Look Out Sea World...Here We Come!!!

Chris and I decided that we wanted to take a bit of time away from the mundain business of life and take the boys on a vacation this year. Really it was our first family vacation since before Cade was born. We had a great time and are glad we did! First, we went down to Beaumont, Tx to stay/visit with Chris' parents and brother. The boys had a blast at Nanna-D and G-Daddy's house...we hadn't been there 5 minutes and they were telling me "I love coming to Nanna-D and G-Daddy's!". It was so cute. G-Daddy took us all to the Fire Truck Museum one day and the boys LOVED that of course! Then one evening they took us to Chucky Cheese which is always a hit! They will play as much "money" as you give them. :-) Chris and I even got to go on a date to the resteraunt Kendal, his brother, works at...that was a lot of fun. From there we drove to San Antonio and spent an evening looking at the Alimo and walking along the river walk. Our hotel room was VERY nice! Chris found a great deal at the Hyatt Place...our room had a 42" plasma screen tv in it which was a hit for all 4 older boys. They got to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics on it and play our Wii...MaMa was too tired to really stay up to enjoy it much. :-) Then we spent the next two days at Sea World. We were hot and poor Chris was sick but overall we had a blast and got to do almost everything there. The boys have been talking about it ever since and have watched their Shamu movie Grammy bought for them about 100 times (that might be a bit of an exageration but not much!). We will cherish the memories made! Here are some pics to highlight our fun!
I love my Mommy!
My Mommy loves me!
Do I get some?!!
Uncle Kendal served us!
I love Nanna-D!
Talking to/Smiling at my Nanna-D!
Can you believe we got almost everyone to look AND smile! Amazing...maybe even a miracle :-)
Daddy and the boys in front of the Alamo
Ooooh, what does this do?
Say Cheese!
Riding in a clear elevator...they thought that was SOOO cool!
On the riverwalk
We got to Sea World and had hardly made it through the front gate and Callen was already fussing at me to not go wherever I was going. I was thinking "you've got to be kidding me" when I turned around to see what he was pointing at...these Happy Birthday Penguins. He wanted to go give them a hug and get a picture with them...so we did. Then he was as happy as could be! It was sweet!
Hmmm...what should we do next?
Well, I think we should go over here and do that!
Can we do that mommy, can we?!!!
They were so polite to stand in line at the water park, I didn't even have to tell them too! I was a very proud mommy!
Cohen loved the water too! Who wouldn't when you've been HOT all day!
They loved the Shamu show...
and thought it was so cool they could touch this Shamu!
This was a band we got to watch...they were mezmerized by them!
This is what Cohen did about 65% of the time we were there, Praise the Lord! He was SOOOO good!
We even got a picture with Dolly Dolphin and Shamu! And Callen danced all by himself with them!
Corbin couldn't have loved Sea World any more...this face shows how much fun he had!
All the boys watching the dolphins.
One of the dolphins swam RIGHT in front of us and we were all SOOOO excited.
These fans were a lifesaver! I propped one up while Callen took a nap the second day so he wouldn't be so hot. He slep forever like that!
Notice what his shirt says! :-)
I think Cade ate almost the whole time we were there...both days! :-) He's our eater!
The Sea Lion show was one of Corbin's favorites! It was so funny!

Straight hair, Curly hair, Crazy hair, Too Much hair?

I'll let you be the judge of that! I personally LOVE my sweet little boys hair...so much so that I admit, I usually let it grow long (hey, that's in style now, right?!), sometimes maybe a bit too long. But it is SOOOO soft and cute that it is SOOOO hard for me to cut off. So when I finally do (and yes I said I...I cut all of their hair myself. Come on, with as much hair as they have can you imagine how much I'd spend on haircuts?!), we have enough to donate to make wigs out of! Not a joke. It makes me almost cry that all that hair goes to waist when some children their age just wish they had hair at all. :-) Our sweet little Cade has a friend, Emma, in his class at church who was born the day after him. That means she will be 2 this month on the 30th. She still doesn't have much hair at all yet and then their's my sweet boy with enough hair to put in pigtails. What do ya do? Anyway, here are some before and after pics of their latest hair cuts. And yes, I do still think they look adorable even with the hair cut off! Feel free to give us your vote...long or short. Not that I'll take your advice though! :-)
Crazy hair rockstar #1!
Crazy hair cutie pie!
Crazy hair rockstar #2!
Look out Shirley Temple!!!
Locks of Love! :-)
What a stud!
Do I look cute now Mommy?
I liked my curls!
Can I be done Mommy?!!
Those are good sized tiles under that hair, not lenolium, if that helps you to put in perspective how much hair that I really did cut off of those sweet little heads! Amazing!

Back in business!!!

That's right, break OVER. :-( Just kidding, I'm really excited and have been a bit anxious (in a good way) to get back into the swing of things...as if I have nothing else to do, right!? Hey, every mom needs something fun she loves to do that can release a little stress at the end of the day and good ol' Dave Ramsey would say, why not make a little money while you're at it! I'm giving my best stab at it, that's for sure. It's been a dream of mine for years and I'm having a blast.

