Brought to You by the App

I have been an off and on blogger at best for the last 8 years or so. As life has gotten fuller or harder, I have dropped off of social media in general to preserve my sanity. Then when life seemed to level out and I had all of my balls in the air again, I would pick the blog back up, dust it off, and begin typing. Another hindrance to the blog for me for so long was pictures. Ahhhh pictures. The obligatory part of a blog when you have young children. Because lawwwwwd knows that most people who visited my blog in it's infancy did it for just that....to see my infants. Which I can't blame them. I mean let's be real, I visited my friend's blogs for the same reason all those years ago. Just to see ultrasound or baby pictures. And it used to work in follower's favor that I had a camera with me whereverrrrr I went. I wore my Nikon like a purse over my shoulder when Jack was younger. But add another kid, a diaper bag and an infant car seat to the mix and I no longer had a shoulder free for my camera. So my camera sits unused in a cabinet, still holding precious moments on it's tiny memory card. And now, at this point in my life, my blog has become more of an outlet for my thoughts and memories than a captioned photo album. All that being said, I still do love to show you my family and my friends. Let you have a little picture walk through my life. And thanks to the Blogger app for iPhone I can post the thousands of pictures I take on my phone, since my back pocket always holds the camera I use these days. So, here it is. A picture walk through my last few months. Brought to you by the app.

In early September we took the kids to Dallas for the air races at Texas Motor Speedway. Such a cool thing, watching those tiny plans buzz around in such a tiny space. It actually in a weird way reminded me a lot of my old waterski days. I tried my best for a good family selfie. And this is what I got...... I kind of love pictures like this though, because it shows each of the kid's individual personalities.

On the way home from the air races we stopped for gas at Buccee's. And if you have ever been to Buccee's, you know it's the Mecca for all  roadtrippers in Texas...loaded down with tons of food and drinks and souvenirs and even home decor items. Not to mention the cleanest gas station bathrooms in the state. Well, when we pulled up to our pump I noticed a woman approaching my car pretty quickly, which can be a startling feeling when you're with your babies at a packed gas station (I'm talking like 100 cars, easy). I could tell she was shorter than me even though I only saw her approaching in my peripheral vision. My thought: "This could go one of two ways. This is either about to be awesome, or this lady is gonna get beat if she tries to get in my car." Result: AWESOME. Turns out the woman was our old friend Liz of the duo David and Liz from our days in the waterski team. They were heading the from the Aggie game and had pulled into Buccee's for a fill-up too. So fun it was to catch up for a few minuses and love on some old friends. Buccee's brings people together. :) Note:  I look sliiiiightly pregnant in this picture, but I assure you I am not.  Haha.

Then in mid September I was in Dallas again, this time with these to great women. This is my closest friend Katelyn and her sweet mamma, who have so graciously made me one of their own...an adopted sister/daughter....the tall one in the family.  They are two women who chase after The Lord, so who better to go to a Women of Faith conference with?? It is such a great weekend full of powerful speakers that spur you on in your faith walk. I left feeling recharged and excited about my walk with God and so grateful for these beautiful women. If you ever have the chance to attend one of these conferences, please don't hesitate. And, get me a ticket and I'll go with you. I'm a fun girl, we'll have a good time. 

Oh my gosh. My pretty pretty girl. I adore being a boy mom and a girl mom for such unique reasons. I love that I get to spend times like this with my girl. A girl who, not unlike her mamma, knows what she wants. Pink cheetah nails, to be exact. Spending the morning at the nail salon and then having lunch with this girl can just make a mamma's day. Done. 

Also in September we made the drive to east Texas to attend the funeral of our dear friend Andrew's dad who lost his battle with cancer. George was such a loving, sweet, happy man of God and it was a blessing to be able to be there as everyone paid their respects. And it was also so great to get to spend some time with our friends and their kiddos. After the funeral we went with Andrew and Kelly back to their hotel room and let our kids run amuck while we caught up over wine and Coke...Miller Lite and pita chips. At one point I started to grin to myself and got up and snapped this picture, because I realized what a different spot we were all in in our lives since we had first met a dozen years ago. Our time in a hotel room with Andrew and Kelly today looks much different than it did during our waterski team days.

Here's an idea of what our hotel rooms used to look like. Picture these 13 people in one room with two beds. Ahhhh college days (circa 2002 if memory serves)....

Sarah and Aiden, just two weeks apart. Ah-dorable. 

