It has been ages........

Well it has been about 5 mths since I have last wrote on this site. Since then, we are living in Austin, Texas and we love it. We do miss Colorado who wouldn't, but they are already getting snow, so we do not miss that yet. Austin is a pretty cool town and does not look anything like what I would have pictured Texas to look like. Anyone who has been here understands what I mean.

We have had a few visitors already and we love that we have seen Grandpa & Memaw at least once a month maybe a little more! The Babineaux's came to visit that was a trip that we have been waiting for a little over 8 years or so! Brittni, Thomas, Karson and Maw-Maw were here and that was a lot of fun. I made it to Louisiana for Nanny's retirement party! I will be traveling to see Lori for her Birthday...I am really going to see Luke! Jenna is going to Fredrickburg and I am hoping to catch up with her for lunch on Friday. We were able to spend the 4th at Kim and Jeff's, that was a blast...............all of this was worth the move and so many more years of memories to be made. Alex made the comment last time my Dad and Lisa left, Mom this is so cool why did we not do this a long time ago?

Updates on the kiddos, they are growing......Alex is a teenager and is in the 7th grade. If you did not know she also knows everything and I do not understand. Still playing Soccer and is running Cross Country for her school, she did awesome in the last meet. She is doing great in school, and I know thanks to this cool Gradespeed connection they have in Texas!

Jack is in Pre-K and he loves his teacher Ms. Mindy.......he was invited to his second Birthday party and we had a ball at the Childrens Museum(we had it all to ourselves). He is playing Flag football......gotta love the comedy on the field on Saturday mornings, James worked the chains this morning...talk about a tough job.

Tyler is also in as she calls it school, they just moved her to the 3 year old class because of her coloring skills........we are so proud. I taught her all she knows. Who cares that she can not say her ABC's its all about the coloring skills. Go Tyler! She colors on EVERYTHING and goes through coloring books like crazy. James found his mouse and computer screen a beautiful neon yellow color(highlighter) and as I was looking for the evidence I found a hanger that was the same neon color.....I asked Tyler where is the marker you had, she runs in to the closet and buried under something she pulls it out and pointed to another hanger and said look Mom this one was already yellow and it was. By bed spread is a beautiful brown and blue with hints of neon yellow in random places.

As you can see we are all surving the move and everyone is adjusting well. Hugs to all and we can not wait for our visit with Lola, her first time here.

HAPPY EASTER

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. The Easter Bunny did fill the baskets this year!?! Like Jack told me when I said you have to be sweet to your sister so the Easter Bunny will come and his reply was no Mom remember for Christmas I was bad to Tyler and Santa Clause still brought me stuff!!!!! Well there goes that theory. The weather is rainy and cold today, but we still managed to make it to church(which is outdoors). The kids are hunting eggs in the house, Tyler loves her bunny...she says, my bunny goes: rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, I am not so sure that is how a rabbit sounds, but I could not give her anything better. We are not getting much sleep as you can probably see in the pictures.... packing takes a lot of time and energy ecspecially with kiddos! Hugs to all!!!!!!!

Sock Hop

Here are a couple of pictures from the 6th grade Sock Hop. We had lots of fun and ate tons of junk food!!!!!!! This was for Alex's school,but I did not get any pictures of her because she was hanging with her friends.

Extremely focused on the TV!!!
Can not even take her eyes off, but she smiled!

Jack never wanted to take those off! Well he learned the hard way because he had a red rash when we made him finally take them off.

He loves his sister so much........lucky we caught that moment before the love faded.

All this because she did not want to change her diaper.......Oh yea!

Welcome to 2009.

I can not believe January is almost over.

We are busy as usual. Here we are at the Stock Show on Monday. Alex was out for the day(MLK) and so we decided to check it out. We had a great time. As far as an update.....We are still praying to be closer to family in Spring/Summer 2009 so keep praying with us. The kids are all getting big and James and I are constantly reminding ourselves of the song.....your gonna miss this...especially when we find them playing in the toilet, like getting in the toilet trying to flush lotion down the toilet or maybe Tyler's sock or blanket. This happened minutes after we all laughed at a kid sitting in the toilet on Americas Funniest Home videos. Jack has learned how to write his name and is so super proud that he has decorated the entire house with his John Hancock (blinds,walls,curtains,floors and places you could never imagine) I found a big J on Tyler's belly when I was dressing her and she told me that was for Jack and I asked Jack if he wrote a J on Tyler and he said yes because she is MY Tyler. Jack wants to live in the country and some days he wants to be a firefighter and others the Hulk or Ironman.

Tyler is getting super big yet still so tiny. Kind of girly, but mean and bossy. Her favorite color is pink and she loves Dora the Explorer. Wants to do things herself and loves to be pampered. Sissy paints her nails and toes(pink of course) and she like to get her back rubbed. Trying to keep up with Jack, but looking cute doing it.

Alex was off for quite some time and has returned to 6th grade. Soccer will start next month. She is doing great in school and we are super proud. She is turning in to quite the young lady. James and I are thankful for our blessings and hope that 2009 will be a great year..........for us and everyone else.

