My mama...

Please pray for mom!! She is in the hospital right now for some stomach pain and her liver....pray that the Dr's find something in her liver that they can do something about! Pray for God to lift her spirits....pray for God to give strength to Cara and my dad who are switching off shifts at the hospital...Pray for the manifestation of miraculous healing to take place in my mom's body! Pray for God to touch her with his healing hand!

Thanks so much everyone!

With abundant love,
Leah

World Travelin' Woman!

Long time no post....again, i know....i swear, once i have a kid in my belly, i will be a more active blogger! : )

I have been gone since September 29! SEPTEMBER 29TH!!!!! i cannot tell you how much i am ready to be back in my love-filled home with my completely perfect husband and my 2 sweet sweet hairy children!

Goin to try to be brief bc there is so much to cover....

Africa = poop...pure poop! nuff said...

ISRAEL! Totally different story! I am in love with this place! This is what i woke up to this morning....

In Israel, the weekends are Friday and Saturday....and Saturday is the Sabbath. Jewish people (mostly the Orthodox ones) do absolutely no work on this day, and by no work i mean, they don't even turn on or off the lights because that is considered work! They don't talk on cell phones, drive, or use any electricity!!! Learning all this, to me, was totally captivating! Here in the hotel, they won't push the elevator button either (i tell ya, pushing that 2 button is rigorous work...hehe)! There is a separate Sabbath elevator that stops on every floor so that those that recognize the Sabbath do not have to push the buttons....

We took a tour today with a guide to Jerusalem.

Here i am sitting in front of the town of the pretty city of Jerusalem...





While we were looking over the city and the tour guide was blah blahing away, i (of course) got distracted and was taking close up pics of this camel...this camel owner dude pretty much made me get on top of the camel!! These are ssooooo HUGE and TALL!! I screamed like a pansy as the camel stood up and it drew so much unnecessary attention to me amongst the hundreds of tourists around....It was so neat!! He didn't make me pay either!! : )




Alrighty, I am just gonna jump right into some of the other cool stuff i got to witness during the tour...this here is called the upper room....WHERE THEY ATE THE LAST SUPPER!!!

This is where Jesus sat when he was humiliated and crowned with thorns....

We then followed the path of the walk that Jesus took with the cross on his back...its called the Via Delorosa....I only got pics of a couple of the stops he made along the way...the whole thing was incredibly powerful...


Here is one of the stations - this is where the guide said that he met his mother along the way....


This is another station....this is where a teenage girl named veronica saw Jesus in misery and ran up and wiped his face for him...

Here is where Jesus stopped to rest, he put his hand here on the wall...I TOUCHED THE VERY SAME SPOT ON THE WALL!! Unbelievable!

This is the hole where the cross went into the ground! you can actually touch the hole...obviously it is very popular, bc it was impossible to get a picture without other tourists in the pic...

This is the marble they laid Jesus upon after he died on the cross to clean off his body and to anoint him with oil.

Long post....I know....i hope yall enjoyed! This was a remarkable experience....I WISH JASON COULD HAVE BEEN THERE WITH ME!!!!!!!!!! I can't say that enough! : ) Can't wait to come home!

Look Who's BACK!

OK...I must admit...it's been a while....so long that I forget how to do all this crazy blog business! I am posting today mostly because the lovely Mrs. Poppy asked me to help her start her a blog when I go up there to visit in a couple weeks! WAHOOO!!!! My super crafty, all too organized, amazing eldest sister is FINALLY gonna share with us her secrets! : ) So i have to brush up on my blog skills before I go...

I have some sad news....my work now effectively BLOCKS this site! : ( i know, i know....it's tragic....I can no longer update my blog while being paid at the same time : ) haha....(if any of my colleagues are reading this right now, shhhhhhhh!) It's prolly best though...but sooo sooo heart wrenching!

My husband has a fresh Houston Texans game on the TV and I am sitting here supporting him (i.e. accomplishing NOTHING on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon. If it counts for anything, I have clothes in the washer and the dryer as we speak)....

OK enough of the jibber jabber...let's get down to the details of what's been going on in our life....we are coming up on 6 MONTHS of wedded bliss! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

I am actually gonna just have to start the update with Labor Day weekend (bc I have totally slacked on taking pics to document life up until last Saturday night)! We reserved that weekend to celebrate my daddy turning 60 and my older sis turning the big 3-0!!! We all went to Main EVENT on Saturday eve....ULTRA FUN!

Started the night off with 30 minutes of sheer adrenaline! LASER TAG! If you haven't done this ever, DO IT! I felt like a kid again! Here are a few pics while we were in the dark room gettin the low-down on how to play this craaaazy game...

(you can't tell, but our gum was FLUORESCENT in that black light they had going on - the flash ruined it)(couldn't get them all to open eyes and look at the same time - can you tell???)

