an ice cream kind of afternoon...

with a sweet friend at one of our new favorite spots, sweet firefly...

blue kookie monster ice cream is always delicious!

sweet friends.  olivia + allison

an afternoon of yummy homemade ice cream, games, laughter, sweet conversation, and lots of napkins.  :)  a perfect way to end our week.  

spring break 11...

i was still without a camera for spring break this year, but we did have some fun so i want to make sure i document it. the pictures i do have are all from my photo friend extrodinare- misty!

we started out the week with a fun overnight at b and pop's house with the cousins and rara. we packed a lot in 24 hours and had so much fun!!! you can click here (sarah's blog) to see pictures from our time. we watched movies in the "movie theater," made s'mores in the firepit in the backyard, played hard, swam in the hot tub and even made a fruit pizza. it was great to have some good quality time with some of our besties and have a fun change of scenery for a couple days.

the rest of our week we had planned to spend time with the haynes crew who was driving across the state from el paso. the haynes gang was hit with a fever virus, surprise trip to the er, and some car issues so those plans were altered quite a bit. olivia had been counting down the days until she would see lilli and i was just as excited to see the haynes girls, so we made it work and did get to spend a day with them in allen. i figured the kids were already on antibiotics, we're safe! ha! i know that is not really how it is supposed to work, but oh well. the kids had a blast playing together and i was in heaven sitting and chatting with two of my dearest friends in the whole wide world.

whole kid crew! these kids are going to love eachother no matter what! their mama's will make sure of it. in all reality, they really do have so much fun together.

lil and olivia so excited to be there, even if it was laying on the couch. poor lilli. :(

"the littles" as we refer to them. posing in all their moonbeam cuteness.

"the bigs" or baby bffs. what a trio they are!

for the final days of our break we headed out to the lake and farm to spend some time with my family. it had been so long since we had been able to get away, so it was a PERFECT ending to our spring break.

celebrating kristy & drew...

i have prayed for my dear friends, kristy and steve, for years as they have tried to get pregnant and start their own family. god has taken them on a roller coaster ride over the last 3 years, but He has blessed them with a baby boy who is due in december. we {all her friends} are so excited to meet this little guy that we have prayed for so many times, but first things first- a baby shower to get these sweet deserving parents prepared for their new little one!! the saturday before halloween we celebrated kristy and her lil' pumpkin, drew.

all the mama's to-be- ashley, shannon, and kristy.

our friend, catherine, opened up her home to host this quaint little party and it was the perfect setting for our fall inspired shower. i loved all the details that we were able to add to reflect our "pumpkin/fall" theme to celebrate kristy and drew.

adorable leaf garland {made by catherine} and themed baskets of gifts
diaper cake and lil' pumpkins
yummy food- the pumpkin muffins were my fav!

i thought the party was lots of fun and my hope is that kristy felt all the love that we have for her and drew. can't wait to meet this sweet little boy and tell him in person how dearly he is loved by so many people, especially me!! :)

back from mexico...

(the view from our balcony)

we have been back for a little over a week and i can't believe that i have not a moment or two to blog about our super fun trip. we had a really great time, and of course my kids loved the vacation at nana and gramps' house. i will let the pictures retell the highlights of the trip...

"cheers to a fabulous first night and a relaxing vacation!"

the boys-- brad, mark, and steve

the girls-- kristy, me, and mary

all six of us!! (fun times with the camera timer and lots of wind!!)

i would not allow mark to take a picture of me sitting and reading (for obvious reasons), which is what i did most of the trip and LOVED it!!

