Home Sweet Home

Brody got home on Friday night after a week in Colorado with Daddy Steve and Namaw. Since they didn't get in until late (and we were at Tyler and Ann's), we picked Brody up on Saturday morning. Mike and I were both so excited to see him. We really missed him while he was gone! Daddy Steve was working during the day so Brody and Namaw did some sight seeing together. They went to the Garden of the Gods, Focus on the Family, and spent a lot of time in at the hotel pool. In the evenings Daddy Steve would go with them to dinner and on a hike or to a park. Daddy Steve didn't have to work on Friday, so they all went to Pike's Peak together. Brody called us from the top and all he could talk about was a penny he found up there! lol He did mention that they were above the clouds and that he could see mountains...but mainly he talked about the penny. Mike and I both wished that we could've been there with him.

Brody was excited to go to our house and sleep in his own bed. I think he also missed a few of his toys while he was gone. On Sunday morning this is what I found when I went in to wake Brody up for church. I wonder if sleeping with a golf club makes you dream about playing golf?

Here's a sweet picture of Barrett.
On Sunday night Brody was excited to go to church...and Taco Bueno! I thought he looked so cute in his hat! He thought it was funny when I tried to take a picture of the two of us by myself!

Pool Party

Yesterday Tyler and Ann invited us and Caleb & Audria over for a pool side BBQ. Patrick and Noel were in town from California and were gonna stay the night at Tyler & Ann's before flying out today. It was fun to get to hang out with them! Patrick & Noel
Barrett says, "I smell hamburgers! Are you sure I can't have one?"
Barrett showin' off his new hat.

'lil b

Barrett has already taken on several nicknames. "Bear-bear", "Bubba", and " 'lil b" are just a few of them. That's one of the reasons I thought it was so cute when Barrett got the following onesie in the mail the other day! My friend, Anna, is a super crafty girl and made the onesie and the stocking hat for Barrett. They are so cute!!!! She's getting ready to start an online store for some of her crafty items. I'll be sure and post a link when she gets it up and going. THANKS ANNA!!!! "Hmmmm. This hat sure is comfy...but I wonder if I'd get hot wearing it outside in the Texas heat?"
"What?!? It's 100 degrees outside?!?!? Can you please take it off before we leave the house?"

First Bath

Ahhhh! Can you imagine how good it would feel to take a bath when it's been 2 weeks since your last bath? Since we're house/dog sitting for my parents right now, we didn't have our baby bathtub to bathe Barrett in. Instead he got to take a bath in the sink. It sure made him look small!

I love how you can see his full belly in this picture! So cute! After awhile...he'd had enough.
Look at that wrinkled little face! Now close your eyes and smell that baby smell (not the dirty diaper smell...the clean baby smell)! I love that smell! It was great to wrap him up in a towel and just love on him while breathing in that sweet smell.

No Longer a Newborn

Barrett's umbilical cord fell of this morning!

2 year old talk

I love listening to Brody talk. Right now he is in Colorado with Daddy Steve and Namaw. Whenever I call and talk to him on the phone he excitedly tells me about different things he's doing. He's told me about the "big mountains" and the fact that there's "no diving board at the pool"! Tonight when we called they were hiking by some waterfalls and were watching a deer. When Brody got on the phone he told us that he "saw a big deer eating grass"! His voice sounds so sweet over the phone.

As sweet as it is over the phone, it's even sweeter in person. The other night we were driving around town with the boys. Before long Barrett woke up and started to cry. Brody doesn't like it when Barrett is crying. We heard him say, "Bear-bear crying! It's ok Bear-bear!" Then he said, "Mommy sing Bible Tells Me So!" I think that the song Jesus Loves Me is a comfort song to Brody, so he thought that if I sang it to Barrett that he would stop crying. Most of the time it works...but that night I think Barrett was crying louder than I could sing. Before long we heard whimpering in the back seat. I looked back there to see Brody watching Barrett with tears forming in his own eyes. I find it humbling to see the compassion that someone who's not even 2 years old yet can have for others. I can't wait to see what God has planned for his life. I know he'll do great things for Christ!

GG's 85th Birthday

Jan and Mom thought that we should do something special for GG's birthday this year since she'll be turning 85 years old. They thought it would be fun to take GG on a camping trip with the family. So Ron & Jan loaded up their trailer and picked out a great campsite at Joe Pool Lake. On Friday night GG went out there with them and spent the night. Then on Saturday the rest of the family went out to the lake. The campsite was great. It was right on the lake. Dad loaded the kayaks right there and Matt & Julie were able to anchor their boat and load people onto it from the campsite! There was a Kansas wind blowing at the lake on Saturday and it helped to keep us a little cooler. Ron also set up a mister at the campsite to keep us cool. GG keeping an eye on Barrett while she ate her hot dog.
Brody was very excited that Collin, Lauren, and Katelyn came to play. I think it's so cute when little kids hold hands with each other. One time I looked up and saw a chain of all the kids holding hands while walking across the grass. I didn't get a picture of that...but I did get a picture of Daddy Steve and the boys holding hands.
Matt, Jon, Cindy, and Josh were the first ones to brave taking all the kids on a boat ride. It's kinda hard to see, but Brody was waving at me in this picture :)
Lauren & Katelyn loved going in the kayaks. I looked out one time and found Katelyn riding on the kayak in a very unusual fashion. I think she was wanting to stay cool in the water while still going on a ride!

