Birthday Girl

Well, we definitely spoiled Allie this year on her birthday. First there was the circus and then her princess pool/pizza party........and then yesterday, on her birthday, I took her to a place called Dynamoze. When Daddy got home we went to Peter Piper Pizza. Both places, by the way, way over priced and we probably won't go there again. I told Allie exactly that about Dynamoze and, of course, she told Mony and Papa. They told her they would take her back when they come to visit. On top of all that, she has been spoiled by Grandparents, Great Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles with packages and cards in the mail!

Thank You Buddy & Kim!!

Thank You GG!!

Thank You Grandma & Grandpa H.!!

Thank You Mony & Papa!!

Thank You Johnston Family!!

Playing @ Dynamoze

Peter Piper Pizza - like Chuck E Cheese. We won a little over 1,000 tickets and still ended up with just a bunch of little, cheap trinkets

Princess Pool Party

Allie turns 4 Monday!! I really can't believe it. Time is flying by!

When I asked Allie what kind of a party she wanted she said, "PRINCESS!!"  So, a princess "themed" party it was.....again (she wanted princess last year too).  In all actuality, it was just a princess cake and pink plates. The place: the community pool. And, we had it to ourselves!! We were shocked that no one was there on a Saturday. A few people showed up here and there but, for the most part, it was just us and Allie's little friends. Allie had an absolute blast and loved having some kids to play with.

Zing Zang Zoom

Last night we went to the "Greatest Show on Earth." It was a birthday surprise for Allie. By surprise, I mean we told her about it a couple weeks ago to see if it might be of any interest to her or not. She seemed excited so we bought tickets. We didn't mention it again until yesterday so last night was a big surprise for her since she didn't remember our previous mentioning of it. It was so sweet when not even half way through the show Allie leaned over and whispered, "Mom, this is the greatest surprise ever!" That put a huge smile on my face. She's growing up way too fast! It really was a good show....it had Derek and I on the edge of our seats with several of the acts. I really loved it though because my sweet little girl was so lovey dovey. Throughout the last half of the show she sat on our laps just cuddling with us as we watched the performers. (while the other tried to calm a very cranky and tired little toddler) Avery was really good though considering we were up late the night before and she was up super early and only took about a 30 minute nap yesterday.......plus we got to the show an hour early for the pre-show. She really didn't start getting cranky until the last 45 minutes, which was well past her bedtime. Of course, she was up at 7am this morning but it's now 8am and she's back in bed :0)

Pictures aren't all that great because I couldn't find the right setting on the camera and, really, I was too into the show to take pics!

Oh, and Allie's favorite part: the dancing "clouds" - aka clowns.

Larry the clown - "that's Papa's name!"

Ornery Can Be Sweet

I've been meaning to post this video for quite some time now. It was taken back when we were in Indiana. This is just proof that my ornery little girl can be sooooo sweet. I <3 her!! 

Paradise Canyon

Today we went to Paradise Canyon for Det 4's Summer Extravaganza. It was a really pretty area. The water was pretty shallow so perfect for our girls, however the water was freezing!! Today, of course, has been about the coolest of all the days we've been here. It was overcast most of the day...the clouds went away just as we were getting ready to leave. But, it was the perfect day for relaxing and getting to know some of the other families Derek works with (it was easier to get to know people because everyone was coming up to us since Derek is their "boss").
The party was originally scheduled to be in New Braunfels but the park it was supposed to be at has been completely flooded out! There has been a lot of rain up that way and the rivers came up over their banks. A lot of people up near there have lost a lot so just remember to keep the people of New Braunfels in your prayers!
Here are some pictures from our day. Despite the cold water, the girls spent pretty much the entire day in it!!

A^2

Helotes Hubers

Time for just a few pics of the house. Things are still not completely organized so these are just a few of the pictures I took while we were painting. I promise there will be more to come later - and maybe even a little tour of the house -. Referring to the title of this post, Helotes is actually the city we live in. It's just Northwest of San Antonio, right at the start of "Hill Country." Our subdivision is Iron Horse Canyon and is actually made up of little communities (the further up the hill you get the bigger and ritzier the homes - fyi we're at the bottom! haha) The picture above is the Iron Horse. This pic was actually taken from our back yard. Somewhat of an eye sore having part of our fence that iron fence and the huge pile of rocks right there BUT there are some perks to it. On the other side is a waterfall so when we're outside it's a really nice, peaceful little sound. Plus, we're on a corner lot so that means we're not right on top of our neighbors and there isn't anyone behind us.

Here is Derek painting the entry way. It's soooo high up - I couldn't do it. Do you like the color? It's pretty much what we painted the whole house.......I just thought it needed some color instead of the boring white. It's actually not the color I had in mind, but I like it.

Allie painting her very PINK room. Being a little dyslexic : o)

Starting to get the hang of it...

That's my girl!!

I LOVE our kitchen. It's so big!

The layout is unique. This is me looking down from the gameroom (playroom). If you go up the other set of stairs it takes you to all of the bedrooms.

Part of our backyard. It needs a lot of work.

Deck and more of the yard....

Six Years

May 29th was our 6 year anniversary........we had hoped to celebrate it by moving in to our new home but that didn't happen. We did, however, spend the entire day painting our home. The sellers were nice enough to give us a key early so we could paint the house since the closing didn't go as planned. That night we ate at the fanciest McDonald's we had ever seen  ;o) We did spend the night in our new house - Derek was a gentleman and let me quit painting early and get a few hours of sleep. I was so tired that sleeping on the floor was no big deal....and the curtains worked great for a blanket!

Anyway, I'm glad that we took advantage of my parents while in Indiana. My Mom suggested we go out and do something for our anniversary early since we probably wouldn't have time or know anyone well enough to watch the girls for us. Mom knows best! We just went for a walk where we had our first date 10 years ago and we were going to go to the coffee shop where we had apple juice, but it was a different place now (still a coffee shop - just not the same one). So instead we had dinner at Qdoba, one of our fav little Mexican places that isn't here in San Antonio!

It's been a good 6 years and we have 2 AMAZING little girls who are our world. We're in our 4th home...so a lot of moving in those 6 years - which means a lot of change. It's all been good though and just helped mold us into who we are today.

Lackland AFB

Well, we're finally in our house now (pictures to come later). I just thought I'd share some pics from our stay at the wonderful Lackland TLF. Okay, so I'm being a little sarcastic there. Lackland has about the worst TLF we've ever seen. We didn't take actual pics of our housing facilities b/c it was such a dump. The worst experiences there were finding cockroaches in our towels when we first checked in and then, the worst, going to do laundry and finding poo in every washing machine - except for the last one we looked in. I wouldn't have done a load of laundry because of that but we desperately needed some clean clothes. I don't know if they just don't do a good job of cleaning or if Avery and I are allergic to something because we both broke out in rashes. I felt bad for Avery :

It was a rough week and a half. There was only one bedroom so we were all crammed in that one room to sleep. Luckily, we brought our pack n play and there was also one already in the room - so we set one up in the bedroom and living area. Every night Avery would wake up and see me asleep right next to her so she'd want me to get her. That's when I'd carry her out to the other pack n play. We didn't figure out this trick until about day 5 though.

Well, on to the best part.....the pictures! These are just a few from our outings while staying in TLF.

Lots of visits to different parks

I liked that a lot of the parks had these cool canopies

we went on a little hike one day - this is the sign we saw as we were leaving

skipping rocks at a creek we found

@ Uncle Barney's restaurant