Party of Five!! The Strech Family

Monkey Around

2010-10-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Oh my stars!!! At Micah's school today, all the classes had a "Noah's Ark" parade. A couple funny things about that statement are that 1 ~ pretty sure they had all of the kids dress up as animals so they could avoid the monsters, superheroes, bratz, and sicky costumes. 2 ~ when I say "parade" I mean that the classes marched around the desk in the church lobby twice. It was so stinkin' cute! Micah went as a monkey, and his favorite part of his costume was the squishy belly! We saw lots of lions, bunnies, dinosaurs, and other monkeys, but I have to say that one of my favorite costumes (besides my monkey) was a little boy who was a parrot. All that needs to be said is.............RAINBOW FEATHERS!!!!!!!!!! He was made up with rainbow boas, and even had rainbow feather anklets!!!! That has my name written all over it!

So, today is halloween, and our pastor had a fantastic idea of what to do to be outside without celebrating the day (if you didn't want to). He called in "Light Night"! Leave all your lights on, go outside, pass out candy, and meet your neighbors!!! So, that's exactly what we did! Les hauled our grill to the driveway, he grilled lots of hot dogs, I made brownies, and Carter and Micah passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We had a ball! We knew some of the people that stopped by, so it was fun visiting with them. I'm glad we got to meet some new people too! I wasn't sure that people would eat our food......like maybe they would think we were trying to poison them or something, but they did!!! It gave us some time to talk to them a little bit, introduce ourselves, and let them know we have a bible study at our house every week. I think this might be a new family tradition!

Carter loving her hot dog!

They loved passing out the candy

Toby was NOT too sure about the goopy insides!

Nap time......

2010-09-23T13:08:00.001-07:00

This is just one of so many reasons why I love little kids..........

Micah during his nap today

He is super cute when he is sleeping, but that's not what I wanted you to see. Did you notice the alligator he is sleeping with? He lays him down on his back in order for him to go to sleep. :) He usually has a line of sleeping cars and dinosaurs on his window. I love this boy.

Boys......

2010-09-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

One reason I love my husband so much is because he sees the importance of date night with me AND our kids! He starts it when they are too little to remember, but you know what? Les remembers! So, it was Micah's turn the other night. Les took him to play ball at Lifetime, get something to eat, and go throw rocks of course. It's not true guy time if you don't hurl something for no apparent reason. Since Micah was born, we've prayed 4 specific words over him: Servant, Leader, Prayer, Warrior. Les talks to him about those words a lot. SO, when they were eating dinner, Les leaned over and said, "Micah, what 4 words are so important to Strech men?" Now, Les only has about 8 seconds with Micah before he tunes out and starts growling like a dinosaur or whipping his head around just for fun. Makes me dizzy watching him do it, but whatever. So, right after Les asked him that question, Micah leans forward, eyes big (like "oh dude, I've so got this answer"), and goes, "KISSING."

WWWWWWHHHHHHAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT???!!!!

Les about fell out of his chair laughing at him!!! He was so serious! A total GUY!!!! What's important to Strech guys? kissing! You have GOT to be kidding me!!!

Here's a sweet one.....

We were putting them to bed and I asked Micah what he would ask God for........if he could ask him for anything in the world. (We had just read about King Soloman and how he asked for wisdom). Micah looked up and goes, "for Jesus to hug me".

Yes, sir. Me too.

First Days

2010-09-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

It still isn't real to me that Carter is in Kindergarten. What am I even talking about?! Isn't she still walking around toothless trying to say the word "pink", but all that comes out is "meese"? Isn't she still the little girl who when she was told to do jumping jacks, she squatted down and walked across the room with tiny steps as if she was sneaking up on someone? And of course we all clapped for her wonderful jumping jacks?? How is it that I am dropping her off at school at 8:00 and not picking her up until 4:00???? I have to say though.......she DOES love going to school. :) Her teacher, Ms. Paek (sounds like "peck"), is sent straight from the Lord. She might possibly be the happiest person on the face of this planet. So naturally, I love her! Every day when I see her after school, I squeeze her forever, and I know that one day she is gonna be waaaayyy to cool for that.....then it's like the game 20 questions. Except it's more like 57 questions. I just wish there was a way that I could be at her school all day long without her seeing me........just so I can watch her. Actually, that might be dangerous because if someone hurts her feelings, I'd probably unleash the fury.

So, I would like to erase the first day of Carter's kindergarten since almost everything went wrong. It was nothing like what I expected it to be like. First of all, everyone in the entire city was there to walk their children in. That meant unexpected traffic and LONG LINES. At that time I realized that I had forgotten all the papers that I stayed up until almost midnight signing and every camera that I own. I had to wake up Micah in order to leave on time which meant he was eating a bag of cereal in the car, I had crammed food down Toby's mouth, and I'm still not sure if I was completely dressed or not. By the time we got there I barely had time to say goodbye to her. Aw. Ful. I was bound and determined not to let that happen the second day, so sure enough, I set my alarm for 6:30 (I thought I was done setting alarms), got myself ready, woke Carter up, got her ready, boys got up, got everyone breakfast, and left the house EARLY!! A full 15 minutes earlier than the day before. So, when we got there, the doors weren't even open yet. There were about 8 other families there, and I was lovin' life! I decided that day would be counted as our first.......even though I did take pictures of Carter on her real first day.

She picked a Dora backpack for this year

our sweet little girl whose not really little anymore!

So, my mind has been on the fact that Carter is at school all day, and I was getting used to just hangin' with my boys at home! Loving it! Kind of quieter because Toby just says like 3 words, and there is NO ONE TELLING ON THE OTHER PERSON! Glory!!! Well, today was Micah's first day at his little preschool, and I'm not sure that I was totally prepared. Micah on the other hand forgot all about me as soon as he spotted a dinosaur counting book and another hippo book. Peace out mama! A lot of me was super sad that he was so fine with me leaving him there on this monumental day, but at the same time, I was thanking the Lord that he was so happy there and in good Hands. (and sweet teachers too). :) He is going to His Kids at Second Baptist, which is where Sarah works!!!! So, she got to pop in on him today! She said that he was in line with a "bubble in his mouth".........you know, what the teachers have the kids do to keep them quiet. When she told me that, I just kept picturing it over and over. I was teary because why is he so big??? I think because I never see him NOT attached to Carter or one of us. How could he be by himself with little friends that he just met today, obeying the teachers without me telling him to, and happy?? Jesus. Thank you Jesus.

when did he get to be 6 ft. tall??

in his classroom this morning

he found the hippo book that he was looking for

Micah and one of his teachers, Ms. Connie

look at that sweet face

Micah had a great day and is super excited to go back tomorrow. He is going 2 mornings a week. He would probably love to go more, but no way Jose. Mama ain't ready.

We've taken big steps here in our little Party of 5 these past 10 days. New chapters. Sometimes all I can do is stare at Les or any of our little ones and thank Jesus for letting me have these people for the breath that is our life.

Gotta Love Pool Parties!

2010-08-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

I know I've already said this, but I looooooooooooove summer!! I love that I have a little boy who has a summer birthday because that means.........POOL PARTIES!!!! We had Toby's birthday party at our neighborhood pool, and we were rebels because we didn't reserve the clubhouse for the occasion. We just had a few friends and some family here, and oh what's that?? Oh, right. A nugget tray, some chips and salsa, aaaaaaaaaaand cupcakes. Yes, it's a party! I was nervous that the lifeguards were gonna come up to me and ask for the fee to reserve the clubhouse and the moola to actually have the party there. NOPE!! These lifeguards could give a rip. I'm pretty sure the only two things they look and listen for are kids drowning and thunder. Thunder means a 30 minute break for them. You'd think that's all it did here in Pine Mill Ranch.

Back to the party! We had lots of fun. We all went swimming for about an hour. Then, we had some yummy food, which included some homemade salsa (thank you Lindsey for the recipe!). It is now a staple in our house. I also made cupcakes, but the most important part was the icing. I had looked up how to make buttercream icing. The great thing was that I remembered someone else making it and saying how easily it melted. Check that......we'll leave the cupcakes in the house until it's time to watch Toby smash it in his face. It's a good thing because at the end of the party (in August remember) you could see the butter starting to pool. Gross? You'd think so, but I'm pretty sure I had 3 of them that day. I kept thinking, "hey, at least the icing is organic." Organic food is a whooooooooole other post which I will be writing about shortly. :) Good stuff! I have to crown Toby as the Strech kid champ of making a mess with the cupcakes. He straight bicep curled that cupcake right into his face. It was awesome!!

this was Micah on his first birthday

I mean, Toby's giving it all he's got! He might be smaller, but the boy can cram a cupcake!

assessing the damage

back for more

he's like, "ok, this time, can you tell I shoved a cupcake in my mouth?"

