Leftwich Landing

First Day of SchoolOn

2010-08-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was our first day of school! Wow I can't believe summer is over!

I also can't believe "my baby" is in school. They are ALL in school. I have nobody left at home. How sad is that?

Beck was so excited about school. He did great and went right in without a single tear (by him that is).

This handsome boy is now in 2nd grade!

This beautiful girl is in 3rd grade!

...and last but certainly not least Gates is in Kindergarten!

Many of you know but many of you don't know that we will be moving to Cheyenne Wyoming. Josh has accepted a job there and will start September 7th. We are so excited! This is a BIG change for us. We went ahead and started the kids in school here while Josh makes his way up there and settles in. The kids and I will follow once we figure out schools, living arrangements, etc.... Say some prayers for us and our BIG adventure.

Dog Bath

2010-07-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

Holley was bathing their dog Buddy and he didn't like it! He was so sad. It was cracking me up. Look at that poor face.

He refused to look at me because he was so imbarrassed.

I love the water coming off his chin.

Some pictures from the lake....

2010-07-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

My nephew Brock and my cousin's little boy, Wyatt, found this ugly guy on their trotline......

He was a good five foot long!

Our friends came up for the weekend. I snapped this picture of their little girl. Her sun kissed cheeks were just beautiful.

...and I just love this little face!

We had a fun filled weekend at the lake. The kids were completely worn out everyday. Kayaking, paddle boat riding, knee boarding, wake boarding, jet skiiing, fishing and swimming will do that to you.

Family Reunion

2010-07-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

After twelve days of traveling, I am finally recovering from our LONG adventure to Michigan. Josh and I packed up the kiddos and headed north for about thirty hours to attend a family reunion for his side of the family. It was also his grandmothers 80th birthday and we all got to celebrate with her. Here's Josh's family. (On a side note....we live in very south Texas where it is super humid and hot.....In Michigan, it is nice and DRY and a bit cooler...my hair never looks this good at home!!!)

There were 114 of us there.....Can you count them?

This sweet lady....had these six girls.....

Those six girls....married these six men.....

....and they ended up with 114! I mean really....RABBITS!

The trip home was quite eventful as our 30 hour trip lasted a bit longer than expected. After a stop in Chicago to go to the American Girl doll store and the Lego store, the air conditioner in our car broke. It was something we had already fixed this year and the local Ford dealer, here, repaired very wrong. We had to spend two days in Kankakee Illinois to get it repaired. So frustrating! I went up the food chain and the local Ford dealer is paying for our expenses in Kankakee. I am now enjoying a vacation from our vacation! HA!

The Land

2010-06-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

We live on 6 acres and there is tons to do as long as you don't get to hot. The kids end up in their bathing suits most of the time. Here they are on the trampoline they got from grandma and grandpa for Christmas.

Do you see those dirty little piggies! Ahhh...life on the farm.

I had to include this picture. Our house came with this awesome super old horse cart. It has such history behind it. You can see the layers of paint and the fabulous craftmanship from back in the day. It is such a cool piece of history! Back behind this picture you can see our barn. It too, is original to the house. Built in the 30's. It has such character. If only the walls could talk.

Here's Elisabeth taking Beck on an adventure through the land. One of our fields was covered in these purple flowers this spring. They were so beautiful. I counldn't believe my eyes. I love that the kids can go explore and see up close God's fabulous creations. It gets really dirty here, but I like it.

Of Bunnies

2010-06-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

We were given four baby bunnies right after we moved into our new house. They were so cute. Several have passed on and now we only have one left. Her name is dust bunny. I was totally impressed with Elisabeth's choice of names. I mean really impressed until I realized that my eight year old knows what a dust bunny is. That means this momma is not a house keeper! I know I admit it. Cleaning is for the birds (or the bunnies)!

Elisabeth loves her. She is really sweet, but I have to admit her poop and pee stink. We have relocated her to living outside.

More Updating

2010-06-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll. ok I wrote all these posts at the same time and now I'm just posting them one a day. What can I say...... It's the best I can do. :)

This is a terrible picture but the only one I have of our family on Easter. But here you go, the most current picture of what our little family looks like.

My new favorite love is Matilda Jane clothing. Their clothes are so cute and so comfy. Here are all four kiddos sporting their MJ duds.

Hogan played baseball this spring. Beck loved being the bat boy. He also loved chewing piece after piece of bubble gum. $1 would get him 10 pieces and they would all be gone by the time the game was over.

Here's Hogan at bat. His team was the Bruins and they did a fabulous job. They lost in the championship game giving them 2nd place status and a trophy. Baseball kept us super busy. Practice twice a week and games twice a week. Mix that with all the other kids activities and Josh and I running in a relay marathon. It was a crazy spring!

Of Updating

2010-06-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick pet update. This is Jett. Look how big he is. He is an awesome dog. Very calm and sweet. He is very obedient and always willing to please.

The puppies are now a year old.

This is Lola. She is a very sweet girl. She is a little stubborn but not bad. She is also a fabulous hunter. She has brought us several animals, including a couple of bunnies and birds. Very proud of herself. Me. Not so proud. One of the bunnies was still alive!

I can't believe our cute tiny little puppies from last summer are full grown. Wow! Time has flown. I must say, I highly recommend buying two dogs at once. It has been one of the best dog purchasing experiences we have ever had. They completely keep each other company and so we didn't have the destruction that we had with other lab puppies. Not to mention, my children love them to death and they get tons of attention.

We love our uncle David.....

2010-06-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

....and Sara, too!!!

David gave the boys camo Aggie hats for being in the wedding. Here they are putting them on their heads without messing up their hair.

The girls got charms for their charm bracelets. Tiaras to be exact. They couldn't be more fitting for these two princesses.

The whole clan of six kiddos. The program for the wedding referred to the boys as a pack of little dudes. They were just that all walking down the isle together. I loved it.

Congratulations David and Sara. The wedding was beautiful and we can't wait to see you again.

Wedding Bells are Ringing.

2010-06-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

At the wedding, there was a beautiful courtyard. It was where the reception was. In the courtyard was a large bell. They boys thought it was awesome to ring. Our ears did not think it was so awesome.

I entertained the kids with video games to keep them from messing up their tuxes. Beck does his mouth like this when he is concentrating. lol

I couldn't not have a picture of Gates and his uncle Stephen. He is who we named him after. Gates "Reno"

This is the picture of Beck that I could not include in the last post.

David's Wedding

2010-06-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it?!?!?! I'm blogging! Well, this spring has been a doozie. We moved. I don't move well. My parents still live in the house they bought just before I was born. So all the times I have moved have been with Josh. This lack of experience does not make for easy moving. However, we are settling in and the house is becoming a home. We bought an old 1934 farm house. That was added onto in the 50's. It has such character. The previous owner had made done the major updates but we still had lots of panting and decorating to do. The house is on six acres and we have been having loads of fun on the land. The land has come with lots of work, though.

But enough about that, this post is about this.

The kids and Josh were asked to be in a friend of ours wedding this past weekend. The were so precious! I can't believe how extremely blessed I am. It was so fun to them all dressed up. I still can't believe just how big they have become.

This is Elisabeth Anne. She is 8. Really 8?!?! Wow, where has the time gone?

This is Hogan. He is 7.

This is Gates. He is 6.

...and last but certainly not least is Beck. He is 4.

Well I'm not sure why, but the pic of Beck is not wanting to upload. I'll try again on the next post. I might even include some picks of our new house. We'll see how busy I get.

Facebook

2010-01-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

I have had lots of people ask.....so I thought I'd tell....

So did you quit Facebook? Are you not on FB, anymore? etc....

Well, yes. A bad 'ole hacker hacked into my account. He changed my password and proceeded to chat with all of my friends trying to get money out of them. When I got on my moms account and tried to chat with him I told him who I was and he said give me $200 for your new password. It really struck a nerve with me. I ended up having to get facebook higher ups involved. Long story short...I felt like I was spending too much time on there anyway and felt God's intervention. So for now I am not on FB.

But the good news is, I'm still blogging.....at least for the moment.

Four Wheelin

2010-01-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Josh and I took the kids to blast off a model rocket and then to ride their four wheelers. They were so excited. They had not been able to ride them since last weekend when I was in Houston. Here are all the four wheelers lined up on the trailer behind my car. (By the way, did I mention that my husband bought me a new car in October? Well he did. I had been driving the big black F250 long bed and was so ready. He surprised me up at school with it. Isn't he great?)

I loved this sweet picture of Gates. What cracks me up is Hogan in the background wearing his helmet in the car all the way out to my grandparents farm.

The boys eventually fell asleep with their helmets on. Poor things were so excited.

We had so much fun. The kids drove around like crazy people. Sometimes have to not watch because it makes me so nervous. Beck is the only one that really still needs help and someone to ride with him. He is really still too little and will run into everything because he forgets to brake. Ha!

Busted

2010-01-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Josh kept the boys while Elisabeth and I ventured out for some girl time. I had a few errands to run and we needed to pick out some stuff for her new room. After all the errands were run she wanted to go to half price books and pick out a new chapter book. On a side note, that girl can read. Every time I buy her some new books, she has them read within a few days. We are constantly buying new books.

So after picking out what we wanted, I got in line to check out. While in line, I spotted this stack of little books up on the counter. The art was old and the title read: The History of Farting. I couldn't help but be curious. Elisabeth was distracted with some note cards so I quickly picked one up and hid it in my stack of stuff while no one was looking. I surely wouldn't want anyone to see me buy such a foul book. Soon it was my turn to check out. I hand the worker my stack of books. I'm feeling a bit nervous like a kid who's doing something he shouldn't. My parents NEVER let us say that word and my upbringing was still getting the best of me. As the checker got to the "book" he says: "OH this is one of our best sellers!" I'm thinking yeah yeah just hurry up and pick up and get the next book and put it on top. Instead, he faces it out towards me and holds it to his chest so that all can see. He begins saying "I love the way the art on the front is. It is so old fashioned....blah, blah, blah" By that time, Elisabeth had noticed that he was talking about one of our books. She quickly came over. She read the title and began to laugh. I was totally busted and embarrassed. I had already seen a friend from church there and I did not want him to see my new book. I quickly finished my transaction and headed out the door. I don't think I will be visiting that store for a while.

A New Year...

2009-12-31T16:37:00.001-08:00

Wow! I can't believe another year has already swept by.

All year I struggled with the fact that we are always in a hurry....

The hustle and bustle that life continuously throws at us makes me feel like we are doing something wrong....

From the moment we rise out of bed to the moment we fall to our pillows, life is busy......

