The Loco Lopez Family

Catching up ....

2010-02-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a sampling of what we have been up to .... in no particular order (I will add Lennon's party and ton of others soon):

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeee........................

This is Lu's new picture face. Lovely.

Making hats with Val at the Dallas Museum

Val was a trooper and hung with the little ladies all day. She even endured a 1 hour wait at Bread Winners with toddlers. Wow!

Finished product!

Last day of camping at Beavers Bend

First fish! She even helped clean it!

We talked Andy into horseback riding

I thought Lu was going to explode she was so excited!

Lovley.

Our whole family got the worst stomach flu EVER. We all took turns sleeping on the floor in front of the toilet. Yippee!

Nap time in the camper

Yep ... we let Yep ... we let her wear this to Home Depot.

Our friend Blair's dog Mojo almost died when his apartment caught on fire. Lazy Cat saved him by jumping over the barrier and fining him hiding in the bathroom. He of course got a commemorative homemade Amy t-shirt for his heroics.

Dang she's growing up :(

Andy got really brave and took the babies to the zoo all by himself...they had a blast!

This one cracks me up!

Lucie put on her blue jean jacket so she could look like mommy. She totally has the leg pose down.

I have move on to fondant. Oh fondant how you excite me. All I want to do is bake now. My expanding butt is ever so happy.

Not bad for a first attempt.

Birthday girl!!!

Aftermath of the Superbowl cupcakes. Thanks Lucie.

Since we are really trying to go green and not waste anything....

We miss you Carl!!!!

Date night at Campisi's - YUM!

Brusha brusha brusha. Get the new Ipana, with the brand new flavor...

2010-02-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

I was uploading pictures tonight and came across these master pieces. Lennon loves taking pictures with my camera and these just crack me up:

Hi, I'm Lennon.

Look at my pretty teeth.

No really, LOOK at them!

Willy willy pretty! See, I told you.

Sloppy Joe, Sloppy Sloppy Joe ....

2010-02-05T19:35:00.001-08:00

Yummmm....Sloppy Joe Night!!!

We LOVE Sloppy Joes and Veggies!

See how happy it make us!!

Yes, I still wrap them BOTH up like babies after their baths. Reminds me of swaddling them when they were tiny. Best mom advise I have to offer. Learn how to burrito your baby. It works. Seriously.

Oh and Andy decided to cut off his long awesome hair AGAIN. GRRRRR!

I walked in on the girls playing school the other day. They were the teachers and these were the students. Love it.

Pour some sugar on me ...

2010-01-31T18:36:00.000-08:00

It was a really cold and snuggly weekend. Andy and I had a pantry challenge this week (we attempted to only eat what was in the house and try to stay out of the grocery store). Andy did so good until today when he snuck out while I was still asleep to get bacon. Don't come between the best weekend breakfast cook and his bacon I guess :). Andy and I also watched a crap load of Cake Boss last week and decided this weekend that we were going to make a practice cake using fondant for Lennon's upcoming birthday. It came out a little bumpy but not too shabby. Here's our weekend wrap up:

My mom got these pj's for the girls for Christmas. They are so soft and snuggly. Lucie cracks me up with her footy pajama love. If you look back over this blog you will find that she's usually wearing either this outfit or another one with gingerbread man on them. Don't quite get what the deal is ... but I don't care, she can wear them until she's 18 if she wants!

Poor Lu. Every time I say put your arm around your sister Lennon puts her in a choke hold.

Lucie ate about a pound of fondant. She totally didn't care that it tastes like nothing. That was the second thing about the cake that made it taste weird. First was the questionable shortening I used to grease the pans. It was in my cabinet for sometime and was obviously bad. It seeped through the cake and that's all you could taste.

Third was the kind of cake we used - spice cake. It was all I had and since we were banned from the store this weekend we thought it may work okay. Not so much. It was really crumbly, which made it hard to cut and frost. Fourth was the butter cream frosting that Andy mixed up. He added more milk than he should have and it was too watery. This would have been fine, but the texture of the spice cake was one that just soaked up the frosting.

Rolling and coloring the fondant was surprisingly the easiest part.

We didn't have a rolling pin large enough so we improvised with a wine bottle. Worked just fine. No innocent wine bottles were hurt in the making of this cake.

Voila! A bumpy, crappy tasting, but pretty dang cute three tiered Princess and the Frog practice cake. Andy's laughing at me right now because I just asked him how to spell ... Wala. I think all my life I thought the big reveal of a culinary treat was Wala not Voila. Nice.

Lennon went to her best friend Isha's birthday party at a bounce house place on Saturday. Lennon, Isha and Erin are inseparable at school. They are also all in the same ballet class. It was so cute watching them play and giggle and run together. Nothing like the sweet giggle of little girls.

Ahhh...pure cuteness. I switched Lennon to Isha's class at the beginning of the school year. They spent the summer in the same class and when school started and Lennon was moved she wigged out on us for a while. When I saw Isha in a different class one afternoon I asked the director if Lennon could move. She said yes, and Lennon and Isha were reunited and Lennon's been MUCH better.

I love Isha's tiny little face. The other little girl is Amy. Every time I pick Lennon up from school she runs up to me to tell me "Hi Amy, I'm Amy". Every time :)

Andy caught us snuggling before the girls went to bed. I had no idea they had their arms back like that. Too funny.

Cheetah girls before church.

Super DAD!!!

Jerimiah was a bullfrog ... he was a good friend of mine.

2010-01-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

And so is this chick.

I can not believe this tiny little baby who was so bald and calm and snuggly is about to be four years old. We are about to have a four year old. One with long real kid legs, longish semi-curly hair, one who likes to sing Kings of Leon and Dixie Chicks and Taylor Swift at the very top of her lungs, loves to be the mama, one who always wants to play with her sister, one who would eat biscuits at every meal if I'd let her, one who would wear tights everyday if I'd let her (I usually do), one who is so smart she scares us sometimes, one with a memory like an elephant, one who loves to read and read and read, one who moves me to tears with her prayers, one who gets her feelings hurt like her mama, one who loves her daddy so much I get jealous, one who likes pink, one who can sing whole songs in Spanish, one who loves to get her finger nails painted, one who loves ketchup on her eggs, one who will still snuggle with me when she's tired, one who can do a great Grover impression, one who loves boots, one who loves to dance, one who wants to be a mommy or Michael Jackson when she gets big, one who can drive me up the wall like no one ever has ever in my life, one that can say things that melt me in an instant.

She is more to me than I can ever ever put into words. She's the realest, purest most beautiful thing I know. She's Boogy.

2010-01-24T17:50:00.000-08:00

We had a really lazy fun weekend. Friday night was pizza and fun with the neighbor girls and extra curricular activities with Megan and Shawn. Man I really love Scene It. Even though I really really suck at it. Saturday was a LAZY day full of Teen Mom and Real House Wives of Orange County AND The Pregnancy Pact. I'm done with TV for real. For real. No really my brain is fried. Sunday was Church and Andy cooking an AWESOME brisket... for like 7 hours on the smoker. It was sooo good. Val and Lucy and Blair came over. I love love love Sunday with Jesus, friends and food :). I think it's so cute that the girls get so excited when their grown up friends come over. They look forward to it all day. Andy and I are so lucky to have such good friends who dig our kids as much as we do!

I love Lu's face in this picture. Whattayagonnado about it ... I'm eating pizza...

Ahhh.. Meggers your so talented. Andy doesn't seem to think so.

Whistle while you work....

2010-01-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty crazy week for us. Work has gotten really busy and now more than ever we have to get creative on how we are presenting proposals. I made this house painted Gaylord blue and gold to put a proposal in for Sallie Mae. Thanks to my dear friend Debra Davis who added the sunny G and a picutre inside I think it turned out pretty dang cute. Getting to think outside the box and get creative is one of the things I love the best about my job.

This is what happened to me earlier in the evening. I completely slammed my thumb in my car trunk as in the trunk totally shut and I couldn't get it out. Lennon was beside me and Lucie was still in the car and I had to scream at the top of my lungs for 10 minutes until my neighbor finally came over and was able to get into my car and pop the trunk. It was HORRIBLE. I went the next morning to get an x ray after I didn't sleep at all the night before. I have a tiny little hairline fracture. Fun times :).

