Too Many Selfies in one Post

Gotta take a pic when you realize everyone is wearing Celebrate Always Tees!

(But Ben, I guess.  He did not get the memo)

 Sawyer wrote this poem at school and I just think its so perfect.

 My shop and overalls and the season that I wore a bandana as a scarf every single day. 

 Getting to see Landon and Nathan and Mason more lately and then they came to Ben's soccer game! It just made our whole life.

 Lunch with two of the Willbanks ladies!

 Shea.

 Jan and Gayle and my mom and her team helped with Teacher Appreciation this year and I think it went so great.

 Gayle made a whole brunch and Jan did flowers for everyone and my mom stuffed some Yetis with cash and gave one to everyone at school.  It was just so amazing to get to be the distributor of so many of these gifts.  The teachers cried, sent cards, gave hugs, sent messages and so much more.  They were so grateful and I am so grateful for all they do for our kids and our community.  I could go on and on about how great our school is and I hope they felt that for that week.

 Also, Honi's Coffee came and did a whole coffee bar for FREE!

 And the last day of Teacher Appreciation was on Cinco De Mayo so it was so fun to wear my Mexican dress and hand out all the Yetis.  I was nervous since most of our school is hispanic and so many of them are from Mexico that I may look dumb, but it was completely the opposite! They all complimented my dress and told me stories of how they had to make them in school when they were in like first grade!

 Mom came over to watch the kids later that week and we went to the Rangers game. 

It is hard to put into words how grateful I am for Jeff.  Lately I have had that panic "please God dont let anything happen to him!". He has been there for me through so much this past year, and I know I would be lost without him.  He has listened to me over and over talk about the same things over and over and with so much patience and wisdom.  Where we used to try and fix each others problems and get frustrated with different points of view, we have grown and can appreciate each others strengths and perspectives and different ways of handling situations.  I feel so safe and loved and known. And appreciated.  In the midst of crying all the time and depression and compulsive thoughts over things I can not change, he is my constant reminder of peace and that I am loved no matter what.  I have seen God move in our marriage more than I ever thought possible and I just dont know what I would do without his support and love.  Thank you Jeff.  I love you so much.

Lucky 13

Bob and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this Monday. We had a quick lunch date before we picked the girls up for a dentist appointment. I love doing life with Bob. He truly makes everything more fun! He leads our family by being an example of a humble and strong man who loves the Lord each and every day. 

Girls had swim at 6 that night so we decided to pick up dinner on the way home from that. If you live anywhere near Fort Worth I highly recommend Gus's Fried Chicken. It is so so good! 

I love to bust out my wedding dress whenever I can. It stays on a hanger in our coat closet and is no where near preserved or clean. I was going to cook breakfast in it that morning but snooze buttons were hit and things got crazy.  I decided to put it on for dinner, which happened to be in the front yard. When Ella first realized what was happening she gave me the eyes and was like, mom are you going outside with that on?! You bet I am.

 It ended up being such a fun night! Bob is slightly obsessed with Tiff Treats (a cookie company that delivers hot fresh cookies) so I had a box delivered while we were still out front eating dinner. We passed out fresh cookies to all the neighbors that came out and random people who drove by saying congrats, haha!

It was amazing and made me so happy to celebrate with so many people!

Easter 2017

Happy Easter from both sides of the shower.

Annual cousin egg hunt was a hit, per usual and everyone found a big egg.

Hawaii!

Hey guys! I'm on Hawaii time and loving it! I wish I could be a morning person in real life. I have gotten so many things done today and it's not even 10am here. 

I am sitting in the same hotel Bob and I came to on our honeymoon almost 13 years ago. On our honeymoon we told ourselves that we would come back here for our 10 year anniversary. Turned out a trip like this wasn't doable in the middle of residency and moving to Fort Worth, so we never made it back. This trip still wouldn't be doable for us if it wasn't for it being a paid work trip for Bob. It was so crazy that his conference happened to be in Kauai at the excact hotel we honeymooned in. It was meant to be! The only bummer is that Bob has to be in meetings from 7-1pm every day but that is the only reason I am blogging and I am so happy about it! I am years behind on blogging and I have been so sad about it so I am going to try and catch up on the last couple years. I will back post most of them so I will be able to find them one day.

