Day 27 - Song

I was going to post a picture of Emmie in her tap shoes, and try to about what song she danced to in class today, but all she could tell me was the song had to do with a car wash.  I was going to cheat and just imagine that she was dancing to that 60's "At the Carwash" song but then she didn't want to pose for a picture with her tap shoes!  Last week was her first tap class, but I was a bad mama and didn't buy her tap shoes before class.  And I didn't realize she needed them til I was in Chicago, so she was the only one without tap tap shoes. 

So, I thought about what songs are impacting our lives right now!  I thought about posting about Drew's obession with LMFAO's Party Rock and Sexy and I know it!  I didn't know what picture would be appropriate.  I also thought about posting about Dennis's ring tone being Benny and the Jets but I didn't want to embarrass him.  So that comes down to me!   I don't know about y'all but I really need to have music when I run, it really helps when the right song comes on and pushes me through.   Lately the song that's motivating me is a song titled Mortal Kombat (1995) (at least that's what its labeled on my phone).  If you're not familiar with Mortal Kombat its a fighting arcade game, so the song basically is the names of the characters you could be and then randomly throws in words like "Excellent" because that's what is said in the game when someone's head gets cut off or someone dies a horrendous death.  The song just has a very good beat and really gets me pumped up during my workout and I definitely that extra push! 

Day 26 - Hair

 Y'all know Emmeline was born with very little hair! 

 Even at 1, she was still pretty bald!

She was a little over 2 before I could even attempt doing pig tails, they're back there!

 And now look at her!  A head full of hair, its thin but there! And I'm happy because its pretty low maintenance!  I hope she has hair like mine, although she might actually want to brush her hair unlike her Mama!

Emmeline's 20 Questions - 5 Years Old

Been meaning to post this for a while!  Just never got around to downloading it!  I need an EyeFi for the camcorder!

Day 25 - Sweet

Dennis was out mowing the lawn on this hot day!  As Emmie and Drew started dinner, she said Daddy is just working so hard!  After eating for a bit she decided he needed a nice cold glass of water with ice of course.  The sweetest daughter ever! 

On a side note, for Emmie's sweet today she chose to have some Nutella on a slice of bread.  I wanted to lick the knife so bad but I resisted! 

Day 24 - Play

Today was a lazy day for me, so I didn't get any pictures. I scrolled through the phone and found a picture I never shared on Facebook, the kids playing in the backyard with Ashley...before the mosquitos and heat came attacking!

Day 23 - Reflection

Not the greatest, but you were suppose to see the kids swimming in the reflection of my glasses!  Look really hard they're there!

Day 22 - Almost

This picture was taken when I was almost home, over 2 hours after I landed in Houston!  Traffic, bleh!

Day 21 - Space

Being out of town all week gave me some much needed alone time.  I had long days at work so it was just nice to come back to the room and completely space out for an hour or so before going to bed.  I even squeezed in a nice relaxing bubble bath one night!  But nothing really beats coming home to these smiling faces, hugs and kisses!

Day 20 - Light/lite

Eating light or lighter than my usual has earned me the top spot in the 8 week weight loss challenge for week one! I hope to keep up these healthy habits at least for the next seven weeks!

Day 19 - Cold

The hotel gym had cold wet towels for me after each workout!  It felt so good against my face!  I think every gym should spoil us like this!

Day 18 - Jump

The other day I couldn't make it to the gym to get in a workout, so I decided to check out P90X.  I heard some things about the Plyometrics session, so I popped it in.  The guy had me jumping around in like the first 10 minutes.  I had to stop that session at 15 minutes and moved to the Cardio!  Little did I know there was also some Plyo stuff in the Cardio so I jumped around a lot that morning and my legs were super sore for the next 2 days!  Out of shape!!!

Day 17 - Dad

Obviously was suppose to post this for Father's Day but I had to pack up for a business trip and was busy all week and am now playing catch up!

That's me hugging on my dad way back when.  He passed away when I was a freshman in college!  I'm pretty sure I got my sense of humor from him because he always joked around with us and now that I think about it he could be pretty sarcastic at times.  He was the strong silent type taking on a lot of struggles and keeping them all to himself.  There was an attempted robbery at the liquor store, and my dad was shot at.  This happened in the middle of the day!  How did we find out about it?  On the 9 o'clock news, my dad was featured and my mom's friend called her asking about it.  Another time he went and had day surgery on some kidney stones, and didn't tell us anything until after the fact.  He just never wanted us to worry about him.  I miss him everyday and wish that he could have had the chance to meet all his grandkids.  He did get to meet Cammy briefly!   I hope we make him proud! 

The other two important Dads in my life!  My brother totally stepped up and took care of me when my dad passed away!  He made sure I made it through college and bought me my first car, even though he had his own family to raise at the time.  He has always been there for me and is one of the best dads I know!  I'm sure he got a lot of it from my dad!  

And of course the there's my baby daddy!  I love watching him play with Emmie and Drew!  They love their daddy even if he does toot all day!  He's usually the fun one but they know when he's going to lay down the law.  I love how Emmie has already started saying, how about I ask Daddy since normally he'll give into her!  She's already got him wrapped him around her little diva finger!  LOVE IT and HIM!

