Nate's Kindergarten Grad, a late mother's day gift and my sweet nephew

It was a good couple of weeks around here.

Nate graduated from kindergarten, my sister and her little boy came for a visit and I finally got my custom made necklace from the vintage pearl. For yays. Fun!

This is Nate with Melody... his crush he's had all year.



Problem is, his best buddy Joseph ALSO has a crush on her. Ha. Kindergarten love triangle at it's finest.



Ms. Harbster is a first year teacher, and just super adorable. We loved her so much. She was so patient with Nate and helped him overcome ADHD challenges and go from barely recognizing half of his letters at the beginning of the year, to full on reading and writing by the end. So proud of him and just LOVED her!



This is the "lip"... his new maveauver to get me to do his bidding. Here he was wanting me to go sit on the floor next to him.



Walking across "the stage" ha



I love this little guy



So proud



Nate & Mommy (TERRIBLE pic of me BTW)



with some of his classmates





Again with the lip:



And now for my sweet nephew Chase eating mash taters at my mom's house. Garsh I lurv him soooo much!

Last night's convo with Nate ---->

Nate: Mommy, can you live if you cut your foot off?

Me: Um, yeah, why?
Nate: What about your arm or your leg?
Me: Yep, there are people who are alive with NO arms OR legs.
Nate : But you can't live without your head right?
Me: Nope, I think you would probably have to go live with Jesus if you lost your head.
Nate: Yeah, cause how would you eat?

She's eight and she loves to ice skate...

What an awesome birthday party for my sweet girl this weekend. The cake was fabulous and made the whole table stand out. Jenna was in heaven with her friends and family surrounding her. And who knew she was so awesome at ice skating? Doing turns, learning to skate backwards and absolutely NO FEAR!

We, of course, had a Twilight-themed party, and although I could not find ANY Twilight party supplies (EVERYWHERE is sold out of them), we were able to do a black, red and white theme (to match the new movie Eclipse colors) and I hired a cake artist to make a truly marvelous centerpiece. And it tasted as good as it looked. Red Velvet layer with pecan filling and buttercream frosting, as well as a strawberry layer with real strawberry filling. OH EM GEE... delicious!! (If you want the cake lady's info, just email me, as I'd be happy to share it. She was awesome!).

Thanks to everyone that came and helped celebrate my girl's eighth year in our lives. She is truly a blessing to me.

Things I love about Jenna:

• Beautiful Hazel Eyes
• Quick Wit
• Sensitive Nature
• Love for animals
• Passion for knowledge and education
• Grasp of historical facts and desire to learn more
• Graceful and Athletic
• She wants to be just like her Mommy
• Creativity and Artistic Abilities
• Love of Music
• Hugs & Kisses
• Inside Jokes
• Mature and Mindful
• Protective of her little brother
• Always wants everyone around her to be happy

Enjoy this slideshow from her party.

A convo with Nate

So we are sitting at the reception, after enjoying the beautiful (although a tad bit chilly) outdoor wedding of our favorite babysitter, Amanda. She has been the kids' babysitter since they were too old to make complete sentences. She is truly an important part of our family. Miss Duh'manda is what Jenna use to call her.

At the reception, after raiding the fruit tray and having some iced tea, Nate tells me he had to use the restroom. He's a big boy now and wants to go by himself when we are out in public, so I got the light turned on and the door shut, always worried about letting him have so much independence, but knowing I should.

I sat back down to enjoy my raspberry tea and chat with Jenna about how pretty Amanda was, one eye on the bathroom door. I get up and get some more fruit (bathroom door is still shut). I check my cell phone for messages. I send a text message to Rod telling him how much we missed him. Look back at the closed bathroom door. Nothing. 15 minutes later and Nate is STILL in the bathroom.

Getting a bit worried (okay a LOT worried), I go and knock on the door and ask if he's okay. "YES MOM!" he says in an exasperated tone. Sheesh. I am already THAT mom. You know, the one that always makes you feel like your mom is never going to let you grow up. Yep. He said it in that tone. He's FIVE. Come on now Nate, cut your mom some slack here. You are still my baby, dangit!

So he finally emerges and says "MOMMY! that was the BIGGEST bathroom I've ever seen! It's bigger than my bedroom." I peek in to check and say "yes, that is quite a large restroom Nate, but hardly as big as the bedroom at home," followed by a chuckle. "Come on and let's go get some more fruit."

We get back to our table and sit down and I ask him "so do you like the wedding Nate?" And he says yes. Then he says something that had me laughing the next day when I thought about it. "Mommy my wedding is going to be even better than this!"... amused, I asked him how so?

"Mine is going to have a bathroom that you have to walk down a LOOOOONG hall to get to!"

LOL.

Well, there ya have it folks. The key to knowing if you are at a big fancy wedding: if the bathroom is impressive enough for my little Nate. I guess if you spend as much time in there as he does to do his business, then it makes sense that it's the most important addition to any traditional wedding.

tee hee.

Snow Day

In Texas, we don't get to claim a "snow day" very often. Okay, sometime we get an "ice day" or two, but snow is kinda foreign for us. So much so, that you will often hear people refer to ice as "snow". I grew up for a bit in Oregon, so I certainly know the difference.

So you can imagine my joy and surprise when we got the actual white fluffy goodness that can be considered SNOW and be rolled up into balls that are thrown and mounds that make "snowmen". I admit it... I was a kid again and enjoyed every minute.

Of course, we had the BEST snowman on the block, because he was a REAL TEXAS COWBOY. (thanks to my mom's cowboy hat) --- the kids laughed and played til their lips were blue and teeth were chattering. Heck, not sure who had more fun... me, the kids or MY mom! Some people never really grow up... especially when you are making mouths out of raisins.

However, I must admit, I was a bit annoyed when the weather wreaked havoc on my Valentine's weekend plans... the airlines shut down for over 24 hours and after hours on the phone with airlines, and a couple re-bookings... we were able to salvage our romantic weekend, even if it was a delayed start for a day or so. The important thing was we were together and appreciated the time we had.

The weekend was exciting, with its fair share of tragedy (not just the delayed flights). It included a VERY fantastic Miranda Lambert concert (the kids first concert ever... and they did great. Even if Nate slept through part of it, ha), a couple movies, some yummy food, and unfortunately the goodbye of my precious Nikon D90 (along with my favorite red Coach purse, Chanel sunglasses and some other personal things) when my purse was taken... but we salvaged the weekend with some ice skating at the Galleria before it was time to say "goodbye" to Papa and send him back to our other home to spend some time with our other favorite guy.

All in all... it was a fun and memorable weekend. Snow, fun, laughs, love and best of all, FAMILY. I am truly blessed.