The Naylor Family

Polar Express--Nov 2011

2012-01-17T12:47:00.001-08:00

Each Christmas season, in Branson, one of the scenic railways re-enacts scenes from the book "Polar Express". I have a friend, Hilary, that has taken her son to it many times, and her son loves it. I have always wanted to take Adriana, but with the holidays, money is just sometimes too tight to do fun things like that. We got a call saying that distant friends of ours were going to have 2 extra tickets, one adult and one child and they wanted to offer them to us. I was so happy and very grateful that I was going to be able to take Adriana on this adventure. Adriana was SO excited she couldn't hardly wait. Of course, she had never been on a train before either, so that made it all the more exciting!

The kids are suppose to dress in their PJ's, just like the kids in the book, Adriana thought it was cool to go out in public in her PJ's.
They read the book over the intercom. As you sat there riding the train, the conductor came by and punched your initials into your train ticket. Here's Adriana with the conductor.

While on board, you also got hot chocolate and a cookie (like in the book).

The train eventually made its way to the North Pole, where we picked up Santa. He came around to each boy and girl and gave out a little bell. Adriana was SO excited to get this little bell. Santa was SUPER nice and friendly. Adriana enjoyed meeting him.

We had a great time and Adriana is STILL talking about it. I had also forgotten my camera, and didn't charge my phone, so Kim was sweet enough to capture these precious moments for us and e-mail them to us. Thank you Kim!

Sweet, Growing Boy

2012-01-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

This little guy is getting so big. He is changing more and more, right now, especially in his verbal skills. He is talking so much and saying things that are cracking us up. He is 110% boy and goes full speed ALL the time, but he has a super tender heart that is full of love. Of course, his biggest hero and friend is his Sissy. He adores her and follows her all over the place. When she is doing something tricky or something he thinks is dangerous, he always says, "Careful Sissy, Careful!". Of course, he keeps repeating it until she acknowledges him and says, "I'll be careful Paxton".
Another sweet thing is he will just come up to us, give us a hug and say, "Love you, Mommy, love you". He will go around the whole room and make sure he has told everyone that. He is also big into nose kisses, which he calls "Doot, Doot". At night, or before he lays down for a nap, or even when you tell him goodbye, he was a "Doot, Doot" followed by a cheek kiss and then a hug. It has to go in that order, and yes, no matter who is in the room, that is the order in which everyone must do it (whether he really knows you or not). He's such a loving little man.
Some of his other things he does now is, tries to stall you when you are leaving the room. The other day Ryan was getting ready for work and trying to leave the room to do so, their conversation went like this:
Ryan: "Well, I'm going to go get ready for work now"
Paxton: "Daddy!"
R: "What?"
P: "Ummm....(long pause) Clock!"
R: "I see the clock. Okay, I'm going to go get ready for work now."
P: "Daddy!"
R: "What?"
P: Ummm....(long pause) Chair!"
R: "I see the chair. Okay, I'm going to go get ready for work now."
This conversation went on for a few minutes. He really had nothing to say, but he wanted his Daddy to hang around. Of course, its cute in the middle of the day, but not in the middle of the night. He's gotten into the habit of doing this at bedtime. Adriana never went through this phase so its something new for us.
Another cute thing is that the other day he saw a picture of a picture of Joesph out of the Bible, but he thought he looked like Santa Clause. He got really excited and said, "Santa Cwause, Santa Cwause! I miss you, Santa Cwause!"
He very much wears his emotions on his sleeves. He will say, while clapping his hands, "So Happy!" or "So excited"! When he gets in trouble he lays face down on the floor and you know his feelings are hurt. He's such a tender little boy and I love to see him grow and change.
(I know us and grandparents will really care about this post, but I wanted to put down some of these things for our records. )

Shots of the Arch

2012-01-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

Trip to STL--Oct 2011

2012-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

Trying to get caught up on my blogging. I have decided that blogging is a lot like reading for me, I really have to be in the mood to sit down and do it, and over the last few months, I just haven't felt like doing it, so I'm trying to play catch up.

Back in October, we got to spend a weekend with some of our favorite people...

Ryan's family. They were nice enough to drive a long 10 hours to meet us in St. Louis. We were tickled at the idea of going somewhere "new" (at least for them), and meeting in a wonderful town like STL. I'm always thrilled to go back to there, it brings me back to my college days. I was lucky enough to go and visit my Alma ma tar, Missouri Baptist University. Let me tell you, that place has grown and changed so much, but yet it still feels like home in so many ways. I will always be thankful for the friendships that place produced, the time I spent there and the feeling of family throughout the campus. So glad I got to go back.

We were able to score a pretty awesome deal on a Hampton Inn there in Chesterfield. The kids got to go swim, we had adjoining rooms and just had a great time spending time with each other. The Saturday that we were there, we went to "The City Museum". I have been here once before in my college days, but its a lot more fun to go with kids (Ryan included) and see it through their eyes. There are TONS of nooks and crannies that kids and adults alike can crawl through, climb on or build. We spent over 6 hours in this place and didn't even see it all. As my mother in law, Sandy said, its the "Disney World of the Midwest"!

One shot of one of the rooftops you can go out and play on. You can pretty much climb, slide or hide on anything you see in this picture.

The kids have a great time climbing.

The Roller Slide.

I can't believe I let my baby go up there. From left to right, Ryan, Adriana and Jim. They were pretty high up there and Adriana wasn't scared at all.

All the cousins looking to go into one of the many ball pits.

You can just see how many stairs and things there are behind Adriana.

Paxton LOVED playing in all the blocks.

Paxton and the Sumo Wrestler. He didn't really know what to think of this big man.

Four best friends.

After the City Museum, we went by and walked around the Arch. Although I have seen it many times, I'm still awe struck whenever I am around it, and how awesome it is to see in person.

A family shot down by the Arch.

The kids playing on the iPad. Its amazing how fast kids catch onto electronics.

We had a WONDERFUL time in STL. We made a TON of memories that will last us all a lifetime. Hopefully, if we do it again, we can stay longer and see more sights. STL is a fun town to go and visit, with or without kids.

Happy New Year-2012!!

2012-01-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

MAN, how is it possible that it is 2012? Time just seems to slip away faster each year. I know I have slacked off so much on my blog over the last few months, life is a total whirlwind these days, and I'm waiting (and hoping) that they will slow down SOON, but I'm afraid, I might just be wishful thinking.

2011 was, overall, a pretty good year for us. God blesses us richly everyday, and we are thankful that this last year was full of blessings.

Ryan's work has kept steady all year (which isn't always the case) and he has been able to remain one of the top sales people in his job. He is a hard worker and he does an excellent job at providing for his family.

Adriana started Pre-K in the fall and LOVES it! I DREAD the thought of her going off to Kindergarten this fall. She couldn't be more excited about it (which is a good thing), but how is it that my baby is old enough to be going off to "real" school. She's so smart and is in a mode where she LOVES to write, try to read and do puzzles, she difinitely gets all those things from her Daddy!

Paxton, is well, 120% ALL boy! This busy little 2 year old, keeps me on my toes! He started Preschool this year, and (for the most part) seems to enjoy it (until he runs into me in the hallways!). He's got such a sweet, tender heart, but also has a busy, wild side that can plum wear me out at times. He's a smart little guy too and enjoys being read too. He also loves to pick on his Sissy, whom he ultimately loves and adores.

This last year has been super busy one for me. Not so much the first part of the year, but about half way through, I was asked to teach our Sunday School class (which I do love doing and am thankful for a class that is patient as I learn and develop). I also started teaching at the Preschool the kids go to. I have a busy classroom with 8 little 2 year old BOYS! They are so sweet and I'm blessed beyond measure to have this job. I also am still a discussion group leader with my MOPS group, which I enjoy too!

Life has definitely been busy. I am amazed at how God continues to care for us, day to day and how our needs are met without fail.

My hope for your family and ours, is that 2012 brings many rich blessings, good health and love from friends and family in your lives. God never promised us an easy road, but with Him by our side, we can get through the tough times. Here's to a great year, a better you (and me!) and true happiness! Happy New Year!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Paxton!

2011-11-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: In all of the following pictures, I am not looking the best. You would think that over the years, I might improve, but no, not yet....Don't say I didn't warn you!

So today we celebrate our Paxton Boy's 2nd Birthday! Its hard to believe that my baby is 2 already! How did he go from this...

To this....

So fast? He is so much more than we would have ever imagined. He is full speed. I tell people, he has 2 speeds, full blast and sleep, with nothing in between. He's a sweet baby who still likes to be held, and I will savor that for as long as possible. He comes up and says, "holds you", wanting to be picked up and loved on. I LOVE that! He's also getting quite a personality. He loves to joke around and kid. Its funny to see what he understands and what he will kid back about. His new thing is when you hand him something or do something for him he responds with "thanks dude!". We don't know where he got that, but its so cute. So many things about him we love so much. Does he wear me out? Yes, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Happy Birthday Paxton, we love you so much and can't wait to see what life holds for you!

A side note: While going through the pictures tonight, I came across one from Adriana's second Birthday. Just thought you would like to compare the kids at the same age. Its funny. Everyone always says how much Adriana looks like me and how much Paxton looks like Ryan, yet they look so much alike. I can't get over how much their faces look the same. Also, we had Paxton's party last night, a post will be coming soon about that.

Trick Or Treat!

2011-11-19T13:13:00.001-08:00

So each year, the age old question comes around, about early October, you start stressing out on what your kid is going to be for Halloween. If they are old enough to tell you, then you try to make it work, if not, and you're like me, I HATE spending money on something they will only wear once or twice, so you start thinking about what you can find at Goodwill or what you can make at home. Okay, maybe its just me that does this, but needless to say, it can be kind of a stressful thing. This year, I lucked out. One night, me and Adriana were going up to Goodwill (I say "going up", because Goodwill is literally less than a mile from our home and its just up a big hill. I LOVE it!). Anyway, I had asked her what she thought she wanted to be for Halloween and to my surprise, she said she wanted to be a super hero. I have NO idea where she came up with this. She isn't into any kind of super hero stuff right now, but I thought I could maybe change her mind, if I found something different. Well, that night, at Goodwill, I found a Wonder Woman outfit for $2! In a separate bin, they had the hair band and the boots, for $1.50 more! Adriana LOVED it and I loved the price, so she was set! I was so pleased with how it turned out!

Paxton was a different story. I had NO idea what to make him go as. I thought about putting him in a super hero outfit, but then again, I was having trouble finding something reasonably priced. Then it dawned on me. I had bought a little Micheal Jordan jersey this summer at a garage sale. I think Paxton wore it once all summer, but I thought that would be perfect, since he loves sports so much. So, I just had to go and get a sweat band and he was set. The jersey, by the way, only cost 50 cents at the garage sale, so I can't complain about his outfit either. I thought he turned out pretty darn cute too!

So for Halloween this year, we did the same thing as we did last year, and go with our good friends Matt and Mandy and their kiddos. The kids get along so good and we love being with Matt and Mandy. We are blessed to have them in our lives. This year, Matt and Mandy also dressed up. I LOVED their outfits and they got so many compliments. My picture didn't turn out so good, but you can see they are Mary Poppins and Bert.

We ate a "scary" meal over at their house before we left. I wish I would have taken a picture of all the food. We had Mummy Dogs, Eyeballs, Teeth, Worms, Ghosts and Frankenstein Brownies.

It was a lot of fun and super yummy!

Then we were off to Trick or Treat. The kids had so much fun, Paxton had a blast and couldn't believe how much candy he got.

Our cute little kiddos. They were all so sweet and thankful to the people handing out candy. Truly a fun memory!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

Well the Saturday before Halloween (which Halloween was on a Monday this year), we all of a sudden got in the mood to go to a pumpkin patch. It was a nice Saturday, and we woke up and decided we were going to go. Well, that quickly got squashed when we saw how expensive it was going to be and for the amount of time we were going to spend there, we didn't think it was worth the money. Second best thing? Carve pumpkins at our house. My dad was in town for a visit (currently they are living in Jefferson City with my grandma, being her full time caretakers, so they alternate coming home each week). I felt bad, my dad signed up for a pumpkin patch and by the time he drove out to our house, we had changed our minds, so instead, he sat outside and watched us carve pumpkins. We had a good time. It was such a nice fall day, actually quiet in our neighborhood and just had a good time talking. I love it when "plan B's" end up working out probably better than Plan A would have.

Adriana was SO excited about carving her pumpkin. Well, as you can guess she didn't really do much carving, Ryan got stuck with that job, but she loved pulling the seeds out and coloring on her pumpkin once it was carved.

We had bought a "Carving Kit". Those things are tricky and very time consuming. I branched out and created my own. I got real creative and made a big letter "N".

Poor Ryan worked feverishly on both Adriana and his and here I never got a picture of his finished pumpkin. His turned out really good, he made a haunted house, but by the time he finished, I had already put the camera away. Sorry for not getting a picture, Ryan, but here is the hard work and determination that was written all over your face.

Of course we did all of this while Paxton was down for his nap. I don't even want to think about the mess he would have made if he was in the mix. So when he got up, I let him color his pumpkin. He was so excited!

All our little pumpkins in a row. Starting at the top step: Ryan's, Adriana's, mine and Paxton's.

Such a fun, fall memory!

In Pictures....

2011-11-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

When you see your kids everyday, its hard to notice how fast they change and grow up. You may notice that they all of a sudden seem to have a mouth full of teeth or super long hair, but you miss the settle changes, which is kind of sad. Thank goodness for pictures, right? There are things you may forget, a facial expression, a cheesy smile or a goofy way they stand, but pictures capture it all for us. I LOVE having pictures all over our house, I think it makes it seem so cozy and I always enjoy seeing pictures hanging on people's wall when I go to their houses too. Its fun to see kids grow up and change.
Recently I updated some pictures that are hanging in our stairway. Its kind of sad to update pictures. Its like you're covering up your children as babies and making them grow up through pictures. Anyway, as I prepared to change them, I took pictures of the before and after. Its amazing how much they have changed within 18 months or so. Time goes by too fast!

Daddy Daughter Date

2011-11-09T12:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, so since I'm so far behind on my blog, this Daddy Daughter Date Night probably happened about a month and a half ago or so. Chick-Fil-A had a daddy daughter night and I just KNEW Adriana would LOVE some one on one time with her hero, her daddy. I told Ryan about it, he was all for it. We told Adriana about it and told her that she gets to go on a date with Daddy. So we did hair, make-up and a fancy dress for the occasion. Ryan kept reminding me that it wasn't a fancy event, but what girl doesn't like going on a date and getting all dolled up? She was so excited, Ryan even went and got her some flowers, which she LOVED!

I'm so glad they got to go, they had a blast and hopefully made memories for both of them, that lasts a long time! Here's to many more date nights with Daddy!

I'm Back!!!

2011-11-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

I come before you with my head held down, ashamed that it has been well over a month since my last post. I will say, that I had typed up a quick note that I THOUGHT had posted a couple of weeks ago, letting you know, my faithful readers, that I was going to take the month of October off. Actually what had happened is before I knew it, October was half way over and I felt a ton of stress to write a post in my blog, but then I thought, "I don't want my blog to be stressful, so I will take a month off!". I enjoy my blog and I enjoy writing stories and posting pictures, but it does take time and lately, time is pretty precious to me, because I don't feel like I have a lot of it free these days. So forgive me, check back this week and hopefully, I can get caught up before the major holidays are here (which is in a little over 2 weeks for Thanksgiving!) How is any of this possible??

First Day of School

2011-09-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Yeah, I know, school has been in session for a month or so, I'm a little behind, what can I say. School has been busy and we have been busy ever since it started up. The kids like school a lot. Adriana LOVES pre-K and comes home everyday telling me all about it. Her teachers brag on how well she does in school, that's what a momma wants to hear. Paxton likes it good enough, I guess. He's good about not fussing when I drop him off, but my class,that I teach and his class have gym class together and that hasn't gone too well, with him seeing me and then having to leave. Our classrooms are right next door to each other and we take every precaution to avoid him seeing me while his class or mine walk by each other's room. He'll adjust, I'm sure. My class is doing great! It took the kiddos a few weeks to get use to being dropped off by their parents, but they are doing good, not crying anymore and starting to get into the routine of things. I think its going to be a great year! Here are pictures of all of us, as we rushed out the door on the first day of school.

