Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I know, I know

Ok I know I know its been forever. In fact I am sure a lot of you have stopped checking. For those of you who haven't thanks and sorry I have let you down. I promise to be a little better and very soon a recap since the last time that I posted.
However, this post will be a little different. I have a lot of thoughts, emotions, concerns, and I thought writing them out will help me sort through them. This Thanksgiving has been a very emotional one for me. Tears of sadness, joy, hurt, and fear. So often something will happen in my life that is a big or major thing. Or at least until things are put into perspective.
Though things I go through are challenging I have faith that God is in control. He knows what's best even if its not our plan. Sometimes some of our biggest trials are our biggest lessons. I know this is stuff many of you know, but for me I need to be reminded of it because in the midst of it I am certainly not thinking of it.
Recently I have been overwhelmed with hurts of so many loved ones, friends and family. Hurts that are not simple fixes. There is nothing i can do to ease that pain for them. That's what hurts the most for me. When people I love hurt I feel it with them.
So as many of you know I am from back east, Pennsylvania to be exact. As the Holidays are here I am feeling very homesick. A feeling I am not used to. Don't get me wrong I love it here and as so thankful to have family two hours away and family right here in town with me. A lot of people don't even have that, I know. I think as I am getting a little, very little bit older I am realizing just how important family really is.
While feeling all of this pain and sadness, I am reminded of how blessed I am. Now don't get me wrong I've got junk, problems, and pain in my life as all of us do. I have a great husband who makes his family such an important priority. He loves us so much and for that I am overwhelmed with love and gratitude. I have healthy, fun, and challenging boys. Boys who keep me on my toes, who make me melt everyday. I could go on and on, I could also tell you I have some of my most challenging days with them. But that's my life and I would not trade it for anything. I have amazing family who loves us all and so thankful for my relationships with all of them. My friends, I am amazed at all the wonderful friends I have. Friends that would do anything for me, drop everything if I needed them. Not everyone can say that.
So this Thanksgiving, I want to thank you, thank you all for being part of my life. I pray for you all daily. I pray that whatever you go through you are able to find joy. I pray you have a relationship with the Lord, because there is no worldly thing or person that can give you a peace the way he can.

Thank you so much for letting me express my thoughts, even if they are all over the place.

our special visitor

Our summer is coming to a close but before it did we had a visit from special guest. My mom, grandma, or as Carson called her Papa. My mom came out from Erie to spend some time with "us" meaning the boys. We had so much fun while she was here. We were able to do so much while she was with us. I introduced her to my favorite place to eat, Chipotle. Which she loved by the way and we had it three times while she was here :) We went to music in the park, we went to playland, and it was so hot my mom and I joined the boys in the water. We had a movie night with lots of food, candy, and more candy. We got the boys hair cut at their favorite place, went to jonhn's pizza, the movies, and swimming. That's not all we did, we were literally non-stop. Our wonderful friends Mike and Lisa got us all tickets to the ice cream zoofari. So Saturday evening my mom, the boys, Chris, me, Mike, and Lisa went to the zoo for ice cream and animals. After that my mom was sweet enough to keep the boys so we could go out with mike, Lisa, Jen and DJ. Thank you mom!!
The next morning we got up and were trying to decide what to do. We decided to get out of this heat. We went to the mountains, our first stop was in general grant. We had some lunch then headed out to see the trees. After that we continued on to Hume Lake. We went to a place called Sandy Cove to let the boys enjoy the lake.
Mom, we enjoyed having you so much and will miss you.
Here are some pics from our visit.

Our new baby boy Sammy

Ok so here he is. I am so sorry for the delay. My computer has been acting up. Anyway, I am sure many of you thought it was a dog, but there were many who thought that I was pregnant. That was funny, I received many phone calls. Our family is done growing on that level. TY has been asking for a dog for as long as I can remember. As many of you Carson cried ALOT as a baby and Ty would continuously say " I told you to get a dog". So as all of us moms are I sacrificed and gave in.
He is a golden retriever. The first day we had him I think I called Chris and said he needs to go back. His cute little face has saved him a number if times. Overall he is a pretty good puppy. Not too hyper, still working on the house training. One of our favorite things about him is that he swims with us. He will jump off the rocks to us and swim over. he can't get back fast enough to do it again. I don't have pictures yet but I will.
The boys went outside to play with sammy( oh yeah I didn't tell you his name did I?) and it was a little backwards, see for your self.
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Here we grow again :)

Well nothing is impossible! Our family is growing again!!! More details to come.

A great weekend

So my father in law says to us in Wednesday, "wanna go to the coast this weekend?" So Chris found us a room over in Monterrey,and my father in law treated us to weekend at the coast. For those if you who live back east its been 114 degrees and the air has been awful from the fires. So it was a real treat to get out of this heat. We have been spoiled this summer, my parents look us to LA and Disney as a treat and Chris' parents took us to the coast.
It was a really nice and relaxing weekend except Carson got sick Saturday night........all night, coming out of both ends. Sunday he was pretty mellow and we meaning Carson and I took a nap on the beach. It can't get anymore perfect of a nap then that. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Greg has some really good ones on his camera too, I will post them when I get them.

