"Anyone can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a Daddy."

Oh how I love my Daddy!  My parents have been such amazing examples to me throughout my entire life in every single aspect.  My momma is my best friend and my daddy is my hero.  I am a major daddy's girl and that will never ever change no matter how old I am!  Anytime there is a day set aside to celebrate someone, it is super important to us.  Father's Day was no exception and we had so much fun that day with both of our dad's.  We all went to church at Beltway that morning and then went to Abuelo's for lunch.  I decided that we should grill out that night for dinner at our house.  So, as soon as we got home from church, I began cooking our Father's Day dinner.  We had all kinds of yummy stuff!  I mixed up two pounds of hamburger meat with seasonings and Cody grilled them out on the grill. I made homemade black bean burgers for my momma because she is a vegetarian.  And for the sides I made baked french fries and corn and avocado salsa.  For dessert, I finally decided to dare to make the Pioneer Woman's Milky Cake.  Yep...that's right...the one with 11 full size Milky Way bars in it!  It also has 3 sticks of butter in it...it's definitely not a healthy cake...but it sure did taste good!  It's one of  those cakes that you make for a special occasion or when you are going to have several people over because it makes a ton!  We had dinner around 6:00 and just spent time together.  Sitting around the dinner table as a family doesn't seem to be something that goes on much anymore. So, it is always such a joy to have both sides of our family over to eat and spend an evening together.  I look forward to the next time when we can have our families over for a meal and just relax and eat as a family.  We are so blessed to both have amazing dads in our lives that have been examples to us and loved us unconditionally.  Love you so much Daddy!

Me and my daddy on Father's Day...along with all the yummy food we cooked and all the ingredients to that delicious Milky Cake!  Yummy!!!

Our Brown Eyed Girl

I mean, really?!?!  How cute is she?!?!?!?

Our sweet little Trigger turned a year old on June 18th!  I can't believe that she is already a year old...time goes by so fast!  I guess it won't be too much longer and we'll have had her in our little family for a year.  I remember when Trigger and her brother Tank were born.  Brittany, my little brother's girlfriend, called us last summer telling us that her dog (Rocky) and her step-dad's dog (Chaco) had had puppies.  They didn't even know Chaco was pregnant!  In fact, they had even taken her to the vet because they thought she might be and the vet said that she wasn't pregnant.  So, on the morning of June 18, 2010, Brittany went outside and saw two little black blobs laying in the grass.  Chaco only had two little puppies and we got Trigger and my parents and brother got Tank.  They have been so much fun and have made both of our families so much more lively.  It is hilarious to watch them play together and we have so much fun having little play dates with them!  These two little pups have so much energy, personality, and are complete attention junkies!  Michael and Brittany toted them around until they were ready to leave their momma, so they are used to having the attention of everyone in the room.  Trigger will go and get her bone as soon as we walk in the door and bring it over to you and growl with the bone in her mouth and keep doing it until you chase her through the house.  She is a big talker and will make all kinds of noises until you give her the attention she knows she deserves.  But, what's best about her loving all the attention is that she is a big time snuggler.  Sarge, our boxer doesn't really like to snuggle all that much.  He does love to get his belly rubbed and will roll over on his back and paw at our hands until we give him a belly rub.  He's a super chill dog and just goes with the flow.  And little Faithly loves to be near us, but she only snuggles when she's super tired or at night when we go to bed.  She does sleep in between us and will snuggle up on one of us throughout the night.  She's super prissy (maybe I taught her that!) and her personality is loving and playful, but calm at the same time. But, there is just something about little Trigger.  Her facial expressions and her personality continually make us laugh and the way she loves us is priceless.  All of our babies mean so much to us and each one of them makes our family complete.  They mean so much to us and keep us company when we are all together, but especially when one of us is home and the other one isn't.  We truly feel that God has placed these three doggies in our life and He perfectly picked each one of them out especially for us.  Not too long ago we went into Mardel, a Christian bookstore off of South 14th, and we found a plaque that was titled "Pet's Prayer."  It truly says exactly what we feel about our dogs and how they make our family whole.  Happy 1st Birthday little Trigger!!!  We love you to pieces!

Pictures of little Trigger as a tiny puppy!

Trigger when she was 3-6 months old...she is Miss Personality!

Trigger when she was between 6-9 months old...can you tell from all these pictures that she loves her brother and sister?!?!?

These pictures were all taken on her birthday...1 year old!  She is so much fun and loves to play and love on us! I bought her some cupcake doggie treats for her for her birthday...you can tell that she is very excited to get her birthday treat!  She also shared them with Faith and Sarge...they were in love with these little treats! 

Happy Birthday Trigger!!!

Sweet Baby Love!!!

Almost a month ago I went to the DFW area to go to one of my very best and very dear friend's baby shower.  I have talked about Amie before in several of my other blog posts and it is getting close to her due date!  Her baby shower was on June 11th at her house and little Gavin is due July 11th...in 6 days!  I can't believe how fast nine months has gone by.  I still remember the day that she called to tell me that she was pregnant.  And now...he's about to be here!  Her baby shower was SO much fun and she got SO much amazing and cute stuff for that little guy!  His nursery is also super adorable.  Amie is so talented when it comes to decorating and thinking to put things together that I could never possibly think of.  She wanted to do something for his nursery that was vintage, yet modern.  So, when she was looking through magazines and had gone into several stores, she finally decided to do an industrial look.  His nursery is navy and mustard yellow with gray accents.  I'll post pictures at the end of this so that you can see just how amazing it really is!  One of my favorite things that she did for his nursery was to have her dad draw several pictures of common objects that were related to their family.  It's so special because her dad did it for Gavin and he will always have them to look at. 

It was so good to spend time with Amie and all the other girls that were there at her shower.  Not only did I get to meet several of Amie's friends that she teaches with, but I also got to spend time with one of our other dear friends from college.  Jamie moved to Arkansas a little over ago and so we don't get to see her as often as we used to.  But, when she comes through Abilene or makes a trip to the DFW area, we always try to get together so that we can catch up and just be silly girls!  After Amie's shower was over, there was several of us that stayed for a few hours and just talked and laughed.  When we get together like that, it's always just like we used to do when we were in college.  It's so much fun and makes me realize how blessed I am to have such amazing and wonderful friends.  I hope that someday all of our kiddos will be as good of friends as we all are...I have a  feeling that won't be a problem though!

A few pictures from Amie's precious shower!  The top left is Amie...8 months pregnant!  She looks amazing!  The bottom left is Amie's mom, Me-Me, her sister Stephanie, and Amie.  The top middle picture is a picture of Jamie, Amie, and I before the shower got started.  The rest are just a few pictures that I took from the shower...super cute!

Gavin's AMAZING nursery!  My favorite part are the pictures above the changing table that her dad drew for his nursery.  So precious!