The Party!!!

Ron and Cindy let us have Blake's 2nd birthday party at their home yesterday!!  We are officially homeless so we were thrilled to get to use their pool for a swimming party.  We had a couple of friends and our families and really had a great time!  You will see from the pictures, that a highlight for Blake was certainly the cake!!!  Oh my, did he enjoy that!!!  Happy birthday, my sweet, sweet son!!!

Happy Birthday to The Other Man in My Life!!!

Well, this precious little guy turns 2 tomorrow so we had his picture taken.  He is not so much allowing me to take many pics of him lately, so I turned to good ole Portrait Innovations for the big two year picture.  :-)  Can I just say, he was a total goof ball for the photographer.  It was hard to select pictures at the end! 

Blake's year has been one of the best in my life!  His personality is simply precious.  He is really funny, very sweet, and he is so good-natured.  We have loved watching this phase of his life.  He is my shopping buddy, and the girls' playmate, he is Alan's right-hand man.  We all get such a kick out of him. 
Our favorite things he does right now are:

*he doesn't talk a lot, but he says cookie perfectly every time, that's his favorite food group!
*he loves all trucks, but especially construction vehicles, and as we drive down the road he very excitedly yells at me as he sees them and asks what they are
*he only ever runs, never walks anywhere
*he's almost always in a very good mood
*he still uses a pacifier to sleep (and i have no plans to take it away anytime soon) and has started calling it his peepee (can we say embarrassing!!)
*he spends a lot of time pretend playing with Payton and is a very good little brother, obeying each thing she asks him to do
*he is starting to sit while being read entire books now (that is kinda huge!!)
*he insists on having me sing one round of "rock a bye baby" every night before putting him in his bed
*he adores playing outside, and insists on wearing his Spiderman helmet while he's out
*he is very polite, usually saying please and thank you without even being prompted
*he also now responds to "I love you" with "I love you too"---melt my heart!!!

Blake is most definitely the icing on the cake in our family.  He is an amazing little man and we are all 4 head over heels for him!!!  Happy Birthday, Blake!!!  We are so proud to be called your family!

Happy Easter!!!

We had a very wonderful Easter weekend!  We started off Good Friday by heading out to Lake Conroe to spend time with our family.  Finally, the lake has enough water to get out the jet ski, won't be long until they can get the boat out!!)  ~Last year the lake was not usable!~  So, the girls and Blake got to play on the jet ski, ride in the tube, and do lots of swimming...well Blake didn't swim, but the girls couldn't be pulled from the water!  Then, after spending Friday and Saturday there, we came on back so we could be at church Sunday morning to celebrate Easter at our church.  We finished up our Easter weekend by having a big lunch, fancy dessert, and the first swim of the season in Papa and Grandma's swimming pool!  Good times were had by all!

Blake is lake-ready, don't you think??

 Easter Sunday, the kiddos were kind enough to pose for a few pictures before going in for lunch!

In this picture, my oh so helpful little girls are trying to get their brother to hold hands and look at the camera...he doesn't think he needs their help??  :-)

 Thankfully the grandparents are funny enough to take his mind off the fact that he is NOT happy with these "helpful" girls!  :-)

 The pose here is NOT my idea!!!  They want you all to believe that they are angelic, loving sisters!

 They are certainly pretty enough to convince you of this!!  ;-)

 Papa and Grandma and their babies!!!

 Blake's first egg hunt was fabulous!  He loved getting to hunt down the "nummy nummies" and eat as much as he wanted!  He would shake each egg before committing to it.  If it rattled (b/c it had jelly beans in it) he would keep it, open it, and eat it.  If it didn't rattle (b/c it had packaged candy in it) he would put it back down!  Hilarious!

 Notice how full his cheeks are, while looking for more candy!

 Jelly beans are Nummy, Nummy!!!

 Because this was Blake's first time to hunt eggs, and because torchering our girls is entertaining, we let Blake get a head-start hunting eggs!  We made the girls stand and wait on him to get the hang of this egg hunting business.  They were NOT happy!  They complained and griped and huffed and puffed!  As if this little guy was going to get all 6000 eggs that we hid!!!  Oh my, I think a lesson on being selfless might be in order!  Look at the faces on these two!  Before you feel bad for them, it should be noted that Blake gathered about 6 or 7 eggs, and the girls each had to put their baskets that were overflowing aside in order to get more eggs without spilling all theirs out!  They are not mistreated, I will assure you!  (Well, if Alan and I end up eating all of the good candy, they might earn a little sympathy from you!!)  :-)

 She's a pretty little thing!

 And so is this one!

Pool time was pretty great too!!  We are loving the beautiful weather lately!!!

Our Home Selling Adventures

Well, we are making some pretty big changes around our house...in fact, we are changing our house!  :)  We put our house on the market in February and after 48 showings and a few offers (3 yesterday alone) we have finally, by the grace of God alone, sold our house!!!!  Hooray!!!  Do you know how difficult it is to remain "show-ready" with 3 children in tow??  Its tiring, I will tell you!  And, it was quite nerve-wracking because we obviously had to sell our current home before closing on our new home.  I just love how you can rest in the comfort of knowing that God is in control.  We did our very best not to worry, though it did creep in from time to time.  It is amazing to know that God cares about the little unimportant details in our lives like selling a perfectly beautiful home to move to another home.  His favor in our lives is completely undeserved, but I am so hugely thankful! Our beautiful home that we have been in for almost 4 years, is SOLD!! 

We signed a contract to build another home in Fairfield in February as well.  We love this neighborhood, and the great schools here.  So, we found the perfect lot and started a new construction.  Last Tuesday the foundation was poured for our new home, and today, a week later, it looks like this!!!!!  You would not believe how fast this all happens!  It is mind blowing to see the progress from one day to the next.  Anyway, we are all so super excited about this new adventure!  We are hoping to stay in this one until the kiddos graduate, at least!  :-)

This is just a pic I snapped of Blake at the Stovall's on one of our "Friday nights."  He's in the big boy swing!!

One thing we have really enjoyed doing this spring is bike riding!  Alan and the girls ride their bikes, and I jog along pushing Blake in his stroller...until now!!  Alan got him a seat for the bike and he gets to ride in style now!  He LOVES it!!!  He begs to go every night!

We like to stop at a playground and let them play!  My very own monkey!

 So, Blake thinks he is big enough to climb up this very tall slide on his own...we sent his sister up behind him, just in case!

Monkey 2!  Look at that tongue hanging out...silly girl!

 So when we first started playing back outside again after our "winter" ended, Blake took over the girls PRINCESS bike helmets.  He would tackle them to the ground to get it if they were wearing them.  After a few days of our BOY walking around the neighborhood in a princess helmet, we decided he needed his own manly one.  We gave it to him and he absolutely WILL NOT play outside without it now!!!  But, by the looks of things, he's now gonna need a manly skateboard!  :)  Life for a boy with 2 big sisters!!!

 During one of our Saturdays with multiple showings, we went to the mall and the girls convinced Alan that they just had to have these sunglasses!  Don't they look hip!?!

 I love watching this little boy play!

 Maci brought this story she had written home from school the other day.  I thought it was too perfect not to share!  It blows my mind how they both still remember our Jamaica vacation like it was yesterday.  She was only 4 and Payton was almost 2.  I just loved this!