Random Happenings From the Last Week and a Half

Well, I haven't written in a while, and a bunch of things kept happening that made me think I needed to blog, but I kept letting it build up. And now that I'm finally sitting down to do it, I can't remember most of them! So here are a few things that have been keeping us busy lately (from what I can recall)....

The rest of the visit we had with my brother and his family was so good. We had lots of fun with them and they are now safely back home. Jonah still is asking if Nathan and Maggie are there every time we go to Gigi's house! He really doesn't understand why they were here all the time for four days and now they're gone. We all really miss you guys! One of the photos I'm going to post is from when we all gathered around to watch the Kentucky Derby. Jonah is sitting with Blake, holding a stuffed horse and watching the "horsies" race. He loved it. Can't wait for their next visit!



Last Wednesday, my friend Kate and I went to Dallas, Arlington to be exact, during the day to hang out with our friends Holly and Kelli at Holly's house. Kelli's little girl was at mother's day out, so we didn't see her, so that left us all hanging out with five little boys, including Kelli's five week old Campbell. That was a lot of little boys! It was so much fun. Kate's oldest child, Brantley, and Jonah are really good buds now, so they played together so well. All of them did. It was so fun seeing my friend Holly's little Tyce. No, make that big Tyce. He's adorable. We all talked and laughed at all sorts of things. Kate and I decided it was one of the most fun days ever, and since the kids were so amazingly good traveling, we need to do it more often! I just love those good friend-days. Here is a picture of me and Holly. Next time I see her....little Haven should be here! Also, a picture of the boys, minus Campbell. Such sweeties.







In other news....I bought a dining room table! I got a great deal on an antique table and chairs that my mom's neighbor was selling in a garage sale. It needs some work.....repainting the top of the table and distressing it to match the rest of the table and chairs and reupholstering the seat cushions of the chairs. I wasn't expecting to buy furniture for my dining room (which is a formal dining/living combo that has just been used as a playroom since we moved in) for a looooong time, but since I made such a spontaneous purchase that I'm very happy about, I now have to remove all the toys from the playroom and disperse them to other well-hidden places. I wasn't ready for that. So I've been working on a lot of reorganizing lately....moving toys into cabinets in the family room, into the sunroom, into Jonah's closet, into the attic, and into the trash. LOVE getting rid of stuff. I used to be a hoarder, if you don't know. I've recovered. I may be leaning towards the opposite extreme. I really don't like having extra stuff around the house. Especially when my child really truly only plays with about three things. Who needs toys? There will be times I will really miss having a playroom. But not today. I'm pretty excited about my dining room furniture. When I get around to actually doing the work on it, which should be in the next week, I'll be sure to post some before and after pics.

Yesterday, my friend Ame and I took our boys (hers is a 10-month old angel) to Dallas and shopped our little hearts out. And our boys' hearts too. Man, they were troopers. We made a lot of progress in just a part of a day. We went to a couple of really great fabric stores that had TONS of choices and amazing prices. So, if anyone is ever needing a new fabric place to look, let me know, and I'll tell you how to get to these. My major shopping goal was to find fabric for my new dining chairs, and I found it right away! I was so excited. And very thankful that God does fabric-shopping too. (There's a lot of fun stuff on His resume, by the way.) I will definitely be going back there. We lunched at Le Madeleine, went to Shops at Willow Bend, the mega Marshalls, and Northpark. I hadn't been to northpark since all of the renovations had been complete. It was amazing. Although Jonah was great being carried all over the Metroplex and not getting a nap, I still will not do this to him very often! It was a little tiring. But we had so much fun. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with this new friend. We talked and talked and talked, and it was very enjoyable. And Jonah loves her baby. I really am glad to have been able to make two Dallas trips in the last week....breaths of fresh air! =)

We had several families over for a ice cream party on Saturday night. Other than rain forcing us indoors for what was supposed to be an outside party and that meaning that I had to actually clean ALL of my house before they came, it was a blast. Jonah LOVES parties. He gets really excited. He kept calling the ice cream "party cake"....he doesn't really understand that there's a difference between different types of sweets. He lumps all desserts into one cateogory: party cake. He thinks birthday parties are the best thing ever invented. He's only really been to one, and he wasn't there long enough to really know what it was about. But still, he's decided that we need to have "bertday" parties every day. Anytime we're with friends or going to see friends, he gets excited that we're going to a "bertday! yay!"It's rather amusing. As for his own upcoming birthday, I don't think he has a clue what to really expect. Except that he knows there will be cake. He's not going to know what hit him. I'm going to do a whole different post soon about what Jonah's been up to lately. You wouldn't believe how fast he's changing. He's a little MAN now. The last two months have brought huge changes. We're getting ready for a trip to Bartlesville next week. We'll be there Thursday the 24th through Memorial Day, so it will be a nice, long visit with family. Joel's oldest niece Amber is graduating high school, so we're coming in for that. Hope to see some of you friends in Bville too!

Jonah climbing (with help, of course) in our backyard Magnolia tree: