When the Cat is Away…

Rob and I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with our youth at Dream Now Weekend.  It was a youth retreat that focused on finding God’s dream for your life.  It deserves a post all of its own, so I’m going to do that a little later.

Since we spent the weekend with our big kids, our little kids spent the weekend with Papa and Gamma at the river.  My children LOVE the river and the water in general. 

Cade’s number one passion in life is fishing.  Here are a few pictures of him from the weekend:

The fishing pole is as big as he is.

 

It looks like someone missed a spot with the sunscreen!

 

His big fish!

 

Papa looks a little proud.

 

Check out his Red!

The bounty.

Papa got to catch at least one.

While the boys were on the boat, the girls hit the pool.  Beas and Brinley joined in for the day.

SaraGrace is a little fish.  Her only problem with swimming is that she attempts to drink the entire pool of water!

This was Emmy’s first swim in the pool.  She was just chillin’ as always!!!

I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family that can pitch in when we need to be away.  I know that we are truly blessed!

My Birthday Weekend

As I get older, birthdays aren’t quite as exciting as they used to be:)  But I always love a good excuse to have a great time!!!  This weekend was no exception.

If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you know that sweet Rob HATES Disney.  But thankfully he LOVES me, so he took me there on Saturday.  We haven’t gotten any time to ourselves lately, so I was super excited to have a day for just US! 

We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in our lives. The Rose’s are no exception!  They kept all three of our children while we went on our birthday trip.  They are such a blessing to us!

Our entire trip was based on one rule:  I had to behave!  Rob hates Disney because I embarrass him when people are disrespectful.  You know, like skipping us in line.  Can you believe we got SKIPPED at the ticket window?  By five people?  I was about to flip my lid because it was already happening and we hadn’t stepped foot in the park.  Rob’s famous last words became, “Cheff!  You promised you’d behave.”  I was a good girl and held up my end of the bargain for the rest of the day.

While at the ticket window (Finally…after being skipped by 5 people), Rob told the lady the ONLY reason he was  there was because it was my birthday.  So I got my birthday button. Then I just had to have our picture made in front of the castle.  What is a trip  to Disney without the castle picture?

  Our first order of business was Space Mountain.  We don’t typically get to ride it when we have the kids, so we waited an entire 65 minutes to ride it.  I realized one thing by the end…I am getting old.  I felt like I had been jerked around and beat up.  But it was oh so fun!

We made our rounds to the Haunted Mansion, then Splash Mountain.  We rode Pirates of the Carribbean and some others, too.  The waits were really short, so we got to do everything we came to do. 

Here we are at Splash Mountain!

 

We even rode the Magic Kingdom Railroad.  We went all the way around.  I haven’t ridden that in years!!!  It was relaxing and fun to just people watch.

Rob asked me why I love Disney so much.  I have come to the conclusion that it is because I carry so much responsibility in my every day life (and I wouldn’t trade it for anything) but it is nice to feel like a kid every once in a while!!!  Disney just seems to do that to people!  Adults act like kids:)

Sunday was my actual birthday.  Mom fixes us our favorite meal on our birthdays, so I had shrimp, baked potatoes, and a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing made just for me by Wimmy!!!  It was DELICIOUS!!! 

That night, Rob took us out to eat at the new Longhorn restaurant.  It was AMAZING!!!  But the most amazing part was the card I got from my son.  As a parent, sometimes it seems as though you are failing every time you turn around.  I feel like I don’t deserve to be a parent sometimes because I can get snappy, and ungrateful.  But gifts like this are God’s way of telling me He’s got it under control.

  Cade had been hiding this card under his shirt the entire time we were at dinner.  He was so proud!

 

 

I am so blessed to have been given another year on this earth.  My prayer is that I make this year more fruitful than ever by being obedient to God’s calling in my life!!!

The Last Two Weeks

Here is a recap of what has been going on with the Vaughn family the last two weeks:

Easter- The only time of year we get family pictures is on Easter. 

 

It amazes me how much our family has grown/changed:

2009

2011

 

2012

  

SaraGrace looked beautiful in her dress!!

Cade was all too serious about egg hunting this year, because he found out there were rewards of financial magnitude in every egg…a quarter:)

    Aunt Amy and BzR got to spend Easter with us.  Amy is one of the greatest blessings in my life!!!!

BzR helped Cade figure out how to work all of the gadgets in his Easter basket.

Good friends are hard to come by, and the Lord has definitely blessed me with a few!  My dear friend, Kristen (Kicken), moved a couple of years ago.  We don’t get to catch up often, but when we do, it is always so much fun.  We always meet up in Downtown Disney with the boys for lunch and a trip to the Lego store.

Kicken got to meet Emmy for the first time!!!

The boys were so glad to see each other.  It’s been soooo long.  Of course, I was ecstatic to see Kicken.  I love this girl!!!  And I’m even more ecstatic that she is expecting a little GIRL in August.

Because this post is a little nostalgic, here is a picture of our last Downtown Disney outing.  I was pregnant with Faith.

We had one last photo op in the parking lot. 

I always love seeing Kicken, but I’m so sad when we have to part ways:(  I know one thing’s for sure…I will see her in August when Baby Girl makes her arrival! 

Itsy Bitsy Spider

This precious girl is getting so big!!!   After a LONG day at work on Tuesday, I came home, changed her into her pj’s, put her down and got into the tub to SOAK.  It was so nice to just relax.

But my relaxation didn’t last very long.  As I got out of the tub, the paranoid momma came out in me and I went to check on her to make sure she was breathing (as I do every 5 minutes). 

This was hanging from the blinds just over her bed…

 

I liketa died!!!  I.DO.NOT.DO.SPIDERS!  Rob wasn’t home, so I gently hoisted her out of the bed and put her into mine.  I called Rob and told him he better put on his big boy panties because he had Daddy Duty when he got home.  I sat on the bed and kept my eye on this  creature.  I wanted to be sure he didn’t escape.  To pass the time, I did some internet spider verification, and learned that this is a Huntsman Spider (read-not poisonous, but big enough to make you hurt yourself).  Although I was thankful he wasn’t a bad one, my philosophy is “The only good spider is a dead one!”

Once Rob made it home, he took care of Mr. Spider and brought him to his final resting place.  I am so thankful that huge ugly thing didn’t actually make it into Emmy’s bed.  I may have just died right there!