He Went to Jared!

Allan and I celebrated our two years together on March 21st. We had Nathan that weekend so we decided to postpone our dinner plans to the following weekend. (We love our weekends we have Nate, so we try not to plan date nights on those weekends, we save those for when he is at his dads.)

We decided to go out to dinner on Saturday, March 27th. Earlier that week Allan asked me if I thought it would be fun to go to the Botanical Gardens during the day since it was supposed to be really nice out. I thought it would be nice so a plan was set. Little did I know Allan had much more planned than I thought.

That morning Allan went out the store and bought some picnic finger food so that we could sit, have a snack, and enjoy the Gardens. On the way out there he mentioned that our friends Jamie and Scott were talking about going the the Gardens that weekend too because they had a really neat butterfly display going on. Sure enough when we arrived and found our spot, there was Jamie and Scott. We invited them to sit and enjoy a snack with us. After about 20 minutes Allan asked me to go for a walk with him. I complained because I didn't have any shoes on, but he insisted. Stubborn me jumped up and started walking towards him barefoot. Next thing I heard was, "Hey guys!" I turned around and saw Ed, Jenn, and Joe walking towards us. Then I knew!! Allan was up to something and I knew it was something big.

This is us walking towards the beautiful water fountian in front of the pond there.

Allan kept having to tell me to breath and relax. HAHA!

Here Allan is professing his undying love for me! :)
He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!
I of course said, YES!!!
This is me crying tears of complete happiness.
Showing off my ring to all our friends.
After the proposal we all went back to the blanket and celebrated. Toasts and congratulations were said by all. It was a very neat experience to have our friends there to celebrate with us.
I love him so much! I have found my soulmate.

I coudn't wait to get on the phone and call my mom.

Allan has changed my life in so many ways. He is my constant, steady rock. He is my best friend and my soulmate. I am so blessed to have him in my life and I thank God everyday for giving me my Allan.

The First of Many...

(DISCLAIMER: Post contains graphic pictures, not for the squeamish)

The first of many hospital visits for injuries, that is.

Yes, I have a boy and he is all boy.

If he is not Kung Fooing this, then he is Karate choping that. If he is not on his scooter, then he is on his skateboard. If he is not jumping off the side of the couch, then he is jumping off of a chair. If he is not sliding around the ceramic floor in his socks, then he is begging to have ice skates on and be at the rink. And so on, and so on. You get the idea.

The great part however is that Nate rarely ever gets hurt when he is being his rough and tough self. I am very blessed in that way, or should I say HE is the blessed one!!

You would think that when I got the call Saturday that Nate had gotten hurt that I would be surprised and upset but I took it rather well. Nate's dad called me around 3:30 p.m. Saturday (I was camping with Allan and friends) and told me Nate hit his head, but he was ok and for me not to freak out. My first thought was he was riding his bike and he fell off, or he was rough housing and bumped into something. Well, he bumped into something alright. The wall. Not because he was being a rough and tough dude, but just simply by walking and not watching where he was going!! What a kid! Anyways, everything was ok. The bleeding had stopped and Nate was bandaged up. Great! I talked to Nate and he was a bit upset, but nothing a little Mom love over the phone couldn't fix. I hung up and went on with the camping trip.

4 hours later, Allan checked my phone and noticed I had missed many calls. It was 7:30 at this point and most of the calls were from Jon. I called him immediately only to find out that they were sitting in the emergency room. Nate's cut apparently hadn't stopped bleeding and Jon felt that Nate needed stiches. I couldn't grasp why after 4 hours would he need stiches now. It wasn't until Jon sent me a picture to my phone and that is when I lost it.

Now if you don't like open cuts and such here is where you should stop reading. I am showing you a before picture and then an after picture.

Now this picture freaked me out!! How could you not think that this didn't need stitches!! After an hour of talking on the phone with Jon, and Nathan begging me to come to the hospital, I left the campgrounds in Fort Worth and drove to Baylor in Irving. I got there in plenty of time for the Doctor to tell us that Nate in fact needed stitches.

My little trooper did amazing. He and I went on an imaginary safari and talked about all of the animals we would see. Before he knew it, Nate was the proud owner of 4 stitches right in the middle of his forehead!

We did get a good laugh telling Nate that he now looks like Harry Potter. I personally am hoping it won't scar too bad. I am putting all of the Neosporin I can on it now, and I am already preparing creams and such for when after the stiches come out to hopefully eliminate as much scarring as possible!

BOYS!!

OUR American Girl

For Christmas Megan got an American Girl Doll, but instead of picking one out for her we let her pick out the one she wanted.

This is her jumping up and down when she found out where we were.

I had to make her stand still long enough to get a clear picture.
She had a really hard time trying to decide which doll to get.

Megan got a little help from daddy.

Here is daddy showing Megan a doll that looks just like her.

Finally, Megan picked out her very own American Girl Doll.

I think they look a lot alike. Don't you??

Megan LOVES her doll! She didn't put her down the rest of the time they were here. Megan even lined up their shoes together.

Wordless Wednesday!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was so amazing this year. Allan and I surprisingly woke up before the kids. After sitting in the living room for a while waiting, we couldn't stand it anymore and went and woke the three of them up.

This was taken Christmas Eve.

Here is the tree with all the presents.
Megan opening her presents.
What did you get Nate??

Opening the family gift! What did Santa bring us?

It's a Wii!

What did you get Ethan?

After we opened presents and had breakfast at home we went to Grandma and Pa's house to have Christmas with the family. Here are the kids with Grandma and Allan playing Go Fish.

That weekend we loaded up and drove to Tyler to have Christmas with Allan's family. His mom was so excited to see us and the kids had a great time opening even more presents.

