The connect

We recently sold our wii and got an xbox with the connect. If you are not familiar with the connect it has a camera system that allows you and you alone to be the controller. Is this fun and entertaining you ask? Check out these videos! The first is of Chris and Keith doing the sprint event on the Kinnect sports game! Pretty funny! The second is of the girls Abby and Jada dancing to Poison by Bell Biv Devo also very funny and cute. I saved the best for last - the boys dancing to Lady gaga poker face. I still cry - like literally tears streaming down my face every time I watch this one!! The video is a little shaky cuz I was laughing so hard when it was happening! Dont worry you will be able to hear that in the background! lol Enjoy!!

oops!

the video about the disney surprise is actually the post before the explanation of what we did! My bad!!!=)

Here is what we did this weekend! We surprised the kids with a box from "santa" that had a note inside with disney characters pictures that said "We'll see you soon". It went very well as you will see. The excited screaming lasted for at least 30 minutes!! LOL and Jace said to me "I am NOT gonna be able to sleep tonight! I can tell you that!!" LOL

We are going to Disney with our friends Chris and Laura and their 3 kids Kaleb, Elijah and Abby. For those of you who dont know - Laura and I met while we were pregnant with our first children on a website called due date buddies. We instantly became friends and our boys were born 2 days apart. Elijah and Jada are ironically only about 4 months apart. So we got to be prego together twice! They tried to get us on board for round 3 but we went ahead and passed on that one! lol

Chris and Laura are both very talented and creative with electronics!! Laura created the beautiful letter from santa and the trivia game which you can see in the video. Her husband Chris created the movie of what went down. It was so much fun to get this all together and see the excitement after they figured it out! I cant wait to see how they react when they actually get there!!=)

The video is in the next post!!

Epic Disney World Surprise

sharkarosa

Jace's class got to go on a really fun field trip last week to a place called Sharkarosa. Its a wild life ranch in Pilot Point Tx and is actually in 2 episodes of dirty jobs this season. The staff was super friendly and the kids had a blast. Below is the barrel train ride that the kids got to ride on. For those who may not know - Jada's favorite movie is madagascar and her favorite song is "I like to move it" as sung by king Julian. LOL They played that song while the kids rode this train. Jada was Loving it!!!

We also took a safari ride on a tram with gates on either side. There were food buckets hanging from the sides of the gates all along the tram so the animals could come right up and feed. Because they are so used to this they literally come running up along with the tram as soon as they see it coming. Below is the pasture with the camels - they come right up and you can pet them too.
There was also a pasture with zebras and different types of deer - we were not able to pet these animals but we did get up close to them which was pretty awesome. It's so amazing to see zebra stripes up close - they are so vibrant and perfect. Only something our wonderful creator could have done!=)
The kids got to pet a joey and a lemur (Jada tells everyone that she saw king julian that day)lol

This was the pasture with the horses and donkeys. The Clydesdale's were AMAZING!!!
The kids and parents got to learn SO much about these awesome creatures. Truly a fun day!

season of change

A lot has changed in a very short time! I will start from the beginning - Keith and I made the decision to let Jace go to a regular school instead of homeschooling this year which was a really tough decision. So at the bottom of this post you will see pics of the first and last day of his homeschool enrichment program. It was SO sad to leave this because we loved it and Jace had lots of friends there (some he has been around since he was 2). We talked a lot with Jace and it was hard for him to leave too and go to a new school but I am pleased to report that he is really enjoying the new school. He started this monday and funny thing - the other kids that he went to kindergarten with whose families do not homeschool almost all attend this school. We were very blessed to get in to the school as there is a waiting list. Thank you Lord!! I am still adjusting to getting 2 kids to 2 different schools in a small window of time every morning but I know it will get better. I do not have any pics of Jace at his new school yet but I will soon.
So here we have Jace with a mohawk - dont get excited because it is already gone!! He had been asking for a mohawk for a while and 2 weeks ago he got hit in the face with a baseball while warming up before the game (notice under the left eye). We figured since he was already looking kind of rough and tumble why not let him have the mohawk. So these are the before and after pics but there is one after pic missing. See Jace decided once the mohawk was cut that he hated it!! LOL So now he has a shaved head! He looks so different! All of his friends think he looks like Aang from the last airbender so guess what he is gonna be for halloween! =) Oh well!!


1st day at enrichment program
last day at enrichment program! We will miss you guys but I know we will see you soon!!=)

Go Shorty its your birthday!!!

