And then there were 29!

That's how many people are going to be in our immediate family! Congratulations to Matthew and Meagan on their engagement...It is totally possible I am off on that math but I tried my best (and that includes Trey whose not here, but he's almost here....you see where this can get confusing.) Matthew popped the question last Friday night and thank goodness she said yes. And thank goodness I don't have to hold in this secret any longer when I'm around Meagan.


Here is how young Tinley was when first meeting Meagan. They were fast friends:)

And as much as I was a fan of this engagement...

I've got to say there are some other people I know that are pretty glad that Matthew and Meagan are going to be sticking around together...

 Forever. Whew!  

Let the planning begin!

Happy 31st (that's right I said it) birthday to Erin! This is us last year so proud of our 30...went by pretty fast! Hope this year is the best yet!

Just what I needed...

When I got an email from Anna a month or so ago saying her Aunt and Uncle had an open weekend at their mountain house and "come if you can"...it seemed like a great idea. By the time this weekend rolled around it seemed like a FABULOUS idea. I don't know if it's Spring Fever or my whole entire week of being 31 is sinking in :) but I was worn out!  A little relaxation, a lot of talking and laughing, and some sweet friends was just what I needed! We were sad to be missing some of our girls :( and hoping to have another "date" planned again soon!

I did leave my new camera behind hoping to get some pictures from Parker's first game, but it was canceled because of the rain. Sad he missed it but glad I'll be there next weekend to see it! They spent a great (and very productive:) weekend with Ganny and Grandaddy visiting. 

So...even in this beautiful place, my old faithful camera did the best it could! 

Here we are before leaving...taking a great timed picture. Next time we'll bring along our own photographer:)

Isn't this beautiful? (Duh!- this is for you Parker!)

Yep, they're pretty lovable!

Our (and I say OUR very loosely) project for the weekend was making some new dresses. What I mean by that is that Carly has learned how to sew these cute dresses and Anna brought some great fabric and I basically did a lot of oohing and ahhing.  

She even let me have a try for a very few minutes of this whole project.  Had to get a picture of my 5 minute sewing career.

Here is Anna's finished dress. So cute! (Mine is on in the top picture) 

Always sad to leave good friends....but always leave with a full and happy heart!

And of course happy to see some smiling faces at home. And they are always happy to see that I am not empty handed...thanks to a "quick" trip to Walmart and 3 eager shoppers!

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
― Charles Dickens

Leprechauns, Cowboys, Babies and More!

Ok, so there was just no good way to title this all up but this was my best attempt. If I were a good "blogger" this would be about 5 different posts, but seems I'm just the kind of blogger who have to get to it when there's a good time:) I have so many pictures that I will try to keep my words to a minimum...which if you know me is going to be difficult.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day for a few days. Parker even got a special trip to Concord Mills with Matthew and Meagan while the leprechaun invaded my classroom;)

His leprechaun trap is hanging around his neck...he's proud of it if you can't tell. He thought it would be good to wear him around once catching him.

How cute is this hat he made at school?

Tinley got to wear her dress that Booya made her...

Don't be fooled...not a four leaf clover,

 just a great three leaf one!

Yep, we were feeling pretty lucky!

We didn't catch a leprechaun but we did have a beautiful day!

Really most of our St.Patty's festivities were over by Saturday...that's what happens when you go to school...you have the school day holiday...and then the actual holiday.


Saturday, us girls headed out on a road trip...destination- Lynch house- adoption matching party! Daddy and Parker had to stay home for tball practice and yard work (thank you!) We decided to make some stops along the way.


We were happy to make a stop to visit Carly, Kevin and Christopher in Greensboro. 
I think Christopher took Tinley on her first "car" date. I don't think he disappointed...do you see the smile on his face and the wind in her hair?

Fast forward a few years...I think these two could have some adventures!

After a few other random stops, we finally made it to the Lynch household where we got to see sweet Lucy Hope Lynch's picture (also first time we knew her name!!) 

I know it's hard to see a picture of a picture...but I can tell you she's a CUTIE!!

Lucy is about a month younger than Tinley...and when Tinley saw her picture...she said, play with me...oh yes, I think so!

We were full of happy after seeing this sweet girl, but also got to enjoy this fun China themed party. Tinley made her guess about

where Lucy was from in China...just got word she was one of the closest...that's my girl!

