Happy Birthday Ava!!!

08.03.13

Our sweet niece, Ava, is growing up!  She's celebrating her 7th birthday by having a pool party today and I have offered to take pictures which means I cannot be late.  Here we go!

The cake looks awesome and Katherine did a fantastic job with the food!

Our very first niece is growing up!

The donuts were a hit!  I think Beck ate 3 or 4 of them and I later noticed that he only ate the tops.  Our silly boy strikes again.

 Ava is always so sweet to Kinsey and Kinsey loves it!

I think we hit maximum capacity in the pool today!

Sweet Otto had a blast!

Our other lovely niece, Lola, is a swimming machine...she loves the water!

Ava is getting some lovin' from both grandmothers.

Beck and Kinsey had to use the restroom at the same time and when we finally came out of the house, we saw the end of everybody singing Happy Birthday to Ava.  We totally missed it!

This cake was oh-so-yummy!!!

Ava got some really fun gifts!

One last round of swimming and I sure enjoyed watching Beck trying to talk Kinsey into jumping off the diving board.  He's such the instigator!

I'd love to hear what was being said and don't they know they are holding up the line of kids that do want to jump off the diving board.

The party was a huge success!!!  Now it's time for lunch at a place that I know my kids will eat...Chick-fil-a with Kiki.  Kiki was impressed that they ate all of their chicken and enjoyed some ice cream.  Our next stop is a housewarming/sip n see party for my dear old friends, David and Tiffany in Midlothian which is about a 45 minute drive. 

Canton with Kelli

08.01.13

This will be my second trip to Canton since moving back to East Texas and I'm super excited to have Kelli with me.  I love her taste and she has offered to show me her favorite stores and help me pick out some things for the house.  The first two stores had ac which is so nice then we went to the big shopping park after lunch and that's when we busted out in a full-on sweat-fest.  I do not recommend going to Canton in August.  But, we did end up loading up my vehicle with lots of stuff!  We put all of her stuff in the back and all of my stuff in the back seat.  (Note to self: remove car seats.)

These are the things that I purchased to decorate the upper kitchen cabinets.

Kelli saw these topiaries at the second store we visited and I never would have thought to put them on the mantel.  This was her suggestion and I love it!  However, she did say not to do things in even numbers so I need to add another topiary for the odd effect.  (This mantel is a work in progress.)

Below are some things that I fell in love with but did not purchase...

I absolutely love this wall clock but I have no idea where I would put it and I adore this vintage chair.

Talk about a focal point...wow!  That is one really unique tub!  I wouldn't want it but it sure is cool.

I really love these hutches for my future office!

I'm on a mission to find a new dining table and this one almost resembles the one that I'd like to have except I don't want a tall table.

I would have bought this shabby chic bookshelf if it had been a corner bookshelf!

A big thanks to Kelli for all of your help today and to Kiki for watching the kids!

The next day, the kids rode their vehicles in the backyard which is struggling to grow.  We watered our yard so much that our bill was a little over $400!  Luckily, Brent has worked with the landscaper on past commercial construction jobs and he'll work with him on future jobs so he's going to spray our back yard again since the rain washed almost all of the hydro mulch away.

Tonight is Family Fun Night so we are hitting the town!

I took a selfie because I had a really good hair day!  I rarely like my hair but I was happy with it tonight!

Whitehouse Library

07.31.13

Today is the last day of July and we are going to story time.  Today's reader is Mrs. Love.  What a great name!  And, she was lovely!  But, she will not be the permanent reader.  Boo!  I'm anxious to find out who will take over.  The only change I noticed since the other lady moved away is that there wasn't an update on facebook.

Daddy getting some lovin'!

A few days ago, Kinsey asked me to buckle her and bear.  Ha!  She and Beck also buckle up their animals in the middle seat!  Safety first! 

Whitehouse Water Park

07.29.13

My good friend, Bonnie, and her girls, Laila and Olive, came to our house today!  I'm so excited to have guests!  We ate lunch then drove to the Whitehouse Water Park located next to the library.  I saw it the last time we were at the library and it looked like a cute water park.  However, I was very disappointed that we had to pay $6 which isn't a lot of money but our favorite water park in Longview is FREE AND it's SO much BIGGER!  I seriously doubt we will ever go back to that water park especially since there is one much closer to our house that's free.  In the end, our kids had a blast and that's what matters the most.

We took a time out to eat a snack and play at the regular park.

Then, we talked our kids into playing some more at the water park since we paid for it.

Our kids were so sad when it was time to leave.  Laila asked if she could spend the night and Bonnie said she never wants to spend the night with anybody.  What a compliment!  I'm not sure when we'll get to see them again since Beck will be starting kindergarten in four weeks.  Laila is going to pre-k and she will have Beck's same teacher, Mrs. Mason.  We are going to miss our Gilmer friends but we will definitely keep in touch!

I Am Blessed

07.26.13

Yesterday, we went to a fairly new movie theater to see Turbo which is a really cute movie.

Today, we are meeting Neena in Longview for lunch and the kids are obsessed with their stuffed animals!

We also had fun shopping with the animals.

Then, we spent the night at Kiki and Pops house because I'm going to get my patriarchal blessing tomorrow morning from my sweet father-in-law and we are finishing up moving stuff out of Nanny's house.  I just happened to catch Kinsey being Kinsey at the back door.  She is a hoot!!!

When we made it back home Sunday, I was dying to use our new tub so we filled it up, added lots of bubble bath and turned on the jets.  Wow!  That's a lot of bubbles!  Beck and Kinsey love my tub!

Thanks for the great memories!

Whitehouse Library

07.24.13

The Whitehouse library is closer to our house than the Tyler library by 3 miles and I've heard that you have to pay $0.50 for each book you check out if you do not have a Tyler address.  All signs are pointing to the Whitehouse library so we are going to check it out today.  I saw on facebook that the books being read are all about Texas and the post encouraged kids to wear red, white and blue.  The lady that led story time is awesome!  She not only read a few books but she sang cute songs and had hand movements to go with the songs.  I was so excited until I heard her announcement...the moving van was at her house loading up her stuff and she was moving to another state.  Urgh! 

After hearing that sad news, the kids moved to another room where they sat at tables and worked on the craft which was the Texas flag.  So cute!!!  The hour-long story time ended with a snack and a cup of water.  I'm very impressed!

We are so excited that we have found a great library and we can't wait to go back.

Does it ever get old to take the cushions off the couch?  Oh well, I still love them and I still think they are super cute!