The Water Boy

Zach helped Papo water the plants... he loved it!

A Rare Night Out

While in Corpus, we got a chance to have a night out! Yea for nights out!! :) Thank you Papo & Grandma BB.
We met Kelly, Kevin, Aunt Grace & Uncle Tony at the Martini Bar. Floyd's band, Out of Bounds was playing. We love live music!! We had a grand 'ol time. :)





Hilarious! :)

Silly Girl

Sophie found the baby's bumbo chair! Lol!

Long Lost Family

We had a little get together at the ranch while we were in Corpus. We got to meet little Mason for the first time and catch up with the rest of the family. Mason is the 7th great grandchild in the family and we have two more coming this year! So exciting!!
We love to go out to the ranch...for several reasons...1. it holds lots of good memories for Gabe and I know that he wants the same for our children, 2. it's so nice to see the family come together, 3. the food, 4. the stories and the laughs, 5. and our little ritual...while driving through we stop and get Herschapp's famous beef jerky with a slushee (which the kids now love too)!

Where Daddy Going (as Sophie would say)?

This is what happens when Daddy has to leave for work or school. :) The kids go running for the front windows to wave bye-bye. Funny how the windows are just the right size for the little monkeys!

Our Trip to the Zoo

On Thursday of Spring Break, we ventured out to the Houston Zoo. This was our first time back since Sophie was a baby. We thought that she would enjoy it more this time around.
We knew it would probably be busy because of it being Spring Break and it was also a beautiful day, but man...it was empty! Who am I kidding?? It was pretty busy! But it was only bad in the common areas. Like the restrooms, eating areas, and little walkways. We took our time, looking at all of the animals and not really stressing over the crowd.
We spent a lot of time with the reptiles. I think this was Zach's favorite!! Before we went in, a man handed us books about the animals and the zoo. Inside the book, Zach found a blue frog, which he was amazed by. So he was on a mission to find the blue frog!! And he did! He was so excited. It was too cute!
We snacked on popcorn and sno cones...now a favorite of Sophie's. And before we left, we had to buy Zach some cotton candy.
I think we stayed there for four hours! But we had a really good time and it didn't even feel like we were there for that long.
By the time we were leaving, it was prime traffic time. So we decided to go ahead and eat dinner somewhere in the area. We went to a little pizza joint that we like. Mmmmm, so good.
On the way home, Sophie crashed out in the car and she pretty much stayed asleep while I changed her and got her ready for bed. Poor baby had a long, exhausting day!
Until next time, Houston Zoo...

Happy St. Patty's Day!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!! We didn't do anything too special, but we did take Daddy some lunch and we ate at his office. We ended up staying for a little while. The kids like to visit Gabe at work. They play and play. They would probably want to stay all day if we would let them!
I did have to show that we did dress in green for the day! :)


(okay, having problems with this pic for some reason!)

Great Weather

Spring Break is here!!! The weather was perfect on the first day of Spring Break and we couldn't resist not taking advantage of it!! We played outside all morning and even had a little picnic for lunch. The kids really enjoyed it.

Surprise!!!

SURPRISE!!!!!!!! And surprised is right. I can be so sneaky sometimes (in a good way, of course)! :) Since it was a 'milestone' birthday for Gabe, I knew I wanted to do something special for him. At first though, I couldn't make up my mind... did I want to throw him a surprise party, take him on a trip, or buy him something big that he really wanted?? I weighed my options heavily and finally decided on the party. I thought that if I could get a lot of family and friends here (especially ones that he hadn't seen in a while) then that would make his day!

So, one day when he was napping I snuck his phone away and stole phone numbers. I then sent a text to everyone explaining what I was doing and asked for their email address so that I could send them an evite. Shockingly, I heard back from everyone pretty quickly and I sent the evite out...there was no turning back now!! Hahahaha!

The planning part was pretty easy. And I couldn't really talk about the party in front of the kids, I was afraid that they would spill the beans. So they were in the dark too for a while. :)
And this part was weird...every time someone would call me about the party or have a question, Gabe would never be around! I thought..."this is too easy!"

I was having the party at our house, so to get him out of the house, the kids gave him a trip to the golf course with two of his friends for the day. This was the only thing that I could think of that 1. would get him out of the house for a few hours and 2. he wouldn't get too suspicious of.

The morning of the party, Gabe left for the golf course and I left to drop of presents for my niece and nephew's party (yes, it was their birthday too), run to party city to pick up balloons and a couple of last minute things, run to our favorite mexican restaurant for salsa, chips, and beans, and run to Wal-Mart for beer, snack trays, etc. Then I had to hurry home to set up, decorate, get dressed and greet guests!! Thank God for my in-laws and my Mom. They were a huge help!

Everyone else started arriving at 4pm. I was expecting Gabe to arrive no later than 5pm, but you can't really put a start and finish time on a good game of golf! Ha! I think he finally got there around 6! Better late than never!! :)

We all hid in the house and of course anxiously awaited for him to walk in the door. He was genuinely surprised. He said he had no idea about the party. Of course, when he saw the cars, he started getting a little suspicious because he started recognizing some of them. But all in all, he had no clue!! I was so proud!! :)

So then the party really began. My father-in-law and Gabe's Uncle Tony cooked up some delicious beef fajitas and sausage. And actually I don't even know how to describe them...delicious is an understatement!! It was sooo good!