tea for two

olivia was so excited to have her friend lilli and her baby sister, lola come and spend the day with us. those who read the blog often might remember lilli most from the ballet blog. anyway, misty, lilli and lola's mommy, is a sweet friend of mine and she needed a day to get some things done in her house so i offered to have her girls for the day. we were all excited to have them come over. as soon and the girls arrived olivia could not contain herself. she was torn between following lola around on her hands and knees or showing off EVERY toy in her room to lilli. about 15 minutes the "newness" wore off and everyone was settling in and feeling comfortable. lola was sleepy and went to take a long nap. jack was hanging out in the swing (still his favorite spot). so lilli and olivia were off!! they tore into the babies and the play kitchen. they were busy shopping for groceries and playing house. the best part of my day was spying on them and over hearing their conversations. they are too funny! pretty much they just repeat all the "bad things" that we say as moms. for example, "baby obey me right now! do you understand!?!" or "if you don't obey your mommy you are going to get a spankin' on your hiny!!" hilarious and humbling at the same time. olivia had requested that she and lilli have a tea party at some point during the day. so after a little while i invited the girls into the kitchen to help me make "pink cupcakes" for their tea party. they were the best helpers. they took turns pouring in the ingredients. several hours later the cupcakes were cooled, iced, and we were ready for our tea party. the girls decorated their cupcakes with MILLIONS of sprinkles or "sprinklers" as olivia calles them and drank "tea" (warm water) out of REAL teacups. here are the girls enjoying cupcakes "tea for two" a their tea party...

more fun at the lake

i feel so behind in my "blogging" these days. not that life is really any different, but finding time to blog has been scarce.
anyway, i wanted to make sure and mention our fun weekend at the lake with some friends. a couple weekends ago, we loaded up the car and once again headed to cedar creek lake to the bowlin lake house. this time some of our friends from college met us there, the herridges (brad, mary, and baby grant) and the brischkes (steve and kristy). we all went to baylor together. mark and steve lived next door to each other in the dorm their freshman year, then were roommates sophomore year, and have remained close friends ever since. brad lived a few doors down from mark in the dorm their freshman year, and they too have been great friends since. the "wives" (as we are often called when the "boys" are together) we also friends in college. we were all in the same sorority together, and since we all did the "baylor thing" (met our husbands early in our college days, dated for a long time, and then got married shortly after graduation) we have all been friends for a very long time. ANYWAY, we started planning this weekend back in the spring. brad is a pastor of a church in waco, tx. steve is a lawyer in temple, tx. kristy is the director of student life for mary hardin baylor university. mark has a crazy schedule with camps and work in the summer. and mary and i are full time mommies. so with all these crazy jobs and schedules that demand different "busy seasons," august 7-9 was the first weekend we could all get away. (enough background already, i know. but i want everyone to understand how special this weekend was.) we all arrived on thursday evening. first the herridges and then later the brischkes. once the kids were in bed we spent time sitting outside, enjoying the lake, and catching up on life. these are the kinds of friends that you can just pick up where we left off- i love that about them. the next morning we woke up and hit the lake. everyone (except olivia) was anxious to get on a jet ski. so we played on the lake-- swimming, tubing, knee boarding, and steve and kristy took a really long (almost 1.5 hour) "sight-seeing trip" (they got a little bit lost) around the lake. the evening was filled with more talking and the open ceremony of the olympic games. (side note... i loved the open ceremony and the olympics. yeah for the usa!!) the entering of the countries is way less boring when you turn it into a guessing game of "how many athletes do you think they have?" "over or under ____?" thanks brad and steve for that. saturday was more of the same- playing on the lake, "crazy lake adventures," good conversation, and the olympics in between. as everyone left early sunday morning we were all talking about when and how we could fit another lake weekend on the calendar soon. here are some pictures from the weekend...

the herridges on the jet ski. oh how we wish our sweet olivia would like for us to go on family jet ski rides, but nooooo!

olivia and grant playing "ring around the rosy" for the 109th time. they had so much fun together.

this was olivia while the rest of us were playing in the lake. she was relaxing and eating an entire pint of blueberries!!

so we FINALLY convinced olivia to put her feet in. thanks grant for making it look like so much fun! still not the jet ski or swimming, but we are making progress.

this weekend was great for so many reasons- laughter, relaxation, good food, olympics, funny college stories, but the best part was friendship. friendship that is real. these are the kind of friends i know will last a lifetime. here's to many more lake weekends filled with sweet memories and to...

the next generation of cherished friends.