It's Austin's Day

Happy Birthday Austin!!

Your smile lights up a room

You're a hard worker

And a great friend

You enjoy the finer things in life......like the occasional limo in Las "Begas"

You can be a bit on the goofy side

But, talented too. 

(ok, he really can't play the guitar, but we can pretend)

You're a fantastic Uncle

who loves his nephew to pieces

Who teaches him new things

And sometimes doesn't know quite how to handle the little toot 

But loves him with all his heart

You're an amazing brother to Anthony

and to me

And even to your brudder-in-law, "Toopid Fway"

So...CHEERS to you, Austin the Amazing. We love you!
Happy 32nd Birthday!

Flashback Friday

The other day, I was going through some old pictures and came across this one. We were in 6th grade and I think this was a birthday celebration at Hubba Hubba's. We loved that place. There were juke boxes on each table and we thought that was the coolest thing.

Just in case you can't figure it out - I'm the one with the ginormous white bow and the yellow peter pan collared shirt. This was a C.J. Eloise original outfit. My mom designed clothes for awhile and this was part of her line. I'm pretty sure I have on silver shrimp earrings too.

Happy Friday to you all!!! Hope y'all have a great weekend.

Summer Lovin'

I love the lazy days of summer....but only if I'm sitting poolside sipping lemonade or perhaps something stronger. I'm not a big fan of the heat. My temperature tolerance is about 90 degrees. That doesn't fare so well for me living in Texas. I'll survive though. There are several things that always signify summer time to me. 

1) The pools open! We'll spend many evenings swimming and eating dinner by the pool this summer. 

And I'm hoping we see Hudson in moods like this

rather than this

2) The Crown Plaza Colonial Golf Tournament starts today. It's tradition and it's always hot! I used to spend THURS-SUN out at the tournament, but I've gotten over that in recent years. It's really a big social event. Especially at Hole #13. Hundreds of people gather at that hole and talk, drink and make bets on which caddy will reach the green first. The caddies always play along too because they know exactly what's going on, so it's fun! If you're a serious golf watcher, you don't hang out at 13. Trey's taking Hudson out to the tourney on FRI morning for a little bit. He's determined to make Hudson the next great golfer.

He's already teaching him how to pull the pin when Daddy's putting...

3) Schools out for sum-mer (did you sing that to yourself?)! Today is Hudson's last day of school. He's had so much fun meeting new kids and playing all day long. 

4) Memorial Day! Our typical Memorial Day usually includes hanging out by my parents pool with the grill fired up. And homemade peach ice cream. Yummy. 

This is how small Hudson was last year at this time

What a difference a year makes!!

Happy Summer to everyone! 

What's your favorite thing about summer time?

Weekend Recap

Why do the weekends go by so fast??? I'm ready for this 3 day weekend coming up!

I met Coco, Jen and my friend Maggie for some cocktails and dinner on Friday night. We had so much fun and laughed way too much! Unfortunately, we didn't take a single picture of the evening's events. Ooops. Casey was with us via phone for much of the evening too. Lots of fun!

Trey woke up early on Saturday and left town with a bunch of guys to play golf, so Hudson and I were on our own. We decided to meet Suzi and Logan at the museum for a few hours. This place really is cool. Hudson could spend days in there. Seriously. He loves it!

First stop was the children's room. Hudson and Logan immediately ran over to the big bubble machine. Pretty cool.

Then, we had to play with the blocks for awhile. 

Next, it was time to go grocery shopping. They have an entire "store" set up with fake fruits and vegetables, cash registers, conveyor belts, grocery carts, etc... Hudson's still a little small for this. He could only reach the "0" on the cash register. 

But he loved unloading the carts - future bag boy???

Next stop?? The train section! This is one section that Casey could leave Jack for hours. He would be in Train Heaven.

 Hudson, on the other hand decided that he needed a little break. So he climbed underneath the train bridge and hung out for a bit.

He recovered pretty quick and we went outside to let the kids play in the water. Again, Hudson's a little too small for these activities, but Logan had a blast! Especially shooting this water gun.

Hudson patiently watched for awhile

And then decided to work on his climbing skills instead. As if we need him climbing any more than he already does!

It was really hot outside on SAT, so we went back inside to check out the hospital. Hudson pushed another little boy out of the way so that he could drive. Nice. Proud mother. 

Then he climbed into the back of the ambulance to work on this baby. Good job, Dr. Hudson

Suzi and I were bored with the childrens room, so we decided to take the kids and explore upstairs. We found a room where you can ride the horses and herd cattle. 

Hudson and I sucked at this game. I think we only got 4 cattle. Clearly we're not a ranch family.

Logan did pretty good though and she also mentioned that she's used to riding a "REAL" horsey.

Last but definitely not least, we found a trolly car that you can "ride". They play a movie over and over that shows our town way back in the day. It looks like your moving even though you're not. We all thought it was pretty cool. 

