God is SO good

We hope that Santa was good to your family---we were SPOILED. I truly felt so gluttonous when we got home that Bryan and I packed up a 30 gal trash bag full of toys to take to Goodwill, and I am STILL overwhelmed. Do not get me wrong, we are truly grateful of all of the things that people did for our boys and us. We are SO blessed. Thank you PA family for the wonderful celebration of Christmas.

Today we met with a builder to get a price estimate on a house we are wanting to build. Here are our upcoming challenges: finishing touches on our house, sell our house, find somewhere to live while our house is being built, build a house. All of that will require much prayer and patience. If you know someone wanting to buy a house . . . send them our way! We are truly busting at the seams of this living space with two boys.

Hope you enjoyed the pics from Christmas! More to come from our Christmas here . . .

I'm a WEIRDO

Unfortunately I will be unable to follow all of the rules because I do not know 7 people with blogs, but I will do all of the people that I know and here are my oddities:

1. I have a fear of popping balloons.

2. It really annoys me when my eyebrows, or other peoples' are brushed the wrong way. Although, that also goes for my arm hairs as well. This is probably the weirdest. Like, I can't watch someone brush their eyebrows the wrong way without "fixing" my own eyebrows, even if they are okay.

3. I do not care for nuts in most desserts, like brownies or fudge. But, chocolate/peanut butter in combination is okay.

4. I am INCREDIBLY ticklish.

5. My hands are super squishy, like bendable almost.

6. I can't touch frosted glass, the thought of it makes my skin crawl.

7. I can't watch the movie, The Other Sister, without sobbing. Not tearing up, not tears running down my face, SOBBING to the point that the dollar theater security guard came and asked if Jennifer and I were okay, except that happens EVERY TIME!

Gramma's Visit

We have been having a FUN time with Gramma in town. Gramma has been taking turns keeping the boys at home. She took Michael to see Wall-E at the new theater and took him to see Playhouse Disney Live (play). This Saturday we had Cayden's first birthday party. We had fine dining with pizza, salad, and cupcakes. Cayden did an excellent job eating almost every last morsel of his cupcake, even requiring a bath before pictures. He was also given tons of fun presents that we will enjoy for a long time to come. Equally as exciting Bryan turned around his carseats tonight!!! Here is a little picture in case you are not on our email lists for pics. If you are not, and would like to be just shoot me an email.

HOOPLA

Halloween went something like this:

We had dinner at Arby's . . . woo hoo! The "we" in this evening was: Bryan, Michael, Cayden, Jennifer, Nate, Anna, Ryan, and me. Then we went to "Hoopla" at Biltmore Baptist. What is Hoopla? It is basically a carnival with a LOT of nice people and CANDY. There weren't as many scary costumes, we weren't around anyone who smoked (not sure if no one did or we just got lucky), and people were VERY friendly . . . not my typical Halloween. There were probably 30 little games for the kiddos like ring toss, bean bag toss, soccer kick, rocket throw, ski ball, etc and after you played a game, you were instructed to take a handful of candy. We are not talking just about your average candy either. There were several top-of-the-line buckets of candy as well. There were also 5+ bouncy things. Michael only did one of those. But, it was much bigger than any of the ones he had done before so we were very proud of him. We also got to do a hay ride. There was a stage where they had lots of fun music and dancers that Cayden enjoyed a lot. For the animals lovers, there were donkeys, sheep, goats, bunnies, and a bull you could ride (note that we did not, that made me VERY VERY VERY nervous---flashbacks of the bull fight I attended in Mexico, thanks Dad). We came away from ait all with a LOAD of candy, big smiles, frozen hands, and a plan to return there next year. We love Hoopla!

GO VOTE TUESDAY!!!

Halloween Carnival

Yesterday we attended a Halloween carnival at Kate's Park, one of the parks where we like to play. There were tons of games, a pumpkin carving contest (ours got there too late or it so would have won!), a costume contest, and a train. The admission charge was a donation of non-perishable food. We had a GREAT time! It was a little chilly, but the boys didn't seem to mind.

Answered Prayers

Courtney and baby---Samuel Andrew Breedlove are doing great. He was born HEALTHY today . . . thank you for all of your prayers for my friend.

A Prayer for Peace

I don't have a lot to update with the boys. Michael continues to want to learn more letters . . . he is up to M, N, O, H, A, and C. He is currently working with P, B, and D, he's not great with those yet. Cayden is just needy. He wants 100% of everyone's attention ALL of the time. He has also mastered an ear-piercing scream that he uses at random.

However, the thing weighing heaviest on my heart is a prayer. My friend Courtney is 35 weeks pregnant and is going in for amniocentisis on Wednesday, hoping to hear that baby's lungs are developed enough for her be induced that afternoon. She has a rare condition that makes her VERY itchy, uncomfortable, and can be very risky to the baby's health. She was quite blessed to be in the right place at the right time when she had an emergency with her first baby. Please pray for her. Please pray for her unborn baby. Please pray for her family. We love you Courtney . . . know that God is holding you tightly in His hands. If you want to visit Courtney's blog you may find it here: http://breedlovenotwar.blogspot.com/

The Good Through the Bad

Well this week has been a little rough. Cayden has been sick . . . sick enough for his temp to get to 103.2 on Thursday and 104.4 on Friday! Bryan took him to the doctor last night and they suspect he has pneumonia. I say "suspect" because they don't want to do chest x-rays when they are this little, they just treat it like it is pneumonia. He is now on an antibiotic, a cough med. with albuterol in it, and the newest is a steroid to open up his throat from his coughing so much. We are also alternating Motrin and Tylenol. We are really hoping that he will be able to go to daycare on Monday because we had to take Tuesday-Friday off last week. For those of you that know Cayden well, you know he is a happy child. I have to tell you through all of this, he has smiled at the doctors, waved and smiled at the pharmacists (who know us by name!!!!), and been in a generally okay mood. The only time he has been GRUMPY is when his fevers start rising. However, over the last few days he has taken one step twice, taken two steps once, and learned to clap. While not for good reasons, Bryan and I have enjoyed our time home with him.

