My sweetie pies

It has been a long 2 1/2 months with Brandon being gone. We have about another month until he is home for good. He has been able to come visit more weekends than I expected so that has been nice. Unfortunately he won't be home this weekend though and I'm a little bummed. Peyton has really had a hard time with it this year. She is a bit of an emotional roller coaster these days. She really misses her daddy. She understands he is in Dallas, but I don't think she really gets why he is gone. Hopefully his job will be really slow in December and we will get to spend lots of time catching up. As hard as it has been being a single parent the past few months, I still have really been having the urge to have one more baby. Ryan is getting so big..I can't believe he will be 2 in March! My dear friend Gina just found out she is pregnant and my friend Stacy is about to have her first baby so I have babies on the brain. Brandon unfortunately does not have the same desire. Any time I mention it he scoffs at the idea and really won't even discuss it with me. We have one of each and they are great...why make Ryan a middle child...they both drive you insane everyday...he has a whole list of reasons why we don't need another. I suggested that we both think and pray about it because I would like to make a decision around Ryan's second birthday. I'm not getting any younger and I don't want a huge age gap between the kids and a new baby. Plus, with Brandon's crazy time of year every year we have to kind of be specific about trying so I'm not due during that time. I would love to have another girl! Anyhow...don't know why I am putting this all out there, but there you go! I'm just really praying right now that if it isn't God's plan for us to have another that he will totally kill that desire in me. If it is though, I hope that he changes Brandon's heart and I hope something happens within the next year. My babies are so awesome, how could I not want another. These pictures are from this morning. Peyton is really into tinkerbell and little mermaid right now. She woke up and came downstairs with her tinkerbell wings on looking so cute. She said she went to sleep as Peyton and woke up as tinkerbell this morning. I love these kids!

Halloween

So this will be a short post. This past week has been a blur with Halloween and all the other stuff we've had going on. We had a trip to crowes nest farm which I didn't post about although will try later since I got some cute pictures. Brandon got home Friday afternoon and took the kids trick or treating Friday night while I worked at Treats on East Street at our church booth. We had a good time serving the community and things went very smoothly. Then I left early Sat. morning for our first ever women's retreat at Camp Buckner in the hill country. That was an amazing experience as well that will be it's own post. We had a halloween party two weeks ago that was a blast as well along with tons more pictures. As you can see, I'm a little busy these days so maybe if I'm having any trouble sleeping at night sometime soon then you will get to hear all about. As for now...I'm frantically trying to finish all the day to day stuff that I can't ever seem to do while the kids are awake. They are napping early since the lovely time change this weekend now has them getting up sometime during the 5am hour the past 2 mornings! So I will leave you with a few costume pictures. Brandon, Ryan, and I were pirates. Peyton was also suppose to be a pirate but decided (after the pirate costume was already purchased) the she really wanted to be little mermaid. That is what she is everyday around here since that is her absolute favorite disney princess but I guess she couldn't give it up for one day and match the rest of the crew. She is a cute Ariel though and we just pretended we captured a mermaid! Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Wow! This dress is amazing. Check it out!

cutie pie

We got haircuts this past weekend. Peyton got about 6 inches cut off and it looks so cute. I probably could have had them do her bob a little shorter, but I'll know now for next time. I was just really nervous about cutting it short because I love long hair on little girls. My mom always had me looking like boy with my short styles and I hated it. But, I think this style shows off her adorable little face. Ryan had a little more cut off than normal and I think he looks older too. They are growing up so fast!

Odessa and Back

I know it's been a long time since I have blogged. To be honest, I havn't had a lot of wonderfully positive things to say the past month so I thought it better to just not blog. Nobody wants to read a lot of "poor me" crap so sorry for the drought! September has been rough being a single impatient parent of two extremely needy and energetic and rebellious little ones. Brandon was out of the country for the first week and half and then in Dallas for the rest of the month and that is pretty much where he will remain until closer to Christmas. This is his crazy time of year that happens every year and I always know it's coming but still hate it! Anyhow, he is hopeful that this year he will be able to come home on weekends and I am praying that that will work out. He was here this past weekend to keep the kids so I could go to Odessa for my little brother's wedding.
Steven finally got married to a girl that he's been dating for almost 3 years. I really havn't gotten to know much about his new wife since they live in Odessa and I had met her 2 times before the wedding. Her name is Heather (she's in the red wedding dress) and she is really sweet. It was a really fast weekend...I flew in late Sat. night, they got married Sunday afternoon and I flew back Sunday night. I think they had a good time and I was glad that I was able to be there for the wedding. Here are a few pictures. For those of you who have never been to the wonderfully beautiful town of Odessa, the picture of the oil rig was what our hotel balcony opened up too. We could admire it anytime we looked out our window!

Just call us crazy!

Yes, the boat you see above will soon be in my driveway. After hearing my husband dream about having a boat for the past few years we jumped off the deep end and got one today. I guess you can't live 30 minutes from Lake Travis and not constantly be reminded that you could be partying on the water if only we had a boat. Brandon has a whole list of reasons as to why owning a boat makes perfect sense! My favorite one is how this will be a great way to bond with new people coming to our church. Our networking tool will be to hold people captive on the lake until you decide we are really cool and Jesus rules! (Just kidding) It will be a great way to make connections and spend time with people though. I can't wait to take all our friends out for a weekend. Brandon grew up with a boat and is determined to make championship skiers and wakeboarders out of Peyton and Ryan. I really thought a boat purchase would be a few years out since both the kids are still so small! But, both of mine are absolutely fearless and I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't both skiing and tubing like little pros in the next year!

Can't believe Peyton is 3!

We just celebrated Peyton's 3rd birthday on Sunday with a wonderful party at the Hoppin Hippo! We had family fly in from California and best friends in from Dallas. It was a crazy fun filled weekend. I even got Peyton to sit for her 3 year pictures which I did not expect! The past few times we've tried to have pictures made she has absolutely refused to cooperate so I was excited to get some great shots. I'll try and post birthday party pictures as soon as I can find my camera!