The Jennings Family

♥ Day!

2012-02-14T16:28:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentines Day!!!

We woke the kids up this morning to some new toys! Maggie got a new Minnie dress up toy and Hunter got a new Batman toy. Archer got a cute puppy that makes noise when you touch it. I love heart day, don't you?

One reason why I love it (and one reason Ben doesn't) is that I love making the kids their valentines! We have never bought the box of valentines to give out to his class and we aren't going to start now. I have always made something. The first 2 years he was in school I did the color hearts. You know you break up crayons and put them in a heart baking sheet, thing. Last year we did these. And this years I found something on pintrest to try...

Pintrest Pin

I hope your day is "chalk" full of Love! I got some little wooden hearts from Hobby Lobby and painted them with chalkboard paint. Done! Ben made the very cute tag to put on each Valentine! Thank you, Ben!

For teacher's gifts I made these...

Starbucks jars filled with M&Ms! I have been saving these Starbucks glasses for a while and thought they would make the perfect container for a gift. I just painted the lids pink and Ben made the tag! Thank you, Ben!

And what is a holiday without a holiday shirt...

I love my silhouette studio and freezer paper! So easy to make cute, cheap shirts! :)

Archer and I had a great morning just hanging out. Check out this cutie!!

I was really hoping for a nice Valentines nap with this little guy, but he had other plans! Oh well! We had a great morning laughing and playing! :)

I love you, Archer!!!

Then this afternoon we went and partied with both Maggie and Hunter!

Sweet girly! She didn't even touch her cupcake. I don't think she is feeling so great. I think her ears might be bothering her. :( Poor Maggie Moe! She had a great day though. She played with her big brother on the playground at recess. I love you, Maggie Moe!!!

Hunter had a great day with his friends at school! His teacher told me he was extra sweet to a little girl in his class. She broke her ring (a ring from a cupcake) so Hunter went and sat with her and shared his candy with her. That's my sweet boy!! I also noticed he went and gave both his teachers a big hug before we left and I didn't even tell him to! He LOVES his teachers and friends at Beltway! And I love you, Hunter-man!!

Mags showing off her Valentines from her friends. That bag was full! :)

Oh and her favorite Valentines present... her sparkly Toms! Thank you, Honey and Coach! She would sleep in them if I would let her! I don't think they have been off her feet! :)

Hunter showing off all his Valentines!

We're full of LOVE around here today! We can't wait until Daddy comes home! Hope you all are having a great Valentines Day!

Grammy Great

2012-02-14T10:11:00.002-06:00

Friday Archer finally got to meet his Grammy Great!

We have been wanting to make it up to see Grammy for a while and finally made it happen this weekend.

I will be honest, I think Grammy was more interested in seeing this sweet little girl.

We could not wait any longer to meet, Zoe! Isn't she sweet!?! This is my cousin Kara's little lady. So precious! We have been trying to get over to see her ever since she was born. I just love her! She is doing great and has some amazing parents! Thank you for letting us meet her on a cold, windy Friday night!

Let me just tell you, Friday was kind of crazy! We started off with a photo shoot... well kind of. Hunter and Maggie were asked to be in an ad for a really cute store in the mall. (These are the perks for Ben working at the paper.) So we did that in the morning. Then we came home and ate lunch and packed. We didn't know if we were going to be able to go or not... it all depended on if Ben could get off work at 2. Well he did so we packed up and headed to the metroplex. Do you know how much stuff you have to bring with 3 little kids??? And how fast the backseat gets dirty??? Crazy! Well we stopped to eat at Ben's favorite place...

And I think we were pretty comical! Hunter and Maggie were so excited to be out of the car and Archer... well let's just say he needed his diaper changed REALLY bad! Yuck! I think I ate my dinner in record breaking time. Good thing to because Maggie and Archer both ended up sitting in my lap.

The best thing about our trip on Friday... getting to talk to my husband while all three kids slept for 2+ hours! It was amazing! Over all we had a really great weekend!! We were so glad to see Grammy Great and meet Miss Zoe!

I'll be posting a Valentine post today once the kids get home from school!! :) Happy Heart Day!

Take me out to the ball game...

2012-02-09T21:27:00.001-06:00

It's official... Hunter is playing Dixie Little League Baseball this spring! I don't know who is more excited, Hunter or Ben. :)

best friends

2012-02-07T10:48:00.000-06:00

we moved maggie into hunter's room just for bedtime last week. last night before ben and i went to bed we peeked in just to see how they were doing and this is what we found...

maggie got in bed with her bubba! they slept all night together! so sweet! i love them!!!

Fireplace

2012-02-05T17:23:00.002-06:00

After a great Friday night hanging out with the girls, Saturday was paint day.

It was time to paint the fireplace!!!! Yeah! I have been wanting to paint the fireplace for a super long time! Here are a few before pictures.

Last Christmas... do you see that big black insert?

It was big and HEAVY!! Ben took that thing out Saturday morning while I slept in a little bit.

I should have taken a better before picture! Oh well...

After some tape with no insert.

2 coats of paint later

The mantel before the mocha

And finished!

It is bright

but I like!

We painted the inside black

So much better than before!

And with the kids chairs in front makes it complete!

Hooray for a new fireplace!!! :)

4 months!

2012-01-30T15:21:00.001-06:00

can you believe this little guy is 4 month old???

where does the time go?

such a happy baby laying on the blanket his nie-nie made him. he loves it! thank you, nie-nie!

and he was able to play in his exersaucer for the first time this weekend! he loves it!! all my kids have loved this toy! to see mag's in the exersaucer click here.

poor baby has been so sick the last week. he is finally feeling better!

we did find out that he is only 4 pounds away from catching miss maggie! last week when i took him to the doctor he weighed in at 18lbs 2oz. maggie weighed 22 lbs the week before. :) such a sweet big boy! we love you, archer!!! you are such a blessing! :)

Bye-Bye

2012-01-26T15:21:00.000-06:00

Sad day at pre-school. Today was Maggie's bff last day. I don't really think they were sad at all (they didn't really know what was going on) but I know Maggie will miss Addy! She gets so excited to play with Addy on the way to school each morning. They were both in the same class last year, too. Such sweet friends!

One last hug! Bye Addy! Maggie will miss you! :)

Rainy morning at home

2012-01-25T23:20:00.000-06:00

what to do on a rainy day...

we started our day out with a little cinnamon toast and mickey mouse clubhouse. my kids are not morning people. mickey helps us all wake up. :)

my sick little man played with his feet for a little while. he does not feel well at all!! bronchitis is no fun! boo!! :(

next up... playtime with some dinosaurs. hunter loves these little dinos.

sweet hands busy playing. makes me happy!

a little peak-a-boo under the table with mags. she loves her "ga-ga" pjs.

and then it was off for a little minnie time. maggie loves dressing her minnie mouses. they are kind of like mr. potato head but minnie.

archer ate a little breakfast and then tried to have fun in his swing. he soon fell asleep and slept the rest of the morning. poor baby!!

next up... tramp time! i love having the tramp on the porch! we didn't stay out long because it was cold and rainy.

maggie loves to jump!!

jumpin'

they stopped and posed for me!!! they never do this. i love this picture! So sweet!!

more animal time!

maggie watching the octonauts while i start lunch.

hunter loves this new show on disney. we don't really watch that much tv, but sometimes they need a distraction while i make lunch.

meanwhile this little guy was still sleeping.

maggie decided she wanted to cook with me. it's her new thing. she comes up to me and says, "i cook, momma." she loves sitting up on the counter to help. sweet girly.

so that was our morning in a nutshell. ummm... yes the kids were in their pjs until after naps today. maggie didn't want to take her mickey pjs off and i didn't want to make her. it was nice to have a rainy day! now if only archer could get well. praying he gets some sleep tonight. :( poor baby!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and TOES

2012-01-21T19:15:00.000-06:00

Guess what this sweet boy found this week?

His sweet feet!!

I love it...

and love this little guy soooo much!!!!

Ruff...

2012-01-19T16:07:00.000-06:00

Hello Blogging world! So sorry it has been a few days, but we have been sick. Well let me rephrase that, Maggie Moe has been sick. :( She has croup and it has been awful! Poor thing! This has been the first time she has been sick and really acted sick. She doesn't feel well! I did get 1/2 tsp of her medicine down her today. Success!!! Now I am praying Ben can get her to take some tonight while I am at a basketball game! Good Luck, Ben! After a really bad morning, I think she is starting to feel a little better this afternoon.

maggie fell asleep on the way home from dropping hunter off at school this morning. i picked up her new flavored meds, got a much needed cup of coffee and then sat in the truck in our driveway for about 20 minutes to let her sleep. archer was asleep, too. sweet babies!!

this little guy has been awesome this week. so sweet! he has helped me a lot with both mags and archer! he is the best big brother. he is doing his homework in this picture! :)

it was pj day at school today. hunter had been planning to wear his perry pj's for a while now! he was super excited! he had to pose for the pic... lol! i don't know what he is doing.

hunter and i have a date at the hsu basketball games tonight. go cowboys!! sorry for the randomness! hopefully we will get back into our regular routine soon!! have a great thursday everyone!

oh and i am typing this with 1 hand. archer is in my lap! sorry for all the lower case letters! :)

Sweet visitor

2012-01-16T22:20:00.000-06:00

We had such a great long weekend! Wouldn't it be nice if all weekends were 3 days longs?!

Friday night we played games with some really great friends! Then on Saturday Ben went hunting with a few of his work friends and the kids and I got a sweet visit from...

Katie!! Doesn't she look so pretty!?! The Nussbaum family came by Saturday evening to meet Archer. Ben was really upset that he missed them! It was so good to see them! Katie ended up staying for a little bit. She watched the kids jump, played catch with Hunter and watched a little Rio with Maggie. She also held Archer a bunch. She is such a sweet girl! We miss her! I wish they lived closer! I would be calling her to babysit. By the way is there something weird about this picture... Do you see Maggie? She is smiling and posing for a picture! Katie, you have to come back! Maggie NEVER poses for a picture! She was very happy to sit and smile by Katie! :) Thank you Nussbaums for the sweet visit! We miss you guys!

