Happy Haloween!

As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man Proverbs 27:19

I have to brag on my husband for a little bit. I must say in my opinion I have the best husband. I thought we had a good marriage because we didn't fight very often, we respected each others feelings and we liked being around each other. But, I didn't realize how good it could be. I must admit that we had been arguing more often towards the end of my pregnancy and right after the delivery. Satan was just finding ways to attack us and to stir things up. They were usually over something small or finances (surprise!)

About a month ago, Ryan and I went to see the movie Fireproof. It was a great movie! You have to expect the acting to not be wonderful but the content and the message they were portraying was excellent. We were so encouraged. I wasn't so much thinking that it applied to my marriage but was more thinking how that movie could help so many marriages in trouble.

Well, about a week later Ryan ordered the "Love Dare" book and he also ordered the DVD Fireproof Study to hopefully start with his guy group that he meets with every other week. He went ahead and started reading the Love Dare book and it is amazing. I haven't read it and in fact he keeps it in his truck so I can't see what each day is about. If you've seen the movie you kinda know what it is all about but if you haven't here is a little run down. Kirk Cameron is asked by his father to hold off on getting a divorce for 40 days and to read this book. The book is 40 days worth of "dares" so to speak. Things like don't say anything negative on this day and on the next day call her spontaneously just to see how she is and if she needs anything. Things like that and every day will give a little devotional, a dare and scripture to support you that day.

So, Ryan has shared with me that he has gotten so much out of this book. He realized within the first few days what was lacking in our marriage and what he didn't want to happen to our marriage. He realized that there was selfishness (which I can say that I have noticed my own selfishness so much lately) and that he had decided that he wanted our marriage to be so much deeper. What he did not want to happen is for us to wake up 15-20 years from now and be cohabitants. He expressed that there was so much more for our marriage and he just didn't want our marriage to be good but GREAT!

What wife doesn't want to hear these things? So, he continues to check in on me during the day, he comes home and immediately sees needs (diapers need changing or I haven't been able to start dinner and he just picks up the slack) and he has gotten me to be truly "in love" again. Not that I wasn't "in love" but I have felt more of what I felt for him in the beginning of our marriage before kids and craziness. I have felt like Ryan has truly become more of a spiritual leader for our home and our marriage. I love that my children are seeing what love looks like especially my daughters. He has encouraged me so much daily with his passion to be this husband God has called him to be. I haven't felt more treasured and set apart than I have in the past few weeks. He is truly and extraordinary husband and father.

So if you are having a hard time in your marriage or even if you aren't I can't express how much this movie and book has helped us and our marriage. I recommend it to any married couple!

Katelynn Joy

I took Katelynn for her 2 month check up this week. She did great and didn't even cry that long after her shots. (But she made up for that the rest of the day!) Here are her stats and some of my favorite "newborn pictures" of her.
Weight: 11.6 75%
Length: 23.5 90%
Head: 15.5 50-75%

Family time at the Arboretum

We decided not to go to the Fair on Sunday and to go to the Arboretum and have a relaxing (cheaper) day. So we dropped of Katelynn at my sister's house and we were off for a fun afternoon. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed the family time. It seems like we haven't had any kind of family fun things for a long time. Between all of the pregnancies and babies and Ryan working so much and on weekends. He has had to use his vacation time to be with me when we had the girls. So, needless to say we needed the afternoon to spend time together. AND we only spent $$ on our lunch since my sister has a pass for the Arboretum. We were gonna do picnic but thought it would be hard to get Haylee to sit and eat in wide open spaces. She loved the pumpkins and the ability to walk and even run wherever she pleased. Tyler was not too much into the whole picture taking as you can tell. Even the one's where he is smiling you can tell they were forced. Oh well....just a stage I hope. We wanted to get a few pictures of them in there costumes with the pumpkins. Tyler was excited to put his on. I got some really cute "father/daughter" pictures of Haylee and Ryan. Hope you enjoy them.

Costumes 2008

This is a picture of Tyler and Haylee from last year. Katelynn will be wearing the "chili pepper" costume this year and we retired the Spiderman costume this year after Tyler has worn it for 2 years now.













This year Haylee is a butterfly and Tyler is a Firefighter. Look how much they have grown. I got the best deal on this costume. I have been watching Craigslist and Ebay for a cheap Fireman costume but they haven't been cheap at all or they are for a 12 month old. I called Kid to Kid yesterday just to see if by chance they would have one and they said they did but they were looking for the jacket that went to it. They weren't sure if it was misplaced or if someone took it. I hung up and forgot to ask what size so my mom and I decided to go up there and look. When I walked in they had just found the jacket. It is so cute and obviously too big but Tyler was so excited to find one. Plus I told him he could wear it a few years. This is what he had been telling me all month he wanted to be. Did some researching and the tag in the costume had a website and I went there and found this costume for $59.95. SERIOUSLY? Who would pay that much? I happily paid $12.99. I still have to get Tyler a helmet but what a deal!


















