The Grimes Life

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday

2012-02-01T05:58:00.001-08:00

This is what real like looks like around here!

Weekend in fast forward style.

2012-01-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

I feel like I am in a blog rut right now. I want to blog about so many things with substance/thoughts rolling around in my head/ideas, and then I find myself just journaling what we do about once or twice a week so I can remember what life is like right now. So, for now that's what I am doing. We had a busy and fast paced weekend, but it was so much fun!

Friday wasn't busy, just fun! I made us little english muffin pizzas for dinner and after the kids went to bed Jon and I had a little stay at home date night! We enjoyed our country life outside with a fire together! Notice our attire; ugs, pants, and you can't see but I have a blanket too, and then there is Jon next to me shorts and bare foot-that's funny!

Saturday morning Tatum and I went to Kennedy's 2nd birthday party! We both had a great time and I didn't even get one pic, darnit! I feel like her momma Reba and I along with a few others were just pregnant with our babies and all crashing on the couch at our New Years party a few years back at about 10:00. Our babies are growing up!

After the birthday party my college roomies and I hosted a baby shower for Jen. She is having her first baby in March, Reese is going to be one fixed up little girl with a FUN momma!

We went with a gray/pink theme, we thought it turned out so cute and possibly our best shower yet! :) Here is the table before most of the food was ready. The buffet was a few of Jen's cravings throughout her pregnancy, everything from burgers, to chicken, to fruit pizza and of course we couldn't leave out pickles!

Love these ladies! :)

After the birthday party and before the shower I took Tatum to hangout with her Aunt Krissy. They went to lunch and had a fun time! Thanks seastar!!

And all this time the girls are doing girly things, the boys met up with all the guys from Jon's side of the fam at the stockyards for a fun day! Jon said he had the very best time ever with Cade Saturday! I just love that! :) Jon got Cade all decked out in his boots, cinch jeans, cowboy belt, and can't forget the carhart jacket (all purchased by his daddy)! Jon sent me these 2 pics of their fun day.

This isn't the cutest pic, but I have to document:

This afternoon we came home from school and I was changing Tatum before her nap and Cade ran in the living room and said "tatum (he has started to call her by name these days instead of "tay tay") I'll sing you a song ok, how about jesus loves me!" He even sang it to her like I sing it to them with "Jesus loves Tatum or Cade this I know..." ahhhhhh! I just love them so much, he was even playing with her hair! So sweet!

Brooke and I walked laps the other day in my backyard while the kids played trying to get Miss Karlee to arrive, it didn't work, but soon and very very soon she will arrive! Ahhhh, we can't wait!! :) I thought this pic was so funny, I can't wait to show Karlee some day!

Tatum can't wait to have a little girl cousin too!

This made me laugh. Here is the priss sacked out in the car, I think it's funny how she gets so wrapped up and cuddled. I can't really blame her, i would fall asleep like that too!

I can't believe my little darling daughter is 18 1/2 months old. We got her pics taken last week and here is one of my favorites, this is a pic of a pic. Thank you aunt Linda for this photo session (gift to tay when she was born)!

just and funny pic of the little man!

Not a great pic, but let me explain why it has meaning. Jon likes my car clean, I do too, but he likes it clean more. So, I decided after all the rain last week I would get it cleaned, but that day just happened to be on a non school day. So what better way to keep the kids happy and contained at the car wash? Driving thru chickfila and being strapped down in the stroller! So, here is the meaning behind the pic. A lady walked up to the kids and I and took a long look at us and then sat down on the other side of the sitting area. My thoughts were either she didn't want to be around kids or she thought she might get ketchup on her or maybe we weren't supposed to be eating in there. Whatever it was she sat far. My car was ready a few minutes later and we started to leave, she said "ma'am you sure have your hands full, how old are your twins?" Really? Twins? ha, that's funny and definitely the first time i've been asked that!

Little sis lookin cute!

Yesterday we went by to see nanny and papa! They always have the best snacks-Tatum ate herself a ton of cranberries and she loved them so much!

and Cade peeled about 3 cutie oranges with Papa!

Happy kids!

Well, I am off to my big pile of work! Have a great day, it's a pretty one!

Wordless Wednesday!

2012-01-25T12:12:00.001-08:00

Warm Winter Day!

2012-01-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Don't you wish everyday was this pretty outside!?

It's the middle of the winter,

bright and sunny skies

and 73 degrees

at our house today!

Have a great weekend! :)

Catch up!

2012-01-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

Man, It's been another week since I've posted. What's up with that? Well, I've been busy being a full time mommy, part time employee, full time wife, and I feel like a full time chef as well, ha! We've had a good week! I've decided that the days, weeks, months, years fly by when we are super busy...so we've slowed down alot and are having alot of hanging out play time together! Speaking of chef, I think I have a little one on my hands-he loves to cook whether it be pretend in the playroom or helping me in the kitchen! I love this little boy!

Cade cannot get enough reading time in, he loves his "Step into Reading" books-he can pretty much memorize all the words or as he says "read" it, level 1's that is!

Looking handsome for school!

We are a fan of the new grilled chicken nuggets at Chickfila! I no longer feel guilty for going ah-hem like once a week! The kids LOVE the new nuggets and fruit!

Jon and I enjoyed a lovely date night out last Friday! Thanks to Mimi and Pops for playing with the kids! We ate Hibachi at one of our favorite places and then dessert at Bj's! SO FUN!

Cade will NOT let his sister go to bed or nap without giving her at least one hug and a kiss and telling her "sweet dreams tay tay" I love that! This particular day he wanted to cuddle up next to her so close, i love them!

not sure if he was giving her a kiss or telling her a secret, ha

Last Saturday Lance and Andrea came over for dinner and to hangout-we are SO excited they are moving closer, we just love them! Here are both of our daughters getting ready for bed together, so sweet!

Sunday we celebrated Pops' birthday at Chucke Cheese, and yes this was HIS choice! ha! He wanted to celebrate his birthday by letting the kids have fun, and they SURE had fun!

all the boys blowing out candles!
Happy Birthday Pops!

Oh are you ready for this?

It's been a REALLY BIG DEAL AT OUR HOUSE ALL WEEK!

Cade went Tee Tee in the Potty for the first time on Sunday morning at about 7:15am! This is huge people! For the LONGEST time I feel like we have been trying to bribe, beg and convince the boy the boy to tt and poo in the potty, and he wanted nothing and I mean nothing to do with it. BUT, Sunday morning Jon got him to go and then go again and then go again, WAHOO! We've been celebrating and praising Cade to say the least! How is he doing potty training now? Well, he is in pull ups full time and we are asking him about 505 times a day if he needs to go potty and sometimes we get a "yes" or sometimes we get a "lets set the time and then when it goes off I'll go" hey,I'll take what I can get! I had a HUGE fear that he was going to be the kid in kinder with a diaper on, for real! Here he is dressed and ready for Gigi to pick him up for a prize for going potty on the potty! Whoop Whoop! I'm a proud mommy even if I changed his poo twice today-there is a part of him that "gets it!"

We played at Gigi's house on Monday, Kenzie is trying so hard to get Tatum to sit still so she can put a dress up outfit on her, love these girls and can't wait for Karlee Abigayle to arrive very soon!

Did she grow up over night or what? Tatum is changing so much these days and looking like such a little girl now! Ahhh, my baby! Alot of people say Tatum looks like my dad, you think so?!

This is her new thing,

Me-"Tay say cheese"

Tatum- tilts her head sideways

or to pose with her hand like this....she is a priss!

We've been playing at home today, picking up the house, getting caught up on work, etc-oh and obviously washing sheets, ha. I was in the kitchen making dinner and the kids were giggling so loud in my bedroom. I went in there with my camera of course and caught them doing this....

They were jumping on the bed and having the best time!

Wonder how Tay got all the way up there?....I put them both on the floor so Cade could show me...he picked her up and literally shoved her up on the bed, she gave Cade her hand and that's how he made it up there, they crack me up! Teamwork at the ages of 3 and 18 months!

Life is pretty busy and they are my exercise most days, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Happy Wednesday!

WHAT a Wednesday!

2012-01-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

Cade has been to the dentist before to "look" at his teeth. My sister actually spared me the torture (we all know NEW things for Cade are a bit frightening) of that visit and went back with him to the chair. Well, today he went for his first cleaning. I made his appointment for a pediatric dentist thinking it would feel more inviting and not scare the poor boy as much. So, Tatum took her morning nap at my Nanny and Papa's house and I took some invitations to address to keep myself busy as I thought I would be sitting in the waiting room-after all when I called to make the appt the lady said we prefer parents to wait outside. So, before we go to the dentist I took Cade into Target and let him pick out a new book that he can take with him to the dentist. We get there and he quickly makes a friend in the waiting room, the friend actually read his book to him, great... right! Then they call Cade's name to come back and let's just say the torture began! There was no way in this world he was going back there without me, so needless to say the invitations got addressed later. I was asked (since he was screaming extremely loudly) to lay in the chair and him on top of me. So, i am 5'10-from my knees down were hanging off the chair, Cade was laying in my lap, we had a "helper" hold down his forehead, another helper holding his legs, and the dentist was able to clean away-although she was bit 3 times. It was torture to say the least, but hey he has 20 great teeth and we don't have to go back for a while!

And when he was done, he said "look mom, i have clean teeth!" Gotta love him!

After the dentist we went to Nanny and Papa's to join our cousins for a yummy lunch and play!

Nanny made broccoli cheese soup and Tatum LOVED it so much! Actually both of mine did, thank you Nanny!

It turned out to be a good day, but my goodness I think I will give the boy a little benedryl next time before the dentist!

Happy Wednesday y'all!

"They will know us by our love"

2012-01-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

(This is a random bunch of pics)

Last week it was SO pretty outside. We enjoyed alot of playing outside, I even left the back door open so the kids could run in and out-they had a grand ol' time! The kids are loving to play dress up these days. Yes even my boy, he has a pirate and a cowboy to choose from, ha!

Ever seen a pirate playing tball? Here ya go!

And a princess with a paci running the bases! :)

Cade cracks me up with his feet up lounging in his car! He probably thinks if he gets up Tatum with get in and drive off, because that's what happens, ha! But really I think the priss here is coming to tell me in her own cute little jibberish that she wants in with Cade as she holds up her dress to walk through the grass. hehe!

