Pumpkin Patch 2013

Look at these babies growing up!

And then I uncovered this picture and realized NJ hasn't grown much in a year! At least in height anyway, but look at that hair. Wow it has gotten long!

This year we went out to the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. I had heard from a few different friends that this one was really nice and fairly large so I wanted to check it out.  But I should warn you that there is a knock-off PP right next to the real one is Flower Mound and we were tricked! We turned in and paid our $5 for parking before we realized they weren't connected and we turned into the wrong one! I was furious. We stayed about 5 minutes, then loaded up and went a few yards down and got to the good one.

Fortunately we did capture a couple of good pics in that 5 minutes. Natalie was smiling AND looking at the camera.  We will work on JZ later!

The weather was 20 degrees cooler in Flower Mound than Royse City. We were not 100% prepared but I was thankful I randomly tossed in a blanket. I couldn't complain because it was perfect pumpkin pickin' weather!

This place had a ton (seriously, a ton) of cartoon cut-outs! I spared you and just showcased the best three. Your welcome.  Unfortunately for us, Barney has made a resurgence at our house and she wants to watch the same episode over and over and over, so she was thrilled to see him at the Pumpkin Patch. Can't you tell?

And this cutie just warms my heart with that little squishy face!

After our walk through the cutouts we set out to play in the hay maze, pumpkin field, hay ride and train ride. I told you this place was fun. Made me feel like a kid again!

Natalie really liked the pumpkin house.  We told her she could look around and pick one pumpkin, the perfect pumpkin. It took 5 seconds. She walked in, grabbed one and said here. Ha! Cracked me up.  Funny enough she picked a really nice one.  

Once Joaquin got to stand up in front of Brian on the little train ride, he was all smiles. The ladies standing to the side were having a fit over him.

And how could you not have a fit over this?! Gosh, he's cute.

We attempted a few family shots because we really needed an updated photo, but as you can see they weren't perfect. Not sure what the kids were looking at in that middle photo. Natalie was trying to be helpful and get Joaquin to look, but that irritated him and then she wasn't looking.  And the pic in front of the pumpkin house was great except that she was leaning over with a hand near her face. Oh well!

The 2013 Pumpkin Patch was a success and I would definitely go back to this one!

MOSAIC Update

It has been so neat to see God's hand in this ministry.  We have two very exciting events coming up in the next couple of months. On October 13th we are hosting Kim Brown, Director of House of Love. The House of Love is a home for the women and children of Thailand affected by HIV/AIDS.  Many of these were sold into prostitution, orphaned or otherwise ostracized by the Thai government. She is only in Texas for a week, and we are thrilled to be able to have her with us for an afternoon.

Our next event is on Orphan Sunday, November 3rd!  We have two incredible guest speakers coming to share more about foster care and how we, as believers, are called to care for them.  We have had several families express interest in learning more about foster care, but none of our Mosaic leadership members have much experience with it so we have set it aside up until now.  Through a series of really random connections (that only God could weave together) between two of my friends (who don't even know each other), I was led to two ladies:  Emma Casselton and Lauren Hudgeons.

Emma Casselton is currently the Administrator of James 1 Ministry out of FBC Greenville.  She is a retired Foster Adoption Specialist from the state of Texas and is a wealth of knowledge! 

 Lauren Hudgeons (http://webpages.charter.net/adoptionsforhisglory) is a local prosecuting attorney and practices law in the areas of adoption, wills, and probate administration.  Both ladies are passionate about their jobs and the care of orphans.  They will be teaming up to share their experiences and answer questions about Foster Care.  But above all, they are believers using their God-given talents to care for "the least of these."  I am more than excited about this event as I have seen God's hand directly moving!  I will begin praying now for the Lord to move in the hearts of our church members to join us in finding out how we can help care for those that need it.

7/8 months

I just realized that I never posted Joaquin's 7 month pics and stats and here it is 8 months (nearing 9). Guess I'd better get with it.

When I was looking back at pictures I remembered why I never posted these.......I was taking these with only the help of my trusty assistant....Natalie. She was about as much help as the Tazmanian Devil, and Joaquin was a royal pain. I was frustrated because he wouldn't leave the darn plate alone and kept lunging off the couch so this is the best we got. Oh, and the whole number on the shirt thing: it doesn't even cover the picture behind it.  That's just ghetto. But I was determined to get the pics before too much time had passed. We were a hot mess=/

 Can ya feel me?

Let's move on to 8 months.

In the last two months this boy has changed so much. Maybe not with his looks, but definitely in his skills! At the middle of 7 months Joaquin started Army crawling. You know, arms dragging the body along while the feet help lunge you forward. That's him! He will get up on all fours, but the most steps from there has only been 1 or 2.  Well, that led promptly to him pulling up on things to his knees and boy did he feel big!

