The first giggles are the best!

Here is a video of Trey laughing. He started doing this just this past week. He will laugh only after you get him excited. Then you can just touch him anywhere and he yells out. It is so cute! The video is about a minute but the best part is towards the end! (Sorry for the poor quality of the video, it was on my camera.)

My mom has been staying with us after her surgery. Her and Trey have really hit it off. She is the one in the video that is making him laugh.

BIRDS...

...I officially hate them now! Well sort of, you see I hate the ones in the nest on our front porch. I have identified them as a Barn Sparrow. They are really pretty in looks but that is it! They are the meanest birds alive. They are also the most dirtiest things I have seen. They poop on my porch. The poo leaves stains on the concrete and it also attracts tiny tiny bugs. They are so small that you have to be real close to see them. They get on everything that is on the porch including DJ's daily morning newspaper. This is how we discovered them. He kept feeling them crawl on him while he read the paper and we finally figured out they were from the bird droppings. I have to clean the porch off daily to keep the bugs (and poo) to a minimal. This is were they can get really mean. It takes me about 10 minutes to clean the porch. Meanwhile the parents are circling the porch area diving down to attach me. If I try to spray them (purely defensive) they get worse and they will also recruit their neighboring friends. Today there were 6 birds total trying to attack me. I have been hospitable and nice, but I just don't know how much more of this I can take. I can't wait till the baby birds fly away and everyone leaves. I am knocking down the nest and praying they never return. Next spring I will be watching them and making sure to prevent them from building another nest. The birds last year that built a nest in my wreath were not nearly as messy or mean. I think I would rather have those birds back.

3 weeks + 30 photos = One long catch up post

I'm not kidding, this is by far the longest post I have ever created. However, it contains a lot of pictures and things we have done over the last 3 weeks. You may not really want to read a post this long and I understand, but here it is just in case you don't have anything else to do!

Parent Commitment Service, May 17th, 2009

Several times a year our church does a Parent Commitment service to allow parents to commitment themselves to raising Godly children. This is usually done when the children are newborns. We did this with Hannah when she was just a few months old too. Here is the picture of Bro. Bruce holding Trey while introducing him to the congregation and announcing our commitment.

This is just a sweet photo of Trey sleeping. This is my mom, Pam holding Trey at the park after going to the Farmer's Market for a play date. She is undergoing chemo right now for breast cancer and is doing really well. She will soon have surgery to remove both breast. The cancer is shrinking very quickly and is not very aggressive, both are answered prayers.Memorial Day Weekend - Trip to Iowa
We went up to Burlington, Iowa (DJ's birth town) for his cousin Kody's marriage to Kaya. It was a beautiful wedding and Kaya's dress was so gorgeous! Here is a picture of DJ and Hannah in the hotel pool. Hannah had a blast there thus starting our summer swimming fun! First family photo with both kids! Also this was Trey's first time in a pool. Hannah's first time in a pool was in Iowa (different hotel) too. Kody and Kaya ReynoldsMy first dance with my son! He is still to young to refuse! Hannah dancing with Kody. This girl danced the whole night. The wedding was at 6pm and the reception went until midnight however we left at 11pm and that was only at Hannah's request to go to bed. She wore herself out dancing with everyone...and I mean everyone!Iva and Hannah dancing the night away. Iva danced just as much as Hannah and also with everyone!The next day we went to an indoor water park there in Burlington. It was a small one and some of the slides and rivers were outside, but it was a nice adventure for the kids. Hannah didn't really do much, but she did enjoy the lazy river with daddy. Here is Iva waddling in the kiddy area. DJ and Kaylee played alligator while Hannah and Iva rode on their backs. Here is Hannah on DJ's back with Kaylee close by. (By the way Kaylee is Kody's sister and she came home with us after the wedding for 2 1/2 weeks and stayed with various family including us.) Back in Arkansas, Trey decided he would practice rolling over (and eating his fist). He never quite made it to his tummy but he sure did get his practice in. I just love this little guy! Here is a funny picture of DJ and Trey after the fell asleep watching Sports Center together. This is DJ's lullaby and I guess will be Trey's as well! :) We took a trip to the Crater of Diamonds with Kaylee and DJ's parents. It was just after a rain and the ground was semi-muddy. I didn't really care to get dirty so I left the hard work up to Hannah and DJ to find me a diamond! However they had not such luck. Hannah did enjoy digging in the dirt all day (and I think DJ liked it too)!

