Look what I got!

My Mother's Day gift from Tim - yaaay!! 

This man knows how to make me feel special :)
(Now to learn how to use it....)

A letter to Maggie

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Dear Maggie, 

You were born one year ago today. 

We are all remembering you and wishing, again, 

that things had been different.

Your Dad and Mom are having a celebration for your day. 

To remember you and celebrate your life, and to mark one year survived without you. 

Do you want to know how much they love you? 

Even after losing you and grieving deeply every day, 

and struggling with people who have disappointed them and anger about loss, 

and wrestling with sadness that doesn't go away, they've chosen to celebrate. 

With smiles and tears and a meal and bubbles. 

They are celebrating you through their pain.

Because they love you that much.

We all love you, Maggie. We will never be complete without you. 

Whenever our family is gathered, your absence is felt. 

A piece of our family is missing, and that will never change no matter how many years go by. 

I trust that God has made you whole. I trust that in His presence 

you are joyful and loved beyond anything you could ever imagine on this earth.

But I still wish you were here. 

I wish I could hold you and whisper these things into your ear.

I love you, sweet one. 

InstaFriday

Good morning out there!
I can't believe another week has come and gone but here are the pics to prove it.
Linking up with Life Rearranged for InstaFriday - come play along!
* * * * * * * * * 

1 - Michael has been clingy lately (read: attached to my leg or some other part of my person at all times). Maybe because of all the changes and moving around? Or maybe it's just his age? Here he is deciding if he wants to go join some other toddlers playing on the green near our apartment. (About a minute later he joined them - and a had a lot of fun!)

2 - For his birthday, Michael received a play tent from his Aunt Amy and family. It is one of his favorites (he has taken to drinking his morning milk in here every day) and I have to admit, I can't resist it either. This one is so cute I'm already designing Michael's future playroom around it.

3 - Friday evening and heading over to the green to play. I just love seeing these two together.

4- Saturday in the park! The Boston Commons and Boston Public Gardens were gorgeous - these orange tulips were my favorite. See a little more of our outing in the park here.

5 - My loves, all handsome and ready for church.

6 - Family picture! 

7 - Hot phó on a cold afternoon. Mmmmmm.

8 - I don't usually get hung up on stuff. Or, I try not to anyway. But one look at this little beauty from anthropologie and I was in love. (It's not online! I'm praying it will still be in the store when I can get back to it. Did I mention that in my head I've already decorated our next home around this piece?)

9 - This bath picture is brought to you by the number 2. (And I love when he smiles big enough for his teeth to show.)

10 - He had never seen clover before. We picked and sniffed for a while. I love being there to show him little things like that.

11 - Just taking care of business on a thursday morning - walking around the apartment, drinking milk, wearing his bib as a cape.

12 - I hated to miss NFL draft night but my toes really needed some TLC ;)

* * * * * * * *

I'm so excied for the weekend! 

We have some good friends coming to visit and we've got plans to get out and enjoy Boston. 

What are your plans this weekend? I hope it's a good one, friends! 

xoxo

Rooms I love

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I've had a crush on this one for a long time now.

...about Michael.

The boy loves food. *All food. And he'll try anything.
This amazes me because until I got to college I never tried new foods. New foods terrified and disgusted me.
But not this kid. He's fearless. Or maybe he's just that hungry.

*One exception is broccoli. But then, who really likes broccoli?

He loves other kids. It doesn't matter if they're young or old, male or female, playing quietly or engaged in a rough game of soccer. If there are little people around, he wants to interact and he will walk right up (no awareness of social boundaries at all) and either stare or get right into the action. These days he seems to be putting a lot of his energy into trying to run. 

I think he's mainly motivated by his desire to keep up with other kids and dogs.

A couple of weeks ago I started counting things with Michael in the voice of the Count from Sesame Street. ("One...two...three...three Cheerios! Ah-ah-ah-ah!") He started imitating the "ah-ah-ah-ah" laugh whenever we would count things, and now he does it all the time and in the funniest (wrong) contexts. Like, I'll hand him a toy to play with in his carseat and if he doesn't want it he'll throw it down and do the Count laugh, "ah-ah-ah-ah!" And today when he woke up from his nap, he didn't cry or babble. He just stood in his crib doing the Count laugh until I came in to get him up.

Love the place you live

I'm so excited to link up with Love the Place You Live at Design Mom today! 

It couldn't have come at a better time! We've been in Boston since Wednesday night, and after settling in for a few days we couldn't wait to head in to the city to do some exploring on Saturday. I'm dealing with several technical issues at the moment (no wifi, forgot to pack the camera battery charger, camera battery is of course dead), so all I have are a few snaps from my iPhone, but I think you'll get the idea. We got out and got familiar with the public transportation system, had some great food, and enjoyed a lovely saturday in the park.

