Arkansas in December

Part of our vacation in the US, was spent in Arkansas visiting Brooks' family.  We started out our week and a half trip by going to the Ranch (in Hot Springs) and spent a few days visiting with all the extended family.  Brooks cooked gumbo for everyone one evening and we spent our days circled around Mim's table eating, catching up, and laughing.  There's never a dull moment at Mim's house and our boys were never bored.  They enjoyed playing and spending time with their extended cousins.  These kids get along great with one another.  

Brooks' brother, Brandon, goes to Children's Hospital in Little Rock every week for chemotherapy treatment.  Brooks couldn't wait to see Bran and visit with him, so our first morning in Arkansas he drove to LR and spent the day with Brandon in the hospital.  Considering the circumstances they enjoyed their visit.  Most of their day was spent laughing and goofing off just like they always do when they're together. 

While daddy was away, Gavin got to ride the four wheeler with Pop and took a few rides around the ranch.  He got to see the buffalo, longhorn, a donkey, and lots of horses.  This has become a normal event for Gavin and Pop and something they both look forward to and talk about throughout our visit.

Once Brandon was released from the hospital, we drove down to Arkadelphia to stay the week with Brooks' mom, her husband John, and spend more time with Brandon.  We celebrated the Christmas season and went to a Christmas Light "show", which was amazing!  It was at a botanical garden place and the sights were beautiful.  Some friends of the family were there with their 3 kids so we enjoyed walking around the grounds visiting and Gavin was able to run around with other kids. There were gingerbread houses, flowers, trees, animals, and lots more images created out of lights.  They created a train that actually made sounds and that you could walk inside.  Gavin couldn't wait until we got to the train.  He honked the horn and climbed up and down the stairs until we HAD to leave.  It was a fun evening and nice to get out of the house and enjoy some Christmas festivities while we were in the states.

*Brooks was MIA for this family outing-- he got to spend the weekend with 5 of his best guy friends outside of Dallas at a ranch, shooting guns and riding four wheelers.  He had a blast being with the guys and doing guy stuff.... you know with no kids, no responsibilities.  I wonder what that's like!

When Brooks got back from his guys weekend, we celebrated Christmas one morning and made some special memories.  The boys had a blast opening presents and were running around everywhere trying to dig into all the boxes.  I don't think they knew what to play with first.  Tractors, balls, pow-pow's, books, doctors outfits and more... it was a fun morning.  Gavin loved "working" on Uncle Bran and helping him to feel better.  Brandon was a great patient, too!  

 

The rest of our week was filled with our usual happenings around Missie and John's place.  Gavin got to feed the neighbors' horse and donkeys, did a little tree climbing, rode on Papa John's new tractor, went fishing, and helped daddy build a bonfire.  They keep Gavin pretty busy when he's at their house and he loves every minute of it!

 

One of our days together, while Brandon, unexpectedly was admitted into the hospital overnight and Brooks was staying with him, Missie and I drove to LR and took the boys to a cute, fun little children's place (almost like a children's museum). it was a fun area for them to run around, work at different stations, experiment, etc.  There was a puppet area, grocery store, kitchen, barn, water hole, vet sight, and more.  Gavin and Grammy spent a lot of time in the grocery store.  They used the cash register and everything!  Miles filled a grocery basket up a time or two and dumped all the food everywhere.  It was a really fun morning and the boys played and played their hearts out.

 

I'm so glad we took the boys there and gave them some experiences around town, not just at houses.  I'm always hoping to let them see and do as much as they can when we visit the states-- we don't get these types of experiences here in Saudi.

The following weekend, we headed back to the Ranch to spend time with some friends of ours who were getting married and Brooks was in the wedding.  Gavin played with all his "cousins" some more and stayed busy while we did wedding activities.

After the rehearsal dinner, all our friends headed to the Arlington Hotel in downtown Hot Springs for some "dancing".  I don't think there was much dancing going on, but we did visit and hang out with out kids running around.  Wow- adult conversations.  Love them and love our friends!  

It was a joy to celebrate Tim and Gabi's special day.  We've been friends with Tim for YEARS and Gabi was one of my campers so they both have a special place in our hearts.  Brooks and I were grateful when my due date changed by a few days so we could manipulate my travel dates back to Saudi in order to go to their wedding.  We spent the afternoon with close friends who we don't get to see often so it was a very special weekend.

Camp friends-- there is NO ONE LIKE THEM!

We loved being in Arkansas spending time with family and friends.  As every trip is always too short, we're looking forward to the next visit and making more memories.

Check out a million more pics on facebook from our trip!  

