tap/ballet dress rehearsal

today was lauren's first dance recital rehearsal. the girls looked so cute all dressed up in their pretty costumes. i was glad we came because i got to see how some of the mom's put on their ballerina's makeup and the hairdos. omg...the hairdos! some of these mom's are just over the top! lauren insisted the whole way home that we do her hair all "twisty"...like some of the other ballerinas! hopefully my curling iron still works. i haven't used that thing in years!

here she is waiting for her group to practice their routine

the girls all lined up

practicing their tap routine. lauren sure is a sassy little girl!

and their ballet routine.

we are looking forward to lauren's recital tomorrow evening. this time i'm making sure my camera battery is charged and that i get pictures of her before the show instead of after!

mommy in training

this morning lauren insisted that she feed brandon his breakfast. i set her up on the rocking chair and had her hold him while i prepared his bottle. she talked so sweet to him..."mama is making you a ba-ba sweet baby boy!" right before i finished making the bottle, i snapped a quick picture of the two of them. dude, he's huge! the similac early shield has fed him quite well!

she actually did really well feeding him. she almost fed him the whole bottle before she got bored and wanted to run off and play! it was nice knowing i could ask her for help if i needed some!

here are some pictures of my little mommy in training:

i love how brandon has grabbed on to her arm

so sweet!

and just as i started walking away, she leaned down and kissed his arm. totally melted my heart!

happy 7th birthday jared!!!

russell roo roo stopped over today to bring jared a little something for his 7th birthday. unfortunately jared wasn't home from school yet to see him and open his gift. brandon was though! and he loved seeing his great grandpa!

seriously, is jared really 7 years old? i wish digital would have been affordable to me back when i gave birth to him. i would love to post pictures of what his first hours/days looked like. it's probably a good thing though. he had a rough start too. and thank goodness we were able to have him under the care of the physicians and nurses at texas children's hospital. i remember sitting in the nicu with him...scared and clueless about what was changing in our lives. here i was responsible for another human being. what on earth was God thinking?!?! i could barely take care of myself. but i weathered the storms. i knew deep down inside that God was bigger than them and He would get me through them.

jared has always been a pretty gentle and old spirit. there is just something about him that draws you to him. he definitely knows how to butter his bread. he's got something. he amazes me with his will and desire to succeed. i've never met a kid that thinks doing math problems for three hours on a saturday is fun!!! he is a sweet big brother to lauren and brandon. i have no doubt that he will always watch over them and protect them. he's a great helper around the house. he even likes to help me change brandon! i just love this kid!!! and i still look at him in amazement and think, "OH MY GOSH! this child is mine!!!" and i'm so very, very thankful that an amazing man threatened his friendship with me. because had he not, some other family would be experiencing all of this with him instead of me.

enough sappyness! on to the SEVEN year old's birthday celebration!

grammy carol, aunt susan, and jake came with us to see monsters vs aliens in 3d! the movie was really cool! it was my first ever time to see a movie in 3d. the boys loved their cool glasses. lauren...not so much! even brandon got into the movie!

getting ready to go into the movie

the gang in front of the movie poster

cheesy grins in front of the poster

my birthday boy!!! i love this picture! those glasses are hysterical!

after the movie, we went to texas land & cattle for jared's birthday dinner. grammy, harold, and aunt dani ended up meeting us there too. jared was so excited to have his birthday dinner there! even more excited when he got to open up his presents! he got a lot of fun star wars themed gifts, including a new mace windu light saber, star wars books and movies, star wars and transformers pajamas, and a darth vader transformer action figure.

we can't believe we have a 7-year old. he's truly a delight. i hope the next 7 years don't go as fast, although i have a sneaking suspicion that they will.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!

here are pictures of all the partygoers!

brandon, mom, harold and jared

lauren, jared, aunt dani, and jacob

and mommy with her birthday boy!

mother's day

today was a really special day for us. brandon went up in front of the entire church and got dedicated. he received this really precious white bible with his name engraved on it. my mom and harold, taylor, danielle and jacob, carol and karl, and susan came to see the special occasion.

we ran into dr. deloach on the way into church. it was so special getting to introduce brandon to him. i will never ever be able to thank dr. deloach enough for his very wise counseling when i was pregnant with jared. he spoke powerful words that have stuck with me to this day. anyway, back to brandon...here is a picture of dr. deloach talking sweet to brandon. brandon was just tickled by him!

after church we went to target to pass time before our mother's day lunch reservations at mccormick & schmick's. we had gotten mom her presents, but i remembered that i wanted to get something for my sister. lauren and i went in and we picked out this really pretty silver necklace. we also got a snack for the kids because they were already starving!

we went to the restaurant and had a nice meal with my mom, harold, danielle, jake, taylor, todd and his girlfriend. i ate crabcakes and they were delicious. james ate something off of their brunch menu and jared ate their chicken fingers (which i tasted and boy were they yum)! mom opened up her presents from us. she loved the little handprint mat that we made. she better have! we spent hours decoupaging those little pieces of tissue paper on there. and getting the handprints and footprints...ay ay ay! she also liked her sign that i found at kirkland's. now i can't remember what it said, but it was so fitting for her relationship with harold.

after lunch we headed home and started prepping for mother's day dinner with james' mom, stepdad, and aunt. jeepers...no down time for this mom today! we had quite the feast. shrimp made two ways, mashed potatoes, salad and bread. carol loved her mother's day present as well. she better have! we spent hours decoupaging those little pieces of tissue paper on there. and getting the handprints and footprints...ay ay ay! yes...i know i just said that above. just repeating for sympathy over here! :)

dinner was a success. the day was a success. well...........where is my mother's day card from james and the kids? who knows! i'm sure i'll be able to use this to get my way at some point in time! now THAT is a mother's day gift for sure!

