The Wanna Be Super Mom

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween weekend! We had our Annual Halloween Party on Saturday night. Can't believe this was our 7th year! We added a maze this year and the kids loved it! Watch out friends Sam and I already have plans in the works for a new addition next year! ;)

Jackson one of Brinley's good friends looking really surprised! You can see Brin a bit in the back ground. Unfortunately this is the only kiddo pic I got at the party. :/

My brother David went as Beetlejuice and my sister Jenny went as Lydia!

I was a Dia de los Muertos Sugar Skull!

And so was my BFF Margy!

Aaron was the Grim Reaper! He scared lots of people that night.

Some or my girls!

Sam and some of her girls!

Can't wait to do it again next year! :)

Trick or treating was crazy this year! There were 15 kids in our group!
The twins both decided to go with Monster High characters. Gibby was Frankie Stein and Maddy was Clawdeen Wolf. This is the first year that Gib's gone for a somewhat girlie costume... In the past you may remember that she has been a Ninja Turtle and for the past 2 years a Fire Fighter! She really wanted to be Edward Scissorhands but I couldn't pull it off in time. Next year, Gibby! I promise! Brinley went as The Corpse Bride. Her's was the only costume I made besides Aaron's this year. My sweet niece Hadley was the cutest little Owl ever! My little sis made her costume! I'm so proud! ;)

Brinley and Caroline! Caroline is a vampire gymnast.;)

Zoe as a cute Pirate!

School Days - Second Week of School 2011-2012

2011-09-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

We had another great week of school last week! On Monday the girls rode the bus to school for the first time. :( They are growing up so fast. I've taken them to school everyday since they started and this year they insist on riding the bus. Because they woke up at 6:30 and the bus comes at 6:55 we didn't have time for before school pictures. We did, however, take after school pics!;)Gibby also had her first soccer practice for the season. She is still playing for Dino Power with her Uncle Aries and Aunt Sam coaching. Brinley is playing indoor soccer this season with The Shooting Star and had first practice on Friday. We also had our first school fundraiser of the year on Friday! The girls participated in a Boosterathon Funrun and received pledges for each lap they completed. Maddy had 32 laps, Gibby had 34 and Brinley had 26! We are still adjusting to the routine of school and the girls are still pretty tired when they get home but I expect that they will adjust soon. I love all of the girls teachers and I'm looking forward to the rest of this semester!

Here are the girls pictures from this past week! Hopefully we can keep it up! ;)

August 29, 2011

August 30, 2011

August 31, 2011

September 1, 2011

September 2, 2011

Have a great Labor Day weekend y'all! We are headed off to a Rough Riders game!

School Days - First Week of School 2011-2012!

2011-08-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well the first week of school has come and gone and it was fantastic! The girls were very excited to start this school year. Even my Maddy was up and dressed in record time to get to her first day of class! We were up with little trouble every day and all of the girls did great!

I'm very proud of all of them but especially proud of Maddy. If you can remember the start of school last year was pretty rough on her and it took a while for her to get the hang of things... This year is a different story! She has had good marks on her folder everyday when last year she was spending time in the assistant principles office. It is such a relief to know that she's starting off on the right foot this year. She has a wonderful 1st grade teacher that she loves! Her name is Mrs.Karp. There is a little girl in her class who is blind and Maddy is very excited to be her buddy and helper! She is a little sad that her bff Riley is not in her class this year but they see each other at recess and I have promise plenty of play dates!

What can I say about Gibby! She's always excited to go to school so I had no worries about her starting 1st grade. Her first week was great too! She loves her teacher Ms. Rinard who was The Red Raider the Red Raiders Mascot when she was in college!

Brinley started 3rd! I can't believe it. She even looks more mature this year...Her teacher Ms. Lee is super sweet. Several of her friends are in her class again this year and she get's to sit next to one of her bff's Caroline! She's having a lot of fun with her clothes this year and is super aware of what she's wearing.

These are the photo's from the first week of school! I apologize in advance for the long list! ;)

August 22, 2011 First Day of School

Comparisons from the year before! Crazy how much they change.

August 23, 2011 Day 2

August 24, 2011 Day 3

August 25, 2011 Day 4

August 26, 2011 Day 5

Well that's it for the first week of school! Now were are off to celebrate Brinley's 8th birthday today! :D

What's on Julie's Phone 2/15/2011?

2011-02-15T07:07:00.000-08:00

It's that time again! Time to go link up what's on the phone over at The Lowe Family News!

I have a lot this week so I'll try not to ramble.

This is the before picture of the dress that I refashioned for Maddy to wear to the Daddy Daughter Dance.

This years Valentines parties were Friday. Here are a few pics from that day. The first one is what the girls gave out to their teachers!

Saturday was the Daddy Daughter Dance. So I put the girls in sponge rollers. Gibby wrote on her face with a sharpie! *She's so lucky it came off! I let the girls put on a little bit of makeup. Then it was dress up time! They had so much fun! By the way all three of these dresses were refashioned from other dresses. I spent a little less than $30 total to get the girls ready for the dance! :)

Sunday we got to run errands with daddy. First to City Blends in Rowlett and then to the AT&T store which took forever. We were bored so we took pictures. Most were taken by Brinley.

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Gibby lost her first tooth!

And last! This is one of my favorite views. The hubby just sitting back and relaxing. He works so hard and rarely has time to just chill.

What are you waiting for? Go check out Jessica at The Lowe Family News and link up your phone pics! :D

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

Just thought that I'd share the Valentines that the girls passed out at school on Friday! The bottom picture is what they gave their teachers and principles!

What's on Julie's Phone 2-8-2011?

2011-02-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday again! That means What's On My Phone? day! Hop on over to The Lowe Family News and link up to show us what's on your phone! Or you can just check out what everyone else is doing.

Okay, so I'm sure that you all know about the crazy weather we've had here in Texas! Well here in Frisco we got rain, sleet, ice and then snow on top of all that! The hubby was out of town for work so I was stuck in the house for 4 days straight with my kiddo's. Anyway this is what it looked like around our house.

First our street was turned into an ice skating rink.

Then it SNOWED and covered the ice with about 10 inches. Talk about scary to drive on! This is my car covered and notice how you can't tell were the sidewalk ends and the street begins.

Can you see the little birdie foot prints on our porch? They were sheltering there from the cold.

The Back yard had even more snow.

We started a fire on Tuesday because of the rolling blackouts. I thought this was weird that the fire was coming out of the middle of the log.

The hubby headed home from Marshall at about 10:30 Friday morning. It was brutal. What should have taken no more than 3 hours took them 6. This is the view from the car.

Hubby got a little bored in the car. He started looking through his phone pics and sent me a few from over a year ago. They all have there own sense of style. I love how Gibby has on two different rain boots and that they are both on the wrong feet!

By Friday afternoon I was ready to pull out my hair! Thank goodness my friend Margy invited us over for the kids to play and we may or may not have consumed some adult beverages. Don't judge! It was definitely needed. Momma was going insane! Anyway, while we were chatting the kids stole our phones and made calls and took pics.This is what I found on my phone.

On Sunday we watched the Super Bowl. We were a family divided. Brinley stuck with me and cheered on the Packers. Before the game started Brinley made her own little sign. I know that the colors are off but she only looked at it once and drew from memory. I think that it's pretty good for a 7 year old.

Finally, yesterday I got to babysit my little niece Hadley! I had a ton of errands to run because of last week. She fell asleep while we were at JoAnn's. My sister was amazed because she had never done that before. In fact she's typically a major handful while out and about. She didn't wake up again until 3 hours later. Miss H must have known that I had a busy day!

So what are you waiting for? Go link up!

What's on Julie's Phone 2/1/2011?

2011-02-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

So I have some catching up to do on the phone pics. Everyone in my house has been sick in the last 2-3 weeks. We've had flu, strep end even stomach bugs! YUCK! But maybe we've gotten it all out of the way for this year. A girl can dream right?!

Moving on... My pics are completely random this week. Since my memory card for my "real" camera is busted and I keep forgetting to buy a new one, I've taken every photo with my phone.

You know the drill! Hop on over to The Lowe Family News and link up your phone pics with Jessica or at least check out the awesomeness that everyone else has on their phones!

Here's what's on mine!
This month the girls school had their 10 year anniversary celebration. They had lots of fun getting their faces painting, walking in the cake walk, getting their pictures taken in the photo booth and getting balloon animals!

The same night hubby came home sick. :(

Gibby wants to do everything daddy does so she was pretending to be sick too. She had a "headache".

Random pics of the girls playing before any of them got sick.

Frenchie had to get in on the picture taking fun too!

For those of you who don't know, I sell 31! This is the new Spring catalog that starts today! :)

The girls school has a Sock Hop every year! I make poodle skirts for them and some of they're little friends. I snapped some pics of glitter felt to see if one of the girls would like it.

This is the first one I've made this year and also the first cat!

Then Brinley got sick. :(

The hubby watching TV! He looks a bit scary. Probably shouldn't have chosen black and white.

We took the kiddos to Pei Wei over the weekend. This is what Gibby thinks you should do with chopsticks!

Gibby was sick yesterday and thought that she needed pictures to document her first sick day off of school!

I also started on Daddy Daughter Dance dresses. This is my senior prom dress from 1998 that I'm refashioning into Brinley's dress. I cut it all up yesterday and it's almost finished! Loving it so far!

Me in the dress at my prom. Yup, that's my hubby. High School sweethearts. Together since 1996! ;)

Last we have a picture of the girlies cuddled up on the couch this morning since we are having an ice day here in Frisco,TX.

Don't forget to checkout The Lowe Family News! You'll be glad you did!

The Daddy Daughter Dance is right around the corner...

2011-01-31T10:03:00.001-08:00

So the 15th Annual Daddy Daughter Dance in Frisco is coming up in a little less than 2 weeks! Yikes! Anyways, Aaron will be taking all three girls this year. In an effort to keep the cost down and stick to Dave Ramsey's rules I will be refashioning formal dresses that I already have or that are thrifted! Because even making dresses for three girls is out of the budget. :(

I'll be working on Brinley's first. Her favorite color is blue so we are making her dress out of my 1998 prom dress!
This is me at my prom wearing said dress.

Pretty sure that Aaron is going to kill me for posting this picture. Notice the super long jacket. Funny the things that go in and out of style!

This is the dress today. If you look at it closely you can see how the colors gradually go from purple to blue to teal.

Check back later in the week to see how this refashion turns out! I have big plans for it! :D

What's on Julie's Phone 1-17-2011?

2011-01-18T06:37:00.001-08:00

Not a lot that's for sure! The hubby got the flu and strep so my phone pic list is short this week. However, I joined the cool kids and got the Hipstamatic app on my phone!

Go check out Jessica at The Lowe Family News to join in the fun!

Here are my pics from the past week.

Brinley making a new fashion statement with animal pint trim.

Brinley and Gibby playing at the park. They were so bored from the 4 day weekend that we took them in the rain. *Maddy was at Grandmas for the weekend.

This is my first attempt at using the Hipstamatic App. It's my entryway. Looks a little creepy in this pic but I like it!

Gibby and Brinley are always willing to model.

Last night was my first Bunco night of the year. My friend Jessica chose a rainbow theme for the night. We were to come wearing brightly colored or rainbow clothes. So Julie B. and Heather came as a pair! They're shirts have half a rainbow with an arrow pointing to each other saying The Other Half Of My Rainbow.

Each table had a bowl of candy. I ate way to many skittles!

So that's it for this week! Go link up! If you have any other photo apps that you recommend please let me know!

What's on Julie's Phone 1-11-11?

2011-01-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday again! You know what that means! Time to link up with Jessica at The Lowe Family News and share what's on your phone! If you don't want to link up you still need to check it out!

Here's what's on my phone from the past week.

My fabulous friend bought me this awesome mug and I couldn't wait to use it! For those that don't know, I absolutely love anything Tim Burton and The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my fave's!

Gibby has been really into getting her picture taken lately. On this particular day it was hats and bandanas!

Last Thursday I got to go on an awesome GNO to G'nosh! 6 of us went and painted this fun tree. Don't judge to harshly please. This was my very first attempt at painting on a canvas! It was super fun and I can't wait until the next time!

Maddy got in trouble because she threw a bowl of oatmeal all over the kitchen! ( I will not be showing the photos from that because honestly it looks like vomit!) Then when I asked why she did it she screamed "I'm so MAAAAADDDDDD at you MOMMMMYYYYY!". She was then sent to her room which is her least favorite form of punishment. This picture was taken after we made up! :)

We had a gorgeous sunset here in Frisco on Friday! I had to snap some pics and send them to my hubby who was still working at the time!

We finally got snow on Sunday! The kids were in heaven! If you live here in Texas around the DFW area you know that we don't get snow often. One of my friends posted this quote on facebook and I think that it suits us perfectly!

"Snow in the South is wonderful. It has a kind of magic and mystery that it has nowhere else. And the reason for this is that it comes to people in the South not as the grim, unyielding tenant of Winter's keep, but as a strange and wild visitor from the secret North." - Thomas Wolfe in 1937

I went a little crazy with the snow pictures! I promise that I won't show them all to you! Here are some of my favorites.

Time to build a snowman!

Maddy flirting with the camera! Loves having her picture taken!

Off to build another snowman! Just Maddy and Brinley this time.

Apparently Gibby wasn't happy about the fact that Maddy and Brinley built a snowman while she was warming up inside. She retaliated by knocking the new snowman's head off! This in turn made Brinley cry. Notice the carrot in Brin's hand? She held it up and said in her more dramatic cry "Gibby knocked the snowman's head off and this is all that's left!"

It seems that Frenchie our dog wasn't a fan of snow or our snowman! This is how he showed us.

That's it for this week! So go on and check out Jessica's Linky and add your own!

What's on Julie's Phone?

2011-01-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

So what's on my phone? Well two weeks worth of pics since I missed posting last week. Anyways, if you haven't already, go checkout Jessica's blog The Lowe Family News for this weekly linky and join in the fun!

First up we have pics of some goodies that I received in the mail from my gift swap partner Bonnie. She's living in Germany at the moment so I got some fun stuff! The swap was put on by this lovely lady!

I managed to organize the playroom before Christmas! That was a huge project. Wish I had taken before pictures.

Christmas day was interesting this year. We spent the day together just the 5 of us. We didn't even get out of our pj's! These are of the girls Christmas morning opening their gifts!

The boys taking a nap after a long Christmas day!

Big sis got to go to grandma's for a couple of days so little sisters got to cuddle up and eat ice cream!

The twins got iPod touches for Christmas! I'm pretty sure that they don't like them.

Our dog is the weirdest dog in the world! He laid flat on his back like this for at least 10 minutes!

Caught the hubby playing guitar before went out for New Years Eve! He rarely gets a chance to play these days. Hopefully he can make more time for it this year.

One of our New Years Eve activities this year was playing washers! We were also told of a game similar to it called corn hole. I am so glad that is not what we were playing.

Lastly we have a pic of me and my sweet Brinley! The quality is really bad. I've noticed that the iPhone takes much better pics outdoors!

Now its your turn! Don't forget to link up with Jessica!

William Wayne Roch July 16 1958 - December 22 1985

2010-12-22T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is my dad and my Grandma Billy. I believe that this was taken not too long before he passed away.

It has been 25 years ago today that I lost my dad. Strangely enough one of my daughters reminded me this morning by asking me when my daddy died.

He was 27 years old with his whole life ahead of him. I was 6 years old, my sister Jenny was 2 and my brother Cw hadn't hit his first month yet. We had traveled to Houston with our mother to celebrate Christmas with family. He was going to meet us there. Early that morning my sister woke up hysterically crying. This was out of character for her. It happened to be around the time that our dad was killed in a head on collision. I still don't know how my mother got through it all.

