Team Moshell

Catching up in 2012

2012-01-14T22:08:00.004-06:00

For all 4 readers of our family blog, I apologize for my backlog of post. But they're up and hopefully you will get a small sense of what we've been up to this past holiday season. Probably the main reason I'm so behind is that I haven't been feeling 100%. Mostly nauseous and tired. And probably due to our little one due to arrive July 2.

Meet Moshell Baby #3!!

We're so excited, a lot nervous and anxiously awaiting his arrival. Early sonograms indicate there's a strong chance we're getting all the boy stuff out again. Hopefully I'll do a better job this year keeping everyone posted on our life events. Happy 2012!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T21:55:00.000-06:00

I feel so bad for not posting more Christmas pictures...it's because I didn't take many Christmas pictures! The season was wonderful and memorable, I just didn't capture digitally as I would have liked to. However, here are the pictures we did get and hopefully they'll spur memories for years to come.

We had Luke's preschool Christmas program. He did much better singing this year, and even added a little choeography, when there wasn't any. It made him much easier to pick out of the crowd. He's the one with his hands raised.

"Put your hands in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care!"

We kept putting off visiting Santa and then when we tried at Santa's Village it was over a 90 minute wait. No thanks! We ended up visiting him right by our house at Watters Creek. We walked in, said hi, took pictures with our own camera and walked out with our candy canes. It was the easiest Santa visit ever! And the kiddos loved getting to see his "reindeer" mobile that he uses while the reindeer are resting up.

Sweets

Was so happy to tell Santa he wanted a Batman castle, a football helmet and submarine for Christmas.

Reid not so much a Santa fan. :) (Mom annoyed she's sitting on some old guys lap).

We went to the Soup Mobile's "Celebrate Jesus" party at the Hyatt downtown and helped welcome our homeless friends to their hotel for the night. It was a good night for them to be inside, because it was coooold and wet! Luke had a great time high-fiving all the dudes and it was a great experience for him letting him know how we were trying to help others less fortunate.

We went to a beautiful Christmas Eve service at church. It was my favorite so far. The music was wonderful and the message perfect. It's always my favorite part of Christmas. Afterwards, we all went home to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and play games. Miss Martha and Mr. Jim came over, which we loved getting to share the evening with them.

Batman undies to open wished for Batman castle!

So many presents (see Batman costume that was promptly put on to play with the new castle).

Christmas was a blur of presents and excited kiddos and lots of family and food! Good times were had, but we can truly say it's a good thing Christmas only comes once a year, because it took us two weeks to recover! Bring on the new year!

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-15T21:34:00.000-06:00

By REM

In an attempt to get the perfect Christmas card picture, we rounded up the boys and took them to the train depot in old Plano. It's such a great park, even without the train! There are awesome playgrounds and a beautiful pond and gazebo there. However, there was a wedding that afternoon, so we had to keep the giggles to a minimum as we were shooting...trying to get smiles. It was a little difficult. However, fun was had and some cute pictures were taken! I highly recommend you check out this park on a pretty day, it's awesome!

All aboard!

One last look for any latecomers.

Checking out what brother is up to.

My sweet fellas.

The way brothers show they love each other.

Taking a break.

Let's play!

Contemplative

The End.

We are Thankful!

2011-12-07T22:07:00.009-06:00

I love how they had rugby shirts when they came to America on the Mayflower.

We are thankful for so, so many things. One of them being Daddy's opportunity to go to Honduras this year (I should let him guest post that trip), and Gigi coming to stay with us for 7 days to help out while he was gone. She was a LIFESAVER! And a lot of fun! :)

Not only does Gigi want to cook, iron, watch boys, sleep in Luke's room with him...she also went to Luke's Thanksgiving parade at school. He was a handsome pilgrim this year. They had a wonderful little parade and then a feast with their class.

What a way to celebrate things we are thankful for!

Luke placemat he made (of course with the Star Wars lunch box).

Dining with friends.
Here come the turkeys! I loved their costumes!
Pretty pilgrim.
Pierce the pilgrim.

Ghoulish Fun for Halloween 2011

2011-12-07T22:07:00.006-06:00

Best of 987 pictures taken

Since summer, Luke has known who he was going to be for Halloween. His favorite villain (we're so into bad guys right now)...Captain Hook! Nana found a fantastic costume at the Disney store and he has worn that thing everyday since it arrived. I wanted Reid to "coordinate", but since Luke had already been Peter Pan, we decided to go with Hook's nemesis...The Crocodile! Plus, this will probably be the last year I get to pick Reid's costume, so I went with it. He was the cutest little croc, and Luke a perfect Hook. We took advantage of the church's Fall Festival, and Luke went on several bounce houses which was a first this year. Reid road the choo-choo (of course), and they got lots of candy (good candy...hee, hee!).

"Where's the candy mom?"

Cutest pirate I've ever soon. But don't tell him that!

Pumpkin seeds...slimy!

Carving the great pumpkin!

Then on Halloween night we invited our tried and true fellow trick or treators the Widmers and Reddings over for some candy hunting! The big kids had a blast and the littles were too cute following along. It was a successful evening and we all ate ourselves silly on sugar. Or maybe that was just me after the boys were in bed. :)

Our first broken bone

2011-10-15T23:16:00.008-05:00

It was inevitable. We have kids. We have two boys. We have two somewhat clumsy and adventurous boys. I just didn't think it would happen this soon, at least not to our recently turned 2 year old. Aye! It was a Monday evening and I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready, while the boys played upstairs. Reid has been "stair friendly" for over six months now, so we don't have any baby gates up anymore. Aye! He decided he needed to bring his Thomas the Train ride on toy from the upstairs to the downstairs. I didn't see him start at the top of the stairs, but I saw him at the landing, which is where he landed. I'm assuming he was pulling Thomas behind him and of course it plowed him down the stairs. He made it down 10 stairs. That's a lot. Especially when you're two feet tall. Needless to say there were a lot of tears. Reid of course was scared to death. I was so worried he had a head or brain injury of sorts. Luke was so worried and scared too. It was not fun. I checked him over a few times, especially for head "dents" and pushed on him to see if I could tell if there was internal bleeding (I don't know, I just thought I might be able to tell if there was), and after I got him settled with a snack and ice pack, decided to keep an eye on him. He thankfully didn't have any lethargy or vomiting, so I ruled out head injuries, but he did keep holding his left arm. However, he didn't seem to be in any pain and was still using it to drink with, play with, eat with....so I thought maybe he sprained it. Then when he was getting up off the floor and used that arm to get it, he started crying. He was so sad. I told Ross he needed to go get an x-ray and they were off. Thankfully Ross was happy to take him because I was worried I wouldn't hold up if they had to do anything too painful. They got home an hour later (Thank you Acute Kids Allen!), and he had a broken wrist. Thankfully it's not a bad break, but a fracture. They put him in a little splint (Red, cute, like Reid) and said he would need a cast. 4 days later I took him in and they put on his full arm cast (didn't see that one coming) and we picked maroon. Good thing too, it was just in time to support the Aggies beat the Raiders the next day. Coincidence? I don't think so. He has to wear it for a month and should be able to go cast free after that. All through this I am amazed at what a little trooper he is! He doesn't even act like he has it except when he occasionally points at it and says "boo, boo." Bath time is a little bit of a pain, but not terrible. And we are avoiding sandboxes, but other than that, it's not been too bad. More than anything we are so very, very thankful that was his only injury after such a scary fall. God certainly was watching over him and we remember that often.

"Ain't nothin' gonna slow me down...oh no. I got to keep on movin'!"

The Closet Under the Stairs

2011-10-06T22:05:00.005-05:00

After seeing a friends re-creation of their closet under the stairs into a "mini jungle playroom" of sorts, I was determined to re-vamp ours. Ross was on board and we started brainstorming of making our closet into a spaceship for the boys. Complete with control panels, a steering wheel and some really cool chair to sit in. But that's not what we ended up with. Maybe one day we'll get it all together and transform it into a really cool Millennium falcon, but until then, it's a really cool "apartment under the stairs." We moved the boys play kitchen into the closet and then used it as a place to put all of the costumes Luke insists on wearing while watching Disney movies. So here's the pics and if we ever take it all the way to space station, I'll update.

The Before.

After the big clean out. It's amazing what you can get rid of.

Ta-Da! Luke and Reid's "Apartment Closet"

Reid turns 2

2011-09-29T21:30:00.007-05:00

Good morning birthday boy!

Happy Birthday Reid Philip! I can't believe you are already 2 years old, but it has been a fun year.
What are some of your favorite things? Reading, reading, reading! You love to sit and read books and you love to sit with someone and read books with them. You are a big fan of "choo, choos" and spend a lot of time driving your trains at home and looking for them (Dart) when we are driving near the tracks. You also enjoying coloring and have about 10 books to choose from...it's always an intense decision. In all honesty, you love learning...and we love that! You can identify most of your letters either my name or sound (shout out to Leap Frog magnetic letter set). I hope that you take your desire to learn and run with it.

Working his new train table and paci (although we were done with paci about a month later - he chewed through all of them and that was the end...whew!)

Cars are perfect!

As you've gotten bigger this year, you have also gotten more adventurous. You love a good swinging session and when we're at the park you try your best to climb anything that's remotely climb-able. I think having an older brother gives you a sense of being bigger than you are, which is good at times, a little tricky at others. When we moved a new bed into your room, for future use, you immediately thought that big bed must belong to you and moved yourself promptly out of the crib. In fact, there were tears when we tried to put you back in the crib, so that was an extremely easy transition. It is a tall bed though, so in a way you're still landlocked and have to wait for us to come get you out. Also, you decided a few months ago that highchairs were for babies and you needed to sit in the same chair as your brother. Again, another easy transition, and actually easier to clean up after than a highchair.

You are also taking your time in the language department. A choice I can tell is all yours because when you really, really want something you can say the word of the item you need. A lot of times your words are gibberish to me, but I know to you they make perfect sense. It's sweet to hear your voice whatever you are saying.

You love a good movie and Toy Story is your favorite. You even have a "Wooey" to sleep with at night and your Buzz Lightyear pajamas are hands down favorite. You've also taking a liking to Monsters, Inc. and like to tell me "Boo!" all the time.

He loves to swing!

We enjoyed your cowboy "Toy Story" birthday party! However, you had tears, which seems to be a Moshell trend for two year old parties. Maybe next year you'll enjoy it a little more.

He loved his birthday cake...a big "tookie"!

Besties and cuties...I love them!

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Luke showed his cowboy spirit...what a good big brother!

My absolute favorite thing about you right now is how much you like to snuggle. It's the best! You especially love to snuggle up after nap time or in the morning and it's wonderful. You know how to nestle right in our arms and will stay there as long as possible. Plus you are always up for big hugs and kisses. You just have a sweet heart and we love you to pieces!

Birthday cupcakes made by Luke and mommy...such a great helper!

We look forward to this next year, as bittersweet as it is to close the door on your babyhood, we are excited for you to grow and stimulate that curious mind. We love you so much more than you will ever, ever know and are so very thankful God gave us you!! Happy Birthday!!

1st Day of the Last Year of Preschool

2011-09-01T12:26:00.006-05:00

Waaaa!! I was not anticipating today being a hard day, but knowing that in a year Luke will be starting Kindergarten is giving me heart palpitations. I am so excited for him, HE is sooo excited, and his teacher, Mrs. Faulhaber is fantastic (I know her from when I taught). BUT, I'm still missing him. I am looking forward to what he learns this year and I'm already so proud of how far he has come since the beginning of last year. Thank you Lord for a wonderful school for my baby boy and for putting wonderful people in his life to help teach and lead him.
I don't think it's a coincidence that today's verse was the following:

"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Happy morning for all...donuts!

Reid inherited Luke's Buzz Lightyear lunchbox and couldn't be more thrilled!

A little bit forced...

A little bit excited!

Let's roll!

Sigh. So big!

Hand in hand with his hero.

Reid kept wanting his picture taken too. Here he's saying "Cheese!"

There's a genuine Luke smile. It's probably because he's genuinely excited to be here.

"Good morning Mrs. Faulhaber!"

Where I'm going to live one day... (Part III)

2011-08-31T18:41:00.000-05:00

The view from the balcony at Lake Tahoe: Incline Village

I've never been to Tahoe before. I never want to go there and leave again. It's my favorite place. Not only is it gorgeous...clear blue skies, snow capped mountains dipping into a crystal lake...the weather is amazing! I know that it's not 70 degrees year round, that it gets crazy cold in the winter. However, I'd be happy to hole up in my cabin in some cute furry Uggs sipping my chai tea lattes while I look at the view.
So Tahoe was a amazing. It was the perfect place to wrap our tres-destination getaway because it was beautiful and relaxing. We had a wonderful meal at Jason's Beachside grill (the salad bar was top notch) as we drove into town. It was so chilly and wonderful getting to bundle up in our jeans and sweatshirts and walk on the beach. After a great meal, we headed to the condo and settled in.

This was the view from the balcony, where you can see the ski run.

