Thankful for "my girls"

I've been working at our Children's House at Baylor Grapevine as a speech language pathologist for a little over 4 years now. I started the job there as part of a maternity leave coverage planning that would be all they would need me for. The therapist who left decided not to come back, and here I am 4 years later still with a job for Baylor! Since I work as a PRN employee (part time as needed), I'm supposed to not be guaranteed any certain number of hours or a permanent schedule. That's a little bit of a scary status for someone who needs to bring in a certain amount of cash for the family budget needs every month, but God has been so good and faithful to give us just exactly what we need every month. I've had the blessing for four years of being basically able to decide how many hours I want to work and they are there. I've been shown a lot of favor at OCH, and I'm so thankful.

The sweet women I work with have become such dear friends to me - I've worked in 2 places now that have this kind of environment where we almost feel like family. I love being at home with my babies, but I can say that I really look forward to being with these women at work 1 1/2 days a week as well. When I started work there, there were 5 of us. We've grown to about 15 or so now! I'm greatly blessed!

Ok, it's off to Disney World! Merry Christmas and be blessed!!

Anniversary, the Show, the Boys

I have been married to Donny Vaughn for 10 years as of December 6th. We agreed that some days it's hard to believe it has been a DECADE of marriage . .. how can we be old enough to be married that long already? And other days we feel like we should be celebrating our 50th - life is just good and right with my man. Every Christmas is so fun for us to relive the sweet memories of our Christmas season engagement, floating down the river in a boat on the San Antonio river walk, our even more special and sacred ceremony at RH church surrounded by family and friends, and all the other Christmas seasons we've shared as Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn. God has been so very much more than good to me in giving me Donny as a husband and best friend. He did a special "10 days until 10 years" countdown on his blog that was fun to read everyday. Just in case you didn't know, I'm crazy about my man, and I'm so very thankful for him!! We had a sweet night out the weekend of our anniversary (thank you, friends Traci and Cory for taking care of our boys), and we can't wait to take some kind of trip just the 2 of us sometime this spring or summer to celebrate "us" some more!! I'm blessed.

Ok, and more about the RH Christmas show that Tyler was in . . .our sweet boy LOVES the stage. He loves performing, loves singing, loves dancing . . just loves it all. He was a shepherd in the show, and their act was the funniest of the whole show in this Mommy's opinion. They pulled out sun glasses and busted a serious Back Street Boys type move to a funky song about the shepherds who welcomed Christ at his birth. I laughed so hard the first time I saw them practice that I cried. I got to be backstage and ended up kinda being in charge of the boys, which was fun . . .a little on the chaotic side, but very fun. I was very proud of my little stage boy, and he is already planning on how he wants a speaking part next year!

The boys sporting some of the hats from the performance . . .those things sure do shed the glitter!! I don't recommend bringing them into your home (like I did!!).

Tyler and Buddy Kayla got to stand right next to each other

Tyler is on the front row in purple. I loved the little guy to the left of him.

The boys are so excited about Christmas. They have helped decorate the tree, made Christmas cookies with my mom, had parties at school, and love watching all the Christmas movies, singing the songs, etc. All 3 of them walk around humming and singing Christmas songs, but the one that makes me chuckle more then the others is little Brady. One of his favorites to "sing" is "The First Noel". Usually just consists of a few words that you know belong to the song with a version of the tune and lots of "oooo-el, oooo-el!". After spending the weekend with one of his favorite cousins, Lael, he now grins cutely as he sings the same tune, with a different main word - "Laaa-elll!, Laaa-ell!". Too cute, and he knows it.

Brady "helped" decorate the tree . . sweet boy, maybe his efforts will be more helpful to his mama next year!!
At the Vaughn house, we don't just have plain ol' reindeer. Oh no. We have SUPER HERO reindeer!! Capes and stuff, you know! Crime fighting, bad guy catching reindeer. Too cool.