He has been missed everyday since then. The three of us are all grown up now. Cw is his spitting image and just celebrated his 25th birthday. Jenny is 27, married and has her own baby. I'm 31 married and have my 3 girls. I hope that we make him proud. He has 4 amazing granddaughters now! My Maddy even looks a lot like him.

We love you and you're in our hearts until we meet again.

Pictures of dad growing up with his sisters and brother.

What's on Julie's Phone? * A little late!

2010-12-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

Okay so it's Wednesday and I'm a day late! But it's also the week of Christmas and my kids are home and I have to clean my entire house to host Christmas for my family this weekend...

Anywho, let's get to it! If you haven't already, head over to The Lowe Family News and check out this awesome linky that Jessica does every week! It's super fun to see what everyone captures on their phones each week!

Here's what's on mine!

The girls all asked for roller skates this year for Christmas! Not roller blades, old school roller skates! I am super excited because I've always secretly wanted to be a roller derby chic! These are the ones I bought! Shhh don't tell!

You know the dresses from last weeks post? Here are the sweeties I made them for! Do you think they like them!?

Maddy and Gibby got to carol for the older kids at school last week. Gibby got all dressed up and was super proud of herself and asked me to take her picture! If you know Gibby this is not standard for her. She is not a girlie girl.

My sister and I took our girls to see Santa last week. My girls had way too much energy and Miss H just wanted down so I waited in line while they ran around like heathens! While I waited this was my view.

I always make something yummy for all of the girls teachers and I mean ALL! Their primary, specials,tutors, principles, counselor, nurse, secretary etc... This year it was microwave fudge. No time for the real thing this year. :/

So if you read Jessica's post yesterday you'll know that she mentioned Charming Charlie! Like Jessica, it's my new favorite store! If you haven't been it's like accessory heaven. Anyway, I fell in love with this necklace. It has an Alice in Wonderland theme. If you have read my blog in the past you know that I'm a huge fan. I didn't buy it since it's that time of year. :( Maybe someone will buy it for me for Christmas! ;)

The girls had their class parties on Friday! My mom came to help me with kindergarten and Aaron was even able to stop and see each of the girls!

Brinley's girl scout troop went caroling on Friday night! It was freezing so I made her wear under armor under her clothes, tall socks, gloves, hand warmers, scarf, hat and her puffy jacket. I'm pretty sure that she was still cold!

Saturday was our Christmas get together with Aaron's family. Of course the kids couldn't wait to open presents! We had such a great time. The kids made a ginger bread house. I especially loved the "sky light"! Gibby was so tired by the end that she laid down with Daisy and fell asleep.

So that's my week in phone pics! You want to show us yours link up here!

What's On Julie's Phone?

2010-12-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

Lots of craziness on my phone this week! You probably know the drill by now but if you don't head over to Jessica's blog and link up your phone pic's! She even has a fun button!

Let's get to it, shall we!

The Christmas Tree is finally up! Good thing because we are having Aaron's fam over for Our Christmas gathering on Saturday! My kids were given the privilege of decorating the tree this year. It was sooo hard for me. They had so much fun doing it though and they didn't break one ornament! :) * It's a little heavy on the ornaments but they were very proud of themselves so we are leaving it!

My lil sis has a very curious 1 year old! So she opted for a table top tree this year. She also decided to use the fabulous leg lamp lights that I bought them a couple of years ago. This made Jenny decide to go all out with the tackiness! The lampshade tree topper was my idea!

Gibby scored 5 goals at her soccer game on Saturday!!! Of course I didn't get any pics of that! That would just be CRAZY!!! We did however get several random pics at The Home Depot where we were shopping for supplies to build Brinley's new loft bed.

On Sunday Brinley and I had the pleasure of attending Gabby and Ayden's Santa Party. 12 little girls and 4 moms. They had us outnumber just a little! Over all it was a great success and I got to learn how to make hot cocoa with real cocoa.

Yesterday I finally finished the dresses I was making for Liz's girls! A big project checked off my list.

Now to finish cleaning my house,wrapping up the shopping and prepping for 5 kindergarten parties on Friday! Did I mention that I volunteered to be grade
coordinator for kinder at the girls school. I'm sure that I'll be posting pics from that next week!

Now go check out The Lowe Family News and see what's on everyone's phone!

What's on Julie's Phone?

2010-12-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

Tuesday seems to be coming around pretty fast these days!!! I don't mind though because this linky is so fun! Go now and check out The Lowe Family News,add your own phone pic link and check out what everyone else is picturing on their phones!

Jessica also has a fun new button that you can get if you participate and spread the love!

On with my week now! I guess I went a little over board with the pics this week. It may be an addiction and I might need help.

The girls needed new jeans and Target had a great sale last week. These are some of the ones we went home with and I just had to send my sis a pic!

We had the girls pictures made last Wednesday! *I can't wait to see them today! I had them go barefoot and this was the outcome. One huge splinter in Gibby's foot!

After digging that monstrosity out of Gibby's foot she decided it was her turn to capture some moments!

When I was at the school last week passing out Yankee Candle orders I noticed that Maddy's artwork was displayed in the hall. What proud momma wouldn't snap a picture of that?!

My friends and I are started a Bunco group and last Thursday night we got together for a fun dinner to find out what month we had to host! To spice it up a bit Liz added and auction. We were to bring unwanted items from home and auction them off to the highest bidder. *Liz gave us fake money to pay for our items! This is one of the things Julie B. came home with! I think that Daisy is a little creepy.

Gibby getting ready for school wearing her Oscar the grouch shirt. The shirt doesn't really suit her. She is as far from grouchy as they come!

Friday I had my first American Girl Doll Boutique experience. It was a little overwhelming and I didn't get any pics of that! However, I did snap a photo of the amazing Christmas Tree at the Galleria!

My awesome friend Margy treated herself to lash extensions (because us mommies deserve to do something for ourselves every now and then!) and they look so amazing! This pic was taken right after they were done so disregard the red eyes!

The girls are really into their music! Maddy and Brinley were probably singing to their iPods at this point.

Brinley finally lost her 3rd tooth. She's taking so long to get them out and her new ones are not coming in straight! Braces here we come. *Please don't pay attention to the messy bed head and breakfast on the face. Thanks!

Gibby had her 1st indoor soccer game on Saturday! I have to say that I prefer indoor soccer to outdoor.

Maddy decorated the fireplace with post its! What you can't see is that she drew a picture on each one.

I finally got all of my Christmas decorations out on Sunday! This is another addiction that I have. It seems to multiply every year and I LOVE it!

Yesterday I went and bought our tree. We didn't get it flocked this year like we normally do. Trying to stay on a budget is no fun. But I'm sure it will be great anyway! I do not have pics of that yet because its just sitting there right now. However, I did get this super cute tree for the girls and they love having their own tree!

Last night Aaron started a fire and the girls enjoyed some hot cocoa and popcorn will they watched the flames.

That's a wrap on the past week in phone pics! I hope that you enjoyed it and feel inspired to show us yours. If you do don't forget to link up here!

What's On Julie's Phone Tuesday?

2010-11-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

So I really like this linky! I must because I've been able to keep it up every week! If you want to show the awesomeness that is on your phone this week go and link up with Jessica at The Lowe Family News HERE! If you don't want to link up your lame phone pics you must still go and check out what everyone else deems worthy of capturing on their phones!

These are the precious memories I captured on mine!

Last Wednesday we gathered at Rochele's house to stuff stockings to send to Kuwait. Dave her husband was deployed there right after school started. The girls had lots of fun putting the stockings together and they even got to talk to him on skype! If you have a chance during this busy holiday season thank of our troops that are away from their family's and send them a care package. I'm sure that it would brighten their day a little!

Brinley shopping for the goods!

Mommies hard at work setting up the assembly line!

Miss Liz cutting tags! * This women is Super Woman by the way! She had just had surgery the week before.

The girls stuffing the stockings!

The cat wanted to be shipped to Kuwait too!

The girls showing off their work!

On Thanksgiving Aaron set out to find an open donut store! This is what he came back with! * I think that the bunnies are a little creepy.

Maddy and her Daddy!

