Beach Blast

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.....

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

PawPaw's Memorial Service

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

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

Beck: "Harley is my best friend"

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

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

me: "who is your girl friend?"

Beck: "Nobody"

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

Beck: "nobody"

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

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

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

Field Trip to the Botanical Gardens

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

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

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

FIVE

April 17 Gates turned FIVE....

I can't believe Gates is FIVE.

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

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

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

He knows all his letters.

He talks slow but very maticulously.

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

Loves his siblings and is very protective of them.

Has the sweetest little smiling face.

Hardly ever gets into trouble.

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

Yes, BECK has passed him up.

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

Check out this happy face.

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

My sweet FIVE year old.