thedickeyclan

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-24T06:25:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone! I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged on here. All is well - which is probably why there is not much to share. ...don't you love how all Christmas catch up letters start like that! :)

The sum up of this year....

Luke came home in August - and that is really where our year began again as a Dickey family. We missed him SO much! He is doing well. He has one more year with the Army Reserves and then he is done. He went back to his job at George McKenna Electric and really enjoys working there. They really have a soft spot for him there. :) He is also back in school at IEC, 3 more semesters and he will have his journeyman license. HE IS READY TO HAVE THAT LICENSE. He still has his eyes set on installing solar panels for homes, so he was happy to see Obama win, just for the increase funds to alternative energy. :)

The kids are well - heck, the kiddos are GREAT! We are so blessed to have the wonderful kiddos we have with such beautiful hearts.

Hannah is in 3rd grade and for the first time EVER has an INCREDIBLE teacher and she is learning like CRAZY! Her reading button turned on this year and is reading everything in sight, it is quite amazing what billboard signs you don't notice until your child points them out to you! ;) Her precious faith continues to grow, and sometimes I catch her at night reading the bible. Right now she is fixed on Moses life. They are studying that in her class at church.

That is another thing that has changed. Long story short, just like everything else in life things change, cultures change - especially in new communities, and well, the culture at the North Campus kind of changed and we didn't change with it. So after much prayer and church shopping we have found our home - at least for now. :) It is a really healthy bible church out here in McKinney. We love the church, the message, the worship, and their small group life is established. A friend of mine is apart of one and we hope to check it out the first week of the new year. We are ready to be apart of a small group again.

And Mr. Mateo.... well, he is growing up! Every time I see him I am surprised by something he says or does or how he looks... he is becoming Mateo and it is good. He is in kindergarten this year. He has a precious teacher, who is so sweet and very patient with my little one. We joke that his first language is capital scribble, so we are working hard write now to get him to write on the line right now. Next is the to get lower case going, then to use finger spacing, then punctuation - yes, all little kindergartners are expected to know such things....? Go figure. So, thankfully Mateo has a big sister that he likes to copy and LOVES doing homework with her. *whew*

And more news on the dickey front - I have started my own photography business and I LOVE IT! http://www.capturedwhispers.com/ We are going to launch into the SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHY realm this March - hopefully never to return. And the LORD has continued to open doors to us along the way - including blessing us with being the photographers for the Melissa ISD PROM! He is sooo good to us! :)

Luke and I are well. On November 29 we celebrated 10 crazy and incredible years of marriage to our best friend. Do you know we have lived in 2 states and 2 countries and have moved a total of TWELVE TIMES over those 10 year?! I tell ya, it has kept us from being pack rats for sure! :) We have finally settled for a while in Melissa, TX. The town kind of suits us. We have been in our home for 3 years now. It is cozy and in 324 more months it will be ours. :)

Well dear friends, I hope all is well with you. Feel free to comment or email or just drop by anytime, - we might be in the middle of a Spin UNO game, but you are always welcome to join! :)

much love to you and yours,

the dickey clan

just a swingin

2008-10-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

So, the boys decided they needed some guy time. So, hannah and I hung out in the living room watching HSM2 and the boys - Mohawk and all - hung out in MY hammock. YES - luke is cutting the apple with his pocket knife! :)

can they be anymore adorable?

You know it is amazing how much mateo is becoming more of a little man everyday. And our precious little hannahbear - gosh, if you haven't seen her in a while - you will be blown away by how much of a young lady she is becoming. I promise I will get a pic of her up soon.

God was generous when He blessed us with such incredible children.

The Common Sense Fix to the Economy

2008-10-02T07:13:00.002-05:00

Forgive the RANT - but this really makes sense and I passed it on to my senators and reps.

The Common Sense Fix

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three-step Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE
a. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.
b. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:
1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.
2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs. c. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.
II. MARK TO MARKET
a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate. b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.
III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX
a. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing. b. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down.

This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

McKinney Oktoberfest

2008-09-30T21:51:00.013-05:00

So, the Dickey family went to the McKinney fest and let me tell ya - WE HAD A BLAST!

there was dancing...

I tell ya, I don't go a day and not thank the LORD that we are finally able to go back to being a WHOLE family.

