Saturday, December 27, 2008

Merry Christmas!!


Can't believe Christmas has come and gone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and continues to enjoy time with family and friends. Jim and I both have 2 weeks off of work and school. Exactly 2 weeks of spending time together, working on personal projects and house projects, sleeping in, reading and maybe a day trip to two around central Texas. I apologize for the spotty blogging lately.



Wishing everyone a fabulous New Year!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Are you my mother?


Look what we found wandering around our neighborhood over Thanksgiving break? It took us forever to catch this cute little guy. He was so cold and scared and feisty. We posted an ad on Craigslist, made a found dog report to Town Lake Animal Shelter... but no reply yet. It's been a fun and exciting few days. Max is annoyed by it, it is scared of Henry, and Henry wants to just hug it and squeeze it and sit on it all day long. Next, I'm going to take him in to see if he's microchipped.

Help us find his family!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

It's complete sillyness around here

Nothing unusual... just happen to capture some of it on camera to share. The girls dressed up and had a "Honk for Peace" rally in the driveway.

Baby Henry has discovered flip flops and is in love.

They are more like skiis than shoes for him.

He shuffles along just like a cross country skier.

Then maybe a little "FE FI FO FUM" playing the giant inside the playhouse.

When one of my textbooks arrived from Amazon. It was fun adventures in packaging. A perfect hat, don't you say?


Monday, November 24, 2008

29 gifts

Want to see how my current challenge of giving away 29 "things" in 29 days is going? MY 29-GIFT BLOG. Want to know more about what the 29 gift challenge is and how it all got started? READ HERE.

Monday, November 3, 2008

November. Seriously? Days are FLYING by this fall.

Ayla's volleyball has wrapped up. She really enjoyed playing, but sad to see the season come and go so quickly. It's nice to sleep in a little later too. These days, we are spending a lot of time and energy on Ayla's big room re-do. Her big gift this birthday is a total room re-do. I was picturing HGTV weekend style. Just cranking it out and be done with it, but its turning into every free moment just here and there try and do something. Not as rewarding, but its just real life with a toddler, and 2 working parents. We have made some serious progress, but have a LONG way to go. Yesterday, we successfully assembled and dressed her new bed. She loves it! Hope it all goes this well.

The style started as a french inspired old Hollywood with black and white everything... it has now morphed into just clean, modern, black and white backdrop (furniture) and greens, aquas, little brown and pink color splashes. So out with the barbies, plastic jewelry, and mish mash furniture.... and in with the bedroom suite fit for a teen. Pictures to come.

Jim and I are FINALLY on the mend with this illness. We have never been sick at the SAME time. It was comical, but hard. I thank my immune system for fighting so hard. I started feeling better Thursday-ish, but Jim finally went and got antibiotics to get over the hump. He's back at work today, hope his energy lasts!

Another project I've been working hard at lately is finances. Isn't just about everyone taking a closer look? I think its a wonderful trend for our country. I cringe at the price this has taken from so many, but I think the opportunity is genuine. As much as I love the gas prices coming down, It is great to see so many investigating and investing in more fuel efficient transportation. Even both of my parents have been driving hybrids. Go team! This past year, I started a little bookkeeping work on the side, yet never got around to sharing this new knowledge with our family finances. So I'm doing the heavy work of getting us up to date. Then we can really see our budget clearly and make sure our $ is where we want it to be.

Baby Henry is amazing. Such a blast... always.

He's MASTERED the stairs. He will FLY down them on his belly (feet first) beating me to the bottom every time.

His new favorite food is the dog and cat food. It's foul and dangerous! Those little crunchy nuggets are HARD and just the right size to choke him. We have moved the pet food more times in the last few weeks, the pets can't seem to find it anymore. He seriously pitches major fits when we try and pry it out of his mouth.

The poor child had a serious run in with a pile of fire ants.
We were at the ranch for brunch while celebrating Jane-Ann's baptism. Henry was playing in the grass, I saw the mound near him, and he proceeds to sit and lay down RIGHT on it. I got to him as FAST as I could, but he was COVERED with them. Aside from a few random bites, only his left arm came out with serious bites. Amazingly, he didn't say a peep. He never cried at all! He was more bothered by me whipping his clothes off and swatting at the ants furiously than anything the ants were doing.

Now that the weather is cooling off... we've been spending a lot more time in the backyard.


We have a LONG road to get it running as we'd like (new fence, new grass, landscaping, deck, tree house, trampoline, fish pond...), so hopefully as we examine our finances we can find some $ to start getting things done. For now, we've been enjoying teaching Henry to kick the soccer ball and playing with some of his birthday gifts. His activity center complete with boats and shovels and shade umbrella is a big hit (thanks Jan and Papa!). We haven't added sand yet.. but a few inches of water is a lot of fun. And recently we hung his new swing (thanks Dody!). He's really enjoying spending time out here and having fun activities right here in our own yard!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

so sick.

I'm so so sorry for the lack of posts lately. I KNOW how annoying that is. I'm on the tail end of a bad cold, and last week I was flying solo with 2 exams to cram for... so soon, I promise, more fun, more pictures, more of our family will post soon.

xxoo

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Ride the pony

Henry and I have been playing "ride the pony" for awhile now, but Henry never seemed to be up for riding on daddy's back. I'm guessing it was just too high off the ground for him at first. This past weekend, Henry decided he was ready and had a fun time. I loved being able to watch him instead of being the pony.


Saturday, October 4, 2008

13!


Happy Birthday sissy!
We love you.

