Family Time!!!

It's pretty rare when the whole Hindes family gets together.  Luckily, we all wanted to go to Garrett & Lana Ruple's wedding in San Antonio and were able to spend a weekend together as a family.  10 adults, 3 babies, and 3 dogs :)  And I'm sure it'll grow a lot more lol.  We had so much fun!  My parents made us awesome meals, we sat and talked for hours, played with the kids, went to the wedding, went to church, laughed a lot and I loved every minute of family time.  We are so close as a family which I am extremely grateful for.  I didn't take that many pictures but here are a few :)

Lauren and Kyleigh

 I love this one...

My handsome husband and I on our way to Ruple's wedding...

Sister :)

 Sister & Sister n Laws

I love this one of my sis, mom and I

Riding to church with Layton

Kyleigh turns 1 this week, I can't believe it!!

Have a blessed day!

A week with Layton...

I am SO behind on blogging, but I haven't had time lately.  I promise I'll try to be better :)  I have several to catch up on so here is the first attempt.  As I mentioned in my last post, I babysat my nephew Layton for 7 days the first week of April!  My sister and her husband went on a cruise with another couple, and my brother and sister in law.  They had so much fun!  You can see her post of the cruise HERE!  I had SO much fun with Layton... it kinda made me want one of my own :)  But I know it'll be a few years (don't worry mom :).  Anyway, we went to Rockport at the beginning of the week with my parents and stayed in their RV.  We went to the park, fed the seagulls, ate lunch on the bay, rode in the wagon, went for walks, etc.  I tried to keep Layton pretty busy all week so that he was distracted from missing mommy and daddy. He did GREAT!  Then Wed-Sun of that week we went back to Amy & Clifton's house and stayed there.  One day Deborah and Mason came over to play.  It was fun to sit and talk to Deborah and catch up on life.  Then I took Layton to the San Antonio Zoo.  He LOVED it!  We rode the "choo choo" and saw lots of animals.  We also had a picnic at Brackenridge Park.  Later that night my mom and I had dinner with my friend Holly and her precious baby girl, Brynn.  She's almost 3 months old now :)  We made visits to Grandma Hill and Grandma Hindes, and on the last day we went to church and then lunch with my family.  It was a fun filled week and I enjoyed every minute with him.  The last night I was there I was rocking him extra long since it was my last night, and he looked at me and said "I love you Manda".  I had tears running down my face the rest of the night.  It was the sweetest thing, and it made me realize how much I'm going to miss my family while we are in Africa.  I'm tearing up just typing this!  Okay, here are some pics for you while I grab a tissue, LOL.

 Holly's little princess Brynn :)

I love you Layton!!!

Date Night!!!

Friday night Jerrod planned a surprise date for us!  I love these kind :)  He took me to the Horse Races here in Houston!  I've been wanting to go forever.... so I guess he picked up on it, LOL.  We had such a great time together.  We ate dinner at the restaurant there, and you can sit at the table for the rest of the night.  We also did some $5 bids and ended up winning $75!  Every horse we bid on got 1st place!  So we called it a night and it turned out to be a free date plus a little extra cash! ha  Here are some pics from Friday night...

View from our table

Awesome husband and I :)

That night I also surprised him with final four tickets and Kentucky gear to wear to the game :)  He was so surprised.  Jerrod has been a HUGE Kentucky fan since he was a little boy.... and since they were playing in Houston for the FINAL FOUR I thought it would be a shame if he didn't go.  He took a friend since I worked this weekend and they had a great time, even though Kentucky lost :(   Boys don't take pics though so I don't have any to post from that.

Also, my sister and her husband, my brother and his wife, and a couple friend of theirs all left to go on a CRUISE today!  They will be gone for 7 days!  So I'm babysitting Layton for Amy and Clifton!  My parents had him for today since I was working, and I'm meeting my parents, grandma and Layton in Rockport Monday morning!  We'll stay there till Wednesday and I'm hoping for sunshine so I can take Layton to the beach.  Then on Wednesday we'll head to Pleasanton and I'm staying with Layton from Wed-Sun at Amy's house.  I'm so excited but a little nervous as well.  I've never babysat for a full 7 days!  Pray for me this week, and pray that they all have a wonderful time spending time together, no kids :)  The good thing is, I have a whole week off from work!  I'm definitely pumped about that!  I'm sure I'll have tons of cute pics of Layton from the week.  I'm thinking I'll take him to the park, zoo, my parents pool, over to see Holly and Brynn, great grandma's house, etc.  We'll have plenty to do to keep us busy :)  Have a great week!!

Nice Long Weekend

This weekend was pretty lazy and uneventful for the most part but it was much needed!  First off, my sister Amy came to Houston for work last week which was a huge treat!  Her and I work for the same company, just different cities so she was finally in the Houston office doing some auditing :)  Wednesday night we celebrated her birthday at Pappasitos with Jerrod, Carter, Laura, Amy and I.  I didn't take any pics but hopefully she will post some soon on her blog!  Then Amy and I got to have some girl time and we talked till almost midnight!  Then I met her for lunch on Thursday so it was nice being able to see her!  I really wish we lived closer, that's for sure.

I had off Thursday-Sunday which was awesome.  I did lots of baking/cooking this weekend!  Jerrod's dad stayed the night with us on Thursday so I cooked a big dinner, then on Friday I made a little day trip to College Station to see Cooper, Kyleigh and Lauren!  It was so much fun to play with the kids, they are growing up so fast!  Lauren, thanks for letting me come over and play :)  I had fun talking with you and playing with the kiddos!!!  The rest of the weekend Jerrod and I were house sitting and just spending time together :)  We also watched lots of basketball for March Madness of course!  My bracket is destroyed though... who picked VCU or Butler for the final four?!?!  lol anyway, here are some pics from my trip to College Station :)

Cooper in his "fedex truck" haha  He's so cute!

He likes to mow the grass just like daddy!

Precious niece Kyleigh, she's the best baby ever!

Kyleigh with her aunt Amanda

Cooper and I - he knows me by "Amanda's red car" LOL

Have a great week!  Give God the GLORY!!!!