the chick house

Double Digits

2016-11-13T15:42:00.000-06:00

I have a kid in the double digits. That’s just ridiculous.

Last Thursday Kelby turned 10 (gulp!) and, just like every birthday eve, as I tucked her in on Wednesday night I told her the story of her birth. I told her again how stubborn she was in not wanting to come out of my tummy and how when she did she was screaming. And I told her again how she really hasn’t changed that much since… Still stubborn and still screaming. She gets a kick out of it.

Thursday morning Dad woke up early to make her a special breakfast… Monkey Bread. Kelby LOVES bread! Any kind of bread. It might be the only thing she is not picky about.

I asked her to take a pic for me before we left for school and this is what I got…

Keep in mind that she picked out her clothes the night before knowing today was her birthday. She fancy. I actually had an outfit picked out (jeans, converse, and a nicer tee), but she told me my selection wouldn’t work with the game they are playing at recess… She told me they are playing “torture chamber” and she is the boss. She scares me.

I asked her to retake the picture before walking into school. She was holding her cookie cakes to share with her class and as I attempted to fix her headband I knocked one of the cookies cakes out of her hands and onto the ground. #momfail

This was actually incident #2 in a series of events that day that indicated Kelby turning 10 might have had me a little flustered. #1 being forgetting the last run in the WOD at cross fit that morning and #3 realizing I had put my underwear on inside-out around lunch. I’d like to say it ended at 3 but it didn’t…

That night we had her favorite for dinner… Golden Chick. {eye roll}

Friday evening we had a family dinner at our house to celebrate her. We let the girls decide on their birthday dinner menu and Kelby’s selection included fried fish, french fries, hush puppies and fruit. Girlfriend loves her fried food! I added in a salad to the mix as well.

Grandma makes the best cakes!!!

Yes, there is a cat on our table. Apparently we are those people...

Unfortunately the afterparty got a little crazy (usual late night rip stick contests) and ended with one going to the ER and ultimately a broken arm. :(((( (We feel horrible Meagan!!!)

Saturday, after celebrating another classmates 10^thbirthday at the roller skating rink, the girls and I scurried around town to pick up supplies for Kelby’s “friend” party. This included a stop at HEB where they were letting kids decorate cookies! Perfect! They were starting to get jittery from lack of sugar in the past 45 minutes... ;)

She invited all the girls in her class over to watch a movie outside. The movie lasted approximately 45 minutes until they asked me if I could just turn it off so they could run around… lol! Ten year old girls + glow sticks at night = mega fun!

Yep, I didn't even take the cupcakes out of the plastic carrier... It was basically her third party and I don't want her to get spoiled.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl! Muah!!!!

another great swim season!

2015-06-14T19:33:00.002-05:00

our little swimmers had an awesome season! both kevyn & natalie improved so much from last year! and as it is with most sports, they seemed to be finding their groove just as the season comes to an end. a few moms and i have vowed to find an indoor pool for these littles to practice in next winter so they can get a head start. our swim team only has access to an outdoor pool and they typically start water training in april when it still very cold outside! yet despite their lack of practice, our girls can still hang with the larger teams that do have indoor facilities.

because parents are required to volunteer at the meets, i didn't have the opportunity to get my camera out until the very last meet. all the kids get marked first thing with their event #, heat #, and lane # on their forearms. this is very helpful for the volunteers working the ready bench. all the other body markings are to aid in optimal performance. ;) they sometimes get a little carried away...

i love this set of pictures because it really shows how well kevyn has gotten with her dives by comparison to others her age.

kevyn is on the freestyle relay team for her age group. at the last meet they smoked the other team by 30 seconds. that's not an exaggeration. i was just viewing the results online. wowza!

much like last year, we still have to remind kevyn not to look for us. and that we see her and she can look at us when she is done. (it's really bad when she does the backstroke!) she must have caught a glimpse of me taking her picture because i caught a few with her smiling. silly girl.

nat has also improved so much on her diving...

...and her breaststroke technique!

way to go nat & kevyn! so proud of you both and the awesome swim season!

~ becky

put a fork in us... we're done!

2015-06-04T13:00:00.000-05:00

our last week of school was a doozie! monday was a holiday. tuesday we had neely's pre-k graduation.

neely had such a sweet pre-k teacher. she will surely be missed. i can't believe that kid will be in kindergarten next year!

wednesday kevyn had a field trip followed by an ice cream party and then the schools end-of-year pep rally (or pepper rally if your kevyn).

funny story... i had no idea where we were headed for kevyn's field trip until we were loading up! i knew the name, but i thought we were headed to one town and was corrected by another mom as to which town we were actually going to. and here's the kicker... i thought i had never been there before until we were pulling up and it all started to look familiar. i need a nap.

thursday we had kelby & nat's flat stanley party and then kevyn's kindergarten graduation that evening.

kelby & nat did such a great job on their flat stanley projects. ok, who am i kidding... darren and i did great! parents were invited to attend the presentations and we all high-fived and commented on how well we all did as parents. it was really quite comical. i was, however, really impressed at how well all the kids did with getting up in front of the entire class to present their project. it was like they had no idea public speaking could even be considered scary. to them it was no big deal. i love that!

at our school, kindergarten and 8th grade do a joint graduation ceremony. while lengthy, the ceremony really got me excited for my girls and all they will get to do and become while at our school. i REALLY like our school if you can't tell.

