Yikes! Has It Really Been That Long?

Can't believe how quickly time goes by...has it really been that long since I've blogged? C'mon! I have to do better than that. Not because I think there are many people out there that are dying for me to post something, but so that my grandfather, aunts, uncles and cousins who live in Guatemala can, at least, be a part of our lives through this blog. So...I'm hoping to do a little better and what better excuse than Dave riding the MS 150!

About a month ago, Dave decided to sign up and do something he has been wanting to do for a while now. His friend encouraged him to ride the MS 150 with his team, so Dave went for it. One week before the ride though, it was questionable if he was going to be able to ride it. During one of his training rides, something got in his eye and it looked pretty bad for a week or so. Then the following week, he went riding and came back with a lot of pain on his right hand. He went to see the doctor and he told him that he looked more like a swimmer and should think about changing sports. Oh, but this did not stop Dave! The morning before the ride, Dave decided to go for it...

I was on my way to San Antonio with the kids when all of a sudden, I get a text on my iPhone with a map telling me where he was. Come to find out, he was only about 15 miles from where we were at the moment, so I decided to take a little detour and meet up with him. Well, that little detour added about 5 hours to our trip, but the kids had a blast being able to see daddy ride.

Break point at Fayetteville Texas

After seeing Dave at the finish line for the day at La Grange Texas, we headed to San Antonio. We met up with my parents at their stores at the Market and while they were working, we decided to party at Fiesta, which is going on this week. It was crazy!!!! Not very kid friendly.

After all that "partying" I had enough, so I went home while the kids and my parents went to see my parent's possible new store which is located right in front of the Alamo. While there, they decided to take the kids on a carriage ride.

The next day, we headed to Austin to see Dave cross the finish line! There were thousands of people. It was so much fun being a part of this. We found a great spot to cheer Dave on.

Good job Dave, we are so proud of you!!!

About Time

What a beautiful day!  The weather was perfect and the attitude was too!  Natalia finally decided to learn how to ride her bicycle without training wheels.  I thought this day would never come...

But watch out!  She is still learning to turn and stop, so you better get out of her way if you see her coming...

And if there is anything in front of her, she is in big trouble because she still doesn't know how to stop...

So very proud of our big girl!

Now...You Wouldn't Expect Anything Else, Would You?

Well, believe it or not, my Prince Charming has done it again!  Last week he asked me to move my car so that he could go to work and yes...he hit it!  I no longer have a license plate in the front of my car.  Good thing it's not required in the state of Texas (so I think.)  He can no longer close his trunk.  He tried tying it down, but that's not working.  So now, he just drives around town with an open trunk.  He's also missing the hubcap on his left front tire.  Is anyone in the market for a Honda Civic?  I'll even throw in a dog for free!  He hunts and you can scratch squirrel off your grocery list!

Hey, who cares about the cars when you can have good coffee whenever you feel like?  Look at what got me!!!  Oh my, this little appliance is awesome. We were at Matt & Elizabeth's the other day and Matt introduced us to this gold mine.  I'm telling you, it's like having Starbucks right at your house.  I hope I slow down once the excitement wears off, but I've used this little guy every day. 

Oh wait a second though...that's not all he has been up to lately.  He also installed the wooden floor in our future little office!  Yes, he is such a handy man.... Thanks Dave for all your hard work!

Meanwhile, while Dave was at home working hard on that wood floor, I decided to also be useful and help out so I took the kids to the Stark Museum of Art in Orange Texas.  I know... that's just the kind of wife and mom I am.  Always helping out!  I was smart though and I dragged my dear friend Elizabeth out there :0).  She is always so willing and very helpful!

It was family day and they had a special feature: Bluebonnets and Beyond by Julian Onderdonk.  Natalia and Carson were very interested in the paintings and Luke, well he was just there.  The lady that walked around with us was excellent.  She really got the kids talking about the paintings.

After enjoying some excellent art work, we walked across the street to make some art.  As always, this experience was very enjoyable.  Nothing like some "hands on" opportunity.

The kids had a blast.  To end the day on a good note, Elizabeth and I decided to drive by a little snow cone stand, but they were closed!!!!  You just don't understand.  We've tried to buy a snow cone from this place several times and every time we go...it's closed!  How is that possible. Apparently, according to Hetal, these are the best snow cones ever.  I don't think we'll ever know :0( .  

Getting ripped in 90 days!

  

Today Dave and I started P90X!  This work out program is something like I've never experienced before - pull ups, push ups, plyometrics, Kenpo Kickboxing, Yoga?, and AbRipper X.  We should see a tremendous change in 90 days.  We're guaranteed to look like this :)

Yea, we'll see, but it's fun starting a new journey.  Dave wanted me to label the picture above as his after photo, but then he remembered he doesn't own any shorts that color... The program involves taking before pictures (or "good-bye" pictures), then pictures every 30 days after that to document the change.  I promise to keep these pictures private; I would hate for you to have to go through such a horrible experience.

