March 25th

This date holds a special place in my heart. 16 years ago today, Scott asked me to be his girlfriend. We celebrated the 25th of every month as a "month-iversary." It started off as celebrating 1, 2, 6, 12 months of dating, then before we knew it we were celebrating 4 years and 3 months..so on. Then, we started celebrating July 16th as our wedding anniversary. But, March 25th will always be such a memorable date to me!

We just knew we were going to be together forever. I know, all teenagers think they are "in love." But, this was different. We didn't dive straight into being in love, we had a different connection from the start. Our souls just meshed together. We "got" each other like no one else. We were only 15 and knew we would get married, some how! We weren't intimidated by high school adventures separating us or college dividing us...we just knew it would work. We had a carefree confidence about our destiny!

Scott was the first to talk about "I know I am always going to be with you." I was a little more hesitant because I was 15 for Heavens sake. But, Scott played it cool and in no time I knew our connection was way more than a 15 year old could comprehend. It was all part of God's plan. God planted the confidence in our hearts, we knew it was forever! So, we enjoyed our journey of growing up together while our destiny awaited us!!

We laughed HARD along the way. We have argued very little. I am emotionally very low maintenance, not much makes me too annoyed or mad. I can brush things off in a heartbeat. Scott is so laid back that nothing really bothers him. So, these dynamics made for lots of fun...LOTS of fun! There were very few bumps in our relationship road. Knowing we would stay together thru thick and thin meant that we always had each other to lean on! We became each others rocks, through it all- we were each others foundation! We literally grew up into one person, unified, to stand together as one!

And now, we have these 3 beautiful children!!! Ahhh, God has blessed us beyond measure. Scott has blessed my life in many ways. Are we perfect? No! But, God certainly made us to be imperfect with each other!! I'm so glad that I said yes when he asked me to be his girlfriend on March 25th, 16 years ago!

Spring Break

Well, this week had lots of rain. However, it didn't slow us down too much! We went to the Rodeo, had a couple birthday parties, enjoyed an extra long Wednesday lunch with daddy, lots of outside play with neighborhood friends, went to my brothers lake house, and had outdoor fun in the rain.

I was planning on taking the kids to the lake house on Friday, but it was raining when I woke. So, I decided to skip the drive. The sun was peaking out here and there, and I was on the treadmill at the gym when I got a wild hair! I called Scott and said, "what if I just jump off this treadmill and grab the kids and go to the lake- now!" He said, "you couldn't do that!" Guess what....I did!! I jumped off the treadmill, put the kids in the car, and left- seriously! I didn't pack one thing, just whatever was in my car!

The kids napped in the car, and it ended up being the perfect little day trip. Since I didn't have swimsuits, the kids went swimming in their clothes. It was kind of nice. No preparation. Just going! We had a blast and drove back late that night. Hunter was SO brave in the water. Jumping off the deck onto the inner tube. Sounds simple, but he kept pushing the tube further and further away. That kid can JUMP! He was flying!

Here it is Saturday, and it is still raining. Scott had an impromptu water balloon fight. He called some friends over, we set up a balloon war with buckets and shields! The kids were running, using the trampoline and picnic table as a shield, and of course using our ditch as a bunker. The kids were cold and soaked! But, they had a blast!

Faith Ann has been right in the middle of all the fun! All the neighborhood kids love entertaining Faith Ann, playing with her, and just loving on her. Soon enough, she will be one of the "hood kids" that roam our street! Ahhh, I am enjoying these days with my baby by my feet! We had a good Spring Break!

Rodeo

We kicked off Spring Break by heading to the Rodeo this morning. There were 10 kids 4 and under. It was a lot of work, but really was fun! We got there early and beat the crowds. The weather was good, the kids were all in good moods...success!

Faith Ann's favorite part was riding the tram from the parking lot to the rodeo. She was laughing and squealing! The boys enjoyed the entire atmosphere. We spent about an hour inside with the petting zoo and exhibits. Then, we went outside in the kid area. The boys loved the activities. Milking the cow, feeding the chickens, picking carrots. It was really neat!

Then, we all ate lunch. All the kids were starting to get a little tired so we headed home afterwards. Of course, we made a stop by the cotton candy stand on the way out. Faith Ann wore an adorable "bandanna" dress, but I had to put a cardigan on because it was a little cool outside. She looked precious! The boys were wearing their Western wear too.

The boys walked the entire time, and they are passed out now! Recharging for an afternoon of soaking up the sunshine before another week of rain! We had a wonderful morning with great friends. Yeehaww, we love Rodeo Houston!!

