Baseball and a Birthday

January has been a busy month. Part it of it is that I determined to do a better job in the classroom as far as preparing my lessons the night before instead of looking at them 5 minutes before 1st period starts. I hope my principal isn't reading this blog. Anyway, I learned last semester that the new laptop lessons that were created by a wonderful team of teachers, weren't always conducive to me "winging it" in class. I'll just admit I felt like a fool many times b/c there were things in the lessons I had never seen before and I had to figure them out right there in front of my 1st period. Embarrassing, not good for classroom morale or for my mojo. Anyway, I've spent time each evening since school started in January looking at the next day's lesson and going through it to make sure I know which links work and which ones don't, which slides are too detailed for my taste and which worksheets are good, etc. It has helped greatly, at least with my sanity. I feel good again. Most days.

I also have had the privelege of leading a small group Bible study in my classroom on Thursday mornings before school. We decided to do the book "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations" by Alex & Brett Harris. I am so excited about this opportunity. I do not take it lightly that God has placed me in this public high school for His purpose, and hopefully He will use this study in these students lives, and in mine, to bring His message of hope to our school. We had 12 come last week and 6 this morning. I ordered 15 books, and I hope and pray they will all get read.

I hate baseball a little bit less since last weekend. One of Brian's players was chosen to be one of 16 high school boys in the Greater Houston area to attend an Astros Dinner and be honored at the dinner. So Jake's parents invited the three coaches and their wives/girlfriends, along with another family, to go with them to the dinner. They also rented a 16-passenger Excursion Limo that picked us up and took us all downtown to the Hilton for the dinner. I almost backed out because I had nothing fancy to wear and my hair has been sticking straight up at the part lately and I was just feeling homely. But I could tell Brian really wanted me to go and I also found out that Jake's parents paid $75 per ticket for us to all go. So needless to say, I was going. I got my hair cut, bought some hair wax to make my hair lay down and planned to go shopping at the mall for a dress.

On my way to the mall, I stopped by a friends' house to deliver a meal to her since she just had a baby (which funny enough, she named Jake!), Anyway, I was telling Lindsey that I was headed to the mall after her house to go find a fancy dress to wear and I really wasn't looking forward to it, blah blah blah. Lindsey got a funny look on her face and asked me what size I wear and what size shoe I wear. She then disappeared into her bedroom and came out a few minutes later with 6 super-cute cocktail dresses and 4 pairs of high-heel shoes for me to take. What a blessing! I took them home and tried them all on, and thankfully one of them fit me great. And I got so many compliments on Lindsey's super-high taupe heels I wore. I don't own a pair of high heels, so it was kinda funny seeing myself dressed up so fancy. (See picture below). We had a great time at the dinner. It was fun rubbing shoulders with all the biggest names in baseball in Houston. Brian was in heaven. He was like a little kid at Disneyworld pointing out to me all the famous players, broadcasters, coaches, etc. that he recognized. The tables were set really fancy and each place had an Astros hat on top of the dinner plate. Here's the girls sporting our hats:I'm so sorry, Tatum, but you look exactly like your mama in this picture! My family will confirm. You are my mini-me.

Wearing a baseball hat was not what this princess had in mind that day. I forced her to put in on and smile for a picture. I gave her the line, "Do you know everything that I do for you? If you ask me for a snack, do I not give it to you? All I'm asking is for you to wear a hat and take a picture!" You can see the tears in her eyes.
Priceless.


Born for this hat.
Here we are before leaving to get on the Limo. Thank the Lord for very very tight undergarments that disguise certain things so very well.

This is a random picture of Tatum pushing Laney in our doll stroller. Laney loved the attention. By the way, Avery decided since Tinkerbell is blonde, and Tatum is blonde, she should hand her Tink costume over to her little sister. Avery now wears the size 2 Silvermist costume my mom made for Tatum because Silvermist has dark hair like her.

For MLK day, we had fun family day in Brenham. We ate lunch at Must Be Heaven, which was such a good decision. It was heavenly. They also have a fun fireman's park that the girls could've spent hours at, but we only stayed for a while because we wanted to get to the Blue Bell Factory before it closed for the day.

"We eat all we can, and we sell the rest" is their motto. If we ever move to Brenham, I will be applying for employment there.

It was much more family-friendly than I remembered. The tour was very laid-back and interesting for the girls. Lots of talk about cows, so you can't go wrong there. They had flavors in the shop that I had never heard of before and I've been eating Blue Bell for 31 years. I can't wait until Laney can fully experience the wonder that is Blue Bell ice cream.

