On our way home

This is our last picture from our trip...and as you can see Caleb was very excited to be going home! Kaden slept all the way home...literally...on every plane, car, and in the airport. Every chance he got Kaden was sleeping. Caleb on the other hand was hyper and eating everything in sight! This picture is him covered all over in cinnamon from his pretzel sticks. He wouldn't just hold one pretzel he had to hold two and make sure the cinnamon went all over his body! All in all the trip home went really well but it was hard to leave New Jersey as we treasured every moment there. 

And We're Off

Just a quick note to let you all know that tomorrow we're heading to New Jersey to visit our friends. We'll be gone about a week. We're super excited to get away and to do lots of fun things, including but not limited too...A Broadway show, the Philadelphia museum to see the Star Wars exhibit, vi sting Matt's high school friends in Pennsylvania, and going to the beach. Very exciting. Not so exciting is the plane ride out there. We leave out of San Antonio at 6:30 p.m. after a 3 hour drive and don't arrive in New Jersey until 1 a.m....Pray that the boys sleep! :) 

  So today is packing and cleaning day...which I better go get started on. Hope you all have a great week and a very Happy Easter. Remember that Jesus is the Reason for our Hope. Share His love. 

Brothers

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the Van Hook brothers. They have so much fun playing together...most of the time! Today they were so cute running around in their camo pants and no shirts. My little men. 

  Hope you all have a good weekend...my mom and I have a girl's day planned to San Angelo. Yippee! I'm very excited. Mom, Target, and Starbucks! What else could you want! Jesus loves you!

 

Meet Tex

Tonight was Western night at AWANA, so we dressed Kaden up like a true Texan, belt buckle and all...only thing missing was his boots. But still I think he turned out pretty cute! And yes in the first picture Caleb does have a black cowboy hat on...we're playing good guy, bad guy already!

And we're done

We'll we've made it to the weekend. The bake sale on Wednesday went really well thanks to all the help that God provided in some girls that were willing to take plates of food, put them into guys hands, and tell them, "that'll be $3!" Very nice. My goal was to make sure we got everything sold and we did, so praise the Lord for that. 

  The Babysitting fundraiser last night went even better. We only ended up with 26 kids and we had about 12 helpers so not bad at all. We made just about enough money to support one child in a third world country for a year! Very exciting. We're actually planning to do another babysitting night in April now. We only had one busted lip but we did have one little girl throw up. Now we're just praying that no one else gets sick since we all took turns holding her before she threw up! We're done with the babysitting and clean up by 10:30 and then we went to IHOP till 11:30 so my boys weren't even in bed until 12! A very late night for them and mommy!

  Matt is away at a wedding this weekend so I took the boys running with me in a jogging stroller I borrowed from a friend. It's much harder to run pushing 100 lbs.! We made it 3.6 miles and called it good before walking up the hill to home. My running partner helped me push up some of the hills, and I"m sure this was a great work out...but I think I prefer running kid free! :) They were so good though and Caleb was zonked out by the time we made it home. Tonight Kaden and mommy are going to have some special movie time so that should be fun....kind of like a girls night...except he's a boy and we won't be doing our nails! :) 

  The pictures are from last week when we went to the skating rink and the boys just played in the ball pit...yes, it's a germ nightmare but they had so much fun!

  Well, I better go get busy while they're sleeping. Hope you all are having a good weekend.

Jesus loves you.

Mommy's Helpers

We've got a lot going on this week between the squadron bake sale tomorrow (which I'm supposed to be running) and a babysitting fundraiser with the youth group Friday night. Imagine 8 teens 2 adults and anywhere from 50-100 kids ages 0-10 for four hours...yeah...lots of fun! :) Not that these events will take a lot of time in and of themselves but there is a lot of planning and such that has to happen...that being said, I still am trying to get the normal duties of the week done, such as dusting. I know, I know just let it go but my type A personality has a hard time not staying on routine. :) So I enlisted the boys to help me dust. I couldn't resist taking their pictures with their little rags as they ran around "dusting" all the furniture. I appreciate their hearts to help so much..even if the glass on the entertainment center is smeared with dust spray! Just wanted to brag on my little helpers. I'll let you know how the bake sale and our babysitting night goes when it's all over! :)

Wing dancing

Here's a short video of Caleb doing some sweet dance moves up on the wing of Daddy's plane 

Captain Matt "Chef" Van Hook

Our very own Captain Matt Van Hook (a.k.a. Chef...that's his call sign...it's a long story) has a  T-6 Texan airplane with his name on it! The airplane has actually had his name on it for two years...but we just now got around to getting pictures done. We tried to get them done yesterday. We got all dressed up, drove out to the base, and the plane was missing! Someone had taken it cross country (just cause your name's on the plane doesn't mean you get to fly it all the time). So we all got dressed up again today, drove back out to the base, and took pictures by the plane. It's so much fun to watch how proud the boys are of their daddy and how excited they were to to be apart of his flying world. I love these pictures of the boys with daddy's airplane, and especially the one of my three men looking cool in their shades! Notice the picture sequence of boys sitting in the sun upset cause they don't have their glasses on and then happy boys when they gets their sun glasses! :) Praise the Lord, the boys were troopers and did a great job being patient and not falling off the airplane which was mommy's biggest fear. :) Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy the pictures! God is good!

