Between The Sheets

Random iPhone pics

2012-01-23T09:58:00.001-08:00

It's been way too long since I've done an update on here. Here's a little insight into our life...From before Christmas up to now...

Before Christmas. Jammie time!

Nothing like brother snuggles.

SUPER TREY! hahahaha...a Christmas gift from my sil for Trey. Check out those thighs! We love this kid!!

Taken on Dec. 30th at 4 months old!

Trey's 4 mo appointment. Weighing in at 16.3 lbs. Happy, healthy, red headed, blue eyed little guy!

Lots of cousin time w Peyton..who loves her some baby Trey! She has an endless supply of kisses : )

Trey had his first bites of rice cereal around 4 1/2 months old. He has been soo interested in our food when we eat, and he ate the cereal like he had been doing it his whole life! I realized I wasn't quite ready for this, so the poor guy hasn't had it since
: )

Back porch swingin' with my red headed burrito.

Beautiful January spring weather meant a trip to the zoo! We had a blast.

Our friends, the Reeses, were back from Thailand on furlough. This is their newest little guy, Dax, who is about a month younger than Trey.

Chubbawubs working on rolling over

Sorry this is sideways...Will & Trey snuggling

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

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2011-10-14T08:16:00.001-07:00

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

Location:Green Bay Cir,Abilene,United States

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-13T12:35:00.001-07:00

We just got back from our annual pumpkin patch trip! The weather was perfect, but the sun was shining bright. Get ready for some cute squints : )

Peyton Jo (my niece) joined us too. She was having a blast climbing all over the pumpkins, so she didn't want to sit still for pictures (neither did my boys for that matter).

Blue-eyed cutie pie!

Trey did great for a little photo shoot

Peyton's favorite part was the stuffed dog. She kept 'talking' to him and barking at him. So cute!

Pumpkin Patch 2010
Pumpkin Patch 2009
Pumpkin Patch 2007

Trey - 1 month old!

2011-09-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

We have been with Trey for only one short month, but he has already made a huge mark on our family. We can't get over what a good little guy he is! He knows when it's night time and sleeps great at night. We comment every day on his red hair, blue eyes, and adorable dimples! He is a good mix of both Will & Levi, and most people say that he is for sure a 'Sheets'. We look forward to seeing what the next month holds for us and this handsome little guy!

the blue eyes...kill me every time! : )

After his bath last night he kept making some goofy faces!

Trey Vinson has arrived!

2011-09-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Now that Trey is one month old, I guess it’s finally time for me to announce his birth on the blog! At 12:22pm on August 30^th, 2011, Trey entered the world. I was blessed with a fantastic c-section (much different from Will & Levi’s birth), and it was pretty fun to hear what the Doctor and nurses said about him before I could even see him. Our doctor said something along the lines of ‘wow, look at all that red hair!’, and then he said ‘he is giving me some serious stares.’ When he mentioned the red hair, I was thinking that it was probably brown with a little red tint to it. Boy was I wrong! Trey definitely has red hair, and at my first glimpse of him, I was shocked at just how red it was! Where did that come from?! If that wasn’t a big enough surprise, he also has blue eyes! I know that this could change, but I am going to enjoy every day that I get to stare into his big, blue eyes. His other stats at birth were: 7lbs. 15 oz., 19.5 inches, and a set of healthy lungs : )

Before...

After!

Such a sweet face!

Dr. T with his newest delivery

My first time to hold Trey. I was in.love.

Our first family picture as a family of 5!
The boys ran into the recovery room and announced that his name was Trey Vinson. They thought that I didn't know what his name was yet : )

Sunday, Sept. 4th
Our first big outing was to church. I was feeling great and ready for some fresh air. Trey slept the whole time.

Snuggle time!

It's hard to keep Will & Levi away from their baby brother. They love to be close to him, sing him songs, kiss his head, and try to make him smile. It's adorable!

Trey at one week old. One of the few times he was awake during his first week of life. This boy loves to sleep!

Trey at two weeks old. You can kind of see his big blue eyes.

W & L helping to bathe T. 3 weeks old.

This first month of Trey’s life has been a much easier transition than I ever expected it to be. He is such a good baby- eats well, sleeps great at night, and rarely ever cries! He loves to snuggle with anyone who wants to hold him, and he doesn’t mind the constant noise and activity that his two big brothers create for him. Speaking of those two guys, Will & Levi have been incredible big brothers. Will has become the little expert at burping Trey, and Levi loves to help me change diapers. In fact, Levi woke up a few nights ago around 3am just to help me change a diaper. Once he was done, he went back to his bed to sleep. It was precious! They have stepped up as little men of the house and surprised me on every level. I feel bad that I can’t spend as much time with them as I used to, but they have been so flexible about it all. What a true blessing!

In his short life, Trey has already experienced a lot! We took him to the West Texas Fair and Rodeo when he was two weeks old. He slept through most of it, but I’m sure he loved it! Then at three weeks old, he traveled to the metroplex. We stayed with my parents and introduced Trey to my oldest brother and family, the Burton Bunch, and my home-church family. He was a great traveler, which is a must with our busy little family! Most days though have been pretty relaxed and peaceful at home.

I can’t believe one month has already passed since he was born. We are all in love with Trey-man, Treyburn, T-man. He is the perfect addition to our family.

pics courtesy of Hannah Vickers Photography

iPhone Pics

2011-08-14T11:26:00.001-07:00

Just a few pics from my iPhoto library...

Levi after a friends' birthday party. Goofball!

Backyard baseball! Our lab, Duke, is the perfect outfielder. He goes after every ball and brings it right back to the pitcher. It's awesome! Both boys like to be Josh Hamilton and take turns hitting home runs.

This was around 2am the other night. I was walking around the house trying to relieve restless leg, and this is what I found when I checked on the boys.

The past few days have brought cooler temps (not triple digits) and rain! It has been so nice to play outside in all the puddles!

Also, special thanks to Mo for the new blog look!

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

Just for Fun...

2011-08-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Here I am at 37ish weeks pregnant. Feeling good! (Hoping that this guy is a big baby)

And, here I am at 37 weeks with Will & Levi. This was taken a day before their delivery.

Several people have asked how this pregnancy has differed than with the twins. I had a great pregnancy with the boys, and this pregnancy hasn't been all that different. This go around I have had less heart burn, less swelling, and better sleep at night (thanks to some sleeping aids). I had about the same amount of nausea at the beginning of each pregnancy, but I was WAY more tired when I carried the twins. I had to take a nap every day, and I don't feel nearly as tired this go around. I have had consistent back pain this pregnancy, and that is by far my biggest complaint. I've just had to get used to it, but every time I lift my right leg my whole back has a shooting pain. Not cool considering I have to lift my leg every time I walk.

I craved veggies and any form of potatoes with the twins, and my 'fix' this pregnancy has been cold fruit, Sonic strawberry/banana smoothies, and Blue Bell Rocky Road ice cream. I'm trying to keep it in that order, but sometimes a pint of ice cream can solve all the days' problems! : )

I am starting to have a few contractions a day (I think....it's hard for me to tell if they are contractions or just big movements, but I'm pretty sure they're contractions). It's fun to try and guess which baby body part is bulging out of my belly at different times. There's one spot that is always sticking out, and I'm pretty sure that's his bottom. Will & Levi like to come up to me and kiss it, and then they always laugh hysterically because they kissed his bottom! Ahh...those kind of jokes never get old : )

Delivery via c-section is still set for August 30th unless I go into labor. Then I have the choice of VBAC or c-section. Anyone out there done vbac? Give me your feedback...on your vbac...ha- that rhymed!

Oh yeah, we have a name picked out!!! But you'll have to wait...it's a secret : )

The Little Men of the House

2011-07-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Before this new little guy arrives into our family, I wanted to write down some thoughts about Will & Levi. Things are going to get a little bit crazier around here, and I'd like to remember some things about the boys before the hazy cloud of infant-hood attacks my memory!

To change it up, I'll start with Levi.

Although both boys love to snuggle with me, Levi comes by it more naturally. There is something in his nature that wants to be physically very close to me. He knows exactly when I need it too. He is quick to notice when I am tired and will offer to massage my feet. When I am putting him down at night, he usually asks to play with my hair and tickle my face. At random times he will say, "Mom, you're beautiful." He really can melt my heart on the spot! Not many people get to see this side of Levi because he is also all boy. He is very into pretend play these days, and sword fights, hunting, scaring off the bad guys, and jumping off of couches and chairs is a part of his everyday life! Although he likes to wake up earlier than Will every morning, I really do enjoy the one-on-one time with Levi. Maybe it has to due with the fact that he comes into our room every morning, kisses me on the cheek, says 'good morning mommy, i love you, can you make my be-breakfast?'. Now that starts my day off right! Speaking of be-breakfast...Levi has begun to add 'be' in front of lots of words. There's no rhyme or reason, but some of these words include: berage (garage), besaster (disaster), beventure (adventure), befridge (fridge). I know there are others, but the other two speech mishaps are pretty funny too. He has always said 'yorgit' instead of yogurt, and his cousin is Caytin instead of Petyon. Zach and I find ourselves using some of his words a lot too. I even wrote down 'yorgit' on my shopping list the other day!
Levi still has the BEST belly laugh. This is wrong, but sometimes I tickle him just to hear him laugh. It is pure joy! Although we talk about baby brother all the time, Levi still has days where he talks about his baby sister in my belly. I'm going to laugh (and then freak out) if he is right and this baby is a girl! I am beginning to hope, for his sake, that our Rwandan baby will be a girl. He wants a sister so badly! And knowing his protective/softy mix, he would be the perfect big brother to a girl.
Levi dresses himself every day, and he usually has a pretty good eye for style! There are some articles that he is particularly fond of...tall socks (although they don't have to match), basketball shorts, a hat on backwards, and even in these hot summer days he likes to wear pants with his 'flats' shoes. He has to change clothes with every changing activity- basketball clothes to play b-ball, baseball stuff for baseball, and he even has scooter clothes for when he wants to go outside and ride his scooter! This makes for lots of laundry and lots of laughs. Apparently Zach was the exact same way as a kid, and he really hasn't grown out of it!
Levi has a tenacity for life coupled with a sensitive spirit. I can't wait to see how he uses those qualities in his life and in his ministry.

Will Cotton has changed quite a lot from his younger years : ). He used to be a very serious baby who spent a lot of time trying to figure out the world with an intense stare. I guess he got it all figured out in the first few years because he is now a total goofball! (Here's a great story about that....one night I was tucking the boys into bed and it was prayer time. Levi's prayer was 'God, I just don't understand this world. I just can't believe it. Amen.' Then, without hesitation, Will said, 'God, I do understand this world and I do believe it.' I sat there stunned and confused for a few seconds until one of them said 'goodnight mom'. Then I left the room to tell Zach and we had a good laugh together. I mean seriously! WHAT?!?) He and Levi can both makes us laugh, but Will has a witty sense of humor that catches us off guard and gets great reactions from us. He also has this dimpled grin that can get him out of all sorts of trouble. Like Levi, Will loves to have sword fights, fight off bad guys, and hunt for all sorts of crazy animals, but Will's favorite activity is still basketball. He loves to shoot hoops, and he actually practices all sorts of moves and shots that he sees on TV. Just last night he showed me his new lay-up, and he has the correct form and everything! He spends lots of time working on form and making his shots. It's actually kind of crazy how good he is. (but maybe I'm a bit biased)
Sometimes I call Will my teenager because of how late he likes to sleep in. For a while there I would go in and wake him up between 9:30-10 every morning! He is also a man of consistency. He likes peanut butter toast for breakfast EVERY morning. I can offer him all sorts of stuff, but peanut butter toast will usually win (pancakes are the only contender). Then, for lunch he wants peanut butter and jelly, and for a snack he prefers peanut butter with apples. He has always been this way, and I have a feeling it will be a lifelong companionship!
Will is extremely observant, and because of this, he can already do some basic reading, word recognition and telling time on a digital clock. He is constantly asking me what time it is when he sees a clock, or he will find a race car or see an athlete's jersey and ask me what number it is. I never knew if anything was sticking in his mind, but the other day he looked at a clock and told me it was 11:30. It was exactly 11:30. We will probably start some more structured basic reading/letter recognition this fall, and I know that he is going to absorb it all very quickly. He also loves to ask me the meaning of words. Most recently, he has asked about: compassion, retreat, privacy, vacation, and forgiveness. There are tons more, but I just can't think of them right now. He is the kid who hears all things around him even if it doesn't appear that he is listening.
Will has turned into quite the fish this summer. He LOVES to swim and jump into the pool from the side. Most of the time he has floaties on, but we will practice real swimming with him and he does a really good job. I think he will be swimming on his own by next summer.
Will has a unique dedication and desire to succeed and a knack for knowing when to crack a joke to lighten the mood. I pray that he will continue to use those qualities in his life, and that he will allow God to mold and shape his observant spirit.

Both Will and Levi are so excited about becoming big brothers. They practice swaddling their stuffed animals, and they love to put them in the baby swing. They are always so sweet with other babies in our small group and families, and I can't wait to see how they adjust to having a baby brother (and/or sister...). Every time I go to an OB appointment, they think that I am coming home with the baby. They always greet me at the door and ask where the baby is...it's so precious to see the anticipation on their faces, and it makes me look SO FORWARD to the end of this month when it actually happens!

