Texas Andersons

Previously posted on April 8, 2010.  Revamping for April 2011.  (took us one year to get around to the actual process!!!)

Things we want to start noting, to share with possible builders…

EXTERIOR/ STRUCTURE/ LAYOUT:
one story
must be over 1600 square feet (we just don’t fit in this current house!!!); maybe up to 3000
rock, siding, or a combo of both; with several dimensions, not a flat front
tin roof’; with different pitches, not flat
rain catchment system
lots of windows (for great views and breezes!)
sky lights for rooms that don’t have windows?
french doors (dark wood) and large porch in the front
french doors from both our bedroom and a living space to the backyard/ patio or deck
driveway- nothing decided
garage on west side (so that is the hottest spot in the afternoon)
walk into kitchen/dining from garage (so that it’s easy to get groceries from vehicles to pantry and fridge)
living space in center
washer/dryer room near bedrooms (so I don’t have to carry laundry through entire house)

INTERIOR:
Garage- much bigger so that we can fit both of our vehicles and a workbench for Nathan; garage door facing the side of the house, not the front
Kitchen- white cabinets, yellow walls, silver appliances; bigger than we have now; lots more cabinet and counter space; island with sink (making area easy to clean); large pantry
Dining room- yellow walls; slightly larger than we have now
Living room- brown walls; fireplace; slightly larger than we have now
Entry way- bigger closet than we have now
Ben’s bedroom- I think he wants UT orange walls!    about the same size he has now
Evan’s bedroom- blue walls; smaller than he has now
Little girl’s? bedroom/guest bedroom/office- ?????
Main bathroom- sage green walls, white cabinets and details; much bigger than current bathroom; need a linen closet!
Playroom (which we’ve never had before!!!)- ? walls; plenty of room for shelves of toys, wii play, and treadmill
Utility room- bigger than we have now (room for washer/dryer, storage, cleaning supplies, etc
Our bedroom- ? walls; just a little bigger than our current
Our bathroom- turquoise walls, white cabinets and details; free-standing tub; tiled shower; separate toilet area; BIG closet!!!
Hard wood throughout; tile in bathrooms and utility room

So, do you love or hate a certain feature of your home?  Please recommend, make suggestions.  We’d appreciate any input that will make this process go smoothly and will result in the perfect home for us. 

More pics and notes… click here.

Ready, set…

We let the kids play soccer, slide, and swing in the backyard for a long time.

Then we began the amazing race, where each team had to:
Find 10 lego pieces hidden in the sandbox
Put together a 100 piece puzzle
Get a “ringer” in horseshoes
Put together a lego set
Pop 10 balloons
and count the number of legos used to make the table centerpiece
FUN!!!!!  They all had such a blast!

Cake time.  Yummy chocolate/vanilla marble cake with rice krispie treat legos on top.  (Nadler’s never disappoints!)

Ben opened gifts.  Roller blades, and money, and legos… oh my!

And then we got in some more playtime in the backyard before everyone left. 

Thanks to all who were able to attend the party.  And thank you all for the awesome gifts!  Ben has been playing legos non-stop (we were lucky to get him to go to bed last night).  I can’t wait to buy Evan a pair of roller skates so they can go skating together.  And with the money, Ben can’t wait to go to Toys R Us, and we’ll be signing him up for CNC nature camp asap!

8 years ago today…. Nathan and I became parents… I was suddenly a “MOMMY!” 

To celebrate Ben today:

I baked and decorated a couple of lego cakes for Evan and I to take to Ben’s class at school.  The kids thought they were pretty cool. 

Then we picked up Granmom and Angie to head to Malibu Castle.  Everyone played a round of golf, outside, in the beautiful spring weather.  Then we spent some time in the arcade.  And when Nathan joined us, we got to take a few spins around the track in the go-carts.  Mom, Angie, and I had never raced before- FUN!

Then we headed to Red Robin for dinner and dessert (complete with all the waiters singing to Ben).

Good day!  Even better day, thanks to getting lots for free!  We took Ben’s birth certificate to the castle, and he got a wristband for unlimited golf, bumper boats, and go-carts.  At Red Robin, he got free ice cream since we told the waiter about it being his b-day.  And we had a coupon to get his kids’ meal for free because I had signed up for their birthday club.  Woo hoo!

Want to know what else we have waiting?
Look for websites’ birthday clubs!  We have gc’s for a free ice cream cone from Marble Slab, $3 at Toys R Us, and kids’ meals at California Pizza Kitchen and Sonic. 

As far as sickness goes, we have been an extremely healthy family… until lately.

