One Tooth Down!

It's gone! Notice his big tooth growing behind...weird.

Very happy little boy...now that the bleeding stopped!

Last night Reese "allowed":) Greg to pull his tooth FINALLY! Oh geez it's been crazy watching this whole process.... let me explain.
When Reese was just a baby about 4 months old he started teething his first tooth which began a LONG painful journey for Reese. Sadly he doesn't teeth like other kids (well like the majority of other kids) When he has a tooth come in before is breaks through the surface he develops a blood blister of sorts and it begins to form a hard callous thus making it almost impossible and VERY painful for the tooth to break through. Well he teethed 7 teeth like this and it made for a terrible teething experience for everyone involved:/ (our household/Reese being kept awake for nights on end until those suckers broke through) One time we even had to take him to the Dentist and they almost had to slit his gum open to help the process along...yikes it gives me the hibby gibbys even thinking about it!!! Well he now has all his baby teeth and I was so dreading the next teething cycle when his big teeth came in. Thankfully no blisters have formed yet (and hopefully NEVER) but the Dentist told me to be on the look out and bring him in asap if one forms. Teething his grown up teeth can be even more painful if blisters form!
He did have a weird thing happen this time though. His big teeth have already grown in BEHIND his baby teeth before they fell out? Weird right? Well I have come to the conclusion that my sweet boy takes after me...we are both weird! ha! You can't predict our next move but you can always guarantee it's gonna be an adventure:)
Yay for you Reese...way to lose your teeth with style!

~Here's a funny video of me and Abby trying to pull out his tooth.
Later that same day Greg was successful and after much blood and few tears Reese was a happy camper!
*Oh I forgot to tell the tooth fairy story.
Ok well Greg and I both really stink at remembering that WE are actually the tooth fairy. It never fails we both forget to take the tooth and leave the money...oops!:/ Well last night we did indeed forget again and I had to scramble to find a dollar this morning and had to tell Reese (after slipping the dollar under the pillow when he was already awake) that the tooth fairy must have left the tooth (because I couldn't grab it before he did) for Mommy because she knew I would want it? Ha! I guess he bought it? I gotta be honest I am NOT a fan of these imaginary people, like the tooth fairy and Santa, and was happy when Reese said, "Mommy, I think that Jesus is actually my tooth fairy!" I said, "Well Reese just remember He is the only one that we need to count on because He's real!"
I hope he read between the lines...because it took everything in me to not rat on that fake tooth fairy!!!:)

Apple Pie!

A few days back Abby and Reese picked some apples off of Charlie and Landry's apple tree. They have been asking to make an apple pie for awhile now and today we finally had some time to get one made. I must say I am pretty proud of how it turned out! I used a recipe from a dear family friend of ours, George Graham, it is the best Brown Sugar-Honey Apple pie EVER! I will have to get permission to post the recipe on here so let me check and if I can I will share it with you...it's delicious!

p.s. we had apple pie for dinner:)

Reese our Missionary!

This is the picture we have on our refrigerator so we will remember to pray for Reese everyday!


This is Reese's first year of kindergarten and just like they did with Abby and Charlie Maw Maw and Poppa had a "commissioning" prayer time for Reese to send him off to his new mission field--PUBLIC SCHOOL! We all (our family and Greg's brother's family and Grandma Reese) got together to pray for him as he goes off to school. It was a sweet time together and I know Reese really enjoyed the time focused on him. He is very excited to tell his new friends about Jesus and today he came home and told me he asked his friend if he went to church. Pretty cool!
I love that our family sees the importance of prayer and that we all have the same purpose for our kids....to know Christ and make Him known in everything we do!

First Day of School!!! First Day of School!!

Ready for school!

Daddy's so proud:)

My sweet 2nd grader

Walking into school

Reese walking into class

putting his bag away--he knew just what to do--Abby told him;)

Figuring out how things work each morning

So proud/sad to see him go but so happy for this new chapter in his life

Abby walking to her class

good-bye kisses

"ok, mom enough already!" :) haha!

Reese is all smiles at pick-up....he LOVED it!

The kids had a great first day of school! This is Reese's first day in Kindergarten so not only was it a big day for him but it was a big day for me. I can't believe I have been a stay-at-home Mom for 8 years! It has been a great adventure and I won't trade it for anything but I am definitely ready for a new chapter in my life. I truely feel like a new "expanded" ministry begins for me. I love to invest in young womans lives and this is just gonna give me so much more time to minister and disciple which makes me so excited. Bring it on Lord, I'm available!
I wasn't super sad today surprisingly, I was actually more excited to see what the Lord will do from here. He is so good to always be working and using everyday life to dramatically change lives and draw people close to Him. I am excited that the kids get to meet other kids and get to share the love of Christ with them. I wait expectantly to see what will happen but I am confident it will be amazing!

