Happy ALMOST New Year!!!

It is hard to believe another decade has gone by! I will be entering my fourth decade. Wow, if the last three have been so good, what could the next one bring!

The last decade brought...
2000...a transfer to Texas A&M, time with my best friend at my favorite school, went to lots of football games and had lots of cook-outs with my parents and friends. Traveled to Colorado many times to see Josh's folks, and went to NYC and Cancun. Went to the top of the ruins in Chichen Itza on New Years Eve, which was the last day tourists were allowed to climb on them!
2001...my best friend became my fiance' while in Colorado at Garden of the Gods on July 3rd, chose a specific major, Marketing. Was shocked by 9/11. Traveled to see Josh's folks, Vegas for my 21st birthday and then on to the Grand Canyon (where I got to meet my friend Beth's boyfriend, who is now her sweet husband!)
2002...I graduated from Texas A&M with a Marketing degree and moved to San Antonio for my new job. Became a counselor at Camp Celiac in Rhode Island
2003...Finally started our wedding planning:) Was baptised on January 15th. Traveled to California to visit Josh's folks and College Station to see Josh! Went to Vegas for Christopher's 21st and Josh and I both were counselors at Camp Celiac in RI and took Josh to see NYC for his first time!
2004...married my best friend, quit my job, moved to Houston for my husbands new job, found a new job, bought our first house. Traveled to Vegas, Maui!!!, and New Orleans
2005...purchased my third car, the first one on my own though. Did lots of work around our house and worked a lot. Traveled to Tucson for Beth & Adam's wedding, Savannah, GA with my Mom and Josh and I spent some time in Galveston
2006...found out I was pregnant with our little Noah on Memorial Day! Went on long-term disability with work, due to a low lying placenta and being on bed rest. Was shocked by my aunt and uncle with a surprise trick or treating and their first visit to our house! Traveled to Breckenridge skiing and snowshoeing (prior to being pregnant and on bed rest, of course:)) Also traveled to Asheville, NC with my Mom.
2007...welcomed our beautiful Noah on January 9th, enjoyed an amazing year with an amazing little boy. Traveled to Tucson to visit our dear friends and finally meet their little boy, Carter!
2008...found out I was pregnant with our little Andy on February 20th! Soon after had a visit at our home with Beth and her little Carter. Welcomed Andy into the world on October 8th. Josh got a new job, we moved into an apartment in a new city on December 1st. Traveled to Hoover, AL with Josh's work. Took many trips to see family here in Texas.
2009...enjoyed our two boys more than I could have ever imagined. Sold our house in July, moved into a new house. Traveled to Disney World in Florida for fun and Meredith's wedding and Galveston for quite a few days for my birthday.

...and in....
2010...I will cherish every moment with our little boys, love teaching them about God, enjoy many dates with my husband, travel to Arizona to meet Beth's new little girl and introduce them to Andy, go on a long overdue cruise with my husband, and hopefully SLEEP:)

When I am older....

When I am older, in Noah's words...

-I will get Andy out of bed

-I will put things in the fridge

-I will clean dishes

-I will get a Douglas (one of the Thomas trains)

-I will make the remote work

-I will get the food

-I will pick Andy up

-I will open more presents

-I will drive the car

He started saying all of this on our way to church on Sunday! I did not even know he knew the concept of being "older!" Just eight more days until he really is older, Happy Early Birthday my sweet Noah!

