Happy 2nd Birthday Jamal Jaxon!

My baby boy is 2 years old today! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. He has brought so much joy to our family and we couldn't imagine life without him. He is such a funny and happy little boy.His big brothers, AJ and Ronde, absolutely adore him. Jamal is the biggest daddy's boy I know and I'm so grateful that Andre came home from deployment right on time for Jamal's birthday. This morning, a lady that works at the gas station near our house bought him a bag of cinnamon Teddy Grahams. It was so sweet of her to do that. I'm planning a birthday photo shoot so be on the watch for lots of new pictures!

Fix a Flat and Frogs

Today did not go as planned at all! I wanted to take my boys to Lake Hefner to take some new photos of them to send to family. I could not wait! We were in our driveway this morning, the boys were riding their bikes and scooters, when Ronde pointed out that I had a nail in my back tire. He was right and it was leaking air! Thankfully my friends came to the rescue, but when they did, they pointed out that I had another nail in the other back tire! Looks like I was not going anywhere today =( I was happy to spend some girl time with the my friend while her husband fixed the tire. All the kids came running through the house, from the backyard all the way through my house to the garage where we were standing. Her daughter caught a three legged toad and they just had to show us! It was neat and so brave of her. My boys would never try to catch anything except butterflies, ha! Later, AJ was stung in the face by a bee. Poor kid! Thankfully, there is hardly any swelling and the pain has subsided.

Family Camping Trip

We have always wanted to go on a family camping trip, but we thought the boys were always too young to enjoy it. This year, they were the perfect age! So we drove 3 hours away to Sheppard AFB Recreation Park in Texas. We booked a cabin for the weekend(I'm not ready for tents just yet!). The cabin was small, but had everything we needed to make the camping trip comfortable for the kids. We had a bathroom/shower, kitchen with all working appliances, grill, beds/furniture, Air Conditioning, and a TV which the boys only watched at night. We did a lot of fishing, grilling, star gazing,and playing with the kids. It was an incredible way to spend quality time as a family. We plan on making it an annual trip. Well here is our family camping trip in photos...

We Bought a House!

We bought a house!!! If you've been following my blog, you may know that we were on the hunt for a house last year. We got in contract with a house and had to back out at the last minute because we thought it was not the right time to buy due to my husband's Navy career on the line. Thankfully, he was approved to stay in the military because he picked up rank. A miracle! Especially because the clock was ticking and we were already making plans for civilian life. Well now that we know his career is stable again, we thought it was the perfect time to buy. We wanted to buy a house this summer that way we could get moved in and settled before the kids school year started. I was so excited when I found this house on realtor.com. It was the only house in our prime location with all the specifics we were looking for in our price range. My kids are now in the best school zoning in the city. We are just 5 minutes from base and right down the street from the boys school and our favorite parks. We closed on the house July 31 and moved in the very next day. Our new home is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage that comes with a big fenced in backyard. Our backyard has an amazing flower bed and 3 raised garden beds to plant veggies...something I've always wanted to try! Below are the pictures from the listing. Not our actual furniture, but gives you an idea of what our new home looks like. I actually like the house better with our furniture in it =)

First Day of School

Back to school for the kids and I. AJ started Kindergarten this year and Ronde started Pre K. It was a big day for both of them! Ronde has been looking forward to this day for a long time and he is super excited that it's finally his turn to go to school. This is AJ's first year going to school for a full day. And when I say full day, I mean ALL day. 9:00am - 3:50pm??? When did a school day ever last this long. I was getting kind of bored waiting for school to end!! Both kids had a great day. I only heard great things from their teachers. Ronde even came home wanting to read book after book with me. I'm glad to see him so motivated to learn.

Summer

This picture was from another day playing in the pool.

Trophy Ceremony