SNOW

in Kingwood?!? Ha! I'm a little delayed, but better late than never, right?

Perfect night for a couple of weeks ago - we had Megan's Christmas program at church, in which she was absolutely freakin' adorable! All the while we could see the snow falling outside.... so we came home, changed clothes and played in it in the dark! We built a snowman with the neighbors, Megan was obsessed with eating it, and Em and Brent and Cam were obsessed with throwing it at each other!

There wasn't much snow on the ground, because what little was there was being used immediately :)

Ahh, tis the season.... full swing of the holidays! parties everywhere, baking, shopping, wrapping...

I'm very excited- I got to pick up my 50mm 1.4 lens yesterday- it got dropped at Animal Kingdom, and I was SO hoping I'd have it back before Christmas. Yay! Of course, nothing without a price.... *sigh*

I wanna go back...

to land of fairy tales, and no cares in the world...

we came home to reality, and here we are, smack dab in Christmas season.... well under way. (since when does the season start sometime after Labor Day?!?).

Thought I'd share just a few of my favs right quick, although there are plenty more...not 9,999 mind you, but oh my goodness, it was hard to whittle them down... I mean, my kids being there for the first time, and my first time being there... it truely was magical. The place you dream of as a child, and then, in turn, dream of taking your kids... it was amazing. And it really was great having the kids' grandparents there, too. We really all did have an amazing time. sigh. Went by too fast.

My favorite moments are definitely Megan's makeover at the Bobbidi Boutique, and riding all the roller coasters with Cameron. Awesomeness. Cam felt like such a big kid... and Megan, such a princess all day of her makeover.

California grill rocked the house too. :) more later...when I can get a moment or two away from reality. :)

PSSST...

we leave in two days for here. Don't tell the kids. It's a surprise!

Hope everyone has a fabulous week, and a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving! I'll be sure to share all 9,999 pictures I take when I get back!

the busy weekend is over...

Come and gone... what a weekend. spent the day friday out at my friend Heather's. She needs a little help these days...


I call her hop-a-long. I think she secretly likes it. Those dirty looks she throws me are just a cover. She has a really bad break, supposed to keep it elevated at all times, and really, how are you supposed to do that with a 3 year old? ha!
Em's pool party went great.... her cake was adorable- the Anitameister made it for her after I had taken Em to get all the supplies for it, and pick our her pan. Care Bears it was! Her invites were adorable (Thanks Brandy! you rock!) and I picked up some balloons to match the invites to put around the house... we heated the pool for them, and off they went to freeze! Pretty funny to watch, but they had fun! Serene got them pizza to chow down on, and really, what else to teenagers need in life?
This is, by far, my favorite picture of the evening:


Sunday had a baby shower (of which I don't have any pictures of, since I accidentally left my camera in the car), then rocked it out at Madonna! Woot! OMGOODNESS the people watching there was TO DIE FOR! I loved it, and had an awesome time! The costumes were some of the funniest stuff ever, and the pictures only touch on it. seriously. and it just seemed like everyone there was just having an awesome time and not caring about anything. One of the best concerts I've ever been to. even if she came out on stage two hours late. This picture absolutely cracks me up. It was at the end of the night, and I'm sure it was way past the point of rational picture taking =)

Finally getting some oh-so-fabulous weather, back to enjoying random park days... I love the pic of Cam and his friend. First graders can have such serious conversations sometimes. :)

*gasp*

blink, and a week goes by. blows right on by. cruzazy.

This little girl just LOVES to get messy. Love that.

Emmie is now a fabulous 15 year old. No really. Totally fabulous. Gotta knock sense into her here and there, but fabulous. Celebrated at the Hard Rock on Sunday.

Gotta say, it stinks when you're dying to try out what you've learned from a fabulous Karen Russell class the day before, and you end up at a restuarant that has the equivelant of a small flashlight shining down on only the middle of the huge round table. Did my best, and there are some cute pics, but they're not winning any awards. :)

Had Mr. E with us for a couple of days.... mr adorable has the most fabulous personality, and is a total hoot.and the looks he gives you oh.my.gosh. are they Nick. And for anyone that doesn't know Nick that well, for as long as I can remember, boredom at home for Nick has always involved scissors and hair of some kind. He's had one inch eyebrows, no eyebrows, and every hair style and facial hair style I think one could have. And now Ethan gets to be his little extension... have you ever known a 19 month with groomed eyebrows?? What I've learned out of all of this is that Ethan is still absolutely adorable. =)
I had to take advantage of the moment when I found this shirt- it says "my aunt rocks" and is so perfect for his little mohawk look. And really, he's like a little walking boost to my self-esteem when he's wearing it =)

Megan is OBSESSED with Ethan. The only child she is more obsessed with is Jorja. Little Mommy in action- follows him everywhere, constantly chatting with him and wanting to play with him. 90% he's fabulous with it, and then there just comes that point where he's annoyed, and it's hilarious the circles he will run in, just trying to get away from this obsessive little gal who wants to brush his hair "just one more time!"