I was SO freaking proud of my office this week. In just one week we collected over 500 lbs of food/clothing/other household items for our co-workers in Florida. I really hope everything we collected will get to the people that need it most.

So ... this weekend thank you cake pops are in order :)

Heal the World ....

2010-01-19T19:16:00.001-08:00

So proud of these girlies! They helped me pack up about 15 bags of clothes and food for our coworkers at the Palms in Orlando who's staff is 30% Haitian. We were able to sneak up on Monday when everyone was out. Lennon totally gets it and was such a hard worker! Hopefully we will collect a ton more over the next week.

Da da da da Hey Hey ... Good Bye!!!

2010-01-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well...the Boy's lost. We were so sad. I had such a good time this year in my office with the Cowboys - we seemed to live, eat and breathe them everyday. I was able to book a ton of business because of them and the new stadium. Oh Boys, you were amazing and I am forever grateful. Funny how a bunch of big athletic boys and their success can somehow cross over to a 30 year old mom of three who sells hotel rooms and her success. Here's to an amazing season - thanks for the GREAT time!

It's a New Dawn, It's a New Day, It's a New Life ...

2010-01-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

New Years 2010 promises to bring continued fun and love and happiness!!! I have made a resolution to post at least one picture a day. These babies of mine are growing so fast and it's killing me. Andy and I were talking last night and we both realize that we don't remember Lucie crawling. Sure we have pictures, but I have no honest to goodness memory of it. KILLS me! I want to be able to look back and really see what we were up to everyday, not just the special times.

The holiday's were a so much fun this year with the girls (check out my pics on Facebook). All three girls were spoiled rotten and it was so fun doing Santa with them. The girls and I have been going to a new church that we ALL love and this season's Christmas was made even more special by the fact that we could talk about the fact that Christmas means so much more than presents. We did things a little different this year and stayed home on Christmas Eve night. It was heartbreaking spending my first Christmas morning without my parents, but SO nice starting our own new traditions.

Rylie arrived a few days after Christmas - man she's getting so big. I still can not believe she's 7 years old. The girls all played really great together for the most part. Lennon still has a hard time not being the boss, but she's able to communicate a little better now and she and Rylie tended to shut Lucie out. Which was A-Okay with me. Lucie was so sick the week after Christmas and after she got pick eye she and I quarantined ourselves in my room. I LOVED it! Then she kept getting worse and I ended up taking her to the ER on New Years day. Pneumonia and a double ear infection later and she still only wanted me to hold her. So Andy had to keep the other girls entertained. He did pretty dang good if I say so my self :).

This year Andy and I are on a money saving mission. We want to buy a house in Highland Village in the Summer of 2011 when Lennon goes to kindergarten. We want to put a big fat down payment down so time to tighten up the purse strings.

So here's to a another New Year! I am looking forward to growing in my faith, my marriage, my motherhood, my everything this year.

These pics are backwards ... but the first is where I'm starting with my pic a day :)

The girls on our typical Saturday mornings. Eating eggs and ketchup (gag) and biscuits. Don't you wear ballet dresses and mermaid dresses to breakfast?

Our neighbors came over last night. For the first time ever Lennon didn't act like a freakazoid, hanging on my leg or grunting instead of talking. She actually bossed everyone around. They played dress up and fashion show and house for a few hours. SO FREAKING CUTE!!!

Last week Andy and I hung out at the Texan and watched the Cowboy's game with some of my clients that were in town. They had a "Butt Sketch Artist" and I got - ah hem ... my butt sketched. I kept thinking that someday my grandchildren are going to see this and think "oh Lord that's Grandma Candy's butt"!

We had SOO much fun!

This is my friend/client Katie...needless to say we had a good time :).

What's this you might ask? A Christmas tree outside? Yes, yes it is!

Lucie was bored.

Lennon was being really whiney

MOOMMMM...I'm bored!
So I came up with a plan. Let's string some popcorn ...

Cut out some old bread and tortillas with cookie cutters...

Fix them up with ornament hangers ...

String some marshmallows on yarn...

Concentrate....

Get some really sticky hands...

And you get this! A tree PERFECT for the birds in cold weather!! And three girls who loved every minute of it.

Over the River and Through the Woods ...

2010-01-16T08:30:00.001-08:00

I know. I know. I'm sorry.

Here's some more things we did in November:

I loved on my Grandma Candy

Lennon loved on her Queenie

Shawn loved on his Meggie

These two loved the site of their legacy all together

These three realized were all very thankful for one another

These two were just super cute

These two freaked out about this:

Ahhh...there is nothing like going on a walk in the woods with a nice red wine roadie. That is until your really expensive annoying dog...

Runs off the side of the trail and gets tangled in the brush...

Then gets off her leash and finds a mysterious mass of hair and starts running...

And running ...

And running...
Until Aunt Laura, who is much more accustom to country life, stops her and discovers her big catch. A dead rat. Nice Freida.

What table manners Lucie has. I knew something was off when I signed her up for etiquette classes and the teacher wanted to be paid in milk bones.

This is why I love the farm so much.

Oh and I ran the Turkey Trot again this year. I did MUCH better this time and actually sprinted the last mile!

Then Valerie came over ....

And got a makeover.

This plus...
This plus...
This plus...

Equals ...
Two SUPER cute gingerbread houses

And four sugared up cousins.

Take me to the River 2009!

2009-11-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

Andy and I joined our friends again this year for the trip to the Roaring River State Park in Missouri and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It was a little rainy this year, but still beautiful. I love this place more and more every time I go. It's so spiritual and peaceful and though the first day is hard without it, I really like that I get zero cell phone coverage. It was our 4 year wedding anniversary as well. Happy Anniversary Farvre!

This is the view from our balcony patio. We were in new cabins this year ... totally not roughing it!Of course I had to make some treats for the trip. Fishing bobber cake pops. Oh Lordy, I'm becoming obsessed.

I thought I made way too many, but they were gobbled up like candy. Wait, they ARE candy!

All of these things, plus bubbling, steaming, perfectly combined, Laura's - uh hem ... Chris' World Famous cowboy stew equals ...

Three very happy boys home from a full day of fishing and three very happy girls (not pictured as we ate our chili for breakfast and it was way too early for make-up and curling irons and botox injections).

Now ... that's better! Here we are before indulging in our spa treatments at the Palace Hotel in Eureka Springs. I'm SO FREAKING jealous that that Val and Laura both got Curtis aka Kip from Napoleon Dynamite aka Magic Hands. He's so awesome, seriously, marriages are in danger.

Here's me in the steam room channeling Lucille Ball.

The story about this hotel: this crook Dr. Baker "treated" cancer patients with his magic elixir. Total crap, he wasn't a doctor and people dropped like flies around this place. The "hotel" had a morgue if that tells you anything. Dr. Baker was later figured out and finally arrested.

I love coming to the Crescent but I'm 100% sure I could never spend the night.

Not with pictures like these hanging on the walls. I mean what's wrong with a good "ole sparky" demonstration displayed outside of the bathroom which is down a long, creepily quiet hall, which has antique fire hoses on the walls like... "The Shining"?

Nothing is wrong. Just like there is nothing wrong with these "Sleeping Angels". Umm..Sleeping's ass...they are dead and they creep me out.

So does this owl/gargoyle/demon thing that is on the mantel in the hotel lobby.

Then we leave the hotel and see this. THIS I love. Hippies make me happy.

So do hula girls and Snoopy, and tiny monkeys and troll dolls and Burt, and frogs and snakes. What... snakes! Yes snakes glued to the side of hippie vans make me really happy.

But not as happy as naked Barbies doing the splits - hot glued to a top of a mini van. Yes ... that really rocks. Don't judge me.

And please don't judge my sweet friend Chris. He didn't know that he had a Guinness Award Winning eye brow hair. He also didn't know that my other sweet friend Bryan would be - oh so willing -to pluck it for him. Dude on dude plucking ... ummm yeah.