Paxton on his first day of preschool, ever.

Adriana all geared up for Pre-K!

All of ready to head to school.

The kids with Daddy.

Notice that in every picture they have their breakfast bars. Sadly, that's their breakfast on school days, its just too hard to sit them down to eat and be out the door by 8am. They adjust well though. Hope everyone else is off to a good start this school year!

Potty Training???

2011-09-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

One day, the kids were in the bathroom, door shut and being pretty quiet. Not really a good combo. I could tell that they weren't really getting into anything, but I knew they were probably still up to something. I opened the door and found this.

Adriana trying to potty train Paxton. Her intentions are good, but that child is no where near ready to sit on the potty. He thought he was pretty big stuff though. It was cute and funny. I love when they are being sweet with each other in moments like this.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe another Labor Day has come and gone. That means, summer is over and fall is right around the corner. It seems like this year is just flying by! We just got back from another great trip from seeing our family in Chillicothe, MO. I say another trip, because if you remember, we went there last Labor Day weekend. We are so blessed to have such great families, on both the Bowen side and the Naylor side. We love our family in Chillicothe and were so blessed to be able to make the trip again. There are tons of pictures and tons to write about, but since I'm a woman with many things to do and small kids to attend to, I'll kind of let the pictures talk for themselves. Take in the country smells, the sticky fingers and faces, the giggles from 5 kids, the laughter of a family who loves to kid each other and the smiles on our faces from being in each other's presence.

All the kids. Electronics were plentiful and ALL
of them enjoyed playing with them.

Repunzel, Oh, I mean, Ryan taking a little nap.

You know you are in the country when, riding your

4 wheeler to Walmart is legal...

I love being out in the country. I love that we have family that lives out in the country so that when we visit we truly feel like we are on vacation. Thank you Barb and Roger for feeding us wonderful food, boarding our brute and loving our family. We are blessed beyond measure!

Gearing Up For School

2011-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well, most of you (or your kids) are back to school already. The summer flew by (although I'm not sad that its on its way out, it was too hot for me!). As I mentioned before, I got offered a teaching job at Adriana's and (now) Paxton's school. I was SO excited and it was a HUGE answer to prayers. I am going to be in a room with ALL boys! Yep, 9 boys who are Paxton's age. Yeah, I'm going to lose my mind!! I'm so excited though! Anyway, school starts for us next Monday, so this last Monday, we had Open House. Me and my co-teacher, Manda, got there extra early to make sure our room was prepped and ready to go. This is the first year for both of us, so we are kind of going in blind, but I know we will do great!

This poor lady has to put up with my OCD tendencies when it comes to decorating and doing crafts. I think we will balance each other out really well and I'm looking forward to getting to know her better and working with her.

This is our room. There was NOTHING on the walls. We felt like, even though we are dealing with 1-2 year olds, and they might not be able to read, they need stuff to look at, so we got it looking (I think) pretty cute!

The flag banner in the background was my Sunday evening project. I though it would be cute (and inexpensive) to make an alphabet border. This thing ended up being such a thorn in my side, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. Below the banner on the floor is our reading/circle time area. We got a rug and bean bags to cozy up the place.

Where the kids are going to hang their book bags.

Their take home folders (I also whipped up on Sunday. Yes, I wait till the last minute, I know!).

Our welcome poster with the kids names as "hand" leaves as they walk in to their new room.

So, not only was it my turn to meet with my new students and their families it was also my turn to meet with A and P's teachers too. We got to go in a little early to meet with them. Adriana LOVED her new room and teachers. She has asked everyday since then, "how many more days till we start?" She is so excited to start Pre-K.

And then it was Mr. P's turn. He will be right next door to me and our class and his class will have gym class and playground time together. I hope he does well, going back to his own class after seeing me twice a day. He also LOVED his room and was all in the games and puzzles. Those poor women are going to have their hands full with this little one! Good luck Ms. Cheryl and Ms. Tiffany, you will need it!

So that's it! I CAN'T wait! So anxious to get in our groove and get the year going. I'm not hoping that the year flies by, because that means, this time next year, my baby will be going off to Kindergarten. I will try to savor this year! So anxious to Paxton to be going to school too and getting that structure and social aspect in. Its going to be a great year! Here's to kids (and teachers) all over, having a blessed year!

Photo Shoot With The Kids

2011-08-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get some pictures of the kids. I feel like they are growing up so fast, and its been forever since we have taken them to get their pictures taken. Since the place we normally go for pictures, is shut down, I figured I would take them to a park and shoot them myself. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE photography, but something about shooting your own kids in this kind of heat and humidity can really test a Mama's patience, but we still got some good shots. Here they are.

New Hair Styles

2011-08-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

So there's new website (well, new to me anyway), called Pintrest.com. Its a "hub" if you will, of different blogs and websites FILLED with anything you can think of. Any DIY projects, decorating, cleaning, style, hair, make-up, food, anything you can think of, you can probably find an idea on there. Its kind of a complicated website, so I'm not even going to act like I completely understand, nor will I tell you how it works. The point is, I have found a few blogs on there that give me ideas and how-to's for Adriana's hair. Some of the styles are pretty extensive, but I have tried my hand at a few and wanted to share them with you. Adriana, as girly as she is, really doesn't care to have her hair done. She much rather it be in her face and messy. So, if she sits still long enough for me to fool with something new, I'm all for it. Here are some of the styles we have tried.

This isn't the best picture, and
its actually something I made up,
but its 3 braids and then I braided
the braids into one big braid.

The Criss-cross do. So easy, just would have never thought of it on my own.

Alright, this one is pretty extensive. I braided 8 little braids, crossed them over each other and put them in little pig tails. Well, if you noticed in the first picture of this hair style, Adriana is crying. No, its no because I pulled her hair or anything, she didn't like that I put her pig tails up in "poms" as we call them. She "hates" her hair up in poms. She use to ALWAYS wear her hair that way, but for some reason, she thinks she looks so silly. So, after taking forever to braid her hair and pull it back, she had a complete melt down because of the finished product. She eventually got over it and all was well, but I can guarantee, if I did it like that again, she wouldn't

wear it. This child tests my patience so much sometimes! Either way, I'm having a good time trying new things. Who knows what we will think of next.

Free Bath Mats? Yes, Please!

2011-08-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

So a couple of months ago, I earned enough "Swag Bucks" to get a Target $20 gift card. If you aren't familiar with Swagbucks.com, its pretty much like a search engine, like Google, however, you earn points the more you use it. You then, can cash in your points in the Swag Store and get great gift cards. It took us about 6 months to earn enough swagbucks to get as many as we needed for the Target gift card, but it was worth the wait. I knew exactly what I wanted. The kids bathroom has needed bathmats, since, well, we moved in almost 2 years ago. I, am however, too cheap to pay for them. I found some awhile back at Target so I knew that I wanted to try to get them for free by earning enough Swagbucks. I got my gift card, went online, bought them and BAM! my bathroom is now "cozy"!

Before, cold hard floors

Ahhh...sweet comfort on this hard floor.

Completes the look of the bathroom.

Thanks SwagBucks for the new bath mats!

Weekend Getaway

2011-08-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, me and Ryan were able to escape for a weekend getaway, to celebrate our 6th anniversary. Thanks to my parents and Ryan's mom, who watched the little ones for us, we were able to skip out of town for a much needed break. First thing (really the only thing) planned, ZIP LINING!! I was able to get tickets from a friend, who sold them to us for half price. We were so excited. I actually wasn't scared, which is saying a lot, since I HATE roller coasters or anything like that. We were 2 people out of 6 going on a "tour" for our zip lining.

Here's Ryan, geared up and ready to go.

Me, ready to go. Don't ask me what I'm
doing with my foot or my left hand.

After a very scary, bumpy ride on a Gator and a bus, we made it to the top. Our "tour" started at about 60 feet high, but the highest one they have, is 360 feet. It. was. high! The shot above is a picture of our highest point, where we started. It was also probably the longest line we did. I was a little nervous, but still, not really scared.

Ryan volunteered to go first. What is wrong
with the man? He looks a little scared in his face.

There he goes!

I, on the other hand, waited as late as I could before I took the plunge. This annoying lady that was with us, really wanted to take my picture before I went. The picture above is a picture of me before I got "hooked up" on the line. (The lady's son is the one standing next to me. He was 6 and went, BRAVE!)

Before I took my first jump.

Me, later on the course, getting the hang of it.

Ryan, showing off. Really, it was a lot of fun. The scariest part for me? The swinging bridges and the swinging tree stands (in the background of the picture above). I didn't care to be that high up, on what SHOULD be a solid surface, and have it sway. No Thanks!

Again, not a fan of something that is swinging, when I have a nice gravel road underneath me to catch my fall.

Coming in for a landing!

Ryan flying in. It was among trees, so the scenery was so pretty. You can see a little creek at the bottom of the picture above.
Zip lining, was by far, the highlight to our trip. It was SO hot that weekend. We really didn't do anything else the rest of the weekend. I was a little bummed by that, but everything costs so much down there, and we just didn't have the funds to spend. It was great to get away for a night, kid free, and just hang with Ryan. Even though we didn't do anything, it was nice not HAVING to do anything either.

Hee Hee Comes For A Visit

2011-08-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Can I first start by saying, how blessed I am to have such a wonderful "in-law" family? ALL of them. Extended family, sister-in-laws, and great, loving "parent-in-laws". They are so relaxed, so accepting of who I am and I'm not stressed at all when I'm around them (which not many people can say that). Can I also say how blessed my kids are to have TWO sets of loving, CHRISTIAN grandparents? Me and Ryan really couldn't ask for more (but to maybe live closer together with everyone). God has blessed us so.
The downside to my "in-laws?" They live TOO far away. We only get to see them a handful of times throughout the year. Thanks to modern technology, we are able to Skype them often and they can see the kids and our kids get to see their grandparents more that way. Since Ryan's mom, Sandy, retired about a year ago, she has more free time. We thought it would be great for her to come and stay with us for a week or two, since she didn't have to rush back to get to work. We were so pleased that this was able to happen. Her and Jim (my Father in Law), drove up here. They stopped in Oklahoma City first to see my Sister in law, Lauren, and stay with her a for a few days, since they don't get to see much of her either. Then they headed this way. Jim was only able to stay 2 nights before he drove back home. Sandy was able to stay with us for about 10 days. We loved that she was able to be a part of our everyday lives. The kids LOVED having their HeeHee around that long. She made life a lot easier on me for those 10 days. She is the best playmate with our kids. She truly soaked up every minute she could with our kids, and that was the point of her trip, to eat up her grandbabies as much as she could. We were able to go swimming, have a girls night, visit with my parents, and I was able to run errands and get things done, while she was here. She was such a big blessing to me for those 10 days, and Sandy, anytime you want to do it again, you are more than welcome!

She read books, books and more books, while
she was here.

A picture of our girls night. No boys allowed!
We watched "The Lion King", did nails, ate
popcorn and stayed up late. Adriana had a blast!

HeeHee coloring with the grandbabies.

Sandy singing "Oh Be Careful Little Feet Where

You Go" to Paxton. He LOVED it!

Picture of all of us at my parents house.

HeeHee and paxton on the last day.

Everyone before we took her to the airport.

A sad good bye. This is HeeHee right before she went through security. It was sad to see her go, and the kids were really sad to see her go. Adriana kept saying, "But I wanted to give her just one more hug and kiss". It was sad for everyone. We took her to a small airport, her plane was the only one leaving, so me and the kids were able to stand outside and watch her plane take off. It was really neat to stand there, and watch it take off right before us. Adriana kept blowing kisses to the plane, waving and saying "Bye bye Heehee!". It was sad, but we are so blessed that she was able to stay for a longer time than normal.

Sandy, thank you for all that you did for me personally that week and a half. You gave me a break from the kids, and made it so relaxed and easy for me. Thank you for all you did. We are blessed beyond measure!

Adriana's Swimming Lessons

2011-08-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this summer, we had talked about putting Adriana in swimming lessons. My dad really wanted her to have good lessons so that she would be equipped with the skills needed to swim good. My parents were gracious enough to pay for the lessons, so it wouldn't be a stress on us. We talked up swimming lessons, telling Adriana how much fun she would have with them. Well, she did NOT want anything to do with them. We had told her that she would probably be putting her head under water, and she didn't want any part of it. As it got closer and closer, I was really starting to worry about how she was going to do with going. She kept telling me, "I'll go next year". Well the Saturday before her lessons, Ryan took her to the pool to swim, just him and her. They came back all excited, "Mommy, I put my head under water!". She was so proud of herself. Well, that was a turning point, she was SO ready for lessons to start that next week. Adriana LOVED, LOVED, LOVED swimming lessons. She had a really good teacher and a small class. She looked forward to it everyday, and couldn't wait until the next class. She was really sad to end lessons, but we'll get her signed up next year for the next level. She loves swimming under water (and is pretty good at it too), she loves doing diving rings and kicking her feet under water. She has blossomed into quite a little fish. here are some pictures from her lessons.

Kicking their feet. Adriana is the second kid on the left.

Adriana on the kick board.

learning how to use their arms.

Adriana's turn for one on one using her arms.

I'm so glad that she loved them so much and I'm even more happy that Paxton did so great everyday, for 2 weeks going out there and sitting by the pool, in this humidity for 45 minutes without any incidents. Thank you Mimi and Pa for the swimming lessons.

Cows Eat Free

2011-07-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

A while back, maybe a month ago or so, Chick-Fil-A had "Dress Like a Cow Day and Eat for Free". If you were covered from head to tail (get it!) you got a free MEAL. If you only had a cow shirt or something little you only scored a free sandwich, which was still a good deal. I was so excited about this. i don't know why, really. they have this often, and I have never done it before, but I was really pumped about getting a free meal and getting the kids to dress up too. I made their outfits out of trash bags. i put black dots on them, and a tail. I made ears and a little cow bell that read "Can I "Calf" a free meal Plez?" I wore an all black outfit, that I taped white dots to. Not a smart idea when you have to carry a little calf around. All my dots fell off and I just looked stupid with just one or two intact. My cowbell read "Have you herd I love chickin?". We got FREE meals that day. It was so fun. Paxton, on the other hand, did NOT enjoy it at all! He was scared to death of the big cows walking around. you can see the shear terror in his face in the picture below. He was so scared, he was actually shaking. Poor guy. Still funny though.

This picture below is the only one I got of them. I was really wanting to get better pictures, since I worked hard on their outfits, but we were spent by the time we were done, so this is what I got. Better than nothing, I suppose.

It was fun and I enjoyed doing it and hope to do it next time.

Candid Camera

2011-07-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

One day we were bored. Surprise! We were sitting at home so I busted out the camera. We just had fun shooting self portraits of ourselves. Now, before we are so crazy, I'm using a big SLR camera, so taking self portraits is a little more tricky than you think. Just sayin'!
Anyway, we got it out and snapped away. We took a lot of pictures, and I was hoping that at least one would turn out decent, but these were the best of the group. Paxton looks drugged up, but I promise I don't drug my children until bedtime (JUST KIDDING!! DON'T TURN ME IN!).

The 3 pictures above were done with a timer.

The kids LOVE taking pictures with the timer.

Every time we do a picture, Paxton always makes

the sign for "more". What a ham!

Adriana putting poor Milo in a choke hold.

These pictures above are sweet moments, I want to savor. My babies are growing so fast, it makes me sad. They bicker, like siblings do, but they also have sweet moments like, getting out their chairs and watching TV together. It melts my heart to see them being sweet with each other. I cherish these moments, whether its being silly with the camera, or seeing their little bodies sitting in little chairs side by side. I LOVE it and I'm beyond blessed with 2 sweet, healthy babies.

