Looking back

I've been thinking about some of the highlights of the past year today. There are too many to list, but here are the ones that come to mind.

-I've watched Noah change from a two-year-old who barely talks to a very chatty three-year-old. Our conversations throughout the day are many and, more often than not, lengthy. Although I sometimes wish for a little peace and quiet, I enjoy the way he rambles on (and on and on!)

-My sweet Luke became a first grader this year. He was born to go to school and, according to his teacher, is a model student. He loves going to the library every week and usually checks out books about animals or bugs.

-My honey and I celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss on June 19! It's hard to believe we've already been married 10 years! The first 10 years have been filled with, among other things, a move half-way across the country and two lively boys. Who knows what the next 10 will bring!

-I had a great scrapbooking weekend at Pine Cove back in January and even got a bonus weekend with my friend Adriane. She and I got a hotel suite in Frisco in August and spent the whole weekend scrapbooking, watching TV, and reading books. It was fun and relaxing and we're hoping to go again in 2010.-I coordinated our church's second annual bazaar, and it was an even bigger success than last year's. I had a blast planning it and watching it come together. I'm already thinking about ways to improve next year's bazaar.

It seems the older I get the quicker the years pass by. 2009 is almost in the books, but there are lots of great things on the horizon in 2010...another scrapbooking weekend in January,

my 20th high school reunion, another trip back to South Carolina to see friends and family, and, I'm sure, lots of surprises. Happy New Year!

My Thanksgiving Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

I have:
-a husband who loves me, is a wonderful father, and is a hard worker. Thank you.
-two boys who have brought joy, laughter, and fulfillment into my life. Thank you.
-a mother who loves me unconditionally and who is my favorite person to shop with. Thank you.
-a sister who despite time and distance will always be one of the happiest parts of my childhood. Thank you.
-a Nana who is one of my favorite people and who will always think of me as her "Bitsy". Thank you.
-a friend who will do anything for me and who totally gets me. Thank you.
-a church who has strengthened my faith, given me great friends, and has encouraged me to serve others. Thank you.
-blessings beyond measure. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Recovering

On Monday Noah had his tonsils and adenoids removed. I know this is considered a "routine" procedure, but there's nothing routine about sending your child off to surgery. I've heard this can be life-changing, so I was hoping we'd made the right decision. When our doctor came to talk to us after the surgery, he told us Noah's adenoids had been blocking about 90% of the back of his airway and that his tonsils were extremely large for a child his age. I felt so relieved to know that we had indeed made the right decision. They kept Noah in the hospital overnight for observation, and he chose to have his Daddy stay with him. I felt a little guilty about going home Monday night, but I figured I've logged enough night-time hours with both boys that it was OK for me to sit this one out. Between the IV alarm going off and both of them sleeping in a twin bed, they didn't get much sleep on Monday night.

Today is Wednesday. Noah had a rough morning, but he perked up around 10:30 and actually ate a good bit of lunch. The most amazing part is listening to him breathe out of his nose. The breathing will only get better as the swelling goes down, another indication that this was the best decision for him. So, we'll muddle through the next couple days as best we can and will look forward to a new and improved Noah in the days to come.

My boys

Headed off to Home Depot to build something with their Daddy.

Fun run

About a month ago Luke told me he wanted to participate in a 1-mile fun run that his teachers talked about in P.E. I was really surprised he wanted to do it. Luke is not usually a fan of anything that takes effort and energy to do, but since he wanted to, I signed us up. It was pretty chilly the morning of the race, but we bundled up and headed out at 7:15.

Warming up before our big race!

Luke is also not a fan of being cold.

He asked SEVERAl times how much longer we had to go. The whole thing only took about 20 minutes, but you would have thought we were running a marathon.

Finished at last!

Sing, sing out loud

Say what?

I think I've shared recently that Noah's vocabulary has increased exponentially in the past couple of months. He is talking and talking and talking and talking. It's hard for me to believe that I was ever worried about his speech. So, here are a few recent conversation snippets:

-"Guess what Mommy? I love you!" (This melts my heart every time he says it.)
-"I love my Mommy." (The heart-melting goes with this one, too.)
-"Mommy my friend." (More heart-melting.)
-More often than not when you ask him to do something like brush his teeth or put his shoes on, he'll say, "I already did" whether or not he actually has. As Gary said, we're going to have to watch this one. But I love that he uses the word "already".
-When Luke did something for Noah a couple of weeks ago, he said, "I 'preciate that, Bubba."

There are many more, but this gives you a glimpse into everyday life around here.

First grade

My baby is in first grade! He was so excited when he

woke up Monday morning. He has a

wonderful teacher who is sweet and kind, and I know it's going to be a great year for him.