That's all for this week. I apologize for the poor quality. I'm not sure what was up with the phone last week. It may have just been operator error! No go checkout Jessica! She's hilarious!

Early Thanksgiving With The Best In-Laws On Earth

2010-11-24T08:13:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we had out Thanksgiving celebration with my hubbies side of the family! We had so much fun. This year we had it at Hidden Cove. We rented a little cabin at the lake to hold all of the food and such. There was plenty of space for our family football game and my girl's went fishing for the first time! I am so blessed and thankful to have married into such a wonderful family!

Aaron has a big family. He has 3 sisters and a brother. So I have 4 sisters in law, 2 brothers in law, 4 nieces, 6 nephews, 1 great nephew and 1 great niece. One of my nieces is married and another is engaged so that adds 2 more. Add our 5 to the count and there's 25 of us just from Aaron's siblings! Both of his parents have passed away and the only living grandparent lives in Florida and she's in her late 80's. So it's just us in the immediate family that get together. The only one missing was my nephew Eric. He is in the Navy and wasn't able to came for Thanksgiving but Hopefully we'll see him at Christmas. We have another nephew Nick who will also be going into the Navy in March and we'll probably be missing him next year! We are very proud of the both of them.

This is my family! :)

I'm pretty sure that everyone is in at least one pic except for Clay and Shelley! I'm sorry guys! I guess that you were hiding from my camera! Oh, and I'm not pictured either! :)

What's On Julie's Phone?

2010-11-23T05:52:00.000-08:00

It's that time again! Do ya want to see what's on my phone this week? No? Well you're gonna see it anyways so there!!! If you like what you see and want to join in or check out what other people take pics of with their phones go over to The Lowe Family News! You can link up there.

This is what has collected on my phone this week. I've really been working on using my real camera so there's not a lot!

I'm not sure why my kids like to wear their hats side ways. Maddy does look pretty cute though!

Saturday we had Thanksgiving with Aaron's family.This is the apple pie I made. I'm a terrible cook but I can make a mean dessert!

I also made Banana Pudding!

This year we rented a little cabin at the lake to have our Thanksgiving get together. We have a huge family! There are five brothers and sisters (4 are married) 13 nieces and nephews (1 is married and 1 is engaged), 1 great niece and 1 great nephew! We had so much fun! The kids fished and then later we had our annual football game.

We went to Cotton Patch on Sunday for lunch with the fam that comes in from Austin. The girls really love their cousin Bridgett!

This morning Maddy finally lost her first tooth! I know that she looks like a bobble head in this picture. It was a weird angle!

So go link up! You know you want to show us what's on your phone!

What's on Julie's Phone November 16th?

2010-11-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

It's week number 2 for the What's on Jessica's Phone Tuesdays linky party! Don't forget to check out The Lowe Family News to link up and check out What's on Jessica's Phone!

So here it goes! This is all that I have on my phone this week! Enjoy!

The stray that we were looking for a home for! Finally adopted yesterday by an awesome family! :)

Maddy had her first loose tooth last week and insisted on showing her daddy!

Brin's Girl Scout Troop was in the Frisco Community Parade on Saturday to honor the Veterans!

And last but definitely not least this one was taken at my friend Liz's Chemo Fineto Party! This is her after the big surprise! It was a wonderful night of celebration!

So what are you waiting for? Go and check out whats on your phone and link up with Jessica!

What's on Julie's Phone?

2010-11-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

So if you haven't heard of Jessica from The Lowe Family News or HunDuddle Hussy go check her out now! This chic is super funny!

Anywho, she has started a new linky party called What's on Jessica's Phone Tuesdays! So I'm sharing mine and linking up here

Let's go from oldest to newest, shall we!

Back in August Brinley went to her first Rodeo with her girl scout troop! It looks like Gabby is trying to eat her face!

Brinley's 7th birthday was also in August!

In August the new 31 catalog and Holiday Guide came out and this is me modeling one of the new goodies! (Wow I really need to clean out my pics!)

Sometimes I babysit my 1st niece from my side of the fam. This pic is off Hadley and my 1st great niece Hylee having a play date!

Do you remember the bobcat from this post? Well we caught one of it's friends!

Brinley got a black eye playing at a friends house. My kids are super clumsy! She did this in the midst of a marshmallow fight! *Sorry Margy, I had to add it!

Here a few in a series of 20 or so pics that Maddy took of herself when she wasn't supposed to be playing with my phone!

Gibby is the chillest kid you'll ever meet! She loves to just sit back and listen to her ipod!

This is one of my favorites simply because it's so special! This is my dear friend Liz and her daughter walking in the Komen Dallas Race for the Cure 5k in October! We walked in honor of her! If you've never been involved in one of these events I highly recommend that you do it at least once! The feeling of love and hope is just amazing! I can't wait to do it again next year!

Some of the tombstones from our graveyard that we put up every year for our Halloween party! We made these a few years back and I still love them!

The hat I made for Aaron's costume.

Brinley doing the Gravity Ropes at Main Event for the 1st time!

The girls playing with the Halloween makeup! So funny!

Halloween!

And Maddy playing with my phone again last night!

I hope that I didn't bore you to much! I'll be linking up again next week and you should too! It's pretty fun to see what you've snapped with your phone! :)

Halloween Festivities!

2010-11-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I was in a hurry and didn't get all of the pics that I wanted. So you'll have to excuse the silly pics of my husband as the Mad Hatter. They were taken by others and I wasn't around to make sure that he was smiling!

We will start a with picture from the Fall meet and greet at Bright Elementary.

Then we have a couple from our Annual Halloween Party! I forgot to take pictures so these were all stolen from Facebook!

Maddy as the White Queen ( minus her wig and crown )!

Hadley as a punk rocker!

Me as the Cheshire Cat!

Aaron as the Mad Hatter!

Mad Hatter got lots of attention!

Now on to the Trick or Treating! We stayed in our neighborhood this year and walked with friends! We had a great time!

The Lollar Girls!

Brinley as Alice!

Gibby as a Fire Fighter!

Maddy as Aurora!

The girls with daddy!

Off to Trick or Treat!

I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! We really enjoyed it! :)

Mad Hatter Part 1 - The Hat

2010-10-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hi friends. Long time no see right? I apologize for being gone so long. I still haven't fixed my camera and let's face it the best part of my posts are the pics!

Anywho, We are gearing up for Halloween and our Annual Halloween Party around here. So I thought that I might share our costumes! This post is dedicated to my husbands Mad Hatter costume. The Hat in particular. I followed this awesome tutorial from Thread Banger!

I had to make a few adjustments but overall it was very easy to follow. *Just make sure that you cut your fabric on the bias and you bring your patience! ;)

The Supply List
* Sewing Machine
* Scissors
* Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
* Spray Adhesive
* Spray Paint
* Lighter
* Marker
* Tailors Chalk
* Heavy Gauge Wire
* Tape
* Poster Board
* Foam Board or Card Board
* Textured Fabric
* Coral Fabric
* Hat Pins
* Feathers
* Heavy Card Stock

Here are some pictures of steps that I took. There are a few missing like making the hat pins and hat band. I must have spaced on those. The pictures aren't the best quality because I had to use my iPhone. Anyways, it was really fun to make and I'll post the rest of the costume once I'm finished with some minor details! :)

The First Step - Cut the poster board and foam board to size and attach together using tape and a glue gun. * Refer to tutorial for measurements!

The Second Step - Cut fabric to size. * Make sure to cut on the bias! Start hot gluing around the top and fold fabric in when your edges meet. * Again refer to tutorial for more details! ;)

The Third Step - Pull the fabric down into the poster board shaft tight and hot glue or staple it in. All the way around. * This part takes lots of patience and you may have to start over a couple of times! This is how I found out that I prefer to use staples!* Again refer to tutorial! :)

The Fourth Step - *Sorry, no photo! Cut a piece of fabric the same size as that top and glue it down. * I used spray adhesive but you can use hot glue if you like!

