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Monday, August 25, 2008

First Day of 1st Grade!!!

Can you believe Skyler is in 1st grade? I can't. She has been so excited and very ready to get back to school. She did wonderful last year and this year I hope she does just as well. Her Kindergarten report card had nothing but checks in every fundamental and I am hoping this year she will keep it up. We were told that the first 9 weeks will be just checks and x's then next nine weeks she will started getting numeric grades. She looked so pretty and grown up this morning. I have to make a comment about the fact that she is so outgoing and popular. I just don't understand how a 6 year old can know so many people and they all know her by name...teachers, kids, and parents of kids. God only knows what is in store for her, but I hope she uses her ability to make friends easy to good use. Here are some pictures of the fir day of 1st grade.

When we got home I cut her hair...this is the final product. I think it looks pretty.
This week was also PJ day at Madison's daycare, here is how she looked when she went to school. It seemed so funny getting her up and changing her from one set of Pj's to another and fixing her hair. I just couldn't send her in what she slept in.
This last weekend me, Madison and daddy went to the beach. Of course there are never any pictures with me in it as I am always the one taking them. :o)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

In need of some zzzzzzzzzzzzzz's

Am I the only one not getting much sleep due to the very addicting Olympics? They are all exciting and wonderful but man....I have been finding it hard to wake up in the mornings. I was just wondering if I am alone in this or if there are others doing the same.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Skyler's 6th Birthday!!!

Skyler had an eventful 6th birthday...her Grammy took her to Libby Lu's where she got a "make over", daddy and I took her to dinner at Macaroni Grill where she had a cake, we took them to play at Market Street, and she had a sleep over with a total of 7 giggling, screaming, silly little girls! I was prepared for a long night but it wasn't that bad, they were asleep by 11pm. Skyler and the girls had so much fun. Even Madison had a good time...she was right there in the middle of it all playing and laughing.

Playing dress up.
The mummy game
After the mummy game
(Excuse my naked 2 year old who was supposed to be putting on her PJ's)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Family Update

Skyler will be 6 this weekend and we are having a sleepover with about 6-7 girls. Keep me in your thoughts as I am sure it will be CRAZY at our house and I am sure that I won't get much sleep. HA! But, it will be fun and Skyler is so excited. In two weeks she will be starting 1st grade! I can't believe it...1st grade??? Where has time gone?

Madison is such a sweet and loving little girl who has finally hit the "terrible two's". She is really pushing the limits and testing all of us but she can turn you into mush when she wants to with her sweetness. We have also taken away the binky and she has been doing pretty well during the day but the nights are a little hard for her.

Schuyler was so wonderful with the girls while I was on my trip. He said he loved it because he got all of the hugs and kisses because he didn't have to share them with me. HA! When I got home he had even washed a few loads of clothes! CRAZY.....my husband knows how to use the washing machine!??? :o) He is still enjoying his new position at work and is always on his way up.

This week I registered for a course through Rice University to get ready for the exam to get my PHR certification. I am excited to be doing this, as it will really help me in my career. I am also grateful that Schuyler is willing to help me with the house and girls while I "go back to school". He will have to be Mr. Mom one evening a week for 13 weeks. Thank you babe for supporting me in this. I love you!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Alaskan Cruise

My cruise was so spectacular and unforgettable. We went on tours of the small beautiful towns, went on an amazing glacier tour, my mother-n-law and I went zip lining, got a very relaxing massage and facial on the boat,I saw tons of eagles, whales, Salmon and a bear, saw a lot of shows on the boat and some real funny comedians. It was such and amazing place to visit and so beautiful...tons of mountains covered with snow and huge cedar trees. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Lynn and I had a room with a balcony which made all the difference. It was so amazing waking up to the views we woke up to.
Below is a view of downtown Seattle from the boat as we were about to leave.

