Sarah's Activities

I am so behind on blogging that it is not even funny. What have I been doing you might ask?....being mom....getting ready for Christmas....carting my Sarah all around to do Girls Scouts, dance, gymnastics, and ice skating! Ice skating replaced soccer, but hey, let's throw soccer in the mix, too! I know I am partly to blame for her (and my) schedule. But I don't know where to cut it off. I won't budge on the dance, she loves the gymnastics and the girl scouts, and well, ice skating, I just felt like if she showed any interest it was better to keep with it. She took a year off from it and has regressed some. She is really pretty good at it, so I hate to keep her from doing it if she likes it. So, well, that is how we find ourselves in this predicament! She did ask to do Irish step dancing, but I sort of pretended that went in one ear and out the next. Not that I don't want her to do it, but seriously! She has also mentioned going back to doing her art, which I love for her to do. Then we have the shocker of all shockers....soccer was hated this fall by her (although you will never know from the pics) and ice skating was supposed to replace it for the "spring", but now I am hearing how we want still play soccer...so we shall see what unfolds in the new year. I love for her to do activities but 6 different ones, I am not sure about that.

So let me re-cap what she has been up to.

Dance: She is at a new studio this year. It is hard to believe this is her 4th year of dance already. We moved studios so she could get to do a recital. The old studio does one, but it is at the beginning of June, and we will be in Ireland then, so that wasn't working. She seems to like her new class, but I have a feeling we will be back at the old studio next year (if we are still doing dance). It is her least favorite right now, and I vowed never to force my kids to do anything they didn't really love, so if she wants to take a break, we can take a break. I will probably revive the Irish step dancing talk if this happens! So here are some pics from her dance class parent show!

Sister had to get in on the action!

Soccer: As I mentioned, she was complaining about hating soccer, although you would not know it from watching her play the games. I thought for sure we were done with this one. She was such the soccer star in the spring, but came out in the fall in a funk. However, the last few games, the soccer star starting coming back. She started making goals again and started to get more aggressive. I don't know if it was the nice weather or what, but by the end she started changing her tune. Then the night of her team pizza party, the coach was talking about keeping the girls all together and what a great little team they have (they are good) and she started to talk about wanting to stay with it in the spring...so this one is still up in the air! Her are some pics!

Yes, in case you are wondering, it is Team Blondie!

Girl Scouts: Just a few nights ago she got invested into Girl Scouts with their Investiture Ceremony. It was very cute and she now has her Daisy pin. She loves girl scouts and I am glad! It is such a great activity! If you live near me...I am giving you fair warning...cookies are on the way and I will be finding you to buy!




Gymnastics: She just had her 1st meet yesterday and she did so good. She has only been doing gymnastics for 4 months now and she has improved so much. She still has a ways to go, but she loves it! At her meet she got a 8.8 on floor, 9.1 on vault, 8.8 on bars and a 8.9 on beam. (Note that the lowest score they were giving was an 8.8, but she tried really hard and did better than she had ever done in practice, so I was so proud of her! She was so excited afterwards and is already talking about doing it next year so she can win a trophy.

Christmas Spirit

This is what we woke up to today....

Can you believe it? Well, for us here in the Dallas area, it was a little bit of a shock. They weren't even saying we had much of a chance at all. It was beautiful! Sarah loved it and Lauren was unsure.....

This was even more surprising than the snow itself........The kids actually had school!



You have to remember that we live in the part of the country that if it looks cold, flights will be delayed, if we have flurries..the airport shuts down and school is cancelled, if it all out snows..you are held captive in your home until further notice.

I think the only saving grace is that it didn't start snowing until 7am, caught everyone off guard, and there was no time to cancel! I volunteered at Sarah's school today, and let me tell you, the kids were wired!

So this is how we finished our day...

Lauren had her little Christmas show at her daycare. The called it the Carol of Lights. Her little class sang Jingle Bells. She was so darn cute if I may say so myself! What a day to get you into the Christmas spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my family to yours....I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! I will be back to blogging soon. I have lots to post about!

Have a Happy Turkey Day!

May the Longhorns lose and the Cowboys win!

Proud to be a Horned Frog!