Saturday morning Cade asked to make a tent, I love how random and fun he is! We are reading the cars book here, Cade has asked Jon and I to read it so much to him in the last week that he has each page memorized word for word and he says he can read it now. I do have to say he's got it down pretty good!

Saturday night I met up with my lovely college friends to celebrate Michelle's birthday! We had a deelish dinner at Bj's and wonderful company together! Mich and Jen are just 2 months away from having their little girls, so cannot wait to meet them! :) Looking good mamma's!

Yesterday it was pouring down rain, like really torrential downpour...the kids and I were soaked but that didn't stop them from having a blast in the grocery store....we just had to have a few essential items yesterday!

We heard a new song at church on Sunday (well new to me) "By our love" and I have had it in my head ever since we left church. I was singing it to Tatum today at home while we ate lunch and she grabbed my hand and smiled as I sang it to her. I love her so much!

Listen to it here:

This song is something I want to truly live out and teach the kids...how awesome would it be for them to grow up with others knowing them by their love-love for Christ, love for others....

Kristy reading Cade's cars book to 3 babies, one in the belly-Gentry, Cade, and Gage all sitting in her lap, ha! :) What a trooper mamma!

I've said I am going to let Tatum go to school with Cade in the fall, that means I won't have these girly lunches with her twice a week as an only child, so i am soaking up all the fun times with my girl this semester before she grows up alot and starts preschool!

Pretty day for a picnic!

I promised Kenzie a fun outing to get her nails done over Christmas break....so we did just that! I went to pick her up, just her, she was so cute waiting for me at the door all dressed up. I asked her if she wanted a special treat while we were out and her request was "skiddles" she is easy to please!

We went two places-both places I was told "your daughter looks just like you" ha! Love this little girl! :)

And I will leave you with this pic. This might be my new favorite pic of the kids. I hope this is what they look like when they are 14 and 16 (and really if you do the math they will be 15 and 16 and one point, wow) in their real car. Well maybe they won't need to sit that close b/c seat belts are not that close, but I hope they love each other this much then and forever! They are SO sweet together and I am loving being a mommy to them!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

It's SO crazy how fast 2011 flew by, I feel like it was just summer and we were having so many fun swim days. Life goes by way too fast, that is for sure! Overall it was a good year, of course there were milestones that were not so good like my grandad passing away unexpectedly and my cousin relapsing with leukemia but there was a lot of good and happy things that happened as well. I am thankful for a year of good health for my family and lots of great memories from the year! Speaking of memories, I can now order my blog book here from last year-I always say if there is a fire i am grabbing these books of our family memories and most importantly the kids and running out! Here's what we've been up to:

The week after Christmas Jon had off! When he told me he was taking a week off work, i thought "WHOA" that hasn't happened since the kids were born, but then he added to that statement that he was leaving on Wednesday to hunt at the lease, ha! I knew there was a small catch! The kids and I were happy to have him home with us for a few days! While he was gone we stayed with my parents and Thursday night I met these lovely ladies for a fabulous Italian dinner! Corey came up with a theme for our dinner "these are a few of my favorite things!" It was so fun, we all brought 5 of something we just can't live without or just really love to share with everybody! I took cake balls, I really really really love those! :) Super fun dinner with some fabulous friends! Thank you mom and dad for babysitting the kiddies!

The weather has been so pretty! The kids enjoyed swinging with Gigi while we stayed!

Jon came home to us on Friday afternoon, it's always nice to have him back.

We headed to Cerly's birthday party, which was such a blast on Saturday before we rang in the new year!

The kids were looking so cute kinda matching on Saturday...i thought maybe I could get a cute pic of them.

I decided these were pretty cute given they are 3 and nearly 18 months old and cannot sit still for 5 seconds unless they are strapped down. ha! Thanks to Mimi and Pops for these cute Christmas gifts for the kids!

We spent the rest of the year (ha) at the Erwin's house hanging out with friends! We ate alot (my favorite new thing to make-thanks to corey-cake batter rice crispies, like i really need ANOTHER sweet to love), hung out around the campfire, watched fireworks and had a good ole time!

The next morning we headed to church and then we dropped off Cade at the movies with my mom, sis, niece and nephew. They went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks....My mom called me about 20ish mins into the movie and said Cade wasn't liking it so much, but then after the previews were over and the movie started (and popcorn and candy and who knows what else, ha) he sat in her lap and enjoyed the entire movie (oh and he also tt'd ((as Gigi says it's "sweet pea")) all over her. No he is not PT-maybe that should be my new years goal-I'm trying)! They had a fun time and Cade crashed for 3 1/2 hours when he got home and Gigi got to finally change into dry clothes, ha!

Yesterday we spent the entire day at home! It's amazing how much can get done when you stay home for that long, and the most important/fun part of the day was playing outside in the beautiful weather! I promise Cade isn't choking Tatum here-he's really hugging her with the sweetest biggest smile! ahhh, i love them so much!

I love that Tatum was watching me "somewhat fix" my hair yesterday and pin my hair back in a little claw clip, and she just wasn't going to have it any other way until she got her own! She loved it and kept pointing to her hair!

Cade decided we needed blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning. The kids ran around the island and stopped to "check" the muffins for 12 straight minutes while they cooked, hey whatever it is they were happy and excited about breakfast!

We spent this pretty day at the park picnicking and playing with cousins, aunt brooke, and gigi!

And I will leave you with this: I was cooking dinner tonight, ran to the bathroom (seriously for like 3 min if that) and came back in the kitchen and saw this....at least I have trained them well-it's all healthy!

I hope everybody has had a good start to the year! I haven't really set a "New Years Resolution" other than reading a book a month, but I hope/pray to be a better mom, wife, friend, daughter, sister this year and soak up all the precious moments with my babies-they grow up TOO fast!

Happy New Year! :)

Advent Christmas Calendar

2011-12-31T12:05:00.000-08:00

We are baptist all the way, I realize Lutherans practice Advent, but in our house it was just an exciting thing to do each day as we awaited Christmas Day!

Here is the Advent Calendar I bought off etsy! Some days were little activities we did at home and some were fun outings for the family! We had a good time with this and I plan to do it again each year until the kids think it's "not so cool" anymore! :) Hopefully we are years and years away from that! We had a wonderful Christmas and I am so happy that when you ask Cade why do we get presents on Christmas he says "because it's Jesus' birthday mommy!"

Calendar:

Lights show with the fam!

Baked Kissie Cookies with the kids:

Mimi bought the kids a nativity scene they could actually play with, Cade loved this and Tatum loved re-arranging all of Cade's people! Great way to teach the kids about Jesus!

Gaylord Ice:

Bought a little girl some clothes for Christmas and a little boy some toys. Tried SO hard to teach Cade what we were doing. He likes to help me pay at the store with my card or money; I had been telling him that these kids didn't get to help their mommy pay at the store because they didn't have money....anyways when we went to pay he screamed to the cashier "no we don't have money" it was funny. Clearly his 3 year old brain didn't "get it" but he does remember us taking them to be delivered and picking out the boys toys!

Decorated the kids trees in their rooms (thank you Gigi and Papaw-Cade knows where this came from and he loves looking at all of his ornaments!)

Decorated our house for Christmas!

Celebrated Corbin's 5th birthday!

wrapped gifts: Cade was a great help, he handed me tape anytime i needed another piece and let me just say there was tape everywhere for a week too!

Decorated Gigi's house for Christmas!

Made Cade's teacher's yummy gifts!

All the kids got new ornaments for their trees! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Made a sticker Christmas Tree!

Cooked a yummy breakfast in our Christmas Aprons!

Got a new winter hat that little man LOVES! Tay's is super cute too, but I didn't get a pic. :(

Made Christmas ornaments with friends!

Jammed and danced to Mickey's Magical Holiday Mix!

Made our family hand tree!

Christmas celebration at Gigi and Papaw's house:

Christmas celebration at Mimi and Pops:

Northpark Trains:

Polar Express (more like played at the museum)

Made Gingerbread boys and girls with cousins

Christmas Eve dinner and church

Leaving Santa Goodies

Santa CAME! Merry Christmas!

Great Christmas Month, now we are ready to ring in the new year!

Christmas Day

2011-12-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

What a super fun day!

We celebrated just the 4 of us on Christmas morning. Santa came and brought Tatum a pink kitchen and Cade a lightning McQueen car! It was so fun to watch them run into the living room and light up as they saw their gifts! The kids and I waited in the hallway until we got the "ok" from Jon to enter the living room with the video camera set up just right, it reminded me of when I was a kid as we waited in the hallway with such anticipation to see what Santa brought. Cade kept saying "can we come now, can we come NOW daddy" it was so funny! I think we can get away another year or so with sleeping in until normal wake up time, the kids didn't really know what was going on, although Cade did know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and that we get to have presents and Santa because we are celebrating Him! Soon after we opened gifts Cade asked if we could have our birthday party for Jesus, we loved that! :)

A breakfast appetizer, never really heard of it huh, well Cade made a reindeer donut while he waited...

for us girls to make a big yummy breakfast!

Tatum calling Mimi to tell her Merry Christmas

Cade calling Gigi to tell her about his new car!

Mimi and Pops came over for lunch and to play...they brought Tatum a baby bed for her new doll and Cade a basketball hoop! They both loved it all so much! Here is Tatum with the bedding out of her new cradle feeding her baby a bottle. It's really amazing to me how she picks up on this so early! Love that girly girl!

I've never made a Christmas meal before but I think yesterday's was a hit. We had smoked chicken (I will give Babes all the credit), twice baked potatoes, bacon wrapped grean beans, rolls, ceaser salad, and mini graham cracker cheesecakes (per Jon's request)! It was yummy!

Let me introduce you to my pirate boy Cade, he says "AHOY!!"

I love this pic, Jon's cowboy boots and Miss Priss' dress up heels, ha! We are still practicing walking in those....hehe!

LOVE them!

Mimi and Pops playing dress up with the kids!

how funny, i think the princess had enough, she needed a break!

After the babes took a snoozer, and Jon too (ha) we headed over to my Nanny and Papa's for dinner! We changed things up a bit this year and had a mexican fiesta dinner and man was it good! I made enchiladas for the first time and I think they were a hit, we even ate them leftover tonight with a few friends! :)

It's funny to me that this used to be the table where all of our parents and Nanny and Papa sat at meals while us grand kids ate in the kitchen, and then there were more grand kids than parents/nanny and papa so we all got to sit in there, and NOW the great grand kids out number us all and we all just find a spot to sit, ha!