It was no coincidence that we were in Nevada, so the boys headed out to hit the craps tables while the girls settled in for a movie night. The next day I visited the Hyatt spa which was heavenly. I always feel like a new person after a good massage. There was also plenty of time to read, read, read on this trip, which we all four love to do. This time we all were devouring The Hunger Games (pun somewhat intended). If you haven't read this series...do...now. You won't regret it. It was fun as we kept waiting for everyone to catch up to the same parts so we could discuss amongst ourselves. We got all dolled up that night for one of the best meals I've ever had at Lone Eagle Grill. It's on the beach so we took advantage of the photo ops and beautiful view. It was funny because we asked a gentleman if he would take a group shot and he said sure. After some chit-chat (the least we could do after he's taking our pics), he told us he was a professional photographer. Nice.

Someone forgot to tell Marc and Trisha to make the "smolder" look.
Ross and I really pulled it off.

The last day was spent getting a facial (I really do love the spa) and laying out by the lake. The beaches are so clean and nice, it's like the ocean, but the water is calmer and a little darker. We split up the last night and had "date night". Ross and I enjoyed dinner and a walk on the beach and watched the para-sailors land...not an easy task.
The next day we took a great walk and soaked up as much scenery and cool fresh air as we could. We also brainstormed about what we could do to be able to live in Tahoe. It was really, really, REALLY hard to leave. I honestly don't know if we would have gone back if it hadn't been for these little guys waiting for us.

I missed them terribly, but this trip was priceless and goes down in the history books. It's going to be hard to top this one, but we're brainstorming already.

The End

Would you like a little cheese with that wine? (Part Deux)

2011-08-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

After a fantastic time in San Fransisco, we packed up the Trendy Traverse and headed East to Napa Valley. I have always wanted to go here and this was the perfect time to go. As you are driving out of the mountains and see this beautiful valley below you with rows and rows of green vines, you know why so many people come here (and of course the wine). It was a great drive and I really do enjoy road trips with friends. There was lots of time to ask all kinds of "what if" questions and "what would you do" scenarios to discuss. They got a little crazy.
Anyways, we stopped in town and of course the weather was AMAZING and had lunch in a local restaurant. Then we drove to Sterling Vineyards which Miss Pennie and Mr Brock had recommended to us. It was beautiful. One of the best features is you get to ride a gondola to the top of the mountain where the actual winery sits above the vineyard. Of course we got to see how the wine was made, but the thing that interested us the most was the barrels and how does one make a barrel so that it doesn't leak wine all over the place. Especially those barrels that are two stories high. I guess a lot of people ask this question, because they've made a video explaining just that. The wine was delicious, but we didn't buy any seeing as we couldn't bring it on the plane with us. However, this vineyard sells a lot of their wines in stores, so we've been able to stock up a little. We had 5 different ones, the Cabernet Sauvignon being my favorite. It was so relaxing just to sit on the balconies and look at the valley while sipping our yummy wines. Cheers!

When the lights go down in the city... (Part 1)

2011-08-31T13:30:00.017-05:00

This summer we took what has probably been my most favorite trip to date. It was all around wonderful, beautiful and fun! One reason we had such a great time was our tried and true traveling buddies, Team Matthews, joined us and another is that it was a tres-destination trip. We got to go to three amazing American places, none of which I had been to before.
(Note: there are a lot of details, for my memory's sake, so bear with)
Here's the long version...
Part 1
We met my parents in Waco the evening before and dropped the boys off with them. Trisha had the great idea to make "packets" to use each day when they needed to help distract the kiddos and hopefully keep them from meltdown point. I loved this idea and threw together "theme days" that included "Puzzle & Game Day", "CARS (Disney) Day", "Space Day", "Art Day" and "Pirate Day". My hope was these might help make Nana and Papa's job a little bit easier. The boys were in great hands though, so I had no worries. The next morning, Ross and I flew into San Jose (cheaper flights) and picked up the rental car (Traverse...nice!). The second we stepped out of the airport stress was stripped away from us. The weather was AMAZING! After intense heat in Texas, it was literally a breath of fresh air that was clean and cool. (I miss it soo much). We stopped and had lunch at In & Out Burger. This was our first time to eat there, even though they just opened one in Allen. However, there wasn't a line like ours. The ruling was pretty good...but the fries were not my favorite. After lunch we were headed to San Fran to meet up with Marc and Trisha who had flown in earlier that day. Since we were in San Jose (I felt so much like Felicity, who I related very much to in college...don't ask me why), we decided to stop at Stanford.

We wanted to go up in the tower, but the line was too long and it cost $$$...we moved on.

Ross really enjoys seeing different University stadiums, and I enjoy the beautiful campuses. This one did not disappoint. Not only is it surrounded by oak trees, the buildings are old mission style. It created such a calm atmosphere (perfect for a school), and made me want to go build a new house.

I loved this tree, probably because it was my favorite color!

We headed North to San Fran and I was amazed at the houses...everywhere! They were so tightly packed in it was crazy. As we approached our hotel the roads really started the up and down pattern and I started getting really nervous. At each stop sign I knew we were going to start rolling back either into the intersection behind us or into someones car. Ross gunned it each time and we made it through them. I know I drove him crazy with my screams, but I was a little panicked. We got to the Hotel Drisco and it did not disappoint. I love old buildings that have been restored and taken care of and that's exactly what this Hotel was. It was charming and quaint and I could have stayed there a month. For me, it's a great bed, a clean hotel and the "little touches" that make it a five star for me. They are a five star hotel in my book. The citrus water they set out everyday in the sitting room, the breakfast they served (very European) and the wine and cheese hour made it the perfect destination. Plus they were walking distance from the Promenade and nestled around some fabulous homes.

A house in the Prominade (which was a military base at one point).

We settled in and then rented bikes to ride through Golden Gate park which is 1000 acres of pine trees and lush green meadows. It was breathtaking and chilly enough that we needed sweatshirts. Trisha and I thought that our choice of bikes was nostalgic and fun, but quickly realized the gear bikes would have been a better choice with all the hills. Noted.

They really were cute bikes, just not functional.

I think he wishes he was an Aggie. ;)

That evening we drove over the bridge (which is huge and a little intimidating) to Tiberon on the other side of the bay. We had an amazing dinner on the bay with a great view of the bridge and San Fran. Day one was fantastic!!

The ladies...

...and gents.

I want to live here.

The next day we headed over to Fishermans wharf for our ferry ride to Alcatraz Island. It was much colder and foggy that day, and we all bundled up for our windy ride. Thankfully the skies cleared and we had a great tour of the island.

The fog had definitely rolled in.

Little did I know that Alcatraz was originally a military prison, then converted to a federal penitentiary for not-so-nice men. You would think it might not be such a bad place to be seeing as it's an island in the middle of a beautiful city, but it actually could get pretty chilly and stayed obviously damp. Plus, it was almost torturous for the prisoners to be so close to freedom and society that was going on without them. There were several break out attempts (clever ones too), but the only one that was possibly successful they don't know for sure. The prisoners were never seen or heard from, so they either drowned or made it.

This was part of the military prison.

The wives of the officers that lived on the island worked to spruce it up. There was beautiful foliage everywhere.

Living in here...
...might make you do this.

Which in turn, gets you sent here (solitary confinement).

And after that you definitely would need to stop here. (Rumor is that the men got to take hot showers so they couldn't acclimate themselves to cold water in case they were thinking about making a break for it in the chilly bay.)

We spent the rest of the day going to see the famous trolleys (thankfully next to a Starbucks, because I needed a hot drink) and then napping. I love naps and thankfully they were included on the trip itinerary. Dinner was at a great little dive near the hotel and Irish Coffees afterwards at Buena Vistas. Then it was off for one last night sleep in our grand hotel before part 2 of Tres Destination...

*A picture for Luke...a Wall-e robot.

We're Gonna Bowl Tonight!

2011-07-26T21:21:00.002-05:00

**Thank you Carol for such a fantastic video! It's just sad I'm only now posting it. Better late than never!

Have you heard of Splitsville?? We love it! It's a new bowling alley they opened at the Shops of Fairview this year and has quickly become a favorite birthday destination for us.
It all started with Luke's 4th Birthday. I felt he was ready for bowling and it was a great environment (no smoking, crazy people), plus the food was much better than normal bowling food fare. After that we decided to have Ross' 30th there and it was just as fun.

Luke's first Icee...he was wired and fired after that thing!

Ready to roll.
Uncle Scottie's Curve Ball

Best Award for Best Bowling Ramp for Kiddos
Still going strong at 10PM after that Icee. Poor Papa!

My face the whole time. "Wha' Happen'?"

Fun was had by all and who knew we had such great bowlers as friends?! I think we should start a league...gloves anyone?

Swim Lessons - Take 2

2011-07-26T16:19:00.007-05:00

Swim lessons, swim lessons, swim lessons. Last spring after Luke turned 3 we enrolled him in swim lessons. Big mistake. Huge! My thought was, in the past he has LOVED swimming, loved the pool, loved water...he will love swim lessons. He did not. Since he was three, these lessons were on his own. Meaning, mom and Reid sat on the other side of the glass wall, while he sat at the pool with his teachers and 3 little friends. He was terrified. It was horrible. The teachers kept telling me it would get better. It did not. It really breaks my heart to think about how sad he was. He would sit there shaking so hard. What's even more sad is that before each lesson he really tried to psych himself up saying things like "I like swimming. And I like jumping in the water. I'm not sad." (Heart tearing here) But once he got in there it was a different story. He just shook and cried. Needless to say, we did not finish swim lessons. I couldn't bear it anymore.
Fast forward to this year, this summer, when's he a few months past four and we've found a different swim instructor.

Swim Buddies

Instead of a school, we opted for a teacher that taught out of her home. Plus we worked it out so that a certain best bud (P-man) was in the same class, and the classes were consecutive for two weeks instead of one lesson a week for 8 weeks.

5 Little Swimmers Sitting on a Step

Needless to say, these lessons went much, much better. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but I know the combination of being older, the pool being outside and less children around (hence less noise), had to been a huge contribution. He had a pretty good time and did get the basics down.

He swam all over the pool...he just needed his noodle and goggles.

He still does not like going under water, but he can tread water, although he's nervous about it.

He was so funny, when they would get to the diving board, he would ever so kindly keep telling his friends they could go in front of him. Miss Sherrie caught on pretty quickly though and insisted he take a turn. At least now when we go to the pool, as long as he has his floaties, he's able to swim all over the place. Last summer he basically sat on our heads if we took him into the water. He loves going to the pool and asks about it everyday. Sadly, I can't take him and Reid on my own...but we go as often as we can when another adult is in tow or able to watch Reid at home. I'm so thankful he's not scared to go to the pool anymore and hope that he grows up loving it as much as I did.

What a way to end a hard mornings work of swimming...popsicles and high fives!

Jay "Pop" Hazelwood

2011-06-15T21:25:00.003-05:00

We lost Ross' Pop this summer. It was a pretty hard loss. Although we knew his time on this earth was coming to an end, it was still sad to see him go. I had known Pop for 11 years, and from the first time I met him I have had nothing but the utmost respect for him, but also adore him and his sense of humor and love of family. He was a tall fella, but soft spoken. And he adored his bride Jinger. He was also a hero. Not only to his family and friends, but to his country. He served in the Pacific Islands during WWII. Having grown up during the Depression, he went on to make a wonderful life for his family and passed down a strong work ethic that I am proud to see in my husband everyday. At his funeral, when his dear friend John gave his eulogy I could only help but think that Pop would be so proud of his children and grandchildren and the fine qualities that shared of his legacy. Ross has such wonderful memories of his Pop and we are again reminded how grateful we our that our perfect Lord has orchestrated our lives so that we can see him again one day. Happy trails to you Pop, until we meet again.

Here's a copy of his obituary:
Jay E. "Pop" Hazelwood Jay E. "Pop" Hazelwood, 91, formerly of Amarillo and Midland, Texas, died Sunday, June 12, 2011, at his home in Westminster Manor, Austin, Texas. Born on March 5, 1920, in Megargel, Texas, he was raised during the Great Depression. In 1940, Pop enlisted in the U.S. Army Artillery and fought in the Pacific Campaign during World War II initially as a Forward Observer and later as a 2nd Lieutenant Reconnaissance Officer with numerous landings in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. Among other service medals, Pop received the Bronze Star and Philippine Liberation Ribbon with Bronze Star. He was honorably discharged in 1946. After the war, he became a mechanical contractor and Vice President of Heating and Air Conditioning for Plains Plumbing Company in Amarillo where he worked for 30 years. After retirement, Pop traveled the world extensively with his beloved wife of 65 years, Venita "Jinger" Hazelwood. He is survived by wife (Jinger), son (Mark Hazelwood and wife, Gloria) and daughter (Niki Moshell and husband, Mark) along with grandchildren (Clay, David, Taryn, Ryan and Ross) and great grandchildren (Marquel, Miles, William, Luke and Reid). He also was survived by sisters, Betty Gillis and Letty McGeehan, and numerous other family members and friends, and was eulogized by nephew, John Grover, and niece, Joel Bennett. Pop was a voracious reader and dedicated Dallas Cowboys fan. Most importantly, he was a man of faith, a loving husband, a caring father and a hero to his entire family.