So, all that to say, I'm back. If you need a cake for any occasion or a custom, unique gift for someone go and check out my website...well, temporary website. My new website is under construction and will be up soon. You can always e-mail me at kara@niftythriftydesigns.com with any questions or orders. And right now, in honor of a Hot, Hot Summer, I'm running a special on my tank tops. 1 for $12 or 2 for $20.
Thanks for checking my business out and we would appreciate any prayers for all of us when you think about us 'cause it is one crazy house over here! :-) God is good and is faithful to those who believe though, I'm resting in that promise!

It's Official!...

We have our first Thumb Sucker!!! Yep, 2 days ago, Monday, Cohen finally found it. And I don't mean found it and then lost it...I mean, he found his thumb (the right hand) and took a 2 1/2 hour nap sucking on it. And then later that day found it again and did the same thing. And then on Tuesday he did the same thing. And today again. I think we can quit wondering whether he will take a passy any more or not. He never really did like that thing much anyway. You could ask his Nanna-D about that (when she stayed with us while Chris was at camp earlier this summer, Cohen would make her stand up, swaying and bouncing while holding the passy in his mouth so he couldn't spit it out! Little Booger). At least he can console himself now on his own. I need hime to be able to do that since I have 4 of them to take care of every day. Who knows, this could be more of a blessing than anything. So here we go again, like mommy like son...that's right, I was a thumb sucker too. I guess it'll be payback time when I'm trying to get him to stop sucking on his. My parents had to hide my favorite blankie and tell me it was gone so I would quit...isn't that just mean! :-) We'll see what strategies we have to come up with! We've got 4 fingers and a thumb to get 3 little chillin's to quit sucking on eventually. You can start praying for us now! HeeHee! :-) Enjoy the photo shoot below, I'm just a MaMa who LOVES picks of her kidos!So content and so out!
Just doesn't get much sweeter than this!
You know it!!! At least my Mommy, Daddy and Brothers think so!!! :-)
Snug as a bug in a rug!

Summer Tour

Hey all
Kara gave me permission to post on here every now and then despite the girly theme and all... ha! She wanted me to chime in with whats been going on in my world, so here I go. As most of you know I released a new CD back in June so my band and I have been out on tour supporting that record. Its been a great summer and God really moved in many people's lives. Some of you I saw while we were out on the road. Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and prayed for Kara and the boys while I was out. Here are some pics....and now...back to girl blog land.

Roll Call...

So, this post is two fold. First, I'm just a bit curious to how many friends and family out there really are reading our blog from time to time. Not that it really matters but it does take time to update it and keep it going (and you know time is something that is more than precious to me since I don't have much of it left over for things like this after taking care of our 4 precious boys all day!). I thought I would just check to see if people are truly 'keeping up with us', so to say, by reading this. It is fun and I am enjoying it, I guess I just need a bit of encouragement that my time is not going to waste. Second, we love reading your blogs too! I'm sure some of you who are keeping up with us have blogs that we don't even know about yet. So, if you don't mind, leave us a comment and let us know your out there! :-) THANKS!

Big Boy Bed #3!

It's true, like it or not, our sweet 'baby' Cade is growing up and is not much of a baby any more! He will be 2 (I can hardly even believe that!) in August but I have to admit, we still sometimes call him 'baby Cade'. Even harder to believe, Cohen is already 11 1/2 weeks old and has almost outgrown his little bassinet (I posted about that last week). I thought he would be able to stay in it until he was about 5 months old but there is no way! We'll be lucky, I should say blessed, if we can leave him in it until he is 4 months old. When he does finally outgrow it, he is going to move into Cade's room with him, therefore making it Cade and Cohen's room. Cade is very excited about getting to share his room with Cohen, I'm sure because his big brothers Corbin and Callen already share a room and he kinda feels left out sometimes when they are all going to bed. Not much longer and he will have company! We had decided that it would be best to start Cade's transition a month or so before moving Cohen into their room though so that he would not feel as if Cohen was 'stealing' his bed or kicking him out of it.

So, this last Thursday I went to Wal-mart and bought him a toddler bed so we could begin to transition him from the crib to the big boy bed. We made it quite the big deal when I got it home and carried it in the house. He was already so very excited...I kinda wonder if he really knew what was about to occur. :-) That night we put it together, me and all my little helpers! Would you believe that an expensive cherry wood sleigh crib and an inexspensive cherry wood sleigh toddler bed look as if they were made by the same people and meant to go together?! I could hardly believe it and we were all very excited. We had to rearange the room a bit to make everything fit but we figured it out and it looks great! He LOVES his new bed and so do his big brothers...they are so proud of him in his big boy bed. He slept in his new bed that night and has slept ALL NIGHT long all but one night since then! He is doing so well. Naptime is a little tricky since he can get out of bed on his own now but when he gets sleepy enough, he crashed anywhere!

Here are some pics we took that night so we can cherish this milestone in his sweet little life!