Happenings . .

Life at the Vaughn house has kicked into high holiday gear! The boys are all singing Christmas songs, they take turns pretending to be Santa and reindeer, they are loving all things Christmas . . .it is our favorite time of year.

Tyler was in the RH kids Christmas show this past Sunday (post about that fun event to follow with pictures!), we have Vaughn Family Christmas this coming weekend, and my family leaves for the Magic Kingdom the Friday after that!! Disneyworld here we come!!

The only reason this post is even being written today is because I was surprised with a fun little stomach virus early this morning . . .my day has been relegated to my bedroom. That's one way to slow you down. Ick. Please pray that the germs stay contained and the rest of the family stays virus free. No one wants to be pucking at family Christmas!!

So, more to come later, but just wanted to post that the Vaughn's are loving celebrating Christmas season this year!

my life . . .

Just a glimpse into life with 3 boys (not including the oldest - dear Daddy). Last night Tyler was reading a book to me. He needed to go get a tissue to wipe his nose, so he raced off to the bathroom where we keep a box on the back of the toilet. The light was off in the bathroom . . .suddenly I head a crash, bump, splash type noise followed by wails from Tyler. Donny and I both hurried into the bathroom to see what had happened . . .apparently the open toilet had gotten in the way of his pursuit for a tissue. Leg IN the toilet. That was a first for our family!! Once he had dry pants on and had recovered from the shock of his encounter, it became quite funny and we all had good laughs together (Donny and I were hiding our laughter even in the bathroom!)

Tonight as I was putting Brady to bed, I laid him down . . .and he ripped one on my arm all the way down into the crib. Nice. Even better was once he saw Mommy's reaction, he grinned and ripped another one. He sure knows how to woo the women!! Groce. Just thought I'd document a couple of trademark stories from the Vaughn house . . .

Christmas season is here!!

Well, the Thanksgiving pictures are in the "slow to develop" camera, so I get to blog about last night's adventure before I blog about Thanksgiving!!

Last night, our family went to the 25th annual Fort Worth Christmas Parade of Lights in downtown Ft. Worth. We went to it a couple of years ago when I was very pregnant with Brady, and it was NOT a pleasant experience except for the company! he! It was cold, I was hurting, we got there too late to get a good view, our kids had to be on our shoulders to be able to see anything, and we had an interesting adventure trying to get back home. We had to park so far away that we were across the train tracks. On the hike back to the car, a nice train pulled up . . .and stopped right in the way of us being able to cross back to our side to drive home. Oh my. Donny ended up walking (with my 5 year old!!) over to the access road of the freeway to get to the car and drive over to pick us up. Oh my again. About the time they were almost to the car, the nice little train finally decided to move and let us cross the tracks. Oh well . . it was an adventure!! he!

This year was much better. Being good, prepared Vaughns, we left the house almost 2 hours before the parade was to begin. We found a good parking spot in a nice parking garage (on the same side of the train tracks as the parade this time), and met up with 2 of our most favorite families on the planet - the Yowells and the "other" Vaughns. We had our nice little chairs so we could sit and enjoy the parade. It was still VERY cold this year, but we were well dressed, I wasn't 3rd trimester pregnant, and we were excited!! The boys had a blast, we loved being with our best friends, and it was so fun to "kick off" the Christmas season with a parade of lights. The chair thing still didn't work so well - everyone in front of us stood up or had kids on their shoulders, so little boys still ended up on our shoulders, but it was ok. I think sweet Kelly V's arms might be very sore today from holding Lael up through the entire parade, but hopefully she won't be permanently damaged!! he!

