Six-Month Catch Up

Ok, so I haven't posted since August. To be honest, I didn't think I'd be all that great at this blogging thing (and I'm pretty sure nobody else thought I would be either!!!!) But I'm going to try to hop on here at least periodically and play some catch up. So here it goes....a minor wrap up of the last 6 months of our lives!

September 2010

• Spent Labor Day Weekend at the Lake with great friends. Did a lot of boating, camping and only got into 'minor' trouble....Let's just say Bob now has his own personal buoy somewhere in Lake Lewisville!!!
•  Jansen lost her 3rd tooth...it was the 1st one on top. Incredibly akward looking, but still so cute!
• Saw KISS in concert with great friends. Was an amazing concert!!! If you ever get the chance - see them!!!
• Celebrated Auntie Shan's 41st birthday - and man is she rockin' her 40's!!!
• Celebrated the twins' 32nd birthdays at a daytime Rangers game in a suite with lots of friends. It was a blast!!!

October 2010

• Daddy couldn't make it, so Grandpa Bob and Uncle Bob accompanied Jansen to school for 'Donuts for Dad' Soooo cute!!!!
• Loaded up the fam and headed to San Antonio to visit my BFF Sherril and her family. We went to Sea World, had great fun at the San Antonio Yacht Club/resaturant, went to the Riverwalk where Gracie FELL IN THE RIVER!!! It was such a fun trip!
• Took the kids to the State Fair where Jansen won the Pee Wee Rodeo for the 2nd year in a row! She won for Barrel Racing. Kennedy also took home a trophy! Our little Rodeo Girls!!!!
• Accompanied Jansen and her class on her first field trip. We went to a Pumpkin Patch and had a blast!
• Jansen got to cheer on the field for the Berkner Rams! She did cheers with the Cheerleaders, did cart wheels, jumps and even got into a pyramid or two. She was so excited and did such a great job. We were so happy that Meme and Granddad came to visit and go to see her!
• The Texas Rangers made it to the World Series!!! Though they lost to the Yankees in the end, it was an exciting time and we're proud to be Rangers fans!!!
• Halloween was lots of fun this year. Auntie Shan and Auntie Bresha spent lots and lots of time putting together Hudson's costume - a Fire Truck! It was an absolutely amazing costume! They did such a great job! Jansen was an absolutely perfect Beauty Pageant Queen, complete with sash and tiara!

November 2010

• Had Jansen's birthday party a few weeks early this year to avoid the Holiday mess. We celebrated at a Natatorium and the kids had an absolute blast! We swam, slid and lazed in the river. Big thanks to all of our wonderful family and friends who came to celebrate!
• Mikey and I spent Thanksgiving Day at the Cowboy's game in a private Club right on the field. We were 10 feet from the players and could literally hear them talking and plays being called. It was such a fun time!!!!!  And then we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family that Sunday, so we got the best of both worlds!
• Thanksgiving weekend, the kids and I headed down to Waco and spent the day with my BFF, Amy Wille and her family. It's always so much fun to hang out with old friends who you can just relax and be yourself with. I am so blessed to have so many great friends that I've known for 20+ years. THOSE are my girls!!!!!
• Did some CRAZY Black Friday shopping with Shannon. I know it's out of control and all, but I have so much fun shopping on Black Friday - even if I don't buy very much. It's just something I look forward to every year! This year Shan and I were the only one's to brave the crowds, but we had a blast!!!

December 2010

• Jansen turned 6 years old! I still can't believe how grown up she is! We celebrated with Lunch at the American Girl bistro and had a blast! Meme, Auntie Tammy and sweet Ella Grace were able to make it to town for the event. We had such a great girl's day!
• Jansen got 1st place for Kindergarteners in the Jingle Bell Run at school. From what I was told, she WIPED the other kid's plates clean! That's our girl!!!!
• Jansen lost her OTHER top tooth, so officially 'all she wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth!'
• Attempted to Potty Train Hudson....FAIL! Even told him that Santa wouldn't bring him presents...yea, that didn't work either : (
• Tried again 2 weeks later and SUCCESS! We are a diaper-free house!!!
• Poor Mikey got Pneumonia. He was miserable....I was miserable. It was not a fun time in our house!!
• New Year's Eve was an absolute BLAST!!! We took the Karaoke Cab to Las Colinas Country Club. We karaoked our way the whole time and had so much fun with the cab driver - Francisco! At the Club, we dined on steak and lobster, drank lots of vino and danced, danced, danced! Francisco picked us up and we karaoked our way safely home! It was one of the best NYE's we've ever had!

