Puppies everywhere!

We have been dog sitting for my parents over the past 5 days. They have 2 yorkies and a cocker spaniel. We offered to dog sit while they went to Boston to visit some of the family. Things here have been crazy to say the least. The boys have had so much fun helping take care of the "babies." The 2 little ones are really just like toddlers. They are always 1 step behind you, eat every so often, and wake you up in the middle of the night to potty. Of course, our dog does the same, so it was nothing to add 3 more to the mix. We had friends come over and cook out one night and the dogs even joined us around the fire pit for ghost stories. We had lots of fun with them, but we take them home tonight. I know Gram will be happy to see them. Tim and I leave for the beach tomorrow so the boys will be staying over at Gram's for a few days. She gets to take care of my babies now!

So Blessed

So I wanted to do a picture review of everything that we have missed since my last "real" blog entry months ago. It was taking so long to upload pictures that I decided to just start fresh right where we are now!
We have had a great summer so far. We have been to the beach, spent a week at VBS, had a visit from my older brother Jason, My parents celebrated their 25th anniversary, had several play dates, and enjoyed countless hours at the pool with friends.
I was giving the boys their bath tonight and it hit me right in the face how BLESSED I AM! God is SO good to me that I can't even begin to understand why! I am usually aware of the blessings that God has given me but it made me tear up tonight thinking about them. It isn't just one certain thing, it is all the little things that I probably overlook everyday. I LOVE my family SO much it hurts. My boys are amazing! I take for granted how precious they are. Why would I be so fortunate to have 2 healthy, smart, cute, funny little boys running around my house? Yes, I have days or moments when it just seems like they are more than I can handle, but those moments are quickly lost when I hear them laugh or they snuggle up to me. I can't believe that Joshua is already 6 years old and Dylan is 3. Do I really have babies anymore? I guess I have children! Wow. I look forward to the things that are to come for my boys. Even though it makes me sad they are growing up, I love the age they are at right now. Such "Big Boy" things going on. I thank God so much for blessing me and choosing me to be the Mom to these 2 wonderful boys! I know that I am so blessed to also have a great husband helping me raise our boys. I love you Tim, Joshua, and Dylan. And I thank you God for giving me what I don't deserve!

Long Time No Post

Wow! It has been such a long time since I last posted anything. What is my problem?! A little thing called FaceBook! I have spent so much time on there catching up with friends and posting pictures that I am always out of "computer time" by the time I am done. Shame on me!!! Most of my friends and family are on Facebook so I assume most are caught up on our daily events. Two problems with that are
1. Not everyone that reads my blog is on Facebook
2. I can't print off FaceBook and save it for the boys to read later in their life.
So the guilt has gotten to me and I am back!

Bruster's Ice cream...

is the best! We stopped by Bruster's after school for a quick snack before running some errands. Joshua and Dylan got the kid's dinosaur sundae. I was good and didn't get anything...of course I had a couple bites of Dylan's though!

Happy Birthday Gram!

Gram's 29th birthday was Saturday! Everyone went to dinner at Greenbriar's. After dinner we went back to Gram and Grampie's house to have birthday cake. It was one Gram's favorite kinds... A Publix cake! (who doesn't like a cake from Publix?!) Gram got lots of good stuff for her birthday! Hope she enjoyed the night! We love you lots Gram!

Spring Program

Dylan had his first spring program at school last Thursday. He did such a good job. The theme was "School Days" a review of the holidays celebrated during the school year. His class was dressed as "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" in honor of Dr Seuss week. He saw us when he walked in and never got upset. He just waved and kept walking with his class to the stage. The program was very cute. When it was over we went to Applebees for lunch! It was a fun morning!

Hail! No!

We had some crazy storms pass through Friday. We were lucky that the dangerous storms went past our area, but we did have the worst hail I have ever seen. We have lived here more than 14 years and I have never seen so much hail. It was pounding our roof and windows. I was so afraid it was going to break the windows. It only lasted a few minutes but it was enough to do damage to several cars that were parked outside. Lucky for us my car was in the garage because our neighbors car had damage and also my sister's car. I am hoping there is no damage to the roof.

Fire Pit

Tim has been wanting a fire pit for the backyard for some time, so he finally got one last week with his birthday money. He spent the weekend building up the wall around it to make it look nice and bought some comfy chairs to put around it. Tonight was our first night to use it. It took us a little bit to get the fire going but once we did it was so nice! It was cool outside so the heat from the fire was just enough to warm us up. Good job Tim!

