quick post

It's Spring...one way I can tell is that I'm spending much less time at my computer and more time outside. Kellie-Laine saw "Bridge to Terabithia" this Friday and spent the rest of the weekend working on her own Terabithia fort. She and Landrie had a picnic in the fort today and even took the portable DVD player out there to watch a movie! Unfortunately, it rained this evening and so there's no telling what Terabithia might look like tomorrow!

Emerie turned 7 months this week...I can't believe it! She's gotten a little grumpier, most likely due to teething. The most perplexing thing is that she does not eat baby food! I know good and well Landrie was gobbling it down at this age, but it's just like Emerie doesn't get it. She keeps trying to grab the spoon when I approach her mouth, and then she gags and her eyes tear up when I do get some food in her mouth. Other than breast milk, formula supplements and occasional biter biscuits or pretzels--she's not eating a thing! She's also VERY active...rarely ever still. Have you ever held a rabbit? It's kind of like that....

Landrie's still keeping us on our toes, but she's also starting to turn into a fabulous 4 year old (which will be a welcome change from the terrorizing threes!). She's completely potty trained (thank you, Cody!) and she'll say, "Tee-tee means off, poo-poo means on." She's referring to sitting on or off the potty and the associated wiping technique used for each of those functions....I won't go into much further detail. The last habit that must be broken is the pacifier. I'm afraid this will be something similar to climbing Mt. Everest....not likely to happen easily!

And now, I'm leaving you with a Bible verse that I really love to help get your week started:

"The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions. Psalm 103:8-12

What a merciful, gracious God we serve!

Have a great week!

Spring Break Memories!

This may have to be a two part post! I haven't been blogging much due to our week-long vacation, so I have a lot to say!

We started off our vacation by seeing the Barnum and Bailey Circus here in Waco. We took Kellie-Laine when she was 4, and it was amazing! Sadly, the ever-famous three-ring circus has downsized, and there was only one ring, a few dogs, prancing horses, and an elephant. Bummer! What happened to the lions and the cannon ball guy? Nevertheless, the kids didn't seem to notice and Landrie kept asking, "Is it over now?" for fear that the colorful fun had come to an end.

We then headed to Keller, TX to visit some old friends for the weekend. What a blast! We had not seen these friends in over two years, yet we picked up right where we left off. I love friendships like that...it's more like a family, I guess. No matter how long it's been since you last saw them, the mutual feeling of love is still present. I also had a chance to check out the new North Park Mall. Wow...you've got to go see it! There are some great stores and if I had been alone, we would be broke! Cody took the girls for a little bit while I shopped, but the shopping karma wasn't with me that day. The only thing purchased was some sugar cookies from Corner Street Bakery. : (

It was back to Waco for a few days after that, and I did a little spring cleaning. With three girls, it's hard to get much accomplished. But Cody actually had a pretty light work-load, so he was with us most of the time. I love having my husband home, and so do the girls. He's the "player," meaning that he's the one who will play spotlight tag at night, jump on the trampoline, tear apart the couch to build a fort, etc. I'm more of the nurturer--making sure the girls are fed, the house is clean, the laundry's done, the boring stuff. I really want to make more of an effort to let some of my mommy duties go and just enjoy the time with my girls more. Time will pass before I know it, and in the end a clean house isn't that great of a memory. I'd much rather make memories with my family.

Finally, it was off to San Antonio/Boerne! We stayed in a cool place called the YeKendall Inn, the Lancaster suite (http://www.yekendallinn.com/) and it was really fun! Much nicer than a hotel, and the girls got a kick out of the little house. Sea World started off a bit shaky for us, though, because ALL of Texas decided to be at Sea World the very same day we were! You had to go to the show an hour before it started just to get a seat! To make matters worse, the temperature got close to 90 degrees, and that made everyone cranky. Emerie didn't want to nurse, didn't want to sleep, and certainly didn't want to ride in the stroller. So by 3:15 we called it a day and headed back to Boerne. After showers and dinner, we went back to Sea World and got there at 8pm. It was perfect! No crowds, no lines, no waiting! We even got to see a 4-D Pirate show, which was spectacular! (although Emerie & Landrie did NOT like getting wet!)

All in all, this was probably my favorite spring break thus far. We traveled just the right amount, and stayed home just the right amount. Cody and Kellie-Laine are actually headed to San Antonio again this weekend to see the Aggies play in the Elite Eight tournament (keep your fingers crossed!). He's promised that if the Ags go to the final four in Georgia (?), that he'll fly our entire family there!

