{Late Friday Five}

This friday five was supposed to be posted on the 26th, but alas, we were on vacation. So, here it is [Even though part of our trip was during this "week" I didn't chose any top 5 moments from the trip because that will all be blogged about on it's own]

1. This face. We moved the swing the backyard and she's a huge fan.

2. This adorable rain jacket that we got to test out

 3. My two favorite people on the husband's new toy!

 4. This face.

 5. The new store, Gecko Hardware that opened near the house. It has chalkboard walls and speaks to my inner hippie self.

{TBT - England}

TBT stands for Throwback Thursday. I'm going to try to blog every Thursday [wish me luck] about something in the past.
For this first TBT I want to start documenting our Study abroad trip that we took way back in 2010. It was amazing. 6 weeks 9 countries. Amazing. Very little "studying" involved lol

I started the blog a few months after this trip so we don't have a lot of the pictures documented and stories told. I did make some scrapbooks from our trip but those consisted mostly of metro passes, museum brochures, plane tickets, maps, and only a few pictures.

So let us start off with our first stop - London, England. We spent about 3 days there.

"The damage to these walls is the result of enemy bombing during the blitz of the second world war 1939-1945 and is left as a memorial to the enduring values of this great museum in a time of conflict"

We saw Les Miserables on our 1 year anniversary!

We saw Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Tower of London

The Tower of London - we also saw the Crown Jewels - amazing! and the Fusilier Museum

We visited all sorts of museums including the British Museum, The National Gallery, Tate Modern, and Natural History Museum

Delicious Fish and Chips, o'course

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

I miss the Tubes....

Other things to note/memories made:

-We saw J.Lo at a movie premiere

- Trafalga Square

- Millenial Bridge

- Ridiculous nice Italian restaurant in our street clothes..oops :)

- Visited PWC [one of our few "study" moments during this "study abroad"]

- Visited Portabello Road and it was just as magical as I had imagined. I got one of my favorite necklaces and a vintage dress that fits me perfectly.

London was lovely. It was a great place to start our little tour of Europe. I miss it.

I want to go back and visit so bad!

{Garden update and a tender mercy}

Yes, another garden post. Now that it's warm outside Evette and I spend nearly every waking hour outside. It's lovely and I just have to soak in all the beauty that's around me.

My lilies have thrived!

  One of the iris has a bud! I'm thrilled out of my mind. I can't wait to see what color it is! Pretty sure I will stop by this flower dozens a time a day to smell that heavenly scent once it blooms.

  zucchini plants have popped up!

 My lettuce is beautiful and delicious.

 love watching these guys poke their little heads out and spread their leaves 

This honeysuckle plant is my plant of hope. When we first moved to Dallas nearly a year ago [crazy!] I was having some panic attacks. We signed papers on our rental home without knowing exactly what we were getting into. Once we arrived I was devastated. The house was horribly dirty [like nearly vomiting while cleaning] and dank and the yard looked like the only attention it got was being mowed once a month - maybe. It was so overwhelming and I felt like we were just going to be miserable living in this place. On the first day as we were walking around outside checking the place out my heart was just sinking with each step, nearly to my toes. Once we rounded the corner of the house I got a whiff of something wonderful. It was this honey suckle vine. It was in full bloom growing all over some bushes and along the fence. It was gorgeous. This was a tender mercy from my loving Heavenly Father. It was a sign that we could make this place a nice, comfortable home, and that we would be happy here. 

And guess what - we are.

{The kindest person I know...}

Evette. 

Evette is the kindest person I know. She has the biggest heart in the world.

She cares about everybody all the time.

She frequently asks where Daddy is. When I tell her he's at work, she thinks about it and asks me if he's at the train by making her train noise. After I say that he is, she nods and is alright. [I think Evette thinks that Daddy works on the train. We pick up Sean from the DART [or train] on Fridays or whenever he works in Dallas office. So she says "Cheww cheww" for Daddy's work lol].

She must give equal kisses, snuggles, high fives, and knuckles to everyone. If she gives besos to dad, she must come find me to give me besos even if that means to run halfway across the house. If she gives one friend a hug, she must go hug all the other friends. If she gives someone knuckles [fist bump] then everyone else in sight must get a fist bump.

She shares her snacks with others. If I give her some goldfish, she always gives me a couple. The other day I was out working in the garden and Sean was getting her a yogurt covered pretzel - she knows those are my favorite so after making sure that Daddy got one she got one for me and ran around the house looking for me. Once they found me outside she came and gave me a pretzel, gave me a beso, gave Daddy a beso, and then went back inside to play. Adorable.

She has two books right now that make her cry. The first one is about jack'o'lanterns and one of the jack'o'lanterns has a sad face. She is very concerned about that pumpkin and it makes her cry if she looks at it too long. 

