Pre-Party Syndrome

pre-party syndrome-a condition of extreme grouchiness, insecurity and irritability in the week leading up to a party similar to premenstrual syndrome. 

this phrase might have been created by my dad, sister and myself referring to our beloved mother (not that she ever got it or anything, we could just see how other mothers might.)

well, if i am being honest i had a little PPS last week.  mom, linde and i volunteered to host a bridesmaids' luncheon and i got a little grouchy about it.  but let me tell you with these two on my side i should have known it would be amazing!

they transformed my house in to this amazing place...

they also cooked an amazing meal.  here are the recipes for what we thought was a great lunch! 
"cheater sangria" it is fabulous and fabulously easy, linde and i take it everywhere we can!  (we recommend cheap red wine and diet sprite to cut the sweet)
iced tea and water (float lemon and lime slices in it, makes it feel fancy and tastes great)

we also had bread bowls on all the tables

mom's chocolate chip coffee cake was the star of the show!  delicious and special to the brides' family!
cheese straws, loosely based on this recipe
crackers
plain muffins, another browning family favorite i'll have to share some time

and yummy salads for the main course
the pioneer woman came through as always with a fun take on chicken salad, and big thanks for michael for grilling it for us thursday night!
greek pasta salad was another of linde's yummy finds!
green salad with mom's homemade balsamic vinaigrette was amazing, but since she won't measure i can't help ya!

don't worry we didn't forget dessert!
we had cookies from JD's Chippery, YUM, and good old brownies with icing!

so the next time you feel yourself getting a little PPS, just call in linde and cindy!  they will save the day and throw a fabulous party! 

Halfy Birthday Avery Boy

Our favorite 3 year old boy is half way to 4!
Saturday was a great day to celebrate because Papa and LouLou were already here for a wedding!
We had a great day of playing at the park and dessert after lunch, how decadent!

Please note the baked cheeto in one hand and the cookie in the other.  Totally disgusting in my opinion, but it made his half-birthday so I looked the other way while he alternated bite by bite!

 I have to say 3 1/2 year old smiles can be a little sad, when the subject isn't in the mood. 

CHEESE, Mamma!


Just in case you were wondering we think this 3 and a half year old boy is pretty great! 
We love that he loves school & church.  Every single day when he wakes up he asks if he can go to his 2 favorite places. 
Avery loves to laugh, and make others laugh.  He has developed a cheese ball laugh to deliver after all his funniest bits and it never stops making me laugh.  I don't think he realizes we are all laughing at the fake laugh not his 3 1/2 year old jokes. 
Avery loves to count, but not to talk about letters.  This year in school they have a letter of the week and he has decided he likes that because it leads to show and tell.  Apparently At 3 1/2 show and tell is as cool as it gets.  He was over the moon that he got to bring the very first basket of items that started with A just like his name.   
Avery has a memory like an elephant.  Last week we read our memory verse once on Monday night at dinner.  Tuesday night my Mom read it to him and he promptly informed her she got it wrong because she forgot to read the chapter and verse at the end, nothing gets past this guy. 
Avery is becoming a better big brother every day.  It is more and more fun to see the boys play together because Avery will help Hank join the fun, but if we are being honest there are plenty of other moments where toys get yanked and stolen when he thinks no one is watching. 
Avery is noisy!  I was at a party not too long ago and some women with grown children were remembering that the difference between little boys and little girls was that boys are just loud, for no good reason.  Avery definitely got the memo.  He loves to yell, shout, and just make strange noises. 
Avery for sure got the memo that 3 1/2 year olds say why all the time.  He says it at least a thousand times a day, pray for me! 
Avery continues to love to read.  It is so fun when he "reads" to Hanky.  He will almost always chill out to look through a book for a few minutes.
Avery is a budding chef, he loves to help cook and it is one of my favorite things to do with him. 
Avery loves to play chase.  Every night after dinner Michael will ask him what he wants to do tonight and he always answers play chase or play hide & seek, but beware on the hide and seek.  You need to count to 20, but he will probably count to 5 maybe 10 and seven is still totally optional. 
Avery phrases things like a little old man, I love it!  If you say "did you have a good day at school?" he says "i sure did."  if you ask him to carry his plate to the sink he says things like "i sure will mamma, no problem."  it cracks us up!
Happy Halfy Birthday Avery boy, we sure do love you!

C is for

Cooper!  

The Cutest Cuddliest Cousin ever!!!

We were so excited to get the call Thursday that our very first cousin was on his way! 

We headed to Austin to meet our favorite new family of 3!  (Feel free to not like Courtney just a little, if you look closely she looks like Miss America as always, even after almost 24 hours of labor, ugh :)

It was so fun to get to be a part of Cooper meeting grandparents and great grandparents!

Our family tends to be a little male dominant... Someday maybe someone will have a girl.  

I am so excited I FINALLY get to be an Aunt.  I can't wait to get back and cuddle this little guy some more!

I can't wait for more fun family memories with these 3 cousins!!  
I'll be sure to talk to Avery about sharing Uncle Blake between now and then.  