 






I was a tiny bit worried at how quiet he was, but was also trying not to compare him to my motor mouth girl! This month he finally started really babbling and talking to us and I love it! He is just the happiest little thing. He says ba-ba-ba, du-du-du, and ma-ma-ma all the time. No real words, but he smiles big when you talk back to him!

Eight months rolled around and he started pulling up now to his feet. This is scary because he hasn't mastered sitting back down without a crash. We've had some scares with the head=/

 

 JZ has started holding his bottle on his own which is glorious! He weighs just under 19 lbs making it very painful to hold him for a long period of time. He is now at the weight Natalie was at 1 year!
In the car he is able to see Natalie better and I love it when he laughs at her. He thinks she is the funniest, and Natalie, of course, eats it up. A little glimpse, I hope, into their relationship over the next lifetime!

I'm going to need a frame for this one!

Sea World

The next morning we got up, went downstairs to eat breakfast, and came back to pack everything up again! Good times! We've gotten pretty good at this considering all the loading and unloading we do during the holidays. It's quite ridiculous=/  The kids did great playing together while we packed. So sweet to see them actually playing together.

Natalie was super excited to get her picture taken with Shamu, but did tell us that, "Shamu doesn't walk!" Can't fool her.  She actually went back and hugged him another couple of times before we pulled her away. I love that she's not afraid of the characters.

After Shamu we headed over to the Wooded area and met one of Natalie's favorite book characters: Franklin! Isn't he the cutest? She just hugged and hugged him, too, but wouldn't speak to him. Joaquin didn't care=)

The Sesame Street Bay of Play was next. This part is seriously cool for kids. They really did it up right. There is a huge play area that consists of a series of nets, tubes and tunnels and right in the middle of it is a couple of splash pads!  It truly is a kid's paradise. The only downfall Brian and I saw was how quickly you could lose your kid in the nets and tubes.  NJ and JZ were too little for it this time around (thankfully).  What I loved was that they even thought of the little ones with a tiny splash area like this:

We came back to this area a couple different times to cool off and it worked out perfectly.  Then we caught the Sesame Street show and characters.

Cookie Monster was the absolute best! I plan on writing a letter to Sea World to compliment this character. Very interactive and fun. Disappointingly (not sure if that is a word, but I just used it anyway), we didn't get a pic with Elmo because you had to pay to do that! What?! So stupid. Thankfully, Natalie didn't make a big deal about it. Whew.

Cookie Monster stole Joaquin's bottle and pretended to drink it. Then he went to talk to him. JZ wasn't sure at first but then as you can see started to giggle! I don't know why but I just love the one of her in his lap. So precious!  Bert was pretty cool too. Natalie went up to hug him, and he bent down and immediately lifted her into his arms. Sweet.

As for the shows we were also very pleased. The ski show wasn't running which was disappointing but we really wouldn't have had time so it was fine.  We saw the Cannery Seal Show which was fantastic!  Natalie didn't catch all the funny antics but she was still entertained. Our favorite part was watching the Walrus do sit ups.

Natalie loved feeding the seals. She wasn't so sure about touching the fish at first, but once I did it she was good. Neither of us wanted to pick up the squid to feed though. Ick.

The dolphins were my favorite. There is just something majestic and beautiful about these creatures. Amazing! I wish we could have captured the one that swam in circles at 90 mph then leaped out of the pool So cool!

We were told by multiple people and workers that the Beluga Whale (Azul) show was the best, and for the life of me I could not figure out why. I mean, how much can a beluga whale do, right?!  For all of you wondering the same as me, wonder no more. The answer is.....not much. It was all about the people IN the show that did amazing leaps and flips from high boards and rafters that was so neat. The dolphins that did tricks and flips were incredible. Then there was the beluga whale. Beautiful creature. He danced with a lady and pushed her through the water using his nose, but that was really it.  It was a well put together show. Great music! Great tricks. But it's not about the whale=)

(Sorry the divers are hard to see to the left, but you get the idea)

Last but not least we ended the day with Shamu!

Unfortunately for the kids, they slept through the entire show and all the way back to the car where Natalie promptly awoke saying, "I wanted to see Shamu (insert loud wailing here)!"  I hated to end the adventure that way but we couldn't keep that girl awake to see it. Her head was bobbing and weaving. She.was.out.

And big boy was in my arms so I was about to kill over in pain so these are the only pics we got.

Pretty good pictures if I do say so myself!

The weekend ended by staying with some good friends from college. Melodi was so sweet to let Nat help her in the kitchen, read to her and let her fix her hair. Yep, you're ready for kids, Mel=) You will be a fantastic mommy!

