33!

me and my precious kids

(and 2 delicious cakes!)

I've never thought my age sounded like it was getting older till I hit 33. I guess it sorta seems like it's getting closer to being "middle aged". But, I know it's still fairly young...and I still feel young. Truthfully, I still think of myself as a 20-something year old. I have to remind myself that I've had 3 kids and been married for almost 10 years, so there's got to be some time used somewhere in there. Seriously, though, I feel richly blessed. I get to stay home with my kids EVERY day. I live in a nice, warm, cozy home. I am married to an extremely kind, generous, loving and incredibly handsome husband. So, 33 is just my badge of wonderful things I've been fortunate enough to experience. Last week, Rach and Trent were sick, so Nick and I weren't able to go out for my birthday. This week, although I had the lovely stomach bug early in the week, we've all been feeling much better. So, Nick and I got to go to dinner last night, by ourselves (thanks J&D)! It was a spur of the moment thing, but so nice to get to look at each other and talk, or not. :) We enjoyed a great meal at Longhorn's and then went to Sam's Club. We were only gone a couple of hours, but it was nice being alone! Today, after Rachel's last Upward game, mom, dad, Joe and Deb went with us to a yummy mexican restaurant for dinner. Then, we had 2 delicious cakes to eat (thanks, mom!) when we got home. I had a great birthday this year and appreciate all the wonderful presents and sentiments!!! Love you all!!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents!

2006
2008
(sorry I couldn't find any pics of just y'all...
with 8 grandkids, one of them is always hangin' around y'all!) :)

38 years! WOW! What an incredible testimony in honoring your marriage covenant! You "take the good, take the bad, take them all and there you have"... 38 years of marriage! In a world where so many people (50% of marriages today??) end their marriage in divorce, instead you have loved, supported and treasured each other through thick and thin. Y'all have set a fabulous legacy for your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren...etc...to follow. Thank you for being parents who have set an example of love, honor and respect.

I love you both so much!

Happy 38th Anniversary mom and dad!

Rachel's Room Pt. 2

Rachel's room is a work in progress. I have lots of furniture to paint, but not the best weather to do it in. Meanwhile, we finally decided to buy a canopy from Lowe's. I had looked at several online and in catalogues, but the Lowe's one was the best deal. Rachel loves it and thinks it's fit for a princess. I also took her lampshade and hot-glued some fake rose petals to it just to give it a new look. It was fun to do, and we had nothing to lose since we've had the lamp since Rach was born. Hopefully we'll finish her room completely once the weather warms up.

Gooooooooooo Upward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rachel running out during introductions before the game began

She is excited!!
Prayer time before the game starts

My sweet little cheerleader

"1, we are Upward

2, a little bit louder

3, I still can't hear you...

4 more, let's score...

1!"

Rachel is enjoying cheerleading for Upward so much!! The other day, I really couldn't stop laughing at how adorable and hilarious she was being as she cheered. She was so "into" it all! Her yells/cheers were loud, her movements were enthusiastic and deliberate and her energy was very high! She was just having such a good time! The funniest part was her showing "spirit" after her cheers (the girls can jump, shake their pom poms up in the air or do a split)...she thought it was cool to do a split every time. And, she wanted me or Gege to look at her every time she did one. It was quite funny. I love her enthusiasm for everything and if she wants to be a little cheerleader, that's fine with me! She'll be great at whatever she does!!!

Toddling Trenty

"WAAAAAAAAAHHH!! Mom said I could NOT have the camera!!!!!!!!"

(Not a very common sight, since Trent is so laidback!)
"I LOVE to look outside!!"

"Will someone please take me out there!!?"

"I still can't have your camera??!! Aww, shucks!"

"Let's see what I can get into in sissy's room..."

Our little baby stinker is almost 10 1/2 months old and IS walking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the past couple of weeks, he has been letting go of various things he was holding onto and standing by himself. But, over the past couple of days, he has started to take some steps! And, we haven't even been pressuring him to do it...he would just let go of something he had pulled up to and then take a few steps. Tonight he took about 8 steps before he fell down! Of couse, we make a really big deal and clap and yell, and Trent gets a big grin and seems pretty proud of himself! So, where does he fit in compared to his sibs...Rach has the boys beat with walking (or trotting, since she wouldn't slow down) at 9 1/2 months!!! Bradley was walking pretty well at 10 1/2 months and since Trent is ALMOST (on the 14th) 10 1/2 months, he's neck and neck with his big bro! We're so excited to see him reach this precious milestone and are reminded again how thankful we are to have a healthy, normal developing baby!

