april, etc.

This certainly snuck up on me! April was killer, in all the best kind of ways. :)

Sadie-bug, in volleyball mode. She's doing sooo well, it pretty much makes up for all the 8:30am games (in Little Elm!) I've had to take her to. ;)

R3 told me this Peanuts cup is his new favorite, and my heart melteddd... & a beautiful sunny afternoon while doing business-y things.

Needed/deserved adult time at the Katy Trail Ice House in Plano during the most perfect patio weather!

CJ even managed to stop by to hang out! I'm pretty sure I was too tipsy to understand what he and R are whispering (and shaking hands?!) about, buuut they're adorable. And my favorites. :)

Beautiful old-world details at a client's house... seriously, I would die for those windows.

Food food food! The most delicious catfish tacos (a la Richard!) after a long day and a perfect vegetarian set-up (a la Tonya!) after a day in Ennis. :)

Meghan, hovering between two worlds (or too tired to take her Scarborough Faire digs off after trying everything on ;P)

Me & the fabulous Ms. Heidi... & the most adorable picture of Grandpa Jim (and Auntie Marion!) when they were wee ones (dying!).

Sadie had to dress up as a "nerd" one day for school. I didn't ask any questions. ;)

A superb date-night at The Latin Pig (SUPERB!).

The only song I need to listen to for the rest of my life. #saintrupaul

New spring clothes & an early volleyball morning selfie. :)

Emily and... Gabriel! (A "special dude," if you catch my drift.)

R wears many hats... being an impromptu volleyball coach for Sadie's team managed to be one of them! (Can you tell how much volleyball took over our lives this month?) And beautiful Waco blooms.

This dress/heels combo that Sadie wore aaall last weekend... she's learning very well!

Fishing in Little Elm after school! Apparently R figured out the perfect spot... last time they went they caught 2 dozen! 

Our amazing (FREE!) new patio furniture (with R's burgeoning tomato plants making a small appearance, as well).

Other memories, not photographed:

- Meghan's killer good moods lately! Let's keep that up!

- Remembering how important Amy Schumer is to my mental health. ;) 

- Mary surprising me at my office one morning! What a sweet treat!

- Richard III being the sweetest, most-hugs-to-give boy ever lately, even telling Emily "You look really pretty in that photo...!" (after Em was in a super pissy state, fyi ;))

- Richard being the best husband/co-pilot/business partner/vehicle car-taker ever :D

- Booking our honeymoon! Finally!

- Business coffee dates... my new favorite thing. :)

easter-fest 2015!

(imagine singing the title along to "treat yo'self 2011!")

I'm fairly confident we had an Easter celebration to end all Easter celebrations. With Darrah + her boys, Tonya & Stephen, mom & Grandpa Jim AND all the Moores (AND Jake from across the street!) we had 14 people in our little house and it was one of the best days of the year so far. :)

Not that I feel like I need to apologize for anything, but I didn't take alot of pictures. I've been sooo busy for the past few weeks (lots of early mornings, long drives and long hours... but all for good real-estate reasons!), and my only break was filled with spring cleaning (adulting?!?!). The morning of Easter-Fest also included getting up at 6am to take Sadie to a volleyball game. :X I was so tired afterwards, I even forgot to shave below my knee on just ONE of my legs. :X I even told myself "no pictures! who cares!" and poured myself a big glass of wine. But these people are so adorable, I of course snuck in a few (and after 15 hours of sleep today, I still haven't taken care of my lone unshaven leg calf ;P).

The weather was beautiful. We dyed eggs. We ate Easter ham... burgers! ;P Meghan made epic fried squash that was a dream dipped in ranch dressing. Emily wouldn't let go of Tonya's hand for 30 minutes. Mom brought us toilet an epic amount of paper. ;P There was soccer. There were riddles. There was a vinegar/baking soda volcano with BLUE lava. There were paper catapults and coloring. I drank alot of wine with Tonya. EVERYONE came outside to say good-bye to mom and Grandpa Jim and watch them drive off. The Moore family got to better know the Haynes family, and vise-versa. And at one point, Cody and Ryan were on the roof (I'm told for the purpose of parachuting action figures ;)).

It was a beautiful day, and I hope to never forget it. :)

Silly faces and hugs. :)

Grandpa Jim wearing R's Whole Foods jacket because he was a little chilly. <3

Cody and Ryan on the roof!

And then they took over my phone when I wasn't looking... :D

We even had such a full, fun evening the kiddos didn't have time to go through their Easter Baskets from Juju. :D They were so sweet this morning going through it all. :)

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend!

a little bit of march :)

March has been the busiest month of 2015 thus far. You probably would have bought me a drink just looking at our dry-erase calendar (which I was sooo excited to wipe clean for April!). Here are a view pictures from the past month... :)

Sadie started playing volleyball! Her team is called the Aces, and she has a great little team (and great coaches!). They even won their first game!

Practicing her serves... she's so good at serving! Even this past weekend, she had the highest amount of serves over the net (5!) for the entire game.

The cheerleading team: Yauna and Meghan, Da and Emily. :)

Emily said, "Let's take a selfie! Ok, now a 'James Bond' selfie..." ;P

Mom trying to figure out Siri (she meant to say "by bench.") I was having a giggle-fit! 

Mom double-scratching backs before a yummy family dinner. :)

A sweet gift from Yesenia :D

My favoritest interest find!

A random note from in one of my legal pads. ;)

My first listing closed... and a celebration donut followed!

R surprised me with a lavender kombucha from work (which I think is the first-worldiest thing I've ever imbibed).

