Sunday, April 3, 2011

Weekend in Review... It's a LONG one folks!

Somebody get me a footrest... I'm pooped! Seriously though, this was a fun filled weekend, packed with AWESOME weather, fun outings and even a few photoshoots. We were all very excited that the rain we've been experiencing FINALLY left our presence, and left behind great spring temperatures and lots of sunshine.

We celebrated by kicking off the weekend with the First Friday festival. If you remember some of my weekend in review posts in the past, then perhaps you'll remember that when the weather is nice there is a local monthly festival at a nearby town. Generally there's a theme, with lots of vendors and music... we tend to just stroll around, letting Brayden meander throughout the crowd, waving 'hi' to everyone as he passes. This month there was a salsa band playing and Brayden LOVED it. He danced in front of the stage for probably a good 20 minutes. At one point, an onlooker came up to Drew and said "I can tell your son is going to be a politician. He runs around in circles and tries to please everyone." bahahahahaha! Oh my goodness, we got a good laugh out of that.



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giving the Chick-Fil-A cow some knucks. Don't let this picture fool you, he wasn't quite sure of the cow.
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"Brayden gets to run around, and I get stuck in THIS thing? NO FAIR!"
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driving the Hummer. He was in HEAVEN.
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the tulips were GORGEOUS. It made me wish I had had my SLR with me.
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could care less about the flowers... he was more interested in throwing the mulch. Go figure!

After the festival we headed over to Sam's to pick up a few necessities and eat dinner. Brayden was being SO funny... see...
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Saturday we woke up to the most amazing weather.
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They were SO excited it was sunny! haha!
Drew took B for a walk so I could enjoy a nice shower, and then later in the morning we set up the sandbox that my parents got B for his birthday. Brayden was in HEAVEN in the sand.
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he kept saying "we pour!"
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Of course, he also THREW the sand, and I decided that after finding sand in the bathtub, on the changing pad, in the kitchen and in the living room carpet that I am going to have a love hate relationship with the sandbox. Drew thought it would be a good idea to Skype Gigi and Poppa D to show them how much Brayden loves the sandbox. It was a great idea... till Brayden THREW the sand AT the computer. AWESOME. Thankfully it only got under a few keys, and we were able to repair everything to be good as new.

Saturday afternoon I had two photoshoots lined up, so Drew and I headed out once the boys woke up from their naps. I tried taking pics of the boys together, and was unsuccessful. See?....
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this picture CRACKS me up. He throws that pouty lip ANY time Brayden is near him.
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this was the best we came up with. Oh well.

At one point, Brayden pushed Connor off of his lap, and Connor landed FLAT on his face on the rock. Drew immediately said "oh, he's fine!" But when I saw the slobber on the rock, I knew he had bit it hard. Sure enough, his poor little nose got nicked, and even started bleeding a little. :( Poor baby. Such abuse from big bro.

And and after about 10 minutes of shooting individuals of B, he'd had enough.
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So we tried out some more with Connor, who is always willing to give us big smiles. Love that little guy so much!
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this may be my FAVE picture of him. EVER. To some it may seem like a dud, but it just captures his personality. For you see, after those sweet gummy grins, he gets SO excited that he squeals and then just starts kicking. I capture the very start of him doing this after Drew started talking to him. I seriously love him SO SO SO much. SO much.

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We grabbed B again for a pic with Daddy...
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... then they were off...
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Connor enjoyed the sunshine and warm breeze.
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My first shoot was of some twin girls who are the daughter's of one of Drew's coworkers (shout out Patty!). They're just two months younger than Brayden... aren't they so cute?
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LOVE this picture!
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One of the few smiles we could get out of Ashlynn :) This is the girls with their Nanna.
Unfortunately, they weren't that excited about getting their pictures taken, so trying to get a smile out of either of them was a bit of a challenge. I've pretty much decided that 2-3 years old is just ridiculously hard to photograph. They just have way more important things to do than stare at a camera, and typically want to voice their opinions more than smile :) Nevertheless, I still have fun chasing them around, and it was especially fun doing a twins photoshoot!
I thought this picture was so cute... at one point Brayden ran over to come and say hi, and Patty told Lauren to give Brayden a hug. He was SO excited about it, but I think Lauren was a bit freaked at his excitement :) haha!
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Hopefully I'll get some more opportunities with these two cuties-- we all know that girls tend to want to pose for a picture a lot more than boys do :)

My second shoot was of a little girl who is the daughter of a friend of mine from my MOPS group. Hadley will be turning one next month. Is she not a DOLL baby?!
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She was NOT a fan of the grass :)
Oh my goodness I could just squeeze her she's so cute.
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Thankfully Hadley can't walk yet, so besides a few moves to escape by hand and foot, she sat idly by smiling for the crew.

