I Wanna Be A Cowboy

Who knew Fort Worth had a cattle drive every day. It takes having family in from out of town to find these things out. We packed the Californians up and took them down to enjoy some real Texas activities.

I hate to tell you Matt - Josh told me he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up!

Why does she give that look with every pose???

Showing some Texas pride - now if we could just get the Heningers to move out of California and join us in, as Allie has said, the United States of Texas!

Boy cousin bonding.

Yes, we do rock!

American Girl Place

Since the twins had received their American Girl dolls, I decided we would take everyone to the American Girl Place for lunch (they recently opened a store in Dallas). Let's be honest - I love that place as much as they do!

Since we were in Dallas, we had all the girl cousin come with us. It was estrogen city. The store is not as big as New York, but we got our fill of American Girl. Fun was had by all. Kelsey and Hannah even came - pretending to be too big, but loving every minute of it.

The whole crew waiting for lunch (and waiting, and waiting).

Here we all are posing. It was very fun - even for the older ones.

The Wedding

Michelle, my babiest of sisters, was married on Dec 27. It was crazy being right after Christmas and all, but it was fun. She was married in the Dallas Temple. Her reception was that afternoon in Flower Mound - right next to Matt and Julie's new house. Here are some of my favorite candid pics. Of course, I forgot to get the bride and groom - isn't that what the real photographer is for?

This was in the lobby of the temple waiting for the bride and groom to come out. It could have been anywhere, however, since Blake (Megan's husband and Caroline's boyfriend) had these girls all over him all day long. It was a sea of polka dots! He is a good sport.

Hannah and Kelsey at the reception. I love this picture of the two of them. I can't believe they are getting so big!

Crazy Uncle Patrick with Sophie and Kelsey.

Rich Uncle Mark with toothless Allie. It was good to see him since he left us to go to school in Chicago - jeez what does Chicago have that Houston doesn't??

Laurie and Erika (Michael's fiance).

Sophie and Shelby. Shelby reminds me of Sophie at the same age - and I think Shelby has decided that Sophie is her personal friend!

The bride was gorgeous - you will just have to take my word on that. (I guess the groom was handsome too). It was a crazy few days, but fun to be surrounded by family - everyone was there except Steven who was enjoying Christmas in Brazil. It is hard to get that many Linfords in the same place - so we need to enjoy it when we can.

Christmas Day

Up at 7:00 AM (not bad for a house full of kids). It was a great morning - I think everyone was very happy with what Santa (and mom and dad) brought. One of the favorite gifts - the Coco-Latte machine. I think we have had hot chocolate EVERY day since then. We then packed up and left for Grapevine at noon.

We were there in time for dinner and fun with the Linfords. We broke out Seinfeld Scene It. To date I would like to say I am undefeated.... I'm just saying. (even Mark could not defeat the Seinfeld Champ).

Some pics of our Christmas morning....

Ryan's Grillz.... Maybe we have been in H-Town too long...

Kelsey got a new ipod - pink and ready for fun.

Sophie and her DS.

Allie loves Kit!

Caroline and Julie. All my girls can only get the historical American Girl dolls. It is just a thing I have. So, when Caroline wanted Julie it was really hard for me - she is not historical she is from the '70s. I was a girl in the '70s. It is hard getting old..... (and nasty right Ryan??)

Christmas Eve

I know it is January - lets pretend OK! It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

I spent Christmas Eve doing my best impression of Martha Stewart - and anyone who knows me knows it is not one of my better impressions. We had put off the baking/homey type of Christmas stuff to the last minute. So, we made gingerbread houses, decorated sugar cookies, made buckeyes, I whipped up a batch of rolls to take to the parental units house on Christmas, and of course I did the Thane Twiggs Whole Wheat Waffles for dinner. To say the least I was exhausted for the Pinata, Christmas story reading, Luke II watching, PJ opening festivities, but I did manage to make it through!

And I did manage to get a few pictures of all the fun.

Sophie getting the art of using the pastry bag.

