Merry Christmas Eve

On this Christmas Eve I just wanted to post a picture of my babies b/c I am most thankful for them. I am so blessed this Christmas to be back home with my sweet family. I am so thankful for Cole and Chloe and the beautiful children they are to me. Thank you, Brent for giving me such a happy life! I love you!

Few pics from the weekend

Here are a few pics from this weekend we spent outside...

Ricky... Our Elf on the Shelf

Before Christmas is over I wanted to post just so that one day I can look back and remember our first Christmas with Ricky. If you haven't heard of the 'Elf on the Shelf' you must check it out. It's a book that comes with an elf and it's used for making your kids behave. This elf appears at your house around Thanksgiving, the kids name it, each night it flies back to the North Pole to report your behavior to Santa and then reappears in a new spot in your house each morning. I thought it would be a fun tradition to start and boy has it been fun. Cole named our elf, Ricky. Yes... Ricky! Not sure where he has ever heard that name but he acted like there could be no other name for his elf than Ricky so why not! Chloe doesn't have a clue but she does spot Ricky and points to him and squeals. I look forward to next year when she can participate. The first day Ricky appeared, I caught Cole with a ToysRus cataloge, telling him everything he wants for Christmas. It was so cute. He is so excited each morning to go find Ricky and he finds him so quickly! It may seems silly but this has added so much joy to our Christmas this year. I'll post a picture of Ricky later. I suppose that I need to use this blog more to document our lives and not just to report news for people to read. It is for that purpose too but I think I'll be better about posting if I use it more for the purpose of writing important times to remember in years to come. More later!

Way behind...

Wow! I am so behind! I haven't posted since August. How terrible of me! Since my last post we have moved from Pearland to Midland. Brent works for Concho Resources and loves his job. We lived with my parents for 3 months while house hunting, finding a house and totally redoing it. While we waited, Brent worked and I just got settled and helped our kids get used to our new life. Cole is now just shy of 4 years old! I can't believe my baby is almost 4! He is ending his terrible 3's and although he still has his moments, I can see him nearing the 4 marker. He is so smart and we just enjoy this time with him so much. He amazes me, cracks me up and he remains my sweet little Momma's boy. He is in PreK 3 at Hillander School where he has adjusted so well. His teacher is the sweetest lady, Mrs. Worley. He loves his new classmates and has adjusted so well to our move. His Christmas program was yesterday and we have enjoyed hearing him sing Christmas songs over the past few weeks. Cole is really looking forward to Christmas this year and is going to have one heck of a Christmas!

Chloe is now 18 months old. She has changed the most since our move. She is so big and has turned into such a little girl. No longer baby! She is 30 pounds and looks every big as that sounds! When we first moved here, Chloe had another seizure which landed us in the hospital for 2 days. She has since got to a specialist in Lubbock and we have it all under control with medicine. She gave us quite a scare but she is doing so well. She is in the younger toddler class at First United Methodist Children's Day Out. Her teachers are precious and take such good care of her. She is in school Tues/Thurs from 8:30-3pm. She is talking up a storm but her favorite word is Bubba aka... Cole and he is by far her favorite person. She adores big brother. Although he is mean to her 50% of the time, he is also quite sweet too. They play together all of the time which has been so fun to watch. We are so blessed!

Other than our move, we have just been getting settled and ready for Christmas. We made a great decision moving to Midland and look forward to many years here watching our kiddos grow. I promise to be better about posting!!! Until then...

SOLD

Wow, since my last post, we have had many busy days! Our house started showing like crazy so all I have done is CLEAN our house. So sick of cleaning! Well, on Monday we got 4 offers on our house. Crazy! Only two of them were contenders and it was a really hard decision seeing as how we got offered OVER our asking price! We made a decision and are officially under contract. Brent left to start work in Midland this past Sunday so I am on my own with the kids. I must say... I am so tired! This is making me totally exhausted. I have had the kids, the house stuff, plus cleaning for showings and now I have to pack everything. I have had so much on my mind that I haven't slept well so I'm just so, so tired. Anyway, I'm happy that this is all rolling right along but need to head to bed.... Night... Night....

