Boo Fall Funival Fest Carnival

Sadie is driving people bananas!

Rrrroarrr!! Jordan the lion.


Buzz Lightyear has a strange smile.

Amaya: The Queen of NaughtyHam.

Nana and Caden. They love!

Caden helps Aunt Karen blow out her birthday candles.

Caden spent some special quality time with Amy this weekend.

Amaya did not hold back when it came to putting her hands in and pulling out the pumpkin goop.

Pumpkin carving is gross.

Caden was a little more timid.

We had an exciting, fun, tiring and long weekend together with family. Nana and Papa were able to come in from Mexico for a week long visit. Uncle Jay, Aunt Sherry, Meagan and Ryan were visiting from Lubbock. Our cousin Ian drove in from A&M. SO lots of family and lots of food and lots of good times. We ate dinner together Friday night and much thanks to Papa and Nana who cooked a TON of good authentic Mexican food that was quite delicioso! Saturday we celebrated Aunt Karen's birthday and we also celebrated Nana's birthday a little early since we won't see her in December on her actual birthday. Then, we ended the night with some trick 0r treating with Papa and Nana. Amaya was totally into it and so was Caden until we got to some houses with some scary guys. Caden was done and so we went home pretty quickly. It was such a good weekend and I am happy to have spent such a good time with such good family and friends.

Park it!

We have been enjoying our close proximity to two different park recently and having a wonderful time just being together and being outside. The kids love it and we love playing with them and getting to see them discover new things about their world and about themselves.

Celebration!!

Jordan is ready to party.

Amaya and her good friend, Madison.




Sweet Sadie trying to eat her hand.



Daddy and Jordy!

Nana blowing a wierd kiss?? and Caden with his hot dog.

Blowing out the candles on his Lightning McQueen cake.

Amaya blowing out the candles on her Hannah Montana cupcakes.

Amaya and Aunt Amy.

Duke feeds Jordan some yummy cake.

Being so patient and very ready to start opening gifts.

Emma watching Amaya.

Caden opens his Buzz Lightyear toy. He just stood there staring at it. I don't think he could believe he actually got one. Thanks Aunt Karen!

Love that yellow bow!

Chrissa, Amaya's American Girl doll. A definite favorite.
Thanks to Duke and Nana!

Boys playing the keyboard.

We partied at the park and started early. The pavillion is first come, first serve and we didn't want to miss out on a covered area with picnic tables for the party. Chase and I got the kids and all the stuff to the park by 9:51 that morning. No problems, no one was there but some cross-country runners. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside! We started partying around 11:00 and had a big ol' blast! Dad made his very popular and rapidly becoming famous chili and we had hot dogs and Frito pie. Mom and Dad did so much to help us with this party and we are so thankful! What a fam have we!
Friends and family just had a good time being together, eating and enjoying the wonderful weather.

Thanks to all who made it. We love sharing these special times with you all.

They Just Keep Growing!

This past Sunday, October 11, my boy turned three years old. There are times when it seems like time was dragging by S-L-owly (i.e. when I was 8 months pregnant and chasing my two year old) but, of course, now it all seems like it's gone by so fast. Caden is hilarious, intelligent, gorgeous, FUN, sweet and loving. He still likes to sit in my lap and give sweet kisses and hugs. He likes to give all variety of kisses: eskimo, forehead, mouth and his favorite BUTTERFLY. Chase likes to ask him what time it is because the answer is always, "84." Caden is a music-lover. He loves to dance to it, listen to it and play it. He got a keyboard for his birthday and it has been among his favorite gifts. He loves his family and he loves his friends. His question at bedtime every night is, "What are we getting up for tomorrow?" He wants to know the plan and he wants it to be a fun one. He loves to go go go!! Visiting family and friends, going to the park or just going for a walk in the stroller are some of his favorite times. OH! and of course he's always up for a Wal-Mart trip.

Caden is our precious, strong-willed, often difficult blessing from God and we just wouldn't be the same without him. We love you sweet Cadey-Tatey!!

Amaya Grace is SEVEN years old. Yesterday (Sunday) was her official birthday and she woke up happy and ready for her special day. Amaya is fabulous, gifted, funny, thoughtful, kind, smart, gracious and beautiful. She loves school and reading. Her reading improves weekly and we are so happy and excited to have another avid reader in the family. She loves to go to the library and heads straight for the non-fiction section to find as many books as she can about as many different animals as she can. She is constantly surprising us with her wit and intelligence. She loves her family and spending time together. She also loves playing with her friends. She is an artist who most often uses her talents to make cards and other gifts for those she loves. One of her favorite pasttimes is spending time on the computer playing with her Webkinz or just playing games. She loves with all that she has and is and sometimes just doesn't have the means to sufficiently express that love.
Amaya is our gorgeous, sensitive and precious first baby. We've learned so much from Amaya and are truly, truly blessed to call her our daughter.

First days, teeth and frowns.

Amaya and Mrs. Alexander on "Meet the Teacher" night. I did take pictures of the first day of school but they were with my phone and I'm pretty sure that my dad would yell at me if he know how many pictures have actually been taken with the phone and not the camera. So all these are CAMERA pictures!

Caden on HIS first day of school! He was all set with his "Lightning A-keen" backpack. His teacher, Ms. Katie, is so sweet and Caden LOVES her and wants her to come to "Taden's house to play".

Sweet Jordy boy! It took forever to get a picture that wasn't blurry from his constant moving but we did it and he's gorgeously adorable, I think!