If you are looking for a work out program, I would definitely recommend P90X.  It is worth every penny.  So, needless to say, running has currently been put on hold.  I'm planning on getting back to running after 90 days, and hoping this workout will help increase my speed and endurance.  In the mean time, for any P90Xers out there, "keep pushing play" and "bring it!"

Oh, the things we do for the love of Tennis!

We are in San Antonio and we are loving it!  Dave and his friend Neil left Beaumont on Thursday, after work.  Dave had to play singles on Friday morning and I didn't want Natalia to miss school.  It all worked out fine.  The kids and I left Beaumont by noon on Friday and got to San Antonio by 4:00 p.m.  Let me tell you, they are wonderful passengers.  They listened to the ipods, played with their leap frog and read.  They are truly amazing!

After stopping by the market to say hi to my parents and getting their first doze of spoiliness (is that a word? -Anyway.... you know what I mean) we went home.  

The kids stayed at my parents house while Neil, Dave and I went to have dinner after their doubles match.  We went to Chris Madrid's.  I don't know, but I think they have the best hamburgers ever.  If you don't believe me, ask Neil...

Neil was so proud of himself for eating the whole thing that he asked for a Chris Mardrid's sticker for his truck!  

Hey, it's the weekend and we are in San Antonio, so we decided to go all out and enjoy some dessert too, so we headed to The Cheesecake Factory to get some of this...

After a lot of laughing, and talking, and cheesecake, we went back to my parents house to rest for a few hours before going back to the tennis club early in the morning.  Dave needed to be there by 7:30 this morning.

This morning, after Dave's match, we met Byron and Kristi at Mimi's Cafe for breakfast.  We all  used to play 42 (domino game) while we lived here in San Antonio.  We had a great time visiting and catching up.

Right after brunch, we rushed to a Brody's (my cousin's son) 1st birthday party.  Then, we dropped off the kids at my parents again and Dave and I went to visit my cousin Ceila at the hospital.  She just had her 7th, yes you read that right, her seventh child yesterday.  His name is Thomas and I wanted to steal him from her so badly, but I didn't!  He is a precious 7.5 pound baby boy.

We were getting hungry again, so we went to Papouli's to enjoy some more time alone and a gyro.  We ended the night by going to the Half Price Book Store and coming back to my parents house.  We could have not had better timing.  My mom had already given all three a bath and their teeth were already brushed.  Oh, what a treat!  I will definitely be coming back soon.  I mean, can you blame me?  ;0)

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

 

Dave just finished reading Old Yeller to the kids.  Carson is starting to really enjoy hearing big books like this one read to him.  Natalia, like always, just can't wait until it's time to read and then she never wants to quit reading.  "Just one more chapter Daddy, Please!!!"

The kids were pretty sad the night we finished the book.  As the book was coming to an end, and Travis had just shot Old Yeller, Carson said, "I think I'm starting to cry."  They were wondering why the book had such a sad ending?  

Thanks to Grannie, we were also able to watch the movie this week!  As a matter of fact, we've already watched it twice.  Lia runs into the other room every time she recognizes a scary part is coming, and Carson is upset that the movie left out the scene of the chongo bull and the roan bull fighting.  I guess Carson now understands Tom Clancy's sentiment when he says giving your book to a movie producer is like giving your daughter to a cheap pimp?  (Ah, by the way...this last sentence was added by Dave.)

But anyway...great book and we highly recommend it!

I've Been Tagged!

Hetal tagged me, so here I am....

Apparently, the way you play is you pick the 4th folder within your picture folder, select the 4th picture, post it to the blog, and tag 4 other people.

So, my picture is of Luke ( 3 months old) and Daddy having a man to man conversation in the back room of our current home.

I promise we have better pictures of Luke and Daddy, but this is what I was told to do.

Squirrel Hunting

What good is a bow and arrow if you are not going to use it? ~Do not fear... thanks to Daddy, the kids have put their bow and arrow to good use!

One day, they decided that they were going to shoot a "squirrel". So this is what Dave came up with...
And according to Dave, after you shoot a squirrel, you have to skin it and eat it.  So that's exactly what they did after the kids kept saying, "Daddy, when are we going to skin the squirrel and eat it?"

So, here they are, enjoying some "squirrel"!

Oh wait, but that's not it.  A few days later, while I was not home (I would've taken some photos), Dave took them outside to look for squirrels.  They all had had their bow and arrows and were actually trying to get a squirrel.  They had so much fun hunting for squirrels, while people were slowing down as they were driving by our house to see what in the world was going on...Once again I say, leave it to Dave!

"Like the Tellar and the Nellar and the Gellar and the Dellar..."

Ah...look at them hugging!  Okay so they do love each other, but there is another reason why they hug while Daddy reads There's a Wocket in my Pocket! by Dr. Seuss.

                                                                 

                                                            

Ever since Natalia and Carson were very little every time Dave reads this book and gets to a particular part whoever is not hugging gets a "tickle-tickle"!   

A Dad's Attempt at the Thanksgiving Story

As promised, click here to watch the video about the Thanksgiving story.

