Sage

There is one member of our family who rarely gets any attention--on this blog and elsewhere!  This member of our family has been a part of us since before we were technically a family...  Kevin got Sage for me right after I graduated high school when we first started dating.  She is 8 1/2 years old. 

Our Sagey is an amazing dog.  This is what she endures day-in and day-out:

Never once has she been aggressive...even when she is climbed all over, her eyes are poked, and whiskers are pulled.  She endures quite a bit around here because both of our boys are crazy about her and want to be with her all the time! 

Even though she drives me crazy sometimes, I am thankful that we have such a loving companion! 

And in case you're wondering, she is a golden retriever...they make the best family dogs!

Noah ~ 9 months

This baby is the epitome of happy...nothing gets him down!  I looked at his mouth the other day and saw a brand-new tooth had popped through on the top and I had no idea!  He has been just as happy and contented as he can be.

 

He went through a period of major fussiness back in April and May.  Now that I look back, I think the poor baby was starved!  I was still nursing and I don't think I was producing enough because of stress.  He went from 80th percentile at 2 months to 27th at 6 months.  He has been on formula since the middle of June and has started to gain more weight.  I had hoped to nurse him a little longer, but this decision was truly what was best for Noah.

At 9 months, Noah:

• Pulls up!
• Cruises around furniture
• Objects if a toy is taken away by Mommy or Daddy, but is absolutely agreeable when Caleb takes something away!  Go figure!
• Claps his hands!!  He just did this yesterday when our Small Group from church was over and we were singing a "clapping song."  I guess peer pressure really does work.  ;)
• Loves our dog Sage.

We sure do love this little guy!!!

fish out of water

We have been hosting our small group on Sunday nights for the summer.  A few weeks ago, the kids (ahem...big and little) brought their fishing poles and went to town!

Caleb caught his first fish on our trip to the lake in July, but he caught his first fish in our water that night! 

FYI- If you don't have any worms around when you go fishing, small pieces of bread on the hook seem to work just as well!

It's our prayer that these little ones will grow to be "Fishers of Men" as well!!!

Celebrate!

I've been a bit neglectful about posting on this site because I have spent so much time on this site lately.  We've had lots of celebrations since my last post.

On July 24th, we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary and one week later was Kevin's 28th birthday.  It's hard to believe sometimes that I actually married my biggest crush!  I was so silly and smitten back in high school when even a glance from Kevin would make me blush.  I don't think I hid my affections very well, but I guess that's okay seeing how it all turned out!

In all seriousness, I cannot imagine spending my life with a more loving, honorable and God-seeking man.  Where I am a major worrier, Kevin doesn't waste his thoughts or energy wondering about what could happen.  Where I can sometimes get stressed out easily, Kevin almost always remains calm and collected.  Where I can often be selfish, Kevin seems to always be thinking of others.  He truly balances me and makes me a better person.  And he is an incredible father!  I love seeing the outpouring of love he has for our boys...even if I think he's a little rough sometimes.  :) 

To celebrate, each of the kids got the spend an evening with the grandparents.  We went to KC for the day and shopped, came that evening to go out to eat, a late movie, and sleep in the next morning in our own bed.  :)  It was just what we needed and we are so thankful to both sets of grandparents for this gift!

Here are a couple pictures from our hot date.  I guess this is what you get when you ask someone to take your picture...

And here is one we took ourselves:

Happy Anniversary and Birthday, Sweet Husband!  I love you!

away and at play

Noah ~ 8 months

I'm baffled that Noah is 8 months.  Seriously?  Where has the time gone?

In the last month, Noah:

• crawls really, really fast (baby gates are no longer a question...they are a necessity)
• sits up straight (no more propping up on his hands)
• pulls to his knees
• loves to play with toys--especially the ones his brother is currently playing with (I thought this problem would be the other way around). 
• is starting to gain more weight...he's kind of a little guy.
• reaches for Mommy.  :)

He is such a sweet boy with a happy disposition.  I'm in love...

Caleb's Half-Birthday

Both of our boys' birthdays are just about within a month of Christmas.  And they're in the winter, which doesn't give many options for birthday parties.  We've only had family birthday parties so far (for Caleb), but he is getting to the age where he will enjoy having his friends celebrate his birthday.  So Kevin and I decided that we were going to start celebrating the boys half-birthdays.  Their half-birthdays will be the times that we have friend birthday parties.  Their actual birthdays will be celebrated just with family.  We are still waiting until Caleb's half-birthday next year before we have a "friend" party, but we went ahead and celebrated it this year.  We host our small group from church at our house on Sunday evenings, so we had a cake, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Caleb.  He thought it was pretty cool!  Plus, he got a couple very little gifts from us.  It was fun to do a little something for him in the middle of the year..especially since we don't do much for birthdays or Christmas. 

And here are some pictures of Mr. C.

And here is where I told Caleb to smile really big:

Funny kid!

Happy half-birthday, sweet boy!