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.