Vacation in Hot Springs Arkansas

We had such a good time on our family vacation. Thanks to Mama LaLa and PaPa JR we stayed in an awesome home right on the lake. We spent most of our time in the water soaking in the sun. To top the weekend off my good friend Ash spent some time with us and got to meet Heston for the first time.

Our Precious Girl

Haven has been a busy little 5 year old..."51/2 years old", she will say. We enjoy her so much! She is such a light and loves Jesus with all her heart. She goes to awana's every Wednesday night. She is filling her little vest up with patches and jewels that she is earning by memorizing bible verses.
We have started a new thing in our household. We don't watch any TV during the school week. I didn't like the rule myself at the beginning but now we all love it! Haven likes to help me in the kitchen, play board games as a family, put puzzles together, and just be together as a family...it really is awesome. With the nice weather we have had lately we play all evening outside. Haven is just blossoming. She is learning so many new things. Some of her favorites tare riding her bicycle, rollerblading (attempting to anyway:-), hide and go seek, T-ball (we can pitch it to her now), catch, and finding bugs. She is on the go and a lot of fun. We have always known she was a little fish in the water but we are discovering that she has a God given gift and that is swimming. She has started swimming lessons with a lady who made the USA Olympic team back in the 80's. She says, "Haven was born to swim." The best part it that Haven loves it and is on cloud nine after her lessons. She is hoping to make the swim team this summer, if not there is always next year...lets keep our fingers crossed:-/ If you'd like to see more recent pictures of Haven and Heston you can visit www.hhhtoombs.shutterfly.com

Heston John is 6 months old

This has been a busy month for our little guy. He has been working so hard. He started out learning how to roll over from his stomach to his back. This was a frustrating time for the lil guy because he did NOT like being stuck on his belly. But with determination and perseverance he finally mastered it and is now very proud of himself as he rolls across the floor. If he gets stuck or sees something of interest on his short adventure across the floor he will even scoot, so we are thinking that he will be crawling in no time.
He likes to hold his bottle and would really prefer not to even mess with the bottle and get straight to the real food. I have been making his baby food and he loves it...you know its got to be good when Haven begs me to let her have peas or sweet potatoes with bubby. Yuck! She really does like it though.
As of Feb 18th he is no longer a toothless lil man. He now has his two bottom teeth and is working on some more but we're not sure which ones just yet. He sits up without support but he easily gets off balance and tumbles over. When he loses his balance he grabs his legs and makes a funny face as he braces for impact...it is really funny to witness.
Last but not least he is starting to say Dada, Momma, and LaLa.
He is an absolute joy. Haven is so good with him and Heston adores her. When she walks in the room he laughs at her or he will squeal to get her attention. We love him so much. If you'd like to see more of our recent pictures go to www.hhhtoombs.shutterfly.com

Snow Days

We have really enjoyed our Snow (ice) days. Haven wanted to play outside so bad. As soon as it started sleeting she was super excited to play outside in the "snow". Thankfully before it was all over we did get snow after we got about an inch of ice. Haven and Hunter bundled up and played outside all afternoon. They had so much fun making snow angles, throwing ice balls and chasing each other. They worked really hard building an ice castle with a tiny little snowman inside.Haven loves it, she wanted to build a snowman so bad so Hunter made is best attempt with the little bit of powdery snow he had to work with. It is going to be a sad day when it melts away.

Heston is 5 months old

Our little man is growing up so fast. He has started doing so many new things. He has started rolling over onto his belly but he gets stuck and gets really mad until someone helps him out. He started eating cereal a couple of weeks ago and wasn't too crazy about it until we started mixing it with prune juice, now you can't shovel it in fast enough. I have been enjoying making his baby food.So far he has tried green beans and yellow squash. We had fun seeing the funny faces he made while eating his green beans but they soon came right back up, and that wasn't much fun for anybody. His newest discovery are his feet. He loves to put them is his mouth and chew on his toes...it is pretty cute. His favorite person is his sissy. If anyone can make him laugh it is Haven. When we go get her from school he laughs out loud and kicks his legs when she gets in the car. We think it is precious and Haven loves it.

I am excited to be working again as a massage therapist two days a week at The Branson Clinic Skin Spa. I am very lucky to have my mom and Hunter keeping Heston while I work.They are both enjoying their time with him too. He is such a joy.

If you want to see more of our pics you can visit www.hhhtoombs.shutterfly.com

Our little giver...

Haven has been inspired by her little friend, Hadley Smith's story at www.thislittlelight.org .Hadley found a way to bless many children much less fortunate than her in a big way, so this got Haven thinking.

The next day after reading Hadley's story Haven came to me and said she wanted to give some special things to children too. She took me back to her room where she had a pile of stuffed animals. My heart started hurting knowing some of those she had picked were special for one reason or another,and to be real honest I cringed seeing one or two of the more expensive stuffed animals in her pile.

Haven was really excited as she explained to me why she picked each and every animal and what type of child would like that particular animal. She wanted to make sure we could give the animals to either sick children, children with no mommies and daddies, or mean mommies and daddies. She said she chose to give her stuffed animals so these children would have something soft to hold to make them feel safe.

I called the Hospital about donating the stuffed animals and they were touched by Haven's story. They could not accept them due to their policy but they were quick to find a place in the community that could use them. They gave me a number of a place called "The Hide Away". This is a place that takes in battered women and children that usually have nothing but the clothes on their back when they arrive. This facility is funded by a thrift store in the basement, so they were open to taking anything from toys to furniture. I explained this to Haven (in 5 year old terms) and she was so excited! We spent an entire evening after school bagging up clothes, shoes, books, toys, decor, etc to take to the thrift store. By the end of the night the entire family was involved.

We took the bags of donations to the store today. Haven got to tell them why she wanted to give and they too were touched by her giving heart. One of the ladies started going through her bags of toys, shoes, etc. She told Haven that there were 14 children in the home who would cherish these nice things she had donated. We walked around the store for a while and were approached by the volunteer who assured Haven that some of the items we brought were going to the children in the home instead of being put in the store. That made Haven's day, she really wanted her things to go to the children instead of the store.

This has been a wonderful learning experience for Haven and heart warming to several people. So I'd like to say thank you to Hadley for inspiring Haven to do something special for others less fortunate. This has definitely started a ripple effect of a giving spirit.