Go Fish Guys

This post relates to the one below but I couldn't get this video to go into the original post. You can read below first or listen now. But...Beware, if you have children in room, it is likely they will want to DANCE!

A Sleepover and The Go Fish Guys

Bella and Courtney had a sleepover at our house. We had been over at Mom and Dad's and the girls had been playing all day. When we got ready to leave Bella went over and grabbed Courtney's arm and said "Come on!". She wasn't leaving without her. We called Tim and she got to come home with us. The girls had a blast together. Bella looks up to her SO MUCH!! The house was a wreck but I suppose the messier it is the more fun they had.

I was recently introduced to the Go Fish Guys. If you have kids and you haven't had a listen, they are a must. They are a great Christian kids group. I personally love them. They remind me so much of Acappella that I listened to all the time growing up.

Don't let the fancy hairdos get in the way of the awesome voices of these guys! The video above is the older stuff that I listened to ALOT! I saw them in concert MANY times in the 80's and 90's.

I couldn't get the Go Fish Guys video into this post so that is why it is in the post above.


Now back to the Go Fish Guys and the sleepover..... the girls danced around and sang until bedtime and then started over again the next morning.

Dancing around like crazy!

Precious girls!

They did take a break for a snack and watch The Tooth Fairy.

Here they are in action!

They had so much fun together and I'm so glad Bella has a big girl cousin to look up to!

Wicked = Awesome = Wicked Awesome

My big birthday present from Terry was tickets to go see Wicked. I have been wanting to see Wicked for quite some time now. The verdict is in and it is was incredible! I loved it so very much. I love musicals very much. I have been lucky to see quite a few. When I was in high school and early college my grandparents had season tickets to Theater Under the Stars and when they couldn't go I was the lucky recipient several times. My first musical (real musical at the theater) experience was Annie when I was in about the first or second grade. I had seen it many times on TV but my love for musicals grew upon seeing one live. I also loved watching Oklahoma, Sound of Music, and of course Grease. My high school put on Oklahoma and Sound of Music which I of course went to see. I was actually in South Pacific my senior year. That was one of my favorite things I did in high school. It was so much fun. I was just in the chorus but it was a blast. "I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair"...... oh excuse me, I just took a trip back to 1995. I'm back now. So anyway I have had the pleasure of seeing 42nd Street, Victor Victoria, Les Miserables (LOVE), Cats (LOVE), Grease (how can you not LOVE), In the Heights (ok I love them ALL if you really want to know the truth), and now Wicked. I must say that before seeing Wicked, Les Mis was my favorite. The music is phenomenal. When I was in college at SFA I would listen to the CD every night before bed to drown out the noise from the porch. LOVE the music. Then there is Cats, great costumes and dancing. But now there is Wicked. I can't express how much I loved this show. I was prepared and downloaded the music beforehand so I already had a couple of favorite songs that I was looking forward to putting into context. I loved how towards the end you started to see how the Wizard of Oz and Dorthy fit into the story. It was pretty much brilliant. The music is so much fun and super catchy. I find myself singing it all the time. I could definitely see it again and not be bored at ALL! This season of TUTS is going to be great. I'm hoping to swing my own set of season tickets?????

Happy Birthday to ME!

So I turned the big double 3. How does this even happen? I still think of myself as a twenty something so I hope that will keep me young. Today a man came to the door and asked me if my dad was home. HA!! Funny enough my mom was here. But I told him I was the owner and he was slightly confused. This thing use to make me mad because it happened all the time. People use to always tell me how much I would appreciate it one day. That would make me even madder. Well, that day has come. I appreciated him thinking I was WAY younger than I am. Of course he was an older gentleman and it's possible that his eyesight was lacking. I choose to believe it was 20/20 thank you very much!

So my birthday came and went. We were worn out after our day at the lake. Terry had the day off since the 4th fell on a Sunday. It's so nice that everybody gets the day off to celebrate my birthday when the 4th falls on a Sunday. I sure do appreciate that! Anyway, we ended up lazing (did I just make that word up?) all day. Quite frankly that is a great way to spend the day as far as I'm concerned.

Terry made plans for my mom to keep Bella the next Saturday night so we could go do something. I decided I would rather her keep her during the day because I really wanted to go shopping in the galleria area. After all we were celebrating MY birthday. This is where things began to get a little hairy. I took it upon myself to ask Mom if we could change the plans and did not like the answer she gave me very much. She said she would have to check with Dad. Really?!?! I didn't recall asking her to keep Bella once this summer so I was a little confused as to why she was putting me off. Needless to say by the time Terry got home I was pretty upset and he LAUGHED at me. I did not see the necessity of that at all. The more he tried to tell me to stay out of it the more suspicious I got. I let it go when once again we had to be at Mom and Dad's by 7:30-8. Why? We never have to be on a timeline schedule. Then I heard him on the phone to Niki and when I heard her ask him if he was on speaker I really knew something was up. Needless to say there had been a plan in place for about 3 months. Don't worry Mom, I get it. I'll let it slide this time :).