My dad sat with Tay, probably because the kids get to eat first and it might have been a little appetizer for him, ha! Just kidding dad! I think Tay loves him a little, hehe! :)

Mother and daughters!

Oh how thankful I am to be holding my baby boy and having Christmas with him this year. Last year we spent most of Christmas at Children's hospital getting every test ever on Cade all to find out he had strep and rsv. Thankful for healthy babies this Christmas! LOVE LOVE LOVE him!

Let the gift exchanging begin!!

We started giving Nanny and Papa stockings a few years ago, they love them!

cousins! I am especially thankful for Sarah to be in this pic, she has been through it all this year and she is happy and feels good (most days) and most importantly she is CANCER FREE, praise God, that is the best gift ever!! She felt good yesterday and she looked so pretty! I love all of them so much!

Mom, sis and I-:)

We ended the day with reading the story of the birth of Baby Jesus. We read the same book each year and Cade loves it! I pray that each year Cade and Tatum will learn more and more about Jesus and one day have Him in their heart forever!

Jon is off work for a few days and at home with us (well, before he leaves for the deer lease) and we are soaking up some family time! This morning we had the Christmas decorations boxed up and the house cleaned up before 9:30am. I DO love me some Christmas decorations-and really everything about Christmas and can't wait to have it all set up the day after Thanksgiving, but when Christmas is over i like to get the house back to normal. It always looks so bare for a while though.

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Merry Merry Christmas y'all!:)

Christmas Eve

2011-12-26T12:58:00.000-08:00

The kids slept in until 7:15 (yes that is sleeping in around here!), Jon cooked us breakfast tacos (YUM), and then Tatum and I met up with my mom and sis for a manicure! This was Tay's first time to get her fingernails painted, (and her little 17 1/2 month old self loved every minute of it, ha) she sat so still and just watched!

Sis and I picked out Red for Christmas!

Thank you Mom for treating us girls to a manicure, so much fun!

When we got home Cade said "yay momma and tay tay got your nails done, but not cade and daddy because we don't have nails" haha! Love that boy! Cade said him and daddy went shoppin', ha!

After the kids rested up we met my family for dinner at PF Changs, one of our favorites for sure!

Even though the kids are looking off, i love this pic of them! Cade is SO sweet to his little sis!

Family Photo

Sissy being silly!

Tatum is into tilting her head and cheesin' really big these days for pics, she cracks me up!

Thank you mom and dad for a fab Christmas Eve Din! :) My favorite part was the Great Wall of Chocolate! :)

After dinner we all headed to our Church for the Christmas Eve Service.

Sis and I at church....they didn't have "Cade's church" as he said so the kids went to big church with us...they were a mess, but we were glad to all be at church together! The kids liked the Christmas songs and daddy dancin' with them!

These 2 together=A MESS! :)

Cade helped me earlier in the day make cookies for Santa, I think he ate more than "Santa" ...

Here's that silly new pose miss priss has started with her wild hair! :)

Merry Christmas Eve! :)

Gingerbread girls and boys!

2011-12-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

Today we added another fun family tradition to our Christmas week!

Gingerbread cookie decorating with Gigi!

Cade had been playing dress up, yep he has a pink cowgirl hat on!

Cam Cam with a knife, ha! No worries it was plastic and we was pretty good with his decorating!

full mouth, most likely of icing-her daddy is going to shake his head when he reads this, no worries anything in moderation, right!

FUN FUN!

Kenzie's pretty girl!

Cade did a great job!

Brooke, thanks for hosting us! Mom-thanks for making the cookies and all the fun toppings!

We all had so much fun!

It's Christmas EVE EVE!!

Can't wait to celebrate Christmas on Sunday, Cade is counting down the days until our birthday party for Jesus!

trains TRAINS t.r.a.i.n.s!

2011-12-19T13:50:00.001-08:00

Yesterday the kids and I went to Northpark Trains, Santa Story time (which ended up for my two at The Disney store movie showing instead-Cade's fear of Santa was 100% yesterday), a little shopping and lunch with Gigi, Brooke and the kids! The mall wasn't too crowded and the kids were all so good! We were impressed! :) Fun day with my fam!

The Trains were so great this year!

The kids had the best time! How cute is this pic!?

Cade and Kenz make me laugh, they were annoying Corbin here, ha!

So sweet!

Yep, here is the Muppet movie showing at the Disney Store, we had the entire store movie area to ourselves since all the other kids in the mall were at....

this. Maybe next year!

And today we met Mimi, Pops, Ashley, Court, Beckham, Jon's cousin Lindsey and her boys for The Children's Museum's Polar Express Jammie fun day! The Polar Express Imax movie did not last long for the kids, i mean why do they have to show the airplane that makes you feel like you are flying into all the buildings anyways,and blare the giant loud speakers and scare all the kids off, that's pretty much all Cade lasted for. We had fun playing around the Museum and Cade loved having his own cup of hot chocolate, or as he says "it's my coffee mom!" ha!

the kids had fun at the pretend grocery store, very cool!

choo choo!

In the Imax, he was really excited about the choo choo movie

SLIDES!

Lite Bright Life size, SO FUN!

Fun few days of trains, cousins, and enjoying all the Christmas CHEER!

Christmas at Mimi and Pops'!

2011-12-18T18:55:00.001-08:00

Today we had our family Christmas gathering with Jon's family!

We all headed over to Mimi and Pops house early this morning and had a full day of fun!

(I am really going to get this new blog thing in order soon, maybe by my next post)

After all the kids woke up from their naps this afternoon we headed to Bass Pro for some family Christmas Fun!

The kids loved the carousel, we rode it a few times!

Sister, don't eaten by that SHARK!

Cade looks unsure, but he really did love it!

Making a jingle bell ornament with pops!

Decorating cookies with Mimi!

Sis shared hers with me, SO delish!

Picnic lunch with the kids

Fun day, thank you Mimi and Pops/Patterson clan for all the fun gifts and spending the day together!

Pops made the boys tool belts and he had a little wood station set up for them to play, they loved hammering!

Look at my little COWBOY! His vest was Jon's when he was a little boy! I love getting things for Cade that were his daddy's, so sweet and special to keep for Cade to give to his son someday!

Boys are SO much fun!

Sister getting the "choo choo" all to herself while the boys played with wood and hammers!

Present time!

Tay got a sweet little baby doll from Mimi and Pops, she even has pigtails like Tay (most days)! She was walking around holding her today like such a big girl! She also got a super cute Matilda Jane dress from Aunt Ashley, Tatum kept holding it up to herself because she loved it of course and she was getting such a reaction from me, haha! Love her and all her little girl fun!

Pops and Mimi with all 4 of their grandbabies!

All the kids dancing to Veggie Tales with Jon, he's the "cool uncle" ya know!

Playing hungry hippo!

Very fun day! We are ALL very sleepy after SO much fun yesterday and today! Love Love having our families so close and spending lots of fun times together! Merry Christmas Week! :)

Christmas at Gigi and Papaw's!

2011-12-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

Today we got together with my family for Christmas!

We started this tradition 5 years ago to get together the Saturday before Christmas and spend the entire day together! It's definitely something we ALL look so forward to each year! Christmas day we will all see each other, but it's SO nice to have a full day together/no rush and lots of fun!

(my pics uploaded backwards, not used to the new blogging, but I LIKE it!)

We ordered pizza for dinner tonight, YUM! Notice Brad drinking the ranch, he will always be a little boy at heart, ha! :)

Sweet cousins praying together!

Brooke carrying little Karlee Abigayle, SOOOO cannot wait to meet her in 8 weeks or less, hoping for less! :) :)

Kids napping!

The girls make gingerbread houses every year, it's a CONTEST, and we have SO much fun!

Of course this is my moms, she always wins, maybe next year I should buy the prize so she doesn't have to win her own prize!

I mean this looks like she bought it at the store, so pretty mom!

Men judging-we don't even let them in the kitchen while we make these so they have no idea who made each one.

Brooke went with a Nativity scene look (brad laughed, ha), Kristin's got the most votes for "worst" (sorry sis), I got next best, but Mom WON, as always! :)

FUN!

Tatum and Kenzie got dress up suitcases full of fabulous dress up clothes, cutest idea! Tatum loves her little mermaid dress, she looks like SUCH a big girl all dressed up! Have i mentioned i LOVE all this girly frilly fun!

I don't know who loves "The Oreo Dessert" more Brooke or Kristin!!

Our supplies for the contest! Men were supposed to have a BB gun shooting contest, but due to the men forgetting their supplies it has been postponed, ha!

We had a yummy Mexican lunch! Here is the bro and I making the quesidillas, they were SO YUM!

Oh Jon and Kristin-the brother/sisterly love!

Miss Priss and her new pink shoes, bracelet, and snacks, and smiling with her scrunchie nose (my fav) she is one fixed up little girl!

Cade got his first pair of boxer briefs, i about died over these, how stinkin cute, such a little man! Now, if we (ahem, I) can just get the boy potty trained!

Tatum got her first pair of panties today, how adorable! You can ALWAYS count on my mom to get us undies in our stocking! :)

Speaking of stockings, Brad made this great stocking holder last year for my mom and her BIG family! She always does the best stockings! Way to go Gi!

She LOVED her calendar!

This was by far my most favorite thing, my new calendar for the new year! I LOVE LOVE all the pics on the front! :)

Brad and his new book (and 2 youngest babes) "Strong Fathers Strong Daughters" Perfect for him!

The husband, he was SUPER excited about his ihome gift, whoop whoop! I think that might end up being for both of us, ha!

Sis and Tay Tay!

Cade's pirate ship, and the pirate himself of course! When you ask Cade what a pirate says he says "YO HO HOY" or "AHOY MATTE" Love him!

Tatum's dress up suitcase, cutest thing ever!

Thank you mom!

Sweet girl!

getting his gift all fixed up!

Oh my how she has grown up SO much since last Christmas!

All the kids helping Brooke open her gifts!

Cade giving Papaw his gift to him, our boxes are deceiving, he definitely did not get Huggies baby wipes, ha!

awwww!

Good thing we opened gifts before lunch, not sure they were going to make it much longer!

all ready to eat!

