May

Now for some catching up from the month of May.

1. At the beginning of the month my cards for the swap were due, and here they are...

Mother's Day (anything) Swap

3 or More Embellishments (card) Swap

Girlfriends (anything) Swap

2. Sunday, May 11th was the best Mother's Day yet, thanks to a wonderful husband and three fantastic children.

My children made all sorts of cards, etc. for me. Caleb made me a card at school, a couple cards at home and a bookmark at church to give to me. Matthias gave me a card he made at home and a bookmark he made at church. Seija gave me a cute poem and card with her hand prints on it.
I also got a card from Brad and the the best gift! Brad and I love to play games together and I really started liking a game called Ticket to Ride. So when I received the Europe edition I was totally excited to play. Come to find out that there are some differences (additions) to the Europe edition that make it so much better!! Love it!

The best part of the day though, was the fact that Brad made all the meals and even changed all the diapers. I love being spoiled!


3. I prepared a little something for my Valiant 11 class to make their Mothers for Mother's Day. Below is a matching bookmark, notepad and pen. The kids loved making them.

4. On Saturday, May 17th we attended a grad dinner (not for Brad) at the Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club. I'm all for a night off cooking, especially when the food is as good as this was!

I had fun too! For awhile I wanted to avoid most work parties because of a few women who made it known, they were 'too good to just be a stay-at-home mom', by their snide, cutting remarks. I don't have to stay at home, I want to stay at home! I want to be the one to raise and teach my children. I do a better job at raising my children than someone who would only be paid to do it would. But as for these specific people, I hope for their future children's sake that they don't stay at home, I'm sure the person they pay to watch their children would do a better job than they could. Sorry! Just needed to rant a little. As a side note, there are some very, very wonderful "work people", who I love talking to and spending time with.


5. After church on Sunday, we had a family picnic and walked around the Cibolo Nature Center with some friends of ours. My friend Kelly took some family pictures that I can use for the Adoption collage (part of our adoption profile). Below are some of our favorites.

Tickle fight for smiles.

Gorgeous scenery at the river. It's a beautiful park - we love to go there.

Holding hands. Awww!

The John & Kelly Family

Look at how excited she is about her flowers. I love this picture!
Thanks Kelly and clan!

April

OK. I really need to get back into blogging. There are so many fun things I have missed. So I'll be catching up month by month. Although it's July, I'm jumping way back to April for this post.

Friday April 4th we got invited to go to a Rampage hockey game with DJ and Amanda. They had some extra tickets, so we got a free date! : ) (Not including the babysitter of course.) Thanks DJ and Amanda!

I'm partial to the actual game, unlike some who only watch hockey for the fights. If you really want to see a hockey fight check this out.




Caleb's school has a bike rodeo each year. This is meant to teach children bicycle safety while including some fun and games in the mix. Although Caleb loves to ride his bike and learned how to ride at a young age, I was still surprised when he came home with a third place metal. Way to go Caleb. Like father like son, eh?

April was an historic month for me. It was when my views of Texas finally changed. I've always loved the people here but I really hated the place. It is ugly, dirty, there are few sidewalks, no playgrounds or greenbelts to play on (unless you wanted to drive at least 10 minutes), no spray parks (unless you want to pay a fortune for an amusement park pass - in a place this hot there needs to be something!), terrible roads (which is why they are always doing roadwork), I hate the course grass (if you can call it grass), the houses here are terrible, my list could go on and on and on. So like I said I love the people, we have made wonderful friends, but I didn't like living here, until...

On the 25th of April we drove out to Garner State Park. Seeing the beauty of the hill country got me so excited. They weren't mountains, but it was close enough for me, I loved it. I felt relaxed and happy.

Patrick, Angelus, Ethan, Matthias, Tony, Brad and Caleb

Emma, Mike, Bryce, Jim and Kaitlin

John, Dallin, Abby and Ellice

Seija, Me, Anna, Kristi and Alyssa

Gathering for lunch cake

Ellice's birthday



The Hill Country

Garner State Park

My liking of Texas actually came on gradually, but our Garner State Park trip was when I noticed I definitely liked it here. Just getting use to this place has helped a lot. When fall temperatures began last year I loved the weather. I've enjoyed each park we have picnicked and hiked at. We loved the beach at South Padre Island last Christmas. We have a free public pool we now enjoy, that has opened up close to here during the summer. We've gone on some enjoyable day trips. All these things have helped me to slowly like Texas, but Garner State Park was what tipped the scales tipped the scales. We owe it all to Jim and Kristi who planned this gathering!

Happy Canada Day!!!

I AM CANADIAN

Last Saturday we had a big party here to celebrate Canada Day. We had over 50 people come, and it was a blast. We serve Canadian refreshments including poutine, nanaimo bars, Canadian chocolate bars and chips. We quizzed our American friends on Canada and though I didn't make it easy they did quite well! Prized awarded were a Micheal Buble CD (a Canadian singer), nanaimo bar mixes and chocolate bars. Thanks everyone for coming! You are great friends!