Chili Saturday and Painful Birthday

Today was a very eventful day!  We spent the morning and into the early afternoon at our friend's Anne and Shad's house for their 4th Annual McGaha Chili cook-off!  We had a fabulous time and love coming each year!  This kids I have to say had the best time!! As soon as we got there, Reid was off playing with all the kids and a few of the girls were vying for Maren's attention!! Maren wanted nothing to do with them and only mommy until Laurie's daughter Belle stepped into the picture! She is 7 and must be the baby whisperer, because Maren was attached!  It could have been the Cheetos that she was feeding Maren, but it worked!  We had such a wonderful time visiting with friends and hated to leave!

 Reid coloring with all the girls

 Maren and her new best friend Belle

Cheetos get you every time!!

Later this evening, Joey had to work security for Shrinefest, so I was off with the kids to the Chris and Shanda's house for Catherine Paige's 2nd Birthday!! Last year we had her first birthday in the backyard with a cook out and playing, so why not repeat it since it was such a success?!?!  Well, this year was perfect weather and the kids were having a great time, playing soccer, swinging, jumping, you name it....until Maren walked behind the kids swinging and got knocked down and had a mouthful of blood!! I was a mess!! thankfully she had only bit her tongue and lip!  After a quick cleanup, the swings were now off limit and all was well again....UNTIL - Reid got stung by his first Wasp!!! It got him right behind his ear and he was in shock! Oh goodness, I try not to raise a whiney boy, but I know how much wasp stings hurt and I felt so bad for him!  He spent almost an hour in the bathroom holding ice to his ear, but finally emerged as long as all the wasps were gone!! We took care of those bad boys!!  Well, the rest of the evening went perfectly and the kids all had a fabulous time, as well as the adults!

 Cleaned up and napped from Cheetos and ready to play!

 Shanda and I

 Maren and Cate playing at the water table

 Love this Boy!!

 Maren and Victoria (these girls are only 3 weeks apart and its so fun to watch them play together!)

 Ok, so I may be a bad mom, I did take a picture of my Whiney son after the Wasp sting! 

Had to record it!

 These girls were very into their chocolate ice cream

 My little Cheese!!

Claudia, Shanda, Me, Christina, and DeAndra

After a painful night for my little babies, it was so sweet to see this on the way home! They sure do love each other and I will cherish them forever

Mother's Day Weekend

I had such a wonderful Mother's Day with my 2 sweet babies and wonderful husband.  I said a nice little overnight getaway would be so much fun for all of us, so Saturday after Reid's soccer game, we drove to Dallas to stay in the Omni Downtown and go shopping and a little dinner on the way home!  We had so much fun! I think the kids favorite part was the hotel room (isn't it always?)  We went over to Northpark, one of our favorite malls, had dinner at Maggianos and enjoyed our family time!  On the way home Sunday, we stopped by ChaCha's house to see her for Mother's Day too!

 Their favorite part of the trip - looking out the hotel window!

 Big girl wants to push her puppy in the stroller

 Maren got to make a Build A Bear "doggie" her new best friend

 Loved the pool at the hotel!

Happy Mother's Day Cha Cha!!

10 years post graduation

Well today marks 10 years from when I graduated from college! WOW!! Time sure does fly, but good friends never leave!  Amber, Stephanie and I have been friends for over 10 years and we have shared so much together: Graduation, weddings, babies, and so much more!  I cherish our friendships and don't know what I would do without these girls!  I love looking back at where we were and how far we have come!! I think we only get better with age!!

 Graduation Day 10 years ago!  May 11, 2002

and 

NOW - 

 Steph and I 

Amber and I

Feeding the Ducks

Every time we drive by our little park in town, Reid asks when he can feed the ducks.  I promised him that  after I picked him up from school today we could go!  We saw 2 Duck families and all their little babies and they sure did like the bread we were feeding them! The other ducks could care less, but we still fed them anyway! We figured they would get it after we left!  Reid loves the ducks and he has learned that he cannot run up to them or he will scare them away!  Maren, on the other hand does not know what to think about all the feeding of the ducks.  She kept her distance and would only stay on the sidewalk, she wouldn't dare venture onto the grass near the ducks! She did try holding some bread out for the ducks thinking they would come to her, so she was trying! We had a nice time walking around the little pond.

Reid was trying to talk to the ducks to get them to eat!

 

Maren is trying her best to feed the ducks from the sidewalk

There were a few sprinklers on at the park and these are Reid's, Maren's, and my footsteps after walking through a puddle.  I think they are so sweet

Afternoon fun

There are so many days when we are so busy playing, I want to take pictures to document my growing kids' life, but I forget or they are blurry (kind of like a few of todays, sorry)  Well the weather outside was perfect! 70 degrees and a nice break from our almost 100 May heat!!  Reid has been bugging me constantly to play his aqua sand - I love the concept of this toy, but man is it MESSY!! So I had been telling him we could play it outside, well it has been so darn hot, that today was finally a great day!  We set it up outside and he had a blast playing with it and it entertained him for quite a while.
Maren was helping put clothes away and anytime she sees a puffy dress or skirt she pats it and says "petty" (pretty) so I thought I would get out some of her tutus and see what she thought about dressing up! I apologize for the blurry pictures, but she was dancing around and I could not get her to stand still, she was having so much fun!  Jus documentation that she is growing up way too fast!!

Notice all those bows in the background!! hahah I don't think we have enough!

Sunday Best

Well, ok, this is not their best, but they sure did look cute after church on Sunday and they were so sweet with each other.  They were trying to pose for me and they looked so sweet in purple coordinating outfits (I have a habit of matching their clothes to an extent)

This picture just makes me laugh, Reid is looking at Maren, and she is looking at him out of the corner of her eyes - precious

Silly

This girl loves to pose and "cheese" the camera!

Daddy got home from his Shriner trip and gave Reid his golf hat, Reid was so happy and sported it all afternoon!

Birthday, Soccer, Birthday

Today was a busy, crazy day with my sweet kiddos!  We had a birthday party this morning at Gymnastics Sports Center, followed by Soccer at noon, then rounded it off with another birthday at the park with the Tumble Bus!  All of that surrounded by eating lunch in the car on the way to soccer, recruiting LuLu to meet me at Reid's soccer game so I could take Maren home for an early nap, 2 - 3 outfit changes, to both kids in bed and asleep by 8:30!! I am exhausted!!!!  We had the best time today though.  Leila turned 4 and had a princess themed party at gymnastics, and Kyler was turning 6 at the park with the tumble bus and PowerRangers to boost!  I know it was a busy, crazy day, but I wouldn't trade all that time with my babies!

Maren wanted to try everything at gymnastics, she loved the balance beams

My crazy Monkey

Maren and birthday girl Leila

Number 5 is the best!

Maren approves the Tumble Bus!

My Monkey again in the Tumble Bus

It was pretty hot out today, if this is any indication for our Texas summer, oh geez!! Anytime anyone opened the cooler, Maren was there to eat some ice (Sonic ice is the best!)

My sweet babies and Me!!