Comments and Rainbow Cake

I was so excited yesterday to have a new comment on one of my posts, for some reason comments are just so fun to me! Surprisingly, it was from someone I did not know, but what a cool comment it was! It was Amanda at I am Baker ... she is the one that originally made the rainbow cake for MckMama and took it to her house. Amanda saw my blog and left a comment saying the cake looked fantastic. I went to her blog, and WOW, gorgeous!!! You should really check it out!!!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a beautiful day. We enjoyed time with Grandma Judy, Granddaddy, Granny, & Grampy. Our kiddos are so lucky to have four grandparents that love them so dearly!!!!!!! We spent nearly the entire day making our way through the presents, then enjoyed some yummy food and even got to play on Josh & Noah's new Wii. When we asked Noah, he said Woody was his favorite gift:) I have to say, mine was tied, between a gorgeous locket Josh and the boys got me and a quilt that I had made that my Mom's dear friend Mrs VZ finished the binding on for me! My most coveted gift was the purse my Dad had made for my Mom, just like the one he made for her a couple of years ago...but this time it has both boys on it! But...most of all, the best gift really was the time we all got to spend together!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun for us! The boys and I made it back home at the same time Josh got off of work and to our surprise it started snowing! Noah was beyond excited, since he had asked Santa for snow! I guess the big guy listened to Noah's requests:) We spent the day making chex mix, muddy buddy's and baking peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with Daddy - one of the best days ever!!!!

Noah sampling Rudolph's carrots on his plate of treats for Santa

The bit of snow we got accumulating in the back of Josh's truck

The little guy, right before bed

Noah was so excited, we had a hard time getting him to stand still for these pictures!

Our two boys:)

Quick trip to SA

Our trip to San Antonio was MUCH quicker this year than in years past. We had been in Houston and then wanted to be back home on Christmas Eve, so it was just a fast, but fun trip! We had a nice visit with my Granddad, which included celebrating his 88th birthday and such a nice visit with my aunt and uncle too. Here are a couple of highlights from our trip!

Andy eating corn on the cob for the first time!!! He really gobbled it up!

He actually finished the WHOLE ear!

Bobbi and our two boys!

I just thought by having two boys I did not get a bow head:)

Yes, that comment would have been for my sister, Kristin:)
Noah and Granddaddy Bob on his 88th birthday!

We were celebrating Christmas and a birthday, and Andy was

just running around like crazy! I love that kiddo!

A Day at the Park in Pictures!

Last, but not least, my favorite....

Amazing.

Today was just simply amazing. I feel so overwhelmingly blessed. I have had anxiety over today for six months. But it is ALL gone now. Noah had his follow up echo with cardiology this morning at Texas Children's. The last echo was sedated, so I was very nervous about Noah's behavior while being awake for the echo today. The sedated one was even difficult. During the past week Noah and I have played doctor, talked about putting stickers on his chest and jelly on his belly for the echo, so the doctor could hear and see his heart. Like taking a video and pictures. We got there and he was very curious, but looked like he had some anxiety. They let me lay on the bed with him and Josh sat right by us. We watched Sesame Street and talked about Elmo playing music throughout the whole test. Noah did not cry or even whine, he did SO good. And when he was done he said "I am a good job boy!" It was so cute, he was so proud of himself! We then saw the doctor and had some phenomenal news, the coil produced the scar tissue we had hoped for and the PDA/murmur is GONE!!!!! It is as if Noah was born without this problem! No follow up visits! No more echoes! Nothing! Simply amazing. I feel like so many prayers have been answered!!!!

Santa is at the Mall!

Merry Christmas To All!!!

I LOVE these pictures. Noah was SO unbelievably happy. The pictures are out of order and will not switch for me....but here is the story, Andy was asleep when we got there. I plunked him in Santa's lap and we got that adorable second picture! He sat there for a good couple of minutes, which was just amazing, then he lost it. All in all, success if you ask me! Noah was just unbelievably happy and excited... 1. We were at the mall. He LOVES shopping and LOVES the mall. 2. Santa, his buddy, was there! 3. His other buddy, his Daddy, was there too! Josh had off work on Dec. 18th, because we needed to drive to Houston for Noah's appt., so we headed to the mall for when Santa opened. We ate some chick-fil-a, then headed to College Station to have dinner with Uncle Chris and then to drive through Santa's Wonderland in Millican. WOW that was fun. We did it every year in college, but it has been awhile. We had gone to BLORA Nature in Lights in Belton this year, but Andy slept through that and Noah just thought it was fun. But Santa's Wonderland is just beyond magical and Noah and Andy kept saying "ooooh" and "aaahh" and absolutely loved it! When Noah saw the Santa in the village he was amazed Santa made it from the mall to the Wonderland both on the same day he did those things. It was so cute.

