Cara Box

I signed up to be part of a Cara Box Exchange with other bloggers through the blog Wifessionals. My sister had done it a few months earlier and thought I should give it a try - I'm glad she told me to! I got paired up with two bloggers- one I send a Cara Box to and one I get a Cara Box from. For the first month or so, you get to know them through email exchanges and reading their blogs. Then, you start buying them gifts :) The theme was "Fall" so it was pretty open. Ami, her blog is Here, was my partner who was buying for me. We seemed to have lots of similar interests so I was eager to get my present in the mail. Plus, who doesn't like to get presents in the mail?

When I opened the box, goodies of all kinds were waiting for me! She bought me some of my favorite things and didn't even knot it. Right away, I opened up the lip balm :) I am hardly ever an arm's reach away from something for my lips!

 She put in two of her own recipe cards. I thought that was a really neat idea! We will be trying out some new foods in the next few weeks :)

 She added some fragrance bars! The one on the left smells good enough to eat, and the one on the right takes me back just a few short months to when we were laying on the deck of our overwater bungalow in Bora Bora!

 I got some fun nail polish that I broke into right away:)

 There was also a fun scarf that I cannot wait to wear.

 At the bottom of all the goodies was a super cute lunch pale from Thirty-One!! I love their bags and am super excited to add a new one to my collection :)

 Ami was even sweet enough to add something inside for Jack, and it couldn't have been more perfect! This kid is a Mickey fanatic, and I know the picture doesn't show it, but his eyes lit up when I let him play with it.

I got A LOT of neat things, and she told me she forgot to add a few items that will be coming in another box soon. I can't wait to see what other goodies await!

Thank you Ami for all the sweet gifts! I really enjoyed getting to know you and look forward to watching your boys grow, too! I will definitely be doing this again next time :) Who said your birthday can't be every quarter?!

Thankful for friends and family!

A few weeks ago, we had the memorial for my dad back in Fort Worth.. I was blown away by the support of my friends and family during this time. I had friends fly in from the east coast (Kristen) and the west coast (The Marshalls) along with friends and family drive in from Houston (The Hynes), Corpus (The Gibbs) and my dear friend from college (Carly). I didn't really ever know how to deal with things like this, but now I do. Having the strength of my closest friends and family there is what made it easier, and I will be sure to follow in their footsteps in the future.

I love this picture of the kids.

After the memorial, we all headed to the park to enjoy what was left of the evening.

 For dinner, we went and ate at 3 Parrot Taco. We spent the rest of the evening playing games and walked to get frozen custard! We ended the day with lots of laughs and memories.

 Thank you sweet family and friends for loving and supporting me through this. My daddy will forever be missed, but I know he's thankful that I have people like you in my life.

 

 

Dryer

So I've been waiting for this to happen. Jack has finally found joy in climbing into the dryer when helping me with laundry. It's pretty stinkin' cute.

 He helps himself to throwing the wet clothes back out!

Annual VA Pictures

When we head to Virginia, we plan it so that not only do we get to be with our friends but so that we also can hopefully see the fall leaves. We got some really cute pictures of Jack last year in the leaves. We knew that we were heading there a little early for them, but we were hoping.

As you can see, they were JUST beginning to change colors so it wasn't meant to be this time. We still decided to have fun taking pictures though.

 They got a new porch swing that Jack enjoyed.

 Then we headed to a little "park" right down the road.

 He was running in circles laughing up a storm.

 Calling for the squirrels!

Baltimore Aquarium

While we were in Virginia, the Marshalls took us to the Baltimore Aquarium which was AMAZING! We also met my old college friends, The Hanna's, there. I haven't been to too many aquariums, but this was one of the coolest places. It was huge. It even had a dolphin exhibit :) I had so much fun that I forgot to take many pictures.

 

 

 Waiting for the dolphins to start their show!

 I couldn't find the boys so I called John - they were busy climbing stairs!

 Thank you Sara Catherine & James for always finding cool places to go!

The Children's Museum at National Harbor

We recently took our annual trip to visit our good friends, The Marshalls, in Virginia. The weather was really rainy so we decided to stay indoors at the Children's Museum in National Harbor. .

Jack's favorite part was dressing like the fireman and hitting the emergency button

We had a lot of fun, and we stayed dry :)