Finally pics from our little trip...

So I have to resize my pictures to get them to upload now. Bummer! That's what took me so long posting these! A week ago we took our first little mini vacay with the kiddos to San Antonio for the day. (just the day mind you, I didn't want to try to spend the night! whoah!) We went to the zoo and the children's musuem.

When we used to go to San Antonio our thing was to definately eat something we don't get in Corpus. Well when you travel with kids, you are just lucky to grab something to eat. So we got there about 10:30 and I got a Whataburger biscuit and Chris got a Subway and we all ate it at the zoo. Yeah that's what we got in San Antonio to eat...ahahaha sweet right?

They had a blast at the zoo! Gauge's favorite animal was the giraffe which he still talks about today when he sees it in a book we read. The lion and tiger and bear were out so we got to see them which was fun. And Miss Teagan dropped her snack cup into the rhino's pen. Of course we would be the family that would drop the snack cup into the rhino pen! I freaked thinking, what else, that we would get kicked out...ahaha but I raced to find a worker to let them know. She said she would tell someone but if I wanted I could wait and they could get it back for me. Ummm nah...That's ok. The rhino pen was the one that smelled the worst! The rhino can keep it :)

I thought for sure they would be pooped and sleep but nope! They stayed up and we went straight to the Children's musuem. It was nice because everything is kid sized and just for them and Gauge was in heaven! Teagan just wants to be free and independent. She doesn't really care about anything there just being free to run! They had a small kids HEB where they get to push a shopping cart and get boxes of food and fruit and such and then check out. Teagan just wanted to push the basket forever!

Then the unthinkable happened. It is a three story building so there were stairs on each floor. Chris and Gauge were up ahead and Teagan and I were following. I had the camera on my shoulder and bent down to get something for it out of the stroller, glance out of my eye at Teagan and she is on the edge of the stairs going down. My heart stopped because I knew she was going down. Sure enough she fell and rolled down about 10-15 stairs. I was screaming "chris!" SO LOUD and running down as fast as I could but I was always like one step behind her. It was awful. The worst day of our lives we have had so far. I threw my camera off and finally blocked her to stop with my foot and swooped her up thinking something would be broken or bleeding. Chris got there right when I got to her and I just picked her up and immediately started showing her things on the walls for kids to take her mind off of it. She stopped crying pretty fast and we checked her all over. She had one tiny red mark and a slight bump but NOTHING else. And she went back to playing like nothing happened! Chris and I on the other hand were not ok. I was shaking so bad and I hadn't cried but I just lost it. I also didn't ever want to put her down or be far from her. She is just too fast, too busy and I thought I watched her like a hawk. Well that was a wake up call! With Miss Teagan you can't leave her for a second! Chris just kept saying that the scream I screamed was the worse thing he has ever heard and sounded like death. Get this though...There were people there and no one came to see what happened or if we were ok! If I would have heard someone screaming like that I would go check! Praise the Lord though, He had his hand on her and thankfully she rolled length wise across each step down. I think that helped her. God is so good! I prayed that night as I held her that He would always have his angels around her because she is a wild one!

Thank you Jesus for keeping my sweet Teag safe!

Other than that! We have just been having a nice time with Chris being off for vacation. We had a lot of family time and it was so nice. He had to go back to work today and we were all sad!

Now for Thanksgiving!!! I'm sure you know what I'm thankful for! God's protection, family, health and my sweet babies! I'm also thankful for internet and web cams so I can communicate and see Layne so well in Africa! I'm so blessed and I want to always have a thankful and joyful heart. What are you thankful for?

Teagan's Thanksgiving dress with matching bow :) Yeah I had fun with this! Chris' least favorite was her leggings and those were my favorite! He swore it didn't match and I said brown zebra is a neutral! :)

Check out this hair! Whenever my mom twists her hair up in her clip it always comes out like this later when I take it out! haha!

Gauge loved this part! He is in love with 'big trucks' as he calls them!

Miss Teagan and her shopping cart. Post fall! She looks a little ruffled right?

Flying his plane!

Digging for fossils. I have one CLEAN kid! He doesn't like sand all over him...hehe where did he get that?!

Such a cutie!

Loved these fish!

The snack food rhino pen

Roaring at the lions!

I thought they would love the goats and to pet them! Well I guess we are doing 4H and raising goats. They didn't care for it!

