The Lewis Family

New Blog Address

2010-10-04T14:09:00.002-05:00

I started a new blog and I have had several friends inform me I need to post the link to it here!

So here is a link to my new blog in case you need it :)

http://thelewislife.wordpress.com

Chaos is the story of my life...

2010-01-10T15:31:00.002-06:00

It is not often that you get the chance to stand on the precipice of a new chapter in your life and look back at the old one closing behind you. I have missed most of the opportunities in the past because I didn't realize the break in chapters or because I was too busy to really notice. This time however, I have this odd feeling. Like I want to exist in two worlds but I can't. I keep thumbing through our last chapter and reminiscing, just a little reluctant to actually let that last page turn. Yet, I am really excited about this new chapter and what it will bring and what God has in store for our family here!

So here we are, beginning our second week in Colorado and it is a little surreal. I am not sure how long it will take for me to fully convince my heart that we have moved. My brain is fully aware of where we are but I catch myself thinking about "home" and what I would be doing if I were still there. This past week has been chaotic at the least (and I know that contributes to this feeling of being a little out of place) so I will just start from the beginning of the move and catch you up.

We rented a uhaul and movers last Thursday. It was freezing and raining but we had to get packed. The movers ended up being terrible and would not listen to any of our suggestions and packed our uhaul horribly. We ended up having to rent two more pull behind trailers to get everything and even then we left a lot of things to be donated. We ended up having to drive three vehicles up here so we asked my father-in-law, Larry, if he would drive up with us, and he graciously agreed. My mom also made the trip with us and she rode in the car with me to help ease the trip for the kids (and me). We all left our house the afternoon of the 1st and I shed my final tears for the house that I had brought both of my precious babies home to, and where we had been blessed by countless friends and family events over the past 4 1/2 years.

We made it to Amarillo and spent the night and then got up early to make it to Aurora with plenty of time for movers to unload us. We rolled in to our new apt. complex around 3pm and the movers opened our uhaul. They could not believe how it had been packed and that they were supposed to be professionals! We have several pieces of broken furniture and several large scratches or gashes in different items as well. But, they got us completely unloaded and they packed our garage from floor to ceiling, with enough room to walk through. The kids were fascinated with the snow and played in it until they were literally frozen! Larry and my mom were troopers and entertained the kids for several hours while Jon and I directed movers all over the place with our stuff.

Larry went home Monday morning and my mom went home on Wed. morning and I don't know what I would have done without all of their help!! Thank you so much!!

Jon took Monday off because we still had so much to do and we got a lot of stuff unpacked and lots of boxes broken down that day. We have a very tiny washer and dryer that came with the apt. so it takes 3 loads to do my normal 1 load. My mom worked really hard getting our laundry caught up while I tried to get everything put away and organized. By Friday I was finished and just had things left to hang and boxes to take down to storage.

All of that work made for a very chaotic week for the kids, but it is over and done and now we can hit the ground running with getting a new routine going. Overall, they have done fantastic! They love the snow and they love seeing the mountains. Our apt. is big enough for them to have most of their toys so they also have plenty to play with. Our only problem has been sleeping. They are now sharing a room which is complicating things a little. David is not adjusting well to the new surroundings and wants to sleep with us because he says he is scared. David screams and cries and keeps Alex up and then he will calm down long enough for the two of them to start laughing and playing games with each other. Then when we go in to get them to calm down and go to sleep, David starts the crying all over again. This process has taken from 1 to 4 hrs each night and still ends up with both of them getting up and trying to sleep with us sometime after 1am. I know they are just needing the security of their routine again so we are trying hard to get them back into one.

We took the kids to the zoo yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, and the zoo was free! There were lots of animals out and you can get really close to them here, so the kids were fascinated! They also have peacocks that roam free all through the zoo and lots of wild geese. The kids tried to chase down every peacock and goose they came across and Alex almost touched one a couple of times (with me freaking out in the background of course)! There was also lots of melting snow, making large slush puddles everywhere which was probably David and Alex's favorite part.

There is a park and playground right across the street so Jon and I are going to take the kids there this afternoon to let them burn off a lot of their pent up energy from this week.

I hope this time next week I can report a very non-chaotic week to you! That is most certainly my plan.

God's blessings over your week!

Moving Updates

2009-12-10T11:06:00.003-06:00

I don't have a lot of time to sit and write but I wanted to give a quick update.
Jon and I flew to Denver last weekend and looked at several apartments. We found a really nice apt. complex that is brand new and had really good specials, so we are getting to live in an apt. that I might not ever want to leave :).
We also had an offer put on our house last weekend and after some negotiating we have a contract on our house!!!! There was only one couple who looked at it and they bought it. We feel extremely blessed and amazed that everything came together on the exact weekend that we needed it to...God is truly amazing!!!
We are closing on the house January 29th provided that everything goes as planned with appraisal and inspection. I am not worried about that though.
We will leave for Denver on Jan. 1st. This will be the most definitive new start to a new year I have ever had. We plan to arrive mid-day on the second and have the movers get everything put into our apt. and storage that afternoon.
Please keep all of our traveling and planning in your prayers!
Here are pics of our new apt.

The one with the garage open is ours.

built in desk area next to the kitchen

Patio/Deck area (if you stand on the far corner you can see the mountains.!!)

master bathroom

more shelving looking into hallway leading to laundry, bathroom, bedroom, and study.

living room

kitchen

The Big Move

2009-11-05T11:38:00.002-06:00

I know I skipped a post on Disney World but it was not on purpose. I have been working on a very detailed review of our trip and when I posted it today it just disappeared, even the draft! I am just too frustrated to rewrite it!
So on to our big news. I think everyone knows now, but a few of you might not. We are moving to Denver, Co. in January!
About 6 weeks ago Jon's team lead put an application in front of him for this Denver position and told him that he should apply because it would be an awesome opportunity for him. Jon told me about it but we didn't feel the need to make any changes so he didn't apply. 2 weeks later it came up again and we both talked about it and for some reason felt really led to apply for it. We talked to some close friends of ours about the decision and they prayed with us about it and we all stayed in prayer over the whole thing. We found out there were 50 applicants and really figured Jon didn't have a shot. They interviewed him first because his boss and a former boss both contacted them as soon as they found out he had applied and apparently raved about him. Before we left for DW we were told that he was in the running and they would fly him out to Denver once we got back from vacation. The week we got back we found out the job was down to two applicants and it was between Jon and someone who lived in Denver already. We figured they would give it to the person already living there so they wouldn't have to mess with someone moving. But we were wrong! After he went to Denver his new boss called and talked to him for quite a while about how they felt from day one that he was perfect for the job and just stood out over everyone else they interviewed, and then offered Jon the job. He is going to be the lead wealth management banker for Merrill Lynch. He will cover 6 complexes which means some traveling throughout CO. and one in Wyoming. He becomes part of the Denver team December 1st but he doesn't officially start until January 4th. Right now we are planning to rent for the first few months until we know exactly where we want to live. The plan for now is to move the week between xmas and new years, but if our house sells we will probably move our stuff earlier than that and we would follow after new years.
It is hard to explain exactly how we feel. We are very happy here! We love our families, friends, church, and house but we felt an overwhelming peace about applying and everything is opening up for us to move. It doesn't feel forced it feels guided. I am so sad to leave everyone! I have cried several times when I think about all of the changes we are making and all of the family and friends we are leaving behind. But I am also really excited! I feel like a new chapter is starting in our life and I feel like God is in full control of it. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us.
This week everything has really sunk in and I have had a couple of freak out moments but when I sit down and pray about it and try to focus on each day I get that same feeling of peace back and I know we have made the right decision even though it is going to be really hard.
Please keep us in your prayers! We have lots of decisions ahead of us. And keep our families in your prayers too because this is going to be very hard on them.
I will keep everyone posted as we know more details!

So Excited!

2009-10-01T08:57:00.003-05:00

We are just one day away from starting our trek to Disney World. I feel like I am 5 years old because I am just as excited as the kids. I can't wait to experience DW through their eyes!
David and Alex understand so much more than I thought they would. I just heard David talking to Alex, "Negis, are you ready to go to... (dramatic pause) DISNEY WORLD?!" They both started running around the living room yelling all the disney characters they were going to see. I really wasn't sure if Alex would get it or be excited but that is absolutely not a problem. The only thing they can't understand is why we are not there already!
I am a little nervous about the trip itself. We are driving, so it will be a long time for the kiddos to be strapped down but hopefully we have enough to keep them occupied for most of the trip.
We are driving to Houston tomorrow to pick up Grandpa, then leaving Saturday morning and driving to Talahasee to spend the night. Then Sunday we will only have about 4 hrs. to get to Orlando and then the kids can play the rest of the day at the resort. Saturday should be the only hard day.
Now if I can just get packed...

where we are staying

Birthdays

2009-09-21T21:23:00.007-05:00

September is the month of birthdays around here! Not just my kiddos but half of their friends are also born in this great month so we are in the celebrating mode!
My sweet little Alexandria is now a two year old. I feel like time is playing tricks on me because it definitely feels like she has been around for more than a year but it doesn't feel like she should be two. This is also complicated by the fact that she keeps up with her older brother just fine. She talks in full sentences most of the time but often needs an interpreter to really understand it all. She has moved into a big girl bed and does great. The two things you can always count on with Alex, are when she is sleepy she wants to go to bed and when she is hungry she wants her food. Sleeping and eating are just things you don't mess around with! My favorite thing about her right now are all of the facial expressions she makes, coupled with her crazy curly hair. I laugh at her several times a day simply because of her looks; they say a thousand words! My least favorite thing right now is her screaming. When she is mad, she screams, when she gets in trouble she screams, when she is being chased down by her brother she screams and when they are having lots of fun, she still screams. We are working on using our words...
And if I couldn't believe my baby turning two, I think it is even harder to believe my little David is three! It is so fun to watch him play and interact right now. You can just see his little brain working. He loves puzzles and can do 48+ piece ones all by himself. He will work on one puzzle for 30 minutes and has had more potty accidents while concentrating on one than doing anything else. His vocabulary is really expanding. He is starting to use random words that he picks up from anywhere and they are not all good. "Shut up" is one of his favs right now and he gets in trouble every time so he has taken to whispering it most of the time now as if its volume will affect the punishment. He also tells Alex (whom he still calls Negis) how cute she is or how cute her outfit is. But then he asks her if she thinks he is cute too! It is so fun to listen to them when they are getting along. His favorite subject at the moment is Disney World. We are going there in less than two weeks and he can't stop talking about it. He says we are going to get in the car and go see Mickey Mouse and then he names off every single person in our family to see if they are coming too. We do this a couple of times a day, I guess he has to check and see if anyone has changed their plans and decided to come with us! His excitement makes me excited. I cannot wait to experience DW through his eyes! My least favorite thing right now is how much he pesters his sister just to make her scream and talking back to me when I ask him to do something (although this one is getting a lot better). But my favorite thing is how attached he is to me. When he was really little he was not a mommas boy at all. He never cried for me or cared when I left or wasn't around. But now he wants Mommy to do everything and loves to just sit in my lap and cuddle. I am savoring it because I know it won't last but I hope it lasts for a while! I will end with pics of their new bedrooms and their birthdays. Blessings!

