The Great-Grand Tour

Every year, around the 4th of July, we make a big trip to go visit all 7 of my kids great-grandparents... we feel so incredibly blessed to have so many of them living for my kids to know... And as much as we wish we could see them more often, we have committed to visiting them at least once a year so that the boys will know and remember them. They are our legacy...

We started off in Abilene, halfway to Jal, at the Abilene ZOO. We met up with Uncle Russ and Aunt Angie, and our cousin Jarrell. If you look closely, you can see sute lil boys in these letters:

The montley crew

Russ, Ang, and Jarrell, who was not keen on the idea of a photo op...

Our crew at the zoo.

Then we loaded back up and headed off to New Mexico to see my grandparents...

Railroad tracks are always a great photo op, right?

My (hot) little monkeys!

Me with my Dandy Don and Nana

The boys with my Nana and Dandy

hahaha

It was so hot.... and he looks so big here!

The famous tire swing at the park in Jal....

Feeding the ducks

me with my Pop Pop and KK.
The boys with Pop Pop and KK

Then we headed back to TX to meet up with Clint's family for the 4th of July...

The boys at the parade with all their loot!

Crazy Gran Gran!!

We headed to Merkel for church with Mamaw and Papaw to celebrate their 80th birthdays...

It is always an adventurour trip, but always lots of fun... everything went great and it was so good to see lots of family.... but it is always good to be back home, too!

just for fun

I recorded this when I was taking Bry's picture of his own hair cut... he was begging me to tape him singing "the Jesus song" I cracks me up to watch him singing away with that chunk out of his hair.... and I think he had an itch!

Taking matters into his own hands...

Today as I was rocking Bryson and we were singing together, I was stroking my hair thru his long curly locks, which had gotten a bit too long and were beginning to hang down in his face (esp when we would go swimming...) "Bry, you need a haircut, dont you? We need to cut this hair here so it wont be down in your eyes..." His response "yah..." and off he went to go play while I went to go do the dishes....

A few minutes later (I know you all know where this is going....) he comes back around the corner with a hand ful of red curls in one hand and Micah's fiscar scissors in the other... you guessed it, he gave his bangs more than just a trim... I had told myself that I was gonna let him be little for one more summer.... we put off the buzz cut one more year... I loved those baby curls! But he took matters into his own hands and changed that decision real quick! :o)

So he now has a summer time hair do.... still a cutie, but just a cutie w/o curls... I do love that his eyes look super blue!

And look how much he favors his big brother now!

Here is Coby at about 3 or 4 years old....

Happy Birthday, G-Dad!

Citizen of the YEAR!

Attention blog readers:

Proud momma moment ahead... lots of bragging to follow! Consider yourself warned...

My sweet Micah was awarded Citizen of the YEAR for his class this morning in the closing assembly. He was so sweet.... proud and excited, grinning from ear to ear on the stage... yet humble about it with all his friends. It is one of the highest honors for an elementary student at Brentwood Christian, and we are so proud of him! He has got such a great balance of sweetness, BOY-ness, giggles, & brains! He has grown (physically & emotionally) so much this year, and we are so blessed to have had Mrs. Patterson as his teacher. She has this enthusiasm for school and a passion for reading, and it has been completely contagious for Micah. She also has a love for our Savior that has been reflected in her teaching... what a blessing!

Way to go MICAH! We love you!

Sweet....

Downtown Austin...

Even though we live near Austin, we rarely venture to the downtown area... especially at night... I am a chicken. Micah's 2nd grade class had a family field trip to see the bats under the Congress Bridge on Friday night, so off we went...

Here are the boys on the path along the bank of the river... it is so beautiful down there!

Our "entertainment" while we waited... she is juggling fire while on his shoulders and he is hula hooping and turning around in circles. Clint sais he thinks we should do this as our side job....

Here was our other source of entertainment... Mrs. Patterson's dog, Parker. For Bryson, it was love at first sight. We will never know how it was for poor Parker... I do know that Bryson was covered in Golden hair by the end of the evening!


Waiting..... still..... Cason is officially grouchy!

Micah and a few of his friends... on the front row!

Finally.... the bats emerged... Hard to capture on camera, but so cool!

We hiked back to the car and decided we would drive by and see the capital building all lit up at night. We noticed people coming in and out, so we parked, almost got run over crossing the street, and went to visit our state capital! The first time for 3 of our boys. They thought it was cool. They were impressed by the canons & the old-timey water fountain, and Cason said that the buliding was "Amazing!" :o)

The capital building was so pretty all lit up at night time...

Beautiful...

On the "fancy stairs" as Coby called them...

Here is the gang on the "echo star" in the middle... And yes, we took Bry for a visit to the capital potty shortly after this pic was taken!

The view of our family from the star... the camera was on the floor and we are facing down. You can see the ceiling in the background... the boys thought this was so cool!

We made it home around 11:00 that evening. No one had gotten a nap that day, and I was completely floored that we made it with out a singel melt down! What a fun, spur of the moment trip!

Boy scout graduation

Micah and Coby had their graduation ceremony for Boys Scouts. Coby graduated from a Tiger Cub to a Wolf. Micah graduated from a Wolf to a Bear.

Here is Coby with his buddy, Cade... you can see their face paint from their ceremony:

Micah wearing his new bear scarf.


Micah "scarfing" Coby with his new Wolf scarf.
Sweet brothers...

Austin ZOO

my little preschool class took a field trip to the Austin Zoo for our letter "Z" weel. It was tons of fun! I am completely in love with these precious kids!!

One of my favorite things about the day was that I got to spend it with my FUN friend, Terri (Twig). It was so great to hang out and catch up!

Sweet friends

RRROOOAAARRR!!!

On the train

Cas-O and momma

Me and my class! I am gonna miss these guys!

Somethin's missing!

.... and he pulled this one himself!! How cute is that little grin!?!

Happy Mother's Day, Momma!

What a blessing that you are not only my momma, but you are one of my best friends! Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for me and my family. We love you, Mimi!

I had a great mother's day surrounded with lots of loving and sweet notes, hugs and kisses. Clint let me sleep in and cooked breakfast and then when I woke up to get ready for church, the boys had written me a scavenger hunt which led me to lots of sweet notes and then Clint surprised me with this:

Way to go, honey!! LOVE it! Still trying to figure it out, but LOVE it!!
We went to church together and headed to mom and dad's for lunch and so fun pool time. Mom and I got to relax by the pool while the boys swam. Then we ended our day with a fun outing with some friends to the park for our HomeGroup.... A perfect day!

Happy mother's day to all my mommy friends!