A Time To Reflect.....

I know....another month has gone by and I'm just now posting. I'm a terrible blogger...at least as far as posting goes. I check everyone else's on a daily basis so I'm really good at that! :)

Donnie and I had the opportunity this past Thursday evening to go to Friends University to listen to Dr. James Smith speak and my all time favorite singer Mark Schultz!!! That's why were there actually....I just love his music. For those of you that attended Donnie and I's wedding, we had one of his songs at our wedding (Time of My Life). Anyhow, it was a wonderful evening. Dr. Smith spoke about Spiritual Transformation and the new degree Friends hopes to offer in Fall 2010. I had never heard of him or read any of his books (he wrote the Apprentice Series) but he was a wonderful speaker and has the gift of speaking through telling stories. Mark sang several songs, also a wonderful and gifted story teller. As a result of that evening, I've been in a bit of a reflecting mood. We've had a few struggles the past few weeks and I have been a bit discouraged. God must've known I was in need of a good pick me up! :)

So, as I was reflecting on my life and our family. I just became overwhelmed at how blessed I am.

I just love this little guy so much I can hardly stand it.....



And this little guy.....how can you not love that face.... :)



I love that they will get to grow up together and hopefully be the best of buddies!



And this guy I love the most of all! (Really old pic!) Donnie and I just celebrated our 3rd anniversary a few weeks ago (planned on a post on that and maybe I'll still do it). I am so blessed to have him in my life! I love you honey!


And I can't forget these guys as our family isn't complete without them.....





Ah...I don't know about you, but that was refreshing for me. Good lookin bunch if you ask me! :)

My cup runneth over....

A random evening at our house.....

These pics are from about a month ago. Ok, I know I'm behind in the times, but at least I got a second post in before the month of August was over! We had a random evening where everyone spent time together in the backyard doing a whole lot of nothing. I love nights like that! I snapped pics of everything and the kids were a bit tired of that by the time I decided to take the little boys inside for the night. We started out doing garden stuff, then played a bit, then set up a tent for the big boys to camp out. So here's the pics of our evening......

A couple of things we picked.....I know, maybe not very exciting for everyone else but this is our first year to plant several different things and we get quite excited about it. May be a sign that we've aged a bit and lead not very exciting lives! :)


Justin and Bailey helped weed the tomato patch, although I don't think this was by choice...at least it wasn't for Justin anyway, Bailey loves the garden. Not sure why this pic is so blurry, but you get the idea!


Zach loves it when we head towards the garden. He runs and grabs a bucket and just picks away at whatever he can until we convince him he's helped enough or can distract him with other things. I think we could've fed another family with the number of tomatoes that boy has picked too early or demolished as soon as he picks it. But he's so proud of himself when he picks things that he has to hold it up for all to see.


Then he breaks into the garden by going through the weak little fence we have that is to keep he and the dogs out.



Harley made it through the fence too, but he was "helping!"


So look who didn't help and instead is lounging away in his father's day/birthday gift.....


Ok....so Donnie did actually help. And so did poor Taylor, not by his choice it appears! Poor guy is just dangling there!


Look at how big Mr. Taylor has gotten! Yes his checks are a bit "swollen" these days. My mom hadn't seen him in about a month and she saw him last week and said he checks were fat as soon as she saw him!




Random pic of Zach that is from another night but couldn't delete it cuz he looks so dang cute!


Taylor hangin out with mommy. Excuse my uneven hair! Other than that I think this pic is adorable. I love Taylor's expression!


Harley and Bailey joined in the family backyard gathering. Yes that would be Harley relaxing on an old couch we are getting rid of. Some would say he's a bit pampered and spoiled, but not me!



Little boys hangin out with big boys......it's great to have big brothers!




The big boys decided they wanted to campout in the backyard so they went to setting up the tent. Zach was ALOT of help in the process!


I'm "planning" on several posts this next month (no comment Barb) as it has lots of special occasions for us. We have our wedding anniversary, the 1 year anniversary of Autumn and Treyton's adoptions, Zach's 2nd bday, Trey's bday, and my niece/dad/sister-in-law all have bdays. Busy month so hope I find the time to document it all on here!

Taylor is 3 months old!!!!!

Ok....first off, so sorry for the month long absence. No excuse really. Although I did lose the cord that connects my camera to the computer so I couldn't get pics on here. Dawned on me that my son has a camera and cord so could borrow his!!! So finally an update!!!

Today happens to be Taylor's 3 momth old birthday!!!! Such a big boy! That also happens to be the exact age at which we got Zachary as a baby! He was 3 months old the day he came to live with us and we still have the gray striped pj's he wore that night. So for fun, we put Taylor in those exact pj's tonight and tried to snap similar poses that we did of Zach so we could compare their size and overall similarity in appearance. I think they look a lot alike. Zach weighed a whopping 10 pounds in his 3 month picture while Taylor checks in at 12.23 pounds! So Taylor's got a couple of pounds on his brother at this point! You can tell it in his checks too when you compare the two of them! So here they are......

So we will start with a group of Zach pics and then those will follow with a group of Taylor pics. So here's Zachy on his 3 month birthday.....




My goodness he was so little and he's gotten so big! Sniff....

And here's Taylor-boy's comparison 3 month pics.....




3 month pics of Zach laying down.....had I of known I would be taking pictures of his little brother in 18 months to compare the 2 of them, I would've taken a few more!



Taylor 3 months laying down......he wouldn't recreate Zach's exact pose no matter how hard we tried. I couldn't get him to do the arms above the head thing. Got close a couple of times!






And if those didn't make you think those 2 are brothers who look alike.....here's recent pics of the 2 of them together. These were taken on July 4th.




I could just eat them up they are so darn adorable!

I have lots of catching up to do....and will very soon! Promise! But it's late and I have 2 little boys with colds so sleep has not been our friend for a couple of nights. I'm assuming tonight will be no different so off to bed I go!

What happened while I was away.....

Well I'm back from camp and I survived my week away from my boys....all 5 of them! :) Donnie brought all the boys out to visit me mid-week which helped me get through the week! I had a great time at camp, but missed everyone at home terribly! Donnie was very brave and took a 5 hour road trip with the boys to go visit his brother and his family in Texas for a few days. He took some fun pics which I thought I would share. Both of the little boys changed so much while I was gone, see for yourself......

Taylor looks like a different baby to me since I got home! His face has filled out so much since I left and I think he looks so much like Zach's baby pictures now that he has a little meat on him! Here's a couple pics Donnie took while they were in Texas last week......



Zach appearantly grew up enough in my absence to become a swimmer!!!!! Donnie told me on the phone he was a maniac in the pool, but the pictures give a much more terrifying image for this mommy!

He started at the edge of the hot tub and became quite the dare devil in my opinion......








After gaining a little confidence he moved on to bigger challenges...THE BIG DIVING BOARD!!!!! I love his jumping action, but glad I wasn't there to witness it as I would've had a heart attack!



Ummmmm, where's my boy Donnie??????


Zach apparently loved it and is climbing out to head back to the board for some more....


So both grew up in my absence! One I'm so sad I missed as he looks so big to me, the other I'm pretty sure it was better I was absent as he wouldn't have gotten to have near as much fun if his mommy would've been there! :)

To see a few more pics of the boys, click on my sister's blog on my sidebar (Cummings Chronicle's). She has some pics from when we were at my parent's house over Memorial Day Weekend.