another funny story... (i can only say it is funny now. it was NOT funny at the time.) we had mexican food (kevyn's pick) prior to kevyn's graduation ceremony and although i knew before hand that enchilada's would be risky, i gave in and we went for it. all throughout dinner jeff and i repeatedly reminded kevyn to lean over her plate, don't take big bites, keep her napkin on her lap, etc. towards the end of dinner i thought we made it with only a few tiny and barely noticeable spots. yay! until we coached her again to be sure to lean over her plate to take a bite and she leaned right into her plate! yep. brown enchilada sauce all the way across the front of her dress. crap. i took one last BIG drink of my margarita, loaded up the girls, and raced to the house to change.

we are really going to miss mrs. z. we joke that she can teach kindergarten one more year (for neely) and then she is going to have to move up to a higher grade so we can double-dip. thankfully we don't really have have to say goodbye to our teachers since we still see them every sunday in church and at sunday school.

and friday we had closing chapel, end-of-year awards ceremony, and then class parties.

see all those cute signs??? the ones my brain was determined to forget to send to the printer, pick up from the printer, and cutout and paste to a stick until 11 pm the night before?!? yah, those. welp, they are the same signs that my youngest accidentally dropped in a big puddle right before taking those pictures. i wanted to cry, but all i could do was laugh. so if they look droopy, its because they were. and wet. and i'm really thankful these pictures are taken at a distance and you can't see the watermarks. geez, these kids...

and when the school bell rang for release at 11:15 AM we loaded up and hooked it to dallas for our cousins high school graduations. whew!

~becky

dance recital + surviving the blue bell famine of 2015

2015-05-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

anyone else in central texas sick of the rain?!? it seriously has rained everyday for the last three weeks. historically, by memorial day we are praying for rain in church as many in our rural community are farmer or ranchers and depend on rain. this year we are praying the rain stops. our area has been hit hard by severe weather and flooding. thankfully, we haven't directly been affected. my prayers go out to all those who have been affected especially those in the wimberley, tx area.

this weekend natalie & kevyn had their dance recital. they did so good and looked so cute on stage! their class performed two routines - one ballet and one tap. they performed their ballet routine to the perfect nanny from the mary poppins sound track (so sweet!) and their tap routine to abc by the jackson 5 (such a hoot!). kevyn gets so into her routines and really feels the music. i love watching her! and nat looks so cute concentrating to get each step right.

we really enjoyed their teacher this year and kevyn can't wait to start up again in the fall. nat is still undecided. ;)

if you follow me on instagram (there should be a link in the sidebar or click here) you would have seen that we've created a summer bucket list. we have four days of school left (woohoo!) and can't wait for the sun to come out so we can start enjoying our summer! our chalkboard is full of things that we came up with as a family and include a campout, a lemonade stand, going to an aquarium, and hosting a bbq on our new patio. that patio has not been completed yet so completing the patio is also on the bucket list. ;) also on our bucket list are smaller items like decorating cupcakes, making chalk (pinterest to the rescue!) and making ice cream. being the overachievers we are we decided to go ahead get started by making ice cream.

i'm not going to lie... it was pretty darn good! and it gives me hope that i will survive the blue bell famine of 2015.

~becky

not giving up!

2015-05-18T21:12:00.001-05:00

so what do you do when you temporarily black out and forget about your blog for oh, i don't know... 6 months?!?

you dump a crap ton of photos over the last 6 months into one post and call it a day. ;)

bam!

i'm withholding easter pics with hopes that i can still pull off an easter post. fingers crossed!

easter 2015

2015-04-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

brrr! don't let the shorts and short sleeves fool you... easter this year quite chilly! so much so that our original plan of hosting our family easter at a local park was changed to easter at our house where we could get away from the wind. the girls love having all the cousins at their house (as do I!) and holding easter here made it feel more easter'y to me. for those of you who don't remember, our house was once my grandparents house and the house we held every family gathering at. the picture below of all the littles lined up on the driveway for the egg hunt resembles the pictures of their parents all lined up many many years ago. (although I do remember some front porch starts as well.)

of course, the aunts (or antz as they like to call themselves) had some silly games prepared for us...

see... we all fit. ;)

sunday after church we headed over to jeff's aunts for a wonderful meal and a HUGE egg hunt for the girls! and in keeping with tradition, there was a pinata and cascarones too!

i just love kevyn's face when she realizes she found the goose egg!

sweet cousins!

~ becky

kevyn is 6!

2014-09-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

last weekend we celebrated kevyn's birthday at the local bowling alley. this is the third party i've thrown there as the options for parties in our small town are scarce. but the kids love it and enjoy playing the janky arcade games probably just as much as actually bowling.

i was a little disappointed when we walked in and saw that they had the tables for our party set up in a little corner versus the back party room... i was under the impression that was part of the deal, but i guess not. thankfully my mom was also there to help set up and she quickly cut the round tablecloths that had bought (for the party room) to fit the rectangle tables that they had designated for us.

kevyn invited all her classmates and cousins and had such a great turnout. she didn't even notice that her bestie (who now goes to a different school) didn't make it. i had it in my head classmates & family and completely forgot to get an invitation to besties dad! oops! when she questioned me as to if i knew if bestie was coming, i lied and said "i'm not sure... i did text her dad."

we ordered these invites from tinyprints.com and purchased decorations to match the invites. i wish i had a better picture of the backdrop i made... jeff helped me cut pvc to build a square frame. i then cut plastic tablecloths to braid at the top and then flow down. i loved the way it turned out and could kick myself for not getting a better picture! it definitely helped cover up the wall our cake table was set in front of.

and once again jeff's mom made a gorgeous cake! i even had other parents come up to me to tell how good the cake was. thanks again grandma!

it has been so fun to watch this kid grow up! she has such a kind heart and is a great friend. she loves to entertain and make others smile. and, like i've mentioned before, she is still our little weirdo. she has a unique sense of style and owns it! (and i am learning to let her own that style except when it comes to birthday parties when i know a ton of pictures will be taken.) she is also really funny! this kid is full of one-liners and knows when and how to use them.

we love you sweet girl and hope your sixth year is amazing!