December-
We were surprised when Ben had a cold bad enough that he missed a couple of days of school.  (he never misses school!)  And then Nathan got bronchitis and missed a whole week of work.

January-
The stomach bug made its way through most of us.  Nathan had it the worst and first.  Evan was next.  It ended with me.  (bleh)

February-
Ben was sent home from school with a fever on a Wednesday.  When we got into the doctor on Friday, I was shocked to find out he had scarlet fever.
And Evan just went through an awful day.  When he threw up the first time (on his pillow)… he looked at it and told me “yucky.”  Yep, that about sums it all up.

Yucky.

It’s almost that time again!  And it will be our 6th year!

Please join us on Saturday, April 30th for the Komen Race for the Cure.  Or please donate in our name.

All monies raised go to breast cancer awareness, education, prevention, and treatment in our area.

Day One- Stomach bug keeps Nathan sick in bed all day.  Then it surprises us when Evan throws up all over my lap.  Thinking it’s going to hit everyone, I try to sleep on the couch, to monitor and help with anyone that’s sick.  I have a miserable night thanks to sounds in the house and the noise caused by the high winds outside.  Barely slept.

Day Two- I’m sick all day.  Hating this stomach bug.  But thankful that Ben never felt bad.

Day Three- Freezing!  Power outages throughout the day as the state tries to conserve energy and we all try to keep our homes warm.

Day Five- Snow!  A light dusting of snow causes business and school closings all over the area.  A snow day means lots of wii, movies, and board games.  And then Nathan and Ben decided to spend the night out at the lot.  In hopes that it would freeze during the night and Ben could earn his scouts Polar Bear Patch, the boys froze in the tent as the temp dropped down to 17 degrees!

Day Six- Ben got to go with Granmom Loretta to a laser tag birthday party.  (I heard that Granmom even played a game!)  And then we had the scouts Blue and Gold Banquet.  Papa Bobby, Granmom Loretta, and Aunt Angie joined us as we enjoyed an evening of food and recognition of accomplishments.  Ben was honored with earning his Wolf Rank and badge.  And he and Nathan won for Yummiest-Looking Dessert for their gorgeous (and yummy) pineapple upside-down cupcakes.

Day Seven- Beautiful weather, cowboy hat, and boots… stockshow and rodeo time!  We spent hours enjoying the barns and exhibits as Ben worked on his scanvenger hunt to earn a scouts Rodeo Patch.  We ate lots of free samples.  The boys got free t-shirts.  And then they: milked a cow, brushed sheep, fed chickens, watched the pig races, rode canival rides, had a fun time petting the animals at the petting zoo.  And… funnel cake!  What a glorious day!

We’ve recently had our first geo-caching adventure.  Using Ben’s new gps from Santa, we drove around Boerne looking for treasures.  Of the seven we tried to find one weekend, we were able to find four.  It was so cool for Ben to be able to sign and date the lists in the caches!  (and he did get to take a trinket from one box!)

We made a trip to Corpus and Orange Grove a few weeks ago.  Our first stop was Skateland!  We all put on our skates (a couple of us for the first time ever; a couple of us for the first time in over 20 years!)… and spent a few hours gliding around the rink and playing arcade games.  What fun!  What memories!  Then we headed to visit with Grandpa, Angie, and Burnell and Geraldine.

Then, a whirldwind.  Nathan was in Austin for classes at UT for several days while I played “single mom.”  The day he got back, Emily and I headed to Imaging USA for six days of intense business and photography training (while Nathan worked and Granmom Debbie took care of the boys for us).

The Pinewood Derby workshops were the last two weekends.  Ben was busy creating his race car; Evan made a Lightning McQueen!  In the big race today, Ben got 4th place overall out of the 13 in his age group and Evan got 7th place overall out of the 12 in the family division (brothers, sisters, and parents).  The room was a-buzz with fun; the boys were so excited to be racing; Evan was thrilled to win a door prize!  Woo hoo!

We also had a wonderful afternoon and playdate with friends Marli, Robert, Lillian, and Joseph.  The kids played so well together!

And we just took the boys out to our lot for a surprise… we had a tree house built in one of our oak groves!  It’s amazing!  And we had such a great time playing!

Ben got to spend a fun couple of days at Granmom’s, already getting to open up a couple of Christmas gifts.  Granmom and Papa gave him a new bike!  And he got a big lego collection from Angie!  It sounds like he had a great time, spending lots of hours building and playing.  And during this time, I got to sneak some presents into the house without him seeing, Evan and I got to spend lots of playtime together, and Evan had a great gymnastics class.

