Caleb in hats

Caleb is displaying his cuteness and his hats! :) 

Master Kaden

Kaden waiting for his turn to high kick and hi-yah down the aisle. 
I got this little bit of Kaden's kick
Kaden is the little blur right in front of the teacher. They're doing their high blocks here.
Waiting in line with his buddies Alizhia and Eli before breaking their boards
Bowing to the audience before breaking his board
Proud Kaden sitting with Papa and Grandma watching the other kids...Dad is examining Kaden's board to figure out how it broke so easily...It's cause he's a Master!
I love this picture of Kaden standing in his Ta Kwon Do outfit and his army rain boots!
Breaking the board!

Kaden had his first Ta Kwon Do demonstration last night and I had my first teary eyed, proud mama moment...hence the excited and loud cheering in the video! :) I'm not sure why I got so emotional over watching him do high kicks and blocks and breaking boards, except that it was like watching my baby boy grow up into a little man. It's really true what they say about having children, it's like watching your heart walk around outside your body. Master Kaden did a great job doing his high kicks (the child is EXTREMELY flexible...he kicks higher then most dancers!) and "hi-yah's!" down the isle and was so cute to watch doing his blocks and kicks up on stage. My favorite was when all the kiddos were echoing the instructor and yelling things like, "I will be respectful", "I will be a good listener", and "I will do my VERRRRRRRRRY best"! :) Let's hope those lessons stick! Then it was time for the most anticipated moment of the night...breaking the boards! They took the kids up three at a time and they bowed to the audience, their instructor, and then smashed the boards...with their bare hands! And yes it is a real board and not one easily broken. Kaden was so proud and each of the kids got to keep their boards. Ours is now proudly displayed on our mantel! 

  The camp was run by a really neat Christian church that just has a heart for the community and uses Ta Kwon Do as a way to reach out. If we were staying it's something we would keep Kaden in...we may just have to see what we can find in California. It's just so neat to see that God can use all kinds of things to bring Himself glory. 

What we're up to

Kaden getting ready for Ta Kwon Do camp...I think he's just so cute! I love the focus in his eyes in these pictures

Caleb passing the time while we wait for Kaden to get done swimming. The last picture is my favorite :)

Just an update on our week...since I know so many of you anxiously await our blog! :) We have been filling our days with Ta Kwon Do camp and swimming lessons. Kaden is loving both and Caleb and mommy are enjoying some one on one time in the mornings. Kaden is at camp from 9-11:30 and the camp is run by a Christian church in town. It is so  neat how they are incorporating Christ into Ta Kwon Do. Kaden has his performance tomorrow night...the same time that we have scheduled to take the teens out to a ranch and do Bible study. So I'll be taking Kaden and video taping/taking pictures, while Matt is out with the kids and then we'll join them. Anyways, Kaden has been doing kicks, punches, and even breaking boards (although I did find out that the board is made of foam and painted to look like a board. He is loving it though and this is something we may look at getting into once were settled in California. The Caleb story for this week is one morning after we dropped of Kaden we went to Walmart to grab a few things. Caleb saw some Disney princess Kleenexes so we let him get them (no, I'm not at all worried that he loves the princesses...the way I see it he just loves beautiful women!) He kept asking to open the box but we told him he had to wait until we got in the car. So once we finally got in the car Caleb opened the box...and started pulling out Kleenexes and then got very very upset when he couldn't find the princesses inside! Matt and I were laughing so hard, but poor baby just didn't understand why if there were princesses on the outside of the box why they weren't inside too! :) Sweet boy. 

  Swimming is going well too this week. We just decided that even though Kaden is still struggling a bit whatever he can gain from this class will be a benefit so we're still plugging away and every day we see improvement. 

  That's about it for this week, I got my hair highlighted, which is fun but expensive and I"m still getting used to being so blond! Next week we're headed to Six Flags with the teens and doctor's appointments the rest of the week...and then Caleb's birthday...and then moving the next week! AHHHHHHH! It's coming fast! I'm still in a bit of denial and cleaning every day and keeping a "normal" routine...for those of you who know me, I don't do well without my routine! :) Oh, and for Jody...I ran a 9.27 min pace for about 4.6 miles today! I was so stoked! I feel like maybe I'm finally getting my pace back...but I was sure tired at the end! Ok enough rambling. Hope everyone has a great rest of their week and weekend!