Friday, October 3, 2008

The nail biter games against Richardson

Ayla's volleyball games last night were so exciting.

They played pretty well first game keeping things even at 14 vs 14, then (Ann) Richardson (Middle School) pulled ahead to win it. The second game Richardson pulled way ahead early on, so it was looking like they would win the 2nd and be done with it (best 2 of 3 games). Well, O'Henry came came back from over 10 points down to win the second game with an ear-splitting serving streak by player CC. The crowd was on their feet and the entire gym was filled with cheers and excitement. The 3rd game started and it was neck and neck the whole way. All the way up to 24 vs 24, then 25 vs 25! O'Henry was up to serve and Sarah, who has never played volleyball just moved from Denver, pulled out to 2 perfect serves to win by 2! The girls went CRAZY! It was so great to see. Their last game is next week, 6:30 on 9th if anyone wants to catch the last of the action.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

ooops.


This is what happens when you try and homemake tomato paste out of the juice leftover from the fresh tomatoes from the garden, on slow boil all morning ... while studying for 2 exams... while feeding the baby... then forgetting completely about it while you play downstairs with him in his room until your mom comes over and wonders why the entire upstairs is filled with smoke. ooops.

Monday, September 15, 2008

new skills


Henry has officially learned to navigate the stairs. A few weeks ago he managed to spring loose the gate and tumbled down. Scared the BAGEEZ out of me. I think it scared him too, so much that he started trying this backward thing that we kept telling him about.

(and straight to the dog food... as usual.)

Now he's up and down all day. We only use the gate to keep him contained upstairs while I try to get a few things done.

Speaking of skills... Ayla's been honing her volleyball skills.

They won their first game! A good start to a SUPER short season. The season's almost 1/2 over already... seriously! (Second game cancelled due to Hurricane Ike)

So if you are interested in cheering the Mustangs on. Come see a game before they're gone. Thursday evenings. You can find their game schedule at teamtracker.net. If that link doesn't take you directly to the schedule. Type in O_Henry (be sure there's a space between) in the search area; and she's on 7th grade volleyball - B team.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Little ghosty ghost



Henry was gearing up for Halloween as he wandered the house with a blanket over him complete with all kinds of spooky sounds. We were playing peek-a-boo under the blanket. Then, I went into the kitchen to get dinner done and he came wandering by walking full speed and howling. He must have walked into every wall or corner more than once. It was hil-ar-ious. I attempted to adjust things for better vision, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted the full cloak and was prepared for the consequences of head bumps and all. I so wish I had a video... soon I hope we can get a little kodak with videos to post. Our last one has been retired for sometime now.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

School Days

Jim has this adorable tune that his dad used to sing at the beginning of the school year. He now sings a few bars of it every year for us too.

"School days, school days,
Dear old golden rule days.
'Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic,
Taught to the tune of a hick'ry stick."

First day for Ayla went great. She has really taken to the life of junior high. She's liking her teachers and only got turned around once to find herself in the "8th grade wing" bumping into "huge guys that just plow down the hallway".

Yesterday and today were volleyball tryouts. Ayla has never tried out for anything really. It's always been if she wanted to play, they let anyone play. Now, she has to demonstrate some skills to get by. So, big thanks to her WAYA coaches last year, Sports Country counselors, and everyone that helped her at UT volleyball "bootcamp" this summer. SHE MADE THE TEAM! They have an A/B team and a C team. Ayla made it to the A/B team. She's so excited! (except for the fact that one of her best friends made the C team ;(

Big shout out BIRTHDAY wishes to Uncle Hal! We love you big dog!

Friday, August 15, 2008

That's MR. Henry

Aunt Abbey and Uncle Edward gave Henry this handsome robe last Christmas (thank yall, he LOVES his robe). I kept meaning to snap photos of him looking all dapper and clean.


and yes... he likes getting his teeth EXTRA clean with double the toothbrush power.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

New loves

Henry has fallen in love... with the little tomatoes from the garden. I've never seen him so excited about a food. Any time of day just popped straight in his mouth. He lights up when he sees the bowl full of them on the counter. If you give him one, he'll carry it around like a precious jewel before finally devouring every bit of it.


He's also quite fond of the garden grown watermelon we have been snacking on for a week. It's was terribly delicious.

His other new love (and trick) is to sneak into the bottom drawer of the frig, where all the fruit is kept, quicker than lightning before you can shut the door. He's usually sinking his teeth into a giant apple, peach or plum before you even notice he was there. He fondles the grapefruits, but I haven't witnessed him trying to bite one yet. I can't wait for the sour face. I know, evil mom.

Ayla has been consumed lately with "Oh my gosh,I'm going to middle school" thoughts for weeks now. Only 2 more weeks until all these thoughts will be reality. She's beside herself with excitement and apprehension. Her good friend Faith is coming for a visit today and will be staying until the weekend before school ... a good distraction indeed.

I'm so sorry for such a long drawn out pause here in blog-world. I keep thinking I can at LEAST sneak in a short post with a few pictures... but I realized I haven't been taking any pictures the last 5 weeks, so there was nothing to post. My class is over on Tuesday, so our family blog should resume a more regular posting once again. Thanks for your patience... check back in a week.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Yummy veggies!


Fresh from the garden...

Saturday, July 12, 2008


I'm feeling we're all over the place during the summer. With me back on school schedule, Ayla is bopping between sleepovers and camps, Jim's working and playing hard and Henry is doing his fair share of visiting all kinds of friends and family as well.
I treasure this photo of seeing us all together in one place.