Hacienda del Hirst

Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T17:12:00.012-05:00

Well ya'll are in for a treat! I have pictures (thanks to my brother). We had a great time this past week in NC. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving Day.

The Family

The Kiddos

Our Family

My Dad. I just love this picture!

Dad and Mom

Silly Faces

Natalie, Mary Alice and Charlie

Owen and I

Mary Alice and I

2009-11-25T21:53:00.002-05:00

Sorry I have been MIA. My readers have been emailing me asking for a new post and I am trying not to let them down. :) I have a HORRIBLE camera and I have not been taking any pictures. Which is really sad. This time last year my camera broke and I was not posting much and then Steve bought me a new one for Christmas...and well now that one is broke too....

Anyone with a extra "paparazzi" camera laying around? If so please send to me at.....

I have a little extra time on my hands and just wanted to send a shout out to all my fans :). HELLO MANDY! I am sitting on the couch waiting for "Ghost Rider" the movie to be over. Steve and my brother somehow have gotten into the movie and so I am surfing the Internet looking for black Friday deals. Yes...I have looked at camera's but just can't find what I want under $500. How sad is that?

So most likely my lack of posting will continue! Hope everyone is having a great thanksgiving. I am enjoying mine with my parents, grandfather, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew!

Back to School

2009-08-27T15:59:00.003-04:00

We have had a BIG first week of school. Mary Alice and Charlie both started school at the Downtown Elementary. Mary Alice is in first grade and Charlie is in their preschool program. They are both going the full day (8:30-3:30).

After the first day of school on Tuesday I picked up the kids and asked them "Well how was your first day of school Mary Alice?" And in her most animated expression she answered " It was WONDERFUL". I then asked Charlie the same question, and with a grumpy face he said "actually NOT".

Those answers pretty much sum up how each of my children feel about school. Mary Alice loves school and Charlie would rather just stay home!

Charlie with one of his teachers Mrs. Geyer

Mary Alice with her teacher Mrs. Best

As soon and I dropped of the kids I drove up to Mt. Airy to pick up our new puppy....because I have NO idea what I would do with all my "free" time while the kids are in school I decided to get a puppy.....

Let me introduce...........Dubus Duce Hirst

It is really hard to photograph a puppy......

Dubus is a Boston Terrier (he does not have the normal markings). He has really been a delight! I am wondering when the "honeymoon" is going to be over. He is very loving and OBEDIENT!

The kids were so surprised when they got home...they are in LOVE!

And just when you think the week can't get any better Uncle Landon called and was in Charlotte for business and came to spend Wednesday night with us.....

Mary Alice and Charlie were soooooo excited...

We love and miss you Uncle Landon!

Hope everyone is having a great week....I still have plans to post pictures from Camp...so check back soon...

Texas in July

2009-08-11T18:07:00.007-04:00

In July we made the big trip home to Texas! The kids and I were there for almost 2 weeks. It was great to be with everyone. Our first stop was Harlingen! We had soooo much fun July 4th at Uncle Wayne's. I really wish I had some pictures of the night....I will have to work on that!

The kids were amazing together. We went to the beach, schlitterbaun, swam in the pool and really just enjoyed being together.

One night we just sat around, played the guitar and the kids danced and even sang some themselves! The kids also each made a garden stone...for Mamma's patio. They turned out really cool...thanks Eric and Kari.

Merrill making her stone

Neely and Mary Alice dancing

Charlie and Elaine dancing

Mary Alice and Jake

Neely singing "If you were a bluebird" with Uncle John

Coach and Jordan singin' the blues

Daddy singing Patience

Jake!

The Girls!

Christie and Jake

Meal Time!

"The Hangout""

The Dudes

"Peace out" .....as the kids would say....

Up next....Houston and Camp Hollymont!

Whacked Fairy Tales

2009-06-11T08:47:00.006-04:00

It is official..Mary Alice has appeared in her very first play. She was a cow in "click, clack, moo" which was a part of the bigger production "Whacked Fairy Tales". It was unbelievable really. The production consisted of children ages 5-17yrs old. To see children act and remember their lines at such a young age was amazing to me. The play was about an hour long and the children had no help. It really was a real performance.

Here are some pictures!

Here we are outside the theatre standing in front of the sign that advertised their play

Here we are before the performance # 2 on Saturday

Here is Mary Alice in action

Kids on stage

My favorite cow

She was so surprised by her flowers each night

Here were are after performace #2

Here is Mae, her "step-sister". Ask me to tell you the story..it is hilarious!

Mamma and Mary Alice

And here is where I had tears in my eyes...curtain call!

Waterfalls

2009-06-10T09:07:00.006-04:00

Mamma and Coach visited last week and we had so much fun! Here are some pictures of a new favorite find just 35 minutes from our home!

Still posing....

Still hiding....

Next up....pictures from Mary Alice's preformace of "Whacked Tales"

It's never to late...right?

2009-06-10T07:25:00.006-04:00

Finally pictures from Easter!

Hey! I finally got a picture of Charlie..shhhh don't tell him. I guess it would be really good if I would have taken the red eye out before I posted but then that would of taken 5 seconds and I might not of ever posted these pictures.

here's my girl who LOVES to take pictures

The kids and I....charlie is about to lose it...he had had enough pictures....

Charlie could just not take any more of the camera (he is crying in the corner as this picture was taken)

Wish we had got a picture of Steve and the kids..maybe next year..it is just so crazy at our house on the morning of church.

Say Cheese!

2009-06-10T07:21:00.003-04:00

Can I just say this is what my two children do when the camera is pulled out. One just can't wait for her picture to be taken and will pose any which way you want. The other screams and puts his hands over his face.

Well we are back! I found my camera cord and could finally unload all my pictures! So hopefully over the next few days I can up date my blog!

Desperately Searching

2009-05-09T07:55:00.003-04:00

Yes..I know..I have not posted in a long time but I am desperately searching for the cable that goes from my camera to my computer. I cannot download any pictures and I have some good ones! (I really wanted to post my Easter pictures)

Wish me luck...I guess I could go to Best Buy....pictures to come...I promise.

Acting Class, Take One

2009-03-08T11:32:00.006-04:00

Mary Alice took a 8 week acting class at our local theatre. She LOVED it!

They studied Myths and Heroes and used theatre to dramatize the greatest Greek and Roman Myths! She was introduced to classic mythology( Zeus and Hermes etc).

At the end of the 8 week class they put on a small play called : Pandora's Box. Mary Alice played the role of Apollo (god of poetry and music) and the feeling misery. She did a great job! Here are some pictures from her preformace.

She has been out of class for almost a month now and is ready to start back! Up next...Whacked Fairy Tales!

The Spring class is really the same thing as participating in a play and Mary Alice cannot wait. It actually sounds pretty cute. She will be on the "big stage" with kids K-8th grade. Each class works on a separate story.

So if you have you ever wanted to see what would happen if Cinderella's glass slipper broke and never quite fit her foot ever again? Or what would happen if Captain Hook were brought to maritime court for his crimes? Or how Sleeping Beauty would deal with a bout of insomnia?
Mark off May 30th and head to Winston-Salem...it should be a good time!

Snow Day, Take 2

2009-03-04T06:55:00.006-05:00

We just had 2 days of no school due to snow! Really it snowed on Monday and so school was cancelled, then it was cold yesterday so they cancelled again, and then today we have a 2 hour delay!

Anyways, Monday I went to into work and Steve took the kids to Barbara's for a day of sledding, snow balls fights, and hot cocoa! Sorry..i have no pics.

Yesterday, Barbara's kids came to our house for a day of finger nail painting, face painting...ooops i mean applying makeup, and watching the new release of Beverly Hills Chiwawa! Now this I got pictures of!

Here is a picture of Mary Alice and Chloe showing off their nails and makeup....

And don't forget Millie!

Don't worry...eliott did not paint his nails or face..

Lately the "big kids" (Mary Alice, Chloe and Eliott) do not want to play with the "babies" (Charlie and Millie). It really hurts their feelings. They stop their feet and yell "I'M NOT A BABY". And we have to explain to the "big kids" that they are not babies anymore. So I loured Charlie and Millie to the sun room with girls scout cookies to watch a movie so the others had some time to play "without the babies messing everything up".

Charlie and Millie were happy...they each got 2 cookies, a cup of milk, and watched Jungle Book!

Bottoms up!

Are you wondering what Barbara and I did? Well we came up with a great idea..like always.
We got a new lab top in our home and I have been needing to find a space for it. I really do not want it back in a bedroom because I want to be able to watch the kids on the computer and really wanted it in my kitchen but did not know how to make that happen.

Barbara my personal designer came up with a great idea. We used two shelving units with a piece of wood on top to make a desk. I love it! Of course I would love to find something nicer later but for now this fit my budget. It only cost me 25 dollars! Take a look...

Of course I need to decorate the desk area? Any ideas? I see some picture frames in it's future, and some more baskets for the open spaces.

For those of you who know my kitchen I also moved my kitchen table....

Oh...i did buy some tie back hooks to pull back the drapes in the morning...

So that is about all for now...it was a FUN and PRODUCTIVE day!

Two Teeth in Two Days

2009-02-21T10:56:00.005-05:00

Well it is official. It has finally happened. Mary Alice has been waiting for soooo long to loose a tooth and this week she lost two teeth back to back!

Monday morning Mommy pulled her bottom tooth out, can you see the open space?

Then on Tuesday night daddy pulled out her top tooth!

And did I mention daddy pulled it with the pliers?

Remembering Chuy

2009-02-21T10:27:00.007-05:00

Well I have been avoiding blogging because I knew that I would have to blog about Chuy and his unexpected death 2 weeks ago. Chuy died suddenly 2 weeks ago in our backyard. We miss him so much and had so much fun with him over the past 6 months.

Here are some pics when he first came home.....

Mary Alice was soooo excited to finally have a dog again....

They could not wait

to play with him...

Even daddy was so excited

to finally have the dog

he had waited so long for..

Oh puppies..

they are into everything....

We love you Chuy!

Let it Snow!

2009-01-20T19:53:00.003-05:00

Well today we got a little bit of snow and the kids were so excited when they woke up this morning! Excited for the snow and because their long weekend just got longer! We had just enough snow to make a really small snowman. I just had to post a picture of our sad little snowman!

Hope you are staying warm...it is soooo cold here!

Oh yeah...and chuy is doing great! Just thought I would add a picture!

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T14:47:00.012-05:00

WOW! I cannot believe it is 2009. I cannot also believe that it has been 2 months since my last post. When I started this blog about a year and a half ago I remember telling Mandy I wanted to post twice a week...then I went to once a week and now look at me. While I am not making any new year's resolutions when it comes to my posting in 2009 I hope to get better at staying updated. The fall is such a busy time...hopefully we will slow down in the spring
We have had a great holiday and just thought I would share a few pics. Mamma and Coach came and visited at Thanksgiving and we had such a great time. They were here for a week and we enjoyed every minute of it. I still need to get pictures from Alice so I can post some. Mary Alice was so excited that they could both attend her classes Thanksgiving Feast! We also celebrated Jerry and Alice's 44th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Jerry's favorite restaurant in town...The Tavern. It was extra special because we were all alone without any children!

For Christmas we traveled to Philadelphia and stayed with my brother, Kristin and Natalie. My parents came up and we had such a good time. It was so cold.....so we pretty much looked like this...everywhere we went...

While in Philly we had some awesome philly cheesesteak sandwiches, went to see the liberty bell, where our Constitution was signed, and Benjamin Franklin's grave.

We celebrated Mary Alice's B-day. I cannot believe that she is 6! She was so excited that she was with her cousin Natalie. Natalie did not get to go on most of our outings since she was sick but we were so glad that we stayed at her house so we got a lot of playtime!

Then we headed out for New York City. Talk about cold....it was 18 degrees on Monday before Christmas and the kids were sooooo cold. It was wonderful to see New York at Christmas. I can now cross it off my list of "things to do before I die". Mary Alice loved seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center, seeing Santa at Macy's, riding the subway, and eating out. Charlie on the other hand was not so impressed....i think he was sleeping half the time we were there.

If you have never been to Macy's during Christmas you need to go...they do a unbelievable job! I would show you some of the 20 pictures I took but I am getting tired of writing and I know you are getting tired of reading.