These guys are such a blessing and joy to parent. We have the unique privileged of seeing built-in best friends grow up together. Even though they are different in many ways, they always seek out the other one in a crowd and prefer to be in close proximity to one another. We have tried to have one-on-one time (like a Mommy/Levi ice cream date or a Daddy/Will Lowe's run), but most of the time the boys don't like being separated. They will spend half the time asking about the other one and why he isn't with us. It is very sweet how much they truly love being together.

photos taken by Hannah Vickers. love. them.

2011-06-24T09:56:00.001-07:00

Just a few pics I just took with my phone...

I'm finishing my 30th week, and I really am feeling great! I still have consistent back pain, but I guess I'm just getting used to it. This new little guy is very active, and I love feeling his rolls and kicks most of the day (and night!).

These two guys keep me very entertained all day. We play a lot of cowboys/cowgirl, knights and princess, hunting for bears, and basketball (of course). Levi especially loves to feel the baby kicking. He lights up with the biggest smile every time, and it really is special to watch! They have started carrying various stuffed animals around the house and pretending that they are sleeping babies. I get in trouble for being too loud or not carrying the 'baby' the right way. They are soo pumped about becoming big brothers.

Poor Duke! He had to get stitches after a mysterious gash appeared on his forehead last week. Now he has to wear a huge funnel...it's very funny, but sad to watch! He doesn't realize how big it is, and he runs into everything or drags stuff all around the house. Only one more week of the funnel and he'll be good to go!

We had a great time in Colorado, and I hope to blog about that soon. Other than a few weekend trips, we will spend the rest of the summer at home preparing for the new little guy! Only 9 more weeks-wow- that went by fast!

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-29T14:11:00.001-07:00

We've had a great weekend so far welcoming in the summer. The temps have been up to 109, but we've been able to cool off at friends' pools. Hope you've had a blessed weekend too!

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

I'm way outnumbered!!!

2011-04-20T14:12:00.001-07:00

We are thrilled to announce that Baby #3 will be a boy!! This was quite the surprise since most people thought for sure it was a girl, but we love our boys around here! This is a pretty good profile of the baby, and I think that he looks a lot like Levi. He's only about 12 ounces, but it's amazing how much we could already see in the sonogram!

He gave a big wave to Will & Levi.

Not the best pic, but it will have to do. About 20+ weeks along. Feeling great, sleeping decent, and getting very excited about a new little guy in the house!

A boy and his dog

2011-04-13T08:46:00.001-07:00

I have read this poem before, but it is precious to see it lived out in my own backyard. Levi and Duke share a special bond. I often find Levi in the backyard playing chase with Duke, going pretend fishing with Duke, and just having many adventures together. I wish I could put a secret mic on Levi just so I could hear the conversations he has with his dog. They are quite the pair!

A Boy and His Dog
Edgar Guest

A boy and his dog make a glorious pair:
No better friendship is found anywhere,
For they talk and they walk and they run and they play,
And they have their deep secrets for many a day;
And that boy has a comrade who thinks and who feels,
Who walks down the road with a dog at his heels.

He may go where he will and his dog will be there,
May revel in mud and his dog will not care;
Faithful he'll stay for the slightest command
And bark with delight at the touch of his hand;
Oh, he owns a treasure which nobody steals,
Who walks down the road with a dog at his heels.

No other can lure him away from his side;
He's proof against riches and station and pride;
Fine dress does not charm him, and flattery's breath
Is lost on the dog, for he's faithful to death;
He sees the great soul which the body conceals--
Oh, it's great to be young with a dog at your heels!

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

Belly Shot - 18+ weeks

2011-04-07T15:03:00.001-07:00

Will asked to take a picture of baby today, and it turned out pretty decent! Not blurry or way off center.

We will find out on the 20th if this little munchkin is a boy or girl. I don't feel strongly either way, so we'll see if baby cooperates on that day! Just a few days ago I started to feel the little kicks and rolls of this baby. It's one of my favorite things about pregnancy, and I find myself smiling every time I feel something. I feel so blessed to be able to experience the miracle of pregnancy all over again. After having kids once, I have learned how to better cherish as much as possible!

We don't have any adoption updates to speak of. There is a lot of movement with files, and we are so excited for the families who are being matched and meeting their children for the first time. Our day is coming! We just don't know when : )

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

Location:Lariat Trail,Ovilla,United States

Test blog

2011-04-07T06:24:00.001-07:00

Just testing...trying to figure out how to post blogs from my phone. My goal would be to post more pics that I take from my phone on a more regular basis. No promises....but this could great! If it works.

Had a blast hanging out with the Burton bunch yesterday. The boys were able to explore their creek, clean out their pool (which Will said was his favorite part of the day), play freeze tag, climb a rock wall, and have loads of outside play! It was just what we needed. By the time we left, my boys were calling the girls 'sister'. Precious! Thanks Burtons for a fun day!

-sorry for any typos. I did this post from my phone...

2010 Recap/Christmas Letter

2010-12-24T22:03:00.001-08:00

We have been blessed in 2010 with a year full of many wonderful and memorable moments.

Will and Levi turned 3 in May, and we had a great time celebrating their birthday with a party full of their favorite things. The menu consisted of Chick-Fil-A nuggets, Bueno bean burritos, Cheeto puffs, Apples with Peanut Butter, Chocolate Milk, and cookies! We decorated with a few basketball things, because following March Madness, they were obsessed with playing basketball all.the.time. These two boys are the best of friends, and it is truly a joy to parent them. They go with us wherever we go (and we are always on the go!), and they have turned into quite the great travelers!

At the very end of May, we were able to visit Zach’s sister and her husband in Alaska. I have always dreamed about going to Alaska, so this was literally a dream come true vacation! Most of Zach’s family was able to be up there at the same time, and it was so much fun to witness the grandeur of Alaska with them. We hiked some beautiful water falls, drove down the Kenai Peninsula, went halibut fishing on a chartered boat, and got to experience about 20 hours of daylight in a day! I can’t wait to go and visit them again…I have already made a list of things I want to do on the next trip! The boys LOVED Alaska, and they still talk about the moose they saw, the big fish, and Uncle Matthew’s bear in his room : )

We spent the 4^th of July in Colorado Springs for a beautiful wedding of a family friend. The boys were ring bearers in the wedding, and they played the part perfectly. Levi loves any opportunity to dress up in ‘workin’ man clothes’ (as he calls it). After the wedding, we met my parents up in the mountains near Buena Vista, CO to camp for a few days. We love any chance to get away and spend time in God’s amazing creation. The boys had a great time playing in the (freezing) river and going on all sorts of adventures. Will had a little run-in with a chipmunk, and we have never seen Will run as fast as he did then! It is a memory that can make me laugh anytime I think about it. Poor kid!

Zach and I have always been interested in family camps, and after doing some online research, we found a great camp in Westcliffe, CO. We left Abilene at the beginning of a heat-filled August, and spent a week at Horn Creek Family Camp enjoying uninterrupted time together as a family in much cooler weather. We did some horse back riding, swimming and sliding (in a heated pool), hiking, fishing, and we met some wonderfully kind people. We can’t wait to go back to Horn Creek next summer, and we would love for any of you to join us! Seriously, let me know if you’re interested. When the boys get a little older, we will be able to enjoy more adventurous things that the camp offers- white water rafting, kayaking, alpine swings, zip lines, etc. You get the picture- tons of fun set in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been!

Any of the spare time I had during the summer was spent completing our paperwork for adopting from Rwanda. I feel so fortunate and blessed that God called us to the journey of adoption. I could probably write a short novel about our decision to adopt and everything I already feel for this child who we have never met, but I will spare you that….for now! Although we have been filled with fear, doubts, and concerns along the way, we know that God has some unique and exciting plans for our family. We are very hopeful that 2011 will bring the next little Sheets to us. We would love for you to join us in prayer in this endeavor. Obviously, we would love to have our child in our arms sooner than later, but we have to trust that God’s timing and ways are perfect.

In August, we started our second round of being huddle leaders at church. We start with all the high school freshman, and we meet with them every Wednesday night through their senior year of high school. We did this a few years ago, and those ‘kids’ are now juniors in college! Our new group has about 20ish kiddos, and we already love hanging out with them!

We are so thankful for our wonderful families. We spent Thanksgiving in Muleshoe with Zach’s entire family and a few others who were able to join us! It is such a blessing to enjoy and be encouraged by family. As always, we miss Tyler so much, especially during these times. Things will never be the same, but we are finding our way and figuring out along the way that God is so faithful. His promises never change, and He is showing us true joy. Landon & Whit welcomed baby Peyton into the world on September 12^th, and Nate & Terah announced that they are expecting a girl come February! The Sheets crew is starting to grow at an alarming rate, whether through people marrying in or children being born, and I love it!

Right now, we are at my parents’ house soaking in the Christmas traditions and holiday happenings. My oldest brother and his wife (Andy & Melissa) welcomed their third child and first girl into the world in January. She is the sweetest, most mellow little girl, and she makes me think that maybe I could handle a little girl…maybe. : ) It has been a bittersweet year for us. Both of my mother’s parents passed away in the past year. I am so thankful that I had such wonderful, loving, Christian grandparents, but they will be greatly missed. Both of my dad’s parents are suffering through some major health issues. We are about to go visit them, and I’m looking forward to hugging their necks and playing dominos, cards, and watching movies with them. It has been such a blessing to share the Christmas season with Will and Levi. They love to talk about baby Jesus, and they can re-tell the story of the birth of Jesus with such sweet innocence, and sometimes lots of humor…

Last night, we were talking about the birth of baby Jesus. Will told us all about the angels, shepherds, wise men, gifts, etc. He finished telling the story and Levi added ‘and baby Jesus libs in our hearts’….….’but you can’t weally see him’ ‘but (pointing to his nipple)I see baby Jesus right here!!’ I guess Jesus can take many different forms….

Zach and I have been blessed beyond anything we deserve. We are so thankful for our friends, family, jobs, church, and home. We look forward to 2011!

Merry Christmas!

HEB Family Retreat- Fall 2010

2010-11-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a great weekend on the Frio River. The weather was perfect, and we all had a relaxing time taking in the beauty of the Hill Country. We went with a bunch of families from our church, and we stayed in a cabin with our small group peeps. So some of these kids might look familiar by now.

From this angle, she might not look familiar...but Miss Alice Ann was rockin' some boots on the first night. Gotta love this girl : ) and her cute little buttocks.

The boys were so excited to be there that they had to spend the first 30 minutes in bed just wrestling.

Levi, Blake, and Will.
Cute little friends just looking at the fish in the river.

Zach took the boys on a canoe ride.
On Sunday morning, he tried to take them on another ride, but it ended short with a canoe-flip into the water. Everyone was fine, but all of them were soaked and cold. Wish I had my camera there for that one...
This ride was just calm and peaceful. Such a beautiful place!

Got to hang out with this little guy too! Zach's adoption officially went through last week, and we are thrilled that he will forever be a part of the Campbell family and of our lives.

Little Graham just hanging out watching his dad play guitar. I got some great snuggle time with this guy over the weekend!

Look at her eyes...ok, you can melt now.
This sweet little girl was full of sweetness all weekend! We had lots of fun getting to know the Team fam. Hopefully we didn't run them off : )

Lots of time spent just playin' outside.

I told Levi to smile at me like he was having fun.
haha...he's trying so hard to be excited...

Now I know what to get Will for Christmas...he loved the long board!

Half of the camp. Gorgeous!

I'm sure they were headed toward some adventure by the river...

Will, Emma, Levi, and Blake.
Blake's expression cracks me up! These kiddos had a blast together!

And what weekend in the woods isn't complete without a pee-tree...

We always look forward to this retreat. It's such a perfect place to get away and yet still be surrounded by wonderful people.

We also took our High School huddle kids there, but my two boys kept me pretty busy and I didn't get many pics of those kids. Pretty sure that group stayed up WAY later than I did, 'fell' into the river too many times, and played lots of pranks on one another. Sounds fun huh?!

Pumpkins, Costumes & Parades

2010-10-29T19:17:00.001-07:00

Whitney and I decided to take the kiddos to the local pumpkin patch this week. I'm pretty sure we picked the absolute worst time to go. There was a pre-school taking a field trip, and about 80-100 kiddos were running around like crazy! They were having a blast, but it was a little difficult to get my two boys to pose for a picture when kids where running in front of my camera and posing for pictures with Will & Levi. Poor Whitney had a little crowd of kids trying to figure out why Peyton was under a blanket when Whit was trying to discreetly feed her. One little boy kept trying to lift up the blanket. hahaha...gotta love the curiosity of little kids! We did manage to get a few good photos though..

Will & Levi found their good friend Tyrone while he was working at the Patch.

Cutie Pa-Toooties.

Poor Peyton was not too pleased. It was a windy day, and Levi didn't know quite what to do...

Will looking too old to be my baby.

Levi was trying to console Peyton. Poor girl just didn't want to snuggle : )

Levi riding his pumpkin

I think this picture looks hilarious. It resembles a business man/tough rancher pose.
He's a man's man.

After a little snack, Peyton was ready for some pictures. Sweet girl. About 6 weeks old.

The boys had their costume parade at school yesterday, and they were soo excited to finally wear their costumes! They decided on their own this year what they wanted to be for Halloween. It was pretty funny because they told us a few weeks ago before we even started talking about Halloween! Without further adieu....my very favorite pirate and cowboy-super man! (That's right...not just superman, but Cowboy-Superman.)

