Memorial Day 2012

We had a fun little cook out in our backyard for Memorial Day.  It was low key with close friends and that's just how I like it!  All the kids enjoyed the little pools and slip n' slide.  Bennett helped Neil set up everything before everyone got there and he told Neil "Dad, you are awesome!"

Henry had a blast playing in the pool

Bennett is obsessed with peeing in the grass!

Sweet babies

Henry and Bennett

Evie kept stealing Henry's paci out of his mouth every time he would get it.  He didn't seem to care!

Look how much our kids have grown!!!  Seeing this picture made us go back and look at old pictures.  I found the one below of the kids at their first swim lesson...

Look how little they were!

A party and another party

We had Bennett's end of school party on the same day as my mom's birthday.  We were thrilled to celebrate both!

Erin and I whipped up the little pre-school party rather quickly and I was able to go during my planning period.  Erin made the cutest little sand buckets with each of the kids names on them.  We rounded up a few things to put in them for each of the kids to give them a "summer fun bucket!"  Bennett loved his.

I am so glad I got away from school to see Bennett sing and do hand motions.

The kids had popsicles and little teddy grahams sitting in "water" on an umbrella.  I totally forgot I was supposed to make these so I didn't make anything homemade.  Everything store bought and no headache for me.  Yay!

Nice umbrella

This was the end of year teacher gift: a beach towel, magazine, and sunscreen.  It says "All year you worked hard to make learning fun so now it's your turn to relax in the sun!"

 We celebrated my mom's 56th birthday that night as well.  We went to Posado's.  I let Bennett go into Family Dollar to pick our her birthday gifts. I let him choose everything.  He was THRILLED.  My mom was even more thrilled to open her special bag o' goodies.  Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

She received this nice reflector that Bennett thought was a fly swatter.

She received a Ramen noodle bowl

the little shopper

He picked out a squishy spider, green gatorade because  green is her favorite color,  one ball for him and a smaller one for Henry, and a red flashlight

She also received her favorite perfume, Shalimar.  I love smelling it on my mom because it reminds me of her and my grandmother.  Love that smell!!!

5 years!

Neil and I have been married for 5 years!  Sometimes I can't believe it's only been 5 years because we have been together since 2003.  Other times if feels like these 5 years of marriage have flown by!  We have doubled the number of people in our family in 5 short years. We've traveled to a few places and had fun doing it.  I am so proud to have Neil as my partner in life.  Here are a few highlights of the past 5:

• 2007: Got married twice
• 2008: Bennett was born!
• 2009: Started this blog.
• 2010: Went on a couple trips and we both had our 10 year reunions
• 2011: Henry was born!  Neil turned 30!

I am looking forward to 75 more years!  I love you, Neil! You are the best husband and the best daddy to our boys I could ask for.

Now, on to the 5 year anniversary festivities:

My mom is so good about offering to keep the kids for us to enjoy a date night...especially on our anniversary.  But, this year she had to work.  We were not too bummed because that meant we got to take the boys with us to eat.  It was pretty romantic because I had a dentist appointment, ran by the house to get the boys then headed to Outback. And by romantic I mean not romantic at all.  We even had to pick up food all over the place and force feed puffs to Henry to keep him happy.

Happy 5 years, Mommy and Daddy!

I don't know how they all ended up on the other side of the booth.

For our dessert, I had a replica of our wedding cake topper made.  We totally forgot to eat the top to our cake on our 1 year anniversary so I thought we could have a replica for our 5th.  I actually just through the top of the cake away about 4 months ago! ick!

I called a little bit too late so she had to make the middle tier.  It was all good.

Replica 5 year anniversary cake

Our actual cake

We all enjoyed a little bite.  Neil fed me a bite and I fed him one...Bennett thought it was hilarious.  Neil was just ready to go to bed.

mmmmmm!  Mom and Dad never let me have cake right before bed!

We had plenty of cake leftover so I took it to my 8th hour Housing class.  They loved it!

Ruston

Elliot Mulhearn and Bennett

Bennett and Gigi

The boys with Gigi

sweet smiling baby Henry!

School Pictures

I just love the school where Bennett goes.  I am really going to miss it next year.  His teacher sends pictures about once a week to keep us updated on what they are doing.  Since I can't be there, it is so nice to receive these little e-mails of pictures.

Bennett and Maddie both had anchors on the other day so Ms. Kristen sent us this...

They were talking about butterflies and let some go.  Here a couple pictures of them showing the butterflies how to fly!

letting them go!