Wednesday, Papa Larry, Granmom Debbie, and Aunt Jenny came into town, and we filled the house with wonderful smells as we baked pumpkin muffins, cornbread, and chocolate cupcakes for our neighbors.

On Thursday we took Granmom Loretta and Aunt Jenny to Fiesta Texas.  The weather was perfect; we had a great time!  Ben and I “ice skated.”  Granmom, Nathan, and I rode lots of rides with the kids.  We got everyone onto the carousel (even Jenny and Burke).  And then we stopped at Chick-fil-a for milk shakes (chocolate pepperminty goodness!).

Ben was my little elf on Christmas Eve.  He helped me get the last of the gifts wrapped.  And we baked cookies for everyone (including Santa).  We got the whole family around the table to ice and eat some cookies for snack; we went out to eat for dinner; we stopped at the North Pole one last time to look at the Christmas lights.  And then the boys got to exchange gifts.  Ben gave Evan a Santa/North Pole GeoTrax train, which Evan loved and played with all evening.  And Evan gave Ben a lego set, which he built with until bed time.  Sweet!

Christmas morning, the boys went through their stockings stuffed with goodies!  Then the day was spent cooking up a wonderful Christmas lunch and eating!  There was LOTS of food.  But nothing beats the cheese ball, sweet potato fries, yeast rolls, and chocolate cupcakes.  Yum!  And then (after much begging by Ben), we finally opened gifts.

Favorite things received?  Evan loves his new Cars characters and wii game, his golf set, the Hot Potato game, and the jumbo sized keyboard!  Ben loves his legos, gps unit, and Wheel of Fortune wii game!  Nathan and I can’t wait to spend our gift certificates at Kohl’s, Home Depot, and Amazon!  And I just love the boys’ new Bass Pro Shops caps from Papa (very handsome).

Favorite things we gave?  We loved the concept we went with this year… gift of the month clubs.  Each month, my parents will receive a food gift certificate which they can use at their choice of San Antonio restaurants and a yummy smelling soap from a seller on Etsy, Nathan’s parents will be getting different teas and candles from Etsy sellers, and Jenny and Angie will be getting cupcakes and cookies from Sweet Beginnings.  All delivered right to their doors each month!

And Christmas evening?  We popped popcorn, blended up some frozen hot chocolate, and settled in with The Polar Express.  Heaven!

Thanks to everyone who sent Christmas cards and well wishes.  Thank you for all the wonderful gifts!  And big hugs to our family who joined us yesterday for the fun.  We are so blessed!!!  Merry Christmas!!!

We had two Christmas parties with our scouts group.  Tuesday night was the entire pack, at church.  LOTS of sweets and a visit from Santa.  And each boy received a present- their Pinewood Derby cars!!!  The other party was Saturday, just for our age group, at our cubmaster’s house.  Dinner, s’mores, a hike, a fire pit, and good friends.  Great night!

Evan had his preschool Christmas program.  Granmom drove out; we both sat anxiously to see how he was going to do.  He walked out on stage with his reindeer antlers on and his jingle bell in hand.  He seemed fine… until he saw me.  Then he threw his bell to the ground and hid his face in his seat until all three songs were done!  Oh, joy! 

This weekend I spent both days photographing dozens of adorable kids with “Santa.”  And Nathan brought the boys out to the studio for their turn.  Guess whose kid was the worst behaved of the whole weekend?  That’s right- my 2 year old!  He did not like Santa, even though he knew it was Daddy.  So I snapped what I could.  Not great images, but decent.

And then we headed out to look at Christmas lights.  The North Pole (on Cedar St.) is glorious again this year!  (makes me really wish we had had time to put up our lights and snowmen)

Ben had his first choir concert.  With a “Christmas Around the World” theme, the kids (and Santa) talked about different cultures’ traditions and sang songs from different countries.  Ben even had a speaking part about the menorah.  It was great, mistakes and all.  And we found that Evan took the whole thing in.  Once home that evening, he started practicing and performing his songs for his Christmas show. 

We had a wonderful playdate with some of our best friends.  Morgan, Landon, and Madison came over to build and decorate gingerbread houses.  Then, playing, hide-and-seek, laughing, and squealing commenced.  What joy!

We had our first-ever Shutter-Happy staff Christmas party.  Nathan and I cooked up some chicken sliders, coconut shrimp, and jasmine rice.  (we forgot the sweet potato fries)  And Beth’s and Emily’s families came to the studio for eats, visiting, and fun.  What a blessing to really enjoy the company of your co-workers and their families!  Only snag?  Beth baked up a bunch of cookies for the kids to decorate while here… and some unknown and still unnamed persons took samples of most of the baked goods!  (gasp!) 