When we got back to Mom and Dad's to "pick" up Bella, my brother was there and I saw Niki's car parked down the street. We walked in and I expected to see them but was shocked when I saw my cousin Tiffany that lives in Dallas and our friends Laura and Craig. Niki had thrown me a "Glee" surprise party!

I did not do a good job of taking pictures but there were costumes involved in this. The following were in attendance: Puck, Coach Sylvester, Finn, Quinn, and Tina.


The sweet Douglas family showed up too! They are on my favorites list. Like at the top! This is baby Garrett. We have been saying lots of prayers for this little guy. He has Spina Bifida and that is a shunt you see on his head. He is doing AWESOME and his physical therapist says he is AHEAD developmentally. God sure is working miracles on this little guy. He is so precious and sweet and I sure did enjoy snuggling with him for awhile. You can read about his story here. Adam has done an awesome job of keeping everybody updated on their strong boy!

Tiffany came all the way from Dallas.
She is good like that!

Little man

Avery and Bella. Bella had seen Avery the night before because we had gone over to their house to hang out. She was SO excited to see Avery 2 nights in row. I was cracking up. Avery is Garrett's big sister and she is perfect in that role. Such a sweet girl!

Niki decorated my cake. Here she is dressed as Coach Sylvester! That silly BFF of mine did a great job and I'm so thankful to have her in my life. I'm even more thankful that she has moved back to our area and that she got a job in the same town as me! I love you, Inki!

The Douglas Family!

Quinn, Finn, Me, and Tina...... I mean Kenzie, Craig, Me, and Laura!
Sweet friends and I am so glad they came to celebrate with us. Laura and I have been friends since 8th grade. That's a long time. I'm so grateful she is still in my life. Love her!

My two precious friends!

Tiffany borrowed one of Tina's blue hair extensions!

Thanks for the surprise guys. Ya'll are awesome!

Disclaimer: before I get any phone calls, I am very aware that there were some friends left off the invite list. It is my understanding that my husband may have to take some of the blame for this. Apparently he was pretty busy at work (read: sarcasm). I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure this should lead to a night out with said people (read: very serious). Just sayin'.

4th of July

We spent our 4th of July at Lake Livingston with the Driskill clan. We have been going up there since I was a little girl. Our family friend Nancy was there and we hadn't seen her in about 10 years or so. It was so awesome to be able to see her. Mom and Dad came up for the afternoon and one of Lesli's childhood best friends was there with her family. We had a great crowd. So great that it took two trips to get us all to the island on the boat.

I love that I have so many childhood memories with Lesli at the cabin and now our kids are building those memories there together as well. We are so lucky to be able to watch that!

Bella was sportin' her patriotic swim suit!

This picture make me laugh. This is over at the island. The water felt sooo good!!

The group minus me because I was behind the camera and Mom and Dad because they had not made it to Livingston yet.

My precious little family!

Mom and Nancy. She is such a special friend to us and we miss her!!

Bella had so much sunscreen in her hair she had a mohawk that actually stayed!

Getting some cousin love from Madi!

The daddies with their baby girls!

Me and Nancy!

We had a great 4th of July spent at the lake just like it is suppose to be!

26 Months

So I missed Bella's 25th month post and I'm getting out of order with our life but I wanted to get her 26th month post on the correct date so here we go.

I have absolutely LOVED being home with the princess this summer. I absolutely do NOT want to go back to work in 2 weeks. She has grown up so much this summer and has been a joy to be with. She gets girlier everyday. I love it so much. She is really getting into playing dress up and her baby dolls. Sometimes we dress up her baby dolls.

We attempted potty training because I really thought she was ready but after she has screamed and cried on the potty I have given it a second thought. I have been told by so many to not push them because they push back even harder and it takes longer to train them, so we are taking it easy for the time being.

She sings her little heart out all the time and I simply can't get enough of it. Her sweet little voice just melts my hear. She likes to mix several different songs into one. Already an artist if you ask me. Her favorites are The ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and The B-I-B-L-E.

She is quite the little dancer as well. She quite a few moves in her repertoire. I can not wait to get her in dance class!

She is talking so much that I'm hearing new words and longer sentences everyday. The other day she told Terry to "go up the ramp" he was in fact getting ready to walk up a ramp onto a porch for a new house in our neighborhood. How in the world does she even know what a ramp is and where did she learn the word for it?

She can count to 10 but always leaves out the number 4. But really, who needs the number 4 anyway? It really isn't all that important when you are 2.

Every number she sees in print is the number 9 and every letter is A. At least she has the concept.

She is doing better and better in gymnastics and even swung on the trapeze bar out over the foam pit and dropped all by herself this week. I couldn't believe she did it but I was so proud of her!

