Friendships...

You know how you have those people you meet and you think, "wow... we are gonna be friends" Well, my freshman year at ACU in Nelson dorm, I lived next door to these 2 spunky, crazy girls who were best friends for life... Christina and Melanie were such incredible blessings to me at such a lonely time in my life. They were so much fun and such great friends and they eventually led me to my college roomate, Elisa... we spent many nights playing "dress-up," playing "hose heads," watching chick flicks, eating at Peaking House, lots of gabbing, and definately laughing lots. Christina and I had so much in common even back then, and look at us now. She has 3 little boys (are you working on that 4th yet, Chris?) and she still has that same "spunk" and love for life. She came thru Austin recently and we got to spend the day together with all 7 of our boys!! We had not seen eachother in months, and really we had not sat down and talked in years, and it was like we had not missed a beat. It was so much fun to get together with an old friend who was in exactly the same chaotic stage of life as me and reminisce about the good ol days as we rejoiced in these present times and looked forward to what lies ahead. I feel like we are kindred spirits and Christina will always have a special place in my heart.

Here is the crew... minus baby Seth... I got lots of snuggle time in with that sweet lil guy!

Coby, Micah (back row)

Cason, Levi, Titus (middle row)

Bryson (front row)

They are nuts!!

It was funny because we went from this inflatable place to lunch at Chic Fil A where we got lots of looks and stares as we paraded thru with all these kids. People would stop and ask, are they all yours??" And we both just grinned and giggled, "yes!!" I am sure people thought we were crazy!

This pic makes me laugh bc I remember in colege we always made Chris take the "hold your arm out in front of us self-portraits" becaus she has amazingly long arms... one of her many talents! :o)

I am so thankful for good friends!

My 2 favorite superheroes

Bry is getting a lesson in "spiderman web-shooting"

Lesson is over... time for action....




Of coarse, complete with the Spiderman song... and a little sibling rivalry...

and please dont mind my mess in the background. I was cleaning out closets and I had a huge stack of stuff to haul to the garage for our garage sale...

GiGi detox and strep throat

We are in GiGi-detox mode around the best household... our house is filled with lots of noise and activity again and the boys were all so glad to be home. I cant count the number of times they have said, "but that's not how GiGi does it...." or "GiGi lets us..." I think it is kinda a dose of reality for both them and me. I have had this quiet restful week and they have had a week where the world revolved around them! They had such a great time and have some wonderful memories from the week. But the other day, Cason was getting a spanking and he said, "GiGi doesnt know how to give spankings. GDad has not taught her that yet." We both had a pretty good chuckle, but it did not get him out of his spanking!!
*Micah's favorite part of the week was shooting his first gun with Gdad and diving off the diving board (not at the same time...)
*Coby's favorite part was going swimming at the pool with a big slide.
*Cason's favorite part was riding the tractor and seeing a rattle snake.... yikes!
*Bryson just responded with "I go swimming, I ride tractor with Gdad. Gran Gran silly"

Well, it seems my date with chloraseptic last week was not long enough... I woke up at 3AM choking on my own tonsils because it was so swollen back there. I went to the minute clinic at CVS (I highly reccommend it) and got a rapid strep test which usually takes 5 minutes to process. Within 20 seconds, mine had gone to positive. yikes. Being so sick makes me so sad for my babies when they have this awful thing... strep is miserably painful!! Here's hoping no one else gets it!!
Sorry there are no pictures on this post...

D-Day

The time has come..... we are about to leave to go pick up my sweeties.... it has been fun... we have had lots of dates, lots of movies, I had a date with my Ibuprophen and Chloraseptic spray (yes, I got sick while they were gone... annoying!!!!), LOTS of sleeping in!! Some painting, some shopping, some relaxing...
But I must say that I AM READY!! I cant wait to see them!!
Thanks, Gigi and Gdad and GranGran for a wonderful week off!! (yes, it took 3 adults to wrangle my boys!)

