So Very Thankful...

Well, Thanksgiving is over and now it's on to Christmas. Where does the time go?

We had such a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving in Lubbock, with our family. We were able to spend 4 days in Lubbock. We had Thanksgiving lunch with Bryan's parents and Mema and then Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, brother and his family.

I feel so incredibly blessed to be part of such an amazing family. My family has always been close and I always prayed that God would allow me to marry into a family that also shared this same kind of closeness. God answered that prayer when I married Bryan. My husband is the most wonderful husband in this world! He is gentle, kind, unselfish, funny, witty and the hottest pastor I know!!! He is an amazing son, husband, son-in-law, father, FRIEND. I am THANKFUL God brought him into my life. I am also THANKFUL for his family. I'm THANKFUL for the closeness we all share. My parents and my in-laws are such wonderful examples for Bryan and I and I only pray that we can be half the parents they have been to us.

I'm THANKFUL for my two precious boys.   Isaiah and Samuel bring so much joy into our lives.  Children truly are a blessing from the Lord.  I can't imagine my life without our two little guys.  They help us see things from a child's point of view and as an adult, living in this crazy world, that is a nice thing sometimes!!!  I remember when Isaiah was born and the few months thereafter when I wondered if those days would ever be behind us.  Isaiah was our firstborn and I won't lie, I had a tough time.  Don't get me wrong, I loved him but being a new and inexperienced parent was really hard.  I always thought to the future with Isaiah - when would he sleep, roll over, sit up, speak, eat REAL food, walk, etc.  Of course he did all of those things and more and eventually I felt capable of being his Mommy.  Then, fast forward 2 1/2 years and along comes Samuel.  I had a hard time right after Samuel's birth just because I was worried about how Isaiah was feeling.  I made myself think that he was sad that he wasn't getting all the attention now and that made me really sad.  But, Isaiah couldn't have cared less.  He loved his little brother and he was going on with his world.  Once I realized this, life was much, much easier.  With Samuel, all the milestones mentioned above went WAY TOO FAST.  I wanted to freeze time.  It seems like he was born and now here we are 2 1/2 years later and he is not our baby anymore!!!  I am THANKFUL to God for all those hard times but even more THANKFUL for the wonderful boys they are growing up to be.  I love them deeply and pray for them daily.

I am THANKFUL for my relationship with God because without Him NONE of the above would be possible.  We were all sitting around the table with my in-laws on Thanksgiving and my father-in-law told us he wanted us all to go around the table and say what we were thankful for.  Isaiah was thankful for "God," and Samuel was thankful for "Spaghetti!"  They had other things they were thankful for all throughout lunch!!!  When it got to me I said that I was thankful to God because although I don't deserve anything, He has given me everything I ever asked for in a husband, in-laws, and kids.  This is so very true.  When I think back on my past and what COULD be my life right now, I am so very THANKFUL that God had other plans.  Yes, I have SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR, not only at Thanksgiving but ALWAYS!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.  I also wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas season.  

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Isaiah has always kept us in stitches with some of the things he says and now his brother seems to be following suit!

We are slowly introducing potty training to Sam and he is doing good. He knows that if he goes in the potty he gets M&Ms. He doesn't LIVE for the M&Ms and it doesn't necessarily make him WANT to use the potty but he knows when he does go that he gets them. Today he went in the potty and said, "Mommy, you so prowd of me?" I said, "Yes, I am very proud of you punkin!" Then he said, "I get emiems now?" Of course, he did. Later in the morning I had to go potty and he came in just in time to hear me and said, "Mommy, I so prowd of you; you get emiems now!" ADORABLE!!! No, Mommy did not steal any of his reward M&Ms.

Last year in school Isaiah learned a prayer that you sing. Well, Sam heard him say it so many times that he picked it up too. This year Sam is going to school too and his little class says the same prayer. EVERY NIGHT at dinner we have to say this prayer. Sometimes we start without praying and Sam says, "Hey, we din't say da pwayer!" So then we all hold hands, bow our heads and Sam starts...

God our Fader (God our Father - we repeat each line)
Once adin (once again)
We will ask yur bwessings (We will ask Your blessings)
A-amen (Amen)

It is the cutest thing EVER. Then bubba gets to say his prayer and then we can eat!

Now on to Isaiah...

First of all, he hears EVERYTHING so we have to be very careful (as any of you with pre-schoolers know)!!! Yesterday when we got to the car after picking up the kids from school, I noticed Sam had something orange all over the bottom of his shoes. We realized a bit later that it was play-dough. It was matted in the soles of his shoes and even after getting a knife after it, it is still not all out. I was frustrated and said to Bryan, "I think I'm gonna write his teachers a note telling them that we don't pay money for nice shoes only to have them ruined at school!" I KNOW I was only venting but Isaiah didn't know that! Today we had to go to Target and I didn't let Sam wear his shoes until we got to Target because I didn't want play-dough embeded into the carpet in my car!!! I was putting Sam's shoes on as we were all getting out of the car and Isaiah said, "Don't forget to write his teachers a note saying, "We don't pay good money for shoes for you to ruin them with play-dough!"" All I could do was laugh and make a mental note NOT to take Isaiah with me to drop Sam off at his class tomorrow!!!

Another funny thing...
Isaiah is in to Iron Man, Transformers, Power Rangers, etc. One day I took Isaiah with me to Wal-Mart for a few things. I promised him we could look at the toys while we were there. We were in the toy section and looking down the isles. We found the one with all the above mentioned toys he likes and he started shaking his head up and down slowly and said, "Awe yeah, daddy's home!" I burst into laughter right then and there.

I LOVE THESE MOMENTS!!! I LOVE MY BOYS!!!

Blog #1

Well, we have FINALLY joined the world of blogger's!!! I so enjoy looking at all our friends blogs and staying caught up on their lives. SO, now all our friends can keep up with us too!!! Being a stay-at-home mom, I SHOULD be able to keep this blog updated often but I'm not promising anything!!!

Here are a few recent pics of my boys! I LOVE to take pics of the boys but the older they get, the less often they are LETTING me get pics!!! Isaiah has got to be the biggest 5 year old Texas Tech fan there is!!! He loves to get decked out in his Tech gear as you can see in the picture. He really loves EVERY sport and thanks to Papa and Nana, he has just about every sport gear known to man. The problem: he thinks he HAS to be wearing a certain uniform to play a certain sport. He doesn't think you can play football if you're not wearing a football uniform, or that you can play baseball without wearing a baseball uniform. SO, he changes clothes more than the host of an awards show on television!!! Never a dull moment with Isaiah!!!

Samuel is our easy going child. It's amazing to me how two kids, from the same two parents can be SO different! Samuel likes to read, play with blocks, do puzzles...none of which Isaiah was EVER interested in!!! Samuel will play alone, while Isaiah has to have interaction with someone else at all times. Samuel will set and watch an animated show on TV while Isaiah has to BE that cartoon and act it out (most of the time ON his little brother)!!! The one thing they have in common...aggravating each other!!! I wish I could just walk around with a tape recorder that repeated, "Guys, leave each other alone," so I wouldn't have to SAY it 20 million times a day!!!

No matter how frustrated, upset, or frazzled I get, I wouldn't trade these times for ANYTHING in the world. My boys (Daddy included) mean the world to me and I thank God everyday that He has allowed me to be their wife and mother.

I hope you enjoy our site and come back to visit often!!!