I'll leave you with what the boys looked like most of the weekend.

No words needed.

I'd say our first family vacation went superb! Blessed and thankful!

Family Vacation

Every good trip starts with a coke!

Last weekend we went on our first family vacation with no one except us and the kids! These are the memories I have always looked forward to.  Don't get me wrong. I love being with our extended families for trips and such, but taking our family of 4 out on our own was so fun! No one else's agenda except ours.

We took our time getting to San Antonio and even stopped to see some dear friends along the way.  It was nice to enjoy lunch and a little break at their house instead of in a restaurant.  We stayed a couple of hours and then were on our way again.  

Unfortunately NJ was being totally rotten=/

We arrived around 5 pm and quickly unloaded into our room.  **It is also worth noting how well our kiddos traveled this time. This was huge because we have nearly sworn off traveling altogether after a couple of terrible trips with screaming and nonstop chattering!  JZ helped us out on this one with being able to hold his own bottle while in the car! Can I get an AMEN?!

Swimming was first on the agenda so we suited up and went down to the pool. I think we were one of four groups staying in the hotel so we had that pool and hot tub all to ourselves.  The Holiday Inn even provided toys and floaties! How cool is that?   Sadly, Brian and I had to enjoy the hot tub separately whilst the other took the kids in the pool.  Not ideal but at least I got some hot tub time.  **Really thinking I need one of these at my house.

As you can see, the kids had a blast, especially Joaquin. This boy loves LOVES the water. He just splashes and splashes and doesn't mind a bit that it is in his face (so unlike his sister)!

After about an hour of swimming we were all getting hungry so we ordered a pizza to be delivered to our room. No sense in loading the kids back in the car just to have an unpleasant dinner at a restaurant! It was perfect. We ate in our jammies on the bed (Pizza Hut even provided our plates) and everyone was happy, happy, happy.

NJ's newest craze is popcorn. We had promised her all week that we would eat it one night "on our adventure." She did not let us forget it either, let me tell ya. So, as you can see, we enjoyed some popcorn and a movie in bed, too!  The pack and play served as a nice play area. You know me and my tents....gotta have one!

The worst part about having little ones in a hotel is that everyone shuts down when the baby does=/  The movie helped keep NJ under control for awhile but that only lasted so long. We managed to keep Joaquin asleep but it took awhile for the other one to settle....Nothing new there.

Stay tuned......

Old Mill

Sadly, a couple different play dates with friends were cancelled due to illnesses (I mean, really, what are the odd? We were so disappointed).  So, we decided to visit The Old Mill...

I grew up visiting this place and took plenty of pictures here for various events and activities.  But, it has been years since I've seen it.  Such a beautiful place.  Here's a little tidbit about this mill:

"The mill was seen in the opening scenes of David Selznick's 1937 movie classic "Gone With The Wind", and is believed to be the only remaining structure from the film."

Pretty cool, huh?

We, of course, had to take some pictures so here they go!  Unfortunately Mimi had to work so we didn't get to snap photos with her and the kids=/

As you can tell by the photos at the bottom of this collage, Natalie was in a foul mood for these memorable shots with mommy.  She was mad because she wanted to take the pictures in her spot, not the spot I wanted. Sheesh.

However, prior to this pout, she was all smiles for me!

Can't win them all, I suppose!

After our trip here we loaded up to meet Mimi for lunch and show off the kids at her work. Glad we were able to see her and make her day since she was stuck at work.

These are the days

Our Arkansas trip continues with a trip to Granny's house.  Mom and Dad had a lot of work to do between grocery shopping and mowing about 2 acres of land for Granny so me and the kids entertained Granny!  She took NJ on a ride in her walker.  Then NJ took Granny on a ride (that one didn't last long)!  I was so proud of Natalie and Joaquin that day because they did really well! Natalie didn't throw any fits or get whiney at all!  And that is saying a lot these days, folks.  She loved on Granny and talked to her and all this without a nap. We were there from 10:30-5:00.  Joaquin was in a good mood and even took a 2 1/2 hour nap on the floor at her house.   He also gave some good loving to Granny. Sweet, sweet.

One morning while Ashley and the kids were in town, mom and dad let us go off shopping while they kept all the kids. Here's what they did:

Tents in the dining room, volcanoes on the table, and spoiled moments on the couch=)  We came back after a couple hours or so and we got in trouble for not staying gone longer. Our money ran out=)

This trip has been full of precious moments:

Even with the heat, one of our favorite things this week has been eating outside. Nat has wanted to eat outside several mornings so we have enjoyed some cooler weather but still a little muggy.

We got the whole family out for a fajita dinner and had a great time.