Have a great week everyone!

HAPPY SPRING BREAK! Our school let out this afternoon to kick off an extended spring break week. We're headed to Ft. Worth this weekend to visit some dearly missed, old friends of ours. On the way in, we'll swing by the North Park Mall to do some shopping and see what new stores they've added. I've heard they added a two-story Forever21 store, which is one of my favorites. It's kind of a trendy place, but I've loved shopping there ever since I discovered it in San Diego 4 years ago. Now the big question is "Will I be able to FIT into anything???" (Yes, I'm still trying to shed the last few pounds of this baby weight!!)

We'll spend a couple of days in DFW then head to San Antonio for a little Sea World action. I found a really cool place in Bourne, TX (sp?) that has these precious little cottages for rent. So we'll stay there and drive in to San Antonio...it's a little out of the way, but staying in Bourne puts me closer to the outlet malls, too. Do you notice a shopping theme here? Thank goodness I have a self-less husband who lets me get my "fix" in and will watch the kiddos while I shop! Thank you, honey!

The other funny thing that happened to us this week is that a stray dog has decided we will be her new family. She's a mutt but is obviously part chow, and the girls have named her Jenna. I don't really want another dog, but it's funny to see the girls treat her like a princess.--especially after they've ignored Sully for the longest time! Jenna will go to the pound pretty soon; we just don't know when. Kellie-Laine actually gets up early each morning to feed her and play with her....I don't EVER remember her doing that for Sully. Poor Sully!

I hope each of you enjoy your week together! It looks like it's going to be great weather most of the week, so enjoy it!

Brrrr!

Again....the cold weather's back! And, of course, we had KL's first soccer game this morning at 9 am. The wind was so cold! We sat through it, though, bundled up in many blankets. The girls were warmer than we were and Emerie didn't seem to mind a bit! They won their soccer game 6-2. KL had one goal. I can't believe that she can run up and down a full-sized soccer field for an hour! I'm tired just watching her, but she did great for her first game in 6 years! Her team is mostly hispanic, and so they have given her a "spanish" name so she'll fit it. Isn't that funny? I think they call her "Patricia."

Sorry, I don't have recent pictures to post...I'm too lazy to upload them from my camera. I'll add some of my recent digi pages instead.

Well, sorry this is short and sweet but Cody has just gone to bed, and I hate it when he goes to bed before me. Guess I'll go catch up! Have a great Sunday!

Sunshine Days!

It's hard to keep up with this blog since the weather's been as great as it has been these past few days! In Waco, there's a very, very short window of time before the warm weather allows for the spawn-of-satan mosquitoes to hatch! All the females in our family are extremely allergic to mosquitoes...and they love our scent! So for now we're able to play outside, and that's exactly what we've been doing!

Kellie-Laine is playing the last two basketball games of the season this week. I'll admit, I'm sad! But we've already started soccer practice and our first game is Saturday. This is the first time Kellie-Laine has played since she was FOUR, but she was begging us to let her play again. Apparently, she spends her recess time with the boys playing soccer at school! If I didn't know better, I might be concerned that I have a tomboy on hand!

Landrie's pink eye is gone and so is the virus she had all last week. A blood vessel in her eye burst due to the coughing and pink eye, and so most of her eyeball is blood red! It's pretty scary. She is currently obsessed with kissing and hugging Emerie and takes her big sister job very seriously.

Cody and I have decided that Landrie is going to be the child we pray about the most....she's sneaky and sometimes downright deceitful! Last night as Cody was giving her a bath, she told him that her hairbow "went to the potty all by itself." After a series of questions, we discovered that Landrie had flushed one of her hairbows down the toilet. "Why didn't you tell Mommy?" I asked. "Because it was an accident" was her reply. I walk around the house wondering what else might have disappeared at the hands of our sneaky little girl.

Emerie is at that golden 6 month mark. Does anyone remember this? They are soooo stinkin' precious and cute...their coos are heart melting...it's hard to stop kissing those precious cheeks! Ahhh....it's insanely contagious the way they make your heart feel as they gaze into your face as though seeing you for the first time! I told Cody I wasn't sure if I could definitely say this was it--our LAST child! It makes me sad to even think about it. But I have to remember that when Landrie was this age, I had these same feelings! If I had better pregnancies and knew for sure that we'd have another girl, I might go for it. But...that's not reality. Maybe we'll re-evaluate this issue when she's two.

