Happy New Year!

Hello 2017!! My dear old blog, I just can't quit you :) So 2017, here we go!

Our tradition of celebrating with our friends at The Ballard's house continued but before we left, I took our annual pictures of Mallory at our house. This is still what I get when I say "Let's take a picture!" :)

I can't believe she will be 6 years old in 2017 but I won't dwell on that right now :/

We got to the Ballards and these friends were so happy to see each other!

After eating the good food, we took all our family and friend pictures. 

Love my little family!!

These friends of mine - so very thankful to ring in another year with them and their families! So many great memories made and many more to make together!

And all these wonderful kiddos! Loralei and Elias joined us this year and they were thrilled about this New Year's Eve tradition as you can tell :)

After pictures, the kids played with our babysitter, Alex, so the adults could hang out and play some games. We played Say Anything first and that brought out some hilarious answers and laughs. We also played Heads Up and we all got the most laughs when we had to hum the songs in order for the Lyndsey to guess what they were. Let's just say, what I think I was singing in my head, may not have come out of my mouth - tone deaf was a word I kept hearing - hahaha. Here is some evidence:

We laughed so hard and will definitely have to play that again!
During the game, Loralei hung out with Brian. :)

After the games, it was time to ring in the new year so I got ready to celebrate with my girl

and my man

Getting ready for the countdown

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2016, we enjoyed all you gave us and we are excited to see what all God has in store for 2017. I know He is the only one who knows what it has in store for us right now but I'm thankful I can rest in Him everyday. I posted this devotional on my Insta-story on Saturday but wanted to share it here. Each day, I need to walk with Him and each step I take, every little moment is important as our walk with God is a process. I also read another devotional that talked about how God never lets go - even when we loosen our grip, He's always got it and that is something I'm glad I can rest in as we go into this new year!

Happy New Year to our amazing family and friends!!

4th of July 2016

We are back from the beach and had the best time! While we were there, we wore our patriotic colors for our family pic on the beach! I'll work on my blog posts for our trip soon but on Monday, we drove back so we could celebrate the 4th of July with our friends!

Mallory picked this outfit out at Wal Mart over a month ago so she was happy to show it off for the Fourth. She was really looking forward to seeing all her friends.

Time flies!

We headed over to The Calhoun's house to enjoy the evening with our friends. Trey did a great job on the grill and the food and fellowship was great! These friends all had a good time together!

We attempted a group photos but as you can tell, Brooke wasn't into it - ha! Poor Thing! I love how we were all saying "Keep Smiling!!" and you can see they are trying to hold their smile. So excited to know we will have two more friends added to the picture next year!

Love all these kids!

And I love their momma's! So thankful for these ladies and I really enjoy that we get to celebrate holidays with them and their families!

After eating and playing, it was time for the sparklers! 

I might have gotten in line for a sparkler too :)

After a great time with friends, we headed to the football stadium parking lot to watch the fireworks from Harry Myers Park. We always meet Unice, Auntie, Caleb and Cade there and it is a fun tradition to end the holiday with. Auntie had more glow sticks for Mallory when we got there!

Stylin' Brian

Brian's cousin and her husband and kids were there and Mallory loved playing with Josiah

Then, it was time for the fireworks show!

We loaded up after the fireworks show and headed home! What a great day to celebrate our country's birthday!

2016 Father's Day

We had a great day yesterday celebrating the favorite Dads in our lives! I did an interview with Mallory on Saturday for a present for Brian and Papa. Mallory loved that she could draw a picture of her and Brian and one of her and Papa. Here she is with Brian's present. She was so happy to give it to him on Sunday. Sorry she said you are 50 Years Old Brian :)

Sunday morning, we went to our church and then Mallory and I surprised Papa at his and Nana's church because we wanted to hear him speak. My dad just came back from a Mission Trip in Haiti with some other people from their church and they were all speaking about their experience there. It was so great to hear my Dad speak and hear how God is using him. He is such a great Christian example for his kids and grandkids. We love him!

After church, Papa and Nana came over to our house for lunch. 

I cooked roast for lunch and Mallory gave Papa his present. As you can tell in her drawings, her people have not bodies - just arms and legs :) 

Mallory enjoyed giving Brian his Father's Day presents and after lunch, we just all rested for the day because we were tired - but not without getting a couple of pictures of my two favorite people.

