Happy birthday, Momma

 Hey, Momma!

Happy birthday! 

We love celebrating you - I mean, there is nothing easier in the world that celebrating a loving, caring, giving, selfless person like you. And you know what else you are? 

Strong.
Brilliant.
Beautiful.
Supportive.

I know this birthday is going to be hard. I know the next 20 birthdays are going to be hard. But I also know that YOU are worth celebrating big. Even if it feels and looks different than any birthday you've had for the past 55 years with Dad. He wants us to celebrate you because he was so proud to be yours. He was so grateful to be loved by you. And we are, too. This year even more so. 

You've amazed me for my entire life. You're patient with all of us. You're funny when you get mad. (ok, so maybe we just laugh at you when you're mad).  You are fiercely loyal and protective (just ask any sports referee). You want things to be fair. You want us to feel valued. You want us to be happy. You don't love it when any of us are mad or sad or generally inconvenienced (which is why you insist on skipping yourself in a game of Uno). 

You've taught me the art of opening up my home to whoever needs a place to feel welcomed. I recognize the importance of "the more the merrier" and always cook more than I need to just in case. I never feel guilty about ordering the ice cream. I've made it my goal to make sure my home is as inviting and welcoming as the one you raised us all in (including our friends). My fridge is stocked with soda. My pantry has sugary cereal and my snacks are always ready for as many hands that need one. ( I do draw the line at going to 4 different fast food restaurants but occasionally will call an audible and celebrate a "Gigi night"). 

I'm as hard on my kids' friends as I am on them because I love them like my own. 

I cuss a little.  

I prefer jeans and leggings to fancy dresses. 

I wear hardly any makeup. 

I prefer baths to showers any day of the week. 

I love a good pedicure. 

I used reusable bags before they were cool. 

Bread is my bestie. 

A target run with my best-friend can solve any problem. 

I think Jesus is pretty cool but his followers annoy the heck out of me from time to time. 

Basically, I'm you.

All that I am, all that I hope to be, rests in the example you set for me. 

You are a leader in every sense of the word. You have modeled the way for Jody, Jeremy and each of ours to grieve but keep going. To keep Christ at our core. To cry when we need to but to celebrate, too. To find joy within our own sorrow. 

And we do. We will. Always.

We are so glad YOU were born and we take this day and all the days ahead being grateful for the gift of you as our momma. 

I love you, Mom. 

Happy happy birthday!!

40 to 40

I've always been a believer in celebrating birthdays BIG. I'm going to attribute this to my mom, who managed to always make us feel special and loved on our special day each year. Whether it was saying yes to a sleepover turned midnight makeover, renting the skating rink for a Rainbow Brite themed blowout or a surprise Sweet 16 (complete with a car with a GIANT BOW on top) - she and my dad made us feel loved.

Basically poor Ryan inherited a spoiled rotten person. But I digress.

Sunday marked 40 days until my 40th birthday. I've been count downing on my phone, looking forward to the milestone and trying to decide how I wanted to celebrate the big day.

Turns out... I get to celebrate for the next FORTY days.

Ryan, Cindy and Jenni have crafted the most amazing (and overwhelmingly humbling) birthday gift of my life. Each day, for the next 40 days someone from my life is going to wish me happy birthday.

I can't get over it. I'm sitting here in Blue Baker crying as I type this.

I don't drive a fancy car.
The floor in my house is being held together with wood glue.
I can't use my shower.
I've never been to Europe.
I don't have a giant savings account filled with the moneys.

But, without a doubt... I am loved. And I am so completely grateful for every person that God has placed in my life. Every hard part, every easy friendship. Every tiny moment has been carefully crafted just for me. Just like every part of your life has been carefully crafted for YOU.

Parts of my life are absolutely nothing like I imagined... but everything I could ever dream.

This aging thing, y'all... I just can't describe the freedom you feel. I quit apologizing. I take time for myself. I listen before I speak. I am zero percent impressed with material things. I love the reflection in the mirror... but more importantly, that pistol of a woman inside... man, she's pretty cool, too.

So here is to the next 40 days of celebrating every gift that has entered my life. I treasure these people, these memories, these divine miracles that crossed my path. Each of them have helped shape me into the wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend... the list goes on. I am who I am because each of you and that is the greatest gift by far.

New Year + Old Friends = Real Fun!

New Year's Eve has become one of my most favorite days of the year -  reflecting on the year we are leaving behind mixed with thoughts of what lies ahead. 2018 wanted to make sure that it was a year to remember; showing off with one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen. My social media was filled with this same sky from different points of view and that made me stop and think about how connected each of us are ... we sometimes just see life from different angles. 

