Max....

So Max is still not home! It has been 3 1/2 days, he has not ever been gone this long! :( I have a feeling that he won't be home .... as I am writing this Tim just called me here at work and said that Max is home! OMGosh Gavyn is going to be ecstatic!!! And guess what?? He has his new necklace on still! I thought that thing would be long gone even if he did return home! Now lets just hope that this new kennel we built holds up to him. Oh, I am so excited!

Not too much new, really. Teagyn is begining to have quite the vocabulary. He is saying "uh oh", "brother", "all done", "mommy", "daddy", "doggie" (along with the ruff ruff sound). He is sooo cute! He is still just as patient as he was the day he was born! I guess it probably comes right along with being the second born. With Gavyn I went to his every beckoning whim! Teagyn just knows that Mommy is busy at the moment and I will get to him as soon as I can.
Gavyn is a handful right now! His listening skills need some work! Not to mention ALOT of patience from Tim and I. Which does not always come easy! He can be down right mean to Teagyn! It frusterates me to no end. I think that he is just at that age and a boy! I can't wait until he is old enough to start karate. He needs some place to put his aggresion! This too shall pass, as my Mom says! :)
I am enjoying my new schedule! I LOVE working every 3rd weekend (so does Tim, as he has both boys)! Our benefits have changed too and that is huge, less cost and more coverage. With gavyn and all of his "accidents" and sutures we need it. He is an accident waiting to happen!
Tim is running a 4 man crew now instead of a two man crew! He likes it. It keeps him out a little later at night but is very good experience for him, I think. Besides the boy is so driven he NEEDS something to do all of the time! Work-aholic! I am not complaining, he is so good to us!
I will get some pics up here as soon as I am done working for the week, after tomorrow, I am off for 6 days! Yeah!!!

Please take the time...

to watch this and pass it on to any young loved ones you may have that could be influenced with inhalants! This is my cousin Mike that passed away a few weeks ago (a friend of his put it together). Many of you know how hard this has been for my family. I think we have now taken to the grief process to make awareness for young kids to understand that this can happen to them too! The coroner believes that this was quite possibly only the 2nd time he used!!!!

This weekend....

We have been working this weekend. We got ANOTHER dog last week so we needed a better kennel to put 2 dogs in. So we expanded our old kennel. Here are a few pics of last night we dug all of the holes for the posts, it was alot of work. Tim and I finished around midnight! Today a few friends came over and helped him get it all put together. It looks awesome! In the next few weeks we will pour some concrete in the there. The dogs- Max and Charlie- will be living the high life! That is if Max comes home.....again. That's right he took off again! I am ferious! This dog seriously has a driving force to not be tied down. For those of you that don't know we have been having alot of trouble(to say the least) keeping Max home. We paid $75 last week to bail him out of doggie jail! So last night I went to Jenison to pick up a shock collar for Max off from Craig's list. And guess where that shock collar is right now? On Max- who knows where! $80.oo quite possibly right down the drain!! If he comes home without it around his neck, I don't know what I am going to do! He just kills me! You can see the collar in this pic below.

Teagyn had his first OREO cookie tonght. I was shocked at how clean he was about eating it! Gavyn was covered with it when he had his first one .

Tonight, Tim went to meet up with an old High School friend to have a few beers. So, Gavyn and I painted pumpkins. We have quite a few from our garden so why not! I am sure we will be doing this again. He had fun! Note the paint on his lips and teeth, LOL!

Do you do this????

Or am I just....weird?! Okay so I am at work tonight and talking with my girls here I was telling them this story: Yesterday morning at breakfast Gavyn, Teagyn and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast when Teagyn shivered. Gavyn giggled and said "Teagyn went pee". A few minutes later Gavyn shivered and said "Gavyn went pee" giggle, giggle. Then he said "Does mom have to go pee?"
The girls here were laughing at me because I told them that I too usually shiver after I have gone "pee". Out of 4 of us I (and my boys) are the only ones who apparently do this. I thought everybody did this! So I know that this is a silly question but is there anyone else? Come on- fess up! :)

***Update***
I have found some that do this too! I am glad to know that I am not alone (Mary). Speaking of Mary, don't forget your Sunday "project"! I am waiting! :)

Potty training....

