seven ELEVEN!

On the night of the girls birthday I wrote a long, sentimental, beautiful blog post about Keags and Rys turning 11. After 2 hours of typing on my phone on my little blog app I lost the whole post! So here goes a second attempt that probably is not going to measure up to the first. 

On the way home from Surfside beach on Monday I had a car full of giggling, screaming, sun kissed girls plus Miss Heather and I. At one point I heard Keagan over all the noise say “ I wish we had 7 Elevens in Houston so we could go there for our 11th birthday!” That caused me to have a little moment to myself where everything was quiet and I sat in awe that my babies were actually 11 years old! 11 years went by so fast but were also so full of so many amazing memories and lots of struggles too. It’s been the best 11 years of my life! 

We started the birthday celebrations on Sunday. After church the girls convinced me to let them open their gifts early. I absolutely love giving them gifts so they didn’t twist my arm very hard! Both girls got their Halloween costumes like we do every year, the roller skates they were dying for, a board game and another few gifts. They were also thrilled with their gifts from their dad which was a go pro like camera for Keags and a big Ryan’s World mystery box for Riley. 

Then I made all their favorite foods for a big family dinner! We had cream cheese chicken, Asian chopped salad, strawberries and green beans. And we had the best company! The Fosters, Nana, Reagan, Hudson, Gramas, Coach, and auntie Jenn who we were lucky enough was in town all made it such a fun night! Side note Mrs Taryn was out of town. After dinner we sang to each girl separately like we always do and they blew the candles out on their own cakes. I got Keagan an Olaf cake since she is playing Olaf in her current musical and Riley a red Paw Patrol cake, her two favorites! 

After cake and ice cream I righted a wrong I had committed and saved a major mom fail. Earlier in the week Keagan informed me that her and Riley had never done a piñata before! I had to fix that! So Addie and Coach helped us hang a cute emoji piñata and each girl had several turns at it. Keagan helped Riley as Riley giggled and then Keags finally took her blind fold off and went to work on it! So fun! 

On Monday morning we were up bright and early for a birthday trip to the beach like the girls unanimously begged for! It was perfect that they happened to have school off for their birthday! We had a car full of some of their besties with Avery, Claire and Calli! And it was even way more fun that all those families joined us too! The first hour we were there the weather was a little iffy and we spent 25 minutes all huddled under the pop up tents as it poured rain around us. But even that was fun as we all ate our lunch and laughed at the situation! Then the clouds parted and we had so much fun at Surfside! It ended up being a blast and the perfect simple birthday celebration for these darling girls! 

Oh these sweet babies of mine! In 11 years they have come so far, we have come so far together! They are definitely my life’s greatest blessing and I thank the Lord for them every morning and every night! It’s been an incredible 11 years and I can’t wait to do many, many more years with them and see how they each live their lives and how they each change the world! Hopefully it just doesn’t go too fast! 

Happy 11th birthday Keagan and Riley! 

Rose Bushes

It was Abraham Lincoln who said “we can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”  You know this is right up my alley! We have had a few thorns lately, those dumb things that are poking us and causing a little pain. And I have to admit I have found myself complaining about those thorns in the last two weeks. So I definitely needed a perspective change because I sure love those roses! Their beauty makes it much easier to overlook those thorns and we definitely have an amazing array of beautiful roses in our garden! 

Superstars Baseball is definitely a beautiful rose in our garden!!

Time with sweet friends has definitely been a beautiful rose in our garden! The girls had fun play dates at home, great times with friends at school and and I’ve had time with friends too especially because Jenn is in town! 








Celebrating the people we love birthdays has been huge roses! Monday night we went with the French’s and Fosters to Cheescake Factory to celebrate Taryn’s birthday. Then I hosted a friend’s lunch for her at Black Walnut the next day. On Sunday we got to join the Cooks for a joint family party for Jenn and then Taryn and I took her on quite an adventurous dinner last night! 

General Confrence was definitely a huge beautiful rose! Hearing the messages straight from the Lord thru His servants filled my cup! My favorites were hearing from the prophet, a great talk from Peter M Johnson and the newly revised Young Women’s theme! Keagan was in charge of our speaker by speaker activity set up this time and she did amazing! I guess the quiet time and all that listening on Sunday did Riley in and she took a 3 hour Conference nap! Saturday night we watched the Women’s session at the French’s with Taryn and Reagan which was wonderful! The cherry on top was Keagan and Reagan performing for us! 

Saturday morning we got an awesome chance to help in a really cool service project! Some friends from Keagans pre-k days started a local chapter of an amazing organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace. They build beds for children otherwise sleeping on the floor and we loved getting to be a small help on a bed building day! Keagan was thrilled to use power tools like the sander and help brand the beds! Riley and I took care of prepping a ton of screws and washers, sharpened the dowels and helped dip the wood. It was a really great experience and fun that old friends like the Moss’s, the Quinn’s, and the Skidmore’s were there too. 

Another beautiful rose in our garden has been the super fun Activity Days and our time together doing Come Follow Me at home! The girls loved playing Jeopardy with all the AD girls and then these Keags and Rys look alike paper dolls that we put the armor of God on! 

So many roses in between. We went to spirit night, had picture day at school and took our annual pictures in a gorgeous Forrest in Conroe. Riley has an especially fun day in primary and Keagan and I went to a fun chocolate Laurels activity and stayed up late watching the Astros! 












And finally today was a day full of gorgeous rose bushes! The girls and I spent a great day together doing nothing really out of the ordinary that’s not typical Saturday errands and chores besides decorating for fall and enjoying the cooler temps that have finally found us! But then tonight was Keagans first performance with her show choir Ovation from DPAC Texas! The group of 10 talented and sweet kiddos performed at Zoomball in Tomball which is a big Halloween fesitival. They have been working hard but we’re all very nervous. After Mrs Shea worked her magic in the last two days they did a phenomenal job! I am beyond proud of Keagan as she found out last night she would be singing a solo tonight! She worked all day and did an incredible job singing “Popular” from Wicked despite using a different track then what she had practiced all day! I’m incredibly proud she worked so hard, was so brave and willing to put herself out there! She also loved doing her stunt with her partner Michael. It was just so fun to watch and they all did amazing! We are so thankful Sa, Todd, Kellie and Justin came to support her and of course Riley is her sisters biggest cheerleader! And only the best cheerleaders dress up like the group of course! We finished off with dinner with the Reeves for such an amazing night! 

After all that how could I possibly complain about thorn bushes?! I mean I have got one gorgeous view of a beautiful garden from where I sit! And I hope I will spend the rest of my life smelling each rose! May my girls and I forever shrug off each thorn stick and be captured instead by the beauty of the roses is my wish. My wish forever, forget about the thorns and smell the roses. Yes, every last one.