The second book is about the monkeys jumping on the bed. She feels so sad for those poor monkeys. She just holds her head and cries during that book. What a tender heart she has.

Today she was looking at the flowers with Daddy and noticed that one of the blossoms had died. She was very concerned and pretty sad about the situation. Daddy had to pluck it and throw it in the bushes so it wouldn't be dead anymore.

She also likes to take care of babies - real or play. She snuggles with her babies, gives them bathes, besos, tucks them into bed, feeds them, etc. For her little younger friends she likes to bring them books,  pat them on the head, give them hugs, etc. It's sweet.

She has the kindest, biggest heart in the world and I hope that she keeps that through her whole life. She teaches me so much. I feel like I'm a selfish person and she teaches me how to be better.

{Friday Five}

1. We got to visit this magical tree house this week! It was seriously magical! It was like all my childhood dreams coming true! Everything was miniature and adorable. We went with a bunch of other friends and It was a joyous morning :)

2. Our little sandbox that we put together this week. We had this old plastic shelving thing and it has turned into an awesome sand box. Evette can dump from one shelf to another, it keeps the rain and animals out, and doesn't take up too much  room. We're both in love with it.

3.  Tuesday night daddy surprised us and came home early! Evette and I were on our way home from Lowes after dinner and I saw a man sitting on my porch - turns out it was the husband!!! [we locked him out of the house.. :) ]. How cool is that!? They finished up their work earlier than expected so he jumped on a plane and came home! Such a fun surprise. We spent the evening playing with the hose outside.

4. My garden is thriving! My cucumbers, squash, and beans are growing beautifully :) 

5. The honeysuckle bush growing along our back fence is in bloom! And even better - it turns out that it has spread all through the top of the hedge bushes along the side of the house! Beautiful! Good thing I listened to my gut [my lazy self] and didn't get around to trimming these bushes yet - otherwise I would've killed these little guys! I love them - they smell delicious :)

{Weekend}

Just a couple pictures from our weekend.

It was warm enough that we put our swimsuits on and washed the car! It was awesome! Evette loved chasing us around with the hose. Her belly laughs were killing me - so adorable.

Evette using the large part of the laptop charger as a cell phone - hilarious. She would pick it up, talk to herself for a few minutes, run and do something else, and then come back to the phone. She loves talking on the phone - or anything that barely resembles a phone.

We went out to a Chinese buffet for lunch - not the best food, but it was alright.

Here are our fortunes - Sean, Heidi, Evette.

I was born in the year of the horse

and my two favorite people are both rabbits!

Then we stopped by petco to visit the animals [it's a frequent stop for Babbs and I]. Turns out they had dogs there today that were up for adoption! Now, those of you that know me know that I don't like dogs. Not that I just prefer cats, I just really don't like dogs at all.

I'm sorry if you didn't know this about me and now you're upset that I don't like your dog - I'm sorry. We can still be friends, I still like you, I just don't want your dog on my lap.

Anyways, I saw this dog and fell in love. Seriously the cutest, sweetest puppy ever. He was so sweet and happy but not obnoxiously jumping in your face. He didn't yip or bark or anything. Adorable. I wanted to take him home so so so bad. I'd let him sit on my lap.

Anyways - this had to be documented because I'm pretty sure it's a once in a lifetime occurrence. 

For my wonderful parents, on my mother’s birthday!

For my wonderful parents, on my mother’s birthday!

I wanted to share a thought with you two on this fine day about parenthood. It’s a short thought and one I cannot articulate to any satisfaction, but one that I’m sure you’ll be able to unravel and feel at least as strongly as I do.

That thought is this: I know now that you two love me to the point of heart-ache. You’ve told me so uncountable times in just as many ways, but I didn’t know how that felt until recently – until I recognized that the way I feel for Evette is certainly the way you feel for me.  

I’m learning more about this new feeling, this wonderful pain that is “parental-love-heartache.” I had no idea what debt of love I owed you – not debt of time, attention, education, protection, or material support (the normal things I might thank you for) – but the immense debt I owe simply for this welling feeling in your heart, for loving me as much as you do. And for as much as this feeling joyfully tears into my heart, I’m sure that I am only feeling a fraction of what your seasoned love must be.

I want to speak of repayment for that love but am at a loss. Evette repays my love with her sweetness, her cleverness, her earnest hugs, and her innocent kisses. I am sure there are things I do that bring such smiles to your face but am at a loss of how they might compensate for your love.

We all go on with our lives even though doing so makes such moments feel fleeting, half rejoicing in this feeling of love and half needing to proceed with life simply because it’s through life that these joys are felt. Thank you for striking the balance you have.

My heart thanks you. With love, your son forever,

Sean