Getting Ready for Christmas!

Keith and I had plenty of help decorating for Christmas this year! This was the first Christmas that I truly understood why my dad just watched us decorate each year.....and stayed out of it....

Showing out for Landon!

Pop & BeBe drove their new Mule in the Malakoff Christmas Parade this year! The kids were so excited to ride in the parade and throw out candy to all of us.

Well......really.....a picture is worth a 1000 words! Love ya, honey!

Catchin' Up in October/November

In my attempts to "catch up" with my own blog, I wanted to share these pictures from a couple of months ago.

Austin's school had a pumpkin decorating contest and he got 3rd place! His picture was in the Malakoff newspaper! We were so proud! We displayed our pumpkin artwork on the front porch.

Austin was so excited to be Spider-Man!

Kaitlyn's first sucker.......one of many that night! She had such a good time at our church's fall festival!

Watching a puppet show and eating candy....can it get any better?

Sacked out on the way home....which is only about 10 minutes!

My brother and sister-in-law came to my parents for Thanksgiving. It was so good to see them since they live in South Carolina! Kaitlyn turning on the charm for her uncle.

Austin trying to learn some Marine Corp moves!

I guess the charm worked! Uncle Bryan always makes for a good seat.

Tagged!

I've been tagged! Here are the rules:

1. Open your pictures folder.
2. Go to the sixth folder.
3. Open the sixth picture.
4. Import into your blog and tell the story.

Here's our photo:

This photo was taken Labor Day weekend, September 2007. We had just taken our first family of four vacation to Fossil Rim Wildlife Ranch in Glenrose, TX. After our little vacation we drove to Malakoff and spent the weekend with BeBe & Pop and the rest of the family. Keith and Austin spent a good amount of time fishing in the tank with minnows. I love these "like father, like son" photos.

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It was a great time! Kaitlyn was only 4 months old and Austin had turned 3 that summer. He started his first day of preschool when we returned home. Such good memories....seems like yesterday.....

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I now tag.......Courtney, Andi & Julie Estes!

NKOTB Rulz!!!!

Ok.....if you don't know what NKOTB stands for then you do not have to read any further.....


Well....it's true....I am still a New Kids on The Block fan! Yes, I went to their concert with a friend last night and absolutely had a BLAST! Wow! It was AWESOME!!

There was plenty of dancing, singing, jumping up and down and not just from the New Kids. Just picture the entire American Airlines Center in Dallas full of women that look like me that are all reminiscing on their middle school crushes! (Jordan was my guy, by the way!)

Here are some pics!

After 2 or 3 encores and the last song of Hangin' Tough.....the concert was over. I would see them again tomorrow if I could!

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Well, as most of my close family and friends know, I am a pretty sentimental person. Which translates.....I keep everything! About a month ago Keith and I were reading through some of my old middle school notes that my friends had written back in the day and just cracked up laughing! Because every one of them had I love Jordan or NKOTB Rulz! Ha!

Here's just a couple of them! Gotta love the origamy...

Needless to say, it was a BLAST!!! Sorry that my other friends who loved Jordan Knight couldn't go, but someone had to represent!

State Fair of Texas

I thought these were pretty cute! Kaitlyn and Austin really enjoyed the State Fair. What could be better than a day of spending Daddy's money on fun and junk food? You can tell both my kiddos like to dance. That must come from watching Mommy all the time. I am not sure where the love of sugar comes from. Ok, Ok, maybe I do know, they had to get something from me. Daddy does love sugar!

Getting Creative!

Ok mommies........you know those mornings when you wake up, open your eyes, realize hubby is going to be gone ALL day and you think to yourself..........what am I going to do with the kiddos ALL day? You know what I'm talkin' about. Well, I had one of those days last week........and here is what we came up with.




A fort.........a bear cave........a tiger cage......ROAR!

The kiddos had a great time playing in the "fort" all day! I even had time to get some things done around the house! Bonus!



Austin did a great job of using his imagination! He came up with the bear cave and tiger cage ideas!

Cutest li'l tiger cub I've ever seen!