My Little Rough And Tumble

2011-07-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

This little man of mine, is TOUGH! He is truly ALL boy! He has two speeds, full blast and sleep. I'm amazed at the difference between boys and girls. I love my little man, even though he can be a handful. As you can see the shiner on his eye, this was his first one, however, he has had a few more since then. He got a new one tonight, in fact. (This picture was taken about a month ago. You may also notice the faint goose egg he has on his forehead from a few days before.) He doesn't cry long, if at all. He's one tough, huggable, lovable, sweet little boy, whom I wouldn't trade for anything. I'll take him, black eye and all.

Our First Garden

2011-07-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have had more trouble getting this blog post written and uploaded, that since I have started, my garden is actually half dead. But nevertheless, I press on.
This year was our first garden. I was super excited to grow our own veggies, or at least try anyway. I don't exactly have a green thumb. I get all excited in the spring, go and buy flowers and it looks really good, but then, a week goes by and I've realized that I haven't watered my flowers. Some hang in there, but most of them are long gone before a month is through. SO, with that being said, I was excited about getting a vegetable garden going, but also leery that my wonderful planting skills would come to pass and we would have nothing growing but weeds. Well, I am proud to say, that we had a very fruitful garden this year. I planted asparagus (which we can't pick until next year), squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and green peppers. I did fight something this year eating our plants, so that's why I think half of our crop is gone, but I'm still pleased with the result.
So, in order to have a nice garden you need a nice garden bed. So we built one. Correction, my mom built one. I'm glad she knows what she is doing, because she did it a lot better than we would have. I'm very thankful for a hard working Mom that is willing to come out and pour blood, sweat and tears into helping us build a garden.

As you can see, my mom had more than enough
helpers to get started. The dog even got in on
the action.

The finished bed. I wish I would have taken a
picture of it a week or two ago. Its amazing how
fast vegetables grow.

This was my first crop. It got bigger and better

but it was such a great feeling to grow your own

food. We'll definitely be doing this next year.

Bowling With The Kids

2011-07-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, go ahead a say it, "Wow, I can't believe Lori FINALLY updated her blog! Why doesn't she do it more often!?". I'm right there with you! I have been such a slacker, it almost makes me sick to my stomach. I have even slacked off on taking pictures of the kids, let alone write about them. Its like I'm watching them grow up right before my eyes and I'm afraid that I won't remember half the things they do or say, because I'm being too lazy to write about them. I am going to TRY my hardest to snap more photos and write quick things down, just so I can have them.
Anyway, back to the original post. My friend, Hilary, told me about this program called Kids Bowl Free. Its a national program (I think), and you can sign your kids up and they can bowl everyday, up to 2 games per day, throughout the summer, all for FREE! If you want to pay a little, you can also sign up to 4 adults to come with your kids. Its a one time fee and then you can bowl as many times with your kids (up to 2 games a day). I was really excited about this, and I told Adriana all about it. She wanted to go bowling then. She had never bowled before, but was anxious to give it a try. I signed my parents up as the other 2 adults on the tickets, so we invited them to come with us. It was a lot of fun!

Here's a pic of the kids on the way to bowl. I love
when they hold hands, its so sweet.

Adriana ready to bowl her heart out.

Paxton, of course, LOVED it because
there were balls involved. He was picking
up the heavy 14lbs too, he was in hog heaven.

Paxton bowling. It moved so slow, but he
was so excited.

A picture of Pa in action.

A picture of Mimi in action.

Adriana waiting for the ball to roll down the alley.
She would get so excited if she even got one pin
down. A funny story, I explained to her not to go
over the line, but I didn't tell her why. She tried
to bowl on her own and was so excited, she went
past the black line and about half way down the alley.
She was so embarrassed and had the hardest time, on
the waxy floors coming back to us. Poor thing!

Me and Paxton bowling.

Paxton trying to get all the balls. He was
such a handful!

If you want to know who the winner is, she is
to the right in this picture. I whooped everyone
there. :)
We had a great time and hope to do it more often.

Sleepover

2011-06-15T07:55:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, Adriana was dying to have a sleepover with her Daddy downstairs. Just her and him. I told her we could do it on a Friday night and get candy, play games and watch a movie. Ryan was such a good sport about having a party with her. He got the mattress off her bed, brought it downstairs and he slept on the couch. She was PUMPED! I really wasn't allowed downstairs, but I was able to catch some pictures of them, while they were eating their candy and watching a movie.

Notice Candy Land was already out and on the floor from a game they had played earlier. They had such a good time. I heard lots of laughter and, I think, a mini dance party was going on at one point. Adriana, however, outlasted me and Ryan with staying up. I had gone to bed upstairs already and she kept going upstairs and trying to get in my room to talk to Milo. Then when I threatened to make her sleep in her room that night, she stayed downstairs but was up later than Ryan. She had a blast, but she's like me, she doesn't sleep well outside of her environment, and she said the next day she prefers to sleep in her own room. I'm glad they were able to have this special time and hopefully made memories that will last a long time.

A Nature Walk Gone Bad

2011-06-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

Now, this story is probably 2 months old already, but I wanted to write it down, because its still something I remember and want to tell the kids about someday. I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids on a nature walk and Adriana could collect leaves, sticks, rocks and whatever else she found along the way. (The Picture below was taken at the begining of our trip, all smiles (and pacifer, keep that in mind as the story progresses).)

We brought Milo with us. Me pushing a stroller, holding a leash and trying to corral a 4 year old, was quite a sight. We hadn't gone too far and we came across a little stream.

There was more water flowing through the creek bed than normal, due to a lot of rain. The kids immediately wanted to throw rocks in the stream. I kept Paxton in his stroller, gathered rocks for him and he would sit there to throw them in the creek, they were both having a blast. I decided to keep the party moving, so we said good-bye to the creek and went on our way. (Granted, we had never been on this trail before so around every turn, I was just as anxious to see what was ahead.) Well, a little down the trail was another entrance to the creek. The kids were so excited to throw rocks in the creek again. So, I gathered rocks for Paxton again. This time, the creek was running on both sides of the trail. I'm thankful Adriana is a good listener, for the most part, because having that much water around, a dog, stroller and 2 kids, its not easy to watch everything at every second. Adriana and I were gathering rocks, and I had my back turned to Paxton for just a second and I see him throwing his passy into the creek. Now, his passy was connected to his shirt by a pacifier holder. He ripped it off his shirt and chucked into the fast moving waters. Not only that, he about tipped his stroller over and rolled in the creek. I was a nervous wreck! Paxton is screaming because he is watching his passy float away, I'm about in tears because of the thought of him landing in the creek, PLUS I take off, running along the stream, trying to see if there is any way for me to reach in and grab a $2 passy, but the waters were moving so fast and it was on the opposite side of the creek, so I didn't think it was worth risking my life over. It was quite a sight to say the least. Paxton screamed the entire walk back, the entire ride home. It was such a fun afternoon. If you detect a little sarcasm, good, because I'm laying it on thick. It was a nature walk, I won't soon forget.

Swim Time!

2011-06-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe its hot and time to go swimming again! Summer seemed like it was just getting over and here it is again. Its amazing how fast time flies. I'm not a big fan of summer. I don't like being out in the heat and humidity, but when you have kids, there's not much of a choice. Last night, after a hot, hot day, we decided to head over to a public pool and cool off. It was a lot of fun! I wasn't sure if Paxton would care for swimming or not, but he really liked it. The pool we went to has fountains and slides so the kids had a blast. Paxton couldn't even stay out of the pool during adult swim. He got the whistle blown at him a time or two, but other than that, we had a great time. I took a picture of the kids before we went. I remember doing this last year, so I wanted to make sure I did it again this year so I could compare them, but when I saw the comparison, I thought, "Wow, the kids have changed and have grown so much!". Its sad to me to think of how big they are getting. Here are their pictures.

Summer 2010

Summer 2011

They almost don't look like babies anymore, they look so grown up. Its until you compare them, side by side that you can see how much they have changed. Hope everyone enjoys their summer and finds a fun way, like swimming, to keep cool!

Evening in the Park

2011-06-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, we met my parents and my dads cousin, Barb and her husband Roger at the park for an impromptu picnic. It was a lot of fun. We let the kids feed the ducks and we walked around and took some pictures. I took some pictures of Adriana, she was actually was posing for me, so I took advantage and snapped some photos. These are some of my favorite of our big 4 year old girl!

These other 2 pictures are some of my other favorites from the night.

We had a lot of fun snapping pictures, playing on the playground, feeding the ducks and visiting with family. What a great way to spend a Saturday night.

Decor Update

2011-06-02T14:03:00.001-07:00

So I had it in my head, we needed some change in our house. I'm itching to rearrange some furniture, but we really don't have many options for that,due to the way our house is set up, so I decided to "rearrange" the walls. I saw this "family tree" thing in an ad a while back and LOVED it and have thought of it ever since. We have vaulted ceilings in our family room, so we kind of needed something big to help take up the space. This is what there was before, hanging over the couch (never mind the sheet on the couch, we take it off for company, but other than that it stays on. There are a lot of sticky fingers and furry critters in this house, so this helps save the couch a little).

Now, granted the pictures in the frames above the couch are about 2 years old, so NO pictures of poor Paxton were hung up there.
These are the sad looking frames I had in the hallway. I HATED these frames. They NEVER hung straight and they just didn't look right in the hallway.

Again, no pictures of poor Paxton in those either. It was time for something new and fresh. Here is what went up above the couch. I LOVE how it turned out.

It takes up a lot of wall space (over 4 feet tall) and it adds something different to the room. Now, here is what I did with the frames that were over the couch. I put them in the hallway, took down those sad, crooked frames and put new black and whites in there to give them a new look.

I also wised up and moved our clock. I didn't take any pictures of the before, but when we moved into this house, for some stupid reason, i thought the clock would look good hanging BEHIND the love seat. It didn't make any sense at all! From most of the seating places in the family room you could NOT see the clock without putting your neck out. SO I wised up! I bought some shelves that match the family tree theme and hung those where the clock use to be and moved the clock to a very visible wall, that makes so much more sense. Here are the pictures of our shelves.

My mini makeover for the room cost less than $65. I gives such a different feel to the room and I love how it turned out.

Trees=Privacy (or so we hope!)

2011-05-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

Call me mean, rude, bad neighbor, insensitive whatever you want, but I'm fed up with our neighbors. We have had issues with these people from almost the moment we moved in. They would cut across our yard to go to their mom's house on the other side of us, have a great dane bark all night long, where I had to get the police involved to get it under control and then last summer, they build a pool. This year, they put a deck around that pool that FACES our house! This may not be a problem most of the time, but since our backyards are at such a slope, its like they can see right into our house. I have no idea why they had their deck built this way. If we are sitting down eating dinner, they can see directly into our dining room, its like we are on display. Fine, if they don't want privacy but we do! This is what we see when we look out our family room window...

Not a pretty sight! First of all, she rarely watches her kids, so I know that someday something will happen to one of them. I mean, look at the picture, she went inside and left her 2 year old standing on the deck, ALONE! They just burn me up!
Anyway, since they put their pool up last year, we wanted to do something to give us privacy but this year, it just made it all more urgent to get something going. I found this guy on Craigslist who has a tree farm and would plant them all for less than what I would pay at a nursery or Lowes for a tree that we would have to plant ourselves. Last night, him and his wife came out to deliver and plant them, I LOVE them!

I had one pear tree planted on the other side of our yard to help give privacy over there.

A White Pine planted in the front, next to the driveway.

And then onto the real problem. This was our view from our dining room table before....

This is after.....

This is a view from our bedroom window before....

This is after....

Does it completely block our problem? No, but its a darn good start. Pear trees grow fast and has dense leaves so hopefully by next year, it will block even better. I love that these trees are so much taller than what we would pay $30 for at Lowes. I'm very pleased with how it all turned out.

The night we planted these trees, was the same night a tornado ripped through Joplin, MO killing so many. That storm was heading our way when they were just getting started! We kept a close eye on the sky and the weather on TV to find out when and where it was going to hit. They dug holes so fast and tried to get them planted. They were only able to get 2 trees planted, but got all the holes dug, so they knocked some money off of what we owed them, left the materials that we would need, so we could finish the job. They were out there in the heart of the storm cleaning up and trying to make sure everything was finished, as much as they could get done.

Once the storm passed the sky looked so weird. We are very high up, therefore we have an awesome view of the horizon. These are some of the pictures I took after the storm. The sky was very weird. Sunny to the north and stormy to the south, such a sight!

The end of the storm, and the sun ready to pop back out.

Double rainbow.

You can see the sun is out in the front of the house

casting a shadow in the backyard of our house, with

the dark sky behind the trees.

This just looks like fire in the sky. The clouds

were so weird, but I thought this was a great

picture.

After the storm passed, the kids were in bed and me and Ryan finished planting the trees in the dark with the lightning lighting up the sky in the distance. It was a very weird night, not at all what we had planned, but a very memorable one.

My Furniture Steal

2011-05-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

So this our family room downstairs....

I'm super excited because you see the end tables, to either side of the couch? I got them for a steal! I'm all about bargins and have been wanting end tables downstairs since we moved. We had been using some pretty sad looking TV trays as end tables, but they drove me nuts! We had the nice furniture, given to us by my generous parents, and then TV trays as end tables. It added a certian type of college dorm room flare that I wasn't stoked about having. Well, I have been looking on Craigslist, garage sales, Goodwill, you name it, I have had my eyes open for almost 2 years for these things. Well, about 2 months ago, I took part in this consigners sale. There was someone there selling these tables. Long story short, he had $60 on them, and then they went to half price. I saw them and didn't get them and kicked myself the whole next day for not getting them at $30/piece. Well, after the sale, we had to go back and pick up whatever didn't sell. I saw the guy carrying these out, so I told Ryan that I was going to drive around and ask him if he would want to still sell them. Sure enough he did. He sold them for $20/piece! I couldn't believe it! They are solid wood and match my furniture to a T. I was super excited to finally have the room look complete.

Last Day Of School

2011-05-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

I can. not. believe, that school is over for another year. How is that possible? Weren't we just going to open house to meet her teachers this year? My word, how time flies! It makes me sad to think about it too much. She only has one more year of preschool left before she goes off to Kindergarten, which she is very excited about, by the way. I know that next year will FLY by and I'll be sitting here in a year, probably crying my eyes out thinking that she will be in real school soon. BUT, I'm choosing to look on the bright side. Yesterday was her last day of school. She had a great class this year and great teachers. Here is a picture of Adriana and her teachers, Miss Stephanie and Miss Gretchen.

Adriana has learned so much this year, alphabet and the sounds that they make, how to write her name, cut with scissors, count pretty high, count and say words in Spanish and so on. Its crazy how much she learns from school. She also makes friends that, hopefully, some will last a lifetime. This is a picture of her best friend, Kate. They are too cute together and they LOVE each other!

Since yesterday was the last day of school, I thought I would surprise Adriana and took her to this little cupcake place a friend of mine told me about. Its called Alexandria's Cupcake Cottage and oh my, is it ever cute and GOOD!

This is Adriana standing outside the front window. You can't really see that well, but there was a cake, tutus, a gingerbread house and so many other cute things on display.

This is Adriana's cupcake. Of course, she only ate the icing, but I would have to say, hands down, the BEST cupcake I have EVER had. Its a good thing I don't have a job there! I would be quite large!

Those 2 pictures above, were some of the shots of the inside of the place. SUPER cute and FUN! Adriana had a good time with "just us girls".

On another note, speaking of school, I was offered and am taking a job at the school that the kids go to for the fall. We have enrolled Paxton to start in the fall (Adriana was his age when she started) and it completely is a God thing that this job has become available. I will be working on the days that they are going to school, so this is a HUGE blessing! I will be working with the 1-2 year olds, so pray for those poor babies as they put up with me, but I'm looking forward to it!

