The Houston Rodeo

Let me start by saying that I am a born and raised Texan. With that being said I have a confession to make that may make some of you gasp so here it is, I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO THE HOUSTON RODEO!!! dun dun dun!! I know I know its shameful BUT I am proud to announce that NOW I HAVE!!! Wahoo!! Some friends and I took our kids for a day trip to the Rodeo last thursday and we LOVED IT!!! Oh what a blast we had. We went to the petting zoo, saw some pig races (loved this!! did you know that pigs eat oreos?? I had no clue and this is what the pigs raced for haha), we saw some muttin bustin (so adorable and when I asked Mason if he wanted to do this next year he quickly answered "NO") and we went and looked at the live stock animals. This is something we will definitely start doing yearly. Maybe next time daddy can go with us.

Here is Mason Petting the pot belly pig

Samantha was not having anything to do with the petting zoo

Not the best shot but here we are waiting for the pig races

The oreo cookie that the pigs race for

Mason got chosen as the team 4 cheerleader for one of the pig race rounds

This nice man let mason touch one of the baby cows in the livestock show

All the kids together. Hunt, Madeline, Brock, Samantha and Mason.

Thank you to my friends for convincing me to go with them. I wasn't 100% sure I could do it alone with the two kids but I am so glad that we did.

First t-ball practice

I started looking for an activity for Mason back in the fall because he is now getting old enough to play organized sports. Derrek and I went back and forth between soccer and t-ball for a long time. Soccer would be great b/c he loves to run and is getting pretty fast BUT we were worried that he may get upset over not getting to kick the ball. T-ball would be great b/c Derrek use to play baseball and could help him and teach him BUT we were worried he may get bored when he wasn't hitting. Anywho, we went ahead and decided to go with t-ball. I started looking for programs and was very excited to find that he made the age cut off to play in Pearland Little League (yes, that is the same little league that went to the LL world series last year). So we took the plunge and registered him. At registration Derrek came home with 2 boxes of chocolate and raffle tickets to sell. Luckily, we were able to sell all the chocolate and only have 4 more raffle tickets :) February 5th they held the draft and on the 6th we got the call that Mason had been put on the Cardinals. GO CARDS!!

Well we have jumped into this t-ball thing full speed ahead. I have become a co-team mom ( I have to admit I am so excited about it heehee) and practices have started. Mason missed the first 2 b/c we were out of town but he finally got his chance yesterday. HE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! All those little boys are so cute! Mason is actually the youngest one (by 4 months) but he is about middle upper echelon in talent (which was a huge relief for me) haha :). He had never run bases before and he picked it up quickly. He was so funny when he hit the ball and had to run and he ran to 1st base with the bat. haha! When they huddled up he had no clue where to go and stood outside of it looking around at everyone. By the end of practice though he was an old pro :)

Here he is waiting in line (kid in all grey) for his turn to run the bases

And here he is on the go :)

All the kids have to wear helmets so I have also gotten to put my craftiness to use

Needless to say I will be doing this for all the kids :) I also got to make us some shirts

Now I realize that this is NOT about me, but I am having such FUN and so is Mason! All he can say is that he wants to play baseball with his helmet. I am hoping that this means that we made a good choice. Opening day is March 5th and that will be his first chance to play a real game. We are so excited about this new time in our life and we are looking forward to watching our little all star learn and grow.

Happy baseball season to you all :)

Valentines Day and other activities

Happy Valentines Day!! I hope everyone had a great one. Ours started out last week with a Valentine's playdate at my friend Jenny's house. Her daughter Bekah is alway the sweetest little hostess and they always have fun activities for us to do.

Here are all the kids decorating their heart shaped cookies

Samantha's cookie

Mason's cookie

This past weekend I rushed to get teacher gifts together b/c I had totally procrastinated getting them done and I came across a cute and quick idea on Lemon Annie's blog. Decorative hand sanitizer bottles. I mean what teacher would not appreciate hand sanitizer in a class with a bunch of little hands that want to touch everything. So my trusty cricut and I went to work and here are the finished products.

I really was very pleased with how they came out. The only thing I will think more about next time is the color of the tops. The orange top completely clashes with the pink and red. Oh well!

