Happy Halloween!

What a fun and beautiful day to celebrate fall! Let me begin by saying that we love the pumpkin patch! We have been 3 times and had such fun each visit. Our first visit the boys wore their lion costumes. They looked so cute and would even "ROAR" at most people.

While at the patch, little lion Rylan loved to sit and touch the smooth skin of the pumpkin.
On the other hand, little lion Jacob did not stop moving! When we first arived, he picked up a small pumpkin and did not put it down until we got in the car after buying it!
Tonight after church services, we had a "Trunk or Treat." Several families stayed and handed out candy and treats from the trunks of thier cars. It was a nice, fun and safe environment. Jacob and Rylan handed out candy and walked around saying hello to the other kids and adults. Granna and GPop stayed and passed out candy too!
We hope you had a fun Halloween...we sure did! ROAR from our two little lions to you!!!!

Fall Camp-Out

Last weekend we went on our first family camping trip. My mom thought we were crazy to take twin 14 month olds out to "rough it" for the weekend, but we loaded up the 2 pack-n-plays, filled up the vehicle with tons more stuff and headed to Huntsville State Park. We met up with 5 other families for what will hopefully be the first of MANY fall camping trips.

It was a wonderful Texas fall weekend... cool days, blue skies, lots of laughter and pretty scenery. We only had 3 kids got into ant piles, saw an alligator in the lake and captured America's largest caterpillar - the horned hickory devil! The shower stalls were yucky and poor Lacie took a freezing shower because the hot and cold were reversed, but everyone survived!

The guys did typical guy stuff... Frisbee golf and horseshoes! I think the Frisbee golf is a wonderful time for the guys to bond. They have a Frisbee and pick a target, how many throws it should take to hit it, then away they go! Reid even joined in with the dads and the game kept going and going until all the mommas needed some relief!
12 little blessings! The kids had so much fun together! Kannon brought a turtle tent that they played in. Macy caught a zillion different creepy crawlies. There was so much running, laughing, skipping and giggling. I loved seeing them all interact and have FUN together! This picture crackes me up because it reflects each person's personality.
October has 6 birthdays from our little group of friends! This is 5 of the birthday buddies - we missed you Robyn! On Friday night all the moms went in to town to Wal-Mart to get the cake and other things we forgot at home. So we find the pre-made cake and are trying to decide what to put on it. Mind you, we were so giddy to all be together and a bit delirious... we had the girl write "Happy Birthday Hotties!" Yes, you read it right - hotties! The husbands rolled their eyes at their silly wives, but we know that they were flattered! Happy birthday Trey, Braden, Jason, Caitlyn and Scott!!!

OK, OK, yes it was a camping trip, but you didn't think that we would leave the bling at home, did you? We all made shirts for the trip! They say "Camping Diva." We had so much fun with the rhinestones, flamingo pink puff paint and polka dot ribbon. Even though we love the great outdoors, we are frilly at heart! We had SO much fun preparing the food, wrestling each others kids, laughing, staying up until dawn chatting, sharing prayers and more laughing!
"Three peas in a pod" Rylan, Braden and Jacob. Rylan and Jacob loved to ride in the wagon! I think every big kid pulled them at some point of the weekend. They were SO excited to see their friend Braden and we were too!

My three favorite guys! Jason has always loved to camp and he was so excited to take the boys on their first camp-out. Even though we froze the first night and did not sleep due to restless kids the next night, it was a great experience! The milk stayed cold enough, the s'mores were fabulous and worship service on Sunday morning brought me to tears. There is nothing better than singing praises to God outside surrounded by dear friends.
We're ready for next fall! I wonder what all the boys will get into then?!?!?

Kid K

Jason is training for the Half Marathon. Several of our friends have been bitten by the running bug and it spread to Jason. He runs 3 days a week on his own and then every Saturday the group meets for the long run. He rises way before the sun and hits the pavement to get ready for "The Half" in January. So far he has worked up to 6 miles! I am so proud of him!!!!

A few weeks back the big group had a Family Pancake Breakfast and Kid K. So the boys and I met Jason at the high school at 8 am for the party. The boys ate pancakes, blueberry muffins and apple juice. I think more of the blueberry muffins stayed on their face than in their tummies! hee hee

Then they lined up all the kids - about 60 - at the starting line and they were off!!! Jason pushed Jacob and Rylan in the stroller. They even got a bib to pin on the stroller. At the end of the race each kid got a medal and a treat sack. Below you'll see our boys admiring their first medals!

