Meet Mary

This is Cara's new friend. She loves her a lot. (maybe a little too much at times) Hopefully, she will have a long and happy life!!

Karissa

Top Five 3rd Grade Spellers

Karissa is an awesome speller!!! She has never even had to study. So, I am not sure why I was surprised when she wanted to be in the spelling bee this year. I guess it would never have been something I WANTED to do. I don't get up in front of people by choice. Anyway, today was the 3rd grade spelling bee and she made it in the top 5. Now she will spell against the top five 3rd, 4th and 5th graders on Friday at 2pm. Wish he luck and pray for her. Oh yeah, she certainly didn't get the spelling genes from me because I can't spell. Kirk is always checking my spelling for me:)

The Game

This weekend, I was sick with strep throat, for the second time in a month. Luckily, there was great football on to watch and I have a great husband who sent me to my room for the weekend. Granted, bt the time the Cowboys game came on Kirk said "you have to help with kids." Unfortunately, I was then and am now still SICK. I have never had strep not get better by the 2nd day of antibiotics. Fortunately, no one else has gotten it. I seem to be very prone to it in my adult years.

We were so excited to see the Packers win and looking forward to a Cowboys/Packer game this weekend. We were a little anxious about Brett Favre having to come to Dallas and play (he is 0-9 here). I guess we won't have to worry about any of that now. I feel so bad for Tony Romo. I wish the game hadn't come down to him making the last play. I was very hopeful at the begining of the game that thay were going to do well. Then they just seemed to defeat themselves. I was especially sad to see Romo look pouty. I really like Favre and Romo because you can see their love of the game when they play. They are always laughing and smiling even when they mess up. Yesterday, not so much. Anyway, not that anyone cares about my opinion on football. I am glad the Packers made it! I hope it snows again this week at the game in GreenBay like it did last week. Kirk is very hopefull that Favre will return again and even wants to plan a family trip to Lambeau Field.

I convinced him the kids love Favre because he does not because they would care anything about visiting a football stadium and a town called Green Bay. From there we thought of visiting Washington DC but again, are our kids old enough to appreciate that, yet? (We do have a couple of friends in the DC, Pennsylvannia area) Karissa is old enough but the others not so much. Then we thought Disney World BUT ,oh my,that is quite the undertaking.

I guess that is all the news I have for now. Cara got a new teddy bear hamster named, Mary. She looks like Ashley but isn't quite as friendly. I think she is just still really young. She isn't as mean as Karissa's dwarf hamster. Karissa will be in her first spelling be wednesday afternoon. Wednesday is the 3rd grade spelling bee and the Friday is the finals. Hopefully, I can make it up to watch her. Kylie and Caleb are good. The play so well together when it is just the two of them. Poor Caleb will miss Kylie when she goes to school full time next year!

I really wanted to put a picture of the Packers playing in all that snow but as Kirk mentioned we got a new computer and he hasn't put all our pics on it yet. I love the new computer...we had a dinosaur. This one is so QUIET, not to mention it looks nice and has the case all in one piece and is much smaller except for the screen of the monitor.

Happy New Year

Cara and Ashley

We had a great evening with friends. Then Cara brought us her hamster who looked dead. She wasn't but she is now. So sad. She was a great hamster. Very friendly. So it is with sad hearts we start the new year. Karissa was at her grandma's. I think this might be the first year we weren't all together for new years.

New Me

So, I am usually not one to post personal stuff. For me it is all about my kids because they are my life right now. In this instance, I am going to cross my line. I am so happy. Actually, happy isn't the word for it is is pure unadulterated JOY!!! I can honestly say that I have never felt this way before in my life. I am not sure how many of you know this but about four years ago I started taking an anti depressant. I have been ashamed of the fact that I needed it and haven't really shared a lot about it with anyone. Last week we went to Wichita Falls for Christmas. We left Friday after Kirk came home from work. I was so excited we got to stay all the way through Christmas. Kirk was supposed to work Christmas Eve but for once his boss was generous and said don't bother driving back from WF to work on Monday. About the time we drove through Decatur, I realized I had forgotten the medicine bag I had so carefully packed with my prescription and all the "just in case" meds for our kids. Kirk said "we better go back and get it" I said "are you crazy...we have four kids in the car?" So we didn't go back. I don't know how much you know about anti-depressants but you have to take them everyday and you aren't supposed to just stop taking them cold turkey. So, I am not great about remembering everyday but I am pretty regular with it. Anyway, so this doesn't turn into an epic blog I will cut to the chase. I have tried several times to wean myself from this drug and it never works. I even tried running so I could maybe quit taking it. Today makes 8 days for me without it and I feel like could burst with JOY. I don't know if anti-depressants suppress other things in your life but I feel like I am alive for the first time in a long time. Recently, I was talking with a friend about the side effects of this drug and we both wondered how it could be helpful when it makes it hard to sleep, you lack a sex drive, you gain weight and basically live in a haze of muted feelings. Let's just say none of those have been a problem this week. Kirk is usually the first to notice if i haven't been taking my medicine and this week he is like" don't ever take it again."

