HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

Happy New Year 2009 all my friends and family! I hope the new year is treating you well so far. We have been busy as usual and trying to get back to our routine. We are excited that my mom will be retiring in a few weeks from TI and looking forward to seeing her more often. I am about to go visit Leslie and her new addtion, Alexandra in Arizona. Dan will take the kids to Waxahachie for a grandparent weekend there. Here are a few updates from the holidays:


I love this picture of Tanner. He is posing for me and wearing his Superman pjs.

This is Chance and he is my pretty boy.

This is our Rocco. He is a cutie!

My sweet baby girl in her PJs.

Kaitlyn and Tanner were letting me practice on them with my new camera. I am proud of this pic.

I was practicing my photography.

There's my Dan! I got a new camera for Christmas and I was practicing. So much fun to practice.

My boys sleeping. How sweet is that!!

Dan and I were trying to get a picture together for once. Kaitlyn thought Turtle needed to be in the picture too.

Tanner as usual listened to Kaitlyn and she told him to dress up in her ballet outfit. Of course he said yes as he does whatever she says. Then she proceeded to say "Sister come here and play". At that point I had to draw the line and Kaitlyn says "Mommy it is just pretend that he is my sister!" Our kids and their imaginations. So I then took a picture. The boy doesn't even know how much embarassment this will cause him later in life. Depending on how nice he is to his mama will depend on if I get this one out.

We had Dan's company team Christmas party at our house. Dan got a minute to get a good picture with his brother who is the marketing expert for his firm.

Tanner was helping me cook. He loves cooking in the kitchen and being my little helper. He is a mama's boy and I love it:)

Christmas with Grandma is always fun. They just love it when she plays with them and is goofy! Grandma is so much fun.

Our traditional breakfast with Santa was great as usual. The kids just love having so much time with him it is something we do with our neighbors.

Been a long time...lots of catching up to do

Well it has been a long time since my last blog and much to update on. As usual, it is in no particular order:)

We've got Halloween, Thanksgiving, Dan's birthday and many more birthday parties ahead to view.

This year Tanner was Handy Manny and Kaitlyn was Tinkerbell. I was just grateful to watch them go trick or treating and have so much fun this year. My how Tanner loves the candy. Every day he still asks for candy. I am so glad that it is over but it is so much fun.

Chad, Michelle, Preston, Parker and Paityn came to trick or treat with us and the guys took the kids while Michelle and I hung out at the neighborhood party. Michelle dressed up like Cleopatra and it was lots of fun!

Kathy, Dan and I took the kids to the neighborhood Halloween festival and the kids had so much fun.

The kids were painting pumpkins. They painted so many this year and had so much fun!

This is my Tinkerbell! I can't tell you how excited I was she wanted to be a princess this year. Last year she wanted to be a football player or Superman. We compromised as Supergirl. This year it was a piece of cake.

Tanner was my little Handy Manny and had so much fun sticking his belly out in this outfit. Rocco chewed up his belt but oh well. Tanner didn't mind. He wore it like a champ.

This is Kaitlyn's boyfriend, Andrew. He lives across the street and is 5 years old. She LOVES him. She looks out her bedroom window and wonders what he is doing. Trouble brewing already. He came over to play and he said Kaitlyn do you want to play in my hula hoop. Hence the cute picture...very cute for now.

This is Owens Farm in Plano. I took the kids to the pumpkin patch here for the first time and it was so much fun. They have lots of land and the kids got to run and play. They had a petting zoo, hay ride, horses, ponies, etc. It was a beautiful day and a nice break in the big city.

This little guy was dying for some attention or some food. Not sure but he was just so cute with the kids and very gentle.

The kids were climing the fence to see the ponies. Kaitlyn met a boy of course she had to run around with. He was wearing an Aggie jersey so I thought he might be alright:)

Going on a hay ride!

This was so cute they were holding hands and waiting for the petting zoo. Their first time to feed animals so they were ready to do it together as brother and sister!

Kaitlyn got her 1st official haircut at the salon. Her 1st haircut was by me about a year ago. She had fun going in and getting pampered. She has watched Tanner get his hair cut a million times and she finally got to do it. We lost some of those fabulous curls but they are growing back. I hope they stay because they are very pretty on her. I never had them so I am enjoying learning about curly hair.

My picture order is backwards so bear with me:)

She got her toenails painted too.

We visited Greatwolf Lodge in Grapevine right before school started. I will tell you that I did not enjoy it at all. The waterpark was closed due to some kids going poop in all areas so what a waste of money. Not a good place to take toddlers if the waterpark is shut down. They didn't seem to care that we had nothing to do there. Don't think we will go back again. These pics are out of order too. Oh well.

Kaitlyn and Tanner make an attempt to sleep in the same bed at the hotel. Yea right, that didn't work at all.

It was cute, they had story time at 8pm and their mascots came out while the lady read a book. That was cool.

Oh and because we had nothing to do with the kids there, I had to fork over some cold hard cash to entertain the Tanner to get him a stuffed wolf. Dan had taken Kaitlyn on some water slides as Tanner wanted nothing to do with the big kid area.