Allan and I are blessed with the most amazing kids. They were so greatful for everything they got for Christmas. Next year will be a little different though because we will have no kids with us on Christmas. Hmmm....maybe we should plan a trip somewhere.

THEY'RE HERE!!

Or at least they were. Megan and Ethan actually left a few weeks ago but I am finally trying to catch up all my posts now that I have all of my pictures loaded into the computer. I am going to try and do a post a day until I am all caught up.

And so the story begins...

Allan left for Pennsylvania on December 23rd to pick up Megan and Ethan and bring them down here for Christmas. The plan was for him to leave here around 2 p.m. and land in Harrisburg, PA around 9 p.m. He was going to hang out in the airport until the kids arrived the next morning to take their 10 a.m. flight back to Texas. They were to arrive here about 3 p.m. The plan was for Nate and I to pick the three of them up at the airport and have a happy 2 hour drive to Tyler, Texas to spend Christmas Eve with Allan's mom and family. Santa was going to come to Tyler for the kids and then after lunch we were to make the 2 hour drive back to Ft. Worth to have Christmas with my family. Picture perfect plan, right?? But it didn't go that way AT ALL!!

Here's the REAL story...

Allan's plane didn't leave Ft. Worth until 3:20 p.m. which only gave him a 10 minute layover in Chicago, IL instead of and hour and a half layover. Needless to say he missed his flight. PANIC! He quickly went to the ticket counter to see what they could do about it. The problem was the next flight to Harrisburg, PA wasn't until the next morning. It wouldn't arrive until 9:20 a.m. and his flight with the kids was scheduled to leave at 10 a.m. Him and I both agreed that it was too close for comfort. I immediately began looking up different flights to other area airports. There was a flight from Chicago to Baltimore late that evening and it would put him in Baltimore about midnight. He could then rent a car and drive it one way up to Harrisburg. It's only a hour and an half drive. After talking with the ticketing agent they booked him the flight to Baltimore. Turns out it was a better option anyways since they could only put him on stand-by for the morning flight to Harrisburg....or so we thought.

Allan had to wait in the airport for 3 hours to take the plane out of Chicago to Baltimore so I got busy trying to find him a last minute car. I also had to call the actual car company to make sure they would stay open late enough for him cause he only had 30 minutes to get from his arrival gate to the car rental place. (If you've ever been to Baltimore, you have to take a shuttle from the airport terminals to the car rental counters.) The car company assured me they would wait. Sigh of relief, or so I thought again. His flight to Baltimore was delayed and it didn't arrive until 1 a.m. He immediately called the car company himself and told him he landed. They said they would wait, and they did.

He got to the counter, filled all the paper work out, and handed over his card to pay. Now, we don't rent cars all that often so we had no clue that they put a hold on more than the amount of the actual rental and Allan's debit card fell $50.oo short. PANIC again. He calls me and I have a credit card I could give him to put the hold on, but they won't accept a number over the phone. Allan had to physically have the card. So he started down the line of rental car companies and no one would help him. So, here is Allan stranded in Baltimore at 1:30 in the morning with no car and no way to get to Harrisburg to get his kids and take the flight home at 10 a.m. I am at home with no way to help him. I have never felt so helpless in my life. I immediately started calling tons of taxi companies to see how much it would cost for them to take him to Harrisburg. They wanted over $300! Ouch! Finally at 2:30 a.m. he called the kids mom and asked her if she would come and pick him up in Baltimore before she took the kids to Harrisburg. (Her and the kids live in Chambersburg, PA. Harrisburg, Baltimore and Chambersburg form a triangle on the map.) She agreed to come get him! Hallelujah! Allan slept a few hours in Baltimore and I didn't sleep a wink until he called me to tell me she had arrived and they were on their way to Harrisburg. But the story doesn't end there!!

Allan, Megan, and Ethan had a layover in Detroit. They got to Detroit just fine and were due back in Ft. Worth at 3 p.m. except they ended up having a delay in Detroit because of SNOW IN TEXAS!! Yep, it snowed on Christmas Eve in Texas!! Allan and the kids were not going to get here until 6 p.m. Just enough time for the snow to fall like crazy and the roads to get all messy. I had already had the car loaded with all the presents (4 heavy boxes) and our overnight bag. At this point I still thought we were going to Tyler, despite my mom calling me and warning me how bad it had gotten outside. So I packed a couple sleeping bags in case something happened and we needed to stay warm. I also packed water, snacks, the adapter for my phone to charge it just in case. I left the house at 5:45 p.m. to head to the airport, made it down to the end of Mustang Drive, and called my mother to assure her we would not be going to Tyler!

I got to the airport to find a van sideways on the ramp I needed to get to terminal E so I went to terminal C to see if Allan and the kids could get to me. While I was there waiting channel 11 news did a news report and Nate and I were seen on T.V. in the background. I was on the phone with my mom and she turned the news on and saw us!! HA! Finally, Allan called me and said I had to find some way to get to him. The airport had closed all the bridges down but opened up the service roads. I made it to terminal E, gave Allan, Megan, and Ethan the biggest hugs and kisses ever, and we all headed home.

Here is a picture of the kiddos after they arrived!

We had Christmas morning with just the five of us and it was all I could have ever asked for after the last 24 hour fiasco. Stay tuned for tomorrows posting of our Christmas morning.

I Haven't Forgotten!

I'm sure by now everyone is wondering where all my Christmas post and such are. During Christmas I was so busy with all three kids that I didn't even have time to think about posting. Then all three of us (Allan, Me, and Nate) came down with a cold. Poor Nate ended up with an ear infection and has been on antibiotics. He is much better and back to his silly self. Now that things are settled and quiet I'm ready to post and show picutures, but forgetful me left my camera at a friends house last weekend with all the pictures still on it. I promise a post and to get caught up very soon.