i just couldn't help myself...

so this little guy and his mama stopped by for a little play date today. and i really didn't want to be that annoying friend who gets out her camera when everyone else is having fun...but i just couldn't help myself. i mean seriously, how beautiful are these two?!

a little bit of sunshine

This little lady put some smiles on faces today that were in need of smiling. She was definitely a ray of sunshine to some heavy hearts this afternoon. As I mentioned in my last post, we have a very dear family member whose journey of life is being cut far too short right now. Cancer sucks folks. Absolutely sucks. He has - and will always have - a very special place in our hearts.

So we loaded up our little "sunshine" and took her with us to visit her uncle Ward...a man who said countless prayers for her last spring...and ironically her due date was his birthday. A man who called me personally the day before my due date to check on her and me. And requested to be let known as soon as she made her debut. She crawled all over that room today and even got up in bed with her uncle ward and got some smiles and laughs out of him. On the way out one of the nurses commented about how nice it was to hear a baby giggling in a place that doesn't usually get that.  Who knows, maybe she and I will start visiting some hospice houses or nursing homes soon.

oh campbell...maybe it's just mommy pride talking - but you touch so many people's lives with your sweet smile & giggle. never, ever give that up little lady.


When we got home, I busted out my birthday present -- all 18 megapixels of gloriousness - and took some pics of our little bit of sunshine...with her sunglasses.

Her future's so bright, she's gotta wear shades, folks.

Love her to pieces.

Good Eats & Milli Vanilli

I love love love Easter. Yes I like the holiday stuff - dying eggs, creating baskets, buying easter outfits (we all THREE got one this year...thanks to some ridiculously amazing sales. Can I just tell you that my easter dress cost $6?! I feel like one of the crazy coupon queens ...only there were no coupons involved thank you very much) Anyways... I also like the reminder of what Easter truly is. That it's our entire identity as Christians...we had a great reminder of that yesterday at our church service. Not to get all preachy up in here, but it was something I definitely to hear and be reminded of. Suffering is Real....but so is Jesus. Unlike Milli Vanilli. Yeah our preacher totally compared Jesus and Milli Vanilli...hilarious. Jesus=real. Milli Vanilli = not real. (And just so you know, I totally rocked Blame it on the Rain in a 5th grade talent show.) Anyways. Back to Jesus. The suffering piece was oddly refreshing...not the suffering itself, but what comes next. Life.  We have a dear family member who's journey is being cut short due to cancer. He is someone who has been & will always be an inspiration to our entire family. Someone who makes you want to be a better person everyday. Someone who I watched give of himself when most people  would sit back and prefer to be taken care of. He was close in my heart and mind yesterday as I kept thinking about how his suffering is ending...and how much better his life is about to become. Anyways, I don't know if that all makes sense...but it does in my heart. If you think about it, say a prayer for his family.

ANYWAYS...so yes it was easter weekend but my sweet husband and I also got to go out on a date to celebrate 5 wonderful years of holy matrimony. We hired our very first "for real" babysitter (who was AWESOME and no you can't have her number) and had a wonderful night out....dinner at one of our faves, Capitol Grille. Yum... I'm hungry just thinking about it.

Speaking of hungry.... here's what's cooking this week...It's basically all straight out of Cooking Light

Monday: Ancho chicken tacos

Tuesday: Shrimp Cobb Salad

Wednesday: Chicken Kabobs on the grill

Thursday: Peach & Gorgonzola chicken pizza...I'm super excited about this one!

So I leave you with some adorable egg dying extravaganza pictures and one of us on our date night!

Not too thrilled about having to wear the bunny ears.

attempting to child proof the dying area

she could've cared less...

Add caption

Someone loved her easter basket!

I know, it's dark...but you get the idea!

A tale of two friends

aka Friends Forever... the Saved by the Bell version... you know the one

aka Cori & Bethany take Austin

Once upon a time there was this girl named Bethany. When she was 12 her parents moved her from her comfy little life chasing tumbleweeds in West Texas to the big city... Tulsa, OK. Right after she moved there a few of the youth group girls took her out to pizza to welcome her to their new church. It was cold that night and Bethany forgot her coat...you didn't really need those things in West Texas that time of year. Anyways this nice girl named Cori let her borrow her super cool leather jacket. It was BFF love at first sight. Anyways Cori & Bethany were instant friends. They did really cool things like wear combat boots all the time, skip sunday school to play on the swings; go to the mall every sunday afternoon; talk in pretend languages in front of strangers and play glamour shots. And they laughed. Constantly. They were really, really cool. And they never, ever annoyed their parents or anyone else. And they definitely did not turn their moms' hair grey.

