Happiness is...

Playing Outside

2009-06-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

I love having both of my kids home for the summer! I love being outside watching and helping them play!! I absolutely LOVE being their "Mommy"!!

Hawaii Mini Album--6x6

2009-06-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest of my mini album projects...this one is for my brother's annual mini book that I make him (I think this is the fourth year). It is all about our trip to Hawaii last year to see him and his princess, Britannii! I had so much fun making this album for him, as I know he'll love it... I just need to sit down and make the time to make me one!

The Mustangs in Las Colinas

2009-04-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love this place....one of my favorite places...one of my favorite places to take pictures. It is so calm and beautiful (even with the traffic whizzing by).... I was SO happy to get to bring the kids here while on spring break. They had so much taking photos and playing in the water!! It was just super! I would seriously love just taking photos of the horses...which I have been known to do before, but I just wanted to share...a great place to visit!

...Springtime...well almost!

2009-03-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

I LOVE decorating for spring/Easter! I wish I had room to store SO much more Easter decorations. I still have a few more to put up this year... I am glad Easter is in April this year so we can keep the decorations up longer!!

...winning a RAK on one of my fave blogs!!!

2009-03-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a fellow pea, I have been dubbed the winner of her blog anniversary RAK and guess what I win....homemade cookies! :) How exciting! Thanks, Suzanne!!! Here's her blog...it is one of my very fave cooking blogs...love it! http://creatingpostitnotes.blogspot.com/

...AND Sanrio shopping!

2009-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Oooooooo, I had so much fun at the Sanrio store (again thank you Luke)!! I got all this fabulous stuff for a little over $50! :) Yay! Just the blanket was $68.00 at regular price! I could NOT believe how lucky I was to find a Shinkansen backpack too and on clearance!! And they had Shinkansen pencils too... But I absolutely LOVE my "charming kitty" mink blanket. I am such a lucky girl! I love all of my cute kitty chan & Shinkansen cuties!

...Disney store shopping!

2009-03-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

I have the best husband! Last night he took us all out to an amazing dinner at Copeland's of New Orleans. We really loved it! We had to forego dessert though...we were completely stuffed after eating our entrees...

Then we went to Academy to by Dane baseball equipment for the upcoming first season of Little League in our household...very exciting!

Then he took me to Grapevine Mills just so I could have some happy shopping time at two of my very favorite stores....The Disney Store and Sanrio!

So at The Disney Store they were having an amazing sale! They had a HUGE bag and if you bought it for $2 you could fill it up with any of their clearance items and get an EXTRA 50% off!!! So I bought tons (see the above photos) and spent about $50--and $20 of that was on Pinocchio and Flower who were not on sale! We always have to buy more stuffed Disney characters every time we go! Luke picked out flower and I picked out pinocchio! :) My favorite thing I bought was the snow globe that was regular $24.50 and the HUGE Christmas Minnie that was only $5! :) I had so much fun. Thank you Lukey!!

....playing at cherry park...

2009-03-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we met up with Jen and Riley to go to the library toddler time and we went to Cherry Park to eat lunch and play (and chit chat)... We had a fun time watching the boys play and interact with one another. They are so cute! Riley was counting five acorns for him Mama...very smart! He was finding handfuls of them, losing them and hunting for more! Hopefully next time we play at the park Dane-Dane will be with us!

...polaroids...

2009-03-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

I have absolutely fallen in love with these polaroids! It's something I found on one of the blogs I follow. You just download it and drag your photos to the polaroid camera app and it slowly turns your pics into polaroids, just like the real thing! I love it!

Photos are as follows:

Me and Dane while on vacation!

Ronin clapping in our front yard!

Luke and I during a little getaway of ours last year!

Caleigh and Dane (best friend cousins)!

One of my very fave pics of Dane (a while back). I love his expression!

...6x6 international swap pages....

2009-03-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

So, a fellow international pea, Aki from Japan has organized the best swap! She has teamed up some peas with some of her scrapbooking friends in Japan to do a swap together... How cool is that?

The first photo is half of my double-sided 6x6 bird page... The bird item is a vintage playing card...I just love them! I am not sure I am finished with it. I don't want to ruin it, but I don't want to add too much! I haven't started on the other side yet.

The bottom two are both sides of my flower page. The one with all the blank space must have room for a photo, so I thought this was fitting!

Aki is going to bind all of our pages plus covers that we make for ourselves and make us all one (or two as the case may be) beautiful bound 6x6 book! I cannot wait! :)

..........7 things.......

2009-03-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

7 things............

7 things I can do...

1. I can cook

2. I can play the piano

3. I can say a few things still in Japanese!

4. I can sew. Sometimes.

5. I can scrapbook!

6. I can watch Disney movies all day long.

7. I can kill plants better than anyone I know.

7 things I can't do...

1. I can't fall asleep very well if the tv's off.

2. I can't eat oatmeal.

3. I can't stand Napolean Dynamite.

4. I can't remember my dreams...hardly ever.

5. I can't sing. Well, anyway.

6. I can't dance.

7. I can't cut hair...just ask my hubby! :)

7 things I need to do...

