Jacob's Drum Recital and First Band Gig!

Jacob has been taking drum lessons from Metropolitan Baptist Church's Contemporary School of Fine Arts for almost 2 years now. This is his most recent recital, in which he has moved into the same book that I (Shane) sometimes practice from. It's a great book that allows beginners and advanced players to explore different levels of playing for all styles of music. The second video is Jacob playing with the MET VBS band, which played after all of the recitals in the church atrium. This kid has mad skills for a 2nd grader. You can't tell we are proud of him can you ;-) Oh, by the way, he is the youngest kid in the band, and on drums nonetheless! He will be playing with the VBS band this summer during the MET's VBS week.

Jacob's 1st BMX National

Jacob is in the Red and Gray uniform. You can easily identify him as he had a bad gate and is in last place going down the first straight, but watch him low/high the turn and come out in a battle for 5th, which he ends up fighting for and hanging on to the end. Great race Jacob! We are so proud of you! Audio courtesy of dad ;-) This is one of Jacob's favorite songs. We need to post him playing it on drums.... maybe next time :-)

Birthday Party

On Saturday, we went to Moore's annual spring festival. We met up with our friend Jeanette and her son Ethan...our BMX buddies. The boys had a great time, as usual. That afternoon was Jacob's birthday party at Laser Quest. The boys got to play 2 games of laser tag. Shane was soooo excited and played both games. A couple of dads played too. Shane came out of there dripping in sweat. I can't wait to try it out when we go back, not because I like to sweat but because it looks like fun. Here are a couple of pics from that day:

Jacob had also asked for a cookie cake this year.

I was so proud that he dressed himself so nice for his birthday party :) If only he would stop buttoning his top button...But, Mom, all the kids wear their top button buttoned. Ugh!

I do recommend Laser Quest as a party place as the kids (and dads) loved it. But, they don't help you there at all. You are kind of on your own in the party room. I didn't care for that part as I felt so rushed. I think next year we will try a rock climbing party since we have always called Jacob a monkey and he's pretty good at it.

Happy Birthday Jacob

Last Friday, April 3rd, was Jacob's 8th birthday. I can't believe how old and how big he is. He was so excited all week long. On Friday he woke up early as he just couldn't wait to get to school. They said his name on the announcements, he got to get a treat from the treasure box, wear a birthday ribbon all day and have lunch with a friend. When he got home, there was a Happy Birthday balloon on the mailbox and a cake for that night. Then we headed to the airport to pick up Shane who had been in Mass. all week.



That night we had my parents, Shane's parents, Shane's sister Kelli and son Matthew over. We also had a good family friend (kind of like a little sister to Shane) DeeAnne and her baby Anthony over. We had bbq and cake and ice cream. Jacob got a Wii and a new BMX outfit and helmet from us. He got some Wii games from his grandparents. You can probably guess what we have been doing this weekend in our spare time, which there hasn't been much of. Here are some pics from that night:

Jacob and Matthew about to blow out the cake

Our nephew Matthew...his birthday was the 23rd

The long awaited and much asked for Wii

Jacob and his new riding outfit

Anthony...I think he is 8 months old...Isn't he precious?

Busy Lives

The last 2 weeks have flown by with busy stuff. I have been running errands nonstop, planting flowers, planning parties, you name it. I am missing those days in Colorado when I was able to just watch tv and read books.

Shane found out last Friday that he was needed in Mass. this week. He flew out on Sunday and will return sometime Friday. We miss him, of course, but I do enjoy having the house to myself. Jacob has been sleeping with me all week, something he loves to do when daddy is out of town.

This week is very busy with Jacob's birthday coming this Friday. He will be 8 years old. I can't believe my baby is getting so old and so big. Friday night we are having family over to celebrate Jacob's birthday, aunt Kelli's birthday (also the 3rd...Shane's stepsister), Pop's birthday (the 7th) and Kelli's son Matthew's birthday (was on the 23rd). On Saturday is Jacob's birthday party at Laser Quest. Should be fun. We have 10 boys coming to that. We were really looking forward to aunt Karen coming down from Dallas with Steven and Jack, but Karen is sick with allergies. I am praying that she will get well fast and maybe be able to make the drive.

