He Makes Me Laugh :)

While attempting to get caught up on household chores the other day, I was running around the house cleaning, threw open the laundry room door and found this on my stackable washer/dryer. You gotta love a guy for trying. Funny guy!

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Austin's birthday at his Grandy's house, with Grandmama cooking the meal. It was a nice intimate get together with Nana & Papa, Ole Uncle Lynn, Robb, Bret, Amy, Briana & Adam, Todd, Alexxa & myself. The food was delicious and the company great!

Happy Belated Birthday Austin.

What I'm thankful for today:

Family

Great food

Weekends

Austin's Birthday...to be continued

My first born, Austin, turned 20 on Wednesday. We could not have much of a celebration because he was taking his college classes and didn't return home until 10 PM. Todd, Alexxa and I did manage to make him some brownies and surprise him with those as he walked through the door. We sang Happy Birthday, very off key as usual, and visited for a few minutes before everyone headed off to bed.

It sure makes me melancholy to think that not so long ago I was planning birthday parties with teddy bears, locomotive and Star Wars themes. Todd and I would go shopping at Toys R Us for hours trying to choose the perfect gift. A gift that when Austin would open it, he would scream with excitement.

It wasn't so long ago that Austin thought he needed to hold a garden hose to walk, or that he would point at Todd's fish tank and say "fibby!" (fishy). He would point to a train going bye and say "Chooch, Dada, Chooch!" Austin would fly by on his bike, his training wheels spinning just as fast as they would go.

Those days are long gone, and while it makes me a little sad, I know that Austin will have plenty more birthday celebrations and many more memories to make.

Happy Birthday Pumpkin A.

What I'm thankful for today:
20 years of watching my son grow up and become a wonderful young man.

Vegas Baby!

Todd, Lexx and I just returned home from a quick jaunt to Las Vegas. We originally went for Alexxa's soccer tournament. We played the first game and started with 10 girls, but ended up having to forfeit the other two games because two of our girls blew out their knees. Remember, you generally start a game with 11 girls, so we were already down 1 player. Because the tournament was a bust we were actually able to have a mini vacation.

My sister Karen and her family came from Phoenix to visit. It was wonderful being able to see my little niece, Ava. She is growing up so fast. We spent most of Saturday with my sister's family. We went out to breakfast, watched Alexxa's game and then went to the strip for lunch. By the time we finished all that, everyone was exhausted and went back to their hotel rooms. We relaxed in our rooms for a little bit and then went back to the strip with Todd's parents later in the evening. We wandered around through several of the casinos and took the little tram from one place to another. I managed to get a blister on the bottom of my foot and ended up walking around barefoot in about 50 degree weather-awesome. Besides the blister it was pretty fun. My favorite was the Bellagio as you will be able to tell because of all of the pictures.

On Sunday, Todd decided to go hiking at the Valley of Fire with his parents, and Lexx and I decided to stay at the time share and go swimming and eat! Todd had a great time and said he really liked the petroglyphs. Lexx and I also had fun and really liked lunch :) When Todd returned, he had to turn right back around because we had tickets to see Ka Cirque Du Soleil. It was amazing! You aren't allowed to take pictures, but trust me on this one, AMAZING!

We headed out this morning about 8:00 AM and made it home by 5:30 PM. It was a long exhausting drive but well worth it.

Things I'm thankful for today:

In-laws that are generous and allowed us to stay in their timeshare.

Parents that are generous and checked in on Austin.

A safe trip home.

A warm and comfy bed.

Ewwwwww

Maybe I will find the motivation to clean the bathrooms tonight. I really have an aversion to this chore and tend to put it off until it becomes absolutely necessary. I know, gross...but I can't help it. I REALLY hate this particular chore. It sure would be nice to be independently wealthy so that I could afford to hire a maid. I can dream can't I?

Things I'm thankful for today...

Toilet wands

Rubber gloves

A husband who understands my aversion to cleaning bathrooms ;)

What was lost is now found

While clearing pictures off of my camera, I found that I still had pictures of Alexxa before her homecoming dance. Not bad for playing in a soccer tournament all day and only having 45 minutes to take a shower and get ready. What a beauty she is!

Things I am thankful for today...

Vanilla ice cream - YUM!

Heating blankets

Beautiful sunsets

My family :)

No I didn't fall off the face of the earth....

but I have been super busy. With the new year came a new sport for Alexxa. We have been watching her play in the evenings after work for about the past two months. It is really quite entertaining. I think she happens to be on the shortest basketball team ever. The tallest girl on Lexxi's team is 5'7". Her coach has had Lexx doing jump balls, and Lexx is a whopping 5'6" on a good day. My favorite game so far was Golden Sierra vs. Lindhurst. Lindhurst has a girl on their team that is 6'5", and guess who had the honor of guarding that girl...YEP...Lexx. It made me giggle everytime Lexx tried to defend her because she came up to the girls armpit. Lexx looked like a little gnat buzzing around bugging a larger animal. They lost the game, but only by 1 point. Not bad. I think it is safe to say, however, that her team will not be going to the playoffs. No biggie, at least they are getting exercise and having fun.

The new year brought a new semester for both Austin and Alexxa. Alexxa's stayed the same, but Austin's changed. He is keeping quite busy between work and school. Aust now works at the Deli and pizza parlor and is taking 3 college courses. Keep up the good work Aust!

Todd and I keep plugging along. He has been working on the property while I am inside cleaning. I caught a glimpse of him working outside...what an awesome man! I am sooo lucky.

I thought I would start a new tradition with every post this year. I will be listing things that I am thankful for on that particular day.

1. TV series on dvd...currently watching Fringe
2. Vacuum cleaners to clean up garbage that Thor drug out...that was Awesome.
3. Doors to bedrooms...so I'm not tempted to threaten my children.
4. My wonderful children.
5. My hard working wonderful husband ;)

Hugs & kisses,
Brenda