Just being plain ol' silly! :)

A barrel race - yeah, I am the one with the wayward barrel... Chloe totally won!

You can't have a German Party without the CHICKEN DANCE!!! :)

David - Jill was shopping for her attire at the B&B when you come home! :)

My sexy hubby!

Enjoying friends and snow cones

The beautiful mom and daughter team of Jill and Chloe.

And this was just too cute not to share... remember those days?

TOOTH PASTE IS BAD!

2008-09-22T21:06:00.003-05:00

So, this has been interesting weekend.

We entered our precious Hannahbear in a casting call for Gap. You can too, just go to gap.com and search for casting call. Hannah was really excited about it, I wish the best for her. - she is quite beautiful if you ask me. :)
Then on Sunday, Mateo came to me pale as a ghost. And then spent the rest of the day puking his guts up. Turned out he ate a good teaspoon of toothpaste instead of brushing his teeth. I just praise God he is finally almost back to normal. He put himself to bed tonight at 7pm. :( It was good though because it gave me and hannah time to work on her homework. :) Can you see the sexy goatee on my husband in this pic. ;) I am going to be so sad when he has to shave it off for Army.
Let's see... Luke has started school again. His real class actually began tonight and he is LOVING it. It is really hands on this year - he says he will be in labs most of the time.
Then with Captured Whispers, we are working on our Fall and Christmas marketing material and offering a discount to anyone who wants to be our model. So, if you didn't get the e-mail and are interested just shoot me an e-mail. Oh - also, you may notice that I keep using plural when talking about the business. Well, Luke has decided to join me in the fun. It is wonderful.
The kids are cool with it because we always get them really good babysitters and when we are home we are HOME. We got these vinyl kites at Krogers for $2 a piece - gotta love clearance - and they are unbreakable - it is wonderful! So, we have been flying kites when the wind lets us.
Well, that is about it.. --- no wait I must pass on this tid bit of info - the movie IGOR that just came out this week was AWFUL! Don't waste your time or money going to see it... Luke and I were both truly sad we didn't walk out when we saw how bad it was going to be. And if you do go and see how awful it is - remember I warned you - you only have yourself to blame! :)
Ok, I am going to go.

Wishing you all well!
the dickey clan.

Melissa Cardinals in the making! :)

2008-09-20T16:28:00.000-05:00

We went and saw Hannah's best friend, Cole, play football today. We had a LOVELY time. I got all into it - cheering and screaming - I think everyone thought I was drunk. :) oh well. :)
here are the pics.

I tell ya, I love living in Melissa - just to get to stop and watch sunsets like this! :)

FREEDOM!!!!! :) Oh, I mean, 1st day of School! :)

2008-08-25T18:20:00.000-05:00

I tell ya, today was a bitter-sweet day.

Hannahbear went off to 3rd grade and little Patoe started Kindergarten this year. With Mateo being our youngest, we kind of had to gulp as I dropped him off at school, knowing that the dickey clan has officially morphed into a new culture. The all-your-kids-in-school culture.
They both had a spectacular day! PRIASE GOD! Hannah didn't even get in trouble for talking too much - of course, I did threaten to never give her allowance again. :) But I think it is because she is growing up.

You know as I was leaving the school and seeing them walk off they just looked so ... big. Independent. confident. dependent on each other. ready for what lies ahead.
So, I get home cry my two tears. Make my coffee, head to work... to rooms down and got to edditing pictures. And at about 10am it clicked - " this is it". I am soooo right where I want to be right now. The kids are right where they want to be and Luke is too. We as a family are so in the "now" right now it is kind of amazing. :)
Anyhoo, on to the pics. :)
*hugs to you all!*
-the dickey clan.