Before I start reminiscing about the past let me talk about the amazing-ness of what is happening right now. This place is breathtakingly beautiful. Getting here was rough but that's only because I have a severe anxiety flying and traveling away from my children. So the combo was a dosey. There was a point in the flight were the turbulence was so bad for almost an hour straight. People were puking left and right. It was crazy. I get motion sickness so easily so I had already taken some prescription meds that saved me from drawing attention to myself. I am like the loudest thrower upper ever. Bob says it's like I'm calling for dinosaurs. 

Anyways, after all that it has been nothing but sunshine and rainbows! 

And to top it all off, I basically had dinner with Britney Spears last night. Yep. Britney Spears! I still can't get over it and I have taken my celeb sighting to a level of annoyance with Bob. He probably wants to say (or sing to me) You Drive Me Crazy. I just can't help it though! Oops..I Did It Again.

We went to eat dinner at a place in the hotel last night and the second I sat in my chair and looked up I saw her. I was thinking no way that's really Britney sitting just tables away from me and I whisper to Bob, I'm like 90% sure that Britney Spears is here! He turns around to look and immediately tells me I'm wrong. The more I stare the more certain I am and we even made eye contact like 5 times. I couldn't stop staring! I even put on my sunglasses so I could stare without her knowing but it was way weird since in was dark in the place. So I just embraced my creepiness and gave her the wide open mouth smiles every time she would look at me. She got up to use the restroom and the second she stood up a bodyguard followed behind her. That's when Bob was like, omg you are so right babe! She looked fantastic and so cute! Every time a waiter would come by our table and ask how things were I would say did you guys know Britney Spears is here?! They would laugh and say that they were told not to say anything or tell anyone that she was there. The manager even came by and asked if we were celebrating anything. Bob says, yes our 13th anniversary and I say Britney Spears! Haha! 

Naturally I woke up at 5:30 this morning and went straight to the hotel gym. These two things never happen on vacation but I felt like it's what Britney would do!

So here I am sitting in the open lobby blogging and keeping my eyes peeled for good ole Brit. This is the life. 

The girls are having a blast with my parents and my mom dad are rocking the school/soccer practice craziness like champs. Face time has been so fun!

Bob and I only had a few pictures from our honeymoon but we are trying to redo each photo on this trip. 

This one wins most improved for sure! The first pic was 13 years ago and my nerve damage and muscle weakness was so bad from my accident that I couldn't even walk on the sand. Bob had to carry me everywhere. There is a cliff on the ocean that has an incredible view. Bob put me on his back and carried me all the way to the top on our honeymoon. Yesterday we walked it hand in hand in flip flops! Pretty cool. God is good!

Hopefully I'll be back with more of this week and maybe a picture or two of Brit and I hanging out.  

Spring Break (better late than never...)

We went skiing with my parents for the beginning and it was just so fun to see the kids improve.

Jeff stayed out one day with me even when we were cold and the powder was big.  It was so much fun. I love love to ski and Jeff likes it, but I am definitely the one who makes us stay out. And it just made it so much better to do it together.

That portrait mode oh my gosh. I love Jeff's phone.

Avery opted to stay in this day and we had a blast blowing and going with the twins.  They are so much better by the end of the trip and we just had so much fun going up and down over and over with them.

 Then Ben got to go fish with Papa and Jeff and he had the time of his life.

 And to make the break even better, he went hunting with Jeff and Daniel. I dont think that kid could have had more fun if he tried.

 The girls and I had a girls day and got their nails done (I am way to shy and socially awkward to do it myself, but they were so cute with theirs!) and went to see hidden figures.  It was amazing- if you haven't seen it rent it today! 

And then school started back with playdates and homework and tutoring and actually making dinner....