South Texas Maze

We've been busy working around the house. I like to be on the go so it's been tough. We finally got out on Saturday despite most of us being a little under the weather. We decided to drive over to Hondo, Texas for the South Texas Maze. Luckily, it was free for military that weekend.....otherwise it wouldn't have been worth it. I don't know if they just weren't all that prepared (it was opening day) or what, but there wasn't a whole lot to do and the maze wasn't that great. The girls seemed to have a good time though, which is all that matters.

Just some other things about the girls:

• 
  
  Allie loves {riding her bike.} We were out riding the other night and she got going really fast - and well - most of the time she forgets to use her brakes so she crashed head first. She's fine though, just a scratch on her elbow.
• 
  
  Allie still loves {school} and is {making friends}. We have our first playdate with a couple of her school friends this weekend. The fun thing is that they both have sisters that are two years old so some new friends for Avery too!
• 
  
  Avery must be going through a {growth spurt}. She always wants to eat. Mostly snacks because she hardly ever eats much at lunch or dinner. We've got to do something about that! She is a BIG breakfast eater though. The other day she had FIVE bowls of cereal! She did do good with dinner last night.......but it was McDonalds. I was shocked....the girls split a 10 piece chicken nugget and large fry and devoured every last bite! That 12 mile bike ride must have made them work up an appetite.
• 
  
  Avery has been really good about going {poopy in the potty.} Still working on understanding to go pee in the potty too.
• 
  
  She's {talking} a lot more. There are still things I can't quite understand and I can see she gets frustrated. She's learning quickly though.

I just love my girls so much! I can't get enough of them.

Flashback Friday

HIGH SCHOOL

Ahhh, high school..........most people will probably say that they didn't like high school. I actually enjoyed it. Weird, right?!

It helps when you have some awesome friends.......we were pretty much inseparable. I miss them!



Here we are @ Madeira Beach, FL {SPRING BREAK}

I also had a hot boyfriend! ;)

HS graduation @ Purdue University

Here's Derek with one of his good HS friends at a school dance. Most guys would ask a girl, but Derek {aka Bad Boy} and his friend went together as Gilligan and Skipper. He was all about having a good time!

Playroom Reveal

We finally got one of our projects done. I don't know if this is exactly how I want the playroom, but it will do for now. I just really don't like blocking the windows! I think I'd like it if I was a kid though. :-)

The other half of the room is just a tv area with a few more toys, of course. Eventually, I'm going to make a cushion for that bench under the window.

Mission San Jose........and Lizards

The girls and I walked (rode bikes) around Mission San Jose yesterday. It was nice to get out and just enjoy each others company.....and see the sights.

We continue to find lovely lizards in our home. The other day Derek saw one as soon as he opened the door to come into the house. It took off towards one of our chairs and we haven't seen it since! We found two right outside the house yesterday (and I saw one on the outside of the window last night).



Allie decided she wanted to try holding one!



Pool 9/16/10

Flashback Friday

I LOVE looking at old pics! With that being said, I'm going to try a new "series" of pictures from our past. My goal is to post one of these every Friday to reminisce a little. Those truly were the good ol' days!!

This first week I have to highlight the whole family!

Here's Allie - I love this pic because her shirt says "Angel" (which she is) but her face sure isn't showing so in this pic!

Here's Ave. Can't go too far back with her because she's still our "baby". I think it's funny how she fell asleep with that toy in her mouth. :)

Now baby Derek. I'll have to have him give the details as to whose wedding this was. What a handsome little guy! Love the tux shorts!

Here I am - thanks to the date in the bottom corner I know that I'm 5 years old. My cousin, Ashley, and I are in our gymnastic outfits. Not sure if we were just playing around or if we just got back from practice or what. Reminds me of the time we went and performed at a nursing home. I don't remember all that went on, but I've heard stories. Let's just say that our parents were just as entertained by the nursing home residents!! (Pictured with me is my bro, cousins and Grandma). Love my sweatbands!~

Sea World and Shower Time

I was able to get a free ticket to Sea World for being a season pass holder. So Saturday (after Derek's race and workouts) we headed over there for a few hours. It is so much easier to get around with an extra pair of hands! We were able to go to 2 shows and the Pirates 4D movie. Avery laughed during most of the movie and Allie cried during most of it. In her defense, it was pretty scary! The shows were awesome as always. We saw the Cannery Row Caper....again. We also saw Azul.

Before heading to Sea World the girls decided they wanted to try taking a shower. This was a first for both of them. They were hesitant at first but I think they enjoyed it.

