Fall Festival at the Dallas Arboretum

I have not been to the Dallas Arboretum since I was about 12 years old so going this past week was so much fun! When we went when I was younger we usually went during the summer so we could run through these huge frog statues they have squirting water out of their mouths. For the sake of not having a breakdown, we did not show Sam these fun run through fountains this trip. It looked so beautiful all decorated in fall colors including yellow and orange flowers!

They had a section of the park turned in to a "Fall" village where they even had houses you could walk through made of pumpkins! I can't imagine how long it takes them to pull this off. I kept thinking of workers trying to secure the pumpkins on to the house and accidentally dropping one and it crashes and breaks open on the ground. What a mess!

My Grandma, Mom, Uncle and Aunt were able to come also which was fun! I'm really glad we were able to make it before the season ended or before it started getting super chilly.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and a Fun Fall! Love, The Hills

Western Days

First of all, I want to say Thank you to everyone that came to watch us play! It was so wonderful to see your faces out there! Hope you all had fun! For those of you that don't know what I am talking about, Lewisville, TX puts on this yearly festival called Western Days where they block off all the streets in downtown Lewisville and have gun shows, bands, lassoing competitions and more. Its a very Texas kind of fun :D This year they even had country singer Pat Green come to our town and perform!

Our family band, The Fiddle Rascals played what we do best, old time fiddlin.

We just started doing 3 part harmony with my mom, Tori and me! I think it sounds pretty cool! Tori always rocks her solos though!

We usually have about 3 fiddlers, but only my Uncle Jimmy could make it this year! It was hard enough for him and then boom, one of his strings broke 10 minutes in to our show. SO we covered him with some singing while my step dad ran home to grab a spare violin! He made it back just in time lol

This was the last time for a while my brother Jimmy will play the bass since he moved to New Mexico. Sean has picked up the bass really quick though! He is a natural! We will miss our Jimmy though. We will be playing for Pirate Days in The Colony on the 15th which is fun because my grandma changed all the words of our songs to "Pirate talk" lol And we play the Pirates of the Carribean theme which is cool. That same night we will be playing at out church social's fall festival which should be fun. Plus I love chili cook offs! 

Tantrums? No she would never... okay there she goes

I knew the day would come eventually. The day every parent dreads as he/she peers at the struggling parent with the screaming toddler at the grocery store. You kind of have this awkward "I feel bad for you, wish I could help" look on your face as you just pass by and exit the situation as quickly as possible. Well this past week I decided we would venture out to the Denton Mall to look at the costume shop. I am planning a Barney birthday party for Samantha and they have a Barney costume you can rent. She seemed fine in her stroller as long as she was holding on to my car keys, a new obsession for her. She started to get fussy so we went to walk around and I thought she would have fun in the play place. So, I took her out of her stroller when we got there and told her I needed to hold the keys if she wanted to go play. I could just see Sam accidentally poking a child and potentially having a lawsuit on our hands. Extreme? You would be surprised. Anyways, after I asked her for the keys, her whole life seemed to end in that moment. Screaming, kicking, crying, rolling on the floor. You name it, she did it. This grandpa looked at me like, "Gees what did you do? Can't you control your kid?" Ugh whatever. His little grandson just barely started to walk and was still a pleasant little angel and I just thought to myself, "Just you wait..". Then Sam decided she wanted nothing to do with the play area and ran as fast as she could out in to the mall. She has gotten so fast! Well as you might have guessed, that was the end of that venture out. Its kind of funny I get these parenting emails and it forewarned me about tantrums that week. Well at least I know she is right on track lol. Yay for 21 months..!

Halloween? Already?

So I LOVE the store "Kid to Kid"! They sell gently used kid toys/clothes/everything here! Babies grow so quick its hard to be okay spending a fortune on a brand new wardrobe every couple months. Today, they had their Halloween Event sale! I was able to get 2 costumes and a cute Halloween outfit for $20! Now its just a matter of choosing which costume to use. Which one do you think Sammi should be?

Beautiful day at the Park!

