Trip to Ohio

I got back last week from a great visit with my BFF and old college roommate Dale. Grant and I flew to Columbus, OH (without Lillie and Samuel! I love you guys, but it WAS my first time ever to get away since bearing children). Grant did great on the flight! I swear, he is the perfect kid! The whole time we were there Dale and Joe kept saying they couldn't believe how mellow he was. I know, I'm lucky, and I don't deserve such a well behaved boy. We had a lot of fun hanging out and reminiscing. We did an ice-cream tour of Columbus and enjoyed lots of other good food too! Here we are at Jeni's Ice-cream which is famous for it's interesting flavors and was featured on Oprah. I tried lots of kinds including Thai Chili (too intense!) but finally setteled on Salty Caramel. For memories sake from L to R are Jacob, Dale, Grant, Audrey, Tess, Carey, and Chantel. These were Dale's friends and they were great. It's good I don't live there though, cuz I don't think Dale could handle all the "trash" talk that Carey and I could dish out!

Here is Lauren, Dale and Joe's little girl with Grant. I was happy to get a break but it would have been fun to have Lillie and Samuel there to play with Lauren and Jacob. They would have had a blast. The two girls are so similar and it would have been non-stop. We'll have to get them together soon.

Here are Joe, Dale, Grant, and I at dinner. They treated me to dinner at Mitchell's Steakhouse (deliscious!) Thanks again you guys! Grant and I had such a great time! You guys really are fabulous hosts! This trip sounds like it was all about food, but that's not true, I did get to see 3/4 of Harry Potter 6 before I got kicked out for Grant being too happy. But yeah, the rest was eating and visiting! Isn't that what Columbus is all about!

Happy 5th Birthday Lillie!

Lillie had a GREAT! birthday! I asked her if she wanted her birthday party on the same day, or did she want 2 special days. All in one day was her answer, so that's what she got. Let me tell you, this girl was Wired ALL DAY! We started out by taking a special trip just her and I to get her birthday balloons. Then we rushed back to get ready for her Hello Kitty themed party.

When all the girls came in they got their face painted like a kitty cat and they got a pink hair bow (just like Hello Kitty). Then they got to pick a nail polish color anf proceed to the the kitchen where they got a manicure, paint job, and nail stickers. Poor Samuel, the only boy...he did sport his pink hair bow for a couple of minutes, and enjoyed his manly blue nail polish before he gave up involvement for swinging a plastic bat around like a sword the entire time!

Thankyou to my mom, and sisters Katie, and Allison for helping out... I couldn't have done it without you!Pinata time! Lillie was thrilled that she got to hit it first AND last this time. Actually she enjoyed that the entire day she got to go first, pick everything, and refuse sharing her new toys if she chose. (Which of course she was SO nice about sharing since I wasn't forcing her to do so. I must remeber this reverse psychology business...)

The pinata proved too strong for 14 children and a plastic bat so I had to tear it open myself. Hey, at least everyone got their fair share to beat it up!

So, Lillie got to pick a birthday lunch and dinner. You would think, Chick-fil-A, McDonalds, like Samuel picked. No. Lunch - Pei Wei - an Asian Diner - where she proceeded to eat an entire teryaki bowl with chopsticks (aided be chopstick helpers) and Dinner - we surprised her with Chili's which strangely is her favorite. She was so excited! Hey, I'm glad she has good taste! So here she is with Grant and I and Samuel peaking in at her b-day dinner. In the next pic she's enjoying her ice-cream they brought to her. It took her a little while to get over the embarassment of the ENTIRE restaurant singing to her - but I think secretly she really enjoyed it!

This is her family party that night where we celebrated with the Burwell's. Here she is with her princess meal set from Aunt Katie that she had been hoping for...

Nice pick Katie!

And here she is with Grammy and Grandad and their b-day gift...the book Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, with and actual purple plastic purse and all the things to go inside it - pink rhinestone sunglasses, cheetos, and 3 shiny quarters - too cute! She loves it!

We have had such a fun 5th year with you Lil'Star and are so excited for all the fun things you have planned this year - Kindergarten, Ballet, new friends, CA at Christmastime and all the other adventures you get yourself in to! You are such a wonderful little girl and a great big sister. We are all so blessed to have you in our family. Thankyou to all our friends and family who helped us celerate Lillie this year!

Side note: here are the cakes Tim and I painstakingly worked on. The less impressive cupcake cake was all me. The Hello Kitty cake was designed by me but I only did the grunt work. Tim's steady hand drew the kitty and her name. We love doing this stuff for our kiddos! I know that I'm embarassing you when I say this stuff Tim so I'm sorry. But really, he is such a great dad!

