Recent Birthday Parties

Feb & March were so busy this year with birthday parties. A couple of weekends we had 2 parties in 1 day. Wow- that makes me tired just saying it. The kids always have so much fun. :)

Here are some pictures of a couple of the parties they went too.

Jake & Luke @ Landen's party...

Jake looks so tired and this was the 1st party of the day. And both parties this day were indoor bounce house parties.

Landen's Party

It looks like they were all worn out from playing so hard... :) Landen is so cute in this one because he is covering his ears and that is exactly what I would have been doing if I was that age... haha It was pretty loud in there but they were all troopers and had so much fun.
Jake & Jared @ Kase's birthday party
Kase had a rock & roll party at his house. When I saw these shirt's I just had to get them to go along with the theme of the party. The kids had a blast!!

Me & Jake @ Leighton's 1st birthday party

Jake had a great time playing with Landen his "football buddy" as he calls him... Leighton just looked like a little doll :)

What a cutie pie!!! Little Leighton

I love this picture.... :)

March Family Fun Night

Our March family fun night started with an idea that Wendy and I had to get our families together for the evening. It turned into a fun filled night with 5 families and a bunch of laughs!!! So we have now decided to make this a monthly event. April will be at our house, so stay tuned for next month's family fun night.

Everyone had a really good time at Stacy's. The kids all got along so well that us girls were able to chit chat most of the evening. The guys even enjoyed a game of poker. And at the end of the night we all enjoyed a dog chase. :) I have never seen a bunch of grown men running up and down the street over and over again chasing a dog. Stacy's dog got out when everyone was starting to leave and the chase was on... Luckily one of the guys caught her but the chase seemed to last forever.... and the kids were right there following behind their dad's. It was one of the funniest things I think I have ever seen.

We even had a little photographer for the evening... :) Erin's daughter Kodi knew all the in's and out's of my camera, so she took pictures all evening. She did such a wonderful job!!! I guess I should say it was my mother in law's camera which I am not familiar with at all. Hopefully we will have our new camera within the next week or so. I just need to stop looking and make my purchase! :)

Me & Kodi

Leighton feeding her daddy... How sweet!!!

Me & Tobie

Me & my sweetie

Jared and Cole swinging Jake

Several of the kids playing on the trampoline... and Angie was the lucky one supervising :)

Isn't this the sweetest little girl you have ever seen!!!

Jared, Dylan, Cole

Luke & Jake

Ranger's Bath

I have started my vacation week with a BANG!!! Updating the blog.... :) The kids and I have had a lazy morning of cartoons, poptarts and looking at pictures on the laptop in my bed. I love lazy days like this.

We came across these pictures of my attempt at bathing Ranger upstairs in the kids bathroom. Yes, I got him up the stairs after clipping him in the garage.

As you can tell, Ranger is not a small dog. He has arthritis in his hips from old age and getting hit by a car when he was less then a year old. Poor baby!

We used to live in Rowlett very close to Dalrock Road which is an extremely busy road. Ranger somehow got out of the backyard back when he was around 10 months old or so and got hit by a car on Dalrock. After a pretty major hip surgery he was on the road to recovery. He heeled pretty well and we are extremely greatful. He is such a good dog!

Jon kept telling me we just need to take him to get groomed but I wanted to do it myself. Let me just say that I will Never attempt this again. :) It was a huge task!!! I think it took us longer to clean out the bathtub and scrub it down then it did to give him a bath. :)

Here are some pictures of our experience. Enjoy!

Do you ever hear people say you start to look like your pet? OR is it your pet starts to look like you???

Ranger was ALL smiles!!

Or maybe this is where he is wanting to smile but I had to force it....haha
This is what he does ALL day....
The life of a dog! :)

" WHAT... Did you say I need a bath?"

Our sweet Ranger!!!!

Funny! Funny!! Funny!!!

