My Blue Eyed Boy

Oh Mr. Blue Eyes, how do I love thee!  This boy challenges me on the daily.  Some days parenting Blake leaves me feeling like a parenting failure.  I wasn't patient enough.  I didn't discipline enough.  Maybe I was too rough.  etc. etc. etc. But this boy of mine is actually the truest example that I AM doing something or hopefully some things right.  He is happy and smart and has the most loving and beautiful heart of anyone I know.  I remember when I was pregnant with Blake someone said having a boy is awesome because boys looove their mommas.  I occasionally go back to that conversation and think that person was crazy.  Blake isn't a snuggler and he ADORES his dad.  He IDOLIZES his dad.  But I've had the realization how true that comment is.  Here are just a few examples of comments Blake makes on the daily to me....

"Momma, I want to marry you.  ~  Momma, you look beautiful today!  ~  Your eyes are so pretty! ~ I have the most beautiful mom in the whole world! ~ You smell good! ~ I love you so much, you are the best momma! ~ I want to live with my family forever!"  

Oh Blake!  My heart...you are my heart.  I know these days are fleeting and before I know it you'll be saying those things to a different girl.  Stay like this forever please!  I love you Mr. Blue Eyes!!

Celebrate!

The weekend is over and I'm so sad to have it end...it was filled with so much fun and so much love.  

The summer before last we took a short little family trip to Austin and absolutely loved it.  Brad and I had decided we really wanted to make a point to go back with the boys this summer and so I decided what better time to go than the weekend full of reasons to celebrate...my birthday and fathers day!  

We had a list of things we would like to do but purposefully did not have any set agenda so we wouldn't stress and could just pick what to do based on weather, moods of the boys, etc.  It worked out great.  We had lots of outside play time, soaking up all of the love of Austin we have.  Swam at the hotel pool briefly to meet the boys' request and ate lots of yummy food.  Lots of yummy food.  

I started off my birthday morning being woken up by two very excited little boys with sweet cards they had made me and were oh so proud of.  Best start to my day!!

After a yummy lunch and amaze ice cream we enjoyed play time on what else than marble cows of course.

We walked over to a bridge with a scenic look out and Blake decided he wanted to practice his photographer skills, so the next set of pictures are courtesy of Blake.

After swimming and getting cleaned up we headed to the Capital with our soccer ball to play in the grassy areas in front.  Man oh man how I love all the park areas in Austin.  Of course, we had to get some pictures sitting on the canons first though.

This picture Blake was saying, "Watch out momma, I'm about to launch the canyon"  Yes, he called it a canyon and was adorable.

After we were good and sweaty and thirsty we headed to some good ol' bbq.  While we waited out the long wait I enjoyed my giant alcohol beverage and sat and watched the boys feed the turtles.  I was a happy girl.

View from the deck

Best birthday I've had in a long time.  Spending a whole day filled with fun memories with my three guys...heaven.

The last two times now taking the boys to Austin we've stayed at the Embassy Suites.  It is such a great place to stay with kids.  We brought the blow up mattress, set it up in the living room and the boys get to sleep in the same bed which they get the biggest kick out of, and we can close the door off so Brad and I can watch tv in the other room without keeping up the boys.  Its such the perfect set up.  Plus I love love love listening to little whispers and giggles as they fall asleep together and then again when they wake up, in the moments before the door flies open to jump in our bed.  

What's better than after celebrating your birthday to keep up the celebrations with Father's Day?!!  The boys couldn't wait to bring Brad his card and presents and was a really sweet morning.  After some good rest and good breakfast, we loaded up and headed to Zilker Park.  The boys got snow cones and played on a really great mostly shaded playground and rode the miniature train around the park.  It was a blast and a great way to end our time in Austin.

As the ride went on the boys got closer and closer to each other.  Love.

Snow cone smile!

Words can not express how much love I have for this man.  I am the luckiest girl to have him as my husband and our boys are the luckiest boys to have him as their daddy.  So grateful.  Loved spending an entire weekend together!

And because we hadn't eat enough food (yeah right) we had to make a detour on the way back out of town to one of the best rated donut places in the U.S.  And oh my word, totally worth the calories.  I can just hear myself getting fatter.

The drive to and from Austin was extra scenic as there were fields periodically of beautiful sunflowers.  It looked like blankets of yellow.  Gorgeous.

When we got back in town we made a stop along the way to have dinner with my parents.  I have one pretty special dad and a pretty special papa to our boys so we couldn't let the day go by without celebrating our love for him either.  We enjoyed dinner and then went back to their place for ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday.  Oh lordy I have some working out to do this week!  

(please excuse my disheveled appearance.  After being outside the first half of the day and in the car the second half we were all pretty beat up looking)

My loves!

I hate to see this weekend come to an end!  Happy Fathers Day Brad and Dad/Papa!!  And thanks Brad for helping make my birthday filled with so much love.  

