Letters to Santa

Over Christmas we let the boys go through the toy catalog and cut out pictures of the things they wanted. Then we had them write a letter to Santa. Well I guess Kaiden only did that cause I obviously wrote Zachary's for him. :) They had so much fun going to the Letters to Santa mailbox to send them off.

Night on the town

Nick's company had a fancy Christmas party this year and we totally took advantage of a kid free night. We was fun getting dressed up and spending time with each other while eating good food and listening to a live band.

Look at that handsome man!!

I borrowed my dress from my friend Leah, thanks Leah!!

Gotta love those self portraits! :)

Look alike

Hmmmm, do you think they look like their daddy???

Zoo adventure!

We went to the Houston Zoo in December with our friends the Maddux family to check out the new African safari area that they built. It was so neat to finally see Chimpanzees and Rhinos at our zoo. The Chimps were my favorite part.

Hunter, Kaiden, Taylor, Zachary

Armed and Dangerous!

Nick has started a new hobby with his friend Steve; going to the gun range! It has grown into more than just a hobby, it has now become a learning process for protection. Nick got a gun awhile back to use for home defense and he will soon get his CHL license.

One of our date nights we decided that I needed to learn how to use a gun since we will now have one in our house, so off to the gun range we go. It was so much fun and I just have to say that I did really well for my first time ever! I walked out of there thinking, wow guns can be really scary if you have no idea what you are doing. I have a lot more learning to do and will one day hopefully go through an actual training course. I find it so important that we know how to protect ourselves if ever needed (which hopefully will never happen).

We borrowed these AWESOME headphones from our friend Steve. They block out the noise but they have microphones on them so you can actually talk to each other. So cool!

Loading the gun is a pain because I was worried about getting my finger caught and it was actually really hard.

Where I am pointing is actually where I shot it. I do believe that is a bullseye!!! I was pretty excited!

WATCH OUT SHE IS ARMED AND DANGEROUS!!!!

Nick trying to look BAD!!! I dont think it is working, do you? HAHA

Shark tooth!

At the Houston Zoo they have a cool place now called the "swap shop" where kids can bring items that you have found in nature and trade them in for points that you can use to collect other items from nature in their collection. So Kaiden has been bringing in pine cones, leaves, rocks, sticks, anything we can find. He has been collecting points for a very special shark tooth. Check out his cool shark tooth that he worked so hard to get.

This was back in November.

WAY BEHIND!!

Ok so I know I am really WAY Behind on the blogging thing so in the next couple of weeks I am going to try and play catch up. You just do not realize how much stuff happens in only a couple of months. YIKES!

Prayers for our family

We had a very eventful Thanksgiving weekend and it really put into perspective how truly thankful I am for my family and all the things that God has blessed me with.

As of Tuesday, Nov. 23rd I was about 7 weeks pregnant and I had gone to the doctor that day for my first OB appointment. When I went everything was fine, I was able to see the baby on the sonogram and hear the heartbeat. On Thursday I began to have some mild cramping and spotting but did not think much of it. Then on Friday I began bleeding and by that afternoon I went to the ER and confirmed that we had lost the baby. We are sad by the news but we know that we will one day be blessed with another precious baby. Please pray for healing of me and peace for our family. God has already blessed us with two amazing boys and I am so Thankful for them.

Kaiden was taking it kind of hard at first. Nick explained it to him that the baby was really sick and that God took the baby to heal it and that one day He would give us another baby, but it may be a little longer. Kaiden then told me that he had prayed for God to put the baby back and said that morning He did not do it yet. I had to explain to him that it would be a little while until that happens. Please pray for understanding for him.

I went back to the doctor Monday to make sure everything was ok. The doctor was shocked when he found out that I had a miscarriage because I was very healthy and the baby looked fine just a few days prior. He said that the likely cause was a chromosomal abnormality and my body rejected it. I think that is God's way of protecting me and my family from further complications. The doctor told me that everything was looking good and that I only had a little bit of tissue remaining but would heal up quickly with some medicine that he gave me. He also informed that my uterus looks healthy and that when I am ready we can start trying again. Please continue to pray for healing for my body and that God would bless us with another baby in His time.

I was given this bible verse by a good friend o mine who has also gone through miscarriages and it really has helped me cope knowing that I can rely on God for peace and comfort and that He will protect me and my family.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.” Romans 15:13

Plus my favorite song: "I Will Rise" by Chris Tomlin. It is amazing!!

BABY # 3

We are excited to announce that we are expecting BABY # 3!!! We are about 5 weeks along and the technical due date is July 13. Our family is ready to welcome another baby and maybe this time it could possibly be a girl. I guess after having 2 kids already my body knows what to do because I am already showing at 6 weeks!! I go to the doctor the week of Thanksgiving so I will make sure to update the blog with how we are doing, oh and I will add some preggo pics too! I enjoy being pregnant and I can not wait for the day that I can feel this precious baby began to move in my belly. We are looking forward to this next chapter in our lives and excited to see our family grow.