January 2011

• Got Jansen's 1st report card and she did great! On a scale of 1-3, she got all 3's and two 2's. She's doing such a wonderful job in Kindergarten! We are so proud of her!
• Celebrated Breann's 31st birthday with an overnight girl's trip the Choctaw Casino! Rachel and Janis joined the 'Fearsome Foursome' and we had an incredible time! Too bad the drive home was not so fun, as we got our first snowstorm of the year!
• Hudson turned 3! He's such a fun, happy, silly little guy. I can not believe the stuff he comes up with to make us laugh. He's a little stinker, but we enjoy every minute of him!
• Had Jansen's first Parent-Teacher Conference. Her teacher couldn't say enough nice things about her...she's a leader in the classroom and often helps fellow students with their work, is very polite, is above level on all subjects AND scored the highest grade on the Kindergarten Math Benchmark test! Way to go baby girl!!!!
• Mikey, Shan, Bob and I made our way to Fort Worth to meet Shawn and Amy Myers for some yummy Joe T. Garcia's for dinner and then the Fort Worth rodeo. We had so much fun and then there was an ACDC tribute band concert afterwards. We danced and cut up and had waaaay too much fun!
• Happy, Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet niece, Kennedy Ann ~ January 21
• Celebrated my 34th (dear lord!!!) birthday! Kay and Larry came to town and we also did a belated celebration for Hudson, since it snowed on his b-day. We went to Magic Time Machine and had a lot of fun. Jansen ran around most of the night trying to get autographs from the 'characters'. I was surprised at how good the food was and how much fun we had. We will definitely visit again soon!

February 2011

• MAJOR Ice/Snow storms in DFW and the schools were shut down for a total of 5 days! It was absolute Mayhem....and just so happened to be the week that Dallas was hosting the Superbowl!
• On one of the 'nicer' days of the snowstorm, the kid's opened up a Hot Chocolate stand in the front yard. Sure, nobody was out to see it or buy from them so daddy and I were their only customers, but they still treated us very professionally!
• Jansen raised $255 for the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser for her school. All proceeds go to the American Heart Association. She also picked up 1st place out of all of the Kindergarten girls for best jump roping. She practiced for 2 weeks, so she put a lot of work into it...I'm so glad she got to see that if you work hard for something, good things will come!
• My mother joined Facebook. I think the world stood still!!!!

And that pretty much wraps up our last 6 months. Stay tuned for more updates....it may be tomorrow, it may be another 6 months. You know I love to keep you guessing : )

First day of school update

Jansen absolutely loved her first day of Kindergarten and said she had lots of fun. They must have done a lot because my usual jabber-jaws of a child was very tired and eerily quiet when we got home - which would usually excite me, but I wanted to hear all about her day!!! What I did get out of her was this:

• She saw 2 girls from her gymnastics at school (VERY exciting for her!)
• Some kid, whose name she didn't know, gave her a small Baby Ruth candy bar at lunch????!!!
• She didn't get in trouble (yeah!!!)
• She overheard 2 teachers say she was cute (as if she needs an ego boost??!!!)
• She made 1 friend but couldn't remember her name
• Mrs. Blevins-her teacher- is really, really nice

All in all a good day! This morning we just did the drive-thru drop off and she was out the door and up the steps into the school in no time. So far, so good! Let's hope it stays this way!!!

KINDERGARTEN!!!!!

Today we hit a major milestone for all of us....Jansen's first day of Kindergarten! Though we were all excited this morning, it was also a shock to our systems with Jansen in school now, we had to modify our morning schedule just a bit! So today we got up 30 minutes earlier than usual and the kids ate breakfast at home (which they usually do on the run in the car or once they got to preschool!!!)

But we managed pretty well and even got to school before the 'early' bell at 7:45! Jansen couldn't wait to get to school this morning...when I went in to wake her up, she hopped right out of bed and exclaimed 'I LOVE this day!!!'. Then she promptly got dressed in her bumble bee shirt and cute skirt with silver sandals, then headed to the kitchen for some Fruit Loops!

The school drop off was in classic 'Richardson' style - Me, Mikey, Hudson, Auntie Shan and Auntie Franny and Grandma Deebee...you know we travel in packs!

Jansen did GREAT with drop off and didn't have a second's hesitation. She sat right down in her seat and was ready for the day to start. And then to my surprise, I didn't even cry! I think I was just too darn excited (and proud of her) to even think about crying!

