Pure joy is...

Playing in the sprinklers at night before bedtime!

Our little fella cannot. get. enough.

And this Mommy has been known to run through it with him several times.

Could never grow tired of the expressions and excitement he gets from it. I could get over the clean up of wet grass everywhere though :-)

Oh, and he loves streaking, too! Nah, we just didn't have a swim diaper on hand, and his regular diaper was weighing him down!

5 YEARS and the 4th!

Last Friday Brett and I celebrated our 5th anniversary!

July 1, 2006

I am so lucky to have this great guy by my side, and I thank God for putting us together. He is such a wonderful husband and father, the hardest working and smartest person I know, and he's pretty easy on the eyes, I might add :-) I am so blessed!

To celebrate, Brett and I went on a date to Seasons 52 in Plano and out to a movie while my dad and step mom kept Jameston. We are headed to Guatemala today for a week of mission work and also vacation while Brett's parents keep the little guy. We are sure going to miss him!

Here he is modeling in one of our new rocking chairs (my gift to Brett for our anniversary. They are made of wood (traditional gift for 5 years) and match our new shutters. Bonus!)On Sunday we began our 4th of July festivities by heading out to Royse City to be with our in-laws...Amanda caught us trying to take our picture,

And she did a better job with her camera :-)

They had an awesome waterslide for the bigger kids, but that didn't stop Miss Riley from helping Jameston go on it. They had a BLAST!

It also had a bounce house attached to it. At Easter, JW would have nothing to do with the bounce house at his daycare; however, he was all about it this time around!

He and his Daddy had a great time shooting hoops, too!

A patriotic picture for the scrapbook

Cousin love (and food sharing :-)

Oh, did he ever have fun riding on Riley's Barbie car. Love it!

We did not stay for fireworks because Jameston rolled his ankle while running around :-( He's okay now, but I foresee many more injuries in our future since he is one active little boy!

On Monday we went to our community pool in the morning, and after Jameston's late nap, we ran errands and went to dinner. Since he snoozed til 4, we thought we would do a little pool time again after we rode our bikes that evening. I bought a bigger inflatable pool for this summer, and this was his first time to try it out.

He loves this swimming duck (thanks, Lindi!)

Plano's firework show was in plain view from our driveway. We camped out on our new rocking chairs and watched the show. Awesome!

Even Jameston was able to catch the beginning of the show since he was up until 9:30 or so, and he repeatedly exclaimed "Bire-worts!"

Love my boys! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. Can't wait til next year!!

New York, NY

The first weekend of June I headed to NYC for a girls' trip with three of my high school gal pals. We went to Vegas two summers ago, and they went to Cali without me last year. Jessica and I met up at DFW, and we flew in on a Thursday morning.

Headed into the city!

We rode the Port Authority bus into Manhattan and walked eight or so blocks to Clarisse's apartment in the Theater District

Thursday night, us three headed to see Wicked, which was a whopping two blocks away. All I have to say is, "WOW." It was awesome to say the least!

After the show, we walked around Times Square. That place was so busy, loud and bright. And it is that way all the time, I hear!

The next morning, Jess and I headed to 30 Rock/NBC studios. Pretty cool to see it all in person :-)

St. Patrick's Cathedral

It was absolutely stunning!

We also headed out after lunch to go shopping, so we got in plenty of subway travel...so many people, everywhere!

For dinner on Friday, we ate at one of Brett's firm's clients: Rosa Mexicana. So good!

Saturday morning, Rebecca came in from D.C., and we quickly headed to brunch at Vintage. Again, delicious. Don't think I had a bad meal one time while we were there!

Of course, the bottomless (okay, 2) bellinis and mimosas made it even better :-)

The mommies in the group

Saturday night we headed out for a night out on the town in the Lower East Side. We started off at Stanton Social, a tapas restaurant. YUM!

Then we headed to Greenwich Village

Sunday Morning we took a stroll around the Upper West Side and Central Park. LOVED that area!

We made a stop at the famous Levaine bakery. $4 cookies and worth every penny (and calorie :-)

Could get used to this part of NYC!

Love my girls!

We hope to continue our girls' trip annually (or every other year). It was such a wonderful and relaxing trip to be able to visit with my girlfriends in person, and I can't wait until the next time!!

Jameston, the Toolman Toddler

Have I mentioned the boy loves hammers?! Or any other toy from his "tu-box." Seriously, this obsession has gone on for quite some time, and he's yet to grow tired of them. But, on the other hand, I don't think I could ever tire of hearing him exclaim, "Hamma!" and "hamma-time" (yep, we coached him on that one) randomly throughout the day :-)

"Practicing" with Daddy's

Showing us how it's done!

Outdoors and indoors, doesn't matter!

At least he's learning that safety comes first!

Hit that nail (I mean, screw) on the head!

Even in his jean diaper, Jameston is willing to fix anything for us with his "scewdivah"

Love my little Mr. Fix-it!