Silly Band Mania!!!

Have you seen these?!?!? Silly Bands are rubber bracelets shaped like everthing under the sun. My personal fave is the fruit!! And to think...back in my day we only had CIRCLE shaped plastic bracelets!! There is a WHOLE section in WalMart dedicated to this new craze. In San Antonio the cousins traded silly bands like crazy...and we even found rings and necklaces at the mall!! What cool kids we have! Even the babies were rockin the silly bands!

San Antonio Summer Vacation

We take the girls on a family vacation each summer. The benefit of our family living in other states is the chance to take a week to travel, visit, and check out some great places every year! This summer we went to San Antonio, Texas to visit my dear, sweet cousin Jodi and her family. Crosby was almost two the last time we were down there so it had been about 4 years! Way too long! I missed Jodi terribly and the kids were excited to see their cousins (especially since we had two new additions to our growing group! Paisley- 9 months and Jude 14 months)

This visit we went to the Famous San Antonio River Walk. Such a cool place!

This is a picture in front of Santo Antonio the Patron Saint of children. PERFECT!!! It is believed that if a child touches this statue they will by blessed by St. Anthony.

The view of the mall from the river boat ride! COOL!

We decided to ride the river boats this visit for the first time. It was really neat to hear all of the rich history along the San Antonio River. It was pretty hot on the boat and with 7 kids (including 2 babies) they got a little restless but luckily the ride was only about 30 minutes so they all survived!

Of course we made a day trip to Sea World. We just love that place! This was a second time to go so we did a lot of different things that we hadn't gotten to do the last time we had gone. Sea World has everything, rides, shows, live animals, a water park...so much to see and do. If you haven't gone I would soooo recommend it!

We had to get a picture taken with the Sea World Slug BUG!

The big girls and I in line to ride the Great White (a roller coaster where your feet hang free) while dad took Crosby on the log ride. (Paisley stayed home with her Auntie Jojo for the day!)

I took a TON of video at the shows (mostly for the girls to have for memories). eventually I will have them burned to DVD!!! But for right now this works great!!

Well the video isn't uploading right so I guess I will be adding those later!

More Christie Family Weekend Pics!

Here are the rest of our pictures from the weekend before last when Jared, Melissa, and Beckett came to visit us from Minnesota.

As always there was a TON going on with the family PLUS all of the things we wanted to do while the cousins were in town. So needless to say we were VERY Busy people!!!

What all did we do??? Well, here are just a few things:

Many a game of kickball was played....

until with this shot Dad broke the ball......

soccer games Saturday morning at 8 and 11am!!

birthday breakfast for Jared....

a little friendly wager on the Kentucky Derby....
Chelo's horse #12 wins....or does it?!?!?!?

the girls gettin Beckett all dressed up for his dad's birthday fiesta!

the food.....

ice cream cake.....

how many candles are on that cake J-Dog???

A few family shots before they head out....the cousins....

the babies....

WOW!! So much going on and so much fun! We always talk and dream about being a little closer to my family so until that day comes we will be content with our little weekend visits here and there.... Love you guys, thanks so much for coming!!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Bucket!!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo y Feliz Cumpleanos a nuestro primito Beckett Christie!! We were soooo lucky to have Beckett {aka Bucket aka Boss aka Jefe} and his mommy and daddy (our cousins) to visit us last weekend from Minnesota.

flashback:

Here are Beckett and his Dad on his *birthday* last year:

And a few months later when they came to Kansas for a visit in July:

We had such a wonderful time catching up with them and are sooo blessed that they make the trip to Kansas about once a year. It means a lot to us because we LOVE them so much! I have more pics to post that I took with Jared's camera so as soon I get those I will put them up!!

Kickity Kickball!

When the Christie cousins come to town from Minnesota we ALWAYS play kickball!! I have MANY great pictures to share in a later post but for now the footage of a couple BIG GAMES...

So much fun and great exercise!!! We lost one ball and popped another!! What a game!

They Are Coming And We Are EXCITED!!

The Minnesota Christies are headed to Winfield tonight and we couldn't be MORE excited!

We were out their way last summer.

This is what baby Beckett looked like then!! He will turn one on Cinco de Mayo so I bet he has grown a TON!!!

and THIS is what we looked like.....

we've made a pretty big family change since then!!! I can't wait for Paisleygirl to meet her cousins!!

I will post weekend updates soon!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Shirts!!!

This picture does not EVEN begin to describe the massive present my hubby received today!!  Grammy went this past weekend to visit my brother and she brought back a HUGE box of collared shirts for mr. curtis.  This picture does not even begin to show the 45 shirts my hubs now has...FORTY FIVE...my husband isn't going to have to buy another shirt for YEARS to come!!  It was like Christmas times 45!  He was even able to "gift" some of the shirts he has gotten in the past from my bro to his bff and his brother TJ.  Thanks LB!!  Glad you work at a golf course so you can keep Heath "in style."  Love Ya!

Day 5 Headed Home

It was soo cute--- while we were packing up the girls got Beckett and snuggled with him in our bed.

Even though we had just gotten to see them the week before it was HARD to leave. Here the girls are with are best girl Maddy.

We all love Maddy very much she is such a tiny thing... but I'm afraid she didn't get as much attention from us as usual due to the new addition :( sorry Maddy!!

