mary kate is coming...

my friend camille is having her first baby! she is going to name her mary kate. we had a huge blowout baby shower to celebrate.

it wasn't just a shower.... but a reunion! here is brooke and camille:

me, brooke, camille, lisa, kelly, jamie, and michelle
(LOVE these girls and miss them terribly):

i took allie and she had a great time "feeling big." she handed camille each of her gifts as she opened them.

there were sock monkeys EVERYWHERE!!! so cute!!! and the paper flowers were made by brooke... LOVE THEM!

i'm trying to branch out in my cakes these days so i made mini cakes this time. they turned out well, but i must say i learned some things along the way AND i would have never gotten them done on time without ALOT of help! thanks girls!

we asked everyone to write a note for the blessing ring... i forgot to take a pic of the finished ring... boo! it was adorable!

here are the hostesses... simonton showers always have a zillion hostesses... SMALL TOWNS...everyone knows you! :) and i love it!

here is her loot... she made out good! i'm still keeping my eye out for a nap nanny... have you heard of that??... it looked amazing... i think baby sisco may need one! :)

dresser

we were given a dresser from GG when she passed away. we are thinking about giving it a face lift and putting it in allie's room!

UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MAKE OVER!!!

frozen supper club

I made two pots of this (gumbo):

and got this (manicotti, chicken bake, and chicken fried rice):

three other girls and i just started a frozen supper club. last week was great and i'm looking forward to this week. basically we quadruple a recipe (so that we have one for ourselves), freeze it, and switch meals on wednesday mornings. I love having options in my freezer on stressful evenings AND I only cook three to four times a week.... wooohoo!

Soccer!

caleb started soccer last week. I was so thrilled that we all got there and had what we needed, but of all things.... I forgot my camera! boo! These pics were taken w/ lance's phone. I'm just glad we got something!

a very proud boy... new cleats, shin guards, and socks too!

huddling up for the first time.

here are the boys with the asst. coaches (mr. kevin and mr. lance). we tried to explain that daddy is his coach on thursday afternoons and saturday mornings. :)

i will get more action shots at his games (which start in just under two weeks). but for now, we were sooooo proud of him. he never stopped running and gave 100% the entire practice!

ok, here it is

i have recovered enough from my working and shopping to take a few pics of the sale goodies:

caleb's loot:
caleb got a backpack to hold his soccer stuff and a new pair of cleats... be watching for pics of his first practice!

allie's loot:
she wanted nothing but dresses.... i stayed true to that expect for the pair of jeans and four colored shirts. she loves her shoes and has worn all of them multiple times already.

riley's loot:
before you feel sorry for him you should know that he is getting a new stroller to house him and the new baby and he got a tricycle to be revealed on his birthday. he has soo many brother pass downs that buying him clothes seemed silly.

mommy's find of the year:
i got allie a new bedspread for her new room (we should be making the room switch in the next few months so stay tuned).

on saturday, almost everything at the sale goes 1/2 price. so grammie and i gave the kids some money and let them come home with their hand selected treasures...

caleb got a bag of firemen that have kept busy for over two hours already!

allie got a new barbie

one of riley's favorite things to do is DRIVE so this was his steal of a deal (and oh, my... it makes lots of noise).

out of the house

this is the week that i work the ccc sale. check it out at cccsale.com!
I will report all my good finds soon!

get a load of these...

i GET to wear these fabulous compression hose all day, everyday! Nice, right?

I have varicosity. google it. so for the next six months... me and these hose are gonna get to know each other.
as if that wasn't LOVELY enough, you should know that they take on average about 7 minutes to get on. some days i am faster than others, but many times i twist myself into a pretty amazing pretzel. they are SUPER, SUPER tight... not your common pantyhose.

anyway.... for those of you who live far away i thought it not fair for you to miss out on the opportunity to have a GREAT laugh. i am positive that i have caused many to question my style here in tyler. last night i was at the grocery store in these hose and capris.... ha! so great!

the on goings...

last week was HARD... not much to say, but that.
kids attitudes after vacation... HARD
husband returning to work... HARD
this pregnancy and the sickness that comes with it... HARD
the Lord showing me areas that need serious help... HARD

but this is a NEW week with NEW challenges and NEW mercies. we are trying to get into a routine post camp. that has been nice. we have a schedule that i love, but don't mind dumping if i need to be flexible. lance and i are reading through the bible together. i'll have to explain that for another time, but it is 10 chapters a day which hasn't been as miserable as i thought it was going to be (just being honest), but instead refreshing to my dried up soul.

next week is the ccc sale that i LOVE and look forward to twice a year, but that means that currently there are clothes everywhere and children in need of entertainment. so here is a peek into the living room... enjoy!

FAMILY vacation...

lance and i have always taken a trip once camp is over. it is usually just the two of us, but we decided that with another baby on the way, it was time to do the ole FAMILY vaca. so, we packed our bags, made our plans, and headed to Santa Rosa beach in Florida!

a little pre trip planning: we marked up the map... in the highlighted cities the kids got a new little something from the surprise box and in the starred cities we would put in a video. they LOVED this and looked forward to the next major city.

we didn't break the bank with our surprise box... with the exception of woody and jessy, everything came from the target dollar spot and cost a total of 12 bucks! this is just some of what we bought.

we drove about 5 and 1/2 hours and then crashed in Jackson, MI. the big kids fell asleep holding hands... so sweet!

have you ever seen the show diners, drive ins, and dives? we enjoy watching that show and even more than watching - actually visiting the places that are highlighted on the show!

this was the first DDD restaurant... Maci's antique club... interesting would be the word to describe this joint! take not of the decor.

two days later... we made it to our condo. it was a beautiful four bedroom condo within about 50 steps of the beach! woohoo!

of course we ventured to the beach that evening... the kids had never seen anything like it!

riley loved the giant sand box!

the next day we hit the beach bright and early... and buried caleb! HA!

Riley didn't care much for the waves so he spent most of his time digging in the sand.

one evening we took the kids into destin for ice cream.... this flavor was called superman! it stained their skin... but, hey, they were lovin life!

we took a little stroll after dessert and i'm so glad we did because we caught this beautiful sunset!

lance bought the kids boogie boards and they had so much fun...

even got pretty good on them!

three of my four cuties!

allie and i got our toes "beach ready" with some pink nail polish.

we headed out via New Orleans and ate at this yummy spot. although, i don't know that i have many great things to say about the city itself, it was fun to see it.

DDD stop number two and one i have been waiting for... the creole creamery in New Orleans

we got six mini scoops of different flavors and shared them. flavors like black and gold crunch, lavender honey, molasses, and red velvet....oh, yum!

because we were not headed home after our vacation, but on to Columbus, TX for a work retreat for pine cove... Bob's taco station in Rosenberg, TX was the last of the ddd stops and the end of our trip! they seriously have the BEST TACOS i have EVER eaten! so good!

all in all, we had a great time, but in NO way was it relaxing... family vacations are a parental sacrifice at this stage in the game. we are hoping that we filled their memory banks with good stuff and if they are too young to remember... i will force memory with these pictures! HA!