Family Retreat

This weekend was the annual Brentwood Oaks Family Retreat. Basically the whole church packs everything up and heads down to Leakey, Texas, to retreat for the weekend. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year! It is so nice to just be surrounded by the beauty of God's creation... to sit in the pavilion with our brothers and sisters and sing praises to our Awesome God and listen to the echoes of our voices thru the valley. I tear up just thinking about how blessed we are by this incredible weekend. There are no TVs, no cell phone service, no internet, (but there is electricity and running water... I am not that into nature!!) We had a few sessions with a wonderful speaker from ACU about being called by God. He really made me think about my life and what I am called by God to do/be. We also had lots of fun time with the kids. There is a Texas-sized sand box, where they spend much of their time, baseball fields, tennis courts, canoes, a creek to wade/swim in, and lots of dirt and boy stuff to get into!! We stayed up til 11:00 both nights, and the boys were so well behaved!! I have spent the last 24 hours doing tons of laundry and dumping sand out of every thing we took with us. Needless to say, the boys had a blast. They are already asking when we get to go back! So, here are some pictures.... too many I am sure, but I will say that I took 186 pictures over the whole weekend, so I only picked my favorites! (quick discalimer.... I realized as I was uploading these that there arent very many of Cason... he took a 4 hour nap on saturday when we did a lot of our playing, so there are not as many "candid" shots of him... just wanted to add that in there!)

Here is the view from our cabin. We lucked out and got in a cabin right by the pavilion(this was our meeting place where we had our sessions, talent show, etc... it has amphitheater seating, so the singing is incredible!) If you look closely, you can see Clint in a canoe with the boys. I thought this was a neat picture!

Coby and Daddy at the river.

Love this one of PawPaw and Coby watching Micah fish.

Sweet Bry sporting his new camo hat!

Coby taking a break.

Micah is patiently waiting his turn to go fishing.

Everyone got to go on a canoe ride either with PawPaw or Daddy. (except Bryson)

Coby loved the canoes! He went several times! Look how happy he looks here!

PawPaw took Micah fishing....

And of coarse, the brothers had to get in on the fun!

Believe it or not, Cason caught a fish!!! He was so excited, and I was too... so much that I didnt have my camera ready to take a picture before the fish wiggled his way back off the hook back into the water! But Cason walked around for the rest of the day, just as proud as can be, telling everyone that he caught a fish!

Everyone was so tired from all the play that we slept late on Sunday morning. So I sent Clint down to the mess hall to get up all muffins and we had a picnic on our porch that morning.

Micah worked up some nerve and he sang with 3 of his friends in the talent show onSaturday night. They were the 4 Amigos, and they sang "Blue skies and Rainbows" So sweet!

Cason & Coby with their buddy Ethan at the creek.

Brinton and Bryson splashing it up... the water was C.O.L.D.!!!!!

Micah jumping off the big rock down in the river.

Ryan & Ethan, Clint & the boys, Devan & Brinton

I am a wimp

My poor little Bryson had an ear infection for about the whole first year of life until we got his tubes put in in December. He was a whole new baby. I always felt bad for him, until now... and now, I feel absolutely HORRIBLE for him. I had an ear infection this past week and I thought I was gonna die. The whole side of my face hurt. I was dizzy and off balance. It hurt to turn my eyes, to smile, my head was killing me... it was miserable! I just feel so bad that my sweet baby was just in so much pain! I am glad that is over.
Yesterday was really my first day to feel not great, but just ok. So Coby woke up puking... nice. He was sick all day, and rarely made it to the potty... nice! So it was a day of PJs and lots of laundry and Clorox wipes... he is a little better today, but we took him in for a strep test today bc he said his throat hurt. We are supposed to be leaving tomorrow for our church family retreat, and I have already packed up half of our house to go there, so I am praying that he is better! They went ahead and put him on antibiotics today in case the test comes back positive. I love my new pediatrician!! Say a prayer for sweet Coby today! Sorry this was such a bleak update... but an update nonetheless!

