Whew! What a Week!

Is it already Friday? WOW! How did that happen! We have had one busy, busy week. But, it has been full of fun!

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The kids and I went bowling with some sweet, sweet friends. Have you ever been bowling with 6 kids that are 5 and under? It is quite humorous! We will definetly be doing it again before the summer is over. Jo, made a great list on her blog, about all these things you should know before going bowling with with kids that are this age. HA! Love it! Thanks, Jo! :)

1. They ask every time, for the entire game, "is it my turn?"
2. You can have the lane for 1 hour and only bowl 5 frames.
3. The ball gets stuck in the middle of the lane A LOT!
4. It is almost more fun to dance to the music.
5. Little boys will put their faces in front of the ball return.
6. The foul line is cool to cross because it makes a neat noise.
7. It is very fun to scoot across the slippery wood floors.
   
8. They don't make bowling shoes small enough, but, everyone wants to be barefoot anyway.
9. For some reason bowling can be a little "scary".
10. It is a whole bunch of fun!

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Check out Cash's latest trick...
I looked up one day, and he was just standing there. I have no idea how he learned how to do it. He just started crawling last week. He is still working on how to get down. But, not bad for 7 months. Huh?!

Cash also got some new kicks...
Have you ever seen anything more precious? I love how he has no ankles and his shin just kind of falls over the shoes. HAHA!!! Yes, I know my boy is huge. He is so yummy! I guess momma has some good ol milk. :)

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The girls have been taking gymnastics this summer. Well, Lily has been taking it for 2 years. But, this is Maggie's first time. Maggie was so excited to finally join in on one of Lily's activities.

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Last night, Conn and I went to see our good friend, JB Barnett, do a gig at Berry Hill in Market Street. We have known JB for a long time and he just returned from spending 14 months in Australia. He has such amazing talent and it was so great to see him doing something that he loves. If you ever need fun date night, check out his website to see when his upcoming shows will be.

Gotta love date nights!

Our good friends, the Ryan's, showed up. Well, most of the Ryan crew. Greg was doing a wonderful job as Mr. Mom, while Joy was at school.
Love him!
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The girls also had swim lessons twice this week, but, I totally forgot to take pictures. I can't wait to show you those. Both of my girls are swimming across the pool. It is amazing! Maggie just turned 3 in April, and was already swimming after only 3 lessons. Lily learned to swim last summer. So, this summer, she has learned the breaststroke, side breathing, the backstroke, and just this week, the butterfly. We love Miss Carlea! They have one more lesson on Sunday, so I'll be sure to take some pictures and hopefully get some video.

Tomorrow, is Lily's BIG 5th birthday party! She really doesn't turn 5 until the 24th, but, we are having her party early because we will be out of town on her actual b-day.

So, I guess so much for slowing down. Hope you all have a blessed weekend! If you are in TX, stay cool. My Expedition read 104 yesterday! Holy cow!!

Happy Monday!

(pause my music)

Sparkle! Sparkle! Boom!

Happy 4th of July!!!

It's a Blog World Afterall

Since I have joined the blog world, I have "met" some of the most amazing women. Some of these women have quickly become some of my dear friends. But, some of these dear friends, I had never really "met". Well, a couple of nights ago, that all changed when a few of us decided to finally meet up for dinner.

(left to right)
Jen & Erica
Jaclyn, Me, and Jenni

I had not met (face to face) some of the girls before, but some of them had already met each other. As we were sitting at dinner, we started to realize more and more, that each of us had connection after connection. It was insane and pure craziness! We loved it!

Let me introduce you...

• Jen- a blog world friend that I met while reading Jaclyn's blog. They are sisters. Jen also goes to church with Jenni. She writes some of the most hilarious posts! She makes me laugh...hard! She is even funnier in person. I can't wait to get to know her more!
  

• Erica- a blog world friend that I met through reading Jenni's blog. She and her husband have one incredible story! Erica is also in Jaclyn and Jen's parent's Sunday school class. It was so great to meet her and her adorable little boy. I could seriously eat him up. I can't wait for he and Cash to become big buds!
  

• Jacyln- another precious blog world friend that I came across while reading Jenni's blog. I commented on her blog over a year ago about how I loved her precious little girls birthday party. We have become such great friends ever since then. We also got pregnant with both of our sweet boys, around the same time, too. It was so unbelievably great to finally hug her and spend time with her...face to face.

• Jenni (or Jennifer as she now goes by. But, she will ALWAYS be Jenni to me!)- She is actually one of my very dear friends that I have known since junior high. We lost touch through the years, but, reconnected about 3 years ago. This whole blog dinner was actually her idea. Thanks, Jenni!!! She and her husband Rusty, have one amazing story, as well. Oh, if you ever need an excellent LD nurse, she's your girl!!! Love her!

All American Boy

7 Months

new places. new faces. same Frio.

Put together...

4 - packed SUV's
1 - beautiful 5 bedroom cabin
16 - loud and crazy people

and, what do you get...

our annual Marler family trip to the beautiful Texas hill country!

Yep, it's that time again!

Last week, we loaded up all the families and headed to the Frio river. We had a blast, swimming all day and dancing the nights away at Garner State Park. Thanks, mom and dad, for another amazing year!!!

Until next time...

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Playrooms

Kelly, over at Kelly's Korner, is hosting a home blog tour, every Friday. Today, is play rooms, bonus rooms, and laundry rooms. I am going to show you our playroom. I would show you our laundry room, but, it is just a regular ole laundry room...that has piles and piles of clothes that need to be washed.

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These first pictures, are from our playroom in our previous home. I loved this playroom. It was a great size and we had an artist friend come in and do some custom painting. All we told her, was that we wanted an alphabet theme and she took it from there. It was so precious and I really miss it.

View from the door. The top part of the wall was painted pink and the bottom half, pale green.

Here is some of the painted alphabet that went all the way around the room.

"P for puppy"

"K for kite"
"W for wagon" and "Y for yoyo"
"G for giraffe"
"B for balloon" and "D for dragon fly"When we moved, we had to paint over every stinkin' bit of it!!! It was a very sad day. Yes, I cried!

But...life goes on, and we now have a great new playroom! No, we did not have custom painting done. But, we still love it just as much! We were able to use all of the same pieces. So, that was great!

View from the hall as you walk up our stairs.

My two girls! These hang on the wall as you enter the playroom. My mom gave these to me for mother's day a couple of years ago. They are old antique windows that she had made into frames. LOVE them!

This little t.v. cabinet was mine in college. It matched perfectly with all of the other things, so we kept it as is.

We found all of these little storage bins, at Garden Ridge, back when we decorated the first playroom. They were all unfinished wood. I remember Conn and I sitting in the garage painting these suckers when I was 8 months pregnant with Maggie. Good times! HA!!! After we painted them, our sweet artist friend, once again, came in and did her miraculous work!

Here is another one that holds all of the books. These are a pretty penny at Pottery Barn Kids. But, I think we got them for like $50 at Garden Ridge.
There is one on the other side that holds toys and puzzles.

Here is a view from the other side of the room.
This mural was painted for Lily 's nursery, before she was born. It was painted on a board so that it could easily be moved. Genius idea!!! I am so glad we were able to move it with us. Instead, of painting OVER it!! :) See those little name plates in the ground? They have Lily and Maggie's name on them. So cute!
My dad made this rocking horse for Lily, for her 1st birthday. It has been rocked on for many, many hours!

Thanks for stopping by! You can check out Kelly's blog, for more fun playrooms and maybe even some cute laundry rooms. Who knew there was such a thing?

See ya next time!!!