WHAT WE'RE UP TO...

Quick catch up post so I can start from here...

We have been busy playing sports. As usual. ;-)

Brenna is playing softball. It is her second year playing coach pitch softball. She is one of the older girls and she is loving that... she is doing so great. Brenna's cousin is also on her team. They are having a blast playing with each other. We requested that for grandparents sake. Grandparents are already running around crazy every weekend to make it to all the grandkids sports so when a couple are on the same team it helps. The girls are also BFF and they go everywhere with each other as it is. ha! They are thinking about running summer track together. It would be Brenna's first year participating in summer track but she knows exactly how it works because Bryson ran for a couple of years. He enjoys it but no longer has enough time for it. We let him pick and choose exactly what he wants to do. We are not those crazy sport parents you might see out sometimes. ha!! I promise, we are NOT!!

We let the kids choose what they want to participate in if anything. We are just their ride and most importantly... biggest fans.

Bryson is currently playing select/travel baseball and select/travel basketball. It is our first time with select/travel basketball... and he is loving that. When you travel it's always more competitive and serious. Bryson enjoys that versus playing all local kids in little league. If they are a little advanced in the sport it really is better for them to have that extra competition. They learn so much more that way. It's also a lot of fun staying at hotel every weekend. That is one of Bryson's (& Brenna & Bentley's) favorite part. We usually stay in a hotel 2-3 times a month for these tournaments and it's nice for the boys (who are also great friends) to hang out, swim, and just have a good time. Always great for the parents too. We sort of lose our social life... the other boys parents pretty much become our best friends. ha!! It's great though. At the same time it is very exhausting being on the go so much. We currently have practices every night of the week, but we do have Tuesdays off. And weekends are full with tournaments and games. Bryson chooses baseball over basketball so he will go to these tournaments (he will not miss those) and when he doesn't have a baseball tournament if basketball is in a tournament he will play there. He does have off weekends too so it's NOT every weekend. As you can see this leaves absolutley NO time. It's not always easy to fit in yard work. If you are a sports parent you know what I mean. ha!!

Like I said, the kids love it and choose to play so we support them and will do what we have to do to make it work. It's not always easy... often I miss one of Bryson's games a weekend because Brenna has one at the same time. So Ryan will take Bryson (he's one of Bryson's coaches) and I will take Brenna.

You might be wondering being so busy how do they have time for school/homework... it works. School is first priority. Homework is done as soon as they get home from school. Bryson and Brenna both have had all A's all school year. If they were struggling, their sports would slow down. School first, then sports.

That's pretty much all we have been up to. A little house updating when we can fit that in but that's about it. I hate long post... sorry!! And I'm sure no one has any interest in any of this. But it's all for me. I want to be able to look back.

I will post for now on from this point.

This weekend Bryson has a baseball tournament and Brenna has a game tomorrow. Another busy one!!

Have a great weekend!!! =)))

TORNADO ALLEY

... that's exactly what it has been in most of Texas this past week. Where we live, we usually do not see many tornados, so it has been shocking in a sense. There have been a couple of times our family has had to camp out in the hallway in the past few years... but a lot of Texas have been doing it on a daily basis this week. It's been ugly... but thankfully where we live the damage was very minimal. Just praying other areas can say the same.

I took a quick picture from my phone lastnight while we were in the hallway, it was about 10pm and Bryson has TAKS test today so he needed his rest. I made a cozy pallet in the hallway for the kids to sleep on and we had a mattress right beside them ready to cover us all if needed. Not sure if you can tell... Bentley is faking. ha!! She was wide a wake. She kept saying "ohhh the thuner is coming" (thunder).

I actually started writing more here to catch you up on what we've been up to, but it ended up being too long. I saved it and will post it tomorrow. I'm probably what you would call a "lazy reader" yet I can't ever stop rambling. ha!! So I'll try not to write too much in one post.

I'm pretty sure the constant storms have passed and I'm happy about that. But I wish we would get more rain. We. Need. It.

BRING IT ON...

This is Crystal aka "You and Me Plus Three"... YES, I have an exciting new name...

Here's the deal... a few months ago I decided I would close my blog, only to miss the heck out of blogging. =) I have decided to come back. Over the past couple of months, I realized how much my blog meant to me and served as a scrapbook for our family. I knew my blog served as a scrapbook for our family then, but reading back it really openned my eyes as to just how important it was. I am very sad that I don't have a scrapbook of things going on in our lives over the past few months. Shame on me for quiting. Super excited to be back. I'm sure there are a few that aren't happy about this as a couple of post ago... they let me know exactly how they felt. But it's my blog... I will keep it... and post what I want as I want... for ME. After all no one made them "follow" me and no one made them "read" my blog. I'm excited!!

