New bikes!

Well, the girls' bikes haven't fared too well with the move....I have managed to run over both of them. Claire's poor tricycle had to be pried out from under my bumper. Anyway, the weather has been gorgeous and we are expecting a beautiful week, so we surprised the girls with new bikes. Here are a few pictures.


So, Lee got a new riding lawnmower and cranked it up. He was racing Corinne with Claire on his lap, down the driveway!


Saturday, Corinne went to a dance clinic at Leander High School. We dropped her off at the school and then went back in the afternoon to watch their performance. It was a benefit for the Cheerleading Captain at LHS that has thyroid cancer. She is a beautiful, young lady, going through a horrible ordeal. She just recently had her thyroid and all of her lymph nodes in her chest and neck removed at MD Anderson in Houston, all the nodes are involved. Anyway, I know that is more than you ever cared to know, but she was there and they let her speak and then presented her with a check for almost $4000. I cried through the whole thing. On a happy note, our babysitter Michelle, is a Leander Blue Belle, and she made sure that Corinne was invited. Corinne was scared at first, not knowing anyone and Michelle saw us and ran in to scoop her up. Her day was made! She had a blast! Here are a few shots from that. These girls are phenomenal! I hope that Corinne will be good enough to make their squad, they are GOOD!


That is Michelle on the left, holding the check. And that is Meagan, in the middle. Click on the picture and you can see them better.

New playscape!

Oh boy!! We have a new playscape! The girls are loving it, the neighbors are loving it, and I am loving it because everyone is outside! It took us FOREVER to get the thing together, the girls were all about helping hand us boards and screws. We put down a weed mat and edged it in. Then we are in the process of filling it with pea gravel. We need to get another truck load. We had heard that it is better to fill it with pea gravel than mulch because the pea gravel can absorb some of the impact if the kids were to fall. The playscape has a place where the monkey bars would go, but we are going to get another slide to put there. Sure don't need the neighbor kids falling! We are so fortunate and blessed that the girls are each other's very best friend. They do absolutely everything together and it just warms my heart. I have said it before...not having a sister, I didn't know what this whole sisterhood bond was about and how very early it begins.

Here are the girls sitting on the picnic bench that is underneath the fort.

This is Lee up in the sky fort putting things together.

The girls and me putting the glider together. The glider is Claire's favorite and she can make it go way to high for my comfort!
This is the girls with their friend Bali that came over to check things out.


Here are Claire and the neighbor Rachel trying to help Lee with the pea gravel.


The girls having fun with the neighbors having a contest to see who can go the highest. Great...

Someone reading this, help me PLEASE!!
Bentley has been destructively chewing things! He chews up my patio furniture, he chewed on the girls' picnic table. Anything plastic that is left in the yard is chewed up into tiny splinters of plastic. Here, he chewed through our extension cord one morning, unplugged of course.

So, upon further investigation, I figured out why the the rain sensor to the sprinkler system doesn't work....Bentley chewed through that too!
I do not know what to do! I have gotten advice on spraying the Bitter Apple spray, doesn't work for us...someone told me to rub Tabasco sauce on things.....okay...extension cords too? Right! I think he chews out of boredom during the day when he is outside. I have tried getting him the interactive toys that you hide treats in, well, he rips them to shreds trying to get to the middle to get the treat out, instead of being a good boy and rolling it around and seeing what happens. I am truly at wits end with his chewing. He turned a year old in December, so I know we are looking at 6-12 more months of this. UGH!

Of course, I love that dog to death! Just wanted you to see that he is still in one, happy, piece! I haven't dismantled him yet! ha, ha!


Lee finished his bookcases. We got them moved inside. They are looking good. He had the cabinet doors specially made to fit his dimensions. They just lack a coat of varnish and then I will post pictures!

