The Broom Closet

Where do I go from here?

2011-10-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a year since I last updated my blog. Needless to say life has gotten supper busy with a 3 year old and adjusting to a new baby, new house and new city. But, it's managable at times. Gavin and Olivia are growing up so fast and she is getting quiet the personality. She continues to wrap us around those sweet little fingers a little more everyday. We have just celebrated our first year of living in Kingwood and so far we love it here. It's been a great year and we are looking forward to many more.

Our little Princess has arrived!

2010-11-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

Baby Olivia Grace was born November 22, 2010 at 11:28 pm. She weighed 5 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19 inches long. We are so thrilled to welcome "baby sissy" into our family.

November 22nd was a big day for us. We learned that the bank accepted our offer on a new home and our family grew. Good thing cause this house has a whopping 5 bedrooms! If all goes well with inspection & paper work we should close no later than December 21st.

I'm Back

2010-10-24T04:31:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
I haven't totally fell off the face of the earth. Just transitioned to a new part of it. It's been such a crazy couple months but things are starting to settle down a bit. Gavin and I spent 2 weeks in Mississippi visiting family from mid to end of September. However, the night before we left for MS Randy came home from work with news that we were moving to Houston. He was given the opportunity to manage the Houston store and very gladly accepted! The down side was that he had to start the next day. Wow what a whirlwind!! It's going to be a great, positive thing for us once we finally get settled in. After returning from MS, we gathered up some of our belongings and all Gavin's furniture and moved into our temporary housing here in Kingwood. Randy was able to rent us a 2bed/2bath furnished apartment that is brand new. It's very nice and spacious and I'm so enjoying the downsize in cleaning. Of course I would though...being that I'm 33 weeks pregnant. I have managed to find a new Doctor, one that I'm not so sure about, but am hoping for the best. We are currently trying to sell both houses in Laredo and looking pretty seriously here for a new home. Randy is just itching to buy something before the baby comes. There are so many options here that I've only been left confused after every weekend of touring these beautiful homes.
Well, hopefully that gives you a glimpse of how we are doing here. Sorry, that there aren't any pictures uploaded. I managed to bring my camera, but not the CD to install it on Randy's laptop. Hopefully next trip.

Welcome Baby Abby!

2010-09-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

My sister Amber and her husband Terry welcomed their first child, Abigail, on August 28th. She weighed in at 6lbs 110z and was 201/2 inches long. Here she is at 2 weeks old! Gavin and I are going to visit them in Huntsville, AL next week. Can't wait!!

Time Flies!

2010-08-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

Wow!! I can't believe how lazy I have been at updating this blog. I've had so much news in the last months and I haven't even made a point to share it. The beginning of July my sister and her family came down for a visit over the 4th of July weekend. We had lots of fun with them here in Laredo and then spent a couple days in San Antonio for the 4th and for them to enjoy Schlitterbahn. I think this was the highlight of the trip for her kids.

Then the following week we had our first sonogram and found out that we are having a baby girl!! After the shock wore off (for me) we are all very excited about this new baby girl that is due to arrive December 10th.

Next, Gavin's best little friend, Avery and her family moved away from Laredo and we sure hated to see them all go. Here's a couple pics from her last play date with us.

Gavin sure misses Avery. He still ask for her to come over and play regularly and misses our morning walks with Courtney and Avery. I do to!

The first of August my Mom, Aunt and Niece all came down for a visit and you won't believe that I never ever thought to get my camera out of the bag for one picture. Pregnancy has definitely done a number on me! :))

Today, we just returned from a little weekend getaway in Austin, TX. Not to much excitement other than Randy and Gavin going to the zoo. They let me stay in the room and rest all morning, it was so nice. Here's a couple of pictures from there outing.

Lastly, I have bit of news to share. Looks like we are moving to Fort Worth, TX in October. Randy is going to be managing the Fort Worth store. We are told this is not a permanent move but who knows how long it could be. We are planning a trip to FW over Labor Day weekend to visit friends and look for housing options. We are excited for what God has in-store for us there. We have put our house here on the market and haven't had any luck at this point. We just pray that God will let it all work out!!

Birthday Fun!!

2010-06-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Gavin turned 2 on June 5th and we celebrated with a party of bubbles, balloons and balls. He had a fun time and also got to share it with his Mawmaw & Pawpaw from MS. It was a fun party to plan!

