Updates

Hello to all of my long lost blogger friends! I have been a very bad blogger and will probably continue to be for a while.

There have been quite a few changes in the Toby house...

1. I am not longer working for Lewis Operating (boo I miss them), I am now working for Helen Farabee as a Child/Adolescent case manager....nothing like getting experience for your degree. I am really liking it and all of the people I work with!

2. I do have really cute Halloween pictures of the dogs in their costumes, but I havent uploaded pictures yet....so just imagine Lexi as a ladybug and Lily as a bumble bee....soooo cute.

3. With my new job, I never get to talk to my friends anymore and I really miss them!!

4. Kyle re-tiled our bathroom and did a really good job (again pics have not been uploaded)

5. I have finally been approved to start my research (which I should really be doing right now)...so hopefully I will be a better blogger when school is out.

6. Kyle and I are getting hard wood floors put in our living room and office (thanks to Lexi for tearing up the carpet) but it will look good and we are really excited.

Sorry for the short non pictured updates....wish me luck with research....I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel...

Love to you all!

FallsFest and Lily's new dress

Hello to all!! I know its been a while, but its been a busy week or two. Lets see, what have we been doing. I have been really busy at work and when I am not working at work, I am working on my research paper or FallsFest!

That's right! FallsFest is THIS weekend! Everyone come out Friday and Saturday. We have great food, games, music and fun for all. Friday 5-11 and Brazos Stone and Ely Young will be playing and Saturday 11-11, that night Miyagi and 38 Special will be on the stage. Tickets are $6 in advance, $8 at the gate, $10 after 7 and there are 2 day arm bands this year for $10.

If you cant tell I am the publicist this year.

School is moving right along, hopefully I will get to start actually doing research in late Oct or Nov. My Goal is to be finished and ready to do my oral exam by January. Graduation is right around the corner and once I get past research, I will finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lily and Lexie are still as cute as ever! Lexie has been a stinker though and has torn up our carpet in 2 different areas, so now we have to have 3 rooms replace....booo....bad dog!!

Lily is my fat girl now 7 1/2 lbs, so much for a small yorkie. OH well...

We were at Target last week, and Kyle knows how I love to put Lily in dresses. He wont admit it but he actually picked one out for her. (picture below)

When we got home, I put it on her and I immediately said "ah Kyle, look at her, does it make her butt look big?" I thought he was never going to quit laughing. Sometimes the random blonde thoughts in my head, actually sneak out and they are usually a good laugh....haha.

Lexie even has a ballarina skirt!

How 'bout them Cowboys

I just want to note that I have been a good blogger today...2 in one day...be proud Kate...be very proud :)

Among with my birthday celebrations this past weekend, we went to the Cowboy Game. Kyle kept telling people it was my bday present, but I started to correct him and tell people it was his early birthday present...hehe

The Stadium was amazing. It looked very futuristic, almost like a space ship from the outside. This place was huge!!! Josh Helmcamp was so excited to go to the game and tail gate, that we were the 4th car in the parking lot at 2pm for tail gating....btw the game started at 7 pm.

But we had a blast!

A night time picture of the stadium

You gotta love the guys in uniform...especially a Cowboys Uniform

Look how big the screen is

Josh talking to the concession lady

Look at all those people!

It had been a long day of tail gating

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to ME...hehe! My birthday was last Thursday August 27th. Overall it was a pretty good day. My husband took the whole day off, but I only took 1/2. I felt like I had so many errands to run because we were going out of town that Friday (see next post for the Cowboy game) so I really didnt get to relax and I had class...boo! No one wants to have class on their birthday. But after class my birthday started to get better. We all went to dinner at Salt and Pepper! It was DELICIOUS! I really must start eating there more often. I had the lamb, some had pork, chicken, steak and Amy had this salmon salad that looked so yummy. I must try it next time I go. Thank you to my wonderful husband and all of my fabulous friends who came to help me celebrate my 27th birthday!

"Golden" Roses from Kyle and a beautiful arrangement from Chloe and my Mom.

