Mi casa es su casa

"my house is your house"...is something I hope everyone knows and feels who walks through our front door. One thing I am the most thankful in marrying Jamie is that he too enjoys entertaining and having guests over. I don't think it was one of those things I particularly looked for in a husband, but since he enjoys it, I'm very grateful. And what's great about him is that he doesn't care if it's a big or small group, and he's all about inviting people over that we barely know in order to get to know them more. (Thank you husband!!)
This summer we've had a lot of gatherings in our backyard for BBQ's and I've loved every single one of them!! This is what summer is all about - loving on our friends. I feel like in the last couple of weeks, we've been super busy with either having people over or going to our friends' house. Sometimes I wish summer wouldn't end.
One thing we're trying to do is be more intentional in getting to know our neighbors. Last night was a great opportunity as we had 2 couples come over for hamburgers.
One of the pastors at our church recently gave us a patio table and chairs - thank you Bishop Green!! It has been a blessing to us, as well as others for when we host. I think it could be easy to feel "inadequate" as our backyard is ugly b/c we have no grass - only weeds. But it's something that we just can't do anything about right now and we've got bigger (better!!) issues to tackle.

So as summer winds down, I raise my glass and say, "here's to friends who come eat our food - we're the ones who benefit from your presence!".

The boys

I thought I'd post a few pic's of the boys and what they've been up to lately.

They're both growing, growing, growing!

Breeson:
In the last week and a half, we've been dealing with some pretty bad tantrums, or "fits" as we call them. I would say we deal anywhere with 2-3 on a daily basis. :( It's been hard emotionally, physically and mentally. I know it's a "phase", but I hope we grow out of it soon. He's really been testing us as what he can get by with and he has been really jealous of our attention. We're doing the best we can in dealing with them. For now, what seems to work the best is time-outs on his bed. He hates being in there by himself. Plus, we do it because I hate hearing him cry, or should I say scream, in the dining room - where we typically had time-outs. But once we usually get these fits out of our system, he plays pretty well. At least the good outweighs the bad!! We still love that boy to pieces.
I truly believe that once Eagan can start interacting with him and "playing" with him, he'll really start to enjoy him more. Right now he still ignores his brother 95% of the time, but likes to show his affection every now and again. I think in the end, he'll be a great big brother.

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Eagan:
I haven't taken Eagan to his 2 month apt yet (he's about to be 3 months this week) due to insurance issues. I hope to get him there soon. I think he's anywhere from 12-15 lbs by now. ??
He's such a good baby. He has been ever since he was born. Sleeping habits are decent. His first phase is usually from 8ish-2/3 am, then he can sometimes sleep 'til 7. If he does get up before then, then he'll sleep in longer. Otherwise, because we're all getting up around 7, he'll usually join us. Already he plays so well on his play mat. The other morning he played and cooed for an hour and a half by himself. Breeson NEVER did that. We always had to be entertaining him. Eagan usually only gets more needy as the evening progresses and that's because he's tired.

Have I ever showed you Eagan's toes?? They're quite comical to me. If you can see it well enough, you'll notice that his toes are all the same length - they don't digress. They remind me of monster feet. I think he'll be able to grab a lot of things with these toes someday!!

In all, life with 2 hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, but yet it has been the hardest thing so far. Make sense!? :) We pretty much take it one day at a time. We love these boys and are so thankful we get to parent them - good days and bad days.

4 Years

We've made it 4 years now!! It's been a good journey and we both look forward to what the future holds. God has blessed our marriage in so many ways.
Last night we dropped the boys off with some friends, then headed to The Melting Pot. We don't typically spend that much $$ on food, but we decided to splurge this year ~ plus we've been wanting to eat here for a long time; now we can say we've experienced it. It was quite yummy. We were SO full. We talked about some goals we'd like to accomplish in this next year and we recapped on our last 4 years. It was a great night celebrating our Anniversary.

Praying for Kristi

For those of you who don't know Kristi, please read the following. I went to college for a year with Kristi and her husband, Robert, before they graduated. This is a HUGE prayer request - God is much bigger than all of this. If you want to follow them more, go to Facebook and search for the group "Praying for Kristi".

July 31st, 2011 Robert and Kristi Casey, and their two daughters, Aidyn (3) and Rosalie (2), welcomed Lydia to the world. Three days later when they were going to be released from the hospital, they found out Kristi's collar bone had broken. After a few X-...rays and tests the doctor's found cancer in her chest area and that the cancer had spread to her bones and that was the cause of her collar bone breaking so easily. Please be in prayer for Kristi and God's healing in her body. Please be in prayer for Robert and for their little girls. A web site was set up for meals if anyone is interested in helping with that for them. For more information, please go HERE.

This is updated news from her friend Ali:

This is the latest info that Kristi has given me as of today (8/9/11):
There is a Cancer Foundation for Cervical and Breast Cancer through the state of Alabama that works with hospitals on behalf of cancer patients in regards to financial issues with treatments. Kristi's doctors have been researching and are 99.9% sure that she DOES QUALIFY for them to cover her treatment! PRAISE GOD!
PRAY THAT ALL GOES THROUGH WITH THAT!
She had her first round of Chemo today and a round of regular radiation (regular radiation is safe to be around the girls). This first round was FREE and shouldn't make her sick or lose her hair.
She goes tomorrow for an appointment for radiation at 9:15. Pray during that time for her and the treatment.

