She is Four

this is who I remember meeting four years ago.  she is now all sass and spunk. not the tiny baby that I held in my arms.  but my arms.....she still fits. she fits differently now but there is still this perfect place for her in them.  She has made life extremely exciting.

 we never know what she will say and do. She loves big and is our prayer warrior. she is feisty and head strong.

she is crazy in love with the movie frozen. I mean look at that face. she loved the cake topper more than the cake I think

 she is a joy and a delight.

right as we were sitting down to sing happy birthday and eat cake our neighbor knocked on our door. she had a bear that she made for the birthday girl.  I couldn't believe that she remembered. then I found out that golden boy told her that his little sisters birthday was coming up so she was sweet and made her a special bear. 

 time seems to be flying. slow down little one......lets soak up this time. I love you more than you love me.

My Men

 I am one pretty lucky girl. I have two pretty awesome men that live right here in my very house. My husband and father of my children, who is my compete opposite in almost every way, except the ways that are important and I am grateful for that. he is wonderful dad and loves our kids fiercely. and my sweet little man (golden boy). he isn't a dad but I pray that one day he will be. I occasionally pray for his future wife. that wile she may be his complete opposite that she is the same where it matters. that she is a God fearing lady who loves family and embraces our family and molds well into a life with him and us as in laws.

  aside from the two that live in my house there are three others in my life that are a huge blessing and love like no other. my dad......he loves big, the supports strong, he provided and provides like no other. he only wanted girls when it was time to have children (no snot nose little boys, he said.) but he ended up with three grandsons that are, I am pretty sure, quite precious to him. they call him "Bear" then there is my grandfather......he is strong but can be gentle, he and my grandmother have been married for 60 year, (that says a lot) he loves like you can't imagine, even though sometimes he can be rough around the edges. he loves Jesus and has shown me that the verse "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" is possible. and finally my father in law.......he was half of who raised my husband, he made him into the man he is today (which sometimes can be frustrating, but ultimately I am grateful for) he can fix just about anything. he has a big heart and an even bigger sweet tooth than me. he loves adventure but equally loves to curl up at home and rest (we are alike that way) he loves my family and I love him for it. my kids call him "Papa"

this is the card that golden boy made for his daddy for fathers day. we found the idea on pinterest of course. here is the link to the site.

 this one I found a clip art for and printed for my daughter to give him. we added this recipe for homemade bbq sauce
once the crafting starts my son usually can't stop. he wanted to make another minion card for his daddy. he asked me to draw a purple minion and then he colored it in and added words to it.

bear has a lake house. we visit often. my son made the foot and my daughter the hand. it is just prefect. got the idea from pinerest! where else? here is the pin.

papa has a goat farm so we made this card for him for fathers day. the tractor is golden boys foot and the goat is little girls hand. I found quite a few pins for the tractor and goat. here are some of the links
tractor
tractor and cow
tractor
sheep

we added a cute little disc photo album to his bbq sauce and I took a picture of the kids that I found here and made it our desktop wall paper and email it to him so that he could make it his desk top wall paper at work.

Crawfish Time

 

so this happened over memorial day but I am just now getting around to posting the pics.

there is nothing like a good old crawfish boil.

I have been eating crawfish since I can remember (and I am still alive and kickin for those who are thinking eeewwww gross)

all is takes is a couple pounds of cawfish

a good stock pot

 



oh wait maybe even some more pounds of cawfish

 



some pretty great men who get them ready for boiling

 



some trays to put them on to eat (by the pound)

 



onions, potatoes, corn and sausage (not pictured)

 



seasoning

 



some family and friends

 



and a pretty awesome, curious nephew who doesn't mind touching them and showing them to bear. (my kids steer away from them) golden boy calls them red bugs and naturally little girl does the same. hopefully one day I can pull some of my cajun roots out of them.



A few of my Favorite Things......

crackle fireworks-the way they look and sound

shopping for greeting cards

the smell of books, ink, sharpies, and gasoline

the sound of water running over pebbles

books

coffee

blue eyes-not that any other eye color I dislike but there are these two pair of blue eyes that I can fall

into every day I love them so much

baby feet

baby smells

nail polish

shoes

chocolate

baking

hoodies

pumpkin (almost anything)

wall calendars

online ordering (but I hate paying for shipping)

photos

pinterest

nutella

corner brownies

holding hands

foot rubs(not feet thought) (except baby feet as you may have noticed in the beginning of the list)

waking my children up in the morning (even when they are grumpy

candy corn

wildflowers

cutting our grass (but I have no method, I like to make, what I call crop circles around the trees that we have in the front yard)

bluegrass music

most music in general (my ipod as a crazy mixture of music on in....I mean crazy)

I am a baseball mom

 let me say that being a baseball mom was never in my mind. baseball has to be one of my least favorite sports. it is hot and a slow moving sport. how did we get here?
well after two years of soccer we know that it wasn't going to be golden boys thing. this fall/winter we did basket ball and he seemed to like that. we will give it another year to see what he truly thinks. when it was time to sign up for baseball he was all for it. me on the other hand.....I kept thinking I could do without it.  this year was just prep for him. after three coach pitches they are allowed to hit the ball off the tee. it was fun getting started and learning how all this baseball stuff works. I just knew the basics really and maybe that wasn't even enough.

