Spring Break!

Whew, spring break was so much fun!  I only have pictures from about half our trip on here so I will just have to narrate the rest for you.  First of all, we had car trouble so rather than taking the Tour of Texas in our comfy Tahoe (with the DVD player - this sounds so bratty but if you have children and have traveled much with them you know why the DVD player is worth mentioning) we all squeezed in Matthew's truck (notice I didn't write crew cab truck).  Anyway this little set back ended up providing us with a super fun road trip and I loved getting to sit so close to our babies.  I'm not sure that we'd opt for this arrangement again but given that it was either cancel the trip or hop in the truck, we definitely made the right choice.  And, as a bonus we got to pick up our old riding lawnmower which has provided hours of fun for our kids.  We spent a quick night in Dallas the first night and then drove to Spring, Texas, on day 2 to visit the Shillingburg family.  The Shillingburgs have been friends since Matthew and I first got married and we love them dearly.  They have an amazing, adorable little dude named Ben.  Amy hired a babysitter and the four of us got to go out on a double date - so much fun!  The next day we met up with Ben and Hannah and all had dinner at Rachel and Mark's house in Houston.  Ra and Mark have an adorable little girl named Anna.  Kelly and her little man Daniel came over for dinner too.  You know what I love about these girls - I met them when I was Abby's age and they are still my very best friends in the world!  And, of course they included my brother and his wife because Ben is kind of like a bonus little brother to them.  I also have to include that Ra and Mark had an Easter egg hunt for the kids!

 Jacob and his beloved Uncle B

 Abby and her beloved Aunt Hannah

(We have so many pictures of our babies riding on B and Hannah's backs!)

 Me, Kelly and Rachel

These girls are my heart!

 Time for more narrative... We spent one night in a hotel (the kids' requested that at some point on the trip we stay in a hotel with a pool), played some more with Uncle B and then headed over to the home of the Wells family.  Matthew and Adam have known each other since high school and were roommates at A&M.  I will never forget when Matthew and I went to dinner with Adam and he brought his new love Katie to meet us after they had met working at Young Life Camp at the end of college.  We've been friends ever since!  Adam and Katie have three precious little girls by the way and the kids loved playing together.  From Houston we drove through College Station and had dinner with my friend Julie and her four children.  Julie is also one of my oldest, dearest and best friends who I've known since 1st grade.  Abby and Annie are five months apart and have been buddies since they were born.  They always seem to pick up right where they left off. 

Abby and Annie - two of the sweetest six-year-olds I know! 

After our dinner in College Station we drove to Temple and hung out with my parents and sis (and Abram and MC) for a couple days.  What a fun trip!  We may just have to make our spring break Tour of Texas a tradition.

Fun times in Norman

Life has been so full lately and we've had lots of fun adventures...

 Matthew's parents came around the time of our 10th wedding anniversary and watched the kids while we got a night out.  We had so much fun together and went to eat at a fabulous French restaurant in the City (that is what people in these parts call Oklahoma City).  Before dinner we shopped a little at the mall (If I were reading this to you you may pick up on a little sadness in my voice... this mall in no possible way compares to La Cantera where I spent lots of good times with the San Antonio crew.  If you ever happen to be in San Antonio make a stop at the amazing shopping oasis that is La Cantera and you will understand.)  and then had about an hour to kill before our dinner reservations.  I think my most favorite part of the date was this hour.  We just sat in the truck and talked and laughed until it was time for dinner.  It brought back such fond memories of when we first started dating and we would sit and talk (and maybe kiss a little:) in the white van, my beloved Gram's name for Matthew's old Chevy Blazer. I am blessed beyond measure to be married to this man of mine! 

 MUD!

And more mud!  March and April have brought tons of rain our way and we just happen to have the perfect mud pit in our back yard.  I just love this action shot of Jacob. 

Happy Everything!

Whew, it's been awhile since I've updated the old blog. We have had a busy couple of months. I've picked some of my favorite pictures of late to prove that we are indeed alive and well. My excuse for being a lame blogger is a good one: We've been celebrating! We went from celebrating Christmas and New Years right on into Robby's 1st birthday, Abby's 6th birthday, Jacob's 3rd birthday, Valentine's Day, my birthday (yes, number 32) and our 10th wedding anniversary. So it has been a season of celebrating at Casa de Reyes!

My parents came up to visit in early January so we took them up to the University of Oklahoma to show them Matthew's office and the campus. For those of you that have not ventured north of the Red River to the OU campus, it is really a beautiful campus. Our kids love coming up and playing at the South Oval, which is right by Matthew's building. Before we came up to campus this day my dad, Abby and Jacob had to change into their OU shirts.

Boomer Sooner!

Robby on his first birthday - December 29th. We kept it simple this year and the five of us celebrated at home with homemade dark chocolate ice cream and playing at the park.

It seems crazy to be posting about Abby's 6th birthday - the last six years have gone by so quickly. We are so thankful for our precious little girl and just adore the person that she is growing into. She is so kind, servant hearted, compassionate, creative, artistic and joyful. Abby is a fabulous big sister and just loves on her brothers all the time. We were blessed to have Matthew's parents and Aunt Judi come up and put together Abby's party. These ladies did it all and created the perfect birthday party for our girl - a craft party! We loved celebrating Abby!

Mommy & Abby

Next up... Pictures of our fun and active 3 year old and a picture Abby took of us (the old married couple) on our 10th anniversary (hope it turned out)! By this time you all know I am slow as molasses in downloading pictures from my camera... Thanks for not giving up on me!

