Too Sweet for Words!

If my blog is a reflection of my real life it seems as if I'm always at least a week behind.

That sounds about right.

So... let's talk about Valentines Day!

Kev surprised Grace by bringing her flowers to lunch. It was one of those moments that I would have given anything to be there... but I knew it was their moment.

We had gone to buy the flowers earlier that morning and we fell in love with a corsage they had. It looked so much like Grace - pink roses, lots of sparkles, and fit on your wrist with pink rhinestone bracelets. Unfortunately it was $40. We both went on about how crazy that was and opted for the $8 tulips instead.

We got back in the car to go home and I started talking about how perfect that corsage was for Grace, but it would be silly to spend that kind of money. Before I know it Kev is turning the car around, headed back to the florist muttering under his breath, "seriously... how many years will Grace love sparkly things??? and how long will she actually think it's cool I'm coming to lunch to see her??? and how long until a boy is bringing her flowers and not me??? ". He was a man on a mission after that and needless to say Grace ended up with a beautiful pink, sparkly corsage. Kev called me on the way home from lunch and all he said was, "it was worth every penny". Let's just say Grace Howren had the best Valentine in the world - her Dad. By the way, guess who inherited the $8 tulips???

Here is Grace opening her corsage. She wore it the rest of the day and later on for her date. I had to include this picture because I don't think I've seen Grace in a hair bow for about four years. I think she was sad she couldn't wear a Valentine shirt so went with the Valentine bow.

Grace & Kev... seriously... can I love him any more???

The infamouse corsage... been worn quite a few times since Valentine's Day. Who says you have to have a reason to wear a corsage (or a crown for that matter)?

We had to go out of town for a funeral on Saturday so Kev and Grace had their annual Valentine date on Friday night. Take a good look. You'll never see Kev in a suit again. Well, until next Valentine's...

Here is my precious Valentine date. He's showing you his CCCCAAAAAARRRRR!!!! (that's how he says it - REALLY loud) that he got for Valentine's Day. We stayed home in our jammies, shared chicken nuggets (his favorite) and watched Wow Wow Wubsy. Perfect night if you ask me.



Hope you all felt very loved this Valentine's Day!

Girls Weekend

This past weekend I had the honor of spending four days with five of my most favorite people on this earth... my college girlfriends. It doesn't seem right to just call them my college friends... they are so much more. They are my life friends. They are part of me. They helped make me who I am. Without them I think I would go crazy... or spend a heck of a lot of money in therapy.

My freshman year at Baylor, when I moved onto the 2nd floor of Collins dorm and met these girls I had no idea they would turn into the women that I would need for years to come.

We've shared tears of happiness and tears of sadness. We've survived loss, cancer, infertility, frantic calls from husbands and emergency C-sections, helplessly watching our babies go into surgery, miscarriage, growing pains in our marriages... and all the curve balls life has thrown at us. We've rallied the troops at these times and always known we're not in this alone. There's nothing more empowering than to know you have five Godly women on your side ready to pray and ready to fight for you.

We've watched each other fall in love. We've stood by each other at our weddings. We've celebrated the birth of each of our precious children. We've looked around and wondered how we got this old. It really hit me when I pulled up to the lake this weekend and parked behind 3 minivans and 2 SUV's.

Since we graduated from college and moved to different cities and states, we've met up at least once a year for our annual Girls Weekend. We used to do trips, spas, and nights out on the town. Now we pack jammies, snacks and dvds and just enjoy relaxing and catching up on our hectic lives.

I'll give you a glimpse into our group...



We often call Sarah "captain our captain". This makes her mad which just makes us do it more. She really is our captain though and keeps us together. She's the one that organizes us, mothers us, and takes care of us. Without Sarah I'm not sure we'd have Girls Weekend. I envy her calmness, her faith, and her fabulous dancing ability. She's the rock in my life.



Angie is our ball of energy. She walks in the door and the room gets brighter and more exciting. She always shows up with projects, ideas, nailpolish, games, movies. etc.. She has a sweet nature but you'll never find a stronger fighter. She's our encourager. When life gets rough I want Angie by my side.

Laura is our strong one. I've watched her take whatever life has handed her and turn it around into a blessing and an incredible part of her ministry. She is our faithful prayer warrior. I know if I mention any need that Laura will be on her knees with God taking on my request. Sometimes I think she has a direct line up there. I thank Laura for those times I was in need and she was silently there praying for me. I felt those prayers.