21. Plan a this week of meals.

2. Work on my swap stuff.

3. Pay the electric bill.

4. Iron some of Luke's work shirts.

5. Buy more felt.

6. Vacuum.

7. Get a haircut.

7 things that attracted me to Luke...

1. He's cute, sexy and handsome!

2. He's got gorgeous eyes!

3. He has a great sense of humor...he makes me laugh all the time!
4. His smile makes my heart melt.

5. He is so affectionate!

6. He is super smart...seriously. The boy knows way too much!

7. He knew how to sweet talk me...that's for sure! ;)

7 things I say most often...

1. No!

2. Ronin!

3. Dane!

4. What's going on?

5. Wow.

6. I love you.

7. You're my favorite!

7 things I want to do before I die...

1. Go to Hong Kong!

2. Visit all the Disney parks!

3. See the Sistine Chapel, IRL.

4. Go back to school.

5. Get a degree in something...lol!

6. Start playing the piano again.

7. Lose weight! And stay healthier...

7 favorite foods...

1. Tamago Katsudon (fried pork over rice with eggs and onions in a delicious sauce).

2. My Dad's Mexican food (which I can now make).

3. Key Lime Pie

4. Sushi--especially the house roll from Taste of Asia.

5. My grandmother's dressing

6. Curry

7. Ice cream

I copied this great idea from the following blog: http://mercybeyondmeasure.blogspot.com/ Thanks for the great inspiration!

...doing a little community service...

2009-02-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the three of us (Daddy, Roro, and me) went up to the community fire station and did some cleaning and reorganizing... The place was a mess. Luke's been wanting to get all the old uniforms in some kind of order. It took almost four hours to get a corner of the station in decent shape. Ronin had a lot of fun going through unimportant papers...he LOVES mail! He also had fun playing with cups and eating utensils... It wasn't a whole lot of fun cleaning, but it was nice being with my husband all morning long and watching Ronin explore the fire station... I love the picture of the bulletin board...isn't it ghetto?! :) What' up!!! Anyway...that's my weird sense of humor coming into play....

....Dane reading like a BIG boy...

2009-02-26T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am so proud of you! You are reading SO well!!! Yay, Dane!! He read this entire book from start to finish with barely any help at all! He is just amazing! :) I can't express how proud of him!! We got his report card today and everything was SO positive! His teacher even says he is reading great...which we already knew, of course ;)

...Hello Kitty cuteness...

2009-02-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

Here are the first two Hello Kitty felt cuties I made for my Hello Kitty swap! They will eventually be going on some tags, but first I have to finish embroidery all 15!!! I am having SO much fun on them though! I miss going to the Sanrio store so much...this has been perfect therapy! :)

I LOVE felt!!

2009-02-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

I have been making things out of felt for about a year or so...maybe a little bit less. I started making my niece Caleigh some felt play food for a gift last year....it was so fun to make and turned out so cute and she loved it! I also made a ton of Christmas ornaments out of felt, which people seemed to really enjoy....

And now I am participating in a swap at 2peas that is all felt! I am super duper excited just making the felt products I signed up for, but I can't wait to get all the goodies the other ladies are making.

So far, I've made cookies (which aren't posted in this post), eggs, bananas and I have finished cutting and sewing the monster's faces! :) Dane Dane designed the monsters and I translated that into the felt...they are going to be so cute and he's named his monsters "Phineas" after one of our fave cartoons!

Ronin's photo shoot

2009-02-23T16:33:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my baby boy is already over 14 months old. I took these shots a few days ago while he was outside playing in the sand... I must say, he's beautiful!

I love that he favors me too! ;)

I've been bad....

2009-02-16T17:41:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've blogged. How sad.... I am going to try and restart and do a good job of posting. I really want this to be more a photo journal of our lives and I've focused on other things too much, I guess... More to come soon!

Dane and the cat with 1000 lives....aka Marmalade

2008-02-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is Dane's Granny's newest addition to her cat family. We're pretty surprised it has survived Dane thus far, but it has....he loves it so much!

Ronin....

2008-01-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

These are some more recent of our baby Ronin....we love him sooooo!

Christmas Day

2007-12-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve at our house

2007-12-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

We had such a nice time on Christmas Eve. Dad came over to our house and spent the night with us...Dane had been looking forward to that since Thanksgiving! We had Debbie and Jerry over later in the afternoon to open our gifts to and from them. We got some nice things from them...the boys got Legos (Luke, the castle. Dane, the semi). We spent all night practically (Luke and I) putting the castle together....after Luke had spent HOURS on the semi! We had a fabulous dinner at night and then we watched Christmas movies and a movie Dad brought called Spencer's Mountain that we really enjoyed! Luke and I hardly slept at all between Christmas Eve and Christmas a.m., but it was worth all the fun we had! :)

Dane & Daddy on Navy/Army football day!

