Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear Chriiiiisssss!

Happy Birthday to yoooouuuuu!!!!

I love you!

A rare sighting...

Our friends, (Chris) Petrash and Sharon, got married back in July. Chris and I had the honor to be part of their wedding party. The wedding was beautiful (and short!) and we had a blast at their reception. Our friend, Dawn, sent us some copies of the pics she took at the reception. (Thanks, Dawn!) For once, I don't *hate* how I look in these, so here's a rare moment to see recent pictures of me and Chris. I'm usually the one taking the pictures, or I immediately delete them for various reasons - wonky eyes, goofy smiles, or just general grossness (see previous post from today for further explanation). I guess it's even more rare to see Chris in pics - he usually hides when the cameras come out. So, for your viewing pleasure....

I'm just sayin'...

Trying to lose weight SUCKS for two big reasons for me:
1. I HATE to exercise. I'd rather NOT sweat and I'm just sore afterwards. (But, yes, I did force myself today)
2. I LOVE food. Really...especially if cheese is involved in some way.
That is all...

A great weekend

We had a GREAT weekend! On Saturday, I took the boys to Nana and Pop's for a "sleepover" since Chris and I had tickets for the Astros game on Sunday. Caleb and Cole LOVE going up there - plenty of room to run around and play (and the added bonus of Pop sneaking them chocolate treats)! I came home that night and Chris and I watched part of the Cowboys/Texans Pre-Season game and then went to the movies. We saw "Chuck & Larry" at the Star Cinema Grill. Love that place - can't beat the fact that you can watch a movie AND have dinner/drinks! Plus, that place is hardly ever crowded and is mostly adults. We really enjoy that, too. I ordered the "Tenacious D-Zert Bites". It was a sampler of fried cheesecake, brownie bites, and bananas-foster with chocolate sauce for dipping...probably would have been good if they hadn't been fried in the same oil as mozzarella sticks. :0(

So, Sunday was the big day - we got to the ballpark at about 11:45 since the Bagwell jersey retirement started at 12:20. It was nice....got a cool jersey shaped pin as a momento. I don't know if I really remember the Astros WITHOUT Jeff Bagwell (or Craig Biggio). His daughters even got to throw out the first pitch - guess that's technically the first and SECOND pitches. We had pretty good seats on the third-base side...the target for several foul balls. In fact, a little girl in the row behind us got grazed by a Carlos Lee foul ball. That dude hits HARD. 'Stros won 5-4. Good day.

My sister, Sarah, was home when I went to pick up the boys, so I stayed Sunday night up there, even though school started yesterday for Mom and Ben. The boys love playing with Aunt Sarah - she lets them tackle her. This picture of Cole and Aunt Sarah was actually taken earlier this summer, but I love it and wanted to share, anyway.

Yay for naps! And a scrapbook layout

Cole is taking an afternoon nap, so I thought I would post a recent layout for all of my scrapbooking buddies. Haven't had much time to create this week, but I managed to get this done Monday night after the boys went to bed. This is Caleb (and Aunt Shirley) just before he turned one. Yes, the date on this is December 2003. I only started scrapbooking two years ago, so I have A LOT of catching up to do. I just grab photos that inspire me at that moment and scrap accordingly. I did a little off-set photo mounting - Kelci-inspired, if you will. As a side note, I love the ivory trim on this page - it was from a stash I got from Pam Pam's house (my late great-aunt). Oh...and the patterned paper is all BasicGrey.

Okay, enough computer time....I'm off to work on letters and numbers with Caleb.

New Haircuts

Chris had the past two days off - can't tell you when that happened last! It was nice to be able to spend some time with him for a change. Yesterday, he went to play golf and then I had to go to the dentist in the afternoon (oh, how fun!). The boys got some cute new summer haircuts thanks to Daddy. Pretty short, but perfect for the 100-degree weather we've been having lately!

