It's all for a good cause

This year, Corey had the opportunity to participate in Relay for Life. As a fund raiser, a booth was set up for the residents in the courtyard of the residence halls. They paid a dollar for a plate full of whip cream to smash in the faces of everyone on his staff, including himself. I was surprised at the eagerness of his residents...it got messy quick!

the scene before it all went down. notice Mck by the trashcan talking with dad.

Here, she's trying to decide one, if she's scared of the messy faces and two, if she still wants to hug daddy who is super messy

one of many plates...what a good sport

At one point, I looked over and saw both of the kiddos leaning over and taking handfuls of whip cream off the ground in hopes of making it to their mouths. I was faster than them! :)

Our Mckinley

Mck at school eating a birthday cupcake!

And now for that sweet baby girl...here are some fabulous things about Mck that you may not know:

- she likes the idea of and gets so excited about taking a bath. Well, shower at our house. But once she's in there, it's a struggle just to get your hands on her. You see, she will paste herself to the very corner of the shower just far enough away that you can barely reach her. You are then forced to crawl forward onto the wet floor to pull her back toward you. Bath time is drama time. I don't know what it is.

- she will wave, smile and talk to just about anyone. She's much more out-going than her brother and is easily approached. She's just like her daddy.

- she has a super high piercing scream. Her octave is commendable, although I'm not encouraging it. Maybe she can use it later for something more constructive.

- she often, oh about 52 times a day says, "hold you" and I'm personally working on doing just that and putting off whatever domestic chore I might be in the middle of. She won't always want me to hold her and I need to remember that. She wants and needs so much cuddle time and I'm loving that right now.

- she will eat nearly everything. She hardly ever puts up a fight about food...wonder how long it'll last.

- she always prefers playing with cars, tractors, puzzles, trains and blocks over feeding her baby dolls. I know it's b/c of her brother and she just wants to be with him. Since they share a room, it's all kinda meshed together, so she gets to share everything with brother.

- her favorite characters right now are a cross between Dora and Minnie Mouse. She is so cute when she says their names and gets so excited when they come one. Sounds like we watch a lot of tv. Ha, not really, only in the morning during breakfast. She fought me just this morning from taking off her jammie gown that had Minnie on it. I guess it could've passed for a dress.

- she holds her own ground. She will often be seen charging Cayden and being the aggressive one. Cayden is more mellow with her and will play the trapped victim. Mck will run with it and control the conflict. She's rough, and we're working on discipline and obedience. Time outs have been real affective.

Silly girl

thumb in mouth, in her stroller, ready to head to school

Daddy loves her in pig tails, so it's pretty much the norm now. I'm growing her bangs out, so it's a good way to keep them out of her eyes. Little girls' hair can be so much work, but oh so cute!

Our Cayden

Some fabulous things about Cayden that you may not know:

- he loves to dance. We routinely dance to the Curious George theme song just about every morning. He'll dance to commercials, tv shows and of course music from the radio. He's pretty good, too!

- he's addicted to gum. I don't allow him to have it but maybe a couple times a week. Maybe he's addicted to asking. Grandma started the gum thing. :)

- he loves to push the button to open the door to our building. It's probably equivalent to pushing the elevator buttons at a hotel. Exciting stuff.

- he can be quite the gentleman. He insists on carrying sister's lunch to and from school and pulling Gracie's (his little friend that stays with us on Wednesdays) backpack from the van all the way up to the apartment, all the while wearing his own backpack. He's so macho!

- his very favorite movie right now is the Wiggles and just about anything that has to do with real trucks, tractors or trains.

- he will not sleep with a pillow and sleeps completely covered, head to toe, under his "big blanket."

- he's on a hamburger/french fries kick right now and would probably eat that meal once a week if we'd allow it

- he's left-handed :)

- his favorite places to visit are the Jumpy Place (an indoor blowup slide place), story time at the library when he's in the right mood, school (mother's day out) and CBS.

- his sister is his best friend. Praying it stays that way always.

- he is still singing Christmas carols and makes up his own songs in his sleep about mommy, daddy and sister.

- every night during prayers, he prays for Christmas lights and fireworks. He'd like to go see them tomorrow. At least it's something we can look forward to every 6 months. :)

Putting money into his piggy bank!

Don't be fooled by this sweet picture. After fighting it, he sat down for maybe 2 seconds for this quick shot. As soon as I got the picture, he took off in a fit behind the rope, you know, where you're not supposed to go. You see sweet Cayden, I remember stinker Cayden.

Thinking it through - his escape!

No matter what, he's my favorite little boy!

A night at the theater!

Every week, the staff or RAs host a program for the students/residents. They range in types from study sessions (which Corey volunteers to tutor his residents in math - any class), talks over random subjects, socials, and community builders, just to name a few. This past week, they had a community builder that consisted of dinner and a movie. This wasn't just any ole' dinner and movie though. The ResLife program rented a huge movie screen to set up outdoors in the courtyard here on campus. They played Despicable Me, served hotdogs, popcorn, brownies, hot chocolate and sodas. It was a pretty nice get-up. Imagine 100 students spread out on blankets in groups, all laying down watching a movie on a huge screen. It was no doubt pretty cool. Corey had the idea of taking the kids and although I don't love the movie, we packed up and headed down with everyone to enjoy the flick.

