my new best friend!

i finally got the camera ive been wishing for!!! i cannot wait to take tons and tons and tons of pictures! i have lots to learn about photography and photo editing.. { TERRY - TEACH ME!!! ;) }but i am COMPLETELY up for the challenge. besides - even on auto my new rebel takes amazing pics of the little man!

btw..if anyones wondering - i found a really great deal on a canon. ive been back and forth for WEEKS between canon rebel xti and nikon d60. both have GREAT features -- i really couldnt go wrong either way. but im pretty sure this one was meant to be mine. :) L-O-V-E IT!

kp's family reunion 2008

summer weekend number 4 = family fun! we attended kyle's annual family reunion. at lake o the pine in east texas. we had SO much fun! we took the day off on friday.. but it definitely wasnt a restful day off. the littles and i were in childress wednesday and thursday so we had to get up ridiculously early on friday morning to drive to mckinney. but we managed. and we were able to leave mckinney by 1030 am for our drive to the lake. we spent friday night and saturday night camping RV style with all of kp's family. we definitely dont get to see them often enough! the sad part is that most of them live right here in the metroplex... oh well. i guess what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder is completely true with this fam. we have a blast every time we see them! i did a horrible job of taking pics of anyone except my own squad. HOWEVA - kelli took family pics of everyone - so as soon as she shares i will too.

the littles DEFINITELY enjoyed the new dvd player on the drive to the lake.

upon arrival we unpacked all the necessary gear.

come on boys..let me show you how this is done.

korb was less than excited to meet FUDGE & DUCK.. two chocolate labs. but sissy saved him. thanks sissy!

this little guy was definitely more his size!

he had the MOST fun with his cousins! especially kelsi. we must have heard a thousand times - where kelsi go?

enjoying a little shade on day 1. it wasnt nearly as hot as its been in years past. but it was hot..i mean - its texas right? :)

kennedy and kaitlyn

the hand in front of the face always means its time to put away the camera.

so i joined the group..and hung out for the rest of the evening. i think i heard an estimate of 70 people attended this year.. thats a big family!

day 2 was all about the water!

korb had so much fun climbing from chair to chair in this beach/swimming area. he also loved him some whitney.

where whitney go? - heard that A LOT too.

he did venture off the shore a few times with kaitlyn and kaden or sissy.

but he was usually escorted back pretty quickly.. here he is with kyle's cousin tim. aka whitney (and kristen and presley's) dad.

kennedy on the other hand wanted NOTHING to do with the shore. here she is on kristens shoulders

why is water play SO exhausting.

and thats it.. i didnt take another single picture the entire weekend. such a good blogger. here's a link to all of the pics - including quite a few i didnt post. saturday evening was great. we had an awesome dinner (thanks tim, lora, wayne & tiffany). then we had the annual washer tourney. which, i know your surprised, i didnt win. ;) kyles cornhole boards were a BIG hit. everyone played friday.. and saturday. and then whitney talked kyle into letting her grace AUSTIN with its first set. (cause surely no one else is playing this game, right?) or at least the first set handcrafted by KP. dont get me wrong.. he did not let them go with out putting up a fight. but in the end -- whit was the proud owner -- and kyles wallet was a little thicker. dont worry the next FABULOUS set is already constructed. a little paint and logos and we will be back in business. after the washer tourney, when the kids were tucked in, we stayed up late to play a little poker before calling it a 'night' just before the sun came up. FUN FUN FUN! cant wait til next year.

wait.. did i forget to tell the story about the CRAZY bug! hmmm... that might have to be another post. ;)

surveying the damage

i took a few {or 50 :)} pics when we visited childress to help with storm clean up. i wanted to share a few... {or 10}. what a mess!

my parents cute little house. the storm blew in from the north east. their house faces east.. all of the damage that you see on the pillars is from hail! how crazy is that.

missing bricks.. crazy.

you can really see the hail damage on the railing, columns and the seat of this bench.

along the north side of the house all the windows that arent missing their screens and/or broken look like this. the hail actually shredded the screens.

the lawn furniture in the back yard doesnt look good at all!

this is the inside of the big window you can see boarded up on the front of the house. even the mini blinds are completely destroyed.

this is the side of the skating rink building that kennedy's grandparents own.

and this was the storage shed they used for the business.

this is the house i grew up in. that tree used to shade the front porch.

and this is the church i grew up in.. their organ and piano were destroyed by water damage after this portion of the roof blew off.

the car wash.. minus half of its metal roof.

dawsons family restaurant. my parents eat here at least two days a week. i wish i had a before pic. there was a covered porch all along the front of the building.. kind of like a cracker barrel. all completely gone.