We all ate and had a good time. The party seemed to be a success. I know Gabe and I had a good time. And the turn out was a lot more than I first expected (since a lot of them lived out of town, I didn't think they would come). The party flew by...so much so that we stayed up all night! We are crazy, I know. But like the song says, "The road goes on forever, but the party never ends!" We had a lot, a lot of laughs. Gabe and I were still talking about things from the party all week long. I told him, "I guess it was a good party since we are still talking about it 5 days later!" Lol!

I love you Honey. I hope you enjoyed your Surprise 30th Birthday Party!!!

Greeting the guests.

Hugging his Dad.

Awww, my sweet hubby was surprised! Nice job, Christy!

Ready to party!

The Wittschen's. Kevin helped me get Gabe out of the house! Thanks Kevin!

Jayne, me & Tabitha.

Happy Birthday Gabe!!

Delicious cake from Estelle. MMMMM, so good!

Floyd made the trip from Corpus too. I love it when these two get together and sing!

Someone wasn't ready to go to bed yet.

And of course, when friends & alcohol get together, then the competition starts. Todd went first.

Then it was Gabe's turn... yeah, he ripped out 30!

Gabe, Floyd, & Todd.




Thank you to everyone that came! Gabe really appreciated it and had a real good time.

And thank you Abel & Esmi for all that you did. The food was delicious.

Thank you to Uncle Tony & Aunt Grace too!

Love you guys!

Someone Is 30!

Someone, not naming any names, wasn't in a very good mood. I think he was just hungry. :)

Happy Birthday Gabe (Daddy)!!! Friday, March 12th was Gabe's 30th birthday. Unfortunately he had to work and not only work, but work hard ALL day!!! He left after 7 that morning and didn't get home til almost 8 that night!! My poor baby. Normally he is home around 6, but since this was the first Friday of Spring Break, it was craaazy.
So when he finally did make it home, we gave him his presents and then we went to eat some good 'ol mexican food. Don't forget, it's Lent- no meat for us!! :)

One of Gabe's good friends also had a birthday, so after dinner, they went and celebrated with a few drinks. I didn't want him to stay out too late because we had surprised him with a trip to the golf course as one of his birthday presents. There's more to this story in the next post! :)

Happy 30th Birthday Honey! I love you! xoxoxoxoxo

25 Months

March 6th also marked Sophie's 25th month birthday!! Has it really already been a month since her party?? Gosh! Unbelievable!!
She is growing into such a little girl (instead of a baby or toddler). She is learning so much so fast. And she has a steel trap memory- just like brother!!
My favorite thing she does now is dance. She is a crack up!! I will have to catch this on video. Too funny not to see.

Here is something funny from the other day:

It was morning and we were trying to decide what to eat for breakfast. You probably had to be there, but it was funny at the time!

Zach: "Mom, I'm hungry. I want breakfast."

Mom: "Well, what do you want for breakfast?"

Sophie: "Hmmmm. Hot dogs!?!"

Road Trip!

Well, here I go again...time to catch up! :)
The first weekend of March (the 6th) we drove to Dallas to help Gage celebrate his 2nd birthday. It was just me and the kids because Gabe had to work and study/work on a paper. We decided to leave early Saturday morning, so I got up at 5:45 and I had to wake the kids up at 6:45 (early for all of us). We got dressed, packed up, grabbed some donuts and kolaches for breakfast and we were off.
The drive wasn't too bad. I was a little nervous at how Sophie would behave, but she was actually really good. She slept the last hour of the drive, so that helped. Zach is always good in the car now. He knows to bring movies, books and his DS to play.
We got to Tabitha's house at about 11:15 and the party was in full swing! Gage has been into trains so that is what the theme was for the party. We ate good food, played outside, watched Gage open presents, played inside, ate some cookie cake, and hit a train pinata. And I got to visit with my girls for six hours!! :) I also got to meet Baby Grant for the first time. He is sooo cute!

MMMM, cookie cake!

The big Birthday Boy!!

Tabitha & Gage

Sweet Baby Grant

My Princess lounging

My Locksmith at it again!

Me & the Girls (we missed you Dallas)

Sophie hitting the pinata.

Gage & Sophie playing with his new train table.

Sophie & Dane on the moonwalk slide. They were a hoot!

We left the party at 5ish and just decided to drive back home. Well, I wanted to drive back home at that point. Zach and Sophie wanted to go to Grandma & Papa's house. So, I had to think of something to where they would want to go home instead. :)

As soon as we got on the freeway, Zach said he was hungry. And after thinking about it, I was like, "Well, yeah. That's because you haven't really eaten anything since breakfast." With all of the excitement and playing, I guess he never really got hungry. So my plan was to stop in Ennis to get McDonald's for the kids. But when we got to Ennis, both of the kids were knocked out!! I kept driving, thinking that I would stop when they woke up. The next Mickey D's was in Fairfield. Okay, brace yourself... I pulled up to the drive thru and there was a sign that said: "Sorry for the inconvenience but we are currently out of nuggets." WHAT????? I couldn't believe it!!! Out of nuggets??? You have got to be kidding me!!!

By this time, I was starving too!!! Yes I probably could have stopped somewhere else, but Zach kept asking for nuggets. So that is when I decided to keep driving, not to go to my parents. Because their exit was coming up and I knew there wasn't going to be anything to eat around there. And I had to fib a little bit to the kids...I told them that the next McDonald's was past Grandma & Papa's exit and that I missed it. I just figured that would be easier to explain. Because by this time I just wanted to be home.

We finally found a McDonald's at the Bryan exit (I think). Only 2 1/2 hours later!!! And we got home at 9 on the dot.

Yes, it was a long day but it was a fun day too!! Even Zach said, "Mom this was a fun day. I like this!" :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Gage!!!