Pete Echols 2000-2014

We said good-bye to our beloved Pete "Peter Man" Echols this week.  Pete came to live with us on December 7, 2001.  He saw us get engaged, get married and bring home three babies.  I remember the night I went into labor with Lila; he laid right by me, and every time I got up he got up.  Up and down all night long.  Pete loved sitting in his chair watching over the backyard.

Pete led a very happy life.  He was just about the best traveler-dog on Earth.  If you said "let's go" he was by the door ready to go.  He would sit in his captain's chair and watch out the window.

Also, loved to eat.  There are many, many stories of what he ate: 36 flour tortillas, hamburger buns, loaves of bread, boxes of cereal, containers of baby formula.  But, he was smart and never ate the packaging.  He loved to wake us up early to feed him by shaking his collar tags.  Pete also liked to "work" with Shawn in the office.  If Shawn was working from home, Pete would lay right under his desk the whole time.  We are thankful that Pete did so well for so long.  We love you, Pete, and we miss you, and we thank you for being our friend.

Oscars 2014

So, underneath my t-shirt and nike shorts is a girl who loves to design and sew.  GOWNS and dresses to be specific. A couple years ago, I started a little mini-tradition with Lila.  We plan an Oscar night and  watch the Red Carpet (disclaimer: I do not watch movies), and have a little party.  This year, she kept telling me she didn't want to do the party.  So, while she was gone for the afternoon, I did mani-pedis with the littles...they were very excited.  Landry ended up with 3 different colors on her nails and Audrey 2.  We ended up with a gold tablecloth, plates and napkins, some makeup, chocolate covered strawberries and a ride through the house on our "Red Carpet"

Now for my Best Dressed. You have all seen all the pics, so I will cut to the chase.  I have very specific criteria for my pick.  First of all, I want a star to look like a STAR.  I want to see something special.  WOW.  I want makeup, and hair and jewelry.   I liked Charlize Theron.  The neckline with that necklace; well done

Normally, I really don't care about the men.  Just so much you can do with a tux, in my opinion.  However, this year, I was pretty impressed.  I liked the tasteful use of color.  Also, I thought the couples looked good.  Not a personal fan of Camilla's dress, but it meets my critieria..it is a hollywood dress, just a little something extra special and they look good together, and Brad and Angelina looked good.

george

Did I mention before that I had a night with KING GEORGE!  Yep.  Every once in a while, my husband outdoes himself and does something really spectacular for me.  Tickets to see George Strait in Austin...priceless.  I am a TEXAS GIRL, and I have never seen George in concert, and it was on my bucket list.  Shawn literally jumped through hoops to make that happen.  It was worth all the hype and then some.  I so appreciate him doing that for me, because I would have never made that happen for myself.   We sat on row 9, by a very nice couple from San Antonio.  I stood and sang all night to every song.  George sounded fantastic, and is as handsome as ever.  Hearing "The Chair" took me back to Blaise's Hall when my Aunt Jackie got married, "The Fireman" I was back in my my Mom's brown Oldsmobile Delta 88,  and I " I saw God today" made me cry because that song was popular when Lila was born and the words are so powerful.

 

*Also, thanks to Gran and Toby for babysitting.

Today, we were on our way home from school, and "Happy" by Pharrell came on the radio.  I turned it up and asked the girls, "Hey, are we Happy?"...this was the response

Landry: NO!

Audrey:...I tired...I tired...and I stink.

The Birthdays

...and just as we thought things would settle down after the Holidays BOOM, now we have 3 birthdays to celebrate.

Lila was very excited to et to go to school on her birthday.  Her class is called Mrs. Spivey's Superheroes, and on your birthday you get to wear a monogrammed cape all day

 and everyone in the class makes a birthday card for you and you get a book with all the cards.

 Aunt Ginger sent her a cookie bouquet

and Granny G sent Tiff's Treats.

I thought the little girls were too little to really understand birthdays and all that went with it, but when we would say "birthday", Landry would immediately say "cupcakes", so on Friday, we took cupcakes to daycare for the little girls to celebrate with the friends.
We let them open their present on Friday (because they were actually going to be at Gran and Toby's on the morning of their birthday so Mom and Dad could go to the George Strait concert).
They got some fancy, light up sneakers, and they were pretty excited about them

 They are in two different classes, so we basically had two separate parties going on simultaneously in two different rooms.  We were trying to run back and forth so we didn't miss anything.

They both chose to have an Elmo party, and had a really good time going to the party store to pick out their plates and napkins.  The highlight was when everyone started to singing to them...they both got these very proud looks on their faces.

Sunday afternoon, Lila got to have a small painting pARTy

Christmas Madness 2013

December 24th morning:  We woke up and opened gifts at home because I had to be on call for work that evening, and I wanted to make sure I got to enjoy watching the girls open their gifts.  Landry was all into opening presents.  Audrey just wanted to throw away the wrapping paper

 Lila became the proud owner of, what I think may be, the world's ugliest bike helmet

 That evening it was on to the Burlesons, where we were joined by more Burlesons for the first time.  Lila considers Ashton to be her personal playmate

 It was Baxter's first Christmas, and he looked very festive in his Christmas plaid collar

 By this time, Landry had figured out the gift thing, and she would open the present, and yell out "oh, thank you" and "so pretty" each time

 Audrey was over it, and she let Landry open her gifts and sat in a chair and played with her toys.

The girls were so excited to see Gracie.  When they came in, Audrey ran right up to her like she remembered who she was

 They had a good time showing Gracie all of Gran's Christmas toys

all the crew was there, and of course the house looked like Christmas magic

On Christmas morning, we woke up to find out Santa had been to visit 

Then, it was time to pack up and head to Hallettsville.

Of course, we can't forget to celebrate the birthdays, too.

Natalie and Aunt Debbie had fun making everybody pose for family photos.  It was actually a good idea, because I realized that we were all there and that may not happen again for a little while.  My Dad, Uncle Freeman and/or I, are sometimes missing due to work, and next year Michael will be joining the workforce of people who don't always get holidays off.

After a little tinkering with the camera, Shawn was able to figure out the timer setting so we could get a group shot

...and then we all started to fade a little

But, no rest for the weary...there was still more fun to be had at Nana's

And, another year of Christmas madness in the books.  I am tired just talking about it

Thanksgiving

This past Thanksgiving wasn't just "Thanksgiving"...it was November 28th, and that means that someone turned 40!

There was lots of good food, plenty of fun

...and then FOOTBALL!

Yep, I was the lone longhorn fan.  Despite the freezing weather, we had a great time

I snapped this pic of the beautiful sunset right before kickoff

Friday, we headed down to Hallettsville to go to the annual Courthous Lighting and parade,

where we had more fun, more food, and more family!

Lila was too cool to sit with us

This was a picture of Audrey's reaction right when they turned the lights on

 This was my favorite family entry in the kiddie division

and this group from West, TX was my favorite.  It wasn't a parade float, but they came a long way, and danced their way through the town square to Polka music, and the banner on the truck said "Czech your Stocking", which is too cute.