Rest of May

Mom's headstone was finally put into place. We went to see it on May 20 after church. It's beautiful. I had a really hard time visiting her grave before it was there because seeing a dead patch of new grass that marked her resting place was very hard for me. I like it better with her picture and pictures of our family in place on it.

Our little Candy is pretty happy these days when she's feeding herself.  This is from May 21.

We did a few swim lessons at Dad's this month with our buddies the T girls.  These 6 kids are great friends!  May 22

I had playgroup at our house on May 23.  It is so fun to put our giant yard to good use!  We had approximately 20 moms and more than 40 kids there!

We did the sprinkler, baby pool, and slip-n-slide along with the swing set.

Silly girls at breakfast on May 24

Our garden is doing great--LOTS of tomatoes and jalapenos--bring on the salsa!  May 24

Lunch time cuties on Friday, May 25...

Megan loves this dress up skirt.  She wears it almost everyday.  She passed out after a busy Saturday on May 26.

Cute Candy on Sunday morning, May 27

This melts my heart.  Megan "reading" to Brooke (*she does have underwear on, I promise!) after church on May 27

Enjoying the slip-n-slide on Wed. May 30

Tyler and Grandpa came for a quick visit on May 31--this kid is finishing up his freshman year of high school!  Crazy!

Last day and "Graduation"

Megan's last day of Joy School for the year was Thursday (May 17).  She has grown up in so many ways over the course of the school year and we couldn't be more happy with the sweet girl she is becoming.  She is napping only about once a week these days and loves to go up to quiet time all by herself, choose a toy or two, and head into her room to play quietly (or not so quietly, but contained-ly).  We've even moved to letting her leave her door unlocked during quiet time and she's pretty good at staying up there until quiet time is over.

First Day last fall, Aug. 30, 2011

Last Day--May 17, 2012

I had a great time with our Joy School group this year--there were 6 families involved and I really enjoyed our group of kids and moms.  Megan will be with a new joy school group next year, so it was a little bittersweet to close this chapter after 2 years with most of the kids!
We wanted to have a little "graduation" party to celebrate the end of the school year, so we did it Saturday afternoon (May 19) when the Dads could come.  It was pretty adorable.  My friend Ashley made little caps for all the kids (complete with tassels) and they walked in one at a time to Pomp and Circumstance to receive their certificate from Shelly (the hostess).  Then we went through each of the kids and had all the teacher-moms say something they appreciated about them.  Most of them mentioned Megan's love of coloring and her enthusiasm for art projects and also her kindness.  I mentioned that I loved her little acts of service (like Saturday morning when she got Daddy a bottle of water all by herself and took it out to him while he mowed the lawn). 
Congratulations to Megan on a great year!

Getting the hats on...

All lined up...

Pomp and circumstance...

Best buds--Megan and Megan

All the kiddos...

Megan listening to the teachers compliment her!

Moms and kids (Moms=Nicole, Shelly, Melanie, Jenebie, me, and Ashley/Kids=Kate, Audrey, Bradley, Cassidy, Megan, and Megan)

Dad's Award

Another fun pic from Baba's visit--Baba trying on Tyler's new letterjacket on May 13

My Dad received a Presidential Award from the University of Texas at a luncheon on May 17.  It is a huge honor, received by only 1 or 2 professors each year.  All the adults got to attend the luncheon where it was presented on Thursday, May 17.  It is fun to see Dad with colleagues and hear their praise of him and I also enjoyed hearing him speak.  He shared that he and Mom knew about the award before Mom died and that she was excited for him.  My dad is awesome!

Baba and Amy

Shad, Amy, me, Dan

Our group minus Baba

7 Years and an afternoon with Baba

On Monday, May 14, Dan and I celebrated 7 years of married life.  Each year seems to fly by faster than the last.  While we've been warned about the "7 year itch", neither of us seem very itchy--in fact, we still love to just be together, whatever we may be doing.  We got to grab some milkshakes to celebrate on Saturday May 12 and even got a last minute date night on May 17 to the Astro's game with some good friends who shared their tickets. 
Before milkshakes, we celebrated cousin Chloe's 4th birthday at Shad's house.

Molly (1), Candace (9 months)

My beautiful Baba

Megan

Candace was not too sure about the grass.  It was so funny.

Brooke...