Seed Spitting Contest Anyone?

2009-09-04T11:52:00.003-05:00

We ate half of a watermelon during the Memorial Day weekend. We never finished the other half so I threw it over the side of our fence, next to the creek. Well, last week, I was outside with David and Alex and they were throwing rocks into the water. David kept walking over to this one area that has lots of little rocks and he would pick out the best rock and then come over to me and throw it. I wasn't paying attention at first but then realized he was walking through a lot of green vines that I had never noticed before. I got up to investigate and, you guessed it, watermelons!! We have a giant watermelon patch growing in the rocks next to our fence. There were 5 watermelons growing on it, so I went and got Jon, and we picked one. The kids think it is great and ask to go visit the watermelons every day. The first one we picked wasn't quite ripe enough so we haven't picked anymore. I love that I made this discovery!! It seems simple but it makes me laugh every time I think about it, which is a good thing :)! Plus, you might just see me hawking my goods on the side of the road ;) Here are the pictures from our picking expedition...
(make sure and see my previous post from this morning, it has our summer pictures on it)

This is the whole patch. I am standing at the creek looking up at our fence line.

Too Much

2009-08-31T22:16:00.005-05:00

I know I will probably regret not going into more detail but I just can't get motivated to write in detail about our summer. Instead I have just uploaded a smattering of pictures over the past 3 months. I am also finding that I have taken significantly less pictures lately and I am kicking myself because there are several things from this summer that I don't have a single picture of! So I am dedicated to take more pictures and keep my blog a little more updated for the rest of the year. Here is the link to our summer pictures. pictures
Blessings!

Updates and pics coming soon

2009-08-31T11:21:00.002-05:00

I realize I have been absent from blogging for a couple of months, but I am working on a catch up post. It might take me a few days to get it all in there and load pics but it is coming!

All about the kids (aka: long post)

2009-06-18T14:08:00.007-05:00

I haven't posted in a while and I haven't posted about the kids in a really long while so here goes..
David
He is getting SO big! He is getting taller all the time and continues to get skinnier. It seems like the taller he gets the more picky he gets about his food. We are seriously down to a handful of foods for this kid! He is also talking in full out sentences now. It is really cute to hear him ask questions based on his observations of what I am doing. I never knew how proud I could really be over such a small thing. Right now he is very in to dinosaurs. He loves his dinosaur sheets, wants to watch dinosaurs on tv, loves to play with his plastic dinosaurs all over the house, and acts like trex is chasing him outside and he yells "Mom! Hide! The big one dinosaur is going to get you!"
Our biggest accomplishment though is potty training! About 3 weeks ago he started throwing fits and not wanting to put his diaper on. I thought this was a great step so I talked it over with Jon and we decided to just go cold turkey and get him potty trained. We started off talking to him about where our poopie and teetee goes and he would tell you it goes in the potty but we never actually got it there! Lots and lots of accidents every day and he didn't care about getting a treat. So I called my friend Laura who has potty trained two boys and her youngest is only a couple months older than David. She told me her secrets and really encouraged me to just keep at it. So we moved the potty into the living room as she suggested and the first day he pooped and peed in the potty!! Then for five days afterwards we had nothing but accidents and he fought us every time we asked him to go potty. I was truly about to give up again when something just clicked! One day I was putting laundry away and David started screaming "mommy, I went tt in the potty!" So I ran in there and sure enough he had. Then a few minutes later I was in the living room and he came running in from the play room saying he had to go tt again and he just ran to the potty himself and went. Since then we have only had once accident in 2 1/2 weeks! A couple of moms have asked me what I did so I will share the basics. We did not use pull ups for anything but sleeping. He hated going tt on himself and especially in his clothes so it was a huge incentive for him to use the potty. The pull ups just acted like a diaper. At home he just wears shirts and nothing else. He has a hard time getting his underwear down so he just runs around naked. When we go out I just bring extra shorts and undies in case he has an accident. He also gets a small treat each time he goes potty. The biggest thing is once we started the training we never put another diaper on him and when he wears a pull up to bed we put undies on first and then the training pants so he never had that feeling of a diaper on. I feel like the consistancy on this was the big key. Now that he has it all down he can wear the pull up to bed without the undies because he doesn't like to go tt in it either. I am so so proud of my big baby boy!!

Alex
Little Missy is quite the character! This time last year I thought she was going to be very passive and easy going because of the way she interacted with David. She is actually the opposite of those things. When she wants to do something she will not be persuaded otherwise. Any attempt at persuasion is met with screaming. Not outside fun screaming, I am talking blood curdling, I am mortally wounded type screaming. We are working on other ways to show our anger.
She is also talking up a storm. She uses 2 and 3 word sentences and amazes me with her vocabulary. She is amazingly observant! She will watch you do something one time and she can figure out by herself after that. She moves bigger toys all over the house to use them as stepstools to get to food, toys, and breakables. I have to watch her like a hawk!!
She also loves to eat! I have to make sure and keep her away from David's food because she doesn't waste time and gobbles her food up and then goes after his.
Alex is our drama queen and that also makes her very funny! When she has an audience she performs and it is so cute. She especially loves to twirl in her dresses, and I love this because it is so girlie and makes me want to dress her up even more. Her hair continues to be curly even as it gets longer. Those curls combined with her personality just make for quite the character these days.
Since she has been watching David go to the potty she also wants to go potty. She takes her diaper off if she can get to it so she has to have pants on at all times. She has gone in the potty a few times so I think we will start potty training with her pretty soon. We will also move her to a big girl bed in the next couple of months. She loves to get on David's bed and read books and asks to sleep there so I think she is ready. It will be weird not having a crib set up in my house.
We are leaving for Sea World tomorrow so I will have lots of pics to post of our trip when we get back. I will end now with pics of Alex.

heart to heart with myself

2009-05-31T14:24:00.003-05:00

This is a long post and I have not proofed it but if you are a close friend or family please read to the end. I just sat down and started typing whatever I was thinking.

This whole year at church we have been focusing on putting God first. Not just saying it but truly putting Him in the #1 spot and making all decisions for our life based on that fact. Jim (our preacher) has taken us through several series on putting God first in our time, our finances, and other areas. The past three weeks have been on putting God first in our families and it really has my attention. The other series have hit home too, but this one is really speaking to me. For the past couple of months I have been praying about how to change my attitude about parenting. I have always been concerned about what other people think about me. I have tried very hard to diminish that part of me, and to only care about what God thinks. I go through times when I do really good with it and times when it is pretty bad. For about 6 months now, I have really been consumed with what I think other people are thinking about me, my kids, my parenting, etc. It has truly made me a pretty ineffective parent. So when Jim started preaching on families I was excited and then when I heard last weeks sermon it really felt like God was talking to me personally. He addressed so much of what I needed to hear to snap me out of the hole that Satan has had me in. Our class this morning also talked about being your child's primary spiritual "coach" so I am processing a lot right now.
Part of what really woke me up was when Jim asked us if we would be ok if our kids had the same kind of faith that we have, no more no less. Overwhelmingly I want my kids to have more! He then talked about how our kids will only put God first in their lives if they see us putting Him first in our own lives. Now this is not a new concept to me but I was amazed at how much I HAVEN'T thought about it. I majored in child development and I know how kids essentially mimic their parents on a lot of things, but I think that my major has helped make me very prideful and also judgemental (more to myself than others) It has given me all of these standards that I feel like I have to achieve with my kids and if I am not meeting them, but other parents around me are, then I really start attacking myself. (are you starting to get the picture of where I have been) When I started thinking about the question Jim asked it took me down a really long line of questions. It ultimately ended with How did I get to this point? When did I stop trusting God and using his standards of love as my reference instead of a twisted self pious view. I felt like I already had all of the answers, I didn't need help, I just needed to do more or be more on top of things... This thinking has actually taken me to a place of extreme lonliness and self hatred, becuase I am by far not perfect and I do need help but I even alienated most of my friends so I could just stay at home and focus on me and my kids. My thinking literally has been that I needed to get my kids to a place where their behavior and manners and potty training allowed me to take two "angels" into public. I never wanted anyone to think that my kids were being bad because to me that translated to "bad parent!"and as you can hear I have been very focused on ME.
So you can see that my parenting switched from "what is best for my kids and what can I do to foster their love for God" to "what can I do to make my kids at least appear to be well behaved at all times and never make mom look bad". Since that is truly impossible I have constantly felt like a terrible parent.
So I have prayed all week about how and where I can start over with my kids. I feel like God is telling me to start in the little things. Jim talked about having teachable moments in every day and our class today focused on the D6 ministry which is from Deutronomy 6 and they talk about using any of our everyday moments for God moments.
I don't have all the answers but Jon and I are working on a new parenting plan that we feel is much more worthy of our precious children that God has entrusted us to take care of. I already feel a huge weight as been lifted off of my shoulders. God has the reigns again.
To my friends: I am so sorry for pulling away. I have often disguised it as "being busy" or out of town but the truth is, I have been stuck in my own head and felt so much pressure to be perfect that I convinced myself that none of you really needed me. I also felt like you were all thinking that I really needed to do better because my kids were ...fill in the blank... I really don't know what I was comparing but I never added up so I just tried to avoid everyone as much as possible. That is changing!
To my family: I am so sorry for always talking like I know everything. I don't! I need your support to be the best mother for my children, so if I have made you feel like I didn't want to hear what you had to say, I am truly truly sorry. If I have made it sound like I am anything less than grateful for my precious babies I am sorry.
Please be in prayer with me that we can all be the parents that God has called us to be but especially for me that I can keep the lies that Satan has been feeding me completely out of my head.
Dear Father,
I am so sorry for the way I have acted. I love you and I want my children to know that! I want my children to learn to love you because it is what they saw in their mommy and daddy. Please continue to bless Jim and his family and to speak through him. Lord I pray that we can all keep You first. In Jesus Name, Amen