CRAZINESS! we are really lucky that all of our family members are ok! and we got to spend a few hours with nick, jenny and dalton in childress. the boys had SO much fun. jenny took great pictures. you can see them here. just a preview of how much fun our 4th of july weekend will be!

when it rains it pours.. literally

we got a call from my mom and dad on sunday evening that a terrible storm had hit my home town. this pic is from the childress index. you can read more about the storm there too.there is massive wide-spread damage thru out the town. winds over 80 mph blew in tons of hail. an actual tornado has not yet been confirmed by the nat'l weather service.. but the damage speaks for itself. some homes and businesses are a total loss. thankfully my parents are not on that list. but they do have their fair share of damage to deal with.. they were without power for quite sometime and until an insurance adjuster estimates the damage it will continue to be a little darker in the house with boards over all the broken windows. kennedy is visiting her fathers parents in childress too.. and their home and business were hit pretty hard as well. we are very thankful to say that they are all ok physically. my brother and his family were able to get there to be with my mom and dad to help with anything they need yesterday.. korb and i will be there this evening. not sure what we can do to help..except just be there. please keep my parents and all their friends and neighbors in mind this week and in the next few weeks to come as they try to recover, repair and rebuild.

its going to be one of those summers..

one of those where the weekends are too short. and you cant really wait to get to the next one! read all about our last three weekends.

country thunder! not so much.
the last day of school and time OUT!
happy birthday aaron cardwell! and how many minchey boys are there???

this weekend is kps family reunion.. so we will be away again. look for pics next week! both the mincheys and the musgraves have volunteered their cameras just until we get a new one! thanks guys!!!!

one quick note.. ive been working on these posts a little at a time all week. and no matter how hard i try - i NEVER catch all the errors until i reread them posted. unfortunately i just dont have time to do that today... so read at your own risk! and know that i will catch them. kyle tells me all the time that im a little dumber since our accident. dont worry he says it with love.. we will just go with that excuse. :)

summer weekend numero tres

after a GREAT visit from my mom tuesday thru thursday.. including a dinner out with her cousin tim and his wife sarah - (who we absolutely love spending time with!) it was time for another weekend packed full of plans. friday was supposed to be low-key..because saturday was aaron cardwells 30th bday bash.. and that was guaranteed to leave us needing a restful sunday. then shawn and jess called wanting to bbq and play a little PS3. still seems pretty low-key. fine by us! around 9 we talked to team minchey. nicoles sisters (and their boyfriends) were driving in from houston and were hoping to come over to play poker. there might have been an erin kennedy +1 siting a little after 10.. and somehow our low-key evening had turned into 13 people. the mincheys..well, i guess really the villareals :), and the +1 had a nice little poker game. i heard that mrs minchey took all their money. just a rumor im sure... after poker round 2 we finally got to bed a little after 5. so much for resting up! we had a great time tho. we do love to be spontaneous!

on saturday we slept in because we are blessed with the BEST baby in the whole world and he lets us do that! then around 3 we headed over to the cardwells for the birthday party. there were SO many people there!!! it was so much fun! the kids played in the backyard in kiddie pools for hours.. they had a blast! i got to hold baby madison (degele) and baby kingsley (canon). both absolutely precious! kyle should be very glad that i do what i do for a living or an afternoon like that mightve created some MASSIVE baby-fever! we ate burgers..watched some amazing golf..played a little cornhole.. well, the boys played a little cornhole. im beginning to think they think we dont wanna play. im sure the truth is that they dont care that we wanna play.. but we will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they just arent aware of our desire to join in their cornhole fun. such a funny word. cornhole. does anyone remember that day at the cusanos when we all played couples? it was awesome! and not just because team palmer beat EVERYONE! just a thought.. anywaysssssssssss. we had a GREAT time hanging out with the whole crew and celebrating with aaron. happy birthday one more time!

after the party we joined the mincheys in westminster (wherever that is). dereks brother plays bass guitar in band and they had a gig at a cool little bar there. dont worry, korb did not go with. he stayed with one of dereks sis-in-laws and nieces. we arrived at their house..dada built the pack-n-play...mommy kissed him night-night and REK sang him fast asleep with in minutes. he didnt even know we were gone! did i mention..THE BEST BABY EVER? then we were off - to that cool little bar in the middle of nowhere, tx. it was the neatest place. an old bank transformed. very cool! we would definitely go back if i had any idea how to get back there! dereks bro's band was amazing. his brother is so talented! derek, what instrument do you play? jokes!

