Thursday, January 24, 2013

A Solid Picture Only Post Compliments Of My New Camera!

Get ready for 1000 pictures of Graham at the Cubscout Pinewood Derby 2013! 

Graham and his friend Michael

Cheery Grady!





Graham wanted his to be a "Halo" car. He really likes the idea of the Halo game but hasn't even played it yet! 




Some awesome moms (not me) went all out and made incredible cakes that were auctioned off.

A totally random shot of Graham's cafeteria. Graham's school is really new and they went BOLD with color and design. I LOVE it!


The amazing bake sale.










I love that they are saying the Pledge of Allegiance in School!

The cubscouts invited the Kindergarten boys to come in watch. Hopefully they will all want to come and join next year!



Littlest kids in front... :)

They projected each kids name and time up on the gym wall as they were going. So cool!!


43 cars!

The younger boys that were lined up along the track gave everyone "fives" as they got done racing their cars. Love me some sportsmanship!


A VERY rare moment for the Mueller brothers...


Call Me Maybe :)



The City lent a couple of Firefighters to entertain the kids during some down times.





My kid's car beating another kids car. :)

2nd Place overall.


Bobby had just seen the results before the general announcements. 


Graham received one trophy for 1st place in his Den.


and second place overall!!




The city also sent over a police officer to write the 1st place winner a speeding ticket.


Graham and his friend Bryce.

I'm so proud of my big winner!!!


Monday, January 21, 2013

Winner Winner... Chicken Dinner! {Getting To Know Me Edition}

First off, THANK YOU soo much for so many great questions!! I had a blast answering each and every one! I loved sharing my life story with y'all and I think you enjoyed it too. :)

Now how about a gift card giveaway!!


 
The winner for the "Follower" prize goes to...

#10 - Nicole

The winner of the "Non-follower/New follower" prize goes to...

#2 - Chelsea

(Just in case there are any questions... I divided up the followers and non-followers into 2 different columns. Since I couldn't go straight down numerically through my comments and number them 1,2,3 I split them into groups and then numbered them. And, I also promise to have a used a true random number generator that I found online but I was having problems copy/pasting the results!)

Ladies, please email or leave me a comment with your address so I can get your Target gift cards in the mail!

Friday, January 18, 2013

All About Hillary ~ Part Four

Almost done friends! Just four more questions to get answered. If I missed anyone on accident give me a shout out...

Chelsea wanted to know where we got the boys names from and did we plan them all G names or did that just come along after naming our first born. 

This is such a fun question! And one of my favorite :). When we had our first son back in 2002 Graham was just a name on a list with about 5 others. I felt strongly the entire time that I was pregnant that I wanted to match the name to the baby and that I should "get to know him" before I gave him a name for life. Sweet Graham was born and then not named until 3 almost 4 days later. :) The L&D nurses came in kindly one day and said that the lady from social security was on her way in and he couldn't be called "Baby Boy Mueller" for much longer. It was then that we decided on Graham Lucas

Grady also didn't have a name when he was born. With Grady's pregnancy I felt scared to name him as I had had a miscarriage between Graham and Grady.I was worried that I was going to jinx things (silly, I know...). During my repeat C-section to deliver Grady (and my COMPLETE DRUG INDUCED HAZE) my beloved hubby suggested we name him Grady. To be honest, Grady was on our baby name list but it was never my intention that our boys end up with two G names. Now that I have my Grady Tucker I could not imagine him being named anything else. :) 

Griffin's name is very special to me. After we lost Caroline we knew that we still wanted another child. Before I was even pregnant I heard God whisper into my ear that I'd have another baby, that he would be a boy, and that his name would be Griffin. I've only felt God's presence this strongly only a couple of times in my life. It was just this one time though that I've felt him tangibly "speak" to me. Once I was pregnant with Griffin (one check off God's list :), and once it was confirmed that he was indeed a boy I knew in my heart what his name would be. I never actually said the name out loud (not even to Bobby) but Griffin he became just as soon as Bobby was able to join me again back in the OR recovery area. Griffin Burkett is our beautiful little gift from God. :)

Beth Ann wanted to know if I could spend a kid-free to myself what would I do? 

What a delicious question! I would spend my day eating out with friends (lunch AND dinner!) shopping, and catching a new movie! I'd also love to take some time to go antiquing. I'm super excited because I'm getting a Mommy weekend away in May. Bobby and the kiddos will hang back here while I head up north to Dallas to hang out with my Momma and some good friends for a long weekend away. I'm so excited that I hardly know what to do with myself. :) I could.not.tell.you. the last time I was by myself with no children. I might even be looking forward to the 4 hour drive all by myself!


