Ewwwwww

Daddy sure must love his Lissy! He plays tea parties, Hannah Montana Concert, and Make-Up with Lissy-Lou. She has such fun with Chad, but the pink boa, pink lipstick, and girlie hat and jewels have got to go!

Christmas Morning

At 7:00am Lissy was up and ready to see if Santa came to visit her. Considering I did not go to bed until 2am, it was really hard to get up and be "Holly-Jolly", but I did it. Remember she asked Santa for all of that Hannah Montana stuff? She was definitely on the "Good List" because he brought it to her. I have decided though that blonde is not her color. Mommy got a Lambie blanket that is as soft as the Alpaca's. I love it. We hope your holiday season and Christmas morning was just as blessed.

Yummo!

In New Mexico (my home state) traditional Mexican food on Christmas Eve is a must. Thank heaven that momma moved with us to San Antonio to continue the tradition of menudo, tamales, carnitas, homemade corn tortillas, fresh salsa, the works! If you want to have "real" mexican food, come join us...but not if you are watching your calories (unfortunately).

Construction Workers

It is official, we are going to make a gingerbread house construction an annual event! We bought a kit from that cute little bakery we found in Boerne. The kit had all sorts of sweet goodies, everything we needed to make a masterpiece. I let daddy take control of the construction and now I am thinking that perhaps he should get out of the Army and become a baker! Everyone loved the masterpiece. It looks so cute, we had a hard time eating the roof.

Santa's List

Santa needs to come to our house because there is a cute little girl who wants

1. Guitar
2. Hannah Montana Microphone
3. Hannah Montana Wig

After the letter was written it was sent to Santa via the chimmney. Daddy loves the whole episode of writing the letter, and burning it in the fire so that we can get it to Santa ASAP (via magic).

Christmas Angel

I have come to realize that I live with a Christmas Angel. For the first time, Alyssa is REALLY into Christmas, Santa, making friends gifts, the whole sha-bang. As soon as we get home she runs to turn on Christmas lights and changes the little decorations that tell us how many days till Christmas.

Our little elf loves to sleep under the tree. She got teary-eyed when we told her that during school nights she was not allowed. Her daddy encourages the awaited Christmas festivities by filling her belly with hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies and talking about what kind of snacks they will make and leave for Santa, for some reason Chad seems to have a vested interest??!?

Merry Christmas to my sweet angel and only a few more days till the birth of Christ and of course Santa's visit.

Boerne

This past weekend we visited a little town down the road from San Antonio....Boerne. I found out about this little piece of heaven through an internet friend of mine, HipMomma. I really...really..wanted to go during one of the weekends they had a Christmas parade, but having a broken ankle seems to have taken over my life. So we missed the parade, but managed to go now that I was feeling a little better and we went into this nice little Bakery and had the best hot cocoa I have EVER had. Chad watched me and helped me shop in what seems to be a kazillion little vintage shops. The three of us had the best time. I almost wanna live in Boerne.

Alyssa's best part of the afternoon was when she discovered that there were alpaca's for sale along side the road. Texas for you, I guess. They were the cutest little guys and felt like a soft lambie blankie. I may decide to add one to my Christmas list ;)

Christmas Wishes

I usually make my own Christmas cards (one of the few times I put my scrapbook tools to use) but this year I decided to go digital. I have lots of Internet friends who do digital scrapbooking and blogs and they have successfully encouraged me to do this digital thing. I have made a postcard layout for our family and friends, ordered them for a few cents a piece, and am eagerly awaiting them from the mail order company and ready to send out to all our family and friends. Be checking your mailboxes, love is headed your way!