I say "golden" b/c I called them yellow roses and Kyle quickly corrected me with golden...haha

My cute birthday cake from the Toby's

The birthday photo op

Cody and April! I am loving her new hair cut

Amy and Zac

Anthony and Sara

Tanya posing with Caesar...Scooter was out of town and she wanted someone to pose with

All of us pretty girls

I had to lay all of my presents out to admire what I received. My very first card that says "wife" on it and a Shoe Closet gift card from my husband....he knows how to make me happy :) Flower, cute earrings, shirt and necklace and a Dillards gift card. I just love gift cards.

All of us after our yummy dinner! Thank you all so much again for helping me celebrate!

Goodbye Hamilton...Hello Estes...

Here's to Summer and Andrew! They got married this past weekend on August 22, 2009 at First Presbyterian Church at 7 pm. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception! Thank you Summer and Andrew for letting me be apart of your special day!

Here are a few pictures that I took at the reception. If you want to see more, check out Devon's website. She was their photographer and she did an awesome job!

http://devonjimagery.xanga.com/

The Groom and his Bride at their reception

Me and Sweet Lana! I was so excited about getting to hang out with her and all the other girls this past weekend!!

The couple during their first dance to Wade Bowen "Who I Am"

Me and the Beautiful Bride

My handsome husband posing for the camera

April and I were dancing queens all night long! They had an awesome band!!

April and Cody




Sweet Baby Ella ( I love her name btw). She is Joy's little girl and the cutest little thing might I add. She is such a good natured baby. She came with Joy to the brunch on Friday and just laughed and smiled and loved on Summer. So I had to get a picture of this precious little girl!!

Joy, Trey & Ella Calhoun

Hair bows and Diapers

So my sweet little Lily's bangs are flopping down in to her eyes, so to remedy this problem (that really irritates my husband more than me or the dog). I bought Lily some hair clips. She has all different colors & in the picture below, you can see her posing in her green hair bow. Her ears are starting to stand more ( I really like them floppy), but she can only do one at a time.

She is dancing here

Our Sweet Lexie

Lily is now 6 months old and we are expecting her first heat anytime. Last night she started spotting a little...which gave me an opportunity to try her new diapers. They are pink and white plaid and polka dot. I mean if she has to wear them, why not look cute right?

She wouldn't even look at me, she was so embarrassed.

My Magnolia

Okay Okay, I know, I know...I had very good intentions of posting last week, but I have been so busy with Falls Fest and work that I am just now getting to it. But you get two posts in one day...Yippee!

As some of you may or may not know, I love to paint! But usually I am painting a room and not on a canvas. I don't know what it is about painting, but I find it very relaxing. When I was little I used to do paint by numbers and things like that. But it has been a really long time since I have painted anything.

I was at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago buying a present for Chloe and I came across "Paint your own masterpiece", so I thought I would try it. It came with all of the paints, a printed 11x14 canvas, a tray for you to mix your paints and directions on how to do it, AND it was only $7.99. So I spent that Friday night painting for 5 hours straight. It went by so fast and before I knew it, it was 1:30 in the morning! This was a really big stress relief for me. I just hope my next painting is as good as this one :)

My husband is so cute! He is so proud and has wanted to show off my painting! We even bought a frame and hung it in the living room.

The Picture to go by

My painting

For Kate :)

7 Things about Me!!

1. I like to be in the know! Especially if it involves me doing something, being somewhere..etc...
I tend to get very anxious if I am not in the know.

2. I LOVE Shoes...some might call me a shoe freak...but its a passion

3. I love to be social, sitting around doing nothing can be really boring to me

4. I am an organizer and tend to be pretty type A when it comes my school or work

5. My new favorite ice cream is Red Velvet cake at Maggie Moos...You must try it with white chocolate chips in it...yum

6. I love to dance! Anytime there is music playing I am dancing to it.

7. I am a very lucky and blessed woman to have such an amazing husband, friends and family!

Summer's River Walk Extravaganza!!

This past weekend was one of my very BEST friends Summer's bachelorette party! Haley and Kristen did an amazing job planning everything! It was in San Antonio on the River Walk. We stayed at an amazing hotel called the Hotel Contessa. I highly recommend it! It was upscale but not to pricey. Friday night there were just 5 of us and we went to a great seafood restaurant. The portions were so big that we all shared our food.... Haley ordered Oysters! Paige and I decided to be brave and try one of these slimy snot looking aphrodisiacs.... She fixed them up for us on a cracker with horseradish and cocktail sauce. It wasn't horrible, but Paige was definitely more of a fan of the oyster than I was...ewww. Then we went off to a quaint little martini bar.

