ACU or bust

I just down loaded over 400 pictures, so I am going to have to divide this into a few different posts. Here is the first group of pics from our trip to ACU for bible teachers workshop. The boys loved being on campus... and we took them to this new Jacob's Ladder statue. I got several sweet pics of them at the statue. Zoo pictures and pics from Cason's bday are coming soon....

The Fam

Do you wonder what Bryson is thinking??

The boys and the infamous Ms Jackie

There is a certain spot where you can stand and see the cross made out of the "negative space" in the statue... so cool!

I found this new setting on my camera called "shadow" How cool are these??

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life..." John 8:12

"All I want for Christmas is....

... my 2 front teeth" He pulled this one himself... look at that cute little grin! :o)

Our 1st Fatality

I will blog more and post pictures soon about our fun trip to Abilene, but for now, I have some sad news... We lost our first fish. Sweet Little Bell went on. We woke up this morning and Cason came to tell us that he thought she was "sleeping." He was sad when we told him that she was dead, and we had some questions about death (fish go to heaven, right?) but he is ready to go pick out another one (she was still under her 14 day warranty)... anyways, I know she is the first of many, but it was still a sad morning in the Best household!

"In Memory" of Belle:

Family Pictures!!!

I know… 2 post in one day, but I just got this picture cd in the mail, and I had to post a few pics from out photo session with the Best gang this past weekend… love these pics!!

The whole bunch!

Proud grandparents with their gang of Best boys!

Our "Best" Uncle, Aunt and Cousin!! :o)

We did a very similar picture to the one we had done last summer... I thought it was neat to see how much the boys have grown!

2007

2006
2007

2006

so far, so good....

ok, so it is only day 4 of our lives as fish parents, but they are doing great... we added 4 more to the tank today, so now we have a family of 7 fish babies. I have gotta say, these are so much easier to care for than any other babies we have welcomed into this house in the past! :o) I didnt get great pics this time and they are not on my compt yet, so here is the info... Each of the boys picked one out this time and named them themselves... their names are:
Minnie (she is Mickey's twin brother) Coby's fish
Belle (she is a pretty yellow fish) Cason's fish
Tigger (he is a really fast little striped fish) "Bryson's" fish
Macy (tiny little fish with a single neon stripe) Micah's fish... he named her Macy bc that was going to be his name if he was a girl. I had never told him that, but he discovered it recently when he was reading his baby book! I thought that was sweet!

4 years old!

My sweet Cason is 4 years old today... I know it sounds so cliche to say, but man, time flies! It really doesnot seem like 4 years have past since we held him in our arms for the first time. Here are just 4 of the many special things about Cason...

1. He is so compassionate... he is always concerned for other people who might be sick or hurt. He is always asking me, "how do you feel, mom?" He also is so drawn to animals. He even loves bugs, snakes, and critters that make his 2 big brothers squeal! :o)

2. He is so soft-spoken. He doesnt say much until he gets to know you pretty well, and he rarely raises his voice. I always have to turn the radio down in the car to hear him ask me a question or tell me a story. (he is usually asking me "why...." or "how come..."I love listening to his sweet little voice when he says his prayers. He lists everything he played with or anyone he saw that day.

3. He loves his baby brother! And his big brothers, too. He is so proud to be the "baby helper" in the car... and he loves to help Bry with anything. He uses this high-pitched voice when he talks to him, and he always cheers him on with a "good job, lil' bry!" He loves to play all sorts of stuff, but he doesnt want to do anything by himslef. He likes to have one of his "buddies" with him.

4. He has the sweetest smile and the best giggle. You just cant help but smile or giggle right back at him. He is generally a pretty happy kid, and he is lots of fun for our family.

We love you, Cason!! Happy brithday, sweet boy!!

Sweet baby Cason.... July 17, 2003 in the hospital.

1st birthday!


2nd birthday!

3rd birthday!

4th birthday... the big shin dig is this saturday, so here is a pic of him with his new fish tank!

Introducing.....

... The newest members of the Best family:

here is Molly.

Here is Snow White. She was a little nervous about her new home, and we couldnt get her to be still for a picture. She is a really pretty angel fish.


And here is Mickey.

Cason picked them all out and named them all. We will get to go pick out 3 more at the end of the week after these have adjusted. He helped put them into the tank, too... it was a pretty exciting, long anticipated event! We have had this tank set up since July 7th so the water would be ready for fish on his birthday!

He was so intrigued by them. he sat and watched them for a long time even after he fed them!

Just being crazy!

Little Bry

I feel like I am always posting about the big boys and telling stories about them and what is going on with them... so this one is for our little man! These are just some great pics of Little Bryson from our family pizza/movie night a while back... Yes, he is covered in his pizza, but I loved how we really captured his personality in these pics....

Cheesey smile!

Crazy smile!


This is his face when he says, "whoa!!" And he says it all the time!

Sweet boy!

Whiney boy!

Mr Personality!

Where's Bry?

Peapie!

Man, I love this boy!

Splish Splash

We took the boys to the little water park here in Pflugerville this past weekend and it was a blast... there was something for everyone! Bryson LOVED the sprinkler part... he would have stayed there all day going from one to the next, discovering that he could stick his finger in each one and produce the same result... a squirt in the face followed by a startled look and a giggle of excitement!

The boys first saw these small slides and they were fun... until they discovered the BIG slide

Bryson was content just hanging out while the others played on the slides... sweet boy! He spotted my camera and cheesed it up a bit!

And he worked a bit on his immune system by drinking out of the pool drain... nice, I know!

Disclaimer... I did toss my camera into my bag and dash over to stop him as soon as I took this shot... what's done is done, right?

The BIG Slide was definately the crowd favorite... the bottoms of their toes are raw from climbing the steps to got there. Clint probably went 100 times between the 2 boys (they werent quite big enough to ride alone)

Life is good, my friends!