Breakfast, off to school, clean up, midday pick up, 3:30 pick up, homework, soccer practice, piano lessons, golf lessons, dinner, bath, stories and prayers, ironing and packing lunches for the next day, off to bed to start all over again.......

Maybe it's the fact that we have four children all born within four and a half years........

Maybe, we want them to be too well rounded.....

Maybe, I can't say no......

But, it feels so wrong all the same.....

So this year, as I reflect on our year, I am wondering what we can cut?

How can we simplify?

How can we hurry less?

All the while trying to bring glory to God.

Trying to seek His will.

Trying to raise children who love and know God.

What are some ways you've been able to find the balance?

Three Children and the POD

2009-12-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

Since I was on such a roll with the blog posts, I thought I would post some pictures I took during the big move. We used PODS to move and store our stuff while we wait for our house stuff do be finished. PODS have these fabulous blue doors on them. I thought they were the perfect back drop for some pictures of my children. However, my camera battery died when it got to Hogan's turn so he is left out. These were taken in October but I couldn't help but share.

Four Wheelers on the Farm

2009-12-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

Two days in a row.....I am blogging. Maybe I can make this a habbit again. I really do love to blog. It is therapuetic for me. However, my crazy life takes over and well....there is no time.

My brother and his wife had their first baby on Sunday and my sister and I drove up to Houston to see her. She is precious! I need to get the pictures from Shannon because I forgot my camera. But I promise to post some pictures soon. That's if I continue this new habbit of mine. Anyway, while I was in Houston, Josh took our four children, their four four wheelers and our two 6 month old labs to a friends farm to play. Isn't he a great dad. They had loads of fun and were covered in mud when they got home. Our friends have 5 children. They are all much older than ours but precious. They are so good with our kids!

So here are a few pictures of from the day. Yes, Josh remembered to take the camera that I forgot. He had all the kids and the dogs and he remembers.....I have nobody and I forgot. Somethings wrong with that picture.

Above is sweet Abby with Elisabeth on her pink camo four wheeler.

This is Conner and Beck on his blue four wheeler. Conner is a big dude. He looks like donkey kong driving the car on Mario Kart on this thing. The kids said he popped it up on two wheels and flipped it backwards causing him to fall in horse poop. They think that story is hillarious.

This is Shelby and Gates on his red four wheeler. Shelby is so fun. She likes to get the boys to be her boyfriend. Little do they know she is a beautiful model.

While they were there, they got to ride horses. Here's Abby taking Hogan and Beck for a ride. Looks like they had a good day. I wish I could have been there.

Little Christmas Update

2009-12-28T14:34:00.000-08:00

This year has been such a mess. We moved out of our house on Halloween. We were supposed to close on our new house December 10th just in time to throw everything in and celebrate Christmas. Well things didn't quite go as planned and we are still living with my parents hoping to close on our new house January 8th. Please say a prayer that things will go as planned.

I attempted to take some pictures of the kids before church one Sunday hoping to get a good picture for our Christmas card. However, getting four children to all look good is next to impossible and with all the drama with our new house I opted to not send Christmas cards for the second year in a row. YIKES!

Santa brought all four of my children four wheelers for Christmas. I'm going to have to start taking anti anxiety meds soon. The plan was to be in our new house for Christmas. Our new house sits on six acres. Lots of room to run four four wheelers. However, the plan did not work out so the kids road them up and down my parent's street.

Beck played so hard he wore himself completely out. While sittling on the desk watching my brother in law play computer games, he completely fell asleep for the night. It was only 6:00 and he did not awake until 8:00 the next day.

Hackers Stink

2009-11-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

So a hacker has gotten into my hotmail account and my Facebook account. He is sending everyone messages telling them that I am in London or England that I am kidnapped and being held at gun point. He is asking for money and help. If you get any of these messages, please ignore them. I am fine. I am home and have the police looking into this matter. This person has changed all my passwords so I am unable to get on and fix this. Please continue to tell others that this is a scam and to not be fooled by this low life!

Thanks.

First Day of School and a Family Photo

2009-08-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

I know I have been a terrible blogger! We have been out of town a TON and then we got puppies and then the house has been on the market....and well life has been CRAZY!!!

But school is back in session so hopefully we will stay home a lot more. Their first day was last Thursday and everything was great. They all love their teachers! Gates didn't start until Friday because he only goes three days a week.

Here's Mr. Serious on his first day of 1st grade.

Elisabeth on her first day of 2nd grade.
Together

....and our little family with the pups!

I am blessed beyond measure!

Introducing....

2009-07-28T17:50:00.001-07:00

...the latest additions to our family.

Meet "Jet" Setter.

He is the sweetest thing and just beautiful!

Beck has been begging for a dog and well his birthday is Thursday so....he got a dog.

He named it "Jet" and I named it's middle name.

This is "Lola". I haven't come up with her middle name yet.

Let me know if you have any good ideas.

She is sooooo sweet and easy going. She will lay on her back and let you rub her tummy and

she follows me everywhere.

This is what Elisabeth got for her birthday.

...look at that sweet face.

I feel like I have a new born again. Puppies are deffinately a lot of work. However, the kids have been great about helping.

Colorado round up!

2009-07-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a a quick recap of our lovely trip to Colorado. We had so much fun hanging with our good friends Stephen and Brianne. We all hung on to our truck and loaded up to go kayaking on the river.

I helped the guys build the decks.

We kayaked the freezing cold river.

We did a lot of cooking and cleaning.

Beck wore himself out and fell asleep in his camping chair.

The men worked super harda and made awesome decks on the front and back of the house.

Stephen, David and Josh got a little cream on their stache.

The kids used their imaginations.

Hogan found the hugest dandilion.

We saw these beautiful trees.

We laughed at Stephen while he got shocked by the dog collar.

Gates was the cutest thing evah.

We played on the rocks by the river. We threw rocks in the river.

These two....well...nuff said.

Beck loved on these dogs ALL week long. Mr. Foree promised Beck that his mommy and daddy would buy him his own dog for his birthday. So....WE DID. We went to Houston and picked up two lab puppies yesterday. Don't worry pictures to come.

The guys build all new decks on the outside of the cabin. The kids were all right there to watch and loved to help.

Beck builden on the fort. The kids built this with the extra wood.

Hogan watching his daddy.

We had such a great time and can't wait to go back!

Flipped

2009-07-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ok I know I promised more Colorado pictures but I wasn't in the mood....

So here are some pics of my "Big" three year old trying to put on a pair of flippers at the pool today. He's getting so big and wants to do all things "by myself", however, today I got to help. He does still need me!

We're in Colorado....and we're never coming back!

2009-07-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

We took the kids up this little mountain to see this beautiful waterfall. It was so fun! Last time we did this hike, Josh had Gates on his back and I had Beck on my back. This year they all walked it by themselves! I was super proud of those guys! We took a family picture in this spot three years ago so we had to have a do over. I can't believe how everyone has grown.

I have lots of pictures to share, but not today. No time to waste in Colorado. I'll post when we get back!

Quick Update

2009-07-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ok I know...I have been a terrible blogger. We have been super busy. So here is a quick update of the few things that I did manage to take pictures of. However, I missed a lot.

We have been swimming! A lot! The one thing about the pool is that the camera can get wet so I often don't take it to the pool. However, we go to the Aransas Pass Aquatic Center probably once a week. Stephen came to visit and took the kids to Brianne's parents house to swim. He always plays with the kids and they love it. Talk about a work out.

We played in the rain in our jammies the ONE time it rained this year.

We rode the ferry boat over to Port Aransas for the 4th of July. While we were there we did some shopping, geocacheing, bungy jumping (on a trampoline), ate yummy food, watched fireworks and played everysport imaginable with the kids.

Here's Gates about to jump. He loved it!

Umm do you think he is happy?

He could do full front flips on that thing. I was very impressed because front flips are so much more difficult than back flips.

That was a little high!

The lady had to help him with his back flip.

We've been wearing lots of flip flops. Check out these dirty feet after a day in Port A.

Hogan wasn't so sure about how high he was going.

But he did like it! and did a few back flips all by himself.

Yippee! Oh man! His feet are so dirty!

Hogan was not happy about waiting for his turn. Can you tell that Gates had already had his turn?

The baby went last. He felt so BIG!

I love seeing the pure joy is these kids faces. Oh what fun!

He was so high but didn't even care.

Elisabeth did get to jump but she went first and I missed it. She however, did not like it!

Readers please ignore.

2009-06-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

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What we've been up to....

2009-06-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

Leftwich household had been crazy busy lately....as you can tell from my lack of posts except for our weekly trips to the beach. So here is a quick update on what we've been up to....well minus all the trips to the pool and all the playdates with friends because I didn't take my camera.

Hogan graduated from Kinder. Oh how sad. He's getting so BIG and turning into quite the gentleman. Well, sometimes. He is so proud to have his diploma in hand.
His teacher taught him a cute little song that was to the tune of A Chorus Line.

My sweet daddy had a birthday. Sorry for the poor coloring. I was trying to not have to use the flash and well the lighting was bad.

He was being funny of coarse and the kids loved it. Here he is sucking lots of air.

Now he's puckering up to get ready for the BIG blow.

He got his favorites. Cherry pie and coconut cream pie.

Back to the driving range. This time the whole family went (ie cousins, grandparents, great parents and a few of my aunts and uncles...well you get the picture).

Lolly spent most of her time teaching Marymae and Benjamin how to hit.

The boys just hit and hit and hit.

and I couldn't leave this little story out.

Today at lunch Gates while using his sweetest voice possible asked the following:

"Sissy, when I grow up will you marry me?"

I promptly told him that you can't marry your sister but it was just so sweet. He's gonna make a really good hubby one of these days!

Sheridan is.....

2009-06-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

....tired of her kids fighting.
....tired of having her house on the market.
....tired of her husband always being out of town.
....tired of being a single mom.
....tired of worrying about the bills.
....tired of driving the BIG black truck.
....tired of all the messes my children keep making.
....tired of being tired.

Now that I have vented a little....I am feeling a little better.

The Baby

2009-06-10T16:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Beck got in "BIG" trouble (that doesn't say much because he is Rotten with a capital R). I made him sit on the brown door mat that leads out our back door. When I went to let him out, he looked like this.Sweet little angel with his hands under his cheek.
I forget that he can't make through the day like the other kids.
As big as he looks. He is just three and just a baby. A sweet little baby in a BIG GIANT body.
For those of you who haven't seen him in person, he is as big as Gates our five year old.

