May

Robin & Fredo's Wedding

On May 21st, my long-time friend Robin married her boyfriend of two years, Fredo Gonzales. The wedding was gorgeous! I was a bridesmaid and Em was the flower girl. This was her 2nd try at being flower girl and she did much better this time around. She had a blast! She was given lots of candy to keep her happy on the alter. :) She really enjoyed the dance and didn't want to leave at the end of the night.

She walked around the entire ceremony. It was pretty comical. :)

Look who's in the middle!!

She wanted to go by herself. This was real fun in heels!!

Allison's First Experience with Food

Allison has taken the longest of the girls to eat baby food. She wasn't ready for it until about 6 months. This is her first attempt and it didn't go well. It took another month for her to be ready. Thought these pics were too funny not too share!

This face sums up the experience!

Enjoying the Summer Heat

The kids found some sidewalk chalk and we found a big mess! They had a ton of fun and did some great art work. They didn't like the hose down at the end though!!

April

Relay for Life

In mid-April we participated in the annual comal county relay for life. It was a really special night for the kids and for me. It was hard to be there and celebrate the survivors since Rachel can't be one of them but cancer research is still just as important to us as it was when she was alive. The luminaria ceremony was a bit of a disappointment due to disorganization but she had lots of luminarias lit for her. Emily, Callie, Allison, & Cade had lots of fun running the track! My friend Brooke came from San Angelo with her boys to walk with us. The kids enjoyed having more walking buddies. Mom, me, and the kids at church did a lot of fund raising for the event and we were able to raise over $2000! Thanks to everyone who donated.

Group pics are pretty hard to get with this gang!

Drew & Callie had fun playing with the hula hoops they were selling in

the booth next to us. We were their best customers!

The fundraisers

Robin was there to walk with us

Love this pic!! :)

snack break after walking the track

Mom got arrested and I had to make a donation to get her out!

Remembrance Ceremony at Santa Rosa

The same weekend that we participated in relay, we attended a remembrance ceremony at the hospital for all of the kids they had lost in the past year and a half. It was a hard one to attend but I was glad that we went. Emily got to color a butterfly that they put on a lit tree to represent all of the children lost. We helped make a quilt to donate to the hospital and there was also a slide show. It had too many kids on it for comfort. :( It was really sad. We got to see Rachel's doctor and I enjoyed that. She didn't know about Allison and was very excited to meet her. I tried to explain to Emily what it was about. She still doesn't really understand she just tells me Rachel's in the sky and Rachel's sick. It's hard to explain it all to a 2 year old.

The butterfly tree

Making the quilt. Penny was there too but her picture didn't turn out.