30 Weeks, a Middle Name, & More Baby "Stuff"

I turned 30 weeks, 2 weeks ago, and am feeling really good.  I have definitely started slowing down a little and am uncomfortable, but for the most part, it's fine!  We went and had an appointment with my Lake Charles doctor and Brooklyn looked good.  Her ultrasound showed she has HAIR!  Too cute!  We asked the doctor about Brooklyn's size, since my Saudi doctor has been concerned from the beginning of her being a big baby.  They seemed to semi- disagree and based on projections we're looking at a 7-8 lb baby.  I'll take that over a 10lb baby, which was mentioned a time or too in Saudi.

I've already started having contractions.  Go figure, huh?!?!  I'm not too worried about it though.  Both my doctors have said this is just what my body does.  My last 2 pregnancies I started contractions early but was induced so as long as they never become consistent... I'm good!  The progesterone injections have obviously been working and truly help ease our minds.  As long as I can make it back to Saudi next Tuesday without any issues or without having a baby on a transatlantic 16 hour flight... I'll be happy!

We've ben extremely busy getting ready for Brooklyn, as best as we can.  We ordered her bedding, a new stroller, been picking up girl clothes (that's a really weird feeling- I actually forget to go to the girls side of a baby store sometimes), odds & ends of baby supplies we can't find or get in Saudi, and we picked out her middle name.

You may have seen it on Facebook or read it on our Christmas card, but we chose the name Brooklyn Kay.  My mom's oldest sister's middle name was Kay (that's what we called her) and she passed away 11 years ago.  She was very special to all of us.  Her son, Stefan, who was 9 at the time, lived with us for a while when my aunt was sick and battling breast cancer and he and I got very close during that time.  He's always held a special place in my heart (so has she) so I always knew if I had a girl I wanted to remember my Aunt Kay in someway with her.  Choosing the middle name Kay for Brooklyn just fit and Brooks and I are so glad we can honor my aunt.

I'm now 32 weeks and it's really hitting us that we're going to be having a baby girl in a matter of 2 months.  WHOA.  Life as we know is going to change drastically-- not just having a girl, but with 3 kids.  We're excited for this new adventure and are ready to meet our sweet girl.

To see her bedding click here.

We ordered a new stroller in order to accommodate Miles and Brooklyn, since our sit n stand won't work at least the first year of Brooklyn's life (Miles is too young to stand on it and not yet able to sit unsupported).  We went with the City Mini Double Stroller because of great reviews, major recommendations from lots of people, and overall would be beneficial to us on the compound, around town, and traveling. Check it out here. We picked the green/gray color combo to make it gender universal and because our car seat carrier is a green/gray color so we wanted it to be as close to each other as possible.

Blog 2 Print

I'm so far behind on my posts, but I'm determined to keep up with what's been going on and am hoping to fit everything in before the end of the year.  Why? you ask?!

For my birthday, my best friend Steph took all my posts from the first year I started blogging and had it printed into a blog book.  It is amazing!  She used blog2print and had it professionally done.  Okay, so I got to help out a little, but it was so easy for both of us!!  All you have to do is type in your blog website address, choose what posts you want in the book based on dates, individual posts, or both, customize it if you wish, make a few selections for the outside cover and VOILA!  Simple!  I think I did it within an hour.    I was so excited about it, as soon as I sent her the link to my completed book, I started working on the next year of my blogging in 2010, made another book, called my mom and asked her to get the 2nd one for me for Christmas!  Hopefully Santa was tech savy and it's under the tree!?!??!  

I love having all those treasured memories in a book and reading some of the posts brought back many forgotten memories and experiences.  The book is awesome and I'm so grateful Steph thought of the idea!  There are tons of pictures showing Gavin from 6 months to his first birthday that it's almost like having a yearbook.  We even have pictures of Gavin and Cade that we now have forever.  I love that this book gives a more personal view of what was happening in our lives versus where a scrapbook would just be snapshots.

Anyways, I write all of that to say I'm very eager to try and keep up with the blog even more, to record life experiences as they happen, so we can continue printing blog books of each year of our lives.  I'm excited to imagine what we'll think about this season in our lives and the memories we get to reminiscence on in 10 years.  Should be fun and interesting!  

So go check it out.. try it.  Don't let it overwhelm you!  It's a great keepsaker and something you'll appreciate having years down the road!  

I Love This Man

5 years later, this man still takes my breath away.  

