School Pics

Enjoy! Madalyn's 4th grade pic and Beck's kickoff kinder pick. :)

AIDS Walk 2009

Madalyn and I walked the AIDS Walk 2009 5k on Sunday afternoon in amazingly beautiful 75 and sunny weather on Sunday afternoon. It was great to see my clients and to spend quality time with Madalyn . Oh yeah, and exercise too! The Maxwell Locke and Ritter team raised $500 this year, awesome!!

Kyle Music Fest

What a way to celebrate after the Texas vs. OU win on Saturday - there was a free concert in the park as part of the Kyle festival. We hadn't seen Cory Morrow in years, but it was a GREAT show. We had a wonderful spot thanks to Brandy, and enjoyed the BYOB with fair food. I loved that he closed the show with Big City Stripper (on our wedding CD) and the cover of Its a Great Day to be Alive - yep, Cory, it sure is. Good food, better music and great friends - couldn't ask for much more.

Kyle Parade

Kyle had its annual music fair and parade on Saturday. Bristol and I rode the Kid Ranch float with his daycare and Madalyn walked with the Girl Scouts. I know its totally hokey, but I still love parades!

Colts Flag Football Team

Here is a fun pic of Beck's team we took at Game #5. The boys are having way too much fun!

Jeff on FNL!

We are totally going Hollywood in the Raymond family. Jeff was actually on FNL before Beck was in the commericial, but I got my posts backwards. Jeff had been watching Craigslist for tickets to the Jay-Z concert and started checking the talent link. In true Jeff form he was supposed to be an extra and turned it into a speaking part, almost $800 and he should get an imdb credit. I swear, that man never ceases to amaze me!

Beck's Commercial

Beck got to be in a commercial last week. It's for a banking group called Texas Partners and had a lot to deal with sticks. The theory of one stick is easy to break, but when you bundle them together you can't break them. There was a guy and three boys and they played with sticks, picked up sticks, broke sticks and threw sticks. Just general hanging out in the park playing with sticks for a few hours and getting paid $150 for the college fund. :)

Fall Carnival 2009

The Blanco Vista Elementary Fall Carnival was on October 10th - its the biggest event that the PTA hosts at the school. Cody and Floyd came and brought their race cars to promote Thunderhill, we broke out the Wheel of Wow and generally had an amazing time. It was a wonderful fundraiser for PTA and it was so much fun watching the kids just be kids.

Ella Turns 4!!

Here are a few pics from Ella's 4th birthday. Jessie must have been pyschic when she booked it at the Jumpy Place because it was pouring rain that day - like 10 inches in a day and getting the cake in the building required an umbrella and a group effort. We really had a great time and it was wonderful to have the kids be able to run off some of the energy so they weren't cooped up in the house for hours. I can't believe that Ella is already 4 - craziness.

Texas Exes

Jeff, Jessie and I were able to attend an event at the Alumni Center to the Hispanic students branch of the Texas Exes. We had an amazing time and rocked the Loteria. All of us left with Commemorative jerseys that came in handy for the recent OU game. :)

Glenn & Ace

My cousin Glenn and his wife added a beutiful baby boy named Gary Wallace Hart to the Nelson side of the family. He is super chill and will go by 'Ace'. Love it!

Andi's Baby Shower

One of my good friends from E&Y is going to have a baby boy soon! We had a great baby shower at Stacey's house that included a cupcake bar - YUM. Madalyn's cupcake had chocolate filling, pop rocks, and a pixie stick! It's always nice to get back together with all of those girls even though so many of us work at MLR now. The games were fun, Andi got a lot of useful gifts and we got a lot of gossiping done. :) I can't wait to meet Grayson!!

Beck's First Flag Football Game

Beck's first football season started with a one touchdown win over the other team. The weather was nice, everyone was able to attend and I think that Jeff finally understands why I love coaching the basketball teams as much as I do. Beck did a really great job, had a couple of fabulous tackles and he even pulled their flags once. :) He had one catch on offense and had a good run that set up the next play for a touchdown. This is seriously going to be addictive.

Camp Champions

This was the second year for Camp Champions with the Girl Scouts. Since the girls bridged from Brownies to Juniors, we got to do more fun stuff this year. Camp Champions is a summer camp located on Lake LBJ in Marble Falls. It's an amazing picturesque place that looks like it came out of the movies (minus Jason in the hockey mask). We played tetherball in the rain, and then moved on to Ga Ga which is Irsaeli Dodgeball and very fun. Then we did the Zip Line which included climbing a rock wall about 35 feet in the air (it seemed MUCH higher) to perch on a very small square and then off a zip line at break-neck speeds. We also got to do high ropes which included a climbing a telephone pole to a cargo net which we shimmed across and then repeled down. Madalyn also did a 'catwalk' which was a telephone pole balance beam 30 feet in the air. The girls did an amazing job and the moms hung in there pretty darn well ourselves. We ended the day with some lake swimming with a cool slide a large blob that you jumped onto and then off into the lake. I don't have any pictures because I was part of the funniest story of the day. Abbie landed on the blob (a very large pillow-shpaed object floating the lake filled with air)and was able to stay on - a very difficult task - and she begged me to 'launch' her if she was able to hang on. Well, she was, so I asked the other girls if I could cut and help her fly- and fly she did. About an extra ten feet in the air into a flip with arms and legs flying everywhere. I came up out of the water and everyone was laughing - Sylvia was doubled over she was laughing so hard. I seriously hadn't seen that many people laughing that hard in I don't even remember when. Abbie said it was 'AWESOME' so I guess I've added a new skill to my repetiore.
Cant wait to go back next year!

