A New Heart for Christmas

Abigail, Joshua and Chloe had their school Christmas programs last Friday. K4 and K5 performed "Christmas Step by Step" and told the story of Jesus birth. Joshua was Joseph and Chloe was one of the sheep. They both did a great job singing and it was really fun to watch. Chloe has always loved to sing and being on the stage didn't scare her one bit. She sand and did the motions with great enthusiasm! Her teacher told us that they count on her when they sing in class to be one of the leaders. Joshua did a great job as Joseph. None of the kids had any speaking parts, it was narrated by the teacher, but he acted out everything very well. :)
Abigail had a main part in the elementary program. It was about a group of kids who got the "Christmas day dumps". Abigail took these friends of hers to see Dr. Newheart and they discovered that their hearts were full of junk and had a hole in them that can only be filled with Jesus. As a proud and biased mom I must say that Abigail was fabulous! She was up there with a bunch of 5th and 6th graders and she did great. She even had a big solo at the end and she sang beautifully. The best part was that her solo was an explanation of the gospel...that our hearts are filled with sin and that the only one who can remove that sin and give us a new heart is Jesus. We have the solo on video and I'm waiting for Bob to compress it so I can post it.
Abigail really enjoyed being in the play and I'm pretty sure she has the acting bug. One day after practice she said, "Mommy, I really like that spot light thing!" And after a dress rehearsal the first thing she shared with Bob was that she got to wear a special microphone headset. :) This may be the beginning of many years of school musicals for our family.
And we can't leave out a photo of Josiah who just can't wait to be up on stage singing and dancing too! :)

Family Day

The day after Thanksgiving Bob didn't have to work so we decided to fill it with fun. We did McDonalds for lunch and then because it was a dreary day and cold, we opted for the indoor fun of ABQ Jump. The kids had tons of fun and burned lots of energy! FABULOUS! :) The mama and the daddy even got in on the jump action.

And lest you think I totally skipped over Thanksgiving...we had a wonderful day with friends. The Lions lost but we're thankful it wasn't a shutout. And we also discovered that our good friend Dan is totally into a game played with dominoes called 42 that Bob learned how to play recently. Now he has a 42 buddy and a partner with better stratagy than me! Seriously though, we have so much to be thankful for. In the forefront of our minds this Thanksgiving was that we were all together. Last year Bob was half way around the world. The kids and I were with family but it's not the same when you are missing someone. But God brought him home to us safely and for that we are filled with gratitude.
And yes I am sitting at the kid table...and yes we are trying to teach our sons manners (it just isn't sinking in yet).

passing the time

Quality time with Josiah. :)

Don't take it personally Joshua

I know, I know I'm late with a birthday post for Joshua. Sorry buddy! So here he is 6 years ago...all scrunched up and cute. He's our baby with a big story, which we've told a million times so most of my readers probably know but it's good to tell anyway so that everyone will know what I endured on November 4, 2002. Actually I won't tell the entire story because that would take too long, but I will tell you that I was in labor, having contractions about 2 to 3 minutes apart. I was ready to go to the hospital. Then Bob tells me that he has a flag football game that night and he's supposed to be the quarterback and they'll have to forfeit if he doesn't play. In the end I agreed. So off we went to the game. My mom and I waited in the car while he played. We called a bunch of people and breathed through contractions. At one point I got out and took a picture of him on the field as evidence. When the game was finally over he stood around chatting with the guys. Mom had to go get him! His team won by the way. We got to the hospital and Joshua was born shortly there after. It seems pretty funny now, actually I wasn't really mad about it then...that's just Bob. :)
So now that he's all grown up and 6 years old he's quite a boy! His teacher at school just adores him. She is constantly telling me that Joshua is perfect. Of course I know the truth, but it's wonderful to hear that he is such a well behaved, gentleman in his class. He is reading and writing and learning lots of math. He also does a great job with his Bible memory and catechism. And I can't forget to mention his sports skills, he's an excellent baseball player and is interested in basketball too. He got the coordinated genes for sure! :) We're so thankful for Joshua. He brings life and excitement and endless blessings to our family! Joshua's birthday lunch with daddy...He picked Texas Land & Cattle again. The boy loves steak!


Here's our boy with his buddy. He had a birthday sleepover and Bob took the boys bowling. Good times! If you're wondering about the bandage on his chin he had a case of impetigo and it was best to keep it covered.