Too school for cool

2011-06-01T21:26:00.010-05:00

School is out for the summer! What a great year Luke had at the Heights CDC. His teacher, Mrs. Denvir, was absolutely wonderful. She has such great creativity that Luke was always so excited about, but also was so very patient and kind with my little man who grew up a lot this year.
I can't tell you how many times I heard "Luke really loves playing with play dough" this year, but I think it helped keep him out of trouble a little bit too.

The fastest play-doh handler in the West.

He also made some really great friends, his favorite being Kousei.

A true friend to Luke. Little Kousei broke his arm the week before school was out. It was quite the drama for the Friendly Frog class!

The Silly Friendly Frogs

Everyday I asked him "What was your favorite thing you did today? and "What was your favorite toy you played with?" This gave me a glimpse of his day without the question I know he will come to dread "So, how was your day? What'd you do?" :) By far the most popular answers were "Playing with blocks and building a (city/hotel/mall)" and "Playing in the sand building castles."

Time to get a lot of sand in the shoes to dump out on the floor at home!
A "Real" Sandcastle

They had some really great activities through the year:

The Storybook Parade where he went as Peter Pan:

PS Look at that cutie Emily Elizabeth by Luke.

Donuts with Dad:

Check out Ross' snazzy tie Luke designed for him.

His "Dad Survey" that he did...hilarious!

Visits from the local Firestation:

Luke was a little freaked, hence being in Mrs. Denvir's arms.

Texas week

and a Tea Party:

Tea Time! What a neat experience for learning proper manners

Amidst all the fun, my little three year old turned into a four year old with a lot more experience. Both his teacher and I agree he came a LONG way this year in the ways of listening and obeying and that is such a blessing. Mrs. Denvir gave each student a photo disc at the end of the year, so that's where all these come from. She's awesome! I am so thankful that he is able to go to a preschool whose main focus is learning about God and his love for us. They are planting seeds so valuable and we are so blessed to be a part of it. We are already enjoying summertime though and the break from going so much. Stay tuned for summer fun activities!

Bonus: Here's some of my favorite artwork of the year. They had a great idea at MOPS to scan artwork in (because it really is hard to decide what to keep). One day I would love to make a huge photobook of all his masterpieces.

I thought this was so cute...little candycorns for Halloween.

Mr. Penguin

A Valentine for Mom
Mommy Survey that I got from Muffins with Mom

This was one of his favorite art projects...can you guess why?Butterfly

For some reason there is a love of snakes this year. He certainly does not get this from me.

Precious little hands

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T15:17:00.005-05:00

"How bout eggs?"

Easter was a great celebration this year because we are really able to start explaining to Luke why we celebrate Easter. He does know now that Jesus died on the cross and rose after 3 days, but I'm not sure he gets the significance. Both boys loved the Easter egg hunt and their baskets...and looked quite dapper!

Dyeing eggs

So focused.

I think he was really excited about a job well done.

Easter morning baskets

My little love.

My sweet boys!

Hey brother!

Gigi's 75 and ready to jive!

2011-03-29T14:38:00.011-05:00

Our sweet Gigi aka Granny aka Mom aka Shirley May aka Aunt Shirley...this list goes on, turned 75 this year! We were thrilled to have our family from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri and Arizona come to Dallas to celebrate with us. It was a party to remember and so much fun. I personally hadn't seen Grannys (I'll refer to her as Granny since that's what I call her) nieces since I was a baby, but it was like I saw them last week. We all just picked up where we left off.
If you haven't met Granny yet, then you're missing out. She is one of the most silly, fun, positive people I know. She is the one who taught me you make each day what it is. That when you wake up you have the choice of how you are going to handle what comes at you that day. She is a strong Christian woman, and LOVES to cook it up in the kitchen. My favorite thing she makes are patty melts...yummo, homemade rolls and brownies. I always gain 5 pounds when we see her because the cooking is so good.
We are so honored to have her in our lives, to keep us on our toes and laughing. She's always got a good one liner tucked away and boy do her great-grandkiddos love her. We're so blessed she's here to love on them they way she did on her kid and grandkids.
We love you grandmother...Happy Birthday!!

The cake was from Market Street and it was wonderful!
Gigi loves flowers, so Luke helped pick this one with the most flowers on it.
Flowers from Granny's nice Tammy in Brownsville, TX.
Silly girls. Don't poke her with that pin! ;)

All the girls (Left to Right): Amanda, Kayleigh, Mimi (Betty), Granny (Shirley), Kim (from MO), Susan (Phoenix), Mom (Michelle) and me.
Some of the boys and my wonderful husband who always goes above and beyond helping his crazy wife and the birthday parties.
Beautiful!
She probably got 75 cards, and I'm not exaggerating! People from all over the place that she's known years still send her birthday cards. It just shows how loved she is!
The Party Planner
Mimi in her favorite color
Luke was so helpful with the presents.

The next day the girls went to Chocolate Angel Tea Room for lunch. It was delicious and a treat for us ladies to have lunch together.

Such a big girl, ordering from the menu.
Too cute!
A great picture of mom and Mimi.
Sweet girls! And don't you love the purple?!
Granny and Susan

18 months!

2011-03-28T14:37:00.005-05:00

My sweet boys and cuddle bug!

Little Ross, otherwise knows an Reid hit another big milestone...18months! I know this isn't an official birthday, but it's a big turning point I think.
It feels like we're starting to be able to communicate more clearly. He definitely has has his "all done" (sometimes verbal), "please" "more" and "bye-bye" signs down. Those are the mostly food related words he needs to let me know what he wants. As far as spoken words, we're still working on those. He's great at pointing to what he wants and I need to a do a better job trying to get him to verbalize too.
The one word, the dreaded word, he's latched onto the last two weeks is "NO!". Ahhhh, the dreaded no. I feel like he must have picked it up from friends at church, because we are trying to be diligent about saying "No thank you" and Luke has done really well not shouting that word for awhile. Then again, it could just be inherent. ;)
Speaking of becoming more..."bold", shall we say. Reid's hair is finally coming in and there just happens to be a little red to it. It's really a beautiful color, almost auburn and shimmers in the sun. I would love to have hair his color, but I do think he has a little "red headed streak" in him if you know what I mean. ;) He also got his first haircut at 18 months. I wasn't able to get a picture because I was a little busy trying to console his sad self. Maybe next time we go I can.
Our little man is quite the adventurer and loves playing outside. He's had mouthfuls of mulch a couple of times, and he can play in the sandbox with Luke forever. We're so thankful for the warmer weather and a shaded backyard that allows us lots of outside time.

Of course he loves birthday cake...who doesn't?

In the food department, there haven't been leaps and bounds of improvement, but I'll say a couple of baby steps in the right direction. Foods that are a guarantee are grilled cheese, pizza, pancakes and waffles, fruit, yogurt (and I sneak a little veggie into this treat), cheerios, pretzels, hot dogs and anything sweet (except ice cream...too cold). He loves milk and drinks a ton of it, so our doctor isn't too concerned. He said just keep offering a variety to him. He did move up to 75th percentile on weight, so that's a good sign. I'm pretty sure he's going to be tall and skinny like Luke.
My favorite part of this age is all the snuggles! Reid is such a snuggle bunny and I love it! Luke was never quite the sit still and snuggle kiddo, just the hug and then he's off. But Reid loves to burrow in your arms and just be held on the couch. In fact this is his favorite thing to do as long as there is a movie playing. Oh and how this boy loves movies! We're really had to restrict tv time over here at Casa Moshell because if allowed, this kiddos would watch the tube all.the.time!
Reid's favorite movies are Stuart Little 2 and Letter Factory. He also loves to watch Curious George. One funny observation is his dislike of Elmo. I never thought I would see the day an 18 month old didn't like Elmo, but he is not amused by him. At that is fine by me!
We are just having so much fun with Reid and his sweet sill self. He is such a fun part of our family and I'm honored I get to see him growing and developing everyday!

Sad Reid...hanging onto that paci though. That's going to be a battle in itself that I dread.

Calling all Superheros!

2011-03-11T14:38:00.009-06:00

Magnificent Max

Lovely Lucy

Marvelous Mysterious Mia

Lively Luke

Charming Carson
Carefree Caden

SuperTrioFriends!

Remarkable Rachel ...Look out here she's sneaking out of the tunnel!

She's going so fast the winds trying to pull her down!

When I asked Luke what kind of birthday party he wanted this year, his answer was: "Spiderman, Batman and Superman birthday." Well, alrighty then. So superhero birthday party it was. It was the perfect theme for him because he LOVES to play with all his super hero toys and fly through the house with his capes and underwear and nothing else on.
Miss Widmer came through by telling me how you can buy packages on Etsy that encompass your theme and sure enough there were some great superhero packages. All we had to do was print out invitations and decorations and cut them all out. She also shared how great the cupcakes were at Sams and she wasn't lying. These might be my new favorite cupcakes. They are simple, but quite tasty!
Daddy set up the ultimate Superhero obstacle course for all our heros. They did a fantastic job zooming through it!
Luke was so excited about presents...or opening presents with friends around. It doesn't get much better than that. In the past it's mostly been mom opening them and explaining them, but this year the roles were reversed. He was more than happy to open them on his own and tell everyone exactly what he got and how it worked.
What a great day for our sweet 4 year old. I can't even begin to think of a 5 year old party...sniff!

It's a zoo around here!

2011-03-10T22:11:00.002-06:00

Please don't frown on me that for my son's 4th birthday we took him to the zoo...for the very first time. It's terrible, I have had many intentions of getting him there sooner, but for various reasons have not. So on his special day, we packed up and headed south to the Dallas zoo. It was a cloudy day, but warm enough weather for short sleeves. We had a great time and will definitely be going back. Beware: There are a lot of pictures ahead!

In the 90's I had flamingo earrings. I may or may not have worn them with my florescent Hypercolor t-shirt.

He hatched 4 years ago.

Reid loved the children's area. He could finally get out of his stroller and PLAY!

Back in the saddle.

Luke was a teensy bit worried he might fall backwards into the water...can you tell?

These were the pictures from the ride on the monorail. It's my way to do the zoo. Just sit and ride and see all the cool animals!

Luke loved this waterfall...until we went under it!

King of the Jungle!

This guy had an itch he couldn't get rid of...hence the fawning over the log.

I love this shot because of the air under his feet. He was having the best time...
and you can really tell!

My favorite animals at the zoo. I love how unique they are!

This is what I wanted to do after the zoo. We were exhausted when it was all said and done. Thankfully both boys crashed in the car on the way home.

"Uh, Papa, did you know there's a gorilla behind us?"

"And a lion?"

Cool Hand Luke

2011-03-09T10:28:00.000-06:00

It was Texas week at Luke's school, and they did it up right! There was a cute cattle roping area, a Texas themed playroom, a covered wagon and all sorts of cute art projects. My favorite was the bluebonnet painting made with Luke's fingerprints.
Of course what Texas week isn't complete, without a "dress like a cowboy" day! Luke lucked out and happened to get a cute pair of cowboy boots for his birthday, and then a few finishing touches courtesy of Uncle Scott (circa 1987), he was set. And I think he's the cutest cowboy I've ever seen:

They call him Dangerous Dimples Luke...don't let him fool ya!

"Alrighty ma'am, that's 'nough shootin' with the flash box o' yers."

Four Years

2011-03-04T21:01:00.003-06:00

“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
Matthew 11:25

Dear Luke Sawyer,

Why does it feel like I just finished writing a letter to you about turning 3 years old? I can’t believe how big you are. You are 100% boy through and through, which I love, but I know at the same time that you will never be that chubby cheeked toddler. You’re tall like your daddy and so full of energy and imagination and I love seeing that part of your world.

Year 3 brought with it some challenges in the behavior department. I had a lot of moms assure me that they too had struggles with their 3 year olds, but 4 was a lot easier. There were certainly days when I was worried that the outbursts and sometimes irrational behavior wouldn’t end, but it seems that you are getting better about handling your emotions, especially when situations don’t quite go your way. You are what the experts call “strong-willed” (no idea where that comes from), but I already see your leadership skills coming in handy, and my prayer for you is that you allow God to shape you into a strong Christian leader that I know you can be. I love when you use your manners, and hope that you continue to do so through the rest of your life. There’s just something about someone saying “yes ma’am/sir” that reminds us to respect each other.

You are quite the social butterfly. You started preschool this year, and you LOVE going and seeing your sweet teacher, Mrs. Denvir, and all your friends. Each day you tell me who you played with the most that day and what your favorite toy was. I love seeing how excited you are to go to school and of course utilize carpool which is every mother’s dream. You have even started partaking in art projects which in the past you never enjoyed, but you’ve had quite a few masterpieces. You also started JOYLAND choir at church and that has been fun, as you are a music lover, and love to sing. It also doesn’t help that two of your besties go too, but you all do a great job making a joyful noise!