P.S. Happy Four Years My Andy. I love you more that you can ever fathom. It's too much sometimes. But it's always fun and it's always real and it's always just the way it's supposed to be. I'm sorry I didn't get any shots with you on the fly rod. You did great this year! We ate soooo good.

And we played really fun new games. A game in which I ruled at by the way. Sorry about your luck Val-a- wa!

And we saw things like this hanging outside of a bread and breakfast downtown.

And we saw this in someone's front yard. We're so not in Kansas anymore. I sure do love me some Arkansas.

And Laura made this. This is the best, most addictive thing EVER. Chex Mix to the extreme. Sweet and Sour. I gained 10 lbs and I loved every second of it.

Then Val and Laura made this. This is not camping people. This is gourmet on a paper plate. This is why I really, really love camping with the Tolar's.

See how happy we are. Cheese and noddles and friends and salad and laughter and bread and memories and wine and a baby growing in a belly and cake pops and SNL = one dang good night.

And on our way home we saw this in someone's front yard. It's about 7 feet tall and they dress him up for the seasons. Jack the rabbit. Get it?

What's been going on ...

2009-10-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

October so far has been busy ... 6 days in (Happy Birthday Rylie Girl) and it's already nuts.

So I'm choosing to start of on a positive note:

Flowers from my front flower bed. This year I was determined to keep at least 50% of the things I planted alive. I was so unbelievably happy that these not only lived but are thriving. Everything for the past three years that I've planted in the front beds have died...finally success. Other winners this year: purple sage (4 out of 5 bushes), elephant ears, St. Augustine grass (after three seasons of trying), lantana, these random "bushes" that ended up being trees - still trying to figure out what these are, 1 out of 4 Crape Myrtles. Not too shabby considering I killed almost everything last year. This green bottle of baby poop looking gunk, plus a two year old who loves makup =

A 2 year old with baby poop all over her face. Nice move Lulu.

This is why I love my husband. Mickey Mouse pancakes with M&M's and bacon...

No wonder he's their favorite. Well, I figure I will give him this time of their lives. Once they start dating at the age of 25 they will come running back to me. Oh yes ... they will.

Ba de ya - say do you remember...Ba de ya - dancing in September...Ba de ya - Never was a cloudy day!

2009-09-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

September has been so fun for our little Loco Lopez family. It finally cooled down enough to go camping. Lennon has decided it's not so bad getting dirty as long as there are s'mores and swimming involved. We found a great camp site with lots of room to run around and find fairy food and eat bag after bag of cheetos. Man we love camping.

We really don't let the girls eat too many chips at home so when they get a chance they go a little nutty. Lucie turned a righteous shade of orange by the end of the weekend.

Lucie chilling at our world class swimming pool. It had a fig tree umbrella, towel service, a sunscreen valet, water games and a super hot cabana boy.

Fairy food. We found all kinds of different kinds of food, but we learned that they preferred these little red berries the best. They like to save the skin to rub on their cheeks for that perfect healthy fairy glow.

Eating Laura Tolar's world famous cowboy stew in the camper.

Ahhh... the perfect marshmallow. Burnt to a crisp and melted to goop in the middle.

You know it's good when the chocolate runs down the side of your face.

Our campsite was a short walk to the lake. This area was knee deep about 20 feet out into the water. Perfect for little ones just learning to swim. Lennon shocked us by swimming out all by herself and not freaking out. She loved it. She even made friends with some other little girls. I laughed so hard when one little girl was singing "Poor Some Sugar on Me" at the top of her lungs and then asked Lennon if she knew that song. Lennon said no, but I like the "No One on the Corner Has Swagger Like Us" song. That's my girl.

Lucie wasn't so sure about this whole swimming thing. She didn't like the squishy mud, but once she figured out that she could splash us, she was sold.

Hi, I'm Atilla. I love to camp. I love to swim. I love to eat hot dogs. I love to get water dumped on my head over and over again by a two year old. Seriously, I do.

I can not even put into words how much the girls LOVE the camper. They have all kinds of little hiding places and they like to close the curtains that separate the bedrooms and have their own "houses". The area under the table was their store and they would take their babies grocery shopping for, of course ... cheetos.

We took the girls to my favorite restaurant in Grapevine during Grapefest. If you ever get the chance please go to Into the Glass on Main Street. The food is amazing - get the truffle macaroni, the tingas tostadas, the fried okra and the crab enchiladas. The wine selection is even better. They only buy wines from smaller eclectic wineries so there are some really fun choices.

Andy and Lu waiting for their grub. I thought Wayne (the owner) was going to puke when he saw me come in with toddlers to his wine bar. The girls were really good though, they swirled their glasses and sniffed the bouquet, checked for legs and decided that they liked the more oakey tasting Chardonnay over the buttery one. I mean geeze, give them a little credit. They may not be able to color in the lines, but they know a good wine.

Yummy yum, truffle macaroni makes us happy. They serve it in a tiny little blue enamelware pot with a lid. So its piping hot and buttery and garlicky and super cheesy. He doesn't use regular elbow macaroni either. No way ... he uses big fat penne noodles. Truffle oil people. I mean come on.

See how happy she is. Truffle oil. It's natures cure all. Makes three year olds sit still in wine bars, makes tummies full, makes mommies smile, makes daddies really really really mad because they are lactose intolerant. Sorry about your luck dude.

After drinking all that wine, Lennon was ready to ride some rides. That's right folks Lennon rode rides all by herself. We couldn't believe it. She cried when she couldn't go on the bigger rides because she was too short.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend Kate asked me if I thought I could come up with a way to do cake pops for her daughter Reece's 2nd birthday which was Little Mermaid themed. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to shape them into fish or mermaids so I just went with a Little Mermaid color scheme. Turned out pretty dang cute. My next attempt will be fishing bobbers for our upcoming fishing trip to Missouri and little puppy dogs for a baby shower later this month.

Blue and turquoise for Flounder, Green and Purple for Ariel, Pink and Red for Sebastian.

I threw in some baby blue "bubbles" for effect. Kate served them sticking out of a aquarium at the party. Turned out quite swimmingly if I say so myself.

Especially this little guy.

The girls hanging with their friend Logan at Reecie's party.

I caught Lucie being super silly the other day. She has the funniest facial expressions.

This is - Whoops, I just got caught taking books off of mama's shelf

But look how cute I am when I make my cold face.

See ... I knew you loved me mama. You can never stay mad at me. Can you? I win!

Lewisville has a big Western Day with a parade and all that good stuff. Brandi and Jeff and the boys met us and while it was insanely hot we had a really good time.

Lucie watching the parade and super stoked that she caught a tootsie roll.

This sweet little werewolf went over really well. All the kids watching the parade couldn't wait to run up and pet him. Universal shrieks of, "awww he's so cute!", could be heard from all. My kids especially loved the guts hanging out of his blood soaked muzzle.

After the parade we walked over to the main street area where the bands and food and beer were and we were stopped short by the longhorn cattle drive. They were literally right in front of us. I was so freaked out. Especially when the last two dudes decided to have longhorn "relations" with one another and abruptly started moving towards the crowd. Thankfully they got their hormones under control and we were saved.

Corny dog- corny dog -corny dog! Now if I can only get her to be a normal person and put mustard on them. Ketchup really?

Lennon spotted the Lewisville High School dancers and jumped up and down screaming, "Cheerleaders Mama"!!! These girls were so nice a posed for a picture with her. Love the hands on the hips and the tilted heads. Ahhh ... the good ole drill team pose.

It was after corny dogs that we heard the announcement for kids to come sign up for the stick horse rodeo. There is nothing better than publicly humiliating young children, especially if they are your own. But that's just me though, so we ran like the wind to sign all the kids up.

The concept was simple. Kids in three different age divisions 7-6, 5-4, 1-3, ride around on a stick horse which they have named themselves, in a rodeo ring that has three large pumpkins in the middle that they are supposed to pretend to gallop around. There were bleachers for the 150 or so spectators, a judges panel table and a creepy rodeo clown. Perfect.