Waco Weekend

2010-05-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend in Waco, TX for the Xterra (triathlon) that Randy was signed up to participate in. We had a nice drive up on Friday and stopped at the outlet mall in San Marcos along the way. We also made a stop to Pottery Barn kids in Austin, TX to check out glider rockers for the new baby. Everything was going fine until Randy went out Friday evening to pre-ride the bike course. His bike broke beyond repair!! That put him out of the race. We still managed to enjoy a nice weekend getaway. Waco is a very pretty place and had lots of good "local food" to offer. When we weren't out sight seeing or swimming Randy managed to do a little online bike shopping and find his new "eye candy" as they called it in the store, in Austin. Needless to say we stopped in on the ride home and he brought it home with him. He's on cloud 9!!!

Mother's Day Surprise!

2010-05-24T12:33:00.001-07:00

This was a pretty exciting Mother's Day for me as I got to call all my family and let them know that I'm going to be a mom again!! Actually, Gavin told a few of them for me. He said Mama, baby! His Mamaw Lois picked right up on that one. We are very excited about our new addition to be added around December 10th.

Fun Weekend Get Away

2010-05-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

We made a spur of the moment trip to Corpus Christi this weekend. Randy needed to take a truck to the store over there and didn't have anyone to pick him up so we quickly arranged a trip and made it into a fun weekend. We went to the beach on Friday afternoon. Gavin wasn't so excited by this as he's not a big "water" person and he couldn't quite figure out how to walk in the sand.

On Saturday we spent the morning at the Aquarium. We all seemed to enjoy this. Randy & Birte toured the Lexington while Gavin and I went back to the Aquarium after lunch for the playground. We had a great time, but were ready to leave the humidity behind!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone! It's been a great and fun filled weekend for us as you'll see on the photo's. We went to a picnic / Easter egg hunt yesterday at the playground in our neighborhood and it was a gorgeous day for it.

Gavin picked up his first egg and when it opened and spilled out jelly beans he was through. ha!! Today he got his second round of hunting eggs and did much better on the Church playground. We stayed after Church for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. It's been a great day!!

Lastly, I'll leave you with a glimpse of Randy's newest hobby....Humming bird watching. Can you

spot the nest?

Mississippi Fun

2010-03-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hello from Sunny Laredo! I realize it's been a while. We had a GREAT time in Mississippi over Spring Break and are getting back into the routine of things here in Laredo. We visited with many family members and even made a special trip to the Gulf Coast to see my Aunt and Cousin whom I haven't seen since one week before Hurricane Katrina hit them. My Aunt has a neat new "round house" on stilts!! This was my first trip to the Coast since the Hurricane and I couldn't not believe all the damage. We had a great time visiting with them. My sister Amber was able to come down and spend 3 days with us. Birte was exposed to a whole new way of life. I ask her what her favorite Southern dish was and she said she didn't know...we ate to many!! She was kidding either. We stuffed our faces the entire trip. She really seemed to enjoy MS. and all the open spaces. She got to do alot of firsts on this trip. Visit the South, eat Southern food, ride a 4-wheeler, ride in a golf cart, ride a horse, put her feet in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sure I am forgetting something. We had FUN!! Here are a few pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoy!!

March Madness

2010-03-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post. I said I wasn't going to do that. Sorry!! Anyway, I am updating this as I wait to go to the airport in an hour and visit family in Mississippi for Spring Break. Gavin, Birte and I have been looking forward to this visit for a couple of months now.

Just wanted to update a few photos of Gavin enjoying popcorn about as much as his Dad. The funny thing is when Randy came and sat down with his popcorn bowl, Gavin quickly took it and put it in his lap. I think Randy's going to have a little competition on his hands! March has been pretty quiet for us so far. Gavin & Avery have been having their play dates twice a week and as you can see he's working hard to push her on the lion. She does the same for him. It's really cute to watch them play. Well, I'll be back in a week with more photos and updates to share from our trip home. Have a good Spring break.

Snowy Colorado

2010-03-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

I've finally made it with the Colorado pictures. We had a great time visiting our "second parents" in Colorado. Unfortunately, Hilda (mom ) fell 2 days before our visit and cracked her hip. She had to have surgery and have pins put in. She is still in the hospital. Brit (dad) wasn't feeling so well and stayed in bed for most of our stay. With all that said, we still had fun!! Randy and Birte went to Breckenridge skiing on Friday. Gavin and I stayed home and did a little playing in the snow ourselves. We got to eat at a few of our very favorite restaurants. I recommend if your ever in Colorado Springs to have breakfast at King Chef in downtown and dinner at Wild Ginger (Thai food). The very best anywhere.

