Candy's GS Bridging Cerimony 2009

This was Candy's 2nd year doing girl scouts! They have had so much fun! I took over as the Troop leader half way through the year, because our leader at the time was feeling a little overwhelmed. Needless to say it has definitely been a learning experience! I think this next year will hopefully be a lot smoother, because I will actually know what I am doing as the leader. These pictures are taken from our troop bridging ceremony/end of the year party! Our little girls are moving from Brownies to Juniors! We had a lot of fun at this party held once again, you guessed it at Jumpin Joey's! The girls jumped for an hour, and then we all ate pizza and had this really cute cake that Wal-mart came up with. The girls did great with all of their parts, and had a lot of fun crossing over our make-shift bridge. The bridge was made out of an overturned card table that we attached streamers running from the legs down to the floor to make it look more like a bridge. It was the best we could do for a portable bridge. The girls earned 9 patches this year. We were pretty excited about that considering that we only really started meeting at Christmas Time.

From left to right: Brooke, Madilyn, JaNay, Candy, Reese, and Emily. In the back are me and Jamie Kieffer who is now the co-leader. Aren't they a good looking group of girls?

This is all of the girls participating in our ending ceremony of the friendship circle.

Close-up of our own GS cutest ever Candy Cotten!

Kassidy's 4th B-Day

So I am definitely behind in my blogging! I am going to try to catch up before I go back to work! Here are some cute pictures of Kassidy's 4th B-day party at Jumpin Joey's! Ya we did Jumpin Joey's again. We loved it for Candy's party we thought we would do it over again!

I'm not sure we really needed to go to all of the trouble of having a B-Day party for Kassidy, because we couldn't peel her away from one of her friend Marley's baby sister Camryn! We should have just borrowed Camryn for the day. Kassidy refused to jump for the majority of the party, because she wanted to sit and play with Camryn. Who could blame her with a cutie pie like that! Kassidy is such a baby magnet she tells me everyday, that she wishes we had lots of babies at our home. I always tell her that we will have to borrow other people's babies for now, because we have our hands full already!

Jumpin Joey himself was a huge hit with all of the kids except for Kassidy of course. She was still content to sit and play with Camryn. Here is a picture of Chloe and Kade admiring him from a distance.

When we got to the party room Kassidy finally started enjoying her party and hanging out with her friends! Here she is chowing on some pizza!

Kassidy loved her Fairytopia Cake!

Mommy photoshopped an invitation to match the theme!

Looks like Kassidy is getting brain freeze from her ice cream and cake!

Of course Chloe always enjoys her cake too!

Kassidy got lots of presents that she liked, but this pink, princess, pillow pig was her favorite. Try saying that 10 times fast!

My Surprise 30th B-Day Party

I had a fabulous 30th B-Day! The weekend before my B-day we had a family party for both mine and Ryan's birthday that was outstanding! My family made Ryan and I fajitas! On the actual weekend of my B-day Ryan and I were away by ourselves for our anniversary. We got a room at the Hilton down by the Galleria. While away for the weekend Ryan scheduled a surprise B-day lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse named the Angus Grill where we had the most amazing food. My favorite was the pineapple that was coated in a cinnamon glaze and then roasted over an open flame.

Now to top all of that off my sisters schemed and surprised me with a surprise B-day party with all of my girlfriends and of course the other wonderful women in my family. I knew that we were having a girls night out, but I thought I was just going to meet a few of my friends up at my favorite Mexican food place. My sisters planned a full out celebration at my sister Jenny's house! They got it catered from Los Vega Mexican Restaurant.

I could not believe how many family and friends came to my party. It was really quite amazing. One of my longtime friends from high school (Kate Zollinger) even drove all the way from Katy to be there. My other friend Ruth who makes the most amazing cakes, made me my favorite cake! Just the devine smell of the cake would have been enough to last me a year, but actually getting to eat it is amazing! Everyone made fun of me for how excited I was to taste the cake. I think they were actually worried that I might lick it before they cut me a piece. After dinner those of us who are night owls went to see the movie My Sisters Keeper. Everyone cried their eyes out! Definitely a chick flick!

I really appreciated my sisters being willing to go to the extra effort to make turning 30 so special! I feel so blessed to have so many great friends in this area now! Of course I have always had great family! I love y'all!

Sweet Chloe

I just got finished rocking my sweet Chloe to sleep, and I couldn't help but be so thankful to Heavenly Father for allowing me to be a mother. I feel like so often life seems out of control, and I am always running to catch up. Tonight as I rocked her and she patted my arm with her soft as velvet hands, all I could think about was how grateful I was for her and all my kids. We had an especially hard morning trying to keep the kids occupied before church. All of the kids were in rare form. Chloe has been very cranky the last few days, which is nothing new for her, but it is so nice to have a moment like tonight were she hugged my neck and patted my arm as she fell asleep. I feel like she was telling me how much she loved me, and an overwhelming feeling of love came over me for her and my other children. All too soon these days of rocking her will be over and life will move on. It is so important that we all cherish these precious years even though they are crazy and busy!