On the farm

2008-08-23T12:59:00.000-05:00

I have a cousin who lives 20 miles and 2 worlds away from me. I love her to pieces and am glad we have managed to become friends over the years. Her kids are in between Hannah's age and all 4 seem to get along well.
We had a mommy daughter movie night at my home on friday. Then on Saturday I went over there to do a cow shoot - I kid you not. And I just thought I would share a few pics of us all hangin out together.
It was a great way to spend the last saturday before school starts. :)

christa and bailey and their new found frog friend
hannah on the tire swing in the barn
the girls dancing to highschool musical
bessie - my new client. :)

The dickey clan go on a family date

2008-08-17T16:16:00.004-05:00

Well, Luke has been home for 12 days now. *ahh*
On Friday night, we dropped everything and went to Galaxy Drive Inn. It is BY FAR the COOLEST DATE we have ever been on.
I added the link to your home page, b/c this was soooo cool and CHEAP!
-m.
"Ma-Patoe"... :)

We played 18 holes of putt-putt, 3 kids, 4 adults... A LOT OF STROKES! :)
My favorite Melissa girlfriend, TylenaThis is their whole family, they came with us. Tylena, Cole and Wes
Us getting ready to chill for Star Wars, CLONE WARS.
Hannahbear with her favorite friend Cole.

And here are more pics...

2008-07-28T07:01:00.004-05:00

This is what I did for hours on sunday - man it was soooo relaxing!
lizard

if your a bird, i'm a bird... i love you lucas... :)
the view of the beach from the top of the top
Tulum - Myan Ruins
I just love this picture... I would like to grab a starbucks, a good book, and luke and head to that corner and just CHILL.
lindser-lou chillin

Me and linz hung out ALOT on this trip... It was great!

pics from cancun...

2008-07-27T22:53:00.003-05:00

This was the sunset from the door at my room --- so beautiful!
I am totally aware this is a bad pic - but I loved just hanging out on the beach. - NO SHELLS! :(
This - this is just a cool hexagon on the inside of a gazebo. :)

my precious tweeties

2008-07-20T18:50:00.003-05:00

Well, the kiddos are off to camp amarillo soon and I am off to cancun for a few days! woo-hoo! :)
I hope you all are having a good summer! *hugs*

And a pic of the moon - we have been having beautiful moons lately...

hannahbear

2008-07-09T21:12:00.004-05:00

Hannah was my model for the day the other day... she is growing so much and is so beautiful I just wanted to share her cuteness with all yall. :)
I am working on a camera trick in the first one and the second one is her and our neighbor being all sassy for their pic.

4th of July

2008-07-07T20:34:00.005-05:00

The city of Melissa put on this city Celebration of Freedom day. It was the moment of why we I am happy we moved to a small town... besides the fact you can see the stars in the sky every night.

p.s. we are 27 days out - PRAISE GOD!

horseback riding with cousins

2008-06-24T23:31:00.003-05:00

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

2008-06-16T23:14:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is late and I am soooo sorry - been alittle busy... :) SUMMER HAS BEGUN!

Too-Too's 76th Birthday

2008-06-13T08:55:00.004-05:00

This is Too-Too. My amazing grandmother who just turned 76 years old. Look at the sparkle in her eyes! I can only hope to have such beauty! She is an amazing woman whose love and prayers have helped make me into the woman I am and the woman my daughter is becoming and I will be eternally grateful for that.
This is our precious Vaughan family. Melissa's side -- yeah, we really do put the fun in dysfunctional when we are around each other. And it just goes to show that God's love is bigger then us. Praise God!

Hello Mathis Family!

2008-06-03T12:53:00.002-05:00

Hey shannon, this was tooo cute not to post! :)
It was great seeing you!
-m.

One proud mama!

2008-06-02T09:34:00.004-05:00

Mateo graduated Pre-school. Isn't he sooo cute. :)

The little precious baby in this pic is baby Sophia, Nathan's daughter.

Hannah and Lindsey decided to donate it to Locks for Love.

Can she look anymore adorable? I was worried she wouldn't like the hair cut, but she LOVES it! She can't stop talking about it. girls! :)

our Memorial Day weekend

2008-05-29T16:05:00.004-05:00

We spent one afternoon on a nature trail exploring.
Luke, this rock is for you. :)
For the first time in my life I am thankful for cottonwood trees, just for the magic of this picture... mateo chased and caught this little whisper.

This is our "sandbox", I am offically changing the name to our "mudbox". The kiddos LOVE it, but they also love turning it into mud. :)

Daddy this snowman is for YOU!

2008-05-25T15:56:00.001-05:00

Luke, here is hannahbear's sculpture for you.

