one week down...

Whew!  What.a.week!!!  The first week of school is over and we made it.

The early mornings, making lunches, filling water bottles, making sure snack was packed, cleaning out the folder, washing and drying hair each night, and getting to bed early...we did it.

All of that has been the easy part.

Dropping off my girl and seeing tears, fear and panic each day has been the hard part.

We will get there but it's just a big place with lots of people and that is Abby's 

biggest fear....getting lost or being afraid of the "big kids".   She has friends in her class and

I think once she is inside the "safety" of her classroom she is fine.  She seems to enjoy

each day and tells me all about it from who lost a tooth to who got into trouble.  

We will get there, but we did survive the first week!

Hunter and I have time to play in the carpool line each day.

I have loved my time with him this week.

Smiling this morning before we went inside.

Again, we will get there!

first day of school - part 2

So....this is Abby at drop off on the first day. 

I expected this and I was ok and even better

at lunch when a friend texted me a picture of 

Abby smiling.

 She got in the car and I had my phone ready.

I was so happy to hear her response....

Tuesday the teacher had to pull her off of me.

Today was not better and they had a substitute.  

Awesome.

IN OTHER NEWS.........

Hunter started MDO this week and loves it!

Walked in like he owned the place.  This made me really happy.

It's only Wednesday and I feel like this has been the longest week!  

Ready for Saturday and the return of College Football!!!!!  : )

first day of school - part 1

These are some pictures I got of my sweet girl before 

we walked into the school.

So happy I have these great, big smiley pictures because when we 

dropped her off in her classroom things changed.

I can't wait to go get her and hear about her day.   Praying it was a good one!

hanging on!

Last night I went to a kinder moms party at a neighbor's house.  At 10:00 Bo texted me and asked if I was "hanging from the chandelier" because I wasn't at home in bed.  A friend thought it would be funny for me to act this out and send it back to him.  He just thought I was a dork and went to sleep.  I wasn't far behind him.

As I looked at this picture this morning I laughed because this is 

really how life is RIGHT at this moment.

Summer is over.  Abby is starting kindergarten on Monday.  Hunter starts on Tuesday and our routine will be up and running.  Abby's bday party is in three weeks and the girl who is involved in the party cancelled last night.  There is so much going on with my family and big things are happening.  Just lots going on and lots on my mind.  Life seems to be speeding up and I know it's about to get faster.

Here's to "hanging from the chandelier" and enjoying the ride!

our week so far

The last two days we have gone non-stop.  Monday morning we met friends at a park in Dallas 

and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  We headed over to Northpark mall to grab 

some lunch and run around a bit there.  

We couldn't head home without stopping by the new Sprinkles ice cream shop!  

Tuesday we met some friends at the pool for a morning filled

with swimming and catch up time.  These girls

will all be in kinder together and two of these girls will be

in Abby's dance class this year!

After swimming all morning we came home for nap time and then we went to Abby's 

last swim lesson of the summer.  Shortly after, Bo and I were off to 

Kinder Parent Orientation at Abby's school.  When we got home from that meeting
Meredith and David were here to spend the night with us.

We have had a great time catching up with our cousin today and being home.
We needed to slow down for a bit and enjoy a pj day together.   : )

little snowman

The weather the past few days has been amazing.  Saturday we went to a winter wonderland themed birthday party and H was the snowman.  The kids had to use a whole roll of toilet paper to wrap him up and he had a scarf, hat and gloves as well.  So much fun.

This is our last week of summer. I truly can't believe how fast it has gone.  Last summer seemed so long and this summer has been just the opposite.  Honestly, I have enjoyed my kids more because with H getting older it's been so much easier to go places and try different things.  I made a list at the beginning of the summer with ideas and places I wanted to take the kids.  The list is almost complete.
We will enjoy this last week of lazy mornings, doing what we want and no schedule.  Our world will change a week from tomorrow!!

last fling of the summer

On Monday the kids and I headed up to Tulsa to visit a sweet friend of mine.  We had a blast catching up, watching the kids play together, swimming and we even took a trip to the aquarium.  I was planning on a quick trip up to Tulsa and back, but then plans changed.....

