I'm finally able to sit down and update my poor blog! It seems like Stephen is always on the computer studying when I want some blog time! He finished his practice exam today and made an 86 so he is feeling confident about the 'real' exam this coming week. Once he passes that one, he'll have one more exam to go and then he can officially start working again! Praise God!

The girls finally decided what they wanted to be for Halloween after much thought......

Leah is going to be Alex from 'The Wizards of Waverly Place' (which is one of her favorite

Disney shows)

Lauren is going to be a veterinarian because she has such a heart for animals and loves helping them

Logan is going to be a train engineer, but I don't have a picture of him yet. His costume came in and his overalls were really long so Nanny is working on stitching them up for him. He will be so cute! His outfit has a little hat and red hankie he'll wear around his neck and a train whistle too. I think we're going to decorate his wagon to look like a train so when we go trick-or-treating, it will give him something cute to ride in. I'll post a picture of him as soon as his outfit is all fixed up!

I've also been meaning to post these pictures of my nephew, Taylor's, 4th birthday party from a few weeks ago at Chuck E. Cheese. The kiddos had a blast!

Can you tell which one is the birthday boy? HA!

Dancing and singing with Chuck E. Cheese!

Yummy cake!

Logan LOVED all the rides!




The kids were scrambling to pick

up as many tickets as they could

when Chuck E. Cheese threw them

into the air!

Get me outta here!!!

Tyler was having a good time

tasting everything!

How do you work these games anyway???

Speaking of birthdays, I went ahead and booked Logan's 2nd birthday party today at Pump-it-Up. That is where the girls had their 2nd birthday party and they absolutely loved it so I know he will too. We can invite alot more friends if we have it there versus here at our house! Hope everyone has a great week.......TTFN!

Poor neglected blog.............

Yes........I'm still here! We're finally settling back into our school routine and adjusting to Stephen being home. Wow! What a difference it is to have daddy around.......especially at the beginning of the school year. He's been able to help out with the girl's homework, dinner, Logan, making lunches, errands, etc. He has passed his first required exam towards becoming a financial advisor, but he still has two more to go. I think his next two tests will be some time in October. I know he will be glad to have them overwith.......studying all day long is starting to get old. I think he is ready to get back into the 'working world' again. However, I think he has really enjoyed his free time. I feel like he is now getting back all the lost time he never received at his other jobs.......no vacation time, super late hours, always traveling, etc. He is so much more involved now and we love it! School is going well and the girls are really liking first grade. I am soooooo glad that I put them in the same class again this year! It makes the after school homework process so much easier. It takes a good hour or more each day to sit down and do homework with both of them and having the same assignments/projects is very helpful. Today was 'Read for Life' day in our district and each classroom at our school invited parents to come and read to their child's class. Stephen and I both went and read to the girl's class and they loved it! Stephen was really nervous about it, but he did just fine! This evening Leah and Logan and I went on a nice long bike ride while Stephen and Lauren went to Luby's to get some dinner. When we got back, we put Logan in the tub for bathtime and he started putting his mouth on the bottom of the tub and making all kinds of silly noises - it was hilarious! Thankfully, he did it long enough for me to capture it on video.......enjoy!

Last weekend we went up to Huntsville to spend the day on the farm with MawMaw and Papaw. I've been working on putting a little slideshow together and finally finished it tonight. Logan loves the moo cows! Enjoy!

Picture update.....finally!!!!!!!!

I am finally getting to update the blog with some pictures. I've been having problems being able to download pictures from home this summer so I've been doing it at school and then emailing them to myself to view at home. Geez! Computers! Why can't they just work like ya want 'em to???

Anyway, here's some pictures I've had on my camera for a while now. Actually, the first
are from our trip to Schlitterbahn this past weekend. We left on Sunday and spent two full days at the park with the girls. Logan stayed with Stephen's parents - we really missed him but he had a great time playing with Nanny and Grandad and getting ALL the attention!


The first ride we rode was the
Congo River tube ride and I lost
my favorite sunglasses - of course!




Daddy and his girls




Check out my $3 rainbow
brite sunglasses from the
gift shop - very schnazzy!




