The Gauger Family

My Girl

2012-01-28T16:50:00.000-08:00

You can dress her up with cute clothes and big bows...

put a hot pink belt around her dress to make her happy....

and all she wants to do is have you take her pic in her vampire teeth! She is something else!!

Happy Birthday Pop!

2012-01-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Pop's birthday this Sunday with a family dinner at our house. Even Ji came. I guess I haven't posted but Ji did move out a 2 weeks ago. He's back living at his apartment with a new roommate and doing well. He's back working again at SMU and taking English classes as well! It was great to see him!
Kelly grilled out hamburgers. It was in the 70's that day so spring/fallish weather!

Gracie was very excited to have her cousin Maxum come over to play. She's been asking just about every 5 minutes!

This was Kelly "monitoring" the kids and being the pool police!

The kids table! Our dining room table really only holds 8 comfortably. We had the kids sit behind us. Maxum loves hamburgers! He asked if Kelly could come live at his house and make him hamburgers!

Helping Pop open presents.

Papaw came over. He is doing so great!

Ji was there too!

Happy Birthday Pop!

Saturday Fun

2012-01-23T14:40:00.001-08:00

Saturday was a fun day. Gracie had a friend's birthday party to attend at Chuck-E-Cheese. She has never been there before! She chose a super cute outfit and I snapped a few pics before she left.

Here she is with her BFF, sister! She loves this baby to pieces! It's one of her 2 must have around at all times baby.

The best part for me was that Kelly took her to the party all by himself (his idea) for the 1st time ever! I had 2 whole hours to myself at the house. It was divine! I mostly cleaned house and did laundry but it was still super nice! Kelly sent me this text from the party. She's riding in a car with Samantha, her good friend from school.

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After the party they came back and picked me up for some Saturday errands. We headed to Cavenders Boot Store. Kelly had never been. Gracie and I bought on our cowgirl boots so we would fit in! I found this super cute hat for her to try on for a picture. It was way too big but still cute!

Kelly said he was not, no way, buying boots but low and behold he did! He loves them. I said we were all ready to go out 2 stepping!!

Ha! Here she is with her other must have baby. Baby Maxum :)

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Growing Up

2012-01-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

It seems Gracie is getting taller and bigger just as we blink these days. We love to watch old videos (on youtube) of her and I just can't believe how little she was. It's so easy to forget!

She actually loves to be my little model. I do take lots of pictures of her but it's just because I want to remember what she's like right now, this very moment. This day was after Christmas and leaves were everywhere. She had a blast running and jumping in the leaves. She loves, loves, loves to hide behind the tree and try to scare me!

These pictures were taken before Sunday school one morning (right before we had to call 911 for smelling gas!) There was a big squirrel out on the tree and Gracie loved watching him.

Every day is not perfect and she does drive me crazy sometimes but I really wish I could bottle her up! She's full of energy and life! Our little girl is growing up!

The View from Here...

2012-01-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

The view from here is GOOD! Happy Friday and long weekend to us :)

The Joys of Home Ownership

2012-01-09T17:00:00.001-08:00

Being a homeowner is so fun, right??? Most times it great until something breaks. This past Sunday morning this is what we had at our house around 8:20 in the morning...

So not really this truck but we did have to make a fun phone call to 911 Sunday morning. We were all smelling gas. I called to ask my Dad about it and GG said "Call 911 RIGHT NOW!" They told us to immediately get everyone out of the house. We latched Jack up, got our coats on and came outside and the fire truck was turning on our street. A serious perk to having the fire department about 2 blocks away- they get there fast when you need them! After a few minutes they found our problem. Our furnace was lighting but not catching so gas was leaking out. Lovely. Turns out we need a whole new furnace and we should have it by Tues. afternoon. We do have a home warranty so we get about 50% of it paid for but still we have a huge chunk we have to pay out of pocket. We just love spending our $$ on things we can't see!! It wasn't bad last night but today it as been super cold and raining here so it's very cold in here now. We're all wearing our jackets. I have on 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of socks, slippers, a long sleeve t, a short sleeve t, sweatshirt, and a jacket!!! Luckily GG and Pop offered to let Gracie stay with them. It's just too cold. We've had the fire place going and small space heaters so we're fine. I feel sorry for Ji. It's his last night with us and all this stuff is breaking! Ji is going back to his apartment again and will no longer be living with us but we will still see him. I said he's probably ready to have some peace and quiet!!

So this picture is in the Walmart parking lot where we saw the fire truck after church. Yes, Gracie has a balloon in her mouth. She'd been really good in the store so she got balloons. She loves blowing them up! Seeing the firetruck made me realize I was so frantic that morning that I didn't take a picture of Gracie by the fire truck that came to our house. The funny thing about Gracie is that she really didn't go crazy that the fireman were at our house. Probably most boys would be going crazy with excitement. She was just concerned about her babies. She had grabbed 3 on our way out the door!!

Our house has 6 lovely sky lights. We knew they were the originals and would have to be replaced. Let me just tell you that sky lights are NOT cheap. We did get pretty decent prices on them and got 3 new ones this weekend along with tons of work done on our roof. Not shingles but roof work on the pipes. The men were here 4 hours on Saturday doing this stuff. The new sky lights are really pretty. We can actually see out of them now...

Sunday night we had storms roll in so along with new heat we were up hearing the storms. Then we come out to get ready and see one of the new sky lights has leaked. Lovely. We are just full of luck I tell you. Not easy fixes for this either.

And this next one... Just to remember where she is right this second. She's completely obsessed with these footie pj's of Maxum's. She found them in the closet at my parents house a few weeks ago and refuses to wear anything else to bed!!

And this is the greatest... doesn't ever Daddy with a daughter have a pic like this???

Gracie dressed up her Daddy with her dress up clothes. She kept saying "Daddy, you are a fairy!" Ha, we were dying laughing!!!

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Molly is 1!

2012-01-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

We attended a fun birthday party today. It was Molly's 1st birthday. Her parents rented out the carousel at the mall and the kids had it all to themselves! What a great idea.

Molly was a very good girl with her cake. She wasn't quite sure what to do but her Mommy helped her try some.

Nicole, Stefani,, and I have known each other since 6th grade! It is so fun to talk about the dreaded middle school memories :)

Happy Birthday Molly Joy! We hope all your birthday dreams come true.

Christmas in Nebraska

2012-01-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas in Nebraska this year. It wasn't easy packing all the presents but somehow we made it up there on the Thursday before Christmas and Gracie did great. We even ate lunch in the car and she gulped up her kids Subway sandwich. She loves Subway :) While making a pit stop in Wichita, KS it started snowing.

It was the tiniest snow flakes you've ever seen but still snow. She's really gotten good at coloring too. Very fun. She took about an hour nap after both of us screaming at her to close her eyes. Phew!

When we finally made it Gracie was thrilled to finally get there! Grandma cooked a spaghetti dinner for us. The next day Kelly and Grandma did some last minute shopping and Gracie, Grandma and I did some shopping too. We did find a pile of leftover snow that Gracie couldn't wait to jump in.

Later that night Grandma and Grandpa Jacobs came down. Gracie and I hadn't seen them since Amber's wedding almost 3 years ago!! The rest of the family was there too on Friday. We headed out for some family pics. The only whole family pic was last from Amber's wedding! Here's what we got:

We also got a good one with Grandma and Grandpa with the kids...

The kids played their little hearts out at the park. They were all ready for good naps :) After naps it was time for church. All the kids did great in the service. 2 years ago I had to leave with Gracie b/c it was dark and loud she got so scared and was bawling! One funny thing that happened. She got on my lap during the service at one point and then had some gas while sitting on me. We both got tickled and were trying not to laugh! Then she said "I tooted Mommy. Do you smell it? Do you???" It was hilarious!!

After church we rushed home, had dinner, then got a special surprise......

SANTA CAME!!!!!
The kids thought it was great :) He came with gifts for all the kids and it was fun. I have some videos I'll have to post another time.

The kids opened more presents than you can imagine!! It took over an hour for us to get through them all. They were showered with gifts. After all the gift opening the kids went to bed late and the adults played games. It was fun.

The next day was Christmas and some of the family had to leave to visit other sides of the family. We had a quiet day with the Grandparents. Grandma cooked a good pork roast and we enjoyed the beautiful day outside!

She didn't even wear a coat on Christmas Day in Nebraska! Crazy!!

Amber came back later that night to tell us good-bye! These monkeys!!

The next day we got up super early and made the long trek home. Gracie was very sad to leave her Grandma! We made it home and were so happy to get home. Home Sweet Home!

2011 Review

2011-12-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

Crazy that we are ending 2011. A jam packed year for us! We had some good, some bad, some sad but ended with a GREAT thing :)

Here's a little recap:

We had a crazy winter- as normal. We actually got quite a bit of snow. The first snowy pic was in early January. Wonder if we'll get some this year???? We went from cold to warm and spent lots of time outside.

Then we got hit with a HUGE ice/snow storm and missed 4 whole days of school! It was awesome!

I'm not sure if I ever posted this picture. It's right when I found out I was pregnant. I hadn't even told Kelly yet. Only I knew. It was kinda fun to be the only one to know. I was super excited and totally surprised. Sadly I m/c a few weeks later. One of the sad-lights of the year.

March came and it was a nice change of pace. Our house was picking up with showings and we had some disappointments there too!

I did get to spend a fun weekend with Baylor friends. We went back to campus and walked around then went to a basketball game.

Kelly had to have his appendix out after having a rough few days of not feeling well. He had a week to recover then was good as new!

Kelly's family came down for a few days during spring break. We had nice weather!

April came and brought really nice weather. Our house continued to show but no luck. Finally we got an offer- contingent offer and we accepted. We were happy!

Lots of sunshiny days!

Teacher of the Year banquet for Kelly and Gracie's end of year program.

Finally it was summer! Our contingent contract ran out and we were back at square one.

The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship and we watched every.single.play off game!! It was awesome!

We had a very busy summer but made it to Nebraska for a few days.

Swimming lessons, birthdays, 7th anniversary, and our house was made "home of the week" finished out July!
Beach fun in Galveston was next while we had more than 12 showings on our house!

On our way home from Galveston, we got our offer we'd been waiting for and then things really got crazy.