Finally wearing the scarf Cody got me for Christmas. ;)

Getting together with Janine, which happened to be Sweet Baby Kennedy's first lunch date! :D

My new swim-suit (long-sleeves for pasty skin! and no worries of cleavage or tummy!) which I bought purely with the thought of "Beyonce would wear this..." I don't care what anyone else things - I lovelovelove this thing. :D

other memories not to be forgotten:
- weekly visits work sessions with Grandpa Jim :)
- Hilary came back into town from Chicago! We consumed alot of alcohol and watched "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" -- WIN.
- networking events going SWELL
- Aaron came into town for Spring Break!
- the violet-flavored cocktail I had at Alamo Drafthouse during "Cinderella"
- beautiful "open moonroof" weather
- our landlords buying us a fancy new dishwasher!
- an impromptu lunch with CJ, who just happened to buy me the most beautiful spring coat and scarf (what did I ever do to deserve him?)
- Meghan bringing me home lemon sorbet from work :D
- the BEST potato/pea samosas at an Eisemann Center event I volunteered at (!)

sadie is 9

It's official - our first kitten birthday has his 2015! Our sweet little Sadie lady is 9! She's had quite a year. Lots of love, tears and important lessons (like there's few woes a long bubble bath can't fix ;)).

Over the past year, I've been keeping notes in my iPhone of little snippets into the kittens' lives to write on their birthday posts. :) Here's a few insights into Buggins last year...

- She claimed not to like pink! We would still always get her pink things, which she never turned down!, but there were multiple declarations of "I do not like pink...!"

- She had to have short hair... before deciding she had to have long hair. We got her the most darling short-hair cut over the summer (which she wanted so she wouldn't have to brush as much hair... true story) but then decided long hair would be more fun for Meghan to play with... so now she's growing it out!

- Girlfriend started to sing alot! I think "Frozen" inspired ever girl to find their inner Idina Menzel, and there were quite a few backyard concerts of "Let It Go," and all over her different covers. I always encouraged her to belt it out, build up those vocal chords! She was really shy at first, but slowly started to sing louder and louder... it's been such a treat to watch. :)

- Speaking of singing, she was always down for Taylor Swift sing-alongs in my car. Super important, because Sadie and I are the only ones in our family who are Swifties. ;)

- Oh, she is terrible at making her bed. It's like pulling teeth, and when she does "make her bed," it's still a mess, hahahaha.

- She's always the last to finish dinner lately! And by last, it's like... 20 minutes after everyone else. Slow and steady wins the race! ;P

- She made her daddy stop mowing the lawn on a very hot day ("Daddy! Daddy! Stop! I need to tell you something!") only so she could bring him a glass of water... *cries*

- When she almost combusted with excitement when we told the littles their daddy and I were getting married... *cries again*

- She wants a fried egg and avocado toast for breakfast, just like me. :)

- And she's starting to get very moody some days. The pre-adolescence has begun! I always encourage her to make a gratitude list when she's feeling off... some days those work and some days they really don't work. ;)

Great Sadie quotes this year include...

- "I just can't stop hugging you!" (said to her daddy)

- "If you like it, then you sour cream on it!" (sung as "Single Ladies," during taco night!)

- "It begins with an R and ends with a P!" (Her clue to "Wreck It Ralph" -- when she was in a very silly bed-time mood ;P)

- "Thank you for making my dad so happy..." (said to Juju, after R opened one of his Christmas presents from her)

- "Cyan!" (when asked what her favorite color is ;P)

- "You must clean ze plate." (very serious during dinner one night)

- "Cashews, like Shaleah." (when asked what her favorite kind of nut is)

- "I'm SWAGGING!" (her pun on "swinging")

- Sadie: "Have I told you the story of when I lost my first tooth?" Me: "Yup!" S: "Good! Well, I'm still going to review it. *tells story*"

- and then there's all the millions, billions! of time she tells us how much she loves us and how awesome we are... 

Sadie a wonderful birthday celebration this year. First, I took her to see "Cinderella" at Alamo Drafthouse for her Kylie Birthday Date (or she took me... I ordered tickets 5 weeks prior because I'm also I 9-year-old girl). We got a salted caramel shake and a Glass Slipper martini, respectively. ;) Oh, and we wore matching lemon dresses. Because of all of my dumplings, Sadie is the most to "!!!" with the idea of dressing like me. :) 

Afterwards, we had a whole herd of family show up for dinner at Moo-Yah. 13 people! Sadie had never been there before, so she decided it was the perfect place to try for her Birthday Dinner. :)

Serious teenagers. ;P

Moo-Yah also had a dry-erase board that was quite the Littles Magnet before and after dinner. 

After dinner, we came back home for cake, ice-cream and presents! Sadie requested a berry-chantilly cake from Whole Foods Market (girl's got taste), which Meghan happily decorated. :)

She made out like a bandit with presents! Clothes, a pink volleyball, rainbow EVERYTHING, scarves... even this fancy HOMEMADE nighty from Tonya (in her favorite color, cyan! hahaha)

Cousins playing soccer outside...

... and cousins laying on the couch! ;D

And then cousins being sweet! (Ryan was bringing cigarettes to his mom, don't worry! haha)

Birthday Girl then decided to brush everyone's hair (Stephen is such a good sport!)

... and with Tonya's mermaid/down-to-her-waist hair, it was a very intense activity. :D

So, I think it's safe to say she had a great birthday celebration today! On her actual birthday, I surprised her at school with lunch (Wendy's!) and ate with her friends. It was such a fun moment! Her birthday is normally during Spring Break, so having her birthday during a school day was a big deal. ;) And her friends are sooo cute (and very obviously Sadie friends)!

Happy birthday to our sweetest Sadie-bug! You are such a light in our life, and hope you never grow out of cuddles, loving terrible pop music and wanting to wear heels (no matter what the occasion). We love you sooo much!