It's a GIRL!

...and that's what we said 11 years and 15 hours ago :) Here's some pictures of Nat opening presents yesterday and showing off her birthday outfit (not suit). Would LOVE to have ANYONE comment. Sure makes blogging more fun when people reply :)


Matt was sweet enough to make his sister a card...on his own free will (which I thought made it even sweeter!). You might be able to mak it out, but it says "...to an awesome sister..." Nat didn't see just how sweet that was, but maybe one day she will.







Here she is in all her beauty showing off her birthday outfit.



She wanted to make sure you knew that she could twirl in this skirt! She VERY proud of this outfit...if you couldn't tell!


Brayden recognized the wrapping paper right off and had no clue that it wasn't his. But sister said she wanted his help...and so away he tore!



Where'd the baby go?



Yup, he went into the bag. You never know...there could've been more goodies in there :)







Thank you for all the birthday cards, calls, emails, and wishes for our VERY special little girl that has indeed touched our lives in so many wonderful ways!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!

**if you wanted to know how the sleepover went...see the blog below**

The Sleepover

Well, we survived Nat's first real sleepover. We had 3 girls over. These are Nat's closest friends. I'd originally thought we could get away with one, but it's for her birthday and she didn't want to leave anyone out. Which I thought was sweet.

So I picked them all up on Friday after school and we headed to the house till Jim got home. Then we headed back to town for pizza (not for me though..I had a salad) and a movie. We saw Big Momma's House 2. It was just as cute/funny as the 1st one. 2 of the girls were up and down a lot with trips to the concessions and the restroom. Nat and Daneilla (sp?) sat thoughout the whole movie. Partway through the movie I got a sweet surprise. I was sitting at the end of the row so no one would be by the girls. So there were 2 seats inbetween me and the rest of them...I wanted to let them have their own space. Well Nat gets up and comes sits by me and takes my arm to snuggle!! I asked her if everything was ok and she said that everything was fine. She just thought I looked all lonely and wanted to sit with me. And she did for the rest of the movies while her friends did their own thing. I was so touched. I still mean something to her...even in front of friends. I must say it felt good.

After the movies we headed home and the girls got into everything they could think of. They played video games, did crafts, and makeovers...of course! I told them that I wanted them in bed around 10pm since we were gonna have to wake up early so we could go to Matt's game. Well even though I got a positive reply to that...it was after 11pm before they were actually in pjs and in the beds. Who really knows when they went to bed? But I wouldn't have expected them to do anything other than stay up talking, laughing, horsing around.

We got them up and out of the house only 15 mins behind schedule. I know Nat had fun, but it was nice to get our house back to "normal".'

This weekend we will have Nat's party (and a small cake for the baby). That should be more fun cause no kids other than mine and "maybe" some family will be coming home with us. We are looking forward to it. Today's her birthday and we'll do presents once Jim gets home. I KNOW she's ready to tear in!!

Hope you all had a great weekend and great weight loss!

It's a BOY!

Well...that's what we said one year ago yesterday. This went by way too fast for Momma! I JUST had him....didn't I? This one was supposed to take his time growing up...wasn't he? He is a sweetie and we all feel so blessed to have him in our lives!

He got to go for his 1 year check up yesterday. He got a shot, but he was a tough guy and only squeezed out one tear. The doctor said we will now take him off the Zantac and see how he does. If that goes good we'll then take him off his formula with rice in it. The last step will be to take him off his Bathanacol that he takes at night. Hopefully this will be a smooth process.

Brayden got to open his present last night and he was much more into it than at Christmas. Probably wasn't as overwhelming. He got a ball pit that he loves! And a new Leap Frog toy from Cheryl and family and he's really into that (Thank you Cheryl. I wanted to get him this toy at Christmas, but had already gone overboard so I had to stop. It is such a cool toy and has tons of activities! THANK YOU!) We also got him a pop up toy and some bath toys. Brayden was quite pleased! Here's some pictures of him in all his cuteness.



Here he is in his ball pit.



He's just so delighted that he's gonna be allowed to shred!



Nat's helped him get started on some of his presents. But it didn't take long for him to figure it out:)



Matt didn't admit it, but I think he was having as much fun as Brayden was with the new toys!



Overall...one big happy baby!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom!!

Happy Birthday Mom! I would've posted this yesterday (on her actual birthday), but we had the pleasent suprise of having Mom and Dad stay with us this weekend.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a blog to let Mom know that we are all just so blessed to have you in our lives. You are one amazing, incredible, loving, compassionate woman. And you know this about her within the 1st 5 mins (or less) of meeting her.

We love you Mom and thank you for everything that you do and have done for all of us...thank you for being YOU!

Love you bunches, heaps, and piles :)

Basketball, walking, and a curl

Matt had his first game yesterday and he (and all the boys) did great. It was a complete blow out. The final score was 48 to 30 and I think we actually had more points than 48, but the score keepers arm was getting tired :) I'll let Jim tell the rest of the story in his blog.

























