mother's day

almost a week later (writer's note:  see, i tried to post this sooner than now), i wanted to recount my first mother's day (with a child out of the womb) here on the blog.  my guys made it extremely special for me, beginning saturday night.  we decided to beat the crowds and go to dinner saturday night instead of sunday for lunch after church.  i chose sharky's, a local kingwood seafood restaurant on the lake, and one of my favorite restaurants.  the weather was close to perfect, and we were lucky enough to get an outisde table so we could enjoy yummy seafood and the nice breeze.

from there, we headed into houston to get cupcakes...what better way to celebrate a special occasion than with cupcakes?!  (or any day for that matter)  we did not arrive early enough to choose from the entire selection of the day so we settled for one of the few left:  vanilla on chocolate.  call me a bad mom if you must, but since i normally share my strawberry cupcake (minus the icing) with brendan, i decided to share the chocolate one with him this time.  the boy will eat anything!  and he LOVED the chocolate.  he did not love when i told him he could not have anymore though.

sunday morning, lee and brendan gave me a sweet card that plays "you are my sunshine" which is the song i sing to brendan.  i also received a gift certificate for a massage, and i cannot wait to use it!  lee cooked breakfast and lunch for me.  brendan moved to a new nursery class and made me a mother's day gift!  the pressed his finger into flower-shaped clay that became a necklace pendant.  i loved it!  we wrapped up the day with a nice long walk around the neighborhood, stopping at brendan's favorite spot along the way where i snapped these pictures on my phone:

i am so thankful for the opportunity to be called mommy.  i am so grateful for my own mom, grandmother, "2nd moms", and the many other women in my life who are wonderful examples of the mother i strive to be.  thank you does not seem to be enough for how each of you have impacted my life and made me who i am today.  i hope i can return the favor by being the kind of mom each of you are for my own child.

family photoshoot

 last weekend, we had family photos taken for the first time.  my friend, amanda jones, is an amazing photographer whose skill is just phenomenal.  i wanted to share these with you...some have already been seen on facebook but others are new.  if you are in the houston area, you should definitely look into having her take your family shots or child's photos.  if you don't live in houston, it would totally be worth bringing her to you, but that's just my opinion :).  she said turn-around for the fully-edited CD of prints would take about ten days, which i was totally fine with.  they arrived less than a week after we took them.  awesome!  i ordered a 16x20 photo canvas of one of the shots that i bought with a groupon-type deal (there is currently a new deal on savemore.com for a 18x24 canvas print for $38!), and i cannot wait for it to come in and go over our fireplace.  also, some of these or others yet to be seen might be showing up on our Christmas cards!

celebrating twenty-six

with age twenty-five, God blessed me with another year of marriage with lee, the pregnancy and birth of our sweet son, my second year of teaching & my first year of cheerleading sponsoring, and our first house.

only time will tell what twenty-six will bring.  i am looking forward to every minute of it.

last weekend, my parents came to visit.  their visit was huge on two levels:  the first being that my dad had only seen brendan for about 30 minutes of his life the day he was born, and the second being the fact that this birthday would be the first in quite a few years that i would actually spend with my parents.  they flew in friday night and we drove down to hobby to pick them up, sign and all (made courtesy of the 5-year-old daughter of one of lee's co-workers).  our plan was to eat at pappasito's afterward but since they had an hour-long wait when we arrived, we decided to take them to zachary's, a local cajun restaurant.

saturday was spent watch lots of football while my parents took turns holding brendan.  brendan is so smiley now.  in fact, he smiles so much that i am usually bound to catch at least one when i pull out the camera.

whether my parents realize it or not, they gave me one of the sweetest gifts they could by letting lee and i go to dinner just the two of us.  it was nice to get a little dressed up and enjoy some time together that was not as we were falling asleep at night.  we went to cafe express (one of my faves) and house of pies for dessert.

sunday, my parents wanted the breakfast buffet at humble city cafe that they remembered being so tasty, but apparently they quit the buffet several months ago.  oh well, we all still found tasty menu items instead.  we enjoyed a much-needed rainy day until dinner time when we succeeded in finally having our pappasito's dinner.

sadly, lee had to work on monday.  while he was at work, my mom, dad, brendan, and i went to chick fil a and IKEA.  this was my parents' first trip to IKEA and my mom fell in love.  they also bought me these little beauties for my birthday:

i have wanted them for a really long time but always talked myself out of buying them whenever we would go.  thanks, mama & daddy!

also, a big thanks to all of my wonderful family and friends for the kind texts, calls, and facebook posts.  my birthday was definitely enhanced because of all of you.

for birthday dinner, i chose j christopher's.  this is a long-standing local italian restaurant here in kingwood that has the best pizza, and i found out, the best pumpkin cheesecake (my birthday dessert).

i could not have asked for a better birthday weekend.  i am so thankful my parents were able to come visit.  i am very grateful to have celebrated my birthday with them and my amazing husband and son.

2

today is our 2nd anniversary.

our second year of marriage brought laughs and tears. death and birth. travels, dark times, and restoration. we moved again and still live in texas. we took on new jobs and roles at work. we grew closer, and more importantly, grew stronger as a couple.