Tyler (just turned 15), and Candace

 On the 14th itself, Dan had a physical therapy appointment in the morning, so he was working from home (always nice).  The girls and I did our usual grocery swap, but when it was my turn to go to the store, instead I drove down and picked up Baba for an afternoon at our house.
Baba and I had such a nice time together.  I put the girls down for a nap and Baba and I ate a quick lunch.  She began guiding me through some family history basics while we chatted and caught up.  I appreciate her wisdom and advice and tried my best to soak up as many nuggets of wisdom as I could.  Dan joined us when he finished with work and we enjoyed watching our wedding video while the kids ran around.  We picked up some Pei Wei on our way to take Baba back to my dad's (our second year in a row of Pei Wei takeout on our anniversary) and had a great dinner with Baba, Dad, and Tyler.  We headed home around 6:30 pm and put the girls right to bed so we could watch "The Vow".
It was a nice simple anniversary!

Baba watching Candy crawl around...

Dan, Baba, and the girls deciding what to order for dinner.  Candy is still small enough that Baba can hold her for a while until she gets wiggly. 

Brooke loves Baba...and Baba's cane (this got her into trouble when she tried to walk off with it from time to time)

My Baba-Ethel (age 88) and me (age 27)...

Mother's Day

Mother's Day (like most of May this year) was filled with mixed emotions. I can't believe it's been a year since Mom's cancer was back with a vengeance. I can't believe she's been gone for 10 months. I can't believe this was the first Mother's Day of the rest of my life without her here.

And yet, life goes on. It was a nice Sunday still. Dan and the girls woke me with breakfast in bed and it was delicious and the girls were so excited. Megan made me a card at joy school and I loved it. A highlight of the day was watching Megan and Brooke sing to me with all the primary kids at church. They sang "Mother I Love You" and followed that with "Mother Tell Me the Story" with the Mom's joining in. I was a little teary, but held it together (I had to teach RS later, so I knew I had to maintain some composure). Dad made a delicious brisket dinner so none of us Moms had to cook and we enjoyed being together as a family.
 I am so grateful for the Moms I am surrounded by. My mother-in-law Jane, Baba, my sisters, sisters-in-law, Dan's Grandma, all of my Aunts, wonderful friends in my ward and neighborhood, visiting teachers and companions--my life and my family are blessed by their examples.
 I am especially grateful to be a mother. Megan, Brooke, and Candace make my life exciting :). They teach me a lot about patience and even more about unconditional love. My Baba (Dad's mom) is still here and it was nice to be with her on this first mother's day without Mom.

 I told Dan that all I wanted for Mother's Day was a hummingbird feeder. My Mom had one outside her kitchen window for years and she loved watching the hummingbirds come and feed. I don't have many memories of my Granny (Mom's mom), but one thing I do remember is HER hummingbird feeder on her porch and watching the birds come. So I wanted my own this year. I think when I see those little birds stopping for a drink that I'll feel like Mom sent them.

I didn't take any pictures on Mother's Day, but here's one from the day after.  My little sweethearts in their "tent" giggling and taking care of their babies.   Love them :)

Growing like weeds!

Both the garden and our sweet Candy are really growing.
Candy cut her first tooth the week of May 6 (the top one on her left side but not the middle one, the next one...if that makes sense).  She is crawling all over the place, pulling up and cruising, mimicking our sounds and faces like a champ, and is still our happy girl.  She sleeps through the night (usually 7 pm to 8 am) and takes 2 naps when we let her...or one really long afternoon nap on most days. She loves feeding herself and has quite the appetite.  Her favorite foods are pb&js, bananas, and yogurt but she'll eat just about anything She can eat an entire sandwich (crust and all) plus a banana and
Anyway.  In short, we love this girl.

We're looking forward to the harvest!:  green and yellow peppers, tomatoes (better boys, roma, and some other one), sugar snap peas, onions (but they got trampled by little helpers and may not make it), and jalapenos

Sigh, look at those blue eyes.  This is a happy girl after eating some of my little brother's bday cake (Aah, he's 15 and getting a permit!  Watch out!), she's 10 months old today, May 11!

 

We had to take these off the wall, but this is Megan's life-size self portrait from joy school.  I love how she draws faces right now.  Big ovals for the eyes and nose, straight line for the mouth.  Also notice the coloring--she LOVES to color as hard as she can with many colors right next to each other.  She calls them all rainbows.  Plus she was on a circle kick that day, hence the giant oval and multiple circles all over. 

Ok, I helped Brooke color hers.  But she did all the scribbling.

I caught Megan's crazy face.  She looks like she's caged :)

I LOVE watching Candace feed herself.  She usually two-fists it and shoves as much as she can into her mouth.  Good thing her gag reflex is intact--we've only had to do the heimlich once.  This is her demolishing a banana.  

Speaking of growing, my baby brother is growing up fast.  He turned 15 on May 9 and we went to Dad's for a little party to celebrate.