Families Like Us

We are part of a wonderful group of adoptive families in our community called Families Like Us. I've mentioned it before on the blog. In fact right about this time last year we went to our first event and began meeting these beautiful families. Several months ago, we committed to help assist with leadership to this group.  I am passionate about the need for this group so quickly yelled "YES!" when I was asked if we wanted to help out. But leadership, organizing and details are not exactly my forte.  At one time in my life it was, not so much anymore. Either way, I'm so blessed to have found this group and to be given a part of the responsibility to help keep it alive and growing. Something I've realized is how quickly I can connect with these people. The conversation never runs dry. We have a common bond. It's unique and special. And I'm thankful for this community that we are able to be part of.
Last night we headed to Rocky Top Ranch for our fall hayride and cookout. The boys had so much fun at this place. It's too bad they only get to go to Rocky Top once a year. It really is a cool place for kids. There are animals to see and ride, dirt to play in, a really cool playground, a fire pit and tons of space to run and play. Here are a few pictures from our fun filled evening.

A little boy's heaven, huh?

The coolest playground. Even the bigger kids loved it!

This little girl stole my heart! And Pax loved making her laugh. They were bouncing and she would fall down and start laughing. He would bend down to see her face while she was laughing at their game. It was really sweet and pretty darn cute.

the hayride!

Roasting marshmallows around the firepit.

And the aftermath of a yummy smore!

It was a great night and a fall tradition that we will look forward to each year!

Halloween with Friends!

We had some friends over last night for dinner and to make the block with us for Halloween. The boys collected way too much candy and we've decided to send about 80% to Jeremy's work. We do better without the candy around here.  The boys loved everything about Halloween this year. They loved dressing up in costume.  They loved running from house to house and searching for those with their porch lights on. They loved saying "trick or treat" and getting their goods. They loved spending their evening with friends. We had 6 little boys at our house last night, ages {almost}5 months to 7 years. I'm thankful the boys were able to have this fun little time with other energetic boys.  Here are a few pictures from our day and evening.

A dinosaur and his daddy.

Me and my sweet Spider Man.

our lively crew of boys!

My family. Not our best picture or best moment. It was a little bit of a tense moment. The boys were ready to run and I was adamant about getting a picture of the 4 of us first! So it was one of those "smile and pretend you love each other moments". We got the smiles down ~ which is a miracle in and of iteself that we are all smiling. But I don't think we're convincing anyone of the love in this picture. Just being honest with you, folks. Please tell me you have these moments too. ;)

Pax LOVES babies. Especially little baby Cruz.

A cute little tiger with my boys.

And just because I can appreciate Jeremy's sense of humor and you should too...he taped this to our front door so we could all go trick or treating together. But we still wanted to share our candy with the neighbors. And amazingly enough, we still have a ton of candy left. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween filled with candy and fun!

Weekend pictures

We had a very full and fun weekend. And here are some pictures from our phones that we snapped throughout our family time.

A very chilly Friday morning bike ride. We love Jeremy's every other Friday off schedule. The only thing that could be better, would be every single Friday!

Friday morning, one of Holden's first comments to Jeremy was that he wanted to play soccer that morning. This was great for us to hear! We think he's finally starting to enjoy playing. Saturday morning, he had a pretty chilly game. But he scored 2 of 3 goals for his team! He also won the medal for teamwork. One of his teammates fell on his chest during practice and Holden helped him up. The other coach (not Jeremy) chose Holden to receive the medal this week.

Saturday afternoon we attended a birthday party for one of Holden's little friends from church. It was a costume party and it was so much fun for the boys. There was pumpkin bowling, tug of war, face painting, candy apples and so much more.  The boys had to skip naps to attend the party. This is something that rarely happens. We just typically plan to be home in the afternoon for naps. It works best for us. And Saturday was a good reminder of why we do that. Naps are still very much a necessity at our house. They actually did good until about 6pm. Then their responses to everything became very unpredictable. More unpredictable than normal for 3 and 4 year old boys. What can I say! My boys need their sleep! And I'm sure not going to deny them of that.

So I'm sort of giving away the Halloween costumes with these party pictures, but oh well.  This was their first time to have their faces painted.

Just a little moment I caught of the boys this morning before we took Pax to his class at church.  Sometimes they really are the best of friends. And many times they are quite the opposite. :)

A chopstick style lunch at Pei Wei. They thought those were coolest utensils ever. So I'm honestly wondering if Holden's veggie consumption might increase if I had chopsticks for him at every meal.

Then this evening after the boys naps, we went to a favorite spot for them to ride bikes. Jeremy stayed with the boys as they pedaled along. While I went for a run by myself, lapping them a few times. ;) It was a great way to end our weekend. 

Carving the pumpkin

Every year, our master pumpkin carver sets aside an evening in October to work his magic. Yesterday was the evening.  The boys love watching daddy carve the pumpkin and they especially love the end result of his work.
Last year, the boys chose Mickey Mouse. And in 2010, Holden chose a picture of a cat. But after reading lots of pumpkin and jack-o-lantern books for the past 2 weeks, the boys agreed they wanted a scary faced jack-o-lantern. Jeremy and the boys scanned the internet for some options and they made their selection.

