A lot of ins and a lot of outs...

So...spring is here! I mean.  The weather is just too much.
Too much goodness!
It is cool in the morning and hot in the afternoon and then cool at night again.  uh mazing.  We haven't been doing anything really different or fantastic as of late, but it has been nice.
We got a kiddie pool from the wal mart.

and we are

love-ing it.





Ben pulled out the big guns

but really did not have any time for sassy's.

We went to the park a few times with julie and the fam before they are out of here and I cant be pried out of my closet with a forklift because of obsessive mourning.

How can I not see this face every week??

Avery's school had a little carnival last weekend and it was a blast.

We took our neighbor and it was just like I always dreamt it would be- we waited in line for one activity that 2/3 of my kids chickened out of, and then got a sno cone and left. Thats the stuff dreams are made of, right there.

(I have no idea what the mark is on sawyer's head and clearly everyone dressed themselves in age inappropriate attire...)
Hope you guys had a great week too!

copycat

I would say Ella is a pretty well behaved kid. I mean, she has her moments and days just like we all do, but most of the time she follows the rules. 

When I picked her up from school the other day, her sweet teacher was telling me that Ella hadn't been following the rules and when she would try to talk with Ella about it, she would close her eyes real tight and puff her cheeks out. She had Ella show me the face and assumed she had done it at home too. This was the first time I had seen Ella make that face. I asked her where it came from and she said "Poppa." Ella's teacher and I burst out laughing. I explained to Ella that when an adult is talking to her (especially if you are in trouble) you look them in the eyes and listen. Then I called my dad. He got a kick out of it too but said he doesn't make that face. It's such a classic Poppa face, he doesn't even realize it.

Speaking of Poppa, he had a birthday last Thursday! The girls made him a beautiful hand painted canvas. 

I saw the idea on pinterest. I bought a black canvas from Hobby Lobby and taped off "I heart Poppa." I now realize that it would have been much faster and looked much better if I had used my silhouette to cut letters out of vinyl. 

I mixed finger paint to shades of cameo and let the girls go at it.

McKenna was vey hesitate at first but then loved it so much that she decided to paint her car.

Happy Birthday Dad! I am so thankful for the man that you are and my girls adore you. It would be ok with me if they copied you always. You are a wonderful role model. I love you so much!

Easter in lubbock!

Remember when we moved in Casa Grande with our sweet friends Jordan, Brittany and Chris? Well, we had a little casa grande reunion this last weekend and it was absolutely perfect! 

Chris is moving to Midland next weekend and Jordan, Brittany and Cooper are headed to Boston in a few months. All this adult life stuff is no fun when everyone moves apart. It was so good to spend the weekend back in casa grande with everyone. So so good!

The boys smoked A LOT of meat (brisket, pork, turkey and salmon)

and us girls ate a lot of meat, along with everything else. Good thing I brought my Insanity workout and made Brittany and Amy do it with me:)

Ok, here is a little random side note to tie in this next story.

My mom put a pie in my face at one of my birthday parties. She is so fun! It was a complete shock to me but I loved it.!

I even got another surprise pie in my face for my 16th birthday when I walked into Kristen's house!

Ella is the kid that loves to watch my wedding video and look through old pictures of me growing up. After seeing these pictures, she has told me for the longest time that she wants a pie in her face like Jo Jo did to me. Well, Brittany and Amy helped me make Ella's wish come true and it couldn't have been more fun! Cooper's 1st birthday party (which looked amazing!) was a couple of weeks ago and Brittany had three sheets of cake leftover in the freezer. Amy had the genius idea to ice them and smash one in Ella's face. It was priceless and I am so thankful Brittany took pictures of the whole thing.
I wanted to make sure this wasn't going to traumatize Ella so earlier that day I asked her if she would laugh or cry if someone put a cake in her face. She told me she would laugh. I couldn't wait! After dinner I told Ella that we had a surprise for her and she needed to sit in the chair with her eyes closed.

I snuck up behind with cake in hand and smashed it in her face.

I obviously thought it was hilarious.

Ella was shocked but loved it!


It only got better from there.
Amy let Ella smash a cake in her face too!


Chris protected Cooper and Kenna while Bob and Jordan joined in on the fun.

My friend Celeste stopped by and was lucky enough to witness all this cake craziness! It was just so fun!
It really was the best weekend and we loved spending Easter with our sweet sweet friends! Love you guys so much!


Thank you Brittany for being the best hostess and taking pictures!