The Fifth Step - Trace a circle onto to another piece of fabric around the bottom of the hat. Cut a circle out of the center and then cut slits to the edge of the circle that you traced. Cut a piece of heavy wire and and form a large circle. * refer to tutorial for measurements! ;)

* Notice that my fabric isn't the most gorgeous? No worries! I chose it for the raised texture that it had. I got it off the clearance racks at JoAnn's. The colors don't matter because I'll be painting it! ;)

The Sixth Step - Hot Glue the slits to the inside of the bottom of the hat. Then pin your wire into place around the brim. Sew into place and cut off any excess fabric.

The Seventh Step - Spray paint if you chose to. I used layers of dark green, black and gold.

The Eighth Step - Make your accessories! I made hat pins, a coral colored hat band and the famous style tag! I also cut down some peacock feathers! Then attach them to your hat!

For my first attempt at making a hat I think that it turned out pretty darn good and Aaron's going to make a great Mad Hatter!

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I'm Still Here!

2010-09-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm still here! For some reason I can't get my pictures to download! Hmmmm.... Anyways, that's why I haven't posted since last Tuesday! As soon as the Hubby gets home I'm gonna have him figure it out!

On to other things now! We went to Sea World over the weekend with Brinley's Girl Scout Troop! We had a blast and Brin's troop got to sleep over. They slept next to the Shark Tank! How cool is that! We took pics with Aaron's camera and I was able to download those! You will see in the pics that I must have been much more interested in the Halloween decorations then the sea life!

The Girls at the entrance!

Girl Scouts and family friends after riding Atlantis!

The one good sea life shot I got! Cute little otter, huh?

Golf Skeletons!

Basket Ball Skeletons!

Brake Dancing Skeletons!

Pirate Skeletons!

Single Skeleton!

And Brinley being eaten by a werewolf!

We had so much fun! I hope to get back to my daily pics of the girls sometime this week and I'll do one post to get them caught up! :)

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Day Sixteen!

2010-09-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

It's been another fabulous day in the Lollar household! I've decided to practice my cooking skills and will be trying a few new recipes this week. If you know me this is huge! I don't really cook. We shall see how it goes.

The girls had another awesome day at school! Thank goodness Maddy is keeping up the good work!

Here are our pics from this morning! :)

Day Fifteen!

2010-09-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

We have had a great day! The morning routine went smoothly! I was able to get some organizing done after being down for a few hours with another migraine!!!! Then it was time to get the girls! At pickup Maddy came skipping to the car with her newest treasure! I found out after she got in the car that it was a reward from Mrs.B for having another good (Meltdown Free) day of school! Maddy is so proud of herself and we are too!

This past weekend was crazy busy! Saturday I took Maddy to the mall to get her ears pierced and to buy gifts for the two birthday parties Brinley was attending. Maddy chickened out and didn't get her ears pierced! She decided "to wait until she's bigger"! I still had to pay for it but they gave me all of the info and the ear rings and told me to bring them back when she's ready free of charge! Brinley went to a sleepover birthday party on Saturday and had a blast! Sunday she went to a roller skating party (she LOVES skating)! After that it was time for Girl Scouts! I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

Here are our pics from this morning! :)

Maddy's reward from Mrs.B!

Day Fourteen!

2010-09-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Today has been a good day! It's Friday! How could it not be good? The girl's got ready easily this morning, we took our pics and they even got to school early! I also got a great workout this morning! Mrs. G called me to find out when to meet us for Maddy's ear piercing tomorrow (if she earned it)! Right before I went to get the girls I got an email from Mrs.S that Maddy had a fabulous day and earned her reward which was visiting Mrs.G! If she meets all of her goals for the day she gets a reward. Maddy chose her rewards and she chose visiting with Mrs. G as her first one! Mrs. S was even sweet enough to send me a picture! Brinley and Gibby had a great day too! We have a busy weekend ahead! We'll being getting Maddy's ears pierced tomorrow! Brinley has a slumber party to go to tomorrow night and a skating party on Sunday! Then we have girl scouts Sunday evening! I'm looking forward to it all and I'm so relieved that Maddy had a good week!

Here are our pic's from this morning!:)

Maddy's Reward Picture! :)

Day Thirteen!

2010-09-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

I am so tired today. It may have something to do with having yet another migraine last night and not getting much sleep! This morning was good. The girls got it together quickly because they were promised a peek at the trap that was set up last night to catch the bobcat! No bobcat yet! We'll see if we catch him tonight! We did our usual pictures and Gibby was upset that she didn't get to be in the middle!( You can tell from the picture!) When I dropped the girls off Maddy asked if I would come for lunch and I promised that I would since she's had such a great week! I went to their school and sat with Gibby and Maddy for lunch. A this point Maddy was having another good day! They kissed me and then went to recess! I decided since I was already there I'd wait for Brinley and sit with her for lunch too! She was surprised and happy to see me there! Gotta take advantage of them wanting me around while it lasts! Then I went to set up for book fair! It's amazing what a bunch of women can do in only 2 hours! After that it was time to pick up the kiddos and Maddy looked sad. She started crying and siad that she got in trouble in the afternoon.
I told her that it was okay and that even though I was disappointed about today I was still very proud of the past few days! She is making an apology note for her teacher now. Hopefully she has a better day tomorrow!

Here are our pics from this morning! :)

Day Twelve!

2010-09-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

We woke up to sirens and heavy rain this morning! It looked like there was an accident on the tollway service road. I prayed that all involved were okay. The girls were tired this and I think that they're really getting tired of the picture everyday routine! They're just gonna have to deal! :)

I worked on book fair again today and was stopped by the principle, asst principle, counselor and Maddy's teacher through out the day! They are amazed at how great she is doing. ( We've promised to get her ears pierced if she does well at school every day this week!) So far it's working! Now I just have to come up with a plan for next week! :P

Here are this mornings pics! :) (Binley is sooo over it!)

Day Eleven!

2010-09-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day! Girls woke up Happy! Maddy did great at school! I worked on PTA book fair decorations at the school all day! It's been raining but with the rain comes cooler temps and Fall feeling weather! I love it!

Here are this mornings pics!

This is what was in our yard yesterday morning!!!! Scary!

Day 10!

2010-09-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

We made it through the first 2 weeks of school! Hallelujah! :) I went and had lunch with my sweet sister and my mom today! It was so nice to just sit and chat with them without constant interruption from the girls.

The girls all had a great day at school! Maddy even got a smiley face! Gotta love that. We are looking forward to the 3 day weekend! Hopefully we will get lots of pics! I have great plans for sewing the girls outfits for their upcoming pictures next week so stay tuned to see what I come up with!

Here are our pics from this morning! :)

Day Nine!

2010-09-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

This morning was not fun! I stayed up late doing defensive driving!(That's another story!) Anyway I wasn't in bed until 12:30 a.m.A little while after that I felt sick and didn't really go to sleep until between 4 and 5! :( Needless to say I was a pretty useless Mommy this morning! It took forever to get ready and then we were late to school. I knew that this would be bad because I had to walk them in and Maddy doesn't do well when that happens. I had to leave her crying again. This time it took awhile for her to calm. She is getting attached to the school counselor. (Thanks Mrs.G) So she decided to take her to the assistant principle to get her back into class and she was not having that. She yelled at her , told her that she wasn't her boss and threw her ring at her! (Sorry Mrs.B)When this happened Mrs.B just let her have her fit and calm herself down. Then she was able to go back to class.

I had promised to bring Maddy lunch but when I arrived I was told about the morning and we decided that it would be better if she didn't see me. :( (Sorry Gibby. I promise that we will have lunch soon!) Today was also meeting day. I came back to the school and got to sit down with the principle Mrs.G, the assistant principle Mrs.B, the counselor Mrs.G and Maddy's teacher Mrs.S. Let me tell you they are a phenomenal group of women! They are all very understanding and are more than happy to help get Maddy the help she needs! We have come up with a plan to help her stay on task and she will be doing some testing for behavioral and learning issues. I was assured that they have had kids like Maddy and once the problem is solved and we are implementing the plan she will be fine! Thanks God! So I am emotionally and physically tired tonight! I'm going to feed the girls and get us to bed! Did I mention that Aaron is at a football game! (Have fun honey!)

