Playing around

While I was in the other room I heard this cutest giggle. When I looked in on S, he was on his play mat looking into the mirror- laughing and talking to himself. I tried to get it on video, but he stopped when he saw me- of course. But I did get this of him, please ignore my voice.

Pictures of our day

They had such a good time playing with friends and the games. And after all those tickets won, Izz is sporting one of the "fabulous" prizes they won!

More pictures of our day

This is how S spent alot of his time at "the rat" (as K calls it).

Today's Excursion

My friend and I decided to take on Chuck E Cheese (by ourselves) with 6 kids today- granted 2 where in strollers, but still...

Now as I sit and think back over our day, I am exhausted!! But we did have fun. Here are a few shots from our afternoon...

Well i wanted to add pictures (and I will) but blogger is having a VERY difficult day... :(

more to come...

Happy Birthday Soph!

Hope you have a great birthday!

We love you and are looking forward to seeing you this weekend!

My Budding Artist

It is always a good idea when you don't hear from your 2 year old to go check on him...
He found his bath crayons and decided to help me decorate my toliet.
Don't you love it???
And yes, finding the humor first, Kyle took pictures of the crime scene and then talked to him about what we draw on and what we don't.
I think this one might end up in the MOMA one day!!

The Voice

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself" Mark 12:30 &31

I have heard that little "voice", the nagging feeling, that we know as the Holy Spirit quite a bit lately- Whether it be my husband's link article, the speaker we had at the ladies lunch, my SIL's blog, and circle bible study. It seems I keep hearing the same 2 things-I need to be spending more time in the word, being intentional about it (learning, soaking, being renewed) and looking out for others (not caught up in what is going on around me, my struggles and problems). Every time I hear this voice I know I need to put forth the effort, but then the world comes rushing in. And even though most of the time it is good things that I am getting accomplished, God is pushed to the backburner. So I need all of you to "come along beside me" and to gently remind me and pray for me. Thank you!!
And to all of you who are reading this- What is God telling you? What is the "voice" asking of you?

Happy Mother's Day

I am so blessed! Besides having a great husband and 3 wonderful children, I was able to spend today with most of our families at one time! They were all great to either switch their work schedule around, put off vacation 1 day, and travel on Mother's Day to be with us and help us celebrate our son's special day! Thank you for that!! It meant alot to K and I for you all to be here. Besides the baptism, Izz and P also sang together in the service! It was SO sweet and I was so proud of them! Maybe I can figure a way to put a recording here so others can hear it too (hint, hint Erika- please let me know how you put it on your blog!). :)
I took many pictures of our little buddy, but I love this one!
I hope you all had a great Mother's day and was able to spend some time this weekend with family too!

Special times

We are celebrating S's baptism this Sunday! I am so looking forward to this! Not only because of the importance of it, but also because we get to spend time with most of our family!
Even though it might get alittle crazy here with over 20 people expected to be either milling around the house (or at the church if it rains), I wouldn't trade it for the world. Thank you guys for coming to share it with us!
And to our friends (and CO crew) that can't make it, we will post pictures hopefully soon afterwards. We love yall!

BTW- here is a another pic of our "big boy" or as P calls him "my little buddy". (And then I asked P if he was my big buddy-his comment, "yes, I'm your HUUUGE buddy") :) Gotta love it!

Please ignore the cookie crumbs by his head. I didn't realize that P had them and was dropping more than he was eating, but the pics were good so I kept them.

Craziness!!

I feel like one of those plate spinners...and they are about to crash!!
Between dealing with my on-line class-(but I turned in my final project tonight, so I will soon be recertified for 5 years!) and
room mother stuff (but we are in our last 7 days, so end of the year party will be next week!) and
church stuff (this will never really end but it always seems to come in spurts-meaning the meetings and activites. I am not talking about bible studies and worship- that is what sometimes sustains but it takes time to prepare!!) and
bill paying (and sometimes wondering where it will all come from) and
cleaning my house (but I am hoping that my family will be understanding with this one this weekend) :) and...

But sometimes it is good/helpful when I feel overwhelmed to sit down like this (jumbled as my thoughts are) and realize that all these things are good- worth my time. Realizing that, just like finishing my class last hour, when I take them one thing at a time, I can get them checked off and accomplished because they involve the most important things in my life- my faith, church, my family and friends, and my love of teaching.