We went back to the beach this weekend. There is always so much fun to be had. We stayed until way too late and then realized that Josh had left the keys turned in the truck and the battery was dead. The beach quickly became not so fun. It took two cars to jump my big 'ole truck. But we did get it started and home we went.

Beck spent a lot of his time fishing. He still hasn't caught a fish but oh how he tries. Here is a picture of him and mom.

Such precious memories.

...more beach fun

2009-06-05T20:15:00.001-07:00

...because that is ALL we ever do around here! LOL

We have been having a little too much fun at the beach lately.

Holley took these pictures last weekend....and I just had to share.

Cartwheels over the dunes....Life is good!

We stayed at the beach until 9:00pm. The kids were having way too much fun dune jumping in the dark. Check out that magnificent evening sky. God amazes me every day.
Henley and Lolly are the best of friends.

I love how Lolly looks like she's flying through the air with such ease.

If I did this, I would be so sore the next day!

...and since I never make the 'ole blog. Here you go.

I don't really like pictures of myself so don't expect anymore for a while. :)

I just can't get enough...I just can't get enough

2009-06-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

Stephen and Brianne came down for a visit and while they were here we went to the BEACH. (AGAIN) It seems like we just can't get enough of that place lately. When the kids were really little I hated that place but lately I L*O*V*E it. Stephen brought sweet Alice. She is such a sweet dog. My children LOVE her.

While we were there, we ate and drank all the nastey stuff we usually don't get to.

We found cool sea creatures.
Like this live sand dollar.

The kids played HARD!

Elisabeth got to play with her sweet cousin Henley! Beck let this little hermit crab crawl on his hand.

Mommy let these two hermit crabs crawl on her hand.

Hogan built sand castles and such.

...and we're going back SATURDAY. There's too much fun to be had. We gotta soak it all in!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-03T14:47:00.001-07:00

Summer is Here!!

2009-05-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that summer is finally here. These last few months of school have been so busy and this momma was ready for some down time. This weekend we took the opportunity to do just that. My family got together for a crawfish boil at my brother's house. Doesn't this spread look delicious. Crawfish, shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, potatos, onions and mushrooms. YUM!!! This is a look in the cooler before we boiled those little suckers. This one was showing his stuff.
Hogan officially finished kindergarden Friday. For his kinder graduation he got a new big boy fishing pole. He was able to take it out and fish while we were there. I can't believe he is already so big.

He mastered the new pole like a champ.

Gates caught a stonefish. He was not sure about it and stayed far away from it once he reeled it in. Stonefish are very poisonous if you get poked by one so it was probably good he stayed back.

This was his happy face after he reeled it in. He didn't care how ugly it was.

Ugly fish but fascinating. Once again, I am in love with Gods creativity.

Hogan had to kiss his first catch. What cracks me up about this picture is that earlier that day they (my four children; they call themselves the Leftwich four) had formed a band and Elisabeth drew earings on him with a marker. If you look carefully you can see that they are still there. He had a mohawk and the word ROCK written on his forehead but I made him clean it off before went out. He must have missed the earings. He was small but Hogan was so happy.

In this case, size doesn't matter.

The littlest fisherman trying so hard. He wanted to catch a fish so bad. He even baited his own hooks.

The BIG fisherman. Hogan fished the longest and got the most fish of the night. He caught three. He was such a big boy with his new fishing pole.

To Eat Out or to Eat In.......

2009-05-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

I love to eat out....I know I know it is so bad for us...but I don't care. I just really love to eat out. There are so many things that make it GREAT. Like the fact that when one of my four children ask me for more to drink, I don't have to stop eating and get up and get it we just ask the wait person to bring us more. Not to mention the fact that there is no mess to clean up. No dishes to wash, no floor to sweep. Ah....so nice. However, the practical person in me knows we need to be better. It costs us tons of money and it is such a big waste. So I'm turning over a new leaf....Instead of eating out 60% of the time, I am aiming for 10% of the time. It is much healthier for us and will save us so much money. It will be a hard habbit to break but here it goes. I am turning over a new leaf....So my friends....if you see us out to eat next week, shake your finger at me and remind me of my new leaf.

If the first time I posted about this wasn't enough....

2009-05-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

to convince you to take your little girl...Then maybe these will help.

While we were in Dallas for Josh's pawpaw's funeral, we made a quick trip back to the American Girl store with our cousin Shelby. I couldn't help but want to go back after our last experience. and I am afraid Elisabeth is going to not want to play with dolls anymore really soon. She turns eight this summer.

So....here are the girls walking up to the store together. In true Shelby fasion, she was a little unsure about this new adventure.

Elisabeth began showing her what was inside this store....
...Here we go!

"Look Shelby....dresses just for Ellie!"

The trip wouldn't have been complete with out a trip to the bueaty shop. Kit got her hair done with a ribbon.

Ellie got a spa treatment (ie a good old wipe down) and a ribbon in her hair.

Here are the girls at the table waiting for their food.

Ellie in her high chair ready to eat. Kit in her high chair ready to eat.

The food there is delicious!
These happy faces are enjoying ice cream sundays. Oh yeah!

Shelby had to stop and change Ellie's diaper with her new diaper changing stuff.

Elisabeth got a bag for Kit to go in and Kit got a bag just like it for mini Kit to go in. Yeah a little much. This store knows just how to appeal to these little girls.

We all had a great time. If you were thinking about going anytime, I would highly recommend it! I think ages three in up would have a blast!

P.S. I did like it better when we went during the week because it was less crowded.

Beach Blast

2009-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, was a beautiful day!

The sun was shining and God's creation was beaming!

I love watching my children enjoy his miraculous works!

Here's a peek of some of what we did....

Beck fished ALL day!

We went with two other families. One family has 6 kids and the other family has 4 kids. Plus my 4 kids...we had 14 kids. The boys extracted ghost shrimp with the ghost shrimp extractor. Elisabeth watched....and made sure they did not get near her with them.

Beck was still fishing. See the shadow of that sea gull? He ended up catching it on his pole. It was quite funny. It definately freaked him out!

He is quite good with casting his pole. I think it was all his practice in the back yard.

Gates rode his boogie board

Hogan built sand castles.

But....

We all enjoyed some jumping....

The whole BIG group took the plunge....

Big and small I watched them fall...

My camera will never be the same....but oh what joy.

When we got in the car to go home....

the kids begged us to come back tomorrow.

But, it didn't take long for them to look like this.....

....and this.

It was a glorious day!

Some Ramblings.....

2009-05-07T22:49:00.000-07:00

Beware....I've got lots to talk about...this might get lengthy.

So today I decided to clean my house. My house keeper got pregnant and well I haven't found a new one. I thought we would save the money and I'd just do it myself. Because after all I had to "clean" the house just so the housekeeper could "clean" the house. That always drove me crazy. It just always seemed like the worst possible time to have to pick up the whole house. Well six months has passed and I haven't really done it. But today was the day. I was turning over a new leaf. I am not a cleaner. In fact hate, detest, find every excuse in the book to not clean. Therefore my house was just out of control. So out of control ,that I wanted to clean it. If that makes any sense. So I start in the kids bath room because it smells like pee all the time and I can't figure out why. I go in there and wipe the entire pot and floor around it with clorox wipes all the time and still I feel like it smells like pee. There are just too many boys peeing in there!! I really try to remind them make sure the tee tee goes straight into the water and that if they get any on the rim to wipe it off with TP. However, rules get broken. And well PEE. So back to the subject.....I start cleaning this nasty bathroom. It is terrible. I sprayed the entire potty corner with bleach and let it sit while I scrubed the tub and sinks. I end up spending at least two hours in there scrubbing it from floor to ceiling. When I was finished, I loved it! So I decided to make my way to the next room that needed my undevided attention, the kitchen. Same thing spent another couple of hours working on that. Scrubbed all the cabinets etc. Then I dusted the whole house. Vacuumed....wiped down the blinds. Really deep cleaned. Scrubbed all the door jams and hall walls to get the gray dinge from all those little hands off. I even took our kitchen chairs outside and gave the kids buckets of soapy water and a wash rag and let them scrub them then hosed them off. To do this little task, I let them put on their swim suits and then play in the pool and water hose for a while....thus making lots of laundry. Of which I was way behind on because I was out of town for four days.

Fast forward a couple of hours. I go out for a quick Target fix BY MY SELF. Josh is in charge of getting them showered to bed and all that jazz. I'm not saying that this is his fault I am just saying why I was not home. So when I get home, all that hard work down the tubes. Really. My kids can trash our house in an hour. I know that for the most part the house was still clean as in no dirt but there was CRAP everywhere. Wet towels on the floor, dirty clothes on the floor, tooth paste in the sink. The toilet already had the PEE. (Sorry mom I know you hate that word :))....and it wasn't flushed. There was broccoli and popcorn on the kitchen floor. I feel so defeated. Why did I even bother.

Before I left for Target, I was getting on to the kids and not letting them do anything for fear that all my hard work would get destroyed. However, that is no way to live. They are just kids. Which is another reason why I shouldn't bother cleaning. Then I wont have to be so hard on the kids about messing it up. :)

I really need to spend some time in our bedroom and the play room but......I'm not good with DEFEAT. So I guess I'll spend the day shopping tomorrow instead.

Do you feel my pain? I'm back on cleaning strike. Now I remember why I didn't do it in the first place. Know a good house keeper?

Wow, that was a load off my chest. I feel much better and now I can go to bed seeing how it is 1:20 am. That's right 1:20. I drank this energy drink this morning and well I couldn't go to sleep....ok off to bed.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

PawPaw's Memorial Service

2009-05-01T15:47:00.001-07:00

Josh's grandfather passed away this past Monday.

Today we had the honor of attending his service at the veterans cemetery in Arlington.

Bill Leftwich was a wonderful, talented man.

He was a freshman at Texas A&M in 1941. This began the families Aggie traditions.

He designed the Corp Center at A&M and has a life size bronze of the first Reveille inside.

In 1975 he built the house they lived in out of adobe.

Just two years ago, his Christmas ornament was selected to be hung on the white house Christmas tree. Laura Bush sent him a had written letter inviting him to attend the lighting of that tree.

Bill has authored several books and was a fabulous artist by trade. He was just so talented.

We will miss him...

I Brainwash my children

2009-04-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-04-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T18:14:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2009-04-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

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!

Easter Recipe #2

2009-04-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

We did this one last year and loved it. In fact we have done it several times through out the year because they were so good and you can never be reminded enough of Jesus death, barrial and reserection.

Empty toomb rolls

1 can cresent rolls

half a stick of melted butter

cinnamon and sugar mixed to your liking

a bag a large marshmellows

This one is easy enough to let the kids help!