This year for Valentine's Day instead of Derrek and I going out to a romantic dinner where we would have both eaten way to much haha we decided to make it a family affair. The Chic Fil A in Pearland (which happens to be the most awesome CFA around) was doing it up romantic family style for this holiday. You could make a reservation online and you would get table side service :) so i made a reservation for 5pm and we headed over to the local CFA for our fancy chicken sandwich dinner.

How fun to have our name reserving our table.

And they even put table cloths and everything

All in all we had a great (and busy) Valentine's Day. I wish I had gotten a picture of us while we were there but oh well, coulda, woulda, shoulda huh?

Happy Love Day Everyone!!

Cupcake Love and my 100th post

I am happy to share with everyone that this is my 100th blog post. I am sort of shocked actually b/c I just realized that I have been blogging for over a year. Who would have thought that I would stick with it so long? When I first started I wasn't so sure about it but it looked like fun so I jumped right in. I'm really glad I did and I appreciate everyone who reads about Life with the LeRouax's. :)

Now on to the cupcake love. The pictures will explain it all.

Is that not one happy little lady?

Making sure she gets all the chocolate off her fingers too

Loving her cupcake!!

Stay warm and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Etsy shop relaunch

So I have finally gotten my act together (well sort of) and am in the process of adding things to relaunch my etsy shop. If you are so inclined to take a look please click the link below

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Homemadewithheart

In honor of my relaunch on etsy I am giving a 10% discount on everything that I have available. Just use coupon code RELAUNCH10.

Thanks so much!!

Sushi and Spring Rolls

About a year ago a friend of mine in my mom's group hosted a cooking night and she was teaching us how to make sushi. I was so excited that I got to attend. It is a bit time consuming but so EASY!! Then, one evening when I was teaching my sisters how to do it they taught me how to make spring rolls. Well about 2 weeks ago I had a hankering for both sushi and spring rolls so that is what I made for dinner.

Here is the proof that I made it myself.

My completed spring rolls in the fridge

My rolled up california rolls

My completed dinner

It turned out so yummy. I have to admit that I was quite proud of myself. I am always willing to do this again so if anyone wants a lesson, call me! heehee :)

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010

What an amazing and lazy day we had (just as Christmas day should be). Here is our set up from Santa

That morning Mason came all the way down to our room and didnt even realize all the presents were under the tree. haha Poor kid must have still been a bit woozy from just waking up :) So Derrek and I got up and took him back upstairs to wait for Samantha to wake up. Once she was up and her diaper was changed Mamie (Derrek's mom) go this picture of the kids realizing that Santa had come

So we made our way down the stairs with the two of them (Yes, Samantha has a bow in her hair)

Here are the kids about to enter the den. Dont you love their matching girl/boy santa jammies?

Samantha was so funny b/c she walked right up to the tricycle and just knew it was for her

Here we all are looking at the stash and Samantha is ready to get started

No patience for Mason he was ready to go

Samantha getting into her goodies

Both Kids checking out Mason's new woody doll

And Mason trying out the fit on his new bike helmet

Woody or My little Pony?? Such difficult decisions haha

Here is where things got interesting for us.

Derrek is opening Mason's new Leapster Explorer (by far his most favorite gift from Santa). Once it was set up and ready to play we had to stop opening presents for about 15 minutes for this

Notice Samantha in the background checking out her new ride.So while brother was playing his new game Samantha checked out her favorite present from Santa

Doesn't she look so excited? She loves her new trike! Bonus of all Bonus it is also a rocker

So we tried that out too. While Mason was still playing his game everyone else decided to jump into our stockings and see what other little goodies we had gotten from Santa

Me and Derrek (side note about our stockings, they are all except Samantha's which is under construction needle pointed by my mother in law and they are BEAUTIFUL)

Wesley (derrek's brother)

Samantha

Once we (everyone but Mason) got through our stocking he decided that he was willing to open some more presents

After all the gifts were open we moved on to our big breakfast (this is a tradition from when I was little and I LOVE LOVE LOVE big christmas morning breakfast). We had sausage, bacon, egg, monkey bread, sopapilla cheesecake, milk and eggnog. We then proceeded to stay in jammies and play with toys all day. It really was a great day and the kids had a blast. I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas 2010!