Wow

Stop this roller coaster I am on. I love how in October I said I was going to pay more attention to he blog. Yea so that didn't happen and I won't say that again. We have had the best and worst year. We have had lots of peaks and valleys but are back on top and hope to stay there. Aaron is still traveling back and forth to Calgary for work but comes home and stays for a few days to a week at a time. Soon (not sure when) he will be back in Houston for good. The company has made the announcement that he is coming back, I know I saw the letter. ;)
Ashley had a great first semester in 10th grade. She made a 90 for her 3rd six weeks in Geometry and an 81 in Chemistry, smart girl. She has showed quit a bit of interest in being a chef and going to culinary school. She can do whatever she wants and has the smarts to make it happen. She has been fighting a battle of her own but she is a strong, wonderful girl that has the 100% support of her family and we are determined to not give up.
Preston and Lily are tornadoes taking on every corner of their tiny world. The are both completely potty trained, except at night. Lily has been trained since September and was super easy. Preston has gone back and forth from underwear to diapers for months until New Year's we figured we were confusing him and decided to totally do diapers during the day. We have had a few accidents but mostly........ success!
3 is well............ good and bad. They are very determined and difficult at times but then they are sweet as can be. Because of this we now have "house rules" all painted on canvas hanging on the wall so they can see. We don't do warnings for rules that are posted, we have gone through them, they know what they are and know they will sit in time out if they are broken. Mainly it's to keep the peace: no hitting, be nice, use your inside voice, no climbing, use your words (the whining is driving me nuts) Things are easier at 3 but then comes the independent Lily wanting to buckle her own car seat and will NOT let you shut the door because SHE CAN DO IT. All while your already running 10 mins late. They are still in preschool on Tuesdays and Thursday's and this is when I run errands, eat lunch with my friends, get my nails did or just come home and enjoy the silence.

Speaking of being late........ we have started the year off by trying to turn things around when we moved back from Canada I knew I was giving up my simple life there but had no idea how busy and chaotic my world here would be. So I am trying to get back to that. I know I am late to almost every single thing I go to and it's mainly because I think I have more time than I do. Instead of getting in the car I think I have time to check my email or clean up real quick or heaven forbid, go to the bathroom.

So that's the family, what about Staci you ask? Well I am still Associate Director of Cypress Calling Ministries, the non profit ministry I founded with my BFF and a few other girl friends back in March 2008. I took a back seat role on the board while in Canada and still attended board meetings by Skype but now I am back. My role as Associate Director is to maintain the database, website, outreach, newsletter, volunteer coordinator, advertising, and make sure the donation checks are deposited into our account. This ministry is very dear to my heart because mentoring to teen mom's is something I always saw myself doing. Being a mom at 16 changed me and helped grow into the person I am today. I am so happy to share that with others who have lost hope. We run exclusively on monetary and item donations from the public. We are a volunteer based group and I am so proud of how far we have come. We have showered over 100 girls with our baby showers and our support group is up to 13 girls.
I also started my own business in June 2010 with the official launch in September. Lily Lou Designs (Lily being form Lily's name and Lou being from Ashley's middle name, Louise) an embroidery and appliqueing company that was initially a hobby. One thing led to another and I got a DBA, tax id and a bank account. Now that I am all legit the orders started to roll in. Boy did they roll in. I did not prepare myself for how busy I was at Christmas but I am grateful to be doing something I love. Now it's Valentines and Rodeo season.
Aaron and I with our friends Jenn and Kevin started a wine group. We meet once a month and taste wine from different regions. Who wouldn't want to do that. Every month we get a baby sitter and hang out with adults, I look forward to this.
Well that's our life as we start the new year. here's to 2011 and I hope it brings you lots of happiness.

New design

I am going to start paying more attention to this blog. Between Lily Lou Designs, Cypress Calling and my own family stuff I have been one busy momma but things are going to get back to SIMPLE soon! I can't wait to share my stories from the past few months: some funny, some heart breaking and some happy. Stay tuned!
Here's a few pics from the farm this weekend.

Recent road trip

Labor Day weekend we decided to go on a little road trip around some Texas towns. We headed northwest to Austin to eat at Salt Lick bbq. It was gmod but not the best, Rudy's is the best in my opinion. We then saw on the map that Luckenbach was around these parts. We thought Luckenbach was a town in Texas. It is NOT. It is a dance hall. We drove through the parking lot but didn't get out. We then headed to our destination, Fredericksburg, to go to the Pacific War Museum. It was fun but involved lots of reading, and well the twins don't read. So we ended up breezing through and waiting at the end for Ashley and Aaron. We did go to the reenactment which involved guns and fire which we all enjoyed. We drove to San Antonio and spent the night so we could wake up bright and early to go to Sea World. We had so much fun at Sea World. W got to enjoy the water park this time. Last time we went Ashley was 10 and we took her in November. We only stayed until about 2 since we knew we would be worn out. We took naps and then ate dinner at La Margaritas. Monday we went home to lots of rain. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Preston who refuses to get a hair cut. I trim the front and sides while he is sleeping, hehe

Cute little sea lion

Me, Ashley and Lily feeding the dolphins

Silent Sunday!!!