I promise this will be the last post related to Jake's Batman party. I just could not resist posting these fun pictures. I had a couple people ask me about the "hulk mashed potato mask", so I thought I would just make a post about it. Jake originally wanted to do a "Superhero" party because he loves playing in all of his superhero costumes. We have all of Jared's old Halloween costumes and several that have been passed down to the kids from sweet Aunt Tricia. After the Hulk picture and the big crocodile tears that followed, we decided it would just be a Batman & Robin party. :)

"BATMAN"

"ROBIN"

This was my little invention to serve as a mask. The original hulk mask never made it past its 1st Halloween. Jared had worn this same costume when he was 3 yrs old. There is nothing like taking some box mashed potato's and adding green food color to complete the look. According to Jake, it felt so yucky at the time but then when I took it off he wanted it back on....Go Figure!!!

"HULK"

"WOLVERINE"

Saturday Fun- making a pizza from scratch

This was my big bright idea for lunch this day. I had gone to the grocery store with Jake and we saw the kits to make the pizza from scratch and it sounded fun. So we were on our way to get the reset of the ingrediants and then out of there to get home and start cooking our lunch. Both boys were so excited to get to make their very own pizza including spreading out the dough and adding the sauce and toppings.

Awh- brotherly love!! They were having the best time. :) Very messy!! But boys love messy!!! haha

Jared and mommy with the finished product. Can't wait for it to be done now.. :)

And I have to tell you that it was WONDERFUL!!!

Jake is super happy doing his part... He is the cheese layer and spreader. haha

Mom and Jim stopped by as we were making our pizza lunch and jumped in a couple pictures with the kiddos.

Now time for a smile with Mamie and Papa Jim!! :)

How cute... They were excited to what their little grandson's were up too.

Jake- thank you card- batman party

This post should really go with Jake's Birthday post.... However, it is going to be a Thank you post all on its own. I wanted to keep this special memory since his Thank you cards turned out so cute. I took this picture and then put it on the front of the card and wrote my little note inside. If you came to his party then you already have seen this. So this is really for the people that haven't seen the card. I figured it was to sweet not to share. :)

What a little angel!!!!

The Power Team- At Lakepointe Church

Jared recently finished up this last basketball season with Lakepointe Church. After the season was over they had a little celebration for the kids. The Power Team showed the kids what they were made of. Not only their physical strength but their strength for God's word. What an amazing way to minister to young children. The kids loved it!!!

This guy took a straight metal pipe and bent it completely around.

WOW!! They were blowing up water bottles until they busted open

I am pretty sure this was a huge stack of bricks!! And he made broke them all!
This guy broke through a HUGE stack of ice

Not sure what was going on here but it was interesting!! :)

I know.. We were acting silly before it started. I am sure the people around us were wondering what we were doing taking a picture of ourselves. LOL! It turned out cute, so I had to share!

Here are a couple pictures from this past Sunday & Monday. We had to borrow my mother in law's camera since ours is broke. We just need to figure hers out.. Hopefully we will be able to "borrow" (hint hint Diana) it for a tad bit longer. :)

Jake & Jared

Our Family

"The Girl Cousins"

L to R- Ashley, Alex, Jennifer, Angela, Julie & Sara

The Born Sibling's
While we were at Aunt Laura's after the funeral we tried to get a couple pic's of family that was here from out of town. I thought this was a really neat picture as it is all but 1 of Gary's (Jon's dad) siblings.

L to R- Gary, Chris, JC, Tim, Peggy & Laura
Rick isn't in this picture because him and Erin had to catch their plane back home.

A wonderful life that ended way to early... We love you Uncle Trevor and you will never be forgotten.

I have been told lately that the best way to heal is to share your thoughts and feelings... This is my way of expressing our love as a family for a wonderful man that we truly thought the world of...

I had a post in December about Uncle Trevor and his condition. It breaks my heart to say that last week Trevor went home to be with the Lord. I am thankful that he is no longer in any pain, however, I am deeply saddened for his family left behind in pain. Please keep the Litzerman family in your thoughts and prayers. Aunt Laura is so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family to help her through this difficult time, however, she could still use all of your prayers.

I have not been able to get Uncle Trevor, Aunt Laura and the kids out of my mind. I keep picturing little Sydney rubbing the tv and kissing the tv when her daddy's picture played across the tv screen. That thought just brings me a great deal of sadness. But with loving friends and family support, she will continue to remember how much her daddy cared for and loved her and Ethan and Kaylie. If you just look at Trevor you see the happiness in his eyes and this was a true happiness for his family, his career and his friends and most of all for God. We will miss you!!!! And we love you!!!

