I have a blog??!!

Well as you can tell I seem to be forgetting about this little part of my life! Can't believe it has been six months since my last post. Maybe I should just do twice a year updates! Summer is almost over for us here at the Heller household - I am sad about that however I have two trips coming up in just a few days to look forward to. First we are heading up to DeGray Lake to camp for a week and from there I will take the kids up to Tennessee to visit their MeMaw and PePaw. I guess since the previous post we have had two more kid birthdays, a dance recital, a baseball season and a partridge in a pear tree! Will get to the posting of pictures here soon but right now I have to be off to get Kelsey sized for her dance shoes for this Fall and get Caleb to baseball practice for the upcoming season ( yes I am weeping a little for the Fall activities already intruding on my summer!)

Catching Up!!

Wow it has been awhile since I have posted! There is a lot to get through - my pictures will have to remind me what all has been going on!
Of course the kids started school - Caleb is in 3rd grade, Kelsey is in her last year at preschool and Chloe is at home with mommy. Can't believe Kelsey will start Kindergarten next year and Chloe will start preschool two days a week. This will be the first time in eight years that I will actually have two whole days for me - can't wait!!! Caleb also began fall baseball and loved it - Robert helped coach the team and I think he loved that too! Kelsey started dance - ballet and tap - in Waxahachie on Mondays. She is enjoying it - we will just have to wait until May for the recital and see how she loves it in front of a big audience. I have a feeling she will surprise everyone!! Here are a few pictures of school and their activities - misplaced Kelsey's first day of school picture on the computer - still searching though!




October came and went pretty quickly! We had two weekends of Halloween activities. The weekend before Halloween we went camping - first and unfortunately only fall campout for us this year - at Lloyd Park in Grand Prairie with our cousins. The park has a Saturday night trick or treat thing where each campsite decorates and gives candy out. It is very fun and some of the campsites go all out on decorations. Hopefully if we can get reservations next year this will be an annual campout for us. The next weekend was Halloween and we decided to stay in Maypearl this year. We went into town and trick or treated at the neighborhood around there and went to a church fair. Lots of trick or treaters coming into town since it seems to be the biggest neighborhood in Maypearl. Caleb decided on a Star Wars costume - no surprise there - Kelsey was a witch and Chloe was SuperWoman (love reusing Kelsey's old costumes for Chloe!!)



On to November - bought some trees (Thanks Bob & Sue), had a birthday party and went to Tennessee for Thanksgiving!!
We love our land we live on but the one downside is no trees - unless you count Mesquite Trees and I don't!! Found a cool tree farm down by us and took the kids to pick out trees and had them dug up and brought home to plant. The kids each have their own tree and of course I can already see Kelsey down the road out by her tree contemplating all her thoughts in those teenage years!! Caleb is ready for the tree house but I had to break it to him that he will probably be the only college student with a new tree house by the time the trees get big enough for that!



Chloe had her 2nd birthday on November 20th. We did a small family get together that Friday night with plans for a hayride and bonfire but of course the weather didn't cooperate so we made do with a little firepit on the porch and just let the kids run crazy through the house! She is obsessed with Elmo so of course we had an Elmo birthday party complete with homemade Elmo cupcakes!



Chloe writing her Thank You Notes - such Ms. Manners!!!


Lastly Thanksgiving - we drove up to Tennessee the Saturday after Chloe's party and stayed for a whole week. First time to stay that long! We enjoyed it. Robert got to ride along with his cousin Jennifer - she is a Memphis Policewoman. Caleb got a Four Wheeler from Memaw and Pepaw. He is getting to be so big! We all drove around on the four wheelers and golf cart and had a bonfire that Friday night before we left. Loved seeing all the cousins , family and friends and just hanging out and relaxing!






Well that seems to be it so far from us - lot to take in! I will try and post Christmas pictures before summer but I can't make any promises. Life seems to be moving in fast forward these days with all the kids activities and school and just life in general. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Port Aransas

So for the last three years Robert and I have taken the kids camping a week or two before school starts. I am always trying to find traditions that we can make our own and this has become one! The first year we went down to San Marcos with some friends, last year Lake Whitney and this year Port Aransas again with some camping friends. My mother joined us also on this trip and we all had a blast.

This was Chloe's first trip to the ocean and she loved it. No fear of the water for her! She also loved to chase all the birds on the beach. If we weren't careful she would be half way down the beach before we realized it. She was so sure that she could catch one I guess!

We had a professional sand castle builder (yes there is such a thing!) come out and show the kids and adults how to build a sand castle. It was fun but of course the girls didn't have any attention for that! Caleb along with the other boys kind of came and went but overall it was fun to do and we got a pretty cool looking sand castle built too!

We relaxed (if you can really do that with three kids!) on the beach and hung out in the evenings cooking at our campsite.

One night we went into Port Aransas and had seafood. The kids also tried out the bungee jump contraption. Both Caleb and Kelsey liked it however there was some convincing on Kelsey's part and Caleb wouldn't look forward the whole time he was on it!


Again we had a great time and now we are back to school - this summer went by way to fast for us!