Disney World May 2009

We have had a very busy May! I'm excited to finally have time to post our Disney World Pictures. We got to go to Disney World for 6 days. We did all of the main parks once, and we went back to the Epcot and Magic Kingdom twice. We stayed off Disney World at a Resort called the Regal Palms. It was a 4 bedroom 3.5 bath town home with a full kitchen. It also had an awesome swimming pool with a water slide and lazy river. We took full advantage of the Kitchen. Our fridge was broken the first day we got there, but they soon fixed it, and we kept if fully stocked. It really helped save on costs to eat breakfast at home everyday, and most days we also packed a lunch and snacks to take with us. We had a really great time at the different parks. They exceeded our expectations. Chloe especially enjoyed Disney World more than we thought. We were worried that she would be scared of all the characters and the loud parades, but she loved all of it. Her favorite part about Disney seemed to be the parades. She loved to dance with all of the Characters! Candy loved all of the fast rides! Her favorite ride was the Rockin Roller Coaster! Kassidy said that her favorite part of Disney was the merry-go-round even though she was too scared to ride the horses that went up and down. She just wanted to sit on the bench that was still. She was scared of the horses on the Merry-Go-Round, but she laughed when she was riding the tower of terror. She was so brave for most of the rides, but she would always surprise us and be scared of something unexpected. Poor tenderhearted Candy was scared of most things except for the fast rides. She did not like anything animatronic. It was nice that my mother and her husband David were also able to come with us. There were times where we were all able to split up and take turns riding with the younger and older kids. Disney makes it pretty convenient with things like the fast pass and a switch pass. The switch pass is for when someone has to stay behind with younger children. After 6 fun filled days we were spent, but then we still had the 17 hr. drive back. It felt like an eternity, but it was well worth the sacrifice to have these life long memories!

The traditional family shot in front of Cinderella Castle.

Minnie's house was just the right size for the girls!

The girls could not quite warm up to Mickey and Minnie!

Ride 'em Cowgirls! (Cinderella's Carousel)

One of the coolest parades...the characters came off the floats and danced in the street.

Chloe became part of an "interactive" experience...she was tickled!

The character that resembles Candy's personality the most....LOL.

The traditional Small World Ride: Chloe thought all the dancing "people" were funny, Kassidy slept through it, and Candy thought it was full of, well, cheese.

Something new to us this time: Spectromagic! One of the most unique parades we have ever seen. All floats and characters lit up with lights!

Can't get enough photos of that icon!

True Disney marketing at its finest...attending this fireworks show really does make you think Dreams can come true! (Chills felt by all)

Kassidy is a great speeder driver, especially with her custom hair ornaments by Krissy that came about due to her destruction of her headband...Candy is trying for a new character on Star Wars...

The girls could have stayed all day at the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground...we need one of those around here.

This was Beauty and The Beast show...obviously the girl's favorite.


Hard to tell that this is one of the coolest shows...we waited out a drizzle under panchos to see it...what a great story to tell!

If you strain your eyes very carefully you can see the sorcerer's hat in the background at Hollywood Studios. Chloe was beat. This was the way most days ended with mommy carrying a very tired Chloe in my life saver the blessed sling!

Can you tell how hot it was? We were melting the first couple of days...we conveniently chose days of record heat...pbbbbbtttt! Last time we were here this time of year it was in the 70's!

Um, a little disappointed at the petting zoo...c'mon Disney you can do better than a goat?!


This awesome tree at Animal Kingdom is a great pic site...o.k., o.k., it's not real.


The girls loved Animal Kingdom with all the animal rides.


Chloe and her first Safari!



Just hangin' out with the pack-e-derms!


Despite not being in the REAL safari, Disney made it seem like were really there! The girls thought so anyway...;-)

Some creative greenery at Epcot...I dare someone to take a picture in front of every character bush at Disney World....

Another Disney icon...It seemed a lot bigger in my mind...although there is a ride that takes you winding your way all the way to the top!

We wore the exact same clothing on our return trip to Epcot...just kidding...got Ryan out from behind the camera for this one.

Disney does a great job in keeping kids occupied while waiting for shows/rides. This is a fully functional sting ray tank outside a Nemo Show that mesmerized the girls.

Mommy and the Cutest Kassidy Mouse in all the world!

"We got the whole world, in our hands...."

This is our picture from the ride Tesst Track. This was one of Kassidy's favorite rides. This was one of the only rides that almost all of our family got to ride together. It was funny, because the lady in orange sitting next to Kassidy was deathly afraid of the ride, and Kassidy kept telling the lady that it was not scary, because she had ridden before. The whole ride Kassidy pestered the poor lady saying "see it's not scary." I just thought the whole thing was comical that a 4 year old was telling a 50 something year old not to be scared on the ride! She was definitely brave when it came to fast rides!