 Jesus loves you

Girl's Weekend

Mom and I are back from our FABULOUS girl's weekend...sorry no pictures I left the camera with Matt so he could take cute pictures of the boys...but apparently they didn't do anything cute, so no pictures at all from the weekend! :) Mom and I got away early Saturday morning and made our first purchase a block from her house! We came across a yard sale and found a chest of drawers for Chris...since he's moved out and all his clothes live on the floor. We were very excited by that first purchase and then we were off to San Antonio. Who knew outlet malls were so fun!!! I got to go into all these name brand stores, head strait to the back and find all kinds of things on clearance. It was a great way to spend my birthday money. I also got all of Caleb's birthday shopping done so that was very nice. Saturday night, we had dinner at Olive Garden and then had a room on Randolph AFB. We took a walk that night, watched some TV and went to bed...I didn't know I could get so tired just from shopping! Sunday morning we woke up and went to the base chapel for church. We checked out and headed to another, closer shopping center. It was there that I had one of those perfect moments...I was in Target, with my mom, at the clearance racks, holding a Starbucks! All my favorite things! :) We did a bit more shopping and headed out of San Antonio around 1 which got us home (3 hours later) in time for some time with all the boys. 

  I'm so grateful for the memories and the blessings of this weekend! Thanks to husbands that let us go, and God for all the safety on the road and little blessings that added up in big ways!

Boy Toys

Getting ready to ride
Motorcycle men
Caleb's turn
Here comes Papa and Caleb
And here he's thinking...this would be much more fun if the helmet didn't weight as much as I do! 
In the interest of saving money on gas, my dad bought a scooter/motorcycle to ride around town and on short trips. He just got it yesterday and we are having so much fun with his new toy! Kaden was pretty scared at first but as soon as they started driving he was hooked. And of  course Caleb jumped right up and when Papa brought him back he said, "more!" I got to ride on it too and it is very fun...and the bike's my favorite color, bonus! Maybe we'll have to look into getting one of those in California! 

Birthday's coming

I just wanted to share this story about Caleb cause it was just so cute. His package of birthday party goodies came in the mail yesterday. We opened up the box and the little boy was in Heaven. He was so so excited to see a whole box full of Little Einstein stuff. He very carefully and very precisily took each item out, looked at it, and then lined them up on the living room floor. He would then pick up an item tell you what it was and put it back...this went on for a very long time and he was very very upset when we put it back in the box. He was pretty sure his party was going to happen right then...sweet thing, he only has to wait two more weeks!

VBS

Sorry I haven't been on here much to blog lately. We have been busy with VBS and loving every minute of it. It has been HOT HOT and I've been outside with the kiddos doing games but I wouldn't trade a minute of it...ok maybe some minuets of it. :) Today we got to explode Diet Coke but putting mentos into it...yeah, I would never recommend eating mentos and drinking Diet Coke together, you may just explode! This geyser literally shot like 10 feet in the air! So fun...and I'm getting really good at North, South, Central...and I win...but it could be cause I'm 3 times the size of the little kids! :) Ok, just a quick update in case you were all wondering where we were...and I would have pictures but it's really hard to take pictures and monitor 25 plus kids at the same time. 

  This weekend my sweet husband is letting my mom and I get away for a girls weekend we've been hoping for, for literally 3 1/2 years! I'm so excited. 

  Hope you all are having a good week.  Jesus loves you.

 

Yard Sale

Not for sale....although we did have several people ask!
Our favorite and very proud customer showing off his new treasures.
random customers...yes it was very hot
mom sitting pretty!
Matt is an amazing salesman and worked hard all morning in charge of the money and  making most of the sales! Way to go, Sweetheart! 
Two for one sale
Kaden displaying some of the Christmas items that didn't sell

So I may have been exaggerating a bit when I said that yard sales in Del Rio were an experience like no other...then again we did sell over $100 worth of stuff on Friday while my mom and I were just sitting in the garage pricing things! And we advertised that we would be open at 7 but had at least 8 customers between 6:15 and 7 a.m.!!! People down here love their garage sales! Mom and I are both really happy with how well it went. We just have a few boxes to take to Hospice and one to the consignment shop so not bad considering how much we started with! Our big sale of the day was our antique piano that we bought while we were in North Dakota. We really loved the piano but decided not to put the money into restringing and restoring it. We sold it to a man on the spot and the scrambled to find men to help lift it! (the thing literally weighed like 1,000 lbs.) We got my dad (who has a sore elbow) Matt (who has a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder, my brother J, my neighbor who answered the door in his boxers, and some random man shopping at the yard sale (we gave him a free ladder for helping!) We got it loaded and off it went. 

  Our favorite customer of the day by far was our very own Kaden. Daddy was finally parting with some of his collectibles (x-men figures still in the box! :) and Kaden was keeping a very close eye on them afraid that someone was going to buy them up. We told them that he could not have them and we at least needed to wait until lunch time to see if someone bought them before we would think about letting him have them...this was to long and to uncertain for Kaden so next thing I know the child has gone in the house, found the stool, got up on his dresser, found his money and comes to me with all his dollars so he can buy his x-men! It was the sweetest thing I'd seen in a long time, so we sold him the x-men (for a discount) and the boy has literally been playing with them every chance he gets since! He's a happy customer! In fact, he's playing with them right now! :)

  All in all a very successful day, Praise the Lord...and I'm very glad it's over!

