Crrraaazzzy Charlie!

Here's a video of Aidan and Charlie playing their "gotcha game".
This is our Friday night entertainment.

President Barack Obama!!!

"On this day we gather because we have chosen hope over fear"

What an incredible day. I was glued to the t.v. all day yesterday trying to soak in this most historic moment in our nation's history. Since Aidan's school chose not to show the swearing in of President Obama, I went and picked her up and brought her home so she could watch. Tears of happiness and pride ran down my face as I watched the crowd wave their flags and cheer for our new president. I am just filled with so much hope and optimism for the future. Dream big and expect great things for your life!

Congratulations Mr. President!

Straight A's!!!

Well, Aidan brought home her report card yesterday and showed off her STRAIGHT A's!!! We are so very proud of her hard work and focus. Great Job, Baby!!!

A Very Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We traveled to the V-A to spend Christmas with my family. It was so much fun to spend time with everyone...especially our nephews, Jacob and Andrew. They are so much fun and have the best laughs ever. Aidan had a great time playing with the boys and we miss everyone so much already.
We all had a great time, especially Aidan, who said it was "the best Christmas ever!!" We are so thankful for our family!

Jeremy spotted a camel on the way to the Christmas party....of course we made Kim turn the car around because none of us believed him.

Before and After

I wanted to post a thank you to Troy...aka T-Bone for making our little house look a million times cuter than I could have imagined.

(This is how he felt about scraping paint in the heat)
The savings in cooling bills we enjoyed this past Summer were dramatic thanks to the porch cover he constructed during the Texas heat in July. Our house faces west and it will be a few years before the trees we planted last year have any affect. He and a friend spent about 5-6 weeks scraping the house and repainting...we'll never do that again. I think we'd rather tear the whole thing down instead. Here are some before and after pictures of the front of the house.

Before
It's so cute now...we've gotten so many compliments. The only thing left to do is paint the posts and the ceiling.

After

Hey Baby....They're Baaaack!

No Doubt announced this week that they will be touring and recording a new album in 2009. The band has been talking about this for the past 18 months, but this was an official announcement with a new photo shoot and everything. We can't wait...we will definitely be going out to another No Doubt show! Aidan gets to go this time, so she is "super psyched". Check out NoDoubt.com for more information and to see the new photo.

Aidan is a Green Belt!

Saturday was our Tae Kwon Do belt test. Aidan graded for her green belt and did a great job performing her patterns, breaking boards, and sparring. She's kind of a B.A.! It's amazing how far she has come in the past 10 months since she started. She's gone from backing up everytime she sparred to being one of the more aggressive and successful students. It's been really good for her confidence.

Troy and I also moved up, earning our green-stripe belts. It was a long day, but it's always fun to see everyone move up and get their new belts.