You can see the cake was already a hit by the time I got there...pretty cool!

Tinley's new favorite candy, gummy chicken feet. Didn't take her long to find the candy bowl!

Lucy, you are already SO LOVED and have some amazing parents. We just can't wait for you!!

And just when you thought this blog might be over...no! We made it back Saturday night in time to get ready for big events on Sunday morning.

Parker and the HPC children's choir presented Jonah's Druthers. They got to wear their cowboy/cowgirl themed attire...always a plus for us!

Aren't they the sweetest little things? They summed it up with the song Look What Our God Can Do! 

And this blog would just not be complete without Tinley's favorite new shoes...On the less than a month count down to being 16, I mean 2!

If you made it all the way down here to the bottom, I hope you have a really nice week!

One. Cool. Kid.

In the past month, Parker decided he wanted a tie... We hadn't stumbled upon one until we were of course looking for something else.

I told him we would have to find a nice shirt so he could wear it on Easter. He said he thought his Mario shirt would work just fine...and couldn't wait to put it on...in the mall.

I wasn't going to squelch his style so we shopped...tie, glasses and all.

And I asked if I could take a picture of his coolness when we got home.  It's safe to say I got a photo shoot...with props and many angles.

I have to say sometimes I miss when my boy always thought I was the coolest person ever (I'm only that about half the time now)...when he sweetly went along with everything I said, when he never pushed the limits, when video games were not nearly as fun as me!

But he's growing up and in a good motherly worried manner...now I hope that he's independent enough, that he's brave enough, that he's mature enough. 

I pray for him to be sweet...and strong... and wise... and kind...and maybe just the right balance of all of them. And sometimes I feel a little freak out in side when he's not.

Tonight when he woke up (from his after school accidental nap) in our favorite game..."I love you more!" he said Mom, "I love you all the way to heaven and back." 

And then I remember to just enjoy my boy...and hope that he knows he will never win the "I Love you Mores" as long as I'm his Mama!

Kindergarten Connection

My first year living in Huntersville which was my second year teaching, I worked at Blythe Elementary. Of course when I randomly got this job at the job fair, I had no idea that I would only be there one year!  About all I knew was that is was pretty close to my house and I had no idea where anything else was. During the interview I was told there would be 15 Kindergarten teachers (I was coming from a school with 3!!!) When they asked if that was a problem....I responded as if I didn't just pick my jaw up off the floor. What had I gotten myself into? Then during the first staff meeting  the casual news that many people (new people like me) would be "displaced" the following year due to the new schools. This seemed to be a well known fact to everyone else (oops guess I didn't do my research). Truthfully I had no idea what that even meant (it basically meant if you were new, you were probably going to a new school). With all these factors, how could this be a good year? Well...I just happened to be surrounded by some great people. There were so many good teachers (some I didn't even get to know until we moved to Highland Creek together) but somehow we meshed our teaching styles, our social styles and had some really great times together. I appreciate all these people for the things I learned about teaching and about life... This was also the year I finished my Master's degree and shortly after found out Parker was on the way.  I was so glad I had found a group of people to share my everyday life with at a time with so much "new" in my life.  When the year ended, we scattered in various ways, some moving to new schools and some staying put. We decided to have a Kindergarten Connection where we would continue to get together for fun reasons and to share ideas. We have always LOVED our time together but as more little ones  joined the group and crazy life happened... our frequency hasn't been as much as we liked. We were delighted to "reconnect" this weekend for a lunch at Dana's (minus a few:( ) and hopefully make it happen again soon.  When we used to get together it was just us girls (some had grown children and some had none!) ...then came Parker....then came more and more....

Now when we get together it looks more like this!

We do a little bit of sharing about school and a lot of oohing and ahhing at cuteness like this!

Instead of us "girls" around the table, now it's these girls around the table!

Between a bunch of teachers, it's safe to say we have some very social little friends!

And one day when they are in a new job somewhere, I hope they find some people just like their mamas to take real good care of them!

Parker was not able to join us because he and Daddy were at t-ball practice and ran a few other errands. They got us some planters so we could finally plant our "Lorax" seeds we got last week.

 Please, please grow little free seeds from IHOP.

Because I'm pretty sure we're gonna be checking everyday!