A Day Late and A Dollar Short

Wade,
Thanks for leading our boys by example.
Thanks for being their biggest hero.
Thanks for putting the Lord first and their Mama second.
Thanks for roughhousing and wrestling with them when they need their daily dose of testosterone.
Thanks for never saying, "In a minute" when they need your attention.
Thanks for praying for them each and every day.
Thanks for being willing to make yourself look silly just to make them laugh.
Thanks for beaming with pride both times that the nurse handed you those bundles of blue.
Thanks for working your tush off to provide for them.
Thanks for being the definition of a "hands on dad."
Thanks for being more patient with them than I could ever be.
Thanks for being the most selfless man that I have ever known, and always putting yourself last.
Thanks for being our rock and the glue that holds our family together.

Daddy,
Thanks for never missing a single opportunity to say, "I'm proud of you."
Thanks for singing "Up From the Grave He Arose" at the top of your lungs while in the shower on Sunday mornings. Remembering the sound of your voice bellowing through the house makes me giggle every time that we sing that hymn in church. :)
Thanks for saying something along the lines of, "Yes, but if you hurt her, I will kill you" when Wade asked for my hand in marriage.
Thanks for making me laugh during those awkward early teen years.
Thanks for still making me feel like I'm your little girl even though I am in the 3rd decade of my life.

Terry,
Thanks for being the best Jr. High principal ever. ;)
Thanks for teaching my husband to be a man (and a pretty great one at that!).
Thanks for having a special bond with my Drew and making him feel like he is special, even though he is your fourth grandchild.
Thanks for providing us with a fun place at The Ranch to make family memories.
Thanks for being there every time that we have ever needed you.

Granddaddy,
Thanks for making me feel like a member of the family from the first time that we met.
Thanks for pretending like you loved my Christmas gift in 1995, even though you hated (and still hate) the Cowboys.
Thanks for being one of the hardest working men that I have ever known.
Thanks for providing LOTS of laughter (usually at someone else's expense) with your constant teasing, crazy antics, and booming loud voice.
Thanks for being an important link in the long line of Carpenter men that I love.

Happy Father's Day to My 4 Favorite Dads!

Another one for the Baby Book...

At the end of the year, Clayton's preschool was selling movie passes to a local movie theater. They have a very discounted summer lineup for kids. For $5 you got tickets to 10 different movies. Fifty cents a movie - what a deal!

So, on Thursday, I got brave and took both kids to the movies by myself. I was nervous about how Drew would do, but I figured that I had only spent $1.50. If worse came to worse, we could leave without feeling guilty.

The movie this week was Charlotte's Web. Perfect for Drew's first theater experience. He LOVED it! He did so much better than I thought that he would. I brought his little booster seat, and he sat happily drinking his water and eating popcorn. He would say, "giggy, onk, onk" (interpreted: piggy, oink, oink) and "gak, gak" (quack, quack) and "moo" and "baaaaaaa" to each of the corresponding animals. He had a ball!

In the last 3 minutes (right after Charlotte died), however, Baby Boy lost it. He went from happy to D-O-N-E in 30 seconds flat. I had to escort him out of the theater and leave Clayton inside watching the movie. Luckily, Clayton's preschool teacher bought movie passes too and was sitting on our row. So, I was able to let Clayton finish the movie. Otherwise, I would have had 2 unhappy campers. :)

There are 9 more movies to go, so hopefully, Drew will be an old pro by the end of the summer. In the event that he grows up to be a movie critic, I wanted to make sure that his first movie experience was properly documented. Ha!

Bringing Up Boys

When I was younger (starting around high school, I think), I would imagine what it would be like to have my own family. I always thought of myself with two little girls, for some reason. I'm sure that I imagined things that way, because that was all that I knew. I had a sister and all of my friends had sisters. I knew absolutely nothing about little boys.

I thought that I would have little girls, because that was what I was used to. I imagined them in white smocked dresses playing dolls or coloring quietly. Ha ha - what a laugh that is now!