Saturday was full of shopping at Forever 21 and laying out by the pool, only to be followed by some fun Bacheloerette games and an amazing dinner at this place called Paesano's! Delicious! Then we went to a place called Mad Dogs. Summer loves rap and this place played any rap song you could think of! They even busted out some ol'e school Snoop Dog! It was lots of fun dancing, we definately had our boogie shoes on!

It was so fun and sooo nice to have some time with just the girls! I think we all had an amazing time! Thank you to all the lovely ladies (Summer, Haley, Kristen, Liz, Paige, Lana, Staci, Kimberly and Jessica) who made this such a special time for Summer. I truly enjoyed seeing and haning out with you all again! We need to have a girls trip at least once a year!

Let's Play Catch Up

So, I have been way behind on blogging. I had every intention to blog on Monday after Chloe left, but it has been a busy week and I have been kinda sick. We had a wonderful time with Chloe here. She had one big meltdown and one 1/2 meltdown, but we expected it. Everyday I looked forward to seeing her smiling face when I picked her up from day care. I hope she had fun while she was here. We went to Chuck E Cheese on Friday night (Oh Skeeball, how I do love you)!! I must say it is one of my favorite past times...Saturday,we saw UP and got a mani/pedi :) I must say, I am loving my pink toes. I dont have any pictures from our mani/pedi, but below are pictures from C.E.Cheese. I think we all had a good time....what do you think??

Next week I'll blog about Summer's Bachelorette party in San Antonio....Watch out river walk, here we come!!

This week so far

I am so excited that Chloe is here. It has definitely been an eventful week thus far. Monday Chloe went swimming at the downtown YMCA, then she and Kyle planted flowers while I was in class. Kyle said she did a great job and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Then we watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua; it was so cute and funny; any young girl or the girl who's young at heart will enjoy that movie.

Tuesday she had another swim day and then Papa came over for dinner. After Papa left we had our first semi-meltdown about taking a shower. But she finally did and felt so much better afterwards. So then, I said how about we do massages! She was very excited about picking out her favorite lotion getting to get her massage first. I have to admit, I had alterior motives about the massages, I was hoping she would lay down and fall asleep as I rubbed her arms/hands/feet/legs. Success!!! Lexie even laid down beside her for a short siesta.

Wednesday, Chloe went to the park for part of the day. Okay YMCA...in case you hadnt noticed Wichita Falls is in a HEAT WAVE. Its 108 outside and you take these kids to the park! Well that caused poor Chloe's allergies to get worse and it totally drained her. She was wonderful and truly enjoyed going to class at MSU with me. She got to play in the sand tray and paint pictures on an easel and make glitter pictures. She made one for me and Kyle both that said "I Love You" Love Chloe. I will try and post pictures of her art work later.

Chloe and Mutt Monday

Okay I really should be reading for school tonight, one chapter down and one chapter to go...but I thought I would join the band wagon and do a mutt Monday combination blog. Lily got a new dress yesterday and my little sister Chloe is here for a week! She is 7 going on 17. It will be a fun, crazy, exciting adventure this week. She and Kyle are going to plant flowers tonight while I am in class and for the rest of the week our agenda includes: Chucky Cheese, the Water Park, and a movie!

Sorry for the short blog, I am about to leave to pick up my cute little munchkin from day care!

4th of July

Hello Everyone!

I know this is a few days late, but I am just know finding the time to do it. We had a great 4th of July weekend! The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love watching the fireworks and getting to hang out with great friends while celebrating our freedom. It is definitely something to be thankful for.

It was a pretty relaxing holiday full of laying out/swimming for me and golf for Kyle. We went to the MPEC to watch the bands and fireworks only to get rained out....boo. So I didn't get to see any live fireworks this year, but I did watch the Boston fireworks on T.V. and it was a spectacular show. I was able to snap a few 4th of July pictures before it started raining. I think Tanya and I were the only ones excited about our pictures...but oh well. :)

Me and my wonderful husband

Tanya, Scooter and his cousin Kayla

Adrianne and James

All of us on our 1970's hippy blanket!