Just so I dont bore you all to tears with my sickness stories, I will close with a picture of my sweet little Bry in a funny sleeping position.

Weekend Recap

Kindergarten campout was a smashing success! The weather was perfect, there was a nice cool breeze, the night was chilly, but the fire was burning. We roasted hot dogs and s'mores (a crown favorite as I am sure you can imagine amongst 50+ kindergarteners!), played games, stayed up late and had tons of fun! I am looking forward to another kindergarten campout next year, and the next!! :o) One of the policies of the campout is no siblings... which poses a bit of a problem for me!! So we pawned each of our kids off on a different friend. Cason had a sleepover with his "favorite cousin, Quentin" Coby had a sleepover with his sweet friend, Sam, and Bryson had a sleepover with Mimi and PawPaw. They took him to hear live music at Central Market, and he had a hay day. He just ate up all the attention and from what I hear, he has learned to say "PawPaw" (I added that little tidbit in for you, Dad!)
One of the highlights of the campout for Micah was helping daddy set up the tent. We had "practiced" the night before in the front yard so that he would know what to do. He was even telling me what to do! It was pretty sweet to see how he got so into it and he wanted to set everything up just so! He is so particular... who knows where he got that trait!

One really cool thing about the campout was being able to spend some one-on-one time with Micah. In a family with 3 other brothers so close in age, he rarely gets to be the focus of our attention, so that was really cool to get to do that with him! So maybe I like the "no sibling" policy after all!!

Micah with his favorite celebrity: Mrs. Allen!

Micah and company... just a few of his favorite friends, plus Mr Bear, and a popular frisbee!

S'mores were a definate highlight!

We were up early saturday morning to pack up and head home. Clint and I ran all over town picking up the other kiddos. I showered off my campout smell and dashed over to a shower for my new sister-in-law-to-be, Jen. She and Jordan are getting married on June 2. Then my awesome momma treated me to a much needed pedicure and a shopping spree. I headed home to get ready for a cook-out at our house. After church on Sunday and lunch with osme friends, we headed to a birthday party for one of Micah's friends from school and then back to church.

Here is my momma, Jen, and me at the shower. Amber had already left at this point, so she missed the picture!
Welcome to the Clan, Jen!!

So now I need a weekend to recover from my busy weekend!!

A birthday wish and a moment in time

First, let me post a link to this sweet birthday wish. Go read it and then come back.
http://www.shaneswish.com/index.php
I heard about this in an email from a friend (if you are reading, thanks, Stephanie!), and when I was reading about this precious little boy and his limited time here on this earth, I welled up with tears I as heard my boys playing cars in the back room. Of corse, Micah was being a bit bossy, instructing each of the younger siblings on what to say. Cason was being way too stubborn to "listen and obey" as his eldest brother had instructed. Coby was too busy being goofy and irritating Bryson, who was squealing out of frustration because Coby was bugging him, messing up his attempt to climb onto the train table to the middle of the racetrack and mess everything up for all of them.... Most times, the situation would have been frustrating for me, but I just sat back and listened to them... and I was thankful... for 4 boys who are healthy enough to have the bossy streak or the stubborn streak... healthy enough to argue, fuss, be goofy, pick on each other, squeal, laugh, cry.... 4 precious little gifts straight from my heavenly father... I thought about this poor little boy's mommy who would not have many more moments like these... and I cried as I walked down the hallway to the boys room to help them work things out. I rounded the corner and hugged each one of them with tears streaming down my face.
"Mommy, are you ok?" was the reaction from sweet, concerned Coby.
"She is crying because we were fighting." explained Micah.
When I told them that I was crying because I loved them so much and that I was so glad the God had made them and gave them to me, I think they were confused, but deep down inside they were thankful for my reasoning as opposed to the spanking they thought they would get for fighting! We all hugged and giggled and they went right back to their race cars. It was just one of those moments when I wished I could just freeze time and live right there forever... praising my powerful God for his creation, for his blessings, and for his love. But I know we must live our lives and bring him glory in all that we do. And that is my continued prayer as I move on from my sweet moment in time. I pray that God will continue to bless my family (but not with any more children, please, Lord!!), and that I will continue to give him all the glory and the honor and the praise in all that I do.
May God bless you today and always....