Holiday Spirit

Bah Humbug.... that is the way I have been feeling while being confined, constrained, and miserable in a 10lb solid cement cast. Yep, the ortho doc decided to lock me into this non-fashy, bright white, uncomfortable, lump of cement. But yesterday Alyssa convinced me that she wanted to go outside and take some "Christmas pictures". She is often my little model when it comes to practicing my photography skills (which are minimal). So there I went...hobble-ing down the deck, around the pool, under the trees, through the grass, and my little 6 year old Christmas angel managed to get me in the spirit of Christmas festivities. Somehow she always manages to have the right ideas. Now I am ready Santa, bring on Christmas.

Cankle

I could proclaim that I ate too many tamales for Thanksgiving and got super fat and developed "cankles" (ankle + calf), but I will confess the truth. Yes, I did eat lots of mommas home-made yummo tamales, but on Sunday right before I return to our routine of work, school, homework, etc. I missed a bottom stair into the kitchen and literally heard cracking bones. I think I would rather birth another 10lb kid than go through that again. OHMAGOSH, such pain. Seems that I fractured some tiny little bones in my ankle, can't walk, and am absolutely miserable. Tomorrow I get fitted for an orthopedic boot or a 10lb cast and apparently it is not the best fashion wear. Maybe I will borrow the Beddazzler from my niece and create a one of a kind piece of fashion :) Lucky me!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Holiday was awesome! I had my sister and her family from El Paso enter our world for a week. I already miss them so much and to think that they just left this morning. I also felt like the I hit the jack-pot with the best-est friend in the world, Allison aka Storm (even though she never gets upset with me that I continue to not call her by her real name). Each Thanksgiving she makes attempts to enter our world regardless what state life takes us to. She reminded me that we are going on 20 years of knowing each other and it seems like yesterday that I met this diamond-of-a-friend in a huge lecture hall studying genetics. How I wish that Florida was a little closer. Our girlie nights this past week were such fun. I am in love with my family and friends it confirms why we have a Thanksgiving Holiday in the first place, so many people to give thanks for.

I need training wheels, again!

Who ever said that you never forget how to ride a bike? I sure did. I feel so wobbly and like I need a few hours of good ole training wheel practice. Chad decided to get our family some bikes. I think this is an awesome idea. Breeze in the hair and good exercise, but I forgot that I had not rode a bicycle in ummmm about 20 years. So needless to say, Lissy and I ride together at the same pace (she is learning how to ride without training wheels) and daddy scoots ahead on the bike path, frustrated at our slow pace and lack of desire to ride down a cliff. If you are into riding bikes, there is a great bike path here in SA, lots of levels to choose from (yes, I am still on level 1).

Build a Bear

One of the favorite places in this little girls world is Build-A-Bear. Now why could I not think of stuffing animals for a living and becoming a millionaire? I saw the person who started build a bear on Oprah and the whole thing was a fluke how it got started. Amazing. I sometimes have great ideas, how come I can't become a trillion-aire? I think I would be a great one.

I think everyone in the world has been to this hectic store. There is nothing like having all of these children running around searching for just the right outfit for their bear, dino, or rabbit. The search includes trying to find the "fashiest" shirt, pants, shoes, wig, panties, etc...etc.... Alyssa will spend every dollar she earns in that store if we let her. Although, I must admit that the process itself is about 1 hour but provides hours of enjoyment when she gets home. It is all about being the pretend mommy and/or sister and/or best friend to a furry little lifeless bear. Her imagination is so magical.

A Wednesday Without Words

Wordless Wednesday

Yeeee Doggy!

That is what her daddy tells her everytime she wears her favorite pair of shoes (besides my high-heels)....her pink boots. Now she uses the excuse that she must wear them all of the time because we have red and yellow snakes in the grass. I was working in the front yard gardening and went to take a picture while "shooting from the hip" like other mommy's at Tracey's Picture This. Check 'um out!

Fairy Magic

Sometimes I wonder if she knows how much "magic" she has brought into both my life and Chad's. Sometimes when we sit and watch her sleep, play, read, etc. we will look at each other and I know we are thinking the same thing, "How blessed we are". This little fairy definitely has a spell on us.

