Ansley's 3rd Birthday!

Matty and I spent a fun morning at the park on a recent Sunday celebrating Ansley's (my cousin Amanda's daughter and our goddaughter) 3rd birthday! Such a pretty morning and the kids had so much fun running, swinging, sliding. What a perfect place to have a toddler birthday party! Ansley was of course the star of the party, socializing with everyone and being oh-so appreciative of each and every gift, she even gave big bear hugs to our present - clothes!

Based on how Matty looked by the end of the party we could call her it "dirt"hday party, because Matty's never been that dirty in life! He even had dirt in his mouth and nose at one point, but after the first stain or two hit the clean white shirt even I had to let it go.

His favorite park attraction was a grouping of plastic playground structures. About 5 were put together to create a fantasy obstacle course of steps, slides and secret passage ways. He spent the last hour or so doing a full-on army crawl through the dirt. I looked at him when we left and said "your Daddy would be so proud of us!" Then looked at him about 5 minutes later and sighed "your Mimi would be so appalled at us!"

Mama O on the other hand loves a picture of a happy messy boy, so here is the proof of how bad his Momma let him get!

Labor Day Getaway

A few weeks ago Matty and I planned a weekend excursion to Austin for the first time in over a year! We've been pathetically overdue for a visit, so with Ben gone and a day off on the calendar, I knew it was high time we headed west.

I had been so apprehensive about flying with Matty and navigating the airport by myself with all of our stuff. Ben had said he tried to get a connection onto our flight but with no luck. So I was beyond elated to see his smiling face at the Chili's at Terminal A that afternoon! Even though he was fully aware of how anxious I was and said nothing of the fact that I wasn't going to have to go it alone, I am so happy he kept it a surprise! There is nothing quite so special as really needing someone you love and having them magically appear just when you least expect it!

We had such a nice time with Mama O and Daddy O. They've been renovating her mother's home for a long time, with planning going as far back as before I was even dating Ben! And I swear not a detail was missed. It is such a lovely home and a 5-star energy rating to boot!

The house has many wonderful details, but the best detail is probably the "Oh My Goodness" house! What was once a metal building is now a well-stocked play house just for Matty and it even looks better than many people's houses! No, our son is not spoiled at all!

The back yard became Matty's private park with so much to explore. A "magic" turtle mysteriously moved around the back yard every morning and each time he moved he had a new fun toy under him for Matty. Strange - nothing at our house does that!

He loved it all. Especially the pool and the water feature! He spent many hours throwing the colorful stones into the pool even when he was told not to, and laughing, laughing, laughing at how many we had to pick up out of the cold water!

Sunday we drove to Waco to see Ted, his girlfriend Randi, and Papaw. Such a nice visit and so wonderful to see Papaw. The boys went swimming and explored the waterfall. We all got Shorty's Pizza Shack T shirts, Ted's restaurant venture near Baylor, and we got to see how construction of the place was coming along. He better hurry! I've got a serious hankering for some pizza and beer!