It was my birthday on saturday and I have been blessed with an amazing husband, family and friends!! Some of those friends were willing to step out of their comfort zones and come with me salsa dancing saturday night. We went to Gloria's in Arlington which was really far for some of them (thanks guys) so that my parents could watch the kids for us! Thanks mom and dad! We had SO much fun - I will say tho that there were way to many people and not enough A/C!! It was super hot in there once the dancing started. We really did have a great time tho and I was really proud of my hubby because I know how much of a perfectionist he is and he gave salsa dancing his best!! =) Thanks babe!! Below are the pics of my friends that came with us while we were eating dinner.



My flan birthday cake!!=) Dont worry dad it didn't even compare to your flan!!! LoL

Here is the video - its really dark for a bit but then Andre hooked us up with the iphone light! Enjoy the music!=)

Jada's first day of ppcd

Monday was Jada's first day of PPCD (preschool program for children with disabilities) - for those of you who may not know already Jada qualified for this program through testing in the school district due to some developmental delays. So Jace and I took Jada on monday morning for her first day. There were tears all around and it was super hard for me to leave her but I am happy to report that today (fourth day of school) there were no tears and Jada seemed totally comfortable. Her teacher seems really great and there are only 6 kids in the class. Jada is by far the smallest even though the other kids are all around the same age! =) She is only there at the school for 3 hours everyday so if you think of it please pray that the therapies she receives really help her and that her time there would be enjoyable.

This pic is a little blurry because Jace took it and let me go ahead and translate that look on her face "Um what is going on? This is not where I thought we were going this morning"! LOL It was very sad that day but I can laugh now.

Our day in the city

Grandma Pat and Grandpa Fred took us to the Museum in Chicago on this day and we had SO much fun. It was a nice break from all the house hopping. It was so special for me because I have such great memories of visiting this museum when I was a kid. I never imagined I would be there with my own children looking at some of the same exhibits.The coolest part of the museum trip was the weather exhibit - my family sometimes calls me the weather lady because I check it all the time especially if there are storm predictions. The pic above is of how a tsunami happens and below a 3 story vortex. Jace got to control the airflow of the vortex which was pretty cool! Im a fascinated by tornados and also scared to death of them so we spent a lot of time at this exhibit.
This is Jace controlling an avalanche.
Ok so this is my favorite exhibit of all time!! These next 2 pics are of the Fairy Castle Doll House. What girl wouldn't love this!! It was really hard to photograph because its in a dark room surrounded by glass so this was all I got. Notice the details!! AMAZING!!

WHAT?????

There was also a circus exhibit that was pretty cool.
And a future of farming exhibit that I actually found to be kind of scary!!! Thats just me tho!!

More Indiana

We got to go to a cookout at Keith's cousin Nicole's house and we had SO much fun! They were so gracious and the kids played a lot! Aunt Penny and Uncle Roger
Baby Caleb
Nicole and Steve LOL
Precious Brenden!
The next few are of visiting different family!Visiting Grandma Jean
Grandma Renate
My sis Jackie
My godmother and godsister at their house.

Dad's Birthday and Fathers Day (late)

Here are some pics from Indiana FINALLY!!

This was the day we went to visit my sisters, brother and Neices. We had such a nice time and it was a reminder of how much we miss them. Hopefully they will come visit soon!

Jada and Piper got along SO well! Too cute!
Dad is always fun to watch open gifts!
Here is the family all together and below is dad with Melissa's cat - can you tell he love's cats heehee!!

Surprise Chris!!

We had a surprise 30th birthday Luau for our friend Chris last weekend. It was so fun!! He thought he was just coming over with his family to swim and cookout but his wonderful wife had a great surprise in store for him. Laura's mom set up all the food and made an amazing punch!

What Luau is complete without a pig roast - well in this case a roast pig cake! The coolest cake I have ever seen!!
We were all waiting on the deck when the arrived - notice the boys with the water guns hee hee!
Nice shirt Chris - this is for the kfed and clay aiken appearances in my 30th bday movie!!hahahahaha!!!!



Hey Katie!!=)

We played volleyball when it got dark and the kids found a really interesting way to keep themselves entertained - our backyard slopes downhill so one kid would stand at the top of the hill and let go of the hula hoop. Then the kids would try to jump through it as it rolled by. Who needs expensive toys!!!=)