I am always proud to be a horned frog, but I am more than ever right now! TCU is my alma mater and we smashed the Utah Utes last night! Normally this would be a big deal, but this year because we are ranked #4 and this is really our only last big hurdle, it was a REALLY big deal. I soooo wish I could have been out at the stadium cheering on the home team with all my friends, but alas, I was at home cheering from the couch! Thankfully my FB friends are about 75% TCU grads, so I had lots of pictures pouring in from the "front lines".

SO unless we screw up majorly and loose either of our next 2 games, we are on our way to a major BCS bowl. If we keep our fingers crossed and Texas, Alabama, or Florida has a major loss, then we are really in for a wild ride. I am getting my bags packed for Phoenix, New Orleans, or better yet....PASADENA. Would love to go out to my old stomping grounds in LA and cheer on my FROGS!

Give'em Hell TCU!

I am not sure who took this shot, so if it is you and you happen to be reading this, let me know and I will give you props. One of my FB friends posted it, but I am pretty sure it wasn't him that took the photo!

Little Daisy Girl Scout

I don't know much about Girl Scouts...I never was one, but I thought it might be something fun that Sarah would like. I was right! She has absolutely loved being a Daisy. She meets with her troop once a week and so far they have done lots of fun arts and crafts, learned songs, gone to a campfire celebration and earned their 1st Daisy petal. I only wish I had volunteered to be a troop leader. It is right up my alley with planning all the fun activities. It is almost like a little mini sorority! They are going to have a ceremony in December where they will be given their Daisy pin. It will be complete with speaking parts and candlelight. Very sorority! So I am so glad we decided to do it and I am so glad she enjoys it. There are 10 in her troop and they are just great!

Treasures from a far-away land

My husband just got back from Afghanistan and brought us back some pretty little treasures. He was over there for a week working on the NFL on FOX pre-game show that aired on Sunday. I will admit I was not too crazy about him going, but I was assured by him and others that he would be totally safe. I cannot imagine actually having a husband that serves in the military. I was a nervous wreck for a week and he wasn't fighting and was not leaving the base. Boy, I am a wimp. So anyway...here are the treasures....

Little "genie" lamps for Sarah and Lauren. Sarah did check to see if one was inside!

An elephant made out of Lapis Lazouli, mined in Afghanistan, for me!

On a related note, and speaking of people in far off lands....a Happy Veterans Day to all our veterans out there. I am especially thinking of my grandfather today, Dunlap Harper, who served in World War II. He thankfully made it back from the war safe. While he was over serving he wrote my grandmother the most wonderful love letters. I am so thankful my mom kept them and that I now have them. They are just absolute treasures!
I am also thinking of my older brother today, Warren Hamilton. He has served over in the Middle East with both the army and marines. I was a nervous wreck when he was serving his tours, as well. He now serves our country out of the military, but still goes overseas a lot. I wish for his safety constantly.
I am sure my husband is thinking of his namesake today. Charlie Barnes was killed in Vietnam and was my Charlie's dad's best friend. He is who my husband is named after. Almost every time Charlie goes to Washington he makes a trip over to the Vietnam Veteran memorial to find his name and take a moment of silence.

There are so many that have given their lives for this great country. I think of them often. Wishing all of them and their families a Happy Veteran's Day.

Where the Wild Things Are

I am not usually a big fan of bloggers who just re-post what someone else has posted, but I have to do it in this case. I look at a lot of party websites and blogs and I see tons of cute things....but this is WAY CUTE! I have to share it with you all.

Please go to The Hostess with the Mostess blog, HERE!



The party was designed (and photo) by Kristen Gau.

Remaining thoughts on Halloween

I know it is a little after the fact, but there were a couple of things we had to celebrate the holiday that I thought were really cute. The first was this:


my husband was very sweet to send this to me. I think he felt a little bad for missing everything. He had to work on the weekend....as he does every weekend. I thought the arrangement was pretty and came in a cute little container.

The second was this:

Papa Murphy's pizza does these cute little pizzas every year. They don't taste any different than their normal pizza, but sure makes it more fun for the kids. I mean, a pizza is already fun, and they found a way to make it even better! Note: They do a heart pizza at Valentine's too!

BTW....I don't think anyone is really wondering, but in case you are....I have not blogged about Rob and Nina's wedding yet, for 2 reasons. 1.) There is so much to write about that I haven't had the time to attempt it yet, and 2.) I am sort of hoping to get some more pictures from the weekend coming in from other people that were there and/or the professional ones. So once I feel I have some great photos and a little time on my hands to do it justice, I will do a post about it!