Another Rainy Day

We had plans to unpack and get the rest of the house organized this morning, naptime for the boys, then spend the afternoon at the pool. The older two never went to sleep so after a bit they were able to Getty up and read books. Unfortunately before Carden woke up a thunderstorm rolled in, so the pool was out.

  We let the boys pick out a movie, Shark Tale, and I popped some popcorn.

  After the movie it was back to work. We hot a lot done today, both unpacking and organizing as well as more deep cleaning plus regular cleaning. Our room is the only room left not done. We got a little bit done in there today, but still have quite a bit more to do. The problem is we don't have enough space!

Tonight at prayer time on the steps (Carden goes down first and all three of them are in one room), avin paired and then interrupted Matt asking to pray again because he didn't get to pray long enough the first time! He definitely loves to pray and can be rather long winded! It melts my heart and is one of my favorite times of the day...watching a daddy pray with his boys, teaching them how to pray as they both repeat parts of his prayers. I am blessed, blessed indeed!

Matt and I also celebrated our 10 year anniversary yesterday! We spent most of the day with the boys, checking out the huge Triad Farmer's Market...I got some great deals on yummy produce! Next up was a special treat: Planes. We take the boys about once a year, and e have been wanting to do some fun things after our crazy summer before school starts. We rounded out the day doing the boys off at the senior associate ministers house, he and his wife had graciously offered to watch them for us. We heed into Greensboro for dinner, wanting to enjoy the beautiful night we looked for a place to sit outside and stumbled upon an Italian restaurant with great outdoor seating. We enjoyed adult only conversation with no interruptions and reminiscing about the last 10 years. Although its hard to believe it has already been10 years! As we looked back we saw God's handprints throughout our marriage and story together. We are blessed indeed...I am blessed, with an amazing husband and daddy, who I love more each passing day.

Moving

Last week early Tuesday morning we embarked on out almost 14 hour journey to our new home in Kernersville, North Carolina. We left at 4am so the boys would have less awake time in the car. I slept some while Matt done and when he was tired I drive while he slept. I do think he got more sleep than I as Matt is fond of finding the rumble strips on the side of the road! We drove until about 10 before we stopped for breakfast in Indiana at a local breakfast restaurant.

Then we were back on the road. We had planned on stopping in Cincinnati for the night, but Matt thought we shouldn't reserve a hotel in advance not knowing how the boys would do. I disagreed but we didn't have a reservation therefore no place to stay in Cincinnati. Traveling with our cat Gideon definitely made it more difficult to find a hotel last minute.

There want much on the other side of Cincinnati so we ended up making it all the way to Huntington, West Virginia for the night about 5pm.

We got checked in, Gideon settled and changed into or swim stuff. We grabbed some dinner at the hotel and were off to the pool. The boys had fun swimming and spent most of their time jumping in.

It was late to bed for all of us so we decided to take it easy and leave later in the morning. We got away about 9 in search of coffee, coke and breakfast! Once all of the above was located we were on the road. This part of the drive was beautiful, driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am glad Matt did all of the driving! I tried multiple times to get a picture, but none did the beauty of God's creation any justice.

We stopped at Bojangles for lunch, a place we had heard about. We weren't that impressed.

We stopped at the North Carolina state line for a picture of the boys with the sign. Carden slept while Cavin did the cutest little celebratory dance. We made it into Kernersville about 3.

It was a long drive, but the boys were awesome so all went well!!

PK Theology

Tonight at dinner, out of no where, Rance told his cousin Samuel, "Well, Jesus was married to the church."

Matt and I just looked at each other and quietly chuckled. Matt eventually explained that it wasn't a literal translation but an example, and what it means.

This isn't the first time our boys have said something they have heard or learned that while true, they don't begin to understand.

It's Going To Be A Late Night...

We still have a lot of packing to do...really more organizing than packing, but regardless, a lot to do. Hopefully it will go much quicker with three little ones in bed!