We started school in a brand new building and did nothing but unpack at school and then pack up at home. It was a crazy August!!! And we bought a HOUSE!

We somehow made it to Labor Day then a few days later it was officially our house :) But first we had to say goodbye to our first home.

September fell by with Balloon festival then it was Gracie's 4th Birthday on Oct. 2nd!

Grandma Gauger and Grandma Sawyer came and we took them to the Arboretum for Gracie's birthday.

We made it to the State Fair and Gracie loved it.

She was Super Gracie for Halloween and loved getting all the good candy.

We had a great Thanksgiving and our friend, Ji, moved in with us.

December was a great month with lots of holiday fun! We saw Santa, went ice skating, G's holiday program, went to Nebraska, and just had fun in our house!

We also celebrated Papaw's 91st Birthday!!

Wow! What a crazy year we had. Lots of memories made and many more in store Happy New Year Everyone! Here's to a great 2012 :)

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T12:24:00.000-08:00

Have a safe and Happy New Years!!!

Fun with Friends

2011-12-30T19:33:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas sweet Abbie and Carter made the trip to Dallas to visit. The first night they came over and we played and had pizza and exchanged presents.

The kids had a lot of fun playing together! The next day we took them to see Alvin and the Chipmunks movie then to eat at Chick-fil-a. It was a short but sweet visit. On the way home from eating Gracie was super quiet. I asked her what was wrong and she said "I miss Abbie and Carter." Aww! Abbie and Carter are going to get a new baby sister in a few months. Gracie asks me every day when Abbie's Mommy is going to have that baby!!

Santa Came!!!

2011-12-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

Santa came to our house a little early. He was so smart and knew we'd be out of town and he wanted Gracie to get her fun gifts. Before all the excitement began we did our yearly tradition of looking at Christmas lights. We went to the busy neighborhood around here and it was great!

Okay, so it's really hard to take pictures of these cute houses all lit up (especially when your driver does not like to slow down!) Very fun and we took Ji too and he loved it as well!

When we got home G's Daddy had a very special phone call from one of the elves telling him Santa would be making his way to our house that night! Gracie was super excited. We got things all ready and left Santa some special peanut butter balls. Yum. He'd never had those!

She was super excited!!

She went to bed pretty good all things considered. Tucking her in that night was the best part. She was squealing with excitement. It was so fun. As soon as we closed her door Santa and the elves got busy. Ji was very nice and put her bike together for us. And he even stored the bike in his closet knowing that Gracie would not go in there! Here's what it looked like all set up...

Sweet Froggy decided to make his last appearance of the season in G's new bike!

Even sweeter is Santa's letter!(thanks pinterest!! ;) )

And the next morning.... she came in our room as usual around 7 which was okay. She said "Did Santa come?" I had my camera and stuff set up so I said I'd go check it out. Here's her reaction as we came out together...

and the aftermath.... Here's what she got :
Santa: new bike/baby/baby stuff
Us: toy story figures, legos, piggy bank, squishies, books
Jack: Scooby dog, scooby game

I'd say our Gracie is one lucky girl! She LOVES her new bike and we've enjoyed the super nice weather and the huge parking lot across the street to practice on!

Christmas Fun

2011-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

I'm back!! We were out of town to Nebraska for Christmas this year so I have lots to catch up on. (Along with house things!) We had a great holiday this year and are enjoying our last few days off before it's back to the grind of yucky work!

Here's a few pics of our Christmas....

I've got lots of pictures to upload and go through!! Like over 300. Yikes!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-21T19:41:00.001-08:00

We wish you the happiest days this holiday season!!

I'm taking time off from our blog to just enjoy our holiday! Time with family is precious and I'm just loving the Christmas joy from Gracie. She has been so much fun this holiday and I want to soak up every second. Happy holidays to you all! Merry Christmas :)

Christmas Card 2011

2011-12-21T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here's our Christmas card this year. I just loving making these. I especially love that I have been using beach pics for the past 3 years now so this year my cards were ready to go back in September. I watch Shutterfly and got most of my cards for free :) Love that.

Peppermint Dots Christmas Card

Browse our collection of Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

Hughes Christmas Fun

2011-12-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Christmas fun with my family a few nights ago. The kids could not WAIT to open up their Jack-n-the-Boxes. We let them do that first then we had our good Mexican dinner... Here's how it went...

First present in Jack n Box was doll clothes for her and star wars toy for him.

They both got cowboy boots! Her's are pink and so adorable! She calls hers 'cowgirl' boots.

After dinner we let the kids change into pj's and then we started in on other presents!

The funniest gift, barf bags for Pop to keep in his truck. See, a few of my family has barfed in his truck. They shall remain nameless b/c one of them is very embarrassed about it all! Ha!!

Ji was there too. I think he enjoyed himself! Look at this cute hat GG found for him!

I got a pair of cowgirl boots myself!

Laughing at Pop's wrapping!

Gracie's favorite why didn't we let her open this first present- was a bath doll. It can go in the bath and pool with her!! She went crazy and threw her arms around the box and screamed. "Baby, Baby. I love this baby!" She wanted one but I had told her she wasn't getting one!

And finally we set up my camera for a family picture. The outtakes were so funny I had to post some!

Gracie had just done something to Kelly's face and he CANT stand it when ANYONE touches his face. He hates it. Love his look!

Ha, GG was trying to help and get her to stop. She was out of control!

And finally...

Happy Holidays!!

Gracie

2011-12-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

Maybe we're turning a corner on dresses with this one... She chose this ornament dress to wear to our early Christmas celebration and then she suggested I take her picture. I was shocked!!

Gracie's School Program

2011-12-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

Last week Gracie's preschool had their Christmas program.It's such a sweet, sweet program where the kids ages 2-5 sing songs. The program is super short (only about 15-20 min) and it's perfect. We knew the songs this year and really enjoyed it! Gracie did a super good job singing. She's a serious singer but not into the hand motions :) We were really proud of her!

Kelly was in charge of videos. Hope you don't get too motion sick :)

The little boy next to her started off just next to her and then by the end of the show was pretty much totally in front of her. We kept trying to show her to scoot over (we were on the side, front row) but she wouldn't do it or couldn't figure out what we were saying! I was a little ticked off b/c teachers were all sitting right there in between the kids and no one saw him covering her! I came to see her, not him. Sorry! After the show I told her next time just push them out of the way and don't let anyone stand in front of her like that!!

Almost Done!

2011-12-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty much spent from this week. We've had Gracie's holiday music program, staff holiday dinner, school holiday parties, making/baking/buying for school functions and I'm exhausted! It's just 7:10 and I really think I could go straight to bed. But I think I can make it because tomorrow is our last day for 2 whole weeks! It couldn't come fast enough. Only bad thing is we have to start off our fun fall break with a funeral. Not really what we were wanting to do... I'll be back soon to hopefully get caught up. Happy almost Friday!!

Here Comes Santa Clause....

2011-12-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

We made a trip to see Santa Claus. Gracie was super excited to see him and tell him what she was wanting. I practiced with her how to tell Santa but you never know how she'll do. But she did super great! She had a great smile for him and told plopped up in his lap. Ji came with us too so he could experience this American tradition. Here are some pics from the day..

Isn't Mrs. Claus the cutest thing? She was so nice and went through the crowd greeting everyone. She just ate Gracie up. She found her and just loved on her. I thought it was so sweet. Santa opened for the day at 12 and I was parked in line at 11:25 to wait. We were about 15th or so in line. Kelly and Ji walked around and Gracie stayed with me. She was wonderful in line. She just sat in her stroller mostly. I guess she like people watching too. I was laughing at some kids having meltdowns! Ha!!

Finally after waiting and waiting it was our turn to enter the Ice Palace...

Right before Santa (after we entered the Ice Palace) was a HUGE snow pit. I thought this was a HORRIBLE idea. Kids then got covered in this fake snow right before Santa. They were having a ball of coarse but I was so irritated. We had waited this long trying to keep her hair right then they dump all this snow on her and it was all stuck in her hair. I was so thankful she was in a bright outfit. Most girls had on velvet dresses and I felt really sorry for their Moms. We got her all cleaned up thankfully and then it was time for Santa!

The real copy is cute. I didn't order the CD so it's a picture of the real picture. Not as good as in person.

Santa was very cute and sweet. She told him in a big girl voice that she wanted a bike with a baby seat on the back. I'm sure Santa can do that :) I was happy to have this fun adventure done for the year too!!

Around the House

2011-12-10T13:47:00.001-08:00

Another busy week. Thankfully just 5 more long school days then we're out for Christmas break! Here's a picture of a picture so not good quality at all but it's G's school picture. I think it turned out pretty cute!!

Last Sat. night we got to do something really cool that we've never done before. We got to Skype to China! Ji skype's to his wife and daughter back in China on Sat nights. We started around 7:30 at night and it was around 9:30 Sunday morning there. It was the neatest thing! Gracie was pretty tired and had no idea why we were making it a big deal! She did show off baby brother and Rapunzel. Ying-Ying is Ji's daughter and she is just precious! She's 2 and 1/2 and sang the ABC's song in ENGLISH. I nearly fell out of my chair. They are just born smart I guess. We finally got Gracie to open up a bit and she did sorta talk. I bribed her with Mand M's and she did count to 40 but that was like pulling teeth!

I was taking pics and videos so I might post those another time. It was just so neat! Ji is doing great and his English is so impressive. He even shared some articles he's written (only 17) mostly in English that have been published. He's very, very smart! He really helps around the house and has put several things together for me. Love that!!

This is from a few weeks ago. Every Black Friday GG and I go out to lunch and shop. Eating lunch is more important though! We're not into going out at 12 midnight like those other crazy people. By Thanksgiving I"m usually done with my shopping anyways. It's still my most favorite day to go out though! We went to Allen to eat so Gracie loved watching the waterfall. I was wishing for my nicer camera because of coarse she was all smiley for me and it's such a pretty background.

We had a teacher at our school pass away yesterday so it's very sad. She's had cancer and been battling only a few short years. She was such a wonderful person that would do anything for you in a heart beat. She was so giving to others. We knew it was coming but it's still sudden. She was only in her 50's, single mom with kids and just not fair. It's actually a teacher on Kelly's team so everyone is just really sad right now. It doesn't seem real. Say a prayer for her kids and family and our school. Just a very sad time.

