What we have been up to.......

I was able to watch Jasmine and Jocelyn for a few hours while their mama went to the doctor. It was a lot of fun and interesting to see the difference between the ages and between boys and girls! Jocelyn did not really like it when her mama left, however she was very easily distracted with this dinosaur toy! I have always been a big fan of this toy and recommend it to anyone who has a baby! Kaylee even loves watching the balls come out of the different holes while doing tummy time.

Since Jocelyn is crawling I had to make sure all of Brody's toys that are choking hazards were off of the floor and out of reach! I was sure that with four kiddos to watch I would not be able to have my eyes on her the whole time to make sure nothing went into her mouth that would cause her to choke! I also had to pull out some toys that were girl friendly!!! As we all know Brody loves trains and will play with them all day long, however Jasmine is not that into them. :) She loves dogs and talked to Brody and I about their new doggie they are getting for her Birthday. So we had fun stringing shoestrings through the holes, putting pegs in the pegboards and building tall towers with big Lego's. (Sorry Jasmine and Jocelyn you will have to come over when Kaylee is a little older and we will have some girl toys!) :)

Brody was really funny while they were here. He of course wanted them to get on his train! Jasmine would just give this look that every girl gives boys, like you are an odd duck! :) In return Brody did not understand why she did not want to get on his pretend train and go to the north pole with him! Now that they are starting to interact with each other it is funny to watch the differences between them. Thanks Jasmine and Jocelyn for coming over and playing with us!


I really like this picture! It says a lot about what our life is like right now. Jason is talking to Kaylee and Brody is on his back the whole time! Brody does not really mind it when I give Kaylee attention, however when Ja does he likes to be their the whole time. I don't think it really bothers him, but he wants to make sure that Ja does not get too distracted with Kaylee and not play with him. :)

I have to give props to my husband for the wonderful and creative way he got Brody to finally poop in the potty! I will spare you the details but we finally have a fully potty trained little boy!! Yeah!


Our trip to Branson-
We decided to go to Branson again and enjoy the nice hot weather outside while sipping on some frozen lemonade and riding on the train! :) Here Brody is riding on a toy train they had there. Of course he loved it!

This little boy is scared of nothing! He went on every roller coaster and loved them all! It did not matter that it was burning up outside, he was having a blast!

Here Kaylee and I are on the train. She liked being able to stand and we thought she was going to enjoy the ride until the loud train whistle blew! She did not like that and I think everyone on the train new that she did not like it! :) Luckily I had a blanket that I covered her ears with so that it would not be as loud to her when it went off again. You would think that she would be used to loud train whistles by now!! :) Maybe she was just hot, tired and thinking why do these loud train whistles follow me around wherever I go! I can't get away from them and I have had enough!!!!! :)

Luckily Silver Dollar City is a family friendly park and had a lot of different places we could go to cool her down.

Here Brody is swimming with Ja in the pool at our hotel. He had a great time!

I think this family picture is really funny! Both Ja and I are looking at the camera while Brody and Kaylee are being distracted by something to the side. :) The look on Brody's face cracks me up!

We had a great time while we were there and enjoyed getting away for awhile as a family.

Outside fun, being sick, and 4 months old!

Brody is growing up so fast! Last year we could not get him to touch shaving cream with out crying about it, and this year he was fine being covered in it! He had a good time playing with it at my parents house and enjoyed making train tracks in it!!! :) Today after church he and I were eating lunch (Ja was at work) and we were talking about his Sunday School class. He was telling me about all the little kids in there and told me some things that they were doing. He told me that no one would get on his train (can't you just see him asking all the little kids if they want to get on his train!) He also was telling me about a little girl that had to sit in time out because they hit someone. It is so much fun being able to talk to him about what he has done and listen to the things he says.

We got the Jumperoo out for Kaylee to play in and she loves it!

I think this picture is funny! Brody is in the "train" watching Kaylee play in her Jumperoo. He always enjoys pretending that this bottom shelf is a train..... what an imagination.

The weather here has been hot, hot, hot! We have enjoyed getting in our little pool! Kaylee is just sitting back enjoying watching her big brother play in the water. Brody is wanting her to come on in and join in on the fun in the pool. :)

Kaylee is saying.... "I think I would rather work on my tan". :) (don't worry she was in the shade the whole time!!!!)