My Little Beethoven

Blake started piano lessons just after the first of the year.  We quickly learned a few things about Blake.  One being Blake inherited Brad's dad and younger brother's gift to play the piano by ear.  Its pretty amazing.  He can turn his back to the piano while his teacher plays random notes and Blake calls out every note he plays.  Its so crazy to witness a four/five year old do this I must say.  The other thing we learned, well, that I knew, but became more apparent...Blake is kind of a perfectionist.  He wants to be the best at whatever he is doing.  And if he struggles with something?  Well, he's over it in a New York minute!  Enter his love/hate relationship with piano.  Learning the piano, like lots of things in life, takes practice, practice practice, and it would frustrate Blake to the ends of the Earth not to get it on the first try.  It has taken lots of patience on my end to sit with him at the piano and work with him on certain practice pages until he could build the confidence on his own.  Blake's teacher is verrrrry strict.  Like piano is the most serious thing in the entire world to this guy.  Which is great and all, but he definitely pushes Blake to be his best which Blake doesn't always like.  So, Blake started to say things like "I hate piano" and "I want to quit."  I never wanted to be the "stage mom" pushing my kid into something he hated.  But his recital was also really close and I wanted him to see it through, so we told him he could quit as soon as his recital was over.  But then a funny thing happened.  Blake practiced his recital piece and once he had more confidence I took his music book away and he played his recital piece by memory and he became so incredibly proud of himself.  He couldn't wait to show his teacher that he had committed his piece to memory.  He played it every chance he could.  You could see the pride bursting out of him.  You could see the sense of accomplishment Blake felt.  I was so incredibly proud of him and happy that he had learned such an AMAZING lesson at just five years old too!  Sometimes things in life are hard, they might not always come easy, but if you work hard and believe in yourself, you can achieve what you set your mind to.  
The day of the recital we dressed the boys in their finest duds and I just about died from the absolute cuteness from the boys.  Oh how handsome they looked.  On the way to the recital Brad asked Blake if he needed to go over the music in his head to prepare and Blake said, "No daddy!  I am awesome at my recital piece!"  I mean, that confidence!!  What I would give to have a fraction of his confidence!!  I could tell Blake was a little nervous once we were seated and waiting for the recital to begin, but he didn't have to be pushed to go perform, he just went to the piano when they called his name and nailed it!  We were so proud of him.  Brady even said, "BLAKE YOU DID SO GOOD!"  *melt my heart*
The recital was held at Glen Eagles Country Club and once it was over there was a little luncheon reception and was so nice.  And my little guy who a month earlier said he hated piano and wanted to quit, couldn't resist going back to the piano as the families were finishing eating to play some more.  We went back to my parents afterwards and he raced to the piano to play some more.  He even tried to "teach" his brother how to play the other day.  Pretty cool to see such a transformation in Blake.  I'm so proud to be his momma!

Selfie of Brad and Brady before we left

Blake with his teacher as he was talking about his new students

Blake watching another student perform

Blake serenading everyone as they ate

Teaching Brady how to play

Click below for video of Blake's performance

Blake's Performance

Life Lately

Catch up post!!

Life has been cray-zee lately.  We've had end of year festivities with Blake ending pre-k. Family time. Friend time.  And I kind of started working a VERY part time gig.  EEK!

Blake's last day of school was busy.  In the morning they had donuts with dad and honored their daddy's for father's day.  So so sweet.  Blake was incredibly excited to take his dad to school with him.  Just like they did for mother's day, the kids had lots of homemade gifts they had worked on and gave to the dads.  They also showed a slideshow the teachers made from the school year and even used baby pictures of all the kids.  We got a copy and oh, how I cried.  Such bitter sweet emotions flooding my house these days.  When they first walked in, the dad's dress shirts were on the chairs that the moms had secretly given the teacher and the kids had drawn their dad's faces on paper plates and the dad's had to find their chair.  So creative and adorable.

One of the gifts from Blake.  At orientation before school even started, they traced all of our hands.  Had completely forgotten about it until Brad got his present!

Blake's teachers had also made a scrap book of the entire school year.  It is so awesome.  This is the first page inside the scrap book.  Its mind blowing how much Blake has grown since September and how much he's filled out!!  

And then a little after donuts with dad was splash day!  And snow cones!

Sweet Brady decided he wanted to stay dry and not participate in the water fun AND decided he'd be way cleaner in eating his snow cone!

We LOVE Blake's school and LOVE all the friends he's made this past year and it was very emotional to see it come to an end, especially since it means he's entering the big kid world of kindergarten in the fall.  But like I said, it is bitter sweet.  We are also so proud of Blake and can't wait to see all the exciting things to come for him this next year!

So... confession... I am a closet Taylor Swift fan.  I know I'm a grown woman and all, but I really like her new album.  Even the boys love her new album.  They belted out her songs all the way from Dallas to Colorado and back when we drove over Christmas.  And from things I've heard from people and stuff I've read she's a really great human being as well.  One of my besties remembered I had mentioned months ago I'd love to see her in concert.  Well, she let me know the week of the concert that we were going.  My friend has got the hookup and surprised me with tickets in her suite at Cowboys Stadium.  Such a fun girly night!  Such a fun show!  

View from our suite

And while I was busy having girl time, Brad, the best dad EVER, was busy having boy time.  He had an entire day with them.  Took them to Fry's to get parts to rebuild a computer, took them out to dinner and then to an FC Dallas game.  Blake was stoked to get to go again and Brady was beyond excited to get to go for his first time!  A few hours before game time the nastiest storms ever rolled in and my heart sank thinking they wouldn't get to go to the game.  Well, just as the game started the rain stopped.  HOORAY!  Here are the boys holding their treats getting ready to sit down.  And there is a rainbow in the background too!

Then came memorial day.  Such a great day.  We spent all day at my parents house.  We ate lunch, swam, we cooked out for dinner.  It was a blast and loved soaking up all the time with family.

I love that this guy always makes me smile.

Brady and I's selfie

And then this past weekend Brad's mom was in town and we made a visit to the mall.  Brady was excited that someone (grandma) finally put some money in one of these rides.

My parents got the boys a matching outfit and they were showing their brotherly love while modeling.  Love them oh.so.much.