FIELD DAY! ~~~

2008-05-23T17:47:00.003-05:00

So, Hannahbear had field day today. It was fun to get to be apart of it this year - one more praise to the Lord for helping me stay home! :)
I noticed some differences from when I participated in field day.
1. there are no ribbons. They break into 3 teams within the class and you race eachother, but really everyone celebrates the winners b/c the kids had so much fun! :)
2. it is not an all day event. They had very structured and organized two hours of fun.
Yeah, I am sure there are more, but those two surprised me. Anyhoo.... on to the pics. :)

This was her doing the frisbe toss, she just looked so pretty I had to share the pic. :)
Hannah's class.
dog pile! - hannah bear is in there somewhere! :)

Mateo on a Motorcycle

2008-05-22T13:09:00.002-05:00

This is Mateo's dream! :)
The kiddos helped pick up the petals, and please note the amazing hammock stand behind them that my incredibly wonderful husband made me. LUKE, THANK YOU!!!!

Summer Splash 2008

2008-05-19T13:45:00.007-05:00

Summer Splash is an event that takes place for the North Campus annually. We gather as a family, eat, play, baptize and have a BLAST! Last year was amazing, I wrote about it here.

This year's was just as incredible. Kids of some friends of ours got baptized, Mateo and Hannah were front row watching them and cheering them on.
Here are some pics...
We all gather around the pool to watch and celebrate the baptisms. This year there were 14! Four of our friends were among them!
riding horses paddle boats
Mateo Hannahbear

Go Speed Racer Go!

2008-05-17T14:33:00.003-05:00

So we went to see Speed Racer today. I was a little hesitant because it looked a little too grown up and fast in the previews. But I was soooo pleasantly surprised by how good the movie was. By the final race all 3 of us were on the edge of our seats. :)

The bad guys were the really bad villains and the good guys were incredible and FULL of integrity and love for the family.... TOTALLY IMPRESSED!

The last thing I saw before we got up at the of the movie was the banner - CHEATERS NEVER WIN!!!! Go Matrix Brothers! Great movie!

A friday with the dickey clan

2008-05-16T22:48:00.005-05:00

Hannah gets to spend the night with her very best friend Chasey.

Mateo plays tractors with the neighbor

And I get to play with my new camera. :)

Happy Friday everyone!

-m.

The Launch of Captured Whispers Photography

2008-05-13T20:34:00.003-05:00

Well, I am officially starting my photography business. I have always loved capturing life as it happens, but it seems now that others want to pay me to capture their moments too. I am both humbled and flattered in the same breath, and completely looking forward to it.

So, here is the site - http://capturedwhispers.blogspot.com/

I just uploaded a wedding I did a few weeks ago, and will be updating it as I go.

So, here's to a new adventure on the dickey clan's journey.

If you know of anyone looking for a photographer, I would love for you to send them my way. :)

*hugs* to you all!
-m.

Mateo's 5th B-DAY PARTY

2008-05-13T11:59:00.013-05:00

Mateo

Greek

"Devoted to God"

Mateo, you are such a blessing to our family. Your precious smile, caring hugs and sweet heart help to make our family whole. I am so glad God chose us to be your parents.

We love you!!! Mom and Dad

So, on to the party! Hannah and I had a wedding to go to right before Mateo's party started. I was glad that Luke was here to man the party. He grills hot dogs like no one's business. :)

Mateo had a Pirates birthday cake, a spiderman bounce house and transformer tatoo's in the pinata! They jumped and ate and jumped and played and jumped some more and then I sent them home! *ahh* I tell ya, I never remember how exhausting these precious parties are, but Mateo had a BLAST!

Wimberely, TX

2008-05-13T08:13:00.003-05:00

So, thanks to some INCREDIBLE friends (THANKS DILLISHAW FAMILY!!! THANKS DIXON FAMILY!!!) Luke and I got three amazing nights away from it all. It was amazing. We saw the sun rise and set every day.
There was this amazing Mexican restaurant that served "cactus eggs" and they were INCREDIBLE! (go figure) :)
We walked around downtown Wimberely one day, that picture at the top is us checking out the famous Pie Co. out there.
There were some amazing little shops, and most of them sold local art. - AMAZING local art! :)

One of the days we hired a photographer to get pictures of us - Luke's present to me. :) Carrie and her partner Matt did a great job at an affordable price. We were really lucky. These B/W pictures are a sample of the hundreds of pics they took. I am decorating our room right now and am making one wall of pictures only of us. *sigh*

Anyhoo, this was just the beginning of a wonderful two weeks together. Once we got home it only got better!