With Halloween in 3 days, this past week was quite busy with Halloween celebrations at school, gymnastics, and neighbor and friend parties. She loves putting on a costume show. She loves her fairy costume and insists that she eat, sleep, and play in it. Of course, we let her. Her daddy tried again to convince her to be a "zombie fairy", Chad are you kidding me? Alyssa would never give up the "fashy-ness".

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

"Toothless Tuesday"

I knew as Lissy started kindergarten I would have lots of "firsts" well this was one. Her tooth was so loose and just bearly there. I told her she needed to "Get a kleenex and yank it out" and you know what? When I was not looking, She did it! We were at one of my girlfriend's house's and all of a sudden there is a little blood, and a little girl asking for a little baggie to save a little treasure for the toothfairy.

OMAGOSH

Yesterday I made a little wish for my peeps in cold weather land to send us a breeze....hallelujah we got it! (By the way...thanks!) I woke up at 3am to a windy rainy storm that settled into a cool fall-like day. What the heck, just yesterday yesterday we got a sunburn! Lissy was especially excited because she actually got to wear a light coat from Baby Gap (that is one of her favorite stores...yep already...what she calls "fashy"). I think I might go pick out a sweater and some boots for tomorrow! Burrrrr...... Oh, and this colorful pictures serves two purposes..... to catch the "colorful" mommy picture fever at Picture This and because it is a Macro Monday! Galileo thermometer reads.....well below 90 degrees....59 degrees, baby!

Fall in Texas

Hummm... I am wondering if I will ever be able to put on a pair of jeans and feel comfortable, no not because I've gained a few pounds...or 2 (well that too) but because it is still so freakin' hot here! We use to love North Carolina because when Halloween rolled around it was nice and chilly, leaves turned colors, hot apple cider, going to a "real" pumpkin patch and corn maze...NOW ....that is what you call "Fall" and "Octoberfest". Here, nope..... we are still swimming in the backyard, wearing shorts, finding scorpions, and sweatin' as we mow the lawn. Chad said today, when is the yard going to turn colors....my reply was, "Honey I think we are in for a long wait".

Since I am not a "true Texan" I'm not sure if San Antonian's are the only ones with lame fall weather, I guess I should check out the news. So those of you up north and my peeps in NC.....blow us a cool breeze or two, I have some cute sweaters and jeans to wear!

JOY

So many things in life bring me joy, shoes, purses, food, but not the kind of "LOVE JOY" that my family and pets bring! The joy of family brings meaning to being alive. Being a mommy is the best thing in the world, how boring my life must have been before we had Alyssa. I love my little 2lb piece of love also, Abbie Gayle, who is quite the snuggle-er, and how can you not have joy looking at that tiny little hair face. Check out all the other joys that mommy's have at Tracey's Picture This.

Holy Moly!

Okay we are looking for chickens to put in our yard. Sounds ridiculous, not really when you find a coral snakes in your front yard. Yes, I know since we live in the country..and live in Texas, we are prone to critters, but one of the relatives to a cobra...come on...SCARY!! Okay, here is the low down..... gives me the hibby-gibbies just writing about it.....

Chad was on his riding lawnmower and comes running inside yelling my name, so I immediately think he is hurt. Nope, as soon as I run downstairs he says get a cage (being a science teacher you tend to have many laying around everywhere). So he is running out, with me in tote, and he says.... "What is the saying.... "Red and yellow...kill a fellow....Red and black a friend of Jack". Well this little guy was not a friend of ours or Jack's.

Long story short... coral snakes live here in Texas, come out in the day, are very venomous, but have tiny little mouths and not pit vipers like their cousins, so gnaw on their predators / prey to get the toxin in.... gives you time to yank the sucker off and get to the hospital to get anti venom. This little 2 foot snake has the potential to kill an adult. Scary for my Lissy and for Abbie (our little 2lb yorkie). Oh yeah, back to the story...Chad accidentally ran over the snake with the lawnmower and sliced open a part of his gut, so it took a bit for him to die (bitter sweet...being a biologist and all) but if you laid him just right, you could not even see the wound and he looked as scary as he did alive.