Segway Riding

We are really loving we our marriage class that we attend at church.  Our group started with about 25 couples and for some reason almost everyone has dropped out.  Neil and I feel that we are gaining a lot from the class and have gotten closer because of it.  I just wish everyone would stick with it!  It is hard to make it to the class sometimes, but we are always glad we went.  

We had our first social event on Saturday.   Beau and Leigh hosted.  The teachers, Larry and Puddy brought their Segways for us to ride.  It was a neat experience and I felt so fancy driving it.  

Here I am segwaying (is that a word?).

Leigh and me

One handed segway riding

My sweet Henry loved "driving" Jake's car.  Looks like he'll be getting one of these for his birthday.

Drew and Bennett swinging

Puddy let Bennett ride with her for a second...he loved it

Of course, Beau and Neil had to race down the middle of the street.  Neil won! yesssssss!

Henry and Jake are such cute babies!!

Chick-fil-A and Cheerleaders

Neil's cousin Kyle and his wife met us for a nice dinner of Chick-fil-A on Friday.  We were so glad to get to catch up with them.  We just love Kyle and Judith!  They are hilarious!

Kyle and Henry

Bennett and Judith

We went to the Green and Gold game after dinner.  I was a faculty cheerleader again this year.  We had a smaller group than we did last year.  It is no secret that I've always wanted to be a real cheerleader.  I just lack rhythm, the ability to remember cheers, and coordination.  This is the only way I'll ever be a cheerleader...when the team is desperate!  I tried asking our coach (in gold on the bottom row) different moves and I even showed her one of my own.  I said "is this something we can do?" And she replied "not in public!" ha!!!

It was a ton of fun!

Gloria

On Tuesday I received this text from Neil:

"She seems like a really friendly dog." (This mini schnauzer wandered into our yard.)

If you know me, you know I just don't really care for animals.  I don't want to be licked, jumped on, or smell like dog after being in their presence.  I know some people would say that I am heartless for having this view of animals, but I beg to differ. I don't want animals to die, be tortured, or be mistreated...I just don't want them living at my house.  Amy is the only person that understands my philosophy on animals. (Thank you, Amy.)

After we got the kids to bed, I took a bath and when I got out I couldn't find Neil anywhere.  I looked in the guest bathroom and this is what I found!!!!!  Neil bathing the dog in OUR BATH TUB! 

INSIDE THE HOUSE! ICK.

Gloria 

Neil made her a little bed and she slept outside.  He is like a little boy having a dog at the house.  Neil knows how much I do NOT want an animal so he sent this to me via text:

Hilarious.

The next morning, Bennett wanted to eat his breakfast outside with the dog.  He says things to her like "you are my best puppy" and "look at me, I love you!"  I pick him up from school and he says "I want to go see my new puppy!"

Bennett loves this puppy!!

Anyway, I sent the picture and a message to the HOA and they sent out an e-mail asking if anyone knew the dog or the owner.  Long story short, we received 4 calls...1 saying they knew the owner and would let them know we had her and 3 saying they would love to have her and 1 even said they'd pay us!

The owner ended up calling Wednesday around 9 pm and basically said they didn't want her.  We ended up finding out her real name was Trixie.  Gloria (what we named her after Gloria on Modern Family), was full of fleas, hadn't eaten, and was certainly not cared for properly.  It was obvious they did not want her.  She told Neil that we could keep her until Monday for a trial run if her 5 year old daughter didn't notice she was gone.   Neil went and bought a kennel, dog food, flea meds, and ordered a Saints collar online.  He is like a 7 year old with a puppy!!!

So, as of now we have a dog hanging out at our house.  The boys all love her and I don't want to see them all heartbroken if she has to go back to her owners.  Even though I do not want dog poop in my back yard, fleas, dog stench, and dog hair everywhere, this is reason enough for me to have a dog at the house.  

Stay tuned for more developments on this "dog situation."

Soccer End of Season Party

Our first soccer season came to an end with a season of all losses.   The only thing we could think to do was have a party!  We celebrated our coach and had fun doing it!

The Smith fam hosted the party with a cookout, slip n' slide, and a baby pool.  I was so glad to not have to cook!

Henry loved the baby pool.  I am going to have to get him one.

He is wearing a snow-white band-aid because he cut his finger on Neil's beer can

I love him!

Love their matching bathing suits from Nana!!

Gooooo Team!

You can see Bennett and Shep wrestling.  We just let them go at it.  Not sure if it was poor parenting or not.

and more...I like how all the other kids are just watching this spectacle.

But they really like each other...they took a break for cupcakes.