So why the new name?

"You and Me Plus Three" was thought up quickly and is and was very common. I was going through Bentley's heart issues and new to blogging so I really didn't know what I wanted... I just wanted to write about her heart to keep friends and family updated. So it was the first one that came to mind so I did it in a rush.

I want my blog to be more "fun" and "fitting" for our family. "Bring It On" says it all... first if you have been reading you know that 75% of our time is spent with our oldest two in sports. Many of my post are about my kids and their sporting events. "Bring It On" also stands for something very different... Bentley's heart. Bentley, our youngest, was born with a heart defect and underwent major open heart surgery when she was just 9 months old. That was the reason for me starting my blog in the beginning. If you read then, you know I had a very hard time with this journey... it's not easy. It is a lifetime journey... a lifetime fight. My thoughts now... Bring it on... Bentley has been amazing and she has been a fighter since day 1. She will fight this, she is fighting this. And since life can sometimes simply be HARD in many ways... we have to keep on pushing. It can easily bring us down at times, but during those moments my thought needs to be... Bring It On. Easier said than done, I know. That's a big struggle of mine.

I'm so excited to be back!!

And you can expect me to post about all the same topics... this is my family blog. So our life in general as a family of 5 and I will most definitely conintue too post about Bentley's heart. Her next appointment is in June (1 year since her last cardi appointment). She has not had any issues whatsoever, she has been amazing. Such a blessing!!

DISQUS

... is a big mistake.

OUR NEWEST ARRIVAL

Ok, well... I have decided that I will just post as I want... ;-) If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that we have been wanting a pug FOREVER... years and years and just never took the leap. Meet our newest addition. Bella, is now 4 months old... and the PERFECT addition to our family, we love her so.

So glad we finally did it. She is the sweetest thing. I know a lot of people look down upon dressing animals... as I once did. BUT (not sure with other breeds) but pug owners are encouraged to dress them esp. when its cold out. Pugs easily get runny noses and colds, so it really is important to keep them warm... but not too warm of course. Anyway, she was only outside for a couple of minutes (to relieve herself). I literally chased her to catch a picture (when she was not relieving herself. ha!). Bella does NOT like the cold, snow, or rain... guess it's a good thing she's a Texas baby, huh.

To come back or to not come back...

that is the question. WOW. It has be a LONG time. My orginally plans changed... everytime I try to turn this blog into something else, it's just too hard. I miss blogging. I miss my blogging friends too. This blog means SOOOO much to me since Bentley's whole heart journey is in it. I'm emitionally attached and just can't bear to 'delete' it or 'change' it. I am strongly considering coming back to blogging. Hmmm... such a hard decision.

Things that have been going on... um... you guessed it. Sports! All 3 little ones are just great and Bentley is still doing just amazing. She might be a little rotten but that's it, and of course we allow her to be rotten. ;-)

Other things going on... I have recently branched out from the web design and have started Presh Prints. www.preshprints.com - super cute birth announcements and birthday invitations and more to come... super excited about this and this is where I spend most of my extra time.. I'm just stoked.

Still thinking about the blog... until then, find me on facebook I'm there regularly. =)

... THE END (and where you can find me)

Ok, so here's the deal.

This is long so let me give this information to you right off...

I will no longer be posting here... you can find my active blog by clicking here... I will not be posting there until after Christmas or maybe a few days before... but you can go there, scroll down to the very bottom and click follow to keep up with me on a regular basis.

This blog will stay but there will be a new name and it will work differently, so you can continue to follow to see what happens there.

Okay, now for the DETAILS!!!

