Christmas Eve Surprise

I am going to make a couple of "Christmas" post since I have so many pictures. We had a wonderful Christmas this year!! The kids are at such a fun age right now. Christmas really seemed magical this year. We tried to take a couple of pictures of the kids before we left to go to church, but they were not too excited about smiling for the camera. (I did get one cute one)





After church, we went out to dinner. It was nice to not have to cook a meal or to have to clean-up a mess. So, when we got home we tried a few more family pictures--it went a little better this time.










Cooper wanted to take a picture of our "Elf on a Shelf" since this was his last night with us this year. His name is Buddy and he has really helped everyone behave much better this holiday season. We can't wait to see Buddy again next year!!



OK....now for the SURPRISE......I gave Richard a gift on Christmas Eve that he will never forget! (I have to tell you that these pictures are a re-enactment since I was video taping the "big surprise"--I was not able to catch the moment on my camera)



Yes, those are baby bottles! I am PREGNANT!!! Richard was so excited to open his gift of baby stuff and a sweet note that we are expecting baby #3!!! We have been praying for so long about the possibility of a third baby--but we were a little surprised by how quickly our prayer was answered!! It is really early on in this pregnancy (5 weeks), but please pray for a healthy baby and a pregnancy without throwing-up or zits!!! Cooper and Emily were not too excited at first, but I think they are starting to warm-up to the idea of a baby. Emily now says that she has a baby in her tummy too!!

I wish that I had more pictures to post of Christmas Eve and the presents that the kids opened that night, but after the shocking news we all just sat around and could not believe that we are going to have 3 kids!!! (I still can not believe it!!) So while we (mostly my mom) were in shock, the kids opened tons of presents (some they were not supposed to open) and none of it was captured on film. I wish I had a picture of my mom from that night--TOTAL SHOCK!! She was basically speechless. I think she is finally getting used to the idea of a third baby. I know by September she will be ready.

One more thing....to my good friends that read this blog that have not received a phone call from me about this pregnancy. I am sorry that I have not called--I promise that you have been on my mind, I just have not a chance to call yet. My only free time is around 10:00-11:00 pm and I know that you do not want me to call then. I promise to call, but in the meantime.....PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!!! Love you all!!!

Christmas in Fort Smith

We went to Fort Smith on Saturday and had Christmas with my Mom, Matt and his family. We had a good time and of course the kids loved all of their gifts!! Cooper loves to dress-up as any action hero, so now we have The Hulk to add to our collection and some fun Pirates of the Caribbean stuff. The next day, Cooper wore his Hulk costume to the mall (and every other place we went that day!!)












We also celebrated my Mom's 67th birthday!! Happy Birthday Mom!!!



To end our fun trip to the Fort, we went to visit my best friend Sarah (aka Aunt Sarah). We did not get a good picture of her and the kids, but the kids were excited to get more presents!! The Wagner's are always so sweet to my kids (and me) and treat us as if we are family. Thanks Wagner's for always being so sweet!!!

Santa Party at School

Cooper's class had a Santa party today. Santa and Mrs. Claus were there! Richard took the kids so that I could get a few things done around the house. We are leaving tomorrow to go to Fort Smith and celebrate my Mom's 67th birthday!! Here are some pictures from school this morning:

What to do when you are iced in???

Build a fort of course!!!

We had a couple of inches of ice on Tuesday (December 16th) so the kids did not have school. They were SO excited to spend the day at home with Mommy and Daddy!! After sleeping late and eating a big breakfast everyone was ready to play. We did puzzles, played games, made cookies, and our last project was to build a fort. The kids thought this was so much fun and I was thankful that it kept them occupied the rest of the day. In fact, Cooper loved it so much that he ended up sleeping in the fort that night.

No More Thumbs

I feel like I have not posted in so long. Life has been really busy lately. Richard has been working really hard (as of right now he is the #1 rep in the company!!!!) and we have had several Christmas parties to go to. The biggest thing going on at our house right now is that Emily is not sucking her thumbs anymore!! This was not a decision that she made, but she has really handled it very well. We tried a product several months ago called "control it" and it worked, but we were not consistent with it like we needed to be. Recently we ordered some more of this wonderful stuff, but this time we got the "extra strength". It is just a cream that you rub on her thumbs and it taste awful. I had planned on trying this sometime after Christmas, but Richard thought we should go ahead and start now. It has gone much better than I thought it would. I am sad that I will never see my sweet girl covering her face with one hand and sucking the other hand's thumb--it was SO cute!! The funny thing with her was that she did not have a favorite thumb, she sucked on either one--sometimes both at the same time!! Here are some cute pictures from over the last 2 and 1/2 years of Emily and her thumbs.