For the first time, in a really long time the music and sermon in church touched me. The sermon was on the prodigal son but he talked a lot about the elder son who didn't run away. He said we need to stay in touch with God on a daily basis so we don't feel disconnected. He also said many Christians he meets say they love God and are happy in life and he wants to say"could you tell that to your face" because they look so sad and downtrodden. Anyway, I am not sure where all this will take me but I wanted to share it with my family and friends. Pray for me please to keep this JOY and to use it for God.

Trains, Family and A Race

Kylie and Katerna on the way home on the train

Longhorn downtown, Cara loves them
Uncle Kevin & Caleb on his first train ride

57 foot tree downtown
Karissa at the NASA booth

Mom and Caleb behind the big tree

Cara and Karissa love ther Aunt Katerina

Christmas is only 14 days away and I have only shopped for one kid. we have been sick one after the other. First, the kids; then Kirk, only days before his fiirst marathon and now me. Kirk ran his marathon Sunday in the freezing cold. He and Wendell were able to run the whole thing together. Kirk was very exhausted at the end. Kevin, Katerina and I stood by the finish line to cheer him. We froze. Thus, I come home with chills and fever which turns into strep or maybe a virus that is hghly contagious. Kirk hasn't had tme to recover, yet. He has been taking care of kids and me. I feel a little better, today.

We had a great time ths weekend with Kevin and Katerina. Saturday we took the train (first time for the kids) to Dallas. We picked up Kirk's race packet, toured where JFK was shot, had some lunch and came home. The packet pick up was at the conventon center. They had a lot of vendors and free stuff. They also had face panting,finger casts, a bounce obstacle course. Saturday night, we went downtown to see all the light and Santa. Santa wasn't there!!! The whole way there all Caleb could talk about was HoHo and then we get there and he only works days on the weekends. We did get to walk around and see the 57 foot real Christmas tree. There was a ballet going on telling the story of a Christmas Carol but it was hard to follow and we got cold standing still. We found a Starbucks and Kylie had a ball playing in all the leaves on the sidewalk.

Elfin Fun

Hey, We just made total elves of ourself. Check it out by clicking the link below.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1127980124
This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax®.

What Movie Is your Christmas Most Like?

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Very Brady Christmas

For you, it's all about sharing times with family. Even if you all get a bit cheesy at times.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Take the quiz and let me know what you get.

Thanksgiving

Cara's Thanksgiving celebration. They made cornbread, real butter and had a parade.

This is from Kylie's preschool Thanksgiving dinner. Kylie wouldn't wear her Indianhat but Caleb loved it.

I cannot believe Thanksgiving has come and gone. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. God really blessed us when we didn't deserve it. Christmas is quickly approaching and once again, I am not ready. It seems like every year there is less time for shopping and enjoying the holidays. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our newest family member, Katerina (Kevin's wife) is finally here in America. We got to celebrate Thanksgiving and her birthday with her. We all went to the airport the 17th to pick Kevin and Katerina up. They stayed the weekend at our house and then headed to WF. Karissa and Cara went to WF Sunday and stayed with my mom. Caleb, Kylie and I went down Wednesday and Kirk came Thursday. We had a relaxing time and it was wonderful to get to know Katerina. The kids love her because she is a great playmate. I love her because she makes Kevin happy and I can't wait to get to know her better. My. brother and his wife were at my moms and my sister in law and her kids (Doug is in Iraq). We all learned we are not Smarter than a Fifth Grader. Kirk and I played Bible triavia at his moms and learned we can do pretty good on the KIDS questions. We had family pictures made over the break. Thanks Kelly, for ALL you time!!! I might post some of the family pics later. We are using some for Christmas and don't want to ruin the surprise. Kirk has a 10k coming up this weekend and his marathon the next. He ran to Holiday and back while we were in WF. It was 32 degrees and sleeted on him and he still LOVED it. We saw Enchanted while we were in WF. I loved it and so dod Kylie and Karissa.

Gift Idea

When Karissa and I had our mother daughter retreat we made these together. I think they are really cute and would make great gifts for grandparents, teachers...almost anyone. Let me know what you think. If you want instructions I can send them to you. It cost les than $10 to make and took about 2 1\2 hours with my 9 year old helping!!

Virtue Alert

All you moms out there, I have a blog you need to check out. When Karissa and I went to the mother daughter conference called "Between," the speaker was Vicki Courtney. She is very funny and has great insight on things like the internet and celebrutants. She has written several books as well as Bible studies and speaks at mother/daughter conferences all over the US. She isn't afraid to say what she thinks and is very worried about the society our tweens are growing up in. When you get a moment it will be well worth your time to check out her blog. I have only read a few monthes worth and I love it. She also has a website for tweens and teens. I think it is called Virtue Alert. Even if your kids aren't tweens yet, they will be. http://www.virtuealert.com/

Our Little Monkey

This was one of those times I should get him in trouble but I had to have a picture and couldn't help but laugh. Luckily he deosn't weigh enough to open the fridge, yet!

Cara's Costume Carnival

Karissa was a pop star and she taught the kids to make oragami bats. Mitchell was the only boy but is Cara's best friend from school.
Kylie was such a sweet Snow White
Kirk and Ken

She was so proud after she blew her candles out. It only took about six tries. All those missing teeth make it hard to get a good blow out.

Cara and her Jamaican dad

This year Cara wanted a costume party. She thought all the party themes were too babyish. So, we had a mini carnival in our back yard. We had a bounce house, bobbing for apples, fishing game, ring toss, oragami bat making, baseball throw, duck pond and treat bag decorating. At the beginning there were adults or big kids to run all the games. After cake and presents the kids had a blast running the games for each other. We borrowed the bounce house and most of the decorations. It was too windy to have candles outside so we served cake inside and everyone ate outside. The bobbing for apples was hilarious to watch. Overall it was a fun inexpensive party. The kids decorated paper sacks to put all their prizes in. We used extra McDonald's toys for the fishing booth and candy and pencils, stickers, plastic animals etc. for the prizes. We were all exhausted at the end but it was worht it. Cara's birthday buddy Aunt Sharon came dressed as a sumo wrestler and her husband Ken (whose birthday is Halloween) had a really cool pirate costume. Happy Birthday guys!!!

Kylee, Cara and Marissa

(all October birthdays have birthday lunch on one day)

On Thursday, Cara's birthday, it was birthday lunch at school. She thought it was great. The kids get to choose a friend to eat with them and eat their lunch in the hallway or the atrium (weather permitting). They can also have their parents bring them lunch. Cara loved being the center of attention for a bit.

Palo Duro Canyon

Karissa on the ledge in the cave
The flood

The Race
The cave with the ledge

Beautiful Palo Duro Canyon

Our little cowpoke

Last weekend, we drove to Palo Duro Canyon(it is north by Amarillo). We left around 4 on Thursday and arived at 11:15. It was a really long drive and by arriving at night we missed the beauty and surprise of the canyon. My parents had arrived the day before and set up our tents, so we went straight to bed. It was cold in the tent and when we woke up there was ICE on the outside of our tent. It was very beautiful but DRY. We camped at the bottom of the canyon. The days were in the eighties and the nights were in the forties (except the first night). We could hear coyotes howling and my parents saw wild turkies walk across their campsite. We saw a family of deer upclose on the night we arrived. The night skies were beautiful and we could see Venus.

Saturday morning,Kirk and Wendell ran the (fun run) 20K of the Palo Duro Trail Run. There was also a 50K and a 50 mile. Kirk says he is a runner not a racer. I am not sure where they finished overall but that isn't why they ran. They said the trail was hard but they had a great time. They will run a full marathon 26.1 miles in December.