God Told Noah...

Cavin and I's after bath conversation...

C: God told Noah to build an arch...

M: Yah, would you build an arch if God told you to?

C: No, God tells us to do different things.

M: What did God tell you to do?

C: To move to North Carolina and make new friends, me, Rance, Carden, Mommy and Dad...

I am continually blown away by his understanding of God.

A Weekend With Family

Last weekend all of my family came our way for a weekend of fun. Friday Matt and I took Rance, my brother and his wife their two oldest and my sisters to Six Flags. Rance and my niece and nephew had earned a free ticket again this year for reading. This made the third year in a row we have taken them.

This year we broke tradition and diss the water park first since in years past it had rained in the afternoon. Rance was tall enough to ride all of the water slides and I was surprised he did some of them! We did a big funnel one you go back and forth and Rance and Matt did a green one that is practically straight down! It was a fun but exhausting day!

Saturday we all headed to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and crazy busy. We have a zoo membership but the lots were full by the time we got there. We still had a lot of fun and was able to see a good portion of the zoo. The kiddos got to ride the carasoul, pet and feed the sting rays-maybe a shark too-and see the sea lion show.

We had all just sat down when a storm rolled through but we had the perfect seats and didn't get wet at all.

This is the only picture I grabbed on my phone as we were heading out of the zoo, Carden and Josiah were already headed to the car for much need naps!

Laughing

A couple of weeks ago Carden wad playing with a pen that has a Christmas light on the end that lights up. Carden was hitting with it so Matt told him no.

Carden typically always cries when you tell him no, but this time he laughed, as in am all out belly laugh. Of course Matt laughs and the game continued. Carden hitting with the pen, Matt saying no, Carden belly laughing, Matt laughing.

So now almost everytime I tell Carden no, he laughs. I am totally blaming this on Matt! Oy, this child is a mess!

Cavin's New House Wish List

So this weekend we are having a moving sale as well as an open house. We are trying to save some money and sell our home ourselves.

As we talk about selling our home and getting a new one the boys have had lots of questions.

Rance's biggest concern is if it will be a bigger house.

Cavin, on the other hands, said he wanted a basketball court in his basement.

I asked him what else he wanted at his new house and he said a swimming pool and toys.

Oh the life of a four year old. Although I have to say, a basketball court in the basement would make this mama pretty happy too!

Missing Wien

Vienna is never far from our thoughts or hearts, it will always be such a special place to us. I often find myself homesick for the city, but especially for our overseas family. Its bittersweet when fellow missionaries are back visiting Wien and posting tons of pictures, or past students post pics, and recently posts of graduation pics of our first sixth grade class.

So when I am especially homesick I am thankful for Aldi, Hofer in Vienna, and the few familiar Austrian things they carry. Lucky for me, these were (still are!) one of my favorites!

White Stuff

We are in the midst of VBS this week which makes for late nights for my boys. Two nights ago Cavin asked to rock and there is no way I could have said no! As we were rocking he kept saying something was cold, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. He was pointing to his hand so I guessed hand, fingers and names of individual fingers. Exasperated, Cavin again pointed to his hand and said, "no, this white stuff!" Ah, he was saying his skin was cold! Made my day!

Shark Boy

Cavin loves sharks and after searching high and low for cute -not scary- shark shirts, Gymboree finally came out with a line of shark clothing! I wish I could have went crazy and bought all of it, but just the few pieces I caught on sale made his eyes light up!

Since our VBS started yesterday we dressed the boys more casually for church since we wouldn't be home the rest of the day. -Graduation party, more VBS set up.-

Cavin was so excited to wear a new shark shirt and his shark flip flops to church! He got his flip flops for Easter and hasn't worn them yet. I am not a huge fan of flip flops so my boys mainly wear them to the pool, so this was a special treat. -Tennis shoes were taken for later.- To top of the look was his beloved shark spikes!