I was impressed with how well the kids got along with one another all day long. We only had one minor incident!
I didn't see it happen (but I heard it!) I guess Collin decided to leave his mark on Brody ;) They were playing a game and who knows what Collin was thinking. The funny thing was that Brody didn't even seem to notice! lol! He probably wondered why we were having him show everyone his back!

Barrett was so good all day long. He was passed around from person to person and slept most of the day. Here's a cute picture of Mike and Barrett.
Mike and Caleb raced the kayaks back to shore after taking Lauren and Brody on boat rides.
Matt let Brody steer for a few minutes while he was driving the boat. Later Brody got back in the driver seat and started pushing buttons. This is the expression he had on his face when he accidentally pushed the button to honk the horn!
We were all exhausted by the time we got home (it was 11 pm!), but it was such a fun day. I'm glad that we got to spend so much time hanging out with the family...even if it was HOT!

Sounds of KS

If I close my eyes right now and just listen...I can imagine myself back at our house in KS. That may seem strange to you. You probably think that I'd be hearing traffic or sirens or other "city" noises. But I'm not! Right now I'm listening to the sound of a tractor! Our house backs up to a power easement. When the city decides it's time to mow, they send out a tractor with a huge bush hog on the back of it to mow the easement. The sound of the tractor making pass after pass by our back window makes me think of Chris. The sound of his tractor put me in a panic many a days. I'd hear his tractor, see the cloud of dust as a result of him "playing in the dirt" (as Mike called it), and rush to shut all the windows before the inside of our house was covered in the same fine dust that covered everything outside. When Brody was old enough we run to the windows or run outside to watch the big tractor drive by. Brody's at Daddy Steve & Namaw's house swimming right now. Next time that he's here when the city is mowing...I'll take him outside to watch the tractor and tell him stories about his short life in Kansas.

Back to work

Things have been pretty busy at our house lately. I went back to work on Tuesday. Rather than going at 6:30 in the morning...I've been going around noon and working thru Brody's nap. Yesterday we went a little early so that Brody could swim. I think he'd stay in the pool 8 hours a day if I'd let him!

Barrett has been doing great at night lately. When he wakes up in the night he'll eat, poop, and go right back to sleep :) So far he's not spitting up like Brody did as a baby...but it's still a little early for us to rest easy in that area!

Mike has been busy studying for his PMI certification. Hopefully he'll finish it up in the next few weeks!

Here are a few pictures from this week:

Brody playin' peek-a-boo with Mike at breakfast

Barrett loves laying on his belly (just like his daddy and big brother).
Don't worry...he's not happy 100% of the time ;)
But most of the time he's perfectly content. Brody loves getting to hold Barrett. He'll hug him and say, "Barrett nice! Barrett cute!" He's very sweet with his little brother.

Fun on the 4th

Chuck & LouAnn (Ann's parents) had a party at their house tonight. Tyler & Ann, Caleb & Audria, David & Daina (Audria's parents), Morgan & Lauren (Tyler & Ann's friends), Daddy Steve & Namaw, and our family of 4 were all in attendance. We had a lot of fun (even if it was HOT outside)!

Here's a picture I got of Brody and Barrett in their matching outfits. I had to get it quick because Brody was ready to get into his swimsuit! He then spent the next FIVE hours swimming! I don't think he was out of the pool for more than 5 minutes at a time between 4 and 9 pm! All he had to do was say "please" and he was able to convince one of his aunts or uncles to swim with him. Here's a picture of Caleb throwing Brody up in the air.

Then he threw Tyler up in the air!

Barrett spent the evening being passed from person to person. He slept 99% of the time.

Chuck & LouAnn had lots of games set up to play. After dinner the guys played a game of croquet (only after they wore themselves out playing football).
It was a fun evening. We watched fireworks, played games, talked, and ate way too much food! Thanks Chuck and LouAnn for having us over!

How long does it take to eat a pop tart?

About 45 minutes! At least that's how long it took Brody to eat his pop tart this morning when Daddy Steve took Brody and I kayaking on Lake Arlington. Since Brody woke up late, I just let him take his breakfast with him. It's a good thing I did. It took him almost our entire trip to eat his pop tart!