I pray that the kids love school and that they will learn to see blessings even in the mundane of life (aka 13 years of schooling;) I know for me school was kind of a beating but as I look back now it modeled me into the woman I am today, weather good or bad I learned to make decisions, resist temptation, follow directions:) thus training me to be a follower of Christ--who knew school was so beneficial in our spiritual life??:)

Ok, I didn't mention Abby yet:) She is starting 2nd grade and wasn't as excited as Reese sadly. I think she's caught on that the bigger the number the more the work....she's a smart cookie:) I am a bit concerned for her with school. She doesn't like it much and really doesn't like change so each year/day is tough for her. My prayer is that she embraces the change sees the good in it and has joy no matter whats she doing! If you think of her please pray the same....it would be much appreciated--thanks!

MONKEYS!!

While we were in Honduras we got to go visit some monkeys at a nearby "monkey farm", if you will:) Ok let me explain.
This was not an excursion that the boat offered:) Greg decided we would check around and see what was the best thing to do in Honduras and he kept reading about the monkeys! Ends up this driving service there on the island is owned by a man that has a bunch of monkeys at his house and if you hire one of his drivers for the day then you can come see the monkeys and play with them as much as you want! Crazy right? Well it ended up being the most amazing experience of the trip! The monkeys were so adorable! We liked the baby monkeys the most and in the video you will see why! One of the big monkeys bit Abby's ear! Don't worry though he didn't break the skin just "nibbled" on it a bit:( She wanted to get out of the cage fast! After that incident we went back to play with the baby monkeys again and Reese got to hold two 3-month monkeys....we were scheming on how to take one home:)
Well check out the pictures and the videos...it was a blast and if you are ever in Honduras look up Victor Bodden-the man with the monkeys:)

View from the west side of the island....it was beautiful!!

holding Tiko for the first time!

too funny..these guys were NUTS!

they would wrap their tails around you neck and their little hands were like Velcro and looked just like human hands...it was a really weird feeling as they climbed up your arm!

these monkeys LOVED Greg:) They kept jumping down onto his head...hilarious!

This little guy just hungout on my arm like that for quite awhile! His name is Tiko--our favorite!

These big guys creep/scared us...VERY aggressive! It didn't help that a week before we left for our trip I heard about a lady getting her face ripped of by a monkey...yikes! Thank goodness we all returned with our faces!:/

That is not a two headed monkey:) It's two baby monkeys hugging each other....the most adorable thing in the world!

Abby and Tiko---she loved this guy!

Sleepover Mayham!

*THIS POST IS NOT CRUISE RELATED* ~just thought I would clarify:)

Tonight Abby and Reese got to ask a friend over to spend the night. Abby asked her lifelong (since are SO old:) friend Hailey and Reese asked Brayden his friend from Angel Land (preschool). Brayden had never spent the night away from home so he just stayed until bedtime, thankfully Reese was tired and ok with that:) They had a full night of festivities planned and I wasn't sure we could fit them all in! We sure tried and I sure tried to stay on my toes:) Here are some pictures of the night....enjoy!

Kids Dinner~
The kids picked hot dogs, mac and cheese, watermelon and Doritos....dinner of champions:)

Greg working on the tent. The kids tried but then decided they needed a little help from Greg:)

Ready for the movie--Return to Neverland (Peter Pan is still cool apparently:)
Notice the fans...it is so hot here today that we are keeping a fan near by! I am ready for Fall!!!!

Brayden and Reese

Abby and Hailey

When the girls were 4 years old (remember they are lifelong friends:) -they actually have been friends since birth) anyways they drew this picture together way back then and decided to decorate their tent with it...very cute! ~I was surprised Abby kept it all this time!

Good night....yes, Misty and Shane we got the girls to bed by 10pm--we're rock stars we know:) haha!

