Fun with Oma and Lance

We don't have very many pictures of fun time because Oma and the boys didn't stay still very often! We did manage to take a few at McDonalds and the one time they sat down on the couch! The boys were so so excited to have Oma and Papa Lance come visit, it was non-stop playing (except for naptime) every minute they were here. Thanks so much for coming guys! We love you!

First Hair Cut!

Well, I finally agreed to let Caleb get his first hair cut... a very sad day for Mommy, but a happy day for Caleb who finally doesn't have to walk around with hair in his eyes! :) ( I just love the before and after look!) We did it while Matt's mom and Lance were out here visiting so they could be a part of a first. All in all, a good idea except that we got Kaden's hair cut at the same time, and that did not go well...to say the least, but that is a story for another blog! My little baby is all grown up, just in time for his birthday!

Car Ride

Well this weekend we took a six hour car ride to Lubbock to visit our dear friends and their babies. It was so much fun ...but a lot of work with little ones. Just thought I'd share this picture of the boys sacked out in the back seat! They did awesome for it being such a long car ride...it's making me consider longer drives vs. airplan trips...we'll see. Hope you all had a great weekend too. Matt's mom and Lance fly in tomorrow so it may be a day or two until I get back on here. See you later! Jesus loves you.

Update

Thanks for all the prayers yesterday. The trip itself went really well. Jeremy was awesome. I don't know how it would've all got done without him. So thanks J if you ever read this. The boys did great, we had our moments, but all in all they were real troopers...and it helped that they both had gift cards to Toys R Us...that made the day fun for them! The doctor well...lets just say it went as expected. He was in and out and didn't have a lot of new information for me. Basically, stay on the medication for another four months, cut back if I want to, and we'll reevaluate in October. That has to be my last visit cause my referral will run out with that visit. So for that I'm releaved. I'll do this one more time and hopefully by then the Lord will just bring healing. Things are improving though so that is a praise.
The shopping was a lot of fun though. And of course we got Starbucks and I went into Target but only to use the bathroom...but hey I got to go in! :) Thanks again for all the prayers. Jesus loves you.

Mom's annual picture

Just wanted to update everyone on the weekend happennigs. This was a nice slow weekend which I'm so thankful for since the next several weeks/months promise to be busy. Saturday Matt took me out to a new Italian resteraunt in town and then out to see a movie. Just fun to be together...and childless for a bit. Sunday was church, a quiet afternoon, and then the church had a picnic at the pool in town (hence the pool pictures). What we don't have a picture of is Kaden who we know affectionately call the "noodle pirate". He would wait for kids to drop their noodles and then would kind of sneak them away. By the end of then night he literally had like eight noodles wrapped around his little body! In his defense, he would share if he was asked but he did look really funny holding all those noodles! Caleb on the other hand completely immersed himself in the water for the .1 second that I looked away...maybe we need to tie some noodles to his body!

The other pictures are pictures that we try to take every year in the tree in front of mom and dad's house. It's kind of become tradition...also tradition is to have unhappy, screaming,pouty participants. My kids were happy to oblige this year. Kaden kept screaming the sun was in his eyes until we finally got him to understand he was in the shade...but he was still unhappy because he could see the sun shining in the street...whatever... we got the pictures! I put them all up cause I love how everyones expressions change in each picture.

Also on the exciting news front. I regesterd for the marathon today...which is non-refundable so I guess there is no backing out now! I'm so excited. I also got the hotel room booked so that is one less thing to have to worry over. Not that I should worry in the first place cause I know that God has it all in His mighty hands. So I'm very pumped over this.

In the not so exciting news front, I have to go to San Antonio for another doctors appointmet tomorrow. I would appreciate your prayers. It's me, Jeremy, and the boys. I'm so thankful Jeremy is going...wasn't sure how I was going to do it by myself. On the plus side there will be shopping and Starbucks to compensate for the doctors visit! :) Thanks for your prayers and I'll let you know how it goes.

I just hope you all know how much Jesus loves you. Have an awesome day.

Fun with toys

Just a few pictures that Matt took when he was playing with Caleb the other day. Too cute! I guess this is what happens when Daddy gets bored watching the boys! :)

Well we're back and now should be staying put for a while! :) We had an awesome time camping. It's always a lot of work to get ready for camping but so worth it once you get there! Let's see highlights of the weekend...Only getting rained on, on the way up there, nice bathrooms ( a major plus for me) with showers!, seeing a real scorpion for the first time...looking twice, and then quickly running away, hiking, swimming, time with family...even if Chris and Jeremy did ditch us a night early :) , sleeping in a tent with Matt and Kaden (Caleb got to sleep in the big tent with Papa and Grandma), stars at night, camp fires, smores, playing games by lantren light, walks with the boys, animals-turtles, snake, rabbits, turkeys, deer, birds, and lots of bugs-, Dad's camp cooking, not wearing any makeup for three days, hearing Kaden say, " I love camping!", watching Caleb have the time of his life playing in the dirt and trying to eat as many rocks as he possibly could, asking Kaden what his favorite part was and his answer being, "the horsey ride"....a 25 cent ride outside the grocery store where we bought ice! :), Caleb trying to catch the flies on his booster seat tray while he was eating, and just being away from home and able to relax, and of course so much more! Enjoy the pictures and if anyone can tell me how to just label the pictures that would be awesome...not that you all aren't looking at the blog just for my witty comments! Jesus loves you!

