Father's Day!

i am so thankful for the dads in my life!
mine is pretty much the greatest.  i have never doubted for one second that i am loved.  i know because when i was little he would pin linde and me down and tickle our guts out while reading 101 ways to praise a child, and because he hugs us so long everytime we see him, and because he painted 20 little toe nails on many a Saturday night before church, and because he shares his chips with me, and because he was okay with saying no you can't wear that dress it's too short, and because he kindly said abbe jo you really need to think about things when i thought i was too holy for my prince after a summer away at camp, and because he now does all the same things (in the male form of course) for 2 little boys who mean the whole world to me. 

my papa was the greatest.  he taught my dad and michael so much about being a great dad and was the BEST grandfather!  i still miss him every day.  i love when avery talks about riding papa's speed boat in heaven some day!
michael's dad is pretty special, too.  avery got to spend the day with him a few weeks ago.  he tells me all about seeing the buzzard bird with pop, riding pop's tractor, driving pop's truck and felt especially loved that pop shared his sweet tea with him.  and we will probably never stop talking about the day spent at the nfl sperience (aka NFL experience) with pop!  we pretty much wouldn't have the amazing home we have without him either.  i can't even begin to calculate the hours he spent lovingly turning our house from a literally roach infested shell into the amazing home it is! 

michael's grandad falls in that same category as papa!  amazing!  i love to listen to michael talk about going to his grandparents house every friday night and how his grandad made him a new gun every friday night.  avery and hank now love to go hang out with grandma and grandad, too.  thankfully the gun making hasn't started, i don't know if hank would survive.  :)  but grandad sure did bring back to life the bouncy horse michael and blake rode back in the day and avery does his best to buck right off of it every time we are in tyler!

and wow, michael!  i never doubted that michael would be a great dad.  he loves babies and babies love him.  i absolutely love that he is the hand's down favorite at our house.  i had hank for awhile, be he left me for daddy long ago.  it makes me smile every day to hear michael's key turn in the door followed by avery's gasp of delight and hank's furiously fast crawl for the front door.   michael is always up for fun, never forgets to say i love you and is always trying to find ways to be a better dad.  i couldn't have imagined what an amazing dad he would be!  but i guess i can't really be surprised with all the great dad's in our life!

we love you guys!

Our Graduate

Well, Hank and I waved bye-bye to our friends at water babies for the last time this week.  We had a lot of fun even though we didn't get to go to class as much as we would have liked. 

Hank was super excited that Daddy got to come see his mad water baby skills on his last day of class. 

He is also super proud to display that he can finally stand!  I mean 14 months isn't too young to go ahead and give it a whirl. 

It has been so much fun for Hank and I to have some quality time!  He was the cutest water baby in class that is for sure.  It was also really fun that we got to have the same teacher that Avery did, Ms Amber is GREAT!  We are so thankful we got to have round 2 of water babies.

I had a very Happy Birthday!

So I am a birthday brat!  My parents spoiled me what can I say?  Birthdays didn't mean tons of money or ridiculous parties, but they did mean a day or few days where you feel really special and loved.  This year my family and friends, and especially my princes came through!
First of all Mother's Day was the Sunday of my birthday week so I personally took that as a sign I should celebrate all week!
Diane at work agreed and made me yummy chocolate chip cookies for work on Tuesday!
That night Michael played Mr Mom while I got to go to the movies with my work BFFs!
Thursday Hank and I had lunch with a fun church friend to keep the fun going!
I had a very fun birthday lunch with my Mom, Dad, Avery and Hank of one of my favorite foods, PIZZA! 
Then, I got to enjoy my mother's day birthday combo prize with my two favorite ladies.  Mom, Linde and I got to play princess and have manicures and pedicures together! 
Finally that night we all went to the Ranger game and had a tailgate party, too. 
It was a blast!

At first I was a little skeptical about the tail gate idea, but then I remembered it involved one of my other favorite food groups, CHIPS.  I knew Michael had the right idea when I saw how much my little buddies loved it, too.  We also had JD's Chippery for dessert, yummy yummy yummy! 

The boys had a GREAT first Ranger game.  They didn't get tired or cranky walking in, because they rode in style!

All of us had a great time!  I think the boys probably had so much fun because they had so many great laps to occupy.  Hank even charmed the socks off the entire row behind us when were too boring. 

Hanky got a little sleepy, but LouLou's lap was just what the doctor ordered.

And EVERYONE knows how great fireworks are for a birthday present, wasn't that sweet of the Rangers to do that for me?

If you look close even Hank is loving the fireworks, that's my boy!

Thanks MAW, GREAT birthday.  Almost as good as the year you surprised me with Papa!  I am not sure you will ever be able to top that one, but this was a very close second.  I love you!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to me!