Happy Friday

Just wanted to wish everyone a good weekend. We're going to spend today getting ready for our yard sale tomorrow. I love waking up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday to argue about money with perfect strangers. Fun times! :) Yard sales in Del Rio are unlike yard sales anywhere else...I'll try to take pictures tomorrow if we have time. Literally the people will knock on your door before you start and ask to go through your stuff, it's amazing. Once the yard sale is over we have a party to look forward to so that will pretty much wrap up Saturday. Sunday we'll be helping set up for VBS which starts on Monday...which means I'll be joining the "normal" world again once VBS is over next Friday! :) 

  Oh, and for all of you who are interested or even if you're not. I was able to run today for the first time in over a month. It was awesome...not sure how sore I'll be later, but still it felt so good...even if it was pretty slow! 

  We'll I'm off to price! 

Annual family photo

All mom's children..dad's too :)
Van Hook Family
What? Don't you like my hair?

It's really hard to get them both posing for the camera at the same time! 

View of the spikes
Handsome boy...growing up so fast
Right before we left for the 4th we took our annual family photo in front of mom's tree in the front yard. It may seem like a simple request but in reality it's hard to get the four of us and Chris and Jeremy slightly dressed up and at mom and dad's house at the same time. But mission accomplished and we have more fun family memories...despite some of the grumpiness you can see in the pictures (no names mentioned :) 

  Matt wanted the boys to look cool for their photo op so he had a good time spiking up their hair. Kaden and Caleb also enjoyed looking "cool". I got in big trouble when we got in the car and I turned down the AC. Kaden was afraid his hair would fall if he got to sweaty! :) I think they look pretty cute, maybe we should spike their hair more often!

Long Weekend

The McCarter Family
Half of the Forks Sisters
The McCarter and VanHook boys...that's a whole lot of boys!
Kaden and Caleb asleep on the way home :)

The Van Hook boys and I enjoyed a long weekend away in Oklahoma for the fourth! What's in Oklahoma you say...not much but our dear friends the McCarters...and a Starbucks! :) We left Thursday afternoon and drove late into the night (it didn't help that we got lost twice) but finally arrived around 1 a.m. (It's about a 7 hour drive with stops...6 1/2 of those hours is in Texas, it's a really big state!) We had a fabulous 4th just hanging out, going for walks, eating, and watching the fireworks. Caleb was still really scared of the fireworks, but just cuddled close and eventually fell asleep...in the middle of the firework show. Unfortunatly, I got sick that night and was sick most of the rest of the weekend (don't worry I still went to Strabucks every day), but despite of that we still had a good time. The grownups got to watch movies, talk, and just spend some quality time. Kaden and Caleb were in Heaven as Josh and Conner (who are 12 and almost 10) loved on them and played with them...I didn't think Kaden was ever going to leave. Conner and Josh had Transformer, Star Wars, Nintendo, Superheros, you name it...I barely saw Kaden for 3 days he was having so much fun playing with the boys. We also got a kick out of seeing William who we remembered as a little boy but is now 16...made me feel really old, and getting to spend time with Shirley's mom was an added bonus.  All in all a great time with great friends, and we loved every minute of it...and I'm not just being nice cause Shirley read this page...I loved being with you! (oh and you can blame the lack of pictures on Blogger taking FOREVER to load them up!)

  Hope you all had a good 4th of July as well and remembered to thank God for the freedoms we still have in this country. Jesus loves you!

Swim Lessons

Kaden started swim lessons this week and is doing a fabulous job.  I finally remembered to take the camera today and snap some pictures. Kaden is in phase 1 of the class so basically they are getting used to going under the water, floating, jumping in, blowing bubbles, etc. He's really enjoying it and at the end of 8 classes he should move on to the next phase...where they might actually swim! :) 

  Caleb is pretty good at just hanging out with mommy on the side lines and watching "bruber", especially when Grandma's there to help entertain him. He also love to look out the window and watch the airplanes taking off, definilty a highlight for him. 

  

Helping Big Brother

Kaden and his friend Thad have started typing "emails" back and forth to each other. I'm not sure what they say as they both just randomly hit keys but usually Kaden says they're about transformers. Today while Kaden was writing his letter Caleb came in and of course wanted to type as well. I looked up and he had climbed behind Kaden on the chair and sat down. I thought they looked so cute and that in Caleb's attempt to get close to the keyboard he actually just got stuck behind Kaden!