Cheese!

We just got Finn's first ever school picture back...

The poor kid's mom forgot it was picture day and sent him in his goofy monkey shirt but I still think he looks pretty stinkin' cute. If you have the time, click on the picture to enlarge it and I swear you can see the twinkle in his eyes. Love you buddy!

BirthDAY!

Well, the party never ends... at least if you're Grace Howren. In case you're wondering... yes, that is a crown on top of her head that states "Happy Birthday". She wore it the entire day. Grace's philosophy: what's a birthday without a crown???

We have a tradition in our house of decorating the birthday boy/girl's room while they sleep so they wake up and start their year off right. Grace loved the decor... except that I wrote "We love you Gracie-Poo!" on one of the posters. I got an eye-roll and a "moooommmmm...." and I now realize we have officially outgrown the nickname Gracie-Poo.

You can see the poster Finn made using his expansive vocabulary. I told you the kid is smart!

Kev, Gogi and I headed up to the school to sing and pass out cupcakes. FYI - if you've never tried Sam's Club cupcakes you are totally missing out on something fabulous. I'm quite the cupcake snob and I have to say that I have tasted few that are better than Sam's. They are also 30 for $11.00. Can't beat that!

After school Grace had Greyson, Jack, Max & Libby down to the cul-de-sac so she could try out her new rollerblades. Pretty sad that she mastered a skill in less than 10 minutes when it took her mom her entire college career to learn just how to stand upright without breaking her neck.

From rollerblading we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings with Gogi to celebrate. How was invited but unfortunately stayed at home with a cold. Grace insists that we need to celebrate again with How (I told you... the party never ends!).

What a Happy Day!

Amazing Grace

Eight years ago I was given the most precious blessing... Grace. When they bundled her up and handed her to me I had no idea how life was going to change - and how truly wonderful it would be. I still wonder how I got so lucky.

I could never even attempt to put into words what this precious little girl means to me. All I can say is when Grace walks in the door life becomes much brighter. We have a joke in our house that I push down on her head when she walks out the door to keep her from growing. She used to laugh and tell me to do it "again.. again!". Now she gives me a courtesy laugh, a slight eye roll, and then ducks her head and runs out the door and on to a new adventure. I have to resist the urge to pull her back and give her ten extra pushes in hopes that it really will work and I'll keep my little girl forever.

Moving on... because I'm doing the "ugly cry"... and now my head hurts....

Last night I had a "birthday interview" with Grace. I thought I'd share some of her answers with you:

What was the best part of being 7? I got to show how brave I was during Hurricane Ike.

What was the hardest part of being 7? Greyson thinks I'm so little.

What advice do you have for someone who's turning 7? To have lots and lots of fun!

What is one thing you learned from God last year? How He protects us and always loves us. God makes bad things turn into good things.

What is one thing you learned about yourself last year? I'm not scared to make new friends.

What surprised you last year? That I was going to a new school.

What is the most exciting thing you did last year? Went to Great Wolf Lodge.

What are you most looking forward to as an 8 year old? Getting a cell phone (ummm.... she's going to be quite disappointed!)

What will be your greatest challenge? Trying to keep myself from getting mad at Finn because he draws on all my stuff.

What is the most important thing about being a daughter? Learning manners.

What is the most important thing about being a Christian? Telling others about God & never forgetting Him.

What is the most important thing about being a sister? Watching over my little brother.

What is your favorite subject? Science & Bible

What is your favorite restaurant? Buffalo Wild Wings

What is your favorite food? Wings

What is your favorite song? Amazing Grace (my chains are gone) - Chris Tomlin

What is your favorite band? Jonas Brothers & Uncle David (David Crowder Band)

What is your favorite TV show? iCarly

What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend? Spend time with my family.

Happy Birthday precious Grace.

Thank you for all that you have given us.

Love, Mom & Dad

Frroooooggggyyyy!!!

So... what do you get when you put a grandfather, a green frog & a surprised little girl in the same room? A darn good time - that's what!!!

Mystery Reader has been a fun part of second grade for Grace. This was new to us and we quickly learned that it's a BIG deal... and lots of fun!

I had the honor of being the first Mystery Reader of the year. I donned my dog mask and did a pretty darn good job of reading Skippy Jon Jones with my muy bien Spanish accent. I figured I had to do it now... not too many years where I can get away with doing that and not cause life-altering embarrassment for my child.

Last week How took the honor of being the Mystery Reader. After he checked in at the front desk they beeped back to Miss Shelby's class and announced, "Miss Shelby... your mystery reader is heeeerrrreeee....". All the kids anxiously closed their eyes and were shocked when they looked up to find How in the Mystery Reader chair. Grace inherited the cool trait of breaking out in hives on her neck when she's super-excited from her Aunt Julie and guess what... the poor kid was one big hive after she opened her eyes and saw How!

Here's Grace when she spots How. Hives will appear in 5 seconds...

Dad chose a couple of Froggy books. They seemed to be quite the hit with the kids. I couldn't resist hearing Dad read Froggy so I snuck in to take pictures and listen. I was amazed! He's pretty good at making all those sound effects and even did a stellar job of the infamous "FRRROOOOGGGGYYYY" line when Froggy's mom calls him. I didn't know Dad had it in him!

One of the most fun parts of Mystery Reader is bringing along a treat to go with your book. I must say How hit a home run bringing these green froggies for everyone. Good work How!

I was up at the school the next day to cheer Grace on for her Run-4-Fun and one of her classmates asked me, "when is that big guy with those green frogs coming back?". They're wanting an encore already!

Sic 'Em Bears!