Kaitlyn and Tanner are really into riding bikes now. They love showing off for the camera and think they are so big. We have a busy street so we let them ride in our garage. It is safe and they like it. It makes for good practice so they will be ready for the big road one day. Kaitlyn's big Santa request this year is a Big Girl Barbie Bicycle with a Barbie helmet. Can't wait to see what shows up:)

We went to Gavin's birthday party. It was a dress up Halloween Birthday party at Dusti's house. It was great because the weather was nice and we actually got to get all the kids in the picture.

It was cute, there was a face painter there but Tanner prefers his arm. He is all into Superman or Batman. He loves dressing up.

Happy Birthday to Dan!! He turned the big 34!!

Another day of dress up for Kaitlyn. She is always wearing our clothes, shoes, hats and anything she can get her hands on. This day she was all Dan.

A Batman Birthday party for Jack Wood. This is her other boyfriend. They have been going to school since they were 1 so they just love hanging out. She had to sit next to him at the party. It was a superhero party so Kaitlyn was Superman of course.

It's a day of shopping at Nordstrom's. My girl doesn't take after her mommy at all:)

This was her other boyfriend, Andrew's old costume he gave to Tanner. Kaitlyn had to wear it. She looked so cute in it with those chaps and her booty.

Kaitlyn was wearing Tanner's backup Halloween costume which was Elmo. He wanted to be Elmo first but it is like 80 degrees outside and there is no way he was going to make it past 2 houses without burning up. I kept it so they could dress up. And what do you know, they like playing in it.

Tanner and I were cooking something up in the kitchen. He loves being my helper and getting all the good stuff before it goes in the oven. Smart boy!

Thanksgiving trip to the farm. We went to visit my grandparents for Thanksgiving and had a great time. They are not in very good order either.

Dan spent the day taking the kids on the 4 wheeler and they just loved it.

When they weren't riding the 4 wheeler they rode bicycles. They really enjoyed all the space to get out and go fast.

Dan has a special moment where both Tanner and Kaitlyn sat still long enough to get some cuddle time.

Happy 91st Birthday Papa!!! We had so much fun celebrating his birthday. It was a surprise that we were going to celebrate it. He enjoyed the attention and celebration of how far he has made it in life. A moment he could enjoy in the spotlight!

Granny and Papa! Don't they look great!

Tanner took this picture of Dan and I and we were excited as to get in a picture together finally.

An update for you....

Here are my kids doing what they do best. DRESS UP!! When Dan gets home from work they have to follow him into the closet and put on his work clothes, stinky socks and shoes and whatever else they can come up with. They are little hams for sure.

A rare occasion that Tanner and Kaitlyn are taking a shower together and without one of us being in there to help. They aren't even fighting. Thought I would share this special moment and that cute little booty:)
Ahhhh the Plano Balloon Festival. One of my favorite events to go to of the year! I love going and this year was especially great because the weather was fabulous! There was no wind and I can't recall being able to take a picture with this many balloons in one picture. It was pretty awesome.
We did an impressions plate at a party with the kids handprints and Kaitlyn took a picture. It was good so I thought I would share. I love looking at handprints of children. It is just so cute.
Tanner is working on his little bench making something and trying to be like Daddy.
I said Tanner can I take a picture of your cute booty in those jeans and he turned around and posed. It was very funny. Funny in the sense it is the only time the boy poses for pictures. I try to get a cute smile, pose etc and nada!!

Mandy Bradley-college roomate came to visit us when she was in town evacuating from Hurricane Ike. We had connected on Facebook a week prior. How cool is that. We hadn't seen each other in gosh like 10 years or something like that. Crazy. She has a beautiful daughter and son that are almost the same age as Tanner and Kaitlyn. Poor Mandy's little girl had to have hip surgery the next day in Dallas as she had an infection. She is doing much better. Poor baby girl.

I loved the visit and wow how time flies when you are getting older.

Ok so I still suck at posting these dang pictures in the right order. Long story short, we had a great time at Balloon festival. Kids just LOVED all the balloons, junk food, sno cones etc. Tanner actually liked the sno cone so much he dumped it all over his clothes. We had to strip him down to his underwear and then Kaitlyn wanted to take her clothes off. Now you can imagine in Plano, TX at a public place walking with kids with only their underwear on. Well I got more than plenty looks indicating that we might be white trash. One old man even said something. Embarrassing to say the least. Kind of funny though to see people's faces.
Tanner pre sno cone crash. Random girl he was sitting next to but I thought it was cute.
Check out all those cool balloons. A must do event if you are in town for this.
The Grant girls trying to be cool with our shades.

That's it for now, signing off for a few weeks at least. Catch up again soon:)

The Big 33 Celebration

Wow, where do the years go. I have definitely noticed them flying by much faster now that I have children. I have noticed the years taking its toll on my body too. Carrying kids, having kids, working out is getting harder, not so easy to drop pounds like it use to be, back, hip you name it getting older is no fun. So I have my great days but I have to admit how surprised I am that at my youthful age I sometimes feel so old:) Another year older and I am okay with it. I am thinking it will be like fine wine, as I age, it will only get better. Okay enough of all that, let's just pretend for this weekend.