Halloween Memories:

2007: Charlie Brown & Snoopy

2008: Karate Kid & Mr. Miyagi

2009: CHiPs: Ponch & John

2010: Pirate & Superman Cowboy

Happy Halloween everyone!

Summer Throwback...Colorado- 4th of July

2010-09-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

This beautiful bride is Lauren. She is Zach's God-sister, and they have known each other forever. Let me tell you a little bit about Lauren. One blistering, hot, August afternoon, Zach and I were driving around Abilene. We saw someone jogging on the side of the road with a HUGE pack on her back. I couldn't believe that ANYONE would be out exercising in the 110ish degree heat. In the heat of the day. With a pack on her back. As we got closer, we realized that this crazy person was Lauren! She had decided that she wanted to go to the Air Force Academy, and she started seriously training for it. It was her Senior year of High School. Well, fast forward a few years....Lauren just graduated from the Academy. She joined the 'Jumping Team'. (I hope that's what it's called...) It's the people that jump from airplanes and skydive in formation. She is also known to randomly decide to climb 14'ers (mountains that are 14,000+ elevation) by herself. I think she also does some extreme snowboarding. I think she is just about as crazy as she is beautiful. Lauren found a man who can keep up with her, and they fell madly in love. : ) They got married in Colorado near the 4th of July. It was such a romantic and quaint wedding in the gardens of an old estate. Will & Levi were the little ring bearers, and they did such a good job!

Landon & Whit..and baby PJ

Gini, Ben & Cori

The following two shots crack me up! I promise---it was sparkling grape juice.

Will & Levi tore up the dance floor!

The found a couple friends who were daring enough to dance with them!

Before the wedding, we had spent a week camping with my parents outside of Buena Vista, CO. The boys had a blast playing in the river, going on adventures, and feeding the chipmunks. Don't know what I did with those pictures- but if I find them- I will try to post some!

Summer Throwback...Alaska 2010

2010-09-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

I will be attempting to catch up on some big summer events that happened with our little fam. First up: Alaska!

Zach's sister, Sarah, lives in Alaska with her Air Force hubby, Matthew. We were able to go up there for a week back at the end of May. It was a dream trip for me! I had always wanted to go to Alaska, and the trip did not disappoint! Both of the boys were champs on the flights there and back, and we all had a great time with the Sheets fam.

Our first big adventure was the drive from Anchorage to Homer. Will left his mark somewhere along the way...

The view right before entering Homer

Driving into Homer. Can you imagine if this was what you saw everyday on your drive to work? Incredible!

The view from the back porch of our guest house. I guess it was decent : )

I am a huge fan of the show 'Deadliest Catch'. Homer is the hometown of the Time Bandit captains, so I got really excited every time I saw their logo...even though they're not my favorites (GO SIG!)

On our boat on the way to do some halibut fishing. It was cold but beautiful.

Will, Levi and Zach getting a good view from the front of the boat. I was too cold to stay up there for too long...

Mom & Will snuggle time!

We all had a blast fishing, and we all caught as much halibut as was legal. Those fish are huge and put up a great fight! It really was a fun experience. The best part was that the crew of the boat cleaned all the fish for us, and once we made it back into Homer, it was packaged up and ready for take-home.

Ben, Levi and Sarah in the warm part inside the boat...

Moose! We saw our second moose on the drive back to Anchorage. (The first one we saw was a mama and her baby, but I didn't get a good picture. It all happened too fast)
I love this picture.

We stopped at a beach to do some crab digging, but the tide wasn't at the right spot for it. There were some other guys camping along the beach, and they took off in a row boat. It was such a peaceful place...you can barely see the icebergs in the background.

We saw lots of bald eagles.

Back at Sarah & Matthew's house, we decided to take a hike at Thunderbird Falls (hope that's the right name). It was a beautiful hike. Those are the falls behind us.

Eagle River, AK. This is actually Eagle River.

Sarah & Matthew live about 7 miles from the Eagle River Nature Center. It was a great place to go and just hike around and take in the beauty. It also is part of the Historic Iditarod Trail.

Just gorgeous!

Will Cotton

Levi Blake

Sarah took some great family photos of us. This is one of my favs.

Near the end of our trip, we went to the Alaska Zoo. It was such a fun and beautiful Zoo. It really felt like you were walking around on a nature hike...well, minus the tigers and bears and reindeer, etc....
Anyways, we got to see some very active and large Polar Bears. We also got to see Grizzlies, Tigers, Moose, Reindeer, Snow Leopard, all kinds of birds, and goats : )

The boys were being very cute during one part of the Zoo, and they decided they wanted to hold hands. Presh. They were also sharing a corn dog.

The day our flight left, we spent the morning out at the Anchorage Market. It was so fun to walk around and see all the vendors and handmade goodies. My shock of the day came when Will decided he wanted to ride a pony. This boy has been scared of all animals since he was teeny....but he overcame his fears and was so cute on that little pony..

Thank you Matthew & Sarah for being wonderful hosts! We had a great time, and we are already planning a return trip.

Adoption Update

2010-08-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Things have gone very smoothly for us regarding the 'paper chase' and our side of all the adoption stuff. Our social worker did our home study in mid-May, and we sent off our I-600 (request for approval to adopt) in mid-May to USCIS. We had to wait until the end of June to send our finished home study, and then they sent us a date to get federal finger printed. We were assigned to do this in Lubbock, and it worked out perfectly to drive through Lubbock on our way to Colorado for a family vacation. Even though it wasn't our appointed day and time, we were able to walk right in with no problems and get finger printed. The staff there was extremely friendly, and we were in and out of there in about 15 minutes. It was awesome! (Such a different experience from some of our friends in other cities...so a BIG shout out to the Lubbock office : >)

Once we got back from Colorado, we had already received our approval to adopt from the US Government! Woo hoo! This was the missing puzzle piece before we could proceed with anything else.

So that brings us to today. I am hoping to go to Austin this week to get everything State Authenticated, and then our dossier will be ready to send to DC- then Rwanda Embassy- then back to us- then to Rwanda!!!

Then we will wait. and pray. and wait. and pray.

I am really glad we started this process during the summer. We have been gone on so many weekend trips and vacations that we really haven't been plagued by impatience or anxious thoughts. Thank you, Lord.

I have lots of catching up to do on this blog, and after my trip to Austin, I am hoping to show you all what a great summer we have had.

Living the Suitcase Life

2010-07-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

We have become quite the pros at living out of suitcases this summer. We have been to Alaska (incredible!), Colorado (perfectly cool), Amarillo (fun wedding), Dallas (bad weather- great company!), and now we are currently camped out about 50 yards from our home....

About two weeks ago, we had a sewage flood in our house. One of those things that makes you so mad that you just laugh about it. We had no control over the flood, and we had no way of preventing it. It was just one of those accidents that happens that was completely out of our control. The city line behind our house got 'clogged' (makes me cringe just thinking about what it takes to clog one of those huge city sewage lines)...anyways, the line got blocked resulting in the neighborhood's waste coming up into our home. Gross is an understatement. Stinky doesn't come close to describing the smell. Disgusted doesn't scratch the surface of how I felt watching our bathtubs, showers, toilets, and bathroom floors fill up with sewage. Fortunately, we were home when it happened, so we were able to minimize the damage. Thankfully, Landon & Whitney live a stone's throw from our house, so we just took our already packed/never unpacked suitcases to their place. Now it's just a matter of waiting. Waiting for our home to be cleaned out and ready for us to come back home. On the bright side, about half of our home will be like new! I finally get the master bathroom updates that I have wanted since we moved in....just not quite in the way that we wanted it to happen.

It's times like these when we really count our blessings. We have a home to live in. (our home and Landon & Whitney's). We were home when it happened. We were about to leave for Dallas when the flood started. I don't have any words to describe how it would have felt to come home to your house flooded with sewage for 4 days. We have wonderful family and friends who have taken us in during this time. And really, there are just a lot worse things going on in this world.

Once our house is repaired, and I am back on our computer with vacation pictures, I would love to show you all some of God's creation that we have been able to see this summer. We have had a very eventful summer....not so much relaxing...but that's ok!

Oh, Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say...

2010-05-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

The boys had their end of the year program at Young Children's World. It was our first experience with a program for the boys, and it was tooo stinkin' cute! I wanted to take pics of every group of kiddos, but I decided that may be a little overboard.

I was afraid that if the boys spotted us, they wouldn't stay up on stage. I was totally wrong! They spotted me taking pics on the front row, and they both just waved and smiled at me and stayed put. They sang three songs, but I can't remember all of them. I was too busy snapping away on my camera. I do remember that they sang 'Oh Be Careful Little Ears What You Say" (or at least that is how Will sings it) hee hee.

I don't think their class could be filled with any cuter kiddos.

Will on back left and Levi on front center.
Levi does this cheesy grin when he sees cameras.

Will had the sweetest little wave when he spotted me. For some reason, it totally made my night when both he and Levi were so excited to see me and Zach out in the crowd. They were so proud of their performance, and we were so proud of them for not being scared or nervous at all!

Exiting the stage after the songs.

Family shot- Not the best pic, but it'll work!

Best Buds. Enjoying the post-show refreshments with Ava & Pierson.

Here they were on Sept. 9th
Their first day of school in 2009.

Their last day of school on May 20, 2010.
(We were really late so I took only one pic, and this is it!)

Will & Levi were so blessed to have great teachers throughout the year, and they were surrounded by some wonderful kids too! Now it's summer time! Woo hoo!

There is always room for love.

2010-05-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

Very rarely in life are you affirmed by God's Spirit that you are doing the exact right thing at the exact right moment. Many times, I can look back on my life and see how God was working on me to accomplish something or 'see' something He was trying to show me. You know how the saying goes- hind sight is 20/20.

God has placed on our hearts the desire to adopt and a love for orphans who are needing to be a part of family- not just our family, but to know the love of God's Kingdom here on earth. We have struggled with our own weaknesses of fear, unknowns, and excuse after excuse, but we came to the realization that God is bigger than all of that.

So, here we are...nothing looks different from the outside- our daily routine (whatever routine we can manage!) hasn't changed, we don't look any different, and we are still involved with the same things as before. At the same time, everything has changed. A piece of my heart (quite a large chunk) is halfway across the world in a country that has been battered with civil war, disease, starvation, and poverty. My prayers and thoughts are charged with pleas to God for a child I have never seen and may not be born yet. I have given up on any sort of control in this situation and have been forced to rely FULLY on God. It is a somewhat scary place to be, but I believe that God does His best work when I do less work. We feel very vulnerable to have our hopes and desires so deeply rooted in something that has no guarantees- but I guess that's how all of life is, right? Just another lesson to trust that God knows what He is doing.

We ask for your prayers during this time. Prayers for our fears and anxieties to be relieved, for us to find joy during the waiting, for the well-being of the child who will become a part of our family, and for the future of our growing family. We hope and pray that we can continue to live in the will of God and trust in Him no matter what.

Now for less of me and more of Him:
Ephesians 1:4-6

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

It's pretty simple. God created us not knowing what we would choose to do, who to be, or who to follow. Regardless of that, He chose to adopt us, through Jesus, into His family so that we would be rewarded with grace, love, and eternal life. This has been our greatest example and reasoning for adopting. As undeserving as I am, I have been given the greatest gift of all through adoption. We feel called to live out that 'no strings attached' love through adoption within our family.

So, hopefully by the summer/fall of next year, we will be adding a little Rwandan child to our family. And that makes me smile.

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T14:55:00.001-07:00

After traveling for the past few weekends and knowing that we'll be traveling next weekend, we decided to stay in Abilene for Easter. It was a great, relaxing weekend, and we spent most of the time just doing little projects around the house and hanging out as family.

I love seeing my boys dressed in suits, ties, jackets, slacks, dress shoes, etc. So..Easter is always very fun for me! It gives me a great excuse to buy some new clothes for the boys.

On Saturday night, Landon & Whit came over the watch the games (GO DUKE!) and dye Easter eggs.

Levi & Zach being cheeesy ; )

Will doing sponge-dyeing on the eggs.

This picture was super dark, so I had to over-edit it. BUT...I just love the way Levi is waiting on his egg to dye. Precious.

Our finished eggs!

As mentioned above, I can't resist a suit or sweater vest on my boys. So I got one of each!
Here is how our photo shoot progressed...
hmm...it's a bird...it's a plane...it's an Easter bunny....

Will's cheesy grin and Levi's 'almost there' smile

totally confused as to why I am still snappin' away on the camera...

FINALLY! The best one!
Every part about this picture is irresistible to me!
Will's big smile and arm around Levi.
Levi's perfectly combed hair, suit, and amusing look on his face.
love them.

After church, we went to Landon & Whit's for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. Since it was just the boys, they didn't quite run around the yard in excitement, but it was fun nonetheless!

Levi wouldn't pick up the boiled eggs...so Will's basket was full of them!

Discussing the plan of attack...

Levi searching...

I have a feeling that Levi will have a senior picture or sports picture that will look very similar to this one day...

Levi (left) & Will after the hunt was over. This was the best shot I could get. All they wanted to do was eat their 'tandy!'

We are so blessed. Thank you Jesus for giving us life here on Earth and life Eternal. We long to live it out in a way that brings glory to your name.