My life is about to change...

Remember when I told everyone what a GREAT baby I have; well, I STILL have a great baby, but now I have mobile baby! Gone are the days when I can lay him down and know he will stay put! Yes, my son is offically in motion!! Last night he rolled over for the first time, and all day he has been either rolling or pushing himself around with his legs to reach at something! Life with 2 boys moving (I am sure) in 2 different directions will be fun, fun! But never dull!

Our Newest Family Members

I am so excited to introduce the newest members of our family!!
This is Xander who is close in age to P.

This is Beckett and Izz. Beckett turned 1 on Groundhog day.

It is so hard to believe that they have only been here for about a month because they fit right in!! They are the sweetest boys and have smiles that just melt you!! These pictures were taken the night we first met them. They both took right to Izz, and she thought that was wonderful! It took X alittle while to warm up to P, but you would never know that now.

I am including the link to Shea's blog so that everyone can see more pictures (I love the new ones Shea!) and also can read about their trip last month!

http://tapsalteerie.blog-city.com/

Easter

We have been busy to say the least (but that is old news because it seems like that is my mantra lately). It is amazing that even though S is a wonderful baby, how much more time is eaten up during the day and how much more is added to my plate! Since I haven't posted in a while, I decided to start with today and will try to add a few more pictures from the past month later...
K's family came today for Easter. We had a great time visiting and eating! And the kids loved playing with their cousins (they even went to the fire department to play on the trucks)! I am including 2 pictures-one of the family and one of the kids (yes, we are missing S in the shot, but I could not get a good one of all 6- either because he was fussy or the others were in the shadows). I will post a close up of him soon, he is changing SO fast! Hope all had a wonderful Easter season!

This is for Uncle Charlie!

I found this jersey today at the Goodwill Store in town (now why someone would give away such a cute shirt is beyond me), :) but I was happy to come across it and P was so excited that he wanted to put it right on!
I just hope it still fits next fall for the games! But we wanted to show it off for everyone one, esp. Uncle C. Hopefully he can get this number in his size and they can wear them together! How cute would that be!

Random Thoughts

I have even more respect for single moms (and for my sister in law away from family) after this past week! K came down with the crud Sunday and tried to rest/knock it out on Monday and Tuesday. Well, after going back to work Wednesday it really jumped on him! He has been in the bed with fever, chills, aches, and bad congestion! Yuck!! So all this to say that I have been a single mom and nurse, and that is not too much fun (not to mention that I haven't been great in doing those first two things in my current "condition"- but hopefully this 3rd round of meds will knock mine out! I need a flowchart just to keep up with who gets what medicine and when!!) :)
I have also included some pictures I took today of my sweet boy- who slept last night from 11-5:30! Yeah!! Sleep is a good thing!

Date Night

Last Friday night we had "date night". As part of Izz's Christmas, K got tickets for the two of them to the Columbia ballet. They were doing a production of "Where the Wild Things Are". They both said the costumes were incredible.
But it was a special time for all of us because while those 2 got to get dressed up and then spend time together at dinner and the ballet, the boys and I spent some time together here and at the house with our good friends from church (they have a girl 4 months older than P who is his one of his favorite people). We had a fun, quiet night with friends, but I wonder what P will want to do as he gets older for our outings...monster truck rallies come to mind... Can't you see me there? :)

Snow Day!

We FINALLY had our first snow here (that stuck to the ground and stayed) in almost 3 years! I like living in this area because we will get a small amount of snow and then it is gone (sorry B&E, I know you are getting tired of it). But I love watching it fall and then getting out and playing in it with the kids (this was P's first snow and we had to drag him in!)
My poor boy- we were not ready to dress him for snow, as you can see! His coat was alittle too small, his boots will probably fit him again next year, and he had to wear one of sister's hats- but he did not care AT ALL!

I like this last picture because of what P was doing. The snow had piled at the bottom of the slide and he would come down and be halfway covered in snow - giggling the whole time! :)

Updates and pictures

Izz is playing basketball for the first time with a church here in town, and she is really liking it! She is learning how to rebound and scored in her first game!


Doodle bug is 1 month today!!