Some of your favorite things include: Going to the park and mall (anywhere with a slide will suffice), going to friend’s houses to play, going to the movies (we’re all so excited about “Cars 2” and “Kung Fu Panda 2” releasing this summer), and reading books (YAY!). Your favorite author is Mo Willems, and we love the Knuffle Bunny series and of course “Leonardo the Terrible Monster”. You really enjoy playing with Play-doh, which we do almost every day. It’s a great tool for those hands of yours and keeps you busy for a good hour which mom loves. And of course you love to play tickle and swords with daddy. It’s probably your favorite time of day.

Your favorite foods are pizza, pancakes, ice cream, grapes, peanut butter pretzels, grilled cheese and cheetos. Typical 4 year old food fare. J If you can choose a restaurant to eat at it’s either Chick Fil A or Freebirds, sometimes Mooyah. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a nifty train park near them either.

We went for your 4 year check up and found that you are off the charts in height: 45.5 inches, and weigh 39.25 pounds. Tall and skinny...that's not a bad thing! You had to also get your 4 year vaccinations and those were not fun. You were pretty sad about it, but a trip to the mall help get your mind off the pain.

My favorite thing about this year, is how often you will randomly come up and give me hugs and sweet smiles and tell me you love me. It melts my heart every time, and you will never, ever know how much more I love you…but I do! My hope for this year is that you will continue to learn how much Jesus loves you and the sacrifice he made for my sweet precious boy. My prayer is one day you will accept this gift whole-heartedly, and run with, just as you run in the wind right now, with your arms out, gliding above the clouds, full of spirit and joy.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!!

My Valentine's

2011-02-14T13:11:00.006-06:00

We had a sweet Valentine's Day this year, although Mr. Luke was sick with bronchitis. He was not his usual bouncing off the walls - full speed ahead self, so it made for a quieter day. We were sad to miss MOPs, but didn't want to spread the germy love to all of our friends there.
We did get a few shots in our Valentine's shirts and then our sweet Miss Martha and Mr Jim came over to have Valentine dinner with the boys while mom and dad went out. We LOVE them to pieces, and they take such good care of our little ones.

Smiley Valentine

Mischievous Valentine

Brotherly Love

The score of Valentine's and our chocolate dipped strawberries we made for Daddy.

Heart Shaped Pizza from Papa Murphys (PS We are totally digging Papa Murphys...yum!)

And YUMMO Smores Pizza! It was sooo good, I'm having a hard time resisting.

Reid liked it too!
My Ultimate Valentine
XOXO

Snow, Snow, Snow!

2011-02-10T22:41:00.005-06:00

"I love this white stuff mom!"

My cover shot...

My Silly Shot.

Snow Angel
(Note the pants, again, fleece and snow, not a good mix)

Fire in the hole!

And how! February brought with it some lovely ice storms and then a beautiful snow to frost on top of it. Last Tuesday, we woke up to the promised Arctic Blast of 2011, and realized we were going to be inside for at least a few days. The ice was layered at least an inch thick and in some places 2 inches. And it was FAHREEZING cold. Icy, chill to the bones cold! So we settled in our cozy clothes and took advantage of having to be no where, at any time. Looking back, it was totally God's way of saying to us "slow down" and to enjoy each other. I don't remember being this busy as a child (probably because I was a child and don't memories of when I was 3), but it seems like life has gotten so busy for us. It was such a blessing to have two days in a warm house, with plenty of food together. When I realized we would be staying indoors for an extended period of time, I was worried we were going to go crazy, but we didn't. We just had quality time together and Luke and Reid had a blast playing together. I will say by Thursday we were ready to venture out, but a trip to the mall playground and Chick Fil A for lunch cured the ants in our pants and we were happy to come back home. Friday brought loads of snow (4-5 inches), so we snow-suited up, except we don't have snow-suits. I"m totally hitting up consignment stores so I'll be better prepared for next year. Fleece and snow don't mix. They cling to each other like magnets to metal. But we still had a blast playing outside and then coming in and stripping down...only to go out a couple of hours later and do the same thing again. Thank goodness for washing machines, because we had a LOT of clothes to wash with all the layers we were wearing. We had a few rolling blackouts that totally freaked Luke out. It wasn't so much the power going out as it was it coming back on. When the power would turn back on, our alarm system went off for 5 seconds max. Long enough to send Luke into a frenzy, clinging to every limb I have. Reid of course, seeing the panic in Luke realized it was a moment of distress and the tears rolled for him too. I tried not to laugh about this situation, because they truly were afraid of this loud noise suddenly going off, but I did chuckle a little. The most memorable moment was when we were finishing up breakfast and Luke was bringing his plate to me to wash. Of course the alarm went off as he was in route and the plate, and leftover scrambled eggs went flying. Poor guy! Eggs are really hard to clean up by the way. I had tears after this happened because I was laughing so hard. I promise I don't delight in my children's fears, but I have a really hard time not laughing when people get startled. I really need to work on this.

And what do you do when you're not playing the snow? Make forts of course!

After our 4 days of winter weather, we got a lovely weekend break, only to have another snow/ice storm hit the following Wednesday. Thankfully we were only out of commission one day, and back to school the next. As lovely and memorable as this weather was, I'm excited with the promise of spring and warm weather. I'm dying to get these boys to the Arboretum for some pictures!

Two Headed Ogre Snowman

2011-01-09T17:54:00.005-06:00

Luke was thrilled when it started snowing during church today. He couldn't wait to home and "snow-suit-up." I didn't think it was going to snow as much as it did, but it was a beautiful white blessing from above.

Ross and Luke busily set about building their snowman. 30 seconds in Luke bailed to make snow angels and throw snow at the trees. Ross, ever so faithful, stuck to it and created a one of a kind masterpiece.

Mommy stayed inside the warm house and watched out the window. It was really cozy. Later Reid made a quick trek outside, but because he wouldn't keep mittens had to come back in. Thankfully some marshmallows from our hot cocoa snack made the transition inside a little easier.

Anne Philips Moshell

2011-01-06T15:30:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful holiday season (more post and pictures to come), but on Christmas Eve Ross' dad got a call bearing sad news. His mother (Nanny to her grandchildren) had passed away in her sleep that evening. She had been battling health issues for sometime, and after a fall a couple of days before she was sent to the hospital. It was definitely a sad moment, but I was glad Ross and his brother were there with their dad during the moment of finding out the sad news.
I only had the privilege of meeting her twice, but was charmed by her southern ways and her soft voice. I'm proud to be a part of her family, if only by marriage and proud that Reid bears her middle name. One of Ross' relatives sent an email that shared some really neat stories and perspective on her life which I so enjoyed reading, and so I'm sharing it here, mostly so we'll always have it:

I had to share these thoughts with someone, and you (family) seemed best. We lost our dear Anne Phillips Moshell – our Phillips Women aunts were never “Aunts”… always Margery/Margie, Anne and Joyce – on Christmas Eve following a long illness. Her eldest son Mike/Michael was by her side.

I wanted to share this picture of Anne at Panama City Beach, where our family spent the very best of our best times. What a perfect, and perfectly beautiful, Phillips Woman she was.

Mom and Joyce always loved describing their middle sister Anne as the “timid” sister. They loved telling the story (and Anne loved laughing at it) of Anne’s first day of school. Anne had been in school less than two hours when she heard the fire siren blare. She immediately ran from the classroom and rushed home, terrified that her house was on fire. (The house was safe and from then on, Anne tried really hard not to run home every time she heard the siren.)

Yet Anne was the brave young Phillips Woman who fell in love with the perfectly wonderful man and Navy officer Jack Moshell at the beginning of World War II, and moved all over the country with him. The two of them raised three marvelous, unique and loving boys. After the war, Anne and Jack settled back in Cuthbert, in the house next door to her parents – Mom Addie and Daddy Vernon – which is how I was able to grow up with the exceptional, and sometimes wild, wonderful Moshell boys in my life.

There was a child between Mom and Anne who died, and I think that gave Anne a special place in Mom’s heart. Then there was Anne’s near-fatal battle with scarlet fever as a child. Mom and Joyce – both of whom had the constitutions of Daddy Vernon – had to leave the house and lived with Granny Phillips and Aunt Iva until Anne survived and thrived. It was tough on them all to be separated. Of course, when these Phillips Women remembered the story, they told it with equal parts of remembered fear, Phillips Women pragmatism and just the right amount of levity. Yes, it was terrifying; still, Anne got all kinds of special privileges; and of course, they felt, Anne would survive. Or not. That’s how things were then. Happily, Anne survived, and somehow became braver from the experience.

Until she lost Jack, I remember Anne with a playful sense of humor and a very pragmatic approach to life… probably because she had three boys and husband who was the man for all things boys in Cuthbert: Boy Scout troop leader, golf teacher… you name it, Jack Moshell was the go-to-guy for activities for boys. Of course, that meant that Anne’s house was overrun by boys, in addition to her own marvelously diverse family of three men… oh, and the incomparable Jack, too, of course.

Anne was blessed with a husband who worshiped her, and took very, very good care of her – it was very much like the relationship between Daddy Vernon and Mom Addie. Even when he was crippled and twisted and miserable with rheumatoid arthritis, Jack made it clear every day and with every action that Anne Phillips Moshell was the love of his life. Jack Moshell was the best man I ever knew. I judge all men by Jack’s standard.

Gradually, Anne began developing the health problems that were extremely painful and that plagued her until the end. The last I heard, they were never diagnosed. At first they were chronic, and because the doctors couldn’t discover what was causing her intense pain, Mom could sometimes be a bit impatient with her ailments. Yet when Anne was hospitalized for weeks, Mom was there by her side from 8 AM, staying the entire day, leaving only in time ensure that she’d be home before dark. All day, every day for weeks. Sisters, there’s no bond like it.

Naturally, because Anne began to feel so poorly all of the time, she became less playful and more querulous as her pain worsened and became constant. I had to send a smile up to Mom when I saw Anne last month – the first time I’d seen her since Mom’s funeral over three years ago – and her greeting was “My word, Marcia Killingsworth! You just fell off the face of the earth, didn’t you?” We ended up spending about a half hour together; the whole time she was in intense pain, yet she kept asking me about my life. It broke my heart.

The best memory I have of these three dynamic sisters, these Phillips Women, is of the weekend I spent with the three of them at the Lake Rabun house Scott and Pat had for years. The sofa was about 75 years old and they decided that the pillows needed to be pumped up… these are pillows and cushions that had been in the same configuration since 1953. They tried traditional ‘pumping’ – banging them between their hands – but that had no effect whatsoever. So then, laughing themselves silly, they jumped up and down on the sofa cushions and pillows until they could in some way change their configuration. SOMEWHERE there are pictures of this silliness. It actually worked, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder. Every time I sat on that sofa after that, I had to giggle at the memory.

The other revelation of that weekend was that I came to terms with who I am. Sure, I’d spent my life listening to their stories, and – as importantly – Viola’s stories about them. But until that weekend – with just Margie, Anne, Joyce and me – I’d never really seen just their interactions: the sisters’ shared laughter and – something I’d never seen before – their comical teasing of each other, their back-and-forth argumentative and hilarious story-telling about each other, and exceptionally opinionated points of view.

All of this made me realize that I am truly a product of these women, of this family. As a matter of fact, after that weekend, I realized who I am. And I am so proud to have the DNA of these and all the other Phillips Women. Generations formed the person I am today. I am a Phillips Woman. I am proud to be another generation of the original Jenny, Addie, Margery, Anne and Joyce… the list goes on before and – with all the young women in subsequent generations, forever. Selena, Elizabeth, Catherine, Kimberly, Jenny…all all other girl children born of these women and their children and their children’s children. A true continuation of life, a wonderful legacy: we, and future generations are and will always be Phillips Women.

These are my memories and thoughts. I’m proud to represent our family tomorrow at Anne’s funeral. I loved – and love – Anne very much. I like to think of her reunited with Mom Addie, Daddy Vernon, Mom and – most especially – her beloved Jack.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-01T19:27:00.017-06:00

What a festive, wonderful season we had. Luke was so enamored with the magical concept of Christmas, but also very aware why were celebrating and how thankful we are for Jesus. Reid was along for the ride, but he did enjoy getting to tear into Christmas gifts and play with new toys.

We were able to do a lot of fun Christmasy things:
1. Visit Santa's Village. BIG fail on mom's part though. I didn't realize a huge Artic blast was coming in at 6pm that night (when we arrived). It was SOO cold and Ross was the only one with a jacket. We only stayed 30 minutes, but it was a fun 30 minutes.

Sweet Christmas Cheeks

Watching Santa arrive on the firetruck. The line to see him was an hour and half. Needless to say, we saw him a different day.

"Anybody home?"

2. Luke made his first gingerbread house at school:

I kid you not, one of the moms made ALL the gingerbread pieces for all of the 3 and 4 year olds at Luke's school. From scratch. A bunch of us mom's met up there one day and assembled the icing with the royal icing she made from scratch. These little masterpieces were the real deal. Precious!

So proud of a job well done!
Explaining all the pieces. The chocolate door was the first to go.
Ready to dive in!

3. We delivered hot cocoa mix to our neighbors. This was a new thing for us to do, but so fun to go and actually have a chit chat with our sweet neighbors and just see them during the busy holiday season.

