Pictures for Pappaw!!

Can't get enough of these baby blues!

 Ethan's first time to play at Jump Zone!

 Brown-eyed cutie!!

 Little climber!

 A little brotherly love....Ethan's just not feeling it! ;)

 Loving his new straw sippy cup! Can we say bye-bye bottle??

 Practicing using a fork! He's getting SO big!!

(and already needing another haircut!)

I guess he has been watching big brother play with the stethescope, he knew just

what to do! :)

Picture-less blog post

Are you ready for this? I haven't taken a picture in over a week. Shocking, I know. I usually take at least 1-2 pictures a day, so that when the mood strikes to blog, I have several pics to post along with whatever I am blogging about. But, for no particular reason, I have no new pictures to share tonight. This may be where I lose the interest of the grandparents, particularly Pappaw ;)

Although I have no pictures to prove it, we have been staying very busy and spending lots of time outside in this gorgeous fall weather. It has just been wonderful! Our windows have been open for 3 weeks and the house stays so cool. Our air conditioner is taking a MUCH needed break after working hard all summer :) It's actually cold in the house in the mornings, and we bundle up in sweats and thick socks until at least lunchtime. Add a few apple pie and pumpkin spice candles, and something simmering in the crockpot almost everyday, and our house is an autumn haven! I wish the weather would stay like this year round, but I will try to enjoy it while it lasts, before the long, hard, cold winter hits!

Our schedule around here has changed up quite a bit too. After 9 months of working weekend days, I am now back to working weekday nights. Talk about a complete 180! I like to keep things interesting I guess :) I work primarily Monday and Wednesday nights and the boys go to Mom's Day Out on Tues and Thurs mornings so I can sleep from about 9-1. I am awake for 26 hour stretches twice a week (7am Mon/Wed morning until 9 am Tues/Thurs morning). And even when I do get to lay down, its just nap until bedtime that night. It is still taking some time, and to be completely honest, an unhealthy amount of caffiene, to adjust to this new lack-of-sleep schedule. The jurys still out, but so far I think its still worth it to have the weekends off and being able to be at home with the boys pretty much everyday. I have considered several other options, but at this point, this schedule allows me the most money for the least amount of time at work, and very minimal time away from my family (they sleep while I work), so I am going to stick with it as long as possible. I am a bit emotionally fragile by the time Thursday evening comes around, but thankfully I have a 4 day weekend to recover before starting the craziness over again. Oh, the things we do for our families!! (And to pay the mortgage) :)

I am very excited about the month of October, we have plans every weekend! I am turning 30 October 8th and my parents are coming to babysit so we can have a night out with friends! I can't wait! Then it's the annual NWA craft fair weekend and mom and I plan to spend the weekend hitting as many as we can! Next we are heading to Mena for Chris to enter a BBQ contest with my dad and to see our families. And finally we are spending the last weekend of October in Branson with my parents. (My parents will definetely be getting their grandbaby "fix" next month!) Then, it will be time to start getting ready for the holidays! Such a fun time of year! I plan to work a couple of weekends in November for Christmas shopping money and am contemplating doing the Black Friday thing this year. I always talk about it but am never actually brave enough to go! I will definetely need someone to go with me and hold my hand!

The boys are doing great and both loving MDO. Ayden's "behavior issues" seem to be a thing of the past and his teachers say he's great in class. I can't tell you what a huge relief that is for us! Ethan is doing well too and making some new baby friends. He still isn't walking, he is perfectly content to stand to play, and crawl to move. It's so funny how different he and Ayden are at this age! I'm sure I'll continue to be intrigued by their differences for years to come :) One thing they for sure have in common, they are happy and affectionate boys! They make their momma smile everyday with their sweetness! Okay, I promise to take pictures this week! Until next time, happy fall ya'll! :)

Video: Peek-a-boo!

Video: Laughing at brother!