I swear, this child won't smile at a camera for anything. 

We went home for nap time after that. I thought Hudson would sleep for a long time. No...of course not. He took a 40 minute nap. For real?? Suzi, Logan, Jennifer and Emery all came over for dinner later on that evening. The kids played on the deck while the mom's sipped on wine. Great day!

Logan's showing Hudson her purple painted toenails. He looks real interested, huh?

We didn't even leave the house on Sunday. I love days like that. I cleaned out Hudson's entire closet and chest of drawers. Holy cow! How can a 14 month old have so many clothes??? I now have 2 trash bags full of clothes to give away and a huge plastic tub of clothes that I'm saving in case we have another boy someday. And that was our weekend! 

Citizen Architect

I'm so glad it's Friday! This week has dragged on and on for some reason. And of course, we've been busy bees.

Last night, my parents kept Hudson so that Trey and I could go to a really cool event. We went to a screening of Citizen Architect hosted by the Lone Star Film Society at The Modern museum. Go check out the trailer and some history behind this awesome documentary. You can find it HERE. Completely blew me away! I can't say enough good things about this project, y'all.  Our friend, Jay (who goes by Jack now) was a co-producer on the film and was actually in the film quite a bit. Really cool to see how much he's accomplished and what a great program Auburn University has. Jay is the person that got Trey interested in Sustainable building and the whole "green" movement. Anyway, I won't go on and on, but y'all should check this out for sure! Citizen Architect will air on PBS nationwide on August 23rd. I'll have to post a reminder as the date gets closer. You'll be intrigued, I promise!

Amanda, me and Hayley at The Modern after the film. 

After the screening, we went to Lambert's for an after-party. Fun times!! Here we are at the end of the evening - I think Trey was using my head to hold himself up!

It was a great night and I'm so glad I decided to go. Tonight includes more fun for me. I'm meeting Coco and Jen for happy hour/dinner without kiddos. Woo-hoo!!! This is sure to be a good time.
Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Splash Day!

Today is Spash Day at Hudson's school. He got to wear his swimsuit to school and looked so cute! They let the smaller kids go first, so I went up to the school for a little bit to try and get some cute pictures. And of course, Hudson decided that he did NOT like the pool at all. Seriously??? Is this my kid?? I was a water child! My parents have pictures of me jumping off our dock into the lake at 18 months old. I was constantly in the pool or the lake. I'm hoping this aversion to water changes real quick. We've got a long, hot summer ahead of us!

Playing at the water table

Seriously....what does it take to get this kid to look at the camera?!?!? 

Finally! Without a smile, of course.

They had all kinds of baby pools set up and a big bounce house with a water slide. I tried to get Hudson in one of the bigger pools a few times and he wanted no part of it. He finally agreed to it and then got overly excited, slipped and fell which resulted in going under water and that was the end of Splash Day for us. He was pissed!

But, here's his buddy Sheldon going down the slide. I wanted to go down it too. It looked fun!

My Favorite Things Right Now

With summer right around the corner, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite things at the moment.

I don't know about y'all, but I have really dry skin and I'm constantly looking for new face products that don't dry my skin out even further. I'm loving the whole line of Mario Bedescu right now. I've used the repair lotion for several years now, but I had never tried any of their other stuff. So far, I like everything that I've tried. And I still swear by this repair lotion to get rid of those ugly pimples fast! 

Mario Bedescu Repair Lotion

Skinny Cow Single Servings -
These things are great! I always crave something sweet after dinner...whether it's a handful of frozen chocolate chips or a bowl of ice cream, it's gonna happen. These Skinny Cow's are the perfect portion and each one is only 150 calories. They have several different flavors too. Yum!!

The City -
Yep, I admit it. I'm obsessed with this show. And I still watch The Hills too, but Heidi and Spencer bug me so badly that it's almost a chore to watch. The City is good though. Whitney is classy and I like watching her new "career" evolve. Plus, Olivia brings in the drama. Whitney needs to bring that girl down!!!

Sunhat -
I've been looking for a big hat for the summer. We're heading to the beach in a few weeks and I found this one the other day. I've finally learned that Sun + My Face = Bad News. Wish I would've figured that out years ago. Then I might have skin like the woman in this picture.

Michelada's -
This is my drink of choice during the summer. Usually with a Mexican beer like Pacifico. Sometimes I make it with just the lime juice and sometimes I like to add all the spices in so that it's more like a bloody mary except it's beer instead of vodka. So good! And has lots fewer calories than a margarita. I'm sure I'll indulge in some of these while we're at the beach!

Chan Luu Wrap Bracelet -
No words for this. I just love it!

Michael Kors Watch -

Love this yellow watch for summer!

And my most favorite thing to do right now is to hang outside in the evenings with this little munchkin and Trey. Now, if we could just keep those darn mosquitos away!!!

What are some of your favorite things right now?? Anything I can't live without? Please share!