thirty, flirty & thriving...

birthday triplets: when two other people in your world share your same day of birth.

triple threat birthday triplets: when two other people in your world share the same day of birth, live in the same city, are all friends, AND are all turning 30!!!

mollie, kylie & i decided to ring the start to our 30th year with somethings we all hold dear: cake, cookies, wine, chocolate, fondue, and FRIENDS! sweet kylie offered her house and we all had SO much fun posing for shots and catching up with friends.

it was a girls only event---so our mamas and sisters joined us for the party on sunday the 24th.






okay--the save feature is giving me issues, so i'm gonna post then return later for more pix. you've gotta see the one where carrie lets me try on her gold sparkly tori burch shoes!

okay, pix loaded, but running out of battery--so will edit again later... what is going on w auto save today!!!!!!!!!???????????

destination mothers' day 2009

Second Annual Roadtrip to Hillsboro:

(pt, sic'em, & eee pose for a shot in the back seat enroute to hillsboro, tx)

it began as a compromise last year. it was my first 'offical' mothers' day and i wanted to celebrate at my church w/ my friends and little family here in waco. but, we also wanted to see our mothers---so destination mothers day was born! we consider hillsboro to be the 'half-way' spot for meeting when we are coming from 4different directions (waco, plano, arlington and fort worth). we ate at the lone star cafe again, but this might be the last year for THAT part of the tradition---we will see. i heart cheddar broccoli bites--which has turned out to be the only yummy reason left to eat there.

here's the crew-- start w/ patriot and go around the table: kelly, josh, larka lita, great pop, uncle cam, big pop, uncle clay, aunt eee, grandpa greg, and noni joni--whew!

noni & grandpa greg just returned from a dreamy cruise
and were apparently still in vacay mode:)
patriot shane was wowing the table by showing how quick he could devour a piece of cake and demonstrate 'how old' he would be at the end of the month (two)! stay tuned for more posts on pst and his love of cake on the face:)

i was SOOO excited about receiving my pandora bracelet and 1st charm, the emerald dangle for pst and i's birthday:) thanks mom & dad!

our little fam--josh, patriot & i. have i explained about the "ta-daa" yet? okay, it's a tradition in the wheeler fam to get mom an orchid corsage for mothers' day. so patriot and josh sweetly followed this tradition and presented me with the yellow one you see pictured above to wear before church that morning. well, when i opened the box patriot handed me, josh said "ta-daa!" and patriot repeated "ta-daa!" anyhoo, i saved it in the fridge, to make me smile, and when ever he sees it, he points and says 'ta-daaaaa!". so stinkin' cute.

the wheeler clan. pst is drama like his uncle cay (clay:)

the tetens clan...check out that pst smile!

in order to have a little time for patriot to run & play while the adults fellowshipped, we decided to go to a little park in hillsboro. but on the way we ran into this elementary school playground, so this is were the magic happened!
the men (and pt) on the swings---isn't my dad cutie?

this is probably my favorite pic of the day---josh's 90 year old pop swinging like a kid! erin thought this would be a hilarious invite to his next birthday party---something like "91 and still swingin'" what do you think larkin?

and below is another fave: the youngest and oldest of our clan:)


the tetens' enjoying the swings

and we will end on a fun note with a play pic of the 6 wheelers. i think clay is still in graduation mode--10 months later! isn't his bu ring pretty?

oh my how the time flies when you are having fun:)
what a wonderful mothers' day!

what a wonderful may...

from mothers' day to rose & colin's visit to my 30th birthday---may has been fabulous! patriot's 2nd birthday is right around the corner, so may is still in full swing and i have a little back tracking to do to commemorate my favorite month of the year!

these pix are from mothers' day where pt and i posed for our out door (and red door) photo shoot:) check out last year vs. this year---my tiny tot is now a little man!

lots more to come, but i'd better get to bed---we have a BIG weekend coming up!

wordless (diaper-less?) wednesday

easter eggstravaganza 09

on easter eve
all through the house,
the wheelers were stirring,
while the tetens slept like a mouse!

(okay, you know how us wheelers, are---saving all the fun for the NIGHT BEFORE a big event!!!)

creating crumpler's cookies placecards,

hand-rolled pasta by eee

even, cam got into the easter spirit, dying eggs at 1am:)

the following day was full of smiles as we had our 2nd annual easter lunch at our house in waco! my fam came down from plano, joan, greg, & cam, and josh's fam came in from arlington, larka, garland, shannon & pop. eee lives down the street so she didn't have to go far! we wanted to throw in some additional fun by inviting over mike & kristin evans and their 2 year (almost!) old twins sam & georgia:)
we got done what we could the night before, then rushed home after a fabulous easter service at highland to put the finishing touches (and last dishes together!) for lunch. our sweet neighbors let us borrow their oven, so we were running around like little ants. in the end, we were able to enjoy friends and family while dining on delicious food and starting traditions for our kiddos. the Lord has blessed us with SO much that my heart overflows with thanks on the weekend that he gave US his son!

josh and patriot, so sweet in their easter blue!

1st easter day egg hunt: patriot had some practice at egg hunting over the past week, at school, at the park, so he was totally psyched to be hunting eggies in his own back yard (only rivaled by uncle cam, whose eggs were up high:)i should have taken a video so you could see how excited pst was about the little elmo in the eggs--so funny! he can sing the theme song, but i promise he doesn't watch it THAT often!!

kissing elmo--patrtiot's new love

well, j and i look cute, but pt was feeling the slide photo shoot! (what are the little red things in his hand, you may ask? little elmo(s)--who has been at his side or sidelined to watch (while things like brushing teeth takes place) ever since!

erin, me, josh, pst, mom, dad & cam

patriot, larka, me, pop, josh & shan
patriot (still kissing elmo!) with big pop and shi-shi on the back porch.
kristin, georgia, samuel, & michael evans--our sweet friends!

the three littles on my NEW birthday swing (thank-you, honey) that i got early so we could all enjoy it for easter weekend!

you can imagine trying to get the 7 of us to LOOK and SMILE at the camera---aaaah...2 year olds!
before he crashed for nap-time, he opened his easter basket (well, of course the only grandchild got his own basket from both sets of g-parents! so josh and i gave him a big dump truck to push around the house filled with a couple more elmo goodies:) i chose this pic, because mom selected the disney movie BOLT for him since it was the 1st full length movie that he watched in the theatre---i'm sure i forgot to blog about that months ago when it happend, so here is my note to self!

i actually picked out 25 pix to put in a slideshow, but after an hour and a half having no success uploading and fooling with picasa's help center, i gave up and started uploading them in small batches to the blog! if you lasted 'til the end, thanks for enjoying our holiday photos!