Here are our pics from this morning! :)

Day Eight!

2010-09-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

So yesterday didn't finish as great as I thought! Maddy had a great morning but had a major meltdown in music and was very unkind to her music teacher. (We are very sorry Ms. J.) Anyways , when I picked up the girls I was met at the car by her teacher and she scheduled a conference for tomorrow! She then assured me that this is all very normal. I am sure that every teacher has at least one difficult student every year! However it still isn't fun when that kid belongs to you! When we arrived at home Maddy was not able to choose a cartoon and was not allowed to have the candy she was promised for a good day! She was then punished with some alone time when Aaron got home! After we put the kiddo's to bed I was packing up the school bags for today and noticed that on Maddy's behavior calendar that she changed her sad face from yesterday to a happy face and gave herself happy faces for the rest of the month. It's already starting! At this point all I could do was laugh because I sure didn't feel like crying! By the way the other girls had another great day and Brinley really LOVES science and went into great detail telling us about the experiment they had done at school!

So needless to say I was worried about today! They had another good morning! They got dressed and ate breakfast. Then we did our pics and went to school! I then went to Canton with Liz to help set up the Thirty-One booth. I'm supposed to be helping her tomorrow but it looks like I'll be meeting with Maddy's teacher instead! :( When we got back to Frisco the sky was black and it started raining just as I was picking up the girls! For some reason this morning they insisted on taking their umbrellas! I guess they knew something that I didn't! They hoped in the car and I was relieved to hear that the all had a great day at school! Yay!

Here are our pics from this morning!

Day Seven!

2010-08-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last night was great! Maddy had a great day. We went grocery shopping as a family, came home to eat Pei Wei (YUM!) and then the girls were sleeping by 8:30!

This morning the girls were very happy! Aaron had made a deal with Maddy, if she gets a smiley face everyday she gets to buy a new Liv doll this weekend! Fingers crossed that this works! She's super excited! They all picked out their clothes and got dressed. Then they had breakfast and we took our pictures! They were all in silly moods and Maddy and Gibby decided that they needed props!

Here are this morning pics! :)

Day Six!

2010-08-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

So today was the first day of the second week of school! It didn't start out so great! We had Brinley's slumber party on Saturday night and it completely wiped us out! Needless to say we were all still tired this morning. Brinley was having melt down after meltdown and didn't want to do pictures! We did them any way hence the crying face and angry face Brin has in her pics!

When we got to school we were running late and had to wait in the long drop off line! Maddy was standing and I took of to move and she fell in the car. So I ended up walking her to the door! Luckily Gabby was there and offered to walk her in! Maddy was really happy with that!

When I picked them up today they were all happy and had a great day at school! Maddy even got a smiley face! They were all super excited that I let them buy their lunch today and told me in detail what they chose!

Here are the pics from this morning! :)

Day Five and Brinley's Birthday!

2010-08-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

Today is my oldest child Brinley's birthday! At 2:08 pm 7 years ago she turned my life upside down and I wouldn't change it for anything! She was a very difficult baby but has turned into a great kid! I love her so very much.

(She got an iTouch! So Exciting! :)

Here are some pics from the past!

This morning went much better! The girl's have had a long first week of school and I think that they are worn out! We are looking forward to Brinley's slumber party tomorrow! It's gonna be crazy with 16 little girls! :P

Here are this morning's pic's!

Day Four!

2010-08-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

So today wasn't the greatest! The girls were sleepy and didn't want to wake up. Then it took us longer to get ready for some reason and we were running late! Maddy was yawning at breakfast and said that she didn't want to go to school. I convinced her to go by bribing her with Hershey's kisses! I still wanted my pics so I lined them up and Maddy wanted to be in the middle! Brinley wasn't having that, so there was fighting! I told Brinley to let Maddy in the middle then the crying began...

I finally got my pics and off we went to school! When we got there Maddy refused to get out so I had to park and walk her in. Then she didn't want to go into her class and cried and cried which in turn made me cry. I had to leave her crying and the school counselor assured me that she would be fine and that she would call me with an update later.

When I got home I went to upload my pics only to find that I had forgotten to put the memory card back in! So all of the fighting and crying was for nothing!!!

I did get 2 calls and an email stating that Maddy was doing just fine! What a relief and what a wonderful school! Have I mentioned how much I love their school? It's awesome!

I also got to have lunch with one of my BFF's and SIL Sam! It was so nice chatting and eating lunch without interruptions! I LOVE that the girls are all in school! :)

After lunch I picked the kiddo's up and found out that they all had a fabulous day at school. We went to Sonic for treats and then came home and redid our pics! You can check them out below!

Day Three!

2010-08-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

Okay so yesterday was interesting. I thought for sure that the girls would have another great day because it started out great! For Brinley and Gibby it was great! For Maddy not so much. :( Apparently she got in trouble at school for running away when they were switching classes. She told me that she wanted me. I will find out tomorrow in Thursday folder what actually happened. I pray that this will not be the start of what's to come for Maddy this year. I really don't think that I can take it.

This morning seems promising! Maddy was told that if she is good at school today she can paint when she gets home! Fingers crossed that this works!

Here are the before school pics from this morning!

Day Two!

2010-08-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

The girls are still really excited about school! They woke up all by themselves at 6:30 this morning. They had already picked out their school clothes for today last night. They are really loving that part.

We sat down for breakfast and I told them that I would be walking them into school again today. Brinley immediately said "I already know were I'm going Mom!". So I told her that I just needed to make sure that the twins could find their classrooms. Then she said "I don't need you to take me to my class!".

The girls got dressed and made their own lunches! Another thing that they enjoy doing on their own. (With my supervision of course!)Then on to day 2 pictures! I've decided to document every school day with photos this year to see how much they change by the end of the year. Here are the pics from this morning!

Still Excited!

Maybe by the end of the year she'll have a more natural smile and be able to keep her eyes open!

Her chosen pose for today!

Such a big girl!

When we got to school the twins informed me that they could walk in without me! :( Brinley then said "I'll take them to their classes Momma!" Melt my heart. She is so grown up this year! So I let them hop out and go in on their own. I wish that I had my camera with me because they walked into school hand in hand. So sweet! I love it when they show that they care about each other! I hope that the rest of the day is just as great for them!

First Day of School!

2010-08-23T06:52:00.001-07:00

My baby's started kindergarten today and Brinley started 2nd grade! I am very excited for them and for me! However, I am a little sad to see them go. It's a huge reminder that they are growing up way to fast and they will need me less and less! :(

They started bright and early! I was smart and got their breakfast requests the night before!

We had to have our tradition first day of school front door pictures! Maddy and Brinley really love to pose. Gibby doesn't really know what to do in front of the camera!

Of course we had to get the class room pics! Brinley has decided that it's no longer cool for mom to take pictures in class and this was the best pic I could get while she was shooing me out of the room! Gibby is going through a really long Cheesy Fake Smile phase! Maddy as usually knows just what to do!

All went well! They love their new teachers and are really excited to see old friends and make some new ones! I have lots of plans for my new found freedom! Hopefully I won't get distracted! :)

I LOVE Fabric!

2010-06-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

A few months back a came across a sale that I just couldn't pass up! I am addicted to beautiful fabric.

My intentions were to make several pieces for my business Hattie Mae and make birthday outfits for my twins and my niece! I did make a dress for my nieces 5th birthday. I used the precious purple fabric below!

Shortly after that I found myself uninspired! I know what you're thinking! With all of that beautiful fabric how could you lack inspiration?

Well I've been a little out of sorts lately. I guess that you could say I've been a bit blue! The twins had to wear store bought Birthday outfits this year! I know, I dropped the ball. :(

I'm feeling like I'm getting back to myself this week! You see last week I spent our first week of Summer vacation in Cancun with my family! It's amazing what a little R&R can do to the soul! I feel so refreshed and ready to tackle all of the to dos on my list!