Now I must say, Allie really excelled at her pastry bag use. I usually do not even try to ice the cookies this way. My sister, the true Martha of the family, always does this. She told me to try and let my kids try. Well we did, and I was pleased with the results. Allie and Sophie really figured it out. The other two not so much. But there is always Valentine's Day!

This was the funniest part of the day (for me at least). I look over and Allie has her head bent over this paper working on math. Which of course, begs the question, "Allie what are you doing?" Well, she wanted a cookie. I told her we needed to see how many were left after we took them to various friends and families houses. So, she added up how many we had, and then was subtracting out the number for each family to see what was left. Sophie came along to help her out by writing family names... of course it was a moving target, but I did reward her with a cookie!

Kelsey's friend Brooke (or Brooklyn as I call her) had never done a gingerbread house. So, she came along for the fun. Notice that Kelsey's house has no roof? Well you see, while I was cutting out the house parts, I counted to make sure I had the correct number of sides, roofs, front/back etc. Well, I counted wrong. We just said it was post Ike.

Caroline not sure where to start!

I won't get sappy with my thoughts that my boy will be gone the next two Christmas'. But, I did think it. I am glad he got a crack at the pinata this year! And he did indeed break it.

All PJ'd up and ready for sleep!

Then, off to bed to await Santa!

Weekend Update

Oh that I had the folks at SNL to write this for me, but no you get me.

Eric and I both went and faced the heat - yes it was 72 degrees and HUMID - and ran our long runs with our running group. The good news is we are starting the taper, and we are ready to run the Houston Marathon (and 1/2). It really took everything out of me, so I was not much good the rest of the day.

Eric, on the other hand, had to step up since he was speaking in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. He wrote his talk, and then he and Ryan went to the Texas State Championship football game. I am always torn because I do think it is great that he and Ryan do this together every year, but that means he still has not done ONE minute of Christmas shopping. This will force him to go out on Christmas Eve, when I would rather have him home, and he will buy stuff just to buy stuff. Some things will never change.

In case you missed his talk, there were moments of Michael Scott (like lying about his father taking away all his gifts), but he did a great job. He had the kids paying attention at first with talk of presents and Santa. During the talk he talked about things we do before Christmas - like make cookies - and he added maybe you will make some for Brother Pearson. Begging for cookies (also very Michael Scott). Nice.

Well, some of the folks in our ward must have listened. We have had two cookie drops the last two nights. One family, the Popes, went way overboard. Look what they brought us

(do you love how Eric took this picture and did not try to clean off the counters before snapping the picture?)

So, thank you to the folks who have brought us treats. Maybe Eric should beg for them every year! Today includes a movie, decorating sugar cookies (all of which were baked by Kelsey and Sophie), and get the gingerbread made for houses!

Have a happy day.

I Made It To Friday!

And that is an accoplishment this week. The last week of school before a break is always crazy - the older kids have finals, the little kids have parties, and I had a trip to Dallas.

I had a meeting yesterday. It was the twins Christmas party. I told them I would not make it because I had to go to work. Allie COMPLETELY fell apart. On the floor. Real tears. You have to come Mom! Then she asked for Dad. Well, Thursday is his crazy day at work, and he could not make it. I then offered up Ryan - and that seemed acceptable. And being the good guy Ryan is, he attended both Christmas parties to play parent for the twins before he went to work! Thanks Ryan.

In days past, only the room parent and one helper were ALLOWED to attend the party. No more. Dang I miss those days.

As I landed last night at the same gate I had taken off from 14 hours earlier, I was happy to be home and glad today is Friday! Now we can move on the cookie baking, gingerbread house making, and other fun traditions that make Christmas feel like Christmas.

But first a 12 mile run in the morning....What was I thinking?

Happy Friday!

Will I Survive?

Not Christmas, but my children. One child, who will remain nameless, left slamming the door exclaiming she hated Eric and I on her way to school. Nice huh? I am not sure what else I can take away from her. Her Christmas? Between the twins and said child, we might not have much of a Christmas around here!!! This was NOT in my job description...

I Am Now A Real Mom

But, as you will see, not a good one.