~becky

spitz reunion '14

2014-09-16T15:00:00.000-05:00

i've really been slacking here... this post has been sitting in my drafts for a few weeks. i decided yesterday that today i needed to find the time to write some brief commentary and then post for all to see.

labor day weekend we were able to spend the extended weekend with family at our annual family reunion. you can see years past here and here. this is something that our girls look forward to many months in advance. they are always asking when we get to go back to "reunion camp!" the aunts (aka antz) do a great job of keeping everyone entertained with the crazy games they come up with and there is plenty of pool time and playing with cousins too.

my mom and her five siblings take turns with the meals with each family hosting a meal. somehow several years ago this turned into "themed" meals and it is so much fun seeing what the families come up with!

we had a disney themed meal with all things disney and princess and pirates...

a german themed meal which included uncle don playing his tuba...

our meal was teen beach movie themed...

and a frozen themed meal. this definitely was a crowd pleaser as we have a lot of little girls in our family!

neely was trying her hardest NOT to show me her powdered sugar covered lips.

we also had an iron chef themed meal, but i unfortunately left my camera in the cabin at that time.

as for the crazy games i mentioned above, we did this sock on a bottle that you dip in bubbles thing and then blow bubbles everywhere. (give me a break... YOU try naming that!)

and then there was the frozen t-shirt contest where you grab a frozen shirt and then figure out how to thaw it enough that you can put it on. first one to wear their shirt wins.

and we had boat races! each group scavenged for supplies and then we all met at the pool to see each others creation. our girls didn't win but it was still a ton of fun!

there was also the annual non-talent talent show! along with silly skits, there was a lot of singing. mainly songs from frozen. (am i the only one who's skin crawls every time that song starts??? i'm so over it! let it go!)

kevyn's initially was going to sing a song from teen beach movie. but about 20 minutes before the talent show started she came over and whispered to me that she would no longer be singing. she would be dancing! um, ok? i asked her if she needed a song and she replied no.

for those of you who are not around her much, kevyn loves to have "reformances." every gift giving holiday for the past few years i've been "gifted" reformances. yay. what makes them even better is that they typically end in tears when i tell her 10 minutes into them that its time to start wrapping it up. so i guess really she might be correct when saying "reformances"... it's like a performance on repeat.

so like i reeeally needed her to perform to a song so that the song would end and hopefully she would too. not just mean momma telling her to wrap it up. thankfully she ended up reforming to a song!

THANK YOU so much to my family who witnessed kevyn leaping across the stage for the duration of a song and then gave her a good round of applause. it made her day!

oh! have y'all played the charades app! it is so much fun and free!

well there you have it! another awesome reunion in the books.

~becky

kindergarten & 2nd grade

2014-08-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

am i the only momma that goes full blown crazy person on the first day of school? i mean as soon as i drop them off i begin counting down the minutes until school is out. and it's not because i'm worried about how they did... i know they will be fine and are in great hands. i just want to hear about how much they loved their first day, and tell me about their teacher and any new friends they made. it's probably the ONLY day out of the entire school year that they (and I) will be excited about doing their homework.

thankfully we all made it out of bed in time to snap a few pictures before heading to school. now before you think oh look at becky trying to get all artistic with her wonky angled shot... let me just clarify that wasn't what was happening. the above mentioned crazy person had apparently already set in and i had no idea i was holding my camera wonky until i reviewed my pictures. #momfail

kevyn is trying her hardest not to laugh while the cat is going up her dress... lol!

polka dot dress// floral dress// backpacks

i'm so excited for these girls as they both have amazing teachers. they like won the teacher lottery! i say that, but in all honesty we knew who we were getting... their small school only has one class per grade!

and in case you saw my instagram post from kindergarten orientation... don't worry. kevyn managed to "get her act together" in time and was not "in a mood." geez this kid...

~ becky

port aransas round 2!

2014-08-19T15:30:00.000-05:00

this summer we were lucky enough this summer to visit port aransas twice! once with jeff's family and once with mine. the girls absolutely love the beach and get right to work with their sand castles and sea shell collecting. not to mention all while working on their insane tans! #jealous

on friday night we took a pirate cruise around the bay. we've seen the pirate ship sailing around before the girls had talked about wanting to do it. our kids, ages 7, 7, 5, and 4, were probably just the right age. i'm not sure if in two years they would have enjoyed it as much as they did. kelby, who is 7 going on 17, was already throwing some eye rolls.

can i just say i love how kevyn wears her headbands?!?

while cruising around the bay, the pirates led the kids in various activities all in preparation of making them official pirates. it was cute and nat & kevyn really enjoyed it.

they first had to mop the deck...

then sword fight...

hunt for treasure...

and then they were painted in to character...

oh and that girl above, her dad works on the pirate ship and she goes with him every evening. umm... how cool is that?!? "hey, what did you do this summer? oh nothing, just worked on my dad's pirate ship."

and before the cruise ended, they were all awarded certificates...

until next time port a!

~becky

Back to School + LunchBlox

2014-07-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

This just doesn’t feel right… In 3 weeks my babies will be going back to school. It ain’t right.

Last year I waited until the very last minute to buy school supplies. I will never again make that mistake. In our VERY small town we have one VERY small Wal-Mart. And while I do feel our local Wal-Mart does scan the local school supply list when stocking their inventory, things like oh I don’t know… a plastic yellow folder with brads and pockets can be a real pain in the rear to find. I was super thankful that Uncle Darren still worked in Austinand was willing to help me find some of the hot items on his lunch break.

