Ten Years

Today, Lance and I have been married for TEN years. Time really flies! It is crazy to look back on these last ten years and all of the things that have happened. Our life is so much better than I could have dreamed on that day ten years ago. I was so naïve and really was just living in the moment. I had known my whole life that I wanted to be a mom who got to spend the days with her kids but I truly didn’t know if that would happen. Ten years later, Lance has worked so hard every day to keep that dream a reality.

 

One year in…Lance wanted to know what it would look like to shave his entire head with a straight razor so he did it right before we left for a cruise. Needless to say, that hair-do has never come back.

Two years in…pregnant with Reese

I could not find a single picture of the two of us from around our third anniversary…that is what happens when you have kids…this was taken in July and it is looking up my nose…you’re welcome.

Quite honestly, there are no more pictures of us alone for a long time after this last picture. Ha! When we do have date nights or alone time, we don’t think to take pictures of ourselves.

And here we are ten years later!!

And just for a little comparison…

February Happenings

A couple of weekends ago Reese and Sam earned having a sleep over with some friends. Sam chose his friend William to spend the night. I gave Sam a heads up that William might decide not to sleep at our house because it was his first attempt at a sleep over. William did so great but when it was actually time to get in bed I saw the fear in his eyes and told him it was ok for him to go home. That made him relax and we got him home to his own bed. When I told Sam that William was going to go home he was totally fine with it. Reese chose her friend Harper to sleep over and I think Hayes might have been as excited as Reese.The whole night he would follow her around and say, “Ah-per”. Hayes was jumping on the trampoline and Reese and Harper were playing basketball. Hayes kept yelling, “Ah-per, lean!”…asking her to jump on the trampoline with him. She was really so sweet and patient with him. That night we had our usual pizza and a movie night. The kids chose to watch “Wreck-it Ralph”.

After the movie the kids got to make themselves ice cream sundaes. They were messy!!

The night that Reese had her Daddy-Daughter dance, Kristin and I met up for dinner at CFA and took our boys to a movie. Sam and Dylan were being silly when I tried to get their picture.

When I asked the babies if I could take their picture, they did the same thing as their big brothers. It was so cute and silly. Our four boys are so good together!

We took the boys to see Paddington. It was such a cute movie and I am so glad we got to see it. The boys really loved it and it (mostly) kept the attention of the babies.

One Sunday Claire was out of town so we asked Bryan and Hadley if they wanted to join us for a hike at the mountain. It was a beautiful day and we tried out a new trail. We loved our hike through the mountain and saw a family of six deer!

That morning I had stayed home from church with Hayes because he had a mild fever. We decided he would still like to get out of the house and we put him in the carrier. I knew he really didn’t feel good when he fell asleep on Lance’s back.

The next day he still wasn’t feeling well. He fell asleep on the couch watching Curious George. That boy never sits still long enough to fall asleep somewhere. He never showed any other signs of not feeling well other than a fever. I gave him a bath before his afternoon nap and when he woke up his fever was gone and he was back to his normal tornado self.

I got to help out in Sam’s classroom on their 100th day of school. They did a lot of fun activities. These two boys are some of his favorite buddies from class.

Sam’s class had a Valentine’s day party and he wanted to wear his bow tie to his party. He was so handsome.

Hayes and I ran to Target one day to buy the kids some small Valentine’s day treats. Hayes thought he was so cool in this hat and sunglasses. He kept saying “Hollywood!”.

Hayes LOVES dogs! Every time we are at Claire’s house he is constantly trying to pick them up. This day we set the kids up with a movie and Hayes wanted so bad for the dogs to sit in his lap. He cried every time they got down. At one point we saw him spooning with one of the dogs. The dog was being a good sport but we knew he wasn’t going to let that happen for long. Hayes pitched a huge fit on the floor when he ran off. We have no plans to ever get a dog but I imagine this little dog lover will eventually do a lot of begging for a dog of his own.

Re/Prom

On the night of Valentines, Lance and I went to a fundraiser event. It was called re/prom and it was a blast!!

Lance’s sweet cousin stepped in to babysit our kids at the last minute when our sitter cancelled on us. I was so grateful for her and her family because it allowed Lance and I to go out and have so much fun and not worry about the kids back at home.

We first went to dinner with our friends, Clint and Kristin. We found reservations at Article 14 the Tuesday before Valentine’s day. We were a little nervous that they had a spot open after we had called around to so many places unsuccessfully. But dinner turned out to be good and we had a great time. The party started at 9:00 pm. I said you know you are old when a party starts at your normal bed time! We were there right on time and took advantage of the photo booth before it started getting crowded.

Mardi Gras appropriate…

Cat Woman and Wonder Woman…we figured our boys would love these pictures.

We busted some moves on the dance floor to fun 90’s songs (plus others decades) for three hours! My feet were so sore once we got in the car and on Sunday. Spending the evening with our sweet friends was just what we needed.

Of course we had to bust out the selfie stick for a group shot…

It has been many years since we have been out that late and had so much fun. It was such a fun night and I can not wait until next year!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Reese and Lance went to a Daddy-Daughter Dance last Saturday. Reese was so excited for this day to finally come. They got all dressed up and went to dinner together first. I think they went to Ted’s because Reese wanted a burger. After dinner, our friend, Clint, and his daughter came to pick them up and head to a local airport for the party.

UGH! I don’t know why all of my pictures are turning out so bad lately. I need to just stick with my phone! I’m sorry they look so washed out.

They had a blast! Lance has some really cute pictures on his phone. There was a photo booth, dancing, desserts, and a lot of fun. I am so glad they got to have this special time together and spend some one on one time! Reese looks up to Lance so much and is always doing what he doing from working out to bible studies.