Our Love Story: Part Five. Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After :)

We honeymooned in Branson at the Big Cedar Lodge. We had both just turned 20...we weren't even old enough to have a drink on our honeymoon! Three weeks after the wedding, school started back, and I had changed my major-nursing school! I was going to be an RN like my mom. Chris continued on his path in business, while working 40 hours a week to support us and carry health insurance so I could fully devote myself to Westark's challenging nursing program. Our parents were concerned we would start having children right away before finishing college, but we made a promise to them and to ourselves that we would wait. To help settle my (sometimes extreme!) longing for a baby, we got another dog. We decided to get a 2nd Jack Russell Terrier, our little Jack (Jackers). He was nothing like Andy, and we soon realized that Andy was an usually calm JRT. Jack was 100% JRT and then some! He kept things interesting for sure! (pushing out screens and escaping windows to chase other dogs; being prescribed doggie Valium by the vet to take for his nerves, growling when the wind blew a bit too hard... just as a few examples!) My brother had moved out when Chris and I got married, and Chris and I were now proud owners of our first home, a mobile home in what my brother nicknamed "Trailerparkansas". We have a lot of great memories of our time there!! We were very happy, but very busy with school, and had one major focus--to buy a real house without wheels beneath it and start a family! Chris was so supportive of me while I finished nursing school. One night I even called into the Delilah show and dedicated a song to him. Nursing school was just about the most stressful time in my life, and I was so lucky to have such a supportive husband! The first 4 years of our marriage we were both full time college students. We realized that we were taking a less traditional approach to marriage, and it certainly had it's challenges, but it was so nice to curl up next to my husband in bed on the many, many late nights I was up until 3 am studying. I loved having him there by my side. (And he never once complained about my lamp being on half the night, or even when I practiced some of my nursing skills on him!)

Chris and I with our first "babies"

, Summer 2002

Also, me before I had weight loss surgery...yikes :-/

One of my favorite pics of us. May 2006.

After graduating from college, we made our first dream come true and bought our first real house in Greenwood. We were ecstatic! We had a huge fenced backyard for the dogs and 3 bedrooms/2 baths...time for kids!! Ayden Christopher made us parents on August 17th, 2007. We were so in love with our new little man!! Sadly, a year later, our little Jackers died and we mourned the loss of our spirited little dog. In the fall of 2008, Chris was finishing up his MBA and was offered a job with the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville. It was basically his dream come true! We moved to NWA, eventually sold our home, and settled in with our new jobs. When Ayden was about 18 months old, we got another dog, a yellow lab named Gunner. But we still wanted more babies! On September 6th, 2010, God blessed us with another little bundle of joy, Ethan Jeffrey. We were overjoyed to have 2 sweet boys! We were renting a house at the time, and planned to buy a home soon.

Currently, it is September 2011, and I am sitting next to Chris, my best friend and the love of my life, in our dream home that we just bought in June. Our sweet boys are asleep in their rooms upstairs, while Gunner and Andybear (he's almost 11!) snore at our feet. I thank God everyday for the blessings I have right here in this house. I knew what I wanted from a young age, and God blessed me with a wonderful boy-turned- man that would help make all my dreams come true. We have grown up together--made mistakes and lived and learned, and I'm sure we have more to go! But there's no one I would rather make mistakes with...cry with...laugh with....live life with than Chris. I wouldn't go as far as to say we are living in a fairytale, but we are as close as I could have ever dreamed :)

The first thing I bought for our bedroom in our new house, a picture that hangs above our bed, it says,

Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After

Summer 2011
9 years, 2 kids and a Yellow lab later,and  I'm still making us wear matching Old Navy t-shirts :)



Our Love Story: Part Four

Chris and I were a real couple now. We held hands in the hallway and passed notes in class. We went out on a date every weekend, usually to the movies or out to eat, or to one of our houses to watch a movie. My parents really seemed to like him, but they weren't too keen on their 16 year old daughter being so serious about a guy! About 4 months after we started dating, in February, Chris and I said the big L to each other. I was crazy about him and he seemed equally head over heels for me! One morning I got to my locker to find a note full of pink starburst (my fave) taped to the paper in the shape of a heart. What a sweetie! He had gone to the gas station that morning before school and bought like 10 packs of starburst to have enough to make a heart. He was always doing sweet things like that! For Valentine's day, I always got a huge teddy bear and roses. He was definetely a romantic at heart, and I loved that about him!!

Chris and I our Junior year of high school

(this photo was submitted for the "Cutest Couple" contest our school was having)

We dated for the rest of high school, going to both our proms together and arriving hand in hand at graduation. During our senior year, he had bought me a promise ring, and we started picking out names for our future children. We knew we wanted to go to college together, and would eventually like to live in Northwest Arkansas. We wanted to get married after 2 years of college, and wait 5 years to have kids. We have always been planners!