Proud little boy!


















Sweet little butterfly.

As good as it gets

I thought I would take some pictures of Ty an Haylee sitting on the porch by the pumpkins. It didn't go so well. This is as good as it gets. Maybe we'll try it again some other time.

Haylee's one year pictures....

Here is a sneak peak of Haylee's one year pictures Brooke did. She hasn't given me the edited CD of them yet but I got these of of her blog
I well post all of the other and some "newborn" pictures of Katelynn soon. Just keep checking....

See Haylee CLIMB!

This girl can climb. We found her on top of Tyler's bed at first and we got on to him for putting her up there. He swore to us that he didn't put her up there but that she got up there by herself. Unfortunately we didn't believe him and told him not to tell a lie. Ryan later had to apologize to Tyler when I saw her doing this.....


















Climbing on our very BIG King size bed. WOW


















I had already caught her climbing on our bookshelf. She had made it all the way up to the 3rd shelf by the time I caught her but since it was potentially very dangerous, I didn't get a picture of it.

















Just look at the smirk on that face. It's like she knows she just did something she shouldn't have done. She is gonna give me a run for my money.


















I stayed in there even though Tyler tried to convince me that he would watch her. They played and had so much fun. At the end she did end up getting down by herself by backing up and kinda sliding down the side of the bed. I was like, where does she learn these things?

A look at Katelynn.......

Several people have been asking me to see some pictures of "the newest baby" so here you go. It seems my hands are always full and I haven't had time to take very many pictures of her. Plus, she just doesn't do that much yet! :) She is such a sweetie though.

She is sleeping through the night and has been for several weeks now with the exception of a few nights, thank you Lord! She beat Tyler who started sleeping through the night at 2 months and we all know Haylee just started sleeping through the night recently. In fact I have had one night where Haylee and Katelynn were both awake and crying at 2:00 in the morning. I got Ryan up that night to help with Katelynn so I could put Haylee back to bed.

Back to Katelynn, she is pretty calm and puts herself to sleep. She HATES to be in her car seat carrier and HATES being in the car sitting still or even driving. Just like Haylee she usually cries everywhere we go. Haylee still does this too sometimes and poor Tyler is right in the middle of them. He just puts his hand over his ears. :-)

She loves bath time but hates lotion time. She has just started smiling and cooing at me which is awesome. I love to look down while she is eating and see those big brown eyes looking back at me. It is so weird to look down and not see blue eyes looking back at me. But, I am so glad one of our kids has Ryan's eyes. It is so bitter sweet to have each and every moment with her knowing she is my last. I am trying to remember to enjoy each and every moment I have with her and not rush through all of the stages. So here are just some random pictures of her recently.


















Look at those big brown eyes





































A little spit up mess.


















Sleeping beauty.

Haylee's 1st Birthday Party

We had Haylee's 1st B-day party a couple of weeks ago. She had so much fun and got so many fun toys but most of all she got TONS of clothes!


















This was her horsey Aunt Brookie got for her. We let her ride on it before she actually opened presents.


















Here is her SMASH cake.....so cute!












And this is her actual B-day cake!

























Picture with the candles....it says "THE BIG 1"












Singing Happy Birthday song and we let Tyler blow out the candles.












You can see Ryan's hand that he had just set it down on the tray and she slaps her hands on her cake immediately. Just her personality...Tyler starred at his a while then slowly tested it. Not Haylee she is our "No Fear/Brave one" and she just went for it.












Of course once she got it on her hands she what quite sure what to do with it but she knew daddy would. So she shared with daddy....












and shared with mommy before she ever took her first bite.












Now she understands what to do with it. Yummy!

























A quick picture with the B-day cap on!












Sweet big brother. I felt so bad I didn't change his church clothes before we packed up everything for the party. He was so hot and I was just so busy trying to remember everything to bring that I forgot about him. :-( Sorry Bud!


















And sweet little sister. Funny thing to think of......Katelynn will be able to say she attended her "big" sister's 1st birthday party! Weird!












Aunt Carrie and Haylee playing and being silly!












Present time...she had no patience for presents. All she wanted to do was crawl around and walk a little. She loved being outside and you could tell I don't get her out much these days. I think she sat long enough to open 2 maybe 3 gifts and the rest was all me and daddy.












Happy Birthday big girl!












Riding her horsey in her Tutu! Yay Haylee!

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On Monday, Ryan and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary. I chose this song playing because it was the song we danced to at our wedding. I guess you could call it "our song." Wow, we have done so much in seven years and to think of how much we will still do. Thank you for your sweet loving heart and for how you care for our family. You work so hard for us to have all that we have and I am so appreciative. Thank you for partnering with me on this fun journey we are on and for leading our family so well. I love you and here's to many more years.

Tyler's 1st Bowling Experience

This post is long overdue but I did want to post it. We went bowling a couple of months back with our ABF and Tyler had so much fun. This was his first time ever to bowl and he did a pretty good job. Look at that excited expression on his face.