Alec who's seven was the first of our brood to compete. Alec does not like to be publicly humiliated. At all. I mean the boy is so shy he barely talks and when Jeff told him he better participate or else I thought he was going to pass out. After the first contestant ... a girl wearing sparkly pink boots and pink cowboy hat came out of the shoot and pranced around and did a few tricks (riding backwards, jumping over the pumpkins, waving at the judges) I knew Alec was in his head figuring out a way to blow up all of Lewisville. None the less when his name was called he very slowly walked out on his stick horse and glared over at all of us and promptly walked right out of the ring, took the blue participant ribbon from the friendly lady at the exit and sat down in the bleachers and didn't say a word. The announcer even said, "well isn't he a spunky guy". Awesome.

Next up was Blayne. Blayne LOVES public humiliation and ran out of the shoot when his name was called, like a bullet. He ran so fast that he he tripped and ate it big time. He got right up and with a big smile continued running so fast you could barley see him. He ended up winning 3rd place.

Then it was time for the 1-3 year olds. Here are the girls practicing. Lucie had that special twinkle in her eye that told me that she was in it to win it.

Lennon on the other hand, while at first excited, quickly melted into pure panic mode when she realized that she was up next and that I wasn't going to go out with her. It went down like this: "And now riding her horse, Winner, is Miss Lennon!" The shoot door opens, Lennon takes three big gallops out, looks to the left sees all the people, her eyes bug out then well up and she screams "Mommy!", and turns right around and runs back to the shoot. I turn her around point her to Andy who was waiting for her on the other side and push her back out into the ring. She gets about half way to him crying the whole time and for some reason turns around and comes running back to me again. The crowd at this point was dying laughing. I'm telling you this public humiliation thing is great!

Here she is with her participant ribbon. Look at that poor little face. Love it!

Then there was Lu. She waited patiently while all the other little guys went out with their mom and dads helping them around the pumpkins. Most of them crying or just walking while timidly looking out at the crowd.

Then it was her turn. She went right out galloping her little heart out.

Round and round the pumpkins she went, smiling all the way. At one point I think she even winked and blew a kiss to the judges. When the air horn blew telling her it was time to exit the ring she just kept right on galloping. I ran out into the ring to grab her and she galloped faster right away from me. Laughter and cheers and harmony spread through the audience and I knew right then that my little baby was a shoe in.

She politley received her participant ribbon and took her seat next to the - stilll plotting how to wipe us all out, Alec, the still smiling Blayne, the still blubbering Lennon, and never took her eye off the judges table.

And then we heard it. "Our 3rd place winner, riding Champion (yes, I was trying to sway the judges a little with their horse names) is Miss Lucie"! She walked back out to the arena got her belt buckle award and posed for a picture with the rodeo clown. No fear, no hesitation.

You go girl. I seriously was so proud of her. It made my heart explode.

Lennon honey you did just fine. We love that you tried. But you better get used to the pubilc humiliation. Mama's hooked!

Summer Lovin ... Had Us a Blast!

2009-09-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

Now that the summer is over I finally have some time to post on my blog. I know I need to keep up better with this, but it seems of late that I am too busy reading other people's blogs :). We have had the BEST summer ever. We played outside like mad dogs, did tons of stuff with friends, went to the circus, went to the BEST wedding ever in the Hill Country for our friends Steph and Justin, cooked outside almost every night, put up a play house for the girls, visited my grandparents and my aunt and uncles in Illinois, I went to DC three times, and Toronto once, Rylie girl came for a visit, I turned 30, Andy turned 29, our tiny baby that was JUST in my belly turned 2, Queenie had a birthday, we finished our kitchen, we went to the PAUL MCCARTNEY concert, I made tons of cupcake pops (my new passion), Lucie learned to talk, Lennon learned to chill out (mostly). It has just been GREAT! These pics are not in chronological order, sorry.

PS- I need to add some more b-day pics from my 30th and our trip to Illinois. These will be posted soon!

Lulu at Queenie's B-day breakfast. She NEVER cries so I had to post this!

Seriously, could this be any more classic? Me, always posing, and my beautiful prissy (not) daughter with her finger up her nose.

My two favorite homeboys.

Meggie and Queenie! Happy Birthday Queenie! Glad you are still around at 21!

Lucie wearing the sunglasses Aunt Elaine bought her! SHE LOVES THEM!!!!!

Opening presents at Lucie's 2nd Birthday. Blayne's like ... uh huh ... I want what is in the bag :)

Uncle Jack with his favorite chicas!

Lucie waiting for her birthday to start. I made her have an Elmo party. Lucie is so silly, she doesn't have a "favorite" anything. She just likes to hang out with Lennon and me and Andy. No tv character, no favorite color, nothing she's childishly crazy over. Just her family. I LOVE IT! I know it is wrong, so wrong. But I really love that she just wants to be with us! WE are her favorite :)

Mimi bought this for Lu's birthday. A bow holder! Our friend in Ennis made it. Amanda Zabonik http://www.myspace.com/redbarncandlecompany . She also makes seriously THE BEST candles EVER! They burn twice as long at Tyler candles and they smell better and they are cheaper. GO TO HER SITE!

I made some Elmo cake pops for Lucie's birthday party. They are SO good and I have pretty much become obsessed with making these things now. They are just TOO cute!

Andy and I were SO blessed and were able to go to the Paul McCartney Concert. It was pretty much my idea of heaven. I just needed three other guys up on stage with him. The concert was at the new Cowboy's stadium and was just amazing! At the very end he finally put some images up on Jerry's screen, this was, " Here Comes the Sun". Heaven. For Me.

At the show! Big dork Andy!

Paul on the screen. He was so amazing! Light hearted, young, played for three hours straight, played about 15 different guitars, moved me, made me so thankful for my parents, made me feel good about my kid's names, just really really made me happy!

Serving drinks for our friends in our suite for the Paul McCartney concert.

At Lu's birthday party at Teressa's. All the mommies with their babes :)

CHEESE - Happy 2nd Birthday!!!!

My kids on the street in Oak Cliff. Should I say anymore?

River 09! We went a couple of times this summer. Brother Jack actually made it out this trip so I was super happy! We rented an awesome house that sat right on the river. Loved it loved it loved it!

Me and Val-A-wa!!!

Happy 29th Andrew Bradley Dyke Lopez! You are my best friend and the BEST dad ever! Seriously dude!!! Same team Farvre!

Lennon and I at the Circus. She was trying to be brave :)

We went down on the floor before hand and they got to try on some costumes.

Watching the show ... love this shot!

Breakfast on the new island in the kitchen. They love sitting in the big red chairs!

Lucie AKA the dirtiest baby EVER. I think she had markers, dirt, crayons, worms, Ebola, cooties, I mean everything on her this day. She's super!

Let me out of the house...I'm so dirty, I must live outside with the worms and the other people of the Earth who truly understand me! Lennon, you don't get it. You still freak out when a spec of dirt hovers near you.

All the cousins with Papa Pez!

My Favorite pic of Andy and Lu. I know these girls are going to look at these pictures one day and say, "Mom, what was the deal with those big bows"? Um...really? Can anything be cuter than this?

Looks like trouble ... the FAM on the way to watch fireworks.

Cheesers all around! It blows my mind how much Rylie looks like Mimi Rox.

This is just a little too much JonBenet, but the girls had SO much fun. They had a real tea party with pink cupcakes and got to dress up in whatever they wanted to try on. Blue eyeshadow was the rage and all was pure and perfect in the world for that hour.

What Lennon really did our whole family vacation at the Texan. Poor kid really struggled. She was so excited to spend time with Rylie, but I think, had some hard moments in dealing with the fact she had to share - sometimes.

Me and the girlies with Micky the monkey. He was super cute. He had some moments though ... made me a little nervous.

Our three silly girls with their hats/braclets. They fought over these for three days. They never lost air. Go balloon man!

Our sweet baby Lu playing outside. Too fun! Too cute. Too Lu

Me and my Grandma Millie Candy celebrating my 30th birthday. I love her more than I can express. I want to be all of the things that I love about her. Her bookshelves, her garden, her unfailing love of what she cherishes, her class, her strength, her books, her bleu cheese dressing, her love of the earth, her love of her family, her love of her mother, her love of MY mother, her love of me, her love of her husband, her love of fairies, her love of magic, her love of possibilities, her love of children, her love of animals, her love of love. Love you Grandma!!