11 months old!

Wow, I can't beieve Caleb will be one year old in just a month! :) How time flies by. He is fully a toddler now. He can stand up by himself in the middle of the room and just take off walking, and he loves to walk around carrying things...usually things way to big and awkward for him to make it very far! :) He gets really frustrated when he falls down, but he's showing signs of greast perseverence cause he always gets back up. His favorite "game" is take things out of a container or object and then put things back away...things being toys, clothes, rocks, magnets, food, basically anything he plays with. His favorite toys are these two Little People pigs that we have. For some reason he loves to carry those around! Lets see what else, oh today in the grocery store I was letting him toddle around and he found a picture of a dog on the side of a box of doggie treats and started barking at it! I was pretty impressed with that! My kid can speak dog! :) I'm excited to see what changes the next month will bring as he comes more and more into his own.

Lets see the pictures are...Caleb sitting in his brothers puke bucket. Kaden got real sick right before I left for my trip and Caleb wanted nothing more in the whole world then to play with Kaden's bucket, so I finally washed it out and let him carry it around and sit in it...sometimes it's just easier to let them have what they want! :) And then today, I snapped some pictures of him cuddeling with me...he's been a little bit more loveable since I got home. And then tonight we let the boys play in the sprinkler for a bit. They had so much fun until they got cold!

In two days were leaving for camping over the weekend so I'm sure we'll have lots more pictures to put up soon. The fun never ends around here! :) Until next time, have a great 4th of July week! Jesus loves you!

Oh the FUN we had

Well, I'm home and adjusting back to the routine of daily life! :) What an awesome experience last week was. Not just because of the new sights and experiences, but because God really used the time to take our relationships with each other and with Him deeper. Not always a comfortable or easy process, but, oh, so worth it. God has blessed me with three amazing kindred spirits and the presence of God was with us last week as we shared, prayed, laughed, and cried together. I wish I had the words to describe it but it was just a tiny taste of what I believe the fellowship in Heaven will be like. And beyond that it was just fun to be together! One day we didn't get out of our pajamas until 4 and then we got dressed and went out to eat and to the beach! I can't even remember the last time I stayed in my pajamas that long...I don't think ever! :) And then there was the time in Target we all tried on the craziest shoes we could find and had an employee take our picture! :) (See picture!)

And New York...Wow New York is...Big...I've never seen so many buildings or so many people! And we were complete and absolute tourists the whole day! :) We got so excited to hear the cabs honking and we even asked the NYPD to pose for a picture with us! :) I'm sparing you the many many picutres taken and just trying to hit the highlights. We arrived early in the morning off the ferry and got on a bus to Times Square. Notice in the picture of Times Square I'm standing by a Starbucks! Totally the highlight of the day to get Starbucks in Times Square! :) Then we went to the M & M store (didn't even know they had those!) and went to some tourist shops to get all that out of the way. Then we hopped on a double decker bus to see the sights. We got off at the Empire State Building and went to the top. What an awesome view of the city...just buildings as far as you could see. Amazing. And I'm so excited to watch Sleepless in Seattle now so I can say I've been there! :) After that we hopped back on the bus but traffic got bad so we finally decided to get off and walk our way down to the harbor boats so we could go see the Stature of Liberty. On the way, we went to Ground Zero. Very sobering and nothing prepares you to see that sight. It finally makes reality out of all the history we witnessed taking place. After Ground Zero, we headed toward the harbor and found some awesome places in New York where there was actually grass and flowers and trees! :) By the time we got to the harbor, we found out we missed the boat we had tickets for so we had to buy new tickets but decided it was worth it to see the Staute of Liberty and Elise Island. The cruise was so so So Cold but fun. We saw the Brooklyn Bridge and the "Bronx" as well as the other stuff. So once we got off the cruise, we started waiting for our tour bus to come pick us up...yeah, it never came! It had stopped running by then. So now it's like 7 p.m. and we're in New York and have no idea what to do so we start walking as fast as we can towards the middle of Manhatten and Rockefeller Center. We get really far but not fast enough so we decide we have to get a cab. That was the funniest thing and so easy...just like in the movies! So we get out cabbie to take us to Rockefeller Center. We snap some pictures, get some dinner, and then catch another cab back to the ferry. The ferry ride back over to New Jersey was awesome because we could see the whole city lit up for the night. So pretty. And then it was home for bed! A lot to take in, in one day!

So that's New York in a nut shell, and I just don't have the words to describe the rest of the week. The boys did awesome at home with all their babysitters and Matt! Thanks so much to everyone who prayed and helped. Rachel and Jenny you did awesome! I'm so so so proud of you! Thank you. I feel so overwelmed and blessed to have been able to go and expereince last week. May God recieve all the glory! Jesus loves you!