EiGhT yEaRs!

Court took this after our date night to Grotto and Borders books

Today we celebrated 8 years. I can't believe it's already been that long! We've been together since June of 1997 which sounds even worse. Ha! It's so amazing how each year we grow closer and add so many fun and new experiences to "our story". We can't believe that in about 3 months we will add another baby to our family! We had so much fun tonight talking about how things are changing so rapidly right now, and how hard the last couple of years have been. We've only become closer and grown to love eachother deeper thru it all, but it's still weird when we think about it all. In 3 years we've lost my Daddy Joe, had Jake, moved to one income, I've had thyroid surgery, brain surgery, and am now thankfully 6.5 months pregnant again. That's a lot to take in!

It's amazing how God works. Not only with our miracle babies but we now are enjoying Jeremy's new position with his company- he has tons of flexibility and many more challenges. It's rewarding to see him get this chance after waiting so long and to know that he will succeed and to see him be so disciplined and already seeing little successes. Jake and I are so enjoying our extra time with him.

We are looking forward to a little getaway before Seth arrives, which will be our first nights away on a trip together since he was born. We've spent several nights apart from him, but only for him to go overnight to the grandparents or for us to be in the hospital, which I think has been a total of 7 nights since he was born.

All of these changes are so exciting and we are getting so excited about meeting our little guy!! So excited to see what this next year holds for our family!

Port Aransas 2011!!

16 of the 17 people in our family who went! Yummy seafood!

Mom, Jon and Lissa takin' the boat out to ride the waves in...


The "grandkids" in our family

Haha--Haley's fiance Kris catchin' some zzz's on the way to Port A- using Jakey's blankey to hide the sunshine!

The sweetest and best little traveler-- 3hrs both ways with no restroom breaks.

Jakey loves Kris! And jumping off of the float, too.

Happy Boy!

Beach baby!

Some of the family relaxing on the beach

Me and my honey

He is totally a nut! He'd run to the other end of the pool with no one near and jump in. Once or twice he did it with no floaties and actually popped back up to the surface. I was hoping it'd scare him to deter him, but no.

Sweet face...

My family

This boy is 2.5 years now! Crazy!!

Playin b-ball w/Uncle Jon and Mitch

A sweaty 6.5 month pregnant mama and her baby boy!

The ferry ride! No dolphin sighting this time but Jakey loved it.

Last weekend we headed to Port Aransas for our annual family beach trip. This year there were 17 of us! We had booked our stay later than usual and had no options but two older condos with 3 bedrooms each. We were certainly not up to par with the 3 story beach houses we've had the past few years with 3 balconies, outdoor kitchens, granite countertops, etc, etc. However, we had an absolute ball! This place was older but clean and had lots of amenities. We played sand volleyball several times and tennis a lot, too. Since we had a super close walk to the beach, some of the guys would go down and fish at night. We played tons and tons of games and ate tons and tons of yummy food. I am so thankful for my big family that gets along so well and shares so much love for eachother. It seems like there's never enough time when we're together and we miss eachother when we're apart. We missed Daddy Joe again, and can't believe it's been almost 3 years since he's been gone. Looking forward to all being together eternally one day!

4th of July!!

Jake and friends after their parade. =) Too cute!

"Mr. Bian" being silly!

The sweetest face there ever was.




Jake tackling Mr Brian... along with several others. :)

Jake and "Ben-Ben" as he calls him.

Precious!!

Just before the parade.

Daddy and Jakey

My sweet family. I love my boys more than anything!

What a fun 4th of July weekend we had! We had lots of time as a family and with friends and family, too. We spent time on Friday night as a family going to the mall to get a couple of things for Jake's big boy room and a couple of cute things at Janie and Jack. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory before heading home. Saturday we met some friends at the splashpad for a picnic and then Sunday we went to church, lunch with Jeremy's family and then home for naps. Sunday evening we spent at my parents playing games and hanging out. Monday morning we had Jake's friend Clint's 2nd birthday party at the park and then headed for the Creekside pool and floated the lazy river. Monday night we went over to Brian and Nikki's for delicious food and great friends! The kids colored, put on a parade and just played and had fun. We truly had a perfect weekend and are so thankful for eachother, our sweet boy, our family, our friends, and our freedom! Thank you, God!

*PS- pic quality horrible due to the settings on my camera being messed up. So glad I could salvage some of them and save the memories! Sorry for the bad pics. =)

Splashpad Fun x 2!!

This week we've headed to the new Timarron splash pad with our friends Danette, Nico and Yuri twice! Jake's been in heaven. It's such a good place with shade, water, a picnic pavilion, a shady field and a great shaded park. Since we had so much fun during the week we decided to meet up today with the dads in tow for a picnic lunch.

Jake already talks about the splashpad tons and knows when we're near it. We're gonna make this a regular outing-- it's different than the pool but the kiddos stay cool (and the adults, if they're brave enough to make a run thru, ahem....Danette). So sad I didn't have my camera ready for that one! ;)

Happy 4th of July Weekend to all! We're enjoying our time together, with friends and with extended family and are so thankful for the freedoms we enjoy!

Family Camp 2011!

fun kids crafts Nikki put together!

Daddy and his boy!

Sweet baby Gibson!




Jakey and his buds

So cute!

Matt, Mom, Lissa

The most gorgeous face!!

havin so much fun!

Well, I did not get a good variety of pics at this year's WOCC Family Camp. I didn't even get one of our family together in our matching shirts on Saturday. I am glad I got a few cute ones. We had a blast! We learned so much from the lessons on the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. If you've not read it I encourage you to. If you have no idea what God is truly all about, this book gives you the big picture of what his love is for us and what our love for him should look like. Jeremy did the lesson for Bible class on Sunday morning and he did such a good job! I really thought it put it together well and was well prepared.

We also swam, played volleyball, kickball, card games, talked, ate, sang songs, played family olympics and just had tons of fun getting away and spending time with our spirtual family. Jake didn't want to come home and immediately after pulling out of the camp he asked to go to family camp again. Then he asked where about 40 people were by name that we'd spent the weekend with. We're so blessed to have him surrounded by great people, and people that he loves spending time with too. Life is good! And we only have much, much more to look forward to this year!!