27 years

The weekend after mother's day was my birthday. Britton did a great job of making both weekends special for me. The morning of my birthday, some friends watched the boys while Britton took me shopping. We wanted to get a local style dress, but all the women here are sticks, so nothing fit. We headed over to a Western-style shopping area where I got 2 new dresses. It was just nice to get out with Britton by ourselves and walk around with no kids. That night we went to my favorite western restaurant in our city then watched "Parental Guidance" that night...cute movie. The next day we met with friends where to my surprise, they made me a cake! So sweet. It's been a great 27 years, and the Lord has certainly blessed me with A LOT. I'm so grateful for where I am and the direction He has me going.

On the day of my birthday, some locals brought me a cake that they bought at a cake shop here. It was pretty much something like whip cream with actual cake the size of my fist in the center. Don't ask me what all is on the top! The sign says Happy Birthday.

 At our fav restaurant. Britton always orders us fried cheese sticks on special occasions. I also got a mint milkshake. That particular shake is yummy, but it really needs chocolate chips. SO, leave it to me to bring my own bag of chocolate chips with me to make my very own and very delicious mint chocolate chip milkshake. So yum! Caden is totally engrossed in watching a movie on my iPod. He got to do this so Britton and I could have a civilized conversation. I think Grady wants some milkshake.

 We stopped at our swing on our way back into the apartment. Love my boy.

 The next day when my friends made me a yummy cake with 27candles. Crazy! I nearly blew them all out in one breath...nearly.

 My tutor got me this framed picture of my local name in ancient calligraphy characters. So very special.

 Thank you to so many of you who wrote sweet notes and emails to me for my bday. It's always great being remembered!

Mother's Day

I love being a mother. It definitely makes me appreciate my mom even more. But really, I feel like Mother's Day is so much more a celebration of thankfulness just for being a mom than it is being celebrated. I love and adore my two boys and can't imagine life being different. They are such great boys largely in part because they have such a great daddy, which also makes me so grateful for his mama because she raised him so well. My home full of boys puts up a lot with me, but they are always so good and sweet to me. So, Happy Mother's Day to all the mama's influencing this Mama. You are greatly loved.

The day before Mother's Day, Britton went out with Caden and Grady to get me this huge bouquet of gorgeous flowers.

No one was in the photo taking mood, but Britton knows how much they mean to me, so he was insistent with Caden specifically to take a photo. I look engulfed by kids.

I love this little boy so much more out of the womb. How does that little face not melt you?!

My sweet precious boys.

My one request was to go to Dairy Queen...it was yummy

After ice cream and walking around, we went to this underground tunnel (sounds weird, I know) where tons of stuff is sold and where there are some nail spots. They did some nail art on my nails. Caden still rubs my finger nails and asks me where the flowers went.

Thank you to my mom for being my mom, my friend, and my mentor. I love you more than words can say.

And thank you to Donna, Britton's mom, for also loving me so well and for being such a good mom to Britton and molding him into the sweet man he is to me.

Happy Mother's Day!

Never too old...

...to play at an amusement park! We love our local park here and always seem to blow a lot of money there. I think we have 5+ posts just on this park. The worst part about going though is leaving because you would have thought we took the world away from Caden. This time we went with some local friends which was great for Caden. I'm pretty sure Britton jumped on any chance he had to ride some rides...the most daring rides.

Ever since I've had kids, my equilibrium isn't quite what it used to be. So, rides like this one I would have normally jumped on, but now I enjoy being the photographer/videographer (see below for a video of the rides).

 On this ride, the seats turn in circles while the whole thing is turning in a circle. Eeek. I'm sure the view was nice.

 I love the faces on all these guys. The guy on the far left looks like he's regretting getting on. Britton looks like an 8 year old. The guy on Britton's right looks like he's having the time of his life. And the guy on the far right looks like he just wet his pants.

 There was an 'inside' area with a huge bouncey thing that Caden loved being on. His poor little friends were worn out!

 He went from one thing to the next.

 His little buddy.

 I had to feed Grady while Britton rode a lot of the rides with Caden. Fortunately, I was able to get a ride in at the end. Love Caden's face here.

 Here's a few short videos of Britton's crazy rides and mine and Caden's ride.