My Precious Dad...

He is the sweetest!!!

Just this past monday, playing a little wiffle ball as a fam...good times!

He loves his grandkids so much and they love their papa!

My mom and dad... could they BE any cuter??? NOpe

The five of us

I have kinda been neglecting this little old blog lately and part of it because writing about what has been going on lately makes it seem much more real...and to be honest, I kind of wish the last few weeks were all part of an awful nightmare, but I know that its not and despite the fact that I feel this way about it, I do know that God is in control and know that He is testing my faith, as well as my families.

My dad has cancer. Again. When we went through this three years ago and to be honest I thought we wouldn't have to go through it again. But God has different plans. Things are looking much more grim this time around, which is incredibly sobering. It looks like the cancer is already in his lymphnods as well as in his lungs. The kind of cancer that he has cannot be treated with chemotherapy and because of the amount of radiation he had last time, it does not look like radiation will do much either. My parents are amazing and have an amazing attitude about this...my dad is prepared to fight in any way that he can, and I know that he will. Their are possibilities of surgery and also possibly some type of clinical trial or also alternative methods that my parents will for sure look into. They will do all that they can, at the same time, their faith is strong and they know that this is all in God's hands.

My dad is the most amazing man I know. He has been through many trials and always handled things with grace and humility. He loves the Lord with his whole heart and is loyal and faithful. When he found this news out his two concerns were- 1. he hates that he is putting his family through this and 2. how can I use this to share the gospel with anyone who will listen. As you can see, his focus is not on himself...its on others...he is truly my hero! I love him so very much and my heart aches that he has a long and difficult journey ahead, but I know that God is going to use this for great things and it will not be wasted. I could go on and on about the man that my dad is, but I would probably work my self into sobbing by the end of this, and believe me...my eyes need a little break. :) So I will leave you with some pics of my precious daddy and just ask that you will please keep him in your prayers as well as my mom. I will try to update when we know more...for now we are waiting on insurance to ok a CT scan of his whole body to see if the cancer is anywhere else. Thanks!

Life Lately Continued...

We took a trip to San Diego and went to Sea World with our friends the Moss's. Taeden's favorite part was the play place and the birds he saw wandering around. go figure.

Our trip happened to fall on our 4th anniversary. We celebrated with a date last night. I am so so so more than thankful for my wonderful husband. He is the best!

The Moss and Wolf boys. Taeden LOVES his little friend Chase and asks for him constantly.

Macalan is in love with the pool. He pretty much has this expression on his face at all times. yep, he is still angel baby.

this was fathers day. we had so much fun celebrating the best dad on the planet and showing him how much we love him!

a trip to the LA zoo. taeden loves it more than anything.

taeden now loves to pray. it is kind of the cutest thing EVER!

one of my best friends from high school came to visit with her daughter norah. the boys loved her and taeden keeps asking for "dora." it is pretty cute.

macalans future wife??? :)

my happy boy at 8 months.

Macalan saw a specialist last week for his blood diesease. It is a weird thing because he has been great and his health has continued to be great, but he warned us that it can creep up at any point and make him pretty sick. He gave us good pointers on what to watch for and how to prevent any further damage to his spleen. We felt really confident that we are prepared to care for it a little better. He continues to have a great disposition and all three of us adore him (yes, taeden still loves him immensley and macalan lights up the second he hears taedens voice).

And now for the biggest news of all...

We are moving! I am still getting used to the idea myself and my eyes were swollen from crying for about a week straight, but we really do feel that it is the best thing for our family at this time. We are moving to the western suburbs of chicago (about 40 miles from the city) at the beginning of Sept. so that brandon can join his brothers who both work for a food distribution company that his dad owns. This California girl is not going to know what hit her come winter, but I am a little bit excited about the prospects of actual seasons! I am pretty devestated to be moving so far away from my parents and the rest of my family, but I know that we will do whatever we have to to make sure that we still see them a good amount! I am praying so hard that kersten and clint will move to indiana (they go out there next weekend one last time and will make their minds up then) because if so, they will be less than 4 hours away and who knows maybe we can get my parents and brother out there eventually! I am trying hard to trust in the Lord and know that God will use this to stretch me greatly and hope that I will allow Him to do just that! You can be praying for that as well! So thats the big news and now my hands and mind are just plain tired from all this blogging..so it will probably be at least a week until you hear from me again:)

Life Lately...

