Halloween 2012

Ok.  So I'm a little behind on posting pictures.  But our Halloween pictures are worth sharing although they're a month late.  Of course, I think every picture of my kids is worth sharing because I think every picture they take is adorable.

Halloween for us is like a trip around the world.  We start by visiting our neighbors.  Then he we head to Great Grandma's house and walk around the block.  Next we drive on over to the Fall Festival to visit Granny.  Then we're off to Nana and Popo's house.  Finally, we drive out to Welcome to visit Stephanie, the kid's godmother.  It's is literaly a trip from one end of the country to the other.

I had deciced a while back that Brazos would be an American soldier, because he had Army fatigues given to him by his Aunt Emilie last year while she was in boot camp.  He finally fit into the outfit this year, so it was perfect for Halloween.

I really wanted Sandy to be something that coordinated with Brazos's costume.  During the summer I had found an outfit that was covered in camo ruffles.  But it was sleeveless and really didn't match his costume at all, and it really bothered me that I didn't make her costume.  I made Brazos's first costume and I really wanted to make Sandy's first costume, too.

After a lot of thought, I finally came up with her costume and made it the week before Halloween.  She was a nurse!  I sewed her little dress and made her a hat.  I found her white stockings and white shoes.  It was perfect and she was the sweetest nurse I had ever seen.  My mom had bought her a winter coat that she also wore with her dress because it was cold.  The coat matched her little outfit so well and she looked like a World War II nurse.  I was in love with my two kids!

 

 

We also went to Burton Elementary's Halloween Carnival with my two nephews.  Cody wanted to be something scary this year and Cullen was the cutest sleeping dragon.  Yep...he slept through it all, but he did a great job looking cute in his costume.

 



Brazos and Sandy were allowed to dress-up one day at their school for a little Halloween party.  Brazos's army pants were too big and kept falling down, so I thought it would be best not to wear them to school.  I don't want him fighting off the girls just yet....hehehehe.  Anyways, he still fit into his Einstein shirt from last year so that's what he wore.  Sandy wore a cute little spider jumper because I didn't want her getting her little white dress dirty before Halloween.

 

I just love dressing my kids up and I think I already have a plan for next year!  I'm so excited!

Fair 2012

Our county fair was in September, but I never got around to posting the pictures we took at the fair.  I really love the fair.  I mean I LOVE the fair.  It could be because I was crowned the Washington County Fair Queen way back in 1999.  Being at the fair just feels like being at home.  I really enjoy walking up and down those hills of dirt and gravel.  I love hearing the sound of music in the background and the sound of animals making their presence known.  I love watching all the old-timers sit around and admire their tractors and engines.  I love seeing all the kids running around without a worry in the world.   I love seeing the neon lights light up our town sky for one week out of the year.  I love eating an ear of corn and sharing a funnel cake with my mom.  I just love being at the fair.  And I am grateful to be able to share the fair with my children.  They will grow up running up and down the same dirt hills and gravel roads I did.  They will grow up learning how to care for animals in the same barns that I and their dad did.  I hope that they will grow up loving the fair just as much as I do. 

We didn't miss a day of the fair.  We went to Cajun Fest the first night.  We went to Gospel Fest the second night.  We watched the crowning the fair queen.  We participated in the fair parade.  We watched a rodeo or two.  We ate an ear of corn and shared a couple of funnel cakes.  We fed the ducks.  We played on the tractors.  I think we did it all.

The kids rode in a red wagon for the fair parade with our church group.  Their little troop was called "Party with the Animals."  Sandy was a cow and Brazos was a pig.  Their Granny was a lively yellow chicken leading the pack.  The kids were all so cute dressed up in their costumes.

After the fair parade we headed down to the fair grounds to enjoy a tall glass of sweet lemonade, do some serious train playing with our new "Fair Train", play with Granny some more and watch them crown the newest fair queen.  Maybe some day Miss Sandy will be the fair queen!

