Happy Birthday to You & You & You!!!

September is a month full of birthday's for us!!

Just wanted to send a Happy Birthday wish to all of you September birthdays!

On the 23rd, two VERY special people turned "21" again. My mom & Alan's Grandpa Nicholas, On the 28th we celebrated Alan's birthday with my family and some special friends at Cagle's Steakhouse and the 29th was a good friend of mine (Hollie Fancisco's) birthday!

Hope all of you had an awesome and very special birthday!

Here are a few pictures from Alan's celebration, unfortunately since my grandmother was sick and went into the hospital and we went out of town, I was unable to get a cake or actually the strawberry rhubarb pie that he wanted made, so I quickly threw together his third or fourth choice, a pineapple upside down cake. For my first time, I didn't think it was half bad and I learned for the next time I make one. Hopefully when things settle down I'll try my hand at making that pie and get my mom made one of her favorites as well (my cookie bouquet cookies).

Thank you Isabella, mom, dad, Ricky, Jennifer, Cassie and Brandee for joining us to help celebrate Alan's b'day!!

Thank God for Amazing Friends 'cause...

Houston was HOT, HUMID & GROSS and Tech lost the game with a big thanks to Leach for making the wrong call!!

The Goin' Band Truck was parked outside the mall....so we took a photo opt!

This is the start of the day when our hair was actually tame! Yes ChEeSY picture I know but look at the hair!

Yes I was taking a picture of myself and my new $12 sunglasses - The only purchase beside a book I made for myself while in Houston - and in the process of taking my picture I captured my husband looking like an idiot doing lunges in the parking lot!
Notice the hair and it's poofy growth!

Thursday night Myself, Alan and Ricky caught a flight to Houston to spend the weekend with our good friend Courtney and her fiance Brandon. Despite the outcome of the game, the heat, humidity, and jerkiness of the fans that were in OUR seats, we had an awesome weekend. We also met up with Henry, Jennifer and Alisha (Alan's roommate & friend from College Station) and had a good visit with them over dinner. Courtney & Brandon took us to some really good restaurants, Court cooked an AWESOME Taco Ring (that I'm gonna have to give a second shot now that I've seen it done) and we all did some major shopping damage!!! I did manage to knock out a few Christmas presents while there so that was a really good feeling! Isabella's favorite thing we brought her back was the Barney reward stickers we found at Half-Price Books that we are using for potty training. They work so well that all the kid wants to do is sit on the potty!! Thanks Courtney & Brandon for an amazing weekend and I hope that we can make a trip back to visit again soon! You two are truly very special people in our lives! Also a special thanks to Grammie and Papa for allowing us to get out of town and have some alone grown-up time by watching Isabella and caring for Grandmother for us!!

Shopping went to Court's brain and she temporarily forgot how to put on a necklace....and Alan actually believed that it was a head wrap instead of a necklace!

Our engagement present to Court and Brandon. Yes I made this one too!! We are so happy and excited for the two of them as they embark on this journey together. Sorry the picture is sideways, sometimes I just have stubborn pics that I can't get them to turn around on here!

Our So Called Hectic Life...

Since Friday life has been far from relaxation!! We (Myself, Alan, My mom & Ricky) pulled an all niter trying to get signs and things ready for the craft fair. The craft fair came and went. We made enough money to pay for the booth and then a little extra. It wasn't quite the sell that we would have liked for but it was a trial run. Had we known that the holiday signs weren't gonna be the most popular and the Texas Tech & VERY Religious ones would be we would have made accordingly. We did take an order that I must get made next week and maybe it will generate a few others. Isabella had a blast playing in the kid area they had and was a good sport through it all. After the all niter and a long day of sitting in the sun we headed home to watch the Tech vs Texas game for as long as we could stay awake.

Here are a few of the signs I made:

Yes, another stubbon picture! This is a bow holder I made for Isabella...I guess I'm gonna have to make another one or make the ribbons longer.

Unfortunately on Sunday my grandmother started not feeling well. By Monday and Tuesday my daily life had changed in the blink of an eye, I became a different person. There are instances in life that it seems like your world is turned upside down. Marriage and becoming a mother are two instances that my world changed and now becoming a caretaker. For the past three years I have been a part-time caretaker for my grandmother and the sad side of it I have seen many up and downs with her and I have gradually seen life take away her Independence which is something that has not been easy for her. On Monday and Tuesday I became a full-time caretaker. I was doing something I had never thought I would do, would be able to do and is one of the hardest things I have had to do. Every time my grandmother moved I had to help her. When she collapsed I carried her and I encouraged her to eat when she would yell at me that I didn't understand and that she couldn't eat. Through all of the hatefulness, although it is hard for me to deal with, I know that deep down in her heart my grandmother dearly loves and appreciates me for all that i do and have done for her. I know that Isabella is the light of her life and we both love her dearly and wouldn't have life any other way than to spend our days with her. After having to pick her up off the floor and bandage her arm from her getting up thinking she could make it to the door to let her dog out, I decided to take her to the dr yesterday morning. After spending 4 hours in the drs office/hospital, the doctor decided to admit her. We went back to see her last night and she seemed to be doing a little better but she was definitely not 100%. We hope that she will soon be back on her feet and back home. Please keep her in your prayers and she will recover from whatever this is that has gotten her down and we will have her back home soon!