The Lord blessed me with boys, and I wouldn't have it any other way. They are rowdy, crazy, fearless, and oh, so much fun! They have changed me in ways that a girl never could have. God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave me babies with XY chromosomes. :)
Here are a few things that I have learned in my 5 years of mothering little boys:

1. Boys are TOUGH! Injuries just don't phase them like they do with little girls. Drew fell off of the couch on Tuesday night. He cried for a few minutes and I held him to console him. He calmed down quickly and was ready to get down to play. As I lowered him down to the ground, I looked down and saw blood on my shoulder where I was cuddling him. I immediately freaked out and rushed to figure out where the blood was coming from. I quickly realized that it was from his eye. He had a big scrape on his eyelid and a bruise forming below his eye.

I was debating about taking him to the ER, but he was off and playing like nothing had ever happened. What in the world?!?!


2. Boys are hilarious! Yes, I know, that girls are funny too. Boys are just funny in a different way, I think. Their mind works totally differently than the female brain.

Yesterday morning I was in my bathroom doing my hair. Unbeknownst to me, Clayton had gotten our extra baby monitor and hooked it up. He put the monitor part in his room and the receiver in mine. He went up to his room and started talking to me through the monitor.

I heard, "Come in, Mother Bird. Come in, Mother Bird." over the crackly monitor static.

Y'all, I fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.

By the way, he heard that line from Toy Story. ;)

3. If you have a second boy, he will learn how to be a boy even earlier by watching his older brother.

When Clayton was 2 1/2, he got a Nerf gun for Christmas. It quickly became his favorite toy. I, being from an all girl household, wanted nothing to do with toy guns. I was so upset about his new found gun fascination. I taught him to call it a "blaster" rather than a gun. I cautioned him constantly about pointing his "blaster" at anyone. I feared that him playing with this Nerf gun would lead him to a life of crime. I just knew that his obsession with this gun was going to require extensive therapy.

Wow, I was wound tight.

I talked to a couple of women from church that had older boys, and they were sweet to calm my fears. One of my friends said, "If you don't let little boys play with guns, they will make other objects into guns. They'll go so far as to eat their sandwiches into the shapes of guns. It's in their DNA." She was right!

Another one told me to rely on Wade's judgment, which was also excellent advice. He knows much more about being a man than I do, obviously.

So, I succumbed to the world of "blasters." I'm still not crazy about them, but I do allow them in our house.

And... Drew has learned much faster than Clayton did.

Exhibit A:


That video alone should show you how much my two boys have mellowed me. With Clayton, I was ready to put him in therapy when he showed an interest in guns. When Drew does it, I run to grab the video camera. ;)

Three Babies and A Wedding

I feel like I am in such a fun season of life right now, especially when it comes to celebrating with my girlfriends. It seems like all of my friends are getting married or having babies - I'm loving it! I really enjoy watching my friends go through these major events in their lives and seeing how they grow and change. It's fun to watch the transformation from the sidelines and cheer them on through the process. :)

Over the last week, I have gotten to celebrate with three of my friends who are expecting babies and one who is about to tie the knot. How fun is that?!?! I'm thrilled for each of these precious ladies and look forward to seeing what the future holds for each of them.

Last Friday, I went to Katie's "Fling Before the Ring." We had so much fun celebrating our favorite bride-to-be! We went to a gorgeous lake house on Cedar Creek Lake and spent the night. We gave Katie frilly gifts and shared advice on love and marriage. We stayed up until 4 am chatting and laughing. It has been a loooong time since I was up at that hour and wasn't nursing a baby. Ha ha!