 

The next day we went to Gospel Fest to listen to some good-ole' country music for the soul.  We even played in the dirt and shavings.  I think my kids have already found their favorite part of the fair - dirt!

 

We walked through the Country Creations Building and admired all the creativity the townspeople have around here, from beautiful flower arrangements to scrumptious cakes.  I entered three pictures in the photography contest and each one recieved a blue ribbon!  In a few short years Brazos will be able to enter his pictures in the fair contest, cause you know he likes to click a camera just as much as I do.

 

 

The kids enjoyed getting up close and personal with the farm animals.  Cock-a-doodle-do and MooMooMoo!

 

 

It's always a little boys dream to be able to climb all over the tractors.  Brazos spent lots of time climbing on tractors and kicking dirt around.  He even fed some ducks by hand!

 

 

You don't experience the fair to its' entirety without tasting some country fried food!  A high school friend of ours', Callie, has a local restaurant called Smitty's.  She had a booth at the fair and we gave her goodies a try.  Matt chomped on a Red Velvet Whoopi Pie, while I tasted the Fried Cookie Dough.  Brazos was the sensible one and stuck to a hot dog.

 

 

While in the food court we even ran into Brazos.  No not our little Brazos, but Big Brazos.  Yes, he was the inspiration for naming our Brazos.  I had this young man in my second grade class SIX years ago.  Well, I also had him in the fourth and fifth grade only three and four years ago.  Whew...that sounds better than six years ago.  He was the most darling little second grader and I wanted to keep him as my own.  Since I couldn't keep him...I just had to get my own.

 

 

The rest of the week was spent climbing on more tractors, feeding more ducks, listening to music, and Matt and I participated in the Back Seat Driver Contest.  He was blind folded while driving a lawn mower while I sat in a trailer behind him yelling directions on how to steer through an obstacle course.  We didn't do too well.  I was laughing so hard most of the time that I couldn't yell a word to him.  And at times he didn't know if he was stepping on the gas or not, so we would go slow and we would speed up.  It was a crazy ride!

 

 

It was a glorious week in Washington County and we can't wait for another year to roll around so we can experience the fair all over again.

 

 

 

 

By the way....I learned of this cool new website called PicMonkey that lets you create photo collages for free.  As you can see I tried it out and I really like it.  You should try it too and create yourself a little collage or two.



 

















I Clicked It Up a Notch

This is the last month that the blog www.clickitupanotch.com is going to do their photography contest.  I've only entered once before, which was last month, and the author of the site commented on my photo!  I felt like I had written a letter to a celebrity and they personaly responded! 

On a side note, I was one of those teenage girls who wrote letters to celebrities just hoping for a response.  I wrote to Jonathon Taylor Thomas and he sent me a post card {ok....so it wasn't his actual writing, but a photocopied letter in his handwriting}!  I also sent him fishing supplies for his birthday because I had read in a magazine that he liked to fish.  Wonder if he ever got it...   Then I was part of the Hanson fanclub MOE {Middle of Everywhere}.  Oh...those were the days of dreaming I would one day marry a celebrity.  Do girls still dream of this?  When I taught second grade a few years back, I remember one of my students just knew she was going to marry Zac Efron from High School Musical...he would have only been 15 years older than her.  No biggy.

So here is my favorite photo from October.  Sandy had stood up in her crib for the first time.  She was all smiles when I walked in; but of course, I had to go run and grab my camera to take her picture.  I returned to a crying little girl so sad that her mommy had walked away.  I love this picture because you can see the big tear running down her cheek.  A bittersweet memory.



Hueske Family Christmas

Last weekend we attended the 54th Hueske Family Reunion!  The theme was "A Hueske Family Christmas."  I know it's not Christmas yet.  We still have Halloween and Thanksgiving to go.  But you see, I have picked the theme for the reunion the past few years, and as I was going through my attic, I came across a stack of Christmas stationary that hadn't been used, so I thought What the heck!  Let's have a Christmas party!  After all, we do Christmas in July, so why couldn't we do Christmas in October?

