Plano Bound

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12 month photo

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that means?

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that means?

She'll go to Plano, it's across the street, we'll be walking there, with our own two feet

She's a good broad =).

*Okay, I like Weebie's new song "Independent". I have liked rap music ever since I can remember--I guess Vanilla Ice or the Beastie Boys were my 1st experience. I download the clean versions although I exposed my 16 year old mind to the explicit lyrics back in the high school =(. I remember my Dad throwing my borrowed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony CD in the trunk on my Galant one day. Whoopsie! I've always enjoyed a wide variety of music including RAP.*

Karson is officially registered at

Plano Elementary.

It's hard to believe my firstborn will be

in Kindergarten this fall.

Oh my, where does the time go????

Beach Bunnies and low Batteries

My little Easter babies enjoying their loot.

Karson looking tired from getting up at the crack of dawn!

Miles has started posing for photos.

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Easter Sunday we heard the pitter patter of Karson's feet at about 6 a.m. We kept hearing her sneak down the hall, run back to her room and close (slam) the door. After about three rounds of this, we decided it was time to GET UP AND GET GOING =). She loved her basket and all her goodies. I decided to get the boys up around 6:45 so I could take some photos and Karson could FINALLY tear into her basket. The morning was chaotic as usual, but it felt busier on Easter Sunday. Here are some fun photos from the day.
The un-traditional Easter photos in front of our fireplace. Since we had nothing in bloom at our home and it was ice cold outside, we took our Easter pics. inside the warm, cozy house.

After church Sunday, we went to my parents house and celebrated my Dad's birthday. He shares a birthday with Ms. Windy on March 26 (and who we surprised at church on Sunday with a amazing cake by Larie, a gift basket full of nifty gifties and a bouquet of flowers). It was birthday party central. After the party for Dad, Matt and I left for a kids-free vacation to Destin with Shannon and Paul (sans kids also). It's the first trip we've taken since Karson's birth.
I've tried my best to chronicle our beach events.

Please don't feel like you have to read the post below, it's mainly for memory purposes.

My camera battery was dead so I was only able to snap a few photos.

Our home away from home.

The weather was perfect, and the ocean was beautiful.

My husband is very strong and quite handsome!

DAY 1: Matt and Paul golfed at Indian Bayou. Shannon and I hit the outlet malls and set up appointments for spa treaments the next day. We also hit all the local beachy stores like WINGS and Beach Zone. Shannon LOVES these places. They are fun. It's amazing how many trinkets they can actually pack into these shops. You can own lovely finds such as sharks in a jar, string CORONA bikinis, crocodile skulls, hermit crabs, toes rings-or if you're feeling crazy, you can get a hair wrap or henna tattoo. Shannon is like a kid in candy store looking at t-shirts =). Paul and I went half-zies on the buy 1 get 1 free sweatshirts. He had been sporting my Mom's red WKU sweatshirt due to the chilly weather. We ate at P.F. Chang's that evening for dinner. My awesome sweatshirt.

DAY 2: The weather was still a bit chilly but that didn't stop the major sun goddesses. Shannon and I aren't those and went to Avantgarde Aveda Spa and Salon. I wish I could say that we felt pampered and relaxed, but the whole experience was quite tortourous. We had both scheduled a customized facial and body polish. Both sounded amazing in their descriptive language in the brochure. The actual experience was quite different. The body polishing felt like someone rubbing sandpaper all over your nude (yes, that's right) body. I'm not sure if it was the masseur or the product, but it was sheer agony. Shannon did the body polish first and wanted to warn me about the intense pain but didn't have a chance. Meanwhile, I was having a facial which I was excited about because of the extraction. I was thinking extraction meant they were going use a machine to extract all the yucky oils and dead skin cells in my face. WRONG--the esthetician started popping black heads, AHHHH. I do my share of face picking but certainly wasn't expecting this from a spa tech. When Shannon had her facial and I was being skinned alive in the body polish, the esthetician broke the viewing mirror over her face and almost decipitated my sister. Overall, we gave the spa two thumbs way down. Shannon made a yummy enchilada casserole for dinner which helped soothe our aching bodies =). We hit Hurricane Lanes for some bowling after dinner. Shannon bowled the game high 201. Since we hadn't competed enough at the alley, we came back to the condo and played Scrabble. I won that round =).

DO NOT visit this spa.

DO visit Hurricane Lanes for pain-free fun.

DAY 3: The guys went golfing at Regatta Bay, and Shannon and I layed out on the beach all day. We ate a Captain Dave's on the Gulf for dinner, watched Disturbia and played Yahtzee that night. No real exciting events of the day, but Matt and I made a late night run to Wally World for toys. We were missing the kids and decided we needed gifts for them. We bought Karson a Fairytopia Barbie and Isaac two monster trucks. I bought Miles a cool water ball at Beach Zone on Monday which is sure to be busted with his sharp teeth.

Enjoying our dinner at Captain Dave's.

DAY 4: We spent most of the day on the beach. I've collected a myriad of seashells this week. I'm doing children's church on Sunday and thought the kids might want a cool seashell from the beach. We're talking about fishing and making fishing poles. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and played miniature golf at The Track. Shannon and I decided to go back to the outlet malls and dropped the guys off for Louisville/Tennessee basketball. Barf!!! I would rather be at the Persecution Spa than watch college basketball on TV, but I was proud of our Hilltopper's for hanging with UCLA.

DAY 5: We beached it up again and decided to come back home. We had planned on staying through Saturday but decided we'd rather drive in the afternoon/evening than leave the following morning. We had a very nice, quiet, peaceful, relaxing vacation. It's nice to break free of the daily chaos of life and retreat to somewhere warm and restful and FREE (thanks David and Beth).