Birte and her bear at balancing rock in The garden of the the gods.

Gavin playing in the snow for the first time.

We really do miss Colorado, but not the cold. Had a great time being back in our home of 7 years.

San Antonio weekend

2010-02-22T07:54:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind on this with all the going we've done the last 2 weeks. We took Birte & Gavin to the Stock show and Rodeo on Valentine's Day. It was Birte & Gavin's first Rodeo. They both seemed to enjoy it very much. There were lots of other things to do at the Rodeo. We went through the barns and saw lots of pigs and then the petting zoo and many other fun activities for kids. Gavin loved the animals. We stayed on the River walk and Birte enjoyed the many pretty sights of downtown San Antonio. We also managed to sneak in a little trip to the Outlet mall in San Marcos. We all enjoyed that one!! Lastly, we took Birte to a Mexican restaurant on the river walk for dinner and had the mariachi band play a tune for her and Gavin. Gavin was mesmerized by it. She also enjoyed her first fried ice cream. It was a fun weekend!!

Cake classes

2010-02-11T12:15:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture of my latest project. I've started taking the Wilton cake classes at Hobby Lobby on Tuesday's. There are 4 other ladies that I know taking the class with me. It's fun and stressful!! I've never made butter cream icing before or tried to frost a cake with it and it's a JOB to say the least. I'm hanging in there so far. This is my first days homework. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no plan on the decorating. It should be edible at least!

Things are going well here. It's gotten colder again and rainy today. Gavin is amazing us everyday with new words and actions. I've been trying to teach him to bow his head to pray before the meal and now when I say let's pray he puts his head down and starts mumbling words. Then when we are done he says AMEN! To cute!!

Birte is doing well also. She started soccer this week and has practice everyday after school unless it's a game night. She's also started playing her saxophone with the praise band at Church. Here is a picture of her first performance. So, we are staying very busy these days. Gavin still adores her!

Randy is doing the usual work, work, work. However, the next two weekends we plan to go out of town and so he'll get a little much needed time off. Will update you with our trip details when we return next week. Guess that's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well.

Busy Days

2010-01-30T18:00:00.001-08:00

This morning I did my first 5K walk for the Laredo Life Center. My friend Nicole came along with Gavin and I for the walk. It was 41 degrees when we started the walk at 8:00 a.m. That is COLD for Laredo and needless to say we almost froze. Of course I managed to forget my camera and so no pictures were taken. We had a great time chatting even though our jaws were almost froze shut!! And Gavin didn't say one word the entire walk.

Birte and I went to a double baby shower this morning after the walk. It was her first official baby shower and I think she enjoyed it. I know she enjoyed the yummy chocolate cake!!

This afternoon we went to our first Laredo Menudo bowl. In case your wondering, menudo is cow intestines and no we didn't have any. HA!! We just went to see what it was all about. For dinner we introduced Birte to her first Chick-fil-a sandwich, which she enjoyed. It's been a great day!! We even got to spend a little time with the Poteets when they came to pick up the remainder of there things from our garage. I sure do miss seeing them and having them in Laredo!

Well, since I managed to take no pictures today, I'll leave you with a couple from last nights bubble bath and one from play time yesterday. One of Gavin's favorite things, bubbles.

Our new daughter!

2010-01-27T09:51:00.001-08:00

Hello out there. So it's been a while, I know. But not 9 months! We have a new family member for the next 4 months. Birte, our new foreign exchange student from Germany. She's 16 and joined our family 1 week ago today. We are enjoying her being here and Gavin is already a big fan. He was already calling her name by the 2nd day. The first afternoon she was here he would go into her room and tell me bye-bye and shut the door. I hope he doesn't drive her crazy before May 29th.

Your probably wondering how did we ever get involved with something like this. We know a lady in town that works with the program and she called us out of the blue about 3 weeks ago and ask if we would consider hosting a student. We thought about it for like 2 minutes and Randy said let's do it. I knew he would. He loves doing things to help people, so I knew he would jump at this opportunity.

Now that she's here and settling into "Laredo, TX" of all places, Randy has insisted that I plan some trips to show her a little more of the U.S. I've just finished booking our travels for the next 2 months. We are taking her to the San Antonio Stock show and rodeo on Valentines Day. This will be her first rodeo. Gavin will enjoy it also!! Later in February we are all flying to Colorado Springs to see our "second parents" as we call them, the Britton's. Then in March for Spring break I'll be taking her with me to Mississippi for a full 5 1/2 days of nothing but Southern Hospitality!! Hope she likes fried chicken and collard greens. :)) She's in for a treat!!