Amaya lost her first top tooth. She's so proud of her hole and kind of sad that we lost the tooth just hours after having pulled it.

I had to stick this pic in because it cracks me up. Caden and Grace frowning at each other. I don't know why they were frowning but it's pretty funny.

So, I've got two in school for at least two days a week and little Jordy at home with me. I should probably stop calling him Jordy but I just can't. I should definitely have stopped calling Caden "Cadey" long before I did.

Amaya is loving school and reading like C-razy. I'm so proud of her and I hope she will always have a love for books like she does now.

Not a lot of storytelling this post, but pictures are worth more than words sometimes, right?

Firecracker Firecracker BoomBoomBoom

Now THAT is impressive: all three kids facing the same direction (in this case the camera's direction) with eyes open and two out of three smiles.

Okay, I don't know how this face came to be. I've never seen it before and I'll probably never see it again, but how cute and funny!! He loves to hold his "little bro".

Amaya was so excited to go to "Grammy-with-the-birds" birthday party. We all call her Nana, but since Amaya calls me my mom Nana she decided to call MY Nana "Grammy-with-the-birds" because she has birds in her room at the retirement center. So, for the purposes of THIS post I will refer to her as Nana because the other takes too long to type. My Nana had her 89th birthday party on July 4. It is her actual birthday. Since 1900 one woman in my family has been born every 20-22 years. My great-great grandmother was born in January of 1900. My Nana was born in July of 1920. My grandmother was born in December of 1941. My mother was born in September of 1960. I was born in December of 1981 and Amaya was born in October of 2002.
Happy Birthday, Nana!! We love you!

Daddy trying to make Caden show him some love. Caden was too busy eating cake, drinking punch, and eating candy.

Nana so proud to have her family all with her at one time. She was able to show us all off to her friends because we had her birthday party in the party room of her retirement center and invited all the residents to come have cake and punch.

Jordan and Duke taking it all in.

Amaya was glued to Nana. She had a lot to say and Nana had open ears for every word that came out of Amaya's mouth. What a sweet and patient listener.

Little Sadie's first big outing. What a sweetie! Her little "Fourth of July" outfit was just too big so the next best thing?? PINK!!

This is the first time that Nana got meet Sadie. I think the words coming out of her mouth went something like, "Oh!! Bless her little heart!" Sadie is Nana's fourth great-great grandchild.

One proud Nana!

Caden, Emma, Amaya and Charlie. Cousins!

I LOVE this picture. They look so happy and proud. Three of my favorite women of all time!

That night, after the party, we went back to my parent's house for a cookout and fireworks. Amaya has decided that she and Duke have a special Fourth of July tradition. They go together to pick out fireworks and it's something special I think for both of them. Duke let Amaya help him light a few this year. She was so cute and excited!

Caden and Nana staying SAFELY behind a door. Caden was absolutely TERRIFIED of the fireworks, even the sparklers. He did not enjoy it AT ALL! So, he stayed inside and watched for a little while, but when that got to be too much he settled down on the couch to watch The Wiggles with Nana while we finished up outside.

Amaya was so excited she was jumping up and down. She had such a fun time. We all did.
It was a LONG day and we were definitely ready for bed that night.
Thank God for the blessings of family and friends!

Happy Independence Day!

June Bugs!

This is Jordan meeting Sadie for the first time. I don't think he knew what she was. It was very cute. If I'd been thinking I would have taken some video because he was talking to her. Sweet babies!!

Duke and Jordan spending some time together at Amy and Robby's house.

Jordan had his six month check up last month and he is one TALL kid. He was in the 75th percentile in weight (18.1 lbs.) and in the 100th percentile in height.

June went by so fast and I can't seem to remember much except that Sadie was born and all my kids were fed, bathed and otherwise well taken care of. But, that's okay. I'll remember the big stuff and maybe if I had blogged a little more often I would have more memories of what was going on this past month.

Caden holding Jordan's hand. Caden is like a the flip of a coin. Heads: He is sweet and loving a oh so very careful with his "Jordy boy". Tails: He wants to cover Jordan's head with blankets and pillows and try to bend him in ways he won't go. Oh to be a two-year old again!
This month I walked into the kitchen (after being gone for about three minutes) to find Jordan with a handlebar moustache. Apparently the placements I had bought at the Dollar Spot for the big kids came with dry erase markers. So, Caden made good use of his by giving Jordan a moustache and a few curli-Qs on top of his head. Jordan was in hi BUMBO at the time and I couldn't find my camera. It was so funny (after I took the time to look for camera and the irritation had a chance to subside).
This month I returned to my bedroom to find Caden in Jordan's bed feeding him Pop-tarts. It was kind of amazing that Jordan did actually get some little bits and ate them quite capably.
This month Caden was playing with Jordan and had the cutest smile on his face when he leaned over to say, "Hey there little buckaroo!"
This month Amaya has completely amazed me with her reading!! She'll be reading me a book and a word will come up that I'm pretty sure she'll need help with and she just breezes right through it. No problems whatsoever!! She is a very fluent and expressive reader.



This is Amaya and Conner at Heidi's baby shower. She was helping him get his fruit fix and maybe a little 5 and 6 year old "flirting" was taking place ;) They are both unique, thoughtful and inquistive kids. Rachel and I have both mentioned how much they have in common. I definitely hope he is a friend for a long time!! But, being a Preacher's Kid we'll see how that goes ;)

Oh Jordy Boy! Little Buckaroo! Jordy Pordy!