Trenton comes to Texas

Trent and his friend, Alex, came to Texas for a visit.  

Alex is a photographer and got some great shots of all the fun.

Trent certainly got his hockey fix while he was here.

Much to his fathers delight.

Craig's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Yoon where also in town and stopped by to say hello.  It has been years since we've seen them and we were very happy to have them stop by.

Trent and Alex treated us to a nice dinner

(I guess my suggestions of left overs was not to their liking!)

I say they made the right decision.

The day Trent and Alex left we took some time for a quick family photo shoot. 

 (shamelessly abusing Alex's skills)

No, these amateur photos are from my camera (except the nice family photo below)

We are still waiting on her shots.

We loved having them here and were so sad to see them go.  But we're all looking forward to May when we head to San Francisco to see our boy walk with his class major for graduation.

It's Spring school photos time

I can, without a doubt, say our children took the most beautiful photos in the history of Texas schools.

If you think I'm joking, just take a look at these beauties!

Okay, I may be a bit biased.

Yep, it's soccer time again!

Logan is back on the field, playing soccer once again.

He's actually back on the ACES, he's got his old coach from his first season and several of the same team mates.  Which we LOVE!

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Oh yes, and remember Logan's love, Maddie  . . .

Yep, I think some of those old feelings are stirring!

Luckily he was able to pull himself away from the pretty blond to kick the ball once or twice at practice.

A day in the life . . .

We spent this weekend taking care of some things around the house.

First, we had fun watching Dylan while Brandy and Dave went to a wedding.  

Craig installed two rain collections bins.  

We're excited to be able to use all the rain we're supposed be getting to water the plants and garden . . . 

Funny thing is that it rained this morning and this bin is already almost full!

Speaking of our plants and garden, I had to share this beautiful Lollipop Gerber daisy I found at Lowes.

I LOVE this.  The blossom is huge, I can't wait till more bloom.

 I just hope I don't kill it.

And the kids and I planted our garden last weekend and everything has already sprouted. (well, to be fair, a few were seedlings)

We can't wait to see how we do this year.  

We planted corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, lettuce, green onions, zucchini, yellow squash and cantaloupes.

And lastly, I found out about Knock out roses.  They're beautiful, grow fast and full and stay blooming from Spring through the first frost.  I've been told they do wonderfully here, so we planted several of them.   

I'll let you know how they do.

Trenton is here.

All is right with the world.

More to come . . .

Our Staycation . . .

For Spring Break, we stayed in town.  But we tried to keep busy.
Along with taking in a movie and bowling a few frames, it was warm enough for the kids to take a quick dip.  The pool was still pretty cold, but they didn't seem to mind.

We also went to an Aeroes game (thank you very much Groupon!)

And, as you can see, Logan had a growth spurt over the break. 

He must take after his Uncle.

I don't really see the down side to child labor . . .

She does an excellent job.   I'm thinking of hiring her out.

All our damn animals

Well, it's official.  We're keeping her.
Introducing:  Pepper Cynthia Steindorf
(Chloe had the honor of giving Pepper her middle name)

 So who should I send all the stays that I find since our home is now maxed out?

Anyone?  Anyone?

We've been trying to teach them to stay out of the kitchen and dining room while we eat.   So they just sit there and stare at us until we're done.   It doesn't make for a very relaxing dinner.

But, I guess that's what we get for having all the damned animals!

Are we crazy?

A funny thing happened on the way home the other day!

Yep, I saw this little thing running around the street, just waiting to get hit.   She had a collar, so I figured I'd just catch her and give her family a call.  Well, low and behold.  There was no tag on the collar.  No microchip to be found.   No postings at the local vets or animal shelter.

So now what?

I'm am SO my mother's daughter.   

Lord help us.  We're falling fast for this one.   

If she does have an owner, they'd better speak up fast and even if they do, I'm not sure we'll give her up.

Luckily Yorkie Rescue will sponsor her so we can have her spayed, heart worm tested and groomed.  We'll basically foster her until we find her owner or .. .well, keep her.

By the way, we've named her Pepper.

ABBA Flash Mob

Are you guys tired of watching this yet? SO here's one more You Tube Post I found of the flash mob. Once again, Miss Chloe is front and center for most of the video.
I just don't get tired of watching this girl!

Flash Mob Market Street

Okay, so I've explained many times that my preschool class, if nothing else ,will know how to bake a mean cake and will be the best little recyclers around. But did I mention that they will also be able to sing every ABBA hit ever recorded?

I love ABBA and play their music in class all the time. And when I heard the news that someone was organizing an ABBA flash mob at Market Street, I was in. Chloe and I went home and took about a half an hour to learn the steps and headed over with Dave, Brandy and Dylan. Brandy posted this on You Tube. Chloe is front and center in red. I'm a bit behind her with the sunglasses on.  

Enjoy!



Chloe went off to bed tonight, dancing and singing "Dancing Queen"
God I love that girl!

A busy week for A Sweet Idea

This weekend I had two cakes due.  I was a bit worried that I'd bitten off more than I can chew considering the frantic state of my kitchen when just doing one!  But I'm happy to report all turned out well.

If fact, everything went pretty smooth, surprisingly enough.

The coconut cake was fun to do and I am really happy with how it turned out.  

It's for a 50th birthday luau.

This next one is for my best customer.  I've done two of her daughter's parties and this is the second for her son.  It's nice that she keeps coming back.  And I work with her now, so it's all good.  I love how my pins turned out.  The bowling ball, well that's another story.   But what can you do right!

Anyway, I'm happy they are both complete and delivered and now I can relax . . .

right after I clean up the disaster in my kitchen!

Sue

Weekend before last, I traveled to Dallas to attend a memorial for my cousin, Sue, who lost her battle with cancer on Valentine's Day.   She was 48 years old.  She was a beautiful person with an even more beautiful spirit.   And it was so wrong that we had to say good bye to her so soon.  And wrong that I didn't know her better.   We saw each other every 5 or so years.  But we were family and when we did talk, she never failed to end our conversations with I love you.   I realized how much I take for granted.   I just assume that those I love, know I love them and am thinking of them regardless of the fact that I rarely call or actually say the words I love you.  And I take for granted that Chloe will always want to tell me about her day, even after I tell her to "PLEASE! Just give me a few minutes without you talking."  Or that Logan will always be so eager to tell me how much he loves me each and every day!  Or that any special moments that I get to share with my family will wait until I close the computer or turn off the t.v.  So, to my family and my dear friends I'm going to do better.   For all of you who make my life so full, I'm going to do better. So, whenever it is that we have to say our last goodbye, one of us will be able to say we shared a great conversation . . .hug . . . laugh. . . cry . . .or moment the other day.  

Okay, so just so you don't expect miracles, you need to know that as I was typing this, I had to tell Craig to stop touching me.  Clearly, I have my work cut of for me. 

 Thank you in advance for your patience!  

I truly love you all!!

A cake for A.J.

Yesterday, we went to A.J.'s TaeKwonDo birthday party.   I thought this was going to be a pretty simple cake.   The cake had other ideas.   The frosting would not behave and would not smooth out.   I finally had to throw my hands up and surrender.   

Cake: 1  Christy:  0

A.J. was thrilled I got his belt right and Logan had a great time, so I'm thinking it was a good day, regardless of my lumpy icing job!

Snakes ALREADY!

This darn crazy weather we've been having has brought with it some very unwanted guests.  Mosquitoes

and SNAKES!  Yep, here's our first for 2011.   Shelby found this one.

Luckily he's just a little guy, but I'm scared with all this warm weather, the big bad guys will be coming out soon and it's only February!

Introducing Shelby Rose Steindorf

A few weeks ago, we became 'foster parents' to one Miss Shelby Rose.

Yorkie Rescue had sent out a request for someone to foster her and we basically decided, What the hell!

 She's so tiny, I put the remote next to her so you can get a good idea on how small she is.

6 lbs of pure attitude, this one is.

 The kids love her, although she's still not too sure of them.  Craig is smitten, since he's always wanted a little dog.  And I'm getting used to such a tiny little thing running under my feet all the time.   Sadie and Roger love her.  Sadie even plays, which is saying a lot for our little ol' granny poodle.

I can say, without a doubt, that we will fail miserably at being foster parents.  

We are now a 3 dog family, Lord help us!