Here is Jason pushing the boys in the race. Our friends Ashlyn and Layton also ran in the Kid K. All of the kids were TOO cute! I was so impressed with all of the details that the organizers made to make the Kid K a real race for the kids. It was a special day and we are already looking forward to next year when the boys can toddle instead of being pushed.

Of course, the family photo... priceless!So this Saturday when you are in your warm cozy covers, remember Jason and crew out running to get ready for the BIG day!

Walking Boy!

First, sorry for another sideways photo! I saved it correctly and cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong. So for this technology un-savvy girl, please turn your head sideways and look at sweet Rylan!

One little, two little, three little steps!

Four little, five little, six little steps!

Seven little, eight little, nine little steps!

Ten little steps for Rylan!

Rylan is walking!!! He took his first few steps at the end of September and then did not take any steps for about another week. The last week though, he is getting much more comfortable on his feet. He will pull up on you (or the furniture) and let go and take off! He still has his little arms up for balance. He gets the biggest smile on his face and squeals in delight as he takes off across the room. My dad says that he looks like a bird because he picks up his leg so high for each step. And he is putting his heels on the ground more often than stepping on his tiptoes. My how time flies, it seems like yesterday that he was learning to crawl and now walking! Keep up the great walking Rylan!

Happy Birthday Jason!

Today is Jason's 31st birthday! In honor of this milestone here are 31 things that I love about my sweet husband.
1. You are a Christian.
2. Your dimples melt my heart!
3. You are a proud native Texan.
4. You LOVE the Dallas Mavericks and have taught me all about Dirk, JHo and the gang!
5. You are a wonderful Daddy to Rylan and Jacob. Seeing you be a dad brings me indescribable joy.
6. You give the best hugs... and often.
7. Remembering your football games at HU.
8. Laughter... you are always ready to laugh at silly things and can turn a serious moment around with a laugh.
9. Watching GameDay on ESPN - Saturday mornings at our house in the fall includes Lee, Kirk, Chris and the rest of the GameDay crew!
10. You are quite good on the grill... my mom swears your citrus chicken is the best anywhere.
11. You get excited about vacations and have big dreams for seeing the USA together.
12. You are caring to me, our boys and others around you.
13. You are gentle. In college they called you "Gentle Giant" and it is a perfect description of you.
14. You are prayerful. When things are looking happy, scary, joyful or tense, you always talk to God first.
15. You are compassionate.
16. You like to play games... Sequence, dominoes, PS2.
17. You are faithful - to our marriage, to our family, and to our God.
18. Fantasy Football smack talk
19. You listen to talk radio and get all fired up which always makes me laugh.
20. You are helpful. I cannot say thank you enough for helping out around the house and with the boys.
21. You are dependable and patient.
22. We enjoy watching "crime shows" together and you assure me they are fake when I get spooked after watching them.
23. You love pumpkin ice cream and Dr. Pepper - but not together!
24. You are a runner... I am so proud of yo for training for the half marathon! Keep up the great work!!!
25. Silly words - I love all of our unique words for normal things.
25. You will always try new things that I cook and give an honest review.
26. You are full of love.
27. You are passionate and always give 100%.
28. You love U2!
29. You get so excited about holidays.
30. You are silly with the boys and always have a smile on your face.
31. You are my perfect match. There is no doubt in my mind that God put us together. You bring out the best in me.

I love you Jason!!! Happy birthday sweetheart!

Home for One Year

October 11, 2006... the day our boys finally came home from the hospital! Jacob and Rylan were in the hospital for 50 days. They had each doubled in size since their birth, coming home at 6.4 lbs and 7.2 lbs. We had gone from being on a ventialtor to breathing on their own. From being all tube fed to all meals on the bottle or breast. Both boys were still have bradicardia and apena epsiodes, so we did come home on apena monitors.

Let me tell you a little about life with the apena monitors. First, the alarm is LOUD!!! The first few days home it must have gone off 1000 times - mostly from us stepping on the wires, or the leads slipping off their chests, etc. However, each time to alarm sounded, we all came running. Second, people look at you weird in public when your kids are hooked up to monitors. I can not count the number of times strangers came up to us and asked all about the boys and their problems. Now I am used to people asking, but at first it hurt for people to give you "the look" or not want to touch your baby. Third, it is a pain to cart the monitors all over the place. They were hooked up 24/7 for 7 months and we had to learn how to live with the monitors - like how to deal with the monitor while changing diapers, nursing babies, going to church, etc. All in all, I am glad that we had the monitors. It gave us a peace of mind that they were breathing. And the Lord blessed us with no huge episodes where we had to do CPR or anything. But we were glad to see them grow out of needing the monitors.