Mommies have to have FUN too! (Austin took this pic....pretty good, huh?)

Tropical Storm Ike (We've been downgraded!)

Hurricane Ike

Living in A Small Town

You know you live in a small town........when you back out of the driveway and Austin excitedly says, "Mommy, we are almost there!"

Happy Grandparents Day!

Austin's new school celebrated Grandparents last Friday! Mom & Dad made a special trip to see Austin and have ice cream with him. They all had a great time!




It looks like Grandpa's shoes aren't too big to fill!

Austin's First Day of School!

Austin has had a great first couple of days of pre-school! He has been excited to do new things and run around with some new friends. Here are some pictures of his first day of school.....





A quick bite of banana before we go.....


.....and Kaitlyn helped Mommy "dust" the hard to reach spaces!

WE DID IT!

We did it! We have moved to Malakoff. We sold our house last week and have been moving into our new house in Star Harbor. For now we are leasing a house. We will try to get some pictures up when we get the chance. I am not sure that we could find the camera right now with all the boxes we have to unpack.

Austin started his new school on Monday, he will be going three days a week this year. He had a good day on the first day, but that is another blog story.

We are excited about getting involved here. We can't wait to get going at our new church and start to meet some new friends here in town. One great thing about being closer to family is that you can pop in for dinner every once in a while. We have already taken advantage of that. Tonight we went and ate dinner at Pop and BeBe's house.

The picture at the top was Kaitlyn helping us pack. We will have more pictures when we get the chance to download the camera.

Busy Summer

It has been a while since our last post. So I thought I would take you on a quick photo tour of what has been going on with the Massingill Family this summer. Kaitlyn turned 1 on May 2nd and Austin turned 4 on July 7th. So we had a couple of birthday parties to plan and pull off. We also got to spend some time with all the grands this summer. Grandma and Grandpa made the trip up for all the birthday parties and we got to spend a few days with Pop and BeBe at Sea World. The highlight of the summer might have been getting to take the kids to Bracketville to spend some time with Pop and Granny Jean. The kids may not remember it but I know Jenn and I will cherish that we are able to have such family in our lives. So here are a few pics of the Massingill Summer 2008.

Kaitlyn wasn't quite sure what to do with her first cake.

This is one of my favorites, we spent a day at the Arboretum in Dallas.

Austin and Kaitlyn hanging out in our front yard, this was before the temperature spiked at 107f.

Austin brought this big guy in all by himself. He caught him on the first minnow, it was one of only three fish we caught the whole time.

We also went to a Frisco Rough Riders game, it was a great time. We got to hang out with our friends, the Harrison's, at the game.

Grandma came with us to the Science Museum in Dallas. I thought this was a good one of the girls hanging out together.

We spent two days at Sea World in San Antonio, all the kids loved it. Too bad Uncle Casey had to work, but maybe he can go next time.

Kaitlyn and Mommy watching the Dolphins and Beluga whales in the pool.

Mommy and Austin playing in the nets at Sea World.

Austin and Blakely hanging in front of the fountain.

Kaitlyn loved all the different fish in the aquarium.

Austin's first roller-coaster, I think he took it better than Mommy.

I know I had money when we got here.

Granny Jean loved having the kids at her house. She picked up Kaitlyn every chance she got.

Pop and Kaitlyn....I will always cherish these pictures.

Massingill Family Picture. We are a photogenic group aren't we.

Blakely, Casey, and Ashley went to Planet Pizza with us on Austin's Birthday to celebrate him turning 4. They were going out of town and wouldn't be able to be at Austin's party.

Grandma and Grandpa came up for Austin's Spiderman party.

Here is Austin's cake and some of his friends who came to his party. We had the party at ASI Gymnastics and the guy in the picture was the coach for our group. All of us had a great time!

And last but not least, this is our house that we have up for sale. We have decided to move to Malakoff. It would take a whole new blog to give you the reasons, so the short and sweet is..... We are following God and taking a Faith Journey with our family. We sold the house once, but the contract fell through. But thanks to God we have another contract and if all goes well we are closing on August 19th.