Snorkeling in Honduras

Another family favorite (besides food:)) on the Cruise was snorkeling in Honduras. The water was super clear and seriously beyond description. I got an underwater camera before we left hoping to capture the beauty but sadly the colors are muted terribly:( So just imagine the most vibrant colors in these pictures and you will at least get a taste of what we experienced!
So we weren't sure if the kids would like or be able to snorkel so a few months back we bought them their own snorkeling gear to practice. They practiced a few times but it really didn't seem to take... we were a bit nervous they might hate it! Well at least Abby, Greg and I liked it:) She was in heaven. She would live in an aquarium if she could so you can imagine her excitement. Now Reese was not so into it. He can swim great but he kept sucking in salt water and kept having to come up for air. He cried a few times but then just headed to shore and hung out there and watched us. Thankfully the guy working there at Half Moon Bay was kind enough to put Reese in a canoe and bring him out to where where we were exploring...it was perfect! We ended up snorkeling for over 2 hours and the only thing that stopped us was our growling bellies!
Like I said I really wish these pictures were better but at least we got some to remember the great time we had!
We snorkeled again in Cozumel but there was no comparison--Honduras was far better but we all still enjoyed the adventure. We all plan on snorkeling again in the future and hope to all get certified to scuba dive one day....wouldn't that be the best family activity EVER???:) Next will be sky diving...haha!


Getting ready to go for a swim...Reese wasn't having it!

Abby took this picture. Not too clear but you can see the fish if you look close

Ready to go!

Love this picture...we had so much fun!

Abby and Reese and Greg in the back ground:)

Me in action...so fun!

Ok so imagine with me here. Notice those BRIGHT blue fish. There were over a thousand and I am serious...it was crazy cool! I was able to follow them around for a long time and even reach out and touch them! We will never forget it!

Our memory of Reese --ABOVE the water:( poor guy maybe next time he'll like it!

Abby exploring her brains out--ha! Right after this she saw a sting ray and she freaked out! She swam to the surface and jumped in Reese's boat, Reese was happy to have a friend:) Greg and I didn't go for the boat...we went looking for the sting ray! :) We never saw him:(

Greg took this of me as I was chasing after that school of fish

Where do I begin??

We just got back from a vacation....
Oh geez this is always so hard and I feel so much pressure to recap all that happens when we are on vacation! I want to do it justice, I mean, I really want to capture everything but when I look over the millions of pictures we took I get a little overwhelmed:/

Well after thinking about it ALL day I have decided to retell the story over a series of posts. As I feel inspired and get the time;) I will do my best to tell you all how much fun we had!

Well first I could tell you where we went-ha! The four of us took a 7-day cruise to Honduras, Belize and Cozumel. We were all so ready for a vacation. Greg has been crazy stressed at work and has been working on his masters so life around here is NUTS! The night before we left Greg finished his last final so he was ready to go by the skin of his teeth!

We departed out of New Orleans so we had a long 10 hour drive on Friday so we were ready to board the ship on Saturday. The drive was super easy since we drive that same distance to KC a few times a year...thank you Granny and Papa for living so far away so we had the practice;)
We had a couple days at sea before we reached Belize so I think I will dedicate this first blog to the most popular thing on a cruise...THE FOOD!
Oh man did we eat. I at least tried to eat good and worked out pretty often and still gained over 5 pounds...yikes! Greg gained about 10 and we are both paying for it this week:( ~it was worth it though! The kids and Greg were in heaven....food heaven:) Greg is adamant about the kids trying all foods so wow were our kids cultured this past week. They both ate duck, escargot, mussels, sushi, scallops, lobster, steak (which they love and didn't protest:) rack of lamb, mahi mahi and several other different types of fish.
The really actually liked it all even the mussels which I would NOT try...sorry I have texture issues and I knew I would throw-up on the table! Reese said the mussels tasted like burnt macaroni--hum, not sure if that's true but it was funny none the less:) Greg did have to bribe the kids to eat the mussels---he bought them a coke:)
The desserts were my personal favorite. I would forgo dinner any day for a chocolate melting cake! I would say my favorite and all of us for that matter was the chocolate melting cake. It was basically brownie batter barely baked with ice cream..bliss!
One night the waiter filled our table with ALL of the desserts on the menu. So we had 7 desserts to share between the 4 of us. NO we didn't finish them all but we gave it the ol' college try:) Reese was satisfied with orange sherbet every night but Abby could put away a chocolate melting cake by herself---she's crazy!
Even though we enjoyed eating for those 7 days we are were all ready to get back to our normal routine. You can only maintain that amount of calorie intake for so long:) Enjoy the pics!

Abby and Daddy ready to eat

We are ready too!:)

Every night after dinner I got a cup of coffee....trying to soothe my bulging tummy:)

Greg took this picture of Reese through the dinner glasses...cool shot I thought.

Trying duck...do we like it??

She cleared her plate and asked for more the next night! Success!

Eating Beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans

This is where we ate every night

Anyone seen the desserts?? Wow, a bit overboard I'd say:)

I wish I could say I abstained but I didn't...I had a great tiramisu---my favorite to date!