Happy Things

The nature of a child is a happy thing. They truly live in the moment and turn everything into an adventure.

Watching Miles learn new tricks is a happy thing.

I was inspired by my friend Melissa D. to write a post about happy things in my life. I wish I recognized these more and feel selfish for my lack of appreciation for them.

Isaac's sense of style (or lack thereof) is a happy thing. He's a clothes horse. Look out J. Alexander, Isaac's extraordinary attire would make you proud.

I was able to take a few mission trips in college during my year's as an HFC (Hilltopper's for Christ). There's nothing more eye opening than a mission trip. For instance, armed guards at local fast food places, dirt roads with pot holes that could swallow a small car, brick fences with barbed wire, broken glass, metal and rock to deter intruders, sewage and water running through pipes at the same time, an overall fear for safety. I will never forget a Mexican girl name Flo and her mother. Dala Narramore and I spent the night with them in their home which wasn't any bigger than my garage now. They slept on the floor and small sofa so we could enjoy their cozy double bed. They bathed out of a large barrel which resembled a trash can. You dipped a cup in it and poured the water over your body. No paper waste could be thrown in the commode, and I'm not sure if they cleaned it by hand or not??? Dala and I had to brush our teeth with bottled water due to their contaminated water. This is how they lived each day. Flo's mother made us fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning, and they treated us as queens. I can't think of many things that have impacted me more and made me thankful for our United States luxuries than that trip to Mexico.

Some of my BIG happy things:

My bathtub. It's one of the few private places I have in my home. I look at the nasty ring-around-the-tub and think to myself..."I sure do take a lot of baths". I love nuclear hot baths and my lavendar vanilla Bath and Body sleep body wash.

My children's art work. Karson is BIG into authoring books. I wrote a post about it a while back, but she's since completed even more books. Isaac leaves NO white on any coloring sheet. He must use each crayon and color every square inch of his picture. He's also into fraying his pictures with scissors. I don't mind. He needs to learn how to cut for preschool next year =).

Matt's family. I love his mom and dad as much as my own. They have taught me a lot about the meaning of family and unconditional love. His parents are keeping our children during Spring Break so that we can go to Destin. They love our kids and frequently keep them and give Matt and I money to go out on a dates. Their son John takes Karson to Chuck E. Cheese's and WKU ballgames. Their son Andrew invites them to spend the night with him a couple times each month. Their son Ben babysits on occasion. My children are lucky having such a loving support system. Matt got a pricey golf shirt with Christmas money that he's been using to taunt Paul (our brother-in-law) about upcoming golf matches in Destin. Paul and Shannon are going to the beach with us. Matt even went as far as morphing our heads to his body wearing his new shirt.

My husband. I love Matt so much. He has such a witty sense of humor and is the kindest person I know. He spent his entire day off on Monday cleaning our house. When I got home that afternoon, I smelled Pine-Sol, Pledge and Windex. Everything was spic-n-span, if only for the day. Matt is my best friend. He takes such good care of our family.

Some SMALL happy things:

Lysol wipes. I have a canister of these in almost every room in the house. I have no idea how women survived without this necessity for so long.



I buy Bare Minerals make-up on eBay and also found Karson's Easter dress.

eBay and Amazon. I have done loads of shopping on eBay and Amazon. I buy make-up, children's clothes, Hallmark ornaments, DVD's, toys with the click of my mouse. I enjoy online shopping.

Movies. I have recently purchased two movies Dan in Real Life and I am Legend. I love watching movies. We recently upgraded our cable from basic to premium and got a DVR. I don't watch much TV but love watching movies. I've been able to record some oldie but goodie flicks.

Coffee. I was a regular at Bread and Bagels until we moved out to Plano. I love their Southern Pecan. I also like Panera Bread's Hazelnut coffee. Coffee is one of my indulgences. I wouldn't consider myself a HUGE coffee drinker, but I need at least 1 cup a day.

Hippity, Hoppity Easter's on it's Way!

Our church held its annual egg hunt on Saturday. My Mom has hosted it the past couple of years, but Saturday's nasty weather forced us to move the hunt indoors. What better place to have an egg hunt than at the church building!

Karson has the art of egg hunting down to a science. She won last year's contest of finding the most eggs. I was glad that she was able to bring home LOADS of candy. Since her mouth is mostly metal, she might as well make the most of it.

Isaac was not real interested in hunting. He told me, "Mom you go find them." I think he found two eggs on the stage. One had bubble gum in it, and the other had a pack a Nerds. He ate both at the same time and had no reason to look for any more candy filled eggs.

Is Miles not the sweetest Easter rabbit ever?

Miles would much rather play with the visitor cards and pens in the back of the pews than hunt for eggs.

He found lots of eggs in other children's baskets. Hmmmm, whatcha got in here Ansley?

Community kids minus our wonderful leader Ms. Windy.

She has the flu =(.

Tattoo-ey Louis

Isaac has recently become obsessed with temporary tattoos. We have a stash of them in our kitchen appropriately hidden underneath the dish towels in a drawer. I'm not sure how they ended up in the kitchen but am QUITE certain why they were hidden. Karson went through the tattoo phase at age 3. Although these lovely pieces of art are supposed to last a few short days, ours manage to last much longer. Our Easter pictures should be wonderful with Isaac's recent self-expression through dressing himself coupled with tattoos.

And might I mention that I am well deserving of the coveted "Mother of the Year" award. Isaac recently cut himself on the bridge of his nose with my razor. He had the thing in his mouth and was jiggling it around when Matt saw him. The story is to long to post but, as always, interesting. There's never a dull moment with three kids at home.