Andy's First Birthday Party - a belated post!

I just realized I never posted the pictures from Andy's birthday party on 10/10! It was such a nice day with family, including my Grandma, aunt and uncle and sweet friends from Houston, Waco, and the Fort Worth area. I am just posting a couple of pictures, because I have not asked permission from the other kiddos parents if I can post their photos, but here are a few of my favorites of just my kids! :)

First off...Andy's adorable cake! My Mom and I baked the layers and Josh assembled and decorated it. It was SO yummy. Makes me want another one now:)

Andy chowing down on his cake! He had played hard and had lunch and was ready for dessert!
All that playing and he tuckered out, with a bite of cake still in his mouth:)

When I took his bib off his little head flopped forward. He was really so tired! I was proud of him, he made it through ALL the necessary party stuff, from playing, to presents to lunch, to cake and ice cream! By then it was 1:00 and the party had started at 10!

The sweet big brother, Noah, watching and helping open Andy's gifts!
We really had such a nice day! Hard to believe I am working on the plans for Noah's third birthday right now! I sure love parties and if the party is to celebrate one of my boys, then that is even better!!!!!!

**the cake idea was one I saw on mycharmingkids.net...

not an original idea of ours, but definitely way cute!!!**

My helpers...

Well, I now have two little helpers! Noah is very good at helping me around the house. Andy has always been a "carpet picker" picking up the tiniest things and handing them to me. I remember Noah doing that when he was little too. Andy just found a piece of paper, picked it up, walked to the trash can and tried to open it to put the paper in!!!! It was SO cute. I opened the trashcan and he threw it in. Then he picked up a spoon he dropped, walked to the sink and kept saying "uhhh, uhhh" so I picked him up and he tossed the spoon in the sink!

This morning Noah decided to pull stuff out of the closet we have in our playroom. I asked him to put it back and he kept saying, "but mama, I'm a helper!" It was hard to just smile and say thanks and put it back, but he was so genuine! I wanted to say "you are just helping me make a mess!"

:)

Noah and Mama got crafty!

Noah and I have been getting pretty crafty lately. From coloring, to painting, to making a star for on top of our tree!

He informed me that our tree needed a star. Just like in Polar Express. He was right. But we could not find our star! I refused to go buy another one. We have a perfectly good one. Somewhere. Most probably in storage with the rest of our decorations we accidentally forgot to get when visiting our old city last. Anyways... then I remembered! I had purchased a tin star at Hobby Lobby for $2.99 with intentions to decoupage it.

Instead, Noah and I grabbed some modge podge, adhesive spray and a whole bunch of glitter...

and then we had a pretty sparkly star! I would have taken pictures, but I decided getting glue and/or glitter on/in our nifty camera was not such a good idea. :)

Noah and I also made a paper chain to go all around the tree. I pulled out one of my creative memories curvy paper cutters and would put the paper in place, then Noah would push the thingy (excuse my technical terms:)) and cut the paper. Then we used tape to put them together. We used scrapbook paper and then paper he colored red and green! It was so much fun! He was SO proud of how it looked on the tree!

Happy Things on my Mind:)

We have had a lot going on lately! Here are some pictures to get you updated on our household!

The day the rest of Texas got snow, Noah kept looking

out the window saying "snowy, where are you?

Andy cracking up at the Jack in the Box
So sweet.
Andy feeding himself ice cream for the first time!

Andy eating with a fork for the first time this past week!

Such a big boy!

Noah having a tea party breakfast with all of his friends:)

This cup was my Mom and aunt Bobbi's when they were little!

Noah's friends:)

Andy straight out of the bath in

the pj's Noah wore his 1st Christmas

Letters to Santa!

We sat down at dinner and Noah told Josh and I every single word I wrote down on his and Andy's letters. It was SO cute. It really was funny to hear the things he wanted and the things Andy should want too! The letters were stamped and sent on to the North Pole!!!!

{Dear Santa,

I have been a good boy.

I want...

