Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas...from our family to yours.
Hope everyone's holiday is filled with great memories made together with friends and family. Remember the true reason for the season!!!

Favorite Photo Friday

Ok, so even if I don't get to posting that much I guess you can always count on a photo friday..lol.
Here is Luke and the "little" snowman we built. The snow was pretty powdery..we had to build a big mountain and then kinda sculpt it. There is not much left of him today, after a lot of rain and some warmer temperatures. We are hoping to get some more snow just in time for Christmas!!!

Favorite Photo Friday

Just one of the many pictures of Luke and Drew together. Amazing how much they have both changed since May 09 when this photo was take.

I was looking back at some of my old post from the years past and saw that me and a few of my bloggers gals used to do "favorite photo friday" I thought I might start doing it again, cause it was kinda fun!! If anyone else want to join in that would be great!! I love looking at everyones pictures!!!

First Snow

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful thanksgiving this year. We are headed out of town for the weekend to spend the holiday with my family. I am really looking forward to it. I have not spent Thanksgiving with my family in over 5 years. I have so much to be thankful for this year and my heart overflows with joy when I think of all that the Lord has blessed us with.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!!!

Tales from the pantry..

So in our new house we have this great big pantry and I LOVE it!!! It give me so much storage for food and lot of other things too. But I am not the only one who loves the pantry, the boys really love it too!!! They know there are lots of goodies in there, even Drew has learned this. So here are two little tales from the pantry.

So Drew is really getting smart and understanding little bits of what we say to him. I will ask him if he is hungry and if he wants some "bites" then he will make his way over to the pantry stopping only to look back to see if I am following him. He stands there waiting for me and knocks on the door. I pick him up and put him in his highchair and go to the pantry to get a snack for him. You never know what he will be in the mood for. One day something is his favorite thing and the next day he will not even take a bite. So I look in the pantry and take something out and show it to him. He shakes his head no, I try something else and he shakes his no again. I keep looking and keep showing until I get a happy face and him reaching his hand out for the snack he wants. He is quite demanding of his food, but it is also very cute. It is the start of him learning to communicate with us.

Now on to Luke's story from the pantry...

So we keep the goodies like fruit snacks, granola bars and other things like that up high in the pantry. Just to not make them not as easy to reach for Luke. He never really gets in there without asking first and then we get him a snack. Plus he still has trouble figuring out how to open the packaging. So one night I am laying in bed about to doze of when I hear a noise in the kitchen. I open my eyes and think, ummm...what was that. Of course I have to go check it out. If anyone knows me I do not play off sounds at night. I have a bad imagination and I always have to check it out to let my mind have some peace. So I head out to the kitchen and see the pantry door wide open. Then I look to the hallway and see Luke coming around the corner with little yellow chair. He sees me and freezes right in his tracks. I ask him what he is doing, and of course he say, Uhhh nothing. I tell him to put his chair way and get back into bed. I go into his room and ask him again what he was doing. He said he was hungry and was wanting to get a snack. I was pretty surprised to find him up at night by himself. He usually never leaves his bed even if he does wake up. If he wants something he always just yells for me. I think he is getting a little braver...lol. I guess I should just be happy he was thoughtful enough to get a chair and that he didn't just climb the shelves.

Well hope you enjoyed enjoyed the tales...just some funny things to remember a few years from now.

Fall Family Pictures

Pumpkin Patch

Here are some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch the other day..I took some of my favorites and edited them. The boys had a blast and it was a really nice evening!!

Getting settled in...

Saying good-night to Luke in his new room

Here are a bunch of pictures of us working on the new place before we moved in...Guess the pictures are actually in reverse order. I am never good at uploading pictures in the right order on here. We had a lot of work to do before we moved in. We painted, clean, and shampooed the carpets. Doesn't sound like much of a to-do list, but it took longer than expected. I wasn't able to help as much as I thought mostly because Drew wanted to be held almost every minute of the day...lol. And we all came down with some kind of stomach virus and were down for a few days. But we are finally starting to feel settled in and are LOVING our new home. We still have some on going projects and unpacking, but we are enjoying it and looking forward to our first winter and the holidays in our first place!!!

