On the move

So we have officially left San Antonio. We packed up the truck yesterday and headed out today. We stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico for the night and will finish up the trip tomorrow. Luckily my parents were nice enough to come out and help us pack up, load and clean the apartment. And then, perhaps more important, they were willing to make the trip in the cars back to Arizona with us. Thank you Mom and Dad, we love you and you have made this so much easier for us. We really appreciate all your help!!

I start work on Monday, yikes! I'm a little nervous, but it will be nice to have an income considering the student loans are already due! I guess our next post will be from Arizona.

The Taylors

We got home from the coast on Monday and that night our good friends, Grant and Amanda Taylor, flew in for a visit. It was such a great week! We knew the Taylor's in Denver and the kids adore them so needless to say, they were so excited to see their friends. They were, however, a little disappointed that they didn't bring their dog Rufus with them. Maybe next time.The kids soaked up all of the attention. Grant and Amanda took the kids swimming, played with them, read books, you name it. I felt like I had two live in nannies! It was incredible and so fun to see the kids so excited. Once the kids went to bed, Heath and I got our chance to hang out with them. We stayed up way too late every night but it was great to catch up with such good friends.

We had fun eating dinner along the Riverwalk.

We got spoiled this week in more ways than one. Thank you Grant and Amanda so much, we had such a great time! We'll miss you guys!

A VACATION!

We had our first family vacation over 2 years ago. Going to visit parents not included. We decided it was about time for another one. The director of Heath's residency has a home in Rockport, TX which is close to Corpus Christi. Last weekend we headed down there and had such a great time!The first morning we got there the kids were ready to go out around 8:30. I went out with them so they could find sea shells and throw rocks. Cade kept throwing his shells into the wind and inevitably they would come back and hit me in the face, thanks Cade.

They had fun making a sand castle with Heath.

Who doesn't like to get buried at the beach! Me.

Poor Brynlie was always so tired but she was a trooper. She blows raspberries when she gets tired.

Brooklyn clobbered Cade with wet sand. Oddly enough he had no clue he was such a mess.

We found a tiny branch to attend church on Sunday. Brooklyn had a great time in Primary which consisted of two other kids.

We had fun walking out on the pier which was just outside the house we stayed in. No, the kids don't always hold hands and yes, I asked them to for this picture. I thought it was cute though.

Here is our attempt at a family picture before we almost blew away.

The home had a couple of big screen T.V.'s and the kids loved the idea of watching cartoons in bed. It was so fun to be somewhere were we could just hang out and have fun. Brooklyn even asked if we could live there. Thank you Dr. Douglas!

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSEA!!

I am so lucky to have this wonderful woman as my wife! She does so much for me and for our beautiful children. I'm sure all of you that know her would agree with me that there isn't a nicer, more selfless person than Chelsea.

I love you sweetie. I sure hope you had a wonderful birthday. I had fun being with you all day. Thanks for letting me take the day off of work! Happy Birthday.

Catching Up

Every once in awhile someone in my household reminds me that I never post any of the pictures I have taken. Well here they are.Bryline loves her baths these days. Brooklyn and Cade love to watch her splash herself.

This was right before her first trip to the pool.

I love that she actually has some rolls to her. To give you an idea of how small Brooklyn was, she wore this same swim suit when she was 9 months old.

I decided to convert Caden's crib into a makeshift bed. I know he's 3 and in a crib. It was a space issue really. The kids have enjoyed jumping from bed to bed etc. I am completely regretting my decision to do this. On average it has been taking Cade 1 1/2 hours to fall asleep because he thinks he's so cool now that he has a big bed and can just slide out. Tonight he told me, "It's too hard to fall asleep, it's taking too long!" Two hours later he was finally asleep.

The kids love to make pizza with me. Don't they look so old!

The packing has begun. Ugh!

A few weeks ago we went to an open house type thing for a Veterinarian Hospital. They had free pony rides that the kids loved. I felt bad for the poor horses, it was so HOT!

