Saturday

Well our family awoke this morning and it wasn't a typical Saturday. What was so atypical......well, the sun was shining!! the entire family was thrilled today to see the sun. We decided that today was the day to buid our lemonade stand. So, everyone grabbed paper and drew a sketch of what we wanted the stand to look like and off we went to Lowes. It was great fun walking through Lowes and trying to piece together how this stand was going to work. We needed to make the stand where it was durable but econimical, and be able to break apart to fit in my car if we want to take the stand on the road but light enough for me to put back together without the assistance of daddy (for those working days). It was great to brainstorm with Danny and work together with our ideas to make it. We used to make projects all the time before we had kids. We did everything from building on a sunroom to the back of our old house to laying tile in our house. Our time is occupied a little differently now. We hope that our kiddos will grow up remembering theses special times where we can work together as a family to build fun things. The kids helped as much as possible inbetween playing outside and enjoying the sunshine.We still have yet to paint it but we will do that tomorrow and I will post pics after we paint. We have plans to try our stand out for the first time this Friday. We plan to sell single stem roses for $2 for Valentines day. The kids are super excited as am I. It should be fun. I just pray for customers for them! I think they will do good. If not, then it was fun building and planning and maybe the summer with ice pops and lemonade will be a better sell.

Happy 6th Birthday Caleb!

Caleb is 6 years old! I can't believe how fast time goes. He was thrilled about having a birthday and turning 6 until he realized that he has to say good bye to being 5. This made him very upset because he likes the number 5. He is so funny. Caleb opted for no party this year. Instead he wants to go out of town to a hotel and going swimming in an indoor swimming pool. So, we are going to be going to Austin this weekend and visting the Natural Bridge Caverns. Everyone is super excited about going. It will be a great celebration. God has truely blessed us with such a sweet spirited little guy. When Caleb was born it was a scary time. He was so sick and couldn't breathe on his own. I will never forget being wheeled to the NICU to see him for the first time. He was so frail looking and hooked to a dozen machines breathing for him. I never knew my arms could actually ache to hold my baby. The nurses told us not to touch him too much due to overstimluation. That was so difficult. The first time I held him the poor little guy was almost 3 weeks old. He had IV's coming out of his head but I didn't care, it just felt so good to be able to hold my baby in my arms. Sweet memory. I just remember praying so hard for God to heal him and help him make it through such a rough start to his life. God heard my cry and answered my prayer and I am so blessed that he is here and healthy. Every birthday he has I reflect on that moment in the NICU and the entire 4 weeks he was in the hospital. I know it was God that pulled me through and gave me the energy and faith to keep me going. Caleb Matthew was given a chance at life despite being so sick. God has great plans for his life and I love being a part of watching him grow and learn. What a special day we have to celebrate. Happy Birthday Caleb! We love you so much and are so proud of the young boy you are becoming!

In the Caverns the humidity is 98%.......not so good on the hair! This is a pic of my sister. Her hair is typically flat and staight.
In the Cavern


waiting to go into the caverns
swimming in the hotels "heated" pool
after we toured the caverns the kids each got a hard hat with a light. Now we are really ready for some cave explorations!
Caleb soaking it in in the caverns
God's beauty
Caleb and his spongbob cake


1 of 3 celebrations at Chuck E

another celebration with Nana and Pappy
packing up in the hotel
Uncle Steve......celebrating again
Gaga....another birthday celebration. These are Calebs new pets. African Dwarf Frogs. The best pet a mom could ask for. They live for 2-4 years, feed them 1x week, change the water every 3 months and they never outgrow the tank. BEAUTIFUL! Thank you learning express.....

Colton Lane is 6 months old

Colton is 6 months now and sweeter than ever. Colton's world as I see it is:
sleeping peacefully, loving his momma, laughing at Danny, Caleb, and Addyson, mesmorized by daddy, loving bath and big splashes, eating often and loving it, not interested in car rides, loves the sound of his voice, toes must taste so yummy, rolling over 1 way but not the other, proud owner of 2 new teeth, excited to be sitting up right,loves kisses and endless hours of being tickled and most importantly just being the precious angel that God made him to be. We love our precious miracle. Each of our kiddos are so special we feel blessed to have the opportunity to raise them to be faithful children to the Lord.
Happy 6 months Colton!

A little more update

We have been enjoying our fun Christmas present, the Wii. Ok, I am obviously a little behind times but this has got to be the funnest thing I have ever played. I could seriously spend a long time on this video game and time just eats awway. Super fun. It is a nice alternative to game night with the family. We all love bowling. We recently got the biggest loser.......awesomely fun! The boys prefer the MarioCart game. It is all good stuff.
There are some more pictures of New Years Eve. Happy 2010. We are blessed with some great neighbors who love fireworks as much as we do. We talked alot this year about new year resolutions. The kids set some goals. It is such a blessing to watch them grow and make goals for themselves and work hard with our reminders to keep their goals.





