Happy 12th Bday Bri Bri

We had girl's night bowling bash for Bri's 12th birthday at Time Square Entertainment. We rented the private room where the girls had 3 bowling lanes and 3 pool tables all to themselves. The staff was great, they turned off the lights and put the black lights and strobe on and the girls partied the night away. I just love doing parties elsewhere because they do the cleanup for you:)

The next day we had a pool party for Bri and our nephew Matthew (who share the same bday) so that all the smaller kids and family could celebrate.

After swimming literally allll day long we send the kids upstairs so the adults can have some free time leaving uncle Jorgie in charge.......

I have no idea how my camera made it up there or who took these pictures

This is the look on Tio Luis's face when he sees his gameroom......

Party is finally over peeps!

Showering Baby Jackson with Love and Gifts

Kelli, Karla, Kenya and I hosted a shower for Kristin at her mom's house this past Saturday. Kristin has got to be one of the cutest pregnant women I have seen in a long time. She just has that pregnancy glow. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the event because Miss Brianna took over as photographer and needless to say was texting on the job.

I made my first ever diaper cake for her shower. I usually have no problem with coming up with creative or crafty ideas, it is the implementing part that gives me issues. I actually think it turned out pretty cute though. What do you think?

Kristin got tons of gifts and Paige, Tori and Bella enjoyed helping her open them all. Look at these adorable letters I ordered from our friend Stephanie. She did such a great job on them and I am sure baby Jackson and his sports loving daddy will think they are just as neat as all the ladies did.

Everything turned out great and it was really nice to see everyone we have not seen in quite some time. The food was especially delicious. Kristin did most of it because she is by far the chef in the group and didn't trust the rest of our culinary skills. j/kAfter the shower, Tori, Paige, Jessica and McKenzie entertained us with their fabulous singing and acting skills. I captured this adorable belly shot of Paige and her mommy and couldn't resist sharing it.

After, after the shower we had some vino with Kelli and they girls which led to an impromptu trip to Coaches sports bar to properly celebrate Kelli's last night in Texas before she moves back to Hawaii. OK , I know exactly what you are thinking....Coaches is by no means "proper" but it was definitely lots of fun and lets just say I think we are all glad the camera did not accompany us on that one.

Or not....

Call it wishful thinking. I guess a vacation was not in my stars for the week. From the minute tried to head out it just seemed like something came up and it wasn't meant to be. If it wasn't my work, mother nature, the kids or animals it was something else. I had a million things to do, but finally did all I could do and figure the rest could wait and we were off....

The kids (men and children) had a blast hanging with everyone. They went paddle boating, fishing, swimming in the lake and pool and ended the first night with a super competitive Wii battle. I on the other hand, didn't pull my head from my Blackberry the entire day thanks to work. Hey, at least I was sitting poolside by a lake with a XX in hand. It could have been worse.

Apparently Bella and I were exhausted and slept through the storm of the century. Luis proceeds to tell me there were sirens going off throughout the night and the New Braunsfels area received over 12 inches of rain in a matter of hours. I couldn't believe I did not hear them, or the fact that he just let us to snooze away next to him having no idea why there were sirens and alarms going off everywhere. As we go outside to boat dock there was debris, boats, docks, jet ski's, sheds, RVs rushing down the lake towards the damn. The boat dock was completely submerged under water within 15 minutes and the water was fast approaching the yard. We figured it was time to call our vacation short and get out of dodge. First things first....the Rangels have to eat. In time of emergency you will always find Consuelo in the kitchen. She made homade tortillas, salsa, chorizo, eggs and beans. We packed up an entire weeks worth of food and supplies and headed back to Katy.

Note: This is a 2nd story balcony and the water is making the boat rise to the ceiling.

Luis and I decided we needed to take Bella through the wild animal park because she was such a perfect little angel. (NOT! she screamed bloody murder the entire way there.) Bri and I went there last year and knew she would get such a kick out of it. I don't have all the pics, but here is a peek.

"NO Dragon! That's my sucka"-Bella

Clockin out

We will be at Lake Mc Queeny for the week spending time with the Rangel clan. Pictures soon to follow. 10 kids, 2 dogs, 12 adults should make for one crazy fun time. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break as much as we are:)

I'm hooked

My lovely cousin Caitlin is a little obsessed (in a good way, not the creepy,weird stalker-ish kind of way) over a blog called Confession of a young married couple. It's a blog about an adorable young couple's struggles, triumphs and lessons learned during their marriage. I first read an article the blog author, Kate wrote on keeping the flame burning in a marriage and couldn't have agreed with her more. Three hours and two cups of coffee later, I was hooked and pretty much felt I had known her for years. In fact, the whole family has a blog and they are kind of a big deal in the blogging world.

So of course I tell my wonderful husband, Luis about my newest addiction and suggest he start following the husband, Chris over in his Man Cave. He completely shut me down and said he could care less about what two people he doesn't even know have to say. Well, Uh....that is all I needed to hear after being apart for 3 weeks so I proceeded to rip into him about how insensitive he was and needs to put as much effort into our marriage as Chris (whom i don't even know)does his and I wanted him to be as excited to see me everyday as he is to see a buck during hunting season, blah, blah, blah.


Once I calmed down and realized how incredibly ridiculous I sounded considering the fact he doesn't even know what a blog is and refuses to get with the times and join any social networking whatsoever I sent him a sweet text saying I loved him and how amazing he is to us and that I overreacted yada, yada.

His reply "Fine Jodi I will check out the blog"

**Lesson learned: An apology is a good way to have the last word.

Peach Pie Anyone?

Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie-not perfect, but who's complaining?-Robert Brault

I came across that quote today and it made me smile so I thought I'd share. It also inspired me to bake a peach pie with all these lovely peaches we picked over the weekend. I claim to be a pretty decent chef, but am pretty much clueless when it comes to baking so this should be quite interesting. Who am I kidding? I am going to delegate the task to my wonderfully amazing mother as I have every other baking obligation I ever volunteered for. Why couldn't I have inherited just one single talent from Ninny???

Third times a charm....

At least that's what they say. Let's see if the old adage holds true with my blogging. So where do I even begin?? How about with the past weekend....

We had a relaxing weekend on the river with some of my favorite people. Luis was working and was not able to make it up, but the girls and I had a great time with Granny, Gig, Jess, Paige, Nick and Olivia.

Saturday morning Granny, Bri, Paige, Nadia and I went to pick peaches, blackberries and strawberries at http://www.marburgerorchard.com/ If anyone happens to be in the Fredericksburg area in the next few weeks you should definitely stop by. Even if you are not in the mood to pick your own they have tons of fresh produce grown right there for you to purchase.

We fished, swam, roasted marshmallows by the fire pit, canoed and had a fabulous dinners compliments of uncle Jess.

Bella was not happy about not being able to join the big girls in the waterfall

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I think she wore herself out with all the fun she was having because she woke up Sunday morning with a fever and a tummy ache.

After a dose of Tylenol and a loooong nap on Gig's shoulder she was back to normal

Everyone had an awesome time. It was extra special because my Granny accompanied us. The girls and I really enjoyed being able to spend the time with her.