D - A Decade Later

See this kid?

Well, 10 years ago today, he looked a little more like this.

I believe my first words upon seeing the little guy were something like, "How big IS he???"

You see, at the time, he seemed HUGE.  And, in baby terms, he was.  9lbs, 7 oz to be exact.  Big, no?

It turns out, he was small.

He was my baby.

I'm crying.

You see, I just loved that little guy so very much.  And now, I love this big guy so much that I can barely see this screen as I type.  Wow.

Thank you, God, for my precious, precious boy with the great big heart, encouraging attitude, adventurous spirit, and competitive nature.  Thank you that he wants to do what is good.  He wants to be the best possible son, brother, cousin, friend, grandson, nephew, christian, athlete, student, Harry Potter spell-caster/wand-maker, monster truck driver, fisherman, frog-hunter, tether ball player that this world has ever seen.  And you gave him to me.  Thank you for the joy that he has given me and the many, many lessons I have learned that have come with the privilege of being his mother.

PS - I am neither sappy nor emotional.

D - Summer - Part 1

Well, you know you're doing a lousy job of blogging when you look at your "10 latest visitors" stats and see that #10 was here 18 days ago.  Oops!  Sorry folks.  So much for my New Year's Resolution.  I guess in a couple of months when you check on me again, I will at least have this one up.

Summer has been very busy for us.  I'm not entirely sure what we've been doing, but I know it's been enough that the "lazy days of summer" has no meaning around here.  We have been spending our time with friends, swimming, going to the Y, Sonshine School, the ice skating rink, the lake, the movies,  church camp and who knows where/what else.

Mike and I both celebrated birthdays in June and we had our 16th wedding anniversary earlier this month. The kids wanted to be sure our birthdays were special, so here is Mike's little party:

And Katie made sure that I had mine as well:

We've not yet managed to get away for a family vacation, but Mike and I did escape for some couple-time back in June. Mike had to go to a conference at the Four Seasons in Dallas, so I tagged along while my VERY wonderful MIL took our kids to Ardmore to visit the fam there.

It's not often that we find ourselves being pampered in quite the way we were that weekend. Not only were we in an AMAZING hotel, but they made a mistake with our room and wound up upgrading us to an $800+ per night hotel suite. Wow!

A view of the living areas (yes, that is supposed to be plural)

The bedroom

  Our largest balcony (of the 3)

And the gym (that, oddly enough, I was very excited to get to use)

I guess we didn't get any pictures of the bathrooms (Yep! Again with the plural.)

I'm not really sure what the kids did in Ardmore or what Mike did at his conference, but I was here.

 
by the pool

reading a book

a WHOLE book

and people checked on me and brought me things and life was good.

Oh....and Mike was there some too.