This year I’m all over it. As soon as they started stocking the shelves I was there with list in hand. Can you believe that same damn plastic yellow folder with brads and pockets is haunting me again this year?!?

The girls backpacks from last year still look almost brand new so I really can’t justify buying them new ones. Especially since they aren’t asking for a new one. I did however let them pick out new lunch boxes which I got for a steal during one of Gap’s big sales!

Nylon Lunch Box

By the way, that side bun hairdo of Kelby's is her "signature style" I've been told.

I also ordered these Rubbermaid LunchBlox Kid's Flat Lunch Box Kit which fit perfectly into their lunch boxes. What I really love about the LunchBlox is that all the compartments snap into the blue ice tray. Kelby’s old lunch box had a mesh pocket inside that I slid a freezer pack into. The new ones from Gap do not have the inside pocket, but with the LunchBlox it is not needed.

The girls plea with me on a daily basis to let them use their new lunch boxes. I’m holding out, but I too am secretly excited to start filling up their LunchBlox.

Which brings me to my next topic… Have y’all heard of Family FreshCooking? I’ve been following Marla’sblog for some time and have made several of her recipes. Several years ago she started Project Lunch Box (you can read about that here) and many of her posts are of lunch box meal suggestions. You know, more than just a PB&J sandwich and chips (which by the way my kids would eat every single day if I let them). I find it all incredibly inspiring. You should check her out. :)

I’ve also started a Pinterest board to collect more lunch ideas. You can view that board here.

Now off to savoring these last few weeks of summer!

~becky

the big catch

2014-07-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

We’re back from another fun and totally relaxing weekend at the lake Sommerville! The weather in Texas this summer has been pleasantly mild and we’ve been spending as much time outside as possible to enjoy it. I woke up early Saturday morning and went outside to drink my coffee and needed a blanket to keep warm. That’s nuts! It’s July! IN TEXAS!

Our highlight of the weekend would definitely have to be Saturday morning’s big catch. The guys had set out jug lines the night prior so Saturday after breakfast we all hopped in the boat to see if they had caught anything. You can usually tell if you got a fish by if the jug is being tugged or pulled. As we were approaching the third jug you could tell something big was on the line. The jug was being pulled on pretty good. We ended up catching a rather large buffalo carp. It was exciting, but since buffalo carp don’t exactly taste great we ended up throwing it back.

As the guys were re-baiting the lines, Kevyn noticed that another one of our jugs was being pulled on pretty good. And as we got closer you could tell the guys were getting pretty curious too. It took the three of them to pull the line up and to their surprise they had caught a 44” and 48 lb blue catfish and another 7 lb blue catfish below that! It was pretty exciting to watch them pull it in and then figure out what to do with it once we got it in the boat. There was no way it would fit in the live well. It was as big as Neely!

A catfish of that size might not taste that great either, but we still decided to keep it and hope to give it a try in a few weeks.

I also figured out why Kevyn had a new found interest in fishing. As she was watching all the commotion I heard her say “Mmmm, catfish!” And then lick her lips. Geez…

On the way back to the campsite, the guys got a lot of attention for their big catch. They had several people stop to take pictures. My sister-in-law and I thought it was quite funny that Jeff was stuck carrying the fish and therefore forced to be in all the pictures since we know how much he loves taking pictures. ;)

She's going to hate me for this picture when she is older, but I love it! :)

By chance, Saturday was also the Dam Lake Fest at Welch Park. We stayed at Yegua, and our campsite looks directly at Welch. We had heard on the radio that they would have fireworks that night so we positioned our chairs to look out across the lake at Welch. At about 9:45 we were able to watch a pretty magical fireworks show across the lake. It was awesome.

I hope you all had a great weekend as well!

~Becky

summertime

2014-07-16T22:15:00.000-05:00

Hi all! We are deep in the heart of summer and loving every bit of it! No homework. No cheer practices, soccer practices or swim practices. Our evenings are open to do whatever we please which is a rare treat!

Although the girls are enrolled in the Sonshine Adventure program at our church, they really haven’t had a chance to go much. Which stinks because they really enjoy going. Sonshine takes them on day trips to nearby attractions, transports them to the library for the summer reading program, and plans special activities for the days they stay on location. Over the past few years I’ve watched this program really grow into something awesome and I feel the need to do something at the end of summer to show my appreciation to the director and all the young people they have working there. Fingers crossed I can actually pull something off! J

After the first day of Sonshine and headed to swimming lessons.

The girls have attended two summer camps. One was a day camp at Camp Lone Star. Our church provides transportation two weeks out of the summer (which is awesome!) and allowed me to drop them off at the church versus making the 30 minute trip 2x a day. You have to be five or older to attend, so there was one unhappy little girl left behind on the first day. Kelby definitely had some jitters the night before their first day (not surprisingly) but by day 2 she acted like it was all no big deal. When I picked them up on that Monday and asked them how it was, they almost couldn’t contain their excitement when they told me that Kevyn ordered a diet coke and candy bar from the snack bar and Kelby ordered a RED gatorade and candy bar. I don’t allow them to drink soda and we try to avoid red food coloring. Clearly they were enjoying their independence. Oh well, I guess it could be worse.

The very next week the girls went to family camp with my mom (aka Granny), Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dave at Camp Lutherhill. The week ended with them coming straight to the July 4^th parade in Round Top. You can see all that action here. Lutherhill posts pics from the week online so I stole a few of the girls.

Between camps and a week of VBS, we’ve snuck off to some nearby lakes and the beach for long weekend trips. Seriously y’all… my girls have tans like nobody’s business. It’s ridiculous. They’ve also gotten over their fear of the tube. Memorial Day weekend 2009, when Kelby was 2 ½, I thought it would be a good idea to ride with her on a tube while the boat went really slow. Let’s just say it didn’t end well and was a total mom fail. We’ve dealt with the repercussions since. But, that phase is now over and we love the tube!

my picture. kelby's edit.

