Summer '09

Playing with cousins!
The cousins, minus 3 of them!
My brothers and the spouses!
Doesn't he clean up nice!
My big 4 year old!!
Typical day in the life of Carson!
The best family picture we got at the beach!
The sexy dads!
Chillaxin'!
The sexy Mommas!
Good thing he has his floaties on in that deep water!
Piddlin'!
A quiet dinner at the Gaylord!
Lookin' good for 10 years:-)
My favorite picture of the summer!
Not sure what this is?
Just playing in the sprinkler!
Oh me oh my, where do I begin? It's been forever since I've been motivated to update this blog! I noticed on my front page of the blog that I've posted something 192 times! I've been blogging since Hayden was born in 2005 and I feel like I've been having a bit of a brain fart! With an almost 4 year old and one nearing 2, you'd think I'd have tons to blog about! So where do I begin? I'll start in April/May with Matt being involved in his 5th MS 150. He wanted to raise a lot of money this year and set his goals high! $5,000 was his goal. With the help of Facebook and a casino party fundraiser, he raised around $5500! We didn't even send out fundraising letters this year! Matt wanted to think of a unique fundraiser this year and with the help of my dear friend Kimberly, we hired a casino company, dressed in our fanciest get ups and raised a lot of money! After the MS 150, we started looking forward to our annual Galveston trip with friends. This year was a blast! Yes, even with 10 adults and 9 kids under 5, we survived! In June, Matt and I celebrated 10 years of marriage at the Gaylord while the kids were at Mimi and Pawpaw camp with the cousins. Then the rest of the summer has been spent trying to stay cool, going to the pool and all that jazz. I start teacher inservice on Wednesday and Thursday, have meet the teacher on Thursday night and school starts on the 1st. Carson is in a class this year instead of the teacher's infant room and he's so excited about having a back pack, lunch box, and nap mat! Hayden will be in the big 4 year old class and he's excited that his bud Noah will be in his class. I'm teaching the oldest 13 kids in the school and I've been getting stuff together for that. Hayden also turns 4 on Friday so we are having the big Chuck E Cheese party that they all have to have! So, there's the past 4 months in a small nut shell. On to a ton of pictures.......

Bueller? Bueller??

Ok, I do still stalk blogs even though I'm obsessed with Facebook. Before I do a marathon post....is anyone out there still dropping by the Noe Wonder blog? Give me a shout if you are. If I get zero comments, back to FB I go:-)

Vacation!!

We will be on vacation in 3 weeks...from today!! I'm so excited. We need a vacation, but doesn't everyone? Hayden is really excited to go to the beach and he can swim this year too. I think Carson will have a blast this year. He was only 7 months old last year when we went! So here's some pictures of last year's vacation, at the same place, and here's to summer vacation. Woo Hoo!!!!

He's Still the Man!!

Even though the MS 150 was cut to 86 miles this year, he's still the man! For the first time ever, the MS Society canceled day 2 of the race b/c severe weather was forecasted for Sunday. I don't think it rained a drop on Sunday!! Matt did, however, give a great, quick speech at the award dinner Friday night and ride 86 miles in 5 hours on Saturday!! In years past, I've watched that ride and always thought "man, all these people riding for folks they don't even know, like Matt's mom!" This year I looked at 3,000 strangers and thought "wow, they are doing this for ME and they don't even know who I am!!" That's a pretty good feeling that there are that many people out there who will raise thousands of dollars for MS research and THEN go out and ride miles and miles on a bike! One of my favorite thing about the MS 150 is Matt's team he rides with. Our friend Alyce was diagnosed with MS about 8 years ago and she and her husband decided to do the MS 150 with about 6 friends. They called their team the Feisty Devils. Their team now has about 300 people and have raised 1.2 million dollars!! Here's to my amazing husband and all the people out there I don't even know. Thank you!! And here's to the Feisty Devils....Riding Like Hell to Fight MS!!

What a man!

150 miles....done!
Finishing day two at Sundance Square
Matt and his mom Valorie
Our family at the end of day one
Half way there!

I have a husband who is more amazing than most people will ever know! I've always said that if he met you one time and your car broke down an hour away and you called, he'd go get you!

We met in 1996 at ACU because we moved in next to each other at UP (For you ACU folks). The rest is history! I remember meeting his parents for the first time and Matt later telling me that his mom had MS. I honestly had no idea what that was. I could tell that he worried about her but that's still all I really knew.

Once we married and moved to the metroplex, we were eating at Subway one day and we saw a flyer for something called the MS150. It was a 150 mile, two day bike ride that raised money for the MS Society. He said "I can do that!" So he bought a used bike, joined a team called the Feisty Devils and began raising money. His first year he raised enough money to be in the "100 Club" which means he was in the top 100 fundraisers that year! The night before the ride, all the teams have a pasta party aka carb load dinner. The team captains, Doug and Alyce (she's the founder of the team. She was diagnosed with MS about 8 years ago) asked Matt if he'd like to give a speech about why he rides. Well, he got up there and gave the most heart felt, tear jerking speech about his mom. People came up to him the day of the race introducing themselves and telling him they heard about his speech. It was almost like I was married to a celebrity:-)

Well, he's since then participated in 4 MS 150's, given even more speeches about his mom, and raised about $6,000. People know his name at that event b/c of his passion for finding a cure for MS....and there are 3,000 riders!

The speech is going to change quite a bit this year b/c one week after last year's MS150, I was diagnosed with MS! He has told me that in years past, he's given a tear jerker speech but this year he's pissed! I love that!!

The MS150 is May 2-3 and it's not too late to donate since donations are not due until June 3rd. If you would like donate any amount, please click here. His goal for fundraising this year is $5,000. He's so ready to ride for his mom AND wife. I'm so proud of him and the support he gives me. You have no idea what he does for me! This isn't the path I would've chosen for myself at the age of 32, but I couldn't think of a better man to go down it with me!! Be thinking of my man next weekend!

If you're still reading.....

I haven't updated this blog since March 7th!! I think since I've been blogging since Aug '05, I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to update. And there's also that thing called Facebook! I do have some new pictures though so what better time to update, right? We went to the Grapevine Botanical Gardens with some friends on Friday and I actually got some pretty decent pictures! Candid shots, not staged are the name of the game at this phase in the boys life! Matt also gave Carson a little haircut at home and he looks really cute! And finally, some Easter pictures. It rained so the Easter bunny just left their baskets on the front porch and we had an indoor egg hunt with some friends. Ok, so there's my monthly update, if you're still checking this blog:-)