He's gonna be a great dad someday

Landry comes and finds me to tell me, "Mom...Par-ter said my mawbles aren't tool!"

(Mom...Parker said my marbles aren't cool!)

Me: Oh man, that wasn't very nice.

Landry: Tan you tell Par-ter to doe to his room??

(Can you tell Parker to go to his room??)


I'm guessing Parker gets sent to his room a bit??

Yay for snow!!

We have a snow day today!!

Hip-hip-hooray!!

I think every week would go a little smoother if we could just have Wednesdays off!!

Ya think??

It was all fun and games until the go-carts came out

Alex had a birthday last month...last year, actually!!

He wanted to have some friends over and play Capture the Flag and football for the afternoon. But one of his best buddies, Braxton, had whooping cough and it just wasn't a good idea for him to be outside in the cool air. SO...Alex decided to wait until Braxton was better and we postponed the party until now.

After church (on Sunday), we loaded Alex, Parker, Luke, Landry, Reagan, Braxton, Brevin, Alec, Amren, and Wyatt into our cars and were joined a little later by Jordan and Meagan. The kids ate a lot of pizza and played a lot of Capture the Flag. Even Landry got in on the action. Here he is stealing the flag when everyone else was in a little "rules meeting." He saw the opportunity and seized the moment, even hiding the flag under his shirt so he could be sneaky!!

Here is the yellow team for Capture the Flag. They are wearing their best game faces!

l-r Parker, Meagan, Alex, Reagan, Braxton, Landry in front

I guess I didn't get a picture of the blue team! It was everyone else!!

Here are Alec and Braxton bringing the flag back for the yellow team, while Reagan cheers them on.

Wyatt and Luke waiting in jail

Here are Meagan and Jordan in the woods. What was so funny about this picture was that they were separated and they each had their own jobs in protecting the flag. But when they saw me with the camera, they immediately jumped together, hugging and acting like they were in a photo shoot. When I was done, Jordan said, "Back to our posts Meagan!!" and they went back to their jobs. Totally made me crack up!!

While the kids were playing, Emily, Landry and I snuck away for a little Rock Band...always super fun!!


Here's the cookie fun ... I love how the boys are just on the edge of their seats!! The excitement is just so evident!!


Oh well... Landry liked it!!

Later, they went back outside for a little football. And can I just say that the two girls in the group totally held their own. They did not back down from those boys AT ALL!!


After football, the go-cart came out and the party took a quick turn for the worse. Without the juicy details, a neighbors fence was damaged, Scott almost cracked his head, and Wyatt ran over Alex's foot with the go-cart!! (totally not Wyatt's fault!) Darn go-carts!!

Here's Alex icing his poor little foot down with some crinkle-cut fries!! Fries make everything better!!!

It was, all in all, a very fun party!!

Alex has a great group of buddies to enjoy his life with!!

Happy birthday, dude!!

Keepin' it real

When we got home from school, this is what I saw on Landry's feet --

I said, "Landry, why did you wear those socks like that??"

To which he replied, "I wanted to show my friend, Blake my Batman socks."

Well, of course, you did, honey! No matter if there was only one. I'm sure he got the idea!!

The best part of this story, though, is that this conversation took place yesterday, Wednesday. And when we got home from school TODAY, Thursday, he still had the same socks on!!

I've never claimed to even be in the running for Mother of the Year, but two mismatched socks for two days in a row seals the deal, I'm sure. I wonder what his teachers think??

In my defense, Scott gets him dressed :) but obviously Landry handles the bulk of getting himself ready. And in my defense again, we were at church Wednesday and the boys rarely get baths on Wednesday nights. Judge if you must. Just keepin' it real!!

It's all so confusing!!

Landry: Marther Luther Teend is da new pwesident!!

Me: What??

Landry: (laughing): Noooo, it's Martin Luther Teend's birthday!! (pronunciation corrected this time)

Me: Yup!

Landry: I's just tidding!! Rot Obama's da new pwesident!!

So many current events, it's hard to keep track!!

Playing bas-ket-ball

We are into week 2 for Mr. Luke and his Upward basketball. Have I gotten any pictures of little boy wonder, you might ask??

Well, no!!

But he is having the time of his life!! On any given day during the week, he will just randomly say, "Three more days!!" And, of course, we know that means 3 more days until his basketball game!!