That's right folks I am bringing it back.

Lily's latest sneakiness

Last night about 8 I heard footsteps in the bedroom above the office, which is Ashley's room. The wins were sleeping or so I thought. I went upstairs to find Lily with a sharpie in her hand coloring on herself and Ashley's dresser. I should have taken a picture but I was so worried about trying to get it off before it dried on forever. Eventually it came out....................... magic eraser did the trick.

Stuck on this roller coaster...............

called LIFE!!!! Living in Newfoundland I developed a simpler way of life and I liked it. Now I am running ragged, driving here, there, everywhere and stuck on this roller coaster. As if I didn't have enough to do with raising 3 kids, a husband who travels, associate director of Cypress Calling Ministries and lots of changes to a few other family members. I decided to start my own online business. I am so proud to announce that Lily Lou Designs is open for business. I hope everything is set up on the website correctly. I have spent the last few months learning everything I need to know to get it started.
Back to Calgary. We rode the train all over the city. When we got back from Banff Aaron had to work. The kids and I would plan our day and look at the train maps to see what train went where. We went to the zoo, museum, a few malls, parks, splash pads. We had a great time. Houston could learn a thing or 2 about the transit system up there. It would be nice to jump on a train and go to an Astros game........ in the future, MAYBE?

Hey there we are still alive!

Well I had this grand idea that every day I would post about the past few days but it's not going that way. By the time we get back from our daily adventures I am exhausted. I will just give a few brief details of our latest adventures. The day we went to the Calgary Tower we got stuck in a hail storm, fun times. Luckily Calgary has this skyway called +15 which is a walkway system throughout the city from building to building. You can stay inside all warm and toasty and still walk around the city.
Last Tuesday we left the big city and headed for the mountains in Canmore, AB. We heard from a few people that Canmore is a really nice mountain town and not as touristy as Banff. Fine with us we usually take the off roads and don't follow the usual touristy stuff. We checked into our mountain getaway Stone Ridge Mountain Resort. Since it was raining we headed to the grocery store and went to rent movies. The next day we woke up surrounded by huge mountains soaring into the clouds. It was beautiful!!! We headed to Banff to take the gondola up 7,486 feet into the beautiful blue sky. This was an amazing highlight of our trip. For as long as I live I will never forget the view from the top. As if the day couldn't get any better....... Ashley and I took a mountain tour on horseback through the mountains. and along the Bow River. If you haven't seen the pictures you can check them out here: Calgary Pics
We had been promising the kids for days that we would take them to the park. The night before we put them to bed Preston said to me "mommy, we go to park tomorrow?" I told Aaron before we do anything else in the morning we are finding a playground so the kids can swing and slide. Don't get me wrong they have been running around and burning off lots of energy but you know when they are tired and you will say anything to get them to get in to stroller. Get in the stroller and we will go to the park is one of them...... who knew Preston would remember days later. In fact I was a little scared to be gone from home for so long thinking their sleep would be so messed up. That is so not the case though. We have been doing so many things that they fall asleep in the stroller after lunch almost every day. Anyway I digress. After the park we went to Lake Louise. This was the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. The water was so turquoise and clear. I can't even describe the beauty of the mountains with the snow and the lake below.

Aaron and I had been wanting to go on a hike into Johnston Canyon but knew with the kids it would be difficult. Luckily by the time we arrived to the trail (we were just going to drive by) Preston and Lily were sleeping and Ashley wasn't feeling in a walking mood. She took a nap as well while Aaron and I hiked through the canyon next to water falls and steep cliffs.


I will cut this post short since it's quite long. Believe me I have lots more to share with you we have been having so much fun.
I will post more tomorrow or when the adventures slow down.

Calgary pictures

Instead of uploading the pictures one by one I added them to Flickr which is a ton easier.