2007-12-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

Two of my boys all matchy matchy...Luke's idea to support Navy. I guess it worked because they won... We went to Weatherford this day and people commented on how cute they were.

BTW, I'm not too sure what this face Dane is making in the last picture, but I think it is SO freakin' adorable! :)

Ronin's smile...

2007-12-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

...only appears when he's asleep or at least half asleep. I love it! Sometimes he even giggles when he's sleeping....

Ronin: at a week old

2007-12-20T11:09:00.000-08:00

What a cute baby we make! He does this one eye open thing a lot. I just love his chubby little cheeks!

At the doctor--first visit

2007-12-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

Our baby Ronin at six days old at his first doctor's appointment...the doc gave us the all clear. She said he's very healthy and he had already gained five ounces to add on to his birth weight! :) Way to go, Ronin!

Santa pics at the Galleria

2007-12-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

Every year since Dane's second Christmas, we go to the Galleria in Dallas for Santa pictures....they have the best one that we've seen. It's always a fun trip! We made a quick trip there today to capture Dane's 5th Christmas and Ronin's first! Happy Holidays!

Ronin's gifts

2007-12-12T13:13:00.000-08:00

Wonderful people gave us these wonderful gifts! My little brother had these beautiful flowers and blue bear sent to us. My Dad gave us the Christmas bear to Ronin (he reads Twas the Night Before Christmas). And Jen and family gave Ronin this cuddly black bear....we love them all! :)

Ronin's first day....

2007-12-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here's our new baby boy....on his birth day. Everything went perfectly well and we are now home.... :)

More MGM photos

2007-12-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

....a day I will never forget....

Our first character meal....Lunch at Hollywood and Vine

2007-11-30T14:38:00.000-08:00

We had lunch with characters from playhouse Disney...the Little Einsteins (Leo is the red head). Also characters from Jojo's circus (Jojo the clown and Goliath, her pet lion). The food was pretty good....the desserts there were SO yummy. They were all miniature desserts, but they were my favorite part of the meal. They had singing and dancing throughout our lunch and all the characters came to meet us and take pictures with Dane. It was really a fun lunch! :)

MGM Disney Studios....and that crazy elevator!

2007-11-30T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here we are....our first full day at WDW....at MGM. We loved it! It was all of our first time to go and we really liked it. I liked that the park didn't seem SO big! :)

Dane was cajoled into riding the Tower of Terror ride with Luke....he was tall enough, so I thought he must be old enough....well, it scared the crap out of him and now it is known as "the crazy elevator". It affected the entire rest of the trip....every time we tried to get him to go on a ride, he was a bit scared it would be like the crazy elevator, but we got him to ride pretty much everything anyway....Star Tours did take twice in line before he actually got on the ride though! :)

The third picture is a picture I took of the photo they take on the Tower of Terror....Luke and Dane are in the front row. I was really proud of Dane....he didn't cry! :)

Dinner at Epcot--Our first night at WDW

2007-11-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

This was our first night and our first meal at Disney World. We were all so very tired, but we loved the restaurant and the food. I had salmon, Luke had mahi mahi, and Dane had macaroni, of all things. Dane had an ice cream sundae for dessert and I had citrus creme brulee and Luke had a molten lava cake with some strong liquor in it. :) It was quite a shock to bite into, he said. This was Dane's and my first time into Epcot. We bought a few postcards and Dane a WDW Monorail toy on the way out to our car. It was a very nice evening! :) Of course!

Magic Kingdom pictures

2007-11-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful way to start our Disney trip....we stopped by the Magic Kingdom in the middle of our first hot afternoon for a few hours....we arrived just in time for the parade at 3 o'clock. We rode a few rides while we were there as well....Snow White's, Pooh Bear's, It's a Small World and Splash Mountain... We all had such fun! :)

And no matter how many times I see it, the castle always takes my breath away....and usually brings tears to my eyes...Oh for the love of Disney!

First pictures at WDW....9-9-07

2007-10-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the first few pictures at Walt Disney World on our fabulous trip. The picture of me is one of the first pictures that Dane ever took with a real camera....he took several of me, I just picked the one you could see all of my face! :)

As soon as we got to our hotel room at the Carribean Beach Resort, Luke fell on the bed, and Dane started "making coffee". He made such a mess but had a fun time. He got to do all sorts of things he usually isn't allowed to do at home!

It was a dream come true to go back to Disneyworld....I can't wait to take both of our little boys there in a few years. I will share more pictures soon!

Two months behind....I know....I'm sorry....

2007-10-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Here is our big boy on his first day of preschool! He LOVES preschool so far....he doesn't usually want to leave and always wants to go every day even though he knows he only goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are so proud of our smart school boy! :)

Birthday Party at Dad's

2007-08-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous party at Dad's house the night of Dane's birthday....and since it's my birthday almost a week after Dane's, Dad surprised me with a cake too! I loved my Hello Kitty cake so much....and Dane loved his Thomas cake....and the Thomas really worked! We loved all of our presents too! We got to meet Tamara for the first time as well and it was so nice to meet her. We all had a wonderful evening! Thank you Daddy!

