I Brainwash my children

Ok I admit it! I totally brainwash my children. Only on things that really matter like Christianity and becoming an Aggie. So the other day Beck and I were having a little talk and I was taking full advantage. It went a little bit like this...

Beck: "Harley is my best friend"

me: "she is...is she your girl friend?"

Beck: "no" (kind of like mommy your crazy)

me: "who is your girl friend?"

Beck: "Nobody"

me: "well when you get big you will want a girlfriend. who will be your girl friend?"

Beck: "nobody"

Me: "you need to like a strong Christian woman. ok?"

Beck: "No way, I'm scared of those!"

I guess my attempt at brain washing failed.....

Field Trip to the Botanical Gardens

Today, Hogan's class had a field trip to The Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day! God's goodness was all around. His amazing creations were screaming with beauty. I was in AWE. How fun would it be to cReAte like that!

Here are a few pics of Hogan enjoying himself on the field trip.

...and I have to say, God did good on THIS one, too. :)

FIVE

April 17 Gates turned FIVE....

I can't believe Gates is FIVE.

He is the greatest kid. (Hey if a momma can't brag on her own kid who can)

He is always the first one to say thank you when we take the kids out to eat.

He can count by twos, by fives and by tens.

He knows all his letters.

He talks slow but very maticulously.

He has a great memory just like his sister. (makes it very hard for mommy to trick)

Loves his siblings and is very protective of them.

Has the sweetest little smiling face.

Hardly ever gets into trouble.

...and is the shortest kid in his class and officially the shortest kid in our family.

Yes, BECK has passed him up.

Gates birthday party is not until Wednesday but we did take cupcakes to school on his real birthday.

Check out this happy face.

It took him five tries but he get them all out.
Oh my, how this little face melts this mommas heart.

My sweet FIVE year old.

Hoppy Easter Every Bunny!!!

Saturday night we dyed eggs like we always do the night before Easter.

I like to use the traditional Adam's food coloring. That is what I grew up using.

I love that the eggs always seem to turn out different.

Elisabeth was able to turn an egg BLACK. I was impresed.

....here are our 2009 eggs....

Hogan made this bEAutIfUL egg. He put three crosses on it.

I thought it was quite fitting.



This was my egg! :) After seeing the kids religious eggs I wished I had gone that route.

Wouldn't be right if we didn't have an AGGIE egg!

Josh put Gates' name on an egg for him...

Gates made this egg all by himself. I LOVE it!!! The shade of green, the large cross,

the mulitple lines, the simplicity....

...my favorite.

Just don't tell the other kids.

Beck snuck in this picture of all the eggs. Actually not all the eggs but most of them. There are six missing but they all wouldn't fit on the dish towel. We dyed entirely too many eggs!

I love the real meaning behind Easter. The eggs and the bunnies are all great but JESUS is greater. While I agree that we should celebrate Jesus every Sunday; I do LOVE to highlight the story of Jesus on the cross during this time of year. I want my children to remember how cruel the cross was. I want them to know that he suffered there for their sins. That he hung there until he died and was then barried in a tomb. I want them to remember that on the third day when the stone was rolled away the tomb was empty and that JESUS had RISEN!

For us, Easter is much more than bunnies and eggs, it is LIFE ETERNAL. (with some bunnies and eggs and cute clothes)

Which leads to my next topic of this super long post....

I love to dress my kids in matching/coordinating clothes. I know that in a few short years I will no longer be able to do this so I am taking full advantage while they are still young.

...so on most Sundays, they at least GO together...

....and Easter Sunday would be no different.

These little faces make me so happy.

Hogan in his Easter attire.

What do you think of his pho-hawk?

Beck showing off the watch the Easter bunny brought him.

In his Easter attire.

Pretty as a picture.

In her Easter attire.

Thus why we call him "FedEx"

Gates in his Easter attire.
He has a pho-hawk, too.