We had a little birthday party for Laney at our house a couple weeks ago. Here's Gigi and Nana - we are so blessed to have both sets of grandparents so involved in our lives. I do not take it for granted that our kids' grandparents really truly like each other and work together to make our lives and our kids' lives so wonderful! We thank God for you, Gigi & Grandad and Nana & Papa!

The blowing out of the candle was accomplished by one of the kids, I think Jacob. You can see Laney in her highchair just loving all the attention.

Laney's buddies: Cousin Tara Beth and buddy John Cavazos.

This sweet girl was a little bit too polite with her cake. She will have to learn that K* girls don't eat chocolate sitting down...

Tatum was not overly excited about all the attention Laney got that day.

That may have been the best cake I have ever tasted. Chocolate truffle from Take the Cake. UMMM.

Thank you to anyone who has prayed for my attitude toward baseball season. I have a long way to go, but I can see the Lord working in my heart in that area and revealing some bad things inside of me that I probably wouldn't have recognized had I not gone through this. I honestly am looking forward to seeing what He is going to do in me over the next few months. Hopefully I will change big-time and be a much better wife by the end of this season.

Happy Birthday Laney!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Laney Hope! How wonderful this year has been with you in it!

You have brought me so many laughs and so many tears of joy this year. I can't believe how tiny you used to be and how big you are now. You are so strong and healthy. Your toothy smile brings a lump to my throat. I thank God every night for blessing me with you. I am so happy to be your mama and I am so excited to spend every day with you and watch you grow up.

Happy 1st birthday my love!

It's a Beautiful Day

My sister-in-law is an amazing photographer and she took some pictures of our girls over Christmas break. Check out Dominique's blog here so you can see what an awesome job she did. I can't wait to print them out and get started framing them! THANKS Nikki - Brian & I are amazed at all the little expressions and faces you captured! Wish Michigan was closer to Texas so we could get you to do it more often!

Thank you Lord for 55 degrees today. Avery is here in the study playing her computer games, which I am amazed how fast she figures out, and T & L are napping, so I finally have a little bit of time to blog. Over the weekend, we had some of the coldest weather we have had in a long time in Houston, in fact I think they said 1989 was the last time it got this cold for this long. Anyway, we don't have an excuse to wear mittens and hats that often, so we took full advantage of it. Yesterday while we were eagerly waiting for Brian to get back from coaching school, we played in the driveway and I got some video of Laney walking. She's been walking for a couple weeks, but she has just gotten really confident over the past week. She also climbs on everything. We now have to keep all the kids chairs turned over on their backs so she can't use them to climb on top of their table. I can't believe she will be ONE on Wednesday. Her sisters are both crazy about her. Tatum calls her "my Yaney."



Another important event that happened last week was Tatum's first success at #2 on the potty. We celebrated the big event at Chuck-E-Cheese that night with some friends. She was so proud of herself and I was too. She is getting to be such a big girl.

Avery started at her new school this week, and so far we are really happy with it. I was amazed, but in a good way, at the amount of "homework" she has. It's really fun stuff, like this weekend, we had to fill the class "Letter Box" with things that start with "W", since that is the letter of the week. So the teacher sent home this big tupperware box decorated with all the ABC's and we worked all weekend to fill it up. By the time she took it to school this morning, it was chalk full of things that start with "W." Her teacher told me today that she did a great job explaining all the objects to her friends.

Here's what we thought of:
water bottle, washing machine (from her little dollhouse), winnie the pooh, wax paper, wipes, gummi worms, washcloth, magic wand, walkie-talkies, wheel, wings (from fairy costume), white crayon, whisk

We also got to make a photo collage of our family for the class photo album. Each child gets to take the photo album home for a week so they can get to know the kids in their class & their families. I'm excited for when it's her turn to take it home so I can see all the other kids' pages. Here's her page:

I'm sure when I have 3 in school and they all have this type of homework, it may not be as much fun, but we had a blast this weekend doing these fun projects together.

Like I mentioned, Brian was out of town all weekend and we missed him so much. Baseball season is fast approaching and we will be missing him alot over the next few months. I figured out last week why I hate baseball season so much. I don't hate the baseball part of baseball season - the actual games are a blast and it's fun to watch him coach and hear the excitement in his voice about it all. I just hate baseball season because I miss Brian during baseball season. That's it. I just miss having him around. When he's not home, home is not the same. It's hard to describe, but if you have a husband who has to travel alot for his job, you probably know exactly what I mean. Baseball season is like one long business trip that lasts three months. Life is not normal for those few months and I love our normal life together. That's not to say I can't change my attitude... I am praying for myself to have a completely new attitude this baseball season and not complain and pout, but be energetic and strong and understanding. That will be completely the Lord if that happens. I hope it does.