Easter Buckets

2011-04-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

About a week before Easter this year, I was at my friend Betsy's house for a girls night, and saw the personalized buckets she had made for her little girls for Easter. That gave me an idea. I had been looking for Easter Baskets for the kids this year, but wanted something more creative than the usual pastel Easter basket. So when I saw her buckets, I thought, I can do something similar to that. The next day I went to Hobby Lobby. They had buckets in real pretty colors and in about any color you could think of, this is what I found....

I grabbed a blue one for Paxton and a purple/pinkish one for Adriana. It wasn't until I got home and started working on them until I realized that, one, I didn't have great paint brushes on hand, so I made due with what I had and the other problem was that the bucket for both of them had flowers at the top, which wasn't a problem for Adriana's, Paxton's however, I didn't want him to have a real girly one. So I was stumped on what to do with his.
This is how they turned out. Adriana's was easier to do than Paxton's, I don't know why really, but here's Adriana's. (Note: Betsy's were a lot cuter and "Eastery").

And this is Paxton's. I tried to hide the flowers the best I knew how. So I weaved some ribbon throughout, not the best, but I guess it will do.

I know its not great or professional looking, but I had fun doing them. Who knows, come next year, I'll probably use something different.

A Cozy Little Nook

2011-04-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was busy in the kitchen cooking, Paxton was laying down for a nap, and Adriana was wanting to do puzzles on my phone. She had gone to her room to do them, so it was pretty quiet in the house. After I was done cooking, I went to check on her, thinking she may have fallen asleep, she had been so quiet. I went into her room, and I couldn't find her anywhere. All of a sudden I hear from a corner in her room, "Hi, Mommy!". I looked on the other side of her bed and found her sitting in "the most comfortable place to sit".

She LOVES this bucket to sit in. Its made for her stuffed animals, but apparently its now the best seat in the house.

Dancing With The Stars

2011-04-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

I think I have posted before how much Adriana LOVES Dancing with the Stars. She and Ryan dance to most of the dances. Paxton has recently gotten into it too. Its so funny watching him sway back and forth. In this video you will notice Paxton in the back ground, torn between dancing and getting into trouble. He is NOT suppose to be on the little bookcase along the wall, however, thinks its a great game to get in trouble for being up there.

Kitchen Nightmare

2011-04-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

Cooking, when I'm home by myself, can be a nightmare because this little man....

Makes this big mess......

So, not only am I left to clean up his mess, I have to clean up mine...

PJ Party at Chick-Fil-A

2011-04-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

So Saturday we had a PJ party with some cows, the Chick-Fil-A cows that is. We weren't going to go, because I hasn't going to drive into town just to do that, but then it dawned on me, that Ryan was going into town to give blood, so while he was donating blood, we could go to Chick-Fil-A. So we booked it! I had 20 minutes to take a shower and get ready. Now, granted, I put PJ's on, but no one wants to see this hair do in the morning, so had to wash it. Luckily, I didn't have to feed the kids or get them dressed, so because of that, we were able to make it work.
Adriana LOVES the cows at Chick-Fil-A! She was so excited!
We got there, got our food and then did crafts. I love this Chick-Fil-A we have in town, they are so good with the kids and do so many extras with them. Adriana got to make a fruit loop necklace, a monkey puppet and the highlight of her trip, have an Ariel balloon made for her. She LOVED it!

A quick note about the balloon, I had one made a couple of weeks ago for her, and surprised her with it, it was a dog balloon and she LOVED it! I couldn't have gotten her anything she loved more. We were at Mimi's and Pa's house when I gave it to her, and while we were standing outside talking, the wind blew it out of her hands and it popped in the grass. It took every ounce within that child, not to break down and cry. I told her we'll have another one made some other time, so this worked out perfectly!

Adriana "smiling" for the camera.

Paxton was a little scared of the cows at first. He didn't mind looking at them, until they got too close. Towards the end, every time he would see one, he would say "Booo! Booo!" (Moo! Moo!). So, in this picture above, he's not too thrilled that the cow is standing as close as he was.

My parents came by to see all the action too. We were there for almost an hour and a half. By the way, a little Lori moment for you, I was the ONLY parent that wore PJ's. Don't know if that makes me a great parent or an embarrassment in public. Oh well...

Towards the end, they had a dance party with all the kids and the cows. Adriana didn't know what to think at first, like she was a little embarrassed and then she got into it and LOVED it. Me and Paxton were dancing too!

"Who's the old lady in the PJ's?"

Minus this lady in the grey shirt, this is a picture of Adriana and the little cow dancing.

Adriana again, showing how excited she is to be standing with the cows. You would think that it physically hurts her to smile.

We had a GREAT time and made lots of great memories!

The Furminator

2011-04-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, last week I did a blog on my favorite things, well, if you are a pet owner, I would HIGHLY recommend this new favorite thing of mine. Its called the "Furminator". I had never heard of it until we took Milo to the vet. I was talking to the vet about how much he sheds. He pulled out this tool, that looks like a razor comb on clippers. He ran that thing through Milo's hair just a few times and you wouldn't believe how much fur came off that dog. He told me that it pulls out the under coat and that really helps with the shedding. I was amazed. I was also amazed at the price. He said they are about $30-$40. Yeah, I don't think so. I'm too tight and frugul to buy something so high. Well, later that week we took Milo to the groomers and they used the Furminator on him but charged an additional $7 to use this tool. I wanted him to be nice and clean, so we had it done. Well a couple of weeks ago, I was on Amazon, which I rarely shop on there, and just looked up the Furminator on there to see how much they were. Of course they come in all kinds of sizes, but I was AMAZED when I saw the large size marked down from $50 to $14! I bought that sucker so fast. I have checked several times since then and they haven't been that cheap since. The cheapest I have seen the same one is $30. I must have gotten in on the deal of the day or something. Its sad, really, how excited I was to get this thing in the mail. Not only do we have a shedding dog, but our cat is so full of hair, its crazy. Her hair is so gross, it even has clumps in it. I know, its embarassing to admit. Well, I whipped that tool out and went to town on the cat, and unfortantaly, it was super windy that day and so this is literally half of what I got off that cat.

And I could have gotten more off, if she would have let me. Its amazing and a must for pet owners!

Adriana-isms

2011-04-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Adriana has said some stuff over the past month or so, and I hope I can remember them, because they made me laugh. *When we got Milo groomed, we were going to drop him off that morning. I had just gotten finished telling Adriana what we were doing that day. A few minutes later she asked, "Mommy, what are we doing today?". I told her I had just finished telling her, and she said, "Oh, that's right, we are taking Milo to the grimmers!". After we picked Milo up from the "Grimmers" she went up to him and said, "Milo you smell as pretty as a dog". *One night Adriana and Paxton was playing and Paxton went over to her and grabbed her arm and Adriana's reaction was, "Paxton stop grabbing my arm, you're not a police officer!" *Adriana thinks she needs salt and pepper on food, if we put salt and pepper on our food. The other night she put some on there, and she leaned over and whispered (loud enough for everyone to hear), "Daddy, I don't like the black salt, its spicy". I know there is more, but unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank. I need to write them down when they happen.

the Naylor Wrestling Challenge

2011-04-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

(In a big announcers voice, booming across an auditorium) Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, I'm proud to introduce to you, the Naylor Wrestling Challenge. In the right corner we have Ryan Naylor weighing in at a modest 210lbs. In the other corner we have Adriana and Paxton Naylor, with a combined weight of almost 60lbs. This match isn't for sissy's folks, this is the real deal, lets watch and see who will win in this show down of wrestling...(the crowd goes wild with anticipation!)...

Was my narration cheesy? Yes! But I thought it was a fun way to show this video. Don't my kids have the best Daddy in the world? (either that, or you guys can see that I really have 3 kids instead of 2!)

These are a few of my favorite things....

2011-04-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

I feel like Oprah broadcasting some of my favorite things. The only difference between Oprah's favorite things and mine is that I won't be giving everyone reading this, free stuff, oh, and I won't be yelling like a crazy person as I announce each thing. Nothing too special, I just kind of think its fun to find out what are some of people's favorite things around the house are. The first thing I chose is a new fragrance I have found at Bath and Body Works. It may not be the newest scent, I actually never go in there, but a coupon lured me in there one day, and I stumbled across this. I LOVE this scent. Its a very sweet smell. I know, I know, a scent of anything, is one person's preference over another. That's the beauty of having so many choices out there, everyone is different, so with that being said, you may not like this scent, but if you haven't tried it, I would suggest it. The next thing is....Jelly Watches or Silicone Watches. Whatever you call them, I love them. I think they are super cute, and my friend Hilary turned me on to them. I have one in black, white and brown. Out of all of them, the white is by far my favorite. They are about $15 each. They are pretty popular right now, so they should be easy to find. I like them because one, they don't break my arm out like leather and metal watches do and that I have one to match every outfit!

Here comes another scent for you. I'm in the mood to burn candles lately. Its probably because I'm paranoid about my house smelling like dogs, cats and poopy diapers. I normally buy the cheap-o's that you can get a Wal-mart or something like that, but I decided to splurge. I think I have come to grips with the fact that, somethings, you just can't get by buying cheap stuff, candles is one of them. All the cheap candles I buy smell like wax, and that's it. Yum! Well, I found this scent again, at Bath and Body Works. Dang those coupons! Anyway, I got a pretty good deal on this candle. I was wanting something light and springy. Here it is...."Tropical Spice". I think the ingredients are something like coconut oil, rum and cinnamon. Very homey smelling. And Ryan likes it, so that's a plus.

Next newest thing I have found, is a "Frothier" (sp?) for your cream for your coffee. Someone had told me about it, so I went out and got it. I LOVE it. I whip my cream in a separate cup before adding it to my coffee, making it nice and foamy. Its like a cappuccino. Maybe its all in my head, but I think it makes it taste better too. For about $5, you can add a little party to your coffee.

And last but not least, no, this isn't a miniature toilet seat its an egg slicer. I have, also been told about this little trick. You can use it for boiled eggs (duh!) but you can also use it for, strawberries. You just cut off the green part of the strawberry, put the bad boy in there and push down on it. It slices them so easily and perfectly. Its so easy, I let Adriana do it when I make Strawberry Shortcake. Just make sure to buy a nice sturdy one, since strawberries are a lot tougher than eggs, sometimes the strings can bend or break.

Well, there you have it. What are some of your favorite things? Things that can make life a little easier or a little more fun.

One Tangled Up Party

2011-04-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

Well the other night, we splurged. We RARELY splurge (especially the day BEFORE payday), but we couldn't help ourselves. I normally buy everything used, and I mean everything (except for food and underwear). But the movie "Tangled" came out this week. It was actually Ryan's idea to get it for Adriana. Normally, if we buy something like this, we wait until a birthday or holiday to give it. I know, Easter is around the corner, but I already have some stuff stashed away and we are like kids ourselves so we wanted to give Adriana this gift NOW instead of later. So on Wednesday night, we told Adriana we had a surprise for her. We asked her if she would like to have a family PJ party, eat pizza and watch a movie. Of course, her answer was YES! She still didn't know about "Tangled" yet, so that was the next surprise. We told her we got something for her and to close her eyes. She was so excited about it, but she still didn't really know what to think. I ran and got a $5 pizza from Little Ceasers and changed into my PJ's. Everyone was in their PJ's except Ryan. (My PJ's were by request of Adriana).

As we call it, I made a "nest" on the floor with pillows and soft blankets. Even Milo had to get in on the action.

Of course, Paxton couldn't care less about any of it, and since I had seen the movie twice and Ryan hadn't ever seen it, I was on ornery boy patrol. He was getting into everything, but overall we had a great night and hope to do movie/pizza/PJ nights more often.

Highlights

2011-03-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

A while back my Grandma Bowen bought Adriana a subscription to "Highlights" magazine. I
don't think she could have gotten her anything she would love more. Its like she found a whole
room full of toys when she gets one in the mail, she gets so excited. She wants to go page by page reading EVERYTHING and doing EVERY activity. She even wants recipes and crafts instructions read to her. Its such a great way for her to learn and grow. She is such a smart child. We got her some workbooks to help with letters, numbers, counting and writing. She has caught on so fast. Its hard to believe that she only has one more year of preschool left and then off to Kindergarten. Where has the time gone?

I love this picture of Ryan and Adriana looking at her new magazine. Ryan also gets a big kick out of reading it too. Thanks Grandma for getting both of my bigger kids something they can do together!

Growing Boy

2011-03-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe that Paxton is 16 Months old already. Time has gone by so fast. I was just thinking back the other day and the exact day he turned 16 months old, 2 years to the day we found out we were pregnant with him (on the day that Ryan's Grandpa passed away). Its amazing what this little man can do. He has such a personality and sweet spirit. He is ALL boy! He LOVES to eat! He is normally the first one to the table and the last to leave. He is a bottomless pit. The poor little guy has to still chew all that food he eats with just 4 teeth. He has 4 more coming in now, but I'm amazed at how slow they are coming in.
Here are some sweet pictures I took of him this last week. He thought he was hot stuff!

Lean, Mean, WILD dancing machines!

2011-03-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to play catch up with pictures, stories and videos. Here's a cute video taken a couple of months ago of the kids dancing. We have this video dance thing that plugs into your TV and the kids can dance along with the music and cartoons. They were having a blast!

I'm OVER it!

2011-03-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

This winter has been TOUGH! I mean TOUGH! I think a lot of people have just had a bad winter. It seems that everyone has been so sick, more so than normal. We have been pretty fortunate not to get the stuff going around as much as other people seem to have had it, but we have had enough to say, we are over it! I'm ready for spring! I'm ready to have my windows opened, plant flowers, play outside, take trips to the park and so on. I'm tired of cold wind, snow, sleet, being cooped up all day, everyday, school getting cancelled because of the weather, not going to school because of sickness and so on. With all that being said, forgive me for not updating my blog as much. I have really slacked off. I have no energy to do blogs. Its so time consuming and as much as I love having documentation on what my family is doing, I have just put it on the back burner. I also feel like, because of all the cold weather and sickness, there's really nothing to write about. I do have some stories to catch up on and I will do my best to get back on the blog pony and start writing again. Stick around, there is more to come...

Warm Weather

2011-02-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm not trying to be like some people who find a reason to complain about EVERYTHING, especially when it comes to the weather. I was in the store the other day and heard some old man say, "Well, now all this snow is going to melt and make it muddy out there." My guess is, he was complaining when it was snowing, and nothing is going to make him happy. I'm not trying to be one of those people. I LOVE that we get to experience ALL the seasons here in Missouri. I'm not a fan of winter time, but know that snow, sleet, freezing temps and bitter cold is just part of it. Its a season, it will pass. This winter we have gotten a lot of cold, snowy day. Even a blizzard a couple of weeks ago. Actually, last week we received another 4-5 inches on top of the snow that was on the ground from the week before. My complaint is this. This week, its been GORGEOUS! I know, what am I doing complaining about that. Well, it tricks my mind. I think that spring is here, and I'm SO ready for spring. I'm ready to have my windows open, cool temps at night and start planting flowers. The problem was its only FEBRUARY! I LOVE these 60 and 70 degree days, so I will take them, endure the rest of winter, and anticipate the Spring, when its time.
The other day, while Adriana was in school, me and Paxton has a rare opportunity to go to the park with just the 2 of us. We took Milo along, grabbed a Frosty from Wendy's and headed to the park. It was a PERFECT day. I don't think poor Milo has ever been to the park before, so he really enjoyed the fresh air and watching the geese. I had a special day with my boys, here are pictures of our day.

the old Mill and bridge in Ozark, on the Finley River.

Milo and Paxton enjoying the fresh air.

My sweet boy, with his chocolate smile.