4. We went and saw the trains at Northpark. This is a really great exhibit, that benefits a great cause (The Ronald McDonald House). Somehow we timed it just right that day. Everywhere we went as we would be leaving (the trains, the mall food court, Starbucks, etc) a HUGE crowd would ascend. We were thankful for good timing that day!

Whoop!

5. We went to a beautiful Christmas Eve service at the Heights. It really was so nice. This is truly my favorite part of the season. It just feels right going to the Lord's house and praising HIM for the glory of his son. Luke went with us to the service and had fun listening to the music and singing along to some of it. He did almost catch my hair on fire with the candle during "Silent Night", but no need for a fire extinguisher this year. Whew!
After the service we went home and jammied up! Then it was time to read "Twas the Night before Christmas." I usually try to give a prize to whoever reads the story best, but forgot to do that this year amidst all the hustle and bustle. (Note to self for 2011).

6. CHRISTMAS!!
Luke came down the stairs exclaiming "Wonderful!!" He was so excited for his new castle, although didn't understand where all the "guys" were. They came later via Gigi, but some Star Wars friends from Uncle Ryan served as great castle guards.

Reid made himself quite comfy in his new beanbag with his new snacktrap. Doesn't take long. ;)

My sweet cheeks.
A little Christmas bed hair.

Ross made us a delicious fried turkey and our friends at Elke's and Chocolate Angel did the rest. Have I told you that I LOVE the idea of having Christmas catered? When we weren't sure if our oven was going to be functioning or not, I called the peeps over there and they made my day sooo much easier. Just warmed up our delicious food and when we were done, threw the dishes they came in away. I think I might be onto something.

It was a wonderful day, full of toy playing, naps and movies and being with family.

7. Christmas - Take 2!
The evening after Christmas (The Moshell's headed to Georgia EARLY Sunday morning after Christmas day for Nanny's funeral), the Austin Hillbilies rolled into town. They were loaded to the max and poor Tay had to ride in the back of Papa's truck in her crate. Just like a dog!
By now, Luke and Reid had the opening presents thing down pat. They tore into them and scored a great trampoline! It had worn them both out and I LOVE it!

Thank you Scott!! Tron!
Our sweet Nana.

We spent the rest of the week enjoying time at the house and watching lots of movies.

8. For New Years Eve we all packed up and headed to Oklahoma to celebrate. Everyone was there, which meant Luke and Reid had endless playmates and grandparents and uncles to entertain. It's always great being with everyone and Luke loved playing outside. Of course we played our White Elephant game (got some great leather gloves and a Starbucks giftcard), and the boys again were spoiled rotten.

All the cousins...note all the boys!

"All the single ladies."
Chillaxin' with mom
Uncle Larry wondering why he let's all the crazy people come to his house.
5 generations: Pawpaw & Granny Hill, Mimi, Papa, Me and the boys.

All the grandsons and great- grandkids - again, note all the boys. ;)

It was a wonderful, blessed Christmas. We are so very thankful the the Lord gives us this time of year to reflect and rest, but most importantly to be with our loved ones as we celebrate HIM!

Merry Christmas Card

2010-12-19T15:05:00.001-06:00

From our home to yours...

On the Polar Express

2010-12-08T22:20:00.008-06:00

Last Christmas season Luke saw "The Polar Express" movie and fell in love with it. He already loves trains, so top that off with a train that goes to the North Pole to see Santa and you had him at hello. We watched 2,002 times (Whoop!), and I finally was able to taper off the viewings around March. When I found out that the Historic Grapevine Train puts on a North Pole Express ride, I signed us us. We went the Saturday after Thanksgiving to kick off the Christmas season. That afternoon, we gave Luke a gift to open and it was the Polar Express book (narrated by Liam Neeson, a classic) and told him we were going. He ran and put on his jammies and grabbed his robe and we were off. The cold weather and hustle and bustle of Christmas around Grapevine really brought in the Christmas spirit. The only thing we were not a fan of was the Christmas concert they put on for you while you're waiting in line. I guess it's just their idea of a nice way for you to wait, but if you or any of your children are sensitive to loud, obnoxious noise, it's not very fun. After that torture (and I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating, but I'm not), we walked outside and it was SNOWING! :) They have a snow machine that snows all over you while you walk through a maze of Christmas trees to board the train. The conductor punched our tickets and we boarded onto a train car decorated with lots of Christmas cheer. The elves on board were much more low key, and the mood peaceful and magical. The ride was wonderful and we sang a few songs, but mostly just looked at Christmas lights outside. Then Santa came through and shook hands with all the little ones (and maybe had his eye on Gigi. I told her I thought being Mrs. Clause might be her calling). It was a great experience, and I hope we get to do it again in the years to come.

The First Gift of the Christmas Season
Busted! (But still cutie patootie)
What could it be?

Waiting in the Christmas night air to board the train.
All Aboard!
Settling In
Handsome Boys
Reid's mission was to not be sitting still the entire train ride.

Great smiles Nana and Papa...boys, I'll give ya a candy cane to show some camera love.
What a good uncle to tolerate the joys of toddlers and things like the Polar Express.

Give Thanks

2010-11-30T23:04:00.000-06:00

The Austin Crew came up for Thanksgiving this year and reminded us how thankful we are for FAMILY! We had a great time and spent a lot of time:
1. Shopping - for food and Christmas gifts
2. Cooking - Self Explanatory
3. Eating - See above
4. Playing with two little boys
I'm at a point in my life where I can't decide if I prefer Thanksgiving over Christmas. I love how much less stressful Thanksgiving can be, and am a sucker for all the fall colors. However, I love the beauty of Christmas and getting to decorate gaudy and get away with it. I guess I'll just keep up tradition and keep celebrating both.
Thanksgiving was a crazy fun whirlwind, but we enjoyed it so much! Mom, Dad, Gigi and Mimi (plus two furry beagles), came up to Dallas this year for Thanksgiving.
We were up and at 'em early Thursday morning for a Belgian Waffle breakfast courtesy of Nana (thank you!), and to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

"Too early."
"What are we doing up so early?" (It really was around 8AM, but it takes us awhile to get moving. We all needed our coffee)
All the cooks in the kitchen.

After we all had some sustenence in us to start cooking (a bit of an oxymoron), Dad and Ross headed outside to fry us some yummy turkeys (canjun and traditional).
Meanwhile, Gigi and I set about in the kitchen making dressing, sweet potatoe casserole, green beans, homemeade rolls (Gigi specialty), mashed potatoes, cranberry salad (Mimi specialty and the only way I eat cranberries), a pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread (shaped as a cornucopia), two chocolate cream pies and an apple pie.

The desert spread...heavenly!

Scott was super busy this year...
Just Kidding. He did a good job setting the table. This might be his permanent job.
Carving the turkey and stealing a bite. If you haven't had fried turkey, try it sometime. It is so good, just like fried chicken!

YUM OH YUM OH YUM! Everything was delish, and the company even better. It's amazing how many dishes we used, but it was worth it.

Patiently waiting for the prayer and dig in time!

Our sweet Mr. Jim and Mrs. Martha came over later for deserts and dishing. We always love seeing them and are so blessed they live nearby.

A little after dinner craft with one cute little Aggie and his Gigi.

And what's Thanksgiving without some serious playing in the leaves. And leaves we do have:

We certainly did Give Thanks for all the God has blessed us with!

Oh Christmas Cards...

2010-11-26T11:53:00.003-06:00

Shutterfly is having a giveaway. If you blog about their cards (not hard to do), then you get 50 cards free - sold! We are big Shutterfly fans (not just because of a promotion). We have used them a few times for photobooks for the boys. They have a great program, you can either let them basically create it for you, or create your own. We also made an awesome book for Ross' grandfathers 90th Birthday. We have made calendars for the grandparents as Christmas gifts. Of course each month is a picture of one of the kiddos (seeing a trend here?), but they love them.
And we have loved creating cards through their site. We have done birthday cards, Halloween cards and of course Christmas cards. This year, my favorite Christmas cards are this one, and then this one, and lastly this one. I also really love how they have cards that make contributions to certain causes ("Livestrong", "The American Lung Association" and "Heifer International").
If you would like to get 50 free holiday cards of your own, just go here and plug in your info. You will get an email in a couple of days with instructions.
It's going to be a tough choice, but I have no doubt I will be pleased with the final product and be going to Shutterfly for many more projects!

Photos, Crops and Thoughts

2010-11-07T20:54:00.007-06:00

This year for my birthday (31st...ouch!), Ross and my parents totally surprised me with a new camera!! I have been wanting one for quite sometime, but didn't see it on the horizon anytime soon. Well, my awesome husband did some research and with the help of dear ole' mom and dad, they all got me a new Canon Rebel. I was so so super excited! I hate that I'm just now blogging about it, but it was definitely worth talking about.
Of course I have high aspirations of taking beautiful "Pioneer Woman-esque" pictures, but for now, just look back over the past couple of months and you'll see what I've come up with. I have been using Picassa to edit them with, but that basically means I crop them, straighten if needed and maybe adjust the lighting a little. I'm pretty sure I want to get Photoshop Elements to really give them some punch and that pretty vibrant color you see in so many of the professionals photos.
In the meantime, I'm just practicing with my favorite subjects. Here's some shots from our neighborhood fall festival last weekend, which by the way was awesome. I can't believe we haven't got before, but they went all out with bounce houses, a train and catered BBQ. Top that with a beautiful fall evening and it doesn't get much better.

The view up here is always better.

"Look at all that fun!" (too bad we were a little hesitant about trying it all out...maybe next year)

Instead we spent the evening watching Luke play on his "waterfall" (aka, the hill)
"Did you just see that?!"
Sweet smiles from a sweet boy
Mama likes pics with her sunglasses on so you can't see the bags under her eyes. ;)
Time for a rest...Watching the last traces of daytime disappear
Dreamers
Not to be left out, Reid joins the fun.
I'm outta here
My handsome hubby - I get this look a lot
I loved this one so much, because I just see his little mind thinking and savoring the moment.

Thank you so much mom, dad and Ross for my gift and allowing me to capture the precious memories! Love you!

Costumes, Costumes Everywhere

2010-10-31T11:15:00.010-05:00

Superman and Clark Kent

This fall we kicked off Halloween with our annual trip to the Fall Festival at the church. They do such a great job providing a crazy amount of bounce houses, and a petting zoo and more! Luke still has no desire to get in a bounce house. I know he would love it if he would give it a chance, but he's having none of it. Instead we visited the awesome ABF booths and had a great time visiting with friends and playing.

Where to begin.
"Yikes! It's the Penguin!"
"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"
"Hello there Miss Kitty Kat."
This cute puppy dog already caught a kitty in his mouth.
Delirious +Sugar Filled + Cold Kiddos = Fun times!

The next morning, Luke's school held a StoryBook Parade. The kids dressed like characters from one of their favorite books. It was such a cute idea, and the kids loved it. We utilized our Peter Pan costume from last year which worked perfectly.
Even the teachers got into it...I love his school! (Look at all the princesses and Fancy Nancys!)

Luke announcing his name and who he was dressed as.
He LOVED getting to talk in the microphone.
What a cute Emily Elizabeth!

Lastly we geared up Sunday night for some Trick or Treating! Luke was so excited and ready to roll. We have a great horseshoe block we live on and it's the perfect amount of trick or treating.
One cute penguin
Careful, he's got a weapon!
Ready to get some CANDY!
First house...let's go!Last house. Wait, this looks really familiar!

Meet me at the State Fair!

2010-10-05T11:14:00.000-05:00

This is the first year our families got to go to the Texas State Fair. Lucky Luke got to go twice, once with each set of grandparents! He even got to ride the Dart down once, which is almost as fun as the fair. While there he got to see many things, eat many things and ride a few rides! What a great time, we can't wait until next year!

Holy Batmobile Cool Car!

"Ohhh, this is where milk comes from."

This is a truck from Papa's work in Austin...terrible color if you ask me. ;)
Load 'er up!
Let's roll!
What a cuddly octopus.
"Uh, Nana..."

Are you ready for some football?!

2010-10-04T11:04:00.012-05:00

Touchdown!!

What comes before Part B? Part-A! And Partay we did for Reid's 1st Birthday. Long ago it was decided that he would have a football themed party. After all being born in late September in the Moshell family means the love of all weekends centers around football. We had a great time planning the party and loved all the friends and family that were able to attend. Reid loved having all his grandparents around to spoil him rotten and big brother didn't seem to mind too much either!

The tower of sweet treats

Football Suit Up

"Oh Nana!"
Grams and Maggie, enjoying some girl time!
Seesaw, silly girls!

Mia and her daddy

Handsome Aggie Daddy

Smile with Mimi
Sweet Maggie and her mama...
Precious Ethan and his sweet momma!

Luke ~~spraying~~ blowing out Reid’s birthday candle for him. What a great big brother!

Mia's cousin Laney from Georgia...we were so glad she could come too!
Rachel even coordinates her cupcake and balloon to match her outfit.
"Oh Mr. Kelly..."
"Oh Avery!"
Mia Jo

Reid reading his birthday cards

"Don't forget about me!"

