You Know You Are Getting Old When...

...You buy a dishwasher for your anniversary and you are EXCITED about it!! ;) Our old dishwasher was recently recalled, so we were able to 'upgrade' to a new and much more QUIET machine. I heart it! Thanks, Honey!!

Andrew and I have been married for 11 years!! That really sounds like a long time to me! We celebrated this year by staying at a very nice hotel in the downtown Dallas galleria area. We had so much fun eating out, taking room service, shopping and relaxing by the pool during the short time we were away. Quality time together really becomes more and more important during this stage of our life. We adore our children of course, but it is just wonderful to be together without having constant distractions. :) I am married to the most incredible man who is perfect for me. Not only is Andrew my very best friend, but he also compliments me in every way. My weaknesses are his strengths and vice versa. I am more in love with him today than I was 11 years ago and even more thankful for his unconditional love and support through the years. He is my true cheerleader and partner in life and I praise God for the gift of him! Happy Anniversary, Sweetie! I love you dearly!

Birthday Party and Father's Day Fun!

On father's day this year we decided to do something crazy and have Ainsley's 2nd birthday party. It was a Sunday and not the best day for friends and family to come, but we really had no other choice this year. June is always crazy, but maybe a little bit more this summer b/c Suzanne is leaving at the end of July and like always we have something going on every weekend. Probably sounds very familiar to some of you reading. I can't be the only person in the world that is always busy with church, family and life, right?? ;)

It was a small party and we were so thankful to everyone who came out to support us celebrate 2 wonderful years of life with Ainsley.

Love Ainsley's expression!! Sweet Ains gets attention everywhere she goes b/c she is so darn cute, so don't let this pic fool you. She was loving it. :)

Blowing out the candles with Daddy.

Ains with her Nana - thanks again for coming! We love you oh so much! :)

Big sis sporting her Hello Kitty necklace.

Cupcake on the face...again! Good thing we were at a splash pad! :)

Silliness...

Some quality time with Zuzu.

Jonathan and Brista (our fab music minister and his sweet wife) stopped by for a while. :)

Daddy and daughter time - Happy Father's Day to our favorite Daddy! How cute was it that Andrew was excited to have his daughter's b-day party on "his" day??!! He told me that he couldn't think of a better thing to do. That is just the kind of man and father he is! I am so blessed by my sweet hubby every day and our kids ADORE him. He is an amazing father and spiritual leader of our home and we all love him more than words allow!!

AND Happy Father's Day to our 2 dads:

Thanks for spending the day with us! We love you and are so very thankful for the both of you!!

That wraps up a fun birthday weekend for our youngest! I just can't believe that we don't have any "babies" in the house any more!! Babies have been our world for the last 4 1/2 years. I definitely get emotional when I think about how quickly the years are going and how big our children are getting. I truly do love being a mom and I am so thankful for every day and memory we make as a family. This is what life is about for me!! :) Thanks for reading!

We love our Ms. Louise!

This is truly one of our family's favorite people in the world, Ms. Louise and her new husband Mr. Paul. Louise has been Andrew's secretary/organizer/encourager/amazing woman for the past year. We love her so much and were so excited to go to her wedding in east Texas to support her.

Okay, so who does this?? The night of Louise's rehearsal dinner was on Ainsley's birthday. She ordered a cake and bought presents (for all the kiddos) so that Ainsley could have a little party moment on her birthday. Louise is just so thoughtful!!


Singing Happy Birthday to Ainsley. :)



Blowing out the candles.

Presents!!

Ms. Louise with Ainsley. We always say that we have to be careful when these two are together. Louise might just take Ainsley home with her when we aren't looking. ;)

Her cake of course had to be applied to the face...

This was quite the crew for the weekend! Ava and Jack are our youth minister's kiddos and our kids LOVE them! They had a lot of fun together during the weekend swimming and playing. :)

Our family of 5. Louise asked Andrew to perform part of the ceremony. He was honored and it was a wonderful wedding for an awesome lady that we already miss so much. (She moved back to Lufkin with her new hubby:). Love you, Louise!