Interestingly enough, Saturday morning is now the only day that he has NO trouble getting up at all!! Even more interesting is that our games are at either 8 or 9 AM, which is a little early for my taste on Saturdays!!

Anyway, he's loving playing ball and we're loving watching him!! And I'm fortunate enough to be coaching his team...five other little basketballers!!

Pictures...maybe next week??!!

Oh yeah...Alex is playing too!! He's been playing since the middle of December. He's not as cute, but he's fun to watch too!! Today, he played some great defense and put up a couple of lay-ups (maybe 3) that he stole and sunk a couple of 3's! Another big difference between he and Luke is he smells really bad when he's done!! All in fun, though!!

I really enjoy basketball season much more than baseball. The positives?? They're inside and the games last an hour!!

From the mouths of babes

In church this morning, Luke was "reading" through his Bible which really translates into looking at the pictures and trying to pick out a few words he knows.

He came to a picture that showed Jesus praying while the disciples slept.

So, he said, "Mom, this is where Jesus was praying right before he was going to die on the cross.
He died on the cross and then he went back to Heaven because He really missed his Dad!!!"

The big 6!!

Happy 6th Birthday to Mr. Luke today!!!

I was going to list all the things that make Luke unique except when I looked back at what I said on his birthday last year, it was pretty much the same thing!! He still has 1 dimple, he was still born in the middle of the night, etc etc!!

What's different this year is that he's halfway through his Kindergarten year and he's definitely ready to move on. School started out as a very exciting proposition and is now just something you do - sometimes happily, sometimes not! :(

He is playing Upward basketball this season and is TOTALLY pumped about that! His first game is this Saturday and I would be totally pumped too, except his game is at 8:00 AM!! He's so excited, he can hardly stand it!! He's been doing the countdown to game day for several days now!!

Luke is still possibly the sweetest boy on the planet. Hugs and kisses are plentiful and he is quick to laugh and be silly too! I think he finally outgrew the whole wetting the bed thing this year! (I know - he'll be thrilled to read that someday, but it's just for documentation purposes!!)

He had a special treat last night when Scott and he went to a Mavericks game. Scott is friends with "Champ," one of the Mavs' mascots, and Champ gave Scott 2 tickets to last night's game. When Champ gives us tickets, they are usually awesome seats, so we HAVE to take them!! Scott and Luke sat 8 rows from the floor and had a great time! Champ came over and gave Luke a shirt that he signed (size XL :) ) and took pictures with him. The best part for Luke was that the Mavs won!! It was a super late night on a school night, but totally worth it!!

His shirt . . .

Today, we met my parents at Spring Creek for supper and Luke got a Nintendo DS. When asked if he wanted a big party with lots o' friends and small gift, or a big gift with a small party, he chose the big gift and small party. He was way excited about the DS so it all worked out nicely!!

I didn't take pictures at the restaurant, so here he is as he's going to bed, with his DS . . .


I'm SIX!!

Go visit ...

... my sister-in-law's blog!!

Melodie and I worked on setting her up a blog when we were in North Carolina. It will be her way of keeping people in the loop regarding Mom/Grandma and Shantel.

Yay, Melodie!! Welcome to the fun-filled world of blogging!!!

I resolve . . .

. . . to eat less Hot Tamales (the candy, not the Mexican food!)

. . . to laugh more

. . . to expend more effort making much of Jesus

. . . to drink more water...ugh!


There -- they're publicly stated. Maybe I'll stick with them!!


School/work returns tomorrow and it's probably a good thing so I'll stop eating. I've seriously eaten my body weight the last two days in those darn Danish cookie things. I got a tin from someone, and my great Mom left me two more while she was at my house over the break. (Thanks, Mom!!) They're really not even that good, so why do I keep eating and eating them??

Anyway, one more North Carolina story --

On the way back (the long, long, long way back), we stopped in Longview for some gas. While I was inside, Alex and Parker came running in saying that Dad needed me...Landry had gotten gas in his eyes!! I'm like SERIOUSLY?? We're this close to home...please no freak blinding accidents!! I go out to the car and Landry is wrapped up in a blanket. What happened was Luke was trying to help Scott and when the gas was done, he pulled it out, and as he was returning it to the pump, he went ahead and squeezed the handle just to see what might happen. What happened was that it squirted gas all over Landry's face and down his shirt!! Lovely!!