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Presents on Thanksgiving???

2011-12-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

After our fun Thanksgiving feast, we came home to see that Santa had left some gifts for Gracie!

She got cute new Christmas pj's (that she's been wearing nearly every night!), a DVD boxed set of Christmas classics, and our Elf on the Shelf. Santa also wrote her a cool note that told her he couldn't wait to see her! She named our Elf Froggy. Not sure where she got that and I'm hoping it changes next year! Love this new tradition (our Santa sure is smart!) and I think we will continue this on every Thanksgiving night :) Our Froggy is a cute little Elf that watches and listens to Gracie all day then reports back to Santa every night. In the morning he comes back to our house in a new spot. Part of the fun is finding him every morning. By the way, another thing I'm killing myself for not coming up. How clever!!

Party at the Farm

2011-12-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

Before Thanksgiving one of Gracie's classmates had a fun birthday party at the Heritage Farm in Plano. Heritage farm is an Historical home in Plano that schools usually take yearly field trip as they are studying Plano in the early days.

It was a very cool, but pretty Saturday morning. The kids had so much fun doing a scavenger hunt around the grounds and then got to play old timey games! Here are some pics from the day.

Ms. Sydney came (her teacher from last year) and this is Samantha (bday girl). These 2 fight over Ms. Sydney!!

Sack Racing. Gracie was going against several girls and a few boys and she BLEW THEM AWAY. I was shocked. Pop thinks she's going to be a good athlete. She is pretty fast!!

After some play time it was time for pizza and cake. The kids favorite part!

The party ended with the kids getting to take a large wagon ride around the grounds being pulled by a tractor. That might have been the best part!
What a fun day!

It's Christmas Around Here!

2011-12-03T08:12:00.001-08:00

I'm finally getting around to posting some pics of our house decorated. I really wanted to do it up more this year since our house was on the market last year and had to remain neutral for holidays! I havne't got all crazy because I'm just too tired from work! Here's our tree...

We had the perfect spot in our front living room but then we realized it was one of the non-working outlets we have in that room and our electrician said it would cost a small fortune to get them working again. So we had to problem solve and finally decided to run an extension cord from behind the tv. Not what I wanted but at least the tree skirt sort of covers it up!

                                 Our not finished mantle in the same room with the tree..

Dining room table. My mom did this one day when she was staying at our house waiting for a repair man. She used the "G" wreath I had just made!

We actually did a few lights out front. Not much but just around the door. Gracie loves it! Hopefully next week we'll actually have bushes and can do more around the house outside.

We did got to Garden Ridge and get one of those inflatables. It's cute and Gracie loves it too. We still have to get some sort of a spot light so it will show up in the dark. Our outside lights attached to our house are few and far between.

                         Just a little funny comparison. Really bad quality b/c I took a pic of a picture on my phone. This is me (why did the late 70's/early 80's have such yellow tones on pics???) by my Jack-n-the box that Nana always did for us kids.


                               GG continued the fun tradition and here is Gracie from last year. We have several of the kids by them and I love having all the older pics out during this time of year. Very fun.

And you really know it's Christmas time when you get to bake and be a kid and lick the extra batter off the spoon. So good!!

And finally... meet "Froggy"!!

Our elf from Elf on the Shelf. It's been fun watching our Froggy appear in places. This is our first year to do this. I have to say though, I don't see the reason for all the mischief that people's elf's get into??? I guess it's just fun but all over facebook and pinterest I see all these ideas for silly places to put him and trouble for him to get into? Not really sure what that is about. Our Froggy just appears in funny places but doesn't get into any trouble. Yet I guess!

Happy Holidays everyone!! What a wonderful time of year it is....

Life with Ji

2011-12-01T19:28:00.001-08:00

Things are busy around here & I wanted to give a quick update. Ji has been living with us since Sunday & things are going great. Sunday night he cooked an authentic Chinese cuisine. My mom took him to an Asian market nearby & he was in heaven. Here he is cooking.

He worked/cooked for 2 hours. He said his wife does most of the cooking but he did a great job!

Here's a sample. Lots of vegetables & rice. They eat mostly pork but meat is not a main dish. Their meat is more got flavor. Very different from here! Pop said "where's the beef????" Ji even got us chopsticks & Gracie thought that was pretty cool.

Speaking of Gracie...

She is having the best time with him. She LOVES the fact that we take him to the train station every morning before school. (That means I have to sit in the back of the car with her and she eats that up) But she also likes to see the trains.

Ji works very hard all day long at SMU and gets back to our house after dark. He is very good at trains and buses. When Ji finally gets home Gracie is anxious to play games with him. She's taught him Candy land. Don't spill the beans, Don't Break the Ice, puzzles, & more.

We've learned so much from him about China's way of life and he is learning about our way of life. He thinks things are very cheap here and can't get over how many stores and how everything is so easy. WE are very spoiled here in America. What can we say? Ji really likes visiting with Kelly and they have a lot of common even though we are on opposites of the world. We talk a lot about education. He finds American schools very interesting and we want to know how they are all so smart. 70-80% of Chinese go to college. It's amazing.

Ji's wife and daughter (she'll be 3 in June) are going to come over here too while Ji finishes out his year long work contract. He wants to learn more and get things settled before they come. I can't wait to meet them! He said his wife likes to shop and watch drama shows on tv. I said we'd get along great!

On the weekends we'll both be off from work so he have lots to show him around here!

Turkey Day 2011

2011-11-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving! We had our lunch at GG and Pop's. All the cousins were able to come in this year and Baby Mason too! It was so much fun.

This is what we woke up to Thursday morning. Solid fog. We couldn't even see the playground across the street! Now back to Thanksgiving...

Look who got to hold the baby! I caught him in a sweet, little yawn. Love it. I had to get in one too..

I said "Look, he could be our baby!" Super cute baby boy!

Gracie loved snuggling with him too.

The bigger kids had fun coloring turkeys.

Ji watched Pop carve the turkeys.

Papaw was looking forward to a good lunch!

silly cousins!

All the cousins and Ji!

Paula, Weston, and Baby Mason

GG and Pop with the kids

Gracie and Papaw

All Papaw's Grandchildren and 3 Great- Grandchildren! So special. I posted this on facebook and one of my friends said we looked just like the Waltons, Ha!!

Now I totally copied this from pinterest but just thought it was the sweetest thing ever. Hands over different ages. We had Papaw who is almost 91 all the way to a 6 week old! Super sweet I thought.

This one was just Papaw with Maxum and Gracie.

I had to dr them up a bit in photoshop but I just love them. What a great memory to always have. Hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for!!

Gracie on Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

Getting Gracie dressed cute is not always easy. She has a big mind of her own and prefers jeans and shirts. I understand, but they don't make many cute clothes for girls that are not dresses! For Thanksgiving I had to let her wear her sqweeker shoes and tell her she could change clothes after lunch. She wasn't thrilled but it worked :)

I had to snap a few pics of her out front. Luckily Maxum came out front with me too to distract her!!

Meet Ji!

2011-11-26T11:54:00.000-08:00

We have a new friend and his name is Ji (think like the letter "G"). He is from China and here doing research at SMU. He's only been in the US for a few weeks now and he was able to join us for Thanksgiving. He's wanting to learn more about America so guess what? He's going to be our new roommate for a few weeks. He will be moving in with the Gauger family tomorrow. He has a wife and 2 year old little girl back in China. We can't wait to learn more about him teach him about Texas!

Happy Thanksgviving

2011-11-22T16:49:00.000-08:00

As we prepare for our big turkey day things are going to be very busy around here. We've got lots going on and I just want to enjoy our time as a family.

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we are most thankful for our new house (and not having a house on the market anymore!) Plus, we're thankful for family, friends, health, and happiness!

Hope everyone enjoys their turkey day with family and friends. We will!!

I'll be back after the holiday to update :)

Around the House

2011-11-20T17:13:00.001-08:00

Lately all I have time for is weekend updates! Friday night Kelly watched Gracie and I did some holiday shopping. So much easier to shop w/o my little side kick! I've done a lot of online shopping and so far I'm just about done with Gracie. She's been saying she wants a new bike from Santa so we'll see!

Saturday Kelly taught Sat. school so Gracie and I did some holiday shopping together. She did great! We even went to a big holiday craft show and she just rode around in her stroller. She loves her stroller and it keeps her contained and easy on me!

Kelly DVR'd the Nebraska came so he watched as soon as he got home. They lost.

Later we watched the Baylor game and they won again, beating OU for the very first time. Go bears!! It was a MAJOR upset :)

Sunday morning we started decorating for Christmas. Don't judge, I know it's early but we hardly did anything last year so I said this year we'd make up for it. Gracie was beyond excited and loved helping me decorate the tree. We had to do some problem solving as to where to put our tree but I think it turned out in a nice place. This was before we decorated it.

I've started buying iron on transfers off etsy and making my own shirts for her. The iron on cost $4 off etsy and then I bought my own shirt cheap at Wal-mart. It won't last through tons of washings but cute enough for the holiday.

I broke out our Make - it kit for Gracie. I bought this kit like 3 years ago and am just finally getting her plate made. We made a few different ones to send off and the design will be made onto a plate. I'll show the finished products when they come in.I had the idea to make her a yearly plate and put her favorite things on it to always remember. It should be cute!

A pinterest idea. I think it turned out cute. I made it and will hang it somewhere. Just gotta find a place :)

Gracie's had a great time playing with her marble set. It's super fun and she and her Daddy really get into the towers. Big fun!

We only have 2 days of school (pointless!) then we're off for nice break. Gracie is super excited for Thanksgiving and getting to see Baby Mason again. (And she also knows that Christmas is next!!!)

Happy Thanksgiving week Everyone!

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Weekend fun

2011-11-16T16:15:00.001-08:00

Kelly & I had a great weekend. We left school right at dismissal (just as he got back from 5th grade camp) & drove to Kansas. It's an 8 hr drive so we went Judy 1/2 way to tulsa, ok. Sat morning we got up & drove 4 more hrs & met with with my friend Hillary from DC & her boyfriend Eric for the baylor/ kansas game. Eric went to Kansas St & ham & I went to Baylor so it was a big game!