My new second cousin. I want to steal him. Look at his face. I also want to steal his mama and have her come hang out with me and my girlies for a weekend. Swap mama stories, life stories, love stories. Love me some Hudson AND Cooper and some Ben and Stacy!

Ummmmm...can you say Candy family resemblence. Laura Varee Vs. Lucie Varee. Auntie - you rock! I'm so glad my girlies have you like I have you!!!!!

Growing up we always took pictures out by the front yard tree. Prom night, homecoming, easter, everything got documented by that tree. It killed me when my parents had to cut the tree down. Such is life I guess. But man it was hard. Don't know how long we will be in this house but, I want as many tree pictures as possible.

Shamless plug...but I'm SUPER proud. My team voted me teammate of the year for 2008. This is me crying like a fool. I had snot coming out of my nose - seriously. NICE. I was insanely humbled and honored and just really floating out of my body.

Some more cake pops. These were for my friend Kate's shower. She didn't know if she was having a girl or boy so I did a mash up. I loved the way they turned out. Seriously these things have become my outlet! She ended up with a boy. Baby Beau. Sweetest baby ever. I got to rock him recently for a good 20 minutes. He tickeled my chest with his tiny little hand and looked right in my eyes the whole time. I *heart* him! Dang it....I'm a little baby crazy right now and craving a little boy, is it that obvious?

Did I mention, I am making diaper cakes also. I just think these make the cutest table center pieces!

I will end on this HOT note. Me and Elizabeth and Val on my 30th. We had SO much fun and I felt so blessed to spend this night celebrating with two of my childhood friends. I know how rare that is and I am so unbelieveably grateful.

FINALLY Catching up

2009-05-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

I know I know its been waay too long. No excuses. I will just do a quick re-cap of the last one hundred months and then I promise to keep up with this thing!

Lennon turned 3 in February. We had her party at Boomerangs bounce house place. A week later some kid almost got killed in one of the houses. Whoopsie.

I love this shot of the girls. Look at thier legs. We've noticed that anytime they are together like this they are either holding hands or all tangled up together. I hope that lasts a little longer. They are already fighting over baby dolls and clothes and make-up and boys ... okay not boys but they do fight over daddy a lot!

Here's Miss Lennon on her first day of Montessori school. She's holding her arm all gimpy because she got burned on our treadmill. Seriously. She milked that one for a good three months. School is going MUCH beter for her. About a month in we had a parent teacher conference and they told us that she was having a hard time transisitioning to new activities during the day. That was just weird to me because the girl loves a schedule. I guess she got over it because now she can't wait to get to school.

My sweet little puppy face. Queenie bought us tickets to Baby Loves Disco for Lennon's birthday. We had a blast and the girls were dancing machines.

Lucie was so cute that day. She scared the crap out of us though when she would just go up to any family and act like she belonged to them. We are noticing that she is finally starting to be a little weary of strangers. I never thought I would want her to be that way, but after the 100th time of pealing her off the leg of the random pizza guy or store clerk or homeless person I'm glad she's sticking a little closer to me.

Sorry this is so blury. The Easter babies LOVED getting dressed up. We keep thinking Lucie is going to be our little tom boy but she gets so excited when we put dresses on her now. She's also really into purses and wants to carry one all the time. So who knows? Lennon is absolutely driving me INSANE with her clothes. She wants to wear a dress everyday and it's usually the same little brown and white polka dot dress. I went to Gymboree a few weeks ago and bought her four new dresses which she refuses to wear. We are learing to pick our battles though and she ends up wearing that damn dress about three times a week.

I have been searching for some paintings for my room and couldn't find anything that I really liked. I saw this tree design on a blanket tag my mom bought me for Christmas so I decided to just paint it myself. I've never painted on canvas before so I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Silly girls! This is the other outfit that Lennon has to wear at least twice a week.

I will end on this note. Lucie peed in the potty!!!!!!!!!!! She's only done it a couple times since this time, but we are in no rush especially since Aunt Megan tought Lennon how to change Lucie's diapers. This makes up for her teaching Lennon to say "I'm going to pee on you". Which she only says in public places. At the top of her lungs. As she lifts her leg up like a dog. Totally makes up for that.

More to come ... I need to up load some more pics. So that probably means another 6 months ;)

The Buff-a-lents are coming!!!

2009-01-27T14:06:00.001-08:00

We took the freakazoids to see some honest to goodness real buffalo this past weekend. It was quite the experience let me tell ya. We drove to the area where the Lewisville Lake dam opens to the Trinity River. Andy's been fly fishing there for the past few weekends and it's actually a really pretty area. They do canoe and kayak riding lessons here also, that will be an adventure we want to tackle this spring.

Anyway, back to the buffalo. We paid our money and then drove down to the meeting point. No one told us this was the meeting point mind you as the lady who took our money just grunted and said drive slow. There were about 30 other people all standing around trying to figure out what to do next. Well, miss personality at the park entrance showed up and opened the gates right under the dam. We all jumped back in our cars and started to follow her. We drove on a dirt road for a few miles then the caravan made an abrupt left turn into a pasture. Now HAD we of known that we would be going on a off road adventure we would all be packed into Andy's Ford F150. But since our guide only spoke caveman we were in my very low to the ground Stratus. There were a couple close calls, but we made it through. We drove another mile or so through the pasture and then came to our destination. Then low and behold another guide showed up and he informed us that we would finally reach the buffalos ... after walking about another 200 meters down the fence line. So off we went in search of the mighty illusive beasts.

He stopped us after a very long walk (maybe it wasn't that long ... we just each had 2o extra pounds we were lugging in the form of small booger faced children so it seemed long). Finally after his numerous attempts at shaking a feed bag and shouting, "Hey Buffalo", I'm not kidding, we saw them! These huge suckers could RUN! A herd of 30 or so buffalo came right up to the fence. The guide told us to not pick up our children and hold them over to pet the animals as they have been known to in his words ... eviscerate children. Nice.

It truly was quite magical staring at these HUGE animals. I just couldn't get over how fast they were and how rough they were with each other fighting over the treats he had for them.

The girls seemed to like it. Lucie kept pointing at them and said that they were "bubba's" which is what she calls dogs. Lennon thought that the baby buff-a-lents were the cutest. I think this is Lennon talk for a buffalo crossed with elephant. Who knows. We were about to leave when Lennon of course needed to use the bathroom. Mind you we are in a open pasture a good five minute walk from the car, in front of 30 other people and of course 30 buffalo. I walked her out into the field behind a mesquite tree as discretely as I could and Miss Lennon got her first experience popping a squat in a field. I was horrified for her but of course she ran up to everyone and yelled "I went pee pee - OUTSIDE". Everyone nervously laughed ... thank God.

It was a fun afternoon and a beautiful day. I am glad that they are slowly but surely building up herds across the US. They estimated that during their prime they were 30 million strong. Mate on buff-a-lents, we sure would like to see you around more.

New Orleans Trip

2009-01-19T14:11:00.001-08:00

Andy and I took a mini trip the first weekend in January to New Orleans. I was in town for a meeting and Andy flew in on Saturday to hang out with me for a day. We had such a fun time. After walking around trying to get our bearings we stopped in an awesome patio restaurant and had yummy etouffee and of course some huge beers. We spent the afternoon just walking around and then later that night we took a vampire tour. It was SO creepy! A front was coming in right as it started so the air was all the sudden chilly, there was a full moon and as we were walking up to the meeting point the bells were ringing at the cathedral. The tour was a tad bit cheesy, but fun all the same. We met up with his cousins a little later that night and bar hopped and ended up at the Casino. When we lost $100 bucks in 20 minutes it was time to leave :)

I stayed a few more days there and had a GREAT time. I love love love NOLA. The food, the people, the music, the atmosphere ... all of it. After I got home I did extensive searches on the flood damage caused by Katrina because it blew my mind that you just didn't see any sign of it anywhere. I found out that the main damage was just a few blocks away from where we were. Crazy and extremely sad. Andy and I want to go back and try to donate some of our time to the rebuilding efforts. After visiting I definitely realized why it's so important that this town be restored. We can not lose it's magic!!