I didn't take many pictures when I was in the hospital.  Because I mean, who really does that??  My surgery was on October 8th and I came home on the 12th.  Here I am after they got me all dressed, with my sexy stockings and hospital socks on.  I took this at about 6 am and sent it to my girls so they could be jealous. 

I mentioned that I'm a preschool teacher in a previous post.  For the last two years I've taught Transition Kindergarden and I just absolutely l-o-v-e my job.  Love it.  I love the people I work with, I love what we do there, I love that I've been able to take my kids to work with me...I just love it all.  My friend and her sweet mamma that I showed you before are two of the women I work with. They made me this sweet poster from my kids at school and brought it up to me at the hospital.  Isn't it just so sweet??  Then when Jack, Sarah, and Makenzie came up and colored me a bunch of pictures.  I gotta brag...I had the best decorated hospital room on my hall. I'm a lucky lady.  :)

Couldn't post hospital pictures without the one of George....

(If you're not sure who George is, scroll down a bit more.)

As you can probably tell from all the stuff I did in September, I was really trying to cram a bunch of things in before I had surgery because I knew I'd be out of commission for a while afterward.  It was an abdominal surgery and they weren't able to do it laparascopically, so I had to be opened all the way, making the recovery a little longer.  One thing I did not cram into my schedule before surgery, however, was a hair appointment.  Because, wellllll....despite what you may believe, blonde is not my natural hair color.  I know...shocker right??  So once I was home and up for a field trip, Katelyn came and got me and we both had a touch up from my sweet hairdresser Kristina.  What a fun, girly hour and a half that was!!

I had to add this picture because it is just so cute.  Sarah really loves to "practice" school while she's home, and she is SO very proud when she finishes her work, gets it all right, and didn't have to ask for help. Proof that everything Sarah packs in her brain during the week doesn't fall out over the weekend. 

Jason has recently gotten current and begun flying again.  He got his pilot's license long ago, before we were married, but hadn't been flying in a quite a while. Part of his motivation for getting current was to be able to take his grandpa flying. I just love the sweetness of that, and how much he loves his grandpa.  Phil is just such a wonderful man, and Jason has always wanted to take him up.  So he and Jack flew him to Brenham where there is a 50s themed diner on the airfield.  The guys had lunch together and then flew home.  All three of them really loved it, and it's a sweet little memory that they will all be able to treasure. (Look real close.  This picture kinda cracks me up because it looks like Jason has three arms.  See it now??  Haha.  And my gosh.  Could Jack be more of a spaz in pictures? Geez, show us a tooth kid.)

The kids and Andrew, the last warm weekend of the year probably.  They had to give the pool a proper farewell.  L to R is Maddie, Jack and Sarah, and Makenzie.  They love swimming with him because he will just launch them from one end of the pool to the other.  He's basically a full grown 7 year old. 

I feel kinda lucky....like my neighbors!! For the most part they are really pretty fun.  On Halloween they put on a block party and we all went trick or treating together.  It was nice to sit in the driveway with a glass of wine and watch all the kids run off their sugar high before going in to bed.

Sarah's Frozen hair and bow.  She was pretty happy about it....my goodness am I glad all that Frozen costume drama is behind us.  That's a story for anther post, my gosh....

Here are our beauty and our beast, 2013 and 2014 (That is Jack in those pictures, I promise).

Best I could get......

Jason and Jack just love planes, and the first weekend of this month we took the kids to the Wings Over Houston air show.  I like planes a lot too considering I grew up with a pilot dad and brother and now have a pilot husband, so it was a fun way to spend a Saturday.  Our house is really close to the air field where they hold the show, and here Jack and Jason are on Sunday watching the show again in our backyard, this time for free. In the first picture you can see a tiny black speck in a blue break of the clouds.  That'd be a Blue Angel.  Haha.

This just cracks me up.  Last weekend we went to I Stand Sunday, a gathering of Christians at a local church.  It was right before election day and we were joining with fellow believers against some of the moves that local officials have tried to make in our city government, as well as against the general moral decline in our country and the pull of the government away from Christianity and towards political correctness.  This kind of thing you guys....it's my cup of tea.  If I hadn't been a teacher, I would have been a Poli Sci major, 100%.  There were tons of pastors there, along with Fox news anchors, Mike Huckabee, Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty...I mean this thing was legit.  It was a very charged event full of Republican Evangelicals.....and we took our kids.  :) Sarah caught the Baptist fever immediately, and she would stand and applaud every single time there was an ovation.  I just couldn't get enough.  My little Sarah Palin in the making.  Be still my conservative heart.