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

let the weekend begin.. a little early!

...its been a long week. and its only thursday! dalton was in & out of the hospital all week.. and even from a far it was stressful! cant imagine how nick and jenny must be feeling.. we've been so worried about him, but i think he's finally getting back to his mischievous self. at least thats what nick tells me... jenny tells the story of their week much better than i could.. and the pics of dubbers in the hospital gown are too much!

http://theshoffners.blogspot.com/2007/07/past-five-days.html

and this weekend is our river trip!!! it looks like we all need this much anticipated break more than ever!!! i know i do.. and im sure they do! im so excited about getting out of town!! not too excited about the camping part...but i guess it comes with the territory..mosquitoes and all. got a new swimsuit.. been tanning.. (shhh, dont tell jenn) and i think im ready!

korb is all packed for his visit to nana and papa's. im going to drive him to childress today as soon as the last baby goes home.. my mom and dad have strict instructions NOT to let him take his first steps during his stay. mom said, "well.. what if he just does it on his own? and we dont help him..." i said, "knock him down!!!" of course, i dont want her to knock him down, literally, unless thats what it takes to keep him from walking! kennedy will be home in 2.5 weeks and she doesnt want him to learn without her! this weekend is the old settlers rodeo and parade in my home town.. i tried to find a good link for more info..but all i can find is dates and times. so basically.. its a rodeo. that travels around texas. and in my little home town they make quite a weekend of festivities to celebrate. the rodeo will actually take place friday and saturday night at the arena.. but there will be a parade on saturday morning.. booths.. paddle boats.. and barbeques in the park all weekend. im leaving my camera with nana.. well, maybe papa. (nana doesnt take the best pics) so hopefully they will document korb's first rodeo well.. no pressure guys!

so today is my friday!!! ready for a little break... im attaching a few random pics of the little man to hold grandma trish and kenners over til we get back! he's a funny little guy.. check out that grill as dada says..

to new beginnings!

finally talked kelly into playing poker with us... last weekend she had practice time and this weekend she wanted in on the action...and she won. beginners luck im sure. :) or we may have created a monster!

AND!!! i finally talked her into blogging!!! yea! she created the blog forever ago (literally weeks) and hasnt posted anything til sunday.. but now its officially up and running... we will be checking up on it! im adding it to my list.. and who can i pick on next?!?!? hmmm, maybe nicole.....

http://www.teamcardwell.blogspot.com/

a good week!

wow.. its been more than a week since ive made a post. time sure gets away from you when your having a good time! my mom was here last week.. it was so great to spend time with her! ive seen her at least once a month since she stopped being our full time nanny and went back to her real life..but we havent gotten to really just hang out since our vacation in march. somehow that seems like a life time ago! we had lots of quality time together. she was a saint with the babies. TONS of help! LOVE YOU MOM!!!

here's a cool story that unfolded last week. my mom is an only child.. and both of her parents have been gone for sometime now. family is very important to her, no big secret.. she'd love for all of us to live on the same street and eat dinner together every night! last week, while she was here she made a phone call to a cousin she hasnt seen in about 15 years.. she found out that he lives in mckinney thru another family member that she doesnt see often. they talked on monday evening.. she had lunch with he and his wife on tuesday.. AND they invited us over for dinner friday night. we all really enjoyed their company! we had a great time..and i really hope they keep in touch. when we were leaving on friday.. they asked my parents when they are planning to move to mckinney.. ive been asking that for years!

im posting a few pics from nana's visit..the giant dog belongs to my mom's cousins family. his name is sparticus --- and he is HUGE!

crazy 4th of july week..

what is up with this week!?!?! dont know about anyone else..but i have no idea what day of the week it is! and even though we had a break in the middle i am so tired!!! whats up with that?

first i have to issue a special thanks to my partner in crime auntie kel.. with out her this would be a pretty boring post.. you see i totally forgot my camera both days. how lame is that! thanks, kelly, for saving the day..twice!

we had a great holiday.. it was all fun..maybe too much fun. could be why im tired! we went to addison to the kaboom town festival with the cardwells and mincheys tuesday the 3rd.. we really had a good time. after much debate we ended up setting up camp in a parking lot on the corner of addison rd and keller springs (right across the street from the outer marker..man did that bring back some memories!!) the kids were so good .. as usual. we bought them glow sticks.. which they thought were super cool. of course eventually they ended up chewing on them.. but that was not the last we saw of the glow sticks that night! the fireworks did not begin until 930ish.. well after their bedtime. and while they seemed to think they were cool and all.. korb didnt quite make all the way thru with his eyes open. and then there was the traffic debacle on the ride home - kelly and i were the only ones laughing, im sure. gotta make the best of a bad situation, right?

pretty babies..

sound asleep on daddy's head.. so sweet! ..crazy traffic on the way home-notice the glow sticks. pretty hard to take them seriously like that.and we spent the day at the cusano's on wednesday the 4th. it was so great to see everyone!! we had an awesome time. the food was amazing, as always. we ate, we swam, we ate, we talked, then we ate some more... the house is beautiful! congrats you guys! we had such a good time, you really out-did yourself this time! one of our favorite parts of the day was getting to see all the babies together. last year we were all prego.. this year we were discussing first birthday plans. my how time flies!

there are several of these.. i just picked the best of my boys.

to end the holiday.. the cardwells, mincheys and palmers headed to frisco. the plan was to watch the frisco fireworks from the roof top of casa de cardwell. while that only happened for a select few.. derek and kyle... it was a nice way to end the holiday. reminded of how lucky we are to have great friends. im pretty sure kyle will not be happy with me for posting this pic -- but it proves the point so well. we are definitely creating a last friendship between ava (aka cub) and korb. a true attitude of 'whats yours is mine and whats mine is yours'...

whats wrong with this pic?