We love you Mimi

Scott's mom (Cason, Corbin, Kaegan, and Jaden's Mimi)  lost her 19 month battle with breast cancer on December 19th. Her children, Scott and Angie, are two of the most kind, generous, thoughtful, and caring people I've ever known. I know that they learned this from their sweet mother because that is how she lived her life---so giving to others. Mimi was a VERY special lady and she will be missed greatly by her family and friends. I know she will be watching over us from Heaven where she is no longer in pain. We LOVE you Mimi!

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Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” 
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” 

Santa---Round 3

Corbin has been to see Santa by himself....

Cason went with Madi and Lucy and refused to leave Scott's arms....

And yesterday I took Corbin and Cason to see Santa together. We have been talking about Santa a lot (after I saw how scared he was a couple of weeks ago) and Cason had decided that he would like to tell Santa he wanted some presents for Christmas. No particular item but just presents in general. He said he would sit on his lap and he had been asking me for several days when he could go see Santa. I was still not sure what he would do. My expectations were VERY low. I didn't think I would be able to get Cason on Santa's lap at all (even though he said he would sit in his lap----he likes to talk a big game)---I figured this would be a screaming picture. But to my surprise, Cason actually sat in his lap and we got a couple of smiles!

If was funny though because right when it was time to get out of the stroller and get in his lap, Cason quickly lost his excitement. He got back in the stroller and said he wanted to go home. I told him if he wanted some presents, he would need to go sit in Santa's lap and tell him. Cason said, "No mommy, my don't want presents". (he says my for I) After some bribery and some help from the sweet Santa we got him to sit in his lap with no tears----yea! Of course they are both not smiling but I knew that would never happen! When the pictures were over Cason PROMPTLY hopped out of his lap and got back into the stroller and asked for his candy cane to be unwrapped---ha!

I tried to run some errands at the mall after we saw Santa but shopping with two little ones in a crowded mall proved to be unsuccessful. Cason was singing Jingle Bells as loud as he could. It was very cute and all BUT people were staring at us---which he loves so he just got louder and louder AND he was pulling and reaching for everything that was within his arms reach from the stroller. He was putting on such a good show that I called it a day and we came home---LOL

This is Cason right before school today. They had their school Christmas party today---it was a Happy Birthday Jesus party. I would have taken some pictures at school but it was raining so hard when I got there and when we left so I was just too afraid the camera would get wet so I left it in the car. It was a cute little party----they tried to get the kids to sing a couple of songs for the parents but of course 99% of them just sat there and stared at us (Cason included). They are so precious!

Gingerbread Fun

We went over to Kathryn and Madi's house today to do some gingerbread house decorating with them and Lucy, Lily, and Erin. (Cason had a gingerbread train.) Kathryn had everything set up SO cute. Thanks Kathryn and Madi for having us over---we had such a great time! Kathryn's mom was there to help with the two babies so we could concentrate on the big kids and that was such a HUGE help!

The kiddos had fun eating candy decorating their houses. It was so hard to convince them to put the candy on their house and not in their mouth. And even when we did get them to put the candy on their house, they still wanted to take it right back off and put it in their mouth (probably tasted even better with a little icing on it). Cason was even scooping sprinkles off his tray and trying to eat those! It was hilarious and the kiddos were having a blast. It was such a fun morning!

Here are a few pictures from this morning.
Click here to see all the pictures

Potty "TRAIN-ing"

Cason has been really into trains lately and it is great because this is the first thing that he has willingly played with for more than 1-2 minutes at a time. Since Corbin was born Cason has shown NO interest in using the potty. We are definitely NOT forcing the issue. We just want to give him opportunities in case he is interested and ready. I do not look forward to using public bathrooms with him so a little while longer in diapers is just FINE with me. I would like to at least be making some good progress before his third birthday though. So, I made him a sticker chart and I told him that we would put a sticker on it every time he used the potty. I told him that once he filled his sticker chart up that we could go to the store and he could pick out a new train. I thought it would take him a VERY long time to fill up the chart but to my surprise he did it in four days. 

He still has a LONG way to go with this whole potty training ordeal but we are certainly making some progress. Here he is with his new train--James. By the way why are these trains so EXPENSIVE????
(Cason has red spots on his face in all of these pictures. He loves Ranch dearly and dips almost any food item in it at meals. However, it irritates his face.)

Cason playing with his new train table from Mimi and Gunk. He LOVES this table and wants to play with it all day long. If only the tracks didn't come apart so easily---LOL. Thank you so much Mimi and Gunk!!!

Sweet little boys....

Corbin thinks his hands are fascinating!

Cason saying, "HO HO HO"...

Sweet Corbin has been having a hard time with his reflux the past couple of weeks. Hopefully we can get this under control soon. He and Cason have reacted completely different with their reflux problems. Cason grew out of it around 9 months. Hopefully Corbin will start growing out of it sooner than that---ha!

Corbin has also started experimenting with rolling over! He has only done it 2 or 3 times from his tummy to his back and I think they were completely accidental but still----I'm not ready for this! He is my baby and I want him to stay little and immobile---LOL

Rangerettes!

The beautiful Rangerettes got to perform in Hawaii this week for the 70th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor. They looked amazing as always---way to go Rettes!!!

Here is the link to see the performance. If you scroll forward about 24 minutes into the video is their performance.

Fun with Friends

We went on a Christmas outing with our friends the Kempsons and the Harrisons last week and we had a great time. They got to ride on a train, do arts and crafts, and see Santa Claus. I thought Cason would be fine with Santa this year but I could not have been more wrong. He was excited to see him until he was a couple of feet away---then he held on to Scott for dear life. Scott had to be in the picture or there was no way Cason was going to be in the picture. I don't know how we are going to make it work when we take both boys together!