Numbers

This weekend was all about the numbers!

Let's start with the #35.  That's what birthday my friend Valerie was celebrating!  She and her family were able to come down here this weekend so we could celebrate with them.  I let her pick out a cake she wanted (dark chocolate with mint chocolate chip icing) and I picked out the decorations....since she's scared of clowns. 

We had a great time celebrating with them and just catching up since it feels like it's been forever since we saw them last!

Saturday, we headed to Ava's last game of the season....and I do believe she saved the best for last!

 She started off with a bang and never let up!  She scored 8 points in this game!  The final score was 16 to 24!  They won!!!  They officially won 5 of their 8 games....and only lost to the same team all 3 times!  It was so much fun to watch just how far she's come.  Basketball seems to be right up her alley!  We're a little sad it's officially over, but sure did have fun watching her week after week.

Here she is getting her last star of the season.

And here's the whole team with coach.  From left to right: Ava, Tristian, Emily, Kailey, Ella, Naomi and Gracie and Coach Noble in the back.

Here's the Valdezs with Ava after the game.  We tried to have someone be at every one of her games and I know it spoke her love language.  She loved looking over and seeing friends and family cheering just for her!  So thankful!

Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend, Paul got here on Friday afternoon and we hit the ground running!  Elle had a percussion concert that we were all excited to go to.

Elle did a great job.  She had to use multiple different mallets and sticks at different times throughout her song and she did great!

Here they all are after the concert.  It was nice to have Paul there to help with the restless child syndrome.

Saturday, Ava played game 7.  They lost but played very well and she made a basket. The team they played is the only team they've lost against....and they've lost against them every time!

Sunday, after the banquet at church, the girls and I headed to our annual Girl Scout World Thinking Day.  This year our troop represented Kenya.

After this long weekend, I needed the week to recuperate.....and that's just what I did!  I headed to Tyler on Monday to spend a few days with my parents after my mom's foot surgery.  It was a wonderful time just being with my parents and letting life slow down for a little while.

Senior Appreciation Banquet

We had our annual Senior Appreciation Banquet last weekend.  I thought the whole thing turned out really cute!  Our kids were so sweet to watch as they served our "senior" members.

Ava helped scoop desserts.  (this is the job I would have picked too!)

Levi handed out plates (and Papaw was here this weekend!)

Elle helped dish out the lasagna..the hardest job!

Lots of calories means love.

We did a family Valentine's date today.  It involved about 4,000 calories for each person.  Okay not really, but it did revolve around food, which makes all of us happy.  We tried a new place in Austin called Phil's which was okay, but I wouldn't choose to go back.  It was mainly burgers and we are always on the hunt for a burger place that beats Mighty Fine.  We're still looking.  After Phil's we walked next door for something that NEVER disappoints and can't be beat; good ol' Amy's Ice Cream.  It was delicious as always and we all left with very full bellies.  Happy Love Day! 

Picture by Elle...didn't turn out that great, but that's what you get on a cell phone with back lighting.  Shawn and I both got burger samplers.  I'm still full.

There was an outdoor playground that the kids played on for a few minutes.

Then we got down to the good stuff....ice cream.  

Earlier in the day, Ava played Game #6 and scored 2 more baskets and their team won!  Ava's red star was for defense during this game.  They played hard!  Two games to go!

Lullabies to Lumberjacks

We finished Levi's room redo a few weeks ago and I finally straightened it up enough to take some pictures!  It was time.  He's almost 6 and although he wasn't really complaining, I think 6 is starting to get too old to still have the same decor as when you came home from the hospital.  Those alphabet cards served us well.  We used them to decorate both Ava and Levi's nursery rooms.  They are stored neatly up in his closet for when they have kids!

Other than the crib changing to a twin size bed on the floor, this is pretty much what his room looked like for the last 6 years.  So cute...but definitely "nursery."

This is the after.  We bought this trundle bed (with trundle mattress) for $50!! from a neighbor, and Shawn painstakingly restained the entire thing.  We love it!