Our first professional photo together...complete with the promise ring (and my Mickey Mouse musical watch) :)

We headed off to Westark College together (now UA Fort Smith) at the tender age of 18 in the fall of 2000, with our majors declared: me-early childhood education and Chris business administration. Chris got an apartment with another guy, and my older brother and I got a mobile home to live in while we went to college. Our freshman year of college proved to be challenging-adjusting to living away from home and being "adults" along with all the changes and (stupid) decisions young adults sometimes make! After some turmoil and disagreement over our future plans, I broke up with Chris after the first semester of college.

Four months apart was more than enough for us both to realize we didn't want to spend another day apart. We reconciled our differences, forgave each other, and were back together again. In May of 2001, while in Mena to see our families, Chris took me out to the pier at a local lake at sunset, got down one knee, and asked me if I would spend the rest of my life as his wife. We both cried, and I started with the wedding plans the next day! We were only 19 years old! I look back and think, wow, people must have thought we were crazy! But to this very day, I have zero regrets about marrying so young. He spent the summer in Texas working for his dad and saving money, and that was very difficult to be so far apart from one another, especially after the breakup! He got me a puppy to keep me company while he was away, our first "baby", a Jack Russell terrier named Andy.

Vacationing at Lake Ouachita the summer we were engaged

I was so glad when he moved back in August when school started back. We were married in a beautiful Christmas wedding ceremony on December 22, 2001.

Can you believe they gave us a marriage license without our parent's permission? ;)

To be continued...

When did he get so big??

I swear it seems like I put my baby to bed one night last week, and found a little boy in the crib the next morning!! He is growing so fast....wasn't Ayden just this age?? I can wish and wish for time to slow down, but I know it won't do any good. All I can do is savor every second with these sweet boys....and believe me, I do. :)

Our little Kickster!

Ayden started soccer in the Bentonville Little Kicksters Soccer league last week. We were so excited that he is finally old enough to play a team sport! It is a beginner league for 3-5 year olds, and basically just teaches the fundamentals of soccer (which is good, because neither Ayden, Chris, or myself know the first thing about the game!). It's also a parent-participation type of league, so Chris gets out there and plays too with all the other kids and dads! Ethan and I enjoy watching and clapping from the sideline :) He will practice every Tuesday and Saturday for the fall session, and then they will start games in the Spring. He seems to really enjoy it so far, and he is catching on really quickly! He does get frustrated if he loses his ball (there are 15-20 kids out there kicking at the same time, I would get frustrated too!) and he is showing signs of being a perfectionist--he wants to do it perfectly or not at all! But with a little encourgement, he picks right back up and plays hard! We are super proud of our little beginner athlete!

Renovating!

Please excuse my messy unorganized blog, I am in the process of a do-it-myself, learn as I go blog makeover!

Our Love Story: Part Three

Riding home from the hospital in Ft.Smith with those roses in my lap almost made me forget that I wasn't going to get to play sports ever again. I couldn't wait to get home and call Chris to thank him. Sometimes when I am feeling mushy and sentimental (like now!), I think about how if I had been discharged home even a few minutes earlier, I would have missed the delivery of the flowers. Fate had intervened! :)

I wasn't able to go back to school for an entire month, so a tutor came to my house and helped me with my assignments. My brother Nick played football with Chris, and one afternoon, he brought Chris home with him after practice. I remember being so excited and nervous when I looked outside and saw him getting out of my brother's truck. What was it about this guy that had me head-over-heels crazy about him for almost 3 years now??!! If I remember correctly, Chris had wanted to see how I was doing, and while I was there, he offered to help me with some homework. I'm pretty sure all we did was flirt and laugh the entire time he was there. Books might have been opened, but the only thing we were studying was each other!!

We continued this casual flirtation for a few weeks but Chris still seemed so nervous and shy and he never did ask me out. I was getting impatient! In October on my 16th birthday, a group of fellow classmates and friends threw me a huge surprise birthday party (everyone was feeling sorry for me being 16 and stuck at home for a month!). I was able to get out of the house and go to a football game that night, and the party was after. I had a wonderful time and was so surprised! As I opened cards and gifts, Chris quietly sat by my side. After the party, he told me Happy Birthday and then left. Nothing.