November

Tyler turned 2 this month!!!!!!!!! We had fun and Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts. I love everything!!!!!!!!!

We hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving. We enjoyed our visit to Louisiana. Thank you Lori for driving to come see us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe someday your bed will be this full.


Grandpa and Alex, this was 2 generations of the 4 at our family reunion.



MawMaw and all of us before our long trip home.

All the grandkids on the Smith side. We were also able to go to Mississippi and spend some time with J's family.

We rode horses,tractors,went hunting and all those fun things you can do in the country. The kids had a blast.

Grandpa and Memaw with Jack and Tyler!!!!!!!!!! Our November was busy and now it is mid December so I hope everyone is further along on the shopping than me! I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October

October is over we can not believe it. Jack is very proud of his first soccer trophy and well earned one too. Many Saturdays running around tackling his friends or just counting on his finger and running in circles. Alex's season is over for the next couple of weekends and then indoor begins. Her team did very good this season!!!!!! We had a great Halloween, a very warm one for us in Colorado. I hope everyone is doing great. The kids are all over me so I will cut this short......Hugs to all!

September

They were pretty excited to pose for a picture. September has flown by and Alex is now 12. Thank you all for your gifts as she is a little slow on getting the thank yous out to all. We had a great time and probably one of the best Birthdays to top. We all had a cold this month except James. Tyler got the worst of it as you will see in the below pictures. We had soccer 3-4 times a week and 2-3 games per weekend, so I have been slacking a bit in the picture department. So as you go down and look at the pics I will tell you a few other things going on.....The dates are wrong on the pictures if you did not figure that out. Tyler is a bit of a ham and has quite the mean streak at times, but as you will see in these pictures only the halo is on. Alex was off track most of the month which worked out because we had some unexpected visitors/evacuees from Houston......The Allemans, I will tell you the crazy part is they flew here to surprise us and for Alex's birthday and while they were wasting a bit of time to come meet/surprise us for dinner we ran in to them on accident at the mall!!!!!! It was great and we enjoyed every minute of it. I am still praying to sell this house...so everyone feel free to pray too.
Jack is really loving transformers...thanks to Uncle Will. He had a stuffy nose and he said Mom, "My nose is stuffing me." The other day we were watching the history channel, yes no channel is safe anymore. After asking a few questions and watching a bit he decided he wanted one of those shooters. James told him he needs to join the Army when he grows up so a little bit passed and he says Dad in the morning can you take me to join the Army, James said no so he came whining to me that he really wants to join the Army so he can get a M16. And folks that is from the History channel.
He says some very interesting things. We were having dinner as always, but this happened to be after a bit of a rough day(the kids were not listening at all). Jack says to me as we were all eating Mom I am sorry for being bad today, I love you. Yes they are quite smart at such a young age. I think I may have a full head of gray hair by 40.
Tyler is getting super big and cutting 4 more teeth along with a cold....nothing better! Now the next picture is of James's tomatoes from his garden. Just had to give you a visual. Although I pick on him I think it is great that he loves to garden and I hope when we move we will lots of fresh stuff to eat.
Here is Sam and Alex hard to believe Alex is older. The girls had a great time, shopping, pedicures,matching flip flops with their Moms...and lots of girl time.
Here is pitiful sick Tyler....Go Tigers!
They even surprised Will if I failed to mention he had NO idea they were coming so we did not even tell him we saw them at the mall. We just said Sammy flew in and I was a part of that, that is why he did not know. So when we walked in to dinner Kim, Jeff and Hayden were already there sitting with James so it took Will a minute before he even noticed they were at the table too!!! It was awesome!
This is Tyler being pampered bu the nurses in the house. Cold rags, medicine,water out of a straw,cold rags on our stuffed bear,foot rubs and hand rubs! Who wouldn't want to be sick. Oh and watching LSU!
So that is our exciting month and on to October. Back in school still playing soccer, off to a tournament in Vail this weekend. Alex goes to outdoor ed in 2 weeks! Halloween. Still praying for the house to sell. James is back to doing appraisals only and hanging with me and the kids starting next week. So keep up the prayers and we hope to be in Texas soon. Hugs to all.....H.

Our latest visitors

Tyler and Grandma Mattie
Tyler and Grandpa Glen

Aunt Wendy, Jack & Tyler
Uncle Stacy & Tyler

We enjoyed our visit with everyone. James and I were able to get some adult time in and the kids had a blast. Jack told us today that he really misses Uncle Stacy and when we see him in November he is going to hug him this time. It was great to see everyone.

Some other little happenings in the house. Alex made captain of her soccer team!!!! They also have a program at school called O Ambassador(O for Oprah) and the kids had to write a paper on why they wanted to be one and they picked a few people from each grade to represent the school and they had over 100 papers turned in. Alex was chosen as one and will participate in the OAmbassador program!!!! Go Alex we are super proud of her. That is it for now we have an early game in the Springs tomorrow so I am off to sleep. Hugs to all.