Well, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures, this is all I could manage to get in short notice.

A Quiet New Year

2010-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

It's been a quiet 2010 so far. We started out with no plans on New Year's Eve and were in bed by 10:00. I managed to be awake at 11:58 pm to ring in the New Year, courtesy of my neighbor's fireworks. :) We've had colder temps than usual here and that has kept us in for the most part. Thought I would just share a snapshot of Gavin before Church this morning.

Gavin sits with us during Church and this morning he gave his first Amen on the Sermon. It was cute!! After Church we shared it with the Pastor and he was pleased. Now, if only he could get a "Roll Tide" out of Gavin's mouth, all would be well with the world. Gavin quickly told him No. What a personality!!

Christmas

2009-12-30T18:58:00.001-08:00

We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve with lunch at Randy's parents house. We had our "traditional" shrimp and crab legs and it was as delicious as always. There was a house full with all the kids and their kids there that day.

Later that same evening we went next door to Randy's Mamaw's house for her annual Christmas gathering. There we continued to stuff our faces with more yummy food. After all who can pass on homemade chicken n dumplins. :) After dinner we always gather round for our "Dirty Santa" gift exchange. Always lots of fun!!

We spent Christmas Day at my sister's house with all of my family. We again ate to much and opened more gifts. My sister and brother had a turkey cook off. Brad fried his turkey and Michaela baked hers. Michaela won!! However, I must give Brad his props. His was pretty tasty also.

Gavin seemed to enjoy his time on the swing with his cousin Hannah the most. When they weren't playing she was laying down with him putting him to sleep. She was an awesome help to me and great babysitter. To bad for me that she lives so far away.

Finally, on the 26th we had our Christmas lunch with Randy's Granny. She served us her usual meal of gumbo and fried fish. We enjoyed once again. I didn't manage to get any pictures this day due to our car being pack and ready to travel back to Laredo. The camera was somewhere lost in the trunk. So here is the one photo I managed to capture Christmas day with Granny.

Christmas Travels

2009-12-30T10:07:00.000-08:00

We left for Mississippi on Tuesday, December 22nd. We decided for all of our sakes we would stop overnight in Houston, TX going and coming back. We stayed at The Four Seasons hotel in downtown Houston, which is beautiful. Gavin seemed to really enjoy it there. They brought out a wagon filled with stuffed animal horses and let him pick one. So as you can see he was pretty happy about it. When it came time for bed he wanted no part of sleeping in the hotels crib so we ended up with a little boy right in the middle of our king size bed. As you can imagine we didn't get much sleep that night.

Gavin was a wonderful traverler. We were definately blessed in that area. Our trip to Mississippi went very well. However, on our return trip we managed to get into a little fender bender in Louisiana. Luckily, it was very minor and we were all safe.

I'll be home for Christmas

2009-12-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

We are about to make the journey to Mississippi for Christmas. The bags are packed and we are just waiting on Randy to get home from work and pack the car. We plan to leave around noon. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010. We will be back on the 27th and will have some new pictures to post then.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Santa Claus

2009-12-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

Today Gavin and I went to the mall to see Santa. We have a few Santa's around the house and he seems to enjoy them on a daily basis. We've taught him to say Ho, Ho and he does this every time he see's Santa. I wasn't sure how he would do with sitting on Santa's lap but much to my surprise he did very well. No crying! He really didn't like the fact that I left him with a total stranger but he went along with it nicely. Here are a few Christmas photos for you to enjoy.

Birthday Boy!

2009-12-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Randy's 35th birthday on Saturday with a little cake and ice cream party. He was surprised and really enjoyed spending the afternoon with friends. Well he wasn't totally surprised. About 30 minutes prior to their arrivals, he decided he was going to take a nap. After being un-cooperative to my thoughts for the afternoon (ha!!) I decided to tell him the plans. He was very happy that I chose that path. :) We had a fun time.

Freezing

2009-12-04T09:03:00.001-08:00

It has gotten so cold here compared to usual. We have been staying indoors and Gavin is about to have a fit to go outside. I know I should be enjoying the few cold days that we do get but I'm really missing the 80 degree weather. Brrr!!

Finally

2009-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

I've been attempting this now for about 6 months or more and I have finally gotten it started. Yeah for me!! Now let's just see how well I do at keeping it up to date and interesting. Be patient with me.....It's a work in progress. :)