Fyi, according to Cavin this is his mean face!

Climber

Carden loves to climb which often gets him in trouble! He especially loves to climb inside of things and has no problem dumping said things out to obtain his goal!

 

 

It's Official

We have a toddler!!!!

Carden's primary mode of transportation now is walking! This isn't the best video, and its shorter than I would have liked, but he was fussy and its all I could get. I will try to get another one soon, as its pretty cute, even if it breaks my heart he is growing up too fast!

School's Out For Summer!!

Cavin's last day of preschool was May 16th and Rance's was this past Friday the 24th. We celebrated with donuts for breakfast, a special treat at our house. Even Carden got one. When I was picking them up Cavin insisted Carden needed one of his own and that his favorite kind was chocolate! I would have preferred white icing, but it was too cute.

Rance had a half day and his school always puts on a picnic lunch the last day. Last year they had inflatables so we were disappointed this year. So we ate and then headed to one of our favorite parks. It was a beautiful day out!

Last but not least, we finished our afternoon off with ice cream.

Push Ups

I was wanting to get this posted a few weeks ago, but its been crazy. Anyways, the other morning Cavin walks into the kitchen and goes over to the cabinet Carden was playing in and pulls out my pastry mat. I began to ask him to put it back up, that I don't want him to play with it, when he says, "but mom, I need to do my push ups..."

Amused at his cuteness, I tell him he can play with it. So he continues to lay it out on the floor and begins doing push ups. Out of no where.I happened to catch a few on video for your enjoyment!

If you can't hear what he is saying, he says that he is doing push ups because he has to exercise!

Happy 9th Birthday Rance!!

Easter 2013

Easter was a long day as usual for us with church, but it was a beautiful Sunday so we decided to squeeze in the zoo! I managed to take a couple of pics in the parking lot before we changed the boys out of their nice clothes!

What's Your Favorite Animal?

My typically shy around strangers three year old just walked into Ihop and asked the hosted what her favorite animal was! Then he asked the cashier what her favorite animal was and later if our waitress likes bats! His boldness completely took us by surprise!

Cavin's Cuteness

Cavin came out of his room this morning with his Angry Birds game asking Daddy to open it and play with him.  Later as we were getting things ready to leave, he asked me if he could take two of his angry birds to school with him, which I agreed to as long as they went in his backpack when his teacher asked him to put them away.

So he walks into the kitchen to tell Matt that I said he could take his angry birds to school. Then he continues with this story....

When I get to school I am going to throw the angry birds at Ms. Dana (his teacher) and they will hit her right in the middle of her forehead, and she will fall over... just like Goliath.
We about died laughing...if only you could have been there and seen him acting out with his hands what he was saying. The stuff this kid comes up with!

Priceless.

By the way, no angry birds were thrown at the teacher!

Rainy Day Nap!

Its the perfect day for a nap, all snuggled in a blanket...or two...or three!!

Welcome!

So I decided to turn our blog private and instead of posting things on Facebook, I will be updating or blog instead, which is hopefully more private! I also discovered a blogger app so I can update, even pictures, from my phone!

So, for my first post via my phone...this is a picture of Carden who recently discovered ice cream...we went to DQ while Grandpa Richards was here this last weekend. This is his "I demand more!!" face while pointing at what he wants! Patience sure isn't his thing!

Going Private!

I have decided to turn my blog into a private blog so I can update with more personal things without it being so public!

If you would like to continue to read our blog, please comment with your email address so I can add you!

Carden Turns One!

Carden on his first birthday, March 3, 2013. I felt terrible, his birthday fell on a Sunday which equals a stressful morning at church followed by a pastor's chat (where new families eat lunch with the pastor's and their families to get to know them better as well as learn more about the church), then Rance's basketball game. We had cancelled small group for the evening, so we grabbed a small store bought cake on our way home to celebrate.

