A great family vacation

For the 4th of July weekend, Jesse, the boys and I went to Kimberling City, Mo - the Elsberry family reunion spot since I was a baby. We had a great time catching up with our family - the boys loved seeing their "cousins" - and the boys spent a ton of time in the pool and became much more comfortable in the water.

Jesse and the boys in front of Table Rock lake

My Parents . . . So cute!

My cousin Mandy and me. We are about three weeks apart in our pregnancies.

Jesse and the boys on the 4th.

James in the pool

James looks so old and the look on Ashton's face is priceless!

Jack LOVED spending time with his "cousins"!

Great Grandma Elsberry and her Great Grandsons

Jack, James, GiGi, and PaPa

Mother and Son

The cousins on the 4th

They LOVED each other!

Aunt Sandi taught the boys a new game they couldn't get enough of.

More love!

and more . . .

Fireworks on the 3rd at Branson's Landing!

What a great break from reality!

It's a Girl!!

Isn't she beautiful!!!

I think Jack and James are slowly realizing that they are going to have a sister. There aren't a lot of girls in the Chupp clan so you can understand the slow process! We are VERY excited!!!! Hopefully this little girl won't be as much of a tomboy as I was.

Finally an update

Well, an update of pictures I guess. We went to see Lauren's soccer game today. The boys always love watching her/running around chasing each other. She has really become a good little athlete!

She's gonna kill me if she finds out I posted this one! She was dodging the ball.

We sure do love our cousin!

Hopefully more updates to come . . .

Oh Christmas Tree

We decided to put the Christmas tree up a little early this year. This is the first year the boys have been able to really get into decorating the tree. They were so excited about every bit of it!

10 freshly polished silver bells - 1 for each year we have been married. A family tradition for almost 40 years!

New camera just in time for Halloween!

I decided that it was time to get a new camera so I could get a renewed zeal for taking pictures (and because I hated my other camera and I couldn't find the cord to upload the pictures). We will also be doing a lot of fun things in the coming months (trip to Orlando and Disney World over Thanksgiving and trip to Indiana for Christmas to name a few) and I wanted to make sure I could capture those memories sufficiently. So, here are some super cute pictures of our trip to Austin for Halloween! If you feel lead to post comments about how awesome the pictures are and how great my new camera must be, feel free ;)!

Super Cooper!

This was the first Halloween where I really let the boys go around from house to house. Jack kept saying, "Are we going to keep getting candy?" They were pretty pooped by the end of the night!

Does he look sick to you?

It has been a LONG summer and the beginning of the school year has been a rocky one in the Chupp house. Jack has had a cough for a while and on Saturday, he got sick twice after his nap. On Sunday, he had a fever of a 102 and I couldn't get it to come down with Tylenol. Fortunately, it didn't get any higher than that and he started acting better Sunday night. Monday morning, after acting like he still felt bad, he started playing with James so I figured he was good enough to go to school. We went ahead and scheduled him for a doctors appointment and it was a good thing we did. The doctor took one look at his throat and said he had strep throat. He listened to his lungs and said that he had bronchitis and the beginnings of pneumonia. Strangely enough, during the examination, Jack was walking all around the office, jumping off the table, and looking in cabinets. Definitely not what you would expect a kid with that diagnosis to be doing. So, we were forced to stay home today even though it was clear he didn't feel that bad.

Staying home with one sick boy who doesn't act sick and one well boy is pretty tough for this mom. Half way through the day I knew I had to get them out of the house and run some errands. We had dinner at Chick-fil-A where they had police officers sitting outside talking to little kids. This was so exciting for Jack and James. They got to make the siren go and even got to sit in the cop car. Hopefully that will be the last time that happens :)!

You tell me . . . does he look sick?!?!