Tucker's 1st day of 4th grade

Today was Tucker's 1st day of 4th grade. He's still in GT and this year he has Ibarra and Decker for teachers. I can't believe this is his last year for elementary school!!

True Cross Back to School!

It's back to school time for Shelby. This year Brody will be joining her at True Cross. Tucker still has 2 weeks of his summer left.

Brody's Baptism - EYC Pool Party - Aug 2016

The day after the kids returned from their trip with their dad, we had a very busy packed day. It started off with Brody being baptized by the Bishop. That was such a great morning to see so many people stand behind us and agree to join in the responsibility of guiding Brody in his faith through their faith, love and commitment.

We took a detour home after a large reception after church to catch pokemon. This has become a huge competition between the 5 of us.

After a much needed nap we headed over to Mimi's and Poppy's house to kick off EYC with a back to school pool party. It was such a fun night!!!

Pleasure Pier - July 2016

I think I'm out of order on this one. I can't remember when we went to pleasure pier in Galveston, but I think it was in July. All I remember is that it was killer hot and I thought I was going to die. 2 of 4 kids were puking from a ride/heat combo. I had promised we would take them one day this summer so I held to it. I will either never go back, or if I go back, it will need to be in the winter. It was way too expensive in my book for something that can be done for 1/2 the price on 1/2 price Mondays at the Kemah boardwalk. But the kids had fun, sorta, kinda, and it helped that they could catch a ton of pokemon while there.

Houston Texans Training Camp - July 2016

Chris' birthday was July 31 so I thought the best possible gift to give him was tickets to go see his beloved Houston Texans practice on his actual birthday. I don't think we knew what we were actually in for. Practice wasn't starting until 9am and everyone told us to be there EARLY. How early? We were there at 5am. This probably put us 100 in line to get through the gates. The deal with practice is that it's all general admission. You get a seat at the bleachers if you are one of the first few in. You can't bring in your own lawn chairs to watch. Waiting in line was actually fun. It was dark, so it wasn't hot. The Texans cheerleaders and the fan band was there keeping everyone pumped up. Once we got through the gates it was a madhouse. It was crazy packed in the bleachers. We got seats but had to give them up because it was just too many people, too much closeness, and it was going to be 100 degrees. So we walked around and ended up landing in a spot to see all the players come through. I honestly don't know specific players so here are some random snaps shots. We ended up leaving because we couldn't even see the field to watch them practice.

We had additional tickets for Tuesday. This time we got there at 4am and we got front row bleacher seats. Chris stayed for the entire practice and managed to get autographs from some of his favorite players afterwards. I myself gave up and had to go sit in the car with the a/c on full blast since I got sick. Blah! Still, a very memorable event!

 This dude is super tall!!

 Silly me thought when I got the tickets we would be inside the bubble tent for practice, with A/C!

 Chris was interviewed by 2 different news channels!

California Road Trip - August 2016

After the Meghan Trainor concert was over, Lonnie picked up Shelby and they were off for a week long road trip in an RV to California. This was very difficult for me. Even though I've gotten use to living a new life, which is fantabulous!, it's still not easy being away from my kids. I'm happy that they are spending time with their dad and going on great adventures, but I hate not being in that moment with my kids. Not experiencing the grand canyon, disneyland, and all that with them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not angry or anything. It's just the life of being in a divorced family I guess. Part of the suckiness. But I AM super happy that they were able to spend this time together and make great memories! Tucker spent most of his summer in Austin with Lonnie and Shelby stayed back with me for the most part. When they sent me the photos during the trip I wanted to gobble the cuteness of Tucker up.

Meghan Trainor - July 2016

I don't even know where to begin with this post. I can't get these photos in synchronized order so it'll just have to do. On July 29 Meghan Trainor returned to Houston. We all know Shelby's love for Meghan Trainor. I can't even explain to you how amazing this day was. Surprisingly Shelby was not a crying basket case like she was last summer when she met her in San Antonio.

The day started off at 1:30pm by us standing in the crazy hot sun for about 2 hours. We learned last year that the line for meet and greets were insanely long so we wanted to get their a little early. Apparently that was not needed. They had a very limited amount of meet and greets that they sold for this concert. I would say no more than 50. So basically we didn't need to get there and bake in the sun for 2 hours and sweat our make up off and frizz up our hair. Oh well.

The meet and greet kicked off with a sound check. This was crazy awesome! There were less than 50 of us (maybe 30 actually) and we sat in the first few rows and watched Meghan and her band and dancers warm up. She let every single person ask questions and she answered all of them. She remembered several fans INCLUDING SHELBY! She said OMG YOU'RE TUTU GIRL!! That's Shelby! She wore a colorful tutu last summer when she met her (as she hyperventilated and nearly passed out last summer). Her and Shelby conversated a couple of times from the stage. It was just surreal!! She played a couple of songs for us and then she was done. She headed back stage to get ready for the show.