I had to laugh at this sign in one of the bars we stopped in. Apparantly to get on the list you had to be super skanky because we saw some hot messes in that bar that didn't make the list.

Here we are taking a carriage ride through the French Quarter. This was really cool! The guide was great and we bribed him into taking us by Brad and Angelin'a house. It's right in the French Quater. Driving by it doesn't look like anything special but I looked it up on line and OMG it's georgeous!

Some Randomness

2009-01-19T13:57:00.003-08:00

Wanted to share with you all the strangeness of my children.

Lennon and her "friend" stick. She carried this thing around for a few days and FREAKED out when Dora found it and ate it.

I love this shot. It totally shows all their personalities. Rylie the poser, Lennon the goof and Lucie the giggly baby.

Just threw this in so you could see my new bangs!

Yummy...there is nothing better that clean kids right out the bath in diapers attacking you.

And doing flips.

Oh and Lucie got her hair cut. And I really mean hair. Like one strand of hair. Poor baby. Her "lady" as Lennon calls hair dressers is Miss Saint Teressa. Second mother to my children, God send beyond all things Holy. Best thing to ever happen to our family, well except their awesome Grandparents.

I love me some Teressa.

One Million Photos to share

2009-01-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

I'M SO SORRY it's taken me so long to update our blog. One of my many resolutions is to make sure to stay of top of this this year.

I thought instead of a big long post with all the details of what we've been doing since November I would just give you the photo montage.

Enjoy. There are a ton of pictures. The quality of most of them suck. I need a new camera. If anyone would like to send me a free one I would gladly accept. Seriously.

Andy and I voted for the first time ever. Now Lennon is OBSESSED with Obama. Nice. My great and seriously missed friend Lori came into town and ran the Turkey Trot with me. I finished in 30 minutes and didn't stop once! Best part...seeing Lennon jumping up and down at the finish line screaming "Go Mommy Go"!We had Thanksgiving at Grandma Candy's and the Frey's complete with our long lost cousins Kia and Little David...

and a bonfire...

and Lennon and Lucie playing with a wild hog skull. Crap. Not one of my best mom moments, but they didn't get worms so back off CPS.

And then it was Christmas. Lucie playing with her Elmo.

Santa brought Lennon a Little Mermaid doll. With willy willy willy long red hair.

Cheese balls
And their favorite. A rocking horse that makes a rocking noise and neighs (well not anymore since I took the batteries out). They seriously fight over this thing. Thanks Papa Pez.

fter Christmas a few folks from my office took my boss Bob out to Glen Rose for his 50th Birthday! So much fun and I highly recommend visiting the lodge if you ever get a chance -http://www.roughcreek.com/. I had to share this picture with everyone so you could see my lodge chic outfit ...which I was later told looked more like an Elmer Fudd outfit.

And then Rylie came for a visit. We had so much FUN with her this year :)

I swear they "made" me get dressed up with them.

Andy very deep in thought playing the egg game, and Rylie posing as always. Damnit she's getting big.

Balloon drop at um midnight...well maybe it was 10pm :)

I swear ... a new blog is coming!

2009-01-02T19:51:00.001-08:00

Camping, Concerts and the CMA's

2008-11-14T21:21:00.001-08:00

November is shaping up to be just as nuts as last month. Which is great...but geeze I'm tired! Before getting to our fun adventures I wanted to fill everyone in on my latest endeavor - training for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I hate to run. Man I really hate it. Running has always been one of those things that I've always wanted to be good at. So I decided a few months ago that I'm tired of carrying this mom gut around and that I was going to get over my running disdain. So I started running. I ran my first 3 miles outside with out stopping two weeks ago. I still hate running. I'm getting better at it though, and I really enjoy exploring new neighborhoods and having the hour all to myself.

So we decided to be really brave and take the kiddo's camping. I was not the least bit worried about Lennon as she's constantly attached to me, however the thought of taking Lucie aka The Flash to an outdoor location close to water terrified me. We left really early Saturday morning and made it to Beaver's Bend state park in a few hours. This place is AWESOME! Our friends Blair and Lulu (her name is Lucy, but Lennon freaks when we call her that so she is now Lulu) came up to join us and I'm so grateful that I had some help with the girls. The boys skirted off to go fishing and while Lulu and the girls took a nap I did some exploring on my own. I climbed down into the river and did a few minutes of meditating on a big rock right in the middle of a stream. It was amazing and I was able to get some great shots.

The girls loved playing outside though Lucie wanted to play with our campfire so bad. We did all the normal traditions, s'mores, beers by the fire, chased off raccoons and ate blue markers. Wait...that was just Lucie.

Here's Lulu using the leather man (a two pronged fork) to open the wine bottle. It took about 30 minutes but so worth the wait!

The next morning we went on a hike along the river and drove around the lake. Beautiful! The State Park has this great nature center that is home to all kinds of creepy crawly things like, snakes, squirrels, tarantulas, and even an injured owl and falcon. Lucie was is heaven!

Don't get me wrong, I love "roughing" it but I was so excited that they even had a little country store/restaurant that over looks the river. We took the girls and had yummy strawberry cake.
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Mimi Roxie and I went on an adventure with Blayne, Lennon and Lucie to the movies last weekend. We saw Madagascar 2 at the Studio Movie grill and they loved it! It was the first time for the girls to go to the movies and I couldn't believe that they sat through it. Well...not Lucie. Aunt Bibi and Jeff and his son Alec came up later and we all went to Church at Fellowship then took the kids to Fudruckers. Lennon loved her new balloon butterfly, until we got home and Lucie bit it and it popped. Hmmm...I'm really started to notice a trend in this posting.

Sorry these are so blurry ...if you've seen my camera lately you'll know why these look so bad.

Andy and I were so excited the next night when we were able to get a sitter for the kids and go to a concert at the House of Blues. It was AWESOME! We have seen Atmosphere (an independent old school rap group) every time they are in town or down in Austin for the past few years. This was by far the best show yet. One of my oldest and dearest friends Ron from Navarro met us there. We even got to meet Ant the producer and MC!

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Wednesday I was off to Nashville to go to the CMA awards. I was so excited I couldn't sleep the few days beforehand. It was so much better than I ever thought it could be. The Gaylord took about 40 clients and we really VIP'ed it up! Our seats were amazing right above the level where all the celebrities were. I loved Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood's performances ... yes I cried. After the show we walked down to the Wild Horse Saloon and danced until the wee hours of the morning. Ever since I was a little girl I was always fascinated with any kind of award show on TV. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that one day I would be dressed up sitting watching it live. Too cool! The next night we had a dinner with a married couple - Mark and Tia who are singer/songwriters in Nashville. They wrote and received CMA's and Grammy awards for Kenny Wayne Sheppard's - Blue on Black, Dixie Chick's - There's Your Trouble and LeeAnn Womak's - I hope you Dance. They were amazing and learning about the whole process of how songs are pitched to the artists and the drama that they go through was so enlightening.

I am finally back home and so glad to get to snuggle with my hubby (who is by the way a saint these days going above and beyond to help with the girls) and my rug rats.

Here's Lucie being Lucie.

Love to you all!

P.S. I have heard three different genres of music in the past month in concerts that have all played Bob Marley's -Three Little Birds. Jason Mraz, Atmosphere and Kenny Chesney ... thanks for spreading the word:

Rise up this mornin, Smiled with the risin sun, Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep Singin sweet songs Of melodies pure and true, Sayin, (this is my message to you-ou-ou:) Singin: don't worry bout a thing,cause every little thing gonna be all right. Singin: dont worry (dont worry) bout a thing, cause every little thing gonna be all right!

A Rocking October

2008-11-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

October 2008 in the Lopez house was completely insane. Every weekend we had something going on. It started with the Butterfly Flutterby in downtown Grapevine. We dressed the kids up like butterflies and they flapped their little wings down Main Street. So much fun if you take Lennon smearing her butterfly makeup the second we got there and then crying the whole time she was in the parade out of the equation. Poor kiddo. Her face paint was so cute, but by the end she looked like a goth butterfly :)

The next weekend we were off to the costume party that Lewisville hosts every year. The girls were so freaking cute. Lennon was The Little Mermaid and Lucie was Flounder. When I tried the costume on her for the first time she looked like a little boy so I made her a little yellow tutu to "girlie" her up a bit. This event is so much fun. The kids enter the costume contest then they play games to earn candy and cupcakes. I love seeing how cute all the little kids are dressed up!