Honey came into town on Saturday and spent the night with me and the kids. It was really nice to have her here! I had nursery duty at church during the late service and let me just tell you, I was reminded why we never go to the late service. We LOVE our church, but if we go to the late service our Sunday afternoons are gone. None of the kids took naps. Everyone was sleepy... it just didn't work. We love the 9:00 service!! Never again will we do the late one. Ben came home around lunch time. We were so glad to see him. He had a great time hunting even though he didn't shoot anything.

Today Ben woke up with, "I had a dream." He dreamed that he cleaned the shed and garage, so that is what he did today! He worked for hours cleaning. (Can you believe it??? I wish he had more dreams like this!) I really should have taken before and after pics because they look great! Then we traded, and he took the kids while I went to the grocery store and to target. We really had a great weekend. The weather was perfect! I am ready for spring!!

Have a great week everyone!

Meow...

2012-01-11T13:51:00.001-06:00

So this morning I was feeding Archer on the couch and I heard Maggie talking to "O", aka Kiddo our cat. I didn't think much about it until I heard the bang on the way. Normally when Kiddo runs up her cat tree it always hits the wall with a bang. Anyway... I decided to go check on Mags and here is what I found...

Yep! She decided she wanted to climb the cat tree, too! Although she did not make it to the tip top, she did get to that next level as I was trying to get her down. You see she couldn't just let me get her from that shelf she is sitting on in the picture. She had to crawl on to the next level where Kiddo decided to swat her with her paw. I don't blame Kiddo at all, by the way. This is her ONLY place in the whole house to get away from all these kids! Bless her heart! Sorry Kiddo!

Tues/Thurs

2012-01-10T21:34:00.000-06:00

I love Tuesdays and Thursdays for one reason...

It's my Archer day! For 5 1/2 hours he has my complete attention. I don't have to put him down to get Maggie down from climbing her kitchen. I don't have to get Hunter something to drink. I get to play with Archer. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Hunter and Maggie and I do miss them on Tues/Thurs but I love snuggle time with Archer.

Today I didn't get much down around the house. I think the only thing I did was make beds and my workout video. The rest of the day I held Archer, fed Archer and made Archer laugh. If you ask me, we had a great day!

Gingerbread house 2011

2011-12-28T15:41:00.000-06:00

Like I said in the pervious post, Christmas really snuck up on me this year. So we are just now doing our Gingerbread house. Actually I am kind of glad we are just now getting to it. Ben is home all week, so this gave us something special to do this morning! Here are some pictures of our awesome house...

Let's start decorating!

Hunter looks forward to making our gingerbread house every year. And a hint... I always buy a new gingerbread house kit after Christmas and hide it away until next year. So much cheaper! :)

HI! Okay now get out of my face. I am busy!

Maggie busy eating candy!

Our house. This year I built the house on Christmas day thinking we would have time to decorate it... well that didn't happen until today. I really liked the icing today though. It was not as runny as it has been in the past. We might do it this way every year.

Sneaky girl! Trying to get more candy!

Even Daddy did a little decorating! (Would someone please call him and tell him to shave, by the way! Just because he is off all week doesn't mean he should go without shaving... just sayin'! lol love that guy!)

Adding a little more candy

She might have just eaten a marshmallow snowman... maybe???

Almost done. Notice the wreath in the back. haha

Our lovely house 2011

This was our 3rd year to try making gingerbread houses and I think we might be getting better... maybe! We are having fun anyway. If you would like to see last years house, click here. And if you are looking for a very cute Christmas book about gingerbread houses you should check out... Mortimer's Christmas Manger.

My kids love it! We read it every year!

Hope you all are having a great week!

2011-12-26T23:15:00.000-06:00

What an amazing Christmas!!! We are so truly blessed. So what did you all do for Christmas? Here is a recap of our Christmas...

Let's see... Coach and Honey came to spend Christmas with us. Honey came early in the week and Coach came on Friday afternoon. We woke up to snow on Christmas Eve! Hunter had to put on a coat as quick as he could and go outside to catch snow flakes on his tongue.

Yummy :)

This is actually Archer's 2nd snow, but it's his first time out in it. :)

After eating some snow we ate lots of pancakes and just hung out until church time. This year we got to go to our church's candle light service. We have never been able to go before and I am so glad we got to go this time. It was beautiful! Our pastor had a great sermon and worship was amazing. I just love our church. The only problem was there was no nursery! None! I was thinking that it would be open for Archer and Maggie, but I was wrong. Archer did pretty well, but Mags didn't make it 10 minutes. Oh well, maybe next year will be better. Hunter loved the service! He was so excited to have his own candle.

Here is Maggie in her Christmas dress given to her from my friend Kayla. I woke her up from her nap and put it on her so quick. We really wanted to be on time for church that night. I really wish we could have gotten a picture of her smiling. She really did love that dress and I did too! She looked so cute! Thank you Kayla!!

We went out to eat after church and then headed home to get ready for Santa. Hunter and Maggie both were so excited. We got back late and still hadn't made our traditional chocolate chip cookies, so we whipped some together really quick, took baths and got ready for bed. Here is a video of Hunter and Maggie getting Santa's stuff ready...

As you can see, Hunter was super excited!!!!

Santa and his helpers were very busy until midnight that night trying to make sure everything was together and perfect.

The kids did pretty good that morning. They let us sleep until 8:15, praise the Lord! Mommy and Daddy were tired! :) Santa put all their toys from him on their chairs and Archer's bumbo. So what were their reactions...

They are so blessed! I was honestly very worried this Christmas. With our new sweet Archer and the medical bills that came along with him, I did not know how much we were really going to be able to give this year, but our parents stepped in and helped. I think they had more than enough this year. Thank you so much, Nana & Grumpy and Coach & Honey! They loved it all!!

Archer with his teddy bear from Santa. Hunter had told Santa that Archer needed a teddy bear.

Maggie with her Minnie shoes.

Hunter wearing his new cowboy boots. He was so excited he ran off to his room to dress himself. He is ready to go hunting.

Oh and what was their big surprise??

A trampoline! This is what Hunter has been asking for and it is perfect for them! Just the right size and everything. Now if only we could get them off of it. :)

playing...

Mags with her new hat and gloves and a little Nutella still on her face :)

Christmas morning was spent playing with toys and enjoying family. My mom and I made a late lunch and then we all just hang out. We did watch both Rio and Kung Fu Panda 2 in between the jumping. It was so cold outside, but that didn't stop Maggie and Hunter! They jumped and jumped and jumped... until we made them come in. Maggie's little hands were ice cold and Hunter had the reddest cheeks. :)

Coach and Archer took a few naps. So sweet!

Coach went back to Gainesville in the late afternoon. We really didn't want him to leave but he needed to be at work on Monday. :(

After they ate dinner we dipped some pretzels in chocolate. Hunter liked doing the sprinkles and Maggie like sticking her fingers in the chocolate. :)

They were both worn out from jumping and neither one of them got a nap Christmas day. After pretzel dipping it was time for bath and bed. I think they had a great Christmas!

This Christmas snuck up on me! This fall had been so busy with football, new baby, Maggie's birthday... Christmas just came so fast. It was a little different this year. Christmas is truly about the birth of Jesus, the greatest gift of all. All we have to do is give our life. It's not about things and what we do and don't do, as long as we are giving glory to the Lord. For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE is only son...

I'll end with a few picture of Archer taken last night after the big kids were in bed.

These pj's have been worn by Hunter and Maggie and now Archer. I love it! I think Maggie might have worn this same pair last year, by the way. Hahaha :) Archer, you are such a wonderful blessing! Happy 1st Christmas!

3 Months :)

2011-12-23T22:59:00.000-06:00

Happy 3 months, Archer!!!

Can you believe our little Archer is already 3 months old? He is such a sweet baby! He is so good! He hardly ever cries. The only time he cries is when he is super hungry. He is smiling all the time now and is talking up a storm. He loves for you to lay him on his back and talk to him. Archer loves his brother and sister. He is always looking for them and smiling at them. He also loves bath time. I don't think he has ever cried in the bath tub. He can sleep through anything, too. There have been many mornings when we have had Hunter, Maggie and Logan running through the house being super loud and he has been sound asleep in his swing. So sweet! I can't imagine life without this little guy! We love you so much, Archer! Thank you, Lord for this sweet little blessing!

Christmas card :(

2011-12-22T16:23:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! :)Love the Jennings

Hunter 4 1/2 and Archer 2 1/2 months

Maggie 2 years

For all of those who are waiting on a Christmas card from the Jennings... we have failed you this year. :( We did not get one together in time. It makes me so sad. I love sending Christmas cards and getting Christmas cards from friends and family. We are sorry! Please enjoy these pictures instead. And thank you for those who have sent us a card! They are all hanging in our kitchen! I love them all!! Thank you so much! :)

p.s. I DO NOT like the new blogger!! Please go back to the old one!

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Christmas in VA

2011-12-21T12:58:00.001-06:00

We spent the last weekend with family in Van Alstyne doing Christmas with Grandaddy. We had such a great time! We haven't seen everyone since this summer. It was so good to see everyone. I wish we lived closer. I miss my family!! Oh and this was the best picture we could get with the great grandkids. haha :)

Sweet Kylie!!! Isn't she just the cutest! We all had so much fun watching and playing with Miss Kylie. This is Amber's little girl. I haven't seen Amb in like forever. It was so good to see her. I miss you Amber!

Ben and Chelsea :) Chelsea always has the biggest smiles especially when Ben is around! Love that girl!

My Grandaddy, me and Archer-man!

Beautiful Holly holding Archer.

Maggie loved Kylie! I can't wait until Kylie is a little bigger and they can play. Maggie gave her a few kisses. :)

Not pictured was my amazing cousin, Kara. She is about to have her first baby. I had such a great time talking to Kara. I wish we lived closer! I can't wait to meet Miss Zoe! She will be here any day! :)

We had such a great time this past weekend! It was so good to see all my aunts and uncles... it's just so nice to be with family. I missed seeing my Aunt Barbie and her family, but hopefully we will be back soon. Thank you so much for having Christmas at your house Aunt Jen! I love you all so very much! Merry Christmas, Grandaddy!

Little baby, ooo ahhh...

2011-12-16T09:39:00.000-06:00

Hunter had his Christmas program yesterday morning! Ben and I were so proud. He made such a good angel and you could really hear him singing.