Here's Ham & I at the game. The game started off rough for Baylor. Like 3 quarters down 24/3 rough. With just 9 min left in the 4th Baylor came alive & scored 3 td in a row. It was amazing! Then we tied so in ot Baylor scored 1st. Then on kansas' turn they scored & went for 2 & missed. Unbelievable!!! Ham & I were going crazy (amongst all Kansas people!!!) those fans were so mad & booed. I just hate booing, soooo rude!

Anyhow we were thrilled & Kansas fans in shock! They couldn't wave their wheat anymore :) after the game we hung out then drove to Kansas city &; stayed with some of kelly's friends. We both had time with friends we never see.It was great. A short, but sweet weekend. Sunday we had a long drive home but we both took turns driving. I had downloaded some tv shows and watched those so the time flew by!

Gracie had a fun weekend with GG while pop was at the deer lease.

Yesterday we had a rdg nite at school so she came with me & loved all the attention from the teachers!!

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My Gracie

2011-11-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

I've posted these on facebook but not the blog. Isn't she cute?

Oh how much I love this girl!

I took these of her super fast one weekend right outside our front door.

I love the trees in our front yard! She cooperates when I saw that it will be fast :)

So far I really like this age. People told me to watch out for the 4's and maybe that's still coming. She is opinionated and wants things her way, but who doesn't?? She is emotional at times and clingy and likes to follow me around the house, but that's okay. She's happy most of the time and super sweet. She constantly says "I Love you Mommy!" and I shout it right back at her. She's learning so much and I just love when she asks about something or questions something. It's how they learn! She has a pretty good memory and keeps us on our toes! I want her to keep this fun, free spirited attitude :)

I love you Gracie Girl

Sickie

2011-11-08T17:53:00.001-08:00

Poor Gracie is sick. She started coughing over the wknd & by Sunday nite had a low grade fever. GG kept her home Monday & she continued to cough & run a fever. I stayed with her today & took her in to see the dr. She's got a really bad upper respiratory infection @ is now on breathing treatments 4 times a day.

She doesn't look or act as sick as the dr said she is! We enjoyed being in our pj's during the rain storm we got!

We r keeping her home again b/c she had a fever still today. Hoping she's better soon!

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Ketch-Up with Iphone pics

2011-11-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

Just a little catch up with what we've been up to...

Gracie is just loving school. We couldn't be happier. She loves going every day and is always so happy to be there and is learning a lot. She tells us what she's learned each afternoon (with some prompting of coarse!!) It's so nice to have her at such a good school where she's enjoying her lonnnnng day. Makes it easier for me. Her school is literally down the street from ours so we get to ride into school together every day. Takes us 10 minutes from our house now. Love it :)

Here she is making a card for her teacher. I've really been working on writing her name with her. She knows all the letters but has trouble with the 'G' and 'e'. It's a work in progress :)

One night she wanted us to work on a puzzle together. This was a pretty big one with super tiny pieces. She did such a good job. She was doing better than me. Her teacher said she loves doing puzzles. Puzzles take great thinking skills :)

Have I mentioned how much we love our house? Well, we do love our house! We go to the park nearly every afternoon and weekends. It's a good thing to tire this one out.

She wanted to dress up before dinner one night.

Love this dog too...

And my random pic of the week. My allergy meds. I switched allergy meds to something my mom has been taking. You get it at Costco and it's less than $20 and you get an ENTIRE year's worth of pills. I've been taking it since Sept and have not had a sinus infection. I do these pills with nose spray. Seriously good stuff. I usually have had at least 2 sinus infections by now. Knock on wood...

and I finally took a morning on a weekend to organize her toys. I dumped out almost everything in these baskets and got it all together to separate into the bins again. I have it all categorized now. So, there should not be ANY confusion as to what goes where. This is very helpful for me and G's Daddy too :) I don't just throw the toys wherever. EVERYTHING fits into a basket. Some categories are games, stuffed animals, books, learning toys, drawing stuff, and one is odds and ends for all the random stuff. Gracie helped me do this and it made her realize that she needs to help be organized too!

I put all her doll/baby stuff into baskets that store in her kitchen play set. It's so nice to have everything in a place, Yea! We'll see how long it lasts...

Now you're all caught up. Happy almost Friday!

Super Gracie to the Rescue!

2011-11-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

This Halloween was so fun for us. Gracie was really into the whole idea of Halloween and it was great. It wasn't fun having Halloween on Monday but we made the best of it! I picked her up early from school and we came home to watch Halloween shows and eat an early dinner. She couldn't wait to get all dressed up again.

She had more fun picking acorns then taking the pictures :) We loaded up in the car and headed to the Ninja Zombies house...

Gracie thought Maxum looked really cool! Their neighborhood just takes the cake around here. Almost the entire neighborhood participates and has lots of decorations complete with mini haunted houses and smoke. It's pretty cool :)

Here's the little group we went with. Check out the cute cowboy. He's Gracie's age and super adorable!!

Finally it was time!!!!!!!!!!

This year she just took off and did great. Last year she still needed lots of prompting and reminding. This year, not so much! She loved every second :) She kept up with the 3 boys pretty good, but the Zombie Ninja was always in the lead. He loves candy!!

Several houses gave out things other than candy which was nice. Toys, pencils, and even juice. Great idea! All the kids were thirsty.

This was one of our favorite houses. They did a great job even had a surround sound attached to the walk through. We even saw some 'ghost poop'. Super fun!

We went full on for about an hour. She did really good but was starting to get tired. She'd had a LONG day! We headed home and then got to check out her loot. She was one happy girl!!

We spent the rest of the night watching Diego's Halloween and handing out candy to the older kids.She thought that was pretty fun too.

Just for fun, a little Halloween recap :)

2007 (flower)

2008 (Ballerina)

2009 (Kitty- cat)

2010 (Girly Skeleton)

2011 (Super Gracie)

Who knows what she'll be next year :)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Hard at Work

2011-10-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Gracie has to earn her keep around here.....

(This is me telling her to open her eyes for pics!) I've had more people tell me lately that they think Gracie is starting to look like me now. Not sure. I still see a lot of Kelly in her!

This is her favorite 'chore' as she calls them. Her Daddy helps and so does this guy...

A funny on Jack.... He loves this chore too because at this time Kelly usually turns the pool cleaner (the polaris) on. It is a sweeper that moves around the pool with a long tail and sometimes sprays up water as it gets close to the edge. Well, Jack goes CRAZY! He acts like a puppy almost jumping and trying to bite it. It's funny:)

Aww, Jack! He's such a good dog. Jack's getting on up there in doggy years. He's 11 and still working great. He's definitly slower to get up and lay down but I think he really loves his new house. It was definitly hard on him. All the house showings and up and down, in and out of the car- then boxes everywhere and then the new house. He's finally getting settled in I guess. His favorite spot is Gracie's room. Not sure why, but I have to keep her door closed b/c I don't want him in there all day!

In other news...

Gracie had school pictures today. I was super glad we had some cooler weather so she got to wear a cute sweater.

I told her to open her eyes and show teeth for her pictures. We'll see!

We're up watching the Rangers AGAIN. We hope they can pull it off and win the title tonight!!

Pal-o-ween!

2011-10-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

Plano East high school hosted a fun game and costume night for kids tonight. Gracie was super excited to wear her costume and go to her 'Halloween party' as she kept calling it!

Here's our girl, "SUPER GRACIE"!!

Isn't she cute?

Gracie likes the idea of Halloween but not so much the dress up part. We talked and talked about what she'd be. She really wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story and I said "No thanks" to the $40 plus costume. Not my kind of thing! So we used the cape I bought for her last year and she loves Word Girl on tv so she became Super Girl, or Super Gracie as she calls it. Hey, it works and it was pretty cheap considering I bought the cape last year :)

This is one of our few 'colder' Halloweens. Sometimes we wear shorts and t's! Tonight was cold and rainy so we even had to wear jackets!!

The high school kids did a great job and had all these stations set up for games. The prizes were candy.

It was super crowded. I thought with the rain and the Rangers game it would not be bad, but I was WRONG! Long lines. We did a few games then called it a night!

She had a really good time and loved getting candy for prizes!

Kelly even got to see some former 5th grade students that are seniors now. Ha! Makes us feel old when that happens!! We're not in our early 20's anymore :)

Happy Halloween Weekend to everyone and GO RANGERS!
We're hoping for the World Series Win!

4 Year Well Visit

2011-10-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Monday was Gracie's 4 year well visit. I've heard about this Dr. visit for years now from Mommy friends and I wasn't too thrilled about having to do it. I'd say overall it was okay and I"m super glad we don't have to do it again. We are 3 weeks late for this because I had to wait until we had a day off from work. Monday was our 'fall break', one day off so not a fun way to spend my day off! The other factor was that this was G's first time with a new Dr. Since we moved, I did not want to drag her back up to McKinney for every little sniffle and she hasn't been sick since we moved in so it was a new Dr. for us. I found a very sweet Dr. that is close to our house that is full of wonderful nurses and was easy to get into. Here she is in the waiting room. She was all smiles, I didn't tell her what we'd be doing soon!

We started off with basics; height/weight check, blood pressure check. That was the easy part :) Then we moved on to the vision check and hearing check. She did great with the vision. The hearing she was told to raise her hand if she heard the beep. I guess she didn't want to raise her hand or what because she'd just look at us and smile when she heard the beep. Then we told her to start shaking her head but she'd just put her hand on her head. She was all confused. The nurse said she could tell she did fine. Phew. I know the girl can hear!! She hears everything! Then the appt started going downhill. The nurse had to test her blood by pricking her finger. Yuck. It was great at first then the pain set in. She cried and cried. Good news is her iron count is good and her lead level is very low so that's good.

We finally got her calmed down then the Dr. came in to do this physical. She asked us lots of questions about her and our house. She asked about the pool, making sure we had gates, smoke detectors, what she eats, sleeping, school, and more. She did an overall physical of her and checked out all her parts and her spine. She said she looks great! Yay! She gave her fun rewards then her mood took a nose dive. She kept asking why she couldn't put her pants on and I had to tell her she needed shots. Oh the wailing that came out of her. She was in major panic mode. Kelly and I both tried to comfort her but there wasn't much we could do. Luckily the nurses came in fast and were super quick. They each had 2 shots and bam, bam did both legs 2 times and we were done. They did the flu mist in her nose super quick first though and we were out of there! She did cry, well SCREAMED during the shots. Once it was over not too bad.