After the shooting was done (photographic shooting, not shooting by gun, which would have been far more horrific), I decided Brayden and I needed a date. So Drew took Connor home and B and I headed out for an adventure. Actually, it was less of an adventure and more of an "I need to eat" hunt for both of us. After driving aimlessly around we settled on a local chicken place.
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(I know I look rough, but I had to atleast take ONE picture to document our first date!)
B was beyond excited that basketball was playing. I totally felt dejected, and realized all men start young in life... they take a girl out, only to be fixated on the sports game more than the date. I let him have his fun though-- he downed a full strength apple juice (we normally WAY water down juice, so this was a BIG treat for him) eat and entire grilled cheese sandwich, and dip his fries in ranch dressing to his hearts content (which basically meant he ate 1 french fry and an entire container of ranch dressing). After dinner we headed to our new TCBY here in town... YUM! B was a skeptic at first, since we had to wait in line, but once he got his spoon filled with that cake batter yogurt and rainbow sprinkles, he was in HEAVEN.

I have to say, this was my first real "date" with Brayden, and something I think I really needed as his mommy. Since Connor has been born I haven't really gotten any special time with just me and B. I think that we've both been suffering from that. I told Drew when I got home that I felt like I finally experienced some joy with Brayden tonight. I saw that cute blonde headed boy as the heart breaker that he is, not the rule breaker that I normally feel I get so much of the time. I love him so much and I needed to have that time with just me and him. It was precious, and something that we plan on doing on a regular basis.  On a completely separate note: at dinner, there was another family in the restaurant with us... a mom, a dad and young teenage boy. All 3 were GLUED to their iPhones. GLUED. And none of them made a single sound the entire time they ate. It was SO SO SO sad to me. I plan on blogging about it later this week in fact, but please, if you have smart phones like that, please put them away and spend time with your family. Just my public service announcement of the day.

Today we worked in the infants classroom at church. We had all of the clingy kids, so it was a bit draining, but knowing that we are giving other parents the opportunity to worship in peace is my driving force, so we press on :) The service today was SO SO SO SO SO SO good. Oh my goodness it was good. The guy who preached is actually not a pastor at our church, but a teacher at Dallas Theological Seminary. At the beginning he had me crying I was laughing so hard, and at the end I was crying because I was touched so deeply. The entire sermon was on Resting in the Lord (specifically from Psalm 127). It was as if God knew my heart needed to hear every single word he had to say. One point towards the end of the sermon that he spoke about was investing the rest you learn. Once you learn to REST in the Lord, you need to TEACH future generations to do the same. A big BIG BIG pet peeve of mine is that so many people today get the whole teaching thing mixed up, and think that God wants us to be plugged into every single event that a church offers, or to serve in every single aspect a church needs. The man speaking today specifically said that we are to invest in our quiver (our children), and then when our children are launched (our quiver is empty), we are to fill our "spiritual quiver" full again, and invest in a new generation. SO good. Sometimes I get down on myself for not feeling like I have the time to be invested in other things like I see so many other families doing. But then I am reminded, by people like the speaker today, that my quiver is full right now, and each and every aspect of my day is spent refining those arrows which God has entrusted to me. What an incredible task at hand. I am so thankful for the message today, it breathed a great refining breath into my soul this morning, and I am so grateful for that divine appointment from the Lord.

This afternoon I went shopping by myself in prepartion for Brayden's birthday party this upcoming Saturday. I nearly lost my stomach while I was out cleaning Drew's car at the local car wash; as I tossed the vacuum over to the driver's side, the end of the tube swept over the console in the Civic, sucking up Drew's MBA USB key. I immediately called Drew and said "I think I just sucked up a set of keys." The resounding "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" was enough to know that whatever it was I had sucked up was IMPORTANT. I then found out that the key had the latest version of his final project, with 8 hours worth of work that have yet to be backed up to the computer (meaning that it was the LONE copy). So, I trudged up to the management of the car wash, explained the situation, and was able to get into the vacuum cleaner (GROSS) and dig out the USB key safely. Praise the LORD! I figured that was enough drama for the afternoon, so I finished my shopping and headed home. We've enjoyed the pretty weather today, and are all a bit pooped from the sunshine and activities. It's a busy week ahead of us with party preparations and guests coming in town, but we're excited to celebrate the life of our precious Brayden!
 

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