Lily's friend birthday party!

 She has been planning this....

for.....

months!

She has been SO excited about her birthday!

She had the best time and we all skated our hearts out! (And we may be feeling it tomorrow!) :)

Family picture! Alexis had a DD event so she was bummed she couldnt come.

Girls!

Sweet friends!

Allll the roller skates, neon, glow, and fun!

Friends forever!

They all had a blast!

Racing time! They all voted to have Lily get a head start since she was the birthday girl!

She was ready to win!....though she fell half way around! ha!

Love!

She is 12!

Super excited to have her favorite party!

All the glow!

My girl and me!

Grey did SO good! By the end of the party...he was skating by himself!

They skated and skated!

She was very specific with the theme of her party! Yeah...my fingers and parts of my hand, are stained black! Just wow at how those cupcakes were good but the icing....gracious! Everyone had black mouths...tongues..fingers and all! ha! It may be several days before it wears off! :)

Our 12 year old!

They were so loud singing to her .....that the entire place was watching and the DJ even commented on it! ha!

All the fun in one picture!

My welcome back party!

 And here I am...back to reality! :)

My welcome back party!

I think the students played....'how much can we stuff under Mrs. Law's door to see if she can dance!' bahaha! :)

 

Our last day in Texas!

So....goodness...Monday came so fast! I just dont know why time has to fly so fast when youre having fun...but, it sure did while we were there!

We got up and Tyler and Chris had an egg cooking 'cook-off!' Talk about hilarious...but all I will say is one was 'bad'...like really 'BAD' according to one child specifically (because the girls were all the judges on who had the best)  and the other's eggs won...while the other's was claimed to be cheese grits instead of eggs. 

I have laughed and laughed!

There was a lot of competition to be had! These two had so much fun together!

Lily was so surprised when we brought out her birthday cake and started singing 'happy birthday!' I mean...that is the reason we were on the trip and got to where we are!

Lily was upset that Madelyn and Camille would not be there for her party...so before the Messer's even had a house sold in their name...we had our tickets for the trip booked! ha!

After swimming, etc, we cleaned up and spent the rest of the day in Fort Worth! The Stock Yards was a great experience!

This was pretty cool to see!

Just beautiful with the cobblestone roads and the wood, etc! So cool!

Bob's for lunch! It was huge and the girls got a kick out of seeing all the famous people's cemented hands on the walls!

We headed back home and then us adults had a fancy dinner out while this crew had pizza and movie at home to cap off the great trip!

We got up bright and early and saw them off to school before heading to the airport and heading home!

Dallas!

 Since we had never been to Texas and the Messer girls have not experienced much in Texas....we did tourist stuff and had so much fun!

So.... X marks the spot! Right by Tyler's arm...is where JFK was assassinated!  Yeah....crazy to go to the museum and see how it all went down and to experience it (essentially) by standing there!

They have an 'X' on the road...you can kind of see it by Alexis' shoulder!

Dealey Plaza was a beautiful little area....with a lot of history!

So....if you can see the man (YES...in the MIDDLE of the road!) he is standing on the 'X' that I was mentioning in the above pictures. To think that Oswald shot from this exact window....ALLLLL the way down to where that man is standing and killed a President. Just unbelievable!

In the museum (which was a book depository building where Oswald had just started working at a month before) spoke about all things JFK, his assassination, all about Oswald, the conspiracies, etc! It was really neat!

So, of course....the girls had to have a picture with...JFK! :)

So....never been to an IKEA. Always wanted to go....but dragging Tyler all the way to Atlanta and getting him to an IKEA...not happening....

so...

what happens...we drag him and Chris...to the one is Texas! :)

The carts........................amazing! :)

Time for some TexMex! Of course we had to have BBQ, and Mexican...and Steak....while in Texas! Tyler is still drooling over this place and their salsa! His life was forever changed and claimed this was the best he has ever had!

Came home....and one of the most fun nights...

night swimming! We had the best time!

Texas BOUND!

 We had the BEST time!

Such a great trip! Memories that will last a lifetime and just what we all needed!

We have missed the Messers and once there, we picked right back up like there had been no time in between! The Messer girls and mine just love each other and have the best time in whatever they are doing whether it is swimming, coming up with silly games to play...whatever....they have a blast together!

