missing in action

Active, we have been. I don't think we've slowed down a bit!

Dance is heating up again. We've had practices and halftime performances until today. Our McKinney Marquettes were in a Showtime competition. They performed several pieces; won several awards. But, this was also the first time Abby has ever performed a solo! I know, right?! Hard to believe all of this dancing over the last decade and there's never been a solo! There were about fifteen solo pieces in her category, and {drum roll please}, she got first runner-up!!! We're so proud of our Abby Pea! Video here!

Abby Pea has been...um, shall we say, aggravating lately. She is having trouble passing a class. It's not that she can't do it; she just doesn't like it, so she's not working at it. Most. Frustrating. Thing. Ever! Since she's...um, stubborn...like me {I'm trying really hard to be nice right now. Can you tell?}, we tend to butt heads over...well, everything. I want to throttle her half the time! Then, she gets out in front of a crowd and dances like an angel...this momma pea just melts into a pile of mush! How can kids do that to a parent?! I have to just thank God that He gave her this amazing gift because I think it saves that poor girl's life sometimes! Shaking my head....

Anne Pea has been busy with friends and {another drum roll}, her first boyfriend! Yes, she snagged a boyfriend before her older sister did! He's a super sweet pea {better stay that way, too}! Now we have another kiddo to schedule into our busy lives, but we wouldn't have it any other way! We're already prepping for Valentine's Day. I have a feeling he'll get a better one than Jon or I will! So far, I'm handling it better than I thought I would. I've only stalked him a bit.  ;)  Jon seems to be okay, but every now and then I look at him, and I can see the dread on his face! He's probably thinking back to all those years ago when he was a freshman in high school...okay, maybe I should be terrified!

King and Queen of this crookedy castle and rulers of these Princess Peas are still hanging in there! Loving our jobs and seeing each other mostly in passing! Luckily, he's been off most Saturdays, which is a new, exciting treat for us! I am not accustomed to an entire day every week with this man. Haha!

new year; same ol' peas

It's a little late but...Hap-pea New Year! I am sitting here watching an America's Next Top Model marathon {yes, I know it's trashy and I'm melting my brain cells, but I don't care}, drinking spiced tea, and cuddling with Georgia.

We had a very, merry, little Christmas, and it was lovely! I have pics, but the girls look less than glamorous, so I am not posting them until I get an okay from them! :)

Abby Pea is back in the saddle with school and her dancing. Competitions are coming up and officer tryouts! Yip-pea! Our teeny break is officially over! We are in a new year and have new goals. Momma Pea is just praying we keep it up! When everything is so busy and crazy, it's so hard to keep our focus on what's important. Keeping our eyes on the most important things; happiness, peace, love. We only have a couple of short years left with our Abby Pea. I pray they are full of blessings and love. I want her to remember this time in her sweet life as a wonderful time to look back on. My high school years were a blast and I remember them fondly! I want the same for my peas!

Anne Pea...is already registering for high school classes. Pour me some more wine now! How in the H-E-double hockey sticks am I going to have my two girles in high school?!? WTH? This is a stressful, crazy time for her. She wants to accomplish so much, yet she is afraid to. I have been there. I know we all have. When all of life's possibilities are staring you straight in the face; it can be exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time! She has so many gifts and talents God has given her. I only pray Jon and I can nudge her in the direction we feel she should choose because she is capable of it. 

Two times with two girls this week, I have said that I don't want my peas to be mediocre. They are meant for something greater than anything they could ever imagine! I don't even know their full potential, but God does! I want them to not be afraid of opportunity. I have been paralyzed by it myself and still am sometimes. I never want my girls to feel that way. 

And finally, King Pea and I are pretty much the same ol' peas. We both have jobs we love. It's such a weight off our shoulders. I don't talk about my job much here. I was so worried about loving it, but I do! I have a great schedule, work with great people, and enjoy what I am doing. Jon is working about 20-30 minutes away in Lewisville, and he loves it! The other day we had just woken up and he turned to me and said, "Isn't great that we both love our jobs?"

Yes, babe. Yes, it is. We have so much we can still work on within ourselves and our family. But, one little step at a time we'll get there!

My beautiful peas! And Georgia!

Our white Christmas! These are bad pics. It was cold and I was using my phone!

Abby Pea showing me the snow.

Anne Pea showing me...her bum!

Our silly, sweet family! This pic makes my heart happy!

christmas already?!?

Wasn't it just summer? Where does the time go?

We have already had a few Christmas celebratory moments. The Christmas parade was not long after Thanksgiving. We got to see Abby Pea march by in her cute Santa hat really quickly! Sitting there for an hour just to see your pea march by for three seconds? Yep, and we enjoyed all three seconds of it! :)

The Christmas parade was really cool. The Christian academy here definitely had the best Christmas float ever! It was a nativity with the kids as the characters and the rest of the little peas were dressed as angels and singing. I was trying to hold back the tears; it was so darn cute and special! Anyhoo, back to my sweet peas!

Anne Pea had her band concert the other day. I couldn't hear her by herself, but she was definitely the cutest one up there! I had forgotten my phone, so I don't have video of it {Abby had her phone; I will have to try to get the video from it.}. But I got a sweet pic of her afterward!