Brooks and I got to sneak away last week one evening and went on a date.  Our first date since May.  And yes, we are completely aware if you add 9 months to May it brings you to February= our third child's due date.  There is no need to send us a reminder of this... we've gotten several already, thanks! =)

We got all dressed up and went to a fancy, smancey 5 course dinner restaurant and it was delicious.  We got to visit and talk without being interrupted or having to change diapers or hearing crying kids.  It was wonderful!  I loved our evening together and will cherish that time we had.  

It's been awesome having Brooks all to ourselves the past few weeks while on vacation in the states.  The boys have loved having their daddy around to play with and have been soaking up all his attention.  I've appreciated having Brooks around too and have thoroughly enjoyed the time we're getting to be husband and wife and love on one another without the hassle of work schedules and such.  

I love this man for many, many reasons, but one is his willingness to always help me when I'm pregnant.  For my birthday, Brooks painted my toe nails since it's soooo difficult for me to lean over for a long period of time. 

 

I LOVE THIS MAN!

Gingerbread Fun

While we were in Lake Charles for our visit, Gavin got to spend a lot of time with his cousins.  One morning, my mom had the 3 oldest grandkids come over to make and decorate a gingerbread house.  The kids had a blast.  I must give props to my mom-- she had all 3 vocal and opinionated kids all to herself and they successfully completed their project and had fun!  

It took a little while for the house to set with the icing so the kids got to play a little while before getting to decorate with all the yummy candies.  The rule was whatever they wanted to eat, they could.  And whatever they wanted to put on the house, they could!  Don't worry.. the house had plenty of decorations.  So glad the kids had fun and enjoyed their time with Kimmie.  Fun memories! 

So excited, they couldn't stand it!

Decorating the gingerbread house!

They were so proud of their creation!

The Finished Product!

The little ones came later and wanted to play with the big kids.

A few days later and numerous requests to eat their gingerbread house... my mom decided to let them.  We sat ALL the grandkids (including the little ones) around the table and let everyone dig in.  Only problem.... the house had hardened a little bit and it was tough to get a bite, so we thought of a brilliant idea-- hammer it.  Each kid took a turn beating and breaking the house down until everyone was happy with the results and could take a bite of their house.  It was delicious to them and a funny moment watching them destroy the house they created.

Gavin hitting the house trying to break it.

David taking a whack at the house.

Miles got to "enjoy" a piece of the gingerbread house.

None of them cared the house was a few days old..  It was still good to them.

Thanks Kimmie for making a special, fun memory with the kids!  I'm sure you gave them happy hearts!

Lake Charles: the place I called home

Our trip to the states was fast this round (only 4 weeks- usually we're there 6-7 weeks).  We split our time between 4 sets of families and our friends in Houston, so when it boils down to it, we just don't have enough time at every place, or as much time as we'd like.  We're constantly busy when we're home and always try to fit everything in that we can.  So, when we were in Lake Charles, things weren't much different.  We filled our schedules with appointments for baby doctor, eye doctor, dentist, hair, etc.  We did Christmas shopping, picked up our supply of goods to bring back to Saudi,  visited extended family & close friends, and mainly tried spending as much time with my family as we could.

Most evenings consisted of everyone (brothers, SIL's, nieces & nephews) coming over to my parents house and we cooked dinner, let the kids play, and spent quality time together.  There is NEVER a dull moment with 6 grandkids under the age of 4 running around and this trip my mom came up with the brilliant idea to clear out the garage, put as many big toys outside, and let the kids have a field day.  They loved it, had room to run around, played with every possible outside toy imaginable, and had a grand ole' time.  This allowed for small increments of uninterrupted adult time inside.  I love how close in age all our kids are with one another and they really do have fun playing together.  

All the kids are kinda over taking the house so my mom started using my old homework table for the kids dinner table.  The kids have a blast eating surrounded by one another and sometimes- just sometimes-- us adults can get at least 3 or 4 bites in before having to check on them.

 One of my favorite things-- just sitting around the dinner table visiting and catching up.

As I said earlier, most of our time was spent in the evenings at dinner together since everyone's day time schedules were pretty full; dad and brothers had to work, and all the cousins were in school.

As quick as our time was with my family and as much as I missed getting to stay a few extra weeks with them, I'm grateful for the time we did have.  I loved loving on my nieces and nephews, appreciated my family working around schedules to spend time with us, and am thankful for the memories we made laughing, telling stories, and just reconnecting!  My mom's a big trooper tending to everyone and their needs and is always looking to make our time together special.  Thanks mom!  

Houston: there's never enough time

Brooks and I and the boys made a QUICK trip to Houston to see some friends, visit our home church, do a little shopping (I'm so over paying shipping for stuff), and for an appointment we had scheduled weeks ago.  

