Long Time, No Type!

Noah's Eater outfit

Natalie's Easter Dress!

Natalie trying to figure out what's wrong with her bubba

Noah at four!

Natalie in February

This school year has apparantly taken up a lot of my time. That, and Facebook. Ha! Most of you that keep up with the blog are also on FB so you know what's been going on. Let me see what I can sum up.


Jeff and I celebrated eleven years in February. Each year brings new and exciting things for us. Our love isn't perfect, but it grows stronger all the time. I'm excited to see what the next eleven years will bring!


Jeff started his masters in the fall. At first it seemed so hard because he had so much to do, but now that we are in the swing of things it's flying by. He only has one year left! He is also taking on a new challenge. He left Ferguson after several years and was asked to work for Morrison, Ferguson's competitor. His first day was today! He's really excited and hopes that he can make some great changes for the Lubbock branch.


I am about to finish another year at Cavazos. This has been a really tough year in LISD. We are making a lot of changes and I hope they are going to pay off. I really need my summer, just a few weeks stand between me and PK. I got a new car this year. Not really planned, just had to happen. I finally got what I've been wanting for several years now.
Candice is about three months pregnant, so I'll be an Aunt again in Oct!


Noah turned four in March. It's amazing how much he has changed. He's writing his name, can get completely ready for school, (except for fixing his hair) riding a bike, swimming, and so much more. He's turning into a kid, instead of a baby. It's bittersweet for me. It's nice that he can do things for himself, but at the same time I'm going to miss my baby boy. This fall he will start full time preK. One more year before REAL school.


Natalie, what can I say. She's getting prettier every day. She is a MAJOR drama queen. I think she'll have the terrible two's more than Noah did. She's slowly talking more, but Noah still does a lot of her talking. We are going to have to work on that. I'm getting ready to put her in a big girl bed. She's going to us my Great-Grandmother's bed, that was built in 1920. I'm having her bedding made, I can't wait to see it all put together.

Hopefully with summer around the corner I'll have time to update more!

What a Summer!

Wow! I can't believe that we are in the first week of August. I obviously have been awful about blogging this summer. I have spent most of my time at the lake. The kids have grown so much.

Noah is now a swimmer! After a summer of lessons he is jumping off in the deep end and swimming to the ladder. This makes swimming with him so much more enjoyable. He is swimming on his own in the lake too, but with a life jacket. I have great pictures on Facebook.

Natalie has grown a ton! She's still not talking as much as Noah was at her age, but the doctor says her hearing is above normal and Noah is just talking for her so she doesn't feel the need to. She's going to start going to the same school that Noah goes to later this month. I think it's going to be hard at first, but she'll love it!

As for me, I've been making cakes this summer! I'm including a picture of my favorite one. I made it for a bachelorette party. I also have been able to spend some time away from the kids this summer, which is always nice. I went to Dallas and had a TON of fun with my awesome friends and snuck in an Aerosmith and ZZ Top concert while I was there.

Just this past weekend we had a child free weekend at the lake with all of my friends. Great times. I'll be starting work in a week and a half. It's a bitter-sweet feeling...

Jeff is starting his masters this month. I'm dreading it but I'm glad he's getting it done.

Well, I feel like I have just rambled on. I hear Natalie so I better post this and get out of the basement!

Memorial Day Pics and Other Junk

Lauren and I

These are pictures from Lauren's camera. I have some on mine but I'm too lazy to download them. These were taken at someone elses house, where we had dinner. I feel like it's been forever since I've written. Natalie had her baby pageant and came in first in photo and in the beauty pageant all in her age division of course. Her personality is really starting to shine. I call her my organizer...I'll be missing things because she puts them where she thinks they belong. She so funny.

Noah is getting so big. Over Memorial Day weekend he figured out how to go over the cattle guard in his Power Wheel Jeep, start the "mule" and put it into gear, and run golf carts into peoples cars! He has a thing for cars, and I guess he comes by it honestly. He starts swimming lessons tomorrow. He took private lessons last year so I'm not too worried about him.

Today is my first official day off. I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but I'll get into a routine just in time to go back to work. When Noah gets done with swimming lessons I plan on going to the lake for a while.

I also finished a one month course on cake decorating. It was really fun and I learned a lot. I'll try to post some pics of my cakes. I plan on taking the level two class in the fall.