So Sam was up by 7:30 this morning so I decided to get us out to a park and take advantage of the beautiful morning we were having today. The weather this week has been so beautiful and I will be sad to see it go. I don't want to go back to 3 digit weather but I guess I can deal a few more weeks. 70 degree weather is hard to beat! Anyways, I decided we should go try out this park we always drive by but never go to. It was such a wonderful park! Its called Central Park and it is completely covered by trees and there are 2 playgrounds next to each other, one for older kids and the other for younger. There was no kids out there except for this little 3 year old boy with his dad but they were playing on the big kid stuff. Sam, the social bug that she is, decided she wanted to go make a friend and went to go see the boy. They got along so well, it was so cute! They even were holding hands at one point! Because this was the big kid playground I followed behind Sam making sure she didn't fall or get too ambitious and try to climb something she could not climb alone. The little boy Conner went down the big slide and Sam climbed up to follow. She paused and looked down from the high point. "We're up high, huh Sam?!" I stated, then we went down the tall slide together. The little boy yells,"We got a pie? A pie!" He laughed and laughed and thought it was just the funniest thing I could say. Sam decided to copy him every time he said it after that too... except much louder! He would say,"Pie!" Then Sam would say, "PBYE!!" (couldn't quite noodle the "P" sound but was close) They later threw a little soft football around and Conner pretended to be a pizza man and serve pizza to Samantha. More kids started coming but we had already been there for almost an hour and a half so I decided we should go. Little Conner was so sad to see Samantha go and asked his daddy, "Am I going to see her again?" as they walked to their car. His daddy said, "I'm sure you will see her again at the park sometime!" Samantha sure made an impression on this little guy! So cute! I hope we run in to each other again at the park sometime so they can re unite!
Samantha was pretty wiped out when we got home. I washed her hands and she ate a PBJ with milk. I think this was the easiest time I had putting her down for a nap! Such a cutie.

Tuesday is cleaning day! Woopee

Dear Snow White,


I honestly do not know how you did it all those years cleaning up after those 7 men! I have a hard enough time cleaning after the 3 of us! I'll have to try to get more in touch with nature to get the animals to help out huh... I'll work on that.


your friend,
Julia

P.S. I got the Bachelor stuff sent out today so hopefully my sister will make the cut!


Oh and I made Bacon Wrapped chicken for dinner! It was delicious! Next time I will pre-cook the bacon a little bit soo it is more crispy though! If you are looking for a great new chicken recipe ask!

New season of the Bachelor!

Sharla Franklin

So I decided my 23 year old single sister should try out for the Bachelor! I think she would have fun! So, we put together a video and took these pictures last night! I hope she makes it! Tell me whic photo is your favorite!

Bad Toy!

So Samantha's great grandma got this toy for her a while back and although it was a nice gesture, it has been nothing but trouble. This was the last straw. The point of the toy is the child is supposed to sit on the green circle and spin themselves around by twisting the center. Ya, if only kids actually did what was intended with toys. So many kids that I have babysat have come over and have immediately started to stand up and try to spin it so I have to put it away. Well for some reason it was taken out of hiding and back on the floor where Samantha plays. She unintentionally slipped on the spinning green circle while just walking, fell back in to the brick chimney scraping her back all the way down to the ground. This is by far one of the dumbest contraptions made for kids! It is nothing but a hazard! I would not dare giving it to anyone else or donating it... it is going straight to the trash. I wonder if this thing has been recalled. It should be!!! There are my 2 cents. Just a warning for you other moms out there.

Our Future Home!

