Adventures of Ashley and Bobby's wedding - Day 1

The big weekend finally arrived! We have been working, planning, stressing over, excited about and just plain WAITING for Ashley and Bobby's wedding for about a year now! It was absolutely amazing and here are some of the fun rememberances about it.

Have you ever driven from Houston to Lubbock before? No, you are smart. Yes, uggh - I feel your pain! Pete and I have made that drive many, many times since we went to school in Lubbock and both of our families live in Houston. But, never driven there with 3 kiddos - whole new experience. We used to focus on making it there in the best time, now we were just focused on making it there! My mom had flown up at the beginning of the week, so my family of five decided to ride in my parent's very spacious Tahoe with my dad (the built in DVD player helped us decide too!) My grandparents met us outside of Caldwell and the caravan began.





Our kiddos were absolutely amazing. Thank goodness for that DVD player. Pete and I are avid "no DVD players in the car" parents, but we wouldn't have made it without it. Comanche is a town about halfway between, and I found out that they had a great new playground area. So, we decided that we would stop there, eat lunch and let the kiddos run around. It really worked great with the kids.




We had decided before we even got to Lubbock that we needed a rent car beause of all the running around everyone would be doing, the different places we all needed to be and taking care of the kiddos. We I went to pick up the car up I asked if the could upgrade me - and they did - to a brand new 2011 Explorer! The rental lady told me where the keys would be which I easily found - exept these new cars don't have a "key", it's just one of those security fobs. I sat in that car for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to turn on that dang car. I felt so stupid having to flag down an Enterprise employee and ask "How do you turn the car on?" When Pete got in the car later I told him I was going to wait and see if he could figure it out - made me feel a whole lot better that he couldn't figure it out either!!!




One of my main concerns was trying to keep the kiddos occupied, taking naps and going to bed on time. Well, the taking naps and going to bed on time never really happened. They still did pretty well but I was still so stressed about it. I just knew they were going to crash by Saturday night, but fortunately, I think everything was so new that they did pretty well.

At the rehearsal, Avery, Pete and Hailey fussed, yelled, refused to walk down the aisle, talked while sitting in the pews and and ran around the church. To say that I was worried was an understatement. I really thought they would be so entralled that they would do pretty good - but after that rehearsal I was petrified as to how they were going to act. Later that night, I made church goodie bags with candy, games, stickers, snacks, ect for the actual wedding. Some people might think "why so worried?" First, this is my only sister's wedding. We have been working on it for months. Second, my entire family was in or a part of the wedding. We were all busy with responsibilites so it made taking care of the kiddos during the wedding tough.

After the rehearsal we went to a great steak restaurant in town. I had made the slideshow of Ashley and Bobby's childhood, dating and engagement. Bobby's sister ended up adding a really special part to it by singing the music to the slide show rather than just having taped music on it. It was so awesome to have live music by a family member while watching those precious pictures!

Strawberry pickin'

There is a great farm fairly close to us that lets you go strawberry picking! So we joined one of Avery and Pete's classmates and headed out there to do some work! It was great! It was a little packed, but the strawberry fields are so large, you just had to walk a bit to find your own strawberry patch to claim! The kiddos were shown how to determine whether a strawberry was ripe or not, the basic life cycle of a strawberry plant and how to pick the yummy fruit! The older kids (Avery, Pete, and their friend Charlotte) did really well with the task, Hailey ended up with a lot of strawberry juice on her hands and face (hmm....). Oh, and see that irrigation line that Hailey is pulling in the picture, yeah, she wasn't supposed to be doing that either . . .


All in all, a great field trip and strawberries were $2 a pound - I figured that is pretty close to the grocery store and we got lots of fun and an educational experience out of it!

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Catepillar

Since Hailey loves books so much I originally had the idea to do a "book party", but found so many cute ideas for Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Catepillar" and Hailey's birthday party theme was born! All my kiddos (as well as their momma) love Eric Carle books so this theme seemed to be a great fit. The more I kept searching for ideas, the more amazing things I found!




I ventured into cake making, er, cupcake making! I think the cupcake cake turned out so well! But, I do know that I really probably won't be doing it again! Cake decorating is tough - but it was all worth it seeing how happy that little cake made Hailey! She loved it and kept shouting, "CATEPILLAR!"