Well these are some of the happenings as of late. Maybe I'll try to be better at posting our adventures....maybe.

I love my wife

Just thought I needed to tell Chelsea how much she means to me and how much she does for our family. Thanks, Chels. I love you!!!!

Guys Night Out

Tonight it was out on the town with the good ole' boys! Caden and I dropped Brooklyn off at her primary activity at the church, and we hit the nightlife. That's right, just us boys. Chelsea was kind enough, and trusting enough, to let us get out and cause some ruckus that only boys can do. So what did we do, you ask? I mean c'mon, obviously I can't divulge the full extent of our adventures, but lets just say that Playplace that Ronald McDonald built is down right manly! We had a blast slamming back the vanilla ice cream cones and hot fudge sundaes, in between flying down those crazy slides. Yes, we were in heaven. Sometimes a boy gots to do what a boy gots to do, if you know what I mean!! Maybe Caden will give me permission at some later date to post more details of our adventure.
Ah yes, and I guess I do need to confess that we had to hit up WalMart for Mom; to buy some trash bags and makeup. But hey, what's a good guys night out if you can't keep the women happy back at home!!

Grateful Sunday

Again, I have to say that this "grateful Sunday" idea is borrowed from Farnsworth's Blog.

Today I am grateful for growing up in a time period where I learned that in competition there is a winner and a loser. I am grateful that I had parents who taught me that not everything in life is fair and that sometimes I will get the short end of the stick. I am grateful that I grew up in a time where not everything was handed to me just for being me, but rather I learned that if I wanted something I had to work for it. I am glad I learned as a youngster playing little league baseball, basketball, and football that the winners got trophy's and the losers...well...we didn't get trophy's...and that was okay.

I just watched a little clip tonight on the TV show 60 Minutes, that talked about the age group of America known as The Millenials. Many of you who are probably reading this right now fall under this age group, those born between 1980 and 1995ish. It was a pretty interesting piece altogether, and while I didn't agree with 100% of it, I had to chuckle when the reporter said that this generation is the generation that grew up with the philosophy of "blue ribbons for everyone", "everyone is a winner." This generation hasn't learned the meaning from their parents of the word "no" and have been given everything they ever wanted to them, now! You need to read, or watch, the 60 Minutes piece for more information on it.

The reason I am posting this is because it drives me nuts that there is this "blue ribbons for everyone" attitude out there. I don't understand how this can be healthy. Life is full of losers and winners. If you want to be a winner in real life you need to work hard for that and do what it takes to win. While it may be hard for a 5 year old to lose the game, and then watch the other team jump up for joy and be rewarded with trophies while they walk over to their orange slices and Capri Suns, at least the lesson is learned that not everything is given to them in life and that everything is always going to be good. Life isn't like that, and we shouldn't be doing our kids a disservice by giving them this false sense that life is fair for everyone. When they lose, pick em up, dust em off, and tell them that things will still be okay, winning isn't everything, but if you want to win next time then work harder for what you want!

By the way, lest you think I am going to be that obsessed little league dad on the sidelines who is always screaming at my kid to make them better, you are dead wrong. I am not advocating that winning is everything, in fact I don't really believe that. I am simply stating that it is just as important to learn that there are losers in life, and if you ever fall into that category, you need to learn how to deal with it. This is a very important "lesson" of life.

3 Months Old Already?

Brynlie is already three months old! I can hardly believe it. Time is going by so fast. Brynlie is doing great. She is full of smiles and coo's and loves to blow "raspberries". She's quite good at it too. She is so much fun to have around!

Bathroom Dialog

I was standing outside the bathroom this morning waiting for Cade to finish pooping and I heard the following dialog between him and Brooklyn.

Cade: "My poop is kinda stinky."
Brooklyn: "What?"
Cade: with more empahsis "My poop is kinda stinky!"
Brooklyn: "Yea it is. What does it smell like?"
Cade: "Macaroni and cheese."

I can only imagine what that must have smelled like!