4th of July

This slide not does not even begin to compare to DJ's so if you haven't checked it out be sure you do at lbvphoto.blogspot.com. Thank you all for making this year the best one yet. Hope you had fun.

If your looking to see if the photos are up they are not. Sorry :( However DJ has his up on his blog. Check them out they are amazing and some of everyone. Enjoy, I did. lbvphoto.blogspot.com

A big weekend for our family!

This past weekend was a really big deal for us. Chris' brother got married this past weekend. The wedding was beautiful, everything was perfect. Tyler and Chase were the ring bearers. They did really well, Chase lasted about five minutes before her fell apart. He came down to sit in my lap and was asleep within a couple of minutes. He was so tired. Here are some pictures from the wedding.

Enjoying summer and what it brings.

Since summer break has begun we have done a whole lot wearing our pj's for most of the day :), swimming, playing with friends, and my favorite getting together for BBQing with friends.

Last week we got together with some good friends the Ellis'. Jen and DJ came over to eat swim and when it got dark we made smores with the kids. The last two pictures were taken by our friend DJ. I think they are so cool. He is a photographer and does amazing work. So if your looking for a photographer for any event check out some more of his work on his blog. http://www.lbvphoto.blogspot.com

Family Fun

Happy Belated Father's day to all the father's out their especially mine and Chris. I had my camera on father's day but there was no battery therefore no pictures. We had a very nice and relaxing day.

Here are some pictures we had done recently of my other side of the family.

Our Family

Tyler and Chase. Carson wanted no part of this picture.

Chris'sister Traci and her Husband and Daughter Alexis.

Chris' brother Nick and his soon to be wife Michelle.

The whole gang

Tyler's last day

Tyler's last day was a lot of fun. Chase, Carson, and I got to stay all day with him. Ty has made a lot of new friends this year. He truly loved meeting new friends, not so much the work. He is just like his mommy. :)

Carson, Andy, and Mason having ice cream sundaes.

Chase

Chase's last day

Chase ended his first year of preschool. He did extremely well. He knows his abc's, can count to fifteen, and can even spell some words. His favorite word to spell is rock. He unlike Tyler really loves school. So when Ty would do his homework so would Chase. Chase loves school and can't wait for it to begin next year.

Mrs. Jackie giving chase his preschool diploma.

Chase doing his end of the year program. Carson even got in on it.

My day with Chase

So Chase and I had a fun day together last week during all the chaos. My friend kept the other two while Chase and I went and had lunch together. We then went to find black pants and a white shirt for my brother-in-law's wedding in a couple of weeks. So you know he really wanted to go pick these clothes out, I did not have to force him in any way. We then went to this new candy store at Sierra Vista. They have every candy imaginable. Ones from when I was younger and are no longer around. His face was priceless when he saw it. I asked him to reenact for me.





















That evening we had our friends Jen and Dj over for dinner and that night we went back up there. Except this time we went to maggie moo's for ice cream. It is so nice there. They have made this area outside the movie theater with grass, waterfalls and fire. Its so pretty I wish I would of brought my camera. Chris, DJ, Jen, and I sat on the benches and the kids ran around and played.

Summer is here

Summer is here and I am so excited. We have had amazing and super busy last week of school. On Monday Ty had a visit from the reptile guy at school. Tuesday he got to eat lunch in the cafeteria. Wednesday we got to go to the zoo with his class. Chase, Josh and I were able to join them. We have some good friends with three boys that our same three boy's age. So they kept Carson for me and I took their son Josh with us.

Are my boys around their mommy too much?

I come downstairs today to find Carson at the bottom of the stairs saying "bye mommy". He put Ty's shoes and socks on all by himself and my hat and sunglasses, with keys in hand. I love the little things my boys do and so I thought I'd share it with you.

Memorial Day Weekend

Ok, I am not sure what just happened why that posted the way it did. Anyway, the highlight of my weekend was seeing my baby sister graduate. Lindsey graduated from high school this past Friday. I was so excited that we were all able to be there with her supporting her. I love her to pieces and am so proud of her. She is an amazing young woman.

The boys giving Auntie their flowers they got for her.

Memorial Day weekend

My Son the Fasion Guru

So we go to dinner at Sweet River with some friends the other night, and there is a clown there making the kids balloon hats. I notice at first Chase is being very quite and shy. I then see him talking to her and I over hear him telling her that her shoes don't match her outfit. We all died laughing. What am I in for?

Fun random pictures

So I just had to post some cute pictures of Chase and who could be his future wife, Jordyn. They were so cute together while their brothers played baseball.

Catching you up

So I sure have not been a good blogger lately. So let's get you all caught up. For Carson's birthday we had family over and barbecued here are some pictures of that day.

Carson opening his gifts.

Chase is also playing T-ball. He gets to play with lots of his friends. So that's not only fun for him but for me as well. He seems to be really enjoying it. Here are some pics of him playing T-ball

Chase's helmet barely fits him..... poor thing

Chase and his friend Kyan

chase and his friend Josh

Chase showing me his home run swing :)