TGIF!

I don't know what it is, but I had such a lovely time last weekend, that I have hated being at work all week.  I am so ready to enjoy this weekend again.  It probably won't live up to the fun I had last weekend, but I'm still looking forward to it. Hope you all have a great weekend too!

Champagne Thursday Origin

It's Champagne Thursday, and I might repeat it tomorrow if things go well.  Much love to you all!  Have a fantastic evening!  Cheers!

There are not enough deep breaths.

Pissed. Seething. Burning frustration. Counting to 10 did not help.

Can't really talk about it, but rest assured, it has nothing to do with Chucky Love.

A Must See Blog

If you are pregnant, have been pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or know someone who is pregnant, you should read this blog.  Perhaps you've already discovered it, but I tell you it is pure gold!  It is called Pregnant Chicken and you can click here to see it.  Genius stuff.  I promise you won't be disappointed.  I highly recommend every article on the Best Of Preganant Chicken.  This woman is my hero!

You deserve pictures

You guys deserve pictures, so here they are!

George with his Godfather, Colt

The Gun  Show

My hero

The Three Crazy Kids

One is crazier than the others

Pool Fun

More fun

They're loving their summer!

Start your club early . . .

I have a beautiful friend who participates in a Mother Daughter Book Club. I think this is a fantastic idea. Anyone interested in starting something similar?

Summer Weekend

Had such a great weekend with family and friends that I do not want to be back at work. I guess the weekend wouldn't be nearly as much fun if there wasn't a work week to break it up. I find myself dreading the return to work more and more these days. I think it has something to do with it being summer. I also had plans to post pics from the weekend, but I didn't get it done. Will have to update later. Have a wonderful week everyone!

It's the Weekend!!!

It's gonna be a doozy of a Friday! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I'm planning to go for a jog or two, walk the dogs, spend time with the little ones, and enjoy having my mother and nephew in town. What a beautiful day!

Diving

Evie learned to dive last week and I tried to capture it.  This is not her best effort on diving, but it is illustrative of how long she can hold her breath and swim under water.  She amazes me everyday!

Lacking Motivation

So the ticker on the sidebar of this blog has not moved.  Not. At. All.  I'm really lacking motivation.  It really comes and goes for me.  I wish that wasn't the case, but it is.  So, I found a challenge that really peaked my interest and I'm going to give it a go.  I may not make it to the end, but any effort toward a healthier me is worth it.  So here's the deal.  I'm going to take part in this:

I love this idea.  No, I'm not going to run a marathon, and to be honest, I'm not sure I can lose a marathon.  It would put me 5 pounds below my goal weight.  That means I have a solid 21 pounds to lose and that's not small feat.  So, I'm going to give this a solid effort and I invite anyone else out there to join me.  There is also an option ot lose half a marathon (13.1 lbs).  There are already 800 other people signed up to do this.  Can you imagine being a part of such a huge effort to lose weight?    Let's say half lose the full marathon and half lose half a marathon.  That's 5,240 lbs lost in the half marathon category and 10,480 lbs lost in the full marathon for a total loss of 15,720 unhealthy lbs!  That's insanely wonderful! 

Any one else up for the challenge?  If so, just click here to find out how to enter!

What a Wedding!

Very, very cool Fort Worth wedding!  Plus, my friend was in this wedding.  Love it!  Wish I was this colorful and alive!

You can check out all the picture by clicking here: Circus Wedding!

Photograph by Tara Swain Photography.

An amazing photographer!

Irresistible

It's Tuesday and I'm at work.  This is not a big surprise or anything, but for some reason, I would really like to be at home today.  It might have something to do with a little boy named George who asked me this morning, "Are you going to stay home with the kids today?"  My heart sank a little when I responded, "No.  I have to go to work."  And then I had to answer his sweet, one-word question, "Why?".  Ugghhhh!  He really knows how to tug at my heart strings.  Luckily, I made it out of the house this morning without being pulled in by his sweet words and big puppy dog eyes.  *sigh*  What a trip. 

Seriously, how do you resist somebody this cute?!

Father's Day 2012

I'm guilty of doing a project from pintrest.  That's right!  Kudos to me. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as cute as the finished products displayed on pintrest.  I had a mid week photo shoot with the kids.  I got them out in our front yard and tried to replicate this:

Unfortunately, I screwed it up by putting the heart on George's left foot instead of his right foot so I had to improvise.  I didn't really get a home run picture because I should have planned it out better than this.  Plus, there was the whole part where the kids weren't groomed well, refuse to smile at the same time, and the mosquitos were attacking them the entire time I was taking pictures.  And of course, we should also factor in the fact that I'm a terrible photographer and cut off the tops of their heads in the first few shots.

Still, the final product was a sentimental success.  Gotta love kids!

So glad to have Chuck as the father of my sweet children.  They love him and he loves them. Not sure what's going on with Evie's face here.

Still here . . . sort of.

I imagine this is probably one of the longest mid-week breaks in blogging.  The truth is that I have a ton to post.  Lots of pictures, stories, updates, but I'm worn out.  I'm tired.  Yes, it happens.  Even to me.  I have work, I have family, I have commitments.  This blog is one of them, but sometimes I fall down on the job and everything starts to get a little overwhelming.  So much to do.  I know you all know what I'm talking about.  So, I apologize for the absence, but I know I'll get back to this blog too.

