Easter 2017

The Easter Bunny stopped by our house!

I love that Brenna always leaves a note for the Easter Bunny. (And the Tooth Fairy....and Santa Clause.....)

They were excited to look through all of their goodies!

This year the loot included colored paper, candy, new swim suits, flip flops, lip gloss, and a few other things.
Then we all got ready for the early service at church.
I love these two pretty girls! (even if it did take 47 tries to get a good picture!)

Nina bought their Easter dresses this year, so I got away with one more year of matching dresses. Pretty sure if I had bought them, there would have been lots of protests.
Church service was wonderful, as always. And I enjoyed having both of the girls sitting between Josh and I. It made my Mama heart happy.
After church, we stopped by Pops and Memaw's to let the girls show off their pretty Easter dresses and to get Memaw to take a picture of all of us.
And another 47 tries later...

After we went home and changed, we gathered our stuff and headed back to Pops and Memaw's to gather with everyone else.
Pops did some grilling..

These guys supervised...

Brenna and Macie were sporting their brand new beloved Pizza Place shirts that Roger gave them the day before...

We all enjoyed a wonderful lunch of grilled chicken thighs, salad, and lots of other yummy goodies! And as soon as they were done eating, the kiddos were ready to hunt some eggs! They got a little impatient waiting on the adults to finish our lunch! But finally we were all done and it was hidin' time! 

We made them pose for some pictures while the eggs were being hidden.

Brenna, Macie, Addie, Abel, Walker and Wyatt

They were NOT very patient with this photo. There were candy filled eggs that they NEEDED to hunt, and group pictures were the least of their worries! 

And because Josh is the king of pestering...he led them out the door BACKWARDS! Then he made them line up backwards and wait for the 2 little ones to get a head start before they started running around like mad people who had never had a piece of candy in their entire 6-10 year existence! 

Walker says "To heck with this! I'm the youngest and the cutest- I do what I want!"

Walker Man carefully scoped all of the eggs out looking for just the right one!

Then the rest of them proceeded to run around and fill their baskets to overflowing! A few even had to empty and start over because they had filled it up to overflowing.

Macie takes her egg hunting VERY seriously! Don't get in her way or she will run you over!

Wyatt's plan attack seemed to be "Take long strides and they will never be able to keep up!"

After the candy had all been inspected, and the money had been counted, we moved on to a friendly game of volleyball!

Do you see me in this picture? No? Well that's because my lovely Brenna Grace told me that when it comes to playing volleyball, I'm a "disappointment". Yes, you read that correctly. A disappointment! You'd think I served the ball way over to the side into the field or tried to hit a ball and missed by 6 feet...6 times! OK- so all of those things DID happen. But STILL!
So I decided that I was more cut out for taking pictures and cheering everyone else on!
Later I tried to get a picture with my husband.

Don't let him fool you- he's not really a butt head! He only does this because he knows it drives me nuts!!!!

See??!! He really does have a pretty smile!

It was yet another successful Jackson family get together! Everyone had fun, and as always we enjoyed just being together! We sure missed Graddy and Mrs. Kathy this year! But Graddy had been working long hours and Mrs. Kathy was in the middle of tax season working at a tax office....so she was basically working around the clock. So we completely understood. Hopefully they can join in next year!

April Randomness

Just some April randomness!
Josh and I enjoyed a dinner sans kids one night thanks to an offer from Pops to drop the girls off there since they had the boys that night already. You don't have to twist our arm to get us to go enjoy an adults only dinner! However, I do have to twist Josh's arm to get a decent selfie out of him!

He drives me insane! And makes me laugh so hard! It's a nice balance.

When we stopped at Buc-ees on our way back from Mimi's house in March, Macie told me this...
"I really want a Buc-ee's tshirt because EVERY KID in my class has one! Well, maybe not every kid. But this one kid has one and I really want one!"
So I was telling Sara this story one day because it totally cracked me up. And even though I told her not to, she insisted that she was getting both girls shirts for Easter! But she couldn't wait to give them to the girls, so we met up with her on Sunday for ice cream, and she gave them their shirts. Mrs. Sara sure knows how to score points with these two! Such spoiled little girls!

They were so excited to wear their shirts to school on Monday! 

Josh called me one day and said he was stuck at a water job and asked if I could go get home in time to get the girls off of the bus. I was going to be cutting it close, but I hooked it home. This is the site I saw as I rounded the corner to our house....

Talk about cutting it close! A little too close for comfort!

The girls had spring pictures done at school. I don't usually buy spring pictures, but we always dress up just in case the picture is too good to resist! haha! This year they were super cute! I still didn't buy them (because let's face it- there is no shortage of pictures of these two around our house!) But I came close!

Aunt Susan had her LAST chemo treatment! I told the girls and asked if they were excited.... I think the picture speaks for itself..

