elite...

i have always known that the BAYLOR BEARS are ELITE and this year they earned the title by going to the "ELITE EIGHT" in the ncaa basketball tournament. we couldn't miss the opportunity to support the bears, so on our way home from san antonio we drove over to houston and cheered on the bears.

our little family with pop, sarah, and christman

mark and i so excited for the game to start! go bears!

sadly, the duke blue devils won the game, but it was amazing to be there. there was soooo many baylor fans, tons of green and gold, and baylor pride everywhere. it was totally worth the extra 4 hours of driving to witness the game and cheer on our favorite team. can't wait for next season and to see what this great team will accomplish.

sea world...

a trip to san antonio is really not complete without a trip to sea world, well that is if you have a 4 year old and almost 2 year old. we had a great day enjoying the beautiful weather, spending time with the herridges, and observing lots of sea animals.

after feeding the dolphins we saw the sharks...
then we were off to our first show of the day...

the kids were excited to see the beluga whales and dolphins.

the kids were captivated by the acrobats diving into the water.

then there were some shamo sitings...

we got our picture taken with him right before the show....

and then saw him swimming in the water and doing his tricks.

i even got to ride 2 roller coasters!! brad came with me which made it more fun!!

i love roller coasters!!

and there you have the highlights of our day at sea world!! fun times!!

a little family get-a-way...

we have been trying for a while to plan a trip down to san antonio with are great friends, the herridges. we love the time we spend together in dallas or in waco, but we thought san antonio would be fun. brad and mary are both from san antonio so we were able to stay with brad's parents. it was such a treat to stay with mr. and mrs. herridge, aka mama merle and granddad. their home was beautiful and so comfortable. they had a great backyard and pool for the kids to play in. and they were the BEST babysitters so we could enjoy a little adult time. besides sea world and our trip to the kiddie park (those have to be their own post) here are some of our favorite memories from our little family get-a-way to san antonio...

jack's new bff for the weekend a 2 year old sized cookie monster. cookie was waiting in the crib at the herridges house. thank you grant for allowing jack to love on him all weekend. jack loved having him to nap and sleep with each night. it was so cute to watch him share his blanket with cookie and say "nite-nite."

swimmin' in the hot tub. literally every moment we were at the house the kids were asking to get in the hot tub OR they were in it! :)

hanging out with 'mama merle' (brad's mom). olivia LOVES mama merle and even requested some special time with just she and mama merle at one point during our stay.

a quick trip (less than 30 minutes) to the riverwalk and a picture in front of the almo. just to say we did every touristy thing we could! :)

no kids allowed dinner at the lodge. yummy food and great conversation!

for me it was the perfect balance of relaxing, doing, spending time together as a family, and then also having time to have real adult conversation over good food. it was a great get-a-way complete with the most beautiful, perfect spring weather and bluebonnets everywhere. we are so thankful for the friendships we have with the herridges and look forward to our next adventure/vacation/get-a-way together.

the rodent invasion...

so this week has been a fun week since it is spring break, but it has also been frustrating at times due to these little creatures...
sure they might be cute playing tag in our yard, collecting nuts, or sitting on their hind legs looking at you, but i no longer think there are very many redeeming qualities about them. these little squirrels, or rats with bushy tails, have invaded our house and our car!!! yes, our car.

let me begin with the house. a while ago, i noticed a small hole near our front door on the and then one day while getting the mail i saw a squirrel crawl into that tiny hole. i knew that was not a good sign, but i chose to ignore it. (that is one of my "BEST" qualities- ignore a potentially disastrous situation.) well, fast forward a few months later and i started hearing some strange sounds from above while sitting in the house and then the city drove by and saw the TINY hole and gave us a warning. i was freaked out by the sounds and ANNOYED by the letter from the city. anyway, we finally decide to get the house and holes fixed. while repairing the siding a squirrel nest with 3 babies squirrels was revealed and fell out of the house on top off our repair man!!! gives me the creeps just to think about it again. the repair man assured me that all the openings the squirrels had created are closed and they can no longer get in- thank goodness!! he also was fairly certain there were no other creatures roaming in my attic!! so with the repairs to the house we were going to have paint the repaired places, but our house was in DESPERATE need of being painted, so we decided to just paint the whole thing. what an ordeal, but it is finished. this whole project came with a reasonable (thanks to our fifer renovation connections) but still LARGE price tag, BUMMER!!

just as this house project was finishing up, mark went to start my car and it wouldn't start. we thought maybe it was a dead battery so we tried jumping it with no luck. the next day he had it towed to the dealership where they discovered that "rodents had chewed the wires and the whole electrical system needs to be replaced." are you kidding me!?!?! yep, most likely the squirrels attacked us again and this time at mark's office parking lot. we left the car there over the weekend while we were at the lake so they had 2.5 days to destroy our car!!! the car is still in the shop and should be fixed in a few days.

in all seriousness, things could be a lot worse, but who knew that squirrels could cause so much chaos!!

it's spring break....

and i am having so much fun with these two little ones...

**not pictures from this week, but i had to include some pics of my cuties. ;)**

we started off at the lake. we had PERFECT weather, enjoyed hours playing outside and spending time with my family. it was nice to get-a-way and a wonderful way to start our spring break. since being back in dallas we have just been hanging out with friends, dealing with the rodent invasion (that's a whole other post- it's coming), and even had lunch with daddy one day. no big plans for the rest of the week, but i am thankful for the time that i am spending with the kids and just relaxing a bit.