Our only "adventure" this year came in the form of leaving the parking garage. Guess what happens when you park at the very top of a parking garage and everyone is trying to leave at the same time? You wait for a very long time in your car before you can even pull out. Donny made nice friends with some of our "neighbor cars" in an effort to work together to get our cars out, the Yowells finally gave up and headed back down on foot to wait it out at a restaurant, and we finally made it home by 9:00 (after the parade ended at 7:30). The boys were good and sweet, though, and Mommy found extra peanut butter crackers in the car to tied them over until we could get to the nearest McDonalds for a quick bite. Overall, it was a fun family time - an adventure - but very fun time to be with family and friends to kick off the holiday season!

This was taken before the parade started . . when it was still cool to sit in chairs

Good parade pictures are hard to get - this was about the best we got, though - a COOl helicpoter. All boys were very impressed.
I think the Yowell and Vaughn kids are half brother and sister. They've grown up since birth together. I love that. They can play (and fight) like true siblings. And Tyler and Colby both talk about when they grow up how they will marry Kayla and Brooklyn.
If this picture had a title, it woudl be "OUCH, Brady!! That's Mommy's hair!!"

Blessings from the Vaughns -

Happy Birthday to US!

November is a big month in the Sorrells / Vaughn world. There are lots of birthdays! Our sweet niece, Tori, starts the month out on the 5th, then Donny and Randy celebrate their's on the 8th. My birthday is on the 16th, and sister Monica and other sweet niece celebrate together on the 22nd. I think that's all. I have a slew of cousins and their spouses who have birthdays this month as well, but we'll keep the list to the minimum!

The boys and I had fun getting ready for Daddy's birthday this year - we went shopping at one of our favorite places, Hobby Lobby, to buy Daddy a new Old World type Santa to add to his collection. And when I say that Hobby Lobby is one of "our" favorite places, it's not just me - the boys really do love going there and looking around at seasonal decorations especially. We just have to move through all the beautiful breakable stuff at the front real fast before someone in our clan gets us all in trouble! I was very proud of the big boys for keeping a secret from Daddy. Not telling fun surprises is not one of their "spiritual gifts"!! On Wednesday, we made a yummy cake, and on Thursday night (his birthday), Daddy got to choose his favorite place to go eat . . .Macaroni Grill! Oh my yummy. They all came together to pick me up from work since Thursday is the one day I work a full day. I gave Donny a tour of our clinic . . he hadn't ever been to our new location, so the boys had fun showing them all the rooms and especially the gym!

After dinner, we had fun eating cake and opening presents. Tyler brought out a special card he had made for Daddy that day at school. He made him open it before he looked in his present. The card read: "Happy Birthday Daddy. There is a Santa in the bag." So much for keeping secrets!! He just couldn't stand it!! ha!

Donny bought a "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book that is so beautiful a couple of years ago. His family has a tradition of reading that book and he wanted to continue the tradition with the boys. Several months ago, while Randy and Kelly were still in Benin, Donny sent the book over with his parents to have Randy get a custom cover made for it by a guy there that does beautiful leather work. Randy had never mentioned it since they returned, and to be honest, Donny was beginning to think his brother had forgotten about the book. Randy emailed me a week or so before his birthday to say he had been hanging on to it for all these months for the right time to get it to him . . .and his birthday was the perfect time!! It is a beautiful red leather cover with gorgeous details. I can't explain it . . don't know the right words, but it looks AWESOME, and Donny was very pleased!!

On to Kendra. I felt like my birthday was a few days long, which is nice! Thursday at work, the girls were very sweet to me - took me out for a yummy lunch, and had my favorite for desert . .a COOKIE cake! Donny sent me flowers at work, which is a GREAT treat!! On Friday, my actual birthday, I had scheduled some work stuff that is a once a month type thing, so it was off to work again the next day. On the way to take the kids to a friend's house, my car started doing strange things. Before I knew it, we had parked it in a parking lot at a major intersection and it was dead. I called Donny, then called my friend to get her to come pick up the little boys and I to get me to work. When I was telling her where I was, I looked up to see what was around, and noticed that I had parked in the parking lot of a City Garage!! God is good.