Then on Saturday, Abbey, Holly, and I took Leah out for fondue to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Miss Sadie Rose. Leah is due in just 2 1/2 short weeks! I cannot wait to hold her sweet babe! Leah is going to have to shoo me away - I'm liable to be knocking on her door every single day to get my baby fix. :)
Then on Tuesday, I got to have lunch with some of my high school buddies (two of which are expecting babies!). L to R: Tiffany (due with a baby boy in August), Julia (Tiffany's daughter) Kati (due with a baby girl in 2 weeks), Judy, Brooks (Judy's son), Clayton, Me, and Drew


I love that I have been friends with these girls for so many years (Judy & I were in the same 1st grade class, and I met Tiffany & Kati in the 10th grade). We don't get to see each other often enough, but when we do, we can just pick right back up where we left off. That's the mark of a good friendship, I'd say.

Weddings, babies, and more babies... I love this stage of life. :)

St. Lucia - The Mega Post

WARNING: This is the longest post with the most pictures that I have ever posted, and that is saying a lot from this long-winded girl. I use this blog for so many reasons - family scrapbook, baby milestones, journal, etc. Now I am adding travel log to the many uses of our blog. :) So, feel free to browse freely or skip this post all together. I promise that there will be much more concise posts in the future.
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Wade & I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary in June! I cannot believe that we have been married for that long! We both feel like this is a big milestone for us as a couple. It's something worthy of celebrating, for sure! We started talking months ago about what we wanted to do to celebrate. We LOVE traveling together, so we decided to take a second honeymoon. We have been looking forward to this trip for months.

We decided on the location together (St. Lucia), and then Wade planned the rest of our vacation from there. That is my preferred way to travel. :) We've taken several trips together in our 10 years, and he hasn't let me down yet. He definitely didn't disappoint this time, either. He found a really neat package that was through 2 different resorts - both with very different feels. The first was super luxurious, and the second was more adventurous. We got the best of both worlds!

For a whole week, someone planned and prepared all of our meals, someone cleaned up after us, and we got to play non-stop. So... pretty much we spent a week living the life of our kids. ;)

The week started off with a big surprise. When we got to the airport in St. Lucia, we passed a man that said, "Helicopter ride?" I said, "No, thank you." and kept walking. I turned around to realize that Wade had stopped and was talking to the man. Little did I know that Wade had arranged for us to take a helicopter ride from the airport to our resort.

See, I told you he was good at this stuff! ;)

Our helicopter ride gave us a "bird's eye view" of the island and all of it's beauty. It was AWESOME!

Don't I look official??? Ha!

When we landed at the helipad, a taxi took us on a short ride to our resort, Cap Maison. It was a gorgeous resort and everything was super fancy. We were greeted with champagne and escorted to our villa.

This was our villa. It was like something from a magazine!
We had the entire bottom level and our own private pool.

This was, by far, the nicest place that we have ever stayed. Wade outdid himself, for sure! I was shocked by how gorgeous it was.

Our private pool - we logged many, many hours laying by this pool.
From now on, when life gets overwhelming and I close my eyes to go to my "happy place",
this is where I will be. Ha ha!

The resort had a private beach that was awesome, too. We both love to snorkel, so we were in heaven. You just got your gear from the stand, and jumped right in. We snorkeled every day that we were there.

The cove was called Smuggler's Point, and it provided the best snorkeling that we had ever seen. We even saw an octopus! Very cool.

Wade laid in this hammock and read for 2 hours one day. He was loving life!

Sandy toes on the beach - does it get any better than that???

This was our view from the resort's restaurant where we ate every meal. It was so gorgeous!

On Tuesday, we went on a sunset cruise. It was so beautiful!

I was really worried about leaving the boys for a whole week. I was worried that I would miss them so badly that I wouldn't enjoy myself. Wade had already warned me that it was VERY expensive to use our cell phones from there - international rates are pretty pricey. So, I was worried that my communication with them would be limited.

Thankfully, both resorts had wireless internet connections. So, we were able to Skype with the kids every day. It made the week so much easier knowing that I could see their happy faces and hear their sweet voices every day. Drew was particularly cute. He would sit at the computer the entire time that we were Skyping. He would point over and over again and say, "Daddeeeeee! Mommeeeee!" I was glad to hear that he didn't forget who we were. ;)

Wade showed Clayton the rainforest via Skype.

