My Re-Finished Table

So I saw these really neat zebra chairs at Hobby Lobby and totally wanted em! But many of you know that we have no space for MORE furniture. So...I did want a sofa table, so I looked on craigslist and found this neat table for a good deal.

Then I brought it home and sanded it, drew up what I wanted all over the table and labeled what needed to be painted which color and then I was off!

So after about 20 hours of work I am at this point! I still have a few touch ups to do and I have to seal it but I really LOVE IT! (I think Brasser likes it too!)

I drew the stripes on free hand. I had taken a picture of the chairs that I loved with my phone, so I looked onto that for a guide. I am excited about it for sure!

Brasser is 3 Years Old!!!!!

I cannot believe how fast the time goes by! Brasser Turned 3 on Friday and we just had the best weekend! Brasser is sooooo Fun and he keeps us on our toes! We love him so much and are so happy he is part of our family. 3 years old already...WOW!!!

Extremely awesome friends of ours offered to let us borrow their camper/r.v. this weekend. We drove up to Kerrville and stayed in the park there. The boys had so much fun riding their jeep and "shooting bugs" in the woods. The weather was nice and cool, the nights were CHILLY! Thank goodness for the r.v.! Brassers birthday was on Friday and I thought that maybe we should take him to play at McDonalds or something...what was I thinking...lol. We were camping! Nothing gets better than camping for boys who LOVE to be outside.

Russ and I went to by NINTENDO DS for Brassers birthday. We had him with us but didnt think it would even register to him that we were buyin his present. He was busy looking at other things while we shopped. Then like a week passed and I said "Hey Brasser what do you want for your birthday?" and he said "A BLUE DS!" I cracked up laughing! Nothing gets by him anymore!

Spiderman Birthday party!

Destination Imagination

So Ryker was in Destination Imagination this year. It is nationwide from 1-12 grade. It is a group that teaches problem solving and so much more! These kids had to make a structure from newspaper and tape only and then make up a story about it and act it out. A news cast had to be part of the story and it needed to be 8-10 min long. Ryker played the part of a GRUMPY news reporter. I was a coach and we were not allowed to help on the day of the performance. These kids are 6 years old! They acted out the entire skit, rotated backdrops and made soundeffects all by themselves! They were awesome! I was super proud of Ryker when he memorized one short line for church, He memorized 27 lines!!!! They were incredible!!!

New Moon Party

So we have new friends in the ward now and we love em already! :) Cessily and Austin moved in and it wasn't long before Cessily came up with an awesome idea to go the the New Moon midnight showing...and the party planning started!!!!

Before we new it we had a group of ladies in the ward ready to join in!!!! Many hadn't read the books or even seen the Twilight movie!!!!!! After the New Moon showing...I think they are catching up on that as we speak, lol!

We had so much fun planning decorations and food too!

After attempting to buy New Moon napkins at Party City, which wasn't successful! Cessily drove like 45 minutes to buy some at a grocery store of all places! Yea Cessily they totally looked awesome!!!

Here we are! We had so much fun planning and decorating! The ladies night was fun! Cant wait for the next one!!!!

Halloween...Super Super Late

Like Brother, Like Brother

So Brasser loves his big brother and wants to be just like him. Ryker loves the Marvel characters, he collects the toys and all that. So along the way Brasser has picked it up too! Check this out! Now that I know he can remember things so well, Ive got to teach him something productive! :)

Wow...First Grade

I cannot believe the time has flown by long enough for Ryker to be in the First grade! He was so excited to start school again. As you can see Brasser in the back just kinda watching, was sad his brother left for the day. All morning long Ryker was taking his sweet time and we were worried that he might be pushing it. So we kept saying "Hurry we don't want you to be late", Russ said when Ryker walked into to his classroom he said "Sorry I'm late." I can totally picture him saying that with his "serious" face, haha. What a cute kid!

And I know all mothers say this about their kids so I just have to join in... "I knew my kids would be good looking...but wow this boy is HANDSOME!"

