Happy Holidays

It has been a whirlwind this past month or so. I have now been named Director of the Education Renewal Zone office at UAM. The former director and I have swapped places as she is working part-time for a few months as we transition. We spent Thanksgiving in Oklahoma with Brian's family. I forgot to take my cameras so no pictures! Zach had his tonsils removed two weeks ago so we have been focusing our time and energy on getting him recovered. We will be leaving Saturday morning and traveling to Colorado to see my family for the holidays. I will have a ton of pictures to post from their cabin and sledding. I leave you with a couple of pictures Hannah took of Zach back at the beginning of November.

Trunk or Treat

We had our Fall Festival at Church yesterday. We had a good turnout. After the games and food, we did a trunk or treat. We went with as much candy to give out as we came back with. Zach had to dump his bag twice. I think we have candy for a year.Here is Pam Beards' car (BUG). She told us to come get it and decorate b/c she was unable to make it. After last night, I think I got my kids hooked on it.

Here is Zach and Olivia. Zach is a hunter and Olivia is a Fairy Princess.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everybody has a great Halloween! Hannah decided not to do it this year and Zach is going to be a hunter , he has all the stuff to be a hunter but, we don't hunt . I will post the pictures later! TRICK OR TREAT!

Another Victory for Oklahoma

OU played Kansas State today and won 58-35. They are 7-1 and are #4 in the polls. Tomorrow that will probably change for everyone. Go SOONERS!!!

Wordless Wednesday

UAM Homecoming and CIA Tailgating

Go Weevils! UAM Homecoming was this weekend. The Weevils won the game against West Alabama. Here is a picture of Zach and Olivia. These two are 4 months apart in age and have pretty much been raised together except for one year they lived in Russellville. Jeremy and Chris smoked 12 racks of ribs yesterday and we had a fantastic time.


I wanted to do something special for homecoming and I had been watching Tiffany's site looking at her gallery of cakes. I love the cakecakes she did. It turned out fantastic and they were great tasting as well. Thanks Tiffany!

Soccer

Soccer is almost over. Zach has enjoyed playing this year. He is on the team of Argentina! At the beginning of the season we had a lot of drama go on. It has gotten a little better.

Go Argentina!

TAILGATING

We have been tailgating UAM football last Thursday and Sept. 29. We will be tailgating again this weekend. It will be homecoming so it will be busy.

These are a few collage kids that came.

Here is Hannah and Harmony.

Wordless Wednesday

Long time no blogging

It has been a long time since I have blogged and even Hannah said I needed to update. It has been a difficult semester thus far for us. Some things have drastically changed with Brian's job and we have been hurt by this tremendously. It is very difficulty to keep a positive outlook at times, at least for me. Brian does a better job hiding it than I do. I wear my emotions on my sleeve.

Other than that we have been extremely busy. Zach has started Kindergarten and loving it. He was the ABC Winner (student of the week) last week. He is playing soccer but we are not having as much fun with it as we did last year. Brian is helping coach. Hannah decided not to play this year. Sad because she is a great player but nice it is one less thing we have to worry about getting her to. She is an Ambassador this semester and was elected vice-president. They have also started an EAST Lab at the school and she is in the after-school year long group on Mondays. She is taking tap and jazz dance on Tuesdays and then art/drama on Thursdays. Yes we do run children around a lot.

I am teaching again this semester and enjoying it. Brian is also teaching on campus this semester. He has two Speech Communications courses on Tuesday and Thursday. He has about 20 students in each class.

I am trying to get the house clean for a KikaPaprika Clothing Party on Sunday. I have our room and the bathrooms finished. I even cleaned out my jewerly box and found something I thought I had lost. I was so excited. I will try and get some pictures posted of the kids from our tailgate for UAM Parent & Family Day. Zach has been sick the past week and we are going to the Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor to see if we can get his tonsils out. Keep us in your prayers because of the frustrations and attitudes and sick child.

First night of fall 08 class

To night is the first night of fall 08 class for us. There are 12 of us here tonight.

Traveling again....

We are headed to Oklahoma for a large family 4th of July celebration. I should actually say extended family celebration. We should have at least 40 people for the barbeque. We haven't been there the last two or three years because we have spent the holiday with my parents in the Colorado mountains but this year we will be in the heat. At least we will be at the lake.

