Will make you smile...

This couple will seriously brighten your day. :)

Mothers

I posted these 3 pics on Instagram for their mothers sweepstakes. 

I love being a mom, and I love our moms.

We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday since I worked on Sunday. The kids made me the sweetest gift and Madeline bought me a ring from JCP with her own money. So sweet. Oh and I got lotion hand and foot massages! Now why can't every day be mother's day?

For Mother's day I decided we would go have some fun at Spring Loaded. The whole family went and jumped! :) It was a lot of fun. The kids played several games of dodge ball with other kids. We had a good time. Here is one of the videos I took...

Spring Loaded was at the Texas Ski Ranch, so after we jumped up an appetite we walked next door to eat at one of my favorite places, Wahoo's!

When we returned home from the Texas Ski Ranch our neighbors next door were having a crawfish fest. So we joined them and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging with them! It was fun and the kids tried crawfish for the first time and loved it!

Lastly while I was at work yesterday I received and special delivery! From my kiddos, they really spoiled me! Yummy! I love them so much!

Lately...

So our family is adjusting to both of us working full time now. Come the weekend we try to plan a "family fun night" to spend some quality time together. It's also our 1 day a week we splurge and go out to eat. Stephen and I have been dieting for several weeks now. He's down 11lbs. and I'm down 6lbs. So tonight we took the kids to see Jurassic Park in 3D. They really enjoyed it. I can't believe that movie came out 20 years ago! I was 15 when I saw it. Man, I feel old! Afterwards we ate at a new burger joint called Smash Burgers. They were pretty good! Then we had to walk off our meal so we stopped by Sheplers and tried on some country wear.

Now that I'll be earning monthly bonuses, I plan on buying myself a pair of cowboy boots! These ones I tried on were over $300!

I love men in cowboy hats. :)

We have a winning boy here. Today at school he was awarded with a Kid of Character Award for having the best Integrity! So proud of him. And so was his sissy.

Last weekend our Godson, Anthony, was baptized! It was a beautiful celebration.

The little guy did awesome, He was so mellow throughout Mass.

And when he was baptized, not even a peep! I held him and his mom and I were waiting for him to react to the water on his head, but it did not bother him. 

He knew he was receiving God's amazing grace. ;)

He's such a doll. I love all of our Godchildren!

So lately (since my parents visited in March) Madeline has wanted to learn to speak Dutch. She's been practicing her counting in Dutch. :)

When I uploaded the above movie we were looking through our old uploads and found this one of Madeline. Amazing how much she's grown!

Born Again

A nostalgic post with my babies in their baptism outfits. Stephen and I were at Church earlier this week preparing for our newest Godson's baptism which will take place this Saturday. Stephen and I are now Godparents to 5 boys: Nathan, Elias, Dylan, Alexander and now Anthony. The first four are our nephews and Anthony is our dear friend's son who was born on February 1st this year. We are so honored our friends asked us to be his Godparents. 

When we were preparing earlier this week at Church the lecturer spoke about the origins of Godparents. Infant baptism has existed since the time of Jesus. Scripture shows us circumcision of eight-day old babies as the way of entering into the Old Covenant, baptism is the new "circumcision" for all people of the New Covenant Col 2:11-12. Peter and Paul baptized households including children and infants. So therefore the Catholic Church has baptized children and infants since the time of Jesus. In the times of early Christianity Godparents were there to give spiritual guidance to those baptized, especially if the parents were not Christians. Now a days we see the the role of a spiritual guider to be the parents role. However you can never have too many sponsoring, encouraging and uplifting a young Christian... it takes a village right?

I've made it a tradition to write to our Godson's at Easter time each year. Check in with them, remind them of their Faith, and most importantly of our Savior. Whether our Godson's grow up and remain in their Catholic faith they were baptized in, or if they choose another Christian denomination - my prayer is that they will always believe in our Savior Jesus Christ, that He died for our sins and only through Him shall we have everlasting life, Christ has died - Christ is risen - Christ will come again. 

Born Again...the Catholic way... 

 John 3:3,5 - Jesus says, "Truly, truly, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." 

 "The Church received from the Apostles the tradition of giving Baptism even to infants. For the Apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the innate stains of sins, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit." Origen, Commentary on Romans, 5:9 (A.D. 244). 

 "For He came to save all through means of Himself--all, I say, who through Him are born again to God--infants, and children, and boys, and youths, and old men." Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 2,22:4 (A.D. 180). 

"And they shall baptise the little children first. And if they can answer for themselves, let them answer. But if they cannot, let their parents answer or someone from their family." Hippolytus of Rome, Apostolic Tradition, 21 (c. A.D. 215).

