Way to go HAYDEN *PLUS* Big news

WOW it's been a long time... I bet you're surprised to hear from me again!

To be honest I haven't had the desire to blog at all!

The main reason is that I couldn't share what I wanted to share... until now!

BUT I'll keep you in suspense until the end of this post... just to make sure you read it!

I won't bore you with all the what's happened in our household since my last post... that would take too long. In the past 24 hours Hayden's life has been VERY eventful.

Last night he learned to ride a two wheeler. He went from training wheels to pro in seconds. Bryan took the training wheels off and he TOOK OFF with no help at all.

This is the ACTUAL first picture of his first ride with NO training wheels. (We think the fact that his training wheels were unbalanced and barely touched the ground before helped him learn on his own.) The only problem he has is starting off himself, but he's already getting the hang of that!He's pretty proud that he can ride like a BIG boy!! I can't say that I'm suprised - He's always done this - it's like he watches and learns how to do things right then just DOES IT.

He did it with sitting, crawling, walking, and now riding a two wheeler.

The boy just amazes me!Here's a video of his great job riding.

He deserves two thumbs up for such a great job!He's had a rougher day today though... after another night with a low grade fever and headache (this has been going off and on since Friday) I took him to the doctor this morning - thinking he had a sinus infection.

NOPE- he has PNEUMONIA!!!

He keeps telling me that he feels better and can go ride his bike, but I'm not buying it!

I will probably let him go ride a little later, but not for too long!

NOW for the big news -

after 12 years of working with the ministry we do in Michigan we are MOVING!!

This is HUGE for us. This is the only "married" life we have known and it's all our boys have known their entire lives!

We are very excited because we KNOW it's what God wants us to do, but scared too!

This move will allow us to be closer to family and the boys will be able to get to know their cousins better! The boys are excited too- although I don't know how excited they will be when they don't have the 180 acres to roam on like they do here!

Here are their first thoughts...

Carter - "Do they have snow in Tennessee? Will we be able to go snowboarding?"

Hayden - "Can Joel go too?" (I think he's going to have the hardest time leaving Joel.)

Wyatt - He didn't say much, but he's 2 1/2 and just copies what his brother's say!

I REALLY don't know how much I'll be able to post since our move time is the end of July/first of August, but I'm so glad to have the "secret" out so that I can freely blog again.

The lost tooth...

Between baseball and now family camp I've not TAKEN the time to blog... to be honest I'm not really motivated - MAYBE some comments would help me get back in it!! (hint hint!)

So instead of playing "catch up" with blogged I'll just start with yesterday...we'll really 2 weeks ago, but the main part is from yesterday...

Two weeks ago I noticed that Carter had his first loose tooth. BUT I also noticed that the permament tooth was coming in FAST directly behind it.

I called the dentist when the tooth was almost all the way in and they said to give it 2 weeks...

So now to yesterday... the tooth still wasn't out - it moved a little, but not enough for me to pull. So I called and we made a trip to the dentist....which is an hour and a half drive. *YUCK*

NOW the tooth is out, but you can't really tell because the new one is almost fully in!

Carter did great... Wyatt was the one who was worried because he saw the dentist use the pliers to pull it out! Now all he says is " Carter got big hurt and I NOT do it now!" He was so worried that he was next!

On the trip back (Hayden was playing with a friend so I only had 2 boys) I stopped with the boys at a rest area to take Wyatt potty (workin' on the potty thing) Carter decided to LOOK at his tooth they pulled.. then DROPPED it on the ground!

Little little tooth... in a parking lot - I never noticed before all the little multi-colored stones they use to make a parking lot! Take a look next time and the picture trying to find a child's tooth! A needle in a haystack would be easier!

After looking for about 15 minutes, I took the boys to the bathroom thinking I would NEVER find it - but hey he'll lose more teeth, right!?

I told Carter "Let's pray we find it." So we stopped to pray and went back to the van. I buckled Wyatt in and thought "I'll look ONE last time." So I got on my knees looked for about 2 minutes, I STILL didn't find it. I got up to get in the van and THERE IT WAS!!

I still can't believe we found it. I told Carter "Look God answered our prayer... He even cares about a tooth." Then he said, "Yeah, and he cares about us too!" You got that right kiddo!

So needless to say it was an adventure... we won't forget about the first tooth Carter lost... REALLY lost!

OH Canada

So Bryan and I had our first out of the USA AND gone for a week without the boys experience earlier this month.

It was also the first time I've flown in 8 years.

We had this huge small plane for our 3 hour flight! It was still a good flight. There was some beautiful sights (These photos were from the way home - I was reading THE SHACK on the way there - great book! )

The day after we got to Peggy and Joshua's house, we spent our time hanging out and adjusting to the time difference.

We got to see Sara again (we "met" her the day she was born almost 8 years ago) and we got to meet Sky for the first time. It felt like I already knew them from reading Peggy's blog.We then spent the next day at the Edmonton Mall (one of the largest in the world). It was amazing!! We shopped in the morning (without their kids, Sara and Sky) then in the afternoon we all (including the kids) went to the indoor waterpark that's INSIDE the mall!

But shhhhh don't tell the boys! I conviently forgot my camera to spare you THOSE pictures.The adults all left on Thursday for the 4 hour drive up to Jasper. After a quick stop in the cabin we would be staying in we all headed over to Jasper.The drive to Jasper from the cabin is about an hour and goes through the National Park there. We saw signs that there were mountain goats, elk, and moose, but we only saw elk!

