Um... So....

I didn't know if you realized this, BUT

MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 4 DAYS! :)

I am going to be 25 years old. Yes, I'm still a baby, believe me, I know it and love it. Twenty-Five doesn't feel old to me. I actually feel older than 25, so when I'm faced with the fact that I am turning 25 in a few days, it just makes me think of what a baby I still am.
I can't wait to be 30! I know that sounds strange, but I just want to see where my life will be, where we will be living, how many kids I have :)

I've done a lot in my short 25 years. I've traveled, I've loved, I've lost, I've married, I've birthed, I've studied, I've cried, I've laughed... I've grown up as much as I could.

And to think of how much MORE I have to look forward to! I love that my future is secure and that my life will be good. I totally trust in the Lord and rely on him to lead me and my family and fix everything that needs to be fixed and with that comes security that no matter what comes my way, it will all turn out okay. That's a pretty good life to be living :)

So with all that said, I'm really excited to be turning 25. It does sounds older than 24. Maybe I'll be taken more seriously.... nope. :)

Jonathan has "supposedly" already bought my birthday present. If this is true, than I will indeed be impressed because Jon does everything at the very last second. I think he is really trying though, which makes me happy.
It's not about the present, it's about the thought for reals. I want to feel like he thought about me and really put an effort to make me feel loved.
I just like thoughtfulness, which is an area my husband tends to not excel. I blame it on his European/Belgian side. They just aren't as open and emotional. They just assume that you know how much they love you. Well I do know, but I also like it acted out in a nice card, or a thoughtful act.
One thing Jon did that I will always remember was one day I came home from work and the entire house was clean, he had dinner in the works and some candles were lit. It wasn't a special occasion, nothing extra, but he just wanted to surprise me. That went a LONG way in my book!

It's a tradition that on my birthday we go to Cheesecake Factory. We've been doing it since my 21st birthday, however, I was in Belgium last year on my birthday so we didn't do it then. Though I did have my FAVORITE Belgian dinner with my in-laws which totally made up for it, click HERE for my birthday 2007.

Anyways, I just wanted to remind everyone that my birthday is in 4 days. And I think everyone should write me a birthday poem! :) Won't that be fun! Yes, you're right it will be!

Peace out!

Happy Birthday Abby

Abby, Abby, Abby...

Isn't it crazy how much we've grown up together?
Not that we are old by any means, but when you add 20+ years of friendship into the mix, it's pretty nuts.

Although Abby and I didn't become best buds till Jr. High, we used to play together when we were still in diapers. She is a year older than me (11 months and 5 days to be exact) and a year younger than my sister, so she was the perfect age for us both... although she favored my sister at the time but has since seen the error of her ways :)

When looking back on my life, there isn't really a major event that she wasn't a part of. Going to school for the first time after being homeschooled, first parties, first crushes, first heart breaks, first time to sneak out, first time to drink alcohol... ok, we won't keep going, my mom reads this :) But seriously, Abby's always there and we basically experienced everything together, good and bad.

We lived together right after we graduated highschool (though that didn't exactly work out favorably- but we still made it- friendship intact), we were bridesmaids in eachothers weddings, attended the birth of eachother's kids... we have dinner together at least once a week, make tv show watching parties out of nothing, we both have an undying love of blonde hair, we are there for eachother through thick and thin... it's just the way we roll. :) She's the veggies and I'm the hamburger :)

Now we are both in our mid-twenties, with 2 kids under our belt and great husbands... but we still dance like crazy fools when "drop it like it's hot" comes on the radio. I don't like to go anywhere where there will be music, dancing and drinks without Abby as she is my counterpart to craziness. Always has been, always will be. I swear we will be 90 years old, our husbands will be dead and gone and Abby and I will be living in the same old folks home, talking about Alanis Morissette and drinking martinis while she highlights my hair blonde :)

If you have never been around Abby when she gets in her "mood", oh my, you are missing out on some quality time. You will never laugh like you laugh with her. I swear she is the funniest person I know. Not like, haha Chris Farley funny... more like laugh till you cry while she tells you a story of Brad sleep talking funny... When we get together, by the end of the night, I have no more eye makeup on as I cried it all off laughing.