As if the costume party wasn't fun enough Andy and I decided to further torture, I mean indulge in fun family memories at the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch later that afternoon. We put the kiddos in their best holiday garb complete with a little orange bow with a skull for Lucie which she proceeded to take off every other minute. Lennon loved all the cut outs, hugging each one and saying "You're my best friend" . I even managed to fit my big mom butt in the train. The Patch is always great for photo opps, but the bees were really bad this year so we headed home pretty early this time.

At home we broke out the pumpkins, turned on the scarey Halloween music, popped open a bottle of vino and got to carving. The kids LOVED pulling out pumpkin guts and I must say Andy and I showed up with some pretty fancy carving skills this year. I even toasted the pumpkin seeds ... a la Super mom Queenie style.

Could it be ... finally we got around to the real Halloween and trick or treating. This year we were "those people" again and invaded someone else's neighborhood that we thought would give out better candy than ours. Valerie and her mom Sharon thankfully not only fed us yummy salmon and brussel sprouts before we hit the streets but they also put up with my suger indulged, maniac children. You guys know how nuts Andy and I are about the dinner routine in our house so when both the girls had to get up and run around while we ate dinner I about came un-glued. I mean this only happens once a year...well if you take away Easter, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentines Day so I know I should just chill out :) We only ended up going to about 6 houses because poor little Lucie just couldn't grasp the whole put the candy in the bag and move on to the next house routine. She wanted to eat each piece as she got it and then got very frustrated when she couldn't hold them all in one hand. At one point she laid down on the sidewalk. She also tried to run into every house we went to .. too funny, or scarey. We ended up back at Val's and Lennon handed out the rest of the candy. She's a smart one...one for you two for me :)

Over all we had a great time! October is always such a great weather time of the year in Texas, couple that with lots of free family fun time and even though it was a little crazy at times it always is my favorite time of the year.

Roaring River 2008

2008-11-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Andy and I were so exctied to get to go to the Roaring River State park in early October this year. We missed the past two years of traveling with our friends Val, Bryan, Chris, Laura, Eric and Jennifer due to all these babies under foot :) Val and her brother Chris have been taking this trip to Missouri almost every year since they were small children and now we are carrying on the tradition. The trip was also on the eve of Andy and I's 3 year anniversary so it was even more special to us to be in the place we love so much and got married at. The trip was a great success with everyone catching a few fish...some more than others. The girls drove into Euereka Springs for a pampered day at the spa - it was amazing! We took a mineral bath first in these great claw foot tubs, then they walked us over the to eucalyptis steam closet. I have never seen or experienced anything like it before. It was like a steam room that your head sticks out of. After that we each had a hour long massage. It was a fun and perfect day. We love this trip so much ... the clean mountain air, the over the top views, laughing hard with friends and just feeling like a part of nature. You just can not beat that.

I promise...I really do fish :)
I love this shot of the gang!

Happy Anniversay Andy!

Summer Olympics 2020... here she comes!

2008-11-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

Lennon started going to gymnastics at Excite Gym in Flowermound when she turned 2. She absolutely loves it! I still can not believe the apparatus's that they put these little kids on. They rotate through out the hour on the floor, trampoline, bars and beams. Two weeks ago my mom came up and for the first time I didn't have to help Lennon in class because she was the only one to show up for class. I got to sit in the viewing room and watch as my little baby jumped from 10 feet off a platform and land on two feet with a mighty "ta-da". My heart was so full of pride and it was even more special getting to share that moment with my mom. Every week she gets a little better and the teacher says as soon as she's potty trained (that's another story) she can move up to the next level. I PROMISE I will not be "one of those moms", but man I sure do love watching her learn new skills and push her little body to reach a further for that next bar. I hope she will stick with it for a while at least.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

2008-11-03T17:47:00.000-08:00

Breaks my heart. My baby, my little teenie sweet precious baby turned 1 years old this August. This has been an amazing year. There were times that I didn't know if we would make it, times where we were so tired and broken and dizzy. Then all of the sudden it got better. This has truly been one of the most rewarding exciting years of my life. Thank you Chucie. You came into this world with jet black curly hair, tiny balled up fists and you changed our hearts forever. Now everyday you find a way to keep making it better for us. We love your "ugly" face, your kisses, your brave little self and your unfaltering love of Lennon. We love that you are so independent yet still come running when the tv goes fuzzy. Happy Birthday Chucie!

Amy ... you have some splanning to do.

2008-11-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

Yeah Yeah ... I know! I havne't posted anything for three months. Have no fears the Lopez gang has been busier than ever and I have tons of catching up to do. I'm working on uploading picutures and I promise to have this up to date by the end of the week.

Miss and love you all!!!!

Megan's Vegas Wedding

2008-08-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well we made it back safe and sound from Vegas! It was an amazing trip and way too much fun. I really think that I am still trying to catch up, I definitely lost about 3 years of my life there :)

The trip started with Andy and I spotting Jim Belushi at the airport. As we were driving to our hotel we saw that he had a huge billboard on the strip so that was pretty neat. We got to our hotel around 5pm and were blown away. Caesar's is way over the top! The first thing that I noticed was the stale air in the hotel. I could not believe that they actually let people smoke in the casinos. We FINALLY found our room after about 20 minutes of looking for our elevator and about passed out when we saw how nice it was. My boss called in a favor and got us upgraded to a suite. It was decorated with over sized purple couches, 3 flat screen TVs, a separate dining area, a huge bedroom and one of the nicest bathrooms I have ever seen. I have stayed in a lot of really nice rooms in recent years -this was different, very modern and just very Vegas.

We then headed down to the casino to try and figure out how to gamble. We were a little overwhelmed to say the least. After a few attempts and losing a quick 4o dollars we decided we were terrible at gambling and headed over to dinner. We ate at Spagos which is Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. The food was amazing, wine even better and I just really enjoyed getting dressed up and having a conversation with my husband that wasn't interrupted by screams or water spilling everywhere. We did some window shopping afterwards and again I was blown away by the smokers just walking around these amazing stores - Dulce, Jimmy Choo, Gucci like it was no big deal!
Next stop - PURE! Which ended up being a disaster. We waited in line for an hour and apparently only 18 year old girls (or maybe they were prostitutes) were able to get in that night. We did find a really cool rock n roll bar across the street that was perfect. Kristen came over and joined us and we stayed out way too late and had a great time.

The next day we had a ridiculously expensive breakfast and then headed out to the pool. I felt like I had gone back in time. The statues and water features were so beautiful, it was easy to forget we were in Vegas and not in ancient Rome. A little later that day the whole family headed over to our hotel and the boys left to gamble and the girls headed out to shop! Maybe I should say wishful think :)

We all got back to the suite to help Megan get dressed. Megan was so pretty! Her dress was totally Megan. It was white with green and pink flowers and she wore a big white, pink and green veil. Shawn wore a paid suit jacket and jeans. I know, I know not your typical wedding garb, but if they did it any different they wouldn't have been themselves and it just wouldn't have been so fun!

I love this shot of them walking down the strip on their way to dinner.

We met up with Shawn's family for dinner and then we were headed out to the Little White Chapel.

Elvis was there to officiate another wedding and he was a total riot. He was really funny and kept us all entertained while we waited for the other couples in front of us to finish up. The Chapel totally cracked us up. It's in old town Las Vegas and in kind of a seedy area, but that actual chapel was great ... it was like stepping back in the 50's. It blew my mind how many people were there! You had everyone from a young couple eloping in t shirts and jeans to full blown wedding parties. No one was as cute as my sister though!

Megan and Shawn walked into some song that I know I should know, but I didn't. I was more impressed that they walked out to Justin Timberlake's Love Stoned. So cool! They were so cute and happy, even though they were dealing with some drama, the wedding was perfect.

