March 19 - Ninja Warrior

Ella, Luke, Julia & Logan

Back in the fall, I signed the kids up for a ninja warrior competition at an outdoor venue in Austin. Rain or shine, the event was happening (according to every communication they sent in the last few months). The competition was on a Sunday and I considered doing a long day driving there and back (about 3.5h each way) but JD suggested we stay overnight and make a mini-trip out of it. Our friends Ben and Dana offered for us to stay with them and we drove up on Saturday. After playing outside on bikes, mini-go karts and other vehicles, the girls put on their swim suits and were swimming and hanging out in the hot tub. I'm not exaggerating when I say they were outside for at least 5 hours straight. The boys played video games and had a great time together. We ordered in Texas bbq for dinner (delish), had a good night sleep and then packed up the next day for the ninja competition. 

"Where is the entrance?" JD asked me as we were driving down a random road near the Austin airport. I was looking at the pin they dropped showing us the parking location and we saw no one there. JD asked me to verify the event was happening and I said it was supposed to be on 'rain or shine' but I checked and ...lo and behold, they had cancelled due to rain (it was barely misting) at 10pm the night before. Arg! No worries though. We headed back to Ben and Dana's and everyone (except Jillian and I) went out on dune buggies to go mudding. It was a great weekend!

Ella wants a baby sister now

February 28 - He Loves His Stuffed Animals

I just have to share this sweet photo with you guys. Many of you know that Luke loves video games and YouTube, many of you may not know that he also loves stuffed animals. For awhile, he had them tucked all around him in bed (getting him into bed was a process but he had limited room) and now they have their own area in his room. Last week we put him to bed then heard him walking around upstairs. I went up to check on him and he had written all of their names on a piece of paper and then taped it to his wall. So sweet!

February 26 - Chili Cook-Off

Go Texan Day

 Last Friday was Go Texan Day which means....it's rodeo time! As anyone who has spent anytime in Texas knows, the rodeo is a huge deal around here. To celebrate, the kids are invited to dress up in their western wear. In first grade, there is a dad's chili cook-off and dancing in the gym. Luke was so excited for JD to come in and cook with his class, he was up and dressed at 6:30am. They ended up wining 'Most Creative Chili' and JD had fun watching Luke do some square dancing, the hockey pockey and the funky chicken in the cafeteria. 

I realize I've been slacking with the blog lately so here is a quick update on the kiddos:

picture day

Julia
Our 4th grade teachers don't believe in homework this year so Julia has had a lot of time to play after school with her friends (other than Mondays and Tuesdays, she stayed late both of those days for robotics). She is a total tom-boy and all about 'being active.' She loves to run, play soccer, tag, climb trees, anything that involves moving. I 'forced' her to dress up for picture day last week and she was very annoyed that I wanted her hair down and she wasn't wearing active wear (because "how am I supposed to play at recess mom? I cannot run in jeans and this fancy shirt?"). Never fear, after the picture was taken, she immediately changed into shorts and a t-shirt. She is pretty much 'all about her friends' these days but is still a great big sister. She eats a bowl of oatmeal and Cheerios every morning for breakfast, love pb&J for lunch and eats almost everything for dinner (usually 2-3 servings!). She loves swim team and is excited for a track meet next month.

Luke
Our 1st grade teachers do believe in homework. Luke has specific books he has to read every week and gets a list of 20 homework activities at the beginning of the month that are due at the end of the month. He also now has writing homework weekly, which he is not a fan of. He is best friends with Serene, who lives around the corner and they play often, although he still spends a lot of time playing video games. Swimming has been a challenge since December as the indoor high school pool we used to go to is closed for renovations. We've been going to an outdoor pool that is supposedly heated, but it's been a cold winter here and he has only had it through practice twice (he lasts 30min out of 45min). Now that the weather is warming up, hopefully he will be more excited to go to practice. He loves pancakes, chocolate breakfast shakes, oatmeal, turkey and cheese sandwiches and yogurt. He loves ice cream for dessert every night and usually clears his plate simply so he can get dessert afterwards. 

under the sink is FUN

Jillian
Our crazy little baby munchkin is almost 18 months old and so much fun! She's a climber (like Luke was) and gets into everything-the chairs, kitchen table, couch, you name it. She loves to climb into cabinets too. She can run now and is quite fast. She loves to laugh, giggle, eat (she especially loves to sit in our laps and eat) and...eat some more. She loves to open her drawers and pull all the clothes out. Her favorite sayings "Dog!" and "Uh Oh." She is still a wonderful napper and sleeps fantastic at night. She rarely cries and is just one happy little girl. 

