Supper With Santa

Last week we had "Supper with Santa" at Houston's school. I love how his school does event fundraisers as opposed to having the kids sell things. The teacher's and staff really go ALL OUT and we had so much fun.

They served a chicken strip dinner, complete with all the fixin's, and had plenty of entertainment for the little ones.

Houston (and Austin, although he'll never admit it) spent the night coloring, making ornaments, and playing Christmas Bingo!

Houston also got to visit with Santa again!!!

And now for our pitiful little tree. I broke two nails but I was able to finally locate one of the boy's small Christmas trees that they usually set up in their bedrooms. By shear luck, I also found the one tote with our ornaments. SCORE!  It may be small, but it's perfect for our tiny apartment. Oh, and Houston decorated the ENTIRE tree by HIMSELF. I only supervised. :)

XOXO,
Stacy

Meet Ruford

As an early birthday present for Houston, we took a trip to the Build-A-Bear workshop and let him create a little buddy.  He picked a super-cute puppy dog.  He named him Ruford.

Austin got to make a bear a few years back, but this was Houston's first experience. He had a blast. The lady that helped him "stuff" his dog made the experience so fun for him.

Here she has him rubbing his puppy's heart to make a wish. They she put the heart inside him and stitched him up.

She also had Houston rub the heart on his brain for wisdom, his belly so Ruford would would never go hungry and his muscles for strength. It was very cute.

Then he took Ruford to the "wash" station to get all the lint off of him.

And to clean him up, nice and pretty. :)

With all the super hero costumes, character outfits and sportswear, Houston chose a simple pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt with a Texas Flag on it. He also picked out some white shoes with red and blue stripes and a navy blue baseball cap.  Needless to say, Ruford was styling!

In lieu of the traditional "House" they give you to carry your new pets in, Houston opted for this super-cute back pack. Ruford got a matching one too!

All in all, Houston had a fun experience. He keeps telling me he wants Santa to bring him another friend for Christmas!

XOXO,
Stacy

A Visit With Santa...

We took our annual trip to Bass Pro Shop to visit Santa's Wonderland. It's a tradition we started back in 2006 when we visited Jeremy's brother's family for Thanksgiving that year

They always have such an awesome set-up complete with Santa's sleigh and all the reindeers. The boys love it. It saddens me that Austin is getting "too old for the kiddie" stuff.

Austin wouldn't sit on Santa's lap by himself, but he was kind enough to humor me for at least a few photos.

They set up a few tables for the kids to write their letters to Santa.

And a cute little mailbox to send them to the North Pole!

They had a ton of fun activities including a coloring table and ornament making. Houston had a blast.

XOXO,
Stacy

OUCH!!!

In the battle of head versus eye, the eye never wins!

I had the scare of my life Friday night. The boys were playing, a.k.a. fighting, and the next thing I know, Houston runs into the kitchen crying. In the two seconds it took him to walk from the bedroom to the kitchen, he already has a HUGE knot on his eye. And I lost my dang mind.

It looked like someone had shoved a golf ball into his eye socket.  He couldn't open his eye and I seriously thought the bulge was his eyeball.  I called 911 in a panic but eventually decided to take him to the ER. 

We got there just after 10:00 p.m. and left just after 1:00 a.m.  They certainly don't get in any big rush at this "emergency" room. 

Basically, it's just a really bad black eye and all we can do is apply ice to it. We pretty much paid $150 for an ice pack, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, especially with head injuries.

Houston was such a BIG boy though. He thinks his battle wound is pretty AWESOME!!!

And it's now lovely shades of purple, black, green and yellow. They said it will eventually spread down his cheek. Oh joy!

XOXO,
Stacy

House Progression #5

It's beginning to look a lot like....a HOME!!!  We now have a fully bricked/rock house.  They will pour the slab for Jeremy's shop this week and they should start painting the inside of the house too.  It's getting so close...Here are a few pictures.

First, our porch, which I am in love with.  I have a feeling we will LIVE on this porch!

Here's a full view of the house with the roof completed but still no brick or rock yet.  We went with brown shingles and it looks AWESOME!  The trim will eventually be brown too not this ugly yellow you see here.

Now, a close-up of the front porch. I love all the windows. We have 20 in total. I can't wait to buy blinds! :Insert eye roll here: We went with the bronze windows and they look so pretty. Especially since our house is mostly brown, bronze, and dark.

