Fourth of July Flag

I forgot to post a picture of the flag I made for the Fourth! 

( I combined a couple of different "tutorials" to come up with it but I made it out of beadboard.)

Dallas in July

We spent the first 2 weeks of July in Dallas and left just as temps were creeping into the 105+ temps.  WHOA!  The biggest deal for me personally on this trip was... I traveled with the boys BY MYSELF!  I did it!  Buying Pierce his own seat was my lifesaver.  Everyone had their own seat and really we all did great :)  I had enough people praying for me and I know it worked!!

We spent every morning in the pool.  We spent every afternoon after naps in the pool.  And we spent the last hour of the day in the pool.  And many nights the later counted as baths.  Does that make me a bad mom??!  :)  And we LOVED every second! (and i'm so mad at myself for not taking any pictures... all i have are videos- ugh!)

Here are some highlights of our 2 weeks in Dallas...

all snacked up and happy and ready to get to "dallas texas"

we spent a morning visiting the GINORMOUS cabella's store in allen- boys. loved. it!

we rode the DART train down to northpark and saw "cars" (on my birthday- my how birthdays have changed- ha!)

please look at Jake's face- priceless excitement :)

but i got to pick lunch- it was not a difficult decision!  i LOVE chick-fil-a!!

spent 4th of july with my family watching fireworks from TCA (my school from 1-12 grade)

i seriously can't get enough of this little person!

had a family "first"- took the boys to their first baseball game.  it wasn't the rangers but the roughriders (minor league team here in dallas) and it was just as fun!

mark and i had a date :)

and what's a trip to dallas without visiting the john deere tractor store?!?

As always, our time in Dallas goes way too fast!  My parents go above and beyond in loving us and spoiling us and every moment is treasured!  Until November...

Father's Day

We had a wonderful day celebrating Mark on Father's day.  He is an incredible dad to both Jake and Pierce and we ALL just completely adore him!

Hot Air Balloon Classic

I would say that we woke the kids up at the crack of dawn to come to this but sadly, my kids normally wake up at the crack of dawn... one day they will sleep in, right???  sigh...

Every year in Sonoma county there is a hot air balloon classic and we went for the first time this year.  The boys loved it!

we found a perfect spot to sit and plopped down to watch.  they were so close to us being blown up.

a little glimpse of Jesus in Sonoma County!  :)  

Last Day of Preschool

Jake's last day of preschool was the first week of June.  I cannot tell you how much we have loved being at Live Oak this year.  The school, the teachers, the new friends (that both Jake and I have made) all have been wonderful.  And most importantly, Jake loved every minute of it.

while Twitch here looks a little whatever, the "real" twitch is a (pretend to adults) mouse that lives in a tiny house at the base of a tree on the playground here at live oak.  he sleeps during the day which is why no one ever sees him and he works at night at the local pizza place here in healdsburg.  the kids will write little notes/draw pictures and put them in twitch's mailbox and the next day he has written them back!  it's a precious little tradition and one the kids LOVE! 

jake's final job on the last day- feed the fish- his FAVORITE job!  :)

there was an ice cream party at the end of the class

sweet friend, Ruby and teacher Melanie- we love her!!

Looking forward to going THREE days a week this year!

Memorial Day and a few "extras"

Gracious, I'm behind on my blog.  

Here is a picture of the boys from Memorial Day.  And honestly, I do not even remember what we did.  Sad, right?!  But from the picture it looks like we hung out at Arista and spent the day with Bethany and the McWilliams clan.  And this is the only picture I have from that day.  Sad, again, right?!  :(

and both boys got haircuts the next day :)

We also had some fun painting that afternoon

that's it for now :)

FFA Weekend

The FFA parade and fair in Healdsburg was over Memorial Day.  It's something that we always look forward to but this year was extra fun because Aunt "B" was here with us.

The parade is always a favorite!

i'm not really sure... once again...

my sister has all the fun pictures from the fair the next day but i can't seem to drag them from facebook to my desktop.  sorry.  but we petted all kinds of animals- pigs, cows, rabbits, goats, sheep, guinea pigs.  We ate hot dogs.  We rode a train.  We jumped in bounce houses.  We slid down huge slides.  We had a blast and I'm so glad my sister was here with us!