My second to last question comes from an anonymous reader. S/he wanted to know what drew me to become a stay at home mom and what was my career before becoming a SAHM. 

I have always had it in the back of my mind that I'd like to be a stay at home mom. For a while that wasn't financially possible. When I had Grady I realized that we for SURE wouldn't be able to pay for after school child care plus full time daycare for Grady. It just made a ton more sense to tighten out belts and have me stay at home!

The last job I had before I quit working was as a Inside Sales Coordinator for a building supply company. In a basic and boring nutshell I was responsible for making sure that whatever a home builder needed on a job site he got.  It was incredibly stressful and I worked long hours. I was more than ready to stop working once I had Grady. :)

My very last question comes from Nicole. Nicole is awesome and named her sweet angel girl "Caroline Elizabeth" as well. How cool is that! They were even born just a couple of weeks apart! Nicole wanted to know how I honor Caroline on a day-to-day basis. (and no Nicole, this is never something sad to bring up. I would talk about Caroline all the live long day if I could :).

I honor Caroline is small but meaningful to me kind of ways. I have a little plaque that has her name on it that sits on my shelf above my sink. I look at it and smile 100 times a day. :) I stop at her urn on top of the fireplace mantle and put my hand upon her and wish her good morning and tell her how much I love her. I do a lot of silly things that only her, I, and God know about like praying for her and talking (just in my crazy head) to her. We will soon be signing up for this years March of Dimes walk. In honor of her we'll be doing a very large, multi-family garage sale with all the benefits going to Team Caroline!

Thanks to all of you who asked such great questions! I hope you all enjoyed getting to know me just as much as I have enjoyed sharing myself with you. The drawing will be first thing tomorrow morning!


Thursday, January 17, 2013

EEEK! It's Here!!

My camera arrived!!


Walmart was having a crazy good deal on the Canon EOS Rebel T3. For just the price of the camera elsewhere they had the camera, camera bag, tripod, and TWO SD cards!!

This is my formal apology now for all the pictures you will be bombarded with!

All About Hillary ~ Part Three

You guys are awesome if you're still hanging in there with me!

This question comes from my dear dear friend Tesha! Tesha wanted to know if I have a heavy accent and also if Bobby and I have any plans to have more kiddos. 

I have almost zero accent. :) Since I'm from far North Texas I might as well be a Yankee. HA! Either my ear is just attuned differently and I'm used to it but I don't feel that I hear many "twangy" accents very often. I would imagine if one got far enough into West Texas you might here it more. My husband, on occasion, has a lilt to his voice that is reminiscent of his German ancestry. This is just something he has picked up from his family and their intonation. Maybe this weekend I can get around to doing a Vlog! I've never done one before and it makes me terribly nervous just thinking about it... but at least that way you could be the judge!

Tesha, do you guys sound like this??

This is Saturday Night Live's "The Californians". Hilarious!!! 

The issue of having more babies is a sad one for me. If we had more money, more space, and a much better cervix I think we might! (If you are new here please refer to these posts :)

Cervix of Doom Part One

Cervix of Doom Part Two

Cervix of Doom Part Three

Cervix of Doom Part Four

 Last night I just burst out crying sad tears at the end of Modern Family when Sophia Vergara had the baby. Bobby just sat there and looked at me like I was crazy while I explained my tears :). We are starting to hit soo many "last firsts" with Griffin and I know that that will be the last time one of my babies gets his first tooth, first haircut, first step etc. 


Jamie wanted to know how on Earth I juggle three boys!

Haha! Please refer to the question where I address needing outside help! HA! No in all seriousness I take my "job" very seriously. They are my everything and so my everything belongs to them. I don't mean to sound like a martyr here but I literally try and give them all of me. Some days my teeth hair doesn't get brushed and my clothes are just clean pajamas. I feel that their needs come waaay before mine do. I give up the bulk of any personal time because I know that in their little lives right now this is the most important thing for them and myself. The day is not too far away where they will all be in school and I'll be sitting around in full makeup with great hair, a clean house, and missing them so bad ... In a nutshell they stay halfway together while I'm near falling apart :). They are worth it all and more!!


This is my "real life" picture. One is crying, one has his eyes closed, and one is being good (for a change...). 


Christina's question was do I ever see myself returning to the "outside of the home working mom" gig. 

