Dear Brock,

 {May 3th-6th, Thurs-Sun}

Last week you attended a Orthopedic Conference in West Virginia. You were gone for 4 days, 3 nights. Four VERY long days and three sorta scary/nerve wrecking nights. You would be proud how tough I was staying home alone. I wasn't even that scared too many times. I think due to my extreme tiredness I didn't have too much time to be scared before my head hit my pillow and I was OUT.

There were many times I told myself, out loud once or twice, it will be a might miracle if I make it until Sunday!

I'm so glad you had a great time, and enjoyed the incredible resort you stayed at. But I missed you too much.

Time apart truly does help two people grow closer together.

It just didn't feel right laying in bed alone at night.

I hope there are few nights like this in our future.

While you were away, we stayed plenty busy to 

help the time seem to pass quickly...

Friday morning we swam at Andy and Beka's house, Brendon's first swim ever. He LOVED it and just wanted to dive right in.

 On the other hand, our little Cohen wasn't too sure about it after the pool cleaning machine sprayed him. Even after Beka took it our and turned it off, he still wasn't too sure about the water. That surprised me. We bought him new floaties and he could not stop talking about swimming with Nix until we got there.

Maybe better luck next time?

 Friday night all the Young Women leaders of our ward, including myself, had a girls night at my house after the boys went down.

I learned a very valuable lesson from this night - laughing hard for a long period of time is healthy in all aspects of life. So needed I can't express. We all brought delicious food, and ate and talked and LAUGHED for hours.

Just what I needed.

Saturday, we headed to Dallas to get our van door lock fixed, which a great excuse to GET to see the Garzas. We went to Mike Anderson's BBQ. This sweet little joint that was very cozy and delicious, they also had free soft serve ice cream which I'm a huge fan of. Our time was too short with Garzas, it always is.

 It was high 90's during the day, so we pulled out the extra tiny kiddie pool and plenty of popsicle and frozen Gogurts.

Yes, Cohen is naked in the pool. Most of the time.

He has this funny quirk about hating the feeling of wet clothes of any kind on him. We desperately need to brake this habit.

 We counted down hours until you came home!

We only went to the first two hours of church, then headed to the airport to pick you up.

 Our home was not complete.

It felt empty and blah.

I missed you like crazy.

xoxoxoxo

fingerpaint

 Just call him Pablo Picasso.

We went arts and crafts shopping at WalMart the other day.

Finger paints was at the top of the list.

My sweet Cohen has been BORED as of late...

I believe that a good amount of his "naughtiness" comes from being bored or having too much mental and physical energy bottled up. SO...we are changing things up a bit.

Using our creative juices, we are coming up with activities that will occupy him for more than 10 seconds so I can at least shower daily and Co won't beat up on Brend while I'm doing so.

We have finger painted, made our own puzzles, and simply cut paper scraps into smaller scraps.

Cutting paper has been his favorite I think.

It kept his attention the longest and he sat quietly while doing it the whole time I made dinner and got it on the table. He even cleaned up his mess.  

 Job well done, Cohen!

 Thank You Arts and Crafts!

Rangers  vs  Yankees

 Thanks to Brock's school we were able to attend the Rangers vs. Yankees game in Arlington on Tuesday night. The seats were great, and the best part was that magic wrist band you can see on Brock's arm - that gave us permission to the ALL YOU CAN EAT concessions. Hot dogs, nachos, chicken sandwiches, popcorn, peanuts and soft drinks.

We just about had two of everything each.

YUCK! But so yummy at the time.

Cohen has a strong love for baseball.

Which is interesting because Brock and I don't really, 

he just kinda came up with it on his own. And I like it.

He likes all sports, but he loves baseball.

So he was counting down hours until we got to the game.

Beka and Andy watched Brendon for us, THANKS A MILLION to them.

It would have not been so fun with sweet little Brend. And we didn't get home until 11:00pm. Cohen did quite well. We took breaks and run up and down the huge ramp to the different levels.

 Brock and Cohen doing steamroller down the hill outside the ballpark. It was a pretty night, no wind and not too hot at all.

 Personally, I had the most fun just watching Cohen taking it all in, seeing a professional baseball game for the first time. He lit up as we enter, and smiles every time we talk about it.

A n   A D V E N T U R E

 Last Saturday we were feeling extra spontaneous. Brock didn't have too busy of a weekend, study-wise, so we decided we would take an ADVENTURE. Cohen was giddy about the idea of all of us going on an adventure. He learned how cool adventures can be, thanks to Barney and Friends. :) After brainstorming a little, Brock came up with a scenic drive to two different lakes, out in the country. Lake Worth and Eagle Mountain Lake. We took off not long after breakfast. Lake Worth was our first stop and it was only 10 minutes outside the city, about 25 minutes from our house. We stopped their to have a picnic and put our feet in the cold water.

 The temperature was just right, low 80's.

The lake was pretty, but the beach not so much. Where we were picnicing there was some pretty cool houses right on the lake. Some had slides off the back, and of course all had boats parked under a deck attached to the house.

Maybe that will be a good "second house" idea someday.... ;)

 Cohen peeled this orange ALL BY HIMSELF he kept telling us that.

He bit into it to start peeling and everything.

Mr. Independent. I like it.

 Brendon kept sneaking whole wheat thin crackers {which don't dissolve very quick in your mouth} and kept shoving them in! They would make him gag but he didn't care. He just kept drooling and drooling and gumming away.

 We had a little friend join us for lunch, Mr. Butterfly.

He was not scared of us at all. Brock scooped him up on his hand and he just sat there flapping his wings a bit.

 And he really liked Cohen's shoes.

 This was when we were parked at Eagle Mountain Lake in the marina, trying to find info of a lookout to see the lake better. Which we discovered there wasn't one. Bummer. The lake took my breath away from the main road. You drive over a big hill and at the top BAM! you see the lake full of Sailboats. It was beautiful!

 The best spot we could find was a little fishing dock, DID NOT DO JUSTICE. As you can tell my Co's funny face, he wasn't that thrilled to be there. And I was paranoid since there was no railing or anything stopping Cohen from falling or jumping on in the water. We didn't stay long.

But we'll be back, that's for sure.

 One of my favorite parts of the day was when we were driving in the van leaving our house and Cohen said, "Hey! We're driving all together!!" in an extra happy voice. I guess that shows we don't get to ride in the van all together very often. Ha.

It was a GREAT day.

Very relaxing and very needed, I think for all four of us, to be together as a whole family for most the day.....

Doing what we love - being together and exploring.

Growing like a WEED

Brendon is definitely going to tower over his big bro before we know it. He is getting SO tall and progressing in motor skills a lot lately. He is pulling himself up to things, which is scary because he is quite wobbley. He is BASICALLY crawling, but across the room. He moves his hands and knees a few times, then he'll sit and scoot a little, then lay down and roll a bit.

 I heard him groaning a bit when he woke up from his nap one day....found he had untied his bedding and pulled it out and was under it.

He makes me HAPPY.

Three boys and a girl.

 When Cohen refers to the air soft gun he says "do the trigger".

He shot a hold in a plastic cup and was on cloud nine. 

The cup had to stay inside with us for awhile.

 I have a feelings there will be a lot of this 

type of activity going on in my house in the years to come.

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.