There's my baby! The one on blue. This was taken with my ipod. I was afraid Ben was going to miss it. He got there just in time!

Sweet boy!

He was so excited!

There is a video at the bottom of this post. :)

That afternoon I got to go to his and Maggie's Christmas party! It was so fun!

About to do the book exchange.

And Open!

Eating a snowman cookie and being silly!

Then I went to see this sweet girl! She had a good party until the end. I think she must have eaten something... she got sick all over me right after I took this picture. She didn't get sick again, so I think it must have been lunch or maybe the straw or something. I'm so glad she isn't sick!

And now what you have been waiting for....

Hunter! :) Enjoy!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

2011-12-14T21:02:00.000-06:00

Last year we got our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it barely made it. It got so dry I was afraid to turn the lights on, but it was okay because we were going out of town for Christmas. This year we decided to wait a little longer. We got our tree this past Saturday after the HSU basketball games.

Hunter was super excited and had to wear his Santa hat.

Maggie decided she would wear the reindeer ears...

Well until Daddy took them. :)

Oh and Archer tried them on too.

The kids really enjoyed picking out their tree this year and we enjoyed watching them. Once we got home it was to late to decorate. I put the lights on, but that was it. Off to bed.

The next day we got to do the fun part. Decorate!

Maggie did really well this year. She put up a few ornaments and didn't take any off! I was surprised!

Hunter did awesome as usual!

And they both got to put the Santa on top. Maggie first...

Then the Hunter-man.

He really wanted his hat to stand straight up. :)

Pretty tree! We love it, anyways!

While we were decorating, this little guy was sitting right by the tree watching and listening to Christmas music.

Hooray for Archer's first Christmas!! Love that boy!

We are officially ready for Christmas!

Hey! What's all this white stuff?

2011-12-12T13:33:00.001-06:00

Are we still in Texas?? Yes, it really did snow last week! We woke up to white stuff last Monday. We normally don't get snow until February, but I'm not complaining. It was so pretty! And it stayed around for a little while... well I little bit of it did anyway.

Hunter LOVES the snow!

Snowball fight!!!

He couldn't get his fingers in his gloves, but that wouldn't keep him from playing.

Maggie's new winter coat came in the mail on the Saturday before the snow. Perfect timing!

She didn't know about the snow, but once I put her out in it she didn't want to leave.

Snowballs

Yummy Snow! (Yuck! I tried to stop her from eating it. We didn't have enough to make it good.)

Check out those gloves. haha :)

Yum more yummy snow!

They both sat down together to play.

I love the snowy trees! So pretty!

Now if I remember correctly... that winter we got snow on Christmas Eve we also had a snow early in December, too. Maybe it will be a white Christmas again! My fingers are crossed! :)

Ice Ice Baby...

2011-12-12T01:13:00.000-06:00

Okay so going along with the previous post... After Santa, on our mini vacation, we got to see ICE at the Gaylord. It was amazing... oh and cold! :) Hunter, Maggie and I got to go 2 years ago when Maggie was only a month old. To see pictures from that trip click here.

We had a really great time!

About to go in and watch the movie about how they make ICE before we got our huge coats.

Me and the kids. Archer was in my coat. I did the same thing with Maggie last time, but... well let's just say Archer is a lot bigger than Maggie. By the end of Ice I was ready for Ben to hold him for a while. :)

Yay for Shrek the Halls! Maggie had never seen Shrek. Hunter saw it one time when he was 2 and I decided that would be his last time for a while. We did let them watch Shrek the Halls before we left for Dallas. It just so happened to be on ABC.

Maggie could barely walk in that coat. It was so big!

Can you believe someone made that out of ice???

By the way it was 9 degrees in there... just sayin'

Me and Archer :) Sweet baby boy!

Hunter... not really wanting to smile for a picture.

Maggie's favorite character. "O!" (Our cat is called Kiddo.)

Us in the outhouse. I really wish I could have taken pictures of Ben with the kids, but I had a sweet baby in by coat. Next time!

I told Hunter to pretend he was pooping. Haha :)

This was where they had the ice slides. Hunter didn't want to slide, but Maggie did! :) Ben did, too. Archer and I will do it next time!

Yay for Ice!

At the end of Shrek they had the nativity. I LOVED it! I was really neat! With everything going on in the world today, it was nice to see that they did have the REAL Christmas story! However they did make a tiny mistake. They said the nativity story happened 2 centuries ago... umm not 200 years ago more like 2,000 years ago! :)

Baby Jesus!

This reminds me... the other day Hunter was talking about the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus' birthday. Then he said, "I think he is going to be 7 this year." So sweet and innocent! And I guess he thinks 7 is really old. Don't tell him how old I am! :)

This was the free picture we got just before we went inside. We took this in front of a green screen.

Right after we finished we got a little hot chocolate and then got to meet this guy...

Hunter was excited to meet Shrek!

Maggie liked to wave to him from a distance, but didn't want to get close.

After Shrek we went to get some dinner and then took pictures around the Gaylord.

Maggie was so tired! I couldn't get a picture fast enough. We should have tired to take pictures the first night.

Hunter did much better with Daddy.

Ben took a million pictures, but only a couple were good. They were just so tired.

I like this one! :)

Then the next morning we got to have breakfast with Shrek and some of his friends. The kids loved it! We all had to take the Ogre pledge before we sat down and we were giving green swamp juice to drink. Hunter loved it!

Giving Shrek a hug.

All of us! Oh and you see that green fountain in the back? That's chocolate! Yummy!

Maggie really liked Puss in Boots!

Archer was sleeping...

The kids got Shrek ears!

Funny face :)

Archer wanted to wear them, too!

We had a great mini vacation. The kids loved it! I am so glad we got to do this. We were given this trip. It was such a blessing. Just a little get-a-way for our family. We definitely made lots of memories. I will say, it is still hard to stay in a hotel. The kids were super excited the first night and didn't sleep well. Then we didn't get naps because we were still so excited. The second night everyone slept much better, but this trip was a lot of work. It was well worth it though! God is so good! This Christmas is a little tight for us, but God is providing. There is no way we would have been able to do this had we not been given the opportunity! Thank you so much!

After the 2 nights at the Gaylord, Ben and I were beat. By the way, Ben did this all with a stress fracture in his foot. He was hurting pretty bad. We walked a lot! So once we were done we went and relaxed at Coach and Honey's house. :)

Hooray for ICE! Hopefully we will be back!

P.S. Someone needs to tell them to let Disney do it next year! Wouldn't that be awesome!

Santa 2011

2011-12-11T00:10:00.001-06:00

This year was special because Ben got to go with us to see Santa! We actually went on a mini vacation to Dallas. We had such a great week. We left on Wednesday and got to spend 2 nights at the Gaylord Texan. It was so much fun! We got up early on Thursday to see the real Santa at North Park. Hunter was super excited about story time. He was telling us one of Santa's stories from last year on the way to the mall.

Santa at story time with his dog, Widget. Hunter thought it was super cool to see Widget.

During story time... can you see Hunter??

I love my sweet kids!

Hunter liked the "I'm not sleepy yet" story the best!

Santa and Widget

Since we got there so early (#15 this year) we got to jump right in line after hearing his stories.

Hunter loved every minute! Archer was a little scared of the elmo doll the photographer was putting in his face and Maggie didn't really know if she liked Santa or not.

Hunter was so sweet talking to Santa. He didn't talk as much as he did last year, but he was so excited to see him.

Santa gave him a few pictures. He thought it was so cool!

We really had a great day! I am so glad Ben got to go this year. He enjoyed watching the kids. The only thing we missed was Honey. Normally she goes with us to see Santa. :(

Sweet Archer riding along in the mall.

Hunter and Maggie riding along in the mall, too. (Maggie didn't want her picture taken.)

If you would have told me when Ben and I were married 7 1/2 years ago that we would be walking the mall pushing 2 stroller filled with our 3 kids, I wouldn't have believed it. It's crazy! We are so incredibly blessed! God is so good!

Click here for last years Santa visit. :)

2 months!

2011-12-02T21:19:00.000-06:00

Okay I am super late at posting this but...

Look who's 2 months old!!!!

Archer turned 2 months the day before Thanksgiving! He is getting so big. We took him to the doctor on the 30th for his check up and shots. He weighs in at 14lbs 11oz (90% for weight) and 22 3/4in long (40% for height). Such a sweet big boy!!

He is growing and changing every day! It is amazing! He is staying up longer during the day and smiling ALL the time! So sweet!

This sweet girl had her 2 year check up at the same time. Her stats are small... weighs 23lbs (5% for weight) and is 31.5 inches (3% for height) tall. :) She's gonna be a gymnast! :)

Look for our Santa post coming soon! :)

November recap

2011-11-29T23:40:00.000-06:00

Okay... so i totally wanted to blog more this month! I really don't know what happened. Time just ran away from me I guess. So anyway, here is our November! :) Enjoy!

Ben was supposed to write a post about these pictures, but he never got around to it. Our good friend Josh took the kids out to Dyess to see the B1. From what I heard it was awesome!!!

Hunter still talks about it! Josh is his hero by the way. Not only does he fly airplanes but he also has a motorcycle!

Fighting the bad guys! :)

While the kids were touring the B1 we got some girl time. It was so much fun. The only thing is Teara and Josh moved the next weekend. :( We miss you guys so much!!!! We are having life group next Tuesday, if you want to make the trip back to Abilene. :)

My sweet Grandaddy came down for a visit. We were so excited to have him and Sandy! Hunter and Maggie both were glad to see them and it was Archer's first time to meet his Great Grandaddy.

We had our last football game. :(

I love football...

but not near as much as I love this squad!! I have been so blessed by each and every one of these cheerleaders! They are amazing!!!

Meanwhile... Archer is growing!!!!!

Ben got the stomach bug and so I took all 3 kids to the grocery store. I know that sounds like not such a big deal, but I felt like a champion!

We made our first trip to Coach and Honey's for a wedding. Maggie and Hunter just had to go for a ride in the gator.

And Coach got up with Archer every morning, so that I could get some sleep. Thank you, Daddy!!!

Maggie got some Honey time.

And Hunter taught Kelly about the animals on the ipad.

