Wild Boys

We met up with our great friends to enjoy the Arbo again before the Texas heat set in for the summer. After spending considerable time shirtless and shoeless (aren't we classy?!) splashing in the frog fountains, we let the boys run wild to drip dry. Watching them soak in the sun, faces lit up with laughter and joy was, by far, my favorite part of the day. I just love having Boys!!

God knew exactly what He was doing when He blessed me with Boys...and I am so thankful for a best friend who is raising Boys right alongside me. I couldn't be happier!

Milkweed Time Again

Evidently there has been a nation-wide shortage of monarchs this year. We have had scouts checking our normal monarch breeding ground for eggs with absolutely no success. We were so sad to think that we may not get to witness metamorphosis this year.

And then we had great news! The season was just getting a really late start. We headed to Harry Moss Park to scout out some monarch eggs to adopt, and we were hoping to find enough to share with Clayton and Oliver too.

Inspecting the milkweed for eggs. O took his job extremely seriously. I think Noah was just excited to get to hold the "big cissors."

Eureka! After much hunting, we had what we thought was six eggs and enough juicy milkweed for them to nosh on for a bit.

Heading back to the van with our new babies.


I must have been delusional because when we got home, I could only find 3 of the six eggs I thought we had. I was so bummed! We gave two to our cousins and kept one guy for ourselves. However, the next day, Dad called to report that he was growing several stalks of milkweed in his flower bed and that he thought there might be eggs on a few leaves. Hooray!! We rushed right over, and sure enough: three more eggs to watch develop.


This is one of our favorite projects all year. Not only are we witnessing a miracle right before our eyes, but it is such a tangible representation of the transformation God does in our lives when we accept Him. What good talks the Boys and I have during monarch season!

Rare Occurance

Due to such busy schedules, it has become rare that all nine Halpin/Amezcua cousins are together at one time. On Mother's Day, Gigi was so happy to be surrounded by all nine little people. It's not a great picture by any means, but at least everyone is included!

First Tuesdays

We love First Tuesdays at the Dallas Museum of Art. Due to scheduling conflicts, the Boys and I had not been in awhile, so when May rolled around, Owen had been asking to go for awhile. Thankfully, we were free...and so was Yaya!

In the craft room they handed out really cool black paper and sharp wooden sticks. What should we do with these? When the Boys scraped the paper with their sticks, the black rubbed off to reveal vibrant colors underneath. What fun!

The theme was Cinco de Mayo. We thoroughly enjoyed the authentic Mexican dancers' performance!

We hung out at O's favorite spot for quite awhile. He could create treasures at this craft table all day!

Reading books with Yaya. Don't you just love Nosy's newest camera pose? Silly Guy!

Our travels would not be complete without a stop at Pacuigo! My only pregnancy craving has been their salty caramel gelato. I get it as often as I can!

The only black spot on our day? I convinced Yaya that we would do perfectly well parking on the street at a meter and saving the outrageous parking garage fee at the DMA. I diligently kept up with the time and re-fed the meter half way through our stay. However, when we left, we were three minutes late getting back to the van, and there, on my windshield, was the dreaded parking ticket. Ugh!! I ended up spending three times the amount the garage would have cost just to pay the ticket! I learned my lesson the hard way...

Cousin Oliver

Erica and I have been switching off some babysitting lately, giving the cousins some play time and the mommies a little errand-running time. It's been great! These guys enjoy each other so much!

Yay for popsicles on a hot afternoon!

"Race you to the top!"

We are so very blessed to have all of our family living so close to us! We can be involved in each other's day to day lives and watch our kids grow up together. May I never take such a precious thing for granted.

Nosy's favorite part of breakfast?

The "vita-yums"!

Cracks me up every day.

If I ever invent a new type of vitamin, I will have to call them Vitayums.

What's New at the Zoo

How blessed I have been with great friendships that have lasted many years, all through our dating, wedding, child-bearing years. Friends with history. I am so thankful for that!

One such friend is Ashley, who also just happens to have two wonderful boys. We met up with them at the zoo today for some memory-making fun.

Turner and O hangin' out in a giant egg shell.

The three bigger guys.

Nosy thinks he is just as big as Turner and Owen. They graciously let him tag along.

All four boys. What a joy they are!

After Ash had to head home for naps, my guys and I headed over to splash in the water area.

O was performing a comedy routine, cracking both of us up.