Another fail on my part… I decided the best way to get in the water one day would be just to jump in since the water was slightly cold. So I took off my hat and quickly jumped. When I came back up my sister-in-law reminded me that I had also been wearing sunglasses. Had. They were now gone. I’ll be finishing out the remainder of the summer in some old Ray-ban’s that have seen better days.

We’ve also been able to spend some time in Port Aransas. Jeff’s family has made it into an annual trip and the girls really look forward to it. I commented to Jeff on 3.5 hr ride there how the girls have come so far from the days where we had to stop what seemed like every 10 miles. I remember the first trip with Kevyn being a nightmare! This year we only made one stop at Chucky Cheese for lunch. (Which in my opinion is kinda nightmarish. Bad food and lots of germs. It definitely was not my pick.)

Sorry for the bad iPhone pics. I really thought I was taking pictures with my "real camera" only to find out nothing was saving because I didn't have my SD card inserted... duh!

Our first evening in Port A.

Grandma took Kelby, Kevyn and cousin Lyla shopping one morning and Kevyn and Lyla both came back with new flip flops. Kelby however came back with a hermit crab that she named Brittany. Her name has since been changed to Krabby. Did you know if a hermit crab gets stressed they could lose appendages? Not joking. I read it in the handy pamphlet they send with the crabs. I’ve used this to my advantage by reminding Kelby when she starts to get loud (which is like non-stop) that she needs to quite down so she doesn’t stress out Krabby. I like Krabby. I really do. So much that that very same day I went back to the souvenir shop and bought Krabby a bigger cage and a friend. Her name is Patty. Krabby Patty. Get it?

Funny story, on the way home Kelby was reminiscing about her time in Port A and said, “I thought I was going to go to the beach and just come home with some flip-flops…. Instead I got crabs!” HERMIT crabs Kelby! HERMIT crabs!

Well it’s time to wrap this up. We are headed to the lake again this weekend and I’ve got laundry to do and packing to get done. I hope you all have had a great summer so far!

july 4th

2014-07-08T18:58:00.000-05:00

i hope you all had an amazing fourth! in keeping with our annual tradition, we went to round top for their annual fourth of july parade. it really never disappoints. and each year the attendance seems to grow. i was told that it attracts over 20,000. 20,000 people. round top is listed as having a population of 91. that's nuts.

jeff, darren, dad and myself got there plenty early to claim our spot alongside the parade route. mom (aka granny) was finishing up a week of family camp with the girls and would be meeting us there. when i called to touch base with her and let her know where to look for us, she warned me that the girls would be looking rough and not to judge her. rough was putting it nicely. they were sticky and smelly. their hair still showed signs of it being sprayed with various colors earlier in the week and was crunchy. i'm guessing that was from all the pool time and chlorine. and i'm pretty sure i saw a cloud of dirt following them much like pig-pen.

it was very clear they had a great time at camp with granny. thank you! and thank you to aunt joyce and uncle dave for also going to camp to help out!

kevyn watched a few of the fair queens wave and then began to practice her own wave. you know... for when she is on one of those fair queen floats.

lloyd & harry

after the parade i followed granny back to the camp to help clean up and attend the closing. it was our intention to come home, get dressed, and head out to another july 4th celebration, but that got vetoed by the guys. we made them pinky promise us that we would go next year. (see guys, i now have it documented!) instead we bbq'd at the house and did fireworks later that evening.

my pictures of the fireworks are not good. i still haven't figured out the best way to take them. but i did think that these were cool enough to share :)

the next evening we headed to bastrop for dinner and then their patriotic festival. this was our first time going so we weren't really sure what to expect. my mom and dad brought lawn chairs while i just opted for quilts on the ground for the rest of us. big mistake. we had to layer the blankets since it had rained pretty good earlier in the day which made our spot pretty small. and for whatever reason our girls decided to use the small quilted area as their wrestling mat. not kidding. it was like wwe smackdown until the sun set. we are definitely going to have to remember lawn chairs next time.

bastrop put on a good fireworks show while the austin symphonic band played. it was great and i would highly recommend it for anyone who lives nearby.

oh and check out my instagram feed in my sidebar to see my house looking pretty patriotic for the 4th!

~ becky

one room challenge {week 6}

2014-05-08T15:17:00.000-05:00

daaaang! that went by way too fast!

so here i am squeaking something out the final hour.... typical. is the room done? no. is it better than six weeks ago? yes! and that to me makes participating in the one room challenge totally worth it! i'm not one who can look at a room, decorate it all in my head, and then go and purchase everything at once. i like to do it in layers. buy something, make sure it works, and go on from there. so even though the six weeks is up, i'm not stopping! i've got a list of items to purchase and DIY's to be done!

soooo.... with out further ado, here is my guest room/office space:

off to the left you can see the skirted table my mom and husband helped me with. and above the table is some shelving we installed last weekend. the brackets were $5 a pair from ikea that i spray painted an aged brass, and the shelving is pine that i stained.

my solution to all the papers that seemed to clutter our desk was to get myself and jeff each a document box. i'm the type of person that needs to clear my desk before i can work. having all the papers tucked away makes me happy. :)

instead of purchasing new lamps, again, i spray painted some that i already had the same aged brass i used for the ikea brackets. (i have my eye on a few other items i want to spray paint the same color. nothing is safe in this house.) i love the way they turned out. we also painted the iron bed a gray color. originally it was ivory and it needed to change since everything else in the room is a pretty bright white.

my shelves definitely need some styling. after searching around on pinterest and other blogs, i've compiled a list of guest room essentials. i plan on adding a few of those items to the shelves.

i also want to add some hooks to that back wall. i saved a few antique wooden hangers of my grandparents i would like to have them hang on that back wall for guests to use.

so, like i said, it's not done, but it is better. now if i could just get my act together to finish the rest of our house...

you can see my past weeks here:
week 1, week 2, week 3, week 5

and you can see all the other participants here. thanks linda for hosting!