Birthday Trip to St. Louis

2011-02-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

Well, we just spent this last weekend in STL for a quick, one night stay to celebrate my birthday. It was AWESOME! Totally had the time of my life! We asked some friends of ours, from church, to go to with us. I don't know if they came along out of guilt or pity, but I'm sure glad they were able to make it. I knew it might be a little of a challenge since both of us have kiddos at home, but we (and them) are blessed with great parents who sacrifice their weekend so we could get away for a little bit of a break. We left Saturday morning, and were on our way. Its so nice to go away with a couple you have a lot in common with. The drive didn't seem that long and we had a great time. We got in town just in time for lunch. We tried a new restaurant that none of us had ever been to before, but Ryan heard its was a great burger place called, Five Guys. IT. WAS. AWESOME. I would highly recommend them, if you ever come across one of them. Next, we were off to do a little bit of shopping. This weekend was filled with a lot of "firsts" for me and Ryan. We went to new stores, ate a new restaurant we had never been to for EVERY meal and we got to see parts of STL that I had never seen in my 3 years of going to school up there. We went to a store called Whole Foods. It was a really cool grocery store that had lots of fresh meats, fish and produce. We really enjoyed looking around in there. We came across their bakery and found these...

They were so good. The little shells were filled with custard, topped with fresh fruit and a glaze. It was a nice little treat.

We were very excited about these, if you can't tell. Next we were off to our hotel. We had gotten a good deal through Priceline and were able to stay within a mile of the Chesterfield Mall. That evening we had decided to do some shopping, go to a movie and eat a nice restaurant. Everything worked out perfectly! There was a 2 hour wait for the Cheesecake Factory, which was SO worth it! So while we waited, we shopped! It was nice to go in and out of stores without have kids screaming (well our kids anyway) and not have to worry about nap times, snacks, diaper bags and strollers. By the time we had done our shopping we were ready to eat. It was SO good! Can't wait to go there again!

All of us at dinner.

After dinner we made it upstairs to catch a movie. We had such a fun day. We were so tired by midnight, when we got to our hotel rooms, but we knew we could sleep in in the morning.

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Science Center. It was a lot of fun to look around at what they had, I hadn't been there since I was a kid.

Here's a picture of Ryan building the Arch.

I had to give him a hand on the other side.

Here's the finished product. We were so proud

of ourselves. Forget the fact that school aged

children were doing the same thing.

Matt and Mandy worked on their own

tower. We were so proud of them!

Their finished product. They seemed

angry at the results but me and Ryan

were proud! :)

After the Science Center, it was on to lunch. We were going to this little area in STL known for their Italian food, known as the Hill. We were right around the corner from there, so we thought we would give it a try. Well, wouldn't you know it, they were closed! I did, however, get to take a picture of this restaurant on the Hill. We didn't eat there, but liked the name.

We ended up going to P.F. Changs for lunch, and they were so good. We had never been there either. After a little more shopping at Crate and Barrel, we headed home. Even though it was a short trip, we had a blast. Mandy kept asking us what our favorite part of the day or the trip was and I would say, that they opened our eyes to new places to shop and eat. I loved the fact that we tried all new things this weekend. I'm very much a creature of habit and not big on branching out and trying new things, but maybe I'll start trying that in my next 30 years.

Thank you Ryan, Matt and Mandy for an awesome 30th birthday trip. Its something I will remember always!

Paxton's First Pickle

2011-02-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a little video of Paxton's first taste of a pickle. He's such a sweet baby and LOVES food, so we were anxious to see if he would eat it. I kept telling him to eat it, and despite the fact that he didn't really like it, he wanted to please me and so he took a bite. You will see that in the video. Poor little guy thinking he HAS to eat something so sour.

BTW: Don't judge me because I haven't posted much since I said I was going to, but our internet has not been working and so uploading pictures and videos have not been pleasant! Hope everyone is doing well and getting out and enjoying this weather! Spring is right around the corner! YAY!

Playing Catch Up

2011-02-01T18:28:00.001-08:00

I feel like I am such a slacker. Its funny, I use to think of things to write about all the time, but these days I'm either too busy to think of things to write about or there's really nothing that interesting to write about. I'm really disappointed in myself and for the lack of writing in my blog. I will try to do better.
Lately, we have been fighting illness that seems to keep circulating in the air. Mainly, between me and Paxton. Poor Paxton has had pink eye and congestion for quite sometime (the congestion, not pink eye). I have also had pink eye and have been fighting a head cold. I'm afraid I might have strep throat, but can't get to the doctor for a few days. Adriana has had a little congestion, but is pulling through that really well. We really don't get sick, which I'm really thankful for. It seems like some people we know, their kids get sick all the time, but I really feel fortunate that illness doesn't seem to strike our household that much.
Well today, February 1, we actually had a BLIZZARD! My whole life I have lived in Missouri and NEVER remember having a blizzard. It started first thing this morning and tapered off around 5pm or so. Its getting really cold and very windy out there, blowing snow like crazy! I would say we got at least 9 inches of snow but the drifts make it a lot higher in areas. Needless to say, Ryan didn't go to work today and probably won't be going tomorrow.
The kids are doing great. Adriana will be 4 in just a few weeks. Its so hard to believe. She still LOVES to dress up like a princess, color and watch movies. I'm hoping her turning 4 will help her mature with her attitude. I'm not going to lie, 3 years old had been VERY challenging. I always hear that 4 is the magic number, I'm really hoping so. Paxton is 14 months old now. He's still all boy. He still has only 4 teeth but that doesn't stop him from wanting to eat ALL the time. He's all of a sudden is totally into books, he loves to be read to. Balls are probably his favorite toys. He is growing and learning more every day.
As for me and Ryan, we are doing good. Ryan's work is doing pretty good this winter, for this we are VERY thankful. Winter time is the hardest time of the year for us, but God is faithful in providing for us always. As for me, well, I'm in my last days of being in my twenties. I turn the big 3-0 in 20 days. I'm actually not freaking out about it, but looking forward to this new chapter in my life. Me and Adriana are having a combined birthday party this year, since our birthdays are 2 days apart. I normally don't do anything for my birthday, but since its a special birthday, we thought we would have a combined party.
I PROMISE I will try to do better on keeping my blog updated. Its hard with 2 kids, 2 pets, a husband and a house to keep track of, but I will do my best.

Saving Money

2011-01-17T12:30:00.000-08:00

I have been racking my brain on what to write about. Sure, my life is crazy enough to tell plenty of stories, but not everyone wants to hear about an almost 4 year old with an attitude, a feisty 1 year old, a crabby cat or a sweet, but lazy dog. There has to be more in my life than that, right? Now, those kids and animals mean more than me than life itself, but I KNOW I know more about other things besides poopy diapers and sassy toddlers. So as I thought about what to write, I still couldn't think of anything that would blow your socks off (as most of my blog entries do, I'm sure), but I did think of a new hobby or art, if you will, that I'm trying my hand at in 2011. This will actually benefit you maybe too.

I am trying my hand at couponing. Not cutting one or two coupons here and there and saving like $1.25 on a trip to Walmart, but REALLY couponing. There are many blogs and people out there that have this down to a science, I'm trying to learn it. It takes a lot of time and patience to learn, but will pay off in the long run (literally!). These people that have it down can have a total at the check out for like $156.00 and after coupons come out paying about $6.00. NO JOKE! You have to learn the ins and outs of it all. My friend, Hilary, invited me to a class that kind of teaches you some of the tricks of the trade, so as of right now, I'm on fire wanting to learn more.

Its always nice to save money, but in our case, its more out of necessity than luxury. Money can be so tight around here, its crazy. Now, don't get me wrong, God has ALWAYS provided for us, we have never gone without, but we could also save as much as we can, in case we run into a snag along the way. We don't have cable, we do have the Internet, that could be cut if need be, but other than that, we pay our bills and that is it, so why not save on groceries and household items, if I can. Make our dollar stretch. So I'm trying, I hope I don't give up on it, as I normally fizzle out of things I start, but my nature is to get good deals, so I'm going to try. If I ever run across a wonderful deal, I will pass this along to you. I say ALL of this (which is by far more than I thought this post was going to be), to say, I do have a deal to pass along to you (IF you are going to be in the Branson area).

Go to this link and sign up for a free voucher. This is to the Tanger Mall in Branson ONLY. They will e-mail you a voucher, print it off and take it to the customer service area. They will give you a FREE $10 gift card and a Tanger Coupon book Free (a $5 value!). A lot of people shop down in Branson, and personally Tanger is my favorite place to go down there. The offer ends April 30, 2011, so you have some time. IF you think you are heading down here in that time, you ought to try it out. Hey, I'm all for free gift cards!

Like I said, I will pass along any good deals as I get them. I know this one is good for this area only, but wanted to help out anyone that I can.

100% ALL Boy!

2011-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Paxton is developing more and more each day. There is such a difference between boys and girls. Paxton is ALL boy! He is a sweet, loving boy, but look closely and you will see a little ornery gleam in his eye. When Adriana was his age, and would get in trouble, she would just break down in tears at the thought of getting in trouble. Paxton is quite different. He thinks its so funny to get in trouble and will even save me the trouble, and smack his own hand when he knows he's doing something he's not suppose to.
His newest thing is to dump things in the trash. I have found shoes, cups, magnates, balls, and who knows what else that has actually been thrown away.
He still isn't saying too much. "Ba" is ball and he has a MELTDOWN if he sees one in the store and can't have it. He saw tomatoes in Walmart the other day and thought they were balls, so he was crying, screaming "Ba, Ba, Ba" for all of Walmart to hear. He knows what he wants!
Can't believe he is less than 2 weeks away from being 14 months old. Can't wait to see how the toddler years play out for this little man of ours!

Milo

2011-01-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

Allow me to introduce the newest member of our family. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Milo....

He is a puggle (a Pug/Beagle mix). He actually looks nothing like any puggles I've ever seen, he looks more like a puppy lab. I know what you are thinking right about now, who cares what kind of dog he is, what on Earth are they doing tacking on another member to that family. I know, we are CRAZY! He was a TOTAL spur of the moment buy. This last Saturday, Jan 1, we went to Chuck E. Cheese to get out of the house for a while, and while we were there, I told Ryan we needed to look at PetSmart for a new litter pan for Zoe (they are in the same shopping plaza). Mistake number one!

It was adoption days there, and Adriana LOVES dogs so much. She heard them barking in the back of the store and asked if we could go and see the puppies. Mistake number 2.

I am a SUCKER for animals in need. I CAN NOT stand to go into shelters, pet stores or anywhere else that has caged animals who don't have homes, it breaks my heart. Me and Adriana made it back there to look at the dogs and Milo caught my eye. Mistake Number 3.

Don't make eye contact with the sad animals in the cages, they will get you every time! I actually thought he was a puppy, and there was NO way I wanted to fool with a puppy. When I read his chart, I saw that he was full grown and about a year old. I talked to the lady a little bit about him and she told us we could take him on a walk around the store. Mistake number 4.

Adriana was in LOVE with him. He is so gentle and laid back. He let her love on him and kiss him and be right in his face, and he never barked, growled or snapped at her, so I thought that was a good sign. Me and Ryan talked for a while about it. I haven't wanted a dog for many reasons, but mainly because they can tie you down so much. Don't get me wrong I LOVE dogs and always have, but as an adult you see having pets in a whole new light. Adriana has been BEGGING for a dog for a long time. Her and Ryan were all for it, so when I brought Milo to Ryan, Ryan said it was up to me if we get him or not. My heart was breaking for this dog, something about him brought tears to my eyes thinking of him being in the shelter. After I was told by Ryan not to cry in PetSmart, and after talking to the lady a little more about him, we went ahead and adopted him.

The first night we hit a BIG road block with him, when we took him over to my parents house. He actually settled in quickly there and was content (we hadn't gone to our house yet, we went straight over there after getting him). We let him out in the FENCED in backyard, when it was dark and he got out. Long story short, we had our van, my dad's car and a neighbor of theirs driving around chasing this dog around the block for over an hour! All I can say, is he runs FAST and is very hard to see at night, since he is black. We got him back, safe and sound. We were kind of dishearten when this happened thinking this dog is going to be trouble, but really that was his biggest strike against him. He's a sweet, loving dog, who is taking his time warming up to us and trusting us, but is getting better every day. I think he will fit in perfectly around here.

A Zoe Note: She has actually done really well with him. It helps that he is laid back and doesn't run around and chase her. She has let him know she is boss, and he's actually scared of her. He has gotten the memo that Zoe runs the house and that he will be under her authority.

Christmas--FINALLY!

2011-01-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

Well, we have seen Christmas come and gone. We have seen the New Year come and not go, but at least off to a good start. I'm going to be honest with you. This Christmas season was so busy and hectic, I have to say, I didn't really get a chance to sit back and enjoy it. I enjoyed Christmas day, but I literally didn't get to sit and rest until Christmas Day. Between decorating, shopping, traveling, entertaining, coordinating gifts and food for an adopted family for church and all the other little stresses of the holidays, I didn't get to enjoy it like I really wanted to. I didn't get to bake Christmas cookies or take in Christmas music or lights or all the little things that the holidays can offer. I know, everyone is busy this time of year, but its so sad to me to think that our kids will only be this age for one Christmas, and I didn't really get to take it all in. I made a promise to myself after feeling this way, that I will never be this busy for the holidays. I don't want to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I want to enjoy them with my family. I mean, I was so tired and worn out, I was so sloppy with the kids gifts. I would wrap them and just leave them in the office, under a sheet and hope that the kids didn't see them, since they were the ones from Santa. That's pretty bad. Never again. So excuse me for not writing any sooner about Christmas, I was burnt out on the whole holiday season (by the way, no, this is not the Grinch writing this, just one tired momma!).
Even though I just got finished complaining about how busy I was, I did have fun and tried to take in as much as I could. One of the first weekends in December our family and my parents went up to Jeff City for a weekend to see friends and do Christmas w/ family up that way. I do regret that I didn't take more pictures, but we did have a great time. As we get older, our traditions change and this year was one that was a turning point for that change. A time to start new traditions and hold on the memories of the old ones. Because of those changes, we did Christmas at my parents trailer with my Grandma Bowen and my great aunt Dee. It was so good to see them again, and to spend some time with them.

Dee opening some gifts.

Grandma opening some gifts.

I guess they were both good girls this year to

get some gifts! :)

Mom and Dad not opening gifts, I guess we

all know what that means....

It was funny, after we all opened gifts, Adriana was laying on the floor playing with something and we looked down and saw this....

Adriana had a Christmas bow stuck to her rear end, and had no idea, it was so cute!

After we did Christmas with Grandma and Dee, we went to see my Grandma and Grandpa Veltrop. We had a good time visiting with them. Unfortunately, my camera was packed away and I didn't get any shots with them.

It was a good trip and great to see family that we haven't seen in so long.

Quickly, Christmas approached and was here before we knew it. Adriana was fun this year. She is at the age where she is starting to know who Santa is and to know that it is Jesus' birthday, but still too young to know that Christmas is only one day and not several days. It was fun to hear her randomly sing Christmas songs. See her excitement as Christmas movies came on, such as Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch (or the Grouch, as she called him), and the Santa Clause.
Playing Santa, for some reason, I found kind of overwhelming, and I think it was because I was just so worn out. I tried my hardest to hide the wrapping paper that Santa was using, but made the mistake of leaving a roll of Tinkerbell paper out one day. She saw it and on Christmas morning, she saw the gifts wrapped in that paper and told Ryan, "Daddy, Santa and Mommy have the same wrapping paper". Ooops! I just feel like I slacked on the job and I'm glad she is too young to put two and two together. Anyway, here is the gifts after Santa came and visited.

Paxton, was obviously too young to know what was going on, but he enjoyed the gifts that he got. He was cute to watch toddling around, playing with all the new stuff. Adriana was ripping into the gifts left and right. She was more than willing to help her brother open his too.

Christmas afternoon, my parents and brother came over for the remainder of the day. We had a fun afternoon. We busted out a good ol' game of Mexican Train Domino's, we had a great time.

After a nice dinner, we opened gifts with my parents and brother.

