Early birthday post...

Tomorrow.. is my 26th birthday. Or actually, 22 minutes from now. Most people start freakin' out as they near the 30 year mark. I still have 4 years.. but I'm embracing it! I just feel that with each passing year, I'll have that much more wisdom (hopefully), a closer walk with Jesus (a must!), and have made a better example of myself (ideally). The Lord blesses us with jobs, friends, housing, children... Why would I not look forward to more of His wonderful blessings? 30 is young, people!

Now, that's not to say there won't be hard times ahead. There undoubtedly will be. I'm not naive. But it's through trials that the Lord makes us stronger.

Ahh! OK. So today was part one of my birthday celebration.

This came in the mail! 

With this inside! From Natty and Ry! <3 p="p">

Natty knows my LOVE of Starbucks coffee. :)

Then we went to dinner with Josh, Cortney, Jesse & Reese, and my mom and dad.  Reese's birthday was a couple weeks ago, and Jesse and I share the 21st! Loved me some Mi Cocina!

Josh, Cortney and the girls gave me subscriptions to these two magazines.. thrilled!

And a Massage Envy gift card!!!!

And Mom and Dad got me this cookbook! The Pioneer Woman Cooks! I've been eyeing this one for a long time! Eeeek!

Coco and Daddy picked out this beautiful Papyrus card for me!

Coco signed it too, you see??!

These are my birthday present!

I've wanted them for so long!

So. Actual birthday is gonna have to try hard to beat this day. :) Bring on 26th Year!

Back to School!

Yea, I know...
I don't have a school age child yet... but I have teacher-friends! And teacher-friends deserve back-to-school gifts, too, right?

I think so! My sweet friend Ashley is a 3rd Grade teacher and I wanted to help her get excited for this school year.

Ashley's classroom is decorated in black, red and white, with, polka dots! It's super cute. Any new, nervous 3rd grader would feel right at ease in her classroom.

I put together (what I think was) a really cute gift bag for Ashley. I chose items that I knew would make any girl (especially a teacher) excited. I color-coordinated these items with her classroom. Then I looked up her districts school supply list, and bought a few of those items, too. I put it all in a sweet, red canvas tote, that I clipped a black and white polka dotted bow/flower on.

*Pack of notecards

*Great Work rubber stamp & red ink pad

*Set of two desk notepads

*Map Pencils

*Crayons

*Washable Markers

*Giant red paper clips

*Insulated plastic cup

*Composition notebook

*#2 Pencils

There ya have it! Do you know a teacher who needs appreciatin'? That's a trick question. ;) Because if you know a teacher.. they need appreciatin'. 

Happy Back-to-School week, y'all!

Swim fan

My Cohen is a SWIMMER! He gravitates towards water. (2024 Olympian??) :) We escaped to Granna and Pop's house for a couple days this week and he got to swim in the pool they bought him! I think he likes being in control for a bit.. as opposed to the deep pool at our apartments that he can't navigate on his own yet. Here's a photo overload of his swim adventures yesterday.

Transferring water.. he's good at this!

Daddy splashes Coco with water!

Coco is stunned.

My little model.

Man, oh man. He looks like a baby here.. right?

Would lovey like to swim?

Cohen thinks so!

Diving in after Lovey.

Saying "Ohhhhh!" Like someone's in trouble.

Happy baby!

We had a great time visiting my mom and dad. And my dad fed us well our last night there. Smoked ribs and sausage, grilled chicken, baked potatoes and baked beans, strawberry salad, smoked corn on the cob, homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade peach cobbler. YUMMMM! I probably gained 5 pounds last night! Love them so much. And not just 'cause they feed me well. :)

Play date (late post!)

We had Cohen's little girlfriends, Ellie and McKensley over for a play date a couple weeks ago. It was long overdue! Now they're starting to play together a little more.. It's really cute.

Cohen and M, studying each other.

Chipmunk cheeks! Sharing Ellie's popcorn chicken.

I thought it would be easier to get their picture together as they got older... Not so much.

Cohen... out.

Can I have some???

We love to see our friends! Thanks for coming over, girls!