.....and we went to Arkansas to see my sister!

We took a little ride to see the neighbor's bulls, chickens and cows.

I LOVE to go to Fayetteville.  The weather was perfect (55 degrees Thurs morning) 

and the kids are a hoot together.  

Colson's face while he was driving Hunter

around was hysterical!!

Sweet boy.

Breakfast time!

It was so great to go and play even if it was for less than 24 hours!  I needed to see my baby sister and love on her.  She doesn't know it but that trip meant more to me than her.  

A great week all around.  I had sweet time with my kids and sweeter time with friends and family!

ONE MORE WEEK OF SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!

bowling and birthdays

Saturday morning we had no plans so we decided to go bowling.  

It was a blast.  We all had the best time.

How is this girl about to be in kindergarten??

Hunter loved the bowling....

....and all of the arcade games!

Like father, like son!



Today is Reese Catherine Rowe's 4th birthday.  We celebrate every year by releasing balloons
at our house.  My children know they have a cousin in heaven and we celebrate her life today.
It's also my mom's bday!!  August 11th is a special day for TWO reasons!!

 

 

Happy Birthday to Mom and Reese.  We love you both so much!!

pics of my boy

I always seem to have my phone in my hand so I use Instagram to take most of
my pictures and post them.  For instance, this one.

I haven't used my camera in a long time and I am way out of practice, but I decided I 

would try and take some pics of H today while we were playing with his cars.

Abby starts school is about 2 weeks.  This guy and I are going to have lots of time together and I am really looking forward to the one on one time.  I had 3 and 1/2 years alone with Abs so it's this ham's turn for sure!  Ready or not...here it comes!

old friends...

....are the best kind.

I went to a very small high school.  When I say small, I mean like I graduated with 36 people small.  Not only did I graduate with a small class but most of us started in kinder and went all the way to walking down the aisle at graduation together.  We were and still are more like brothers and sisters than classmates and friends.  Unique.

A few of us live in Dallas and we get together when schedules allow to hang out and catch up.  Justin invited us all over and we had a great time swimming, eating lunch and watching the kids play together.  It was also neat that it was my anniversary and these two girls were bridesmaids in my wedding!  Justin was at the wedding too.  In fact, he showed up right as my dad was about to walk me down the aisle and said, "don't do it"!
My now sister in laws were wondering what the heck was going on.  : )

I love these friends. They know me well...maybe too well.   We know each other's families and grew up in each other's homes.  It's pretty special and I love these guys will all my heart.  

lucky 13

On August 5, 2000, I married my best friend.  I didn't think I could love 

him any more than I did on that very day. 

Thirteen years later...I love him so much more.

Grabbed a quick dinner to celebrate and was home by 8:45.  

My man knows me well.

This morning he said, "well, today begins the march to 14". 

Such the romantic!!

Love you, B.  

mike c

This weekend we had some company and a lot of fun.  Bo's college roommate and fraternity brother brought his sweet family and stayed with us.  We invited the rest of the Baylor gang over on Sat for a shrimp boil....good thing it was only 100 degrees outside.   Not the smartest idea, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves despite the heat.  

Love these guys and their friendships.

Mike's wife, Jennifer, is a doll.  They started dating when Mike and Bo lived together.
We had to keep an eye on those boys. 

This picture of H cracks me up.  He is white trashed OUT!  

It was a great weekend all around.  We have spent today in our pjs recovering
and gearing up for a busy week ahead.

our week

This week flew by.  It's already August and school is right around the corner.

Crazy!!

We went swimming on Wednesday.

We went to Sea Life Aquarium today.

The place was empty and the kids ran around like they owned the place.

Hunter loved looking at "Nemo" everywhere.

These two are quite a pair. 

We headed to Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

The balloon lady made an animal for each kiddo.

As we were headed out the kids saw hermit crabs and started begging for one.  Tracy and I looked at each other and thought, "what the heck"?  Daddy doesn't know yet...

This picture cracks me up because it literally looks like we had spent the day at an amusement park with all of the crud that we left with.  Fun day with lots of laughs!  : )

TGIF and ready for a fun weekend to get started!