Daddy's Valentine...

Emily joined the Girl Scouts right after the new year and she has been loving it! She goes with Steve's mom and nieces, so it gives me a night to not have to do homework, which I've been loving!

Word got to me they were going to be doing a Daddy/Daughter Dance on Valentine's weekend. And we just couldn't pass it up!

She loved getting all dolled up for her BIG date. And I had a blast helping her get ready. It made me realize I will be getting her ready for prom before I know it!

They had so much fun! And they danced til they dropped! Emily fell asleep on the way home & didn't wake up until the next morning!

I was going to post a video, but couldn't get it to download. I'll update once I figure this out!

Stella got her groove back...

I'm back!!! I had misplace, aka lost, my camera cord and so I've not been able to blog lately. Well, Saturday I realized I didn't need a camera cord after all! Yipee!! I have a memory card reader on my lap top, so I decided I would try to see if it worked with my camera. And lo and behold it did! Double Yippe!

There has been lots of stuff going around Casa de Barrios the past few months. I can't believe it's already the end of March, wasn't it just New Year's?

This past weekend, my parents kept Elaina for us one night and we decided to have a date night with Emily. She was so excited! We were going to go see a movie, but the movie theater we wanted to go to was only showing Alice & Wonderland. And I just don't think I want my 5 year old going to see it. It just looks a little too dark for her. So, we decided to go get something to eat and go bowling.

We went to a infamous restaurant in Springfield, The Depot. Our friend, Regina, works there and we had never been so we decided to try it out. The food was fantastic and Emily loved the fact that she got to go see Regina!

After dinner we went bowling. I think the bowling alley in Springfield may just be on the top of the list for historic bowling allies in Tennessee. You could still see the smoke from years past, even though you haven't been able to smoke in there for several years. But Emily didn't care one bit. She was smiling the entire time! Then at 10, they switched it over to cosmic bowling.

What's cosmic bowling, you ask? Well, that's when they shut down the lights, turn the music up and let the disco bowls get wild. Which really made Emily happy! She started dancing while she was waiting for her turn. It was definitely cracking me up! She was thinking she was in the club or something!

The sad thing is she almost beat me, even with the bumpers up!

We then finished off the night by going to Walmart and she got to pick out a new movie. She kept saying "This is the best night EVER!" I think we need to do this more often!

Back to my roots...

This past week I stepped back in time...I was craving country music! I know that sounds wierd, but I was raised on country music. Yet, as I got older, I started stepping away from my 1st love (although the music today is not always what I consider country music).

Steve came to my resuce though! He got us tickets to a benefit concert in Hopkinsville. I really wasn't for sure what was in store for me when I went though. He had gotten us VIP tickets, so we were able to go to a little reception before the concert and got to meet the performers. I actually thought it was going to be some local person. But I was pleasantly surprised when I got there.

The performers were Michael Peterson, Ty Herndon, and Joel Brown. You might not recognize Michael Peterson. I think he's more famous for his song writing, although I did recognize his face and none of his songs. Joel Brown is actually a teacher at the school the concert was for. And if you have been a country fan for a few years, you should recognize Ty Herndon's name.

The concert actually went to benefit the Fort Campbell High School Football team. You see, they have won the State Championship in Kentucky for 3 years in a row. And apparently, this is HUGE because no other team has ever done that in the state of Kentucky. And they don't have the budget to buy the championship rings for the team. Actually, when I heard how much it was going to cost them, I about passed out - $23,000 for rings!!! Who would have ever thought it would cost that much!!!

Anywho, back to the story.

The concert was AWESOME! The teacher from Fort Campbell actually stole the show. Someone needs to give him a record deal, and pronto!

Emily and I decided to kill the time before the concert started by taking some fun pictures of ourselves.

Then Steve and I got in on the action.

Then the concert started. It was neat because it was just the guys and some guitars. They told stories about the songs and made us laugh pretty much the whole time.

Michael Peterson sang the last song and there was not a dry eye in the room. The name was "Heard a Pin Drop" and it was all about being in the military and the life the folks live. There was a video to go along with it and it was so moving! Before he sang the song, he reminded me exactly why we were there that night. These kids sacrifice SO much! Most of the kids have had a parent, possibly both parents, deployed overseas at some point. Some of them may have had parents who didn't return from overseas. Could you imagine being 16 or 17 and your mom or dad not make it home from the war? I couldn't imagine it now and I'm, well I don't want to admit how old I am, but I'm definitely older than them.

The great news is at the end of the night they had already raised over half of the money! God is definitely GOOD!

A Girl and her Dog...

These are from a while back, but I wanted to share them anyways. It's been a while since I've updated and there's been a lot of fun things happening around here at Casa de Barrios, but unfortunately, I can't seem to find my camera cord. So, I'm stuck with some older photos for tonight.

These pictures crack me up though. Elaina is mesmorized with the dogs and they are so good to her. This just proofs how much she loves them!

I know a few of these are a little blurry - it is really hard to get a shot of these two! Stay tuned for lots of fun stuff! I have lots of projects in my head and we're planning a fun baby shower for a sweet friend.