Major the 3 year old

Good Morning Precious One

birthday breakfast

practicing showing he is 3

Hudson is 4... he would like y'all to know

Major requested a "Bob" cake for his birthday. It was a process for him to get the message across as to what kind of cake he wanted. Once we figured it out, we made sure the little guy got his request. He was sooo excited about it and I think it is about the most fun cake ever! We love Bob.

Bounce Time

tater tot a.k.a. Kate

birthday boy and dad

me, hudson, and katie

can you stand it? i cannot!

Kate and Tai

bringing some class and sass to the event

hudson, victoria, and angelina

tire swim with our neighbors

awesome mommy friends

Playdate birthday was my secret plot to not have dads there who usually don't attend anyway. This adds the bonus of some girl time for yours truly. I enjoyed it :) It was exciting to do it all on Major's actual birthday, April 18th, and I liked having it during the day.

brothers

Stephen, the only man in attendance was a magnet for the kiddos. They all flocked to him to present their crazy bouncing skills. No one was injured but it sure looked like they were trying sometimes.
Major was so cute. He walked around the whole time with a huge smile on his face. He was so into it being his birthday. This is a picture of him peaking his head out at the top of the slide. He kept doing this and yelling, "yoohoo!" Sweet boy!

miss. tia

cake time

present time

checking out his dvd from Kate

girl time

see... my secret plan worked. I'm so glad they stayed and we got to hang out after the party.

he's in heaven

This post disappeared a few days ago. I posted it and even heard from a friend that she saw the post. Not sure what happened and redoing it was the only option. Hopefully this one won't go away. I might save it somewhere just in case. It was a little disappointing but I guess a fun post to redo if you have to...

I'm so thankful for my Major. I look at him and the light in his eyes just beams. He lights up a room and I know that the light I see will grow. I can't wait to watch him grow and become a man. It's happening too fast but at the same time, I can't wait to see it all unfold. The mystery of it all is fun as I spend each moment by his side. There is so much wrapped up in his heart and mind and I pray that God will be my one and only guide as I navigate this world as his mother. Three years old and he has my heart. I can hardly stand it! He is just full of life and as our journey continues I pray that his passion will be for Christ.

One Thousand Gifts

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Do yourself a favor and get this book. It is life changing and I'm not prone to exaggeration. I plan on blogging more about it but for now I just want to get it out there. It truly is a blessing to me every time I read it. If you have already read it I would love to hear what you think. I'm inthralled and I love it!

My perspective on things like this have changed, as I try to count my blessing in humility to my savior. When I came upon this scene, I decided to see the growing independence of my little guy as opposed to just seeing a mess to clean up. I'm trying and always a work in progress. I'm enjoying slowing down to notice my blessings in everything and praying for God to open my eyes to more... beyond what my selfishness allows.

Lizard Paradise

Our backyard is a lizard paradise. At least, one can only assume that due to the crazy amount of them. It's been this way at the Livesay house since I can remember (we're talking two years of crazy lizards). They are on our windows at night and in our yard during the day. Here is one little fella that Hudson rounded up...

EYE ya ya

Poor Hudson

This pictures does the whole eye thing no justice! It was so bad. I mean borderline emergency room at one point. It began with what I assumed to be pink eye. I'm not sure if it was ever actually pink eye or just severe allergies. I told the nurse my diagnosis over the phone and she just called us in the drops for pink eye. His eyes seemed to get better over about two days and then, at the end of day 2 they flared up again. After a doctor visit, I continued the drops but added allegra, steroids, and everything seemed to go away... not the end of the story... about 2 weeks later, I got Hudson from school. We ate lunch outside and then came inside to rest. I went in the kitchen and then just looked in on the boys and I had to do a double take. Hudson was rubbing his right eye very hard. I went over to him and his eye had swollen, underneath, to the size of a golf ball or what you might call a goose egg. HUGE! As I tried to calm down and get a better look I thought, "this is serious!" I called the nurse at first because I just wasn't sure what to do... go straight to her office or what? She did have us come right in and when she saw his eye, it shocked her. Dr. Resendez took Hudson to the other pediatrician in her practice and then came back. I sat there thinking, what in the world is going on. When she returned she told me she had never seem that type of swelling. She said the white part of his eye was swollen. When I looked at it my perspective was off, but she was right of course. The swelling included the whites of his eyes which raised slightly above the color center which was still flat. It scared me. We had to do steroids again, which I hate, and continue allegra and a new antihistamine eye drop. Just a couple weeks later, which was last week, and the week of Major's birthday, Hudson got bronchitis. Phew! I hope we're done for awhile!

Slumber Party

One of our bestest friends, Lila, came to spend the night. Her daddy left some cinnamon rolls for us to devour in the morning. That is exactly what we did as you can see some icing around Hudson's happy little mouth.

kisses and here comes a hug...

big hug

major making a call on lila's phone

It was a sweet time to take care of this precious thing. She was a treat and we can't wait for her to come play again!

HTL + RKH + GML + WGH = FUN

Hudson presented Ryan-Kate with a few tokens of his affection when she came to visit... flower headband and bracelets. I think she likes them!

Sisters spent some quality time concocting a moscow mule and I loved it. I loved the time relaxing on the back porch with my sisters more.

ALERT: kiddo with a camera

Whitley Grace

(i cropped this a lot so it's fuzzy but i couldn't resist zooming in on that face!!!)

major loves him some baby whitley

victoria zoo

hudson loves him some baby girl cousin holdin' too

"really mom?"

I spilled coke on my camera... a hazard of trying to sneak my drink into the zoo. I'm thinking it has issues now. Maybe it's time to get a new camera?

So, my sisters... I love them! They drove from Coppell to Victoria, which is 5 hours. They did this with a 2 1/2 year old and an 8 week old. I thought it might take them 10 hours but they did it without stopping! That's how the Brawner girls roll. I'm so thankful for my sisters/built in best friends! It really seemed like a pivotal time for a visit. Julianne with her TWO kids and Jenny days away from starting her job that she has been working towards for over two years. I feel blessed to have had them in my home and get some time to talk and jabber like only sisters can. I hope they come back soon! That Whitley needs more kisses from the boys. I'm sure Ryan-kate is ready for some more wrestling with the Livesays. And of course, I'm ready for them to come and just bring that realness that makes life simple and peaceful.

Charity Ball 2011

we clean up nice we just don't clean up very often

our table

This year Charity Ball was on March 5th and the theme was Venetian Masquerade. It was a little more laid back than last year when it was on New Years Eve. The bonus was that all the dresses were on sale! I got a deal on my dress so I went for fun shoes as my reward for such savvy shopping. Prior to the event I didn't think I would wear my mask but as we stepped off the elevator to the ball, there were some "theme enforcers." They stopped me immediately and helped me put my mask on. I still didn't think I would wear it long but turns out, I kinda liked the mystery. Who knew? The only problem was that I started walking like I was stepping over puddles in the rain. The mask took away most of my periphery vision so I kept thinking I was going to trip, and if you consider the 5 inch heels that I had on, I'm lucky I didn't break something. All in all a fun night out with my man. We enjoyed sitting with Caroline and Zane in the front of the pic and Claire and Daniel in the back. Anyone need a mask or 5 inch heels? Let me know...