  

Picture this

Well, once again I forgot my camera! I was so excited to bring it with me as we headed out to the park, but I didn't remember until we were like 2 mins away and it was to late to turn around...so you'll just have to imagine a gorgeous high 70s day with a bright blue sky and a bright sun. We went out to the lake to play at the park and throw rocks in the water (what little boys don't love throwing rocks into the lake!) I had two bright eyed boys loving the park, digging in the rocks, and playing in the water. So much fun and so many great picture opportunities...that will have to wait until next time! :)

Indiana Jones

I'm finally getting around to putting up the pictures of our newest addition. Meet Indiana Jones! He's a great little fishy and the boys are really enjoying him...even if I couldn't get them to pose nicely for a picture. It's hard to tell in the second from the last picture but the fish is actually looking right at the camera like he's posing for the shot! :) Caleb loves to run out first thing in the morning and say hello to Jones and Kaden's job is to feed the fish, but between mommy and Kaden we always get way to much food in there.  We love our little fishy...but maybe our next pet will have fur and be a little more cuddly!

  

Weekend Review

Well, our weekend is quickly coming to a close, but have no fear the fun is not quite over yet. Let's see, shall we start from the beginning...Saturday started bright and early...well not bright since it was overcast, still dark out, WINDY, and COLD ...but anyways it started and registration for the race went smoothly thanks to all the volunteers! I was excited to get to run the race as well as help work it. My goal was to finish the 5k (3.1 miles) in 27 min. The Lord really blessed me and I was able to finish in 26 min and 13 sec! And I was the first girl in! That made me pretty happy. Our Saturday birthday party was a Transformer B-day party so that made Kaden's day! Saturday evening we took the boys over to Papa's house for haircuts, and for those of you who know Kaden's history with haircuts this one went much better with minimal freaking out! Then it was off to Walmart where we purchased a pet...a Beta fish named Indiana Jones but we're calling him Jones for short! The boys are so excited. I'll have to get pictures of Jones soon. Caleb just keeps pointing to him and saying fish and then looking at the rocks and saying rock...I'm not sure which he's more excited about.

  Today we had church, family dinner, and our b-day party at the skating rink. I wasn't going to skate for fear of falling and making a complete idiot of myself...but I did and had so much fun! But I can already feel my calfs starting to ache! Kaden did really well too but spent most of his time in the ball pit. Tonight is family movie night for us and the boys, and then after mom is done working we're having a big family movie night so thats a great way to end out the weekend and head into Monday.

  The pictures are from after church today. Matt wanted his dad to see how much they looked like his dad and his older brother when they were little...they're definitly Van Hook boys! I love the one of Kaden laughing and the last one of Caleb screaming at the ground, to funny.

  Hope you have a great start to your week! Jesus loves you

  

Weekend plans

Well, my weekend starts at 6 in the morning! I'm helping my dad (along with the city) put on a 5k race. I'm in charge of registration which shouldn't be to difficult...I hope!  As long as we get everyone registered before the race starts we'll be good! I'm planning on running in it to so that should be fun. After that, we have two birthday parties so the fun will just keep coming! :) 

  On a sadder note, Caleb got his shots today so we'll see how much fun he's up for this weekend. Hope you all have a fun filled weekend too!

Big Boy Bed

Well, I'm totally bummed cause I can't get the other pictures to load up on here, but here's one shot of Caleb in his big boy bed! We decided to take the side off his crib and bought him some Mickey Mouse bedding. He's so excited and we have the safety rail for when he's sleeping so he stays in when he's supposed too! Very nice. Sad part was putting all the baby stuff away! It may be time for another one! :) They just grow up way to fast!

Nap vs. No Nap

Can you tell which of my boys had a nap! Poor Kaden just couldn't make it through dinner, but Caleb had plenty of energy for everyone. Hope you all have a good...restful...weekend! 

Delayed Valentine Pictures...

well I was going to post pictures of the Valentine's party but I can't get any pictures to upload but these two! So here's a couple pictures of the boys with their Valentine presents. Kaden picked out the Abominable Snowmonster  from the Ruldolph movie and better yet it was on sale for like 85% off! And We got Caleb a Dora book with 3 Dora stories inside! Very exciting. 

  The party itself went really well. We had only one injury and no real fighting...with 18 kids that's a great party! And maybe someday I'll actually get to post the pictures. Hope you all had a good Valentines day too. Jesus loves you!

Shoes

Caleb really likes shoes. He likes his shoes, Kaden's shoes, dad's shoes, my shoes, anyones shoes. And he loves to point to shoes and say, "Shhoooeeess". Yesterday, we were getting ready for church and I caught him walking around in my shoes. So cute. Can't wait to show these to him when he's 16! :) 

  In other news, Caleb has the croup. Poor baby, sounds just like his brother used to. We've been doing lots of shower treatments, vicks vapor rub, and humidifiers. He had a real high fever last night but seems to be doing better today. Sweet baby, I hate it when they're sick. Hopefully we'll be better in time for our Valentine party on Wednesday....31 people...19 of them kids! Not sure how we're all going to fit but it should be fun! 

  Well I'm off to cuddle my baby. Have a great start to your week.

Why Iron?

The boys and I found an alternative use for the ironing board today! I'm not much into ironing so this is the most use it's gotten in a really long time. An ironing board makes a great car ramp! 

  Sorry I've been absent this week...it's a long story for a different day. Hope you all are having a great week. Jesus loves you.

  

From the mouths of babes

  Caleb has officially said his first sentence and not surprisingly it relates to his first word. I walked into the nursery on Tuesday to pick him up after Bible study and after giving me the obligatory cry of , "I missed you" he looked at me, held up his hand smashed full of crackers and said, "I  gotta cracker!" :) It's so so cute and every time you ask him to say it he's happy to oblige. He's also started saying, "I wanna cracker!" at least he's a man who knows what he wants!

  On our walk to the park today, I was pulling the wagon and I heard Kaden say, "Mommy?" "Yes, Kaden" "I can see your bottom moving when you walk! Hee Hee Hee!" :) Don't you love when your children point out all your highlights! :)

  Have a great weekend everyone! Jesus loves you