I love my Abby and last night we went out to Bucca de Beppo's to celebrate her 26th birthday.
here are some pics:

The birthday girl and her hubby Brad


Lyric and Korbin

Abby and Morgan

Courtney and Christina

Brad, Jon and Aaron

Me and LyLy

Mom, Dad, Preston and Jodie

Little Judah!

Abby blowing out her birthday candle

At the end of dinner, all the kids got up and were dancing pretty hard core to music that wasn't playing. Who needs a radio when you have Korbin to sing! :)

Me and the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday my dearest friend! We will have many more together! One of these days we can actually go out for drinks without one of us being pregnant! :)

Korbin's 2nd Birthday

For those Savvy Aunties out there, you know that having a niece or nephew doesn't exactly have to mean that you are blood related to them. I always consider myself to be an ABR (Auntie by Relation) and also an ABC (Auntie By Choice).
So I actually have 4 nieces (Ashlyn, Madysen, Kadyn and Sophie) and 2 nephews (Korbin and Judah)
*of course note that I love ALL of my friend's kids, but since Abby is the next closest thing I have to a sister- I've OFFICIALLY adopted her kids :)*

With that cleared up, it was my nephew Korbin's birthday party on Saturday. The poor kid had a hard time watching all his toys (new and old) be handled and played with by so many different kids that he had a hard time on his birthday :) I (from an Aunt's perspective) thought it was hilarious :)

Here are some pics from the party:

My dad and my nephew Judah

Courtney, Max and Morgan. Max is only a few weeks older than Judah, but definitely beats him in size! :)
Jon and Nate
Mom and Jodie
Marian, Kristina, Sophie and Christina
The kids played outside in these kiddie pools. They had a blast! Especially Lyric who kept going completely under the water and loving it! :)


Brad the photographer, who took WAY better pics which you can see by clicking HERE
More pool shots
Korbin opening his presents
Lyric trying to steal his presents. Look at her face, she's like "What mom? I'm not doing anything"

The Watkins and Benjamins bought his that cool basketball goal
The awesome Diego birthday cupcakes
Korbin was having a sort of melt down during the birthday song
But while we were singing, Saeler was already digging into those cupcakes :)
Yummy!
Lyric's "smile"
Truth and Maddy

So that was Korbin's birthday! Abby did SUCH a great job pulling it all off and special props to Jodie as Abby said she was a lifesaver and helped clean up after the party :)

Good times :)

Bath Time - Fun Time

Last night was quite productive in the Vandeput household.

As I've previously mentioned, our house is in chaos. When our house is in chaos, it feels like my life is in chaos. I don't like to move as I'm too overwhelmed with the ridiculous state of my household and I just don't want to do anything as I know it's going to take a lot of work.

Well enough is enough. So I sat down and wrote a long detailed list that I could just check off throughout the next few days.

Jonathan became the world's best husband and when I got home, he already had the living room checked off (besides that i need to re-sort toys and get most of them back in Lyric's room) and the kitchen done.

I proceeded to go through and collect all excess dishes, throw away all the trash. Go through the mounds of mail, sort dirty clothes, etc.

I then proceeded to make a scrumptious meal of chicken spaghetti. Before commencing all of this, Lyric and I went down to Aunt CoCo's house because she was standing in the kitchen crying "dado" (which means CoCo) because she is used to going there directly and we deviated because I had groceries. She is quite in love with her Aunt and her cousins.

Well upon our visit, I decided to bring Kadyn home with us to entertain Lyric while Jon and I continued to cook and clean. It worked out nicely.

Then we ate and the girls got SO dirty, that I decided to give them a bath. Here is the cuteness of the bath time-fun time!





Lyric fell and bit her top lip. Look how swollen it is:


Here they are swimming (yes the floor was soaked)


So it was super cute and super fun.

Jonathan also decided to COMPLETELY rearrange our room. I don't know how much I like it, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It just emphasised how much we need to get a bed frame (yes we are ghetto like that).

