2 1/2 year old Andrew Asa and 8 month Leah Kathryn

Summer is almost here!  Just one more week until summer!  Wow!  I have been so blessed to work at Dartmouth.  I am sad to leave because I love teaching there, but so excited to get to be with my babies for the short amount of time before they go to school! 

Leah:

She is such a spunky girl!  Not sure where she gets that from.  ;) She loves to grab everything in sight and analyze it.  If she cant reach it, she will try and try again.  Then, she will cry and Andrew will come to her rescue...so sweet!  She knows what she wants and isnt afraid to let us know (dont know where she got that from either)  She is scooting backwards and rolls to get where she wants to go.  I anticipate her crawling in the next month.  She absolutely is a joy to Aaron, Andrew, and I.  Andrew LOVES her and will tell us what she needs anytime she is crying.  For the most part, he is right!  She has also started babbling more consonants.  She will say dada and gaga, along with the aaa and ooo.  If you have been around her for any amount of time, you know she has the uuu sound perfect.  Our sweet girl grunts all the time.  In fact, she grunts instead of cries most of the time.  We laugh because it is not so girly.  :)  I know all of her determination will pay off, but Lord please give us patience in her teen years. :)

Me and my Girl!

 Daddy and his Girl!

Miss Blue Eyes...

 Andrew is the most thoughtful, encouraging, and aware boy!  His wife is going to be so lucky!  A little story for you Ags (only my Aggie friends will understand the saying):  A few weeks ago, we were hanging out with the Bowen clan and Andrew asked Dana (39 weeks pregnant), is there a baby in there?  She reply yes and Andrew told her, it is so beautiful.  We laughed and smiled because what more could a mommy who is about to give birth ask for.  Andrew is definitely cuddly and every time he is in a shopping cart, he must hug you at least every time we go down another aisle.  We love that about him!  He also tells us that he loves us sooo much.  I can not wait to soak all of this sweet love from my boy when I am home full time! 

He is beginning to be interested in learning the letters and sounds (which I havent pushed), but am so happy to teach him now.  He loves to learn and when he does, he likes to learn it to depth.  His understanding of people and relationships really amazes us sometimes.  We love the toddler stage when it comes to exploring and learning...maybe not the discipline part.  :)

As a segue into disobedience:  this is Andrew, who ran to get to the bathroom and climbed right in...I told him sissy was getting a bath, not him, but he obviously had other plans.  At the time, it wasnt funny, but now I can laugh about it.

Me and my Boy!

Aaron and our babies!

 He will read us stories (that we have read to him over and over) and he will get entire phrases on every page correct!  He loves us to read to him. :)



Graduation and Dedication

We dedicated Leah to the Lord on May 13th.  She looked absolutely precious in her dress that Lovey and Pop Pops bought for her to wear.  Her verse is:  Psalm 73:28:

"But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.  I pray this for her, that she take refuge in the Lord and praise him all the days of her life!  We are so thankful for our healthy little girl.  She makes us laugh and smile every day!  We can not wait to watch her grow and become a wonderful young lady!

Precious Leah!    Family of four! :)

During the dedication...                                                Our babies...:)

   

 Leah with her Great Paw and Mawmaw.

Graduation, May 12th, 2012!

Aaron graduated from SMU on Saturday!  He worked so hard to finish!  He even did it with having two kids during it!  Talk about tough...but we couldnt have done it with all the support of our friends and family!  God protected and provided us through it all!

A special thanks to: 

-our parents!  They came and helped with the kids whenever we asked...all four of you are selfless and we love yall very much!

-the Bowen's!  They listened, encouraged,and entertained us throughout!  They have also come to our rescue in watching our kids!

-Our Community Group:  They have prayed for us and given us encouragement throughout.  They also provided meals when we had Leah.  And a special thanks to Kim and Jessica for watching our kiddos when we were in a bind. 

-Our Friends...there are too many to name all of them (we are super duper blessed), but they have all loved, encouraged, listened, helped, hugged, laughed, cried. and celebrated with us through all the ups and downs!

I know all of you will continue to support us as we move forward with Aaron working and me staying home.  And for that, we are extremely thankful!  We thank our God for every single one of you!

Here are a few pics from the graduation!

Aaron in his academia outfit!  Gotta love the hat!  :)   

 Family :)

 Proud of my hubby!  He worked hard!

Behind the scenes wrangling of the kids! :)