Pop, Lainey, and Mom played games while we annihilated our opposing laser tag team of strangers. Then we all bowled...mom and I didn't have socks...dad found us some at the front desk for TWENTY FIVE CENTS EACH! Dad swears that from now on, he will go to main event to purchase socks in bulk hhaha...Check out mom in her nerd gear! : ) (feet)

We went to church the next morning and then ate some mouthwatering gluten free pizza at BJs...this was all part of the plan to get Cara and Dad over to my house at precisely 2:00 pm for their surprise party...

Sorry, I didn't take ANY pictures of it...but all I have to say is, decorating for the party was totally a high for me...Poppy, Mom and I had a really good time prepping for this party...Mom gave us girls a real love for party planning : )

The next day, we had the Petersons over for a pool party/get together/celebration for Shane coming in town! Its always fun with this group! Especially now that Madison is mobile! : ) She is all over the place and keeps us all on our toes with her energy and her cuteness!!!!!

I forgot how LONG it takes me to post! PHEW!~ok....off to the gym....ps: really don't feel like going but after last night...i MUST! : )

Ping Pong and Watermelon Baby!

Mother's day weekend was loads of fun...

We started the weekend off in Conroe with the Cuculic clan! Poppy and fam came in town so it was the whole gang!! SO FUN WHEN IT'S ALL OF US TOGETHER!

PING PONG WAS THE GAME OF THE WEEKEND! Jason and I played a bunch of ping pong on our honeymoon. Not really sure why we played so much because every game we played, I WHOOPED his hiney! WITH NO CHALLENGE! So, this weekend, Jason was telling Brent how much I surprised him with my PING PONG skills...and of course, Brent wants in on it....so we go up, play a game or two....Brent gets beat by his baby sister-in-law a few times...and then the games just kept on going...Jason would play Brent, Brent would annihilate Jason, Brent would get beat by me, we played doubles some, we attempted to play "around the world" a few times, etc. etc. The first 4 hours or so of our ping pong madness, Cara and Poppy showed NO interest to step up to the paddle....finally we convince Cara and Pop to play, and come to find out....CARA IS BETTER THAN FORREST GUMP! She was the reigning champ of the night....WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! Who would have thought, all those years spent as a lifeguard at Norchester Club would pay off some day.

Here's me and my Lainey bug, out on the dock...

Bryce and Diesel havin' a grand ol' time (notice all the dog toys Diesel had pulled out)

The dogs get so tired when we go to Mom and Dad's! There is always so much action going on, and a huuuuuuge yard to explore, not to mention a billion new dog toys that Diesel has never seen (and still have stuffing). Here is Diesel falling asleep while panting on the way home (didn't know that was possible). It was so cute! They were both POOPED.
Then it was on to the Peterson's for a pool party! Madison's first pool experience (Notice how I used the words 'pool experience' rather than 'swim'). Haha....The water was a lil too cold for baby legs. She sure did look cute in her sassy lil watermelon bathing suit and matching hat though...THAT'S WHAT COUNTS!! I didn't do a good job takin' pics...Brianne was there too! What a fun first pool party at the Peterson abode! MANY MORE TO COME!

Mexican Paradise!

I have been wanting to do a post about our honeymoon so bad! So here we go!

The new Mr. and Mrs. Jason Peterson had a PERFECT honeymoon! We went to Riviera Maya...south of Cancun, north of Playa del Carmen...within reach of both!

First, I want to spread the news about the resort we stayed at! It was muy awesomo! We loved every lil thing about it...exceeeeeeeeept...well, if you go, just HOPE you don't have any issues unless you are fluent in Spanish, because let me tell you, it is quite difficult to try to explain anything technical...shoot, anything at all...when communicating to a blank Mexican stare....

Here is my baby trying to talk with the incredibly Spanish speaking concierge desk for the thousandth time! hahah...We hadn't been at the resort for longer than 30 minutes before Jason began negotiating with the workers to let him order the UFC fight that was to take place the last day we were there...i mean, he talked with dang near every employee through out the week trying to get the hook up...So finally fight night came, Jason's wallet was successfully emptied via tips, the fight was ordered in the sports bar, Jason enjoyed the fight THOROUGHLY, i think i fell asleep for a lil...BUT I WAS HAPPY THAT MY BABY GOT TO WATCH HIS FIGHT!!!!

BTW: bear with me on the pix...we forgot our digital camera so we had to use the disposable ones that they sell at the resort store.

Aside from the language BARRIER...SECRETS SILVERSANDS rocked!! FOOD - AMAZING. Staff - STUPENDOUS (after they would do something for you, they would follow up with, "It is my pleasure." EVERY TIME...it was so cute!! Drinks - TASTY! Tequila - ABUNDANT! Pool - PERFECT! Beach - PRETTY (but too rocky to swim in...we didn't care)...Shows - HIGHLY ENTERTAINING....you get the idea...