Flamingos!

Such a big boy! Nice a chilly morning!

Big girl looking around!

How did this happen so fast??

From this.... to this....

From this..... to this....

They have grown up right before our eyes! I dressed Teagan for MOPS yesterday and thought the first little dress I made her might make a cute shirt now...It did :) I wanted one for myself when I saw hers on with jeans! But it made it reality of how fast they really do grow!

It seems like yesterday Gauge was that little with his thin hair growing in and his love of vacuums...And now look at him with his thick hair and sweet big smile and big boy shoes!! Still has a love of vacuums though ;)

Some new signs...The John Wayne one was for Steph's bday. She loves John Wayne...We thought the saying was cute :)



My little raggamuffin! This was right when she woke up from nap :) But I LOVE this bubble dress! Again I want one for myself too!!



Poor guy! His nose bobo...He was running out to see Gee when she dropped me off and he fell off the porch. He told us for DAYS over and over..."Gauge bobo...on nose...see Gee..." so cute and sad at the same time! He looked like Rudolph for a few days :)


Our little harmonica player. She loves this thing! Cracks us up how serious she gets!

So my parents got us a web cam so we can talk and see Layne and Jon and I'm hoping in a few days we will be able to do that! I love getting updates from them every other day or so. So I am getting better posting on here for her too! :)

MOPS was fun this Wednesday! We did our Operation Christmas Shoe Boxes. I absolutely love doing those. I can't wait for a few more years and Gauge and Teagan will be able to help do them :)

Seriously we are having a baby boom right now. Monday night I went to dinner with my Bible Study gals and three are currently pregnant and due soon and three just had babies like 2 months ago. Then at MOPS we have like 4 ladies who just had babies and 2 more very pregnant and 3 just announced yesterday that they were pregnant! Holy Smokes that's alot of babies! If I were a teenager I would get on the babysitting bandwagon right there!

I'm looking forward to a relaxing rest of the week and Chris took vacation so he is off all next week! YAY! We are going to go to the San Antonio Zoo and Children's Musuem I think Tuesday. That will be an adventure since we haven't traveled further than the 40 minute drive to Bishop. Oh I think I will load up on prayer the night before we leave ;)

Can you believe how fast time is flying?! I can't

believe we are almost at Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then Janruary 2010?!!

Saying Goodbye is never easy...

"He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,

carrying sheaves with them."

Psalm 126:6

So today we took my sister Layne and brother-in-law Jon to the airport to see them off to Africa. They are going to give their lives to the people of Africa and to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Can I just say first, I really don't like goodbyes. And I know it's not goodbye but more like see you later....but still....goodbyes, especially to ones that you hold so close and love dearly just is plain hard. It brings out the 'ugly' cry. The one that you really shouldn't try to hold in because it will just sound even worse...

But even with it being hard there is still joy...and we still praise Jesus because He has found Layne and Jon worthy to go and give their all to those who need Him. That is JOY...

This morning I woke up trying to just keep it together...but the moment I turned on the TV there on the screen were all these sweet African babies and kids. It was a show about those who hunger and need food and how we need to help. And right there pops up on the screen Angola and Mozambique. Right where Layne and Jon are going....And as a sat and watched those poor sweet babies and kids who were eating dirt by the handfuls because they were so hungry, made me stop and say Oh Lord thank you so much for Layne and Jon. I am so proud that they are giving up their comfortable lives here and giving up family to go and love those people. To show them they are so loved by Jesus and to bring peace and healing. I love that God brought that straight to me right before going to see them off so that I would know how important it is that they go. I admire them...I pray maybe one day we will be there serving together. Until then I will pray daily for them and I will take joy in knowing that they are right where the Lord has called them.

And thank you Lord for technology! We will talk via web cam and we will never miss a beat in each other's lives! We will see them and we will show them all of the new dance moves Gauge and Teagan learn ;) and I can't wait to see those sweet African faces and tell them how precious they are to Jesus and to us.

We had such a sweet time with them the past 2 1/2 weeks and I will treasure those memories forever. I praise Him for giving us that time as a family and I know there will be more....

So Layne and Jon, we love you deeply...We are so proud to be your family....and we cannot wait to see all that the Lord does in your lives because you went out with weeping but oh the JOY that will come with the work He does in and through you...

And He will say "Well done my good and faithful servants..."