Lovely weekend

Friday night the kids stayed at Grandma and Pa-Pa's house which equals date night with no childcare required! Yahoo!

We ate sushi then came home to a movie on the couch in our 'comfies,' as we affectionately call our comfortable clothes.

Saturday morning we slept until 8:30! This is a feat I have not accomplished in years. Years, I tell you. My body is programmed to wake up somewhere between 6:45-7:15, and I haven't had to use an alarm clock in five years. I simply awaken to little faces peering at me each morning. Hot Sauce usually hollers (right next to my face), "Mommy, it's time to get out from bed! Come oooon, Mommy!"

Needless to say, the extra hour of sleep was delightful. Instead of heading to the gym, we decided to run a 5K around the neighborhood. Beautiful weather complete with a light breeze, getting to greet other neighbors walking or working in their yards, and just running next to my husband... the perfect morning.

We followed our exercise up with our main task for the day: cleaning up the yard from the freak storm that came through earlier in the week. I heard there were 80-mph winds on the leading edge of the storm, and I believe it. I watched through our bedroom blinds as our neighbor's tree limbs snapped. Little did we know our front tree was snapping, too.

It was a large limb that broke, but thankfully the tree will survive, and the gap should fill in pretty quickly.

Our next project was taking down a section of fence in the back yard. Hello hottie with your nice calves and forearms. I've never wanted to be a fence post so badly in my life.... did I just say that out loud?? I'm really sorry... but I just had almost 24 hours alone with my man. I'm a little delirious right now and cannot be trusted to say appropriate things.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend, too!

Summer Fun

I love play dates all year round, but they are especially wonderful during the dog days of summer. My crazies have had so much fun playing with so many of their friends. Here are just a few pics I've captured:

A great morning at the zoo with Miss Anna!

One of the most bittersweet events of this month... our dear friends, the Odoms, have packed up and moved to Atlanta, and this was our last dinner together. It was really, really difficult to say goodbye to them. We've been friends with them since we were all newlyweds and have been blessed to live close to them at both our current and last house. Cristin and I have been doing playdates for about 5 years, and our kiddos are all really close in age and have the best time together. One of the best decisions we ever made was to be intentional about getting together and doing a monthly dinner with them. 

These pictures are precious to me!

*Sniff sniff.*

This past week we had more dear friends, the Bolingers, over. Also loooong-time friends, as in college. The four of us lived in a co-ed dorm together. Fun times. Fun, crazy, wild times. Their sweet babies Riley and Avery are getting too big too quickly... such precious kiddos.

Today Brayden and Addison came bowling with us! Taking additional children along is always so enjoyable when they're as sweet and polite as these two, and I especially love that B is older than Emerson and can put her in her place when she starts bossing!

Less than one month until Kindergarten/Pre-K/Older 2's preschool start!! I seriously canNOT believe it. I am furiously proofing a book right now and feel like the last part of July has passed me by. I want to treasure these last few weeks with my big girl and lavish lots of love on her before she begins all-day school. Yikes! She's sure ready, but I'm not sure her momma is. 

Porch. It does a body good.

I got to spend Wednesday through Saturday last week with my dearest friend in the entire world, Lisa the Hobo. In Houston. On her back porch with a gentle breeze and cooler temperatures than Tulsa.

Porch. It really does do a body good. And thank you, Susan, for reminding your daughter that we would need plenty of porch time.

Here's the view from her porch.

Bella. I love this sweet dog. She reminds me of all the reasons it'll be great to have a dog again someday.

So our calendar of events included sun, sun, and more sun.

We decided to drive down to Galveston and spend some time on the beach! I had never been, and some of the historic buildings were so gorgeous.

If you ever go, make sure you enjoy the fish tacos at The Spot. Yummers. Paleo went out the window when these suckers appeared.

On our way to Galveston, we passed through Alvin, and I felt the need to pose by this sign.

We spent time at Lisa's neighborhood pool the other two days. Can I just say that one of the luxuries of being away from my children is that I can go to a pool without them? A peaceful, relaxing time at the pool. It just doesn't happen very often, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We ate at Fleming's one night and also explored CityCentre, a way cool urban upscale shopping/living section of Houston. Another bonus of going to a big city is that I finally got to shop at Athleta! I've never ordered anything online because I just wanted to wait and see how things fit. Love that store.

Here we are at Fleming's. Good food, good adult beverages, good convo. Yea for girl time! Lisa is showing off the fruits of her labor... 38 pounds in just over 6 months... she's a shell of her former self. So proud of her!

I have to post a pic of the new light fixture in her dining room. LOVE IT. Amy A., this pic's for you! Sorry I didn't get any more pics of the rest of her house! I was in a total kid-free relaxation coma. Will you please come to Camp Dida, or as we affectionately renamed it (due to our large amounts of sun exposure) Camp Vitamin 'D'ida?? You will come back a new woman. Guaranteed.

I thought I took more pictures than that, but that's basically it. Lazy days = lazy paparazzi. But you know what? It's so good to be lazy every once in a while. It recharges you, it makes you a better wife/mother/friend, and it helps you remember to appreciate everything you've been given. Lisa, thank you for letting me crash your place! I had the best weekend with you, and I am so thankful for our friendship and the fact that you are only a short 1.5-hour plane trip away! Love ya, Hobo!

Happy 4th!

May/June Picture Post

Some of my favorite pictures of my peeps from the last two months. Have I mentioned I love my peeps? I love my peeps.

Emerson's last soccer game... we were so thrilled to find out that she was playing against her friend Kate!

These girls have been friends for a loooong time.

I'm talkin' waaaay back. Here they are (Em at 1 year on the right, and Kate at 9 months).

The kids with their Blueprint class at church. They memorized Proverbs 3:5-6 and got to say it in front of the congregation. 

 

Speaking of Proverbs 3:5-6, I was surprised to learn that Sauce was secretly learning it alongside her brother and sister. 

Jax's last day of preschool. He totally melted down, but I am so thankful that I got a picture of him with Miss Jan and Miss Sue, the most wonderful preschool teachers on the planet. I love these two women... precious in every way. Fingers crossed that Hayden will have them in a few years.

Speaking of Hot Sauce, I captured a few pictures of her last week in her nursery in May. I still really can't believe there is no crib in my house. I've had a crib in my house since 2007.

The princess in shades.

Mother's Day 2013

Fun in the sun.

Heading to our dear friend Matt's wedding.

Grandma & Pa-Pa's garage sale find! The girls are in love with this dollhouse.

Summer veggies on the grill. There's nothing I'd rather be eating right now.

Jax has an Angry Birds obsession. The boy is good, too. We only let him on the iPad every now and then because he would completely zone out if we let him.

Hot Sauce and I got lots of quality time during VBS week. She's my little nutso.