The gang

 This is the real us...

 I love that Kasidee will still let me get away with matching dresses.  She isn't in the I'm-too-cool stage yet, thankfully!

 I think this picture describes each one of our kids to a tea:  Sweet Kas, little miss attitude Bailey, then we have our little follower who is trying so hard to be just like her older sisters, Addison (who decided she liked the name Maddie better than her own so she signs school papers with that name now), and I'm way too cool for this now mom and I hate my new clothes because they are too big and don't fit right Parker.

Here are their individuals:

 Kasidee (8 years old)

 Addison (5 years old)

 Bailey (3 years old)

 Reilynn (2 years old)

 Parker (8 years old)

That's the gang. 

Make Up...

 This is why I have been MIA lately...

 They take baseball very seriously in our city!  A practice (sometimes 2), batting practice, and a game every week.

 We are going to be starting up on 2 games a week pretty soon too.

 I will say that the sport is growing on me.  At first, let's just be honest...

 I HATED BASEBALL!

 But watching Parker step up to the plate and make contact with the ball, or catch a ball fielding, is pretty awesome!  I'm glad he is having fun!

 Reilynn is at a fun age this year for Easter.  She has quickly put 2 and 2 together...

 These little plastic eggs are awesome!  They always have something yummy in them!  Get as many as you can in your bucket!!

 Bailey is already an old pro.

 Here is the primary Easter Egg Hunt.

 And then we went to the community Easter Eggstravaganza today.

 Complete with bounce houses,

 face and hand painting,

 sidewalk chalk,

 a good old-fashioned egg toss,

And lots of candy! 

Hope you all have a very Happy Easter!  I can't wait for the Easter bunny to bring the new Sunday dresses and clothes tomorrow...cute cute cute!

Mud Run

 A friend found a groupon for a 5K mud run here in Houston.  I thought it sounded like a lot of fun...

Before...

 climbing hay bails, army crawling under barbed wire, scaling walls...

After...(which, we were a lot muddier, but there was a slide with water on it that you slid down near the end of the course that washed off a lot of your mud)

I want to run in it again next year.  It was so much fun!!!  Maybe I can talk Mark into doing it with me!

Yee Haw!

I love the rodeo!!  Mark scored some great tickets from a friend and we headed to see the championship round of the rodeo and Brad Paisley.  There is nothing like the rodeo in Texas!  Everyone brings out their inner, and outer, hick...it is the best!

The BIG Reveal

 Our kitchen has been a progressive project.  We started with the floor, 2 YEARS AGO!

 Then I painted the cupboards, 5 months ago.

 And we finally finished this week, thanks to my wonderful, talented padre.

 We started with the left half, took a small break, and headed to Kemah for some really yummy seafood.

 We made a short stop at the Space Station, just for a few photos and some Wendy's frostys.

 Here is the photo shoot at Pier 8...go if you are ever in Kemah...yummiest shrimp and fish!

 This little turkey wouldn't get in the group shots, so she had to have a picture of just her.

 Ok, so these are a little out of order, but you get the idea.  Here is the Space Station again...

 Then back home and back to work.  We finished laying the stone that night, and grouted the next day.

Here are the end results...the cupboards painted white, antiqued, with new hardware.

The island is now black with bead board, and granite.

 Here is the stone subway tile back splash.  I love how it turned out!

And this is the best picture I could get with the sun shining the way it was.  I am so happy with my new kitchen.  It was a lot of work, but worth every second!  Thanks dad for coming and helping us finish up!

Stay-cation.

 Cheese ball #1...

 Cheese ball #2...

 Showoff #1...

 and Cutie Patootie #1...

 Mark and I have been going on our own dates a lot lately, so we thought it would be fun to take the kids on a little overnight.

 We drove down the street, unloaded all the backpacks full of what the kids thought they needed (everything from their rooms, including a picture frame in Addison's backpack), went swimming and...

had a very fun movie night (if you haven't seen Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, it is very cute).

I love that our kids are overjoyed and completely happy to keep it relatively simple.  It was a very fun weekend!