~becky

one room challenge {week 5}

2014-05-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

we are just going to pretend that i didn't skip week 4.

so here we are week 5 of the one room challenge. you can view all the other participants here and my last one room challenge post here.

so where am i? well my desk is FINALLY in! yay!!! y'all i don' t think i've ever waited/thought about a piece of furniture as much as i've done with this desk.

it's a little deeper than what i would like for the space, but it's size does make for a large work area which is also nice. and i love that it's not bulky.

my mom helped me rearrange the room a little and moved the antique wood filing cabinet into the corner of the room most visible when entering. i really do love this piece and think it was a great idea to put it front and center versus it being hidden behind the door.

the change then puts the skirted table hidden behind the door. and i'm happy i procrastinated in getting my mom to cut some slits for our wires because now the slits will need to placed on the opposite side.

so when i left last time i noted that i still need to find a lamp (or two). my youngest and i made a little shopping trip on sunday but came home sans lamps. ugh! we even went to home goods where i almost always find what i'm looking for... i did not get home goods happy. ;)

i have one more shopping trip scheduled before the final reveal so i'm keeping my fingers crossed i find something. if not, i will be shopping my home.

one week to go! eek!

~ becky

easter 2014

2014-04-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

hope you all had an amazing easter weekend! i know we did!

after easter parties at school on thursday, friday we took it easy at the house. later in the afternoon, as we had out of town family starting to arrive, we headed for my mom's house for dinner and a little easter egg ~~dying~~ painting.

on saturday we celebrated with my mom's side of the family at a local park. this was a first for us as we typically have it at someone's home. i was surprised by how well this worked out. the weather was perfect, the kids were entertained by the ducks at the pond, the playground, and the games my aunts put together, and when it was all said and done no one had a huge mess to clean up.

these girls sure do love their older cousins!

i've debated on if i should actually explain what is going on in these pictures or just leave you wondering...

i'll clue you in... the game was to wrap your egg up as best you could to see if it could survive our tallest family member who is standing on a picnic table dropping it on the concrete.

this is kelby's 2nd place egg. why 2nd place you ask? because it had a small crack but was still not "broken."

natalie and her partner were the winners!

of course there was an egg hunt...

...which was also turned into a game. all of the eggs were filled with tickets and the kiddos were able to spend their tickets at the store the aunts set up.

on sunday after church, we celebrated with jeff's side of the family. as usual, the girls had such a great time playing with their cousins and hunting eggs. i think there was close to 300 eggs hidden. and that was for 9 kids. they also had 26 dozen confetti eggs!

they were coming after me :)

hope you all had as much fun as we did!

~becky

one room challenge {week 3}

2014-04-17T08:16:00.000-05:00

hi all! today i'm going to share one of the DIY we've done so far. ok, so "we" might be a stretch. it was mostly done by my husband and mom. but hey, it was my idea. that should count for something, right? no?

so remember in week 1 where i showed the picture of our monster printer that sits in the corner of the room? i knew i need to somehow hide that bad boy, but i didn't want anything boxy. you know what i mean? i needed something "soft" since this room does double as a guest bedroom. i thought a skirted table, much like the images below, would be perfect.

source

so i asked my very kind husband to help me construct a table to cover the printer and a rollie thing for the printer to sit on so it can slide out easily. (these are all very technical terms. take notes.) it fits in this corner inside of the window trims perfectly. he even made little cutouts for the cords to plug into the wall.

i then asked my mom to sew a cover for it. i told her it would need a flap in the front so that the printer could roll out when needed. we talked about different options and this is what she came up with.

we still need to tweak it some. (yes, i'm still saying "we." clearly i'm giving myself way too much credit.) we (ha!) need to cut a hole or slit or something for the cords on the right to go through. currently because there is no slit, the cover pulls to the right. but i still love. my poor pictures do not do it justice.

and ignore the cords creeping out. i should have cleaned up before taking the pics.

and this is how it looks when we roll the printer out. it works perfectly.

the fabric is a softened linen that i ordered from here. i chose dove grey.

and because we overestimated the amount of fabric needed, my mom was able to sew this pillow cover. is my mom not the best or what?!?

oh and that big white blob you see blocking my table skirt picture... that is the parsons chair i ordered for the desk. i also had it monogrammed on the back with our last name initial in gray.

i also got in the terrarium i shared in last weeks vision board. buttttt.... i might need to read up on how exactly i should plant and take care of the succulents i put inside. i'm not off to a good start... and yes, i still have the fancy lifetime table desk. but hopefully not much longer.

so. plans for the upcoming week...

~ my desk should be coming in and i. cannot. wait! i am sure that when we get rid of the lifetime table it is going to make a huge difference!

~ i need to figure out what i'm going to do on my walls. order more art, pictures, leave it bare, etc.

~ i need to start looking for lamps as well. i made the comment recently to my husband about how i just love a room with a soft glow from a lamp. his eyes about rolled out of his head. but its true! i love lamps!

check back next week for some progress pictures!

and be sure to check out all of the other room room challenge participants here.

