Southern Junction

Our friend, Stephanie, celebrated her birthday last week with a get together at a country western place called Southern Junction. We were told it was cool to bring kiddos so that's exactly what we did! We could not keep Korben off the dance floor. He even found a cute (and much older) little girl to dance with... it was adorable! Mind you, most of Korbens dancing is just a bunch of boucing and spinning... it's still so fun to watch him dance anytime he hears any kind of music! We had to call it a night earlier than most of the group so we could get little man to bed, but we really did have a great time! The first image I posted is a video... it's a little dark... sorry. Of course, the rest of the pictures are mostly of Korben... I really am trying to get better at taking pictures of other people... it's just so hard to pull the camera away from Korben! It's a work in progess! :)

Dancin' man!

Korben and his dance partner :)

His face doesn't portray it in this pic, but Korben had a lot of fun with Susan!

Say "cheese" with me Daddy!

A picture with birthday girl, Stephanie

Stephanie and her hubby, Adam

Happy Birthday, Steph!

Little Gym Graduation

I'm a little late posting this, but Korben "graduated" from Little Gym a couple of weeks ago. It was just the last week of the semester so we were able to invite a couple people to come and see what all the kids had learned. Granny and Daddy both came to see! They even had a ceremony (kind of) and gave all the kids medals. Korben loved his class so much that we went ahead and put him in the summer classes. Mr. Roy is the instructor in Korbens class and he is sooo great! Korben did not like him at the beginning of the semester in January and cried and fussed every time he tried to do an activity with him, but Mr. Roy was extremely patient and now Korben is not scared of him at all and even enjoys giving him frequent high fives! Here are some pictures and videos of a few things that go on at Little Gym.

Weekend Update (Picture Overload)!!

In the words of Kristi, oh my goodness gracious sakes alive of America! What a weekend we had! Let me first warn you that as is stated in the title of this post, there are a TON of pictures! And this may be more like a novel than a blog post, so don't say I didn't warn you!


Sooo, for Josh and Korben, this weekend started out with Little Gym on Saturday morning. Korben's class is on Saturday mornings when Josh is usually working. Since Josh got this past Saturday off, he got to take Korben to his Little Gym class. I think it was great father-son time for both of them! And for me, this weekend started out with a church activity thing early on Saturday morning. Our church celebrated their 30th anniversary and we were asked to come and serve our community together and try to collect 30,000 lbs of food to donate to local food banks. There were a ton of different ways you could help out in this project but our ABF elected to go door-to-door to collect cans of food. So we met at Lake Pointe at 8:30 am and from there we split up into 4 smaller groups to go out to different neighborhoods. I'm pretty sure just about every person from our class showed up to help! It was awesome! We left Lake Pointe at 9:00 to start our mission of collecting cans and it took us until 12:30 to finish our neighborhood... that's a lot of walking to do when it's 172 degrees outside!! Ok, maybe it wasn't THAT hot, but it was close! :~) It was well worth the cause, anyhow. We had our share of people ignore us and what-not, but that was totally to be expected... I'm just like that myself, sometimes, and I'm sure we did look like a cult or something in our matching T-shirts!! But all in all, we collected quite a bit of food. I'm not sure how we did as a whole church group but if everyone collected as much as our little group, then I'm sure we met our goal of 30,000 lbs! I wish I had a pic of all the food we collected but it didn't happen... oh well.

Our little group

some folks from other groups (still a part of the same class)

I see some cans in Josh and Anna's bags!


Scott and Kara ready to collect some food for the hungry!

After our little mission, it was off to Granny and Pops' lake house in Athens (almost immediately) to celebrate Great Mee-Maw and Pops' birthday! We had a great time! As soon as we got there, we hooked up Korbens swing and he loved that thing! Pops had to work so he showed up later but Korben was still swinging when he got there! Later that night, Aunt Cindy, Aunt Liz, cousin Leslie, Uncle Joey, and Aunt Jennie showed up and we all ate dinner at the Jalapeno Tree. It was delicious! And Pops got sung to by the staff and got a yummy dessert that he was nice enough to let everyone have a taste of!