8/10/11: PRAYER
Kristi told me last night where the cancer is in her body, exactly and Patrick and I thought it would be a good idea to let all you guys know just in case you wanted to pray about these areas.
She definitely has Breast Cancer. It has spread to her blood, bones and her liver. She has two broken bones, her right side collar bone and a rib on her left side. Because of the cancer in her bones the two broken bones can't heal until they can get the cancer taken care of in them (this is what the Bone Scans are for -- she can't be around the girls for 24hrs whenever she has these).

Mommy-Son Date

Breeson and I had a Mommy-Son Date last night. We went to see Barney Live!! I NEVER would've believed it if you would've told me years ago that I would be doing this right now.
But we did. And we had fun. A friend of mine gave me the tickets, so we didn't pay for them. I told her Breeson doesn't even watch Barney and she said her son didn't either. :) Thanks Tricia!

The show lasted an hour and a half. I was shocked it would last so long considering it's for kids. But Breeson was mesmerized the whole time!! We let him watch Barney the Friday before we went and we talked about going to see Barney the last couple of days. There was some songs that he knew and was super excited about singing along.

The show was at the Pepsi Center downtown. The convenient part for us is that we live next to the light rail (2 blocks away!!) and so we rode the "train" in. The inconvenient part was that after we got on, we learned the tracks were down a few stations ahead and we all had to be bussed downtown. However, Breeson was super excited to get to finally ride one of the busses. We had a fun time all around.

You wanna know the silliest part of all? When we were sitting there watching Barney, and Breeson was jumping up & down singing, I got a little teary-eyed. You see, for that exact moment, there'd be no more like it. We will experience other fun things in life, but I got to enjoy him for his first "concert" (if you will). To see his excitement, and amazement; plus to just hear him sing along...there will come a day when he'll deny going to that show and probly not want to sit on his mommy's lap to sing the ABC song.

We had a great first date night just the two of us. I love that boy!!

Whacked

I went and got my hair cut today, or as Jamie would say, I got it whacked.
The reason I did it is b/c all I did with it was put it in a pony tail. I do like my hair long, but not the maintenance part. It's too hot to blow dry. Plus, with running around after 2 kids, I just don't put that much work into it.

Pretty huh?! Here it was before...

and now after...

I went to the Aveda Pure Talent salon, a lot cheaper than the actual salon. This is where the students have already graduated, but they're just going through an extended course. She did go a bit shorter than I had anticipated in the back, but once she started, then there was no going back. Jamie HATES it!! You should've seen his face when I got home. He has clearly told me he does NOT want me to go this short ever. again. I like it though - and it does grow!!

Life...

Life has been busy, to the say the least. It's busy enough when you have 2 kids, but then when you add working a lot more days than usual, it makes it even more hectic. Starting this week, I'm finally on more of a routine at work, where I only work 2 days a week (Mon & Thur's). The kiddos go to day care on Monday and Jamie watches them on Thursday. Since going back to day care after maternity leave, Breeson's reverted back to the days of when we first started going by crying/screaming his head off when we drop him off. :( No fun. Eagan's been doing ok there. It was hard to leave them both the first day back to work.

I can't believe we're in August already. Where did the summer go? We hit the triple digits a few days here, but I know it's not been as hot as it has been in Kansas and the Southern states. We finally broke down and put a window unit in. It's not pretty, but it keeps us cool.

Last Saturday night I met Jamie over at Ikea. It was crazy!! I read that on opening day (Wed prior to us going) they had around 70,000 people. Even when we went on Saturday, there was a LONG line just to get into the store. Luckily they let us cut b/c we had a stroller!! :) We didn't even walk around both floors (2 stories), we only did 1 and then ate in the restaurant. After that, we were exhausted fighting the crowd and our kids. I'll go back once it's settled down a little more and maybe go kid-free. I did get what I was going for - Ahlgrens bilar candies!! :) My friend, Annika, who is Swedish, introduced me to them when we both worked/lived in Uzbekistan. I love these things!!! Oh, and I did buy a lantern for our patio table too.

Otherwise, Jamie's busy working away with both of his jobs. We're still putting out resumes to various churches. I am settled back into job too. Breeson is as busy as ever. I feel like his vocab has exploded in the last month. Everyday he puts together a new sentence. We're almost to the point where we can carry on a conversation with him. Still a bit choppy at times. He's growing up so fast! Of course, so is Eagan. The little chunk is getting pudgy - the cute pudgy!! I'm guessing he's over 10 lbs now. ?? We go to the Dr next week for his 2 month. He had been sleeping in a swing at night and we recently moved him into the crib. The first night he did great and only got up during the feeding time. But the 2nd and 3rd night he's woken up b/c his covers are off. The only way to get him back to sleep has been to nurse him. I don't want him to get in the habit of that though. :( I have to remind myself he's only 2 1/2 months old. I will say this, I am enjoying him as a baby much more than I did with Breeson. For Breeson, I felt like I just wanted him to grow up. Eagan is much more cuddly and in the last 2 weeks has really shown us more of a laid back personality. We are enjoying him!!

I'll try and post pic's sometime soon. My dinosaur of a computer is on the fritz. I pretty much have to hand crank it to get started (not really - but close!). So I just don't deal with pic's anymore b/c it's hard to get the pics on my comp and then to post them. I need too, my boys are growing up and I'm gonna miss out.