Paxton loved the snowman my mom got from my dad. He kept giving him hugs and kisses.

This last picture is kind of a random picture. I started giving the kids ornaments each year that represents them for that year, and so I thought it would be fun for them to each have a tree in their rooms with their ornaments on it. I unfortunately couldn't find a tree for Paxton's room (I'm still hoping to find one somewhere) but Adriana LOVED this idea. I let her put on her own ornaments and tried not the imperfections bother me. She was so proud of it and was tickled to death to have her own tree up.

If this blog entry seems negative, I'm trying not to make it seem that way. I just don't want to regret another year, like I did this year. Christmas is about the birth of our Savior and we can get so wrapped up in the gifts, cookies, decorations and all that, that we forget what its all about. Christmas is a precious time of year, we need to savor it for what it is, and this year, I feel like missed out.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas holiday full of wonderful memories and that your 2011 will be super blessed!

Adriana's Christmas Program

2010-12-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

Every year Adriana's school puts on a Christmas program. Last year was her first year to be in it and it was so cute. I LOVE watching little kids get up there and see what they do. Adriana is normally pretty timid when it comes to getting in front of people or being in a new situation, not at this program though. She was as close to the microphone as she could get, belting it out. I was surprised. She of course wanted to wear her Christmas Dress and get her hair done. She did so good. Here's a picture of her before the program.

These next couple of shots are of them singing their songs and doing sign language to go with it. They sang "We Three Kings" and "Come Let Us Adore Him".

There was actually a little tiff on stage between Adriana and her friend. They both wanted the microphone, but my daughter, being the little diva, wouldn't share it so this made her friend start crying. Adriana didn't know what to think of her crying.

But the show went on for Adriana anyway.

All in all, it was a great show. We took video of it, but unfortunately the little girl standing to the left of Adriana blocked Ryan's view on the camera. We can't see her AT ALL! I was sitting right in front of her on the very first row, and I couldn't get good shots of her then either. We are bummed that we can't see her, but you can hear her singing.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

2010-12-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

Every year since we have been married, we have always done self portraits of us for Christmas Cards. They are normally very spur of the moment. I know I always want to do one, but like this year, time just keep getting away from me and I thought that if I wanted to get them out in the mail before Christmas, we need to take them! So we rush around get dressed (granted dinner was going to be ready in about 20 minutes). I get out our camera, get everyone in the shot and set the timer and hope for the best. Wasn't sure how it was going to work this year with Paxton not really understanding what was going on, but it went okay. I told Ryan, next year we should set up our video camera and record us taking pictures. Its quite the show. Between me setting the button, playing with a doll around the camera so the kids will look that way, running across the room, smiling and posing all in 10 seconds, its a hoot! Here are our shots we got...

The last picture was the winning shot. Don't worry, all the laundry on the couch was cropped out. We hope you and your family had a WONDERFUL Christmas holiday and here's to a Blessed New Year!

Fall Vacation: Days 5-8

2010-12-22T17:44:00.001-08:00

I'm glad to say, this is my last entry for our trip that we took OVER a month ago! Man, alive! We had a BLAST on a vacation but blogging about it has been a nightmare and chore, if I'm telling the truth. Mainly due to my computer acting up while downloading these pictures, but I'm glad this is the last of it so we can move on to newer things, since Christmas 3 days away!
Day 5 of our trip wasn't too eventful. We mainly traveled down to Florida to stay with Ryan's grandma, a.k.a. Mamarine. It was so good to see her again! It has been almost 2 years since we saw her last time, so Adriana was a lot bigger and she finally got to meet Paxton. We enjoyed our evening of just hanging out at her house, eating dinner and enjoying each others company.
Mamarine has a dog, named Ginger. Ginger is the sweetest dog in the world. Adriana LOVES dogs and took up with Ginger instantly. Every moment she could, she was with that dog. They were so sweet together.

Day 6, THANKSGIVING! Now, I know here in Missouri, it was snowing/freezing rain on Thanksgiving day, this is what we got to enjoy instead.....

What a glorious day! I love spending Thanksgiving day with Ryan's family. They all go over to his aunt and uncle, Toni and Micheal's house for a big Thanksgiving feast. Of course, it was all so yummy! Thanksgiving in the south is a GOOOOOD thing! The tradition I love the best, though, is after our big meal, we all load up and head down to Ft. Walton Beach and spend some time on the beach. We normally dip our feet in the ocean, play in the sand and take lots of pictures, it was, of course, a great time.

This was Paxton's first time to the beach, he didn't know what to think of the sand.

His little chubby feet and hands were covered in sand...

He had a great time, but was over dressed. It actually was quite warm in the sun, so we ended up striping him down to his diaper later on.

Adriana says she remembers the beach, although it had been a year and a half since she had been. She enjoyed playing with the water as it washed up on the shore and playing in the sand.

Precious little foot prints.

Only foot missing was Paxton's.

The kids had a blast and going to the beach was so much fun for them, and us.

While we were there, we had a little volleyball game. Let me just say, it has been many a year since this ol' body has played v-ball, I was about 50lbs lighter and I wasn't even that good. Fast forward 10+ years and this is what you get....

Is it the best shot of me? No. I just wanted to show you guys that I can move faster then a turtle, not often, but sometimes. This is my "action shot". Savor it, for I do not move that fast too often and when I do, I normally need a paper bag to breathe into and some water.

Like I said, this is the time they get a lot of family photos taken. The whole family is there and its a great time to get them. I have a TON of pictures from this, but these are some of my favorite...

Mamarine and all her babies.
(Left to Rt: Toni, Sandy, Mamarine, Metz, KK and Misty)

Us with Mamarine.

The kids were done with pictures by this point.

Us with Jim and Sandy.

After the beach, we said our goodbyes. We had such a fun time and it was so good to see everyone again. We drove back to Montgomery that evening.

Day 7 was down time and Black Friday. Although we spent a lot of the day relaxing, I couldn't keep myself away from the sales. So by early afternoon, me and Kara went out and hit the sales. We actually found good deals and not a lot of people. I had a great time spending time with her.

Day 8: Drive home! Like I said about 3 weeks ago when I started our "Fall Vacation Series", the kids did really good traveling down there. The way home...a whole different story! They were so tired of being in the car. I drugged them up to help them sleep, but it kind of back fired on me. They were just really drowsy and never went to sleep, which means it left them cranky and tired, not good. It was a LONG day to say the least. Within a week we had spent 30+ hours in the car. We were so tired and homesick, which made it so much worse. We powered through, many stops later and made it home in about 13 hours.

This trip was a great one! We had so much fun! I feel so blessed we were able to stay a week, see extended family, hang out with great friends and be with the ones we love. Thank you Jim and Sandy for all your hospitality. Sandy you worked so hard at making every meal, and I thank you for that. Thank you for doing our laundry and giving up your bedroom for a week. I am blessed by this "in-law" family I have! Truly, something to be thankful for!

Fall Vacation: Day 4

2010-12-18T11:23:00.001-08:00

Note: Let me first apologize for taking FOREVER to finish out writing about this trip, this has been one of the busiest weeks of the year for me, or so it seems, so sitting down and waiting for pictures to download, my computer to mess up and delete the uploaded pictures, write and spell check and make sure I didn't leave anything out, well, that just takes time, time I don't seem to have these days. Also, be ready for picture overload. I believe I uploaded about 25+ for this post alone.
Day 4 of our trip landed on a Tuesday. It was a fun day! It was kind of a lazy day, but a good time spend with the family. We really didn't do too much that day, the kids played, we went on a "hike" and we got to see Ryan's best friend and his wife. It was a great day.
The kids ALWAYS have a blast together. Adriana and Riley are like 2 peas in a pod. With them only being about 2.5 months apart, they are very similar and its fun to watch them interacting with each other.

The girls playing in the car.

Jack, who is such a sweet boy and doesn't
know what to do with Adriana and Riley. Poor boy!

They boy cousins bonding. They are so cute
together!

The kids in the hammock, they love this thing!

Me and Adriana were swinging in the hammock for a while. She normally doesn't acknowledge us when she is around her cousins, so for her to want to swing with me, was special. This was our view from the hammock.

We were being silly girls and playing with the camera, we got lots of fun shots, but these were some of my favorites.

Jim was so sweet, and built all the grand kids a bird house to paint. They LOVED this! Me and Kara, took the kids to Walmart to pick out their own paint for their houses. They were so sweet to share with each other and this kept them occupied for a long time.

The kids hard at work painting.

Adriana with her "before" birdhouse.

I never did get an after shot.

As the kids painted their houses, the big boys laid around and enjoyed the warm, mild weather. Talk about 2 peas in a pod!

Ryan thought it would be fun to try to climb a huge tree. Granted, he had shorts, t-shirt and flip flops on, so this was quite a sight. I got called up to the top of the hill to take a picture of him in the tree. This is what I found...

He's way up there and then it dawns on him, how do I get down from here, without getting hurt.

His mom was trying to help and I wish you could see the fear on his face. He wasn't that scared, but he did realize what a drop it was going to be.

Good news, he made it without any injuries!

Next,we all went on a "hike" through their property. It was fun to take the kids back there and to try to find vines to swing on.

Kara and the girls heading towards

the woods.

I like this shot of Paxton and Ryan.

They are all ready to go hiking.

About to enter the unknown! :)

That evening, we had a chance to go over and see Ryan's best friend and his wife, Stephen and Kristal. We got to see their new house for the first time and we got to have a child-free evening, thanks to Jim and Sandy keeping the kids. We had dinner over there, lots of conversation and just a good time of catching up with each other. Kristal was due towards the end of December with their first baby, Caleb, but who would have thought that exactly 3 weeks later, Caleb would be here. We can't wait to meet him.

Stephen, Kristal and at the time, their

only child, Oreo!

Me and Kristal. We have a lot in common and I always

enjoy being around her and getting to know her more.

Then, of course, you have the boys. They were being so silly and cutting up. Stephen is such a good friend to Ryan and has been for MANY years. Here's the boys "photo shoot". We'll call it "Christmas Buddies 2010".

Thanks again Stephen and Kristal for a WONDERFUL night.

Like I said, Jim and Sandy kept the kids that evening. We got home around 11pm and found this...

What a WONDERFUL day!

Fall Vacation: Day 2 & 3

2010-12-10T07:30:00.001-08:00

Day two of our trip, actually fell on Paxton's first birthday. I had asked Sandy a few months back, if we could throw him a little birthday. Her and Ryan's sister, Kara, went all out. I was totally impressed with how much work they put into his party. I know they were happy to do it, but I felt like I dumped all of it on them. We had a little get together that afternoon. We had Jim, Sandy, Kara, Jack and Riley, and good friend's of the family, Dennis, Irmy and Savannah and Ryan's Aunt Misty over. We had a good time. Paxton didn't know what to think of everyone singing Happy Birthday to him. He sure did love his party though!

The spread of food. It was all so good!

The Birthday Boy, before the cake.

All the kiddos. (Notice Riley in her yellow skirt, keep that

in mind for a little later. Adriana was in LOVE with it and

eyeing it the whole time.)

My beautiful sister-in-law, who made this CUTE Monkey

cake for Paxton. I know it took a lot of time, thank you

so much!

LOVED the cupcakes with the banana's on top, such

a cute touch!

Paxton wearing his party hat. It was so cute, he didn't

know any better.

Finger lickin' good!

My messy little man!

Alright, so you remember Riley's skirt? Well, Kara has started her own business called Falootin and they make these skirts. Sandy helps with the orders and they have such cute stuff. Well, Sandy wanted to give Adriana one of these skirts, so Kara cut it out and Sandy sewed it. Adriana. was. in. LOVE! They gave it to her before Paxton started opening gifts and the look on her face....

PRICELESS!

She ditched what she had on in a REAL big

hurry, in front of everyone, to put on her

new skirt. I told Sandy she couldn't have

gotten anything she would have loved more.

She has worn this skirt EVERYDAY, since

we have been home, that's no lie.

Adriana doing some spins for us.

Well, Paxton's party took up about the whole second day. By the time we went to church, had his party, and visited, we were wiped out. We had such a fun day. The third day, was a lazy day. No one had to go to work, and it seemed like Paxton was trying to catch up on some sleep. I joined in on naps when I could. Monday evening we went to Costco, at the request of me and Ryan and then we took the kids to probably the nicest Burger King I have ever been to. With several flat screen TV's and a HUGE play area, we all were in heaven! It was a great, lazy day, just what all of us needed!

Fall Vacation: Day 1

2010-12-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

Since we went on our trip for 7 days, I thought I would break my writings about the trip into a day or two at a time, not to overload you guys or take up my whole day writing.
This trip has been a LONG time coming. We haven't been able to go down to Alabama for over a year and a half. Between moving, having Paxton and being slow at work, its been super hard to find time and money to go down there. We had this planned for quite sometime. We saved and saved and God provided in several ways, little bits of money for us to be able to take a whole week off, without pay, to go and spend time with our family in the South.
We left early, around 6:15am. I had packed our breakfast and lunch for us to eat on the car on the way down. I did this to save money and time. The kids were FANTASTIC on the way down. After about 1 hour in the car, Adriana said, "Are we almost there yet?" . Ummm.....not even close! 11 more hours to go! My kids have a hard time sleeping in the car, so it makes the day so much longer for them.

Adriana chillin' in the back. She had quite the set up, with colors,
books, movies, stuffed animals, you name it, that child had it.

One of the little cat naps that Paxton took. I think the longest
nap he took was 45 minutes. He had been up the night before
with his teeth bothering him, so he was extra tired.

Sister took about a 45 minute nap too, but not at the same
time as Paxton, of course!

Paxton in high spirits. He was such a trooper.

Ryan drove the WHOLE way. All 600+ miles.

Believe it or not, we only stopped 3 times on the way down there. I couldn't have asked for the kids to have done better. I was so proud of them. A trip that normally takes up 12 hours, took us about 11 hours and 15 minutes. I know its only 45 minutes shorter, but after riding in the car for that long, you count EVERY minute!

We were so happy to see everyone. Adriana immediately started playing with her cousins Jack and Riley.

We all shared a room while there. Jim and Sandy are always so gracious to give up their master suite for us. We had more than enough room, however, with all of us in one room, if one child wakes up, they woke the other child up. The first couple of nights were rough, but we got the hang of it by the end.

I'm thankful for a safe and happy trip on the way down. The thing that puts a damper on the whole trip, is always the ride in the car. We had never made the trip with both kids, so I was nervous but they did so good. The way home, now that's another story.....Stay tuned...

Christmas Cards

2010-12-05T18:10:00.000-08:00

So I know, if you are anything like me, you are kind of freaking out, because its already December! Less than 20 days before Christmas, and I personally, can't believe the year is rapidly coming to an end. It just kind of hit me the other day, that I need to get on the ball about getting a Christmas cards sent out. It seems that I do this to myself every year, wait till the last minute and STRESS out about Christmas cards. We have done a card every year since we have been married. I really enjoy sending them out (and receiving them, hint, hint). This year, we are going to try something new. We are using Shutterfly to do our cards this year. I'm really excited about it. I'm going to be honest, I'm new to Shutterfly. I have ordered some items this year for Christmas gifts. I LOVE Shutterfly! They have EVERYTHING photos. Right now, they are offering 50 FREE Christmas Photo Cards to bloggers. I'm all in! With money extra lean this year, this is a HUGE blessing!
Here are some of the products they offer:

Invitations. Christmas, Birthday, Open House, Baby Shower, you name it, they have the ideas for it and its such a great way to personalize the party.
Calendars. What a great way to personalize everyday of the year. I love the different options they offer with them.
And of course, Christmas cards!

Like I said, I'm new to Shutterfly, but love how user friendly it is and the great offers they have. Check them out!

