Michigan/December Pictures

We had a wonderful time with friends and family while in Michigan. Here are some pictures that highlight our trip.

Michigan Trip

We are looking forward to our upcomming trip to Michigan. We have been practicing all of the names of our family and friends. They know that we are going to be seeing family soon and ask about it often. Please pray for a safe trip and that the kids don't get too bored with the long drive. Please don't take it personal if we don't get to you over the holidays. We are going to try our very best to see everyone, but we don't want to stretch ourselves out too much.

Bekah is getting used to routines and was very cute this morning. Yesterday we were all home. Bill and I both had the day off. When Bekah woke up she said "go to church mommy?" She is so used to having Saturday at home and then going to church the next day. She made me proud. Yesterday while eating dinner she said "mommy... Jesus loves me!" Moments like these remind me of how blessed we are to be parents. I'm so thankful to have these moments, even the frustrating times of parenting are made a lot easier.

Billy has a double ear infection for the second time in less than 6 weeks. He was a good sport when we went to the Dr. He has been very sweet while he has been sick. Bill and I have both enjoyed the snuggling he has been asking to do. He loves making people laugh and having us name things for us. We are organizing the kids closet and found one of Bill's machbox cars. Billy has been having a blast playing with Daddy's car. When we find the rest of them we will get them out for him.

Please continue to pray for us with parenting and growing a Christian family. Everyday we are blessed with joys and new challenges.

Much needed updates

Sorry we have been MIA for so long.

September 24th-26th Erica and I went to a Women's Retreat. We had a blast! Our rooms reminded us of dorms and we wondered why we didn't room together in college.

On Saturday, October 30th we went to Dallas to trick-or-treat. We were able to see Aunt E (she was passing out candy) and Uncle Bob (he was working). The kids weren't sure what to do with all of the people and it was their first time out for trick-or-treating. We didn't stay long because it was very busy and the kids weren't feeling the greatest.

On Sunday we went to our friends neighborhood and they got the hang of going up to the doors. They were confused because some people put the candy in their buckets and others wanted them to pick it out on their own. It seemed that they did the wrong thing at every house. :) They learned a new word "CANDY" I'm not sure how we have been able to keep it out of their vocabulary this long, but it is now apart of our daily lives.

Sorry it has taken us so long to update. I will try to do a better job, life is getting very busy. Can't wait to see family and friends soon.

This Weekend

This weekend we went over to Charlotte to walk the mall and get some Donato's Pizza. As you can see from the pictures and video, Billy thoroughly enjoyed his pizza. At the 1:08 mark in the second video, there is a lady walking by with two pizzas and Billy notices. His reaction is priceless! We also got the kids Carolina Panthers hats to match their jerseys. They absolutely love them. The both wanted to sleep with them the first night and it was the first thing they went to when they got home from day care today.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Can't wait to see everyone at Thanksgiving this year!!

Our Saturday Morning

The kids decided they wanted to dance this morning....this was the result:


Bekah dancing by herself. You can barely hear it, but she's panting lol!


Both kids this time...when Billy falls onto the Lego box, you can hear him say "I fall down!" Crazy kido!


Billy getting knocked silly...he was spinning in circles and fell over dizzy. He bumped his head on the entertainment center, but was no worse for wear.


Billy is spinning in circles saying "turn around," even though it sounds more like "toe nail" lol. Oh, and Kaylee says Hi!


Needless to say Karrie and I were rolling! Have a good weekend everyone :)

August 2010

Boone, NC

2nd Birthday Party

Bekah and Billy celebrated their 2nd birthday with Mrs. April and at Market Street pizza with family. We had a wonderful day!

Hurry... mommy is in the shower... we don't have time to waste.

On a typical mornings the kids wake up while I'm in the shower, talk and play until I get them out. The past two mornings I have heard giggling while I was in the shower. Hmm, mommy radar kicks in and I start wondering what they are doing. Giggling is something I hear when they are laying down before bed or before a nap, or when they are wrestling. NEVER when they wake up. Mommy radar kicks into overdrive and I start thinking of all of the possibilities while rushing to finish my shower. Did Billy reach the basket that holds all of the baby wipes, lotion, diaper rash cream? I really start to worry.

I shut off the water, wrap the towel around me, water is dripping everywhere, I dash into their room.... to discover Billy and Bekah both in Bekah's crib. I sigh a great sigh, grab Billy explain to him that he can NOT climb into Bekah's crib. I go on to tell him that he could have gotten hurt or Bekah could have gotten hurt, but he is concerned because I guess I look funny with my hair dripping water all over and a towel wrapped around me. He looks at me so sweetly and says "sorry mommy". I give him a quick kiss and put him back into his bed until I can quickly get dressed and ready for the day(too many things to get into while mom is getting ready). As I walk out the door, Bekah shrieks, "MOMMY, NAKED!" I'm thinking to myself, why did we ever say the word naked when getting them ready for a bath. I reply, "no sweetie, mommy is wearing a towel" and continue getting ready.

Life with toddlers.

Fourth Of July

A little late is better than never, right? We celebrated the 4th of July in Dallas, NC.

Uncle Bob was working, so we had to say hi.
Kids weren't too sure what to think with all of the people.
They were setting off smaller fireworks while we were waiting for the real show to start. Billy thought they were amazing and had a blast.
Bekah on the other hand was terrified.
Every time a firework would go off she would cry and say "no, no, no". Once the real show started and they were continuos, she started enjoying them. She was actually watching them instead of burring her face in my chest.

We had a great time and loved the show.

Michigan

We are back from our wonderful trip to Michigan. We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends. We couldn't have asked for a better trip (just longer, it went way too fast). We hope we can make it back again this year, but aren't sure.

