Exciting News!

I have the most exciting news!!! Guess where I will be Nov 8th at 1 o’clock……
At Lucas Oil Stadium watching the Colts play football!!! Eric landed some tickets today!!! I can’t wait!!! ♥

lizards

This afternoon was yucky because I had to go to the dentist for two fillings. He was having trouble getting my mouth numb, but after 4 shots, he finally got it! Shew! That was no fun. So, tonight, because my mouth was still pretty numb, Eric & Levi went to get me some ice cream!!! YUMMY! When they got back home, Levi came running into the house screaming "Mommy, Mommy, I got you a lizard! Your lizard has ice cream in it and M & M's too!" He was so excited about my lizard! ;)

Thanks, honey! It hit the spot :)

blessings

We've had a really wonderful weekend!! The weather has just been absolutely gorgeous - cool and sunny. Friday evening, we ordered pizza with our neighbors/friends (I get tired of saying neighbors/friends, so I'm just going to start calling Bob & Jill our "friebors"...awesome!) and just played outside. We are blessed with such great friebors!! :)

Saturday morning, some mommies headed out to the zoo with the kids. WOW, what a great day to be at the zoo! It was really cool out and even looked like it would start raining. Got a few sprinkles, but nothing that scared us away. The lions were up roaring, the elephants were prancing around, the monkeys were goofy acting, the gorillas were up and about and the giraffes were roaming their area...I've never seen such action with all the animals before. The kids loved it! We packed a lunch and shortly after eating, we headed home for naps. Saturday evening was GNO - girls' night out this month!! Dinner started at Puerto Vallarta and then we headed to see Post Grad at the movies. I think it's kind of tradition that we end up at the Pie Kitchen and just chat about what is going on in our lives. I just need to give a shout out to all who went - had a great time! ;) Can you believe the next time we go, it will be October? OCTOBER - fall.....hot chocolate.....crisp breeze in the air.....awesome.

This morning, we headed to church and had some really great worship time. I look so forward to Sundays. I love my church, my church family and my great friends!! :) Our Bible Fellowship class was great today. We've been reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and doing the study guide that goes along with it. Incredible book. Today, we talked about people that have inspired us in our Christian walk. Lots of people shared some great stories. I felt like the Lord wanted me to share what's been on my heart for a long time now. I'm so inspired by Paul & Gretchen. I shared with the class briefly that they are two people who have seriously been through more trials in the past 3 years than anyone I know. Ever. And you know how they've responded to those trials? By drawing closer to God. By asking God to break them down and build them back up with a heart like Job "though you slay me, yet will I serve You." Their faith has become their ROCK. Hard times have hit and they still find Joy. THAT is amazing to me and has inspired me to change my heart. My prayers have changed over the last year. My desires have changed. I can honestly say that the desire of my heart is to love others like Jesus loved me. Like he loved you. Now, I have a long way to go, but the journey is amazing. I want to leave a legacy for my child(ren) that stuff doesn't matter. The "things" in life that we think are so important really aren't. The one thing that is important is to know Jesus. To love him and to love others.

Wow, I didn't mean to go off on that tangent, but maybe someone out there needed to hear it today :) Our friebors invited us over tonight to celebrate JILL'S BIRTHDAY! FUN!! We grilled out with them and their families. Had a fun night of corn hole (Jill, you should quit your job and play professionally!!) and goofing around. Watched the Giants & Bears play and are just sitting here joyfully enjoying having the windows open and listening to the sounds of night time. Here's to a great upcoming week!! Oh, geez...it's 11 o'clock. Gotta hit the hay! ;)

Boys and their toys

I had choir Thursday night and when I got home, Eric showed me these pictures that he took - so funny! Levi played with his J.D. tractor (which he got for his 1st birthday from Grammy & Papa - it's the toy that he will probably still have when he's 15!) and found some of Eric's tow straps to hook together.

Eric said he played with the straps the entire evening. :) Very cute!

I know I just posted a picture of Levi asleep, but these were too cute to pass up! Thursday night, when we checked in on Levi, here are the "toys" he fell asleep with.....

Yes...the red squares are pot holders from the kitchen and the blue thing is a spatula. He's one hilarious kid!!

Of course, bed time wouldn't be complete without "Little Doggie" :)

Jesus loves the little children

“But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”” –Luke 18:16



Eric got a new Bible and it has become Levi’s favorite book. :) This is how we found him when we went to check on him before we went to bed last night. Pure preciousness. Lately, more so than ever, my prayers are consumed with asking God to claim Levi as His own. To bring him up as a man of God. I pray that Levi will become obsessed with Jesus and truly love others as Jesus loves him.

