Not a fan at all

Oklahoma: I'm NOT a fan at all! I was so happy to be back in Texas EARLY Sunday morning.  Leven, Trever and I headed to Stillwater, Oklahoma Thursday for his last summer baseball tournament. The drive was very pretty on the Indian Turnpike road, but the drive was also 6 hours long! We watched lots of baseball, ate some good food, watched The Dark Knight Rises (awesome movie), and SWEAT our butts off. I seriously thought Texas was the hottest state, boy was I wrong. Insert picture now:

Leven also took a picture of temp and his read 118!
  

Let's just say on our 6 hour ride home, we STUNK so bad. For the first time EVER (I believe it was the first time) I could actually smell myself! Gross and gross. Saturday they played both their games early so we had to sit around for 6 hours (this is when we watched the movie, killing time) waiting on all the other teams to finish pool play before we knew if Trever's team made the tournament bracket on Sunday. Only 8 teams advanced for Sunday bracket play. Sooo...while sitting in the movie theatre we again, STUNK so bad! I felt so sorry for the people around us. Long story short and believe me it's a really long story. They made bracket play (seeded 7th actually) and won their first game on Sunday but lost second. They ended up around 4th place! Awesome job. His team got to play one game on Oklahoma State University's field:

Leven and I headed back late Saturday night and Trever stayed with another player and his family. We needed to get back to get this sweet little lady. Insert another picture:

While we were away Taydem had a blast with Nana and Papa and all her cousins. Thursday afternoon we had their picture taken for the Tatum Eagle football program. It's a really BIG deal to get that picture put in the program every year. We love our Eagles! Although Taydem will be going to kindergarten at Pine Tree (Pirates), she still thinks she's an Eagle like her cousins! My family is just beautiful:

Even though we missed the Balloon Races this year, this little girl didn't! She wants to ride in a hot air balloon so bad!

If you are ever in Stillwater, Ok- Eat at Eskimo Joes!

There are casinos pretty much in every town! Let's just say,Shreveport has us spoiled

I'm sorry if you are from Oklahoma and I offended your state! But I'm Texas born and Texas proud!!!

Okies

We are headed to Oklahoma today for Trever's last summer league baseball tournament. My parents are keeping Taydem (thank you MOM!!!!!!!!!!) because she would def wear me out the entire time up there. She does pretty good at one baseball game, but 5...not so much.

Today is also Leven's last day of volleyball camp.  He puts on a camp every summer for incoming 7th and 8th graders and this year by far has been the best! He had a total of 52 girls. Eight of those girls came from other schools and two of those 8 were from Wyoming (they were visiting family). They all love Coach Barker!

Last night was Taydem's last night for swimming lessons.  I had choir practice at the church and Trever had to work, so that left Leven and Taydem with NO CAR. Thank goodness we live right by the City of Longview's swimming pool. I still felt bad for them walking to and from. And to make it worse he sent me this picture while I'm sitting in choir practice. Of course I had to laugh! He said, "This is how we roll!"

Up Up and AWAY!

The Great Texas Balloon Races have been coming to Longview since 1978.  They have only been cancelled once (2007) because of bad weather (rain)! Because believe me, every year the races get hotter and hotter. My parents house is right behind the Longview Regional Airport and this is where the festivities are held every summer.  My high school days were so much fun! We always had a huge group of friends that went and ran around together, lots of food, games, and of course the concerts. I can remember having some pretty good artists come and sing back in the day.  Then, the races brought in some no name bands and it kind of hit a low mark in my book. 

This year Ronnie Milsap is coming! I love old school music and he's one of my favorites. I was so excited when I learned he was coming to sing.  The other band is JB and the Moonshine band! Love them as well. BUT...and let me emphasize on the word BUT....Trever's last summer league baseball tournament is held this weekend as well in Stillwater, Oklahoma! So now I'm pretty bummed! And this year is the NATIONAL BALLOON RACES! What a bummer, right? More balloons, more food, more people! It's a good thing for Longview, but sucks for us.