Archer got to meet Aunt Kelly!!! He loves his Aunt Kelly!

Oh and did I mention he is growing?!?!

I made a couple of Thanksgiving shirts. (He just woke up from a nap by the way.)

Maggie's turkey shirt. Thank you, Pinterest!

And then before we knew it, it was Thanksgiving!

Archer got to meet Uncle David! I think they liked each other. Archer kept smiling at him! :) He got to meet Nie, Nie (his Aunt Jayne), too but I couldn't find a picture. :(

I think Maggie and Gracie hit it off! They all played and played! Oh and I made their shirts! Yes, I finally got the sewing machine out of the box... only 11 months after I got it. Not too bad, right!?

We are so blessed! We had such a wonderful weekend with family! It was so good to see Gracie and watch her play! We haven't seen her since July or August, I think. We had a great time with everyone! Thank you so much for coming! We love you all!

So that was our November in a nutshell. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Peanut, Peanut Butter

2011-11-07T10:53:00.000-06:00

Today is going to be a great day and whats better than a little peanut butter play dough? Since we were all up super early, thank you time change, I thought we should do something fun. We have made kool aid play dough before, but not peanut better.

They were a little excited!

Can you tell?

Here is what you need if you want to make some yourself.

1 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons honey

2/3 to 1 cup dry milk

Mix together and you've got yummy peanut butter play dough!

Get out the cookie cutters and have some fun!

Do you see someones toes? Archer watched!

Hunter and his "Rocky Mountain from Colorado"!

Yum!

Sweet Archer liked watching everyone play!

My attempt to take a pic of everyone playing... they weren't interested!

Have a great Monday!

Maggie's 2nd Birthday Party

2011-11-05T20:41:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we celebrated Maggie, our little Ladybug girl!

We didn't have a huge party, but we had some amazing friends come over and celebrate with us.

Here is her ladybug cake. She really loves the Ladybug Girl books, so I thought we would have a ladybug party.

I have to admit, this was the easiest cake I have ever made!

Happy Birthday to you! (Cha Cha Cha) :) Love all the kids at the party!

Hunter helping Mags open presents.

She has been enjoying all of her gifts! Thank you so much everyone!!

She really wasn't in the best mood that day. She really didn't want to wear her ladybug t-shirt. I think it was a little scratchy :( I thought she looked cute though! :)

And here was her big present! She LOVES her kitchen and all the stuff that went with it. Hunter and Maggie both play at the kitchen ALL the time now! Thank you so much Honey and Coach! And thank you Nana, Grumpy, Nie-Nie and Gracie for all the cool stuff to go into the kitchen!

I don't know who had more fun, Maggie or me and Ben?!?

Happy Birthday, Maggie Rose!

Fall Zoo Day

2011-11-02T15:39:00.000-05:00

Okay I am really going to try to blog more... so here it goes!

Today we had a really great morning!! We started off the day with sweet Logan! He came over and played for a while. He is so cute!! Hunter and Maggie love him so much!! Archer will love him, too! It was so noisy in our house. I love it! They all played at the kitchen, played with the cars, and then of course ran all through the house. Makes me so happy!

After Logan left, we decided to load up and go to the zoo! I haven't taken the kids to the zoo since Archer was born and I thought it would be fun to get out. We had a blast!! It was so nice! A little windy, but oh so much fun!

Okay, I know her eyes are closed but I had to show you who she brought with her. Yes, Minnie made the trip too! She has been going with us a lot lately. Thank you, Miss Christina! Maggie loves her Minnie!

One main reason why we had to go to the zoo was to see if Albert was still there. You see, Hunter loves our alligator named Albert. He is the first thing we always see. We were sad to find out that Albert has been taken to warmer place for the fall and winter months. :(

This is one weird (kind of scary) bird walking around in the inside bird exhibit. I think Maggie could have walked up and touched it. I didn't let her of course.

You see! It let us get close! (a little to close for me)

Hunter loves the lions! He decided we were all lions today.

He was the little lion chasing after a ball. He ran all over his cage chasing that ball. Hunter and Maggie loved it!

It really is fall!! They were stompin' in the leaves this morning! And it was so windy, I bet there are even more leaves on the ground for the next time we go to the zoo.

Archer enjoyed taking a nice nap at the zoo! So sweet! I know he will enjoy the zoo someday soon! :)

Thank you Lord for such a wonderful morning!

Trick or Treat 2011

2011-10-31T23:03:00.000-05:00

The trick or treat gang!!!

The princess Maggie as Rapunzel

The little puppy Archer

Hunter as Red Stick the Indian

Cowboy Caleb

Cowgirl Cailey

Hunter and Maggie getting some candy.

Maggie's first piece of candy! She didn't go up and trick or treat much. She just liked watching. The times she did get candy as soon as they put it in her bag she had to get it back out and look at it. :)

Hunter was a big hit in his buffalo hat! :)

Isn't Cailey the cutest cowgirl!! She looked adorable! The other picture of her that we got didn't show off her outfit.

And we will end with one smiling little puppy!

We had a great time with amazing friends! Thank you Ingrams for letting us come out and trick or treat with you! We had a blast! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Maggie!!!!

2011-10-24T11:53:00.000-05:00

Sunday, was Maggie's 2nd birthday! Can you believe it? She is such a sweet little girl!! I think my friend, Christina said it best, "She's not all sugar. She's got some spice!" She is so funny! She makes us all laugh all the time. She is also a little stinker at times. She knows what she wants and will do whatever it takes to get it. She is our climber and our future gymnast. She will find anything and everything to stand on so she can stunt like the hsu cheerleaders. She is not afraid of anything! :) She gives the best hugs and pats on the back. She won't go to sleep at night without kissing everyone goodnight. She loves her brothers and her best friend is Hunter. We are so blessed! Maggie, we love you so much!! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you! We are having Maggie's birthday party this Sunday, so yesterday we just had a few cupcakes at home.

Make a wish!

(I was afraid she was going to put her hand in the fire. She almost did!)

Yummy cupcake! I had to buy cupcakes from United. We were to busy at homecoming yesterday. :( I'll be making her cake for this weekend!

It's easier to eat it like this, right?

By the way she has been wearing her tinkerbell outfit ALL THE TIME! I really can't believe she can fit into it. It's from last Halloween and is a size 6 - 9 months!!!! She loves it and had to wear it all day yesterday! :)

She was excited about the ring from her cupcake.

Showing her ring to Daddy! :)

She also wanted to hold her little bubba last night. She insisted on holding him! :)

Sweet kisses!

Oh and not only was it Maggie's birthday...

Archer is 1 month old!!! Already!?!?!

Stretch!!

Maggie had to get on the floor with him

Love Love Love these 2 kiddos! (Hunter was at Cubbies having fun learning about Jesus!)

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

Join us on a trip to the Pumpkin Patch...

Maggie says, "Come on!"

Hunter sitting with the dog. I think this will be this dogs last year at the pumpkin patch. He was kind of falling apart this year. Hunter had been talking about wanting to sit in his lap again.

The boys :)

Daddy with all the kids :)

Family of 5

Love this picture and LOVE that boy!

Maggie carried around that little pumpkin almost the whole time. We bought and brought it home.

Having fun!

Maggie had to pick up a few pumpkins.

It was just a little heavy. :)

Maggie and Momma! I love this picture!!!

My sweet kids!!

That's my girl!!!

Sweetest boys!

Daddy and Mags!

Hunter was so excited to go to the pumpkin patch! We had been talking about it all week. This is his 4th year to get to go!

Archer's 1st Bath! :)

2011-10-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, Archer got to take his first bath! Yay!!!

He did really well!! He didn't cry at all! I think he likes taking baths.

So sweet! This is the same bath tub that Maggie and Hunter used.

As soon as I got him in the tub, in ran Hunter and Maggie. They wanted to help! Hunter washed his toes and Maggie watched. She did wash him a little tiny bit. :)

Hello!

Sweet, clean baby boy!

Baby Elephant, Archer!

Hunter had the PBK frog towel, Maggie the pink chick, and now Archer has the elephant!

Putting lotion on his little back

Bye-bye! Until next time...

Elk Fest 2011

2011-10-13T10:41:00.000-05:00

Well Hunter is home from CO. He had a wonderful time with Coach and Honey and he saw lots of elk. For those of you who don't know, Hunter got to go with Coach and Honey to Elk Fest in Estes Park, CO. He went for a long weekend the first weekend of this month. We are still hearing stories about his trip. He loved it! Here are a few pictures... I'll try to tell you about them, but if you want the real story, you need to talk to the Hunter-man.

There were Native Americans at Elk Fest. Hunter said he was afraid of the them though. :) I think he might have watched a little to much of Davy Crockett.

Here he is with his number on from the bugling contest. Let me just tell you... They have this big bugling contest. Contestants get on this big stage in front of lots of people and bugle and Hunter did it!!! He was the 2nd person to go and the first person chickened out! He did awesome!! I'll try and put the video up on the blog soon. He didn't win, but got a t-shirt which he LOVES! He is so proud of that shirt!

Here he is on stage!

He did awesome!!! Go Hunter-man!!!

Here is his shirt and his new hat!

A better picture with his new hat. It is a buffalo hat, but he calls it his "Red Stick" hat. Red Stick is the Indian from Davy Crockett. (It is also going to be his halloween costume.)

Coach and Hunter watching the elk!

They didn't get to see them "boom fight" but they did get to hear them bugle.

Hunter ate pancakes every morning!

And just look at the trees!!! I have never been to CO during the fall, but I think it looks beautiful!

And here are some of the bull elk that they saw!

Hunter had such a great time! Thank you Coach and Honey for taking him! If you want to hear about his trip all you have to do is ask! He will talk to your ear off about it! :)

Foxy...

2011-10-05T10:16:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot to tell you about our adventurous Saturday. So here it goes... Saturday about lunch time Ben took the trash out and this is what he saw...

Yes, that is a fox taking a little nap in our backyard!!!!

After his little nap, he got up and walked down the fence line and under the storage shed. Ben called his good friend Josh to come over with his 22 so that they could kill it. Well we didn't think it was going to come out from under the shed, but he did. He ran through the yard. Josh and Ben both shot at it, but no luck. He got away.

Isn't he big and ugly!?!? Now you know why we haven't been playing in the backyard much this week. I don't want to run into this guy!!