Disclaimer: All outfits, hairstyles and pictures were taken by Kev in this blog. I take no responsibility whatsoever.

As a matter of fact, the reason I'm posting this ten days after the fact is because all the pictures were on Kev's iPhone. It took me ten days of nagging for him to transfer them to my computer (if you know Kev you'll actually be impressed with the ten day turn-around).

Now, you might ask why I didn't just transfer the pictures myself. First of all, no one touches Kev's sacred iPhone. Seriously - he has amazing fingerprint detection. He knows if you even *think* about touching it. That's how you can tell our phones apart. Mine is well loved - Cheetos... scratches... stickers... Mickey Mouse Clubhouse under YouTube favorites. Kev's looks brand-spanking-new.

Secondly, Kev just now brought me into the fabulous world of transferring your pics from your camera to your computer. I think because he got sick of the job. I'm pretty proud of myself... but not so proud that I'm ready to take on a new technological task. I can't imagine how in the world you would get pictures from a phone to a computer. There are definite perks to living with a computer guru.

So... on to the blog. PaPa called and had a fun idea for all the guys and the kids to meet up in Waco for Baylor Homecoming. It was really fun since Baylor played Missouri, PaPa's alma mater. Finn and I had a jammy day while Kev and Grace headed up to Waco to cheer on the bears.

Here is Hayden, Marshall and Grace in the car at Pappa Rollos.

Marshall and Grace sharing a funnel cake. What's a Baylor game without a funnel cake?

After the game Kev and Grace headed back to campus for a two hour tour. Grace, being the romantic that she is, loves to go around campus and see where Kev & I met... went on dates... had our first kiss... went to dances.... hung out between classes... and fell in love. Here's a picture of her at the bench in front of Memorial where Kev and I (and the gang) used to meet. I can't explain how just seeing that bench takes me back to such happy times.

Long live Theta... here's Grace showing her "Theta" spirit in front of the Theta float.

I love this picture of Grace with Judge Baylor. My mom and dad have pictures of Leigh Ann, Julie and I with Judge Baylor when we were little girls. It's fun to see the tradition continue.

Thanks PaPa for a fun day. Grace is now more determined than ever to go to Baylor. Click here to donate. Ha ha ha ha....

At Least Someone is Celebrating...

Grace's school had their very own election yesterday. Lucky for her, the candidate she voted for won (thus the blowing of the horn on the left!).

They had three 2nd grade Dads run for "President". Every one of them had platforms that they stood for - both good and bad. For example, one dad would give them extra recess all week, and special snack every day for a week. The drawback was they had to read 15 extra minutes every night (torture!) and they didn't get their jeans day on Friday.

They had an election party at the end of the day to announce the winner. I know you're dying to find out who won so I'll get on with it... MR. SLABIC!!! I think the thing that pushed Mr. Slabic over with the votes was his NO HOMEWORK FOR A WEEK platform. They also get a video with popcorn next Friday. Unfortunately they have to pick up trash and worst of all... pay 10 tickets for taxes. Grace has complained and complained about having to pay the tickets. Her exact words were, "but I worked SO hard for those tickets and I had something I was going to buy from the treasure box this week and now I can't because I won't have enough tickets." Get used to it kid!

They also voted for "real" President and here's Grace when it was announced McCain won (she's been watching a little too much FoxNews with Kev):

Here's Grace wiping the icing off her cupcake before she eats it. Who's kid is this???

Here's Grace and her friend, Emma... or maybe it's Lauren. She's chosen twin sisters as her best friends and I'm still confused which is which.

God Bless America!

Staph-arific...

Apparently our little candy corn buddy was too sweet and he got a mosquito bite while we were out trick or treating on Halloween.

We didn't think much of it Saturday when he woke up with just a small bite by his eye. By Sunday morning his eye started swelling and we really started getting worried.

We took him to the doctor and apparently he got a staph infection from the bite and it's spreading to his other eye - and even his ear. She said it was a very good thing we brought him in when we did.

So now Finn's drugged up on steroids, two kinds of antibiotics and an antihistamine (and mom's a nervous wreck!).

Poor buddy. Darn mosquitoes.

No, it's not a dress....

Whew... fun was had by all on Halloween! Grace decided to be a Candy Corn Fairy (decision strongly influenced by the white go-go boots she has yet to take off her feet) so it only seemed fitting that Finn would be a piece of candy corn.

Problem was, once I finally found a candy corn costume for Finn, Kev insisted it was a dress. After reassuring him it was "gender neutral" I went ahead and ordered it with a silent prayer that when it came Finn would somehow masculinize it (it that a word?). Anyway, it came and once Kev saw him in it he got over the whole dress thing.... well until Greyson saw him and the first thing out of his mouth was, "is Finn wearing a dress???". I'm thinking I lost my "picking out Finn's costume" privileges. I still think he looks pretty darn cute.... and quite manly too.

We started out the night at the Steven's big Halloween bash. I was so impressed when we drove up and they had literally boarded up their house (way to recycle those old Ike boards!) with signs spray painted with "danger" and "keep out". Grace had her first bobbing for apples experience (Kev made sure she was first in line to avoid the germ factor) and she had a ball hanging out with her friends. After leaving there we joined the party at the Tulip Garden cul-de-sac. We sure are happy the Beasley's moved in... it's a party all the time!

After that we took off for some trick-or-treating. I have to say the candy will officially be thrown out of our house in 12 hours because so far I've been the only one eating it. The only "treat" Grace ate all night was the apple she got from her bobbing. Where did she come from?

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween. I know ours was super-sweet with our two candy corns...