Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was pretty laid back. Jimmy bought me a gift a few weeks before the actual day because, well, I needed a new phone. He got me the Evo from Sprint. I like it, I don't love it (it's just too much phone for me and I am still trying to figure it all out) but I love that he got me what I wanted!! Just like always.

That morning he got up and fixed me breakfast. Bacon, eggs and biscuits, yum! And they gave me my Mother's Day cards. So sweet!


After breakfast we started getting ready for church, I was determined to get to church on time this particular Sunday, however, I wanted to try and get a nice sweet picture of Mother and son before church. I guess it was asking too much. He had other ideas like...
Being a wiggle worm


And searching my purse


Of course a good thorough purse search makes anyone thirsty


And then there was the all out "I don't want my picture made with my MOM on HER day" fit throwing




Relocating the ice chest and then I'll be right with you on that Mother's Day picture


My last ditch effort before actually leaving for church worked out about as well as expected


At least we made it to church on time. I got these two after church, after several more tries.



We spent the afternoon doing laundry and watching tv until it was time to get ready for Mother's Day dinner. We went to a place called Cru in the Domain. It was fun to try a new place and have a nice dinner out with the family. Of course I forgot my camera so these pictures were taken with the cell phone.



And some of us still did not want a nice picture with their Mother!






I did get this one... not that it's great but it's the best one from dinner!


Dinner was really good. We had cheese fondu for our appetizer, shared a chicken entree and tried to have the chocolate cake for dessert but they were out so we had chocolate fondue instead. Mac had macaroni and cheese. Of course, what dinner with a 17 month old could be uneventful? None. Scroll up and check out the necklace I am wearing... yeah I know. When I put it on I thought better of it but No, I thought, I will be careful and not let any little hands get a hold of it. Right. In between the appetizer and entree portion of the evening we, and almost every other table in the restaurant (not kidding) played a little game of who can find the most beads. I think the table directly behind us won. Now the beads live here...


What's even better is the table to our right, two Mom's, just laughed while we gathered and then said "We're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you (because I really was laughing, not much else to do at that point) we know exactly what that feels like. We have six kids between us and that's why we are here together, spending Mother's Day without our families. HAHA! Nice.

On our way to the truck I had to try just one more time for my Mother's Day picture...

Love it!

And Dad got one last one too... look how handsome these two guys are!


Yep. Happy Mother's Day to ME!

Easter Weekend 2011: Grill'n and Chill'n

Saturday after the big egg hunt and the big nap that followed we loaded up and headed over to my brother's house for some hamburgers and volleyball. We did a little egg hunt for Neeley and Mac and we had two more kids there to participate. They had a ton of fun running around picking up the eggs. The little girl opened all her eggs, put the candy in the basket and disgarded the plastic eggs. It was too funny!



Then it was time to eat. The food and company were great! It was my Mom's side of the family, my Dad's Mom, Mama, and my brothers girl friend Kelsy and the Hefners. We were treating this get together as our Easter visit and meal since we were going to have to rush off on Sunday after church.

Mac really likes cheeto puffs, apparently.


And who doesn't love Mama's Easter cupcakes, only made once a year. I made it back to Austin with a dozen and had some super happy breakfast moments the week after Easter. You know my motto "If it's cake and you have coffee... you have coffee cake and that makes it breakfast" (TradeMark that I'm put'n it on a shirt.. ha!) Anyway, Mac is now in the Mama Easter Cupcake Fan Club.

"Ok, let's see what all the hype is about..."


"WHOA."


"Dang these are good!"


"Gonna need another one right here, 'nother cupcake. Thanks"


After we ate and were ridiculously full the obvious thing to do was to play volleyball. Jimmy and I, Randall and Kelsy, Jacob and Tamara, Lydia and Jacob's son played 3 games. We finished the last game in the dark! So much fun :)

Earlier while we were there the Easter Bunny was spotted in Randall's yard. Getting ready for his big night of leaving baskets for all this kiddos...


The next morning Mac got to dig into his Easter basket! He basically just threw everything out of it but he was having fun so who are we to stop it... until he started throwing the toy car filled egg at Sandi the dog. (It was still funny though)





After church we were in a hurry. We wanted to get on the road back to Austin since we knew traffic would be terrible. Even on non-holiday weekends when we visit we head back before church to miss traffic. My Aunt Sheryl had fixed Easter dinner so we ran by there on our way out and ate. It made us so late getting back but the food was so good it was worth it.