Not such a stretch

So our neighbors invited us to a "get to know your neighbors" party and then told us it was a costume. We're not usually into dressing up and couldn't decide if we wanted to go or not. In the end we decided to go. After much debate our costume decision was between John McCain and Sarah Palin, Jethro and Ellie May (from the Beverly Hillbillies), and Napoleon Dynomite and Deb. Bob just didn't want to be John McCain, even though I thought it would be the easiest outfits to come up with. And when I suggested the Beverly Hillbilly idea he didn't even know who they were, which shouldn't have surprised me since he's never seen Star Wars or Indiana Jones either. So that left Napoleon and Deb. I got him the wig and glasses and made the shirt. My outfit wasn't so hard...found the stretch pants and leg warmers at Walmart and my friend lent me the Tiffany shirt and belt. The funny thing is that several years ago Bob would not have needed the wig. And I am a girl who wore many a side pony tale back in the day.
In the end it was pretty fun. Bob got lots of laughs and everyone told me how cute I was. :) Since the search for the perfect costume ended successfully Bob declared that this will be his costume for life (although we still need to find a pair of size 14 moon boots!)....too bad I don't get to keep that Tiffany t-shirt!

My Baby's not a baby anymore

Then...


and now.
Today my baby is 3 years old. It's so hard to believe. Little Josiah is growing up so fast and has changed so much recently. He has a great personality and is totally funny. For example, one of his favorite songs to sing right now is "Old McDonald had a farm. EIEIO. And on that farm he had a...BAZOOKA." Then he breaks out giggling. The other day he fell down and scraped his arm. There was no blood and I told him to be tough. He said, "I not be tough, I just be Josiah." He cracks us up!
Bob always takes the kids out to lunch on their birthday and the birthday kid gets to pick where they dine. When Bob asked Josiah where he wanted to go for special birthday lunch Josiah said, "PIZZA, PIZZA". Which means Little Caesars. So they went and grabbed a Hot and Ready and headed to a playground. They had a great time.
This evening we had macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for dinner per Josiah's request, followed by John Deere tractor cake and bubble gum ice cream. Josiah's best friend, Ellie, joined us for the festivities along with her parents. Our boy received some lovely gifts too but his favorite present was a John Deere tractor toy. Once he opened it that's all he could think about. :) Then we put in his new John Deere DVD and he was mezmorized.So happy birthday to my boy who is getting so big but will always be my baby!


Late addition: Bob's conversation with Josiah in the car when they were out to lunch. And yes, Bob is driving and taking this video at the same time! Tsk. Tsk!

Our Final Fiesta

Attending the balloon fiesta on a night that it's too windy for the balloons ---$30
Eating hot dogs, nachos, hummus (Haley's choice of fair food), cotton candy, and funnel cake with friends ---PRICELESS!
By the way, Dan, hummus is not cheese...it's chickpeas!

So, our fabulous friends joined us for an evening at the balloon fiesta. We opted for the park-n-ride and riding a school bus may have been the highlight for the entire evening for Ellie and Josiah. When we arrived at Balloon Fiesta Park we started eating right away. We indulged in hot dogs, nachos, funnel cake, cotton candy and a turkey leg. Of course it ended up being too windy to put the balloons up for the evening glow but many of the hot air balloon pilots got their baskets out and shot flames up into the sky and that was pretty cool. Abigail was totally freaked out and wouldn't go near it but everyone else thought it was pretty neat. The night ended with a pretty good fireworks show, so at least we got that for our money. :) All in all, it was good times with good friends and lots of silly kids! :)

Our little sugar bears


Flame throwing

Josiah was keeping us entertained with silly dances while we waited for fireworks

I almost forgot to announce....

Josiah is a true big boy now....he wears "underwears", Thomas underwears to be exact. He kind of potty trained himself, which is good because I wasn't really that motivated to do it. After doing it 3 times I was in no hurry to start. But he just picked it up for everyone else and started going potty on the toilet. We got him some underwear and he's doing great!!! It helps that he hangs out with Ellie most days and she too is interested in going potty on the toilet. They cheer each other on and when one has to go the other usually decides they need to go too.
So this marks the end of the diaper bag era for me. Granted I still have to carry around extra clothes but it's very exciting to know that I can carry my own purse and nothing else if I don't want to! AMAZING!

Blog Black Hole

You may think that I have recently been sucked into a blog black hole..now that I think about it maybe I have. You're probably sick of hearing how wacky things are here, but that's just what it is. It seems that each day before I know it the clock says (let me see what it says right now) 10:40 pm and I still have a million things to do. It's a good thing that I'm not a person who needs 8 hours of sleep every night!

So here's what you've been waiting for....new pictures! :)
Here we are at the New Mexico State Fair. We had a good time enjoying the rides and seeing the animals and of course getting fair treats!

No need to ask what Josiah's favorite thing was. We could hardly get him off this little tractor once he was on. He has definitely become a full fledged John Deere lover (Cousin Jake and Uncle Leonard will be so proud!)

