Brielle's Baby Shower 4.5.08

While in Pennsylvania, we had a baby shower for Brielle. She will be having a baby boy in September. Right now his name is Austin. My mom did a fabulous job making the food. I am glad it was so good because we were eating breakfast casseroles and bunt cakes for days afterward. It was a brunch and several family members traveled from western PA to be there. My dad and Dane took the kids to see the trains at Roadside America, visited Cabelas, and went to McDonalds. They were brave to do so.

My sister Brielle.

Laurel (my sister-in-law) & Grandma Gampe (my father's mother)

Aunt Christy (my father's sister in law), Larrissa (my father's cousin),


Liz (family friend)

Aunt Kay (my father's aunt) & Kendra (my youngest sister)























Me, Jenne' (my second to youngest sister), & Alycia (sister closest to my age)

13 hours to PA

Wednesday we drove to Pennsylvania to see my family. It was a 13 hour drive and we did it in 14 hours with stops. Everyone was good but it is tough to do it myself. Gavin is a little more help and can hand Renée and Carter snacks when necessary. Still, it is a really, really, really long day of driving. We were all happy to have it over.

Thursday was sibling picture day. This is the first time all my siblings have been together since Dane’s wedding in July. My mom arranged for us to have our picture taken by a local photographer. The pictures turned out so cute. I am used to taking my kids and hoping to get at least one good picture. Almost all the pictures were really good.

Panthers on Parade have their annual production tonight and Saturday. It is the high school play that my sisters, Jenné and Kendra, are in. They are performing “Rag Time.” Tonight I stayed home with all the kids and will attend tomorrow.

Southern Delights

Tuesday evening Grandma Lil took us out for good old southern fried catfish and hush puppies. Gavin, Renée, and even Carter loved the hush puppies. It was fun to spend time with Grandma Lil and Grandma Debbie.

Road Trip to Alabama

I have taken on quite the road trip. The kids and I drove to Huntsville, AL to visit Sam’s Grandma Lil. We set off on March 31st at 5:30am, I do better in the early morning, rather than the late night. Debbie came with us and it was so helpful to have her to take turns driving and to give the kids snacks. It was an 11 hour drive that took us 12 hours with stops. The kids were good thanks to the portable DVD player. We arrived in Huntsville at 5:30pm exhausted but happy to be out of the van.

On Tuesday we visited the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Gavin was in his glory. There was a ton to see and do. They even had amusement park rides. My kids were a little young for some of the rides, but they enjoyed the ones they could ride. The rockets were absolutely huge and they even have a space shuttle on display. It is also where they hold space camp which Sam attended when he was a kid. It was kind of neat because the doors read, “Welcome Future Astronauts, Scientists, and Engineers,” and years later Sam became an engineer.

Slurpy Carter

I guess Carter was still thirsty.

Our Ingredients

Gavin and Renée filled the counter with “ingredients” for their “recipe.” Gavin insisted that Sam make breakfast out of the ingredients which even included Doritos. Luckily Sam didn’t have to use all the ingredients, so we just had oatmeal.

Grandma Debbie Visits

Sam’s mom was able to come and see us on March 29th. On Saturday we drove to Austin to see Chris, Tera, and their family. The drive is 2 ½ hours, which wasn’t too bad. We all had a nice visit. Sam and I got to play guitar hero for the first time. I beat Sam in our composition, so I now have bragging rights. Gavin and Renée idolize their cousin, Bennett, and followed him around the whole time we were there. Carter and Cooper are the same size, Cooper is probably a little bigger, even though Carter is six months older. Tera made us a nice dinner and we all enjoyed catching up. We got home around 11pm, thank goodness for 2pm church.

The Master

This was my last room to photograph. I just got the draperies up and realized that they aren’t long enough. I will eventually add a stripe of another fabric on the bottom, but for now, they will do. We love our new bathroom with all the cabinets. I didn’t know how to get a good angle in the bathroom, so I just took a lot of photos.

The Gameroom

The house is officially unpacked! The gameroom was my last big project but it is now complete. The gameroom is for Sam and I because the kids have the media room. Sam built me a scrapbook/art desk, since my last one was installed in our guest room closet and stayed with the house. I love it and even have enough space for Alycia and her stuff. The gameroom is also used as a computer room and Sam will be setting up his weight bench in here.

Family Room Drapes 3.25.08

I bought this fabric a year ago for my Frisco house and right after I bought it Sam was offered the job in Fort Worth. I decided to just keep the fabric and have been excited to have draperies in this house. I started these draperies on Monday night. I thought, “How hard could it be? It is only a rectangle.” I made the first panel and hung it up on the rings and figured out that it needed to be pleated. Then I had to figure out how to add pleats. With a little internet searching and a call to my mom I found out that I need to get this tape that you sew on and then when you pull the strings, your panels have pleats. Joann’s is 20 minutes away and of course you buy the tape by the yard, so there aren’t any instructions. I did figure it out and hemmed my last panel at 11pm on Tuesday night. I am very happy with the results. The house was a disaster and Sam had to bring home fast food for dinner, but we have drapes!

Chocolate Carter 3.24.08

Carter didn’t get his chocolate bunny until Monday. I guess you can tell that he liked it.

The Hunt 3.23.08

We had an Easter Egg hunt for our kids in my back yard. Alycia and both bought a couple of bags of candy and filled our eggs the night before. Because you can only fit one piece of candy in each egg, we had over 200 eggs for our six kids. We will have to remember for next year that one bag would have been enough. The kids sure had a fun time. Carter crawled over and got one egg. He wanted the candy and wouldn’t collect another egg. Gavin and Renée under stand the concept of an egg hunt, so they ran as fast as they could around the yard. He finally (designed by Nick and Sam) was collecting eggs on the trampoline when the dads jumped. When they jumped, all their collected eggs came out. We ended up dividing up the candy by family and have been eating way too much every day since then.