bring on the hot summer

we are a boat family now and i am excited to spend many many summer days on the lake.

last day of school

 Today is the day they've been waiting for since last August. The last day of school!

 Layla didn't have any finals to take so she had a "school night sleepover" with one of her best buddies.  Here we are over here just making some fun memories!

 

Hayden finished 5th grade and will be starting his second year of intermediate school.

 

Layla finished 8th grade and will be in high school next year!  She'll be a fish!

I am so excited for what will be a wonderful summer when I finish work the second week of June.

Layla is a teenager

We were at the Gaylord when Layla woke up on her birthday, so we did things alittle different this year!  She got a huge cookie and her favorite Vanilla Bean Frappuccino from Starbucks.  I think she was just as happy as every other birthday morning!

I still can't believe she is offically a teenager!

We got her the fun 13 balloons in gold.  I knew she'd have a fun time taking tons of pictures with them.

UNTIL the number 3 came off the string and floated AWAY!!  So sad y'all!

You can barely see it floating up high in the sky.

And then she was 1! heeheehee!

We went back to our neighborhood H_E_B and they gave her another free of charge.  How sweet are they?  That's wonderful customer service.  So the photo shoots continue.....

She tried so hard to get one with both puppies, but they are just too crazy!

Happy birthday to you Layla!  We love you!

42 years old!

We started my birthday weekend at Ninf'as!  It is my favorite place to eat green dip.

I had the most amazing company.  I truely enjoy spending time with my kids.

We have the best conversations and laugh so much.  They are so sweet and kind and I'm thankful to celebrate each birthday with them and their daddy!

Next on the weekend birthday agenda was a crab boil and pool party!

I am spoiled indeed and appreciate all the birthday wishes on social media and via text!

42 is going to be amazing!!!

last day of school

 

Last day of 4th grade and 7th grade

These two are ready for summer! Layla will be moving to 8th grade and Hayden will be a 5th grader.

 

Hayden is officially an intermediate school student.  He walked the halls of elementary school for the last time.  Ahhhh!  In just a few months he'll be double digits!  10 years old!

We are proud of both of our munchkins and ready for a relaxing summer.

Moving and Unpacking .... again!

I finished work mid-June and we packed and purged and packed and went to the water park.  That is about all we did.  I was ready to get us moved, but still want to make the beginning of summer fun for the munchkins.  

We didn't really unpack all that much in our rental house when we first moved back to Waco.  There were tons of boxes and totes we needed to move, but we also aquired  a little junk that we needed to go through. When you move a million times in 5 years you pretty much have the system down. ha!  I'm excited to get settled and unpacked in our new house.  The timing is perfect since I'm off work during the summer.  I feel like we have waited for this moment since we sold our house in Haslet.  It's time to unpack and settle in for the next chapter!

we love summer!

no cavitites

The three of us spent our morning at the dentist office.

We are all clean and cavity free!  

single sentence Sunday

We had a wonderful weekend at Lake Whitney with friends!!

July 4, 2016

Our July 4th was pretty low key and that was just fine with us.  The good thing about being back in Waco is that we have lots of friends to keep us busy.  We have been taking advantage of Gary being off work and enjoying every minute and so it's been a super busy summer so far!

Today was all about us hanging out together and staying somewhat low key.

We bought sparklers and smoke bombs and just hung out here at the house since Gary starts his new job bright and early in the morning.  I'm so excited for him!

God is good and he has shown that since we made our move back home.  I'm so happy with our choice to move.  I'm excited to see what else God has in store for us.  I can just visualize the home I can't wait to purchase.  I don't mind renting for now because I know that in time we will find the right spot for our family and I'm hoping that includes a pool for these hot summer months.  We have three summer birthday celebrations in our family and a swimming pool would be amazing.  

I'm saying all that to say...I can't wait to look back at this blog in a couple of years to see where we are compared to where we have been!  I sure do enjoy this scrapbook of ours!

a hard lesson

Oh my!  I did indeed drop my phone in the swimming pool Saturday while filming the children doing stunts.  I left it for 4 days and nights and it is still dead. Booooooooo!  