We went to breakfast with Graddy and Mrs. Kathy one Saturday after volleyball. Both girls declared that they were sitting by Graddy! And here is proof that you can't take my Dad anywhere...

These two were a little too proud of their creation..

We celebrated our sweet Walker Jackson's 1st birthday!
We will call this the "before" picture..

Because right after this...he grabbed that candle and burned his little hand! Poor baby. He didn't even get to enjoy a single bite of his cake.
I had to work prom this year. I am blessed to work with the sweetest group of FCS teachers!

Heather, me, Carolyn, Hailey

And in honor of all of the prom pictures that flooded facebook that night... I posted two of my prom pictures..
Prom 1997

And Prom 1998...

Oh those hair do's... Sherry Johnson specials! I loved both of those dresses so much. I felt like a true princess in the purple satin one. And that black one was my absolute favorite dress of all time. I was telling Mrs. Quy in high school what type of dress I wanted to find. And after I described a black, sequin, long dress with sleeves.... she said "I have that dress hanging in my closet!" It was her daughter's prom dress from a couple years before. And I was so lucky... it fit like a glove! Score!

Next up...Easter 2017!

March 2017

I will get caught up...I will get caught up...I will get caught up!!!! SO- Here we go with March!
Macie had a week of theme dress up days. We were still in Vegas for "crazy hair day", but Memaw came through for her!

Macie told me "Crazy hair is what Memaw is good at!"

She also had crazy sock day..

And "Mismatched and Backwards day"...

Bow under the pony tail...that was my idea! The rest was all her....

Brenna had her winter volleyball league tournament. We played with the Peaster Pups again since our team didn't play this season. We SO enjoyed being back on Coach Jeff's team! I love watching him coach, and Brenna learns so much from him.
Wyatt and Pops came to watch the first game!

Hat switch! Wyatt was not happy about the switch.

This girl played SO well!

And the Peaster Pups took 1st place with 3 wins!! I got a little choked up when they all ran over to Jeff and started hugging him.

They fought hard, and played harder! This group sure has my heart.

And I proclaimed that I will never survive high school ball. My nerves were shot after three 4th grade games! I'm gonna need to be heavily medicated if this girl decides to play high school ball!

#1!! She has come so far since that very first season.

And when you spend your day at volleyball and work your tail off....you get to eat ice cream straight out of the carton!

Papa had knee replacement surgery. He had been battling the pain for YEARS, and had put the surgery off several times due to Nana being sick and other things that came up. So he finally got it done, and it went really well! But he had to be in the hospital for several days....and we all know how hard it is on spouses at their age to be separated like that. Nana sure missed him. Jana snapped this picture, and it is just about the sweetest thing I have ever seen. What an example and inspiration these two are to all of us.

The week before spring break, I took my interns to Tarleton for a field trip to tour the campus.

It is always so strange for me to walk around that campus now. It looks a LOT different than it did 15 years ago. Sara went with me as my extra chaperone since they required 2 for a group the size of mine, and we were both blown away at all of the recent changes to the campus. I'm glad we had a tour guide- because I would have been lost without one!!

SPRING BREAK!!!
When I asked the girls what they wanted to do for spring break, they said "Go to Mimi's!!"! I love love love that they enjoy a good road trip, and that they love going to Mimi's house. So we left as soon as they got off of the bus on Friday!
Every road trip to Mimi's must start with a car selfie!

The trip there wasn't bad at all! I'm so glad I found a new way to go that involves 75 mph toll roads with no one else on them! And it only takes 3.5 hours! Score!
We got there a little before 8 and enjoyed just sitting and visiting with our Mimi.

This girl can talk her Mimi's ear smooth off when she gets there! And thankfully Mimi is a good sport about listening to all of her stories.

We surpassed Macie's limits that night though... I found her like this.

She managed to get her blankey out and pajamas on...but that was it! Socks still on, and on top of the covers! Poor girl was worn smooth out from a long week of 1st grade. I am so thankful for these trips to Mimi's to just completely unwind, forget about the "to do list", and just have no agenda. I think we all need that at times. And Mimi's house offers that relaxation time for us.
Saturday morning started like every Saturday morning at Mimi's house!

My happy place.

Mimi and I lingered long over our morning coffee, but finally the girls persistent begging got to us and we decided to get dressed and head to SIDS for lunch!

This girl right here put away her usual 2 double meat hot dogs!

It was a rainy and cold day in El Reno. So we decided to head back to Mimi's to watch The Parent Trap! Brenna and I thought it would be fun to watch with Mimi, and she agreed. Funny thing is...by the end of it, Brenna had ended up in the bedroom watching her shows, and Macie ended up asleep!