God is so good and He is getting us through this amazingly long valley. I am so thankful someone knows what is going on. :)

Father I trust you and praise you for your will and grace in our lives. i love you. -m.

And to everyone else - we love you too! :)
I will get pics of the hammock up soon, in the mean time, hope you have a great week.

Great Family Date continued - The Park

2008-05-01T17:12:00.001-05:00

A Great Family Date - Dallas Aquarium

2008-05-01T16:26:00.004-05:00

So, this was our trip to the Dallas Aquarium. Hannah's class went today, and Luke and I decided we wanted to go also - so we just made it a family date. We had an INCREDIBLE time!

The kids couldn't explore quick enough. I believe the overall winner was the shark tank that we could walk through and look at them.

Cool sharks, bright frogs, breath-taking sea dragons! Glad Luke was home to join us! :)

T-minus less then one week to being a family for a while!!!

2008-04-21T21:23:00.004-05:00

We are less then two weeks away!!!

2008-04-14T20:02:00.003-05:00

We can hardly believe it is almost time to see "daddy".

The kids have made their demands clear.
Mateo wants to wrestle - A LOT.
Hannah is expecting him to take her on two dates. :)

We have our own "demands" as well ... but I am NOT sharing them on here! :)

However, I will show you where we will be staying.
http://www.hillcountrysunset.com/canyon_vista.html
Luke is taking me away for 3 nights before we join the kiddos - we can't wait!

*hugs to you all*

We are FINALLY getting paint on our walls

2008-04-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

Well, this isn't paint on the walls, but it is one of the ways we are making the house our home. This is our little flower bed.
This is the one of two tulips that actually lived once it got put in our flower bed. :)
I think it looks like a mess up close, but I wanted to show the Dickey family all the ROCKS in our flower bed. I believe we have decided it is a requirement.
And this - oh this is SPECIAL!!! This is some brocolli we are growing in our backyard. We are really enjoying watering it and watching it grow. Shortly after this pic we had to transport them to other pots because they were getting all root-bound. I will let you know if they live.

Ok, this is actually a picture of the kids making a tent in Hannah's room, but it does show a little of the wall we did in her room. The rest of her walls are in that pale purple on on the bottom half of the wall.
This is our kitchen. It took much "discussion" to come to an agreement on the technique and color, but we are all very happy with the color we have chosen. At one point when choosing the color one of our walls looked like paint had just thrown up on it! We had khaki and we had dark brown and we had yellow and we had red and I think we even tried sponging on one spot --- SOOO glad we finally picked one!
This is Luke and my bedroom. We have done two of our walls in this color. "We" are still considering options for the other two walls.

Ok, I just thought I would share how our house is becoming a home... :)

Pics of Luke

2008-04-06T20:04:00.000-05:00

I think he looks like BJ here...

Mateo is turning FIVE YEARS OLD!!!

2008-04-05T13:08:00.000-05:00

We are doing a pirates themed party to celebrate when Luke comes home.
"Patoe" when he was 2 1/2.... awwwww.... :)

Hannah and Mateo April 2008

2008-04-01T22:01:00.002-05:00

our tweeties!!

It snowed in Texas! (I am playing catch up) :)

2008-04-01T20:43:00.001-05:00

Spring Break 2008 with Dickey Family

2008-04-01T19:44:00.000-05:00

My two tweeties! Can they be any cuter?! :)
This was hilarious! We learned - the hard way -that you are NOT ALLOWED to take pictures inside Target without permission from Corporate ahead of time. We are such rebels! :)
Grandma Shirley with her grand kiddos. On the back row - Hannah, Shirley, Mateo front row - Audrey, Hailey
We just had to get a pic together.
Gotta love Jumpin' Zones! :)

We were able to go to Amarillo for part of Spring Break. I thought I would share some of the pics from the trip. We had a blast! Mateo is still talking about the trip. :)