Paintball for Nicole's Birthday

Armegeddon Terrain

Jessie in action

Danny and me

Bryon

Group Pic

Nicole wanted to do this for her birthday last year and life got in the way. This year we made paintball happen, and wow - we had an amazing time. I have the bruises to prove it. :) It was the first time for a lot of us to play and we were easy targets. I was the last one out on a couple of the games mainly because I hid in the back. Seriously. It worked for me, so I kept going for it. Jeff came out it almost unscathed. I thought about taking pictures of my rainbow shades of about 6 bruises but I'll spare you. We were out there with one of the Fox 7 newscasters - Mike Warren-but we shot at him anyway.
The highlight was the 'White Rabbit' where we got to stand on a hill about 10 feet high and shoot at Nicole while she made a 50 yard dash, touched a fence and ran back. Jimmy talked us all into doing that and forgot to mention that the turn about was that after we got to shoot her, we all had to do the same thing with her and the referee. The ref's gun shoots about 15 rounds per second. Ouch. Then we were rewarded with Salt Lick afterwards and all was right in the world again.
Happy Birthday Nicole!!

Donna Phillip's Benefit

The bulk of my high school years I ran with the 'kicker' crowd which included all of my brother's friends and since he had a later curfew I got to stay out later if I was with him. Enough said, right? Brandy and I spent a ton of time with Juli and her mom, Donna. Donna died of cancer a few weeks ago and Brandy and I were lucky enough to be there for one of her last 'good' days. Donna was amazing and fun and giving us grief like she always did. We got to show off the kids and had a great afternoon. Some of their close friends put together a benefit at Club 21 this weekend, a frequent hangout in the high school days to raise money for her medical bills. It was like a reunion and there were SO many people there for the BBQ, the auctions, and the dance. Madalyn had her first two-step dance with Jeff and we had a wonderful time. It was really amazing to get to experience how much people loved her-she will be greatly missed.

Audrey's Baby Shower

Audrey and Mike Connoly are expecting baby Jordan in just a couple of months. We were able to gather at Shelly and Ryan's house and celebrate with friends. All of the girls at the party that worked for EY took a picture together. It was really nice to see that all the time that we spent there was worth it. After almost 10 years - not one of us were there anymore, but are still good enough friends to get together and celebrate. There was something about being that pressure cooker all of the time that makes you bond with people, and bond we did. These are some of the best people that I've ever had the privilege of knowing.

Lesley Hargraves Hernandez, Jamie Frey, me, Milana Bennett Noulitey, Farah Ahmed, Diana Garcia, Shelly Davis Dennison, Audrey Engleman Connoly, Heather Merz, Pamela Maziur, Kelly Blount and Anne Bergen.

Brenah's Dr. Seuss Play

Brenah was an 'Ish' in a Dr. Seuss play that her school put on last week. She and Makayla did a great job and the play was really cute. They had fabulous props and did a very impressive job. Brenah is always a huge supporter of Madalyn and the Raymond Crew, we were glad to return the favor.

Easter at Brandy's

Brandy was kind enough to hostess the first annual Niederwald Easter. We had about 30 people gather for a pot luck lunch and egg hunt for the kids. The food was AMAZING and the highlight was Sue making my favorite pasta dish. I even brought a Ziploc container to make sure I could tak home leftovers. And there were plenty of those because there was so much food. There was also several hundred eggs in the hunt for the kids, my favorite were the confetti eggs that went everywhere. Including down my bra and somehow were even in Bristol's undies. I don't even want to know. It was a very Hoppy Easter and I hope that we do it again next year! :)

Easter Egg Hunt at the Track

We went to the racetrack the Saturday before Easter and hunted eggs in an event a local church did to attract new members. It was tons of fun and the kids got more eggs than their baskets to hold - literally. It was chilly and windy, but we stayed through two egg hunts (Beck had to leave for t-ball practice) and watched the cars in their test laps. The kids had a great time at the hunt and we were able to reuse the eggs on Sunday- yea!

Dexter Pittman

One of the highlights of the Toros game was Dexter Pittman from the Texas Longhorns showing up in the first quarter. I added a picture of him in action - this guy is 6'10" and about 300 pounds. He is MASSIVE. Dexter was nice enough to take a picture with Beck showing his Longhorn spirit. The funny thing was he got almost as much attention (or more) than the Toros did!

Darlings at the Toros Game

The Dance Unlimited teams danced at an Austin Toros game tonight and they did a great job. I didn't realize that I would be able to bring in my good camera, but the digital pics turned out pretty good. The game was exciting although we left at half time since it was getting late. The girls continue to impress us and were a hit at half-time.

Jeff turns 39!

Jeff and the family celebrated his birthday over the weekend at Baby Alcapulco's, purple ritas included of course! He went to the Bruce Springsteen concert on Sunday night and then we had dinner at Mom and Dad's on Monday. We ate out in the garage and enjoyed the great weather while staying out of the wind. The ribs were awesome and mom made his favorite - banana pudding. I bought the ice cream cake, yea me. Only one year to plan the big blowout! :)

Hall of Fame

The third competition of the season was last weekend. The girls did a really good job, and I think that I'm starting to get the hang of these things. They got High Gold on all three dances although I don't know that I'm sure what the awards are again. The Darlings continue to improve and Madalyn loves it. Pat and Tara were able to make it from Burleson, so the kids were thrilled to have them at their events.

Capitol 10k

Brandy, Jessie, Julie and I walked the Capitol 10k on March 29th and then had brunch at Sagra for Brandy's birthday afterward. Enjoy the funny pics- the best one was the guy dressed up as the Zombie sign, that was one of the funniest things I heard in the news all year. I have to say that I love creative people - the alien coming out of the ladies dress like the Alien movie was brillant. The other pics are just of the walk including where I ran ahead to take a picture of the girls like I was winning. LOL, our 10k included a stop at Starbucks so there's not much to brag about except that we finished! And it made the mimosas taster that much better. :)

Babies, Babies Everywhere

Jax

Heather, Olivia and Natalie

Two of my best friends had babies in the last couple of weeks. Our friends Kara and Tim Turner welcomed baby Jax William Turner, and Heather and Rick Bendes welcomed baby Olivia Anne Bendes. Welcome babies!!

T-ball, T-ball and more T-ball

Posse Pic

Sliding Home

Jules & Bristol

With Ella and Kels







Between two games and one to two practices a week, t-ball has taken over a huge chunk of our time these days. Beck is hilarious playing in the outfield and generally just being Beck. Everyone knows his name, not sure if that's good or not. The best thing is that a lot of our friends have made games- Mom and Dad, the Frohocks, Kels, Jessie and Ella, Julie, Cody, Brandy and Brenah, and at the last game - Pat and Tara. This last weekend was a dance competition/t-ball Saturday so there was a whole posse of fans for the game. It really is a ton of fun and we are looking forward to the rest of the season!