Kids off to School

We are in week 2 of Jeff traveling 3 of 4 weeks and the kids actually woke up and were ready early on Monday to go to school. If you haven't heard me talking about it lately- I work from 6-2 and Jeff drops the kids off and I pick up, when he's gone I have to do both which seriously cuts my work hours- yikes! Anyway, you can see our fashionista Madalyn and I gave the boys 'fauxhawks' to reward them. They were all actually great at school, so the fauxhawks didn't go to their heads. :) Bristol is carrying on with the face making as well - these kids are certainly a handfull!

Basketball Season Begins

This isn't a good picture at all although Beck is listening and has his hands up on defense. Basketball season has started again and I'm coaching three teams this year. Madalyn and Beck of course, and I added Ella's team to the mix. It's been a pretty entertaining season so far or at least the first games were fun. Ella's team is the Monarchs, Beck is on the Timberwolves and Madalyn is playing for the Stars. My Stars team has girls ranging from 3rd grade to 7th grade which is a definite challenge. I'll get better pics this weekend and post them.

Stacey Heller's Shower

Last weekend we had a baby shower for one of my oldest EY friends- Stacey Heller who was in my start group in 2001. She and I became fast friends when we met at the airport on our way to our first day at training in Houston. Ah, the good old days. Stacey doesn't know whether she's having a girl or a boy, but we'll find out soon enough! Here all of the hostesses are: Carly Faubacher, Shelly & Kolby Dennison, Rachel Tang, Miss Stacey herself, Nancy Liu, Andi Gaspard and me.

Girl Scout Cookies are Here!!

It's that time of year again, time for the cookie sales. Madalyn worked very hard on her email tonight and sent to many of our friends and family. It's really funny to hear things from her perspective and the way that she words things. I had to laugh at several points and then let her send it any way. We were very entertained by her cookie photo shoot tonight, she has lots of fun ideas. Cookies are $3.50 a box, and I deliver, so if you're interested shoot her an email at madalynraymond@gmail.com - she earned a computer patch from her efforts last year.

On a side note, we wanted Madalyn to be in scouts for enrichment and for her to learn some leadership, teamwork and other skills that are hard to teach on our own. The funny thing is Scouts turned out to be more than that. Madalyn really wanted to go to camp last year- Miss Independent always- and the Scouts require a physical to attend. Madalyn hadn't been back to the pediatrician since her 5-year well check because it wasn't required (no shots, etc.) so we had been when she was sick, which had been once. When we took her for the camp physical our pedi noticed that her left rib cage was slightly higher than the right when she bent over to touch her toes. She signed the forms for camp and told us to come back in 6 months, so we did. They took x-rays, measurements, and so on and concluded that Madalyn has scoliosis. We went to an orthopedic specialist last week who confirmed the disagnosis and confirmed its severity. She's being fitted for a night brace tomorrow with an orthotist, but the good news is that she'll only have to wear the brace at night. She doesn't have to change any of her current activities and any physical activities actually help her condition. She has a 22 degree curve in her L3 vertebrae which we hope the brace will keep from getting any worse. We'll go back to the specialist every 6 months and really have to watch it when she hits her growth spurt during puberty - like we weren't already dreading that enough!! So, who knew that the Girl Scouts would have such a huge impact on our daughter? Needless to say, we are very grateful to have caught this when we did, and its all thanks to camp.

Kara's Baby Shower

One of my best friends from college is expecting her first baby at the end of March. It's going to be a boy and she and Tim havent decided on a name just yet, so they are calling the baby Ike. Maybe I should mention at this point that their last name is Turner. :) The shower was very fun and I was excited that I found a bib that said 'Lock up your daughters' and with a name like Ike Turner, it's true!!

Beck Turns 5!

