Happy Easter!

My sweet, silly girl before church today. 

1 Peter 1:3 
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... 

Wordless Wednesday: Spring Gardening Edition

Tulsa Trip

I've been trying to add this post for the past week.  Between me not packing my camera, my mom e-mailing me photos, and us just being too plain busy to recap our trip, I just haven't done it.  So somewhere in my H drive is a super cute pic of Audrey on the trip up to Tulsa.  It was a 4 1/2 hour trip and she did great playing with her Leappad, watching movies, and just playing with her Barbies.  When we finally got to Tulsa Audrey was beside herself.  She loves her Uncle Eric so much!  Here are some pics of us from the Oklahoma Aquarium.

I can't find the other pictures my mom sent us, but the trip was pretty much spent with Auds bossing Laken around and wanting to be around her Uncle Eric.  A trip well spent!

Happiness

It's that wonderful time of year again, Spring Break!  So we of course made plans with our BFF's to head down to Klyde Warren Park again.  (You may remember my previous post about this amazing park, titled The Best Playdate Ever).  

When we met sweet Cade, Devyn, and Hilary, the kiddos played and had a blast.  And then they were hungry.  I was SO excited to grab some yummy food from the food trucks again.  Only we walked over and the line was insane.  Like you'll have to wait 30 minutes to place your order. Luckily Hilary is a Super Mommy (something I strive to be one day) and had packed multiple PB&J sandwiches complete with sides and drinks for all of the kids.  Nice.  So we sat down (on the blanket she packed) and enjoyed a really nice lunch. Until a class on a school field trip decided to sit on our blanket with us.  I can't do this story justice.  We were just sitting there having a nice time when a class of like 30 kids seriously put their chairs on our blanket.  Hilary and I just kept looking at each other and cracking up.  I am still laughing about it!  But anywho, we then made it over to where a guy was singing and playing his guitar.

Audrey and Cade were so sweet.  They held hands and danced together and just had so much fun.  It was pure happiness.  

Love This

My friend posted this on facebook today.  (And yes, I do think about how when Audrey reads back through the print outs of this blog she'll be all "What is this facebook?"  Now we have xyzsupercoolnewtechnology.")  Anywho, it made me tear up.  Here's to treasuring the moment.

Best Mommy Moment #923

I love Audrey's school for so many reasons, but mainly because they have a wonderful Christian-based curriculum.  They have bible lessons and worship during the week.  One of my favorite things in the whole entire world is to hear Audrey sing her worship songs.  Tonight in the bath she was singing a new one called "I'm counting on God."  After she finished singing it, I asked her what it meant to count on God.  She wasn't too sure, so I explained to her that it meant if we were unsure about something or really wanted something to happen, we could pray to God about it and we could trust in him that the right thing would happen. She immediately bowed her head and put her hands together.  I rushed to grab my phone and caught her just in time praying.  She was saying "God, I miss my friend Madi.  Please let us have a playdate soon.  I pray to see my Nana and Papa soon."  Seriously.  So sweet.

Good Mom Friends

When you have kids, your social life changes.  It no longer revolves around you, but your child.  And your child is not always the best guest.  Or host.  Or friend.  So it's important that you surround yourself with mom friends who "get it."  Some women like to spend all of their time with you telling you about how great, potty-trained, able to write all of the letters, perfect their kids are.  Those ladies wouldn't last long with us as Audrey tends to push the limits at playdates sometimes.  So I am so blessed to have so many wonderful women in my life who help me to be a better mom.  Those who are open and honest about the challenges of parenting.  Just this past week I talked with my friend at work who is going through her own issues with her strong-willed child.  This particular friend is one of those people who always just has it together.  So to hear her open up about her frustrations with her child made me feel like "Ok, if YOU struggle with your child sometimes, then it's ok that I do too!"  

We had a long week.  After trying to get Audrey back on schedule after getting back from her grandparents, dealing with her really missing her Daddy, and with me being on my own for a whole week, we are both a little tired tonight.  But we had plans to meet up with Audrey's BFF and her mom at Chick-Fil-A for dinner tonight.  And by dinner I mean we met at 5:15.  (and I was already exhausted!)  Just as we were sitting down and I was worrying that I wouldn't be able to put a sentence together and enjoy dinner, my friend looked at me and said "I'm exhausted.  We have had THE worst week."  Ok then.  You're speaking my language.  We spent the next hour talking about parenting, in between the girls having to go potty, coming in and out of the play area, and arguing over toys.  We shared stories about issues our girls were having.  How we were handling them.  It was just so nice to spend some down time talking with a friend who is dealing with the same exact issues I am.  Who is HONEST about it.  Parenting is hard.  I love being able to share stories with other parents.  It keeps me sane!  I am so thankful for the wonderful friends that Audrey and I both have.