Here's to learning a hard hard lesson.

the most refreshing summer salad

I'm back to the hot Texas sun and a refreshing salad always takes the edge off the heat.  When I lived in Ohio one of my best buddies, Annika, made this salad for book club.  I seriously could have eaten the entire bowl.  It was so good even in the not so hot Ohio heat!

I posted a picture on Instagram when I made this on Friday night and got several requested to share the recipe, so here she is....

6 cups bite size watermelon 

4 cups bite size strawberries 

1/2 chopped red onion

2 TB lime juice

1 diced Serrano pepper

2 TB chopped cilantro

1/4 cup olive oil

salt to taste

Whisk together onions, lime, salt, Serrano, and cilantro. 

Add mixture to watermelon and strawberries and toss.

While I was shopping at HEB for the ingredients Layla was in charge of the list and she talked me into using a jalapeno instead of a Serrano pepper. It was still good, but it wasn't as nice as the Serrano.  Go big and get the hot pepper because all the other flavors take the bite out of the hot pepper. 

meet the teacher

Today we went to school for the kids to meet their teachers for the 2015-2016 school year.  We made the rounds around the school and the kids caught up with a few of their buddies too.  I'm excited for the kids to have a full year at their school.  They started last year in November here in Georiga.  I think it's confusing and frustarting to start mid-year.   They are excited about seeing all their friends and I am excited about getting back into a routine!

  

Everywhere we look in our neighborhood we see Kona Ice.  Why didn't we think of that?  Starting school earlier than normal is a bummer, but Kona Ice makes everything better!

tagging along with dad

Gary has a dealership in Huntsville AL and we tagged along with him to swim in the hotel pool!

Along the way we stopped to check out the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro.  I didn't get the orange memo....the kiddos blended in with the sign!  It's hilarious.

We heard about the Unclaimed Baggage Center on the Today Show and since we were passing through we stopped to see if there were any great deals.  It was basically like a big yard sale.  Some things were great deals and others were over priced.  Honestly I just needed more time to shop, but I wasn't in a browsing mood that day, so we just skimmed around the store.  Gary found a cool watch and Hayden found a football.  We bought a few things and then headed back out on the road to Hunstville.

Layla is just looking so grown up.  She loved the hotel and its totally modern look, so she wanted to pose for a few pictures.  She's a good sport for letting me take some pictures.

Our kids love hotel stays.  They love exploring new places.

Hayden's poses lately are .... well.  I just don't know what to say.  He's a goof ball and doesn't want me taking his photo every 5 minutes.

I like hotel stays because I get to try out fun workout equipment.  I didn't get but about 20 minutes in, but hey, it's better than no workout!

The kids just lounged around and watched TV.  I would have loved to really workout, but they got bored and I get that, so we headed out to the pool for a swim.

Of course we visited dad at work and met all his coworkers.  Hayden climbs on whatever bikes or 4 wheelers he can.  He's itching to ride!!

We enjoyed trying a new restaurant when Gary got off work!  It was Mexican food and it was very delicious!

The kids and I had fun lounging around.  We dropped Gary off at work and when we stopped to get coffee Gary got them Starburst.  For breakfast.  Goodness gracious.  These two kiddos love them some candy.

We had a fun few days out with dad.  I'm glad the kids get to see where he works an what he does every day.  I think they get a better understanding of how hard he works and they get why sometimes he works so much.  We are thankful for our hard working man!!

happy fourth of july

Our bestie buddies drove in from Ohio to celebrate Independence Day!

First up.....the pool!

Look at that photo bomber!

The dads golfed and then they joined us at the pool!

The ice cream truck drove by and they partook!

Then we all cleaned up for dinner!

I ran into Becca at dinner.  It was sooooo nice to meet her!

We ate at Salt Factory, downtown Woodstock.  Erin and I got calamari and the guys got oysters.

I ended my dinner with a giant cheeseburger.  It was a great treat after a long day at the pool!

Cheers!

After a group picture it was back home for some sparklers.

And smoke bombs!

And snap pops.

I love this little firecraker.  She is growing up into such an amazing little lady!

We ended our awesome day with a fireworks show.  It was wonderful to share this day with our buddies!  Thanks for the weekend of sweet memories bestie family!