Best Birthday Ever

I turned 35 today.  It was without question the best birthday ever and I praise God for the bountiful blessings in my life.  Sweet Preston bounding down the stairs with birthday greetings straight out of bed, sweet two year old birthday kisses, great workout, Bible study with my sweet friends (plus a CUPCAKE!), rainy afternoon at home coloring with my boys then a DATE with my hubby.  These two scary Monsters went to Trunk or Treat at the church :)  Today was a good day.....

Trinity Fall Fest

Trinity's Fall Festival is one of my favorite church events of the year!  Mainly because The Refuge folks and Traditional folks all get to hang out together.  And of course we usually spend the evening with "Reese" and we all have a good time.  I was disappointed John Cole did not want to ride "Garfield" the horse, but as you can see Preston enjoyed his ride on "Midnight."   The tissue paper hat station was pretty fun too.  I'm just waiting to be asked in the morning if he can wear it to school :)  After hamburgers and hot dogs we called it a night.  Hope you have had a great weekend!

PS:  Please keep praying for Gran.  She's BACK in the hospital after just three short days at home.  Thanks!

SURPRISE!

We've been planning for months!  The invites were sent well over a month ago.  We told her we were going to dinner at Squire for her birthday, but she got a HUGE surprise.  Everyone was in on it....even Preston who was a steel trap :)  I will never forget the look on her face, and I don't think she will ever forget this night either.  Happy 60th Mom!

PS: There are a TON of pictures...I'm going to get them in an album for you!

CES Pumpkin Day

Well, if you thought I didn't get many pictures of Apple Day, just look at how few I got on Pumpkin Day!  I was put to work and happy to do it as I manned one of the craft stations pretty much solo.  Love getting to see how the kids interact and getting to know the teachers better.  As you can tell Preston absolutely ADORES Ms. Reno...for good reason she is just the sweetest...and he's learning sooooooo much.  I think only my family reads this so I want to chronicle also I was so happy to be at school today when Preston won his first "award."  All of those art classes I put him in paid off I guess :)  Anyway, I have yet to see his art but it won second place for the entire Kindergarten.  Way to go Preston!  We are proud of you thriving in school.

Hope you get out and enjoy this weather..it's GORGEOUS!  Happy Weekend!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

Crystal Garcia--all the way from Oregon!--worked her magic once again.  Might I add this photo session took 5 minutes :)  Love her heart and love her work....Happy Pumpkin Season!

Squire Creek Fall Festival

You will have to excuse me.  Nowadays, John Cole has his own agenda and loves going around on his "own."  Of course, Preston is all over the place like he has been since the day he was born.  So, when we attend events like Squire Creek Fall Festival I really don't have an extra hand to lug the big camera with.  But I did want to document this super fun night.  I had one of those moments where I looked around at all of the families and children having a great time in the beautiful weather with the gorgeous setting and thought to myself, "what a wonderful world. " I could NOT get some of my pictures to download but I had a great one one John Cole in the jumpy.  He was in there probably an hour total.  The big kids did NOT phase him one bit either...he just grinned bigger.  And Preston really loved the basketball toss.  Santa may have to look into a goal of some sort.  So grateful to for this gorgeous Fall weather...I've had my windows open all day.  And, of course, it is now my favorite time of year :  YOGA PANTS TIME :)  Happy Monday!

Friday at the Revel

Sooooo, I have a special spot in my dining room that I have my heart set on "matching" pics of the boys taken at the same location in the same white Feltman.  Preston's pic at Cowen in Shreveport was taken when he was 18 months old.  I have been trying about that long to line up weather/wellness/schedules to have John Cole's done and Friday it FINALLY worked out. In addition to THAT, I had scheduled a pumpkin patch session for both of them for Friday morning at 8:20. So, I decided since I would be have to drop P off late and rush from Shreve to get him at 3:00 that he would just skip school Friday. GASP!  I'm such a rule breaker.  His teacher was cool with it.  He's doing GREAT in school...

Skipping school might not be the best trend to start...but we all had a fun.  Now it was HOT!  I repeat, it was HOT!  But we made the most of it and enjoyed ourselves.  So glad we got to spend this fun day together.....

Girls Birthday Trip

Taking advantage of this rainy afternoon to catch up on some blogging!  Had a whirlwind trip to New Orleans Tuesday/Wednesday with Mom and Kendal.  We never do this.  Never.  And I will not tell a story --even though boys were at their normal daytime away from home places--I texted teachers and babysitters a MILLION times while we were gone.....

We stopped to see Gran's new digs at HealthSouth on our way down.  Please continue to pray for her as she is terribly weak.  We may have to entertain the nursing home soon.  Hopefully the decision will be clear.

And we had a little TINY problem at check-in as our Monteleone reservations were for MONDAY night instead of TUESDAY...oopsie!  But we got everything squared away...and got a room. YAY!  WE shopped for literally an hour before it was time for dinner.  The hotel gave us free drink coupons for all of the trouble (SCORE!) so we visited the historic Carousel Bar before heading to Commander's Palace.  The night was so fun. Our meals were delicious.  We even hit up the piano bar at Pat O's before calling it a night. (NOT A NORMAL TUESDAY :)

Wednesday morning we all had a little workout then were showering/getting dressed for breakfast when I noticed a big bruise on Mom's left arm.  I honestly thought it was where she had gotten her flu shot or something.  She looked at it, said she hadn't had a flu shot and couldn't remember bumping her arm with enough force to leave that kind of a bruise.  She was feeling of it and there was a walnut shaped mass underneath her skin.  And we were all certain it was NOT there the night before because she wore a sleeveless dress.  Gran has blood clots.  So Mom thought it could be a blood clot.  Look, I know just enough to be scary so we HAD to go find out.  We took a cab to Oschner's ER.  We were seen immediately and after some examinations and tests they think it's not a blood clot. YAY!  A couple of things still cause us a little concern as of late...so say a prayer but I think everything is fine.

So....considering we had had ZERO breakfast after working out and didn't get out of ER until almost one we were STARVING for lunch.  My Dad went to dental school with the owner of Bon Ton cafe on Magazine so we tried it out.  My steak was so yummy!  (Yes, steak.  I'm eating Paleo.  That's another post!)  More shopping then we headed home.

Can't believe Mom is 60 and I'm 35. We are so blessed.  Let's do it again soon girls!