Aunt Natalie Visit

I gathered up the boys and went to visit a good friend who is expecting her first baby in December. The boys call her "Aunt Natalie." I'm always so nervous visiting my friends that don't yet have children. I feel like in some small way it scares the heck out of them when out family comes in and explodes all over their house. Luckily they didn't break anything (I did) and they somewhat behaved themselves. The boys are still talking about her two little dogs (Hank and Tag). Which they should, they terrorized them the whole time we were there. Just yesterday Christian was in the backseat asking "Where's Hanks Tag, Momma?"

Natalie, thanks for putting up with us for a couple of days. We enjoyed our time. I hope we didn't wear you out too much.

Christian is 3

My Little Man is 3 Years OLD!!!! We had a Fire Truck Birthday Party. Notice on the invitations that I didn't put the date, AND I misspelled my son's name. Could you tell that I was in a hurry? Maybe I will laugh about it in years to come. You can tell from the pictures that we all had a really great time. Naturally the firetruck was a hit. Our neighbor is the fire cheif so he pulled a favor for us and brought the firetruck to our house. Christian loved everything about his party. It was great to watch him have so much fun.

6 Years Ago...

August 9th 2003
Happy Anniversary Sweetie! Let me go ahead and share with you guys how Aaron proposed to me. It was my graduation trip, on a cruise, at dinner, and seriously the biggest surprise of my life. We were at the "formal" dinner and Aaron had excused himself from the table acting like he didn't feel well. Which was completely believable because the poor guy had some sort of sun poisoning from the previous days. So he's taking forever wherever he went and I am sitting there around a table with a lot of my friends chit chatting. Next thing I know our song, "Cross My Heart" by George Strait, starts playing over the loud speakers during dinner. Then, Aaron comes walking up the steps toward our table, singing it to me. There were about 300 people in the dining room, and I promise you could hear a pin drop. The entire place went quiet and everyone was staring at HIM singing to ME, getting down on his knees, and asking ME TO MARRY HIM IN FRONT OF ALL THESE PEOPLE! Ahh! I thought I would explode! After saying yes, everyone cheered and most of the women were crying. People I didn't even know came up to us during the trip and told him that if I would have said no, that they would say yes. What nerve. Back off ladies, he is MINE! So there you have it. Six years and two children later I am still head over heels for this man.

Smiles

Look at these smiles! They love their Daddy. Aaron is so good about wrestling with them like every day when he gets home from work! He can make them so happy and smiley! One of their favorite things to do is ride the horse. That was my favorite also as a little girl!

Say Cheese for...

your super eager Mommy who is just dying to use her new toy! I've taken a ton of pictures lately, feeling inspire and all with my new camera. Here are a few. I really need to relax. I get so up tight trying to capture that amazing picture that it just results in miserable children, and terrible pictures. Once I stopped trying they got happy and I was able to get them to smile (their natural smile). Check out this last picture of Christian. He is so serious and grown up looking. He looks like he is trying to sort out some kind of philosophical mystery...OR...he is really tired of hearing my say "Christian, please smile. Just one more picture sweetie! Can you just smile for Mommy?! PLEASE!!!"

My New Toy

Words cannot describe how incredibly excited I am! So, here is the story behind this magnificent piece of (CLICK HERE) equipment: basically, a friend from Church GAVE IT TO ME!!!!!!!! (...well, gave it to our family, but since I take most of the pictures in this household I feel like it is my own new toy) Can you believe that??!!! I don't think he would want me to mention his name, so I will just say Mr. X. Anyways, Mr. X gave our family this camera because he got a new one that does HD video, so he just didn't need it anymore. Yay for us! THANK YOU MR. X! DID YOU SEE ALL OF THE BELLS AND WHISTLES ON THIS THING!!!! I'm going to have to study the manual and take a course to teach me what this glorious piece of machinery can do. Okay, I am now going to stop gushing about it-the kids have starting screaming for my attention...hmmm...maybe I should take a picture.

Battles

This little tiny human can really get me in a tizzy.I marvel at my children and how different their personalities are and how they are both so completely wonderful in their own way. My friend made a comment once about her son that is very strong willed. I don't remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of trying to make sure that she directs him on the right path to keep him from ending up in jail somewhere. If you knew this Mom, then you would find that very comical to hear her say considering her husband is a Pastor of a local church and their children can like recite scriptures! This little one of mine has much of the same personality. That super strong will that can absolutely exhaust any mother and push her to her wits end! That's where I'm at. The end. In some respect I can take part of the blame because I have failed with consistent discipline. It is so draining to have to discipline him around the clock. Seriously, that's what he needs. I am also writing this to document a new beginning if it's not too late. From now on I am going to be as consistent as I can possibly be, and raise my expectations of what this little boy is truly capable of. Smart he is, but I am smarter. For those of you that see or speak with me on a daily basis, I am going to ask you to hold me accountable. Something must happen before I raise a little holy terror.

4th of July Camping Excursion

Camping at its best. Our family went camping along with my Sister-In-Law, her Husband, and their two children. We really had a lot of fun. The boys just loved every aspect of it, including bugs, dirt, rocks, peeing in the woods, swimming in the lake, sunburns, eating like a horse, camp fire, smores, sleeping in a tent (or "kite" according to Monkey), picking off ticks, looking for deer, terrorizing Alice (our dog), and of course doing all of these things with their cousins right by their side...24/7, the entire time we were there. The adults really had a nice time together too. We stayed up and played cards, and some nights the guys went off fishing. My sweet husband was bound and determined to provide a top notch fish dinner one evening. It's a good thing that Kari (his sister) and I knew better, and packed an extra meal just in case the fishing wasn't good, and it wasn't. Those poor guys only caught one singe fish that was worth keeping. Our late night card games ended up being hysterically funny! Kari, I will never forget you "Sweetening the Pot." It did rain while we were there and both of our tents leaked, our clothes out on the line drenched, and children that just couldn't resist playing in the mud and rain. I have to admit hat it was a lot of work setting up and breaking it down. I'm not sure that I would be up for it more than once a year. Oh, and I learned that you can actually cook biscuits on a grill! Who would have thought? They turned out great too! Two more things, for the baby book, Monkey caught his very first fish. A very cute little brim. Also, Tinker likes to swim all of a sudden and we could hardly keep in the shallow water. We had to get some floaties just so he wouldn't drown!

Festival

Once again, I failed to take pictures. Well, not completely. I did get just this one. What an insane event, so I am going to blame it on the massive amounts of people there, and my inability to function because I was a nervous wreck trying to keep from crashing into the back of strangers heels with Tinkers little push car. Now, to get on with the explanation-our town is really big into peaches, peach parades, peach queens, peach monuments...and this happens to be one of those peach festivities they have once a year. It includes vendors, live music, dance, food galor, and of course this big fire truck. All of which takes place in he streets of downtown. Big Poppa and Momma Beth came, with the cousins, specifically for this event. The next morning there was a parade, and naturally, I forgo my camera. Sorry guys.