Amelia
Amelia is still the furry love of my life. She continues to slow down but she still wants to eat and go for walks, so that's great. She sleeps about 20h a day and is completely deaf now. I think she is also blind in one eye but I'm not certain. 

February 20 - Swim Girls

Jules, Reese & Kennedy

This past weekend was the last short course championship meet until the fall. Julia has been practicing sporadically since 'the constant sickness' started in December and she was very nervous for the meet. No worries though-once she was with her girls, Kennedy and Reese, all worries went out the window. The best part of meet for the girls? Hanging out in the tent. They spent so much time laughing and giggling together, it makes my heart happy that they are so close. And bonus... all of the girls did amazing and both Julia and Kennedy earned personal bests in every race. Incredible! 

Eat My Bubbles! Kiss My Splash! Go Aquastar!

February 17 - Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's boxes

What a whirlwind week, let's dive in. For the first time ever, both kids had to make Valentine's boxes this year for their class parties. Julia was initially was stressed out about this as her class was having a competition for Best Sports Theme, Best Use of Hearts and Best Overall. Being Julia, she 'wanted to win.' I told them they had to do their own boxes and they ended up having fun with them. Julia did an old school I-pod and Luke did a monster. Julia was a very nice big sister and helped Luke a lot with his box. They have had ice cream sundae parties with their classes on actual Valentine's day and it was fun being at school and helping out. 

our littlest Valentine

For Valentine's dinner, I surprised everyone in the family by cooking a nice dinner. 'Wait a second Christine, you don't ever cook nice dinners?' If you consider crock pot meals nice dinners-then yes, I cook a lot of fantastic meals. On this rare occasion, I put together a delicious meal of steak, shrimp and crab cakes. We even had chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Yum!!

This weekend is relatively slow weekend for us. I spent the morning picking up cookies with our troop cookie mom and organizing them for each girl. Next step-organize our specific orders, that will take awhile! Julia has a swim meet tomorrow afternoon that should be fun. 

Happy Saturday everyone!! Enjoy these pics from our school fair last weekend.

Julia and fellow GS helping with the chili cookoff

Luke helped me at the Angry Birds booth all day - it was packed all day, he was a huge help!

February 11 - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

love these ladies

Special thanks to everyone-friends and family-for making my fortieth (OMG, how am I 40?!) special. I've received so many calls, texts and Facebook posts, you guys know how to make a girl (middle aged woman?) feel special. 

Last weekend Teresa planned something for me with the GS moms. All she told me was to dress 80's and be ready at 6.45pm, Tammy would be picking me up. I've had an 80s Halloween costume that I've worn several times an wouldn't you know, I just donated it to charity a few months ago. So Julia and I hit up the mall and while I couldn't find anything bright or fluorescent, I found an 80s type rock/pop star outfit that gave off an early Madonna vibe. Julia thought I looked hideous but I can rock an 80s outfit like no other. After getting dressed, adding gold jewelry and lots of hair spray and makeup, it was time!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Tammy picked me up and we were off to...Painting with a Twist! The GS moms were there (along with a few of my other friends) all dressed up in their 80s wonder. We had appetizers, drinks, delicious cake and then we all painted blue bonnet landscapes. It was a ton of fun!! Afterwards, Teresa, Tammy, Catherine and I all went out dancing to a local 80s club. Amazingly, other people there were also dressed up so we didn't stand out. It was a fabulous night!!

Last night, JD and I went out for my birthday dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Rice Village. This morning, he and the kids brought me breakfast in bed (pancakes, fresh fruit and champagne, mmm) and I spent a wonderful half day in bed reading. It was simply divine!! JD took care of the kids and even started the weekend laundry. I finally came down for lunch and Olympics. Best day ever! 

Thank you to Teresa for planning an amazing party

Painting with a Twist

after-hours dancing

January 31 - Vegas

ATV Adventure

Every January my company has it's annual National Sales Meeting to review 2017 sales and present new products for 2018. It's our biggest meeting of the year and we rotate between east and west coast. We had a fantastic 2017 so I was looking forward to the meeting. 

