Dreams really do come true!

Our sweet Colton has missed his Dallas friends since moving out west (his mommy and daddy have too!). He spent so much time with his special friend Mia, I knew the transition away from her would be difficult. She has been his closest friend in his short 2 1/2 years and he loves her! Well, she came to see us a few weeks ago and for one special weekend all was right in Colton's world! :) I went picture crazy trying to capture all the fun we had during Mia's stay at our house. And, the best part about Mia coming was that her awesome family came with her! So, everyone had a friend to hang out with all weekend.

I'd decided to keep their arrival a secret from Colton....telling him just as he went down for his nap there'd be a surprise for him when he woke up. Mia was napping when he woke up, but Maggie was obviously the next best thing because he immediately showered her with love and attention.

so cute!

Maggie is younger than Sadie by 7 weeks and has been walking since 9 months!

He was one happy boy!

Hugging Mia and seeing her for the first time

Sadie and Maggie were so cute - they both seemed so excited to have another baby around

Playing with his BFF on his new playground (thanks to his awesome daddy!)

A little Easter Egg hunt in the backyard

Marc grew up in Midland, so we HAD to get Rosa's the first night...we all have a common obsession with the deliciousness of Rosa's.

Fun around the house....

Eating breakfast

I think he's doing tricycle stunts to show off for Mia and Maggie

Sweet Maggie was always so excited to be around Sadie (and loved grabbing her!)

It was funny watching Colton and Mia play, it'd been about a month and a half since they'd seen each other in person (we try to skype every couple of weeks). They didn't skip a beat and resumed their friendship quickly. Colton didn't hold anything back and I'm pretty sure he hit her a few times when she had something he wanted. :) He loves her though and is often singing songs about her in the backseat of the car. She is "my Mia" and Maggie is "my new Maggie" (I think because he knows an older Maggie he calls her "new" Maggie) in all of his songs. :)

We popped over to Bopa and Lizzy's for a visit

And took a walk to the park

We spent a lot of time swinging (love this picture)

Maggie showing Sadie some love by reaching out for her!

And, the weekend wouldn't have been the same with Mia's mommy along for the trip. Trisha is one of my dearest friends and it was an absolute blessing to have her in town for an entire weekend! I miss her and her sweet girls. After putting the kids down at night we got to stay up and visit (even though we should have been sleeping too!)

They all just loved swinging!

Waiting for brunch at a yummy restaurant

Bubble fun... (Mia is such a beautiful little girl)

We had such a fantastic weekend. It was hard to say goodbye, especially for me. We're already looking forward to the next time we get to see our special friends! Thanks for coming to see us. :)

Daddy is full of surprises!

Daddy is full of surprises lately. First, while we were in Houston David decided to build (from scratch!!!!) a fort/playground for Colton (and big girl Sadie) in our backyard. Yes, from scratch. He thought up the design and worked steadily while we were gone - buying lumber and parts at lowe's. David is really a gifted handyman and builder...there aren't too many household projects he doesn't tackle and complete himself. I knew about the project and had him sending me pictures while we were away. I thought we were keeping it a tight secret, but when I told Colton "daddy is working on a surprise for you" he replied with "a park?" - so, I guess he's a good listener!

Here's a few pictures of the masterpiece...

As for Colton's reaction - he was very excited and enjoys playing on it. He especially loves to swing.

And the next really fun surprise was my fun new laptop that David and the kids gave me for Mother's Day. It's my first laptop and I absolutely love it. It was such a surprise and a fun present. It was one heck of a mother's day present! Now if I can only get creative and think of something fun for father's day. :)

Catch-up and the sandhills

I'm definitely trying to play catchup with blogging. I'm either on a roll (which means I may post 2-3 times a month) or in a rut. Lately I've been in a rut, but have so many posts in my head I really want to catch-up. So, I'm hoping to get a few knocked out over the next several days. We'll see if a certain one year old and two year old will allow mommy some time to make that happen. :)

So, since this is a catching up post.... a recent fun activity for our family (we decided very spur of the moment one Saturday morning) was to embark on a trip out to the sandhills, about 45 minutes away. I had no idea what to expect, having not grown up in west Texas, but David assured me the sandhills were pretty neat. I was picturing sand dunes, like in Galveston...these were much more impressive!

Before we left we picked up both donuts and breakfast burritos (yep, two stops - David LOVES it when I request 2 things for breakfast) and hit the road. Well, turns out Colton already had a few donut holes with daddy before I hopped in the truck and gave him a few more. So, the little guy fell into a sugar coma. After his glassy eyed looks started making me anxious, I made David pull over so we could check on him and he was fine,- but passed out asleep 5 seconds later. He still favors waking up in the 5:00 hour, so sleepy and sugar equaled passing out.

The sandhills were a blast.

The sand feels amazing to the touch. Sadie sat and raked her hands through the sand for hours. She also ate roughly half a cup of sand.

Colton, David, and I climbed lots of hills to slide back down.

We were the only ones around most of the time, so there was lots of screaming and laughing.

Sadie got to slide too.

Colton was so cute to watch trudging through the sand, while Sadie tried her best to keep up with all of us- crawling or being carried. What a workout!

It was one of our favorite experiences as a family.

Colton cried when we left, so that's always a sign of him having a good time. It'll be fun to go back sometime soon.