Here is a picture of k and P at 2! :) Mamama found the outfit and brought it to me this weekend. P says that he now wants cowboy boots like his daddy!


I will try to get pictures soon of Izz and P at this age so you can see/tell me who you think he looks like.

What so many of you have been waiting for...

Yes, I am alittle sleep deprived, but overall doing and recovering well! But instead of me, I know this little guy is who most of you are interested in (but spend any time with him and no one could blame you... he is a precious sweet boy!!) Here are a few pictures of our new doodle bug! A big Thank You to the Mitchells for this beautiful blanket!
Here is P and "his baby".

I don't know what I would do without my BIG helper- Izz!

Oh, SO much to catch up on...

I could make lots of excuses about why I haven't updated in a month and a half (and some of them very legit and understandable), but those of you who know us know what has been going on! ENOUGH SAID!!

I will start with Christmas... I LOVE Christmas! The traditions, the meaning, the family time, the memories and laughter made, the excitement and joy watching it through the kids eyes...
but needless to say, it had to be alittle different this year (and I was not totally sure how that was going to affect it). K decided that we would also start a new family tradition by having the 25 days of Christmas, on which we would do something "Christmasy" on each day- starting on Dec. 1st when we put up and decorated our tree! Well, the 25 days weren't out of control crazy and it made sure that we got in everything that we wanted to do as a family spreading out the fun - baking cookies, going to the nursing home, Christmas parties and dinners, going on the Santa train, and all the decorating, etc. We also wrote down a few things we might add next year!

Next came families and our Christmas'... Since traveling was out of the question, we asked those who could to come here and share it with us. K's family had to work Christmas weekend, but they made a special effort to come the Friday before. Instead of the usual steak, potatoes, and salad; we had a steak salad (which was great). We also (well, I say we, but it was mostly my brother-in law J who was up doing most of the work) put together a new bed for the boys in their room (S will of course have to grow into it, but izz is loving it too!!)! This is the kind of bed that I have always wanted to have for my boys, and thanks to their grandmother they can! It is bunk beds with a dresser in it, but it also has little hide-a-ways and cubbies- COOL!! P kept taking people upstairs to "his bed"- "Wook, Wook at MY bed!" :) Unfourtunately they couldn't stay long, but at least it was for alittle while!
Then my parents came Christmas Eve night, and my aunt Christmas day. With the rest of the family spread from Georgia to the Springs in the Blizzard, Christmas day was a little different - filled mostly with relaxing and eating thru the day. K even got to cook his Christmas goose for everyone! My main excitement/gift was the fact that doodle bug didn't come till after the holidays!! :)

NOW... the news that I know you all have been waiting to read about (and I made you read all about my Christmas things first...hehehe). The day after Christmas the kids went home with my parents to give K and myself alittle time and rest to get a few things done! THANK YOU!! Then Thursday morning I woke up at 4:30 in the morning (can you blame me for not being able to sleep?) to finish getting ready and making sure I had everything. By the time we got to the hospital, finished LOTS of paperwork, started my IV, and the doctor got there to get things going it was after 9. I was alittle disappointed to hear that NOTHING was really going on (or had been to get me dialated at all), so I didn't know how long this one would take since the last time it took 8 hours!! K got me up and we started walking the short hallway, back and forth over and over, for almost an hour! Did you remember that I said I had only had 3-4 hours sleep?!? But then the doctor came back and I had progressed more than she thought I would!! Who knew K was right? :) She broke my water (it was now 11) and things really started! The family started coming in and the time really seemed to fly by! By 3:30ish I knew that it was time, and everyone started getting ready. Oh, the doctor also looked at K and wanted to know if he wanted to help deliver- how cool is that! So he got ready too with his scrubs! Then, what seemed in a way like longer than 20 minutes, but at the same time felt like it flew by with all the excitement- our newest member was here!! Weighing in at only 8-1, but looking like quite the chunk, was 'pencer. Everyone's immediate reaction was how much he looked like so many people!! I could see both my other children in him!! He is such a good baby too! Amazing how it already seems like he has always been part of the family- I hope the the transition keeps being just as easy!

Hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve and a Happy 2007! If you would like to see pictures (and we have lots) just let us know and we can forward them on! Love to you all!