Beck turned 5 last Thursday, and although he had already done a lot of his celebrating with the Monster Jam trip, he still had tons of fun. We did cupckaes with his class and I did my best to make Beck's wish for Monster Truck cupcakes. We ate dinner at Taste of China - the best Chinese buffet ever. Beck had a 'As Seen on TV' birthday which included an Air Hog airplane that you can fly in the house and Billy May's Big City Slider mini-burger skillet. It's AWESOME! We ate mini-burgers three times over the weekend. And Cody gave him a bag of Hot Wheels cars, trucks, motorcycles, tracks and collectible cars. My favorite was a shirt I found at Old Navy that says 'Smooth like Butta' with a stick of butter in it. I don't know why that struck me as being so funny when I saw it, but when Beck had it on and said it I knew why. :)

Madalyn turns 9!

After opening presents the night before Madalyn wore her new shirt and pink satin sash with rhinestones saying 'Birthday Girl'. The girl loves attention, I'll give her that. I brought cupcakes for both classes, a balloon bouquet and drinks for both of the classes and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her at school. Then she hung out for Writing Club and we went to dinner at Logan's. Here's the pics of her on the chair while the restaruant gave her a birthday 'yee-haw' and eating a huge bowl of ice cream. I think her favorite present was a stack of 50 $1 bills from Cody in a Hannah Montana card. She was so giddy with the stack of cash she couldn't talk. There was also some great jewelry from my parents and Guitar Hero for her Nintendo DS. Oh, and the pic of Bristol. I think I'm starting to see a trend - heaven help me.

Monster Jam 2009 Tour

Beck's big birthday present from us was tickets to the Monster Jam in San Antonio last weekend. (We do the Halfway BirthRAY Partay in the summer for all 3 kids) He turns 5 on Thursday! So he went to the Monster Truck show to see all of his favorite trucks and drivers. And girls, let's not forget the girls. I cringed a bit, but look how happy he is, hum, that may be a problem. :)

Girl Scout Day at the Longhorn Game

This past Saturday my mom and I took Madalyn and 3 of her co-troopers to Girl Scout day at the Texas Longhorns men's basketball game. They won, of course, and the girls actually really enjoyed themselves and paid attention to the game. They were super into it and entertained the people around us with their highpitched screams. I reminded our fellow game watchers, that it was just a small sample of the Hannah Montana concert. :) The scouts has really been a good experience for both of us, and things like this remind me of why we signed her up to begin with.
That being said, Bristol also attended the game with us and after sleeping through part of the first and most of the second half he woke up to take this lovely picture. I'm sure that I'll show this to his first date. It's almost better than a naked bathtub picture. He does have his horns perfect though...

Celine Dion Concert

I gave my mom tickets to the Celine Dion concert for Christmas this year. She played at the AT&T Center on January 7th and put on an AMAZING show. She sings the song that I danced to with my dad at my wedding 'Because You Loved Me' and of course closed with a second encore to the song from Titanic. She was funny, a little goofy, but very personable and SO talented. She can sing, dance, wear tiny dresses and pull off the most the amazing shoes. The best part was getting to hang out with my mom and have a whole conversation without the kids interrupting!

The Clown has Returned

I'm not sure how many of you know about my extreme fear of clowns, and this one in particular has plagued me for years. Cody won said clown out of a crane machine at WalMart several years back. We were shopping late and I tried to talk Cody into leaving it there after he won it out of the machine. He acted like he left it, but Danny helped in the conspiracy for it to come home with us. Since then Cody and I have traded it back and forth- it's appeared in Christmas and birthday presents, in underwear drawers, pillowcases, and classically in my gas door so he jumped out when I went to fill up. He'd been MIA for quite some time and then he appeared in my shoe at the bowling alley. We had a beer together to celebrate - cheers!

New Years 2009

We spent New Year's Eve at Brandy house with family and friends as we do every year. It was a ton of fun and complete with vampire jello shots (thanks Brandy!). Several of the girls are enjoying Twilight as much as I have - note my shirt that Edward (not Jeff) gave me for Christmas. One of my favorite gifts that I found over the holidays were 'Best Friends' jackets for Madalyn and Brenah. Brandy and I must have had at least a hundred different necklaces, bracelets, etc. over the years but we were never so cool to have jackets. They actually come in one color, so you buy two jackets, unzip them all the way and then zip them back together with the other half. I was fascinated with that and decided that the girls needed them as the second generation. So- here's to 2009, best friends that last a lifetime and vampire jello shots for all of the Edward lovers!

