Kemah and Family Visit

The picture above was from Chuck-E-Cheese last weekend, isn't so cute!

This weekend my aunt came in from Phoenix for short but very nice visit. We had fixed a nice dinner Friday night and had my brother over. Saturday we got up and took her to the Kemah Boardwalk where they have shops, carnival rides & games, restaurants, and there was a Camero car show going on. We had fun walking into the shops and of course the kids had to play the carnival games, which we came home with two new family members. After a few hours it was getting pretty hot, so we went back home and played in the sprinkler. Then it was time to take my aunt back to the airport. It was very nice to get to spend sometime with her even if it was just a day and half.
Sunday we hung around the house and steam cleaned the carpets.. I know you are envious of that! But it had to be done, between two kids and a dog & cat, the carpets needed a little refreshing. Plus Houston was at over 100 degrees, so we needed to stay inside for the day anyways…yep the summer heat came early this year, aren't we all so excited about that. We had movie night a few nights with popcorn and our new guests, the kids LOVE it, and fight over it!
This week Katherine started the summer camp at school. Since she graduated from pre-school, she is in the "big kid after-schooler" room. They have activites everyday and go on fieldtrips every Thursday. This month they are going to a gymnastics place, Kemah, Wildlife Nature Preserve, and the movies. Colin's class has activites too, today was waterslide day for the whole school, so they had to bring their bathing suits and towels. I know my kids had a blast at that, yesterday was pizza day from Little Ceasers… yummy.
This weekend we are going with my brother and his family to New Braunfuls to swim on the river and cool off from the Texas Heat. You know I am going to have LOTA of pictures for you next week! Summer has officially started and with as hot as it has got already, we are breaking record temps right and left, I imagine you will find us at the pool or beach on the weekends. But looking forward to it, as hot as it is, I am a southern girl and I like it, no thanks to cold places that snow.

Having fun with the remote control boats even though the boats are missing :)In "Jail" on the boardwalk
Snuggled up on movie night

Katherine's Pre-K Graduation, Cat Springs, and Beach Day

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. This post has LOTS of pictures, we did so many fun things, had to include them all. I was off for 4 whole days :) Friday I took off for Katherine's Pre-K graduation. That morning, I took Mocha to the vet and then went and got a massage (my Valentine's present from Matt). Then off to graduation. They put on such a cute show. Katherine had a speaking part where she had to recite a bible verse. She did so good, all that practicing at home paid off. They sang songs they learned in school and got diplomas. I am so proud of her, I even felt myself getting a little sappy realizing my baby girl is growing up so fast. Now it's off to Kindergarten, I know she will do great. After the ceremony, I gave her the choice of the Ice Cream Shop or Barnes & Nobles, she choose the bookstore. So we went and got a new Barbie book and brownies from the Starbucks. Where did the years go? Saturday morning we got up and went to an early birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. The kids of course had a blast. I even hit the jackpot on one of the games and won 250 tickets. Katherine was very kind in sharing her tokens with her friends. They were both a little upset when it was time to go. But we had another party to get to. We then packed up the car and drove about an hour away to Cat Springs, TX. Matt's family was having a family reunion at a relative's property out there. It is such a pretty place. They have a nice size pond on the property to go swimming, fishing, or canoeing on. Colin loved riding on the big tractor with Uncle Brian, or having his cousins drive him around on the golf cart, and having Katherine drive him around on the toy tractor. Katherine loved playing with all the toys, driving the tractor around, fishing & passing out the worms, and playing with a new friend she made. The kids played and played for 6 hours, they had such a great time. They had so much good food. At about 7:30 that night we put the kids in the car for our hour drive home, they were both passed out the entire way, they were both exhausted from such a fun filled day.
Sunday morning we got up and decided to head down to the beach for a few hours. It's not Memorial Day weekend without the beach. We got down there early, about 9:30am before it got crowded. The kids ALWAYS love to go to the beach. They had a great time playing in the water, sand, and having a picnic on the beach. We left about 1:30pm, it was getting crowded by then. It was a nice and relaxing time to soak up some sun (a little too much on my back) and play with the kids. That afternoon we just relaxed around the house and watched a movie. Monday we took the kids over to Matt's parents while we went to see Hangover 2 and go out to lunch for our wedding anniversary. I kind of felt the whole weekend was such a great time, Monday we just wanted it to be low key and the two of us. It was a funny movie, definitely not one to watch with kids :0. We had a fun FILLED Memorial Day weekend.. I didn't want to go back to work. I really enjoyed being with my family and enjoying time away going on our little day trips.