Overdose

2009-05-21T08:50:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was the scariest day as a mother I have ever experienced.
David was running a fever still so I got the children's motrin and poured his medicine. He was standing next to me in the kitchen so I turned and told him to drink his medicine. He said "no medicine" and ran away from me down the hall. I chased after him, caught up, gave him the medicine, and came back down the hall. When I turned the corner to go to the kitchen, I see Alex. She has climbed up the back of the couch, onto the counter, scooted to the end, and is drinking the Motrin I had left sitting on the counter. I could not believe what I was seeing! I ran over and took the bottle away. She cried because she was very proud that she had been able to get to the "medsin" as she calls it. I knew the bottle had been half full since I just poured some for David. It was now almost empty. I frantically looked around for signs that she had spilled it on the floor, the counter, or her clothes. But there wasn't a drop anywhere else and I could smell the bumble gum flavor on her breath.
911!! That is all I could think. So I picked up the phone and called them. The operator answers I tell her what happened and she immediately dispatches MedStar to my house. Then she tells me not to put her down because she may start seizing or violently vomiting so she doesn't need to be where she could hit her head. That is when I lost it and started bawling.
15 minutes later a fire truck, ambulance, and policeman all arrive at my house. That made for 10 paramedics and 1 police officer piled into my living room checking Alex's vitals. David just stood there staring at them. While some of them were checking her, the other ones were examining the bottle and trying to determine how many ounces she ingested. We decided she drank about 1 1/2 oz. which is 13 times her actual dosage. All of the firemen left about this point so there were just 4 paramedics and the officer left. They called poison control and they were told that she would have to ingest 3 oz. or more for it to be toxic, she would probably just vomit and have diarrhea. The lady at Poison control told them to tell me to call PC first if this happens again instead of calling all the paramedics out. Thanks for making me feel even better about the situation woman! The paramedics left and told me to call my doctor and make sure she didn't need to be examined.
After everyone left Jon came in and then Peggy got there about 5 minutes later. I finally got my dr. and she said I needed to take her to the ER at Cook's immediately and get blood drawn to make sure she hadn't ingested enough to affect her organs. I explained what pc had said but she insisted I go anyway. Peggy and I loaded Alex into the car and took her downtown. They got us right in but I kept having to explain what had happened. I felt like everyone was thinking "why would you keep meds where your kids could reach them" and the last nurse who saw us and released us actually told me to try to keep those things up higher or something. I wanted to hit him!! Really? I already felt terrible that I didn't just screw the lid back on right after I poured David's medicine and now people are talking to me like I am an inept mother. Anyways, the ER dr. felt like blood work was not needed and that pc was exactly right. Alex could have ingested twice the amount she did before needing medical attention.
She never reacted to it at all. She hasn't thrown up or anything and only took a short nap yesterday so it didn't even make her drowsy.
So everything was ok, but I have never felt fear in the way I did yesterday before the paramedics got there.
Here are a couple of pics of her in the hospital gown.

A new nephew and more doctors

2009-05-19T11:06:00.003-05:00

Last Tuesday (I can't believe it has been a week) Katie called and said she was having lots of contractions. She was timing them and they were consistently under 10 minutes apart for about 2 1/2 hours so we were SO excited and rushed up to the hospital. They checked her in and labor pretty much stopped but they kept her overnight and early Wed. morning started inducing her. She went through the whole day and finally around 7:30 pm she started pushing. She ended up pushing for two straight hours but Ayden Thomas finally made his appearance! Katie did AMAZING and she, Ayden, and Phillip are all home and fine. It was very exciting getting to watch the labor process from the perspective of not being in labor. I will forever feel a special bond with Ayden because of it.
We came home on Thursday and went to small group. Then friday morning Alex woke up very congested, with a cough and runny nose. She had been off of her second round of antibiotics for 3 days at this point. Then on Satruday she woke up from her nap running a fever again. So Jon and David went to church on Sunday morning and I stayed with Alex. By the time Jon came home David was starting to cough. He went to bed fine that night but woke up around 1:30am crying. When I went to check on him he was just sitting there shaking. So I went to check his temp and it was 102. We stayed up until the meds brought it down and went back to bed. Then Alex woke up screaming and I went in to check on her and her fever had gone up again as well. So we all went to the doctor yesterday. Peggy met me there and I am so thankful because they were a handful! They just have a fever virus and David has an ear infection as well. But we talked about why they continue getting sick so much. They are not in daycare so my doctor is a little concerned. We are going back in two weeks and if they are both well, she will order lab work. This is going to check their immuno globulin A and their white blood cell count and make sure that everything is normal. I know I shouldn't worry, but I am having a hard time not worrying about this. Since yesterday afternoon I have caught myself playing the "what if" game in my head. What if their white blood cell levels are too high and we have to check for leukemia or what if they have to have IV's hooked up to them to pump IGA in to their little bodies? I want to stop but I just keep going there. I know this will probably be nothing, and we just had a hard winter but being a mom just really amps up my worry meter! Please keep my David and Alex and their tests in your prayers. I will write an update about it all once we get the lab results in a few weeks.
I left my camera in Plano so I don't have very many pictures to share but I do have a couple of precious little Ayden. Blessings!

Sad Visit to the Doctor

2009-05-03T15:12:00.004-05:00

Alex started running fever again on Friday following it up with lots of congested coughing. Since she just got over the flu and strep I called and they wanted me to bring her in. When we arrived they checked us in and then handed me a mask to put on Alex. I figured I would try it once but if she kept pulling it off I wasn't going to fight her. She didn't try to take it off at all. She just sat there with her bottom lip quivering and tears streaming down her face without making a single sound. It was really sad! I wanted to take it off of her but they said she HAD to keep it on the entire visit. She had a sinus infection so no swine flu, and as we were leaving I took the mask off and threw it away, then Alex said "Thank you mommy I wuv eww" I guess she thought she was being punished, which made me even more sad! David is now running a fever and has a very croop like cough so I get to take him and try to keep the mask on his face tomorrow. I have a feeling he will not just leave it on the way Alex did.
I took a couple of shots of her in the mask to share how pathetic it was with everyone.

Frustrated

2009-04-27T15:16:00.002-05:00

Some days I just find myself with such a short fuse, and I don't know why. I can't explain why today I just don't have as much patience with my children as I normally do. They are napping right now so I am trying to regroup for the afternoon. David has decided he wants to go diaper free but he doesn't want to actually use the potty. So I could really use extra patience today instead of less. I want to encourage him to be free of the diaper but today I would rather not deal with the fight of actually getting him to sit on the potty. Then I start thinking well, what kind of mom am I?? I am going to have a 4 year old in diapers because I am too lazy or short of patience to deal with it? Then I stopped and prayed and started thinking about what my actual goal is. My goal is not to have the cleanest house, no laundry piles, no dishes in the sink, or no stains on the carpet. The goal is ultimately to have strong Christian adults who can function securely in the world because they know they are loved not just by us but by their Creator. So when I put potty training into perspective, I guess it isn't a big deal one way or the other. He will eventually get it and I don't need to get upset with him or myself. Still, I really wish I had more patience today...

catch up through pics

2009-04-20T21:44:00.010-05:00

There is too much to write about over the past few weeks since I posted last, so I am just going to sum it up in pictures.

Wii Guitar Hero night with my small group

The next 4 pictures are from Peggy's birthday party at Babe's Chicken House!

Cameron's introduction at church

Jon and my dad finishing the arbor on the deck

Luke came to visit

The next two pictures are from small group at our house.

Jacob's 1st birthday!

The next 4 pictures are from Katie's baby shower.

The next 3 pictures are from Astro's opening day in Houston

The next 3 pictures are from Easter.
(this is Cameron -he is getting so big, almost 4 months now!)

The last few pictures are from the Arboretum

Lent...but why?

2009-02-24T18:19:00.002-06:00

I had several people approach me in college about observing Lent. I didn't even know what it was at the time and I am ashamed to say but I thought it sounded kind of lame. So I didn't observe it and really didn't think about it again. But last year I stumbled across a friends blog and she had written about Lent and her decision to fast from a couple of things in her life that she felt were eating into her ability to spend time with God. What she wrote caused me to do quite a bit of research on Lent, what it is, and why it is observed. I then observed Lent last year for the first time and it really changed my view of Easter. I have been trying to decide exactly what I would fast from this year and I threw a couple of ideas out to a friend of mine and she asked me why I felt the need to observe a Catholic holiday. That is actually what prompted me to write this post, to explain why I choose to observe Lent and why I think it is so powerful.
Lent is supposed to be a time to focus on Christ and his suffering. D. Maddalena says on his website, "Jesus took our place on the cross to appease God's righteous anger. He went alone to be punished: separated from God and deserted by his friends. The drama of how this happened is the story of Lent. ... Before the Resurrection comes crucifixion; before crucifixion comes prosecution; before prosecution comes betrayal, doubt, fear, rebellion, and sin. Lent helps us experience our part in the suffering of Jesus." Lent is designed to mirror the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted. It gives us the opportunity to fast from something/s in our lives that will help us refocus or minds on Christ. What is so great is that when you deny yourself of something for 40 days and you spend time really focusing on Christ and the anguish he experienced leading up to his death, you have a whole new perspective on how joyful Easter truly is! Last year was the first time I felt like I really understood the relief and joy of Christ's resurrection and the true purpose of Easter because I had focused so much on his experience and spent so much time with Him.
This year I am going to fast from two things. The first is Internet specifically blogging and facebook. I spend a lot of time on these two things and honestly many days I spend too much time on them. I will focus on spending more time in prayer and reading my Bible instead. The second thing I am fasting from is sweets. This might sound trivial but I find myself eating them all the time! If they are in my house I eat them and I don't have very much restraint. I know my body belongs to God so I am trying to focus on having a healthy temple for Him to dwell in.
I like what D. Maddalena writes, "We are more comfortable with the joy and celebration of Easter than with the darkness that preceded it. But Lent is a chance to remember the dark before the dawn, the sin that sent Jesus to the cross. In the Orthodox Church, Lent is called the season of Bright Sadness, because it is a time of both celebration and mourning."
This is so true. I mourn that Christ had to die for my sins yet I celebrate with extreme joy that he did and that I am now saved!!
I pray you all have a reflective Lent season and I will post again after Easter.
In Him,
Erin

My Amazing Husband!

