Boys, Boys, Boys

Here are just a couple new pics of Joshua and Gregory that I absolutely love! 

Gregory is becoming such a big boy!  Potty-trained and all!  We were FINALLY able to spike Gregory's hair--he's always concerned about people laughing at him...and of course he got lots of compliments, but still we have to convince him to do it again.

Not too sure what Joshua is thinking or wishing he could say to Gregory in the third photo!

On the last picture, Joshua had pulled the picture down from the bookcase...the picture is the only way we have a three generation photo with Tom's dad, as the picture is of Tom and Tom's dad (both when they were in basic training).

It's been awhile again...I am soooo looking forward to Thanksgiving

As usual it's been a while since I've posted and I can honestly say we haven't been bored!  Tom's been VERY busy with NCO Academy and his other class (through SAGU)...among other things (teaching Jr High Sunday School, teaching Jr High NOW service, planning other youth events, etc)...and I have been busy baking, cooking. chasing Joshua and Gregory, shopping, hosting a baby shower, attending another baby shower, attending MOPS, etc.

We have managed to fit in some fun too...Tom hung out with some of the other guy youth leaders to check out a thing called Extreme Challenge...where we are going to take our youth to for a New Year's Eve Party...we also stopped at one of our youth events, a Turkey Bowl, which was at the park behind our house...and then there was our youth pastor's son's 4th birthday party and I hosted a Gerber Party.  Whew!  And of course that's not even all!

All that to say...I am soooooooo looking forward to getting away for a couple of days for Thanksgiving...we are going to head up to Winterpark, CO to check out the YMCA of the Rockies (Snow Mtn Ranch), where we'll be having our Winter Retreat for our youth group in March.  So we will get to relax and enjoy it while we are checking out some specifics since Tom is organizing our youth winter retreat again this year.

To SEE more of our fun check out our pics here...

Joshua's 10 months old

I figured I better hurry up and get Joshua's 10 month photo and post up before he's 11 months old!  So here are the pics of Joshua and Gregory.  How crazy is this!  The same shirt!  I didn't know this until just now when I was pulling up the to pictures...so crazy!  The first picture is Joshua and the second one is Gregory.

Shutterfly Holiday Cards

Shutterfly!  Wow, I have a TON of photos here…so this year we are going to do a photocard and hopefully next week (Thanksgiving) we’ll get a great photo to put on our card.  If not, maybe we’ll do a photo montage of the year in pictures like this one. 

 Why Shutterfly you might be asking?  Well, I have had great success with them!  If this sounds like a commercial for Shutterfly, it is…simply that.  I found a great opportunity to get 50 free holiday cards and that’s what I’m gonna do…get my 50 cards for free.  You want to find out more about this?  Check it out here!

Here are a couple of my other favorite designs…not sure what we’re going to use yet, but here are some favs from the new 2010 designs…I especially like that they have some nice religious christmas cards.

 In case you aren’t familiar with Shutterfly let me share a little more about it….I’ve hosted a Shutterfly House Party and got great freebies from Shutterfly this way (ink pens and bags galore!)  I have also gotten quite a few other freebies from Shutterfly (a free 8 x 8 hardback book when we did our baby registry for Joshua before he was born and other photobooks). 

Here are some links to some of the great things they offer…

Photo Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery   

Christmas invitations to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations

Desk calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

Photo albums to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books

Christmas ornaments to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/pewter-ornament 

So don't forget bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010 !

Meals and more

This week Tom has been working nights so we have been coming up with all kinds of stuff to keep us busy...everything from flu shots (ugh!), to running errands, shopping and playing at Lil' Biggs!  So we made it and tonight's the last night...

After much frustration I got this week's meals planned and it's turned out pretty great! 

It started with Sunday and I made Beef Macaroni Casserole AND Beef Stew.

Then on Monday I got stuff ready to make Chicken Enchiladas (took it all out of the freezer and mixed it up to put together on Tuesday).  And then I made something else yummy which I already forgot!

So on Tuesday I put together the Enchiladas and that's what we had for dinner.

On Wednesday I made Knephla Soup...YUM!  Tom loved it when my mom made it when they were down here last, so I figured it would be a good option to do again :-)

So here we are on Thursday and it's leftover night!  And there is soup and enchiladas to choose from :-)  Yummy the second time around too :-)

And for Friday night...not sure...I might get a babysitter and go out with some girls while Tom goes out with some guys...or I might just stay home and have pizza, but we'll see.

Looking forward to planning next week earlier than Sunday / Monday night when I get extremely frustrated.  So hopefully it will work again!

Tom's 34th Birth DAY

Yesterday we celebrated Tom's birthday...it was the "normal" birthday happenings at our house...gifts, balloons, birthday lunch and a party!  The highlights of the day were Tom being surprised with his gifts...it doesn't always work out to surprise him when we give each other wish lists for our birthdays and other holidays.  Happy  Birthday Sweetheart!  We love you!

He said he felt like it was his 10th birthday all over again :-)  Joshua and Gregory gave their dad a replica of the A-Team van (from the movie this year) and a Wii game with a Nerf gun included!  I got Tom some other things he wanted...the movie "Chicken Run", a nice dress shirt, a CD--Group1Crew's latest CD, Toby Mac's new book "City on Our Knees".

Then for lunch we went out to Red Robin so Tom could have his birthday burger :-)

After naps (for the boys), we finished cleaning up and decorating the downstairs bathroom (the seasonal one as I like to call it) :-)


Then we had a few families over from church to share cake and ice cream...it was as always fun hanging out with friends and getting to know each other more.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures!!!!!!  The only picture I have of the cake is from the morning after :-)  There was the "normal" birthday singing and a candle :-)  So just imagine it for yourself (make sure the song is off key in your imagining) :-)

Awesome Concert!

The other night (Thursday) we had the opportunity to go to the Make A Difference concert here in town.  I had made arrangements for one of our favorite babysitters(Thanks so much Kerrie!)  to watch the boys so we could go on a date :-)  This is the second one we've had in one month!  Woohoo!  The boys did great and love being with Kerrie and her kids.  And we had an awesome time at the concert.  There was so much to be thankful for especially that night...the tickets were FREE!  The seats were INCREDIBLE!  The music was FUN!  It was just a great time worshiping God and having good fun and making new memories with the artists who performed.  It was Toby Mac, Third Day and Michael W. Smith all whom I've seen before with very different memories...Toby when he was with DC Talk (whom I had seen twice when I was in high school); Third Day (whom we saw when we were in Germany) and Michael W. Smith (whom I had seen with DC Talk once when I was in high school).  This time we were with fellow youth leaders from our church and great friends!  It was so fun to be with Jake & Kathryn, especially since we sat next to them!  What a wonderful way to start Tom's birthday weekend.  More photos here...