Fourth of July 2015

My best friend from high school Christine and her husband Lawrence came over and cooked out with us to celebrate the Fourth of July this year. Caleb had fun hanging out with the guys while they grilled, while Christine and I caught up in the kitchen.  Caleb immediately took a real liking to Lawrence and eventually warmed up to Christine (whom he called "Tine").
Before it got dark, we had Christine take our annual picture decked out in our red, white and blue.

I was a little surprised that I could still fit into the same dress!

And, just for fun, here was last year's picture:

 And the year before:

I've been friends with Christine since we first met at the student council lock-in at the beginning of our freshman year in high school.  From then on, we did everything together...and we continue the trend to this day:  Christine is expecting twins just two weeks after me!  I think I may be just a bit larger than her though:

We can't wait to have lots of play dates together in the future!

Mama's Got a Brand New Ride

She's got a 266 horse power Lexus engine; she can go 0-60 in 7.2 seconds; she's got positive traction, 4 wheel independent suspension, 4 wheel disc breaks, a sunroof, and a sound system that has more bass than any minivan has the right to have.  That's right - we've broken down and bought a minivan.  When you're going to have three kids under 3, it's kind of a necessity. 
After what seems like an eternity of doing research and test driving vans all over the metro area, we have a new (to us) Toyota Sienna. 

 Not bad for a mom-mobile, right?

Here Tony and I are before we went out on our date to celebrate our 9th anniversary back in May - dinner and test drives!  

Caleb's already broken it in nicely (i.e., crushed gold fish all over the floorboard), which is exactly why we didn't buy it brand new!  Can you imagine what it will look like with three kiddos around to destroy it?!