Spring in Dallas

2010-04-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Zach had some business stuff scheduled in Dallas, so we all went along with him and spent some time with my family! Most of the pics are on my brother's camera, but I did get a few that I wanted to show off..

Growing up, I went crawdad fishing in the creek behind our house. My mom got very brave one afternoon and took the boys down to the creek to do some fishing of their own! Both of the boys were soo excited about what they found under one little rock...

They released him back to his natural environment, but since we got back home, the boys have been searching under all of our rocks here for a 'crydaddy'. No such luck yet...

It was great to spend some time with Uncle Adam before he went back to Colorado. Hopefully, we will be visiting him soon!

Spring in Muleshoe

2010-04-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

I am playing catch-up today, and hopefully I will get all 3 posts done that need to be done!

We were able to go up to Muleshoe a few weekends ago. All of Zach's siblings were able to be there (except Chris (Heather's husband) who we missed!) You can imagine how hard it might be to get 19 people together for one weekend....

It is so fun to see W & L playing with their little cousin, Colton. They love him so much! They talk about him every day at home, and I know that these three are going to have so much fun in the future!
Matching Jammies! Unintentional...and very cute!

Such grown up little men!
Levi on left, Will on right.

Will, Levi & Colton getting ready for an Easter Egg Hunt!

Little Easter Outlaw. (Levi)

The boys' hair was getting a little out of control, so we decided to take them to a barber shop in Muleshoe. This place has been around for years and years, and it was so stinkin' cute to watch the boys get very serious for their haircuts...

Will before...

during...

Levi getting started...

almost done...

hee hee. lookin' sharp!
I absolutely loved how the barbers combed over the boys' hair.
They look straight out of the 50's. : )

Family Shot! Thanks Sarah for these pics. Some of my favorites ever!

2010-03-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

So just the other day Kara (by the way this is Zach) was washing dishes when she heard Will and Levi arguing back in their bedroom. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying. She could only tell that they were yelling. Occasionally all she could hear was a loud "NO!!!" She was hoping that they would be able to resolve the issue without here "assistance", but after a little bit she realized they needed her help. As she got closer to the closed door of their room, she finally heard what they had been angrily and adamantly yelling about for ten minutes:

Levi: "NO!!!!!!!!! MY MOM IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!"

Will: "NO!!!!!!!!!!!! MY MOM IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!"

Levi: NOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY MOM IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Kara: "Today is going to be a good day."

Something tells me they didn't get in trouble. I guess this is just another classic case where two people are arguing, and they're both right. I love you Kara. You are loving, compassionate, giving, and joyful. You are a wonderful mother and a supporting wife. I think everyone reading this knows that I'd be lost without you.

with all the love and cheesiness I can muster,
Zach

Baby Yak Camel

2010-03-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

Some of our good friends, Kevin & Sarah, have been journeying down the road of adoption for a long time. Their dreams and desires became a reality last week when their son, Zachary Stone, was born! I don't think there are words to describe our joy for them. We have been praying for so long that God would answer their plea for a child, and it has been amazing to see the way that God chose to answer that prayer! There is absolutely no doubt that God has some big plans for this little guy. We can't wait to watch him grow and see his story unfold.

Meet Zach:

Here they are right after coming home. Some of us decorated their driveway and porch just so they could know how loved this little guy will be!

Will (holding) & Levi (patting) LOVE Yak Camel (as Levi calls him).
They ask about him every single day, and they got so concerned when he cried during diaper changes. They are counting down the days when they can so outside and play ball together!

love.him.

Seriously, W & L can't get enough of him! They want to be near him all the time!

Doesn't get much cuter than this!

Look at the joy on their faces!

It has been an honor to watch Kevin & Sarah become parents. They have so much love and joy to give, and Zach is one lucky dude! This won't be the last time you see him on here...

Funny Boys

2010-02-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a few funny things that the boys have said recently:

A few weeks ago, me and the boys were sitting in the living room while Zach was working on a home project in the same room. Zach had already given them a package of M&M's, but when they were finished, Levi came up to me and said, "I need more M&M's."
Me: "No, you've had enough chocolate. No more M&M's.
Levi: "Pleeeeeeeze, more chocolate"
Me: "No, you don't need anymore chocolate."
Zach: "I agree with mom, Levi. No more chocolate."
Will: "shocker"

I fell off the couch I was laughing so hard. Not only did he pick up on one of us saying 'shocker' at some point or another, but he totally knew when to use it.

I was reading the Bible with the boys earlier today. They chose the story about the Tower of Babel for me to read to them. After I was done reading, Will pointed to the picture and said, "Is that the tower of Babeline?" (I guess he always has his hometown on his mind)

The other night before bed I was asking the boys to name some things that God made. They named a cow, an elephant, the moon, baseball, and then Levi got excited and yelled out, "AND GOD MADE MY NIPPLES!"
Yes, Levi...God made those too!

My brother, Adam, was in town a few weeks ago. The boys asked him what the bump on his neck was, and he told them that it was called an Adam's Apple. Since then, they will occasionally point to their necks and tell me that they have a 'Will's apple' or a 'Levi's apple.' I can see how it would be very confusing to have your Uncle Adam tell you about the Adam's Apple!

Snow Day!!!

2010-02-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to a beautiful, snow covered lawn, and it hasn't let up all day! This is a treat for our neck of the woods, and we are loving EVERY minute of it!

Zach & boys (Will in white hat) starting to build a snowman.

Levi about to throw a snowball at me! Crazy kid.

Will caught on pretty quickly that it was just soo funny to throw snow at me.

The finishing touches to our cowboy-snowman

Proud builders of their first snowman!

Dad & Boys

Will being cute.

Snowball fight! Except I was the one with no gloves on and taking pictures...so it was more like 'everyone attack mom'.

We had fun!

Killed 10 birds with one stone...

2010-02-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

**started this post last week....

We just back from a whirlwind weekend trip to the DFW area. It was one of those times where everything was happening on the same weekend, and all of the things were important events that we didn't want to miss! My camera's battery died (of course) halfway through the weekend, so lots of these pics are from Sarah's (Zach's sister) camera.

Sarah flew in from Alaska on Thursday night. We were sad that her hubby, Matt, wasn't able to make it, but it sure was great to spend some time with her! We spent the day Friday hanging out at the hotel, swimming (indoor heated pool..), shopping at the mall next door, and watching Ben & Shelley's basketball games.

Like father, Like son...

When Zach and I first started dating, one of our favorite things to do was watch Landon & Tyler play high school basketball and football. On one of my first weekend trips to Muleshoe, we got to see Ben's team play baseball (he was about 8), and it was about the cutest thing EVER. We were able to see a lot of Gini's basketball games a few years ago (her team got 2nd in state!), and now it's so fun to watch Shelley and Ben play basketball!

Friday night, we drove to Dallas for a going away party for my brother, Adam. He is moving to the Denver area to fulfill a life dream of living in Colorado! I am so excited that he will finally be able to tell people that he lives in Colorado. Soo...Any good churches in the north/west Denver area?

On Saturday morning I FINALLY got to meet my new niece, Arden, at her baby shower. She is just precious, and I loved every minute that I got to hold her.

Saturday afternoon was filled with more basketball games! Both Ben & Shelley's teams won...which is always an added perk!

We ventured to the Garland area on Saturday night to visit my grandpa. It was great to see him again and visit with my aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, brothers, and their families! Wow, it is such a blessing to come from (and be married into) families who truly enjoy spending time together.

I forgot to mention that everyone else in the Sheets family was able to fly/drive to DFW for the weekend! Will & Levi had a dream weekend with their cousin, Baby 'Toltin' (Colton), and we all had a great time just hanging out together! Getting a family of 20 people together (that's just parents and kids and grandkids) is a hard thing to do, so I'm glad we were able to do that! (Minus Matt who we missed big time...)

I am a little obsessed with this guy. Miss you already Colton!

Cousin' Lovin'. Will, Colton & Levi.

This guy (Levi) can get out of any trouble with this smile!

Going on a walk with Papa.

As I was doing the family count, I realized that the number is about to change! Landon & Whitney are going to have a baby!!! We couldn't be more excited, and come September, we are going to be very happy to welcome a new little one into the family! (I think it's a girl : )

In typical 'first trimester fashion', here is Whitney snoozing at one of the basketball games. That girl can sleep anywhere these days...growing a baby is hard work!

Giveaway!

2010-01-18T07:55:00.001-08:00

My lovely friend, Cassie, is hosting a giveaway on her blog! You won't want to miss out on this opportunity to win a $50 gift card to 'The Vintage Pearl'. So, go to her blog, and get your name in the hat! Contest ends at 9pm central on Wednesday, Jan. 20th.

Touch a Life

2010-01-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that child slavery and trafficking is happening across our world right now. I know that I get caught up in my daily life, and many times I don't think at all about what is going on outside of my little bubble. The month of January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month (who knew?!?... now you do!)

In an effort to help prevent this evil from happening all around you, please take time to look at the Touch A Life Ministry website.

There are many options for you to get involved at any level. I just saw on their website that there is a 100% Donation Matching going on right now, so act fast and get your donation doubled!

If anything, get the word out to those around you! Ignorance is just a lack of awareness. Remind yourself of the amazing blessings in your life, and ask yourself how you are using your abundance (of love, knowledge, money, faith, kindness) to change the lives of people who have little.

While I'm at it, I'm going to make a plug for another organization.
Eternal Threads is based out of Abilene, and their mission is to help provide an income to women and young ladies who are rescued from sex trafficking and other horrible circumstances. Their website is filled with products that are handmade by women in Madagascar, Nepal, India, Thailand, and Afghanistan. Their products make wonderful gifts for women in your life. I purchased an Eternal Threads gift for every woman in my family for Christmas. There's so much variety and really cute stuff. (AND...they have SUPER cute animal hats for kiddos and some beautiful infant stuff too!) Check 'em out!

Arden Marie

2010-01-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

My brother and his wife welcomed a healthy baby girl into the world yesterday. Arden Marie Brown has finally graced us with her presence! They already have two boys, and combined with our two boys, we were ready to have a girl join the family! Now I finally have a little girl to buy stuff for when I see all the ADORABLE outfits, blankets, and toys that are in abundance at all stores.

Arden,
I can't wait to hold you and kiss your sweet cheeks! (And you have some cousins who have been asking all morning about 'baby darden'...)

Christmas 2009

2010-01-06T07:38:00.001-08:00

We had a great Christmas with my family in the Dallas area. As usual, I will let the pictures tell the stories...

Actually, I take that back, I'll start with a quick story to set the scene:
On our way to Dallas, we stopped in Fort Worth to have dinner with Zach's aunt & uncle. We were having a great time at Mi Cocina until Will unexpectedly threw up. For the first time, I got the be the mom with the kid who ralfs in the restaurant. We quickly cleaned it up (A restaurant worker tried to help me, but I just can't allow someone else to clean up my kids' throw up. It's just not right...)
Little did we know, that was the beginning of our 'Christmas 2009 Stomach Bug'. Sounds fun, right?!

We hung out at my parents house for the first couple days before Christmas and had a great time. The boys love going to their house because there is so much to do outside.

Riding bikes with Papaw is always a hit!
Levi and Papaw. I love the look of Levi's face in this one. He's thinking that he is preettty coool.

Will getting his turn on the big boy bike!

My parents neighbor is a sweet lady who raises horses. The boys LOVED going to her barn. They got to feed her horses and pet them. They could have spent all day at her place!

Miss Anne and Toughie.

Levi is a brave little guy. He's not afraid of any animal...
I just like Levi's grin in this one.

Both of them got to feed her other horse. (can't remember this horses name)

Levi caught on pretty quickly that ranch life is not easy...everyone has to pitch in to keep things goin...

Both of the boys with Miss Anne.

Zach and I have made it a tradition to see the Dallas Choir and Symphony Christmas show every year. It has quickly become one of our favorite things to do around Christmas. This year, we invited our friends, Luke & Shannon, to go with us! We had a great date night, and we are already looking forward to going again next year...only 350ish more days! : )

The show is at the Myerson Symphony Hall in Dallas, and the lobby is always beautifully decorated. Not the best pic, but here we are!

Not sure when this pic was taken, but the boys spent much of the break just like this:

We always spend Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family. Here's Will on the drive there. It was a super cold and windy day, and I think this hat is about the cutest thing on Will...ever.

Levi's hat is pretty darn cute too! It's from Eternal Threads. Check them out!

Here are all of the cousins on my mom's side. Pretty cute bunch of kids! (Levi looks sad because he was starting to get the stomach bug...we didn't know it yet though..)

Here are my sweet grandparents. My grandma passed away just 6 days later. It was such a blessing to be able to spend Christmas Eve with everyone together. She was such a wonderful, Christian woman, and she truly lived out Proverbs 31. She will be greatly missed.

Great excitement came from all the children when it started snowing!! I love Zane's face in this one (red sweater). It was a magical Christmas!

Thanks to Mamanita, the boys had the CUTEST Christmas jammies. Both of them were not feeling so hot, so a good picture just wasn't in the works this year...

but presents can cheer any child up!

Can anyone else see how much Will looks like my mom in this pic??

My family has a Christmas tradition of everyone getting their very own Christmas Cereal. I was starting to get 'the bug' so I stayed away from the food, but here is everyone else enjoying their Christmas Cereal!

