Mom and Me Tea

Jackson's Preschool had a special day for moms- lots of singing, some speaking parts, we got a gift, and we had cookies and lemonade!  It was lot's of fun!  Here is a video and his speaking part (ummm does he ALWAYS have to be the loud kid??)

cheese!

Horrible pic of me, but cute of Jackson

Tornado Cleanup

Last Sunday our church got together and helped with some of the tornado cleanup.  We had 3 groups actually 1- childcare at the church 2- cleanup crews 3- teams that went door to door seeing how the families were holding up.

It was very eye opening.  David and I were on the team going door to door bc at this point in the pregnancy he banned me from manual labor (although I thought that may bring this baby on) and we thought we better stay together in case all the walking did cause something to happen (which it didn't besides a sore back and feet).  So we walked and talked to the families seeing if they had any needs outstanding, checking on how they were doing emotionally, and letting them know where to go if they needed food, supplies, etc.  In the area we were at- the houses received minimal damage and they were spared, so actually everyone we talked to just seemed SO GRATEFUL!  Only 2 blocks south of the area we were assigned had complete devastation though.  We met a family who had to move out of there other house bc it was destroyed, but they were thankful to already be in a new house and they had found shelter during the storm so everyone was safe.  The dad was actually working on his car which was damaged.....as in it was missing 2 doors!  Wowza! 

But all in all it was a wonderful experience talking to these people as the crews of cleanup were right there with us getting all the debris in piles and sweeping the streets, sidewalks and driveways!  From what I have heard- even though there was a lot of damage, not one was killed!  What a blessing!  Please pray for these people- the ones who lost everything and that we as a community will continue to help with their needs so they can start to rebuild their lives.  The tornado hit a very poor part of town....why does that seem to always happen??

Oh and this is what M was doing at church while we were gone! :)

Slowly but surely

this baby business is moving along!  I went back to the Dr today and after having made no progress last week- I have this week!  I'm dilated to 1.5, effaced 50%  and she is head down......so now it's just a waiting game!  If she isn't here before the 14th- that is my induction date!  There is an end in sight!

The Dairy Farm

Jackson had his last field trip of Preschool today and I was super excited about it since it was to a Dairy Farm! I just love all things country and since I grew up having these animals, I was excited to see how the boys would react!

Here is Farmer Dave squirting the milk! :)

I really enjoyed myself b/c I didn't really know anything about dairy cows- we had beef cows growing up. I feel a little more educated today!

They had all sorts of animals there including this cute little lamb and goat!




My boys loved petting all the animals!

Jackson probably has no idea that I had pet chickens growing up! Melts my heart seeing him hold one of his own!

They had pig races too- so so much fun for the kids! Matthew said this was his favorite!

And then they had tons of things for the kids to do and play on! What a great field trip!

Baby Shower

I had Miss Shelby's Baby Shower Saturday! My friend, Jaime, held it for me at my house since her kitchen is about to be remodeled! :) We had a great time despite this taking place:

Yep this is the day of the night that we had the tornado come through in the post below! Many friends braved the windy weather and still came. Unfortunately almost all my Squadron friends couldn't make it last minute b/c their husbands were either working command post to get the 16 airplanes to North Dakota or they were one of the crews flying them out! I think we still ended up with 13 friends here. I had many friends out of town also for the Beth Moore conference in Kansas City, a few that had to work, and 2 that had just lost loved ones and were attending funerals. I'm thinking it was a rough weekend for a baby shower! :) We had a good time and like I said we still had a house full!

Here are Jaime and I with all the yummy food!

This cake was to die for! Strawberry with preserves inside and cream cheese icing!

We played some games!

And I opened lots of sweet gifts!


And here is her loot - not including the swing- that is just in her room! She truly has a closet full of clothes now and I was still getting gifts on Sunday from friends that couldn't make it!

I have washed her newborn and 0-3 months clothes and packed her bag.....guess I should pack my bag soon! Less than 4 weeks now!

There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home!