Uncle Trevor

Kaylie, Sydney & Ethan

Just some info on Trevor from the Dallas Morning News Obituary

Litzerman, Trevor Joseph FORT WORTH--Was born at the Clinton Sherman Air Force Base Oklahoma on September 20th, 1965. Trevor lost his battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at Baylor Dallas on March 4th, 2009. Funeral Mass: 11 a.m. Monday at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, 7341 Glenview in North Richland Hills, Texas 76180. Burial: Trevor will be laid to rest with military honors at 1:30 p.m. Monday, (Lane B) in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery in Dallas. Visitation: The family will receive friends 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Lucas Funeral Home, 1321 Precinct Line Road in Hurst. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Trevor's children's college education by donating to the Trevor Litzerman Fund at Legend Bank at 3001 Western Center Boulevard, Fort Worth, Texas, 76131, or to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Trevor attended schools in the Philippines and Reading, England. Trevor loved the sea and as a young boy was a Sea Scout. He graduated Richland High School in North Richland Hills, Texas in 1984. He served in the United States Navy for 14 years, last stationed in San Diego, California. His passion was law enforcement. He was a reserve deputy sheriff in Kings County, California, and a jailer with Tarrant County Sheriff's Department. After moving his family back to Fort Worth, Texas, Trevor graduated the Basic Police Officer Academy at Tarrant County College and went to work for the City of Watauga Police Department in 2005, where he was serving as a Field Training Officer at the time of his death. Trevor loved his family, and his fellow police officers, his second family. Both were there for him these past several months during his illness. Trevor's family is very grateful for those who traveled near and far to help, including the many police officers and their families who provided so much assistance. The family also appreciates all the doctors and staff of the Oncology Unit at 6 Roberts and the Blood Marrow Transplant Unit at 4 Collins. Survivors: Trevor was a loving father to his children Kaylie Bonnie Anne, Sydney Nickole and Ethan James; his adoring wife, Laura Jean, his parents, Burton and Rosemary, his brother Mark and his wife Steph and son Andrew, and by his sister Claire and her husband David Hennessey and sons Sean and Thomas. He is also survived by uncles Tony Allen of Tasmania, Australia and Stephen Allen of Celle, Germany. LUCAS FUNERAL HOME Hurst, Texas 817-284-7271

Valentine's Day & Jake's Real Birthday

This was from our wonderful Valentine's Day!!! Which is Jake's real birthday. We have started a little family tradition with the kids that on their real birthday they can pick the restaurant we eat at for dinner. Well, Jon and I get excited because we know they always want to chose Kyoto. And we all love this place. Normally they make a big deal about your birthday and take your picture with their Polaroid camera so it is an instant picture and they put it on the birthday certificate. Then you get a nice little bowl of their Green Tea Ice Cream which is wonderful. But on this Valentine's day, they decided to change a couple minor details.

1. Their camera happened to be broke....
2. They didn't have any birthday certificates.... (We could have taped our own picture to it if they had one)
3. They were not serving the Green Tea ice cream on Valentines day because they were not serving dessert at all.... hmmm What a wonderful day to decide to not serve dessert?!?! Valentines Day of all days?!?!

Thankfully we had Jake's little smash cake that he specifically ordered from Angie so that he could have it on his real birthday. She did the cutest Batman and Robin cupcakes for his party and this little smash cake for his real day.

We still had a Wonderful dinner and the kids had a blast while they were cooking our food. Maybe next time we will try the new Kyoto in Rockwall??

After our dinner we headed over to Firewheel to see Hotel for Dog's. This was another request by Jake for his special day. It was such a cute movie and he had so much fun watching it with the family.

Our Family

Happy Birthday our sweet little Jake!!!

You are such an amazing little boy and you make Mommy & Daddy so proud of you every day!!!

We love you more then you will ever know :)

Happy Birthday to you!!! Now make a wish!!
Valentine's morning.... My sweet little boys always make me the happiest mommy ever. They always think of mommy on all the holidays. HMMMM I wonder where they get that from??
I would say that their daddy has alot to do with it and I love him for molding them into the most sweet, caring and thoughtful boys that they are. So Thank you honey!! I love you!

Jared & Mommy
"Morning Shot!!!"