freakishly hot day in January!!

its 80 degrees the first week of january. so . . . . . .

we had pretend-its-really-march-day. i put the boys in shorts and t-shirts and took them to the park and had a picnic. i got to wear a really cute clearance dress i bought in the dead of winter thinking that i'd have to wait several months before wearning. but nope, the texas weather was on my side.

happy new year 2009!!

sweet child of mine, it is 2009!

can you believe it?

fabi threw a black & white party at her house with all her family and friends. it was going to be a great time, unfortunately we were not able to stay very late. we had the boys with us and they just weren't going to have it. so . . . we went over uncle david's house and put on toby's PJs and had a comfy night of charades. we got great participation. what a great idea, thomas! i love you!

rodney's 30th birthday

at 30 years of age rodney had his very first birthday party. he was uber happy to have had a chance to celebrate with all our friends and family at Genghis Grill. it was supposed to be a surprise. i was able to keep a secret for over 4 weeks THEN. . . . horror struck. the day before the party, rodney was talking to patrick and patrick casually says "so i'll see you tomorrow night at your birthday dinner?". i was horrified!! jeez pat way to ruin a surprise. i've since forgiven patrick : )

it really was ok because everything worked out great for the dinner. afterward a few of us went out dancing where irony struck because, the original idea was to have a house hookah party, but the price of hookah's sent that idea out the window! the place we went to RENTED them! what a cleaver idea! T. is making a fortune, i'm sure! maria rented one to help celebrate the rodsters birthday and we spent all night sucking on that thing. great times, taste like skittles.

christmas with the crears. . ..

the montez's, the hobgoods, and the llanes'. . . . is an ordeal!

but christmas breakfast is something that we look forward to almost all year long. its the one time a year that we get homemake tamales! we've had a few strange christmas' when someone's missing or goes out of town, but usually we all make it over for breakfast.

this year we went to the movies too later in the afternoon. the inwood theater is a must do! they have the LOVESAK system in their theaters. it's giant beanbags, couches, ottomans and blankets. great idea inwood!

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

This is my first book back after my 3-month reading sabbatical. And I couldn't have picked a better book. It was sooo much fun even though Becky Bloomwood and I have only one tiny thing in common. We both tend to ignore bad-news-mail. The "if I didn't see it, then it doesn't exist" motto is one of mine as well. Other than that we are complete opposites. See, I am one to deny myself the finer things in life and then kick myself later when a quality item would have come in handy. Whereas Becky Bloomwood will treat herself to all the fine things life has to offer and then kick herself later . . . when the bill arrives.

The lesson learned in this story is that a good attitude in all situations will get you far! Sophie Kinsella has invented a completely hilarious character. One that I see in myself and in all of my women friends. When we get into situations and then handle then as best we can. It's sometimes uber funny in hindsight.

I look forward to ALL of the sequels and in fact have already begun Shopaholic Ties the Knot!

park with tobe

while tom goes to his sunday school, toby and i are left with few options. luckily there is a cute little park right there at the school!

it's about that time. . . CHRISTMAS TIME

it seems that this year everybody's kicked off the holiday season early. we had our tree and wreath up way before it was even thanksgiving. so, the weekend after thanksgiving we skipped church and hit the mall instead. the mall always gets me into that holiday spirit. the boys and i watched all the free shows, oogled the SPCA puppies, and had lunch.