first day of school 2011

I can't believe the day has come to send my sweet boy off to Kindergarten.  I remember the day we got his referral and saw he had just turned 2, knowing he would be coming home at about 2 1/2 I flashed forward to the years ahead and knew they would go too fast.   They have..but knowing how far this scared, sad, mad little boy has come in 3 1/2 years is only the Lord!!!  He lives life fully!!!

Madi started school last Wednesday but we had to get first day pictures with Hudson.  

Madalyn continues to inspire me, she has worked so hard this summer to lost weight and has lost 18 lbs. SO proud of her!!

They rolled out the red carept for the first day.  

Suprisingly I wasn't too teary, because Hudson was so excited it was hard to be too sad.  He is such a brave boy!!  While we were waiting for his teacher to call his name he did hug my leg and say "i will miss you mom.." then the tears came..

...same for dad...

waving at dad as they marched off..

so proud of you my boy!!!

We had to take pictures of Kailee after school since she had to leave the house at 5:15 am for VB practice.  This girl has been going non stop for 2 weeks already with two a day vb tryouts the first week then vb practice in the am and cheerleading in the afternoon.  She will have long days with 5:45 am practices and then vb games and cheering for football on Thurs and Fri nights.  CAN"T believe she started highschool!!!

Hudson had a great first day and was ready to go again this morning.  

..."my own kind of paradise"....

As the summer comes to a close I am finally getting around to posting pictures.  We had an AWESOME family time with Mark's extended family in July.  We rented a beach house and spent a total of 8 days doing a lot of nothing.  My two favorite vacations so far have been this one and 3 years ago when we went with friends to Colorado and rented a cabin in the mountains.  I thought a long while why these two vacations are at the top of my list and they have several things in common.  Great company, days that didn't include watching the time for the "next" thing,  cooking simple meals, staying up late talking, laughing and playing games, which meant sleeping late because we didn't have to rush off to get anywhere and something that I dearly love being a country girl and don't get near enough off..NATURE.....

With this CRAZY HOT Texas summer it was wonderful to have the cool ocean breeze.  The only time we really spent inside was sleeping...and Mark and I ended up spending 4 nights sleeping outside on the deck, it was heavenly with the expanse of stars and the ocean waves lapping on the shore.  I also got in lots of reading which is one of my all time favorite past times. 

It was Hudson's first time to the beach.  He absolutely loved it and told us on our last night, "we need to move to the beach and start a new life"....I agree Hudster!!!

a new season...

I cannot believe I sent my sophomore off to her first day of school today and my last post was the last week of school...WHERE did the summer go?  I have so much to catch up on and so I have decided to go for a new blog design and a new direction with my blog.  More on that later but for now check out this GREAT fundraiser....my favorite thing to give towards!!!