Do you ever have those days where you have to CHOOSE joy? It doesn't always come naturally, and the evil one would have me defeated in self-pity before my day ever gets started sometimes, but I have the ability to CHOOSE joy. So that's what I did. Rescue friend, Kim, made it easy, though, when she drove up with a birthday card and Sonic drink in hand to pick us up!The best was getting picked up by my Prince Charming (Donny) and the boys that afternoon after work, and going to Monica's house for the kiddos to have a sleep over while Donny and I had a birthday date!! Yea! By the way, it was my alternator - it went kapput.

I'm sure all you moms out there can relate that it is such a treat to every once in a while go home and only put yourself to bed . .no one else but you. It can be an even bigger treat to wake up and take care of only you in the morning. No one else's breakfast to get ready but your own. Ahhh. It was nice. Especially when Donny suggested that we go to Starbucks for breakfast. Yes, it was a very good birthday! And I was so excited to see my sweet boys when I picked them up that day - so glad to spend the day with them. But I was so glad to be with just my Prince Charming for a chunk of time as well. Happy Birthday to us!

I just have to add one more thing: the Vaughn Brothers are HYSTERICAL!!!! Tonight the big boys were making fun of Brady for carting around his blue blanket and sucking on his middle fingers. This is what they looked like:

Blessings!

Long over due Halloween pics

Ever get a list going of all the things you WANT to post about, but just can never get to? I have one of those now. This is an easy one to get to, though, so here's a couple of cute pictures of my sweet ones all dressed up.

Can I just say, too, that my big boys LOVE to dress up? We have a big tub o dress up clothes in the play room - that was their "Santa" gift for Christmas a couple of years ago, and it has been the most played with part of our playroom. I love seeing what combinations they come up with for whoever it is they are trying to be at the moment . . .I could do a whole scrapbook of all the costumes I've caught them in (but I won't do a whole scrapbook on that . . .I'm far enough behind as it is!!).

I love Tyler in his Spiderman costume . .he not only dressed up as a super hero, but he becomes the super hero at the moment - from the way he talks to the way he moves around. Makes me gigle. This costume was courtesy of Nonny - she sent it to Tyler when Colby got to spend a weekend with the grandparents and he stayed at home with Donny and I to be in school. He had an older costume, but it was so tight that it was socially inappropriate to wear it anymore!! yikes! Plus, the number of holes in it make it even hard for Colby to pull off . .

Colby was my handsome little Dallas Cowboy - he has loved watching football with his Daddy this year, and I think Daddy really loves that his middle boy is catching his passion for the sport!

Brady was my "Snuggle Puppy" - his favorite book plus he loves doggies. He was so very cute, and even got into keeping the little mits on his hands. His favorite part of Fall Fest was the candy!! He figured out real quick that if you threw balls in hoops or something like that, the nice lady would give you a sucker or some chocolate!! Yum!

This picture is called, "One eyed Mommy who's over due for a haircut holds cute snuggle puppy who's mouth is coated in chocolate"

I keep baby Annie on Wednesdays, so she came with her costume in her bag so we could get all the kiddos together before we left for the Fall Fest. I thought she was the cutest little Minnie Mouse ever!!

We had a fun time at Fall Fest at RH with our buddies, Austin, Kayla and Brooklyn. It's become quite the tradition to meet them there and have fun going to all the different booths and playing in the jump houses. Brady's favorite spot really ended up being the petting zoo . . he could have stayed in there with the sheeps and goats for hours, but this too had to come to an end!! (pics not developed from that one yet).

That's all for now . . .maybe I can get to another "post on my list" soon . .

Blessings -

Shout out of Praise!

I sent this email out to some friends and family to report on what God has done for our little family (specifically for healing for Tyler and myself):

I just wanted to give a “shout out of praise” about Tyler and I’s visit to our Dr. in Austin on Friday. Monica and I went with all the kids to stay at our cousin’s house in Round Rock Thursday night. Tyler and I went to Dr. Stewart’s for appointments on Friday morning. Testing showed that I am “completely normal” (no snide comments, please!!), and he said he doesn’t need to see me for another 10 – 15 years (good ol’ hormone changes) unless I feel like something has changed! Yea!!

