InstaMay

May 2013 in photos

After an unusually cool beginning to May, it has finally warmed up.

Which means we are playing outside!  

Look at this big kid!

Almost every day after school Will wants to go outside and practice hitting the ball off the tee.

Earlier this month, Ben rode in the St. Jude's trike-a-thon at his preschool.

We attended the 40th birthday of a friend.

This was close to a Pinterest fail.  It was supposed to be 40 suckers for "40 sucks" but I overestimated the size of the styrofoam ball and it has more like 80 suckers, lol!  Our friend liked it anyway.

We celebrated at a great Tex-Mex restaurant.  It's neat that Mark has been friends with Durwood since they were little kids.  They grew up going to the same church and then attended the same school K-12.  Now that's a real lifelong friend.

I love looking out the window and seeing this. They really play well together.  So thankful for that!

Ben and Will love to be outside as much as Mark and I do.

We have been blessed with amazing teachers at our elementary school, and it was fun to make special treats for them during teacher appreciation week.

Paula Deen's cream cheese brownies were a big hit.

Ben picked out this book and Will read it to him.

Be still my heart!

April showers bring May flowers.

This rose bush is at Mark's parents' house.  Mark's dad got the cutting for this rose bush as his mother's house.  It's unique because it had double blooms, and the color is very interesting.  It had yellow buds, then the blooms turn pink and eventually when they are open are bright pink.  We definitely want to get a cutting started at our new house.  It's beautiful and sentimental.

Speaking of the new house, we went out to the land to measure off and mark the location for our new house.  These wildflowers were blooming.  You know what else was in full bloom...poison ivy!  I've been covered in it.  It's the worst case of poison ivy I've ever had.  

The new house is definitely a work in progress.  I'm thankful that the process is taking time because it takes me a while to consider all of the different options.  For example, we started with a one-story plan, which has now changed to a two-story.  It's all fun, but it's also a lot of decisions.  We're still at least a year away from getting started.

We have had a great time playing tee-ball this spring.  Will's on a terrific team.  We might not win all of our games, but we are having fun, which is what matters most at this age.  Plus, the boys don't have a clue if we win or lose.

Just trying out the new photo app from A Beautiful Mess.

We had to stop by IKEA to pick up a few things.  IKEA is exhausting!

Mark's such a great dad!  He has the patience to play board games with the boys.  Seriously, he is a good man!

I'm the bookkeeper for our tee-ball team and this is my helper.

Let's Go Will!

That sums up May.  Even though it's the end of the school year, we're about to hit a crazy few weeks in June.  Ben's birthday party starts off the month, then we have the last week of school (that's the first week of June), which is followed by Vacation Bible School at our church.  I'll get back to you sometime at the end of June!

Mother's Day 2013

I had a wonderful Mother's Day last weekend.  Mark and the boys were extra sweet.  

On the Friday before Mother's Day Ben's preschool had "Mommy Day".  They made special crafts for us and invited us to stop by for refreshments.  This is a photo from that afternoon.  Ben's preschool is conveniently located just across the street from the school where we work.  I was able to walk over and then hurry back before the school day was even over.

The Saturday before Mother's Day was a little bit stressful.  Ben had a scrape on his elbow that wasn't healing, and it started showing signs of cellulitis.  He had it once before in the fall.  I was really concerned because he couldn't bend his elbow on Friday night.  He never complained, other than me noticing that his elbow was extremely red and warm to the touch and he couldn't bend it.  He's a trooper!  I called the pediatrician's office early Saturday morning to make sure they could take a look at it.  Sure enough, it was cellulitis.  Thankfully it wasn't a severe infection (still freaks me out though) and he was given strong antibiotics to stop the infection.  He's all better now.  

So, this photo was taken after we went to the pediatrician.  My hair's a mess and I don't have on makeup but I'm happy that Ben was ok.  I chose where we ate since it was Mother's Day weekend, and I picked Collin Street Bakery.  I love their chicken salad sandwiches.

I also LOVE their sweet treats!

We all shared a mini Key Lime pie,  cherry ice box cookies, macaroons, white chocolate chip cookie, raspberry bar, and a pecan pie nugget.  Delicious!  There was some big time cheating on My Fitness Pal during that lunhc! ;)

Despite a somewhat hectic and stressful morning, we did one of my favorite things ever on Saturday afternoon.  We worked in the yard and planted flowers.  Will and Ben were such good helpers.  It's amazing how much we can get accomplished now that they are getting older. 