Brody was very excited about going out on the lake. As Daddy Steve was loading up the kayaks Brody looked up at them and said, "Those are the real deal!" lol! I guess he realized we were actually going to get in the water this trip to the lake rather than just feed the ducks. He was so good on the trip. He rode in the kayak with Daddy Steve and sat really still the whole time.
When we got home Brody told Daddy all about the kayak trip. Mike told him that he would take Brody out in the kayak sometime too. Brody won't let him forget that promise. He's already told us several times that next time Daddy's gonna take him in the kayak!

Answered Prayers

I just wanted to take a minute to thank all of you for praying for us for the past few months. God has answered your prayers in ways that we never imagined. Not only did he provide us with a place to rent and homes for our beloved pets, he also gave us strength to make it thru the months we were living apart. He blessed us with a safe and healthy labor and delivery. He also answered the prayers about the sell of our house in Kansas!

That's right, the house is now officially sold! What's even more amazing is that we never even had to advertise the house. God brought the buyer to us! We closed on the house on Monday and the check was deposited into our bank account today (making it truly official in our minds). As hard as it is to say goodbye to our home in KS...we want to praise the Lord for making the sell go so smoothly and quickly...and thank YOU for praying about it for us!

Now there's just one more big prayer request that we don't know how God will answer....a job for Mike. We know that he has something great in store for Mike and we can't wait to see what it will be! Please continue to pray about Mike's job search. We'll be sure to let you know how God answers your prayer.

Helpers

Last night was a little rough. Barrett was up for quite a while after eating. By 6:45 this morning I wasn't sure how we were gonna keep our eyes open when Brody woke up at 7:30! I called Mom and she came down so that Mike and I could get some sleep. As soon as Brody woke up he asked to go to Daddy Steve & Namaw's house (before bed last night we promised him that we'd go "tomorrow"...and he doesn't forget!). So Namaw took the boys back to her house. She brought Barrett back down for me to feed him around 9:30 and then took him back to her house so that Mike and I could run a few errands sans kids. It was good for us to get caught up on rest! We spent the rest of the afternoon at their house while Brody swam, napped, and played. (Barret mainly just slept ;)

Tonight Ann came over to visit and Paula brought dinner (can you say YUMMMMM!) Brody was so excited to see Ann. Of course he thought she came over just to play with him. He took her out in the backyard so she could watch him fix his "mower". Then he took her to his bedroom to show her his big boy bunk beds! Since he's only allowed to get in the top bunk with a grown up...I wasn't surprised to walk into the room and find Ann on the top bunk with him. He thinks it's so fun to go up there!

Of course Ann also had to spend some time holding Barrett.

It's so fun living close to family!

Taco Bueno at 2 days old

Where do you go for dinner on Sunday night? Taco Bueno of course! We got out of the hospital just in time to meet up with everyone at Bueno! Daddy Steve and Namaw brought Brody up to Bueno. He was sooooo excited to see Barrett! He wanted to hold him as soon as we walked in the restaurant.

Billy, Paula, Brett, Amanda, Amanda's parents, Caleb, Audria, Daddy Steve, & Namaw were all there to eat dinner with us.
Brody really likes Paula (and I think she has a thing for him too ;) He didn't have to try too hard to mooch some cinnamon chips off of her plate.

After Bueno it was time to go home and go to bed! Let me say that our bed felt WONDERFUL after spending the last 3 days in a hard, hospital bed!

Sunday in the Hospital

We had a quiet Sunday morning in the hospital. Daddy Steve and Namaw took Brody to church and then came over to the hospital to see us. When they got there Mike, Daddy Steve, and Brody left to go find some lunch. They walked down the street from the hospital to the Jack-in-the-Box only to find it closed due to construction! So they ended up driving to Whataburger. Mike got a neat shot of the hospital when they were on their walk. It's MUCH larger than the Lyons Hospital where Brody was born!! Brody was happy to see us and spend time with us. He climbed up on the bed with me and helped me eat my delicious hospital lunch.
We felt like we were just waiting around all day to be released from the hospital. Around 4 pm Mike took all of our stuff to the car and brought back the carseat. The last time it was used Brody was the one riding it it. Mike re-adjusted all of the straps and we put Barrett in for a test fit. We couldn't believe how TINY he looked in the carseat!
Since Barrett was due July 4th, we had red, white, & blue outfits picked out for everyone to wear home. We decided to wait and get dressed after taking a shower at home...but we went ahead and put Barrett in his duds. These are newborn shorts...and they look like gangsta pants on him!

I was pushed out of the hospital by the hospital staff. I was excited to see that I got to ride in something a little more exciting than a wheelchair. I finally know what it's like to be a kid and ride in the fun carts at Home Depot!
You'll notice that Barrett is wrapped in a white blanket. This is a blanket that all of the babies in my family have been wrapped in when they were brought home from the hospital. It's fun to be able to carry on the tradition.