Blogging Silence....

I am participating in a day of blogging silence tomorrow... I came across this blog months ago through various other blogs. As a new mommy, I was drawn to Megan's posts about the joys of pregnancy. Unfortunately, her baby, Cohen, was never able to come home with Megan and her husband. Instead, he got to go home with God in Heaven, after 12 short days on this Earth. Tomorrow is baby Cohen's Memorial Service and as a sign of support for Megan, some of her friends created this day of silence.

I encourage you to head to Megan's blog, or this blog, set up in Cohen's honor to read his story. While it is sad, Megan's incredible positive attitude and faith in God's plan gives me such hope and reminds me of just how lucky I really am.

What: Moment of Silence for Cohen

When: Thursday July 1st from midnight to 11:59 pm.

How: Bloggers participating will post the Cohen banner or simply post Cohen’s name in large letters on their blog.

Why: July 1st Megan and Brent will be holding Cohen’s memorial service. The moment of silence is an opportunity for Megan’s blog community to stand behind her and support her on this difficult day. Linking up will give Megan a chance to see the support at a glance.

Western Day Parade

I'm going to be honest. I'm not too keen on living in a small town. The knowing everybody's business and constant gossip really rubs me the wrong way. BUT....one time that I do enjoy living in Elgin is when they have all the different festivals. This past week all the Western Days activities have been going on. Ruston and I walked downtown to the parade yesterday morning. We met Danny, Kathie and Dallas on the way. The parade was a lot longer than we expected! Ruston LOVED the horses. He kept trying to reach out and grab them. :)

Waiting for the parade to start

Showing Uncle Dallas who's boss!

Let's get this show on the road!

Taking a break from yelling at the horses :)

Family Parade Pic! :)

Here are a few of the parade participants we saw....

Father's Day

We celebrated Danny's first Father's Day last Sunday. It's taken me a while to post, because we didn't finish our Father's day celebrations until last night!

Ruston went to a birthday party at a Ceramic painting place about a month ago. While we were there, I had him "paint" a little bowl for Danny. He would squish the paint between his fingers and then grab on to the bowl. It's cute. :) It's for Danny to put the mounds of things that come out of his pockets every day.

We also made him a memory book of all Ruston's important moments. It's got every 'good' picture of Danny and Ruston in it. Very sweet. I look at it all the time. :)

We went to Danny's parents' house for lunch on Sunday. Ruston wasted no time showing Amanda how he likes to give kisses!

Such a sweet smile.

Mimi and Amanda

Playing ball with his Pawpaw

Dallas and Tinker made home-made ice cream out in the garage.

Dillon and Danny played video games.

We went on some rides around the neighborhood in a little mule. Bubba has some good pictures of us in it, so when he emails them to me, I'll post them. :)

Last night, we finally were able to go out with my Dad. Ruston gave him his Father's Day present, first thing.

He had lots of fun playing with Dad and Benda on the floor.

He didn't want to bang on the pots at first. He would much rather chew on the spoons!

But he got the hang of it!

We went out to eat at Texas Land and Cattle. Oh my gosh, it was delicious, but I ate entirely too much! I had some onion ring thingys, a salad, a baked potato, and a filet. THEN, we got dessert. We had strawberry cheesecake and a warm brownie topped with a scoop of ice cream. Dee-licious!

I know it's late, but HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all you daddies out there. :)

Sex and the City!

The past 2 weeks we've been having a girls night at my house. A lot of my friends haven't seen much of the Sex and the City series. Well, for those of you that don't know, I absolutely love the show. I have the full series, so we've started from the beginning and are going to watch all the way through.

I stole these pictures from Amy! This is the group from last night. Kristen, Amy, Saoirse, and I ate entirely too much food and did a lot of talking. But we had lots of fun! :)

Check out our table full of food!! haha

We won't have Sex and the City night next Wednesday, because we'll be playing POKENO!!

Ten on Tuesday - Weekend Wrap-up!

This past weekend, Ruston and I headed north to visit some of my good friends. It was the first time for some of them to meet Ruston! I wanted to post all these pictures earlier, but there just hasn't been time. But that's OK, because it worked out with the 10 on Tuesday!! So, here we go!