The next day we were joined by Great Grandma and Granddad, Great Mee-maw and Granddad, Uncle Dale, cousin Becca, and Chloe. Korben went on the boat a couple of times and did pretty well. He loved being behind the wheel and driving... no worries though, we only let him drive when the engine was off! :~) It was so nice to be out on the water and go skiing for the first time this year... oh how I love water skiing! Maybe one day I will be able to go as long as Josh and cut as well at Joey... ok maybe not, but I still love it! I even attempted wake boarding this weekend and I got up for the first time ever.... but then I fell. So I tried it again and got up again! Woo hoo! Then I suffered the worst wipe out ever! I have no idea what even happened but I do remember the wake board coming off my feet and hitting the water face first and wanting to just stay there... until about 5 seconds later when I remembered I had to breathe so I really should move! It didn't take my hubby even a second to jump in the water and come to my aide when Darrell asked if I was OK and I shook my head "no"......he was my hero! :) Seriously though, it wasn't as bad it sounds written out like that. Don't get me wrong, it HURT, but all I needed was a little rest and some strong aspirin and I was good as new! One day I'll be like Josh and Joey and have no problems with that silly wake board! I can say though, that if you have sinus issues like I did this weekend, a fall into the lake will clear them right up... at least temporarily!

I also rode the Sea Doo with Becca and her friend, Chloe. I hadn't been on one in a while and I forgot how much fun they are! Becca was a super fun driver and we only fell off about 12 or 13 times... well, Becca and I did anyway! Chloe always seemed to be able to stay on somehow! But if you're not riding with the risk of falling off, it's not NEAR as fun!

Granny and Pops have a golf cart to ride from the house to the boat dock and Korben got several rides on that thing with just about everyone! I don't think it got used as a "taxi" as much as it should have because everyone liked riding it just for fun! We had a lot of fun and can't wait for the next trip! Happy Birthday Darrell and Helen! Hope it was fabulous!

On the road to Athens

Swinging Monkey!


Pops getting a turn to push Korben

Thanks for the grub, Leslie!

A cute picture with Daddy

Korben always put his chair right in front of the TV!

Riding the golf cart with Granny and Aunt Cindy (And Duke following them)

Now a turn with Mommy and Aunt Jeni :)

Getting ready to ride with Daddy... I just love the sunglasses on Korbens head and the puckered lips! :~)

Daddy let Korben drive!

Giving Mee-Maw hive five!

Aunt Cindy getting Korben ready for his nap :)

Daddy, Korben, Aunt Liz and Granddad

About to go out on the boat

Life jacket on...ready to go!

Cruisin' with Daddy

Since Korben is too young to ski, Pops decided to teach him to drive first! :)

Cruisin' with Granny!

Driving was the best part of the boat ride!

Korbens future skiing instructor showing his skills!

Daddy is a great skier!

Mommy taking a turn to ski

Mommy's attempt at wake boarding... this was right before falling but it looks like I'm super good and about jump a wake, doesn't it! :~)

Another Type of Deja Vu

Josh and I saw this while driving a couple days ago.....

Who knew there was another Korben in Rockwall with the same uncommon spelling as our sweet boy?!

Deja Vu

So I am a nerd watch "The Bachelorette." I know, I know, the concept is sick and ridiculous and every year I say I'm not going to watch it and then I do.... anyhow, that is another issue for another day. Sooo, this years bachelorette is from Canada and on tonights episode, Jillian and the guys went to her home town of Vancouver. Well, 2 summers ago (when I happened to be about 4 months preggo with our now 15 month old son, Korben!), Josh and I spent a week in Canada... the first half we were in Whistler and the second half, we stayed in Vancouver. When we were in Vancouver, we stayed at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.... well, did you happen to notice where Jillian and the guys stayed at on tonights show??? That's right, it was the same hotel that Josh and I stayed at when we were there! I'm sure their rooms were much larger and nicer than ours but still, we were at that hotel!