Nathan and I took the boys to the riverwalk for our annual Christmas outing.  We saw The Polar Express in 3D at the IMAX (LOVE it!), walked the river, and ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

And then we finally got around to decorating!  It looks as though we’ll never get our snowmen in the front yard or lights around the house.  But we did get the tree lit and decorated, and the stockings are hung. 

Letter to Santa, from Evan:
Evan’s letter was simply lots of scribbles.  What he means is, he wants trains or anything Cars.  He’ll be pretty easy to please.  Have fun building the toys for him!

The winter season has begun, so Evan has started gymnastics.  And he LOVES it!  One morning that I let it slip that it was a gymnastics day, he ran around the house yelling, “Go ‘nastics!” over and over again.  We had to start getting ready that minute.  And we got there over half an hour early.

We spent a wonderful evening enjoying Dickens on Main.  The boys rode the barrel train and enjoyed some kettle corn.  Then we all had fun in the “snow,” seeing the animals at the petting zoo, listening to the performers, eating a funnel cake, and taking a horse-drawn carriage ride.

The next day we headed out to Devine Acres Farm.  The pancake/sausage/hot chocolate breakfast was great, and the visit with Santa was pretty amazing (both boys sat with him, and Ben visited with him quite a while).  Then we enjoyed some rubber ducky races, putt-putt golf, a bean bag toss, tetherball, their playground, and a hay ride.  Then we picked out our favorite Christmas tree, cut it down, and brought it home.  Such a fun morning!

Then we headed to Bear Moon Bakery for cookie decorating and to Main Street for the annual Christmas parade.  Then Nathan and I handed the boys off to Granmom so we could head out to the Don Strange Ranch for Rackspace’s Christmas party.

Letter to Santa, from Amy:
I’ve been good, really good.  And all I want for Christmas are things for my business.  An awesome camera would come in quite handy, to help me capture even more beautiful portraits.  An extra light would make my job so much easier, so that I’m not constantly moving lighting around the studio.  And a few really neat backdrops would give my clients more opportunities to create images they’re going to love.  Really, that’s it… unless you can give the gift of time.  I’d love to have some extra moments to clean up around here, work in the yard, relax in a bubble bath, get back on the treadmill, etc. 

The scouts had a trip to Enchanted Rock a couple of weekends ago.  So, Nathan and Ben packed up and got to spend a weekend in the great outdoors, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature, beautiful weather, good friends, campfires, and marshmallows.  They got in a great hike.  And Ben got to participate in his first flag retirement ceremony.

We spent some time last weekend working on our family’s portraits, for a new canvas and for our Christmas cards.  We got all dressed up and drove out to enjoy River Mountain Ranch.  Beautiful day!  And it was fun to spend time with and cook dinner for Granmom and Papa.  And, thanks to them, we got some great images.

Evan started bringing home all kinds of cute projects from school.  He loved showing off all the fall leaves he cut and glued.  Turkey hands and pumpkins are proudly being displayed on the fridge.  And my favorite was the indian headpiece, which I couldn’t help but get a picture of (so cute!).

Then we made the trip to Ft. Worth for our Thanksgiving vacation…
*Day One (Thursday)- We sat around and stuffed ourselves with all of Debbie’s wonderful food!  Spent some time outside despite the cold.  We constructed a tent in a bedroom.  And we played a game of cherades/pictionary using Ben’s spelling bee practice words. 
*Day Two (Friday)- Nathan and I met up with Emily’s whole family and took their portraits (all 40-something of them!).  And then Larry and Debbie took us out for some play time at a playground (complete with a merry-go-round that used to be at parks when I was little), a walk along the Trinity River, to feed the ducks, and then out for dinner (burgers and shakes!).
*Day Three (Saturday)- We spent the day at the stockyards.  There were almost tears when we found out the train wasn’t running.  But we had a wonderful time… We got to watch the cattle drive; Ben and Larry enjoyed a gun fight; Evan got to ride a “horse”; Ben got to sit on a longhorn; we had a great bbq lunch; Nathan and Ben rode a mechanical bull (Ben held on tight and stayed on; Nathan got thrown)!  And we found a pressed penny machine, so Ben got to add one more to his collection. 
And no trip to Ft. Worth is complete without wagon rides down their driveway.  (And we did that every day!!!)

So much to be thankful for!  But now, back to reality.  Laundry to do, work to catch up on, marketing posters to create, Christmas cards to address and get out the door…

Thanksgiving morning, reflecting….