It is great to see because Alexis and Lily dont do 'much' together anymore...and same for the Messer girls...but when they are all together, that is thrown out the window and they just play so well and have the best time with each other.

It warms my heart!

We did everything from staple restaurants, shopping, swimming, watching football, touring, site-seeing, laughing, more laughing, experiencing Chris and driving in Texas, IKEA, Longhorn watching, trail and hiking to curling up and just chatting. We did it all and cant wait until whatever adventure lies ahead when we'll get to spend time with them again!

We had a great time for our flight there! It was only an hour and half flight time! We got there in perfect timing to head to their house, unload and then we went and enjoyed lunch! Of course BBQ was first up because you cant come to Texas without eating that!

We went back to their house and hung out for a bit, the girls swam, we watched some football before getting ready to go to Emily's University for their 1st home game! She had to do the coin toss so it was fun to experience all of that with them! The game was against their biggest rival so the big WIN was awesome too!

Perk of having a friend that is the President........you feel like VIP! :)

Yep....the girls felt like VIP! The game was a late one so after we all crashed!

Day 2....we did this! We walked to brunch and it was so nice! They have the biggest and most neat trail so we walked it to this great brunch spot and enjoyed that!

Chris took this sweet picture!

Look how cool! This is my favorite picture of them! We cut through the trial on these rocks to get to the other side instead of walking all the way around. So nice!

Swimming...and swimming...and MORE swimming....is alllllllll these four wanted to do! They had the best time! 

They swam for awhile and then we all got showers/ready and then headed to Dallas to spend the rest of the day and afternoon!

First home game in NEW stadium and first home WIN!

 We have been so excited and ready to have our first game in the new stadium since it was announced last season!

The time came and we had the biggest rival (Alexandria) to play against!

No pressure! They brought their crowd...and we brought the win!

It was a beautiful football night and a great game!

The Screaming Eagles got to come to this pep rally since it was a big game! They were BIG (over 420 students this year) AND LOUD! Those kiddos were excited and cheering and loving it all! SO much so that they even won the spirit stick!

Can you spot Lily! She did NOT want me to take her picture (shocker) but she is toward the top row!

Then there is my Sophomore!

Redneck dance! They did a great job!

Football game time! Two Eagles ready!

The Sophomores!

The cheer team all decked out!

Lily loves...I mean...LOVES her friends! She is a loyal friend to have! Reese, Ellie and Katelyn!

Lex doing her thing and getting her name called out!

Love Friday night lights!

These kiddos are like my own....and are mine at the same time! :)

When Riley Green comes to school!

 The craze is Riley Green.

And to get to stand by him as they unveil the basketball court (since he donated a lot of money so it was named after him) was just the BEST. (according to Alexis, it was so cool!) :)

Wordless Wednesday!

 

 

3 Things-new school year edition!

 It is that time!

3 things!

Lily!

1. She is rocking the 6th grade year so far! She says it is her favorite and she has only been in it for what 2 weeks! She is an ambassador and LOVING it! That is alllll that she talks about! She loves to help, loves to be a part of things and is just loving the fact that she is a 'senior' on campus!

2. Talk about Miss Independent. BOY, the stubborn, know it all streak is real with this one. She is my most responsible one. Always on top of everything....to a point that she tries to put me in line. :) Not happening sister! :)

3. Creative. Her creative streak is only getting stronger. She is constantly drawing and making something. Her most new craze is making bracelets. She can whip several up in two seconds it seems like! She needs to make a business out of them!

Alexis!

1. Sophomore status and taking Dual Enrollment classes are becoming real for her. Spanish is now the language that she speaks to us daily as she is trying to learn it. She can 'roll her tongue' and speak better Spanish that Tyler and I both can.................though Tyler tries really hard to sound better! ha!

2. She is a through and through 'Swiftie.' What does that mean you say?!?! That means that we all hear Taylor Swift songs NON-STOP from her! So much so that we noticed extra charges on our Alexa bill because she was charging to hear extended versions of her songs. Yeah, put that to a stop but that hasnt stopped her from listening, singing and having the love for Taylor!

3. She got her standing TUCK! Yeah...I have not seen it yet. She says she will do it soon but says she is working hard on it at tumbling so I cant wait to see her finally do it! One step closer to maybe being a College cheerleader if that is something she decides she wants to do!