Here is Charlie sleeping at Rockefeller Center, sleeping at Macy's where we saw the REAL SANTA, and at the restaurants. He also slept while we were on the Subway and while we were having our tour where the Constitution was signed...just didn't capture it on camera.

The kids also loved FAO Swartz and Museum of Natural History! It was fun...but now back to real life. I have been trying for 3 days to take down the Christmas Tree but the kids just do not want the fun to end. We made a deal and it comes down tomorrow. Mary Alice and Charlie are back at school next week and we are back to our real life! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Look at Charlie's favorite Lego Character's!

Happy New Year!

Chuy Update

2008-11-02T14:03:00.002-05:00

A few people have asked for updated pictures of Chuy so here they are! Chuy is doing well. He is potty trained and his still learning his manners. Steve finished the fense this weekend (which is HUGE)! I should of included some pictures. He did a great job and I am such a happy mamma.

Chuy is almost 16 weeks old..cannot believe it!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T13:07:00.003-04:00

Last night was sooo much fun! Mary Alice was a black "spooky" cat, Charlie was Darth Vader, and well I was a very ulgy witch! Dave, Kiera, and baby Tyler came over and had chili and went trick or treating with us..they were crabs! Steve was the only one in the whole bunch who was not dressed up. Oh well..there is always next year.

Here are some pics from the night. Got to run and make my chili con queso. We are headed to the Wake Football game at 3:30 and then will come home early to cook out, make smores and watch Texas Tech vs. Texas! What a day! GO RED RAIDERS!

Home Sweet Home

2008-10-17T20:54:00.006-04:00

Well what a trip! This time last weekend we were in Lubbock...man was it great to be back! Lubbock has changed sooooo much and it was so great to see Lubbock, Texas Tech and visit with old friends and family. Steve and I had such a awesome time! My parents came up from Houston and kept the kids while we went and played. Thank you mom and dad.....what a special time you provided for us!

Here is a picture of us in front of our first home! It actually looked great and the tree we planted for Mary Alice had grown so much!

We were able to visit with our dear friend/family Valerie at lunch on Thursday and then again for lunch on Friday with Zack, and Alyssa. When I started babysitting for Valerie Zack was Charlie's age..I cannot believe he is in Middle School now! Alyssa our flower girl in our wedding looked great!

We stayed with Jenny and Paul Thursday night and it was so great to see Bennett again and meet Kate for the first time! They are just such precious kids!

I also met up with my best friend from high school and college, Amy at Starbucks (how did I leave without getting a picture?) It was so good to see Amy and her adorable daughter Kate.

Thursday night we got a tour of the "new"Lubbock and had a great dinner with Paul and Jenny.

Friday we started the morning off by eating at Burrito Tower! Man was it AWESOME! I think one of the things I miss most about Texas is breakfast burritos!

Later that day Katy and Howard came in town and we all had a great night at dinner and hanging out!

Saturday morning it was back to Burrito Tower and then onto Tech to eat our burritos and watch the homecoming parade! Sorry no pics of the parade...too busy eating..WAY to busy eating burritos.....ohhhhh man do i miss the burritos.....oh..and just as good as the burritos was that our friend Noble drove all night Friday night to come into town to see us! We missed you Tyra and John Davis!

Tech vs. Nebraska game started at 2pm. We had AWESOME seats (thanks jenny) on the 50 yard line. The game was a close one with so many ups and downs but in the end Tech pulled it out and we had such a great time!

Saturday night was more eating and hanging out with friends. We were able to see Jorge and Valerie that night and it was sooo great to see both of them and catch up. It was so hard to go to bed Saturday night knowing that it was all going to come to a end. I think we stayed up until almost 2am.

Then Sunday we came back home. It was great to be back home...we missed Mary Alice and Charlie. What a great weekend and what great friends we have. We love and miss you guys!

MA's First Babysitting Job

2008-10-17T20:44:00.003-04:00

Well its been weeks ago now ( I am so behind) but we babysat baby Tyler and had soooo much fun! Mary Alice and I were in heaven! We sent Dave and Kiera out for a few hours of much needed time together..and we just could not get our hands off this sweet boy!

Mary Alice was great with him and he is such a great baby! Just had to share some pics!

Happy Birthday Charlie!

2008-09-27T21:03:00.005-04:00

Charlie turned 3 last Saturday and we had one of our best parties yet! Charlie had a cowboy party. The cowboy party consisted of horse rides ( I was not allowed to call them pony rides...charlie would say.."It's not a pony, Mommy. It's a horse!"), face painting, tattoos, s'mores, a pinata and tractor rides!

The party took place in our backyard. My great friend from work, Becky, brought over Dakota one of her horses. He was sooooo great with the kids. Each kid got a few rides and even got to feed him peppermints and carrots.

Our driveway had a table for face painting and western tattoos...the kids loved them both. Steve was the hit of the party! He started out doing s'mores out of our chiminea and then gave tractor rides at the end of the party.

The weather was awesome and the kids had a great time! I cannot believe Charlie is three. He is no longer my baby, and I must admit I am sad about that. My babies are all grown up!

Here are some pics from the day!

Here are the kids petting Dakota

Mary Alice was totally into wearing all the cowboy garb I had bought (hats, bandanna's, badge's etc).

Charlie wanted NO part of ANY of it......he would not even wear his brand spankin' new cowboy boots from G-Ma and G-Dad...instead he wore his crocs....

Once again Mary Alice was all into the picture...Charlie...well he won't even look at the camera..

Oh wait..Charlie is looking at the camera! He is so happy!

Charlie just loved looking at Dakota.

Here's the family with Dakota.

Oh my sweet baby boy....

Oh.....the tractor rides....

what fun the kids had.....

How will I top this next year?????

Check out these links...pictures from Charlie's B-day last year!

http://haciendadelhirst.blogspot.com/2007_09_29_archive.html

http://haciendadelhirst.blogspot.com/2007_09_19_archive.html

Back to School...Take 2

2008-09-04T20:50:00.006-04:00

It was back to school for Charlie on Tuesday! And let me tell you boy was he ready! The past week was so hard for him...every morning MA would get up and go off to school and every morning he would ask me if it was his turn...and each day that I said "no" he would clinch his fists and say "AHHHHHHH"...

So Tuesday morning Charlie was ready to go! Here is a picture of him with his dinosaur backpack. Charlie is a boy who knows what he wants. He makes fast decisions and sticks to them. He told me weeks before school started that he wanted a dinosaur backpack. You can image my relief when I walked into Baby Gap and saw this dinosaur backpack. Of course it cost more then i would normally spend...but hey your only 3 once right?

Charlie has Mrs. Bullins this year. She is our favorite preschool teacher! Mary Alice loved her...and still does! Mary Alice's love for our planet is in part due to Mrs. Bullins. Mary Alice has been telling Charlie just how much she loves Mrs. Bullins and how much he will too. He went right in and sat in her lap for a pic....

Here is a picture of Charlie checking out the caterpillars. They are eating Milkweed and will soon be in their chrysalis. And before long they will be beautiful Monarch Butterfly's. The kids will watch this hole process take place. Mary Alice still remembers when the Monarch Butterflies broke out of their chrysalis and flew away.

Charlie..you are such a big boy! I love you so much and I know you are going to have a SUPER year!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2008-09-04T20:36:00.004-04:00

Steve's Birthday was on the first...Happy Belated Birthday Steve. We had a great day! Here are some pics from our day....

We started out our morning by giving Steve's his presents! His BIG present will come later in October when Steve and I get to return to Lubbock for the first time since we left. We will be going to the Tech vs. Nebraska game and we are soooooo excited! GO TECH!

Then we headed over to Millie's house for her third birthday party! Here are the birthday boy and girl.

I cannot believe these two kiddos are this big!

Steve worked on our fence with some help in the afternoon and we ordered out Chinese Food with the Keen's and had a Mixed Berry Pie and Vanilla ice cream for dessert. Yummmmm...

And oh yeah....we played with Chuy too...

Happy 32nd Birthday Steve! I love you and look forward to celebrating 32 more!

Where has time gone???

2008-08-27T20:49:00.003-04:00

Where has time gone? That is the question I keep asking myself. It seems like just yesterday we were here.....

but now we are here.....

it seems like just yesterday we were holding your hand like here.....

but now she (Mrs. Best your wonderful kindergarten teacher) is holding your hand....

oh...Mary Alice how I miss you like crazy during the day but I am so happy to see you so excited to go to school each morning! You are growing up SO fast! It seems like just yesterday I was giving you a bath in the kitchen sink...however instead of kissing you in your bath I am now kissing you goodbye as you walk out the door into your new world.

We love you Mary Alice!

Chuy Homecoming

2008-08-25T06:29:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures from Chuy's homecoming this past Wednesday. Steve surprised the kids and rang the door bell...when they got to the door he was holding Chuy. Mary Alice was sooooo excited!

Well I am about to take my girl to her first day of school! Kindergarten here we come! (Wish me luck...I am having a hard time). Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Chuy's Here!

2008-08-22T07:18:00.003-04:00

Well the puppy is here! I have been too busy to even download pictures from my camera. We named him Chuy after Chewbaca from Star Wars. Charlie (and Mary Alice) are really into Star Wars these days and so it just seemed to fit!

Hopefully I can post some pictures this weekend. And I am beginning to wonder if I will ever have time for my summer post! Well got to run..have a puppy to take outside (again)!

Change of Plans

2008-08-15T21:26:00.002-04:00

Well we did not pick up our puppy today. Steve and I forgot that I am going to the beach next week and Steve has one of his busiest times of the year at work next week. I will not be home and Steve will not be home until really late at night so we figured we better wait until next weekend to pick up the puppy. So next Saturday is the day!

Here are some pics of him. Any ideas for a name? I would like the give the kids about 4-5 options that both Steve and I like and them let them pick.

And of course I still have not completed my summer blog...my goal is to have that done by Tuesday before we head out of town!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Kids say the darndest things...

2008-08-10T20:07:00.004-04:00

Mary Alice, my mom, and myself went to a wedding yesterday. This is the first wedding Mary Alice has been to that she really understands what it is all about. There were a few things that she said that I wanted to document so that 20 years from now I can "refresh" her memorie and the promises she made :)

#1) She told me that kissing was GROSS and that she would not be kissing her husband on her wedding day!

#2) She also informed me that she knew who she was going to marry...but that is was a secret! ( I still have not gotten the boys name out of her yet!)

#3) Lastly, she told me that she already knew that she was going to go to the beach for her honeymoon and that Steve and I would go with her and her husband!

And oh yeah...that she and her husband will live with us! Mary Alice I love you and I know that no matter what you say now your feelings will change. Your daddy and I are already praying for your husband...wherever he might be!

PS. We picked out our puppy yesterday! The kids still do not know. Steve will bring HIM home on Friday! Watch for pics this weekend!

PPS. I am working on my summer blog. It is taking forever to upload pics from all the stuff we did this summer....but maybe by the end of the week I can get it done!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Shhhhh.......were getting a puppy!

2008-07-27T21:05:00.006-04:00

We have talked about getting a puppy for almost a year now...just waiting for the right time. Steve is building a fence and a good friend from church who has a business training and breading dogs was breading his female German Shorthaired Pointer so we thought the time was right.

But, Shhhhhh..don't tell the kids. We have not told the kids yet because we are not sure which puppy we are getting. The one thing that is for sure is that we are getting a German Shorthaired Pointer. The puppies were born on the 4th of July (see Steve's blog for more info. on the dogs). Today we went to see the puppies who are now 3 weeks old! The kids were so great! Of course Mary Alice was like a mother..singing to them while they laid in her lap. She wanted make sure she got to sing to all 9 of the puppies! Here are some pics...
.

Here is a picture of our favorite two females,
(ps. I hade no idea my husband was including me in these pics...please excuse these pics of me..they are horrible)

and our two favorite males,

Here is our favorite female,

and our favorite male,

Any ideas for a 4th of July name? We are actually considering being a little patriotic (and cheesy) and naming the dog something that repensents the 4th of July. Let me know your ideas and God Bless the USA!