Preheat oven to temp on the cresent roll can. Dip one marshmellow in the butter and then into the sugar cinnamon mixture. Then take a triangle of the cresent roll dough and roll up the marshmellow inside. Be sure to seal all the edges really well or your cookie sheet could get very messy. Place on cookie sheet and continue until all the cresent rolls are gone. Be sure to check them one more time before baking to make sure all the edges are sealled well. Bake like the directions say to on the cresent roll can.

When you bite into the roll....it is empty. The marshmellow has melted and left a sweet yumminess all around the inside edges of the roll.

An Easter Lesson in Cookies

2009-04-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine gave me this awesome Easter cookie recipe. I loved the lesson and thought you might, too. It is a great lesson to teach our kids not just at Easter but all year long. Jesus suffered and died for our sins and then on the third day rose.

Hope you Enjoy!!!

1 cup whole pecans
1 tsp. vinegar
3 egg whites
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
zipper baggie
wooden spoon
tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important, don't wait till you're half done with the recipe!)

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was Beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1tsp vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar.Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.

Stay tuned.....I have another Easter recipe to share soon.

My First Grade Drama Queen

2009-04-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

I was feeling really bad about the April Fools joke so I had to make up for it. (I doubt we will have any more children but one never knows the surprises God has instore for them.)

I thought I would bless you with a little DRAMA from Elisabeth.

One video is of her reciting Psalms 1. It is not her best attempt but I was pressed for time before school this morning and well, you get the picture. She got a little distracted for a bit at the end. (It is actually the second video)

The other video is of her presenting a poem entitled "The Secrets of our Garden." (the first video) Elisabeth is full of drama and can memorize all things very quickly. She cracks me up. I know God is going to use this gift of hers for something really great one day.

From my drama queen to yours........

Hope you enjoy!

PS...Please excuse the messy closet. Cleaning is not my gift. lol

Guess What?

2009-04-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

I am sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately. I have been so tired lately. I thought it was a bit unusual but Josh has been out of town and so I thought I just wasn't sleeping well enough. Then I thought I had a stomach bug. When it didn't go away after a few days I suddenly remembered I had felt this way before. In fact I had felt this way four times before......

So......guess what guys?

On this first day of spring....

2009-03-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight after dinner......

...we went outside and raked the leaves.

It was lots of hard work.

But the kids enjoyed helping.

Everyone had a rake or a broom.

Hogan begged me to let them play in the leaves. I knew it would make a mess of the work we had just done but I couldn't say no.

...the shear delight!

Oh the fun, memories.

I used to love to play in the leaves when I was a little girl...and this girl is no different.

Spring is here. We got the fall deadness out of the way so the newness can come on in.

The budding leaves and flowers...

The bright sunshine.....

Remind me of God's goodness. His presence. His love.

Happy Spring!

Enough with the Poop Already!

2009-03-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the crude topic but this curious mind wants to know....

I have a question for all you moms and doctors/nurses out there. I have noticed that at our house pooping is contageous. It seems like if one of the kiddos goes, within the hour they all end up going. Do you think it is because they are on the same eating schedule and eat virtually the same things? Or do you think that one of them pooping makes the others think about it and thus decide to poop themselves? Is there something scientific to it? Do any of you other moms have this problem?

Spring Break off to a Bad Start....

2009-03-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Josh had business in Austin on Monday and then Dallas on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since it was spring break, Josh invited us to tag along. We could do some fun things there and geocache a little. So we woke up early Monday morning and headed to Austin. About an hour outside of town, Beck told me he was going to barf. You know me and barf. He had a smile on his face so I wasn't sure if he was kidding so I gave him a paper bag just in case. A few minutes later he barfed in the bag as planned. Thank goodness. He then says he is hungry. Scared to give him anything I gave him only a few peanut butter crackers. The next thing I know the check oil light on the car comes on. It isn't staying on but flickering on and off. We stop at the nearest gas station and check the oil. It reads fine so we keep going. (and I got to throw away the barf bag) Those sensors on cars are often wrong. Right? So we think. Just out side of San Antonio the car starts making a funny sound. As to not be late to his important meeting we push on the Austin. I made a phone call to the Toyota Dealer in Austin and plan to drop Josh off and take it in. The sound gets worse and we have to slow to 60 because the car will not go much faster. We were kind of in the middle of no where and we needed to get to Josh's meeting. Are we the only stupid people who didn't stop? Would you have stopped and called a tow truck to get your funny sounding but still running car from the side of the highway? Well on I-35 we hear a super loud bang/thud and the car dies. We make it over to the side of the road and call the Toyota dealer back. They send a tow truck and a van to pick up the kids and I. We had to wait about an hour. Josh has a runner from the law firm come pick him up and he gets to his meeting. The Toyota dealer was super nice. He gave me a sequoia to drive around. I leave there to take the kids to lunch and Hogan starts telling me his throat hurts and that he is cold. I check him and he is burning up with fever. We postpone lunch and go to a nearby walmart to get Motrin and throat drops. At lunch he wont eat. I knew there was definitely something wrong. Beck is fine at this point by the way. He ate all his chik-fil-a and there is no more barfing. Josh calls when he is finished with his meeting and we go pick him up. He calls the dealer and decides to go back to the dealership to check on the car. Remember he needs to get to Dallas. They take him back and show him the engine is toast. We blew a rod and it's not worth fixing. We begin looking for a new car but they didn't really have anything we wanted. As soon as they find out we will not be buying the sequoia we are driving they quickly take it back. We wanted something slightly used. Suburbanish, captain chairs in the middle row, leather, tvs and four wheel drive. We were just a little picky. LOL Oh and I like Black and maybe would settle for white. We try to get a rent car so we can finish our trip (remember he has business in Dallas the next day) however, not a rent car in Austin. South by Southwest was going on and they were all taken. Argh... The dealer lets us borrow a Camry to take us to a hotel so that we can get some rest. It is 7:30 in the evening by this point. Hogan had fever again and the kids were all super tired. It was so nice to get to hotel. We ended up calling my parents and they had to drive all the way to Austin and come pick us up the next morning. Josh had to reschedule his trip to Dallas. We got home late Tuesday evening. The poor kids had been in the car for two days straight. You should have seen all the car seats and suit cases tied on to the top of my moms car. If you have ever traveled with Josh and I you will know that we totally over pack. LOL Hogan ended up being fine today. Must have been a virus. So today I wanted to just do something fun with the kids. We met my sister at McDonalds for lunch and then did a little geocaching. Then we went to see Sesame Street Elmo's Green Thumb at the American Bank Center. I sweet man from our church called me and gave us the tickets. The kids enjoyed it and got to do something a little fun for spring break. Elisabeth got to spend the night with a friend as well.

So now I am driving our big black truck. It was Josh's truck but he got tired of trying to park it in Austin plus during the summer diesel was outrage. It was like 5.00 a gallon. He got a toyota highlander and parked the truck in the driveway. It had been sitting in the drive way for months and I felt bad about it. It is a nice car, just huge. It is a pain to park. But I am so thankful. I have a car to drive and nobody is hurt. We are now on the hunt for a new car. Which I am secretly (or not so secretly) happy about because I really hated my van. Here's to hoping the rest of spring break is a little less stressful!

My Three Sons

2009-03-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

The other day I watched the boys playing outside. They were having so much fun hanging out under the club house of the swing set. It made me smile. At times, it made me laugh. I have so much pride in these kids. They are not perfect. But they are perfectly made. I wondered if that is what it is like for God. Does he look down from heaven and smile. Does he laugh when we are funny....or does he spend more time in disappointment and frustration. I disappoint our God daily. I wish I didn't. I want him to look down at my life and smile; to crack up laughing; to fill up with pride at how good I turned out.....

Hogan is getting so big. He has lost his two front teeth and it makes him look so much older. He is a whiz at math but HATES to read. Argh....I always hated to read at his age too. I like it now so maybe there's hope. As you can tell, Beck is the entertainer of the bunch. He gets in trouble a lot. Unfortunately, he needs to get in a lot more trouble than he does. Mommy and daddy have got to buckle down a little more on this little guy.

...and sweet Gates....well he is the sweetest little boy. He has his moments but over all....for a boy....he's a great kid. He has the sweetest little voice. It is little just like he is. He is still short but is still in the "normal" range. He is always the first one to say "thank you for...."what ever it is that we just did.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of these "precious souls".

I love watching my children grow. There are moments when I can't wait for that particular stage to pass (like potty training) and then moments when I wish a could go back in time. They are growing so fast. I can't imagine life with out them. I love them so much more than I ever thought I could. It amazes me that God loves us much more than that. Even though we disappoint him. Today, as God looks down and watches over us.....is he going to be disappointed in what I'm doing? Does everything I do make him proud? Am I going to make him laugh? (Yes I do think God has a since of humor. Farts and stinky poop are a perfect example of just how funny God really is.) I hope that I disappoint him much less than I normally do....and while I'm at it... I hope I crack him up a little,too.

Struggling

2009-03-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted. I have had a hard time putting my thoughts together.

I have been struggling......

The devil has definately worked his way in....

and I'm struggling to shake the doubts he has planted in my head.

I'm angry.....

I have questions......

why have we been praying?.....

I thought God was good ALL of the time?......

Why couldn't he have taken a dead beat dad or bum of a husband?.....

Wouldn't it have been such and awesome testimony if Brad had made a full recovery and we could have all told our friends about Gods healing?....

There are so many truths about our good God that I know are true but in my weekness I have had a hard time remembering to believe them.

It breaks my heart to see this awesome family trying to discover a new normal after loosing such a big part of it....and so my mind wonders off into these sinful questions.

....and then I have these good moments when I see them and how strong they are....and I see all these people come together and working for good. I think of Brad in heaven and how awesome it must be. I remember that God is good. I remember that his ways are much better than mine. I see Jenny's strength and courage and I can't help but know that God is going to do something awesome with her! Their family is pulling together and teaching us all what God intended for families to be like. I am still fighting the doubts.....

God is teaching me something......

I can't wait to see how it all unfolds....

In the mean time, my prayers continue because that is still all I know to do...

This past weekend, Josh and I traveled to Houston to attend our good friend Brad's memorial service. Brad was 34 years old and died from cancer. He left behind a beautiful family. Jenny his wife and two children Zeke (5) and Kaelyn (2).

On Saturday before the memorial service, one of the local highschools where Brad used to teach held a fun run to raise money for his family. Despite the lump in my throat and the sick feeling in my stomach, we did manage to have a little fun. There were over 400 people participating. The kids ran in a 1K race and then ran (and walked a little) again with everyone in the 5K. Elisabeth was trampled in the mob close to the beginning so we ended up back for four band-aids. She was pretty scrapped up but all together ok.