Especially her Strawberry Cake... I now have the recipe.


Even when you are in a rush there's always time for pictures! :)





I don't remember why but Mac got in trouble at dinner...



And just because I have it... here is a picture of my cousin Christopher. I thought there was one of us together but my Mom must have it.


We got on the road back to Austin around 2:30 that afternoon and I don't remember when we got back to the house. I have blocked it out. Traffic was awful, so much so that by the time we got to Temple, Texas which is only an hour away from Austin we gave up and decided to have supper at Texas Roadhouse. We thought that would let the traffic clear a little and it would get Mac out of the car, a place he had decided he did not want to be long before we pulled off the interstate.

He was fast asleep by the time we pulled into the driveway and I don't think he ever woke up while I changed his diaper and put his pjs on. This kid was exhausted from a long drive and a fantastic weekend.


The next morning I made him pose for a picture with his new Easter buddies. And yes, that is a Valentine bear. My Aunt was running a little late in getting it to him but as I always say you should love the one's you love all year, not just on Valentine's Day. :)

(Blue Bunny not pictured, I guess he had a conflict.)

Easter Weekend 2011: The Photo Op and The Hunt

Saturday was the day of the Big Hunt but we had planned a little photo op for Mac that morning. My Mom wanted to get some pictures of Mac on the train tracks (the old no longer in use tracks) in train conductor overalls like my Papaw used to wear. My Papaw also had a conductors hat that we borrowed for the shoot, he did not drive trains it's starting to sound like he did and maybe he should have since he apparently had the uniform, I digress.

We went to town early Saturday morning, in a rush since Pearl's Easter Lunch was going to start at noon, to get pictures. Mom had found my old suitcase so we handed that to Mac, slapped on Papaw's hat and let him loose.




He was such a good sport. But I think that is because we just let him walk around. We didn't direct him at all and Mom just snapped away.



Here is one in color so you can see his outfit. So cute!


But even good sports get tired and want to leave...


We packed up, headed to the house for the eggs and the food we were taking to Pearl's and then went to the HUNT!! Everyone ate lunch and talked for a while and then it was time! Time to hunt eggs!!

Now I have said that this is a big deal and here is were you start really getting a feel for it. The total number of plastic eggs to be hidden was over 4,000. Close your mouth, I'm not kidding. 4,000. Pearl's house was covered in baskets full of eggs. Here is her front porch.



This picture is of her front yard, it's huge. Larger than this picture really conveys but I think you can understand that there was a lot of ground to cover up with 4,000 eggs. The adults grabbed baskets and started sprinkling the eggs from the front porch down to the tree line you see in the picture. The yard was divided into sections by age group and the eggs and toys were scattered in the appropriate section.


The entire yard looked like this little section... You had to watch your step or you would crunch an egg, a toy or both!


It was finally time! We started to line up, everyone in their age group. We were in the front part of the yard by the porch (which I already knew was our section because of my experienced Pearl Egg Hunt past).




TIME TO HUNT!



Find a bunny, chew a bunny...





Notice the candy falling out of the egg... That was his technique for the entire hunt. Pick up the egg. Open the egg. Dump the candy and change. Throw down the egg. Jimmy and I were behind him picking everything up! ha!


After he found the play-dough he was done. It took a lot of encouraging to get him to continue picking up eggs!


He did a great job and filled up two small baskets with eggs. We had his little Easter basket and Mom ended up going and borrowing one from Pearl because we ran out of room! And no, we did not get a picture of his first Easter Hunt haul... geez. But we did learn that even when you are in a hurry take the time to change your child out of his photo session non-summer egg hunting clothes into his summery shorts outfit perfect for hunting eggs because this child was burning up. I felt sooo bad!

After everyone finshed up hunting Mac was chatting with Rhonda. Apparently you can never have too many eggs or easter candy since she was steadily filling his pockets from her Easter sack!




By then it was mid-afternoon and Mac was tired, it was about two hours passed his normal naptime. We said our goodbyes and made our way home...but not before we got some pictures with Pearl!



Little man was out and still holding his favorite find of the day... the play dough.


After his nap we were off to my Randall's house to grill burgers.

To be continued...

Ps. What egg hunt would dare be an egg hunt this day and age without a bounce house. At one point Mac took off, headed straight for it while carrying a plastic sword he found on the ground at lunch. He is certainly king of this bounce house castle!






Oh and there's a train too...