More Pics {I LOVE Them ALL}

Still so in LOVE with the pictures. I look at them at least once a day (sometimes more). It's going to be hard deciding which ones I want to print!

Just a heads up too...I'm in my second week of Grad school, so for the next 18 months, you may be seeing pictures of my kiddos and not so much writing (since I'm doing so much writing for class)! It's been tough trying to get a schedule down with working full time, doing wife/motherly duties, school work, and sewing, but I'm hanging in there right now. My first assignment almost killed me...36 pages total...but I made a 100 on it, so that's all that matters!!!

Memories in a Picture

When I decided to have the kiddos pictures taken last Saturday, I knew that I wanted to incorporate Pop and Maw Maw in them somehow, but wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do that at first. Thanks to Pinterest, I came up with this idea and I must say, I LOVE these 2 pictures dearly!

I love this picture of Burkley holding one of Pop's handsome cowboy pictures and you really can't tell, but Brooks is holding one of Pop's belt buckles that he received from being on a committee at the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo. This was handed down to me because I am the only grandchild that raised animals and showed at the fair. I can't wait for Brooks to wear it one day. So special and so sweet...we miss Pop so much!

And I LOVE the way Burkley is looking down at Maw Maw in this picture. If you know Burkley and knew Maw Maw, you know that these two had the strongest bond EVER. It was so wried because as we were driving to take pictures on Saturday morning, she asked out of the clear blue if Maw Maw was going to be at home when we went to Nea's (my mom) house. I simply reminded her that Maw Maw was in Heaven with Pop and Jesus and that was the end of that. I often wonder what's going through their little head's...they lost 2 special people within 6 weeks. It's hard for me to process, so I can only imagine how hard it is for 3 year olds. The picture that Brooks is holding is a special little something that my mom gave each of her grandchildren for Christmas...everyone has a picture of them with Maw Maw so that they can remember her forever (and they also were given a necklace that I'll have to post).

Do you see why I LOVE these 2 pictures? They will forever hold a special place in my heart!

Just a Few of My FAVORITES...3 Year Pics

Thank you Sara Bethune~Mullins for capturing the most precious pictures of my BIG 3 year olds! I can't wait to share the rest!!!

Tubes and Adenoidectomy

On January, 9th, baby girl had to have tubes placed in her ears and her adenoids removed. After battling ear/sinus infections and being on 4 antibiotics since the beginning of December, we decided it was time. I was pretty sure she was a candidate for getting tubes, but I really wasn't even thinking about having her adenoids removed. The doctor suggested we do so based on her history of sinus infections. We are hoping and praying these two will help keep baby girl well and ear/sinus infection free for a good while!

Her surgery was scheduled for 7:30 that morning and they asked us to be at the surgery center at 6:30. I literally picked her up out of bed a 6 and put her in her car seat...and no, she wasn't really happy about it. Once we arrived at the center, she stuck like glue to my mom (she went with us to her appointment the previous Thursday and it was HORRIBLE...Burkley was so scared and ended up making herself sick). I was a nervous wreck anticipating how she would react once we were there, but she did much better than we all thought. She wasn't too hip on the nurse or anaesthesiologist, but once they gave her something to relax her, she was good to go! It was a sight to see and she had us all laughing...including herself.

The above picture was taken in the waiting room...prior to them calling us back to the pre-op area. She had a tight squeeze on her baby.
Had to snap a picture of her bracelet!

Playing with all the stickers the nurse gave her...they were pretty neat ones! Overall, I did pretty well (and so did daddy). I had myself all worked up mainly because I didn't know what to expect and I was so worried that she was going to freak out. When it came time for her surgery, we all walked with her to the sterile doorway and after she picked out more stickers and a stuffed animal (Ducky), we all kissed her goodbye and I handed her to the nurse. It wasn't easy handing my little one over to a stranger, but it did make it easier since she wasn't crying. The surgery lasted about 20 minutes (and it was a success...doctor said her adenoids were pretty large, so it was a good thing we decided to go ahead and have them removed) and as soon as she started stirring, they allowed us to go back to be with her. She wasn't happy about the nurse holding her and she really wasn't happy with the IV being in her hand. The nurse was able to get an excellent reading of her vitals within minutes and they allowed us to leave after about 15 minutes. We were told that she may be pretty sleepy and would probably sleep all day, but she only slept 2 hours when we got home. She was back to her normal self within just a few hours and hasn't skipped a beat since! We are so proud of our BIG girl for being a BIG girl on her surgery day! Thanks to everyone who checked in on our sweet baby girl...she had messages from Nana and PaPa all the way from Aruba!!!

Today we had her 2 week post-op and I'm pleased to say that Dr. Castillo said everything looked wonderful! I was a bit concerned because she started haing some sinus/allergy issues on Saturday, but her ears are CLEAR!!!

Christmas 2011

Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a tough one for our family for sure...the first of many Christmases without my grandpa, Pop and my grandma, Maw~Maw. The absence of these two amazing people definitely made Christmas hard to look forward to, but at the same time, how can you not look forward to it when you have little ones.

If you remember, we moved and are currently living in the garage apartment/game room at my in laws house. With that being said, it was a little difficult decorating for Christmas when everything Christmas that we own is in storage...and in the very back of storage if I might add. My mother in law had these 3 tall and skinny trees in the attic of the game room, so I decided to just use those and decorate the tallest tree to match the theme of the game room...we are a Longhorn family and there is Longhorn "stuff" everywhere in our current living area, so that's how I decided to decorate our "little" tree this year. And if you notice the smaller trees on each side, I let Brooks and Burkley decorate them with the super cute ornaments they made at school this year and the ornaments that were given to them this year! It wasn't my "normal" GORGEOUS Christmas tree, but it was super cute and worked for us (and it took less than 15 minutes to put up Christmas decorations this year, so that was a HUGE plus)!!!

Here's our 3 little trees! Brooks and Burkley made sure to leave Santa a glass of ice cold milk and a few homemade chocolate chip cookies!

Looks like Santa thought B&B were superb all year long!

Shootin' hoops! He was so happy and I WISH I could have captured his little face when he rolled out of bed to see if Santa had come to see him and his sister. It was priceless and brought tears to my eyes. It's so fun to celebrate Christmas through a child's eyes!

If it's purple, pink, anything princess, or a doll, this little one is happy! I should have a million other pictures of Christmas 2011, but I was a huge slacker this year when it came time to taking pictures...I was too busy watching the kiddos!