First dinner in the new place...we ate ALOT of fast food that week..lol

Luke out front

The sky the night we moved in.

Moving in the furniture!!!

The boys staying busy playing.

Luke helping paint his room!!! He was super excited!!!

The first night of painting.

Drew helping...

Thanks for all your help Amy!!!


More pictures to come, once the house is all put together!!

Fun Birthday Picture

Happy 1st Birthday Drew!!!

Here is the first picture taken of Drew right after he was born. Still one of my favorite photos even though it was taken with my cell phone camera. He was definitely born with those chubby checks and still has them today!!

Singing happy birthday to him...he was pretty excited. We couldn't put the cupcake on his high chair because he kept trying to grab it.

What a little cutie...he loved the frosting!!!

He was really into it!!!

Ok...I am done.

The past year with Drew has been so full of joy and wonderful memories!!! I have enjoyed watching him grow and develop to where he is now. I have loved watching his eyes light up when he sees his big brother. We have been so blessed and I am thankful for the family that the Lord has given us!!!

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since the wonderful miracle of his birth. I still remember all that we were going through at the time of his birth. We found out the day before he was born that he had turned completely breech. We were devastated and all the memories of Lily's birth came rushing back and I thought I might lose him too. I remember going to bed that night praying that God would allow him to turn and I felt so completely helpless and just tried to lay it all down at the Lord's feet. He surely was merciful and he turned Drew back to the right position over night. He allowed me to have a speedy labor and a beautiful baby boy. I don't ever remember being so thankful for anything when I heard Drew cry....
Thank you Lord for your amazing love and compassion and healing for our family!!!

We did just a small little thing for Drew tonight, and his real party will be on Sunday with some or our close friends. I am looking forward to it!! Also wanted to report that Drew has started taking some steps and will probably be walking in no time. Well it was a wonderful first year of Drew's life and I look forward to what the next year has to hold..

Remembering my Angel on her 2nd Birthday

The Broken Chain

We little knew that morning that God was going to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly, in death we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you. You did not go alone.
For part of us went with you, the day God called you home.
You left us peaceful memories, your love is still our guide.
And though we cannot see you, you are always at our side.
Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same.

But as God calls us one by one, the chain will link again.

This is one of my favorite poems that I have found since Lily's passing and I woke up thinking about it yesterday on her birthday. It brought me a lot of comfort. It is hard to believe it has been two years and I sometimes still wonder what our lives would be like if she was here now. But then I look at our lives now and it is hard to picture it any other way. I am thankful for how far the Lord has brought us through this and all his blessing on us through this trail. He has surely been good to us. I still miss my little girl, but as the poem says "the chain will link again"!!!

Under Contract!!!

So we are under contract on OUR FIRST PLACE here in Idaho. We are SO EXCITED!!! It is hard to believe that it is really happening. Joe and I will be married 8 years next month and it is something we have always looked forward too. The day we could have our own home. I am so thrilled and humbled to have the blessing of a nice home to raise the boys in and a nice little yard for them to grow up in. It warms my heart just thinking about the memories that are to be made in the future!!! I feel so unworthy and so thankful for this opportunity to own our own home. We are thanking the Lord for working everything out for us thus far. Part of me is still nervous that something is going to come up to make it fall through..but Lord know and I am trying to leave it all with him. Thanks to everyone too who has helped us along in this process...couldn't have done it without you!!!

Dining room and kitchen...boy's rooms off to the left.

Bonus room above the garage....What neat extra room to have!! We have lots of ideas for this room!!

View of the living room from the dining room.

Luke checking out the kitchen.

Luke's room with a neat window seat.

Big hallway closet...there is one on the other side of the hallway next to the other bedroom...Lots of storage!!!

Drew's room

Boy's bathtub

Boy's bathroom

Laundry room

Hallway and stairs to bonus room. Master is the door to the left, and laundry room and garage is the door to the right.

Nice open floor plan. (The master, bonus room, laundry and garage are off to the right.)

So just wanted to share pictures with everyone...just remember us in your prayers that everything goes smoothly and we get through closing, which is set for September 28 the day before my 28th b-day :-)