A Long Weekend

This weekend was a crazy beautiful long and very full one.  It was completely filled with small and special moments that made me smile and recognize just how blessed I am.  I woke up today sorry to see the past few days gone, but full of love and laughter because of them.  And really, isn't that what's life about in the long run?

On Friday Mike and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  It blows my mind not only that we've been together for so long but just that so much time has passed.  I remember very vividly my Dad telling a much younger me to hold on to my days because once I had a family of my own they would fly by me.  I'm finding out just how right he was.  The past 10 years have been nothing short of magical.  That's not to say that we haven't had bumps in the road because there have been many, more that I can honestly recount.  But I've chosen to focus on the good rather than dwell on the bad.  And I'm proud to say that I've spent the past decade married to an amazing guy. 

We celebrated right were we started, New York City.  (10 years ago, the two of us broke newlyweds spent our honeymoon exploring the city)

We came home from our trip to spend Monday soaking wet in out backyard having a picnic.  We slipped and slided, launched water balloons at one another, danced around in the kiddie pool, and squirted each other with water guns.  It was a fantastic way to beat the 90 degree heat.  And then we ate and ate and ate. 

The weekend ended with two boys passed out cold in their beds and Mike snoring away on the couch.  I took a nap earlier thanks to sheer exhaustion so I relaxed in a quiet house, surrounded by bubbles.

Yes, life is sweet.  And I'm so thankful for it.

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What we did this week:

Working on this pretty project.  I absolutely do not need yet another hobby, but I can't seem to resist embroidery.  It also didn't hurt that I was able to pick up something like 30 hoops in all different sizes for something like $7.00 at Goodwill.  Score!

Beautiful days full on sunshine is skirt weather according to me.  This beauty was actually another Goodwill score.  It makes me feel like a little girl again every time I wear a skirt.  Especially when a breeze comes along and makes it flutter in the wind.  Magical.

Yummy Asparagus.  Good Eats!  Tossed in a little olive oil and grilled.  So good.

After a roap trip to Target (the closest one to us is about an hour away.  How lame is that?!?) the hubs and I stopped into Chipotle.  Best burrito I've ever eaten in my entire life.  Have you ever been?

This little monkey made a cute ladybug hat out of a paper bowl.  And then wore it around all day long.  I could die from the overload of cuteness.

Watermelon.  One of the best parts of the summer hands down.  The colors.  That pretty vintage Pyrex bowl of mine.  What's not to love?

After two long months of sewing, I finally FINALLY finished my quilt.  It's huge and I'm in love with it.  I'll have to devote an entire post to it.  Sometime next week.

Another wonderful week full of love, good eats, sunshine, and laughter. 

Linking up!

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What we did this week:

We made these amazing S'mores Cookies thanks to a cupboard full of left over supplies from a recent backyard campfire.  As far as cookies go, they were pretty darn magical.  And I don't really like chocolate, so that's saying something.  Plus they just look fun, don't they?

Two silly little boys munching on burgers and fries and cracking open peanuts at Five Guys.  Any night that this momma doesn't have to cook dinner is a good night, but being out with these guys makes it that much better.  It's the little moments.

Hello Max!  I never officially posted about our newest furry friend.  This little guy wandered into a friend of mines garage looking for love.  Unfortunately there were allergy issues.  She couldn't bear to take him to the humane society and with a face like that who can blame her.  So Mr. Max came home with us because when it comes to animals I'm a big ol' softie.  And yes, I now have two cats named Max and Ruby.  If you're a momma you'll see the pure awesome-ness of this.

These wild beauties have been popping up all over parts of my backyard.  I don't know exactly what they are, but they sure are pretty.

After what I've been referring to as The Pre-k Travesty of 2012 we started transitioning Gage to homeschooling.  So far it's been more wonderful than I an even begin to express.  And getting to spend all day with this little guy again is pretty fantastic too.

A happy army of gifts for an amazing group of women on the MOPS Creative Activities Team, whom I was so blessed to be able to hang out with and lead this year. Inside was individual lemonade packets and a lemon shaped notepad.  Thanks for the idea, Pinterest!

Twins!  I got to babysit these two sweet little girls yesterday.  Two time's the fun!

It was a wonderful, and very full week.  We're enjoying the sunny skies and family fun time over here. 

Linking up!!

A Mother's Day

I'm still messing around with how things are looking around here.  Please bare with me.

I'm pretty sure that this Mother's Day was one of the most relaxed and wonderful that I've ever had.  The past few weeks have been hectic and uber-stressful.  Yesterday was a nice break from that.

The boys let me sleep in, eventually jumping on me and covering me is smooches as a wake up call.  In bed, with my eyes still thick with sleep I was thrust two cards from two little boys and some wonderful gifts.  The boys picked me some lovely wildflowers and gave me a personalized mom snow globe and Mike gave me Stephanie Nielson's book, which I had been searching for forever.  (Small town living has it's drawbacks occasionally.  Every single time I went to our one and only book store that book was sold out and I just hadn't gotten around to ordering it on Amazon yet)

We spent the day outside gathered around a fire and cooking on the grill.  Gage and I gathered pine cones to make bird feeders with until he got bored and scurried off to play in the dirt with his trucks.  Brayden and I tossed a ball back and forth for awhile and eventually Gage came back over and joined in.  A glorious and easy-going day indeed.

Brayden threw Gage the ball and his little five year arms just couldn't get high enough to catch it and over his head it soared, landing further down in the yard.  Of course Gage went after it, eager to try and put as much power as his brother had into his toss back.  But little Gage tripped and fell on some rocks from his dump truck dig site and skinned his knees up.  Daddy stepped in to take our places in the game of catch with Brayden and a teary eyed Gage and I walked into the house to cleaned up.

As wonderful as all of the above was, I will remember this part of Mother's Day and it's simple sweetness forever.  I held my little boy in my arms as he struggled with whether it was ok to cry or not as he transitions from small to big.  I told him it was ok to let it out because no one will ever love his as much as his mommy loves him.  I whispered in his ear that mommy hugs are magical and make everything better, even skinned knees.  And then I took Gage into the bathroom and gave him a bath to wash the dirt from an afternoon of playing away.  I dried him off and stuck a Spongebob band-aid on him and made his good as new. 

Soon a band-aid won't make him feel better and soon a hug from mom won't solve all of life's little problems.  I know that because I've had the joy of watching Brayden grow into a strong and capable young boy.  But yesterday and those quiet moments and whispers of love I'll cherish forever.