Let Them Be Little

This is one of those songs/videos that makes me rethink my parenting, it makes me smile, it makes me cry, it makes me depressed and it make me motivated to be a better mom. I LOVE it. Tomorrow is going to be a good day.

Hellooooo Fall!

This week has been absolutely beautiful! It's fun once the weather is cool enough to actually enjoy going outside. =) Last week we had tons of rain. I was hating that we don't take pleasure in the rain like we should! I'm talking about running outside right away and jumping in the puddles and splashing in the gutters and catching raindrops on our tongues. Who cares about messing up hair or clothes getting wet?! So, I made a goal last Tuesday to always play in the rain (as long as there is no lightning!). The next day it started pouring right as the girls were getting off the bus so I thought - ok! here we go! They insisted on wearing swimsuits and by the time they got back outside the rain had slowed to a drizzle. BUMMER. They still enjoyed floating things down the street in the gutter and splashing around. It made me happy! Then we had potato soup and rolls for dinner. Pure bliss. =)

I feel like I haven't done updates on my kids in a very long time. They say so many sweet things - I hate that I'm not documenting them like I used to. SO, gear yourself up for some quality posts on my sweet angel puddin' pie kiddos!

The Big Karaoke Night

Here are the pictures from the Karaoke night last week! I embraced it like I would a music video. Who knew I would be the only psycho?! Zig zag eyeliner? Check. Green eye shadow? Check. Hair poofage? Check. Leopard print pants? Check. Bright pink shirt? Check. Backstreet Boys music? NO! That was the only bummer! I was looking forward to singing along with my favorite 1990's boy bands. Oh well! It was still great and Ashley sang Baby Got Back with me which ALMOST made up for the lack of NSYNC and 98 degrees. =)

Here are the superstars!

Of course Bree makes me love her and then she leaves me! Thanks a lot!! =) Hopefully she has a great adventure in Utah - we will for sure miss her here though!

Labor Day Part 2

One thing I love about Dallas is that there are fun, little water parks/pools and splash pads everywhere! I think San Antonio would be a MILLION times better - it might even tip the scale and I would be happy to stay here forever - if it had splash pads. Seaworld is great but sometimes I don't want to drive 20 minutes, get out the stroller, hike with my 3 kids to the water park and worry about losing them in the crowd of people! It would be nice to drive a couple minutes and let my kids get wet n' wild in the sprinklers. That might be my biggest gripe about San Antonio - the lack of things to do in the summer. It was fun to head up to Dallas over Labor Day and go with the Soterbergs to one of those fun aquatic centers. I had a blast! The babies weren't that into it. Brenan had a MASSIVE allergy attack and was pretty miserable. The poor little guy leaked about a gallon of water out of his eyes on the drive home! We loved getting to see Steve and Mandi again. We played a rousing game of Ticket to Ride on my birthday and Mandi made a delicious dinner and cake! Thanks guys - we love you!

Keslie and Katie became good buddies by the end of this trip. Keslie couldn't stop talking about how Katie was her "new"friend.

I finally got to love on little miss Lizzie. Oh - I just love babies so much! And she is such a sweet little doll!

Ahhhhh - Young Love.

29 Years Old

Well, I reached 29 - the last year of my 20's! It was a great day. We were in Dallas with the Soters and Mandi made me a delicious German chocolate cake. I'm salivating just thinking about it! I love my M&M!! It was so fun to be with them on my birthday - it's been years since we've been able to celebrate together!

Lucky for us, they didn't have any candles so we were able to continue on with the "HUGE candle on top of the cake" tradition that we've had for the past few years. =)

Later in the week my superstar friends, Heather and Ashley, took me out to eat at Red Robin's!

Then we went to a Scentsy party (where I promptly fell in love with the stuff!) and bought this (and some bricks of delicious smelling fragrances!):

Happy birthday to me! Oh, how I love it! And for once my house actually smells good! Gotta love rental homes. =)
After the party we stood on the street and laughed and took pictures. Sandy had joined us by then - yay! I just love these girls.

Camping at Inks Lake State Park

This was such a beautiful place! I am so excited we found it. I want to go back again and again and next time we will stay longer than one night! The Liddells and Gordons joined us for this adventure and we are so glad they did!

We took off Friday afternoon and ran into some serious traffic. BUMMER! I hate setting up tents in the dark! Once things were all put in order we made hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. Let it be known that I will never go back to a plain old Hershey bars for smores. It's got to be a Reeses peanut butter cup!

Here is miss Sandy:

Drew and TaylorBrenan (Yes. He is as annoyed at me as he looks.)

Some of the group:
The next morning we had pancakes and eggs for breakfast. It's tradition. =)
Nathan stuffed his cheeks full!
Landon, Lukas, and Anika
All the kids (except for Mr. Uncooperative)
Landon, Lukas, Anika, Keslie, Taylor, Drew
Me and Bodess
Britt and BrookeFor some reason he decided to turn around and give me this cheesy, little smile. Usually he gets grumpy at me if I try to take his picture! I think he's such a little stud.

Brooke and Taylor
Aaron pretending to eat a lizard
Nathan and Aaron have a hard time taking normal pictures. =) Remember our anniversary?
Aaron and Sandy
Sandy and Britt
Scott and Brooke
On Saturday we spent the day at the "Devil's Waterhole". It was the perfect place for swimming and cliff jumping. It's a no wake zone so we were able to swim and kayak without the waves. It took me an hour and a half to finally jump off that dang cliff. Good grief! I used to be so much braver! I finally jumped and lived to tell about it. =) Here are some pictures from the lake. We can't wait to go back!