Annie meets Santa Claus

One of the big changes for Annie this Christmas that Texas is instituting is Santa Claus.  She was not to thrilled about it, and it took a lot of long talks about St. Nicholas.  Being a real person who died a long time ago; his spirit still brings presents to children...  After many talks along those lines, she finely caught on.   I wasn't to sure about starting up the whole Santa bit, but she has really loved it so far and Christmas is still four days away.   The hardest part is keeping her on track with Christmas NOT being about presents, but about Jesus being born.   Finding that balance has been hard, but hopefully I'll have it down by the time I get grandchildren.

Annie the tree skirt Monster!

 

Story time

So it's story time and Annie asks Texas to tell her a Superman story.   So Texas starts telling her a story about Superman and Supergirl visiting St. Louis and going to the baseball game.  Well, they get to the new stadium and order hot dogs and root beer before going to their seats... "Um daddy, can they drink water instead? Soda is bad for them."   I'm so glad I was there to hear her say that.  From now on all story characters have to make healthy eating choices. 

Quote of the day

"God made me.  I'm an invention of God."

Annie Gail 12/16/10

my favorite

One of the few times Annie has ever posed for a photo without making a face (please note the slight sparkle of her dress thanks to hours of mom gluing tiny rhinestones on with tweezers).

Tiny dancer

 

Not only did she dance by herself.

 But she made it her goal to dance with everyone there. 

Including the Bride

Her favorite dance partner?

 Texas no doubt.

  Who she would repeatedly dragged back out onto the dance floor (notice the foot prints all over his suit).

I had to add this photo mostly because it shows off her hair, which took me almost as long as the 60+ rhinestones I individually glued to the skirt of her gown.  She better realize how hard I work for her one day.

Midnight Fajitas!

After a long day of shopping and the rehearsal dinner we got back to the hotel starving.  So Texas went out and got us Fajitas from one of the many Mexican restaurants open all night.   Annie thought this was the coolest thing ever.   She not only got to stay up late (it wasn't really midnight, it was actually only 8:30), but she got to eat Mexican food in bed while watching a Christmas movie on the hotel TV.   She woke up the next morning asking, "can we do that again?"

The Cowboys!

On our first day in Texas, Tex insisted we go see the Cowboys stadium.   I'm thinking this is stupid, there's no game, we'll just end up walking around the outside and have to drive all the way back having wasted 3 hours of our day.   Not to mention what are Annie and I going to do while Jon's mesmerized by the stadium?    I spent over an hour trying to convince him to let us go to the outlet mall instead.   Well I've learned to keep my mouth shut.   Annie had the most fun of anyone.   We ended up being able to take a tour of the stadium.  Which included getting to see the cheerleaders locker room and run around on the field.   Annie got a set of official Cowboy cheerleaders pompoms which she didn't let go of for two days. 

Annie and Tex on the field.

Annie working on her cheers on the football field.

Bedtime for the cheerleader.

Out of my mind

Sorry.   It's been a long time since I posted, but I have a really good excuse.  Jon and I are trying to buy a house.  I can't tell you how frustrating and insane this process has been.  So insane that I am not going to tell you anything about it for fear that it will jinx the sudden bit of good news we got today.   So please be patient and pray for us.   We really love this house and it's super cheap as far as houses go not to mention this is our third attempt).

What Annie knows about Hunting

"You have to go to the conservation people and tell them you want to make a deer die.   But first you have to camouflage.   You take a paint brush and brush it on.   Then you go into the woods and put the arrow into the deer very gently, and then you pull it out, and take the pieces of meat off.   Then you take a bath to get the paint off."

Keeping secrets

So I am new to this marriage game, but how bad is it to keep a secret from your husband?   As I was holding my breath waiting for the car to light up like Christmas with warnings, I started wondering what Texas would do if it did.   Well, the lights are back on.   It took a staggering one day for things to go wrong, and I can't tell him.  He worked so hard on the car for so long, and finally had it going.   Plus he's home sick and I don't want to make his day worse.   So I'm not telling him.  At least for a while.  So just how bad is that?  

Fixed car

I'm pretty sure my life has become so boring it isn't worth writing about.   Today my highlight was Texas putting new tires on the car, and I wasn't nearly as excited as he was.  He has made it his personal mission to fix my car.  Car parts arrive in the mail almost every other day and one by one the warning lights in the car go off.  Today marks the official first day of no warning lights on in the car since I bought it almost 4 years ago.  Texas is quite pleased with his work and I am quietly holding my breath.  This car has never had all the lights off, except for that brief moment when I first got the car.  It lasted about a month and then the gas cap door fell off, it was all down hill from there.   For Tex's sake I hope the lights stay off.  It might crush him, after the months of work he's put into it.

Annie's Outfit

Earlier this week Annie told me she was going to "design a fashion."  She made me leave her room and didn't come out for almost 20 minutes.  When she came out I was impressed to see that she had actually put on an outfit that didn't involve a leotard.  She then went downstairs and styled her hair.

Annie the bird lady

Getting ready for winter

Texas has been helping me get the chicken coop ready for winter.  Last year we learned that chickens are afraid of snow (at least mine are), so Jon built them a little cover so they can get out of the coop and walk around. 