Oh and the search for these shoes was just so time consuming but we found em in his size ...finally. He really wanted em and I wanted him to be able to enjoy these character loving years while he's still young enough.

Check this out... his shoes match his shirt! I just love it! Russ can help him with his homework through the years and I can help with the shopping! heehee!

Summer Fun part 1

We spent a week with my parents and with Mark and Kelsey at a condo type place and we had so much fun! We went swimming and we played games and went swimming again, and again and again. The Hispanic genes are pulling through! lol. The boys are sooooo brown! So brown and so darn handsome, heehee.

Ryker loves air hockey! We had a great time playing! We played mini golf and board games too! He's pretty awesome at battleship!

This is the face Brasser gives lately when I ask for a smile, heehee! I love it! We had a great week, the boys did not wanna go home!

There was a biggo bath tub , the boys had a blast... just a dab of shampoo, turn on the jets and bubble city!!!!

Wicked!!!!

My niece Kaylee and I, We had a blast!



Russell's brother Ronnie Paul and family passed through town a few weeks ago. They were on their way out to West Texas for vacation. But.... JUST had to stop along the way to see the awesome and incredible show Wicked!
Russ is not a huge fan of musicals so he became the babysitter for the little ones and

I JUST had to go along! The play was in San Antonio at the Majestic and boy was it AWESOME!

I loved it. It was great and I cant wait to see it again!!!!!

Congratulations Kelsey and Mark!

Congratulations!

I am a little late Posting this but better late than never! Kelsey graduated in May from Schreiner University with a bachelors degree in Psychology. We are really excited for her! She has worked so hard to finish school! Mark also received an associates degree in Biomedical engineering. They recently moved to Waco so that Mark could finish up a second degree.

I was excited to have a picture taken together! Delaney couldn't be there and we really missed her so next time we are all together again we've got to snap a picture!

WE ARE PROUD OF YOU, SAY WE ARE PROUD OF YOU! WOOOO-HOOOOO!

YEA KELSEY AND MARK!

Marvel Mania

My best friend Christina is incredibly talented!
We wanted to make Ryker and Brassers room into a marvel character room, and I didn't want just posters or just boring stuff on the walls. So I bought some canvas and paints at Hobby Lobby and made a call in to my BESTEST friend. She is so awesome! She is very talented but totally doesn't recognize it! So she painted these pictures for us and we love em!

Ryker was so excited about them! In addition to some marvel posters and comic books his room is pretty neat!

I thought this one was so neat! They all are really! I am lucky to have a talented friend that will share her talent with ME!!! YEA!

Deja Vu

Hmmmmmm, There is something familiar about the whole broken arm process???!!!! SHEESH!
Brasser broke his arm in March and Ryker broke his arm last week!
It must be all the extra food they demand, lol....It just weighs them down!

So Ryker went to spend the week with grandma and grandpa in Odessa. I got a call on Sunday evening from grandma saying "I think Ryker broke his arm, have your insurance info ready and I will call you back." Meanwhile Ryker was screaming in the background. Luckily Russell was just pulling in the driveway from work and he was able to think clearly. Had it just been me home I probably would have packed Brasser and I up and headed to west Texas.
So it turned out to be what they call a "buckle", same thing Brasser had. He said he wanted to stay at grandmas and grandpas so we called every day to make sure he was doing okay. No one could spoil him more that's for sure.
As you can see this broken arm has not affected his ability to play XBOX Spiderman!

Happy Birthday Ryker!

Rykers birthday was on May 25Th. He turned 6 this year! Yikes! Time has flown by so fast. He was born at 6:10 on a Sunday morning, he was 38 weeks along. He weighed 8 lbs. 150z. He was our little sumo wrestler. We celebrated his birthday several times this year. He celebrated with his kindergarten class, cupcakes and a special little birthday hat. And water day was that day too!

