Catching up on the catch up

I have so many things I need to catch up on and so many things I want to elaborate on but for now it will be short and sweet which I think people like, right?


Troys brother and his wife sent Chandler a birthday present and BOY WAS HE EXCITED FOR IT! They sent Hinckley a gift too which I thought was very thoughtful of them. For some reason Hinckley really struggled during Chandlers birthday. I think it had a little bit to do with the fact that daddy missed his birthday this year. *SIGH* BUT HE WILL BE HERE NEXT YEAR FOR HIS BIRTHDAY!!! YAHOO!
Woops some how these got mixed up


It was a Thomas the Train pillow pet. Chandler LOVES ANYTHING TRAINS! LOVES THEM! THANK YOU UNCLE TRAVIS AND AUNT JENNY! YOU ARE THE BEST!A few Saturdays ago we took Daddy to the aquarium in town. He was such a trooper because #1 Chandler peed through his diaper on his shoulders. YUCK! #2 He watched the boys while I ran to K-mart to buy new pants for Chandler and trying to watch these 2 at the aquarium alone is tough they both want to run in different directions. Don't worry we scrubbed Troy down pretty good. Thank goodness he had the jacket picture below that he could just take off his other shirt and put this on!

After the aquarium we rode the train to the zoo but we decided to just ride it to the zoo and back I guess we were all a little tired. PS we went to show our year membership to get into the aquarium and I was shocked to find out I didn't put Troys name on it. It was one of those moments of oh yeah thats right you were gone a year... THAT SUCKED BAD. I am glad you are home. I hope none of you ever have to go through a deployment because they are horrible. WAY TO GO RACHEL D. FOR MAKING IT THROUGH WITH ME! And any other military mommas who read this blog! We have been listening to this radio station that is playing Christmas songs and there is this one song that Josh Groban sings,"I'll be home for Christmas" and it has soldiers on it saying, I am going to miss my 4 year old this year opening presents, I want to give a shout out to my family back in Alabama, Etc. Troy and I both cry like babies when it comes on. Tears of pain of him missing last year, tears of joy knowing he is home THIS year, and tears of sorrow for those still over there. GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND KEEP THEM SAFE. Okay now I am all tearing up just thinking about the song.

Okay side tracked. Sorry... Look at this picture. Is it not precious of 2 of my favorite boys?!

Doesn't Hinckley look so GROWN up in this picture. Oh man I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THIS KID! LOVE HIM TO PIECES!
This is at the aquarium steering the boat
Oh I guess I liked this picture so much I put it on here twice!
Friday nights are my absolute favorite now! I use to dread them when Troy was gone. A few Fridays ago we rented a dance wii game and laughed and laughed and laughed until I almost peed my pants. Not really since having my 2 boys something has changed with my bladder. OKAY! SORRY TMI I know but does anybody else have that problem? It totally bites! I can barely jump on a trampoline anymore.
SIDE TRACKED AGAIN! Okay I am focusing... No really I am going to focus

This is Chandler at the mall a few weeks ago. As we went in the doors we saw this little beauty just sitting there with no little kid to play with so we snatched it up and he was in HEAVEN driving it. HEAVEN I tell you
We also stopped by Best Buy. Can you tell they are related?! LOL!

Back track

A week ago on Thursday we got to meet up with Troys sister April her husband Bryant and their adorable little girls. It was short but they were headed to their new destination Texas!

Gracie brought this birthday gift to Hinckley. I mean seriously who thinks oh I need to take a gift to my nephew because it close to his bday even though I am insanely busy moving!!!! Thanks April!!

PS Do you notice Hinks has no shoes? UGH... The kid is 5 you think he would remember to put on shoes before we leave. OH WELL. At least he was dressed.

Gracie will be 3 in August... Hinckley is 5... This little girl is SO TALL!
Too cute

A much needed visit

My brother Rob and his wife Julia and their 5 kids came for a visit this past weekend. We had a lot of fun. I love their kick back attitude and easy going style. Hinckley LOVED playing with all his cousins. He thought it was just great to play all day with play mates. My nieces retaught me how to make key chains with gimp. We really enjoyed the weekend and I guess that is why I do not have a ton of pictures.

This is at our favorite place Explora!

We built the St. Louis arch, literally a second after I snapped this picture it fell.

I have other pictures on my phone but I can't upload them on here. GRRR!!!!! I HATE ANYTHING NOT APPLE. Like HATE my droid with a every fiber of my being!

A family tradition

One of my favorite things that we did when Troy was with us was to have dance parties. Oh I loved watching my dashing husband twirl around with my boys and flip them around like pancakes. We would usually do it at least once a week and it was a time for us to bond together as a family. So of course we have continued the tradition even when he is gone. So I finally pulled the camera out and took a few snapshots on our Sunday tradition.

Hinks getting jiggy with it

Hinks face totally makes me laugh
OH so precious of my Chandler

A Christmas to Remember part 3

Hinckley and Chandler woke up about the same time on Christmas. I think it was about 6 or 6:30am. And boy were they excited! We made them eat some breakfast in the bedroom before we let them loose. I was recording it on video so I didn't get much at first on camera. But I did take a ton of pictures and we had an amazing Christmas! We got to connect with Troy on webcam about 10 minutes after the boys had come out of the room. So he got to see a lot of Christmas!

Here are some fun photos of our very blessed day!

Chandler spotted his lawn mower right off the bat and Hinks spotted his garbage truck


Hinks was so excited about his stocking!

Tatie found her stocking
Chandler discovered the trains in Hinckleys stocking

Trucks that came with his awesome car carrier. I think that has been his favorite gift. Amy and Shauna gave it to him!
The madness plus Tatie
Tatie with a few of her gifts
Whoever gets Chandler up from his nap gets the best snuggles! Amy got some special ones on Christmas.
Love this one!
Classic
CHEESE!
HI MOM!
TA DAH!
Chandler and his new broom
Hinckley and his loot. Trust me I know he was spoiled.... Something about last year not being able to do a very nice Christmas and his daddy gone just got to me and I spoiled him rotten. So did his Aunt Amy!



Chandlers loot

My loot... MY AMAZING NEW RUNNING CLOTHES! And I got a subscription to Runner's World from my amazing sisters that is one of my favorite gifts and my other one was a Shumway Family book! THEY SPOILED ME ROTTEN!



Amy and Hinks playing with his new playdough thing

We were so blessed this Holiday season. Please do not think that we didn't consider the reason for the season. We really tried to make sure Hinckley understood why we celebrated Christmas. He is growing up so much and is starting to understand more each day. I am so proud of him! I hope you were all blessed this Holiday Season!