Facelift

Well as you can see my blog got a much needed face link thanks so much to a fellow blogger  dear friend (yes even though we have never really met face to face I consider anyone who is a fellow believer in Him a dear friend) Kathryn. It looks so much better! I am going to have to sit around one day and figure out how to do this kind of stuff. I love the new look and the new font! It makes me happy to think that my page is cute now!

I hope you have all had a fantastic Tuesday, I spent the greater part of the dear watching Mackenzie Louise, my dear friend Brittney's daughter while she went to her baby doc appt. We went for a walk, had lunch, and went swimming. Carter and CJ played the nintendo things pretty much all day, no big surprise there, and we just finished watching one of our new fav shows Make it or Break it, on ABC family.

Oh and we just had yummy brownies and vanilla ice cream! No that was not on our meal plan for the week but we thought we would splurge since Gogo is visiting us. (That's the cute name my sweet nephews gave my baby bro, Carter)

Meal Planning Monday

So since we are on a tight budget now I am trying to plan out our meals for the week so I know what we are going to have beforehand and not scramble at the last minute or stop to pick up something because it's late and we are hungry.

On the Menu this week:

Monday: stuffed bell peppers (it will be my first time to make these and I am uber excited)

Tuesday: Garlic chicken and turkey bacon pizza

Wednesday: pork chops and homemade fries

Thursday: Spaghetti ( I love my momma's spaghetti and this is a staple meal in our house)

Friday: Tacos or burritos

Saturday: Breakfast (I work thurs-sat so after my third night I am pretty tired)

So this week I went grocery shopping and I saved more than I spent! I was soo excited! Our grocery store was having a buy one get on for a penny so I loaded up on ground turkey meat since we use that instead of hamburger meat.

If you read this I hope that you help keep me accountable, I need all the help I can get.

Have a great week everyone!

Take me out to the Ball game

So these are a few months old but they are from Brant's baseball season this year!

Brant concentrating hard on hitting the ball!

Go Brant Go!

Allie rooting on her big brother, well kinda.

Brother Brock cheering from the stands!

And Uncle CJ and Papa Gene watching the action.

Brant did so good this year and is really loving America's favorite past time! I hope that he will continue to play, it's so fun to watch!

One Step Closer

Well we had a biggest payment for Nigeria due this week. With that one out of the way we went and got our vaccines, which I may add were $$ and not that bad painful!! The yellow fever vaccine hurt the most and left a nice round red quarter size marks on our arms. Later that night our pastor came over along with my dear friend Britne, who will be going to Nigeria with us, and we went over our not so set in stone, itinerary. CJ has already started writing about this journey He is taking us on and will continue to do so until we get back. I am going to be getting my lessons prepared, I am teaching at the nursing school and midwifery school, scary I know. I am also going to be working in surgery with the orthopedic surgeon who is going with us, in the NICU, and then also in the L&D ward. I am also going to be giving malaria vaccines and doing other small things in the "bush" which is basically the wilderness. The Fulani people are nomadic, following their cattle, some more than other and the ones far out in the bush are very nomadic. Please continue to pray for our trip, our hearts, and the Fulani people.

We will keep you posted!

Stukas weekend

This weekend we had the pleasure of my sweet brother-in-law coming up to stay with us and bringing all the Stukas kiddos! We had a blast, on Saturday morning we went for a walk, Allie in her stroller and the boys on their bikes, went down to the park for a few minutes (it was still damp soaked from the night before) and later that afternoon we went to the pool for a swim. That night our church had our first block party of the summer. It was a great evening, it was the coolest, temperature and guest list wise, block party we have yet to have. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Look at those big eyes!

the boys in the pool.

Brant at the block party

Brock in a rare moment of an empty bounce house.

Sweet Cakes talking up a storm!

Uncle CJ feeding Cakes before she got dressed for church.

The boys enjoyed church this morning and Jason really enjoyed Kevin's sermon. CJ finally got to come to church because he didn't have to be to work until 12. I went with Jason to look at a couple houses this weekend, praying that God will show them where they are supposed to go. (And secretly hoping that it's here!)

Summer Lovin'

Hello to all of you sweet ladies who keep up with the Hoover Happenings Here in Heartland. :) I hope that you all had a very blessed and exciting 4th weekend. We, well I, had a good weekend visiting with family and catching up with friends. CJ had to work most of the weekend, but we managed to see some fireworks and visit with some wonderful friends from church on the 4th.

On Friday my beautiful sister and I went to Canton for First Monday. I love that she is one of my best friends and that we can have such a good time no matter what we are doing. I remember when we were pre-teens/teens and fought and nagged all the time, but now since we have matured we have such a great time together. I am so blessed to have a sister, especially one who I look up to. She is amazing. Okay any who, we got soaking wet at the end of our day, it started pouring and since I drove, and am cheap, we parked in the free parking that was a little bit further away. She got some bows for Allie, of course, and some dips from our favorite food stand.  We both stayed at my moms that night, so we got to hang out and talk even more!

She is pretty much the cutest thing ever!

Yep, officially the cutest little Allie Cakes in the world.

Can you tell her Keke is absolutely smitten with her?!

Turkey wouldn't smile for me when I got out the camera. I kinda got it in this one though. Yes, we are all sitting around staring at her. :)

Saturday morning we got up early and went to the 14th annual Bradley street parade! It is so fun to watch all the kiddos ride their bikes and what not's in the parade, and it was Allie's 1st time to get to be in it! Jason walked with her, she was precious to say the least. My camera died and I left my charger at our house so I didn't get any pictures. Hopefully my sis e-mails me some quickly and I will get them right up.

After the fun at the parade we went into Mimi and Poppy's house and celebrated Brant's 7th Birthday!! I can't believe that it's been 7 years since that sweet little turkey was born. I was soo sad the day he was born because I was sitting at DFW getting ready to fly out of the country. I remember getting back and wanting to run all the way to Tyler to see his sweet face.

CJ and I watched fireworks that Forney put on. We hope that you had a great time celebrating our country's independence day.

Visit with the Johnsons

We absolutely love our friends the Johnsons. Kenneth and CJ meet when we lived in Tyler, CJ had just started at Lowe's and it just so happened that Kenneth, who we affectionately call KP, had just started working there too. From the moment they meet they were pretty much attached at the hip. They are so stinkin funny together and always enjoy being around each other.

Then Katie and I met through the boys, and well we were pretty much the same as them when we met, except she didn't live in Tyler so we hung out as much as we could when she came into town. We all hung out all the time and I am so glad that we all got along so well.

Then CJ and I got married, and the next following July Kenneth and Katie got married! Katie moved to Tyler since Kenneth was not quite done with school and it was soo much fun! KP and KT then had a sweet baby girl, Kobie, and we were all in love!

So when CJ and I felt God was leading our family toward the Heartland area we knew we would be leaving behind some very dear friends. We look forward to getting together with them every chance we get. And just a couple of weeks ago they got the chance to come up to our house and we went to the Dallas World Aquarium.

We had a blast as always! Kobie was so much fun and CJ just loves to have her around. Here are some pictures of the fun that we had at the Aquarium.

This sweet Kobie on our way to the Aquarium.

She was so excited to see the big somethings, in the water, she got right down on her hands and knees and was talking to them. She is soo darn cute!

We thought this was so cool, but we weren't quite sure what it was. It has 10 legs, so it's not an octopus and it's not a starfish. Any suggestions?

Do you see her sweet face? She was done at this point if you can't tell from this picture. Love her!

We had a great time and can't wait to see the Johnson's again!