Build-a-Bear with the Boys

The boys decided to spend some of their Christmas money at Build a Bear during a recent trip to the mall. There is no telling how much money we spent in the store with Madalyn a few years back, but the boys had a blast. Beck made Beckham Bear, a black bear with a voice box that growls. He got a rock star t-shirt and a skateboard to ride. Bristol made Erking, a koala bear that he dressed as Iron Man. I ove the picture of him putting the heart on his head to make Erking smart. He took the whole process very serioulsy. The rest of the evening I refereed time with said skateboard between Beckham Bear and Erking, wondering why in heavens name I didn't buy a second one. Sometimes my piece of mind is worth more than $8. :)

The Magic of Christmas

Christmas was great this year. The kids were all excited from their visit from Santa at the Community Center and rushed home to bake him cookies, fix chocolate milk, and set out carrots for the reindeer. They tore through the presents on Christmas morning which included new pjs, a Holiday Barbie, Monster Truck Wii game, and Littlest Pet Shop fitness center. Since it was followed by more Christmas in Burleson over the weekend - it's official. They are the most spoiled kids in history.

We had our big Swedish Christmas Eve at the Uhland Community Center. There was a great turnout even though Aunt Marie's bunch didn't come this year. As always the food was amazing and it was great to visit with everyone. Santa came to visit which is a huge highlight for the kids. Bristol was so sweet as he was the last present in the bag and when Santa asked if there was anyone else he raised his hand and said, "Me-Santa. Me-Santa." he was so afraid he was going to be left out. Cutie Pie. Santa was also kind enough to bring Beck a baseball bat. Hum. I really need to have a talk with that guy.
We also did a gift exchange that Kimberly was nice enough to lead again this year. Madalyn was very happy that Irie and Edie were there this year (did you notice Beck in the picture with them?) and of course sweet Eli was just precious. This is the one day that I look forward to all year and we enjoyed it immensely. We have the most amazing family and its so great to still be able to make each other a priority and share in the same traditions that made my childhood so much fun. Passing that on to the kids is so important.

On the last day of school, Madalyn's class performed their last Posada. This is a traditional Mexican cultural performance which enacts the journey of Mary and Joseph finding a place to stay. The Kinder through 3rd grade classes performed songs in both English and Spanish. They did an amazing job and it was so sad knowing they wouldn't be doing it next year. I took a little solace in the hope that Beck will be in the program next year and that I'd get to be there. The highlight of the performance was the second graders singing a Texas Christmas song by George Strait. Ah, the joining of cultures is a wonderful thing. :)

Christmas Cards

Hopefully, If you like us enough to read this you got a Christmas card from us. If you didn't let me know and enjoy the pics we included on there this year. Thanks to our great photographers Nicole and Jessie and especially for doing the pics so early I was able to get most of cards out super early this year. Oh, and Cody isn't in the big family pic because he was out of town. I guess we'll try to make sure to include him next year. :)

Bristol and Ella

Bristol and Ella are in a class together at Dance Unlimited and did a in-studio performance for parents just before the holidays. They are super cute and if you check out my link to Jessie's blog you can watch video. She's more computer saavy becuase try as I might I haven't been able to conquer that yet!

Cookie Decorating

We went to Lockhart a few weekends back to eat breakfast with Julie and help her with a Christmas gift for my parents. She had all kinds of stuff for the kids to do including cookie decorating which they loved. I loved her mom's gingerbread scones and lemon butter. Yum!

Athena graduates!

Our friend Athena FINALLY graduated from Texas State with her teaching degree. I say FINALLY because Athena had been taking classes at Texas State for 9 years taking a few classes each semester and then trying to speed things up when her 3 boys went to school themselves. Her youngest son is the same age as Madalyn and Brenah. We were all super proud of her and for sticking with it and not giving up. It says a lot about her character and I'm so glad to have her in our lives. She had a dinner at the Texican Cafe and then we went to Stardust to see one of her favorite bands.