Brent's birthday was yesterday- Happy Birthday Babe! (that would be his new PS3 he's opening. because another gaming device in this house is sooo neccessary.)

Had his traditional must have cookie cake, and fondue for dinner before we raced out the door for the program Cameron was having at school- the first graders had a "Turkey show". It was absolutely ADORABLE, and so fun to watch! The kids all sang songs and had little dances- it was so cute- we could see Cameron counting silently when they were doing their dance moves to keep beat.

Sideline shameless moment: We're driving home from the turkey show, and Megan pipes up from the backseat,"Mommy, could you roll the winnow down? I fahted." Niiiice. I have now completely and officially lost control of any chance of her being a little lady. First the Incredible Hulk and now this.
Came back after with Anita and Fran to the house to devour the cookie cake, and so Brent could open his gift from them.... it's from his "post hurricane wish list". This is his man-face, wanting to go cut random things in half now. And that's our son, wanting to take a turn as well, because what 6 six year old wouldn't think a chainsaw rocked?

Busy busy weekend ahead... birthday party for Em (pool party with 20 some-odd teenagers, what??), a baby shower, a Madonna concert... woot!

in case you ever wondered

what rock star kids look like....wonder no more.

music & faith

has changed in our lives since Em came to live with us. My Hubs' standard radio station has changed, I no longer have control over my radio in my car, and Megan and Cameron now always want headphones to listen to the music. And Megan is definitely the jammer. She jams, and Em has been teaching her to snap her fingers...
(please note our cute little photobomber in back)


There are amazing changes coming up in the near future at ScrapFaith.Including....
-Slideshows of all submitted challenge layouts.
- Monthly prizes. But NOT for a chosen layout, because art is subjective. Instead we will be giving away a large prize pack each month from a winner of our comment draw. That's right...starting in NOVEMBER, each time you leave a comment in a certain month you are eligible for the prize. Only one comment per post please. So if you leave a comment on every post you have the best chance at winning.
- A ScrapFaith Flickr group where you can post any faith based layout you choose.
- A re-design of some of the features on our site.
- Even more inspiration from our amazing team.
- More amazing Guest Artists...including Gigi Kennedy and Kim Hughes this month!

We expect most of these changes and updates to happen around November 1st so spread the word, come and visit us and get ready to Scrap FAITH!

Baseball season has come to an end

for fall ball, and Cameron now has another trophy to add to the collection, and is moving on- he's fixated on football now. And tho' my first instinct is to cringe, I'm pretty sure it's not a career move for him. We were driving by the middle school today, and Megan saw the boys out practicing football and said "Look at the football school!!" and we went on discuss the other things involved in the middle school, and she proclaimed she was going to the "football school" too. Cameron looked at her if she were crazy and said," Are you sure you want to play football once you get to middle school Megan? Because you really get hurt when you play football when you get older. Maybe you should stick to flag football, like me."

mom-crisis averted. whew.

Megan likes to use scissors these days

the end.

Inside the white picket fence...

it all started with two people falling in love (that each had an animal, a dog named Maggie and cat named Patch)....

(I had to put a picture in here of Brent and I in a bar, since it is where we met and all...)

getting married....

(I had to scan this picture, out of all of them, because I giggle at my brothers and sisters in this one... oh my, how the eyebrows have changed since then... lol)

(and this one... Kurstee is SO little, and Shelley- please tell me you threw away that lipstick??)

having a son...

(whew, that is one puffy face of mine)

and three years and one month later, a little girl...

(not as puffy that go round- but not gaining 90 pounds helped with that...)

and now, here we are....

Seven years today that we've been married... still have the dog & cat, the little boy and the little girl, and at this chapter in our lives, a beautiful teenager named Em living with us, too =) We've had two psuedo kids- these two fabulous girls, Em and Kurstee, who are both such an important part of our family....

we've had job changes (bye bye bank, hello domestic goddess for me, and I couldn't even begin to explain the job changes for Brent) for both of us, a couple of house changes, house renovations (ugh), vacations and trips, family changes, and through it all, it's been the best times of my life. A few downs here and there, but in the grand scheme of it all, ones that never mattered at all, because we've had so many more great times.

We've got more memories, and more laughs in store for many years to come- Happy Anniversary Babe!

easing into fall....

while it's still in the 80s... with an occasional "cool front" in the high 70s...

