We are BACK!

Uncle Eric with all 4 boys!
Aunt Rebecca with they boys, yes she is 30 weeks pregnant!
Boys having fun together.
Ryan and I at the airport ready to leave!
Eric and the boys again.

Ryan and I are back from vacation. The boys are back from a super fun trip playing with their cousins (pictures above are from Rebecca, she would send us updates on our trip). Ryan and I went with my family to Europe (Sweden, Finland, Russia, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Denmark) and the boys went to Eric, Rebecca, Wesley, and Harrison's house. I think the boys had more fun than we did, thats all they talk about now. Eric and Rebecca kept them busy, they even got to go to Vacation Bible School with Wesley and Harrison. As much as I love traveling, I am really glad to be home with my babies, I missed them! I didn't realize how hard it would be until I was driving them to meet Rebecca. I think I cried all the way home after passing them off. It was either that or the SPEEDING ticket I got in OK! Either way, when I got back home, I had released enough sorrow, I was ready to get going on the trip. Our flights were great, and we were on a cruise for 10 days. I think I ate my way through the Baltic Sea. I will try and highlight each city we visited over the next few days. We did take over 600 pictures, so I want to share the goods one with you (not all I promise). We can not thank Eric and Rebecca enought for keeping the boys, we never worried about them because we knew they were in good, loving hands!

VBS

Benjamin sitting listening to his tribe leader. We made a deal that he could wear his baseball outfit to VBS instead of Sunday morning church.
Front of the church - cool scene!One of the "shops" - Fisherman's Hut
Benjamin in the bakery making the bread for his tribe. He was showing Mrs. Karen that he knew how to knead bread!

We LOVE VBS!

Fun on the Fourth and More

Our family participated in the TC Family fun walk, but daddy turned into a family run!
Benjamin lending a helping hand setting up for VBS.
Carter covered in chips at a small airfield where we have lunch and watch the planes!

Wow, July has started and flown by quickly. Where are the days going? We had such a great family day on the 4th. Trophy Club really does a great job of getting the community together. We participated in a walk/run, we had a pancake breakfast at our church, we rode on a float in the parade, and then we had a hot dog lunch by the community pool! After that we headed to Ryan's family to play in the pool with the uncles, aunts, and Vaughn! On our way home, we stopped off at friends house to add more food to our bellies. We made it home just in time to bath the boys and tuck them in bed before the town's firework display. Benjamin is deathly afraid of fireworks, so he had to be asleep before the noise started! To finish off the evening, Ryan and I watch the National Hot Dog eating contest in NY! What sane person wants to eat 66 hotdogs?

We are in the midst of VBS at our church. It is incredible the talent of people and how they can turn nothing into something. I will try and add pictures of the scenes. There has been lots of time preparing for the next 4 days, thank you Paige, Rhonda, and Kelli for your countless energy and hours.

Picture Time

Carter at the Water day at Christ Haven, photo taken by p3!
Ryan "the kid" taking is turn down the water slide.
Bejamin wearing his Ranger shirt and Astros hat. The Biz family. When they came to see Ben (3 weeks old), David gave him the Astros hat.

More Beach Pictures

All of the gang minus Rebecca who was taking the picture. These pictures were from Rebecca, Ryan and I did take our camera, but only managed to take 10 pictures. Darby and Rebecca do a MUCH better job than we do!

I am proud to say we are FEVER free! Benjamin has been running around 104 temp since Wednesday night. We cut our trip early from my parents and headed back to the doctor. We left Carter to keep them separated! I find it interesting that when a child is running 104 for over 48 hours the doctor (after checking blood and urine (a whole different story) ) says, "No medicine needed, it will just run its course." Are you kidding me? Well we did, and finally on Sunday, the fever broke! No Ryan and I always thought that when a child runs a fever, they sleep more. Well, that is not the case for us. The nurse said that when it is that high, they are just miserable and can't do anything. I believe it, we were going on about 3-5 hours of sleep each night, having a newborn I slept more! Carter came back to us on Sunday, and so far he is fever free too! Except he is cutting his bottom molars, YUCK! If your child doesn't have problems ( fever, cranking, etc.) when they are teething, please consider yourself lucky!!!

Even though Wednesday night ended bad with Benjamin throwing up all over me and running a high fever. I had a wonderful birthday. Thanks to my sweet husband for your thoughtfulness. And thanks to my 3 buddies that showed up at 8:30 with my favorite doughnuts for breakfast. You guys are the best!!!

We have a special guy up in Monett, MO that is turning 5 today. Happy Birthday Wesley, we will see you on Monday!!

My Birthday Cake!

The boys looking in awe of my cake.
Up close shot of my birthday cake. If you look close on the left side, you can see where Benjamin swipped through the icing.