Japanese gardens on Dane's birthday

2007-08-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Dane's 4th!

2007-07-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is a brief synopsis of what this weekend has been like...busy and fun. I'll post separate accounts of each individual outing and event that we had, but for now....Happy Birthday Dane...I still cannot believe he's four years old! We had tons of fun with Dane's bestest friend/cousin too...Caleigh! We hope she'll come spend the night again soon!

The 4th at the Ballpark

2007-07-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Dad took us to see the Rangers play on the 4th of July. It was the funnest 4th we've had since we've been back in the states. They really go all out to celebrate at the ballpark. The fireworks were outstanding. We had a B52 fly over during the National Anthem. We got to see 100 something Air Force recruits be sworn in. It really was a great night. Dane behaved like a champ too. I guess he really likes his baseball!

Sparklers

2007-07-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

These are Dane's first....that he's held. He was VERY skeptical at first even though we assured him it was okay. He wanted us to only do them, but changed his mind. He wouldn't wave them around very much though.....he just liked to watch them burn!

My boys...

2007-07-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

are so sweet. It's amazing to me how alike they are....and they can watch the same cartoons together so contently. Love them!

Riley's first birthday!

2007-07-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Dane and I had such fun at Riley's first birthday.....even though I was a bit quesy through the whole thing (morning sickness is lovely). Riley had SUCH fun doing all the birthday stuff! He was so cute eating up his cake and opening his presents. I'm so glad that he is part of our lives! BTW, his birthday was in May...I'm just super late in posting these pics! :)

Micah's 21st birthday party

2007-07-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

All of gathered at Soda Springs to celebrate Micah's 21st thanks to Mammie who footed the bill. It was yummy! And a nice time was had by all.

What a fun little man

2007-07-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know that some people are appauled when kids go naked or almost naked. That said, we don't let him go completely naked, but for some reason we think it's cute when he is just in his underoos. He was showing off for Micah and Brittanii at this particular time. I'm guessing he was pretending being a Cowboy Football player, but not in the NFL sense. I love the things that he comes up with and the constant laughter we have in our house mostly all because of him. What a great little man.

The way we used to fight....

2007-07-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

...I would never have thought that we would become such great friends. And Micah and Dane Dane too. So happy that we are all a happy family together. I think I am destined to have a life full of great guys....and another one on the way! :)

At the pool

2007-07-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

We had such fun at the pool at the hotel in Fort Worth when the Cecil's were here from Georgia. And we got to stay in the hotel with them for several days...

Dane didn't want to swim at first...but Ryan told him it was a big bathtub...and then he was all for it!

Summer Ice Cream Treats

2007-07-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

One thing I've craved with both pregnancies so far is ICE CREAM!!! So, we took our sweet kids to eat some ice cream at Braum's. Dane managed to flick icky ice cream cone gooey pieces all over Virginia somehow, and it was kinda gross, but we all died laughing, except Dane. He just didn't get it. He kept on talking like nothing had happened, which made us laugh even more....These kids are such fun!

Library Fun

2007-07-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

We have started going with Virginia and the girls to their library for the summer reading program. The first week, they had the play The Tortoise and the Hare as their big opener. It was really enjoyable. Dane got to check out fifteen books for the next two weeks which we read all but two before having to turn them in.

9 years today....

2007-06-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

....wow....doesn't seem like nine years. To all those people who thought we'd never last because we were too young....ha. And we are still happy and enjoying being married...double ha.

To those of you who've supported us 100% since the day of, thank you, we love you.

Happy Father's Day celebration

2007-06-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

I SO love all the Daddy's that are in my life!

Micah and Brittanii

2007-06-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

My sweet brother and his sweet fiance. I'm SO, so, so happy for them!!! I just wish they were going to be living closer to us....

I'm so happy that my little brother has found someone that he wants to spend the rest of his life with. I know what that feels like and there is NOTHING like it. I'm so glad that we all love her too! :)

Our anniversary dinner

2007-06-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

What a meal! We went to the Melting Pot in Southlake because my Dad and Micah recommended it and loved it! We did too. It was amazing and we were SO FULL when we finally finished our wonderful meal. The dessert was the best part of course. Yummmm......

Happy Anniversary to us! Actually it's tomorrow, but we like to celebrate it all week! :)

it's been almost a month.....

2007-06-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

....so I'm going to post the most recent and try and play catch up to all that I have missed posting in the last month and even then I was behind....

...we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary this past weekend. We went to the Mustangs to take pictures on Sunday morning. We had a wonderful time together alone Saturday and part of Sunday. Dane had his first ever sleepover on Saturday night as well. He and Caleigh had a slumber party. He did great and had a great time thanks to his Aunt Virginia! :)

The bestest Grandpa in the whole world!