One more of the front flower bed. 

The very first photo and this photo were taken on Sunday morning before church on Mother's Day.  It's a tradition that we started when Will was a baby.  I always pose with the boys in the front yard before heading off to church services.  

After church we went out to eat.  One of my new favorite places to eat is Zoe's Kitchen.  

After we ate, we went to Watters Creek to hang out.  Apparently all of the North Dallas decided it would be a nice day to go there, too.  Wow, it was crowded!

I feel so blessed and lucky to be the mother of such precious boys.  

Will and Ben are my pride and joy and they made Mother's Day wonderful.

Belated Blog Anniversary

 

Oops!  I missed the 3rd anniversary of my blog!

Our days have been full, and it slipped by me. 

I'm not nearly as faithful in keeping up with my blog as when I started it.  I still love blogging though.  It's a wonderful place to keep our family's memories, but it requires a lot of time.  Time that I do not have at this point in my life.

I won't give it up because it's important to me and so are the people I've met through it.

As always, I'm grateful for the friendships I've formed through blogging.  Most of my blog friends are on some other form of social networking so we can stay in touch.  I'm thankful for Instagram (my favorite!), Facebook (yep, I'm friends on FB with several blog friends), Twitter (still haven't figured it all out, probably never will, ha!) and Pinterest.  I might not get to their blog as much as I used to and leave comments, but I enjoy staying connected these other ways.

Thanks to all of you who still stop by to see what we are up to.  I appreciate you!


If you have a lot of time on your hands and you'd like to read the LONG post that I wrote on the first anniversary of my blog, you can find it here.  Last year, I shared this on my blogiversary.

I know I've been absent from blogging so expect a lot of posts this summer to catch up!

xoxo,

Michele

50th Anniversary Party

On Sunday, April 21st we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Mark's parents, Jerry and Carol.  Photos from their wedding 50 years earlier can be seen here.

We had a party in their honor at our church's fellowship building.  There were over 100 guests who came to offer their best wishes and congratulations.

This is my favorite photo of Jerry and Carol. 

Don't they look great!?!  It's hard to believe they've been married 50 years.

We served two cakes.  The cake above is more like a traditional wedding cake.  The cake below is similar to a groom's cake one would serve at a wedding reception.  The chocolate cake was a big hit.  It's pretty standard at any baby shower, wedding shower, or wedding reception that mints and nuts are served.  We didn't want to break protocol so we served those, too. ;)  The photos displayed on the ledge were ones that Carol already had framed and hung in their house.  We just borrowed them to display for the party.

This is such a great photo of Jerry and Carol and their 3 sons.  From left to right: Clay, Mark, Carol, Jerry and Craig.  Craig's the oldest, Clay is the middle and Mark's the youngest.

Here's our family with Jerry and Carol.  We took a pictures of each family with my in-law's.  If we're Facebook friends, then you've probably seen all of those.

The cake made by my friend Brandi.

Chocolate cake with toffee pieces sprinkled on top.

A dozen yellow roses for the golden anniversary.

The registry table

A shot from one end of the fellowship building.

Disclaimer..

Our fellowship building is probably the ugliest building to try to decorate, but my sister-in-law, Andrea, and my niece, Maggie, worked a decorating miracle.  We joked that we left it in better condition than how we found it.

My nephew, Jacob, made a really neat slideshow with some of Carol's favorite photos over the last 50 years.  It was a big hit and everyone enjoyed watching it.

Will and his cousin Kimberly who is exactly 3 months older than he is.

All of my sweet nieces.  Such pretty girls inside and out!

Ben enjoying (devouring) a piece of chocolate cake.  He's sitting with his cousins, Jordan and Jacob.

My handsome nephew Max and his pretty girlfriend Brittyn.  It's hard to believe Max will be graduating this year.  He was in first grade when Mark and I got married!

Mark and I rarely get a photo together.

Thanks, Maggie, for taking it!

The whole family. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a sweet family.

What a fun day!

We purchased the banners and some of the decorations at Oriental Trading Co and any other decorations used were from Hobby Lobby.