THE PEACOCK POSSE

Lake Tahoe

2009-07-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

Rory's brother got married this past weekend in Tahoe. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I really thought I had died and gone to heaven! My pictures really don't do it justice. Here is the view from our hotel...

We spent most of the first full day on the beach. The boys had a blast playing in the water, even though it was about 65 degrees. If you know our families, you know that we are VERY competitive. So of course we got up a beach volleyball tournament. We probably played volleyball for 4 hours. We had a blast, but the sand in Tahoe is not the same as Texas. It is more like very fine gravel...not good on the bare feet or knees. We were all beat up after playing all day. Here are some pictures of our day at the beach...

The wedding was beautiful! Case didn't walk down the isle, but that didn't surprise me. Coop on the other hand is a pro at this whole ring bearer gig. Here are some pictures of the wedding. If you can see, notice the peacock feathers in the flowers!

We then went up the gondola to see the sights at the top of the mountain. It was an amazing view! I can't imagine anything more beautiful! We then drove over to Emerald Bay. There was a waterfall that we climbed on and of course took lots and lots of pictures...

Disney World!!!

2009-06-29T09:52:00.001-07:00

Disney World was amazing and magical. It was everything we wished for and more. The boys were the perfect ages to go. Cooper loved the rides and the shows while Case loved meeting the characters. It was by far the best vacation ever! Here are some of the pictures from our trip...

RANGER PHOTO DAY!

2009-05-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

Today was Fan Photo Day at the Ranger Game. We got to the game at 10:15 to stand in line until the gates opened at 11:00. Then we stood in another line again until we could go down on the field at 12:00. Out of 5,000 people we were 15th in line. Then we waited another hour before we could take the first picture with a coach or player. We were frying in the heat but it was well worth it. We got our picture made with almost all of the Ranger players.

Case loves Michael Young, so when he came around to take a picture with us I told him that he was Case's favorite player. I guess he loved that because he bent down and scooped Case right up to take a picture. Case's face was priceless and he went around all day telling us that Michael Young picked him up!

Cooper loves Ian Kinsler. He loves the fact that he plays second base just like him and that he has curls that come out of his ball cap just like Kinsler. Coop even wear his pants like Kinsler. He was thrilled to get his picture made with him!

But, the best part of the day was when Josh Hamilton came around. We had a really cool picture of him and Case from photo day last year. It was published in several newspapers. We bought the picture and took it to the game in hopes that he would sign it. He was telling people no autographs but we were hoping once he saw the picture that he would change his mind. We were the last fans on the field, and it paid off. We not only got a picture, but we also got the autograph. He loved the picture and got a big kick out of it!

Here is the picture from last year...

and here is the picture from this year...

Case Turns 3!

2009-05-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that my baby turned 3 this week!

It always makes me sad when my kids get older. They grow up too fast. Case wanted a baseball birthday and since he loves the Texas Rangers we decided to have a Rangers party! He was so funny because when anyone asked him what he wanted for his birthday he would say a birthday cake. Then he told me he wanted a Rangers birthday cake. I wasn't sure how I could pull that one off, but I had a lady make his Rangers cake to look like the Rangers logo. I think it turned out great!

We had big plans for an outdoor party in the backyard, but it rained so our outdoor plans got moved inside. We cooked tons of "baseball food" such as hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, peanuts, and nachos. I also found a Texas Rangers pinata. He had a blast and it has been over a week and he is still praying about his party every night. I love it! Here are some pictures from the fun day!

Cooper's 1st Grade Musical

2009-05-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

So what happens when you have your first crush? You will do ridiculous things such as this...

OK, so let me explain...Cooper had his first musical this year in first grade. The musical was called "Gettin Down With Mama Goose." It was precious and the kids were supposed to dress up like Mother Goose characters. Well, Cooper has a crush on a little girl in his class. This little girl told Cooper that she was going to be Little Bo Peep and he was determined to be one of her sheep. So, I spent all night gluing 5 bags of cotton balls to a hoodie to make a sheep costume. He was thrilled! We got to school for dress rehearsal and he couldn't wait to show his crush. When we got into the gym, the little girl ran up dressed as.... a cat!!!!! He was horrified! He walked around the rest of the night looking like the kid in the Christmas Story when his mom made him wear the pink bunny costume! LOL

Here are some more embarrassing pictures of Coop!!!!

Best Mother's Day Ever!

2009-05-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

This Mother's Day was so fun! First I was served "wachies" in bed...for those of you that don't speak "Case," that is kolaches in bed! Each of my boys had a rose for me too! So sweet! Both of the boys made me a card. I loved them so much and you could see the thought that each of them put in their card. Case wrote that he loved his Momma because "she takes me to Walmart and she gives me grapes, and because I just do." Cooper wrote an acrostic...typical if know this kid! It says Mother and each letter had a saying. My favorite line was for the "E" in which he wrote "Every boy needs a Mom like you." TEAR...
Then, they surprised me with the sweetest video ever! They all made this for me one weekend. I cried the whole time!!!!