2007-06-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Dad's 50th with him. May 5th! Happy Birthday Daddy! We had such a nice time with him. And Dane got to go to his first baseball game ever. He really enjoyed it and was very well behaved for having to sit still for about 5 hours. It was a very nice night and we'll be going back soon with Daddy. Yay!

Mother's Day photo shoot

2007-05-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

These were taken the first part of May for part of Debbie's Mother's Day gift from the Oakley kids and Dane. I took TONS more than this, but some of these are the funniest. It was really a pain to get Dane and Caleigh to do what they were supposed to at the same time. It was really hilarious too! I love these kids!

BTW, there are a LOT better photos that I took, but I love the ones that show their personalities and how uncooperative they were being!

just Dane

2007-05-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Another NEW toy....

2007-05-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

...that Daddy picked out of course. I swear Dane would have probably 1/4 of the toys he has now if it weren't for Luke. He LOVES to spoil his baby boy! This is Mac from the movie Cars. It has the coolest little things inside for Lightning McQueen to do....a big screen tv, a car wash and even a fridge! It's so cute and Dane loves it!

Dane's first dentist appt....

2007-05-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

.....didn't go so well. He was SO excited to be going with Caleigh and Cameron, but once it was time for the xrays, he would do what the hygenist said for about 2 seconds and spit the thing out. He wouldn't sit still with the xray thing against his cheek. She told him we were going to take pictures of his teeth, so he kept smiling into the xray machine too. Funny boy! We actually didn't get anything accomplished with this visit, except he did get a free tshirt. We'll be trying again in 6 months!

Our loveable Dane Dane

2007-05-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Everything Day!

2007-05-05T08:29:00.001-07:00

Today is:

Dad's 50th birthday!
Chika's birthday!
Jennifer's nephew's birthday!
Cinco De Mayo!
National Scrapbooking Day!
National Children's Day in Japan!

Happy Everything Day, but mostly to Dad!

Snowcones!

2007-05-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

This snowcone machine was one of Luke's Christmas presents...he's been wanting one for a long time. We recently bought the snowcone cups and straws and syrups to go with the machine and we've been lovin' us some snowcones lately. We've had some fun and yum with them! It's been nice to have our own snowcones at home since the weather is turning warmer. We'll be using it a lot over the coming months.

Hula Scooter and Hula Dane

2007-05-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

I found this SO CUTE doggy costume at the dollar spot in Target. I bought it for Scooter. The first day I tried it on Scooter, Dane ran from it when HE said he wanted to try it on. He changed his mind really quick. Then a few days later, he tried it on himself and I helped him with it. These boys (Scoot and Dane) are TOO funny! :)

Oh happy day!

2007-05-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

We are going back! I have now booked our trip to WDW for LATE in the summer. I will be about six months pregnant, but we'll be driving, so that shouldn't be a problem. We are planning on spending five nights and five days in WDW and one day and night somewhere near Clearwater, FL....which I haven't booked yet, but am looking to very soon. I even got to make our WDW dining reservations and there were three places I wanted to go to so much and we were lucky enough to get all three...yay! :) I am so excited....Dane will be four when we go and I am so looking forward to sharing this with him while he's old enough to really take it all in. Look how LITTLE he was the last time we went! Unbelievable. We are really excited. I'll be posting some current pictures really soon....and hopefully I'll do better at blogging now! Sorry for the last week of none!

The cutest things ever...

2007-04-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, these are Caleigh's toys from McDonald's happy meals....and I just fell in love with them. I wish I had been collecting them throughout the happy meal weeks. I would love to have them all. I am not even obsessive about the Wizard of Oz but they are some of the cutest toys I've seen in a long time....like anyone cares, but I do! So there...

The due date is....

2007-04-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

....tentatively December 7th....Pearl Harbor Day....Cameron's birthday....and the 8th is my Mom's birthday.

I am honestly hoping that our baby is born on a day that is has no other birthdays to share with anyone. I guess that is selfish, but that's how I feel. Can't help it.

Dane was born on Yukie's birthday, which I think is kinda cool, but she's not part of the family either.

So the due date could change in about 11-12 weeks when we get the first look at the sonogram! :) Am SO looking forward to that. And we have two to look forward to this time. Last time we got lucky to have two (the Navy hospital would only do one).

That's the latest news....will keep posting.

bluebonnet time!

2007-04-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Virginia took us to our favorite bluebonnet patch the other day and the city that it was in had recently bulldozed the whole field! I don't know what they were thinking, but it really pissed me off! So, we drove around and found a small little patch of thick bluebonnets by the tractor supply in the same town and got the kids out and went snapping away with our cameras. They were really good sports, but Dane kept picking the flowers and tore a bunch up. Caleigh wanted so badly to take them with her! They are both so stinkin' cute together!

The Hunt....

2007-04-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

These are the last of the Easter pictures. We got some awesome pics of Dane and Caleigh yesterday with our state flower. Will post those soon. Can't wait to scrapbook those....am SO behind on my scrapbooking.... :(

Tokyo DisneySea

2007-04-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

My brother's girlfriend (who I'm looking forward to meeting) had some pictures on her myspace that inspired me to post these.