I do! I'm not sure if it would be a paid position or not though.We have a local library here that works on mostly on volunteers. I imagine that I'd love to be able to go over there and help out as needed. I like to idea of getting out of the house and doing something for myself and the community while still having time to get the boys home, homework done, dinner ready etc. I worked in a Library in College Station while Bobby and I were engaged and I loved it! I would also love to go back to school to get a library science degree :).





That's it for today! Part 4 to come tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

All About Hillary ~ Part Two

Don't y'all just love being able to ask slightly nosy questions and getting answers! Seriously it's my favorite thing and I ADORE reading other blogs that do the same. I relate it to driving through your neighborhood and find that your neighbor has the lights on and left the curtains pulled back. It's that fun invited peak into someone's life!

My fourth question comes from Shannon! (did I mention to y'all that she quilted place mats, napkins, and a table runner for me to give to my MIL for a Christmas gift?? She did AMAZING work!!) Shannon wanted to know Where I was born and raised and where some of my family originally came from. 

I LOVE this question! I'm a history junkie just like Shannon (with a $30,000 school loan and a BA in History to prove it...). I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. I lived there until I went off to college and upon completion moved to College Station (WHOOP!) to be with Bobby. I have yet to move back (and probably will never).



Both my parents were born and raised in Texas as well. Incidentally both of them were raised in fairly small towns along the coastline. I could probably go on forever mentioning this person and that person as I continued through my list of ancestors but for your sake and mine :) here is a very concise list of places :). On my mothers side we go back from Texas, then to Kansas and then still further back in time Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, and Connecticut. My dad's side is much easier to trace :). My dad's dad was born in Michigan and my great grandparents were from Michigan (great-grandfather) and England (great-grandmother). My dad's mom was born in Louisiana but was from French decent after that.

My Daddy and his father.

The next question comes from The Momma. She is one amazing lady! (God also just sold her house for her :). Go and check her out!) The Momma had some great questions! She wanted to know how Bobby and I met, what the hardest thing about parenting is, and how to stop constant arguing. 

Bobby and I met through one of my oldest besties, Deborah. We were suit-mates together in college. She eventually transferred to Texas A&M University. It was there that she began dating Bobby's room mate. Something told her that Bobby and I would be perfect for each other. Boy was she right!! Six weeks later we were engaged and we're still going strong twelve years now!

My girl Deborah!

I find the hardest thing that I find about parenting to be all the worry that comes with it. I worry about almost everything that I say and do. I know how my actions effect them now and will certainly in the future. I want them to grow up happy, healthy, and well adjusted. I sometimes tend to micro-manage them because of this. I am a total HELICOPTER mom. I know my kids are far from perfect now (as am I) and will most certainly not be perfect when they are older. I just want to be able to look back on them when they are grown adults and know that I tried my very best every.single.day.



I had to just bust out laughing about the constant arguing question. It is at an all time high at our house right now!! My older two boys are just at certain ages where this will happen. I know it will not last forever and that they will both outgrow this stage. (God willing!) At one point the arguing just got so bad that I ended up seeking outside help. My oldest son Graham has ADHD and so has a psychiatric that does the prescribing. He is more doctor-ly and less "come sit on my couch and lets talk about our feelings". Because of this I choose to go in and speak to one of his partners about how best for me to handle my older boys. He gave me some great ideas on how to keep things a little more tame around here :).  I now hover more than ever. If I can jump into one of their conversations the MOMENT that a tense word or phrase comes out I can defuse the situation. It has really helped the boys get out of the habit of talking ugly to each other. When I hear them speaking nicely to each other I immediately compliment them for speaking/acting nice. It gets a little silly when I realize that I'm saying the same "Good job on saying that nicely..." a thousand times a day but it brings the little polite things to their attention to and form new "habits". Can you tell the bulk of our arguing was just based around bad habits? It's an easy enough fix it just takes lots of time! :) I gave up A LOT of my Momma ego to go and seek outside help for this situation. I'm am soo thankful that I did! If anyone else is ever challenged with this type of familial situation (or any other) I strongly urge you not be afraid to seek out help!

My girl Kacey from the other side of the world (Australia!) wanted to know if I could take Bobby and the boys anywhere in the world where would we go?

I have many places on my list of MUST DO before I die!

Austrailia.
Australia!



Kilchurn Castle / Scotland
Scotland

Ireland
Ireland

cornwall
Cornwall, England

Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia

Can ya'll tell that I'm a total romantic??  Maybe these places would be best served if just Bobby and I got to go alone together. :)

Stay tuned for part 3 and maybe even part 4!
 
Design by Small Bird Studios | All Rights Reserved