The kiss that literally took my breath away

Clint and I are back home... WITH NO CHILDREN!! And now you have read the title to this post and this first sentence and you are wondering if you should read on.... :o)
We left the boys with Clint's parents in Jacksboro for Camp GiGi for the week, and we headed home today. I have a hairline fracture in my foot so I am wearing this huge boot thing on my right foot. but we didnt let that stop us! We stopped in Fort Worth at 6 flags and visited the TITAN, which is our favorite roller coaster of all times... we had not ridden it in a long time bc we usually take our kids w/ us to 6 flags and dont get to ride the "mommy and daddy rides..." So this afternoon, we fought the 104 degree heat and rode it over and over until we felt sick. We decided to get creative with the camera spot on one of those "take your breath away" moments on the roller coaster:
I know I look less than thrilled to be kissing this husband of mine, but really I think I was kinda screaming with my mouth closed while we kissed. If only you could have seen the look of horror on my face in the previous pictures! Someone asked us if we were newly-weds! hehe!! Seriously, though... it all got me thinking about how our life is many times like a roller coaster... we have the highs of fun family vacations and proud moments as parents and then the lows of cleaning up the poo-poo that Bryson left as a trail to the potty and then tried to be a helper and clean it up himself... resulting in a really sweet little 2 year old covered in poop. yukk. But I do know that there is NO ONE that I would rather ride this roller coaster-life with than my favorite husband, Clint Best!!

Now, signing off from the blog-world to go enjoy our week with no kiddos!! (but secretly, we both miss them already!!)

I know I am so far behind!!

I just wanted all my friends out in blog land to know I am alive.... just super busy! My big boys have been in basketball camp this week and I have been using some of that time when I only have 2 kids instead of 4 to re-write curriculum up at the school. So I am behind on my blogging.... I need to do special post for my Case-O's 5th birthday... seriously, where did 5 years go? I also have a post about my fun day with my sweet ACU friend, Christina and our army of boys!! We took 7 boys out on the town last week and made a bit of a spectacle at Chic-fil-A but we sure had a blast!! More on those events coming soon, but for now, a few funny things before I forget....

The other day, I sent Cason to time out on his bed because he and I were both really angry and I didnt want to spank him in the midst of my anger... so he stormed off and stomped all the way down the hall.... he flopped onto his bed and said to Coby, "I wish mommy was a little boy and I was a mommy because I need to give her a spankin!" I have to admit that it made me chuckle to myself amidst my frustration with my strong-willed child! :o)

Coby was eating his animal crackers the other day and he said, "Momma I sure am glad I am a Coby and not a deer."
Me: "Oh, yeah? Me, too, Coby"
"Yeah because if I was a deer someone might shoot me and cook me up for dinner and that would make you sad!"
Random, but true... I wonder what is going on in that head of his!!

How is Cason 5 years old already?

Where has the time gone? My sweet Cason is 5 years old. He has been counting down the days until "July 17th" for quite some time now, and the day arrived!! That was a fast 5 years for sure! In honor of his 5th birthday, here are 5 things that I love about Cason:
1. His grin... he is such a reserved, quiet little guy on the surface (but not when you get to know him), but he has this sweet little grin that can light up a room. He can spot me in the hallway at school or across the platground and flash me that grin so as to say, "I see you mom, and I love you!" It makes my day!
2. He is "stingy" with his affection. This sounds silly, but I love that he doesnt just give hugs away to just anyone. That makes his hugs super special. And he refuses to go to bed each night with out the whole routine... song, hug, and kiss... on the cheek of coarse! :o)
3. He has an incredible imagination. From the time he could make noises, he was making the car noise, and then all the animal noises and then he moved on to "pretending" to be those animals... he went thru a phase where he pretended to be a puppy. He is always wearing a costume or pretending to be someone or something. Sometimes he is totally in his own little world out in the backyard just "pretending"
4. He loves his brothers... whether or not he is looking up to his olderones and trying to be just like them and just as big as they are... or he is trying to help bry by being the big brother and teach him how to do things... he is such a sweet brother (when he is not being a pest!)
5. He has such a spunk for life. When he does anything, he does it whole heartedly... he does everything with a passion. When he played soccer last year and tball this year, he had this concentrated look on his face like he could think of nothing else. When he does art, he always has his tongue sticking out so he can "concentrate" My hope and prayer is that we will teach him to use this passion for our Lord.

Sweet Case-O, we love you so much! Happy Birthday! And now, a walk down memory lane....

Cason's "Birth"day: July 17, 2003

Cason's 1st Birthday!!