Scott has poured some water over his eyes (ice cold water from the cooler!!) so I took him into the restroom and washed him off. It wasn't until then that I realized he was totally without clothes...except his socks!! His skin was really red, but I'm not sure if it was from the gas or the ice-cold water being poured on him!!

He stunk a little, but was totally fine!! His clothes, on the other hand, aren't faring too well. I've washed them once but they still smell pretty bad! Any great ideas on how to get the smell of gas out?? I would just throw them away, but they're pretty new and pretty cute too!! I guess I could always search the world wide web if this sort of fun hasn't happened to anyone else!!

Anyway, Happy New Year - enjoy the remaining 352 days!!

North Carolina - Last Installment!!

I stopped scrapbooking because I could never keep up with real life. Now, I'm blogging and I still can't keep up with real life!!

I'm going to wrap up our little trip with these final words and pictures!!

Friday (the day after Christmas), Kathy, Eli, and I headed to the mall while Scott and David took our kids and theirs to the Children's Museum. The mall was crowded unlike anything I'd seen before Christmas and almost stole my joy!! Scott forgot the camera :) but the kids had a GREAT time at the museum! Some of the favorites were a beanstalk that you could really climb and a mini Krispy Kreme play area where you could "make" donuts!!

That night we went on a hayride/carriage ride through a park that has really cool Christmas lights. It was really cold, but lots of fun!

All the kids before boarding ...

Landry and Ella ...

Mom and Dad ...

Tim and Alex ...

Kathy and Kelsey...

Looking at the lights ...

Melodie and Rachael ...

Scott, me, Ella, Rachael, Landry ...

David and Lauren ...

David, Kathy, and fam

Saturday brought swimming in Grandma & Grandpa's hotel pool. Elijah seemed to make it into the 2 pictures I took there!!

And while we're on the theme of Eli, here's one with Landry...

And here he is smiling ...

Sunday, Renee, Alex, and her kids, and Aunt Linda and Curtis drove over with lunch...baked ziti!! Yum-o!! Here's everybody just chillin' after lunch.

Renee braiding Kelsey's hair ...

The boys hanging out watching a little football ...

We headed back to Renee's house to spend the last couple of days. Interestingly enough, on December 29th, it was warm enough for the kids to go swimming. (The pool was heated, but still!!)

The little boys hanging in the hot tub ... Landry, Roman, Luke, and Cole??

It worked out nicely, as it gave the boys some extra practice in diving ...

and cannonballs!!

On Monday night, Glenn and Melissa came over so we got to spend a little more time with them, so that was fun. I'm really wishing I'd gotten pictures of all the kids!!

All in all, it was a great trip! It was really neat to see everyone and for the kids to see and meet people they didn't even know existed!! Very memorable, indeed!!

Have you ever seen ...

. . . Batman playing RockBand??

How cute is he??

Christmas Morning 2008

Finally...everything's working and I have a minute to continue documenting this epic event!! :)

Here's how it happened on Christmas morning --

After breakfast...eggs with Grandpa...a big tradition with the boys ...

Though this looks like mass chaos, it was really a lot of fun!! We did a little take-turns present opening, and a little free-for-all!! It worked well both ways!!

Alex got a Walkman mp3 player

Parker got a Nintendo DS

Luke got a remote-control truck with flames (his criteria)

And Landry got a lot of Hot Wheels but he was sitting beside me and evidently I didn't get any pictures of him except this one. He's holding a wii remote candy holder that Kathy gave me to put in his stocking because it wouldn't fit in any of her kids' stockings!! He obviously liked it! Maybe it should have been his Santa gift!!

We also got basketball shoes...

Harry Potter books...

And Legos!! (Merry Christmas, Grandpa!!)

Aunt Melodie couldn't resist getting Alex a shirt from Duke!!

Eli got what every one year old boy needs ... a ball!

Later came lunch...my only picture from lunch shows the 2 big kids that got the privilege of eating with the little kids ... Scott and David!! How appropriate!!

After lunch, it was time for pictures. Here's everyone wandering around the backyard, trying to figure out where the optimum picture taking spot is.

And here are the families --

David, Kathy and fam

Nathan, Heather and fam

Mom, Dad, and Melodie

Mom, Dad, and Tim

And who are these people who let their kids wear clothes that don't even match on Christmas Day???

And here's Shantel (and Ella)...she didn't get to stay a long time, so I didn't get a lot of pictures of her.

All in all, Christmas was a great day. Lots of fun, lots of presents, lot of food, lots of family!!