Prayers for Kavu

2008-07-23T17:33:00.003-04:00

Please pray for Kavu. Kavu has been with us since Steve got him when we were sophomores at Texas Tech. While Kavu is not "living" with us at this time we still love him and he will always be our dog. Katy (steve's sister) and family have taken such great care of him since we moved to NC 3 years ago. Kavu is now their dog too.

Kavu had surgery yesterday to remove a tumor that was diagnosed as malignant. They also found (after surgery) another tumor in his anal glands. He is on medication and will go back to the doctor in two weeks to see if there has been any improvement.

Kavu turned 11 last February. He is recovering in San Antonio and doing well. We love you Kavu!

Were alive!

2008-07-22T21:06:00.004-04:00

Yes we are alive! We are just having a BUSY summer! I am planning a SUPER long blog in August summerizing our summer. So I am sorry but I am taking some time off, spending it with the kids (you know my oldest goes to kindergarten soon). We have also been going to the pool...and oh yeah and playing guitar!

Check back next month and I should be back to bloggin! Hope you are having a great summer like us!

We Miss You Allie!

2008-06-03T08:25:00.003-04:00

We miss you Allie! Allie is a great friend from our church who just moved to Birmingham. We are sooooo sad and we miss you sooooo much! Allie we just wanted to let you know just how much you are missed.

Preschool Days are Over

2008-06-03T08:14:00.003-04:00

Well as you know...I am WAY BEHIND when it comes to blogging...these next two posts have been in my "saved posts" for over about a month. I wanted to do so much more with both of them but oh well!

These pics are from Mary Alice's last day for preschool. I cannot believe that she is done with preschool and is headed for kindergarten! She has had such a wonderful time at Knollwood Preschool and is going to miss all of her friends she has been with the past three years! She actually is a little concerned about attending her new school without even ONE of her friends!

Here she is with the girls.....

and the boys....

Then it was off to eat at MA's favorite restaurant....

BILLY BOB"S DINER...she love singing to the oldies just like her mom!

Here she is making a "pose"!

What a day! Charlie slept through the whole thing!

Not so Funny Friday

2008-05-30T23:28:00.003-04:00

Today I realized just how OLD I am! Unfortunately, it was at the expense of my mother. I truly have never felt this bad in a LONG time. Ok...so you are wondering "what in the world did she do"?

Well I forgot my mother's birthday..can you believe it? I FORGOT! No excuse...i just forgot. I feel like the worst daughter in the world. I was speechless when talking to my mom. I mean what do you say when you forget your mother's birthday?

Mom, I am so so so so sorry (and i will be for a long time). I know there is nothing I can do to change what I have already done...but I am hoping that including some cute pictures of your grand kids will help lessen the pain I have caused.

Charlie and Mary Alice drew you a "Happy Birthday Sign"

and well I did to....

Happy Belated Birthday Mom! I love you and I am so sorry!

Happy Memorial Day

2008-05-25T21:38:00.010-04:00

Happy Memorial Day! I hope each of you is having a wonderful day. Charlie and I are watching some TV this morning while the other members of our family are still in bed! It is a beautiful morning, I have the windows up and a cool breeze is coming into our den and we can hear all the birds chirping. What a beautiful sound! I have a cup of coffee, Charlie has a cup of milk and all is good!

Memorial Day is such a beautiful day. Charlie and I got out early this morning and made a run to the grocery and all the streets are lined with American flags. Every store has ribbons and bows of red,white and blue in their windows. I love seeing all the flags hanging on the houses of our street. (Excuse me for a minute while I get serious). As I see all the red, white and blue it makes me take a moment to remember all the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country. What a wonderful place we have to live and it is due to everyone who has given their life for us. I just want to take a moment to remember everyone who gave their life to make mine better.

Thank you.

Here are some pictures of my grandparents. My grandad is a Sergant Major and served in the Marine Corps for 30 years. He fought in WWII, the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He served in the Pacific for 4 years during WWII! Thank you Grandad for making our world a safer and better place to live.

And let's not forget my grandmother who took care of three children and a home while he was away. I have no idea how you did it! You are one special woman. I am still amazed at how you took care of Dad, Bill and Susan for 15 months while Grandad was serving in the Korean War.

I love you both and thank you for all you have done for our country.

Here are some pictures of them both at the Marine Corp Ball this past November. Grandad looks so good in his dress blues . And they both look great out on the dance floor!

On a lighter note, this week the kids had their Spring Program at school. It was an "All American" theme. They sang great American songs like Yankee Doodle Dandy and Take me out the Ball Game. Everyone dressed in red, white and blue and waved American flags. It was a beautiful sight and even brought a tear to my eye. Here are some pictures of the kids in red, white and blue.

After their program we kept with the All American theme and went to lunch at McDonald's! Yuummm.....you just can't beat their fries!

I hope you each have a wonderful day. We have a street parade and picnic to attend for lunch and then I head into work this afternoon.

Come back soon....I am trying to upload a video of the kids! Wish me luck!

I Love Green

2008-05-25T20:52:00.003-04:00

As many of you know I love the color green. I also love my green belt daughter! Mary Alice completed and passed her test for Green belt a few weeks ago (yes, i know....i am WAY behind).

She started Karate in September. She started as a white belt, then became a yellow belt, then orange belt and now GREEN belt!

We are so proud of you Mary Alice! WAY to GO! We love you!

Saturday Fun

2008-05-12T22:36:00.007-04:00

Saturday went spent time as a family (since i had to go to work sunday afternoon) at the Lazy 5 Ranch. We have heard so many good things about this place since we moved here..it just took us almost 3 years to come (can you believe we have been here almost 3 years?)

Anyways, we had a great time. The Lazy 5 Ranch is a exotic animal drive thru park. It was like we were on our own private safari. The animals are so used to people that they just come right up to your window and eat feed out of your buckets. At first this freaked out the kids but about the time we were done Mary Alice was willing to try and feed the animals if I held her bucket with her. Here are some of the many animals we saw on our safari!

Rams....

Longhorns....

Giraffe's...

Rhino's...

Camels...

Zebra's....

Water buffalo...

Lamas

and "peckers" (as Ma would say) you most likely call them ostriches. They scared Mary Alice the most because they were very forceful moving their heads up and down when eating out of your bucket.

This guy about freaked me out...we all have our window's down and when i turned to look out my window this is who i saw!

I will not bore you with any more animal pics. They also had a great park area. We packed our lunch and the kids ate and played. The weather was awesome and we had such a great time just being together.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Girls Weekend, Year 3

2008-05-04T16:49:00.005-04:00

I have been home for one week and I am still rejuvenated from my wonderful weekend away at Seabrook Island. This is the third year in a row that we have been able to get away for a weekend together, and i think this year could be the best year yet! Mostly because ALL of our husbands took off Friday from work (thanks guys) and we were able to head out on Thursday evening to my seabrook cottage (thanks barb and jeff).

Thursday night we got on the road around 6pm and like always the car ride was one of our favorite times. Just imagine it...5 women (without our children or husbands) in a car for 5 hours...we covered a lot of territory and really got caught up!

Friday we spent all day laying on the beach then went into Charleston for a nice dinner. Sorry I am not posting any pictures of us laying on the beach. Not because my friends do not look great but because I hate getting into a bathing suit much less posting pictures of me in a bathing suit.

We walked around after dinner and met Judy who hooked up barbara, karen and I with some new shades. Judy took it very seriously. She looked at each one of us and let us know what kind of glasses we should be purchasing for our shape of face. I am still a little bummed that my face was not the type that got the cool big shades, but oh well. What do you think?

Here are a few pictures of us from Friday night at dinner. We laughed so much that night, and it felt so good. We of course caught a lot of stares at the resturant as we were laughing, talking and taking about 20 pictures of ourselves.

Karen and I...

Mandy, Barbara, and Bekah...

Mandy and I.....

Saturday was another gorgeous day. Unfortunately we were unable to lay out because Barbara and I put our sunscreen on a little too late on Friday and got a little red ( ok.. a lot red) . So we spent the morning lounging in bed and eating Mandy's famous cookies. Since we could not lay on the beach and talk all day like we did on Ffriday, we got dressed and went shopping! I also ate the best fried catfish sandwich I have ever had! Karen even took pics....but I do not have those to share...sorry. If Karen would get with the program and start a blog, she could show you....come on Karen..start a blog already! :) Once again, what a great lunch. We SOOOO enjoyed ourseleves, being able to really eat our food and listen to one another (thanks again guys). When we are together we usually have 12 kids ( plus one on the way) with us....so you can only imagine how very little time we have to eat and listen to oneanother.

Here is a picture of us Saturday morning having coffee and getting ready to go shopping.

Sunday morning we enjoyed some coffee and bagles on the sun porch. We sat, drank, and talked just as long as we could and then and got ready to head home.

I enjoy our time so much, and I really appreciate Christian, Cody, Jeff, Shaun and Steve for keeping all 12 of our rugrats for 3 days so that we could have this time together. These friends mean so much to me and I cherish the time we are able to spend together.

Can't wait for next year!

You ask me what I like about Texas?

2008-04-28T20:07:00.013-04:00

Well like the song says it is "the wide open spaces, its another burrito, songs by my favorite austin bands, and the spirit of the people who share the land"

So last Saturday we headed to Houston for 4 days! It was a fast trip but a very needed trip. We had not seen each other for 5 months....way to long!

We were so excited to see G-Ma and G-Dad!

We swam....

We went to the park...

We road G G-dad's and Grandma Opal's scooters,

and ate some really good BBQ and Mexican food!

But what was really the best part and what we miss the most is,

holding G-ma and G-dad's hand...We miss and love you so much!

Funny Friday

2008-04-18T23:46:00.002-04:00

Well Friday is not over yet.....just had to write two funny things Mary Alice said today. She cracks me up sometimes...

1) "It must be nice to be a adult. You have kids that you can boss around all day and tell them what to do, and they do it! It is like you have your own personal slave. "

Today we took Mary Alice to her elementary school she will attend next year, she had her "kindergarten screening" today. This is what she said as we where about to enter the school.

2) "Am I going to get the care and attention I need here?"

Mary Alice...i Love you! You bring a smile to my face everyday!

Well i better get to bed...we leave in the morning for Houston! Hopefully I will post while we are there!

Braggy Blog.....beware!

2008-04-12T09:11:00.006-04:00

Mary Alice andCharlie were "Warriors for Wells". Over the past week Mary Alice has been raising money for a 8yr old boy named Wells who has cystic fibrosis. Mary Alice asked for pledge donations for her Hop-a-Thon benefiting Wells. She hopped for 2 minutes and raised 100 dollars for the Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis! ( Steve and I could not really believe it...she did all the talking and we were so amazed at how much money she raised) .

What also amazed us was how much she learned about Cystic Fibrosis from school. Next time you talk to her you should ask her about Cystic Fibrosis and Wells. It will really surprise you what a 5 year old can absorb.

Our sweet Mary Alice

Mary Alice and her closest girlfriends

Now Charlie is a little but of a different story....yes he jumped too but since he is so little and cannot raise money on his own we helped him out with a donation. But Charlie was not into the Hop a Thon at all, his teachers said they could not get his T-shirt on him, that it was not until almost the whole class was weiring their shirts that charlie would even think about putting his on. He also wanted no part of jumping. Instead here is how he chose to stand....

arms out....saying "hold me mommy...hold me" , all awhile his friends are jumping to the the song "shake your groove thing"...seriously the whole two minutes he stood there with his arms out asking for me to hold him! (sorry something was on my lens when i took the pic)

finally a smile with his friends

and a even bigger smile when the Popsicles arrived!

Hope you are having a good weekend! We went to the Davis Cup today...maybe I will post some pics later.

The Old Lady's 31!

2008-04-08T21:30:00.006-04:00

Today was a great day. Kay-Lynn turned 31 today, and the kids had a great time with Mommy's big day.

Kay-Lynn probably would not put these pics up of herself, so I am posting this for her. We had a great dinner at Outback Steakhouse. The kids had a good time looking at all things Australian.

The kids made a Red Velvet Cake...Mommy's favorite. The candles sparked which was entertaining.

Some beautiful flowers from the one and only...........Miss Mandy!

On a side note...I have completed week one of the growth on my upper lip. Yes, I know...you will likely need to click on the photo to view my mustache. It is a little blonde coming in. I have 3 weeks to go to before I am able to shave it off. I have committed to growing the 'stache for Mustaches for Kids. All proceeds are going to buy mosquito nets for villages in Africa to stave off malaria outbreaks. Feel free to track my growth along with my co-worker, David Clark and about 60 other student growers. Let me know if you would like to contribute to my growth.