Tyler’s testing showed a little of the viral activity still present, but since he attributed it to possibly the fact that he has had some respiratory issues as well as a stomach virus in the past couple of weeks. Everything else looked PERFECT. I can’t tell you how huge this is for us. We’ve been going to this Dr. and doing continuous treatment with Tyler for over 3 years now. It’s been a long road – very good and worth it, but long and sometimes very hard and confusing and challenging. Tyler needs to be checked one more time in the spring, but the Dr. is anticipating that all will be well!!

The other cool thing for me not only as Tyler’s mom but as a therapist is that there will be a satellite clinic (different staff but same protocol, testing, etc.) close to us here coming in January of 2008. I have a list a mile long of patients that I’ve wanted to send to him, and I’m so thankful that they will have an option other than driving to Austin. If any of you (especially in the metroplex) know of kids or adults that you think would benefit from help, or if you have questions about what exactly the treatment involves, I would LOVE to talk with you about it. It has certainly been an answer to our cries out for Tyler (and for me!), and I’m so thankful for the help we’ve received!!! God is so very good.

"The virus is out . .I repeat, the virus is out!"

Donny and I have been watching the 3rd season of 24 (the show with Keifer Sutherland). It's the season where Jack and crew are trying to capture a bio-terrorist weapon in the form of a deadly virus. We've been watching Hasmat (sp?) crews do their thing, people run in fear for their lives from the outbreak, people bleeding and dying from this deadly virus. This is the mind framework we were in when a virus of our own broke out in the Vaughn house.

It's not deadly. It's actually quite short and the kids have recovered pretty quickly. But why do stomach bugs have to mostly strike at night is my question that I'm pondering? Brady was up most of the night last Wednesday night, and by the time the virus had "done it's thing" with him, I had a couple of hours of sleep before I hear Tyler's sweeet voice saying, "Mom, my tummy doesn't feel too good . . .".

A couple of days and lots of loads of laundry later, we thought we were all through the "outbreak". Last night Monica called at bedtime sad and a little scared because it looked like little Annie had gotten the bug. Poor dear. I gave her some advice, wished her good luck, and headed to bed. Then at about midnight, I heard from my bedroom doorway some soft cries followed by the lovely sounds of Colby losing what was left of the contents of his stomach in the doorway. Poor thing. I hate vomit . . I dread it more than any other illness. It's so unpredictable, so out of control, and just so gross. Sweet Colby broke my heart last night, though, and gave me another reason to hate stomach viruses - they hurt my babies. Colby put words to it last night all night as he "purged": "Mommy, I can't do this! Why does it hurt so bad!" "I don't want my tummy to do this again!" And the one that really got me was, "I hope no one else has to cough like me!" We cried together and asked God to stop it. He did. It's all better now. Mommy is still "veclempt" (sp???) when I think about it, but Colby has moved on with life and is happy to be feeling fine.

That's all. Just had to get that one off my chest . . .praying Donny and I will be spared the delight of the bug. I look forward to Heaven will there with be NO STOMACH VIRUSES!!

My Mamaw

My Mamaw came to town this past weekend with my Uncle Don. They live in the Panhandle, and made a special trip to our area to meet little Annie and be with the boys and with Monica and I (notice Moni and I's place on the list - we recognize it and are ok with the fact that our "elders" come more for time with our kids than with us! It's good and ok!).