Loving the balloons!

Mama and Nana...aka twins!

Time for bed...what a great day baby boy!!

On your 1st Birthday Reid

2010-09-29T11:28:00.001-05:00

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." Psalm 139:14

Happy 1st Birthday Reid Philip Moshell!
I really did know this year would go fast, but no idea this fast. You are the perfect addition to our family and we would not be complete without you! I love how much of your daddy you have in you. I did get the "eyes", but other than that it's all dad. You even has his laid back personality, but at the same time still busy. Your initials are "R.P.M." and you live up to them by your speed at things. You are still crawling up a storm, but also making your way around a room holding onto things. I know you will have the walking thing down before long.
You are quite analytical and really give what you're doing a lot of thought. Especially playing with your toys. You try really hard to make them work the right way, getting frustrated sometimes, but if you can't get it, just moving on.
We took you to get your 1 year check up (3 shots...ouch!) and you weigh 24 pounds and are 31 inches long. Both in the 50th percentile. What's funny is that is the exact same size that brother was at his one year check up. You like to analyze your food. You are quite choosy in the food department and we are working on broadening your tastebuds...or should I say texture buds, because that is what really seems to sway you. You are a huge carb fan (who isn't), but still not loving the fruit, so we are supplementing with baby food. I will be glad to have those days over. You still get two bottles during the day, but have become quite the sippy champ. The funny thing is you only want sippys like your big brothers... won't have anything to do with the "baby" ones. I guess that is to be expected. You do adore Luke, but have also learned to steer clear when he's flying all over the place. One too many "accidents" and you've realized it's best to scoot out of the way. You both love wrestling on the floor and jumping/rolling on the bed.

You do enjoy books, which is one of my favorite pastimes, and will sit with me all leaned back while we look through them. I love these moments. Also, you just like to come by and check in when you're playing, just for a little hug and squeeze. You have started a "screaming" thing of sorts. I guess your making sure we hear you (which we do by the way), but when you get up in the morning, there's no crying, just screaming...almost yelling. We're going to have to work on using our nice words.
You are a great sleeper and love your lovey and paci. However, you are most content to put paci away in the crib after you're done sleeping and we'll hopefully keep up that trend.Going to the park and playing in the backyard of some of your favorite things to do. Hopefully we'll get to do that even more when you start walking, but for now we just put jeans on to protect your little knees.
You are so full of awareness and soul. Sometimes you come across so serious, but I honestly think you are evaluating the situation until you know exactly what's going on. I love when I'm holding you and you pause and look straight at me. Just to know that we are together and all is well. You are such a blessing to Daddy and me as well as all your family and friends. Luke says all the time that you are his "best friend" and I'm pretty sure he's yours. Our prayer for you is to know that as much as we love you, infinitely, that God loves you even more than that. We are praying for you to know Him early in your life and to love and serve Him with all your heart. We will always be there for you, to talk, listen and hold you. Much, much love baby boy!

Baby boy is one year old!

2010-09-28T20:36:00.011-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday Reid Philip Moshell!

What a fun day we had today for your birthday! It all started with an early morning serenade by mom, dad and Luke:

Followed by some blueberry pancakes, and a little syrup, because you know it is your birthday!

After we dropped brother off (via carpool...sniff!), we headed to music class and you got serenaded again by all your friends. The twins turn one tomorrow so we got to sing to them too. And Miss Holly had bubbles today, what a great surprise!

After a birthday morning nap, Uncle Scott came by to see you and we went to have a special lunch at Spring Creek BBQ. You didn't seem too interested in the BBQ, but the rolls were pretty delish.

We picked up brother from school (who loves carpool by the way), and headed home for some playtime and another birthday nap.
While you were napping, mommy and brother made some special Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies just for you.

Classic Luke attire: underoos, cape and a stick

After naptime, we hit the backyard for some wonderful weather and fun playtime. Rachel even came by for a quick pitstop and sweet birthday wish.

We had one of your favorites for dinner: hot dogs and sweet potatoe fries, although you were not excited to eat. Thankfully when dad got home he helped distract you so eating wasn't such a big deal. And because you ate dinner, we got to serenade you one last time with your birthday cookie! You are a fan of the cookies, so we'll put them on our "to make again list."

Present time was fun with brother helping to open the wrapped gift (a new push car that pops and sippy cups), but you were a pro when it came to bags and inside was a puppy of your very own. We hope you love him as much as brother does his "puppy." We named his Barkley for you, just cause it seemed to fit.

After some good times tearing tissue paper and playing with boxes it was off to a bath and jammies. I think you had a great day, but were ready for bed, because you were all smiles when we put you down.

Happy Birthday baby boy! I know you're one, but you're still my baby! Love you!!

Downtown, I want to go Downtown

2010-09-28T12:40:00.003-05:00

Amanda and I have been trying to coordinate a day to take the kiddos downtown to have lunch with their dads at ReelFX/Radium for some time, and we finally got a date picked! We made it even more fun and took the Dart downtown for a very relaxing train ride.
We met the daddy's at work and then walked over to Mamma Mia's for a yummy pizza lunch. It was a beautiful day and a great memory. We can't wait to do it again!

PS: Check out the new ReelFX/Radium Website:
www.reelfx.com
Great job to Ross and Kelly for their awesome design and implementation!!

Hailing the train.
"Ticket's please."
Watching the big ones get the tickets.
Luke was a little unsure when the train got started.
Soaking in the sights.
Ok. Now this is a lot of fun!

Lunchtime
Sweet Baby Boy!

Luke's 1st Day of Preschool

2010-09-02T20:49:00.003-05:00

This is the smile we get after trying to coerce him to smile for the camera and we finally say "don't you dare smile at that camera." Stinker!

What can I say but Luke loves preschool...and so do I! We had "meet the teacher" yesterday and that's where Luke met Mrs. Denvir of the Friendly Frogs purple room. She is a really neat teacher, with an awesome room full of exciting things to do. Luke LOVED it. He didn't want to leave yesterday, but I promised he would be back today. I think it was a great idea for the CDC to move "meet the teacher" to a day or so before school starts so it's all fresh for the kiddos.

Here's another forced smile.

They also started using the church check in system at the CDC which is wonderful and in my opinion just another example of how they are always trying to make the school better.

We went for a special Chick Fil A breakfast (Luke ate a whole pack of Chickin' Minis and tater tots, Reid ate 2 - heaven help me these boys are going to eat me out of house and home). The new superman backpack hasn't arrived yet, but we did have our Buzz Lightyear lunchbox. The forces of evil have no chance against Buzz and Superman.

Luke did tell me several times he didn't want to go to school, just "church." Thankfully his classroom is the same room he goes to for Joyland, so it was an easy transition. One of these days we tell him he's actually going to preschool, but for now it's just "Mrs. Denvir's classroom." Also, a certain blond friend is in his class...'nough said.

I got a big hug outside the classroom and off he went. I was a little sentimental, but mostly excited for him to have such a fun day with friends, old and new.

Reid saying "Asta la vista brotha!"

Reid and I stopped off at Starbucks on our way home and then once Reid was down for his morning nap I simply relished in the quietness of the house and getting to sit with my chai latte and Today show (no PBS for me). I realized I LOVE preschool too! Of course I was able to get a few things done around the house and Ross actually came home early today to work on some stuff. That was nice so I could leave Reid for his afternoon nap while I picked up Luke.

He was sitting quietly on the rug as they listened to Mrs. Denvir read a frog story while wearing her frog hat. So fun! He was ready to go when he saw me, but waited until she was finished. He said he had a lot of fun and the only mishap was the forgotten lovey and puppy to have during rest time. We'll make sure they're along for the ride next time. They made play-dough and he got to bring a little baggie home which is basically worth the equivalent of gold to him

He didn't eat his Teddy Grams, but everything else was gone in his lunch box. I always think it's interesting what the "hit" lunch items are...and then not so much of a hit. We are so excited for Luke to go to preschool and are so blessed our church offers such a great program. I can already see how special my one on one time with Reid is going to be too. The CDC truly is a wonderful organization with Godly women serving there and loving all these little ones. Yay for school!

Whew...what a great day!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

2010-08-30T21:34:00.007-05:00

Our view from the pool

Last weekend our small group gals (minus three - we missed you Kathy, Kristen and Jess), headed off to Amanda's parents lakehouse for a weekend of R&R. And what a wonderful time it was! Amanda and I headed out together Friday morning and had a great road trip full of Starbucks and chitter and chatter. We got to her parents beautiful house and had a fresh lunch complete with a salad from her mom's garden (totally makes me want to plant a garden). After that it was across the street to their neighbors pool. They are really good friends with their neighbors and they are so kind to let her parents (and guests) use their pool. It's an infinity pool that overlooks the lake, so you really feel as if you are just soaking in the lake, minus the vegetation and critters. It was so nice to just soak in the the pool and then lay out and catch some rays while reading magazines. Complete relaxation!

The house with the 3 levels with the white front was our "pool house." You can probably see all our towels and bags still strewn all over the place.

Line 'em up boys!

Kim and Leona arrived just in time for a fabulous fajita dinner and then we spent the rest of the evening sitting on the balcony watching the sunset and drinking mango "adult" drinks courtesy of the bartender (Mr. Mitchell).
Come bed time, Kim and Leona were planning on each having their own room and I was going to share a room with Amanda because I could sleep through a tornado and she being pregnant has to get up a lot at night. As we were all settled in, we heard a scream and Leona found a friend in the guest bathroom (a teeny tiny scorpion) who had crawled up the drain. This is not uncommon in the "country" and why you should always leave the shower curtain outside of the tub, so if any friends do crawl in, they have a hard time getting out. Anyways, Leona doused him in Tilex and Amanda smashed his brains out and I flushed him down the toilet. Problem solved. However, Leona wasn't ready to move on and really wanted Kim to sleep with her because of her encounter. ;) I think we all stayed up late that night just talking - it was so slumber party-ish!
Saturday morning I slept in (as in didn't even blink my eyes) until 10:30! I couldn't believe it! It was heaven though to truly have that long block of sleep and to wake up naturally. We suited up again and headed for more pool time and to watch all the boats coming into Hells Gate.
After lunch we went with Amanda's mom to hike up to the Hell's Gate point. It was great being up there. I was on high alert snake patrol, because if you didn't know this about me, I absolutely don't do snakes. We didn't see any, but we did see a great view and had fun watching all the boats anchor up together to party on the lake.

"Kris Kross will make you jump, jump!"

Saturday night we boarded the boat and drove over to a little dive on the lake for dinner. It was quite the show and our poor poor waitress just didn't have a clue. It was good food (maybe not what we ordered), but good and made for good laughs. After dinner we drove home in the dark for a twilight cruise. It was so awesome being on the lake with it so calm and an almost full moon reflecting in the water. It was so serene (my glass of wine helped with that too) and I was so thankful for Gods gift of friendship and rest. He is good and I so appreciate Amanda's parents so lovingly opening their beautiful home to us so we could have this weekend together.

Amanda and Kim

Me and Leona

The ladies of the lake

11 months...the homestretch!

2010-08-29T21:10:00.003-05:00

How is it possible that in one month baby brother is going to be a year old? It's crazy, but at the same time I've really seen a transition over this last month of moving into toddler hood. Probably because he is crawling and climbing all over the place, but he's also losing some baby pudge (not too much), which makes him look a little older.
Luke was not a climber, or a crawler, so it's been a new world for us this past month. It's so fun though to look at him go to town all over the house and pop up in funny (or not so funny) places.
In lieu of his love to climb, here are some places we have found he really likes to be:
1. The dishwasher - loves it, as seen above, but this makes it very hard for mom to load and unload the dishes. Basically I let him play there after I empty the clean cycle.
2. Stair master! When I was away at our small group ladies retreat, Ross stepped into the laundry room for less than a minute and when he came into the living room Reid was halfway up the staircase. Thus the old wooden gate comes out and I look forward to the day when he can safely go up and down the stairs because it's just annoying sometimes to hassle with it. Plus, Reid really really like climbing those stairs.
3. The couch - Anytime anyone is sitting on the couch, he wants to be with them. He likes to sit for a moment to observe the room and then he's all over them, plowing into the pillows and standing against the back patting like crazy trying to climb over the back.
4. Under the table - Although this isn't technically climbing, he loves to hang out under tables, especially the kitchen table with it's eccentricities. Even when I call him to come get in his highchair, which is in a clear line of shot, he will go over and under the table and then come to his highchair. Such an explorer!
5. Outside- If the backdoor or front door or garage door are open he makes a beeline to get out! I'm going to really have to watch his desire to escape. He cries when we shut the doors, but when I let him crawl outside in the back yard he LOVES it! He always manages to find some stick to put in his mouth (sigh...), and his little knees are so red from crawling on the patio, but he has a great time. Thank goodness for a little cooler weather so we can endure playing outside again.
6. The refrigerator - who knew this cold closet could be so fun, but again, if it's open, he's in there pulling anything he can off the bottom shelf of the door. Are you getting the idea that he's a little bit busy, because he is!
7. The pantry - to go along with the kitchen theme, he loves to pull out water bottles and this bit plastic bowl I use for holding potatoes. Of course he promptly removes the potatoes and takes off with the bowl. Maybe he's going to have an interest in cooking? I'll take it!