Oh! And if you haven't heard....the Leander/Cedar Park area is getting a new Schlitterbahn!!! We are soooo excited! The city passed it on Thursday. It will be a $360 million resort! Some of the hotel/cabin rooms will look like treehouses, up off the ground. Looks pretty cool. Most of it can be covered with a retractable roof, so that it can be enjoyed while it is cool outside! It will take a couple of years to finish, but I expect all of our friends and family to come check it out with us!! Free place to stay! our house!

Road Trip

We just got back from a great "trip" to Lee's parent's house. We had a really good time. I am not sure who had more fun, the girls? or Bentley? Brenda and the girls made a gingerbread house together. The girls thought that was pretty neat.



This is Corinne at Olive Garden, being silly.

And Claire.
Brenda is going to be teaching a basket weaving class at San Angelo University during the Spring semester. We were cutting and counting reeds for the students to use. Everyone was in on helping!
Corinne thought she looked like a Longhorn.

Even Lee.
And Claire helped.
Lee has been busy trying to get the bookcases finished for his study. Last night he was in the garage sanding everything down and made quite a mess. So, I took a picture of him. By the way, there is sawdust EVERYWHERE!!! We are going to need hurricane force winds to come through there to get all the dust out!

Movie day!!

We went to see "Princess and the Frog" this past weekend. It was great!! They girls had too much fun and ate enough popcorn for 5 people!


This is before we left, they were modeling their new Hello Kitty outfits. Love Hello Kitty!!
Putting puzzles together. Bentley even joined us!
Here are the girls! I was modeling a new crown!

Handyman Husband

After 12 years together you would think, "there is nothing else he can do to surprise me." Boy was I wrong. Ya know, I was so impressed when he laid 900 sq. ft. of tile and did all the trim in our last house. Now, he is making his own built in bookcases for his study! Our cabinet guy was going to charge way too much to build them and put them in. Lee said, "I can do that!" and I thought, yea, right. Well, once again, he has proven me wrong! His parents came last weekend and helped him get started. Good thing Brenda is a retired math teacher!! There were numbers and fractions flying everywhere! So, he built a base that will be cabinets and file drawers and then the bookcase part will be connected on top of that. By the pictures, it doesn't look like much, but he has come a long way!! Lee now has almost every tool you can think of!............I think I deserve a new embroidery machine....what do you think?? He gets toys, I get toys, right?

This is the end of the first day....uh, oh! We have a long ways to go!

Brenda helping Lee. All these dots you see are dust particles from sawing the wood. Most of the time they were wearing masks.

Here is Claire holding her ears, it was pretty loud in there!

This is day 3 or 4. I lost count!

The kids have been begging to go to the beach, so here you go! Sawdust! Feels like sand!

Will my garage ever be the same?? I can't wait to park in there again! I had to scrape ice off my windshield this morning!

This is where we are today. Lee worked all afternoon yesterday. It is looking awesome! His Mom and I are trying to talk him into hiring someone to do the stain. Of course he said, "I can do that!"

Ballet Times

Things are going great here. Wanted to share some recent pictures from Corinne's ballet class. She LOVES to dance!! She is in her 3rd year. This is she and her great friend Bali.
This is her holding fourth position.
These are the Reindeer cupcakes that we made. Aren't they cute?? Thanks to my Mom for the idea!

This is a picture of the girls this morning before church. They were looking festive.

Brenda and Gary are here for a few days helping Lee build some bookcases for his study. They are coming along great. I'll post pics in a few days. Lee is loving all the new tools and gadgets that he is getting to buy for the project.

A few last pictures to include. Most of you have probably already seen them via email or facebook, but for those of you who didn't, these are too cute not to share!

The girls' new room

We finally got around to fixing up the girls' room. They insist on sharing a room, so that is fine by us. I turned what will someday be Claire's room into a sewing room. I made their bedding and curtains. We painted and Lee put up a chair rail. I hung some frames and still need to find pictures for some of them. Next, I need to clean out all the old books, doll blankets, etc. There is so much of everything!!! So, look past the clutter! And, Corinne made her own bed this am! She is very proud!





My shutters got installed today!! Just in time for all my company coming for Thanksgiving! Lee's study got them too!