Easter Egg Hunt for the "Strikers"!

After my doctor appointment and spending time studying for my test, Sydney and I got together and sent a birthday card to our sponsored child Limukani in Africa.

She looks like a boy, but they usually make the girls cut off their hair to LOOK like boys because the crime of rape of young girls in those villages is so high. It's so terrible and sad. We sent an extra $20 to hopefully get her some things whether it be a goat for the family or water. We don't get to choose how extra $ is spent, but I hope it goes to something good. For HER.

Meanwhile Kelli was having fun unpacking my purse as usual.

Andy drove home from Dallas and literally 20 minutes later had to coach soccer.

I had gone out and hidden 24 eggs to each could get 3 eggs. So after practice the kids ran around and gathered up their eggs and Veronica put out little fun dips too. So they had some good times, and it was cute.

My Anniversary Lillies

Or what's left of them. I never took a picture (and haven't been blogging this past, crazy, week) but here they are. Andy ran out that Friday morning and had Sue Ellen's make me an arrangement of lillies (my fav). They smell awesome!

Austin ZOOMA 20k Relay Race

I forgot to update on the relay race. I didn't even take pictures (not like I'd carry my camera around with me but you know...). Carey & I met up at ButtCrack:o'clock am in the Central Market parking lot and drove out to the Cedar Creek High School together, then took the shuttle from there to the resort. Yes, the race was located on a resort.
It was pretty dang cold. And I didn't realize that the 5k race runners were going at the same time as the 20k relay runners, so that confused me a bit. There were alot of 5k race runners and then when they were finished, pretty much 80% of the runners disappeared. I was the first leg runner in our relay, though, so it did look like I was up with ALOT of people, which kept me pretty motivated and I ended up finishing the 3.2 miles in 28:24, which - for me- is really good. That's about a 9 minute mile, which is hard for me to believe I did. I haven't done that since I was pretty young. (like way younger! I used to run 8 minute miles in middle school without even breathing hard, that'd be so cool if I could do that again!)
Carey got pretty much the same time as me. We basically had twin times. We were paired up with two other women we didn't know because they needed another 2 (like us) to fullfill their team of 4. The website stated this, but it seemed to be a problem when we requested it... luckily it all worked out. They were not avid runners, so I'm interested to know what we would have placed if we'd had another Carey & Sara. (I'm so humble right).
Well get this. We got beat (CREAMED) by a pregnant woman who is due to give birth in 6 weeks (yeah, not lying!) and ran the 3.2 miles in 23 minutes. TWENTY THREE MINUTES. That's a 7 minute mile. At 7-1/2 months pregnant. What the? Oh and don't forget the 7 year old boy who ran it in 22 minutes. (ahem. Adderol)

For the ba-gillionth time

I think I've been told 100 times that Kelli looks like the little girl from Fullhouse.

I wouldn't disagree. She does! This isn't a good representation, but Andy wiped all the pictures off my computer.

The Last of March "Madness"

We have conquered the month of March, our 6th anniversary, a trip to Vegas, Sydney beginning soccer, the weather turning beautiful in Austin, Kelli beginning to walk some more (assisted) and use more words (Mama, Papa, Ninny [for Sydney], Mmmm! [when eating] and Num-Num!), pointing and waving bye-bye, and she also seems to wave at us when she wants more, too. Like when she's out of food, she waves at me and says "num num!! mmm!" and when we're playing "1-2-3 BOOM" on the bed pillows and I throw her, she immediately turns over and waves at me while squealing and smiling like she wants to do it again. So I think waving is also her sign for "more" and "again". Cute! She is a big mush for her Grandpa, too and Daddy makes her smile endlessly- all he has to do is LOOK at her and it's like Kelli has melted into the floor, so adorable. Sydney keeps gaining more words on us and pops out with things like "deceased" and "we need to communicate" or "i drew this on a previous day" etc. She is such a sponge!

Yes, it's time to get gates. PAST-time!!! I can't find the correct ones to fit our stairs, however. Not even online, and I'm afraid I'll order some online and they wont' fit. So I've been checking out all the baby stores and the BRU up north has the one that attaches around banisters. So far she pretty much stays wherever Sydney stays, which is in the living room.