So if you live in the hill country....watch out for the red and yellow! Lissy now wears her pink cowboy boots in the yard each time she goes out....he he...I will have to get a shot of that one, it is funny.... even with her bathing suit! Abbie is always supervised on her potty breaks, and we all tend to watch out step more than before.

My immediate thinking was...."I wanna go back to North Carolina". Chad looked at me with eyebrows raised and suggested getting the chickens....

Lissy's Birthday Bash!

I am the party girl and I do love to plan a good shin-dig but this years birthday party was a little weird. Lissy just started kindergarten and hasn't made any great friends yet in her couple of weeks as an official big-kid-school-kid. So we had a small party for her at one of her favorite pizza places, yes I actually allowed someone else to host her party (although it was kinda nice, no messy house, no clean up, humm this may not be so bad).

Anyhoo....She ate...and ate...and played lots of games (only those of course that would give her tickets).... because it is all about the prize at the end.

PS...the cake was super yummo....an ice cream cake .... delish! Wish you guys were here to join us!

Jungle in San Antonio

Chad gets so irritated with me that I really do hate to go downtown to the Riverwalk. It is not that I don't like it there, but it is VERY tourist-e and the only time we get a chance to go is on the weekend with an $8 parking fee and walk for a couple of blocks (in the SA humidity and heat), ummmm not so fun for me. But okay, it is Lissy's birthday and we wanted to take her to a "special place" for dinner. So we went to the "Rainforest Cafe". It is amazing..... we really do have a jungle in San Antonio, animals and all! She loved it, we loved it, and you gotta go! The food, ummmm, don't really remember that part, we were having too much fun walking on the wild side. So long story short, okay, I wanna go back to the San Antonio Riverwalk. Oh yeah, and my baby is now 6!!

Scooby Doo is still a Star!

We only allow Alyssa to watch cartoons and Disney Channel, although sometimes even Hannah Montana or High School Musical start this ridiculous kissing scene and we scurry to change the channel and she immediately covers her eyes, so innocent....I hope she still act this way when she is 16 (yeah right, I know). But, her ultimate favorite is Scooby Doo. If the kid sees anything Scooby related, she manages to finagle someone to buy it for her or if all else fails, pulls out her allowance money. She has the video collection and knows every single word of the movie. We figured that one out because I got a new car that has a DVD player. With her headset on, we heard her saying the entire movie. Yeah, ridiculous. I promise I am not a latch-key-TV-momma.

She managed to get this ball from Grammy. Thanks mom, for adding to the madness :)

SCREAM!!!

Okay, I, I mean Chad and I are still wondering when we will ever get too old or too tired to ride rollercoasters!? I think we have more fun than the 12 year olds who are wandering the amusement parks. Our favorite ride of all times is "Scream" at Fiesta Texas. Okay, so this ride is not a roller coaster, but it is still one sought out by thrill seekers..... aka....."us". We have season passes and manage to never....ever....get tired of this ride.....it is the first one on every single time! The anticipation makes my stomach hurt and when you get to the top, you feel so helpless and just know something crazy is coming. At the last minute when at the top of the ride I tell Chad how scared I am (every single time) and that I wanna get down. He grabs my hand, and quickly says...." Oh, you'll be down in a couple of seconds". Then woooosh.....down you go like a tiny little part of this big-wide-world.

When can we go again?