sunday..fathers day.. was all about DADA. we slept til he wanted to get up. we ate what he wanted to eat. we took him shopping.. and then we spent the afternoon doing exactly what he wanted to do. sitting on the sofa watching the US OPEN. it was a very nice, very quiet, very relaxing day! we hope you enjoyed it honey!

ps.. i do have pics from saturday that we took with the mincheys camera. just have a little technical difficulty getting them onto the computer! ill post an update when i have a chance to add them.

the last day of school..and a grown-ups only weekend!

kennedys last day of school was june 6.. the last day of 2nd grade. half way thru elementary school! that cant be right, can it? unfortunately so.. she had a blast. some of the parents in the neighborhood thru a pool party. and she stayed the night with kaylee at her grandmothers house. on friday my mom arrived in the afternoon. we had planned for kennedy and korb to spend the weekend in childress so that we could go to the river.. even tho the river thing never quite became reality nana and papa still wanted to see korb and he very much wanted to go home with nana.

on friday night we had dinner with the musgraves and stayed up WAY too late playing guitar hero. as a side note..i dont play. im whats known as a professional watcher. :)

on saturday.. after chiropractic appts and a little lounging on the sofa we met sam, degele, and brad in lewisville to watch BIG BROWN win the triple crown. he didnt win. :( after the race we went to sam's apt to change clothes. then we met up with kenny and a few other friends in uptown. we had a really good time! we got to see lots of people we dont normally get to see.. ran into some completely random old friends of my husbands - literally EVERYWHERE we turned. more proof that he knows everyone in the metroplex! and that was our 3rd time to see kenny in as many weeks. totally a record!

sunday was all about catching up on rest! we were L-A-Z-Y! and it was great!

country thunder..not so much.

the first weekend in june.. well, 5.30-6.1, i guess thats technically the last weekend in may.. a few of my girlfriends and i planned an awesome trip to WAX-a-hachie TX for a country music festival called country thunder. pat green, tim mcgraw, carrie underwood.. and SO many more of our favorites were going to be there and we decided it would be the perfect time for the first ever GNO the weekend edition. we tossed around ideas about RV-ing and camping..but settled on hotel-ing. definitely the most girl way to spend the weekend. then just one week before the big weekend..the event was CANCELLED! we were so sad.. i guess the event got rained out last year in texas and due to ticket sales being low this year they were afraid they would be losing money on the event two years in a row.. blah..blah..blah.. so sad!



we couldnt let the time we had set aside to hang out go to waste. we needed a new plan! derek was going to be out of town on friday night..that meant party at the mincheys! we all met there around 7ish.. ok - half of us met around 7ish. the other half showed up a little after 8. i will not say which half i was in. :) we had a glass of wine or two and then we walked to the square in downtown mckinney. we had a BLAST! i have to thank nikki for sharing pics! we visited a few of our favorite places

here we are at the landon winery

and at the cadillac pizza pub.. they were 'in between liquor licenses' (whatever that means) so the drinks were free..DANGEROUS!!!
while reviewing that last lovely group pic i noticed that EVERY time we take a picture..erin and nicoles eyes are normal - while nikki and i have crazy red-eye. if erins eyes were brown..i would understand. but they are not. theyre blue. i dont understand! i think nikkis camera might have something against freckles!

not-red

red.

this picture is outside the cadillac.. i think its my favorite of the entire weekend!
and we ended the evening at the londoner.

that guy followed us from cadillac.

he was from denmark.

the walk home was FUN! just like the entire evening. e loved the frogs..
and we all took a dip in the fountain. except for nikki the photographer. thanks for the sacrifice nikki.

i love walking home at the end of the evening! reminds me of NY.

oh..and we had to call erins dad to wish him a happy bday!

the next morning we had BIG plans to get up.. go see SATC. shop, eat lunch on a patio, have pedicure, a nice dinner, and then GO OUT again in uptown and stay the night at nikki's apt. when we finally left the mincheys around 3 the next afternoon.. the list of things we accomplised got a lot shorter! but we had so much time talking and just hanging out! it was a great day! we did manage to check out the new watters creek shopping center in allen. eat lunch at mi cocina. get a pedicure. rewatch the season finale of LOST! and we even made it out in uptown!

night two in uptown.. we totally didnt mean to cooridinate.

great minds really do think alike!

we spent a little time at little bar called the quarter
and this little chair was all we could find for erin! a little more perspective on the short chair. HILARIOUS!
she survived..
the lights are on..does that mean its REALLY over??
well, except for a random AH siting!
this happening cab driver took us 'home'n..you rock at the self-portrait!
erin thought cole needed some love
now..i think its over. SO MUCH FUN! i had an awesome time!! and made it home in time for a great sunday with my family!! thanks girls.. it was a BLAST!