Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory!

I just realized that my past two posts were titled with song titles or lyrics so I figured I wouldn't break the streak with this one either!

A few weeks ago my mom and her siblings had the arduous task of going through my grandfather's house and distributing all of his belongings. Mark and I were blessed to recieve a very special concrete statue that used to be in his gorgeous backyard and meant a lot to him. For those of you Catholics out there that know what I'm talking about, it is a Sacred Heart of Jesus statue. Now granted, this statue has been through many years in the Gaschen backyard and is certainly not in perfect shape, but it is meaningful and special none the less. Since our backyard is miles from Popo's in beauty, we placed the statue on the back porch until I have time to get an appropriate place set up for it.

Every morning after breakfast, I let Kolbe go out in the backyard and say hello to his friends (the birds and the neighbor's dog). Low and behold, it seems that he has taken up a more important friend: the Jesus statue. He typically goes over and "talks" to him or sings one of his little jibberish songs and touches the nail marks in his hands that Pinkie showed him or gives him a hug. While I know that he's only 19 months old and can't fully fathom the idea of Jesus or God, it is so beautiful to see him trying to communicate with him already! It's almost as if he "knows". I sometimes find myself wondering what he's saying to him...and if God might be talking back inside his head. So happy to see that our little guy already loves his Creator! And can't help but hope that my Popo up in heaven might be looking down and happy with the new home and company that his statue now has. So beautiful in its own innocent little way.

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head...

This past Saturday we got a wonderful soaking rain here in Lubbock that lasted all morning...which is very rare! Usually if it rains here at all, it's a torrential down pour with 60 mile per hour winds and lasts about 3 minutes. Kolbe was getting a little stir crazy so he and I decided to don our rain jackets and go do a little puddle splashing while Reagan was napping. Kolbe LOVED it! Lets just say that the little video clip below does absoutely no justice to the amount of fun Kolbe was having! Pinkie and Uncle Andy showed up while we were out and got to witness some of the excitement. My mom said it ranked up there with one of the cutest things she's ever seen! And you'll just love how he pays absolutely no attention to anything I'm saying in the video...he's WAY to concerned with getting back into the puddle!

Baby Face….You’ve got the sweetest little baby face!

Reagan Mark is almost 4 months old (on Wednesday)! He now weighs 14 pounds and is every bit as much of an action man as Kolbe was at this age. He loves to stand at all times and is starting to make good eye contact and take notice of everything around him. He loves to smile and “talk” with his cute little “goo goo” noises. He’s making every effort to roll over and has made it from stomach to back several times.

Because of his cheesy mama, he’s managed to pick up a sweet little nickname…Rudy. After he was born I’d call him Little Reagaroo, or Reagaroody, or Reagarooni and it’s just gradually made is way to Rudy. Somehow, in his cutest moments, it just seems to fit him! He is such a cuddle bug and SO laid back! I’m really not kidding when I say that he usually only cries when he needs to nurse or is ready to fall asleep. Even then, it’s more of a distressed “Uh, uh, uh” instead of a cry! Mark and I were talking about how with Kolbe’s babyhood, we’ve always had very specific things to pray for…that he could eat more than 2 ounces, that his next surgery would go well, that he’d gain weight, that he could figure out how to suck, etc… with Reagan, it’s so nice to be able to just pray that he continues to be healthy and continues to grow in God’s image!

Jumpin' Jungle!

There’s a really cool place here in Lubbock called Jumpin’ Jungle that my cousin, Mandi introduced me to. Jumpin’ Jungle is a huge gymnasium that is completely filled with giant inflatables for kids to jump on! On Wednesday mornings from 10-12, the entire gym is reserved for kiddos under the age of 6. Since Mandi is nearing the end of her pregnancy and is unable to climb some of the bigger jumpers, we decided to wait until Mark was able to come with us to take Kolbe and Shelby for some fun (parent supervision definitely required!). The first time Kolbe went he was a little bit apprehensive of the “jumping sensation,” but this time, he was all over it! Both of the kiddos had a blast! And Mark and I definitely went home exhausted and sore as well! We can’t wait to go back next week with Pinkie! (or maybe it’s just me that can’t wait to see my mom trying to climb up all the jumpers with Kolbe!)

