8 Years Ago Today...

I married the love of my life!

Russ has been an awesome husband over the past 8 years. I have grown more in love with him as each year passes and as each new chapter begins. It is really hard to believe that 8 years ago we were so young, so in love and just wondering what God had in store for our lives. He has blessed us immensely with our 2 precious children and the life that we have today. I am so grateful to Him for our blessings. I look forward to what God has for us this next year!

Happy Anniversary Russ! I Love You!

Sleepover and Carnival

Congratulations to our friends Chrystal and Dave on the birth of their new baby boy Preston! He was born this past Saturday and is doing great!

We got to keep big sister Savannah for them on Sunday afternoon. She spent the night that evening and stayed for most of Monday until her mommy, daddy and baby brother came home from the hospital. She is such a sweet little girl and we enjoyed every minute of it. Caleb and Kathryn loved having her stay with us. Of course, Kathryn followed in her every footsteps because she loves being around big girls! We played long outside on Sunday afternoon in our little pool and the slip n slide. Russ even joined the kids!


Savannah on the slide

Kathryn getting into the pool


Playing in the water

Sliding down the slip n slide!

Go Russ!


Isn't this a sweet picture of Savannah? She is getting ready for the slip n slide again.



Here they are playing our Curious George jungle game.

Eating a pizza dinner in their pajamas!

(they had their baths before dinner after playing outside in the little pool)



This evening we went to a carnival at our church. It was awesome! I mean, when our church does something, they really do it right. Tonight was a big carnival that was supposed to take the place of Bible School. It was very family oriented, so we all enjoyed going together as a family. We started out by eating a hot dot dinner, then we enjoyed a family worship time and then came the rides and games! We all rode a farris wheel, twirling swings, a carousel, the kids jumped in a bounce house and we ate cotton candy. We saw clowns, jugglers, and even balloon artists. All of this was set up in our church parking lot! We were there for over 2 hours and still didn't get to do everything because there was so much. The kids had a blast and we got home at 8:45 sweaty and exhausted!

Riding the carousel ~ sorry they don't look too happy

Caleb didn't get the horse he wanted :(

Eating some yummy cotton candy

Russ and Kathyn on the Farris Wheel

Here they are at the top of the farris wheel! They were as high as the roof on the church!

Caleb and I on the farris wheel - sorry it's such a bad picture!

By the way, I have to brag a little :) Our church also had a famiy baking competition this year at the carnival. I decided to enter in one of my cakes. The kids both helped me make this cake as well as the decorations for it. All of it is edible except for the little person, the stick and the sail. It turned out cute, but not quite what I had in mind. Oh well! We did end up getting 2nd place though in our cake category, so I was pretty happy! There were a table full of the cakes!

Congratulations to my friend Donna who one first prize in her category. She made some corn on the cob cupcakes and they turned out adorable! I'm sure she will do a blog post about these!

Happy Birthday Russ!

Russ' birthday was on Sunday and we were still in Blowing Rock. He started out the day by playing golf with Ron at a really nice course. We drove home on Sunday afternoon and then celebrated when we got home. We went to Chile's to eat, one of his favorite restaurants of all.

After a good dinner we headed home to open gifts. Caleb and Kathryn got him some packs of football cards (a fun hobby of his) and I got him a new, up to date Ipod. He was really excited! I was glad I did good this year!

After opening presents, Caleb decided they needed to have a fun wrestling match:

Mimi and Grampy came up later in the evening. They were on their way to Florida and wanted to stop in for Russ' birthday. The kids were thrilled that they were coming and of course they had a great time. They brought Russ a nice new shirt for his birthday and Caleb enjoyed wearing it too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUSS! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Thomas at Tweetsie

This past weekend we went to Blowing Rock, NC to go to good ole' Tweetsie Railroad to see Thomas the Tank Engine. Nana and Papa came with us and we all stayed with Ron and Patti Curtis, some really good friends of the family. They have a beautiful mountain house that is literally 2 minutes from Tweetsie. Caleb and Kathryn enjoyed hearing Thomas beep his horn as he rode through the mountain. We could even see a glimpse of the train from the back porch. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we all had a great time. We made some really sweet memories!

When we arrived in Blowing Rock, Patti had a welcome sign for Caleb and Kathryn at her front door:

We had our ticket to ride Thomas at 10:30, so we got to the park just in time to wait in line for good seats and take some pictures with Thomas:

Both Caleb and Kathryn LOVED riding on the train. It was a 25 minute ride and halfway through we got to sea fun cowboys and indians show. Kathryn didn't mind the cowboys, but she was extremely frightened of the Indians. She literally clung to Nana!