This past Saturday we went up to Waco to visit Gloria and Uncle Fred. Uncle Fred has been deteriorating with Alzheimers and Gloria is truly an ANGEL the way she handles it all and takes care of him. But she is alone and we wanted to treat her to a girls day and pamper her a little, so she felt she had 'some' kind of break and knew she was appreciated by us!! Kelli met her for the first time and loved her!

We stopped in the historical town of Salado and ate at the old country bed & breakfast. Afterwards we walked around an old car show, which was really neat and it reminded me of my friend's son Aidan because I was seeing characters from the movie Cars there! haha

In the car, Kelli took both her snugglies with her right and left hand and tucked herself in. I wish I got a video of her doing this because it was really cute! It was like a little kitten snuggling up to the rest of the litter of kittens and then finally passing out once cozy and comfortable. Squirm, squirm, nuzzle, nuzzle...zzzzzz....

We got to Sterling House where Uncle Fred is staying now and Kelli was SO happy to be out of the car seat, stroller or grips of someone's arms! Can you tell she's been eating carrots? Gloria let her empty her purse. (Kelli likes to empty stuff)

Mom & her brother Fred. He whipped out the red tie for the fancy occassion.

Group photo. Kelli kept trying to grab Wendy's sunglasses on top of her head.

Back home. Kelli emptied MY purse. and some other things (gym bag, school bag) in my closet.
siiiiigh.

Sunday night we went to my parent's house to help them pack and stage their house (it's on the market again). I was SO tired from being up at 4am for my race that morning, Sydney decides to "tuck" me in. Face and all.

We found VHS tapes. Haha! But she wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland (my favorite!!!! next to Mary Poppins) so we popped it in and I proudly snapped a picture of her interest.

Monday she played with Julia after I had a busy day. They always get into these tiffs about 'who knows what' and usually come running to me with "Julia wont play with me" or "Sydney isn't sharing" etc etc... so we've practiced the form of friendship where you talk it out, hug it out and work it out YOURSELVES!! So I was walking Kelli around the park as they played, heard them squabble and began to walk over there and investigate when all of a sudden I saw this.
Working it out, hugging it out. Julia still seems offended, but they were back on the swings swimming from sharks within seconds.

Can't go a week without pictures of your baby eating.

Sydney & Julia were inspecting the food pyramid and trying to figure out dinner. So dinner became apples, carrots, string cheese and banana bread.

We went to our neighbor's Seder for Passover Monday night. This is Aaron with baby Lily, who just needed her daddy at that moment. It was cute. She wanted the "daddy move". Andy used to have those.

brisket, matzo ball soup, potatoes, broccoli, some delicious apple/cinnamon concoction, and lots of wine = happy crowd. This was my first Seder and I really enjoyed it. I'm really glad we went. And not just for the food and wine, but that was a bonus. I learned a lot.

Yum!

Kelli has her first cheerios!

Sydney couldn't wait for her pizza to cool off and reached for it, despite me warning her NO, the pan is hot. And she burned herself. It was a bit nasty so she, off course was screaming and I had to put antibiotics on it, wrap it, and ice it. (she milked that for what it was worth the entire night)

CHEERIO!!!

6th Anniversary Trip to Vegas

We got to our hotel at Planet Hollywood Towers, which was on the strip next to Paris and had the Miracle Mile shops and Prive nightclub inside. We got there around 3pm and met up with Keith and Brandy after checking in. We had thought we got the suite, but as it turns out all the rooms are called "suites", it just depends on what KIND of "suite" you get. So we got a tiny room and Keith & Brandy got this gigantic luxury penthouse on the top floor. Andy was bent out of shape about it and after much teasing, we hit the strip for dinner and a show.

This is the miracle mile shops (just one part of it, but this is coming out of our hotel lobby)

Our first show was Peep Show starring Holly Madison, which was coincidentally in the Planet Hollywood hotel. Brandy & I just wanted to see Holly Madison! The boys didn't argue, which I thought was weird. Could have sworn they had Chipendales in mind. The show was fun and we got seats right up front. I was a target and kept getting hit in the face with fur, flying props and giant teddy bears (don't ask).

We went inside Paris the next day to take a peek around.

They had this garden sculpture 'thing' on display and it smelled GOOD. I already have a sensitive sniffer, and kept thinking to myself I could live in here. It smelled so good. Everything was made out of flowers. It was really neat.