Here is Hogan, Daddy, Beck and Stephen running in to the finish line.

Elisabeth and Gates waiting for their brothers and their daddy.

This dude was the first to finish. He was fast.

Stephen running with Beck at the start of the BIG race.

Stephen (the most awesome uncle EVAH) ran with the kids in the kid race. Gates couldn't keep up so he picked him up and carried him most of the race.

Elisabeth boasts her ribbon.

...the boys and their ribbons.

All of us after the race. It felt so good to be there!

Jenny and Zeke finishing the race......Zeke was embarrassed.

This was the finish line. I couldn't help but think of that verse in the Bible. That says...."you have finished the race.........you good and faithful servant well done."

I am quite certain that is what Brad heard when he arrived in heaven.

......I'm still struggling with it all......I have to keep reminding myself how good God is.....

Where have I gone wrong....

2009-03-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

This past week the following happened at the dinner table......

(Remember Beck is my three year old.)

Beck: (talking to Hogan) "I can kick your butt."

Me: (with a gasp) "Beck Garmin you don't ever say that. That is not nice. Who says that?"

all: all the kids start to laugh a little because he has said a really naughty word

Me: "That is not funny. We do not talk that way in this house. If any of you ever say the B word again you will get a big spanking and your mouth washed out with soap!"

Beck: (looking me dead in the face) "B word, B word, B word" (he said it a really chanty little toon like I'll show you I can say what I want)

It took all of me to not laugh. Looking back it really is not funny because he was being very bad.

I did take him to his room and spank him. He is getting a little too big for his britches!

More from our trip to Dallas....

2009-03-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is Josh and his TEAM. Yes there were only six. They are good girls and did a great job. The kids played outside at the college where the tournament was held. It was nice and cold.

Here is Elisabeth and some of her little friends that went to the tournament as well.

On our way home from Dallas, we stayed the night in Austin to get in some shopping at the outlet mall. That night we took the kids to "A Place to Be". It had rock climbing, bowling, video games, pool tables and food. If ever in Austin I highly recommend it. The kids had a blast bowling. Here they are...all in their shoes.

The lanes at this place were really cool. When it came time for the kids turn, they had automatic bumpers that would come up so they wouldn't just keep getting gutter balls. Then when it was Josh or my turn the bumpers would collapse back down.

Gates' balls would roll so slow. It was so funny. However, he did beat us ALL. He even beat Josh. We had to laugh because he kept getting very lucky strikes. To this day he tells me how good at bowling he is. I tried to take a picture of the screen but it would not come out. Of coarse now I can't remember for the life of me what the final score was. I just know that he broke 100 and it was the highest score. LOL

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hope you have a great super productive happy day!

American Girl

2009-02-25T12:39:00.000-08:00

Who knew it would take me four days to catch up from a five day trip......

I am somewhat caught up and am so excited about the post. This was by far one of the highlights of being a mother to me. I could not help but be brought to tears during this experience. I don't know what it was but it was truely a wonderful experience. I highly recommend all the mommies with daughters to go.

Josh was asked to step in and coach the highschool girls basketball team at the kids school. It was loads of fun for him and to top it off the girls were able to go to the state basketball tournament in Waxahachie. The whole family went to cheer him and his girls on. While we were there I got to take Elisabeth to the American Girl store. Oh my......

seriously....I cried. After being there only 10 minutes she exclaimed that it was the BEST day of her life.

Here she is approaching the store. As soon as she saw it she froze and looked all the way up to the top. (It is tall) I knew then that it was going to be F*U*N!

When we walked in the front door there was a clear glass cabinet with Kit neatly tucked inside. The ladies at the front of the store greeted us and made Elisabeth and her dolls feel very welcomed.

"Look here'e Kit!"
Elisabeth wanted Kit to have her ears pierced. Here she is before.

Ruthie had her hair fixed at the beauty salon.

They had little beauty chairs and capes for the dolls. Too cute!

..."Kits back and her ears are peirced!"

Elisabeth with all her goodies and her dolls. With only one daughter, you can only imagine just how rotten this girl will be.

When we were finished down stairs, we went up stairs to the bistro for lunch. It is all about the girls and their dolls. They give the dolls their own high chairs and their own menus. ADORABLE!!!

Check out Kit's new glasses! They match Elisabeth's exactly.

"Kit what would you like for lunch?"

Here's Ruthie with her hair all fixed eating her lunch.

Ruthie thought the food was delicious!

Check out how cute this miniature hamburger and hotdog are. But not as cute as the GIRLY! .....and fruit on a stick.....cut in the shapes of hearts and stars no less.
Everything was super cute!

Silly girl just loving life.

Here we are all in the bistro finishing up our lunch. I love mommy daughter time!!!

Don't get me wrong little boys are very special but there is nothing like time alone with your GIRL.

Before we could leave, Elisabeth had to put on the shirt we bought and Kit had to put on the shirt we bought for her. TADA!!!

These two are something else.

Questions and Answers

2009-02-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

My children are always asking me questions.

Many of the questions I do not have the answer to.

Like: "Why are trees green?" or "Why is water wet?"

When I don't quite know the answer, I tell the kids: "because God made it that way."

So today we were getting ready to head out the door to school. Gates had put his backpack on his back and says: "Why is my backpack so light?" (I really do think he meant is my lunch in there; he loves his food or did I forget something)

However, Beck quickly knows the answer. He says: "Because God made it that way, Gatesy!"

Jalapeno Jelly

2009-02-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

My sister and I have been wanting to make Jalapeno Jelly for a long time and we just haven't. So earlier this week when she suggested we do it, I was super excited. She has a jalapeno plant and wanted to use up some of her crop. I HAD a jalapeno plant but I killed it. They do like to be watered every once in a while. So Shannon and Holley came over Friday morning and we made it.

You start with 5 cups of sugar and a cup of apple cider vinegar. Bring these to a boil.

With another cup of apple cider vinegar you blend 3/4 lb of jalapenos.

Add to the sugar and boil for 10 minutes. Then you add liquid pectin and boil for one minute.

Looks a lot like barf to me. (We added a little bit of red bell pepper for color)

TADA!!! The finished product. It was nice and hot too.

While they were over a took a few pictures of Harley and Benjamin.

Isn't she so sweet?!??!

.....and check out this sweet face. He was such a ham. He wanted me to take his picture. His sister on the other hand was not going to let me.

My Stress Relief

2009-02-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

I found this rug the other day on one of my bi-weekly trips to Target. I love green and I love brown so it completely won me over. When I got home I put it on my front porch but something was missing. The next day I went out and tried to find a couple of things to tie it together with my black front door and the plant stand that was already on my porch. I already had these things.....

....so I bought these things....

(the cross hanging, the white plant stand, the bird, and a couple of plants)

....and it ended up looking like this.

I know less is more but I always forget that. So it is a little busy for my tiny little porch but it did make me feel much better. I got to cReAte and shop. Such a stress relief.

Another Funny

2009-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Hogan got his clip moved. You ask me what for.....

.....well they were supposed to be painting sea shells for a project.

He decided that when he was finished painting his shells he would go ahead and use the paint to paint his fingernails as well.

His teacher thought it was really funny but had to move his clip because the other kids all thought it was funny and she had to stop the disruption.

I guess cross dressing at a conservative christian school doesn't fly.

Oh...and he did get in big trouble when he got home.

Just a Funny Story

2009-02-05T12:35:00.001-08:00

I asked Beck to pick the toys up off the bathroom floor. Later, I went into the bathroom and I found THIS. He did pick the toys up off the floor. He even put one of the cups back there on the toilet seat. However, I meant for him to put the toys in the toy basket under the counter. Next time I'll have to be more specific.

The Spiral

2009-02-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

I often feel like life is just spiraling out of control. We are always super busy. I feel like I am just doing enough to keep it all going because if I don't it's all going to come crashing down. I have always wanted my kids to experience EVERYTHING. I want them to well rounded and to have a FULL life. Not miss a thing. However, in doing all these things, I feel like we miss out on some of the really important things. But what do you give up? I love church I love being involved, we love the school we have to be involved, I love listening to Elisabeth play the piano and the guitar, I love watching all of them play soccer. Lets not forget the homework. Oh my! Spending fun family time doing fun things ranks top on our list so on the weekends we put the work aside and make sure to do something fun. In the evenings by the time the kids do their homework, eat dinner, have what ever practice, take a bath. We have to rush to read a book say a quick prayer and get in bed or we wont be able to get up and do it all over again tomorrow. Three of my four children see specialist and Elisabeth sees two specialists. Those appointments we can not forget. My laundry is always behind. Oh my goodness I should take a picture right now so you could see the huge pile I need to wash. But I can't today because I have a meeting at the school, and two friends birthdays this week so we are meeting for lunch. Then I'm off to sell HEB cards at the school and pick up at 12:30. Maybe while the kids are napping, I can get some of it done. But not for long cause I'm back at the school to get Elisabeth. All this to say....I am not complaining at all. I really love our life. But I feel like we stay so busy that we are forgetting something. I'm not even sure what it is. Do all of you feel as busy and overloaded as I do? Are we missing out on something?

Update to cupcake post.

2009-01-31T18:53:00.000-08:00

For those of you who asked how I transported them....

I got a large shirt box left over from Christmas and I put the bottom in the lid for double the strength. Then I lined up all the pots inside. I guess because the pots are hard and were lined up side by side touching they didn't move around at all. I was very careful and layed them on the flat floor of my car. The school is just one turn off my street and one turn into the parking lot. So no bumps really. The book suggests using tissue paper however I did not.

Happy cupcake making!!!

Hello Cupcake!!!

2009-01-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've told ya'll about my Hello Cupcake book before but I had to share again because I think it is just the greatest book. The author must have been a creative genius because I could never come up with such great ideas. That or has way too much time on her hands. However, I am happy to copy her ideas.

Hogan's new teacher had a birthday today. She loves plants and flowers. So the room mom and I decided to throw her a little "flowery" surprise celebration at school today. We went with the whole flower and plant theme. So Hello Cupcake came to the rescue when we were trying to decide what kind of cake. The book features these awesome sunflower cupcakes. They even suggest you put them in little terracotta pots. How cute is that. Mine are not near as good as the ones in the book but I still thought they turned out cute for someone who loves flowers.

