happy birthday mom!

today is my mothers birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! she drove kennedy home on tuesday and just left this morning.. so we got to spend lots of time with her this week! we've really enjoyed her company! she got to see some of korb's first steps.. and snuggle with kennedy for 3 sleeps (which, in my opinion is not a treasure..but she loves it). thanks mom for driving all the way here..even though it causes you to lose sleep! and thank you for always be there for us! you are our rock.. and we dont always appreciate it the way that we should. we love you so much! we hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

finding the silver lining...

this weekend was filled with friends..fondue..and family!

seeing that saturday was supposed to be the big night of the weekend.. i thought that we would have a quiet friday night at home. kyle got off early on friday and golfed the afternoon away with ryan rowland. then they decided to get a small game of cards together...and before i knew it - there were 20 people here. that does include little ones, but they count too!!! korb, bex, ava and elle had a great time hanging out passed their bedtime. and elle showed off her walking skills. so cute! like most late nights at team palmers. the camera didnt make it out til really late. however, i thought this pic was definitely worth posting just to show the randomness of the crowd. it also happened to be brye carters birthday - and we are complete terds for not remembering! that will not happen again... happy belated birthday brye!!! though it wasnt what i had in mind for friday night, it is nice to have good friends...

yep..thats mike bledsoe and blake arnold. ???

this months GNO was modified a bit. we decided to invite the guys along for a nice dinner out. we chose the melting pot.. the vibe was not exactly as we had hoped it would be. but we made the best of a few bad attitudes and had a good time despite their negativity. it was really good to see everyone! and as i said a million times on the way home - thank you to kyle for being a good sport! it means a lot...

thats me and my man!!!

jason & mark clearly having a terrible time...

the way the entire night probably should have been.. GNO.

korb shared a sitter with the cusano boys during our fondue event. afterwards we went back to the cusano compound ourselves and crashed for the night too. we did catch some slack from the kid-less about not hanging out longer. there are those moments when you'd like to hangout and not have to worry about picking up the baby. but when you see how happy they are to see you.. they quickly pass. someday there will be little b-dubs smiling at them from the back seat on their way to the sitter for a night out and they wont mind going home right after dinner either! love ya nikki!

look at my handsome blue eyes.. not my thighs!!!

when korb finally got up saturday morning, a little before 10am, we made our way downstairs so that he could play with jackson for a little while before we loaded up and drove home. he and jackson had a great time together! he played with one of jackson's golf clubs the entire time. maybe we have a little tiger on our hands... and speaking of tiger - we spent the afternoon doing chores around the house, watching tiger make a fool of rory sabbatini, eating two out of three meals that day with team cardwell, celebrating a little with kurt busch and watching the first pre-season NFL game. finally..football again!!! in between eating and sports we found time to take korb and ava to the pool for a little while. and out for icecream. as you can see they are becoming as good of friends as their mommies and daddies.

at the pool..

korb & ava holding hands on an ice cream date!

maybe the sweetest pics ever...

we also got a call from my brother on sunday.. looks like there's a really good possibility that we will be spending a lot more time with them this fall!!!! korb and dalton might even get to hangout a few days a week... more details to come. i think they are seeing the silver lining to the h-town cloud this week too!!!

now..if you will excuse me ---- KENNEDY will be home in about an hour!!! and i have a few things still to do before her arrival... it stinks for her to be away, but the joy of reunions and realizing how much you mean to each other is definitely the silver lining there..

has it really been 11 months???

wow.. i know i say this every month but i really cant believe it. we visited korb's pediatrician last week. 9 month check up a little late.. we had to reschedule it twice. oh well, seeing that he is perfectly healthy and did not need any shots. no harm no foul. the good news is i have current 'stats' for this months update. he was 24 lbs and 10 oz.. 31.5 inches long. still over 90th percentile for both. that's our boy!!

trying something new for this months baby update.. enjoy!!!

just a few things korb can do at 11 months...

probably too old for weekends like this...

every week i end up blogging about the weekend... theres something to be said about wishing your life away to get to the weekend.. but last weekend was worth it!!! it was so busy.. and so long.. and we didnt take any time off. thats awesome!! we did start early.. on thursday evening the usual suspects came over for dinner. kyle cooked my new favorite meal.. pork tenderloin. he found an apple bourbon marinade thats amazing. thanks for braving the rain to grill it outside honey! on friday after work we took korb to visit a friend and actually went on a date!!! it was the first time we've been in a restaurant, just the two of us, in so long. well, except for applebees in new braunsfels on our river weekend...but that was not a highlight. in fact ive been thinking its a bullet point i missed on that post

• if youre ever out to dinner.. and your date falls asleep. try not to take it personally.
  

anyway.. back to this weekend. the occasion was actually a birthday party for one of kyles buddies at mantus downtown. but that did not get started until 11ish so we got dressed early, dropped off the baby and went out to dinner. pf changs in addison. it was a very nice dinner. then we met up with sam and made our way downtown.. http://www.mantusdallas.com/ mantus is always a cool scene. we did not do a very good job of capturing the evening on film.. in fact we got three pics on the way out... all three compliments of the artist known as kp. sorry!

saturday kyle golfed and i shopped with kelly c. we ventured to northpark.. first time ive been there in a really long time. we did not stay long.. hit the XXI and chick fil a and went home. it was a little weird being there... as i drove into the garage i was thinking -- wonder how much has changed around here. but as i rounded the corner to go up a level and almost ran into malcolm reuben (neimans store manager) in his maserati.. as i must admit ive almost done several times before... i realized its probably just business as usual, minus james. weird feeling. anyway... after shopping we were off to get ready for night number 3 of hanging out. the crew, mincheys-palmers-cardwells met in frisco at team cardwells house, we piled in a tahoe.. one of the many.. and made our way to denton to see the infamous beerman. http://www.brianhouser.com/ we had an awesome time. no dressing up necessary... unfortunately the only pics are before the show at aaron & kellys and after the show at andy & saras. but they are still worth posting..thanks kelly for remembering your camera! i promise we have some different readers. in fact you never know how many people are reading til you make a comment about an air mattress in a tahoe... you'd think that would be enough fun for any weekend, right? wrong! sunday night, kelly and i met jenn cusano and erin kennedy downtown (again) near the AAC for dinner and then we went to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert. it was such a cool show! it lasted forever!!! some of my favorite things about the show include...

