very good/very bad weekend

very good:

1. took the boys to seaworld friday morning. it was HOT...but we had a great time. it was not crowded and we took advantage of the air conditioned aquarium for as long as we could. our passes are up in july so i am getting my dads moneys worth :)

2. friday evening we went to movie in the park in boerne. we had so much fun! packed a $5 pizza picnic and our super cool 31 gifts picnic blanket (thank you cathy smith!) and let the boys run wild! we watched cloudy with a chance of meatballs while brody scavenged other peoples picnic blankets for their leftovers.

3. conners bday party was on saturday. again super hot...but super fun! a bouncy house, a pool, a train, yummy food and best of all...all of kathys family to fight over the babies!

4. went to georgetown sunday to visit justins sweet grandparents! the boys had a great time and we were blessed to spend time with family...

very bad:

while at the grandparents, brody pulled the very heavy glass and brass fireplace screen down on his head. after a very scary and traumatic 911 call, an ambulance ride, 5 hour ER visit at Dell Childrens in Austin and TWENTY ONE STITCHES later...Brody is doing great. Bryce was terrified for his sweet baby brother...the 12 EMS and and 4 police officers that came in the house added to brody hysterical, mommy and daddy hysterical, blood EVERYWHERE and frantic great grandparents really had him in a frenzy. Thankfully, God answered our panicked prayers and sent a fire fighter over to Bryce who calmed him down by letting him "drive the fire truck" and turn on the sirens only enough times to make every neighbor come out of the house :) The Boerne pray train was in full swing with just a few texts. I know from experience when Linda Phillips says pray...you better get on it...so I texted her first. We felt it all so quickly...Brody calmed down the minute the prayers started rolling in. Justin and I prayed for the Doctor and God sent us the most precious and kind Doctor to love on Brody and stitch him up. The hospital was AMAZING! Dell Children's Child Life department sent someone in to hold up a DVD player so Brody could watch Elmo the entire time the procedure was taking place. At first the doctor was concerned with possible internal bleeding, so a ct scan was ordered. However...that God of ours was on point and quickly cleared any question of that. CT scan was cancelled after the stitches were in. I could not have made it through all of this without the texts, calls and messages I received. Our family was lifted up by so many people and we are just so stinkin blessed I dont even have the words for it. Brody is such a strong guy...I would like you all to know that after all of that (and the fact that Court had to pick us up at 11pm from the ER and truck us to Georgetown) we made the almost two hour drive home (got home around 2am) that Brody is JUMPING on the furniture, LAUGHING like a silly monkey head as he rips apart a magazine and still wearing his purple hospital gown with pride. I am exhausted...but of course he is not :)

PS: I know Justin sent out before/after pictures to some people. As much as I would love to post the pics on here so people can see just what exactly they were praying for...I am afraid that some of my readers would not physically be able to look. It was pretty bad. So if you want to see what it looks like when a baby smashes his head to the extent of needed 21 stitches...let me know and I will send it over.

Frio Weekend

Justin and I were able to attend my cousins wedding at the Frio River this past weekend. It was such a fantastic weekend filled with many many many fabulous activities. We got the see the Spazmatics, float the river, dance the night away (twice), visit with tons of relatives, see an incredible fireworks show, sleep in and so much more. We are so thankful to Justins parents for loving on our babies so we could go! I cannot even remember the last time I got to go to a wedding...I have missed out on a bunch (and one very special one particularly) due to being super pregnant, having a newborn, nursing, nobody to watch babies etc. Enjoy some pics...

on the back porch of the house we stayed in

back porch of the river house (where the wedding was)

love these cute guys!

my meme!! we were matching :)

my sweet cousin amy

bryce and jonny

A few weeks ago we spent the day with someone very special to us. He lost his mommy very unexpectedly ...so we got our crew in the car and headed to Houston to love on him. Jonny has been a best friend to me for a million and eighty years, and his family is very dear to my heart. He stays in our prayers during this hard time. I loved being able to spend the day with him and devote my time to him and give his amazing girlfriend Heather some time to spend with her family. We were even able to make a quick trip to the park so Bryce could get some energy out before our 3 hour drive back home. (6 hours in the car in one day...YIKES!)

birthday fun times one hundred

my birthday was amazing. i spent saturday through thursday on our FIRST EVER MCELHANNON FAMILY OF FIVE VACATION! my awesome friend was so gracious enough to let us use her beach house...and we had such a phenomenal time. we spent hours and hours at the beach, playing in the sand and watching bryce boogie board. we sat and watched the ships come in, visited the aquarium, rode the ferry, watched for dolphins, built sandcastles, shopped the beachy stores, fished and did a lot of laughing! we came home and immediately headed out to a family wedding (LOTS of pics and more info on this in a couple of days). i have done lots of celebrating with friends...including a girls night slumber party. i have received so many super awesome cards and presents...i am one blessed lady. 26 is such a boring sounding age though. i have to admit...25 was way cooler haha!
here a gazillion beach pics:

braxton lee's first beach trip!

boogie boarding champ!

big boys doing their push ups...so they could be studs at the beach lol

cutest baby EVER!

man i love these guys so much...

at the aquarium...and YES they are all matching. love it.

brody could not make up his mind if he loved or hated it

his 2 hour beach side snooze

of course bryce made a friend...

brody showing off his cute little tummy

Can you believe that our Lord created this amazing beach for us to enjoy?! We are so underserving of his beautiful gifts!!

Braxton

This sweet baby is 5 months old now (i KNOW...crazy!) He is starting to sit up on his own, eating a little baby food and is hands down a giggling machine.

Harold and Brody

Brody has his first "favorite thing" (other than food). Brody is so easy going...he pretty much just loves everybody and everything. He likes all toys and food and stuffed animals and blankets. No major preferences. Just a happy guy. But he now has a most favorite thing...and it just so happens to be one of my most favorite things too.
Harold and the Purple Crayon. The best childrens book of all times. HBO made it into a mini series and I found the DVD at half priced books for $1. Brody has never cared about the TV or watching movies at all, BUT Harold is his man. He claps for Harold, dances with Harold, points and yells at Harold. Overall....my man loves Harold.
The search is now on for a Harold that Brody can drag around with him...

gifts part 1

God's gifts come in so many different forms. They come at times when you least expect. His gifts can be mighty, discreet and mostly undeserved. After a powerful amount of time with some beautiful and Godly women...I am (not so subtly) asked by God to count my blessings, admire them, learn from them, seek more of what He wants me to have, LISTEN for HIS WORD...which is by far THE greatest gift of all. One of the gifts I would like to thank Him for today is the gift of our Pop Pop. His relationship with Bryce is so pure and beautiful and of course manly too :) Here are some pictures of Bryce and Pop Pop fishing. What a special time for these children of God. Enjoying the blissful world that He designed so perfectly for us to enjoy the precious moments of life...like catching your first fish.