Anyways, today is my Friday as I don't work tomorrow, but it's already shaping up to be kind of stressful because the restaurant we are going to today refused to give us the back room by ourselves and we have a meeting where we need to talk, so we are going to have to be louder than normal... and of course this will be my fault, but I just now got ahold of the manager this morning to try to talk to her. But she said she could do it if we moved the lunch to after 1, which of course we can't do...

sigh.

Anyways, happy times.

I think this weekend is going to be great!

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KORBIN!


Korbin turns 2 today and he is such a great little boy! Just ask him what a horse says and you'll be rolling with laughter :) His birthday party is Saturday, so be expecting a fun kid picture filled blog soon! :)

Ok, back to the grind!

Happy Birthday Christina!

Yesterday was Christina Smith's 29th birthday!
To celebrate a few of us, who were available last minute, decided to go to Outback to have a fun dinner. I was SO ok with that because a bloomin' onion sounded SO good to me last night.
Christina got a new camera from Aaron and Jon and I got her a memory card and a super cute camera case. She got some starbucks goodness and a haircut from Abby :)
All in all, it was a great night.
Here are a few pics:

Christina with her new camera


Some of the group


Lyric is teething, so not feeling well. So she basically sat on my lap the whole time


Which got kind of annoying


Korbin


Christina blowing out the candle


Trying to get the girls together for a group pic


The ladies


Me and the birthday girl


Good times :)

Happy Birthday Austin

It's my little brother Austin's 23rd birthday today!
For the next 2 months, Austin and I are only 1 year apart. Although I am and always will be WAY cooler than him :)

Austin is a great brother, son and Uncle. Although we have yet to get him to change a diaper, be that poopy or pee filled... one of these days it's going to happen though. Maybe even on his birthday shabbat... hmmm....
But seriously though. Austin is a great guy and is one of the funniest people on earth. He can always make me smile when I'm feeling grumpy.
:)

Happy Birthday Austin!
I love you!

Here are some old school pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Austin is the cool guy with the tucked in jersey


We are so cool


Princess and her frog


And here are recent pics of Austin-
He's GQ


He's a hunter


He's off the market (him and his girlfriend Hannah)


Happy Birthday Aus!

Happy 16th Little Bro

Saturday was my little brother Preston's 16th Birthday!

Can you believe it? I sure can't.

As the youngest child in the Benjamin Tribe, he has always been to all of us, a younger brother. That kiddo who never really gets older than about 6. However, the fact that he is almost 6 foot should probably remind us every day that he is no longer 6, but indeed 16... however, it's just hard for us.

Preston by far is the smartest kid in our family. He is ridiculously gifted. To prove it, here is a video of him about 6 months after he decided he would teach himself to play the piano. He has never taken a lesson, got a few pointers from my dad (who is also self taught) and just went to town:


That was about a year ago, so you can imagine now how much better he is. He has also picked up the guitar and the wooden flute. He is freaking awesome!

He is also a brain and can have the deepest discussions with you about almost any subject.

But what is the most wonderful is his desire to continually go after the Lord. I'm not saying he's perfect and that he doesn't act like a stupid teenager from time to time. But I don't judge a walk with God based on the triumphs or even the defeats, I base it on how many times you fall but then get right back up. That's the true sign of walking with your Maker, the standing.

So I'm proud of him. He makes me laugh like no other person can. He is such a fantastic Uncle and he just rocks.

For some reason, this birthday was kind of rushed over for him. I'm not sure exactly why, but I just wanted to give him a special shout out and tell him how proud I am of him and how I think he is growing into an incredible man.

I LOVE YOU PRES!

Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure:

When he wanted to be just like his brother Landon, look at their hair!


The sillyness of Preston:

Kaydn's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Kadyn's 2nd birthday party today at the park and we had such a great time!















The birthday girl!


















Birthday video:







She had such a great time! I can't believe she is already 2... wow time flies!

Kadyn's birthday!

Well on May 3rd, my little niece Kadyn Promise turned 2.
I started this blog on Saturday, but then got busy and wasn't able to finish it, so here I am, giving her an official shout out!

Kadyn is so fun and adorable that she immediately steals your heart. If people were honest, most of them would say that Kadyn was their favorite. You just can't help it! She's so funny, has the cutest personality and is as cute as can be! Her Uncle Austin calls her McDougan, though none of us know why....

