oops...

Horrible, horrible, horrible!!! I could blame it on moving (again), kids, etc...I'm just a slacker! I doubt anyone even remembers I'm alive, or at least my blog. It's not dead, just in a slacker coma. My inattention to my blog was brought to my attention and I promised I'd get right on it, so here I am.

So much has been happening, but I don't think I'll bombard my blog with pictures, maybe just a brief catch-up summary and a few fun photos. So, the last time I blogged was when we went camping over Easter weekend...ouch! Since then, Cali celebrated her 3rd Birthday and we've bought a little house (manufactured home...trailer house, if you will) and moved, again. We're liking it just fine. A little "snug" but we're making due. Marcus has quit his job and is back in school...yay... It's been really tough, but we're doing alright. We're finally feeling settled and having a fun summer!

Without getting into too much detail, that's about the extent of the summer. We've had swim lessons, fun with cousins, fun with grandparents, and fun with friends. But, the funnest part has been just recently. Marcus and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary in July!! And just this past weekend I was able to get away for a Girl's Weekend in Houston for 2 nights! We went and saw the Broadway production of "Wicked", at lots of good food, and did lots of good shopping!! What else could a girl want? I'm getting ready for my "baby" sister to come for a visit this coming weekend while my parents are in Africa. They'll be spending time in Ghana and returning home with my youngest brother from his mission. I can't believe it's already been two years, but he'll be home the day before Peyton's first Birthday!! No, I can't believe she'll be a year old already too!!! Much to blog about coming up too...I'll stay on top of things!

Here are a couple fun pictures of the things we've been up to this summer:

Cali in her swim lessons. She earned a pair of Tinkerbell flip-flops for doing so well!

Austin is a natural-born fish, but he did swim lessons to be able to swim "correctly"...like doing different strokes and breathing and diving. He did really great!

This was the day my nephew Hunter was Baptized! This is Marcus' entire family...his parents in the middle, his brother, Justin, beside him with his wife, Caryn, and their three kids (Hunter at the bottom by Austin, Taylor sitting with Grandma, and Tucker on Grandpa). And, of course, us.

We went out to Sam Rayburn Resevoir the day after 4th of July. Marcus' whole family came and even some extras...uncle, aunt, cousins, their kids...it was a blast! Definitely a post to come!

Whenever we go out and about, this is me and Peyton. She loves chillin on my back and getting to be up high and watching the kids. Not that I carried her for 9 months, or carry her around the house or anything, I guess Marcus did all that and he needed a break. ;) (We must have been out for a walk or something as a family.)

Peyton will get her own post when her birthday rolls around, but just a few things about this crazy little girl (because most of you don't know her from lack of information!!): She loves, loves, loves her Daddy. She could be on the other end of the house when he gets home, but as soon as she hears his voice she bee-lines it in his direction. No joke!

And she's quite the ham, just like the other two. She's shy when she meets someone new, but gets crazy quick. She loves blowing raspberries and sticking out her tongue. She eats lots of different things, but if she doesn't like something, she'll definitely let you know. She's cruising along the furniture and tries to stand on her own, but she can only do it for a couple seconds. She'll get there, hopefully not too soon. She's getting too big WAY too fast!! More to come when she hits the big 1st Birthday next month.

We're having a great summer and it's not over yet. We still have much to do and many events on the calendar, so I'll be better at sharing because it's gonna be a blast!

Spring is for Camping

I've always loved going camping. We used to go camping as a family when I was growing up in California, but we had mountains where we could hike and a stream for fishing. Southeast Texas camping is a little different, but it's still fun to simply go camping. A little challenging with little ones, but still tons of fun! Marcus starts getting the itch to go camping soon after Christmas. We can't really plan a weekend camping trip until about March because of the wonderfully unpredictable weather of southeast Texas, and even then we still take our chances. This year we've been camping twice already and both times we got rained on! The first time we were lucky enough to be in a shelter, but the second time, over Easter weekend, we were in a tent...ugh! Everyone and everything stayed dry, but it's not as fun when you can't sit around the campfire and enjoy the nightly ritual of camping...s'mores!! We made the most of it and had some really fun family time in our tent while Peyton slept. Ahhh...memories!

Marcus and his brother, Justin, matchy matchy....so cute!Cruisin' on the pontoon boat."These are MY chips Grandma"Austin and his cousin, Hunter, enjoying the ride on Grandpa's boat.JD and Caryn cruisin' kidless

The first time we went camping, we went with another family that has three kids....one's 15, one's 9 and one's 6. The exact opposite ages of ours and reverse gender...girl, girl, boy and ours is boy, girl, girl...which actually worked out nicely. Their oldest liked my baby, their middle girl played with Cali, and their little boy and Austin both turned 6 in January! Perfect! And we had a great time with the parents too. :)

The Men fishing

Marcus and his "mini me"

We went for a walk out on a trail and Cali found herself a "walking stick"....lol
Bringing up the rear

Peyton just couldn't last

Austin and his sticks....oops, I mean swords!

Crossing the bridge

Cleaning the catch for dinner...yum!

The kids liked being on the boat, even when it was docked.

I had a great time camping, but I got my fill and I'm done for the year. Time to rest up for camping 2011.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend. We were able to go camping, again, but this time with family. Our little family, Marcus' parents, and Marcus' brother's family. We've done this now for three years and I love getting together each year. It's great to have all the cousins together and let Grandma and Grandpa do their thing, the dads do their thing, and my sil and I get to chat and chill...well, sometimes it works out that way. We got to spend a little time out on the river in my father-in-law's boat with all the kiddos and everyone went fishing (all but me and my sil and Peyton)....but there were no fish in the pond, bummer! The kids played a lot of baseball/catch, running around with sticks, and playing on a nearby playground...they slept GREAT both nights!! I even snuck into town Saturday morning to run a 5K with a good friend...I went for moral support. We did alright, but next year we're going to do way better and hopefully even place among the top runners...maybe. ;)

How sweet...matching brothers!!