I just love my Mamaw. I want to be like her when I "grow up". She's 81, and just in the past couple of years has stopped traveling all over the country with her "Merry Widows" clan of ladies from church. She's the Queen for her local chapter of the Red Hat society. She plays cards until midnight with her girls a few times a week. She takes a nice long afternoon nap everyday. She eats at Applebee's for lunch at least a few times a week. She has a favorite waiter and table that are always reserved for her and her friend that goes with her. This is a glimpse into the life of my Mamaw now - and I love her for every bit of it!

What I really love about my Mamaw and the rest of my family, though, is the way they blessed my life as a child. See, my parents were divorced when I was Brady's age. My mom by the grace of God was given my Dad, Larry to be a father for me. They had Monica when I was 4 years old. If ever a family needs help on how to raise a "blended family", they really need to talk to my Mamaw and my parents. Mom and Dad have loved Mamaw (who is my birth father's mother - not my mom's) like she was their own. Mom organized Mamaw and Papaw's 50th wedding anniversary. Mom is always there for Mamaw from being at her 80th birthday party to helping with a garage sale before moving from her home.

I think one of the "keys" to all the intact relationships has got to be this: I don't remember EVER hearing anything negative said about my birth father or about Mamaw and Papaw by my parents. I don't remember EVER hearing anything negative being said about my Mom or Dad by my grandparents. Monica has just naturally been a grandchild of Mamaw's since she was born. Annie is her 5th graet-grandchild and only girl. I love that family can be this way to each other. As a parent, I can't imagine what my little life had the potential to turn into when I was 18 months old. I'm so very thankful for the Lord's hand in my life - so thankful that He guided all the adults in my life to create such an easy path to walk in as a child. So, today, I'm thankful for my Mamaw. She's a blessing to me!

Spelling Bee Champ

Tyler has a new hobby. He spells words all the time. Conversations with him go something like this: "Mom, that is so cool! C-O-O-L!" "I really need some food. F-O-O-D". He has found his "giftedness" in first grade, apparently . . math, science, and reading are ok, but spelling, now that's his thing!! He's been spelling so very much that he declared tonight that "Tomorrow I'm not gonna spell. S-P-E-L-L". Maybe he's getting tired of it, maybe he's realizing that it's not always C-O-O-L to S-P-E-L-L everything you say. Who knows. All I know is that I'm proud of my little spelling champ, and he can spell all he wants to as far as Mommy is concerned! Love him . .

Blessings

My 3 little Cowboys

This is called the perks of having a mother who is a graphic design artist. You forward her a pitcture of your kids from your living room wearing some cute clothes she and Dad bought, and she turns it into a creative wonder!! ha!

catching up . .

You know you are a true blogger when you find yourself thinking, "Now this will make a nice blog entry . . ." and take a couple of pictures to go with whatever it is you want to document. I've been thinking in scrabook pages for a number of years . . I used to dress my children for certain memorable events (birthdays, Christmas activities, etc) in colors that I knew would go well with the paper colors that I had in stock. Sad, I know, but man, sure made some cute pages! When we go places, I would make sure and take enough pictures to do a 2 page spread . .. ok, typing that makes me giggle. I promise I have relaxed from the mindset!! Now I realize that the more pictures I take, the more pages I'll need to do in a family album!! So I try to go more for "highlights" of the activities instead of capturing every angle of the events! But I digress . . .I was just thinking that I've noticed the same type of thought lately in my brain, but with the intent of blogging instead of scrapbooking. I go somewhere, take a few pictures, and think, "Hey - this will be fun to put on the blog . . ". Anyhoo . . with all that confession out of the way, now I can get to catching up!!

Last weekend our family had our first annual "Switcher-roo" weekend. Donny devised a plan for us to have some intentional individual time with our older boys - Tyler was off from school last Friday and Monday, so Donny called in his parents to come help with Brady, and he took Tyler out for the day on Friday, and Colby and I spent the day together. On Monday, we had a group outing to the Pumpkin Patch, then Tyler and I spent the rest of the day together and Colby and Donny went out on the town. In between days, we had some fun time with Nana and Papa all together as well as with Randy and clan. It was a fun family time for sure! Tuesday hit me like a wet rag in the face having to go back to normal routine . . .I much prefer playing to work, carpool, cooking dinner, laundry, etc!!