I miss so very much being able to catch a train and just be at one of my favorite places on earth in just a matter of a little over an hour. I admit, I cry at Disneyworld commercials (sometimes). I dream about going back to Disneyworld, Tokyo DisneySea, and Tokyo Disneyland. I also dream of visiting all the Disneyparks on earth...Paris not so much, but I absolutely must go to the one in Hong Kong! I love Disneyworld/Tokyo Disneyparks almost or as much as I love Japan and miss them just as much too. I am so glad we went as much as we did when we were there, but I wish we had gone more. I just love it....so much! I am also glad Micah got to come along to Disneysea when he came to visit us. So if any of this makes me a slightly strange girl, so be it. I wouldn't trade it for the world. It truly is the happiest place on earth. I think people who don't like Disneyparks or don't understand what all the fuss is about are the crazy ones!

And seriously, how different do we all three look today? For those of you who knew us back in the day....

Easter basket time!

2007-04-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Easter bunny (aka me) brought Dane Thomas trains and Sir Topham Hat and Mr. Conductor and other Sodor people and lots of other goodies including candy and sand scoopers. One train Dane received plays the Thomas song when you push a button on it. He loves it most! :)

Mr. bunny brought Luke candy, beef jerky, popsicles and car wash stuff (which he seemed to like all of it). Do I love my boys or what? I really do adore and love them more than anything. I wish I could've given Scooter an Easter basket too! :)

Easter decorations....

2007-04-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

I love decorating my house for holidays (mostly Christmas) but since we had Easter at our house this year I thought some good decorations were in order. I pretty much needed to buy everything except for baskets (of which I had some and borrowed some more)....and my goal was to make our house look "smashing baby" for this holiday and I succeeded! :) Not pictured are some Easter stuffed animals and window clings....my favorite thing we bought this year is the Easter egg lights around all my photos. Thanks for telling me I had to get them, Virginia. Easter went really well and it was quite a happy day! Maybe we'll have it here again next year!

dyeing eggs

2007-04-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

pretty self explanatory....we dyed eggs and put face stickers on them and had a ton of fun doing it! it was dane's first time at this and he loved it! happy Easter!!!

Look what we found!

2007-04-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

We found this little fella (I really don't know if it was a boy or girl) out in our front yard by accident. We accidentally caught it too. We didn't go around chasing it or anything. We kept it in the house until Luke got home from work and then we let it go. Earlier our dog Buddy kept following us around so we couldn't let it go or he might've hurt it. Dane loved getting to hold the bunny and he would pet it with one finger at a time. It was a fun experience for him, but I'm glad we let him go. The poor thing was terrified of us anyway! The carrots were not eaten at all by the bunny, but Dane sure tried to get him to eat them!

Preschool!

2007-04-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

Dane is now enrolled in preschool! I am so excited for both of us! :) (Thanks Virginia!!!) He will be going two days a week to the same preschool Caleigh goes to. She loves it and he has already been itching to go to school. He already talks about going to school on the school bus all the time. Only problem is that this preschool doesn't have a school bus, but when he starts kindergarten he can ride the bus if we let him.....kinda scary for me to think about that though. Kindergarten is less than a year and a half away. Oh my! Makes me want to cry! And makes me want another baby!

I will now have a total of 5 hours a week of free time...that is something to smile about! :)

btw, he won't actually be attending until September....

Grandaddy and Dane

2007-04-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Dane loves mowing with his grandaddy...and anyone else for that matter. He loves being on a tractor....and loves so much to hold the steering wheel.

a gaggle of kittens

2007-04-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

At my mom-in-law's house...there are a few stray cats that hang around and a couple of days ago two pregnant cats decided to have their babies at the same time in the same basket. There are a total of EIGHT kittens! Oh my lands, I SO want one....Luke says absolutely no cats though....even though I'm deathly scared of mice. Oh well, we'd probably have to referee daily between a cat and Scooter because Scooter despises cats! There's a precious little orange one that I want so much!!!! And a calico I wouldn't mind having too!!!

crazy TX weather

2007-04-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

so last week we had some mighty big rainfalls. we got over 8 inches at our house the second day of rain and i'm not sure what the first was, but at least 3 inches....we were on our way home from being in the city on the first day and this is what the sky looked like in the town closest to us on our way home....just thought it was beautiful and interesting and truly Texas.

btw, none of these are black and white photos....

kite flying with daddy

2007-04-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Fort Worth Water Gardens

2007-04-02T17:29:00.000-07:00

After the train show we walked through the ft. worth water gardens. It was beautiful and a perfect photo op!

The World's Greatest Hobby on Tour

2007-04-02T03:12:00.000-07:00

Here we are....at another train show. It's only my second one and Luke's first, but it seems like more for some reason. Every day at our house is a train show....

