April Showers Bring May Flowers

April showers, May showers, June showers...it just keeps going.  It rained at least once a day for at least six weeks.  Then we had a week break and now a hurricane is skirting Houston.  I love the rain.  And I love a good Texas thunderstorm but good heavens, some years it just doesn't know when to quit.

 I love that we finally have a swingset in the backyard.  We lost the trampoline to a tragic accident last year when Clark and Mike decided to jump at the same time.  Springs were flying at 75 mph.  I also love that its right outside the kitchen window where I can see little Jonah Pants having fun.  Too bad the only level spot in the yard was the concrete slab.  I feel like he should wear a helmet when he goes out to play.  Funny side story - Jonah was running around naked one afternoon (a somewhat half hearted attempt at a potty training exercise) when he suddenly came in crying and holding his behind while saying "hot, hot, hot".  Yeah, naked sliding in Houston during Spring or Summer months is not wise.

I'm currently with the 16-18 year old girls at church.  This isn't all of them but let me tell you how much I love what I get to do.  I love working with ALL of the Young Women at church but I have really enjoyed being with these incredible girls that are standing on the edge of the jumping off point.  I pray for them.  I worry about them.  I am inspired by them.

Working with the young women and now having two myself makes it even more special to be witness to my Mo's calling right now.  She recently visited the East coast for some training and ran into some of my most favorite people both in northern and southern Virginia.  I'm glad Laurie made her selfie - it was a treat to imagine them getting to listen my my wonderful Mother.

We went to the pool and niece Love licked a snow cone off the ground.  It was precious and hilarious and awesome because she was also in a swimsuit.  Her thighs.  My goodness her thighs.

And sometimes Jonah puts things on his head that make me laugh.

Abby went and turned 12.  I love watching these girls.  It makes me sad that I don't get to snuggle their adorable tiny little selves anymore but they are so amazing and beautiful - I am enjoying watching where their talents take them.

Our garden improves just a little each year.  This year Clark indulged my whining and with the help of our friends The Hubs, built me two garden boxes.  Jonah won't stay out of them.  They were doing fairly well but between the birds, squirrels, dog and whiffle ball wielding two-year old, not much has made it as far as we were hoping.  I'm thinking next year we just need to go ahead and greenhouse the whole backyard.  But it was satisfying to get more than last year at least.

Including peaches! Our peach tree gave us one, measly, rotten peach last year.  This year we got dozens and they were delicious! Next year we will know even more and hopefully the harvest will be even better.

Let me just preface this next bit by recognizing that this year's Mother's Day was a once in a lifetime (hopefully not THAT rare) occurance - one that will be remembered with great fondness for years and years.  Clark hit it so far out of the ballpark, there really is nothing else to say.
We went to dinner with friends on Friday night down in the Galleria area.  We ate a delicious dinner and went out for ice cream (afterwhich, Clark's truck was a mere 30 seconds from being towed-he had to run to catch the guy taking his car away.) Then, without a word of explanation he drove me to a fancy shmancy hotel and kicked me out of the car.  He had packed my bag and arranged for a stay in an awesome hotel overnight, and a massage and facial the following day.  This was pure bliss.  I adore my family and all that good stuff about being a Mom but for goodness sakes, everyone needs a break occasionally! I was newly pregnant and exhausted so this was perfect.  I walked into my room and found a comfy robe and a beautiful vase of flowers waiting for me.  I settled in and watched what I wanted to watch and read and just relaxed.

I had an hour long facial-an hour!! of someone rubbing and cleaning my face.  And then a really good massage.  Nuff said.  It was so wonderful.  Father's Day is going to be LAME compared to that one.  I don't have the mental capacity right now to even remotely compare.
It was extremely thoughtful and amazing.

 And then back to real life.  I came home to a clean house and happy kids.  More stuff happened in April and May - apparently a Father Daughter activity that was super fun.  Every once in a while I have to steal Clark's phone to retrieve pictures that otherwise will never see the likes of social media - gasp!

Once May got rollin' the school year started coming to a close.  There were concerts, field days and school programs.

The girls Spring piano recital - I LOVE that my kids take piano.  I LOVE that they love it.  I LOVE their amazing teacher (that has been my piano teacher also for the last year.)  This is just one of those things that really love and appreciate as a mother.

This Spring their teacher had encouraged many of her students to do duets.  I got to play a duet of "I Am A Child of God" with Mia - I am thoroughly impressed with all these kids - I was absolutely nervous and we even messed up and had to pause and start again (I'm fairly certain it was my fault.) I have not participated in the recitals this year but don't tell my teacher its because I get too nervous.  I don't want to go and do something so hard that really is good for me in the end.

And Haley played a duet with a friend from church.  It was beautiful.  They all did amazing.

I mentioned the rain.  And rain.  And rain.  I love that my kids love to watch the rain as much as Clark and I do.  Sometimes the amount it rains at once is so incredible, it's mesmerizing.  And if there is Texas thunder than forget about it, nothing else can be done but sit outside and watch and listen.

I have a beef with our front loader - a beef that wasn't going to just go away and knowing that my husband doesn't have a whole lot of spare time on his hands these days, I did what any Navy wife does and took the whole dang thing apart to fix it.  I was worried there for a while and even though my brother in law stepped in and helped with a bit, I tried my hardest to have it be a woman only job, because sometimes that just what we do and it feels good.
So far so good.  No laundry room flooding as of yet and our clothes are even getting clean, imagine that.

Haley has been involved in dance at school for the last two years.  This year she got her cousin and good friend to audition with her for the end of year show.  They have to choreograph their own dance and audition about four months in advance.  I was so proud of them.  They worked hard and their dance was adorable and fun.  They danced to Welcome to New York by Taylor Swift, as the Charleston Champions of the 1920's.

Clark and I felt strongly about settling here in Houston to raise this family of ours.  I am so grateful for a church ward with such wonderful friends and examples! This group of kids from church is wonderful and supportive of each other - groups of them show up to every game, concert and event and the girls feel loved and included and supported.

Because of my "advanced maternal age" I had an early bloodtest - one of the results being the gender of the baby.  Haley and cousin Maddy begged to do a gender reveal so we let them go with me to buy balloons and stuff them in a box that we opened in front of cousins and Grandma and Grandpa.  I'm not sure too many were surprised to find out that Jonah will have a little brother, come November.
Holy cow, that's a BIG family!!  Oh, my heart swells.