Happy Mother's Day

This past weekend, along with being a wonderful mother's day, we had some fun food experiments going. We introduced Isaac to his first solids-sweet potatoes. I can say with each day he seems to like them more and more. Vivi also had a first-first time to try chopsticks. Nick treated me to Pei Wei for my mother's lunch and Vivi wanted to use what we used, so Nick let her take a "stab" at it after we were done. Sunday night we had some friends over for some dinner and roll around time of the boys. You can see Isaac kept trying to eat Aaron's bib. Aaron who is a few weeks shy of Isaac's age also just started on solids. At dinner he kept groaning that he was hungry so we tried the sweet potatoes on him too. I wish I would have captured this shot as he ate two whole ice cubes! This is a lot for a little guy who's only been eating solids a few days! Check out the short slide show of my lovely Mother's day weekend. The last pic shows my treats-two homemade cards from Vivi and some lovely flowers from Ecquador-via Central Market. Thanks Mari for sending me flowers (just my joke as I have a friend that lives there and is always telling us of the pretty fresh flowers!)

Remember Dating

Nick surprised me with tickets to the opera this past weekend. It was an early Mother's Day treat. It was a nice night out- despite the crazy rain. God kept it cleared so we could get out and have dinner and the opera. When we came out the rain had stopped again and started pouring the second we pulled out of the garage in the car to head home. Talk about beautiful timing! We had to make sure and enjoy this night as it was a CRAZY busy weekend and so much was going on, but Nick had done this extra special for me including letting me get a new dress for the night. It was really fun to dress up and enjoy dinner without having to cut up someone else's meal and be disrupted 10 times-I love my kiddos but it's nice to have a real date every once in awhile. Thank you honey for a sweet time.

Tabasco Baby

I had to post a couple of shots of Isaac in his new Tabasco jammies from Nana and Papa. Check out this hot tamale! I posted a couple of shots of Isaac drooling over daddy's dinner. Don't worry we're starting him on solids this week! But the answer is no to daddy's beer.

Chucky Cheese

What kids do before the swine flu outbreak- go to Chucky Cheese. Nearly every day we pass the Chucky Cheese and Vivi says "We're not going to Chuck-o-cheese (her pronunciation) today." After much debate, and quandering how Vivi even knew about Chucky Cheese, I decided to cave. My sister and I took the kids last week, and I finally got to change her response- "We get to go to Chuck-o-Cheese!" Here is a small slideshow of shots. It really was better than I had remembered or expected and I'm glad I got it in before all of this, as it will probably be awhile before we return there.

Happy Birthday "D"

As mentioned before, we have a lot of birthdays in April. At the end of the month is "D" (what Vivi calls daddy)/Nick's birthday. It was a lot of fun this year thanks to all the family. Saturday night was Nick's company annual dinner and party. Nana and Papa babysat both kids so we could enjoy a night out kid-free! After the dinner they have a casino night which Nick dominated at the crabs table and ended up scoring a $100 gift card to Home Depot with his winnings. Sorry for the late night! Sunday we had a nice lunch at nana and papa's with my sister, bro-in-law, and niece joining us and then the grandparents watched all three kids and let us sneak in a movie! WHAT A TREAT! Sunday night we took Nick to his favorite burger joint Pappas burgers. It was quiet because Vivi had finally passed out in the car from a long day with no nap and Isaac slept pretty much the whole time we were there until the end. Happy Birthday honey!

Weekend of family time

This is from a few weekends back but I wanted to post some shots of our fun family weekend. Nick was out of town during this week for a conference and when he came back we just had a nice time hanging out as a family. Before daddy got home Vivi kept busy with a new dollar store find- Kung Fu Panda stickies. We also downloaded this movie so Vivi and I could watch it for the first time while we waited for daddy to get home. We enjoyed the time with popcorn and juice. (Now Vivi asks for movie and a popcorn every day after nap!) Friday night we went to our favorite family restaurant Pizza Hut. We just love dining in at the Benbrook Pizza hut! It's quiet with good big booths and Vivi loves the pizza and mommy loves the salad bar and breadsticks. This night Vivi loved messing with mommy's hair (don't worry this is afterwards when waiting for the check!) Saturday Vivi and mommy went to a friends birthday party that got moved from the park to her home because of rain. What is up with this rain?! I haven't "remembered" such a wet spring in awhile. It turned out a fun time with bubbles. Vivi was so into it that she slipped in the bubbles not two minutes into the party. We had to borrow a pair of pants. Thanks Randi! Vivi loved the bubbles so much we played with them more at home after naps. When the rain finally cleared on Sunday we had a nice afternoon. We packed sandwiches and headed to a local park. Vivi munched on an apple while watching daddy and mommy (attempted) frisbee time. Then daddy treated us to our favorite dessert- Braum's ice cream. See, you didn't know old Benbrook had such fun family treats! Thanks Nick for such a nice lowkey weekend. These are some of my favorite memories.

"Remember When"

Recently my mom shared with me a small excerpt from a daily devotional all about remembering what God has done for you. It quoted Psalm 77:11
"I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago." This devo encourages you to remember how He's brought you through the tough times so you can endure whatever new battle you are going through, but also to be grateful. It really struck me. My mom also looked up a bunch of verses with remember in them to encourage me. Another friend asked me how I was doing with two and all the transition. In keeping with trying to be transparent I told her it's tough, but she's also a young mom with three. I said "Wouldn't you agree?" I think it's tough for anyone with young kids. This is a tough time in our lives. I am so grateful that God has surrounded me with lots of encouraging believers and I do pray I will remember this time later in life. Some days it feels like I'm not going to make it to bedtime and other days I can't soak it all in fast enough. I must say I do see God's hand on me and my family frequently and I would like to express my gratitude for all the friends and family who have supported us. We feel very loved through this transition. Thanks! Take time to thank God for those who have blessed your families.