We're alive...sort of

When a close friend who is also a very busy woman and still has time to blog herself, tells you "you haven't blogged in like forever"...well then it's time to post something.

It's not that I don't have lots to blog about (because I honestly have tons) but it's more because I have been under the weather for the last five days. If you've been around here long at all you know when I get sick, I get sick. After popping lots of pills (of course prescribed by my doctor) I was actually able to get out of bed today. I'm guessing having our community garage sale in the rain on Saturday probably didn't help much.

So before I got sick here is what we were up to...

Going to the zoo...

Spending time with friends...























Finding new things at Wal-Mart...notice the TV in the first picture? Oh yes folks, for only ONE dollar a mama can have peace and quiet while grocery shopping!

Sweet & Sassy

UPDATED TO ADD: I just realized the best picture didn't post...the picture of the back of Sissy's hair and her trying to get Sugar to look down. :-)

We just found [thanks to a few friends] the girls a new place to get their haircut. Sweet & Sassy has got to be the cutest girly place ever, next to Libby Lu's of course. Well last night we had severe thunderstorms, hail and a few tornados in the area, so today we finally ventured out to get the "do" done today.

Sissy got the Cutie Cut and Sugar ended up getting her first haircut ever. See, originally I did not plan on having Sugar's hair cut because she really doesn't have any hair. But, the whole time Sissy was getting her Cutie Cut she was saying, "my turn, my turn". So before it was all said and done Sugar was finally in the diva seat getting her a new do. And, boy do I mean done. If only y'all could feel her hair...it is super. super. fine. baby. hair and somehow the hairdresser managed to style it with a flat iron! And, to top it off both girls got glitter spray.

Here are some of the diva moments we captured today...Sissy got a Stacked Bob and Sugar got layers. :-)

For Heather

If you haven't heard already what's going on in the blogosphere than go here. Every time I read an update on Heather I say to myself, "really, how much can one person take?"

Then I went to her blog via another because I truly did not believe what I was reading. You can get a tidbit of it by reading this...

All I keep thinking of is Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Please, if you want to help go on over to Boomama's blog and help a friend out. You can go here to get the details.

We're praying for you Heather!

At the Dump

There's something to say about a place that proactively builds with kids in mind, like The DUMP. For those of you who are not familiar, The DUMP is an awesome new furniture store that opened up here in Dallas right after we arrived. I can honestly say that it has become our second home since we moved back. Since almost doubling the size of our house we had seven years ago, we have been long overdue for some new furniture. So this where we have been...

Not only are the prices, quality and customer service great, they have a little section devoted for the kiddos to hang out in big leather chairs and watch cartoons on the tube. It's also conveniently located in front of the drinking fountains and restrooms. Below are some pictures (mainly for the family of course) of the girls in our new favorite furniture store.

Here is a shot of them sharing a chair and Sugar is trying to say "cheese". But sometimes that little tongue gets in the way. ;-)


This is a shot of Sugar copying her sister's moves when we get upset. Sissy didn't want to share the chair anymore! *BTW - The wet spot between the legs is a spilled drink from the car. :-)
And, finally this is Sissy wanting her picture taken in front of the fireplace. Because of course she needed some attention too!***Updated: That Little Blessings video below has been fixed if you missed it!

Little Blessings

If you have read my blog for any length of time you will know that Sugar does EVERYTHING that her big Sissy does. Sometimes this is bad but this week it has been literally a blessing. Sugar started this week copying her Sissy's prayers at meal time. Today I decided to catch it on camera because well...it.was. just. so. darn. cute!

You can tell by watching the video she was a little distracted with the camera on her and the fact that Sissy was trying to remind her to say "Daddy". And right before she starts, Sugar shouts that she is going to say the prayer. This is only because this is exactly what Sissy announces when she doesn't want mama to say the prayer. Go figure.

For those of you who have trouble understanding a two-years old speech, I have translated it for you ahead of time. :-)

"MOM I SAY IT...
Thank you for a great day
and Smokey and Daisy and (herself) and Sissy
and Mommy and and um Sissy
Amen"

My Little Pony LIVE, Easter and lots of Good Times

I know this is not the best title for a post, but you know what? We have been soooo busy I can't get it all done in time for the blog. Behind many cardboard boxes, dirty dishes and bare walls we've been one busy family.

Friday night I went scrapping for my first time in TWO years. Yes, two years y'all. Surprisingly, I found my Crop-n-Style bag and one tote of scrapworthy tools. I even got two whole pages done and was in bed by 2:00am.