Jen and I have started trading off NYE hosting duties and I highly recommend you do the same. We have a collection of decorations that gets added to each year and pass the tub back and forth. She's a rock star hostess that makes you feel so welcome and at home so the night was sure to be filled with fun.  

I "forced" Radley to wear "nice" clothes for the party but brought some back-ups knowing that he would want to run around and play. He couldn't change until we got a family pic so he insisted we snap this as soon as Ryan walked in from work.

The evening included lots of kids running around having an epic nerf gun battle, the men enjoying the Aggie football game outside and the women gathered around the food, trading stories and sharing laughs. We were so glad that Owen and Jody got to ring in 2019 with us again, too!

Please note the scattered nerf bullets, gymnastics mat turned barricade, and bright red bare feet from a night of jumping on the trampoline, in pretty cold weather (for Texas)... basically heaven for them!

(Please also note there is no picture of just the boys, because.... #boys).

I hope that 2019 brings you evenings gathered around a table, in the company of friends that are your family, listening to kids play, trading stories, sharing laughs,  and looking forward to all the good that a new year brings!

Happy 2019 - I think she's going to be good to us!

Emersyn is EIGHT...

This tiny tot went to bed a precious seven year old and woke up making us the proud parents of a darling eight year old. Y'all. How in the world did we get so lucky? 

At eight, Emersyn is creative - she comes to life when she is making something. A new piece of art, a fancy recipe or even a board game. I hope we can keep nurturing this gift in her to use in the best possible ways. 

She is kind - she senses when one of us is sad and needs some extra attention and is so quick to offer an extra hug. She's also not our snuggler so hugs and attention from her is extra sweet!

She is so quick to forgive - Landry isn't the easiest baby sister... she retaliates in the typical physical 6 year old ways like shoving when we aren't looking and Emersyn simply turns the other cheek. 

She is ours. And that's my favorite part of her. 

She wanted to celebrate at Freebirds which I think is funny because I feel like the only time we ever go there is on her birthday. Maybe we should go more often!

Her special request was to bring her cake (that she decided she didn't want at her slumber party) and share with the crew. 

 And what an awesome crew we have. Seriously, I love that we have a village that shows up to celebrate the big and small of life. That no one complains when they hear the restaurant of choice and shows up all smiles! 

No one's smile was as big as hers! We had so much cake that the kids decided to ask other customers if they wanted some, too. Y'all. Some of these college kids had the best reactions to FREE CAKE - some even opted for two pieces.  

Most importantly, our girl felt loved and celebrated by friends that are family...

family that added to our crew... 

people she idolizes... 

and people she's stuck with whether she likes it or not.

Eight years of loving her is one of the easiest things I've ever done. 

Party patrol...

As soon as we got back from picking Landry up at camp, we went straight into birthday mode for Emersyn. She couldn't decide between a pool party and a slumber party, so we decided to do both. Her friends met us at the pool late that afternoon so they could swim and work up an appetite before dinner. 

One of my favorite childhood memories include slumber parties. At my house or friends' houses it didn't matter... the evenings were filled with giggles and being goofy and all the girlie things. Too much make up, licking icing off cake and maybe sometimes freezing bras and undies. 

I still love the noise and the silliness and the make believe. I love the cooking challenges and the make overs and the movie marathons. There is just something so beautiful when you are in the company of other women... women that lift you up and know your secrets and simply just make you laugh. 

And on top of that... pick out the perfect gifts to celebrate you!

I have a little tradition of taking a sleeping picture the night before the kids' birthdays... my attempt at remembering them just as they were at that age. This picture is a total fake because I wasn't about to stay up as late as the girls to get one. 

I'm not sure what time they actually fell asleep - when you come from the school of Gigi you learn real quickly to just put away all the breakables and hope for the best. Regardless, they were all ready for some morning "cake and ice cream." I ordered her an actual birthday cake, but at the last minute she decided she just wanted her friends to sing to her the morning of her birthday with donuts and ice cream. Well... 

This may be the best birthday cake ever!

They all had the best time... even this guy... who was the hero of the party and survived an 8:1 ratio for 16 hours. 

Can't wait for the next (no) sleepover!

Hoppy Easter...

Our Easter celebration included sunshine, smiles and sweaty kids! We took advantage of a free weekend filled with sunshine and spent many needed hours in the yard. We prepped the garden for another season of barely-producing-veggies, cleared out flower beds and even attempted to move a few bushes to a new home with our fingers crossed that they don't die in the process. I have zero pictures to prove any of this happen which is proof of time well spent together. 

