Technical difficulties

Hello all....we have NOT fallen off the face of the Earth. I have not been able to downlowd any new pics or videos to my computer for the past month or so...any new ones I try to put on...makes my computer come to a screeching halt....have asked for one of those thingys (see how technical I am? LOL) where I can move my pics and videos so that my memory is freed up and I can begin to share our craziness with you again...but more importantly so I can catch up with my posting for our "someday" blog book of memories. Hope to be back up and running ....or should I say posting soon...we are always running around here!

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Halloween 2009

Hello all....yes, we are still alive and well. I have been terrible about posting in a timely fashion. These pics are only several weeks late. So sorry....we are at the tail and of flag football season at the moment and Holley's gymnastics season has now ended so a little more time will open up now. I just hope I can tear myself away from my farm in Farmville and Farmtown long enough to post pics of our lives...lol. Seriously, whoever invented facebook should be hung...I'm a total addict, wasting way too much time on it!! Yet I can't seem to stay away from my farms and fish! Good grief! Anyway... these pictures are from Halloween. Macie spent the evening with friends. I guess the days of dressing up and hanging out with your younger siblings and family are over...but we had Sarah (Holley's bud and our neighbor) with us this year. She is the little girl in purple. Holley and Scott both decided they wanted to "create" their costumes again this year and both decided to be hobos and Allie was a ballerina. This was the first time I have ever put her hair in a bun. She loved it. She also loved the lipstick I put on her, but she kept smiling weirdly because she was afraid it would come off...haha.

Well all...we had a spooktacular Halloween. Hope you all did as well. At least I posted these before Thanksgiving...in a week and 2 days...it could be worse I guess....lol....stay tuned...next up 4A state marching contest and Friendswood High School Marching Band....~S

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the spunkiest, sassiest, sparkliest, sensationally sweet, silliest, sixteen year old I know. My precious niece Rachel is sweet sixteen today! People....stay off the roads in the Houston-Area...I'm just sayin.. ;) love you tons Rachel!! Where's your new car? :) be sure to ask your mom! LOL...

My precious Allie. This year has been such a wonderful year! You have learned so many new things like fly fishing in Colorado, ice skating (kinda) and rock climbing (kinda) , bungee tramp jumping, learning to swim, learned to read and sooo much more. It has been such a joy to watch you graduate from pre-school and start Kindergarten this fall. I love you to pieces and can't imagine a day without you. You have to live with Mommy forever ok? Just kidding my sweet girl. It is such a joy to watch you growing up and I'm so thankful that God decided to make me YOUR mommy. He knew we needed you! I love you .

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I will try to be better at posting the crazy happenings around here!

Happy Birthday to my FAVORITE 6 year old!!!!

Happy Birthday (yesterday :( ) my sweet Allie.....pics to come...I love you!!

First Meet of the Season....

Hello all, long time no blog....fall is always crazy for the Fab four and they keep me running! We are well in to the swing of school and for the first time ever...all four are in all day school! They are all loving it and doing great! Fall sports have kicked off their seasons as well. Scott is playing flag football again this year....weren't sure we were ready for tackle...and Holley's competitive season has started as well. Today was her first meet competing for her new gym. She did great and even finished with a first place finish on Balance Beam! Way to go Holley! Bars was STILL a major struggle. Scott's team (The Vikings) won their first game as well. He was chosen the MVP of the game after pulling several flags and disrupting numerous plays (of the other teams). Way to go Scotty! Macie is still tooting her flute and has region tryouts in November and is working hard on her music. Allie is still doing gymnastics but I decided to hold off on letting her be on the competitive team, mostly because the practices are on opposite days than Holley's and it meant being there 6 days a week. It's a long drive from Boerne into SA for practice. It just didn't work for us this year. She is still taking gymnastics though....maybe next year!

Wreck 'em Tech! Beat those Longhorns!! Wish I wasn't working tomorrow so I could see the first half!!!


update: big bummer, next year!

More Colorado Fun.....

Hello all....continuing the Colorado saga.....the last day we were in Crested Butte, we spent the day at the bottom of the ski mountain. The weather was bad in the morning so we did not ride the ski lifts and hike back down which had been the original plan. Instead, we played.....they had an ice rink (which was weird because it was not ice...it was a hard, smooth plastic surface), rock wall climbing and a bungee trampoline. The fab Four had a BLAST!!! Enjoy the pictures of ice skating. I put a few video clips at the end.....you had to be there in person to get the full effect of these warm weather Texans on ice skates for the first time! It was truly hilarious, I mean, tears rolling from laughing so hard, hilarious!