And now for the fun part...really it's just walls, but I wanted to share our pretty arches. Love em!  This is the kitchen.  The little blue pipe sticking up at the bottom is where the Island will sit. 

A view of the living room.

A view of the other wall from the living room...Those metal looking things are our floor plugs.  That way we won't have cords stretched across the floor.

A shot of the entry way and the office...

The interior of the office. It's small but it'll work for us. We'll use this for our guests and EVERYONE is welcome!

The entry into the master suite... :)

A partial view of our wall of windows in the living room. I'm telling you the blinds will put us into the poor house. Ha!

The master bathroom. We will have double sinks, separate toilet and separate tub and shower. Woot Woot.

Another view of the tub and shower.

And now we have brick and rock!!!

The picture really doesn't do justice. At first I wasn't too sure of the brick with the rock. It wasn't our first choice or our second (both our next door neighbors had those choices) but I really love it now. The house looks amazing.

And our columns on the porch are to die for. They will "fatten" up the poles with some dark cedar.

I'm so ready to see the finished product.

XOXO,
Stacy

We're Back..

There's no excuses...I could blame stress from building our house, my new obsession with Pinterest or just the normal hustle and bustle from the holiday season, but clearly I have been slacking on my blog updates lately. That changes today.  We've celebrated two more birthdays, Thanksgiving, and now our sights are set on Christmas.  Get ready for an update overload.

But first, my newest news:

That's right..Jeremy and I will welcome a new niece/nephew next year and the boys will add a new little cousin to their playmates. My brother and his wife are expecting a new addition to their family.   I'm stoked!!! I've already put in my request for a NIECE.  We could use a little estrogen to even things out.  Ha!  But, either way, I can't wait!


XOXO,
Stacy

House Progression #4 Cont...

Here's a few more photos of the new house.  This first one is of our front porch.  Can I just tell you how much I'm in love with it.  Since before we were even married I'll we've ever talked about wanting for our houses is a HUGE front porch and now we're getting it.  God is truly AMAZING!!!

Here's a snapshot of our fireplace and mantle. I took pictures of EVERY room but really it just looks like a bunch of 2x4's!  I can't wait to see how it all looks when we have walls!!!

And lastly, this picture was taken from the street. We're still debating on whether to have a circular drive or not. I think it would be awesome, but pretty pricey too, so we shall see.

XOXO,
Stacy

Birthday and Fashion

I had an awesome birthday week!  I appreciate all the calls/texts/cards.  My family (and friends) ROCK!!!  I told Jeremy not to buy me anything this year since obviously our BIG present to each other is our house, but he (and the boys) surprised me on my birthday anyway. 

They gave me the Ed Hardy Roller Ball set and they all smell AMAZING!!!  I already had the original scent and I wear it ALL the time so Jeremy thought I would like the whole collection, and he was right!  I love these little surprises.

A friend of mine had thrown a Mary Kay facial party a few weeks back and I decided to get a few things as my present to myself. I rarely spend money on make-up and stuff like that, and when I do it's the cheap kind. But I'm not getting any younger (HA!) and really need to start taking care of my skin. And they made it just in time for my birthday. :)  I'm in HEAVEN!!! This stuff is AWESOME!!!

And this little monkey CRACKS ME UP!!!  He still insists on dressing himself and we just never really know what to expect from him.  He definitely keeps us entertained!

XOXO,
Stacy

House Progression #4

All I can say is HOLY TOLEDO!!!  We went from a slab of concrete Sunday night to this:

At one point they had 16 guys out there working on it.  They were putting the shingles on today and the windows should be in by the end of this week.  I can't believe how fast this is all going.

XOXO,
Stacy

A visit to the Pumpkin Patch

We visited our local "pumpkin patch" today too. We usually get so busy with football and life that I end up bringing store-bought pumpkins home for the boys, but this year, we had no excuses. I wanted to go to a REAL pumpkin patch, but this one worked just as well.

The boys picked out their pumpkins and we picked up a pumpkin carving kit for Daddy at Wally-World!  I can't wait to see what crazy designs they come up with this year!

Now we're getting ready to go out for my Birthday dinner tonight! I chose Mexican food. Big Surprise!!! We haven't ate out (at a restaurant) in over a month now, and my mouth is already watering!

XOXO,
Stacy