About a week later, I was released to go back to school and to able to drive!!! That was such a huge deal, after all I was 16 and an independent driver now!! I was still crushing on Chris, but seriously trying to get over him. On October 17th, the football team had an away game in Cedarville. I rode with my parents to watch my brother Nick play. Chris was a starting sophomore lineman on the team. During the game, Chris hurt his ankle and and had to sit out the rest of the game. (He had torn his achilles tendon). After the game, as we were walking back to our van, my mom and Chris' mom were "plotting". They knew we liked one another, and I guess they decided to take matters in their own hands! They decided Chris would be more comfortable riding home in my parent's full-size van so he could stretch out. He needed to sit in the very back so he would have plenty of leg room (He's 6'4"). We had 2 other people riding with us, so where else was I to sit, but in the back with Chris :) I still remember that night like it was yesterday. We sat in the back together and I got cold. He had a Dallas Cowboys throw in his bag (I really don't know why!) and he got it out for me to cover up. He was always so thougtful. On the way home, he reached under the blanket, took my hand in his, and squeezed it tight. He didn't say a word. He didn't have to. His hand said it all. We were a couple again, this time for real. And he had finally made the first move. Cheesy as it sounds, I remember thinking at that very moment, "maybe I am going to marry this guy someday after all!" To this day, we still consider October 17th, 1997 as the official beginning of our relationship :)

Chris and I spent the next couple of weeks having physical therapy "dates" after school, him for his ankle, me for my back. We were a match made in heaven! Ha! Finally we had a real date, he came over to my house to watch a movie with my family. Afterwards, I drove him home (I turned 16 two months before he did). I was so excited because we were going to be all alone and I was hoping for a good-night kiss. As we were leaving my house, he told me his mom had called and asked if we could stop and pick-up his younger brother from his sister's house and drive him home too. I was so disappointed, because I knew that ruined any chance at having our first kiss. We stopped and picked up Josh, and he crawled into the backseat of my little 2 door car. We drove the 10 miles to their house, and when we got there I prepared to just say bye and be on my way. But much to my surprise, Chris got out of the car, told Josh to go in the house, and got back in the car!!! My super-shy boyfriend had decided he was going to kiss me that night! That first kiss was magical, and I floated home on a cloud that night.

To be continued....

Our Love Story: Part Two

Ninth grade was a big year. I was a high-schooler! I was very involved in sports and had slimmed up, got contacts, had a driver's permit and pretty purple Camaro. I also started dating a guy from my grandparent's church. He was older (20) and my parents hated him. We dated for about 5 or 6 months, and then he dumped me, but not before giving me Mono. For real. The summer after 9th grade sucked.

Rewind a bit to the school year. Chris and I had 2 classes together, I still remember. 1st period English and 3rd period Science. Even though I was dating another guy, the butterflies in my stomach every time I saw Chris didn't go away. I know now I basically had a crush on him all year. But I also thought he was just too immature for me and that dating an older guy had to be better, right? But that didn't stop me from saying hi every chance I got and taking any opportunity to flirt with him. I wanted him to see what he was missing. I guess you could say I was playing "hard to get" but the truth is, if he had asked me to go out with him again, I would have dumped mono-boy in a heartbeat and said yes. I really, really liked Chris. I had decided in the 7th grade I was going to marry him someday, and my heart always remembered that.

After an almost 2 month bout with Mono (and missing out on every basketball camp all summer long), I was better just in time for school to start. 10th grade was going to be an awesome year- I was on  the senior varsity basketball and volleyball teams! That was a really big deal to me! I worked hard in pre-season and my coach had already told me that if I kept up the hard work, I would be a starting sophomore on the basketball team! I was on cloud 9! I also had a couple more classes with Chris, and that made me really happy. I asked him to borrow a pencil during the first week of school and "broke the ice". Then I just so happened to choose a seat right next to him in English class. I also found myself taking just a bit longer with my hair and makeup and carefully selecting what I would wear, knowing he was the first person I would see in 2nd period English (Sports was 1st period). Yup, I was still crushing hard! He was always very friendly, but after a few weeks of flirting, he never made a move,so I decided he just wasn't interested and I needed to get over this crush. (I was not making the first move for the 3rd time!)

One morning during volleyball practice, I went down on my knees for a ball and felt the worst pain of my life in my back and legs. I ended up having a major back injury and required emergency surgery to repair the discs and nerves in my back. My surgeon came in the next day and told me I would never be playing sports again. I was absolutely heartbroken. At 15 years old,  sports was my life. I was discharged home from the hospital the following morning, and as the nurse was pushing (a very sad) me out of the room in a wheelchair, I was met at the door with a florist delivering a dozen beautiful pink roses. The card read,

"Get well soon. Love, Chris"

To be continued...