Kev describes Big Al, as my "hidden treasure". Everyone loves Allison. As a matter of fact, in the 13 years I've known Al I've never heard anyone say a single negative thing about her. She's the one that makes us laugh and our ears always perk up when she talks because she always has something interesting to say. I'm constantly in awe of the way Al handles life with such grace. She's a beautiful mother, wife and friend... and an inspiration to us all.



Mel is our compassionate one. She's the friend that's cried numerous tears with me over the phone or while hugging my neck. I know when I'm hurting Mel's hurting. One time in college I cried myself to sleep only to wake up to 2 Tylenol, a bottle of water and a note from Mel on my bedside table. Mel's my therapist and she has the incredible ability to always make me feel better after I talk to her.

I thank these beautiful women for what they've given me. I thank God for what I truly consider one of the very greatest blessings in my life... their friendship.

This weekend we all watched this video together. It's such a beautiful testimony of friendship. Enjoy!

Meet Jess & Kitt

We took a break from the water park fun and snuck away for a "Girls Day". While the boys all went to see "Mall Cop" and do other boy things (ummm.... too scared to ask), Aunt Julie, Aunt Lee Lee, Gogi, Grace, Allie and I headed to the American Girl store to see what damage we could do. Turns out we did a lot!

We started out with a special brunch for the girls and their dolls (Kitt & Jess). Needless to say Grace and Allie couldn't eat much due to their excitement of having their dolls SIT right next to them in their special seats. We actually bought one of those seats to bring home and Kitt has been enjoying all her meals with us since.

Here's a pic of my me & my sweet baby girl (and Kitt too). Not exactly sure why I'm holding Kitt's hand in the picture. Guess we were having a moment...

We moved on to the best part... shopping. Grace was in heaven surrounded by matching clothes for she and Kitt. It's times like these that my heart melts and I realize that behind those Abercrombie clothes, earrings, sunglasses, and sassy attitude my little girl still exists. She finally settled on some matching PJ's and a few dresses for Kitt.

The highlight of the day had to have been when Kitt got her ears pierced just like Grace. We kind of wondered about the process because they took her to a "back room" to do the deed. Grace was sad because she wanted to hold Kitt's hand during it just like Kev did for her. Kitt survived though and looked gorgeous with her new studs.

Now, I can't lie and say the whole day was roses. The moms and girls were CRAZY in that joint. First of all, who knew that you had to walk out of a Neiman's catalog to shop there? I guess me and my Target Merona sweater didn't get that memo. I also had to hold back my temper as a little girl had the nerve to sass our little girls and then turn around and sass Leigh Ann and me. Yes, that's right... she turned around, put her hand on her hip and INFORMED us that, "no one takes my place in line." I thought I was going to have to physically restrain Leigh Ann from going after that stink pot. It was quite entertaining hearing Grace and Allie retell the story to everyone. Grace will tell you she held her own because she rolled her eyes at her... TWICE. I raised quite the fighter! Go get 'em Grace...

I just had to put this picture in here. Impressed me more than anything in the whole store. Obviously it impressed Grace too since she ran back from the bathroom to bring us all back in the bathroom with her to show us the fascinating DOLL HOLDER. Yep... you can just set your doll in the holder while you take care of business and pick her right back up on your way out. What will they think of next???

What a special time for us girls. Thanks Aunt Julie for leaving your boys behind and playing with us. Grace loves that she gets to be your little girl too.

Great Wolf Lodge

After trekking through Waco we finally got to Great Wolf Lodge. What's the first thing we did? That's right... jumped in our swimsuits and headed to the indoor water park. Ahhh... the glorious feeling of donning a swimsuit in January. Obviously Grace doesn't have the same issues her mother does as she's quick to strike a swimsuit pose for the camera...

If you haven't been to GWL... here's my plug (and if you sign up mention my name - I'll get free coupons to the Northern Lights Arcade - totally kidding). It is a wonderful place to go. Perfect for our family. We've been to Disney twice with the clan and to be honest the kids get just as excited to go to GWL.

Here's a pic of the room. Ok, this really isn't our room... this is the pic off the website. If I showed you a picture of our actual room you wouldn't be able to see anything for all the clothes, wet swimsuits, toys & snacks thrown all over the room. Then you wouldn't want to go. Then I wouldn't get my free tokens. Kidding again.

Anyway, the kids have their very own "bunk room" made to be like a wolf den. They have their own flatscreen TV with gaming system. Woo hoo! Sounds great until you realize Finn can't sleep in a bunk. So guess who got to??? That's right... me. After I got over the whole claustrophobic thing it wasn't too bad - especially once I got control of the TV.

The waterpark is super-fun - especially for our water rat kids. Finn lived up to his name and loved every second of it. I had an amazing five days of playing "chase" in the kiddie pool area. Then I got smart and started recruiting Allie over to the kiddie pool. She's the best "little mommy" there is.

