Happy Anniversary.... a week late...

June 19th was our 8th anniversary... I got this picture in the mail from Clint's grandma and I thought it was appropriate to share on our anniversary. It was written by Clint in the 3rd grade. (Click on it to enlarge it if you cant read it!)

Babe- I hope I have met your expectations... I am pretty good about keeping up with the laundry, I usually make the bed... not as good about dusting because you know how much I hate it... but Lord help me when the day comes that I have to "bery" you! There is no way I could do all this with out you!

Thanks for these past 8 years... I love you more every year... and I am looking forward to many more years with you!

This may take a while.....

So it has only been a week and a half since I updated my blog, but it seems like there is way too much to tell about the last week and a half….. so I kept on putting off the update bc it just seemed insurmountable. Since it isnt getting any easier, here goes….. I have inserted lots of pics along the way so you don’t get too bored! :o)
First of all, the boys went to "Camp Gigi" for the week last week and had a blast!! They just cant stop talking about the funny things Gigi said, or the fun place she took them… or the tractor rides and riding on the boat and the seadoo…. And I was giggling really hard at something the other day and Coby told me, "you sound like Gran Gran… she just laughs all the time." They made some great memories, but unfortunately, I have no pics from this week. I will have to get some copies from Gigi and Gdad.
The house was so quiet (and actually kinda sad) without them here… We went to San Antonio for our anniversary and went to Fiesta Texas and the Riverwalk... it was a nice little short vacation... we got lots done and spent lots of time hanging out and watching movies. We worked quite a bit on the bathroom and finished all the tile. All we lack are the finishing touches.

Here is what our room looked like while we were doing the bathroom. We couldnt get to the closet, so we stached a bunch of stuff on our bed at the last minute... for those of you who know waht an organization freak I am, you know how stressful this was for me!!

My hubby hard at work... almost done!

Clint trained me on the tile saw and I cut every piece for the floor!! We had a lot of fun working together on it! :o)

Anyone need a good painter?? I think the fumes were getting to him! Actually with the kids gone, we had to be goofy from time to time just to feel normal! :o)

We went on Thursday to pick them up. We met in fort worth and took the boys to 6 flags for the day. We got home around 11pm. Clint got the 3 bog boys in bed while I rocked Bry for a while. Here is what he found when he came back into the living room....

It is GREAT to have them back!

Here they are on the "daddy-ride"

This is one of their favorite activities with daddy... they call it flying!

I just thought this one was a sweet pic....


On Saturday, we had Sam and Quentin over for a sleepover so Casey and Amber could do a team race in downtown Austin... the kids had a great time! It is so neat to have cousins so close to us!

Here is a pic of Sweet Bry at the pool... he just looked like a big boy here...

The boys were excited to take a bath in our finished bathroom!! They love it almost as much as me! :o)

Burried in the bubbles....

Bryson tried to eat the bubbles...

What a week!!!!

Happy Fathers Day....

To all the fathers out there.... but especially to those who are such a huge part of my every day lives. I am so thankful today and always for my Daddy, and for all the "Fowler fathers" who came before him that have created the legacy of my family. I am incredible blessed by the faith that my dad taught me and for the incredible teacher and example he is for Clint and for my boys. I couldnt have asked for a father who more resembles our Heavenly Father than my dad. I love you Daddy!!

And to my hubby. This has been a year filled with obstacles and challenges, but with the help of our faithful Father, we have made it! You are such a wonderful Daddy to our boys, and I am thankful for you. I could not do my life with out you. Thank you for the hard work you do for us and for all the little "extras" that you add in there. You have 4 precious boys that look up to you so much, and I am glad to be blessed with a husband who is committed to teaching the to love our God and to live for Him. I love you, Best!
I hope all you dads out there had a Happy Fathers Day!

For Micah

Last week when I posted about Camp Agape, my sensitive little guy had his feelings kinda hurt that I had no pictures of him from camp. I felt bad for him, but at the same time, I knew he had tons of fun without me there to capture each moment with my camera. Sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in trying to catch all the fun times on film or video and we forget to just enjoy the good times..... but that said, a sweet friend of mine emailed me this great pic of micah on the climbing wall at camp, and I decided to post it just for him.

This one's for you, Micah!

A Work in Progress

I blogged a while back about the busted pipe in our bathroom and my mothers day bathtub.... well, it is one month later, but I had my first whirlpool bath last night! I had to ignore the fact that there was no tile on the floor, no front to the tub, and no paint on the walls (hence the title, "work in progress"), but it was heavenly. I lit my candles and pretended I was somewhere else... We still have lots of work to do before it is all done, but for now, I feel completely blessed to have a hubby who is so handy and saved us tons of money by doing all this work himself (in all of his spare time!), and who is so willing to do it all to please me and to create a haven for me to take a break.....

