We just got back from a trip to North Carolina to visit my brother and his family who just moved there. I fell in love with North Carolina because of all the trees, the mountains, the fall foilage, the clean sign-free streets and the architecture of the homes there. We had a wonderful time. We stayed in a cabin in the mountains, had a picnic in the mountains, visited Blowing Rock and took pictures on scenic overlooks, visited Mystery Hill Manor, had a late night Monopoly marathon, went to Gem Mountain and mined for jewels, and had a feast at John's house and a surprise celebration for my birthday. The kids put on a skit and a puppet show and it was hilarious. Caleb was tired and in rare form and if we had taken video, I know we would have won America's Funniest Home Videos. He was the alligator in the puppet show, when something went awry behind the curtain and in anger the alligator comes flying through the curtain. He storms off in a pout. Meanwhile, Claire is singing "I Will Survive" on her kareoke machine and Caleb goes into the puppet tent. All we saw is a toy gun coming through the curtain shooting the audience while Claire performed. We were all in stitches. It was hilarious. Does anyone know a child therapist I can contact? Below are some pics and below that are slide shows of our time in NC.

Now we're back home in ugly ole' flat Texas and I am going to need to start my book on Contentment all over again! :)

Beautiful North Carolina!

Best Buddies
John's new home in Cary, NC.
This is the view of my brother's house from the woods right behind it. Amazing!
Adorable Jill
Brad, Leslie, John, Kate and Claire at Blowing Rock

We stayed in a cabin in Boone, NC one night

On Blowing Rock
Daddy and Caleb

My surprise birthday party. The kids decorated the basement, sang a song, put on a puppet show performance making fun of how old I am, and we played games.

Luke and Caleb on the way to the airport for us to go home. :(

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Labor Day with Grandpa Dave at his church.

Wow, I feel so safe with this little man of steel around. This is pretty much Caleb's daily attire at home, except usually he has his dress belt on with it. :)

Have I mentioned Caleb is dressing himself now? He really is and it is so nice. Sometimes he comes out like this, but most of the time his clothes are on the right part of his body.

Been a little bit of a slacker with the photo taking and blogging this summer. It has been so busy. We have been getting ready for our first several trade shows with Razzle Roos. Check us out at any of the following craft/trade shows coming up:

Sept. 8-9 Heart of Texas Craft Show, Paris,Texas Love Civic Center
Sept. 15 Fall for All Fair, Lake Dallas Middle School
Oct. 20 -21 Canton in the City, Grapevine Civic Center
Nov. 3 Keller High show


Also our website is completely being remodeled. Stay tuned for our grand opening virtual store!

Check out my Slide Show!

I figured out (after seeing it on a friend's blog) how to make these cool slide shows with photographs for free using www.slide.com. Some of the photos I used are old but I just wanted to experiment. I'll probably use this feature a lot because it is so fun! It was so easy to do.

Splash Day for preschoolers at our church!

Below: This is supposed to be Spiderman on his face.
Below: A very hesitant little boy about to go down the water slide.
Below: Splash! A very unhappy boy after going down the water slide.

Needless to say, he didn't go down again.
Below: First tattoo...well hopefully the only tattoo. :)

Above: Can you spot two little hiding faces? This was Caleb and his cousin (and best buddy) Luke's last playdate in Texas...for now anyway. Luke and his family moved to North Carolina. :( Caleb is very sad but is looking forward to flying on a plane to go see him in October. See ya soon Luke the Duke. Below: A hot dog slumber party with two silly boys.

www.razzleroos.com

Announcing Razzle Roos!

Since April, my mother and I have been working on starting our own children and babies gift bundle business and here it is. We are official. We are stocked with inventory, have attended our first Trade Show, and have an official website with shopping cart, etc. It has been quite an undertaking to get this far, but we are excited and have high hopes that over time we will grow into a reputable and popular gift business. We specialize in unique gifts and gift bundles for babies and children, but also have gifts for the new mom, and will do seasonal gifts for mom, dad and teacher gifts. We can do local delivery for those in our area and can ship anywhere in the U.S. Check us out and let us know what you think.

Brad and I just got back from a much needed vacation cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. This was our first trip since our honeymoon and we had a blast. Though I am so exhausted I feel like I need a week to just sleep. Here are some pics. Had so many more to post but my Photoshop wasn't cooperating and it is late so I will post the rest another day.

They are all out of order but basically what is pictured is our day in Ocho Rios Jamaica. We went ATV riding for an hour and a half through the jungle and high into the mountains. Many of these mountain view pics were taken on our ATV tour. At the end of the tour we stopped at this beautiful private cove on the ocean and the guys took turns jumping off a 15 ft. cliff into the freezing water. I was happy to take pictures.

Also pictured is where we ate at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Another pic. is of our table on the cruise. We had the best table and got to know two great couples throughout the week. To Brad's delight, one of the guys we sat with is an NFL linebacker for the Tennessee Titans. He was very nice and it was fun getting a little inside knowledge of the NFL.

Not yet posted was our day in Grand Cayman where we went couple parasailing and went 100 feet underwater in a submarine.

Needless to say, we are already talking about where to go on the next trip. Hopefully it won't be 5 more years.