This is the very last post on You and Me Plus Three blog... I have loved every minute and it's pretty much KILLING me to not be able to keep up with it anymore. But the fact remains... I am a mom of 3 VERY active little ones and I have just run out of time. By the end of the day, I'm just too tired to post... When I have time to post I'm just so exhausted from sports, school, work, etc. I just want to do absolutely nothing... which is rare that, that even happens. I know MANY of you can relate because MANY of us have talked about this subject. It's just not easy... I look up to those of you that can actively keep up with your blogs... I'm very jealous, in fact. I want to "scrapbook" our wonderful, crazy, BEAUTIFUL life... but there just aren't enough hours in the day. I can't tell you how many times, that I have felt "guilty" because I wouldn't keep up with my blog. I have NO idea why I felt guilty... but when I cannot post normally... it becomes stressful to me. WEIRD, I know!!!! ;-)

Everything is great here, couldn't be better... it all comes down to "time" and I just don't have enough. I am a "work" at home mom which makes it even harder for me to have that extra time... and probably the biggest reason why I'm unable to keep up with it. When I found out about Bentley's heart I started my blog... I posted non stop... for one because I put work off, to spend that extra time with Bentley, loving on my sweet girl, research her heart condition, and basically freaking out every second of the day. It was a lot to take on so work was the last thing on my mind.... also I think my blog help me in MANY ways... well, I KNOW it helped me get through the first year for sure. It was therapeutic for me. I would express my feelings so I didn't not have that extra weight on my shoulders and I received so much feedback, positive stories, PRAYERS, etc. That is the thing I am most grateful for about my blog. I can promise you if it weren't for me starting my blog and being connected to all of you and you all being so kind to keep Bentley in your prayers... I would probably have ended up in a mental hospital. ;-) Seriously though... I probably would have!! So I cannot thank you all enough!!!! I am so sad I'm having to end the blog, but I need to "free" some of my time to enjoy more with my family and without feeling "stressed" because I haven't posted in a week.

A couple of BIG things going on in the midst of this one. One that I am super duper happy about....

You and Me Plus Three will no longer be here BUTTTT a blog will still be here only a new name. I started my blog to share about Bentley's heart to family and friends because I could not talk about it... it was too hard. That turned into something completely different and totally positive.... I cannot tell you how many people come across my blog searching just like I did when I found out about Bentley's heart. Or how many emails I get asking heart journey related questions, pedi heart surgeon questions, and so on. I have seen my blog help others and that my friends, has put the biggest smile of all on my face... SOOOOO... this blog will still be here, only... it will be called...

I "heart" Bentley

In about a week if you come back you will see many changes... it is not going to be a family blog... I want to keep it because so many needing inspiration and hope come across it and it helps them, this I love and I don't have to post regularly because most the information they want is already there. So in about a week this blog will have a different name... look completely different, and function differently. I am going to remove all my family post and only leave the heart related post. I will post new post on it as I wish... they will all be heart related post. I just want to help others at this point... I have seen it, therefore I don't feel right completely removing it. And hopefully, in the future I can be more involved with heart related issues and awareness and I will also most definitely post those things on here. So keep you eye open for those changes... it will be a slow process... and happen one thing at a time. The name will change, the look will change, etc.

Now for the second thing... if you have been reading here for a while now you know I have a huge interest in photography... well... I pretty much disappeared from that blog too... BUT it is a huge passion of mine and definitely something I would like to branch out to and see where it takes me. I still have my photography blog... and that blog will be my full time "main" blog instead of You and Me Plus Three. Basically... I have "too much" going on on the Internet... ha! I need to eliminate some things to allow more time to do the things I enjoy most (spending time with my family).

So no more You and Me blog... no more twitter, etc. I just can't hang!! It was very hard trying to decide what to eliminate but I have never really felt "comfortable" blogging about my kids. I'm such a paranoid person... that every time I click "publish post" I would just cringe and pray that no crazies have wondered here. That's also a big reason I will be ending this blog... I thankfully have NEVER had an issue with my blog and the crazies... but it always had me worried. That is another main concern. So there is just so much thought put into this decision and it's clear the best thing for me is to end You and Me Blog. It's time for me to move on.

So there you have it... and from the bottom of my heart I thank everyone that has every commented, emailed, prayed, gave me hope, etc. through this blog. I have had so many emotional times sitting here typing and all of you have been there for me just as much or more than real life friends... so this is extremely hard for me. But it's time for me to move on...

THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!!!!

LOVE YOU ALLLL!!!!!! =(

BLOG UPDATE & GIVEAWAY

I've gotten many emails about my last post... you guessed it... there will be no more "You and Me Plus Three" blog anymore. I will post once more here... and it will be very informative about MANY things... and let you know where you can follow me and keep in touch on a daily basis. Everything couldn't be more wonderful here, no worries there. It just all comes down to "time"... I'm having to make adjustments.

I have posted my last giveaway on my review blog.