He loved going down the slide and taking all of his toys down with him! He even would go down the slide on his tummy! Yes he even has water trains to play with!! He loves playing with them in the tub and in the pool. When I put Kaylee in the tub to give her a bath he tells me that his trains are in there if she wants to play with them. So sweet! I hope he always wants to share his toys with her!! We will see about that.......

I was trying really hard to get Brody to look up at the camera, he was having way to much fun playing to stop and look up at me!

Brody was sick on night and had had a fever the whole day, so Ja had a fun idea to build a tent and watch a movie! He loved it and enjoyed watching a movie since he did not feel very good. I see us building many more tents in the future!! Hopefully he won't be sick though! Luckily it was just a one day deal and he was back to his normal self the next day!

Kaylee is now 4 months old! She is so much fun and we enjoy watching her learn new things every day! She has started laughing and it is so funny to watch Ja, me, and even Brody try to do silly things to make her laugh. :) She is losing a lot of her hair and new blonde hair is coming in. Brody's hair did the same thing so I am not really surprised.

I wanted to get a pic of her smiling so of course I had to try again when she was wearing a different outfit! :) Girls clothes are just so much fun! I am really enjoying dressing her now because I know that one day she will want to pick out her own clothes!!! :)

Visiting Heather and Drew

We were able to go and visit Jason's sister and Brother-in-law in Austin. We had a lot of fun with them and always enjoy our time there! Thanks Heather and Drew for a wonderful weekend and for taking us shopping, to some very fun parks, and for all the yummy food!! :) Here Brody is with Aunt Heather and Uncle Drew having fun at a play area in Ikea.



We went to a park that had a huge sand area for the kids to play in. Lilly and Brody had a good time playing in it! Brody is showing Lilly how the dump truck works. She really likes to play with him and watches what he does.

Uncle Jeremy is playing with Brody in the sand. Here he is filling up his dump truck with some dirt.

We then went to a fun splash park. There were a ton of kids there! It was very hot outside so it was nice to get in some water. Brody however wanted to go and play on the slides in a different area of the park.

Kaylee enjoyed her time there as well. Here she is taking a nap at the park. (Don't worry we buckled her up before we got in the car!) She is now very interested in toys and likes to hold them. She gets very upset when she drops them and lets us know that she wants it back! :)

We went to a fun restaurant that had a really cool play area for kids. Needless to say Brody did not want to eat, he just wanted to play!!!

Kaylee also wanted to get out of her car seat and play with Brody and Lilly! It was really hot outside so it was nice to be able to stand in the shade. I just have to brag on myself for a minute--- I got this little hat for her at Gymboree for 19 cents!!! Yes that is right 19 cents people, what a bargain!

We ate at this yummy crepe place! This place was featured on Throw Down with Bobby Flay as one of the best crepe places to eat at. It sure is yummy and has a very fun atmosphere.

We went to another fun park by their house. This park had a really cool climbing wall to climb on. Lilly and Aunt Holly came on it with Ja and Brody.

We went to a huge outlet mall to try and find some good deals. We were able to get some good things and Brody loved all the little kid rides they had through out the shopping center. I think this pic is a good one of the three of us, you can tell Brody is really enjoying himself! :)

Here he is on another ride. This was our way of rewarding him for his good behavior while we were shopping! Some of them we put money in, and some we just let him get on. A two year old boy will only shop for so long, so this was a fun thing for him to do while we were there.

They had some motorized boats that people could drive and Brody loved watching them! Here he is just watching the boats go. (I think this is a really cute pic!!)

We had a great time and were so glad that we got to spend some time with Heather and Drew! Brody had a great time with them and LOVED pretending that their stair case was a train! Thanks to everyone who rode on the "train" with him!!!

This past week has been pretty uneventful! We have played outside a lot and seen a lot of our family. It has been nice to just take it easy for awhile and enjoy spending time as a family. Jason was gone a lot the past 7 weeks for work. He took a new job and had to do some training out of town. We are very excited about this job and believe that the Lord gave it to him at just the right time in our lives, however 7 weeks of training out of town did not sound so wonderful to us! :) If it had not been for our family offering their support, our wonderful friends who called me to see how I was doing and set up great play dates so that we could get out of the house, and to my sister who I would call during the day when I needed an adult to talk to, I don't think I would been able to make it!! :) A great BIG thanks goes out to each and everyone of you!!

