A day at the Cheyenne Zoo...

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"When a woman has a kingdom heart, she has an active 

understanding of what matters most to the heart of God.

She lives in the balance of passion and contentment.

She learns to love well, give without regard to self,

and forgive without hesitation. The woman with a 

kingdom heart may have a duffel bag full of 

possessions or enough treasures to fill a mansion, 

but she has learned to hold them with an open hand.  

Hold everything with open hands. I don't think we 

are ever allowed to grab hold of anything or anyone 

as though they matter more than the kingdom of heaven. 

When you hold relationships with open hands, then people come 

in and out of your life as gifts of grace to be 

cherished and enjoyed, not objects to be owned 

and manipulated. And then when you hold your 

dreams with open hands, you get to watch God 

resurrect what seemed dead and multiply what 

seemed small."

Tommy's 2nd Birthday

Tommy a video by noel6635 on Flickr.

So grown up...

Here are some recent pictures taken by the lovely Aubry Lynn Photography. She did such an amazing job! These are only a few that I have seen so far and I'm dying to see the rest!

Andrew looks so grown up :(

My sweet Madison :)

And, last but not least...

Tommy, a.k.a. The Terror!

Tommy @ 23 months old

Tommy is pretty much the goof ball of the family. He has such a funny personality and is so loveable that you are drawn to him. He talks and laughs non-stop, if only I knew what he was saying. He mostly speaks gibberish, which I'm very rusty at, and I can only understand about half of what he is saying! Some of my favorites are: "Pease" (Please), "Andewww, hep me!"(Andrew, help me), "Mo pease" [More please (while making the sign language hand signal for more and tilting his head to the side)], "Ere bu go?" (Where'd Buzz go?), "Noooooo!" (in a whiney, elongated voice), "No touch!" (whenever someone touches or gets close to me, he's VERY territorial, lol), and "Tatch!" (Catch, which he only warns as you get hit in the face with whatever he wanted you to catch).

He recently had his 2 yr old check up which we did a bit early and got 8 shots! 4 in each of his chunky little thighs, OUCH!! When he got home he slept thru the pain and when he woke up, he stood up and realized how sore his legs were so he stood there, reached his hands up and said, "Andew, hep me!" Melted our hearts! In true form, he recovered quickly and soon began wreaking havok! Did I mention how adventurous he is?!? Definetly keeps me on my toes, lol. Certainly not like my other two. He weighed in at 32lbs and was exactly 3 ft tall. Was in the 95th percentile for both. And, just like everyone else, the Dr. had to comment on how white he is! Geesh! He's white! Get over it! Can you tell I've heard it one too many times, lol! The usual comments are: "OMG! He is sooo funny and cute!", "He is so big!", "He's really pale!", pretty much in that exact order. Oh, and...."Where'd he get those beautiful blue eyes?!?"

His favorites right now: Watching any of the Toy Story movies, Fraggle Rock, the cartoon versions of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Elmo, and Cars. He absolutely loves Buzz Lightyear, any cars, and his big brother. He enjoys dumping out our coin jug and putting them back in, pushing the cat off of me and emptying out the dishwasher.

Next week, I start watching a little 5 month old named Bella. A girl I work with had an amazing internship opportunity and needed someone to watch her on Wednesdays and asked if I could watch her. I'm excited to have a little baby girl in the house again and I'm even more excited to see how Tommy interacts with her. He absolutely LOVES girls! Hopefully I can back into the swing of watching two little ones at once! I haven't had to do that in 8 years! Yikes!

18 Months old :(

Kids: Update

I am an AWFUL blogger, lol! I should be better about posting updates and pics of the kids for all of our family that is out of state but with working more hours and all the kid's activities our blog suffers :( Sorry in-laws :)

The picture below captures Tommy's little personality so well. He is such a character! He will be the kid I worry about when he gets to school because he will be the class clown. He has to have everyone's attention and is such a goof ball! My sister took this picture while we were out to lunch at Old Chicago's. A few days later I went out to eat Pho with a bunch of friends from work and once again had all eyes on him. Every waiter stopped by several times to pay him a visit. He sure knows how to ham it up, eh?

He still isn't walking but will hold on to just about anything to walk around the house.

Stats:

strolls religiously, lol

loves little gem chocolate doughnuts

waves to everyone

is very attached to his big brother

gets into EVERYTHING, especially my movies

has 14 teeth, including 4 molars
torments my poor cat

is a HUGE flirt

Madison just finished up her first season of soccer. She's been in everything from dance to basketball and I think she finally found something she really enjoys. She had a really great season. She came close to scoring about 6 times but for one reason or another, didn't. I was very proud at the effort she put in. She was recently in two plays. One was a Pirate play which she played a prisoner (pic below). The other was a short 3 Little Pigs play where she was the mother. It was so cute! The choir at her school does such a great job, I always enjoy their performances.

