Fair....Take 2!

Yesterday Jenny and the girls were headed to the Fair. I knew Mom really wanted to go as well....so we picked her up (yea for my car making it there - filled it up with lots of water right before we left and didn't use the air - ugh) and then drove her car to the fair. It was fun to walk around again, eat more (see my trend here...get a grip, Beck!) and hang out. Oh, and I didn't bring my camera so these are from my phone and not great. Thanks Grammy and Aunt Jenny for a fun time!!!!

Just Sharing!

Thought I would share with you the invitation job I just finished. Of course, I loved the color scheme of black/white and hot pink. While it is not traditional by any means, I was still able to put my classic twist on it. What I really loved was that the envelopes (both RSVP and Mailing) were hot pink to match the border.
And these are my new mailers to send out to venues around the area (funny enough, the same black brocade). I have had them on my mind for about a year and even ordered the materials, but never followed through. With the help of my wonderful Bianca...this is what I came up with. I really hope it sparks some interest in RCE and some contacts in the area. Heck they have a sample right in their hand of the invitations I can create :) If you know anyone I should mail one to, please let me know!

Birthday, Birthday...Eat, Eat!

Sunday we wanted to celebrate Chris' birthday with our family...we decided on the OC Fair. It was so much fun...we all picked something we wanted to eat, shopped, and the kids road a few rides.
We then went to dinner at Zito's pizza which was also super yummy! And followed that up with some DQ! Daddy was so excited because he got a NEW LAPTOP for his birthday!

Yesterday was Chris' actual birthday. It was also Jaxson's birthday party!! Being that my car is broken, the kids and I dropped Chris off at work, did a few errands and then went to the party! The kids had a wonderful time at the party (Thanks T for the pictures and fun time!) as you can see by them passed out in the car on the way home. After the party we drove back to Grammy's house and hung around for a while. The kids stayed there and I picked up Chris from work and we had great dinner and wine at Flemings! We ended our day with Cake at Grammy and Popi's. Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!!!!

6th Birthday Festivities!!!

BEWARE...this post has a LOT of pictures!

Isabella has literally been counting down the days until her birthday. I remember when we were at 16 or so and then look....it is over so quickly! The birthday activity began on Sunday when our family came over to celebrate Isabella and eat the best Lucille's family feast ever (Thanks Chris!)! Thank God I was feeling better from the antibiotic and could clean and prepare on Saturday!

Isabella got so many wonderful presents. We can not thank our family enough for making our little girl feel so special! Both Grammys took some extra pictures for me so I need to collect those. For now, these are what I took.

Yesterday morning we did our traditional Birthday Toast. She was awake before I had it ready (the point is to be woken up with the singing!) but she just couldn't wait! Notice her new Dsi across her shoulder...she has not parted from that.

We then had some of her adorable little girlfriends come over! Isabella did their makeup. They got Tattoos and Barbie sunglasses. We played "put the glasses on Barbie", ate lunch, opened presents, the girls played upstairs and us Moms visited. It was a great time!!!

Above - "Pre-game"

Below - "Getting all Doll'd up!"

Adorable Girlfriends!

By the time everyone left and we had cleaned up, Daddy came home early! We let Isabella pick and she wanted BJs for dinner. The streak of having pizza on the night she was born is still going strong :)

We made Isabella wait ALL DAY long to open the presents from us - what TORTURE! And here are the final pictures of her opening her presents. She was ecstatic with everything she received.

Thank you everyone who called, text, sang Happy Birthday, facebooked....you made her feel SO LOVED!!!

I just adore having a girl...according to Bella, this was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Looking forward to all things being SIX holds for her!!

Sweet Child Of Mine

I cried over the weekend...so not unusual for me, I know...this time I was crying because my sweet Angel girl turns SIX tomorrow! I was looking through her pictures and longing for her to be a little baby in my arms. In the grand scheme of life, SIX years is not a major deal, but why oh why did they have to pass by SO QUICKLY? How blessed we are to have this child to call our own. She who teaches me things about myself daily; who loves, feels and cares with her WHOLE heart and nothing else; who says to me, "Mom just one more kiss" before I leave her room at night; who is just " SO BELLA" and I wouldn't want her any other way...My sweet child, I look forward to all of the years we have making memories with you!

STREP THROAT SUCKS!

So we got home from Texas on Thursday and Friday I needed to catch up on cleaning, etc. Of course, Isabella was not too happy since Friday is our day to go to Gram and Pops. She picked out of the summer fun jar and we got to turn the back room into a movie theater. She picked out a bunch of movies, we closed all the drapes, made popcorn and watched movies! It was great :)

On Sunday we decided to take advantage of that gorgeous pool my Mom and Dad have and we headed over to swim. Even Mommy got in this time which Bella was so excited about. We stopped on the way and picked up some yummy Carne Asada to BBQ and it turned out to be a perfect day!

On Monday we had a great time at the splash pad with our friends!

 

Monday evening Isabella started her week of VBS. She asked if I would take a picture on her first day :) They have since been wearing PandaMania t-shirts. I must have known that I was going to get sick, because I ran a ton of errands on Monday evening while she was in Bible Study.

And then Tuesday it hit me. I had the worst sore throat that made it so painful to swallow. I still ran a couple errands while she was at VBS, but I needed to get stuff done, right? :( Wednesday was AWFUL. I had a fever, chills, cold sweats, throwing up, couldn't swallow. SUCKED! Yesterday I went to the doctor and sure enough I had Strep Throat. I thought if you didn't get strep throat when you were young that you weren't prone to it. Guess I was WRONG! Thankfully Chris came home early on Wednesday, Jeri took Bella to VBS, Chris picked her up the past two nights and has taken care of nighttime, etc. And thanks to my Mom for taking the Monkeys to lunch yesterday while I went to the doctor - made it so much easier! Hope everyone has had a better week than I have - but on the bright side...I am on the z-pac and on the mend! Looking forward to Bella's 6th Birthday!

Total Hicks

I am trying to spare you all the 300-some pictures I took. Along with the fact that I now have TWO broken cameras and missed out on some good pictures of Isabella leading Vincent on the horse (because we made a trip to Hobby Lobby), I am also waiting on some pictures of the hard work my Dad did on the Ranch-sign and the balloon arch (yea Cheer-leading!!) we put around the sign.

So what did we do for 9 days??? I am not really sure!! Unfortunately my Dad and Papa Joe worked A LOT around the ranch....we made several shopping trips, a trip into downtown Fort Worth with just the 4 of us, lots of eating out, lots of drinkin' and visiting, lots of work for the 4th (which I realized I don't have decor pictures of on the collage, but I will put in my book), a little horse riding, a new golf cart, tons of fireworks, matching t-shirts and a few odd happenings around including Camryn getting strep-throat and Popi giving us a scare on the Tractor. I did take some really cute pictures of Isabella for her 6th Birthday that I will post later. Oh and one more important fact: Chris and I are the Empty Cross Ranch Chili-Cook Off Winners!!!!!!!! YEE HAW!!