Fourth of July Fun

We have had a lot going on in the last few weeks. I am behind as always in posting. I will first start out with the 4th of July. We went to Chad's parents' house for a cook out. This is the best family picture that we got. Mitchell is the only one looking at the camera, for once.
I wanted to get a picture of him waving the flag, but this is what I got.

Mitchell had a fun time on his horse. Mamaw and Papa have all kinds of toys for him.

We celebrated my birthday on the 4th. My birthday is really on the 5th but since we were having a family get together we just celebrated it early. Also we were going to Texas on my birthday. My mom made me a chocolate sheet cake. It was so yummy!

We all went and sat on the porch because the temperature had gone down so much. It was really nice outside, but then it started raining. Papa was letting Mitchell feel the rain. We were not planning on going to see fireworks, but some of them had to cancel because of the rain. Instead we came home, and Mitchell was so tired that he went to bed. Then we heard people around us doing their own fireworks. Chad and I went on our patio for a little while and saw a few.

Mitchell also got to "ride" on the tractor with Uncle Todd.

First Family Vacation

We finally took our first family vacation. I have taken Mitchell to see family in St. Louis twice but Chad has not been with us. We did not really do anything major exciting, but it was a chance for us to get away. You can see that Mitchell was ready to go and wanted to help pack.
Mitchell is ready for a road trip to Texas in his big boy car seat. We left on Sunday, July 5th and came back on Tuesday. We went to Allen, TX. It was about a three hour drive. Mitchell did really well in the car. He slept most of the time. I think that if the trip would have been any longer, he probably would not have been able to handle it.

Since it was my birthday we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We have one in OKC, but I have only been to it a few times. And I thought that cheesecake sounded good for my birthday. This is what Mitchell did during my birthday dinner. We got to Allen around 2:30 pm. We unpacked a little in the hotel and let Mitchell play, and then we did a little shopping at the Allen Outlet Mall. Chad took Mitchell back to the hotel after a while so that he could take a nap. I guess because it was a new environment he did not want to take a nap. So, by the time we went out to dinner, he was out. We just put him on the bench next to us and he just slept. He missed out on some good food.

They did not give me a free cheesecake, but they did decorate the plate and give me a candle. I also got out of them singing to me because I had a sleeping baby. :) I got the lemon raspberry cheesecake. Usually I am a chocolate person, but this just sounded good to me.

It was very good!

We learned how to make do in a hotel with a baby. We asked for a high chair, and I put it up to the desk in the room so that Mitchell could eat some of his meals. Mitchell loved crawling around and getting into things in the hotel. I know it was probably not as sanitary as I would have liked, but you just have to let go sometimes.

The hotel had a pool and we went swimming both nights that we were there.

We mainly did a lot of shopping, but we did go into Dallas on Tuesday. We went to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was really a neat place. They have all kinds of animals. I was excited about this place because it was in doors. The zoo was not appealing to me in the 100 degree weather. I was not sure how much Mitchell would react, but he seemed to enjoy the animals.

If you look closely to the right of Mitchell there is a bird. They just had birds flying all around the place. I did not get a picture of it, but Mitchell was watching a sea lion swimming, and it came right up to the glass next to him. Mitchell jumped he was so frightened by it. He did not cry. I think he was in shock.

It was pretty inside with all of the plants and the waterfall. I am glad that we got to do this. It gives me hope that we can do more family vacations.

Happy Anniversary

Chad and I had our 5th anniversary on Saturday, June 26th. It is hard to believe that it has been 5 years and really hard to believe that we have been together for 7 years. I have the best husband in the world. He is also a great daddy. He does so well with Mitchell. For our anniversary we decided to go downtown to watch a movie and eat dinner. I told Chad a few months back that I thought that we could leave Mitchell with my mom overnight. This was a big step for me because I have never been away from him overnight. Chad has been away from him when we have taken our trips to St. Louis. At first Chad did not think that I meant it, but I really thought that it was time to give it a try. So, last night my mom came over to our house and spent the night. We were only a short 20-30 minutes away in case we had to come home. We spent the night at the Renaissance Hotel. It is a very nice place. From our room we had a good view of the downtown area. First we went to a movie and saw "The Proposal." It is a very good movie. I would recommend it. It is especially a good chick flick. Then we went to Mickey Mantel's to eat dinner. After that we walked around Bricktown. The Harley Davidson's Motorcycle group happened to be in town. There were motorcycles all over the place. They also had some kind of parade on Saturday. We looked out our hotel window and could see miles of motorcycles. I didn't mind it until we were in our hotel room and I could hear them late at night reeving their engines. But overall we had a really good time. Also I wanted to stop and get dessert somewhere. By this time it was 10:00 pm and most places were closing. Marble Slab had a line out the door, so we decided not to wait. We ended up at Spaghetti Warehouse and had the 12 layer chocolate cake. It was yummy! I did not take any pictures. I wish I had my camera with me. Mitchell did great with my mom. He slept all night long and got her up around 7:30 am. I think he was comfortable being in his own house and sleeping in his own bed. Thank you mom for watching him. I know he had a great time. Happy Anniversary Chad. I love you!