The girls really liked the body slides....they're favorite ride was the Bahnzai Pipeline seen here in the background.



Stephen and I tried the Boogie
Bahn board ride....it was a little
scary and the girls wanted NO
part of it. They were happy just
watching us!




Schlitterbahn is 30 years old
this year!




The girls went to the dentist last week to get their check-up and cleaning before going back to school. They both did great - no cavities thankfully!

Leah getting x-rays



Leah getting her teeth cleaned
while she watches HSM2 on the
ceiling.



Lauren watching HSM2



Lauren wasn't too sure about
the whole x-ray thing.



One of our projects this summer was to decorate the girl's
school boxes for 1st grade. Here's a picture of the finished
product. I'm sure Mrs. Jarratt is going to love the little
boa flurries flying around. :)




Here's a couple of pictures of Logan and Stephen from one
of Logan's swimming lessons back in July. He still has two more
lessons this summer before his session is over. He really enjoys
them and we take turns doing the class with him so we enjoy
that time with him too. The girls get a kick out of watching him
splash around.



Logan loves to put on his
sister's skates and try to skate
around the house. He thinks
he's BIG stuff.




Lazy summer morning in their
p.j.'s - love it!




Logan loves his new trike that his
friends from down the street gave him.
He is one cool ridin' dude!



More pictures to come as I get them loaded! TTFN!!

This past week has been a busy one......we headed over to our friend Kooper's SplashPad one day for some swimming fun. Here are some cute pictures of Kooper and Logan playing.....



Here's a good picture of the
girls that Jill took.

I have some pictures that I need to download, but I'm having trouble getting it to work on my computer at home so I'll have to wait and do it at school. I'm sure I'll be up there quite a bit this week getting my classroom ready. Wednesday we have our first official team leader meeting then I'm meeting with my team here at my house that afternoon. We officially go back to school on August 17th then the girls will start on August 24th. Stephen has accepted a new job so thankfully he will be around the next month to help out with the kids. He is going to be taking some courses for his new job so he will be doing those from home. He has to take three tests and pass them before he can get his financial advising license. He is a little nervous about it, but I know he'll do fine. He will be working for AXA Advisors here in The Woodlands - we are so glad that his office will be so close so that he won't have to commute downtown anymore. He ended up having 5 job offers......all 5 were jobs that I found for him.......his current employer said they would help him find a job......yeah right! They didn't do anything - we did it all ourselves! I was quite surprised at the number of jobs that are out there - you hear on the news that everyone is getting laid-off and there are no jobs anywhere.......I was able to find several for him. It was ALOT of work though and definitely not an overnight process.....you could make searching for a job a full-time career. I told him maybe I missed my calling and should have been a job head-hunter (haha)! It would take me hours sometimes to complete applications for him. He couldn't do it during the day since he was still working. God's timing was perfect....since it was summer time and I was home, it allowed me to have the extra time to help him search. If he had been laid-off during the school year, I wouldn't have been able to help as much. I also had the opportunity to go up to his future office, visit with his supervisor, and ask questions - I am glad I was able to do that. We're just thankful for this job opportunity and continue to pray that Stephen will be happy with this career change.

Next week we've decided to take the girls to Schlitterbahn before I go back to work. Stephen's parents are going to keep Logan so that we'll be able to do more of the rides. The girls are very excited because they have never been to a waterpark before. I'm sure they will love it!

Schlitterbahn pictures

This weekend I went to Schlitterbahn with some of the girls I teach with. We left early Friday morning and got back Sunday night. We had a great time and LOTS of laughs. Can't wait to go again!


Here's a picture of our room.
We even had a kitchen!



First ride of the day on Friday -
The Ragin' River



After a fun day at the park, we went to dinner Friday night at The Gristmill in Gruene, Texas.



We had a really long wait so we had to find something to do
to help pass the time......why not take some goofy pictures?

Saturday night dinner at Adobe Verde

in Gruene - great Mexican food!

My partner in crime, Jennifer.

She will be my partner teacher

this coming year!

On the way home on Sunday.....

Yummy brunch at the Cracker

Barrel and then some shopping

at the outlet malls in San Marcos.