Engaged

My baby sister Steph is engaged. She came into town last week and we did all the fun engagement shopping (finding her wedding dress, finding bridesmaid dresses...) and we also got to meet her fiance!

They both look like they are 12 yrs old. I am very excited for them. All this makes me think about my life and what it was like when I was engaged. Although I still feel like I am only 20 yrs old, I think I realize maybe I have grown up since then. Steph and Nate are so young and full of hope and naievte (but i dont think that is bad at all)... I remember when I was engaged I would say things like: "yeah, I know marriage is hard, but you just have to work at it..." or "we love eachother, so it will work out..."

I had no clue.

I think my idea of love has really evolved over the years. I am sure it will continue to evolve. We hardly knew eachother when we got engaged (although we thought we did). I can't really put into words all the excitement, fear, hope, infatuation, affection, worry etc. that I felt at that time! Marriage is such a big commitment!

This has really given Joe and I opportunities to talk about how it was when we were engaged. We have both really enjoyed talking about all the things that were going through our minds. It was fast. It was crazy. But, that is how we are, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

This is us on his motorcycle... going 100mph on our way down to Vegas. We did lots of fun crazy things together... we still do, but in a different way.
This was the day he proposed. I was so surprised that he proposed. I didn't see it coming - but I KNEW I had to say yes! After the initial shock of being engaged wore off... We went on a double date w/our friends (who ended up getting engaged and married a month after us!)

What were you thinking when you were engaged?

Nate, hope you are ready to enter a CRAZY family... good luck! ;) and CONGRATS!

Always a drama...

So, yesterday was pretty traumatic for my son Aaron.

Joe is in town, so I sent him to go pick Aaron up after school so he wouldn't have to walk home. Joe called saying he couldn't find him. All of a sudden my doorbell rang. Aaron was standing on my porch and my neighbor told me she found Aaron crying on the corner saying he was just chased by someone with a knife!

What?

So I called Joe and said Aaron was already home and we needed to talk. Apparently, while Aaron was walking home, some older kid said "I want to kill you with my knife" and chased Aaron down the street trying to stab him. Needless to say, it was pretty hard to hear my six year old tell me that other kids wanted to hurt him like that. I felt so bad for him. tears...

We called the principal and told her the situation, then Joe and I knocked on a couple of our neighborhood kids' doors to get to the bottom of the story.

ANYWAYS, this morning, we went in and talked with the principal. Joe was pretty stern saying this was pretty serious and he wanted to make sure the kid's parents were aware of this behavior, and appropriate actions were in place. Also, we wanted to make sure this would not happen again. The principal had investigated this too, and found out (from the other witnesses) that there was no knife involved, the perp. just pretended to have one. I totally would have backed down at that moment - in fact, I dont think I said a word the whole time we were there. HOWEVER, Joe communicated that it didn't matter - if he were to walk into a store pretending to have a knife and threatening something, he would wind up in jail for a few years...

SOOOOO... Aaron is now at school. I feel bad for him. But I also wonder, what would happen if it were the other way around? I would HOPE he wouldn't chase some younger kid around threatening him like that. Were we overreacting going to the principal like that? Should we now expect the kid (who is prob in a lot of trouble now) to be even more angry at Aaron? what to do... what to do...

Joe was IN town this week. It was a nice change. He actually got to go to 2 of Aaron's t-ball games! He has helped around the house and with the kids.HOWEVER, it is weird how actually having a husband home disrupts the routine. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE him and was SO glad to have him, and I hope he is home next week too... I actually cooked this week, so that's gotta mean something?!

ANYWAYS, tues-thurs I watched my girlfriends' 3 kids while they were out of town. I totally stressed about Joe being there while I was watching them (cause I thought he would be annoyed) but he was so cool about it... so WHAT A RELIEF! The time flew by as well...