Oh and by the way, for those of you who don't know where we live, we live in town! Watch out Brookhollow area. You might just see a fox or two!

Archer's 1st week

2011-10-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

Yay! We survived our first week as a family of five!!! And just look at this little guy...

He is perfect! I think so anyway...

So we really did have a great week, but I will say it was hard. I am so thankful that my mom was here all week and that Ben was off on Monday and Tuesday. I don't know how, but I completely forgot how hard the first night at home is. I mean... this is my 3rd baby! You would think I would remember some things, right? Anyway... Monday was rough! I honestly did not know if I could do this whole 3 kids thing. I didn't know how I was going to function with no sleep and take care of 2 other young kids. But God is good!! Archer is sleeping much, much better and I feel like I can do this. Archer is a perfect fit for our family! I don't know... it's hard to explain, but we wouldn't be the Jennings family without him.

So how are the big kids doing? Hunter LOVES his little brother! He holds him all the time and is always talking to him. He is so excited that he is here! He is also excited about teaching him how to play football one day. :) Maggie is doing great! She is so sweet to her "little bubba". That is what she calls him, by the way. She is finally sleeping better, too. You see the day we brought Archer home, Maggie decided she no longer wanted to sleep in her crib. She wanted to sleep in her big girl bed. (Not the greatest timing, huh!) So she did not sleep well for the first couple of days. It was bad, but she is doing much better!

Hunter is in CO with Coach and Honey right now! He will be back tomorrow. He is getting to see lots of elk. I am sure I will blog about his trip once he gets home and I hear all about it. He is having a great time. Maggie Moe is being spoiled here at home. I have had so much fun playing with her and Ben has too. She is so funny! She says and does the funniest things. I am so thankful Hunter is having a good time and that we are getting some special Maggie time, too.

Look at that sweet smile!

Ben and I are doing great! I am back at HSU working with my awesome, fabulous cheerleaders! Ben is helping a lot! I love working with him. He is the best! Anyway... We have a game this weekend, HSU vs HPU! GO COWBOYS! It should be interesting how it goes on the sidelines. Ben might be home with all 3 kids or we might all be at the game. We will see how it goes.

I will try to blog more later! Have a great week everyone!

Blessed and a funny!

2011-09-23T21:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome Archer Daniel Jennings!!!

Today was the day! Archer's birthday! We are so incredibly blessed!

Archer Daniel Jennings

Born at 7:46 am

8 lbs 4 oz.

20 inches long

I can't wait to tell you all about our amazing day, but you see I have this monitor on my pointer finger on my right hand. Typing is a little hard. :( So instead I will tell u a short funny story that happened today.

And yes, it is about these 2! Maggie did amazing today with Archer! Thank you all for the prayers about Mags and how she was going to do with baby Archer. Please keep them up. Anyways... So I was holding Archer in bed this afternoon and Maggie just had to join us. It was so sweet. And then out of nowhere Maggie leaned over and honked Archer's nose!! She grabbed it and said "honk"! It was so cute! She honks mine, Daddy's and Bubba's noses all the time, but I didn't think she would try to get Archers just yet. Watch out Archer!! :) It won't be long and Archer will be honking Mag's nose.

Here is Hunter and Archer! Hunter got to watch Julie (the BEST nurse and SWEETEST friend) give Archer a bath. Then once he was warm, Hunter got to be the first one to hold him!! He loved every minute of it!

Okay and I couldn't write a blog post without mentioning this guy. I have the greatest husband and my kids have the best daddy on earth. Thank you Lord for such an amazing best friend who I get to spend my life with. I am without words! Thank you Lord for your many, many blessings!!

More about sweet baby Archer coming soon! :)

1st day of school 2011 =)

2011-09-07T14:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the first day of school for both Hunter and Maggie! Hunter was sooo excited! :)

This year Hunter is in the shark class! He could not wait for school to start. Maggie is in the Sea Turtle class and has 2 of the best teachers at Beltway. I am so glad she is in their class!

I couldn't get Maggie to look at me. She was excited though! She didn't want to wear her backpack but wouldn't put her Minnie Mouse lunch box down.

Maggie walking into the building. Maggie did awesome! She walked right into her class all by herself. She didn't cry at all! :) Such a big girl!

Hunter walked right into his class and hung up his backpack! He was so sweet!

When I went to pick them up, Maggie's teaches said Hunter's class was playing on the playground at the same time and Hunter pushed Maggie on the swings. Isn't that sweet!! Maggie had a great day (or so they said) and she even took a nap on her nap mat! Yay Maggie! To be honest I was a little worried about Maggie because she was up most of the night on Monday. I don't know why, but she just did not sleep. Glad she still had a good day at school!

Hunter told me all about his class when I picked him up. He loved music and loved making ants. He came home with a couple of work pages that he completed. He was so proud. He was also excited that he got to eat in the cafeteria (aka Kiddie Park). The oldest classes don't have to eat in their room like all the other classes.

After school we made our traditional first day of school chocolate chip cookies! Yummy! I am so glad Maggie and Hunter both get to go to school this year. We LOVE Beltway and I can't wait to see what this year brings for both of them!

H-S H-S U-U!

2011-08-27T20:39:00.001-05:00

We are still alive! I know it has been a loooong time since I have update the blog, but we have been very busy. So who have we been hanging out with???

These beautiful ladies! The last 2 weeks we have had cheerleading camp with the one and only Shane Paulsen! Shane was such a blessing to Ben and I and to the cheerleaders, too! We are so glad he got to come!!! And then last week was NSO. It has been crazy, but oh so much fun!

I absolutely LOVE my team! They are amazing! I can't not wait to see what God has in store this year for them and for me, too! They are such a blessing!

Yesterday, we had our NSO pep rally and let me tell you my girls did awesome! I am so proud of each one of them! I can't wait until our first game, which is next Saturday. (Please pray for cooler temperatures! It's gonna be hot! )

I had such a great time with my girls the last few weeks, but I do have to say I am looking forward to getting back into our regular schedule. It has been hard on my sweet kids! Our schedule has been so off, I feel like I haven't been able to play with them as much as I normally do. With baby #3 (still no name!!?!) due in less than a month, I plan on soaking up as much playtime with the Hunter-man and my Maggie Moe as possible! This week, we will go back to our "regular scheduled programing". I can't wait!

Shootin' with Coach!

2011-08-15T20:01:00.001-05:00

This weekend Hunter got to shoot a BB gun for the 1st time and boy was he excited!

He goes "hunting" for elk and deer in the back yard all the time, but Saturday evening he had his first target practice!

Here is the video!

We started off shooting at a box and then moved to the can. He did really well!!! After a few shots, Coach wasn't even helping him. Here is he looking for the bb.

He would shoot and then run up and check the can. It was so cute! Even if the can fell off the box, he still had to pick it up and find the new hole.

Then he would race back and give Coach a hi five! I don't know who was having more fun... Coach or Hunter! :)

Maggie played with Honey on the porch. When she gets a little older Coach will teach her too! I don't know of a better teacher than my dad! He is amazing!!!

And this is the picture Ben loves... I know I am huge, but I still got it! :) I was shooting the 22, by the way.

My Sweet boy!!! I am so excited for my Hunter-man! He is getting so big! It won't be long until Coach is taking him hunting for real.

Summer art with the Hunter-man!

2011-08-09T14:11:00.000-05:00

So Hunter has never really been into crafts or anything like that. He would rather be playing! He doesn't even like to color, really. I know... and he is my son! I wish he would color some, just to give me an excuse to sit down and color, too. I know... I'm weird. Anyway.... I found something he likes to do!

I got this from the Disney's Family Fun magazine.

It's paint throwing! Hunter LOVED it!

Ok and to tell you the truth he does like to paint, however when he paints he just paints the whole page. He doesn't make anything out of the paint or try to paint a certain thing. He just paints the whole sheet all the colors I give him.

So you get these rubbery, pokie balls that you can find at target in the dollar section. Then I let him dip it in paint and throw it at some paper that I stapled to the fence. So simple!

He loved it! He did end up taking off his shorts, too! It was funny. He was worried about getting paint on his hands and body at first, but he slowly got over it. He had a lot of fun!

It was super hot outside, we did this while Maggie was taking her afternoon nap. This was his finished product. He can show you what he "painted" in the picture. We will have to do this again! He loved it!

Sweet Gracie's 1st Birthday!

2011-08-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

Okay I will finish our Houston trip with my sweet niece's first birthday party!! Yay! So last Saturday, July 30th we celebrated Gracie! Here are some cute pictures!

Here is the sweet 1 year old, Gracie! She was busy playing with the kitchen. :)

Way to busy playing... doesn't really want to pose for a pic.

And more playing. Her party was at Wonder Wild, by the way. For those of you in Abilene it was like the Jump Around. It had a few blow ups and lots of fun climbing things for kids.

Here's Mags waiting for the party to start!

So in the very back of the gym there was this blob like thing. You know like this...

Have you ever seen or been on one of these at the lake? Well they had one kind of like it, but inside. It was awesome!! I do have to say, I was so jealous. I really wanted to go jump on it, but didn't think that would be so smart. You are welcome, Dr. Tadvick.

Maggie LOVED it!!! She did awesome! She learned very quick how to fall and how to jump the right way. She did awesome. We want one for the back yard! Santa?? Please!

She would fall and get up laughing her head off! :)

Daddy really like it, too! He was on it most of the play time... even if there weren't any kids jumping. :)

Seat Drop!

You know Hunter LOVED it!

So they also had this play gym type thing and since I am 8 months prego guess who go to go up with Mags??

That would be Daddy! :) Maggie kept sneaking up there, but couldn't get down by herself so Daddy had to go up and get her every time!

So after we played it was time for cake and crafts!

So I got to make sweet Gracie's cake this year! Yay! I was so excited. The theme for her cake was the Hungry Caterpillar. I think it turned out pretty good. I was so glad that Nana, Grumpy, Jayne and Ben helped me finish it the night before! They did a great job!

Boy is it humid in Houston, by the way! The cake was very moist! We definitely weren't in Abilene!

Singing Happy Birthday to Gracie!

Ready for some cake! :)

Yummy! I think she liked it!

Yeah... she liked it! Just look at that face!

