The past few weeks

It seems this time of year there is so much to do outside to get ready for summer. This weekend we picked up mulch and got 2 major areas of our back yard weeded out and mulched. We still have everything up around the house yet to do- trim, mulch, and plant flowers. We hope to knock out a big chunk of it this weekend with Tad off on Monday. We also hope at some point to paint our shutters and front door black- (after 2 years of living here) and find a black bench for the front porch.

The boys LOVE being outside. In more garage sales this weekend I found another little Tikes bubble car only it was yellow & teal- I know probably the girl version, but they are hard to find at a cheap price so I got it anyway. Well on Saturday we put the 2 cars, the roller coaster, and the bubble mowers in the backyard to try and entertain the boys while we worked. They don't understand how to use the cars with their feet but they stay entertained with climbing in and out of them. Anyway, we had a little bit of a scuffle between the boys. It seemed that both wanted the new car and decided that they would push each other out of the way to take a turn. We saw lots of pouting from both of them if they didn't get their way. They also are intrigued with the little fountain/pond in the landscape but so far they aren't trying to climb up the mulch to get into it. They LOVE swinging too. They were outside for quite a while but we still had tears when it was time to get them inside for a bath. They still have to stay on the screened porch during the day until Tad is home to help us in the yard- they go different directions and one person can't keep up with them.

Peyton really thinks Connor should let him have this car.

Peyton decides to run away pouting.

Finally everyone is happy in a car.

For Mother's Day we were able to travel to my grandmother's house. We had a great lunch with family and then helped them outside for a little bit. The boys did great. Their yard is huge so the boys can run around and do great in their front yard without too much trouble. We took a few pictures before we left but the boys were already loaded in the van so we didn't include them.
The boys loved my grandparents beanbag. They watched a movie without even moving.

Three Moms- remember we were working outside before this picture- I am brave to post these of us.



Finally, we learned on Sunday that a member of our church, Joe, is leaving for Iraq June 10th. Sunday was his last time there b/c he has to report somewhere this coming weekend. I believe he is in the reserves. Joe and his wife Tonya are such great Christians and have 2 young daughters. They always have people into their home, they help so many people out, they are so involved in our church. Joe will be deployed until the end of October. They are such a close family. Please keep them all in your prayers. We will miss him.

Have a good holiday weekend coming up if I don't post before then.

Answered Prayers

Anytime now they should be releasing my grandfather from the hospital. The cardiologist was going to come by this afternoon and send him home. Shocking his heart yesterday put it back in rhythm and he is able to go home. I'm not sure if they are going to keep him on any additional medicine or not. I am sure my grandparents are anxious to go home and sleep in their own beds too. Thanks for keeping him in your prayers.

I added Ethan Powell's website to my blog. I don't know these people, but please pray for this family as they are experiencing every parents nightmare. Ethan has lukemia and is in need of a bone marrow match. There are bone marrow drives being set up all over. I didn't realize that it is such a painless process to see if you are a match. They don't take any blood and they only swab your mouth 4 times...painless. Anyway you can get on his website and check under updates. His parents Ben and Becky update it so frequently. They are in Memphis now at St. Jude's and I think at least Ben went to Harding.

We've had a beautiful week, sunny and mild weather. The boys love playing outside on the screen porch. We don't go in the yard until Tad is home because I tried that once and they both run in opposite directions and fast and I can't catch them. With 2 adults you can contain them in the backyard easier. I wish we had a fence, but it is against our neighborhood regulations.

Finally here are a couple pictures from our trip to the zoo. Notice the boys have on long pants, we were lucky to hit a 60 degree day and it was perfect for us and the animals. I realize they aren't in the most attractive outfits but when you're pulling out longsleeves at this point in the season you wear what still fits. This was the boys first time in the petting zoo...not one of my favorite attractions but they seemed to like it.

I think they were more excited initially about getting out of the stroller and running around than checking out the goats.

(Peyton- orange shirt; Connor- Yellow shirt)




Have a good day.

Prayer Request, Garage Sales & A little of this and that

It has been a while since we last posted anything. It is challenging to find computer time lately. My grandfather, Ralph, is in the hospital right now. He will be 87 in June. His heart is out of rhythm so they tried a medicine to see if that would help. So far it hasn't. The cardiologist is going to shock his heart tomorrow Tues. at 1:30 (which he isn't looking forward to) and we are all praying that works. He will most likely stay in the hospital for another few days after that. He's been in there since Wed. last week and I'm sure he's tired of it. Please keep him and my grandmother in your prayers. The most fearful thing about the heart not beating in rhythm is the development of clots in the heart. Fortunately he doesn't have those right now.

We had my sister's family up from Florida to visit all last week. I can't believe how big their girls are getting. Kylie is 4 and Kenzie is turning 2 this month. It is quite different and fun to have girls around. Tad and I made the observation that we have quite a selection of trucks, cars, farm stuff, etc. Tad (jokingly) thinks we should hope for having a boy next time because we wouldn't have to invest in all the dolls, my little ponys, etc." but I personally hope we need to buy those things someday. We all had a good time. We spent 2 days at the zoo. It's nice the zoo is only 5 min. away and we have a season pass so you can make short trips and go back more than once.

I'm anxious to buy another stroller. Of course we already have 3 so you'd think we'd be set, but we didn't research the jogger very well and we should have bought it with a swivel front wheel. It makes all the difference. Now that the boys are almost 30 pounds each (yes they are chunks) it makes wrestling that jogger seem like a beast. When I come home from a day at the zoo with it my arms are screaming with pain. We are hoping to order a new schwinn this week that has the swivel and then I'll be more excited about getting out for walks.

My new favorite hobby is garage sales. Yes I am quite the garage sale fanatic. My sister and I had a great time scouting the sales out the night before they are listed in the paper. There were 3 neighborhoods listed for Friday morning so we were able to drive around Thurs. and actually shop at a couple. Then on Friday morning we were there 1 hour early and people let us shop early. We looked like we were on The Amazing Race, darting through the neighborhood in the black odessy, running up driveways, back to the car, etc.. We hit every house (about 16 or 20) by 9:08 am and the sale was to start at 9 am. Anyway, we felt quite proud. It does pay to go early. Among the treasures were a Little Tikes herbie car, a Little Tikes ride on bike, a "roller coaster" for the yard-( I actually didn't know what this was, but my sister said I wanted it and the boys love it)!, a Little Tikes gas pump, Little People animal zoo, and other misc. fisher price small toys. I only buy plastic stuff you can wash with clorox water, but I'm pleased to say we got all of those for no more than $5.00 each and everything is in great shape. Our neighborhood and my friend Susan's neighborhood is having one at the end of the month so you can bet I'll be at it again. I'm looking next for the Little Tikes plastic picnic table. You can't beat a good sale, especially when it is in good shape and your kids are only going to use this stuff for such a short time.

The boys are working on their 2nd set of molars.. These by far are the worst teeth yet. They each have 10 teeth already and the same ones too. We are back to several shirts a day b/c of all the drool, which reminds us of the reflux days. They wear bibs constantly. Anyway the boys aren't sleeping well and so Tylenol is our best friend this week.

Thanks for the prayers for my grandfather. We hope you all have a great week. I hope to post pictures from the week with cousins soon.