Saturday was the big show day. We took the girls to see the My Little Pony LIVE show. They absolutely had a ball and so did I! Sorry Nick Jr. fans, but this show was WAY better than the Dora Live show.









Easter Sunday we were invited to a friends family luncheon and egg hunt. And let me tell you folks, these people know how to put on an egg hunt. Their parents' backyard was huge and looked like something out of a Home and Garden magazine. The pictures below are exactly what you see when you walk out their back door.

I believe they hid around 300 eggs filled with candy and money. The girls had so much fun and we're finding more eggs than their baskets could hold! Below is a picture of the kids in a funky tree hanging out back.
What you can't see from the picture was that it was about 50 degrees on Easter and the day before we actually had snow flurries! Yes, as our pastor said, "we might have a white Easter"!

The best part was coming home late Sunday afternoon having the entire family take a long nap!



I love this time of year...

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Did I ever mention on this ole' blog

...how much I love Texas? But first, let me preface this for all my Arizona pals. I am no way trying to hurt your feelings are to put down your "home" state. So for bloggity goodness, can we all just agree to agree that not everyone likes the exact same thing or the same place(s).

Good! :-)

Let's me just say for that last five days it has been gray, gloomy, windy, rainy, overcast and in the mid 70's. Now I know for some this may just put them over the edge but for me, well it's just all good! Today we had a thunderstorm...with rain...lightning...thunder...and high winds. :-)

Also in the area we have blooming Wysteria, Hydrangeas, Lantana and bright, bright, green grass! I can't wait for the blue bonnets to arrive. Rest assured there will be pictures!!

Like I said, it's just all good here in the state of Texas.

It's only been two weeks and I've met four of my neighbors (one brought us dinner - thank you to the Miller's), we've received Goodie baskets, cards and all sorts of other wonderful southern hospitality.

Even more exciting, I've been out with my friends already three times and the best part was attending our old church again. I will admit, I bawled during the service but I was so overwhelmed with everything. Not to mention our guest speaker T.D. Jakes delivered a very thought-provoking sermon. "Are you following what I'm saying?" *smile*

Finally, today was loaded with Wild Cherry Excitement so I've been busy steaming, washing, drying and folding laundry the entire day. With all smiles of course!

Tomorrow our new furniture is suppose to arrive and I can't wait to actually see it in the house. And if anyone needs to get some new furniture anytime soon, I highly recommend you stop by THE DUMP. And Saturday my sweet MIL and I have big plans to attend First Monday in Canton. And yes this is my FIRST time to attend and if you don't know what it is don't worry, I'll be sure to blog about it. :-)

Ciao, T-Lo

Knee deep in paint and clothes

Howdy Ladies,

I'm in the midst of Tinker Bell green and Fairytale Pink paint so blogging of course is on the bottom of the list. We are starting to get settled in...my washer and dryer are arriving tomorrow. Thank goodness...because seriously, I have run out of laundry baskets and my dogs now think the clothes all over the floor are their new beds!

By the way, thanks for everyone's input on the big decision. I finally decided to go with HolyMama's recommendation. After hubby read her post it was the Wild Cherry Excitement that won. I think if anyone uses the words "sensing", "foreplay" and "get busy" to describe said laundry appliances, they're surely going to get a man's attention. :-) Hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Well, I have two more rooms to unpack and some MAJOR weekend plans catching up with old friends. In other words, this will be my last update for this week unless something earth shattering happens between now and then.

Happy Spring Y'all!

I would love to post more pictures but...

...most of the furniture does not arrive for a few weeks. So basically we are still unpacking, organizing, shifting, hanging, cleaning, etc. However, I will give you a sneak peak of the kitchen because like I mentioned before it's my favorite part of the house. :-)

I also love the little details throughout the house like those little bronze medallions on my backsplash. I took a picture up close just for my bloggity friends...and my mom. :-)

Three days packing, a two day road trip and one happy arrival!

I know this post is long overdue but yes we have arrived in the Lone Star State in one piece. The drive actually went extremely well. The only hiccup on the first day was Sugar getting car sick from all the junk food she ate that day. But no problem. We simply pulled over to the side of the road, peeled off her clothes, wiped er' down and off we went. We finally arrived in El Paso around seven for our overnight stay and we were back on the road by 8:00am.


The second day was the longest part of our drive. We killed lots of time by coloring, watching a few movies and talking to Grannie, Grandma Twyla, Aunt Donna and whoever else we could reach at home. :-) But when 4:00pm finally came around, Sissy started with "how much longer til we get there?"