We watched 2 men carving and making fruit animals. They made them right in front of us, 5 each in about 10 minutes. so neat
Here are some of our group one night before dinner. Oh boy did we have some great food. It was five star dinning ever night. I tried so much stuff that I have never tried before and even liked a lot of them.
A whale...this was the only picture that I got of the many that I saw. Seeing those big animals so close was truly exciting.
A picture from inside the ship.
The art gallery on the ship
A view from our balcony one day.
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Below are pictures from The Mendhall Glacier in Juneau Alaska. The Glacier was so pretty and I can't even explain how big and bright blue it was. The tour guide said they are blue due to the fact that they absorb every color, other than blue and they reflect the blues.
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This was in one of the towns we stopped in, Skagway, Alaska. It was a funny sight so
I had to take a picture. :o)
A view from the town back towards the boat.
A building in Skagway, Alaska. The front of the building was covered in over
6,000 pieces of drift wood.
The Red Onion Saloon in Skagway, Alaska. We took a tour of the town and learned all about the gold rush in the Klondike mountains and how it effected their town. The Klondike mountains are right outside of the town. We learned about all of the prostitution in the town and toured the old brothel, The Red Onion, which is now a restaurant on the lower level and the museum of the old brothel on the upper level. It was all very interesting.
Inside the Saloon
These pictures below are just some of the flowers and plants in the towns.
While in Skagway I went off on my own and saw that there was a hiking trail that went up a mountain. Toward the bottom there were signs telling about a lake and other stuff up the trail. I started to hike it and there were a few people on the way. Once I got up pretty high and the trail was going almost straight up and not passing any more other hikers I decided that I would stop and no go any further. I had seen a bear the day before in another town and didn't think doing what I was doing by myself was very safe. Below is a picture of the town, behind and below the water towers from the mountain while hiking it is hard to see how high I was but you can see the roof tops and that was on the way down from where I had stopped. It was neat on top of being a little scary.
The view from the hiking trail
A beautiful sunset. It was about 10:30pm at that point. The sun went down about 10:30pm and came up again around 4 m. It was hard to get used to. You would be tired and not know why if you hadn't looked at a clock in a while. It was hard getting back on schedule when I got home....not to mention that in Alaska we were 3 hours behind Texas on top of the sun issue.
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Lynn on our balcony

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This picture of Lynn on the deck of the boat shows how close we were to those huge mountains. We were not docked in this picture we were cruising.



These next pictures were taken while we were in Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska. Our cruise ship past another princess ship that was the exact same as ours. The Fjord was am amazing place, full of ice bergs on our way back to the big glacier. However, we were not able to make it to the actual glacier since the icebergs were too many and too big. The boat was going very slow and actually pushing some out of the way. There was a naturalist on the oat from National geographic telling us some neat facts about the Fjord, like how you could only survive about 10 minutes in these waters, how the waters are 1,000 feet deep because it was formed by a HUGE glacier many years ago, and that the air in the Fjord is so pure that it the purist on Earth. Complete oxygen and some people will even get the giggles, almost like a high on oxygen. It was all so very interesting, pretty and very cold.


In the top one there are no people on the deck and that is becuase it was COLD and about 6am.
See how the enormous mountains dwarf the other cruise ship. Those ships are huge so, you get a real sense of how big the mountains were in this picture because it made the cruise ship with thousands of people look like a toy!!


As we passed the other ship you were able to hear them yelling hi at us and we all yelled back, it was funny.


Look how big the icebergs were that the boat was pushing out if the way. Remember, you only see 1/5 of the actual ice. The rest is under the water. This picture was also taken from our balcony.


This was the picture that I took while I was laying in my bed. So cool.
Me and Lynn just before zip lining
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Lynn zip lining
Me zip lining, it was scary but A LOT OF FUN.

Below is the rock wall that I climbed, I thought I was going to die it was so hard. There is a bell at the top that you ring once you have made it and I almost gave up before getting up there. Then Lynn encouraged me and I did it. I rang the bell at the very top, then when they lowered me down. I just laid on the ground from exhaustion. But I am proud of myself for doing it.


A really neat hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. It was a very pretty town, out of all of the places that we visited on this trip this was the one town that I would like to live in.


This is the government building at night in Victoria, British Columbia. They have lights on the building that makes it stand out at night.


The public market in Seattle.

A shirt in Seattle that reminded me of Madison. :o)

I took this on the plane coming home. I was happy to be home but the plane ride was pretty bumpy due to heat waves. We left Seattle in sweatshirts and had a layover in Pheonix where it was 108. Off came those sweatshirts!!! :o)