Here are her stats for 4 years old!

Height: 39.5 inches (50th %)

Weight: 35 lbs (50th%)

Blood Pressure: 102/64

Overall, Healthy! Praise the Lord.

I took her straight to the store to get a Halloween treat. Pumpkin Pez. Then we took her out to lunch. Her favorite, tortillas and butter!

GG came and brought her a treat for being so brave during her shots.

. A doll almost as big as her! Gracie loves her new 'friend' and named her Livia. She has taken here EVERYWHERE- even Livia has taken naps too.

Here's to her 4 year well visit being over and no more shots for a LONNNNNNNG time :)

Fun wknd

2011-10-24T18:52:00.001-07:00

We've had a fun weekend & even had Monday off from school! Gracie had her 4 yr well visit too so we have lots to catch up on.

We've been cheering on our Texas rangers too! More to come.

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Meeting Baby Mason

2011-10-22T15:34:00.000-07:00

Baby Mason was born on Sept. 12th and this weekend was his first visit to Dallas. Gracie was super excited to see him!

She couldn't get out the door fast enough this morning!

And here he is! GG fought for him 1st!

Gracie was all over him too. She thought he was so cute!

Papaw got to hold his Great-Grandson!

Gracie got her very own turn too! Her first time holding a little bitty all to herself!

Papaw with his Great-Grandchildren

Maxum 6, Gracie 4, Mason 6 weeks

Mason is such a good baby! Thanks Paula and Weston for making the trip to Dallas and we can't wait to see them again at Thanksgiving!!

Flashback Friday

2011-10-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

Aren't these super cute! Just keeping up with her birthday month! The first was her first Halloween. She so loved dressing up! Oct. 2007

The second, Oct. 2008 for her 1st bday pics. Love it :)

Gracie Funnies

2011-10-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just a few funny things Gracie has said recently...

She's really into why things happen and when will things happen- like dying. Here's a recent conversation we had about death.
G: Mommy, when do you die?
Me: When you get older
G: And how do you get to Heaven? And how do you die?
Me: God just takes you when He is ready for you. (and complete change of subject coming) Look, there's Daddy's favorite donut shop!

a dinner conversation:
G: Mommy, when will you get married again?
Me: Married again? I won't get married again. I'm married to Daddy.
G: You have to be older to get married, right?
Me: Yes, much, much older.

a bedtime conversation:
G: Mommy, how does God take you up to Heaven?
Me: He just does. When it's time.
G: So you just float up high in the sky.
Me: Yes
G: How come people die?

She still says some words funny: Like she'll say 'resterday' instead of yesterday. 'free' for three, never mind, nusing (nothing), 'lello' for yellow. Too cute.

She sings constantly. I love listening to her sing. She gets embarrassed if we ask her to sing for us so we just have to pretend we aren't listening. In the car and at home while playing she just has the sweetest conversations with her babies and I love it. She is such a good Mommy to them!

We are enjoying our FUN FOUR year old :)

State Fair of Texas

2011-10-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

The State Fair of Texas is going on now from the end of September until October 22. We decided a few years ago to make it an every other year deal. We do get free teacher tickets so that helps, but everything is SO expensive. You have to buy coupons to purchase ANYTHING and it gets a little outrageous :) Gracie was just so excited this year. She'd had a whole week at school where they talked about the fair and made crafts and painted Big Texas and even had cotton candy so she was all aware of everything. We went early Sat. morning and got there before the big crowds came in.

As soon as we entered the grounds we had to all make a quick potty run then we found the children's farm. It was way crowded 2 years ago but since we were there early it was just about a 5 min. wait. She had fun but probably her last year to do it. Everything was pretend (even pretend animals). It was cute though for the little kids!

At the farm she got to feed animals, plant seeds, and ride a tractor. They had a very structured path with specific directions at each stop. She had fun so it was neat for her. They even had a cute store where she earned a farm buck and got to buy something. With some prompting, she got cheetos!
Next was what she'd been waiting and waiting for.... Cotton Candy!

Now she was happy !! Lucky for me, she did share :)

We walked around a bit then headed to get good seats at the dog show. I see this almost every time I go and just love it. This was Gracie's 1st time she had HAD SO MUCH FUN! She loved watching all the dog tricks and really liked the dogs that jumped into the pools. Super fun!

After the show we did more sightseeing and found the Fletcher's Corn Dog stand. You have to get a corn dog (and it must be from fletchers). It is the yummiest thing ever. Gracie actually ate about 1/2 of hers along with the cheetos and snacks we brought in.

Next it was time for rides. The elephants went up and down. She liked that one.

Then we tried the game section (Midway). This is where they get your $$! They make the games look super easy and they reel you in. Gracie did this one where you throw a ball to pop balloons. She did good and even threw the ball with both her right hand and left hand to pop them! She got a few prizes.

We strolled by the farm animals. We steered clear of the animal house that was solid people where you can feed them. It smells bad in there and K and I are paranoid about people and farm animal germs :) luckily she had no idea what she missed!

If you go to the fair you have stop and see the 1/2 man. He's a must see. He's been there for years and it fun to watch. He makes fun of people in the crowd!

Next we found Big Tex. He is the reason for the fair!! She liked watching him but he was in the dead sun and there was a huge crowd there so we didn't stay long. It was super warm (hot!) out. It started off in the upper 60's and got up to the 80's but with no breeze and solid people, HOT! I even put sun screen on her face.

See all the people? It go sooo crowded you could barely walk. Then you had people walking super slow and or pulling wagons and or double/triple strollers. Nightmare! Our day was coming to an end and we had a few more coupons to spend. We let Gracie pick out another ride and she got to go all by herself. She chose the bikes and had fun!

After this we packed it in and made the long walk back to the car and the long car ride back to Plano. It took forever to get home and we were HOT! We got home and all took naps. We were so tired!!

The fair was so fun this year! Gracie really knew what was going on and has been talking about it still today. Super fun memories made!!

Around the House...

2011-10-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

We're still here- just been finally able to relax a little after moving and birthday mode. We haven't been up to much but it's been nice to relax a little!

Doesn't she look so cute? Kelly's Aunt Mary sent this and I love it! It goes perfect when she cooks in her little kitchen!!

Over the weekend we visited Papaw and had lunch. Maxum was there too and they had fun playing by the fountains.

I've finally had some time to do some things around the house...

Here's my photo collage wall. It's a work in progress but something I'm so happy to have (a blank wall!) It will be so fun to add to it ever so often. My mom said I have too many photos and I think I can't ever have enough! It's such a fun thing to have up and out for people to see. It totally makes me stop and look at it whenever I'm in that room or walk past it. Love it.

Look at my cute little literate pumpkin. It was a pinterest find. Is everyone on pinterest now? If not, you should be! This was actually made from an old book and then I used stuff from our front yard to embellish the top. So fun to make and took about 10 minutes.

I think that's about it! Gracie and I have had so much fun decorating the house (after we took all the bday stuff down!). She's been singing "Halloween, Halloween. I love Halloween!" Such a fun time of year. We've also been enjoying watching the Rangers. We hope they make it to the World Series again!! We're doing some more fall fun this weekend by heading to the fair. Love the Texas Fair!

Gracie’s 4th Birth Day

2011-10-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

Gracie had a fab-4th birth day and our fun continued on her actual birth day. She woke up super early to watch cartoons with Grandma. We had muffins and got ready for early church. It was GG and I’s week for Sunday school. GG and this precious cupcake dress for Gracie and it was a match to get her in it but I finally won :)

Since Gracie wore her dress (ha, ha!) GG promised her a bday present. She was super excited. It’s a Gracie train. Super cute.

After church, we hurried home to change clothes and pack up for the Arboretum. It’s the prettiest place to be right now! We took Grandma last year and had so much fun and we knew Grandma Sawyer would love it too. The weather was perfect, pumpkins EVERYWHERE. It was wonderful!! The pumpkin area was really crowded so we didn’t stay too long in there.

Can you believe all the pumpkins? It’s really unreal. You just have to see it for yourself.

We had a picnic lunch right by the water. The best spot! After lunch we had a quick tshirt change and poor Grandma S. lost and then FOUND her camera so we were back in business.

I just loved the giant pumpkins. I wish I could have taken one home!

It really warmed up so Gracie was super happy to get wet and play in the water. I also let her go sock and shoeless the rest of the way. She mostly rode in the wagon.

It was about here that she said "NO more pictures, I'm done!" She is no fun!!

I think this was my favorite pumpkin. Just loved the texture of it.

We went through the fun Texas pioneer stuff then made our way to the front gates.

My sweet 4 year old :)

On the way home we drove Grandma and Grandma by our new school then came home to play.

Then Kelly and Gracie.....

went swimming! Only in Texas :) The water was ice cold- literally but that didn't stop them. After a few jumps in Gracie went down for a 2 hour nap. (thanks goodness!) and after naps Kelly grilled hamburgers and we had left over cake for dessert. Yum.

We want to give a big 'thank you' to Grandma and Grandma that came out for Gracie's bday. They helped to make her day and weekend so special. We hope they come back very soon!!

Happy Birthday Gracie! I hope you love being 4. We wish you health, happiness, and just pure fun this year. We love you to the moon and back .

Gracie's 4th Bday Party

2011-10-06T16:41:00.000-07:00

My sweet girl turned 4 this past Sunday, Oct. 2nd. I still have a hard time saying she’s 4 for some reason. Just doesn’t seem real. She had a super fun birthday and loved every second of it. Pretty much was an entire birthday weekend and she got spoiled rotten. Grandma Gauger came and brought Grandma Sawyer all the way from Minnesota. It was Grandma’s very first plane ride and were were soooo happy she came to Texas.

Since just moving and still settling in our house we decided to have a very small party for her and just use our resources- so we had the party at the park across from our house. It couldn’t have been more perfect. After all, Gracie considers that her park anyways. It’s a park you can’t reserve so I was the crazy mom out there on Sat. morning at 7:15 putting reserved signs on the tables! Everything worked out as planned (except a balloon fiasco and brownies not being ready!) but Gracie had fun and that’s all that matters, right??
Some pictures from the fun day!

How she rode up to the party. In style, for sure! I really needed the wagon to transport goods but she wanted to ride.