Allie getting ready to head on to the rink...

Allie thinking, "Mom, I thought you said this would be fun?"

Holley having fun....she was pretty good! She better stick with gymnastics though!

A hilarious moment.....

Macie did pretty well too!

She only fell a few (Ha!) times......

Having a ton of fun!

Scott spent alot of time in this particular position! (Ha!)

He did manage to stand up some....good job , son!

Macie showing off her skating skills.....

Allie learns to adapt....

The Fab Four off to the races.....

Next post.....rock climbing....stay tuned....Love, S

Two Weeks down.....

Two weeks of school are now officially DONE!! Yeah! We are off to a great start! The kids all seem to really like their teachers and their classes....whew....

And....I know that it is sooo sad that I am just now getting around to posting more pictures from our Colorado trip this summer! But....alas....I am just one tired Mama and there are not enough hours in the day some days! But here goes.....after the longest car ride in history.....leaving the house (Allie and Me) at 745 am....we arrived in Texline around 2am Sunday and stayed the (rest of) the night with Nana and Grandpa. We headed out on the rest of the way to Colorado around 11am. What a nightmare that drive was! It took us almost 4 hours to travel about 50 miles on the highway we needed to travel on in Colorado due to major road construction and later a truck that had been totally engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. Ugh! When we arrived in a small town (can't remember the name now.....oops) about an hour from Crested Butte...We stopped at Walmart because Holley had a headache and Allie was starting to complain of a runny nose. I bought a ton of medicine and decided to throw a thermometer in the mix "just in case". We got to the car and I decided to take Allie's temp because she was a bit "whiny"...and she was running 102! So I pumped her and Holley full of meds and we continued on our way. We arrived at the house around 9pm!!! Wow!! SUPER LONG DAY!! The rest of the family was there and dinner was just coming off the grill courtesy of my brother-in-law, John. It was sure yummy! But that was no surprise! He makes the yummiest meals all the time! The next day we headed out and got our fishing licenses for the week and we went to the Spring Creek Reservoir to fish.....Holley caught the very first fish of the trip!!!

Holley fishing!

Poppy and Rachel (my precious niece!) If you look closely you will see Macie in the blue in the background standing with my sister MA...she did not particularly like fishing so I did not get any pics of her actually fishing.

Aunt Perry taught Holley and Allie proper fly fishing techniques!

Perry teaching Holley to cast....

Poppy put together every rod and reel....

Scott fishing....

Scott and my nephew Stephen....Scott loved having another boy around!

The next day, the boys...errr...men....headed out for the boys trip leaving the girls to do what we do best....shop and have a night on the town. We went to a yummy pizza place in Crested Butte (shhhh.....don't tell my trainer!) and then we had ice cream!!! We did go fishing again every day too. On the last day we went to the base of Mt. Crested Butte and had a blast watching the kids rock climb, ice skate and jump on the bungee trampoline....more pics to come .....Stay tuned, S

1st day of school 2009

Hello all.....today was a red letter day in the history of the Fab Four.....back to school 2009. Yippee! The day started out nice and early. We had breakfast and then it was time for Mom to harass the Fab Four by taking pictures....Apparently Scott had woken up about 1 am...and then slept fitfully, waking every hour or so until time to get up...he was the first kiddo up and dressed which NEVER happens.

Here are Holley and Allie eating and talking over breakfast...

The Fab Four....

Macie.....first day of 8th grade

Holley- 1st day of 5th grade

Scott- 1st day of 4th grade (he really was happy and excited- honest:-) )

Allie- 1st day of Kindergarten

Much to Allie's dismay....I insisted on driving her to her first day of Kindergarten.....J/K She was not upset that I drove her, although she is really excited to ride the bus tomorrow with the big kids. She said she's been waiting for this....(to ride the bus) for her whole life! :-)

arriving at the school...

Allie LOVES mascots (and any characters!) She almost tackled the Falcon!

See why I am such a lucky Mommy???? Sweet sisters!

Allie and her precious teacher Mrs. Jordan. We have known Mrs. Jordan for a while now. Scott had her and her son has been on Scott's football team for the past three years. She has watched Allie grow up and we desperately wanted her as Allie's teacher! We LOVE Mrs. Jordan!

Allie found her seat!

One last smile for mom!