This is my niece and youngest nephew...we were on our way back to the dock because they were done, if you can't tell.Austin and counsin, Hunter, have become baseball buds.
Cali was worn out, but still wanted to help drive...just didn't want her picture taken. (she fell asleep in the car back to camp and I had to wake her up for dinner!!)

Peyton loved the boat!These were the kids' baskets that the Easter Bunny brought...they were filled with a kite, a little deck of cards, a special something for each individual, and a couple eggs with jelly beans. What a sweet Bunny...but not a rich bunny. :)

Austin had already found his max so he was conning Cali out of some of hers...hmmm.

This is the week before Easter right before heading to church. I love coordinating much better than matching...even I was wearing green and Marcus had a blue/yellow tie. awww... Look at my sweet little Cali finding her eggs Easter morning!!
Peyton and Daddy were watching all the kids scrounging for eggs thru the yard. Think she looks like Austin much??

I hope everyone had a Wonderful Easter weekend...we sure did!

February Update

TeeBall has begun. Tryouts went really well for Austin...he hit all three balls and even made the boys that were catching back up! He even caught his three grounders and threw them right back to the coach. After tryouts, all the coaches wanted Austin on their team! They can "protect" up to 2 players and the rest they get in the draft...just like the big leagues. It's pretty serious. We went with the Dodgers!! Go Dodgers!! And somehow I got wrangled into being the team mom...definite posts coming from that one! ...sigh...Austin smoked 'em!!
These are the beautiful rings my sweet honey got me for Valentine's day....our birthstones.This was from a party I went to with a bunch of my girlfriends. It was "Oscar Night" themed, that's why we're all gussied up, and we were having a little too much fun with our cameras...getting just the right pose. heehee! I caught my girlfriend snapping pictures of herself while I was snapping pictures of myself....what dorks!! But we had so much fun!! Peyton is getting some snuggle time with her Daddy right before bed...

...and Daddy's on the phone (he snuck it away right before I took the picture). What a surprise! But Peyton sure loves her Daddy...awww...dadadada is all we hear.

February also brought a Valentine's day party at Austin's school. I'm still waiting for the pictures from his teacher because I forgot my camera, but Cali got her hands on a red cupcake with red frosting and you can only imagine what her face looked like...red! She looked like a clown. Austin's teacher thought it was the funniest thing and was taking pictures of her and even calling other teachers in to come see the cute little clown in her room. Cali was a big event! She loves going to Austin's school, especially when she's the center of attention.

It's spring break right now and we're getting ready to go camping for a few days, so I'll be better about taking pictures and getting more updates of the kids.

Updates

I survived January and in my family that's a huge accomplishment! There are honestly 7 birthdays in my immediate family in January alone...not to mention that my hubby's is the 30th of December (Happy belated 30th Birthday honey!!). And my younger sister had her first baby on January 6th, which makes it 8...whew! So a quick recap of the birthdays: My mil, my step-mom, my bil, my dad, my baby sister, my son and myself (and now my niece). Any other month of the year might have one or two, but January sure hits us hard.

For Marcus' birthday I threw him a surprise party that he walked in on early. I don't want to talk about it... Austin turned 6 this month and I can hardly believe it! We went the day before his birthday and he helped pick out a new bike for himself. Marcus made the mistake of heading to the actual bicycle shop first and Austin chose this beautiful red bike that he fell in love with but it was $200!!!!! Ouch!! We told him that we'd have to do a little more shopping and see if we could find something a little more reasonable, that went well. We did end up having a talk and he chose a red bike that was cool, but not nearly as cool as the original choice. He still loves it and told me, "it's pretty fast, but not as fast as the other bike I wanted." Poor guy. I really wish I could have bought him that awesome, expensive bike. We can all dream.

For my own birthday I got to go out to dinner with a group of friends to the Olive Garden. We had a great time! Marcus got me a couple cds and a certificate to a local day spa. Now all I have to do is find the time...*sigh* The kids love birthdays, so I did get to hear "Happy Birthday Mommy" all day from Cali and they sang the birthday song more than a couple times during the day. I'm birthday'd out.

Little Miss Peyton decided to start rolling all over the place. Last week I came in to find her across the room trying to get into Marcus' church bag. They seriously grow WAY too fast! She's eating foods, sleeping all night, rolling all around, and I even caught her rocking on her knees already...someone slow this girl down, please!! Look at those big eyes! We call her Suzy Who. lol

Miss Cali girl figured out how to push her pedals on her trike recently and is "needing" a new bike like Austin's, or so she says. I have to try and slow that girl down too, literally. She knows her colors, sings her ABC's and is starting to recognize them, and she loves doing whatever Austin's doing (which drives him nuts). She's 2 going on 12...I have no idea where she gets it. (*blush*)

Austin has been making a splash at school too. They had an awards day and he walked away with 4 this time. He was awarded "Fantastic Report Card" for exactly that and "Pirate Pride" (that's their mascot). He also made 3rd place in the Advanced Reading program. He was actually a little upset that he didn't get first place and vowed to work extra hard to get first next time...competitive much? He even received a very specialy award that's only given to two kids from each class call the "Best Citizen" Award for excellent citizenship, showing responsibility, having good manners and such. What a stud!! Pardon my bragging...