This little lady bug was super excited to finally wear her ladybug shirt! And she especially requested chocolate cake and cupcakes.

It was actually chilly that morning (60’s) so I put her in jeans. Then it got warm and she was hot. The good thing about being across the street was that I just ran her over and we changed. Loved it!

She was thrilled when Maxum arrived!

Gracie and sweet Abbie that came in from Houston. Such a sweet, sweet, friend!

The kids had fun playing. They had several playgrounds to chose from.

Cute Lily Pad

After some play time it was time for CAKE!

She was READY :)

I hope she made good wishes :)

Next it was chocolate on the face for the rest of the party!

One of my favs from the day.

All the chocolate made for some silly yilly kids. Especially Gracie and Maxum!

Group shot:

The best part, when it was over- we just WALKED back to our house. Everyone grabbed something and we were off. Super easy :)

We had Schlotzsky's make up a sandwich tray for everyone. It was easy and yummy. The kids had a great time playing in her new play room. They even had a parade through the house. Next it was time for PRESENTS.... what she'd been waiting for for DAYS!

She got some great stuff: Jessie doll, doll high chair, doll wagon, games, books, clothes, coloring books, Dora doll, tea set, and MORE. She is so spoiled! But she loved every second!!

Right when our guests were leaving GG was helping to clean up and discovered we were having a HUGE plumbing problem. Our shower drain had not been draining well and then our kitchen sink would not drain. NOT good. Pop to the rescue. He called some plumbers and within an hour we had some one out and fixed in no time. Grandma and Grandma were outside enjoying the sun and missed all the excitement!

After everyone left GG let Gracie open up one more gift. Her very own telephone from PB kids. It's super cute. Funny though because both Gracie and Maxum did not know what it was b/c it's an old school style phone. She loves it :)

Someone in all the excitement I did manage to get her down for a bday nap and she slept OVER 3 HOURS. So long I had to wake her up around 5:30 long. She was in a pretty good mood though after that. What a great birthday party she had! Through moving into our new school and unpacking, packing up our entire home and moving 3 weeks ago, having bronchitis, and birthday planning I was WIPED! It was so much fun though and I CANT BELIEVE WE HAVE A 4 YEAR OLD!

Up next, her actual birthday day and school party :)

Gracie is 4

2011-10-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

My sweet baby girl is 4 years old TODAY

Your Birth Day, Tuesday, October 2nd 3:32 pm

Your 4th Birthday, Sunday, October 2nd

Wow, how you have changed!!

Happy Birthday Sweetness. We love you to pieces!!!

What We've Been Up To...

2011-09-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Still busy around here setting up house! We were pretty much done with ALL the boxes and then we went to our storage and holy moly, we had so much junk in there. Stuff that has been in there for 11 months now. Stuff I'd forgotten about. It was like Christmas to Gracie. She found her wagon, car, picnic table, and boxes of toys I'd boxed up. She was in heaven!!

Somehow we managed to squeeze in some fall fun one Friday afternoon to attend Plano's annual balloon festival. Once again for the 3rd year in a row, our Friday night visit was weather permitting and no balloons took off. I was so bummed!

Gracie had the most fun though. She did bounces houses, got balloon animals and ate fun stuff!

We had to make a quick exit as a bad storm was heading our way so we ended up getting rained on!

We also had our first gathering at our house. We celebrated Kirk's birthday over here with fajitas. It was yummy and Gracie loved having people over to her NEW house, as she keeps calling it!

My cousin, Paula, had baby Mason so Papaw and Maxum were giving a thumbs up for her. He's precious and we can't wait to see him in person!

We have certainly been busy! I'm also recovering from a bad stint of bronchitis. I haven't had that in years and it has been bad. I haven't missed a day of school though so I've been dragging my sick self every day fever and all. I just couldn't miss so early in the year. I finally got on some meds and have been resting this weekend so I'm hoping to be fully back to normal soon. And in all this craziness we're gearing up for someone's 4th birthday!!!

I can't believe she is going to be 4!

2011-09-21T17:20:00.001-07:00

To say we are enjoying our house is an under statement!

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Location:Wednesday...

More House Pics...

2011-09-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy weekend! No rest or relaxing when you move into a house. Friday night we went to the Plano Balloon festival. It hasn't rained here in months, months and somehow a storm blew in Friday night so no balloons could take off. I was so bummed but happy to have some rain. We just had a very light rain but had some lightning so pretty much the event was canceled Friday night. Sat we spent ALL day going to the storage unit and unpacking some things we hadn't seen for almost a YEAR! Gracie couldn't wait to get her hands on her wagon. GG an Pop helped again all day long hanging stuff and finding a place for stuff. Here are some new pics... It's starting to look more like a house!

Friday we got grass! I also want to snap a few of our trees. Our house is over 30 years old so the trees are just gorgeous. Kelly said he's NEVER lived in a house with trees so I just had to take a few to show off how big and pretty they are.

Here's some more of Kelly's room. He finally has place for the beer mugs he collects.

This is the ginormous tree we have on the side of the house. The picture does not do it justice. It's' just huge!! We had some major trimming done on it. This side patio is off of Kelly's room.

Show's you the 'man cave' leads into the dining room and the kitchen. Kelly said no toddlers/tiaras allowed in his man room!!

Our bedroom. We got some more things hung up including my favorite dog picture! Just looks like Jack up there on the bed curled up :)

Playroom then kitchen

Now G's room....

Isn't it so cute! She really likes it! GG worked so hard and helped do pretty much all of it. She has the same furniture just changed a little. I so wanted to keep her black/white/pink motif and GG did great!! At first I was going to switch her to a double bed but at the last minute changed my mind. She's so happy in her daybed and now she has more floor space in her room. Everything turned out perfect. See her tiny closet?? So tiny there's not even a light! ha!! Luckily she does have shelves on top and a shelving unit inside that you can't see but boy is it small! I added a double bar and that helps for clothes since their still small clothes :)

Lastly, entry way and dining room. We have a small dining room smack in the center of the house. The good thing is that you can get to the kitchen or other living room areas so its easy to move around. Well, that's it for now. We've done a lot in just a week!!

Good Things Come to Those that Wait

2011-09-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

My new expression is the title because after waiting 9 long, stressful months, we finally got our dream house!!!! (It actually took 10 to finally get in but still!) I've been wanting to post pics but our house is FAR from being presentable! Some day soon I hope to get a nice, straight house. Right now we're still trying to just find a place for everything. Our house is only 3 beds/2 baths. We went down a full bedroom and down a full bathroom. It's been a little tough. On the flip side though, we now have 3 living areas that we are using daily so no wasted space!! Here are just a few pics and when things get more settled I'll post some more.

Here's the front. It looks totally different now but it's dark at this moment so I can't go take a recent pic.We got all the gren stuff taken out (ivy, ground cover) trees trimmed (that you can't see) and new grass just put in today. (And it happens to be raining tonight so we are VERY lucky!)

We're calling this our front yard because it's literally across the street. Gracie's very own park!!

Now in the house. Let me give you the details. We had another house we really liked. It was smaller but would have updated and nice. We were literally about to put a contract on it. My parents happened to drive by this house the same day and told us we should take a look. Once we saw it , we knew :) We were sold!!

The kitchen before we moved in. Totally new and updated. The sellers moved out and pretty much updated the ENTIRE house, priced to sell. We snatched it up when it had just had a contract on it that fell through. It was just meant to be!! This kitchen looks totally different with our 'stuff' in it!

We're calling this Kelly's "Man-Cave!"

It's pretty much his own living space and it's perfect. Here's what we've done.

The room has a sliding glass door that leads to a side patio/yard/grill. The ceiling is what got to Kelly. It's solid wood with a shelf for books. He's so happy!! The red couch is new and is a sleeper sofa so it will serve for a guest room too!

My Living room (or formal living room) is off the front door. I have 3 big windows that face the park. I love it!

Here's a before from a pic I took before we moved it. The windows are on the side you cant see. The doors lead into Kelly's room.

We did hang a few things but I literally just unpacked the last box from this room. This room has not been a priority! We have the furniture set up right but nothing is really decorated much yet.

Master bed room (not unpacked yet!) The only thing we are really having a hard time with (well, me!) is the tiny, tiny closets. All the closets are super small. I am really struggling with that. I even got rid of so many things too.

Gracie's bathroom.

Her room is totally cute and pretty much done (except for hanging stuff) but my camera battery literally died when I went to snap a few pics so that will be next time! My mom worked her butt off days before we even moved in to get things going and ready all for Gracie!

I took this before we even closed on the house. See the sliding glass door on the right? That leads to the pool and is her play room. It's a great size and just perfect for her. We put her shelves/toys/kitchen in there. Love that! It's what sold me. Losing a bedroom meant losing her playroom so this is a nice comprise!

And the pool. We totally did NOT want a pool. Kelly didn't even want to look at a house with a pool. It's just work and takes time and $$. This pool took some $$ to get things going. I could have had some more new furniture for what we had to spend but it will be nice. K and G did go out almost every day this week after school and jumped in.

There you have it. You can see we've done a lot but we had helpers here all last weekend to get us going. Could not have done anything w/o my parents. They've been doing work since our contract was accepted! The yard is a work in progress too but the inside was all updated. We just had to do a few odd and ends but NOTHING to move in really.

See, so good things to come to those that wait. (And I waited very patiently for those long 9 months!) All the break downs and tears were worth it. Everything happens for a reason and this house was just MEANT for us. We can't be happier and more thankful :) When things get done I will post more updated pics!!

Park fun

2011-09-14T17:26:00.001-07:00

We've had a little cold front & we've been able to head outside at night.

-

Gracie loves having the park so close. Did I mention its right across the street??? Just a few steps away.

We are hopefully getting grass tomorrow!!

I was standing at the park taking this pic of our house. Pretty cool!!! It has 4 playgrounds & baseball/ soccer fields. And jack??

He's pretty much in heaven too:)

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Signed, Sealed, Funded- It's Ours!!

2011-09-11T18:49:00.001-07:00

We are in our new house. We closed on both houses on tues afternoon. Everything funded on Wed morning so we have been running at full speed ever since.