Day 16 - Dirty

My hands and even my face got a bit dirty, but it was a good night since I painted this picture.  It turned out way better then the last time I did this.   I guess it would have been better if I took a picture of my dirty hands but that didn't cross my mind until it was too late! 

We've decided next time we're going to hold our own painting session!  Let me know if you want to join!

Day 15 - Looking down

Before I left work, I took a picture of the view from my office...looking down at Minute Maid Park.   But then I got home and Emmie decided today she wanted to dress like me.  She ran upstairs searching for jeans, but I told her I was going to change.  Once I picked out my outfit, she went to get hers...white shirt and green skirt!  I thought that would be the end of it, but then we decided to go out for dessert (and no I didn't have any) and she pulled out her brown Crocs and asked if I'd wear mine.  Who could resist being twinkies with my sweetie pie?  Looking down the road, I dread the day that she's not going to want to be like mama, so I'm cherishing every moment now!

On a side note, it was also adorable that she convinced Drew to wear his cap out so he'd be like daddy!  LOVE!

Day 14 - Splash

Wasn't able to get any good shots of the kids splashing around the pool this summer just yet!  So I'm posting the video of when Emmie first started swimming last year!   We took a trip to the L'auberge Du Lac Casino last year.   We went with Baba and Lolo and Lola, so I hung out at the pool with the kids!  And Emmie just started swimming out of no where! It was pretty awesome!   It was a great time! She's just started to swim again this summer!  Drew is jumping in left and right but doesn't like to go under as much!  We are going to start them in swim lessons again soon!  Pretty soon the whole family except Mama will be in swim lessons!


After swimming so well, I thought it'd be a fun treat to buy them some virgin pina coladas!   Little did I know they cost $7 a pop, but I'm glad I splurged on them because they loved it!!!

Day 13 - Handwriting

Most of you have already seen Emmie's person of the day project that I had her do this year, but I wanted to have it documented in the blog and now's my chance. 

This year each child in Emmie's class was person of the day and had to bring something in to share about themselves.  I had the brilliant idea of having Emmie do an "I like" Book and I loved the results.  She picked out all her likes, picked out pictures and spent a few days writing each of them out.  She can get tired of writing pretty quickly, so luckily I didn't wait to the last minute for this project and had her do 2 to 3 pages a day, which was perfect because towards the end she would always say "oh now its the hard part", referring to the writing.   Her handwriting has gotten significantly better over this past school year!  I'm so proud of her!

 

Day 12 - Past

Total blast from the past!  Our last year in college Mica and I decided to throw big themed birthday parties!  This was the start of themed parties for me!  This us at my Wild Wild West party! 

Things I remember from the party:

Everclear jello shots
Kool Aid made with Everclear served in a bucket
Getting my little cousin plastered for the first time
"77 is like 49" per my drunk cousin
Dennis's first gift to me windshield wipers (romantic)

Good times were had!  There may be some better pictures from Mica's Luau, since that's where we all met Crazy Uncle Billy (aka CUB) and someone spent the majority of the night at the porcelian throne!  No names! 

Day 11 - Junk

This is our junk drawer and I'm so proud that it doesn't look like it did last week.  I got home from work and my mom was out with kids so I decided to clean out the kitchen drawers!  One big box of junk was thrown out and I'm left with some clean looking drawers that we can actually open! 

Day 10 - Secret

I don't have many secrets or any really except when its gift giving time!  Its almost Father's Day and I've got a big surprise for Dennis...I'm going to get Drew's haircut short for him.  As much as its going to pain me to do this, Dennis has been requesting short hair for Drew for some time.  I love his rock star locks so I think I might shed some tears when I take him Sunday to do this, but its hair and it will grow back!  The best part about this little secret is the kids won't be able to ruin it since they won't know until its too late. 

For Dennis's second Father's Day I got him some stuff to organize the garage, I made the mistake of taking Emmie with me and letting her see where I hid it.  When Dennis came home from work that day she took his hand and led him to the hiding spot and showed him the gift!  From that day on, I kept secrets from them all.  Emmie has improved immensely in the secret keeping department but Drew is still learning.  For Dennis's birthday this year we got him a shirt from the yogurt place the kids love.  Drew told him when he came home that day, but Drew has a problem pronouncing S's so Dennis couldn't understand him.  

But anyway, I've been keeping this little secret under wraps.  I haven't decided how short I'm going to go but Dennis's request has been so he could see his ears for the summer. 

Day 9 - Money

Ballet classes - $75 a month

Recital costume - $125 (total rip)

Recital pictures - $38 (went cheap with Picture People since I didn't want to give more money to the dance studio)

Recital tickets - $1 a ticket (11 tickets purchased and they didn't even check for tickets at the door)

Ballerina jewelry box - $28 (she's been asking for one for some time)

Emmeline out on that stage doing her thing - priceless (she didn't smile but that's because she's all business)

Unfortunately, they did not allow for any outside photograpy or video taping and the star did not want to pose for any pictures after the show, so I don't have any pictures to share with you!