2009-02-18T15:04:00.004-06:00

The kids and I went to Abilene for the weekend to visit my grandparents and give Jon time to paint our living room. When I walked in the door yesterday I could not believe what I saw!! Jon had not only painted our living room, but also the entire entry way and down the hall to our room, the small bit of kitchen we didn't paint red, and he put a new color in David's room. He left me a really sweet note that said why he had decided to take on such a huge project and it came down to just wanting to see me smile. I cried because it made me feel so special and it was such a surprise. All of the colors look great too!
Thanks sweetie, I love you!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks...

They both fell asleep while Sarah and I were walking.

Watching TV with Daddy.

Grandpa needs a bigger lap!

She loves corn on the cob!

David's big boy room!

Bathroom Antics

2009-01-29T17:46:00.002-06:00

I had to post this for everyone to see. Excuse the mess in the bathroom, I was working on laundry. And I would not normally laugh at bad behavior but I just could not help it when I saw what they were doing! Hope everyone else finds this as funny as I did :)

The many do's of Alex (as in hair)

2009-01-18T18:44:00.006-06:00

My sweet baby girl has the craziest hair! It is so curly but it has not grown in evenly yet and the curls are not consistent. This makes for some really bad hair days! I was looking through my pictures and realized I have a lot of different shots of her cute but crazy hair. So I thought I would just share a few with everyone.

her hair after pig tails

This is how it looks once she has played. It gets really flat on top.

This is what it looks like after she gets up from a nap.

The next three pictures are what her hair looks like after a bath if I just let it dry and I don't brush it.

Another after nap pic

Lots of ground to cover...

2009-01-09T20:09:00.007-06:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted! So much has happened in the past month I know I can't get it all covered.
We had a really great Christmas. My parents and sister came over for Christmas Eve and we had a nice dinner and then opened presents. The kids were so excited! Everyone spent the night and then we did stockings the next morning. Then we packed up and headed over to Plano to have spend Christmas Day with Jon's family. The kids enjoyed ripping the paper off of any present they could get their hands on, they really didn't care who the present was for.
All of Jon's family came in the next day and we had a lot of fun playing games, talking, and of course caroling on the carriage ride!
Then we spent New Year's with The Morgan's, their five boys!, and Jon's family. It was so much fun! We played cards for hours (not exaggerating) and a few other games like taboo. (It's a Spouse House!!)
When we got home we took David's crib and changing table down and put a twin bed in his room instead. It was a sad day! David even cried when he saw his bed in pieces. He had a hard time adjusting to the bed at first but he is doing good now.
We also tried potty training this past week. He isn't quite ready so we will try again in a month or so.
Alex is climbing on everything! She climbs more than David ever did. If she thinks she can get on something then she will try any way to get up there. She is also making lots of animal noises. I didn't even know she could make them, and one day I was reading a book to her and she made all of the noises as I pointed to the animals. It was great! She has her 15 month checkup on Monday so I will report her stats next week. (we are a month behind schedule for well visits)
The day after we got back from New Years we had to make a tough decision. We decided it was best for us to get rid of Sam. He tore up our bathroom and he kept peeing and pooping in the house. He also destroyed a few things at Peggy and Larry's so we couldn't take him with us to their house anymore and he would only let my parents keep him. When he was outside for too long he would jump the fence. So, it was a Really hard decision but one that had to be made. I cried a lot the first couple of days but I am getting better now.
I have a few videos and lots of pictures from Christmas. If you only look at one thing, watch the video of David's Christmas Dance. It is hilarious! He even does some break dancing.
Blessings!

Christmas Dance

David with Alex's Dollhouse

Packing Peanuts

Colorado

2008-12-14T21:31:00.006-06:00

Breckenridge was Fabulous!! We had been there once before but it was summer. It was so gorgeous with all of the snow and Christmas decorations everywhere. They also have really great skiing. Jon skied 4 days and I skied 3 days. They have really wide runs and most of their blues are more like greens in other places I have skied so it was really fun. It snowed 4 of the days we were there so we had fresh powder on Tuesday and Friday. We also played a lot of pool and gin/rummy. We had a really good time just being together with nothing else to worry about, but we really really missed the kids. By Wednesday we were ready to get home and see them. It was great walking through the door and having them climb into our arms saying Mommy!, Daddy! I almost cried! I won't be leaving them for that long until they are a lot older.
On Sunday, David fell off of our bed and hit his head pretty hard on my nightstand. It was bleeding but once I got it cleaned up I could see it wasn't too bad but he was acting a little lethargic so I called the dr. and she had us watching him for a concussion for the rest of the day and night. So we made the mistake of letting him sleep with us Sunday night. He really liked that and now thinks it should happen every night. As I write this, he has been in his bed screaming for almost an hour. I have gone in once to rock him and calm him down and all he did was point at the door and say mommy bed, mommy bed. I hate it because he sounds so different from his other cries. This is broken hearted sobbing!! UGH! Breaks my heart too!
Alex on the other hand loves her sleep! When she is ready to go to bed she will go find a pacifier and her blanket and curl up with it on the floor or she will bring it to you and curl up in your lap. She never cries when we put her down. On a different not, her hair is becoming insane! She has these masses of curls that just stick straight out of her head in the back and sometimes straight up on top of her head too. If you comb them , they are frizzy, so I just let them go and she has this cute wild mane of curls! She also has all 4 I-teeth coming in right now so that makes 16 teeth for this kid.
David is talking in 2 and 3 word sentences quite a bit now. His little voice is so cute so I could listen to him talk all day! I love it when he asks for raisins or chocolate because he says those words in such a funny way. The other thing that cracks me up is he doesn't call Alex by her name. Somewhere along the way he picked up on sister so that is what he calls her, "ister" He asked me several times today "Where's ister, where is she?" I thought that was so funny!
My mom just called and told me that the Star Telegram had been at the mall when they took the kids to see Santa last Friday. Well, she just looked on the front page of the star telegram online and there is a video of several kids with santa. My kids are on the front picture that advertises the video and they are SCREAMING! They are in the video too for a few seconds so I am going to link to it for everyone to see.
Enjoy!

Click here for Santa video.

Wow its December!

2008-12-04T19:51:00.005-06:00

Hi all!
I haven't posted much because the holidays are definitely here! I can't believe it is already December. We had a great Thanksgiving and I hope everyone else did as well. I haven't stopped listening to Christmas music since last Thursday. I LOVE all of my Christmas albums!! Peggy, Katie, Ryan, and I went to the Casting Crowns Christmas concert and it was so good. They have such an amazing ability to tell a story and Natalie Grant was there too so that made for a fabulous time!
I feel like a total recluse with my friends so if I haven't talked to you in a while I am sorry! I promise I will catch up when we get back from Breckenridge. We leave tomorrow afternoon and we won't be back until next Sunday. Until then, love and blessings!!

This is her new hiding place to get away from David...between the wall and the refrigerator.

I know I have already posted a picture of her all messy but I just thought this was hilarious!

?

2008-11-24T12:11:00.002-06:00

Last week I had more than one person point out to me that I am sick a lot. I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess I am. In all honesty it has been that way most of my life. I had lots of allergy problems when I was younger and then as I got older I just seemed to get everything that went around plus a few weird things thrown in. Now, since my last pregnancy I feel like I have had one thing after another. Severe joint pain, mono, stomach bugs, a lupus scare, and most recently a sinus infection. All of this is to just say I am really sick of being sick! I have upped my dosage of vitamin C and I am exercising more but I want to know what everyone else does to stay healthy? I do not want to keep getting the "your sick all the time" comment. So I really do want to know from everyone how you keep yourself healthy, because apparently I am doing something wrong.

WTGC and other occurences

2008-11-18T21:52:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday I went to the airport to pick up Peggy from her world travels. I took David with me because he refused to go to bed. We arrived at the airport around 10:40 and David found it fascinating, especially the luggage carousel. Then he was still wide awake when we got home around 11:30, and I do mean wide awake!
We took the kids to the Dallas zoo on Friday. It is no where near as good as the Ft. Worth zoo. Not as many animals and most of the habitats were pretty pathetic. They had a fun children's area though and Alex and David both got to ride a horse. Peggy and I decided it was not worth the money so we will not be going back.
Jenelle and I went to the Rapha House open house at Karen's. There is some really great jewelry so if you get a chance you should check it out. Then we went to eat dinner and discovered two of our favs are now open... Jason's Deli and FIREHOUSE!!!!!!! We were SO dissappointed that Firehouse was already closed for the night but we ate at Jason's Deli and it was very yummy!
Saturday I headed to Abilene for the West Texas Girl's Conference. There were 5 middle school girls and another sponser. It was fun getting to know Sharon (the other sponsor), we talked the whole way there and back. The conference was really good! The girls had a lot of fun going to classes and worshiping together. The theme this year was "Love me for me" and it was a great reminder that God created each of us with a purpose and that he loves us just the way he created us. Christa Black performed on Saturday night and she was fabulous! I had never heard of her before, but I left a fan.
Sunday night was a special night. I had my girl's small group over and my friend Wendy came and brought Ancsa. She is from Hungary and has had a lot of hardship in her 15 years. She became a Christian over the summer and she is getting to visit the US for 3 weeks. It was really neat watching the girls talk to her and include her. We brought her gifts and took pictures so she would have a memorable experience and hopefully we can stay in contact with her once she goes home.
While I was hanging out with youth group girls all weekend, Jon started hanging Christmas lights. I was able to get out of it because Brock volunteered to take my place (THANK YOU!) Grandma and Grandpa kept the kids all weekend and apparently found a great new playground! I missed the kids a ton and this made me realize how hard it is going to be to leave them for 10 days!! I know we will be having a blast in Breckenridge, but I am sure I will miss my babies terribly.
Here are pictures from the week. Blessings!
David with all of my scarves

Girl's Small Group with Wendy and Ancsa

WTGC - The girls with Christa Black

Sliding at the zoo

Riding the horse (she looks precarious, but there are people on each side of the horse) She hated the ride btw...