let me just say that as each game went buy the sport became more and more exciting. sure my kid was out there playing but the whole dynamic of it all was just fun and exciting. the coaches that he had were just wonderful. very knowledgeable about he game and very encouraging and helpful. the group of parents that we had were so involved and made everything go so smoothly. we were never short players, the boys were always trying their best and just got better and better as the season went on. at our last game of the season we found out that there would be a single elimination tournament. i truly believe that most of the parents thought we would be out after the first game. not that the boys weren't a good little team but just that it was the end of the season and everyone was tired. we won our first tournament game and continued to win and won the whole championship. it was so exciting. our boys did awesome and were well deserving of the win. one of the moms told me last night that the way the boys played and pulled it off is what movies are made of. it was impressive and i couldn't be more proud of my boy and the team that he played for. GO PHILLIES!

 so yeah! i am a baseball mom and loving every minute of it.

 my sweet girl and one of the friends she made.

 Our Phillies

what an awesome team! what an awesome season!

i hope we are blessed to be able to be with the same coaches and team next year. we shall see. exciting things ahead.

photos taken by one of the team moms Traci (not by me ) she did an awesome job all season getting great pictures of the boys.

Summer 2014

Summer is here and has been for a couple of days now. we just rolled right into the swing of things. for the last two years I have make a fun summer list of things to do. this is the first year that I am posting them here though. I can't believe that we have already done some of these. awesome. summer is a lot shorter than usual this year but we are hoping that it will all be exciting and fun. I may be adding more fun things as we go along too.  here we go 2014.......bring it on

Go camping

Make snow cones
Granny's VBS

Water park

Swimming at five different pools (IIIII)

Wash car in swimsuits

Movie in the park

Food truck
Blow bubbles

Zoo

Go on a hike
Botanical Gardens

Sidewalk paint

Blanket fort
Yard day with friends

Boat rides

Go to lake

Swimming lessons

Homemade ice cream

Baseball game

Splash pad

Library

Go to the park

Board games

Fireworks

Nature scavenger hunt

Sprinklers

Kiddie Carnival

Make Smoothies

Play hide n seek

Pop jets

Watercolor

Chase lightening bugs

Read

VBS
Watch a sunset

Movie at Monaco

Sonic Happy Hour

Pick blueberries

Kids Birthday Party

SA water park

Friends lake house trip

Marriott trip
Sidewalk chalk
Ice cream treats
Milkshakes
Ice Cream
paint hallway

Go back to school shopping

My Mother's Day

So while i wrote about Mother's Day i didn't include that in my mothers day experience. When my golden boy came home from school the Friday before he had a big smile on his face and said "I have a surprise for you mommy."

I closed my eyes and waited for what it was that he had for me (completely forgetting that mother's day was coming up and that it
may be something mother's day-ish.)
The hot plate and card were just wonderful and made my day.


during our camping trip i came across several heart shaped rocks. i thought it was cool when i found the first one. then i found another one and it became my mission to find more. the kids knew that i was searching and they would find some sometimes too. here is my collection of smallish heart shaped rocks.

on mother's day morning after waking up late (my husband got up with my daughter after his attempt at convincing her to snuggle with him in the tent didn't work and they watched the river for a while and then headed to the store and got me a cup of coffee.) when i woke up they were gone so i got some time sitting by the river.
  later on in the day as we were packing up they kids were playing at the river and i heard golden boy call out, "momma! momma! look what i found for you." he was hauling this big heart shaped rock up the hill and to our camp site. it was so sweet. i just love my babies and how sweet they were to me on mother's day.

my heart was happy and full. blessed with this awesome family that God has given me. as a little girl all i wanted to be was a mommy. i played babies and house probably a lot longer then most other girls did. (but maybe not, i don't know) i wanted six kids then. baby dolls don't make as much noise as real babies do.  :)  now i have two kiddo's and i have so many feeling on being a mother and having children and thoughts about their future but have a hard time verbalizing all of those feelings and wants. i came across this blog post and just love everything about it. i want to "win my children's hearts."

Happy Anniversary

12 years......

12 Years...

WHAT! 12 YEARS!!!!

i am blessed

i am thankful

i can't believe it has been 12 years. 

i am so glad that i get to walk through this life with this man by my side

(i almost said boy......i sometimes think that we are still the kids that got married 12 Years ago.)

have i said that already........12 years!

First and Last Day of Kindergarten

 the time has sure flown by this year. I can't believe that today is the last day of kindergarten for my golden boy. I can't believe how much he has grown up in this school year. he looked like a baby when we took him to school that first day and now he is looking like a little boy. time is flying and I am sure you hear it all the time......how can we make it stop. just trying to enjoy my time with this two kido's that God has blessed me with. loving them so very much.

Our Camping Adventures Part 2

 Campfire cooking:

see that toilet paper roll?  I saw on pinterest that a good fire starter was to collect the lint from your dryer and stuff it in a toilet paper roll. It may work for some but it did not work for us. in the pin there are 25 other fire starter ideas. maybe we will try another one of those next time we go camping.

 Hot dogs......a camping must. this and smores are about all we cooked. it rained a lot while we were there. this was pretty fun for the kids though. me too.

 another pinterest find and a pretty awesome one at that. I was trying to figure out how to pack less and came across this pin. brilliant! truly! the graham cracker and chocolate already in one cookie (well two in this case) and then your marshmellow. they were awesome. I got a high five from the hubby for this pinterest find too.