UT Football!!

Jeff, Daddy and I took Madalyn and Beck to their first UT game last weekend. It was my dad's birthday present and we got some cheap tickets through the Girl Scouts. The seats were up in the newly remodeled horseshoe and we had a great view of the Godzilla-tron. We started with some beer and sausage on a stick at Scholz's beirgarten. We got to the stadium in time to see all of the opening stuff for the game and see UT play a really great first half. That being said, they were playing Louisiana Monroe so we weren't terribly worried. One of the highlights of the game was getting to see freshman quarterback Garrett Gilbert get his first series in which ended in him running it in for a touchdown. I'm so glad that we were able to spend that time together and get to share in Madalyn and Beck's first game. What an experience!!
And for those of you keeping track - that's a Texas Pom girl that Beck is with in this picture. I'm trying to figure out how he happens to keep running into the pretty girls for photo ops....

Beck's First Flag Football Practice

Beck decided that he wanted to try football instead of playing Fall Ball t-ball. Jeff and I were pretty happy with his decision for lots of reasons, but Beck wanted to try something new. He had his first practice last week and it went pretty well. Jeff is helping Mike Blackwell (who I coach basketball with) and lots of our friends are on the team which is awesome. I'm sure there will be more pictures and stories to come - although the one of him sticking his butt at Jeff is pretty classic. :)

Another Beck Quote

Beck told Jeff the other day, "Daddy, I wish we could bring the Beatles home with us to play Rock Band. I think they'd be pretty good at it." Hum, quite possibly.

Beck's Quotes

Okay, I've started thinking that Beck is just about the funniest person I know. He is always coming up with something off the cuff and even though it's way better when you hear them say it these were a few of his in the last two days.
At my dad's birthday lunch in Elgin at Southside Meat Market he had two great ones right in a row. First was, "this place is awesome. we get to drink Big Red out of beer bottles" which as we talked about the stuffed trophy animals on the wall was followed by the even better, "you shouldn't kill animals unless you're going to make them into sausage".
Last night when I tucked him and Bristol into bed for the second time I kissed him on the forehead and he asked, "Mama, why do you smell like wine?" Yes, yes indeed. He is a funny one.

First Day of School 2009

Well, we did it. We dropped Beck off at Kindergarten this morning. He was cool as a cucumber, so worries at all. He also had two of his friends saving him a seat at their table, so he already had a great spot with kids he knew. He's been so excited for the last few weeks I think it was a relief just to get him there. Bristol held it all together very well with Jeff's great proclamation that he was 'the King of the Kid Ranch'. So when I ran him in this morning he was triumphant with hand in the air telling Miss Jennifer that he was now the king since Beck was gone. :) Madalyn was our fashionista extraordinaire. Poised and confident she wanted to walk Beck to class too, so we dropped him off first and then took her upstairs to the 4th grade hall. WOW - what a great morning, Jeff and I are so proud of our amazing kiddoes.

Beck Pre-K Graduation

The thought of Beck going to Kindergarten is something that I've dreamed of for such a long time. From the accountant side that we'll have a whopping $650 less in daycare per month is very helpful, and then from a parenting side because that is when Madalyn really came into her own. They are SO different, but I really think that Beck is going to absolutley thrive when he starts school next week. The class sang their ABCs- regularly, backwards, in Spanish and then with sign language. They counted to 100 and then went over some sight words. They also told us what they wanted to be when they grew up - Beck wants to be a Marine like his dad. *tear* The picture of him in a camo helmet is pretty classic. Then they put on their gowns and were presented with their dipolmas. I just hope I can make it trhough Monday. :)

Jonas Brothers Concert

Jeff and I got Madalyn tickets to the Jonas Brothers concert last night in San Antonio as her perfect attendance reward for 3rd grade. I think anyone who knows us knows that Madalyn has had a perfect streak since Kindergarten. She'd gotten an ipod shuffle, a Nintendo DS just to name a few of the prizes. Really though, she just had a remarkable year all around, so we surprised her on Monday night with the tickets. She was so excited that she was speechless and started the happy crying that she's famous for. Jeff picked her up from school yesterday and took her to dinner and then to the concert. Unfortunately Jordin Sparks didn't open for them like she usually does, but I think it was offset by the fact that Jeff was able to get her on the Jonas Brothers tour bus. (Yes, he worked his Jeffrey magic again.) They each got a goodie bag which was a cool JB bag, a t-shirt and most importantly a SIGNED concert poster. She absolutely couldn't wait to take it to school today for show and tell. Now as 4th grade starts in a week, how will we top this?

TwiCon 2009

I think the Klingon was lost.
100 Monkeys Concert

Jackson Rathbone (aka - Jasper)
Me, Brianna & the Mitch Hansen Band
Outside the convention hall
Okay you guys already knew I was a big dork, and here is your pictorial proof. I came to the Twilight Convention in Dallas with my friend, Brianna, from work. We drove down on Saturday and are still in the middle of the conference. I just couldn't help but post some of the pictures I've already taken. I am having a blast, although I think I may be a professional at waiting in line when this is all over. :) Some of the highlights have been meeting several of the stars - I got to take my picture with Kellan Lutz (Emmett), he was very tall, sweet and was even hotter in person if that's possible. I have more in my facebook album, but here are a few highlights so far...