Head Shots in San Francisco!

When I could pull Tom away from the conference a couple evenings and for two full days we had so much fun and made wonderful memories! We made it to the Hard Rock Cafe, In N Out Burger 2 times, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, an awesomely cold and windy catamaran ride around the bay and under The Golden Gate Bridge, rented a car to see the Muir Woods and Sausalito, rode the Cable Cars, walked on the Golden Gate Bridge when it was so foggy we couldn't even see it, ate lots of yummy food, saw lots of eccentric people, etc... It was great to be able to walk hand-in-hand and not have little ones in between us! :) Don't get me wrong... it was terribly hard to be away from the boys, especially on the one "bad" night when Braden and especially Colton wanted me and were so sad. A definite highlight was when we saw the boys at the airport! Those hugs and smiles were awesome! God bless Gramby and Pa Pa for taking such great care of the boys and saying already that they would do it again! Thanks, Tom, for letting me go to the conference with you. We need to do that again and again and again! :)

Surprises in San Francisco!

While Tom was working so hard and attending his conferences I decided to take a tour of San Francisco that his conference was sponsoring. Right away I was blown away by God's blessing of two fantastic ladies to tour with. We had a ball on the tour and saw just about all of the highlights of this amazing city. We hit it off so well that we decided to eat lunch together at a great Mexican restaurant in the Ferry Building. That was so much fun that we decided to spend the next day together as well. What fun to explore Pier 39, Ghiradelli Square (the new chocolate and peanut butter is to dye for), riding cable cars, roaming and eating an awesome lunch in China town, etc... Sadly Laurie had to leave the next day, but Marissa and I hopped a bus to get a great view of the Painted Ladies and had fun wandering the Embarcadaro Plaza. Thanks, Marissa and Laurie, for some great memories in San Francisco!

Praise God for his unexpected blessing of friendship in this wondrous city! :)

Reception rowdiness

Even though Tom and the boys missed Matt and Laura's wedding because Tom caught the infamous stomach bug (Gramby had it too and Pa Pa missed the reception because he got it) I enjoyed the wedding! Everyone looked beautiful and it brought back wonderful memories of Tom and my wedding in the same church 14 year ago. At the reception we all enjoyed a yummy buffet with a St. Louis favorite, mustacolli (sp?). My boys loved collecting tons of the red glass beads that decorated the tables. Those along with the koozies that were the guest's gifts provided oodles of entertainment for the evening. Only the A, B, C brothers would think to use koozies as boxing gloves. :) It was very special to see family that we hadn't seen in a while and play with our cousins. Andrew danced a group dance, Tom and I had a quick slow dance along with Colton, and Colton had a ball on the dance floor with cousin, Jenni! Jenni, save Colton a dance at your wedding next summer. We are going to try really hard to be there! :) What a fun evening! Thanks, Matt and Laura, for letting us celebrate your special day with you. God's blessings on your marriage!

It's all about the cake

The first thing we saw when we got to Gramby and Pa Pa's house was Matt and Laura's wedding cake. Mmmm... We were given strict directions to leave the cake alone, but help yourselves to as many cake scraps as you would like. Yum! Finally, on Saturday morning Gramby and I got to take the cake to the reception to set it up. The boys couldn't wait to get to the reception to eat it! This surprised me so much because Andrew has not eaten cake in years, Braden eats the icing only, and the there is Colton who won't finish a whole piece. To make a long story short... we all got to enjoy yet another "Barb Cake"! Way to go Gramby! We all had (dare I admit) 2 pieces and Andrew said it was the best cake he had ever eaten. One of the best compliments Gramby has ever gotten. We truly had our cake and ate it too! :)

Touring Busch Stadium with a Terrible Two! :)

The pictures look fantastic, but the reality was something different... Tom's family took a tour of the new Busch Stadium. We had to get there and hour early, it was getting hot (but beautiful by Houston standards), Mommy forgot the bottled water, etc... When the tour started, Colton was full into his Twoness... We got lots of nasty looks from other tour guests. Nothing would help Colton. He wanted to walk on the field which is a STRICT NO NO, he wanted to go out all the doors that the tour was not going. One worker told him that he needed to be quiet so that he wouldn't wake up Fred Bird. That worked some. Mommy's mints worked some. Gramby's hauls cough drops worked some. You get the picture... All in all it was relatively enjoyable and we got some fun pics, but living out Colton's Twoness can be quite a challenge sometimes. :) Our favorite part had to be sitting in the Cardinal dug out and the awesome baseball card wall paper in one of the fancy rooms.

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." James 1:2

Showering Cassie with Love

What a blessing it was to throw a baby shower with my Mom for my sister. It is a very special time for her and I'm so happy to be a small part of it! It is always an adventure to work with Mom to put a party on, paint, craft, etc... We pulled it off with the help of several guests who arrived early. Thanks everyone! :) The diaper cake we created just moments before the party was SO cute! Thanks to all my MOMS friends for all the fun baby shower game ideas. After diving into all the yummy eats we passed around a stuffed Winnie the Pooh and told how we knew Cassie and a funny story about her. Then we wrote messages on diapers for a small pick-me-up during middle of the night diaper changes. :) Thanks to Candi we had a fun Ibaby tunes game. I was so happy to be running the show instead of playing, but I tried my best to do a little dancing and offer some hints. We followed that up with Baby BINGO while Cass opened her gifts. Yeah, Rachael for winning! The evening ended by everyone placing a candle in the cake and offering baby Griffin a wish. It was very touching for Cass! Thanks, God, for blessing Cassie's baby shower!

Fantastic Fritz's Frozen Custard!

Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Good! What else can you say? This is one of our very favorite places to get frozen custard in MO! We met Nana, Aunt Cassie (Griffin in utero), Uncle Matt, and Rachael for a yummy treat and a little rain! :) This is a great pic of Cass and her family! We can't wait for Griffin to be born! :)