The Bartek's

The Bartek's

Monday, January 17, 2011

New Year: 2011

So I can for sure say I am ready to start out the new year with a bang. And we did by having a small get together at our house with close friends and the kids running wild.

Well I usually take this time to blog how all the kids are doing or what they have been up to, but I want to take a post to reflect on me (prolly a little selfish). I would like to see 2011 a better year for friendships, more family time, success in every aspect and just a little more relaxing for everyone. My one and only news year's resolution is to lose 30 lbs. . .I want to get back to my comfortable weight and like this:
I am the treasurer for the Belton Volunteer Fire Dept and this keeps me busy for the 1st Wednesday of every month and have been doing this for almost 5 years. Also, I recently became a board member for the Belton Youth Softball Association and am in charge of the Fundraising, Uniforms, Trophies, and Photography. I am excited to be involved in any way possible to make this a great season for Dannikka and all the girls involved. . .SOFTBALL will always be my passion! I of course battle with knowing I have a Bachelor's and am not able to use it around this area. . .but if God opens that door I want to go through it. Also, last year I decided it would be fun to sell Scentsy so I joined there. I will say I thought I would find time to be able to promote more and have not done as I would like. (might i add having a toddler boy has been WAY more then I EVER expected). So I hope to use this year to do better in sales, but also as a time for women to get together and hang out and get away from busy life. But 1st and foremost. . .I want to be a better wife to amazing husband who puts up with a lot from me.
I write all this blog about me with help that if my dear friends read this they will take time to help me with these goals!












Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Long Drive Home!

So my whole life I have spent EVERY single holiday at my Grammy & Papa's house. . .well this year things changed. I have been blessed to have ALL my outside family all within 200 miles of each other. Which is awesome because i have never had to do a lot of traveling and especially for holidays. When I married Brandon I had to begin "sharing" holidays with his family also. Which do not get me wrong but this is something new and hard for me. We did get the opportunity thanks to both of us having flexible jobs and the help of his mother, to take a trip to see his brother Jeff and family. So the Friday before Thanksgiving we packed up my Saturn Outlook and hit the road to North Carolina with Brandon, Me, Camdon, Hunter, Dannikka & Juanita.

All started out smooth. . .until we were in the car for 10 hours. . .then i think we were ALL ready to be there. It was so great to sit with Brandon and learn some new things from him about his time in the Marines to the drives he took to go get Hunter from NC. I learned that there are rest stops usually 10 miles before/after the state line. . .and it was neat to see all the different ones. First one in Lousiana!









It did take us 22 hours to make it to Jacksonville, NC around 10am on Saturday morning. . .but well worth it. We saw some amazing scenery of beautiful trees, lots of hills, and just a different view of the world. I got lots of time to catch up with Sherri and just gossip. Brandon enjoyed hanging out with his brother and even sat in the sauna at the gym for some bonding time LOL The cousins, I think, had the best time just running around together. Madison is 10, and her & Hunter played LOTS of video games, but they enjoyed that. Kevin is 4, and him & Dannikka ran all over the house together playing. And Camdon just followed all of them and annoyed as much as he could.

We were introduced to these pokey bouncy balls that were all over the Bartek house. Come to find out these are from CC's pizza, so we took the kids there one night to escape from having to cook.













A huge thanks goes out to Aunt Sherri. . .because "some how" we forgot to pack these bouncy balls from CC's (darn). . .well Aunt Sherri didnt want Camdon to be without (Although these balls broke two ornaments off her tree, thanks to C). . .she managed to send them in the mail back to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We enjoyed a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving dinner with Ham, Turkey, and Dressing. . .and thank goodness Juanita brought all her groceries with her for dressing because they were not on sale in NC. . .LOL love it! The kids enjoyed some 4-wheeling in the backyard, we played soccer and baseball. It was such a great trip and so nice to hang out with everything. The kids also exchaneged their Christmas gifts:


AND THEN IT WAS A LONG DRIVE HOME!!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Catch up: July-October

OK. . . so this blog thing has kind of slipped away from me but i hope to get back into the hang of it. A quick rundown on the end of last year. July, August and September are busy months for us because the kids each of have a birthday. For the July birthday, Dannikka had an "American Idol" Slumber/Karaoke party and for the August birthday, Hunter got to go to a Round Rock Express game with his best friend.










Also, in August, Brandon and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary and since our 1 year was spent with me being 9 months pregnant we decided not to do anything thing that year. So we left town for the weekend and stayed in a hotel in Fredricksburg, did some shopping downtown, aand got to spend the weekend with some dear friends.






September was a sad but joyous occasion. . .Camdon turned 1!!!!!!!!!! We celebrated in style with a Cat in the Hat party at the house with some close family and friends!! And his 1 year pics were taken by Melody Clampet. . .a very dear softball friend.













The invitations by my best Friend Tiffany English and














his cake by Brandon's cousin Tammy Rose.












Of course October was Halloween, and we know how much i love dressing up & couldn't be alone so i asked our besties to join us:










A big thanks to Uncle Cody for his AWESOME makeup artist routine on Hunter. The kids enjoyed a small halloween party at the house with their friends, trick or treating around the neighborhood, and the haunted trail on Beal Street.




Daisypath - Personal pictureDaisypath Anniversary tickers
Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie First Birthday tickers