Cason's 2nd Birthday

Cason's 3rd Birthday

Cason's 4th Birthday

Let's get the party started!!!

cason chose a dinosaur themed birthday party this year and we had it at the pool (again). It is free and it is their favorite place to be in the summer, so really, it cant be beat! He had a blast with all his friends and cousins!

Here is a close up of the cake... he picked out the colors and helped some with the icing.

Blowing out all 5 of his candles!

Cason with his buddy Caden

A sweet pic of Bry with Mimi. We see my mom and dad on such a regular basis that I forget to get my camera out very often and take pictures. I thought this one was so sweet.

Samantha (my neice) Mimi (my mom) and Micah. Sam and Micah are trying to work it out so that they can get married some day... they are such great little friends.... so sweet!

And just so you can end this post with a good laugh.... my little bry is always the life of the party!

My little Monkeys

Just a few more fun pics of my little tree-climbing monkeys!! Thankfully no one fell out or broke naything while we were there... they are so ALL BOY!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, America!!

We had a great 4th of July! All the boys LOVED the fireworks!

Hope you all spent the holiday weekend surrounded by friends, family, or fireworks...

Here are a few pics from the parade... KK made the boys some little USA flags and the were so excited to wave them so proudly as everyone paraded by. But it was pretty comical to see Bry throw his on the ground at the drop of a hat as soon as he realized they were throwing candy!

Bryson and his candy...

The Family at the fireworks that night...

The Great-Grand Tour

It is an incredible blessing that my boys have 7 great-grandparents still here with us, so we try to make a trip to go see all of them at least once a year. The trip was about 1200 miles total, and it was loads of FUN! On Wednesday, we loaded up the 'burban with the luggage, the movies, the snacks, the pillows, and the boys and headed out to West Texas... Our first stop was Coahoma, TX to visit Gran Gran. The boys love her so much. They always talk about how Gran Gran is always laughing... and they are so right! She was all giggles and smiles the whole time we were there!

Then on Thursday, we crossed the state line and geaded onto Jal, New Mexico to visit my grandparents...

One of the highlights of Jal, NM is going to the lake and feeding the ducks....

Coby getting in some snuggling with Dandy...

The boys and my (very patriotic) Nana and Dandy waiting for the 4th of July parade

Nana and Dandy have some great trees in their yard that the boys love to climb...

Silly Monkeys

We also got to visit my Pop Pop and KK. They had lots of fun playing in their rocks, climging their fence, and playing baseball at their house. We also went with KK to see the fireworks at the park. I didnt get a great pic there, but this at least documents the occasion I guess. It was dark and they had been waiting for the fireworks to start....
I loved this picture with my Pop Pop and KK

What a crazy bunch... I love KK's silly face and then Pop Pop's look!

Then we headed back into Texas, stopping on the way back in Noodle, Texas (30 miles outside of Abilene) to see Mamaw and Papaw. One of the highlights of their house is the TRACTORS!! Although, I am not sure who had more fun racing the tractors... Papaw or the boys!

Here is the gang with Mamaw and Papaw

We went from Noodle to Jacksboro to see GiGi and Gdad, but I was bad and forgot to take a picture!! But we drove up to Wichita Falls and picked up my nephew Dustin and brought him home with us for the week. I decided to leave Coby and Cason there with GiGi to go to their VBS in Jacksboro, so I just brought 3 home with me. Micah and Dustin have had a blast so far this week!

It was a great, memorable trip... But after a 1200 miles, 5 stops, and 9 grandparents in less than one week, here is how we all feel.......

Where has my baby gone??

I had been scared to post about our paci-detox and our potty training adventures for fear of jinxing myself... and we are leaving town tomorrow for a week long out of state trip, so I have to admit that I am expecting some reverting while we travel, but for now... so far, so good!!
Bryson has not had his paci in over 3 weeks!! He found one in his diaper bag the other day and sucked on it for a second. I realized he had it and asked for it and he gave it up willingly... so I think he is over it! Yay!
We started potty training this past Saturday, and he has picked it up so easily... so much easier than my other 3. Maybe because he has 3 "cheerleaders" and examples to follow.... and in everything we have done, he has always wanted to be like his big brothers.... Yesterday, he went ALL DAY (excluding naptime) with out a single accident! We went to the pool, HEB, Walmart, and Souper Salads, and he used the potty at all 4 places! (And I am reminded of how much public toilets GROSS me out!!)
He went poop in the potty for the first time and we had a popsicle party for him. Now he is over the rewards and after he goes potty, he just wants a "high five" from anyone in a 10-foot radius of the potty... It is pretty cute! I am so proud of him, and I am so excited to have bought my last box of diapers, but at the same time, I am typing thru some tears thinking that my baby is growing up so, so fast! Enjoy the pictures.... they will be great on his senior slide show someday, so I kept them modest! :o)