Halfway through the week, we went to the second resort from our package, Ladera. It was totally different than Cap Maison, but very neat for different reasons. Cap Maison was right on the beach, and Ladera was up in the mountains of the rainforest.

All of the rooms at Ladera have an open fourth wall, meaning that one side of your room is completely open to the breathtaking views. I will admit, I had some concerns about that. I was worried about bugs, privacy, security, etc. The resort is built into tall cliffs and there is plenty of space between each suite, so that took care of my safety and privacy concerns. As for the bugs.... there were lots of them. There were also lizards, birds and various other forms of wildlife. But, the amazing view more than made up for the "nature" that made its way into our room. Ha!

I slept under a mosquito net for the first time.
I guess that there really is a first time for everything... :)

The resort provided a welcome basket in the room. It had all of the stuff that you would expect - bug spray, ear plugs, an electrical converter box, an eye mask, etc. It also had a water gun in it. I was confused until I read that you could use it to shoot the birds if they came in your room. Ha! ;)

This is the view that we woke up to every morning. Totally worth it!
You could see Saint Lucia's famous World Heritage Piton Mountains from our room. They are peaks formed from volcanic magma.

We took an excursion to Anse Chastanet, a black sand beach, on Thursday.
The sand is a mix of regular sand and volcanic ash. It was gorgeous!

We snorkeled at this beach also. It is said to have some of the best snorkeling/scuba diving in the entire Caribbean. We were out there for about half an hour, and we saw the most brilliantly bright colored fish. It was beautiful! I was curious about some fish that I had never seen before, though. They were long and swam pretty close to the top of the water. I motioned to Wade and he nodded that he saw them too. So, when we came back in, I asked Wade, "What were those long fish? They wouldn't have hurt us, would they?" He then proceeded to inform me that they were BARRACUDAS!!! What?!?!

I asked him why he didn't tell me while we were out there and he looked at me like I was a total moron. He said, "I just assumed that you knew." Um... no. No, I didn't.

Needless to say, I was done snorkeling for the day.

The Beautiful (but Barracuda Infested) Waters :)

On Friday, we did another excursion called the Soufriere Experience. We went to the nearby village and saw a volcano, 2 waterfalls, and a botanical garden.

The Sulphur Springs "Drive-In Volcano" last erupted in 1776, but continue to vent sulfur and heat little pools of water above the boiling point. It was truly a sight to see!

The Botanical Gardens were amazing also. There were tons of flowers that were exotic - plants you don't see everyday.

L to R: A Waxy Rose, A Crab Claw plant, and A Bleeding Heart plant

Diamond Falls

Toraille Waterfall
We got to swim in this waterfall. It was really, really cold and the water came down with so much pressure that you could barely stand up. It was refreshing after our long tour.

A View of the Town of Soufriere

The view from the resort's infinity pool - You could see the Pitons from there. The one on the left is the Gros Piton and the one on the right is the Petit Piton.

Another View of the Pitons

Our Last Night :(

We had an amazing time being just the two of us. We had long, long talks about our future. We talked about our kids, our families, our friends, our church, where we see ourselves at future anniversaries, etc. I enjoyed every second of my time with my darling husband. It was a trip that I will never, ever forget. If it weren't for the 2 big chunks of my heart that I left back in Texas, I don't know if I would have ever been ready to come home. :)

That being said, I was really ready to see Clayton & Drew by the end of the week. I'm pretty sure that I said, "I miss our babies!" about a hundred times on Saturday. ;) It was a loooong travel day with many delays and technical difficulties. My amazing in-laws drove an extra 2 hours to bring the boys all the way to Dallas and met us at 10:00pm because they knew how badly I was missing them. Isn't that sweet?!?! Thank you, Marsha & Terry for taking such good care of our boys. I appreciate you more than you will ever know!

Thanks, also, to Wade for planning such a wonderful second honeymoon. Everything was perfect - beyond my wildest dreams! I love doing life with you!