This morning as I was taking Taydem to school, balloons filled the sky.  She was yelling, "There's another one, and another one!" It is a pretty neat thing to see. Another reason to love East Texas!

But I will put my big girl panties on and be a mom for this weekend. It IS his last summer baseball game, EVER! And I'm sure we will make memories up in Oklahoma just as we would here in Longview.

This past Friday night, Taydem and I spent the night at my sister's house. We got up EARLY Saturday morning to go have Brittyn's pictures taken. While Brittyn was having a bottle, Taydem had a few pictures taken of her as well. They turned out so good (sneak peeks) and I can't wait to see the rest of them.

Sweet Baby B

Aidan's team finished their baseball season yesterday up in Arkansas.  This weekend we will head to Oklahoma for Trever's LAST baseball game.

My brother's beautiful family!

I've taken a long enough break from working out.  Today I will start it back up. I'm not going to do bootcamp for awhile. I think I can figure out a way to do it by myself. My friend Nicole has been posting different workouts on her Instagram and it's helped me to get motivated. I will let you know how the workouts turn out.

Happy Monday! I hope everyone has a great week ahead of them.

Another milestone

Ms Independent can now tie
her shoes! Whoooo-Hooo!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Say What?

Click on the link below and check out the video of my daugher! Kids will say anything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wy6XQ4ULQ8

My nephew Aidan and his baseball team are headed to NATIONALS this weekend in ARKANSAS! Wish them luck!

Isn't he handsome?



Taydem is doing so good with swimming lessons. I have got to get that girl some goggles though. She came out of the pool yesterday and her eyes made her look high as a kite! She loves it. Here are some pictures!

Nice and easy

Down she goes

Diving for rings

I was NOT checking out her swim instructor...ok...maybe a little!!

Strike a pose

So we got some of Trever's senior pictures ordered yesterday! I was so thankful that they turned out so good. Thanks to Mark Bailey Photography!!

This year is going to be a crazy year for us. I feel like I was just in high school. Times have changed for sure.  Trever will be taking a few college classes this year, applying for scholarships, basketball and baseball games, filling out college applications, sending out graduation announcements, and the list goes on!! I'm actually ready for school to get started. I need my household back on a routine schedule. And my sweet Taydem will start school herself! {tear}

Last Friday we headed down to Tatum to our friends house. They were having us over for a pool party. They just finished their pool and pool house! Beautiful isn't even the word. So happy for my sweet friend Alicia and her hubby Curt! Good times.

Getting my baby fix with my beautiful nieces, Brittyn and Tyler

Saturday Leven and I met up with his dad and Gwen and some friends of theirs for dinner in Shreveport. So of course we chose Superior Bar and Grill! We all had the #15. If you know the #15, then you probably know all the couples shared the meal. Soooo good. I highly recommend it.  Leven and I ended the night doing a little dancing before heading back to Longview.

Sunday we headed to Tyler to watch Trever's baseball games. We were there ALL day because his team made it to the championship game! Thank goodness Taydem's buddy, Carly, was there. They kept themselves entertained with each other. They ended up losing that game but heck, his team is a team of soon to be seniors and juniors and the team they played already had kids signed to play in college and a think a couple just finished their freshmen year! Crazy....we were even in the lead at one time.

This puppy dog was brown at the end of the day!

Taydem started swimming lessons last night at the Longview Swim Center (there are 2 swim centers and one of them is at Pine Tree, lucky us!) She's in a class of 8 and had a blast. She will do this for 2 more weeks. I will try and get some pictures of her tonight.
Peace, Love and hair grease folks!

Watch it disappear

About a month ago I had several brown spots (I'm sure it's sun spots) show up on my face on both of my cheeks. They are in the exact same spot on both sides. I flipped because I try really hard to take care of my face. I have been using Oil of Olay moisturizer on my face morning and night for a really long time. I wash my face every night and use sun screen. I researched the internet for different brands that "say" they can get rid of brown spots before finally buying this product:

I have been using this a little over 2 weeks now and I can already see the brown spots FADING! Wow, best product ever. I use the face wash first, then use the serum under my eyes and on top of spots, then put the moisturzer all over my face. I highly recommend the Loreal Youth Code if you have the same problem.