Peggy and Joshua took us to see Maligne (Muh-leen) Canyon. Now Peggy says that it's a pleasant walk in the summer... but let me say that in the winter... it's an adventure!! All the steps where iced over which made "walking" interesting to say the least!

(Pause the music at the bottom of the page to hear the video)

Peggy and I took the less adventurous way down. But remember in this case anyway, what goes DOWN, must come UP!!

This is the 1st bridge we crossed over the gorge... pretty amazing huh?There is a bottom down there... a LONG way down there!
Before crossing the 2nd bridge we stopped for a photo.... But boys will be boys... and they wanted to go down further...

So Peggy and I let them... and we started back up... a LONG way up. (They like to think they caught us before we made it back to the car, but really we stopped to look around and for a photo op.. or we TOTALLY would've made it back LONG before them! )I guess it could be worse... they could have wanted to do what these guys were doing... climbing the ice walls on the side of the gorge! The next two days we spent skiing in the Rockies...
Let me just say that the last time I skied was over 7 years ago!!!

I did in fact HELP Bryan learn how to ski. (He was already better than me by the end of that day!) I haven't skied since - I've been pregnant since - 3 boys to prove it! Bryan has skied EVERY year since. The "mountains" I skied on 7 years ago are equal to the bunny hill on these slopes. Maybe I should have gone again BEFORE heading to the Rockies.

That's me scared to death...

This is what I was thinking - "If I break something - I STILL have to take care of the boys"

I look pretty convincing in this one....Bryan had a great time and would love to tell you all about how deep the "powder" was and how great it was going through fresh snow. He spent time on the top of the mountain..

then going down!!!

Here is some video of us... who is the better skier... you be the judge?

(Don't forget whose blog this is by the way :)
(Pause the music a the bottom of the page in order to hear)

Us taking a break in the lodge.

After a great weekend skiing and seeing the Rockies we headed back to Peggy and Joshua's to repack to head back to the USA.

The last night in Canada we stay in a hotel in downtown Edmonton...

This is the view from our room

We walked around the city... Bryan even found BAMBOO

This is Bryan's "Will you quit taking pictures already" picture I took at the airport.

We were excited to head home to see our three little men. After a week gone, we sure missed them. (They did great with Grandpa and Grandma - Hayden didn't want to be in the picture. There's always one it seems.) Thank you so much Peggy and Joshua for opening your home to us and making this trip possible! We had an AMAZING time. It was SO GREAT to see you - NOW COME VISIT!

Lights, Camera, Action

So last night was our ministry Christmas party. They did something different this year. Instead of having us find babysitters for our kids... they provided babysitting for us!!! It was great.

They also had the kids do a Christmas performance for us. It was Hayden's first Christmas program! The boys did a great job... especially since we only made it to half of the practices!! Hayden tried his hardest to keep up with all the motions.
They both stood in their place even if there was a lot of yawning and touching toes going on! We were so proud of them both!

The funniest thing happened at the beginning.... The "host" for the evening unexpectedly had all the children on stage tell their name and age! Carter and Hayden were at the very end of the introductions. When the microphone was passed to Hayden he practically THREW it at Carter! This unnerved Carter who was then too embarrassed to say anything... He did manage to say that it was Hayden, but then couldn't tell his own name! He later told Bryan, " I was so nervous... I didn't realize there would be so many people."
Hayden did tell me last night he just wants to watch Carter sing next time ;)

Wyatt's New Hobby

This is what Wyatt has been up to lately!!!

Don't worry... he wasn't harmed - at least I don't think so!
He loves to pretend to get stuck... I guess he got REALLY good!

Vacation 2008 - Monday Moment - Firstborn Milestone

OK I'm going to be all sentimental and sappy like you always are when the firstborn does something new!! (Great for me since I am a firstborn ;) Before our "get away adventure", Bryan so sweetly mowed for my parents. Of course Carter wanted to help, so Bryan let him have a shot at it.... he did pretty good. Bryan figured the mowing in a circle was the safest thing so he doesn't mow over stuff!!! (Oh if you hear about a "crop circle" in northern Virginia... now you know where it came from!!) Maybe I should hire him out to mow laws... in circles.. they could be big business....

2 months only!!!

Being in the north... summer doesn't last long. So while it seems I've been posting a lot of water time pictures... in theory we ONLY have about 2 (maybe 3) months where the water is WARM enough and the air hot enough to have this much fun!


SOOOOO more water pictures!!!


Bryan tried to teach Carter to water ski...He had tried on his own, but never made it all the way up. (I was at the house while the little boys were napping) So Daddy did it with him!!!


Then of course Daddy had to have some fun on his own and went kneeboarding!


After Hayden and Wyatt woke up we all rode out to the middle of the lake and jumped in (this was big for Hayden and I we both like to be able to touch the bottom!) But Hayden braved it and came to mommy... He's learning to overcome his fears... just like me !





So which one is Hayden and which one is Wyatt? (I never realized how much they DO look like twins!)

These were taken the other night, but I just hadn't had time to post them yet!

Hayden and his buddy Bradley!
Wyatt actually wanted in on the picture too! Notice the goggles Hayden is wearing! He came and put them on so he could run through the sprinkler like this...
I forgot how funny a three year old is!!