Here's a new years resolution- updating the blog!!! It's been almost a year and a half since I last updated the blog, so I guess it's about time!! I am so bad at all this!! We are completely enjoying the last days of our Christmas break. We have literally spent the day in our pj's! It's so nice to just relax and enjoy time with each other. Well, a few things have changed since I last blogged.....McKinley is now in second grade (she will turn 8 in February), and she just got braces last month. She started playing volleyball this fall, and I got to coach her team - lots of fun!! They won first place in the 1-2 grade division, which was exciting for all of us! McKinley also began Girl Scouts this year - can't wait till cookie time!!! Kellan is now 3 (she'll be 4 in March). She is still doing dance and started gymnastics this year. She loves them both. Her recent favorite movie is Barbie Three Musketeers, so she is practicing both her dance and gymnastics as she pretends to sword fight around the house. The girls have both grown so much - the time just goes by too fast. Mike and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary last month. I can't believe it's been a decade already. I am truly blessed to have such an awesome husband that is the love of my life and my best friend!! We are still both teaching at Frisco H.S. (this is our third year). We love it, and really enjoy working with the other teachers there. Mike just finished up with football season, and is now in wrestling season. Our days are so busy during the school week that they are just flying by.

Sweet Summer

Summer has been so much fun - it's hard to believe that it is over for us this week.  Mike and I start back with inservice Monday, and the week after that, McKinley will start her first day of first grade!  The photos are of the girls feeding the ducks in our neighborhood (one of our stops on our bike rides).  The ducks are pretty fearless.  We think they recognize Kellan's little red trailer on the back of Mike's bike and know it's feeding time.  They come right up to us and eat out of our hands.  The girls really look forward to it - so much so that yesterday McKinley was just eating the meat and cheese out of her sandwich so that she could give the bread to the ducks.  

As Kellan is talking more, she is saying so many cute things.  I have to take the opportunity to share some "Kellan-isms"!!

Lemonade = yemoname

Moses (our dog) = Moyes

Necklace = Neck-a-ness

Diet Coke - Kiet Coke

Ranch dressing = Ranch up (she combines it with ketchup)

Lip stick - yiptok

Water Bottle - WaudaBoda

 Smoochie - Foochie

 Chocolate Chip - chick-a-chock-chip

Popsicle - sickymo

 

She also talks with a northern accent, some of her favorite sayings are "It's so good", and "I can't believe it".

McKinley just started gymnastics, and she is cartwheeling all over the house.  She is very accident prone. 

 She has busted out one of her top teeth in a bike wreck, she was looking in my hope chest, and dropped the lid of it on her nose, and the list goes on and on.  

I have to share her picture from her dance recital.  She looks all grown up!!

I guess that's all the updating for now.  More to come soon, as Mike's mom, dad, and youngest brother are moving about 10 minutes away. We can't wait for them to be here - it will be so nice to have family so close!!  His mom and dad already have their Frisco gear on for Mike's football games!

World's Record

Well, as far as I am concerned, Kellan set a new world record today.  Lately she has been taking her time eating her food.  By taking her time, I mean that she chews her food a little, and then, like a chipmunk, stores it in her cheek until she decides it is time to swallow.  Now, it hasn't been too bad or too frequently that she does this, but tonight was the end-all.  We ate chicken, carrots, and green beans for dinner.  She had a bite of chicken going when she took a carrot bite, and after an hour and twenty minutes she finally swallowed it all.  Mike and I got a true lesson on patience.  Here are a few pictures of our little one - how sweet they are!!  Check out those cheeks!!!  I don't know what we did for entertainment before kids!

Happy Fourth!!!

We had such a blast for the fourth of July!  We went over to Mike's Aunt Jane and Uncle Daniel's house in North Richland Hills.   It was an impromptu family reunion!  There were 10 kids under 12, so we were almost outnumbered.  Mike's mom and dad both were able to come in as well as one of his cousins from Oklahoma (she has a set of triplet girls that are7). 

 We also brought our dog, Moses, with us, so he was also able to get in on the fun with his friends at Aunt Jane's!

We had a full day of swimming, sliding, playing basketball, hanging out, and of course, eating!!  I was also reintroduced to the fascinating game of Rummikub.  I enjoyed playing, but I believe there are very few of us who actually do like the game.  

Mike's Mom and Dad are both about to move close to us!  Mike's dad has given him a transfer to the area, and he starts here next week.  Mike's mom is waiting for her house to sell in Amarillo, and then she'll join us.  We are so excited that Gramma and Papaw will be in town for good very soon!  

Other than that, our only other news is that Kellan is slowly but surely learning to potty train.  We are having fun running to the potty every 20 minutes.  Hopefully she'll be done by the end of summer.  

Hope your summer is going great!!

Our First Blog!

Well, it seems that we are far behind on the blog scene, so here goes our first attempt!

We finished our first year in Frisco, and absolutely love it here. Mike and I both teach at Frisco High School. He teaches history and coaches football and wrestling. I have hung up my coaching for now and and very content to teach Science. We are blessed to live 5 1/2 miles from work, so we have lots of family time together. A very nice and needed change from the busyness of Houston.

McKinley is 6 now, just finished Kindergarten, and has mastered riding her bike (after her accident where she lost her second top tooth). Kellan is 2 and is having a blast doing everything- she loves to swim, play with her Biddie (teddy bear) and watch Barney (such fun for us) among other things!!

The best part about being teachers is having a summer break. Most of our time is spent at the pool, the library, and around the neighborhood riding our bikes. Since McKinley learned to ride her bike, we go out almost every evening. Kellan is content riding in her little rig behind Mike, singing to us as we pedal along! The mornings and evenings are so nice with a cool breeze and no humidity!!!

The pictures are from our family vacation tour of Texas!! We went to Houston, Gruene, New Braunfels, San Marcos, and Austin to visit family and friends, and have some fun!! We took the girls to Schlitterbahn (Kellan's first time), and they had a blast. McKinley has gotten so good at swimming - she is a little fish. Kellan has no fear of the water and is ready to jump in at any time. Mike and I braved shopping at the outlets with a two year old that was severely deprived of a nap and who wanted nothing to do with her stroller but kick her way out of it. We had an awesome outing on Lake Travis, followed by a visit to our favorite restaurant, The Oasis. Today we came home - glad we got to go, but glad to be home.

As we visited all our dear friends, we talked about how God has blessed us with such incredible friendships, ones that will span the miles that separate us, and pick up where we left off as not to skip even one beat.