Trick or Treat

This Halloween we went over to our friends the Maddux family's house for trick or treating. They have a hay ride and we drove through our neighborhood and let the kids trick or treat without having to do so much walking. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it! Mr. Scott even explained the Pumpkin Carving Prayer to all the children. Which I thought was sweet since I introduced them to that poem last year when I had their son Hunter in my 3 year old class.

I borrowed a Geisha outfit from a friend of mine and Nick was able to wear his Samari outfit from when he use to take a specific form of martial arts and Zachary was our ninja. Kaiden did not fit into our costume theme, but he was a really cool bumblebee! :)

Bumblee and Ninja!

Mr. Scott explaining the pumpkin prayer

The boys on their hayride.

These bubbles were so cool! It was a bubble machine and a fog machine all in one so the bubbles were actually like a white color. So cool!

My boys were not too scared of some of the scary houses which was surprising. But I guess they will do anything for their candy. LOL

Our smart Kindergartner

We had Kaiden's 1st parent/teacher conference this week since he has been in school for 9 nine weeks now. The teacher went over the benchmarks and his report card to see how he is doing in school. We are so proud of Kaiden!! He is going to always be one of the youngest in his class because his birthday is in July. We knew that there was no way we could hold him back because he was obviously ready. After meeting with his teacher we are very pleased with our decision of not holding him back because of his age.

He is doing AWESOME! His testing scores show that he is already where he needs to be at the END of the school year. This mean that he is already ahead and he has only been in school for 9 weeks. He is reading on a level 2 which is great since he just started reading 2 months ago. By the end of Kindergarten they want them to be a level 3. I know he will be much higher than that by the end of the year. His writing has really improved and he is already forming sentences and sounding out a lot of the letters in the words, even some of the vowels. Here is an example of his writing: "Mi Dad Ga Me A Medl." (My dad gave me a medal.) He was writing about the time that Nick won a medal at his kuk sul won tournament and Nick gave the medal to Kaiden. I love to look at his drawings, he is such a little artist! And now he is becoming a little writer too.

The only thing that the teacher says he needs to be redirected with is that he gets distracted easily and sometimes talks too much when he is not suppose to. But, he does have 14 girls and only 7 boys in his class. I could totally see how he gets distracted. :) Plus he has made a best friend named Kayvon since the first day of school. She told us that she can never put Kaiden & Kayvon together during class because they would most likely talk too much. I am so thankful that he has made some friends and is adjusting really well.

Looking back I can not believe how much he has grown physically and academically. He is going to do great in school.

Dear God,

Thank you for sending Kaiden to us as our child and blessing our lives with his kind spirit and loving heart. Please continue to give Kaiden the knowledge and confidence that he needs to succeed in school. We ask that he does all of these things for your Glory. We praise you Lord for our family and allowing us to see you through the eyes of our children. Please continue to guide our family in following your will so that we may serve and love others in a Christ Like manner.

Amen

This is a pictures of him on the first day of school.

Company Picnic

Last weekend we went to Nick's company picnic where they had a costume contest for the kiddos! Kaiden won 3rd place in his division. the picnic was H&H Ranch and they have fun things for the kids to do, but everything seems really old. They had playgrounds, bounce houses, carousel, boat ride, paddle boats, and more.

This was when Kaiden started feeling sick and later that day he started running 102 fever. He was sick all weekend and I took him to the doctor. on Tuesday. He has strep and has been home from school for 3 days now. That totally explains why he was kind of out of it on Saturday.

I wonder what Zachary is thinking while looking at this ninja? "Whoa he has a sword!" He would not stop checking out his costume, it was pretty cute. The ninja won 1st place.

Dewberry Farm

This past weekend we went to Dewberry Farm with the family and had a blast! My parents (Pops and Nana) and my brother and his family joined us. If you have never been and you live in the Houston area, it is a must thing to do this fall. They have everything to keep your entire family happy for several hours. Playgrounds, pig races, petting zoo, corn maze, pumpkin patch, mini train ride, and much much more. Check out their website at dewberryfarm.com

There are a lot of pictures and I just could not pick a few so here you go. And this was only from my camera, there are still a ton of pictures on my moms and brothers camera. Our family likes to take a bunch of pictures. LOL

Cameron, Kaiden, Zachary, and Maggie

Pops and Nana with their grandbabies. We were just missing Brady who is my other brothers little boy. They live in Midland which is too far away.

Yes my brother Chris is wearing a pig nose. He won the pig holler competition!! It was hilarious!!!

Kaiden doing the duck races

Rebecca and Maggie posing for the camera. No I know where Maggie gets it from.

"It's to heaby (heavy)"

Maggie posing pretty on her pumpkin!

Pops and Nana with Maggie who was not in the mood to take anymore pictures.

They loved the corn maze!! They would take turns figuring out which way to go. Plus they were super fast!!!

Superhero boys in the corn maze!

I can not believe that that he had that much energy at the end of the day to push the wagon to the car. He is like the energizer bunny.