The brown centers of the flowers are oreo cookies. (miniature for the small flowers and full size for the bigger flowers) And the lady bugs are red M&Ms.
After decorating them I stuck them into some pots for the kids to take home as party favors. I decoupaged the pots with the same flowers that I used in Mrs. Williams gift. You will see pictures at the bottom of this post.

I had some extra batter so I made some miniature cupcakes with miniature oreos for the siblings of the kinder kids. The little ones were even cuter. Too bad I didn't have any miniature M&Ms. If you like these sunflower cupcakes, you will love the rest of the book! It is awesome!

Here is Hogan enjoying his cupcake.

To go along with the theme of the cupcakes we gave her a potted plant with more than just a plant in it. The flowers are made out of the kids hands and then laminated. The small sticks have gift cards to some of her favorite places. All the kinder parents were so generous.

On the pot I wrote one of my favorite verses. and......

Then I used the kids thumb prints to make ladybugs, bumble bees and inch worms on the pot. A few decoupaged flowers to tie it all together and tada the gift is complete. It turned out really cute and I think Mrs. Williams was very surprised. I love to get crafty and creative and I just don't have time to do it as much as I would like. This was really fun.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Williams!!!

More Randomness

2009-01-28T19:27:00.001-08:00

The other day I went into Elisabeth's room after I had dropped her off at school. It mad me laugh and sad all in the same moment. I love that she loves to still play with dolls. She is such a great little mommy already. It made me miss her and wish she could stay home. The doll on the far right is baby "Emily" she was my baby doll when I was a little girl. I took that thing with me everywhere. Here is Beck playing in the back yard with Chiquita. That poor dog. She is really sweet and lets the kids do what ever with her.

Elisabeth and Hogan on the trampoline. They really do love each other.
We went out to Bruce and Holley's on Sunday for Holley's birthday party. The kids spent the whole time on the trampoline. At one point, Roger put a huge cup of ice on the trampoline. The kids that it was great.

On the way over to their house Andy stopped and got some oysters right out of the bay. Talk about fresh! YUCK! Even the kids were eating them. BARF!!

Beck loves dogs!!! Here he is giving Buddy a BIG KISS.

Busy Times

2009-01-22T12:23:00.001-08:00

Things have been so busy around here. I feel like we go non-stop. Here are just a few pictures of some of the day in day out kinda stuff.

This is Chiquita. She is the neighbors dog but she comes over every time she hears the kids outside. She has a little hole under the fence. She loves the kids and the kids love her. The kids would love a dog but this bad 'ole mom just doesn't want one more thing to take care of. When Chiquita started coming over I was kind of glad because the kids feel like they have a dog yet I don't have to take care of a dog. Poor thing must not get any attention at home. When the kids come inside, Chiquita goes back to her yard.

We have had so many beautiful days.

The air is cool and crisp..........

The sun is shining and bright..........

The boys have been playing outside non-stop.

glOrIOUs!!!

Here is Gates on the swing with his bicycle helmet. Man I love that kid.

On a side note, here's a funny story for ya. Everynight at the dinner table Josh asks Elisabeth what they did at PE that day. Don't ask me why. I think he just likes PE. Anyway, depending on what she says he has some sort of comment. If they play soccer he says "Well did you dominate?" She always laughs and so on. So one night last week we were having dinner and Josh asked Elisabeth what they did at PE that day. She said they played basketball. Out of no where we hear Gates say: "Did you dominate?" Josh and I cracked up...... Well you had to be there. I think part of what made it so funny was that he talks extremely slow. Like "w e l l d i d y o u d o m i n a t e?" Ok forget it. It is too hard to explain when I type. Onward and upward.

Hogan on the slide. Check out his toothless smile. When they start loosing their top teeth they really start to look older. So sad.

Beck hammering. The boys all love to hammer. Our tree set is full of extra nails. I figure it can't hurt. Right?!?!

This past weekend we went to the livestock show. I love to see all the animals and so do all the kids. Look at this cute little face!

This place was packed. It is always crazy trying to keep up with all the kiddos. See Josh walking off with part of the kids in the top right of the picture and then Maddie and Hogan still looking at the pig. I don't even see Gates and Claire. YIKES!

Here are Elisabeth and Gates petting the sweet pig.

Those things really do steal my heart. I have a soft spot for animals. Well...except cats. I don't care much for cats. They can be so snooty.

One day we went outside to check on the kids. They were playing outside way to quietly. We found them all fishing. They were pretending the Rubbermaid was their boat and the driveway was the water. It was so cute. How was so impressed at how well they ALL could cast. Even Beck. He is definitely the fourth child.

Waiting for a BITE.

Happy Thursday everyone! Have a great day!

Even the Baby has Noticed!

2009-01-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

I know I make short stories very long, but what can I say....if you have ever met my dad, I come by it naturally. Great guy....but a long story teller. I have to admit I love his stories and they always crack me up. Oh...and my mom's dad....he was a long story teller, too. My whole family can quote some of his stories. It is hysterical. So...back to the reason for my post. I have to give some background info so everyone will understand thus making this story a little longer than it should be. It's a good excuse anyway. :)

Starting when Elisabeth was an infant Josh and I started to sleep with the TV on in our room. We turn the volume all the way down once we go to sleep but the TV stays on; all night. We started doing this because I was nursing and Elisabeth would wake up several times a night. I needed a little light to get us started (remember I was a new mom) and the TV did the trick. Well, as most of you know.....I wasn't the best about getting the kids on a strict schedule so they woke up in the night to nurse long after they should have been able to sleep through the night. Then I had four kids four years in a row so I nursed many a nights. I weaned each child just in time to start a new one nursing. For those of you who are wondering, yes I was pregnant, nursing or pregnant and nursing for seven years straight. YIKES! That sounds really crazy but it was really great. I really miss having a baby. So the TV thing has just stuck and now the TV stays on all the time.

Last night Beck woke up in the night and told me he was going to Barf. DREADFUL! So I ran him to my bathroom thinking he was going to barf right then. However, he didn't and we waited and waited. I got tired of being in the bathroom so I got him a large bowl and we set up shop in my bed. Josh was out of town and so I propped him up on some pillows on Josh's side of the bed with his bowl. After a while a dozed off. Now remember the TV is still on with no sound. The next thing I know Beck is waking me up saying "mommy you need one of those, you need one of those." I roll over to look and see what he is talking about and he is watching an info-mercial. That's all that is ever on in the wee hours of the night. I think I have seen every last one of them but that is a whole nother story. What is it for you ask......"The New Body Shaper" . It is a tight girdle like thing that you wear under your clothes to make all the lumps disappear. He was watching it with no sound just pictures and they were terrible. Big lumpy slouchy women that then become slim and smooth and stand up straight just from putting on this thing. It showed woman after woman before and after. Beck thinks I need one. I'm so sad. I know I have gained some but I didn't realize it was that obvious that a three year old would notice. I shouldn't have given up my athletic club membership after all. LOL

"Devil Sauce"

2009-01-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Josh hAtEs ketchup! He calls it the devil sauce. The reason he calls it that is because the smell, the sight and the feel of it make him want to say bad words. He hates that the kids want to put it on their food. He really hates it when the want to put it on their eggs. Ketchup on eggs is quite disgusting to me, too but it does not make me want to say bad words. Bad drivers on the other hand, that is a whole nother story. Or the neighbor dog that keeps coming in our yard and pooping, oooh I have to bite my tongue but ketchup not so much. I have digressed so onward and upward. Now, one of kids agrees with Josh's hate for the sauce. He crys if any even gets on his plate. For this reason, I call him Josh's kid. (That and he is rotten and does bad stuff all the time and Josh allows it. Oh wait so do I. We have got to buckle down on the kid) Anyway, so instead of ketchup he always wants ranch. He puts ranch on anything other kids would normally put ketchup on. That means eggs if I let him, hot dogs (disgusting), hamburgers, french fries.....well you get the picture. I go through ranch like water at our house. I tell you all this background only to tell you about a funny story that happened today.

Today, we went through the drive through at Wendy's and I got the kids each a five piece crispy nugget. You can't beat it for 99 cents. After I ordered, Beck kept saying: "I want yellow ranch I want yellow ranch." I think he meant honey mustard dipping sauce. :)

Geocaching FUN!

2009-01-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

While the kids have a little time off from school, we have been busy trying to have fun and make memories with them. One of the things we have been doing it Geocaching. If you are unfamiliar with this activity, I will give you a brief description. Basically there is a website called geocaching.com it hosts maps that have "caches" (hidden treasures as we like to call them) all over them. You use a GPS to find the coordinates of these caches. Caches are hidden all over the world and in most cities. Basically it is a huge world wide scavenger hunt. When you find a cache you put it back right where you found it then log into the website and tell everyone you found it. Some are more difficult than others. Some are tiny and some are big. We saw one that was in a five gallon bucket. It is really lots of fun to take kids to do. It is like going on a bit of a treasure hunt.

Here are a few examples of some of the ones we have found:

This one is a tiny little magnet with a screw off lid. Inside was a long skinny piece of paper you could sign to say that you found it. The magnet was stuck in a hidden place. We used the GPS to find the exact pole it was stuck to.

Here we are in a local park. Hogan found this one. It was a pimento jar, inside a rubber toy tire, hidden in a tree trunk under some leaves.

Inside the jar were all kinds of "treasures". You can add something to the jar if you like.

It was dark this night and we had to use flashlights to find them. It made finding the caches a little more challenging.

This was where one of the caches was hidden. I wont say where so as to not give it away to anyone in Corpus who goes geocaching.

Can you guess where we are? There were big drops off either side of us. The guys and the kids were sitting on the point.

We found this film canister under a rock and in a hole. Another cache checked off the list.

All the kids wanted their own flashlights. Hogan wore Josh's head lamp. We're getting serious, now. We found five out of seven of the cashes we planned out for this week.

Here we are after finding our first cache. I want to go geocaching everyday now. It was so fun.

Here is our first find. This was actually one of the easier ones.

Beck didn't care much about finding the treasure. He just wanted to climb the tree.

The kids were so excited to find their first cache.

Inside the camo jar was a tablet.

.....and some pens to sign it with. There was also a pez dispenser. We added a soft little soccer ball to the jar.

This is such a fun thing to do with your family. If you have a GPS and want something fun to do go check out the website and look it your city. You can also hide your own geocache for others to find. We made one to hide but haven't found that special place we want to hide it yet. Good luck!

hAppY nEw YEAr!!!

2008-12-31T21:25:00.000-08:00

December at the beach!

2008-12-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

Josh has this week off and our friend Stephen is in town. We wanted to take the kids to do some fun stuff. So we decided to take the kids to fly kites at the beach yesterday. It was a beautiful day! I couldn't help but feel Gods presence, their. The sky was clear and the brightest blue. The sand was soft and cool. I needed to be reminded of the awesome power of our God. His beautiful creation is always so uplifting to me.