When we first started, he wanted to completely strip to sit on the potty... even his shirt.... but then he wanted to have his hat and flip flops back on. It was pretty funny. We have gotten past that now, but here is a funny pic....

At Wal-Mart, I let him pick out some new undies and he chose Superman. Here is the proud little booger sporting his new duds... in his hat and flip flops, of corse!

Honey and Heaven

Our church family will not be the same for anyone with out the presence of our sister and friend, Ruth "Honey" Dillard. Unfortunately, I was not one of the many who knew her so well... (see Emily's beautiful tribute to Honey here) but I know from her funeral today that she touched so many lives so deeply. My boys knew her not only by her contagious smile but also by her bell. She had a walker that she lovingly referred to as "John Henry" and she had a little bicycle-type bell on it. The boys loved to go ring her bell every sunday, and she loved for them to run up and greet her as they rang it each week. Last Sunday, Cason asked if he could go find Honey and ring her bell and I told him that she was not there are church because she had died and gone to Heaven. His face went from a state of shock to one of pure joy. "I bet she is gettin to see Jesus, mommy!" I fought back the tears as I agreed with him. "Yes, I am sure she is with Jesus!" I wish I had the faith and the desire of a child...

Today at her funeral, they played a recording of an interview that she had done before she went to see Jesus. She had the sweetest voice. When her distinct voice came over the loud speaker, Cason began looking around, "Mommy... that's her... that's Honey!"

"No, Cason, that is just her voice."

"From Heaven?"

Sweet, sweet boy.... he was so confused... I explained that it was recorded before she passed away and he tried to understand but he continued to look around as if he expected to see her standing across the room. At the end of the service, my boys were given the honor of closing her memorial service with one last ring on John Henry's bell. What a beautiful picture I have of Honey up there with Jesus, with a smile on her face as they rang her bell one last time. Every time I hear a bicycle bell, I will think of Honey and the incredible example she was to so many.

Family Fun Night

Quick disclaimer... I can not get the videos of Cason and Coby to upload for some reason... blogger is not cooperating w/ me, so for now, enjoy watching Bry and the pure joy of his SPARE (he actually rolled 3 spares and one strike!) But keep in mind that he was equally as excited about the gutter balls as he was the strike. The hopping was the same every time! Too funny!

And just for the record, When we go to a big place like this, I often make the boys wear the same shirt so I can keep up with them easier, but I did NOT make Clint wear a shirt to match the boys... I let him pick out his own clothes... and although it looks like the same shirt in the neon lighting, it really doesn't match the boys! :o) but that would be a cute idea... just kidding, Babe, just kidding!

I made the boys chore charts for the summer, and they have been working hard to get everything done. Each morning, we dont leave the house until they have done a few things on their charts. For the most part, they have been just self-motivated with no specific reward in mind. They have gotten so excited about putting their stickers on their charts. We counted on Saturday, and they had 114 stickers between the 4 charts.... so I decided it was time for a reward. We took the boys to a fun bowling alley with neon lights for a fun family night out... needless to say, they had a BLAST! And not that it matters, but Mommy won (yes, she got a higher score than Daddy... the boys were way impressed).... I had the bowler dudes pring the score sheet for proof. I never beat clint at anything!

My videos keep messing up... so here are 2 of the 4. I love Bryson's reaction... he did this everytime he bowled. Cason did a victory dance each time, so I need to work on getting that one to upload! :o)

Twinkle, Twinkle

I know, I know, 3 posts in one day.... I had some free time to do some catching up today! This video was too sweet not to post it... he sings it better with the boys, but this was sweet to hear his version "solo"