AND, we sooo ate at the restaurant that Jillian had her 2-on-1 date at on Grouse Mountain! The only way to get to that restaurant at the top of the mountain is by this gondola there.... little did I know 2 years ago when Josh and I rode that thing, that one day we would see it on TV when poor little Mike would get the boot on "The Bachelorette!" I've got one lone picture of it, but it was too dark and isn't very good so I didn't bother to post it. But here is what the outside of the restaraunt looks like....

And if you saw the previews to next weeks show, you saw Jillian standing next to this thing in Whistler......

I'm going to pee my pants if it turns out that she also stayed at The Fairmont Chateau Whistler...

Ok, maybe I won't literally pee my pants... but it would be ironic if she takes they guys to so many of the same places that Josh and I went when we were there! So will there be more deja vu?? Stayed tuned.... :)

Summer Fun!

Oh thank goodness the warm weather is here! The Chaney's summer has kicked off to a great start! Last Wednesday, we took Korben to our community pool for the first time this summer.... he hated it! I thought he would love it since he LOVES bath time but nope, he hung on for dear life! We went to the park afterwards and at least he liked that part. The next day, a group of mommies from our ABF went to the Harry Myers splash park and again, Korben hung on for dear life. So we gave up and went to dry ground to visit and eat lunch. I finally decided to go ahead and change Korben out of his cute Gymboree swim trunks and into some dry clothes... and wouldn't you know that the first thing he did after that was run straight into the water! Sooo, I just took off his clothes and let him play in his diaper.... he looked like quite the orphan child! There is also a picture of Korben and Katelynn again and since I always refer to her as his girlfriend, I guess I should explain... My friend, Kara, and I were pregnant together and we had the same doctor(s) so we would always see each other at our appointments and our kids, Katelynn and Korben, were born just 12 days apart so we decided to take upon ourselves to betroth them! So now we refer to them as each others girlfriend/boyfriend. We're cool like that! :)

I don't know if this had anything to do with it or not, but after our first disaster trip to the pool, I left Korbens crab floaty thingy in the house for him to play with hoping that he wouldn't be so scared of it next time it was in the water. So on Saturday, we went to Josh's cousins house to celebrate her graduation and Korben actually seemed to enjoy the water... crab floaty thingy and all!

A couple days ago, I finally busted out the blow up pool that Haley was kind enough to give us...Korben LOVED it! He would sit in it and splash around for a bit and then he had to get out to stick his head in the sprayer part! It was really funny! And the great thing about not driving to the community pool is we don't have to worry about putting on swim diapers and swim trunks! :)

Also, you'll notice in the first swim picture with me in it, that I'm wearing a green swimsuit and in another picture, I'm wearing a blue one... why, you ask? Well, since doing a pretty extreme exercise program with Josh called P90X, I've lost about 8lbs and my swimsuit from last year (the green one) was too big. Sooo I got to go shopping for a new one! I had a hard time finding a cute one piece and went to several stores before finding one. Most of the ones I found were for old ladies (no offense to any senior citizans... I am only 26 though)! So I finally went to Sports Authority in Rockwall and found a cute "non-old lady" Roxy suit that I am very pleased with! Bring on the summer! :~)

Layering on the sunscreen before hitting the pool

We love the swings!

Swinging is also good relaxation.... enough for a nap!

Isaac, Lily, Korben and Andrew

Sharing some lunch with girlfriend, Katelynn

Holly was nice enough to put Korbens shoes on him! He has a shoe fetish and is always looking for someone to put some on his feet!

Finally decided to play in the water AFTER he got dressed

My little orphan boy running around in his diaper

Getting a quick drink :)

Oooh, some shoes to wear!

Nothin' like being soaking wet!

This is what happens after a long day of playing hard

(Isn't he just adorable when he's sleeping??) :~)