Lazy, Rainy Day

2008-04-05T17:44:00.005-04:00

Well we are now on day 6 of rain. Getting restless around here....the kids were playing today and making me smile so i grabbed my camera and thought i would share.

Every time the kids get on the "john deer" garb it makes me laugh...

Charlie pulling a tooth the way Coach does it!

Making faces for the camera...

Peek-a-boo!

The kids have really had fun playing together this week!

Fun Friday's

2008-04-04T07:42:00.003-04:00

We are all sitting on the couch this morning as it rains for the 5th day in a row of our spring break. We had had a good week and we need the rain...it just makes it a little harder when you can't go outside. Oh well.

I haven't posted any funnies in a while and so i thought i would share some of the funny things that have happened around here this week. I can laugh now...however with a few of these "funnies" laughter was not my first reaction. Enjoy!

1) "Mommy, I go poop-poo"

I hear this from Charlie in the den as I am browning hamburger meat in the kitchen....I turn to walk towards the den and I am saying "ok....let's go...let's go (to the potty)" but as i reach the den I notice that Charlie is not telling me he needs to go poop..he is SHOWING me that he has already gone poop. The boy had reached into the back of his pull-up and grabbed "a little" to show me. I am still wondering what was going through his mind that he would stick his hand into his pants and pull out some..well you know. (not so funny at the time....but kinda funny now...kinda)

2) "Are you a boy or a girl ?"

You know you always hear about some REALLY embarrassing things kids say and you just hope and pray that you do not have to be humbled in that way. Unfortunately, I did not have such luck this week. We went to the grocery and had a really nice girl pushing out our groceries for us. She was talking to the kids and being really sweet. I will admit that she resembled "Pat" from Saturday Night Live.....remember Pat? I am in no way making fun of this girl but I must admit for a child it was hard to tell if she was a boy or a girl...and so I guess it was a honest question...just not one I wanted to be around for. I wanted to crawl under the car! The girl just continued to put bags of groceries into my trunk and I said "come on mary alice, let's get in the car and buckle up". Oh...the things that your children say!

3) "I go poop"

No...don't worry it did not happen again. But Charlie says "I go poop" for anything related to pottying. If he needs to go pee he says "i go poop"...if he needs to go poop he says " i go poop"....if he is has already has gone pee it is still "i go poop" and we all know that if he has already gone poop then it is "i go poop" (and sometimes you get really lucky and he shows you too!)

Anyways, you can see where this gets a little confusing....and REALLY confusing for others who are taking care of Charlie. No matter how many times I correct him...he is still saying " I go poop" for everything (well not everything...but you know what i mean).

Sorry for all the "potty" talk....but this is what I spend a LARGE amount of my time doing day.........after day.........after day! I am actually questioning if I started this whole potty training thing too early.

4) "You know, I do not like Charlie a lot these days"

This is what Mary Alice had to say after getting in trouble for not playing nice with her brother. You know it is just hard when you want to play polly pockets and get all of your little chairs, tables, and accessories set up and then your 2 yr old brother comes and destroys it all.

5) "Excuse me?"

Now this really does make me smile. Anytime in any situation where Charlie should say please, instead he will say "excuse me". It goes something like this....

(charlie wanting a toy from Mary Alice)

I say : Charlie how do ask for the toy? What do you say to Mary Alice?

Charlie: Excuse me....sissy...can i have the toy?

(charlie wanting a piece of candy, drink etc.)

I say: Charlie how do you ask me for a juice box?

Charlie : Excuse me....can I have a juice box?

Never a Please but always an EXCUSE ME! Does that still count? I mean "excuse me" is good manners too right?

Maybe with time Charlie can learn how to tell others he needs to go to the potty and can learn to say please instead of excuse me!

Hope you are having a good Friday!

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T20:21:00.006-04:00

Whew! What a day! Or should I say what a FUN day. It started early this morning with the kids finding their Easter baskets. They were so excited. They each got a outfit, pair of crocs, and candy. Then it was onto getting dressed for church. Boy did they look handsome and beautiful. Here are some pics.

Here is Charlie and Daddy (daddy wasn't dressed yet but it was a good time for charlie..sorry steve)

Charlie runs from the camera so Steve caught him lounging in his chair

Here is a beautiful girl who does not run from the camera.....when i look at this picture I am thinking "who is this girl?" " i cannot believe it...she is growing up SO FAST"

Then it was onto the Wilson's house for lunch. Karen served up a wonderful, yummy lunch (like always).....she even made a bunny cake just for the kids! Thanks Karen!

Charlie loves "hanging" out with Kyle (don't know how much Kyle likes hanging out with charlie but oh well)

Then the kids were off hunting for eggs....

Then it was home for a few hours before heading to the Sidden's house for dinner and an egg hunt....more fun!

more Easter egg hunting.....

and hanging out with our friends.....

what a fun day....hope you all had a great Easter!

thankyou, thankyou, and did we say thankyou?

2008-03-22T12:01:00.006-04:00

This blog entry is for the grandparents. Every year they send us money for the kids for Easter and every year I go out and buy them Easter clothes but they never really get to see them in their clothes or even get the pleasure of taking them shopping themselves. And I know that you both miss not being able to do this as much as you once did...so this post is for you! Mary Alice and I had soooo much fun shopping ( charlie is not a shopper..go figure!). Mary Alice had the most fun shoe shopping. She has ALWAYS been a shoe and purse girl.

So here are some pics of what we got!

Charlie will look so handsome in his new pants, button up shirts and tie....and don't forget the cute alligator belt!

Mary Alice loved trying on her dresses and twirling around in the dressing room. Of course she was singing while twirling...i could hear women in the dressing rooms next door chuckling. She also checked herself out in the big community mirror outside our dressing room while singing and twirling.

Next on our list of things to buy was shoes. Mary Alice wanted one thing..."CHEETAH SHOES" . She was on a mission for cheetah shoes. The first place we went had the shoes she wanted..in "real" cheetah colors (brown and black) but they were sold out of her size. The sales lady felt so bad when Mary Alice started to cry, but don't worry we continued on shopping...and she found what she wanted at stride right. She loves them!

And yes Charlie got shoes too!

And yes even mommy got shoes....maybe now I know where her obsession with getting some "cheetah" shoes came from!

So this concludes our shopping spree. I will post pictures tomorrow of the kids in their new Easter attire.

A few days ago we had a special delivery at our house. I knew it was going to be good when I saw that the package was from Mrs. Prindable's. If you do not know about Mrs. Prindables then shame on you, you really need to click on my super cool hyperlink. Here is the adorable bunny that arrived at our door. There were 3 apples inside and yes we ate all three apples that night. YUMMMM....(thanks mamma)

The kids love this bunny and still fight over who is going to "play" with the bunny....

Of course, Charlie was the second person who got to have his picture taken with the bunny and he was not happy about that...

We have had a great week and are SOOOO excited about the Easter bunny coming tonight. Thanks G-Ma, G-dad, mamma and coach for making our Easter so special. We miss you guys and wish we could all be closer.

"Life is good when you have chocolate...and FAMILY"

We love and miss you guys!

Fun Friday

2008-03-22T07:58:00.002-04:00

Well sorry..no post yesterday. Charlie started vomiting Thursday night and continued to vomit every 2 hours though out the night. So my Friday was spent holding him ALL day long. Which really does not leave anytime to blog. Then I went to work from 7-11pm. Good news is that I think it was just a 24 hour bug so we are on the mend!

I will share one funny thing Mary Alice told me on Thursday. I picked her up from Preschool at noon and we went out to eat before taking her to Karate at 1:oo pm. We were sitting down eating and out of nowhere she says "Mom, I think that Santa is really just mean and chubby". I say "Really? why do you say that?" (and i wish you could of seen her facial expressions and hand jesters) "Because he makes all the elves do ALL the work. He makes them make ALL the toys AND they have to take care of the reindeer" "Don't you think that is not fair?" "I mean that is just so mean, to not to help".

So of course we continued to talk about Santa's "job" of keeping up the "naughty/nice" list and delivering the gifts to the whole world etc.

It just amazes me sometimes the thoughts that come from young minds!

appointments!

2008-03-18T19:10:00.006-04:00

Today was a day of appointments. First, Mary Alice and Charlie both had dentist appointments. Both did wonderful! No cavities, yea! ( I always get nervous ) . Charlie even got a "special" prize for giving up his passy! He hadn't heard the word passy in so long, that i was hoping it would not stir up any old emotions....but it didn't. Here are pictures of the kids in their shades. ( I know you could care less about seeing these pictures but Mary Alice loves to see the blog, she loves to see pictures of herself and read the story).

Next off was Mary Alice's doctor appointment for her BIG 5 year old check-up (and shots). She did great! She was given the choice of the "big needle" that hurts "ALOT" or the "teeny, tinny needle" that only "hurts a little bit". She chose the "teeny, tinny one" (you think any kids picks the big one?) and then she got 3 gold coins for the "treasure tower". Here is a picture of her and Dr. Bell...man do we LOVE Dr. Bell!

Ok...so this was the best part of the day. If you have been reading my blog over the past few weeks I have shown you pictures of Mary Alice making friends with strangers. We never go anywhere with making a friend. Seriously. Well today was no different however, she took her new friendship to a new level!

I was signing Mary Alice in and of course she found someone to go and sit by and start talking to...well about the time I sit down I notice that she is talking to a mom of a new baby. This woman speaks no English but somehow Mary Alice is communicating with her...so i take out my camera and take a picture....and while I am looking at the camera trying to zoom in this is what I see taking place....

Somehow Mary Alice has asked to hold the baby! Of course I quickly sat down my camera and ran to her and tell her we cannot ask to hold other people's babies that we do not know. She says to me "oh, mom..she said it was ok...we have met". I could not help but smile...oh..mary alice you are something else...i love you.

So this lady had to get up to go sign in at the desk, and Mary Alice introduced herself to the next family in line and started singing twinkle, twinkle, little star to their baby. I do not know what everyone thought was stranger....the child introducing herself to everyone one in sight or the mother taking pictures of it all!

(PS) We were not so successful on potty training today. Charlie wet and pooped in his underwear at the dentist office and wet his second pair of underwear at the doctor's office. I was so tired by the time we got home! Oh the joy's of potty training!

Easter Bunnies

2008-03-16T20:08:00.009-04:00

We are so excited about the Easter bunny around our house...how about you? Mary Alice was so ecstatic when Steve said "Hi" to the "Easter bunny" on the phone (ie. Tracey Gardner) Mary Alice could not WAIT to talk to the Easter bunny (jumping up and down) however when Steve explained to her that it wasn't really the "Easter bunny" she ran to her room to cry. She was so upset that her daddy had "hurt her feelings"! Isn't it great to believe :)

Anyways, we quickly changed our mood when we got dressed and ready for the big Easter party hosted by the Gardner's. Here are my two happy Easter bunnies!

We had so much fun at the Gardner's! They pulled out the red carpet and hosted a fabulous party! (thanks Tracey!) We played with bubbles and sidewalk chalk .

We played on their awesome playground, hit some baseballs and had a fabulous cookout! However, some of the best times were hunting eggs

and hanging out with our friends!

Here you are again Mary Alice making new friends! I love you and your friendly spirit!

(PS) Charlie stayed dry in his underwear for the whole party! We are on day three of no diapers (during the day that is).

Fun Friday!

2008-03-14T09:03:00.007-04:00

ALL ABOARD THE POTTY EXPRESS! Well actually I have a feeling this will not be the "express" ride that I am hoping for...oh well. Yes, we are starting potty training around here. Charlie is ready it has just been me that has (is) not so ready. I really need to find the time (or should I say "make" the time).

My goal is to be potty trained by the summer. No swim diapers please! I guess only time will tell. Of course after all of this he went and got a diaper and said " No underwear, I want diaper" and handed me a diaper. I guess I am going to have to hide those.

Well I have actually blogged 3 times since last Friday! Check them out!

Future Wall Street Investor?

