Daddy's Girls

Lilli's Mother's Day Out is on spring break this week so she has been staying with Yaya the last couple of days so that I can work.  I'm so thankful to have her here to help when I need it and Lilli is loving every second of it.  She's getting to do lots of this... She always has a blast in Vivian. And after work we're getting to do this... On a weeknight! Watch out! :)

We are so lucky to have such a great park in our neighborhood.  It's less than a half mile walk to it and there are walking trails, lots of playground equipment and sand to play with.  In the summer there is even a spray park.  Lilli and I decided to take advantage of this weather and have a picnic today. Jack even got to tag along She always has a blast playing and of course always makes new friends.  This girl never meets a stranger.

We had a wonderful weekend at the deer camp with great friends.  Shanon came in from Houston and Carissa was off so she and Chris got to come too.   Lilli liked to drive!  He always picks flowers for her. We spent almost 2 full days riding around,  sitting outside by a fire, cooking, drinking beer and catching up with friends.  We went on 4 rides about an hour each and Lilli did great each time, so nice to be able to tag along now and not be at the house with her  We even caught crawfish (well, ok, Matt and Shanon did but we went along for moral support, ha!) that we boiled Saturday night.  They were so good! No one can cook crawfish like my husband! :) coloring while we shoot Camo dress and pink rain boots.  She had a blast walking through the mud puddles from the rain earlier in the week.  She was filthy by the time we got her home!

I just got an email from Matt with some pictures from the trip they took to Isla Mujeres last month.  I wanted to be sure to post for everyone and so that they would be in the book when I make it at the end of the year.  As you can see, they had a blast!

Lilli celebrated St. Patrick's Day for the first time today.  We hadn't done anything for it in previous years but we figured she was probably old enough now to enjoy it.  Pops came in town yesterday to visit for the weekend so it was an extra special treat that he got to join us.  We all got up and left the house about 10:00 this morning to drive over to the parade in Shreveport.  It didn't start until 12 but the A.C. Steere park is on the parade route so we decided to go over early and let Lilli play and have a picnic before it started.   We had never been to this park before and were really impressed with it.  She had a ball! The parade was a lot of fun too and perfect for families with young kids.  We walked over to where it was going to pass at about 5 minutes to 12:00 and were able to set out our blanket right by the road.  Not crowded at all and the parade only lasted for about 15 minutes.  Perfect for a 2 year old! She loved it as much or more than the Mard

Lilli and I have had a really nice 24 hours! Last night we got to have dinner with my cousin Kelly in Longview.  She lives in Dallas and we usually only get to see each other 3 or 4 times a year but we got a special treat yesterday.  She is working in Tyler this week so we decided to meet half way and get dinner together.  Matt couldn't join us becausae he wasn't home from work yet when we left so we got to have a fun girls night.  I know she is missing her family while she's away this week but Lilli and I sure were glad to get to see her. Then this morning we got up and headed to the Centurylink center for Sesame Street Live! I took her last year too and she loved it then but she really loved it this year now that she's a little older.  We sang and danced for the whole hour and a half show.  I thought she might get tired of it but we stayed right up till the very end. Then we got a nice suprise that Hailey wasn't in school today and got to meet her for lunch. 

As well as celebrating the life of my Mom this weekend at the Race for the Cure we also got to do a little more birthday celebrating.  I think Matt is glad it is over but he did get a lot of good meals out of it too. ;) We had a date night Friday night at Texas de Brazil while Jennifer and Ryan kept Lilli for us.  We have been together 10 years this year and I think this may be the first time we'd ever gone out alone in Baton Rouge.  I must say that this is the best restaurant meal that we have ever had and if you have access to one of these restaurants, we highly suggest you try it.  They had a salad bar of over 50 items and we started with delicious lobster bisque and salad.  Then you flip your card to green and the servers start coming around with the most delicious meats ever.  Matt's favorite was the bacon wrapped fillet and mine was the top sirloin.  The mashed potatoes and fried bananas they had for sides were delicious too but you'll have to take my word for it, Mat

This is the 2nd year that we have formed a team (Kathy's Gang) in honor and memory of my Mom to participate in the Baton Rouge Race for the Cure.  It is so touching to me and my family that so many people show their support in her name.  We had about 35 people come out to the race on Saturday morning and raised over $3900!  That's about $1000 more than our goal and than we raised last year.  It means so much that our friends and family joined us, especiallly so early on a Saturday morning.  We even had quite a few people drive in to be in town for it.  The weather was a little chilly but so nice because all week long we had been worried that it would rain so we feel very blessed that we had a nice sunny day. 

Yep, that's right, I turned 30 today! I had several people ask me how I felt about hitting this milestone and my answer always was something my Nana told me years ago, "you can't worry about getting older because it sure beats the alternative." She's a very wise lady and I tell you those are words I live by.  I can honestly say I never even had a secret thought in my head about worrying about this birthday.  It was a great one! I took Lilli to school and headed to work for a couple of hours. I don't think I've mentioned work on here since I only started blogging a little over a month ago so I'll fill you in a little. It's my dream job! I work as an assistant for a real estate agent that is a good friend of my Mother-in-law. I worked in the real estate industry from the time I graduated college until I started staying home with Lilli so it's a perfect fit. I go in to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Lilli is at Mother's Day O