We are so proud of you Emily!! Up next.....potty training!!!!

Baptized

I have been so busy that I have not had a chance to post what an awesome day I had last Sunday--on November 30th. I WAS BAPTIZED!! I was sprinkled as an infant and then again when I was in junior high, but it had been on my heart for a long time to get "dunked". It was so neat as an adult to declare Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Tim Lundy is the pastor at our church and a friend of ours--I thought that he was going to baptize me, but he called Richard up front and Richard was the one who actually baptized me. It was a wonderful experience. The kids were there too!!
Later that day when we were at lunch, Richard told me a cute story about Cooper. He had told Cooper that Mommy was getting baptized and Cooper asked what that meant.....Richard told him that it was Mommy showing the world that she believes in Jesus and that Mommy would get to go to heaven. Richard said that Cooper immediately got a very worried look on his face and said "is she going to heaven right now?" Ever since my Dad died we have had a lot of talks about heaven. Cooper knows that is where his PawPaw is and he always asks when is PawPaw coming back. We tell him that PawPaw is not coming back, but that we will get to see him when we go to heaven. So I guess when Richard told Cooper that I was going to heaven he was worried that I was going now and I that he would not see me again. He is such a sweet boy!!

Basketball and Poo Poo

Last Tuesday Richard took the kids to a UALR basketball game. I really enjoyed having a few hours alone to get everyone packed for our trip to Springfield. The kids enjoyed the ball game--their favorite part was daddy catching a T-shirt that was shot into the crowd. The announcer on the loud speaker even said "Nice catch Dad!!" Here is a picture of Cooper modeling the prized T-shirt:



Emily has been trying for months to actually go potty on the potty. We have spent hours sitting on the potty waiting for something to happen. It finally did!!! On Saturday (November 29th) Emily did a little poo poo on the potty!!! She was so excited (and we were excited thinking about not having to buy diapers anymore!!). Here she is right after her proud moment (sorry that it is so graphic):

Thanksgiving 2008

We went to Springfield, MO to visit family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time seeing everyone and we ate some wonderful food too!! Springfield is home to the original Bass Pro Shop and they were open on Thanksgiving Day. It was a great way to spend the evening!! The kids even got to see Santa while we were there! Here are a few pics:

Cooper's Room

The kids love to see their pictures on the computer, especially on this new blog. Cooper was upset that Emily's room was on here but not his. So here are some pictures of Cooper's room.

TROUBLE

Instead of doing this while I was in the shower.....


Emily was busy seeing how much floss she could use. This is the pile that I found after a quick shower.....
I guess that I am going to have to start putting locks on all the drawers in my bathroom. No telling what she will get into next!!!

Miss Em's New Bed

Emily has been in a "big girl bed" for several months, but I did not like the way her crib looked converted into a full size bed. So we ordered her a new bed and it is FINALLY here. Richard set it up while she was in Fort Smith visiting her Maw Maw. She was so excited to come home and see her new bed!! It is much bigger than her other bed and she looks so tiny when she is asleep in it!! Here are a few pictures of her room ( the room is not set up the way I would like for it to be, but unless we move to a new house this is just how it has to be)

While Daddy is away.....

we will play!!! Richard was out-of-town on Thursday night, so the kids got to have a fun bubble bath in mommy's bathtub. They had so much fun.

Sweet PJ's

I love nothing more than to see Emily walk around the house in her footed PJ's. I think it is the cutest thing EVER!! I told Richard that this would be the last year for her to wear them and it made me so sad. Well...while I was out shopping the other day, I found some in size 3T!! Of course I bought several pairs for next year. Yeah!! One more year of footed PJ's. It was funny, because the next day while shopping at Target I found some in the big girl section. So looks like she can wear them until she's a teenager!! (I have a feeling they won't look as cute on a 13 year old).





We did not do too much today. We pretty much stayed in our PJ's all day and just had fun playing hide-and-go-seek and jumping on our bounce around. We bought a bounce around for Emily on her 2nd birthday. It has been money well spent!! It is about 8 feet x 8 feet and we have it set up in our house. Some of our neighbors came over today and all the kids had a great time. Here are a few pics: