Elia's Act of Kindness

This year, Elia invited her friends to donate coloring books and crayons to the Dallas Children's Medical Center. We delivered dozens and dozens of them!





Then we celebrated with a trip to Neiman Marcus' Window Display!

There is nothing like the original Neiman's at Christmas.

Texas Sunsets

I will let these speak for themselves...

And some people think there is no God.

Dream Come True

A few weeks ago, Isaac, Elia, and I went fossil hunting near Justin, Texas, with the Dallas Paleontological Society. This is something to mark off my list of things to do before I die!

It was the most awesome experience. You got to keep what you found...and we found tons!

These are Hemiaster texana, more affectionately known as "Sea Biscuits"!

They are like fat sand dollars. The instructor said a group of boyscouts first discovered them in the area, and called them "love stones" because they resemble a heart.

These Oxytropidoceras sp. ammonites are each larger than my steering wheel in my car! They are huge! I've seen some in museums this nice!

Ridiculously cool.

By far, my favorite. Did I mention the Cretaceous Period was 144-65 million years from the present? Yeah, let that settle in your mind. It blew mine away!

High concentrations of iron causes this awesome coloration.

Special thanks to the Dallas Paleontological Society, and especially to Mr. Roger Farish, for putting up with us "city slickers" and for allowing me to fulfill a dream I've had for years and years!

Making Memories!

Meet Ariel!

Her Hero

His Heart.

Love the blue eye shadow!

My friend, Carli!

Evaluating our goods.

We then raced to Elia's school carnival

She takes this very seriously!

Why not take a ride on a tractor?

What's wrong with a snow cone at 8:00 at night?

Although exhausted, we all had a great time together.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

I'm passing on the tradition of caramel apples this year. Our toppings included crushed pretzels, heath bits, mints chips, almonds, mixed nuts, and sprinkles. Needless to say, they were a hit. The Pioneer Woman gave a hint on her site shown here...add salt to the caramel....YUM-O!

No slow pokes here! You have to work quickly!
Toppings are ready, and so is my little helper!

Serious business, no slackers allowed.

Waiting is the hardest part!


Oh yeah. So worth waiting for! Happy Fall!

It's that time of year again!

Elia didn't sleep a wink last night, and guess who else is sleep-deprived today??!! She was so excited to wear her uniform and her new Chuck's that she picked out herself!

She walked right into her new class without a tear, a wimper, or a frown. She kissed us goodbye, hung up her backpack, and found her seat.
We stood in the doorway, finding it hard to leave her!

Blowing a kiss to daddy!

I also made goody bags for my co-workers' children to wish them well on this first day back to school. Simple stuffers included pens, snack bags, capri suns, smarties, and of course a Number 2 to top things off!

Of course Miss Elia had one, too!

Brown lunch bags are inexpensive and easy to decorate!

Hope your first day back to school was a success!

Tracking the tracks!

Celebrating Resurrection Day!

My Forever Friend

I'm so fortunate to have a forever friend. Do you have such a friendship? One that defies time or distance? On that sustains itself, despite the business of life? Jennifer and I were the best of friends for only one year. Then I moved to Texas in 1987. We went to college, married, & had families. But through it all, we maintained a closeness that is only understood by those who also have a forever friend.

Jennifer visited for the weekend & we had such a good time having her in our home. Elia ADORES Jen. She even has a stuffed turtle (gifted by Jen!) named in her honor.

We were exhausted the entire time it seemed, but here are a few pictures we managed to take!

I can't stress enough how tired we were when these were taken!!!

Isaac took sooo many pictures, it started to feel like a photo shoot. So I went with it!! Elia was running around laughing hysterically! Yeah. I know. We're hot. I think I was probably saying something like, "Are we really this juvenile?" This picture seriously cracks me up!

Bluebonnets!

This time last year, I didn't even ATTEMPT to get my 2 year old in the field of Bluebonnets for an annual snapshot! She would have no part of this Texas Tradition.

This year, my now 3 year old understands the art of bribary and engaged in the forced fun with ease. The ole "If you, then mommy will" etc, etc was put into place. What talked her into the attending the photo shoot? A Slurpee from 7-11! 30 mile an hour wind gusts did not help our hair, but it was pretending we could fly!

Such innocence.

This is the "I AM looking at you" smile.

I shot a few of her dancing in the field. This is when I knew we were done!