Karate Kid

2009-03-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

Cooper has been taking karate for the past weeks and to our surprise he was really good at it! He is such a good listener and very disciplined so he did awesome! He isn't really aggressive so he isn't going to hurt anyone with his punches, but his technique is great because he is such a perfectionist...don't know where he gets that! :)
Anyway, he fought in his first tournament. He did really good and went the next week to take his belt test. He passed and is now a yellow belt in karate! We are taking off for baseball season and will start back up after the summer. Here are some pictures of our Karate Kid!

Rory's Surprise Party

2009-03-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

So I decided to throw Rory a surprise 30th birthday party this year. Since his birthday isn't until April 7th, I thought it would be a great idea to have it early so he wouldn't suspect anyting! I really wanted his best friend, Matt who has a band, to play. I have basically been lying to Rory about anything and everything over the past three weeks to pull this off. It got really stressful at times, but it turned out great! Although he did have an idea I was up to something, he was honestly surprised when we walked into a party that he thought was for someone else. We had around 40-50 people there. Matt's band played till midnight. Rory had a blast and it was totally worth all of the hard work. It was great to get everyone who loves him in one room at one time. Here is a slide show of that night...

Best Birthday Gift Ever!

2009-02-24T17:20:00.000-08:00

ROCKY!!!!

2009-01-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

So, I got a punching bag for Christmas this year! I have always wanted one and I am soooooooo pumped about it. I even got pink boxing gloves to go with it! YEAH! Well, Rory's mom also got Case some boxing stuff to match (no pink of course). We just got around to opening it all up this weekend and we laughed so hard at mean little Case. He can punch pretty hard and he was so funny trying to look so tough. Here are some pictures of our Little Rocky...

Build A Bear

2009-01-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

Cooper went to the neatest birthday party at Build A Bear this past weekend for his friend Kaylee. We have been there before but never to a birthday party there. It was one of the cutest parties I have ever seen and the kids had a blast. All of the kids at the party even got a bear! Case also got to "build" his own bear. Coop dressed his bear as a karate bear since he started karate last week. The bear even comes with all of the karate belts so he can switch out the colors on his bear as he collects more belts himself. Case chose a Texas Rangers shirt and hat for his bear....SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!! Here are some pictures of the bears....

Sidekick and Ranger (they named them themselves :))

Cotton Bowl

2009-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

Rory surprised me for Christmas and got us Cotton Bowl tickets. I was so excited! I have never been to a game that big and since it was the last game ever played at that stadium we knew it was going to be crazy. Lauren also got Ryder tickets for Christmas so we all went together. We had fun tailgating before the game. The seats we had were great and we were sitting in the midst of a bunch of drunk Tech students. It was a blast! Even though we lost and about had a heat stroke in January, we had a great time!

Ski Trip

2008-12-31T11:47:00.000-08:00

We went with the Peacock's to Ruidoso for Christmas this year. When we got the the wind was blowing up to 50 miles per hour. This was all the snow there was on the ground the first day...

That night it snowed at least 3 inches and this is what we woke up to!!!

The only gloves that I had that would fit Case were mittens and he wanted to make a snow ball so bad but he had the hardest time picking anything up in those mittens. It was the funniest thing. He finally made a "baseball" as he called it, and guess what he did with it...

That day we decided to head up the mountain to ski. The wind chill was -4 degrees! You would think that on top of the mountain it would be colder, but it really wasn't that bad. Coop went skiing for his first time and did great! Here are some pictures from his first ski trip!

On top of the mountain!

Here are some more pictures from our trip...

Christmas 2008

2008-12-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

This was such a fun Christmas this year! My boys are the perfect age when it comes to all of the magical things that go along with Christmas and I just love to watch them get excited about all of it.

Santa always comes to our house early, he did even when I was a little girl because we are always out of town on Christmas day. We write him a letter every year and explain why we need him to come early. Well this year Cooper, who is very curious about the whole Santa thing anyway, asks me if we can just call Santa on the phone. I told him that I didn't know his phone number so he asks if we can just email him. I told him that we were going to write him a letter just to make sure he got it and Cooper's reply was "Well I hope he has a big mailbox!"

Here is a picture of the boys getting cookies ready for Santa!

Christmas morning was also fun! Case got a trampoline that counts and sings when you jump on it...perfect for him! Cooper got a new bike since he learned to ride his bike without training wheels over Thanksgiving. Here are the boys with their big gifts on Christmas morning!

We made the usual rounds to Gatesville and Albany to see our families. The boys got some really neat gifts, but at my parents house there was one gift that beat them all! Over Thanksgiving Cooper sat down at my parents house and wrote out his Christmas wish list since we were shopping the day after Thanksgiving. He put his gifts in order with the #1 thing he wanted, #2 and so on. This #3 thing he wanted for Christmas was a pumpkin pie. The kid loves them! So, my brother and sister-in-law wrapped up a pumpkin pie for Cooper for Christmas. You can see how excited he was...

Another really cool gift that he got was a ramp for his new bike. We took it outside to try it out and of course he wasn't the only one who had to try it! This was almost good enough for America's Funniest Home Videos...