WEEKENDS!

After 6 months at my job, working both Saturdays and Sundays I finally get my weekends back with the family!!! I went full time this week and my new days off are Fridays and Saturdays. It works out well because it leaves me Friday mornings to myself to clean and grocery shop, then Friday afternoons/evenings and all day Saturdays with my family!! Also I'm really happy because we can go to Church together as a family again. There is a Mass on Saturday evenings too so it works out great!

On Friday afternoon we headed over to COTA (Circuit of the Americas, only F1 race track in the US) to watch the Moto GP (Motorcycle Grand Prix). Stephen got VIP passes through his work. So it was free for us! :) We got to walk around the paddock area where all the riders and their crews are. Kids took a pic with this professional rider. They are from all over the world! Lots of international tourist were at the races too.

James loved watching the fast motorcycles. They were loud too!

We also were near the middle of the track where the emergency helicopter sat. It actually had to take off, looks like an elderly man was brought out on a stretcher and air lifted to a near by hospital.

COTA! So cool we have this venue here in Austin.

It was really cool to see how fast the motorcycles go, and how sharp they take the turns

While I worked today, Stephen took the kids back for round 2 of the 3 day event. Look who they met!? Barry from the show Storage Wars!!!

This weekend marked the 2 month mark until our Orlando vacation!!! I've gotten some great advice from cousin Michaela on tips for Disney World since they lived there for the summer. She suggest getting a camel backpack to stay hydrated in the parks. I've been pricing them out at sports stores, but found this one for a great deal $19 at Sam's Club this weekend. Anxious to test it out and see how it works. 

Saturday was James' last regular soccer game of the season. I've missed his last 2 games because of work. So I was excited to see him play. I will also get to see him play in his tournament next Saturday. I asked him how many goals he would score for mommy, he said 10. And I think he scored 18! He's become a stud at soccer!

And to end my weekend, after Church on Saturday evening my neighbor/friend, Kristen and her daughter Cheyenne invited Madeline and I to join them and their best friends for some manicures and pedicures! It was perfect because I was looking into trying out shellac. Now that I am consulting I have to point to a lot of things in the studio. So I am always self conscious on how my nails look. So far I like the shellac. We'll see how long it lasts.

And of course the girls loved getting their nails done!

Where do I begin?

Well it's been weeks since I've posted. What can I say, life got in the way. So where do I begin, what do I blog about. I'll just post random pics from the past month with short descriptions of each. :)

The week after my birthday I volunteered to chaperon Madeline's 3rd grade class to the Austin Zoo.

Madeline has a great teacher and student teacher, you can tell all the students love them.

It was a fun day with the animals!

I forgot why but I bought bottle whipped cream (never do) 

and as you can see Stephen and James had fun with it.

This Easter was actually the FIRST Easter I've ever had to work on. :( 

So before work on Holy Saturday I dyed eggs with the kids.

I made sure to make a bunch of candy filled eggs for them to hunt on Easter Sunday.

Our house guests from Hawaii and Stephen hid them and made it fun for them on Easter. Stephen also took the kids to Easter Sunday Mass.

Stephen and Madeline had a father-daughter date night. He took her to see a Spurs game down in San Antonio. Tickets courtesy of Uncle Steve & Braden.

Their seats were in the nose bleeds. Stephen wanted to scoot down closer but Madeline insisted they sit in their assigned seats and not break the rules. :)

They had a super fun night.

Is it just me or has this boy grown!?

I officially started my new position at work. I'm really enjoying it. And this week I went salary and full time. This job is definitely a blessing!

Remember awhile back when Stephen bought me tickets to see Kenny Chesney for my birthday!? Well we went to his concert, and it was such a good time!

My cousins, Pamela and Ariel, from Houston drove out and joined us at the concert.

Stephen just loves this shot of me the guy in the red shirt.

Kenny sounds awesome live! Sang all my favs!

The professional photographer at the rodeo finally emailed me with some awesome shots she got of James. Our rodeo cowboy still loves to look at his trophy. :)

We went to my coworker, Jennifer's wedding. My boss and coworkers all loved Stephen. 

Thankfully my boss is letting me leave early these last 4 weeks of CCD so I can finish teaching for the school year. My students recently wrote prayers for the needy to decorate our donation box. I'm going to miss teaching CCD next school year.

Soccer season is coming to an end. One more regular game and then the tournament. We've really seen James' skills grow during this, his 3rd season of soccer. He's mastered using both legs to move and kick the ball. I hope he wants to continue with soccer again in the Fall. 

It's fun to watch him.

WHOA that was a lot of catching up and pictures to post. 

Until next time. :)