Disney World 2008

We have spent the last few days at Disney World. I came to a conference with my director and the science specialist. We brought the family with us. It was great to do the conference during the day and then catch up with Brian and the kids in the parks. We spent one day at each of the parks and also at Blizzard Beach Water Park. We stayed at the Disney Yacht and Beach Club. The conference hotel was already booked but this was next door and I think the best situation. The hotel was fabulous. It had a great pool area with sand and slides. Then across the lake was the boardwalk. The kids loved watching the magic tricks. It was similar to being on the Atlantic Boardwalk. Hannah seemed to get in on a few of the tricks. The kids started collecting and trading pins. It is a hot item here and expensive. Mike and Pam searched and found them each special pins. Today Zach was spotted by a cast member and given a very special pin that cannot be purchased but can only be received. The memories have been made! Well it is almost 11 pm and we are starting our trip home in the morning. It will be a nice long drive but hopefully the kids will sleep since we haven't been going to bed until at least 11 each night.

This is a picture of our hotel from the landing for the boat launches. We took the boat to Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Boardwalk.

Disney World 2008 - Animal Kingdom

Well Animal Kingdom was the last park we visited. This is my favorite park of the four. I like the animals and the atmosphere.


Zach finally wanted to have his picture made with the characters. Why is it on the last day he comes out of his shell?

Disney World 2008 - Magic Kingdom

Monday afternoon, I met up with the crew at Magic Kingdom. You see we were not here on vacation for me but I came to a conference. We enjoyed the Magic Kingdom but it was sure hot. You will see some pictures of the parade and Zach again modeling a stylish hat.

Disney World 2008 - Epcot

This is the day of Epcot. Zach had more fun on this trip of trying on hats. He did buy the Goofy hat. I will try to find the picture of him wearing it. The kids visited all but two countries in Epcot World Showcase and received stamps on their masks. It rained most of the time we were there. The great thing about this trip was our hotel was right next to Epcot so we came back that afternoon and swam for a while. Brian didn't feel good so we walked back over to see the fireworks that night.

Disney World 2008 - Hollywood Studios

It was Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios. Brian and the kids were so excited. Here is Hannah and Brian with Queen Amidala. Zach wanted nothing to do with her.
Here are the Incredibles and Hannah. Again, Zach wanted nothing to do with the characters.
However, Zach was all over any candy he could get his hands on. You can tell he was wearing a rain poncho. It rained every day this week.

Kitchen Finished

The floors were put down yesterday. The kitchen looks so different. I cannot believe this is in my house. Without my parents assistance, it would not have been complete. The picture below is where the closet/pantry was in the kitchen.

The dining room looks huge now. Of course not everything is put back in but I am not sure it will all be put back in. I am trying to clean and consolidate areas.


Last but not least is the big birthday boy. Happy Belated Birthday Brian! My favorite two men in my life!!

New friends for a few weeks!

Here are my new best friends for the next few weeks. I fell walking on campus yesterday and fractured the bone in my ankle. I am in a walking boot cast for the next six weeks. I am also on crutches for a few days to help with pressure. The worst part is we are leaving for Florida next week. I am attending a conference in Orlando and the family is going with me. We will be spending time at Disney World while we are there.

Zach and pipe cleaners

We went to the dollar tree the other day and he wanted some pipe cleaners. He got creative and we had to attach them to his camo hat.

Remodeling

Here is the before shot of the kitchen. We have needed to replace the kitchen since we moved in but just kept putting it off. Well in the fall we discovered a water leak and it was put to the front burner. We waited through the winter so the weather would be better for my parents to travel. Thank goodness I have a handy dandy daddy because he was able to put the kitchen in. It looks fantastic. I am now enjoying cooking!
We took out our pantry and moved the stove. It looks fantastic.

Kids

Another picture from our Christmas pictures.

Happy 5th Birthday Zachary!

Happy Birthday Zach! It is so hard to believe it was 5 years ago today a 10 lb. baby boy joined our family. He is my snuggle bug. We have always loved to cuddle. Today it is not as often as it used to be but we still have our times. I am not at home this morning so I do not have a baby picture to post but will do when I get home tonight.

Easter 2008

We had a fantastic weekend. As you can see most of the fort is built behind the kids. When the top gets completed, I will posta better picture. Brian, his dad and Zach worked all day Saturday to get this much completed. The kids are loving it already. Can you believe that Hannah is 10 and Zach will be 5 next week? Yes my baby is going to be 5! Brian's parents came over on Friday evening and spent the weekend with us. It was great to have them here. I hope your Easter weekend was as great as ours.