My very favorite Christmas present came from Zach. He (with the help of my mom) put together a picture frame collage of pics with me and my grandparents. It has been a rough year for my family because all of my grandparents' health has been declining. My Papaw came very close to leaving this earth in May, but he has been recovering well. My Memaw has been slowly losing her memory and ability to care for herself. My Grandpa has been getting weaker and weaker, and five days after this photo was taken, my Grandma died from a sudden heart attack. So, needless to say, it has been a year of 'letting go and letting God'. The collage now hangs in our hallway and I look at it every day. Thank you Zach.

I got my brother 'The Pioneer Woman Cookbook' for Christmas. (Don't worry, I ordered one for myself too!) He cooks meals for people frequently, so I thought a new cookbook could help!

We had a wonderful Christmas in many ways, but we also had a time of remembering those who are now in Heaven.

Zach's brother, Tyler, died on Dec. 21, 2006, and we always miss his presence a lot around the holidays. The boys talk about 'Unc Tyler' every day, and we still remember him every day.

Thank you God for choosing to show your absolute power and unconditional love through the birth of a perfect baby.

Old Memories and A New Year...

2010-01-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

My family and I are beginning the new year on a hard note. My sweet Grandma passed away a couple days ago. She was such a strong woman of faith who led by example, and we are all going to miss her greatly. She has been a caretaker to my Grandpa (her husband) for quite sometime now, and I covet your prayers for him.

This picture was taken last week on Christmas Eve.

Nashville '09

2009-12-09T09:46:00.001-08:00

I'm a little behind on this post, but better late than never, right?!

I spent the first weekend in November in Nashville with my college besties. We had a blast just doing whatever we do-

* We (well, most of us) enjoyed a hike through the woods. Oh to have trees like this in west Texas...

Group pic of all of us!

Cute one of Mo, Ken, & Ros

* We got to eat some of Moriah's yummy home cookin'
* See downtown Nashville and Centennial Park
* Bust our moves while we danced for 3 hours. No lie. A 3 hour dance party. Only one picture to show for that:

plenty more dance pictures were taken, but for the sake of everyone involved, i won't post those. you're welcome, kenli.

* Famous People Sightings: Carrie Underwood (awesome!) and Mike the Plumber from Desperate Housewives. (Thanks Kenli, I would have not recognized him at all)
* Tour the Farmer's house which is over 100 years old. Very cool!
* Eat some YUMMY food at Southern Bred. Anyone is Nashville must go there. so.good.
* Stay up late and sleep in. divine!

Thanks Mo & Mav (and Blake) for being great hosts! We had such a fun time, and I would love to visit Nashville at the beginning of every November. It's beautiful!

Apparently while I was gone, Levi had a dance party of his own! : )

You can find more pics on Moriah & Laura W's blogs. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for a couple of weeks for the perfect pumpkin patch weather. I thought it would never come...we had some of the windiest days (shocker), followed by cold and windy weather, followed by super windy days. But alas, yesterday ended up being a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a great time out a the patch...

I love this one of Will : )

You never know what you're going to get when guy walks up and offers to take a family photo...
I was VERY happy when I came home, uploaded the pics onto the computer, and found this beauty! Thanks Mr. Anderson!

Paying for the pumpkins the picked out...

I LOVE that they will put their arms around each other and smile for pictures these days. It's priceless!

...and they were bummed to leave the patch...

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE:

October 2007
Will on left, Levi on right
5 months old

October 2008
Will on left, Levi on right
1 1/2 years old

October 2009
Levi on left, Will on right
2 1/2 years old
(I'm not sure why Levi looks so much taller than Will. They are pretty much the same height.)

Have fun Holloweening tonight! We are going to enjoy some trick or treating along our street, and then I will run home to greet all the trick or treaters at our house. I LOVE little kids in costumes. This is one of my FAVORITE holidays!

CHiPs is back.

2009-10-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween week from Ponch & John!

more pictures coming soon...

Discipline Has Begun!

2009-10-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, we started disciplining the boys a loong time ago, but for the first time today, I got a spanking from one of the boys...

Will: "Mom, catch dis ballll"
Me: "OK, throw it to me, I'm ready"

Will threw the ball, but I missed it and it fell to the floor nearby. I reached to grab it, but Will ran over saying... " nooo!! I get it!"
But it was too late. I had already picked up the ball.

Will: "No No NO NO NO! IIII get the ballll. Do you understand???"
followed by him giving me three spankings on my leg.

Then he kept on asking me, "Do you understand?" until I said (between giggles) "Yes, sir".

My little outlaw demands respect in this house!

Kiva!

2009-10-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

My lovely friend, Summer, posted a blog about a website that she had found called Kiva. I just spent about 2 hours browsing this website. Yes, I have no life.

Anyways, it's really cool website where you can go and send a $25 loan to an entrepreneur who is trying to start a business. Many of the entrepreneurs are from third world countries where it only takes a few hundred dollars to get a business up and running. Many of these people are trying to open up food markets, transportation companies, raise agriculture, or small markets where people can buy clothes, material, house supplies. You can loan a minimum of $25 to whichever person/group you choose. Then you get email updates about the company's progress and notified when your loan is repaid. Pretty amazing, huh?!

After looking through too many profiles, I finally settled on loaning to two different men.
1) Aamache is from Lebanon, and he owns a car mechanic shop. He is asking for $1200 to buy some tools and enlarge his shop. He and his wife are raising 6 kids.
2) Aquilino is a 69 year old man from Peru who has an Agriculture business. I don't know much about him because his profile was in Spanish...but he is the cutest little Peruvian man, and I had to do anything in my power to help him out. Check him out here!

I really do feel like this is a ministry. The goal of Kiva is to begin eliminating poverty by using the internet as a tool for microloaning around the world!

Go check it out! www.kiva.org

From the mouths of babes..

2009-10-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

A few quick stories:

* At about 3am last night, Zach and I awoke to Will running down the hall crying out 'No hurt Innneeyyy, nooo hurt Inneeyyy'. Zach went after him and brought him into bed with us. It took us a few questions until Will agreed with us that he was saying 'Don't hurt Indie'. Indie is Zach's sisters dog. Will doesn't really like dogs (or any animal for that reason), but I guess he doesn't want them to get hurt either!

* This morning, Will was eating his breakfast and watching 'Dorge da Money' (curious george) while I was paying bills at the computer. He started crying like he was really hurt. I ran into the room to ask him what was wrong (thinking that Levi had snatched some of his breakfast...or something along those lines), and he pointed to the TV and said, 'Dorge's DOLF BALLLLS' (George's golf balls). Will was still crying like he was personally hurt, but I soon realized that Curious George's golf balls were being stolen by a squirrel who thought they were nuts. Will was really feeling George's pain. It took a few minutes for Will to calm down...

* Recently, Will has randomly been telling me, 'Mom, ur bewtful'. makes.my.heart.melt.

* This morning, I was getting Levi ready for the day. I was putting on his pants and shirt, and he told me he wanted to go to 'Itney Unc-Ted's hoowwwwws' (Whitney & Uncle Ted's House). I told him that we might go there later today, but we had some other errands to run. Then he looked up at me and said, 'I wanna go Dod's hooowwws'. I didn't understand him until he pointed up and said, 'I wanna go Dodddd's hoowws'. Then I realized he was saying he wanted to go to God's house. He got so excited when I repeated back to him correctly what he was saying. Holding back my tears, I told him that God has a special house that he will get to go to one day. He got very excited and started running around saying 'God's Hooowwss!!!' It really reminded me of the joy we should have when thinking about God calling us home to his house.

I might have mentioned this before, but there are so many times where I feel like the Grinch when his heart begins to grow. As Will & Levi are growing up, communicating sweet words, and wanting to snuggle all the time, I truly feel my heart growing. They are such a beautiful part of my life, and I am so thankful to God for having this time with them.

5 Year Anniversary Trip

2009-09-26T09:38:00.001-07:00

Our anniversary was back in June, but we decided to wait and take a big trip after all the summer traveling calmed down. A BIG thank you to family members who helped all of this come together. Some helped out by gifting us with a time-share they have, and others helped to watch the boys while we were gone. We realized once we were in Florida that this was the longest trip Zach and I have ever taken with just the two of us! We stayed 5 nights at an AWESOME hotel right on the beach in Hollywood, FL. Most of the time I spent laying out by the pools/on the beach while reading books. It was soooo nice to sleep in, roll out of bed, put a swimsuit on, and sit in a lounge chair all-day-long.

This is a picture of our resort. Our room was waaayyy up there on the 24th floor. BEAUTIFUL views of the ocean and of North Miami.

This was my favorite spot at the resort. It was near the pools, but high enough to get a great view of the ocean and feel the ocean breeze. One day I literally spent 8 hours in this same chair. It was dreamy.

We did have one 'fun day' where we drove inland and went on an Everglades Air-Boat tour. So much fun! My favorite part was just driving fast through the everglades, but it was also cool to have a pretty close encounter with a mama gator protecting her nest!

This guy was crazy. He would do all kinds of tricks (stupid ones) with the gators. He was missing part of one finger, and had a fresh gash on his arm along with scars all over his legs. Eek!

We had a GREAT vacation! We definitely miss the ocean breeze and beautiful views, but we are back home where we belong (with west Texas winds and Big Country views!). We missed the boys WAY more than they missed us. Thanks to all of our families for their help!

First Day of School

2009-09-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

I attempted to get a good 'Front Porch First Day of School' picture...but I think I need to lower my standards of what a good picture is! Will & Levi are always on the go these days...

The boys are very blessed to have two great teachers this year! One of whom is a very good friend of ours, Leslie! She is going to have a fun year...
And, it's always nice to be close to the boys during their school days. I work right down the hall from their classroom, and I know that it doesn't get much better than that!

Attempt #1: Levi cheesin' it up, but Will was a little distracted...

Attempt #2: Levi getting up to 'wace mama!' and Will looking very confused...

Attempt #3: pretty darn good!

I told the boys to remember to be kind to their friends, and this is how they responded...
i leervve em!

Random: Today I caught Levi feeding his lunch to his baby. Sweet boy.

There Must Be Something In The Air....

2009-08-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

...let me explain...

Zach and I got married first out of all of his siblings.

Next came Terah who married Nate. Nate is an F16 pilot in the Air Force.

Then came Landon who married Whitney. Whitney's dad is retired Air Force, so she grew up in the Air Force.

A few months later, Sarah married Matthew. Matthew is in Avionics in the.....(drumroll) Air Force!

A few nights ago, Zach's sister Heather got ENGAGED!!! Her fiance, Chris, is a pilot in the Air Force.

Are you seeing a trend here???? So basically, I am the black sheep of the in-laws. Maybe I will purchase a few Air Force hoodies, and they'll forgive me!

A HUGE CONGRATS to Heather & Chris! They have such a fun (and quick) dating/love story. I think they have known each other for about 2 months, but their love for one another is very evident! I wouldn't expect anything less adventurous for Heather! We are sooo excited to watch them start their lives out together. (Lucky for us, they have decided to get married in Guatemala!! Beautiful vacation?....yes please!)

Boot Scootin' Boogie!

2009-08-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

Oplin, Texas has a population of about 75 people, but in these parts Oplin is a fun place to be on a Friday night! For those who don't know about Oplin...let me explain...
It is the home of the Grand Ole Oplin, which is an old, abandoned school gym that has been turned into a dance hall. On most Friday nights, you can find the dance hall full of older generations of gents and ladies who love to two step, waltz, and dosey doe! We decided to join the Walters and some other families from church for a 'back to school' dance at Oplin. This meant lots of boots, country music and dancing- it doesn't get much better!

Levi on left & Will.
Excited about dancing the night away!

Trying to get a good photo with my boys. This one was good of Will...
I'm lovin' his cheesy grin! tooo much...

Better one of Levi.

Handsome Fellas! I'm one lucky girl!
The boys were trying to get their thumbs in their pockets like their dad.

oh me, oh my. i love this kid.

All four of the kids outside The Grand Ole Oplin.
Levi, Ava, Will & Pierson.
(They'll be releasing their first CD this fall...)
I could eat Pierson up with a spoon. He is beyond cute.

Levi and Pierson teaching each other how to two-step : )

All four of the kiddos dancing.

You left evidence....

2009-08-20T18:39:00.001-07:00

We had a secret chocolate drawer in our kitchen. *emphasis on 'had'.

I found the boys one day with remnants of a little sweet snack all over their faces...

Colorado Camping

2009-08-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned on an earlier post, Zach took the boys camping in Colorado. He went with a lot of his other family members, and it looks like they all had a great time!
While they were gone I was able to enjoy Target trips, girly movies, a pedicure, sleeping in, laying out every day, and lots of quiet time in the house. It was awweessome!

Here are some pics that Zach's sisters took from the trip.

Best Friends- setting up camp. (Will on left, Levi right)

If you can't tell, they want to be just like their dad.
I think it would have only been fair if Zach would have worn only his p.j. pants and mittens.

hanging out with dad around the camp fire. (Levi in blue, Will stripes)

Levi decided to take his nap on the picnic blanket. Zach said that they caught Will sitting next to Levi and kissing him. Sweet sweetness!

This deserves a post all in itself...but Will has recently become obsessed with golf. He plays golf all day long, he will watch golf all day *if we let him*, he sleeps with his 'bolf pubs' (as he calls them), and yesterday he came up to me and said, 'Mama, I Tider Ooods'.
So, it was only fitting that he brought his clubs to the mountains!