A First Day of Many Sorts

What an emotional roller coaster the "first day of school" is for a mommy. Some of my firsts on Monday were:

1. Relinquishing my "mommy control" to total strangers.
2. Watching Alyssa's daddy pack her school lunch and include a special love note for her eyes only.
3. Rushing to put on mascara and lipstick on in the morning so that a little someone could get somewhere on time. (Usually I am running late all on my own)
4. Crying first thing in the morning at the precious thought of Alyssa beginning a life journey.
5. Having a 5 year old tell me "enough pictures".
5. Having butterflies in my own stomach. (No Alyssa was not nervous, she is soooo like her dad)
6. Chasing a school bus (without my child on it) just to be nosy and see what route it takes at 7am in the morning. (By the way, I lost it somewhere ...... long story)
7. Signing a kazillion papers from school as a "parent/guardian" of a student.

I can't help to wonder how many other firsts I will have this school year.

Lame...I know

I know it is very lame that almost 2 weeks have passed and I have not posted to some of my favorite blogs, including my own. Although, it has been kinda interesting because friends and some family have called/emailed asking why have I not posted, so at least I know someone is reading our "stuff".

Well, out of the classroom has afforded me very busy summers of training science teachers around the state. Summer is no longer a down time for me, so these past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. Let's see, I have been to a town of strawberries (Poteet, TX), a town with nothing but Dairy Queen (Dilley, TX), and a town of Pinatas (Eagle Pass, TX). Gotta love the Lone Star State! Oh yeah, and in most of these places there is no Internet connection so no 5 minute blogging breaks for me. So, I feel like I have a million things to say, but today I will only focus on a "Choked Up Last Night".

Yep, it was open house at Lissy's new "Big-Kid School". Luckily I had my point and shoot to share some of our night. My sweet little 5 year old newborn will be going to kindergarten. She calls her teacher "Miss Honey" from the Matilda movie, but her real name is Ms. Gonzales. Lissy can't wait for Monday morning, she even wants to ride the school bus! What the heck! We joined the PTA, put money on her lunch account, she found her classroom and seat, bought some spirit stuff, and filled out a ton of papers. On her information sheet we had to put the name she likes to be called, I asked her if we could put "Lissy-Lou-Lou", "Love Bunny", "Love Button", etc. You can imagine what her response was: a roll of the eyes and "Mommy, I want people to call me Alyssa". I want to be selfish, and wanna know a SECRET? I don't want her to grow up. I want her to always snuggle and have tiny fingers, tiny toes, play dress up, and make beautiful macaroni jewelry.

Best Shot Macro Monday

It's A Macro Monday for me! Have a look at some great Best Shot Monday pics that other mommy's have posted! Share yours, we would love to see!

Today I sent Lissy out on a scavenger hunt with me trying to find something "green" for the theme of today's Macro Monday. She found this beautiful Coneflower growing in our flower bed. I did not plant it there though. Hummm...... really weird. I think maybe it was growing the the same container as something else I had planted, because it was a close neighbor to a Canna. Anyhooooo.... it is a real beauty. It looks like it has about 3 more blossoms on it, I can't wait to see them all. I know, it isn't really green, but has some green, does that count? I am a sucker for this macro lens, let's me get up close and personal with some of my favorite things.

Theme Thursday: "KEY"

Thursday's Theme: "Key"

The KEY to loving life is having fun and sharing it with special people. Of course one of my favorite "people" is my princess Lissy-Lou. Now that I am a mommy sometimes I think, gosh....what was my life like without her. How boring it and I must have been. She is my joy, my inspiration, my funny, my everything. Life is so much more colorful and rich with my little princess.

So many times I have fun just through the window she provides me. My Thursday picture is into her window of having fun at Fiesta Texas this past week. She loves the Wave Pool. She is still so little that those waves keep knocking her down and she thinks that is just the coolest thing. She does not see drowning as an option, so we have to keep a close eye on her. Even though she is a great swimmer, I wonder when she could possibly catch her breath with those waves sucking her down. She thinks she is ready to master the ocean and start surfing North Shore. Oh Alyssa honey, keep giving mommy some more windows so that I can have some fun with and through you.

Wordless Wednesday

A wordless Wednesday for me.