I now find myself full of inspiration and I'm ready to get to work! I have a Trunk show to get ready for and I'd love to have several outfits for the girls to start school in! By the way the twins will be in Kindergarten in the Fall! I have so many plans for my time while they are in school!

Have You Heard Of Thirty-One Gifts!?!

2010-06-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard of Thirty-One Gifts you are missing out! My fabulous friend Liz joined a little over a year ago and I had not heard of it until then! The first time I saw the products I fell in LOVE! 31 offers adorable bags, totes,thermal totes, purses, stationary and so on! The best part is that you can personalize most of it! Since then I have been thinking of joining! Well I finally took the leap! It's a Christian based business and everything that I've seen so far is phenomenal. The benefits are fantastic!

If you are looking for a home based business to join that's fun to help make ends meet, to pay for extras for the kids or just need some extra Mommy time this could be a fit for you!

If your interested in checking it out this is my link.
www.mythirtyone.com/julielollar

I would be happy to mail you a catalog too!

I'm also having a Launch Party if you live in the area and are interested in stopping by. You can also order directly from my website from the link above or the Launch Party link below!

http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E193976&from=DIRECTLINK

The Rich Tooth Fairy!

2010-06-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

So I have been MIA for 2 and half months now! My husband grounded me form blogging! I wasn't getting anything done around the house. Guess what! I'm still not getting anything done! So back to blogging I go!

A couple of weeks ago Brinley lost her first tooth! At 6 and 3/4 I was wondering if it would ever happen. That tooth was loose for, no kidding, 6 weeks or more! Brin is my timed cautious little girl. She was so afraid to pull that tooth. She wouldn't even let me talk about it! I thought that it might pop out while eating or maybe even come out in her sleep. Not Brinley, she decides to pull it out at school! I have a suspicion that she did that on purpose. She got to go to the nurse who gave her a nifty little tooth chest the hold it in and several toothy stickers!

We were very excited for the Tooth Fairy to come! However, I'm pretty sure that she was not prepared! You see the Tooth Fairy left Brinley a $10 bill. I'm pretty sure that I only got a quarter for my teeth. I know it's gone up but I'm pretty sure that $10.00 is over kill! So that Brin wouldn't expect that every time we told her that the first tooth is special and are worth more money!

So I will be out of town all next! We'll be going on vacation to Cancun Mexico with most of Aaron's side of the family! Look for some fun posts on that we when return!

Refashioned Skirt

2010-03-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking for a skirt to re purpose into something for my girls to wear. I can't take credit for the idea though. Have you checked out the Ruffles and Stuff Blog. If you haven't you should! Disney is fantastic at "rehabbing" old clothes and making fabulous jewelry. Anyway I found an old skirt that I got from Urban Outfitters a few years ago. It's to small now but I just couldn't part with it!

First I took it in on one side so that I could preserve the zipper that's on the other.

Then with the extra fabric ( I used the hemmed edge that was left over) I cut out my straps and attached them to the top!

This is how it turned out! I love it! The best part is it was super easy. Please disregard the polka dot pajama bottoms. Brin was not happy about modeling and I wasn't about to ask her to change pants.

There was even enough fabric left to make a sweet Barbie dress!

If you're interested in the tutorial that I used to make this please check out Ruffles and Stuff here http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/10/tutorial-cheaters-guide-to-fancy-dress.html!

Or click on the button and then look at her tutorials!

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A Tribute To Alice

2010-03-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

Back in February my husband took Miss Brinley to Frisco's annual Daddy Daughter Dance! The theme was Alice in Wonderland! Which I absolutely love! Brinley even had a Mad Hatter tea party for her 3rd birthday. See how easily I get off track!

Anyway, in honor of the theme and the New Alice movie I came up with this wonderfully twirly dress in Alice blue! My batteries were dead when the dance happened so I just had her model the dress this morning. (She looked much cuter for the dance by the way!)

I love how it turned out! I used a pattern that I already had for the top and then I added the tiered skirt on my own. Brinley loves spinning and she had to be able to spin BIG on the dance floor! I hope that you like it! Happy Monday!

By the way if you have a blog, website or Etsy shop that you'd like to share hop over to The Trendy Tree House to link up. You can use the button below!

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I Admit It I'm a Follower!

2010-03-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

In an effort to expand my followers section and find some more awesome blogs to follow I've been linking my blog this week! It's been a lot of fun looking at all of the fun, creative and inspiring blogs out there and I can't say that I'm not happy about the new followers that I've gained! I'm super excited! If you want to link your blog here is the on that I'm using today!

5 Years Ago Today .... Well last night anyway!

2010-03-11T08:25:00.000-08:00

My sweet girls Madolyn Rose and Gibson Bella were born! They were born at 35 weeks and had to spend a little time in the NICU! We have lots of hiccups along the way but we've made it to 5 healthy and strong! Here are a few pics over the past 5 years!

We won't have their party until next month! It's a DR. Seuss theme. Check back for pictures and details from what is bound to be a fantastic party!

The Summer Maxi Dress

2010-03-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's the dress that I made for the Sock Hop silent auction! I love it! It's named for my sweet niece Summer who I know will look fabulous in the one that I'm making for her! ;)

I was one of the lucky ones to test this pattern for Whimsy Couture a few weeks ago you can check out their blog here
http://whimsycoutureboutique.blogspot.com
and their Etsy shop here
http://www.etsy.com/shop/whimsycouture
They have lots of cute patterns. You'll be seeing more that I am making from their patterns in the near future!

I also found this awesome tutorial to make the fantastic Fabric Flower hair Clip!

http://kindawonderful.typepad.com/pink_paper_peppermints/2008/05/31-crafty-flo-3.html

It's super easy to follow and it's my new favorite thing to make!

Little Miss Brinley

2010-03-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

Friday night was Bright Elementary's annual Sock Hop! I spent the day at the school decorating and preparing for the big event. I was also informed that I would be in charge of decorations next year! Our beloved decorations leader will be moving on from Bright next year since her kiddo is going to be in middle school! :(

Anyway, once we were finished at school it was time for the fun part! Getting Brinley dressed up for the dance. She love's it just as much as I do! So after she was all dolled up we headed outside for a quick modeling session before the dance. What do you think of our party outfit that we created from my old prom dress?

You can't tell that she likes to pose can you? She's such a little ham when no one else is around. There is no way that she would do this for a real photographer!

Check back soon for picks of the silent auction item that I made and donated for the Sock Hop!

Re Purposed Prom Dress

2010-03-04T08:05:00.000-08:00

So my oldest daughter Brinley needed an outfit for her schools annual Sock Hop! Okay, okay, so technically she didn't Need a new outfit! I made her a precious Red poodle skirt last year that she could have easily worn this year.

But, if you know me, It has to be a new outfit each time! That's the fun part for me! Anyway, I had been planning to do a 50's style party dress! You know the kind with a very full skirt and lots of frills! However, we were running low on funds this week and the budget didn't allow for a trip to the fabric store. So I had to get creative. I just happened to have a prom dress from Aaron's 1997 prom that my grandmother and I made! This dress is made completely out of white eyelet lace! Perfect right!

I also had these really adorable yellow chiffon ruffles that I had left over from another project.

Brinley also has a white pettiskirt that we use all the time that goes nicely under her eyelet skirt!

I chopped the skirt off of the dress!

Then I went to work making a skirt and top from the fabric ( I still have lots left over!).

Okay, so I have a little tweaking to do and it looks much better on, but my model is at school. So if you want to see the finished project on our girl check back in couple of days to see details from the Sock Hop!

More Girl Scout Cookie News

2010-03-01T08:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Daisy Troop 834's first booth sale! It was windy and cold but they did an awesome job! They sang cute little songs and asked the patrons of Market Street very politely if they'd like to buy some cookies. They got a lot more no's then yes's but they stayed positive and told everyone thank you!

They made their own signs! Aren't they great!

We purchased the cute samao costume from Ebay and Janet our troop leader made the awesome Do-Si-Do and Thin Mint costumes! Don't they look Darling!

Check back in the next day or two I'll be featuring a dress a I made from a pattern I tested for another blogger and Brinley's outfit for the Sock Hop!

