Mother's Day

So, back to happenings in May....

Let's start with Mother's Day! Matt always does a great job with making me feel loved and honored on Mother's Day. We have both decided that for Mothers/Fathers Day, we really want the kids to do the gifts/activities (when they are old enough, of course). We use our birthdays and anniversary to honor each other. So this year, Will helped Matt make a wonderful dinner for my gift--along with some precious keepsakes Will and Caroline made at school. The only thing I ask for, is that we take a few minutes to take pictures of me with the babies. It seems like I'm always the one taking the pictures instead of being in them! Looking back, they always turn out to be some of my favorite pictures of the year. :)

Will & Matt making dinner

The girls enjoyed playing outside while the boys cooked!

Excited about bubbles!!

Wrestling with Daddy after dinner

My Mother's Day Hydrangeas!

A little behind...

So I guess it's safe to say, that since I haven't blogged since May, I'm a little behind. Or a lot behind. There has been plenty going on around here--summer time activities, road trips, play dates, and even some potty training. For the sake of my blog book, I'm going to try my best to hit the highlights. So humor me by going back to the month of May...


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Family Fun!

Since Matt has an unconventional work schedule, our "family days" (like a typical family's "Saturdays") vary from week-to-week. One of the costs of being able to work only part-time (instead of full-time) is that Matt uses one of his days off each week to watch the kids while I go to work. That way, we only have to pay for child-care for 2 days (instead of all 3 of my work days). Which means, that we only get one "family day" a week (instead of typical family's two--saturday/sunday). All that said, we really try to make it count on our "family days" since we only have one a week. Typically, we will take advantage of our memberships to the zoo/arboretum/Perot museum, or we will have a family breakfast at Matt's restaurant. Whatever we do, we always have lots of fun! :)

Picnic at the Arboretum!

He's not a huge fan of having his photo taken these days  :)

She is much more cooperative!

We're trying to teach her that a lady doesn't do this, but it's hard to resist that face!

Stopping to smell the flowers...

Blue Truck goes with us, wherever we go these days

What real life is like with 2 toddlers--they literally climb on everything! 

My best attempt at holding them both for a photo--HA!

aaaaand this is when she stepped in fire ants and we had to leave! It's never boring! :)

But at least someone was happy on the way home!

My loves.

Somebody cheered up when we let her wear her sunglasses on the way home!

Thankful for iPhones that keep them awake until we're home for nap time!

Zoo Day!!

I Love Them!!

She LOVED the giraffes!

Our preferred method of transportation--the wagon 

My joy!

Our Family!!

Feeling Special

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. It came and went, and now I'm officially "in" my thirties. Yikes.

Typically, my parents come to visit for my birthday weekend and babysit for us so Matt & I can celebrate with a weekend "away" (even though we usually stay in town). Unfortunately, my dad had knee replacement surgery recently, so there was no way they could travel to Dallas. I have to say that when I realized that this was the first birthday they haven't visited since I can remember, I was a little sad, but it's ok. Every year is different, and this year was a wonderful birthday celebration. Hopefully next year things will be back to normal. :)

The birthday weekend started with a family day. We took a trip to the Arboretum (my favorite) and had a picnic--more pictures for another post. Then that night, Matt took me on a special dinner date to Sissy's--a new (to us) restaurant that has delicious home-cookin' food.

When Matt asked what I wanted for my birthday, I told him that I wanted a day "off" from being a mom. This meant sleeping in the guest room so they couldn't wake me up early :) and spending the day with friends and relaxing. It was wonderful. I've always been a girl who enjoys "me" time, so this was the perfect gift that Matt could have given me. I felt very loved and special.  :)

We started the birthday weekend with a picnic at the Arboretum--Caroline was excited.

Stopping to smell the flowers

Our birthday dinner date at Sissy's

Spent my "day off" with Dayna & Cayce--manicures, pedicures, shopping and brunch at BreadWinners!

Afterwards, I spent the afternoon at the park--enjoying the beautiful spring day reading a book.  I also enjoyed showing off my pedicure & my birthday flip-flops from my sister. :)

The perfect ending to a wonderful day--Matt got my all-time favorite cake to celebrate. :)

Creative candles :)

Will LOVES birthday cakes and was more than happy to help me blow out the candles!

I told you--a wonderful birthday celebration that left me feeling loved and relaxed. Bring on the thirties! :)

Easter Do-Over

It's 12:30pm on Easter Sunday; the house is quiet and I can't sleep. All I can think about is how I wish we could go back and have a do-over of today. I wish today looked completely different than it did. It started with a thunderstorm, and steamed forward with Will getting a stomach bug, missing church, Caroline having a big tumble--complete with a bloody lip--and it ended with me, sick as a dog, on the couch...willing bedtime to come so I could rest. It was a hard day.

I finally got some sleep and started to feel better. But the downside to an early bedtime is insomnia. So as I'm reflecting on our difficult day--a day that was supposed to be a happy memory--I feel myself slipping down the slope of not-met expectations & comparison. Thieves of joy. I start looking on Facebook and Instagram, thinking of how we didn't...

-Get the perfect family picture--or any family picture for that matter!
-Have the babies in beautiful clothes--we did until Will got sick on them! Caroline stayed in her beautiful Easter dress, though. :)
-Have a big Easter Bunny/Basket moment--Red Flag #1 that Will was really sick.
-Have a awesome egg hunt--we tried our best with an indoor one!
-Do family activities, bible time,etc...--we were thankful to just get through the day!
-Eat yummy food--Will & I tried our best with our sick tummies!

The list could go on and on. Comparison really is my thief of joy. But then, a little voice (the holy spirit) reminded me...it's not about any of that. It's not about pictures, or clothes, or any of those insignificant things. It's about my savior. Conquering death. Redeeming my sin. Rising from the grave....That's what Easter is about.

So, I learned a hard lesson today. Part of me wished for a do-over, but in reality, I wouldn't change a thing. Because I was taught what Easter is truly about. And I hope that in years to come, I never forget it.

And, for those who enjoy pictures (mom!), here are the few we took...

















Happy Easter!!

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