Manners 101

Today was sweet Bailey's birthday. She turned 9 years old. What a sweetie she is. We are super proud of her. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner. She told me that she would like a steak. Scott pulled some steaks out of the freezer and then a while later, said lets just go out for a steak. We had a gift card so we decided that it would be a good chance to treat her to a really GOOD dinner. Not to say that Scott can't grill up a MEAN steak, he's one of the best!

But after our outing I think that maybe we should have dined IN!

So we get our table and all the kids start coloring on their little menus. Then Gavin lifts up the little bread plate that they hand out and shows me the pretty picture that he colored on the plate. Nice. So I told him, with a stern look on my face that coloring on the plate was bad. He turkeyed up and started crying. So of course the guilt sets in. We ended up giving him hugs and kisses because his little frown just melts you in your tracks. Then he gets this little look on his face, the one where he is working it all out in his head--coloring on plate = getting in trouble = hugs from mom and dad....TOTALY WORTH IT!

I think that when the hostess seats our family it only takes them a nano second to see that our table will be the loudest table in the ENTIRE restaurant, so our section then slowly morphs into the daycare section. So I guess the fact that my kids speak at about 900 decibels shouldn't really bother me, but for some reason I am constantly telling them to talk quieter.

Then the salads come and my little baby birds all sit there with their mouths open waiting for their bite. Gavin was sitting next to Scott begging croutons off of him and I could see a pea sized gob of something shiny on his forehead. I told Scott to wipe it off. He swiped his finger across his forehead and takes a look. Good thing he didn't think it was that yummy honey butter they give you with the bread. In fact, it was a uber huge green booger, shinning like a north star on his face, Scott gave a little gag. Meanwhile, Isabelle is HACKING her lungs up right across from him, and had been since we sat down. The kid didn't cough one time all day until we walked into that restaurant. And it is now dawning on me that it probably wasn't HIS snot. Way to go Isabelle, your strep laden mucous landed on your brother. At least it didn't hit the family at the table behind us.

Finally our food arrives, after about 15 more 900 decibel inquiries from Gavin asking where his food was.

So we're sitting there enjoying our yummy overpriced steak dinner and Kylie starts yanking off the band aid that was covering her wart, and begins to wave it around at the table, announcing its presence. I couldn't say it fast enough to stuff that thing in her pocket-- I said it in such haste, I'm sure my voice traveled to every one of the surrounding tables. Then I look over at Gavin and he is doing "see food" to Isabelle. All I could do was think of my grandmother who would probably drop dead in her tracks if she saw how my kids behaved in a restaurant. I think I need to pull out her "Manners 101" manual and give them a lesson or two.

AHHHH......I love my family. Our outings are always so unforgettable.

My Second Amateur iMovie

This is our yearly trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. This trip was extra special because our aunt Christine was with us. Most of the captions are our little inside jokes and memories of the trip, but I thought it was worth posting some of the cute pictures of the kids.

I have been working on making small iMovies out of some of the pictures that just sit on my computer. There are files and files full of pictures that I have taken over the years and no one sees them or gets to appreciate the memories that go along with them.

As one of my new "projects" I have committed to organizing and compiling of some of our trips and outings as well as a compilation for each of my children to document their growth.

I think it will be fun for them to watch them and see how they have grown over the years. I know it will be a lot of work and hours sitting on the computer to sort through pictures, but the end product is worth it.

I still want to do a few scrapbooks too, but those also might take on a digital format. My Mac has a program for that. :)

Sea World San Antonio

So last weekend we loaded up the car and started our adventure to Sea World San Antonio. Our good friends the DeLaGarza's invited us to stay with them at the parents house in San Antonio. I have always loved San Antonio, and this trip only made me love it more. We stayed at James' fathers house, and what a house it was! It was so large it held eleven kids and 6 adults without a sweat. The kids just disappeared and went and played and had adventures. The house was in the hills and on the top of one too, I might add. The whole thing was beautiful and in itself would have been a fun getaway.

On Saturday morning we all made our way to Sea World. The weather was chilly, but luckily we hit a tiny window on the radar where there was no rain. I'm not kidding when I say, that it has rained every day in Texas these last couple of weeks. We were really fortunate that we hit the perfect window of no rain.

