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. 

Jammie days

In the process of starting my new photo gig, my own family snapping and blogging has gone to the back burner. So now that we're on Spring Break, I made sure that I picked up my camera even if we were all still in our jammies.

Every morning this little sunshine is smiling and she spoils me rotten. She sleeps in til 9:00 or 10:00 on the weekends and breaks. She's like her mama, she loves her sleep.

With the time change, she even slept until 11:00 am! Whoa! She'll be sleeping til noon when she's in college.

Her brothers absolutely adore her. I love that Nolan reads to her and knows the tricks of distracting her instead of telling her no. We're still working on Campbell on that one.

Lazy days mean we're homebodies and the older I get the more I just love being home with my family with no agenda.

She definitely rules the roost and we have to bring her back down a few notches when she goes super nova on us with her fits.

But then she flashes us this grin and we melt. Works every time.

I see this face making a reappearance during her teen years.

Hopefully they'll be mixed with see little smiles like these. Happy Spring Break!

Park Panic

Spring Break...are you so sick of hearing about it? Ok, one more story. Angi and I wanted to get our kids together over Spring Break. We threw out several ideas...museum, feeding the ducks, or riding the train and playing in the park. Since we're both pregnant right now and like to be pregnant partners in crime every time we have a kid apparently, we decided we liked the thought of sitting on a train.


And it was a good idea. The weather was again a day the birds were singing and bragging about.

 
Poor sweet little Reese...the only girl, but she didn't act like it ruined any of her fun.

And even though Angi and I might be accused of planning our due dates to be synchronized (her twins are 11 days older than Campbell and our babies now are due 10 weeks apart), I swear that we absolutely did not plan for Tucker and Campbell to play the role of twins with their matching outfits. By the way, we may be best friends but we also didn't plan our due dates to be near the same time.

After our train ride we set up a picnic and it was super adorable and cute but Angi and I were both so busy with peeling fruit, keeping grass off sandwiches and taking turns taking our kids to the nearest tree to use the bathroom. Shhh, don't tell. But I don't do port-a-potties and especially when it's across the park. One of the many reasons that having boys has its perks. So I don't have any pictures of all that (thank goodness, right?).

We were definitely not the only ones hearing the birds bragging about the weather. It was a madhouse at the playground. Angi looked at the playground and said, "Playgrounds like this make me so nervous. There's just so many people here," and proceeds to tell me a story of one of her friends that lost her autistic son at this same park for over an hour. So I gave the boys the speech, "We stick together and no running off." At first there were a couple of runaway attempts but the boys were great about sticking with me. It definitely wasn't one of those leisurely moments of sitting on the park bench watching your kids play...not even close. We were all hands on deck at the park.



Aaaaannd right about then my camera ran out of juice. But with as busy as I was trying to keep up with the boys, it was for the best. Campbell and Tucker wanted to hang with the big boys and had no realization that they're two years old trying to climb the biggest slide on the playground. As I'm trying to make sure Tucker makes it up the ladder safely, that took a whopping 10-15 seconds, I look around to find Campbell and can't find him. I start calling for him sweetly but can't find him. Then I start looking in every tunnel, ladder and slide I can put my eyes on and still can't find him and it doesn't help that every time I think I see him, it's actually Tucker wearing Campbell's same shirt.

I call to Angi and tell her that I can't find Campbell. I bet I looked like a frantic turkey running around. Now my heart is completely pounding out of my chest. Mama bear instinct is in full effect. I ran to Angi, throw her my camera with my voice shaking with complete fear. I just start screaming his name not even caring how crazy I look or sound. I must have been as white as a ghost because a complete stranger asks what kind of shirt he's wearing and luckily I could just point to Tucker and say he's wearing THAT shirt. Angi is still level-headed enough to actually focus instead of just running around like a chicken with their head cut off.

She points to him on a completely different playground and spotting a 2 year old on a monstrous piece of playground equipment with 100 kids around is like looking at a "Where's Waldo?" book. I ran and had one of those feelings of wanting to hug him and yell at him. But the hug came first followed by a very stern, "Don't ever do that again to me" serious discussion. The whole episode of not finding him lasted literally about 60 seconds but I swear a mama can think some very disturbing and scary thoughts in 60 seconds.

I kept my eyes on my boys and if for one second they were out of my sight, I called their name. Nolan never seeing his mommy so scared in his life, knew to stay close by and every time I called his name, he would reassuringly say, "I'm right here, Mommy."

I'm so thankful that everything turned out ok but I never want to experience that kind of panic again in my life. There were extra doses of snuggling and prayers given after such an event.

