6 years ago....

6 years ago - my Mom left this world to go to heaven
6 years ago - I was 30 weeks pregnant with our precious Mikayla that my little momma didn't get to meet
6 years ago - I lost one of my life long best friends

I'm so thankful she was my mom and I learned so much from her. Her gentle ways...I find myself thinking a lot about her and how she made parenting seem so easy - if she was as tired at the end of the day as I am...I never knew it.

I am so happy we had the time we did - I really cherish it now. I cherish the silly jokes - remember the laugh attacks - love the memories of it all.



My dad painted us all these shirts...he wanted his girls to match.... now all three hang in my closet.

I wouldn't trade it for the world - just wish that we had more time.... so anyone reading this.... hug your moms, sisters, friends....loved ones tight...because the time goes fast!

Focus on making good memories not worrying about the bad ones.

I really try to do that with Mikayla - do I go overboard on some things...absolutely..... but ohhhh what fun we have!!!

I can't believe it's been 6 years...it's amazing how fast the time goes.

Seriously......

Well....I know we all have to do it... but I really thought this was ridiculous!! We have officially dubbed Monday's as "Move Out Monday".... this is all the gear I need in order to leave the house.... (ignore the cords in the background - we had a bunch of stuff charging) - but we have nap mat, back pack, dance bag (all stocked full of necessary items and lunch/snacks/drinks)... my work bag - grocery sack for the week, lunch, and purse (of course daily to go coffee cup) ... it takes multiple trips to get to the car LOL!

WOW Rockin Weekend

We had a GREAT weekend. It was so nice to be able to enjoy a great boat ride AND get some stuff done around the house, I have quite a project list that we need to tackle and FAST!

Here are some "action" shots - I was trying to capture the splash when we hit the waves.... it really was a great ride- we were probably going around 6 knots with just one sail up, had we put the other one up I'm sure we'd go the max hull speed, it was windy out there!!!

We had such a good time!! After our sail we went to the pool for awhile to cool off, then showered and then went to dinner, we got home around 11:00 pm... oopsie... it was a great day - we couldn't stop!!!

You can see the white sticks sticking out of the water, they mark the oyster reef, there are two of them where we go play and seriously - they should mark it better than white sticks somehow because what if you were coming into the bay at night - and what if you didn't know the reef was there?



This is what Mikayla was doing during part of our ride - she got out her sleeping bag and laid down... well we were heeling over (tipping) with the wind and direction we were going...so she would slide.... she slid from here....

to here.......

to here.......

and over all the way to the wall...she slept through the whole thing (although I'm sure she was HOT with the jacket on too) - it was funny!!!

I took a little video of our ride (turn speakers down because all you hear is wind).

In this video, Mikayla wanted to do a "commercial" but again...turn speakers down because of the wind...

Here's our little cowgirl ready to go do our weekly grocery shopping Sunday evening! I love the boots!! It's her favorite shoe right now!

Rochester, New York

Do you ever think back to a time in your life where you can very honestly say OH WOW that was such a great time!!

When we lived in Rochester - it was awesome, we had Lake Ontario at our finger tips (complete with sail boat for daily rides all summer long), beautiful spring, summer and fall weather. We were soooooo happy living there. (Now I'm not at all suggesting that we're not happy here I'm just doing a little reminiscing and thinking back to some really great times).

The roads are awesome.... just imagine them all snow covered and wintery - beautiful!

Our Lake Ontario

When we were in New York in July, we made a point to drive back through Rochester.... and it made me realize again how awesome it was to live there.

Especially when we saw this....

It was Barry's Crescent Beach the day of our wedding reception. I don't know why but when we were there, it sure went into my memory bank and brought one of the most awesome days of my life back to the forefront.

Here is is now.... the most precious wedding reception spot in the world!

When I looked at this gazebo...


This is what I saw.... and felt...and remembered!

here we are - 13 years later

Here is the house we lived in....

again...this is what I saw and felt and relived when we drove past it.


We went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner - we even sat in the same booth we used to sit in.



It was soooo good to be back there... so fun remembering... it was one of those moments/times in life that I would freeze frame it so that I don't ever forget, I'm glad we've moved and Texas has been very good to us, it was just really fun to go back in time for awhile and even more fun was that we got to take Mikayla with us and show her something incredibly special!

Beach Days!

What a GREAT day we had... we got up early to head down to the beach to meet our friends! Before we left... Michael and Mikayla gave me some birthday presents... this is one of them!! YAY!!! I can't wait till we can all go riding together! Fun times ahead for sure!! (I have since discovered that Mikayla needs a new bike too...she sure could slow down on getting so tall so fast!)

Then we headed out. It seemed to take forever to get there it was a long ride but I think us being anxious to get there made it take even longer!!

We rode the ferry for the first time!!! It was awesome - I can't believe how many cars the ferry can hold!!! Here we are getting ready to drive on to it...

all loaded up!

We got out and walked around for awhile - and GUESS WHAT WE SAW!!!

TONS of dolphins!! It was awesome, they were jumping out of the water and playing and generally having a great time and giving us a great show!! It was fabulous!!! Mikayla was beside herself!!

Then we were back on land....

FINALLY!!!! We found our friends!!



Here are the kiddos playing - we were all to busy for a formal picture so this will just have to do ;)

They really had a good time together! It was soooo great!!!

I LOVED riding the waves!! We spent a LOT of time out in the water!

This is Little Miss on the way back home.... she fell asleep while "writing" in her journal - she slept all the way back home...ahhh now that's a good day!!! We can't wait to meet up with everyone again!

10 Pandas and a Wedding

How's that for a weird header :) well I wanted to do something fun with Mikayla's nails this weekend...so here is attempt #1 (not final) for giving her 10 panda friends. :) She LOVED them, she cried when I was taking them off (she can't have nail polish at school). So until we meet again little friends.



Here is Little Miss just before we left for the wedding. One of Mikayla's favorite teachers is getting married!!



Seriously - such a poser!

I love weddings!!

Here the kids are waiting for the dancing to begin at the "party" I think this little man is getting ready to make a move on M.... what do you think? Sorry guy - she says she's going to marry Mitchell...you'll have to take it up with him.... (notice the shoes off - ready to boogie!)

Cake time!!

Miss Lauren and Mikayla! I'm 100% certain the affection is felt both ways!!

Mikayla did the dollar dance with Lauren..... THREE times!! She didn't want to dance with the groom.... LOL

If you look at the high center of the picture - you'll see Lauren's bouquet flying... Mikayla is clearly interested in catching it :) LOL!!!

We had a GREAT time!!! We love Lauren so and are so happy we could share her special day!!

Aerial's in the house!

We went to a birthday party this weekend and Aerial came to visit. Mikayla was SOOOOOO into Aerial - I couldn't believe it. She believes to her very heart of hearts this was the real Aerial!!!

It was awesome! I'm so happy she got so much joy from seeing her.

Mikayla dressed up as Jasmine and Aerial told her that Jasmine was one of her very best friends....that made Mikayla's whole day!!!

She read the girls a story.

Gave them some make up and pixy dust that her friend Tinker Bell gave her.

she danced with them...

Played Sleeping Beauty....

did a conga line.....

Posed outside by the pool.

It was just one of those moments that changed Mikayla.... she just really believes she met her... and it makes her SO happy - her heart sings for sure!!