Texas Rangers Baseball

We all decided to take an impromptu day off work and have a little party.  So much fun it was!!  Just imagine a room full of people who believe they are umpires, little children running in and out of the house and fellowship with good friends.  That describes our afternoon in whole.

But before the festivities began, we pulled out the cameras and starting taking pictures.  What kind of party is complete without pictures?!  And of course we were all matching in our Texas Rangers gear!

Mom had this HUGE spread of food complete with peanuts and nachos and hot dogs (just like the ballpark serves).  She even had goodie bags for the kids to stuff with their own favorite treats.  I'm pretty sure Colton was the most excited about this!!  Ah yes, we also had Texas Ranger tattoos.  This totally added to our Texas Ranger enthusiasm!!

A tradition has definitely been started :)

Mental Snapshot

I choose to never forget when I drop Cameron off at school and discreetly tell him "I love you", the way he turns his face back towards me with a casual smile. I know at that moment that his smile says "I love you too". This image will forever be a snapshot in my memory album.

April 7th - National No Housework Day!

This morning, I chased my dog with the vacuum cleaner.  It's the simple things in the daily life of being a housewife and mother that bring a smile to my face :)

Then I realized it was National No Housework Day!  How could I possibly forget?

So I turned the vacuum off and put the mop away.  Sure, there are days when I decide without some sort of national honor that I want the day off.  But nobody knows about those days.  People think I clean and cook all day... gotta keep up that June Cleaver image!  But today makes it official.  I don't HAVE to do anything because I'm off duty.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

I can't decide which picture I like best to post, so I've decided to post them all.

Aren't they cute?

"O ye of little faith"

I've been having some problems with wanting to make sure people hear certain scriptures and/or to know someone has changed their ways and/or for certain people to confess their wrong ways and make amends. Each time these thoughts occur I hear a faint whisper "Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith..." (Matthew 8:26)

Then I sit back and remind myself of my own sins. I can't play God; I can't make people see their wrong doings or the hurt they are causing. Then I'm reminded of my lack of faith and trust in God to do His own job.

I've started this new series, Kauffman Amish Bakery Series, and time and time again these verses are repeated and I'm only halfway through the book! I don't think I have ever read a Christian fiction and not walked away a stronger Christian and learning something very important.

"Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation..." 2 Peter 3:15

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

Now that I have this blog to refer back to, I am making the commitment to trust in God to do His work.

The Duet

"Have you ever done a duet with a friend? It's actually fun once you get the hang of it. But one time I had an extremely awesome event coming up, and it turned out to be the best day of the weekend!

It all started on a Saturday of 2009. An when my mom woke me up I realized I had a dance competition. After that we got ready then packed all my costumes, hair spray, and dance shoes. We put it all in the trunk and aimed straight to the car, then we headed out. Our competition was in Tyler, which is about two hours from where I live. My mom and I were so tired that our eyes were about to close. We were tired because we woke up at five o-clock a.m. It's not a normal time for us to wake up because we usually wake up at ten o-clock a.m. which is five hours later, so we were both exhausted. Then, we got there from the long road trip, got my stuff out of the trunk and went directly to the dressing room. I arranged all my stuff and then I put on my fabulous looking duet outfit and started to practice my reutine with my partner. We didn't feel nervous since we had been on the team for seven complete years. When we got done attatching all the pink sparkles to my face we walked quickly over to the stage. The floor looked so squeky clean that I could see my reflection on it. I was jumping up and down with a big smile on my face it was my first duet and I was so excited! Finally, it was time to go on stage and dance our shoes off. But, before we went on Mrs. Juli our dance teacher was supporting us on what to do. We got on the stage and danced for the entire time without messing up. Meanwhile, we got off the stage and we met our moms back in the dressing room. Our moms said we did so good that they almost cried. I thought it was funny because grownups don't usually cry. My partner and I were also impressed since it was our very first duet.

In conclusion, this was one of the best weekends ever. Next year I would probably want to do a duet again or perhaps a solo. In the future I will probably still dance onm my favorite team. Something I learned was that dancing is my favorite thing to do, and it always will be. An also I love my mom alot for singing me up for dance."

I don't save my kids' school work, but I do save EVERY writing they do in school and keep them together in a folder for each child. This is Courtnie's latest writing and I absolutely LOVE it! This girl has a passion for dance and everyone who knows her can see it. Great job Court!

Coffee Table

When we first bought furniture, it just seemed like a normal thing to buy a coffee table. We quickly learned they were nothing but the cause of many accidents and the perfect teething/chew toy. So we moved it away from the living room for awhile.

As the children got older and our furniture started to wear thin, we sold it all and bought new furniture WITHOUT a coffee table (that was about 5 years ago). This wasn't high quality furniture and we really bought it to endure more child-like fun - spit-up, vomit, poo, pee, blood, spills, boogers, snot, etc. You name it, that couch has seen it. Last year we both had that urge to complete the living room with a brand new coffee table and quickly bought one.

But then we moved! And with moves, comes more changes. When we moved into our new house we kept that childproof furniture and moved it upstairs. Downstairs we had the priviledge of purchasing new furniture. The kids are older, they can make their vomit (most times) to the bathroom, and hopefully they won't be downstairs too often sitting on our brand new, nice, expensive furniture.

Boy were we wrong again! Take a look at our coffee table when we moved in....

Seriously? How does ONE drawer go missing in a move? It's gone, nowhere to be found. I guess it's a good thing we didn't pay too much for it and it's upstairs in the family room! But it really is an eye-sore. A conversational piece too!

And here is our NEW coffee table, downstairs where the children surely wouldn't play???

Yes, you are seeing that correctly, it's striped. This poor thing has been jumped on, kicked, shoved, flipped over, ran into, pushed into and any other form of torture my children can possibly think to put each other into.

At this point, I'm not sure Jason and I will ever buy another coffee table. Just look at the two we have!

Colton's 6th Birthday Party

We celebrated Colton's 6th birthday party just recently. I like to have his party a few weeks after his actual birthday because it is so close to Christmas. Then it was delayed because he was sick but we were finally able to celebrate with his friends! We had a "skate" party and as you can see they had a blast with his new ramp.

I still have a hard time believe my baby, my youngest child, is 6 years old! This makes me feel so old, please don't calculate, even though I don't feel this old. What I would do if I could make time stand still.

Texas Blizzard

**Edited on 1/9 to say we are now on our 5th snow day for the 2011 year!**

We were in complete lockdown in the Gautreaux house for too many days! The kids have already missed school 4 days this year from bad weather. I hardly ever remember missing ONE day, let along four! Snow is predicated again tomorrow and I'm counting down the days for Spring and even more Summer! Mr. Groundhog better be right about this winter ending soon or he may quickly become someone's road kill and find himself mounted on their wall.

I thought about posting pics of our first and second snow from this winter but they look the same really. So I'll just post the ones that mark the biggest snow in Texas in years!

Wax Museum

Going to try, again, to keep up with my blogging. I feel like I've let my children down with my slip in keeping their memories. To start, we took advantage of a Groupon deal and got tickets to the Wax Museum for $6 a person! I'm missing a few pictures and will add those when I get them!