17 Months...where has the time gone?

Congrats to Chris!!

Way to go Chris!  For those that dont know, Chris races in 3 series- IHRA, NHRA, Bracket.  One of his goals from the time he started racing was to finish in the top 10 in points.  Well, after 7 years of racing, he has done it.  He finished 3rd in the points for his class in the IHRA series.  Since he finished in the top 3, he gets invited to race in Richmond, VA at the All-Stars race.  Yahoo!  So, we are in the process of planning our trip to VA.  Since we will be on the East coast and so close to North Carolina, we are going to take this opportunity to see the Staats family (and hopfully the Hunters and Cantwells as well).  Since I have not seen Trish in years or even met her youngest, I am beyond excited!  Its was unexpected, but its going to be such a fun trip win or lose.  I am beyond proud of him and so thankful to his parents for making all of it possible.

We Will Remember 9/11/2001

I will never forget where I was on 9/11.  It was one of the scariest days of my life for the few short hours I waited to hear from my mom that my dad had made it out of NYC.  He was in NYC on business the days before the attack.  Not knowing when he was to leave was an awful feeling.  As Jill, Amy and I watched the new coverage in College Station, I waited to hear from my mom.  Thankfully, my dad left late the night before and all of his employees who were still there, were safe.  Others were not as lucky.  We will always remember those to died on that day and those who are serving in the Armed Forces now protecting our freedom. 

September 22, 2001- Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State

God Bless and Gig 'Em!

First Aggie game for Katelyn

Thanks LJA for the free tickets to the A&M football game on Saturday!  Chris has been trying for years to win free tickets from work and he finally got them the weekend my parents were in town visiting Katelyn.  It worked out great since there were 4 tickets.  So, Saturday afternoon we headed to College Station.  Before heading to the game, we made a visit to the CC Creations tent sale to pick up some new Aggie gear, the Bonfire Memorial, and the CE Building to see our pictures.  Everyone had a blast and the weather was perfect.  Even though the game was at 6pm, Katelyn was a champ and made it all the way to the 3rd quarter before passing out.  She didnt sleep for long since the Aggie's kept scoring and the canon kept going off, but she was good to go after her short cat nap.  Here are a few pictures from our day in Aggieland...

Visitin Erin Kelly

Wow...thought we might never get to meet Erin Kelly.  We have all been sick or out of town since she was born.  Well, on Sunday, we finally got to meet her and she is adorable!!!  She's so tiny.  At 2 weeks she was 7lbs, 1oz.  For those that dont remember, thats 10oz smaller than Katelyn was when she was born...haha!  After hauling around a 16month old, Erin was so light and tiny.  Here are a few pictures from our visit...

Katelyn's life

Helping me sweep the floor.  Shes such a great helper.

Chef Boyardee Ravioli's.....Yummy!

Loves playing with my old shape sorter and its even better with no clothes!

Catching a ride in the laundry basket.

Grilled Chicken

Yeah for me!  Chris was racing today and I was craving chicken salad for dinner.  Since we didnt have any grilled chicken, I decided I was gonna grill some...haha!  Some of you may already know that I have been banned from the grill after I tried to grill sausage one night and burned it so bad Haley wouldnt even eat it!  Anyways, I gave it another shot and actually did great.  Nothing burned, nothing on fire= good grilled chicken.

Erin Elizabeth Kelly

As promised, here are pictures of Erin Kelly!  Shes adorable!

Congrats to Jason, Diane, and Craig Kelly

While we were on vacation, the Kelly's welcomed their new addition.  Erin Elizabeth Kelly was born August 15 at 11:30pm.  She was 6lb, 4.5oz, and 19in.  Everyone is healthy and at home today.  Since Jill was so gracious to share her cold with us while we were on vacation, we haven't been able to see Miss Erin yet, but hopefully soon!  I cant wait to meet her.  Pictures to come soon...

Shelbyville Visit 2010

What a great vacation!!  We had so much fun with Jill, Mark, Luke and Kailyn on the lake.  We got in Thursday night and the fun began!  The weather was amazing.  Warm and sunny during the day, cool and breezy at night.  It was so much fun playing in the water and taking boat rides with the kids during the day and relaxing outside and chatting at night.  For a few days, we could ignore the clock (although we did have 3 little time clocks reminding us when it was time for "nack" and milk) and just relax and have fun.  The kids were great and gave us lots of adult time which was much appreciated.  I feel like we, being the LeBlanc's, finally were able to get to know Luke and Kailyn.  Usually we get just an hour or so with them when they visit Houston in May.  This trip, we got to spend loads of time with them and really saw their amazing personalities.  Hopefully we can have a LeBlanc/Milnes summer vacation every year and they will just get better and better year by year.  Its so much fun to hang out with them.  We miss them already and the planning for our 2011 trip has already begun. 

