Happy Mothers Day to me

As always, I was spoiled on mothers day.  I wanted to photo document all my treasures here, since I cant keep them forever.

The first three pictures are from Emmitts preschool.  I was showered with gifts- a scrapbook, a tote bag, a muffin mix, a placemat, a card and they even sang us a special  mothers day song.  It was so sweet!

The flowers were filled out in primary.  I always love the kids answers.

And Emmitt was intent on buying me flowers.  He asked Kevin to take him to buy them.  Earlier in the week he said to me:  "mom, what I am getting you for mothers day is not a suprise- its flowers"
:)


And this was from Emmitts school.  I love that I am as special as candy.

And the day wouldnt be complete without chocolate- my personal favorite.

Thank you family!

Teenager in the house!

Brayden is 13!  I cant believe it.  It makes me so happy and so very sad at the same time.  He is such a great kid and I am so proud of who he is becoming.  Hes such a blessing to our family!

He celebrated with a special breakfast (sausage and gravy) and lunch with dad (at taco bell) and then dinner (at Culvers) and then some indoor surfing with his best bud Nolan.

And while not "for his birthday" but happened just the day before his birthday, this lucky kid won an ipad mini at school.  He had worked hard doing extra online lessons in order to be entered into a drawing for the ipad.  His chances were still slim so I was amazed when he came home with it.  Lucky kid who is now a very happy ipad owner!

Snow Day Selfies

Sometimes when you unload your iphone onto the computer you find some gems that must be blogged.  These were from one of our snow days awhile back.  These kids are great at having fun together.  They really love each other and I LOVE that!

Primary Temple Trip

A few weeks ago we had a primary activity at the temple.  The kids had a tour of the grounds and got to come into the foyer and sing to the temple staff there.  It was lovely.

Happy Easter

We had a very nice Easter weekend this year.  Conference overlapped with Easter and we enjoyed a special visit from the Thomases.  It was a good time!

The kids swam to their hearts content even though the weather was not as warm as would be ideal for such an activity.  We also attended our wards easter egg hunt.

And of course we decorated eggs and found easter baskets...

After the kids found their baskets, they traded their candy, and during conference they used their candy for conference bingo...

And my favorite tradition as usual was the rolling of the easter eggs.  We had to drive a bit to find a good hill here in this flat Texas land, but we did eventually.  We enjoyed sharing this tradition with the Thomases who shockingly had never rolled easter eggs down a hill before.

 

 And this year the winner was Brayden.  His egg called "winner" proved itself and Brayden was very proud of his acomplishment.  It is a skill- not just luck as you might think ;)

Happy Easter!

Sea World. San Antonio. Spring Break.

This year for Spring Break we decided to spend a couple of days at Sea World.  It was a last minute decision that worked out really well for us.  We left on Tuesday late morning and arrived in San Antonio with plenty of time to check out the area.  We visited the Riverwalk downtowm and ate some dinner.  It was a cool place.

And then Wednesday morning we went to SeaWorld.  We arrived early to avoid lines and crowds but it was pretty chilly so we were really the only crowd to worry about.  It warmed up just a bit throughout the day but the lower temperatures did not keep us from having a blast.  We rode every ride multiple times and never had much of a wait for anything and we saw several shows to.  What I most love about it all is that with the exception of two roller coasters we were able to do everything all together as a family.  Usually at amusement parks we have to split up most of the time so this worked out really well. 

Our hotel had a Texas shaped waffle maker.  We quite enjoyed that.

We came prepared for the "wet" rides with ponchos and rain coats and for Brayden- a plastic bag ;).  It worked perfectly and by the end of our riding we had worn all our ponchos out.

Souvenir shopping is always a highlight.  Brielle picked a dolphin she has named Dylan, Makenna chose a beluga whale and Emmitt got a Killer Whale.  Notice is the picture on the right that we were photo bombing Shamu.  There was a huge line to take your picture with him so we just went with this sneaky alternative.

The second day we went back just to repeat our favorite rides and shows and check out the dolphins and sharks.  It tuckered us all out but we had a really really great time and Im sure we'll be back.

Left: Over the years we have figured out that any stroller can be a double stroller so we pile them on.  It worked out well for Brielle in this picture.  Emmitt was giving her a massage :)

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

So its been over a month since I added to the blog, which is, of course, shameful.  But really not much has been going on.  Just normal life- our normal, yet WONDERFUL life.  Here's a glimpse of that life as seen through good old iphone pics...

 Emmitt fell asleep in a grocery cart.  This was truly unbelievable.  It Never happens and if I had not witnessed it myself I would not believe it.

When we get those nice warm days, we've been spending a lot of time at the park down the street.  We love it!

 

 Emmitt continues to pretend to love Dallas all the while terrorizing him whenever he gets the chance.

 We've discovered a favorite spot here in Dallas- where we seem to go about every weekend.  Its called Arbor Hills Nature Preserve and the kids think walking in the creek there is the best thing in the world.

 The kids were bathed (at least once this month )  j/k

 Back at Arbor Hills- different trip, but always a good time

Emmitt and I ate lunch with Brielle at her school to celebrate Valentines Day.  The popsicles were delicious!

Lets see - what else have we been up to.  Brayden has been playing basketball and doing well at school as well as enjoying his very active deacon- filled social life.  Makenna is excelling at school and has really taken off in her piano.  Brielle has gotten better at going to school happily and has started been given homework.  Shes not a fan.  She doesn't want to play soccer this spring, but is still doing piano.  Emmitt took some swimming lessons in January which he enjoyed and he still keeps us all on our toes and in the defensive position at all times.  Kevin was called as the executive secretary at church and I was called to be the Primary secretary.  So we generally keep the ward together. (hahahaha)

Life is good!