Last week out of the blue Benjamin asked, "Mommy, don't you want an Ariel cake for your birthday?" I thought it was adorable, I simply replied, "How did you know." So then the Ariel cake was born. On Saturday, Ryan and the boys went to Marketplace to oder my Ariel cake. Benjamin insisted it had pink icing on it with Ariel in water. Last night when Ryan brought it home, Benjamin could barely sit still under after dinner to have a piece (or maybe that was just to eat the icing). He was so excited about the cake, it was precious.
Why Ariel you ask, several reasons! London (my sister's child) has red curly hair like Ariel, Ariel is London's favorite princess, so it is Benjamin's favorite princess too, and Ariel lives under the sea with all the other fish and that is really cool to Benjamin (plus, we just got back from the beach where Ariel lives in the ocean). We are giong to my mother's tomorrow on my actual birthday, but we celebrated my "family" birthday on Monday night with the boys. I figured I could work a couple of birthday dinners if I started celebrating early! I will not blog for a couple of days due to the fact will be in J-town and my parents still do not have an answering machine so computers are definitely not a priority, so I wanted to tell my mother, "Happy Birthday on Thursday!" You are an awesome example of a loving mother and a Godly woman! I am glad we are spending the day with you, Love you!

Ice Cream Please!

Now this is Ice Cream!
How do you like me now?
This is my Ice Cream face!
Wipe Please!

One thing about my boys, they LOVE ice cream! I thought Carter and I would share an ice cream cone. I think I got 2 bites! And of course, they both wanted chocolate. I am still trying to get it out of Carter's clothes! I love summer because at least once a week, we go for ice cream as a family!

More Beach!

Should I touch this?
Boys holding the catch from the fishing trip!
Carter and Daddy chilling out on the beach!
Vaughn, Carter, Wesley, and Ryan all watching something very closely!
Wesley and Benjamin in the ocean, Harrison surfing!

I wanted everyone to see this picture, that is my SIL (my 6 month prego SIL) helping her sun surf. Rebecca amazes me, she got up most mornings and ran 2-4 miles. Yes, I was sitting back in the house eating and drinking coffee.

Story for the day: I want to vent about how bad my boys slept on the trip! I mean they DIDN'T sleep. My boys usually sleep everywhere and for a very long time. Carter was cutting his molars, and Benjamin just wanted to play with the others. He didn't understand that most NORMAL children were still asleep at 5:30. Oh, yes 1 morning Ben did sleep until 7:30, but he quickly repaid us the next by getting up at 3:30! So at 5:00, we took them down to the beach to play in the sand. So anyone wanting to know what the ocean and sand look like at 5:00 in the morning, it is beautiful! Of course I am NOT a morning person, so I was miserable. Carter is back to his old sleeping self, Benjamin is still somewhat fighting the sleep. Last night we were up from 2:00 on! Crazy little man, I guess he is not like his momma when it comes to sleep!

Beach Bums!

I know it has been several weeks from my last blog, we were on vacations, yea!!! We went with 2 of Ryan's bothers and 1 family friend to Fort Morgan, AL. That is 15 miles west of Gulf Shores. Let me tell ya, white sand, beautiful water! We had a blast. There werew 15 of us, but we never got cramped for space. We stayed in a house with plenty of room. Lots of stories, I will share them throught the week with you.
My story today: Ryan lost his wedding ring on the beach! And yes, he found it the next day! His wedding ring is a little big for him (we have already reduced the size once, we should probably do it again to save this from happening again!) He forgot to leave his ring at the house, so when he got down to the beach, he placed in on the cooler. Our SIL took it and placed it in the cup holder of a chair moving it to higher ground and an area that had walls. Well, at the end of the day Ryan left it in the chair at the beach. I told him 3 times to go back down and get it, his reply, "When we clean up tonight, I will get it." Clean up time and the boys came back, suddenly Ryan realized he didn't get the ring out of the cup holder before they "threw" all the chair into the area under the tent. Several of us went back down to look, a couple with a metal detector helped us for over an hour look, still not luck! We all went up to the house. The next morning, Ryan and his brothers started digging around our area with their hands while we were hanging on the beach, Ryan found it in about 20 minutes, AMAZING!!!! I was thinking instead of that tent he wanted for Father's Day, another ring was first! Anyway, from that day to the end of our trip, Rich (Ryan's brother) was in charge of his ring! Eric (ryan's older brother) lost his wedding ring (and found it) at Doug's (another brother) wedding on the beach.

Crazy Boys!

Benjamin helping me roll out and bake 24 pizza crust for church Wednesday night!
Carter is standing on a toy truck balancing himself!
Carter is our "free spirited" silly boy!

Wow, what a week. Ryan went out of town on Tuesday, this was my first week out of school, plus I cooked dinner at church on Wednesday night. It seems this week has lasted forever! I do have several stories from the boys this week.

Benjamin: He is my little helper, he loves cooking in the kitchen. He pulls the chair to the side of the cabinet and he pretends to cook. On Tuesday, together we rolled out 24 pizza crust and baked them. He thought he was in heaven. He especially like to play with the spatula and act like he is flipping pancake. Today, we were eating lunch on the deck, Benjamin drops a part of his ice cream on the deck. He lays down on the deck and licks the ice cream off the floor. This is before I could do anything! We are starting to potty train or at least acknowledge that there is a potty in the house. He says he wants to go, but then stage fright hits when we step up to the plate. We have a bucket of toys he gets to choose from when he does finally go, and any tips on potty training would definitely help!