You would think bearing five children, two at the same time, would make me a real mom. I tended to think so, but that changed last night.

In Tomball ISD, the Pride of Texas in case you are wondering, you need to take art, choir or band in 6th grade. Pretty common. Both Ryan and Kelsey took choir. The sixth grade choir was not fabulous, but not anything offensive to the ears.

Sophie, in her quest to be different, took band. I got to sit through my first 6th grade band concert. Now I will say, it was better than I thought - these kiddos have been playing for just a few months. I was prepared for the worst, and was pleasantly surprised. The band teachers must have infinite patience. We had many squeaks and strange sounds coming from the band, but also a recognizable tune.

As I mentioned before. I do not think you can earn your mother stripes until you participate in such an event. Whew, glad I made it.

If only I could be counted among the good parents.... I am struggling with the twins, the babies, thing one and two, whatever you want to call them. Sunday morning I asked them to shower, and I went to get ready. They are almost 8 - perfectly capable of getting in the shower and dressed in the am. Well, as we are almost ready to leave I have Sophie go and check on them. Not only have the NOT showered, they are NOT dressed and playing a game in a room full of filth. That was the last straw - full MOMMY MONSTER came out and I raged like I had not in a long time. We were late and I was pretty sure we should skip because NO ONE was in a very spiritual mood after that.

They came home, cleaned their room and made nice. Fast forward to this morning. I got them up a little early to help our morning routine. They ate. They got dressed. They were sent up to brush their hair and teeth. 15 minutes go by. No twins. I walk upstairs and they are, I kid you not, sitting there getting OUT barbies to start a whole big game (forget Maria comes today and we are getting the house picked up anyway...) So, once again I lost it.

This time I have acted. There are NO toys in their room. None. I did not take the books, but I might have to do that as well. They are all safely packed away.

I have threatened, you know when you say stupid things you know you will never follow through with that you regret as they are spilling out of your mouth but you can't stop, to take back all their Christmas toys. If I was a little meaner, I might. Could I really make 2 almost 8 year olds sit there and watch everyone open gifts on Christmas? Today I am mad enough to say yes, but I am sure I will soften. Maybe.

So, why oh why do they have to be so disobedient? Will this make an impression? I remember doing such a thing to all the other kids as some point. I think it worked for some, not for others. Where to go from here...

The good news - their room should stay clean for a while! Now, will they be able to get their booties moving in the morning? Only time will tell.

This And That

Last week I survived another cold sales meeting. Actually they were having a heat wave - it was all the way up to 40 degrees during the day!

Ryan got a job! That should be a headline of its own. The boy has never had a job, and that is not wholly his fault. Between football, my travel schedule and his lack of a driver's license, he has not really been able to until now.



Meet the newest member of the Ci-Ci's Pizza team. His first day he was assigned the arduous task of keeping the pizza's stocked and looking good. Hard stuff. He did work from 11:30 am - 8pm on Saturday night. He was tired - he announced it is tiring working. Really?

Eric ran the SunMart 31 mile race on Saturday. Two of his brothers came down and they had some brother bonding and tortured themselves on a 31 mile run. Now, 1/2 marathon I can see. Full marathon is crazy. Anymore than that and you need to have your head examined. Just my opinion.

We had the ward Christmas party on Saturday evening. To be honest, I was thinking about skipping it. I was not in a ward Christmas party kind of mood. But, Eric volunteered to be in charge of the Elder's Quorum talent. Each group had to come up with something. Someone found this video on YouTube, and that was all they needed to think this would be great to do.

I was not as supportive as I could have been. They practiced for the first time on Saturday at 4:00. The gig was at 6:30. But, they did a great job. Here is a pic from our finale. You will notice our water is green. It is in need a servicing from Cypress Pool Services.

Eric ended up NOT being one of the stars. He could barely walk. 31 miles and all. I ended up being glad I went.

On to this week. Travel to Arizona and Kansas. Band concert. Soccer practice. Etc. Etc. You get it. Have a great day!

Happy Birthday Laurie!

