Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Okay, I know it's a little late, but think of it as a New Years Card not a Christmas card! I have been busier than normal and got behind on my personal stuff. So, here is a pic of my kiddos. I didn't do Christmas cards like normal. Next year I will try to be better. I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We celebrated at my mother-in-laws house. We have a live nativity on Christmas eve...and, of course, I forgot my camera so I will get pics from my sis-in-law later!!! Then later on Christmas day we traveled to Houston to visit my mom, 2 of my sisters and 1 of my brothers. It was fun to see everyone...or almost everyone. One of my new year resolutions is to do better at updating this more often! Hopefully I can at least keep that one!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
P.S.-my friend Maurita creates some awesome cards...whether they are for christmas, babies, announcements!!! Check her out...she is in my friends list! She rocks!

My Little Zebra...

Payton wanted to be a zebra for Halloween so grandma Ann helped make the cute skirt and I found some felt and voila...a zebra...girly style.



She had so much fun! We went to the church and did the Trunk or Treat and played some games! She was a pro at the ring toss. She could have played it all night.

Happy Birthday Cody!

I can't believe that I have a 16 year old!!



I do have to say he is pretty darn cute though! Love you Cody!

Update on Cody

So just to update everyone on Cody. We went to Cook Children's Hospital last week to have stent put in his aorta. It went sooo well. We want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts while he was having his procedure done. They had to put a catheter through his groin and up to the arch in the aorta. It was the size just a little larger than the diameter of a straw. Ouch. We have a video of it but I can't figure out how to get it off our CD and on here. These pictures will just have to do. I hope you're not squeemish. I thought it was way cool! His biggest problem is the groin area. He is still pretty sore there. I think he just overdoes it at school everyday. But anyway, he is doing well and we are so excited for him to get back to regular activity and move on from this.

Before:


After:


It's amazing the things that technology and science can do for the body! I was so impressed with our doctor. He was amazing!

Presenting The Purple Princess Ponies!

Okay, so the girls named themselves and compromised by being The Purple Princess Ponies. That made everyone happy. They had their first game today...against a boys team! We thought they might be intimidated but they got out there and played like it was normal! They did great and even scored the first goal. So, they don't technically keep score at this age so, as far as I see it...we won!

Payton #2, waiting on her game to start.


My purple pony going for the goal!


She didn't even hesitate to play, I was so proud of her!

Ballet

Payton started Ballet last week. She was too shy to participate but this week she decided to be a little braver and danced her little heart out. It was so cute!

Making sure mom doesn't move too far away...


She was actually 'trying' to point her toe...


Finally comfortable enough to dance to the Mickey music!

Soccer Girl

This picture was from the first day of soccer practice. She was sooo excited!

By Tiffany

Check out my new blog....just a few things I've been doing.
bytiffany.blogspot.com

It's his heart! Not a baby!

Okay, I know when you see sonograms you think baby, but this is Cody's aorta. We went in to get a release for sports for school and came back with restrictions. Cody was diagnosed with 'Coarc'. Short for Coarctation of the Aorta. "Coarctation of the aorta is a narrowing of the aorta between the upper-body artery branches and the branches to the lower body. This can increase blood pressure in the arms and head, reduce pressure in your legs and seriously strain your heart." So today we are anxiously awaiting a phone call from the doctor to schedule surgery. They will go in and either do a balloon dilation or implant a stent. Just waiting to find out. Apparantly this is something he was born with but never diagnosed with until recently. Props to the R.N. who heard a little murmur and thought his blood pressure was suspect! As active as he is it is a little crazy to think what could have happened if we hadn't found this. Basically the doctor said that the worst that could happen is "He could collapse on the court and die." Plain and simple. I guess we'll get this done ASAP!
If you look at the picture where the letters DAO are it shows the narrowing. And on the left and right there are little white dots that show the normal size of the aorta on either side. Crazy!

North Texas Ranch Rodeo!

Brian competed this past Monday at the 1st Annual Invitational Ranch Rodeo at the State Fair here in Denton. It rained all day and cleared up long enough for us watch.

Brian roping a calf: This was Kevins 1st time in an arena (Kevin is Brians horse - he did really good for a 4 year old.)



Calf Doctoring:



Wild Cow Milking: It's just as sounds Milking wild cows!




Brian and Kevin:

That's My Girl...

Payton loves to help daddy with the cows. She thinks she is big enough to do it all!

I love the outfits she picks to wear...spurs and all...even pink boots...


"I can do it myself!" is something we hear daily...multiple times...


Daddy's got to count the calves with her...she doesn't do it quite right yet.


I think she has heard me tell Cody how to drive...she kept saying, "Two hands on the wheel, watch the road!". FYI, she was only driving in the field...not the main road.

High Adventure

Last month Cody went on a High Adventure trip to Colorado to hike and take on the Royal Gorge white water. He was so excited...until he picked up his backpack that weighed somewhere around 50 pounds. They ended up having a great time. Brian drove up for the last couple of days and rafted with them. I will post more pictures if I can find anyone that went on the trip and took a camera!

Latest Creations...

