Ballard Bunch

Somehow, along the way, our stuffed animals became known as "friends". We would say, "Do you want to take a friend with you?" Some of our "friends" are still very important to us, even at 4 and 5 years old. We have SO many friends (it seems to me) and I have a big bag of friends in the garage that I don't know what to do with. Certain friends we only sleep with, and other friends we play with. Some don't get much attention at all, but don't even think about trying to get rid of it. They won't have it. The most favorite friends even get named. My favorite is Lucy's pink poodle. Walker has a Mickey and a Pluto, and Lucy has Minnie. Well, she named her poodle Plutee, since Walker has Pluto. So now, when they play Mickey and Minnie, they bring Pluto and Plutee, too. They are so much more imaginative and creative than I was. They come up with all these scenarios and can pick up where they left off last time they played this same "game...

Boy this whole blog thing sure was short lived- just a short 2 years later and what a terrible blogger I am now! I know no one is reading this anymore, but my stepmom Grace, or GG, has been begging me to put snow pictures on the blog- 10 inches, people!! It was so crazy. I told the hubby, "I have seen this much snow before, but it is weird seeing it outside my house window!!" It was crazy and fun and wet, but we took advantage of it and had a blast. We (tried) made a snowman, ate snow and made snow ice cream and just had fun. They loved jumping on the snow trampoline, which was sagging so much from all the snow. It was a crazy 2 days- we loved it! Thursday afternoon- left school a little early, already snowing How happy is he???! He is winking and giving a thumbs-up. Lucy has a mouthful of snow. Yes, they are wearing pajamas. We had jim jammer day at school. You can still see our driveway- that will all change in a few hours. They ate snow constantly. Walker is not bothered a...

I am so envious of people that started their blogs when their kids were babies. They have pictures and little stories written down, and will always have those memories. I started this blog when Walker was 3 and Lucy was 2, and I am so glad I did because I have so many special moments that will be (eventually) in our blog books. I do not have a lot of pics or a good memory of when my kids were babies. Lucy was born when Walker was 14 months old, and that first year is pretty much a blur! There are hardly any pictures of Lucy's first 3-4 months, then when things settled down a little bit, I have more. I wish I would have had a blog then- I know I wouldn't have been able to keep up with it regularly, but it still would be nice to have anything from that crazy time in our lives!! By the way, I completely condone having your kids close together. It was crazy hard when Lucy was born, but now- it's SO easy!! They keep each other occupied and are best of friends. I seriously tell a...

The fall has turned into quite a busy time of year for our little family. This fall was no different! Birthdays, bonfires and getting ready for the holidays- I LOVE FALL!!!!! Long sleeve T's, orange, brown, chili, chicken pot pie- just a few of my favorite things. OCTOBER Lucy girl turned 4!! Her birthday meal choices were pancakes, pizza and pancakes. The girl loves her some breakfast for dinner. She really loved the card her brother made for her (still taped up in her room) and her skinny jeans and fringe boots from Jojo. Halloween '09 Woody and Rosetta I love this pic!!! My sisters took the kids to the park and they were talking about exploring. My kids posed and luckily, my sisters got a great picture. This picture is awful quality- but I love it dearly. Jason went to California for a week in October. He never travels for his job, so it was really weird. I actually joined him out there for the weekend and then flew back. He was gone 8 days, and the kids were going crazy mis...

Part 2: Summer!! Our theme for the summer was swimming, movies, and baseball. We went to a weekly movie in Southlake and swam every chance we got. Of course, summer means our annual Kerbel visit to College Station. We also had our first "just us" family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge JUNE Swimming lessons. My kids have never had a fear of the water, but I still didn't know what to expect for swimming lessons. I was blown away!! They both took to it right away and had a blast- it was really cool to see your kids get such confidence and master something like that. This is Lucy's first time jumping off the diving board without any floaties. This was part of their "test" at the end of the lesson. They swam across the deep end of the pool by themselves. She said Walker and Lucy had completed Level 2 after the two week course. They LOVED the diving board- and I love my camera getting cool shots like that :) JULY 4th of July!! Poppa has a serious affection for firewo...

I was thinking of doing a 2009 post, and I thought I should post my fav picture from each month of 2009 as a way to recap and remember. Well, I started going through my photos and there is NO WAY to choose just one!!! So, I will have to break this up into a few posts, I suppose, because I can't pick just one per month. We did so much this past year!! A few things stick out in my mind after looking through the pictures are: - Baseball!! We got way into the Rangers and Walker played fall ball this year. Can't wait for Rangers 2010 :) - Swimming. The kids learned how to swim and we swam A LOT. It was so great to see them swim on their own. Lucy is still talking about being on a swim team. - The beach. We went with Peepaw and GG to the beach for the kids first beach trip. They really have not stopped talking about the beach and remind Peepaw and GG often about going back this summer. I can't wait to see how they get around that one!!!!! JANUARY /FEBRUARY *I didn't take alot...