Austyn's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Austyn's 3rd birthday about a month ago. We had originally planned to do it the weekend before her birthday, which is Aug 26, and have a luau in our backyard. We were going to have games for the kids to play and munchies for us to well, munch on. Unfortunately Joe's schedule was changed and it turned out that he wouldn't be able to be here for that weekend. Not wanting to do the party without him we quickly changed gears and through together a smaller party at a local park. It ended up being better for me because I didn't have to spend as much money on entertainment so I could spend it on the birthday girl. She had a lot of fun, and almost all of her friends were there. She really missed Ahlana, but there isn't much we can do about that situation. She will just have to wait until Nov to see her : )

This is her blowing out her candles, she picked out the cake. It was so funny because she kept changing her mind. First she wanted an Elmo cake, then she wanted a Sleeping Beauty cake. We got to the cake store and the only princess they had was Cinderella. She didn't want that so she had to pick from a crown, a castle, Elmo, ballet shoes, and the minnie. She picked minnie and then got to tell them what color for her dress and everything. To tell you the truth I am a little surprised it wasn't yellow since everytime we talk about colors she always lets us know that yellow is her favorite color. I wish I had a video camera for her reaction to the cake and her presents. She loved every present and of course her cake. Whenever she opened something up she just opened her mouth with a big gasp. It was classic.

Austyn getting a little help from her big sister opening the presents. She still can't quite figure out how to open wrapping paper, but the bags she never had an issue with. She had a blast and then two weeks later she got to have a second birthday when she recieved a package from Grandma and Grandpa with a couple of way cute dresses for church and a pair of jammies with ballet slippers on them. Thanks Mom and Dad, she really loves the dresses.

Lubbock, TX

About two weeks before school started Joe had a few days of training that he told me he could miss so we decided that we would take our kids on a mini vacation. My friend had told me about how her family went to Lubbock for the weekend and did some school shopping and saw some sights. I thought it sounded like fun so Joe and I planned it last minute, he called in to work and we took off for Lubbock, which is a two hour drive. We didn't get out as quickly as we would have liked because that was the day that the plumber was over and we discovered that our children had flushed the toothpaste. Good Times!! The kids loved the weekend, we stayed in a hotel, ate out, went to the discovery center, and picked apples at an apple orchard. Of course, I think they would have been just fine with nothing but the hotel, but Joe and I had to get some vacation out of it. We had a blast and have plans of going back because there were thinks that we didn't get around to seeing like the Buddy Holly center, and there was a cool park were you could go and dig for fossils. Of course there is always the chance that we might get to go out there for a Texas Tech football game. That would be cool!! Here are some pictures from our mini vacation, hope you enjoy them and we hope to be able to go on a real vacation next summer....keep your fingers crossed!

This is at the discovery center, they had a mirror that you could put one leg up behind and look like you were floating. In order for it to be a believable picture you had to be exact on were you were positioned. Noone got it just right, but it was really fun trying :)

Everett at the discovery center. He didn't have as much fun as the other kids because there just wasn't anything for him. But he sure looks cute when he is bored.

This dinosaur scared the kids and only these two were brave enough to stand by it to take the picture, Austyn was freaked out. Of course I am pretty sure there was some bribing on Joe's part.

This part of the discovery center was kind of interestingbecause it was about dental care and what not and there were some kind of gross pictures but the kids really liked the big mouth.

Austyn tuckered out at the apple orchard. We had a busy day so by this time she was passed out. I don't think she woke up at all while we were there.

This was Macayla's job to tote the cart around, and she wouldn't have it any other way. She had fun except for the fact that she was in flip flops and she kept getting dirt in her sandals.

Elijah is sampling the apples, which the lady said we could do. He is eating a golden delicious that Joe had picked, this was heaven for Elijah because he loves apples.

I love this picture of Everett and thought it would be a good finale for the post. This was our one vacation that we were able to take all summer and though it was short it was really fun. The time we have as a family is so short that we really try to make the most of it, and I really think the kids came away from this with some good memories :)

Name Tag

I was tagged to do this from my friend Elizabeth because I read her blog. I thought it looked like fun so I figured what the heck....now I tag whoever reads this and wants to do it.

YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car): Duke Freestar

YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fav hobby/craft, fav weather element + “Tour”): The Baking Rain Tour

YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Rocky Road Chocolate Chip

YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): SHUN

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Pink Elephant (Elijah gave me that animal)

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Ann Carmichael

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): HUNST

SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The Blue Pepsi

STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Turquatic Twix

WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names): Michele Refell

WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Hill Houston

SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Christmas Tulip

CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Pineapple Shirtie

Catch Up

I know that it has been a long time since I blogged, but it is not for lack of events in my life, just not enough time or I just don't take the time....whatever it is there is never enough of it. This is just a quick update on what has been going on with us since I discovered that I was nothing more then a Disney hussy! The first picture is of Austyn's new earrings. We got her ears pierced almost a month ago and she was so good. She just whimpered a little bit, nothing like Macayla who actually assulted the lady piercing her ears....she kicked her!! This is also a picture of one of Austyn's new headbands. My friend Elizabeth came to my rescue after Austyn cut her hair and sent me these cute headbands. You can switch out the bow and put some flowers or other bows on it. She also sent us a pink headband, so we are pretty much covered for Ausytn's hair, THANKS ELIZABETH!!! It gives us a more options then just the 4 bows we had before!

This next picture is of Elijah's cast. For those that don't know, or just don't remember Elijah has Cerebral Palsey that affects his left leg. We have had a cast on his leg for about 5 weeks now, we get it switched out every week. It is stretching his leg so that we can hopefully go without a surgery to lengthen his heel cord. So far so good, tomorrow we get this cast cut off and then we will determine if he needs one more cast or if we can go with an AFO brace. That is just a plastic brace on his leg. Also, we have discovered through all this that his left leg is a little shorter then his right one so we will also have to get some lifts put on his shoes and such. This should help prevent him from standing on his toes on that side and help to loosen the muscles and heel cord. Keep your fingers crossed.

Also, I don't have a picture of this, but Austyn has been going through potty training this last week. She has been doing a really good job, even sleeping through the night and waking up dry :) This has been wonderful for me and Joe because we once again have only one kid in diapers. Just typing this I figured out that we have been buying diapers for at least one kid since 2001. That is a stinking long time, I know that others have had longer, but man I hate to think how much money we have put into diapers in the last 7 years. Back to potty training, the one thing that has made this potty training a little harder is that we are down to one toilet. About 10 days ago we had some plumbers come out because the toilet in the kids bathroom would not flush. They worked on it for an hour even had it removed and out on our front lawn trying to get out whatever object was lodged in there, to no avail. They were done working on it considering it a lost cause so I asked them to break it so I could see what caused the blockage. There was a thing of toothpast that our kids had flushed. It was one of those colgate ones that are not a tube, but more like a triangle. It would not budge even after we broke it open. So we have been down to one toilet with 5 people using it. What fun, but as always it really could be worse. Well, that is just a quick run down. When I have more time I will post about Ausytn's birthday party we had and our fun little family trip to Lubbock.

I am Esmerelda

Mysterious and passionate. You are a survivor. Even though life has swung you some difficult situations you have a strong intuition that gets you through. Also, you have the capacity to sympathize and relate to a variety of different people.

Ok, so I saw this quiz on Tamara's blog and thought that I would try it. I did it four different times. After my third one I decided that I would stick with whatever came up because I thought that I was pretty truthful on my answers. Well, as luck would have it I am not a princess at all, just a gypsy who pole dances. Oh well, at least the description is nice! Take the quiz and let me know which princess you are!!!

Which'>Which'>http://www.greatestjournal.com/quiz.bml?Q=16354">Which Disney Princess Are You?

Everett's 6 month pictures

Here are two of my favorite pictures from Everett's session. They are really small because somehow I stole them from the website, I really am not sure how I did it. Hopefully you can kind of see the picture. He did a really good job especially after having to wait for 20 min and being tired. This is his big cheesy grin that he always does, he doesn't know how to smile with his mouth closed.

The Fix (a.k.a The Combover)

We have found the solution!!! No joke, my daughter now has a combover. We took the long piece of bang that was left and combed it over to cover the front of her hair and then sparyed it with a ton of hairspray. This solution works for a couple of hours, long enough for any Dr appt or church. At the end of that the little feathers of hair start to come out the top. This is going to have to work for a while because Austyn's hair takes a long time to grow in. Oh well, I think it looks cute, and we will just have to invest in more bows.

For those that noticed I did change the post name, I just felt that I was being a little too mean.