Weekend of Family

This past weekend most of Richard's family was in town to visit us and Paul and Adria. We had a lot of fun. While we were waiting for all the cousins to get here, Gramma planted some flowers for us in the front yard. Gran Gran was watering flowers and Noah decided to get wet too. He had so much fun running towards the water and getting all sorts of wet! His laugh was one you wish you could bottle up and take with you!

We got Noah changed and Connor got here. He is quite the baseball player! Here he is pitching to Aunt Cindy with good form and everything. Connor loves all sports so he went from one to another very quickly!
Here are the boys playing basketball together. Yes, I know, we have the wrong ball, but it is the idea of the game right, you put the ball through the hoop!
After dinner Gramma bought a cake for everyone since she can't be at all the parties this year so we sang happy birthday to everyone and enjoyed a Castleman birthday bash. Connor would have eaten the whole cake I think if we would have let him.
We told Noah he had to sit down to eat cake and he plopped down in the middle of the kitchen floor and enjoyed his cake.

Collin and Cade enjoying their cake!

And Michal Kate not wanting to take a break long enough to even smile!


Here is Aunt Adria and Connor playing peek-a-boo!


Over all it was a blessed time together!

Mother's Day

Mother's day was amazing. I got to spend the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with my family in Dallas. Richard and the kids and I made a trip out of it and it was a blast. Then on Sunday we went to church and the kids made me some precious gifts in Bible class and in Children's Church which I will cherrish forever! My first of I am sure many homemade gifts! After church we went to a local resteraunt and it was yummy. I got a Starbucks gift card that I get to use once a week while I am in Texarkana at my doctors appointments. Here is me and Michal Kate. Notice she isn't really wanting to pose.

Noah being a ham!

Me at 8 months and 1 week!!!!

Noah and daddy cheesing up the place. Aren't they cute!

Just moving

I just wanted to inform the blog world that we are moving this weekend. Sunday after church we will begin the trek from Levelland to Naples, TX. Naples is in North East Texas close to Mt. Pleasent, Texarkana, Longview, etc. I will be back with pics and such sometime late next week. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we make this move and being serving at a new church.

Jack in 3D

I just wanted to share this image from yesterdays sonogram of Jack. They said he looks great and he is already getting big. He already weighs 3 lbs 7 oz and we have 10 1/2 weeks to go! I am betting on a 9 pounder this time. We are so thankful for all of your prayers for us as Jack grows and as we are getting ready for our move. We load the truck on Saturday and move on Sunday and Monday. Michal Kate is really starting to feel the anxiety of moving, so pray for her and for us as we try to help her make this transition as smooth as possible for our kids!

Happy Easter

Our Easter weekend began with a wonderful layer of white fluffy snow. We took the kids out and let them hunt some Easter eggs in the snow. They weren't sure what to think of the combination of Easter eggs and the snow but they had fun all the same.
Sunday morning before church the kids got their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny and the nicely posed for a cute picture.


We decided to take advantage of the beautiful stained glass windows at church for a family picture, and yet another picture of the kiddos together.
Later that afternoon the church held an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. Unfortunately only 6 kids showed up which was kinda sad. Though the kids loved the fact that there were 375 eggs for only 6 kids to find. Noah loved climbing under the pews to find the dozens of eggs on the floor.
Michal Kate had her fair share of time under the pews as well.

Praise God for sending His son to die for us and be raised. Though there are a lot of fun things about Easter that are fun and make believe, the TRUTH is the best part of it all.

Baby Jack

These are my 6 month or 24 week pictures of my pregnancy with baby Jack, yes, I am posting these about 4 weeks late being that Sunday is my day to take pictures again. Michal Kate wanted to be in the picture and she did a good job of posing. As you can see she already loves to kiss on baby Jack and give him a hug. If Jack had been a girl then his name would have been MacKenzie Lynn and Michal Kate asks us often what God did with MacKenzie? We try to explain to her that God wanted us to have baby Jack but she isn't buying it as an answer. I hope she want be too disappointed come late June early July.

At almost 26 weeks I had to go to labor and delivery due to some pressure. Everything turned out to be fine. I am already dilated and he is starting to descend but they aren't worried. They did an ultrasound just to double check everything about Jack and we got a pretty good picture of his face that I thought I would share!

(His face is on the right and is sideways)
We can't wait to meet this precious gift!

Noah's 2nd Birthday

Saturday marked Noah's second birthday! He loves the movie Cars, so we went all out with that theme. We had our sweet friends, the Parrish family, and Megan came over to share in the celebration. Since we had done a party while we were in Dallas over spring break, we kept it small. This picture was before everyone got there and he posed so well for mommy.


Noah loved playing with all the cars toys that he got. It was different for me because I am so used to little girl toys. I am trying to learn quickly about playing with cars and such.
Here is Noah posing for a cute picture after opening a set of the cars characters.
What you can't see here is how hard Noah was working to try to blow out the candle. He kept laughing so it made it difficult. Michal Kate and I had to help him out a little bit.
There is nothing like celebrating your child's birthday to remind you of the great blessing it is to have been given them as such a sweet gift from our Father.

Birthday Girl

Michal Kate turned 3 on Sunday, February 18. She was a well celebrated little girl. It all started when our Gram flew in on the 7th followed by our Papa on the 9th. Michal Kate had her friend party on Saturday the 10th. Though some of our friends are far away you were all thought of. She wanted a Lion King party, and after a lot of searching a purchasing on Ebay she had that party. (That's what happens when Disney puts their movies in the "vault" all the stuff goes with it!)
On Saturday night the six of us went to our favorite local pizza place before coming home to let Michal Kate open her gifts from Gram and Papa. She loved her Cinderella dress up out fit, and Noah liked the JoJo towel!