No one was picky about dinner so for safety (gluten free) we picked PF Chang's. I noticed this interesting horse statue next to us. This guy: please don't poop heart-shaped manure on me!

Walking to the MGM the next day everyone stopped to watch a magician. But I'm like hello... who cares about the magician, THERE IS YODA EVERYONE! hello? YODA?

Wait a second. I'm trippin'.
Are we in Las Vegas or New York.

Or Disneyland.
what happened.
where are we.

By the way, I didn't realize until we got there... this week was Spring Break AND March Madness. There were a lot guys walking around looking pretty rough. And by rough, I mean they could have easily looked over and seriously considered the fact that they got off at the wrong airport and freaked out.

The lions at the MGM were so cute!
(and by cute, I mean I didn't want to pet them)

I took this picture because... (I don't know why I took this picture)

I think she was trying to seduce her husband but he just kept sleeping. So she got her chew bone and hopped up top and played with that.

While the boys found a blackjack table, Brandy & I went to solve some crimes.
Because we're hardcore like that.
(lame! I was hoping it'd be a little more realistic or mind-challenging. I tried picking the hard one ~ bones found in the desert ~ but they pretty much gave you the answers along the way. Oh well, I thought it was kinda neat anyway)

I found Andy losing some dollars at Blackjack but the dealer, Nancy told me not to worry, my husband told her he "had a system"

Keith & Andy then known as Andrew "The System" & K-Woww

major system failure by the way.

Brandy & I checked out the lion gift shop while The System and K-Woww continued their gambling ventures and discovered.... the cutest things ON EARTH. For $200 you could cuddle them for 5 minutes. (I call that a dare)... I nearly spent $200 that day. (instead I went and spent $13/lb on M&Ms at M&M World for Sydney (got some good deals there).

Daddy woke up! Reminds me of the lead singer to Whitesnake for some reason.

We went to Cirque Du Soleil that night (amazing show!!!!)

Got yelled at "no lightning boxes!" when Brandy took this picture. Sheesh.

So I had to steal this picture from online. The stage was really cool, it moved, flipped upside down, sideways, interchanged etc. It wasn't like a circus show because it had a storyline, so it was a captivating show. I was hardly keeping my eyes open, sadly, but I really enjoyed it. It's so hard for me to change routines with Fibromyalgia but I was trying my hardest!

Took this picture for Sydney. M&M's falls under her top 5 favorite things on earth.

Sunday I spent a good amount of time at the Mandara Spa just heating my bones in the spa and getting a pedicure. I look like an old lady in this picture. Holy crap. But like I said, it's HARD to change my routine; I really suffer. I hope a little pampering and drinking lots of water helped prevent a week or two of hellish recovery.

This was inside the Miracle Mile shops in our hotel. I just walked around and window shopped, trying to find stuff for Mom & Dad, and the kids etc.

Outside of Paris Sunday night.

Taking a picture of Brandy taking pictures. Keith was getting annoyed and it reminded me of when I was little and my Mom would make my Dad pull over or wait so she could take pictures of everything (a neat colored tree, a bird, a funny sign etc) and all us kids would be like "ugggh". My sister Wendy reminded me of this recently, and I couldn't help but laugh with Brandy and I doing it the whole trip too. We are our Moms.

The light show in old town.

Very different atmosphere, but it brought back memories from when Auntie La took me down here for cheap buffets and suveniers!

Andy trying to find a restaurant on his iPhone.

Another picture of Brandy taking pictures!

We went all the way over there for cheaper betting tables etc but by this time I hadn't eaten all day and I was starving (and super sore... my fibro was creeping up but I didn't want to say anything or complain). We started walking everywhere (omg my feet!) to find a restaurant and got the impression Keith & Brandy didn't care where we ate but since it was our last night Andy & I wanted to do something special. Old Town is WAY different from the strip and there was this pause of awkwardness between the group. Finally we went our seperate ways after ways but it was funny how we spent so much time acting like none of us cared what we did when in fact we DID care haha!

We went to a restaurant in the Venetian then had dessert at Serendipity and watched the fountain show at the Mirage on the way back to the hotel.

It played to a Frank Sinatra song, which was awesome. Loved it!

Had a blast in Vegas, but stuff like this reminds me why I am SO happy to live in Austin!
We ROCK!