So, if you take the T into Boston you may run into any number of Revolutionary characters. 

Here we have Paul Revere catching up on some emails during his commute.

We are fortunate enough to live two minutes walk from a station on the orange line, so it was easy as pie to hop on a train into town. Michael loved the noise and bustle of the train, so that made the 16 minute trip into town even better! We got off at Downtown Crossing, grabbed some yummy lunch from Falafel King on Winter St. and headed over to the Commons.

We walked for a bit and finally found a spot to sit and enjoy our lunch. 

Here is Michael, really enjoying his first taste of falafel. This boy loves food!

After lunch we walked across the Commons to the Boston Public Garden, which is gorgeous and full of blooms right now. It was especially fun for our little one who wants to walk all the time now. He tottered along, stopping to sniff flowers, point at other babies, and pant every time he saw a puppy. 

He walked and walked and walked.

He didn't even care to look at the ducks in the pond, he was so focused on walking the park.

Such a pretty day. 

Before we got back on the train to come home (and I wish I had taken a picture of this, or at least remembered the name) I had an ice cream sandwich from a food truck at the southwest corner of the Public Gardens. And not one of those dinky little sandwiches in the wrapper. It was a huge sandwich made right in front of me and it was amazing. You can bet I'll be looking for that truck again.

So, there you have it. Us loving the place we live!

Hope your Monday is off to a great start, friends.

xoxo 

Rooms I love

Now that's a kitchen.

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InstaFriday

Hello, friends! I'm back!

It's been a very, very full week. Just see for yourself.

One of the many things I love about Austin - donuts and breakfast tacos from the same restaurant.

And they were just as good as they look.

Friday night my parents kept the kids and me and all my sibs (and most of our spouses) saw Delta Spirit downtown. 

The lead singer was a young Johnny Cash incarnate *swoon*. We had a great time.

On Saturday we had Michael's first birthday party at my parent's house in Austin.

At one point I looked around the living room and saw so many people I love, I thought my heart would burst. 

It was awesome, and Mikey had a great time.

Me and the birthday boy. Oh, how I love him.

(The rainbow photo booth didn't turn out quite as good as I hoped, 

but I learned some valuable photo booth lessons for next time.)

A lot of creatures find their way into your pool in the Texas Hill Country.

This one was unusually pretty.

On Monday Michael turned one and we left Texas to return to Connecticut.

I couldn't help but post an old photo from the day he was born. 

And later that day, one of him entertaining our fellow passengers on the plane. 

It's amazing what a difference a year makes.

Tuesday the packers came and put our whole house into boxes.

It was also one of the prettiest spring days I've ever seen.

(Don't you wish there were trees that stayed pink all the time? I do.)

Wednesday the movers came, and we drove up to Boston for the next phase of our great transition.

Today Michael and I got out and did a little exploring in our new neighborhood.

It's beautiful so far!

It's been such an eventful week. I find the same old paradox is true over and over again - 

when my life is most interesting, I have no time (or energy) to blog.

Now that we are settled, I plan to be here a lot more often.

Happy Friday, friends! I hope your weekend is full of goodness.

xoxo

*If you'd like to play along, link up with Jeannett at Life Rearranged. 

If you'd like to follow me on Instagram you can find me here!

My baby turned one

(thanks to my amazing brother for this photo and the one below)

Today Michael is one year old. We spent the day traveling (we're back in the Northeast for a few months, for anyone keeping track) but on Saturday we celebrated with family and friends in Austin. There was barbecue, cake, kids running around playing, lots of catching up and giving hugs and picture-taking. It was a really special day. We celebrated this happy, healthy little character and he loved every bit of the attention (see above).  

He also loved every bit of the cake. (Good cake makes my toes curl too.)

(thank you, Dad, for this shot)

After a quick mid-party bath he opened presents in his diaper and played until he dropped.

Because when you're one you can do that, and it's just plain cute.

InstaFriday

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Jeanette for InstaFriday - enjoy a few shots from our week,
and have a great weekend! xoxo

1 - Mexican food for breakfast  in Houston - what a treat!

2 - Boys doing laundry :)

3 - Lunch at Louis Mueller's bbq with Uncle Bubba

4 - barefoot baby eating bbq

5 - doing a little reading on the trip to Austin

6 - Easter flowers

7 - checking out his basket

8 - working in the garden

9 - phase 1 of building an ark - more to come

10 - longhorns and bluebonnets

11 - watching the cows

12 - this tree is full of flowers and butterflies - and it smells sweet too!