Trey liked the idea of finding Mommy diamonds too!

Grandma and Hannah surface searching for diamonds.

One night we took Kaylee bowling. We had a great time but had time and believe it or not Hannah beat me (everyone did) by a few points. Everyone broke 100pts. that night......Everyone but Trey!

One day we took Kaylee to Magic Springs and Crystal Falls. Most of the rides and kiddy pool were closed, but everyone still had a great time. Hannah rode some rides with Daddy and Kaylee. Here is one with water involved. She was a little scared at first but wanted to ride it several times. You can see them in this picture in the second row from front.

Here they are after the big water splash...can you tell Hannah was just thrilled!

Again another ride with Daddy and Kaylee (purple shirt)...and again can you see Hannah's over excitement. She wanted to ride this one again too!

After a long day at Magic Springs we decided to go to Playtime Pizza with DJ's mom Cindy. Here is a picture of Kaylee (back car) and DJ and Hannah (front car) on the Go-Carts. Hannah really does like for Daddy to go fast. I don't!

We took Kaylee to Pinnacle on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for it too. I stayed down on the playground with Hannah and Trey. Here is Hannah starting to bury herself. This kids loves the dirt!

Here is Lexi (our dog) "guarding" Trey while I went to check on Hannah. She is a good dog, but just gets a little too excited sometimes. She and Trey both enjoyed the shade that day!

June 2nd was Trey's 2 month doctor visit. He was a trooper during the exam and not so much when the Dr. Thompson "fixed" his circumcision. Poor guy had it growing up and so he wasn't too happy when the doctor pulled it back down. My fault completely! Anyway, then he was a trooper thru the shots too. He only cried for a minute and then started flirting with the nurse. Such a teaser! His weight was 15lbs 2.8 oz and was 24 1/2 inches long. Both were upper 90%. One big baby!

Here is the nest on the inside of my front porch and the 3 baby birds that constantly poop on my porch. I will go out once every couple of days to spray it off and the parent birds start to attack me. This is what I get for my hospitality! Next year I am posting a "No Birds Nest" sign! Last year I had a couple of birds make a nest in my Easter wreath and ruin it. This year I didn't put up a wreath for that vary reason! However annoying they are, they are still pretty cute to watch. I hope they learn how to fly real soon though!

Hannah likes to watch them too.

This past weekend we went down to Texarkana for DJ's friends wedding. Craig was DJ's best man and has been his friend since Pharmacy school. Here is Craig and his bride Holly during their first dance.

Hopefully things will slow down for a while. This week I am picking up a few shifts at work and then next week is VBS at my church. After that I am taking a vacation from vacations and doing nothing! Well, maybe I'll clean my house for my husband!

Say Cheese!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to. It really isn't much but it made my day seeing all the smiles!

Don't you just love big smiles!

Hannah helping DJ cut our rainforest-like grass. The grass was so high he opted to use his dad's new mower.

Hannah wanted her hair and towel like Mommys

Being sick is not fun...

Especially when you have two kids and a husband who is working nights and sleeps during the day. Oh, and it is Mother's Day weekend with rainy weather! That is how my weekend went, but here are the better details.

Friday we had an appraiser come look at our house and so the whole week I spend cleaning the house and getting it ready for him to come. In other words, I over worked myself. Thursday night I felt some tenderness in one of the girls (I am still breast feeding) and despite all my efforts to relieve the blockage it developed into Mastitis. This is where one or more of my mammary glands has become inflamed and infected. The symptoms are a sore and swollen breast, flu like body aches, fever and chills. I woke up Friday morning with all of these. I did all the recommendations (including bed rest) and nothing was working. So I had the doctor call me in some antibiotics to help me get better. I started feeling better Saturday off and on, but yesterday was the first day I got out of bed without pain or discomfort.

