sisters

wrapping up summer 2016

October 7, 2016celebrations, cousins, firsts, jack 5, kids, sister, sisters, summer, vacation, weekend in pictures

the month of july was the busiest month this year by far. we ended our summer with saying goodbye to our favorite parish priest. oh my goodness father justin, if he only knew how much he was missed. we headed out for vacation bible school with the cousins. we had a surprise visit from mamas sister. we bought our first suburban and had a birthday to remember for granny. oh yes, and after all of it was over we made a move further out to west texas.

it was so. extremely. exhausting. but the memories were totally worth it. so very thankful for all the blessings this summer, seen and unseen. i look forward to a new fall season ahead. we have a new house and our very first school year to start!

xxoo

relax…

July 7, 2016{photography}, cousins, firsts, kids, sister, sisters, summer, vacation

it’s only thirty-three people in one beach house for one whole week…..

what could possibly happen? a lot actually. a few birthday celebrations, an anniversary, a graduation party, a gender reveal and of course just fun late nights and lazy afternoons on the beach. w a r n i n g … this post is mainly pictures {which most of my posts are 🙂 } but this one is extreme. because so many memories were made in this house and we tried our best to capture it all when we weren’t too sandy or holding babies…

it was simply the best.

xxoo

lavender festival {2016}

June 15, 2016{photography}, field trip, sister, sisters, summer

i made known this was the lavender festival of 2016 as oppose to….. well you know maybe next year 😉

it was a first for us. we made it a girls day and it was so much fun! thank you erika for remembering your camera so we could have some fun with pictures.

see you next year girls 🙂

xxoo

{alleluia + a birthday}

April 15, 2015celebrations, firsts, friends, kids, pregnancy, sisters

easter weekend was not as sunny as we hoped but we made the best of it! we were so blessed to go to the co- cathedral downtown as we have the last 7 + years and see some of our closest friends. god is so good and allowed us to run into some of our favorite priests as well 🙂 it was so good to catch up.

jack, you made your first wish in a fountain. one of those moments i realized, “oh goodness you have never heard of this before!” so you and samuel were excited to pick out a coin from your backpacks and throw it in. afterwards you asked me what you wished for. i’m not too sure you caught on to who was doing the wishing 😉

the next day we enjoyed a little more sunshine the forecasters didn’t predict. we hid some empty eggs in gramps and granny’s backyard to practice hunting 🙂 you guys loved it!

that night before it got too late, we started decorating eggs. i think it was too late for samuel, he fell asleep watching “woof” aka 101 dalmations. jack, after a long day, you were in a daze. you enjoyed dyeing the eggs alot more than coloring them.

alleluia! HE is risen as HE said!

easter sunday morning was filled with excitement over what was in your easter baskets and excitement that we all got out of the house happily dressed in time for mass 🙂

boo the rainy weather, indoor pics just aren’t as springy….

even though i was bummed about the weather, i wanted to run out in the “mist” to catch a pregnancy picture. ha this is oh so natural… i didn’t even think of the background. oh wells we tried! everyone says poor number three….

samuel loved his “mi mi” egg. he did not want to let go of that little minion. sorry buddy it wouldn’t smell too good after a while.

the winlands came by to celebrate with us! they brought eggs for the big kids to hunt. that was a site to see 🙂 teenagers running around the wet backyard all in search of those golden eggs…

jack, you got some good practice in with your new jump rope … while granny and bailey had some good laughs.

after a great sunday afternoon nap, the sun came out and we enjoyed trying to walk off all that easter candy …

it was so nice, daddy was able to schedule some houston meetings on monday so we stayed one more night. the next morning was aunt dana’s birthday. erika and bailey kept the boys for us so we could enjoy a little shopping and a yummy lunch! it worked out so perfectly!

a very happy birthday and many blessings to you, dana, in this next year! thank you for letting me spend the afternoon with you on your actual birthday. i love being able to visit you and granny together, it’s a one stop shop and i always leave with a very full heart and extra laughing lines 😉

xxoo

christmas 2014 {highlights}

January 4, 2015celebrations, cousins, kids, sisters, vacation

christmas and new years break has come and gone so fast, as always. boy did we soak up every day and create such great memories. we spent the last weekend of advent preparing goodies and getting all packed before our trip out to bc.

daddy even ran out and got us one of the last trees in town. it was perfect!

sunday we headed out to bc and met all of our cousins there. the power wheels gave gramps’ yard another treatment for the winter 🙂

we had a few nights leading up to christmas eve to enjoy everyones company. we also ate a lot of really good food! thank you dana and granny for feeding us all week 🙂

christmas eve mass came and many little children fell asleep 🙂 it was a silent night after all. when we got back home they were ready for a christmas celebration like no other 🙂

sweet emily was even so excited, she shared quite a few smiles that night.

our family pictures are getting a little crazy. not everyone is always happy and not everyone looks at the camera. but they are all so darn cute! i think the outtakes are the best to remember …

emily grace’s very first christmas! it has been so long since we had a little girl in this family. we had to get a picture of granny’s girls ( – camryn and taylor) to remember this…

the kids gave us all a gift to remember! they performed the nativity for us. complete with scenes from the visitation of mary to her cousin elizabeth. little elizabeth was beyond excited to hear the news!

