So Much Stuff...

There is a ton to catch up on the ol' blog! A couple vital to blogging keys on the computer keyboard died and it took me a long time to get a new one.  So I FINALLY got a new one and HERE WE GO!

MAY OH MY!!

 Cute friends celebrating the "Kelli/y's" birthdays! Good fun!

Mother's Day-love my homemade cards and Ethan serenading me with a couple songs on the recorder.

 Inside this cute wrapping paper was a cook book that their teacher put together, she asked each kid to share their favorite recipe of their moms, they did it from memory and it is hysterical! Abby's was Chocolate Chip Cookies, complete with "white powder" and everything. SO cute!

Abby had her dance recital and I had my birthday all about the same time, and my family came to town for both! 

 So proud of Abby! She's a great little dancer and really loves it!

 My sisters and I with our matchy orange shirts and green purses, we promise we didn't coordinate this.

 Fun with Aunt Kristi making chocolate chip cookies.

 Pretty cake but let's not talk about the number on it. :(

Cute paintings from my kids! I love them!

While my Mom was in town we decided to hit Waco, since we're Fixer Upper fanatics! Maybe more than fanatics, maybe slightly obsessed, OK, maybe more than slightly obsessed.
Let just say we LOVE Fixer Upper and Chip and Jo.

 This isn't Waco, it's a cool tiny town somewhere in Texas, can't remember the name of it but I thought the old buildings are so neat!

  Ah, Texas!!

  The Alico building is the first high rise west of the Mississippi, at least that's what I heard.

 The silos that Chip and Jo are re-doing to make in to a shop and some other stuff..I spied them when we were driving through town so we pulled over and snapped a couple photos.

 I do believe this is where the new Magnolia Market shop is located.. See? I told you we are obsessed.

 The best part is, we're going to their Grand Opening party at the end of October! We're so excited to see how they look now!

  Waco is pretty cool, it's basically on a lake and the Brazos river, this place is called Manny's on the River. Pretty good Mexican food and fun to sit outside by the river enjoying dinner.

 Lots of cool bridges...

 We went to Spice Village, lots of boutique style shops and fun decorations etc.

 We also went to the Waco Mammoth Site, who knew there were mammoths in Waco? Really interesting stuff.

 And! Finally the Magnolia Market! It was so exciting to be there and it was pretty crowded and tiny but pretty cool to see it!

  Just one corner of Magnolia Market, so cute! We also hit an antique store called Junque in the Trunk. Cool stuff!

Waco was fun! And so excited to go back for the big party at the end of the month!

Alex and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on May 25th. We had hydrangeas at our wedding, they're my favorite! And loved that Alex surprised me with these on our anniversary! I have a thoughtful husband.

End of School Awards and Kindergarten program, cute kiddos!

 Proud of my good little students and their hard work in getting those awards!

 Ethan's awards!

JUNE!!!

Once we got the school nonsense done ;) we decided to hit the beach! 

During Tropical Storm Bill we were supposed to be having Cub Scout Day Camp, the 1st day got cancelled and the 2nd day was a half day. Somehow I "got to" help with planning the Bear activities. It was hard, and stressful since we had to rearrange the entire schedule because of the storm. Then the 1st full day we had, we had to stop everything and wait 30-45 minutes because of lightning nearby. When you have things and people tightly scheduled it's a huge pain when weather delays occur. But we made it through and all survived. Ethan had fun and Abby got to go to sibling day camp too, she had fun too. I definitely will remember that experience and will ALWAYS go out of my way to appreciate cub scout leaders and will try to be understanding and patient when things don't always go smoothly, and  remember they volunteered their time and effort in making cub scouts fun! Because now I know what it's like when people don't do that. Ha! 

Happy Father's Day, Alex! We love you!

We celebrated Alex's birthday and hit the road for our ultimate road trip to UTAH, (for my extended vacation)!

We left in late June/early July so we could be in Utah for the 4th. I love Utah on the 4th. I have so many fond memories from my childhood of the fun and family things to do and wanted to share in some of those experiences with my kids. Plus I love summering in Utah, it's awesome!
We stopped in Wichita Falls, TX at a park for lunch, then we stopped in Amarillo for dinner then we hit Albuquerque! We stayed overnight in Albuquerque and hit the Old Town in the morning. That was neato and full of fun touristy shops but I love the architecture of the some of the older buildings. Abby said she hates New Mexico, "because they don't have Chick Fil A" which we think they do we just didn't see any...

We decided to head up to Farmington, NM and hit 4 Corners..It was hot and there was a huge long line to get this picture. So I made Alex sit in line while the kids and I wandered around looking at the Native's handmade goods for sale.

 Then we made it to UTAH! YAY!

 Southern Utah is so cool with it's crazy topography and red rock! So pretty!

You know you're in Moab, UT. when you see a giant lizard on the side of the mountain.

 We got out at a rest stop and played for a minute, the kids loved it and had so much fun!

 I'm pretty sure Alex loved it too!

 We stopped for dinner in Moab and Ethan told us that, "rock climbing is my life!"
Apparently he loves it!

We finally made it Grammie's about 11PM that night. Let the extended vacation begin!!!