She is starting to look so much like her dad. Her soccer pictures came in a few weeks ago and I was surpised by how much she's changed. She looked like a blonde version of him! It's so funny cause when the kids were little they didn't look like either one of us, lol! But, now that they are getting older, they are starting to look like they belong to us!

My sweet Andrew is getting so big! He is wrapping up his second round of basketball this weekend and will be starting football soon. He plays rec basketball and then a few months of Jam basketball which is a competitive league. He LOVES playing. Most days he goes to the rec and will shoot around or play a pick up game.

I am so proud of him with school. He has been in the honor roll all year and was recently accepted into Honor Society. He hopes to finish off the year with straight A's. He's had 1 B every semester and is so close to his goal. As of Friday he has all A's and one B in his Honor's Math class but it's an 88% and just re-took a test so he could hopefully get those extra points he needs to get an A. I admire his hard work and determination.

Little Terror

A year has passed, rather quickly I might add, and my little "angel" has turned out to be quite the terror. He has such a funny and quick tempered personality that makes him quite different than my other two. Andrew is a very mellow kid, always has been; and, Madison, alhough she's very sassy now, she was always very sweet and quiet. Tommy, on the other hand is a goof ball that LOVES attention. He's also very strong willed. He already has such a stubborn, hot tempered side to him! Oy, imagine when he hits the terrible 3's! (My kids were ornery at 3, not 2). The picture above is him trying to sweeten me up so he can get into the "forbidden zone", a.k.a. my scrapbook area. LOL. Don't make fun of me, Lynn and Heather!

This is him right after he reached for my cup of soda which he dumped over his head!

The little Terror also likes to get into the cat food! When the baby gate isn't up and I've turned my back for a sec, he attacks poor Kitty's bowl of food. I won't lie, I've had to fish some out of his mouth on more than one occasion! He's too darn quick sometimes!


Taking a shower is such a challenge some days. This is what I stepped out to find! This time he had an accomplice...My cat! Tommy had toilet paper everywhere and my fat, compulisive cat is right beside him eating it! The cat took off running as soon as I peeked out cause he knew he was in trouble. Tommy just handed me some toilet paper and gave me one of his cheesy little sh*t kid grins.
Though he's a handful, I love that kid to pieces!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! I am very fortunate to be surrounded by amazing kids and by friends who have become my family. For that, I am thankful and blessed.

My two little blondies are getting so big!
No resemblance, but he's MINE! Eventually he'll look like one of us, LOL.

Aaliyah (my neice), Madison and Abrianna

My sister, Lynn

Aaliyah, Madison, Dee and Andrew. Not pictured: Dre and Tre.

I am awful with names and embarrassed to admit that I forgot the couple on the left's names :( , 'Lil Charles, Charles and Michelle, Jessica and Lynnie. Not pictured are: Louis, DeSean, Lee and I.

The menu included deep fried turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, artichoke dip, cranberry sauce, macaroni & cheese casserole, green beans, corn, green chile, chicken mole, tortillas, and dinner rolls. I had my favorite wine, Chateu St. Michelle Reisling as I enjoyed my feast. We finished off the night with pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, chocolate cream pie, apple pie and some dessert shots of Chambord liquor topped with heavy cream :P All in all, it was a great dinner!

8 and counting

I can't believe how fast eight months went by! Tommy is at that age where his personality is starting to come out and he is learning new things constantly. He absolutely LOVES people. Everywhere we go, he is constantly trying to grab people's attention- which isn't hard with a face like that! I know, every mom thinks their kid is adorable and I'm guilty of it as well :) Tommy is very curious and is always trying to figure things out. I love how at this age you can actually tell when the "light turns on" and they have learned something new.

Thanks to Uncle Lupe, he has found his love of Twizzlers! Not a fan of all the sugar but it breaks my heart to see those crocadile tears fall when you take it away.
He also loves those little biter biscuits. I only give these to him when he is naked and ready for a bath because they are MESSY! He isn't crawling yet, which I'm slightly thankful for because I can do without him getting into things! I have tried to get him to crawl but all he does is scoot back and then roll over and laugh at me.

Stats:

Stage 2 foods

Started a sippy cup, though not very successful yet :)

Claps

Plays Peek-a-Boo

Loves fries, biter biscuits and twizzlers

Gets excited when he sees us

Loves to torture the cat

Dances

Weighs 21 lbs 11oz. (60%)

30 3/4 in. long (97%)

18 1/2 in. head (92%)

Has two teeth on bottom

Still has his big blue eyes, which I'm hoping he keeps, but Andrew and Madison's eyes changed at around 3 years old. He had his flu shot and the H1N1 shot about 2 weeks ago. As always, he cried for about 5 seconds and was fine. Still breaks my heart though. He was a bit fussy the next day but other than that, he didn't have any side effects to the shot, thank God!

Until next time, have a great month!