I haven't blogged much because we have been too busy having Mother's Day and then Birthday fun!!!

I have to say it is pretty telling that I got to have a great Mother's Day because of help from our mothers. 

I got to see this little punkin and his punkin friends sing precious songs, do hilarious moves, and wear a BE-U-TEE-FULL hat made just for me while doing it!  I also got to have cookies and juice, every 3 year olds definition of fun, especially the juice.  It cracked me up they were so proud to give us juice!

LouLou came along and held this little punkin so I could watch and snap 5,000 pictures undisturbed. 

I love that Avery and his favorite partner in crime Reese are doing this move while everyone else just sits there.  It was very eye opening to see that the two "trouble makers" are the ones that seem to have lots of personality. 

See!

I had so much fun going to Avery's class' Mother's Day tea, and I would have missed out without our moms.  Michael's mom swooped in and watched the boys on Tuesday that week when I was supposed to work Thursday and Friday so I could go.  It was so so nice of her to turn her week upside down and come in for only one day.  Such a loving, sacrificial mom move!  My Mom came on Thursday even though I wasn't working and she could have worked that day to help with the Hankster so I could enjoy the party.  Then she treated us to a Cinco de Mayo dinner and watched the boys on Friday while I worked as planned, another sacrificial mom move.  We are so thankful for our amazing moms who continue to show us how the good moms do it!  We sure do love you two! 



5 Question Saturday :)

1. Do you and your spouse go to bed at the same time?
Usually, but I stay up later.  I read or watch TV.  Michael hits the pillow and is out, I need time to wind down.  Once about every two weeks I got nuts and stay up really late doing all the things I want to get done without little helpers!

2. A question for the ladies...What kind of facial hair do you like on your man?
None, sorry Michael.  He could definitely grow a beard to fear or a serious stache, but it is scratchy. 

3. What's the worst vacation you've ever taken?
Ski trip when I was in middle school.  A-I hate to be cold.  B-I was miserably car sick the whole way there, got to pull over and puke in the mountains.  C-I feel out of control skiing, I am not good at that. D-I was a bratty 13 year old.  E-Z I was a bratty 13 year old. 
4. What's the first-ever blog you followed?
I think I started following several college friends all at once.  I think Annalee and Tiff were the first. 

5. Do you enjoy amusement parks?
Kind of.  I like the idea of going with friends, spending a fun day doing fun things.  But, as mentioned in question 3 I get horribly motion sick so I don't love roller coasters, tea cups, etc.  So, sometimes the fun things aren't that fun.  I loved Sea World and Disney that had shows and other things besides just rides to keep it fun for everyone!

5 Question Friday

It's been forever since I did this, but I thought it would be fun to try again!

1. Have you ever had roommates?

Yes!  I just recently did a post mentioning them!  I also loved my freshman year roomie, but she transferred and we lost touch.  We have also had fun having Linde, Blake, Courtney and one my high school BFF's Abby Leonard as roommates since we've been married!!  I guess Jeff needs to come live with us so he won't feel left out.  :)


2. How many names do you/your children have? (i.e. Prince Charming William Phillip Arthur Louis John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt)
We each have the standard 3, I guess I have 4 if you count my maiden name.  Nothing too exciting for us in this department!  However,  my name is so great my sister is going to have a precious baby girl someday, probably in like 2020, and name her AbbeJoJr isn't that sweet?
3. Did you watch the Royal Wedding?
No, I thought it was silly, but now I wish I had recorded it.  I knew it would be long, but I think I would have enjoyed some of it.  I did catch the royal kiss from the break room TV at work!
4. What is the messiest room in your house?
Oh, I wish there were just one.  Michael's closet it almost always a mess!  The laundry room is a closet and never gets cleaned so it is a contender.  At least half of the time my closet is a mess, too.  But I can say that the main areas get picked up and put up at the end of every day.  Oh, but then there is under the dining room table, heaven help us food throwing/dropping/spilling will be the death of me.
5. What is your ideal mothers day?
I don't really know.  It always falls close to my birthday which makes me feel a little guilty about wanting/needing a big to do.  Plus we still have our moms who do SO very much to make our lives and our kids lives amazing that is hard to think about me.  But, I think this one will be good.  We don't have much planned, hopefully just a fun day with church and the fam!

We had a great Easter

We got to go to spend a little bit of time at the lake!
Uncle Jeff got a really great Easter basket treat!

We got to make a bunny cake one of my favorite Easter traditions!

And best of all we got to celebrate the true meaning of Easter with our Tyler church family.  They even had a great bag of stuff for Avery for during church that we used later to try to talk some more about the real meaning of Easter, but I am pretty sure it was over his head.

I love this picture because it is such a real family picture!  Next year we will attempt to take one before church, clearly the natives were more than restless after far too long of still and quiet!