Soccer Season - 2008

This year it was Natalia's 3rd year to play soccer.  She loves playing!  Always looking forward to practice on Mondays and Tuesdays and games on Saturday mornings.  At the beginning of the season she wasn't too sure that she wanted to play anymore.  I finally figured out that she wasn't too thrilled about all the running that was involved.  This year was the first time to play on a bigger field and the first year to have a referee too. She quickly got used to the changes though.  At this level, we still don't keep score, except for a few of us moms :0)  ~Go Lemondrops!  

You Go #3!!!!

This was Carson's very first season to play soccer.  For the first 5 games (out of 10!) he wouldn't do anything other than follow Dave ("the coach") around or just stand there.  It was driving me absolutely crazy.  Good thing that he finally warmed up.  He enjoyed it after that point.  This year he was number #4 ("because he is 4" - he said)  and they were the Rocketboots.  How did they get that name? - You might be asking yourself.  Well, one day while discussing what their team name was going to be, one of the boys said "Rockets" and another boy said, "no, I want our team to be called Boots."  Dave, being the nice guy that he is and not wanting to hurt anybody feelings said, "how about Rocketboots!"       

Carson standing around watching everybody else play soccer!

Carson finally decides to join in!

Carson kicking the ball :0)

Soccer season is fun but I'm also glad this season is over.  We had to be at the soccer fields by 8:10 a.m. and would leave until 11:30 every Saturday morning.  In addition we had practice during the week.  It was a lot of fun, but glad for the break.

Looking forward to next season...

Sweet Moments

Bed time routine... studying the Word of God.  In this particular picture, Dave was teaching Natalia the Ten Commandments.  

Potty Training with Wall-E

Here are the kids talking to Wall-E after Luke successfully used the toilet!  

I wonder why Dora and Barney sound very similar to Wall-E.

Quality Time with Daddy

During evacuation, with a lot of time in our hands and no money in our pockets, we have been looking for things to do.  I'm glad Dave has been here with us though, because he can always have fun no matter the situation.  One day, he took them to Target (of all places) per Carson's request, I mean plea.  Carson has been asking for a costume for Halloween.  And no, this is not what they will be wearing for Halloween.  After all that nonsense, they went to EZ's to get a Cookies and Cream Milkshake!

For the last two days, he has been spending one on one time with each kid.  First up was Carson. Carson, being the big helper that he is, got to go with Daddy to Lowe's to look for some materials so that Dave could run a telephone line in my Dad's new store at the Market.  But, before work, they needed something to give them some energy.  They made a quick stop at Naddler's to enjoy a cookie.  Later, they went to the Market to work.  Carson really enjoyed his time with Daddy.

Carson had so much fun eating this cookie!  He thought it was funny how he was eating one body part at a time!  Leave it to a guy to find humor in that!  I guess that's what daddies are for.

Natalia had a hard time believing that she was not allowed to go with them.  "Ah, why can't I go? Why does Carson ALWAYS gets to go?"  Finally, somehow, we convinced her that it was going to be OKAY.  Later yesterday, she had the opportunity to spend a few hours with just Daddy.  They went to eat cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory.  I think this was probably her favorite part!  Later, they went to the Apple Store.  She was able to play with their computers  for as long as her heart desired.  Didn't even have to share! 

 

I don't know, but I'm having a hard time figuring out if she is enjoying this White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Cheesecake!

Little Luke didn't get to spend time with Daddy yesterday, but he got his turn today.  First off, they went to Petco.  Believe it or not, my kids love this place.  Today in particular, Petco was the place to be.  Luke had the opportunity to pet a baby squirrel!  Then, they stopped by Coldstone to enjoy some ice-cream.  And to end their time together, they went to the airport to watch the airplanes take off and land.  When they came back home, I was even excited just by  listening to Luke tell me all about his time with Daddy.  I wish I would've taken a picture of him.  He had the biggest grin on his face and he was talking as fast as he could.  He was so excited! 

I am so proud of Dave for all these pictures he took and I'm also worried that he will gain 50 pounds after his one-on-one time with the kids.  

Post Ike

As soon as we woke up this morning, Dave was ready to go.  I'm telling you, this boy does not sit well.  He went to get breakfast tacos at his favorite place, Taco Cabana, at 6:00 a.m. and then he started getting ready for his trip back to Beaumont!  He went shopping for gas tanks, coolers, food, car phone charger and other survival items.  My cousin Adin and Adin's friend Brent, were kind enough to take Dave back to Beaumont.  It took them approximately 7 hours to get there, but thank God, they got there safely.  

We are so thankful to God that our house made it!  It also looks like the practice didn't receive a lot of damage either.  Of course, we will know more as the days go by.  

No pictures yet, but don't worry, as soon as I get my hands on some, I'll make sure and post them.

On another note...

While Dave was getting ready to go to Beaumont, Kim, Adin's wife, called me and invited us over to swim. We all had such a wonderful time!  We ate, swam, ate, jumped, ate, played and ate some more.  What a great day we had.   

Baking Cookies

Playing Wii

Ashlyn and Natalia working on a 500 piece puzzle