14 years of wedded bliss!!

Today we celebrate 14 years of marriage together!  It's been, by far, the best 14 years of my life!  I love every day I get with Chris, he is my favorite person in the whole world.  We have spent the last 14 years building our lives together and building our family and every year has been a new adventure.  I wouldn't trade one day of it for anything!  I know God has us right where He wants us and I like being there!  I'm totally looking forward to seeing what new things we get to do and see and experience in the next year!

As we have built our family, one of my greatest joys has been seeing Chris be a father to our 4 children.  He is selfless, loving, fun and caring.  Our children are blessed to have him.  I can't wait to see how we grow together as parents when we meet the new challenge of parenting an adopted child.  I know Chris is going to be amazing, because he already is!!

I love you sweetie, here's to 14 more!

Celebrating 7 years of Preston

We had a busy and fun  few days of celebrating Preston's birthday this year.  He is a boy worth celebrating!!

First up was the "grandparent party" as our kids call it.  We invite our in-town (or close to in-town) family over and have cake and ice cream and open gifts and just visit.  It's usually a relaxing afternoon and the kids love it!

Two days later, Preston invited a couple of friends over for his "friend party".  We always give the kids the choice of having a bunch of friends over for a couple of hours and doing a party at the house, or inviting one or two friends and doing something bigger.  There are pros and cons to each, and it's interesting to see what each kid picks.  This year, Preston picked the latter, which I think was a good choice for him.  He chose one friend from church and his best friend from school.  Preston chose to go to a local park that has a creek and "build a dam", go to dinner at The Rock, his favorite, have ice cream sundaes for dessert and watch The Lego Movie.  I think he had a great time!!

Not sure what was so funny here - something about burping!

On Preston's actual birthday, he had VBS in the morning.  We started off the day with chocolate chip scones (his request) and presents.  We got him a new basketball and a new Bible cover.  He loved both!!  After VBS Chris, Preston and Logan went for a bike ride to the park to feed the ducks and then got Slurpees!  After that, we had birthday cake.  We had asked Preston that morning what his perfect cake would be and he said "vanilla ice cream topped with crushed up oreos and whipped cream" and would you believe it? we found that exact cake at King Soopers!!  He was so happy, and it was delicious.  After cake and singing, we finished off the night with dinner at Cici's because "they have olives".

 

Can't believe this guy is already 7!!  Time is flying!

Little housekeeper

Ashten is really into helping me clean lately.  I am having to learn how to involve her more because I'm more of a do-it-myself-so-it-gets-done-quickly type of person.  But it's good for her to learn and I definitely want to take advantage of her willingness to help while it's still there.  One day I was busy making dinner and I came downstairs to find her "vacuuming" the stairs!  Such a sweet helper!

The day we had to break Logan's heart

Chris left for out of town on May 31st for a week of AP test grading.  This is the 3rd year he has done it and while it is really hard when he's gone, the extra money has been really nice as we save for our adoption!

That same day Chris left, Logan went to a friend's birthday party.  This friend's cat just happened to have had kittens 4 weeks prior and, if you know anything about Logan, you know that he was drawn to those kittens like a moth to a flame.  In fact, when I picked Logan up from the party, the friend's mom said Logan spent almost the whole time that wasn't party stuff down there.  Haha, yep, that sounds exactly like my Logan.

So we get home and all he can talk about is how much he wants that kitten.  He had one picked out, a black and white male that he named Oreo.  Yep, he had already named it, oy!  He said the reason he liked that one is because it wasn't comfortable with anyone else, but it just snuggled with him and fell asleep in his lap.  He begged and begged and begged all night.  I tried reasoning with him, telling him that our dog hates cats, that we had cats before and it ended badly for them, that we are going on vacation for awhile this summer and won't be home to train and take care of a cat, etc, but none of those reasons were good enough for Logan.  He was completely sold.  He went to bed crying because I didn't say yes right away.  Right before bed he wrote me this note:

Ouch!  So this whole time Chris is still out of town, so I kind of had an out in that I can say "Dad and I will have to talk when he gets home".  If I have to say no and break his heart, I am going to need support because I knew it would crush him.  Thankfully, Chris and I were on the same page about not getting the cat, though we hadn't broken the news to him yet.  We never said yes nor gave him any impression that we would, but I think he was just so excited, he didn't think we would say no.  He even checked out books at the library about how to bond with a new kitten and how to take care of one and stuff.

So, Chris came home and it was finally time to face the music.  I was dreading talking to Logan about this because I knew his heart would be broken.  Logan has a very tender heart, which is a very good thing, but it also breaks that much harder when he gets disappointed.  I knew this would be a huge disappointment for him, probably the worst one of his life so far.

We sat him down and talked to him and yes, it was hard.  Logan cried, I was trying my hardest to hold it together and it was all around hard.  He loves animals and God created him with such a compassion for other people and animals, and I totally get that, but we just didn't really see how we could take on another thing right now in our lives.  Poor guy, I sure hope he knows we still love him and that this was nothing against him!

Chris kind of made a compromise deal with him that we might could get a hamster or something.  I'm not really in the mood to do that either, so we'll see.

Super 7!

Preston turns 7 today!  I can't believe our youngest son is 7, that's crazy!!  He's all boy, we love him so much!!  Preston is our most aggressive and competitive and athletic, but he's also the mostly cuddly and sweet when the mood strikes him.  He will come up and slug one of his brothers for no reason and totally unprovoked, but he will also come and give the biggest hugs for no reason too.  Preston is very introverted, the most so out of all the boys.  He is very quiet and internally processes everything.  When Preston speaks up with a comment, you better listen because it is usually something he has been thinking about for awhile and it is usually pretty profound!   It has been a joy watching him grow this past year because the older he gets, the more we see his unique personality come out!

Preston is a joy to have in our family, he really is a gift from God!  We love you so much buddy, can't wait to see what this next year holds for you!

Scottsbluff hike

On the day of my sister's wedding, while Ashten and I were busy with all the girls getting ready, Chris and the boys were busy having their own kind of fun!  I think they swam in the hotel pool 2-3 times that day and got to have lunch at McDonalds!  My dad and Chris also took them on a hike on Saddle Rock in Scottsbluff.  They had a great time!

Brayden's school awards

Brayden had a really good year in 5th grade this year.  Besides the bullies from last year being gone, Brayden seemed to enjoy the subjects and things he was learning this year much more.  He excelled in math, he jumped up to 6th grade math pretty early on in the year.  He loved learning about the Revolutionary War and his teacher was great, which probably made the biggest difference.

The last week of school, Brayden had an awards ceremony at school and he earned 3 awards: Honor Roll, Exceptional Student in Art and Exceptional Student in Music.  We are so proud of him for applying himself and doing so well this year!

Playing outdoors

I love it when the weather gets nice enough I can just send the kids outside (or they go voluntarily).  It makes the house so much more quiet, though I can't say the same for the neighborhood!

Whether they are outside playing sports, playing in the sandbox or just finding a quiet spot to be alone and read, the times when they can be outside are so much better for everyone!

Playing dollhouse

Aren't big brothers so great when they play girly things with their little sisters?  They probably played this together for over an hour, they had so much fun!

Dancing with Cinderella

In anticipation of my sister's wedding, Ashten was so excited to get to dance, especially dance with Daddy.  And Daddy did not disappoint!!

It was so adorable to see them out there dancing together, I couldn't help but picture them together at Ashten's wedding having their father/daughter dance.  Thanks sweetie, for totally making her day, she still talks about it all the time!