~becky

weekend getaway - horseshoe bay, tx

2014-04-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

happy weekend friends! we just returned from a quick weekend trip to horseshoe bay. we stayed at the horseshoe bay resort, but sadly i didn't take many pictures there to share. the few pictures i did capture with my iphone were mainly of the girls doing something silly ("hey look, we're on a rock!") or other older unnamed individuals doing some crazy shenanigans. we really did have a blast. and, as long as they don't review their surveillance tapes and ban us from coming back, we would love to go again.

on saturday after getting breakfast from blue bonnet cafe, we dropped the guys off to play golf while the girls headed into marble falls to sweet berry farms. holy moly. that place is awesome. their website states to try to come before 10 am if coming on a saturday so i was a little worried the fields would already be picked over by the time we got there around 11. luckily that wasn't the case at all. they have three huge fields to pick from and although two of the fields were pretty full of "pickers" there were still a ton of strawberries left.

and it's not just about strawberry picking. they also have the sweet berry express barrel train, the berry bounce (think jumpy jump on the ground), face painting, goats to feed and more that i'm probably forgetting. neely wasn't a big fan of feeding the goats. she tried but every time they came in close to her hand she flipped out. i should also mention that we all really enjoyed their strawberry lemonade and homemade ice creams. i think kelby had strawberry ice cream, kevyn picked berry berry, and natalie had vanilla. neely opted for a sucker. ;)

after about 3 hrs of fun, i used some of my reliable negotiating tactics and got them back in the car. and when i called the guys to see what hole they were on and found out i needed to kill some more time, we headed to downtown marble falls to do some shopping. i warned the guys that the extra time would cost them.

we then spent the rest of the day swimming at the resort which was perfect since natalie and kevyn start swim team practice on monday and i was kinda nervous they would be a little rusty on the first day. they've been doing "land training" the past two weeks, but monday they will get in the pool for the first time. i feel a lot better after seeing them swim this weekend.

after a late dinner at the resort and walking around some, the girls were exhausted and we got no complaints when we said it was time to go to bed.

i'm keeping my fingers crossed about that surveillance tape so i can start planning our next trip back!

~becky

one room challenge {week 2}

2014-04-10T08:03:00.000-05:00

woohoo! it's week 2 of the one room challenge and i haven't bailed yet! i'm going to go ahead and call this a success. ;)

you can check out week 1 here and the rest of the one room challenge participants here.

so this week i am suppose to share what i've accomplished or learned. what i've learned is my husband's work (and research/studying) requires a lot of paper. piles and piles of paper. and books. lots of books. we need some storage solutions for that. (disclosure: i'm not completely innocent when it comes to cluttering the desk. ahem, lifetime table.)

that being said, i really don't want a bulky desk in this room due to it being a shared space with a guest bed. i like the idea of a writing table much like this...

Pottery Barn Printer's Writing Desk (see more Pottery Barn)

i've actually been eyeing this desk for quite some time. this past december i called the nearest pottery barn store to see if they had it in stock. they didn't and said it would take about two weeks to get in. i told the salesperson how i was really hoping i could get it before christmas and she suggested i called the outlets to see if they had it in stock. the PB outlet store is only about a 1.5 hr drive for us. i called the outlets and they did! three actually! and for 1/2 off with only some minor imperfections. score! i asked if they could hold one for me and they couldn't. this all was happening on like a wednesday and i knew my husband and i wouldn't be able to get there until saturday. i called friday to see if they still had the desk and they were down to two. it was still looking good for us. saturday we left early and arrived shortly after they opened. i quickly made my way to desks only to find the last printer's writing desk with A HOLD SIGN ON IT! what?!? i thought they couldn't hold furniture?!? (by the way, the desk looked perfect! i couldn't find the imperfection.) i questioned the manager and he told me that sometimes in special situations they would hold a piece. apparently a mom was driving 4 hrs to come pick it up for her daughter who would be receiving it for christmas. (note to self: next time lie and say your coming from out of state to pick up said item as a gift for my ailing grandmother.) the manager assured me that they receive the printer's writing desk often and i should just keep calling back. like i said, that was december. it is now april. i'm on a first name basis with like five of the PB outlet employees. they know my voice and almost instantly tell me its not in as soon as i say hello. my husband, who is tired of hearing the weekly saga, has asked me to suck it up and pay full-price several times. i've held out until this past week and it is finally ordered.

i should mention that i did find a 3x5 brannan braided jute rug at the outlets for $30. i was pretty pumped about that one. it goes perfectly on the side of the bed.

so going back to the original topic of what i've accomplished... these are the elements of the room that i've picked out so far...

1. parsons slipcovered chair

2. antique brass wall scones for the head of the bed

3. rifle paper co. calendar

4. clare elsaesser art

5. room essentials document box from target

6. brannan braided jute rug

7. terrarium for desk

8. lamps for desk

9. printer's writing desk

come back next week when i share a few if the DIY's we've done.

~becky

one room challange {week 1}

2014-04-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

i'm venturing out of my comfort zone here...

i've decided to link up with calling it home's one room challenge!

i've followed this series a few times and love watching how other bloggers transform a space in just six weeks. i however am cheating a little bit... i took the "before" pics a few months ago and have already purchased a few items. don't judge me. ;)

so the backstory...

in December 2012 we moved into my grandparent’s home that we renovated. we knew it would be a work in progress and figured all the small details would get done once we moved in. ha! 2013 turned out to be a crazy year and furnishing our house was the least of our worries. our home, as well as many other things, got neglected. getting this house put together is one of my goals for 2014!

our home is old. real old. i would love to find time to go through the county records to see if i can figure out exactly how old it is. time and the help of someone who knows how to maneuver through the records. i tried once and didn’t get very far in the hour i was there.

the room i am choosing is our office/guest bedroom. currently this is the catch all room. when we first moved in, this was the room that we hid all the boxes in until we had time to unpack them. some items just haven’t found their home yet and are still left in here. here are all the unflattering before pictures...

i should also mention that prior to moving we sold the majority of our furniture because i knew i wanted a different look for this house. that’s the reason for the fancy lifetime table desk. nice. i know.

i love this room and all its windows. and when i sit at my computer i really like also being able to look out the front window. many times my girls will be playing on our front porch while i work.

my biggest challenge will be to somehow create a usable work space (including a monster printer) all while keeping the space homey enough for a guest to feel comfortable.

