Eight Years!

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary! I cannot believe we have been married for 8 years! I know it sounds very cliche, but each year seriously keeps getting better. I could not ask God for a better husband and daddy! Nathan is an amazing husband, and such a good leader for our family. Not to mention, he is my best friend! Happy Anniversary, Natie--I love you!!!

pictures:)

Here are some more recent pictures of our 3 sweeties. Layla is doing really well--she is a great baby! And Kaine and Halle continue to love her!

Little Layla:)

Kaine and Halle like to entertain me by "dancing" on this coffee table. Kaine loves to make really silly faces to make me laugh:)

Kaine has been my "babysitter" lately. He just sits on the bed and talks to Layla--it is sooo cute! He likes to place pillows all around Layla so that she is "safe." I paid him a quarter the other day and he was really excited about that!

Kaine and Halle "playing" with Layla

After Layla's bathtime--she really doesn't like baths too much, but afterward she is so sweet and cuddly!

Halle playing in her "boat" with her animals

I was so excited the other day to see Layle sucking her thumb! When Halle was a little baby she would put herself to sleep so well because she sucked her thumb! So I am hoping Layla picks up this skill.

This might be the first "awake" picture of Layla that I have posted! She is more alert each day!

Halle was being cute with these sunglasses:)

Have a great week, everyone!!

Layla Raine

We are so thankful that God has blessed us with another sweet baby! Last Monday, November 23, Layla Raine was born at 10:13 am. She was 6 lb 5 oz (our smallest baby!) and 20 inches long. I would have to say it was my easiest, most painless delivery yet (gotta love those epidurals!!) But seriously, not to be too graphic, but one halfhearted push and she slid right out! So that was a blessing, too!! Anyway, she is doing great--a little sweetie. Kaine and Halle seem to really love her, too. Here are some pictures:)

What a sweetheart!

The classic "yawn picture"

Proud Daddy!

Proud Mommy!

We were so thankful that our hospital lifted the ban on kids under 18 visiting! Just a few days before Layla was born they changed the rules, so we were so excited that Kaine and Halle were able to come and see Layla in the hospital!

Kaine just loves his new sister!!

He was even so kind to share his stuffed animal with her! (if you can't tell, Cheetah is laying on top of Layla)

Halle is fascinated by Layla--she is constantly touching her eyes, nose, hair, hands, etc and saying "nose" "eyes" etc. It is so cute! (at least, until Halle pokes Layla in the eye--poor little thing, she will have to be a tough child!)

Nathan taught Halle to burp Layla

Well, I was trying to get a cute picture...as you can see, it wasn't working so well:)

Sweet little Layla :)

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with Layla!

more random stuff

Another original title, huh? As you may have guessed, I feel just really busy lately! I guess that would be why I hardly ever blog anymore! As a result, my posts have been consisting of just...random stuff:) Hence the title!

This picture was taken a few weeks ago...Nathan and Aaron went frog-gigging. Kind of a brutal sport, if you ask me, but they had a blast! Bless my mom, she let them bring the frogs in to her kitchen counter and butcher them! I guess we will be eating frog legs sometime soon. Or I should say, the guys will be eating them. I really don't think I have it in me!

Nathan ran in the Parlor City Trot again this year! I am super proud of him--he came in tenth! Here is my dad and Halle waiting for Nathan to finish.

Great job, honey! I am so proud of you!

This is from our annual Grabill Days (the Grabill Country Fair). Once again, we just loved going to the fair! It is such a good, hometown fair, and really fun. I hope Lisa doesn't mind me posting this picture, but this is from the blueberry pie eating contest. Nathan and our assistant, Lisa, both competed. It was so fun to watch!

The housedads on campus are so competitive! This is Ryan, Nathan, Bruce, and Joe doing the sack race. Joe won this race, and Nathan came in third. Great job, Natie!

The guys with their ribbons:)

Halle being her usual adorable self at the fair!

Kaine climbed this rope bridge--it was so cute! He took such careful steps and concentrated so hard! What a sweetie:)

And he also got to ride the kids' ferris wheel, which he loved!

A week or 2 ago, Nathan filled up our little pool with warm water. Kaine and Halle love swimming! By the way, Halle is actually happy in this picture...this is her new "cheeeeeese" face. It is so funny! If I ask her to say "cheese" this is always what I get:)

Halle did not appreciate this piece of grass on her finger!