This year our meeting was at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas, a few miles off the strip. I arrived Wednesday and had meetings most of the day. One of my co-workers checked in the night before and was given the penthouse suite. So one the highlight of my week was going to see it. Over 4.2k sq ft with 2 bedrooms, 3 marble bathrooms, a piano, full kitchen, Ostrich coach and 95" tv. It was insane! Thursday and Friday morning were spent in meetings all day and then Friday afternoon was what my boss likes to call 'free Friday.' We were able to register for a different activity (golf, TopGolf, go-karting, hike, ATV) and I chose ATV. I've never been on an ATV tour before and it was quite an experience.

Penthouse Suite & the hotel pool

I didn't realize what a workout it would be, my arms (and right thumb) were incredibly sore afterwards. We had 21 people and were divided into a few groups, then followed our guide for about 2 hours. We were in rocky terrain, up and down steeps hills with rocks and some with sand. A completely unique experience!! Friday night I was invited to dinner by our sales agent based out of Redlands, CA. He brought 2 surgeons, a sales reps, some hospital staff and then a few of us from corporate. It was a delicious Italian restaurant off the strip and some of the best food I've even eaten. Yum! After dinner, it was dance time. I met up with some work friends at Umbria, a club at Ceasars, and we danced the night away like we were 21 again. 

Saturday was a day full of meetings and ending with our awards banquet. Then back to Houston at the crack of dawn on Sunday. It was a great work trip but it's great to be back with the family. 

Jillian's first time in her new carseat #notafan

My girls

Luke designed this...complete with chimney, light, 2 windows, door and the ability to mount his iPad

January 23 - Little Monkeys

Jilly sandwich!

Houston was shut down last week for 2-days due to 'winter weather.' It would be easy to laugh at that (I admit, I thought it was ridiculous at first too) but the city really isn't equipped to handle ice on roadways. There was freezing rain most of last Wednesday and it was slippery out there. Jillian was still able to go to Rachel's so I could work, while Julia and Luke were home yet again. To entertain themselves, at one point they were climbing up the door frames like ninja warriors! Then after temperatures in the teens (which I think was a new record low)...we were back up to 70 by the weekend. Crazy Texas weather!

Monkey Boy

Reading time

January 22 - Morning Schedule

I'd like to report that everyone is healthy but.....Julia now has an ear infection and JD has a nasty cold. It's nonstop people, nonstop! In good news, while Jillian is still coughing, her drainage has gotten a lot better. Julia is on day 4 of antibiotics and doing much better, while Luke and I are both healthy. 

So, let's talk about Julia. We've been watching motivational YouTube videos (some on Michael Phelps, some on how hard work beats talent) and she is ready to tackle her 'fitness.' If any of you have seen Julia in recent years, she's a lean, muscle and doesn't need to work on her 'fitness' but hey, those videos really inspired her. Two Thursdays ago, she wrote up a new morning routine for herself and posted it in her room. The next morning, I heard her alarm go off just after 6am. While I was putting in my contacts I heard the back door open. JD was out of town so I couldn't leave the house, but I waited for her downstairs for over 20min. I'd like to point out that it was 30 degrees outside with gusting winds (this run probably contributed to her ear infection). She ran with her iPod blasting K-POP and told me she was 'invigorated' and 'ready to start her day.' I told her that was great but she cannot run by herself at 6am in the morning when it's dark outside. She tried to argue that we have street lights in our neighborhood so it wasn't even dark outside. While true, I told her she had to wait for me or dad to go with her. Last week, there was no running going on with her ear infection and the ice around Houston. This morning though, we started our new 'morning routine' together and went running for 20min before school. Guys-I hate (DESPISE!) running with every fiber of my being. But I LOVE that Julia wants to do this with me. 

Love my original baby bean!

January 15 - Germs, Germs Go AWAY

Happy New Year everyone! We had a quiet NYE at home. JD is what I like to call a "New Years Scrooge" (he thinks any NYE celebration is ridiculous). We usually leave him at home and go to a friend's house. This year I was feeling under the weather so we didn't go anywhere. The kids and I watched a movie and watched a Netflix New Years countdown and I was asleep by midnight. 

Unfortunately, my 'feeling under the weather' turned out to be bronchitis and even though I've been done with antibiotics for over a week now, I'm still coughing. Not fun! Jillian started a bad cold last weekend and after still draining a crazy amount after several days, I took her to the doctor. She tested positive for RSV, which is a bad respiratory infection. She doesn't have a fever and isn't contagious, but she will be draining and coughing for week. Poor thing!

So if anyone is counting...
November: stomach flu x5
December: flu type A x2
January: bronchitis x1 and RSV x1

I have never disinfected my house and done so much laundry in my life. Come on germs, move along. The Yamo's are done being sick!