Toothy smile!

David and Grandma

David loved the horse!

Busy Week

2008-11-09T21:39:00.005-06:00

I packed a lot of things into the past 8 days so here goes...
Last Saturday Jon got outside and made a big stand that fits on top of our entertainment center and holds all of our snow villages. Then he brought it in and set the whole thing up. It looks fabulous! Then Kevin, Laura, and the boys came over for dinner. I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing together but they were cute. I tried a new twist to a cake recipe and Landon made my night by taking a bite and exclaiming, "Erin, this absolutely could never be a bad cake!"
Then on Sunday I brought my high school girls small group to our house. My kiddos loved them and the candy they brought with them!
Tuesday I went to the dermatologist again and he feels pretty confident now that he doesn't need to test for lupus and that I just have severe rosacia and dermatitis or something like that. Everything he has given me is making a huge difference with my face and I don't feel like I am sunburned all of the time. After the dr. I met Sarah and Brooks at Hobby Lobby and we went shopping for Laura's shower.
Wednesday night I went to Laura's to make more bows. We didn't get any made, but we did get several strands of korker ribbon made. Then on the way home from her house I was pulled over not once, but twice because Jon's tail light was out. He got that fixed on Thursday morning :).
Thursday night we had small group at the Woods house so we got all of their ski equipment to borrow for our trip. Yeah!! They are saving us tons! Thank You!
Friday morning I packed the kids up and met Heather, Karen, Matt, and Trish at the zoo with their kiddos. It was packed with kids on field trips and I realized I was out numbered with my two children. They both wanted out of the wagon but Alex just ran off and David didn't want to move from exhibit to exhibit, so we had several meltdowns! Karen tried to help but that made Jack really upset. So I learned that I still can't go anywhere by myself with the kids! Friday night all of the hostesses for Laura's shower met at my house and we made all of the food and decorations. It was so much fun!
Saturday morning Jon and I packed up the kids and went to Weatherford for a family reunion for my Grandmother's side of the family. I didn't really know anyone other than my immediate relatives but it was fun. There was a great playground there and the kids had a blast running around and especially sliding. Alex has NO fear! She climbed to the top of the big twisty slide by herself and then didn't even hesitate to slide down. It took David 10 minutes of climbing up and down the stairs to get up the courage to actually slide down.
Today was the shower and it was so pretty! Laura looked great and she got a lot of really cute things. Kallie and Kaitlyn will be the best dressed little girls around!
That pretty much sums up my week so I will post the visual aides. Blessings!

Girl's Small Group

David trying out my new snow boots

Seriously preggo goat!

Where's Alex?

There She is!

Grandmother and Alex

Papaw and me

Grammy and David

Starting to feed herself!

Diaper Cakes

Hostesses

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T22:22:00.005-05:00

Tonight was a great night! Grammy and Pops came to see the kids and Jeremy, Holly, and Luke came over to trick or treat with us. We had dinner together and then we loaded the kids up and headed to the fall festival in our neighborhood. Then we walked around for a while from house to house. David had a blast! He loved going into the garages that were really decked out. He only acted scared once. He just ran around carrying his treat bag and saying "tri-tree" (trick or treat). Several people had a fit over their pebbles and bam bam ensemble as well. As long as Alex had a sucker in her mouth she was content to go wherever we wanted! When we got home and my mom was getting her ready for bed we realized she was covered in black fuzzies from her shirt because she was SO sticky. Hopefully my children will not wake up with sugar hangovers...
After the trick or treating we all came back to the house and ate candied apples on the deck and watched the kids run around and play. Then we sat around the fire pit talking for a while until everyone had to go home. Just a great time all the way around!
On a completely different note... David has started using the big boy potty! He acted like he wanted to use the kiddie potty at the Hanks last night so I let him and he actually used it. Then today I asked him if he wanted to go tee tee in the potty and he got up and went to the bathroom and then he went! He did this 3 times today! I had no idea he was so ready to start potty training but I am so proud of him!
I hope everyone had a great Halloween and I will end with fun pics from the night.

Layers of candy and chocolate all over his face

Relaxing with Pops

yummy candy!

Note the sucker in her mouth...

sucker in hand...

Another sucker...

Jeremy found a friend!

Grammy figured someone should be using the wagon...

Cute family pic!

another sucker in her mouth!

Anxiously awaiting her first sucker of the evening..

Sweet little Luke Skywalker!

Pumpkin patch (second try), trunk of treats, and stuff in between

2008-10-28T09:36:00.007-05:00

In hopes that I will lose the rest of my baby weight, I have started walking with Sarah. We load the kiddos up in our matching strollers (except mine is double and hers is a single) and we head out. So far it is working out great, I get exercise and social time!
We didn't get very good pictures the first time we went to the pumpkin patch, so we went back on a weekday morning when it was a LOT less crowded. We ended up with some really cute pictures this time and the kids had a blast! Alex LOVES bounce houses. David likes them too but Alex just laughs and smiles the whole time she is in one and she has no fear! I ran into a friend from school (Ashley Hall) while I was there that I haven't talked to in probably 6 years. She and her husband have adopted 5 kids and plan to adopt more in the future. It was really neat talking to her about how they got the kids and everything. I would love to adopt too so she turned me to several places to start researching and praying over.
I went to Laura's for some more bow making. I didn't get home until 1:15am. I spent most of my time making a butterfly clip that I don't even like very much! Oh well, now I know how to do it so I can make a cuter one and this time it should go faster.
Grandma came to stay with us for a couple of days so we could make the kids Halloween costumes and to spend time with us before she left for Europe. David is Bam-Bam and Alex is Pebbles for halloween and their costumes turned out really cute! Thankfully Peggy was here because David and I both got sick so she took care of us, made two costumes, made the casseroles and dessert for our small group, and got all of my laundry done. I don't know what I would have done without her!
Saturday I went to Grapevine to go to Canton in the City and shop the cute stores on Main st. I realize I am a sucker for boutique clothing for Alex. I can't afford it, so she doesn't get any of it, but I love it all!! So I have decided i have to learn how to sew because I want to make little girl clothes!!
Then we went to Trunk of Treats on Saturday night at our church. It was fun watching David do some of the games this year but he mostly wanted to just run around in the parking lot. We left early because Jon and Peggy both started feeling sick. They both ended up with what David and I had.
So Grammy and Pops took care of David on Sunday and I took Alex with me to help Grandma get packed so she wouldn't have to worry about it while she was sick. Then we came back and took care of Daddy (he was really sick, poor thing!).
Everyone is better now and I have been changing sheets and lysoling everything this morning in hopes that Alex will not catch it.
I have lots of pictures from the week so I will let you get to the good stuff. Blessings!!

David's Pics

2008-10-24T19:45:00.002-05:00

Free Giveaway!!!

2008-10-18T00:18:00.005-05:00

For Keeps Design is giving away a $25 gift certificate! To enter the drawing just click here. Freebies4Mom is featuring For Keeps Design and offering the giveaway as well as 15% off to all of their readers. So go sign up because you only have a week to enter. This is coming just in time for Christmas cards (they have a great selection with several at only .99 cents)!
Happy Card Hunting!
Erin
P.S. Words in color are links.

Birthdays and other stuff

2008-10-12T21:30:00.003-05:00

We went to Plano for the weekend to celebrate Phillip and Nana's birthdays. We had a lot of fun and ate great food! While we were there we had David's pictures taken and they turned out really cute despite how awful it was trying to get a good shot of him. He will not just stand or sit where you put him. He moves almost as soon as you let go of him. It was a workout for Peggy and me just to keep him in front of the camera, much less looking straight ahead and smiling! But it was worth it because he is so cute. (I will have to post these pics later bc I forgot the cd in plano)

Alex ran fever from Monday till Friday. We went to the dr. and she was tested for the flu and a uti but she was fine, so it was just a virus. Most of the time she acted just fine and happy but when the fever would spike she would look at you with these sad droopy eyes and I would have to scoop her up and hold her just so my heart didn't break! She looked awful! She is all better now though, and has started talking up a storm in her own little language the way David used to do.

David started saying the names of everyone this weekend. He said Andrew and Katie the clearest but he attempted Jennifer and it was pretty funny. He calls Grandma, Ma and he calls Grandpa, Ampa. He calls Jon, Daddy but I am still Eri most of the time. He never even tries to say Alex. He calls my dad, Pops pretty clearly but he hasn't said anyone else so far.

I can't believe this but I didn't take any pictures this week. So I will post David's pics later this week.

Blessings!

A Quick Week...

2008-10-06T15:53:00.006-05:00

I can't believe another week has come and gone. We were pretty busy so I guess that is why it flew by.
The kids and I went to Laura's on Tuesday. We had a bow making day and it was lots of fun! The kids napped and then played together the rest of the afternoon. (well, Alex hung out at the bow table screaming a lot) We wanted to keep making bows all evening too but we had to shut down and feed the families. Here is a cute picture of the boys watching tv together.

Peggy came over for a couple of days and while she was here Jon and I went to see Fireproof. We loved it! The movie really reminds you of your purpose as a spouse but it is also just really sweet (and funny)! I think everyone should go see it.
Friday night was girls night at Karen's. We had pizza, watched a movie, and talked a lot! It was fabulous. The only thing that would have made the night better was if Karen had just bought enough pizza!
On Saturday, we met Grandma and Grandpa at the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. We planned to get there early so we could beat the crowd but we only beat it by 15 minutes. So it was hot and crowded and David and Alex wanted nothing to do with posing for pictures. It was not the best experience but breakfast made up for it! We went to Weck's and the kids were really cute. As long as Grandpa kept feeding Alex she was content and David just colored the whole time. These are the best pics I was able to get. Hopefully we can get better ones when we go back on a week day morning!

