Green River Ordinance- Out Of My Hands

I think most of you know that two of my cousins are aspiring singers/rock stars ;) My cousin Matt lives in Nashville and is an amzing country singer/song writer. He had the honor of singing at the Grand Ole Opry a few years ago we were lucky enought to get to go! :) If you were at our wedding he sang our first dance song at our reception.

My cousin Josh is a lead singer for an alternative band called Green River Ordinance. They are great!! Many of you have gone with us to their shows! Green River Ordinance signed with Capitol records last year and they have been working diligently on their album and touring around the USA. I am proud to anounce that their album is being released on February 24th and it is now available for pre-sale at www.myspace.com/gro Please help them reach their pre-sale goal of 2,000 albums! (I bought two) ;) Their single, "Come On", is available now for download on itunes! Thanks for your support! You won't be dissapointed!!! :)

What's the going rate?...

So... we have plans to go to dinner with some friends on Monday. They have a daughter that is about two months younger than Owen, her name is Peyton. They play very well and are just adorable together! Owen and Peyton were in daycare together in the first class I put him in at the church. Anyway... we have decided to get a sitter to watch both of them so we can have a nice quiet dinner with grown ups ;) Until now I have had family/friends keep Owen for us so I have NO IDEA how much to pay a sitter. So I am asking you... my faithful blog readers... what is the going rate for a sitter? The girl I have lined up is a Sr. in high school and she will probably only be watching them for 1 1/2 hours. I have asked her to bring a friend b/c I think it would be best for there to be two of them to keep up with the two kids... Let me know your thoughts and what you pay... Thanks a bunch!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe it is 2009 AND I can't believe my baby will be two years old this year! Where does the time go?!

They say how you spend your New Years Eve is a reflection of how your new year will be. We spent our New Years Eve with friends at Shay and Erica's house. We played catch phrase (always a favorite) and rock band (my new favorite!). If this saying is true, we look forward to spending more time with all of our wonderful friends in 2009! Here's to a new year!

Shay and Erica

Julie and Erica


I just thought this was a neat picture of Andy with his sparkler. I think Erica took this picture...

Our rock band... Shay, Erica, Mario and Eumen
The guys: Mario, Shay, Eumen and Andy

CHRISTMAS 2008... here goes a long one!

We had an amazing Christmas! Owen was somewhat into it... the new toys anyway. He was as excited about opening gifts as I thought he would be but it was still very fun! Andy and I learned a very valuable lesson... have the toys ready to play with as soon as they are opened. By this I mean out of the package and batteries installed. You can imagine the frustration of an 18 month old who just opened a new toy and has to wait about 2 minutes for mommy/daddy to open it for him... lesson learned! ANYWAY, we started out Christmas Eve at Andy's parent's place where we had lunch, opened gifts and visited the cows (Owen LOVES cows!). Grandaddy (Andy's dad) got Owen a John Deere Gator for Christmas... we were all a little apprehensive because it says it is for three year olds but I should have known my boy genius would have no problem driving this thing. He was grinning from ear to ear, it was so cute! Here are a few pic's from Christmas Eve...

Is this not the sweetest picture?! They were watching Grandaddy feed the fish. Notice Owen's hand on Andy's arm... too sweet!

We spent the night with Andy's parents and came home Christmas morning. Owen was pretty excited about the presents under the tree! One of his favorite gifts was the Shrek ornament that I got him. He LOVES Shrek so the talking ornament I got him was a hit! He also really liked a guitar that we got him; he was playing and dancing all day! My Dad, Becky and Rachael came over around 1:00 and I cooked lunch... I must say, my cooking has come a long way compared to the ham I totally burned about four years ago ;) LOL! We spent the afternoon visiting and letting Owen entertain us. He actually put Rachael in time out several times... I finally had to make him stop and tell him to put his puppy in time out (see picture below), it was hysterical!