Grace and Kev enjoyed the Crooked Creek lazy river, Howlin' Tornado, Cannon Bowl, Beaver Tail Wave Pool, and quesadillas & pizza pool side. You can also purchase (hey... nothing's free) a "magic wand" and go on an adventure throughout the hotel. It all a great idea until you realize you're waiting 30 minutes for an elevator because all these kids are running around with their wands trying to finish their "quest". I about knocked them over the head with those wands just to get to the 2nd floor.

We had a great time swimming, eating, shopping, eating, playing in the arcade, eating, and eating (I know, not helping the swimsuit issue). It was the perfect break after the craziness of the holidays.

Gogi & How - thank you for another wonderful trip. It's so fun to see all the kids together making memories that will last forever. We had Allie in our car on the way home and they girls were trying to guess where we would go next year. Grace commented, "you know Allie... I think Gogi & How are pretty great". Allie responded, "Grace - I KNOW they're great... and not just because of these trips". We think you're pretty great too.

Grace, Greyson & How enjoying their fudge at the Bass Pro Shop. That's right - the whole family enjoyed the hunting, fishing and whatever else they have there while the Howrens enjoyed the fudge shop (typical).

Grace terrorizing Adam (he secretly loves it) with her kisses. She loves that boy!

Luke & Max cheesing it up for the camera.

Don't let those sweet faces fool you....those are our two little troublemakers... Jack & Luke

Our sweet little girls and their all you can eat ribs!

And Away they Go (part 1)...

Gogi & How pulled through for the sixth year in a row and gave us a family vacation for part of our Christmas. GOD BLESS GRANDPARENTS!!! Because we had so much fun at Great Wolf Lodge last year (and the kids wouldn't quit talking about it) they decided to do it again.

So, we packed our bags on Thursday. Wait, I should say I packed our bags on Thursday... and then I packed our car.. and then Kev repacked our car... and then I came out and added a bag I had forgotten... and then Kev completely repacked our car again. Ugh...

I'm not sure if it's a "man thing", but he has some kind of special packing system known only to Kev and you'd think after 11 years of marriage I would have learned. DON'T MESS WITH KEV'S PACKING. Sometimes it's a game... I see if I can slip in a tote bag or makeup bag without him noticing. I've failed every time.

Ok, back to the trip... we decided to head up through Waco to stop and show the kids some of our old stompin' grounds (and to let some of that Baylor love rub off on those Aggie Thompson kids). We stopped at Health Camp on the Circle for burgers and shakes. Gogi & How used to eat there during their Baylor days and the 3 of us kept the tradition alive during our years. I learned a few things:

1. Some things are left better as a memory. We walked in and I was quite appalled when I saw where I was going to let my kids eat. Either I had extremely low standards of eating while I was in college, or the place has really gone to pot in the last 12 years. Ewww....
   
2. It's scary when all your drinks taste funny and their explanation is, "I'm sorry... you're probably just not used to the water here". Ewww.....
   
3. Don't talk up the talking trash can until you're sure it still exists. I had told the kids how the trash can says "thank you" when you throw your trash away. Unfortunately I was basing this on my experience 12+ years ago. Well, Grace ran in and immediately stuck her hand through all the trash cans (ewwww....), held her ear to the trash cans (ewwww....) and was completely disappointed. Seems when they gave up quality water and cleaning products they gave up the talking trash can as well.
   

After surviving Health Camp we stopped by the Bear pit to check out the Baylor Bears. It was quite exciting as the bears actually performed for us - I guess it's hard not to perform for eight cheering kids.

Here are Kev & Finn in front of the "sleeping bear". Finn kept pointing at it saying, "shhhhh....".

Gogi & How give the kids spending money every day and it was burning a hole in their pockets so we ran over to the Baylor bookstore to relieve them of their agony. We walked out with about 10 Baylor basketballs, 8 Baylor t-shirts, 6 Baylor sweatshirts, 2 Baylor footballs, and two oinking pigs (thanks Uncle Gene).

In full Baylor paraphernalia we headed on to Great Wolf Lodge. Sic 'em Bears! Look closely and you'll see Adam doing his "Gig Em" while the rest of us are giving our "Sic' Em"... we're still working on that kid!

An Apology

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I've neglected you lately.  

I had visions of the holidays ending, the kids going back to school, and the two of us spending so much time together. Unfortunately, I must have been envisioning someone else's life since obviously things haven't slowed down around here.  