We honestly only have a few boxes left. We have had 'helpers' here all wknd unloading & fixing things. Thank goodness for GG & pop! Everything just went so smooth with closing, & moving. It's been great! I am more tired then I've ever been. Moving is exhausting! I promise to be back soon with more pictures & updates. Here's just one to keep u interested....

Our 1st breakfast in our new house!

Yes, our house has a pool!! We have so much to learn :)

I'd better get back to organizing!

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Location:Signed, sealed, funded- it's ours!

Labor Day Wknd!

2011-09-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

We've had a nice weekend but very busy. We got to do our final walk thru on our house and then Gracie stayed with GG and Pop so we could do some final packing. I feel like we are almost done! We close tomorrow nite on BOTH houses so it will be a lonnnnng night!

Jackie said his final good-byes to our house. It's just gotten too stressful for him with boxes everywhere. He can hardly move and he's been acting like a nervous wreck. Plus we'll be home late every nite this week and we did not want him here for moving day, so GG and Pop took him home with them today.

            One last roll in the grass here and one last lick of the carpet! We'll miss you Jack!

        I've been so busy with moving and school that her birthday is sneaking up on me! Yikes. I think we've decided to just do a simple party this year. (Even more simple than last year!) She'll have fun no matter what though!

       Just for me to remember....

We were so thankful to not have school today. I wish we had every Monday off! Plus we had a MAJOR cool down here. It was only 66 degrees this morning and only got up to the upper 80's, low 90's. It was amazing! Happy Labor Day!

Ketch-Up

2011-09-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm finally catching up on some posts I never had a chance to get together and post. Some on Galveston and G's first day of school. I haven't had much time to blog but I have a good reason alright! Any free moment I get I am packing or tending to Gracie since I haven't seen her all day long. Here's what I slipped in for August:
Gracie's First Day of School

Family Beach Pics

Beach Days

Phew, I'm done for awhile! We did our final walk thru on our house and everything looks great. We are so excited but know this is going to be a not so fun week with packing/moving. Wed we get the keys and can start moving in. It may be awhile before I get back on put I'll try and blog posts from my phone to show the house. Happy Labor Day weekend :)

Bless Their Hearts

2011-09-02T19:32:00.001-07:00

My babies. They are super cute but super confused, stressed, and not liking seeing our house full of boxes. I really think Jack is more stressed than her. Poor guy. He doesn’t have many places to lay on anymore. Hold on Jack, just 1 more week!

We officially close on both houses on Tuesday, funding should take place on Wednesday and the new house is ours. We then become tenants in our old house until we can move in the new one. (If all goes well!)

We are celebrating Labor Day by packing up every last thing. I’m not sad yet but I’m sure I will be when things get empty in here. Gracie’s been such a trooper as we have had some late nights and busy doing stuff after school furniture shopping and more. She’s been watching a lot of tv and I’m okay with it! We don’t have anything else left for her to do!! Wish us luck and maybe my next post might be about moving!!

What We are Up Against

2011-08-27T13:55:00.001-07:00

Just so you really know what we've been dealing with down here...

This is no joke. I took a pic off my iPhone of our weekly weather. You people out of Texas have NO idea!!!

-This has been going on for weeks & weeks. months & months now too. We are so sick of it. There is no end in sight either. Praying for some relief soon!

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Rock star

2011-08-26T18:52:00.001-07:00

Hope you have a rockin weekend! We are up to our eye balls in boxes.

Yes, it's a Halloween shirt & wig. She insisted on wearing a long sleeve shirt after school. Choose your battles, right? Its only like 120 outside. I guess it's not hot to her :)

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What She Did/What We Did

2011-08-22T18:42:00.001-07:00

We are still here. Any free time we have we are packing, throwing away, or filling out forms. Sometimes I'm doing all 3 at the same time while talking on the phone & texting our realtor!!

We've had 1 full week of inservice & 1 full day with kids. Super exhausted! Here's a run down of our weekend.

What we did...

Filled my car to the brim with boxes. (all free from school!)

Had meet the teacher Friday night until way late!!!!

Packed, cleaned out, & threw away!

Kelly spent hours in the heat in the garage packing. I spent hours in the kitchen! (u should see how full our trash is!) go us :)

Now what she did...

Went swimming in her new sassy suit.

Looked super cute for the smurfs movie that GG & pop took her to.

Played with her sweet cousin before Sunday school.

& she has the 2 best Sunday school teachers this year. Me & GG!!!

Thank you GG & pop for keeping her & entertaining her while we packed!!! She is already asking when she's going back :)

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Diary of Selling a House/Our Big News

2011-08-16T16:23:00.001-07:00

So our ‘big’ news is that we sold our house. Officially. We are still in it just packing and waiting for closing. The date is going to sneak up on us. It’ s just after labor day. So meantime we’ve started back at school and I am just plain exhausted. That’s all I can say. I always forget how exhausted I get at the beginning of the year now add in the fact that we are unpacking boxes at our brand new building at school (still trying to locate some of mine!) 9-10 hours of the day and packing up our house all evening, plus life with our almost 4 year old, plus trying to sleep somewhere in there. Life is just crazy. That’s all I can say.

We are thrilled beyond belief (but still a little skeptical this will all work w/o any hitches) but in the meantime we’re packing and purging at home. I will catch up sometime and I will get you up to date. I’ll probably keep the house pics a secret until we move in. I LOVE It. Kelly really LOVES it and & everyone that has seen the inside in person has just gone crazy. If all goes well we close on our current house one day and our new house the following day. We’ll rent our house back for a few nights then MOVE (the big move) the Friday of that week. Just keep us your thoughts and prayers please, we are so worried that something might not go through. We’ve heard SO many horror stories lately and we so badly want this to work! For now here’s a little pic of the front of the house…

Isn’t it so cute? Just know that it needs MAJOR landscape work. The previous owners were updating the inside and ignoring the outside. We have a lot of work ahead.

One little bonus picture…

What is that??!!. Well, it’s what we see when we walk out our front doors. Literally a few steps away. Our house is across the street from a HUGE neighborhood park & school. Isn’t it awesome?

We’ve got much more to share later about the house. We’ve signed our papers and we are still in the 7 day option period with it. We are about to have our inspection but I feel like things will be fine. It was just inspected a few weeks ago so we feel good about it. We’re hoping this is our house soon. Gracie is beyond excited

First Day of School

2011-08-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Gracie is back at school at First Baptist in Plano. I am soooo happy I changed my mind and kept her where she was going last year. (I was super close to switching her to the employee preschool center but decided against it last minute). She’s moved into the big 3 year old class (even though she’s almost 4!) and has teachers Ms. Jackie and Ms. Regina and Ms. Stephanie. She is hip hop happy and we couldn’t be happier that she’s happy!
Her first full day back was the day we had to report back for teacher meetings. I snapped a few quick pics. I had forgotten how hard it is getting everyone ready with lunches and bags and leaving early so that didn’t leave much camera time.

First Day of 3’s Class Aug. 2011

age: 3 years 10 months

weight 34 pounds, 39 in tall

One funny thing, the week before we had taken her back to school for a few hours to get used to the routine. When we pulled in the parking lot her class was outside (around 8 in the morning!) and when they saw her get out ALL the kids came running, I mean running, to the gates to see her and were yelling her name and jumping up and down. I told her she was some sort of movie star. She just grinned.

She has chapel now and she comes home learning about all sorts of sweet Bible stories. This first week has been an “All About Me Week” and she even got to bring in something for show and tell. She brought baby Jack (jack beanie dog) and a baby kitten. (We didn’t have much on hand since everything is in boxes!!) I can’t wait to see what else she learns this year!

Last day of summer

2011-08-14T17:43:00.001-07:00

On our 1st day of summer we went to the movies, swimming, & had Gauger family fun day. Our last day of summer we spent a little differently...

What he did....

Why did we do this? As u can probably see- we are moving!!!!!! (& pretty soon) more details to come later :) today we had a packing party! Thanks to GG & Pop for helping us get started!

Gracie is dreaming about her new house. I'm just sure of it!!

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Rainy Morning Fun!

2011-08-13T10:33:00.001-07:00

Kelly and I both woke up to the sound of rain at 4:30 this morning and we were so excited!! It’s so nice to be able to drift off to sleep and sleep in a bit while it rains.

The newscaster on the Today Show this morning said the people in Dallas should be outside jumping in the puddles since we hadn’t had rain in so long. So, we did!

Our grass and flowers are soooo happy !

We have some BIG news that I hope to be able to share soon

What we've been up to

2011-08-11T05:44:00.001-07:00

We are enjoying our last week & trying to soak it all in (freedom)!

We had to run out to the apple store at the mall. My iPhone just died on me but luckily it was a quick fix. G came with me so we strolled around & ate a cookie while watching the ice skaters.

We were right by my favorite Sam moon store & I had never taken here there. Shame on me! Purses & hats, jewelry galore! She picked out a little bracelet.

Being silly!

She has started something new & we love it...

Taking a shower! Soooo much easier & faster. Why didn't we do this sooner??

Eating some yummy yogurt. Temps are still in the 105-107's. It's brutal. It was still 105 at 6:30 pm yesterday.

Mix all thus fun with unpacking our classrooms. We went in already this week to get started with boxes & house hunting!!

We've seen so many houses & finally found a winner. (we hope) hope to have good news & pics to share about it soon!! We've already had ups & downs with this contract on our house. Nothing is easy. :). Gracie has been going to school again while we work in our rooms & was super excited!! She missed her friends.

Happy Thursday!

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Just a few things on Monday

2011-08-08T05:56:00.001-07:00

Can you believe this girl will be 4 in less than 2 months? I can’t!! She is super excited and I’m kinda sad. 4 is so old!

We’re back from the beach and slowly putting things back in order. Suitcases are put away, sand cleared out, laundry- mostly done

Some time I will catch up on our fun week at the beach. We’ve had a lot going on around here. While we were gone…. we had over 10 showings on our house. Several 2nd showings and… we even got a good, clean contract! So good that we didn’t even counter, we accepted while driving home on Central Expressway! We just don’t want to get our hopes up and get burnt- again. The buyer is moving along though and already scheduled a home inspect for tomorrow. We’ve been out house hunting ourselves! Think good thoughts for us and hopefully we’ll have this behind us soon!!

