Jumping on the bandwagon

After laughing hysterically at Kaylee, Britney, Bekki, and others (who started this anyways... dont we have kids to take care of?), I couldnt resist the temptaton to jump on the bandwagon. This site is hilariously addicting! Here are a few of my favorites....

SUMMER:

1960

1968
1972

1974

1976

1980

1994

CLINT:

1952

1968

1970

1974

1978

1980

1982

2nd day of school!!

Coby barfed in the bathroom as soon as they got there. So he is back home with me.

So much for perfect attendence! :o)

I think he just got a little carsick after eating lots of pancakes with too much sugar. My fingers are crossed that we do NOT all take turns with a stomach bug the first week of school... yukk!!

1st day of school!!

We had an exciting first day of school again this year. We were especially excited that our cousin, Samantha is joining the kids at BCS. She and Micah are in the same class and they were so excited to be together. Micah said that his favorite part was playing with Samantha and his friend Christian and eating watermelon. Coby's favorite part was PE and reading books on the floor. Cason and Bryson will start preschool with me next week. Cason is looking forward to being in "mommy's class" and Bryson just responded with "School?? Playground?? YAY!!" It is so great to be sending them to a place where I trust every teacher 100%. We are blessed!!

Sweet Brothers

Micah and Samantha

Coby and Samantha

The boys and Sam

Mimi came by to wish them a happy first day!

Waiting for the bell to ring...

Here is our Whole Gang!

And just for fun... here is the first day of school in 2007

And Micah's first day in 2006

For Bekki

I am posting this for my friend, Bekki... I just wanted you to know that you were NOT ALONE in your childhood mullet. I dont know if mine was worse, but a mullet none the less. I guess it was the thing to do for girl haircuts "back then." I went from this haircut in 1st grade to a "mushroom" haircut in 2nd. Clint thinks my face here looks like Coby.

The Shack

I you have not already read this book, you are missing out. I just picked it up yesterday and started it at 6pm and finished it today at 11pm. It is 248 pages long, but I couldnt put it down. (I stayed up way into the hours of the morning until my eyes ached for sleep) It has changed the way I look at our world, my faith, my "religion" and my God. I am typing thru tears, and I dont want to give away even a tiny piece of the plot or ruin the experience of the book for any of you, so I will stop there. If you have already read it, lets go to dinner so we can talk about it!!

If you have not heard about this book, you can click HERE to read the forward of the book. It will get you hooked. If my link doesnt work, you can go to www.theshackbook.com and click on "Read"

rewind.....

I did a little bad-blogger catch up today... so if you want to read about Cason's birthday, (or skip the novel I wrote for my own records and just look at the pictures from his party...), click HERE

The Best infirmary... and other news

We have 2 down around here... and hopefully NOT 2 more to go... I have a feeling these boys got strep throat from their momma who was excited to see them when they returned last week and gave them a little too much lovin! Sorry boys!! At least they have a buddy to keep them company while they get to hang out on mommy's bed and watch an insane amount of movies! :o)

We have been busy little bees since we got our little wild ones back! My boys have come back to the realization that mommy is just not as fun as GiGi, but she will have to do for now. We are back to having lots of fun (sickness aside) again. Bryson is saying lots of funny stuff right now like the other day at rest time I said, "nite nite, baby" (I have always called him my baby) and he responded with "I not baby, I big." So I said, "ok" Then he told me (in a bossy tone), "Mommy, now you say, 'nite-nite, big.'" I obliged and called him "big" and that is what he wants everyone to call him now. Funny stuff. Our potty training is all back on track and he is doing really well. Sometimes he spontaniously wants to tell (or show) perfect strangers about his new spiderman underwear. He is proud... and shameless....

We had our last baseball games of the season (can I get a halleluiah?!). It was bittersweet, but I am really looking forward to this saturday sleeping in and NOT spending 3+ hours in the 105 degree texas heat... with a 2 year old who loves baseball and baseball games, but even he knows that is crossing a line. Seriously, it has been a great, fun season, and it is always so neat to watch the boys meet new friends, learn new things and grow and improve so much, but Lord have mercy, it has been H-O-T!

Here is a fun "action" shot of Micah... he had an incredible hit way out in left field. I wish I had a pic of his proud snaggle-toothed grin as he crossed home plate at the end of his grand slam!

Here is Cason's new ingenious way of "carrying" his glove to the car. I have a rule that they have to carry their own glove (simply because I have the ice chest loaded with drinks and snacks and 6 folding chairs, plus the above mentioned 2-year old who is not always elated to abide by my rules after 3 hours in the 105 degree heat) and this way, he can carry his glove and his drink and snack from the snack mom (or in this case, his newly earned medal).... cute boy!

Sweet brothers showing off their medals.... Micah had not played yet, so he hadnt gotten his yet. That is why he isnt in the picture...

Earlier today, I was going to refill the gatorade for the "sick and infirmed" who were quarantined in my bedroom and I made some little friends in my fridge. I have a feeling there is a cute little red-headed boy somewhere looking for these 2 friends... or maybe he is laughing at his momma getting such a kick out of his antics! :o)

disclaimer: please dont inspect the cleanliness of my fridge...

Hope you are all having a great "last week of summer" I had big plans to take the kids to lots of fun places, but strep throat has made me slow down and I have done lots of cleaning instead. Keep them all in our prayers that the strep stops here!!!

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!