Happenings around Here...

*  I just got a FREE personalized signature by Vanessa at Butterfly Sparks Designs.  It's her website, and you should check out her stuff.  She's quite talented and right now she has a great promotion going on.  Check it out by clicking here and you can get a free one too!! 

 

*Preston has been throwing food off the table when he eats.  And I know it's food that he likes, so we must be in a new stage??  So I've been telling him NO when he does it and usually he stops, but sometimes I have to repeat myself and then he sticks his bottom lip out and it starts quivering.  It's really quite cute and sad at the same time.

* A dear friend of ours just got back from serving in Iraq.  You can check out their very sweet reunion!!  They were apart for the majority of 2 years!!!  

* You know that spring has officially arrived when Bella is back in the fountain!  In typical lab fashion she LOVES anything water related!  At least she's smart enough not to get in during the winter months!

I am taking a baking class.  Well, really it's more about decorating cakes, cookies, cupcakes...that sort of thing.  I really want to take a cooking class, but thought I would start with this...since I feel a little more confident with my baking skills.  So here's my first cake for the class.  It's a "cupcake" cake.  This is how it looked before class....

And after class.... 
Preston is starting to let go while standing.  We caught him in the action here:
We went to the Arboretum last week.  Of course "Dallas Blooms" is happening so it's just gorgeous.  Here's one pic while we were there:
After the Arboretum we met Mimi for some delicious Mexican food.  Can't remember the name of the restaurant but it's in the Lakewood area, right near the theatre.
*I've been working out with some girls doing Crossfit.  Well, they've been doing it for a while and I just started it.  Last week we did a work-out of basically just dips, pull-ups, and push-ups and I couldn't move my arms for 2 days.  Painful.

*Jason left his IPhone at a restaurant in town at the table where he was sitting.  When he went back to go get it one of the bus boys had turned it in!  I couldn't believe it, there are actually some honest people left in this world. ;)  How is it that I can leave my little old Samsung phone at Disney and never get it back??

*I'm off to peruse through my Real Simple Magazine that just came in the mail...I love a new magazine!

The Six Word Memoir

My friend Andrea tagged me to write a 6 word memoir and here is my weak attempt:

Mother

Believer

Wife

Community

Loyal

Daughter

it's harder than you think to write 6 words about yourself. so, i tried to think of 6 words that if i was gone, people might remember about me. with that said, i am going to tag 5 people (as per andrea's instruction) to write their own memoir.

Lauren C, Ellen B, Natalie P, Lauren W, Elizabeth E, and Ashleigh K.

the instructions are to write your own six word memoir.
post it on your blog, including an illustration if you’d like.
link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so that it can be tracked as it travels across the blogosphere.
tag at least five more blogs with links.
leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

Eleven Months!

11 months old today!
Wanting to play with breakable items instead of take pictures
Sooo very sad that Mom won't let me stay on the table
Much better now that I have the camera cap
Nap time!  He LOVES to stick the silky part of the blanket in his mouth.
Peek-A-Boo!
Hiding under the kitchen table
First time on his new swing!
Jason put this swing in our front yard and he loves it.  J did a great job setting it up between 2 trees so that Preston can swing in all directions.  I think his face says it all!

Easter in Pics!

Preston's first Easter!
Digging in his basket...
...Happy to find an egg!
Don't you think Preston looks just like Cade, the little boy to P's right?  It's one of Christi (Holleman) Spenrath's boys and I kept looking at him thinking that's what P will look like when he's 2.  Christi is one of Jason's cousins and you can take a look at her blog here.  She has 4 precious boys!!
Papaw Asa telling the little ones about the importance of Easter!
Mimi and Papaw with all their GREAT-Grandchildren!  What a blessing!
Preston with his other PaPaw.
Playing with a few things found in the Easter Basket from Grandma.
Helping Grandma with her bubbles.  We were so glad she was able to visit us for a few days!

Flash Back!

I heard several news stations talk about how the war began 5 years ago last week. And my mind immediately thought back to where I was. I like to do that with major events and small ones. I like to think back to what I was doing, and how similiar or different life was, even if it's just a year back.

Of course as I travel across time in my mind I sometimes find myself thinking back on sad times, or funny stories, great memories or not so fond ones. Either way, I still enjoy the traveling.

So back to 5 years ago. It was Spring Break. I was not in school where Spring Break really mattered, but was inbetween jobs so I was able to join Jason on a trip with a friends' youth group. It was not a youth group from a church that we attended, but J was asked to go, and so I was going to tag along. (We were dating at the time.) So we drove to Colorado in vans and arrived late one night. We were all staying at the youth pastor's brothers' home...all 25 of us! We got in just in time to crash on the floor, but no worries because in just a matter of hours we would be in the bliss of snow-covered mountains.

Well. We woke up the next morning to snow. The start of a blizzard had begun. And I'll skip all the details to just tell you the kind of blizzard this was.

Denver received 31 inches of snow, and the Rocky Mountains a record setting 87 inches. They had not had snow fall like that since 1913!

So instead of skiing, here's a few things that we did:

*Shoveled snow because we couldn't go anywhere...couldn't see or find the cars parked outside.

*Jillynn and I wrapped trash bags around our shoes (homeade snow boots) so that we could walk around and get some fresh air. Literally! We were all sharing 2 bathrooms.

*Played way too many games of spades.

*Watched the war begin on t.v.

*Watched our friends drive away in their rental car, leaving us there to suffocate. Okay, that's a little exagerrated, but not by much.

Finally, the roads cleared enough for us to:

*Go to the mall too many times. I've never hated shopping so much in my life.

*Go to the indoor pool where J would bust his ear drum.

*Spend hours at the Emergency Room. (see previous)

*Drink way too much Starbucks coffee.

*Drive HOME!!!

So there was no skiing for us, but we have been able to go skiing a couple of times since then. I only have pictures of last year's Spring Break on this computer so I'll post a few of those. I was 34 weeks pregnant with Preston so you won't see me on the slopes!

Yikes! Got a little too friendly with the snow.

In the town of Breckenridge
Carolyn Scott made these. They happen to be my favorite cookie. These may or may not have been a contributing factor to Preston weighing 8 1/2 lbs!! I'll never say....



J and I with coffee in hand, of course!

A Duck Tale

We asked PaPaw to give Preston another hair-cut this weekend.  I've been holding off because I was liking the longer look.  But on the back of his head his hair started to form what we like to refer to as the "duck tail".  I wish I had a picture of it, but just imagine some really long hairs gathered together to form a feathered tail.  

Preston was a little uneasy about the hair cut at first.  But then Mimi came in with an early Easter gift for Preston.  A cute little duck!  How perfect!  

A little frightened by the scissors!
Check out the hair flying off!
Mimi, Aunt Jen, and P
I love my Mimi!
Hugging Ducky and Mimi.  So sweet!

Magic Kingdom