thumb sucker... no more!!!

kaden has been sucking his thumb since he was about 3 months old. at the same time getting attached to his thumb, he also become obsessed with tags. he would suck his thumb and rub the "tag" under his nose anytime he was upset or tired. the first tag he had was a blue bunny then i made a couple of "taggys" for him - material sown together with soft ribbon all around. he eventually lost all of those and his tags then were out of his underware (clean, of courese!), shirts, my slips, whatever he could find that was the soft feel and not "crusty." he was very picky about his tags.

he is starting pre-k in just a few short weeks and turning 5 in september, so we told him a process was going to begin after we got back from the nationals trip with the youth the first week in august. we have been warning him because he knew this was going to be a HUGE deal for him to give it up.

little did we know... while down in texas and on the last night we were there something AMAZING would happen! i was driving with brock, kaden and trinity and caught only bits and pieces of their conversation. trinity was telling kaden that becuase he sucked his thumb his teeth would stick out and that he was going to have to get braces. he was very upset! over the next couple of days he would remind me of what his cousin had told him and i would say she is right. and he would say, "but i need my thumb" and "i miss my thumb."

well, its been 2 weeks and he was not sucked his thumb. i have caught him out of habit at night, but nothing during the day. the cute and funny thing is when he will see somthing silky he will just rub it all over his face, but there is no thumbing sucking.

we have a chart on the fridge and for every day of no sucking he gets a star. on day 7 he got a milkshake and on day 21 he will get a BIG toy. i know he is going to make it. i am very proud of kaden and so thankful for trinity!!!

kaden at 6 months old...


the blue bunny / the first tag...



trinity... thank you for making our job ALOT easier... we owe you! we love you!

date night

with chad's busy schedule this summer we haven't had time to "date". his mom insisted we go out and she would keep the boys.
so just the two of us heading to one of our favorite eating spots and a movie. great fun! neither one of us are huge movie people for several reasons but alot of people had told us how funny "get smart" was and so we thought we would give it try. and they were right... sooo funny!

texas size fun

we have been home a week now from our visit to texas, but we had no internet so i could not post any pictures until now.

grammy and pops just got a new scooter and everyone loved riding it... esp the older boys! (ha - lance and michael!!!)



we went swimming several times everyday.


brock was being very brave and he actually jumped off the driving board to uncle michael.


we went to the water park... twice. once with all the cousins and then later in the week with just grammy and pops. kaden was so excited that he was tall enough to go on all the rides.




brock loved wearing these goggles - not sure why. maybe because all the older cousins and his brother wore them everytime we went swimming. i think they make for some cute pictures!!!



nap time.... pop's favorite thing to do!!!



thanks mom and dad for a wonderful week! the week went by way to fast! thanks for being such a great grammy and pops to the boys! we love you very much!!!

bye bye edmond... hello texas

chad left yesterday... again! he will be gone for 8 days on a missions trip to a indian reservation in new mexico. so, instead of me being a single mother another week, me and the boys headed down to texas to spend the week with my parents and all my family that live there. its going to be a great week... full of cousins, swimming, good food, water park, shopping, more cousins and the best snow cones in the world are just 7 miles from my parents house. i will be back in a week with LOTS of pictures from our stay in the state of texas!

i'm out

addictive...

i have never thought i was addictive to anything in life until this week... THE INTERNET! we are changing companies and so its been cut off for 2 days now. i hate it! on my phone i can check my email only. i haven't figured out the rest - i just got it this past weekend. anyways, i like having the bigger monitor to look at instead of the tiny one on my phone and those tiny buttons to push get on my nervous. they need to make a big button phone for people with big fingers. ha
has anybody else discovered that they love the internet just as much as me???
i'm not in this boat alone, am i???

something to brag about

for as long as i have been going to youth camp with our students (7 years) i have never had to go thru MUD MOUNTAIN. it is the most loved event of all the activities we do while at camp. this year, though a couple of the girls had medical problems and could not. this left us one short, so i jumped in. i took the chicken in my left hand and held my other 2 teammates hands and we were off. sprinting down and around the tree. then there is the first mountain. i am half way up and without seeing the person a bucket of mud in thrown in my direction. he had very good aim! i was shocked but focused on getting over. i slide down and start to climb the second mountain. my foot gets stuck. i almost lose a shoe. i can only see out one eye but again i'm staying focused on getting over. once i slide down and slip a couple of times trying to stand i realize that i'm waiting on my teammates. ME, A 31 YEAR OLD, MOTHER OF 2, FIRST TIME EVER DOING MUD MOUNTAIN FINISHED BEFORE 5 OTHER TEENAGERS!!!!!! i am proud of this accomplishment! crazy to think that getting so muddy is fun but i hope that i get to do it again next year! chad was a sweet guy and let me use his shirt so i could see again. the only bad part about this whole mud mountain thing - you have to clean off in the smelly creek.

welcome to our world!

CHAD /// the person who had the dream & high hopes 8 years ago that i would fall in love with him during our college days. what was i thinking to say no the first 2 times?!?! he is so wonderful, funny, inspiring, encouraging, smart, creative, an amazing father, do i need to go on??? life is great because he is in my life! oh and i should mention that his side job is modeling!!!








KADEN /// our first sweet baby. he is all about sports - any & every one. he is a leader in his classes at school & church. he loves to make-up songs & then sing them at the top of his lungs. he always has a million questions. he gives great hugs. he has an amazing memory. he's a great big brother - brock is actually a walk around "tag" for him. when there is nothing soft close by kaden will rub on brock's ears.





BROCK /// our second sweet baby & a mama's boy! he plays well by himself. he is my little helper around the house. he looks up to kaden & tries to do everything that he does. he has the cutest dimples when he smiles. already at the young age of one he is really funny. he can always make us laugh. seeing him every morning always starts my day off great.


i love the 3 boys in my life ~ i am truly blessed!