 

 

 

 

And now do you notice Holden's troubled face? Pax was fine. He just doesn't always smile for the camera. Once the lights were turned off so that we could see the jack-o-lantern lit up, Holden became a bit terrified. I love that he has this innocence about him. He can be very easily scared by things.

And Jeremy took it upon himself to find these glow swords at the Target dollar spot. So the boys got to play with these bad boys last night. It always makes me smile when Jeremy does something like this. It was a mere $2, but that he saw them and knew it was something his boys would love...it makes me happy.
Happy Pumpkin Carving everyone!!

It's been 10 whole years...

I had a fantastic weekend. Better than fantastic. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I'll go ahead and embarrass myself...I cried after the said weekend was over. I cried a few times. I couldn't pull myself together. I think part of it was sleep deprivation. But part of it was a lot more than that.

Jeremy and I went to our 10 year college reunion this past weekend. Do we look old enough to be out of college for 10 years? I think NOT. I'm sure that's what you were thinking too. ;) I did get asked once on campus if I was a student. Thank you 60-ish year old lady. I realize that everyone under 35 looks like a youngin' to you, but I'll take it any day. And yes, I did thank her, even if she didn't intend to compliment.

Jeremy and I met in college. We were 19 when we first introduced ourselves to one another. He had a few earings, bleached out hair and wide legged jeans. I thought I had him pegged and he wasn't my type. Nor would I ever be his. It was a short 6 months later that I really had the priviledge to know more than just his name and his hometown. October of 1999 he was my date to a Greek function. He was chosen for me by someone else. And it wasn't long after that date, that I quickly fell in love that with that laid-back, fun, trendy clothed boy. And lucky for me, he fell in love too. I think that is such a huge reason this place, Abilene, Texas...Hardin-Simmons University holds very fond memories for me. At this special place, Jeremy and I met, developed a friendship, fell in love, broke up and recommitted. And at the end of our senior year we were engaged to be married. A little drama (including, but not limited to, the break up), but a whole lot of fun and some very special memories linger when I think of this place. I teasingly told Holden and Pax that I would show them the place that mommy and daddy shared their first kiss. I don't think they really cared. ;)

Unfortunately for Jeremy he spent many hours working (waiting tables for the most part) during our college years. But fortunately for me, that gave me a lot of time with my friends, independent from him. I have a feeling if he had worked a whopping 15 hours a week on campus, like I did, we would have been glued to one another in our spare time. What can I say...we loved our time together. But because he was busy working to support himself while in college, I have a brain FULL of memories with my girlfriends. I could spend hours telling anyone that cared to listen of the fun memories that took place during those 4 years.

So last Friday, as we drove on campus I got a little swept away in all of the memories. You couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. It had been 8 years since we had visited this special place. It looked so different with tons of new buildings on campus. But it also looked very much the same. Very familiar. Then on Sunday, as we drove away from the campus, it happened again. I got a little swept away and the tears wouldn't stop coming. Jeremy was sweet but didn't quite understand. And to be honest, I don't either. I love my current life. Please don't misinterpret. But I think there is a part of me that longs to repeat history. Sometimes I think that I would do it all over again if given the opportunity. And right now, I'm just a little tender and achey for the past. So weird. Right? I do realize that I may sound a little like Tim McGraw in the movie Friday Night Lights. I'm not proud of that. Just trying to be authentic, even if it makes me appear a little pathetic.

So I've been thinking this week, I bet there were times that I wanted to be out of college and moving on...marrying my sweet love, starting a family, being done with all the classes. And here I am kind of wishing to be back in that place. So my lesson from this is that I should never rush towards the future because I might miss the past. Pretty good, huh? I may have unintentionally stolen that from some deep philosopher. But I'm pretty sure it just came about in my brain yesterday.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend. I barely touched my camera, so luckily I had some sweet friends share there pictures with me.

This greeted us on Friday when we entered the campus.

We took the boys on a little stroll around campus Friday afternoon.  I'm pretty sure they loved it and plan on enrolling in 14 and 15 years . . . if I let them move that far away from me. ;)

A small portion of my pledge class at a Saturday morning breakfast. Those 2 little Greek letters changed my college experience, for the better. And it helped me in creating some friendships that I'll never let go of. It also aided me in snagging my husband. :)

We stayed with some friends that we hadn't seen in YEARS. So the boys got to make some new friends. :)

 My hot date for our reunion dinner.  I really do cherish the fact that he was such a huge part of my college experience. It's fun for us to look back together on so many shared experiences.

 The girls attended All School Sing on Saturday night. The boys stayed back with the kiddos since it made for a late night.  And here is Sigma Alpha performing. They won it! We were pretty proud.

 Some Sigma Alpha spirit (blue and green fake lashes, necklaces and glow bracelets).

 Such fun to watch...but it was so much more fun being on stage...back in the day.

And some pictures of my future HSU Cowboys!

 

Looks like this one might attempt to be a cheerleader, but that's ok. We'll deal with it. :)

 

What a great weekend! It really was. But it's time to face the music and be 32. There is no possible way to go back to 1999. I've already looked into it. They said no. :)