After we got home from the pumpkin patch, Grammy and Pops came to visit for a little while and I got to take a nap :) and finish putting up my fall decorations.
Then Sunday we went to church and then to Canon's first birthday party. He was super messy with cake from head to toe! The party was fun and we had the best cupcakes I have ever seen in my whole entire life ;). When Matt and Karen got there they had Jack in his wagon so we put Alex in there with him and Matt just walked them around. I took pictures because Karen says we have to document their times together for when they get married since they met in the hospital. (Karen was across the hall from me in labor and delivery and Jack and Alex are only 5 hours apart.) Here are a couple of the shots I got of them in the wagon. Alex had ripped the bows out of hair in the second picture.

I am going to post a few more pics from the week and sign off. Blessings!

We forgot where the Mr. Potato Head pieces were supposed to go...

Uneventful

2008-09-28T15:22:00.006-05:00

This past week was very relaxing. We didn't go anywhere so the kids and I were in our pj's most days until after lunch and sometimes even later.
We played outside on the deck a lot and Alex has figured out how to get down from each level. She could climb up but then she would stand and scream until someone would get her down. She learned to say thank you and hi and she claps any time she thinks she has done something special (which is quite often!). She has also cut 4 of her molars and we barely knew they were coming in. She only had trouble with one of them. This gives her a grand total of 12 teeth! Alex is also going through a very needy time right now. She really would prefer to be held at all times. I like it and dislike it all at the same time. I love the affection and being able to just sit with her but when I need to cook dinner it is very difficult, she either hangs on my legs and cries or follows me around the kitchen, flapping her arms and screaming. I know some day I will crave for her to just let me hold her so I am trying to soak this up as much as possible.
David is just hilarious to be with right now. He is discovering something new every day and his exclamations are priceless. He says "Oh My!", "Cool!", and "Oh Wow!" at just about anything he finds interesting (this morning it was his banana). He says several 2 word phrases and is beginning to identify people by their names. He never seems to run out of energy either! If he has somewhere to go, he runs there at full speed. If we are listening to music he will "dance" by running in place as fast as he can while swinging his arms around. David is really starting to like Alex and wants her to play with him. His idea of play is still a little rough for her though. He wants to wrestle with her the way he does with his daddy but this resulted in a bloody lip last night (for Alex). Sometimes though, they will just sit in the play room together and pass things back and forth while jabbering to each other in their own little language. On Friday I was putting some towels away and I realized it was really quiet. So I went looking for David and Alex and they were sitting in front of the entertainment center with both of the drawers open and they were each pulling things out as fast as they could. Then they would stop and look at each other and then start laughing and pulling stuff out again. I was so amused I just kept watching silently. Once the drawers were empty they each climbed into a drawer and stood up with their hands and faces against the tv screen (they seemed to think this was really funny for some reason). I tried to get a picture but as soon as they realized I was there they got out of the drawers. I wouldn't normally allow them to dismantle everything and stand in the furniture but I was just too curious to see what they were going to do. I have a feeling they are going to start ganging up like this pretty often so it should stay interesting at my house!
Scroll for pics from the week.
Blessings!

Happy Birthday David!

2008-09-22T16:56:00.006-05:00

Wow! I can't believe my little boy is 2! He is so active and full of life I just have to smile and laugh every time I look at him. He had so much fun at his party on Saturday. He opened all of his presents with "oh cool!" or "Wow!". It didn't matter what it was, all of it was worth an exclamation! He got some cool bath toys, a basketball goal, a tool bench, and lots of other great things. My parents gave him a Mr. Potato head and he has carried it everywhere with him today and Alex tries to get as many of the pieces in her hands as she can carry and then run away with them. Oh and Aunt Katie and Uncle Phillip gave him hulk hands and he is hilarious with them. I will try to get a good video and post it later. Thank you for all of David's gifts!!
We took him to Gatti Land on Sunday and he ran around from one thing to the next. We didn't need to spend any money, he had a blast just watching all of the lights and moving parts!
I have video and pictures from the weekend so I will stop writing and get to the good stuff.
Blessings!

For Keeps Design

2008-09-13T21:44:00.004-05:00

My friends Sarah and Laura announced the grand opening of their business this week. It is called 'For Keeps Design' and specializes in custom announcements, invitations, cards, and more. Laura and Sarah have worked SO hard creating designs and getting the website ready. They are both really amazing women and they deserve all the business we can send their way! Plus everything they make looks fabulous! You can check out their website www.forkeepsdesign.com and you can bookmark it so you know where to go for your next big event.

I took a couple of cute videos this week so I thought I would share those in lieu of a post about the kids.
Blessings!

Happy 1st Birthday Alexandria

2008-09-08T09:59:00.003-05:00

Saturday marked a pretty big milestone for our family. Alex turned one! This means I no longer have a baby in the house which is a little weird, and for the next 2 weeks I have two one year olds!
My great aunt asked me on Saturday if this past year has been really challenging having them so close. I told her it really wasn't that bad because Alex wasn't mobile through most of it and she was easy going. I really think this next year is going to be the more challenging year. David is entering the two's and though I don't expect them to be terrible I do know that he is learning how to be more independent and he already tests the waters just to see how much freedom he really has. Alex is starting to lose that easy going spirit and assert her independence as well. She had a complete melt down yesterday when Jon would not let her hold the spoon while he gave her some very sticky punch. Alex also walks up to David and takes toys away from him and he in turn takes it right back then she takes it back and it will keep going until Alex screams at him and then he looks at her and screams right back. So I think this next year holds more challenges for us as a family. I am truly saying all of this with a smile on my face because although it will be hard, I think it is going to be a lot of fun watching them grow together and become friends and seeing their little personalities continue to develop. I also love these ages because you can teach them so many things!
On Saturday we also celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday! She is so sweet and I really love her. She thought she was coming to Alex's party but it was hers so she was very surprised.
It was a really busy weekend for us but I wouldn't have changed a thing. Alex's party was a blast! We had about 40 people there and it worked great because of the deck. I love that we have such a great "cloud of witnesses" who surround our children. I know it is going to have a huge impact on their lives. Thanks to everyone who came and for all of the cute gifts!
Blessings!

The Deck!

2008-09-03T08:54:00.007-05:00

Jon has been designing and planning our deck for 5 months I think. He kept going back and forth on when we would start it and whether or not it was a waste of money. So we finally decided to go ahead with the plans and try to have it finished in time for Alex's birthday party.
So two weekends ago my dad and Jon got out in the back yard and started the framing for the deck.

They worked so hard! Every day my dad came back after work and they would get back out there and keep making progress.

Then on Saturday Paul, Kevin, and Brock came over and helped Jon and my dad get the decking started.

Then Jon's dad came in from Holland and helped finish everything up and run electricity to the deck and install plugs and switches and stuff.

There will be a pergola type roof on the upper portion of the deck but we need more cedar for that, so Jon is going to wait until October to get more wood. So the large posts sticking up in the air will eventually serve a very important purpose! Here are pictures of the finished product. It turned out better than I ever imagined it would! I am extremely impressed with my husband, I didn't know he had it in him to design and build things! I will of course post a picture in October once we get it completely finished. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard helping Jon make this deck a reality!!

A big first and other things

2008-08-25T15:25:00.004-05:00

Today was the first time I have ever taken David and Alex to the pediatrician by myself. I was nervous because I usually have someone with me or I leave one of the babies at home.
Everything went fine. David was really good and held my hand and then he played really well while we waited for the dr. to come in. Alex just wanted to be held the whole time so she was pretty easy to contain. This might sound really dumb since my kids are almost 1 and 2 but today is the first time I really felt like I could do this without looking or feeling like a frazzled mess. Not to say that I won't have those days but any time I think about just getting the kids out by myself I think twice about it and stay home or get someone to go with me because I am scared that I will lose control of them in public or that I will look completely incompetent as a mother. (wow, the last 3 lines were a little hard to write down and admit out loud).
We have a lot of noise going on at our house right now because Jon and my dad have started building our deck. I am trying to take pictures along the way so I can show the progress when I blog about the finished product. So far they have the basic framing for the different sections finished and this afternoon they worked on getting the posts for the covering put in place. It's starting to take shape!
Alex is now sick with the virus David had. She sounds so much worse than he did though. She has lost her voice so she makes these high pitched sounds that are kind of like a dog whimper but her cough sounds like a seal bark because she has croup. It is really sad! I just want to hold her.
I went to Women of Faith over the weekend with Peggy. We had so much fun! The speakers really challenged me but they were all comical. I haven't laughed (or cried) that much in a while.
I didn't take very many pics this week so I am not going to post any this time, but I am going to post a really touching story that Patsy Clairmont shared during the WOF conference. Blessings!

Abilene and Pet Peeves

2008-08-17T17:55:00.007-05:00

The kids and I went to Abilene over the weekend with my mom and sister. It was really cute watching David and Alex interact with my grandparents. We also saw my cousins and aunt and uncle. I wish I could say David loved his time there but he was so out of sorts from his antibiotic that he just kept breaking down into these screaming tantrums. He has never acted like this before and he is on his first round of antibiotics ever and I have decided they turn him into a very angry child. All he wants to do is watch "momo's" (movies) and when we tell him no, he just melts into fits of screaming rage and he ends up having to go to his room until he calms down which makes him even more angry until he finally wears himself down. I cannot express how ready I am for my sweet little boy to return.
On the positive, Alex is babbling a lot and starting to say some words. She says bye-bye and waves, mama, dadady (not a typo that is how she says it), ball, and boo. She is also to the point where she is walking more than crawling.
Since I spent a few hours driving over the weekend, sharing the road with several whackadoo's, I feel the need to vent a few of my pet peeves.
1.) When did yield signs become optional? I was nearly run over by 3 cars who came right into my lane without so much as a tap on their brakes. All 3 of them blatantly ignoring the giant yield sign for their lane!
2.) Cruise Control. Drives me nuts when the same little car passes me, gets in my lane, then slows down forcing me to pass them. Then two minutes later, here comes the same little car passing me again. (in this case it was a bmw so I know they had cruise control) Set your cruise or get off the phone!
3.) Just Pass them already! I think I get the most annoyed when two cars are just driving along at 60mph right next to each other. Please one of you just go even 2 mph faster and you can open up the lanes for the rest of us!!
4.) Last but not least... Truckers, I know you keep America running and all that jazz, but seriously, do you have to get right on my tail to the point I can't even read your license plate, before you decide to pass me? I hate wondering whether or not I am going to get run over by the giant metal beast that is barreling towards me in the rear view mirror.
OK, I am finished ranting.
Here are pics from our week. Blessings!