I had fun hiking or rock climbing, as Kirk called it. He likes to hike on flat boring trails. I like to scamper over and around rocks at very steep inclines. Unfortunately for Kirk, our girls like to rock climb, too. We climbed up to a cave that had a ledge in it. There was no way to climb to the ledge inside so we found a way around on the outside. I say we but I mean me and Karissa and our friends. Kirk and Wendell's wife, Shannon, headed down and took pictures. The day before we arrived the canyon flooded quite a bit, so we got to cool off and rehydrate in the run off. We followed the water on into a stream and the kids found a mud bog to play in. They thought it was really cool to sink up to their thighs in mud! We saw a lot of horseback riders and learned we could rent horses. Maybe we can do that next year. Kirk wants to go back and run the 50K.

We drove home Sunday. The kids did pretty well. We took a pit stop at Kirk's parents and got home around 6:30. We packed the kids off to bed and sat down to enjoy another awesome Cowboys game. The Packers has a bye, lucky for us because Kirk couldn't even stay awake through one game! I have to admit, I slept most of the way home while he drove.

This week has been busy just trying to catch up from being out of town. Cara's birthday was Thursday. Her school also had Family Math Night on Thursday. So, we made little cakes and chicken spaghetti and then hustled back to school. I was amazed at what Cara already knows. She is so smart. I have always secretly worried that Karissa was so smart the others would not be able to compare (I know don't compare your kids...but we all do). Anyway, Cara can hold her own. She is reading, even big words and at math night she was adding and subtracting. The biggest surprise to me were her logical thinking skills. Kirk spent his time with Karissa. We all had a great time. Cara has asked for a costume party so we are getting ready for that tomorrow afternoon.

I can't wait until Sunday when we can sit back, relax and watch football all day. The Cowboys have a bye but I am sure there will be some other good games on. Kirk has to play the keyboard and I have nursery duty but then we can come home and veg!!!!!!

Introducing Romo and new do's

Kylie wanted her hair short, again and Caleb had his first professional haircut. He wasn't too sure about the cape but he was great. He sat very still and was very serious the whole time. Of course, I forgot my camera but he was really cute. He got a great cut but it looks the same as always in the pic.

Saturday, we went to Grapevine Mills and as usual were drawn to the Build-A-Bear store. We saw this cowboys outfit and couldn't resist making Caleb his first bear. We named him Romo and Caleb loves him. He carries him around and even sleeps with him. The Disney store had great sales going on, too. I bought Kylie's Halloween costume there for 40% off.

Too much to tell

Back by popular demand. What was I thinking not blogging for over a month. There is so much to blog about I am just putting pics and blurbs. Suffice it to say, life is very busy with PTA, 5 kids, Awana's, football, new women's bible study and everything in between!!! This blog doesn't flow well because the pics come first and the words after, sorry. When i try to edit the location of pictures they disappear, so this is the best I can do.
After the park, Kirk decided to do his long run. I think 12 miles. Anyway, we thought it would be fun ro meet him along the way and give him water and cool him off. It was really hot and he usually runs at night or early morning. Anyway, Cara thought it was great to dump cold water on Dad.

One Saturday last month, we visited Trinity Park, which is on the Trinity river. After playing on the playground the kids decided they wanted to go down to the river. I took the three little ones and we jumped all the way across these rocks. Cara was able to go back across all by herself. They were very pround and had a great time. After crossing the river and the playground we rode the mini train by the zoo. It is only a few dollars per person and the ride is about 30 minutes. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

A long way to go.
We made it!!
So proud:)

He got a Thomas train and shirt and he loves them. He call them choo-choo. He was so proud, he blew out his own candles.

Caleb had a Chuck E. Cheese party. It is the first one in all our 4 kids. We didn't actually do the party with them we just went there. He had a great time. He is officially, 2 and loves trains, Diego and bootball (as he says it).

Karissa had a High School Musical Party for her 9th birthday. I made a giant cookie cake decorated with red and white frosting. We ordered pizza (boy can girls eat!!) Then we planned to play the board\cd game of HSM2 but the girls just wanted to play. They sure run and scream alot. They had a great time and eventually plyed the game which requires singing and dancing.

Karissa and I went to a mother daughter conference called "Tweens." It was a great experience and fun time for us to focus on our relationship. We stayed overnight in a hotel and then had the conference all day Saturday.
Caleb loves his Peyton. All is going well with babysitting. I love being able to be with my kids and Peyton is relatively easy and fits right in to our family. Caleb would have made a great big brother. He is our little man. He is laughing and talking and playing all the time. He is just fun!!