Meeting Bentley

Meet our new little Havanese boy, Bentley.  He is just 2 months old and we drove down to pick him up on Saturday.  We are really enjoying spending time with this cute little guy.  We have discovered though that he is a bit more vocal about things than Blossom.  He is not afraid to wimper and bark to let us know that he wants something.  This includes letting us know that he is not happy being by himself at night.  Hmmmmm. . .

He has already learned to "speak" on command - really no surprise there!  We just need to come up with a command for "silence!"

As you'll see from the video, some of his favorite things to do are play chase and give kisses.



You know what they say about Havanese, "Havanese are like potato chips, you can't have just one."

Too Many Snow Days

Watch the video, somebody had too much time on their hands. . .

6 Day Weekend

Well the kids went to school exactly 1 day this week - 1 day out of 5!!!  Now I know what you're thinking, "Those Texans just don't know how to handle snow."  Unh uh.  We handle snow just fine.  It's sleet and ice that really slow us down.  Monday night ice started falling from the sky.  Trust me it was really loud on the windows. By Tuesday morning there was a nice thick layer of ice on everything, and no one wants to drive in that.

I didn't really take any pictures of the ice, because well, it was just roads with ice.  I do have a video of Ryder doing some skating on it though.



The temperatures stayed around 0 degrees (wind chill factored in here) so the ice wasn't able to melt.  So the kids got to stay home on Wednesday and Thursday as well.  We were able to enjoy lots of family time together - board games, puzzles, TV, Wii, baking and some crafts.  Harrison, Melanie, and Ryder put together these little wooden craft kits that I had picked up for $1 each the week before.  My thought at the time was that I'd just stash them away for a rainy day or next summer when the kids are bored.  As fortune would have it, we got to use them much earlier than that.

These little kits were awesome.  As I mentioned before only $1 each, and they included all the wood, paint, glue, paintbrush, sandpaper and rubberbands needed to complete the project!  I think the boys can get some scouting achievements signed off for this too :)

Then Thursday night and Friday we got SNOW.  Probably a good 4-6 inches.  And it stuck.  In fact it's still here.  Unheard of!

Here is a picture from early Friday morning.

And snow or not, poor little Blossom still had to go outside to, well, you know. . . She got icy in the process.

Blossom's mad because her paws are cold!

The fun part is that snow is waaaaaaay more fun than ice! You can go sledding.

Or eat the snow (only pure white fresh snow please).

Or if you're me, you can slip and fall.  I know, cool huh.

The neighbor kids had been begging me to sled the ditch with them.  We all know how that would've turned out.  I kindly declined, and so today I can still say I have never broken a bone!

It's also quite beautiful to see our lake almost completely frozen over.

So as we enter our 5th day of isolation in our home, we are grateful for this little window of time where we could just relax and spend time together.  We are also grateful for food storage, and that I had just purchased milk, eggs, and fresh produce on Monday night!

Thanks for a wonderful break Mother Nature!



UPDATE:  Of course all good things must come to an end. . .

Thanks For Not Raining On Our Parade!

Melanie and her volleyball friends

Homecoming Day is always a wonderful time in Prosper.  And yesterday was no exception.  We had a blast with all of the festivities.  Not to mention the kids are always happy to get out of school early!! Gotta love small town Texas where the whole community comes home to participate in the celebration.

First here are the kids' mums and garters.  A Texas tradition that I think is totally cool and fun to get into. By the way, the ones my kids are wearing are very modest in size (well Nicole's is pretty dang big - but there are definitely bigger mums out there - worn mostly by the senior high school girls).

Nicole started off the day with a 6:00 am pep rally at the high school.  Our Homecoming football game was the high school game of the week here in Texas, so the news teams were there to cover the excitement.  Then the kiddos all headed off to school for a half day of "learning" before they were released for the parade.  This years theme was "Wild About Our Eagles" thus all the zebra print and safari themed floats. The 3 younger kids were on floats:

Melanie on one of the 8th grade volleyball jeeps

The tail end of Harrison's float.  It went by too fast :)

Ryder on his pirate float pre-parade

Pirate float cool parrot

Full view of pirate float

Now this meant that Darren and I watched the parade by ourselves (Nicole had to stay at the school so she didn't get all worn out before her 4:30 volleyball match).  Thunderstorms were predicted for the day, and it had been sprinkling off and on, so we decided to take an umbrella just in case.  Well, it didn't rain, but Darren had the great idea of opening up the umbrella and turning it upside down to catch all the candy that was being thrown at us from the floats.  The kids on the float thought it was super fun to try and make a basket, so we ended up with quite a bit of candy!!

After the parade we headed back over to the high school for the pep rally followed by Nicole's first district volleyball match against Farmersville (which they won).  Then home for pizza dinner and a break. Nicole headed back over to the high school in the evening for the football game (DON'T ASK about details of the actual football game - this year we will have to revel more in the festivities of the day - and who selected that we play ARGYLE of all teams for Homecoming?)

