Nathan is SEVEN!

Nathan is officially past 6, 6 and a quarter, 6 and a half, 6 and 9/12ths, 6 and 11/12ths, and 6 and 364/365ths. He is officially SEVEN, and although it's a wonderful thing, IT'S AN AWFUL THING! How absolutely dreadful! My sweet, brilliant son is going through the years at lightning speed. I have no problem with my own age. I am perfectly happy everytime I get to take another breath in another day. However, it is hard to be a spectator as I watch my boys grow up.
I should not complain. I am thrilled to be their mother. I am blessed a million times over that they are happy and healthy and fill the world with love...and a few tantrums, but definitely a sizable chunk of love too. Seven, seven, seven, seven, seven. My, my, my.

Divine Dahlias and a Defiant Darling

Yes, these are MYYYY dahilas! The yellow one is much larger than the purple one in real life. It's 10 inches in diameter! Some of the plants I ordered produced smaller flowers than I expected, but I've enjoyed watching them grow!

And yes, that's my darling, too! He was having a tantrum and I wanted to capture the moment of love on camera.

Houses 2, 3, 4, and 5

I don't have a digital photo of our first house. I'm working on getting one, but all of our photos from back then were on film.

These others have set the stage for our lives. Some homes came with big trees, some with tiny lollipop trees. Some came in comfortably established neighborhoods, some were the first-born of the new neighborhoods. Two backed up to cotton fields, three backed up to alley ways, one backs up to a pond, one backed up to a wall of poison ivy! In three of them, I've rocked our children to sleep. Three of them, we built. One of them was, no doubt, temporary. One of them we bought on a whim--on the way to lunch one Saturday afternoon. One of them had a basement. All of them housed our dogs. Two of them were small, two were medium-sized, and one was large. Two faced north, one faced east, and two faced south. In one of them, we put up wallpaper. In one of them, we took down a LOT of wallpaper. In three of them, we painted rooms. In four of them were fireplaces...that were never, EVER, used. In each and every one of them, we had gatherings with friends and family. Each home comes with many stories, hard work, indoor improvement projects, outdoor landscaping work, and a ton of memories.

A Few Recent Pictures

Here are our dear friends Greg and Ewy, and their DARLING little Lucas! Lucas LOVES me, but perhaps loves Grandma a little more! It was such a pleasure seeing them and we feel so fortunate that their family shared their visit with us. I wish we could see them more.

This afternoon I snapped a picture of MY baby sleeping. I know that someday I will look in this bed and see a REALLY big boy. It will be just like seeing him as a tiny newborn bundle in his crib. Then in a blink of an eye, he grew to take up nearly the entire thing! I will miss moments like this--seeing him holding his "D" and sucking his thumb. Such a sweet boy.

ADA Alliance Article

Here is a link to the ADA news article about the Alliance conference.

http://www.ada.org/news/4016.aspx

Arizona

I recently returned from the Alliance of the ADA conference in Tempe, Arizona. What a trip! Just like last year, the members "hooked" me into this organization. What an amazing group of dental spouses. I am inspired by their devotion to each other and the dental community. I didn't take photos of the conference, but hope to "borrow" a few once there are some posted on their website (http://www.allianceada.org/). I did, however, capture some shots of the natural landscape. My cousin Nina was a great host and tour guide, and drove us all the way to the Sedona area. It was great getting to spend some time with her. Thanks Nina!

Spring Break with the Girls...and 2 Little Boys

Such fun! We trekked to San Marcos, TX, to enjoy some rest and relaxation during our Spring Break 2010 week. I can't say that there was much R & R, but we sure managed to have a great time. The new San Marcos Embassy Suites was home base. It was such a nice hotel! The rooms were spacious and comfortable, the lobby was HUGE but inviting with a large fountain and lots of little lounge-y spaces, and the breakfast was a nice start for each morning of our stay. We visited the outlets with a vengeance. We found wineries along the way to Fredericksburg, then spent most of a day meandering through that darling town. A magazine around Christmas time had a heavenly cake on the cover--and it came from RATHER SWEET, a bakery in little old Fredericksburg. Sooo, I had to scope it out. Yes, the goodies were absolutely divine! I even got a t-shirt! Woo hoo! San Antonio is never a disappointment. It would've been better with about 1/4 of the people, but the crowds were expected for Spring Break.

Somewhere in all the fun, we managed to take side tours of playgrounds for the boys to play. We stuck our feet in a yummy, yummy river running through the middle of San Marcos. The water was so clear and cold. I have to hand it to the boys--they did much better than I had expected. Road trips are rough on kiddos, but I love to get out and see the world. Our tummies are full, our credit cards are well-exercised, and the laundry is clean and put away. Spending time together was great. No normally rigid schedules to contend with, nor usual busy-ness of everyday life. Now we jump back in for the last 1/4 of the school year and eagerly anticipate the upcoming summer!