The Vulcan EBF - 25

There is a new toy at our house. It's a fully automatic Nerf machine gun. It shoots like a gazillion bullets a second and makes a huge mess. But, it's so much fun!!! :)

God's Promise

Eric got a couple of cool shots on Monday night after the storm!!

The Bobsie Twins Reunite

Last weekend, Bob & Jill invited us to go back to the lakehouse for a night. We wanted to do something small and fun before school started back for Eric. After we got there on Friday night, the guys started up a fire...

...while the kids played and acted goofy...

...and then we made s'mores!! Yum!

After lots of playing, the kids all sacked out up in the loft and watched a movie. :) Cute!!

Levi fell in love with the wheel barrel!

Janie & Jill - so sweet!

And here's a shot of the kids on the way home. They played well together and Levi is very excited to go back to "Kevin's house". When we said we were going to the cabin, he thought we said Kevin...so, the cabin will thus be called "Kevin's house". :)

Thanks guys for a great nigh of fun!!!

High Five

This is like one of those pictures in the old High Five magazines that you used to see at the doctor's office...you know, where you had to figure out which things are wrong. I see two "odd" things in this picture:

I told Levi to get his Crocs on and he picked out two different shoes.

Instead of playing with the numerous toys that Levi has in the garage, he chose his Dad's landscaping tool to play with. Go figure!

My sweet baby Daddy ;)

I just need to give props to my sweet husband tonight! The first few weeks back to school are extremely busy and hectic for Eric. He has an incredibly stressful job and while it can sometimes get the best of him, he tries to usually just take it in stride. Last night, Levi was up crying from 11:30 until 2 am. Horrible. (He had another ear infection and is much better now!!) At 6 am, Eric got up and headed into the office. He got home tonight at 6:30 pm, ate some dinner and then scooped Levi up and took him out for some fun "guy time". Levi was so excited to see his Daddy tonight and when he learned that the two of them were going out, he squealed, grabbed his blanket & Doggy, said "Mom, apple juice, please" and walked out to get in the car. So cute!

Carefree kids

I watched my nieces tonight while my sister & brother-in-law went to dinner with some friends. Gretchen and the kids also came over, so there were kids running around everywhere! We ate peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and string cheese for dinner and then had some fruit snacks later after bath time. Levi always loves having his cousins and friends come visit. :)

Casey & Hope on the swings
Pierce, Hope & Levi in the sand box

Pierce & Bailey on the teeter totter

After all the sand, the kids needed a bath...too cute!

Hope everyone is having a great week! :)

Seriously...

...this much food should not be allowed in one weekend:

The Shack Burger

fried pickles, onion rings and mozzarella sticks

all from this place: The Burger Shack

Not to mention the Puppy Chow Chex Mix, brownies, chips & queso, Krispie Kreme donuts, monkey bread, and the homemade ice cream...

oops...it was all gone before I got my picture!!

Let me back up a little! This weekend, we did a little girl's getaway! My friend, Jill, invited my sister, our friend, Lisa, Gretchen and myself to go to her mom's lake house for the night. So, at 10:30 on Saturday morning, the 5 of us took off for a little overnight adventure!

You see, Lisa is

very pregnant :)

All of us grew up together (except Gretchen...she's been "adopted" by Jill since we all started playing Bunco together) and each time a new baby is on the way, we try to think of something special to do.

So, with that in mind, let me tell you about our weekend!!

Here we are upon arrival!! (left to right)

Lisa - my sister, Tricia - the adopted child, Gretchen - Jill - Tracey

Jill getting ready to chow down at The Burger Shack! They had probably the best fried pickles I've ever had.

Tricia & Gretchen trying to be polite while they are starving!!

Here are some pictures of the lake house - adorable!!!

The screened in porch - what a great atmosphere for girls to do what they do best!! GAB!

The living room - another great place to gab!

The kitchen - oh my lands...we ate so much food.

Late in the afternoon, we headed down to the lake for some, ahem, interesting time on the paddle boat!

Gretchen and Jill toting around the pregnant woman! The funny thing is that they couldn't figure out how to make the boat go straight. It just kept going in circles...

more circles...note Gretchen so scared that she has a life jacket on! LOL

Jill and me taking the boat out for a spin. We actually got it going pretty good. Then I had the bright idea to ride into the waves of a speed boat that went by. The water came up over the boat and my rear got soaked!!

Later in the evening, this is where Gretchen planted herself! :)

We also played
a really fun game!!

All in all, we had a really great time! It's always nice to get little breaks from the real world for a while. We are hoping to make this an annual trip and maybe even make a trip in the fall so we can roast marshmallows - oh and get more fried pickles!!

Thanks, Bev, for letting us share in your little piece of heaven! :) It is wonderful!