Happy 1st Birthday, Kennedy!

Last night, we celebrated Kennedy's first birthday! It was a very low-key pizza and cupcake party with both sets of grandparents along with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. It was a great time for our little princess and even big brother was super excited for her (although, we had to sing Happy Birthday to him afterwards since his birthday is next!). We are looking forward to having a small joint birthday party for both of them tomorrow with a few special friends. The weather has been horrible all week and I hope it clears out some so we won't have several 3 year olds getting stir crazy inside our house!! But I have some ideas if that's the case!
Here are some pictures of my sweet Kennedy on her birthday! Sorry for all the pics, I just don't when to stop! ;)

Here she is when she got mad at me for taking the knife away!!

First week of Mothers Day Out

Last week, the kids started Mother's Day Out at Temple. Landon is going 3 times a week while Kennedy is going two days. I have to say that I thought it would be a wonderful week, but both kids were so exhausted each day which made them pretty cranky. And then they both started running fever Thursday night and on through the weekend. I never took them in to see the doc because I just assumed that it was a virus they caught from school. Well, I finally took Kennedy in on Monday because she got worse Monday morning after having a much better day on Sunday. It turns out that she had a ear infection. Not sure what Landon had (or has), but if it's anything, we will find out in the morning we I take both of them in for their annual checkups!

Lance is away on business in Atlanta until tomorrow and I am sure it is a good break from the cranky kids we had this weekend! I will be ready to see him again tomorrow night.

Not much else is going on except getting ready for the upcoming birthdays. Here are some pictures from last week....

First day of MDO

Taking a few pics outside our house

This picture is for Suzanne!!! ;) It was taken Friday right before we got pictures for our church directory. They had just fallen asleep and woke up C-R-A-N-K-Y!! Tired and sick was NOT a good combo for a family portrait!! Needless to say, we really didn't get a good picture but I am not about to reschedule for more!

Trips, trips and more trips

Since the last post, I have been having way too much fun!! I was able to sneak away on a girls trip to Nashville to visit with very dear coaching buddies of mine and there was never a dull moment. Lots of laughing and talking about old times made for a fun weekend. Kim, who is still in college coaching, is the assistant coach at Vanderbilt and we were able to stay with her in her beautiful house. And two other coaching friends, Christie and Lindsey, were able to make the trip as well. All we needed was Brooks to get the old group back together again, but since she was the only head coach of the group, she just couldn't get away for that long. She was dearly missed!!



Probably the high light of the trip was getting to see Keith Urban and Sugarland in concert. They were both so unbelievable!! Since it was 'home' for Keith, he played a little longer than normal and everyone still wanted more. I really wasn't sure how he could rock the place with having so many hits that were slow songs....boy I was wrong. He is so talented!!! It's official, I am now a huge Keith Urban fan!!!!

Our seats turned out great for having to buy them 1 hour before the show started!!!

Many thanks go out to my mom who came to stay at our house to watch the kids. Lance and his parents were able to give some relief too and I am so grateful for everyone's help so I could get away and be 'normal' for a weekend. ;) Lance was tied up with a golf tournament called the Davison Cup (just like the Ryder Cup for the professional golfers) and scoring some low scores for the Blue team...Go Blue!! They were able to take back the cup this year (finally). I really hated that I missed that event...always my favorite!

Then, not too long after I got back from Nashville, I decided to visit a friend of mine in Birmingham who has a son that is one day younger than Landon and a little girl 4 months older than Kennedy. The kids weren't in school yet and Lance was out of town, so I got brave and decided to drive 6 hours by myself. I bought Landon a new video and it was the best thing....what did our parents do without videos in the car??? It was so worth the drive because we had an absolute blast. They live right next to a pond that has so many ducks. They are used to being fed by humans all the time and they surrounded us the entire time. Landon loved that and Kennedy actually did too (until one of the snap at her toe...see pic below). We were also able to go to the zoo and it was a perfect day for that. All of the animals were out and even the lions were roaring!!
Here are some pictures from the Birmingham trip:

Landon and Jack singing to Taylor Swift, using kitchen utensils as microphones.

K and L at the zoo

Kennedy and Clare (and my friend, Jenny, in the background)

The tiger paced back and forth right in front of the boys like they were dinner!! Kinda freaky, but the boys loved it!

Landon talking things over with the ducks

The boys chasing the ducks (poor ducks!!)

I wished I got the picture after this when the duck bit her toe!!! I was too busy picking her up!

I am a Cheeto!!

More random thoughts by a two (almost three) year old:

Last night while reading a book to Landon....