You never realize how much work goes in to buying a home until you are buying one. When I first walked in to this house i thought to myself, "This is definitely going need some work." But Sean really loved the place and I knew it could be beautiful if we put some work in to it. It is a HUD home and the previous owners trashed the place pretty bad. It needs new carpet, paint, new doors for every room, and other important but small things. So much paperwork and signatures go in to buying a house! Its nuts! We won the bid on the house and we got a 203k loan which allows you to add on repairs to your loan which is nice since we got the house for a great price! I remember saying my senior year of high school that I never wanted to live in The Colony again!!! Well, here we are about to buy a house in good 'ol TC. Now that I am grown up, well as much as I want to be, I realize that The Colony was actually a really nice place to live. Its a good location, its a decent size town that has the small town feel, and its nice how there seems to always be something going on in the community. So after its all said and done, we should be closing on the house by October 1st! Then most likely move in closer to November after the repairs are done! So we can have our first official Christmas at our house! I'm excited! I LOVE decorating and my brain is flooded with ideas! I plan on making Samantha's room a Yo Gabba Gabba theme and I should have her quilt done by at least Christmas. I'm not by any means a seamstress but I really wanted to make her a nice quilt since they are hard to find. Its kind of sad that she is not as interested in Yo Gabba Gabba as she used to be, she is more of a Barney girl now. Oh well, I know she will still love it! And there is always the next kid lol. Well I'll keep you updated with our house!

Sweet Sixteen!

I can't believe my baby sister turned 16 this week! Its insane how things change. I feel like just yesterday we were making plays and Victoria was the little waitress with a stuffed bra, chewing gum with attitude and my mom's high heels. lol I should post the video.Good times. Now she is all grown up and old enough to "legally" date and get a license. Its a scary thought but I guess we all have to grow up someday right? It was fun celebrating her BIG year tonight with the whole family.This post is going to be short tonight but I just wanted to say Happy Birthday little sis! You have grown up to be such a beautiful and sweet young women! I'm so proud of you and the choices you have made. Samantha looks up to you and you are such a great example (aside from the coloring on yourself lol) I love you! Enjoy being 16... you only get 1 year! :)

Beating the Summer Texas Heat, inside and out

So last night, the air conditioning decided to go out. This is not the first time this has happened this summer but being extra hot these days it got the best of me... especially last night trying to get Sam to fall asleep in a room running about 88 degrees. Ugh! It was pretty miserable! Then, all day it was out but luckily it has been fixed so tonight will be a much better night. Being in the hot house led me to think about the little boy that died this past week while staying in his house that had no air conditioning. An update on the case said the boy was extremely dehydrated also and had not had water for at least 5 days. I can't believe how ignorant parents can be. I also can't get over how many cases this summer there have been of children being left in cars and passing away from the heat. This summer has definitely been brutal. On a lighter note, I think Sam has learned what A, B, and C look like and the colors red, green, and blue! I guess we will find out tomorrow if the information stuck! I bought her ABC magnet letters for the fridge and she takes a few off and runs away with them. I say, "Sam bring those back to the fridge, what letters do you have?!" and she responds with a mischievous giggle and puts them behind her back. Eh, at least she is having fun with them.Sammi has also started to show a strong interest in potty training but has not quite grasped the concept. She points to her diaper and says, "OOOOH!!!" Then she runs to the potty, I help her pull down her pants and she pushes as hard as she can! Nothing comes out. Then i look at her pull-up and wups there it all is. I'm sure she will get it soon enough. Well, until next time! Have a good night!

Life Ever Changing

How does an 18 year old girl, sights set for college and dreams to live on the stage change her path completely? Well, she gets picked up while walking home with groceries in Rexburg, Idaho while attending college by her future fiance, gets married, and has a baby! Suddenly a life on the stage does not seem so important anymore since everyday with a toddler seems to be a production. Singing, dancing, and learning never ending! Maybe I'm not singing with stars on Broadway but I get to sing with big named actors including Barney and the cast of Yo Gabba Gabba everyday! Okay, so that may sound a little sarcastic but I can sincerely say that as long as Samantha is smiling and excited  to hear me sing that's all the audience I need. It helps to have my "co-star" Sean too. Life is not always a standing ovation though with a toddler but even when things seem to be getting too overwhelming with Sam, she does something cute to lighten the mood. I decided to start a blog as my personal diary that I wanted to share with family, friends and anyone else dealing with kids! Maybe in our frustrations and accomplishments we can help each other raise some great kids! Plus, I always find myself saying, "oh my gosh Sam did something so cute today and I don't want to forget about it!"... and then I forget. This way, I can share these moments with family and friends. After all, why should I be so selfish?! Well this has been my first official Blog! Until next time!