Once again playing catch up

So much has happened since my last post! Lots of good, lots of bad. We'll start with the good... We will be moving to Midland! That is our wonderful news that we are so thrilled about. Brent got a job there and will move the last weekend of July, leaving us behind until our house sells. Yikes! Once we found out that we would be moving, we got our house all ready and on the market. The bad news is that we have only had 2 showings in two weeks. What the heck! Apparently everyone in our area is hurting for showings b/c I really feel like if we got some traffic that we wouldn't have trouble selling. Right before we got our house on the market, Chloe had been really sick. She ran high fevers for about 7 to 10 days. She had a combo of two yucky viruses. One Sat night at 3am she woke us up having a seizure. She scared us to death. When the ambulance arrived her fever was at 105.3. I never want to see my babies in that kind of way. I was so fearful but honestly I felt like God had his arms around me the entire time as I was holding my baby girl. I remember just feeling in some sort of survival mode. I was terrified but I had a strength at that moment that I have never known. I knew it was my job to be there for Chloe so I held her and waited it out. Once she stopped seizing, she was crying and so out of it. I just remember rocking her, waiting on the ambulance and all I could say was "Please, God watch over her, please God watch over!" Long story, short... they feared that she might have meningitis so she had a CT, spinal tap, xray and blood work. She finally got back to her baseline and we got to leave the hospital. At her follow up with her pedi, he decided to have us run an MRI and an EEG. He feared that Chloe might have a mass in or on her brain. I was a basket case! She had to be put under for the MRI which was scary but she did great and the results showed that she was fine. Same with the EEG... everything was normal. Thank you God for sparing my baby. I fully trusted Him and at the same time, feared that he would want to take Chloe from us to be with Him in Heaven. I just prayed and prayed and had so many others praying for her too. I just think it was a time for me to be totally vulnerable and for me to learn a few lessons. God is always good even in the most terrifying of times.
That scary time is over and now we wait to sell our house and move! Not much else is going on. Cole continues to amaze me everyday with how smart he has gotten. He cracks me up, nonstop! He is in a phase where all day long he asks me if I remember things. "Mom, remember when I was a baby... Mom, remember when we did this or that..." This morning he said the cutest thing, " Mom, I love to play with toys, watch tv, read books, play outside, play in the leaves, to go to Academy and Starbucks and Target and I love the letter G from Sesame Street. Mom, I love those things!" I mean, what goes on in that head of his??? He is so funny.
I am so blessed! Until next time...

Dear Cole and Chloe

Chloe Elizabeth

Cole Thomas

My sweet babies...
Today on Mother's Day I am reminded of how proud I am to be your Mommy. Cole, we have had 3 years together. What fun we have had! You have brought so much joy and happiness into my life. Chloe, this is my first Mother's Day to celebrate with you in my life. You have been such a sweet and loving addition to our family. With you, we are complete. God could not have blessed me more. The two of you are the absolute light of my life. You give me a meaning and a purpose. God bless you, always and may He bless you one day with beautiful children of your own to which you will love and adore just like I do you.
All of my love, my babies....
Mommy

Isaiah 49:16

"I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your face is ever before me."

Just a little verse to remind me of my value and that I have a purpose to fulfill and for those of you reading this today that you do too. We need to know we are loved and valued by the Lord. Once that is clear, we can see a joy in serving Him.

Lake fun

Chloe's first boat ride


What the heck is this blue thing I have to wear??


My sweet babies






Little Sassy Pants


Wrapping up the weekend with a little fishing

Disney on Ice

A few weeks ago we took the kids to Disney on Ice. We started the day off with some yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel with our great friends, The Byrds. We all attended Disney on Ice but sat in different spots. Cole had a great time seeing the princesses and the Toy Story characters. Chloe lost her interest about 20 minutes b/f the show ended so she took a nap with Dada holding her. Fun times! Here are a few pics from before...
Don't play with my toys!

Easter

We took some pics in the bluebonnets but Chloe hated it, as you can see...

We spent the weekend at Inks lake with Brent's brother and his family. We had lots of fun with the kids, the egg hunt and visiting with family. We went to Horseshoe Bay on Sunday to relax one more day b/f heading home. What a terrific Easter weekend!

Houston Rodeo 2010

Today we headed to the rodeo with several friends. We got there at about 10am and stayed for a little over 3 hours. The kids were shockingly SO GOOD! Cole loved every bit of the rodeo this year. He was very into it all. He loved the animals, rides, food and the whole experience. Chloe was a little angel and such a trooper.
We started out at the tractors

Chloe and Mommy getting the day started with a coffee

Cole loved riding the "horse"

Chloe enjoyed herself as well...


Cole LOVED the truck ride


And his new guitar...

We enjoyed our FRIED snickers and cookies

What a blast!!!!

Playing catch up

Just wanted to post a few pics of my sweet babies. I've been super bad about posting and putting pics up so here are a few.
Loving bath-time together...




Playing on their new swingset...



And.... sleeping beauty


Finally, this is the state of our living room at all times thanks to Cole