Birthday family dinner

Casa Ole' was of course the place to go for Carli's birthday family dinner!

It was yummy and fun!!

She kept dancing like a señorita, so it took lots of takes and patience to get pictures!

Carli's 8th Birthday is on FIELD DAY!

Carli woke up on her 8th birthday to donuts and a present.

She quickly got dressed for school because not only was it HER birthday,

 but it was dress code release,

Field Day,

AND her daddy was volunteering the whole day!

I wasn't able to go. Austin had a rough day with seizures the day before, so he needed to sleep today.

We did swing by and drop off food to the Birthday girl and her Daddy.

 Anthony did really good at taking pics for me!

It made me feel so much better!

Instead of cupcakes for her class birthday celebration, 

she took sugar cookie and chocolate chip cookies.

She said she had a "FABULOUS" day!

Next up, family birthday dinner at you know where and a girly birthday party....

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY CARLI!

Our princess is 8 years old today!

Precious, sweet, caring, smart, funny!

Use to be extremely shy, now not so much!

Very talkative, just like her brothers and me.

Sassy!

Growing up too fast!

Having this little gal in our life is such a joy! 

Never a dull moment with her around!

We love you so very much!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

Summer musical

Tyler's choir director is in a community theatre group of adults and teens, in the next town over. 

Every summer, he tells his students they should go and audition for whatever that summer production will be.

Well, this year, Tyler decided to do it!

He and several friends went earlier in the week to audition.

He had his sheet music ready and sang in front of everyone else that was auditioning!

He got the call last night inviting him to be in their summer production!

 It just so happens that it's one he knows...

This time, he will be a sailor, instead of the little boy.

We are SO proud of Tyler!

This will be so great for him and a lot of summer fun!

Tyler's birthday celebrations continued

Tyler and 17 of his friends (yes, 17! Oh the poor waitress!) went out to Chili's to celebrate him turning 16! Most of his friends are older than him, so he was really happy to turn 16! 

It was hard for me not to do anything for his birthday or go with him. But, baby boy is growing up! I decided to take a cake to the restaurant earlier in the day so they could keep it in their cooler. Once  Tyler and his crew got their, one of his friends secretly told their server that there was a cake there for him. After dinner, she brought it out and they all sang to him!!!

I was a bit nervous wondering if he would like it or be embarrassed. Well, he texted me asking if I was the one who did the cake? I said yes and asked if he liked it. He them sent me this picture. Yay! It was a hit!!!!

And his sweet friend Courtney sent me all of these pictures!! It was wonderful getting them! Made me happy!

Family Birthday Dinner

Every year, on our kids' birthday, they pick where they want to go out to eat.

Austin and Carli are not as consistent as Tyler is. 

Tyler ALWAYS picks 

CASA OLE'!

We did miss one year and went somewhere else. Never again.

His very first time to go to Casa Ole' for his birthday dinner was when he turned 5!

So, of course, that's where we went last night to celebrate his 16th!
CRAZY that it was his ELEVENTH YEAR to go!

As always, lots of FUN!

We loved celebrating this young man! 

We are so very proud of what he is growing up to be!

So sweet, sincere, good-hearted, happy, funny, talented, smart, young man!

I could go on forever!

We really love our Boo-Boo Bear, T-Rob, Bro, and Ty-Ty!

I happen to have these two earlier Casa Ole' Birthday dinner pictures on my computer.

5th Birthday, 12th Birthday, and 16th Birthday!!!

Sweet 16!

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY TYLER! I blinked. I did, and now you're 16, finishing your sophomore year on high school! We are so proud of the young man you are becoming. We love you dearly, Boo-Boo Bear!

BIG MAMA!

Before I started this blog in 2008, I started reading blogs in/around 2005.

One of my first and favorite...

Big Mama!

She particular struck a chord with me because she's two years older than me. 

Lived in College Station, while attending A&M. 

She was a Diamond Darling and her BFF was a girl we went to school with.

She visits B/CS ALL the time.

She is hilarious!

I could go on and on...

She has just written two books. Her first book just got on the New York Times Best Selling List.

I turned my friend Lindsay on to her blog a few years back and she loves her as well.

She invited me to her church to hear Melanie Shankle, aka, "BIG MAMA" speak last week. 

It was an awesome night!

We went out to east at Ya Ya Mary's, then onto church.

We heard beautiful worship music and then Melanie came out and spoke.

My goodness it was just what every mother needed to hear.

Absolutely wonderful!

Here's some links to her books and her blog.

http://thebigmamablog.com/sparkly-green-earrings/

http://thebigmamablog.com/antelope-living-room/

http://thebigmamablog.com/

I could not wait to get to her and meet her!

I even emailed her a few days before to tell her what a fan I was, how I was born and raised in B/CS, 

and that I knew her BFF!

She emailed me back and said she'd love to meet me!

And there she is in the middle!

She was just as precious in real life as she is in her blog and books!

There was also fun stuff afterwards.

A photo booth.

Cake ball Food truck and a Gelato Food Truck.

Food trucks are all the rage here in Houston.

I even ran into my sweet long time friend Miranda and  her mom/my friend, Phyllis!

This was the best moms night out!

Cub Run

Carli had her Spring Fundraiser at school.

A Cub Run!

Raising money per lap that she does.

Through out the lap, there were obstacles such as

 hay bale jumping, hula hoop hopping, limbo, 

and basketball toss.

Four laps equals one mile.

Her goal was four...she did five!

It was such a FUN day!

High School Choir Car Wash

Tyler's high school choir does fundraisers every month, 

with some car wash fundraisers sprinkled in on occasion. 

The car washes tend to be pretty successful in money making!

Well, this past weekend, they were washing cars when they driver of one car told them it was her birthday!

She was 85 years old!

So, when you have high school choir kids washing your car on your birthday, 

especially you're 85th birthday, you get sung; "Happy Birthday!"

It made her day! 

She was SO happy and she loved it!

Tyler isn't in this video. He was standing on the corner holding the car wash sign.

They also had some people ask to hear them sing.

They even got out of their car to hear them.

They were quite impressed and them paid them more money!

Here's a snip it of them rehearsing for the Tommy Tune Awards.

Tyler is on the left hand side, second row.