Egypt a no go!

Can you feel my sense of relief? I think moving overseas for a few years would have definitely been an adventure, and a great opportunity, but maybe not with 2 kids under the age of 4. I think Ryan wanted to go, but he had his reservations too.

I think the final decision maker was the other night when I was looking at furniture/wall decor for the girls' rooms online and I wanted Ryan to see it. He said, "Can we just hold off for a little while to get all that stuff?" I'm sure at the time he just wasn't sure what the plan was as far as a move to Egypt. I told him I wished that we could make a decision one way or the other so we could move on with our lives, and that I was ready to make our house more of a home. I think he realized then that my heart was set on staying, but I also didn't want him to have second thoughts later if he really wanted to go. He's fine with staying, he has a few other things in the works as far as work is concerned, so we feel good about it all the way around.

On to the next chapter in our lives!

Farewell to the games

I have to say it's a bittersweet thing for me to say goodbye to the 2008 Olympic games. Bitter because Ryan and I have really enjoyed watching the games and cheering on our USA Olympians, sweet because we can all now get to bed earlier each night! We'd get so hung up on watching the events that we wouldn't realize it was close to midnight, and we have 2 little girls that like to wake up just about the time the sun does. And I'll be glad to say goodbye to all the Chinese Olympians that seem to have swept most of the gold medals. Each time a Chinese diver stepped onto the platform to dive Ryan and I would let out a moan, well, Ryan probably said more than that;-) One night Addyson stayed up a bit later and we were watching the diving. One of the Chinese performed a pretty good dive and she says, "Yay!! GOOD JOB!" Uh no little one, wrong team to cheer for?! I guess the Summer Olympics have a special place in my heart. The day of the opening ceremonies of the 96' Olympics in Atlanta brought along a lot of pain to my parents, sisters and me. We lost our beloved dog Chesley that we grew up with, so that will always stand out. On a much sweeter note, the start of the 2000 Summer games in Sydney brought with it the start of a pretty neat new romance for me! Ryan and I started dating that Summer and I remember us watching a lot of the games over dinners out, with friends at his apartment, etc. The 2004 Athens games were just as special. I guess at the time I didn't think it was so special being on bed rest and just about to give birth to Addyson LeeAnn. ALL I did was lay in bed and watch the Olympics and about every hour getting a call from Ryan, "Are you in the bed? Remember, you aren't supposed to get out of the bed unless it's to go to the bathroom or to get something to eat, remember???" :) The Beijing games are neat because Miss De-lane is now part of our family. Plus, Ryan's younger brother Jordan is serving his mission in Taipei Taiwan right now, fairly close to where the games are being held... So long Beijing!

Operation!

I remember playing this game as a kid, and my sister Brandy always winning! I'd get so frustrated, and I look back on that now and laugh, I acted just the way Addyson does now when she looses a game, guess I can't get too upset with her about it?? :) Ryan and I both liked this game as kids so we decided to add it to our collection of games.

We played last night for Family Home Evening and it was really fun. At first Addyson got a little freaked out at the buzzing sound, but she quickly warmed up to it. We played a few rounds and Addyson won all of them! Well, Ryan helped her with the surgical procedures a little bit, ha ha

They've added a new "ailment", Brain Freeze. I thought it was funny, and it's actually the easiest one to remove...

I took a few pics because well, I love my new camera, and it was a fun night!