Spring Break and Birthday Celebrations

This week has gone by so fast already. Eric has been off on spring break and we've really enjoyed having him home, although he has had a major list of projects to get done during his time off.
This is a list of what Eric accomplished this week:
Eric cleaned out the flowerbeds of all of the tumble weeds that make their home there, fertilized them and added compost and compost tea, then added new mulch. When Eric was carrying the compost to the flowerbeds Mali started cheering him on. We laughed so hard because she said "that's my boy". We spent Tuesday cleaning Mali's room. This was quite the feat. Eric also fixed Mali's bed so that the head board no longer leans. Her room looks great. We also talked with her and established rules for how she needs to keep her room clean. Eric made several trips to Home Depot and Lowe's with Mali to get ideas and plans for building a small storage shed. Eric also maintainenced his lawnmower and weed eater. Split firewood with a hand held axe and hammer (yes it is spring now and we probably won't need the firewood until winter) with the help of Mali. Staining the concrete patio in the back. Convinced tree trimmer to lower their charge for trimming our trees to 1/3 of original quote. In between all of this, Eric coached soccer (Varsity is in the playoffs now) and watched the girls so that I could work with my client each day. Don't feel too sorry for him, he also got to play golf two days during the week. I'm sure he also got some time in to hold his baby girl and enjoy her sweet smiles. Eric got lots of time with Mali and they had special dates throughout the week. It was fun to have an extra set of hands home and to watch Eric love on his princesses.
We also celebrated my birthday throughout the week...29 today!!! On Tuesday, Eric took Mali shopping for my birthday and not surprisingly she gave me my present as soon as they got home (good smelling lotion). On Wednesday, the Dallas family came to town. We had a great time with them. Mali, Zach and Calyn all got along the entire time. The highlight had to be when the older kids dressed up. Whenever I need a laugh, I'm going to picture that, but keep the rest of you in suspense as to what they looked like. We got to eat at an ice cream/burger joint and the kids had ice cream made to look like clowns for dessert. After a big lunch (and Miss Abby eating all my fries:)), we went to the zoo. Tim and Beth took everyone while I sat in the warm sun and fed Eleri. After the zoo, we went to play at the Southwest park and got out lots of energy! Eleri was pretty fussy every time we were in the car, but other than that it was great. After hanging out for longer at our house, the kids ran around the front yard. Mali came up to me and told me that her underwear were wet because she had peed in the grass. I told her to go change. Then as everyone was loading up, Beth was making sure that her kids had used the bathroom. Zach told her he had but I never saw him go inside. Later, it finally clicked, when Mali was telling us she peed in the grass just like Zach! It was a great day!

Continuing in celebration, my good friend Sara, who shares the same birthday, came down. She stopped at Chili's and brought lunch to the house. It was so good to catch up with her and hear all about what God was doing in her life and see the fruit of her being planted in Lubbock again. Sara was amazing with Mali (she teaches 3 year olds at the CDRC at Tech) and we got to talk about some of Mali's developmental issues.

Friday my dad and Terry took me out to eat at Abuelo's. For the first time in a long time, Eleri did not scream in the car, and slept through lunch. It was so nice and relaxing and I even indulged in a good Dr. Pepper with seemingly no effect on Eleri. Megan and Chris came too.
Today has been a good day as well. I received a beautiful, sweet, big smile from Eleri first thing this morning! Mali came into my room and gave me a sweet girl kiss on the cheek. Eric brought coffee when he came in from Dalhart and we enjoyed wonderful bagels from The Bagel Place. Brandon came in for lunch and took us to Young's Sushi Bar. It was good and fun to do something out of the ordinary down town. Then we went to Coulter Gardens to look at flowers! It has been a great 29th birthday so far. We are headed to Dalhart tonight so that we can be there for Jordan and Chrissy's baby shower tomorrow.


St. Patrick's Day