Carter: Other than the fact he wants his pacifier in his mouth 24/7, he is growing like crazy. He is starting to say more things. On command from older brother, he will "moo" like a cow. It is pretty funny! He is teething with the bottom molars now, fun times. But I have to say the funniest thing (don't know if it is appropriate for me to think this is funny) happened this week at McDonalds. I took the boys to eat there on Tuesday night when my kitchen was covered in pizza crust and tomato sauce. We had a nice meal and then the boys got down to play. Another family of 4 chidren were there too. The mother went and got ice cream for them, and the kids ate it in the play area. (Side note: okay mom, not the best place when other kids are around to let your kids eat ice cream in the PLAY AREA, at least sit down at the tables) Carter saw it and went following the kids around with his tongue out of his mouth. Finally Benjamin saw it and asked for ice cream, I knew there was no way around not getting ice cream. Plus, ice cream is a great way to end such a delicious meal at Mickey D's! So I put Carter and Ben in the small area to play, checked the counter ( no one there) and took off quickly with my money. I looked back, boys were good and playing. I was gone less then 2 minutes. When I walk back in the room, I find the smallest girl in the ice cream family crying with mom holding her and the ice cream was missing a portion of it. My sweet, precious, innocent little Carter had tackled her, bit her on the arm, and swiped the ice cream! Yes, I said it, my little man went to war for ice cream. This was truly the first time I have ever been embarrased by either of my children. I didn't know what to say. Thank goodness the mother thought it was no big deal. She even made the comment, I don't think he actually bit her, I think he just put his mouth up to her arm. Like I said at the time, I was mortified. On the way home, I started laughing out lous. Leave it to my kid to take another child (smallest girl for that matter) for ice cream!

World's Best Husband

10 Wonderful things Ryan has done for me this past 2 week:

1. Had Merry Maid's come (deep) clean our house for Mother's day.
2. Let me open and wear the earrings I ordered for myself for Mother's day 2 weeks early.
3. Let me sleep in, he got up with the boys (this is my best treat, I hate mornings.)
4. Planned and cooked dinner last night (5/21).
5. Took me shopping at the Harold's outlet this weekend in Austin!
6. Took the family out for ice cream (we love doing this).
7. Met my mother half way to get the boys and I, so we could stay longer at my mother's house (he had to get back to church).
8. He always takes care of mowing the lawn. I don't even have to worry about taking up this task!
9. He let me choose the movie last week from Blockbuster!
10. He cleaned up everything that was on the floor in the bathroom (most of it was his stuff, but he still did it, YEA!)

Finally an update!

First of all, I have forgotten my camera the past 2 weekends when we have done really fun stuff! For Mother's day, we went to Jacksboro for R&R. The boys love going to J-town because they get to see Mum's and Grandad. Grandad is Carter's #1 buddy. He will watch him and then run to him. They boys played in the sandbox and threw rocks and sticks at the shed. Ben calls it throwing the baseballs. London was there to keep everybody in line. The 3 had such a great time. Mums even put pennies in the sandbox. My boys had no interest digging for money, they would rather throw things. London was digging to China trying to find the money. It was great to be with the family over the weekend.

This past weekend, the boys were shipped back to J-town, and Ryan and I went to San Antonio! Ryan earned a trip through his company, the trip was to the Hill Country Hyatt. We had a relaxing time in the country setting. I even had time to lay by the pool for a couple of hours. On Saturday, I went to Austin to see my college friend Ann. (She is the twin that had twims last August if you remember past blogs about her.) The twins are growing, I can't believe how big they are getting. They were so sweet! Ann, send me pictures so I can post them!

We are getting ready for summer. I have 1 day left! This past year has been such a great experience being able to stay home part time. I love teaching and being a mother, this truly has been the perfect job for me! I am looking forward to a fun filled summer with the boys.

Yummy Treat

Bedtime snack

Benjamin and I had a great time on Tuesday night dipping strawberries in chocolate for his daddy. He would run back to the room and say, "Daddy, don't come in here, we are making you a surprise." Ryan had no idea what it could be especially because chocolate was dripping down his face! Benjamin wanted to dip the strawberry and then eat it right then. He didn't like the waiting time and putting them on a plate. Poor little Carter was already in bed, more strawberries for us!

Merriman Camping Trip

Group picture with all the campers!
Group picture in front of the lake.
Aunt (Re)Becca with Benjamin
2 prego's Rebecca on left 16 weeks, Melissa on right 12 weeks! What will they have???

Benjamin is really big into distinguishing if someone is a boy or girl. So I asked him what the 2 aunties were having. He thinks Rebecca is having a girl and Melissa is having a boy. He says, "Mommy, girl in her tummy." I am already getting the boy vibes for Melissa, but I can't get a reading on Rebecca. We will find out in about 3 weeks though. Doug and Melissa are waiting until birth (November), which I think will be exciting too. I don't have any good stories about the camping trip because I didn't go, all I know is both my boys had a great time! I will be looking forward to going next year. Especially because between the 2 new little ones, I can hold a baby the entire time!