Easter 2014

As usual, a good time was had by all...

 Annual cousins pic on the swing

 Lots of love from Aunt Jana

Picnic at Gran's

This was a special year, because there were a lot of birthdays to celebrate.  So, on Saturday, we planned a little party with a big surprise

Carmen, Sonya and Brain came to surprise everybody!  Tony and I were the only ones who knew they were coming, and it was priceless to see how excited everyone was to see them.

Jana and I put together a little photo booth, which was so fun

Sunday, we did the traditional Pappasito's Easter Lunch, and then on to the traditional egg hunt, followed by the pinata (which became a tradition last year...because the kids don't get enough candy?!)

Texas Wildflowers

We went to Hallettsvile last weekend.  The place is covered in beautiful flowers and beautiful colors.  It is so hard for me to leave there this time of year...it is so pretty and peaceful.  I love waking up to a pasture full of bluebonnets and the fragrance in the air is phenomenal, and at night the sky is so clear so you can see billions of stars.  I could sit on that porch swing all day.

 The colors this year are so dark and vibrant

 These light lavender flowers covered the hay patch

My Granny's yard was covered, but of course my children declined to take advantage of the photo opportunity

Pete Echols 2000-2014

We said good-bye to our beloved Pete "Peter Man" Echols this week.  Pete came to live with us on December 7, 2001.  He saw us get engaged, get married and bring home three babies.  I remember the night I went into labor with Lila; he laid right by me, and every time I got up he got up.  Up and down all night long.  Pete loved sitting in his chair watching over the backyard.

Pete led a very happy life.  He was just about the best traveler-dog on Earth.  If you said "let's go" he was by the door ready to go.  He would sit in his captain's chair and watch out the window.

Also, loved to eat.  There are many, many stories of what he ate: 36 flour tortillas, hamburger buns, loaves of bread, boxes of cereal, containers of baby formula.  But, he was smart and never ate the packaging.  He loved to wake us up early to feed him by shaking his collar tags.  Pete also liked to "work" with Shawn in the office.  If Shawn was working from home, Pete would lay right under his desk the whole time.  We are thankful that Pete did so well for so long.  We love you, Pete, and we miss you, and we thank you for being our friend.

Oscars 2014

So, underneath my t-shirt and nike shorts is a girl who loves to design and sew.  GOWNS and dresses to be specific. A couple years ago, I started a little mini-tradition with Lila.  We plan an Oscar night and  watch the Red Carpet (disclaimer: I do not watch movies), and have a little party.  This year, she kept telling me she didn't want to do the party.  So, while she was gone for the afternoon, I did mani-pedis with the littles...they were very excited.  Landry ended up with 3 different colors on her nails and Audrey 2.  We ended up with a gold tablecloth, plates and napkins, some makeup, chocolate covered strawberries and a ride through the house on our "Red Carpet"

Now for my Best Dressed. You have all seen all the pics, so I will cut to the chase.  I have very specific criteria for my pick.  First of all, I want a star to look like a STAR.  I want to see something special.  WOW.  I want makeup, and hair and jewelry.   I liked Charlize Theron.  The neckline with that necklace; well done

Normally, I really don't care about the men.  Just so much you can do with a tux, in my opinion.  However, this year, I was pretty impressed.  I liked the tasteful use of color.  Also, I thought the couples looked good.  Not a personal fan of Camilla's dress, but it meets my critieria..it is a hollywood dress, just a little something extra special and they look good together, and Brad and Angelina looked good.

george

Did I mention before that I had a night with KING GEORGE!  Yep.  Every once in a while, my husband outdoes himself and does something really spectacular for me.  Tickets to see George Strait in Austin...priceless.  I am a TEXAS GIRL, and I have never seen George in concert, and it was on my bucket list.  Shawn literally jumped through hoops to make that happen.  It was worth all the hype and then some.  I so appreciate him doing that for me, because I would have never made that happen for myself.   We sat on row 9, by a very nice couple from San Antonio.  I stood and sang all night to every song.  George sounded fantastic, and is as handsome as ever.  Hearing "The Chair" took me back to Blaise's Hall when my Aunt Jackie got married, "The Fireman" I was back in my my Mom's brown Oldsmobile Delta 88,  and I " I saw God today" made me cry because that song was popular when Lila was born and the words are so powerful.

 

*Also, thanks to Gran and Toby for babysitting.

Today, we were on our way home from school, and "Happy" by Pharrell came on the radio.  I turned it up and asked the girls, "Hey, are we Happy?"...this was the response

Landry: NO!

Audrey:...I tired...I tired...and I stink.

The Birthdays

...and just as we thought things would settle down after the Holidays BOOM, now we have 3 birthdays to celebrate.

Lila was very excited to et to go to school on her birthday.  Her class is called Mrs. Spivey's Superheroes, and on your birthday you get to wear a monogrammed cape all day

 and everyone in the class makes a birthday card for you and you get a book with all the cards.

 Aunt Ginger sent her a cookie bouquet

and Granny G sent Tiff's Treats.

I thought the little girls were too little to really understand birthdays and all that went with it, but when we would say "birthday", Landry would immediately say "cupcakes", so on Friday, we took cupcakes to daycare for the little girls to celebrate with the friends.
We let them open their present on Friday (because they were actually going to be at Gran and Toby's on the morning of their birthday so Mom and Dad could go to the George Strait concert).
They got some fancy, light up sneakers, and they were pretty excited about them

 They are in two different classes, so we basically had two separate parties going on simultaneously in two different rooms.  We were trying to run back and forth so we didn't miss anything.

They both chose to have an Elmo party, and had a really good time going to the party store to pick out their plates and napkins.  The highlight was when everyone started to singing to them...they both got these very proud looks on their faces.

Sunday afternoon, Lila got to have a small painting pARTy