Eight Years Ago....

Eight years ago, I married my best friend.
Eight years ago, we vowed to love each other always.

It has been an amazing eight years, with good times, hard times, and times that that I never want to let go of.
We have been many places, been on many trips, seen spectacular sights.

In eight years, we have accomplished so much as a couple, we have stood by each other's side no matter the situation.
Our greatest accomplishments.. Katherine and Colin. These two are a perfect reflection of our love. Our strength is the home, love, and support we give our children. Our marriage and our love has given them to best foundation in life.

In eight years, we have lived in several places, but you are my home, you are where my heart is and will always be.
Eight years ago, we stood before God, our family, and friends and vowed to love each other no matter what life brings us.

You are my rock when I need someone to give me strength, you are a funny joke when I need a laugh, you are a warm hug when I need to feel safe. You are everything I need in a friend, a husband, a father, and a partner. I will love you forever and always.

Happy 8th Anniversary Matt, and here's to many many many more!

I will post on Memorial Day Weekend & Katherine's Pre-K graduation later this week.

Relaxing Weekend - For Once

The other week a photographer came into the school for pictures, they turned out really cute this time. Sorry for the poor quality, they were scanned at work and didn't turn out so well. These pictures is what prompted us to get Colin's haircut, didn't realize how "Out of Control" it had got until these pictures came back. Katherine is getting so big and growing into a little lady. I love the picture of just her, she is so beautiful on the outside and inside.

This weekend we took it easy, which I loved. We have been so busy lately. Friday night while the kids watched a movie, I cleared out two trash bags of old, broken, or toys with missing pieces out of the game room.. Sshhhh.. Don't tell the kids! I made chocolate chip cookies to distract them from wanting to come upstairs to see what I was doing.

This was our first weekend without soccer, it was nice but strange not to be at the soccer fields on Saturday morning. Saturday we cleaned house and ran errands. Then we decided to be brave and go to the movies for the first time as a family. Colin has never been to the movies before and he did a great job. We went to go see Rio, which was cute and had a lot of upbeat songs, which helped Colin so much. He sat in my lap and bounced and danced around with the music. The few times he got antsy, we had plenty of snacks to "entertain" him. I am very please that he is now able to go to the movies, so we can all go together instead of Matt and I switching off who will take Katherine. We can now go as a family, as it should be!

Sunday we just hung around the house. After lunch we turned on the sprinklers, put on our bathing suits, and played in the backyard for over two hours. The kids love being outside, playing in the water, making mud puddles, playing chase.. I enjoy sitting in the sun after spending all week indoors at my cubicle. Matt had them watering plants and trying to help our poor grass since we are in the worst drought since the 1930's.. BOOOO, we need rain so bad!

When we took the kids to Phoenix last November to say our good-byes to my grandma, Katherine took this colored pebble out of her yard to remember her by. My grandma had a gravel yard being in the desert, but to make it pretty she put colored pebbles all through her yard to add color and flare. Lately at night when Katherine goes to bed, she takes the pebble and sits by the window and prays that God is taking care of Granny and getting her anything she wants, and asks God to watch over her. Katherine is so sweet, I know my grandma is watching from heaven with a huge smile and a happy heart. My grandma adored Katherine so much, Katherine will grow up knowing that!

Water balloon standoff.. who will win?
Playing chase, she is fast!
Colin's NEW favorite pass time.. HE LOVES to get me keys at stand at the door and put the keys in and lock it, unlock it, take the keys out, and do it all over again. He will do this for 30 minutes and be happy and content. I love how his mind works, always trying to figure it all out!
Mom, it's lock, it's stuck.. I had to go help him get it out that time. He was not happy and yanked the keys back from me to do it again.
Katherine's new game she likes to play.. Librarian. You check out books from her and she will stamp them and put the piece of paper "Library Card" in in and tell you to return in two weeks. She has an amazing imagination that keeps us guessing all the time.

Campfire, Last Soccer Game, Roadtrip, and Reliving First Kiss

The Eyrings live for weekends, work hard, pay hard - right! This past weekend was of course fun-filled and exhausting, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. So much time passes in our daily routine, so we try to take advantages of the weekends as much as we can, especially since it's not 100 degrees yet!