On Friday, Colby and I had a ball together. I LOVE being with this little boy! Our personalities blend so well together . . .he loves to chat and I love to listen and ask questions about what in the world he is talking about!! We had fun spending money at the first couple of stops: we went to Lifeway and picked out a new video and bought Mommy an AWESOME new praise CD. We had fun at the listening station checking out lots of CD's a finally agreeing on one that we thought would be good to have in the car, then getting giddy about running back to the car to pop it in and see which songs we already knew. Colby would say, "Oh man, I LOVE this one!!!" So very sweet.

We headed to Ulta after this . . Mommy was out of hairspray and Daddy was out of hairgel, so Colby got to learn about using a coupon to save some money, and he thought that was cool. Cracked me up that he wanted to look at all the different hair dryers they had on display as well . . doesn't take much to entertain kids, that's for sure!!

Next stop was TOYS R US to spend a whoppin' $6 limit . . .he picked out a Transformer toy (side note: how and why do kids get interested in toys that are so useless? I don't get it. Mine have never even seen a Transformer video in their lives that I'm aware of, and for some reason that's all they can both talk about?). We had fun just cruising all the aisles of the store and seeing what was out there in toy land.

Our last stop was to a very fun place that I've been wanting to check out for awhile now . ..INCREDIBLE PIZZA! It's like Chuck E. Cheese without the Chucky and times 10 for games and activities. It was very fun - Colby's favorite thing was watching a go-cart race (for big boys, not 4 year olds). We played games, ate pizza, and watched part of "The Apple Dumpling Gang" in the movie room. Colby wanted to watch the rest of the movie after we finished eating, so we had some nice Mommy / Colby snuggle time (he was getting pretty sleepy by then).

After going home for a nice nap (both of us!), we met Daddy and Tyler and went out to a FWC football game. The boys were so excited to see a "real football game" - and they each even found a friend from school / church there to play with, which made it nice! Colby and his buddy, Luke, had a ball playing, eating snow cones together, and dancing when the band played. Cute.

Ok, skip to weekend activities (and by the way, know that I'm documenting all this mostly for my family's sake so we can remember what we did together - you just might be bored by the length of this, so feel free to click on over to your next blog for the day!) Nana and Papa came to stay and have some Brady time as well as just be with all their kiddos down here. Nana always comes bearing gifts, and this time she brought some fun "science experiments" for the boys. She had 3 big dinosaur eggs that the boys soaked in water, and after 24-48 hours, they HATCHED! The boys were all 3 fascinated by the eggs and watching them crack the egg open, seeing what color and shape their dino would be . . .too cool. Thanks, Nana for the fun science lesson!!

On Monday, Donny had to stay back due to a nasty cold, but the rest of us including N&P and Randy's crew went out to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. Can I just say that I LOVE that place??? I've gone every year since Tyler was 10 months old, and it's just one of my most favorite things to do in the fall!! Of course, the fact that it felt like it was about 97 degrees that day didn't quite make the "fall" part feel real, but I love love love all the pumpkins, the hay stacks, the hay maze, the hay ride, the cartoon cut outs, etc. It's just really too fun. Oh, and my favorite part is IT'S FREE!! How do those people do that?
Tyler and I jetted out for our day together after lunch, and had a blast. All weekend he had been saying, "I sure can't wait for Monday to have my day with you, Mom!" I love being with Tyler because our personalities are very similar - where Colby and I are pretty opposite and so compliment each other, Tyler and I can enjoy things the same way and don't even have to say very much. We spent over an hour in Toys R Us - just roaming the aisles, pointing things out to each other, hanging out at the book rack checking out cool books, and just going at our own pace. Of course, we spent the $6 on a Transformer thing.


