Tripp's 3rd birthday party, early!

We decided to do Tripp's birthday a whole month early this year.  It seems that once Thanksgiving comes, things a a bit too crazy and busy, so lets have a great party before the crazy starts.  We had awesome weather and so many great friends come, plus Mimi and Nana!  Couldn't have asked for anything better!

I wish I got more pictures during the party.  I'm awful about remembering to use my camera!

Uh oh... I've done it again!

I keep falling behind on posting... Oops! Well here's a few pics from my phone to fill you in on what we've been up to.

We took the kids to Culen's Market and let them pick out the PERFECT pumpkin!  And that they did!  Then we took it home and cut it out.  The kids named him "Happy Pumpkin."  We also got a smaller pumpkin and did a kit that is like Mr. Potato Head and made him "Super hero Pumpkin."  I'm so upset with myself!  I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished products!

Sadie had a project at school.  She had to take the little pumpkin pictured home with her over the weekend.  They had to take pictures with him doing different things.  Then they went back to school and "wrote" stories about the pictures.  Here is "Stanky Franky" eating homemade donuts.

This is me and some very special friends of mine!  April's company hosted "A Nite at the Races" and she was in charge of prepping this fun night! Jeff sponsored a race so it was very fun to get a little competitive.  It was a very COLD night outside, but still worth it!

Here are the kids at April's company's booth at the Chamber's Trick or Treating.  Farm Bureau had a Fishin' for Candy booth.  Obviously, you can see the NASTY bruise on Tripp's face.  The night of Nite at the Races Tripp fell off the barstool in our kitchen and hit the tile.  He had a big goose egg, which turned into a nasty black eye the next morning.  Poor little guy!

Here's "Stanky Franky" again at Sadie's soccer game.  It was SO cold that morning.  I think the temp was 43!

"Stanky Franky" roasting marshmallows with Me and Sadie.  We roasted hot dogs that night too!  We've used our fire pit quite a bit this season.  We love it!

Sadie and Tripp before Brown County's Annual Convention!  It was the first year that it has been at the Coliseum.  They had just under 600 attend!  I'm so proud of the work Jeff has done in the 3 years we have lived here!  I'm also quite proud of how well his office works together!  Great agents, great secretaries!  They have come a long ways!

Jeff and and his Minnie Me before convention.  Tripp's favorite thing is to look like daddy.  He asks Jeff often, "I'm a boy like you, daddy?"  What used to be my mamma's boy has completely become his father's son!

Tonight we met some sweet friends at the park for a picnic.  The kids had such a great time and I enjoyed catching up with my sweet friend.  Sadie and Anslee have been friends since Sadie was about 16 mo. old and Anslee was about 8 mo. old.  Its so sweet to watch them play together!

Prasie the Lord!

Thank you all for your prayers!  We got the test results back today and everything looked great, so this means he just has a vitamin K deficiency!  We're hoping that he won't ever have to take more Vitamin K, but in case he does, at least we know what it is!  We just have to keep an eye on his bruising.  The little purple dots on the tops of his ears are the ones to look for the most!  We have been beyond happy with Cook's Childrens Hospital!  They were fabulous, but we are so very happy we aren't going to be "regulars" there!  Again, thank you all for your prayers!

Its test results day!!!

I called the nurse first thing this morning to get the test results from last weeks blood work.  Had to leave a message and now wait for her to call back.  Yep.  More waiting!  Breath deep!  Today will hopefully be the day we have our final answers and something that will end this chapter.  I'll update as soon as I know something!

Next round of blood work...

Next week Tripp goes in for his next round of blood work at Cooks.  We are checking to see if the Vitamin K "fixed" his levels and make sure he is no longer anemic.  If they are back to normal we will no that he has a vitamin K deficiency and will just periodically need Vitamin K.  We will just have to keep an eye on his bruising and that will let us know if he will need a round of it.  If they are not fixed, then we will know it isn't vitamin K and more testing will be done.  I'm praying that the Vitamin K did the trick.  He has shown a decent amount of weight gain, so I'm speculating that it helped!  After the blood is taken we will still have to wait 2 weeks before we get the results back.  So, I won't know anything until the middle of October.

What we've been up to

We've been quite busy lately!  Soccer is in full swing! Sadie is playing her first year of soccer and Jeff is coaching!  Yes, he's coaching 6 little girls!  He's doing great!  The girls are just like every other U5 team, learning with little attention span!  Its funny to see their different personalities play and work together!  Their first game was against another team that it was their first game, as well.  Both teams were all over the place making goals in each others goals.  The game they had last week was a little different.  They played a team that was one their second season and you could really tell the difference a year made.  The girls understood keeping it in bounds and direction of scoring goals.  But, I will say how proud I was of our girls.  While they didn't make any goals, they played awesome defense and only aloud this more experienced team to make 2 goals!  They did great!

Last week, while our carpet and tile was being worked on at our house, the kids and I drove up to Fort Worth and visited the zoo!  It was the perfect day!  Happened to be 1/2 price Wednesday and beautiful weather.  It wasn't too crowded, either.  We spent 3 hours there!  Had lunch and then headed back home!  Tripp begged to see the "galigator" the entire time and Sadie wanted the "pacheetah"!

At school this week, they have been talking about sports.  Thursday was "Sports Day".  The kids we excited to have visitors for Howard Payne University athletic program come visit them.  Sadie was most excited to see the cheerleaders.  Her director said that she did jumps and cheers the whole time with them.

Last week was Brownwood Reunion.  The weather was perfect!  We took the kids to the parade that morning and then walked over to the booths.  They had a "kids area" that had a petting zoo, bounce houses and the biggest hit, corn barrels.  We headed home for lunch and naps and then back up that evening to meet some friends.  That evening we went to the carnival and the kids rode their 1st ever rides!  Sadie just loves her buddy, Jaxson!

This is Tripp at the Reunion in the Army helicopters.  He was SO very serious about it and as soon as he sat down he asked me, "can you drive it?"  I explained to him the his Papa used to build these helicopters.  He thought that was pretty cool.  He now has a new fascination with helicopters and airplanes!

Her Papa would be so proud...

I remember when I was probably in 2nd grade wanting to be "grown up" and not wear dresses anymore.  I thought that was babyish.  My dad would always tell me, "girls should wear dresses."  I also remember him taking me to buy dresses because he thought I might actually wear them.  Well, 20 something years later, if he could meet his little granddaughter, Sadie, he would be so proud.  This little girl prefers to always wear a dress and gets quite excited about her dresses.  She likes to look at dress patterns, and shop for dresses with me.  She is definitely a girly girl.  Don't get me wrong, this little girl loves to play in the dirt and get messy, but she is girl through and through.  Here she is today in her new favorite dress!  She picked it out especially for the 2nd day of school!  I will tell you, she is not a fan of hair bows!  She sometimes tolerates them, but prefers a clip or nothing!