Dane had a great time again at this show. We all did, actually. It was at the Fort Worth Convention Center (the cowboy hat star was in the foyer). We saw all sorts of model trains and TONS of Thomas, which we bought one for Dane as a treat for the day and a few more to go in his Easter basket. We also got Daddy a Cargill sugar car and some other cool stuff for Daddy Luke's and Dane's train set that they share. Dane had so much excitement, he fell asleep before the end of it in Luke's arms.

At this train show they had a huge play area for all the kids and hundreds of Thomas battery trains for everyone to play with. Dane made his little self right at home and just laid down and watched the train just go around and around. It was a day full of money well spent. I'm sure we'll be going to another one of these events as soon as we know about it. Thanks Dad for letting us know about this one! :)

Dane is NOT camera shy!

2007-04-02T03:03:00.000-07:00

To me, this is too funny. We were on the train at the zoo and I told both kids to smile and say cheese for the camera. So, they did and all was well. I told them I was going to take some more pictures, so keep smiling. Dane decided that I should ONLY take his picture and when Caleigh was uncooperative with his plan, he just muscled his way into being the center of my camera's attention. Who would've thought he get so jealous so easily. Funny boy!

monkeys at the zoo...

2007-03-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun taking these pictures (and so many more) of these fabulous orangutans. They were so fun to watch and especially fun to photograph with my awesome camera my awesome husband got me! I just love how sweet this baby and mama are together. And them holding hands...how cute is that??? Anyway, just thought I would share because these pictures make me smile...I hope ya'll like 'em too.

the zoo on spring break

2007-03-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

So here we all are at the ft. worth zoo. It was SO crowded, but still SO much fun!!!!!!! Dane got to ride the train three times and loved every single time, of course. He tried to kidnap one of the birds when he was feeding it!!! We got to see all of the zoo animals and we really had a blast. Dane finally fell asleep at the very end....he was exhausted. I'm so glad we have a great zoo near us.

the "kiddos" at the park

2007-03-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

This was a very fun day. Caleigh and Dane played on the playground, drew on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, blew bubbles, ran around, fed the duck, Dane even fell in the "lake", and we had a really nice picnic lunch. I love watching these two wonderful little people play together. I love taking their pictures just as much too....makes me smile and very happy.

a glimpse of spring break

2007-03-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

Dane has the most fun when he's with Caleigh...or other little kids, but mostly Caleigh. He looks forward to seeing Caleigh like other little kids look forward to Christmas. I wish I had a cousin that close to grow up with and play with and fight with! :) We had a blast on spring break with the Oakley kids. Here is a glimpse of the fun things we did! Including Dane's first try at skee ball without walking up the lane to put the balls in by hand. He did a great job!

Scrapbooking Japan

2007-03-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a few of my Japan scrapbook pages I've been working on this year. I've never had more fun scrapbooking! I have such beautiful papers to work with and amazing memories that have helped me so far with this project. I have completed about a dozen so far and have SO far to go before I am finished. I am enjoying every minute of it!

I will post some more of these really soon!

my Luke

2007-03-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

I usually take WAY too many pictures of Dane and not nearly enough of Luke. At this particular time I don't think he had any idea I was just snapping away with my camera. I love him smiling and having a good time. Makes me happy. Here's to my sweetheart! :)

my first purse....EVA!

2007-03-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, I finally did it! I made my own purse and I must say I love it...well I did make it tailor made for myself, so I ought to be happy with it. I am really so proud that it's actually cute and functional and I have used it for several days now and it hasn't fallen apart! :) Anyway....here it is!

Aidan's birthday

2007-03-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

Aidan has turned one. We got him a set of his first books and some cupcakes to share with everyone to celebrate while we were visiting last week. He had never had cake before and I have never seen a child enjoy eating as much as he does. He LOVED the cupcake and ate almost every little bit of it. It's so fun watching babies again! He's such a cutie!

The "Steve" shirt

2007-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

I asked Dane on this particular day did he want to wear an orange, a red, a blue, or a green shirt. He said green....so I got it ready after his bath and he said, "I'm going to be like Steve" (like on Blue's Clues). Lately he's really talking SO much more and coming up with an awesome amount of his own ideas. I just love seeing him grow up, but miss seeing him as a tiny baby! He's always insisting that he's a BIG KID!

Fave pics of Riley

2007-03-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Riley and Jen came over to visit us last week. It was so fun! Especially getting to take pictures of Riley and Dane. I admit I took way more pictures of Riley than Dane, but he's so stinkin' cute! I just loved it when he giggled so hard when Scooter was around him. He thought Scooter was chasing him for a moment and he just thought it was the funniest thing. I think I must have baby fever even more than I thought!

Both boys were SO cute playing in the sandbox together. I hope our boys grow up to be great friends like we have "grown up" to be!

Dane + Old Navy = Cute

2007-03-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

These are some of Dane's new spring/summer clothes from Old Navy. I just love the plaid bermuda shorts and of course his flip flops.....he is really too cute for words, dontcha think???