We left Lake Charles early Sunday morning and drove straight to church.  We dropped Gavin off at Pee Wee's and I noticed all the kids were lining up.  Okay, no big deal, they have something planned.  Brooks and I walked to the auditorium and I saw it.... bleachers up on stage and here come the Pee Wee kids ready to sing their annual Christmas program they do every year.  Oooops.  My heart sank- I felt horrible for Gavin.  He didn't know any of the songs or the people, and hasn't been to our church since March so nothing looked familiar to him in the sanctuary.  However, to our surprise, our little guy did great.  He stood front and center and never shed a tear- way to go bud!  He looked around at all the kids, attempted to find us in the crowd of parents who were taking pictures and video taping, and basically just stood there.  They sang a few songs then were escorted off the stage.  When we picked him up he told us he didn't like signing.  

Can you see him in the pictures?

 

Brooks and I LOVED being at our home church and miss Clear Creek Community Church so much.  What a great feeling to walk into a building, gathered with so many others in community to worship-- it was awesome!  

After church we went with our small group people to lunch at one of our favorite BBQ restaurants.  Everyone was there, except for the Acord's, but we see them here in Saudi.  It was a great afternoon of laughing and visiting.  Things have changed in everyone's lives and it was wonderful to catch up!  Babies have been born, more are coming, new jobs have been made, new small groups were formed from our small group, and everyone seemed to be blessed in some way!  We miss these people so much. They were a huge part of our lives and we only hope and pray that some day we'll be back surrounded with them on a daily basis!

After lunch, we went to our friends, The Southard's house and put the boys down for a nap.  We got to visit with Nathan and Sarah and catch up on more life happenings.  I snuck out to visit a friend and former teacher colleague, Larissa and saw her sweet family for a little while. Gosh, I really miss being with all our friends from Houston!

Of course, we met up with our friends The Carpenter's.  Brooks hadn't seen them since his visit to the states in March and I didn't bring Gavin to them this summer so it had been a long time between visits for everyone.  We had dinner at Pappasito's together and enjoyed seeing one another.  Gavin was all into Addi; they kept each other occupied.  I miss Susie and getting to see and talk to her everyday like we use to so it was refreshing just to be with her.  Brooks and Darrell got to have some great talks and really caught up on things.

After dinner we went back to their house to exchange Christmas presents and spend some more quality time together.  This was Gavin's first time being at their house since our visit back in early April.  We all knew the day would come when Gavin would have to "see" Cade's house without Cade being there... something that was tough for all of us to handle, but we all agreed it had to be done at some point.  Cade has been on our hearts a lot lately and we've spent a lot of time talking about Cade to Gavin.  He remembers him, which we're so thankful for and I am continuously praying that images and memories Gavin has with Cade will forever be etched in his mind and on his heart.

Being with Susie and Darrell is such a sweet and tender thing to us.  We don't get to experience every day life with them anymore, right now, and we hate that we haven't been apart of their lives during this season (in person).  They are extremely special people to us and we are constantly in awe of their faith and strength.. they've been a huge inspiration to us.  It really puts things into perspective when I want to complain about not being in the USA for Christmas-- there are so many more important things in life!

Okay, back to our visit, sorry.  The kids opened presents and played around together while us adults got to catch up some more.  Susie saved a bunch of Addi's clothes for me to go through and we left with a HUGE stash of clothes for Brooklyn.  Can't wait for her to wear all the CUTE outfits!  Our visit seemed incredibly short--there's never enough time with everybody, but I'm glad we could at least be together some!

Susie, I miss you and love you dearly.  Your friendship is so very special to me and I hope you know that I pray for you daily and am encouraged every time we talk with how much you trust our Heavenly Father to provide everything for you and Darrell.  We're praying and believing for little Addi to get a miracle and know that she has an angel looking down on her (and us).

The next day, we attended an appointment we had, then ran a few errands around town.  We met my child hood friend and college roommate, Mary Beth, at a restaurant near the Galleria and we both got to meet each other's babies.  Miles is 11 months and Noah is 6 months.  They were mesmerized with each other.  Mary Beth and I have known each other since the 3rd grade and we always try to see each other when we're in the states.  We got to catch up over lunch- talk families, life, kids, etc.  Such a breath of fresh air to be with her.  Mary Beth has always had a calmness to her that I've admired!  So glad she was able to work out her schedule to spend some time with us.

 

After lunch, Brooks and I and the boys ran to the galleria to pick up a few things before heading back to Lake Charles to pack for Arkansas.  Again, I say it.  Houston was a quick trip and never enough time with everyone, but we'll take what we can get!