Brody loves it when we put Kaylee in his bed with him before he takes a nap or goes to bed. I got this good picture of her holding on to Brody's Teddy ( his favorite stuffed animal). You better watch out bud, little sis has her eye on Teddy!! :)

Kaylee doing some tummy time while looking at her black and white cards. We are in a program called Parents as Teachers. It is a program that provides materials and information on what your child should be doing at certain stages in their lives. I have really enjoyed doing it with Brody and am glad that Kaylee will now be able to do it as well. My Parents as Teachers lady gave us these fun black and white cards for Kaylee to look at, saying that it is good for them to look at these. Because of the contrasting color they can see them better then other things. Kaylee has enjoyed them and it has helped give her something to focus on during tummy time. I really like how she made these cards and it would be easy for anyone to do. All you do is print off black and white pictures and put them on fill folders.

I thought this picture was cute and funny! Brody was offering Kaylee some toys and for awhile she was really into it. She would grab them from him and put them in her mouth. But towards the end I think she got a little tired of him sticking the toys in her face and shaking them. :) In this pic it looks like she is saying... "Ok mom I have had enough of this, please come help me." :) --- What a good big brother though!

Brody being a little ham for the camera!

We celebrated Memorial Day with Ja's parents and family. Brody got to play outside with his cousin Lilly. Here he is pushing her around in this car. He really liked pushing her and ridding in it! (Thanks Kristin and Michael for letting them play with this!)

What a cute pic!

Our trip to the Zoo!

Today we decided to go to the Zoo! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed going in this beautiful weather! We were able to see a lot of animals and something else that Brody just loved!!! I bet you can guess what that is........

This was Kaylee's first time to go to the Zoo and yes she was awake for a lot of it. :) She did sleep on and off, but was able to see some of the animals. :) She is now 3 months old and still likes her stroller!! Praise the Lord! She is so much fun to play with and gives you a big smile every time you smile at her. She likes to watch Brody play and enjoys it when he talks to her. Just this morning Brody was telling her that we were going to go to the Zoo to see all the animals. He then told her that Noah was going to be there. :) This cracked me up!! We have been talking about Noah and reading the story of Noah's ark in his Bible. And when we told him we were going to the Zoo we talked about how Noah had two of every kind of animal that we were going to see at the Zoo in his ark. So of course in his mind why wouldn't Noah be there as well! :)

We ate a picnic lunch there...... You can tell that Kaylee is glad to be stretched out on her back enjoying the cool breeze!

So most people go to the Zoo to see the animals, most kids talk about their favorite animal that they saw, however when we asked Brody what his favorite animal was that we saw he said the train!!! Um son that is not an animal!!! You can imagine Brody's excitement when we saw the train! Here we are looking at it. :)

Kaylee and I riding the train.

Daddy and Brody on the train, the whole time we were on it, he was making his train sound, the boy loved it! :)

Here he is studying the train tracks...............

Yes to those of you that are wondering, we did see the animals as well and he liked looking at them, but he loved looking at the train! Thank you Lord for making all the animals and for making trains! :)

Our new Nephew!

Introducing my new nephew Drew Manning Stogsdill! Here are the proud Mommy and Daddy with their very cute son! (Doesn't my sister look great!) I think this is a very cute picture of the new family! One day cute pictures like this will be hard to get because he will be running all over the place. :)

What a little cutie! Congratulations Amy and Eric, we think you have a very cute son! We love you Drew and are so glad that you are in our family now!!
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Going a little out of order...
This is us at the Hospital before Drew arrived.............




We were in Branson when we received the phone call that my sisters water broke, so we made a side trip to go see our nephew being born! Really it was great timing because we were already packed and Ja was off of work for a couple of days, so it worked out great! We made it there in plenty of time and were able to be with her. We want to thank my mom and dad for helping out with our kiddo's while we were there. As you can tell in the picture above Brody was having fun with Marmee on the "train" (everything is a train these days). My dad and Jason watched him and Kaylee while I was able to be in the delivery room while Drew was being born! There is just nothing like see a baby being born, I am so glad that I was able to be there!

The proud mama with her very cute son. He was born at 10:18 pm and was 7lb 11oz and 19 inches long. I think he looks a lot like his daddy and is going to be a tall boy!

Uncle Ja and Brody meeting Drew for the first time.

Me the proud Aunt with my nephew.

Brother and Sister with their new cousin Drew. They are going to have so much fun together! Kaylee is 2 1/2 months older then Drew, but yet in this picture she looks so much bigger then him. It is amazing how fast they grow!!

Marmee and Pops with their grandchildren.