Family members all played along and came dressed in their Christmas best.  We decorated with Christmas decor and even played Chinese Christmas with 50 people!  The most saught after gifts were bottles of wine and M&Ms paired with lottery tickets.  A delicious turkey and ham dinner was served and we held our annual family meeting.

 

 

Gifts for special people in attendance....youngest, oldest, etc.

Lots of Chinese Christmas presents!

Family members signed thier names on an
ornament and placed it on the tree.

Here were the youngest members in attendance:

Chase and Sandy

Sophie

The oldest member in attendance was 87 years old.  He sure looks good for 87!

Oren

These two love birds have been married for over 50 years!

Iva and James

My brother Justin and his wife were the most recently married couple!

When the invitation said to dress in your Christmas best to win a prize, these two came to win! 



Carol and Herman

Four little elves played Pin the Nose on the Snowman.  Some how all four of them pinned the nose right on the spot!!!  I put the blindfold on and couldn't see through it, so I didn't know how they could see through it.  Jax later spilled the beans and said, "I peaked from under the bottom!"  At least he was honest.

Addyson, Jax, and Madelyn

This little guy didn't understand that he
had to keep his eyes covered.  He lifted
the blindfold to pin his nose on!

 It was a jolly ole' time for the descendents of Frederick and Henrietta Hueske!

Kid Fish

I can still remember the Kid Fish tournaments my mom and dad took my brother and me to when we were little.  They were always held a ta  large pond in the country.  My dad loves to fish, so it was always nice to spend time with him doing one of his favorite things.

Recently, the Kid Fish tournament has been held at the Blue Bell Aquatic Center.  This year I thought Brazos would be old enough to participate in the event, so we loaded up the fishing pole and headed to the pool.  I was super excited to see hundreds of fish swimming in the same pool that my kids swim in during the summer months.  I was also anticipating the look on Brazos's face when he caught his first fish.

Well....the event was fun, but to be honost, it didn't live up to my expectations.  Brazos was sent to the kiddie pool to fish with the six and under age group.  There were about fifteen kids dangling poles into the water all hoping for the five fish that were swimming around to bite their bate.  Yes, I said five fish. 

Brazos was excited to see the fish, but that excitement dwindled as the moments went on.  He held his fishing pole for about the first five minutes, but lost interest quickly.  Matt ended up holding the pole most of the time, while the announcer kept saying on the mic, "Parents, this is for your children to fish.  The kids need to be holding the pole."  So when a fish came close to the Brazos's bait, we would try to convince him to hold, or at least put his hand on the pole.  He wasn't interested.

Matt decided to buy some live minnows from a small booth set up beside the pool.  This had to be Brazos's favorite part of the event, catching tiny fish with a net in a small blow-up pool.  {I used to catch Brazos with the fly-swatter dipped in the fish tank trying to catch Scoot the turtle.}  The rest of the event he was more concerned about the two tiny fish in his Ziplock bag that the big catfish swimming past his feet. 

After about an hour of trying to encourage Brazos to fish, we decided to call it quits.  It was fun, but I think Brazos needs to be a little bit older to have the patience to fish.  I can't blame him though.  Fishing isn't my favorite thing to do.  I wish I enjoyed it more, but I just get so darn bored waiting for that bite on the end of my hook.  Maybe Brazos takes after me in this category, but I really hope he learns to like fishing so he can spend lazy weekends with his Papa just waiting for the fish to bite.  We'll just have to try again next time.

It's funny how Sandy used to want to be held all the time, and now that she can crawl, it's completely the opposite!  She wants to be set free on the ground so she can go, go, go.  She has become such a wiggle worm and she pushes against you just so you know she wants DOWN.  I let her crawl a few times on the concrete around the pool, but you can guess where she wanted to go...to the water.  Since she was so unhappy being held by the pool, I took her to the playground so she could crawl around at her leisure.  She did more sitting and watching the bigger kids run around her, but she enjoyed being free from my arms for just a few minutes.

