144/366: My lil’ Bailey Boo soaking up her last few days sans Holden. Once that boy returns, she will spend a lot more time on alert.

145/366: We weren’t brave enough to attend the Buccee’s opening the day before, but the lure of cheap gas couldn’t keep us away for long. For my out of state readers, Buccee’s is a Texas-sized gas station/convenience store. They have around 100 gas pumps and the convenience store sells your obvious gas station staples like chips and candy bars—but goes so far beyond that with homemade fudge, jams, jellies, bbq sandwiches, fresh fruits and veggies, pies, baked goods, a huge plethora of trail mixes. I allowed Holden to choose a snack, and from the amazing array of options he walked away with….Cheeto’s.

146/366: My boy is four now and this was his first “official” haircut. Up until now I had always snipped the crazy ends myself. However, this time I asked his babysitter—a lovely young lady who is also part of a cosmetology program in her high school—to trim his hair. We walked over to her house after school and 10 minutes later Holden walked away with a fresh ‘do. Truthfully I was a little nervous to turn over my babe’s locks to someone, but she did a great job and now his hair isn’t fuzzy at all and is nice and even. 1st haircut for the win!

147/366: Last day of preschool for the year. I try my best to save Holden’s outfit from the 1st day so he can wear it again in last day photos. Such a fun way to see his growth over the past year. Next year Pre-K!!

148/366: End of School year program. My mom and her husband were in town for the weekend, so they got to attend his program as well. This lil boy was super happy! Crazy story—a storm rolled through the morning of the program and our power was out for the entire morning. This meant the whole clan of us had to prep for the program in darkness. Good times.

149/366: Here I am in front of the lens at my sister’s bridal shower. Can you tell we are related?

150/366: A slippin’ and a slidin’. Y’all—slip and slides always look so darn fun when you’re a kid, but those things never work. This is a PSA to never buy a slip n’ slide. Thankfully this was an Aldi slide so like $5 down the toilet. Holden had a blast making other people push him down the slope, so I guess it was super fun for him and a good arm workout for everyone else.

151/366: My little man was pretty upset after Gigi and Grandpa Devin left for the airport. There were lots of tears. An early bath and some ipad time in the bed with Bailey dog helped smooth out his mood.

152/366: Another rainy day. Here’s hoping some summer sunshine is in the near future.

138/366: Just found out about this gem of a park from a friend. It’s got covered awnings, so it will be a great place to go during the 100 degree days of summer. There were two other little boys at the park that afternoon, and I guess they were already friends. My son tried to join their game and they were very, very rude to him and told him repeatedly to go away. These kids were all in the range of 4-6 years old, so all the children were in the same stage of life and could have played together fabulously. I felt so bad for Holden, who was just trying to make friends and have fun. I know kids are kids, and they can and will be cruel. This is just one of the first times I have witnessed children of that age being so exclusionist. It made my heart sad, and I think you can see from the photos that it made my little boy too.

139/366: Smore’s night! Holden definitely inherited my genes in that he is wary of sticky things. I love me some smore’s, cinnamon rolls and chips…but there is definitely a certain cringe factor when consuming sticky stuff. He told me that next time he just wants his smore not cooked. Hehe

140/366: A busy Saturday. Started with the last spring soccer game, then straight to a cake decorating party with friends. Frosting, frosting everywhere.

141/366: Boys will be boys. A game of indoor catch in action. You think the older one would know better.

142/366: My favorite piece of mail, a Stitch Fix box! Go check out my reveal post here.

143/366: Stick ‘em up.

118/366: Weekly grocery trip.

119/366: It’s the little things in life. My boy getting himself some ice water. Don’t mind the ridiculous amount of fingerprints on the fridge. Could I have Photoshopped that out—yes, yes I could. But, I’m feeling lazy and I bet your fridge has finger prints too.

111/366: My first attempt at shrimp etouffee. I was getting tired of the grilled chicken merry go round, so thought I’d try something different. Food photography is most assuredly NOT my forte, but I did spend 45 minutes making this concoction so it wasn’t getting away without a photo.

112/366: Paw Patrol forever. This little boy LOVES dogs (could you tell from his t-shirt and the movie in his hands??). Right now we are going through a serious Paw Patrol phase.

113/366: Had parent/teacher conference at my son’s preschool this morning. He got a glowing report and graduated to transitional kindergarten for next school year. My husband and I have been doing a lot of reading and phonics exercises with Holden and he can now read some simple sentences. As a treat for all his hard academic work, I took him to the Barnes & Noble to purchase a book of his choosing. We are big library people, so Holden really had no idea what a bookstore was. At first he thought we would have to return the book back to the bookstore after 2 weeks. It took awhile to convince him that this book would be his forever. He was in awe of all the choices, and settled on a robot book and, of course, a Paw Patrol tome as well. After the bookstore we went to the park and played for almost 2 hours! Then, after dinner, Holden got to do some painting. I was really ace-ing the mom thing last Thursday.

114/366: It’s getting toasty out, and this little guy is impatient for our pool to open. He loves helping Daddy check the chemicals, and he observes the water temperature every day for signs of improvement.

115/366: My sweet lil pup, Rufus. Not such a pup anymore at 9 years old, but he is definitely a pup at heart forever. Just look at this adorable face. Beagles are the best!

117/366: Backyard in bloom.