Penguins greeted us at Gigi and Papaw's house this morning, the kids LOVED them! What a pretty day it was today too!

(not sure what's up with the order of these pics, I might need a tutorial on the new blogging, HELP!)

Jon being an annoying brother....

Cute!

What a FUN FUN day together! We missed Matt today, he decided to go on a last minute ski trip with a few friends from college. Thank you Mom and Dad for making today SO much fun! Merry (early) Christmas!!!

Family FUN Friday!

2011-12-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

Last night was so much fun! We took the kids to see Santa, shopped around and finished up a few last minute gifts, the kids picked out a cookie-for good behavior (bribery), and we hung out at home just the 4 of us and made a family Christmas tree out of our hand prints! Here are a few pics of the day!

Cade was NOT a fan of Santa, predictable for sure. We thought Tatum might possibly be interested since she and Cade both light up when they see a Santa, but we were wrong, they both flipped out when we saw Santa and there were LOTS of tears! Hey, we went home with one pic at least. Maybe next year they will like it better, ha!

I was surprised how "into" the Christmas tree Jon was- which made it SO much fun!
The kids LOVE painting!

Cade decided to make an extra canvas last night, Jon says this is going in his office, ha love that!

Here it is, The Grimes Family Christmas Tree!

(Gotta love pinterest!!)

The kids were being SO sweet last night, I just had to capture a few of these moments. Jon and I just sat on the couch and watched them....

love those smiles!

Holding hands and drinking milk before bed, Jon and I couldn't be more proud of them, our love tank is definitely full from these TWO! :)

Kids Christmas Party!

2011-12-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well I should go ahead and say that the moms had just as much fun as the kids! You'll see a pic of the dads in a minute, they had fun too, but I couldn't get a "cheese" out of any one of them, scrooge daddy's!

Lets just say 6 kids 3 and under sitting still all at the same time is pretty much impossible, but they sure are cute! :)

We had a fun party-ate pizza, painted Christmas ornaments, exchanged gifts, and PLAYED!
Emmalee and Ash! Em is the newest to the bunch, she is such a cutie patootie!!

Gage and Kristy, and in the belly is Gentry! Can't wait for her to join our party next year!

Avery, Linds, and a sweet little boy in the belly, he will have a name soon! hehe! :)

Bren and Kim, SO cute!

My babes, check out that look Tatum has on her face, ha!

Bren and Cade watching veggie tales

Kids gift exchange

(we sure missed the Trapps this year, little Kennedy had strep. At least it's this week and not next, feel better K!)

Here are those daddy's I was telling you about-I think they all planned to look mad at the world here, ha!

Boys playing blocks

Linds and Krsity pregnant together again! Love seeing these babies growing, can't wait to add them to the group! :)

Fun party with great friends!

Well done Wednesday!

2011-12-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

What a productive day!

Sometimes Wednesdays are spent at home all day long in our pj's getting many things accomplished! Today was a great rainy/dreary day to stay home which consisted of getting ALL my work done (patting myself on the back for that one), playing with the kids, cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner (all 3 does NOT happen often, or really ever, ha), and random odds and ends things done around the house. My mom, sis, and I had planned to have a girls night out tonight, so I finally hit the shower about 3:30. But before I did that I went to get the mail ( i LOVE getting the mail around Christmas-I love all the cards). So I was still in my pj's and like I said it was raining and it just so happen to be the time the school bus drops off kids and all the moms gather at my corner of the neighborhood to greet their children (even in the rain-that's some dedicated mothers) and let's just say I tripped on my lovely rain boots and busted right in front of them all, OUCH! What else happened today? Oh, Cade taught Tatum how to bite...not sure where this came from since we haven't dealt with biting in quite sometime but it happened today. Cade bit Tatum's toe-he went to time out after a nice little spankin'. He was sitting in time out and Tatum went over to him and bit his toe. WHAT? My darling innocent precious tiny angel baby, yep she did and I saw it all. So Cade finished his time out, apoligized and behaved. Then Tatum had her first time out experience today, I sent Jon a pic, it was sad, very sad. But I think it worked and she actually sat there like it was cool for her or something. Oh children!

On to the random pics!

For the past few months I've been going to a Monday night Bible Study! I have really looked forward to this time each week, thank you to my husband for always making it possible for me to go! This Monday we all met for dinner, fun night!

This is what Cade's school day looked like for Tatum Tuesday-Christmas shopping with mommy and gigi kind of day! She loves it!
and this is how i pick up Cade most days from school, poor boy gets SO tired! It makes me laugh because all the other kids will be running around and then there is little Cade snoring away in the corner, love him!

Last night we celebrated Brad and Corbin's birthdays at my parents house, thank you mom for a fab dinner! Happy birthday bro-last year in your 20's! hehe!

My parents gave all the kids their ornaments for their trees last night, so fun!

Random pic of Tay being silly, she is a mess!

Cade and Jon playing baseball-notice Cade's outfit-pj's, winter hat, and Jon's shoes. Silly boy!

Advent Calendar Craft yesterday!

Cooking breakfast this morning with these two....

can't get much better than this! :)

and top it all off with a night out with these TWO! :)

Yay for a productive/FUN day!

Weekend Wrap!

2011-12-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

Friday morning Jon left for a weekend at the deer lease....since we had Cade and Tatum his hunting trips are shorter and not as often for sure. He asked me (part joking i think just in case he thought it would make me mad and part serious-more serious than joking) if we could start celebrating our anniversary in June next year so he could go to the lease more. ha! Ok by me! He had a fun weekend hunting with his dad, and we SURE missed him!

But while he was gone we had a fun fun time!

Friday night my college girls had our annual Christmas slumber party! We met for dinner at Fireside Pies (YUM) and went back to Courtney's to make cookies and exchange gifts! We had the best time catching up, lots of girl talk, and lots and lots of laughs for sure! I love these girls SO much! THANK YOU THANK YOU to my parents for letting the kids have a slumber party, they are the best!

Hey, these might not look the best, but they sure were good and we had a fun time making them!

Thank you Court for hosting us! :)

Saturday morning was Corbin's 5th birthday party, I cannot get over that he is 5. It really feels like yesterday he was the only baby in our family and we were waiting in line to hold him for the first time! How times have changed for sure! :)

Cade had the best time!

My mom and Tatum going down the slide! We are going to copy this party idea for next year for Cade, it was the best and the adults had just as much fun as the kids!

My dad and Cade, he can't keep up, ha!

Happy Birthday Corbin Bailey, we love you!

Sweet little sis staying right by her big brother!

My granny B spent the weekend with us at my parents house and we were so glad! Saturday afternoon we made SO many chocolate covered pretzels, they are SO good!

Love this priss!

Dog pile on Papaw!

Saturday night we decorated my mom's house for Christmas, I am her only child that still LOVES to do this! :) Fun times! Cade was a BIG help, and lined up all of his ornaments in a row, ha!

Snack right before bed time=only at Gigi's house!

The kids really loved granny b hanging out with us this weekend, we are so excited she is moving here very soon!

Jon came home yesterday afternoon and met the kids and I at the store. We had a long grocery list and had been there for about an hour, the kids did great (they were eating their lunch in the grocery cart and entertaining each other, ha) but as soon as they saw their daddy come down the aisle they went nuts! Glad he is back home to us!

Last night Kristy had us over for a Tamale Christmas Party! We had so much fun making tamales and I can't wait to cook mine for the fam!

rollin' the tamales!

Thank you Kristy, you were a fabulous host as always and we all had a great time! :)

Such a fun weekend, but I was beat by 9pm!

Less than TWO weeks til Christmas! :)

ICE 2011

2011-12-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

This was our 5th year as a family to go to Gaylord Ice!

The first few years it was just Jon and I, but I do have to say it's much more fun with the kids!

I love seeing how excited they get to see all the Christmas fun!

I could really just go to the hotel and look at all the decorations and be perfectly content, it's just beautiful!
My little darling, she is the sweetest!

Watching the movie about the Ice!

Hey Cade, just make yourself right at home buddy! :)

He wasn't so sure about this coat at first, but then he said he looked like a penguin and that made it all better!

Shrek theme, very cool!

And of course Cade's favorite part, the freezing cold slides! Can you believe that every single thing in there is made of ice, it's the coolest!

Family photo-yes I look like hunchback and I asked for the largest coat possible so I could fit the kids backpack I was carrying and my daughter inside my coat. Momma was carrying a LOAD!

Cade singing "we wish you a Merry Christmas" at the top of his lungs at dinner in the hotel. At least he was wishing all the guests a Merry Christmas, I guess it could have been more disturbing, ha!

Brooke, Kristin, and Mom I took this just for y'all. Get ready for our Gingerbread House contest coming up next weekend, I've got BIG ideas for mine! :)

We thought we were on our way out until Cade found more fun trains to look at, he LOVES trains-good thing that is the theme of his new big boy room coming very soon!

Tatum learned to say "choo choo chooo" after she heard Cade say it for about 30 minutes!

Cade, I will cherish this forever!

Very fun night at the Gaylord Ice! :)

Cousin Snugglin'

2011-12-07T19:20:00.000-08:00

Sunday we had our "Thanksgiving" with Jon's side of the family. The Patterson house was sick the week of Thanksgiving so it was just a little postponed this year. We had a fun day of eating chili, making crafts, playing non stop, and finally snuggling all together because they were all so wiped out!

Fun day!

Random few things:

Tatum said "choo choo" as Cade was singing the "Chuggington song"-it was so so cute!

It's official-I am addicted to Starbucks hot chocolate...is it really that bad for me?

I am LOVING the Advent Calendar of things to do each day with the kids!

Cade said "mommy you are beautiful today" and also "mommy you are a pirate princess" Love that!

I am LOVING all the Christmas cards that are arriving-love love love this time of the year!

I could get really used to packages arriving at the house-can't wait to give our gifts!

It's 32 degrees outside, BRRRR!

I love that Cade wants to read the Christmas story everyday, he already knows it's Jesus' birthday and that's why we celebrate! When we see a nativity scene he says "Happy Birthday Jesus!"

Jon gave into the entire family having camo stockings this year, and "ok'd" the girls getting "girly" stockings! This is huge people!

It's 9:35 and I am off to bed, should 9.5 hours of sleep! Nighty Night!

Lights Show!

