Summer 2011 - RECAP

WOW, I can't believe this summer is over! I can honestly say that this summer was one of the best of my life! I enjoyed spending everyday with my little girl and watching her smile and laugh and just have fun! We spent MOST of our days in the sun and water and I wouldn't have the summer any other way!

Here is a little recap of what we did this summer and few pictures too!

• We took THREE trips to Beaumont to visit my parents


• We celebrated my THIRTIETH birthday! I must say I am really enjoying being 30!


• I did a bootcamp for 6 weeks and LOVED it! Wish it was still going on. :)


• We went to Possum Kingdom lake with the Hubbarts and had a blast!


• We went to Lousiana to celebrate Kristy and Ryan's birthday! Overnight fun with no kiddos! :)


• We spent a lot of time with Aunt Serena - or should I say "Re Re" as Bren calls her. She hung with us on most Mondays and Fridays. It was nice to have the help and Bren loves her Aunt ReRe!!


• We celebrated two big birthday bashes for my dad - one in Dallas, one in Beaumont


• We hung out and played with my Nanny atleast once a week. Love seeing her and so does Bren!


• We spent many afternoons playing in her little blow up pool at the house! Anything to stay cool in the heat!

• We also stayed cool by playing at the fountains at Uptown Village!
  
  

• We went to Hawaiian Falls weekly with our friends, Melissa, Tanna, Brooke and their kids. It was a fun group each week. Yay for season passes. (The pic below is actually when we went with Cara and Berkley)

• We had playdates with friends!
  


• We played and played and played!
  
  


• We hung out a lot with our friend Jae Beth. I kept her some this summer and Bren enjoyed having a friend at the house!
  
  


• We swam at Melissa's mom's house a couple of times with Tatum and Cade
  
  


• We enjoyed popsicles! Again, anything to keep us from dying in the heat!
  

This summer was a blast! - And to be honest we enjoyed spending many days at home just playing, napping and doing the daily things of life - but I would not trade it for anything!!


(we are now back in our routine of me teaching Preschool and Bren going to Preschool. I love being back, but who doesn't look forward to another summer?!?) :)

Girlfriends - from birth!

Before I ever got pregnant, I prayed that I would have a friend to be pregnant with so we could talk and bounce questions off of eachother. Well God heard my prayer and instead of just one friend, he blessed me with THREE friends who were all pregnant at the same time as me -- literally all due with in a month of eachother and all having GIRLS!! Fun, right?!?


So pregnancy was fun because we were always asking questions or comparing stories via text or facebook and of course that didn't stop once the babies got here either. There was always someone who was going through the same thing or had already been through it. Basically we were all sleep deprived, zombies all trying to figure out this "mommy" thing. :) All four of us went to DBU, but not all of us were close at the time, but pregnancies and birth will sure bring girls together! :)

So, the end of 2009 was busy and fun with some exciting deliveries of all these girls!!

Cara had Berkley on November 21st, I had Brenley 3 weeks later on December 11th, Janae had Jae 2 weeks later on December 25th and Rachel had Presley 2 weeks later on December 30th! Whew!!! Yep that is a new baby every 2-3 weeks. :)

It is hard to get all of our schedules to coordinate especially since we are all spread out in the metroplex, but when we can we love to get the girls (and mommies) together for a playdate! Here are some pictures from the last year and a half of playdates, the most recent being today!

Jae-3 weeks, Brenley-5 weeks, Berkley-8 weeks (Presley was only 1 week old so she did not come) :)

But here is when Berkley and Brenley went to go and meet Presley at the hospital!!


Berkley, Brenley, Jae and Presley -- They are about 3 months old here

Here we are at Berkleys 1st birthday!

And then at Presley's birthday!

And Jae's birthday!!

Playdate (minue Jae) -- about 13 months

Today! Jae, Bren, Pres and Berk

19-20 month olds!!

They are getting so big, fun, cute and sassy! AND they are all over the place now. Girls, thanks for being so fun and helpful during our pregnancies and during the last almost 2 years! Can you believe it, our 'Baby" girls are almost TWO!!

So thankful for the friends (and their babies) that God has blessed me with. Love them all!

FUN in Shreveport!