Embracing Simplicty

Since we were teenagers, Scott has consistently said that I am simple. Maybe a little weird, but simple! No question, I march to my own drum. Fine, I like not following the crowd. But, I never labeled myself as simple. However, as I have gotten older and as I go through each season of life, I have realized that his "simple" comments may be true?! I am finally starting to appreciate that aspect of myself- especially when it comes to mothering! My desires are simple. My goals are simple. I don't like complicated. I don't like a bunch of "stuff" that clutters the simplicity of life! And right now, as a mother, I simply want happy and healthy children that deeply love each other! Nothing more, nothing grand, just the blessing of health and happiness. And for me, happiness has always been rooted in simplicity!

This post is for my children to remember the simple days and these moments that I, as a mother, embraced simplicity!!  In no way am I doing a "mothering post" about how great my view is. Because I know every mother has their own reasons, and I never judge a mothers reasoning. Every mother makes the best call for her own individual family. For my family...simple has been the way to go!

We spend our spare time in very simple ways. Yes, we do the occasional sports lesson and church activity. However at this time in their life, we have chosen not to fill their days with summer camps, activities, lessons, and stuff. In general, our days are very 1950's style! We walk down to our "Morning Tree" everyday (tree at the end of our culde-sac) which is a favorite tradition of ours! We take a handful of pennies to the water fountains in Town and Country and make wishes. This activity takes hours, and they have a blast! We walk between the 4 fountains and share our wishes and toss the pennies! Such sweet memories. We go look at the peacocks a few times a week. We drive in a neighborhood off Memorial Drive which is known for having tons of peacocks. There are always tons of them, showing off their feathers. We sit in our car, take pictures, talk to them...we love this! We walk to the creek in our neighborhood to visit "Sherman the turtle." The boys named the turtle, and we love to go sit and watch Sherman!

And most of all...we play outside, hours a day! I open the garage and the kids run and play hard. They play with each other, creating games, and they LOVE the big ditch in our front yard- hours of entertainment! Our kitchen faces our front yard, so I keep my eyes on them.  There is a constant daily rotation of neighborhood kids in our home! I often go out and play baseball with them or take part in their created game- yesterday was shooting the red lego block off the table with the nerf gun, you loose if you hit the yellow block! They also love putting the mini-trampoline in the ditch and creating all sorts of cool ways to slide or jump down the trampoline. One of my favorite things to do is embrace the simplicity by pulling a chair in the driveway, enjoy my 5:00 Corona Light and watch my children be children!! MANY of my memories will be just this...watching my kids play barefoot, outside in our front yard- their favorite thing to do!Our neighbors say they always love driving down the street to see what our kids are up to for the day- haha, drive by entertainment!

It is so easy to get caught up in technology now a days. Yes, my children will love technology and will want the latest and greatest in the future. But, not now. My children have never really played with an Ipad, I do NOT have one app on my phone (gasp), I don't even have my email set up on my phone, we have one TV in the entire house, one very old computer in the house. I know,I know...hello, it is 2015!! My children play with buckets, pine cones, sticks, and invent games in our ditch. Not because I am against technology. I just honestly don't think about technology- it never crosses my mind. Scott and I never had a discussion about keeping technology away from them, it just happened naturally. I wanted to document this because one day, my children will laugh at this paragraph as they are reading it on their "travel chip" they transmitted into their shoelace or whatever the next crazy technology thing is!!

And if they didn't laugh at that last paragraph, they will laugh at this! Yall, I have a dinner bell!! Not kidding! And I actually use it everyday! Since the kids are always, always outside...I got tired of yelling when dinner was ready. I never knew if they were in our yard or in a neighbors yard- so I would just scream! Scott got me a dinner bell, and it is SO cute to ring that bell and the boys come running! When I ring the bell, I can hear all the street kids screaming "Hunter, Trent your dinner is ready." Then, there they come running barefoot, side by side, headed home to eat!

An older man lives across the street from us, and he told me, "watching you raise your kids is like a flashback to my childhood- simple pleasures and great memories!" That wraps it up, simple pleasures and embracing the simplicity. I have chosen a simple life, and for right now- it works and feels good! However, I know that life comes in seasons. I will have a season in my life that has lots of running here and there, lots of technology, and lots of places to be....but, not now. I am not in that season, and I am loving it! Embracing the simplicity!