2008-03-11T20:30:00.004-04:00

I know everyone thinks their child is smart, but come on...you have to admit Charlie has got a HUGE lead on all the other 2 yrs old's out there! ;-)

Start Cookin'

2008-03-11T07:41:00.003-04:00

ok..i must share my one of my favorite blogs I read Confessions of a Pioneer Woman (just click on it). Anyways, Mandy turned me onto to her and I am addicted. What I am so addicted to is her cooking blog. Click here and you will not be disappointed. She cooks "man pleasin" food as she says...I say she cooks yummy southern fating food. The kind I love! So check her out! Her blog is fun to read to, and she has also has a neat photography blog. Her husband is a rancher and she takes the most amazing pictures of horses!

Didn't even know this until this morning but apparently they have Bloggie Awards in Austin and she just took home a bunch of awards! Have a great morning and let me know what you think about her blog!

Big Boy at the Barber

2008-03-10T20:26:00.003-04:00

Charlie has been going to Mt. Tabor Barber Shop for about a year now and every time we go Marty (the barber) asks Charlie to get up in the Barber's Chair. Every time Charlie starts to cry and says "mommy" "sit on mommy's lap". But this Saturday when we went to the barber Marty asked him to get up in the barber's chair he looked at me as if asking for approval and when I told him "go ahead" he hopped right up into the chair. He needed to hold my hand though (you can see in the bottom left of the picture) and I hated that I did not have my camera with me but Steve's pulled out his phone and captured the moment.

Don't know that I have ever seen such a sweet smile captured on camera from Charlie. He usually screams and looks the other way when I get out the camera.

So while I was holding the hand of my one child who is a mamma's boy my other child who never meets a stranger anywhere we go had already introduced herself to some strangers on the other side of the barber shop and was cuddling up for story time!

Fun Friday!

2008-03-07T07:28:00.004-05:00

Ok...so i am changing things up on Friday's. Since I started "five funnies on Friday" I have noticed that I am only blogging once a week and I am sure you are getting tired of only reading funny things my kids say. SO I will now start "funny Friday's" and some Friday's I will list funny things the kids say but sometimes i will just blog about something fun!

SO this week we had a new member in our family! His name is Flat Stanley.

He is visiting us all the way from San Antonio, Texas. He is visiting the country and learning new information about the places he visits and then takes all of his new knowledge back to Texas to share with Neely's Kasanoff's first grade class.

So we have been taking Flat Stanley all around town but the place we really wanted to share with him is Wake Forest University. He had a great time and thought campus was so beautiful. He is getting a little home sick and so he is headed home in the morning. We sure will miss Flat Stanley but know that he needs to get back home to see Neely and Merrill.

We had a great time with you Flat Stanley and are so excited that you can tell your friends all about North Carolina and Wake Forest University. GO DEACS!

Princess 101

2008-03-03T07:04:00.004-05:00

Just had to share what Mary Alice said yesterday as I was doing her hair for church. I was done doing her hair and she was really giving herself a good look in the mirror. I told her she looked beautiful. And she said that she did not quite look like a princess. I asked her what she would need to look like a princess.

And she said........."servants".

What is my daughter learning from watching all of these Disney Princess and Barbie movies? She told me that all true princesses have servants.

By the way Mary Alice has given us permission to call her Mary Alice however her real princess name is Princess Mariposa. ( you know the new barbie princess introduced by Mattel)

This is a very old picture but just wanted to include a picture of some of my favorite princesses.

And here you are my sweet princess...

G-Ma even rolled your hair at 16 mo...

Five Funnies on Friday

2008-02-29T06:39:00.004-05:00

Good Morning! I hope everyone is having a great Friday morning. I am running on 4 hours of sleep but am really enjoying my morning so far. I am sitting at Panera Bread(with no kids) with a warm cup of coffee blogging. Does it get better than this? (When it comes to blogging that is)

This morning is Preschool Registration and so I was up at 5:30am (don't ask). Anyways, this week has been a very busy week for us and really continues to be a very busy weekend so, it is nice to have a moment to really enjoy the funny things the kids say. During the week it can get so hard and sometimes I forget to take a moment and really enjoy my kids.

This week I am including some things Charlie has been saying. I feel like since he does not talk as much as Mary Alice I really do not get to include many "funnies" for him. These do not sound as funny when you read them but to see these words come out of a newly talking 2 year old boy makes me laugh. Enjoy and hope you have a good weekend.

1) "Oh, Man"

Two short words but still so funny to hear him say when he is in the other room playing and then all of the sudden I hear "ohhh man"

2) "Guys (pause) I tryin"

When Charlie is working on something but just can't quite get it this is what he says...

3) "Guys (pause) need help"

After saying "guys I tryin" and he just can't quite get it, then comes "guys need help"

4) " Oh, now that's the way I like it"

This one actually comes from Mary Alice, I was laughing so hard when I heard her say this
one. I was in the kitchen and she was playing in the den and all of the sudden I heard her
say this..don't ask me where she heard that one. I am still thinking about that one!

I am now going to leave you with a email that Mary Alice sent my dad. My dad went hunting this past weekend and then sent me some pics of his Hog Hunting trip. Well as I was looking at them over on the lap top Mary Alice saw them and for those of you know Mary Alice I am sure you know she was not impressed at all with her G-Dad's hunting skills. Here is what she had to say.

5) " Dear G-Dad,

I really think you shouldn't of shot the piggy you shot because you just need to be nice to it and give it a chance. If you shot it then I might not get to pet it. Poor Poor Piggy. The poor poor piggy. Please don't shoot the piggies again, it makes me sad.

Love, Mary Alice"

Here is G-Dad's response to MA...

"Dearest Mary Alice,

Be assured this particular hog was taken for food…….he’ll feed over twenty dogs for several days.

I’m sure your Daddy can explain to you how God has made some of his animals for us to eat as food. Some fish, cattle, birds, and pigs are part of His providing for you and me to have food so we can stay health and in your case grow to be an adult someday.

I love you and will always try to respect your soft heart and sweet personality.

Love, G-Dad"

Five Funnies on......Saturday!

2008-02-23T09:26:00.005-05:00

Well as you know I did not get my funnies posted yesterday...sorry. Steve is in Chicago and it was a crazy day yesterday and never got time to get on the computer. This week has been good but busy. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Steve left Thursday morning for Chicago. But we are having a good weekend so far. Here are the funnies for the week.

1) "Sometimes when I do not get to talk I am bored"

Mary Alice has met her match when it comes to constant talking. We had a friend over to play and he talks non-stop just like her and she was really bored with having to sit and listen to him talk. Kinda funny because now she knows how we feel when we never get a chance to get a word in!

2) "Mommy....Mommy... MOMMMMMMMYYYYY..... it is like you are paused"

Have you ever had one of those days where the kids are driving you crazy and the world seems to be falling apart around you? Well one day this week all I wanted to do was sit down and eat a bowl of cereal and for some reason it was almost impossible to sit and be left alone for 3 minutes. So I just decided that I was going to sit down and eat this bowl of cereal I had tried to eat for the past hour. I sat in my chair and ignored the world around me and this is what Mary Alice had to say.

3) "MA: Mommy
Me: Yes, Mary Alice
MA: I know who I am going to marry
Me: You do, who are you going to marry
MA: Kyle
Me: Oh, really. How do you already know who you are going to marry?
MA: Oh, I just know it mommy. I just know it in here (pointing to her head). I just know it mommy. I don't know how to explain it, I just know it. "

Actually, Steve and I would be ok with this....yet somehow in my head I have a feeling we could not make her keep her promise. We go to church with Kyle and he is from a great family. Steve and I are great friends with his parents. Plus, he has some West Texas in him which is even better! His mom is from Amarillo and his dad is from Hereford. Here is a picture of the boy Mary Alice says she "knows" she will marry. Mary Alice, only time will tell who you will marry but we already approve of your choice!

4) "Mom, you are a worry bug. That means you worry to much".

Sometimes kids just know what they are talking about and yes sometimes I am a worry bug. Thanks Mary Alice!

# 5 is not a funny from my children but from a random stranger and I just had to include it!

5) " It is so nice to have two mommies"

Thursday morning Barbara called me to see if I wanted to have coffee with her after we dropped off our big kids at school. I said "YES" but I needed to run some errands. She had Millie with her and I had Charlie with me so I suggested taking the coffee on the road. So we loaded up this kids in my car, stopped off at Starbucks and ran our errands together. One of our stops was the Downtown School where MA will go next year. I needed to turn in some paperwork. We had run some errands before this one and so the kids where ready to get out of the car for awhile. She grabbed Charlie and I grabbed Millie and we went into the school. I know..I know you already know where this story is headed. We had the office so confused. Do heterosexual moms not run errands together and carry each other's children around? Well they of course told us "our" kids where so adorable. We really through them for a loop when we said that Charlie (who was in Barbara's arms) was mine and Millie (who was in my arms) was hers. Anyways, I could go on with this story but it was so funny when the speech therapist for the school then said to us " It is so nice to have two mommies"! Boy, do Steve and I have our work cut out for us already before MA even starts school......hopefully we can clear up any confusion!

Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-15T07:15:00.006-05:00

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day yesterday. We did! It snowed and schools were cancelled so we hung out and had lunch with the Trinh's and then mommy went to work.

Just thought I would share some pictures!

The kids had fun in the snow

had to include a picture of Charlie in the snow suit our neighbors gave him

Mary Alice wanted to paint for her daddy for his v-day's present so a few days ago she painted him canvases.

She had sooo much fun

I loved this one but....

I want to see if you notice something wrong with this picture....or is it wrong? Is Mary Alice forseeing the future through her painting? Let's see if you can figure it out!

Have a great day!

Five Funnies of Friday

2008-02-14T21:12:00.010-05:00

I cannot believe another week has passed, man how times flies. This week my "funnies" are not funny words but instead are loving words. These are words that I do not want to forget and want to documument them for my blog book. So please bare with me....I hope you are not thinking "Man this is toooo much, I could go vomit now."

Mary Alice has been so loving with her words this week. My Mary Alice is a child in constant need of attention which at times can be draining. However, she gives out the best compliments in the world! She is so good at expressing herself and how she feels. When you make her happy (or not happy) she will tell you! I love you Mary Alice!

Charlie on the other hand is not great with words (for more reasons than one) but loves to show his effection not through words but through physical contact. Charlie loves to snuggle....and I love to snuggle with Charlie. When Charlie wants to be loved on he will let you know. I love you Charlie.

Here are the ways my children expressed their love this week:

1) "Mom, I love you more than picking up litter, more than ice cream, and more than going out to eat"

Most everyone who reads my blogs knows my daughter and she loves our earth, eating
ice cream but going out to eat has to be her favorite thing...so this comment made me
smile.

2) " Mom, more than anything in my life, I love you more"

Didn't I tell you she gives the best compliments!

3) "Mom, your the best mommy I ever had"

Both steve and I have heard her tell us this many times (execpt for steve it is daddy)

that after she says this...she will turn her head to the side and open her eyes really big and

say "and don't tell me...i know...your the only mommy I have ever had. I know, but your

still the best I ever had".

4) "HugKiss"

Charlie will come to you with his arms out and say this one word, and you just have to swoop

him up and give him a Hug and Kiss.

5) "Hold-der-me"

Charlie will also come to you and say "mommy or daddy, hold-der-me (Hold me). Of course he can now say hold me but still sometimes says it the old way which just makes me smile. I spend every morning holding charlie on the couch watching disney, noggin or pbs kids for about 20 minutes before he is ready to start his day. He also drinks a full cup of milk and I drink about 2-3 cups of coffee and then we are both ready to start our day!

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day! I keep thinking I will post at least once before Friday roles around but before I know it..it's Friday again! So have a great week and I will see you next friday!

Five Funnies on Friday

2008-02-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

WOW! I cannot believe it is friday already! We had another wonderful week. Last Friday was awsome! The Scales came into town. We had such a fun 24 hours..we miss them soooo much! Move back guys....please.....

I will start off this week's funnies with something that Mary Alice said when I told her that the Gabe and Ansley were coming to town. It really is more sad than it is funny but here goes!

1) "Mommy, are Gabe and Ansley my cousin's or just really good friends from far away?"

I say "They are just your really good friends that live far away"

MA says " Mommy can they be my cousins?"