I felt awfully strange when I left Allie at her classroom. I was the only Mom who went in, showed her where she sits and where to put her stuff etc. Then I took a few pics, hugged her, kissed her, said "I'll pick you up after school", and started to walk out. I realized that I was the only mom actually leaving. All of the other Mom's were staying. I asked Mrs. Jordan if I was supposed to stay and she smiled sweetly and said, "No, It is easier if you drop and go." I guess some of the other mommy's had a hard time leaving....don't get me wrong...the impact of this moment was not lost on me....I felt the sting of my baby growing up...but in reality, I realize how lucky I am to have had four children now who are so self-assured that they are able to face any new situation without overwhelming fear...and as for me.....I am thrilled that Allie is at such a wonderful school with such a wonderful teacher. It's going to be another awesome year for the Fab Four!

Time Warp.....Saturday, July 25, 2009.....

Scott and his counselor "Bum Belay"-sorry for the wrong order.

.....started out like a crazy, wacky day! Not only was this the day that M, H and S had to be picked up from camp, but this was the first day of travel on our long awaited trip to Colorado.

Allie and I headed towards Pine Cove- Outback (in Columbus, Tx) about 745 am. We arrived to utter chaos. We had to pick up the kids belongings and carry them to the car. Imagine, trying to carry 3 children's luggage, bedding and junk at one time. Luckily, one counselor took pity on me and said I could pile it all together and get it after the closing and promised to help me carry it all. I ran in to Macie and Holley who saw me from across the commons and came running. Holley actually almost tackled me and I wasn't sure who this child was hugging me until she let go and I could see her face. It was my Holley, with the HUGEST smile I've ever seen, who quickly told me this was the "best week of her whole life!" My earlier frustration with the luggage vanished at this point. After making a "pit stop" we headed to the closing ceremony. It was loud, noisy, hot, humid, and awesome.....they all had a great time. It was difficult getting any decent pics because of the sheer number of people crammed into the room and the constant activity but I gave it my best shot.

Macie is in the center looking in my direction.

Holley, behind the guy in the green shirt

Scott, in the green camo hat

Holley and her counselor "smack talk".

It was neat how well the counselors got to know each child during the week. They presented each child with character awards at the end of the closing.

Oh no, accidentally pushed 1 too many deletes and it deleted the pic of Scott and his counselor....oops. Will add it in at the end which means blogger will put it as the first pic but I meant for it to go here!

Macie and her counselor "AfriCan"

Macie and a buddy from camp.

This is the swimming lake with the blob, the water trampoline and the iceberg.

this is the other lake where the kids kayaked.

The pool.

This is the last thing you see as you leave camp.

The car was filled with the sounds of excited children all talking at once. Allie was excited to see her sisters and brother after a long week and the others all sang and chanted camp songs and told stories for the first hour. Then the exhaustion kicked in and it was pretty quiet the 2nd 1 1/2 hours back home. We made a ditch and run maneuver at our house. Leaving unnecessary things at home and repacking extra things for Colorado and hitting the road towards West Texas about 415pm. I've never been so glad to have 3 portable DVD players in my life. I know it is excessive but it saved my sanity I assure you. There were two in the back and Macie had one in the front to watch as well. Oh, and headphones.....the BEST invention EVER! Allie who sits in the middle of the backseat got to choose between two movies and was happy as a clam so Mommy was very happy! The emotional "down" that hits after a week of "spiritual highs" at camp, hit pretty early and I heard some sniffing from the backseat and some "Mom, I miss my counselor" or "I miss my camp friends". I think it helped that we were heading out on a big adventure though. It didn't last too long.

Please friends, remind me to never try to squeeze that much travelling into one day again. Our goal was to make it to Texline and stay the night with Nana and Grandpa. We did not get in there until almost 2 am. That made for a VERY long day! We slept well and loved seeing Nana and Grandpa. We headed out the next morning around 1115. Meant to leave earlier but our Nana spoils us and makes yummy breakfasts! Next post, day 2 of the longest road trip EVER!!!

Oh, I forgot I put this picture in here. I have not returned to Lubbock since we moved in Feb. 2000. I did not realize that along the way near Sweetwater , they have created these huge "wind energy" fields. There were hundreds and hundreds of these huge wind mill things. It was really weird and slightly unnerving to me. I'm not sure why, but driving through those hills and seeing all of these towering wind turbines really freaked me out. So, I stopped to take pictures of them. I almost felt like I was on another planet it was so weird!