Ready, Set, Go, Go, GO!

A couple weekends ago, on an outing with the boys, we decided to try our hand at the races. No, not the ponies, the GO-Carts!! Can I tell you, this is the best kept secret for 4 year olds. They have a couple kid size cars that Jacob got to drive, and he had a great time!




We later had a family date with Jacob's equally car obsessed best friend, Drew and his chaperone's and we all had so much fun!! Jacob rode with Elijah in the blue car and Noah rode with me. The teenagers that work there apparently throw caution to the wind and let any age kids ride. So both Noah and Avery got to ride!! We had such a great time!

My Superheros!

They are so cute!! All Noah wants to do is whatever his big brother is doing! Jacob has started to make the natural progression toward super hero's. He will tell you he likes Batman, Superman, Power Rangers, Spiderman and Iron Man. I am not sure who set this all in motion but it is fun. He has watched a few episodes of Power Rangers and maybe a Batman cartoon or 2, but he is pretty obsessed. He will tell you he likes cars too, but that they are not superheros.

Noah wants to be in the cool club so he follows Jacob around and submits to his daily battlefield training. They are so cute and love their new PJ's.

I really need a healthy dose of estrogen in my house. They jump off coffee tables, chase each other from one end of the house to the other, and can make a sword out of ANYTHING!

Jacob is still such a tender boy though. He has a little black and white stuffed kitten that is his baby. He also misses his "little blankie" if we are gone from the house for too long. But give him anything that is longer then 3 inches and tie that little blankie around his neck like a cape and he is in a cloak of little boy super hero madness.

They make my world a beautiful place

I was looking over some pictures, and I can not believe how fast these last 4 years have gone. Jacob is 4 1/2 and Noah will be 2 next month. Looking at pictures from when Noah was born, I cant fathom Jacob being so young. He is such a passionate good kid, sometimes I never thought we would get this far. We are making leaps and bounds with Noah. He is talking so much more now and he is such a ham. Those days when I feel like they have been in time out all day, I will look at this and remember, that they make this world a beautiful place. They are my world, they are my laughter and although sometimes I wonder sometimes where they came from, they are my kids.

Sometimes I do want them to walk the plank, but today, they were just to cute!!

I found some of those foam craft projects at Michaels the other day, and we had a bunch of fun being pirates!! arrrrr!!

Pouring Out Blessings

Wow! What a wild past 6 months!! We have had some incredible blessings come our way recently. This all started in August. Elijah got a promotion and was able to transfer off of the phones, to database programming. Then in November-ish, we found out me and my Sr. Manager at work won an award for "Delivering the Purple Promise"
It really was a team effort but the region office chose 2 of us to win the award. We basically tracked a package for a guy that was on his way to a car show and found out it was on its way to our Overgoods department in Salt Lake City. Since the trailers have to go through Amarillo via I-40 to go most anywhere, we tracked the driver down, and the other team members shuffled through 500+ packages to find this one rim for this guy so he could get on a plane to CA. So, in November we found out that along with this award, we each won $750.00. Just in time for Christmas!! We would also have the opportunity to be recognized in a banquet at the corporate office in Pittsburgh in a later time.

Well, several weeks after that, Elijah received an email regarding an idea he submitted through his companies IDEA program. The idea was that Nationwide should offer its subscribers a deductible savings plan. They are able to set aside a certain amount of thie r premium each month to go into a savings account and if they ever need it for either a house claim or vehicle claim, it is already saved and set aside within the company. I thought it was a great idea!! And so did Nationwide!! They told him that by being chosen as a great idea, he won $1000.00!! And he would be recognized in a banquet later.

We got the travel details for Elijah's banquet and noticed in one email it said among the $1000.00 already awarded, there would be 2 grand prize winners for submitting the best ideas. So, we get to Columbus, and everything was great!! We were in a very nice hotel, and we were able to tour the corporate office the next morning. We then head off for the luncheon. It was BEAUTIFUL!! The table setting so pretty and lunch was great!! After lunch, they start the award process, all in all, Elijah was the last to be called among like 12 people and he was one of the grand prize, $10k winners!! HOLEY COW!! Did this just happen?!?! I am so so proud of him!! He has really shown such perseverance and commitment to providing for his family and we have truly been blessed.

Fast forward one month and it is April 23rd. We get to go to Pittsburgh for the FedEx Purple Promise banquet. They spared no expense either. The banquet was wonderful!! We got to meet so many great people.

To make a long story not so much longer, we also just received notice that Elijah's team had some restructuring and he received a 24% raise!!

WOW!

Actions Speek Louder Than Words

I had the sweetest little moment the other day with Noah.

As many of you know, he has a speech delay that we are working on with ECI. He also had ear tubes placed and his adenoids out on Thursday April 4th.


Amazingly, we have really noticed a change. He is more willing to repeat sounds and is babbling more. He also is signing a few things very well now.

Well, the other day, I put him in bed for a nap. We have this thing where we lay down with the boys and either sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and tickle their backs, or talk about their day. So, after our routine. I was getting up and I said to Noah "Tell Momma you love me". He paused, and sat up and gave me the biggest hug. It was so sweet. He has never spoken those words, but I felt it stronger then any words could say at that moment.

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