5 year anniversary

Chris and I had a wonderful time on our trip. We stayed at El Dorado Royale in the Rivera Maya area. Every meal was gourmet! I've never had treatment like that and it was worth it. Surprisingly we never had a bad meal the entire time we were there. We mostly hung out with our friends from Houston...Cliff and Julie, Kyle and Tiffani. We did go snorkeling one day. It was a lot of fun. With Dolly forming out in the ocean, we did get some rain our last 2 days. On the day we left it rained on and off all morning. I was glad it did. We went for a walk on the beach just after a rain and found some really neat shells. I brought back most of them in my carry on bag.

Chris and I did go on this trip with a 30% discount through Friends in Paradise. We ended up joining the Exotic Travel Club! I cannot believe we did it. It opens the door for us to purchase travel/vacations at wholesale prices. Not only that, any of our friends or relatives or a friend of a friend--anyone can use our discount! That's how we got our discount for this trip. If you or someone you know wants to go to Mexico, we can get you a trip booked at least 30% off what you would pay through a travel agent or something like Expedia. The El Dorado Royale, a Karisma resort, was just recently awared the "hotel of the year" and is consistently named on the list of the "most romantic resorts in the world." It truly is a wonderful place. Chris and I are excited about our trip next year. In joining the Exotic Travel Club, we will stay for a week FREE in a Casita Suite!

It was really nice being at an adults only place. By the end of the trip, we did miss our little monkeys! Our flight home was delayed by 40 mins to get home. It just seemed to take forever! The kids were great for Papaw and Marner. They had their own little vacation with them. We've really had a great summer!

forgot i had this...

Brady and Anna playing at the beach July 1, 2008

wow. it's been a while. once i can figure this out, i will do better at this. there are so many pictures and stories to share, but i will have to narrow them down. for today, i will do what i can. So...Anna turned one. My step mom coined her description perfectly, "she is like a bull in a china cabinet." That she is. Love her to death. She has absolutely no fear and must do everything her big bro does. Brady just turned 3 recently. He is such a big boy these days. They grow so fast!

Recent pix of kiddos...

Brady blowing out his #2 candle!















Anna after swimming at her big brother's birthday party!
















just being kids, gotta love it!

How 2007 has treated us so far...

....it's been a whirlwind. I was working part-time as a Reading Specialist in Keller ISD. Chris was doing his regular job as construction superintendent and Brady was doing great! Just before Anna's birth, Chris received a job promo. Instead of managing one neighborhood, he would be over 10-15 from Sanger to Burleson. We knew this was going to greatly change our lives as well as having a newborn in the house. I was going to have to quit my part-time job. My part-time teacher pay would have been enough to cover the cost of child care for our kids. Plus, we had our house on the market. Chris and I had started meeting with an architect to design our final home we'd like to raise our children in. Our house was intended to be built on the Lytle family land in the Weatherford/Aledo area.

Then, sometime in February was when the housing market started to take a nose dive! With that, companies must save money. The problem was that saving m0ney meant cutting some programs which in turn greatly impacted our lives. We suddenly had to take our house off the market and rethink things. We decided that I had no other choice, but to return to work full-time for the next school year. There was no way we could sell nor move, so we're staying put in Fort Worth for a while.

And while all of this is going on, Miss Anna had a classic case of colic! She would scream horribly if i laid her down. Late afternoon, evening and wee-hours of the morning were her worst times. I began to run on 4 hours of sleep, if that....joy of motherhood! Finally found some GripeWater, which changed our lives!! It helped her so much. Then, at 11 wks her first tooth cut through...so was it colic or teething? Well, the colic continued until she was about 4 months old. During all that time, i became accustomed to carrying her on my left hip, facing outward so she could see everything--her favorite way to be held. I became a pro at this. I could hold her, cook supper, watch tv, talk on the phone and fill up a sippy cup for brady all at the same time! Then one day it all caught up with me. One morning i tried to get out of bed and realized i couldn't walk. Long story short....all of that SuperWoman-hip-carrying stuff caused my left hip to turn outward to the left causing pressing on my siatica nerve. I was in soooooo much pain. After about 6 wks of physical therapy, my left foot is 95% not numb anymore.....still have some numbness in a few areas. I still hobble somewhat when i walk, it's great.

Here we are now...Brady just turned 2 and had his Elmo 2nd birthday party! Anna turned 5 months and is doing much better. I decided to wean her down to one nursing a day until i go back full-time in August. I was very lucky to get my old job back as a Reading Specialist at the same school, but as full-time. I am very excited about it. I found a great place for my kids to go for their care.

We are right in the middle of this rainy, RAINY summer! With both kids and me going back to work, we stay busy. Maybe we can catch up with you sometime.
Lots of Love,
Jenny

New to Blogging

Hi there!

I am always trying to find a way to bring our family far away close to us. I thought creating a blog would be a fast, easy way for me to update our family and friends to what we are up to these days and beyond. I'm knew to this, so bare with me.