Must see movie!

Aaron and I don't get to see many movies these days; too hard to mess with a babysitter, extra cost, etc. So when we do see a movie we try to make it a good one. The one we saw today is FANTASTIC, and I recommend it to anyone. Slumdog Millionaire. It's the perfect mix of harsh reality and fantasy/feel good happy ever after. The whole movie is real enough that it grips you and there are many heartwrenching parts to the story that are difficult and uncomfortable to watch. But you leave the theater happy and hopeful about life and moved by what the human spirit can endure. It's also fascinating to get a glimpse of a different part of the world and culture that we know very little about. Bottom line, go see the movie, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

How blessed are we?!?

Ok, this blog is just a little dose of reality that I am so thankful God continually places in front of me. Our small group at church, in the past 7 years (how is that possible!) we've been here, has always been a driving force in our lives and been a place of great fellowship, friendship, and spiritual growth. We've changed many times, where we grow too big to be "small group" anymore, and have "split" and become new groups on several occasions. But the core of us that have stayed together are continually blessed with diverse friends from different backgrounds that constantly remind me how blessed I am. We have young friends with kids our age, and older friends with no kids. We have friends from different cultural backgrounds and different religious backgrounds and we always learn alot from each other. But what's been on my heart lately are two moms, who are single moms in different ways. One is a single mom who is from Africa and still has family in Africa, and recently had to almost leave her daughter in Africa for an undetermined amount of time because of financial reasons. She lost her job and is afraid she will lose her home and could not afford to put her daughter in daycare but was having a hard time looking for a job and not having a place for her daughter to go. Fortunately, she brought her daughter (who is only 15 months) home with her. I've been so blessed by her and seeing how she keeps such a positive spirit about her and is doing everything she can to make a good life for herself and her little baby girl. The other mom is a single mom because her husband is on a one year tour in Iraq with the army. She has 3 chilren- 4, 2, and almost 1. She takes care of these kids day in and out by herself, and has no family support. Her mom criticizes her for taking her kids to church and calls her a bad mom, her sister is dealing with cancer, and she says she's alone all the time because her friends are all very young and a bad influence on her. I've been so blessed by her strength, and how she never complains about her life. These new friends of mine remind me how blessed I am to have a husband who works normal hours and is home almost every night and weekend, we have a house and good jobs that pay our bills easily and with some left over, and we have great friends and family support. I can't say it enough, we're so blessed and I thank God for putting people in my life so that I never forget it!

Santa!

Santa Claus came to Pop and Gran's house this year, because we were on our way to Lubbock for Christmas. Luke had been wanting a "Larry boy car" (from veggie tales, Larry boy) since SEPTEMBER. Santa was kind enough to fulfill his wish. Ben got a stocking full of little goodies, so you see him on the couch with some of his loot.

Christmas presents

There was no way I was even going to attempt to show the variety of Christmas photos we have. We had a great Christmas; we had Christmas at our house, Pop and Gran's house with all the cousins, and Nonni and Lynda's new house with the Tungate cousins. The only pictures I included though were a select few from our Christmas at home. First is Luke playing with his cool train bridge/waterfall set that Aaron and I got him for Christmas. Next is Ben with one of his presents from Aaron and I, and last is Luke with the new boots we gave him for Christmas. The best is the pose; we simply said,"Let us see your new boots so we can take a picture", and he gave us the pose. He's such a ham!

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Luke put the star on all by himself!

Ben and Patti

At my parents house, our dog Patti is obsessed with running in and out of the backdoor to chase and bark at the birds, so she likes to look out the blinds. We were visiting and Ben was looking out the door as well, and they made quite a cute pair.

Random various shots

So here are some various shots; Luke and Ben in PJ's in the morning drinking their milk side by side- it was so adorable I couldn't resist. The boys playing in the laundry basket together, Ben and his first REAL haircut (not me doing a halfway job of trimming certain spots)- and despite the unsure look on his face, he actually did a really good job of sitting still and not crying while she cut! Luke and his Pop (my dad) crashing on the couch after a hard day playing together, and the Tungate sandwich- Aaron and both boys "wrestling" on the floor. Anytime Aaron is on the floor, both the boys take that as their invitation to jump on him!

Ben had lots of help from cousins, and a couple of friends, opening and playing with his birthday presents.

Birthday cupcake

Ben's First Birthday!

Ben turned one just before Thanksgiving. It was a jungle animal theme, and I made his cake which was a giraffe as seen below. His personal cupcake was a lion (I went a little crazy on the mane so it looks kind of goofy), and he tore into it. He grabbed it and ate the whole thing up, I included some of the evidence.

Lil' Red Raider

Ben loves to wear his hat, which is Texas Tech of course! Seriously, when he gets dressed or is on his changing table, he reaches for it (it hangs on the wall above the dresser) and grunts for it. So here's evidence of some of his more creative pairings of the hat- with his birthday suit, and his PJ's.

Another funny one

It's cute to watch your kids pick up on your expressions, and it's even cuter when they get them wrong. We were playing a match game with Luke, where you turn cards over and try to match pairs. He is very good at this game, and it's actually hard to beat him. But the other night Aaron was beating us all, and had gotten 2 or 3 matches in a row, and Luke said, "Wow, daddy, you're on a rock!"- translation, he meant to say on a roll

Finally figured it out!

After spending WAY too much time trying to figure it out, I finally got a slide show to work. I wanted to have some pictures from the past for viewing, but there were way too many to put on the page, so slide show was the way to go. So, now I can start putting new pictures on the pages too! My plan is to put occasional pictures on here so people can watch the kiddos grow (because seriously, who wants to watch me or Aaron age!). I can include cute little stories too, for anyone interested enough to bother to read them. So, for cute story number one: Luke rarely can make me laugh when he's in trouble. Aaron cracks up more often than I do, but I can usually hold the laughter in at least until I'm away and he's not watching me any more. But he got us both good the other day. We were playing a game, and Luke lost. He is NOT a good sport these days, and we're working hard on teaching him how to win and lose with a good attitude, but we're failing miserably right now. He lost and began to cry very loudly and woke up Ben who was napping. Aaron spanked him because Luke knows he has to be quiet when Ben's asleep, and he also know he's not supposed to throw a fit like that when he loses. Well, immediately after he was spanked he looked at Aaron through his tears and said, "See, you spanked me and now I'm crying again!" We both laughed out loud, couldn't help it. Well, I'll try to start posting more often, and updating pictures more frequently, so we'll see how it goes!

Gonna give this a shot

OK, I have really resisted doing this for many reasons. I never check anyone elses blog, I don't expect them to check mine. I'll never update it, etc. But, I'm giving it a try anyway. This will at least be a location to put some pics and some cute stories of the kiddos. So we'll see. I may fail miserably at blogging, it's not really my thing, but we'll give it a shot!