Here are few things I have been working on lately! Just thought I would share.
Pink Cat's eye Pasi:


Matching Pink Paci and baby bracelet:


Allsport Paci Clip:


Blessing Bracelet:


Pink Cat's Eye and Swarovski Crystal:


Sterling Silver Baby Bracelet:

Weekend Project

Payton LOVES to swing. So, for her birthday Brian and I bought her a swing set....well, Brian bought it, I put it together. She was so excited! She wanted to help so bad so I let her hammer some of the t-nuts into a couple of the boards. For all of you moms who know who Handy Manny is, she kept trying to put a pencil behind her ear while she helped me saying,"Mom, I want to be Handy Manny!" Sometimes she is so cute!

Here's a picture of her helping hammer...she actually did a really good job.


About 3pm...almost there...okay, a little over half way. It was sooo hot!


After about 9-10hours (about 2 hours short of the estimated time to build on the instructions) I finished my weekend project!


Payton probably asked me every 30 minutes if I was done yet! She could hardly stand it. First thing every morning she asks me if she can go swing. I love it.
(Yes, Brian helped, a little...he was at work most of the day then he put the last 5 screws in the slide and helped me attach it. Then, he made me dinner!)

Happy Birthday Payton!

We celebrated Payton's birthday on Saturday at Grandma and Papa's house! We had lots of water toys to play on and a small bounce house. She had a great time. She was so excited that all her friends were there at the same time!

I have the hardest time getting her to smile for the camera...she always wants to make a face!


Grandma and Papa's bounce house!



Payt with her cake!


Okay, so I kind of don't have the best pictures...my sister-in-law took some good ones. You can check out her post by going to Brent and Britta in my family column.
It's great to have family on top of these things for me!

Last Weekend...

I am getting closer to being somewhat caught up on my blogging. Last weekend Brian competed in a Ranch Rodeo. We had so much fun! It was good practice for the fall when he plans to compete closer to home...you can't lose with people you know watching, right? They did really good until the last event... They were in first place but one of his teammates missed roping the calf. Oh well, maybe next time.

Brian is 2nd from the right...kinda hard to see...


Ann and Vaughn brought some of the grandkids out to watch...it was hot but I think they enjoyed it.

Blake was so excited to sit on Brian's horse...do you like the blue mouth from his ring pop?


Dallin letting out his inner cowboy...Yeehaw, Dallin.


Kali had fun too...


And of course, Payton...she had to do her litte Yeehaw, just like Dallin.

Bikers?

So last week my friend Maribel and I decided to go for a bike ride. She was trying to find a good trail to take the Young Women on at camp. So, for our first ride we rode 12 miles, off road...I mean we are talking Xtreme Biking! Okay, for us it was extreme. 1st timers on a trail that was full of rocks, boulders,steep hills, sand pits...we just had to laugh at ourselves. We did it but decided it would leave most of the girls in tears. So a couple days later we did another ride. This one ended up being 23 miles. It was on a trail that was mostly gravel and hard packed dirt and flat. So, it wasn't too hard, just loooong. We didn't think the girls could hack that either so we settled on a shorter trail for the girls. We had a good time though, and even though we crashed, on flat ground, right between thistles, we laughed our heads off. (Maribel had a dragon fly land on her face and crawl under her sunglasses, hence the crash.) I wish I had taken a picture of our tangled bikes. We saw a turtle, which we named Rock, an armadillo, which was just cool up close, and many rabitts and geckos.

We are half way...only 11.5 miles to go!


Rock, the turtle.


Our armadillo friend...

What a character!

My little Payton is such a character. We were driving past one of our properties and she looked over and said, "OH! It's Broccoli!" I had to take a picture...I've heard of people calling broccoli, trees...but never calling trees, broccoli!



We also went to Cabela's to get Cody ready for his High Adventure trip to Colorado with the scouts. She was so excited about the polar bear that she had to pose with it and her bunny.


Okay, this picture didn't turn out like I wanted...I took it with my phone. Anyway, Brian took Payton out to see the Combines working in the field harvesting wheat. She absolutely loved it! They got in one together and he let her drive it around. She has talked about Combines every day since and wants to go drive it some more. Daddy's teaching her young! It's all fun now, just wait 'til she's old enough to be put to work! You can see her if you look close, sitting on her daddy's lap.

Okay, I was just trying to be fancy with my phone here....I don't know why but I just love to take pictures of the cows!

I have busy, busy, busy with painting. I took on the project of painting - my whole house! I have the living room, kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and Cody's room done. I think I have OCD! I have had to re-caulk, sand and paint! I have been a little anal about it I think. I'm sure my husband will be happy once I get it all done.
Here's a corner picture of Cody's room. We don't have it all decorated yet, but here is the final paint job.

Getting Caught Up.

Okay, I've been terrible at keeping up with my life...or at least, keeping you caught up with my life! I'll try to get back on track. So, for mother's day weekend we went to Abilene to a ranch horse competition and ranch rodeo. Brian hopes to compete soon so he likes to go watch the 'big dawgs'. All the hotels were full in Abilene so we went to a small town called Albany and stayed in a bed and breakfast there. Now, all I can say is "holy Country/Americana!" If that's your style, you can find it here.

A little old lady owns this house and keeps it neat and clean.


We drove through the countries largest wind farm on our way to the bed and breakfast...

The Ranches...Cody's favorite is the Tounge River Ranch...they always do well at these competitions.

We had a great weekend. Cody stayed with friends and my mother-in-law was kind enough to take Payton so we could have the weekend to ourselves! It was fun.
I'll catch up some more tomorrow!