Oh Yeah! The birds!

I totally forgot to include some pictures of the birds! Kolbe was totally fascinated with them. Of course, while you're down on the beach, they hoard around you hoping you'll have some scrap of food for them. But the coolest part was seeing the birds from our balcony. We were on the 10th floor and they'd come right up to our balcony and eat scraps of bread we would toss to them. Kolbe LOVED it! See pic and video below!

Awesome pic taken from Mark's new iPhone!

Beach Babies!

Well, it has definitely been a long time since I did a blog post, but I swear I have a good excuse! We decided to switch to a different internet provider and had to turn our existing service off before they couldn’t even schedule the install of the new service. Sure enough, they weren’t able to come out and install it for two weeks so we’ve been without internet for a while.

Having no internet hasn’t been too bad, because we have certainly been very busy! We took an AWESOME vacation to South Padre Island with my parents near the end of May. After hearing several people say that all Texas beaches are horrible, we were pleasantly surprised at how wonderful South Padre was! Being completely honest, the waves there were far better than the ones we were used to in Pensacola, where we have been many times before. I was a little bit worried about how travelling and vacationing would be with the two babies but it ended up being the best case scenario! No big problems! We were fortunate to have Andy and Abby flying with us both down to Padre as well as back to Lubbock so we had several extra hands on board.

Kolbe LOVED the beach! The first day he was a little bit cautious about walking in the stand and getting in the water, but he quickly warmed up to it. The only thing he has yet to figure out it the whole concept of closing his eyes and mouth when the waves come! A few good salt water waves did him in, but he was quick to get right back out there. He really loved the pool at the condo as well. Unfortunately, the water in the pool was FREEZING (though he seemed not to care) so he didn’t get to do as much pool swimming as he would have liked to because no one was willing to spend too much time in there with him!

Other than enjoying lots of time on the beach, we got to try out several fun restaurants including one called the Big Donkey. Hmm. One morning we all got to go parasailing as well. It was a blast! The view of the ocean was just beautiful! We also had fun hanging out at the condo eating, watching movies, playing board games and just spending lots of time together. Of course it wouldn’t have been a Hefferly Family vacation without some sort of visit to a historical location so we stopped at a Mexican/American battle site as well. Lovely. Really.

We had SO much fun on our vacation and are so thankful to Pinkie and Pa for such a wonderful trip! Enjoy the pics below!

Reagan's first dip in the ocean!

Day one- the kiddos checking out the ocean with Aunt Abby

Sweet Speedo (swim diaper)

Now that guy is ready for some serious beach action!

Poor Reagan...he looks like he's not too happy about this whole situation.

The three-months-post-baby part of me is glad this pic turned out kind of dark!

Reagan kicked back, relaxed, putting his toes in the sand...life's hard, little guy!

Yeah! We love the pool!

The boat was Kolbe's favorite!

Uncle Dave making a sand Kolbe!

Sand toys, sand toys, sand toys!

Senor Pa!

Kolbe on the "Big Donkey" in the lobby of The Big Donkey

Pa and Kolbs on a sunset walk

A rare moment alone...

on our way to parasailing!

Mark was a lot more excited than I was because I had been before...he loved it! It was so much fun to go together too!

Yep, that's us!

The girls in our matching jammie pants!

While we were there, we got to celebrate Reagan's 100 days! As a tradition, my mom presented him with his Happy 100 Days card...adorned with 100 stickers or words to celebrate his life. What a fantastic 100 days!

We ate a WONDERFUL dinner at a way too expensive seafood restaurant called Amberjacks.

I love my mom!

That's the look of a kid who has had some serious fun!

Now that's what I call a sunrise!