-a doll, a baby doll

-a santa claus

-a shiny queen

-a star

-socks & pajamies

Love, Andy}

{Dear Santa,

Good boy.

I want...

-crayons - an orange one

-snow

-a cat named Food

-Big one McQueen

-Basketball

-green car

-Woody

Love, Noah}

After I was done we let each boy color on their own letter. They both had a blast. It was

so cute that Noah came up with all that on his own! It was funny. Shiny queen is the shiny lightning mcqueen, I guess Noah wants Andy to have his own and quit playing with his. Same goes for the baby doll! The star must mean a star for on top of the tree, because at the time, we could not find ours and had not replaced it!

Noah's note...snow came out of the blue! At the time it was not even on the forecast yet, so when we found out we might get some, we really thought that was fun! Big one McQueen is the hot wheels car... here's for hoping Santa thinks they are on the nice list:) I think I have an inside source that says they made the top of that list!

Thanksgiving Stockings!

We have started a new tradition around here, the Thanksgiving stockings! The day we put up our tree we fill the boys stockings with all the little Christmasy things we have for them...that way they can enjoy those things during the holiday season. Then we pull the stockings back out for Santa to fill. Noah absolutely loved it!!!!

The boys stockings...Andy's is one we purchased,

his is still a work in progress.

I made Noah's.

Josh and Noah after we put up our tree:)

We hope that you are all enjoying this holiday season!!!

Lots on my mind....

I have so much on my mind. Partly, it is just this time of year. It is so fun, it is really my favorite time, but it also has soooo much going on it can be overwhelming. Pair that with living in a different city than my parents and it means I really have a hard time getting things done! I have just ONE gift left to buy for Noah, otherwise his gifts are bought and wrapped. Andy, we have just two more things to buy and I need to wrap his gifts. I have one thing left to get for Josh, but his other gifts are purchased and wrapped. So what does that leave? EVERYONE else. Seriously. We are not sure about the certainty of Josh's job (but in his field of work, there is really never any certainty, so it is not too much different) so I am supposed to make all the presents. So far I have made gifts for Josh's two secretaries, Noah's MDO teacher, and a couple of other small gifts, but I have ALL the grandparents, etc left. I do not know why I procrastinated. Or even if I should call it that! I have had the best of intentions, but two adorable rambunctious little boys and Josh's work schedule have kind of taken over. Sigh. I still have not finished Andy's stocking either. Oops.

Also, next Friday Noah has a follow up appointment with cardiology at Texas Children's for an echo to check on the progress of his PDA post his surgery this past June. I am anxious about that day. The last echo was sedated (which was just horrid, Noah lost all control) and this one is not planned to be sedated. They say a three year old can handle it. I say they are nuts. I so hope to be proven wrong. Noah recalls everything from his surgery in June. Even though he was given medicine to forget. It should be interesting! That following Monday morning he meets with the gastroenterologist to be tested for Celiac. It is routine, just blood work, since it has been six months since he started eating gluten...but I am SO nervous about it. He has had some symptoms, but I think they could just be his body adjusting to the extra fat/grease in the things he has been eating when we eat out that he does not get at home. I think I am most nervous, because I just flat out do not want him to have Celiac. I know we would know how to manage it, but it would be a hard pill to swallow to know I passed it on to him. I also know it takes two genes and that Josh would have had to pass it along also, but being that I am the one with Celiac it would just feel like I was to blame.

On a much lighter, non-complaining note:) Noah is such a sweetheart lately. On the way to dinner, he said to Andy, "Andy, it's okay buddy, don't go to sleep yet, we're almost there!" It was SO cute.

Andy has been running everywhere and really showing that he understands just about everything we say. Noah has a tendency to be kind of rough with Andy and bump into him, which of course really frustrates me and knocks Andy over. SO, smart kid Andy has taken to laying down on his back on the floor when he sees Noah coming. It is like he is saying "You can't knock me down!"

We are still "talking" a lot about going potty but not having much success. Noah did tell me today that the water was "coming" and we hurried to the potty but it was a no go. Hopefully soon that will change!!!