It's offical, he's got a curl :)






















Here's a shot of him walking to Nat. Like I said, he's just everywhere now!


























Here's a cute shot of the boys just hanging out today.























Hope you all had a great weekend and welcome home Mom and Dad :)

So proud!

I'm so proud of my kids for many reasons. For instance, both kids came home yestrerday with all A report cards! And even after have A-B report cards last 6 weeks (which I think is awesome also) they were both able to get their semester averages up to all A's also! Nat got a Chili's gift certificate and Matt got 2 award papers (All A's and perfect attendance) and he got to pick something from the award bucket. I just love it!!

Matt (and Jim) will have their 1st b-ball game tommorrow. I'm really excited since I don't get to go to his practices. I could go, but I'd just have to fight Brayden the whole time. I'll take picutres for sure and try to post by Monday.

Nat will be going to stay with Granny for a day or 2 in her new house. We'll be going up there tonight and she's gonna cook us dinner. She'd originally asked to come up to the local cafe and have fried catfish, but Jim told her of our semi restricted diet so she's gonna cook baked chicken.

Brayden's just walking so much now it almost unreal. I know it was time for him to do so, but I just can't believe he's almost a year. His new trick for the week is that he's learned to stack blocks. I am really impressed.

Hope you all have a great weekend and good luck to all those who are dieting/exercising. I hope we ALL drop in our wieght!

Jolie Update

I talked to Jolie's mommy today and she said that everything was going great! She said she was in surgury for less than 30 mins and she woke up really quick. She said that she was grumpy...can you blame her?!?

They will take her back for a check up in 2 weeks and that their main thing to watch for is infection. But eveything is good now and I thnak those who had her in your prayers!

Say a prayer for Jolie

If you are comfortable, please say a prayer for little Jolie today. Jolie is Jim's cousin's 3 month old (2 days shy anyway) baby girl. I won't elaborate about her medical condition in respect of her parents, but she has to have surgury today which means going under anesthia(sp?). The surgury (from what her Mom told me) should go very smoothly and she should recover just fine. But this is still a scary thing for parents to have to go thru, so I know your prayers would be appreciated.

When I hear from her parents I post a small segment about her recovery.

Thank you and love you all!

Big Walking and other stuff

I reported a while back that Brayden had taking some steps. Well he'd really lost interest since crawling is just so much faster. And he'd only ever walk to you if you had something of interest. Well now he's at the point where he'll just stand up and start walking...and it is so cool. If you're familiar with my living room...last night he walked from the edge of my ottoman to about 2 ft. from the tv. He was doing so good and then he looked back to see if we were watching (and of course I was with tears and all) and he started laughing and snorting...and bonk...Baby fall down. He laughed for a minute and then he was POed! And this sparked a very heated fit. Not sure who he was mad at or if it was the situation...but he was ticked. Arms and legs flailing to the point that he knocked himself over and...yup... that ticked him off some more. We are slowly finding out that Brayden (as sweet and cute as he is) has a short fuse. Hum?? WHERE could that come from :) Of course, he is cutting 2 molars and a cuspid right now so I can understand where some of the irritation is coming from.

Nat and Matt are still off for Christmas and will go back on Monday. Usually they are ready to go back, but Santa and everyone was so good to them that I don't think they're ready to leave all their goodies.

Nat started back to art class yesterday and she was very happy to go back. She was needing an outlet for all her artistic energy. She'd be making me something almost everyday...mosaic art, soap,...koolaid... what ever she thought she could make she was making it.

Matt will start back to basketball practice next week and I think their 1st game is the 14th. Jim says they only have 6 games. So if anyone who reads this was interested in going to a game, they'll be on Saturdays starting the 14th.

And also, here's an open invitation to ANYONE who'd like to come celebrate Brayden's 1st birthday and Nat's 11th. Don't know what we'll do...probably a party somewhere for Nat and something small at the house for the baby. But we'll do it Feb. 4th. More details later. ANY and EVERYONE is welcome and I have PLENTY of room for anyone to stay. We'd love to have ya!

Sh*ts & Giggles

Yup, that's right sh*ts and giggles..

Anyone who knows my parents, know this phrase. Well my parents are one day into their vacations and are already having their fair share of them :)

Yesterday Dad calls to tell me this story...
As they were ready to go to bed they kept hearing a radio. Nothing loud, but enough to bug them since the "rule" at the park was no noise after 10pm. ALL night this went on...even into the next morning. They were pretty ticked at this time and Dad was ready to lay into someone. Then when the went outside, the noise wasn't there...it was only when they were in the trailer...hummm. Then it became quite clear who the culprit was ;)~~ Dad said that over the weekend a little gremlin (quite possibly a grandchild) found a way to turn the display off on their camper's radio and had turned on the music just enough so they could hear it. This is when the had their sh*ts and giggles. After all night of getting ticked off...

Gotta love them pollacks (sp?)!