Day 8 - Bad habit

I'm sure I have a laundry list of bad habits.  The first that came to mind are my childrens' bad sleeping habits.  They require me to be in the room until they fall asleep and they usually come get at some point in the night so I'm back there with them.  These bad habits are not encouraged by me, but I know I don't do much in trying to prevent them from happening.  I'm just too lazy to break the habit!  I know that in the long it'd benefit us all but I'm too lazy to fight it now!   Since I haven't convinced myself to break these bad habits, I decided not to focus on these. 

Instead I'll you know one of my worst habits is breaking my healthy eating habits on the weekends.  Pictured below is a Frito dipped in HEB Love Dip, its all kinds of goodness made of nothing but badness...it wasn't the first I had tonight and not even close to the last!   I do great eating well all week only to completely throw it out the window come the weekend.  It didn't help that my weekend started on Thursday this week!  But all is not lost, I'm going to join the big weight loss challenege that Mica is spear heading.  With the rules laid out so clearly I believe I can break my bad bad habit!  Wish me luck!

Day 7 - Back

Today we were back at Dr. Johnny's dental office for their six month cleaning!  This is Emmie's fourth dental visit since January and only Drew's second! Emmie had six cavaties 2 of which required baby root canals!  Yes I'm a bad mom and allowed this to happen but I guess I learned my lesson because Drew has none!  He was such a good patient! Anytime Johnny asked him a question he just opened his mouth wide, ready to take on anything.  They were even able to put a protective sealant on his teeth without issue.  He looked like he was getting teeth whiting treatment!  I didn't get a picture of it because I wasn't sure if it would interfere with the equipment! 

Unfotunately, Emmie will need to go back AGAIN next week!  She has 2 cavaties we didn't get filled last time, since she had so much other stuff done, and she chipped her other filling so Dr. Johnny said it'd be best just to cap it!   With all the stuff she's had done she looks pretty comfy in that dental recliner!  She's better then her mama, who hasn't been back to the dentist in a really really long time! 

Day 6 - History

I perused my digital picture files for something that jumped out at me for History, but nothing was calling to me.  I decided to browse Facebook to see if anything was in there, then realized I could go back and look at my Facebook history, since they forced me to use the timeline function. 

Joined Facebook in November 2008 because Gmail Chat was all of the sudden blocked at my work and Alisa told me I could chat on Facebook.  From this it looks like Mica might have been my first friend!  And I couldn't resist sharing Emmie!

 November 2008 was also when Suzanne got married.  Originally I was asked to be a bridesmaid, but then I went and go knocked up. Suzanne didn't want me to "standout from the other bridesmaids", so I graciously bowed out!  Also Emmie rode a pony for the first time, look at the happy little bald girl!

Had to include this, since it has a picture from my childhood!  I'm hiding in the back in a yellow dress, which looks an awful like a yellow dress Emmie was wearing today! 

Awww! The first photo Christmas photo card I sent out!  Fun to see that in 2008, I had 39 friends in Facebook, now I'm at a whooping 156 friends!  I'm not as popular as some, I'm just selective!

Day 5 - Appreciation

Dedicating this post to my boss, since she gave me a glowing mid-year review today...where she said she's appreciated the way I've stepped up this year!   She's a great boss and a cool one at that!  She's someone that I totally look up to and aspire to be like one day (unless I win the lottery and can retire early, then there's no need to be a great manager like her).  I appreciate the open and comfortable enviornment fosters for me at work!  I'm thankful everyday that she ended up my boss and not the girl they almost hired before her.   We get things done but also have fun doing it! 

She's the one that got me to do the duathalon!   She also finished in 25th place while I was in 74th!    That's her finishing strong! I'm not showing you what I looked like at the finish!

Day 4 - Summer

Summer isn't what it used to be, but its still pretty fun!  

I just flipped to June in my calendar that Emmie made me for Christmas!  What says summer more then sand castles with a little bit of glitter?!

Here are some pictures from some summer days!

Summer 2009

First summer with 2 babies!  We took a family vacation to Corpus Christi with the Hoang's this year.   Look how tiny my little babies were!   This little collage hangs in my office! 

Summer 2010

One of my favorite summer pictures of Emmie!

This is her favorite picture from that summer!

My little man!  He looks so tiny! 

We have great times swimming at Ashley's pool and I just love this shot!

Summer 2011

Apparently I didn't capture much in 2011!

Having fun in the backyard!

This summer Duy made all these bouys for the kids to practice swimming!  It really gave Emmie some confidence in the water!  Drew's not there yet! 

Summer 2012

Has just kicked off but we're already starting on the fun!  Dennis and I want to take the kids to Brennam for a tour of the Blue Bell Factory!  They're not open on the weekends, so I'll be forced to take a day off!  We're also thinking about a trip to Destin, but not set on that just yet!

At Lake Somerville
                       

Drew loving the sand! He especially enjoyed making poo poo soup for everyone!

Emmie enjoying the cool water!  After this little frolic in the water she ran right into the lake and had a great time in the waves!  Loved it!