Family

Last weekend we traveled back to Hattiesburg for Jeremy's grandmother's funeral. While it was a sad occassion, we were happy to know that she was no longer suffering and that she is in Heaven and that we WILL see her again. I hope to be able to get some copies of some of her pictures, especially from when she was younger. What a beautiful woman.

We tried to explain things to Shelby as best as we could, but I don't think she quite gets it. She will tell us that Mamaw is with Heavenly Father and Jesus, but then she'll ask if Mamaw will be at the house, etc. I guess we'll just have to keep trying to explain things to her and she will understand over time. I am thankful that Shelby was able to have almost four years of getting to know Mamaw. And even though Joey will not remember her, she will have stories and pictures to remember her by, and know that Mamaw loved her. We love you, Mamaw!

This picture was taken in January, the last time we were with Mamaw.

The funeral did present an opportunity for all four of the Jordan cousins to be able to be in the same room at the same time. Of course, a picture of all four of them didn't work out quite so well, but we tried.



I love how Shelby is forcing Joey to turn her head to the camera, and how Joey's belly is hanging out. I think Jonah was just so excited about holding Miley that he couldn't contain himself. :)

SO then we tried just the older two. These two fought and played like brother and sister.

Arboretum

Jeremy is out of town this weekend. I hate it. I hate the reason why he is gone, and I hate that we don't have him here. Jeremy is a very hands on dad so when he isn't here life is pretty chaotic. This morning I rushed to get myself ready, bathe Shelby and Joey, and get all our stuff together for the day. We RAN out the door and raced to gymnastics. We were 15 minutes late for Shelby's 9:15 class, but I thought, "Oh well, she'll miss stretching and go straight to the fun stuff". As soon as I got close enough to the parking lot of the gym I remembered the slip of paper the coaches passed out to all the parents at the end of last week's class. NO CLASSES THIS WEEKEND! Ugh! Oh well. At least I didn't have to bring my child into class embarrassingly late.

After gymnastics I had planned to take the girls to the Dallas Arboretum. We've been a couple of times in the Fall when they have all of the pumpkins, but we've never been in the Spring. It's a good thing Shelby didn't have gymnastics and we got there earlier than planned because by 10:30 that place was PACKED.

I have to say, I thoroughly hate crowds. Oblivious people drive me insane. Seriously. Don't start backing up to take a picture without looking behind you. And if you are going to walk at a snail's pace, don't do it holding hands with other people, forming a human wall that no one else can get around.

Aside from the ridiculous people we encountered, we had a great time. The gardens are all so beautiful. If only I didn't have such a black thumb. I was actually scared to get too close to the flowers for fear that just my presence would give them the kiss of death. This weekend they were doing a castle exhibit. They had Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Pea, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. Shelby loved going around to each of the castles and exploring. We stopped and had a picnic about halfway through. Shelby picked a gorgeous spot with a view of the lake. Joey loved the grass. Unlike what we have at home, it was soft, lush, green grass- the kind you can walk barefoot through and it doesn't feel like thousands of needles poking your feet.

If anyone comes to visit us in Dallas in the Spring, we are definitely going to have to take them to the Arboretum.












(Oh yeah! The picture of Shelby sitting with the girls cracks me up. This is typical Shelby. I was standing in line to get some lunch and she saw those girls sitting a few feet away. She just walked right over and sat down and tried to join their conversation. She does this all the time. Any playground she goes to she takes a few seconds to look over all the kids then chooses someone to be her new best friend.)

Princess Leia

This weekend we went down to San Antonio for a very special baby shower. Mike and Jenny are some of our best friends in the world and we are so excited that they are having a baby girl, Leia, due in May.

We left San Antonio pretty late and Jeremy really wanted to just stop and get a hotel room again but I knew if that happened we would never wake up early enough to get to church in time and Shelby would have been devastated if she missed doing the scripture in Primary. So I told Jeremy I would drive. I am NOTORIOUS for not being able to drive longer than 30 minutes. I usually can't even RIDE for longer than 15 minutes without falling asleep. But, I just sucked it up and did it and got us home by 3 am. Go me!

Anyway, here are a few pics of the day:

Home Improvements

Much to Jeremy's dismay, I decided it was time for some projects around the house. I have really wanted to change the kitchen for some time now, but I could not decide what to do. The problem is I like so many different styles and I was having a hard time committing to one thing. I think I have finally decided that I really like the coastal cottage/shabby chic/eclectic style. I have been following theletteredcottage.net for some time now, and I basically wanted to copy their kitchen. I can't find a before picture, but here is the kitchen now (these are not the greatest pics...terrible lighting).




So the gray actually came out looking kind of sage, but I like it. I wish we could have open or glass cabinets, but sippy cups and bottles aren't really great items to display. I think I might take off the cabinet doors above the microwave and leave that open. I think it will help break up the wall of white.

Another thing we did in the kitchen was add a magnetic chalkboard. Even though we haven't let Shelby mess it up with chalk yet, she thinks it's pretty cool.



Then I also decided to paint the mantle the same gray (sage) color as the base cabinets in the kitchen.



I have some large wooden candlesticks that I have painted white and will put them on the mantle. I also am going to get a large mirror to replace the metal fleur-de-lis scroll thing.

So we still have some things to do, but I am happy with how everything has turned out so far. Next up is going to be the office. Jeremy will be thrilled!

TWENTY-NINE

Last Tuesday Jeremy turned 29. The last year of his twenties! I decided that since we had just gotten back from Utah we should just keep things simple. Also, I didn't want to plan anything big and then have to try to top that next year for his 30th. ;)

I found a copycat recipe online and made Cafe Rio's pork barbacoa salad. I made everything from scratch- the pork, the beans, the rice, creamy tomatillo dressing, pico de gallo, guacamole...we had a fiesta!

I felt so bad because I apparently had some 24 hour stomach bug, so I had thrown up about 9 times throughout the day. By 7 pm I told Jeremy I just needed to go to bed. He played with the girls and put them to bed, then did all the dishes. On his birthday! What a sweet guy. He was happy with his new resistance bands and Ipod (to replace his 6 yr old dead one) though, so he was good.






On another note, I switched my blog to private (but obviously changed it back). I realized I don't think I have everyone's email addresses, so I will leave it public for now and monitor it other ways.