Calgary 2010

Calgary Stampede

Saturday we went to the Calgary Stampede. This happened to also be mine and Aaron's 6th anniversary. We didn't have anything planned, just dinner that night. We took the train into the stampede grounds, Preston loved this part. The first place we stopped was the midway, Ashley had high hopes that we would be riding EVERYTHING! I am sorry but any ride that is assembled overnight by who knows who, no thank you. She and Aaron rode a few things then we headed to see Thomas and Friends. The kids were not impressed by the foam like Thomas figure on stage and the Sir Topem Hat dancing around. We decided to go to where the smell led us. Carnival food! Aaron and I ate beef that looked like it had been cooking for days, it was so good and juicy. Ashley played it safe with a corn dog. We also ate jalapeno cheese sticks. I was really impressed by the Stampede. There were lots of horses, cows and other animals. It was alot like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We left exhausted but knew we had to get our energy back up for our anniversary dinner. We got to the room, got ready and headed to a huge tent set up in downtown for the stampede. It was called Wild Horse Saloon and it was wild. Aaron and I surely were out of place with our wedding bands shining like beacons in the night. This place was for the young and single. We drank a few then headed to Caesar's Steak House. Now this was our kind of place......... classy, great steak and great atmosphere. This is probably the best steak I have ever had, and I have been to Ruth's Chris. Seriously I don't know what it is with the beef here but it's good.

Sunday
We didn't have anything planned we decided to just lay low and take the kids to see Toy Story 3. The nearest theater was in the Eau Claire district. Which is a really nice side of downtown. We left a few hours early just because you never know what our family will stumble upon. We just so happen to stumble upon the Turkish Festival. The food smelled so good that we couldn't wait for them to start serving. We all had some Shawarma, Doner Kebab, and Baklava.
The kids did great for their first movie theater experience. Preston said a few times "I wanna get outta here" but we told him we couldn't leave until the movie was over. We loved the movie but it was kind of questionable with some of the toys being rude, hitting and saying mean things. After the movie we looked at our map to see if there was anything else in the area we wanted to do before walking back to the hotel. There was a little island across the river called Prince's Island Park. I loved all the gardens and flowers. The weather is so mild here that there are a ton of flowers and gardens overflowing with greenery. Things that are shriveling up and dying in Houston are thriving and loving the weather here. Prince's Island just has a few nature trails and access to the Bow river, which was freezing cold. We walked back to the hotel through China Town and Aaron promised we would go back to China Town on Monday to eat real Chinese food............................... which we did.

Calgary

We have only been here 4 days but I feel like it's already been 2 weeks. We have doe so much and walked so far. Seriously this city has alot to offer. We got in Thur and headed to our hotel in downtown. We unpacked and hit the town. Since the sun doesn't set until about 10 pm we had lots of day light left to burn. We went to Stephen Ave., which is a trendy part of downtown. We checked out a few things at Betsey Johnson, all of which were way out of our price range. We ate dinner at Milestones Grill before heading back to our hotel. Can I just tell you that going out to a nice restaurant and ordering a cheeseburger is not an insult in Alberta. Their beef is awesome.

Friday morning we had a date with the Calgary Stampede parade. I have not been to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo parade so I can't compare. It was really neat and reminded me alot of Texas. We stayed for about an hour and a half but left before it ended because it was loooooong. They had horses, cowboys, all the usual rodeo type floats and animals. We took a ton of pictures but have yet to go through them all. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown, grocery shopping (so we didn't have to eat every meal out) and napping at the hotel. We ate dinner at a place I found called District that specializes in gourmet Poutine. Poutine is french fries with gravy and cheese curds, something we all loved to eat while living in Newfoundland. District has lots of topping you can add to your gourmet Poutine. I didn't get too outrageous and only added mushrooms and onions. The kids have had so much fun. We really needed this family time. With Aaron working in Calgary and me holding down the fort in Houston this trip has been wonderful!

I will leave you hanging with the rest of the trip....... stay tuned for the Stampede post. We head to the Canadian Rockies to see Lake Louise and Banff tomorrow.

Slime Time

While we were at the farm for the Fourth of July uncle Chris let the kids make slime. It was so cool. You can seriously tell he is an engineer. The kids thought it was so cool and fun. Check out these pics.

Happy 4th of July-Pics

We had a fun filled weekend in small town, TX at the farm where my grandparents live. Picture a small town, parade with the local high school cheerleaders and boy scout troop along with turkey legs and vendors booth. That is Centerville. We hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. I know we did. We love going every year to the festival in the small town my grandparents live in. They even had turtle races and a dog show this year. Wow we are moving into the big time now, haha.

Look at these cuties in their outfits Aunt Staci embroidered. My mom made the girls dresses. I am so proud of our talents.

Doing a craft

My mom's booth. She let me put some stuff for sale but I didn't sell anything :(

Cute little horse

Parade time!

Let's not forget this piece of candy!

All American poster kids. :)

Lily loves any animal she sees.

Love everything this statue symbolizes.