• the fact that faiths hair seemed a little humidity-out-of-control - makes her normal like us, sort of.
• they sang ANGRY ALL THE TIME together, which is my favorite Tim song EVER!
• ive seen him in concert before and he always does a few really great covers.. i think i called/texted everyone i know when he sang DAC's the ride. Well, I climbed out of that Cadillac and I said Mister, many thanks.he said you don't have to call me mister, Mister.The whole world calls me Hank. it was almost as good as beerman doing it the night before! if only tim would sing pancho and lefty...now that would have been cool.
• the random limo ride back to our parking lot.. thats a whole post by itself.

i am so glad we went.. THANKS JEN! what a great idea.. again - like a bad blogger i did not have my camera. but we made friends with the peeps in front of us and they emailed theirs. very thoughtful! funny though. the pics of tim are much more clear than the pic of the four of us... we were a little fuzzy by the end of the night anyway. so i guess its only fitting.

probably too old for weekends like this... but sometimes you just need to pretend youre still young! i really needed to get out! we had a blast...

what a difference a year can make...

Once upon a time there were 6 pregnant woman.. at a baby shower - imagine that. and someone took their picture!! somehow this is the only pic we have of the 6 of us pregnant together... craziness. you'd think there would be tons... just the same, its priceless. so we decided it must be followed up with a pic of all the babies. i called up my favorite photographer and she braved the challenge! http://www.clarinesmithphotography.com/ thank you terry!!! and the results are awesome!

here they are..

addison, cash, elle, korb, ava and tucker!

thats a lot of babies!

korb thought it was a hands up good time!

i love this look.. its like come on guys - this is serious. no wrestling!

...the weekend

not sure where to start... let me first say that above all - it was great to see nick & jenny, and her family. and their friends were really cool. i enjoyed meeting everyone so much. and im glad we got out of town. other than that... it was crap. ive wrote and rewrote the details a hundred different ways.. and it always turns out sounding like i had a bad time...and thats not true. even the really bad parts are funny when i look back on them.. so ive decided to make a list of the things i learned or confirmed - and leave it at that.

• gasoline is expensive..
• korb is officially 'allergic' to childress..
• after 3 days of malaria.. you start to feeling like your on acid
• camping isnt for everyone.. and im not the only one who feels that way!
• close doesnt really count in horseshoes either
• a full size air mattress fits perfectly in the back of a tahoe... and BTW 'doin it' in the car is still a good time in your 30's.
• quotes from joe dirt are funny to everyone - and if you have NO in your heart it really can bring you down.
• thunder is loud
• 30% chance of rain... sounds like good odds
• sometimes keys just get lost
• if you wanna 'remember a moment' dont ask my mom to take the picture!
• they dont call me putt putt for nothing... maybe i should play golf
• clothing is not protection from mosquitoes
• flashlights are entertaining
• it gets really hot in texas in july
• there are at least two kyle kruegers in this world
• my husband likes music
• if your not sure if its a boy or a girl.. watch to see which restroom it goes in
• the hardest part of sneaking out is getting out of the house.. or the tent
• sometimes its good to keep on keepin on... and sometimes you just have to quit

ok.. so i bought a disposable water-proof camera for our trip so that it would not get wet in the river. not that we got in the river..but it still came in handy from the rain. the thing about film is you have to take it somewhere to be developed.. and im not very good at that. so we may see those pics soon - or we may see them in a few years when i come across the camera and think.. i wonder when we used this.. anyway.. i left our camera with my parents to take pics of korb's week... so that it doesnt seem like im just being mean to my mom about her photography skills - let me show you a few.

this was upon arrival.. teaching my mom the point and click technique

and this is korb in the park before the parade..doesnt he look happy!

and this is korb with my cousin brian..

korb and papa

there are a few good ones! love you mom!!!

korb and nana in the parade

papa, korb and a few of papa's nephews

papa and korb.. not sure how safe that is - but i hear that he loved it

this is korb saying.. nana, can you take me home now? my nose is runny.. he was supposed to stay from friday to saturday..9 days. he made it 3 sleeps...

i love technology...

feel a little kip dynamite-like today... since my last post on thursday i have not been able to spend one second on the Internet and i almost didnt make it! my parents computer has a virus.. kyle told them to bring it to mckinney so that he and our resident IT person could reformat it. feeling bad that we have two computers in our house.. and they would be with out even one.. (except for dad's work laptop..which he does not share with my spider-solitaire playing mom) i took kennedy's computer to them when i dropped korb off for our grown-up weekend of fun. i guess all the talk about repairing someone elses computer motivated kyle to 'fix' ours. so, $100 bucks, 10 hours less sleep this week and more indebtedness to brye (the resident IT guy) later.. we have a fancy new computer. i understand that its really the old computer, for the most part, in a new case. but it looks fancy and it gets me on the net and thats all i really care about!!! ive been so disconnected! but im back... always and forever

working on recaps from the weekend.. ours and korbs. if nap time isnt cut short.. and i can stop reading everyone elses blogs..i might get them done today