On the way home we saw Mater from the movie Cars sitting on the side of the road and decided to pull over and say hi. :) The kids loved it!! Good times!

Waco VBS

Austin went to VBS (vacation Bible school) at our home church the days we were visiting in Waco. He had so much fun every day and I was so glad that he was "just another kid" of the 1200 that attended that week. (Yes, 1200!!) No one really knew him and he could meet new friends and have a special place that just he went (while the girls hung out with Papa, Grandma and Zuzu at their house).

Let's do this! Our big boy on his way to his 1st official VBS. (4 is as early as you can go at First Woodway. :)


His class for the week. There were several friends Austin had played with before in his class including a sweet girl from a family that we met at Pine Cove Family Camp last summer! So fun!



Big T came to check on Austin every day. ;)

This is so fun! This sweet girl, Claire was a student of mine when I taught at WBA!! Now she is a beautiful high-schooler who was serving in Austin's class for the week!! It was so great to see her! Love you, Claire!

Austin with Ms. Michelle who was one of his teachers.

And here he is with all of his "goods" from the week on his last day. I loved how every day Austin would get in the car and tell me all he had learned about God that day. It was a great week for him. I am pretty sure we are going to make this a tradition. ;)

We had a great week, but by this time Mommy was completely worn out and all of us were missing Daddy and more than ready to see him!

Our Sweet Waco Friends

I took the kids to Waco last week (Aunt Zuzu came with us!) so that Austin could go to VBS at my parent's church. (The church we were married in and Andrew was on staff for a couple of years. :) It was a great week though we all missed Daddy and our new little puppy very much. Austin had a blast at VBS (pics to come in a later blog) and it was wonderful to hang out with family and friends that we don't get to see as much as we would like. We are so very thankful for people like

JG and Big T that the Lord has placed in our lives to encourage and love our family! They are like grandparents to our kids and we had so much fun hanging out with them and visiting them while we were in Waco! What a true blessing they are to us!!

How come every time I try and get a picture of the kids together...

... it always ends like this?? Sometimes I don't even know why I try! ;)

How cute is this picture?? Austin loves his Big T!!!

Playtime!! I am not sure who was more worn out after our visit with the Grahams - the kiddos or Big T. From horse to hide and go seek and bubbles/chase outside, I am pretty sure Big T slept well that night! :) So fun!

We also got to spend two fun afternoons with some of our favorite friends Hudson and Avery! Their mom is one of my dearest friends from high school and it is always wonderful to catch up and spend some time together. Kylie also spend 2 years in South Africa close to where Suzanne will be serving, so it was great to hear them talk about Kylie's wonderful experience in Africa and for Suz to ask her some questions about her time there.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked better, so I put both of them in this post. :)Look at all these cuties!! I look at these pics and get kind of teary! Kylie, our kids are getting SO BIG!! Precious faces!

Austin and Hudson are buds and it was so fun to watch them play together. Austin asks me all the time at home if we can go over and play with "small Hudson" (we have a 'big Hudson" that Austin loves to play with too. :) These two have been friends since they were pretty much born and I have a feeling they are going to be buds for life. :)

Look at these two precious little girls!! I love it! Avery is right in the middle of our two girls age wise and they had fun playing together as well. :)

We went to the Mayborn Museum one afternoon and had a blast!

Playing drums

They always love these huge piano keys. This was the 1st time Ainsley got to run up and down them. :)

What did you say??

More sweet faces :)

We have many pics of these 2 boys in this bus when they were smaller. :)

I had to throw in a pic of the boys when they were about 4-5 months old. :) So sweet!

Now look at them! Big boys!!

The next day we met another one of my besties, Mandy and her kiddos at the park to play.

Mandy and Dax. Happy 1st Birthday to baby Dax! Mandy has been such a dear friend to me over the past several years and i am so very thankful for her love, support and prayers. Love ya, girl!

Here is the crew! Kenzie and Dax are sweet friends! We are so excited about spending a week at Pine Cove with the Helm family later this summer!!

And here they are in birth order. :)

I just love this pic! Precious facial expressions! Dax doesn't really know what to think and Ainsley is loving it! :) We had so much fun with all of our Waco friends who bless us so much!