Our Love Story: Part One

I got this really cool idea from my friend Martha's blog, to write about mine and Chris' love story! Since we are coming up on our 10 YEAR wedding anniversary, I thought this would be a great way to reminince and to share some of the less known details of our relationship. When people ask how you met your husband, usually the reply is one sentence: We met in high school, or college, or a blind date, etc. If you are interested in more than just a one sentence answer...here you go!

To go back to my very first memory of Chris (aside from knowing him as a classmate), we will have to go all the back to 6th grade, in the year 1993. I was 12 years old and had recently become boy-crazy (along with most of my friends). Since I was the tallest girl in the 6th grade, I instantly started making mental list of all the boys in school that were taller than me, and believe me, in the 6th grade, most boys hadn't hit their growth spurt yet so the list wasn't very long! Chris was one of the first boys I thought of. I knew him as an "aquaintance" and knew that our parents had gone to church together when we were toddlers, but we really had never spoken. But from what I did know of him, I knew he seemed like a really nice, quiet, sweet guy. And I knew he was really smart and played football, and most importantly, I thought he was cute! Long story short, after gym class one afternoon, I sent a friend of mine ahead to the group of boys walking ahead of us to ask Chris if he would "go" with me. Yeah, you heard it right, I made the first move! (This time anyway ;) Well, he answered quickly, "no, he had a girlfriend" An 8th grader at that!!! I was crushed.

Fast forward one year to 7th grade. By now the boys were getting taller, but I still had my eye on Chris. I heard that he was no longer with his "older woman", so I thought I would try again! I sent another friend to ask him to "go" with me, and this time he said yes! We were "going together" for a few weeks before we actually spoke for the first time. All that "going together" really meant was that we smiled and/or waved when we passed in the hallway, and that we both got butterflies in our stomachs every time we saw each other. Finally Chris got the nerve to ask me to see a movie. We went with a group of friends to see "Dumb and Dumber". 30 seconds before the end of the movie, Chris got up the nerve to hold my hand. It was a great 30 seconds :) We continued "going together" through 7th and 8th grade, breaking up in the summer between for some silly reason I don't even remember. We went to movies, school dances, and had long talks on the phone every night. My parents even let him come over and watch a movie with me. We ordered a pizza and each only ate one slice, we were both SO nervous!! (We still laugh about how hungry we were and both wanted more pizza, but didn't want to look like a pig in front of the other!) He was always so considerate and funny, I just loved being around him. And I really loved him in his football jersey :) But Chris was painfully shy, and after being boyfriend and girlfriend for almost 2 years, he still hadn't kissed me. By the summer before 9th grade, I decided he must not like me very much or he would have kissed me by now, so I broke up with him and "moved on".

To be continued...

New pics!

Ayden and Ethan are forever doing something photo-worthy, at least in my opinion ;) Ethan is our little explorer, all over the house and getting into everything! (And having kicking, screaming FITS when we pick him up and move him away from something he wants!) Ayden sees the camera and drops whatever he is doing to flash me a big grin. I guess you could say he is trained to smile! I am very thankful for the digital age and the blog, I would never be able to keep up with printing all these pics and putting into albums!

Playing with his turtle from Memaw and Pappaw!

 Cheese momma!

A fit ensued shortly after this pic when I didn't let Ethan climb the stairs! ;)

 Showing off all 4 teeth!

 Morning at the park!

 His favorite thing to do is pull all the magnets off the fridge and throw on the floor! :)

Labor Day 2011

Monday we had a great family day right here in our fun little town! The weather was gorgeous and we couldn't wait to get outside! We spent the morning walking the beautiful trail downtown nearby the new Crystal Bridges museum site. We were able to see the museum from a lookout point and it is amazing!! We are so excited for it to open in November, it is going to be a world-class museum, the kind that would be in very large cities, so it's a pretty big deal that it's coming to Bentonville! (Thanks Walmart!) After finishing the trail, we strolled on over to our town square where we had a picnic and then toured the newly remodeled Walmart Visitors Center. Finally we headed to the mall for a little shopping and some frozen yogurt! It was a really fun day and reminded how much I love our town!

Crystal Bridges Trail

 I have no idea what this thing is, it was on the trail...but it's cool looking!

 Views of the awesome museum!

 Picnic on the town square!

 Someone found the pringles!

 Walmart Visitors Center

 Soaking up some more sunshine at the mall

 Ayden finishing every last drop of his fro-yo!

 White shirt+Chocolate Fro-Yo....not the best combo! But he sure is cute! :)