Paxton's First Birthday

2010-12-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have fallen so behind in my blogging, I'm such a slacker. This last week was super busy and I feel like I'm drowning in Christmas decorations and re-cooping from our Alabama trip. I am getting around to posting about the trip, I promise, it just takes so much time to upload pictures and write, but they are on their way. I was wanting to do a post first, about Paxton's party at my mom's house. Paxton's birthday fell on Sunday the 21st this year, so since we were going to be in AL for his actual birthday, my parents decided to throw a small little party for him the Wednesday before we left. He didn't know what to think of all the decorations, hats and balloons. Adriana so willingly helped Mimi decorate for his party. We had a real nice meal and of course, cupcakes. Here are some pics from his little party.

Thank you Mom and Dad for throwing him a good little party. By the time he turned one, he was walking around EVERYWHERE! Its like it just clicked one day, and he was over crawling and started walking anywhere he wanted. He still only has 2 teeth, but more are pushing through. By the time Adriana was his age, she had at least 6 teeth. He is such a loving, sweet little boy. He's rough and tough and all boy. Happy Birthday Paxton, you bring more joy in our lives than you'll ever know.

Exhausted!

2010-11-27T18:44:00.000-08:00

Maybe I shouldn't be writing this right now, maybe I should get some sleep before making a blog entry, but I feel like I should write to all my "fans" and let you know there will be plenty of posts to come. I say all of this, because we just got home from a 12 hour car ride with 2 small kids. We got to go on a week long trip to Alabama/Florida to visit Ryan's family. We had a great time. We threw Paxton a birthday party, celebrated Thanksgiving with his family in FL, got to hang out with good friends and got to spend a lot of good quality time with his family. It was a long week, with lots of stories to tell. I will post them soon. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for and a lot of times we take things for granted, so much so, we can't even notice how blessed we really are. I have been blessed beyond measure, God is so good!

Fender Bender

2010-11-16T12:08:00.001-08:00

Last week, Ryan got into a small accident. He was going down a busy street in Springfield, and a lady cut him off and Ryan slammed on the breaks and hit the rear right side of her truck. Thankfully no one got hurt, the kids weren't in the car or it wasn't any worse. I am highly irritated at the lady who cut him off and what a huge stress this little accident has turned into. Between rental cars, insurances and our trip to Alabama (which the wreck happened 10 days before) it has caused for some extra stress in my life.

Here's the picture of the van. Like I said, it wasn't bad, but has cost over $3000.00 in damages.

Here is our rental. A 2010 Chevy Tahoe. Don't get me wrong, its a nice vehicle, but MAN, I miss my van. This thing is SO huge, its hard to get use to.

Our body shop should have the van done by Thursday or Friday of this week, we leave on Saturday. In all of this God is teaching me patience and being content with what I have.

Family Pictures

2010-11-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

Well better late than never! We got family pictures taken almost a month ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting them. I just haven't really had the time or the patience to sit here and let so many pictures upload. Well, today's the day! My aunt Jody took these pictures for us and I'm forever indebted to her for doing this for us. I LOVE how they turned out. She is truly talented! Here are some of our favorite from the 220 pictures she took. Enjoy!
(Note for my records: Adriana 3.5 years old and Paxton 10 months old).

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

2010-11-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

Here's one of my favorite, easy fall recipes. Whenever I take it places, people can't get enough of it. I wish I had a picture for you, but every time I make it, I forget to take one. Here it is, hope you enjoy it!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 (15 oz) can of solid pack pumpkin
1 (12 oz) can Evaporated Milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of Sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C. Chopped Pecans
1 Cup Melted Butter

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13 pan. Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Pour in dish. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Top with pecans. Drizzle melted butter over pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool. Top with Cool Whip.

Sneaky Little Man

2010-11-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

Does this picture look familiar?

Yeah? Well Adriana had gotten into a red marker when I was laying down for a nap this summer. She NEVER gets into stuff, so that's why I kind of thought it was funny. I had wrote a blog about it when it had happened.

Well, you would have thought I would know better by now. When one child is really still and quiet in the other room, this should be a cause for concern. I was sitting in the family room messing with our camera, Adriana was watching something on TV and Paxton was back in Adriana's room playing. He had been so quiet and I was just getting up to check on him, and I hear him crawling down the hall. He enters the room with a HUGE grin on his face, this was what I saw....

He's such a little trouble maker. He thinks it so funny to get into trouble and he will sit and wait for you to look at him and then he will do something that he knows he's not suppose to. I don't know if this is one difference between boys and girls, because when Adriana was his age, when she would get into trouble, she would cry, she has such a tender heart.

Its hard to get mad at Paxton when he's getting into something he's not suppose to, because he just gives you the cutest little smile. This mishap was my mistake, since I wasn't watching him any better. I thought it was cute nonetheless.

Halloween Festivities

2010-11-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Well, this last Halloween weekend was filled with lots of fun, candy and friends. We wanted to the kids to be a "pair", so we came up with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I made Adriana's outfit and my mom helped me with Paxton's outfit. I was pleased with out they turned out, but when Adriana wasn't around Paxton, everyone just thought she was a fairy, they didn't get that she was Tinkerbell, but she loved it nonetheless.
On Saturday night, my good friend, Hilary invited me to her church for their fall festival. We knew Adriana would have a blast, and we were right. They had games, candy, popcorn and inflatables. Adriana had a BLAST and Paxon enjoyed seeing everyone in their costumes. There was a little kid there that was dressed like a dog, and Paxton just wanted to stare at him the WHOLE time. He didn't know what to think. Here are some pics from Saturday night.

My little Peter Pan

Tinkerbell

Yes, we all wore green on purpose,

I just thought it would be cute to match

the kids.

My friend Hilary and her dinosaur, I mean son

Zachary. He looks like he's up to something.

We had a blast on Saturday, thank you Hilary for the invite, what great memories.

Well, Halloween fell on Sunday this year, so we went to church and then hung out at my parents house all day. We had plans to go over to our friends, Matt and Mandy's house that evening. Adriana couldn't wait to go. We got pizza, ate cookies and got the kids ready to go trick or treating. They are so cute at this age. Here's a picture of Adriana with Matt and Mandy's, son and daughter, Parker and London, who was dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat.

Paxton in his outfit again. He wasn't

really a fan, but he was a good sport.

Adriana and Parker all ready to go!

You know your kids don't quite get the concept,

when a lady says "Take all the candy you want",

and they grab about 2 pieces and say that's enough.

We'll give them a couple of years to catch on.

After about 45 minutes out, the kids were wearing down and so were us parents. We went back to Matt and Mandy's house and the kids were in hog heaven with their candy.

Me and Mandy.

Thank you Matt and Mandy for a great evening, it was so much fun! This weekend was filled with so many memories. We are so blessed to have good friends like Hilary and her husband Kevin and Matt and Mandy, thank you guys for everything!

Lamps

2010-11-01T18:40:00.001-07:00

Its funny, tonight I went into Paxton's room to turn on his little lamp and my mind was flooded with thoughts of my mom. There, I said it, lamps remind me of my mom. I know she will be so flattered by this statement, but let me explain. To me, there's nothing more cozy than having a lamp on in a room. Its just sets a soft light that makes the room so cozy. The reason I think of my mom is because growing up, both of my parents worked. We thought it was wonderful when mom took the day off. (We later found out, when she took days off, she was throwing away junk from our closets and rooms.) Anyway, there was a warmth in the house, when we would get off the school bus and come into a house that smelled like chocolate chip cookies. Our rooms were always so clean (b/c of all the junk that had been thrown out), our beds were made with the covers folded down, looking so inviting and our lamps were on. It totally made the room feel so cozy. I remember when we moved about 3-4 weeks before I was due with Adriana, my parents still lived in JC, and my mom knew how exhausted I was, so she came down and helped me settle into our new place, before the baby came along. I remember when I left for work that morning, the house was in shambles, but my mom, being wonderful and hardworking, had that place so homey by the time I got off work. Part of that feeling, she had the lamps on throughout the house. I know I may sound crazy for writing about lamps, but its the little things that can bring back so many good memories. Thanks mom, you may not be Motel 6, but I'm glad you always left the light on. (Sorry, I had to.)

Pumpkin Fun

2010-10-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we might have started a new tradition. We had never painted/carved pumpkins before, but last night we all got to have our hand at decorating our own pumpkins. We had 2 large pumpkins delivered to our front bench by the pumpkin fairy (a.k.a. my mom). Adriana was SO excited that the pumpkin fairy dropped them off at our house. We decided that last night we would decorate our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. My parents came over for dinner and then we decorated them.
Ryan wanted to carve, here is a picture of his "blueprint" of what he was going to carve.

This is a picture of Adriana "smiling" with her little pumpkins before she painted them.

Ryan working hard at carving his pumpkin.

Adriana working hard at painting hers.

Ryan with his finished product.

Adriana with her finished product. Notice how
much water and paint are ALL over the place.
It was a mess, but worth it.

Me and my clown Pumpkin. (This pose is a result
of a long hard day).

This was a lot of fun, and maybe we can do it again next year.

Ball Pit Fun

2010-10-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

We have a new and exciting toy. The kids LOVE it! My mom and dad bought us one of those turtles you put sand in a few weeks ago. I had it sitting in our garage and a friend saw it and told me that a friend of hers had one of those and filled it with ball pit balls. At first I thought that was a crazy idea, but then the more I thought about it I liked it, especially with winter coming and they wouldn't be able to go out and play as much. I looked on craigslist for some ball pit balls, thinking this was a long shot, but actually found a lady selling 200 balls for $5 (if I would have bought 200 balls new, it would have cost me $20), this was perfect! The balls were in really good shape. After sterilizing them, we put them in the turtle and let the kids go to town. Paxton LOVES little balls like these, that fit in his hands. They both LOVE it so much, what a great idea. Here is a video from the first night we let them play in them. I love how Paxton just sits there and kicks his feet so much. Its so cute to see him crawling in and out of the turtle all on his own (its not shown in this video though). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video!

Paxton's First Steps

2010-10-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

Since my blog has kind of become my baby book/scrapbook, I'm writing this as a milestone so I don't forget. On October 18th, 3 days before Paxton turns 11 months old, he has taken his first couple of steps. He is awful tired tonight, and I think he would take more, if he wasn't so tired, but the first steps is a big deal. I know, I know, in a couple of weeks I'll be writing about how much it wears me out chasing him around, but I'm a proud momma. Adriana did the same thing. She started walking within a week or two before turning 11 months old. I'll try to get video of him walking, and post it soon. Just thought I would share our exciting milestone with our readers.

Silly Sister

2010-10-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

Adriana is such a silly girl. The older she gets the more her personality comes through. She has a very tender heart and a sweet spirit (trust me, she has many moments when she is quite "spicy"). All in all, she is a great kid. She LOVES to ham it up in front of the camera, I came across these pictures on day on the computer and thought it speaks volumes of the different sides of this child. She's a hoot, and we love her to pieces!

Our Home Ready for Fall

2010-10-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

These are some of our fall decorations peppered around our house. I LOVE fall. I love the smells, the warm colors and the foods that are associated with fall. Hope you are making the most of this season. (By the way, it wasn't until I posted these pictures until I realized that my wreath is hanging upside down. I left it that way in the pictures, but will correct it on the door. Ooops!)

Good Bye to the Smell of Fall

2010-10-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

Its a sad day for me. One of the first things I bought for my very first apartment in Nashville was a Fall scented candle from Linens-N-Things. I LOVED this candle. Fall is my FAVORITE season and something about this candle brought it all to life for me. To this day, when I smell it burning, I think of my little apartment in Nashville and living the single life. This candle as burned every Fall for the past 7 years. It has burned in 6 different homes. All my fall decor smells like this candle. I know its silly, but today I had to throw this candle away. It had burned to the very bottom. I am sad, because they no longer make this scent. I don't know if its the scent or the memories it brought to me every time it burned, that I'm going to miss the most. Goodbye Fall Candle, Goodbye!

The back of the candle. Barely any wicks left.

Adriana Feeding Paxton

2010-10-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is a little video I took of Adriana feeding Paxton tonight at dinner. Its amazing how helpful and sweet she can be one minute and the next she can push him to the ground for no reason. I know its just all apart of the sibling relationship, but I treasure sweet moments like this.

A Wonderful Visit

2010-10-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I have been so slacked on keeping up with my blog. I have good reasons why I don't have time to do it these days, but really no good excuses. I'm sorry.
A little over a week ago, we had the privilege of having Ryan's parents come up for a visit from Alabama. We haven't seen them in person since February. We were so excited to have them come up and stay for a few days. Here is a little glimpse of the days they were here:
FRIDAY:
Even though they came in on Thursday late afternoon, we really didn't do much until Friday. Ryan took Friday off and we headed down to Silver Dollar City. We were blessed by someone giving us FREE guest passes so that they could go. God completely blessed our day. It was PERFECT weather (mid 70's) and it wasn't crowded AT ALL. It was GREAT!! We had always wanted to take them down to SDC but never had tickets. Adriana was in Heaven having her PopPop and HeeHee down there with us.

Hee Hee and Adriana riding on the rides. Adriana
only wanted Sandy to ride on the rides with her.

My sad looking men.

Don't know about Adriana and HeeHee

but PopPop looks like he's guilty of something.

Trying to stand up straight in the crooked house.

You can tell by the way Ryan is standing vs the

angles of the walls on how crooked it is.

Adriana trying to stand up straight.

He looks like his daddy when he sleeps. He

was wiped out! He only wanted Ryan to hold

him all day, but he got a little nap in and was

good to go.

SATURDAY:

Well, Friday, late night, Ryan's sister, Lauren drove up from Oklahoma City to see Jim and Sandy and us. We were so glad she could make it. Saturday involved being lazy, which isn't a bad thing. We got to lay around and visit, watch football and just enjoy each other's company. That evening, we, of course, had to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Adriana associates Jim and Sandy's visit with C.E.C., so every time they come in town, we go there. It was a good time. Adriana had a blast and so did the big kids.

Jim, Lauren and Ryan doing Ski Ball.

Paxton getting in on the action.

Adriana was SO excited to see the

mouse, she stalked him a few times.

Chow time.

Again, PopPop looking awful guilty.

SUNDAY:

Sunday was church, of course, then mom had us over for a yummy lunch. (Lauren had to go home early that day, so she left before we went to church.) We had a good lunch and enjoyed sitting around and visiting. Something I'm so thankful for, is that our parents get along so well. Even though its a just a couple of times a year they see each other, its such an easy feeling and I'm so happy for that. We ended up staying until dinner time and decided to make breakfast for dinner. Sandy makes amazing homemade pancakes, so she whipped us up some and we ate them all gone. It was a good, lazy Sunday afternoon, filled with lots of family and love.

Adriana helping the grandma's make pancakes.

Paxton having bonding time with the grandpa's.

The Boy's. Football and all.

Enjoying dinner together.

PopPop getting some hugs in from Paxton.

I can't say it enough, I feel 100% blessed to call Jim and Sandy, my in-laws. Couldn't ask for a better family. Thank you guys for coming up here to see us. We love you and miss you!

Sickness and Doctors

2010-10-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

This has a been a LONG week! I can't believe that it was on Monday when Ryan's parents left, it seems like forever ago! On Monday night Paxton came down with a pretty high fever. He was up ALL night long. He was a good baby for not feeling well, but he just didn't sleep. The next day, he still ran a fever and didn't nap. That night, he didn't sleep again! I was exhausted! Wednesday afternoon I took him to the doctor to make sure he didn't have an ear infection. Of course, he didn't. Which don't get me wrong, I'm glad that there wasn't anything wrong with him, but when you have to pay $30 for an office visit, you kind of hope they find something so that they will give him medicine to help him feel better and SLEEP! No such luck. The good news is by that afternoon, he didn't have a fever and he was so exhausted he slept great through that night.
Yesterday, Thursday, I had to go to the doctor for myself. I have been fighting this awful rash that appeared a little over a week ago. I pretty much knew what I had, and again, didn't want to pay $30 for an office visit and they do nothing about it. What I read about it, is that there is really no cure and it has to run its course for 6-8 weeks! Well, the itching was unbearable and the rash had spread throughout my entire body. I broke down and went yesterday. I was glad I went and I had what I thought I did, however, she gave me some good prescriptions to help with the itch. I have taken them today and haven't itched all day! Praise God!
Well last night, Adriana came down with a high fever out of the blue. She doesn't get sick too often, but when she has in the past, its normally a 24 hour bug and it hits her quickly, as this did. I wasn't too concerned about it. I drugged her up right before bedtime, but within an hour, her temp had gotten to 103.8 and she complained about her throat hurting. I sponged her off and she went back to bed. Around Mid-night she woke up throwing up, which lasted throughout the night. She's such a trooper and never cried or complained just said, after her vomiting, in a sweet voice "getting sick is no fun". She was such a good kid. She slept until 12:30pm today, when I finally went in and woke her up. Her temp was 104.7. I was quite nervous and called the doctor. they said it could be strep and took keep my eye on her. Last time I checked her temp was down to 101.8, so that's good that its coming down. hopefully the end is in sight. Lets just hope that Ryan isn't the next victim in our house of sickness!