On the drive up, it took us 13 hrs 15 min, that is really good considering we stopped twice for food and once for gas. Our trip up was uneventful until Bekah upchucked her breakfast all over her and her seat. Bill and I tag teamed the clean up efforts and we were on our way fairly quick. We had a good little laugh about our adventure and continued on. The kids started getting fussy and I gave them their new toy to play with. They call it an "i color" not to be confused with an ipod, imac, or ipad. lol It is basically a cheap ($2.50) magnent drawing board. They played with it for an hour an a half straight, at lunch and then played with it another hour and a half. Best purchase I've made in quite a while.

Our first destination was to PaPa's (my dads) house. We arrived at 5:45pm (left NC at 4:30am). After we got unpacked we headed over to Deb's work to see grandma (Bill's mom) she was so excited and got to show off the grandkids. They colored with pencil, even on her desk (oops) and had a blast saying Hi to everyone. It was a quick dinner and then to bed for the kids after a long day.

Friday we did some errands around Kalamazoo and playing in the yard. We met up with my mom at the mall and she got to see the kids for the first time.

Fazolis was a great lunch!!! We went back to Dads and enjoyed his yard and throwing and kicking a ball around. When Am ma (grandma, Bill's mom) arrived the kids dove into the kiddie pool. It was all we could do to get their clothes off of them before they climbed in. I won't post pics from that night because as Bekah would say they were "necked" (naked). All of us adults had a blast watching the kids splash away. My dad and I had a good laugh when Bill decided his mom needed to get into the pool (picked her up and put her in, clothes and all). The kids didn't know what to thing with Am ma in there with them.

Saturday we enjoyed some more time around the house and some more running around. They really enjoyed playing ball in the yard, flying a kite, using sidewalk chalk and best of all pool time (this time with bathing suits on). Grandma decided to join the kids in the pool on her own this time and they all had a blast.

Sunday was Fathers day. We celebrated with my dad and Bill's dad both. Everyone went to church together, enjoyed some time at the mall in GR and then ended up at BC Pizza. We were so thankful to be able to spend this holiday with our fathers. We couldn't be more blessed with the two wonderful children God has blessed us with.

Monday we went shopping for Western shirts for all four of us and found some really nice ones. Our time in Kalamazoo ended quickly. :(

Tuesday we drove to Sturgis, ate lunch with Jackie at work and headed back to Dottie's house. We were surprised with friends that visited for dinner and then some other family members that arrived. Each day in Sturgis we saw even more friends and family. We wished we would have had more time with everyone, but did our best.

Saturday we headed home to NC. This time we left at 4:45 and didn't make it home until 7pm (15hrs 15 min). We had to stop more because Bill and I were very tired and having a hard time staying awake. There were a lot of areas with construction zone speed limits that slowed us down. We also ran into a traffic jam, well... more like a parking lot. We came to a complete stop for 30 min, put the windows down and turned off the car. It was an even longer day but we made it home safely. We probably should have taken the same way back that we did going there, but you never know what is going to be faster.

Thanks to all of the family and friends that hosted us for the 8 days. So thankful that we were able to spend time with everyone that we did, and sorry that we missed some too.

Getting Big

Kids are getting big! We have included some of the beautiful Carolina blue sky, Billy's first hair cut, a family picture and some other around the house pics. Enjoy!!!

Bek enjoys naming everyone she knows (in the car, sitting around the house, even at 3am). She even demands to talk on the phone.

Billy has discovered "no", "ssssTOP" and a few others. Getting pretty feisty.

Can't wait to see everyone soon.

19 months & Easter

Some funny things that happened this month. Bekah tried on all 3 of her new outfits at the same time. She had on 4 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts and a skirt. Billy tried on Daddy's sweatshirt and it swallowed him up. They tried Spaghetti for the first time. I think they played with it more than they ate it.

We were able to celebrate Easter with Brent, Deb and Grandma Heldt. Dad and I took the kids to Monkey Joe's (a play place for kids) and had a great time. All of us took the kids to the park to play with their new easter gifts (balls and bubbles). We all had a blast and learned new things. Rolling a big ball, kicking the ball and making bubbles were some of their favorite things to do.

We have been working on potty training the kids and Bekah is catching on very quickly. Billy thinks its fun, but not sure what the potty is for.

Both kids are cutting many teeth at the same time. I feel bad for them. We also discovered that they have seasonal allergies. We found out the hard way when the pollen "snowed" on NC. We have been able to treat it with over the counter medicine and they are doing very well.

18 months old

At the end of February the kids turned 18 months old and Bill had his shoulder surgery.

Bill's surgery went as well as could be expected. They didn't have any surprises once they started and it went like clockwork.

His surgery was on Thursday and on Saturday Dottie arrived. We were so thankful to share that time with her. She didn't have to share her great-grandchildren with anyone like she normally has to do when she visits (share the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Brand).... Well that was until we had a wonderful surprise visit from Bill and Jackie. They drove through the night just to be able to surprise us. We had a great long weekend and were able to celebrate Bill's birthday (March 9th) with everyone.

I learned not to leave Jackie, the kids and candy alone (just kidding). Jackie showed the kids how you can use egg candy and turn it into lipstick. It was really cute and the kids were all for it. Thank you Jackie for putting "lipstick" on my son. ;)

Long overdue 17 month pictures, I thought I should get them up before they are 18 months :)

Mommy went to a breakfast with the ladies at church and kids stayed home with daddy. They had a bunch of fun and also cleaned up the house. It was a nice surprise for mommy.

Just playing around!

Friday the 12 of February snow fell all over North Carolina. This was the first time the kids have really been able to play in the snow. We were able to have some time in it on Friday and Saturday. They had a blast.