Busy Week

This last week was crazy busy for me. First it was VBS at my church. I helped with the first graders. Brooklyn and I had a good time taking them to their different stations, and then we did the closing at the end. We ended up only doing the closing 3 out of the 5 days. It was kind of nice to not be stressed out about planning every thing. Also we only had seven kids in our group. There were two other classes of first graders, and they had more in their classes. The kids had us cracking up all the time. It is just fun to hear the things that they say. We had two girls in our class that got to be good buddies. They did not know each other before VBS. One day I heard one of them say to the other, "We have so much in common. " Then in one of our Bible Study sessions the teacher asked the kids if they had a best friend. These two girls raised their hands. The teacher called on one of them and asked who her best friend was. She then said the other girl's name. Then the teacher asked how long they had been best friends. The girl then answered, "Three days!" It was so cute! Then on Saturday was my best friend's wedding. And we have know each other for more than three days. Actually I think it has been over twenty years. We met in second grade and then started really doing things together in fourth grade. We have been friends ever since. On Thursday night we had a girl's night. We went to the Melting Pot. It is a fondue restaurant. The plan was to just get dessert. That is the best part anyways. Then when we got there a lot of the girls had not eaten dinner, so they decided to get the cheese fondue and salad. Here is the Bride, Brenda, with her tierra on.
Here you can see them with the cheese. I did not get a picture of the chocolate, but it was so good. They give you all kinds of things to dip into it. We had marshmallows, brownies, rice crispy treats, strawberries, cheese cake, and so many more things. Yummy!!!!

Here is Brenda after she got into her dress. She looks so tiny in it. It had beading all over it and was very pretty on her.

I love this picture. I think it is because she has a huge smile on her face.

Mitchell came to the wedding and lets just say he did let out some noises during the ceremony. My mom and mother-in-law had him in the back and tried to entertain him. Chad was also in the wedding. One of the groomsmen was not able to come, so Chad was able to step in and help out. He was going to be an usher until he got the upgrade. :)

Here are my boys. Aren't they cute?

This is not the best picture but you can see the bridesmaids with the bride.

Here we are at the reception. Not the best picture of me, but it will do. I am so happy for Brenda. This last year has been really rough for her. I hope things will get better and she has a wonderful marriage to Brandon. I am also so jealous of her two week honeymoon cruise. :)

I think this is a cute picture of us, but Chad kind of has red lips. And no it is not because I kissed him, it is from the red punch. How funny!!

Park Playdate

On Friday Mitchell got to meet some of his friends at the park. It was so much fun. Some of the girls in my Sunday School class have babies close to Mitchell's age. We try to get together at least once a month. Last month we were going to go to the park, but it got rained out. Then Mitchell got sick, so we did not get to go at all. I wanted to try the park again, and this time the weather was beautiful. It was a little warm, but we met in the morning. Then in the shade it was just perfect. Here is the line up in the picture from left to right.....Wesley, Mitchell, Averi, Amelia, and Lucas(he is a boy that Amanda babysits). You can click on the picture to see it up close. It is a good looking bunch of kiddos. Wesley is around a month younger than Mitchell. Then Amelia is almost 9 months and Averi is almost 8 months. I hope I got that right.
Mitchell got to swing with his buddy, Wesley. We are going to miss him when he moves in a few weeks. Most of my friends have girls. So, it is fun to have Wesley around.

Mitchell did really well to stay on the blanket and play with his toys. Of course, he wanted the other's toys too. Then when the other mommies brought out the Puffs, he was right there waiting for a hand out.

He really liked Wesley's blocks. Excuse his hair. He really needs to get another hair cut. His hair grows so fast.

Amelia is also checking out the block.

Cute little Amelia without her hat! I am so thankful to have friends.

Daddy's Helper

A few weeks ago we got Mitchell a toy box. It is amazing to see how much "stuff" he has accumulated in just a year. We found this toy box at Target. It is white and matches the other furniture in his room. We also have a toy basket for him in the living room. I have decided that I am going to put some toys in the basket for him to play with and the rest in his toy box. Then I am going to switch them around every week or so. That way he won't get bored playing with the same toys, and I don't have such a mess in the living room. When we got the pieces out of the box, Mitchell wanted to be a big helper. We got out his toy hammer so he could "help."
He loved being in the middle of everything.


I think this is so cute. It looks like he is really studying the directions.

Here is the finished product. It has a few toys on the top too.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2008

Mother's Day 2009

Oh, how things have changed in a year. Last year at mother's day I had about a two week old baby. I was not expecting to be a mother on mother's day. But my little guy decided that he was going to come five weeks early. This year was less stressful. We had a good time at my in-law's house. Chad was very sweet to buy me flowers for my flower bed, and then he planted them for me yesterday. He also got me a purple orchid. I hope I can keep it alive. I will have to take pictures of my flowers and post them soon.

This is our silly picture. Mitchell has started making this scrunched up nose face. It is hilarious. Everyone had a good laugh at it.

This was one of Mitchell's highlights of the day. He loved bouncing in this toy.

His other highlight, whip cream!

Happy Mother's Day!