pool time!

we had our first pool adventure of the year this past sunday for samuel and noah jenkins birthday party. it was a great time and i am thankful for pool time to cool off in this already hot weather! duncan LOVES baths so i wasn't surprised at all when he LOVED the pool! jayden loves it too and we are excited for him to get to take swimming lessons this year at mrs joy's in waco!

Mary Beth & Alex's Graduation

Mary Beth and Alex both graduated this weekend. Mary Beth from Baylor with a BFA (bachelor of fine arts) and Alex from UTA with a MSW (masters in social work). They both did great and I am proud of them both! I went to Alex's graduation but unfortunately don't have any pictures to capture the event - (of course you are not missing anything because it poured when we got there and my mom and i did not have an umbrella and walked quite a distance in the rain - we looked somewhat like wet dogs :)). The whole family (minus alex who went to colorado) went down to waco for Mary Beth's graduation and then we had a picnic lunch at a river house together. It was so much fun! We are excited because "B" is coming to live with us for six months until she goes to Uganda for a year. It will be fun having her up here in Dallas and it will be nice to have some extra hands with the new baby!

beautiful graduate

she painted this on top of her cap so that we could tell where she was sitting, unfortunately you can see how big the stadium is - we weren't able to see her!

cute pic (i know!) all four of us are baylor grads - giving the good ole' sic em bears!

Happy Mother's Day Mom (and a rap from JO)

My sister wrote the most beautiful tribute to my mom on her blog. I agree completely with everything she wrote. (she is way better with words than me!)

I am so thankful for my mom. She is so full of grace, love and mercy and is the biggest servant i have ever known. She has taught me a lot about being a mom and I am thankful for the way that she raised me to love the call of raising a family.

Thanks mom for being who you are! I love you!

I also had to add the rap that Jordan made for me for mother's day. It was so good! Just read it with a beat in your head. Jordan shared it at church today too - it was so funny!

(and the name of the rap is Ghetto Fabulous Motherhood)

GHETTO FABULOUS. The brother who had a mother that makes much of his brother in the way that she is a mother – that brother will make much of his brother and his brother’s brother that points back to the mother who is more than a breeder of brothers….more than a breeder of brothers y’all.

She gets up in the morning, laces on her shoes – yells to her husband ‘be back in a few’ . she runs through the dark streets, with her blue ipod, she’s a runner and a prayer – all before the day breaks.

Breaking back in to the home, that’s right, the home that she’s a-making – she breaks in to the beans, the beans that she’ll be brewin – not watching grinding beans, no that’s not her thing – she’s off to the shower, beans can grind while she shines.

Adding poison to poison, into her cup she pours – all the while a towel is resting like a pet on all fours – on top of her head, years of practice taught her how, ‘mommy what’s on your head’, is jayden’s question of the hour.

And the hour after hour starts just at this hour, not to mention hour 2 - when she was off the clock. But the clock doesn’t stop for sleeping or for reading – we’re a family full of clocks, all ticking as we’re pleasing, but it’s the mommy that’s the clock-girl, taking care of clocks – watch out – clock, clock – she even washes socks, and puts on socks, and also blocks-

Blocks that cough that you try, try to cough up in her face-her lovely face just got shiny, don’t go coughing in her face – she’s like lace , lace dunn – ya’ll – knocking down the 3, and on the drive – just try to stop her, she gets to the rack.

And the birds and the bees – geez – don’t you know where you get kids – yes, thank you co-worker x, and for your vision to rid, your life of your kids, not to rid but to raise – yeah that is her vision, yeah she’s got vision y’all, vision….for a generation being raised, changing cities, changing nations, she don’t got time for your lip – so why don’t you just skip or save – your kid-ridding for another – I’ve got a vision for more brothers and more sisters, and to make much of being a mother. That’s right y’all.

Karis's "R is for Riley" Baby Shower

sunday afternoon we had a shower for karis who is expecting miss riley grace in june! it was so much fun and we used the letter "R" as the theme for our shower.

karis is going to be such a great mom and it was fun to celebrate her and their sweet little one!

the hostess

riley's bedding - magen made it (isn't it SO cute!)

karis and her mom

precious pillow that magen made to go with the bedding

sweet bonnet that becomes a handkerchief for riley to use on her wedding day

Strawberry Picking at Gnismer Farms!

last week our playgroup from church went to pick strawberries at a farm in arlington called gnismer farms. it was SUCH a fun activity for the kids - they loved it! i didn't realize this until we went but strawberries are the perfect thing for kids jayden's age to pick because they are low to the ground and it seems pretty easy to tell which ones are good or not (basically you want the bright red ones and not the green ones!). it took j a little time to get the hang of the "type" of strawberry to get - but he got it. as one mom said - jayden was more into "quanity" than "quality!"

duncan tried to pick some and eat them - (of course!) - so i had to keep him away from the berries as much as possible.

it was a great outing and i highly recommend it if you are in the area - it is only open on wednesday afternoons and saturday mornings - but it is a great thing to do with kids.

we made strawberry jam with the strawberries that we picked - but sadly my jam did not "gel" as it was suppose to. oh well!