Wrapping up the end of T-Ball season.... Cam's had a lot of fun, and said he definitely wants to "make this one of his sports".... the boys crack me up- it is mandatory to slide almost every single time....

I love how the helmets are so gigantic on their heads =)

Headed out to Dewberry Farms Monday- the kids had a great time- I only wish it would have been a little cooler- 'cause it was friggin' HOT! Heading out there is an annual tradition, and they add more and more every year... I tried to get a picture of the cousins together; I think this one is my fav, just because it makes me laugh- Ethan laughing, everyone else looking so bothered.... lol... I did get some better ones though I promise.

The kids both finally decided on their costume, I'm in the process of making these skeleton costumes- pretty easy, and we're spraying them with glow in the dark paint so the bones will glow. Cameron was very adament about not wanting to be a scary skeleton, so I'm adding a red felt heart behind the rib cages. Megan had gone from the Incredible Hulk, to a unicorn, to a bumblebee, to deciding she was going to be the same as her brother, to which Cameron thinks is the coolest thing ever. Cameron had decided on a skeleton after I outlawed all commercial characters of the year, and told everyone we had to use our imagination to come up with costumes, so that meant any Star Wars costume was out. =)

We also made some awesome little haunted houses this week out of cocoa rice crispie treats... for about $7, I found the kit at Target, and each kit makes two haunted houses, and comes with everything you need... while these were a ton of fun, and fabulous for all ages, but I gotta tell ya, they just didn't taste quite the same... packaged marshmallow goo isn't a replacement for the real puffs of sugary goodness. But it was fun anyways!

just when you thought...

I didn't scrap anymore, I had to prove you wrong. I do. Sometimes. Randomly. This is my brother Nick with my nephew Ethan. I know how scary it can be, not knowing the "right" way to love, to parent, to just live. I see Nick loving his son so much, and wanting to be everything he never had, and I love that. I hope it always stays that way with his relationship with his kids.
Little Babe Jorja. So freakin' adorable. Cameron and Megan ask about her all the time. We miss her, and I hope is that the relationship will get stronger over time and they are always a part of each other's lives.
What more do you say... it's Meg's bootay. ha!
Father's Day last year. The four of us spent the day in Galveston (wow, never really knew how monumental that would be) and went to lunch, the aquarium and flew a kite. If I look too long at pictures like this, I cry. For happiness and relief more than anything... strange I know, but when Brent and I met, I knew he was a great guy for me, but I never thought about what kind of Daddy he would be. I didn't even know if I wanted kids. Man I got lucky. Cameron and Megan are so fortunate...he's the daddy people dream of, and you can't fake that. And I love that. And in the last few months, I've realized that more than ever. There's moments that come along in life that you never know are going to make you realize things, to take notice of things, to take a completely different direction than you ever imagined, and that's where I'm at.
Anyways, enough of the pish of sap. sorry.... can't let that go on too long- someone might notice! ha!
Cam's got another game in the morning... someone should have clued me in on the whole white baseball pants thing. Who really came up with that?? White? Seriously? Anyone noticed the color of mud lately? Ain't white fo sho... and Tide just isn't cutting it... nor is bleach soaking it for SIX hours.... seriously. driving my OCD into overdrive. And I'm over the forest green/gold color combo. must have been a color blind dude who came up with that, because no one should ever have to wear bright gold colored socks....

my life of late...

consists of... well, chaos. Not the kind of chaos that's bad, just chaos that doesn't allow much by way of computer, or scrapping or generally anything of that nature.

LOTS of baseball (as in, games Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday this week)

lots of Miss Megs- my daily sidekick. Sassy pants. She's doing gymnastics now, and twice a week at preschool.

and lots of miss Ems... she's cracking away at her Freshman year... and geez, who cannot envy someone who can do a one-handed cartwheel?? It's like magic! And had her open house Monday- got to hear how fabulous all her teachers think she is. :)

Been spending time outside in the evenings whenever we can... those evenings where you don't sweat to death, fear contracting West Nile from misquitos the size of bald eagles, or get poured on are few and far between, so we have to take advantage of them...lots of bike riding (not many pics of Cam on his bike- shake your head back and forth really fast while trying to look straight. That's what pictures of Cameron look like on his bike.), chalk drawings, and rocket blasting..

Check out this chick catching some air- woot! This is the rocket blaster the kids are obsessed with lately (I say kids verrrry loosely) Megs is wearing her little hot pants I had to get to cover up the permanent wedge she has in her leotard- I call it a rumpakiss :)

And Mr. Ethan is personality plus- Megan is totally in love with him, and the two of them split their time between cracking up together, and Megan mommying Ethan as he looks at her with "the look", totally annoyed. :)