A Day Out

This past weekend, Ray and I spent the day together in Tucson. Ray wanted to go to the stamp show, and we had a lot of fun. More fun than I thought possible! :) Ray was like a kid in a candy store. We had such a great day together. The girls stayed with my sister-in-law. She's the best sister-in-law anyone could ever have!! :) (I love her so much that I think I'll take her to Europe with me in April!)

Reanne b-day

Reanne's birthday was in December, but we postponed the actual celebration so she could have her own special day, unclouded by the grandeur of Christmas. So, this past Saturday we celebrated Reanne's 9th birthday!! We had a spectacular day with our family and friends.

Funny story...During the party, my husband mistakenly walked up behind the mother of one of Reanne's friends from school, whom we had JUST met, and started to rub her shoulders. He thought it was his mom due to their similar hair, but after rubbing her back for a while, he realized his mistake. Now, my husband has no fear of embarrassment (in fact, he typically LOVES to do embarrassing things so that OTHERS are embarrassed), but when he realized he had been rubbing a complete stranger's shoulders his face turned beet red. I have never seen Ray blush. Ever. Too funny!

Reanne and Ray spent most of the morning fussing over her birthday cake and it tuned out to be an excellent cake. It was very pretty and delicious, too.

Holiday Time

Ok, now that I've recovered from the holidays, I will give you a run down of the last three weeks. Isabel was having a small recital and I was a volunteer mom. I opened my big mouth and said I was creative, so one of my big jobs was to help with the back drop. I was a silent worker, and many of the other moms had their own ideas, and I just wasn't willing to "go there"! :) I decided to just do the work and let them be creative. It all went well and I think the backdrop looked cute. The recital was about 15 minutes long and all the kids did a great job. Mine, of course, was the cutest one there!!

We had a few Christmas parties to attend, too. We had the best time at our friend's "gift exchange" party.

Having the girls home is nice in that I don't have to get up until they do, and sometimes not even then. The older they get, the easier it is. Sleeping in is the best!

I spent a day in Isabel's class helping the kids with their ginger bread houses. That was fun and the kids had a very good time. It was messy, but they had fun and that's what counts. Their houses looked great!

Overall, we had a good holiday. The kids got lots and lots of stuff and they loved everything. I think they got too much, but it only happens once a year, so...

Speaking of once a year, Reanne is now 9. Wow, 9!! Where has the year gone. We took her out to dinner and had a nice time. We'll have a party later as I would like to give her her own day.

Christmas Pictures

Ok, so Christmas is here and we all know that means it's time for more Christmas pictures! Yay! Something my girls have no problem pulling off. We spent the afternoon at the park, which is one of my very favorite places to take pics. The grass is always so green and the girls had a great time running around in their fancy dresses, feeling the cold grass on their bare feet!

Ballerinas have to cook, too!

Isabel and her dad spent some quality time together making banana bread.

She loved smashing the bananas and miraculously managed to not get even a drop of it on the ballerina outfit she insisted upon wearing! She said, and I quote, "Ballerinas have to cook too, mom!". Can't deny a ballerina who wants to become domesticated, now can I?

It turns out that this ballerina and her daddy made some of the tastiest banana bread I've ever had!

friends

Jodi , Belinda and Amanda

Half of the gang...

Kelly and Jodi having a giggle ....

Heather had the best snacks.

Heather, Belinda, Jodi, Amanda, Aimee and Tanya

This weekend I attended the Women of Faith conference with about 15 of my girlfriends. It was a wonderful time of fellowship.

Friday night many of us stayed at a hotel for a "sleep over". I shared a room with Laurie, Jodi, Belinda and Heather. Probably not the best group of us to put together considering we ALL have sleeping issues: a sleep-walker, a sleep-talker, an "I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime!" sleeper, and a worry-wart, anxious sleeper. All of you KNOW who you are!! ;) We didn't get to bed until 3 a.m. because we spent the night reminiscing, sharing stories, laughter, and shhh...plenty of junk food, too! Cinnabon anyone?? :)

I'll never forget the great memories we made this weekend and will forever cherish each of these wonderful ladies. The convention was great, and though I initially went into the weekend thinking it would be a good time, I didn't realize how much I would get out of it spiritually. So much more than I ever could have anticipated.

Below is a clip of Anita Renfroe singing one of her many hilarious songs...

Thank you ladies for the great fellowship!

Please, don't grow up!

Ok, so I just have to say, I have the most beautiful kids ever! Of course, I realize that every mom thinks their kids are perfect, but just look at how cute they are! There's no denying it! :)

As I mentioned before, Reanne is going to be 9 in December. I'm having a difficult time not thinking of her as my baby anymore. Same goes for Isabel. The other day I referred to Isabel as being five. She corrected me with a smirk on her face saying, "Mom, I'm six, please get it right!".

We definitely have our hands full with these two. I'm sure you've heard the saying...It takes a village to raise a child. Well, I think we need the WHOLE village! And maybe a neighboring one as well! If they take after me, I know trouble is coming. But, if they are like Ray...LOOK OUT! Pack your bags girls, you're going to visit your favorite aunt Kristi! Ok, so now I'm aging them. I think I'd rather go back to thinking that they're five and three. Yes, I like the sound of that!