Yep, give me some little sparkly red shoes and call me Dorthy b/c that's how I felt yesterday! We braved a pretty bad tornado last night and to say I was scared was an understatement! Even the small ones scare me, but this one was big (they were saying between 1/4 and 1/2 mile wide). We missed it just barely....it went just north of us, destroying all in it's way! It hit the Spirit, Boeing and the base (all airplanes were relocated by early afternoon to North Dakota and thankfully my husband wasn't on one of the alert crews). I haven't heard of any damage at the base, so hopefully it faired okay! I have heard that Oaklawn and Wichita, both just a few miles away, got hit pretty hard! I'm very thankfully my family was spared and my house is still standing!

Here is some video of the funnel.


Here is where we were, hiding out in the basement. Did I mention David's mom, aunt and gma were here! So we hung out in the basement, ready to go to the storage room at anytime. Luckily we didn't have to since the twister went right around us. We all ended up sleeping in the basement, 2 on the couch, 2 on the air mattress, 1 on a twin mattress, and 2 in the bedroom behind this picture!


And here is a picture of the flight line....empty. Looks kind of weird not to see any planes out there!

Here are some pictures from the devastation- literally just a few miles from our house!
Click HERE to see!

Easter Weekend

We had a whole weekend of festivities! We started with our church Easter Egg Hunt (it was raining all morning so everything was moved inside).

Here are the boys with their friend Ayden!

This pic is blurry along with a lot of others...grrrr!

J and his stash!

Then we Bar-B-Qued that night and enjoyed the beautiful weather! David snapped this of me and my loves!

That night the Easter Bunny came!

The boys all ready for church armed with swords!

Then off to some friends house to have Easter with about 20 other people. There we had another Egg Hunt, then got out the cornhole and ladder golf for some friendly competition! But mostly we relaxed while the kids played and enjoyed great company and beautiful weather!




Our last big holiday before we become a family of 5! 5 weeks and counting folks!


I hope your Easter was filled with lots of yummy food, family, friends, candy, and the real reason we celebrate! It wasn't the end of Jesus.....it was just the beginning! The beginning of a new life for you and I!

Great Wolf Lodge

We went for one night and two days to Great Wolf a few hours away as one more FUN thing to do before baby sister arrives! The boys had a blast and we enjoyed seeing them have fun! I would recommend GWL to anyone who hasn't been, especially if your kids love water! But they also had lots of other stuff to do too!

Ready for some fun when we got there! :)

This is the big attraction in the middle with sprayers, buckets, etc! They also had several water slides (some J and M could ride on), a pool with basketball and obstacle course thing, a whole kiddie area with 3 more slides and fun, stuff, a lazy river, a 1000 gallon bucket (which you can see at the top there) that drops every 5 minutes, a warm tub for everyone and a hot tub for adults!

These didn't turn out but J enjoyed the kiddie slides better than the bigger ones!

Little brother did too!

This is in the Lobby and they did a show here at night and read the kids a book before bed!

We stayed in the Kids Cabin and the kids had their own area with bunk beds and a tv.....not that we were in the room much, but they thought it was cool!


That evening we opted to take the kids to minature golf (this was at GWL).

The kids had fun and David and I had a friendly competition......ughh we tied! I ALWAYS beat him, so I am a little upset over this tie! One hole did me in and that threw the rest of my game off! :)

The next day we went back for more water time! The second day J was so much more comfortable! He was LOVING the 1000 gallon water bucket! He ran over there every 5 minutes when he heard the bell ringing! M was not really into it- he was very tired from the day before and his allergies are giving him a fit at night. So he and I were both up and down all night....poor guy!


So it looks like we are home bound now.....5 weeks and counting! She has my permission to come earlier if she wants! :)

Italian Night

We were invited to Italian Night by some friends.....just adults, all dressed up, and homemade Italian cuisine! It was a fun night (probably our last outing before Shelby arrives), great food, and better company!

The menu consisted of:
Course 1: Pear slices with Parmesan cheese and Mozzarella cheese rolled with Prosciutto.

Course 2: Tomato & basil Bruschetta with mozzarella and Balsamic vinegar reduction.

Course 3: Homemade cheese tortellini, baked in a cream sauce and topped with a stewed tomato sauce.

Course 4: Homemade Tiramisu and Cannolis. White and red Italian wines will be paired with the courses, including a sparkling Italian wine with dessert. (sparkling grape juice will be provided for those with child)

Decaf Italian roast coffee will also be available with dessert.
The group: The Ballew's, Akins, Ybarra's, and the Eddy's