Time Out for Women

in Arlington, TX

{Melissa Garza :: Me :: Natalie & Christie - both Melis's friends}

 

 This weekend was well needed.

A women's conference full of motivational and inspirational LDS speakers, music performances, good friends and a break from being a mommy.

Lately, I feel I have been struggling in the area of being a mom. An understanding, patient mom. Maybe it's because I have an extremely active, curious, sassy, non-stop "WHY" asker two-almost-three year old who knows just the right buttons to push to get the reaction he wants out of me {not a good one}, AND a nine month old who decided over night that he's a needy mama's boy. I LOVE BOTH MY BOYS, but again I will say this weekend was well needed. 

None of it would have happened if it wasn't for Melis getting me a ticket. The words of encouragement were very uplifting and comforting. I felt as though the speakers knew my thoughts and feelings and spoke directly to me.

I was so happy my friend Ashley Russell could come on Saturday with me. We missed her Friday, but so glad she could come. She is beautiful inside and out and she is an amazing mother to her two gorgeous little girls. Her husband is in the military and so she is raising them on her own. Ashley was baptized and became a member of our church about four months ago, and is in our ward.

 The music group 'Mercy River' performed many songs and spoke words of wisdom. They are all three busy moms and have 13 kids between them. Their voices are wonderful. One of my favorites parts of the weekend is when they sang their twisted version of "Bye Bye Bye" by the Backstreet Boys. They changed the words and they had everyone laughing out of their seats. It's called "Bye Bye Bye" (bedtime song). Something like that.

 I came home Saturday evening to a clean house, a welcome home sign, and a hot candle light dinner.

 I am a lucky woman.

Very grateful, and lucky.

Enough said.

G a r z a   G i r l s

 I love these two ladies with all my heart.

We went to pick up our van in Dallas from getting the door lock fixed and had to get together with them.

Melis packed us a lunch and we headed to the Dallas Children's Science Museum.

There was HUGE BUBBLE MAKERS....

 Some hand holding....

 Big hand chairs and a life size sandbox 

with dinosaur bones to dig up....

 Tunnels....

 Cohen size outdoor grill and bench....

 Firetruck with attire and slide....

 On the Farm: a milkable cow that the kids insisted on washing their produce in her milk {water}. Ha. Whatever entertains them, right?

 Tractor rides....

 Produce sorting/throwing....

 Fun in the water....Cohen was in Heaven.

 The time passes way too fast when we are together.

Thanks Melis for the much needed Garza Girl day!!

We love you guys oh so much.

Can't wait for the next time we get to play....

Sleepover maybe?

I think YES.

E A S T E R   2 0 1 2

Happy Easter weekend!
I love Easter.
I more Easter holidays I get to celebrate, 
the more I grow to love the holiday.
Our weekend started out with a walk in the wagon.
The boys wore their new Easter hats from Grandma and Grandpa {my parents}.
 

 Cohen was "holding" the camera for me, little did I know he was working on his photography skills....

 After we got home, we did yard work together.
Can I just say how much I enjoy doing yard work as a family? Everyone is together, outside, we can all get dirty and it DOESN'T MATTER. It's great. We make some much needed progress on our front yard.

 Trimming the roses = fresh flowers for my table!

 Saturday evening we attended an Easter egg hunt and picnic put on by friends in our ward. Beautiful weather, sunshine with a light breeze. Co was thrilled this year for Easter. He still wanted to open every egg and eat it before he picked up another one.
I wonder when that ends?

 After that party, we headed over to Andy and Beka's new house. The hot tub was OH SO RELAXING.

 Nixon brought my camera to me and said "Cheese?"
I turned it on and he stood there and said "CHEESE!"
He steals my heart every time I see him.

 Easter Morning
Brend woke up first, of course. So we let him explore he very exciting basket. He just wanted to shiny grass to play with.

 The Easter Bunny hid eggs around our living room.

 Co showing me just how heavy is basket was.

Supreme French Toast for breakfast.

 Baskets, egg finding, breakfast AND Egg dying all before church at 11:00 am. Cohen's eggs were all dipped in every color at least once. Whatever floats his boat!

