He is growing up

I can't even begin to explain the love I have for this child. He was our miracle after such a great loss. He has been a constant joy in our lives. He loves his family and friends. He has a huge heart for God and has come to a place in his short little life that he understands the power of knowing a real God, who is with us every day. He understands His grace and acceptance of us just like we are. We are so proud that at the age of 7, almost 8, Carson has asked Jesus into his heart and wants to have him as his best friend. Wow! What a great best friend Jesus is! He is an amazing kid and we are looking forward to watching him grow into the teenager and man we know God wants him to be. He will be making his decision public on January 9th, the day after he turns 8, and will be baptized at our church. Thank you God for blessing us with such a great gift!

Just because

A Hill Country Wedding

Well my only cousin on my dads side of the family got married in October in the Hill Country and it was so beautiful! All my family was there and I got some great sister time with 2 of my favorite women in the world! Congrats to Britt and Crystal!

Me and my sweet and handsome husband all dressed up!

My wonderful family! I am such a blessed girl to get to share my life with these boys!

A Busy Fall

We always go to the same pumpkin patch every year because there is so much for the boys to do. They keep adding to it each year and makes it so much fun for the boys and us! The biggest pumpkin out there and they thought they could pick it up!

On the pumpkin express train ride

The pumpkin patch is always fun family time!

First weekend in October we took a couples trip to a very nice cabin in Broken Bow, OK at Beavers Bend. It was a very relaxing and fun weekend away with great friends. Thanks for the memories Kleins and Sparks! Its on the calendar for next year!

Chocolate Chip Brownies

If you know us very well our family has changed our eating habits, not that we ate horrible before but for us this has been a big change. We have switched to mostly organics and taken a lot of the processed foods out of our diet. Clean eating is whats on our menus lately! We still do the occasional eating out, sweets and snacks but when having easy grab snacks we try and stick with the organics or all natural. We no longer buy sodas unless its a special occasion and when we have to use sugar(like for our sweet tea) which we won't give up anytime soon, we buy organic also. This recipe is for brownies and they are amazing. My friend(Laura) who has been eating this way for longer than me had this recipe and shared it with me. I use everything natural or organic that I have for the ingredients. This now takes the place of my boxed processed brownie mix that my family can't do without from time to time! Try it and you will be hooked!


3/4 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350. Mix first 4 ingredients with blender. Combine next 4 in a seperate bowl and mix well. Add dry to wet and stir until completely blended with wooden spoon. Stir in chocolate chips and pour in 8x8 pan. Cook 40-45 minutes

A lot of relaxin' and playin'

Well every time we go to San Antonio we stay at the same hotel. We love the Hyatt Hill Country Resort and Spa. They have tons of activities throughout the day for kids and they have a lazy river and a beach that the boys love! They roast marshmellows at the fire pit every night and make smores. You never have to leave the hotel if you don't want to so we didn't much and we stayed 5 days. The boys could have stayed in the sand and on the river all day! We would go early and get great seats right on the river off the beach and stay most of the day. They loved having lunch at the pool and on the beach.

Daddy and Cameron being lazy on the river!

What a great time we had. We also went to SeaWorld one day but my pics are not downloaded yet because I had to buy a throw away camera. My camera and phone got wet in my bag when we were crossing the river to get out for the day. So I still have to get those developed and downloaded later. So SeaWorld pics to come later.
If you have never stayed at this hotel we say give it a try. It is a fun place!

San Antonio June 2010

We love San Antonio and we can't go there without eating at our favorite mexican food place on the riverwalk, Casa Rio!

We remembered too....

Summer vacation

Our first getaway vacation this summer was to one of our favorite places....San Antonio! On our way to San Antonio we had to stop by the Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg. I love that place so the boys agreed it would be ok to stop and shop for a little bit!

We can't ever be that close to Kerrville and not stop and visit the special places and people in Daniels life growing up. One is the beautiful cemetary where Daniels dad and grandparents are buried. Kerrville is where Daniel spent every summer with them up until they passsed when he was in high school. What great memories he has and he got to show the boys where he spent his summers as a kid.

Here is the Guadalupe river where he spent a lot of his time fishing with his dad and swimming. The boys loved skipping rocks and hearing stories from daddy!

Blackberry Pickin'

One of the first things we did this summer was go to a blackberry farm and pick blackberries! The boys had so much fun. We ate some right off the vines and they were so sweet. We came home and made a cobbler for daddy and we froze the rest and have been eating on them ever since! We plan to make this an every summer event thanks to some old friends in Sanger! Thanks Charles, Marilyn and Christy! Visit their website for info for next year! www.duckcreekblackberries.com

Carson took all the fruit pictures just like a pro photographer. I think he took 100 pics that morning.

They also had apricot trees and Charles let the boys each have one!

New Look

I have a lot of updating to do but first we had to give the blog a facelift and when I say WE I really mean my sis, Mel! Doesn't it look great? Thanks Mel again for helping me get it current and fresh!! I love you!

I love this BIG kid!

Easter

Just because...

Over 1 Foot of snow in TX=CRAZY Fun!!

We had a blast with the crazy snow that came this month and here are my favorite pictures from the big blast we got! The last day the boys got to sled down the neighbors driveway and had the best time ever!

Carson turns 7

Carson turned 7 on January 8th! Where did the years go? I love this kid. He makes me smile every time I look at him. He is funny, a great big brother, a kind hearted friend, a helper, loves all sports, very well-mannered and respectful, life of the party, cute, and other adults love to be around him too! The last is a very big deal to us because we love that others like being around our kids as much as we do. I think that mostly sums up my oldest. He has the best of his dad and I and we are very proud to call him our son! We had a family party with just the 4 of us on his birthday and then Daniel and I took him and 2 buddies to Medieval Times on the Saturday after his birthday. He is growing up way too fast!