Gracie and Nana.

Happy 1st Birthday, Miss Gracie Cate!

Her actual birthday was this past Wednesday. We are so glad we were able to come to her party. She is such a sweet little girl. We love you, Gracie!! Happy Birthday!

The Children's Museum

2011-08-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

So Friday we went to the Children's museum in Houston. It was really neat, but kind of crowded. I wish there weren't as many people there because I think Hunter would have LOVED it even more. Oh well... guess we will have to go again. :)

Maggie fell asleep on the way to the museum and had a hard time waking up. She finally woke up to play with Hunter and Gracie at the magnet table.

Even Gracie played at this table! :)

Then there was the huge arch that Hunter pulled down. Don't worry you were supposed to be able to pull it down.

So we put it back up! Maggie and Hunter both helped! Maggie kept giving me blocks.

This table we could have been at forever. You were supposed to roll golf balls into holes at the end of the table. Well Maggie doesn't know how to roll... but she did get the balls in the holes way better than anyone else. It was so funny to watch her.

Hunter drove us around Mexico!

And Maggie did a little driving, too! It was funny because on our way home we stopped at the mall in Temple for dinner and they had a real car on display in the middle of the mall for everyone to look at. Well Hunter saw it and was like oh yeah! I wanna drive that car. Let's get in! He thought it was like the cars at the museum. He thought they were just for you to play in. :)

Maggie and Gracie headed up to Tot Spot and played for a while. Hunter and I went shopping!

When you first get inside the museum all the kids get a credit card. This is a picture of the town that you can work and shop in. It was really neat! They had all kinds of different jobs you could do. They also had a grocery store. Hunter got his basket and his shopping list and was off. He wanted to make sure he got everything on his list. But he did get some cookies, too! :) He thought he needed them. Kids are also the workers and are there to check you out, and you get to use your credit card to pay. It was really neat! He loved it! I wish it wouldn't have been so crowded. I think he would have enjoyed the whole city!

Here is a picture of Miss Gracie playing in the tot spot. She was so cute! She really liked it!

After Hunter and I went shopping, I switched places with Daddy. I got to play with Maggie some and he went off with Hunter.

Here is Mags driving the car in the tot spot. She liked it!

Hunter had fun in this metal maze thing with Daddy. Ben said he was so funny trying to figure out where to go! (We didn't have a picture of him. This is from the internet.)

We had a great time at the museum. If you are ever in Houston, you should go! It was really neat! They had all kinds of different things!

NASA

2011-08-04T14:42:00.000-05:00

Astronaut Hunter! We went to Space Center Houston on Thursday! We really didn't know if Hunter would like it or not. We have never really talked about outer space or anything like that so we just didn't know... well he LOVED it! He was so interested in everything!

This helmet was a little too heavy.

Hunter was so interested in the astronauts. He learned a lot! Next time you see him, you should ask him about it!

On the moon!

The car they drove on the moon.

Us waiting to watch a movie type thing about going to the moon. Maggie did really well during this show! Hunter was all into it!

This was my first time to go to NASA in Houston. If you are ever in Houston, you should go! They have a lot of stuff for kids to do. Maggie was a little to young, but Hunter really enjoyed it! I think we will go back in a few years when he is a little older.

Oh and we did get...

sooo good!!!! Hunter loved it, because it wasn't cold and it didn't melt. Yummy!!! You should go there just for the ice cream if you ask me! :)

Thank you Nana and Grumpy! We had a great time!

Wednesday in Houston...

2011-08-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

So last Monday we went and saw dinosaurs. Tuesday we went to the beach. What did we do Wednesday????

You know... just monkeyed around... at the Houston Zoo! :)

We had a great time! I think since we went on a Wednesday there weren't as many people there, which made it nice!

Maggie and Hunter both loved petting and brushing the goats!

Maggie could have done this all day long!

(notice Mags hair is still a little crazy from the sunscreen at the beach from the day before)

They love goats! Honey and Coach's neighbors have goats that they go to see every time they are in Lindsey. Maybe we should find some brushes and see if they will us brush them... ummm maybe not. :) I don't think they are as sweet as these goats were.

We also saw some baby elephants! They were so cute... but a little stinky! :)

Jayne carried Hunter for a little while in this blue thing. I think she realized while he might have been light to carry with that thing, he sure was hot on her back. It was very hot that day.

We didn't take many picture at the zoo, but we did have a great time! The kids did great! Maggie walked a lot of the time. She is getting so big!

So what do you think we did on Thursday?? Any guesses??

Beach babes!

2011-08-02T14:46:00.001-05:00

So more about our trip to Houston! On Tuesday we went to the beach! We were all so excited! We got up early and headed down the road to Galveston.

Hunter could hardly wait to get his feet in the sand! He was so excited!

As soon as we got the tent up, Hunter and Grumpy got in the waves!

Maggie really liked it! She was running in and out of the water!

Stompin' in the water with Nana

And run back up to the sand... she then would turn back around and run into the water again. :)

Miss Gracie's first time at the beach!! Yay! :)

All covered in sunscreen! :)

Splashing in the waves! Jayne, Gracie, Grumpy, Hunter and Daddy!

Playing in the sand!

Hunter and Maggie played together for a while. We just watched.

They really are best friends.

Maggie did eat a little sand here... yuck! :)

Sweet kids!

Sand castles with Nana time!!

Maggie wasn't really into building a sand castle, but Hunter loved it!

They sat out there for a while building their castle.

Hunter was very serious about their sand castle.

Almost done... as you can see Maggie was gone a long time ago. She can't sit still! :) She was busy with Grumpy...

They played in the water for a while!

You see Maggie would run and knock Grumpy down and then they both would laugh and laugh! It was so cute to watch!!!

Oh and can you see Mag's hair?? Well she would not wear a hat, so I sprayed her head with sunscreen. Can you imagine what her hair felt like? Yeah... it was pretty gross and it took a couple of days to get all the sunscreen out, but her head did not get burned!!! And her hair is even lighter! Maybe next time I'll put sunscreen in my hair, too... :)

Hunter loved fighting the waves!!

He would punch them,

chop them,

kick them

chest bump them,

even hiney them!

His eyes were all red from the salt water, but he didn't care! He LOVED fighting the waves! :)

While Hunter was fighting waves, Maggie was chasing the birds! She would see a bird sitting on the sand and would run to catch it! It was so cute and fun! She never caught one, but had a lot of fun running after them!

So before we headed home Hunter, Maggie and Daddy had a huge mud fight!

Maggie was really getting into it!

Just look at that boy!

Hunter loved it!

Maggie got a little muddy, too! :)

And the winner of the mud fight... Hunter and Maggie!!! Daddy was by far the muddiest! :)

Gracie had to put her toes in the water one last time before we left!

Isn't she soo cute!! Nana and Gracie right before we headed home.

We had such a great time at the beach!

Maggie was asleep before we put the truck in drive!

And Hunter really tried to stay awake, but was asleep before we were out of Galveston!

What a great day at the beach! Thank you Nana and Grumpy! :)

Houston! :)

2011-08-01T14:26:00.001-05:00

Did you miss us?? Or did you even know we were gone? :) Last week we spent the whole week in Houston! Yay! The kids and I both are adjusting to no Daddy during the day. It was so nice that he was off last week. It was sad to see him leave this morning. :)

We had a wonderful time in Houston!!! So what all did we do??? LOTS! It might take me a few posts to tell you about it all! But to start off we left last Saturday around lunch time and made it to Houston in time for dinner. The kids did pretty good in the car! We made one big stop and walked around for a little bit. Sunday, we got to meet lots of Nana and Grumpy's friends. We had a great time meeting and seeing people we haven't seen in a while. I personally enjoyed seeing Miss Janet! :) Anyway... Then on Monday we went here...

Have you ever seen real dinosaurs?? This was my first time!

Hunter was really impressed!!

Here he is with Nana looking up at a big dinosaur!

Me and Mags :) She was roaring at them!

Okay do you remember this picture from 2 years ago at Mickey World??

Hard to believe it was 2 years ago!

They had to do it again! This time in front of a real dinosaur!!

Here I am with the kids... I know I am huge! Less than 2 months until baby #3! (still no name... any suggestions???)

Hunter loved the dinosaur museum! He wanted to see more dinosaurs, though. He didn't understand that there just aren't a lot of dinosaur bone laying around. I thought it was pretty awesome! Our God is amazing!! How did He come up with dinosaurs? Wow!

Okay... well I am trying to get our naps back to regular time, so I will blog more about our awesome trip later! Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Pooh!!!!

2011-07-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

Guess what we saw today???

Yep! Winnie the Pooh! It was Maggie's first time to be in a theater and she did pretty good! We went at 3 after a pretty good nap. She watched some in my lap and then walked down the aisle a little. We were the only ones on the row so it was okay. She didn't bother anyone. She did have to bounce like Tigger when he was bouncing. :) So funny! Over all she did awesome!

I didn't get a picture of them during the movie. We got in there a little late and I didn't want to take a picture during the previews. So we took a couple of pictures with pooh as we were leaving.

Hunter really liked the movie. It was really cute. For those of you with little ones, it's not near as long as Cars. I would recommend not getting there right on time. There are lots of previews!!

Oh and when this came on...

Maggie yelled "Ga-Ga''! Her word for Mickey! We can't get her to say anything other than ga-ga for Mickey.

Thank you Honey for taking us! And thank you Disney for making a cute, shorter movie for little kids. We enjoyed it! :)

It's a 10!!!

2011-07-14T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well today was Hunter's last day of gymnastics. For the last 6 weeks, he got to go to Beamers and learn some new tricks. :) He has really enjoyed it. He's not...

Jonathan Horton, but he did have a lot of fun! I don't think gymnastics will be his sport, but it has been a blessing this summer. He has enjoyed getting to do something new and special. Now he is ready to show his cheerleaders (HSU) what he learned.

Okay... I know this is not the best picture. I didn't have the good camera and I should have turned off the flash and it was behind glass, but you can see him having fun on the bars!