I say "Sure if you want to call them your cousins that is fine, they are like family to us"

MA says " Well...I changed my mind, I just want them to be my friends from far away, not

my cousins, because I want to see them".

Oh that broke my heart, I hate that she is not around her cousins more. We miss you Jordan, Jake, Neely, Merrill and Natalie.

2) "Mom take your patience!"

So sad again that your 5 yr old knows when you need to take a moment, breathe, count to 10 and "take some patience".

3) "Oh, don't worry a princess always knows what to do"

Mary Alice says to her brother and she goes to get some scissors to cut a loose thread from his shirt.

4) Mary Alice says " Mommy did you know that some people do not have any money"

I say " Yes, I do"

MA says " that is why we give money to God"

I say "yes"

MA says " Mommy, how does the money get to God ?"

The converstation did continue but it was so funny to see her really thinking about how the money would get to God. She guessed that it flew up to him.

5) Daddy...WAKE UP. WAKE UP Daddy. Good Morning Daddy. Wake Up Daddy.

So hard to be frustrated at 6:00 am when your 2yr old has climbed into your bed and has his face directly in front of your face saying......Daddy, WAKE UP while tapping your chest at the same time.

Five Funny's on Friday

2008-02-01T07:41:00.000-05:00

well here goes...it's been another great week!

1) "Charlie, you do not tell me what to do that is only for mommy and daddy"

Charlie is starting to fight back and tell "sissy" what he thinks!

2) "Dad, can you please stop bossing me around"

She did ask nicely, although I do not think that really made a difference.

3) "Excuse me Merrill, I am sorry what did you say? My father was interrupting me."

Mary Alice was talking on the phone to her cousin Merrill and Dad was asking her to do

something at the same time.

4) "Mommy do we have money for this or do we need to pay our heat bill"

We have been talking to Mary Alice about how we do not buy everything we see. That one (of several) reasons is because we have to pay our bills. That the heat in our house, water, or light is not free, that we pay money for those things. However, it sounds a little different when your child is holding up a pencil in Target and and asking out loud it we have the money for the pencil or if we need to pay our heat bill.

5) "Passies ALLLLLLLLLL Gone!"

This is what charlie says if you ask him where his passies are...and yes he drags out the

ALLLLL before ends ends with with a quick "gone".

Well I actually have several more "funnies" but I will save them later. I have this little notebook I keep in my purse and write down the cute things they say thoughout the week (because my memory is not what it used to be) it really is so fun to look over them and then share them with you!

Updates!

2008-01-29T22:35:00.000-05:00

First I just read the last statement I made on my last post "getting real". I said "But I love (my life) and would change it for the world"

I hope you know what I meant to say was I "wouldn't" change it for the world. So embarrassed. And no it was not a Freudian Slip.

Second, we are over the passy. It has officially been 8 days without the passy and about 3 days after we through them out he stopped asking for them. I knew we where over it when I took him to school on Monday. For those of you who do not know Charlie has a blanket that is dear to his heart called "silkie" (made of silk on one side) and silkie and his passy were always together. If he had his silkie he had his passy and if he had his passy he needed his silkie. So much so that he slurred the words together. When he wanted them he would say "Silkiepassy"?

Everyday when I would take him to school and the ladies would open the door to get him out of the car he would say "Silkiepassy?". But this Monday when the ladies opened the door he looked at me and said "Silkie"? Kinda sad that we have lost a word that I loved to hear him say but all in all I am so glad we are done with the passy!

Getting Real

2008-01-28T07:45:00.001-05:00

Well it has been brought to my attention a few times that Blogs seem a little "braggy". And I must admit that is a little true. I really only share the good and funny stories and the cute pictures...and it is mostly about my kids.

I really did not think people would want to listen to me complain about my kids or the times they really get on my nerves. However, it is comforting and funny to hear that other's experience the same frustrations. So this morning I am giving you a glimpse into my "real world".

This is the laundry that awaits me....and i have another full basket of clean clothes to put up!

This is what I found my son doing this morning....and now I will have to revacuum the den and kitchen (even though I just did that yesterday)

And yes..we even suffer from "bed head" around here.....I wish I had the courage to include a picture of me this morning (crazy hair...smudged left over mascera....sweat shirt and scrub pants)

And what I am really supposed to be doing right now is dressing my kids and getting them ready for preschool! Hopefully every now and then I can give you a glimpse of my "real life" but rest assured even though things look "pretty and perfect" on my blog..my life is far from that!

But I love it and would change it for the world!

Cody doing his best "Blue Steel" from Zoolander

2008-01-27T21:36:00.000-05:00

"At the Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too, we teach you that there's more to life than being really, really good looking."

This is why I carry a camera at all times! To catch Cody with his purse doing his Zoolander "Blue Steel" pose! Priceless. Thanks Cody :)

Five Funny's on Friday

2008-01-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

ok...i am starting (what i believe) is a new thing! And i would love for everyone else to join in. preschoolers and young children are so funny and as my 5 yr. old seems to be changing everyday I do not want to forget some of the things they say. Kids do say the darnedest things! So I am starting (and hope I can keep up) "five funny's on friday". I hope to list 5 funny things my kids have said over the past week. So here goes. These are in no order of importance.
d
1) "It sure is hard to sleep during the day"

Mary Alice says to her mother and as they are curled up in bed at 1:30 in the afternoon..all i wanted to do was just shut my eyes for maybe 30 minutes...so easy for a 30 yr. old mom of two to do...unfortunately not so much for a 5yr old girl.

2) "Dance Potty, Dance Potty daddy"

Dance "Party" that is.....Charlie SCREAMS in a 50's theme dinner and then runs out of our booth and starts dancing in the restaurant and demands that his dad join in.

3) "When someone is getting attention and it is not me..it makes me sad"

Do I need to tell you who said this? A friend is Mary Alice's had her b-day and she got a lot of attention from several different teachers at school and Mary Alice got her feelings hurt.

4) "Take your Patience"

This is something I unfortunately hear from my daughter frequently.

5) " I want a blop-blop"

This one might not be so funny to others but I just do not want to forget what Charlie calls a lollipop!

Passy Update

2008-01-23T08:02:00.000-05:00

Well things are really going well, so much better than Steve and I anticipated. Actually, we were talking about how both kids did so much better than we anticipated. I guess sometimes when things are around you REALLY want them but once it is gone you move on.

However, naptime is really hard. We have not a hard time at bedtime but naptime (weird?). Yesterday I finally had to lay down with charlie to get him to fall asleep. He kept looking in his bed and under the covers for his "pass". He would say "pass"? I want my passy. I would just say "remember charlie they are all gone..we through them away at your passy party". And he would lower his head. And yes he asks for his passy thoughout the day but I just say the same thing and then get him distracted and it seems to work for the moment.

It is soooooo nice to not have to make sure i have a passy everytime we go somewhere. It is so freeing! Now onto potty training!

Passy Party, Take 2

2008-01-21T18:53:00.000-05:00

Passy Party originated in Lubbock, Texas in December 2004 when Mary Alice turned 2. While I LOVE passies and really push them on my babies, there is nothing worse (to me) then seeing an older child with a passy. So I was determined that Mary Alice would not have a passy after she turned 2 yrs. old. And you know how you are with your first child......so we had a "passy party" right when she turned 2. We rounded up her passy's...threw them in the trash and took them out to the dumpster in our alley and said good-bye. Mary Alice LOVED her passy, and Steve and I thought the next week of our life would be horrible. Surprisingly it went really well, Mary Alice did great!

Today (three years later..which is sooo hard to believe) we had Passy Party number 2. Charlie is 2yrs 4mo old, and while I thought Mary Alice LOVED her passy, Charlie has taken it to a different level. So we are a little worried as to how this week of our life might play out...I guess only time will tell.

So today was the day! Charlie's Passy Party! Just like we did with Mary Alice we rounded up all the passies in the house/car and placed them in a basket. We looked everywhere: under beds, couchs, pillows.

When we were done collecting the passies, we took the basket to the trash and let charlie throw the passies one by one into the trash. With each passy that he through in the trash the family yelled "Hip, Hip Horray". He loved it!

Then he and daddy sacked up the trash, tied it up and took it outside to the trash.

Then back inside to the best part of all...CUPCAKES! (From the Chessecake Factory!)

YUMMMMMM!!!!

Charlie could not wait! He took a nose dive into his cupcake!

Then it was back to playing with his Trains! All is well....for now at least!

Here are some pics from Mary Alice and her Passy Party! What a difference 3 years makes! I cannot believe how fast she is growing! Where does time go?

Let it Snow....

2008-01-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

We have been waiting all winter and it finally arrived this morning.....SNOW! The kids were so pumped when we opened our blinds (at 6:40) this morning to the sight of snow. Of course, like all children they wanted to go out right then and play in the snow. I was able to put them off until I had one cup of (much needed) coffee.

Then I bundled then up and Steve took them out in the cold. (Thank you Steve!)

You cannot tell in the pictures but it was also raining at the time so of course all the excitement ended soon after Charlie fell down and Mary Alice's "hands were sooooo cold".

So back in the family came and it was time for hot cocoa with marshmallows on top! Yummmmm

So we are inside for the day just playing (fighting a little) and hanging out! I think we are onto making some cookies...there is nothing better than a homemade warm cookie straight out of the oven on a cold winter day.

Hope you have a great day! We miss everyone.

Pickin' with Coach

2008-01-02T15:12:00.000-05:00

Just doing a little pickin' with coach today! We are really going to miss them when they leave early in the morning!

Get your Guns Up!

2007-12-31T17:11:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would share a little something with you. Steve is so proud of his little red raider. Can you guess what lullaby steve sings to the kids each night before bed? Charlie can now sing a little too!

GO TECH! Get your GUNS UP for this future Red Raider!

Hubba Bubba!

2007-12-30T19:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the founding day of the Hubba Bubba Club. In the beginning it was an all girls club founded by the women pictured above...Mary Alice, Mamma, and Kay-Lynn. However after only a few hours the creator and president of the club (Mary Alice) decided to make the club open to both female as well as men and so...... 3 more members were initiated.

Here are 4 of the 6 members! HUBBA BUBBA!

The club journeyed to Charleston to eat at Jestine's Kitchen.

After all that GREAT soul food Charlie sacked out!

Later today we headed back to the beach

charlie and mary alice loved being at the beach..

the best part was after we took this picture the kids saw a dolphin!

well...really the best part is being with Mamma and Coach...

I just have to include this picture...i am really going to miss the trees down here...they are unbelievable and so beautiful..like something you read in a story book!

We have had an awesome time here..we have loved staying at My Seabrook Cottage...we head back for Winston in the morning and hope to make it to the last night of the Festival of Lights at Tanglewood.

Beach Babes

2007-12-29T21:16:00.000-05:00

We are here at Seabrooke Island! We arrived on Thursday and the kids could not wait to get to the beach! While it was still cool (60 degrees) that did not stop my beach babies..they could not wait to get to the beach!

here they are running to the beach

They rolled up their pants (and dress) and got their feet wet...

we were able to be there as the sun started to set. One of Mary Alice's request for over a year is to see a sunset. She thought it was amazing! One of the "most beautiful things I have ever seen".

charlie loved digging after sand crabs and...

walking on the beach with mom...

but the best part was on Friday when Mamma and Coach arrived

charlie loved sitting on the porch with Mamma and...

Mary Alice loved rocking with Coach.

we love Coach!

On Saturday Mary Alice had some "mommy time"..we went to Freshfields and had some peppermint ice creams and bought flip flops...

Mary Alice loved singing with the frogs,

oh what fun we are having! Tomorrow morning we head for Charleston!
Come back soon!

HO HO HO!!!!

2007-12-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had an awesome one, filled with too many gifts and too little sleep. But isn't that what it is all about? My house is a wreck...it sure does take a while to recover from Christmas in so many ways.

But i must admit..i miss it already. And yes....I got a CAMERA! And i was really hoping to have a great blog filled with pictures from Christmas but I worked Christmas day and today ( i am actually bloggin at work) and just can't seem to get it done. We are leaving for the beach tomorrow at lunch so i have packing to do, a fridge to clean out, and a house to try and clean all in the morning before noon. So i think we will just leave this blog picture free.