I also let her play in the mirrors in the bathroom after changing her diaper.  She really likes to look at herself in the mirror.  Even her teachers at Mother's Day Out comment on how she enjoys playing with the mirrors at school.  I don't blame her.  A pretty little lady is staring right back at her.

 

And that's our 2012 Kid Fish adventure.  Better luck next time.

Oh, Brazos...

Sunday after church a lady from our congregation pulled me aside to tell a story.  It's a pretty cute and amazing story....of course, I'm biased and love the fact that it's about my adorable son.  {Okay...it was a bit hard for me to say "adorable" because at the moment his nose is covered in green boogers and he refuses to let me clean it.}

This lady from our congregation was at a funeral with her family, specifically her son and daughter-in-law.  She mentioned to her son that it was time they start making her some grand-babies.  At the mention of kids, they started noticing the children running around at the funeral reception.  They picked out one little boy and started commenting on how cute he was.  The mom {lady from our congregation} said, "He's cute, but not as cute as this little boy at our church.  He has the curliest hair.  He'll open the door for people and give your high fives.  I just love watching him during the church service."  {This family once told Matt and I thought we make the cutest kids and should make a whole slew of them.}  She later mentioned that his name was Brazos, and then the discussion began on how unique his name was.

After the funeral, the daughter-in-law and son began their drive home to Austin.  Along the way they took a detour to Round Top to do some antique shopping.  They went into a small shop called Indian Creek.  While shopping they noticed a cute little boy running around the shop.  As they began the "cute" comments again, the clerk joined in the conversation and said, "He's cute, but not as cute as this little boy who came in here the other day.  He sat and talked to me and we took pictures of each other.  Here, I still have his picture on my phone."  She pulled out her phone and found the picture of the cute little boy and as she held the picture up for the couple to see she stated, "His name is Brazos."

The couple looked at each other and knew what the other was thinking...What's the chance of hearing about a little boy named Brazos?  Could this be the same kid my mom knows?

The daughter-in-law asked the clerk to send the picture to her phone.  Once she did, the daughter-in-law messaged the picture to her mother-in-law with the question: Is this the Brazos you know?  Of course to the mother-in-laws amazement it was!  Then the story was shared between the two of them on how they found his picture and so on....


Gosh, I didn't know my son made such an impression on so many people and what a small world it is! 

Also, just a tid bit that blew my mind.....I made the comment to Matt that we should sign Brazos up for modeling and that we could make some moola.  Of course I thought Matt's reaction to this would be No son of my is going to be a model.  No way.  You know what he said...I think we would have to do a lot of driving.  I guess he could always go to Houston for that.  What!!!??!!!  I sat in disbelief for a second or two.  But if you think about it, Brazos does know what he likes fashion-wise.  While were at this Indian Creek store in Round Top, my mom wanted a bracelet.  Brazos kept telling her no and pointed to a different one he liked.  When she picked it up to purchase it, he kept putting it back on the shelf.  Who knows what's in store?  Maybe just one day you'll see Brazos on the next OshKosh advertisement......but don't hold your breath.  Men often forget what they say and agree to.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Thirty years ago today God decided it was my turn to walk {or at least lie and then walk about a year later} on the earth!  I'm so glad he did!  And he sent me to two wonderful parents and a loving family!

Once again...I love birthday parties, so I decided to throw myself a dinner party!  My parents, grandparents, good friend Stephanie, and mother-in-law joined in the festivities with me and my little family.  I'm so glad they all came to enjoy dinner and desserts!

I baked "Nacho Supreme" pasta, corn on the cob, and rustic french bread.  Yum!  And I made myself a birthday cake and apple pecan pie! Even more yum!  AND....I bought myself some York Peppermint Patties.  Super yum!!  A sweet day!

Happy Birthday to me!