Birthday bash

I recently celebrated my 37th birthday, and two of my sweet friends threw me a party. The theme was "Hollywood Glamour", and the invitation said to dress as your favorite movie star. To be honest, I wasn't all that excited about dressing up at first. I thought and thought about it and finally decided not to dress up. But then, while searching for costumes online one last time, I came across the idea to dress as Britney Spears. Not the cute "Hit Me Baby One More Time" Britney, the trashy, walking in gas station bathrooms barefooted Britney. I was sold. I already had most of the things I needed (I'm still not sure if this is a good thing), and was able to find the rest pretty easily. I am so glad I decided to dress up because it was a hoot! There were lots of other great costumes, too, and I think everyone had a good time (I know I did!)

Miley, Britney, & Sandra Dee

Tori Spelling, the Playboy Bunny, Miley, Britney, Angelina, & Sandra Dee with Hef
Phil Mickelson (Gary's sad attempt at dressing up), Brad Pitt, Hef, Billy Ray, Joaquin Phoenix, and Dean McDermott (Tori Spelling's hubby)

Look how cute my cake is!

Noah sings the ABC's

It's been too long

I had no idea it had been almost two months since I've posted anything new. Yesterday it was my 10th anniversary, and now we're 3 weeks away from starting another school year. We went on vacation for two weeks (and had a great time), and now we're living the lazy days of summer. Life is chugging along.

I sometimes think about giving up this blog. I won't, though, because of my most faithful reader, my Nana. I know there are 1 or 2 others out there who stop by to read it from time to time, but my Nana loves it too much for me to stop altogether. When I get this far behind, it's sometimes overwhelming for me to get caught up, so I think I'll just start with the most recent past.

Luke turned 6 last Thursday. 6? 6! I just can't believe it. He'll be in first grade this year. We have taken our first foray into the world of hand-held video games with the Nintendo DSi. He LOVES it. I must admit I've played a few times, but I think kids his age are born with a natural ability to figure out video games. He's a whiz, and I'm quite the novice. His other newest passion is chess. Again, he's a whiz and I'm whatever is below novice status. He beat me today in ten minutes flat. Geez, that kid is smart.

Noah is 2 1/2. Boy, is he ever! He started asking, "Why?" last week, and I thought to myself, "Really? Really? Are we there already?" He is still such a hoot and is talking up a storm. Yesterday at lunch he said, "Mommy, I want more pretzels and more oranges." Just as clear as day. It's good.

Just so no one forgets how absolutely adorable my boys are . . .

Our first decade

Today is our 10th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since we got married! About 30 minutes from right now I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to start the rest of my life. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful husband who is loving and kind and has turned out to be a fantastic father (not that I ever had any doubts!)

Here are a few pictures from June 12, 1999.

Hannah was 4 and Katie & Lauren were almost 7. They're so little here and are such pretty, grown-up girls now.

A pre-church miracle!

You'd think it would be easy to leave at 9:15 for church when we're all up by about 7:00, but for some reason we're usually rushing to get out the door. Today we were actually ready a little early, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures.

Recent life

A few recent pictures of my boys . . . This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Luke & Noah.

Arrrrrgh, matey! Mother's Day
Gary & Luke went on an Adverture Guides campout last weekend. Friday was beautiful, but a cold front blew in about 3:00 Saturday morning, and they had to come home early because the day was a washout. This picture is from Friday, before the deluge.

Luke was up till about 11:30 Friday night and didn't sleep well, so he was exhausted on Saturday.

Sandra and Baby Allison

I helped throw a shower for my friend Sandra a couple of weeks ago. It was really nice, and I think Sandra enjoyed herself. These pictures are out of order because I couldn't rearrange them for some reason.My friend Adriane made this tutu to go with a really cute onesie I gave Sandra. I can't wait to see Allison in it!

The guests of honor

My friend Denise made this cake - isn't it the cutest cake ever? Man, I have some talented friends!

Yikes!

It seems as though we are under a severe thunderstorm warning every other day around here, but we experienced something brand new last night. About 7:30 we were in the middle of a second round of thunderstorms; there was plenty of thunder and lightning, but nothing nearly as severe as some of the storms I've seen here. Gary was in Noah's room reading books to him, and Luke and I were in the living room watching TV when I heard the loudest, closest crack of thunder I've ever heard and saw a bright flash of light. Luke & I ran to the front of the house to try to figure out what happened. Gary said he thought lightning might have hit the house. We soon discovered it hadn't, thank goodness, but our neighbors told us they saw the bolt that nearly hit the house. Regardless of what the lightning hit, it did some damage. Here's a list of the things in our house that are no longer working and where they are located in our house:

-Internet & phone (OK, these are working now, but it's only because the AT&T guy just left about 30 minutes ago, but the lightning fried the modem last night): Gary's office
-the printer in Gary's office
-one of our garage door openers (OK, this is working now, too, but it was out for a while)
-the HVAC system
-the base to our cordless phone that was in our living room (the lamp that was plugged into the same outlet, however, is fine)
-DVD player in our living room (the TV and satellite dish that are plugged into the same power strip are undamaged)
-the Wii in our living room

Even though we could potentially have to spend thousands of dollars to fix/replace these items, I'm so thankful that we're not having to replace our entire house. I think we got very lucky that the house didn't get struck. I told Luke this morning that our neighbor saw the bolt that nearly hit us and that God was watching out for us because the house didn't get hit, and he said it was because God put a force-field around our house. I agree.

