Avery's rainbow party

March through June marks our super-busy birthday run. Avery, Taylor, Bethany, then Matt. So that leaves an emotional, spent mommy J. It is wonderful, though. I love to celebrate these precious gifts in my life.

Avery was first up. My little sassafras turned 5! She is practically running out the door toward Kindergarten. She is such a strong little thing, yet very tender at the same time. I am curious to see how she does in school, because she does not like the spotlight. She comes across as timid and frail…just until she doesn’t get her way. Then she becomes about 7 feet tall. I love that she is so small, yet so spunky. She truly defines “Sugar & Spice”.

Avery asked for a rainbow party, so that’s what she got. It was pretty impromptu; I planned it in a few days. Our friends were so sweet to come at the last minute. We invited her buddies over to the park behind our house on a Friday at four, so big sis could be there. The weather was great, just windy enough to keep us cool. We had rainbow cupcakes (here’s where I got the idea), rainbow colored snacks, rainbow balloons, and rainbow favors. It was almost as bright and pretty as my Avery Faith.

The bday girl The daddy’s girl

Sweet sisters

With her Gram With her Nana Z

My Taylor, Bethany, & Avery Buddies

Shiner was a good boy fruit, skittles, trix, cupcakes

She hides from the bday song every year icing mustache

Sweet Brooke Bestie Kinley

Precious Peyton Lovely Fiorella

Cole, T’s “brother-from-another-mother” B and Joshua’s winning smile

Kimberly and Danna~check out her shoes! She had a blast opening presents

This is when I take a sec to mourn. The Olivers and the Appels are moving. L We will miss them SO much! Love you guys!!!

Rainbow Favors Taylor has been waiting for this moment

Shiner update, 21 weeks

Matt and Shiner have been working SO hard! I am very proud of both of them :). Shiner definitely has the commands "sit", "down", "here", "heel", "kennel", "drop", "okay" (as a release command), and "no sir" down pat. He can also wait to retrieve until you say "Shiner". This will be key when there are several dogs around in the field. He has now started to figure out Matt's hand signals. You can see in the last video, that Matt uses his left hand to show Shiner the direction to run for the dummy (in this case a paint roller). Right after I stopped filming, Matt threw two dummies in two different directions, and Shiner chose the correct one by watching Matt's hand signal. Pretty great for 21 weeks old! He also lost his first tooth (we think the first) today, but I'll spare you the pic.

Sweet Avery

I love this new picture of Avery. Our friends the Appels...who happen to moving away today *tear*...gave this hat to Avery for her birthday. She wore it in to Target yesterday, but upon receiving her first compliment, quickly put it in my purse. This girl has a hard time with public attention :).

Our two four-legged boys

I finally got a good picture of the two labs in our life. They were taking some time to snuggle last night. I love that their personalities are so similar.

Shiner is 15 weeks (and at least 30 lbs!), and Tucker is 12 years.

Random happenings...Puppy, Honor Choir, Vday School Party, & Marriage Retreat

I decided I'd better hurry up and update you on the pup. he is now 15 wks and 30 lbs. Well, he was 30 lbs Monday, so he's probably more than that! He is growing SO quickly. I knew he would, so I steal every snuggle I canget. He is extremely intelligent, and just today began whistle training with Matt. He'll be aseasoned retriever before we know it. He is also hysterical and has a funny little sense of humor. He is staying very laid back and fits in just perfectly around here.

Bethany took her very firstchoir trip to San Antonio on the 10th. She loved performing in the Katy ISD Honor Choir at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention. It's the largest of its kind in this country~hosting 25,000 music teachers that day alone. The all-state Choirs, Bands, and Orchestras all perform at this convention each year. It was fun for Matt and I, as we both reminisced about the years we attended this convention in college. I sure wished I could've stayed. Bethany rode the bus, while Mom drove the rest of us (including Shiner) pretty literally all day long. Dad, Sherry and Ron met us at the concert, and then we all headed to Mi Tierra for an early dinner. Thank goodness Bethany decided to ride home with us :). I am so thankful that myfamily loves my girl so well!

The next day, Bethany had her school Valentine's party. They had a craft, handed out Valentines, and then made theirown sundaes. Too fun!

That afternoon-thanks to mom again!-Matt and I headed out for our 1st Crossings Marriage Retreat. What a complete blessing. Chad Karger and his wife Meeka truly challenged us to really seek the Lord first. They had us spend A L O N E time searching the scriptures. Oh my word! We spent a glorious 24 hours at Pine Cove's Crier Creek with some of our closest friends. Bliss.

Cazadora Ranch

We have some friends that have quickly become family to us. Their actual family has a ranch wwwaaaayyyyy down in South Texas. Seriously. You can spit into Mexico. The Willinghams invited us on down to Cazadora Ranch, so we let Bethany skip school and we headed south. I am blessed because we did. There were smores, campfires, horseback riding, golf cart driving, playground playing, a goat rodeo, fishing, arrowhead hunting...I could go on! We were blessed beyond measure. Like our friend Daniel said...it was what you call sitting around and doing nothing. Perfect :). And just what we needed.

Scarlett, Taylor, and Cole ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kinley, Scarlett, Cole, and Taylor

Taylor enjoying dirt~~~~~~~~~~~~~Avery and one of the new kittens

Kinley and Cole~The girl loves to pose ;) ~~~~~~~~~~~~See Danna on the left? Kinley, Bethany and Honey, and Avery

Cole was SO gentle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bethany and the kitten

Shiner sunnin'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shiner and Bailey Willingham

Avery, Cole, and Bethany fishin' for nothin'~~~~~~~~~~~Bethany is in love with Scarlett, Kinley huggin' her

Me and Kimberly ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Campfire smores with dad

Avery hangin' out ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Avery's first driving lesson

Avery in a tree-who woulda thought?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A goat rodeo

Sweet Shiner boy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cole and Taylor "fixin" the fence

Everyone got a ride ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bethany and Willie

Sweet boys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~These girls love each other!

We found some paint!~~~~~~~~~~~Shiner jumped out of a boat and had his first swim!



So many arrowheads! Even a badge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~These boys had a mini-reunion every time they woke up :)