Caleb loved every minute of it:

After riding Thomas we had fun riding all the other rides in the park. We started out with the Carousel:

Then Russ, Caleb and I rode the Tilt-a-Whirl and it was so much fun! We spun really fast and Caleb laughed through the whole ride. That boy loves to spin!

Next came the helicopter. Caleb really wanted to fly on them, but we weren't to sure about Kathryn. She kept saying "I ride, I ride" so we couldn't say no! She rode with Caleb and he told us he would take good care of her. We strapped them in real tight and let them go. They absolutely loved it and we were all nervous because it got pretty high!

Then came the Farris Wheel. Russ, Caleb and Papa waited in a long line to ride this, but it was well worth it. It made me really nervous to watch them because they got so high!

Nana and Papa took Caleb to ride on the little cars. These were really cool because they were really driving them. No track or anything! Caleb had to have the red car and Kathryn wanted the blue:



After a quick lunch there were more rides to be ridden! Caleb and Kathryn headed for the little boats. They had fun going around and around in the water, but Caleb got really annoyed with Kathryn because she kept ringing her bell in his ear!

The last ride we went on was another little train into a mice mine. We waited for a long time for this ride and were disappointed at how quick it was. It was really cheesy too!

Here are a couple of cute pictures we took throughout the day:

Here are Caleb and Kathryn showing off their Thomas souvineers. Caleb picked out Billy, an orange train to go with his train set (he is a hillbilly and he even has buck teeth - hilarious!), a t-shirt and a balloon. Kathryn went with a little Thomas radio and a balloon. She picked the radio because it has a little hook at the top where she can carry it like a purse :)

We really had a great weekend and enjoyed every minute of it!

Our Sweet Tuxedo

Don't you love it when God takes opportunities to show us that He loves us, He hears us and He is with us? Well, today was a day that I really felt God's presence and His awesome power in my life.

This morning, our sweet doggie Tuxedo decided that he would have an adventure wondering around our neighborhood. I was in the backyard watching Caleb and Kathryn playing in their little swimming pool while Tux was relaxing on our patio (or so I thought). I had been out our gate a few times turning the water on and off for Caleb, but I didn't think that Tux would sneak by me and get away. Apparantly I was wrong!

After about 20 minutes of watching the kids play, I looked around to see where Tux was. After I couldn't find him in the yard, I started to get a little worried. I asked Caleb if he had let him in the house when he was getting more toys for the pool. He said that he did, so I quit worrying. After a few more minutes, I decided to go inside and make sure that Tux really was in there. After searching the house and not finding him, I was panicking. I mean, Russ and I got Tuxedo 8 years ago only 2 months after we got married. Tux is one of our babies! (well, not quite, but almost). I was so scared, I immediately ran outside and grabbed the kids out of the pool dripping wet. I piled them in the car and we took off around the neighborhood trying to find him. It was a very helpless feeling. We called and called him and I prayed and prayed. I even called my mom and close friend to ask them to pray too. I was trying to stay strong, but I just had fears that something bad had happened to him. Caleb and Kathryn were calling for him too and we all just kept praying that God would help us find him. I asked God to please protect Tux and lead me in the right direction to find him. After driving around, going back home to search some more and then driving around again, I decided to go through an older neighborhood that is behind ours. I didn't think that Tux would be back there because we don't take walks back there or anything, but I just felt like I needed to check. As I was driving down the road and calling for him, I noticed a lady in a could-a-sac waving to me. When I turned to see her, there was Tuxedo standing right beside her. I just started crying and we were so happy. She was the sweetest lady and was so kind to get him off the road (there were no sidewalks). She had even gotten him some food and water in her garage. He doesn't wear a collar because he has never gotten out before, so she didn't know what to do with him. She said that she was walking through her house and noticed a little black dog walking past her window. She figured that he was lost, so she went outside and got him and decided to wait to see if any car came by looking for him. I was so very thankful to the woman and to God that we found him.

God is so good, I just couldn't stop thanking Him for helping me find Tux. It was a wonderful opportunity to show Caleb how God does hear us when we pray, how He does answer us (even though it is not always the answer we want) and how He is ever-present in our lives. He cares for us even in the little things. He is just a prayer away and we can call on Him anytime for anything! We were all so happy to get Tux and take him back home. Now we just have to get a collar for him!