Ok so it was on Sunday, but I still within the birthday week which works if you are a Linford!

My little sis is 38! Now I have outed her. She is pushing 40 - it happens to the best of us. Laurie is a great sister and friend. She was my best playmate when we were little - under 10. As we became teens, we still loved each other but had funny ways of showing it (like how she always called me "thunder thighs" - we wonder why I have body issues it is all her fault). As adults, we have been able to recapture that closeness we shared as young kids.

While we were camping, Caroline threw up all over herself - and slept right through it. When Laurie and I were little, she threw up all over me and I slept through it - and I still love her!

We shared a room for years, and created such elaborate games. We thought we were so sneaky and our parents had no idea what we were doing. Our favorite time of the week was Friday night - that is when the Donny and Marie show came on and we would gather our albums and bring them in for visual aids. Fun times.

Even though she lives in California, we try to get together and have fun as often as we can. She even drove all the way to San Jose to take me to my conference a couple of weeks ago so we could spend time together.

The first picture is our favorite picture of ourselves (does that sound vain?) We were at our peak. It was at Matt and Julie's wedding. Pre-twins for me. Pre-Jonah and Rebekah for her. It has been downhill since then.


This is Laurie crawling into my sweatshirt because she did not have one! A typical second child - not prepared at all!

Happy Birthday Laurie!

So What Have You Been Doing?

I know, it has been a few weeks. I would love to give a great reason for lack of posts, but alas I have none. So I decided to show what has been going on in pictures.

This is where I interject my sappy sadness. This is probably the last time Ryan will decorate the tree with us. Sigh. If you will notice the ornament, or instrument as Allie calls it, it is his favorite. It is a pom-pom bear peeking out of a raisin box. He made it as a child. I have tried to throw it away many times. He has rescued it each time.

Now on to White Trash Thanksgiving. I am hoping to get some more photos, but this is what I have for now.

Ready for the grease - we do fried turkeys.


Only healthy eating at camp.

Eric's version of camping.

Oh - and my sister Melissa got engaged! Three engaged sibs at the same time. You would think I am from a big family or something! Congrats Melissa and Chris.

Besides Christmas shopping, that about sums it up! Merry Christmas! Let the advent calendars begin.

Christmas Already?

For those who use your Google Reader, and don't ever go to my blog, I have changed my banner. As my sweet sister pointed out, it is Christmas. Why?

Now, for those of you who are newer to the blogging world and take advantage of those new -fangled pre-fabbed blog layouts, I don't. When I started, to customize, you needed to create a new banner in photoshop, and edit the HTML in your template to insert.

Well, I am pig headed and still do it that way. I know, I should give in to the ways of the newbies, but I don't want to. Someday I might change my mind, but for now I will stick with what I have.

So, since my last banner was still from this summer, I decided I had blown the fall, and went straight to Christmas. Let's hope we are not still looking at it in March....

For those using Reader, it is not that fab so you don't have to click over... Just helping you out.

Have a great day!

Veteran's Day 2008

2nd Lt Patrick Linford

Thank you to everyone now serving in our military, and thank you to everyone who has served!

Happy Birthday Michael

And congrats on the engagement (OK so you b-day was 2 days ago, but I was still in mourning over the impending gloom of life without Ryan - oh and I forgot). Picture of Michael and now fiance Erika last year at Megan's wedding.

I hope you had a great birthday!

You're Gonna Miss This

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

Ryan had his last football game last night. This year of lasts is making me very sad. It is turning me into a country lyric quoting fool. Tears and all.

But it is so true. Just last year this boy was 12 and making me nuts, and now he is getting ready to leave, go on a mission, and never really come home again. He'll be here, but it will not be the same.

So, hug those babies. When you are in the car for 2 hours after school each day driving car pool remember that you indeed will miss this...

FHE Allie Style

Here is the transcript of our Family Home Evening last night (we did it Sunday so it would get done!). Allie did the lesson, and here it is.

As you can tell, she wrote, illustrated and taught the lesson all by herself.

Halloween pics tomorrow.