He wasn't so sure at first, but once he got a few tastes of the icing he kept going back for more!

Enjoying himself!!

So not happy when mommy took it away!

Nothing a bath can't make all better! Carden loves his bath time!

Having fun during a bath with his cousin Josiah and Grandma. One of Carden's recently learned tricks was learning where his tongue is and being able to stick it out when asked. So glad I captured it on camera!

The weekend after Carden's birthday we celebrated with our family. Some came in Thursday evening, most on Friday, and a few just for the day on Saturday. I always love having all of our family together, but its always crazy!

Although there was still snow on the ground, Saturday was a beautiful day! The kiddos all loved being able to get out and play. Carden and Josiah even managed to sneak in a nap during a walk with Grandma!

Carden, 12 Months, Josiah, 15 Months

 Uncle Mitch and his girlfriend Chelsea came for the weekend as well, much to the boys' delight! They love their Uncle Mitch! My boys also love sidewalk chalk, and Cavin of course loves sharks. I believe its even more fun when they have someone around who can actually draw! Thanks Uncle Mitch!

I think Cavin thought it was pretty cool stuff that he was being eaten by a shark!!

Daddy and Carden with his first birthday cake! I had a hard time deciding on a theme. I randomly suggested doing a KU Jayhawk theme and of course Matt was all about that! I also couldn't decide on how I wanted to decorate the cake, but we are currently trying to cut out unnatural food and food colorings, so I knew I wanted to keep it simple. I decided to do the Junior Jayhawk since it was for his first birthday.

Carden loved opening presents!

These two cousins are a mess alone and even more so together!

Older Cousins!

I love this boy!

I still can't believe our Carden is one. This year has went by entirely to fast. While I miss my snuggly new born, I love seeing his personality come out more and more everyday! Carden loves food! He eats really well and would eat all day long if I would let him! He also loves getting into trouble! He spends way more time getting into things than he ever does playing with his toys! It definitely makes getting anything done much slower, I get one thing checked off my to do list to discover Carden has made a huge mess elsewhere. Thankfully he has the sweetest little ornery grin when he knows he is in trouble that melts my heart! Not sure how that will work out for me in the future!

Happy Birthday sweet Carden! You have brought us such great joy and much laughter! We love you always and forever!

Christmas 2012

I feel like Christmas came really fast this year and I was very unprepared. I love to be organized and ahead of the game, but this year I found myself very behind and not much in the Christmas spirit. I was somewhat disappointed with our own little family Christmas. I really wanted to start some new traditions, but I feel like my being behind on things really prevented any new traditions from happening. I feel guilty I didn't do more to make Christmas more special for my boys, it just kind of happened at our house. I don't know, it was just a weird Christmas for me.

We went to Christmas Eve service at our church and then grabbed a quick bite to eat at Cavin's favorite place to eat! He is just too cute sometimes and I couldn't say no even though we had planned to go elsewhere! Afterwards we drove through the city light display. Matt and I didn't think it was all that good but the boys had fun so that is what matters most! It was fun watching the boys open their gifts on Christmas morning, I just wish there was a way it wasn't over so quickly! We buy each of our kiddos a bigger gift then a couple smaller things so opening gifts goes rather quickly even if we open one at a time!

We finished off our Christmas travels with spending almost a week at my parents. We really enjoyed our week there. The kiddos loved playing with their cousins and Matt and I were able to enjoy a lot of time playing games with my parents and siblings. The last couple of days we were there it snowed a good 6 to 8 inches. I love snow and so do my boys! I am so thankful we were still there and the boys were able to get out and play in the snow and go sledding! It snowed our entire drive home, but sadly there wasn't hardly any snow on the ground at home.

I will say I am not ready to return to our normal chaotic schedule this week. It has been nice to have so much family time. I wish we could ease back into everything instead of it all starting at once, but instead we will start full force tomorrow. Here's to hoping we all get to bed early tonight!