Thanks, Ashley, for a fun-filled day!

Progress Report

It has been one year since Nosy's diagnosis. That fact is amazing to me. In so many ways it feels like just yesterday, but at the same time, it feels like we have been surrounded by diabetes forever. Nosy is doing so, so well. He still has many bad days, probably more bad days than good days actually, but he is dealing with it so much better...as are we. Shots are rarely fought now and the Boy can actually check his own blood sugar. What a super star! He is learning what it feels like to be low and high and what needs to be done to fix it. His capacity for understanding amazes me.

I remember thinking this time last year that Noah's daily life would be full of pain and hardship, that Jeremy and I would never be able to feel confident caring for him, that Noah would not be able to eat and play like other kids. How far the LORD has brought us in one year! We still think about diabetes and blood sugars and carbs constantly, and when Noah acts out of character, our first worry is that there is a blood sugar issue, but we feel so much better equipped to deal with whatever comes our way. It is not as scary, and that is a big deal to a Mommy who has lived in fear for the past year.

I am so thankful to God for how faithfully He has carried us through this past year. He has sustained us and given us wisdom when we were at a loss. He has surrounded us with such wonderful family and friends who still think to ask us how Noah is doing on a daily basis (although I am sure they are tired of hearing about it!). Nothing has touched our hearts more than the family members who have graciously stepped forward to learn the intricacies of caring for Noah so that we can get away sometimes. The prayer support that continues for both Noah and our family is awesome! We have learned so much about God's character and grown so much closer as a family through this trial. We are so, so blessed.

God is good. All the time.

Season End

We wrapped up the soccer season this Saturday. It has flown by, but each kiddo on Jeremy's team has made some major progress this Spring. We ended up only losing one game this season. Jeremy and the kids were so excited and proud.

O very naturally fell into a defensive role on the team. He never scored, but he blocked dozens of potential goals the other teams might have scored. He was the guy who would head the ball off to turn it back around towards our goal. Jeremy was so proud of how much Owie learned this season and how far he has come.

The fan club.

Owen was always excited to have the people he loves most cheering him on.

A funny story about the tunnel of high-fives: It turns out that Owen does not enjoy being touched by strangers. He would willingly run through the tunnel, grinning all the while, but he very carefully kept his hands tucked in close to his body the whole time. Funny Boy.

Our very squinty fam

PARTY time!! We all headed to Cici's to celebrate the end of the season.

The trophies were even bigger and brighter than last year!

My favorite part of the party was hearing all the wonderful things the parents had to say about Coach Jeremy. I, of course, knew these things and had heard them from the parents all season, but Jeremy had never heard such praise first hand. They presented him with gifts and a wonderful photo book capturing the special moments of the season. Jeremy enjoyed his team and coaching so much, and it is very obvious in his relationship with the parents and team members.

Our honorary team member received a soccer trophy too. It is now his prized possession.

We already can't wait until soccer starts again in the Fall!

Simple Joys

The Boys have been begging me to play in the hose for days. Finally, we had a day that warmed up enough to let them strip down for some water fun. The joy on their faces says it all. Oh, how they light up my life!

1st of the Season

Easter Finery

Such handsomeness.

Happy Easter

from the very squinty Halpin family!

He is risen indeed!

DRAMA!

Whoever said Boys were less dramatic, has certainly not met our Nosy!

Check him out resisting the Easter Egg Hunt. You'd think we were torturing the poor kid!

All Jeremy was attempting to do was put a single egg in Noah's bucket.

"What?! There is candy in these eggs?!"

After that, he was happy to play along.

Crazy Boy!
I couldn't love him more!

A Firewheel Easter Celebration

It has become a tradition to meet up with my family at Firewheel church the Saturday before Easter for some good ol' fashioned egg hunting fun. They put on quite the production and the kids love it!

Pics with Gramps...

...and Yaya.

Check out O's loot! He was really excited to peek inside each egg.

Once Nosy got the hang of egg hunting, he did a great job too.

Noah waited in a long line to get this super-huge pirate sword. We got one for O too, since he was busy else-where.

Sweet Gramps and Yaya took turns standing in the world's longest line in the hot, hot sun for over an hour so Owen would have a turn doing this:

His thrilled face made it totally worth it!

We worked up quite an appetite at Firewheel, and since we skipped the free hot dogs, it was a good thing we had Yaya's birthday lunch coming up next!