Minus that 60 seconds of paralyzing fear, the day was a hit believe it or not. We all had a great nap that day for sure!

Outdoor Love

The good ol' outdoors. Right now the weather is something out of a fairy tale. I know, I know the 100 degree heat and the "why do I live in Texas during the summer" rants will come but for now, I'm loving me some Texas.

Speaking of lovin' Texas...it's like Texas knew it was cute today and just showing off. And I wasn't the only one feeling the love. 

 
 The boys and I went to go discover a new park I had heard about from some teachers at my school. I guess I tricked the boys when I used the word "park" because they were expecting a playground with all the bells and whistles so when we pulled up, Nolan said, "Mommy, I want to close my eyes so I can be surprised." Well, that he was. When I told him, "Open your eyes, we're here!" I heard crickets chirping for a few seconds and then a very let down, "Hey, wait a minute, where's the playground?"

Turns out this park was right up next to the lake and had amazing trails that were really trails....no cement! They had some rusty old farm equipment that was perfect for some cute shots of the boys and they thought the old rusty truck was too cool.

 

 And here's Campbell's famous frump face that tells me, "I'm not digging this place so much, Mom." 

 Campbell was a little freaked at first to get into this rusty truck. 

But once they saw some rowdy older boys have a blast, he climbed in too. 

 

We found an old cabin and they didn't waste time to act like it was a dark cave and a bear was coming... love their imaginations.

 

And the only way I could get their attention for a picture during the cave scene they were acting out was to act like I was a bear sneaking up on their cabin. Made for some cute pics though.

 
That little bit of imagination loosened everyone up and before I knew it, they were actually digging this new park. Campbell's surprise face has now turned into his happy face, I think. He does it every time I ask him, "Are you happy?"

 
Nolan took this next picture. What a natural! I'm loving how he framed us in the photo.

As I told the boys that this park was the kind where you go for walks, they just kept walking and loved discovering new things. It made me realize we need to do this more often.



And we probably hiked a mile or so but not bad for having two year old little legs with me. They were such troopers....no playground and all!

Zoo Crew

Spring Break is here and it's never tasted so good. I needed this break like I've never needed a break before. This time of year is so stressful especially for a 5th grade math teacher. And with state testing two weeks away, I'm in a complete state of denial this week. Because this week is all about my family....and school is absolutely the last thing on my mind.

We jump started Spring Break off with a bang at the drive-in movie. Yes, they still actually have those around! Justin and I used to go all the time BC (before children) and have never been brave enough to go after having Nolan, but it may be our new favorite outing. The boys were absolutely wonderful and loved every second of watching Gnomeo and Juliet. Making a pallet in the back of the van with pillow pets surrounding us and snuggles was just too perfect.

On Saturday we were brave enough to go to the zoo on Spring Break...yes, we're crazy. But the weather was a perfect 70 and when weather is that good around here, you're just as crazy not to go outside.

 
We started out with the flamingos and the boys were really intrigued by them. We haven't taken Campbell since he was six months old. Can't believe we've waited this long with him being the animal lover that he is. Nolan was working that finger pointing to everything that moved...yes, he even got excited about a squirrel roaming the zoo.

 
 Next we visited the MOLA (Museum of Living Art).

Cam was a great sport and even touched a snake. Notice how I'm holding Campbell's hand making him touch the snake...no thanks.

At the end of the MOLA was a Komodo Dragon statue. Why do all the kids get to have all the fun? What you didn't see was how long it took me to get up from this massive lizard.

 
After that anything that resembles play ground equipment was quickly climbed and rode like a horse.

It was so cute seeing them peeking at all the animals and their fits of excitement with each new animal they discovered.

 
Some are nice to view from a distance though.

Campbell's favorite animal of the entire zoo? A horse, because you know those are so rare and you NEVER see them in Texas (enter sarcastic tone here). I told Justin that we might as well have taken them to a farm or a park with Cam's favorite being a horse and Nolan's being a squirrel.

The closest he got to riding a horse was carousel style.



And once feet were getting sore and yawns began to creep in, we took a train ride. Well, first we said good-bye to the train leaving and waited for ours.

 
Finally we could see it coming. It was almost too much for Campbell to see horses AND ride a train all in the same day...talk about perfect day for him. 

I knew that we had a very limited amount of time before meltdowns were about to happen so we did a turbo tour of the elephants, giraffes, and hippos.We got there just in time to see a good ol' dirt bath.

We have an incredible zoo, ranked top 5 in the nation. Every time we go, I say we've got to come back more often. Hopefuly, we'll really make that happen this year.