Look Mama!

This past couple of weeks Kate has been working very hard at trying to get her shoes on. She loves trying on mine and this past week she put Grant's on. She thinks it's so fun now to wear Grant's shoes! Yesterday, she was wearing them around the house for over an hour and then we went to Wal-Mart. She wore them the whole time to the store. I was too tired to deal with shoes...

Here she is showing me her new socks that she loves to wear, too.

Now this was totally unexpected to say the least. One day I found Grant wearing Kate's pants! They were laying around on the floor somewhere and I guess he got an idea in his head that it would be fun to try them on. The funny thing is that they were her hot pink pants of all things and it just cracked me up. Most of the time she wears blue jeans. While I'm not encouraging my son to cross-dress, I was very excited inside that he got both legs in the right hole and that he put them on the right way and he had them pulled up over his bottom. These things are such a struggle for him so to see him get it right warms my heart and in this case gave me a good laugh at the same time. :-)

Road Trip!

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to take my brother David to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls. He is in the army reserves and is now active duty and going to school there to become a bio-med tech. It's for the next 10 months and will be very intense. Christina and Kate went with us and the four of us had a great time. I love short road trips like these. Wichita Falls is a little more than 2 hours northwest of Dallas. Afterward we headed south towards Aledo, about 20 west of Fort Worth to pick up wheat. I had been out for a month and was very excited to drive home with 300 pounds of wheat! That's only 6 50pound bags but 300pounds sounds like a lot, huh?

Kate, ready to go

Excited David

Kate slept almost the entire trip up to Wichita Falls just like this - so sweet!

When we got the base we had to wait awhile for David to get paperwork processed and to get his room. So Christina and I hung out in the car with Kate. She was such a good girl the whole trip and it was so great to just be able to love on her without Grant taking most of my attention. I'm so thankful we brought her with us!

David, hang in there! We are praying for you during this time and are excited with you for this opportunity you have before you! Love you!

Happy New Year!

We totally had our own party goin' on!!!
( especially Joel ;-) )

Super Easy & Super Yummy Pasta Bake!

Tonight we had a super yummy dinner and it was so easy that I have to share it with you! If you're like me, I'm always on the look out for recipes that are easy, yummy, little mess, little prep, you get the idea, and this one fits all of the above. I got it from my friend Tammy.

Pasta Bake

Throw some pasta in a 9x13 pan. (I used a large box of elbow macaroni.) Cover with a jar of spaghetti sauce. (I used some from the freezer which was about 3 cups worth.) Add some water. Cover and bake in preheated oven at 350. Top w/ 1 cup or so of mozzarella cheese and bake 10-15 minutes more uncovered. (I had to add more water after 30 minutes.)

OMG! So easy and fast and no mess and little clean-up, a definite winner in our house. Oh, and both kids gobbled it up. We had to tell Kate at some point "no more" because she had ate so much and I was seriously afraid she would get sick. She has done than before with pasta, tmi I know but it's true.

One more thing, I added some meatballs to it from the freezer and that added a little extra yumminess. You could do pepperoni, too. It made two meals worth so leftovers will be Sunday's lunch when we come home from church. Can't wait!

Kate's Kitchen!

Kate says, "Thank you, Aunt Jenni & Uncle Shawn for my new kitchen! It fits perfect in my room after Mommy finally figured it out. (I think she moved my bed around 7 times. Whew...that was rough for me.) I love it and play with it everyday. Grant likes it, too, and helps me cook lots of yummy food. I'm trying to be a good girl and not climb on it like Grant does. He gets in big trouble when he does that but it sure looks fun. Sometimes I do, too, and then I get a spankin'. When you come over I'll make you something yummy to eat!"

Christmas Morning

I know January is almost half over but here are some pics from Christmas morning. For the 2nd year now, we spent Christmas morning with just the four of us. It was very relaxing and rather slow. Both of the kids are at the age where they like to play with everything as they open it.
Kate got a cozy coupe car!

And Grant got a new bike!

Eating yummy Christmas breakfast made in the crockpot all night long, thanks to one of my fav. blogs here.

Grant, trying out his new bike and Kate enjoying the ride.