Beach Fun

2011-08-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

I’m being sneaky and putting in this post. I NEVER had to get back and finish up our beach fun! oops… Here’s some that I missed…

My brother caught the shark in the pic above right smack in front of our house where we’d been swimming ALL week long. We think it was a black tip shark. We did see his big Daddy at the aquarium later on and he was pretty scary looking! He caught it in 2 ft of water and it was cool to look at and we all touched it. Never touched a shark before. His skin was super smooth. We took some pics then let him back home free. Kirk and my dad saw another shark that morning (bigger and swimming toward them) so they decided to call it a day. Good idea.

This same day we saw the sharks a lady actually commited suicide right down from our house. It was really strange and sad. I think maybe she had taken pills then passed out/drowned in the water. It was eery and strange that they’d seen the sharks the same morning. I also ended up getting sick (surprise) and got some sort of horrible throat infection. I had a sore throat the entire 1st weekend we were there. After looking in the back of my throat and saw this huge growth I caved and found an e-clinic that I spent an entire afternoon at plus waiting for drugs. It was no fun. I rested and felt better in a few days.

We went to the Galveston aquarium again this year. The kids had such a great time and we even got to watch them feed the penguins. It was super neat and the penguins were my favorite, I think. They just were little performers and kept swimming right up to us and waving with their wings. I swear they were showing off!!

We also had lots of fun time out in the sand. Early in the week Gracie HATED the waves- on our last day (I think) she loved it again. Why does that always happen???

I love the pic above of her. So peaceful watching the waves coming in. A hat and water shoes were a must by all! Zero jelly fish and no one got pinched by any crabs!!

GG and Pop on the front porch

The Littles LOVED being pulled by the boat. Gracie wanted to keep going out far. I just liked to watch (I do not like to go out far!!)

Back of the house

Feeding the birds…

This happened by accident. Gracie had a cracker she didn’t want so I just threw it up and it only took 1 bird to see it and then they were swarming us. We had bread with us and they were in heaven!

The kids just had a blast playing. There were some moments with foul moods and tears and crying every once in awhile but for the most part they were so good and just enjoyed the beach!

Family Beach Pics

2011-08-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

We took some family beach pics again this year in Galveston. Our original night I had strep throat so it got put on hold and we might have had to do some 2 nights in a row because some of us didn't like them! O well. I always have these wonderful visions of getting beautiful pictures but then you get there, it's hot, windy, you're sweating and just want them over. I tried. I'm still learning, that's all I can say! :)

One of my new favs of her!!

PaPaw didn't join us in the sand but he watched from his chair!

Kirk, Alison, & Maxum

The next night I took a few more of them...

and us...

darn foggy lens got the better of us the 2nd night. Owell.

There you have it! Some of these will probably wind up being in our Christmas card this year so act surprised!!!

Most of these look super blurry on here for some reason. They are not and don't look blurry on my computer. Don't know why that's happening...

Beachy Fun

2011-08-04T20:40:00.001-07:00

We’re coming home from our fun week at the beach now. We had such a good time and now we have tons of laundry and pictures to go through. We had super good weather and even survived tropical storm Don. We did not miss the 110 temps at home. They had the hottest week in Dallas the week we were gone. The really sad part is we only have 1 week left of summer. I can’t believe it! So not ready. For now here are just a few pics from our week at the beach.

I have a LOT to catch up on! It was a very interesting week around here but so much fun. I’ll come back sometime and catch up but for now I’m going to enjoy my last few days of summer!

Galveston Beach 2011

2011-08-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

I’m finally getting down and doing our beach post. We went this year to the same house we did last year. It was perfect. On the way down we got to stop at Abbie and Carter’s house in the Woodlands. We had never been there before it was beautiful! Gracie said “Does Abbie live in a forest?” It sure seemed like it We enjoyed chick fil a lunch and a break from the car. Thanks for letting us stop by!!

As we were heading down the tropical storm Don was moving in so we drove in a little rain. It was wonderful. We hadn’t seen rain in months so it was great to us. Not great was that Gracie and I had to stop and pee and we got drenched somewhere outside Galveston Because of ‘Don’ the waves were amazing! Kelly could not wait to get out and ride the waves. The weather was just perfect. Upper 80’s (maybe) and we didn’t even put on sunscreen it was so overcast!

Friday night my cousins all came so it was great to catch up with everyone! Gracie loved touching Paula’s belly! Next time we see her she’ll have had baby Mason

We were all just so excited to be in the house. It is an amazing house with wonderful views.
Before my cousins left after the 1st weekend we tried for some family pics. I had purchased a remote control for my camera but it didn’t work on my new camera and then it just worked crummy. I was mad!

Yes, we color coded and had everyone wear a solid color shirt. I think the colors turned out great! This was on the deck of the house. Our favorite spot.

I took a few cool pics of Paula. Here’s a sneak peek & my favorite …

Gracie and her Water Issue:

Gracie spent the first part of the week HATING the water. It was like 2 years ago all over again. Except this time it was the water, not the sand. She didn’t even like me getting in the water and screamed with fright. The first day we had gone out she jumped in the water (the day with the 6 ft high waves) and a wave got her and she got water in her mouth. I guess that was enough to keep her out. Later on she started getting in but we had some rough moments!!

See, she’s telling the water to ‘go away’.

The played in the sand for hours!!

Next up shopping, strep throat, sharks, and a sad event at the beach…

Where We Are…

2011-07-31T16:28:00.001-07:00

at the beach having a wonderful time with family… be back soon!

ps; Gracie fell on our sidewalk the night before we were leaving and totally scraped up her knees and skinned up her nose. Daddy was on duty She’s fine now but what a mess!

Home of the Week

2011-07-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Our house is the new ‘house of the week’ for our realtor’s ebby office. Yahoo!! (Maybe they feel sorry for us because it’s been on the market so long???)

We will now get some good facebook and other exposure for being house of the week. Yay!

We've had good showings all week long (even a 2nd showing at night too). We're hopeful it's going to happen some day soon!

Mommy’s B-Day!

2011-07-26T18:59:00.001-07:00

Today is my 33rd birthday and it was a great day. I was a little nervous about turning 33 (it just sounds old). I got lots of sweet cards, messages, and phone calls. A great day! Gracie gave me my first gift by sleeping in until 7:10!! My first phone call was at 7:20 and it was the showing service telling me someone wanted to come show our house this am. I was up fast and furious. I did get a yummy breakfast with my 2 favs and then Kelly scooted Gracie off to ABC camp.

While she was gone I straightened up and was able to relax a little too. We left during our showing then we went out to lunch. This afternoon I got to have some time to myself and did some shopping. Always nice! We had a 2nd showing this evening so we ran Jack to GG and Pop’s while we went out for my bday dinner. We ate at Cheesecake Factory and it was so good! Gracie did not get to nap today so she fell asleep on the way to dinner.

And then freaked us out when we got to dinner because she was screaming “My tummy hurts!!” I thought “OMG she is going to throw up right here in front of everyone.” But, she didn’t. She collapsed in the booth (thank goodness we were in a booth) and then sat up for bread and butter.

That made her better and she finally came back to life. Phew. After great pizza and Linda’s fudge cake- you can’t go wrong!

We walked around the shopping center and went to the bookstore.

before dinner we took some family pictures. Gracie was being so silly but they turned out cute. Love my sweet family. 33 is going to be a great year, I can just feel it

Gracie Goes to Camp

2011-07-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

This week during the morning time Gracie is attending an ABC literacy 'camp' at church! I started
Telling her about it over the weekend & she heard 'camp' & thought she was really going camping. (tents, fishing...) too funny! Sunday she asked me when it was time for hunting! Poor girl. After that we started calling it 'school'!

She stays 9-1 , and they eat lunch. GG dropped her off & picked her up for me today. She was having fun but ready to go home! The 1st thing she said 'we didn't have any marshmallows'. :)

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Last Days in Nebraska

2011-07-24T08:44:00.001-07:00

The last few days in Nebraska we spent playing at Grandma and Grandpa’s. We did some shopping, eating lunch out, and going back to the lake again. Gracie spent most of her time doing this…

GG and I have sorta made a break through with Gracie and wearing dresses. Before we left Texas GG made her bring a dress and she called it a ‘long shirt’. Now Gracie doesn’t mind wearing them and calls them ‘long shirts’. Too funny. She even wanted to wear her frilly pj’s and even slept in the skirt

She mostly loved swimming in her clothes. That made her the happiest!

We hit a Nebraska sports store and all got decked out in fall gear. You can’t see her shirt but it says Little Husker. Her new team shirt!

Gracie loved helping Grandma in the kitchen. One day they made a strawberry shortcake. She loved helping to do the dishes at night. Why does she never offer to help me at home???

The last night there we went back to the lake but to a different side so Gracie could fish. It was scorching hot so she didn’t even want to be in the water much but she did a little fishing. She would NOT wear a hat so we compromised and she wore sunglasses.

She was about as patient as she could be. Grandpa and Daddy stayed out with her and finally…..

SHE GOT ONE!!

She was so proud

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for a good time!!

Water Park & the Lake

2011-07-23T07:09:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning Gracie woke up ready to go to church with Grandma. After church and lunch we met up with Easton and Matison to go to the water park. It sure was hot so we were glad to be around the water!

It was super sunny so all I got was squinty eyes! The kids had a blast though!

After the waterpark we had to say goodbye to Easton and Matison and Auntie Dana. They had to go back home. Gracie was sad to see them go and sure missed them at the house!

The sun and water wore this girl out so she took a good long afternoon nap. When she woke up we headed to a local lake that people live around to visit some of the Gauger’s friends. The lake was really nice and was the clearest lake water I have EVER seen!

They had a huge sand pit so Gracie just played away in the sand.

Sorry Grandma! I loved this shot

Gracie spent a little time in the water. She wasn’t liking the water that much, she just preferred the sand bar.

They had a dock that Kelly kept jumping off into the lake. Gracie followed him over there once. He asked her to jump off and she said “no!” I did not think she’d do it either. She’s done the diving board but that was nothing compared to this. Obvisoulsy she was really intrigued by it. Kelly told her she didn’t have to but she said she just wanted to. He counted to 3 and she jumped off! I never would have thought she’d do it and of coarse my camera was away from me but this is the dock she jumped off the end by the spring board!

She was one proud girl but did NOT want to do it again

We were proud of her too!!