We also had a little photo catepillar to take pictures in. My kiddos were priceless getting their pictures taking being the catepillar. Each of their personalities really shined through!





Hailey is so lucky to have so many people that love, care and dote on her. I feel like birthday parties are more for the adults to feel the love - and boy, did I feel it at this birthday party. It truly means so much to Pete and I to have so many people take time out of their day for our special little baby. These are definitely memories to last a lifetime. Thank you to everyone that made this a special day for Hailey!

Hailey's 2nd birthday!

WHAT????!!!! My little baby girl can NOT be 2 already? Where has the time flown by? Hailey is the spunkiest, funniest, cuddliest kiddo I know. We are thankful everyday for her being a part of our lives.

Hailey is doing so well with her language skills right now. Her teachers are extremely impressed with how verbal she is and how well she is talking. Most people think she is older than she is because of how well she communicates. She is (and has been for some time) singing her ABC's, counting to 20 and learning letter sound correspondence. She loves to read and sit in laps as books are being read. She loves hide and go seek and making funny faces. She loves to get her pictures taken and say "CHEESSSSEEE!!" She loves, loves, loves her brother and sister and is often using every opportunity to play with them. She has hit a bit of terrible two tantrum throwing, but I really think that has a lot to do with nap taking and sleeping changes. She wants to go, go, go and would definitely stay up until midnight if we let her! (She takes after her big sister!)

She is a tough, tough girl and can usually hold her own with her "older" siblings. She doesn't get pushed around, that is for sure!! We just know that she is going to be such a tall girl with how much she is growing. She loves eggs, pancakes, french toast and will generally eat many things that we put in front of her.

Hailey, it goes without saying that we love, love, love every part of you. You are part of the sunshine that makes our day, everyday. We hope and pray many blessings for your life. Happy 2nd Birthday!

Giddey-Up! Rodeo Day at school

I'm becoming a believer in making my life easier and not pressuring the kids about the small stuff. Rodeo Day came around, I didn't really have outfits, but being the "crafty" mom that I am, I threw together some stuff without even having to buy ONE thing. But, lo and behold, Pete and Hailey just weren't having it. Hailey did wear the cute little cowgirl outfit that our friend Charlotte outgrew but refused to wear her cute boots. Pete refused all in all to wear anything. So, in my effort to be the mom that doesn't sweat the small stuff - I let them go as they wanted. Now Avery, that girl is a girly-girly mom's dream. She loved dressing up and posed all around for me!

Bathtime fun

My kids are a riot. They got some new bath playthings for Valentine's Day. I could hear bursts of laughter coming from the bathroom as Daddy Pete piled the colored bath foam onto our kids. The fact that Hailey let him pile this much on amazes me. Love that spunky attitude of that kid!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Mwahhhh!!! Here's a great big Valentine's kiss from our family to yours! In the first picture, our Valentine's pic, Avery and Pete are pretending to be T-Rex's and Hailey is quite perplexed. The kiddos had fun parties at school, handed out valentines and got all hyped up on sugar.

Zoo Mania

On Valentine's Day, Pete took off work and we took the kiddos to the zoo. It was a Monday, a bit overcast and by far, our best zoo experience yet. There was not ONE large school group, only a few other visitors and the animals were out and about! Best Valentine's Day yet!

And, yes, our kiddos were tiger growling at people passing by - we are so proud.

Ashley's getting married!!!

Wow!! It's hard to believe that the countdown to Ashley's wedding has begun! We gathered at a family friend's house to celebrate Ash's upcoming nuptials! They did a fantastic job of decorating, cooking, and just plain making everyone feel special! Thank you to Cecilia, Emily, and Heather!! (Fun fact: The Gooch family has been friends of our family since Ashley and Emily were three! Emily will be a bridesmaid for Ashley in April and Ashley will be Emily's bridesmaid in October!!)



Little Miss Avery was a fantastic guest at her first shower! So proud of my baby girl! She was so funny because everytime I would tell her Aunt Ashley was going to have a shower, it got a little confusing for her!! I finally just kept having to call it a party and promise that she would get some cake!