One more shot of the proud Daddy, just too cute not to post!

sleep overs!

one of the things i have wondered about being the mom of boys is will i miss out on slumber parties.  i LOVED slumber parties.  i loved staying up so late, i was always one of the very last to go to sleep.  i loved skipping brushing my teeth, it felt so rebellious.  i love that you get to eat pizza.  but i don't know what boy slumber parties are like.  for instance i am guessing you don't paint toe nails, make puff paint t-shirts or watch all 36 versions of the parent trap.  but i do want avery and hank to have there own kind of all night fun.
labor day weekend had the first of what i hope will be many sleep overs.  his buddies came over and played with him all evening and even fell asleep for awhile at our house.  avery was true to form.  we ate dessert and didn't brush his teeth again afterwards.  he ate peanut butter crackers for dinner instead of the chicken daddy grilled and no one fussed at him.  and he was the very last one to fall asleep watching Babe.  there was no toe nail polish, but we made up for it with baseball, reading books and playing chase.  hank was just like a little brother should be he had all the same fun and then just like my sister went to sleep in his very own bed when the time came.  
i am so excited to find out about all the fun little boys have a slumber parties with great friends!

 

Halfy birtHday Handsome Hanky

guess wHo Had His Half birtHday last week???

i can't believe my BABY is now one and a Half years old.  How did it Happen?  i must say He is tHe Handsomest one and a Half year old boy in town!

but i did forget How Hard it is to get pictures from squiggly Half year olds. 

luckily tHere is anotHer boy wHo is almost 3 and a Half and He was Happy to Help!
after a great dinner witH His name sake Hanky celebrated witH some Half birtHday cookies on tHe porcH!  i stole the idea from my friend melanie. 

Hanky Panky is so mucH fun tHese days!
He is a monkey.  if i Had a dollar for every time i say Hanky sit down please, get down please or climb down please i would be a very ricH woman.  my personal favorite was wHen i was making my grocery list the otHer day.  i looked at tHe recipe, wrote down a few items and looked up into tHe eyes of one mr Hank sitting on my kitcHen table. 
He is finally starting to talk.  He will say cHeese wHile making His best cHeese face.  He is also adding a few otHer new words like cracker, apple, teeth, outside, Linde & Jeff.  We've still got some work to do but we are making progress I tHink.
He loves to dance.  especially car dancing.  notHing makes me smile like looking back to see tHose little arms waving. 
He loves to sing.  wHile He may not be the cHattiest kid on the block, Hanky will sing and sing.  tHe otHer night He rode Home from the park on micHael's sHoulders and micHael said He sang so quiet all tHe way Home. 
He Has an opinion.  Hanky Has no problem tHrowing down if tHings don't go His way. 
wHen tHrowing down Hanky loves an audience.  He will sHamelessly cut His eyes to see wHo's looking to decide wHetHer or not tHe sHow must go on.

but my most favorite tHing of all about tHis one and Half year old boy is tHat He looks just like his Aunt Linde!  see How's He's cutting His eyes in tHis picture?  if you know my sister you Have been seeing tHis look for way more than one and Half years.  it is so special to me tHat tHey are two peas in a pod in so many special ways only a sister and a mom could know, but in one very obvious way, too!
we sure do love you Hanky Panky.

Smoke!

You may remember that last year I made a goal to try 30 new restaurants in my 30th year, I blogged about some but it was kinda boring.  We had so much fun trying 30 new places.  Although I am now a mature 31 year old woman I still enjoy trying a new place.  A few weeks ago we had to perfect opportunity to try Smoke.  We were celebrating our buddy Josh, who is a total foodie and loves barbecue.  We thought Smoke would be the perfect place since it seems to be a blend of both.  

We were not disappointed!

 Josh had a big rib, he was a BIG fan. 

 The girls looked cute and dainty before we tore into our barbecue. 

Normally I don't post too much about what Michael and I do without the kids, because my blog is mostly a memory keeper for them.  But, people this is one of the two BEST burgers I have ever had!  I LOVED IT!  I could barely get it squished down for a bite, but I managed.  That crispy delicious-ness is an egg fritter.  HOLY COW!  So, so good!  I can't WAIT for an excuse to go back, anyone have a birthday coming up?

By the way the other best burger is on the brunch menu at The Grape, I read about it in Texas Monthly and in my opinion it was worth the hype.  Have you caught on that I love a good burger?  My family's Saturday night tradition of burgers and rotel dip have forever trained my taste buds in all the best ways!

Aqu-ry-ment

My work friends Amie & Melanie, and I planned a trip to the Dallas Aquarium.  When we planned it, in May, Avery called it the aquereement.  Unfortunately, Claire got sick so we had to reschedule.  We picked a new for June and had to reschedule again, can't remember why.  We finally had a date for August and poor Amie ended up having to work.  She graciously said we should just go on since Brady started kindergarten this year.

While we really missed Amie Charlie and Easton, but we had a BLAST!

We went to the Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park and I thought it was really great.  I have always heard that the Dallas World Aquarium was the way to go, but it is way more expensive. 

As soon as we went in there was a super sweet grandfatherly volunteer showing the kids cool creatures and letting them touch them.  Avery wasn't so sure at first, but he warmed up!

We started out by visiting cool things like freshwater fish and reptiles.  

Avery thought the white alligators and giant turtle were AWESOME!

But, the best part was the sting ray area!  We got to touch and see them up close.  It was TOO cool.  

Avery needed a little encouragement, but not much.  Thanks A for making me look tan, too!

Hank needed encouragement not to jump in the tank with the sting rays.  

There were also huge sting rays we just visited through the glass.  

If you need a fun way to pass a hot morning, I know 4 little people who would recommend the Dallas Aquarium! 

Thanks for driving all the way over Melanie, Brady and Claire!

And by the way, Avery can now say aquarium properly, such a big boy!