Dad Mota's 70th Birthday

July 10th we celebrated Steve's dads 70th birthday! We celebrated on his birthday with dinner at Ernesto's and then we went back to Steph and Gene's for pecan pie and gifts. We had coordinated with the family to get pictures of everyone in a T-shirt telling Mr. Mota "Happy Birthday!" We had the pics hanging at the house when they got there, so even though our family is all around, it felt like everyone was there. It was pretty special. He opened some gifts, but his main gift was a trip to Beaver Bend in OK.

We all loaded up on Friday the 12th and headed to Beaver's bend as a family. It was a beautiful cabin with an incredible view! We got there and had Mr. Mota go upstairs while we got everything decorated. We decided to make it a birthday weekend for his 70th, so we made it a Chess theme, complete with a chess board cake! It was fun! We celebrated and opened a few more "chess" gifts. We ended the evening sitting by the campfire and chatting as a family.

Saturday we relaxed throughout the day and enjoyed being at the cabin. The BBQ was delicious and the company was wonderful! That evening we went over to the river to skip some rocks and watch the sunset. It was beautiful! Definitely felt that God was with us that evening as we all just enjoyed our time together and embraced nature. We roasted marshmallows when we got home and listened to music ans we all fell into a trance at the firepit.
It was a wonderful weekend celebrating someone we all love dearly! Here's to many more wonderful years!

4th of July 2013

We had a lot of fun this past 4th of July. We were lucky enough to have Nana (my mom), Shelly, Kaylin and Kinley come in for a fun visit! We had the day off Thursday and we relaxed at the house, played in the pool and BBQ'd. It was a fun day with the fam. That night we went to watch fireworks in McKinney. We didn't realize it, but we set up camp right behind where they were shooting off the fireworks! I'm not sure we've ever sat that close to a major show before. It was a lot of fun, even with the falling debri. Later we came home and the kids played with sparklers in the backyard. Friday I took the day off and we took the kids to Build A Bear, ate at PF Changs and took a much needed nap (rough day off)! ;) That night we took them to Gatti Town (the kids had a blast) and then went home, raosted marshmallows and built a fort for Preston and Kaylin to sleep in. They played in there for a while and then Steve and I ended up passing out in the fort with Preston. Good times all around. Love having family around to share in fun holidays! We missed sharing it with Riley and Drew, next time!

Preston waiting for the fireworks show

Sweet cousins

This is how close we were...debri from the show!

Fun with sparklers!

Carrying his bear and Riley's (Big boy)

Time for Smores!

Awesome fort!

Good times at Gatti Town

Flashback

Last weekend Stephen, Preston and I took a little trip to Oklahoma City to see some friends. We started our adventure at Kate's 3rd birthday party. It was at a super fun gymnastics place, Preston loved it! I can't believe these 2 are getting so big! Doesn't seem like they should be 3 yet. We were running late, so unfortunately I forgot my camera and didn't get any pics of the 2 of them together. =( We got to go by Ashley and Kyle's place after the party for a little lunch and to meet their new addition Harris. He is absolutely precious! Great catching up with them, even though it was brief!

We then headed to Kris and Kyle's house for a little fun. We went to dinner at Ted's with the kiddos, LOVE that place! Then Stephen and Kyle took the kids to a trampoline place while Kris and I flashed back to our younger years when we used to scream for New Kids on the Block (NKOTB). That's right, we went to the reunion concert. Boys II Men opened the show and they were actually really good! Very talented vocalists! 98 Degrees followed them, and although we got to see Nick Lachey, they were looking a little old and were not as talented of vocalists as Boys II Men (in my opinion). Not to mention we really didn't know many of their songs. Then it was time for NKOTB, They hit the stage and immediately brought down the house with Step by Step. They pulled out all their old dance moves and all, it was hilarious! They sang a few of their new songs (which we obviously didn't know), so that was not as much fun. But when they sang their old songs, we did a lot of laughing. It was fun! They mentioned on several occasions though that it had been 25 years since they'd been on tour (which really made us feel old). The best was when we went to the bathroom after the show and two young girls said, "they are really kind-of hot for being 30 something year old men!" Ouch!! Great flashback concert, mainly because of the memories that came back, spending time with Kris and the hilarity at how crazy we used to be over groups that now just look kind of old! Good times!

Boys II Men

 98 Degrees

 NKOTB

Cousins

Last week, Shelly and the kids came in town for a visit. It was nice to have a spontaneous visit and I got to take a day off to spend with them. We decided that we wanted to get pictures of all the cousins together and luckily Laura Squire (our photographer) found availability! Little did we know that we would spend our entire day off shopping for clothes for these kiddos to wear. Who knew it was so hard to coordinate?! We wore ourselves and the kids out, but we found some cute stuff! Despite the day of shopping, the kids were troopers and took some great shots! They ended the session with a dip in the pond in their new clothes! I think that was their favorite part! ;) Here are some of my favorites! Love these kiddos, they are all so precious!

 Preston saying "Gig Em!"

Father's Day 2013

Last weekend we celebrated Father's Day and the wonderful dads in our lives! We went to eat at Patrizio's with Stephen's family then came back to our house for cake and gifts. We all got some time to hang out, the guys played basketball (despite the heat) and the dads were loaded down with wonderful gifts! We ended the evening with some checkers and a dip in the pool. Good times! So thankful to have so many wonderful dads to celebrate!