My Handy Manny (aka - Robert)

So after being with Robert for almost 15 years one thing I really took for granted was how good he is with all different things! I just figured all husbands automatically knew how to hang up a ceiling fan, change the oil in the car or even just build something. From our first house in which he built what was called his "Man Shack" (a big storage house) to our second house in which he fixed everything or atleast tried from the pool, to installing new tile counters to our last house in which he pretty much built it! No - he didn't actually build the metal part but he did along with the other men in our family frame out the whole house and did alot of the other things too.
Again I never really realized how lucky I was! Not until atleast I started getting emails several years ago from some friends that were asking for such things as a carpentar to build a shelf, contractor to hang a ceiling fan and yes even someone to pay to hang a large mirror in their living room! My first thought was of course - duh - your husband! But again I just assusmed all men knew how to do those things or at least (in Robert's case) if you didn't know how you taught yourself how.
Another bragging bit I will say is he has also gone from towing a rather large pontoon boat to our 25 foot travel trailer with out showing any fear or concern - I love that b/c believe me I really don't want to be the one driving those things!
My family introduced him to the lake and now he is like a pro when it comes to driving the boat, towing the boat and even fixing it which it always seems to need doing! We also are now campers with our travel trailer and despite him not having any experience with the whole RV thing he does it with the best of them - from towing the huge thing to dumping out all our gross water and all the bells and whistles that come along with it!
Now why do you ask am I so giving my husband a rather large head with this post - well he finaly built out our hall closet. You would think I had won a brand new car! I love it. We have lived in our house for 11 months and despite all the stuff that still needs doing this is a big accomplishment for me. All of my comfy winter blankets have been packed up and shoved into the closet along with everything else. That was definately not something I would show off to people when they came over to see our new place. Any longer and it would have been like that commercial where everying comes crashing down on whomever opens the door! So here are a few pics of the beautiful new closet -


Oh and another reason for all this gushing over him - maybe it will make him hurry and do our master closet now - I can only hope!!
I love you honey!

Tennessee Trip

For the first time ever I took a trip up to Tennessee to see Robert's parents without Robert! My mom came along with the kids and I and I was definately happy to have her especially after the long and stormy car ride up there. Apparently there were some tornadoes east of Memphis but luckily we were on the west side! We celebrated many birthdays while we were up there and just hung out and enjoyed everyones company. Several of Robert's cousins came with their kids and they all got along great. We will have to have another get together like that again soon - just maybe next time Robert can come!!

Summer Time!

Well after the Disney trip I would like to say things have been pretty calm but of course they haven't! Caleb's baseball season went all the way into July - very hot! This is his first year to do machine pitch and he was rough at first but of course the last two games of the season he started hitting - maybe by next year he will be a pro at the machine pitch!


My dad and I took the kids down to Austin for a day when Robert had to work down there. We visited the capital, went to Hut's Hamburgers (yummy!) and walked around UT. It was fun walking down memory lane with the kids - who knows maybe I have some future Longhorns in the family!!




We had Jessica and Brian's wedding at Lake Texoma over July 4th - hoping to get some good pics of the wedding soon but I did get a few pictures of the kids at the house we stayed at. Chloe loved the coffee table - it was a fish tank! Caleb and Kelsey had their own little room with a minifridge - they felt very special!!


Another weekend and another wedding - our good friends Eric and J'vette got married the next weekend and after that Caleb's birthday! Caleb got a 2nd Nintendo DSI from his Aunt Jessica, Uncle Brian and Memaw and Pepaw - what a lucky boy! Note to others - label everything because if you loose it and there is no name chances are you will never get it back!!



So here we are already half way over with summer and I feel like it has gone by so fast - probably because we have been so busy! Coming up next a short trip to Tennesse and camping at the ocean before the kids head back to school! Maybe then I will get to relax - maybe!!

Disney

We are back from Disney! I do have to admit despite my exhaustion I was a little sad to leave on Saturday from the "Happiest Place on Earth". We had a great time and celebrated 3 birthdays during our week long trip. Kelsey turned 4 on Tuesday, soon to be Uncle Brian turned 30 something (sorry I forgot!) on Tuesday and Robert turned 33 on Wednesday.

We went to all four parks (missed the water parks - not too sad about that!) in five days and did alot of eating and walking!! The grandparents and great grandma were real troopers letting me lead them along through each park with my handy notecards that mapped out our schedule!

Yes I said notecards - I was told before hand by many people to have some sort of plan before going as to which parks to go to on which days. Very good advice b/c of course some parks had extra magic hours (time when only Disney resort guests could go) and we had several reservations set for each day on our Disney Dining Plan. Loved the dining plan by the way b/c we didn't have to look at all the food prices and loose our lunch before we ate it on how expensive everything was!!

Caleb got to see Star Wars characters the last day and was very excited about that.

Kelsey got to see Cinderella on her birthday - couldn't ask for a better wish!

Chloe enjoyed "It's A Small World" Ride the most and had a nap every afternoon on Grandma Rose's lap. The wheelchair she brought came in handy for that!!


Again all of us came home exhausted - Chloe slept till 11am on that Sunday after our return - but definately very happy about our wonderful family vacation! Thanks again Memaw and Pepaw for a great trip - so where to next year??!!


We were prepared for the rain - didn't get us till the last day!!


The Heller men


Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast on Kelsey's Birthday!