Mommy, "Mr. McGhee and his dog Dee are going on a camping trip..."
Landon, "I am going to turn you into a cheeto and I am going to eat you!"
Mommy, "You turned into a cheeto?"
Landon, "Noooo, YOU are!" Then he proceeds to 'pretend' to eat me

I just love him!

Trip to the big D

Before school gets started, my mom and I decided to take the kids to Dallas to meet up with our Lubbock buddies and visit family in the Dallas area. We were having some Shannon and Hayden Russell withdrawals so we planned a playdate at the Hawaiian Falls Waterpark in The Colony, near Dallas. And it's always great to see my sister in law and my niece (my brother was out of town). They were sweet enough to let us stay with them.

Landon was so excited to see his buddy, Hayden, but you would never know it because of the meltdown he had outside the waterpark. He was up late the night before with his cousin, Kenzie, that he was in such a sour mood the next morning. But that disappeared once we got inside. We rented a cabana and it was soooo worth it because it was a lot more crowded than we anticipated. Kennedy was able to take a nap with KK, while me, Shannon, the boys, and Kenzie went to play. Needless to say, it was a fun filled day and EVERYONE was exhausted when we finally left around 4.

The next day, we were able to go to Fort Worth to visit with cousin Destin and her baby boy, Nash. It was a quick visit, but so worth it! Baby Nash is getting so big! I wish we could see them more often...such great people!!

That night, I was able to sneak away with some friends to go to the first Cowboy football game in their new stadium. It was absolutely amazing!!!! We were able to watch the game from one of the suites and words just can't describe how beautiful that billion dollar facility is! I only wished that Lance was there to enjoy it with me. I forgot my camera (I know, can you believe it?) so I don't have any pics from that. But I do have some from the rest of the trip!!

Me, my kids, niece Kenzie, Destin and her boy Nash

Landon and Hayden sliding together

More Landon and Hayden

Ok, these next two pics are from the Meet the Bulldog day in Ruston before we left for Dallas. Landon got mad because he thought we were going to a football game and was upset to leave.

And these last two photos are of my sweet angel, Kennedy, who turned 11 MONTHS!!!!!

6 wonderful years...

Today, Lance and I are celebrating our 6th Anniversary and I can't imagine the next six years being much better! I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful relationship with my hubby and I adore watching him with our kids.

Last night, we had a sitter come to our house to watch and stay with our kids while we had a night away in Shreveport. We did some quick shopping before checking into the Horseshoe casino. I surprised Lance with a limo service to the Mabry House (he thought we had dinner reservations at the Steakhouse there are the hotel) and we had a delicious meal there. Highly recommend this place for a quiet and special night for dinner. After we got back from dinner, we were so tempted to call it a night, but we refused to act old and go to bed. So, we ventured down to the poker room to try our luck. After four hours of playing, we walked away being up $22!! yeppie! ;) But it was really fun!

Unfortunately, we didn't get much sleep and I feel exhausted today. :( I guess that's the trade off for trying to act "young". It was great seeing the kids when we got back. We knew they were in great hands! Now, it's back to reality!

Here is a picture of the place card at our dinner table. Can you visualize Lance shaking his head as I am taking a picture of this?

Out in front of the horseshoe casino

Could this BE any more fun???

Being a mom has it's ups, downs, sideways, backwards, and inside outs, BUT what a ride it is!!! Landon's stage that he is in right now is enlightening, funny, exhausting, and sincere. I just love it! There is something new every day. And, Kennedy, is in another one of my favorite stages. She crawls a lot, but really enjoys staying in one spot when she plays and in the pool (yay) and she interacts more with Landon. I just love hearing them entertain themselves in the playroom! Kennedy's latest thing is dancing (too adorable), she has eight teeth, loves to watch things fall, and saying thank you (sort of).

With all that being said, a week ago, they drove me bonkers when we had a week straight of rain and it was hard to get outside and play. But since the rain has stopped, we have been outside swimming or on our slide everyday. This leads to a worn out group...including mommy!

Ok, before I share some pictures, I just want to give a shout out to Suzanne Tyler, who frequents my blog often and keeps me motivated to update mine consistently (without her knowing). Anyway, she has had a crazy past month (and summer for that matter) with her two little ones (2 1/2 yr old and 19 month old), running a hundred miles a week (ok, not really, but A LOT!), moving houses, going on vacations, having trunk show parties, ER visits, and remodeling. And she still keeps a smile on her face, keeps in awesome contact with people, and just LIVES life! Love her!

Here are some pictures over the past several weeks... these first two our on my parents houseboat when my nieces from Michigan were in town.

Below, we found a bird's nest in our garage with eggs in them!

Alec, Michael, and LandonHere is a video of Kennedy dancing with her cousins