Dad left around 5:00 and we had a nice quiet evening. The next day we went to my grandparent's house in Fort Worth to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. I have really been looking forward to this because I got together with my grandma and helped her make a very special gift for everyone. Nana had been working on a cook book for me for the last four years! She had written their life story in the front of it and all our favorite recipe's of hers followed. She didn't like her handwriting so she hadn't given it to me b/c she wanted to re-write it! I was worried it was never going to get finished! I told her if she would just send me what she had I would get some old photo's of theirs and make a book for everyone (typed!). She agreed. I got on Shutterfly (one of my favorite sites!) and put together Nana's cook book complete with their life story and old family photos! Tears were shed when the books were opened and Nana and Papa were so proud! If you haven't seen a photo book from Shutterfly you must check them out! They are great! I have made one for Owen's first year and I plan to make one each year, it's easier than scrapbooking and a lot less expensive! ANYWAY, we had a wonderful Christmas and Nana and Papa's!


Owen in Papa's chair! Nana doesn't even get to sit in this chair! HA!

Is this truck to ride on?

I'm too tired to open any more presents!!!

Papa telling my cousin, Josh about pictures in the cook book.
Nana
Hannah, my niece, showing off her fabulous PJ's that we got her!

We had a terrific Christmas and it was such a blessing to share it will all sides of the family!

Pigskin Princess Update...

I just wanted to update you all and let you know that PIGSKIN PRINCESS is the CHAMPION of the 2008 Couples Only Fantasy Football League! That's right, out of 14 teams (guys and girls), I won! Could it be beginner's luck?... possibly, since this is the first year I have played but I like to think not! I couldn't have done it without the support and "coaching" from my husband! Thanks babe! Here's the best part... a $175 reward... I'm sure Scott has my check in the mail ;) (time for everyone to pay up!) LOL! GO PIGSKIN PRINCESS!!!!!

Thanksgiving

Well... I have been putting it off for some time now. I guess I should blog about Thanksgiving before I tell you about our Christmas... We did our usual trip around Texas for Thanksgiving. We started out the night before with dinner at my Dad's in Granbury. The next day we had lunch with Andy's family at his aunt and uncle's house in Granbury. We then headed to my aunt's house in Aledo and finally settled down at my grandparent's house in Fort Worth for our annual cousin's slumber party! My grandparents just love having all of us there together. We played Catch Phrase with my grandmother and it was hysterical! She seems to have no concept of the timer as she is trying to get us to guess words.
I think this is the first year I have ever gone shopping on Black Friday and I actually LOVED it. Next year I plan to join the crazy shoppers (no offense) that get up at 3AM!

Saturday we drove to Quitman to meet up with Jeff and Debralea so the guys could go hunting. Debralea and I did some more shopping... We actually drove almost an hour to get to a mall! LOL! We had a wonderful time. Owen and Braden really enjoyed each other!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! We are truly THANKFUL to have you all in our lives!

Napping with Grandaddy before lunch.

Playing soccer with the big kids!

Picking up pecans with my cousin, Saxon.

7 Teeth in 7 Days

So our Halloween was not very eventful because Owen came home with fever that evening and that is when the teething extravaganza began! I had bought him a really cute Frankenstein costume that was head to toe fleece with just a cut out for his face but of course it wasn't cold enough to wear it and since he was running fever I decided we were going to have to skip it. I dressed him up as a hunter and Kelly and I took him to the Fall Festival in Salado. Where was Andy you might ask... hunting of course! Opening weekend!!! ANYWAY - we only lasted about 15 minutes at the festival and then it was home and to bed. The next seven days were crazy! Owen got seven teeth in in seven days... four on bottom and three on top. He was late cutting teeth as he didn't get his first teeth until he was about 10 months old so I guess we have some catching up to do but my goodness! Poor baby! He was miserable and definitely not himself for a whole week! We made it through and hopefully we don't have many more baby teeth to go... he's running out of room in there! Here's a few pictures from that weekend... I still plan to dress him up as Frankenstein to get a picture for the scrap book - and the blog of course :)

Taking it easy with Daddy :)

Going to school on Halloween

Look out deer - there's a new hunter in town!

Last year we took Owen to the pumpkin patch and it was too bright for him not to mention he was too little and we didn't get a very good pumpkin picture... So of course we went back to try again and yet again we didn't get many good shots. Here's a couple. He's harder than ever to photograph since he doesn't like to sit still! Just for fun, I threw in a picture from last year so you can see how much changes in a year...

2007 - "Someone please get me out of here!"

Pumpkin Patch 2008