Later today Texas is going to clean out the coop and lay down new bedding for winter.  It's awesome having help.

Halloween Failure

So after an insane amount of cleaning, cooking, Halloween decorating and massive planning we made it through our Halloween weekend.   We had a huge Halloween party, trunk or treat with Annie's school, and then trick or treating Sunday night.  I sit down yesterday to blog on our amazingly exhausting weekend only to realize I failed to take any pictures.   So this is it.  The only two pictures I have of Annie's Halloween. 

Making last minute decorations for the Halloween party.

Annie and Ruby trick or treating (yes this is the only picture I took).

The worst failure of all... we forgot to carve the pumpkin.

The mystery continues

Well the doctor has no idea what is causing my spontaneous freckles.  Annie is super excited about this.   She calls it a "real mystery," and runs around the house looking for "freckle" clues.    At the very least these freckles are making Annie extremely happy. 

Day three

Yesterday, I woke up with freckles all over my face. Only problem is I don't have freckles, so this spurred a trip to urgent care and then Quest for some blood work. We don't find out till later today what spurred the mysterious case of freckles across my face but I now know I do not look good with freckles.
Today I am ridiculously tired and super frustrated. I am missing yet another day of work, my house is a mess and my case of freckles is getting worse.  Please pray for me?  I'm feeling a little pathetic today.

Sick day

I suck at blogging right now.  Sorry, but I just can't keep up. It seems that being pregnant is way suckier than I remember.   Then add Annie, a new husband, work and a house full of dust, bugs and laundry and well, I'm sunk.  

Today I am home sick.   Annie and I caught some horrible bug that attacks your lungs.   All I do is cough which being pregnant causes me to pee my pants (it's not nearly as funny as it sounds), and poor Annie just stares at the tv coughing and asking if I will buy her what ever toy she sees on those wretched commercials.  Making me hate commercials, tv and toy companies all together.   After three hours I finally couldn't take it anymore, so I turned off the TV and made Annie get dressed.   She chose to put on a swimsuit and refused to wear anything else.   Too sick to protest I forced her outside for some sun and fresh air.   Not feeling up for a bike ride Annie and I headed into the kitchen garden.   She found bunch of carrots ready to come up, so we decided we would make chicken stock.   Four hours later the house is smelling like chicken stock, Annie is quietly sewing and I'm still peeing my pants every time I cough.

A mini family trip

 Thanks to our friends the Olivers, we got to go on an awesome mini trip this weekend. Annie got to roast marshmallows, play with six little boys all around her age (and thoroughly enjoy being the only big girl), fish (or watch Tex fish), and eat loads of sugar. It was a dream come true for a four year old little girl.

 Annie with her Disney princess fishing rod from Tex (which lasted about two minutes before she dropped it to play with the worms).

 

 Tex caught a fish pretty early on, but Annie was to scared to reel it in.

The first catch of the day!

Catch

Hold

Release!

We went for a short walk over to see the horses. Annie had more fun climbing the fence than looking at the horses far off in the distance.

 

No trip is complete without stopping for BBQ!  

We went to Missouri Hick for lunch on our way home.   

Annie thought their water mill was pretty cool.

30 is really exciting

We're having a girl!   I'm super excited as is Annie.   Tex is in a state of shock/panic, but I'm sure he'll come out of it soon.   Baby is getting a little more real to him everyday.  
We have been super busy lately.  Tex and I are both working a ton to try and prepare for my not working when the baby gets here.   And yesterday was my birthday.   I'm officially 30 now.   Not terribly excited.   But at least I feel a little more on track now.   Suddenly I'm Married, thirty and pregnant with baby number 2. 
Best birthday surprises?   Finding out we're having a girl, Tex buying me lots of maternity clothes and my Aunt Leslie sending me a giant box of Clothes! (which I am carefully packing away until after the baby is born).

Movie night

So It's been super crazy here.  With Tex's stuff in boxes everywhere and my stuff shifting out of the way for his, our house looks a like a tornado went through it.   Annie's favorite thing so far that Tex has brought into the house?  His TV of course.   She is constantly asking to watch a movie.   Tonight we decided to take a brake from work and have dinner and a movie night.   Annie picked Cheaper by the dozen 2.   She loves this movie and thinks it is hysterical.  Half way through they are making S'mores in the movie and it's true, I cannot resist s'mores.   So Tex lights a fire in the fireplace, Annie gets the marshmallows and I get the graham crackers and chocolate (another thing about me, I always have S'more ingredients on hand).

Tex lighting the fire

Annie is very focused on roasting her marshmallows

A little to focused perhaps

Banjo joined us after the food was all consumed

And then him and Annie snuggled by the fire for a little bit before bed.

more wedding photo's

Me and Tex

 Me and Tex with

The best man Matt (Tex's Brother)  and the maid of honor Little Maddie. 

And of coarse Annie squeezing in at the last minute.

Annie showing me the note she made during the wedding.

Wedding photos

I just got these but it's 10:30 at night and I'm to tired to post more right now.