Just for fun, do you want to see a picture of the room prior to our major renovation???

i hope you come back next week for some progress pictures!

~becky

you've got mail

2014-03-31T09:30:00.000-05:00

kevyn has been in a real funk lately. usually she is my "less challenging" child. (that's me finding my nice words.) she no longer wants to go to bed at night nor does she want to go to school in the morning. we went from easy bedtimes that took maybe 15 minutes to lots of tears and no less than a hour to get her to wind down. and it doesn't help that i have her sharing a room with kelby and her antics sometimes wake up kelby...

on school mornings she wakes up extra grumpy. she doesn't want to eat breakfast, or get dressed, or get in the car. everything is a struggle. when we pull up to her school the kid literally goes nuts. her teacher insists that as soon as ~~she pries her off me~~ i leave, kevyn is completely fine and does well in class.

and her overall behavior at home has just become, well, not kevyn. she's a grouch. lots of negativity about everything. it drives me nuts!

last night after saying our prayers, i asked kevyn to say another prayer with me. we prayed that all the unkind words and thoughts would leave her heart and that her heart would only be filled with nice thoughts and words.

that lasted for about 15 seconds. when i questioned her actions and reminded her about what we just prayed about she stated "God hasn't checked his emails yet."

geez...

~becky

spring break 2014

2014-03-28T13:30:00.000-05:00

unlike last year, this year for spring break with out busy schedules (and lack of planning) we decided to stay relatively local. we ended up camping three nights at lake somerville. we had planned on staying four, but mr. weatherman predicted bad weather for the fourth night so we packed up early and came home.

our days were spent kite flying, trail hiking, fishing, teepee making, bike riding, playground playing, book reading, and lots of s'more eating. overall it was really relaxing and nice not to be on a schedule. i'm totally guilty of forgetting that sometimes less is more in the way of vacations (and so much else).

and i'm totally going to use the less is more excuse for the short narrative on this post. ;)

you can check out my instagram feed in the right side bar for a few more pics from our trip. ->

this last picture makes me smile. i was letting neely take a few pictures with my camera to keep her busy instead of trying to climb on the rocks and this is one of the pictures she took. love it!

~becky

natalie's 7th birthday

2014-03-26T14:15:00.000-05:00

i'm a little behind on this post...

natalie turned 7! can you believe it?!?

and we now have to refer to her only as natalie. not nat, or nat nat, or nattie. or any other random nickname we come up with. only natalie. she's definitely growing up. ;)

in our small town your pretty much stuck with having your party at your home, the park, or the bowling alley. natalie decided to have her party at the bowling alley this year. no complaints from me though... bowling alley parties are super easy!

the girls patiently waiting for neely's ball to make it to the end...

for some (ahem, neely), you get applauded when your ball actually makes it to the end. who cares about how many pins get knocked down. ;)

we didn't really keep score. in fact, we didn't even really play games. the kids just all took turns trying to knock down the pins.

of course bowling is only a small portion of what you actually do at a bowling party for 7 year olds... you also spend WAY too much money on games that you are much to young to play for a fair chance of winning.

my sneaky eldest took all her report card money and tooth fairy money that she had received the week prior and cashed it in for coins for the games. nice kelby. i only found out when she asked me for $7 to buy a yo-yo at school (a fundraiser) and i reminded her about her report card money and tooth fairy money. things got really awkward really quick.

i think we could have bought the darn horses for the amount of quarters we put into this thing for these two...

happy birthday sweet girl! i hope your day was super special!

(now if y'all could all just quit growing up i would really appreciate that!)

~becky

neely's 4th birthday

2014-02-22T19:09:00.001-06:00

last weekend we celebrated my sweet niece's fourth birthday. i can't get over that she is now four!

it seems like overnight neely has gone from toddler to little girl. although she still enjoys at times being babied (especially from older cousin kelby who thinks she can carry her) she is really wanting to be treated just like one of the "big girls." this little stinker definitely has a lot of her daddy's genes. you can tell she up to something sneaky by the look in her eye's. she is also very compassionate and loving. she melts my heart when she tries to protect me from the other girls who are jokingly attacking me. thanks buddy.

neely originally decided on a doc mcstuffins party but then quickly changed her mind to a sofia the first party. kevyn had a sofia the first party in september so i was able to use a lot of her leftover supplies. score!

we thought that having a party in february would almost certainly mean indoor only activities. we were pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous day it turned out to be. i think jeff pulled out every "outdoor" toy we own and we spent the majority of the party outside.

kelby has been doing a lot of sewing with granny. mainly pot holders. but she did manage to sew neely a quilt for her barbies. kelby was really proud when giving it to her.

i didn't get a good picture of the pinata we made for her party with my "real" camera. you'll have to go to my instagram feed (see right sidebar) for a picture. jeff and darren really doubted its durability and questioned why i just didn't buy one. duh... because it would have been nearly as cute! to their surprise, after we went through the line three times, darren had to assist in tearing into it to get all the goodies. fine craftsmanship. ;)

at the end of the party we released ladybugs. just like we did at my sisters funeral. for those of you who don't know, it was my sisters wish that every time we see a ladybug we think of her. wouldn't you know that earlier that evening we found a ladybug in our mudroom. i'd like to think she attended the party as well.

happy birthday neely!