Here are a couple of pics from Christmas. The kids got a trampoline. I caved in. I am the mom that is constantly against trampolines. I usually don't even let my kids jump on one at friends houses. I broke my arm on one when I was in 3rd grade and I swore my children would never get one. So.....here we are and I have abviously changed my thinking. I still am very nervous about it and if anyone gets hurt on it the trampoline will be gone. But for now it seems to be safe and the kids love it. Myslef included. Christmas day big Danny thought he would show off a little and he amlost paralyzed himself so he is banned from it. But the kids are following the rules and they truely love it.





Addyson had her Little Gym performance. She absolutely LOVES Little Gym. She is growing more comfortable at trying the challenging things in the gym. I am real proud of her growing confidence. It is a sweet thing to watch her take risks and become so proud of herself.






My big boy is sitting up and getting a tooth. I can't believe how big he is growing. I just want to stop time. I feel so blessed that he is here. He is so precious and our entire family just melts over him. Everyone loves baby Colton. We are so blessed!
This teething thing has not been fun for him. Colton wants to nurse all night long for comfort because his mouth hurts so bad. One tooth has come in and the other is on its way. We all felt a little sad when we realized he was about to get a tooth. No more gummy smiles. But he is looking more precious than ever with a little white tooth poking through. Can't help but love him!

It's been awhile...

I am getting re-aquainted with my blog. I decided that it is about time to do a little updating. Much has happened since my last post 4 months ago. Danny turned 7, Addyson turned 4, Colton turned 3 months, 4 months, and 5 months, we have had Thanksgiving, Christmas and lots of stuff in between. I am convinced that the more kids you have, the faster time goes. I can't believe that my little Colton is going to be 6 months old in a couple of weeks. Didn't I just find out I was pregnant????? Danny and Caleb were thrilled to be out of school for 2 weeks for "winter break" (or for us folks who believe in Jesus call it......CHRISTMAS) and I loved having them home with me. Today was the dreaded day that they had to return and my house was quiet. I missed them and so did Addyson and Colton. We had fun this Christmas season. We did a Christmas activity everyday. Somedays it was big, like making a Christmas pillow to sleep with and other days it was low key like watching Polar Express and drinking hot chocolate with their own personal hole punch of course. We had a good Christmas. We found this great thing to do as our activity leading up to the big day. It is called What God wants for Christmas. It is from the makers of the resurrection eggs. It is basically the same concept. It was super fun and the kids LOVED it. They learned so much about what happened surrounding Christs birth. I was amazed at how much they retained. Here is the website. I purchased mine at Lifeway.
www.wgwfc.com
I will post some pics of the kiddos over the last couple of months. Danny had his first sleep over in October for his 7th birthday. It was tons of fun. We surprised him with a moonwalk and I am not sure who liked it more, me and Danny or the kids. What a special time. I am blessed to be his mom.
Addyson had a little gym party. Super fun as well.....and super easy. Little Gym parties are definetly the way to go if you are "partied out". They did everything for me and all the kids had a wonderful time. For my family October is a crazy month since we have 4 birthdays in our family not to mention my sister as well. Little Danny is the 1st, I am the 6th, Addyson is the 14th, my sis is the 15th, and Danny si the 20th. So, all help is welcomed for parties that month. By the time we get to Danny's b-day we are partied out. It is a definite weight gain month for me since I LOVE birthday cake. WHITE birthday cake with buttercream icing to be exact.
Thanksgiving was good stuff. It is always nice to spend time with family. We traveled to Dannys family in Shiner and then went to Corpus to see my parent as well. We have alot to be thankful for. I feel so blessed to have 4 healthy children and a wonderful husband.
Danny and I also started AWANA's with the kids as Cubbie leaders. I have such a great time helping these little 4 year olds learn God's word. I am amazed every Sunday at what they can learn. It makes Sundays so crazy but at the end of AWANA's we always walk out feeling so blessed to be a part of these little kids learning how to hide God's word in their heart. And it is soooo much fun to watch our kids learn the verses and be so proud that they are learning the Bible. Good stuff for sure. If your kiddo is not involved in an AWANA program, find one to join! You can join at anytime during the year. You can go the www.AWANA.org website to find a program near you.
My New Years resolution is to blog often so hopefully this will get me caught up so I can start fresh now.....until my next blog.....

Happy New Year!