The next weekend was about her too. On Friday, Gramma and Gran Gran came in town briefly and she had fun with them. Also, Richard's close friend, Matt or Uncle Matt as the kids refer to him as, came in town also. On Saturday, we along with Uncle Matt, and the Parrish family took Michal Kate to Chuck E Cheese, per her request. I still don't know who had more fun, Matt, Richard, Ryne, and Lezli or Michal Kate and Noah!

On Sunday night we gave her our gifts and I made her a strawberry cake. Once again the sweet Parrish family came over to celebrate with her. Michal Kate loved all of her Lion King toys and the Cinderella ones too. She was less than impressed with the clothes, but that was the part I loved! She is going to be one decked out little girl this spring and summer.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAL KATE! I love my little girl!

Weekend of White!

Our weekend was blessed with about 5" of pure white snow. Some of the flakes that fell were the biggest I have ever seen. The kids kept running to our big window and yelling "SNOW"! The excitement they expressed was the exact excitement I was feeling. For some reason snow make me feel like a kid again. Here is a picture of our house covered in white!


Michal Kate especially enjoyed the snow! She loved to just drop down and make snow angels, we had several in our yard before we went inside. The smile on her face says it all!
Here is Michal Kate standing with the snowman that she helped her daddy build. I am not sure who had the better time. It confused her a little that we didn't have the coal or a carrot for our snowman so we got creative. A bowl for a hat, rocks for eyes, crayon for a nose, and a evergreen twig for a mouth. She is so proud of it!

Noah was more than entaining to watch! He would plop down in the snow and just laugh. He also would pick up snow and throw it and yell "ball"!

He also figured out that he could fall backwards and just laugh! He was fun to watch!
Daddy with his snow babies!
Mommy with my snow babies just before going inside!

Ice!

Sorry I have been so slow in getting a new post up and going but here goes our weekend! This past weekend Levelland got hit with quite a bit of ice. Though the snow missed us entirely the ice ended up being beautiful especially on the trees that we have here. Saturday we enjoyed a day of just being at home together as the ice came and went off and on throughout the day. We had church on Sunday but very few came due to the icy roads. Sunday afternoon when the roads were safe I took our camera and took some pictures of the beautiful surroundings.
Then on Monday Richard and I took the kids out for a few minutes and let them "play" in the ice! Michal Kate wanted to make a snow angel and couldn't figure out why it wasn't quite working. Noah just wandered around looking at and touching everything. He especially liked the ice pellets that had falled the night before. He would pick them up and drop them slowly like his own snow shower. Though temperatures should be a little warmer, making it into the 30's and possibly the 40's the next couple of days our chances for more snow and ice are back for the weekend! I love winter.

Baby

Well, God is so good. It is amazing to me how I have done this 5 times now and I never quit being in awe of all God does in forming the human body! Better yet, he chose me to carry this precious child of His. I am not real sure why it says the name it does and the date, I think he was in a hurry when he did this. It is a profile shot of the baby with the head on the left and the foot is sticking up all the way on the right. In the middle is a hand waving at you! I am about 11 1/2 weeks and the doctor says everything looks wonderful! We are very excited about this little one and I just wanted to share a little of him or her with you.

Our Snow!

Well these pictures are almost two weeks old, but better late than never right. This is Michal Kate and Noah outside in our 4 inches of snow while mommy was away scrapbooking. Daddy was so good to take them out and take pictures of them so mommy could see them. They only stayed out for a few minutes but Daddy said they had a lot of fun in our winter wonderland!!!



Michal Kate and Noah each made a snow angel which I thought was precious!

Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for this precious life that God has given me. I have a wonderful husband, who loves me unconditionaly, and two beautiful children whose awe and wonder never cease to amaze me, and one more on the way!!!!
Yes for those of you who don't know, well now you do. I am due July 1 and so far everything looks good. We had a sonogram about a week ago and I saw the heartbeat and the little blob of a baby! Every time I am pregnant (this is number 5) I am taken back by the way God creates us! The very ability for me, women, to carry a child and nurious it completly for 40 weeks and for every little piece of a human to develope in a certain order and manner, is simply amazing, and what a precious gift that God chose me to carry this little one. We are thrilled and already debating. I think it is another boy, but Richard is dead set that it is another girl. Either way, we will be happy.
Last Tuesday we got in the van and drove to Merkel and had thanksgiving dinner with most of his family. The food was yummy and all the kids had a blast together. I am blessed with such wonderful inlaws and I really do love spending time with them. Then on Wednesday morning we climbed back in the van and drove in to Dallas. On Thursday we had a traditional Thanksgiving with my family and once again, it was really a delight. I am very thankful for the family that I have. I love each of them very much and each one of them adds so much to my life.
Today, we are hopefully putting up our Tree!!!! One of my favorite things to do! Then I leave Wednesday for my annual scrapbooking retreat! I am so excited. I have already started sorting through my stuff!
To those of you I didn't see this last week, I am also very thankful for each of you. Sometimes you don't really realize how much someone brings to your life until you aren't around it all the time. I miss those of you that I am not around, and I can't wait to hear from each of you through this holiday season!!! I love Christmas Cards!!!!!