There are only a few things I'm willing to take the kids to and participate in. Corey loves for them to come and let his residents play with the kids. But for me, he's usually "working" during these programs and I'm steady chasing the kids keeping them off stairs and away from doorways. No small task. I spend most of the time worrying about them, so I usually choose to stay home. I know, lame. But, on this one, Corey was going to enjoy himself, so it worked out great!

We were sure to bring entertainment - balls and cars. We played while everyone set up and prepared for the movie. Before too long, the residents were piling in! We had great weather and it turned out to be a perfect night!

On our way to the movie!

Mck forever trying to keep up with her brother

Ahhh, this is the life!

Looks like snow on the ground....nope

rare shot of me...I'm always the one with the camera :)

our "pad"

This pic just captures Mck's personality. She is quite the social butterfly and loves talking with the residents. "Don't mind me mom, I'm gonna visit with these girls for a minute." I love how the residents enjoy our children.

Until the next movie!

A day at the park

We recently took a trip (a whole 30 mintues) to New Braunfels to play at Landa Park. Can I just say that I love it there? I'm hesitant to say that because I feel like I'm cheating on San Marcos. But, let's face it, San Marcos doesn't have a cool pool, a train to ride or a fabulous park like this one. Although it was a little chilly, it was no time before we hardly noticed the cold and was able to spend the morning playing at this wonderful park. Oh, and daddy got to come, so it was perfect!

Big girl going down the slide

Everyone gets a turn

Cayden said they were about to crash...that's never good

sizing up the slide

Only his left ear was cold

"I like it here"

this is the worst seat ever - it's plan is to sling your child right off into the grass

There were so many pictures from this day, but these pretty much captured our day. We will definitely be going back!!

One eventful weekend

Isn't this a face that just makes you laugh out loud? You see, the four of us sit around a tiny, square table for dinner every night. Our elbows could just about touch each other. I spent much of this meal dodging Mck's hands and really, any part of her that just might reach me. After dinner, it's my duty, per se, to clean up the dishes and the kitchen. Corey usually gets off easy since his duty is getting the kids down, cleaning them up and cleaning the kitchen table. I'd say I got off easy this night. I should've gotten the picture of him carrying her across the room to the bathroom. It was definitely bath time. Every kiddo needs a picture like this one!

Clean as a whistle...yes, he had spaghetti too. I feel like he looks like Corey's cousin, Kyle, here.

The evening continued as we were alarmed with the sound of a smoke detector. It's only happened once before and I've no doubt come close to setting the alarm off...for the whole building! I'm terrified and turn into a crazy person fanning the kitchen if I think the alarm is about to go off. I don't know how sensitive the alarm is, but you just never want to be "that guy" who set it off causing the whole building to being evacuated. No thanks! So, Mck is in bed, and the three of us are sitting in the living room. We have 2 options. First, knowing that it's only an alarm caused by burnt popcorn, across the hall no less, I could wake Mck, bundle the kids and head outside in 20 degree weather for who knows how long. Keep in mind this is the evening before the snow. Or option 2 would be to stay inside with the kids (Corey had to head out and take care of it) amidst the smoke, terribly loud sirens and crazy lights. Cayden was really scared, but he soon calmed down and would you believe that Mck slept through the whole thing? She's a trooper. This went on for at least 25 minutes and finally all was quiet again. I suppose it's just another example of campus life. Although, I might add that we never lost electricity or water, so for that, I can be grateful.


The next morning we awoke with the thrill of snow. I'm pretty sure it took twice as long to get bundled up with socks, shoes, jackets, hats and gloves than for how long we were actually out there. This scene lasted maybe 5 minutes. Cayden was not about it and started crying wanting to come back in. Mckinley on the other hand, I think she liked it, but she's definitely more easy going than her brother.

Already, Mck is happy about it and Cayden is trying to decide.

This is me, right out of the shower, no makeup!

The front of our building.

Friday evening I took off with cousin Angie and headed to the Marek's house. My initial plans for coming down were to spend Saturday with my girlfriends in celebration of Jamie and have a mini bachelorette day. We'd been planning this weekend for weeks, and we all had such a great time. I am truly blessed to have such long standing, intimate relationships with these girls, all dating back to high school and junior high. Oh the things we've been through. Today was about Jamie and we spend some of the day at Mad Potter and we all came together and made her a gift. It wasn't finished completely, so there are no pictures. We must have tons of pictures in this very pose dating back nearly 12 years.

Me, Kimberly, Jamie, Abby and Keri

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell everyone that I had it set up to take 5 pictures at a time! hehe

Abby, Jamie and myself

Keri and Kimberly

Afterwards, we headed to lunch at the Galleria and ended our day at Jamie's bridal shop so she could try on her dress for us. Loved it!!! I can hardly wait to share in her day and see her walk down the aisle. There will be tears no doubt.


The weekend followed and ended with a great dinner with my family, a lazy Sunday morning, an easy drive home with Angie and an evening with friends watching the Superbowl (although I'm pretty sure I didn't even watch the commercials this year - too busy enjoying time with the girls). It truly was a great weekend!

I know, I'm sorry!

This is me, checking in. I'm soo behind and although it's the beginning of January, I'm going to update as far back as October and Holloween. I know that some of you have already seen my pictures on Facebook, but there's some family and friends out there that don't use Facebook. So, on that note, you'll get to enjoy all my pictures with my oh so fabulous commentary too! What fun, right? I'm heading out to pick up the kids from MDO, so hold your breath, updates are coming!!!