For quite a long time I have been looking for either fake or real pussy willows for these little vases I found at Ikea for the shelves above Troy and I's bed. Soon I am going to photograph them again to make the artwork for our bedroom.
Today Gracie and I met another new friend. I met this cute little girl's mommy on the Internet! We are on a photography forum together! I'm going to be taking their family pictures in the next week or so and then she is going to take my family's! We had a lot of fun this morning! We also got good news that both the boys passed their reading TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) tests at school. And I forgot to mention they were both on the A/B Honor Roll! Way to go guys, you make a mama proud :o)
I was cooking dinner tonight and I got out our bag of cheese to sprinkle on the enchiladas I was making when I started to think good God, now that's a lot of cheese. Does anyone really need this much cheese? Sadly enough we go through a five pound, yes that's right a five pound bag of shredded cheese a week! Too add to the cheese consumption we also go through a bag of mozzarella cheese sticks! Now you would think we would have trouble in the bathroom department, but luckily we don't. Zak is the main consumer of cheese and I guess this is why I call him a dairitarian ;o)
Gracie and I went to the park again today, but we went to the "rainbow" park as Gracie calls it because there is a rainbow painted there. Anyway, I am pushing her on the tire swing when an Asian girl comes running onto the playground. Gracie says, "she's Chinese like me mama!" I said, "I don't know if she is Chinese." Gracie says, "Yes mama she is Chinese." And Gracie jumps off the swing to go and play with this little girl. So her mother and I start talking and the little girls mother says to me, "she looks Chinese." I said, "She is." So we continue talking and ends up she teaches Mandarin at the Chinese school where we were going to enroll Gracie for language school. She has offered to tutor Gracie at our home once a week! Yea, and now Gracie has a great new playmate too!
First I have to say thank God it is raining here. We are so dry and need the rain so very badly. This is my sad attempt at catching a drip of water on the tree in the front yard. This photo is not quite how I envisioned it, I wish my drip took up most of the frame, but my focus wouldn't catch and now I feel real silly typing this because I should have just switched to manual focus :o), oh well will have to try this again on another rainy afternoon.
I needed a new external hard drive. My other one is full, oh my! I got a big one! One TB! Lets see how long it takes me to fill this one!
I was out looking at my garden today deciding what needed to be done and what new plants I will be planting this year. I have a few perennials that are already blooming and others that are just starting to poke themselves up out of the ground and a few that I guess are not coming back. These little yellow flowers, not sure what they are called, are green and bloom all year round! Love that! Happy Spring! 
Today we took the kids to Six Flags. We have season passes this year thanks to Nana! The boys have only been there once before and this was Gracie's first time! Our day did not start off so great as it would usually only take us about 30 minutes to get there, but today we were within a mile or so and traffic was bumper to bumper. We sat in traffic for about an hour before we made it to the gate. We then waited about an hour and a half to have our season passes processed! The kids did great it was Troy's patience I was worried about ;o) He was ready to turn around and go home when we were sitting in traffic. After all that Troy took the boys to ride the "big rides" and I went with Gracie to Wiggle World. It was so much fun to see her excitement as we went ride to ride. She loved them all and keeps asking to go back to Six Flags! She was such a big girl and waited so patiently in each of the lines and walked all day! All in all I think we had a pretty good day after all was said and done and the kids look forward to spending a lot of the summer threre.
Cooper absolutely loves board games. He would be so happy if we would play one every night! Unfortunately we don't have time for that, even though he asks almost every night if someone will please play a board game with him. He looks so sad and pathetic when I tell him I don't have time. I guess I ought to make more time, he probably won't want to play games with me for much longer :o( So tonight we sat down and played for rounds of this version of Monopoly. 
We went to the hockey game tonight with some friends! We had a good time and the Rampage won 3-1! The tickets were donated to Troy's work to be given to the soldiers by someone. Thank you for your generosity and thoughtfulness, we had a great night out!
Self portrait, Yikes! I got a new used prime lens in the mail today, and yes, I am so inpatient that I quickly took it out of the box and put it on my camera, and yes, I take my camera with me everywhere :o), and took a few quick shots. So here I am in the man van on a cold wet day! When I look at this photo, I see my grandmother's lips! Yikes!
Just playing around with my kids and my camera! The kids posed themselves and were saying, "Lets make a Cooper sandwich!" Too cute, so here is my Cooper sandwich!
Could Gracie get a more sad, a more pathetic look on her face? She was very sad with me today, as I would not let her help me finish up the painting I started yesterday :o( Don't worry, she got over it quite quickly and turned her frown upside down :o)
Gracie's big girl bed! She has been in her big girl bed for just over a month now and she is doing great! We finally found the right shade of pink bedding to go on her bed today, because you know everything has to be pink according to Gracie! And that makes me smile :o) because i wanted pink in my house and now I have pink!
I am on a sewing kick! The other day I made Gracie a dress out of some scrap material I had. And well, it turned out cute, but ginormous (gigantic+enormous=ginormous). Gracie said to me, "It's really nice Mom, but it's to big" and Troy said, "maybe it will fit her in five years." So today I thought I would give it another try. The dress is still a little big, but it turned out pretty cute and Gracie really likes it :o) She even agreed to do a quick photo shoot. She is so full of spunk!
We had a beautiful sunset this evening! I was making dinner as I noticed it out the window, the sun had already gone down so I knew I needed to hurry if I was going to get any pictures! So I rounded the kids up as if there was a fire (just that quickly, I didn't make them think there was a fire or anything) and out the house we went. There is a large dirt hill around the corner from us, so we run over to the dirt hill. We climb the hill and I put the kids where I want them and snap away! Of course they are complaining the whole time, but I'm the mom and they have to do what I say ;o) Right? Anyway, I was happy with my shots! And that is all that matters!
I finally found a helmet for my head! I needed an XS, imagine that! So some friends of ours watched the kiddos and Troy and I went on our official first bike ride together! It was a bit chilly, but beautiful blue skies and sunny! We had a nice ride along the Guadalupe River. Hopefully just the first of many rides and time together... alone... without kids ;o)