Back to October 11, 2006... the night before Jason and I spent the night in the NICU. They have a hotel room like area for parents to sleepover before they take home the babies. Kind of like a practice zone. Our night was a diaster! We got there at 8:30 thinking that the nurses would have already fed them their 8:00 bottle, but they had not. Then it took about 30 minutes to get us all settled into the room. So at 9:00pm we have 2 screaming, hungry babies and I am trying to nurse them both at the same time (for only the second time ever) in a strange hospital hotel room. Jason and I were exhausted and did not hardly sleep at all. Turns out that was probably the worst night yet with the babies - thankfully!!!

That morning, I woke up crying and I cried all day long. I was so happy and nervous and ready to have the boys home. I cried all during the discharge session and loading them into the car. I cried through the beautiful sunset driving home. I cried as we finally held them in our house. They were all happy tears. After 50 days of feeling a little robbed of a happy birth, this was our day to celebrate and feel like normal parents who had babies. We could finally smile and know that our babies were going to be OK. So for us, October 11th was a much sweeter day than August 22. August 22 we were so scared, but October 11 was the happiest day of our lives - except for June 24, 2000 - Our wedding day, but remembering that day will be another post.

Menu Planning

Cooking - ah, one of my favorite things to do! I love to look up and down each aisle and wonder what delicious meals I can make with the ingredients. Food Network is one of my favorite channels and I truly feel like Paula, Rachael, Sandra Lee and Giada are my close, personal friends! But it became apparent to me that in spite of my love for cooking, 5:00 would roll around and there was no thawed meat, no veggie and certainly no plan for supper. So after WAY too many nights of take-out, I started menu planning.

For me, Sunday afternoon is the big plan day. I get out cookbooks and write on an adorable weekly calendar notepad from the Michael's dollar spot what we are going to eat every night. Then we usually go shopping on Sunday or Monday morning. My goal is to have one new recipe each week so that we don't get in a rut and one leftover night. During the summer, there is also at least one grill night. Holly also plans in one crock pot night - I need to do that too!

Some of my dear friends are also menu planning and posting their weekly menus to inspire others. So here is our plan for this week. Hope it will get your juices flowing and cooking some good meals for your family too! Maybe we can even start swapping recipes...

Monday - dinner from the Baker's
Tuesday - Chicken Sopa and salad
Wednesday - Chicken in wine sauce (from Paula Deen), mashed potatoes and green beans
Thursday - Taco Salad
Friday - Lasagna, green beans and french bread (Friday is usually some pasta for my husband - the runner)
Saturday - Chicken Picatta Pasta Toss (from Rachael Ray)
Sunday - lunch out with friends and dinner is leftovers

One of my friends is also trying to boil, brown, chop and dice all of her ingredients for two weeks at a time and freeze them. She is loving it, but I am not ready for that step...yet!

What's for supper at your house this week? How do you plan for each week?

The Turning of the Seats

Jacob

Rylan

(sorry it's sideways!)

Channel your inner Gloria Estefan and sing along!

"Turn the seats around!

You are 20 po-unds!

Turn the seats around!

You are one year - you are one year - old!"

Sorry for my inner Spring Sing coming out, but I had to share with you the joyous song that we have been singing all week to our boys! Jacob turned his seat on his BD, but sweet Rylan was still too light. But this week we went to the doctor (ear infection - yuck!) and he hit 20.12 pounds! So now, both boys are facing forward and loving looking out the windows. Jacob loves to kick the seat in front of him and Rylan loves for you to turn around and play "Peek-a-boo!" They even passed a plush barn toy back and forth between them on one ride. It has made life SO much easier!!! Getting in and out - even with a sleeping baby - has gotten so much nicer. We also love to look back and see their faces... much more exciting than the back of the car seat!

2 boys and 2 cups

This was our snack time today. It may just look like 2 adorable boys in their high chairs eating cheese and crackers. But notice that both boys have sippy cups!!! We have been trying to get Rylan to drink out of a sippy cups for at least 2 months and everytime he would scream, throw it and cry. So after many attempts, freak outs and buying one of every sippy cup I saw, he finally is drinking out of a cup! Way to go Rylan!!!