I can't wait to get home tonight to hear all about her day!!!

Getting ready to head to school!

She's a Yale Roadrunner now!

Always a family affair!

Even Grandma Deebee came to wish her well!

Luau!

Jansen and Hudson's pre-school, The Octopus Garden, is always up to something fun and they are so good about sharing pics from the neat events they do during the school day. Hudson's teacher took this picture of the two of them at a Luau they had a few weeks ago....my little Hawaiian babies!!!

Ella Grace!

Mike's Sister and Husband (Tammy and Shane) were blessed with the adoption of their beautiful daughter Ella Grace who was born on May 13, 2010. We went to her baptism in Shreveport a few weeks ago and stayed (and played) in their beautiful lake house! We had a blast on the lake and hanging out with the family and most of all, loving on my new niece - she is such a doll!!!

What a good lookin' crew!!!

Cousins! Hudson, Ethan and Jansen

Meme with all of her grandkids!

Jansen with her Meme and Auntie Tammy

Meme, Ella Grace and Tammy

Big Sisters Can be Torture

Thank goodness Hudson is a good sport and thinks the world of his big sister. The other night Jansen called for me to go into the bathroom where she and Hudson were taking a bath. I walked in to find that she had found a new use for the shaving cream I gave them to play with...Don't you love Hudson's 'bedroom eyes'???!!

Hi, I'm Shalon....and I'm a mom

Like most other mothers, I'm guessing, I go through every day just doing business as usual and do the things that mom's do without even thinking about it....take kids to school, make sure clothes are clean and try to get dinner on the table at a decent hour. But every so often there is something that hits me like a bolt of lightning and makes me think 'wow, I really am a mom'.  This happened to me this morning as I was trying to get everyone ready and out of the house:

• I remembered that Jansen has Tee-Ball practice tonight, so I thought I should throw something in the crockpot for dinner...prior to kids, I NEVER thought about dinner before I  had had the chance to eat breakfast!
• Then while I was cooking the brown-sugar glaze to put over the ribs in the crock pot, I figured I'd throw the few dishes from the sink and start the dishwasher. Dishes before work ALWAYS make me feel very mom-like.
• Then as I was reaching for something out of the pantry, I noticed the pile of towels and wet bathing suits from swimming all weekend piled up on the floor and threw them in the washer so they'd be ready for the dryer when I got home tonight.

Crockpot - Dishes - Laundry....all before 8 am. Hi, I'm Shalon and I'm a MOM!

Isaac's 2nd Birthday

Shannon and I have been so blessed with wonderful In-Laws and extended family and the fact that all of our families are so accepting of each other. This past weekened we celebrated Shannon and Bobby's nephew, Issac's, 2nd birthday. They had a bounce house at their home and everyone had a blast - even the adults!!!

Isaac and his mommy, Janis

Kennedy, Jansen and Zack (Isaac's brother)

Kennedy and Jansen ADORE Zack and he's such a good sport with them!

Hudson in the Bounce House -

His shirt says 'Lock up your Daughters'. It cracks me up every time I see it!!!

Bounce House buddies!

Me and my babies!

Me and my boy

Our favorite girl!

Kindergarten Round Up!

Yesterday was Kindergarten Round Up/Registration for Jansen. It's so hard to believe that she is ready for Kindergarten....how on earth did we get to this place????? When she was born, Kindergarten seemed soooooo far away, yet here we are now. It is sad and exciting at the same time. She is beyond thrilled to be going. Last night while Michael and I filled out paperwork and learned about the school and procedures, Jansen went with her fellow classmates to a Kindergarten class and had story time and did a craft. When they asked the kids to go with them, she was the first to jump and run to the line...she didn't even say goodbye or look back at us! I love that she's so excited and ready to go, but it was hard to see her walk away from me like such a big girl without a moment's hesitation. This is going to be so much harder on me than her!

Here she is in front of her new school - Yale Elementary. It is just down the street from us, in our neighborhood and is ranked as an Exemplary school. We are so lucky to have such a great school right in our own neighborhood!

Spring???? Maybe not....

Supposedly yesterday was the first day of Spring. Well, I guess Texas didn't get the memo because we had a semi-snow storm last night and it feels more like January! The kids played for a while, but it was so cold they came in before I got to take any pictures of them. The dogs loved it, so I got some pics of them and then of the kids enjoying some yummy hot chocolate!