Then our road trip almost ended about 45 minutes before our arrival.

See, as we were driving through downtown Fort Worth a pickup truck came over into our lane!


Thankfully hubby was quick thinking and slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, Smokey (our 45-50 lb. mut) was the one who went airborne from the back seat of the van to the front seat and smacked into the dashboard! Luckily, he didn't sustain any injuries but remained on my lap shaking his little heart out for the remainder of the trip.
Oh and one more thing...we did have to pay what hubby calls the "Texas Entry Fee". That would be one speeding ticket on the final stretch through the Permian Basin! So other than those three incidences we arrived safely in Dallas. Currently, we are staying in our temporary home (the hotel) until closing tomorrow.

Now for the fun stuff! I finally got to see the house today! Hubby did the final walk through as I anxiously examined the house. I must give kudos to hubby on the final decision because folks she is a dream. Inside and out! I think the kitchen is my favorite part with double stainless steel convection ovens, granite countertops and a gas cooktop. I believe Rachel Ray and I are going to build some fond memories in this house together. :-)

Well folks there is SO much more to blog about but I've got to catch some zzzzz's. We've got a big weekend ahead of us.

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories as we head on our new adventure!

Kenmore, Whirlpool, GE, Maytag help?

Y'all I need some QUICK help here...

I need to buy a new washer and dryer for the new house. The only problem is I'm having trouble deciding what to get. I think I've ruled out Maytag, after seeing some really bad feedback I read on the Neptune set I was considering.

But does anyone have any good reason why I should buy one vs. the other? I've done some research over the past few days and I'm literally stumped.

I know I want front loaders to save on water, energy, etc. The new house is set up for gas or electric but I prefer electric just for cost reasons. So please bless me with your bloggity goodness and help me figure this one out!

Thanks in Advance! :-)

"I love you...you love me"

Everyone sing now...we're a hap-py fam-i-ly...

Allright, it may not be the best tune nor am I saying the purple dinosaur is my favorite cartoon, but right now it's *Sugar's favorite. And you know what that means?

Yep, that's the cake she got!

*Just so y'all know, I did write on it "Happy Birthday ---" but for privacy reasons I took a picture beforehand for the ole' blog. :-)

I can't believe she's TWO!

Two years ago today our second little princess was born. I remember the day going to my sonogram to find out the sex of the baby and being terribly disappointed. But no this was not because of the sex but, because her little legs were crossed and we couldn't see if our little one was a he or a she at the time.

I remember the sonographer telling me "I've got a stubborn one here". Boy, was he right. Sugar is as strong-willed today as she was in the womb. :-)

And though she may be strong-willed her big blue eyes will make you forget everything she's done bad in a nano-second. She has the sweetest heart and loves on everyone that acknowledges her presence. And nearly everyday she tries to imitate her big sister and be a "big girl".

However, there are times when she has a mind of her own.

Remember that strong-willed baby I mentioned earlier? Well yesterday, said baby found herself in the ER after guzzling down some Children's Benadryl. Even though Mama thought it was out of her reach she proved me wrong. Sugar managed to push a solid wood chair over to the kitchen counter, climb on top of the counter, crawl way down down the kitchen counter, across my stove and reach the medicine bin on the third shelf in the corner cabinet. And what's more amazing was that houdini herself was able to remove the "child proof" lid on the bottle. Fortunately, after a few vital checks and regular monitoring in the ER, Sugar's only side effect was a big ole' sleep-o-fest for the majority of the afternoon.

On the contrary, today she has been telling herself "Hapy Birfday" and saying "I'm twooo"! She spent the day playing Barbie's, dolls and watching Barney and Curious George with her Sissy.

Tonight I put her in her crib with her Pooh bear, blankie and binki's. And though that sounds still so much like a baby, I still can't believe she's two!

Happy Birthday my sweet Sugar!

Vegas Baby

So this past weekend I drove to Las Vegas to meet a friend of mine for a few days. It was the first time (in a long time) that I was in my car, by myself, for 5 hours without listening to Barney or some other preschool-aged video. I actually got to drive through beautiful mountains, with beautiful weather, the sun roof open at speeds only God and I shared. :)

And boy did I have a blast! I got to see wild horses, stunning sunsets, gorgeous mountains, Hoover Dam and jam out to my 80's tunes as loud as possible! You know you are having a good time when you video tape yourself driving singing to My Sharona...oh yes I did!!