I won't sit here and tell you how busy I am.  You know me well enough to know that one of my major pet peeves (along with being called "Becky" and people not RSVP-ing) is when people tell me how busy they are.  I mean really... who isn't busy?  Do you ever meet someone that wants to tell you about all the free time they have?  Do you know anyone who is wondering how they're going to spend all this extra time they have on their hands?  No, people... WE ARE ALL BUSY!!!

*Ahem... I'll step down from my soap box now*  

I will, however, tell you what I've been up to...

After the holidays I had to deal with the mess.  For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to clean closets and drawers before putting away the Christmas treasures we found under the tree.  My inspiration (and energy) quickly wore off and now I'm drowning in piles.  Piles for Goodwill... piles for hand-me-downs... piles of "stuff I hope I can get rid of without Grace or Kev seeing".   I'm realizing that last pile mentioned has grown smaller and smaller so I'm thinking they've caught on to my system.  I guess maybe Guitar World, Issue 3566, September 1992 really might come in handy one day.  Who knows, maybe Grace really does need those 29 Barbie shoes with no match.  Geez.... 

So to distract myself from my unfinished "organizing my entire house" project I decided to do nothing other than start a new project.... redecorate Grace's room!  I'll have to tell you all about this brilliant idea later.  So now I've added more piles... piles of furniture... piles of bedding... piles of stuff I found under Grace's bed that I've yet to identify.  By the way, you can now make that 39 Barbie shoes with no match.

To relax from all the stress I started  the Twilight series and moved on to the Shopaholic series.  I quickly became obsessed, lost track of time, and no one saw me for days.  

Then we left on vacation. I'll have to tell you about that too.  I thought maybe getting away would re-energize me to finish all these darn projects.   Or maybe I was hoping the "project fairy" would visit while we were gone.  

No such luck...

Now I find myself home... with piles... and paint... and laundry... and three more Shopaholic books screaming to be read.   

I'm ignoring them all to spend time with you.

So Blog, this is a promise.  I won't neglect you any more.  

Now on to my piles...

~Becca 

She Did It!

The title of this post should really be, "HE DID IT!". That's right... he did it... Kev finally gave in and quit torturing Grace by making her the only 8 year-old alive without pierced ears.

One of the highlights of Christmas morning was Grace opening her "real" earrings from Kev. She got a strange look on her face when she couldn't find the clips on the back and then finally noticed they were the real thing. She immediately started screaming and ran for the phone. If you didn't get a call, I promise you were next on her list. If you didn't hear her screams you must not live within a 50 mile radius. She couldn't wait to share the all important news with the world.

Now here is where the torture began. Earrings given on Christmas Day. Merle Norman doesn't open until 10:00 the next day. Yes, that's 24 loooonnnnnggg hours of anticipation and questions of how bad it's going to hurt.

Here's a taste:

So does it hurt worse than a flu shot? What about a bee sting? If you ranked breaking your arm as a 7 where would you rank getting your ears pierced on the scale? When I get my flu shot it hurts for about 2 minutes... will it hurt that long? Here... let me pinch your arm. Does it hurt that bad? Ok... let me try knocking you in the head with a hammer... does it hurt like that?

After awhile, I was wishing someone would knock me in the head with a hammer.

To make it worse when I was in high school my earring got caught on my boyfriend's sweater and ripped right through my ear. My ear is cut in two and it requires plastic surgery to get it fixed. To be honest if I was going to go for plastic surgery I can think of about thirty places I'd start before I went in for my ear. All that to say Grace is incredibly paranoid about her ear "ripping". She gives about a three foot distance to anything she passes by just so it doesn't "catch on ear ear and cause permanent damage." So if you see Grace and she seems a little "distant" with you... don't take it personal she's only protecting the wellbeing of those beautiful ears.

Back to the big day.

We headed off to Merle Norman the day after Christmas with 10 of us in tow to cheer Grace on while she faced the tortorous earring piercing contraption. I think we overwhelmed the poor little girl at the counter as we all descended upon her. She was wonderful though and worked her magic so quickly that Grace never had time for those tears she had anticipated. Best of all - she had great accuracy and we now have two beautiful, and more importantly, identical piercings.

We headed to Newks after for a celebratory lunch. What's a big event without food? Uncle Gene and Luke showed up for the food and celebration. I have a feeling Merle Norman wasn't really Luke's thing. Of course if he knew it involved guns, needles, blood and one of the girls screaming in pain he might have made it for the show.

Now Grace's new cause is for a cell phone. I wonder how long Kev will hold out on this one?

Grace with her big supporter, Allie.

Grace picking out "the biggest diamonds they have".

Oh, the anticipation

Oh, the pain...

Oh, the beauty!

The support crew