We also had Christmas with my parents and my brother's sweet family. I love having my nieces around! Eeeekk! Opening presents is so much fun with the littlest peas!

Nina and Papa D's beautiful tree! I snuck a peek and a pic!

I love seeing these little peas with their messy hair and in their jammies opening presents! So cute!

Rylee Pea was the little elf passing presents out to everyone {with a little help from the bigger peas}!

Someone was awfully good this year to get such a big present!

Preslee Pea opening a present!

Rylee Pea must have been a good girl! She has a big pea-resent!

Rylee had to help Anne Pea with one of her presents!

I know I was supposed to crop out all of the big peas, but I just love this pic of Rylee and her Daddy cuddling together!

Preslee Pea is our wild child! She reminds me so much of Anne when she was that age! Haha! Such a cute, sweet mess!

And the whole Barrett-Penprase clan! This almost never happens for us to all be together! Especially including King Pea! So thankful he was here with us this year! There will be more to come! It's not even Christmas yet!

life as we know it

I can't believe it's been a month since I've written. So much has happened, and I thought things would slow down after football season. Haha! What was I thinking?!

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Our peas were in beautiful Tennessee with their grandparents. They had an absolute blast and I am really jealous because I didn't get to go! They went zip-lining and Segway-ing (yes, I'm making words up)! And I'm totally jealous! I am so glad they got some time with our Georgia and Tennessee crew though! (Did I mention that I'm jealous?)

Abby's Marquette stuff is slowing way down. We have a parade and a recital coming up, then we'll be done for a little while! Football season was really fun, but I'm quite glad for it to be over. Whew! It's a lot of work! Now, she's back to being her normal, sassy self, and back to work on bringing up that AP World History grade! Pray she passes this darn class!

Anne has a band concert upcoming, and then she's done with her activities for a while, too. We're in the middle of looking for someone to give her a ride home from school most days and someone to give her tennis lessons. I don't want my girlies growing up too fast, but we really need another car and driver in this family! Just 5 more months! {Can you believe Abby's driving?! Me neither!}

King Pea is loving his job and his new promotion!! Congrats! I would be more ecstatic, but the promotion took him farther from home with a commute on a toll road, so his pay will pretty much stay the same.

Speaking of pay though, this momma finally got a new job! An actual one with paychecks and stuff! I've been doing temp work for a couple of months, but it doesn't compare to a steady job! It's in Accounts Payable (again). At a small oil and gas company (eh). It's not the *perfect* job, but it's with really great people and it will pay the bills. I will never give up my tree-hugging ways! :)

We have so much to be thankful for, so much we're blessed by! I can't even count the ways! This Christmas season, we're going to do things simply and lovingly. And we're going to be filled with joy rather than depleted in spirit. May you have the same wonderful experience this year!

cross country meets

Anne Pea has just finished up her Cross Country season! It's so fun seeing these runner peas! She is so glad it's over. She wasn't really wanting to run this year, which breaks this momma's heart! I keep hoping she'll run in high school next year, but Saturday may have been our last meet. :(

Here are some sweet pictures from the district meet this past Saturday. It was "Pink-out" week, so of course she looked adorable! I'm going to miss getting up super early on Saturdays and waiting around for an hour to watch her run for 15 minutes! Haha!! The crazy things we do for our peas!

This is Anne Pea hugging her coach from last year, Coach Martin. We adore her and miss her like crazy! It was a huge reason Anne didn't really want to run this year. But, she's having a baby and we're so thrilled for her!

Starting line!

Ready, set...

...GO!

They're off!

This is about the halfway mark. She may not be first, but she looks really cute! :)

Running up the steeeeep hill at the very end of the race!

They call it "The Beast!" It is aptly named!

Go Anne!

After the race! She was so glad the season's over! Me, not so much!

Pretty, sweet pea!

This is Cameron, one of her best friends. {JUST friends!}

He's winking at the girls who are cheering him on!

This is from a few weeks ago and I think I missed posting it! She said she always wanted to run and jump into his arms, so she did it! {She's almost as tall as he is!}

My sweet family! I love them!

mhs homecoming 2012

Last night was Homecoming for MHS. Abby Pea danced at the game (of course), but this week she was nominated Marquette of the Week!! So proud of our girl! There are 50 Marquettes, about 10 football games, 1 chosen each game; well, you can see the odds of her getting chosen! Here's our MOW! :)

Abby Pea practicing her moves before halftime.

I wish I could remember this sweet pea's name! They're pretty precious!

I know that Abby is out of focus in this pic, but this is right after they announced her name over the loudspeaker. Needless to say, she was pretty stoked! Her expression says it all!

Abby and Sarah! Both were announced with honors!

MHS Marquette of the Week! Congrats, sweet pea!

video trouble

I tried several different tactics to get a decent quality video of Abby Pea's first pep rally performance loaded onto my blog. After much frustration, I pretty much gave up. I then remembered that I had made a Vimeo account at one point during college and decided to add that as a link onto this homepage. You can also click here to view it!

While I am sure I am expecting too much from my Iphone video capabilities, it would be nice if you actually could see what was going on! The compression was horrific trying to get it to upload directly. The quality still isn't what I wanted, but is so much better than the other options I tried. So, from now on when I have a video I want to share with you, I'll make sure to let you know! :)

One of these days I'll have it all figured out!