A Whole Lot of Excitement!!!!

First off I want to apologize for the mass postings but I'm a slacker in uploading pictures, so the blogs are written and I just don't have corresponding pictures at the time so I don't post. I'll try to get better about uploading pictures when I write. We had a very good weekend as I hope everyone else did!!

I got up early Saturday and went into town to Cradles 2 Crayons ( this is a gently used consignment sale)...I didn't find much but I did buy Isabella a Barney costume and a plush Baby Bop. She is crazy about Barney as most of you know and I couldn't resist. They were only $2 each and I wish each and everyone of you could have seen her face when I showed them to her. She was so excited and had such a huge grin on her face. She cried "Wear Barney" when she had to take the costume off to get ready to head to town for the game. Here are a few pics of her sporting her Barney costume and it has already been worth the $2!

This is the BEFORE when Alan "THOUGHT" he was still skinny until he stepped on the scale!! These pictures were taken from September-November of 2008. The side view of his belly is a tad bit older however it gives you an idea of how big his gut was as that was where most of his weight was!!

I want to brag on Alan a little. We started Weight Watchers on January 10th and as of Saturday Alan has lost a total of 57.6 lbs. He looks AMAZING and about a month ago he went to the dr and is way healthier. His cholesterol, which before Weight Watchers was indeterminable because it was so high is now within normal range and the obnoxious snorer has gone away. Thank you God, for it all but especially the snoring. On Saturday he became a LIFETIME Member to Weight Watchers. This means that he has reached his goal weight and maintained it for 6 weeks. He now will attend a meeting and weigh once a month to keep this status and he never has to pay Weight Watchers again as long as he stays within 2 lbs up or down of his goal weight. We are all so proud of him and glad that he is a much healthier Husband and Daddy!!!

This is the after when he really is skinny....weighs approx. 193-197 and now can wear a M/L in shirts and a 33 waist in jeans!!!

Also on Saturday we had an extra ticket and no babysitter so we took Isabella to the Tech game! She had a BLAST! She was so excited she ran approx. 12 blocks to get there. She yelled "GO TECH!", "Come On!", and "Raiders!" to name a few. She also loved the popcorn and enjoyed watching the Goin' Band from Raiderland!! Poor kiddo passed out about mid 4th quarter. I was so proud of her, she did lots better than I thought she would and I think she really enjoyed herself!! My mom might have lost her ticket to a 2 yr old to the less crowded games.

~Cute words of Isabella from last week:

We were in Hobby Lobby and as we were walking in they had a huge Fall display with pumpkins, scarecrows & hay. She walked up and picked a pumpkin out and said "DELICIOUS, NUM NUM!!" It was too cute...what 2 yr old says DELICIOUS?!?!?! Then she walked around and saw the scarecrow...the scarecrow had long hair and an apron on and Isabella said, "Look it's a Scary Mommy!"

Not much else to report. Hope everyone has a nice week.

I STILL have my Sanity!!

This afternoon I kept Kaegan for Kyla for a few hours while she went to class and did some school work. I was a little worried about my sanity...I was in Lubbock, with 2-2yr olds and really no plan. I put him in the car and he cried a little till I turned on the DVD player...then I set out for the park. I'm not sure I made it out of the parking lot and Kaegan was already asleep.

I knew Isabella was WIDE awake because she took a 2 hr nap before we headed to Lubbock. I got halfway to the park and it started a downpour. Now what do I do?!?! The mall has a crappy playground that we ALWAYS take them to and it's halfway across town but it's the only thing I know of inside. So since Kaegan was asleep and I figured he needed a nap, I killed 45 mins driving around, sitting parked and running a few errands that I could without getting the kiddos out of the car. When Kaegan woke, the rain had stopped and we headed to the park.

They were both soo excited. I knew they both had an extra set of clothes so I let them be kiddos and the first thing they did when they took off to the playground was run right through a water puddle, turn and looked at me like, am I in trouble? They had a blast playing together and separate and they both had soaked bottoms by the time we left. The park was pretty empty so they had free range. And later in the afternoon since Brandee was just right across the street she joined us for a little bit after she finished her clinicals. Isabella had her being 2 again!! Here are some picture from our fun afternoon. I had a great time with the two of them and would definitely do it again....it wasn't near as bad as I feared.