Is not too far off! I got this pic of Gav tonight! He is starting to tell us from time to time that he has to go "pee"! He doesn't always go but at least he is begining to understand the feeling! If anyone has any pointers for me I will gladly welcome them!

I couldn't get this to post with the one below so here it is...

Like Mommy, like son....

This is my little coffee clone. For those of you that really know me know that I cannot start day without my coffee! I LOVE it! Gavyn will ask me every morning if it's warm yet (as opposed to hot), so he can have a drink! Love this kid!

I have a cute video of Gav and "my" coffee cup but can't get it to post- I will try later!

It's been awhile.....

I have been so busy between working and school this week. I had to work all weekend, but was able to get someone to cover the last few hours of my shift on Saturday to go to my neice's 2nd birthday party at Collins Park. It was such a beautiful day and the kids had a riot!

Happy Birthday Soraya- We love you, hunny!

Gavyn escorting Sorays in her new Barbie Jeep!

Gavyn was not too into the pic as you can see!

This one of Gavyn is for all of you who have said to me "you HAVE to have a girl" ! Gavyn dresses just as a girl would! LOL, My boots, Daddy's camoflage gloves, and target shooting glasses! Ha ha! This picture makes me laugh! Typical Gavyn! :)

This one's for you Shelly...

I came across this today. Remind you of Ethan? :) Boys will be boys, right?!

OMGosh.......

So I should have known this day would come, with all of the haircuts Gavyn has seen me do! Yep, that's right, yesterday Gavyn cut Teagyn's hair! AHHHH! I was fearious! I had just cut it on Friday and Teagyn looked so handsome with his new short hair cut! Here are some pics of the damage! :) I know that we will look back someday and laugh and I already am finding some humor in it! I tried to fix it but I am NOT willing to shave it, which is how short Gav cut it so I jsut did the best with what I had, it will just have to grow out! :(





I finally have Gavyn on video singing Kenny Chesney's "Back where I came from". The lyrics he is singing are (and in no particular order): "Back where I come from, its where i'll be when it's said (six) and done". "T.V.'s they were black and white". "paint your name on the water tank". It is hilarious how he try's to be in "tune"! I will cherish this video forever!

a few new pics....

So here is a pic Gavyn's sutures! He has said very little about them. I am surprised, I thought he would make a big deal out them, but as you can see he is even wearing his beloved Tigers hat! All in all, he has 2 inside and 5 on the outside. It was a pretty good gash! I didn't really explain what happened in the last post. The boys and I were on our way home from Hastings - the funeral - stopped off at Walmart real quick for diapers, Gav was running, tripped and fell....into a shelf, head first! Viola.... a nice big gash! :(

Love these guys!

Teagyn- he looks like this almost every minute of EVERY day!

About a month ago I put together this chart that was meant to be a motivator for Gav to 1. be nice to Teague 2. brush his teeth morning and night 3. pick up toys. Every night at bed time he gets to put a stickerr on the chart. If at the end of a two week period he has all or at least most sticker's, we go to target and he gets to pick out a toy of his choice (within reason)! I cannot believe what a difference it has made in his behavior! So this week Gavyn picked out this semi.

Today is such a rainy day and I love it! I love, love, love the rain. Tim thinks I am crazy! Hope you are enjoying the rain too!

Emotionally drained.....