I do have to say, I am impressed with Beamers' preschool program. The coaches were great! They seemed to really like what they were doing. They also not only taught gymnastics, but they played games (while waiting for their turn on an event) to help them learn colors or shapes. It was just a great! I don't think we will be able to do it this fall... new baby, cheerleading, football season. But we will be back, Beamers. Next time you might get Maggie, too! :)

Great Wolf Lodge Weekend! :)

2011-07-13T14:26:00.000-05:00

This weekend not only did we get to go to a Ranger game, but we also went to the Great Wolf Lodge. Coach and Honey took us! We had such a great time! Maggie loved it from the very beginning! It took Hunter a little bit to get used to the water, but by the 2nd day he was really into it!

Here are a few pictures of Maggie. Really we should have taken pictures a lot earlier. We took these on Monday and she was getting so tired and hungry. They don't show just how happy and how much fun she really did have in the water. Oh well... maybe next time I'll have my camera with me more!

Maggie squirting people with water on the jet ski. :)

Maggie's favorite thing... the slide. She would go down it over and over again!

And her drinking the water. Every time she would walk back to do the slide again she would get a little drink. Yuck! :)

Just playing in the water! She LOVES water! She is our little water baby for sure!!!

Here is Hunter-man! On Sunday he was a little scared of the water, but by Monday he was ready to go. He loved going down the slides and playing in the little kids area. He also loved the wave pool with Daddy. He got to where water in his face did not bother him at all! He had such a great time!

Here he is going down the twisty blue slide! He loved it!

And down the fast yellow slide!

Go Hunter!!

Hunter and Honey going outside to play!

Playing in the water

Such a sweet boy!

Maggie was tired and hungry on Monday and so she got out and had some Coach time. She is holding her cute wolf she got. It's a new favorite stuffed animal.

Maggie and Hunter about to leave.

We had such a great time and want to go back! Next year Hunter will be tall enough to ride more slides and he might even be able to do the magic quest thingy. Thank you Coach and Honey for a great weekend!!! We loved it!

Let's Go Rangers! clap... clap... clap clap clap

2011-07-11T23:29:00.001-05:00

Saturday Hunter got to go to his 1st Ranger game! He LOVED it!!! It was Daddy's first Ranger game, too. Well he went to one in Houston when they played the Astros in high school, but this was his first real Ranger game at the Ballpark.

Power!

We had such a great time!! We had great seats in right field down on the bottom deck. (Thank you, Terry!!) If only someone would have hit a homerun to us. There was one hit in the section next to us, but not one hit our way. :( Hunter would put his glove up every time a lefty would step up to bat.

Speed! Hunter really watched the game! He loved doing the Let's Go Rangers cheer and had to know who was batting at all times. He also had to know where Josh Hamilton was and what he was doing.

Go Rangers!

During the 7th inning Hunter needed to get up and walk around a little bit. Here he is pretending to catch the baseball in the Hall of Fame room. We also walked over to the kids area where he hit a few homeruns off a tee. He really liked playing all the games. After visiting in the little gift shop he wanted to watch the rest of the game.

We got back to our seats at the bottom of the 9th. If you haven't heard about the game... Josh Hamilton hit a walk off home run to win the game with 2 outs and a runner on 1st! Talk about an awesome ending to a great night! Here is Hunter and Ben celebrating!

GO RANGERS!!!

We had such a great time!! We will be back, Rangers!!

I think I made a Ranger's fan out of both my boys! Yay!

Go Rangers!!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

2011-07-04T22:35:00.000-05:00

What have we been doing this wonderful, long 4th of July weekend....

Lots!! Let's see...

We went swimming both in the backyard and at HSU!

Hunter and Maggie both LOVE swimming with Daddy in the backyard!

We ate corn on the cob cooked out on the grill by Daddy! It is summer... you have to have some corn on the cob! :)

We met some really great friends at the new Genghis Grill.

We dipped strawberries in white chocolate and then some blue sprinkles (you know to make Red, White and Blue berries). Hunter liked helping for a while, but then decided he wanted to help with the "easy part". He just wanted to eat them! :) Maggie liked it too! :) Oh and I made his shirt with my awesome silhouette machine. Thank you, Ben!

Okay not the best picture of Maggie, but you can see the shirt I made her. I am telling you I am a big fan of freezer paper! :)

We painted our flag. Hunter did the feet and Maggie did the hands!

Then we ended our weekend with awesome friends and a 4th of July parade!

Maggie and Owen rode in a very cute wagon!

Getting ready to go!!!

Hunter rode his bike the whole time! He did super! :) Such a big boy!

Maggie waving her flag while not letting go of Pooh. :)

Maggie and Owen were so cute waving their flags!! So sweet! :)

Look at O!! He looks like he could be in a magazine!

And what is the 4th of July without a few stunts?!?! Go Maggie!!! :)

We had such a wonderful weekend! We just enjoyed being a family and hanging out with great friends this weekend!! So not ready for Daddy to go back to work tomorrow! :(

Happy 4th of July, everyone! :)

Hunter's last t-ball game...

2011-07-01T22:52:00.001-05:00

Okay so I never posted any pictures from last weeks games, so I thought I would finally post some. :)

Hunter at bat! He was always so serious when he stepped up to the plate.

Run! Run! Run!

Go Wyatt!!!! One of Hunter's good friends on the team.

Let's go Emma!!!!

Out in the field. Look at that focus! :)

He really loved playing t-ball this year!

Go Emma! Emma played 1st base for the first inning and did awesome! :)

Hunter's 2nd time at bat (notice his tongue sticking out just like Coach). He got a piece of that ball!

Can you see it past 2nd base?

Power!!

During the 2nd inning Emma played out in the field and Hunter had to stand right by her. If she moved... well then so did he.

Speed! Here is Emma after her last hit! Isn't she just the cutest!

The trio out in the field for the last inning. Wyatt, Emma and Hunter. I can't tell you how much we enjoyed playing with these 3!! They made t-ball soo much fun!

Good game. The little boy in the green is Sam. He was in my class at Beltway. So cute!

Hunter getting his awesome medal. :)

Last "GO RAYS!!!!"

Wyatt, Emma and Hunter!!!

I think the last game was the most fun! They seemed to have a great time last Saturday. We are so thankful to have been on Wyatt and Emma's team!

Until next year...

GO RAYS!!!

Maggie's new trick....

2011-07-01T07:54:00.000-05:00

So guess what this little girl can do...

Yep, she can climb out of her crib!!!! Yesterday I put her down for her nap at lunch only to hear her knocking on the door a few minutes later. I am so glad I didn't see her climb out. That might have been a little scary! The bed was pretty low... like the rail went to her chest. Ben figured out he could lower it a tiny bit lower. It's only like a few inches... the rail goes about to her arm pits. We will see how long that will keep her in.

I think we might have a...

gymnast on our hands. =)

Please pray for Callie!

2011-06-29T13:52:00.000-05:00

Please continue to pray for sweet Callie! Here is an update from her caring bridges page updated last night.

June 28th

Callie had another good day today. She was able to have more awake time where she was peaceful today. She watched some of movie. She enjoyed her mommy blowing bubbles. She tried to pop several of them. She took a wagon ride for 10 minutes and she loved it! She has not had to be on oxygen in over 24 hours and she is maintaining good oxygen levels. She is still struggling with getting aggravated and being scared. Courtney asks specifically that you pray for peace.

Dr. Donahue visited Callie today and did find some fluid building up in Callie's head around her incision. He said he would check it again in the morning. If it is not better, they will have to put Callie under tomorrow to have a procedure to drain the fluid. He said this is a fairly routine procedure, but please pray that Callie's body will remove the fluid on it's own so she doesn't have to have this done. Callie's swallow test is also scheduled for tomorrow. However, if they have to tap Callie to drain the fluid the test will be moved to Thursday. Please continue to pray for this swallow test to be successful. Callie is so thirsty and hungry, but they will not give her any fluids or food unless she passes this test.

Today was an extremely hard day for Phil and Courtney as they met with Callie's team of doctors to discuss the near future for Callie. Here are some of the important facts from the meeting. There will be more details on tomorrow's post. Phil and Courtney have another meeting tomorrow to discuss more details.

Callie has Stage 3 Anaplastic Ependymoma brain cancer. This is the most aggressive form of this type of cancer. It looks like Callie will undergo radiation. The type of radiation has not been determined, but what we do know is it will be 5 days a week for 6 weeks. She will be under anesthesia for 3 hours a day while they do the radiation. Cooks only does one form of radiation. So, based on what is decided tomorrow, they may be moving Callie to Houston or Oklahoma City to receive the other form of radiation. The radiation will be very hard on Callie. There are many side effects and numerous risks with the radiation. These will be discussed tomorrow.

There is also a possibility for Callie to be a part of a clinical trial. This will involve 4 months of chemo after her radiation treatment is complete. This will also have many risks and side effects as well. This too will be discussed further in the meeting tomorrow.

The doctors said there are 4 criteria that they look at to determine the chances of survival with this type of cancer. 1) The child is over 10 years old. 2) The cancer is in stage 2. 3) The location of the cancer. The Posterior Fossa, where Callie's tumor was located, is the worst location. 4) 100% removal of the tumor. As you can see, Callie only meets one of the four criteria. Fortunately, the fact that 100% of Callie's tumor was removed is the most important criteria they look at. The doctors said there is a 40-45% chance that the cancer will return, and if it does it will be fatal. It usually returns in the first 2-3 years. If it doesn't, Callie will have to be monitored until she is 30 years old.

All of this information is extremely difficult to take in, but this is what the future will hold at this time. Courtney wanted me to let you know that all this could change if Callie's spinal tap is positive for cancer in her spine. If that happens, everything will be reevaluated. The doctors believe it is highly unlikely that the cancer did move to the spine, but it is a possibility. Please pray for this test. It will take place in about 10 days.

Please pray for Phil and Courtney to have wisdom as they begin to make these decisions for Callie. Tomorrow will be another difficult day as they look at the facts about radiation/chemo and what it will mean for Callie.

Finally, I want to share with you a cute little story about Carson. Courtney shared this with me, and I just had to share it.

Carson has not said anything about Callie since he went to visit her a few days ago. Well, a friend took Carson to the store to use his "debit card" I told you about in an earlier post. Here is the conversation Carson had with the cashier.

Carson: "Do you take debit cards?"

Cashier: "Yes."

Carson: "Will you take my Star Wars debit card? I got it at the hospital."

Cashier: "The hospital?"