Silly Will.

Levi practicing his balancing act...

The guys hanging out in the hammock

Terah was able to take Colton camping, and Will & Levi had a great time with their cousin! They ask about 'Baby Toltin' all the time. (Pretty soon Baby Toltin will be bigger than W&L! He's a tank!)

I am so glad that Zach (and his fam) were brave enough to take the boys camping. I know that they had a great time, and I know that I was able to get some much needed 'down time' at home! We can't wait for more camping trips in the fall (closer to home!).

It has begun...

2009-08-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

I was at Wal-Mart the other day and saw a cute little baseball toilet seat for potty training purposes. I really had no intention of starting the whole potty stuff yet, but once I got it home, we gave it a try. So far, Will has gone #1 in the 'basiboll seeet' (as Will calls it) twice! Levi is a little more gun shy...but he'll get there!

Twiddling my thumbs...

2009-08-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Zach and the boys just drove out of the driveway on their way to Colorado. I...am here, at home, not sure what to do with myself!

He is taking the boys on a camping trip this week.

I am already missing all three of my boys, but I know that they will have a GREAT time. I'm not quite sure what my week is going to look like, but I know it will involve:
* girl time- maybe a pedicure, girly movie, girls night out
* laying out- the neighbors might see more of me this week than they want to.
* cleaning/organizing house- this is virtually impossible to do with two little guys who want to 'elp oou mommmy'
* sleeping in- yyyyeeessss!!!!!!
* going to Target, Lowe's, United, etc. for as long as I want whenever I want! How GLORIOUS!
* and HOPEFULLY updating this blog with pictures. I will try my best!

For now, I am going to clean this house....this very eerily quiet house.

I took this right before they left...

Leslie's Day

2009-07-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

I want to wish a Happy Birthday to a friend of mine, Leslie!

Leslie-
You are a wonderful mommy to your 3 beautiful girls, and your energy and love for them is very evident! I love the sense of humor that you and James share as a couple. I also get to see the many ways to you minister to your huddle group, and I know that every one of those kids is blessed to have you as their mentor!
I hope that you have a great day surrounded by those who love you, and I hope that you are reminded today about how special of a person that you are to so many people!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Summer Time is Here!

2009-06-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

**I started this blog a couple of weeks ago....my camera cord is with some family in Africa, and I haven't been able to upload pics for my blog. That's one of the many reasons I have been so behind on blogging. Not sure if I will be able to post more pictures for another week or so while they are gone... enough excuses...here is what I do know!

It is officially summer time around these parts. We've hit the 100 degree mark more than a few times. Our investment of two kiddie pools has proven worth it so far....Also our relationships with those who have 'adult' pools has proven very beneficial! We've indulged ourselves with Cajun Cones, ice cream, watermelon, and lemonade, & we have already enjoyed a summer storm lightning show, late evening walks, cookouts, and of course visits from family!

My parents *Papaw & Grommie* got the boys bikes for their birthday. I got some good shots of Levi the other night enjoying his favorite new toy!

I love his face in this one. It's an expression that I've never been able to catch on camera.

Kissing his wheels!

Always on the hunt to make things a little more dangerous...

He wanted to take pictures of himself. Most of them turned out extremely blurry, but I like this one!

Oh man, Will Cotton. There are not enough words to describe your sweet and sensitive personality!

We went to the local fire station to look at all the 'beeeg tucks'. Levi loved it, but Will was a little cautious...imagine that.

We recently moved the boys out of our room at night and into their own room! I have been in the process of re-decorating their room, but I am waiting for a few more pieces before I take pics of it. The transition went a lot easier than I thought it would go! The boys want to sleep together, so they share a twin bed. They sleep on separate ends of the bed, but some mornings they wake up snuggled next to one another. Garsh...I love 'em.

Here is Will snuggling with bear & baby before night time. I could bottle up his sweet grin and keep it forever.

These two turning two

2009-05-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

I am still in denial that today Will & Levi turn 2. Some days I think of them as little babies, but then other days I see them as little boys. I am so proud of them already! It sounds funny to be proud of a two year old, but it's amazing how much character and personality they already have.

William Cotton Sheets- born 10:33am, 6 lbs.

Will is my sweet, sensitive, sneaky, and mischievous little guy. He likes to play with trucks and cars, and any of his toys can be transformed into cars (in his little mind). His first love, though, is basketball. I can not tell you how many times I hear him say 'back-it-baawwll' during the day. It's the first thing on his mind in the morning, and he always wants to shoot a few before eating breakfast. He has a cannon for an arm, and he can throw a ball clear across the room. He would MUCH rather watch ESPN than any other kids shows or movies. Everything that is a circle is a basketball in his world. He will even see a period '.' in a book and point to it and call it a back-it-baaawwlll. Will is also the most clumsy child I know. I thought about counting how many times he falls during one day, but I lost track... He just can't quite stay on his feet. Anyone can become a best friend to Will if they read him a book (and play Bball with him, of course!) He doesn't talk quite as much as Levi, but he is getting there. His vocabulary consists mostly of: eehhpane! (airplane), deeeees (cheese), back-it-baawwwll, baaaabbyyyy (he loooooves babies), bubbles (he says this one loud and clear!), and a LOT of mumbling (he gets that from his dad....and uncles....and papadoc...and great-grandaddy....). We don't understand him when he mumbles, so he will grab our chin, turn our face towards his, bring us in really close, and repeat his quiet mumbling. It's one of our favorite things that he does these days. There's just something about his small, soft hands trying to get our full attention that makes us laugh every time!

Levi Blake Sheets- born 10:34am, 5 lbs. 7 oz.

Levi is allll boy. His normal pace is running. He runs everywhere he goes. He is my little ham who likes to wave 'ah-low' at everyone we see- in the grocery store, at a stop light, at church...etc. He has a new phrase that he likes to say when someone asks him how old he is. He first says, "I not baaaaby..." while nodding his head...then he'll hold up two fingers and say, "I twooo". Most of his sentences start with "I want..." and end with "eeat, juuice, daaad, papa/papaw, wa-wa (water), otsiiiide, it-neee (Whitney), aayyya (Ava)". Levi is our morning guy. He wakes up at 7:30 sharp regardless of what time he goes to sleep. He loves to watch the airplanes fly over our house, and he loooves to play basketball, baseball, golf, football...or anything the big kids are playing. Levi is always on the go. He will play with a toy for a few mintues, and then it's on to the next thing, and the next, and so on. I guess most two year olds are this way, but it's very opposite of his brother who sticks with one thing until it's totally accomplished. His favorite food request these days is 'cha-chock' (chocolate). He takes after me in that area!

I think back to this day two years ago, and I am reminded of how miraculous life is. I remember the nervous anticipation while waiting in the hospital room for the c-section to begin. (Zach more nervous, and me more anticipating) I remember those last few kicks I felt in my tummy right before the numbing took place. And I remember Dr. T holding Will up above the curtain so I could see my wide-eyed, dark haired baby boy for the first time. It is an image that I don't think I can ever forget. Then, the sounds of Levi's first cries as he took his first breaths. It was an amazing moment to experience....the little, unseen babies that were kicking my ribs were now my sons to hold, kiss, and stare at for hours....months, and now years. I still find myself sneaking in to peek at them while they sleep, and there are days when I'm not sure if I can stop kissing them. There are days when I want to freeze time to savor a moment, and then there are days that I count down the hours until bed-time. I am so thankful to be able to experience motherhood, and I am truly blessed to have Will & Levi as my sons. I can't imaging what the next 2 years will hold, but I am soaking up the time I have with them as my little guys.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Will & Levi! We love you!

Reflections...

2009-05-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

On this day two years ago I looked like this:

I can't believe my little babies are turning 2 tomorrow. More to come then...

Living Room Before & Afters

2009-04-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our house has been a work in progress since we moved in. The most recent makeover we have done is our living room and entry way...

entry way before
...notice the white tile with glass looking stuff in it.

entry way after. new wood floors!

fireplace before.

fireplace after!
we put stone over the brick and zach made a new mantle. i love it!

Will heard me taking pictures and ran into the room saying 'Cheeeeeeese!'

Drumroll please...
Living Room Before.

Living Room After!!!
Sooo much better!
we painted the walls, got new carpet, new accessories, etc.

We still have some things we want to do in the room, and there are some things I am searching for to go above the mantle and above the green couch (the wire ivy thing is probably gonna go).
BUT...all in all, it's in working order!

It Doesn't Get Much Cuter Than This...

2009-04-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

We are savoring our time here with Colton (and Nate & Terah, of course!)...

Isn't he precious!?

Our family with Colton. Will looks crazy for a few reasons...1) sunscreen matted hair 2) he has fallen more than a few times resulting in the black eyes... 3) he is crazy.

Levi holding Colton 'all by himself'!

Will looooves 'baaabyyy'

A New Cousin for Will & Levi!!!

2009-04-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

We are in Phoenix right now celebrating the new arrival of Nate & Terah's baby boy!

Colton Henry Ott was born Monday, April 20th weighing in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. Both he and his awesome mama are doing great! We had such a fun day traveling back and forth from the house to the hospital while anticipating the arrival of this loved little guy!

You can check Sarah's blog for more pictures. (Or I will probably post more pictures tomorrow!)

Mama's Boys

2009-04-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

I love when the boys just want to sit and cuddle on my lap. They are usually pretty active guys, so I don't find myself in this position very often!

Levi & me. He was pointing to me and saying 'Mama'. I guess in case I forgot who I was...

Cotton Ball and me. He is turning into such a goof ball! He used to be so serious, but now he is definitely always up to something!

I remember when he used to be just a little butterball.....

and I remember when the both fit on my lap with space to spare!

and I remember holding them while they were completely still and just staring at their sweet faces....

and I remember the very first time I ever held them. Little did I know how much joy, love, laughter, hugs, and life they would bring into my world.

It was a Push-Pop and Sprinkler Kind of Day...

2009-04-10T06:13:00.001-07:00

The weather was gorgeous a few days ago, so the boys and I enjoyed a fun day outside with Push-Pops and the sprinkler....

Levi (like his dad) doesn't like to get his hands sticky...so it was a hard thing to get used to!

so you're tellin' me that I just push from the bottom and there will be more ice-cream?!?

We had Jude with us this day, so he got to join in on the fun!

Jude-dude and Will enjoying their push-pops.

Will's 'G.Q.' pose.

You can see my first attempt at a garden in the background of this picture. I planted tomato plants, red bell pepper, mint and lavender (Jude picked out the lavender...so that one is technically his plant)

sticky Levi.

Part of Levi's ice-cream fell out on the porch. Then he treated it more like finger paint.

but no need to worry. my boys are growing up 'green'. will decided not to let it go to waste and just picked it up from the porch and ate it!

Then he gave it back to Levi to enjoy .... it was a community push-pop.

I didn't realize just how sticky and dirty the boys would get, so I just turned on the sprinkler and let them rinse off.

I love this picture of Jude.

Yesterday the boys had their Easter day at school. This was the best picture I could get of them. Will was in one of those moods where he refused to look at me. Instead he just stared at the ground with this funny expression. These guys are just growing up too fast! In about one month they will be turning 2!

Levi is home!

2009-03-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update:
We were able to bring Levi home yesterday! You would never know he was so sick...he is just back to his same ole' self!

Thanks for your calls, well wishes, prayers, food, etc. We greatly appreciate it!

Day #2 Levi Update

2009-03-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

After getting pumped with lots of fluids, Levi is feeling much better. So much better that he wants to leave the room and rip his IV out. It's become a lot harder to be contained in a little hospital room than it was yesterday, and the doctor said we would probably be here until tomorrow afternoon. Ahhh!

We are so glad that he is feeling better, but the nurses said that his white blood cell count was critically high (which means a major infection). It's scary to hear anything with the word 'critically' associated with your kid, but hopefully the antibiotics will kill off any infection very soon! Thanks for your prayers, well wishes, and thoughts- we appreciated them! I'll update with more stuff if anything comes up.

Poor Levi...

2009-03-08T19:38:00.001-07:00

After a couple days of battling a little fever and a minor cough, things went downhill for Levi on Saturday. After seeing two doctors, we ended up in the hospital today with him, and the diagnosis is pneumonia. After a few hours of IV fluids and antibiotics, he is doing better, but it has not been a fun day for any of us! Please pray that his little lungs & chest will heal quickly so that he can get back to his normal, crazy self!

You can see the big bundle of IV stuff on his hand. He doesn't seem to mind too much, but every hour or so he will look at his hand and just start crying. Poor baby.

The Perfect Retreat

2009-03-05T20:14:00.001-08:00

Zach and I just had the best time in San Antonio for the past few days. It was our first vacation with just the two of us since the boys were born. First of all, I want to publicly thank all the family members who watched the boys for us. It was such a blessing for me to drive out of town and not have any worries about Will & Levi. So, a BIG thanks to PapaDoc, Mamanita, Landon, Whit and Gini! You guys are the best!

I had to take one picture of the boys right before we left. They looked too stinkin' cute and I couldn't resist!

Night #1 in San Antonio:
Check into a sweet hotel on the River Walk. Walk into our room to find this:

Thanks Zach! It was so unexpected, thoughtful and romantic!
We unpacked our stuff and headed straight for the River Walk. We strolled around for a little while and decided to eat at the Iron Cactus. We had no idea what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised! It was great food, and the weather was perfect for sitting outside next to the river. I even had the privilege of being serenaded! It was awesome.