We were all on edge last night, and neither one of the boys fell asleep until nearly 9:00. Gary is pretty stressed today, trying to figure out ways to fix some of this stuff, and I'm still trying to understand why some things got damaged when others didn't (I'm sure I'll never figure this one out!) I'm just glad I still have a roof over my head and a working computer!

Slacker

I have become a blog slacker. I have the best intentions to update it more frequently, but inevitably it gets pushed to the bottom of my to-do list every day. So, I'm finally taking the time to give an update on us.

-Noah is quite the chatterbug lately. He is saying new words all the time, and many of the words he's been saying for a while he now says more clearly. A few exceptions to this are "vacuum" (which sounds like "mamu"); "ice cream" (there is no way I can explain how he says this word - it's bizarre!); "music" (which sounds like "hehaw"); and "basketball" (which sounds like "badudu").

-Noah is a very polite little boy. He says "bless you" when anyone sneezes, says "excuse me" when air of any sort comes out of his body", says "thank you" when you give him something, and uses "please" most of the time. It's really charming.
-Speaking of charm, Noah oozes charm and personality.
-Last week at school Luke's teacher chose him to be the line leader for the entire week. Apparently this is quite an honor.
-Luke also received the Tribes Award for his class for the month of April. This award is given to the student who consistently shows respect and is a good example. Way to go, Luke!!
-Luke's soccer team won their game last week! This is only the second game they've won over the past two years. Luke scored 4 goals. He's developed into a really good little soccer player.

Luke getting recognition at Friday Live for receiving the Tribes Award.

Mimi

My mom spent the last week with us, and we had a great visit. Noah was, for the most part, really friendly with her. We both figured he wouldn't want much to do with her because he's so very two right now, but he must have said 100 times, "Hold you, Mimi." He loved playing with her and having her read books to him. Luke woke her up every morning to play a game with him, and he even got in bed with her a couple of times. It was a nice break for me to have her here. We all miss her and can't wait to see her this summer!

Tooth #2

Luke lost his second tooth on Monday! He lost it at school during PE, and his teacher gave him a little tooth-shaped box to keep the tooth in. I prepared him for the fact that the tooth fairy doesn't bring as much money for second teeth as for first, so he wasn't disappointed when he only found a dollar in the morning. He looks really cute with both bottom teeth missing.

1-2-3

What's missing?

Luke lost his first tooth this morning! He's has a loose tooth for about 3 weeks, and this weekend, another was loose. It's this second loose tooth that actually fell out today. It was barely hanging on, and I've been trying to pull it out for the last 2 days, but Luke wouldn't let me. This morning I went out to get the paper, and when I came back in, Luke was holding his tooth and said, "It just came out!" He was eating his vitamins and chewed with his front teeth, and his tooth came out. This it Twinkle Toof, a special box to hold the tooth. Luke will put the box under his pillow tonight (and expects to get $5 - that's the going rate for a first tooth!!)
Can you tell how very excited he is to have lost a tooth??

Spring break

We went down to San Antonio on Thursday for a little spring break trip. It was a whirlwind, complete with sleeping issues and a full-on five-and-a-half-year-old meltdown, but overall we had a good time.

On the riverwalk in San Antonio.
Noah slurped up the last of his ice cream. When it comes to sweets, both of my boys take after me.
Feeding the dolphins at Sea World.

Waiting for the Shamu show "Believe" to start.


Back on the riverwalk on Friday night.
For those of you who don't remember, Gary has a cousin Micajah Autry who fought and died at the Alamo. If Gary had gotten his way, we would have named Noah Micajah. Or Autry. I had to say no.
Remember the Alamo!

Luke's inner gorilla came out an hour or so after dinner. He had a super-mega meltdown at the hotel. He was so tired from being up till after 10:00 the night before, that he just lost it about 7:15 Friday night. He was drawing but was very frustrated that nothing was turning out like he wanted. He was screaming and crumpling paper up, and when I told him to do something else, he said, "But you told me to draw!" Then he decided he needed some tape and kept screaming, "I need tape!" I kept telling him he needed to calm down, to which he replied, "I can't calm down! I need some help!" He did indeed need some help! He eventually calmed down and was asleep by about 7:45. It was a rough evening, but I can laugh about it now.

Here's another gem from Luke:

-"Did you know that dolphins only have teeth on the bottom . . . and the top?" He said these words, verbatim, on the way back to the hotel from Sea World. There have been lots of times that he's started a sentence with "Did you know" followed by something interesting he's learned at school. This wasn't one of those times.