Donuts with Dad

Today Sam’s school had Donuts with Dad. Sam is always so excited for days like this. He, once again, matched Daddy in clothes that he was wearing. It is so cute!

This year Sam was much more willing to talk to Lance while he was there and even showed him around his classroom. They made their daddies ties and answered questions about their dads. Sam said Lance is 1000 feet tall and weighs four pounds.

Of course, this little guy needed to get in the pictures too. I know he will be so excited to do this next year!

Family Pictures

Watch out! Two posts in two days. I actually had this post started yesterday and didn’t get a chance to finish it.

I have pictures that I never posted on this blog but wanted them on here for memory sake. These are the pictures I took back in November when shooting for a Christmas card.

These three I loved of each of the kids.

These were close seconds…

And these are a few outtakes…

These are the pictures we ended up using for our Christmas cards. A friend of ours was doing a mini session for a good price to start up her photography business. It was a super cold day but we powered through to get these pictures in this gorgeous location.

This one didn’t make the Christmas card but thought it was cute too.

Grandma Betsy

This has been a busy week! On Tuesday evening Reese’s teacher sent an email out saying that Thursday was the 100th day of school and that the kids could dress up as if they were 100 years old. Because of our busy week I totally ignored and forgot about that email and then got a second email Wednesday night around 5:00 reminding us. Luckily Claire has been staying with us this week and jumped right in to help Reese out.

They found an outfit and came up with a plan. That night after the kids were in bed Claire and I ran to Wal-Mart for some fake glasses and gray hair spray. We couldn’t find gray spray but did find some silver glitter.

Thursday morning Claire was up early to help Reese get ready. It is amazing the things Reese will do for Claire and not me. She got dressed and then it was time to work on her hair. We put it in a low bun, threw some baby powder in, sprayed a little silver glitter spray in it, and she was officially a grandma.

Reese didn’t want to wear a jacket so I gave her a sweater that I have had for at least 15 years. Lance calls it my “Grandma sweater” so it was perfect to keep her warm on the way to school. Reese talked Claire in to taking her out to the bus stop. Claire said that the bus driver laughed and laughed and was calling Reese Betsy.

Reese still looked just as cute when she got off the bus and said she had a fun day. Reese and her teacher, who had a sweater with 15 cats around her neck, got to be on the morning announcements and she was so excited about that. I love that Reese is so confident and willing to go out on a limb even when she is not sure anyone else is going to do the same. She asked me one time (after she was totally dressed and hair done) if every one else was going to be dressed up. I told her I had no idea and she said “oh well”.

Fun Weekend!

We have had a fun and busy weekend so far. Friday was a most exciting day for Sam. He has been working so hard to earn a bunk bed. He had actually earned it before Christmas but we decided to wait just a bit more before ordering the bed. And I am so glad we did. I would have ordered a different bunk bed before Christmas and I am so glad I saw the one we ended up with because I love it so much. Sam was almost as excited as Christmas morning on the morning his bed was to be delivered. I am glad we were in their morning delivery because I don’t know that he could have waited much longer. The truck pulled up right around 9:00 and the boys sat in Sam’s room the whole time watching the guys put it together. Thankfully they were both well behaved and the men were so sweet to let them be nearby. We spent a lot of time in Sam’s room that day. He would ask if I wanted to go sit on his bed. During Hayes’s nap we both layed on the bottom bunk. He watched a show on the ipad and I played on my phone. He could not wait for Reese to get home so she could see it. When Reese finally got home she was so sweet and so excited for Sam. They planned a sleepover together for the evening. Shortly after that Reese went over to Hallie’s to play for a little while.

Once the bed was complete Sam could not wait to climb up the ladder.

Hayes was not far behind him.

Friday night Hallie’s family came over and brought Reese home with them. The dads stayed behind with the kids while the mom’s went to a Jamberry party. Hallie spent the night with us that night and they all had a slumber party in Sam’s room. The girls slept together on the bottom bunk while Sam slept on the top bunk. In the middle of the night Reese ended up going back in to her room to sleep in her bed.

The next morning the kids played for a while.

Reese had a basketball game in the afternoon and Hallie decided to stay with us and go to Reese’s game. Last week Reese’s game was a little rough. Because there are not that many girls in this league through Upwards Reese’s age group ranges from second to sixth grade. Last week every single girl was a head taller than Reese (and her teammates) and had obviously played before. This week there were only two girls on the team that were more than a head taller than her but they were not that good. The only reason they were scoring so much is because no one on Reese’s team was tall enough to block them. This picture below is of Reese getting a basket. What is funny about this picture is that you can’t even see Reese and you can tell the girl in white is so much taller than all of the girls on Reese’s team (in blue). You can barely see Reese’s head in the middle of that group and she doesn’t even come up to this girls shoulder.

Here is a video of her scoring…watch quickly…it is only three seconds long. Reese ended up scoring eight points during the game. They lost by only six points this week.

Here is what was happening on the sidelines. Hallie had Sam in her lap. They really play so well together too. I am pretty sure Sam has a little crush on her. Over the summer Reese was at a camp, I had a doctors appointment and Sam was supposed to be at tennis lessons. I asked Hallie’s mom to take Sam to the lesson so he went over to their house to play before hand.  After the lesson, Sam stayed with Hallie to go to the pool and then he wanted to stay and hang out at her house to play some more. They ended up spending almost the whole day together with out Reese being there. It was too funny but they just love each other as much as the girls love each other.

Last night Sam begged Lance to have a sleep over with him in his bunk beds. Lance obliged and spent the whole night in there. I am not sure how well he fit or slept but he made it all night. I thought for sure he would be back in our bed once Sam went to sleep.

This morning we went to church and now Lance and Reese are off working on her science fair project (so glad it is them and not me…I am so not good at that). There is no school or work tomorrow so hopefully we will have one more fun day together!!