Carson: "Yeah. My sister is in the hospital and she if very sick. They had to cut her brain open."

Cashier: "Well, I hope she gets better."

Carson: "She will! The doctors will make her all better!"

Oh the faith of a little child! HE will make her all better! We serve an Awesome God who is the Great Physician! He has and will continue to do miracles for Callie. It is hard to hear what the doctors say, but we know who is in control. My God is so Big, so Strong, and so Mighty! There's Nothing my God cannot do for Callie!

Please keep praying for this precious little girl, her family and the doctors.

Sweet Maggie

2011-06-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

Since most of our last posts have been about Hunter I thought Maggie needed a post, too! These pictures are from Saturday. After we went to the pool we had to get a snow cone. Ben could eat snow cones all day everyday by the way! :) This was Maggie's first snow cone ever! She liked it! :)

Notice her hair. It was wild! :) Pool hair... and if you touched it, it felt like I put a can of hair spray in it. She also got snow cone all the way down her shirt. (By the way... Yes, Keri! This is the onesie you got her I think at her baby shower. She can still wear it! And to be honest it's one of my favs!!! :) Don't worry it all came out in the wash!

So what is Miss Maggie up to these days?? Well she LOVES to climb! She can climb up a wall if you tell her not to. We have really high chairs at our table and yep, she can climb up them. She isn't afraid of anything. I really think she is going to be my gymnast. She will show you her handstand if you ask her to. :) She is so funny! She is so busy and into everything. I do wish she would stop experiencing the world with her mouth though. She still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She is also very loud. If she wants something, she will let you know! She is talking all the time, but most of the time we don't know what she is saying. She wants to talk so bad. But I will tell you if we are at a store and I have to pick her up because she wants to run off, she will yell "Help Me!" :) One of her favorite things to do is put away her dirty clothes before getting into the bathtub. She loves it. She runs into her room, throws them in dirty clothes basket and runs back. She will also throw away wet diapers if I ask her to. Sometimes she throws other things in the trash, too. You know like DVDs and sippy cups. She is my snuggle bunny. This week we had a big storm roll through and she woke up. It was so sweet. I ended up sleeping in her room with her and she just snuggled with me all night. She also gives the best hugs. I love when she puts her little head on my shoulder. She is still pretty tiny. Most of her clothes are 6-12 months. Ben and I forget how smart she really is because she is still so small. She LOVES to read. Books are one of her favorite things! There are times when I am like... where is Maggie?? And she is sitting in her room reading books. She's still not to interested in coloring much, but I am hoping she is the one who likes to do crafts with me one day. (Hunter would rather play then color.) I also painted her toe nails the other night. She did really well while I was painting them, but decided she did not like the pink color on her nails. :)

On Monday Maggie got her fingers stuck in the door of a cabinet in the bathroom. It was AWFUL! I really don't know how she did it. I don't know how she got her fingers in there, but the door was closed on her little fingers and I had to open it and pull then out to get them unstuck. I really thought we were going to have to go to the ER. She is totally fine now. She was moving them and everything afterwards, but ohh man it was scary! You can still see the mark on her fingers. :( Poor baby!!

We are so thankful for our little Maggie Moe! She is such a blessing!!! We love you, Maggie!

Pray for Callie

2011-06-21T22:38:00.000-05:00

Please join me in praying for a sweet little girl named Callie Cochran.

Callie is 22 months old and she lives here in Abilene with her family. Her mom's name is Courtney, dad's name is Phil and her 4 year old brother's name is Carson. Here is what one of my good friends wrote about her on her blog...

her parents are friends who attend church with us. after experiencing symptoms for 3 weeks, the doctors called for a CT scan yesterday and found a tumor in her cerebellum the size of a peach. last night Callie and her parents Phil and Courtney headed to Cooks. today after more tests the doctors confirmed her tumor and are almost certian that her tumor is malignant. they are not sure if the tumor is wrapper around her brainstem or not.

this is an update from Callie's mom, posted on facebook earlier this evening:

"Talked to the drs and she has peach size tumor in the back of her brain that is consuming most of the back portion of her brain. He informed us that almost always these tumors are malignant. He also feels that it is certain that she will have some type of side effects. Our prayers are for a benign tumor that doesn't involve the brain stem, no complications during and after surgery and that she would be the same Callie!!! Please pray for wisdom and skill for Dr Donahue and all staff that will come in contact with her. Our hearts r hurting but not broken. We serve a MIGHTY GOD!! If you would please join us in endless PRAYER And FASTING for our SWEET CALLIE!!"

please stop and pray for Callie. pray for her doctors. pray for her nurses and the staff at Cooks.

pray for Phil and Courtney. pray for her brother Carson who is 4 years old. pray for her family.

cry out to The Lord for peace, comfort, and understanding. You are Mighty O' Lord. You are our ultimate healer and comforter. You are the most high!

most of all, please send this post out to your friends, your Sunday School class, your Life Groups, everyone you know and ask them to stop and pray for Callie tomorrow at 7am as her surgery starts.

I do not personally know this family and can not imagine what they are going through right now. Please pray for this sweet little girl. God is bigger than this! He is the Great Healer! Please pray for healing with me.

Pray for Callie!

Go Rays!

2011-06-18T22:50:00.000-05:00

Well we had another t-ball game today. Go Rays! But can you tell by this face that Hunter's friends weren't at the game?

Poor guy! His friends Emma and Wyatt had other things this weekend and had to miss the game. Hunter did great though! There were only 3 other kids on his team who showed up! It was kind of weird!

Here he is getting a grounder before the game.

That boy can throw a baseball, too!

1st time at bat. I only got him batting one time because Maggie was a little distracted at this game. She wanted to be out on the field, too.

Hunter got to bat 3 times and had a good hit each time. His 3 hit was awesome!

Run Hunter, run!

I am so proud of this little man! He did awesome today. It was soooo hot outside. He really played hard. The other 3 kids on the team didn't act like they wanted to be there. Hunter was the only one fielding the ball! You will have to ask Ben about what really went on during the game. All I can say is... I am so proud of my Hunter-man! Oh and come back Emma and Wyatt!! We need you!!! Go Rays!

Like I said before, Maggie didn't have her best game today. She didn't really want to sit in her chair.

There wasn't very many people there and so she really just wanted to go out and play, too! Plus she woke up super early and it was sooo hot. She just wanted to run around. I don't blame her!

But by the time we got home and sat down for some lunch... she was out! Notice the cheeto still in her hand. She did finish the cheeto on her way to bed. So sweet! We took naps and then it was off to the pool!

Hope you all had a great Saturday! :)

Happy Birthday, Hunter!!!

2011-06-14T19:56:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it! My Hunter-man is 4 years old today!!! He is getting so big! Please, someone tell me how to slow him down! He is growing too fast! :)

I really wanted to post a picture of baby Hunter on this post, but all of his baby pictures aren't on this computer :( so... I thought I would share some of his party pictures.

For those of you who came to Hunter's party Saturday, Thank you so much!!! He had a blast! Thank you so much for being there to help him celebrate his big day!

Here are some pictures so everyone can see...

He decided on the day after Christmas that he wanted to have a Longhorn/Colt McCoy birthday party. So here we go...

The party table!

Ben made these awesome 4 labels for the gatorade.

Football cookies... of course. :)

Football cake pops

Longhorn cookies! (You can find a longhorn cookie cutter at Hobby Lobby by the way.)

And his football cake! I have to say this was the easiest cake I have ever made. He loved it!

One more picture of the decor.

Yes, I moved all the furniture back last saturday and painted signs just like in high school. I tried to get Kelly to come down and stay up super late making signs and baking goodies for Matt, but she wasn't able to come. :( It would have been just like old times... Maybe next year! :)

Here is Hunter's run-through sign. Go Hunter!

We made sure they were able to get through it!

I think they liked it!

Some of the boys standing by the field goal. One of the games we were going to do was kick field goals, but I really didn't think about that to much... I didn't realize they would all be barefoot. It's kind of hard to kick without shoes! At least Brady got a good field goal! He was wearing shoes! :)

They had fun playing in the pool!

and squirting each other...

and some slip-n-slide. :)

Here is a picture of Kylee. She was in Hunter's class at school this year and Hunter just loves her!

Sweet Logan!!! Playing football with the big kids! He wasn't scared at all!

This is Emma! She is such a sweetie! Hunter is on her t-ball team and talks about her all the time. :)

More pool time...

Hunter loves Logan!

Even Maggie got in the pool with Brooke. She loves Brooke!

Sweet Gracie played in the little pool. :)

We got the tires to do the tire run like the football players do... but we ended up just playing in them. Here is Kade hiding in the tires!

Time for lunch!

The little kids table! :) By the way they are getting to big!!! They aren't babies anymore. :(

And now cake time. We got the candles to light this time, thank goodness! :)

Isn't this a precious picture of little Owen! He is too cute!!!

Maggie and Owen saying cheese while eating cookies! :)

More pool time...

And some presents.

Hunter had a great party! He had so much fun playing with all his friends! Happy Birthday, Hunter-man!!! We love you so much!!!!

Gecko...

2011-06-07T22:43:00.000-05:00

So who get's their tired almost 4 year old up at 10:45 to catch a gecko?? Oh yeah... that we would be us! Hey it's summer!

So last night Ben went out to turn off the water and noticed this big gecko. You see, Hunter has been hunting geckos all spring and hasn't been able to find one in a few weeks.... so I told him he had to go get Hunter and let him catch him! Hunter slept later than normal and still had a good nap yesterday, so I figured he wouldn't be asleep yet. Well I was right. Hunter was super excited!

He went right outside and grabbed him. He is not afraid to pick up a gecko. It doesn't bother him at all! He brought it in to show me and as I was trying to get a picture he dropped it. He had to get the net to get him inside because Kiddo (our cat) really wanted to eat him. Anyway... here is Hunter with his gecko! :)

The big gecko! :) Don't worry after we took pictures Hunter let him go outside and even gave him a june bug to eat.

What a great night! Hunter woke up saying he dreamed about geckos! :) I love that sweet boy! So my advice to you is... Wake your kids up and let them chase geckos at 10:45 at night! They are only little for so long and will want to catch geckos with you for so long. Enjoy it! Make memories! :)