bye jared...bye rob

jared's the catcher!

jared and rob

just a couple of pictures from today's game. i wasn't really that motivated to get up and run. after my 5K this morning i was exhausted. i got really overheated and just felt blah after getting home.

i just love this little boy that jared is friend's with. they are always asking if they can go over to each other's houses. robin...one day we really need to get a playdate on the calendar! after each game the boys walk out into the parking lot yelling, "BYE JARED!" "BYE ROB!" it's so great seeing jared making friends. it's definitely a reminder of how far he's come!

sprint for life 2009

right before the race

and i'm off!

i did my first 5K today! it was hot, hot, hot out there! mom came with me to take pictures and to cheer me on! since i haven't been working out or running very long...like committed about 2 weeks...i figured i would run around 12 minute miles. who would have thought i would have finished in 32:43?!?!?! i couldn't believe it! i might have finished a little faster had i not puked all over the road at mile 2. but oh well! i did it. i'm so freaking proud of myself!!!

right after crossing the finish line! and cute new earrings to match my tee-shirt! ha ha

cooling down at the finish line!

this race was really important and special to my in-laws. selena's dearest friend kim lost her life to cancer. her family and friends were here to walk in her memory. i felt honored to be included in the team. to all my girls out there......please remember to do self breast exams and visit your doctor regularly for exams. early detection is key.

jared's birthday with grammy & grandpa dallas

grammy and grandpa dallas came to houston today to celebrate jared's 7th birthday! grammy dallas let jared pick the restaurant...even though she knew she'd probably have to sacrifice eating at his favorite restaurant...victor's! insert grandpa dallas' big smile!!! he loves victor's too!

before going to dinner, grammy and grandpa hung out at the house for a little while. grandpa loved on brandon while grammy played games with the big kids. then grandpa snuck in a little nap and grammy loved on brandon. well, it was more like brandon loving on grammy since he couldn't stop sucking on her arm! that was so funny!

unfortunately james could not make it home from work in time to meet us for dinner, but we still had fun without him. grammy and grandpa got jared some of the neatest cars for his birthday. although i'm not sure who was more excited...grandpa or jared. and i'm not sure if jared will even get to play with them first. daddy is going to go nuts over these too!

"thank you grammy and grandpa dallas for my cool cars!"

and grandpa and grammy dallas couldn't exactly bring a lemon cake, so grandpa went and bought one at the store! jared loved that bright yellow lemon cake!

i just love jared's face in this picture! he's such a happy guy!

thank you grammy and grandpa for getting jared's 7th birthday party celebrations off to a great start! we love you!!!

i want another little girl...

i found these cute outfits at carter's this past weekend. while i was at hobby lobby, i spotted this fabric. i was shocked at how well it matched the outfits. i didn't know what i was going to do with the fabric, but i figured i would be able to come up with something.

i spent today i learning how to make burp cloths. i just love how these turned out. my friend ashley that i met at bunco just had a little girl and i wanted to give her something special and handmade. i am so excited for ashley and her precious family. i just hope that they don't fall apart! ha ha.

mother's day luncheon

i was cordially invited by my sweet little princess to attend her mother's day out mother's day luncheon. the kids and the teachers made such a fuss over us. the teachers decorated the classroom so cute. are the handprint flowers on the window adorable?

i just LOVE the handprint placemat.

i love how lauren wrote her name backwards. i asked her why she did that when i know she knows how to write her name correctly, and she said, "the teachers said we could do whatever we wanted." you know...in that sassy tone of voice. wonder where she gets that from. :)

the kids put on a little musical performance for us. they sang the m-o-m-m-y song and another one. i can't remember the name of it, but it was so cute. the kids even had cute little dance moves to go along with them!

brandon was a good little boy throughout the luncheon. you wouldn't have known he was there except for his sister talking to him and his car seat taking up about 12 square feet of the room! he was exhausted after it though! he passed out holding his favorite little friend bowser!

THANK YOU lauren for inviting me to such a special function. you and your friends made me feel so very important. i love you so much and i'm so thankful you're my daughter. it's times like this that remind me of how truly lucky i am to be your mommy! love you to the moon and back baby girl!

birthday book club

jared's school has this really neat birthday book club that we participate in every year. we send $10 and jared gets to go pick out a new book for the library. with that donation, you get include a message to go inside the book. and of course, jared was the first kid in the school to check out the book!

brandon calls beth in pa!

these aren't the greatest pictures. actually they are blown out and blurry, but beth and i got a good chuckle! she had posted on my fb page to call her when i got a chance, so i did. brandon happened to be hanging out with me when i called, so i told him to talk to his auntie beth. she was talking to him and he was talking back! i had to get a picture. he's going to be a talker like his mama!

my final birthday celebration of 2009

my sweet friend and my awesome cake decorator KATIE!!!



katie hooked me up with a sweet birthday cake! katie went out of her way to make this cake special for me. she included the sweetest 3d butterflies and flowers. and sent me home with extras for my scrapbook. now you know that's a good friend!!! it was not only beautiful, but it was tasty!

dinner was at rockfish, and the festivities carried over to our house afterwards. have some fun pictures from the restaurant, but still waiting on stephen m. to email them to me! there are some pictures that were taken of me eating above cake without utensils...but you'll have to come over and look at my scrapbook if you want to see those!

i seriously do not think turning 31 could have been any more special and fun for me. i have truly been blessed by the best family and friends. i look forward to celebrating many more {month long} birthdays!!!

a huge thank you to all of you who made this a wonderful celebration!