For some reason Christmas felt different this year. This is the 2nd year in a row that we have specifically done our own family thing and it feels good. Christmas was always a special time growing up and honestly, it hasn't been the same since being married. But I think this year was a year of closure and a year of new traditions. I guess you could say that I feel 'grown up'. You wouldn't think it would take this long but... :-) The kids really had fun with their presents and it was great being able to kick back and have fun with them. I think a lot of the reason for Christmas being different this year is that both kids were a lot more into Christmas. We talked a lot about baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. On Sundays driving home from church I would ask him what the story was about and he would say, "MaerMaer" and I said, "Mary?" and he would nod. He said something else which sounded like 'angel' and so I asked him if the story was about the angel who talked to Mary. He nodded. Sometimes I wonder what he understands and what he doesn't. At times like that he makes me think that he understands more than I give him credit for. Oh, for the day that words will flow out of his mouth...

Christmas Dinner

This year we had Thanksgiving Day AND Christmas Day with Joel's family! It just worked out that way this year and it was nice. We had crockpot lasagna - thank you Tammy! - and all the kids got to play outside since the weather was nice. We had 9 adults and 11 cousins over - and that isn't everyone. Sarah and Lance and Kerry and Lydia, we missed you guys! For dinner we brought in the kids picnic table from the backyard and it fit perfectly in front of our bedroom door, which is off of the dining room and kitchen. They had their own dinner booth. :-)

Cousins from left to right:Michell, Timothy, Asher, Grant, Kate (hiding behind Noel), and Noel

I'm not sure how it happened but this is the only picture I have from dinner. Probably because I was just enjoying time with my sister-n-laws and making sure Grant wasn't getting into trouble!

MRI results and Scottish Rite Follow-up!

Yesterday was Grant's follow up appointment at Scottish Rite hospital. We found out the results of the MRI - everything looks as normal as it should! Yeah and Praise the Lord!

For some reason I thought it was going to be a short appointment but it was about 2 hours long and we saw 4 different people. Dr. Adams was the last person we saw and he didn't say too much except that he wants to do genetic testing to see what we find in that direction since we didn't find anything in the MRI. According to him the testing is less invasive than an MRI and only requires blood to be drawn. I did briefly tell him what happened the first time we went to get an MRI and he said that it shouldn't be anything like that. I am trusting he is right on this!

So...we should hear from the hospital in a couple weeks about the genetic testing and then go from there. At this point, we are just happy to have peace of mind that his brain is "normal" and that we don't have any worry or concern there. This is huge!

These pictures were taken the day of Grant's MRI. Joel and I had just switched cell phone providers and I was trying out the camera on my new phone while we were waiting and waiting and waiting....

We had been waiting over an hour and a half from the time they got him all ready to the time they took him back. He fell asleep for about 30 minutes towards the end in Joel's arms. He really is my sweet boy and I need to look at this picture more often to remind myself of that! 8-)

Christmas Eve!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my sister and brother-n-law's home in Allen. It's nice that both of our families live close and we can see most of them around the holidays.

We were comfy cozy in our pj's and so the kids wore their matching snowman pajamas. They looked so cute! It's not too often that they get to match!

These shoes came from Aunt Jenni and Kate wanted to put them on right away. Somehow Joel managed to get both on over her footy pajamas. She was so excited and starting running around.

Showing Mommy her new shoes!

Grant and Kate playing with Kate's new kitchen she got from Aunt Jenni and Uncle Shawn. They are wearing their cute aprons from Daniel and Christina.

Shawn, Dad, Daniel, and little Kate, being such a big girl at the big table

Joel being a punk, Grant, Nana, Christina, and Shawn again. Jen and I didn't get in the picture.

After dinner the kids went to bed and the rest of us played games. It was a lot of fun and I don't think we left until after 11pm. Some of my best memories from growing up are from Christmastime, and Christmas with my family is always special. It was a great day and I'm so thankful for them and for the love they show to us and the kids.

More Birthday Pics

After we went to Chuckecheese we came home and ate cupcakes and Grant opened a few presents. Here's our lovely attempt at a family self shoot:

It look like only 3 candles but there really were 5!

Kate, about to eat her cupcake.

Kate, after eating her cupcake and Grant trying to wipe her face. She had an icing goatee and Grant thought it was so funny to try to clean her up. It was cute!

Bread and Bows

My friend Sara started a blog a few months ago to feature her growing side business. She inspired me to start one myself.

So...I am happy to introduce to you Bread and Bows!

Check it out if you have a chance!