Happy Easter

We celebrated Easter a little different this year. We decided to stay home and celebrate as a family. We figured the kids (and us) would get as much out of family time as we would at church. We had our own Easter story and made crosses and tombs and other spring items out of play doh as we read the story of how our Savior was risen from the dead. The kids even had the idea to use our stamps we were using to mark our feet and hands were Jesus was nailed to the cross. That was a good idea since it reminded us all day of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. We then went outside and used the new kites and bubbles we got from the Easter Bunny. It was a perfect day for kites. Once lunch time came we headed over to Gram's to have lunch with the family. Everyone was there (except Uncle Jason) so it was nice having the entire crew around. Gram and Grampie hid Easter eggs outside for the boys to look for after lunch. The kids had fun looking for all the prize eggs which had candy or money in them. We are so blessed to have such a great family to spend time with and even more blessed that we have been forgiven of our sins for eternity thanks to our awesome Lord and Savior! Happy Easter!

Just 'cause I think they are cute!

When does church end?

Joshua asked me today, "What are we going to do when church is over?" We were out running errands so I reminded him we were not on the way to Church today. "No," he said. " I mean what will we do when church is over for good and we have learned all of the Bible stories?!" He wanted to know when will we be done with going to church since at some point we will have heard every Bible story. I laughed and told him that was a good question, but then explained to him that we will never stop learning about God and Jesus. We will continue to learn how to walk with Jesus and learn the things he wants us to do. I told him he will take his kids to church and their kids and so on. I tried to keep the lesson going but was interrupted when the Frito Lay truck drove past us and Joshua asked me to catch up to the Dorito truck! LOL.

Happy Birthday Tim

Monday was Tim's birthday! I won't tell how old he is, but he turned 32 last year on his birthday. :) We celebrated his birthday at O'Charley's with my parents. After dinner we did the usual and came home for cake. Actually this year we had chocolate pie. I thought is would be something different. Well, of course the waiter at the restaurant brought Tim a piece of pie after dinner. Oh Well! Tim never turns down a good dessert! Tim got money from everyone for his birthday. He wants to buy a fire pit for the backyard. I am sure that will be our weekend project! Happy Birthday Tim/Daddy! We love you so much!

Swimming Lessons

Dylan and I started our Mommy and Me swimming lessons on Monday. We are taking them at the Wellness center near our house. I was looking forward to the classes since Joshua had taken classes there for a few years as well. I can't believe I am taking another little boy there already! Dylan has had so much fun. He was a little more cautious of the water than I thought he would be (which is a good thing) but I think it is because he doesn't have all his swim gear I would pile on him at the pool last summer. He participates in all of the activities and has no problems jumping in the water or putting his face under. We have lessons 2 times a week for 4 weeks.

If you build it, they will come!

We have spent the past 3 days building the kids a new swing set. We ordered it a few weeks ago and it came in just in time for Tim's vacation days for Spring Break! Tim took off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We were hopeful we would get the swing set built in just 2 days. Of course it took us 3 1/2. We started off day 1 by doing inventory and making sure all the parts were there. Day 2 started the build! Tim and I worked on most if it ourselves. We were very proud of the teamwork we did together as it got very stressful at times. Who would have thought?! It also helped that Joshua and Dylan spent the night over at my mom and dad's house. That freed up almost 2 days for us to work. We finished the swing set late this afternoon. Gram and Grampie stopped by for about 2 hours and helped us this morning with the roof. Thank goodness they did. The kids have already had a lot of fun playing on it. I was a little concerned when Joshua's first comment about the swing set was, "Is that all it does?!" He was going to like that swing set even if he had to pretend! He really does like it though. He has already looked at several books sitting in the clubhouse. Thanks Daddy for building it for us!

Joshua the Babysitter

It was time for Dylan to take a nap so I went into Joshua's room where the boys were looking at books. When I said it was time for Dylan to rest they both got upset since Joshua was reading to Dylan. I decided that Dylan could wait a few more minutes to take a nap since they were actually getting along. I said I was going to take my shower real quick and I would be back. About 5 minutes had past and Joshua walked into my room and announced Dylan was in his bed taking a nap! What?! Joshua told me when they were done with the book Joshua told Dylan it was time to rest and Dylan went and got into his bed. Joshua also told me that he sang Dylan his good night songs and did his prayers. I had to see this for myself! Sure enough Dylan was all tucked in and starting to fall asleep! When I went in to check everything out Dylan got mad and told me Joshua already did it all! WOW! I was so proud of Joshua! And still very shocked!

House pictures, finally!

Some of you have been asking me "Where are the pictures of the new house?!" I was waiting until we did some more decorating, but that will take years I am sure! My mom did make some awesome curtains for my kitchen area. That made a huge difference in the downstairs area. Thanks mom! It was hard to take pictures of rooms with the weird angles so I did the best I could to be able to see the majority of the rooms. We love the house and are so blessed to live here!

The Outside (the day we closed)
Master Bath

Sitting area in master

Master Bedroom

The foyer and dining room (before furniture)

Living room ( I am avoiding the blank wall behind the couch, no idea what to do with it yet.....)

Living room

Breakfast nook

Kitchen

Foyer

Office

Upstairs Hall

Dylan's room

Joshua's room

Playroom (always messy)

Playroom

Deck

Deck
Garage (we love it the most!)