My Sunny Valentines (Minus my biggest Valentine)

When life gives you lemons.....

Make lemonade, or so the saying goes. The day was supposed to be filled with lots of learning about photography. I won, and I never win anything, a full class in photography from my sweet friend Lindsay who took our family pictures, and all of the boys' school pictures. It was going to be fabulous. Well, the first rut happened when Andy suddenly became swamped with work, and that morning I had to make the call to tell Lindsay I would not be able to make it. She was her wonderful understanding self, but I was extremely disappointed. Crushed would be a better word. See, I could have tried to call family and make it to the class, but I didn't find out until too late that morning. Besides Colton still won't take a bottle. We have been working on it, but he just refuses. I had gone over all sorts of tricks with Andy for him to try in order to make it through the day, and I knew it would be too hard to try and make someone else deal with that.

So, we were going to make those sour lemons into lemonade! I loaded up all three boys and we headed out to the Museum of Natural Science. About a block away from the parking lot, I smelled gas. It concerned me, but not too much. By the time I pulled into the parking lot, the gas smell was overwhelming. I opened the car door and heard something pouring out of my truck. Yep, it was gas, just gushing out of the truck. I have never taken three children out of their car seats so quickly and gotten them away from the car. My adrenaline was rushing! I had a pole no wider than 1 inch circumference that had pierced the gas tank. The fireman couldn't believe that such a small pole was able to poke a hole in a tank that is built to withstand crashes. We were amazingly blessed that at no point did the gas catch fire and the car become engulfed in flames. What could have happened....I can't even think about it. I know that we had angels watching over us, and I like to think it was a very special new angel specifically.

Well, the boys loved the excitement. The fire truck came, the hazardous materials truck came, and Daddy (poor guy) left work to come pick us up. The firemen were awesome and once the situation was under control, they let the boys climb in the truck, wear their helmet, gave them stickers, and even squirt the hose! Braeden was a bit shook up by the whole situation and would not leave my side, but Austin thought this was great!

In our attempt to get away from the gas smell, we went to a nearby park and climbed a tree. Fun was had for sure, but not the kind of fun I expected or planned for that day. I am just so blessed to have such "go with the flow" kids, who really handled themselves in a pretty scary situation. But mainly I feel so blessed to be alive, and that no one was hurt that day. Thank you God for these many, many blessings!!

So stinking sweet!

The last month has been such a blur. Colton is growing so fast, and I wish it would stop where we are for a little while longer, but I know that it won't. He has the greatest smile and is such a happy baby with the brightest eyes and expressions. I just love him to pieces. He is rolling across the room and has tried to get his knees under him to push up. Crawling is not too far off. I wonder if he will commando crawl like Braeden or crawl off of the ground like Austin, or maybe he will do something different all together! He blows raspberries, says "ba ba" and "ma ma" and "da da" especially when he is tired. He sits up really good, but still needs a pillow behind him just in case he falls back. He claps his hands, and drools constantly but still has no teeth.

Just look at that smile and those dimples. Don't you just want to kiss him?

Peek a boo! I see you!

We love being together...

From the moment we get up in the morning, we love being together!

Hunting

All the big guys in the family (minus just Uncle Ben) went hunting recently for dove, quail, and pheasant. Austin was big enough to join in this year. No, he didn't have a gun, but he got to follow along with the others. From left to right....Uncle Chris, Pops, Austin, Grandpa, Daddy, and Danny.

I wasn't there, but I hear this took a little convincing for him to hold this bird.

This is what I used to do when I went hunting with my dad and brothers too. Hanging out with the bird dogs is fun.

ICE

Grandma, Aunt Jennifer, and Aunt Lisa took Austin and Braeden to Dallas to see the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Hotel. It was Charlie Brown's Christmas, and from the pictures they took it looks amazing! Hard to believe that all of these things are made from ice. They used over 2 million pounds of ice to make this, and the rooms were a chilly 9 degrees!

Austin going down the ice slide.

These are huge gingerbread houses! Austin kept trying to eat the candy off the walls.

They love trains!

Family pictures 2010

We had our pictures taken this year in Galveston on the beach. We thought it was fitting since we now have a house there, and spend lots of time there. Enjoy!

Colton - 6 months old

This week Colton turned 6 months old. It is so hard to believe he is already half a year old. Seriously, stop growing everyone!! He has the most gentle spirit, and is so sweet. He smiles at everyone and rarely cries. He loves to cuddle, and is content to play alone too. He is rolling over both ways, and the other day I caught him rolling over all the way to the Christmas tree trying to grab an ornament. He is eating solids like a pro and is practicing sitting up. He weighs 20.7 lbs. and is 28.5 inches tall, nearly off the charts! He is wearing 12 - 18 month clothes already! We are still working on the sleep thing, but the fact that for the first 4 months of his life he never took a nap in a bed since he was always at the hospital with me, I'd say we are doing pretty good. He will sleep most nights only waking up one time. This week he started trying to talk to us. He has been saying "bu ba" and "ma mam." I am pretty sure Bubba will be his first word, since he adores his brothers so much, but maybe it will be Mama! We had our family pictures taken, and she really had no problems capturing the sweetness of Colton. I'll post more of the pictures after Christmas since some of them are going to be gifts. Enjoy....

And here he is when he wakes up. I tell you, I look forward to being with him because he just makes you feel good because he is so sweet. My absolute joy! Forgive the poor video quality, the lights weren't on.

Austin's birthday

The day started just like any other birthday around here, with our birthday pancake in the shape of our age. I must say, making a 5 shaped pancake is really difficult and requires two spatulas. He was so proud to show how big he is now because it takes a whole hand to show you.

It is so hard to believe that Austin is already 5 years old. What will I do when he goes to kindergarten next year? I can't even think about that right now. I can remember holding him in the hospital, bringing him to our New York Apartment, and cruising the sidewalks with the stroller like it was just yesterday. I am constantly telling the boys to "stop growing," to which they respond, "I can't!" Then I always say, "That's okay, no matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby!" I sometimes just wish I could freeze time and enjoy each moment a little longer.

For his party, we went to Jumpalooza. I got lots of pictures, but here is just a taste of the action. Austin and one of his best buddies Jacob. They were constantly on the go, and really had a blast jumping and jumping and jumping.

The birthday boy, just stopping to take it all in. I would say he looks like he enjoyed his birthday.

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We took the boys to Galveston for the weekend and went to Moody Gardens to see the Festival of Lights. They loved it and couldn't believe all of the lights. They didn't even mind walking the mile long trail through the lights. It was fantastic! We'll be going back again.

Just so you can get a scale of the size of the lights, here are the boys next to their favorite ones, the nutcrackers.

I had the boys pose for pictures in their Christmas pj's in front of the tree, planning to use the pictures for our cards, but Daddy didn't want me to send the pictures out in their pj's so we did another shot for our cards instead. Here are the pictures I liked.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was sweet, with all these children to be thankful for. We missed Mimi to the moon and back, but we were thankful for each other.....and for pumpkin pie.

Colton's Baptism

Colton's baptism was such a special day because it was on All Saint's Day. The church honored all of the people who went to heaven this year and lit a candle in honor of Mimi. It was a way for her to be part of the ceremony. Originally after he was born, Mimi said that she was going to join the church the day he was baptized. She was able to join in the hospital when she didn't think she would make it out of the bed again. It was an emotional day, but so wonderful as well. All of our family was surrounding us, and Colton was so good and didn't cry.