This weekend, us and 20 other of our friends, went to Shreveport to celebrate Kristy and Ryan's birthdays! Ryan turned 29 on Wednesday and Kristy turned the big 3-0 on Thursday! So we did it up big and headed to Louisiana on Saturday around 1pm and got back yesterday around 2pm. Most of the couples have 1 or 2 kids so we were all able to find sitters and have an adult-only 24 hours! Ahhh! It was so nice to enjoy meals without distractions and not have to be worried about being home at a certain time! But I must say I was ready to see my girl when I got home!!

Here are a few pictures of the weekend that I took on my phone...

Kim, Cathy, Kristy and Me

Mel, me and Corey at dinner


Me and the birthday girl! This girl and I have been through 19 birthdays together! Yep, friends since we were 11! Love her!

Me and my hubby

All the ladies!

What a fun weekend! Thankful for great friendships!!

PK Lake!

This past weekend we enjoyed some R&R and some fun at Possum Kingdom Lake, with our friends, The Hubbarts! We met Riane and Case while we were students at DBU and have been friends all these years. We dont get to see them very often, so a weekend with them at the Lake was so fun!

We headed out there to meet them early Saturday morning and left EARLY Monday morning. Our days were filled with a little bit of everything, so here is a recap in pictures!

Water trampolining - a new sport for toddlers (yes, the trampoline is in the ground so perfect for whobbly toddlers)

Momma's water baby

Naked babies -- Dax is 2 yrs old and he and Bren had fun together!

Had to beat the heat with some popsicles! Yum!

The lakehouse was so nice and on some great property. Daddy and Bren enjoyed some swinging on the tree swing!

We set the baby pool up to help keep them cool

Here are the Hubbarts on the jet ski

Daddy and Brenley in the lake -- Momma was not a fan of just swimming in the lake water :)

Daddy took Bren out on the Jet ski but I think they only went about 5 mph :) Momma was nervous.

Then we all went out for a bit

We also got to go out without kids for a couple of hours on Saturday, while the babies slept. We jet skied and also rode the tube behind the jet ski -- so fun! We just kept the monitors outside and someone was always on monitor duty. Worked out great! :)

We saw quite a few deer on the property in the mornings and early evenings. We put out Deer corn for them to eat and they let us get so close to them!

Look at this big girl!

Brenley + Dax :)

All the kiddos -- Brenley 1 1/2 yr, Dax 2 yr and Tanner 5 1/2 yr

This trip was definitely much needed and I actually wish we were still there! :) Thanks again to the Hubbarts for the invite!

Fourth of July!

We had a great Fourth of July weekend! Bobby took off on Friday as well so it was nice to have Daddy home for 4 days! Majority of the weekend we did not do much, but on Monday, the 4th, we went over to the Grime's for a little grilling and water fun for the kids!

A little 4th of July photo shoot
This is her "happy face"

Brenley and Daddy

"Weeee"! She loved playing in the pools!

And you gotta have an ice cream sandwich!

She ate that whole thing!

What a fun, long weekend! Why can't every month have a holiday?? :)

30 and THRIVING!

So June 20th marked my 30th birthday! I still can't believe that my 20's are over and I am now in a new decade. I was a little uneasy about turning 30, but I am beginning to embrace it and I am excited about what my 30's will hold!

A few days before my birthday a group of my friends got together at Javier's for dinner. It was a fun night of celebrating!

The birthday girl!

Lindsey, me and Melissa

The girls side of the table :)

All of the girls! Thanks for coming out to celebrate!

A couple of days after my birthday we had a "family" celebration! I was lucky enough to have my parents come in for the week!

My two loves - wish Bren would have smiled. :)


Happy Birthday to me!

Something was really funny!

I am trying to look at 30 as a fresh start and change some things in my life. I started out small and have stopped biting my nails. This is a huge deal for me because I have been biting my nails literally as long as I can remember! My next change is with my health and my physical appearance. Lately I have felt very out of shape and still have some pounds hanging on after having Brenley, so I started running and excercising on my own, but then a bootcamp totally fell into my lap! It was definitely a God-send and I am loving it! It is H-A-R-D, but it is so good!

Here are a few pics of me at bootcamp (pics courtesy of our bootcamp trainer, Tanna)

Yep, we push, flip and run with TIRES!

We do pushups, situps, squats and lunges, galor!

This is just some of our group (we were missing some that day) trying to look mean. :)

I pray that my 30's are a time of change and growth in my marriage, motherhood and Spiritual life.

Goodbye 20's, HELLO 30's!!