After the wedding we all went our separate ways and Jack, Kristen, Andy and I ended up bar hopping at Caesar's and Bellagio's and then headed back to the same hole in the wall bar across the street from our hotel. Which by the way played the best mix of old school rap and rock I have ever heard!!

At one point I asked Andy what time it was, when he said 3am and I realized that meant 5am Texas time I couldn't believe it. Who knew we remembered how to party like that :)

I know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but this shot is just way too funny not to share. Andy and his new friend at 3 in morning in Vegas. Way to go Babe!!

The last day of our trip we headed over to the Excalibur to hang out with my parents at the pool and then we headed home to two little girls that really missed there mama and daddy!

We had an unforgettable great time in Vegas. The best part of the trip was hanging out with my family as we all pretend to be grown-ups. We all truly like each other and it was just so much fun getting to let loose and get crazy with the one's that will make fun of you about it for many years to come.

Congratulations Megan and Shawn. I've never met two people who were so perfectly matched for one another. Thank you for letting be a part of your special day!

2008-08-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Andy and I wanted to share some pictures of the girls (see links below). Everyone is doing great! Lennon is completely talking now and she just cracks us up. She is a total princess diva always wanting to wear a dress, a necklace and a bow - oh and carry a purse. I really thought she would be our tomboy, but that’s sooo not the case. Lucie is walking and just trying to stay in one piece. She is constantly being picked up and thrown around by her sister/tormentor. She is into stacking blocks and knocking them down, playing with things that are too small for her and eating. The child eats like a grown man – seriously. Her birthday is just around the corner and I can not believe that she is already going to be 1. It hurts my heart so bad knowing how fast this special time is passing.

Little Miss Rylie is also doing great! She’s all geared up for the first grade and so glad to be done with kindergarten. She lost her first tooth this summer and was so proud. She had a long visit with us this summer and had a great time playing with her sisters and meeting some new family (my aunt and uncle and Grandparents). She is just an awesome kid and a joy to be around. Seriously, there is something about this little girl that is so special. Definitely not like most five year olds I have ever been around.

Andy’s new job is really working out and he’s getting the hang of it more and more. He sure loves that he can wear jeans now and not a tie everyday. It’s the little things in lifeJ. We are slowly but surely working on the house. We really focused this summer on traveling and spending time with the kids so when it starts cooling back down his honey do list will definitely keep him busy. Poor guy! If he didn’t love it I’d almost feel sorry for him.

I’m also doing great. Work is insane and I’m hoping that I won’t have to fly anywhere in August. The smell of airplanes is really starting to get to me. We just had a huge party at the hotel and flew 50 clients down to wine and dine them. It was so over the top and fun. I just got chosen to serve on my hotel’s GET Involved committee which I am stoked about. It’s been so hard to find time to volunteer anywhere since having the girls so this will give me a chance to do what I really love - at work! God I love this job!! I’m on an organizational kick right now at home. It feels so good to actually be able to walk into my closet. Even though I know it won’t stay that way for long I will relish in it while I can. I’m finding it harder and harder to balance the whole-wife/mother/life/work/house parts of my life right now. Thank God I have such an awesome family that is so helpful. I know it takes a lot of work – I’m just trying to hold on to my sanity sometimes. Well, at least I’m having an amazing time trying to figure it all out!!

I hope you all are well and had a great summer.

All of our love,

Andy, Amy, Rylie, Lennon, and sweet baby Lucie Lou
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Why I Love So You Think You Can Dance...

2008-06-12T21:24:00.001-07:00

I LOVE SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!!!!!

I started watching this show two years ago in the days of Benji and Travis. I was on maternity leave with Lennon so it will always hold a very strong memory for me.

The first thing that jumps out to me about the show is not the dancing but the music. I have heard so many great songs on this show! My favorite was the song that Wade Robson choreographed that year... I think it was called "Ramalama" or something like that. I had that group dance Tivo'ed forever. This show obviously works backwards with the songs first, which I love.

My favorites this year are:
Kherington
Twitch
Josh
Kourtni (such a silly way to spell this ... but who am I to talk)

There are a ton of personalities this year and I love seeing so many kids from the Dallas area.
I'm kind of over the lyrical dancers ...they all just seem to do the same moves over and over again. I get that its hard to dance so powerfully, but there just is not a lot of originality. My favorite are the poppers and the b-boys and girls. This style is just so much more fun to watch. You never know what they are going to do next.

My favorite thing about this show is that my whole family will watch it. Andy likes the girls and the poppers, Lennon thinks every girl is a princess so she is game, Lucie loves the music, and I am just in heaven watching a combination of two of my favorite things ... dancing and new tunes.

Love it!

Lists..

2008-06-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

I guess the cool thing with blogs these days are lists or top tens. I'm all about the lists and the top tens. I pretty much categorize my life in lists these days so bare with me as I will share these with you all randomly in my upcoming blogs. Mine however will be top five lists. Ten is just too much.

Top Five Things I want to say to my little girls as they grow older (these are NOT deep ... just fun):

1) In or Out
2) You have a great name...live up to it
3) Cheerleaders are bitches so just get over it
4) Being a woman is a blessing
5) Nothing good happens after midnight

A little of life experiences and a little of some Mama Candyisms that I thought were point on.
Thanks mom for #5 and for making me come home at 11pm . You WERE right, nothing good happens after midnight. Who knew??

2008-06-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends!

I have always wanted to "blog" so here I am! It been a while since I have had a chance to catch up with a lot of you so here's the latest and greatest with the Lopez's.

Work is going great for me. I'm traveling to DC a lot these days...its tough to leave the kiddos, but the city is so neat and the girls are really getting some good bonding with Andy.
Andy has a new job as a general contractor for a catastrophe company. Basically when your house burns down or as has been so common here lately a tornado damages your roof he is the person that checks it out and hires people to come in and fix it. He LOVES his new job and is doing very well. Best thing is they are paying for his gas and his truck payment! Thank God!

Lennon is a full fledged two year old. She is talking so much now and cracks us up everyday. Who knew a two year old could be so funny. I love the way she is trying so hard to use her pronouns. "What HE doing", "Is this MINES", I like SHE hair". So cute. She plays really great with Lucie for the most part. Shes still a little rough but it's getting better. The part I'm enjoying the most about her right now though is her affection towards Andy and I. We get unsolicited "I love yous" and hugs. Every time she does that I feel my whole body fill up with pride and love. I'm so glad shes so happy and knows how to express that!

Little Lucie is breaking hearts all over Texas these days! I brought her up to my office last week and she smiled and talked and went to everyone that wanted to hold her. That child doesn't know a stranger. She is crawling everywhere VERY fast and pulling up. She'll be walking within a few weeks ... please say a prayer for me. Last week she weighed in at 16 lbs and she's in the 10% percentile for her height and weight. So she's a little sprite, but the doctor wasn't concerned at all. The kid eats like a grown man so she'll catch up. She can say - mama, dada, baba, lennon, and shes blowing kisses and clapping her hands. I think this will be my musical baby ... every time she hears it she bounces up and down and smiles. Rock on Baby Choocie!

Rylie graduated from Kindergarten yesterday at the top of her class! She's so smart and her math and reading skills are higher than everyone in the class. This is awesome as she started Kindergarten at age 4! We are busy making plans to have her out for a few weeks this summer. I can't wait to take her roller skating ... her new found favorite thing. I have some of the fondest memories of roller skating on our carport at the old house in Bardwell and in the cotton gin across the street. We are planning on lots of camping and swimming and playing!

We have a new dog .. Dora Ann Lopez. She's an Australian Sheppard and I'm not sure what to think of her yet. She seems okay but is a little skittish . She's really good with the kids, especially Lucie so I guess she can stay :) Our kitty Nellie ran away a few months ago and Attila totally went nuts. He was so sad. Dora seems to be doing the trick as he totally treats her like she's his baby. Andy and I have always known he was a "funny" dog if you know what I mean :)

That's about all for now :) The Candy family is all headed to Vegas next month for Megan's wedding. I'm pretty sure if someone were to follow us around with a camera we could have our own reality show. Candy's Go To Vegas --- watch for us this fall :)