But I hope to blog while at the beach! I am taking my new camera and I even got a little video camera that you can plug straight into your computer so i should be able to do some short video's in a snap (once i read the instruction book). So watch out blog world..i am back and will be making up for lost time.

We leave around noon for "my seabrook cottage". Steve parents meet us Friday night..so hopefully I will have some pics up maybe Friday! I hope the cottage has wireless internet....we will see!

Last minute email to Santa

2007-12-24T08:34:00.001-05:00

Well I don't know if I have mentioned it this or not on my blog but Mary Alice visited Santa twice this month and during both visits she only asked Santa for one thing ( a Dog and Cat Playhouse). Both times Santa was pretty surprised and would say to her "yes, I got that (cat/dog playhouse) but is there anything else you want?" and she would just say "no that is it". So needless to say Santa and us were both so amazed. I really was starting to wonder if she was ok...but deep down I loved the fact that my child was only asking for one gift. :)

Well this morning we started talking about how Santa is coming tonight and how Santa had emailed us and wanted to know if the Hirst kids would want their presents wrapped or unwrapped. Santa told us that he was looking over his list of families who like their presents wrapped and families who like their presents unwrapped and he did not have us anywhere on this list.

Well Mary Alice had a quick answer...Wrapped please! But she also had one more request.....

(here is the letter Steve and Mary Alice wrote to Santa)

Dear Santa,

I would prefer that my presents be wrapped. You might know that since I got a small detail, I might want a big detail and a small detail. (translation: I only asked for one thing when I sat on your lap, but I might want a couple more things.) If you have enough room, you might want to bring me a little bit more.

Please tell Rudolph that I am glad that he is my friend. I really love him and I wish that I could see him. I hope that he and all the reindeer are not sick because me and all the kids wouldn't get a Christmas.

We are leaving you ginger bread cookies, egg nog, milk and as always carrots for the reindeer.

PS: Mary Alice to Santa. Love you.

My Green Baby!

2007-12-22T08:50:00.000-05:00

Mary Alice is my environmentalist. She is the person who got our family starting to recycle and composting. Mary Alice loves composting! And if you have not checked out her singing video entitled "i love trees" well you should scroll down and check it out.

Well about a week ago we had huge tree fall down in our backyard. Yesterday Steve borrowed a chainsaw from Cody so he could cut the tree into firewood. Thank goodness Cody stayed for a minute because Mary Alice had a meltdown when she found out what was about to take place. She begged her daddy not to cut the tree. Steve explained that the tree was dead, and showed her where the tree was rotted out at the base but that did not change her feelings. She was crying so hard you could not even understand what she was saying.

Steve and Cody were able to calm her down by telling her they would make her a "special" stump out of the tree that she could sit on. That seemed to slow down the tears and little, and so in our backyard sits a special stump for our wonderful earth loving daughter!

We love you Mary Alice and your love for our earth!

(How I wish i had a camera to take a picture of Mary Alice and her tree stump! I might try to see if i can get a decent picture that is not all blurry later today. Mary Alice and Charlie are waiting for me to start making our gingerbread house. UGGGG another reason i need a camera! I could take a picture of the wonderful gingerbread house we are about to make...December is not a good month to have your camera break...for many reasons...all the great things you want to take pictures of and your cash flow seems to be consumed with other purchases!)

Happy Birthday Mary Alice!

2007-12-22T08:36:00.000-05:00

We had a great day on the 20th with our wonderful Mary Alice! It was filled with "dance parties" in her room, a target shopping spree with gifts cards, baking and icing a cookie cake, and then when daddy got home more "dance party" in her room and daddy playing with her in her doll house. And the night was wrapped up with family wrestling time!

Mary Alice says " i had a great time, it was fun, i had a great time blowing out the candles and we had a fabulous dancing time and i loved how i shaked my bootie to "Go Fish. "

PS. Mary Alice

("PS" is Mary Alice salutation, we have explained what PS really means and when you use it but she still ends every letter in PS..love it!)

Mary Alice I love you so much. Over the past few days I keep thinking about the day you entered the world and how scared we were over the next week of your life. We are so blessed to have you and we love you so much! Can't wait to celebrate more birthday's with you!

PS. Mommy

I will send pics soon from her birthday party. You know i have camera issues and really do not have a camera at this time....it is KILLING me. Hopefully there will be some good after Christmas specials so i can finally get the camera i want. Her pictures are on my friends camera and i need to get them from her. Hope to post pics soon!

Our Visit with Santa

2007-12-16T11:44:00.000-05:00

Well I am about one week behind on blogging..so sorry. Last Sunday we went to our preschool with our great friends the trinh's to meet Santa! We had such a great time!

Of course, Mary Alice jumped right into Santa's lap and started chatting away! She let him know that what she wants most of all is a dog and cat playhouse. Of course Santa asked her what else she wanted and she just kept saying the "dog and cat house". Santa was very impressed with just her one request, and quite honestly so were her parents!

Just as I had imagined charlie did not want any part of talking to Santa. He would only look at him from the protection of his mother's leg! So Mary Alice let Santa know that what Charlie really wants is a train table!

What fun it will be Christmas morning to see what Santa has left these great kids!

The weather was unbelievable and we were able to get some pictures of the family and kids! It was a great afternoon and we had so much fun with the Trinh's. We are so blessed to have such great friends!

Friends for life!

Here are the Trinhs!

And here are Steve and I ....several people ask why there are not very many pictures of us on the blog and well quite honestly I hate pictures of myself...and this one is really no exception...just finally thought i would comply with some requests. Don't get to used to it though! :)

Well last week we had our Christmas program and I am hoping to post a video later in the week. And Mary Alice had her BIG birthday party yesterday at the Fire Station and I will get those pics on later this week too. Her party was a huge success and a lot of fun!

See you soon!

Were Going Green!

2007-12-02T20:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a little song Mary Alice sang for us over thanksgiving! She sings songs from the top of her head daily and this what was she was thinking about that night!

Yes...i know the videoing is terrible....but in my defense..charlie was hanging on one of my sholder's and pulling me down....i would shake him off only for him to return within seconds! Kids! They sure make life fun!

Christmas Picture?

2007-12-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

Here is another picture...i think the first two are my favorite though....

Christmas Picture?

2007-12-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

Well what do you think? Kids were happy and looking cute in their new pj's and I have NO christmas picture yet so i thought i would take my chances! I took about 50 pictures and I think I have about 3 decent ones. So hard to get Charlie to sit still for more than a second...much less look at the camera...and then if he looks at the camera she is still looking at the camera and then by the time my camera "auto focuses" for what seems like 5 minutes the image is gone!

I digress....Landon also turned me on to http://picasa.google.com/ which is a free download from Google where you can edit your pics. Of course if you have photoshop then you are set...but for some of us who are just not so cool yet (notice i say yet...hint...hint..santa) this works great!

Well let me know what you think....i have got to order this pictures soon....and I could try later to capture a better picture but i just don't know if i will get anything better than this....

Family Time!

2007-11-26T22:10:00.001-05:00

Well we had a great time with Uncle Landon, Aunt Kristin, Natalie, G-MA and G-dad. I started to upolad all pictures but too many were taken! So I hope you enjoy some of the highlights!

We started off the weekend by eating at one of Mary Alice's favorite resturants. Billy Bob's Diner! We love the 50's music and the swivel chairs! Then we had Thanksgiving on Saterday...which was filled with so much yummy food. Saterday night we went Tanglewood for the fantastic light show...we had so much fun roasting marshmellows and drinking hot coco. Then church and bowling on Sunday. Yesterday we had a great time just hanging out before Uncle Landon, Aunt Kristin, and Natalie had to go. Some of our favorite times have been "storytime" with G-dad and playing under the beds. G-ma and G-dad are still here, we are going to try and enjoy them while the time lasts!

All I want for Christmas Part II

2007-11-26T21:33:00.000-05:00

Video to come in next day or two...uncle landon had to pack up his imac and get on the road (video was not uploading) so he will post it when gets home. Hope you make it back safe uncle landon (at 3am). We miss you already!

All I want for Christmas is......

2007-11-26T18:22:00.001-05:00

So here is another cute video of the cousin's tonight. We have all had such a great time over the past 4 days and are so sad to see uncle landon, aunt kristin, and natalie go. There is something really special about cousins and these cousins have had a great time together. We took a lot of pictures and hopefully in the next week I can get a slide show together!

The Trio

2007-11-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

We are having fun already! And man am i having fun! my brother is here with his imac, camera and video camera.....so i should be back to bloggin daily....until he leaves that is :(

by the way..i love his computer...just a little plug for the imac. Well i know this video is not great but after seeing one of my best friends leslie's video ("mamma video") i just had to try this! I promise better video tomorrow. We were in our sunroom so the video is dark but man were the kids jammin out!

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T20:56:00.000-04:00

Well this has to be one of my favorite holidays! I had so much fun today. I love being home on halloween. It started with me cooking our favorite chili this afternoon. I love the smell of chili in the house on a cold day. And really it was not to cold, this morning was cold but this afternoon and evening was wonderful. We couldn't of asked for more beautiful, perfect halloween weather! So we all get dressed and ready early evening....got our bowls of candy all ready for the trick or treaters! Then daddy came home and we ate dinner together...and the door bell started to ring. The kids had so much fun running to the door and handing out candy. Mary Alice really did not need our help at all...she greeted everyone with a "happy halloween" and then followed it up by putting the bowl of candy in front of her and saying "what would you like?"..."take only one piece please"....(i had told her that when she was handing out candy to put just one piece in each bag....in years past she had put a handful in each bag)...and then she would say "have a great halloween....happy trick or treating tonight"..by the end of the night steve and i would just sit on the couch and let her handle the door by herself!

Needless to say Halloween was a hit! I took Minnie and Mickey up and down our street and Steve took them on the street behind our house. Then they came home and handed out some more candy.

Here are mickey and minnie (sorry you cannot see their ears).... they had so much fun. This was the first year that both the kids really enjoyed halloween and had so much fun together. And let me tell you..people love minnie and mickey. Everywhere we went people just couldn't wait to talk to and meet minnie and mickey! The kids loved it!

minnie making her dad proud and getting her "guns up"

minnie loving on mickey

minnie giving a pose

mickey is really working hard to open his candy

too cute!

all giggles here

mommy having so much fun with her minnie and mickey

minnie and her next door neighbor captain hook

The camera is here!

2007-10-31T07:39:00.000-04:00

the camera arrived! i have been charging it all night long and can't wait to take some pics! hopefully i will put them on late tonight! oooooo i can't wait!

Bloggin Blues

2007-10-25T20:08:00.000-04:00

I am sure you all have been wondering where in the bloggin world am I? Well I have the blogging blues. My camera broke about 2 weeks ago at our big Texas party ( i will blog and post pictures next). I have been so sad about not having a excuse to take cute pictures of the kids. And I cannot believe that I really have been missing just writing!

So where will I go from here? Well of course my husband wants to "get a deal" on a camera and thinks that after Christmas would be the best time (with all the returns ). However, I cannot wait that long. I cannot miss Halloween, thanksgiving with my family, MA's b-day, kids Christmas program, and the list goes on.....

my dad is sending me his old camera which really takes good pics and so I hope for now that will work until my husband can find me a deal! So hopefully I will be able to snap my way out of my blues and return to the world of blogging. The camera is supposed to arrive Tuesday! Which is kinda of bummer because Monday night we are going to "Legends and Lanterns" tour in Old Salem. It is a spooky tour by lighted lanterns through Old Salem. Apparently the town has some scary story's! I will have to keep you posted! If it doesn't arrive by Wednesday we will be finding a "deal" on Halloween because I will not miss out on that really cute picture op!

Good ol' Texas Barbque

2007-10-25T19:57:00.000-04:00

Well about two weeks ago we hosted for "dinner club". There are four other couples we get together with once a month. Each month someone hosts at their house and prepares the main dish while the other couples provide side dishes and desserts. Well the first month was at Karen's and she had three different types of homemade enchiladas. Man they were yummy...We had a "mexican" theme and had a great time. I really was not excited about following behind Karen since she is such a great cook and hostess.