2011-12-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight the 4 of us went to dinner and a Christmas Lights show! Both kids behaved so well at dinner, we usually aren't that lucky to have BOTH behaving in a restaurant at the same time, but we sure will take it! Oh and yes the kids are in their Christmas pj's in a public place...never thought I would do that, but it's tradition to go look at lights in pj's-for the kids that is, ha! :)

Such a fun show to drive thru-over 4 million lights to Christmas music!

12 days of Christmas

Loved this!

LOVE that smile on Cade's face!

Fun family night! :)

Anniversary Date

2011-12-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

We had the best time!

I love surprises and I love that Jon was actually able to surprise me and not give away our date, SO not like him! He told me to pack an overnight bag and to dress in something nice! He took me to the new Omni Hotel in Dallas-which is just beautiful and to dinner in the hotel at our fave Bob's Steak and Chop House, yum! Here is my dinner, my mac and cheese was left out, but it was amazing! Jon thinks I'm crazy, but the carrot is my favorite part!

We exchanged 3 gifts at dinner, this was the theme of the gifts, SO FUN!

(Sinco-had to go with the "s" theme hehe)

my date!
Thursday was our actual 5 year anniversary-we got Olive Garden to go and decorated the house for Christmas-great night of celebration with our babes!

These were in our room, YUM!

We ate breakfast at Texas Spice in the hotel the next morning and it was SO delicious, definitely need to go back there! We ended the date Saturday with massages, that was one of my gifts from Jon-YES he is the best! Happy 5 years to my love!

Thank you mom and dad for taking great care of the kiddies, we truly appreciate y'all! Nothing like going to pick up the kids playing in a tent in the living room having a blast, needless to say they didn't like the idea of coming home, ha!

Well the Christmas season is HERE, finally! We are in full swing of the elf on the shelf, our advent calendar of fun Christmas activities, and holiday cheer! LOVE this time of the year!

You are the LOVE of my life!

2011-12-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

"I am amazed, when I look at you, I see you smiling back at me it's like all my dreams come true

I am afraid, If I lost you girl, I'd fall through the cracks and lose my track, in the crazy lonely world...
Sometimes, it's so hard to believe, when the nights can be so long, and faith gave me the strength and kept me holding on....

You are the love of my life

and I'm so glad you found me

you are the love of my life

baby put your arms around me

i guess this is how it feels

When you finally find something real

my angel in the night

you are my love

love of my life

Now here you are, with midnight closing in, you take my hand as our shadows dance with moonlight on your skin

i look in your eyes, I'm lost inside your kiss, I think if I'd never met you about all the things I'd missed...

Sometimes it's so hard to believe, when a love can be so strong, and faith gave me the strength

and kept me holding on....

my angel in the night

you are my love

LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!!"

Happy 5 year anniversary babe, that was my favorite song at our wedding and I cannot wait to celebrate with you this weekend! :)

Cade's THIRD birthday!

2011-11-28T05:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Cade Michael,

Happy THIRD Birthday! We had so much fun celebrating you and made it last as long as possible! I think you got to blow out candles about 10 times, and you loved it every time! You are the sweetest little boy and I can't get enough of you every day! What are you up to these days? Well, you wake up promptly between 6:45-7 everyday...your daddy prefers you to wake up earlier so he can see you before he goes to work. When you wake up you come snuggle with me and drink your milk and you can't wait for your little sister to wake up to join us! We play in the mornings and then if you don't have school you and Tatum take a morning nap, or as you call it "rest time!" You do LOVE school days that's for sure! You are also in gym class once a week and you call it "gliss glass" I think it's so cute! You are learning all kinds of fun "tricks" at gym and I am SO proud of you! You nap in the afternoons from about 3-5:30 and then we usually go wait for daddy outside to get home from work. At dinner time you LOVE to say our blessing....just recently you've changed your prayers from singing "God our Father" to an actual prayer with words that come from your heart. The other night you reminded me to be thankful for the smallest things that you said in your prayer. You still like to dip all your of food in ranch and ketchup, and you are the best eater! You go to bed at 8:15-30ish and still sleep in your crib. You could care less about potty training, although we are encouraging and bribing you with it all! You amaze me every day with how smart you are and how you love to learn new things! Right now you love to play with cars, your new scooter and bike, puzzles, super why game, toy story people, and you are very into your veggie tales movie! Cade your daddy and I love you SO much and are SO thankful we have you as our son! You are such a blessing! Happy 3rd birthday!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Now, on to the celebrations!

Friday November 25th was Cade's 3rd birthday, and boy was he counting down the days!

We had donut's, birthday boy's choice!

My parents came over and delivered Cade's birthday present, his FIRST bike!
He LOVES it so much, thank you Mom and Dad! Since it's been so cold he's been riding it in the house, yep yep we have entered that house with riding toys in the living room!

Jon, Tatum, and I gave Cade a scooter and he loves it so much! At nap time the scooter has to be parked in his room to keep and eye on it I guess...Corbin has a scooter and Cade has been asking for one for a long time!

We met both of our families for lunch at chuck e cheese, such a fun time!

birthday boy has the best of both worlds, games and pizza!

And then we were off to Great Wolf Lodge!

Jon and I started this tradition with Cade when he was one and it's been so much fun to look forward to each year! Cade loves to swim and since he has a winter birthday, what's better than an indoor water park! :)

Tatum had a blast! It was so funny to see her little self walking in the water, she is growing up too fast!

Cade couldn't get enough of the water, slides, wave pool, you name it, he loved it all!

Birthday boy!

I think he might have gone down the blue slide 50 times, for real!

Going back to the room to get ready for dinner!

We love that the hotel is decorated for Christmas and it's normal to wear your pj's everywhere in the hotel!

sissy coloring in the giant coloring books at the restaurant

kids trying to open the treasure chest with the magic wand

hot dog was the birthday boys choice. Man, donuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and hot dog for dinner, glad he only has one birthday a year! Kids story time!

And then it was time to crash! Sleep situations are always a bit interesting in hotels, but it worked! At one point the kids wanted to sleep together, this didn't last long, hehe! We all crashed by 9!

We got breakfast to go from the restaurant and ate overlooking Cade's favorite place, the water park!

Time to go home, he sure had a blast!

Happy THIRD birthday Cade, we had a blast celebrating you!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T09:25:00.000-08:00

What a great Thanksgiving!

We woke up Thanksgiving morning and made breakfast, cooked my corn casserole's for our Thanksgiving meals, and made a Turkey with Cade! He has the sweetest heart and is thankful for SO much! I love how he tells us "thank you" for the smallest things! I am SO thankful for him!

I will keep this turkey forever! I've become the craft collection junkie, I mean who can really throw away these priceless creations?! :)

We spent Thanksgiving lunch over at my nanny and papa's house! As always that is such a special time that I will always cherish! And lunch was SO delish!
Tatum hanging out with Uncle Matt

Kids eating together

Does Miss Priss look like a big girl here or what?!

Nanny and Mom

Sisters!

Nanny set up 3 tables and had festive centerpieces for each to fit everybody, she's quite the hostess!

A few of the dining roomers!

The kids made the turkey treats we made the night before and it was a huge hit!

Cade's birthday was the day after Thanksgiving this year so we celebrated and sang to Cade a day early! Thank you mom for making this cake, so cute!

I'm pretty sure he got to blow out candles at least 10 times in the past few days!

Thank you Nanny and Papa for a great Thanksgiving!

Nanny and Papa give the kids and each couple an ornament each year. They have done this since we were little kids and we still have ALL of them (minus a few that were scattered after the tornado blew our house away when i was in 3rd grade), the kids were so excited!

After the kids took a little nap we headed out to Jon's parents house for Thanksgiving dinner!

They gave Cade a little lawn mower and a wheel barrel for his birthday that was Jon's when he was 3, it's so cute and I am so glad they kept that to give our little mini Jon on his 3rd birthday! Thank you Mimi and Pops!

The kids had a great time playing!

Pops and his little granddaughter!

Cade loves this train, and he even offered on his own for Tatum to have a turn, so sweet! Kind of spoiled with toys over at Mimi and Pops house! :)

but they sure have fun!

We have SO much to be thankful for each and every day of the year! Tonight when Cade was saying Tatum's night night prayers and he was thanking Jesus for everything that came to his little mind, he said "thank you Jesus for Tatum's milk in her bottle." How often we take the smallest things like milk for our kids for granted. We were able to spend Thanksgiving with both of our families and that itself is SO much to be thankful for!

I hope everybody had a Happy Thanksgiving!

(Now I'm off to ask ((more like beg and plead)) my husband to get out the Christmas decor, hehe!)

Turkey Treats!

2011-11-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Tonight we made Turkey treats!

Cade was REALLY excited about this and had so much fun!

You can kinda see the girls turkey, ours has pink jelly beans for feathers!
Jon gets really into these things, hehe!

Time for Tay to eat her Turkey!

Gobble Gobble!

We attempted to make these and had a fun time doing it!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Week in a nutshell

2011-11-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

Goodness, what a week!

Monday we went to my granddad's funeral, it was a very sad time for my family, but everybody is doing ok, missing him for sure though. My granny B seems to be keeping herself busy and we are trying to talk her into moving closer to us! At the end of the week we found out that a very good childhood friend/neighbor growing up was killed in a car accident, he was only 23 years old. We grew up down the street from the Brown family, they had 3 kids about the same ages as the kids in my family. Their mom was my moms best friend and we have SO many memories with them. I cannot believe that his life had to end that way and that young, my heart breaks right now for their family. As soon as we found out my parents hit the road to be with them. I've been reminded this week that it's a shock to us when we hear we've lost somebody we love, but God is not surprised by any of it, actually it's been His plan since the beginning. Although still very very sad. Please pray for the Brown family as they grieve, this is going to be very difficult. At some point during the week we found out my sis has to have kidney surgery this week too. Crazy! This morning Jon and I went to my cousin Sarah and Chris' church to hear them speak about their journey- they've been battling since April with Sarah's leukemia. It was amazing to hear Sarah and Chris tell their entire church their story without shedding a tear (although there was not a dry eye from their fan club family), they are so strong and I am SO proud of them for speaking their testimony today and giving God all the Glory and Honor! Seems like we kept hearing bad things happening all week, but God says He can bring good out of these situations and can overcome us from trials and tribulations. I pray especially for the Brown family that God will show Himself to them and carry them through this time of losing their son.

And as we enter into Thanksgiving week I count my blessings everyday for these...