Now on to pictures....there are so many to choose from!  I will post a few here, but if you want to see more, check out the Picasa web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/kleblanc23/Shelbyville2010?feat=directlink.

Off to the Ville

Yahoo...our trip to Shelbyville is finally here!  We leave tomorrow afternoon and it cant get here quick enough.  After a year or so of planning and having to reschedule the trip once, we are so ready for some R&R with the Milnes family.  It will be great fun to see all the kiddos together.  There will be lots of pictures to come....

Play me some mountain music

Our house was rocking last night!  Now, now get your mind out of the gutter!  We had a fiddle and jug player in the house.  Chris' Uncle Doug and Aunt Nancy are in town visiting and we had everyone over for dinner last night.  Well, Nancy is an amazing fiddle player and Doug is great on the jug and sings.  So, we were treated to some good ole' mountain music.  They are great together.  Katelyn loved every minute of it.  Nancy even let her play some on the fiddle.  She got a kick out of that too.  It was a great night and we had lots of fun.  I am so glad we were able to share that time with them.

A very focused Katelyn

Nancy and her fiddle

Nancy showing Katelyn how to play.  We are hoping she gets some musical talent, but know for sure its not coming from either of her parents.

Uncle Doug and Nancy

Katelyn's new favorite spot

Katelyn loves to be in the kitchen in the middle of everything is going on!  While we are cooking, she stands at the counter on her tippy toes to try and see whats going on.  So, tonight we moved a step stool into the kitchen and up next to the counter.  She loved it!  She stood there for snack time while we prepared dinner and such.  After her snack she wanted to color.  We pulled out the crayons and some paper and she colored away.  Of course, she might have colored more on the counter than the paper, but its all washable, so its all good.

Having some yogurt for snack...

Showing us her artwork...

Tonight

Total bummer...I didn't get to cook tonight.  We decided to have bone burgers (a deer lease special) and that required grilling sausage.  Last time I tried to grill sausage, I burned it so bad that the dog wouldnt even eat it!  So, Chris took over and did the grilling tonight to make sure we had an edible meal! 

On a brighter note...Katelyn has learned to say 'hi' and 'bye'.  My mom is traveling and called this evening to say hello.  Since Katelyn is obsessed with the phone, she was more than happy to talk to grandma!  She would press some buttons and then hold the phone up to her ear and say hi.  She did hang up on her a couple of times, but both Katelyn and grandma had fun talking. 

Cooking

Chris and I are a great fit for many many reason, but most of all because he LOVES to cook and me not so much!  Well lately I have been trying to do more cooking to help out.  Its a scary thought I know, but so far so good!  I am up to 2 days in a row with the potential for a 3rd tomorrow.  Now, dont get too excited, I'm not making anything over the top, but its dinner none the less.

Last night...King Ranch Chicken
Tonight...Spaghetti w/ meat sauce
Tomorrow...Breakfast sandwiches

We shall see if the trend continues!

Exciting week ahead...

Next week is going to be a busy, but fun week!  After 7 years, I am finally going to meet Nancy of Uncle Doug and Nancy (Chris' uncle).  They are coming from Georgia for a visit.  We are very excited to spend some time with them on Tuesday evening.  Then on Thursday, we leave for our rescheduled trip to Illinois!  We are very excited to spend some quality time on the boat with the Milnes Family.  It will be nice and relaxing, well as relaxing as it can be with 2 under 2 and a 3 year old on a boat..haha!  There will be many pictures to come I am sure, so stay tuned for an update.

Catching up...

During the summer, Katelyn's school has some type of theme each day to keep things fun and interesting!  Well a couple of weeks ago, one of the days was "Favorite Sports Team" Day.  It just so happened that Katelyn got a new Aggie shirt the weekend before.  What timing we have.  She was a darn cute little Aggie fan!!

Visiting baby Ava!  Our good friends Jay and Courtney Costales welcomed a baby girl June 30.  We were finally able to visit a few weekends ago.  I was a bit nervous about how Katelyn would do since she has not been around babies very much, but she did great!  Maybe thats a sign shes ready to be a big sister...too bad shes gonna have to wait a bit longer.

We had another open weekend last weekend unexpectedly after the race was cancelled, so we decided to take Katelyn to Kemah to play in the water.  Once she warmed up, she had a blast.  After water time, we walked to boardwalk and watched all of the boats.  It was a nice relaxing evening tho it was still crazy hot at 6pm.  On the way home, Katelyn hijacked my phone.  She was chatting away in the back seat.

Just like Great Grandma!!  My Grandma has always puts powder in her shoes when shes not wearing socks.  Growing up, I picked this habit up.  Well now I am apparently passing it on to Katelyn.  She has very sweaty feet and her shoes get stinky, so I started putting power in them.  Well, she found the powder and decided her tennis shoes needed some.  It was too cute.