just tell me to RELAX...and BREATHE

Happy Friday

From the carpoolers in my back seat. I think Dress of Choice day makes everyone a little silly around here!

Word Up! 2011 and "I HEART PUPPY DOGS"

Again in the category of "better late than never", a quick recap of the One Little Word Reveal from early January...

I'm thinking we were pretty obvious with our "reveal", although we both did walk around for a good 15 minutes wearing our winter coats while unwrapping catering trays, etc. to try to conceal the words.  Alas, it got a little too warm and we revealed early.

Yes, homemade t-shirts.  As you can see, we looked kind of sloppy next to the other gorgeous wordsters.

Alecia (Enthusiasm), me (Experience), Ellery (Healthy), Tiff (Rejuvenate) and Steph (Shine).

I especially liked Ellery's version of a word reveal...

I mean, just LOOK at the size of that glass!  In our circle of friends we call that a "Saewert pour", named after Alecia and Chad Saewert.  We like the way they roll.

As always, Mark and Steph were our gracious hosts for the evening.  This year we had a few special treats:  catering courtesy of a silent auction at school, our own Executive Chef for the evening, Jack Clouatre (who also happens to be our godson) and assistance from his darling sister Caroline.  I managed to catch all of the Clouatres in a photo...hard to do when they are cooking, pouring, serving.  They treat us well every year.

I'm not sure how we managed to forget our group photo this time (I know, we were having WAY too much fun with the food, wine, and company), so no shots of the 5 couples together.  And again we WERE the only ones in word shirts, so with or without a group shot I'd still need to list the other words...

Creig - Grateful

Greg - Evolve

Chad - Shift

Mark - Divine

As always, Mark managed to crack me up with his word choice, although "Whimsy" is still my all-time favorite.  Some of the kids get into the word act, including Jack (Enthusiasm -- he and Alecia happened to pick the same word), Caroline (Earth and Environment -- is that right Steph?), and Ripley (Puppy Dog - technically two words but who's counting?).  

After seeing our word shirts, Rip decided she really wanted her own, so I made this for her before she went to Ava and Lauren's Puppy Party last week...

(Rip in her " I HEART PUPPY DOGS " T with her buddy Caroline C.)

Kuddos to Ellery for putting together this amazing (and huge!) 7th birthday party for her girls.  The ladies got the chance to adopt their own (stuffed) puppy, name it, make a collar, leash and blanket, take the puppy to the Puppy Salon, get checked out by the local vet Dr. Garren (the Saewert's darling son), all before walking their dogs through the talent show (pictured above).  Rip's adopted dog Fiona goes everywhere with her now, including on the ride to and from school where she is passed around by the carpoolers.  

Three additional happys to report from all of this:

1. So happy to finally have used the $1.99 foam letter stamps from 4 years ago that I just HAD to have -- I can now say I've used them to make 3 shirts!
2. Rip has now worn her shirt twice -- once to the party and then the following day to the Valentine-themed "dress of choice day" at school.  Pretty good return on investment so far.
3. Love that all of the stuffed puppies from the party came through hand-me-downs and Freecycle.org.

 

Goodbye CC

What a great vacation with family and friends in Corpus Christi. I don't think any of us wanted it to end, although I'm sure the Hannigans are happy to have their house back to themselves!

The kids were so sweet to each other, and after almost 8 days of togetherness there was only one "incident". It's hard to call it a true incident... Colin bit Regan on the rear end because Regan was "being mean to Ripley and gave her a pink slip!". What Colin didn't realize was that the girls were playing school - Regan was the teacher and Rip was the "naughty student". Colie was very serious about trying to defend Ripley. Darling boy.

We were lucky enough to have a beautiful thanksgiving meal at Meme's, 10 of us celebrating around her table and declaring what we were most thankful for this year. Family, being together, health, a new football coach, friends and Tuli (that last one was Rip's).

I am so grateful to have spent the holiday with my whole family. Love you all!

Little docs in training

Uncle Casey took the kids (and big kid Uncle James) on a "field trip" to the hospital today. They wore scrubs, saw x-rays, and observed the sterilizing of operating tools. James says that Rip was very quiet and observant, but that none of the kids liked wearing their scrubs (too long, so they were dragging the ground).