My darling daughter, she blesses me more than I could ever have dreamed of

and my goodness (we've been saying "goodness" at our house A LOT lately as Cade has picked up on me saying "oh my gosh" when i am on the phone or in conversation and let's just say it sounds very tacky coming out of a little boys mouth so we are watching our words. Actually who ever says that "gosh" word goes to time out, Jon spent 2 minutes there this morning, sent by Cade, ha) here are my babies walking into church this morning! I am SO thankful for how sweet Cade is to his sister (at this time in his life anyways)! He calls her "princess Tay" and it makes me smile every time! Oh my word, Y'all this is the best stuff ever invented. I have mentioned Melaleuca before, but here is a product I will ALWAYS have on hand in my house. It is called Solumel and it's a stain remover. Stain remover for what you might ask? Well, it removed nail polish off my toes which sadly I must say the polish was from my last pedicure in July (really), it removes stains on carpet-such as ink, permanent marker,makeup, etc., it removes every stain imaginable off of clothes such as grease, ketchup, red juice, etc. AND, the best part-it's a better value and much safer for your home than oxy clean/spray and wash/nail polish remover/carpet stain remover/etc. And you will love the lemon blossom smell. Also, this tiny bottle is concentrated so you mix 5 capfuls of solumel in a spray bottle with water and it is easily 3x cheaper than your usual stain remover-and of course all in one bottle! If anybody is interested in this product or 350 other household items that are WAY better for your home email me and I will hook you up with my friend who introduced me to Melaleuca!
Yesterday we had a party hopin kind of day!
We celebrated Beckham's 2nd birthday yesterday morning...

and Brylee's 3rd birthday yesterday afternoon. Needless to say last nights plans were cancelled for us and the kids slept for 14 hours! Fun day for sure!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

Cade's THIRD birthday Party!

2011-11-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated Cade's 3rd birthday with family and friends and an indoor play place (SO the way to go for parties)! Cade chose a pirate party theme and he had the best time! :) Thank you SO much to all the wonderful friends and family that came today to celebrate my little guy! We have 13 more days to soak up our 2 year old until his real birthday!

Enjoy pics of the party!

Happy Party Day Cade!

Missing Grandad

2011-11-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

This morning at 7:38 my Grandad (dad's dad) went to be with Jesus. Yesterday he had a heart attack and was care flighted from Corsicana to a Dallas hospital to be treated. Last night soon after he arrived in Dallas we were able to be with him. He didn't remember much about the heart attack or even how he got to where he was, but he held my hand and talked to me about the kids, talked to me about how much he loved me, and told me to take good care of my babies! I'm not exactly sure why he passed away this morning, if it was a result of his heart attack or if something else happened, but I do know that it was his time to go to heaven and be with our Jesus! I wonder why Jesus didn't take him when he was in such awful pain during his heart attack, but I think maybe it was so all of our family could surround him with love last night! We are all very, very sad, but we know that he is in a heavenly place and we will see him again! We are going to take such good care of my Granny B, this is going to be the hardest on her. For my dad; my heart breaks for him to not have his dad here anymore, and it makes me even more thankful for all the time I get to spend with my dad and how even though I'm a married woman and mom now he still takes care of me! When you lose someone you love it makes you stop and think about how precious relationships are and that each day is such a blessing! We are SO thankful for my grandad and all the memories we have with him!

As I looked for pics of Grandad today I noticed that I have SO many of him and Cade! He sure loved the kids!

Grandads exact words this past spring, "anybody who lives long enough to be 80 better get a party" and sure enough he had one, a big one! And, i am SO happy we did!

Grandad's words to us for as long as I can remember (even when I was a little girl) right before we would leave from visiting were "come back and see me" and we sure will, someday!

We love you Grandad!

Life Lately

2011-11-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

I can't believe today is already the 10th of November, this time of the year ALWAYS goes by so fast! I am loving the cooler weather, Christmas shopping, birthday party planning for my nearly 3 year old, my addiction to Starbucks, and most importantly spending my days with my babes! :)

Here's what we've been up to:

Taum, Gigi, and I spent one of Cade's school days last week at the Galleria. We had the most fabulous time shopping and dining together!

Opening gun shooting hunting weekend (excuse my improper hunting terms) was last weekend so Jon was away...and while he was away we played!

Tatum and I went to a baby shower for a friend Jon has known for a long time, look at her such a priss!
Pops took Cade to lunch during the shower and when they got back Mimi and Pops had to show off the Cade man (little Jon) and of course the granddaughter of the family!
Tanna and I had a fun day at Canton together, love this girl!

While Jon was away the kids and I spent the weekend at my parents house. Brad also went hunting so Brooke and the kids joined us too! Lots of fun! Yeah, my parents like the boys to go hunting! ha!

Saturday night was Jen's gender party, SUCH a fun night of celebration!

Jen wanted to have a girl, SO SO SO SO bad y'all.

And....

She is! It's a girl! :) So happy for Mark, Jen, Julia, and Mitch! So cannot wait to meet Jen's little girl!

Little mamma is SO happy! Who would have thought just 6 years ago we were all in college together and now we all have little girls (and boy for me too :))

Tay being Tay!

Jon and I went to a DBU dinner on Monday night! Such a handsome date I had, thank you mom and dad for letting the kids spent the night!

Lots of fun in this cool weather!

Look where I found the priss the other night when I was cleaning the kitchen....

Yesterday we had a jammie day. Wednesdays are really the only days this can ever happen and about once (okay maybe twice) a month we take full advantage of it! I got so much work done yesterday and lots of crafty things done for Cade's party this weekend!

And I will leave you with this sweet girl...

doesn't she just make you smile! :)

My daughter is WALKING!

2011-11-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Yes indeed, Tatum Lauren took her first set of steps at the age of 15 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days old! Fortunately for my parents, they were there to see it....unfortunately for Jon (which by the way ALWAYS gets to see first's-just seems to happen that way) and I (her mother who spends every hour of every day with) missed it! Cade was also 15 months when he started walking, my babies are growing up! Pause the music, tilt your head a little, excuse my baby talkin' to my daughter, oh and my mom might kill me for posting her in her pj's.

Yay for Tay!

Pics that I am LOVING!

2011-11-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

[CAUTION-This post will involve LOTS of bragging/boasting/gloating in a thankful way, for my children and their photographer]

This morning at the wee hour of 8ish, Brooke and I dressed our girls in their FABULOUS Matilda Jane dresses that my mom bought for them, packed up a few tea party dishes that were my great grandmothers, and headed out to my parents back pasture for a little photo session with our gals! :) It was COLD, and I forgot Tatum's white under shirt like Kenzie's, and Tatum was NOT all smiles a this hour (after all I did wake her up), but I do have to say this is pretty darn cute! :)

And THEN, there is this little stud boy that happens to be my son, that happens to be having a pirate birthday party next weekend, that happens to nearly be three, that happens to be so handsome and I just can't get enough of him! Yesterday after Cade woke up from his nap Brooke took him on a 3 year photo shoot. Forget me trying to get him ready, because there was no WAY he was going to wear that bandanna for me. But first time Auntie Brooke told Cade that he should wear it he was ALL about it! Stinker boy! All 5 kids, Brooke and I had a slumber party at my parents house. Corbin and Cade were still talking after the lights were out and we joked about how all they needed was for Brooke to walk in there and tell them to stop and we won't hear another peep, sure enough! Anyways...Brooke took Cade on a fun little adventure and these are SO worth bragging about!

Ah HEM, Ahoy Matey! Let me introduce to you my little pirate boy Cade!

Those are just 4 of the bunch that she took! If you would like to contact Brooke for pics of your kiddos/family here is her blog. And one last thing....Thank you Brooke for all the time you spend with my kids and photographing all the milestones and some in between, I will cherish these pics forever, love you! :)

Cousin Lovin'

2011-11-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today we reunited all the cousins together on my side for a fun fun day at Nanny and Papa's! It's been a while since we've ALL been together and it sure was great! The kids were all VERY hyper and full of excitment to see each other! We played outside, ate pizza and cupcakes on the porch, and dressed up in Halloween costumes!

FUN cousin day!

And this was our evening tonight....

Met Jon for dinner after work

and lots of snuggling on this cold and rainy night!

By the way, I can't get enough of Cade wanting to lay so close to me, I will cherish these memories forever!

Halloween Festivities Day 2&3

2011-11-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening we met up with Jon's family at a pumpkin patch and had a great time!

Jon's mom brought bbq sandwiches that I've been craving for a LONG time from a bbq place near their house, they were delicious and I devoured two! :)

We had a picnic, went on a hayride, played on the playground, picked pumpkins in the maze, rode tractors, we had a fun fun time!

Cade telling Mimi something important!
Pops and Beckham feeding the cows!

Jon trying to be a kid again!

sweet baby!

Tay LOVES her daddy!

Cade thought it would be fun to take all these home, ha! That didn't' happen!

In the maze, he LOVED this!

And we finished the night off with fun treats from Mimi and Pops! :)

Thank you, thank you! :)

On Halloween night we had my family over for chili and trick or treating around the neighborhood! Kim came dressed up as Rapunzel and man oh man did Kenzie LOVE that! She felt like we were at Disney all over again, wouldn't that be fun! :)

Kids playing, we joke and say our backyard looks like a daycare, ha! :)

Uncle Brad and all 5 children eating dinner!

Yum yum!

hanging out

They are just the cutest thing ever! Matt brought the kids those little figurines, not exactly sure what they were called, but it was sweet he did that all on his own and the kids loved them! :)

The girls!

my baby strawberry, she is the sweetest one EVER!

and introducing "Lightning McQueen Cade" :)

Ladies with Tay Tay

Sis is making a face that looks just like her daddy here....

trick or treating! Cade wasn't sure about it at first and then he LOVED it so much! He would say "i learned how to trick or treat mamma!"

Cute Buzz!

We finished the night off with a neighborhood stroll on the four wheeler!

and Hal gifts too, thank you gigi and papaw!

Cade loved his new jammies, slipper boots,and bouncy ball!

I was just telling a friend this morning that we are very spoiled, blessed, and beyond THANKFUL to live so close to our families! Neither one of us know anything different, and we sure wouldn't have it any other way! Thankful for these memories with both of our families, definitely counting our blessings!

Halloween Festivities Day 1

2011-10-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

It's Halloween Weekend!