If you had not seen our funky bathroom before, you may not appreciate the beauty of the tile work, etc, but it is awesome... it was Clint's first experience with tile and he did a professional job! I love how the tile turned out... it is kinda a goldish khaki and we are going with a rust/brick red color for the walls. Here he is hard at work with the finishing touches to the faucet:

But before anyone starts to feel sorry for him, I must introduce you to his handy dandy little helper (whom he began to refer to as his "smiling shadow"). Micah was there every step of the way. Most of the work was done either after the kids had gone to bed or during naptime, and since Micah no longer naps, he helped with anything we could find to keep him busy. He even started painting for me some today! :o)

I love how proud he looks in this pic!



I aleady admitted that I was actually the first to get a nice relaxing bath last night the moment Clint got the attachment on! (I spared yall the pictures... you can thank me later!) But we had to let the 4 musketeers try it out. The first thing they said was, "wow!! this is a big bathtub!" They loved it and begged to take another bath in it tomorrow! :o) Please bear with us and ignore the pipes and the jacuzzi motor that are still exposed.... we have to build a little wall there to enclose all of that. I will post some "completed pics" when we are all done!
Rub-A-Dub-Dub
4 Boys in the Tub

They had loads of fun when we "turned on the bubbles" Bryson was literally jumping around! It was so fun to watch!

June (so far) in Review

This month has been non-stop busy-ness for the Best gang. We began on June 1st with Uncle Jordan and Aunt Jen's rehearsal dinner, which actually was prefaced with 2 very late nights trying to get together and scan pictures for a super sweet slideshow for them. It was a surprise and it was great! Then June 2nd was their big day! It just so happened that my 10-year BCS high school reunion was that day, too, so we just did it all.... whew! Here are a few sweet pics from the reunion:

Here are the boys with my BFF from high school, "aunt" Brooke. Yes, Bry is cutting like 4 molars!

Here we are!!!! We had 10 out of the 15 graduates of 1997 here at the family picnic. They had 3 others at the dinner on friday that I missed, so we had a total of 13 out of 15 come... not bad! It was so neat to see everyone and catch up on them and their lives 10 years later! Because our class was so small, we were more like a family. We even had our sweet friend, Ami, come all the way from Japan!

And because things werent crazy enough, Micah lost his 3rd tooth on Saturday, too... Thank goodness Mimi likes to pull these things because just the thought of it gives me the heebie-jeebies! Look at this precious snaggle-smile!

Quick disclaimer: all of my pics from the wedding were before bc it was just too crazy to try to take any afterwards.... so there are none of Jordan and Jen since I got ready with the girls!! So I promise to post one of Jordan and Jen as soon as I can get a copy from them!
Here is the family.... you cant tell, but all the boys are wearing these sweet blue/white pinstriped pants that went with the theme colors of the wedding (blue/brown). I found them on clearance at the Childrens Place for $3 (regularly $24.50)!!!!! CRAZY! I clothed my boys for the wedding for 12 bucks! I love a good bargain!

Here is my sweet little neice, Samantha, who made the perfect flower girl!

Then it was on to Camp Agape. I was the coordinator for the preschool department, so I was at church all day sunday as well. This week is such a blast for all the kids. But I have to admit that I am glad it is friday and we will get to slow things down a bit! The theme this year was "Jesus is my Superhero," and it was so fun! We had a different superhero each day, and Mimi made an appearance as Miss Comapssion... She was all dressed up and in her mask and I was wondering if the boys would recognize her. One of the kids whispered "Ms. Summer, who is that?" I responded, "That is Miss Compassion." And Coby leaned over and whispered, "And her name is MiMi!" too funny!

I have to confess that I dont have any pics of Micah since he wasnt a preschooler this year! I got to see him several times throughout the day, but I never had my camera because I was too busy toting around 15 little preschoolers around! I did capture a few of the fun times with the others.

Here are 2 of my favorite little heroes after our closing assembly. The all got masks and decorated capes. With the preschool kids, we tie-died our capes... they were so cute!

Here is Bry at swim time... which he loved. They actually sent him down the big slip n slide, too, but I missed it... they said he loved it and he pitched a big ol fit when they put him back in the baby pool!

Here is Coby on the slip-n-slide.

And Cason...

And Coby on the rock-climbing wall. He was so brave and he made it about half way up which was really pretty high. He even got to repel down.

Random picture, but here is what Bryson does any time he sees a camera!

My plan for tomorrow: Sleep, Laundry, Sleep some more, Lots more laundry, and then eat out for dinner!