We did fly kites a little but we had a lot more fun jumping in the sand dunes.

Here is Josh taking a leap.Like father like son!
Stephen looks like he is gliding through the air sideways.

I even made a WeAk attempt. It was a little scary. LOL

If you look closely, you can see the water in the back ground.

Ahhhhhh!

JUMP for my LoVe! Jump in!

Stephen's friend Brianne came with us. She played with the kids, too. We enjoyed getting to know her better.

What a sweet brother and sister.

Hogan couldn't get enough and jumped over and over.

Gates had the most fun just rolling in it.

The kids just love their uncle Stephen. Here they are all jumping together. Beck ate lots of sand on this jump.

Once again, Elisabeth the poser.

We did fly kites a little. Once we got them in the air, we decided to change locations. This is Elisabeth riding in the back of the truck, sucking down an apple juice and holding on to one of the kites that is extremely high in the air.

It was so fun to see the kids frolic around in the sand holding on to the kite string.

Elisabeth and Hogan found bunches of nails and screws. They thought they washed up from the hurricane. I think they might have been left over from a fire. Who knows. But you better watch your feet and tires next time you're at the beach.

Check out this little happy face looking at the kites.

Stephen and Josh decided that they needed the kites to go super high so they tied three strings together to make a really high one. They are such BIG kids.

The BIG kids getting the kites ready.

We had so much fun yesterday. I forget how much fun the beach can be. It is a lot more relaxing when I don't have to worry about the kids in the water.

More Christmas BLISS

2008-12-26T22:47:00.001-08:00

We have been having so much fun not having school and being with family. The kids got to help papa build a fire and roast marshmellows. Here's Gates and Elisabeth watching the fire.

Santa brought the boys Aggie football helmets and uniforms. Much to Santa's dismay, one the boxes had an Aggie helmet but a Texas Tech uniform in it. He did not know it until Christmas eve when he was setting out all the goods. He thought he was going to throw up. Lucky for Santa Beck didn't seem to notice that his was different. However, his mom and dad we very bummed. Santa will be having a long talk with the manager at Academy.

Here are all the boys takinga knee.

My sweet children all ready for bed Christmas Eve.

Elisabeth has had so much fun playing with the girls. She has four girl cousins on Josh's side that are all close to her age. They have so much fun together and are so happy. Here's the happy girl laying by the fire.

The cool weather was a welcomed gift. The kids enjoyed riding their bikes in the cold. Their mommy enjoyed getting to dress them in hats, gloves, scarfs and coats. It is a rare sight in this house hold.

Here's Beck playing with his bike and all bundled up.

Hogan all bundled up!

Gates all bundled up. Can't you see why we call him Fedex sometimes.

Man I love this kid.

Merr-Wii Christmas

2008-12-26T22:23:00.001-08:00

We have been having so much fun!

We got Guitar Hero World Tour for our Wii for Christmas from Josh's parents.

Boy is it fun! All the kids love it, too.

We also got Wii Fit from his parents. I am out of shape.

Katy, Abby and I stayed up until 12:30 (oh yes in the am) playing.

I plan to whip this bod in to shape ASAP.

It is totally fun and you get a work out to boot.

I highly recommend.

So here are a few pictures of the family jamming out.

Hogan playing the drums.

James really tore it up on the drums even with Shelby's help. Josh on guitar and Elisabeth vocals. She loves to sing IT!

I'm not quite sure if I like that she knows all the words to REM.

FIRE................................................

Josh kickin it at the guitar.

My little singer.

He thought he was so BIG!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas toys as much as we are!

The kids Christmas Program

2008-12-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Whew...it is all over.

The program was really cute...

...but this mama is glad it is over.

I get myself way over committed and then turn into a three headed monster.

This crazy mama agreed to make all 20 costumes for the kindergarten program.

Mary, Joseph, three wiseman, three shepards, two cows, two camels, two sheep, two doves, two roosters, a donkey and two angels.

Can you say CRAZY.

Have mercy....

what was I thinking?

Here is just a quick glimpse at some of it.

(picture discriptions are under the pictures)

Here is one of the camels. Lets just say camels...well they are hard.
This is the sheep. In part of the song she says "I am the sheep with curly horns..." The costume has really cute curled horns but you can't see them in the picture.

Hogan was a rooster. He was so nervous. :) Poor thing.

Never complete without the angels.

...or the shepards.

Holy Cows!

Elisabeth was also in the program. The first graders sang several songs.

Elisabeth got to play the hand bells. Very Cute!

...and certainly not least, she sang a solo.

OH my...this mama cried like a baby.

She sang "I'm Coming Back to the Heart of Worship"

As Josh would say...

...I was touched. LOL

I did video...and if I get my act together and get it down loaded, I will post it.

Christmas Cookies

2008-12-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

Friday night we made Christmas cookies.

It is so funny how no matter how much icing and sprinkles they put on them, that they are still all beautiful. The mess was huge but the kids had a blast.

Don't you want one of the cookies he decorated....

You might find the secret ingredient. :)

Elisabeth's cookies were all perfect. She picked only the white sprinkles out so that the tops of the stockings were only white.

If you don't want one of Hogan's cookies....maybe you'll want one of Gates'. He licked his knife after every cookie.

Beck just went ahead and licked the cookie itself. Then put more icing.

At the end of the night.....the floor looked like this.

....SpRinKLeS everywhere.

Just a few of the finished product.

Gates wanted his snowman to have glasses and well I couldn't resist.

One cute snowman for one cute kid.

Happy Birthday Samuel!!! ... and a funny story!

2008-12-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

Nine years ago, my sister gave birth to a precious baby boy. His name was Samuel Wyatt Young. While perfect to us, God decided that he would rather have him in heaven with him. It is hard to ever understand why God would bring such sorrow to our family but we know it is for his glory. My sister and her husband blessed their church with a set of swings in Samuel's name. Today we dedicated the swings with the entire family. All the kids had a great time playing on the swings and the playground equipment. Even the BIG kids climbed up on the jungle gym.
They had so much fun just being kids.

Check out this sweet face.

Baby brother loved to go HIGH!

All the kids getting to SwInG!

Sweet Boys!

Henley and Marymae doing the spider.

I couldn't help but wonder what this big brother was thinking.

S-W-I-N-G

Elisabeth always the mother hen....

......taking care of the Baby.

We ended the day by going to see a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It was a musical playing at the local theater. It was so good and the kids loved it. Beck was a little scared of the ghosts. During intermission, I took him to the bathroom. After doing his business, I told him to wait one minute so I could go. I began to sit down and he says at the top of his lungs, did I mention the bathroom was crowded because it was intermission, "mom why do you have to poop?" I didn't have to poop he just didn't realize that girls always have to sit. So I said "I don't have to poop girls have to sit down to go potty. " Then he says really loud and silly "I see your WIENER!!" Let me just make sure you know. There is no wiener. I am no cross dresser. I tried to say really loud "Mommy doesn't have a wiener. You don't look at mommy." I was so embarrassed. I did not want to leave the stall. Of coarse I had to very quickly so no one thought I was pooping. When we got back to our seats, I told Josh he had to take him to the potty from now on.

Just a Funny Story

2008-12-12T07:17:00.001-08:00

Gates came into the living room where Josh and I were sitting. He proceeded to say: "Mom can I have some ear plugs for Christmas?"

Me: "Why do you want ear plugs for Christmas? " (I thought it was for shooting pretend guns or something because Josh had taken the boys to the Firing Range and he had to wear ear plugs. Little did I know what he was going to say next.)

Gates: "Because Beck talks too much and I get tired of hearing him talk."

Josh and I cracked up. Beck for the longest time didn't say a thing. In fact, when he was a year, I had him checked because I was worried he was delayed in talking. I was wrong. The lady tested him and said he was actually advanced. HA! However, since then, the dude talks non-stop. I mean all the time. Ear plugs would be nice sometimes. Silly Gates. Silly Gates. I do think Santa might have to leave a pair just for laughs.

What would you do?

2008-12-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

Last night, a sweet couple at our church invited everyone over to their town home for coffee and hot chocolate. Their town home is in a gated little community and it has a duck pond with bridges and islands etc. They hosted the party out on one of the decks of the pond area. It was really pretty!! The community had decorated the whole area with lots of lights and Christmas decorations. Gates and two of his friends were playing on an island. An older woman who was not part of our little party but who lives in the community walked by with her two dogs. They were crazy barking at the kids on the island. The dogs were on a walkway. Separating the kids and the dogs was water, then grass then railing. The kids on the island playfully barked back at the dogs from the distance. The old woman got mad and in her loudest meanest voice she yelled at the kids to "SHUT UP!" I couldn't believe it. At first I thought she might have been saying that to her dogs, but I was wrong. I have never had another adult talk so rudely to my children. My first instinct was to go over there and give her a piece of my mind. However, I was standing in front of a big group of my christian peers and not at my own house. I can't believe anyone would talk that way to children. I am still shocked. I called the kids over and asked them to stay over on the side where we were. Nothing was said to the woman. Would you have said something to the woman who was clearly much older than you?

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas....

2008-12-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

This past year, we changed churches. Our new church is small and does not own its own building or have a paid preacher. What I really love is that the church gives 75% of its contribution to outreach and missions. Because we don't have a building, we rent a senior citizens garden center. It is owned by the city so a city worker always has to be there. This past weekend was a holiday weekend and so we were unable to have our regular building. Josh and I used the opportunity to have our own family devo. It was important to me that we teach our children what Christmas should really be about. I love Santa and presents and trees but I want Jesus to be first. So we read the story of Jesus birth and and sang a few religious Christmas songs. I hope we got through to the kids that He is the reason for the season. When we were finished with or devo, we put up our little Christmas tree. I really struggled with it. We usually take the whole family out and buy a BIG fresh tree. This year we used a small fake tree. We will be in and out this year during Christmas and wanted to be able to take down quickly. So fake tree it was. I pretended I loved it so that the kids would love it, too. It did turn out ok after I messed with it a lot. So here are some pictures of our tree. One of my favorite things about decorating for Christmas is the GLiTTeR! I just love sparkles and glitter. I always look for the most sparkly ornaments. This butterfly is one of my favorites.

The reason for the season! I love to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus! Mary and Joseph have a little bling, too.

This reindeer is covered in glitter and has beaded legs.

Found this GLiTTeRy word.

If you look close, you can see GLiTTeRy poinsettia flowers throughout the whole tree.