I am thankful for my boys.  Despite Ben’s tendency to be bossy and defiant, I appreciate him for his willingness to try anything, his smarts, his leadership qualities, his story-telling abilities, and his talent for being able to do any sound effect.  And although Evan’s starting to show some “terrible-two” qualities, he sure is a sweet boy and is cute as a button.

I am thankful for Nathan.  Busy lives cause us to feel disconnected quite often.  But we have created a wonderful family from our solid marriage and friendship.  I appreciate his constant calmness in my life, that his sense of humor clicks with mine, and that he puts up with my nagging and sarcasticness.

My parents, sister, and grandparents have been a blessing as long as I can remember.  I don’t know where I’d be without the love, kindness, and support of my mom.  And I am so grateful for all the memories I have of and with my grandma.  I think of and miss her daily.  And I know that we are all better people because we knew that wonderful woman.

Friends.  All the wonderful ladies in my life now.  But so very much for the guy I’ve had in my life the longest.  Myk was pulling my pigtails as far back as I can remember and is now my “besty.”  He brings great laughter and friendship into my life.  And always makes me thankful that he gets all the drama.

I love my job!  Getting to find a talent and follow a dream a little later in life was exciting.  Seeing it through and finding success brings me great joy.  And moving into a studio and finding a great staff this year was just icing on the cake.

I’m thankful for my truck.  Yes, that’s right.  Over 100,000 miles and never a problem.  My in-laws, for welcoming me into their family many years ago.  Smells of Thanksgiving.  Debbie is busy in the kitchen, preparing the meal.  And I get to sit on the couch and just enjoy the scents.  A few extras- our ice maker, chocolate, roomba, Dream Dinners, pumpkin pie, my laptop (all the things that make my life easier and/or tastier).    And I’m thankful for our health, getting to be a stay-at-home mom, hours behind the mower (getting to smell the fresh-cut grass and have “me time”), fun days at Fiesta Texas, free babysitting (thanks to Granmom!), and family portraits (perfect momentos of our best moments).

There’s more, there’s lots more.  But there’s my list for today.

Good things happening for Ben:
* He won a ribbon on Friday at the Walk-a-Thon awards ceremony for raising the most money in his class.  And the whole class won an ice cream party for having walked the most miles out of the whole 2nd grade!
* A portrait of him in the pumpkin patch (2007) was chosen for the cover of the latest Backpack Connection magazine!
* He received a certificate yesterday for being on the A Honor Roll for the first semester of the school year.
* I also found in his backpack, a certificate for having perfect attendance for the semester.
* And last, I just found out he was one of only thirteen kinder through 2nd graders nominated to be on the Rising Stars team at Curington!!!
Proud mama! 

For Evan:
I’m always hearing comments about how cute, fun, and easy-going his is.  But I was tickled by the compliments from the MOPS worker who took care of his class yesterday.  She called him a prince, beaming as she talked about how well he always plays and how excited he is about everything.  He is such a cute kid!

For me:
It was so much fun to set up a booth at the MOPS Shop yesterday morning.  I got to see the excitement in all the moms’ eyes as they viewed my images, got to visit with them about their kids and possible portrait sessions, and even got to hear some wonderful feedback about my work.

Warm fuzzies!!!

Evan, sick on the couch today, made me stop and breathe.  It’s been a busy few weeks!

Evan and I had a MOPS meeting; I photographed at several local preschools; I had a parent/teacher conference (with all good news!); Shutter-Happy has been crazy-busy.

One weekend was a trip to Corpus.  We got to go to the beach a couple of days.  We attended a wedding at the aquarium (among the sea creatures).  And we got to make a trip out to Orange Grove to visit with my family.

The Scouts had a Halloween party.  The boys had a fantastic time… bowling, darts, pumpkin toss, fishing, etc.  Evan won brownies at the cake walk!  And Ben won a Lego set for the best “All American” costume in the costume contest!

Halloween weekend was jam-packed!   We had a fun afternoon at Fiesta Texas… lots of spooky characters and fun rides… even the log ride!!!  We enjoyed our church’s trunk-or-treat (and got Evan used to the idea and the fun of trick-or-treating!)  And then we walked our neighborhood for candy.  (I’m still enjoying it, way too much.)

Mom and I took the boys to the circus!!!  We rode the elephant, enjoyed popcorn and cotton candy, and loved the performances!

Ben got to be Scientist of the Week at school.  He chose an expirement having to do with weather (big surprise!).  He studied tornadoes all week, spent an evening setting up and testing his experiment, and then got to present everything to his class.  He even got to wear a lab coat and goggles!  So cute!

Nathan took the boys for a hike at the Cibolo Nature Center.  They came back with all kinds of stories about what they saw and what creatures they ran into.