I couldn't tell you the last time this girl took a nap! Much less one where she just fell asleep on her own will. I guess the relaxing environment of Mimi's house got the best of her!
Later that night, Taron and Nolan came over for dinner and cards. And it was during this game of cards that I found out just how much my Mimi does NOT like to loose. Taron and I beat them something terrible....TWICE! And it was very obvious that I moved to least favorite granddaughter status when I went out while she had 4 red threes in her hand! OOPS! (Let's just say...I probably won't make that mistake again!) But it was SOOOO worth it!
Sunday morning brought another lazy morning of cinnamon rolls and coffee. Mimi ALWAYS fixes cinnamon rolls when we are at her house for breakfast. She knows the girls love them, and I think she has also figured out that making them moves her right up to favorite Mimi status! We finally got up and got dressed in time to go out to lunch.
After lunch, we settled in to watch Sully. Mimi had never seen it, so I went and rented it from Red Box. It was another cold and dreary day, which made for perfect movie watching. After our movie, I returned it, and grabbed us all some ice cream.

And then they ended their day with popcorn for dinner while I caught up Mimi's ironing and Mimi and I watched HGTV. I couldn't think of a more relaxing way to start spring break!
Monday morning we were up bright and early. We packed up and headed out by 9 since Mimi's house keeper was coming. The girls and I headed to the outlet mall, but it was SO cold and windy that we only lasted about an hour before we decided to head back to God's country. But we managed to make a pit stop at Bucc-ees and Daddy's fire station before finally making it home.
On Tuesday, Maylee came over to play for the day while Brandi went to a funeral. I managed to not get a SINGLE picture the whole day... What on earth!! Blogger Mom fail! But it was a fun day for sure! We ate lunch at CiCi's and played all day.
Wednesday morning we got up and got dressed early and headed to Nina's house for a day full of fun! Ever since Brenna and I went to the Cheesecake Factory before the Bass Hall, she's been wanting to go back. And Nina had never been and was wanting to go....SO....We made a day of it! We picked up Nina and Kyson and headed off to Fort Worth for lunch!

I was super disappointed that they had discontinued the wonderful garlic pasta that I ate in January. I had been looking forward to eating it again since I had it last time! But I settled for something different. It was ok- but not as good as the garlic pasta!
Macie Claire had the biggest bowl of bow tie pasta she had ever seen! I told her it was bigger than her head.

She didn't even make a dent in it.
And after we were all so full we could hardly stand it.... we ordered cheesecake! Because isn't that what you are supposed to do at the Cheesecake Factory??

Brenna got that big piece of red velvet cheesecake in the back, Kyson got the vanilla bean, and Nina and I split the turtle cheesecake.

But I really feel like the picture doesn't do these slices of cheesecake justice. They were HUGE. We all took over half of it home.

From there, we went over to DSW where I scored 2 new pairs of shoes! And moved the party on to Trader Joe's- another first for Nina! We all enjoyed looking around, and I stocked up on some $2 wine. Yes Please!
It was a great day of enjoying Nina and Kyson time, and just being together! Thanks for treating us Nina! We enjoyed it so much!
On Thursday we got up with not much on our agenda. I asked the girls what they wanted to do, and Macie quickly said "go to lunch with Mrs. Sara!" That's always a highlight for her, and Mrs. Sara is almost always up for a lunch date! So we called her and met up at McAllister's. The girls enjoyed filling Mrs. Sara in on all of their Spring Break adventures so far.
After lunch, we headed over to Five Below for Brenna to spend her gift card from her birthday. Macie and I played around since we didn't have gift cards to spend.

Cutest bunny I ever did see!
And Brenna joined in on our shenanigans too!

We feel the beach calling our names!

On Friday, Landry called and invited the girls over to play for the afternoon,  so I was left with a morning to myself. What did I do with my free time?? Well, being the wild and crazy woman I am...I did laundry and ironing of course! But it sure was nice to just be at home and not have anywhere to go. We did manage to get dressed and go out to dinner that night at BooRays.

On Saturday, the girls and I went to Pizza Place for lunch. They LOVE to go to lunch on Saturdays at Pizza place with Mrs. Sara and Mrs. Prissy (and Don and Leo, too!). I'm pretty sure it's because Prissy and Sara (and Roger) spoil them ROTTEN! But hey- I guess every kid needs a little spoiling sometimes.
Saturday night we went to the Baldwin's for a crawfish boil. These crazy kids decided it was warm enough to swim...

But I was more focused on this...

The first boil of the season! And it was SOOOOO yummy! And we enjoyed spending the evening with the Baldwins, Middletons, Rileys, and Butlers! We are so blessed to have such a great group of friends that we love being around. We all love each other's kids, and enjoying being together. I am thankful every day for this group of people God placed in my life.

Sunday was spent getting ready to head back to school. YUCK. Not nearly as much fun as the rest of Spring Break. But the count down was on! Summer is in sight!