Best Buds and Baby Steps

I took some bluebonnet pics of our friends and their kiddos after church last night and we added took a few of our kids together... they turned out so sweet. I decided to post them just for fun.

Precious Baby Lucy... look at those eyes!

Coby loves baby Lucy!

Sweet Boy!

The Loftis Gang... we love these guys!

Lucy and Brinton

We had not planned on putting my kids into the pictures, but Brinton was so excited to add them into the mix... we actually got some pretty cute impromptu pictures!



Best Buddies!!!




And now for the late breaking news.... yes, we are always late with this news because all of my boys have been late walkers, but Bryson is taking his first steps!!! Just 2 or 3 at a time, but he is so proud of himself! I am not a fan of video cameras for several reasons, but that is a whole other post, so anyways, here are a few still pics of our proud little guy on the move:

I cant believe my baby is getting so big!

*sniffle, sniffle*

My little stinker....

As you can see, he has been busy at work lately... All of these were taken in the last 24 hours. Being 1 is tough work! And just so you know, my baby does own clothes. The first pictures (where he is tidying the bathroom for me) was from early this morning when we were all getting ready to go to school. And yes, his sleeve is soggy all the way to the elbow... hence the impromptu bath that nearly made us all tardy!

Yes, in our jammies again, but these are not laced with toilet water. He gets himslef "stuck" in this position all the time, and it cracks me up that he continues to try to go thru the chair arm this way... as though maybe this time he will fit. Kinda like me and those jeans that fit before my 4th baby... I just keep thinking that someday it will work for me!

And these 2 are my favorites. Coby got some new shake n go racecars for his birthday, so the boys put up their shake n go track and we have left it there for the week. Bryson works really hard to get himself up onto the train table and crawls to the middle of the track. He has learned to shake up the cars and put them down to watch them go... usually followed by a squeal of delight... it never gets old! Hilarious!

Way too many pictures, I know....

Okay, I just did some catch up posting of way too many pictures... and the bad part is that there are about 60 more that I took on a memory card that I cant get to download onto my computer for some weird reason. We bought a new bigger memory card and my camera is so much faster now...I guess I went a little crazy!

This last picture here is Clint's new birthday present... We got back into town on Saturday afternoon and took the kids to my mom & dad's house so we could have a date. We went shopping and to dinner. He really wanted a self-propelled lawn mower. The one we have is a push and it is old and so hard to use. He hates mowing because of that thing. So we shopped and he picked the one he liked but we didnt buy it. I took the boys sunday afternoon to buy it for him. We left it in the back of my suburban and made up a scavenger hunt for him to find it there.... Micah got so into helping me with the clues... it was really fun. Clint admitted later that the real reason he wanted a lawn mower that was easy to push was so that he could pass the buck on mowing the lawn (joking, I thought). I looked out back this afternoon and here is what I found:
Happy Birthday, huh?

I *heart* Chuck E Cheese

We had the big shin-dig at Chuck E Cheese today! It was a blast! And it was so nice to have a party planner there to do all the leg work for me. I was able to sit back and enjoy the party much more this way! Here are some pics from the big event:

Coby and Chuck E.

Coby really got into the dancing part... it was pretty funny to watch!


Mommy, Coby, and Lightning McQueen (this is the exact came cake I made Micah in December, but it was what he really wanted... I got my money's worht on that pan!)



Blowing out candles

Sweet Cason on the carousel

Bryson had a smashing good time in the toddler play area!

Too bad he is so shy!

Micah and his cousin, Samantha

Too much fun for Bry!