My 2 boys...I love them:)

Kaine is "skiing" down the slide and of course, Halle is saying "cheeese!"

These pictures are from a great little park in Grabill. We often ride our bikes there on our days off. They have this really cool train that Kaine loves to "drive"

Halle's face the whole time she rides the merry-go-round:)

They are loving the merry-go-round! I used to love it as a kid, too. My dad was an awesome pusher!

This picture cracks me up. We took Kaine and Halle bowling on our day off, and we had to get them both bowling shoes. Halle's were a few sizes too big, and she looked adorable! This is a very exaggerated "cheeeese" pose, along with her dorky shoes:) (and her stomach hanging out!)

Kaine loves to climb!

My 2 studs again:)

Hopefully I won't have so much randomness in the next post! Have a great day, everyone!

random stuff

Well, I have been politely persuaded by my wonderful sister in law to blog something new! And Jenna, you are right--I see it has been more than a month since I last posted something! Sigh. Life is busy. Anyway, this post will just be some random stuff that we've done lately. There will probably be quite a few pictures, but I guess that's just what happens when you go a whole month without a post! Oh well:)

A few weeks ago, Grabill Missionary Church put on this great free carnival. We happened to be off duty and we saw a sign for it, so it worked out for us to take Kaine and Halle. It was so fun! Kaine and Halle absolutely loved it! There was a fire truck parked at it, and kids could sit inside and see it. It was neat--Kaine and Halle thought it was cool to sit on the front.

Kaine got to ride the rides. It was so great, because they were all free! Not that they were overly exciting rides, but they were perfect for a 3 year old!

Halle wanted to ride the airplane with Kaine, but she was too little:( She really tried to get over the fence!

However, she did get to go with Kaine in this blow up thingy that they just bounced around in. :)

And she had a blast!

This was a far away picture, so you can't see his face too well. But Kaine went down this SUPER steep and very fast slide--so fast that he flipped when he got to the bottom. And let me tell you, it scared him sooo bad! He hated that thing! And here I am, taking pictures of him :) Poor little guy. It was kind of funny though, because I was holding Halle while I was watching him go down the slide, and when he got to the bottom he fell into my arms sobbing. Of course, this made Halle very upset, too, so I was sitting at the bottom of the slide holding 2 wailing kids.

They even had free food! Kaine and Halle loved the popcorn.

Here is Halle stuffing her face with popcorn!

Okay, this is another day. It was pouring down rain, and Kaine and Halle were having a blast playing in it! Halle was loving it:) Can you tell she is saying, "cheese"?

Here is Kaine dripping wet on his bike

Another new subject:
Nathan and I took a trip, just the 2 of us, to Gatlinburg! It was great to get away! Thanks to our wonderful parents for watching Kaine and Halle!

Okay, let me explain this picture. I was so proud of myself for getting a great deal on a hotel room--$59 per night, and it was buy 2 nights get one free! So we stayed 3 nights and only paid about $120 plus tax--not bad:) Well, on the website the hotel looked super nice--and it was. However, the reason our room was so cheap is because it was in the building across the street. Nathan was proud of his photography skills, taking this picture to make our hotel seem as trashy and unattractive as possible:) It was pretty funny, actually. The hotel's pool area and stuff was really nice, but we just had to walk across the street. So here is a picture of the good deal I got on our hotel room. Notice our car is the only one out front? It was kind of creepy at night:)

We hiked Laurel Falls, which is supposed to be an easy hike. And it was pretty easy, but it really made me realize just how out of shape I really am! I am soooo glad we didn't decide to hike Chimney Tops! I don't know if I could have made it!

We ate Subway for lunch on a big rock in the river.

After our Subway lunch, we went rock hopping. Nathan was the brave one who decided to get in the FREEZING cold water! I got in up to my knees:)

He had a lot of fun sliding down this big rock into the freezing cold river. I sat on a rock and took his pictures:)

Kaine really wanted us to find him a bear, and this is the best we could do! Thanks for a great trip, Natie! I had a great time with you!

So, this is what we have been up to lately. Hopefully I won't go so long before I blog again:)