(my brother's attempt at the ramp)

But the best present of all, at least in my opinion, was Rock Band that Cooper got from Rory's parents. I never thought in a million years that I would like to play it, but I do...a lot! Actually I am addicted! I can see how people can sit around a waist a whole day just playing it. I love the guitar and I have my own solo tour set up. Rory, Coop and I also have a band where I play guitar, Rory plays drums and Coop sings. I love it! Case also has his own guitar, and although it is not hooked up to the game, he thinks it is and he rocks out with the rest of us! Here is my family the Rock Stars!!! Notice Case with his tongue out!

Rory on drums, MJ on guitar, Case on base and Cooper on the mic

UPDATE TIME!

2008-12-11T15:58:00.000-08:00

Soooooooo I have been really bad about keeping this blog updated. Things are busy and crazy as always, so I promise to do better now that I know people actually look at this! YEAH! :)
So here are some things to catch up on...

School...

We had a Science Hat parade where the kids all had to create a hat using Science vocabulary words....

Cooper got the High Flyer Award at school! YEAH Cooper!

Halloween!

Halloween was a blast as usual. We went to Gatesville to celebrate like we always do. Cooper was Sonic the Hedgehog and he was so proud of his costume. He had planned this costume since last Halloween and I wasn't sure how we were going to pull it off, but thanks to Ebay and aunts that can sew I think it turned out great!

Case was a golfer. He wouldn't put anything on unless it had to do with some kind of ball! Imagine that! It was perfect, not only because he was adorable, but because my parents live on a golf course where we went trick or treating so everyone loved it! Case loved to fact that he could just say Trick or Treat and people would give him candy. He would get all excited every time!

We had our annual adults only Halloween party as well. I wasn't sure how we are ever going to top the John and Lorianna Bobbitt costumes but these were fun! Rory found his entire costume at a thrift shop! He did it all by himself. I was so proud! We (Rory and I) sewed my costume, which I must say we did great on! We had fun being Hippies for the night!

he State Volleyball Tournament!
Go MJ #!!

Rory's sister is a senior this year and one heck of a volleyball player! His mother is also her coach! They made it to the state tournament right before Thanksgiving. We all loaded up and headed for San Marcus. Coop had to mess up his perfect attendance, but it was worth it. Although they got beat...what a season! We are so proud of MJ! HIT SOMEBODY!

We had a great time in San Marcus. It is amazing how excited everyone can get over a hotel with an elevator!!!

I LOVE THE WEEKENDS!!!!

2008-10-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE the weekends...especially the long weekends! This is the only time during the week where I feel like I can actually spend quality time with my boys (all three of them). The week days always feel rushed and stressful with everyone at work or school. We don't get home until 6:00 or later. Then we spend the rest of the evening doing homework, eating supper and taking baths before bedtime at 8:00. But the weekends are when we get to hang out and have fun!

As most of you know we love the Texas Rangers. So, when I saw this Texas Rangers fabric at Walmart on Saturday I knew I had to get it and make something out of it. I broke out the old sewing machine and spent the afternoon sewing the boys some Texas Rangers pajamas while we watched the movie Everyone's Hero (about baseball of course). It is hard to see in the pictures, but I even sewed Izzie a tank top! LOL The boys loved them and wore them all weekend!

This tank top may look big in the picture, but it fit in the palm of my hand!

We also made Halloween cookies. I have a fetish with cookie cutters and I think it is mostly because my boys love using them just as much as I do. The boys did all of the decorating, so we had some very interesting looking cookies when it was all said and done. They tasted great though!

This was such a fun weekend of being silly and just hanging out! I LOVE THE WEEKENDS!!!

2008-08-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

What happens when you are too busy to take a nap? You fall asleep in your chicken nuggets...

WAKE BOARDING!!!

2008-08-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Rory and I went to the lake with our college friends the Martinaks. They have an awesome boat and they are avid wake boarders. I love the water ski, but I have never wake boarded before. I was also very nervous because I have skied since having kids! Rory tried first and could not get up. After trying several times he gave up. Those of you who know Rory know that things like this NEVER happen. He can do anything and it drives me crazy sometimes! So this made me really nervous about trying myself. I mean heck, if Rory can't get up there is no way I can. Well, I have to brag a little and say that after three failed attempts, I got up and wake boarded for my first time!!! YEAH! It was so much fun! Of course this killed Rory's competitive ego. He tried again and he too go up. He was hilarious. After getting up he decided to try to jump over a wave on his first time every on a wake board. He hit face first with his feet in the air behind him. I laughed so hard I cried! We had a great time!

Our New Addition!

2008-08-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

We added a new member of the family this summer... IZZIE! The boys and I finally talked Rory into letting us get a puppy. We love her and the best thing about her is that she loves balls, just like us! Case will hit the ball and she will run and go get it, well sometimes. Sometimes she acts like one of the kids and gets the ball and runs off with it just to make Case mad. It is great. Isn't she a cutie!!!