....and all the presents have sparkly tags and ribbon.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope your holiday sparkles just as much as mine does!!

Pinewood Derby

2008-12-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

Tonight the kids got to race cars in the Awana Pinewood Derby. There were lots of cars and we had four of them. None of our cars were winners. That is really hard for Gates and Hogan to accept. Teaching children that games are about the fun and not about winning is really hard. Josh and I worked really hard on the cars and had a lot of fun designing them with the kids. We were a bit frustrated because we used a food scale at the house to weigh them and it must not have been accurate because our cars were severely under weight. ARGH... Here are the boys watching the races.

Look at those little cheeks. They are just so scrumptious to me.

Poor Gates was really sad. He wanted to win so bad.

At the end of the night the announcer called out every ones names and gave them a ribbon for participating. When Gates got his ribbon he came running back to me and said (while holding up his ribbon out in front of his face and with great excitement) "I thought I didn't win but I did!!" It cracked us all up.

Here is Beck with his car. His was "shampoo" as he calls her. You can't see it in the pictures but he did have a blue eye.

Shampoo was in the blue lane.

Hogan and his car. His had flames like fire.

His car was in the yellow lane.

Gates and his rocket car. He is in that cheesy smile faze can you tell.

His car was in the red lane.

Here is Elisabeth and her car. She picked an Aggie car. It would be us if there wasn't one Aggie something in the mix.

Her car was in the red lane.

Even though none of the cars won. It was still fun to make and race the cars.

Here is a little closer look at all the cars.

Hogan requested fire. You should have seen me trying to tape off those flames. I watched way to many car make over shows with Josh. :)

SHAMU

The Rocket

Gig 'em! ...and yes that is bling you see. All girls have to have a little bling.

Maybe next year we will take home a trophy. :)

My Greatest Fear...happened. BARF

2008-12-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

Today after dropping the kids off at school, I went throught he drive through of a local coffee shop. I got myself a caramel pecan latte and I got Beck a cup of milk with a straw. We drove down Staples to Target to do our weekly Target thing for the first time this week.(do any of the rest of you go to Target multiple times a week?) I'm talking to Josh on the phone and pulling into a parking space (yes he knows about my multiple time a week Target addiction) when Beck barfs all over himselft and my car. I threw the phone down and began trying to find a sack or something he can barf in to prevent any more barf from getting everywhere. It was terrible and stinky. Milk barf is even more disgusting than regular food barf. I used every baby wipe I had and he was far from being cleaned up. I drove straight home as he proceeded to continue barfing in the bag I found. Thank goodness I am a mess and there is always some sort of sack of something to return in my car. I cleaned him up and put him in front of the TV with a barf bucket and a pillow and blanket. Of course he never barfed again. He has eaten like a horse all day and is playing like a wild man. I washed his yucky clothes but I haven't brought myself to go outside and tend to the nasty car seat. (It is sitting in the drive way. Maybe the neighbors cat will eat it all and get sick. I am so tired of that thing pooping in my flower bed. Boy I am a grump, today) The devil in me wants to throw that sucker (the car seat not the cat) in the garbage. SERIOUSLY. I did realize: that barfing is disgusting but it isn't life threatening and I will survive it. So maybe I am not near as barf-o-phobic as I used to be. I am still going to pray that none of the other kids get it, though. :)

Happy Turkey Day! ...from my Turkey to Yours!

2008-11-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist snapping few pictures of my little girl all dressed up for Thanksgiving. I can't believe she is so BIG. It says "Thankful"...and we are!

How could I not be thankful for this smilen face. She is such a helpful, sweet, smart, giving, loving, funny child. I am so thankful that God picked me to be her mommy.

Gobble gobble everyone!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

PS. Thanks Jill for the wonderful idea! It was so fun!

Our VIsitor

2008-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

These came up in the wrong order and I am too busy to try and fix it so here it goes in a weird order. Argh.....

Stephen came to visit this weekend. The guys hunted ALL day Saturday (as you can tell from my previous post). So on Sunday we had to rest. But when the resting was over we went to a local restaurant for dinner. The kids love this place because it has a really cool play set, a basketball court and usually a band or karaoke. This is Elisabeth on top of the play set. I thinking she should not be up there. At one point I looked up and both of the guys were doing this. Josh and Stephen are so much a like and this reminded me of that. They both were walking around on their cell phones talking about their hunt from the previous day.

Stephen, Hogan and Josh waiting for the food. All my kids love Stephen and wont leave him alone the whole time he is here.

Silly Gates! I had to get a picture of the two of them. We named Gates Reno after Stephen and I want to make sure Gates always remembers him and all the things they do together.

Miss priss. Who is way too big for that swing. You can tell she is officially too big because she is bored with the play set and finding all the ways to do something different with it instead of its intended use.

Little bit. Thought it was just his size.

Hogan has mastered the monkey bars

There's a sweet face filled with pure joy. I love it!

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you have a great start to a fabulous week!!

The Slaughter!

2008-11-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

WARNING!!

The pictures on the rest of this post are of dead animals from a BIG hunting trip.

Josh went with 9 guys out to the "land cut" to go hunting. They had a blast and lucky for me, brought home lots of meat. The guys shot 7 deer and 1 nilgai. They were so happy. It is funny how guys get so excited about killing things. It must be in their nature. My boys wanted nothing more than to watch the guys clean all these deer.

I like getting the meat but there is something un-natural about killing animals to me. I could not do it. I am glad my husband does because I do like to cook it.

I had to take some pictures because I thought it was histerical how they had all the deer just piled up in the boat. The hooves were hanging out the back and the top.

These are couple of the huge buck.

Pile them high!

Nilgai hanging out the back. This thing was huge!

The guys walking around checking out their slaughter.

Dot to Dot

2008-11-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

We have this family at our church that is awesome. They have five kids. Four of them are girls and one is a boy. Their kids are much older than mine. In fact they are awesome babysitters. I wish the parents would give Josh and I a lesson on how to be great parents. Anyway, their son is a junior in high school. Most juniors in high school are just concerned about themselves and could care less about the little kids at church but this guy is great. He is great with Hogan and plays with him at church and talks to him. Hogan wants to be just like him when he grows up. I hope he is just like him when he grows up. So tonight at small group, I was talking to his mother and she said she had to tell me a funny story about Hogan. I was scared. She said that when they got in the car after church Sunday that her son said he got dissed by a five year old. She said that Hogan was playing dot to dot with her son. The paper they were using was running out of room. Hogan looked up at the boy and said we could play dot to dot on your face you have dots on your face. While the mom laughed and thought it was funny. I felt terrible. She said Hogan did not mean it rude he was just matter of fact. She said her son was going to start on Acutane Monday. I feel so bad. He is such a great teenager. To make matters worse, this is the same family who Hogan asked their oldest daughter if she could kiss. (She is in college at ACU) When she told him no he asked her to baptise him instead. They probably think Josh and I are terrible parents.

Gates' Big Truths

2008-11-17T17:15:00.000-08:00

A while back when I was on Amazon looking for a certain childrens Bible, I came across this book. It's titled Big Truths for Little Kids. It has lots of questions about God and the Bible and their answers. The kids have been learning these questions and their answers at school. I wish I could take the credit but their teachers are the ones who do such an awesome job teaching them the exact answers. Today in the car I heard Gates saying the questions and the answers. I was so amazed at how well he knew them. Here's a video of Gates answering some of the questions. Ok I know ya'll are probably sick of seeing Gates but he is just so stinken cute when he does it. Elisabeth and Hogan know the answers, too but it is just not the same when they say it. There's something about this little voice. Anyhow, I highly recommend this book. We really like it.

Your Know you Have an Ironing Problem When....

2008-11-15T06:01:00.000-08:00

...you tell you child to put his soccer uniform on and he says..."It hasn't been ironed yet."

....just to clarify....I don't iron the kids soccer uniforms. However, I do iron most everything else so Hogan must think that the soccer uniform gets ironed, too. I have got to quit.

One of those weeks!

2008-11-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

It seems like the last couple of weeks have been so crazy for us. Nothing exciting just really really crazy. Since a couple of you have contacted me asking if I was a ok, I thought I'd give you a quick update. We are doing good just busy. We are ready for a break. The kiddies play their last soccer game of the season this weekend. It will be sad to stop but good to have things calm down. Four practices a week take up lots of time. The kids school had their annual golf tournament fund raiser and I worked the registration. It was lots of fun and pretty successful. Josh's dad came in town for it. It was good to see him and visit. The kiddies just don't seem him enough. He sponsored a team in the golf tournament and they each won a $50 dollar gift card to the pro-shop. Way to go guys!

Gates, Beck and I had the following conversation in the car today:

Gates: mom, right there is only one God and one Jesus
me: yes there is only one God and one Jesus
Beck: no there not. there two Jesus
me: No Beck just one
Beck: There are five Jesus
me: No Beck, there is just one Jesus and one God
Beck: yes....see...Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

I think that kid is going to bring me much grief. He is a stinker. Very cute, though.

Then later today he told me: "Mommy, can I do something for you? I want to make you happy." So sweet. No wonder he is so rotten.

Elisabeth lost a tooth at church on Sunday. The tooth fairy must have been really busy this week because she didn't come pick up the tooth until today when Elisabeth was at school. (Bad mommy! very bad mommy! She's the first kid you would think I'd still have my game on. Not so much.)

Last and certainly not least. The kids have been doing Awana the last couple of months on Wednesday nights. In case anyone is interested, I highly recommend it. Our church does not have wednesday night service. We still enjoyed the idea of meeting midweek so we meet with our small group. It was hard to keep the kiddies occupied while we were meeting so we looked into something for them to do. Awana has been great. They do lots of fun things and lots of scripture memory, too. Elisabeth thinks it's great and is highly motivated to finish her book. She seriously learns seven or eight versus a week on her own just to get jewels for her badge. It's good stuff.

I hope to be back with a little more exciting stuff. Sorry for the long catch up post. Have a blessed week!

Defeat

2008-11-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

As the results for the election came in I could not help but feel sick. I woke up this morning feeling sick to my stomach. I knew today was going to be so important. I prayed all day for God to intervene; to pull a miracle. Of course that did not happen. I know God has a plan. His ways are better than our ways. I know God has plans not to hurt us but to prosper us. The Bible tells us all of these promises. But my faith is week. I am scared. So scared. I received an email earlier this week that was comforting and I thought I would share it here to encourage any of you who are having trouble swallowing what has just happened.

These facts are still true:

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

ISN'T IT GREAT TO KNOW WHO IS REALLY IN CHARGE