A day in the sun!

Luke & his "cheeeeese" face!

Water Sprinkler Fun!

I love being home with Luke all day--especially in the summer time! He loves water & he loves being outside!!!!!

A beautiful mothers day ;)

Mothers day was special and beautiful! We were in Las Cruces, NM celebrating my little sisters graduation! So we woke up Sunday morning & ate breakfast. Luke gave me my 1st gift- a new swim suit! Its soooo cute! Then we went to "old town" and shopped. They have a lot of little shops with fun artsy things, and dips/jellies, etc and lots of southwest style decorations. I got some little frogs that hang on my pots in the garden! and i bought a new painting to hang in the kitchen! But we could not leave without getting some jalapeno jelly, hot sauce and chili peppers!

Enjoying the beautiful drive through the mountains on the way home!

Just for fun & a break to stretch our legs, we made an impromptu stop at a little zoo we saw in Alamagordo. I am so glad we stopped because it was fun!!! They had otters, monkeys, bears, golden eagle, kangaroos and other fun animals! we had a little picnic and played around! It added 2 extra hours to our trip, but it was well worth it! Luke napped most of the way home after our little zoo adventure!

Playing around and shopping in Las Cruces!

Chili Peppers!

My son, my blessing, my love! Luke--you make Mothers Day so special! Thank you for being the coolest son ever!

Go Katy!

My little sister-in-law, Katy, graduated college from New Mexico State last weekend! We were so proud of her! College graduation is a huge milestone and definitely something to be celebrated!!! All of my in-laws drove to New Mexico to share this awesome accomplishment with our Katy-baby! GO KATY!!!!!!!

We had a fun graduation party for Katy after the ceremony! We had gooood mexican food catered, fruit k-bobs, cake and all sorts of little goodies! It was a fun afternoon of laying in the sun, playing horseshoes, eating, talking, and celebrating!

Volunteering!

*-*What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. –Ghandi

--Justin&I have volunteered for a couple of different volunteer projects lastely! It has been fun to get involved in things that Luke can help out with too! 1) we have been volunteering at our church in Lubbock- Experience Life- we have been working in the youth group and teaching bible study classes. We have been going to our church for almost a year now and we love it! =)! We feel old listening to young teens talk haha...oh how dramatic junior high was haha! 2) we are also volunteering at the south plains food bank. Luke can help make grocery bags full of groceries to pass out to families who need food. Its a great organization to get involved with. It only takes up 1 day a month. (Usually a couple of hours on the weekend) And its a family activity that we can all do together. 3) and finally, we are volunteering at LeLand animal shelter in Lubbock. We get to play with animals and work on commands and social interactive skills. Luke loves animals and he loves playing with puppies. Also, through these we are earning volunteer points. Right now, at Disney World, when you earn a certain amount of points as a family, you get a 3 day free vacation to Disney World!!!

We like volunteering--Ghandi's quote is so true. I do not want to just exist in this world- I want to work hard and use every talent God gave me. Life can never be taken for granted. I like that we are also teaching Luke about giving back to the world. We have been sooo busy, but, we have still made time to work hard and donate our time to organizations that need us. We have met some wonderful people too!

Whewww...Life is BUSY!

April-August are non-stop busy times for us every year. We are always full w/weddings, birthday parties, traveling for vacations, graduation parties, etc!

I sent out Lukes invitation for his 2nd birthday this weekend. I was seriously in awe that we are already officially planning his 2nd birthday party. I cannot believe how fast time goes. Luke is no where near being a baby anymore either =(. He is almost fully potty trained. Still having trouble during naptime&bed time. He will poop in the potty everytime with no problem. But he will not come inside (when playing outside) to go potty either. Play time is way more important than coming inside to bother going potty HA! He wakes up from naptime&bedtime almost always wet so we still wear a pull up for those times. Luke is also talking so much- he likes to retell the 3 pigs story to me and it cracks me up when he says' "the wolf hufffsss & pufffffss and blowwwwws the house" lol! I marked it in his toddler book because it makes me laugh every time. He is so over dramatic--he gets it from his mama&Aunt T lol!

Anyways, back to birthday party stuff! We let Luke decide his own parties & the theme this year! So we took a trip to Party City and of course Luke chose Diego & Curious George. So-his Lubbock bday party will be Go Diego Go and his party at the zoo in Dallas will be Curious George! He is a silly boy! He loves playing baseball and soccer and we will spend hours outside kicking the soccer ball and playing catch. He isnt real good yet at actually catching the ball but he tries and he likes wearing a glove! He has great coordination running&kicking the soccer ball. Makes me happy bc our whole family is a bunch of athletes and he already is showing signs of that too! AWESOME!

Tamara starts her chemo this thursday. She will go 7 hrs a day for 4 weeks. So we will be spending lots of time in Dallas w/her&my family! My best friend, Brie, has her bachelorette party in Las Vegas! My lil sis-in-law, Katy, has her graduation&party coming up too! And, we have 3 wedding&baby showers coming up next month lol! And of course, a summer trip to the beach! Wheww, I think I am just going to pack&live out of our suitcase for the next 3 months haha!

**Oh & an update...I finished my 13.1 mile half marathon in right under 2 hrs! It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life--but so rewarding! I hurt for days & it took me almost 2 full weeks to fully recover my muscles. I am now training for my first triathalon. It is 3 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride, and 4 mile run. In that order! I am already back to training and I will do this in August!!!!

Praise God!

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him"-1 John 5:14-15--Praise GOD for His miracles&for His healing powers He has had on my sister♥..white blood cell count is finally up! YESSS!

Tamara will FINALLY be able to start chemo again. I know it seems crazy to be excited about that, but you have NO IDEA how huge that is. Tamara has not been healthy enough to even start chemo bc her white blood cell count was so low-it would have been fatal to her body. God heard our prayers&answered them w/HUGE MIRACLES! She will meet w/the bone marrow specialist soon to talk about her bone marrow transplant. One step at a time. Today, though, we are celebrating the miracle God has given her & our family.

Promise Yourself

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel like there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living person you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, and too strong for fear, and to happy to permit the presence of trouble.