Today, I had to go to a funeral for my 17 year old cousin, Michael Meek. I am humbled by the day right now for many reasons. The amount of teenagers that were at this service was overwhelming! There came a point in the funeral home when the pastor came to the front before the service started asking that the "kids" come to front, gather around the casket, and have a seat on the floor. Before long there was not a bare spot on the floor in the entire funeral home! The hallways were lined with all of mike's friends sitting and standing all the way out too the door! The service was very touching, the pastor had a lot of encourageing words for all of the young people there. In the sence of where they were at with God! My Grandma Meek stood up ,when the pastor asked that anyone that had someting to share about Mike to please take the time to share, she told of some fun memories she had of and with Mike, then she asked for all of the kids to raise their hands who had asked God into thier hearts, since Michaels death..... almost all of those kids raised their hand (a few days prior to the funeral all of Mike's friends held a candlelight vigil at the skate park where often hung out - the youth pastor from the church where Michael had attended was there and aked that anyonr who wanted to change the path that they were on to say a prayer with him, to ask God into their hearts)!!! I could hardly breath when I saw the flood of hands in the air! You see Mike made a fatal (sp) mistake the night he died, he was "huffing" an inhalant. His Mom found him the next morning unresponsive in his bed when his alarm kept going off! My uncle Matt, Mike's dad, said to me last night when I was home with my family that if he had to sacrifice his son to have even one other child follow christ then he was a lucky person. He definately received more than that today! It was heart wrenching to see all of those kids in so much pain. Not to mention my family, in the last 8 years we have had 4 deaths 3 of them have been sudden accidental and young deaths. We are strong and God is strong! I will follow him ,not always without question in times like this, but he is almighty and I believe that he has reasons for all things! Some day we will al know those reasons and reunited our loved ones!
Sorry if this is all over the place but that is really how my head feels right now as well! I tried to lay in bed tonight and just couldn't shut it off, so here I am pouring it all out to my blog... thanks for listening!
One more thing as if my day cannot get any worse..... after the burial, the boys and I were heading back to Holland from Hastings, I needed diapers so I stoppped at walmart in Hastings, Teagyn was in the cart, Gavyn was walking, we went back got our diapers headed to the front of the store when Gavyn was running tripped and fell, hitting his head on a shelf. I knew from the moment that Ipicked him upit was not good I pried his hand from his head and blood just came gushing out!!!! He has a very large laceration to his head . blood is going everywhere he was freaking I was running to the front of the store when i almost took this lady and her daughter out with my cart! I said, with the most pathetic face I am sure, will you please help me I need papper towels or something! She came right along with me a lady at the checkout was getting it out as soon as she saw all of the blood. I ditched my cart with the diaper box in it at the cash register. This woman followed me out to my jeep with Teagyn put him in his carseat offered to drive us to the hospital so I could hold pressure with the towel to gavyn's head I thanked her told her that I would call my Mom, as I had just left her a few minutes prior to that as we had been at a funeral for my cousin- so I knew she was still in town, I hugged her and said "God bless you for helping me" Got in my jeep and went to the ER. My mom met me there shortly after that. It was dinner time- Teagyn and Gav were hungry, we had had the longest day as it was, no naps for either of the boys, Teagyn was NOT going to sit there so my Mom said I will got to walmart with Teagyn and get you diapers-I only has 1 left! I thanked her she left and returned not even 2 minutes later with a box of diapers. You can imagine the look I gave her she couldn't have possibly gone and been back. She looked at me and said the lady that helped you at Walmart dropped these off here for you at the front desk......for the second time in one day I was breathless! I am truly blessed to have that woman's help, and I don't even know her name......

Teagyn is begining to walk!

In the last few weeks slowly Teagyn has been taking more and more steps! Soon he will be all over the place- the fun begins:) It is amazing how fast kids learn. Last Friday my mom kept the boys over night so Tim and I could have a much needed night out. We had such a nice night, we went to the Currah downtown walked all down 8th street (there is something so nostalgic about that place to me) stopped off at Ben and Jerry's for some ice cream. Then went to Logan's and ran into some friends that we had not seen in about a year, it was so nice to hang out and catch up with them! So on Saterday when I went to Hastings to pick up the boys, they were outside with my Mom and Grandma, and much to my surprise Teagyn walked about 8 or 9 steps to me! Overnight, just like that.

Then there is the wild man. This face says it all about Gav! He is C-R-A-Z-Y, in every aspect of the word. No fear! I love this pic.

These pics are of Teague playing peek-a-boo.... SO cute. Love this little man!

So, I know this is a long post... but I think this video is cute! Teagyn is showing off all that he knows, from "hi kitty", waving bye bye, to putting his fingers together for itsy bitsy spider (if you can just get past my singing and talking, lol, it is cute)!

Okay I can't get it right now will try later!