We celebrated with our family with presents and then we went to a pizza place, we ate and ate and ate. Then we played games we had a good time. Russ discovered that if he played this strong man- sludge hammer game,lol, that we would get bunches of tickets so by the end of our outing the boys bought alot of neat prizes. Fun times. He also had a birthday party with friends from church and his awesome cousin came too. They had a blast, pizza, cake and xbox all night long. He got a new spider man game and an Iron man game. Russ stayed up with the kids and played and snored and played again.
He had a really great birthday! Grandma and Grandpa took him to buy some "faster running shoes" he was excited to see if he could be faster on the playground! We cant believe the school year is over now too and he will be a first grader next year. Wow, bitter sweet!

Yea! I Am Finished!

So, for the Stake Relief Society Women's Conference every ward has been assigned to make a center piece. Every table will have a center piece from a different ward. Some how our ward missed the memo about this and during our weekly presidency meeting, I must have been high or something, lol, because I volunteered to make it!

Sheesh! Shortly after I became WORRIED! So of course I called my mom to share my idea and to ask her if it was even possible, she is incredibly creative so I knew if I had her help everything would turn out awesome. But....Our schedules haven't been meshing well so we only had a few hours together to brainstorm. The theme is Temples: Pattern For Life.

My mom is very talented. We came up with an idea to make the San Antonio temple as an outline with an arrangement of Texas flowers in the center. She made the flower arrangement and help come up with the "how to" part, But the execution part fell on me because she had to head back to work.

So after many late nights, I have learned how to measure, paint, use an exacto knife and super glue my fingers. HaHa. It has been challenging but I am kinda proud of myself! My momma has rubbed off on me a little! I know it would have turned out even better had she done most of it herself but I have to say I'm a little impressed! Yea! I am building my "Mormon girl" skills. lol.

Spring Break.....Hmmmmmm

So Spring Break should be fun I think. Between Brassers broken arm and an ER trip with Ryker for ear infections in the middle of the night...Spring break wasn't exactly boring. Things could have been worse I suppose...We only had one broken bone. We did find out that the younger you are the faster you heal. A rule of thumb: one week of healing is estimated for every year old you are. So Brasser only has to have a cast on for two weeks!!!! Yea! So I am counting down the days for that, He has no trouble climbing, running, jumping, falling, etc. But the bathing situation is a pain. He truly thinks he is invincible! He has been so tough. Its as if he never fell to begin with.

So after plenty of Doctor visits the week has ended and school has begun again. Ryker was so excited to go to school this morning he could hardly hide the excitement! And Brasser woke up searching the house for his brother Ry-re.

Happy Birthday Brasser

I am so late posting this...Brasser was born on March 5, 2007 and he weighed 7lbs, 150z. He has been so darn cute from the moment we met him and he has grown soooo fast I almost cant believe it. He adds so much excitement to this home we couldn't imagine our family any other way.

On his actual Birthday I made cupcakes and we sang to Happy Birthday to him, Russ had to work most of the day. It was so funny Brasser was outside playing and I could not get him to come inside so... I put a chocolate cupcake on a plate and waived it in front of him...he high tailed it right into the kitchen! He loves sweets, he cracks me up. Now I know how to get him moving!

We planned a curious George Birthday party for Saturday afternoon with some close friends and family who live close by. The morning of his birthday party he was standing on a kitchen chair eating breakfast and somehow lost balance and fell to the floor. YIKES. He held his little arms out to catch himself and was in alot of pain. (did I mention we have a counter height kitchen table!) Sheesh. So My mom and I took him into an emergency clinic and after much deliberation and x rays, it was determined, he broke his arm. OUCH. He was so tired after 4 trys of wrapping his arm in a splint, he hated every bit of it and was in alot of pain. But...We did make it back in time for the Birthday celebration.

Here he is before the party started and we did let him rest until cake and presents time. He was a pro at blowing out his candles and was so cute with his little cast. What a trooper.

He had an eventful Birthday and even though his arm was broken he did attempt to jump on the trampoline with his rifle in one hand and a cast on the other. Happy Birthday Brasser we love you!