And how they really wanted to take pictures

Sweet hugs

I said this on my posts on Social Media and it's true. Mallory is one blessed girl because she gets to have Brian as her Father. I love being by his side and he always takes care of Mallory and I. We love him so much and were so happy to celebrate him on this special day!

Memorial Day 2016

We enjoyed our three day weekend last weekend and definitely remembered what the holiday is all about. So very thankful for the men and women who sacrificed their lives and served for our freedom! 

Mallory wore her red, white and blue. This was the best picture I could get :)

Mid-morning, Brian, Mallory, Mom, Dad and I headed to Ham Orchards. Brian, Mallory and I had never been before so we were looking forward to going!

Since it's been raining in Texas for the past 2 months (or so it seems), we weren't sure if the rain would hold off for us to go but it did! However, since it had rained so much before, there was a lot of mud where you picked the blackberries but that didn't stop us! We got our bucket, put on our rain boots and headed out for some blackberry pickin'.

I apologize for the incredibly white legs but I switched back to my flip-flops as soon as we were done

Mallory had the best time picking all the blackberries.

Showing off all she got

We had their great BBQ for lunch and had to get some strawberry ice cream for desert. It was good!

We had a great time and are so glad we got to go with Nana and Papa!

Monday afternoon, our favorite Estes' came over and we grilled burgers and hung out.

A little bball was played

And Caleb was kind enough to climb up and get the ball out of the gutter :)

The burgers were good but the company was even better!

What a fun day with our families!

Mother's Day 2016

I'm a week late but better late than never! Mother's Day was a great day spent with all of our family! We started out the day by going to church and worshiping together and before we left, I was happy to get a picture with the my beautiful girl. I'm so thankful everyday I get to be her Mom!

After church, we headed over to Jim and Laurie's for Mother's Day lunch with Brian's family. Brian's Uncle Jim worked hard to pick up lunch and get it all set out so all the mom's didn't have to do anything. It was so nice and the food was very good!

Here is a picture of all the Mom's in the family. I'm glad we were all able to get together!

Mallory was excited to give everybody their gifts that she made for them. Here she is with her great-grandmother who loved her gift!

And so did Grammy!

Flashback to the Saturday before Mother's Day when I taped the word LOVE on the canvases so Mallory could paint them. I'm not very crafty but this looked like something we could do easily!

Mallory painted them all in multiple colors

And here is the finished product! I love how they turned out! She signed the back of them all and they each got a Mallory Masterpiece! And I kept one for myself!

Back to Mother's Day - I love this sweet pic of Grammy with Mallory and Emmaline

Grandma Marsha with her boys and families. Caleb had to work that afternoon so that is why he is absent from the picture. 

Brian and Rob with their mother

We left Jim and Laurie's and headed to Southlake to meet up with my family for Mother's Day. We met at Bicentennial Park in Southlake. It was a great park and we all loved it. I might have gone on the zip line multiple times!

And then I decided to let the kids go :)

Everybody then headed over to the play area and slides. Kiersi wanted to do the monkey bars so Brian helped her across

They all liked this slide because it went very fast

And Jensen worked hard on picking up the wood chips :)

Kiersi turned 10 on May 2 so we celebrated her too and gave her her presents.

Then, we gave Nana her present and she got also got a Mallory masterpiece for Mother's Day

So grateful for this woman! She has always been the best mom and while I may not have acknowledged it as much as I should have when I was younger, I'm definitely glad that we've grown closer as I've gotten older and I can call her anytime day or night whenever I need anything. Mallory loves her Nana so very much too and we love living close to her and Papa so we can see them often!

Mom and her kids

Nana with her grandkids

These two cuties wanted a picture together so I had to oblige!

One last picture of me and my sweet girl. My cup runneth over!

We all left before the storm rolled in that evening but my Mother's Day dinner was from one of my favorite places: Torchy Tacos! Lyndsey introduced it to me while we were in Waco and I've been wanting it again ever since we ate there so I was thrilled there was one in Southlake so I could enjoy the greatness that is the Trailerpark taco :)

What a wonderful day!