It is so much fun to have little girls! Dressing them up in their costumes for dance recital pictures is just one of the MANY things I love about having little girls! If you live in the Manor area, DanceLife, (run by one of my best friends, Jen Richardson!) is having a 6 week summer session. You can sign up here.
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Don’t birthdays feel like that when you’re older? Just another day. I know for sure Asher doesn’t care it’s my birthday and he wouldn’t dare let me sleep in! 🙂 You smile and say “Yay! It’s my birthday!” (as you put another load in the washing machine, change a poopy diaper, and wipe up yogurt all over the table). Birthdays as an adult make me realize how blessed I was in my family to have been celebrated each year as a child! And don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a party for my birthday now! I am just as happy with a few thoughtful presents from family and something chocolate! But my mom made sure we felt VERY special every year on our big day. She went all out with decorations, party games, friends, cake, and presents. Those who know me, know that I have loved to carry on that tradition and treasure getting to celebrate each of my children with a special party in honor of them! What a joy to celebrate life!
So, I’m 31 now. Yay! 🙂
I can’t post without a picture so I thought it would be fun, since Rilyn is about to turn 6, to post my 6th birthday party picture. Obviously, I loved Cabbage Patch Kids!
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| May 1985 |
My Mother’s Day started yesterday and James let me have the whole day off! It was wonderful and reenergizing! This morning started with breakfast in bed, church, and then a picnic on our front porch of Freebirds! Yum!
This was Rilyn’s Mother’s Day letter to me that she wrote in school. I love the picture! It is supposed to be me lying in my bed (ceiling fan above me) while her and Ella are bringing me breakfast in bed! It says, “I love my mom because she takes care of me and sister. This is the day to thank my mom for everything she does.” So sweet.
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| The girls planted flowers next to their stepping stones
for me! |
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| James tried to get shots with me and the kids sitting
together but Asher wouldn’t cooperate, so this will do! |
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| So blessed!!! |
Yesterday, Asher got his first turn at the kiddie pool. He loved it after he got himself accustomed to the water temperature in his own way!
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| step 1: grab a cup |
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| step 2: dump it on your head |
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| step 3: laugh about it! |
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| Freshly squeezed water! |
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| joy |
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| our busta man |
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| His fav thing to do: stand up and jump… |
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| then fall down! |
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| Ella and Asher having a blast! |
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| Then Asher got stuck over the side of the pool when I put his floatie on |
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| But Ella saved the day! |
Happy Mother’s Day weekend!
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| My mom pregnant with my brother! I was 2 1/2 yrs.old |
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| James with his mom! He was pretty amazed at her! |
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| The first moment I became a mom! June 3, 2004 Rilyn showing off her pipes! |
Ella had the honor of the first swim of ‘kiddie pool season’ this year at our house! Since we are in the low 90s already, I think the time is right! I signed up Ella for ‘advanced swimming lessons for ages 3-5’ in June since she did so good last summer, but now I’m having second thoughts…what do you think? 🙂
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| I asked Ella to swim |
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| Choking after holding her breath under water |
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| trying to back float |
It was sure fun taking pictures of our little cutie!
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
The End
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| I’m foreseeing lots of this with my girls! |
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all my teacher friends out there! I’m not just saying this because I used to be a teacher (well maybe I am!), I believe being a teacher is the second hardest job in the world-second only to being a mother! 🙂 Imagine having a hard day as a mom with your kids. Tough right? But maybe you can just pop in a movie and close the play room door and tell them “mommy needs a break.” Well teachers sometimes have a tough day times 10 (2 kids x 10), plus all the kids are the same age BUT with very different abilites on the way they learn and behave. Then throw in paperwork such as turning in lesson plans, progress reports, report cards, individualized education plans for children with special needs, behavior plans, testing reports… Don’t forget the pressure from parents, the principal, and the state to be at your best every day!
So to show our appreciation for Rilyn’s teacher, Ms. Kerley, we are inviting her over for dinner tonight! Rilyn is over-the-moon excited! We bought her favorite dessert, drink, and favorite flowers (thanks to the PTO who handed out papers with each teachers favorite things on them). We love Ms. Kerley and I just really appreciate her organization, routine, gentle spirit, and love for her class.
Here I am at my first teaching job out of college! Teaching 3 year olds at Carver Early Childhood Center in Bryan, Texas. Can you tell I look exhausted?!? (And those high waisted pants with short shirt combo wasn’t working for me!) In this picture it is teacher appreciation week and each child brought me a flower that day! You can see my beautiful bouquet in the middle! That was a very hard year for me, but days like that make it all worth it!
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| May 2002 |
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| Rilyn’s kindergarten class picture! |
There is a reason I chose ‘date parties’ as my theme which I will get to in a second. Here are a couple date parties from college where James and I had to dress up. Seriously, I have tons of pictures from formals and date parties in college! James was in BYX (Brothers Under Christ) and I was in ASC (Aggie Sisters for Christ) at A&M so that generated a lot of silly themed date parties!
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| ASC Shindig-May 1998 |
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| BYX ‘Blue Collar Bash’- James was wearing hisold Golden Corral uniform! Check out his earring!! 🙂 March 1998 |
Now this next date party picture is significant. This was the BYX E.R. date party in April of 1999 and it was my ‘brilliant’ idea to dress as a very pregnant wife about to give birth. Cute idea, right? Well, James broke up with me about 2 weeks later for 7 months. Now, this date party costume definitely was not to blame, but I couldn’t help but think how stupid I was after the fact! You can almost see the look of fear in James eyes in this picture! Like, “What the heck? Julie looking pregnant is freaking me out!!!!” 🙂 Anyway, another reason this picture is significant is the guy in the picture with us, Noel Johnson. He is one of our best friends from college. He is going to be on a Travel Channel reality show tomorrow night called America’s Worst Driver. So fun! (9 p.m. central time) We are very excited to watch him and we hope you will watch too!
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| BYX E.R. date party-April 1999 My handmade shirt says “Somethings Cookin’
In The Oven”James’ shirt that I made says “Proud Papa to Be” |
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| And just for kicks, here is another picture of Noel with Carson and James. Yes,
James is my HUSBAND in this picture and I let him bleach his hair AGAIN! He obviously still had another year of college left!! July 2001 |
Rilyn had her ‘good behavior’ kindergarten field trip yesterday. It was fun to go with her and see her play with her friends at school. We went to Extreme Fun in Austin which is a bounce house place. Rilyn especially had fun jumping in the germ foam pit!
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| Rilyn being chased by one of her friends |
the paquettes 