Best of all, it's a good time in Vegas when you come home with more money than you left with. Yes siree, Rapid Roulette and I got along very well. And, Tito and Miquel were great dealers! We stayed at the lovely Paris Las Vegas Resort and Casino and spent one night at a Dualing Piano bar called Napoleon's. The next evening we had tickets to see The Ultimate Variety Show at the Aladdin. The other fine enjoyment was eating at P.F. Chang's and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Did I mention this was all done without wrestling any kiddos?

Eventhough the fun had to end at some point, I was sad to say bye to my girlfriend but it was a true joy to say, "I'll see ya in about two and a half weeks!"

Clearly, this is an addiction

Look at this picture...need I say more? This is what I've been organizing the past two days as part of the big move. Can you believe it?

This is what you get when you marry a man who is addicted to technology! Now I'm not talking about your average joe who likes gadgets. I'm talking about a guy who was on the Internet long before the American public knew what it was or what it did.

I'm talking about a guy who has owned every type of cell phone, Palm, PDA and Blackberry with every adaptor, charger, and wireless bluetooth available. And, you know it's a true obsession when you own gadgets before the rest of the world has had a chance to catch up. For example, you know those little webcams that you connect to your computer. Well we owned one of those about 7 years ago along with a microphone so we could "talk over the computer for free" and see our long distance family members. The only problem was that the people we were trying to talk to had to own a webcam and a microphone. At the time, the only person he could talk to was some guy from Brazil! It's amazing how most people own these products today, but we had them when no one else even knew they existed.

We also have enough cables and wires to open our own electronic store. We have every voltage of adpators, speakers, USB's, CAT5's, chargers, phone wires, hubs, routers, cases, etc. You name it, we've got it!

And the crazy part, this list does not include our laptops, desktop computers, televisions, TiVo/DVR's surround sound, voice over IP, wireless routers, remote controls, (even for the ceiling fan) Hi-Fi's, mp3 players, digital cameras, software and many others I can't think of right now. So honey, if you're reading this. I think I'm right...you do have an OCD with electronics and my picture posted above is to prove it.

Not too mention, I didn't EVEN attempt to bring out what is stored in the garage... :-)

Now bloggity friends, please make no mistake. I love my "teched-out" husband! I have more toys and gadgets than I ever wanted. I just get so amazed when I see all of our outdated collection of electronics. Which happens around here about every 6 months.

I guess I've done scarier things

Can I just tell y'all I agreed to buy a house today "sight unseen".

Yes ma'am. After months of house shopping I found one online that I really liked so hubby flew to Dallas this weekend to scope it out. The only thing I've seen is the pictures on the Internet.

Scary, I know!

Although, I have to give a big kudos to my hubby for deciding to take one of my close girlfriends by the house and have her describe IN DETAIL to me exactly what the house looked like over the phone. Interesting, daring but a whole lot of fun!

Needless to say, if everything goes as planned we should be back in Texas by the end of next month. And the best part... I agreed to drive back to Texas as a family instead of spending lots of money on airfare.

And, oh can I just say I cannot wait for the two day drive with: 'Type A' hubby, one talkative preschooler, one loud toddler, a 45 lb. hairy mut, and an anxious Jack Russell...

...oh the thrill of it all!!

Happy Heart Day!

A day late...

Well as you all know trying to close on a house takes more than an act of congress to get done, so we've been more than busy around the househould. But Sissy and I managed to make y'all some Valentine Sugar Cookie Lollipops!

And since we obviously cannot mail them to every single one of you we decided to give you a virtual bouquet.

We just wanted to say how much we love all of our bloggity friends!

Luv,
T-Lo & Sissy

Howdy Y'all!

The good news has finally arrived...as of this weekend we received an offer on our house and can now move back to the Lone Star State!! Now I know you all were expecting to hear something like "we're expecting" but clearly this has been long anticipated for 11 months now. So yes, this is HUGE news!

And, everyone that knows me knows I've been doing the happy dance since Friday, when we got the call from our realtor.

I guess I can finally change my profile in my sidebar. Oh the excitement of it all, I just can't stand it! :-)

Watch out Texas, here we come! Of course, if you could continue to pray that all will go smooth until the closing that would be much appreciated.

Thanks everyone who has been praying for us!

Much Love,

Two posts in ONE week

Boy, it must be something good huh? Well it is, and I can't quite say yet what it is but BIG NEWS is coming to Bullfrogs and Butterflies very soon...so stay tuned. :-)