10. Ruston and I traveled to Sachse. He had a fantastic time playing with new toys.

9. We made new friends! Ruston and Addy "saw" each other when we came up in October, but they both pretty much slept in their car seats the whole time Leslie and I ate. :) Ruston and I were in the living room when Addy came in and saw us. She ran right over to Ruston and smiled. He didn't really know what to do...he's not around other kiddos much. He just stared at her. :)

8. We went on a wagon ride! Dusty put a lift on Addy's wagon. So cool. :) We buckled the kids up and Dusty pulled them around. It was really funny to see how differently the two of them rode....Addy kicked back and enjoyed the breeze....Ruston practically leaned his whole body out of the wagon and craned his neck to watch the wheels. Such a boy.

7. We took a co-ed bath. Don't worry - Leslie and I had a talk with the kiddos about how this would NOT be OK when they were older. haha. They were both tired, so it wasn't a very long bath. Ruston was in rare form....first he stole Addy's pappy from her mouth and put it in his. Then when she started crying, he felt bad, cried himself, and tried to give it back to her. haha. When I picked him up to get him out of the tub, I noticed he had left a nice little surprise. Yuck! Crazy kid just couldn't hold it in. :)

6. We went to lunch on the lake. I've said it a million times, but I really miss the girls I worked with in Mesquite. I was able to meet up with a good group of them in Rockwall at Gloria's on Friday. It was great seeing everyone and catching up. I didn't get to talk to all of them as much as I'd like, but it was still fun to chat a little!!

Ruston wouldn't take his eyes and hands off of Gracie's toys!

Brooke, Lindsay, and Amber

Emmy, Christen, Ruston and I

Jeri, Gracie, Kelly, Levi, and Ally

Kelly, Levi, Ruston and Kylie (Kylie and Evan got engaged last week!! So exciting!!!! :))

Danielle, Kelly and Levi

5. We worked on our driving skills! We beat Leslie back to the house, so we sat in the car for a little bit. Ruston had fun pretending to drive. :)

4. We went swimming! I was really surprised that Ruston didn't enjoy this more. He likes his bath and "swimming" in his little rubber ducky. And he likes swimming in the big pools. But he was not a big fan of this swimming experience.

He just sat there while Addy splashed and crawled around.

Poor baby. There is a little fountain that squirts out the front of the pool. Leslie turned it on, but it wasn't really coming out. She realized there was a kink in the hose....when she straightened it out, the water shot up higher than the roof! I screamed, Leslie screamed, Dusty's mom screamed.....which in turn, made Ruston scream. It doesn't look like it on my sweet boy's face, but it really was quite funny. :)

After some coaxing, I got him to sit back in the pool. Notice, we had to turn the sprayer off! Once we gave them some bath toys, he was entertained a bit longer. :)

3. We practiced walking!! OK, pardon the pink walker, but we had to use what was available! haha. And we went last night and bought him his own little blue one. :) Ruston is getting to be such a big boy! He liked standing and holding on to the little car more than actually walking with it, but that's OK, too!

In the video, he's fussing the whole time. I think that might have to do with the fact that I kept making him do it over and over again. haha

2. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel! Lisa is getting married in November!! She has asked me to be the Matron of Honor! We went and met her and Jamie (Maid of Honor) at Cracker Barrel to get filled in on all the details. I'm really excited about the shower and bachelorette party ideas we talked about. They really sound like a lot of fun! I was a dork and forgot my camera in the car, so these pictures are from my phone!

Ruston got to taste some pancakes and a cornbread muffin. This is the result of handing a 9 month old a whole muffin and letting them "eat" it. :) I let him play with one of the little syrup bottles (I thought they were plastic!), which he eventually threw on the floor and shattered. Oops.

He loved Auntie Lisa's necklace.

Lucky man with all those pretty ladies. :)

1. We celebrated Addy's first birthday!! I am so glad we were able to make it to Sweet Addy's birthday party! Leslie's family is so friendly and I had a great time seeing a lot of them again. Addy is definitely loved....Dusty and Leslie had a houseful of guests!!

Happy boy ready for some birthday fun!

Besties with our babies.

Leslie made and decorated the cutest little cupcake cake for Addy. I think she liked it!

Dominie Family

Hahaha, don't you wish you could eat like this and not get funny looks?!?

Thank you, Leslie and Dusty for a fabulous weekend! I appreciate you letting Ruston and I stay with you and play! Alright, I'll be expected you here now!!! :)