Getting up close and personal with the longhorns was a little intimidating, except for Joshua...he's our boy with no fear.
See what I mean! But look really close at his face...he might be a little nervous. :)


Some time ago I promised pictures of Joshua playing ball. It's probably time to get those up since he only has 2 games left in the fall season.
So here's our little slugger. He's done really great this fall playing machine pitch. The other boys on the team are 7 years old and Joshua really does play at the same ability level. What can we say...the kid's got talent! :) Who needs Pudge anyway...a few more years and Joshua can take his place. :)
I think I've told you about Pauly and Edgar in previous posts, but they've never been officially introduced. So here are our first pets. Joshua found Edgar at the botanical garden and we found Pauly at church. They are pretty easy to care for and don't make much of a mess so I think we'll let them stick around for a while. Here's Abigail headed off to a Princess Birthday Party. She's growing up so quickly!!!

I guess Chloe and I didn't make it into any pictures of our own so I'll throw those in for good measure. So I'll try to do better at posting...when things happen that are totally funny I am always thinking, "I absolutely have to blog that!" But then I just don't get around to it. Such is life. So much to blog about....so little time.

Happy Birthday, convienience foods, we've got worms and more...

Just a few things have happened in recent days...I never blogged a happy 30th birthday to my dear husband, sorry Babe! There were kiddo baseball games on his birthday so we got his favorite Little Caesar's Pizza for dinner and the kids and I whipped up a chocolate cake with M&M's on top for dessert. A few days later we got to go on a date which was nice. It seems like we have lots to talk about these days...mostly about what's going to happen in the next year. So much to figure out! So over all I think it was a good birthday for my guy, but I guess it wasn't a very grandeous as far as 30th birthday celebrations go.
My new mantra for the grocery store is "convienience foods." It is all about what I can make fast, or what can be in the crock pot all day long. I have gotten good at browning ground beef as soon as I get home from the grocery store so that it will be ready to go on the night I need it. It makes Hamburger Helper EVEN FASTER when you have the meat already browned. And tacos are a cinch if the meat is cooked and taco season already added. Just heat and eat. Yes...heat and eat is a good way to describe our eating habits as of late.
So last Monday (Labor Day) Bob was downloading something from the net and we got a virus message (a worm to be exact). YIKES. We were both frantic at first...worried that we would lose everything on our hard drive, including our pictures! We just found out that my parents lost everything when their computer just died and we were telling ourselves that we should back up our pictures....but we didn't. Thankfully Bob knew enough to disconnect the internet right away and was able to get our files, including our pictures, off the computer and saved on the laptop. WHEW! After that he had to wipe everything off the computer and restore the computer. He ended up doing that a few times and there were some bumps along the way, internet not working and such. So anyway, that's why I haven't been blogging and emailing and such this past week...it's been on the fritz. That is also why this post has no pictures, I'm still not on our home computer.
So after all that maybe you need something to bring the smile back to your face. :)
The kids have been cracking us up lately just saying totally funny stuff...
Since college football has started again, Bob has been teaching the kids his favorite saying concerning Ohio State: "Oh how I hate Ohio State." So Josiah keeps talking about Ohio State but he calls it "Ohio Steak" instead, which makes us all laugh. As Bob says, "Stick a fork in them!"
Abigail really had me cracking up when we were talking about the Tigers playing the Minnesota Twins. Abigail said, "What is Minnesota?" and I said, "It's a state." And she said, "Oh, I thought it was a kind of pop..." And I thought that was so clever. Do you get it? Minne - soda. That is so hilarious!!!
Okay there was another funny thing that one of the kids said but now I can't think of it. Ah well, if I remember I'll get back to you. :)
On the baseball front things are going okay. We decided to pull Abigail off the softball team. She was playing with 12 year olds and it was just too much...on top of the fact that we were just over-committed and she wasn't really enjoying it all that much so it was the obvious thing to cut. Joshua is doing great. When I'm able to get back on our home computer I'll put up some pictures of him. Chloe's schedule is relaxed with only one game a week so that hasn't been too stressful.
Oh and I just remembered that I told you about Joshua scratching his eye again. We had a follow up eye exam and found out that he does have 2 scratches on his cornea, which is the bad news. But the good news is that at this point it is not affecting his vision. The doctor also discovered subtle RPE mottling of macula OU. I'm not actually sure what this is and I've tried looking it up with not much success. Anyone out there know what this means???
And now look at the time. I have to go to bed in 15 minutes so I can get up at 5 am. CRAZY. And that's not even so I can go for a run...running has gone by the wayside since school started. But at least my crazy schedule keeps me too busy to eat too much and I'm actually maintaining a lower weight with working than I was with running. Who knew!

