Feeling the Love

Happy Mother's Day! 

I was fortunate enough to be pampered a few days early at both Alex's preschool and Ben's kindergarten class.  We kicked off the day with Muffins with Mommy morning.  Alex and I enjoyed a great breakfast and worked on a craft together.

After several hours of housecleaning (because it doesn't clean itself!  and this stay-at-home mom gig isn't always as glamorous at it looks), I showered and headed to Ben's class for my Mommy Makeover.

This was the most fun I'd had all week!  Ben did my eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, and hair.  He was very meticulous and I thought he did a wonderful job.  Some of the other moms at the table didn't fare so well.

After my face, he directed his attention towards my nails and did pretty well at those, too.

 

One hand got blue, the other got glitter.  All afternoon he kept telling me how pretty my hands looked :)

A well-deserved kiss for his hard work!

The finished product, including a lovely hair clip.

 

Even better were the gifts they brought home after school!  Ben had made a bookmark for me.  (click to enlarge and read)  Just to clarify - I'm not afraid of bats but he is currently terrified of them.

And Alex brought home our finished art project complete with a picture from our morning together.  What a treat!

A Decade Together

On May 4, 2002, I married my best friend and started a journey that I never could have imagined!  I've now spent 30% of my life as half of a married couple.  When I met this guy at Hurricane Harry's in College Station, Texas, I never had any idea that together we would travel and live around the world (and ironically, my parents were excited I met a guy from the Houston area because we'd probably never move too far away...ha!) and weather life's ups and downs together.  I definitely never thought we would create two little amazing people together, but that has without a doubt been our greatest adventure.  I could not have guessed we would have 6 different homes already, lived in 3 countries, visited 13 states and 19 countries. I thank the Lord for 10 amazing years together and I look forward to all that He has planned for our future, good and bad, because I know together Matt and I can do anything!

Here's a look back at our years together so far....and I realized we don't have a ton of pictures of just the two of us together.  We don't seem to take pictures of ourselves unless we're traveling!

Our first picture at the Dixie Chicken in September 1999

 
Ring Dance, April 2000

One of my last weekends in College Station before graduation

 

 My graduation, May 2000

 

 Matt's graduation, December 2000

 

Our official engagement picture, November 2001

 

Married!  What a magical, perfect night.  Even the rain shower that happened at 7pm, because fortunately the pastor was late and the ceremony hadn't started yet.

On our honeymoon in Antigua

 

 Another friend's wedding, 2003

 

Haleakala crater, Maui, 2003

Aruba, 2004

 

Rio de Janeiro, September 2005.  We didn't know at the time but it would be our last fling as a couple...soon after there was a bun in the oven!

 

 We became parents in May, 2006!  Since we weren't planning on meeting Ben until September, it was a terrifying ordeal but turned out to be an incredible blessing.  Truly our biggest challenge ever and we got through day by day, step by step, together.

In 2007, we moved to Singapore with Ben and started exploring Southeast Asia.  Phuket was our first stop.

In 2008, we were blessed again and this time under much better circumstances.  Alex rounded out our little family of four.

 

 November 2008, a pretty unforgettable trip to Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

 December 2009, Milford Sound, New Zealand

 April 2010, Sydney

 October 2011, London

 I love looking back over the pictures to see how much we've changed and to think of the countless happy memories we've made together.  Many of those memories don't have pictures, but I cherish those just as much - laughing together, playing games, seeing our kids grow and pick up some of our habits, even watching TV together on the couch.  Life is so wonderful when it's shared with the one you love.

Happy anniversary, Matt!  Here's to many, many more...

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.
-Mark Twain

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

We got together with the Kirkhams last weekend to celebrate Grandma's birthday and everyone enjoyed a nice dinner together.  

 

 

I think everyone enjoyed Lupe's sombrero as well!

 

 

When Alex started to get wiggly at the table, I gave him my camera and he snapped pictures of everyone.  We may need to work on his angles and keeping his hand still (and maybe alerting people to the fact he's taking pictures!) but overall I thought he did pretty well for a 3-year old.

Grandma

 

 

Aunt Amanda and Ben

 Amanda's friend Martin

Daddy

Mama (uh, NOT my best picture!)

And Grandpa's shirt

 Had to squeeze a self-portrait in there as well.

 We love being able to share special occasions with our families again.  After four years away we sure appreciate things like that now, especially since our kids are big enough to behave through (most of) an entire meal now.  Life is good.

Camera Hog

Alex's infatuation lately has been having his picture taken and taking pictures himself.  It started at the park one sunny day last week when I wanted a picture of him in his new shades.

The poses kept on coming, so I kept on taking pictures.

It went on for a while...

I'll spare you the other 40, but trust me, each one was unique and worth viewing a few dozen times by the model.

I took a few cute ones at the splash pad which was recently turned back on and we've had weather warm enough to enjoy it!

 
 I love that sweet baby gut...don't know how much longer it will be around because Alex is growing up and slimming down as well.

In the car, it was back to business and the priority of capturing this sweet face for posterity.  I introduced him to the self-portrait mode on my phone.

 He even figured out how to get his picture with Mickey from one of the apps.  Kids and technology amaze me.

At the bus stop the next day he needed some help getting a picture of his gum. Naturally, that turned into another photo shoot of 50 pictures.

Alex took the phone over again and got plenty of other interesting shots, mostly of bricks and grass and his knees, but a few interesting ones in the mix, too.

At Ben's t-ball game I was hoping to just get a shot of the blue mouth of my sweet snow cone lover, but we couldn't stop at one.

No more photographs, please.

The beauty of this addiction is that he spends a ton of time on my phone looking through all 800 pictures, most of which appeared in the last week.  I guess it's time to give the camera to Ben and see if he can do better!