El Gaupo's

2007-03-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

We went to El Guapo's in Denton to celebrate Sky's (Luke's Aunt) birthday. It was so yummy and it was a nice time that we all had together. As much as we complain about this and that, when we all get together it really is fun. I am so glad that Luke has a close knit family. It makes my life as a part of their family so much easier and more fun. It's wonderful for all of the kids too. I love that Dane is going to grow up with his cousins...we see them pretty often....and they are great friends...so far! :)

Love is for every day...

2007-03-04T17:10:00.000-08:00

So i finally got rid of my computer problems...something is still wrong with the USB plug in, but we now have a new scanner/printer/copier that i can plug my little mem. card into!

So....here are some ACTUAL photos of what our Valentine's Day celebrations were like...rather than photos I just got off the internet to just "work" for the moment....

The first two photos are of us with our precious boy at Bahama Breeze...so cute! The next two are of Valentine cookies Dane and I made and decorated for Luke while he was at work on love day. ...And the last is a picture of a mini book I made for Luke for part of his present for this lovely occasion.

Happy Love Day....everyone....We love ya'll!

My Happy Boys

2007-02-27T02:08:00.000-08:00

Wow! These pictures make me so incredibly happy. I love to see Luke and Dane having fun together, but most of all, I love to see them laughing and giggling. They both make me so happy and so lucky. Dane has recently telling Luke, "Daddy, your my best friend!" So cute and wonderful to hear those words. I asked him, who's mommy's best friend and he said, "Me is!" Like, don't you know? These boys are so much fun! :)

Dane laughing makes me SO happy!

2007-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, these are MORE snow pictures....I swear you'd think we live way north of where we are with all the snow pictures I have from this year... I just LOVE these pictures because Dane is having the best time and laughing his little heart out. My favorite pictures are of when I capture him laughing...not "smile, say cheese" ones. He was having so much fun....and so was I...taking these pics of him...what a boy! :)

our <3 day (in pictures)

2007-02-14T12:47:00.000-08:00

We started our Valentine's celebration last week with our visit to one of our favorite restaurants...Bahama Breeze. We took Dane with us and he loved it...loved the waterfalls inside and the pizza oven with fire in it. He even ate pretty well for him at a restaurant. It was so yummy and a great night out with our sweet little family.

Our gifts to each other this year just happened to be movies....Luke is getting Don Knotts movies from me and he gave me The Fox and The Hound on DVD...the first movie we watched together (me at 16...him at 18). :) Dane got a whole lot of candy including some conversation hearts...so far all he's eaten is some of his gummy bears...now off to get my sick little man some jello. Happy Day! :)

Happy heart Day!

2007-02-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

So these pics weren't taken today...so what! They were actually taken on the 2nd...however, it has been snowing on and off today, just not sticking this time, but that's a good thing because Dane is sick and he would BEG me to play in it if it were there and I would feel SO bad that he couldn't. Happy Valentine's Day to all that I love....

fort worth rodeo

2007-02-13T07:47:00.000-08:00

we took our annual trip to the rodeo/stock show recently. i ran out of battery power on my camera half way through the rodeo, but here are some decent shots i got while we were enjoying the rodeo. poor dane was starving and started crying for food. he wouldn't eat breakfast that morning like i begged him to, but was so hungry at 10 when the rodeo started. so i got him a rodeo hot dog and he ate the whole thing! we went and window shopped at the stock show and bought some fudge, rock candy and some more texas/cowboy themed switchplates for our kitchen. we also looked at tractors and luke collected brochures on the ones he wants his dad to get! :) i hope we do get a tractor sometime this year....that would be great. we also went to see the children's barnyard and a ffa girl let dane pet a baby chick through a chainlink fence....well, he tried to pull the chick through the little hole in the fence and take it away from the girl. luke told the girl he must be hungry....what will he think of next...

we had a great time....i can't wait to go again next year...like every year! :)

fuji san

2007-02-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

here are photos of my trip to see mt. fuji in 2003. i just got some reprints made so i can scrapbook them for my japan album and it made me want to post them on my blog....it was such an amazing trip. and the coldest i'd ever been in japan. these photos were taken in fuji peace park.

selena came along with me on this mwr sponsored trip. i'm so glad i went and saw mt. fuji before we left japan. i just wish it had been a more clear day. i've seen mountains before...both the smokies and rockies in the states, but they do not compare to this amazing mountain all by itself. it is truly a grand sight.

what's going on...

2007-02-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

i've been pretty obsessed with downloading music lately...so has luke. we've been downloading like one cd every couple of days lately. the incubus cd has been completely embedded in my brain...not a bad thing. love, love it. i have been watching music videos again on imf channel which reminds me of back in the day...used to watch mtv japan all the time (miss all the japanese music). found this guy mika on a video recently and seriously this music makes me so happy...it's like a bouncy version of queen. love queen, but love this stuff so much more right now. as well as hellogoodbye...some of their stuff is not for me, but what i do like, i like so much...could listen to some of it on repeat all day long...

i just thought i'd post something about myself for a change, especially since my spaz of a computer is being annoying...