Christmas 2011

Its 7:30 on Christmas morning and Mommy and Daddy are wide awake :) Kids are snuggled in their beds... that is until Daddy gentle wakens them with his Airhorn App. Hee hee...

We managed to get parts of the present-opening-chaos on film:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Christmas 2011 part 4

Christmas 2011 part 3

Christmas 2011 part 2

Christmas 2011 part 1

Christmas Treats

The design job for Fog Ink led to my contract with Still Moments Publishing. I'm super excited about this new venture because we have covers planned all the way into April! As for now, if you're a romance genre fan and you like ebooks, Christmas Treats is available for download. There are two versions: Santa's Naughty List, which features "steamier" romance stories, and Santa's Nice List, which features tamer romance stories. Enjoy!

Bedtime Stories for Dogs and Bedtime stories for Cats

In case you haven't heard, I have been published :) Not as an author, but as the artist of these fun covers. Fog Ink commissioned me to do them a few months ago and last month they were published. It is actually one book, with cats on one side and dogs on the other. You kind of have to see it to understand :) So come on people! Buy a copy!

Tiny Friends

We adopted a few new members into our family. Meet Sweetie and Bolt. Sweetie is Stewart's hamster. He's pretty mellow. Bolt is Allie's baby. And, of course, Bolt is crazy hyper. They are both still a little skittish, but they are getting used to us and letting us pet them now. The kids love to watch them run around in their little hamster balls. Sweetie will sit and look around, while Bolt heads full speed to the nearest wall and bounces off of it :)

The Month of Boxes

Let's see if I can sum up this month for ya'll...

At the end of last month, we decided to put our house up for sale. Times are tough, jobs are non-existent, work is cutting back hours, BLAH BLAH BLAH. The long and short of it is this: We couldn't afford our house any longer. LAst year at this time we did a huge cutback in our monthly spending, and yet it just wasn't enough. The sanest solution was to sell the house and look for something smaller. Turns out, not much for sale this time of year. So we took a fair amount for our house from a very eager investor, and moved into an apartment.

Wow, I make it sound so easy! Well, it wasn't. I'll spare you the details of keeping the house clean with two hurricane children living in it, and the showings that never seemed to end (I lost count at around 20). After almost two weeks on the market, our house sold. Quick and clean and now we are living the easy life in an apartment.

So I know what you're thinking, "But Keri, you hate apartments. Everyone hates apartments. They're dirty and ugly and small." Aha! We we were lucky enought to discover the Lodge at Lakeline Village. Where spacious floor plans mirror the size of our house in San Bernardino, and the clubhouse has a movie theater. No more yard work. No more worrying about the next hail storm damaging our roof again. No more large appliances breaking and paying someone to come fix them. We are on the 3rd floor, which is challenging. But the view is gorgeous! Stewart gets to ride the bus now, whch he's been begging for. The kids have lots of new friends. All in all, I think this was a smart move :)

I think that's it for now. I'm going to go break something and then have maintenance come fix it ;)

Flickr

One of the best things about my new phone, is that I can take pics and post them online! I'm using Flickr, click here for link.

Legoland/Sealife Trip

Last weekend we loaded up the family for a two-day trip to Dallas. Our original plan was to spend all day at Legoland. What we didn't realize, was that this particular Legoland is part of a mall. AND it was way smaller than we expected. We still had a great time, but we really only spent half of our day there.

SO, across the "hall", inside the same mall, was this place called Sealife Aquarium. This is where we spent the second half of our day. They had a super deal that if you bought tickets to both Sealife and Legoland, you save $9 a ticket!

The kids had a great time. Allie said her favorite part of the whole trip was the karoake machine inside the Princess Palace at Legoland. Yes, this was even funnier than it sounds :) Stewart's favorite part of the whole trip was Miniland at Legoland, and the Sharks (of course) at the aquarium.

We obviously took a ton of pictures, but here are the highlights:

Little Golfer

A few weekends ago Stephen took Stewart to the driving range to shoot a few balls. Not really thinking it would be anything more than father/son time and they can both laugh about it later. Turns out, Stewart isn't half bad! We're getting him his own junior size set this weekend and seeing how he does then. The boys have so much fun on their golf outings :)

PS: Sorry you have to tilt your head. I can't get the video to rotate ;)

Tiny Dancer

Allie started dance class last week at the Little Gym. They are teaching her ballet, tap and gymnastics. She is very excited if you can't tell :)

Stewart's 8th Birthday Party

Stewart's birthday party was on Saturday and 18 kids showed up! You'd think that would be chaos, but it was actually great. All the kids got along famously and enjoyed the yard that Stephen built :) Stewart now has LEGOS coming out his ears, and he's in heaven :)

Clubhouse

My fabulously talented husband built Stewart a clubhouse for his birthday. I like to pretend this is a present from US, but really he did all the work. We've been talking about it for a while, and I wanted him to build something that is going to last. So that's EXACTLY what he did! The kids love it, although I've yet to break it to Allie that Stewart is having me make a NO GIRLS ALLOWED sign. I expect Stewart to practically live in it this summer so I'm stocking it with a cooler, a lantern, and bug spray :)

Crossover Ceremony

Stewart's Crossover ceremony in Cub Scouts was last week. This is where the boys crossover from their current year to the next year. He got a new neckerchief and book :) It was very cute.

Stewart and His Bike

We have been trying to get Stewart's training wheels off for months. He's been too scared to even try riding his bike without them. So Mean-Ol-Mommy got annoyed and took them off and told him "sink or swim, buddy". Yes, I know... Stephen took a much gentler approach and told him that they would spend all day Saturday practicing. After 30 MINUTES, that boy was off and peddling like a champ. You see? Mommy's tough love actually did him some good. OK, MAYBE Stephen helped a little. :)

Birthday Invites

Stewart is having a party at the house to celebrate his 8th birthday. Since he wants to invite 30+ people, I decided to print my own invites and save myself time and money. So printed them at the 1-hour photo, bought a box of envelopes and voila! Instant invites for less than $7!

Whose Clubhouse?

Stephen is building Stewart a clubhouse for his birthday. So far, Stewart has wanted nothing to do with helping to build it. Allie on the other hand, is game for anything :)

Sleeping Beauty

Why are they so adorable when they sleep???

Bluebonnets

The bluebonnets by our house are a little late in blooming this year, so we drove out a ways and found this little field. The kids gave their usual cooperation and I had to step in and say "Hey, Whoa! Stop with the smiling and the loving each other!" Seriously, they wanted nothing to do with getting their pictures taken :)

Happy Birthday Allie!

Allie turns 3 today!

San Antonio Zoo

This last week was Spring Break. We took the kids to San Antonio to visit the zoo. Before we went, we visited Big Lou's Pizza which is the home of the 42" pizza, and it was featured on "Man vs. Food"! Stephen and I were like kids in a candy store :) We didn't get the ginormous pizza, but the table next to us did. The pizza there is sooooo good! Oh yea, and we went to the zoo where it was a madhouse. The best part of that experience was that Allie slept on the way home.

Cranky Girl Vs. Mean Daddy

I know this is mean, but come on! So Allie got in trouble the other day and Stephen sent her to her room. She was so crushed that she curled up in one of her toy "boxes" and fell asleep. Stephen went in there with the camera and the crying fit started all over again :)

Grandma Visit - December/January

While I'm at it here are some pics from when Grandma visited. We did alot of fun things while she was in town, including going to the San Antonio Children's Museum.