LOVE

Isn't this the sweetest Christmas tree ever? The story is even sweeter though. I bought this tree for Abby at Hobby Lobby but then BeBe also bought Abby a tree - a beautiful pink tree with lights that really was perfect for our girl. So I asked Abby if she wanted to pass this little green tree on to Jacob. She said yes but then also wanted to make ornaments for Jacob's new tree. I'm not sure how clear the picture is but she made a dump truck, a fork lift (with pallets), a cement truck, a football, basketball and a soccer ball. These are all things that Jacob just loves. His world right now is all things truck. Sometimes I am blown away by the thoughtfulness of my children.

It's been way too long since my last post... we had Halloween, which was so fun and our older kids were very into trick or treating this year. Robby just rode around in his stroller looking cute in his skunk suit. Thanksgiving was different for us this year in that we are usually in Temple with my side of the family - and many years Matthew's family comes to Temple too. This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and then BeBe, Papu and Uncle Scotty came up to visit us Friday after Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time and will be anxious to see the rest of both sides of the family over Christmas. Daily I am having moments of being overwhelmed with thankfulness for all that we have been blessed with. When I look back on the past year I am amazed by how wonderful God's plans are for us! Why do I ever worry because the truth is God takes us on journeys that are far better than we could ever imagine - they are not always smooth but His ways are always better than our ways.

So this year I am thankful for a most-loving God, a husband who loves his work and adores his family, children that bring us so much joy, family that encourages us constantly, old friends that when I am with them it feels like a constant hug, new friends that we are so looking forward to living life with and raising children with, a church family, our fabulous new-to-us home that fits our family perfectly, good health, daily reminders to stop, live in and enjoy the moment and delicious food (mostly desserts). My cup runneth over indeed.

Sweet Robby

I realize that none of my children really favor me much. They all look much more like their daddy. But, today Becki texted me a baby picture of myself and we think it kind of resembles Robby. Sweet Robby is a precious little dude and we are so blessed to have him. He is very easy going and doesn't really fuss much. When I went to get him from the nursery after women's Bible study yesterday morning though one lady mentioned he was quite the dare devil. Matthew and I have had the same observations but I was hoping it wasn't so. After all, isn't it enough to have one son that is a dare devil?!? Hopefully his cautious sister will have an influence on him! We love you, Robby!

Baby Robby

Baby Na

Life Lately in Norman... Stories of school and (unsuccessful) potty training

Well life here in Norman lately has been quite nice. We are settling into our new daily routine with a kindergartner. So far Abby is loving school, most of the time. We had a few rough mornings last week with her waking up in tears and telling us she didn't want to go to school. However, bribery has always seemed to work well for this child so I told her I would come and have lunch with her at school if she could go three days without crying. It worked and I love having lunch with her anyway so it was a win-win situation. We are in a carpool with some friends and I pick up on Mondays and Wednesdays, so twice a week (at least) I have the opportunity to ask myself, "How have I become my mom so quickly?" I am also like my mom now in that I am a proud member of the PTA. I am blessed to have a wonderful mom so I am delighted to follow in her footsteps - I pray that I can be as good as a mom as she is! Oh wait, there is one way in that I am not like my mom at this stage... Those of you that I grew up with know my mom fed us very healthy food and always made us lunches without dessert (some of you may have memories of me trying to sweet talk you into giving me YOUR dessert). Mom, don't be mad but today I bought Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls to put in Abby's lunch. I just couldn't help myself.

Speaking of bribery, it does not seem to work well for our second child. I am ready for him to be potty-trained but he feels differently. I borrowed an idea from a friend and put some prizes on display, however so far he is content to just sit and look up at these fabulous cars and this awesome puzzle:) Maybe they are not fabulous or awesome enough for Jacob? Or is he just that stubborn? Oh well, they can just sit there and gather dust until he's ready to put his body on the potty for potty time (to quote Elmo). Here are some pictures of late. Most of them are on Facebook so sorry for the repeats.

Wouldn't you hop on the potty for these prizes!?!

I love Jacob's expression in this picture. He just woke up one morning wanting to put on this Buzz costume.

Abby has now lost three teeth. The tooth fairy almost blew it on this one though. Thankfully I remembered right before bed and sent him in to do his thing before we fell asleep:)

For you, Hannah

So this past weekend I was sitting at the kitchen table with my wonderful sister-in-law and she said, "You don't update your blog too often, do you?" The truth is I used to be a decent blogger but these days I am just plain bad. I love reading the blogs of our friends and family - in this regard I am a taker instead of a giver. This has to stop. So, I decided to do a post of fun summer memories. This post is for you, Hannah - I love you and your blog accountability!

The Smith Girls - We kicked the summer off by running a half-marathon with my dad. It was hot but good!

The kids and I visited Temple this past weekend while Matthew was in Chicago with his dad and brother. We had a great time with friends and family. Here I am feeding the babies puffs - they went nuts over it!

Robby - this little guys brings us so much joy!

We spent a week this summer up in northern Michigan at Burt Lake. We had a blast with our family. This is a picture of Jakey with our cousin, Tommy.

We went for a family walk in the woods up north and the kids all had a blast. Becki and I toted the babies around like this all week. I love that my sister (who also happens to be my best friend) and I have babies that are seven weeks apart.

Sweet Robby on the beach at Lake Michigan

Robby and me at the cottage on Burt Lake

Could they be any cuter?!? We love you, Mom & Dad!

And could they be any cuter?!? Matthew and Jacob taking a walk on the beach.

The girls of the next generation. Becki and I pray that Abby and Mina Claire grow up to be best friends.