The fun started this morning at a local festival! My little brother had a character drawing booth, the kids had a blast and were SO tried when we got home!

And tonight we had a little get together with friends! We ate ALOT of appetizers/desserts, kids played, dressed up in their costumes, painted pumpkins, decorated pumpkin cookies,the men had a pumpkin carving contest and the weather was perfect!! Such a fun night with great friends!

FUN FUN day! :) I am one tired mamma, off to bed!

Muffin Munchkins!

2011-10-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Cade asked if we could make muffins this morning, and before I could even answer HE said "sure Cade!" Glad he's the boss around here, ha!

And for the priss - She is already into playing dressup....before I knew it this morning she had all my headbands and bracelets out, love that girly girl!

Thankful for simple things like making muffins with my babies this morning, don't ever want to forget all the fun times with my 2 1/2 year old little man (okay,he will be 3 in a month) and 15 1/2 month old sweet girl! :)

(Jon-don't worry, this is really all she ate, i promise)

And I will leave you with a little video of the Cade-erator! (pause the music so you can hear them)!

They make me SMILE! :)

Happy Friday!

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday!

2011-10-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Love LOVE love LOVE my family! :)

Light the Night!

2011-10-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we participated in Light the Night, a walk to help raise money for a cure, and help/hope for those battling leukemia. During the walk, we carried illuminated balloons, white for the survivors, red for the supporters, and gold for those who walked in memory of a lost loved one. So thankful for the meaning behind the WHITE balloon that Sarah proudly carried! What a fun event that we were ALL so excited to be a part of! Way to go cuz!Love her so much!

Proud parents!
The Rangers were also playing in Game 3 during the walk, thank goodness for technology so this Ranger fan could watch the game while supporting Sarah at the same time! :) Too bad they lost.

Clark clan. Thank you Mimi and Pops for babysitting our babes at home!

Brad and Brooke with Sarah

Joel and Kristin :)

Our group, SHINE FOR SARAH!

Sarah's fam!

she is so happy!

So proud of Sarah and Chris and the battle they have fought together since April and thankful for our God who made it all possible for Sarah!!

3 part post

2011-10-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

This will be a various/random blog of events

Thursday night I went to see Colbie Caillet with these lovely ladies!

Sing it girl! I LOVE her new song Brighter than the Sun, it's sooo great! She put on a great show!
Friday morning Cade came and got in bed with me like usual at about 6:45. He felt warm so I took his temp and it was 98.6...a few hours later I thought he still felt warm and took his temp again with a different thermometer and again it was normal. He kept asking me to hold him and to rest so I thought he was just tired and grouchy. After Cade and Tay woke up from their morning naps we set out to the Arboretum. Cade was a grouchy mess but he wasn't running any fever, so I thought maybe just having an off day.
Here is the only pic of the cousins I got together in their cute matching outfits!

Love them!

We met Kim, Bren, Kristy and Gage for a picnic....pretty day!

I think the kids look alot alike here! My sweet babies!

Pretty!

Thank you Gigi and Papaw for the kids cute fall shirts, love them!

best pic of the kids from the day! Thank you Brookie!

Love these mama's!

And that's about all we did at the Arb because Cade was a MESS! We got in the car and I just knew that boy had sick eyes and he was SO warm. It was pretty hot out yesterday but I still stopped to buy a thermometer on the way home and I am glad I did. 102 temp and a visit to the ped on the way home. Turned out Cade has the beginning of tonsillitis and his fever just didn't hit til the afternoon, typical time of day for fever to spike! Cade scares me with his sick/weak eyes when he docent feel good, so first sign of that I am usually at the ped within an hour, seriously! We were able to get a antibiotic yesterday and he is much better today!

When you are sick at this house you pretty much get whatever you want....and today that meant "chickenfila" as Cade says on a picnic in front of the tv with his daddy!

SO glad he is feeling better!

Tatum supporting the Rangers with her jersey and tutu today! :) She is TUTU cute, hehe! :)

Speaking of....the score is 14 St. Louis and 7 us....top of the 8th, we are going to need to PICK IT UP! :)
Happy Weekend!

Wild West Rodeo Day!

2011-10-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Cade's Rodeo Day at school, and boy did he look handsome! Jon takes such pride in taking Cade "shopping" for his rodeo day outfit (although he would never use the words shopping or outfit).

Thanks to a sweet friend that teaches at Cade's school for these pics of Cade riding the "horsies!"

My cowboys!
I love this picture! Jon is just crazy about the kids, he loves them so much and we are all 3 lucky to have him!

Cade and Kenzie greet each other like this every time they see each other, it's SO cute! By the way that's one cute cowgirl!!

Handsome

little

boy!

Happy Friday Y'all!

Fun at the ZOO!

2011-10-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a fun play day with Mimi, Aunt Ashley, Court and Beckham at the Zoo! We didn't see too many animals because the kids were quite content with the fish and playground area. They had a blast and were SO worn out when we left. Cade and Tatum both took a 2 hour nap before we left and crashed for 3 hours when we got home!

Mimi reading the kids a book she brought for them!

Lunch time!
Tatum had a BLAST!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

feeding the chicks and ducks

Oh the priss...she has decided she can get back up the slide this way much easier than going all the way around to the steps....oh my darlin'!

The gang!

Beckham might not like us too much one day, he has on Tatum's leggings here....he got his jeans soaking wet (i mean who really puts a river in the middle of the playground anyways?) so Tay let her cousin borrow her bottoms....we're all family!

Cade's favorite part of the zoo! Did you know that big orange fish is "Nemo", yep! :)

Playing

I think Tatum and Cade are taking their precious time on walking (tay could care less, really) and potty training (i mean Cade could sit in a wet diaper all day if I let him). Oh well, it makes it easier on me, but I am encouraging BOTH of them to happen! Like my ped told me on Monday, "hey, just push Cade back and potty train them at the same time" I am pretty sure he was joking!

Cade loved the fish so that means Tay does too! Sweet girl!

Aunt Ashley and our princess baby!

ridin' the horsey!

These boys were tired, i bet they crashed on the way home!

Tatum telling mimi something important

We were on the way out and we just HAD to ride this....happy kids!

Fun day at the ZOO!

Sunshine!

2011-10-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

"You are my sunshine

my only sunshine.

you make me happy

when skies are grey.

you'll never know dear,

how much i LOVE you

please don't take my sunshine away!!!"

About 5 times a day Cade will ask me to sing the sun song to him and man does he light up! :) Love my sunshine babies!

We got Boo'd!!

2011-10-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I went to check the mail and I had 3 packages on my front porch! One was my Melaleuca order (which is an all natural/green company I recently became a member of to purchase household items that are much safer/less expensive/and WAY better than what I was buying at the store), Cade's birthday party invitations (which are WAY cute), and this lovely pumpkin bucket full of goodies!

Our neighborhood plays a little Halloween game called "You got boo'd" how fun!

We copied the family that boo'd us (gotta love Target's dollar spot) and boo'd 2 other families! Once you get boo'd you place your "boo'd" sticker on your door or window so others know you've already been boo'd! haha, we had fun with this!
We borrowed my parents fun Polaris toy for a few weeks at our house...Cade loves it so much and says "daddy go faster!"

Kids delivering our boo baskets!

Okay, Jon and I got into it a little too!

If you live in a neighborhood and want to play this game search the Internet for "neighborhood boo game" or print the 1st and 3rd pic on this post!

Jon and I had fun with the kids driving around and looking for all the boo'd stickers on doors, now Cade seems to think there is always going to be a fun package on the front porch everyday....wouldn't that be fun!

Have a great day! :)

Family Weekend Getaway!

2011-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

We just came home from a low key, no schedule, home cookin', four wheeler ridin', bike ridin', playground playin', camping (as brooke would say), roughin it (as jon would say I did), family laughin', ping pongin', nature trailin', smore makin' good ole' family time! It was really great to get away from all the busyness and just chill out a few hours away with the fam!

We had a cabin with 2 bedrooms, and 4 beds. My parents slept in their motor home and we had the bright idea for all 5 kids to sleep together in one room.....hahahahaha is all I can say about that! It was fun!
Thanks mom and dad for a fabulous weekend!

These kids rode bikes SO much!

Brad cooked us a super delicious breakfast Saturday morning. I was actually helping him cook until i got fired from my bacon duty! The campground had a fun playground where we spent alot of our time!

ping pongin'

Cade was loving ALL of the outdoor life this weekend!

pretty lake!

Supporting our Rangers Saturday for the big game! Jon had tickets for the game....we really had to twist his arm to come back for it, haha! I'm glad he did, he had a blast and this makes 2 years in a row he got to be at American League Championship! GO RANGERS!

Jon taking his girls for a 4 wheeler ride, Tatum LOVED it!

She has him wrapped around her little finger, already!

matt hanging with cade

Cade got to pick out a new toy at Target on Friday to take for the "caycation (vacation)" of course he picked out a toy he already has 2 of at home...

Everywhere Cade went ALL weekend, there was woody too! How cute is this little guy!

We HAD to capture this moment! Let's just say the 4 of us kids did NOT learn how to cook from our dad! He said he was cooking his share for the weekend, way to go Dad!

all their babies!

I just love them to pieces!

This time 6 years ago is when it all started....love him!

Little bro and mom-we missed Kim this weekend! And Kristin too!

First bike ride!

building a log cabin

oh my darlin!

awwwww

The kids LOVED this!

hanging out! The weather was perfect!

Brothers will always be brothers even at the age of 28!

sweet boy, can't believe he is about to be 5!

our rides for the weekend!

playin' while we were loading up

We finished the weekend off with pizza when we got home at my parents house! Fun fun time, can't wait to go back! SO blessed and SO thankful for family, love y'all! :)

"I've got the Joy Joy Joy...."

2011-10-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Cade is VERY into singing songs these days! A few of his favorites are My God is so Big, ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and probably about 10 more! But, my absolute favorite song that Cade loves to sing is I've Got the Joy Joy Joy Joy down in my heart! I taught Cade that song one day while we were swinging at the playground in my parents backyard. He learned it quick and it has stuck with him! I love how when he sings that song he wants to smile so big because he sees me so happy when he sings it but he tries not to smile so big or he can't sing the song. Oh my love for that baby boy of mine! Tatum has even learned how to do motions to the songs Cade sings and it's the sweetest thing ever! When I went to pick up Cade from school today the director told me that Cade helped lead the songs in chapel today! I wish so bad I could have seen that!