On Sunday, there is another state BMX race at Armadillo track in Conroe. This is our home track so we are excited to get to do a big race there. The bummer is that Jacob will be racing 8 year olds on Sunday. Tonight, I am taking (by myself...hope there are no bike mechanic issues) Jacob and Ethan to practice as we have been rained out so much lately.

I would like to say things will slow down next week, but I doubt it. I am too busy doing taxes, going to doctor appointments and having lunch with friends.

Adoption news....None! But, there are some new birthmoms that have come to our agency. Please pray that if it is God's will, one of them will pick us. Last weekend, we got our baby furniture back from my cousin. The baby's room is ready to go. It just needs a baby!

Other news: We have some hawks living down our street that took a poodle for dinner recently. I heard some cats might be missing, but not sure about this. I am so afraid to let Moose outside. She is a small cat, only about 9 lbs and would not be too big for the hawks to take. She is miserable inside and not very happy with me. She loves to be outside all the time. I am praying the hawks will move on but I doubt it.

Last bit of news, you know how much I like spring time...it is my favorite time of year. I love flowers and this weather. Well, yesterday I heard a loud noise outside. I looked out the peephole and the idiot yard guy was hedging, no butchering, my star jasmine on the front walk leading up to the front door. They were starting to bloom. I have been watching them every day so excited because they are so pretty, smell so good and only bloom once a year. I ran out the front door yelling "STOP!!!" He looked at me like I was nuts. I said why on earth are you cutting those? What's wrong with you? Of course he didn't speak a lick of English. He got his boss, who does speak English and we had a loooong talk. I almost fired them on the spot and told them to get off my property. This happened yesterday and I am still angry and just sick that he ruined my plants. I hope the plants recover and will just have to wait another year for them to bloom again.

That's all the news for now!

Coming Home

We had extra time to spare on our day coming home, so we drove over the Continental Divide. It was the only time we saw snow falling the whole week.

I have some videos of Jacob skiing that I will try to post as soon as Shane can show me how. We are glad to be home and able to breathe through our noses again (man, is it dry up there!)

Day off in Colorado

On Tuesday the guys took a break from skiing. We slept in and went to breakfast at our favorite breakfast joint, Sunshine Cafe. In the afternoon, we took Jacob to see Race to Witch Mountain. It is a good movie. It has lots of action and no bad words or subject matter, so a good movie in our book. After the movie, we went bowling. I hadn't bowled in years. The boys had bowled recently with our small group but I was unable to participate as it was too soon after surgery. It was fun and I did better than I could have imagined. OK, so I beat Shane at bowling (I know he is waiting for me to brag so I might as well get it over with).

We weren't quite ready to return to the condo yet, so we went down to the old part of Dillon by the lake. There is a playset there and one of our favorite restaurants, Arapahoe Cafe (great bbq - the only thing Coloradoans like about Texas). Here are some pics of the lake:

Here is another view of Buffalo Mountain from Lake Dillon (ignore the chain link fence). At the bottom of the picture (behind the fence) is the Dillon Ampitheatre where they have free concerts in the summer.

This is a great view from the top of Breckenridge. You can see some runs of Keystone on the left side.

Colorado - Our View

These are pictures of the view from our condo. As you can see we are very high up. Our condo is at about 9000 feet. It is hard enough to acclimate to Denver. Our condo is on Buffalo Mountain, named for the shape of the mountain. I believe the mountain is up to 12,000 feet (??). The mountain is made up of condo's (both owned and rented) and homes. From our balcony, you can see the backside of Keystone. On nights when there is night skiing, you can see a small part of the mountain lit up. It seems so close but is actually several miles away. You can also look down at part of Lake Dillon and the towns of Dillon and Silverthorne.


View of Buffalo Mountain from backside of our condo. You can see where there have been avalanches in the past and trees are starting to grow back.