Once we cleaned all that dirt from our nails and wiped off our grass stained knees, we headed to the backyard to dye some eggs. I tried to literally be Martha Stewart after seeing a video that used food coloring and shaving cream instead of the traditional method of dropping that famous color tab into vinegar and water. 

We were not at all convinced that this was going to work. Dye was all over our hands and a little on Gigi's clothes and the eggs looked more like a giant mess than a masterpiece. 

The eggs actually turned out pretty awesome and we loved it so much we've already decided we are going to try it again next year with a few modifications. ;) 

That evening we headed to Easter Vigil mass which meant that we were going to be up well past anyone's bedtime... 

but it also meant that we got to sleeping in a little later, too!

They were super excited to see that the Easter Bunny pulled through and made an awesome delivery of goodies that included a sensible amount of candy (ha!), bathing suits, flip flops, bubbles, a movie and this book. 

We had a few friends over for lunch and an egg hunt... and well, Radley was clearly outnumbered by the afternoon... 

I'm pretty sure we hid 200 eggs ... I'm less sure that they found them all. 

Hope that you were surrounded by ones you love and that your Easter filled with time to be grateful for grace.

This is 6...

Every year I take a picture of the kids sleeping the night before a birthday. I just want to be able to remember them exactly as they were before turning another year old. Landry turning six solidified that we are out of babies in our house and as much as it breaks my heart, I'm also so dang pumped about this stage of "big". 

She is going to seize every moment of six...starting with her "birthday to do list"... 

For the first time ever, we woke up somewhere other than our house on one of their birthdays. But honestly, there's not a better place in the world to wake up on a special day than Gigi and Pops'... we tried talking her into donuts for breakfast but she just wanted cereal so I got as creative as I could with the "birthday breakfast" set-up... haha!

She threw on her crown and fancy new dress and we were off to check some items on that list... 

Pedicures and the toy store were up first... 

and then we hugged Gigi's neck and headed south to CS ... 

so we could hug Daddy's neck (who was putting finishing touches on their room), open presents and eat lunch.. 

The main attraction was obviously the bunk beds...

Landry is everything we never knew we always needed. I've repeated myself 1000 times but she came at such a sorrow-filled time... she was the rainbow after the rain when we lost Fely and she's been sunshine ever since. (Except in the mornings when she is the grumpiest person you will ever meet.)

She does things on her own time. 

She cries at sappy movies.... like tears GUSHING and we all love it so much.

She would eat "pasghetti" for every meal.

Dominos is her favorite pizza. 

She loves getting dirty and playing rough with Radley.

And also being girly and dressing up with Emmy. 

Reading is not her favorite but she's gaining confidence and I'm so proud of her. 

She hasn't decided if Spanish is something she loves or not. 

She is fiercely loyal - don't mess with her siblings or besties. 

She is perceptive and offers love right when you need a hug.

She's totally cool with recycling all of her school work. 

"That's ok, Momma" is one of my favorite phrases bc sometimes I just need "it" to be "ok". 

She loves being a gymnast. 

She loves Jesus and says the best prayers. 

She's the perfect caboose to our crew. 

We had the best day celebrating her as we checked off her list... go to a park, eat pizza, watch a movie... 

This is six.

And I'm so ready to watch her rock it!

Big XII...

Twelve years ago these two CHILDREN got dressed up, walked down the aisle, repeated some pretty important words, ate delicious food, danced with friends, hugged our parents and started our forever. 

Twelve years pales in comparison to my parents near 50 year story, but it's still a pretty long time! In that time we've created a family, buried love ones, survived hard days, hard jobs and hard parenting moments... we've cried a little, laughed a lot and loved through everything in between. 

Our life is nothing like I imagined and pretty much everything I could hope for. It's messy and loud and imperfect and weird and chaotic and random and just such a delight. We have done exactly zero things with perfection. We text angry words and eye rolling emojis. (Ok, maybe that's just me). We say I'm sorry a lot. And we try really hard not to laugh in the middle of an argument. 

We learn as we go. 

And we celebrated by hopping in the car for an amazing weekend getaway day trip to Ikea and Trader Joe's. 

My parents gave us an entire free day of babysitting and even took the kids to Saturday mass so we could head out on a real date when we returned. 

We are 18 years older than the first time we celebrated an occasion here, and in all those years together including 12 years of  marriage there is no one on the entire planet that I'd rather send an angry emoji to than you. 

Thanks for letting me eat off your plate, drink all your beer, and steal your socks. Thanks for always getting me a glass of water and turning off the lights even when I'm the last one to bed. I love you. 

Here's to many more big years ahead!