It's been 8 and it's been great!

Happy 8th Anniversary to Us!

Thank you Jesus for the legacy of long standing marriages you have given us. I am so grateful to have the example of our grandparents (both sets of mine and at least one of Chad's) who because of their faith in God made it to or past 50 years. In addition to our grandparents, Chad's mom and dad were a week shy of celebrating 21 years of marriage when his mom passed away and my mom and dad were 5 months shy of celebrating 20 years of marriage when my mom passed.

It is encouraging to look at the family who went before us and know that God is good and is good at sustaining marriages! So we may have quite a few years to catch up to those who went before us but I know that through the good and the bad we have a good God who is glorified when our marriage reflects him. I pray that the love Christ has for his church and his church has for him would shine through the love Chad and I have for each other!

8 years ago we said, "I do, with the help of God."

All dressed up (and running at least 30 minutes behind schedule - I had to keep telling myself I did this to myself when I married him) to eat out at Peli Peli. We loved the food! We didn't get to eat all the food due to us being 30 minutes later than expected in arrival and prom and they put shellfish on my plate (and I wasn't in the mood to die)...but they took care of us and sent us away with dessert in a to to box and and ticket price greatly reduced :)

We saw the NEWSIES!!!!!! Yes I do know that I just yelled NEWSIES by typing in all caps but it deserves yelling as it is probably my favorite musical ever. 

Angry Bees and Angry...

...me. 

Yesterday our neighbors provided us with at least an hour of entertainment. They had honey bees in the corner of their house which we have a perfect view of from the kitchen and dining area. So the boys watched as "the worker men" pulled off house siding, vacuumed bees and pulled out honey comb. It was all very exciting. 

Not so exciting was me forgetting they were told that some bees would still be around and angry so avoid the area. Of course I would let the boys pull up mushrooms from my veggie garden for money and the angry bees attacked Jude. He got stung at least twice. Both times in the face. Poor guy. On his eyebrow and the second sting was his eyelid. Fortunately he does not appear to be allergic and an application of lavender oil and ice packs brought most of the swelling down and pain relieved. He does look like he's got a black eye. 

But those angry bees made me think of my behavior. On the attack all because they were disturbed...

I don't know why I persist but I do. I am reading a novel again. This isn't much cause for concern for most people but for me when I start a good story I can't seem to put it down until it is finished (and then I wish it wasn't finished because it was so wonderful). But I really must not read durning the day because I am easily frustrated if I am disturbed. And with three littles disturbance is a state of being around here. 

So despite telling myself I would only read after the boys are in bed I gave into my desire and read. And I was disturbed and was an angry momma. 

Thus followed asking forgiveness from God and my children. 

It sucks to mess up and when I do I want to torment myself and throw a pity party but thankfully Jesus has been teaching me it's ok if I mess up. He's got it. He will pick up the pieces and if I rely on him he can help me not mess up in the same stupid way again. So moving on.

Hopefully we can say good bye to sngry bees and an angry me :)

Jude sporting his two ice packs...

His puffy black eye. 

The Baymax Fist

A couple of weeks ago I took the boys to the Disney Store (a dangerous place indeed - I am sorely tempted to buy all things Star Wars) to buy a little something for the car trip up to Minnesota. Apparently Jude saw a Baymax fist and since leaving the store that day has talked of having it. 

I told him he could either wait for his birthday and ask for it or do extra chores to save up money. I intended to have him strech out chores over a couple of weeks at least a month. But Jude was smarter. He asked my Granny. And awesome Geanny that she is put him to work raking magnolia leaves, putting them in a trash can and then burning them it was hard work. She paid him $2 dollars for an hours work though he would have probably taken $1. And I'm convinced we could have charged Shiloh and he would have paid - that boy loves working. 

Combined with tooth fairy money he now had about $5 if the $25 dollars needed. So the next day he begged Mimi for chores. She is a push over. He did a couple chores with Shiloh and she paid them $30. Come on Mimi how am I supposed to teach the boy about the value of money?

So today I took them to the Disney store. We bought the Baymax hand and ordered a stuffed Fred for Shiloh (Mickey Mouse is sending it to our house).

Water and Mud

Is there anything boys love so much as water and mud? In my limited experience I have not met many things to top them...

More Pictures from Minnesota...

After spending the most of Saturday at the Mall of America we went back to the Kurtz home in Buffalo and spent time with Chad's family. Chad has an awesome family and I knew by the 5th pot of coffee that I had married into a great family! The Kurtz home is right on the lake and is beautiful. Poor Chad was not ready to leave and I think part of him would like to remain in Minnesota with his family there and truly it was wonderful but well you can take a girl out of Texas but she will just want to go right back...so sadly we parted ways on Monday after the gravesite ceremony. But not before we had a great time playing in the yard, rolling down the hill, lighting the fire pit and running around with fire sticks (I think the boys almost gave an uncle or two a heart attack...).  Here are some more pictures:

The boys throwing rocks into the sea, as Jude kept referring to the lake...he's used to the Caymans.

A look at the back of the Kurtz home.

The boys comforted and slept on Grandad during the funeral meanwhile I walked around outside trying to pacify a screaming Asher...

Our photographer thought they were super artsy and a fantastic photo taker - they shall remain nameless but let this picture serve as an example of what the majority of the pictures look like - we have been scalped...

A decent photo! Except the roar face on Jude and the fussy face on Asher (nothing to be done about the boys) and only a slight portion of Chad's hair is missing...

Almost.

Grandad and Aunt Drea.

Chad and I.

Grandad and the boys.

Aunt Hope started a fire - she is the boys favorite - maybe - Sarah did help them find sticks to "fire"

Uncle Neal with Jude.

Putting Asher to work.

The boys and Uncle Neal.

Fire sticks! They ran around with these...I told myself it was ok because Hope and Sarah are nurses...

Chad and Drea!

Shiloh cleaning the play area at chick-fil-a.

Jude found some pods with seeds in them at a rest stop.

Minnesota in Pictures

Today we will let the pictures tell the story of our Friday and Saturday in Minnesota:

During stops on our road trip we cleaned out the car. Shiloh loved the hand held vacuum.

Climbing the slide at Chick-fil-a.

Ice cream treat for making it to Minnesota!

Friday morning as we hit the road from El Dorado, Kansas, Jude excitedly exclaimed, "My tooth came out!!!!"

Jude was very excited to find a whole dollar under his pillow and the tooth fairy was so kind to allow him to keep his first lost tooth - but only the first...

We visited the Lego store at the Mall of America - we felt a little let down because Chad had told me it was a Lego Land (it was not) and most of the big lego statues were hanging from the ceiling and we couldn't really see them.

The boys first roller coaster.

Aunt Drea made it to Minnesota too!!!!

Aunt Barb joined us for lunch at the Mall of America.

Chad, Grandad, Jude and Shiloh on the log ride.