We had friends over for dinner last night. We haven't done that in a while, either! Chris made some killer kabobs and (Chris) Petrash showed us all the Pina Colada skills he learned while he and Sharon honeymooned in Jamaica/Cayman Islands/Cozumel. I'm not a HUGE Pina Colada fan, but the one I had was pretty good. After looking at their pictures, I think we are all ready to take a cruise! Alain, Stefan and Nancy didn't get to come and we really missed them. Hope you are feeling better today, Nancy! :0)


Looking forward to this weekend - we have tickets to go to the Astros game on Sunday. They will be retiring Jeff Bagwell's jersey. We are hoping to be able to see Scott and Dori there, too. Hopefully the 'Stros will win...wouldn't that be nice? Not sure who will be pitching yet....

Recent pics

Isn't it amazing how fast a kid can fall asleep when you aren't really trying to get them to sleep? Thought I would add a visual for you here. So, here's what Cole looked like a few days ago - minutes after finishing his lunch. I swear, I took his shirt off, took it to the laundry room and came back to this:

Isn't he the cutest???

Okay, one more - because I can't leave Caleb out! This one was actually a few weeks ago. I was taking a shower, Chris was playing on the computer, Cole was napping and Caleb was playing "ARMY" in his room. When I get out of the shower, this is how I see my darling oldest child:

Evidently, he was trying to be a "big Army guy" with facial hair or something. For the record, he's only crying because Chris and I couldn't stop laughing at him. Seriously....try looking at a 4-year-old with green marker on his face without laughing...

That's all for today - it appears that I've used up all of my "free time".

Just have to share this

Okay, so on Tuesday, I sent out a short email to some family/friends letting them now about my blog. I swear - not five minutes later, my phone rings and it's my dad. Before I tell the rest of this story, let me be the first to say that my dad has an above-average sense of humor and is always willing to make someone laugh, so I feel completely comfortable sharing this with all of you. So, loosely translated, here's how the conversation went down:

Dad - Hey honey, I got your email about a "blog"???
Me - Yeah. (giggling, because I know what's coming next)
Dad - Well, what's a "blog" and should I be looking at yours?
Me - (giggling some more) well, it's really just a website blah blah blah
Dad - oh, okay. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something you were sending to "the girls" or something.

LOL! He really cracks me up. Love you Dad!

TA DA!!! My very first blog post....

Alrighty, y'all...here it is. My little ol' bloggity blog. I'm not 100% sure why I just decided to start this thing up. I've been reading a few blogs here and there lately and decided it might be neat. So, here's what you'll be seeing here...

• some recent pics of my kids
• the glamorous, behind-the-scenes details of my exciting life
• some of the creative stuff I do - scrapbooks, cards, little projects here and there

But, I came up with something for *me* to add here, too. Something I've been pondering on for a while and I'm actually very excited about. Some of you know that Chris' birthday is next week (the 31st) - he'll be 29. I'm EXACTLY 5 months older than him. I'm actually looking forward to the BIG 3-0. I'm looking at it as a "fresh start". I've had a lot of blessings in my 20s (my marriage, a healthy life, awesome family, great friends, my precious children, etc.), but there have been more than a few "bumps" along the way. I'm ready to turn the corner and get past those things. I've always kinda felt older than my real age anyway. So, starting in September, I will be launching Kristi's 30 Years in 30 Weeks Countdown. (like how I threw "launching" in there like this is some big corporate event or something?) That's right - each week until my birthday (March 31st for those of you not paying attention), I'll be posting a pic of lil' ol' me and share some memories along the way. See, my plan is to someday put all of these memories together in a scrapbook....it might take until I'm 40 to do it, but at least all of the ideas will be together in one spot, right? Ah...maybe the scrapbook fairy will come along and do it for me. Well, unless she's related to that housekeeping fairy...I've gotta fire that girl!

Okay, so that's about it for my debut...I hope many of you will come back to read, giggle and share with me. Unless you laugh at me and point fingers...

PS - Mom, I'm digging through your pics this weekend.