Friday night we went over my brothers for dinner. We got to spend a nice evening together with him, his wife, and my nephew who is 8 months old. We even got to roast marshmallows and make smores in the backyard. It was a nice evening with great company.
Saturday was Katherine's last soccer game of the season. It was the most evenly matched game we had all season, most of our games we had two players really dominate. Katherine was close to scoring but the ball got a little ahead of her, but her friend Jacob was able to help out and make a goal out of it! After the game, Matt made a little speech about each game and gave them their trophy. Matt did a great job of coaching the team, it's not easy to deal with six 4&5 year olds! It was a fun season, but it will be nice to have our Saturday mornings back until it starts back up in the fall. After the game, Colin got a MUCH needed haircut, he looks so much older. Not sure why it took me so long to cut his hair, I want it long, but his hair is thin like mine, it needs to be a little shorter.. Not too short though! Saturday afternoon Matt had to go into work and I took the kids to a birthday party..yes another birthday party.. The kids have much more of a social calendar than Matt & I combined. They had a moonwalk with a slide, which was of course a big hit with the kids, including mine. They also had a piñata, Colin & Katherine did great taking swings at it, Katherine even knocked out a few pieces of candy from it. Sunday we got up early and dropped the kids off at Matt's parents so we could have a "Jennifer and Matt's Day O Fun"..(thank you --- we really appreciated and needed that!) We drove up to College Station, where Texas A&M is (the college Matt & I met at). We took the back roads for a nice Sunday drive. We got up there and ate at one our favorite restaurants there. They built a nice patio and we sat outside and had amazing hamburgers (they are just as good as I remember). The weather was perfect.. 78 degrees and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. We then went to one of the little shops to buy Katherine and Colin some new Aggie shirts. Then we went to a few bars and had some drinks. Sat outside on the patios enjoyed drinks and each other.. No kids to chase down, yell at, or play 100 questions with. It was nice to just have "us" time.We even stopped and relived our first kiss (that in August will be 12 years ago). It's in Bottlecap Alley, which is an alley between two bars, full of bottlecaps.. Maybe not the most romantic place for first kiss, but hey I was 20.. It was romantic enough :). After having a few drinks and reliving when we met, we went to the Aggie Baseball game to watch them BEAT Nebraska. It was a beautiful day for a baseball game, can't wait until the kids are a little older to enjoy watching the Aggies play baseball. It was a very nice short roadtrip. It was very enjoyable to have Matt all to myself for a whole day. This morning I put the kids in their Aggie shirts for school. Getting a picture of these two is so hard, but they crack me up!

Kentucky Derby & Mother's Day at the Zoo

Before I get into how our weekend went, I have to say how proud and sentimental I was last week when we took Katherine to sign up for Kindergarten. Even though all we did was fill out the paperwork, she was so excited to see her new school and even didn't want to leave. She was sad when it was time to go, now if we can keep up that attitude for the next 13 years. Also that day we got the invite to her pre-school graduation, my baby is growing up so fast. She is an amazing person. Saturday we had a soccer game, Katherine wasn't much into it this week. Matt's parents came, then after the game we took his mom & dad out to eat for Mother's Day. Both the kids did great at the restaurant. After lunch, Katherine and I fixed our hats for the hat contest for the Kentucky Derby party we were going to. We won for the most "creative". At the party, they had lots of great food, drinks, and the kids got to play in the kiddie pool and swing set. Katherine was proud of our hats, even though we were the only ones that made silly ones, the other ladies had on real derby type hats.. I don't own anything like that, and it was more fun to make one with Katherine anyways. We had a nice time at the party mingling with friends, the kids were sad when it was time to leave, but it was almost their bedtime.. AND MINE!Sunday I awoke to nice cards and gifts from the children and Matt. Katherine really wanted to "take me" somewhere for Mother's Day, so went to the zoo. It was a nice time looking at all the fish, birds, giraffes, monkeys, lions, but the highlight for both children was watching the elephants take a bath. The kids of course love the children's area with a playground and petting zoo. Colin did have a break down when we had to get off the carrousel, he loves those so much! We had to pass by it a second time and he was MAD we were not getting back on it. After about 4 hours, it was getting pretty hot, and everybody was getting hungry, so we left the zoo and ate lunch. After lunch, we turned on the sprinkler in the backyard and lets the kids play in the swimsuits, while I attempted to work on a tan. Matt made chicken fajitas for dinner, yummy. It was a great Mother's Day spent with my wonderful kids and amazing husband. I am so lucky to have them. The only thing missing was getting to see my mom, they are still off traveling, not sure when we will get to see them next.