She is tough, I guess having 2 older sisters will draw that out of you, but she does not mess around. If she wants something, come hell or high water it will be hers. She has such a determination and a strength that will come in handy when she gets older.

She is 11 months older than my daughter and they are already best friends, though they of course fight more than any of the other ones too :)

But they also love eachother and play the best together. I love to watch them interact and play hide and seek or baby dolls. It's so cute!


So give it up to Kadyn!
I love you dearest!


On her birthday Jon and I met them at ToysRus and she got to pick out a few toys. Of course any trip to ToysRus with 5 kids under 5 is not just a visit, but an event, so we were there quite awhile!

Here is the birthday girl!


Maddy and Ashlyn




And Lyric


Nate, Court and Judah


And my brother Preston


Jon and I and Lyric on the way home from our event at ToysRus




So this blog is dedicated to Kaydn, happy birthday my love!

Lyric's First Birthday!

How did it happen? How did my daughter go from this:






To this in just one short year??


Well she did. My daughter has grown into such a fantastic little girl. She really is extremely intelligent, she is funny, she loves to dance and adores music. Saying that she loves me is the biggest understatement of the century. It's hard to feel bad about yourself when your little girl prefers you above anyone and lights up when you walk in a room. I just love her!

For pictures of the day I gave birth to Lyric, April 5, 2007 click HERE

If you click HERE you can read more in detail and also see videos. Actually I lied. For some reason the videos are blacked out, but they are still up on the videos section of my MySpace Page. So go to my profile page and click on videos.


Today was her birthday and her birthday party! We had a great time. Thanks to all who were able to join us!

Okay, here it goes!

First off, my favorite part of the party was the most awesome cake made by Mrs. Brittny Owens (formerly Boyer). This cake was AWESOME! She did such an amazing job and is so talented!




Everyone playing in the yard






Emily in her newly found walking ability! She was doing great! Yeah for walking kids!


Lyric and Dutch looking at something interesting, which obviously was not the camera


Dutch, Liz and Marian


Jon and Lyric dancing to the Disney music... I was going to download an Elmo CD, but forgot


Abby and Sophie


My beautiful niece Ashlyn


Poppy and Aunt CoCo


Jenae regulating the man love


We had chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch. We bought a frier for the fries and they were oh so good and crispy! Mom was the fry chef and made them all! Thanks for that!


Jodie and Abby


Josh, Kristina, Sophie and Marian


Joanna and Julia


Another shot of the lovely cake with the balloons that Ry-Ry and Tiff waited forever to get! Thanks guys! Y'all are great god-parents! :)


My daughter NOT sharing


Lyric did love the balloons though


Uncle Ry-Ry


Uncle Austin loves his Juice Box!


Uncle Landon who took time out of his Bachelor party day to attend the Elmo party!


Lyric's presents!


Opening the koala that Tiff gave her. That was a memento from Tiff's childhood that she passed on to Lyric! :)


Reading a nice card


Opening mommy and daddy's present to her, an Elmo laptop!


Kisses and hugs to Truth for her present


Christina takes watching opening presents very seriously


Her Elmo chair from her cousins!


Austin and Jenae (who is an awesome photographer) www.racheljenae.com


Brad and Abby


Looking at that cake like, "You want me to eat Elmo?"


Party Girls!


Uncle Jon accidentally wounded Korb with the hat :)


Kristina thought the party was fantastic... I swear.


Time to cut the cake... poor Elmo


Abby and the birthday girl


We made him wear the hat


Birthday parties tire Judah out. He totally fell asleep like that :)

And now the best part. Lyric has never had more than a few bites of cake before, so here she goes.

BEFORE


Then she was like, hmmm, this is pretty good


Then she went to town! It was in her hair, face, ears, nose, EVERYWHERE!




Then it was clean up time in the sink!


So that was the fabulous party! We had a lot of fun and Lyric loves all her gifts and loved hanging out with her friends. She really does think she's like 5, so being around kids makes her so happy. Even if we have trouble sharing :)

We cleaned up and then headed home. All the guys left the party a little early to begin Landon's bachelor party.

