I love Gruene Beans

We headed to Gruene Texas with the Townsends on Friday since the guys had the day off. It was so nice to be back in a small town. We enjoyed eating at the Gristmill Restaurant and just strolling around. We checked out a cute antique shop, sampled some wine and ended the day with a smoothie!








Here are Natalie and Lily enjoying some snacks while we waited on lunch.
Ben and Brenna

The family

We had fun playing in a small picnic area outside of the wine shop. Lily loved the trees tickling her face.

Brenna holding Lily for a cute photo op!

Brenna hangin' out

Last Day of School

Well last Thursday was the last time I will be picking Brenna up from this building. Northwest Hills United Methodist church has one of the greatest mother's day out programs ever, and I'm so glad Brenna was able to be a part of it. The entire staff is so loving and geniunely cares about each child there. Every single day that I dropped her off at school the teachers and staff always said hello and good-bye to Brenna. Some days I wish she would be five forever and her innocence would be preserved forever, but I know she must grow up one day like all children so I'm trying to take in each moment while I have it. I love you little girl. You will always be my baby.


Headed home from school for the last time.

Sitting at her desk.

Brenna and her teacher Ms. Rose

Brenna and the assistant teacher Ms. Claudia

They had a fun-filled water day. This is Brenna's friend Jonathon that always helped her gather her stuff up at the end of each school day.

Enjoying spraying all her friends.

Got my hair did!

Well I went to have my hair trimmed the other day and this is what happened! The lady asked me what we were doing and I just told her my hair needed help and that I had an 8 month old at home so it had to be easy. More than a trim, but I love it! It's so easy and I think this is the best length for my face. I'm glad I finally got it cut and it's not in the ponytail anymore!






I love the profile.

I even washed my hair last night and it took me like two seconds to fix this morning!

Slippin' and a slidin'

We set up the slip and slide the other day and I convinced Ben to show Brenna how to use it. She kept wanting to slide on her knees instead of her belly. Hopefully after a little more practice she'll understand you kind of have to glide over it instead of doing a belly flop onto the ground! They still had a lot of fun in spite of the red knees and getting stuck on the mat! I think Ben had more fun than he expected!






Way to go Daddy!
Brenna finally trying it on her belly.

Warming up after playing. We set it up on one of the cooler days we just had so we'll have to get it out again when it gets back in the 90's...I guess that will be tomorrow right?!

Ben and his goofy grin!

Graduation Day!

Well Brenna graduated from pre-school! I cannot believe she is going to be starting kindergarten this fall. The program they had was really cute. They had a processional with pomp and circumstance playing while the two four year old classes entered. All the classes sang a song together, and then each individual class sang a song. Brenna's class sang Awesome God and she knew all the words and movements like a pro. Then they presented the "graduates" with a certificate and children's bible. They had a slide show and music video to end the program. It was a lot of fun and I only shed a few tears!





Here's Brenna getting her "diploma"

Brenna in her cap and gown!

1-2-3 like a tooth I see!

Here's my best effort at getting a shot of Natalie's first tooth. The other has just started to poke through. I can't believe she's almost 8 months old! It's going so fast.

Mother/Daughter Banquet

My friend Kelle invited Brenna and me to a banquet last Friday night at her church. We had a good time and it was nice to get to spend some one on one time with her. The theme was "A mother's apron strings." I thought it was a very appropriate theme since I had just made matching aprons for her and me! I need to post a pic of that actually. Anyway, we started the evening with dinner that consisted of salad, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans with your choice of pecan or apple pie for dessert! Yum yum. They had a couple of speakers, a memory game (which I was horrible at!), and several door prizes that both Brenna and me won!



Here we are headed out to the banquet.

Here's my friend Kelle (the blonde) and her friend Gina.

Here is Kelle's mom, Vicky, our friend Kara, and me looking like I've seen a ghost!

Here's Brenna with Kelle's daughter, GraceLinn, and Kara's daughter Chloe.

Go #5!

We had an 8 a.m. soccer game this morning which turned out to be pretty nice since we could beat the heat, and Brenna made her first score!!! She was so happy. Not only did she score her first goal she scored a second goal toward the end of the game!


Here she is right after it happened. She came running over to me and gave me a huge high five. Unfortunately Ben was at home with Natalie and none of our friends were there to witness it. Hopefully she'll score again before the season is over.
Here are some good action shots I got of her kicking the ball. I love watching her play. She seems to really enjoy it and wants to play next year.

Breaking news!

We have our first tooth! I was feeding Natalie a few days ago and there it was. It had just broken the skin and is already completely through in the last couple of days. It is the lower one of course and it looks like the other one my be breaking ground soon. Thank goodness I'm not nursing anymore...props to you Lauren! Hopefully I can get a good pic soon!

Matching giraffes

I've said it many times that I love that Brenna likes to match Natalie, and I try to do it as much as possible. It's been easier to find stuff lately which is awesome! Just some other cute pics I wanted to post too.




Natalie wearing a cute lady bug outfit that was Brenna's when she was a baby. Needed another reason to wear the adorable matching bow we got from Courtney!
A happy baby on her belly...an unusual site for Natalie these days.

The infamous hand in the mouth smile!

My matching babies.

Clapping!

Swimming Beauties

We headed out in the backyard to play in the pool since it was pretty hot today. This was the first time Natalie got to enjoy the water in her new pool. I didn't take time to warm the water in the sun, so I didn't know how she would react to the cold water. Once I got her to sit in it she seemed to really like it.



Splashing around! I guess she got some of the water in her mouth and that's why her tongue is sticking out!

Brenna enjoyed being able to finally get Natalie in the pool with her. Natalie did pretty well sitting up but it was pretty slippery, so I had to stay right there so she didn't end up drinking the water!

Natalie went down for a nap and then I set up the new sprinkler for Brenna. It's a caterpillar that sprays water from everywhere. Too cute!

I tried to get a picture of them together before they went in the pool and Natalie was just too curious about the grass to look at me. I guess she was trying to keep up with Colin today because she really enjoyed eating the grass!

Playing at the Park

We headed to the park the other day and met Lauren, Lily, Ashley and Colin. We hadn't been to the park in awhile and we've had several days of rain so we thought it would be a good idea. We didn't stay long because the sun popped out and it quickly got into the 90's! I'm not ready for this Texas heat, but at least I only have a few more weeks and hopefully we won't hit the 100's.





Here is a goofy but sweet picture of Natalie trying to kiss Brenna or maybe just suck on her nose!
Going down the slide together. I can't wait until Natalie can run around with Brenna and go down the slide on her own. Next summer will be a blast!

Swinging together!

Natalie had lots of fun even with the heat.