7 years of blogging!

Today, I have been blogging for 7 years!!!!

It's so neat to look back on my very first post.

I love having all these memories to look back on!

I'm looking forward to another year sharing our life on this little corner of the Internet!

the weekly update

 This girl lost a tooth a week ago! It had been loose for a whiiiillle. I was so glad when it finally came out.

 This boy was student of the week this past week!

 She had fever on Monday evening, so she got to stay home with me on my birthday. I was a little sad because I had to cancel lunch plans with some friends. I did get these beautiful flowers from Tim and then C Girl and I went to get a crepe before B Boy got home from school.

 Google scares me sometimes with how much it knows!

 Wednesday night, we had a soccer tournament game. The bottom fell out of the sky right before the game started, but the game continued on. C Girl and I went to sit in the van!

 HOWEVER, if you run the fan, radio, and windshield wipers, you will kill the battery. I'm so thankful that my friend, Amber was parked beside us and had jumper cables!!!

(new funny story to add to our list...)

This is the new BPTO uniform!!! Hahaha! It was hysterical that they showed up wearing the same thing and did NOT plan it!!!

Thursday night, B Boy had his 2nd soccer tournament game.

The weather was much nicer :-)

His team played their hearts out!

We ended up losing by one goal. B Boy did get to score an awesome goal though! He was thrilled!!!

On the way home, we saw something happening on the square so we decided to stop by for a few minutes. The high school chamber orchestra was performing. The weather was so nice and there were so many other families out on the square!

We have a gorgeous town square!

The preschool that B Boy attended is closing up shop at the end of this school year and he has been begging me to take him by there to visit.

I took him out of school Friday morning to run by there and say hello!

They were thrilled to see him and let him play on some of the gymnastics equipment!

It was so good to see them!!!

B Boy has such fond memories of preschool!

This past week was teacher appreciation at our school.

Friday, the teachers got to have a 2 hour lunch and parents volunteered to sub the classes during that time.

I signed up to be in C Girl's class.

It ended up going very well!

I stopped to get a crepe on the way home. I had to wait in line for quite a while, but I have become so addicted to their crepes!

C Girl has been taking tennis lessons on Friday afternoons with some friends from church. I love having that time to visit with these sweet friends! And Maegan who was out of town this Friday!

That night, we took the kids to a Parent's night out at a local church and went out to dinner with another couple. We had a really fun time!!!

We stopped by pressroom for drinks and I had the brown sugar latte with almond milk. Yummy!

Yesterday was our 12 year anniversary.

What I wrote on social media:

||||Twelve|||| I swear each year passes quicker than the last. It has been 12 really good years. Those two never would have imagined what those years had in store. We were lovestruck, barefoot because Tim packed two right shoes, and I had chopped my hair off before the wedding for some strange reason and my tiara and veil didn't want to stay put. It stormed terribly the night before our wedding and our wedding was officiated by a short, black native lady. We have so many funny stories, even from just our wedding and honeymoon. We had our first dance to "Wonderful Tonight" and he has sang it to me ever since. These type of days get me so emotional because, I don't know how I deserve this life. It's good and hard and challenging, but so very beautiful.

 Saturday morning was B Boy's soccer end of the year party. We had pizza and met at a local park. The boys had a blast. The coach had special things to say to each individual boy as he handed out their medals. We were blessed with such a great team AND coaches!

We cooked dinner and rented some movies from Redbox to round out the day. Tim and I watched Mockingjay Part 1. I love that he loves to watch movies like this with me!

Today was senior day at church. The closer we get, the harder it hits me. As I sat there during the slideshow, I was wondering what pictures and videos I might use for each kid. It was crazy to see pics of those kids at my kids' ages and then now. They change SO much and somehow become ready to leave home and be adults. It's hard to wrap your mind around when you are still trying to teach them how to wash their hair and tie their shoes. It makes you wonder who these little people are going to be and what they are going to do. I can't wait to see all of that, but I'm sure going to miss these days.

 This afternoon, we went to the Natural's game. We got to take a tour of the stadium before the game. We toured a suite, the press box, and the batting cages.

 B Boy got to meet and talk to the guy who calls the games on the radio :-)

Eleven years

Baby, if I had to choose

My best day ever

My finest hour, my wildest dream come true-

Mine would be you

From the Mojave Desert to the Gulf Coast {Summer 2013}

So, it was a few months ago when we went on vacation, but I still wanted to share about our trips!

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Tim had a short window this summer to get our vacations in, so we booked them back to back.

Tim and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in May.

We had originally planned to go back to St. Lucia where we got married, but I was nervous being that far out of country.

Sooooo, we had to decide on somewhere closer.

Since we were already going to Gulf Shores, we decided on something non-beachy.

I have always wanted to see Las Vegas and it seemed like a fun getaway for Tim and I.

Plus, our airport flies direct flights there for pretty inexpensive prices so that played a factor too!

I'm a super nervous flyer, but all went well.

We booked our flight with hotel and chose to stay at Caesar's Palace.

It is super, super nice.

And massive.

It has so many towers, pools, restaurants and the ginormous Forum shops.

We LOVED hanging out at the Temple pool.  There are other pools, but sadly, I didn't make it over to them.

It was just so gorgeous.  The temperature was in the high 90's all weekend and I barely broke a sweat. It is definitely not as humid as Arkansas.  I would have been drenched in sweat here with the same temps.

We did lots of sight seeing.  We tried to see all of the big name hotels.  There is just way too much to see that it all can't be fit in one small trip.

We shopped around the Forum shops.

We ate.

We saw the Cirque du Soleil show, Mystere and it was wonderful!

It was also neat/strange to see the unfinished multiple billion dollar Fontainebleau and Echelon Place projects.

The recession was felt everywhere, even Vegas.

The fountains at the Bellagio are so cool.

The night view from our room.

Our hotel was in the middle of the strip.

The pool area at Caesar's Palace.

We celebrated our anniversary at Nobu.

It was some of the best food we have ever eaten.

We totally flew over the Hoover Dam.

AND the Grand Canyon.

All I can say is, wow.

This was such a nice little bonus to the trip.

We flew home on a Monday night and then woke up Tuesday morning very early to pick up the kids and drive to Gulf Shores, AL.

Finally to the beach! And before sunset!

Our cute condo

My people and ocean. What can be better than that?

We were treated everyday to a show by the Navy jets.

And of course, birds.

Precious.

Gorgeous sunsets.  Lovely memories. Good food. Relaxation.

All attributes of a great vacation.

Happy 10 years, my love.