Since I am in a considerably weakened state, I had to travel my way around the park in one of those motorized scooters. For days I had an internal debate about which was worse, a traditional wheelchair or a motorized one. Popular vote was motorized, and I'm glad that I did opt for that one. I was a tad bit less of a burden when no one had to push me around. The worst part was the backing up "beep beep beep". But everyone laughed with me whenever I had to go in reverse.

Here are just a few of the snaps of the park.

Here is Bailey, John, Sara, me and Scott on one of the coasters. I think it was the Great White or something like that. It was thrilling! I'm never one to pass up a coaster. Kylie was sad because she is usually my partner and she was a bit too short for this one.

Saturday was me and Scott's 11th anniversary. We went to Sea World the weekend we got engaged, so it was a great place to celebrate. The last 11 years have been the best of my whole life!!

This was the Shamu show "Believe". It was awesome. The kids sat up in the splash zone with ponchos on and this was a snap of the three whales all lined up right before they splashed the kids. They all got soaked, but I brought ponchos so no one froze too bad.

This is "Mr. James" (as the kids call him) one of our closest friends, winning Gavin and Bailey a prize at the arcade. Each kid came home with an arm load of souvenirs.

Feeding the dolphins was the BEST!

The whole gang!

Some of the fun had at the DeLaGarza home. There was so much for the kids to do!

Thanks so much to all of the DeLaGarza gang for showing us such a good time, and being so hospitable. We think the world of you guys!

My first amateur MAC iMovie

Here are some more pictures of our trip to Utah. I got a laptop the other day, and I have been spending some of my days in bed messing around with the cool things on it. This little movie was so easy to make and next time, I will try to make it a little more professional. It was super fun. I would like to make a bunch of these so that looking at pictures will be more fun, than just flipping through them on the computer screen. I have done them before on my PC, but the Mac was so user friendly and I figured it out lickety split. A friend showed me the program, and the next time I opened it I just threw this together. I swear the hardest part was picking the music! Thanks Jocie!

Disneyworld- $3500, Hawaii- $5000, Destin-priceless

I know I haven't written for so long and my last post was so depressing. It had to be said though.
But now the shock is sort of wearing off and the tears are pretty much dried up, life is going forward.
I'm going to try and make this blog my "Family Life" blog. My other blog can be read for updates and more journal-like entries of my battle with cancer, but this one will be my record of day to day life here in the Arnett tribe. There are still wonderful things happening behind the doors of my house and I wouldn't be a good mom if I didn't brag up my kids and share our stories.

So the day after all the news hit our house we literally got in the car and took our long awaited and unbelievably welcome beach trip to Destin Florida. It was the most beautiful beach I think Ive seen since I was in Hawaii on the Nepali Coast. Destin was totally different, but almost more beautiful.
Totally white sand, untarnished by a rock or even a seashell. Sugar-that's what it reminded me of.
Our WONDERFUL friends let us use their condo on the beach and as a result of the "news" we had received the day before, my sister from Australia hopped on a plane and joined us for our vacation. It was so wonderful having her there with us. It was not only the perfect place to spend sister time, she was super supportive to me, and the kids absolutely had a blast with her there. Scott and I have always talked about taking a third person on vacation with us, so we can have an extra pair of hands and a babysitter for date night. My sister spoiled me into thinking I will never be able to take vacation again without a "nanny".
Everything there was literally picture perfect and we took some really cute snaps of the kids.

This was our first minuets on the beach(after a 7 hour day in the car). There was a Hurricane moving in that actually made landfall the next night, but it only made the beach more beautiful and the waters were teeming with life.

Isabelle and Kylie were the totally into the beach. They were all about trying everything. Isabelle got the prize for the best boogie boarder, and Kylie was an awesome snorkeler!

The last day we were there the tide was perfect and created these shallow pools all along the beach it was absolutely dreamy!

We found a crab and caught it. The kids played with it and pretended it was doing kung-fu moves every time he would raise his pincer's up--so funny!

Isabelle our little FISH, learned how to swim without a vest while we were there. Aunt Chris was her pal and they swam so hard poor Christine got swimmers ear! Worth it though, huh Chris?
I cant think of one thing negative to put in here about that trip. It was absolutely perfect and I hope my children never forget it. You know, we have spent thousands of dollars at Disney World, and traveled to exotic places, but this vacation, where we went to just be with one another and spend time in Gods beautiful world was absolutely priceless.

Even with a storm on the horizon, there was beauty to be found.