I love my.....

GARDEN!!

I know I have been posting pictures of my garden on Facebook, but I just can't tell you how much I am enjoying my garden right now! I can't wait to go outside each morning to see what new rose bush has started to bloom. I have 35 varieties of antique roses in my garden and each one is special to me.

It always amazes me to see how dead and dreary things look in my backyard in early March and then see things slowly come to life in the following weeks. I feel very close to God in my garden and love how He made the earth so beautiful for us to enjoy.

I love my.....

SWING!!!

If I have lost track of Mary Beth even for a minute, I know exactly where to find her! She would swing for hours if we let her. I love my sweet swinging gal!

Barnhills in the Bluebonnets

I love taking pictures of my kids, but for some reason, bluebonnet pictures always seem to be the hardest for me to take. We are usually extremely busy this time of year, and have a hard time finding a night when everyone is available. We also have to think of the weather...is it raining? is it overcast? is the sun about to set? is the best bluebonnet patch in a safe area? blah..blah..blah..I didn't even get a picture of the boys last year in the bluebonnets bc of our nutty schedule.

Monday night, I was sitting at Mary Beth's soccer practice and realized that neither one of the boys had practices or games that night. This was going to be my one shot at getting the kids together for a picture. I raced home and told the boys to put on a clean shirt, told the boys that if they smiled ok I would get them a Starbucks (they aren't too keen on bluebonnet pics), picked up Mary Beth from practice, and went on a bluebonnet hunt. You can see in some pictures that Mary Beth is still wearing her shin guards and cleats! ;)

I think these turned out great. Phew! No more thinking about bluebonnet pics until next year! We enjoyed the Starbucks hot chocolate bribes yesterday evening on our porch!

Easter Weekend

What a fun weekend! We were very happy to have the entire Robinson side of the family in town for the weekend. We enjoyed having the kids home on Friday, lots of good food, great soccer games, and backyard time. The weather was beautiful, and we ended up breaking in our new patio furniture with our entire crew of 14.

Easter Sunday was a blessing as always. I love seeing old familiar faces at church and love the Easter songs we sing. After church, everyone came over to our house for Easter lunch. The food was great, then it was time for more backyard activities including an egg hunt and water gun fight.

The weekend was over before it started it seems. What great memories!

Uncle Michael and the nephews playing soccer.

I took the picture right as the ball entered Matthew's glove! Matthew enjoyed having Uncle Michael and Daddy pitch to him. He is ready for his catching debut tonight!





Before the tablescape was demolished by my hungry family! ;)
The Easter Bunny came!

This is where we parked for the majority of Saturday night and Sunday afternoon! Love the Spring in Texas!
My parents with their 6 little dears.
On the hunt.

Sweet Friday!

We knew it was going to be a long day yesterday, and it didn't help that Thomas woke up at 6am yelling, "We are going to the Sweet 16 today!" The kids were so excited about going and almost as excited to get out of school at 10:30 am!

We packed the car and headed south. It was so encouraging seeing so many BU stickers on cars heading towards Houston on Highway 6 then I-45! When we were almost to Houston, we dropped off Emmy Lou at my in laws house. They were thrilled to have some Mary Beth time for the evening and we knew she would be so excited to have cousin time with our three nieces.

After we said goodbye, we sat in bumper to bumper Houston traffic for a while, but made it to the stadium in time for hot dogs, snacks, and merchandise purchasing. Baylor had rented a large room across the street from the stadium to gather before the game, and I enjoyed visiting with my high school/college friend, Sam.

Then, it was time to head to Reliant stadium, where the Houston Texans play. Apparently BU fans were a little miffed that ESPN earlier in the week said our Houston game wouldn't be like a home game, since Bear fans didn't travel well. Many BU fans drove the 3 1/2 hours to Houston and there must have been 200 BU fans to every one for Duke, Purdue, and St. Mary's! I have never seen so much green and gold in my life!

As the game was starting, I tried to settle my nerves. You couldn't click on ESPN.com without seeing a picture or a reference to Omar Samhan. So many analysts picked them as a surprise winner. However, by a few minutes into the game, it was obvious who the better team was. And Omar Samhan, who was the leading scorer in the entire tournament, only had 3 points in the first half!

The entire stadium was rocking. On one of our cheers, one side yells "Baylor!" and the other side yells, "Bears!" The noise from this was thunderous. I got a little choked up! What an amazing memory to share with our boys! I wish all my friends and loved ones could experience the game with Matthew. That is one crazy fan! The boys were hilarious and so grateful that they got to go.

Of course, by half time, when our hopes for making the Elite 8 came more into focus, Bryon was already scheming on how he was going to make it back down for Sunday's game! Where there's a will, there's a way. The boys will be coming back on Sunday! My in laws were thrilled to get to keep Mary Beth for the weekend and Bryon will pick her up again on Sunday after the game.

We stayed and watched the Duke/Purdue game to see who we would play on Sunday. Wow. Duke's defense was impressive. This one will be a tough hurdle, but I hope that our boys can play as well as they did last night!

Sic 'Em Bears!

The entire stadium was colored in green and gold!
Taking in the sweet success of the first half.

Sic 'Em Bears!

There is never any doubt that we Barnhills are big Baylor fans! Matthew can hardly wait 8 years to attend school there.

We are also huge Baylor sports fans. For the past 15 or so years, we have been LONG SUFFERING football fans. However, our basketball program, which suffered some huge scandals nearly a decade ago by some of the players and former head coach, has been on the rise. The girls even won the NCAA women's championship a few years ago. They are a joy to watch, and are returning to their mid last century glory.

Every summer, Baylor puts on a basketball camp with many of the Baylor players helping. Nearly every day after camp, I would find Thomas playing one on one with Anthony Jones (the last picture with Matthew and Thomas in it), who was so sweet to Thomas. If you are watching the game tonight, he is the one in the white sweatband. The players were so happy to pose for pictures and play with the kids. Every one I talked to was so polite and seemed to genuinely enjoy being with their little fans. I love this team both because they are so much fun to watch, and that they are such sweethearts.

Last summer, I talked to Baylor's head coach, Scott Drew. His daughter and Mary Beth are friends in ballet class. He asked me if Baylor and Alabama played each other, who would I root for? I said Baylor! I will never waver in my loyalty to Bama football, but I am so proud of our Baylor team and basketball program, I could never root against the Bears. Of course, Coach Drew knew something I didn't know. Baylor and Bama ended up playing each other over Thanksgiving, and Baylor lost in the end. One of our few losses of the season! ;)

We are so proud that both our men's and women's teams made the Sweet 16! I am excited to root for our boys tonight in Houston. Win or lose...what a great season!