After we ate, we went back and rented 'Slumdog Millionaire' to the room. Wow- GREAT movie!

Day #2:
We got to sleep in (which was WONDERFUL), and then I was treated to a massage at a Spa! It was the best massage I have ever had, and it was exactly what I needed to start the 'retreat' off in the right fashion!
We met up with some friends for lunch near the Shops at La Cantera, and then we went shopping all afternoon! We spent most of our time at World Market getting some decor for the house (new before and after pics coming soon!), but we made time to get a few new outfits.
We made it back to the hotel in time to rest for an hour or so before dinner & the concert. We ate dinner at Landry's and had some awesome seafood. Here we are dining on the River. Again, the weather was PERFECT!

Then we walked a couple blocks to the Ryan Adams & The Cardinal's concert. Here we are about to walk in. There was no photography allowed inside, but I took a few with my phone's camera...but only one turned out decent.

The building was beautiful, and I found myself starting at the walls and ceiling a lot. I don't get out much.
The music was fantastic. Ryan Adams has an amazing voice, and I think it's better live than recorded. They played a lot of stuff I didn't know, so I will have to get Zach to get my iTunes updated. The only thing that bothered us were the drunk people yelling stupid things during the songs. We had a couple right in front of us that were pretty ridiculous, and then the couple sitting next to us had to get up and leave at least 6 times during the concert. Other than that, it was a really cool experience!
Here we are after the concert...

Day #3: Slept in and ordered breakfast to the room. umm...what could be better??
Packed up our stuff and headed back to Abilene. It was a short but sweet trip. We kept on telling one another that it was the perfect get-away!

There's nothing like coming home to these 2 guys.

What You've All Been Waiting For! Pictures.

2009-02-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

My camera battery died about 2 months ago. I finally got a new one this week, so I felt the need to take bunches of pictures today! It's been a long time since Will & Levi have had their sweet faces grace the world wide web. Enjoy!

Levi being goofy under the little table. Yes, Zach cut their hair again.

Happy Will

They thought it was really funny to kiss me through the door.

I LOVE this picture of Levi. I can't really explain why other than it's just an expression I see every day. It's a hard moment to capture, but it's his 'scrunched nose' mischievous smile.

Will playing trucks. I am hoping that his hair will continue to get lighter. I want at least one blond haired boy!

Will kissing 'Otter'; the dog he got from his Aunt & Uncle Ott.

One of the boys' favorite things to do is pray. They love to get in a big circle, hold hands, bow their heads and pray. Sometimes they are completely silent, and sometimes they like to 'lead' the prayer. It's so special to see them already praying, and I have shed a few tears watching them grow in such neat ways.
Anyways, we were outside and I asked them to sit next to one another so I could get a good pic. Well, not only did they sit side-by-side, but then they held hands, bowed their heads, and prayed! It was adorable. I took a picture.

After they got done praying, I asked Levi to kiss Will for a picture. The following took place:

Kiss #1
umm...this might be hugely framed in our house very soon.
i can't.get.enough of these boys!

Kiss #2: Will still ignoring.

Kiss #3: Will getting annoyed.

Kiss #4: Will starting to realize that Levi is an unstoppable kissing machine, and he is trapped in his 'death grip'.

Kiss #5: Levi realizes he's not cracking Will's serious facade, so he starts kissing his back.
It works! Will thinks it's hilarious!

Kiss #6: Will's lovin' it. (mom is too)

Kiss #7 is closely followed by Ear Pull #1.
Not funny to Will.

As you can see, these boys LOVE one another!

Why I Love My Valentine.

2009-02-14T08:56:00.001-08:00

I stayed home last night while Zach went on a date with another girl. This is just one of the many reasons why I love Zach.

Finda is a sweet girl who goes to church with us. Her family is a refugee family from Africa, and they have been living here for a few years now. Her dad was very busy last night taking care of his sick wife (Finda's mom), so Zach had a great opportunity to be her date to a Father/Daughter Dinner & Dance at church!
Yes Sir...I love this man.

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope that you get to spend some time today with people you love!

Brad Paisley Concert Pics

2009-02-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

Our January was packed with lots of traveling (like every weekend), which caused me to get very behind on my blogging 'groove'. Apologies.

Stupid me forgot my camera at the Brad Paisley concert! We had such a great time, and fortunately, my camera on my phone got some decent pictures.

We started off in our seats which were 8 rows from the very top of the coliseum. Needless to say, they weren't the best seats, but I was happy just to be there!

Darius Rucker, the lead singer from Hootie & The Blowfish, opened for Brad. I was amazed to hear that some songs I knew all the words to were sung by him... and I had no idea! He was a lot of fun. Next on the schedule was Dirks Bentley. He was crazy. Lots of energy....and really funny in a quirky kind of way....
By this point in the concert, I found myself getting angry at Dirks. I just wanted to see/hear Brad so badly! About the time that Dirks ended his portion, Zach & Landon found seats down lower that were much better (and empty!). Soo...we snuck our way down to the better seats...

that is brad walking down the middle stage...

and here he is singing 'When I Get Where I'm Going'

He sang about every song that I would want to hear live, and it was such a fun concert! A favorite moment was when he sang 'Whiskey Lulliby' and a huge screen at the back of the stage had an image of Alison Krauss singing her part of the song. It was AMAZING how much they made it look like she was there in person! I'll confess, I was a part of the crowd that started screaming when 'she came on stage'. It was so real! It took me most of the song to figure out that it was just an image.... oh well, Alison Krauss gets an applause from me no matter what!

After the concert, we came back to our hotel room to find our boys dreaming the night away. Thanks Shelley & Mamanita for babysitting! We had a great time!

"Little Moments Like That"

2009-01-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

Zach came home from work Tuesday with a little surprise for me....

Tickets to see Brad Paisley in concert THIS WEEKEND!!!!

I might have a slight, little, tiny bit of a crush on Brad....

but seriously, who doesn't?!?!

Santonio.

2009-01-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

If you remember, I had a post requesting some suggestions for a getaway location for Zach and me. We have not been a trip with just the two of us since....well....since our honeymoon! We have had wonderful opportunities to travel a LOT, but it has been with family members. Sooo....I have been trying to plan a getaway for just the two of us.

Thank you, thank you for all of your suggestions! I checked out every one of the websites, and found myself trying to book each of the places for separate trips! They all sounded and looked AMAZING! Seriously people, there was this one place in Costa Rica that looked like my vision of heaven. Then the lights and shows of Vegas sounded like so much fun! Alaska would be a dream come true, and even Arkansas (erin!) had it's perks!

But a few days ago I purchased a gift for Zach that determined our getaway location.

Around the 16th hour of driving in two days (over our Christmas vacation), Zach turned down the music and made a very official announcement. He said, 'Ryan Adams is my favorite musician.' By the way, this was HUGE! Zach is a lover of music, and he has never really been able to say who his favorite band, song, musician, writer, etc. is. But Ryan Adams has won him over.

So, I secretly checked online, and Ryan Adams will be playing in San Antonio in March. It's perfect! Zach loves San Antonio and he loves Ryan Adams!

Although it is no tropical paradise and it's lights are not visible from space, I am very excited about San Antonio. I was having a hard time justifying spending lots of money for a 'vacation' when all I need is a little break from 'mommy duties', with my hubby by my side, and some good entertainment.

Santonio: here we come!... in a couple of months

Merry Christmas from the Family

2008-12-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Levi (left) & Will! Which one looks naughty-er?? You pick...

Good Morning Baltimore! Thanksmas 2008

2008-12-14T21:08:00.001-08:00

* I started this post about 2 weeks ago. Better late than never....

W.O.W.! It has been a very eventful and fun week for our family. Zach's sister is doing her medical residency in Baltimore, so the whole Sheets family (minus Sarah & Matthew in Alaska) flew to Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving with Heather. We stayed at a really cool house that was across the street from Camden Yards stadium. It was one of those tall, skinny houses that is side by side with other houses. It was built a long time ago, and we all loved the older detail and stuff that gave it 'character'. Anyways, we packed a lot into 7 days, and as always, I have a bunch of pictures : )

Will & Levi sporting their new jammies in front of the home we rented.

We woke up the first morning to snow! It was so beautiful. The view from our front porch included Camden Stadium- home of the Baltimore Orioles- home of Cal Ripkin Jr. : )
umm...how can you resist that face?!
on the second day, we visited the Baltimore Aquarium. It was a really neat place, and the boys loved standing against the windows that are underwater. (does that make sense?) This picture is kind of dark, but there is a HUGE sting ray on the other side of Will.
One of the highlights of this trip was going to see a Penn State football game! After Tyler (Zach's brother) died, we found a list that he had made of things he wanted to do before he died. We had no idea that the list existed until after he died. One of the things on his list was to see Coach Paterno coach a Penn State game. Here we are on our way! Entering Pennsylvania.

The weather kept getting colder....and colder...
A quick picture before the long walk to the stadium. l to r: Gini, Levi, Heather, Shelley, Ben, Zach, and Will ('I can't put my arms down')

Here we are starting our walk toward the stadium (back right) Again, it was cold. And windy. And cold.

We had to stop and take a pic with the Joe Paterno statue. I think this is the only pic we got of the whole group.
The football team has a cool tradition of entering on buses into the stadium. They unload right next to the tunnel and everyone stands there and cheers them on. It was Super Cool.
The only family pic we got at the game.
A view from the seats.

Well, the weather got so cold that I left the game before kickoff to stay with the boys out in the van. They were just miserable, cold, and NOT happy. Anyways, to make a really long story short, I never made it to the van. On the way out of the stadium, Will started acting very strange and Zach took him into the First Aid clinic in the stadium. The doctor who saw him immediately started putting warm water packs all over his little body, and told us he had a slight case of hypothermia! Yes, HYPOTHERMIA! Soo....Zach and I spent the first half of the game down in the mini hospital. I could tell many stories of all the crazy drunks that were down there, but I don't have the time.

Here is our poor little Will. Right after he warmed up, he fell into a deep sleep. It was so sad to see him laying there on this big stretcher competely still.

Zach and Levi fell asleep too as we waited to see what the Dr.'s orders were.
As soon as Will's core temperature rose to normal, they released us. Zach drove me into town and we found a nice hotel lobby where he dropped me and boys off. Soo...I got to watch the game in a nice lobby with a flat screen and fireplace. Zach went back to the game just in time to enjoy the whole second half. It was quite the adventure!

OK, next day.
Here are Will & Levi on the front porch.

We all took a water taxi ride around the harbor of Baltimore. It was cool to see all the water front buildings and ships. Levi really enjoyed himself despite what his face is telling you in this picture.
Ben, Gini, Zach, Will, Me, Levi, Shelley on the water taxi.

We made a stop in a cool artsy part of Baltimore (Fells Point...I think)
Shelley with Levi, Gini, Terah, me & Will

zach & me

: ) I love this one because Cori was trying to back out of the picture. She didn't quite make it out! : )

Landon, Zach & Ben in front of Camden Park.

next day- Washington DC!
We crammed a lot into one day at DC! We started with the museum of National History. Lots of cool stuff from wars and random things like Seinfeld's puffy shirt.

Then we went to the Holocaust Museum. I can't really explain how emotionally gripping this museum is. It is a must see, but be prepared to cry or come out depressed.

From there, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. This place was huge and very family friendly. Here we are posing on the second story.

We had a great day in DC, but it was hard to walk everywhere with no stroller and two toddlers who don't really enjoy being held all the time. It was totally worth it, but I do want to go back and spend more time reading everything and seeing the monuments.

next day.
Will & Levi lookin' cute in their Christmas jammies.

Although we did a lot of things on most days, we made sure to spend some time for relaxation! Here we are with Landon & Whit.

Will eating a sandwich while taking up the whole walk way.

We started a new tradition this year called the Cookie Cook Off! Each person made a cookie from scratch and entered the contest. Everyone came out a winner, and one person won the overall best cookie! This year I won 'Most Likely To Be In Your Dreams' for my cookie entry! The overall winner was Landon with his cranberry/white chocolate chip cookies. They were delish! Here we are posing with the cookies before the judging started.

On the last night, we pulled taffey- another Sheets family tradition.

Nate always manages to harden his taffey first. Here is Papa Sheets (the judge) making sure it's good to go!

whew! what a trip!

Spoon Feeding

2008-12-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

The boys are really enjoying feeding themselves these days.

Levi's spoon face

I love his eyes in this one.

'I think I'm doin' a pretty good job!'

'Here, wanna bite?'

'I'm funnny!'

Alaska Funnies

2008-12-01T08:13:00.001-08:00

My sis-in-law and her new hubbie just moved to Alaska. If you want to read some 'Only in Alaska' funnies, check out her blog. It's pretty crazy! Then, look at her facebook pictures of their drive to Alaska. They are beautiful beyond words. Here's a teaser..

I've been working on a post to tell about our Thanksgiving trip. It is almost finished....

I Was Tagged

2008-11-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

I am supposed to write 7 Random things about myself. I usually don't do these things, but I have nothing else to blog about right now! Things are just coasting along right now, and we are getting ready for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned next week for some fun pictures from our New England Thanksmas Vacation.
OK, on to my weirdness...