Just let your kids be...

So I'm trying a new thing where I don't interfere as much with my kiddos and I'm really reaping a lot of benefits as are they. Tonight for instance...I went in to Lillie and Grant's room to check on them (we recently changed rooms around as Samuel is not built for room sharing right now) and instead of sleeping (like she was supposed to be) Lillie was reading Grant a story. She was sitting up in her bed and holding the book up for him to see down below. She was so talkative and he was rapt with attention. So sweet! I love to see my kiddos taking care of each other. Whereas I normally would have disciplined her I just enjoyed the moment... and let them enjoy it as well. After all, neither of them were tired. I love being a mom!
So, another blog-worthy moment today... I was cleaning up after we got back from our trip to the coast...fun times with our friends Chris and Falene... and Samuel asked me to play with him and Lillie. I said yes. Sometimes a hard thing to do, but I'm glad I did. They were playing with glow sticks in the bathroom. We ended up making up a game called "BEAR!" where we ran out and waved our glow sticks at Tim and shouted "BEAR!", then ran back to the bathroom laughing. Tim started to "scare" the kids and we all ended up playing together. In the end I was much less stressed and didn't even remember what I had originally been trying to do. I love how kids are so magical!
So yes, we just had a fantastic weekend with our friends Chris and Falene. We went to visit them and their kiddos this weeked. We spent a great day at the beach yesterday where Samuel actually got in to the water! We love the ocean and are so glad we've made the effort to get there while we live in TX. We really enjoyed our weekend - Thankyou Chris, Falene, Aidan, and Gavin for being such wonderful hosts!

Happy 4th 2009!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic 4th of July this year...I know that we did. I have decided that it is one of my favorite days of the year 2nd only to Christmas. But definitely my fav day of the summer. We went to Boerne again with my family and a lot of friends to BBQ, play, and watch the fireworks. Everyone had a blast and poor, tired little Grant was such a trooper. He spent his would be sleeping hours past around until it was too much for him to handle then I strapped him into the Moby wrap and he was good to go! The kids had a blast playing Baseball, soccer, and running around with their friends. And...BIG NEWS!!!!!.....For the first time Lillie was not afraid of the fireworks and was actuallyable to enjoy the show! Grant, whom we were understandably nervous about, loved every minute of the fireworks. He sprawled out on my lap and just gazed up in amazement. Then he fell asleep during the finale. Poor little guy. Samuel, as always, is our fun-loving adventurous one and loved every moment of the fireworks. He had been talking about them, (even praying about them!) for the last few days so he was pretty excited to get to see them. We made some great memories as a family! (Sorry for some of the fuzzy pics. It was nighttime and we own a not-so-great point and shoot!)

We are so blessed to live in this country and be able to live and worship as we choose. I am so grateful for my family, and for those throughout the ages who have fought for people to enjoy the freedoms they deserve.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Happy 28th Birthday Tim! I hope that you ahd a wonderful day! The kids and I went to meet him for lunch and were joined by quite a few others from Rackspace. We made him a special b-day dinner then enjoyed ice-cream cake and presents. I know he enjoyed all the family phone calls and fun things planned for him by his family and co-workers. We love you Tim!

...The benefits of waking up at 6:30am to help mom with the cake...good breakfast!

All Aboard the Birthday Express!!!

Samuel turned 3!!! He has been practicing for his birthday since he turned 2 singing happy birthday and pretending to blow out candles almost every day. He was ecstatic when the day actually came. He had a Thomas the Train party with his friends last weekend and then a family party on Monday. He had so much fun with all of his friends and I had so much fun getting everything ready for him...it's the best doing fun things for your kids that get them all excited. To the left is the cupcake cake from the store that he absolutely LOVED! Below is the cake that I (and Tim) labored over all Sunday night. Not quite as neat as cake #1 but a lot of love went into it and it was so much fun to do!

The pinata was a HUGE success and a MUST for future parties!

I just can't believe that my boy is already 3. He is such a fun loving little guy and we have a great time together. He has learned so much this year and is getting really excited to start pre-school in the fall. He is such a great big brother to Grant and him and Lillie have so much fun runngin around together. We love you Samuel! You bring so muc happiness to our family! Happy Birthday Buddy!

Love,

Mom

Alright, this is the 1st time Samuel looked at the cake. He stared at it in complete silence for about 10 seconds then looked at me and said "WOW" all slow and amazed like. Okay. That totally made all the effort worth it. I think we spent an extra $50 on our energy bill for how often he opened the refirgerator to look at that day. It warms my heart!