Good Books?

2008-08-10T22:35:00.003-05:00

I was wondering if anyone has a good book suggestion? What authors do you like and why. I am open to anything!

Great Friends!

2008-08-09T14:45:00.006-05:00

I had such a great night last night. A few of the girls got together and went to Taste of Asia and then to La Paletera for ice cream. If you are a sushi fan I highly recommend Taste of Asia. I had the rainbow roll and it was SO good. It was incredibly refreshing to just sit and talk and laugh hysterically. I am sure the guy who waited on us at La Paletera thought we were crazy. Their menu is really long, in fact it was a little overwhelming for Amy, it took her a while to get through all of it :) Jenelle tasted at least 7 different flavors of ice cream and the rest of us tasted 1 or 2. Jenelle kept assuring the guy that she was going to make a purchase eventually! There were some really profound statements made. For example, "I think it's a smoothie, see it looks all smoothie like" and "is it just a small town thing to shoot rats in your house with a shotgun?". If anyone can tell me if this makes sense I would appreciate it... Heather saw that one chocolate strawberry costs $1, however a dozen of them costs $12.99. So it would be cheaper to order exactly 11 and then 1 extra. Don't mention the word "dozen" or they will charge you an extra dollar. It didn't make any sense to us! And if you haven't listened to some of Karen's stories, you should! I am so thankful for the great friends I have, it really makes my life a lot less stressful! I love ya'll...
I am going to end with pictures of the kids, the play room and bedroom, and a short video of Alex's monkey crawl. (she figured out how to crawl with a dress on)
Blessings!

Busy Week!!

2008-08-04T21:43:00.004-05:00

We had a lot going on last week. Jon and I started painting our bedroom last Saturday. We rearranged all of the furniture and put the computer in there too. We painted the room a dark orangy-red color and brown. The brown has a kind of olive green tint to it. This all matched the new bedding that I got for my birthday! (Thank You!)
After we finished our bedroom we moved everything out of the study so we could paint it and make it into a play room. We painted it bright orange, green, and purple. It turned out so cute! The painting part was kind of a fiasco because I didn't think to prime the walls first and there was dark brown on them. We ended up putting 3 coats of paint on the walls and having to buy twice as much paint as we had anticipated.
But it is finished and I love it! We moved all of the toys into that room and out of our living room. We also put a book shelf and a tv in there so the kids and any friends they have over should stay quite occupied. The best thing is we can close the doors but still see them because those doors have windows in them!
Amidst all of the painting we also helped out with VBS. I led 3 yr. olds around and Jon helped out with the 4 yr. olds. Then on Friday it was my birthday and we went swimming with Heather and Canon and then we went out to eat at Ritzy's. I love their onion rings!! My mom and dad gave me my favorite book and movie from when I was about David's age. Maggie's Moon is the book and I can remember reading it over and over and over! I also remember watching Dot and the Kangaroo. Most people have never even heard of this cartoon but I would watch it and just cry at the end because Dot had to go home and leave the kangaroo behind but then I would want to watch it again. So I can't wait to share these things with my kids! Thanks mom for remembering them and searching the internet to find them!
Alex is walking! She chooses to crawl because she can go so much faster but I saw her stand up in the middle of the room today and walk to rocking chair and she looked like a pro. She didn't wobble at all and it took her about 10 steps to get there. It is funny because she has great muscle control and can stand up on her own without holding on to anything and she can squat down to pick up a toy and stand back up without falling over but she doesn't think she can walk. David couldn't do those things until he had been walking for a couple of months. If she has something in her hand she will just walk kind of without thinking about it. But if you try to get her to walk to you then she acts like she can't and she will just take one step and then sit down and crawl. Today we were reading a book about a ball and she started saying ball after I would say it. I wanted to cry because she seems to be growing up so fast all of a sudden! Her hair is also growing out really curly! After her bath tonight, Jon and I were laughing because her hair dried in these tight little curls all over the back of her head. They were so cute!! I hope it stays that way even when it gets longer.
David has been really funny. He will start throwing a tantrum because we have told him no about something and he will be screaming and then he will stop and peak around through his fingers to see if we are watching him. If we are, then he will keep screaming but if he looks around and thinks we have stopped watching then he will just quit screaming. This is funny to me because he has already figured out how to play people! This week he also discovered his gag reflex. It fascinates him for some reason. He will stick his fingers down his throat over and over and make this awful gagging sound. I keep telling him to stop and I try to distract him but he eventually remembers and goes back to doing it. On Thursday afternoon he kept sticking pieces of play food down his throat and he eventually actually made himself throw up. I was not happy! The feeling of throwing up is so gross, I just can't imagine why he enjoys it. Thankfully he didn't do any of this today so maybe he will forget about it! His newest phrase is "I did it!". He will jump off of a box, write on a piece of paper, or throw the ball and he will clap his hands and say I did it! It makes me laugh every time.
Katie was visiting us last week and she took a lot of cute pictures of the kids so I am going to end with them. I don't have my bed put together yet so I don't have a picture of the room but I will post one later along with a picture of the play room.
Hope everyone has a blessed week!

David's Haircut

2008-07-23T15:05:00.003-05:00

David has been in desperate need of a haircut for about 2 weeks now. I was going to take him today to get it done when I decided that $15 was just too much for a child's haircut and decided to cut it myself. I was thinking it couldn't be that hard. I have watched the ladies cut it at the kiddie salon and I am pretty sure I can do this. So I put a movie on, laid some towels on the floor, and strapped him in the booster seat. He is usually really good and doesn't fight the lady cutting his hair. Well, when I am the one cutting his hair, he fights! He let me get a couple of good shaves in before he started fighting. This way there was no turning back, I just had to keep going. Katie was there helping so she had to hold his head still at some parts because he was going crazy just shaking his head as fast as he could while screaming. Needless to say, he does not have the best haircut. While trying to trim around his ears he was moving so much that I clipped it too high and short but oh well! His hair is cut and it looks decent over all but I think I will go back to paying $15 to let someone else cut his hair while he calmly watches a movie.

Here is the final result plus some hair gel.

This is pretty much what he looked like throughout the whole experience.

Anniversary Weekend

2008-07-21T16:23:00.007-05:00

Jon and I celebrated 5 years together this past weekend and I can't believe it has gone by so quickly. Well, looking back on it feels like it went fast but when I actually think about myself and who I was 5 yrs. ago it seems like a lifetime ago. Lots of things have happened in those 5 yrs. but the ones I remember the most are the arrivals of my precious babies. We missed them so much while we were away just for the weekend! ( I am a little nervous about leaving them for a week in Dec.) I can't wait to see where the next 5 yrs. will take us. I love a good adventure so I think it will be a lot of fun raising David and Alex and adding a couple more to the mix. But I especially look forward to doing everything with my precious husband! He is such a great man and takes wonderful care of his family. I loved our weekend together because we laughed a lot and talked for hours so it felt like we were dating again! It was great! We stayed at this great B&B in Granbury called The Inn on Granbury Lake and I highly recommend it. It was gorgeous with lots of trees and gardens and the breakfast was fabulous! It was really the perfect weekend to celebrate our 5th!

This is a view of the main house and the pool where we stayed.

This is another view of the pool.

This is the back of the property overlooking the lake.
Fabulous sunglasses we found while shopping in Granbury!

Almost walking

2008-07-13T19:36:00.002-05:00

We noticed one day this past week that Alex was just standing at the coffee table but not holding on. I think that was on Wednesday. Every day she lets go more and more. If she has something in her hand to play with she will stand for several seconds. I have tried putting her behind her walker a few times but she hasn't wanted anything to do with it. Then today I stood her up behind it and she just took off! It is so cute to see her walking around with her little chubby legs. David of course wanted in on the fun so he came up and took the walker away from her several times. I got it on video once. She just keeps standing there once he takes it away. He does bring it back though. Alex is also waving and saying bye bye. I didn't even know she could do it and one day last week David was telling someone bye-bye and she was sitting on the floor next to him saying the same thing and waving her little arm.
David is in a really funny stage right now. He knows he is cute and really plays it up. In fact, today while we were eating lunch he said "I cute" several times and then laughed. He loves the book Go Dog Go. He will bring it to you and say Go Go and then sit in your lap for you to read it. I think I read it 10 times to him yesterday on the couch. He has started to show sympathy and he is recognizing other peoples emotions. We watched a little bit of Finding Nemo this morning and when the diver came up behind Nemo causing him to scream for his dad, David looked at me and started saying "oh no, oh no Nemo, oh no". Yesterday Alex was crying and he pointed at her and said " cry, oh no, cry".
We have a pretty busy week so I probably won't post again until we get back from our anniversary trip. I will leave you with the two videos below. They are both of Alex using her walker.

It's been a while!

2008-06-29T21:16:00.004-05:00

I know I haven't written anything in 3 weeks so I apologize and that means this post might be a little long. I am going to put a few pictures up first and then I will get to my post.