Yesterday we took Trever to Marc Bailey (http://www.marcbailey.com/) to have his SENIOR PICTURES made! I was sitting there watching him and it brought back the first time I met the little boy. Leven introduced us and the first thing Trever said was, "Hey, you wanna check out my new hearing aids?" He was so cute and could seriously talk to anyone about ANYTHING! (so much like Taydem) After getting married to Leven, I quickly learned that I had to become a responsible adult sooner than I had expected. I was now the mom to a little 11 year old boy!! Not going to lie, being a step parent is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I thank the lord every night that Trever was such a good kid. I know things would have been different if he lived full time with his mom, but that wasn't the case. He was now living with me and I was helping raise him. Between his mom, Leven and myself, I think we have done a pretty good job! Super proud of him and I have enjoyed watching him grow into a young man. Don't get me wrong, there have been times where I wanted to strangle him (not really, but you get the point). But over all, he's been fun! Let this SENIOR YEAR begin. Here is a pic of him posing yesterday.  Can't wait to see the final pictures!

This past weekend was so relaxing. We had no plans but to really just lay around the house. Friday and Saturday night was spent playing Monopoly. We love this game and it gets to be pretty competitive.

Saturday afternoon I took Taydem over to a new splash park that was built by our house. We heard it had opened and we needed to get out of the house for a little bit.  She loved it. I think we were three for almost 2 hours. Who knew that water shooting up out of the ground could be so much fun.  We didn't get there until close to 6:00 which was the perfect time because it wasn't very crowded and wasn't too HOT. I think I've decided to have her 5th birthday party there.  Something new for the kiddos to go crazy at!

Last night we headed out to Mom and Dad's for chicken spaghetti, banana pudding and homemade icecream! I think we all left feeling as if we could throw up (in a good way) because we stuffed ourselves! The kids swam and we got a laugh out of watching the Texas Ranger's baseball game. A huge bolt of lightning crashed in the stadium and all the players took off running. It sounded like a gun shot from the TV. But my brothers got a kick out of it and kept rewinding the DVR so they could watch each player, coach, umpire and people in the stands as they react to the strike!  click on the link below to watch it:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/texas-thunder-lightning-strike-sends-rangers-twins-scurrying-031552572--mlb.html

My new favorite jean are Miss Me jeans. I started buying them about a year ago and I can't stop! Check out my newest pair!

I hated that we celebrated the 4th on a WEDNESDAY! I am so off today.

We spent most of our day yesterday out on the lake.  Lake Cherokee puts on "Sink the Island" every 4th of July. I believe it was the 15th annual.  They always have volleyball, a live band, and the incredible fried catfish! Yesterday had to be one of the hottest days so far of the summer. I was drained by the time we got home and I'm worn out today as well. Good times with our family and friends.

This weekend we have NOTHING planned! Can't believe it. Happy Thursday friends!

Beaumont HEAT

This past weekend we made a quick trip to Beaumont for another one of Trever's baseball tournaments. His team played two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Talk about miserable....it rained all day Saturday which put the games behind just a little bit. But once the rain was out, the humidity was ridiculous.  I swear we could hardly breath. And I thought North East Texas air was bad. Taydem and I only watched the first game on Saturday (bc she was getting restless) then we headed to the hotel to get checked in and take a shower.  That night we went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack and later met up with my sweet friend Amanda.  Amanda and I met in college while both working at Texas Roadhouse. It was one of those instant friendships. We later took a trip to Florida with a bunch of our friends and had a blast! She graduated and I stayed for one more year to finish my education program. Since then she has been in numerous broadway shows!That has always been a dream of hers and she is living it up.  Singing, dancing, acting...she can do it all! Very talented woman....Super proud of her and I can't wait to see her on stage again. She is also an outstanding writer, always has been. Follow her blog....http://www.amandalavergne.com/
I loved my visit with her...it had been way to long. ONE DAY, I will get up to New York to see her!

Here are some baseball shots I took of Trever