Counting My Blessings

Viva Mexico

James and I had the opportunity to spend a week in Punta Mita, Mexico. It was absolutely wonderful and a much needed break for this tired Mommy!!

The welcome reception our first night -gorgeous view and the best Mexican food ever!

A little boat brought in fish every day, and the guests could pick a fish and the chef would cook it for you- how cool is that?

The building where we stayed was surrounded by this lazy river.

The amazing pool

This vacation was exactly what every vacation should be. I spent every morning here - at the spa!!

I have a lot of catching up to do. This has been such a busy summer. I just feel like I can't catch up with anything. We had such a fun 4th of July that I wanted to post some pictures - better late than never right??!!

We had lots of family visit our lake house in Hot Springs. We all had so much fun and hope to do it again next year :)

Grandpa and Ava are ready for a boat ride

We didn't pull anyone on this, but the kids loved to sit on it when we stopped to swim.

Group picture (Aunt Linda was taking the picture). Love how James and his dad are in the background!

Sam jumping to Aunt Susan

Love this picture (and this boy) as you can tell!!

I tried so hard again to get a good 4th of July picture, but this is the best we could manage - ha!!

We let Ava stay up and watch fireworks . Words cannot express how much she loved it. She screamed and giggled for two days after.

Brayden, Sam, and Ava. Love the look of pure concentration on Sam's face :) And does Sam not look like he is Ava's age here? He is just three months older than Brayden. Why is my baby growing so fast (sniff)?

Uncle Alan, Ava, and Russell

Water Babies

We have been swimming like crazy lately in this heat. I will admit that I fought James tooth and nail over putting in a pool (and it still scares me a lot). On the other hand, it is nice to have it at home. There are a lot of things to pack and get ready to go to the pool - it is very nice to have all of that in the backyard. It has really saved me this summer.

Sam completely scared me the first day he got in the water. I wanted him to love it (and he does), but he has no fear. I have since taught him how to climb into the pool using the stairs instead of just falling into the pool anywhere. He still wants to jump in though and will jump off the diving board. He is wearing a little puddle jumper which has been great for him.

Ava just picked right up where she left off from last year. She is still wearing Floaties (which is fine with me) and is really comfortable swimming all around the pool. Right now we are working on putting her head under and floating on her back. Swim lesson will probably wait until next year!

I Am Still Here!!!

I sincerely apologize for not posting in so long (especially to Ann and Sammy)!! Has everyone else been as busy as I have been? Between school, working on the house, taking care of two monkeys, etc I have put some things to the side. I am not promising regular posts, but I am going to try to do better.

Also, I am having some computer issues. I am still in the process of changing computers, and I think I have lost a ton of pictures (which really bums me out). I was planning a big post on everything we have been up to in May, but I can't find my pictures anywhere!!

I did manage to hang on to my pictures of Memorial Day weekend though!!

On Friday night I got a real treat! I got to go with some of my girlfriends to a Sex and the City benefit and then got to the movie. This benefit was hosted by Katy Allen, and we did get to meet Kris Allen. I happened to be with some really big Kris Allen fans who all got pictures with him - I did not :( It was so fun to get dressed up though!!

Then on Saturday morning we headed to Conner's graduation party. It was such a fun time for everyone. We are so proud of Conner and wish him the best at U of A.

Then the kids and went to the lake where James and the Potts family were waiting for us. We had a house full of kids - 5 kids 5 and under!! We all had so much fun though!

Amanda, Sam and Brooks

Blakely and Ava are about to hit the water!!

Isn't this cute??!! Blakely kept saying, "Ava is my girlfriend."

Sam discovered popsicles!!

I will have another post soon about Sam in the pool - all I will say now is he has NO FEAR!!!!

Sam, Brooks, Ava, and Blakely

Bennet, Ava, and Blakely (they all did so well on the boat)!

Easter

We had a great Easter. The Easter Bunny did not disappoint and brought lots of candy, books, cars for Sam, and lip gloss for Ava. She did not appreciate the fact that Sam thought her lip gloss was candy!! Oh well! We spent the day in Russellville with my mom and Matthew. She made a wonderful dinner and put a lot of work into hiding eggs for the kids.

Is it just me - or does it look like James is trying to make a getaway to anyone else??

Time to hunt!! My mom had two areas - one for my little ones, and the other for Erica's kids.

On a side note, I really did take some pictures of Erica's kids hunting eggs, but they are just blurs in the picture. They were moving fast to get those eggs!

Catching Up

I have lots of things to write about Easter, but I am not organized enough yet to download the pictures. I will just catch you up on what has been going on.

We are redoing our living room. We sold most of our furniture, and we spent last week sitting on the floor :) Our new furniture is in, and I will post some pictures as soon as I am done decorating. I am already in love with it!

We are playing outside a lot. We go to the park, ride through the neighborhood in the wagon, play with chalk in the backyard, etc. Their favorite thing to do though is dig in the dirt.

I am just swamped with school. I have decided to take a class in May and two summer school classes, so it is not going to get better any time soon! I am just ready to get through.

I promise to write all about Easter this week (with all the pictures for Grandma and Grandpa).

Spring Has Sprung

It is officially spring since we made our little trip to Wye Mountain yesterday to see all the beautiful daffodils. Here are just a few of the pictures I took.

They pretty much refused to look at the camera the whole day :) The flowers were much more interesting I guess.