The kids are doing really well! David is into everything and asserting his independence. He figured out how to move the kitchen chairs and now will climb on them and then can reach anything on the table. Jon's birthday cake was in the middle of the table and while I was changing Alex's diaper, he climbed onto the chair and started eating the icing off the cake. He let me know he was wanting something because he screamed my name "Erie, Erie" I just didn't know he was wanting the cake! And yes, he calls me by my name instead of mommy. This is not my choice and we say mommy to him all the time but he insists on Erie! (he can't pronounce the n) I will admit though that it is pretty funny to hear him call me by my name.
Alex is working on 5 teeth at the moment. She has done amazingly well for cutting so many at one time. Her hair is really starting to grow and I think it is going to have a lot of curl in it. The back and one longer section on top is starting to sit in little curls on her head. It is really cute!! She now crawls at hyper speed throughout the house. Her little legs and arms just move as fast as they can and she can be in another room in the blink of an eye. David and Alex have started playing together a little bit. Mostly they will crawl up and down the hallway with each other and just laugh and laugh! I love watching it! I have tried several times to get this on video but every time they see me they stop and come to the camera. As soon as I get good video I will post it.
We left yesterday for a quick trip to Houston. Kevin and Laura went with us and we had a blast! We went to the Astros/Red Sox game and the guys watched while Laura and I mostly talked. Then we went to church this morning at a pretty progressive church where most everything was led by women. None of us had experienced a service quite like this before but it gave us several things to think and study on. It wasn't bad, just different. Parts of it were really refreshing and others were a little uncomfortable. It challenged me to think about what I believe and I always welcome the chance to grow and come to a greater understanding of my faith and what God has to say to me, so overall I really enjoyed it. We then went back to Jon's grandparents and had an amazing lunch!! We were so full when we got on the road it was hard to stay awake! Thank you Mimi and Grandpa for letting us stay there and for the great conversation and food. Thanks also Mom and Dad for watching the kids. I know you had a blast and we really appreciated it! ( hope you aren't too exhausted)
Now on a more serious note...
I would say that over the past few weeks my walk with God has been in a valley. I guess the best and quickest way to explain it would be that I have just been struggling with who God truly created me to be and whether or not I am living within his purposes. I don't really want to get any further than that but I do want to share my God moment with you. In church this morning we sang the song "In Christ Alone". I have always liked this song but I haven't heard it in a while and today I heard the lyrics like they were being poured into my heart giving me strength and hope. I thought about the song all day and how the words were what I needed to hear. That my Father gave me his Son and when I live in Christ there is no worry, he holds my destiny! I looked for a good video of this song so I could post it and when I listened to the one below I had streams of tears running down my face by the end. It was even more powerful after thinking about it all day. I am so thankful that I am a child of God and that he has given me such an amazing crowd of witnesses in my life to share my journey with. I pray this video touches your heart. It is about 5 minutes long but please take the time to listen all the way to the end because the very last verse is worth the wait. Have a blessed and amazing week!

The Kids

2008-06-08T21:09:00.010-05:00

I haven't posted about the kids in a couple of weeks so I thought I would devote some time to them. David is saying and understanding words more and more. Today he brought me his cup and said "more drink" and when I told him we couldn't go outside without our shoes on he brought me his shoes and sat down in my lap for me to put them on him. I just love watching him learn and rejoicing in the smallest accomplishments. I had no idea before I had kids that when parents clapped and encouraged their children over the tiny things, that they TRULY meant it! I am totally delighted at every little thing my children do! He also learned to swim with his floaties on. At first you had to hold him or he would end up with his face in the water or he would keep his mouth open and end up sucking in water. He didn't want to be held though, so he quickly figured out how to keep his head up and his mouth closed.
Alex is starting to walk around things as long as she can hold on. She will go down the coffee table but she hasn't figured out how to turn the corner yet. She will also take a few steps holding on to a walker. This week she started cutting three teeth on top so that cute grin with the two bottom teeth is about to change. (Not that it won't be cute, it will just have more teeth!) It is actually really good that she is cutting more teeth because last week she just decided she had had it with baby food. If you try to put something pureed into her mouth she will spit it out or gag on it. She prefers to just have table food. She is really good at feeding herself so we just cut everything up really small and she pretty much eats whatever we are eating and she loves it! She just smiles and laughs the whole time she is in her high chair eating. Alex is also saying dada. She screams it sometimes and this is to the delight of her daddy!
It is funny to me how I can already see such differences in their personalities. David has always been pretty independent. When he started crawling he would just crawl around the house and get into everything and explore. He didn't really care if you were around at all, and he wouldn't crawl to you unless he wanted food. Alex on the other hand follows me around the house. If I am in the kitchen, so is she. If I walk into a different room, she crawls right after me. If you put your arms out to her and say her name, she will always crawl right up to you and let you hug or kiss on her.
I think I have covered everything for now so I will close with pictures and videos from the past month.

Studio Blue Rocks!!

2008-06-06T15:24:00.002-05:00

I wanted to let everyone know about Studio Blue. I am sure some of you already know about it but I want everyone to know! My friends Brandon and Heather started this photography business and it is really worth taking a look. Brandon really takes some amazing (and original) shots! They are doing this as a side business for now but would really like it to be full time. I highly recommend them. They are very decently priced and will work with you to get whatever shot you are looking for. We are going to have them take Alex and David's birthday pictures along with some family shots and I can't wait!! I posted a link to the right so you can look at their website and see for yourself how great Brandon is. Just click on Supremely Awesome Photographer.

The Shack

2008-06-02T11:13:00.002-05:00

I wrote a pretty long post yesterday about the book I just finished reading called "The Shack" by William P Young. I went back and re read some parts this morning that I wanted to think over some more. After I read them I decided to delete the post I made yesterday and start over.
The book was very touching to me. It contained a lot of dialogue that I enojoyed and it made me want to experience a stronger relationship with my Creator. With that said, I also want to say that I found some pretty big flaws in the theology behind many of the conversations within the book. As someone who has a pretty grounded faith and understanding of what I believe in Scripture I think it was just fine to read the book. I was capable of reading it as a work of fiction and someone elses ideas of what God might be like. If you are a new Christian or if you are easily swayed by post-modern thinking then I would suggest that you never pick this book up. It has the potential to teach some theology that I believe just isn't supported by scripture. But I would love for anyone who feels like they can read this book objectively to pick it up and read it. There were some parts that really helped me and that I felt were completely grounded in scripture. I would love to discuss this book with some of you whether you liked it or not.
While writing this post I have been looking online at several discussions about the book. I had no idea it was so popular. So you might have already heard a lot about it. A lot of people seem to really hate the book. I think you have to read it as a work of fiction and someones imagination and leave it at that. Well I am anxious to hear everyone elses thoughts...

Exhausted

2008-05-27T12:07:00.003-05:00

Today I woke up and felt like my whole body weighed a ton and all of my joints are throbbing. I really thought the medicine would make me feel better but so far I feel worse. I have absolutely no energy! I mean it takes effort to pick up my cup of coffee much less pick up my kids and change their diapers. I am throwing a bit of a pity party at the moment so I apologize, but I needed to vent my frustration.

No RA!!

2008-05-23T11:05:00.001-05:00

I went to the dr. yesterday and he said I don't have RA. He thinks all of my symptoms are from the mono. YEAH!! I just wanted to let everyone know.

Mono really??

2008-05-20T21:17:00.005-05:00

Well as some of you know, I have been having lots of joint pain and feeling very fatigued for a while now. I went to the dr. a couple of weeks ago and they did blood work to see if I have rheumatoid arthritis. They said they would not give me any results until I go back to the dr. on the 22nd. So today I get a call from the dr.'s office and they said they didn't have the results for my arthritis panel but that I did test positive for mono. They think I have had it since November! I was, and still am a little shocked but I am really glad to know why I have felt so tired and sometimes just lethargic. Now I am on 2 medications for a month!! I will hopefully find out about the RA on Thursday and let everyone know how that turns out.

2008-05-20T10:27:00.003-05:00

Please pray for Jon's aunt and uncle. Their names are Joe and Carlyn. Joe has cancer and is currently having stem cell treatments. He also found out last week that the chemo has damaged his heart. Peggy (Jon's mom) flew to NC last week to help them out but it is still hard on both of them and they could really use some good news from the doctors. This picture was taken about 2 months ago.

Astro's Game

2008-05-17T13:04:00.005-05:00

Alex went to her first baseball game last night and did great! She had lots of compliments on her adorable outfit and kept the fans behind us pretty entertained. She also had her buddy Luke there to keep her company. Alex and Luke fell asleep in the 8th inning and amazingly stayed asleep through all of the cheering and fireworks!

David also went to the game and had lots of fun. I thought this video was precious of him sharing his popcorn.

My house is filled with the sounds of talking children!

2008-05-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

David is really starting to say all kinds of words. I hear new ones every day. He will repeat a lot of words that you say to him and he will also just randomly say things while he is walking around the house. Here is a list of everything he can say now: Hot, Hi, Bye, Dog, Where Go, What Doing, Erin, Shoes, Carrots, Mommy, Daddy, Sam, Outside, Oh No, Uh Oh, No No No, Cheese, Drink, and Bible. I have heard him say other words but those are words I here consistantly.
Alex has also started jabbering away. She says mamama, dadada, and nananana quite a abit. Other times she just sits there saying ahhh as loud as she can! Needless to say it gets pretty loud around here and really funny when they are both trying to be heard.

2008-05-13T16:15:00.000-05:00

For a while now, David has not wanted Alex to play with any of his toys. This got worse once she started crawling. He goes up to her and takes away anything she is playing with and sometimes pushes, hits, or even drags her away from whatever she has. I have had a hard time disciplining David for this because he just doesn't quite understand the concept of sharing. With all of this toy stealing going on, the usual sounds I hear when they are together fall somewhere between whining and crying. So I was so excited when I heard laughter coming from the living room. I walked in to find David entertaining Alex in her jumper. It was so precious! The small glimpse of them having fun together just made me very excited to watch them grow into the best of friends. Em caught a little bit of thier laughter on video so I thought I would share it with you.

My 2nd Mother's Day

2008-05-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

Today I celebrated my 2nd mother's day. At church they had all of the mothers stand up. They did the same thing last year and I was able to stand, but this year was different. I was standing there thinking that life was moving too fast. I am a mother not once but twice. I will be 27 in a couple of months and then I will have a 1 yr. old and a 2 yr. old. I am extremely happy with my life so don't hear this the wrong way. I just can't believe I am already to this point. God has lavished me with so many blessings in such a short amount of time, it is overwhelming. I don't usually think of them in one big pile the way I did today as I stood there in church, but I am glad I did. I needed to be reminded of my purpose. I have been blessed so that I can bless others and show them God's love. My children are first in that line. I have to raise them to know their Savior or my job as a mother will be for nothing. It is easy to lose sight of your overall purpose between the everyday happenings so I am thankful for a day that reminds me that all of the "everydays" add up.
It really was a good Mother's Day. I hope you all had a day full of blessings!