1. Zach buys most of my clothes. Some of you already know this, but it's the truth. About 90% of the time that I am wearing something cute/trendy, it is from Zach. He can even pick out jeans WITHOUT ME TRYING THEM ON. It's amazing folks, truly amazing.

2. I grew extra sets of teeth. I've had numerous surgeries on my mouth for jaw alignment, but I have also had 3 sets of teeth for some teeth. I lost the baby tooth, in came the permanent tooth, and then x-rays showed another tooth coming in! Sorry, that's kind of gross.

3. I have a foot fetish. I notice peoples' feet. I could look at any of my friends' feet (without seeing their faces) and put the feet with the person. You could even just be an acquaintance, but I bet I could identify your toesies.

4. My hair was not curly until....yes, I am going to say the 'p' word....puberty! Over the course of one summer, my hair went from a tangley, slightly wavy mess, to a head full of curly-q ringlet curls. It was pretty traumatizing at the time, but once I learned NOT to brush through it, I loved it! After I had the boys, my hair lost a lot of it's curliness. It is slowly coming back, but I don't think it will ever be as curly as it was in High School/early College.

5. I love traveling. Some of my favorite places include:
Pacific Coast Highway along California's coastline. This is one of my happy places.
Dominican Republic- THE most beautiful place I have ever seen.
Yosemite National Park, California- so diverse and awesome.
Westcliffe, Colorado- this little town tucked in the valley of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is so quaint and perfect. I want to take a little vacation there one day. Maybe that's where Zach & I should go! hmm...
Zimbabwe, Africa- most beautiful people.
the Texas Hill Country. I love the rolling hills, the fat cows, the beautiful ranch homes, and the cute towns. I love driving from our house down to Austin or Houston. I pretty much love all of Texas, but especially the hill country.
Places I would love to go:
Alaska
Japan
New Zealand
Ireland
D.C.
Italy

6. This might sound totally strange, but I would love to live in an Amish community for a short amount of time. I am intrigued by their way of life, and I think I would learn a lot about simplifying life. Plus, it would be really cool to ride around in a horse drawn carriage! Just kidding....but seriously.

7. The only organized sport I have ever played is soccer. I started when I was 4 and stopped when I graduated High School. Growing up, I loved to play volleyball, softball, basketball, tennis, do gymnastics, run on the track....but I was so busy playing soccer that there was no time for the other stuff.

OK, those are my 7 Random Things. I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have. There were some that didn't make the cut, so maybe I will do another one of these one day, but probably not.

I won't be blogging for about a week, so have a great Thanksgiving. We have so much to be Thankful for, and I hope that our lives reflect grateful hearts.

I need your help.

2008-11-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

Zach and I are planning our first get-away (sans boys) around February/March sometime.
I am soooooo excited about this trip, but I have no idea where we should go...
that's where you come in!

If you know a romantic, relaxing, fun place that we could go, please leave a comment. Here are some places that we have thrown into the hat:
Las Vegas
Dominican Republic
Costa Rica
Montana

Anyways, please please give us a suggestion. If I have more questions about the place, I will try to get in contact with you via email. I am not opposed to you leaving a location, a hotel, and activities if you want to boast that much on your favorite vacation spot.

Gracias!

More Costumes!

2008-11-03T06:15:00.000-08:00

We had our annual small group Halloween party, and it did not disappoint! We voted for best costumes in a few categories, and I will say when those winners appear.

Here we are! Karate Kid (Levi), Mr. Miyagi (Will), myself as Elizabeth Shue, and Zach as Johnny.

The Walters & Kate. Ava was the bride and Summer & Kate were her bridesmaids.

The lovely Campbells!

The Reeses! A slice of Carder pizza, Brynn as Minnie Mouse (she had already taken off her cute pink dress), and Meg as an octopus.

Landon & Whitney as a logger & a tree. Look closely and you can see the twig sticking out of her hair. Too funny!

Best Dressed Couple: Ben & Carly as Forrest & Jenny

Best Dressed Family: The Riley's! Seriously, they were too cute.

Sweet little Easton Pittman as a 'Hair Wolf'.

The Straders in all their glory! Click on the picture to get a good view of Nicole's teeth. She lost 'Best Costume' by one vote.

The Sanders. Best Costume: Nathan.

I love Levi's intense face in this one. He was ready to fight.

then he found this wig, and all the sudden he wasn't so serious anymore!

The Small Group Party was a blast, and then it was time to get ready for another party. Zach's sister Gini had a group of her ACU friends over for another costume party. SO FUN!

This guy hung out with Will & Levi most of the night. There is something special about a guy who wants to hang out with babies over his friends. Will & Levi loved his company, which I am sure had something to do with his willingness to let them eat as many Snickers, Oreos & Almond Joys as they wanted!

Colton (one of our recent graduates from our huddle group). I couldn't stop laughing at him!

These two guys are also from our huddle group, and they dressed up just like Will & Levi. I thought this was too funny and very clever. Tyler & Levi are Karate Kid and Graham & Will are Mr. Miyagi.

Mr. Miyagi to Mr. Miyagi: 'Oreos are gooooood.'

Zach's beautiful sister Gini with Will on the hayride.

We had a great Halloween night as well. I was so excited to see if we would get more Trick or Treaters in our new neighborhood, and we did for sure! In fact, we almost ran out of candy. I LOVE Halloween!

Happy Halloween from............

2008-10-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Karate Kid & Mr. Miyagi!

'wax on; wax off'

The above two pictures are from our small group halloween party. the boys had a costume parade at school today, so they dressed up for that as well. then we had a party at our house tonight hosted by zach's sister and her friends...so the boys were dressed up for that! i am sure we will dress them up tomorrow for some quick trick-or-treating/meet the neighbors on our street. i could dress them up every day in these outfits and laugh every time!

...more pictures to come of all our costume parties!

Here Comes the Bride!

2008-10-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

The Sheets family was lucky enough to have two beautiful weddings in one year (it's really more like 4 months!). The lovely Sarah Jo married her one and only, Matthew, on Saturday during an awesome wedding up in Muleshoe. We spent almost the whole week up there trying to help with preparations and also having lots of fun with family & friends. I only took a few shots with my camera, but here's what I got!

Levi modeling his wedding gear with the bride & groom in the background

Will and all of his sweetness

The beautiful bride!

Such a cool groom's cake! You should click on it to see all the detail.
To give some more info...Sarah & Matthew are moving to Alaska on their honeymoon! He is in the Air Force and was assigned to a base in Alaska. So for their honeymoon, they are slowly making their way up there. Talk about some extreme emotions....
We can't wait to visit though!

Some table decor. The reception was in the Sheets' backyard. It was just beautiful!

We all had some time to kill before the wedding. Sarah chose to watch college football with all the guys! Matthew is one lucky guy!

us.

Will cuttin' a rug with his great Grandmina!

Levi playing in the flowers.
I like this shot because it shoes off the tables and tents in the background. It was a picture perfect backyard reception.

I was a little busy being in the wedding, chasing the boys around, and catching up with old friends, so I didn't get a ton of pictures. I might post more once I get some from Terah.

It is really strange to not know when we are going to see Matthew & Sarah next. They will be in Alaska for the next four years, and traveling to and from Alaska is not an easy (or cheap) endeavor. We are hoping and praying that they have a smooth transition to life wayyy up there! I know that their wedding was the most joyful and loving send-off I have ever seen!

We love you Mr. & Mrs. Cornett!

What They're Doing These Days...

2008-10-15T08:05:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted a 'developmental milestone' blog in a long time. I think the time has come!

Will Cotton
- had his first hair cut last weekend. Zach did it when I wasn't around, but he did a great job!
- he started walking around 16 1/2 months old. It was about time! Now that he is walking, he has become a lot more daring. He will climb on things and get himself into more trouble every day...
- words: dog, Duke, dad, mom, diaper (dy-du), 'Do-da' (we don't really know what he is saying, but he says this all of the time...)
- it usually takes a lot for him to give kisses on demand, but we found out recently that if Zach kisses me in front of Will, he will want to kiss me afterward. I am the lucky one that gets double the kisses!
- Will is a great traveler! He doesn't mind just sitting in his car seat and looking out the window. When we flew to Phoenix last week, he just sat in his own airplane seat and looked ahead for most of the flight. He's just a content lil traveler.
- loves to sleep in. he will go to bed around 10pm and wake up around 9-9:30 am on most mornings. If only Levi did that....
- LOVES to play catch. He has quite the arm too! Everyone seems to be surprised when they see how far Will can throw. We play catch across the living room from one another and he usually can launch it that far.
- he is pretty particular. he likes for things to be in order. when he is done with his drink, he makes sure that it is sitting upright, and if any toy falls over, he makes sure to move it into the right position. maybe that is not too different from most kids...but this behavior is polar opposite from Levi.
- loves to turn on and off lights.
- is very good at sharing his toys with Levi. (this good deed is not reciprocated often...)
- loves to wrestle with his brother. he just lays on the floor and giggles while Levi crawls all over him.
- has this sweet smile where he keeps his mouth shut completely but is still grinning. it's this smile that shows off his dimples the most. i LOVE it.

this morning with our pumpkins.

snooozin.

it rained last week and will thought it would be hilarious to drink the water from a puddle. gross!

cutie.

Levi Blake
- alllll boy.
- he loves the dirt, playing in the grass, eating sticks, rocks, dirt, etc.
- a climber. i have found him on: the kitchen table, kitchen counters, fireplace, nightstand table, computer desk, toilet, etc. etc. the list goes on.
- is really starting to talk more! Words: ball, dad, mom, bird (baaaiiiiirrrrrrrddd), diaper, football (boootball), and his favorite word: hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii (in your best texas drawl)
- very social! loves to tell everyone 'hiiiiiii' that we pass in the stores or at church or if i just walk around the corner at home.
- his little 'anger issue' is getting better, but he still has a temper in him. for some reason, i find it endearing sometimes.
- LOVES to give hugs and kisses. he is very flirty with new people (especially girls....). a total ham.
- he has the best belly laugh. his cheeks get huge, you can see all of his teeth, and he just laughs so hard his eyes water.
- his usual speed is running. he is always running.
- he is constantly 'talking'. he is in that stage where you can almost hear a full sentence in your head. we have a fun time making up his words for him.
- not such a great traveler. i think his problem comes more from having to be restrained. he wants to be on the move all the time, and it's really hard to be mobile in a car seat.

this morning on the front porch.

trying to drink the water like Will did.

playing in the water puddle!

mischievous little smile...

always on the go...

I am having so much fun at this stage with the boys. If you haven't noticed, my spare time has dropped dramatically. It's hard for me to find time to blog because they are both constantly needing supervision. It is so sweet to see them play together all day long. They truly know each others' buttons to push, but they also know how to make one another happy. It is a unique bond that I have the privilege of seeing grow and develop. Gosh I love them.

Phoenix Phun

2008-09-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

We spent a long weekend in Phoenix visiting some family and having lots of fun! Nate & Terah have lived there for a couple of years, and this was our long overdue trip to see their place. Also, Zach's other sister, Sarah, moved to Phoenix when she started dating her now fiance, Matthew!

We spent the weekend celebrating a couple of things in particular...
1. Nate & Terah are expecting their first baby!!!!! We are super pumped to add a cousin to the Sheets (Ott) clan! I am sure we will be making more trips to Phoenix in the coming months : )

2. Sarah & Matthew had a wedding shower hosted by their friends in Phoenix. It was great to meet their church and work friends, and we are looking forward to their fast approaching wedding on the 25th!

Here is the weekend in pictures...

We had an early morning flight out of Lubbock, so we stayed the night with our friends Bob & Allison. They have a precious little girl, Ella. Levi became particularly fond of a pair of Ella's shoes, and it was too funny not to photograph! Poor guy...this will come back to haunt him...

Our attempt to get a picture of all 3. Turned out pretty cute!

The boys on the plane.

After being on a plane all day, the boys were ready to explore and play! Fortunately, Nate & Terah have a park across the street from their place. Unfortunately, it was still like 95 degrees...
(hence Will's red face)

I just love this picture of Levi. Sweet sweet boy.

but he is a sweet boy that loved Indi's dog food. He seriously could not get enough! Yes, his mouth is crammed full of the stuff...

but at least he was polite enough to thank Indi for sharing!

We had the awesome opportunity to watch Nate take off and land his F16 Jet. I found myself with a huge grin the whole time, and I felt like a kid in a candy store! It was sooo cool! He is in the plane closest to the building.

Speaking of Nate...Zach complimented his PJ's the first night we were there, and lo and behold...Nate gave Zach another pair the next night. Here they are all jammied up!

On Saturday morning, all of the ladies went to a super hip salon to get our haircut! I couldn't resist taking this picture of Whitney. hee hee

Will & Levi had a great time being spoiled by all the aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends. It was like they were being served everything on a silver platter.

bu-dum-chhh. hehehe...i crack myself up.

Apparently Levi's brownie stunt is a common occurrence! Sarah snapped this pic of Levi when he had no idea anyone was watching. That kid....

Here we all are at the wedding shower. Heather was the only one who couldn't make it.

The sistas-
Gini, Terah & baby Ott : ), Whitney, Cori, Sarah, Shelley, & me.

Will found himself in a little trouble when he couldn't figure out how to get down...

both the boys loved playing in the curtains.

All in all, the trip was great! Thanks Nate & Terah for being amazing hosts. Your house was crammed full of people, but we wouldn't want it any other way!