View from balcony

View from balcony - if only the parking lot and trash were not there :) You can see a little bit of the lake below

View of the backside of Keystone from balcony

Ski Trip in CO

For spring break, we headed to our usual place...Colorado. Last year, the weather was cold, lots of snow and we didn't see the sun too much. Shane loves this kind of weather as it is the best to ski in. This year, it got up into the 40's every day and the teens at night and was sunny every day. I love this kind of weather but it is not good for skiing.

We arrived in Colorado on Friday and drove up to the condo right away. Usually on our arrival day, we spend the entire day traveling (it is about 1 1/2 hours from airport to condo in good weather), grocery shopping, renting ski equipment, etc. The next day, Shane and Jacob headed straight to Keystone to ski. Shane says it took Jacob a couple of runs to get his ski legs back and then he was off...although he does tend to ski doing the "toilet seat squat" position...Shane is working with him to stop this and to start parallel skiing, which he was more or less doing by the end of the week.

On Sunday, my brother Randy, drove up from Denver to see us. We had lunch and then the boys went skiing (Remember I am still on restrictions from surgery so no skiing for me this year. I look forward to trying out ski blades next year). The plan was for the guys to night ski but when they got there they found out that Keystone was closing early that night so they only got to ski for about 2 hours. I was excited for Randy to see Jacob skiing. Jacob likes to ski in the trees, which reminds me of Randy when we were little.

Jacob at Keystone on the first day


Randy and Jacob going up ski lift at Keystone

Jacob taking a break in the snow

Shane and Jacob top of Arapahoe Basin

Shane and Jacob headed to A-Basin one day. A-Basin is a more difficult resort than Keystone. The runs go above the tree line and are wide open. Jacob loved it there (except he missed the tree runs). By the end of the week they were skiing all blues and blacks (and they want me to join them next year :o

Next post...some more pics from our trip.

Wedding

Shane's brother, Tommy, married his fiancee, Farrah, on Sunday, March 8th. It was held at the Hotel ZaZa, a very nice hotel on Hermann Circle. I told Shane anytime he wants to surprise me with a night out that he could take me there. Apparently, it is frequented by famous people. While there, we saw Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Hershell Walker. I will say that although it is a nice hotel, it is very weird too, meaning the artwork is kind of out there. When it was time to go, Shane and I ran up to the groom's room to get his bag. While in there, I used the restroom. On the wall in the restroom was a racy picture of an almost nude woman that looked like it belonged in Playboy magazine. What was the purpose of the picture? Is that room always a groom's room? Are there pictures like that in every room? Weird!


Anyway, the day before the wedding, we all met up at the Hotel ZaZa for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was held at Benjy's. Benjy was a client of mine when I worked at Arthur Andersen so it was neat to see his place finally. It is in the Village off of Dunston. I highly recommend it as the food was great. We ate off the brunch menu. Here are some pics from the lunch:

Tommy and Farrah

Us

Shane's brother Bill and wife Rebecca

The next morning, or the day off the wedding, Jacob woke up with a 101 degree fever. Mom and Dad were nice enough to keep him so I could attend the wedding. The wedding was beautiful. I wish I had a better picture of Farrah in her dress (my camera battery went out and the extra was in my other purse...man, was I mad at myself.) After the ceremony, we had a four course meal, which was delicious, and then dancing. Here is the only picture I have of Farrah. Far left is Christy, Shane's sister and a bridesmaid. Also in the picture is Shane in the very back, Shane's dad, Shane's grandfather and his brother Bill.

Here is the best pic of all...Shane dancing with Lillian. Lillian is Shane's grandfather Thurman's girlfriend of many years. We consider her just another grandmother. She really got down on the dance floor.

Tommy and Farrah were lucky enough to honeymoon in Costa Rica for 10 days. We are excited that she is a part of our family and very happy for Tommy.

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Jacob continued to have a fever for a couple of days. He missed 2 days of school. He had a sinus infection and bronchitis...I didn't even know he was sick! That makes me feel terrible. Well, he seems better now and did well last week skiing in Colorado. I have lots of pics to share from our trip...next post!