God's hand on our marriage was ever-present and we are so thankful for His guidance. we still don't know all the answers and probably never will, but we do know God does have an evolving plan for us as individuals and as a couple that we are willing to follow.

just as the past two years has made us the couple we are today so will the years to come mold us into a better wife and husband.

to our family and friends who pray for us daily and encourage us often, thank you for your love, support, and friendship. we are so fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful examples of Godly relationships.

lee, thank you for this journey and for always leading us as a family. i love you.

a quarter

i just recently celebrated my 25th birthday. for whatever reason(s) why, i was looking forward to this milestone. some would say 25 is not much a milestone but for me, it seems to be a marker for a significant amount of life lived...although i hope there is so much more left to enjoy! it also makes me a little bit older than the students i teach and somehow (magically) makes me look significantly older than them so the times i am confused with students are less and less...maybe?

i am very grateful for the twenty-five years thus far: an amazing family, fun childhood memories, an awesome college time, a wonderful husband, and many fabulous friends from different times in life.

this year's birthday weekend began with my school's homecoming game...my awesome freshmen cheerleaders got to cheer during the first half of the varsity game. they even had their picture taken with one of the taco bell hot sauce packs that races at the astros games! (houston people know what i'm talking about) they did a great job, and the game led right into the beginning of the three-day weekend (sadly, not for both of us). katy kicked off right with a yummy homemade birthday cake.saturday, we enjoyed lee's fabulous blueberry pancakes for breakfast and later watched some football...one game in particular that i will not discuss. sunday might have been the best combination of someone's favorite things...i got to watch the extra scene from the LOST series finale via my new bluray player, we had le peep for breakfast, made an IKEA shopping trip, picked up some delicious cupcakes, went to see a chick flick, and enjoyed dinner at pappacito's.
katy and i rounded out the weekend with a trip to the outlet malls and a new set of tires on the jeep!

a blast from the past

while we were packing up things and dwindling down the clutter (somehow that seems to happen every time we move...), i found a few old photos. for those of you who care, here is a little glimpse of me from over the years. for those of you who "knew me when" just have a good laugh...i can hear it now.

random family vacation, circa late 1988/1989. like the pigtails?4th grade pee-wee cheerleading. the beginning of it all. my dream of being a cheerleader had finally come true. seriously, from the first day of kindergarten that is all i wanted to do. so, i went on to do it for 8 years.senior portrait. the bangs. oh the bangs. so long past their prime and so so not fashionable in the least. oh well.hope you enjoyed that stroll down memory lane!

reading list for 2010

time for reading while working is a bit harder than last summer when i had no job and all the time in the world to read. however, we have still managed to find some time to read through a few books. yes, this lists consists of books from both of us!

lindsey's list:
The Blind Side by michael lewis
The Help by kathryn stockett
Sarah's Key by tatiana de rosnay
I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy by angie smith (not for the topic but because i read the author's blog)

Current reading: Wild Goose Chase by mark batterson (a gift to lee from ben. lee loved it so now it's my turn)

lee's list:
The Tangible Kingdom by hugh halter and matt smay
Love is an Orientation by andrew marin
Wild Goose Chase by mark batterson

Current reading: Forgotten God: Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

what have you been reading? what do you plan/recommend to read this summer?

spring break, part 1

just as my family gets ready to begin their journey out west to visit us for the rest of spring break, it seems to be a good time to recap the first part of our week.

spring break began with a relaxing night at home on friday...spring break could not really start until we were rested up from a week of little sleep. once that was taken care of, we were ready to embrace everything great and wonderful about spring break.

we drove to college station saturday night, enjoyed some good country food for dinner, and then took in some baseball on sunday. it was soooo nice for us to enjoy a sunday afternoon game and not have to rush home to get ready for the work week. let us not forget the whopping 4 games of scene it trivia we played with katy as well. lee almost had a complete undefeated run but was stopped with a last second victory in round 2 of disney trivia...betcha can't guess who won?! :)monday brought quite possibly the most perfect weather day we have had so far. we, of course, took advantage of this and spent the afternoon outside on what turned into a wonderful "day date." we decided on the houston museum of natural science where we discovered dinosaur fossils, precious gems, exotic shells, and yes, even the pendulum from LOST (ok, not really but the only one i've ever seen in person).then, being the explorers that we are, we took a stroll through hermann park. hermann park, for those non-houstonians reading, is right in the middle of downtown houston. right in the middle of skyscrapers, hospitals, and more. needless to say, not what you would expect to find amidst all the concrete and metal.

what we did find was a beautiful, peaceful japanese garden tucked away beside the lake. seriously, you would never know you were in downtown houston when you walk through this place. we also found a washington-monument look-alike which is actually the "pioneer monument." we then discovered all of this connects right up to the zoo where we could have parked for free...oh well!
tuesday brought lots of cleaning in preparation for the fam, but more importantly, brought a nice little surprise from lee:

the other 364 days are great for saying "i love you" too

no, this is not an anti-valentine's day post. this is a reminder for us of another special day in our lives that did not quite align with february 14th.

the day after valentine's day 2008, we got engaged. for those of you who have not heard the story, we will gladly share with you anytime...lee is especially proud of all the secrecy on his part.

valentine's day is nice, and it is even a good excuse to have a date night or maybe even a girls' night out (i guess guys would not really have a guys' night on valentine's though). however, i think most of us know everyday is meant for telling those closest to us how much we love them...spouse, parents, kids, friends...not just the one day in february with the highest sales in chocolates and greeting cards year-round.

with that said, enjoy a stroll down memory lane with us as we remember a special valentine's day after...