Tiff came over and I cleaned up the house a little, Lyric napped and then I went to dinner with Holly and her bridesmaids and a few other people to celebrate Holly's bachelorette party. We went to Cheesecake Factory... YUM! I needed to get back, so I didn't finish the evening with them, but they are going to have a blast!

Tiff babysat Lyric for me this evening and they had a lot of fun. Lyric loves her Aunt Tiff!

Well now I'm exhausted. I'm going to skip out on church tomorrow because I need an actual day of rest since my day has been GOING, GOING, GOING!

Tomorrow we have family pictures and I need to decide what the Vandeputs are going to wear.

Well that's that.
Love to ALL!

Fun with Friends

I know I'm a few days late, but Saturday night we went out to Buca de Beppo in Southlake for Aaron Smith's birthday. Good times had by all! I love the food there and it's fun because each dish is made to share with at least 2-3 people, so everyone gets a variety of things and the whole table just passes it around. Even the salads are made to share. YUM! My mouth is watering just thinking about it... oh and my Italian Margarita! :)

Here are some pics of the night:













Aaron's brother and his girlfriend


And the birthday boy!




The group (minus me of course)


Dad stirring his tea... I told you everything was larger at Buca's


Mom and Judah


He was disturbed by the guy at the table next to us... he was LOUD talker!



Random pics:
Here is Korbin after Church on Sunday. Someone stuck his nursery sticker on his head, and it didn't bother him in the least bit!


Here is an old pic that I just rediscovered as I was trying to finish Scrapbooking Lyric's 1st year book in time for her fabulous Elmo birthday party!
This was when we were in Paris at the Louvre. She was deciding where to go next! :)


So ya, last night we had a girls night... it used to be a small group connected with the Church, but then the requirements to be a sanctioned small group got too stringent and to be too much for our fearless leaders to keep up with, so we decided to just have random nights out. We went to Pappasito's last night, but I forgot to take pictures... oh well!

I had the worst cramps I've had in a very long time yesterday and left work an hour early because they were getting worse and I couldn't concentrate. I was soooo stinking tired and achey and in pain. Plus yesterday was such a crappy weather day I think it made it worse.

Lyric is doing better since that tooth is finally starting to poke through... Baby Orajel actually works for her... so kudos to them!
I'm trying to get her newest tricks on video. First, if you ask her any question, she nods her head yes. It's really funny. Then you ask her what a lion says and she growls! So cute!!

Well, I think that's all I got. I'm hungry, so I want to go and get food. Plus I have some errands to run.

That's all folks!

Happy Birthday Landon

My little brother Landon turns 21 today!!!

Happy birthday little brother!

I am so proud of you and all that you are doing and will do!

Landon is getting married on April 11th and is currently working as a contractor, remodeling houses. He rocks at what he does! They also are purchasing their first home, a little fixer upper not far from my parent's house. Landon is also an extremely gifted worship leader and speaker. He truly lives what he preaches which is not an easy feat. I'm really excited for him and all that he is doing with his life. I'm such a proud sister. Landon is more than just a little brother, he's a great friend.

We are going out to dinner tonight, so it should be a fun time!

So happy 21st birthday Landon Cole!!

Click HERE for pics of my little bro

Maddy's Birthday

Click HERE fo pictures!

Happy Birthday Madysen!

just wanted to send a big fat HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful niece Madysen Paige on her fourth birthday today!

I have never seen a kid so excited about her birthday!

Maddy is a beautiful little girl who loves to play with her baby dolls and put on makeup, basically anything that is girly, she loves it!

She has such a black and white way of looking at things, which I think is so funny and hates when she is left out.

She LOVES when all the attention is on her! :)

She was born the day before I left for Cyprus. My sister got induced because she wanted me to be there at the birth. It was the saddest thing I have ever done, was to say goodbye to my niece who was only just a few hours old and know that the next time I would see her would be 6 months later. I missed out on a lot those first few months, but I like to think that I definately made it up these last 3 1/2 years.

I love my maddy girl so much and am so happy she was born!

Click HERE for pictures!