So, apparently my cameras cord was like the most basic one out there and turns out that we have like 10 in our house that works just like the one that came with the camera. (my husband sweetly pointed that out after listening to me whine about not being able to download my pictures). So here I am. We have been super busy lately and loving every minute that Brandon gets to spend at home because of his summer break! Here are lots of pictures of our life lately... the boys playing with johnny. they love him and we do too!

brandon and i had the opportunity to chaperone the senior trip to hawaii...which was amazing!!! no kiddos meant- sleeping in, laying out and lots of eating out at restuarants other than mcdonalds :)

brandons brother wayne and his wife heidi came to see us along with their 4 kiddos...it was a full house but we had so much fun with them and taeden loved being with his cousins

just a brag moment...my husband is the king of laudry. he is meticulous in his folding and this is often what i come home to after a night out with the girls...yep, he is pretty amazing!!!

my bf kristen and i got to go away for an amazing girls weekend in santa monica. we stayed at the fairmont miramar which is by far the most amazing hotel i will probably ever stay in. it was such a relaxing and fun time together! i love kristen!!!

here's taeden in our white trash backyard. yep, its a pool from wal-mart and a broken chair providing hours of fun for taeden and his cousins.

macalan ate babyfood for about a week. he never really liked it. he already eats as much table food as taeden. he loves everything we give him!

the yearly mothers day shot. i think this was after church and i think the boys were pretty much "done" at this point. but we tried.

taeden with his cousins. he is obsessed with them. it has been such a blessing living so close to them for the past few years. they help me take such good care of the boys!

me and my boys. don't worry, taeden hair has since been cut and is much cuter. :)

Off the Wagon...

Well, I've done it before, and it will surely happen again...me falling off the blogging wagon for awhile, but here I am with just a quick and boring update to let you know I am still alive! My reason for not blogging is because I can't find the cord that downloads our pictures from our camera to our computer and blogs are just no fun at all without pics to go along with them. I will soon break down and buy a new one, but I am just so annoyed at myself for misplacing it. When I get my new one I will post like crazy so stay tuned, hopefully it will be soon and we have some BIG news to share too that I can officially share tomorrow. (By the way, I am NOT pregnant, thank you very much. :) So check back this week to find out whats going on with us!

I Am Still Alive...

After the race, I can't believe I am smiling, cause I really felt like I was on the verge of death

My parents came to support, they were so proud. My mother actually shed a few tears... :)

We were pretty pumped about our shirts!!!

This guy was at mile 8 holding this sign, it made me laugh..hopefully it was a joke though..can you imagine???

This is the scenery of our run! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Although I will say, I am excited to do a run in a city...I got a little bored of the horses and cows by mile 9.

Well, girls I did it. I am so happy it is over. It was months of training and anticipation and it was all over in 2 hours and 13 minutes. I will say that I am proud of myself..without being boastful..I mean, my time was good for me (the fastest guy did it in 1 hour and 5 minutes...REALLY?!!!- that means 5 minute miles the whole time..I seriously don't know how that is even possible ) I was expecting it to take longer, but I was able to stay on my pace the whole time and even though I felt like I was dying and swore during mile 11 that this was the stupidest thing I had ever done and that I would never, EVER do it again... I am already getting ready to sign up for half marathon #2 ( I think in Chicago on August 2nd...Kirra DO IT WITH ME!!!!) It's true what they say...you kinda get a little "marathon bug" and I have got it now. So we'll see, I am by no means out to improve my time by tons, but I wouldn't mind shaving a couple minutes off each time I do one and I mostly just like the way you feel after you accomplish something like that. I can say this, I WILL NEVER EVER DO A FULL MARATHON. I honestly don't think my knees could take it and I can't even imagine running for over 4 hours!

Here Goes Nothin'

The time has come to run my half marathon. Saturday is approaching fast and all I can say is ... I AM SCARED! I have a bit of a sick stomach everytime I think about running 13.1 miles...I mean, really..WHAT WAS I THINKING! But I am going to do it, which means I am accomplishing a goal that I have had for a long time, so I am sure I will feel pretty good in the end..even if I can't walk or take care of my children for a few days. I will say that watching the Biggest Loser on Tuesday night gave me some major motivation...I mean if they can run a whole marathon...surely I can do a half...right? I sure hope so!

Palm Springs

Hailey and Macalan

The dads and the babies

Taeden loved their dog cooper

After a long day in the pool

Taeden "swimming"

We had a moment of spontenaity last weekend when we were sitting on our couch Sunday afternoon. Our good friends Lacey and Anthon were in Palm Springs for the week and had invited us to join them a few weeks ago..however, we had kind of forgotten until Anthon texted Brandon on Sunday. Within minutes we had decided, shoot, lets just do it. Brandon had decided he would take Monday off and we piled into our car with our things in a laundry basket, yes, we packed in a laundry basket...a little ghetto, if I do say so myself, and we were on our way. We were suprised that it only took us two hours to get there and we were so happy with ourselves for being so spontaneous...with our two small children (this doesn't happen very often with me...being the planner type that I am). Anyways, it paid off...we had the best time with our friends! They had a beautiful house there with a pool and hot tub and we just enjoyed being with Lacey, Anthon and their daughter Hailey. The boys did great too. Taeden still thinks that he is the olympic swimmer that he thought he was last summer, taking no time at all to dive into the pool by himself (don't worry we were there to catch him!) He absolutely loved the water and spent most of his waking moments "swimming"...He has no fear of drowning apparently, which is scary and has me realizing I won't be taking him and Macalan swimming by myself (not enough hands) until he has some lessons. It is fun though, that he isn't scared to go under the water and should make for a fun summer in the water. We ended up staying until Tuesday and drove home in the afternoon. We were so happy we got to spend time with our friends and just wish they would move back already! :)