So I told everyone I would make Brisket (beef that is for all you non-texans :) ) and beans. And then steve and I turned it into a Texas BBQ Party. Like all Texans...we love anytime we celebrate the Lone Star State! And since 5 out of 10 of us are from the lone star state with thought what the heck! Steve made a CD with some good Texas Artists...Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Terry Allen, Mac Davis (man i miss texas music)......I decorated with white lights, bandannas, cacti, paper plates, paper towels, yellow roses, and cowboys boots...man i miss home sometimes...

We did we have a great time! Here are some pics....

Here are some good ol'boys...from Harlingen and Herford!

And here is a good ol' Davie County boy with his homemade big ol' belt buckle! (Fyi...in NC nobody says the city they are from...everyone says the county they live in if you ask them where they are from)

The bud is still on these yellow roses!

There are no Urban Cowboys in this bunch!

Just thought i would show you my wonderful table decorations....of course i never think to take the pictures before the party and instead I am taking pics at the end of the night...oh well...

We are so blessed to have our friends.....and when I get the Texas Blues it makes it so much easier to know we have such a good group of friends to spend our time with! Can't wait for next month!

Oh and yes..we played the Hirst name game...always good for laughs and inside jokes!

Karate Kid

2007-10-06T20:22:00.000-04:00

Daddy writing here..Mary Alice would have made Mr. Miyagi proud. She had her test for yellow belt Thursday and she passed! So she is now a yellow belt. She didn't even have to "sweep the leg". MA did break a board with her fist (it was two boards that connected in the middle on a groove). She was also the first to count to 5 in Japanese. The funniest part of the whole thing was her attempt to have a VERY dramatic and serious face while she was punching, kicking and blocking. It was so unnatural to see her with a menacing face.

She was very pleased with her performance and looked over at me briefly to smile and give me a thumbs up.

She is carrying on the Hirst tradition of being your average, everyday, run of the mill champion!

Living the Simple Life

2007-10-06T20:13:00.000-04:00

No..I am not talking about Paris Hilton and Nichole Richie...I am talking about the 1800s!
While my mom was here, we visited Old Salem and had a great time! I was really surprised at how much fun I and the kids had. While we were their I started to realize how "simple" their life was and how crazy mine seems to be. While I do enjoy technology ( blogging, running water, electricity) I do think i would really enjoy some of the practices of the past. Where is the balance? Well I will not belabor my point...but I am determined to bring a little of the "simple" back to our lives! Here are some pics from our day!

here is charlie talking to one of the ladies

Here is Mary Alice dressed in authentic Moravian clothing

Charlie had the most fun playing in the barn.

Here are Mary Alice, Charlie and Mom on the streets.

Here is a picture of the kids taking a rest from all the walking..

And lastly here are some pics of the kids and G-Ma. We miss you G-Ma. We had such a great time...and cannot wait to see you in November!

If it aint't broke...

2007-09-29T19:59:00.000-04:00

Well you know the saying....."if it ain't broke, don't fix it." So, that is exactly what we have done for Charlie's birthday parties. We partied at Tanglewood last year and we partied again this year.

I just had to include some pictures from this year and last...what a difference a year makes! Here is what charlie had to say about his party.

Eating cupcakes was a little easier and not so messy....

Blowing out candles was wayyyyy easier.....

Now that Mrs. Barbara does not have to carry us around she has more time for "other" activities :)

and, I still have the best friends a boy could ask for.....

I had a great day! I played with my friends, rode a train (that sweet Mrs. Karen charged it up and brought it to the party..thank you Mrs. Karen), and took swings at a chile pepper pinata, but the best part of all had to be.....

having my "Ma"

Yeeeee Haaaaaa

2007-09-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

YEEEE HAAAAAA! Those are the words I love to hear Charlie say! It is just tooooo cute. Yesterday as we were getting ready for school Mary Alice said "wait! i have an idea" (she runs to her room and then charlie's). Into the kitchen she comes with their boots. She says, " we can both wear our boots to school today, we can be a cowboy and a cowgirl"!

So on the boots went and out the camera came...I just could not resist.

And this is where I thought it would end..but oh no...there is more...

DISCLAIMER: Charlie and Mary Alice became card carrying members of the NRA this week when they ventured out on their first snipe hunt.

Well....actually....the snipe hunt turned into a squirrel hunt.

They had fun and so did I capturing these pictures :) They had some luck shooting the squirrels and a lot of fun yelling "YEEEEE HAAAAAA"

We just had to bring a little of the West to the East! I must admit I miss Texas and seeing wranglers and cowboy hats!

The cowboy and cowgirl then headed to school! What fun it is to have kids!

Rasing Money for Cancer Research

2007-09-20T21:16:00.001-04:00

I am so proud of our son. When we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday he said "hit the bricks" and raise money for cancer research. So here he is walking on the quad to raise money for the cancer center!

His sister "sissy" even got her own baton and did a few laps! She got scanned just like the college kids for every lap she did!

Really Charlie's b-day started with phone calls from Mamma and Coach, G-Ma and G-Dad singing Happy Birthday and then was followed by opening his first present....A new basketball goal from "sissy". He loved it and was quite upset when he had to leave it to take her to preschool....But he and I came back home and played all morning.

At 1:30 we went to pick up sissy from Karate and came back home to "rest". However, I guess you don't want to miss anything on your second b-day so after spending 1 1/2 hours in his crib playing instead of sleeping Charlie, Mary Alice and I went to visit Daddy at Wake for "hit the bricks". Daddy is one of two people who advise the student group that coordinates this event to raise around $20,000 for cancer research. We had a blast on campus! We listened to live music, played in the trees, walked around the quad, met the Wake Basketball players, the Wake Cheerleaders, ate Chick-fil-a and filled up on some Starbucks! Life does not get much better. You will have to check out our slide show to see all our pictures!

Then we came home, took a bath, had cake and opened presents! Man it is good to be 2!

I will leave you with some of my favorite pictures. Two are of Charlie at the Chapel on campus. I turned away for just 2 seconds and he found the luminaries lining the Chapel and thought it would be really fun to take the candles out of the bags and play with the sand. Luckily we did not get caught, and we were able to get everything back to looking good as new!

Lastly is my favorite picture of all....the kids LOVE playing on the quad. They always have..and it is one thing I really miss about living on campus. Here is a picture that just captures their love for each other! Charlie could not keep from hugging his "sissy".

Enjoy the slide show!

My Best Day Yet!

2007-09-19T12:53:00.000-04:00

Well Mrs. Shirley (charlie's teacher) told me today that charlie
had his "best day yet"! She said he had a great day! Of course
now he takes his passy AND silkie to school. Monday was the
first day that I sent charlie to school with his passy and a note
came home that day from Mrs. Shirley saying:

" charlie kept asking for his blanket and looking for it in his book bag. Since it wasn't there he, carried his book bag all morning :) . If you would like to send the blanket, it might help."

So today he went equipped to school with both passy and silkie. Maybe we are starting to work out the kinks. Anyways, since his birthday is tomorrow I sent some peanut butter cupcakes to school along with our camera. His teacher got some cute pics!
And they even made him his own birthday crown!

Here are some of his new preschool friends!

What I really like about school...

2007-09-15T08:52:00.000-04:00

Hello from MA,

I like to play at my centers. My favorite center is the dress up area. My second favorite center is computers. I love to play on the playground because it is really fun and there are swings there and I really love to sing. Charlie plays on the playground too, well sometimes.

PS: Mary Alice

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEELY

2007-09-14T16:48:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Neely! We miss you and love you so much! We wish we could be with you today to help celebrate your b-day!
Uncle Steve, Aunt Kay-Lynn, Mary Alice and Charlie

Neely I miss you and love you. I wish you could come to my house. I hope i see you soon. I love you. Ps. Mary Alice

Mary Alice starts Karate

2007-09-13T14:13:00.001-04:00

Well after months of waiting Mary Alice has started Karate! She has been telling us that she wants to take Karate since last May and we have been waiting to see if she changes her mind..but 4 months later she is still wanting to learn Karate. Her preschool was offering Karate after school and so we decided that this would be the best situation for her and us.

She is only one of five students and the only girl! Yesterday was her second class and she loves it! She stays for lunch on thursday's and friday's and then has karate class after lunch. You will have to ask her all about it!

Here are some pictures of her in class yesterday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE LANDON

2007-09-13T08:33:00.001-04:00

We miss you Uncle Landon! Wish we could be with you on your birthday. Hope you have a good one. Kay-Lynn and Steve

Happy Birthday Uncle Landon I really wanted you to see this picture and I really hope you like it and it is really fun to have you as my uncle landon. I really want you to come to my house and have a tea party with me. I love you uncle landon. ps. mary alice

Happy Birthday Uncle Landon. Can't wait to see you! Love, Charlie

I WANT MY PASSY

2007-09-12T15:43:00.000-04:00

Do you love Sandra Boynton books as much as me? She is a child author and we love her at our house. She has a book entitled "I WANT MY BINKIT" and it reminds me of the day I had today. In the book a dinosour is looking for his "Binkit" (ie. blanket). In my story it was charlie looking for his Passy. Here is how our story goes.

I will admit I am a passy person. I have given both of my children passy's as babies and I love them. However, it really bothers me to see older children with passy's. So right before Mary Alice turned 2 we limited her passy use to night/nap time only and then when she turned 2 we had a "passy party" and threw away all her passy's and then ate cupcakes! It went over so well we never had any problems.

So as you know Charlie is about to be 2 and so we have been limiting his passy to night/nap time only and while it has been harder for him it has been easier the last few weeks. And the "plan" was to have his passy party in a few weeks. Notice the word plan in quotions. So.......charlie started preschool last week (two days a week) and it has been hard for him. I have not been sending his passy with him to school because we have not been using it at home during the day. Well....as we drove up to preschool charlie started saying "no....no....no" and by the time his teacher came to get him out of my car (in drop off line) he was crying. So about one hour into preschool I get a call from his very soft spoken, very mild tempered teacher. Here is how our conversation went:

Mrs. Acosta: Mrs. Hirst?

Mrs. Hirst: Yes

Mrs. Acosta: This is Mrs. Acosta, Charlie's teacher.

Mrs. Hirst: Oh yes, hi

Mrs. Acosta: Mrs. Hirst, does charlie use a passy?

Mrs. Hirst: Well yes he does, kinda...we have really only been trying to use it during bedtime

Mrs. Acosta: Oh yes, well he has really been miserable and crying since school started and all he is saying to me is "pass....pass.....pass.....pass" and he is looking around the class and in his backpack

Mrs. Hirst: Oh....well i did not send one to school with him....would you like me to bring his passy?

Mrs. Acosta: Oh, yes that would be great. And i know you are trying to get him to stop using his passy and I will take it away from him when he puts it down or does not need it but I think during this time of transistion (maybe a few weeks) it would be nice for him to have something that brings him comfort.

Mrs. Hirst: Ok...i will be right there.

Can you believe it? I ran a passy up to school. The note that came home with Charlie about his day said " charlie had a great day once he got his passy"

Go figure. It is funny how your kids will make you eat your words sometimes. Somehow i have a feeling charlie will be making me eat my words "my kids will not have a passy after age 2"

hope you had a great day!

Meet Mary Alice

2007-09-11T08:36:00.000-04:00

Well today is the day we have been waiting for! In Mary Alice's class each day the teacher sends home a box with a student and they are to fill it with three things that tell the class something about themselves. We got the bucket yesterday! She was so excited! So here are the three "items" (as MA calls them) she filled her box with:

1) A drawing of a hermit crab she colored- which represent her love of coloring

2) Teaspoons- which represent her love to cook

3) Homemade music notes- which represent her love to sing

So we are off to school! As you can see today we are a ballerina!

I'm soooooooo EXCITED

2007-09-11T07:18:00.000-04:00

This was posted last night by G-Ma:

(Well, Mary Alice I have a surprise for you. I just purchased a ticket for a long plane ride to your house. Just think in a couple of weeks we can make biscuits and gravy together for everyone for a saturday morning breakfast. So make sure you have your apron ready to go. Also, we could bake teacakes and have a little party. I am so excited!!!)

Dear G-Ma

I can't believe it! I am so excited. And I really am looking forward to seeing you. And I really want to help you make pancakes and I am really hoping to see you. i really want to see you today. I really hope you can come to me right now! I can't wait to see you, I like how you are the one that is coming to see me. That's all for now I have to eat breakfast and get ready for school.

ps. i love you...mary alice