It was fun just celebrating my birthday with my family and I LOVE letting my kids blow out my candles. I have to say that is my favorite thing about it. Not sure how that affects getting my wish but who cares!! It was a great weekend! Dan and I went to Abacus for dinner Friday night and it was soooooo goooooood. I think it is my new favorite restaurant. I loved everything about it and enjoyed spending time with Dan just by ourselves. It was all in all the perfect birthday weekend!!

A visit from Dusti and the family

We had a great dinner at our house this weekend with Dusti, Mike and the kids. I think we were all worn out at the end of the evening with 5 crazy kids running around and many boo boos later. The kids had lots of fun playing and the weather was finally cool enough for the kids to play outside. I have to brag that I actually made a homeade dinner for my friends from a cookbook and everything. It turned out good and I can see how it can become addictive to cook for people if you have some success. I will have to try it out on some more guinea pigs again. Here are Tanner, Kaitlyn and Reese taking a little break outside. Kaitlyn of course was supporting the Ags and thank goodness they pulled off a win yesterday. GO AGGIES!!! Get your butts in gear!!!!

Lot's of blog updates

Oh let's start here shall we:

Here is the Tanner Nanner riding a cow at the Dallas Children's Museum. It was so fun and more pics are below.
We had a nice visit from Pops and Grandma and they brought a very special Home Depot project for the kids to work on from Aunt Rae Ann. They loved it.
This was Kaitlyn and Tanner's first day back to school. They had such a great first day. They were so excited and I was so excited that day was all smiles. Last year Tanner cried all day everyday so we pulled him out. This year is off to a great start and I am so proud of them both for being so big.
This is a play date with our friends Macy and Camden. Kaitlyn met Macy in ballet and they all have so much fun playing together.
Kaitlyn got a hold of my camera and started taking pictures of Keira and I. She is Macy's mom. As you can see she did get our faces in the picture but she was pretty good at taking pictures of our feet and legs too. Not bad for her first big try.

The kids had so much fun at the Dallas Children's Museum. It is such a great place for the kids to learn and they have so many fun hands on activities for them to explore.

Kaitlyn and Tanner are having fun making music.
They really enjoyed being firefighters and driving pretend the fire truck.
I have to say this was the classic pic of the day. Here is Tanner learning how to milk a cow and it really does pour out water when you squeeze it. I thought that was very interesting. Earlier in the pictures you saw he much preferred to ride the cow rather than milk it:)

We finally took Tanner into get his big 2 year old pictures taken. We decided why not get a family picture while we are at it. Not a pleasant experience getting our pictures taken but we made it through with a sigh of relief.
Oh how I look at Tanner and wonder where my baby went. He has changed so much over the summer and has grown like a weed. He has also just grown up so much emotionally. He is so much more independent, confident, social. He is really starting to talk more now and saying half of his words in Spanish and half in English. Throws me for a loop but I am really excited that he has picked it up. A few more months and he will be chatting so much. He is officially potty trained now which was perfect timing for school. I just am so proud of him as he was the one who always wanted to do it and worked so hard to learn how and be like his daddy and big sister. So I look at him and think wow what a difference a year makes and how sad and happy I am that my baby has grown into such a sweet, fun, loving a boy.
Kaitlyn just has grown like a weed this summer too. It is amazing how much she has grown up this summer on the outside and in. She is so much better and sharing and has become so sweet with everyone and thoughtful. She really is so much fun to hang out with and my little sidekick.
A girls trip to Chicago....I went to visit Pam in Chicago and Dusti and Leslie went as well so we could have our first girls weekend without kids I think ever. It was so much fun and we had such a great time. My what we can get caught up on with a few days hanging out with no children or distractions. It was so nice to have that special time with them and it felt like just yesterday we were all playing in college. Leslie is expecting a girl in January and she was a trooper with all of our walking in the city and very late nights up talking and goofing off. I love Chicago and I loved my girls trip. Definitely need to do that again hopefully soon:)
This is my out of order picture with Tanner and I at the dinasour exhibit where he and Kaitlyn could find bones in the sand and they had this huge dinasour that was very scary looking. Very cool though. I think I had just as much fun as they did. It sure would be fun to be a kid again.

A Day with Superman...

Kaitlyn as you can see and have seen for sometime has a slight obsession with Superman. No I can't call her Supergirl, it is full fledged Superman. So whatever, maybe she will outgrow it one day. It has been almost a year but hope is in sight as she has requested Tinkerbell for Halloween. This pic is funny because Kaitlyn is all posing like Superman and Tanner is like whatever Batman.
This would be Tanner and Kaitlyn playing dress up and again Kaitlyn is wearing Tanner's size 2T Superman pajamas. They are her favorite.

Okay i will blog again later. Mama is tired and it is late!! This is for you Les and Pam. A sign of life from my blog. More to come later....