Michael has not taken it too well that Cayden has been getting a lot of attention however. He has been a jealous bee! Last night though I took him to a birthday party. He was very polite, listened well, and was a good eater. I was very proud to claim him as my son. Today he and dad are off getting haircuts and buying a pumpkin for us to carve, which will be a first. Next weekend is Hey Day which should be a lot of fun!

Standing on edge

He took a step twice today!

Cars go . . .

Cayden has two new tricks: 1-When he plays with a car, he makes a car sound now. See our video on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/wcuprincess
2-If you ask him to wave, he is GREAT at it! Sometimes you will even get a double wave!

Michael will be going to his first birthday party this weekend that will involve lots of kids. He has been to family parties, but this one will have several children. I think I might need medication of some sort!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One answered prayer . . . more needed

My friend Christal's husband is home now, a GREAT answered prayer!!! However, please continue to pray for Shanna's dad. He remains in ICU with little change. Today he had a surgery to replace is wound cares in his leg and abdomen. Because he had inhibited breathing he developed pneumonia---as if he didn't have enough problems! On top of all of this Brandon (Shanna's triplet brother) and his wife just greeted their new son Jake into the world. Their family is running on empty with little end in sight. Please pray that they are surrounded by God's love and feel support from Him and all of their friends. If any of you read this, we love you and are praying for you!

If anyone drives tanker trucks we sure could use some gas in Asheville! People are getting CRAZY around here!!!!!

The boys:
Cayden is fighting us on giving up the bottle. He refuses to take his cup in the morning, wants only a bottle at daycare.
Michael's pants issues continue. Today he threw a holy fit about wearing wind pants. He wanted NOTHING to do with them. On a funnier note, his daycare does Computer Pals every other week. Since Michael is still working on pronouncing everything well, his version of Computer Pals is "Peter pals." We are trying hard to correct this faux pas! But . . . it does make us giggle a little.

The Great Mundane

Don't you just love to have a "normal" weekend every now and then? That's what this weekend was for us, and I LOVED it! Our weekend included dinner with Dad, Val, and Aub, mowing the grass, a family campfire with smores, laundry, cleaning, a great church service, Steelers football, and SUPERB homemade chili. It's in these times that I feel so blessed.

Please pray for my friends Shanna and Christal. Both have family members in the hospital that are vital to their lives! May the Lord hold these families in His hands and may they feel His presence with them at all times.

Updates on the boys:
We are working on weaning Cayden off of his bottles and to a sippy cup. He is putting up some resistence though. Fun things he did this weekend: waved hi pretty consistently and growled like a lion at a puppet we have.
Michael hates pants. He would like to wear only shorts forever. "These shorts are too long mommy" he said when I put a pair of jeans on him. Hee hee!

A Valuable Lesson

Last night Jennifer and Anna came for a sleepover. We tried a new recipe called Cowboy Pie (it was delicious) and then we made some chocolate chip cookies. Things went well until it was time for bed. In the end Anna slept inbetween Jennifer and I. This morning we got up and I made cinnamon waffle sticks (in my AWESOME waffle stick maker I saw on the "I Want That" show) and then Jennifer took Anna and Cayden to her house. Michael and I went to the NC Mtn. State Fair. For the past two weeks all Bryan and I have heard about is the ferris wheel. Everything Michael has said has been followed by, "and then we are going to ride the ferris wheel!" His dreams came true today. First we looked at some animals. Next we rode the ferris wheel, and then about 6 other rides. Overall he did well with them. The only one that was a problem was the little roller coaster. He left that one crying. We finished with a soft serve ice cream cone Daddy had promised him. He and I had a great time. Then we went and picked up Cayden and came home for lunch. After getting Cayden fed, Michael ate some spaghetti o's, peaches, and was about 3/4 through a cup of milk. I was in Cayden's room laying him down for nap when Michael started crying. I came running out because I wasn't sure what could be wrong and he was standing by his chair holding his belly. He said, "My belly hurts! I want my Daddy!" and then turned and puked all over the floor. So, a note for the future . . . go light on lunch after the fair!

Our First Time as Bloggers

We have joined the blogging world! I can't promise how often I will update, but I will try! I most likely won't put too many pics on here because I send out so many, but this is to appease all of the people who are always asking how the boys are doing. I will try to put updates on new things that the boys do/say/etc. So here goes:

Michael: He is working on writing some letters. So far he is doing pretty well with the letter H and O. He can tell us how to make an M, but hasn't perfected that yet (up, down, up, down he says). He can pick out an M, H, and O consistently when looking at letters different places. We are also learning how to play games, such as Candy Land and Lucky Ducks. Potty training is going great. The only time he is still wearing a diaper is at night and we don't see that changing in the near future.

Cayden: He is still "cruising". However, he is getting braver about letting go. He is also "talking" all the time. He is eating people food more often, and really doesn't care to eat baby veggies anymore at all. Since we stopped feeding him baby food dinners he is spitting up considerably less. He is SO smiley. He is definitely exhibiting the stranger and separation anxiety though which breaks my heart!