Deja Vu

This looks familiar....today Joshua was climbing a tree and got poked in the eye. We took him to urgent care and sure enough he scratched his eye (the same eye) again. He's got a patch on until tomorrow. We'll do medicine this week and pray that his vision will be fine. I'm wondering if I should just make him wear safety glasses all the time??? What's a mommy to do???

Welcome to my new crazy life

The last two weeks have been super wacky for us! It started with the teacher work week at Temple. The kids were not feeling well and they had to go to the school with me. They were so tired and sick that it was just not good at all. One night Abigail asked to go to bed at 6:15 pm. By the end of the week they were all starting to feel better so that was good. Tuesday the 19th was the first day of school. Everyone was feeling great and excited. The two big kids have been great. They both like their teachers and I think they are going to have a great year in their respective classes. Chloe has done very well in her K4 classroom but has been crying when she has to go to after school care. I'm hoping that she'll get more comfortable as the days go on.

As for me, the actual teaching part has been good. I had forgotten what I liked about being a classroom teacher. It's busy but it's fun. I still like it! :) I have to get used to things like putting my lesson plans and grade book on the computer but those things will get easier with time. It's been hard because I've been putting a lot of extra time in trying to get things set up. Once I feel comfortable with how things work it should be much easier.

It doesn't help that we signed the 3 big kids up for Fall Ball and they are all playing on different teams. Abigail is playing girls softball, Joshua is playing machine pitch baseball and Chloe is on her first t-ball team! The other night we had 2 practices and a game all at the same time. Fortunately for us Abigail's practice and Joshua's game were at the same place so Bob could stay with both of them and I took Chloe and Josiah to Chloe's practice. Some days we will be going straight from school to piano practice to the ball field. YIKERS! Cooking dinner just went out the window. At least the Fall Ball only lasts until mid-October. And since the days are so full of activities they should fly by.

In light of all these things you can expect much less frequent blog entries. I'm going to try for once a week....but we shall see. It's even hard to answer my phone these days. Each minute is so precious that I have to choose what will be the best use of it.


Here's the video of Chloe's first official at bat...Classic! :) Pictures of the other kiddos playing will come soon!

Oh and I couldn't leave Josiah out of the first day of school excitement so here's a shot of me and my little buddy!

That's a lot of days!

3,285 days ago this picture was taken (that's 9 years for those of you without a calculator)! That's nine years of fun, laughs, moving, changing jobs, moving some more, babies, friends, tears, hugs & kisses, being separated, being reunited, arguing and making up and so much more. We just had no idea what we was in store for us when this picture was taken. But we're so thankful for each other and for the nine years we've had together. Lord willing there will be many more filled with much more adventure! :)

A picture's worth a thousand words

The Beeks Summer Road Trip 2008...Thanks for the memories

Reunited with old college buddies Andy, Beek, Key and Jason. Still chillin'!

Scherzer!!!

Our dear friends Barb and Dan

Bob and Chuck after an evening of manly bonding

Susie Barb and baby boy Bos! :)

The kiddos loved driving Grandpa's "tractor", especially Josiah

A great day at the beach...but Grandma forgot to put on sunscreen, ouch!

We could join the circus with this act, "The high flying Beeks"

Beeks with Great Grandma B.

Kids take the field at 5/3rd Field. The activities were fun and it was a good game!

The Little Man takes in the view of the field...it's in the blood.

Fun at the playground with Cousin Faith

We managed a date night at Comerica Park and met up with Paws.

Tearing down Tiger Stadium.
Josiah wanted to skip the baseball game and stay to watch the demo.

Kiddies day at the ball park. Free rides, face painting and run the bases!
A memorable day for sure!

Beeks take the field

Family Fun

We had to chase Paws down for a family shot and Josiah was totally scared.

Aunt Dana and Uncle Mikey

Bob and Jeremy squeezed in a mini baseball road trip to Pittsburgh to catch a Pirates game.

My Sweet Friend

Father and son trip down the river

Mad Hops

Joshua and Keith building castles...Joshua can't work without his tongue hanging out.

Abigail and Eve, our little flowers

I couldn't resist taking this picture!

The Mermaid Lagoon

Celebration after completing a Mario Bros level!

Funny Pants live on

A pit stop at my sisters house was too short but fun. Grilling, wiffle ball, ice cream and pancakes and bacon for breakfast! Cousin Aaron and Joshua had to show off their muscles!

There were hundreds of pictures to choose from....I hope you enjoyed these. They give just a little glimpse of how much fun we had!