Next it was off to the pet store to check out all the rats, guinea pigs, cats, birds and fish . . .we both really loved the turtles that were swimming around in a big tank. But enough with the pets . .we had to get to Marble Slab for some cream!!

This was by far Tyler's favorite part of the day, he said. Yum. I was with him. Target was next to do some more "aisle browsing", then we felt like we had given our ice cream enough time to make room for some Double Dave's pizza. Oh, what a nice way to top off a day. I love Double Dave's buffett. But what I love more than that is that Tyler and I were able to have so much time together just the two of us . . .no younger brother "interference" - it was all about me and him. And I loved it. My biggest baby amazes me with how "big" he truly is these days, and sometimes it takes getting away from all the other details in life for me to recognize the maturing that is occuring in Tyler Vaughn. I praise God for that - it's a gift from Him for sure.

Speaking of gifts . . .wasn't this a sweet gift on our way home from Double Dave's?? It actually was a faint double rainbow and we watched it on the side of us all the way home. Loved recounting God's faithfulness and how He will always provide, always protect, and always, always love us. He is good. So, year one of "switcher-roo" is over, and we can't wait to do it again, because not only was it a sweet time for our boys, but Donny and I were blessed beyond measure, I think. I love those boys. (all 4 of them!).

Blessings!

18 months

Brady is 18 months old - well, actually, he's almost 19 months now, it's just taken almost a month to get pictures taken and something documented about the little guy. Perks of being one of 3 with a busy home life! he!

This sweet baby of mine makes me laugh all the time. He talks about his grandparents constantly, asking, "where'd go go?" (which means where did they go - usually names them one by one asking where they are. Apparently grandparents and aunt Moni and baby Annie are supposed to be available to Brady 24/7). He gets a very dissapointed look on his face when he realizes they aren't just around the corner. He does cheer up when I let him call them on the phone, though - he likes to say "wewo" (hello, you know). Then he giggles, listens for a minute and runs away.

He loves reading / singing the Sandra Boynton book, "Snuggle Puppy". We read /sing it a couple of times, and he laughs a lot, joining in on the chorus part. The other night we put him to bed, and over the monitor we could hear him singing, "Oooooo! I uh you!" (means: Oooooo - I love you!). He is just so loveable!!! I bought him a puppy dog costume to wear for fall festival - he calls it his snuggle puppy and wants to peek at it in the closet and giggle all the time.

Brady has officially joined the ranks of wrestling with Daddy time. The other night he watched Colby come flying in to leap over a laying down Daddy . . Brady immediatly did the same and surprised himself with how far he flew across the floor when he launched!! Scared the poor guy for a bit . . .we'll see how eager he is to imitate his brother again next time.

He walks through the house looking for me, hollering, "MOM! MOM!" until I holler back "BRADY! BRADY!" More giggling and he comes to join me and say "Up!" with arms lifted up high. Precious.

Have I mentioned how much I love this sweet baby? His name means "Always takes the right path". I pray that over him at night often . .Lord, may it be in this child's life - may he always take the right path - may he choose YOUR path. The path that leads to righteousness and truth. Never let one little foot stray off that path - eyes locked onto the Lord's heart. May it be so.

Blessings!

My sweet Annie baby

I'm just amazed at this sweet little baby who has entered our lives and our hearts . . .life is already so much sweeter with her in it, and I sure can see signs that life will continue to get sweeter and sweeter! I love how Tyler and Colby always want to hold her and talk so sweetly to her. I love how Brady runs in when she comes saying, "Aa-y! Aa-y!" This afternoon I was keeping her for Monica, and he wanted to "help" give her a bottle, and kept needing to snuggle her head with his. Sweet baby girl. See how much she's changed in 5 1/2 weeks??

This was my "up close and very personal" view of Annie's birth . . .I loved being right there to catch her first breath of life . . .her first cry (and scream - that baby was MAD!). Love her!