First Day of Kindergarten

This blog began because this little girl was changing our lives by being born.  And here we are.  In Kindergarten!  Everyone asks, "Are you sad?" And I really wasn't.  For one, she was READY.  Bored with me & so excited about the new opportunities and experiences that school had to offer.  We counted down all summer.  I think if she'd be nervous or didn't want to go, that would have been hard for me.  Also, with her I've never struggled with her growing up.  It's always felt natural & like where we should be.  I think some of it is she has had sisters come quickly behind her, so it seemed right for her to be "bigger".   Going into this day, we had no mention of nerves or any hint of being scared.  We were ready!!

oops.  such bad lighting!

Kate's cousin, Adrianna, is in first grade at her school!!  They love seeing each other, and Angela and I are only a little nervous about the trouble they'll get into for not containing their excitement ;-).

We made our way to her class, where she started filling out her info sheet.  Was so cute to watch her get excited & ask me how to spell things!

 As part of the first day of Kinder, Mrs. Parker reads the book The Kissing Hand. If you haven't read it, it's a story of a boy (raccoon) going to school for the first time & he is very nervous.  His mom gives him a kiss on his hand so that throughout the day when he feels sad he can hold it to his face & know his mommy loves him (that's the short version!).    Well at some point during this story, Kate decided she wasn't great with me leaving & started to cry!  We were SO SHOCKED.  Like I said, no nerves or sadness before today, so I was so surprised when it came out!  She just hugged me and cried with tears slowly streaming the whole story.  We made a special I love you kissing hand for her to wear throughout the day.  I kissed her hand, we prayed and it was time to go.

After praying, Mrs. Parker told the class they were going to read the book Kate had brought for Mrs. Parker's library Z is for Moose.  Kate absolutely loves this book so she quickly perked up & we were out the door.

At the end of the day I got a picture of Kate with Mrs. Parker & she said she never acted sad again and had a great day!

Another special treat we had on the first day was to have Nana with us!  With all the chaos of the first week & David being out of town at the end of the week, she came to give us an extra hand and celebrate Kate's first week!

Whew!!! We made it!

16 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby: 3 inches
Maternity Clothes: It's my plan today to switch out my closet.  More and more of my regular clothes aren't fitting :-(

Gender: I think my hope of a boy comes & I try to shut it down, because...come on.

Movement: I'm ready for the big stuff!  I love feeling a baby move!

Food Cravings: none this week.  What I miss: sleeping like a normal person

Sleep: I wouldn't say it's horrible or anything, but I have to change positions a lot, potty a lot, etc.  I am used to just sleeping through the night, so this is not as fun for me.

Symptoms: round ligament pain

Best Moment this week: getting a little break while my mom was here this weekend!  She did 2 nights in a row of bedtime!What I am looking forward to: Dr's appointment on tomorrow - love hearing the heartbeat.

15 Weeks

This blog may have all but died, but since I love looking back at the memories of my past pregnancies, AND since I can barely keep up with what week I am or what even happened last week anymore.  So, if I don't write anything else, I WILL update with pregnancy details!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 15 Weeks

Size of baby: 3 inches
Maternity Clothes: yes for shorts.  Still haven't gotten out the shirts yet.  They're a little too balloon-y.

Gender: I am pretty resolved to the idea that surely it's another girl.  But that doesn't mean that boy hopes don't sneak in. Kate gives us new names each week.  Recently it was Dexter, which has stuck with some people and what the baby is generally referred to as.  No.  We will not be naming the baby Dexter.

Movement: Some little flutters that I would only recognize from being pregnant before.  Nothing major.

Food Cravings: not really this week.  Previously in this pregnancy I wanted red meat a lot.  Mainly cheeseburgers.What I miss: having energy

Sleep: I have been sleeping not great.  Weird dreams, hard to find comfortable positions, going potty :-P

Symptoms: round ligament pain

Best Moment this week: feeling like "myself" again.  The first trimester exhaustion just about did me in this time.What I am looking forward to: family here for the weekend! 

Valentines 2013

To kick off February 2014, I'm looking back & filling up last year's February!

Starting with some Valentines pics

School Party

Keeping Up with Tradition

“MOOSEN!!!!!!! There many MOOSEN in the WOODSEN!"

"“MOOSEN!!!!!!! There many MOOSEN in the WOODSEN!"MANY MUCH MOOSEN! The Meisin wanted and the MOOSEN and...”  ― Brian Regan

We had SUCH a fun night last night.  For Christmas I wanted to surprise David with tickets to see one of our favorite comedians, Brian Regan.  Well, once he found out he was coming to Longview, David started looking into buying tickets, so I had to fess up that I already had!  

What I didn't tell him is that two of his best friends & their wives were coming with us!  We got it all worked out, they got to the restaurant before us & David was so SO SHOCKED!

 After some yummy white cheese at El Sombrero, we headed over to see Brian Regan.  And he did not disappoint!  We were talking after the show that he seemed to ad lib more at this show than we'd seem before (like he'd forget a transition and have to make something up), but that was our favorite part!  I literally had tears running down my face.

 After the show, the Molinas & Terrys came back over for dessert & playing Heads Up.

We are definitley too old to only get 5 hours of sleep and I am much looking forward to an nap, but I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.

A comeback...

So, you thought our blog was dead?  Well, I guess for a time it was.  But here I am again, determined to revive it.  I've recently "retired" from working for my dad (a job I've done FOREVER) and while it was such a gift for it's time, I am thankful for the opportunity to have a little more space in my time.  I always felt like if I was on the computer I should be working instead of blogging.

So, here we go again.  I think I'll start doing some current things along with filling in things from the past.  We are going to Angel Fire soon, and I was pulling up posts from the past years and was sad to see I never did last year's!  So, the motivation for catching up.

Here goes nothing!


In honor of what began the rebirth...

Angel Fire 2013

Let it Snow!

Photo Shoot

A Little Comparison

Cookies for Santa

This year, since we were in Austin, Grandmommy got to join in our fun in making cookies for Santa.  

 After the Christmas Eve service that evening, and after little girls had been put to bed, Kate put out the cookies for Santa.  She's so fun with all of these traditions!!