Nightmares

I don't know what it is with the nightmares lately! I had two really bad ones last week. The most recent one was about someone breaking into our house and they had weapons (who knows what they were going to do with them). The scariest part was that I woke up from that nightmare to our house alarm going off!!! That is the worst feeling ever! My first thought is always to go protect my kids. I wake Derek up and he gets the gun and turns off the alarm. He then goes into the hallway and turns on the nearest light he can find.....checks the rooms upstairs and then heads downstairs to look around. Meanwhile I look out all of the windows in our room to see if I see anyone running away (we have windows to the front and back of the house in our room).I don't know if this was the best way of doing all of this, but at least I was able to get him up. If the alarm wouldn't have been going off I would have had to have shaken him and hit him so hard to wake him up and then he would have been way out of it.........so I think the alarm is a good thing because it got him up and going. I didn't have to do much nudging or explaining when I got him up. In the end, we never saw anyone and all of our doors were still locked. Freaky!

I think we need to set up a plan of action for if this ever REALLY happens.

• What do you think, should we turn off the alarm so we can hear what's going on or should we leave it going so it may scare the intruder away/be able to hide the sound of our movements as we search for them?
• Do we turn any lights on?
• My first instinct is to go straight to the girls and hide them/us. Should I stay with them or help Derek with the intruders?

These are just some thoughts that Derek and I talked about that night, but never really came to any decisons. I know we'll have guidance and direction given to us, but I still think it's good to have some sort of a plan!!

So, what prompted me to write up this blog post was when Allie told me this morning about her bad dream last night. She said she was dreaming about a lizard that said, "roar"! Funny because we've been finding little lizards all over the house. Gross, I know! Maybe her dream wasn't actually a dream though! She said she came downstairs to get Daddy to help her "pray about Jesus". Then when they were walking up the stairs, right there on the landing, was.........a lizard!! (She said she kept an eye on it while Daddy got some toilet paper and picked it up and took it outside). Hopefully it's the one that I saw crawl out of the oven a couple of weeks ago so I won't have to worry about where he is anymore!

Labor Day Weekend

The "weekend" started out Thursday night. We went out to eat at The Melting Pot for my birthday. Good food (especially the dessert!) but not a great idea with little ones that want to touch everything. Allie really enjoyed it and said it's her favorite and wants to eat there every night. ha! Not going to happen!

We thought about going to the lake Friday and then remembered that Allie was now in school and didn't have the day off! I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deal if we would have taken her out, but she's going to be missing 4 days here in a few weeks and we had plenty of other things we could be doing anyway. It did make us realize that our fun 4 day holiday weekends are now probably over for a while! :(

Saturday morning Derek had his 2nd race. This one was a biathlon. It was technically a team event where one team member would do the 10 mile bike and the other would do the 3.2 mile run. Derek's original partner tore something (hamstring, I think) and his new partner's daughter had a birthday party that day so he told him not to worry about coming. That led Derek to try and get me to ride the bike so he could still compete for a prize. I ended up not doing it because it was very short notice (he asked me the night before). I'm really glad I didn't because he let another guy borrow the bike I would have used for the race and he ended up with a flat tire on the race! Anyway, Derek did the whole thing by himself and came in at just under an hour. He would have been 2nd place in the Men's under 35 division (4th overall), but was disqualified because he did it without a partner.

He still has a few more races until the BIG one in October. His team was actually interviewed.....you can find the article here: http://www.randolph.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123220669

After the race I got to choose an activity for my b-day. I chose Frisbee golf. The place was packed with little league footballers. Football is HUGE here! We only played 5 holes and then let the girls play on the playground for a bit before we left. (I could tell Derek was exhausted).

The rest of the weekend was spent working on a few more projects around the house. As soon as they are done I'll post pics!

For now, here's a few more pictures of the girls........

I forgot to mention that I am now the only one in the family that hasn't been bitten by fire ants! Avery got attacked while we were at Derek's race and Allie got attacked while we were playing frisbee golf!

I snuck up on Avery the other day to get this pic. She's starting to play really well on her own now!
P.S - You'll notice that in every pic (except one), since I posted that she made sure her blankey stayed in her bed, that she has it with her! It all started when Allie went to school. She really misses her sissy! She's getting better though. I try to have her hold off on her naps until Allie gets home so that we can have some one on one time. Allie loves school. She's always super crabby when she gets home though. I made the decision yesterday that she has to start taking a nap when she gets home!

Every Wednesday night we go for a bike ride. I think I'm going to suggest making it every other and doing something else on the other Wednesday's because my rear is always sooo sore afterwards!!

Trying out the new bike trailer.......Softer, but not much room to move around. They will probably grow out of it really quick. Couldn't pass it up for $25 though and that way we'll have an extra one for TAKK when they are staying with us (and they can join us on our rides!)