Reid I love how much fun you have with your new found talent, and how you screech and squeal with delight when you're happy! The countdown is on big boy!

Ahhhh....Vacation!

2010-08-01T20:42:00.007-05:00

We did remember the Alamo.

Ross and I have been counting down to our little getaway. We planned a little San Antonio trip this year...without the boys! Woo Hoo! They had a Nana/Papa/Gigi camp here at our house while we were gone and of course got spoiled rotten and had a blast!

Ross and I rolled out on Saturday morning and it was so relaxing just to swing through Starbucks and hit the open road without "chitter and chatter and what's the matter?" going on inside a confined space. Ross and I just took the time to catch up on life, something that can get hard to do at times. We talked about everything and nothing and it was wondeful just to have that time to visit. We stopped in Austin and had a refreshing lunch at EZ's and then made our way down to San Antonio.
Saturday night we went to the DCI marching band competition. For anyone who had a great band experience in high school it's so fun to go. It's comprised of college students who try out for different marching bands across the country and they are soo good! Plus I just love the feel of going to a football stadium in the summer night air - it takes me back.

We stayed at a great Spanish style boutique hotel - The Marriot Plaza San Antonio. It had a great pool area with a great pool bar. It was very tropical and there were even peacocks walking around the premises. The mosquitoes were a little thick, but have no fear, the bartender tossed us a can of Off and we were set.

The rest of the trip we simply relaxed and our motto was "wherever the wind takes us." Granted a little more wind would have been nice, it was hot, hot, hot...and humid, but that's what pools are for.

I hit the Woodhouse Day Spa one morning, which was heavenly and we ate some great food at several places. We did a lot of window shopping, but never went on a huge binge (which is good), and then saw Inception (which if you haven't seen, you really should...I thought it was one of the best movies...a top 10 for me).
It was just so nice for us to get away and have time to ourselves. We spent a lot of time relaxing and thinking "what did we do before we had kids?" Of course, by the time we got home, I was so anxious to see my little guys. Luke ran to me and said "Hi Ashley!" (thanks to Uncle Scott, who thinks that's hilarious), and Reid was all smiles and kicks.
Thanks so much to Nana, Papa and Gigi for making our trip possible - We love you!

Adios!

10 Month Top Ten

2010-07-28T22:21:00.002-05:00

Family Photo: Reid 10 months, Luke 3 years

Here's Reid's Top Ten for Ten Months:
1. He is becoming quite the busy baby boy. Not only has he started crawling (before he just army crawled, because the wood floors were too hard), but also pulling up. We lowered the crib mattress and it's a good thing. As soon as we come in the room, even if he's asleep, he pops up as fast as he can and pulls up. It's so funny how he tries to wake himself up and get started.
2. He loves to say "mama" when he's sad or needs something (go figure), and "dada" when he's having a good time. When eating he says "mmmm", most of the time.
3. He is still not a fan of green veggies, but we'll keep working on it. However, he does like pasta, crescent rolls and french fries.
4. The teeth are finally starting to come in! He has two bottom teeth. He had a harder time than I remember with Luke with them coming in. He was fussy for a day, but a little Tylenol fixed him right up.
5. He has started having a bit of separation anxiety. When he's dropped off at Joyland there are quite a few tears, but he quickly moves onto all the fun toys.
6. He does so good to sit and play, when brother doesn't take things out of his hands. He loves the "big boy" toys, so I really should just get rid of all the baby toys.
7. He loves to play "patty cake" and has the clapping down. Also, he has started waving, more hello waves than bye (see above note on separation anxiety).
8. Reid is a little tiger! He loves to growl when he's on the prowl, it's so cute! It's a deep throaty growl and I honestly don't know how he does it so long.
9. Reid has started shaking his head "no, no, no, no". I don't know how they pick up on that word or head motion so quickly, but it's almost like it's ingrained. It is funny to watch how fast he does it.
10. He loves wrestling with brother and daddy on the big bed. He has to have a few resting moments when it gets a little rough, but he loves rolling and getting thrown in the pillows - boys will be boys!

How 'bout them Boys?

2010-07-21T23:28:00.003-05:00

For 4th of July weekend, we made the trek to Arlington to scope out the new Cowboys stadium. This was a bit of a belated Father's day gift for Ross, but since Nana and Papa were in town that weekend too, it seemed a great time to go.
With the weather raining on and off it was a great indoor activity, and we got to break in the new wheels which was nice since there were 7 of us going together.
We had paid for VIP tickets (via Groupon), but when we got there they were gone, so we did the self-guided tour. All in all, that worked better for us having a 3 year old in tow. Luke loved being able to run all over the field, and we stayed out there for quite a long time. The boys tossed the football around and we just enjoyed that big open space.

A little apprehensive coming onto the big field...none, the less, suited up!
The big boys
Sideline view
Nana and her sweet fellas
Mommy with her little sweethearts who are trying to escape...stinkers. ;)
My 3 favorite guys!
Family portrait

In the locker room, it almost fits!
Yep, it almost fits.
"Shoot."
"I'm going to Disneyworld."

Date Night

2010-07-01T15:46:00.004-05:00

One excited little 3 year old boy!

Luke and his little blond friend share many passions, one of them being MOVIES! So for their birthday this year they got to go have a "date" complete with lunch at McDonald's, cupcakes and going to see "The Princess and the Frog." They loved it!

Ladies first...

...now it's Luke's turn!

I'm not sure if Luke is showing her something in his mouth, or trying for a kiss...

Either way, she thinks it's hilarious!!

It was so much fun that when another much anticipated sequel to a sequel came out, we made plans for another movie date!

Buying the tickets with dad...decisions, decisions.

These two are so much fun and it's so fun to see a movie with kids. Some of the comments I heard were:
"Where's that big baby?" - Blondie
"Where did the potato go?" - Luke asked this one 10,000 times and
"Can I have another fruit snack?" - Luke (we found Toy Story 3 ones - food is always a priority)
Note these were all said at full volume voices. We are going to have to work on whispers in the theater. None the less, we had a blast and can't wait for another fun date night!

The critics give it two hands up!! What a great movie for great friends!

RJ is 9 months

2010-06-28T12:26:00.001-05:00

Reid Philip at 9 months

Our little RJ (Ross Jr as he is sometimes called) is 9 months...already! Reid looks so much like Ross it's crazy, but he's just as sweet as his daddy too! He is getting to be such a little man.

This picture really reminds me of Ross' baby pics.

At 9 months we are:
1. Reid finally made it to his knees, but after 5 seconds it's man down. He gets in a few rocks before he goes down so I'm sure it won't be long until he's crawling.
2. Added "mama" to his vocabulary and the infamous "na-na", whether he's shooting for "banana, no-no, or Nana" I'm not sure yet. ;)
3. His favorite time of day, hands down is bath time! He LOVES his little bath chair and just gives happy squeals before we put him in the tub. He loves banging his toys on the tub and kicking those little legs.
4. Which leads to his second favorite thing to do: Swim! We love going to the pool. Reid does a great job floating in his baby raft and Luke prefers to stay in the little kid pool. We've have a great time this summer going to the pool to cool off and burn some energy.
5. His favorite foods are still pears, but he can't quite get ahold of the diced ones, slippery little suckers. He also loves Baby Mum Mums (which I didn't know existed with Luke), but I love them too because there is a lot less mess. He is still not a huge fan of green veggies, but we're working on it.
6. Has become quite the stomach sleeper and loves to curl up with his blanket...just like big brother did at this age (and still does).
7. He's got legs! And he knows how to move them. Reid can kick up quite a storm,whether it be sitting in his rocker, his carseat, the bath or the pool. He gets those legs pumping and really tones them...as seen below.

"Mom, stop talking about my legs!"

8. Reid is very attentive...when he wants to be. As soon as this little man is up he is looking everywhere to find Luke. And then when he's eating, he's making sure his line of sight includes Luke. I guess I should just say, he loves Luke and can't get enough of him. Even when Luke takes a toy from him, or bonks him on the head (sometimes not accidentally), Reid would always choose to be with Luke.
9. Weighs 21 lbs (50th percentile) and 23 inches long (50th percentile)...he's just an even keeled kinda guy...and I like it!

"See ya later!"

Month 8: Celebrate & Dedicate

2010-06-04T20:34:00.002-05:00

What a whirlwind of a great time we had for Reid's 8 month birthday! He turned 8 months old on Memorial Day weekend and this was also the weekend we had his baby dedication at church. All the grandparents came and two of the great-grandmothers and both uncles were able to come too...what a treat!
It's such fun to have all the family in town together, and our boys are so lucky to have such dedicated grandparents (great and great-great too)! We also are blessed with friends who are as close as family and whom our boys love dearly! What an awesome "family" the Lord has given us since the grandparents live out of town. We have friends who share our ups and downs as parents and who we look to for advice as we try to raise Godly boys.
The dedication was perfect and I love that it was on such a special day when we remember those who fought for us and died for us so that we can even have the freedom to choose what we instill in our boys. Reid was definitely on the sleepy side as the dedication crept into nap time, but he did wonderful. Big brother was a little stage shy and wanted to go sit down after about 1 minute up front.

Team Moshell
Ross and his boy
The Moshell Family

The Greenwood Family

Afterwards we headed to Spring Creek for a little BBQ and vanilla ice cream, nothing says Memorial Day like BBQ. The weekend was such fun: pool trips, cooking out, watching movies together ("The Blind Side" - love it!), shopping and lots of good visiting.
Meanwhile, Reid has been making quite the progress in his 8th month. Here's a glimpse as to what he's been up to:

Army crawling EVERYWHERE! He's trying to get those legs up, but we had to put the gate back up at the top of the stairs because he's getting so fast.
Likes for food: pears, apples, blueberries, apricots, bananas, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, toast (with a little butter please) and apple puffs (devours).
Dislikes: green beans, green peas, Cheerios (just because he can't grab them yet and gets frustrated) and yogurt.
Loves to talk, talk, talk when he's eating a favorite food, which makes a really big mess. Makes a very sad face and gags when he eats a non-favorite food.
Started sitting unsupported. He can sit for a couple of minutes before he's down, but he thinks it's all fun and games. He does love to pat his tummy and talk though when he's sitting up, show's how big he is.
Has started making a growling noise, especially when eating...hilarious. I will do my best to get it on video.
FINALLY dropped the dream feed, so he usually sleeps 7:45/8:00 to 7:30/7:45. He takes two naps and is flexible in that if the morning nap is short or just a cat nap, he will make up for it in the afternoon.
Loves bath time, especially with brother who he continues to ADORE! He loves to talk to him in the back seat and show him how fast he can kick his legs in the tub to make splashes. They are so fun together.
He loves his activity table because he can walk around it in his seat, and now he practically runs. He's going to really enjoy when he's able to walk.
Got to meet his 2nd cousin, Kayleigh for the first time. She's a doll and just 25 days older than him. They had a lot of fun vying for the same toy to slobber all over.

Reid you are most definitely GREAT at 8! We love you little man!

Brothers & Bluebonnets

2010-04-29T20:54:00.005-05:00

Brothers

(Reid: "Heaven help me.")

I know flowers may seem a little girly, but I think boys and bluebonnets go great together! First they are "wild" flowers, boys tend to be a little wild ;), they are blue (obvious), and these boys are tried and true Texans! I've been anxiously awaiting bluebonnet season to take their pictures and so lucked out with a beautiful area right near our house. We had to run really fast across a semi busy street to get to them, but we made it and had a really great time. Luke loved just running (of course), and Reid was really into examining the flowers (eating them...sigh).
I sure do love bluebonnets - they make me feel so springy and Texan!

Oh how sweet, he's smelling the flowers.
Upon further inspection, he's digesting the flowers - awesome!

Concentrated Running

Such a great big brother!
"Hey brotha." -Job

Kisses - goodness knows this won't last forever, so I'm glad I have pics now.

Chillaxin'
Sweet flowers for mommy! Among all the blue, he kept bringing me the yellow flowers.

And an added bonus. Disclaimer: It was really windy, so it's hard to hear what he's saying, but he's re-enacting the opening scene from Sound of Music...one of his current favorite movies.

7 month itch!