 Ready for church!

  We went back to Andy and Beka's for an Easter feast.
So much yummy food!

 Sweet little Bridger.

 Andy & Beka, Matt & Telicia and Andy's cousin and her cute family and us got together at the Philipp's for an Easter feast.

The boys had a blast, as usual.
No one got too hurt, not so usual. ;)

JUST CALL ME CUTE!!!!
Brock snapped a picture of me as I was saying "wait!" or something like that....and this is the outcome.
Yikes. I should be embarrassed, but it's too funny I can't help but laugh at myself! My boys should be proud.

Beka :: T {Telicia} :: Me

  I guess you could call us the 3 amigos?

We had a wonderful Easter holiday.
So grateful for great friends to share holidays with. We're like family away from home. Most importantly I am forever grateful for my Savior. 
For His life, His atoning sacrifice, and His Resurrection. 

A Treasure.

 Every first Monday of every month, we are allowed to set all the junk we want on our curb by our garbage cans for a big truck to pick up. On this first Monday morning the boys and I were on a run. I passed a house and saw this car. Hardly a scratch on it, just a sticker peeled off. A young boy was outside so I asked if I could take it, he said of course! People do this often, snatch each others junk.

Sweetest treasure find ever!!

We ran home, got the van and brought it home for a car wash.

It was like new.

 Beep! Beep!

Co & Brend

 Brendon Lee Kitchen - - 9 months

- Will eat anything we give him, such as: chicken enchiladas, guacamole, pieces of orange, instant oatmeal {he ate a whole packet of strawberries and cream yesterday}, LOVES goldfish and will stuff his mouth full if I'm not looking.
- Was done nursing at the end of 7 months {due to my milk drying up}.
- Has 2 bottom teeth {at 8 months} and working on some more.
- His reflexes are getting "cat like", getting quick to knock the spoon out of my hand EVERY time not just sometimes.
- Still sleeping GREAT. Short morning nap around 10:00 at home or out and about, then sleeps around 1 or 2 for about 2 hours. Then 11.5 hours during the night. Goes down at 8, up at 7:30.
- Prefers his tummy. SO close to crawling.
- Making sounds like "dee" "da" "Mmmm".

The phrases Co comes up with and things he does these days are hilarious. He will be 3 in 2 months and is acting his age ;). 

- He is getting better and riding our razor scooters and his bike. He loves to pull/push Brend in our wagon.

- Being more social with strangers/ new friends at the park or library.

- Waves and says HI to most people we pass in the grocery store.

- The other day I found Cohen pulling his undies down while eating some cheerios, and I told him keep them up, and he repied "But Mom, I'm getting my Cheerio!" He found his cheerio and popped it in his mouth. GROSS! Didn't even phase him.

- Can now completely dress himself, pants, shirt and socks. We're starting to work on tying laces. But flip flops are great for now!

- Last week he has scary dreams a few nights in a row. It was heart-wrenching! This is the first time ever. He said something about a scary tiger. After Brock gave him a blessing and lots of prayers for him to have good dreams, we have not ran into this problem again. The power of the priesthood and prayer!! Wonderful.

- He has discovered how to unlock our bedroom doors with a butter knife. SO BAD! So so bad. Bye bye privacy.! We've made a few new rules due to this occurrence.

- Found him and Brend playing "naptime". They were laying on the floor with Co's blankets, and Co  told Brend "it's ok Brend, you don't need to be scared, you'll have good dreams, and I'll sing you a song." He sang to him then said "ok I'm going back to my bed."

- We've been going to Storytime at the library and we love it. It's during Brendon's cat nap, works out great. This week they talked about Poetry and rhyming. All the kids wrote poems about themselves, with the help of an outline and mommies. Cohen's poem says:

I AM...

I am silly and handsome.

I wonder where the rain comes from.

I hear birds tweet outside.

I see the sunshine through the window.

I want a treat.

I am silly and handsome.

I helped him on one or two, but that was pretty much the first things that came to his mind. 

 Their friendship is blooming, and it makes me giddy.
I knew this day would come quickly.
When both of them wake up, they want to see each other more than they want to see their mommy. And I am OK with that.