Even though she had fun today, Rip says she's not interested in being a doctor, but maybe a veterinarian. That sure would be handy in our family.

kids being kids

I can't tell you how much fun the 3 amigas had watching our five kids run around together on Monday. Deanna's children Bella (8) and Braden (7) were great companions to our younger ones Ripley (6) Regan (6) and Colin (almost 5). They silly stringed the yard, rode bikes, played dress up, etc. for 24 hours and I don't think they wanted to leave at the end of the day.

Thanks DJB for making the drive and thanks Steph for hosting us all! I sure hope we do this again soon!

3 amigas on the road in CC

How lucky am I to have these two amazing ladies in my life? AND to have seen them several times in the last few months, even though we live many miles away?

DJB and her kids made the drive from Houston to Corpus Christi for the night, the kids have been playing nonstop ever since, while the 3 amigas have been doing some serious catching up.

Just wish we could move Houston, CC and Littleton a little closer together.

Happy (belated) birthday Avery!

So sweet of Avery to include us in her family birthday celebration! We loved being a part of the festivities.

Love you Avery!

Happy Halloween from Egypt

Happy Halloween!  As you can tell from the picture, we really get in the spirit of things around here.  This year, Ripley and I were both Cleopatra, and we conned James into being a pyramid.  He had to make his own costume, and he was a good sport about the whole thing.  Tuli didn't mind being wrapped in toilet paper for her mummy costume, and she especially liked the opportunity to rip it off after the pictures.

Rip's class had a Fall Festival on Friday and it was complete chaos.  Rip loved it.

The kids could dress up, but only if their costume was a character from their core knowlede studies.  Egypt has been a big topic this year, so you can see that there are four Egyptian costumes in the group.

We continued with our annual tradition of dinner and trick or treating at the Veldhuizen's house.  We've spent the past 5 Halloweens together, and I'm afraid their stuck with us for at least the next 11.

The guys take the girls out, while the ladies stay at the house and answer the door.  And act a little silly.

Here we are trying to time a picture of ourselves.  I think we were a little off.

The pyramid got fiesty later in the evening.

And the girls were on a crazy sugar high.

Good times.  Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween celebration too!

more ski adventures

Ripley got the chance to ski with her buddy Emma for the first time up in Breckenridge 2 Fridays ago (yes, we played hooky from school - our little secret, right?).  Emma's mama Kim was nice enough to ski with them and control the chaos.

No ski injuries...but Rip did take a header earlier in the morning, pre-ski, while jumping on the bed with Emma.  The desk sprouted legs, jumped up and knocked her right above the eye.  She bled something fierce, and ended up with 2 shiners (and a sunburn) by Saturday.  All from just this little cut you see in the picture below.

As you can see, these two never have any fun together.

(that's a snow leopard on Emma's helmet, in case you were wondering)

Here's a little snippet from the day...

And two days later with her cousin Emerson...

"Who has two black eyes?"  "I do! I do!"

That's the psychedelic mushroom dress that I FINALLY made for Ripley (I bought the fabric back in October at my favorite place Stash).  Here's a better look at the dress...this time R is with her cousin Cameron, and yes we are hunting for Easter eggs 7 days late...

December is gone...

 Happy New Year!  Hard to believe that 2009 is in our past and a new decade has begun.  How did that happen?  I must not be paying much attention...

I certainly haven't paid my blog much attention recently, but I am going to turn over a new leaf as my blog is concerned.  More on that later.

For now, I figure it's not too late to document December -- I did (I mean, I'm still doing...) the December Daily project this year, along with friends Ellery and Alecia.  SO much fun to work with Christmas-themed products, holiday junk mail, old Christmas cards, felt, and ribbon.  I alway enjoy taking pictures of the day-to-day, and this project is a fabulous excuse to photograph little inanimate objects around our house, the mall, etc.  Here is a little sampling of the "best of December Daily" thru mid-December.  I actually include all 31 days of December instead of stopping at Christmas.  It seems like there is so much I would have missed of the season without including those last 6 days.

The first 10 days of December in pictures...

 

 
  

 

 More to come in the next few days...

Our annual Word Up! party is tomorrow night, so look for a post on our One Little Words on Sunday.  Happy 2010!