10 Months

Faith Ann turns 10 months old today! I want to bottle up everything about her. This age is perfection! Actually, I'm loving the age of all my children. We are just in a good phase. Faith Ann is finally crawling all over the place! She has been spinning in circles for a month, but has stayed somewhat in the same general area. Now, she is traveling from room to room. She crawls like Trent did, and it is so funny! She scoots in the sitting position with one leg doing all the work and her arms pulling forward. Trent did this exact "crawl," so it must be a Monteverde thing!

Faith Ann is still wearing my old dresses almost every Sunday to church. My mom saved a ton of my old baby clothes. About 40 dresses/outfits were passed down to sweet Faith Ann! I know my mom would be LOVING this! She would be eating Faith Ann up in these beautiful dresses. Faith Ann looks like such a precious doll in these delicate gorgeous dresses. Thank you mom for being so thoughtful by saving these with such love. God knew that I would treasure these dresses one day, especially in memory and honor of my mom!

Faith Ann is funny! That probably doesn't make much sense since she is still so young. But, I'm telling you- she has impeccable timing, like she is trying to be funny! And she has the most contagious laugh in the world. It is kind of nerdy sounding with a little rasp. It is such a deep belly laugh, and it puts my world on pause! Regardless of where I have to be or what I should be doing...I just stop and soak up her hilarious laugh! We do lots of laughing on her changing table. That is our alone time to laugh and be silly, face to face, getting dressed, just us girls laughing with each other!

She makes such funny noises. She does this gasping sound that turns heads! It's like an "Oh my gosh, look at that..." sound! She usually kicks her legs with her mouth wide open during that sound. She also makes this deep grunting noise. Almost like she's clearing her throat, but she's not. She makes that sound when she is trying to be part of the playtime. She will sit in the middle of her brothers just grunting away, thinking she is a big girl playing! She also does this hilarious girly scream. It is such a quiet faint scream. This is her "I'm wild" noise. She makes this sound when her brothers are chasing her or someone is saying "I'm gonna get you." She does that sweet scream and starts scooting away as fast as she can!!

Faith Ann still has the most peaceful, calming demeanor. I can always count on her to give me peace in any given moment. She is so present in every moment with her big smile, big laugh, beautiful focused eyes, and happy spirit but with this aura of peace blessing every emotion! She has such a grace about her. Her peace is just as contagious as her laugh!! And her cheeks...don't even get me started. Ahhh, I kiss those cheeks a million time s a day. How could you not?

Faith Ann is SO SO loved! Her brothers think she can do no wrong, and of course her daddy holds her on a pedestal. She has a place in my heart that is reserved just for her. She plays me like a fiddle. Don't even get me started on her "fan club!" The nursery workers at church and the gym literally fight over who holds her! And all the kids in the neighborhood come over to play with Faith Ann. I have told the kids "she is sleeping when the blinds to her room are closed." After nap, I open her blinds and with in 10 minutes there is a group of kids wanting to be with Faith Ann! They watch those blinds! Sweet girl, you are something special!

We have had lots of rainy days. This means that Hunter has done lots of coloring and writing- obsessed! Trent has done lots playing with cars and planes. And Faith Ann has done lots of dancing to her light up toys! She loves music! It stopped raining last weekend for a few hours, so we got out the bounce house and the kids had a blast. Boy, we are ready for some sunshine! Faith Ann puts grass and leaves in her mouth, so I put her in the laundry basket or walker when I have to leave her for a few minutes, just to make sure she doesn't eat the lawn! Or I have to assign one of her "followers" to sit with her, which is usually the case! Especially cousin Ally. Ally is Faith Ann's favorite follower. I just love this picture of Ally feeding Faith Ann, and Faith Ann is looking at her with such admiration! I also love the pics of Ally and Faith Ann reading together after church. Such good girls!

Here are some 10 month old things you are up to:

• Crawling 
• Finally has teeth...2 bottom teeth
• size 9-12 mo clothes 
• size 3 or 4 diaper
• Birthmark seems to be starting the fading process?? Hard to tell. I need to do a post about her birthmark to document the stages.
• Sleeps 7:00-7:00
• Breastfeeds 3 times a day (when she wakes, before afternoon nap, before bedtime)
• Usually falls back asleep after nursing in the morning (7:30-9:00)
• Afternoon nap 1:00-3:30, give or take
• Can pull herself up on certain pieces of furniture
• Loves bathtime
• She eats whatever we are eating. Her favorites are yogurt, kiwi, turkey, mandarin oranges, muffins, and veggie chips.
• She is a total trooper, and goes with whatever is going on!

Faith Ann, you are such a blessing. You have many gifts of grace, peace, laughter and joy! You continue to lighten my days, and I look forward to what life has in store for you!