Other things Trent is now interested in/getting into:

Peek-a-boo! He loves doing this with us...he likes to move his hand up to his forehead and then lower it, as in "where's Trenty?" (when his hand is on his forehead) and "there he is/peek-a-boo!" when he lowers his hand. Lots of fun and giggles with that. And, Rachel and Bradley love playing that game with him.

Making his brother and sister laugh...he discovered (in the car one day) that if he puts a toy on his head and his brother or sister notices, they will laugh and giggle uncontrollably, so he LOVES this game. He also loves to pull on his retractable window shade, which makes his sister and brother cry, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" in their loudest, silliest voices and they all giggle at this. (It makes for a fun, loud car ride.)

Outlets and cords...(sigh!) we enjoyed the many, many months where Trent didn't notice or touch the cords or outlets, but now he's fascinated by them. He has a one-track mind and will continuously crawl over to the ONE visible cord/outlet in the den and stand at it and touch it. He even smiles when he does it, as in "I know I'm not s'posed to, but I'm gonna anyway."

STAIRS!! He loves our stairs to the bonus room. He has discovered that they are fascinating how they raise him a little higher with each one and has climbed all of them (with me spotting him, of course) to get to the playroom. He's very proud of himself when I let him climb them too. Of course, there is a gate at the stairs at ALL times! :)

Oh, Trent is such a joy! The months are flying by and we'll be celebrating his 1st birthday in a couple of months!! We sure are crazy about our Trenty-poo!!!

Bubble bathing boys

2 cute bubble bathing babes
bubble-beard

relaxin' in the bubbles

eatin' and drinkin' some bubbles

aerial view

The boys took a bubble bath the other night...and thought it was so cool! Bradley made himself a bubble beard. Trent kept choking on the bubbles and his nose kept itching with the weird feeling of the bubbles against it. I thought they looked mighty cute in the tub (and was secretly jealous that I don't have much time these days for bubble baths!!). I'm sure they're going to love these one day!!

Day 4: A second visit to Magic Kingdom and relaxin' at the resort

Rachel's 1st time behind the wheel

(blue car)

The Disney train
sweetest girl ever

our family saying goodbye to DW...for now!

collecting seashells

Bradley LOVEd getting in the water!

Trenty tasting some sand-YUCK!

Headin' for the water

sweet Trenty enjoying his Gerber banana cookie

Rach and Brad dancing on our cabin deck

Rachel is showing off her Pooh bear wearing Trent's hat

2 VERY handsome fellas

little swimming champ

" ooooh! An extra-large tub!!!" -Trent

"I like it!" -Trent

"Ribbit! Ribbit!" -Bradley the frog

Trent's first experience with being thrown up into the air

All my babes! 4 blessings in my life!!

On our last day at Disney, we could have gone to another park, but we knew we wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom and do a couple of things we had not gotten to do the first day. We took a train ride on the Disney RXR around the park, rode the race cars, went on Buzz Lightyear again, rode the Barn Burner again, and Nick and Rach rode on Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was fun to go back to the BEST park in Disney one more time. We left around 3:30 and went back to Fort Wilderness where the kids played on the "beach" and got nasty in the sand. Trent tried out the sand for the first time and loved it!! He ate a little sand (oops!) and kept crawling for the water. He was perfectly fine with crawling straight into it! After that, we played on the Fort Wilderness playground for a little bit and then visited the horse area. They had several clydesdales (sp?) and some miniature ponies. They offered pony rides, but it was too late in the day to do one, even though Rachel wanted to. Then we went back to our room for our last night and ate food that we had brought with us. Rachel had been begging to go swimming, so even though it sprinkled a few different times, we got our suits on and headed up to the pool, which was about 10 minutes away on foot. The pool was huge and had had long, shallow steps that were great for Bradley to play on. There were only 4 other people there and they left after a few minutes, so we pretty much had it to ourselves. It was dark outside, but warm, and the pool was heated, so it felt great. Trent got to try out the pool for the first time and he loved it!! He was fascinated by the water and kept splashing his little hands. He was precious! Bradley loved hanging on the steps and being a "frog". Rachel jumped back in and swam as well as she did over the summer! She's a little fish! It was the perfect way to end our wonderfully, awesome vacation at Disney!! We swam for about an hour and then came home to get some sleep. I have to say, I would have loved one more day...one more day to go to a different park (or 2) and one more day to just relax and maybe swim some more or do some shopping. This was definitely a "taste" of what a Disney vacation can be and it's exciting to think that we can do even more the next time we go. I really can't wait to go back!!!! Disney World is truly a magical place!!!