That's right. We're playing glamour shots.
Not sure if we were making fun of it or if our parents were too cheap for it....

Anyways they went to high school together and continued their path of annoying dorkiness. {I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone everyone we annoyed over the years. We honestly thought we were funny} The spy missions, class skipping, toilet papering antics continued well into their college years.

Life went on they both got married and had babies and recently decided they should run a race together. {and by "together" I mean the "same race". Cori "speedy gonzalez" Lyon placed 4th in her age group}  They lived it up in Austin. And by live it up I mean ran a half marathon on a CRAZY hilly course in the Texas hill country, hung out at the hotel hot tub with wine snuck in disposable coffee cups, spent an entire afternoon in the world's most amazing Whole Foods, rolled around in a Kia Soul (you should be jealous) got lost thanks to Bethany's lack of navigational skills stupid iphone app, ate almost every meal at the hotel restaurant and walked almost 4 miles post race just to go to Lululemon. It might not sound like fun to many people but they had a BLAST. It was exactly what these two mama's needed.

Okay, I can't keep this whole 3rd person thing up...too confusing.

Anyways - we had a fantastic weekend. Best part...the end of the race, Cori turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, "I dedicated this race to Parker and Campbell. I thought of them the whole entire way". Funny thing - so did I. We never discussed it or planned it, but we both raced for my babies. Because that's what friends do. So we sat there and cried and hugged for awhile...and I'm sure people thought we were crazy, but that's okay. It was so fun & so special. Just what I needed to heal my heart.

We had a great time and are already planning the trip for our next race.
A HUGE thanks to my parents and to Mat for taking care of Campbell on my first trip away. Couldn't have done it without you guys!


Cori -thanks for a super fun time. You are a wonderful bff and i'm so thankful for you. my prayer for campbell is that she has a friend just like you. Even if it turns my hair grey=)

our ride. the kia soul.  

Whole Foods wine. Organic AND Eco Friendly. 

EXPO!!

Yes we are 30 & matching. I told you we were dorks.

DONE! 

Also Done. Since she was so stinkin' fast i don't have a picture of her finishing!

wine & live music by the river at the end

Every body needs a friend to play glamour shots and run half marathons with...

five {whole} years

Five years ago this afternoon I was saying "I do" to my best friend on a beach in Mexico. There were friends, family, flamingos & margaritas. Pretty darn fantastic if you ask me. FIVE WHOLE YEARS today. We've been together SEVEN YEARS. (ouch...I feel old...seriously old.) Five years ago I had no idea where our little journey would take us.

How in the world do you sum up five years of marriage? I have no idea even where to begin...except that it has been without a doubt the best five years of my life. We've loved & lost. We've fought & made up. We've laughed until we peed in our pants (Okay so that was ME and I was 14 months pregnant- you know it happened to you too!) We've had our ups & downs. We've been stretched further than we thought possible. We've gone through family "stuff". We've watched family members end their journey of life. We've wept with the bitter sting of loss.  And we've seen the amazing miracle of life up close and personal. And we are all the better for it.

Okay, I'm really fighting the urge for the cheesy, "married to my best friend" post.

So instead of a super cheesy post telling you about how I'm married to the man of my dreams, my best friend, my baby's daddy etc.... I'll leave you with some adorable pictures of us in younger years.

 Indulge me ... and our younger, skinnier selves!

Happy FIVE babe!  So glad that I decided to chat it up with you while studying at Borders all those years ago!

1st summer together... dark picture, but I LOVE it.

visit to KC Feb 2005

1st Christmas at the A club in Winter Park

the Meet the Parents dinner in Tulsa

Drew & Sarah's wedding 

engagement in CO

Tulsa Run

Vail Dec 2008

First fall in KC 2006

3rd wedding anniversary

Big Sur Marathon

post Big Sur Marathon dinner

Monterrey Bay

KU tailgate

May 2010
prego photos courtesy of Jami Nato

headed to the hospital

first moment as a family

Good party of 3

the t family: brother pics {sneak peek}

I got to meet these sweet little guys a few weeks ago in the west bottoms. We had a blast throwing rocks, racing cars, jumping off ledges, making faces... you know, typical "boy" stuff. These little guys were so much fun...it definitely made me hope that there are some boys in our family's future!

Thanks guys! So glad I got to meet you all!