What a super fun day.  And the whole time Kenny Chesney was visiting our neighboring town of Celina which he featured in one of his recent music videos.  He really should have used his time more wisely and spent the day in Prosper!

Nicole Goes To College. . .For Just A Few Days (whew!)

Nicole (middle) with Rachel and Tara in their dorm room

This summer has seen the Romney kids all attending camp after camp after camp.  From Cub Scout Twilight Camp to Church Girls' Camp to Football Camp and Volleyball Camp x 3, it's been hard to keep up!  Not to mention that all those sports seasons start next week.  Yikes isn't it only August?  Our last month of summer is filled up.  Ryder will start playing football for the Prosper Pirates and has 4 conditioning practices starting next week.  Harrison is back to playing football for The Prosper Eagles. Nicole has High School volleyball tryouts on Monday and Tuesday, and then begins practicing twice a day for 2-3 hours each session.  By the time school starts she will have played in about 10 matches/tournaments.

Here are some pictures from Nicole's trip to Texas A&M for a team camp with Prosper High.  Also an awesome video she produced of her and her roomies tossing fruit snacks.

Nicole's bed and desk

I thought their rooms were quite nice.  Back in the day, my dorm room was "well used."

Glad they remembered to wash up!

I'm glad they had so much fun - with fruit snacks!

Did I Mention We Have A Puppy?

Harrison (with Blossom on the right) and his friend Ty got puppies around the same time!

Well, we do have a puppy, and we think she's pretty darn amazing.  Nicole and Melanie have been working with her teaching her to sit (yesterday) and roll over (today).  Blossom's a pretty good student and has learned both of her tricks so far.  In Cuba, where the Havanese breed originated, they were often trained as circus dogs.

Anyway, for a 3 month old puppy, we're pretty impressed.

She can also fetch a ball and bring it back. Although the poor pup is so small her "ball" is one of those 25 cent bouncy balls you can purchase from a gumball machine.

What should we teach her to do next?

Proof Dads ARE Cool!!!

I saw this the other day, and let's just say something about it rang true :)  What do you think?

Singing In the Rain

Yesterday we had a surprise summer thunderstorm and the kids wanted to play in it.  So with a quick prayer that the lightening would stay away from our neighborhood, I let them have at it!

Nicole has always loved the rain, and she was the one to ask first if she could go out and enjoy it.

Then her siblings decided to join in.

Nothing more fun than swimming in a drainage gulley right?

They had such a great time - and I did too watching from the cover of the front porch.  It was totally worth all the wet clothes and the trail of grass bits that they left when they came in to clean up.  Lovin' these crazy Texas summers!

Visiting the ABC'S

What the heck does "visiting the ABC'S" mean, you ask? Why of course it refers to my recent visit to see Albuquerque, Ben, Carrie, & Scott.  I know, it's a bit of a stretch, but I liked it :)

I had a wonderful time seeing my sister and her family, and meeting their new baby Ben.  He is such a handsome dear fellow (see above picture and below pictures)!  The weather in Albuquerque was perfect - low 80's, sunny and arid, so we were able to enjoy some pool time (Ben opted to take a nap).

I admit I was a bit of a baby hog while I was there, but Ben is such a sweet, snugly, sleeper that I couldn't help myself.  He even amazed me with some sweet smiles.

Ben loves to lay on his Neptune mat and watch his friend the octopus.  He gets so excited when he is able to reach out and touch the octopus and make it swing! I'm sure I'd get excited too!

He's such a little sweet pea. . .

And he really enjoyed story time.  His mommy found him the most delightful book called Giraffes Can't Dance, which we all really enjoyed!

Cub Scout Twilight Camp - Part 1

This past week Harrison and I spent our evenings at Twilight Scout Camp for Weeblos.  It was extremely hot (think 100 degrees and humid), but we managed to have a great time anyway!  Harrison had a chance to do some archery

and BB guns

They built some really cool model rockets

Which they then planned to launch if not for some bugs getting in the way of the launch sequence

That is a real dragonfly on top of the launch pole - scout's honor.  Cool huh?!?!

But eventually they were able to blast off!!  Unfortunately, Harrison was in the very first group to launch their rockets.  It sounds great, but what it really meant was that they were the test group and due to the angulation of the launch poles, Harrison's rocket ended up in the lake.  I guess that's what's called, "Goin' down in a blaze of glory!"

At the end of the first day our "Walking Den" won the Spirit Award for doing the most chanting and singing as we moved from station to station throughout the evening.  As a reward we got to be in charge of raising the flag during Opening Ceremonies the next day.  The boys did a really great job!

                

Of course the best part of all was that they got to just chill (maybe not the best word considering the weather!) with friends.