Charly Rides Bike

Happy Birthday Rob!

Happy Birthday ROB!

Today the kids and I celebrated Rob. I am so glad he was given to me as my hubby, and I'm ever grateful for this gracious, loving, humble, talented man! The kids and I had a great time brainstorming this week about Daddy's favorite things, and about how we could make him feel special today. It was so nice to see the kids just as excited as I was to celebrate their daddy today.

Rob, I admire you. You are my best friend, an incredible dad, and a giving spouse. You love me well and continue to point me to Christ. It's been a fun day! Love you Babe!

My Deep Thinker

How blessed am I to have a daughter like Charly Thomas. Our conversations sometimes help me wrap my arms around my true feelings about things. Last year we had two miscarriages, and Charly knew about the second. She talked about it often trying to process the sadness she felt.

Lately we've had some more deep conversations, mostly about this new baby. When we told our kids at 14 weeks, Cobb jumped for joy stating that he knew God would give us another one. Charly was quiet and pensive. That evening as I put her to bed she patted my hand and said in a quiet voice, "Don't worry mom. I'm excited about the baby." I told her she could feel however she wanted to, and that she could talk to God or daddy or mommy about it when she felt comfortable.

About five days later, she mentioned the baby again. The conversation went something like this:
Charly: Mom, how old will the baby be when I'm 8?
Me: Umm, I think the baby will be 2 years old.
Charly: That's if the baby doesn't die right??
Me: Yes. But the doctor says everything looks great, and I do think God is going to allow us to meet this sweet baby
Charly: But you don't know that.
Me: You're right. I don't know. But I do know that God loves us, and He knows what is best for us. So whatever happens, He wants us to trust Him.
Charly: That's really hard to do sometimes.
Me: I agree. It is. Are you worried?
Charly: Yes.
Me: You know, I get worried too. God told us we can pray to him when we get worried. Do you want to pray with me?
Charly: Yes. (we prayed) I don't feel any better. (we laughed)
Me: Sometimes I don't either so when that happens, I just decided I need to trust God because he knows best. Sometimes I end up praying all day.
Charly: Is it time to go to school?
Me: Yep!

And that day, she hesitantly told someone at the school. Slowly I saw her gain confidence. We all went to the sonogram together this past Tuesday. Such a cool thing to peek into God's creation!

Her teacher told me yesterday that the class was discussing what they were thankful for. Charly raised her hand and said, "I'm thankful that our baby didn't die." I was both relieved and heartbroken to hear her statement. I'm thankful also sweet Charly. Me too! We can all celebrate this sweet gift together.

It's a BOY!!!

Profile of baby boy

Yes, we are expecting a baby boy in April! We couldn't be more excited about this sweet blessing from the Lord. All five of us are super excited to add another boy to the family.

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of chanting going on in my car (boys shouting "boy" over and over while Charly tries to drown them out with "girl, girl!") But we found out yesterday that the boys won. Although Charly would have loved a sister, she is excited about being the only girl. I told her she'd be the princess with three frogs. :) Maybe she can help me keep those rowdy boys in line.

We are blessed. We rejoice in God's gift of life, this sweet little miracle inside me.

Ridge and the Piano

Soccer Game Visitors

Thanks Parkers for coming to Cobb's soccer game! And thanks to Hoppy for visiting too!!!

Visit with Ellie!

My sister Caroline came in to visit on Thursday. My kids just love when Aunt Kiki comes in town with baby Ellie. Here's Ridge Friday morning "helping" Aunt Kiki feed Ellie.

And here he is playing peek a boo with his little cousin:



The big kids were just as excited to see sweet Ellie. Lots of hugs and playing.
Charly will be Queen of the week this week at school so she got to bring home "Hoppy" for the weekend. She is supposed to take pictures of what Hoppy gets to do while with us. Our first pic is Hoppy and Ellie!

Ellie LOVED Hoppy. Cobb played with her while trying to ensure that Hoppy didn't get any baby slobber.



Thanks for visiting us!!!

Soul Sister

While Cobb and I were at the scouting event the rest of the family was doing this:

Scouting

Cobb had a scouting event tonight where he got to ride an old bus and go to a historic Allen site. The boys had a great time, even though Cobb decided to make goofy faces for all my pictures!

RELAX

Last week we relaxed in Cancun while the sweet grandparents took care of the kiddos. Rob and Jeff signed up for a Dave Ramsey business conference, and Stacey and I got to tag along.

Stacey and I spent most of our time hanging at the beach or pool. I read 2 great novels! Even though the guys spent the majority of time in conference meetings, they did get to spend some time on the beach with us.

Our room was awesome! Here's the view from our bed:

And the crazy big bath tub:

Beautiful sunrise view from our room:

Here we are on the bus heading to our hotel:

Dinner one night:


One night we ventured out of our resort to a shopping center. This guy did a charcoal drawing of Rob and me. Doesn't really look like either of us, but we thought it was cool anyway.


Rob found a Starbucks:


A few nights the 4 of us would hang out by the pool outside. I always got so tired and fell asleep on the chair:

I loved hanging with my sweet hubby.

Voting Adventure

My kids and I went to vote today. I kept telling them we were on an adventure, yet I was kicking myself that I didn't early vote! We got there about 3:15. It was raining and about 45 degrees. My kids are in hoodies, but I have just a cotton long sleeve shirt . And of course, my umbrella is not in my car. We go for it anyway.

We hunt for a parking place (an adventure in itself), and the kids get super excited when some guy starts pulling out, and it's our turn to park. I'm being cheered on from the back! "Hurry Mom, GET IT!!" We park then we run through the rain, only to find that the line is out the door! After about 15 minutes of standing in the rain, we get inside the front door. Unfortunately, I realize that I left my voters card in the car. I check my wallet for my license only to realize that my license is at home in my travel bag from our trip last week. So I have to look at my sweet, soaking wet kids, and tell them we have to go back to the car. We race to the car and back again to find the line is even longer now. Charly said, "We have to start over???" And I reply with, "Yes. I'm so sorry, but this just makes it an even bigger adventure! Right??" And she bought it. Thank the LORD she laughed with me.

(I stole this pic from my friend David Womack. . .taken at a differnt time, but line looks about the same)

I found out that chivalry still exists. This sweet man, gave up his umbrella for this negligent mom and her three drowned munchkins. What a sweet example for my sons to see. I got to point out that this man sacrificed his comfort for us, even though he didn't know us. Cobb thought that was pretty cool. It also was a sweet blessing because we stood outside for at least 20 minutes in the downpour.


After getting inside, we had about another hour of wait time. I couldn't have been prouder of my three kiddos. They handled themselves like champs. It truly turned out to be a fun adventure, but next time, I'll hopefully be bit more organized!!!

Halloween

Iron Man, Spider Girl, Optimus Prime, Storm, and Old man Indiana Jones are ready to tackle evil in this world!

Get 'em Spider girl!

Optimus Prime was always running ahead. . .


Just in case you want to see Storm again. . .

And our Iron Man running to the rescue. . .

One or our stops was the Parker's house. Super Heroes + Clowns = winning combo to fight the bad guys!

Lots of Candy and we even picked up some vampire fangs!


BEST PART:
Shortly after beginning our trick or treat outing, we realized that sweet Ridge was giving away candy. He really thought he was supposed to give candy to each house rather than accept it. At one house, he would give one, they would give one, he would give one, and they would give one. That continued for awhile until the everyone was laughing. Sweet Ridge. Even though he ended up getting the hang of it by the end of the night, I did have a tinge of sadness about how his efforts were squelched. I couldn't help but think that Ridge's way was much better. How sweet to give rather than receive.