A New Post...Coming Soon

2010-09-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry. I actually was sitting down tonight to write a blog about Ryan's Parents visiting us this last weekend, however, I have a sick child crying for me needing me right now. Paxton was sick from Tuesday and Wednsday and now Adriana is running a 103.8 temp tonight. It seems like there is always something going on. I have saved my post about Ryan's parents, however, I need to finish writing it, I hope to post soon. Keep Checking back.

A No Good Day For Paxton

2010-09-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

My poor little Paxton. The Thursday before Labor Day, he got what they call "Nurse-Maid's Elbow". His sister gave it to him. I left the room for a brief moment and came running in when I heard Paxton crying in pain. He was lying on the floor. Adriana had tried to pull him up on the couch with one arm. She ended up pulling his elbow out of socket. I made an appointment for his doctor, but they couldn't get him in for 3 hours. He wouldn't scream or cry if I held his arm tight, so it wouldn't move. Well, I thought, I'm not going to be able to sit here all day and hold him and not move. So, I wrapped it up really tight, in a man-made sling. It worked! He was fine, and would actually crawl around with one arm. It was so sad to see him in so much pain. Here's a couple of pictures of him before.

After the doctor popped it back into place, he was fine. I knew it didn't hurt him anymore, because we could move it for him and he wouldn't cry, however, he hadn't forgotten the pain. That evening, he would still crawl around on the one arm, until he discovered that it didn't hurt him anymore. This was a long day, but everything worked out.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

This year, Labor Day weekend was so much fun. We took full advantage of the 3 day weekend. On Friday, my dear friend, Allison, whom I haven't seen in 4 years, came to visit us while she was in town visiting her family. We were so honored and blessed to have her and her girls drop in and see us. Me and Allison went to college together, she sang in 'Faithful', the group I ran sound for. We have had lots of bonding experiences through our travels together. Me and her husband, Stephen, majored in the same degree, so we were good friends too. Stephen and Allison are wonderful people, and we wish we got to see them more.
I hadn't seen them since I has pregnant with Adriana, so they had never met our kids and we had never met theirs. Their oldest, Julianne, is 6 months younger than Adriana and their baby, Lorelei, is about a month younger than Paxton, so everyone had a playdate. The girls got along wonderfully (after Adriana snapped out of her mood that lasted well over an hour). The babies played great together too. We had a great time catching up with Allison and seeing their beautiful family. We hope next time Stephen can join them. Here are some pictures from their visit.

The girls roped Ryan in taking them for a walk,
they had a good time.

Playing outside.

Paxton's new girl.

The best shot we could get of all four kids.
I think it turned out so cute.

Me and Allison.

On Saturday morning we loaded up and headed to Chillicothe. I know, where? Its a little North of Kansas City, my dad's cousin and family live up that way. You may remember my post, not too long ago, about them coming down to Branson and us getting to hang out then. Well, this time we went up to see them. My parents went too. Its about a 4 hour drive and it was our first trip with both kids. I was a little nervous to say the least. They actually did really good, so that was a huge relief.
We made it up there around lunch time on Saturday. After we ate a wonderful lunch, we headed out on 4 wheelers. Me and Ryan were so excited about this. Barb and Roger live on TONS of land, so me and Ryan and Mitch and Molly headed out for a little ride. I was a little scared (I'm not going to lie) about riding with Ryan. He has little to no experience driving a 4 wheeler. When we first set out, we headed down this hill that was washed out and our 4 wheeler slowly tipped on its side. Not a good start. After that though, it was a lot of fun.

This is a picture I took while we were on the 4 wheeler.
Notice my hair is blowing, therefore we are moving, and
Ryan's eyes are not on the road!

A picture of Mitch and Molly leading
the way.

After we got done riding around, Roger let us shoot some guns. Boy did he have a spread laid out for us.

We got to shoot any size gun or pistol we wanted. It was very nice of him to go through this much trouble for us, we really enjoyed it.

Getting last minute instructions from Roger.

Don't worry. I took Riflery in college, so I know

what I'm doing! :)
That day was so relaxing with such great weather to go along with it. The next day we went to church and then back to the house for more food and play. The kids played so hard, that this actually happened (mind you, it hasn't happened in over 6 months).....

ADRIANA TOOK A NAP!! Truly a vacation for all.

Roger and Jonas were wiped out too.

Poor Ryan wasn't really feeling good that whole weekend. He was fighting what we thought were allergies, but later turned into a cold. He fell asleep downstairs and this is what we found....

Yes, that is a pink bunny he is sleeping with. It was not staged there, he actually had had it under his head, but later moved it. Emma saw he was sleeping with her bunnies and said that it was okay that he used them while he napped. Too funny!
We headed back home on Monday, but not before the kiddos got to go feed the cows. Here is a picture of them waiting for Roger to get the feed. I love how Emma and Adriana are holding hands.

Adriana thought she was going to get to pet the cows but they were too scared, this was as close as they would let them get.

The last shot of the trip was of Emma and Adriana. Adriana adores Emma and loves to play with her.

We all had a great time. The trip was very relaxing, filled with good food and laughter. Thank you Barb and Roger, Mitch, Molly and the kids for allowing us to come and stay with you guys. It was a trip we won't soon forget!

Paxton Waves

2010-09-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures this time and I'm sorry that I have been slacking in my blogging, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I hope after tomorrow, things will get back to "normal" and I can get caught up on some things.
I did, however, want to note that today Paxton waved for the first time. Its not really a moving wave, more like a hand in the air holding still, but his Mama is going to call it a wave. He is growing and changing so much all the time. I love my little man!
I am being called to go tuck in Adriana. I must go, but I promise to have interesting stuff this week.

Goodbye Summer 2010

2010-09-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while. Or at least it seems that way. I feel like I don't have time to sleep these days. Well, okay, I'm still in bed by 10pm, but I guess I don't have time to do things I enjoy doing, such as my blog. So with that being said, I'm just going to roll it all into one.
First on the agenda, our house. We are going to sell it. Just kidding! I know you guys think we are crazy anyway for moving as much as we do, so I just wanted to throw that out there. No, it was a year ago on Sept. 1 that we closed on our "new" house (as Adriana still calls it). I can't believe its been a year already. We really love our house. God has richly blessed us with our home, and even though I constantly complain about our neighbors (and have even called the Sheriff's department a few times on them), we really have it good. God always provides for our needs and our wants (i.e. a nicer, bigger house).

Second on the agenda: Adriana started back up at preschool. This is her third year going and she LOVES it! Last week marked the end of a VERY long summer. I think it felt long because we were so tied down with Paxton, that we couldn't really get out for very long and do anything because of naps. We tried to do fun things, but it still was long. It was nothing for Adriana to say "I'm bored, I want to go to school". So as much as I wasn't wishing the summer away, it was good for her (and me) for school to start up. Her first day was last week and she loved seeing her old friends and being in a new classroom.

I couldn't really get a good smile out of her, so this is the best I could do. She has a Care Bear bag that looks like the stuffed Care Bear her aunt Lauren gave to her. Adriana named the Care Bear "Crouton" so she calls this tote bag her "Crouton" bag. People probably think she's crazy!

Lastly on the agenda: Paxton. This poor little man has endured more than me and Ryan has ever had to, in our life time. Between this latest incident and his hernia surgery, this little man is toughing up, quickly. Yesterday, I left the kids inside just for a second, to go out and cover the grill. I all of a sudden hear this scream from Paxton and go in and see him lying face down on the ground. Adriana had a guilty look on her face, so I figured she squeezed his hand hard and made him cry. Well after 30 minutes of crying I was worried that his arm was out of socket. Well, long story short, it was his elbow that popped out when she tried to lift him on the couch with one arm. We had to wait over 2 hours to get into the doctor's office, so instead of holding him this whole time, I wrapped his arm.

He was in a better mood after his arm was wrapped and he played the best he could. The doctor popped it back in and he was good to go. He was still leery about using it for a long time last night, but once he realized it wasn't going to hurt, he was back to crawling all over the place.

Even though life seems crazy at times, I love my babies and I'm saddened at the thought of how much different they are going to be by next summer. I enjoyed this summer with Paxton learning to crawl, floating in the pool and kicking his legs, and just being a sweet baby. I enjoyed Adriana always being ready to go and do new things. I will miss her saying "Its just us girls" when me and her are alone. And I will miss the way she always wants to be a princess and how the littlest things excite her so much. Next summer will be different and there will be new things to treasure, but I will always hold this one close to my heart.

Paxton at 9 months

2010-08-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe this little man....

is 9 months already! He is growing like a weed. He just gets cuter and cuter all the time. He is really moving all over the place. He crawls and can do so at a very high speed when he really wants to get to something that he knows he's not suppose to (i.e. the cat food, and outlets).

He is "talking" all the time saying "Ba,ba,ba" and "Ooooo" when he's really impressed with something. He still loves his sister more than anything and she seems to be the one who can make him laugh the most. Adriana can take this role with great stride or can be a "pill", and will get onto him saying, "Stop laughing, its not funny", which in turn makes him laugh even more.

Paxton had his 9 month check up and is a shade under 22lbs. He is in the 50-75% tile for his height and weight but in the 95-97% tile for head circumference. He takes after his daddy with the big head. :)

I love this little guy so much. He is such a sweet and laid back baby. Can't believe in just a few short months he is going to be a year! I'm soaking up babyhood while it last...

Gum, Gum, Gum

2010-08-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Adriana has been begging us for over a year now to eat gum. For some reason, I'm just against small children having gum. I don't ever remember having gum until I was in grade school. Two and three year olds have no need for gum, nor do they understand the concept. So, I have always been against it. A lot of people I know let their kids have gum and anytime we are around them and they get gum, Adriana just looks at me and asks if she can have a piece. Ryan thinks she should have had gum a long time ago. Anyway, I don't know what prompted me to let her get some today, but I did. I figured, she was old enough to understand not to swallow it, and I'm not worried about her taking it out and sticking it under furniture, so I caved today. I told her that while we were at Wal-Mart, she could pick some out. She was SO excited.

She picked Juicy Fruit, not the best, but its a start. She was so excited to try it. As you can see in the above picture. She put it in her mouth and chewed it for MAYBE 2 minutes and was ready to spit it out. She told me she really liked it, but wanted to wait until Daddy got home and she would chew some more.

I at least got to get a picture of it in her mouth, before it ended up in the trash can. She just thinks she such big stuff now. My baby is growing up.

Little Man Toy

2010-08-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is Paxton's first little man toy. All the poor child has to play with is princess stuff or baby rattles. He finally has a little boy's toy. Someone at the pool brought little trucks like this to the pool to play with, and Paxton LOVED them, so I had to get him one. We will slowly be building up boy toys so that my little man doesn't grow up playing dress up in princess dresses, doing hair and nails or playing "Mama" to baby dolls.

A Nice Visit

2010-08-04T10:50:00.001-07:00

This has been a great week (and its only Wednesday!). I always tell people to call me when they are down in Branson visiting, to call me so we can come down there and see them or come to our house for a home cooked meal and a place to hang out. Well, most people never take me up on the offer, but I'm so glad that my cousin Molly did. We are so distantly related, but since the first time we met, we have just "clicked". We are very similar and get along wonderfully. I haven't seen her since our wedding (5 years ago), so when she told me that her and her kids were going to be spending a week in Branson and would like to get together, I was super stoked. Her in-laws (which is my dad's cousin) was going to be with them for part of the trip, so we had arranged for all of us to hang out on Saturday. It was quite a clan. My parents, all of us, Molly and her 3 kids, her in-laws and (part of the time) her parents. We had a great time. They were staying in a cabin in Branson, so we decided to go to a beach for a while and then back to their cabin for dinner and games. This was the first time that me and Ryan and my parents had been to this beach. It was so nice and clean. Its called Moon Shine Beach and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from the beach.

Who knew we had such a nice place to go, here in Missouri? Due to the heat, we were only out there for a couple of hours.

Adriana had a blast. Molly's kids are so sweet and well behaved and they were fun to be around. Adriana worshiped the ground her daughter, Emma, walked on. Emma is 8 years old and loved having a little follower. They played like sisters and instantly got along wonderfully. We finished Saturday night out by grilling and playing games. We had a great time full of laughter.

Molly and I made arrangements for her to come up to our house on Monday and spend the day. She wanted to do some shopping and hanging out. I was thrilled to have her come and spend the day with us. Our day was jammed packed. We shopped, ate some good eats and took the kids swimming that evening. After swimming, they were able to come over to our house and play and visit some more. We had a great day!

Adriana and Emma

Tuesday, we went down in the evening to Silver Dollar City to ride rides with them and hang out. We ended up staying until the park closed at 10pm. The gage in my van read 103 degrees that day, it was hot! But once the sun set and we rode some water rides, it wasn't too bad. We had a great time and of course, Adriana had a blast! I love how our kids and her kids got along so well.

Jonas and Molly getting to ride the elephants

Jonas, Adriana and Emma riding the butterflies.

Brady, sad that he got stuck on such a slow ride.

The girls being silly.

Making funny faces.

This is what we did to the kids by the end of the night at Silver Dollar City! J/K! They had a blast playing together.

Sadly, this is the best shot I have of all of us. It was HOT, 10pm and we were wet from the rides. We were so worn out but had a great time! Ryan told Molly that her vacation was wearing him out!

Thank you Molly and the kids for coming and seeing us and letting us spend time with you! We will have to do it again!

Updates

2010-07-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

I wish I had some fun stories to share or pictures to post, but we have been laying pretty low lately. Summer seems to be flying by. I can't believe its almost August already. Although, I must meet admit, I am looking forward to school starting for Adriana. She gets so bored around here during the day and it makes for a LONG day. I try to get her out and go swimming or take her to Chuck E. Cheese, but there's only so many outings we can afford to do. I'm also looking forward to school starting because I'm going to be a sub teacher at her school. We are looking for ways to earn some extra money, and although this won't be a steady thing, it will still be a little bit of money each month to help out.
Paxton turned 8 months old last week. Its so hard to believe. He is growing like a weed. He is crawling EVERYWHERE! He's seems to be getting faster and faster everyday. Yesterday he starting saying "Ba Ba Ba", its so cute to see his chubby cheeks and mouth trying to talk. He's got teeth trying and trying to come through. I think they are driving him crazy, hopefully they will come in soon.
Ryan is working hard in the hot, hot weather. Unfortunately, work is still slower than normal, but God is faithful to provide for all our needs.
I know everyone is dying to know an update on our cat, Zoe. I guess a couple of weeks ago she got in a cat fight and the other cat sank their teeth into Zoe's backside. This wound was so bad looking and gross, I had to take her to the vet. I actually didn't think it was a cat bite, since I didn't even know she had gotten into a fight. I thought maybe it was a spider bite that was causing her flesh to open up. Anyway, she went to the vet and got medicine. She is doing a lot better. I know a lot of you can rest tonight knowing this. HA!
Well, that's about all for now. I'll try to post something more interesting the next go around.