She is such a tiny thing and always good to let the girls pick her up and haul her around!

Crosby got some good car sleep in her new pink paisley booster!! It was way comfy for her!! I am thinking that I will probably buy everything I see with paisleys on it from now on!!

I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked on the way home so the trip seemed pretty long and I dealt with some pretty strong back pains but all in all the ride was fine and the girls were angels--seriously!! It was pretty cool to realize that this was our last road trip as a family of 5 and we have decided that it is time for us to make an investment in a bigger vehicle--dare I say a mini van!!! I don't know about all that but I do have to be practical!! As for fond memories/funny quotes of the trip:

Dad: Had fun golfing and When we walked into J&M's house after the 10 hour road trip and Jared asked "what do you want for dinner and heath replied "Beer."

Crosby: she liked swimming at the beach and her funny quote of the trip was "Uncle Jared, run with your balls, you don't want to lose them!!! (In the ball room at Valley Fair!!)

Chelo: chose the American Girl store as her highlight While we were on the paddle boat "I peddled so hard I tooted!!"

Adler: this poor girl was sick the whole trip!! The temperature/climate change did a NUMBER on her. She coughed and had a sore throat the entire week!! In spite of being sick she had a great time at Valley Fair and the American Girl store. At the BBQ she was talking to Dirk and some other friends of theirs and she was jumping from subject to subject they were learly confused and she said "A.D.D.--sorry!"

Mom: Having a day to myself for indulgent shopping!!! My quote would've been on the paddle boat "Bear down Chelo!!" until her infamous toot and then I said "okay maybe not that hard!!"

Day 4 Lake Calhoun, Stella's, and Downtown

We woke up Thursday morning with the plan of doing some canoeing on the lake. When I got there this is what I saw.... you could also rent paddle boats and I thought PERFECT!!! So the girls and I loaded up while the guys got a canoe. At first it was great paddling right along, we were doing so well...

With Jared and Heath in the lead we paddle to this tunnel under which we promptly got high centered because there was only enough room for our boat to squeeze through beside a sand bar and at that point---okay at no time was I good at steering anyway!!!

So the boys have the ambitious plans to row out and around this three mile island with us following behind in the paddle boat.

Well preggo and the three kids made it just beyond the tunnel when the kids started to poop out. If you've never paddle boated let me tell you they go about a half mile an hour no matter how hard and fast you peddle. This is a workout as big as one of my spin classes I am here to tell ya.

Of course the guys thought we were just being wimpy and we kept making adjustments, moving people from paddle boat to canoe way out in the middle of the lake to try to make it work. I ended up being in the paddle boat the whole time cause there was NO WAY I was going to risk falling into the lake fully clothed (cause you KNOW Murphy's Law is my mantra---especially while pregnant--- 100x more likely for something to go wrong!!)

So in the end it was Heath (complaining the whole way about how hard it was!! Like I was just being a weenie!!), Cros, Chelo, and I in the PB while Adler and Jayrod did laps around the lake in the canoe while waiting for us to get back to the dock. It was fun but I was pooped for sure (Heath said all night how his legs were sooooo sore--mine felt just fine :) and now I know that PBs are for LEISURELY rides with no particular destination in mind!!!

After the "great canoe trip" we had all worked up huge appetites so Jared took us to one of his favorite spots Stella's. Jared and I are a perfect match when it comes to entertainment... as we were driving down the street to eat I saw a restaurant patio on top of a building overlooking Minneapolis and I pointed and said I want to go there--he just smiled and said "that's where we are going!!" This place was seriously the coolest!!! I LOVE to eat outside and the view was amazing!!

The view from our table...

J-Dog...Mr. TV Personality!!!! Is that shirt ALWAYS wrong side out!?!!? heehee

oh and did I mention Stella's is a SEAFOOD place?!?!? This was the BEST fried shrimp I had ever had-- I could've eaten the coctail sauce with a spoon!! Hey I'm pregnant... what do you expect?!?!

The girls and Uncle Jared coloring away at our table!

After lunch Adler, Jared and I made a quick trip another Old Navy. Jared thought we were crazy but they were having that HUGE sale and I hadn't gotten Adler any clothes because she HAS to be with me to try things on. We got her all stocked up on school clothes at GREAT prices---were talking $3.99 pairs of jeans and hoodies!!! And to top it off in MN there is no sales tax on clothes--don't ask me why--so it made things that much cheaper!!! Jared just kept asking "Don't you have Old Navy in Kansas???" I tried to explain to him that 4 kids and school clothes you take the sales when you can get them but I STILL don't think he got it!! Heath definitely gets it and didn't even blink an eye when I came home with a gigantic sack of 6-12 month clothes for Paisley!!! The swimming suits were $2... I bought 6 whoops!!! I guess I am planning on her being a water baby like her sisters!!

For dinner we loaded up the crew and went to downtown MN. We walked around by the Mississippi River...

you can't see it in this picture but Chel spotted a beaver and we were soo excited!!

This is a picture titled "If you don't cooperate for a picture I will DEFINITELY be putting it on the BLOG!! Love ya Ads!!

And finally to end the evening after some debate we settle for dinner at Joe's Garage. We weren't sure how "kid friendly" some of the places downtown on a Thursday night were but this one was just great. We sat out front on the sidewalk had a great LAST NIGHT in MN!!