Well, I guess that's a quick enough update. I hear Natalie on the monitor!

Just An Update

I have thirteen days left in my fourth year of teaching! I attended the eighth grade banquet on Friday night. It was really nice to see all of the kids dressed up. I can remember mine like it was yesterday. I'm glad I stuck around a while to hang out with some of them.

In other news, there should be no such thing as terrible twos...Three is worse. Noah is learning how to push the limits. He's driving me crazy one minute and then he's the perfect child the next. I'm ready for this stage to pass. Natalie is sick right now with an awful cough! I didn't sleep more than two hours last night. She needs to get well soon. Next Sunday is a big day for her. She won first place in her age group in the Lubbock Baby Pageant so next Sunday she'll be competing against the other first place winners for cutest overall! She also won first place in the photo competition with the angel picture, and cutest curls award!

Candice and I are out of ideas for my dad for Father's Day. So.....We had our pictures taken professionally. He doesn't now it yet, but this is his Father's Day present.

I hope all is well with everyone!

Happy Mother's Day!

Burned Out!

I guess it's just "that time of the year". I think I'm officially burned out. We have five weeks left of school and the kids have "checked out" so to speak. They are physically there, but not mentally. We have our state exams next week and I know that after that discipline will go up and averages will go down. There is just not much that I can do about that. It's frustrating because we are expected to fail only so many students, but like I have said in the past, I refuse to pass a student who doesn't deserve to pass. With all this being said, if anyone has any ideas on how to motivate seventh and eighth graders the last month of school give me a shout!

I've got the lake itch really bad. I'm ready to go! Natalie is walking now, which will make my summer a lot easier for the most part. Tonight we played in the backyard and I didn't have to carry her anywhere! She played all by herself. Awesomeness. She's only taking one bottle, at night. I love giving it to her and it's me that's not letting go. We are not going to have anymore children so I'm holding to the last parts of her being a baby. She has a beauty pageant coming up this Sunday that I'm really excited about, so wish us luck with that!

Noah is also doing well. He's been fully potty trained now for a little over a month. He loves school so I'm going to let him keep going this summer. He's gotten so easy and it really makes me look forward to the future. Last summer was just really hard for us.

Well, I think I need to fold some laundry or do something productive...

Easter!

We had a great Easter! It was Natalie's first. She was actually kind of fussy so you'll see some paci action in some of these pictures. Natalie was walking some on Sunday, but today she really took off! Noah also started walking on April 14th two years ago. Weird huh? You can also tell her hair is really thickening up...I'm out of energy to write a good blog. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

My Mom, Noah, and I

Natalie's First Letter

Princess Natalie,

It was just a few days away from Thanksgiving. Your father and I sat in the waiting room anxiously waiting to be called back. We were finally going to find out if we were going to have a boy or a girl.
I didn’t have to ask myself whether or not I would love you. It didn’t matter what you were, I knew that I would love you without doubts, questions, or expectations. The sonogram technician rolled over my stomach several times before she finally asked “Do you want to know what you are having?”
I said “Well, of course!”
When she said we were having a girl I could immediately feel myself holding back tears, tears of joy. I’m not much to cry in front of others. Well, try as I might it wasn’t happening, tears seemed to spring from my eyes. I was already so full of love for your brother, but at that very moment my heart expanded.
Five months later, you were finally placed in my arms. Your perfection was literally breath-taking. You were, and still are, an amazing baby, always so content.
Within a few months your dark eyes shifted into the clearest, purest, blue that I have ever seen. I immediately became infatuated with them, and they still have me hypnotized today. To me your beauty is indescribable.
Of course another perk to having you is the shopping. I’ve actually gotten in a lot of trouble over the money that I’ve spent on you. Every beautiful dress, crazy bow, cute shoes, and adorable outfit just has to belong to you! We have many of those days to come, just don’t tell your father!
If you ask the people I work with, they will tell you that I cannot wait to get home from work and see you. My heart aches when I’m not with you. Natalie, I love you so much and I’m so VERY proud to be your mother. You have changed my life for the better and I thank God for you everyday. I’m looking forward to the year to come. I’m so excited that I get to be a part of your life. Happy first birthday my princess.

Love,

Mom