Because of all this, DJ has been trying his best to take care of me and the kids and still get enough sleep for working nights. We also had a birthday party to go to on Saturday that we had to miss (very upset about) and a Twister game that I couldn't go to. This would have been the first of the season I would have gotten to go to since we have season tickets. Maybe next time. Also it was my younger brother Matt's first time to go to prom. I wanted to be there to take pictures of him in his tux before he left, but was on bed rest and couldn't do that. He did come by to let me see him which was so nice of him. He looked great. I can't believe he is that old! The other thing I was upset about was missing church on Mother's Day. It was my first with Trey and I was looking forward to a wonderful day with my kids and husband. Instead I was stuck to the house and rest!

Well despite being sick from breastfeeding, I still plan to continue. However I think if I get this again, I may consider stopping. I don't think I could do this again! It took everything I had to keep my sanity and take care of the kids too. Hopefully this is a one time deal! Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Hope you all had a better one than me!

Shrine Circus

Saturday night after getting back from Fayetteville I took Hannah to the circus. My grandfather is a Past Potentate for the Shriners here in Little Rock. Every year they have a circus. I haven't been in years, so I thought it would be fun to take Hannah for the first time. Hannah really did enjoy the elephant ride and donkey rides. She also enjoyed the acts put on by the mimes. I received free tickets to the show and was able to give some away to my friends. Hannah had a great time, so it was worth taking her, even if the act was different and smaller than before! My two brother, Matt and Taylor and Taylor's girlfriend Brittney came along too. Here are some pictures.

Matt and Hannah riding the elephant.

My grandfather Arlan. Thanks for the tickets!
Hannah, Matt, Taylor (behind Matt) and Brittney all laughing at the act.

These guys were the funniest!

Hannah riding the donkey.

A not so perfect weekend getaway

Tickets: $20
Necessity Souvenir Sweater: $50
Program/marker for score keeping: $3
2 ponchos: $10
Food: $15
Spending an hour in the indoor track stadium due to tornado threat, an hour and a half in the rain only hoping to see a game, and never getting to see an actual game but still get quality time with the husband: PRICELESS

This past weekend I planned a short getaway for me and DJ (without the kids). He has wanted to see the Razorback Baseball team play all season. So, I bought the tickets, arranged for the kids to stay at grandparents, and for us to stay with his sister in Eureka Springs. It was going to be PERFECT! We arrive in Fayetteville with cloudy and threatening weather, but we were optimistic that the game would still play. Not realizing how much cooler it is up there we didn't pack any warm clothes. So, when the storm started blowing in we started to get pretty cold. Our souvenir was a sweater jacket for me and DJ a rain poncho (since they didn't have his size in a sweater). Then we get our food and just as we are about to sit in our sets the announcer comes on and informs us that the field must be evacuated due to an emergency (tornado) and everyone much move to the indoor track stadium across the way from the baseball stadium. It wasn't too surprising since the tornado sirens started going off while we were getting our food. So after spending an hour in the track stadium, we moved back to the baseball field only to sit in the drizzling and sprinkling rain. We toughed it out for another hour and a half until the game was finally called. The make up game was going to be the next day (Saturday) at noon. We originally planed on driving back to Little Rock around that time, but since we really wanted to see a game after driving all that way, we made a few calls to see if we could stay for the make up game. Everything was worked out for the new plan and so we headed to Eureka Springs for the night. It was nice to visit with his sister's family that night and next morning. Saturday we decided the game was probably going to be canceled due to the weather coming in from Oklahoma and we would not try to make it. Unfortunately we didn't get our money back for the tickets since the game was made up around 5pm on Saturday. It would have been a great game sine we were playing LSU. Oh well, maybe we can see one next season. After all that went wrong, it wasn't a wasted trip after all. DJ and I got to spend around 8 hours in the car just talking and connecting like we haven't been able to do in a long time. It was a great trip after all! Thanks for taking it with me honey, I love you!

DJ chowing down on an overly priced hot dog while waiting out the tornado in the track stadium.

Tusk trying to keep everyone calm and happy
Our heart shaped stamps so we could get back in the baseball field

Toughing it in the rain

The field score board.

The rain coming down pretty hard on the infield tarp.