About another hour later (of roasting in the 100 degree heat and no shade!) we were lined up to head to the back of the venue. She was going to do her meet and greet from her dressing room. This caused the venue to be a little overwhelmed because they normally do these sort of things in another building. We were spoken to ahead of time that we can't do this or that, but that all flew out the window because Meghan did what she wanted. So we lined up, kept each other calm, then they brought Shelby and I in together. Meghan recognized Shelby once again and yelled tutu girl and gave her a huge hug, then me a hug. We chatted a bit, posed for pics (notice the frizz and the sweated off make up!), and said see you on stage!

We headed to our seats. Front row, center stage. INSANE! Then JoJo, Meghan's assistant, came over to Shelby and her friends and said when a certain song comes on to go over to the catering door on the side. The show started. It kicked off with a band name Common Kings and then with Hailee Steinfeld. They were fantastic. Then it was time for Meghan. I was awwstruck. I felt like a typical mother, so very proud of her. I've seen her concerts from the very beginning. Bad costumes, crazy dance moves, very small band, to now this huge idol with a huge big band and amazing costume/outfits and dancers. It was a huge production and she was a phenominal performer. She's come so far! We could not have had any better seats (THANK YOU CHRIS!). We sang, danced and laughed and had THE BEST TIME. Hands down, the best concert ever. I told Shelby to soak it all up because there will probably never be another moment like this. Once the assigned song came on, Shelby and her friends headed over to the catering door. I was sooooo nervous. Was she going to actually go on stage??

AND THEN SHE WAS ON STAGE DANCING WITH MEGHAN TRAINOR!!!

 These are 2 other fans that Shelby has met at previous concerts and became fast friends.

 

 

 

Wedding in Dripping Springs - July 2016

Chris and I went to Fredericksburg for a weekend in mid July. He was in a wedding for a friend of his in Dripping Springs. That was a super fun weekend! We stayed at Aunt Laurie's and Uncle Stan's house for the weekend. The deer come up to the back porch! It was like having a bed and breakfast to ourselves. We went to the trade days (love it!!), checked out some great restaurants (highly recommend Hondos!), hung out in Luckenbach, and attended the rehearsal and wedding. The wedding was on a ranch in Dripping Springs that was absolutely beautiful. Other than the extreme heat, it was a blast!

Summer Volleyball - July 2016

Shelby had 2 different volleyball camps in July. The first one was at Rice University. This camp was crazy expensive, but worth every.single.penny. She was there for 8 hours a day, for 5 days. Each day was a skills camp. Day 1 was serving, Day 2 was setting, Day 3 was defense, Day 4 was hitting, Day 5 was passing. Shelby made some great friends while she was there from all over the area. This camp drastically enhanced Shelby's performance. 

Two weeks after the Rice Camp it was time to go to her school volleyball camp. Her school, along with 2 other schools, had their teams come together for a week for practice and scrimmages.

Shelby's love for volleyball has grown over the last few years and she's turned into a pretty great player. I finally agreed to let her try out for club volleyball. We researched several clubs and decided that she would try out with GCVA. We've heard some great things about the organization and the price was reasonable. So in July, I'm pretty sure I was more nervous than her, Shelby tried out along with tons of other girls. There were only a few slots left so I wasn't allowing myself to get my hopes up. But she made it!!! We had to contain our excitement until we got into the car! She begins Sunday drills this weekend and then once school volleyball is over, the team starts practicing several days a week.



Canada to see the BFF - June 2016

Summer is coming to a close and I am so far behind on my little blog's udpates! I'm going to attempt to do these next few posts in order, but summer went so fast, it's almost a blur!


On June 23 I finally took my first trip to see Sarah in Canada. She's been there for several years and I had yet to go. Mainly because I felt like I needed to bring the family with me, and that's just expensive, and there's so much other stuff going on. Sarah's 40th birthday was June 22 and what better way to celebrate a monumental birthday than by flying up to see the BFF!  I was only there for a long weekend but we crammed so much in and had a blast. I will absolutely be back! Canada is gorrrrgeous!! I can see why Sarah doesn't want to return back to Texas. It was 40 degrees in June. Ahhhhmazing!!! We went to Banff and hiked and hiked and hiked. We did 2 gondola rides (where I got to see bears!), shopped and kayaked Lake Louise! It rained, but that didn't slow us down. These pictures don't even do the beauty justice!!

 That's a bear below me!!!

 That's another bear!