All Aboard

What's better than a snow day? Well, no snow day but having Good Friday off on a BEAUTIFUL day to go spend time with my family. I called up my best friend, Angi, and we went to go ride the train in Trinity Park. It's so cute and my kids love it. I had never taken Landry to ride it so I thought it might be fun. 

 

 So Angi and I and her younger sister gathered up our daycare crew and took a ride. I get a little nervous watching kids at parks. I'm still a little traumatized from our park experience two years ago when losing Campbell at the park for what seemed like an hour but was only about 60 seconds. 

 

 

But we didn't lose anyone and no one fell out of the train so I call that a successful day. It's amazing how the smallest things entertain our kids. I'm so thankful for that. I'm dreading the years when they're teenagers and the only things that entertain them cost a lot of money. 

 

 

Popcorn and a $3 train ride, it doesn't get much better than that if you're a kid. Heck, it doesn't get much better than that for me as an adult!  

 

Landry and Rylan are forced BFFs...whether they like it or not. They seem to like it.

 

 

 Best birthday party ever by the way was when we had Campbell's birthday party there well minus the June heat. But what wouldn't I do for this face?

 

 

It works on the ladies too. Reese wanted to sit right next to him.

I got to sit next to Tucker and Landry. Tucker was being protective of Landry (or making a move). That boy can ask some questions! 

Even Nolan at 7 still thinks it's cool. 

After the train ride, it was a first for me...a food truck park. It's a new sensation down here to go outside where a bunch of food trucks are. Who would have ever thought that would be a phenomenon to eat food cooked out of a truck but I gotta say, it really was good!

 

Minus a few meltdowns near lunch time, it really was a great day. Meltdowns are always our cue that our forced family fun outings are almost done.

 

It was indeed a Good Friday. 

 

 

Our husbands wonder why we do these forced family fun adventures to ourselves when we know that at any moment they could turn disastrous. Thankfully, this one wasn't.

Spring Fever

I do it all the time....overextend myself. It's been the mantra of my life for the past year. Say yes and never say no. I think I want so badly for this photography gig to work that I pour myself into it, sleep deprived and all. My spring break was no different. I promised my kids that I would take them to do things and committed myself to SEVEN sessions over the break as well.

So one day over spring break while I was editing photos, I had pangs of guilt. Motherhood does that a lot to me. I was sitting at the computer with the blinds open watching this beautiful day unfold from a window and I dropped everything, packed a lunch, loaded Landry in the stroller and we headed to the park by our house.

It was so beautiful outside. Spring and Fall always have a fight every year to see who will win first place in my heart as my favorite season. So far, Spring is not disappointing.

  

This little girl can make me go all kinds of crazy in the car with her fussing and fit throwing about being in a car seat, but you give her some play time outside and you'll never see a smile leave her face. 

 

Some days whatever is on the agenda has to be wiped clean and you have to enjoy what you have right in front of you. I hope my kids remember me as a hard worker, but more importantly, I hope that they also remember that I also dropped everything and played with them too.

Because even if it was only to capture this, it was worth it. 

Catch up

Oh c'mon Summer break. You're so close, I can taste it.

I had a small taste of summer over spring break and it was glorious. We fit in the Fort Worth Stockyards with my best friend, Angi, and her sisters. We look like we're running a daycare field trip when we get all of our kids together. I do photo shoots a lot down there but it's rare that I take my own family to do some exploring. 

 

Every day they have a cattle run down the middle of Exchange. We've always wanted to try it but have never had the chance. The longhorn cattle walk down as the kids watch. I think we built it up like it was going to be some kind of amazing City Slicker scene. After it was done in about 2 minutes, the kids asked, "Was that it?"

It's a good thing that there was plenty more to do like mazes, trains, and lunch. It's a major perk that my brother-in-law owns a mechanical bull, ponies, and a train down there. I should be down there every weekend to entertain my kids! 

 Landry was a trooper for the most part, but one thing I've learned is that once that girl is out of the stroller, good luck getting her back in. She's in this independent stage and goes full blown fit-throwing if you try to buckle her back in. Like people are staring at me if I'm trying to put her back in the stroller. She makes friends everywhere she goes. I can't imagine where she got that with having such a introverted family (insert sarcasm).

Landry loves babies. Even though Rylan is totally older than her, my little Amazon girl, takes on her motherly personality and hugs and snuggles her like she's the older one. Poor Rylan looks like she might think Landry is a little too much with her lovin'.

My kids (and this mama) were WORN out after it was done. I don't think Landry even made it out of the parking lot before she was asleep. How is it that 2-3 hour outings wear me out like I've just run a marathon? Guess that's the feeling when your kids are this little, especially when you go on outings without your husband. 

I don't edit every single photo like I used to. Shhhh! Don't tell. I just can't keep up with it anymore. But I picked a handful to edit of my favorites from the day. 

I love the Stockyards. I love how you can feel like you're going back in time and it's only 15 minutes from my house. 

 

Looking forward to a lot more of these outings with these three this summer. 

Ladies and Gentlemen!!!

Hi, my name is Andrea and I'm a Pinterest addict. When the site went down for three days, I seriously thought I was going through withdrawals.

You know you're an addict when you see things and think, "I bet I could find that on Pinterest."

I recently had one of those moments. I went to the coolest wedding. EVER. It was unlike any other wedding. It was a vintage carnival theme and I felt like we were in a magazine wedding even while we were there in the midst of it.

Diana is so beautiful. This is her natural hair color and she looks this stylish at church every week. She is just so striking.

Everywhere you look there was something jaw dropping and you couldn't stop staring. From the photo booth to the kissing booth, they thought of it all.

There were jugglers, stilt walkers, balloon dresses and hula hoop dancing...ya know, normal stuff you see at a wedding.

Diana's sisters sang, "Sisters" and it was choreographed and all. It was a huge hit and I loved how much you could see how much these girls love each other and the bond that they have. Made me miss my sis incredibly.

It was the first time my children have gone to a wedding and they must think that all weddings are this cool. They will be bored to tears at the next one we go to after this one. Sorry, it was a tough act for follow for sure. My husband and the boys dressed the part and fit right in.

 

My kids were so awe stuck by the whole thing, but then again, so was I. 

 

When you're invited to a wedding that's circus themed, I know my family will fit right in. 

Meet Trent, our amazing babysitter at church who is always roping and wrangling my boys. He looks like he belongs with us, huh?

The first dance and father/daughter dance get me at every wedding. Every time, it never fails and this was no exception.

And I even caught Justin holding on a little tighter to his Landry Kate during the father/daughter dance.

We staged the goodbye so we could actually see them before it got dark. We stuck with the bubbles instead of the sparklers since fire doesn't mix with my children.

It was one of those weddings that I will remember forever and not just for the decorations but because of all the love that surrounded them on this beautiful day.

Doesn't this wedding just scream Pinterest. Beautiful wedding, Diana, just beautiful! It was so perfectly...you!