We had a birthday for Nate on Tues. after school. Cherry, Scott and their kids came. Phanelb and Dave and their kids came. CarieAnn & her kids came too. Joe DIDNT come. :( but then we had the extra kids I was watching and even another one of Aaron's friends, so the house was hoppin... too bad in reality, out of the 17 kids there, only 3 (Blake, Max & Owen)were Nate's buddies... but he just knew there was a party goin on and he didnt care that it was for him!

Nate didnt know what to do with the candles on the GHETTO style cake I made him. People still ate it though!


He was traumatized by the Frenchy the Frog puppet that the Farnsworths brought him... although steph, I have since read it to them a million times and Nate LOVES the frenchy... so THANKS HE LOVES IT! (does that count as a thankyou card?) While I am at it, Cherry, thanks for the remote control bubble car... you already know it was a hit with EVERYONE (since I have been having to monitor everyone taking turns playing with it) and Mom, thanks for the bike - he loves thinking he is a big boy riding around w/Aaron & Charity! He obviously didnt care about anything I bought him, because I didn't buy him anything cool - I didnt think he needed anything.

After the little short and sweet party we rushed out the door to Aaron's program (the 1st graders sang songs and stuff for the school and PTA)... then straight to his t-ball game (he was dressed for his game w/cleats and everything for the performance!)... it was a busy day!! Just makes me think that I dont know how i am going to be able to manage more than 1 kid in a sport at a time...
ok, i love this picture because this just so happens to be the pose Joe does whenever he is trying to make fun of sweet or cute things. i can hear it now... "Oh!"

The Ranch, and Nate is 2!

We took our kids and our friends to the ranch last weekend.

Thursday afternoon, I checked Aaron out of school a little early and headed down to Houston. We were going to go spend the night with their cousins in Pearland. Joe was flying to the Houston airport so the plan would work out perfectly.

The children had all fallen asleep about an hour into the drive. All was quiet. I pulled over to drive through a BK for a large DP so that I would not fall asleep too. When they hand me my drink, Nate (still asleep) decides to throw up all over the place. EWWWW. I asked them for their largest trash bag and pulled into the parking lot. I stripped him down, pulled the carseat out and wiped him off as best as I could. Wrapped up the carseat and clothes in the big bag, tied it off, and put Nate in Charity's booster seat and hoped for the best. About an hour later, he puked again - so I pulled over, wiped him down and threw a blanket on him. AGGHHHH. nothing like the smell of vomit on a long drive. So, I called my sister in law who we were going to go down and play with and told her the situation. They were leaving the next day to go on a trip along with my neice who has lukemia, so I was not going to bring the stomach flu to them so they could bring it to her. We decided to go stay the night with Joe's dad. To be honest, it saved me a few hours of driving, so I was kindof relieved. I was mean and didnt feed my kids dinner (didnt want to clean up more puke) put them to bed and picked Joe up from the airport.

Friday morning, we checked out the new house Joe's dad is building and then headed up to the ranch. The Walls and the Eastmans got there that afternoon for our weekend of fun! We had so much fun together enjoying how beautiful it is, playing rock band, fishing, four wheeling, riding bikes, riding horses, shooting guns and just hanging out! It really was a fun time!

Becky is a photographer, so we came back with a MILLION pictures.

Fishing:

I thought it was so funny that Greg got her to kiss the fish!!!

Here are some pics of other various activities:

Here are some pics of riding horses - one of the horses was having a bad day, and actually bucked Joe off!!

We managed to get pics in the bluebonnets- except Charity freaked out because she got bit by ants... and then wouldnt step foot on the ground again.

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Anyways, today is Nate's birthday!!! I can't believe he is two! He is getting so big! I love him so much and I am so glad he is my son. He brings so much joy to our home!!! He is always dancing or singing or laughing. I love to hear him as he is learning new words. I love when he comes into my bed in the morning for cuddles. I love his beautiful blue eyes. I love how sweet he is to other little babies - he is always so concerned about them! I love how sweet and tender he is. I love how easy going he is too! He is tough and such a BOY! I am amazed at how he is able to hang with all the older kids we have around here. so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!