2010-04-28T15:11:00.000-05:00

Here we are, 7 months old! I will explain the title of this blog, by saying the only "itch" I have for Reid is that he would start eating solids. This little (not-so-little) man is not a fan of the baby food. I started trying around 6 months without any luck. Then a fantastic round of colds/ear infections/sinus infections/2nd ear infections struck and we backed off for almost two weeks. We were lucky he was eating anything. So now that we've all been feeling better it has been my goal to get him to eat something off of a spoon without spitting it out. Oh boy! We've tried cereal, cereal w/ pears, yogurt, bananas, and showing him the bottle and when he opens up quickly putting the spoon in his mouth. He just frowns and spits out the food. I guess this just threw me for a loop since Luke loved eating and has ever since. I think Reid's going to be a little pickier. We did have a little bit of a breakthrough this week. A friend of Nana's suggested putting the baby food on my finger (hands washed in hot soapy water) until he got used to swallowing the food. It seems to be helping a lot. He likes to grab my finger to put it in his mouth, and every few bites we'll use a spoon. So I guess he's more of a finger food guy...literally!
Other 7 month milestones include trying like mad to get up on all fours and get moving,I can tell he's going to be a busy one, taking big boy baths with brother (they have a blast, and I'm pretty much always soaked), and talking up a storm. Luke went to Austin for a couple of days while we had a garage sale and Reid seemed to really like being the only child. He started saying "dada-dada and baba-baba." I guess he was finally able to get a word in edgewise. He has finally got down to two naps a day, which is nice when we are trying to run errands in the morning. As soon as he starts eating solids regularly I think we can drop the dream feed which will be really nice.
Reid is such a fun baby and continues to be pretty laid back. He also is sharing his 7 month birthday with Nana who is turning...oh just kidding, we don't tell that sort of stuff! ;)

Easter Egg Hunting

2010-04-27T14:28:00.004-05:00

The Easter Baskets

"I found him!"

Going ahead and opening the egg to survey the contents.

Sadly we didn't get any "Easter outfit" pictures Easter morning. We were happy to make it to church almost on time. :) I'm sure there will be plenty of other Sunday mornings when we are less rushed to get some cute outfit shots. We had a great Easter Sunday though, and a wonderful brisket lunch. Afterwards Luke hunted Easter eggs in the backyard and did a really good job finding all of them (with a few clues here and there). The eggs were the best incentive for continued trips to the bathroom and I think he went about 20 times more often than normal so that he could get an egg. Whatever works though! Luke has continued to do fantastic with potty training, it's been such a blessing. He also has worked really hard on his new reward chart system. When he uses good behavior (sharing, helping clean up willingly), or nice words ("yes ma'm/sir on his own), he gets a sticker and once he got 10 stickers he got to take his chart to the store and pick out a new movie. Lucky for him "Princess and the Frog" just came out on DVD, so guess what we're watching tonight after bath? I think his next reward chart will be a trip to the new yogurt shop in Allen...yummy!

Getting his completed reward chart.
"Cool."

And the prize! Awesome job Luke, keep up the good work! (What a face!) ;)

Halfy Birthday Reid!

2010-03-28T15:08:00.000-05:00

"This does not taste good."

How is it I get a little boy that turn 3 years old, and a few weeks a later my baby turns 6 months! Oh wow it's flying fast!! Granted we are pretty busy, I can only imagine what it's going to be like when we have kids in school...makes me tired just thinking about it.
So here we are, at the half a year mark with Reid. He is such a sweet little baby...well, he's kinda big, but still small. He is such a laid back baby and he just loves Luke. When he's in his jumparoo or at his activity table, he's all eyes on Luke if he's in the room. And if Luke happens to come over to see him, he practically jumps out of his chair with excitement. I adore it, and treasure it. I know there are quarrels to come, as siblings just do that, but my prayer is for them to be best friends, and to respect and protect each other. God does work miracles!
Anyways, Reid has started rice cereal, not a fan. I've added a little bit of pear and banana to try and sweeten it up...not a fan. He just spits it out. I'm not too concerned that he's not getting enough though, because he continue to sleep through the night a good 12 hours. We will keep practicing. We are still dream feeding and he's still got one arm in the swaddle. Woombie was so good to us, almost too good. He loves it and breaking him of it has been a challenge. He's done good with one are out about a week now, so I'll start working on his naps with both arms at. Who knew that would be such a challenge?!
He's rolling all over the place and I keep finding him under the coffee table. He seems to like it under there though. He is trying to sit up, but still falls to the side or forward. He plays really well on his tummy and is pumping those legs like crazy. I really think he'll crawl pretty soon, unlike Luke who was the "Scooter."
I've determined he's not a "morning" person, as laid back as he is. He prefers being held more first shift, but after a good morning nap he's all about playing and having fun. He enjoys bath time and just eating bath toys and kicking up a storm. Wait until we take him to the swimming pool this summer, he's gonna love it!
We are going to the dr. soon for his 6 month check up, so stats coming soon, and poor shots for baby. I only did half of his 5 month shots (there were so many), so I'm not sure when we'll catch up, but we will!
We love Reid Philip, you are such a joy and lovebug!!

"Here she comes again!"

"Dad, it's poison, I swear!"

M&M's, Gummy Bears and Suckers, Oh My!

2010-03-25T23:22:00.005-05:00

The Goods: Success Chart, Sweet Treats, and The Chosen Big Boy Underwear

This is the what the jar looked like on day one...and joyfully it's almost empty which means we are at what I would say is the end of "potty training." Hallelujah!! I can't begin to tell you how much I DREADED potty training Luke. It's a bit of an understatement to say he is strong willed (all of which he gets from me, any laid backness is total Ross), so I just knew this would be a battle of the ages. Originally, long ago, I told myself I would not have two in diapers. But once I got pregnant, and then it was the heat of the summer, and I was oh so tired and oh so hot, I passed. I enjoyed my last few months of getting to take naps and having my only child around. Plus, I had heard they could regress after a sibling was born, so I put it off.
Then I put it off until after the holidays and buzz of all that died down. Well, I've learned the "buzz" doesn't die down, because we've been going full force since Jan. 1. So, Luke turned 3, and I had enough dirty 3 year old pull-ups. It was time. We picked the week with no activities and no visitors or going out of town and I made my plan of attack. I won't lie and said I didn't read two books, countless web posts and talked to many a friends on their methods, but I just combined a little bit of everything into my madness and took the plunge. And what do you know, we survived! It took us about 3 days of constant motivation, timers going off, candy galore, and reading books (and singing songs with his new CD player), and lots of Diet Dr. Peppers for me, but I can say Luke is potty trained!! It's wonderful and I'm so proud of him. He really only showed resistance a couple of times, it was more reminding him to go, but now he will go on his own, and most of the time he tells me he's going "by myself!". He still gets a "prize" for each time he goes, and a sucker for going #2, so I don't really know when that ends, but I'm fine with a few m&m's a day to avoid changing pull-ups (or buying them)! He's only had one accident while "out" of the house at church, but I attribute that to being there 3 hours and getting preoccupied with having fun. He has even stayed dry a few times during naps and bedtime, but I'm still not ready to try night-time training yet. It does give me hope I can get him there before long.
Some funny sayings I've heard from him are:
"Poo-poo, get in that potty right now!"; "I can't go, the shark ate my poo-poo."; "I'll push the button to go tee-tee."; "It's a space ship" - no explaining, you can imagine.
It's just another reminder of how big he is getting, but he really did a great job, and for him (and me), I'm glad we waited. Somehow I think this was our window of opportunity and we hopped in at just the right time! Yay Luke!!

Strutting his stuff in his favorite underoo's: WALL-E,
but he also loves those Spiderman undies too!

Back to the Tummy!

2010-03-12T14:48:00.002-06:00

That's right! Reid's figured out the art of rolling from his back to his tummy! It's a whole new world from this view. I'm just waiting for him to do it in his sleep and get sad when he can't figure out how to get on his back again.

My 3 year old

2010-03-04T17:44:00.002-06:00

Dear Luke Sawyer,
I truly can't believe I have a 3 year old! I remember thinking to myself how foreign it would be to have one, but here I am, and truth be told it's great! I'm so excited for you to be 3 and to experience all that comes with no longer being a "baby" but a "preschooler." This year has been a true test of patience, but has had some really fun moments. Your silliness is at an all time high and it's your joy to make other people laugh...and then get some giggles in yourself. Singing has become a favorite pastime too, and your current favorite movie "The Sound of Music" has provided lots of opportunities to learn some great songs. Another one of your favorite songs to sing is "Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin?" (thanks Papa). It's really great when this is the first song you sing as we are walking into church.
You love to just talk and have conversations, "So, how's it going?" is a common one, as well as "what's your name mommy?" (daddy, nana, papa, grams, granddad, Taylor, Reid...etc!). You also feel it necessary to tell me your full name a lot too....just in case I forget. Another fun saying is instead of saying "why?" you instead say "but how?" It's hilarious!
Some other fun 2 turning 3 years old facts:
You tell us your favorite color is blue, but you do pick green a lot if it's an option. You love playing with your friends, and have been so blessed by wonderful friends (and mommy's) that we get to play with pretty often. Favorite toys are cars and your batman cave. You have started pretend play which I love listening too, and also playing with Reid. You are a great big brother, showing almost no signs of jealousy, only protection and affection for him. He adores you and is constantly watching you and trying to figure out how to get to you.
Throughout this year you enjoy running and then jumping in the air and falling down. I pray one of these days you don't break a leg doing this, but it's just one of those things you love to do.
You are such a boy through and through with your love of rough and tumble, tickles, and action. You love taking Daddy to "Narnia" in the closet under the stairs, and have recently enjoyed puzzles and "Go Fish."
Your favorite place to eat is probably Freebirds, but your favorite restaurant to go to is "Ronald Donald's", but you hardly eat anything when you go there. You are excited to go to school, although I think you are going to be a little disappointed when you realize you don't go to the middle school around the corner yet...but you are going to preschool at our church, so it will be a familiar environment with some great teachers and friends.
We went to the Dr for your 3 year check up and thankfully no shots this year. However, beware, next year they are due. You weighed 35.5 pounds (75th percentile) and are 3 ft 4 inches tall (90th percentile). You are just a tall boy, but maybe that will come in handy if you ever want to play basketball.
We just love you so much though sweet boy, and this journey of parenthood is more blessing than we could have fathomed. It's full of moments when it's hard, but necessary to discipline, but at the same time making us bite our lips so we don't laugh outloud. And then of course there's lots of laughing outloud and silly times. We are so privileged that God chose us to be your mommy and daddy and we are so proud of you already and the sweet heart that you possess. It is our prayer that your heart will know the true love of Jesus Christ, that's it's infinitely more than even our love for you (which is a crazy super duper amount you won't even realize until you're a daddy someday), and that it's our job to spread His love. You are already spreading so much love and that is such a gift for us to see. Happy 3rd Birthday baby boy, we love you!!

We had a Batman birthday party for Luke while we were in Austin and it was a great time! His buddy Will joined us (along with precious baby Blake) and he got to see all his grandmothers too! Great-grandmothers were even there! What a wonderful birthday! Don't you love his new "say cheese" smile?!

Compassion

2010-03-02T13:48:00.000-06:00

Last year, while reading one of my favorite blogs, The Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, she posted a trip her husband and oldest girls took to visit their compassion child. I had never heard of compassion, but as soon as I looked into it I knew it was for us. You get to adopt a child and begin correspondence with him or her. We adopted a sweet little boy named Lazaro. So far we've gotten about 5 letters from him and I can't get them opened fast enough to see how he is. I ache for his life, that he lives in such hard conditions, but then again, he doesn't know of all the luxuries we have living in America. He has such a positive attitude and already a love of the Lord which is such a blessing to me. He lives in an AIDs sticken area and although we aren't sure, there's a good chance he or one of his family members has AIDs. Anyways, here's some pictures of our sweet guy...I pray that one day I get to hug him in person, and I truly encourage you to prayfully consider adopting a child through Compassion. I'm also attaching a video link from one of their conferences...it will bring tears to your eyes, but it's AWESOME!!
http://www.compassion.com/sponsordonor/catalyst-video.htm?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SP_SEG-0399_COMPASSION_ENEWS%20%281%29&utm_content=

5 months old...and a 3 year old on the way!

2010-02-28T12:28:00.001-06:00

Not a sweet smile picture, but I do love those big sweet brown eyes.

I know he thinks he lives in a carseat, but he does a great job!

Our little one is 5 months old today! And the big one turns 3 in 2 days...yikes! Time is flying, but we are having a great time with our boys. Reid is so sweet and smiley. He loves others, sometimes gets a little sad when you walk out of the room, but usually gets back to what he's doing and is fine. He has started laughing at Luke's silliness and that is priceless to me. He is always keeping an eye on big brother since he flies through the house like a bat (hence the Batman birthday decorations), and I can tell he's itching to be on the move so he can follow him around.
Reid is trying so very hard to move. He almost can roll from back to tummy,and when he's on his tummy he kicks like mad and scoots along. I'm worried he's going to get carpet burn on his face, but so far, blankets protecting his sweet skin. He continues to talk, and give me lots of "ahhhh's" and "mmmm's", but no "dada or mama" yet...I'm working on it though.
He's doing good sitting in his bumbo chair and his new bath chair. I wish I would have had that with Luke because Reid loves sitting in the big tub, splashing and kicking. He was just too big for his baby tub, and my mirror was getting very spotted.
I'm amazed how fast time is flying, but I'm loving this bigger family we have. It's so much fun with two, and we've gotten into a good routine. Reid just fits right in, and we love him so much!

Reid is such a daddy's boy already!
When he gets fussy (which is rare), guess who makes it all better? :)

Meanwhile, the big one is waiting oh so patiently for his upcoming birthday. ;)
And this just makes me tear, the big one at 5 months...sigh, so big, so fast! Slow down Reid!