We filled our days with whatever we wanted to do....we planned NOTHING....we woke up way early everyday accidentally which made for long days which, long days are NOT bad when you are on vacation...couples massages - twice : ), tennis, basking in sun, people watching - the tattoos were quite entertaining, room service, Mayan ruins, zip lining, repelling, snorkeling (my parents surprised us with an awesome excursion to see Tulum! Thanks so much! The excursion guys talked to my dad so much that when i would see them they would say, "Hey, Mark Cuculic's daughter!" haha)....

These are pics from the Mayan Ruins....

My superstar husband rockin the tennis court...

Here we are at one of the outdoor restaurants...
SWIM UP BAR!!!!!!

We followed this photographer with the monkey around for a while haha...we HAD to get Mexican Monkey pictures!! This lil monkey was crazy! He knew how to pose so well for whatever you threw at him!

CAN YOU HANDLE IT?!?!

I went to Dallas this weekend to visit my BFFITWWW, Natalie and had planned to do normal Leah/Natalie things such as: eat at fun weird Dallas places, scavenge various stores for surprisingly healthy snack options, hop from nutrition store to nutrition store to snatch up all the clearance protein bars, work out for abnormal amounts of time, etc...Like I said NORMAL things...:)

Instead, on Saturday, we walked planks, ran through rivers, traveled through slippery river beds, climbed up mud embankments, skid down muddy slopes (experiencing massive wedgies along the way), hustled over giant stacks of hay bales, scaled over-sized wooden spools, maneuvered over cargo nets, crawled through almost a foot deep of mud under barbed wire, and last but not least, leaped over warrior fires!!!! Thoroughly enjoying every second of the way.

Here's how: I went to Dallas this weekend to support Natalie and my old roommate, Stacy b, as they embarked on this race called the Warrior Dash...I didn't sign up in time so I thought I wasn't going to get to participate. While we were wandering around trying to get them checked in and stuff, we bumped into Justin Moret, a friend from college.

Him and his buddy had already finished the race....there were lots of waves before the wave that Natalie and Stacy had signed up for that had already finished the race. He suggested I take his number and do the race as well because they weren't really checking to see if you were signed up or anything.

<<<----The friend I got the race bib from

After a few minutes of hesitation (I will admit, I did hesitate a bit...mostly because I was all dolled up in a cute new shirt and my favorite jean shorts that I DID NOT want to ruin and FLIP FLOPS because I was there to merely spectate), I decided to take the muddy race number and 'do tha dang thing'!!

We had to go swipe some tennis shoes from the place where people were donating their muddy nasty shoes for poor people (I PROMISE I RETURNED THEM to the pile). I borrowed a T-shirt from someone, stripped Stacy of her shorts and i was ready to go...

~Before~

Any way, I ended up being SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy with my decision! It was the most fun race I have ever experienced; words cannot describe the smile that was on my face during the entire race...

AFTER

Stacy B, Me, and Natalie

Don't we look fierce?!?!

Andrew, Stacy B, Me, and Natalie!

Jason blows his cover...

OK so I create this blog out of boredom and a tad bit out of jealousy of all these stay-at-home moms that get to blog about funny things their kids do and what not, with all intention to keep it to myself and not tell anyone I did it. Turns out, I have shared it with quite a few folks haha.


As I was creating it, I kind of knew Jason would think I am sorta nerdy for doing this but I decided to go out on a limb and go for it anyway.

Exactly as predicted, I told my husband that I created a blog and he said something of the sort, "You WHAT? A blog? Like Robin's? What exactly are you going to blog about, honey cakes?" he still seemed supportive but I could soooo sense his skepticism...Much to my surprise, I just got off the phone with him and he was eager to find out if I had updated the blog today! hahah...my response..."update it? update it on what? Nothing has really happened?"....his reply...."just say something about what we did last night."

sooooo moral of the story....Jason wants kids as bad as I do so that we have something to write about in our blog.....hahhahaha

Here are some pics of the kids in our lives right now....

















This is Lainey (6) ...My oldest sister's (Poppy's) youngest....Her lil personality is price-less....too witty and silly for her own good! : )...




This is Mr. Bryce (9...almost 10! omg!!)...Poppy's oldest...he is a hoot....SMART as a tack and can still be super goofy and fun!!





Here is dorothy...i mean Brianne (6)! She is Jason's youngest brother's (Shane's) daughter...she is just as sweet and innocent as she looks in this picture!





aaand last but not least, the newest addition....MISS MADISON (4.5 months)!! Madison is Jason's sister's first (of many, i hope : ) tehe)...she is absolutely precious...and gettin' so big so fast!!!! Love her...




Miss Madison said she wanted TWO pictures instead of just one! : )