Our family is, once again, hooked on American Idol. Is anyone else watching? I spend most of the time asking Cody and Kellie-Laine to be quiet (they like to comment as the performers sing, which impairs my ability to HEAR the performance!), but thankfully we tivo it and so I can oftentimes go back and watch it again by myself!

So there's the latest in the Beeler world. Pretty uneventful, but that's the way we like it!

Have a sunny day!

Vacation Getaway!

We just booked a lake destination vacation with three other families at The Avonne on Lake LBJ. I'm super excited...go check out their website and you'll see why! (www.theavonne.com you have to click "low" bandwidth to maneuver around the site). The entire summer is pretty booked up, so we'll head down there the first of August...Cody's ski boat will, of couse be in tow, and another family will be bringing their awesome malibu ski boat! Lookin' forward to summer already!!

Okay, so back to the real world...Landrie has been fighting a horrible virus and running high fever for the past 3 days. She is so pitiful, and I'm just waiting and hoping that Emerie won't get it!

I also wanted to show you some other digi pages I've done. For those of you who care, I'm having them printed at Alpha Graphics for about $1.10 a copy. The quality is truly amazing! I can't wait for some of my other scrapping friends to switch over soon!

I hope you're all doing well...stay healthy!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Lots of things have happened since I last blogged, so I'm going to post in numerical order so I don't miss anything!

1. Landrie woke up Wednesday morning with an early Valentine's Day surprise--PINK EYE! We haven't had that around this household for a long time...needless to say, I keep reminding her not to touch the baby or her eyes, but neither request is being obeyed. Landrie does, however, remember to tell me after the fact that she needs to wash her hands by saying "I touched mine eyeball!"

2. Kellie-Laine's school had its annual Valentine's Skate party, and she was so excited because Korban asked her to be his "valentine." While I don't condone this type of one-day relationship in general, I allowed her to have her fun and stressed that this in no way meant they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Kellie-Laine couldn't really even tell me what being his valentine meant. That's one nice thing about private school. Kids are really super sheltered for the most part, so these social relationships that are happening early on in the "real world" don't really have much presence at WBA. One sad bit of news, KL's homeroom teacher fell while skating and tore her ACL, so she'll be in surgery and recovering for awhile. Pray for Mrs. Rovelo!

3. Cody and I shared V-day with our normal "low-Key" approach. He got me a new Razr phone, which I love because it is PINK! It's my favorite color, and if someone wants to sell me something, all they have to do is make it pink! (That's one perk of being a mom of 3 girls--everything is pink!) I've been having fun figuring out its cool features--one feature that I like is called the Answer Tone. If any of you call my cell phone, instead of hearing the ringing you'll hear a song of my choice! Pretty cool...just don't hang up too soon. You'll hear the main chorus of the song before my phone actually rings.
I got Cody a gift of a different kind. I created a folder in his itunes account called "Cody Love" and downloaded a bunch of songs that reminded me of him and our dating relationship (past and present). It was a fun compilation with songs like "Whoomp! There It Is" ( the song he was dancing to when I first saw him) and "Wait" from Grey's Anatomy, since each Thursday we put the kids to bed early and watch it! (Don't tell pastor Barry!) There were other fun and sweet ones like" Time & Faith's, "It's Your Love" and Keith Urban's, "Your Everything." He loved it! And since he had to drive to Killeen last night at 9 pm to deliver some work stuff to the OR, it was a great way to pass the time.

4. Landrie, too, had a suitor come a'calling this V-Day. Her very best friend, Carson (a boy), made her a special red-beaded locket necklace and bracelet. He got dressed up in a sports coat and knocked on our door with the present behind his back and presented his gift to Landrie asking, "Will you be my Valentine?" It was priceless!

And just a few random things from today:

~We found out today that we have one of the contaminated peanut butter jars...yuck! The bad batch is Peter Pan brand with a lot # that starts with 2111---check your peanut butter!

~Kellie-Laine won her basketball game tonight 18-16...the referees were terrible! They made 5 horrible calls--two of them on Kellie-Laine! Usually, we're pretty objective parents but tonight was pretty unbelievable. It was a great lesson for KL to learn though. Life isn't fair, bad calls are often made, but you keep on playing!!

~Cody brought me a strawberry tart from his trip to College Station today. It's from a restaurant called "Cafe Excel" and I highly recommend it if any of you make the pilgrimage to Aggieland. I've already devoured it!

Anyway, I hope each of you had a treasured day with your loved ones...but that each day will be just as sweet and precious. I'm off to do my precept Bible study and then hopefully watch Grey's Anatomy with Cody...