{we may have a little actress on our hands}

our parents made our christmas complete by giving us the first gift….our very own copy of the texas monthly celebrating george strait. no ads, just george. they spoil their girls! oh we still can’t help but smile we when think of our magazine!

after all that excitement 🙂 we let the kids take turns opening their presents! as tradition goes… emily went first 🙂

the adults opened gifts after…

we learned some gifts were not what we thought they were. it’s okay we created the best memories over having the longest laughs.

christmas morning we sang happy birthday to our sweet jesus and enjoyed all the toys santa clause brought….

we said goodbye to our cousins and headed over to papaw and nana’s for christmas day.

boy did these boys get spoiled…

we opened presents and had a yummy lunch. then it was off to play football. almost the entire afternoon!

we had such a special time with our families. we had one more good nights rest before packing up two vehicles worth and heading back home… we have been so blessed at our new home. two of my sisters inlaws are near by so they were able to come by for a visit during their stay…

we were so excited to have them visit and see our new home!

loved having so many loved ones here! right before new years kindle’s family surprised us by staying three nights with us… they along with dana’s family helped ring in the new year with us… it was so perfect!

we came home to sleeping babies and teenagers laughing like crazy…

daddy knows how to pour his toasts evenly….

we had lots of laughs and sad goodbyes…

i still can’t believe our house could hold so many boys… it was the perfect way to end 2014 and a perfect way to start 2015. already looking forward to next december!

xxoo

emily grace

October 27, 2014celebrations, cousins, sisters

well we did it! in all the craziness going on around here, we were able to see aunt holly at the hospital with her baby girl! it was a fast and furious trip but so worth it to see that sweet little love. we finally had a day with all four sisters in the hospital to celebrate the arrival of this sweet girl. can you believe, with n i n e t e e n nieces and nephews, this is the first time we have ever been able to do that?!?

happy birthday sweet emily grace! it was worth the drive and back to get to meet you and welcome you home! you are loved by so many!

xxoo

cousins?

August 7, 2014celebrations, sisters, vacation

nah, more like best friends 🙂

my sister came home for a few weeks and we celebrated the whole time! i can’t imagine the memories that were made for these little guys these past few weeks. gramp’s yard took a beating but i think it was totally worth it. if you’re looking for a story about our non-stop three weeks, well it is, as always, best told in pictures…

can you tell i just wanted to capture their whole visit? these kids were inseparable and that was my absolute favorite part of holly’s visit. how blessed are we that basically eight kids under the age of eleven were completely happy for three weeks straight. so sad that this means another summer is coming closer to an end but as always we can’t wait to see what next summer has in store for us!!

we miss our cousins already!

xxoo

we can do this!

May 14, 2014firsts, sisters

we did it!

erika and dana encouraged me to run a 5k with them. i really didn’t run until the last two weeks before this event. barely. erika kept informing me she would skip the whole thing. although i worried a lot about being able to do it. we did it! granted we walked then ran most of the time… we still signed up and we did it! what great memories we made that night. thank you dana and erika for challenging me and richard for encouraging me to do something i’ve never done. maybe i’ll do it again sometime. 😉

xxoo

“Be Not Afraid”

April 29, 2014celebrations, sisters

a phrase that st. john paul II was known to share! one that my sister and i remember especially. we took a pilgrimage to rome for pentecost in 1998. “be not afraid” was on the back of our t-shirts when we made yet another pilgrimage to new york city. we created so many memories on those trips. i was beyond excited to know that she was taking her oldest to rome this easter to celebrate his canonization. from a few of her text i could tell she was experiencing the beauty of the church all over again. this time the magnitude of it all! a lot like what i experienced at world youth day in germany my senior year of college. i had to share her instagram picture and quote. she said it so beautifully!

“Words can’t explain the ora of it all. To have millions from all over the world be so reverent and all participating in the Mass as one body was so beautiful and unforgettable! We were all surprised the canonization took all of 2 minutes … but then reflected on it realizing, these men were instruments. They brought Christ to others all the glory goes to Him! The Mass was the most important part! The focus was on Christ. It was powerful!”

so, so happy that her and gabrielle made the pilgrimage there! also so happy she is back! i’ve missed our coffee/phone dates 🙂

st. john paul II and st. john XXIII pray for us!

xxoo

lordy lordy look who’s forty….

April 15, 2014celebrations, cousins, sisters

so brace yourself for a post with picture overload. we laughed, we cried, we pulled off a great surprise weekend!

it was a weekend full of surprises! dinner on thursday, a birthday party on friday and a girls night out on saturday! we only wished our other sisters could have joined in on the fun! thank you holly for making the long haul! you really made the weekend special for our seester!

dana your girls were such a huge help and i’m sure everyone is relieved to not keep these secrets from you anymore. thank you to michaela for taking over baseball practice so your dad could be there for dinner and to erika and bailey for watching our little ones. dinner was all about the birthday girl and not the kids running around the table 😉

these two were were inseparable and oh so adorable!

we were able to squeeze in a t-ball game saturday afternoon. talk about cuteness overload, as jack would say ” joshua ran super fast!”

saturday evening us girls went to palm sunday mass together. it was so special as always and such a treat to not be distracted by little ones… thank you gramps!! thank you also to granny, gramps and bailey for watching the little ones while we went out for the evening to dinner and find our hidden talents at painting with a twist 😉

so many memories made this weekend! what would we do without our dana?! she is such a blessing to the entire family!

cheers to 4o years beautiful sister!!

xxoo

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