I also have more good news..........the two bottom teeth that have come in which are about 17 feet apart are NOT his middle ones!!!! One has broken through in the middle! I'm still not sure whether or not there is a second middle one or not. I was starting to really get used to that look though.

pretty sure Toby's looking to see if Micah has a cupcake for him to eat

handsome Papa and cute Toby

Stanley (John) is playing Toby's favorite game with him!

Sugar Bear (Sarah) and the birthday boy! (how beautiful is my sis??!)

He got some really cute stuff for his birthday! The lawn mower and the Choo Choo Train rider has been a hit with all three kids! They all take turns riding it...........which translates into me setting a timer for 2 minutes each, then making sure they give Toby his turn.

Micah's new favorite place to be

Toby is starting to communicate more and more. He has his own signs for a lot of things. We taught him the sign for "more" which he did right at first. After a while, he transferred the rubbing of his chest to the rubbing of the back of his head. Do you know how much food was in his hair at the end of the day? I mean, seriously, it was crunchy. He now has it back to his chest! Also, anytime we get in the car, he'll play for a few minutes, but then he wants us all to sing songs. You would think he was directing a choir, but that's just him saying he wants us to sing. He loves music!! His dancing cracks me up!!! We put on Sugar Bear's (Sarah) jump cd and he just goes to town! He usually watches me and tries to repeat it. You should've seen him shimmy............ok, just kidding. Kind of. :)

Tobias, my little squirrel monkey, we love you to pieces!!!

Undercover Birthday

2010-08-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Oh man does my husband know me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! About 3 or 4 weeks ago, Les told me that he had been planning a special something for my birthday! He is REALLY good at this, so I was super excited. All he told me was that there were only going to be a few of us, it would be an all day thing, and we would have to get up at 6:00 and drive for an hour and 1/2. At first I just knew it was going to be a day at the spa with the girls. Then he said, "you'll never guess this." Aaaaaaaaaannnnd he was right. I was thinking the total opposite of what he was really planning..........and I am so thankful it wasn't a day of pampering at the spa. Don't get me wrong, I love getting a massage, and even though I've never had a facial, I'm sure I wouldn't mind someone rubbing mud or soap on my face. Love pedicures, love soft fluffy robes, love hot tubs before and after massages, looooooove "slumber rooms" when I actually get a chance to read my current Karen Kingsbury book without someone running at full speed straight into me, drooling on me, or playing referee because it's someone else's turn to be the dog in the "dog/trainer" game!!! Seriously.

SO, Les tells me before I leave where I'm going..........

The Bell's ranch to spend 8 hours shooting Mr. Bell's guns at his outdoor gun range!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously wanted to call Jennifer Garner and ask her if she wanted to come with me. Sidney Bristow is my hero. So, 0600 comes along and Sarah, Amie (Luke's wife), and I are headed out to learn the ropes.........but first, there's no celebration until we start the day with donuts. Now, for the past month our family has started eating nothing but natural/organic food for several reasons. Donuts? Not so much organic. I'm pretty sure those were inhaled in about .4 seconds. Loved them! Even though I felt a little sick right after. I gotta press on!!!

So, we get to their ranch and this is what is waiting for us.....

this is all for me!

Mr. Bell, a police officer who teaches concealed hand gun carrier license classes, and a guy who just graduated from St. Mary's ROTC were there to instruct us. Mr. Bell is a former Army Ranger and knows EVERYTHING about guns and bad guys...........and he has a pretty cool daughter. :) Love you Bella!! (that's "beautiful in Spanish). We learned so much from him!!! We had so much fun!!!! He first had us shoot at targets, then we'd have to put 3 rounds into the target. Then we'd have to take a step out and shoot. Then we'd have to start with our hands up in a surrender postition, grab the gun out of our holster (yes, that's right) cock it, and shoot! Booya!!!!!! After lunch we would do different drills like shoot the target while walking straight at it, shoot 5 different targets while walking from right to left or left to right, start with our backs to the target, turn around find the bullet, load it in the magazine, load our gun, cock it and shoot.........all in a few seconds!!!

Sarah, me, and Amie

Mr. Bell!!!! Best instructor......very serious when he needed to be, and very encouraging when we needed to hear it. :)

Sarah shooting at the targets "hiding" behind the trees!

Mr. Bell and Amie.......she was a natural!

We enjoyed this day so much, that we didn't want to leave when it was over. Soooooooooo, he let us shoot these at the end of the day......

Thank you, thank you, thank you Les for a phenomenal birthday present!!!!!!!!!!!!

this was my target when I got done with him after a couple of hours. :)

Tobias Gage Strech is ONE!

2010-08-13T13:08:00.001-07:00

It's bizarre to think that just a year ago I was going up and down the elevator every chance I could to see our new baby boy in the NICU!! And for no reason!!! They HAD to take him up there for 48 hours because my weird body had a fever when I went into labor. We still aren't sure why. Who cares?! We have a precious little squirrel monkey!! I remember for the first couple of months when he was still trying to control his bobble head, he would just lay it on my chest. Actually, he would find that place right in between my jaw and my shoulder, and nuzzle right in my neck........eyes open just looking around with his head down. Our little squirrel monkey. Now he's one!!!! Is he walking yet??? I would say more like, taking one step and diving into whoever will catch him. He is funnier every day! He loves to get a reaction out of people, he growls at anything that is an animal or out of place (for example, he growled at the coffee maker the other day), the child can HUM a ball, he loves certain songs like "If You're Happy and You Know It", aaaaaaaaannnddd he has the most jacked up teeth I've seen on a baby. :) His top two middle teeth came in, with a lot of room in between.......then some bottom two teeth came in. We're praying they aren't supposed to be his middle ones. Check it out......

can you see his two bottom teeth???

Oh we love this boy! He is very happy, and goes with our flow very well. Carter and Micah are so giddy about him still. Sometimes a little too giddy. Usually every day I have to pull Micah off of Toby because he thinks he is hugging him, but it looks more like something my brother and I used to watch on WWF.

He's up now and trying to type this himself........that's my signal......over and out!

Happy Birthday Toby!!!

Can you guess who put this tupperware container on his head? and it wasn't Les...

Carter's Birthday!

2010-06-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ok people..........5 is a big one for me!!!! 5 means school everyday ALL day!! Let's just be honest, I'm panicking. What am I going to do without her everyday? It's so hard because I want to sit and cry every time we talk about her going to school, but at the same time, I don't want her to think SHE needs to cry about it. How am I supposed to handle this?? Her 5th birthday was so fun! I think she had about 4 parties. One at school, one with Grampy and Hershey, one with the five of us, and one with her friends. This girl loooooooooooves getting pampered on her birthday, that's for sure. "Micah, I'm first because I'm the birthday girl." That got old pretty quick. :) Les was like, "ooookay, we've got to steer this another way."

at her school

look at Toby checking that cupcake out

these are 2 of her classmates that came to her party....one I'm sure all of you have heard of. Tyler.

AND...............summer is here!!!!!!!!!!!! I think the first day that we didn't have anywhere to go, we just stayed in the house and didn't get out of our pjs until 5:00 that night!!! That was so great! We've been swimming as much as we can. I think our neighborhood pools opens up for good this weekend, but we've been going to the pool at Lifetime. I'm so thankful my kids love to swim. Even Toby seems to like it already. :) It's so funny/sad when babies accidentally put their face in the water because they don't see the difference between air and water. Thankfully, I've always been holding him when he's done that! He just sucks his breath in, licks his lips, and goes on splashin!

Toby is crawling now, which means he doesn't cry when I sit him down and walk to another part of the room!!!! Now, he just follows me. :) His personality is really starting to take shape. I just usually find myself smiling and laughing at him. He is pretty funny, and he LOVES to make us react to him......probably because he has a dramatic mama and he thinks I'm a toy. Love this boy!!

Micah is into alligators and dinosaurs!!!! I'll hear him walk around the house going, "I'm a Spinosauras!!!" or "I'm a Triceratops!!" or of course a t-rex. His wrestling techniques are getting more advanced. He used to just run from another room, full blast I might add, straight into you. (you'd better be watching, or you'll lose some teeth.....or get whiplash). He now adds a flying karate kick in mid air. Les informed me of that a couple of nights ago. Love it!

Stay tuned for some cute summer pics!!

He Is Risen!!!!!!!!

2010-04-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!!!!!! We had an absolute beautiful Easter weekend! Beautiful weather, friends in town, family over, peeing in pants, baby spit up.........oh wait! Those last two just kind of go with everything. :) Ok, the story on that is that we were sooooooooo excited to send Micah and Toby to church in semi-matching Easter outfits. They are two little hunks. One with a big bootie, and one with big eyes. I did get a couple of cute pictures before we headed off to church.

But before we even walked out the door, Micah already had BLUE toothpaste on his little sweater vest. I have NEVER seen him get it on his clothes before. His face?? Yes, all over it. His clothes? Nope............not 'till Easter Sunday. Of course. So, ok, I caught it mid-teeth brushing, so I got most of it out. We take them to church, take them to their classes, I take Toby up to the "mommy room" to feed him, and he surprised me and ate super fast. I was so excited because that meant I might get to sit and listen to Pastor Gregg preach!!! I had prepared myself to be sitting in the "mommy room" listening to burping, pooping, and mommy stories. Speaking of burping, I guess I didn't pass the Toby burping test that morning. I took him to his class all spiffy......he only had to stay there for about 30 minutes until I would come to get him. SO, by the time we went to get our children, Toby had some cowboy onsie on because he had spit up "all over his shirt", and Micah had some cool jeans on and some different undies on because he had forgotten to "point it down". He definitely scored cool points on the jeans. The undies?? Thank you for them, but who are we kidding here? First of all they were probably a size 47, and to top that off, THEY WERE WHITY TIGHTIES!!!!! I think it scarred me more than him. :) So, there went the day of matching boys. Oh well, let's have an Easter egg hunt!!

This is a little side story or two...........

We were in the grocery line the other day and some lady behind us was talking to Carter about Easter coming up. She goes, "Is the Easter bunny coming to your house this weekend?" and Carter laughs and says, "Noooo." I waited to hear if Carter was going to continue, but she didn't. Rewind about 5 months ago, we were at our good friend, Tiffany's, house. Tiff asked Carter if Santa was coming to her house, and Carter once again laughs and says, "Nooooo." Tiff looks at me and back at Carter and goes, "What? Why?" aaaaaand Carter definitely whips out with, "He's dead!!!" Oh my reindeer and elves!!!!!!! When we talk to them about Christmas, we make sure they know the most important thing about it is Jesus' birthday. Then we tell them about St. Nicholas, and how he was a real man who loved Jesus, and gave presents to children for Christmas. Now he is in heaven with Jesus. Awesome..........she's gonna be the one who makes her friends cry. Not only is Santa not real........he's DEAD! :)

Back to this weekend......we went home and Les' family came over for some yummy grub that Grammie and Amie were already cooking when we got there! Angels! We had some laughs, played Guesstures, had an egg hunt, more food, birthday cake for Leah, and called it a night. It was so fun!!! Some of the eggs were filled with gum, which we don't let Carter and Micah have yet. So, Les ate pretty much every piece...........at one time!

this is the field next to our house which I'm sure won't be here in a couple of years

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!!

We're spoiled.......

2010-03-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

One of the best things that has happened since we got back to Houston is that Les has NOT been working!!!!!!!! I know, that sounds kind of weird. "What about finances? Does Les get bored? Are you sick of each other?" Those are just some of the questions we've been asked. Answers to those: "The Lord has provided everything we need. Les is NOT bored! Hallelujah! He is focused on getting well. and HECK NO! I'm gonna be so sad when he has to go back to work." One thing though..........it has been a bit of a kick in the stomach when the kids constantly want "papa to take me to school AND pick me up" or "papa sit by me" or "I don't want to sit in your lap, I want to sit in Papa's lap" or "I want to stay with Papa". You know, I'd be ok with "I want PAPA to wipe my poo poos", but noooooooooo. I get the honor of that glorious job. It's been so fun having him here all the time!!! He fixes them eggs for breakfast, and they get to go on special errands with him. One of our favorite new sayings from Carter's mouth is, "I'm goin with Papa to the phlebotomist." Seriously? Didn't even know what that was. That's the 2nd time a young child had to teach me a vocab word. The first time was when Josh and Kelly's 2 yr. old little girl and I were playing "mama and Audrey". I was Audrey, the 2 yr. old and she was Mama. We were on our way to go "ride horses" and she said, "sshhhhhh! The horses are dormant." I figured that had something to do with sleeping since she shhhhhed me, and the spanish word for "to sleep" is dormir. Nice.

These are some pictures of us around the house......

they're doing his stretches with him

Also, I promised a picture of my little Lloyd Christmas......

.....and yes, he is in his "tongue tied taylor" outfit

Micah turned 3!!!!

2010-03-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Oh boy........it's been a while. :) If you want to know what's been happening with our family for the past 3 months, just go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/lesstrech. Basically, we went to Indiana for Christmas, and Les ended up in the hospital. For. 24. days. God showed off in some major ways, so if you really don't know what happened, please go to that website when you have some time.

Meanwhile...........Micah Luke turned 3 years old!!!!!! In my head, he's been 3 for a while now. He's big, tough, and seems like a 3 year old to me. I think that is the Lord softening the blow that he'll be going to college soon. I am pretty darn sure that the best investment we've made was a little something he got for his 3rd birthday. Tripp and Megan are the ones who introduced this little treat to us.........

his new bike!!!

This kid is lightning on this bike!! He starts going sooooooooo fast. I'm so afraid that his wheel is going to get out of control and he is just going to EAT IT.........hasn't happened yet......glory. It doesn't have any pedals, so he basically sits on the bike seat and runs. When he gets going fast, he'll pick up his little feet and glide. It's so great for balance!! Thank you, Tripp and Megan for educating us on these bikes! I don't know if I have a picture of him with his helmet on yet, but if I don't, I'll get one on here immediately. I just have 2 words for that upcoming picture...............Lloyd Christmas.

Here are some pictures of his birthday!

she has about 47 toys in that bag on the front of her bike

we took him to Chuck E Cheese that night

Debbie made him a Cars cake!!!! Even the tires are edible!! We know that because Micah had 3 of them.

He's a 3 year old little boy. He HAD to have these.

This has nothing to do with Micah's birthday, but I just wanted to share with you a slight laugh I had the other night......

Sarah, John and I had the privilege of hearing Les tell the story that scarred him for life. The story of the cat who gave birth in his car.......on his sweater.......his new sweater. Here is a picture of the best part of the story.

I could listen to that story every day..........so hilarious!

Snow day in Houston

2009-12-23T18:15:00.001-08:00

I gotta tell you.......I didn't think it would happen. IT SNOWED HERE!!!! Don't worry that all of the schools closed and let out at noon because we had some flurries. Watch out!!! I guess it's just because Texans flip out when there's snow. We don't have the cool snow toys and machines that Indiana does........so everyone go home and throw snowballs at each other. :) Here are some pictures of the kiddos that day.

He takes these guys everywhere he goes

Carter's not so sure anymore.....

Micah's still lovin' it!! Yeah, I didn't know his tongue was that long until I saw this picture....and to think that at one point in his life, he was tongue tied.

All of this chilly weather can only mean one thing...........A FIRE IN THE FIREPLACE!!!! We never made a fire in our old house since it was 50 years old, and I was scared. Since no one has lived in this house yet....game on!!!!!!!

I know you're jealous of my one HEB log and the massive flames

Thanksgiving '09

2009-12-23T14:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I figure that I should post about Thanksgiving before I start posting about Christmas. :) After much consideration, we decided to travel to Newnan, Georgia to visit family for Thanksgiving......and by travel, I mean drive. Yes, we did. What was that?? Did you say, "Wait, Emily, you said you would never do that again because it was so awful last time. Didn't Carter puke in the rental mini van last time?" Yes, and yes. BUT, this was a new year, and we planned a whole lot better this time. We already had a hotel reservation for the first night, so we weren't driving around Mississippi at 1:00 AM trying to find a hotel when they are BOOKED because it's Thanksgiving. Instead we stayed at a hotel/casino!!! Carter learned how to play Craps.......just kidding, I only picked that game because I think that's what it's called. Plus, I think that's a funny word for a game. The best part about driving there was Luke, Amie, and Logan were following us. We should've had walkie talkies. Instead we opted for texting which was still very humorous. Funny story about the hotel........

This room was huge! Probably because they could've filled it with more furniture, like a couch, but didn't. Anyway, the closet doors were sliding mirrors. Guess who didn't know this little piece of information? Micah. We wake up in the morning, I am getting dressed in the bathroom when all of a sudden I hear a CRASH, Micah is crying (with his "gween banket"), and Les is trying to comfort him while silently laughing. As most of you know, Micah likes to get a running start at anything. Apparently he looked in the mirror and thought the room was twice as big, so he decided to run across the room......or so the thought. He bolted as fast as he could.........and smashed right into the mirror!!! Les saw the whole thing. He said Micah hit it so hard that his arms went flying as he was stumbling backward. Oh yes, big red mark on the side of his forehead. He was fine once he saw Woobie (Luke) and Lolo (Logan). Laughed my rear off.

Back to Newnan.......we all got to stay with Tripp, Megan, and little Neely. Oh, I wish we all lived closer!!! Tripp and Megan both are gymnastics coaches! I swear, they could be olympians. Since we were there for the holiday, and their gym was closed, we got to go play there!!!!! I think the most popular place in the whole gym was the foam PIT!!!! I've always wanted to jump in one of those things. The boys had to get rowdy of course, so one guy would stand at the edge of the pit holding one of those huge exercise balls, while another came barreling at him at full speed. When they would collide, this is what would happen......

That's Luke on top and Logan on bottom.....so funny!

Needless to say, we had a blast with our Georgian family! Good fellowship, good food, great company......definitely worth the trip. We're looking forward to going back in 2 years!

Carter, Micah, and Neely

Amie and Toby

Grandma and Toby

2009-12-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

I have a lot to write about, but I can only write about one thing right now. So, we put up our Christmas decorations about a month ago.........yes, I'll be THAT person who puts them up super early. I feel like it makes our home more sparkly, and that's my favorite! Anyway, since I am trying to drink more water since I'm nursing, I am having to use the potty more (I'll use kid terms). I usually wait unitl I'm about to pee in my pants before I go, then I run to the bathroom in our front hallway. SO, I'm sitting there on the potty, I look up and this is what I see staring at me..............

Just one word...........creepy.

Surprise Indiana Trip!!!

2009-11-12T15:28:00.001-08:00

What a fun weekend!!!!! So short, but so sweet! It all started a couple of months ago when my dad had a big weekend of singing with his chorus and quartet. Before it all started that weekend, he was relaxing by their pool when he heard something that made him think that my mom flew us in to surprise him for his big weekend. Oh my stars, so sad! He was walking around the house going, "You can come out now....." Meem (my mom) felt sooooooooooo sorry for him. SO, she asked if she could fly Toby and me home for a very short weekend. Uh, do I love cookie dough?? Of course she can!!! Sarah would've come too if she didn't have to work. So, Toby and I got to surprise my dad, AND Matt and Natalie!!.......and we had a weekend date! (with each other, that is......I already have a hottie husband). He did great on the plane, but he was probably so full of milk because I kept nursing him. :) On the way up, when he was the least bit fussy, and on the way down. Hey, he was happy and so were the people on the plane. When I got off the plane, I strapped him to me in the bjorn (facing out so he could check it all out). Turns out, I got surprised!! My mom got to come to the gate because my aunt JULIE was with her!! She works for the airport and has connections. :) I loved seeing her. You know those people who make you cry you're laughing so hard? Yeah, that's her.

So, we get to their house around 11:15, and my dad had fallen asleep. My mom woke him up, talked to him for a few minutes, and then we walked in the room. His chin fell to the ground!! I knew he was thinking, "is this a dream? Where am I?" It was so great! He even said, "what possessed you to come up here?" EXCUSE ME?? I'm blame that on being half asleep.

Matt and Natalie's surprise was hilarious!! That Friday was Natalie's first day back to work. She only works one day a week, and my parents watch the kiddos. SO, when Natalie got home from work that day, guess who was wrapped in Annaleece's pink blanket?? TOBY!! I was in the other room with Annaleece when I heard Natalie come in, say hi to Eli and Meem and then I heard, "WAIT!!' She was about 2 seconds from panic mode. I rushed in with Annaleece, everybody screamed, scared the tar out of both babies, then we were all hugging. (and I probably stared leaking milk) :) 5 minutes later, it happened again when Matt got home. Only this time, from the other room with my new niece, I heard, "Who is that? It's Toby!" Matt totally new him from his pictures!!!

The rest of the weekend was just fun hang time, sitting by the fire, getting to hang with Cicker, my grandparents came over to see their new great grandson, and making s'mores over the gas stove. Gotta love that! I also got to squeeze in a tiny bit of time with 2 of my best friends from home. It was such a great little energy boost for me. I'm so thankful that Les was all for staying home with the kids all weekend and letting me go up there. Thanks Papa!!

Here are some pics of the weekend........

Micah and Annaleece

She's checking him out.. "Look at that! Someone else that lays on the floor."

My grandma, mom, me and Toby

One of my best friends, Stefany!

Natalie, Annaleece, my dad, and Toby chillin' by the fire.....love that!

my handsome nephew, Eli!

this is the blanket we wrapped Toby in to shock Matt and Natalie

This is Nikki's (a best friend from home) little girl, baby Emilie!! She looks like a little sumo wrestler. ;)

This is what happens when I let Toby sit on Grampy's lap for dinner....noodles on his head.

What's wrong with a little steak at 3 months old??

So, that about wraps up our short, but fun-filled weekend in Indiana. Meem, thank you so much for flying us up to see everyone!!! I am so excited to go back for Christmas!!

Fall Festival Day

2009-10-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

"Oh what a beautiful morning......" You know what made it even more beautiful? Les got up at about 7:00 to run an errand, and since Carter was up (surprise), he took her. Since I had just fed Toby and put him down, I got to go back to bed until Micah woke up at 8:20!!!!!!! Booya!!!! I was so excited, I almost moonwalked around the house.........or maybe I wanted to do that because I just went to see This Is It (the Michael Jackson movie). It was soooooooooo great! I went to see it with Melissa and Haley, and one of the best parts of the movie was that Melissa watched the whole thing with a smile on her face. It was so cute! Ok, back to today. We didn't really do much today because last night we went to Sarah's Superhero Night at Second Baptist Church. Carter and Micah went dressed as their favorite pirates. Sarah saved us front row seats!!! I loved watching it so close, but I was jealous because what I really wanted to be doing was dancing with Sarah on stage. :) We had so much fun! Here are some pictures of the kids dressed up.....

That's right! Wonderbread!

Carter didn't want to get dressed up today. Micah's all about it!

Pumpkin Patch!

2009-10-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

.......or as Micah calls it, "the punkin patch"! I seriously like the word "punkin" better than the real word. Who votes we change it?? I love the fall!!!!!!! Although it is prettier in Indiana, but still. I'm just sayin'. Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful weather here in Houston!!!!!!! What a perfect day for the punkin patch!!! We drove over to Josh and Lisa Schmidt's house this morning, loaded the kids in the wagon and stroller, and we all walked to the punkin patch fest at Seven Lakes High School!!!!!!! Tell me if any of you moms can relate to this.........

So, Lisa and I are walking behind the pack. Lisa is pushing Maya, and Toby is strapped to me. Micah is in the wagon that Carter is taking turns pulling, and Mady is walking near the wagon with Papa and Josh. We're walking on the sidewalk which is, you know, close to the road, and the girls just book it up the sidewalk! Lisa and I are holding our breath because we don't want to tell the boys how to watch our girls, but we just keep picturing them veering off into the street. Both of them obeyed very well, so nothing even came close to happening, but I'm still not sure if Lisa and I had a whole conversation. :)

When we got to the punkin patch, Carter walked through all of the big punkins, and went straight to the tiny punkins.......like they were her pets or something. So, who follows her?? Oh yeah, Micah!!!! because he would follow her off a cliff. But then Micah does something different. While Carter is searching for a punkin with no dirt on it......such a girl......Micah seems to think the punkins are soccer balls. I look over and he is basically dribbling a punkin through the grass. He decided to not get a punkin though.......I think he was still tired from not getting a nap yesterday. I think I'm still tired from him not getting a nap yesterday. Oh wait, no, I'm tired because we have an infant. That's right. I really have nothing to complain about though. He is such a great baby!!!! He's only getting me up once a night to feed him. Oooh, he's so cute!!

she loves her tiny punkin and wants to carve it tonight!

if only we could read Toby's thoughts......."I wonder if these big orange things have milk too?"

they did NOT like this guy

this picture looks so funny! "Somebody help me!"

I think Mady liked this one more.

and I just HAD to put this on here! Price let Toby borrow this onsie!!

Fall Festival Preview.....

2009-10-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

So, every year, instead of going around our neighborhood and trick-or-treating, we get the kids dressed up in their costumes and head to our church. They have something called First Fest. It's just a bunch of games, bouncy things, and candy......my kind of party! Well, ever since we went to see Sarah during her VBS at her church (which included pirates this year), Carter and Micah have wanted to dress up like "Marge" and "Tounge Tied Taylor". Here is a little preview........

now his pirate smile finally makes sense!!!

Toby is 2 months!

2009-10-15T19:15:00.001-07:00

Oh my goodness! What is happening?! On October 12th, Toby had his 2 month birthday!!! What?! He is such a great baby! He is really smiling now, and he is making the sweetest suck-his-breath-in noises!!! I still can't understand how babies are so entertaining. I could just sit and watch him for hours.........all while making the most ridiculous noises to him. Seriously, I thought about getting out the video camera today, but I thought to myself "no, because then you're gonna hear yourself making these noises to get him to smile, and you're going to annoy yourself." He's loving his bouncy seat! He gets so excited watching the bubbles go up through the starfish and his friends. :) Here are some 2 month pictures......

in his bouncy seat

Hershey is getting her Toby time!

And when it's bath time for Toby, if I ever make the announcement that I'm going to give him a bath, this is what ends up happening.........

we love our tub!!

I love my little girl......

2009-10-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is going to be very short because I will write more later when I post Toby's 2 month pictures. So, last week I gave the kids an apple each to eat on our errands. I didn't have time to cut them in slices, so I just gave it to them whole. When we got home, Carter had hers half eaten and she put it on the kitchen floor. I asked her to please put her apple up and this is where I found it later that day.......

....in the pantry....I love how she obeys :)

Fun at the Strech house

2009-10-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

I love when Papa comes home from work!! Partly because I miss him during the day. Partly because I am desperate for help by the time he gets home, and partly because I love that he really is a 5 year old boy in a 30 year old, 6'2" frame. For instance, we were supposed to be getting the kids ready for bed, when I hear Micah counting and saying "ready not, here I come!". Hide and seek is an everyday game in our house. :) So, I gather that Micah is looking for Carter and Papa. This is what I found in Micah's room........

I about peed in my pants. AND, he was being so quiet! Like, maybe Micah won't find me if I'm super quiet.

Then, a couple of weeks ago when it was actually getting cooler (yeah, that was a tease), we were going on walks around the neighborhood. Well, one night after dinner, we said, "who wants to go on a walk?" Carter and Micah screamed "ME!!!" Then Carter said something about getting the wagon ready. About 10 minutes later when Les, Toby and I were ready, we walk out into the garage and this is what we see..........

They were ready to go! Carter had some sunscreen in her hand because she thought it was mosquito spray. :)

Yesterday was a very pleasant treat..........Carter went to the dentist for the first time. Her pediatrician has been telling me to take her and Micah since they were 18 mths, but seriously. Carter didn't even have teeth until she was 12 mths! So..........knowing Carter, I was preparing myself for the worst. She is very dramatic and very cautious. Put those two together and I just knew that dentist was going to check us all into a mental hospital. We go in and there was a big open floor with a tv.......the front desk lady goes, "do your kids like the Cars movie?" I instantly loved this place. Then, the dentist-helper lady came to get Carter, told her to brush her "princess teeth" (I just think that the Lord put these words in this lady's mouth to make Carter feel comfortable), and let us all come back to the room. By room, I mean the area as big as a small house that was filled with heavenly toys, chairs, and smiley, singing ladies who clean teeth. I got ripped off when I was a kid at the dentist office!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not bitter..............

Back to Carter....SO, everything that the lady was going to do to her, she let Carter do it to a stuffed animal first. I swear they spied on Carter and studied her since the time I made her appt. Bottom line - Carter had a GREAT time at the dentist!! She even said that was her favorite thing about yesterday! Thank You, Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, what's the chance that they think I'm 18 every year and can go see her? Seriously, the worst thing that happened there was that Toby had his very first blow out while I was nursing him, and 99% of the yellow breastmilk baby poop went all over...........ME!!! What?! He got one little spot on him. The rest of it, yeah, right on my lap. Which means that when I washed it off of me, it looked like I peed in my pants. Thank you Mr. Toby. Who cares? I'll take that over getting kicked out of Katy for a crazy child in a dentist chair.

we have this same picture of Carter and Micah!!

he's talking........

he's loving this outfit that my aunt Julie got him!!

He's smiling!!!!!!!!

2009-09-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

The 3 hour "naps" at night aren't so bad when I see our little Toby smile!!! He smiled for the first time 2 weeks ago. It was about 5 seconds after Les took Carter and Micah to church. It was like he was going, "Finally I can relax.....the fussy boy who is always making out with me is gone, and so is the girl who gags me with my passy." He didn't smile much after that until a couple of days ago. He is smiling more and I am LOVING it!!!!

AND, I just had to show you how cute this picture is of Carter. She found this hat and actually likes to wear it!!

Here are more pictures of Toby that I've taken over the past couple of days. There is one of him in his Ipood shirt on that looks just like a picture of Micah. I'll see if I can put both of them on here.

this is the picture that looks like a Micah picture, but I can't get his on here!

I'm never surprised......

2009-09-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show y'all some of what's been happening our the Strech house in the past couple of days. To start us off, Carter has been reading my bible..........melts my heart. Now, wait, she's not really READING it, she just spells the words and asks me what she just spelled. Hey, that's a good enough start for me!!! And guess what the first word was that she spelled.......... She said, "Mama, what does this spell.......... J -" oh yes, I love when God shows off. I knew exactly which word the Lord pointed out to her.........His precious Son's name. " - E - S - U - S". When she looked up at me, she was probably like, "good grief, mama, you're scaring me with that smile. What's the deal?"

Then today Carter and Micah discovered the baby cabinet. Micah thought he was so hilarious when he walked in sucking on a pacifier. If only he knew how ironic the whole situation was. When he was an infant, I tried every pacifier under the sun, but NOOOOOOOOOOO, he thought it was a better idea to go ahead and pierce everyone's eardrums by screaming instead of sucking on a pacifier. So, now, here I am looking at a 4 yr. old and a 2 yr. old sucking on old (but clean) pacifiers. Then they found the bottles...........and yes, I did humor them and fill them with milk.

And, finally, this is just one reason why I love my husband so much.........

he can pull these off. Love him!!

Toby is 1 month!!!!

2009-09-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

As of 2 days ago, our precious, newest, little bundle is already 1 month old!!!!!!! I can't even believe it! I think time goes faster with every baby. Mr. T is SUCH a sweet baby boy!! His favorite place to cuddle is right up in your neck (which I believe God made just for that purpose!). He'll just cuddle up in there, eyes open, and just hang out. I love it so much. He is getting bigger and his creases are getting deeper by the day. NOTHING like Micah's rolls.........I mean, we had to give Micah mid-day wipe downs. Whew!

This picture looks a lot like one of Micah's pictures. And look at those fingers!

Toby had his days and nights mixed up for a little while. He still is more awake in the evening than in the day, which doesn't surprise me since that is exactly what he did when I was pregnant with him. When he gets sleepy, we just wrap him up like a burrito, let him suck on his paci if he wants it, and just hold him. He just looks around, then he finally tries to fight sleep for a little bit, and he's out. That is until we lay him down in his pack and play. This child knows when he is NOT being held. :) Love him, love him, love him!!!!

Carter and Micah are adjusting very well. They are such good buddies.....it makes it very easy for me to take care of Toby. I don't feel like I have to entertain at the same time that I'm feeding him. Carter and Micah just take off upstairs (this is after Micah kisses and hugs Toby.......Carter just looks at him to see if his eyes are open). They play cars, run down the hallway and jump down the 2 stairs leading to our "cozy" room, or there have been times when I have found Micah dressed in bows and high heels. Oh my stars....... One night, I took all of Micah's bows out of his hair to take a bath. When he got out, he wanted to put them all back in. At that point, I told him "nope. We're done with bows for tonight. Plus, bows are for girls." He then starts crying and saying "I AM a girl, mama!!" aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnddd, that's when Les walked in. Nice.

Carter caught in action....taking after what Sarah would do to Cicker

She was so proud!

I wonder if this is Tom James approved??

Bottom line...........we are LOVING our party of 5!!

Tobias Gage Strech!!!

2009-08-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome home Toby!!!!!!!!!! He came to meet us on Wednesday, August 12th at 8:41pm. He was only 37 weeks, but he weighed a whopping 7lb. 13oz!!! Thank you, Lord, for bringing him early!! The night before he came, I was having contractions coming every few minutes, but they were very mild. The pain wasn't getting any worse, and I remember with the other 2 that the pain definitely gets worse! So, we just hung out at home that night, went to bed, and woke up at 3am with more mild contractions. What was weird was this.........I was in bed, shaking uncontrollably, and freezing. I kept trying to calm myself down. I didn't know what was going on. Les finally woke up, and seriously, with a touch of his hand, my shaking almost stopped. He gave me some Tylenol since I had a headache, and that seemed to do the trick. At about 7:00, I told him to go to work since my contractions weren't getting any worse. He didn't want to leave me, but I knew we would not be going to the hospital unless they got worse. They stayed that way all morning, so I took Carter and Micah to run some errands. At that point, they finally started getting more painful, but were not consistent anymore. So annoying!!! I just kept thinking "either get on with it, or stop!!" My sister and her husband had been visiting my parents in Indiana, and were flying home that day. Come to find out, they had all been praying that Toby wouldn't come until she got here. SO.........I have Sarah to thank for all my false labor that day. :) I decided to take a nap with the kids since I had been up since 3am. When we all got up........game on! They were coming every few minutes and were really starting to hurt! I knew this was it. I called my friend, Lisa, and told her I'm dropping my kids off there. I found out later that she had to go to the ER that night for a migraine!!! Oh my gosh! I felt terrible! I just hope my kiddos didn't push her over the edge. Thank you Josh, Lisa, and Christi for watching them! Ok, so this part is so great..........this was the week that all of the Strech kids were in town, so Lauren got to drive over to Lisa's, pick the kids up, and stay with them for 2 days!!!! Thank you, Jesus, for that fun surprise!

Ok, so my contractions were painful, and I knew I couldn't wait for Les to drive all the way to our house and then take us all the way to the hospital. I called him and told him to meet me at the hospital. Y'all, I just couldn't wait. I needed to get there before they got too bad. Les was a nervous wreck! We had been talking on the phone, and at one point on my way, my phone died. Les was sure I was on the side of the road having this baby. :) We both made it to the hospital safe and sound......I got in the bed a little after 5pm, and he was out at 8:41. Whew!! Sarah basically went from the airport to the hospital, and she got to be in the room when Toby was born!! Tiffany and Kristen were right outside the door, and Melissa came to visit me that night. I have such sweet friends!!

Here's the crazy part..........when they were taking all my vitals.......they realized I had a fever of 101 something. We still have no idea why, but because of that, they had to keep Toby in the NICU for the whole 48 hours. :( Bummer!! BUT, I was able to go up and hold him whenever I wanted, and they even let me nurse him. It just felt so wrong to be in our room with no baby! I'm just so thankful that he was healthy! He is such a sweet baby, loves to cuddle (thank you, Lord), and is eating like a pro. I need to feed him soon, so I'm gonna post some pictures and write more later!!

36 Week Check Up

2009-08-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

All in all, we had a great visit! I had such mixed emotions going in.....we get to see Toby on the ultrasound (yipee), I have to get more blood work done (thankful she is checking up on me, but getting poked with a needle is never fun), I get to see Dr. McCloskey and start talking delivery (yay)!! Let's go through step by step.........

~ First of all, I ended up taking the kids with me because we left them 2 nights in a row, and I didn't want to do that again. Saturday night, Les took me to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Hobby Center for my birthday!!!!!!! I was so giddy! I love going there to see anything (mostly Lord of the Dance). Then Sunday night, we had a kind of last minute dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Hatton who are 2 of the Godly-est people ever. I was so blessed by them. We dropped off the kids at Melissa's house who happened to be having their dinner 8 there that night. Thank you Jarret and Melissa!!! Getting back to the point, I didn't want to leave them again and hear my little buddy ask, "Mama, where you goin'?" Breaks my heart. (INSERT........Friday night I left them to go see The Proposal with Tiff. Funniest. Movie. EVER. I thought we were going to get kicked out of the theater because I was embarrassing both of us. That's another story.)

So, I brought both of them with me. Les met us there, in the parking garage, and that was completely the sweet Lord's plan. Here's why........................... We are all walking into the hospital, and for some reason the automatic door doesn't detect us. Les carefully opens the doors, and the kids run to the next one. The next set of doors didn't detect them either, so Carter, playing monkey see monkey do, tries to open the door herself. THEN, we walk up and, of course, the door detects us, and opens right up on top of her TOES!!!!! She falls back, opens her mouth, and I'm pretty sure Megan Bell, who is in New Zealand, heard her. I felt so bad for her, but then I also thought "oh my goodness, the drama" until I saw the blood. Then I felt really bad. Ended up just being a few cuts on her toes, but I know that had to hurt like a mother. That's how our fun-filled appointment started. Then as we were still walking to the office, I realized that I forgot to bring the portable DVD player and a movie for them to watch. Oh joy. Thankfully, they had some cars with them to keep them company.

The ultrasound is first. Yipee!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited to see our little Toby. We told Carter that morning that she would get to see him on a tv, and she said "What if they tell us it's a girl?! I will scream because I will be so excited!" Oh my poor baby girl. She's so alone. 2 seconds on the monitor and the lady says, "I'm sorry honey, it's still very much a Toby." So, I'm laying there on the bed, horizontal, and all I can think about it how much this hurts, and please just show me the spine because at least I know what THAT looks like! We saw a big, round circle and I just praised Jesus because I figured he probably has a cone head at this point. Then, I had to laugh at this question that came from the lovely ultrasound tech, "So, how much did your other 2 weigh?" You know what, nice lady, just tell me that I'm carrying someone the size of Goliath and get it over with. She guessed that he weighs around 6lb. 14oz. already and he's got 4 weeks left, people. Who's going with me to step class the minute Sarah gets back into Houston next week?? The best news though is that he looks great!!! Squished, but great!

Next is the blood test. If any of you don't know this, for some reason, my doctor discovered in my 3rd trimester with this little guy that my platelet levels are lower than average. She's not too concerned, but wants to keep an eye on them. I love this doctor. Love her. What that means is, if your platelet levels get too low (below 50,000) your blood doesn't want to clot itself. Any of you that have given birth knows that there's gonna be some blood when that baby comes out. Thankfully my levels have been at 125,000-130,000. I don't have the results back yet from yesterday, but I'm praying that they are higher. Please pray for high levels for me, and please pray that my thoughts don't run away to the dark side. I need truth in my thought closet!! By the way, this lady that takes my blood is magical. I seriously hardly feel the needle, and I am known for freaking out when it comes to inserting needles into my body. All mental. I'm convinced.

I finally get to see the sweet, tiny, little Dr. McCloskey who I love! She delivered Micah at 2 in the morning when she was NOT on call. So sweet! She basically said that everything was starting, not to do anything too active until 37 weeks (which is on Monday), and that things look good! I'm taking it easy this week, but next week, it's on like Donkey Kong. I'm assuming he won't come until 39 or 40 weeks anyway, but I'm gonna try! All the Strech kids are going to be here next week and I would LOVE it if they were here for that. Can you imagine?! It's not like I get to see Lauren, Lindsey, and Luke everyday since they live in the northwest. I'm so excited!!

This was supposed to be a short little post, but as always, something usually happens that is worth writing about. Here is a picture of my 9 month pregnant belly.......

this was taken in the house across the street......we were exploring

It's Starting......

2009-07-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Meem, for staying up with me last night texting away! I started having contractions every few minutes for a little over an hour. I was in bed trying to let Les sleep in case I'd have to wake him up to take me to the hospital......which meant I couldn't talk on the phone. SO, I just kept texting my mom over and over. The problem with that was that we ended up texting about something funny that happened with my dad earlier that night, and then I started laughing. That made me really scared that the contractions were going to get worse. They stopped around 11ish, and I tried to get some sleep. Let me remind you that I would have been very excited that this was happening and maybe even running up and down the stairs except for the fact that I'm 35 weeks. I think he needs to stay put for a few more weeks, at least!! I was scared to move! So, all my girls around me better keep their phones on and near them in case we need you to come take over!

Moving Day!!!

2009-07-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

It's official!!! We are in our new house! Are we settled? Not even a little bit. I have told some of you this already, but this is how I feel.......I've got a full refrigerator and pantry, my washer and dryer work, and I have toilet paper in the bathrooms........I am golden!!! Everything else can happen when it happens. I'm not rushing anything. Partly because I loathe being in a rush, and partly because I don't want to go into labor just yet.

Carter and Micah have adjusted surprisingly well to the new house, and I give all the glory to the Lord. It is only through Him that they are handling this so well. However, Micah did have one freak out moment. It was July 18th, moving day, and I had brought them over to the new house to take naps. Carter didn't take one (no surprise there), but Micah was out like a light after I laid down with him for a little bit. When he woke up, he was crying, kind of swaying, and just couldn't get any words out. I kept asking him what was wrong, and he kept saying "nothing". He just couldn't put it into words. I felt so bad for him. I gave him extra hugs, and the Lord gave me extra patience for him that day. Since then, he hasn't had any problems. Carter and Micah play ALL DAY LONG here! Don't they know that those are the same toys that we had in our other house? Maybe they look different here. Grampy and Hershey did get them some new "Cars Movie" cars and Tinkerbell card games. They have been a hit. Another huge hit...........our neighborhood pool!!!!!!!!!!!! I have got to take some pictures and put them on here. It's like their own little waterpark!

We absolutely love it out here! We feel God's peace (which we've prayed for in all of the places we have lived) every time we drive up to the house. By the way, Les has no idea that I'm typing this blog right now and he just said, "I love our house." Actually he said it in a much funnier way, but he'd be so embarrassed if I told y'all the goofball way he said it.

We've met lots of young families in our neighborhood, and have started praying for the neighbors and houses that will one day surround us. Right now, there isn't anyone on either side of us or across the street from us. That's right.........we can actually feel the wind out here!!! LOVE IT!!

this is what they did while we were moving......watching movies

this is where Micah and Carter took their first naps in their rooms

Carter helping me get my kitchen in order......still in her pjs :)

....and we've got our first black eye

2009-07-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

Let me just say that I would bet my life that this wasn't Micah's favorite day of his life today. It started out at 3:00AM when I heard him wailing on the monitor. Now, every now and then I hear him fussing about not being able to find his favorite green blanket, but this was different. As I was traveling to the back of the house, all these images of what I might find kept flashing in my mind. Is his leg stuck in the railing? Did he somehow fall out of his crib? When I got there, his closet light was on (he can reach it, so he likes to turn it on and off.......why he was doing this at 3 in the morning......beats me), and had what I thought was drool dripping off his chin. No, it was vomit. Nice. He is crying and says, "I need medicine!" So cute and so sad! I asked him what happened and he said "nothing" and he kept saying that nothing hurt. I didn't know what in the world happened...........until I saw the side of his crib. Vomit all down the side of it.......but on the bright side, it was chunk-less! Score! I cleaned him off, and since he was telling me he needed new pjs, I went ahead and changed those too. So, I rocked him for a bit, wondering where he should sleep, when I heard round 2 about to blow. I must've looked funny being 8 months pregnant, sleep hair (which resembles Mufasa's mane), running a vomiting child through our hallway. Poor buddy. Needless to say, he slept in our room last night. I take that back. He spent from 4:00-7:00 in our room throwing up and asking if it was morning time so he could play. I am so happy to say how blessed I am to have a husband who, for some reason, loves to take care of the kids when they are sick. It is seriously one of his favorite times to be with them. Thank you Jesus!!! He is not kidding. He did the running the rest of the morning. Thank you Les. You're so sweet!

Once morning was here, he was a different child. He was running around like any normal child who had slept all night long. Crazy! We stayed around here all day and needed to get out, so we went to our church to play on the playground in there. After they got used to the steps and slides, they were having a ball. I had given the 5 minute warning when I looked in at Micah just in time to see him lose his balance and fall forward, smacking his face right on the edge of the slide. I've never seen a 6'2" grown man travel so fast up an indoor playground that is made for 4 yr. olds in all my life. All Les heard was the BANG, Micah crying, and he turned into Gumby getting himself up all those twists and turns. Y'all, his face was bruised in the 5 seconds it took Les to get to him. I felt so terrible!!! It's right under his left eye. I am thanking the Lord that he didn't knock his teeth out, or really hurt his actual eyeball. Thank you, Jesus, for the angels that you put around my children!! I have to say, though.......he does look pretty tough. Here's a picture of it. It's not too bad, but it's torture to a mama looking at my sweet son's face with a big bruise on it.

Look at that sweet face!

Why do our kids have to get hurt? I just wish I could spare them from all pain, but then I guess they would be a bunch of pansies. (Did anyone just say "a bunch of pansies" in the lemur voice from Madagascar?? Just me? Ok.)

It's That Time Again!

2009-07-05T20:26:00.001-07:00

Y'all, Micah really thinks he is smiling when he makes this face!

I look forward to this time all year............our annual trip to Schlitterbahn!!!! This is something that Les and I have been doing since we got married. Before we had kids, we would go to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, spend all day there acting like kids, and go home the next day. We like to live like Peter Pan and never grow up! Since we've had Carter and Micah, we've gone to the Schlitterbahn in Galveston. Not this year!! We decided to take a little family vacation to San Antonio (our last vacation as the 4 of us), so it was a perfect time to venture back to the original Schlitterbahn. Oh my stars, I think I had a smile plastered on my face the whole day. Since the kids are 4 and 2, I didn't have to do everything for them. Les and I got to sit on the side of whichever kid park we were at and watch these two buddies play, play, play! It made my heart so happy and thankful that God had given them to each other as more than just sister and brother. They truly are best friends. In fact, I actually heard those words come from Carter's mouth. "Micah, are we best friends?" I held my breath until he answered, "yes". Then I wanted to cry happy tears. Back to our fun-filled day......we got there about 10:15 and didn't leave until after 5:00. Micah took a short nap after lunch with Papa, but Carter played the whole time! (well, besides lunch and snacks of course). Poor girl, at the end of the day, Les and I noticed she was walking like she just got off a horse. We soon figured out that her swimsuit had rubbed the inside of her legs raw. We felt so bad, but she didn't really fuss about it. Needless to say, we dropped it!! We had so much fun, and I can't wait to go back next year with little Toby!!!

Carter going down one of many slides

Micah following right along after her

Les eating his traditional turkey leg

this is how she was walking at the end of the day

After we left the waterpark, we headed to our hotel on the Riverwalk. We spent the next three days swimming at their pool, feeding the ducks on the river, more swimming, and going to the Mirror Maze!! Carter had been talking about the Mirror Maze ever since she knew we were going to San Antonio. Grampy and Hershey (my parents) took us there a few months ago, and she couldn't wait to go back. I loved watching our kids have so much fun on our family vacation! When it was finally time to come back home, Carter was NOT happy about it. I'm so glad we got to spend that time together as a family before the new baby comes.

this is outside of the Mirror Maze

me and my little buddy (why are these words blue?)

Carter and Papa

A New Day!

2009-06-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

I'm so thankful the Lord's mercies are new every morning! Yesterday morning was almost enough to put me over the edge. It all started on Wednesday night when Carter got a fever. Let me just say that this chick doesn't mess around when it comes to her fevers. We wanted to be close to her if she needed us, so we made a little pallet for her beside our bed.........on the side closest to the toilet. Just in case. Praise the Lord, she slept well that night. Fast forward to the morning. 4:45 to be exact. That's when Les' alarm goes off (because he is THAT disciplined to get up and work out every morning). Take a wild guess who else wakes up then?? You got it. Our little munchkin. Les turns it off quickly, gets ready, and I am trying to go back to sleep but can't stop thinking whether or not Carter is awake or not. All of a sudden, I hear Les whisper to her, "go back to sleep". Well, there's my answer. So he leaves, it's still black outside, so I'm hoping she will notice that too and go back to sleep. I don't know how much longer it was before I heard her whispering something about the Wizard of Oz. OH MY STARS.....is this really happening? I think I was in and out until about 6:45 when she says, "Mama, is it 7:00 yet?" She knows we stay in bed until 7:00. I told her that it was most definitely NOT 7:00 yet, but she could come up in the bed with me if she wanted to. She then proceeded to tell me, "Well, I don't want to get the sheets wet." What?? She said her blankets were wet because her tinks leaked out of her pull up. I didn't know whether to be annoyed because I have to do more laundry, or excited that her fever didn't make her too dehydrated. Well, there goes my 15 minutes of extra rest. I am up, throwing blankets around, trying to find where her pull up leaked. I still don't have any idea where she thought the blanket was wet. So, now we're up and ready to eat breakfast. Carter says that she would like pancakes for breakfast, and that sounds so good to me. I have to move the butter from the place on the stove where my skillet was going to go. The knife was still in the butter package and as I was moving it from one counter to the other, the knife fell off (thank you Jesus that it didn't land on our feet), but the next thing I know, I am cleaning butter off the floor.

Then I noticed that we left coffee in our coffee pot all night, so I poured it out in the sink and opened the little door that you pour the grinds (is that what you call ground up coffee beans?) in. I took the liner with the ground up coffee beans out, went to throw it away, and also managed to spill those!! AAHHH!!

At that time, Carter was scooching a chair over to the counter to "help me" make the pancakes. Finally, we start making the pancakes, I go over to spray the skillet with Pam when I heard her mumble something and then scream......I turned around as she was scrambling off the chair and there on her chair was the king of all roaches!!!!!!!! My sweet little Carter had just experienced a roach crawling on her foot!!!! I felt sooooooooooo bad for her. I hurried to get a shoe, and when I came back in the kitchen, Carter was still hysterical, and the roach was now on the floor crawling toward us. Lord, help us! That thing didn't even know what hit him. I smashed that thing till it was pretty much just guts. Then when it was nice and dead, I said to it, "Don't you ever crawl on my Carter again!!!" If it were alive, it would've said, "lady, I won't even come in the same country as her."

Is it finally time to put the pancakes on the skillet?? I sure hoped so because I was starving, and pregnancy hunger is violent. I gave Carter her pancakes, and was making mine with blueberries in them. Yum! I soon found out that putting blueberries in there must make it harder to cook them because one of my pancakes WAS NOT DONE IN THE MIDDLE!! I usually don't mind that, but that's gross when it comes to pancakes. Needless to say, as soon as mine were ready to eat, Micah wakes up......

I go get Micah, get him some pancakes, finally eat my half done pancakes, and hope the day gets better than it has started..............

I thought too early. I was putting some dishes away, and Micah had been messing around in his chair. I turned around just to see him do Superman off of his chair onto the hard floor. SERIOUSLY!!! I look at the clock, and it was 7:45.........

Somebody, please hit me with a skillet.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

2009-06-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

he let her wear his shoes on the way home...so sweet

First off, let me just say Happy Father's Day to Peep (my dad), Buster (Les' dad), and my 1,000% outstanding husband, Les!! I get so much joy watching Les with our kids. Just to hear them scream "PAPA!!" anytime they hear the lock on the door is enough to melt my heart. I feel so bad when I go to take the trash outside, or get something out of my car, come back inside to hear their little feet running while screaming "PAPA!".............nope, sorry, it's just me. :) It's such a gift to me that they love him so much. I asked them both what their favorite thing about Papa was. Carter said, "I love when he hugs me, but when he gives me kisses, sometimes he scruffs me." Micah said, "I wike WRES!!" translation......I like when he wrestles me. Then I asked them what their favorite thing that Papa says to them was. Carter said, "I love Carter and you are the beautiful." I thought that was so sweet because I always hear him telling her how beautiful she is. When I asked Micah, he goes, "BOOYA!" I laugh at the ways Carter is such a girly girl, and Micah is SUCH a boy! I am so thankful to my heavenly Father for such a wonderful earthly father for my children.

It's summer, and it's hot! Bill Engvall (the blue collar comedy tour comedian) once said he can't believe it when he hears people from Texas say, "I don't ever remember it being this hot." He says, "guess what.......Texas summers are hot and humid........WRITE IT DOWN!!" I don't forget how hot is gets, but Carter has. She doesn't enjoy being in the hot weather, unless of course we are swimming, which is pretty much all we've been doing. Carter is such a little fish, and Micah loves the water too. Micah has to wear his little swim vest in the pool, but Carter can stay afloat (under our watchful eye). She looks so funny when she starts at the beginning of the diving board, starts running, and catapults herself off the diving board into the water. Sometimes she wants to yell a word as she's jumping. You know it's my daughter when she's jumping into the water yelling, "brownie!!"

they are ready to go swimming!!

she went swimming with her ponies and didn't lose one!

why does he think he is smiling??? Such a Jack Sparrow face

Before we decided on our new house that we'll be moving into next month, we HAD to make sure the neighborhood had a pool of some sort..........yeah, all I'm gonna say is 3 water slides!!!! I'm pumped! It's so bittersweet, this whole moving thing because we won't be 5 minutes away from some of our close friends, and we're leaving our first home, but we are excited to be in a new home, make new memories in a new house, and we'll be moving closer to some friends out there! I think we'll love being in Katy! Carter and Micah loved helping us get our house ready to sell. They helped sand door frames, and they helped Buster measure our rooms. It will be interesting to see how they act when it really comes down to leaving this house.

Well, again, I want to say Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers, papas, daddies, dads, and poppies out there!!

Les, I'm so excited for Toby to get here to know how great of a Papa you are!!!

House Warming Present

2009-06-16T18:19:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, we just found out yesterday that we now have a new house to move into next month......thank You Lord! Well, today I was headed out to see our friends who just had a brand new baby (ooooh, that made me so excited for Toby to get here), and they also just moved out there. While we were visiting 5 minutes away from our new house, I decided to see if we could get in our new house to look around and start to picture where everything will go. Les' dad, who we like to call Buster, got us in and the first place I went..............you know it, to the kitchen! The kids were tearing through the house hiding in all of the closets. So, we're having a grand time, we all go upstairs to see who will be sleeping where, the kids are leading the way.....about to go down the stairs. Now, before I go any further, I have to say that while we were at the Dukes house (the house with the new bundle), the kids spent the entire time rolling Lightening McQueen and Luigi down the stairs. They would run down, get them, run back up and do it again. I was telling them how nice it was to not have to follow after them up and down every stair. Soooooooo, back to our new house. Carter is on the second stair when Micah apparently doesn't see the first stair. He totally misses it, which makes him fall into Carter, and I start panicking and screaming. I can see it coming. Yes, it happened........both of my precious little babies start rolling down the what seemed to be like a mile long staircase AT THE SAME TIME!! All I can do is run down the stairs behind them in my flip flops wondering if I should throw my pregnant self on top of them, try to jump over them without breaking my ankles and falling, or just run after them as they are tumbling. They both stopped about 4 stairs from the bottom. No one broke anything......just a few carpet burns. We were all hysterical. I couldn't let water works flow because that would've just made things worse. I cannot stop thanking Jesus for protecting them when I couldn't get in front of them, and for giving my children angels to soften their falls. It's these times when I ask myself, "Really Emily? You're having your third baby?" Thank You God for Your protection!!!

What a lovely house warming present. Welcome to your new home........here are some stairs your kids can hurl themselves down. Lord, help me.

I gave in......

2009-06-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

Ok people........here we go!!! Emily is blogging! I am probably doing this so wrong, (just like I have no idea why this it underlining itself) but hey, all I know is that my friend Bradi helped me get a cute background, and that's all that matters right now. I usually send out a batch of pictures every month, but I can't really tell you all the stories that go with them, and boy, are there some stories!! Our party of five is going through some major changes right now, so I figured now would be the perfect time to start blogging. For starters, we just sold our house and found out today that we have a new house!! Our third baby is coming in August, and we just cut off all of Micah's hair. Too much change for a hormonal pregnant lady! Not to mention, the digital tv thing happened, and now, somehow, we don't get channel 13.......which means I'm going to have to wait to watch the Bachelorette until tomorrow. With prayer, I can get through all of it.

Back to Micah's hair........why didn't anyone tell me that when we cut all his hair off, he would turn 8 years old??? What is that about?? It's like someone took my baby away from me. All I have to do to get that baby feeling back is give him his blankie, which he then rubs on his lips for some reason, and my world is better.

If that isn't enough, Carter has decided that she is big enough to take big girl showers instead of baths with her little brother. Where are my babies going?? Don't worry......I'm still standing outside of the shower guiding her, scrubbing her hair, and trying not to fall in.

I love my party of five! Thank you Jesus for my family!