Shawn also stripped and stained this dresser that use to belong to the girls.  It was white before.  We are thrilled with how it turned out.  It was so much work for Shawn, to strip and stain it, but not spending money on another piece of furniture is worth it!

We got the bear head at Target.  I had been eyeing it for months but it was too expensive and I kept waiting for the price to drop.  They finally dropped it 30% and also it had a little bit of damage on the back, so I was able to get another % taken off!  We love this bear head and it's huge!  The bookcases are from our newlywed days.  Still going strong!  They've moved from room to room over the years.

I got the paper mache deer head and slice of wood at Hobby Lobby and then modge podged tissue paper onto it and glued it to the wood.  LOVE how this craft turned out!

I love this picture more than just about anything!  It looks perfect in this room!  Everyone is very happy with how this room turned out.  If he every grows out of this, that's okay, because I will take every single thing and decorate my office with it!  I love it!

Weekend Update

This morning, against my better judgement, I got out of bed when it was still dark, and around 35 degrees outside with gusty winds, and did a 5k.  The only thing that made me keep going (besides my hubs who stayed with me the whole time) was knowing that I could eat ice cream tonight with no guilt.  I'd eat it either way, but without guilt tastes better.  Ava also ran the race as well as plenty of friends from church.  Elle helped run a booth at the end of the race.  Thank goodness Gramme was here, because she took care of Levi back at the house, since he's been not feeling too great for a few days.

After everyone recovered from being a popsicle, we headed to Game 5 in Ava's basketball career.  It was so wonderful to have Gramme come all the way down here, just to watch Ava play.  I know it made Ava feel like a million bucks.  Oh and it didn't hurt that Gramme bought the other 2 kids snacks during half time.  We never do that so it was a big treat!

Here's Ava getting announced and heading to mid court.

I can't get enough of watching her play!  She is really doing great and loving to play!  She scored the first 2 points of the game today!

Gramme got to see them WIN!  Ava was in heaven, having Gramme cheer for her.

After the game, Gramme had to head home, and the girls headed to do a cookie booth.  That left Levi and me and Gramme gave us a few bucks to go get Levi a drink.  He picked Root Beer float!

Here's the girls doing a cookie booth and thankfully, Shawn was willing to go with them this time.  I am still wiped out from that 5k this morning and didn't think I could handle any more cold and wind today!

More than Basketball Happened

This past weekend was a fun one!  It involves hair, bikes and ....basketball.  I'll go in sequential order.  Friday afternoon, Ava came running inside the house saying that Levi was riding his bike down the sidewalk and we needed to see!  We took his training wheels off back in the summer and Levi just hasn't been to interested in learning.  We headed outside to see and realized that Ava had TAUGHT Levi how to ride his bike!!!  I was as proud of Ava for teaching him, as I was of Levi for finally learning!  (I think it's adorable that Levi is in batman footie pajamas while riding his bike.)

I never thought a fun Friday night would consist of our family shaving Shawn's beard, but somehow that is the turn our Friday night took.  After growing his beard out for 4 months, he was done with it.  We were all done with it too.  For fun, he let all of us shave part of his beard off.  The kids loved this!

I shaved the sole patch, which gave me a lot of satisfaction because I think they are gross.

Of course, you can't just shave it all off at once...you have to do funny things with it.

I personally think curled up mustaches are fun....but I don't know if he could be taken seriously while standing in the pulpit, if he looked like this.

And this, my friends, is how you take 15 years off in 15 minutes.

Saturday, we geared up for game 4 of Ava's basketball career.  We had some sweet friends come to cheer Ava on and I could tell that Ava wanted so badly to come hold Kainyn, their little girl, instead of dealing with defense and offense. ha!

Here's Ava taking a shot!  She ended up making two baskets during this game!  

There she is shooting again!  It is so much fun to watch how quickly she is improving.  

This weeks' star was blue and it stood for effort.  Although they lost by 2 little points, they played their hardest yet!

Such a sweet family to take time out of their Saturday to come cheer Ava on!  :)