One of the sweet ladies at our church filled and planned an easter egg hunt for the kids this morning. We go to a fairly small church and all the other approximately 10 kids were out of town. So my children had all 200 eggs to themselves. We have candy out our ears.

Elisabeth hunting eggs.

Gates found an egg!

Hogan skipping up to the orange and green eggs.

I found Beck hidding behind this post getting candy from his eggs. He was finished finding eggs; he just wanted his candy already.

My precious babies all ready for Easter.

Jesus LIVES and so do we!

Sunday Golf

When we found out Beck was going to be a boy Josh was excited...

Why?...

Because he was going to only have to pay for one wedding and he would have a foursome for golf.

However...

He didn't count on is little girl being a golfer...and now he has a fivesome.

Sunday, we took the kiddos to the driving range. All the kids have their own little clubs and always have loads of fun. My dad was coming with us so I thought I would take a few pictures to document the FUN.

Check out these sweet little golfen faces!

This picture cracks me up. Elisabeth is hitting up the dirt. Beck is teeing up a ball. and....

Hogan is doing the "Happy Gilmore" back there in the back. I love it!!!
Elisabeth is a people pleaser. Therefore, if her daddy likes golf...
she will like golf and try really hard to be good at it.

Here she is taking tips from her grandpa. I love how she's holding her club.

Swing it, girl!

I love these faces!

Beck was more interested in his candy then smiling at his mommy's glass.

This boy already has a pretty swing!

His daddy is good at giving him just the right tips.

...sometimes.

Look at Elisabeth's pretty pink bag. It even has her name on the side. Her daddy ordered her these. She has him wrapped around her little finger.

The tilted head. The cute little grin.

This little boy steels my heart!

Gates is teeing up with his tiny red driver.

Pawpaw showing him the best way to tee up.

He's really concentrating. Check out his little lips.

Elisabeth is the best BIG sister.

I love this picture of her helping her baby brother.

...and I really love this picture of his pawpaw giving him some help.

... ultimately he didn't want any help. This BIG three year old can do all things "by my self!"

He didn't hit them very far...but he hit them. He sometimes would hit two at a time.

Sorry if you've already seen some of golfing pictures. I plan to make a book from our blog and thus had to document these fun times.

Soccer Saturday!!!

During the Spring (and Fall), every Saturday is filled with soccer games for our family. It is a love/hate kind of relationship for me. I love that the kiddos have so much fun and get tons of excercise. I hate that all our time is consumed by practices and games. This weekend we only had three but last weekend we had 5 games. We have three practices on Tuesday and three practices on Thursday. By the end of the week, I am worn out!

However, I couldn't not document this sport that is consuming us lately........

Gates' team is called the Gray Ghosts.

These little guys are hilarious. All they care about is running.

They run around watching themselves run half the time.

We constantly have to remind them to "GET THE BALL!"

Gates is so proud that he is finally old enough to play.


Beck is sad that he can not play. Do you see him him peaking at me to see if I am looking at him being sad. Yeah I'm not only lookin at you little one, I am snapping pictures of you poutting.

So SAD!

Elisabeth has played with several of the same girls for several seasons now. She will be so sad when they have to split up next year.

In the next picture, she was driving the ball down the feild and everyone got around her.

Yikes! This momma got a little nervous. Blocking from every angle...

But she did manage to break through......

......and score.

.....a couple of times.

I have not a soccer bone in my body but Elisabeth has some SKILZ!

Her daddy is so proud!

....and so is her mommy!

This cute face is ready to play!

Brothers. So sweet.

Hogan is doing great this year as well. He scored six goals this saturday. He had to beat his sister who scored five goals in one of her games last Saturday.

He gets in there and gets that ball away.

Here's a pic of one of his goals.

Wait! That ball isn't supposed to go out.

Pretty boy!

This week, we have a game Monday night, Thursday night and three on Saturday.........

Here we go again!