So, for a little tidbit of news, Evie happily announced to me the other day that she tried to break Luke's arm so he could get a cast and she could sign it.  Luke eagerly nodded his head, clearly in agreement with the plan.  I burst out laughing.  Usually, I would try to coax more information - such as the motivation - out of them, but my fit of laughter was immediate and loud.  I did ask "how" they tried to break his arm.  The answer had something to do with Evie trying to bend it.  Shaking my head, I told them, "Please don't try that again, okay?"  They seemed unpersuaded, but here's hoping.

On another note, the kids finished their two weeks of swim lessons.  They're great!  George was even putting his face in the water on his own at the end of the second week.  Hopefully we can reinforce all the good work at home in our own pool this summer.

And finally, here's some shot's of George's tee-ball team pictures.  God, they are so adorable, it takes my breath away!

This is the team shot.

This is one of them getting ready for the picture. 

Look how bored George looks! 

Cracks me up.

And, then in this one you can see George's self-proclaimed girlfriend.  She's picking her nose just like George, so I'm sure it's a match made in heaven.  Plus, I like her and her parents.  Convenient!

The season ends next week.  Only two games to go, but it has been fun to watch!

Luke

Luke made all As on his last report card.

I'm just sayin'.

Spoiled in Cowtown

I'm throwing all their toys away when I get home tonight.  I was shocked and dismayed to discover in THIS ARTICLE online that Fort Worth is one of the top 10 cities that spoil kids the most.

WTF?!  I can't tell you how shocked I was to read that.  I vow to reduce the spoiling happening at our house!  I will not be part of the problem . . . or will I?  Ugh!

Are your kids spoiled?

*Photo courtsey of Bundle.

Mr. Rogers

I adore Mr. Rogers.  Grew up watching him.  Thought he was a little dorky, but still I found myself glued to watching his shows.  He's so great.  I'm sad my kids don't watch him because I just loved his show.  So, I was a little skeptical when I heard about this viral video called "Garden of Your Mind", but now that I've watched it, I'm a fan.



I hope it brings a smile to your face like it did mine. Reminicent, sweet, and comforting. That's what Mr. Rogers is to me.

All About Evie.

It's all about Evie today!  She's kicking butt in her swim lessons.  She's passed up Luke and is at the highest level before going on to a more advanced class.  Sounds like she has a future in swim team!  She's the most awesome six-year old girl I've ever known!

I didn't have a picture of her in her swim suit that you haven't already seen so I posted this one from last weekend. By the way, she's supposed to be a pirate, not Aunt Jemima.

Baby Teeth

Luke had an emergency extraction this morning at the dentist's office.  He wasn't in pain or anything like that, but his adult tooth was coming in and his baby tooth wouldn't budge.  We tried to wiggle it for about a week, but it just didn't loosen up enough and finally I decided I had to take him into the dentist.  I'm glad we did because it turns out that it wasn't going to come out on his own and the doctor pointed out that he likely has a fungal infection on his top lip.  I swear I might be the worst mom ever; I just assumed he had been licking his top lip and drying it out.  Luckily, the dentist identifed it and gave us a prescription.  I'm so glad I took him in!

So now Luke has lost his four front bottom teeth -- three by extraction and one naturally.  All the rest of his baby teeth are firmly in place.  We've been instructed to wiggle them regularly to help those top teeth fall out.  We'll see.

Since our emergency appointment was at 7:30 this morning, we got a very early start and I had to drag all three kids to the dentist with me.  It was even more painful than you might imagine.  George wacked his sister in the head with one of the toys, and threw a fit when we had to leave.  After dishing out approximately $130 for the extraction of a teeny-tiny baby tooth, we left the office and went to have breakfast.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until after we got home at 9:00 that Luke realized he left his tooth at the office.  I instructed him to write a letter to the tooth fairy explaining what happened.  He seemed very unconcerned with the whole thing which leads me to believe that he's totally over the whole tooth fairy thing.  Oh well.

Then, to my surprise, I received a text from the dentist's office informing me that Luke left his tooth there and that the dentist (Dr. P) was willing to drop it off at our house this evening.  Can you believe that?!  It's like I live in a small town.  I love this place!

Next on our agenda is haircuts for all of them.  Just look at that shaggy hair!

Just keep swimming . . .

Still swamped at work, but thought I'd pause to update you all on the kids swim lessons which they started yesterday.  They are all there at the same time, but George is in the beginner class.  This is the first year that George has been old enough for lessons at TCU, so I was a little worried that he might do just as poorly as Luke and Evie did when they started out.  Luckily, we've had good results so far (two days in).  And I'm so grateful that our nanny Caroline has been helping reinforce the lessons.  Yesterday she got in the pool with them and went through some of the same techniques with him in our pool.  What a sweet lady! 

The older kids seemed pretty unaffected by the swim lessons and didn't even want to go the first day.  They must think they're too good for it or something, but they'll get over it.  I asked George this morning if he was excited about going to lessons again and he asked, "Are the same girls going to help me today?"  I said, "I think so!"  He cheered and jumped up and down - which I love to see.  So cute!

And here they are with Caroline.  They love her!  We've been blessed so many time with wonderful girls who have come into our lives and enriched the lives our our children.  Caroline is no exception.

Today Caroline took them to the park to feed the ducks and have a picnic lunch.  They have no idea how good they've got it!

Busy

Busy.

It happens on occasion.

Me and the Men

I go out to dinner with men all the time.  Several times it will be me and four men or more.  This is just the nature of the boys club I work in.  Nonetheless, all these men are typically attorneys.  Tonight I have the distinct pleasure of having dinner with five men, none of which is related to me (except Chuck) and none of which is an attorney.  I'm a hot mamacita!