Happy Birthday to You!

Tomorrow on Cinco de Mayo, Aunt Becca will the the official 3-0! Happy Birthday to you! We hope thirty is your best year yet! And enjoy the rest of that beautiful cake Sherri made for you- it was YUMMY!

Always full of surprises....

So, here is yet ANOTHER post of how i found Jackson asleep in his room. I walked in Friday afternoon to check on him & his leg is all i saw...Once i got closer, he looked really uncomfortable. But he must have been cozy because we had to wake him up in order to make it to Grandma & Papa Evan's house for dinner.

With Jackson, you just never know what you will find! Sweet Dreams!!

Let's Go Fly a Kite....

Aunt Rebecca is so lucky because she is close enough to walk to the town park! We love to go here & let the kids ride bikes, play a while, & sometimes have a picnic. Yesterday, we decided spur of the moment to have a picnic lunch at the park & let the kids fly kites since it was such a nice day... And they had a blast. Jackson was unsure at first about flying one, only wanting to chase it, but then i figured out why; He hates holding balloons outside because he has lost so many by accidentally letting go. Once i convinced him that if he let go of the kite, it would just fall down, he was all game! Eli didn't fly one of course, but he was as tickled as he could be to chase all the "tails" of the kites & run with the kids as if he were flying one. After we finished with the kites, we let the kids ride bikes, etc around the loop while we walked & poor Eli was so tired, that he just pulled his lawnmower behind him rather than actually making the effort to push it. When we got home, he ended up sleeping for 3 hours!

Buzz Lightyear really IS flying!

Eli got so tickled by all this kite flying!

Jackson's kite catching some wind...

too tired to push the mower, he had to drag it....

Pit stop for a potty break...we made our own little traffic jam...

One word for you: C-U-T-E!

Here is another adorable picture of my child courtesy of Grandad. He is always snapping shots of the boys & yesterday he just got this great one of Eli... Is he irresistible or WHAT?? I could just EAT him up!

Something to Pray About...

Well, to those of you who already know the job situation with Randy, then you will want to know that next week he starts a new "part time" job in addition to his full time job! This is a "trial" period to see if he likes the job, they like his work, etc before being offered a full time position. So pray that the Lord steers us in the direction that He wants us to go. We are pretty sick of the gas mileage that is associated with a 70 mile round trip drive to work for him each day (that is $20 a day in gas for his *paid for* truck people!). Not to mention the instability of the current job (he went back to this same job 6 months after being laid off because the company was lacking work), or the ever so worsening insurance premiums ($390/mo plus a $2000 deductible HSA that his employer is not contributing to). Don't get me wrong- this company he is working for has been incredibly wonderful & provided for our family for 7 years now, & they are like extended family, but we have to look at what is best for our family NOW, & we feel like the current job isn't it. We just hope that the Lord will place an opportunity in front of us for change, even if it isn't the "part time"position. This position will only be 2 days a week (of course, two of my busiest evenings of the week- so pray for my stress level & patience too!) but it is half the distance as the full time position so hopefully even if he takes this on full time, the difference in gas mileage would be like a pay raise!
So i just thought i would update you all on where the job situation is going currently & please say a huge prayer for us as we possibly embarq on a new journey!

Mommy Guilt

I am sure i have many more years of mommy guilt coming my way- but right now i feel pretty guilty since i took the pacifier away from a SICK child. And the reason Eli FINALLY got it back was because he screamed half the night or so we thought it was about the paci- but it was because he had an ear infection! And on top of that, he also has croup to boot! Poor guy! I guess we never got rid of the ear infection fully from 2 weeks ago or else he has just developed another one! (sigh) This illness thing is quite frustrating & this time the dr. said that if he continues to keep them then we would have to think about tubes. But for now we are sitting tight since this is technically only his 3rd one- but boy have they been doozies! So 10 more days of antibiotics (plus 3 days of steroids for the croup) more sighing....

Oh, How he wants to be like daddy!

Jackson thinks everything his Daddy does is the greatest. He can "fix" anything, wrestles with him, plays the guitar & mandolin, tells funny jokes, works with fun tools, drives a truck, fishes, etc etc. Well, he ALSO mows the grass, & this is no less exciting for Jackson either! He longs for the day he can really mow the grass (so does his Daddy!) but until then, he just settles to mow "behind" Daddy in the yard. Thanks for helping little man!

Poor Eli- he just longs to be big enough to be a helper, too!

Happy Anniversary.... sort of

{randy & rachel the month before they were engaged}

Well, today is the anniversary of mine & Randy's first date- EIGHT years ago! I can't believe i remember this date for 8 years, but it is also his mother's birthday (HAPPY BDAY MEMA!) & i remember stopping off for a quick gift pick up during our date! (Such the sweet son that he is.) We went fishing (my first experience in a johnboat)... and then to dinner (where my fortune read "your future sits in front of you")... and we still didn't want the evening to be over, so then we hit a movie (28days- not a very good movie). I remember thinking (yes on the first date) that i could SO marry this man! He was such a gentleman (he actually asked if he could kiss me & not on the first date!) & incredibly sweet (and the nicely defined jawline & blue eyes didn't hurt) & lo & behold, i DID marry him 15 months later. So, here's to you, babe, Happy Anniversary...sort of! I love you!

Another good reason to have a husband...

Well, this morning i came up with yet another good reason to have a husband... when this nasty thing was slithering in the back yard! YUCK! Some of you already know this, but randy was the "snake boy" in his neighorhood as a kid & all the neighbors called on him to get snakes out of their yards. He loves this kind of thing & has been known to even pull the truck over on the side of the road to get one out of the road before it gets run over. (Me, i would aim for it if i saw it!) So he was eating his bowl of cereal this morning before church & pointed this out to me as he was watching it out the window. My skin is shivering even as i tell this! I am paranoid about snakes in our yard & i won't let the kids go in the back yard to play if the grass needs to be mowed for this very reason! Our grass was pretty high back there because Randy had been working on the lawnmower & finally got it working yesterday. So he mowed, & this big guy had no place to run i guess.

Reality Check

Well, we thought the pacifier thing was going well, until last night! Whew! It was a long one & Eli was up & down all night. If we would go in to help him get back to sleep, he would literally get angry & throw the pacifier since it wasn't working. So at 4am, we gave in. We were tired & to be honest, we just wanted some rest. So i am not sure where we now are in this process, but i know that we were ALL tired this morning when we had to get up for church.