Brinley's First Game

2010-02-28T05:17:00.001-08:00

Brinley had her first soccer game yesterday! She had a great time. The weather was beautiful. The sun was shining and we could feel the first hints of spring. Brinley was very eager to get in the game!

She is doing so much better then her first season when she was 4. Back then she only wanted dress up and gallop like a horse.

But now her true competitive side is coming out. With soccer stars on both sides of the family she is bound to have some skills right? I know I'm a little bias but she's doing so good this season. She didn't score a goal this fist game but she made lots a contact and several assists! In my eyes that fabulous!

The teams were pretty evenly matched up but due to our top scorer Ruby I think we won. Because they don't keep score at this age I'm not positive!

In all the business yesterday by the time we got to the twins game I completely forgot to take photos. But they also did great and I'm pretty sure that their team won!

What Time Is It? It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!

2010-02-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

So the much anticipated Girl Scout Cookies have arrived! My oldest daughter Brinley is a Daisy Scout and we got to have our first experience selling girl scout cookies earlier this year! ( If you ordered cookies from us you'll will have them sometime this week, if not it's not to late we have several booth sales lined up!) It was CRAZY! She made a goal to sell 200 boxes or more and with the help of my sweet sister Jenny and my Mom and Dad we sold 231 boxes in initial sales! Thanks for all the support! Because Brinley made her goal she earned the nifty Cookie Star patch that you can see displayed on her vest!

Today I will be separating them by order and picking up the thank you cards. Tomorrow we will start delivering and boy is Brinley excited!

It's soccer time!

2010-02-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

All three girls are playing soccer this season! Brinley plays for Frisco Heat. However she did not play her first game due to the ear infection. Maddy and Gibby are players for Dino Power with their sweet little cousin Summer. The best thing is that their Coaches are Summer's parents Sam and Aries who happen to be the girls Aunt and Uncle! It's Maddy's 1st time to play and she's super excited!

Before the game they did their usual warm up and practice goals kicks and throw ins!

They got off to shaky start but really ended up doing a great job! Maddy was a bit shy of the ball being her first time to play. But Gibby was really getting in there. By the fourth quarter she was trying to hog the ball! At this point they don't keep score but I think that the teams were a good match. I believe that we were pretty much tied in the end!

Sick Kids.... Gotta Love It!

2010-02-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

So all of my girls are sick!It's been an ongoing thing in our house since last weekend. First Brinley spiked a fever and then started coughing and complaining of an earache. Then the twins started in with coughing and fever. Brinley had dropped the fever by Sunday so on Tuesday when school started back up she went. By Wednesday afternoon she had fever again and had to miss school Thursday. Gibby started the same Thursday morning and also missed school. Let me tell you I'm not good at sick kids. I don't really have the patience or the stomach for it. I have issues with mucus, vomit, diarrhea or any other bodily fluid for that matter!

I thought Brinley was better so I sent her to school today. Boy was wrong. I was called to come and pick her up. But being the Not So Super Mom that I am missed the four calls made by the nurse and the assistant principle. This actually wasn't my fault, but I still feel like the worst mom in the world. My phone wasn't ringing! I know, you're thing that I probably had my ringer off. Nope, I just have a bad phone that is no longer ringing when I have a phone call!

It wasn't until I was checking my email that I found an email from the Principle saying that Brinley had been in the nurses office all morning and that they were unable to reach me. So I checked my phone and they had tried calling me several times starting at 9:21 this morning. To top it off Brinley had been crying most of that time refusing to take Tylenol or eat her lunch. So by the time I got there she had been waiting for me for 3 hours and was completely red in the face from sobbing.

So I have everyone settled down to watch a movie and rest. I thought that this would be the perfect chance to get a nice warm bath to sooth my achy body. I forgot to mention that Aaron and I have been sick also. Anyway, I'm settled in reading a book and in runs Gibby with a panicked look on her face saying "I shouldn't have waited so long to go to the potty." As she saying that the unmistakable sound of a butt explosion is happening and Gibby has pooped her pants!

Are we going to have a round of the stomach bug that all of our little friends seem to be getting? We shall see! Check back tomorrow to find out!

The Not So Super Wife

2010-02-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was Aaron's Birthday. I feel really bad that we didn't do anything to really celebrate this year. The girls have been sick and we just haven't had the time or the money to put anything together. I'm pretty sure that he didn't mind though. He's never really been big on birthdays and doesn't really like to be the center of attention. Anyway, the girls made him a birthday cake.

We sang Happy Birthday and he made a wish and blew out the candles! I apologized for not being better prepared. The sweetie that he is just smiled and said "I have everything I want right here."

"The Germinators"

2010-02-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

So Brinley's first grade glass did their program at Good Morning Bright yesterday. For those of you who don't know, Good Morning Bright is an assembly that Brinley's elementary school has to begin their day. They dance, do the pledge of allegiance, honor Birthdays and have announcements. Brinley's class has been working on this skit for awhile.I was about appropriate bathroom behavior. They were SUPER excited to perform for the school! About three weeks ago I was asked to make capes for the 17 children in Brinley's class. I was also given a couple of months to complete this project. However, Mrs. Graham (who might be the best teacher in the world, no kidding!) decided that the kids should do their performance sooner to keep up the excitement! Okay so I was all set to do the capes, then I was also recruited to make matching masks and I needed to come up with something for the front to display a G for Germinator.

We had original thought about using t-shirts but it wasn't in budget.So know the work load has tripled and the time line has been shortened by a lot! So I was given my budget on Thursday February 4th. I was at the time making Brinley's Dress for the Daddy Daughter Dance ( look forward to seeing the results of this in another post!). The dance was Saturday and I was unable to buy the materials for the program until Sunday. I started working on them Sunday night. I had everything cut out by Tuesday night and started sewing Wednesday.

Half way through the capes my sewing machine stopped working. Luckily we had bought Brinley a sewing machine for Christmas. If you sew you no how much "fun" it is to learn a new machine. Anywho, I figured it out and started back up again.

Thursday the 11th it starts snowing and I still have work to do. Brinley's performance is set for the following day! Thank God for Snow Day's! It was declared Thursday night that we wouldn't have school and that Valentines Party's and the program would be pushed to Tuesday. So I thought great more time. Right? I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world. So what do I do? I play in the snow with the kids on Friday. Had a soccer meeting, went to a movie with Brinley and had family time on Saturday. Taught Sunday School, took Brinley to a Girl Scout Valentines Party, Sent the kids to the grandparents and had a date night with the hubby on Sunday. Then the dreaded Monday sneaks up on me and I still have to sew velcro to half of the capes and sew the masks. Which, I admit, I thought piece of cake! The hard part is over. WRONG! I didn't like the masks the way they were. That's The Wanna Be Super Mom coming out. Everything has to be perfect. So I decide that they need to be two layers to fit properly. Which in turn adds more cutting. Then my needles started breaking and the thread wasn't holding. Long story short I was up until 1:30 a.m. finishing the masks. Then was up at 6 a.m. to have everyone ready before Brinley and I went to her school at 7:30 a.m. I was tired, cranky and frazzled.

But the minute the kids saw their costumes(which were personalized with their first initial they got to keep I might add) and their faces lit up, all of my issues melted away and I was just happy to be part of it! Not to mention the second grade teacher's are fighting over who will get me next year! What have I gotten myself into? Until next time, Have a SUPER Day!

Snow Days In Texas! What?!

2010-02-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Last week we had the most awesome two days of snow! On Thursday IT SNOWED and snowed and snowed until we had about 8.5 inches in our back yard. By late Thursday evening Frisco declared a snow day for Friday! After my oldest daughter Brinley got over the fact that she was missing her performance at Good Morning Bright( which will be blogged about tomorrow, shhh it's a secret) and her Valentines Party she was ready to get out in the snow.

Our little bunny friend that lives under the deck made an appearance!

We had a snow ball fight!

We ate snow and got drenched!

Built our Soccer Snowgirl...

And then Mad Maddy Destroyed it!