Birthdays and Rainy Days

We had a party for P last night, and yes it did rain. This was his first birthday party with friends- so he was SO excited! It was a firetruck party and 2 of our good friends are volunteers so they brought the truck for the kids to play on and with. Besides the thought of having 20 kids in my house, I really didn't want it to rain because the truck might not get to come. I shouldn't have worried because (as usual) I was taken care of and it all worked out fine! It didn't start storming (and I mean stormimg-lighting and thunder along with a little rain) until almost everyone arrived and was in the house, and then stopped when the truck got here!! In fact, the lawn got wetter with the deck gun than the rain!! :) AND- the rain started back as everyone was getting in the cars! How cool is that! But the most important thing was that P had a BALL!
Here are a few shots from last night...



After the party, Tom drove P around the block


Here he is with his COOL cake that everyone raved over! We ate the cupcakes at the party, and then we took the cake over to the fire department and he shared it with C shift!


Getting this many kids kids to be still for a picture was funny! Here are the older ones that weren't scared of the truck! ha!


If you have access to a fire truck, I highly recomend this for a kids party! It was cheap, and the kids had a good time!

And the race is on...

I know, if you have been looking at my blog, that I haven't posted in awhile. Basic explanation- May/June is upon us! :) We are now back in town (at least we all are for the weekend) and are trying to catch up on things at the house. I will post pictures and recaps from the last 2 weeks soon- so be checking back- before we hit the road again for the next set of adventures!
Love yall!

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.