My FIRST Mother's Day

For my first Mother's Day, we invited my mom and Beth to come to Katy for dinner out on Saturday. My parents came in Friday afternoon, and Beth got here on Friday night. My mom and I did grocery shopping that afternoon, and the dads went to see "The Avengers." Lucky ducks. :) That night we all just hung here at the house. It was cool and relaxing.
Saturday we all headed out for some shopping, including Val, while Ryker was back at the house napping while the dads watched a movie...again. We had fun all out together, and once we got back to the house, we exchanged our gifts. I got a new James Avery charm bracelet with the baby boy shoes charm (I am starting a MOMMA bracelet) and picture canvas from Ryker. The card was adorable too. I think Daddy might have had something to do with that. :) He also picked out a "Game of Thrones" t-shirt for me as well. My parents gave me some new workout clothes, which I was wanting, and my sister made me a new headband holder. Beth brought me a basket stuffed with things to use on the new patio. So nice. The 7 of us headed out to Texas Roadhouse for an early dinner after that. It really hit the spot...food was awesome as always! We even brought home leftovers. Once back here at the house, we hung outside with Ryker for awhile, and then Beth left for home. Once Ry was down, we played a few games of dice canasta and watched some TV. I didn't win. :(
My parents and Val stayed over through Sunday. Ryker was up during the night for like 3 hours...not sure why???...teeth we figured. Anyway. Once my mom was up I went back to bed for a bit, and I woke up to breakfast almost done and a happy baby. My parents & Val had kept Ry entertained so Nick and I could sleep in a little since we were up a lot in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We watched some basketball after lunch, and my parents left that afternoon. Val and I headed down to the pool with Ryker. It had just opened a couple weeks before. It was pretty crowded, but not too bad. It was a little cool too, but once you were in, it didn't take long to adjust. Ryker LOVED it! We stayed about 1 1/2 hours. I was surprised he was so into it.
The adults capped off the night watching "Game of Thrones" and hanging out. It was a relaxing and lazy day. Well deserved I must say. :0 Thanks everyone for making my first MD so special!

***THANKS to Carmen and Ashley for remembering me too! I really appreciated the cards!



SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENTS

With Happy Bonus Day, as we now affectionately call it, in the books for 2012, Nick and I made plans for a few things we really wanted to do around the house to make it better and more awesome. Re-landscaping our big flowerbed out front, replacing light fixtures, a new dishwasher, replacing the tile around the fireplace, putting up cabinets in the laundry room, putting a pull-down attic ladder in the garage, and getting new living room furniture made up most of the list.

Our biggest home improvement this spring was DEFINITELY the covered patio we had put in. The construction on it took about a work week...Monday-Friday. It was a loud, and sometimes annoying experience, but it was done just as the dogs and I were adjusting to it. It looks SO good. It will get a ton of use this coming summer. For sure. I can't wait to be able to sit out there with Nick for the first rainstorm we are here for together. :)

Enjoy some patio pics!

We had breakfast out there that weekend!

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!



Get Your Rear in Gear Walk - San Antonio & Bluebonnet Pics

We recently went to San Antonio to participate in the Get Your Rear in Gear Walk 2012. I am not sure who discovered the walk last year after Sara passed away, but the group who did walk in it only had like 3 weeks to prepare for it I think. So this year everyone knew about it since mid-January. As soon as I heard about it again, I signed up Ryker and I for sure. As it got closer, Nick said he was in too. So were Val and my Dad who weren't able to participate last year either. All 6 of us walked this year which is better than last year when my mom was the only one who could. :)

The 5K walk was held at Brackenridge Park. For those of you who aren't familiar with SA...that's right by the zoo. Sunday morning was humid and muggy, but hey, at least it wasn't raining. It was a great turnout I thought. Free breakfast tacos and SWAG were available for all participants as well as drinks and snacks. We got really neat shirts for our participation as well...made from the Dri-fit type material.

We saw some very crafty team names. Our's was the same as last year: Sara's Pink Posse. Her favorite color was pink. Other names we saw that we loved were: Get Scoped for Hope, Team Rec 'Em (Rectum), and then there we buttons that said <3 Ur : which I thought was very clever. They handed those out to the people who looked old enough to get a colonoscopy. Nick and I were handed one so I wasn't sure what to make of that though.

We decided to take Ryker on the train by the zoo when we got finished with the walk. He seemed pretty into it...he was just really tired. I guess the walk took a lot out of him! :) We also took bluebonnets pics for the first time ever! We have always talked about doing it, but we did it finally on Saturday evening this weekend. We got some great results!
I think this walk is a really good way to get people to pay attention to colon cancer and do some fundraising for it. It's the one cancer most people tend to ignore or not talk about since it involves body parts most people tend to not want to talk about. I was glad to see as many walkers/runners as I did. I am sure that most folks who were there have been affected by colon CA in some way as we have been. I urge you all to please do what you can to help advance all cancer research, increase screening, and pray for those affected by the disease.

Here's some pics from the weekend:

My stinker in the car on the way into SA

Just a few of many great pics we got close to sunset:



Starting the walk!

Our WHOLE group!

He LOVED the tunnel! That's why we're all laughing!