The little tea party in Texas

While generally everything is bigger in Texas...today we had a very small sized tea party.

This is the cup and my thumb.


Because of the size of the pot and cups, the kids did all the pouring of the tea or in our case pink lemonade. They loved pouring and drinking. Marlee is a bit of a neat freak...so she was always wiping up the spills.












(Beau is extremely sensitive to sunlight and requested sunglasses for the setting sunlight. And it makes him look more manly for his sister's tea party.)

HGTV - Curb Appeal the Block

I'm returning to blogging to share about our upcoming and exciting adventure with HGTV's Curb Appeal the Block. My neighbors and I submitted a video for a contest to win a Curb Appeal Make-over for our block. You can see the video my super creative neighbor put together...

We were told we were finalist and they were coming to tape on Saturday morning at 8:00am. We thought they'd be here for a few hours to do basic interviews and then get to back us. When they arrived, we went over the schedule for the day and they planned interviews until 1:00pm. After an hour and a half of interviews, they asked 'One factor we use to select our winners is how excited they get when we announce they have won. Show how you would act?' Knowing that I'm generally the over the top loud and crazy one...I did just that. (So I'm not looking forward to watching myself during that part of the show.) As we were fake jumping and screaming, John Gidding, the host of the show drives up and announces that we are winners. SHOCKED! Seriously in a nationwide contest...we were chosen.

About that time the other neighbors started to figure out what was going on...and came out to get pictures. (They knew we had entered and were being taped for finalist.)

This is the crew heading to my house to talk about our upcoming make-over...

John is making fun the size of my little tree that I planted...trees grow, right?

Amy (in green), Amanda (in black), me and John walking back to my neighbors end of the block.

Amy and Amanda live next door to each other.

The whole film crew...

This contest was in association with Rachael Ray...this was us taping for her show and waving to her.

John and Sam talking about the plans for our house...with Beau too.

HGTV says they picked us because of our outstanding sense of community. If you talk to me often...then you'll hear me talk about my neighbors. They are awesome! We play pokeno together, we have a playgroup, we do things in the community together, we cook for each other...and just generally care for each other. I'm so glad to have good friends to share in this experience. Moving to this neighborhood was an answer to prayer. We moved after the babies were born and they have been so accepting of my family...when I needed good mommy friends.

John has been out to Texas once since the first day (w/o camera)...he took pictures and drew some. We don't get to see any design until the cameras are back sometime in January. At this point...all the taping and work on the house is planned for January with the shows to air in late Spring or Summer of 2012. It's quite exciting...and a little overwhelming. I'll let you know when the shows will air and how the progress goes along the way.

And hopefully I'll get around to a kid related post soon.

Nicaragua - Mobile Library

This week I am readjusting to life after a week mission trip to Nicaragua. It was a great trip and I was reminded just how blessed I am.
For the kids' last two birthday parties, we requested Spanish books for Nicaragua in place of gifts for them. I was able to see the effect of these books first hand this week.

Mission Para Cristo supports thirty-eight schools in Nicaragua. (The government provides public schools in some but not all areas. To attend public school you must be able to afford the uniform and textbooks. The schools supported by the mission do not require uniforms, provide a meal and other care for the children.) One of the programs is a mobile library. Basically they drive two boxes of Spanish books to the schools for the students to read. They are in the process of collecting more books to allow children to check-out books.

The current mobile library

kids reading books

A BIG thank-you to all of you that have given Spanish books at our kids birthday parties. I know they are going to good use!

Disney World

Here is our first time meeting a few Disney favorites.
MICKEY
Check out Lilly below...


MINNIE


DONALD

They were SO excited to meet this bunch...more Disney World pictures to come.