I never reported her 2 year stats so here we go:
weight: 22 lbs - 3%
height: 33 1/2 - 46%
head: 19 3/4 - 97%

Her stats make her look totally out of proportion but I think she is perfect!

She is a bundle of joy and so precious and I just can't get enough of her. I want to squeeze her and kiss her and love her ALL the time!

Home Sweet Home

Bella was mostly a great little airplane traveler. Yes, she has her paci. I must admit that we got rid of it for a few days back in February but then she got that nasty stomach virus and wanted it and how do you tell a baby that is throwing up that they can't have their paci. Don't judge. Needless to say I was worried about her ears and quite frankly the ears of the other passengers. SOOOO she got her paci on the plane. Just to clarify, when at home she only gets her paci at bedtime and I'm pretty sure we will NEVER get it away from her now. Like I said.....don't judge.

Anyway, we had a fabulous trip to Colorado and can't wait to get to go back. Thank you Aunt Marcia and Uncle Jerry for letting us bombard your beautiful place for a few days. We had a great time and greatly appreciate you sharing with us!! We love ya'll!!

The North Pole

On Monday we go up and took the kiddos to the North Pole. It is the cutest amusement park ever! It is obviously Christmas themed. The neatest thing about this park was that Bella could ride all the rides. Some of them we had to get on with her but there were lots of rides the kids could get on by themselves. I adored this place! Mainly because Bella loved it so much. It is so awesome to relive some of your own childhood memories (I loved amusement parks) through your child. She loved it so much there were a couple of rides she had to ride twice because she didn't want to get off. The best part is that she could do that. There were NO lines so she could ride twice or we could just walk up and get on a ride. My kind of place! If you are ever in the Colorado Springs area and you have young children, I highly recommend this place. I would go back in a heartbeat.


The North Pole is located on the side of a mountain. I believe it is actually on the side of Pike's Peak. I know that it is the same road. I might be wrong about that but I'm pretty sure.

They have the tallest ferris wheel in the world at the North Pole. By tallest, it is at the highest elevation. Pretty cool. Of course it scared Terry to death. That actually might have been my favorite part of the day! He was quite nervous and I thought it was hilarious. Our 2 year old was just fine and he was not so much. Awesome!

He is totally faking this smile. He was scared to death up there. The view was amazing from up that high. I also must say that Ryan was a little nervous as well. When he and Tim would get to the top he would bury his face in his daddies side so he wouldn't have to look down. He was a trooper though.

They had this cute little train. We had to ride that because Bella loves "choo trains" so much. As it turns out I didn't even get a picture of her riding the "choo train". Go me!

The Cox family minus Courtney who was sitting with Tiffany.

"Choo Train"

Courtney got her face painted with a beautiful butterfly.

This girl loves to ride "horsies". Carousels have lots of "horsies".

WOOHOO!

Ryan and Alyssa

It appears I got some pictures out of order. Oh well. Courtney was excited about the ferris wheel. I'm not sure how excited Alyssa was....

Bella finally gets to ride by herself. I'm not sure she knew what to think at first but once she got use to it she LOVED it. This was the first ride she had to stay on and ride again.

Courtney

Ryan didn't really know what to think of it and he got a little nervous.

As you can see Bella was having a great time.

This was when it landed and we finally got a smile out of Ryan. I guess he was glad it was over. HA!

Bella's second go round. I have a feeling she will be riding roller coasters as soon as she is tall enough. I know I was!!

This ride was suppose to be just Courtney and I but while we were waiting Bella was throwing a fit to ride with us. I asked the guy if she could ride and he said "sure". I'm not sure it was my smartest parenting moment but we let her ride.

Yes, we put our 2 year old on this ride. She actually did pretty good on it. Her stomach was definitely dropping because she would hold her breath and and clench her stomach muscles. In the end......she wanted to ride again. We didn't.

Riding in the boats with her big cousin. She loves her big cousin!

Obviously another ride she rode twice. Ryan joined on the second round. He was leaning out with his hands in the water at one point. Silly boy.

I love the look on Bella's face here. She loved this so much!

Daddy threw Bella on this ride without watching it first. It actually went pretty fast and was the only ride she cried on. I think part of it was that she was by herself. It was one of the rides they wouldn't let us on with her and Courtney was riding something else. Poor thing didn't like this one too much.

Then all three of them got in the firetruck and everything was great again!

Bella is very serious about her driving!

It was almost time to go but we had to let Bella go down this slide. It was really tall and she loves slides!

WEEEEEEEE!

Last ride! Bella drove us around. I remember these cars at Six Flags when I was little. I loved them. I remember them actually letting you steer them and being able to pus the gas and brake. These went on their own but they were still fun.

Ryan got to drive his daddy!

So serious about her driving!

We had so much fun at the North Pole! I can't wait to go back.