Here are the children this morning before school! Today was picture day at school and Cade was looking extra special handsome today.....hey the boy even had a good hair day!

Does my 15 month old (tomorrow) look like such a big girl here or what?! She is growing up into little girl so fast....i can't get enough of her!
So who really wants to take pics anyways?!

Today was my only child day with Tatum! I love these days with her because I know Cade is at school having the best time and it gives me time with just my little priss like I had with Cade before Tay was born! I am so glad I didn't send her to school this year...I love these days with her! Here we are today at lunch, love my lunchdates with her and Gigi on school days!

I remember when my sister, brothers and I were little and my mom said she had us because we give her JOY! Well, I can SO relate to that now! My little man Cade and darling daughter Tatum give me so much JOY!

I've got the "Joy Joy Joy Joy down in my heart!!!"

This and That

2011-10-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Another week has gone by and no blogging....busy? Yes, always...but the week just got away from me! Tuesday night we got to have a sleepover with Gage! Fun for us, but not for his momma , she was sick with the stomach bug. Jon had it the Thursday before and since then I've heard of at least 15 people we know having it, and even going through the entire family, yuck! Sure hope it's over soon and out of season! We had fun with Gage, he fits right in around here!

Wednesday the kids and I met Ashley, Beckham, Court, and Mimi for lunch at to play....
and it was Mimi's Birthday! Happy Birthday Mimi! We had a fun time and the weather was so pretty for fun day outside!

Cade had a blast and never stopped, hence the rosy cheeks!

Boys playin' in the dirt.

Thursday was a good day! Sarah had a bone marrow biopsy earlier in the week and she found out at her clinic appointment Thursday that she is still in remission, no cancer! Praise the Lord, right!! We had a celebration lunch! That is the best news, EVER! So happy for Sarah and her great news!

We wore Tatum out Thursday during brothers school, poor girl!

Friday night was the Stars first game of the season, GO STARS! Fun night out!

and Stars WON!

We finally took family of 4 pictures on Saturday, we are hoping to replace our mantle portrait which is just the 3 of us. Let's be honest taking pictures with 2 children (3 children if you count their daddy, j/k) and 2 adults really isn't fun, right? I think our photographer was able to get a few good ones but man oh man was I glad when we they were over. It's really just stress, chaotic stress! But, I do love having the pics in my house, I am sure it will be worth it! Thank you to my sis for coming along to help the children, well how about all of us, smile!
We took it easy the rest of the day!

Tay going in for a kiss and all Cade really wants is to ride his tractor alone....brother/sister LOVE!

Today was a rainy/lazy day!

We ended the weekend with a family dinner at my parents house tonight! I told my mom I really needed a good home cooked meal cooked by her! It was so good and the best meal I've had in a long time!

The kids thought so too!

Well I am off to get organized for the week!

100th Day Celebration!

2011-10-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Remember this day back in April. We were all scared, but started praying and trusting God, and here Sarah is on her 100th day!!! Welcome to a little glimpse of a little party, but a HUGE HUGE day!

We had a PAR-TAY for Sarah last night, it was her 100th day since her bone marrow transplant, and definitely a day worthy of celebrating! Her doctor said after her transplant that after 100 days she would start to feel more normal....last night she said the past 2 weeks she has felt the best she has so far, which is great to hear! She has her days where she still hurts, and other days where she feels like being out and shopping. Sarah will continue treatment for several months as she continues to recover from leukemia/transplant. Thank you for all the prayers, support, and love for Sarah, Chris, and their family! Please continue to pray for them! Sarah said last night this was the first party of many more as she continues to heal and meet another HUGE goal!

Nanny and Papa have been pretty much on call for Sarah since April 22nd, from cooking meal after meal and delivering it to the hospital, to sitting with Sarah so she didn't ever have to be alone, to taking her to appointments, to laundry, to so many more things. They have done some of it all and everybody is thankful for them!
cousins! We were sad to miss Heather. Heather and her family moved back in the spring, but she has been in and out of town for Sarah while she was in the hospital, was able to be in the room with Sarah during her transplant, and got to spend this past weekend with Sarah. They keep up with Sarah just as if they lived here! We missed the Adler clan at the celebration, but so thankful for them. Sarah definitely lights up when she gets to spend some sister time with Heather and see the kids too!

My mom and Sarah. My mom did SO much to help make it a fabulous party for Sarah last night!

Auntie (aka Sarah's mom)! I think she deserves a party too, for real, a big party! Sarah had leukemia when she was 4 and my aunt saw her through that journey. Then, 23 years later she has to see her daughter fight leukemia again. She is a very strong woman (to say the least) and truly has been through it all! I will never forget my aunt calling my mom in April and telling her something was wrong with Sarah and she didn't know what just yet. I could hear my aunts voice as my mom sat next to me just so scared for her daughter, i cannot imagine. Sarah is a lucky girl to have such a strong momma! Auntie would spend lots and lots of nights with Sarah in the hospital, hardly sleep (some nights prob not at all) and then go to work the next day and come do it all again the next day, she would always be there for Sarah during her chemo days, she spent many many many hours in Sarah's room and was always so strong for her, and continues to do SO much for Sarah since she has been home! I love her and so happy Sarah has her for a momma!

100 balloons were let go from Sarah and Chris as they are free of the first 100 days! What an accomplishment! Anytime Chris would update about Sarah he would say "we have a biopsy tomorrow" or "we have another round of chemo tomorrow." He has been so great to her and has truly gone though so much WITH her, so proud she has Chris! When she was in the hospital he spent many nights on that very uncomfortable couch they call a bed and then have to work hard the next day, for days and days and days. How hard it must be to want and need to be there every minute of everyday with his wife, but also have to continue to work. He loves her SO much! Chris has been SO thankful and appreciative of everything that everybody has done for them! Sarah is very lucky to have him!

Loved this!

We made a "you did it" card for Sarah.

Kim, Amanda, and Nanny eating dessert with Sarah....homemade vanilla ice cream and funfetti cake, Sarah's choice after a mexican feast for dinner! I didn't get a pic of Sarah's brother Jeremy, he helped out alot with the party too and has been beyond supportive and loved his big sis everyday of this!

Sarah and her dad. Same thing as I said about my aunt, they are so super strong and have trusted God with their daughter. He has had cancer too, so they are both fighters!

Papa and Sarah! I think this is the best pic of my Papa I have ever seen! It gives him such joy to be with Sarah and help her with anything they can!

It takes an entire family! I am so glad Sarah doesn't have to go through this alone, not one day. She is SO SO loved! We thank God for these 100 days and give Him all the glory!

Girls Weekend!

2011-10-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend with my favorite college ladies! We all lived together (well basically, 2 apts next to each other, we even asked for the wall in the kitchen to be knocked out so we could have one big happy atp, it didn't happen tho, hehe) and have stayed so close since college, these girls are truly life long friends that I love SO much! :) We spent the weekend at a fabulous hotel Fri and Sat night, treated ourselves to the spa, ate alot of yummy food, had lots of girl talk, laughed A LOT, saw a movie, relaxed, never had to be on a schedule, shopped, and really just had the best time! :) It's been a tradition to take a trip big or small together each year, or maybe twice a year and it's really something I look SO forward to! :) We even talked about year 2014's trip over the weekend, hehe!

We like to think/call ourselves sorority sisters, at the time our college didn't have sorority, but we SO were our own! :)
Jon got a stomach bug Thursday night that was terrible, very terrible...I just knew it was going to drag out and the kids or myself were going to catch it and the weekend was going to be not so according to plan (and I might have cried), but thankfully, oh so thankfully Jon was able to get some great meds and the kids and I stayed well! Jon was able to make it to the deer lease for opening bow hunt weekend, happy daddy/husband-and I was able to spend the weekend (which I've been looking forward to for months) with my girlfriends-happy mommy/ wife! AND, the kids were in great hands with Mimi and Pops for the weekend, thank yall so much!

We might have taken this pic on timer 12 times, and how I wish all 12 of them were online appropriate so I could see them in 10 years, ha!

Jen and Mich are having babies together, just a week apart, SO happy for them! :)

It's crazy how life has changed SO much for all of us since our college years and no matter what (even the friends that have moved away) nothing has changed between us!

Great weekend with GREAT friends!

I must document something my son at the age of 2 years and 10 months just said to me...."mommy, i gotta tell you something (as he ran from the living room to the dining room where I am blogging), i gotta tell you something (as he laid his head on my arm and wrapped his arms around me) I love you, that's all!" Really, I feel like the luckiest mommy ever, it's the little things that are such BIG things to me, he did it 3 times maybe because he knew how excited i got the first time or maybe (hopefully) he just loves me that much!! I was thinking today as I was driving (not too fast, just as fast as I could at 7:30am to pick up the kids, by the way who doesn't sleep in when they have the chance with no kids and no husband to awake you? Must be me, um 2 days in a row, why oh why?) anyway, i was thinking that as much as I missed my kids this weekend, as much as I thought about them, called to check on them, talked about them etc. time away with girlfriends is SO much needed! Might sound weird, but I also think it makes me a better mom. I happily pour SO much into my children/husband everyday and sometimes I need to get that for myself! Same thing with Jon and getting away to the lease! I am thankful for family that loves babysitting our babies, a husband that thinks it's awesome for me to get away (basically anytime I want), and fabulous girlfriends! Hope everybody had a great weekend! :)

I love you Mustard

2011-09-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

The kids and I have had a day at home, and it's been super productive! Cade loves days like this where he can stay in his pj's all day (well make that all 3 of us) and play play play! I love this picture of Tatum, she looks alot like my baby pics here....

Here is Cade bowing his head thanking Jesus for "my breakfast, my princess sister, and my deuce and sugar" (Jon we didn't make the family prayer list today). I love that he holds Tatum's hand as he prays....
I had to capture this moment too, they watched a show together, Tatum actually sat there with Cade for 20 min. :)

Tatum will walk with her grocery cart, but not alone just yet.

Let me explain the title of this blog....

This conversation happens several times a day and I love it so much that I need to look back and read it when he is 13....

Me-"Cade, I love you so much"

Cade-"I love you too mommy"

Me-"I love you more"

Cade-"I love you mustard (moster)"

These two make me SO happy! :)