San Antonio weekend

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.