The weekend

So we had a pretty full weekend. Brian was out of town for his annual college baseball gathering. He left Friday morning. Sister had a birthday party Friday night. Brother had a football game Saturday morning. They won. I just missed him ringing the celebratory bell after the game (#31). See pic.

Then sister had another birthday party Saturday afternoon.

Sunday morning at 11:00, Brother had a baseball game. Then sister and I headed to the zoo for her final party of the weekend. She got to pet (but she chose not too), a gecko and hissing cockroach. She then got to touch a 15 pound rabbit. She loved that. She answered the zookeepers questions on what nocturnal means. She is freaky smart and I love it!!

Then we ended that party with a quick walk around the zoo. Whew! It was a quick weekend and we missed Daddy, but I think the kids had a good time. Here are the pictures that Brenley and I snapped! They may be a little out of order as I am typing this on mobile phone, so I lose ability to plant pictures where I want!

Brian is 37!!

Whoop whoop, my main squeeze is finally as old as his sugar mama!

While we had to squeeze in football practice tonight, we still managed to make a fun birthday party for Daddy tonight.  After a fish taco dinner, we celebrated with presents and ice cream cake. Then Daddy wanted some pictures taken, so we much obliged.

Love you, Daddy. Hope you had a super day!

Putting the candles in the cake.

Helping Dad blow out the candles

Fake smiler, Brenley

Better

Brenley being tickled

Brenley mad about being tickled.

Ahhh......our family..... Happy Birthday, Brian. Here is to a wonderful 37th year!

Tiny Dancer

These are B's new tap shoes. She is "putting on a show" for us.

Random shots and thoughts

Wanted you all to see the "after" pictures of our tree. We also did some landscaping. Bit more to do, but we cleaned up a lot. I didn't get a shot of the backyard, but we discovered under a mountain of ivy, that we had another brick retaining wall. We had no idea. We just thought it was a cement wall with a lot of ivy growing over it.  Geez, we are bright.

Between landscaping, football games, baseball games, travel, and just getting ready for Fall, we really haven't done much in-between. Mom and Dad came up on Saturday to watch Beau play football and it was SO COLD, windy and rainy.  It was ridiculous. But Brenley did manage to snap a few pictures of them before the game,  and I think she did a pretty good job. 

Pa Pa

This is so cute!

Don't ask why we are just sitting at the bottom of the staircase, that is just where we ended up. And here is a three generational picture of us also. I like how this turned out.

And today is Daddy's birthday!  Happy Birthday, Brian!  We had donuts to kick off the day. Tonight will just be football practice for Beau, followed by cake. But we'll celebrate with a nice dinner tomorrow night. We love you, old man! Hopefully Brenley can snap some pictures of Dad today to mark his 37th year!

Lightening Strike

We had a storm come through about 9:00PM Tuesday night.  Hail, wind, and of course, lightening.  Neither Brian and I heard anything, but he happened to look outside around 11:00 and saw half of our tree lying on the ground. He thought it was the wind that took it down.

The next morning upon further inspection he discovered it was lightening that hit it, as you could see the black burn marks.

It bothered him to have this laying in our yard, so he took the afternoon off, bought a chainsaw and broke up that large limb.  We had a guy come by yesterday to give us some advice on it, and said the tree is too unstable and needs to come down.  He actually said it was too large of a tree (or will be too large of a tree) to even have so close to a house. 

So I am actually looking forward to it coming down as I think you'll see our house a lot better. While it did provide for a lot of nice shade on hot afternoons, this is our first big outside change since we bought the house. Onward and upward!

Her Words... Part II

Brenley has an imagination, and I LOVE it. I'm not sure where most of her ideas come from, but this is one that I have to share.

The best time to listen to her is in the car. Sometimes she really gets on a roll, and she did this morning. Not sure if it was the cloudy foggy weather that prompted her, but she has become fascinated with a sticker book of hers. She calls it her Valentine's sticker book, even though it has nothing to do with Valentine's Day.

So we were on our way to school. She has her sticker book for Show and Share and she asks me who got the book for her.

Me: Well, it was probably either your Grandma or your Mommy.

Brenley: No, I got it from God. God gave it to me at a yard sale.

Me: What? When did you go to God's yard sale?

Brenley: Well, you see, Jesus was having a yard sale, and God bought this for me at his yard sale. God lives in heaven, and heaven is in our hearts, and he knew I would loooovvveee this sticker book, so he bought it from Jesus at the yard sale. I love yard sales and I love God.

Me: Tearing up at this point, and thinking 1) I've NEVER taken her to a yard sale so I have no idea where that came from and 2) We may not be active weekly church participants, but for someone so small, she sure has God in her heart. And finally I reply, I think you're right baby.  That must have been where it came from.

I mean, what else can you say to that precious girl?

Here are some pictures I took with Instagram - an app on my phone - during Sunday's baseball game. I love how they turned out.  Beautiful girl.

Her words

No pictures for this post. Just something I want to remember when she is sixteen and screaming at me for being so "out of touch" with reality.

My bestest little girl.... I put her to bed each night usually after reading her a book. Then she always asks...can I come to your bed and snuggle, even though we have spent the last 10 minutes snuggling in her bed. And sometimes I let her, and sometimes I don't - just depending on time.  Last night, I didn't. So the usual ritual is that she gets mad, kicks her covers off her, and I shut the door and leave.  Sometimes she stays in there, and sometimes she doesn't.

Last night, she didn't. She came toddling into my room about 10 minutes later. "Mommy, I haven't got to snuggle with you in forever. Can I please, pretty please, tonight?" Seriously? I cannot say no to that. Not sure who could.

She climbs in our bed and is so happy. The grin on her face in infectious.  She looks over at me (I am reading a book), and she says....and this is the part I want to remember forever..... "Mommy, I love you more than the world that God made, and I love you more than Disney Jr. (her fav TV show of the moment).  So Mommy smiled back really big and told her that I loved her more.  Ugh. If she only knew........love that girl.