Hunter's 1st T-ball Game

... practicing t-ball with Hunter for a couple weeks and his first game was last Friday. And, I am proud to report it went much better than the first soccer game. He is still one of the younger kids though he is on the bigger size.
I think he had fun.

Hunter batting and then running to 2nd.

Listening to the coach.

Finally convinced him not to run after the ball if it is not in his area.

Ashton and Sam (friends from church) play

This is what Shepherd did...

Wise man built his house upon the Rock

... discussing death with the boys. With 2 grandpas battling cancer, I thought it was something that Hunter especially needed to "understand."

A picture of Papa Edgar from last June.

My heart breaks to say that Chad's grandpa lost his battle with cancer this morning. Instead of struggling for each breath, he is singing and talking to our Savior this morning. What an amazing picture. I can practically hear Papa Edgar's deep chuckle while he talks to Jesus.

As I talked to Chad's sister yesterday, she said that Papa Edgar was not doing good at all. When I got off the phone with her, I called the boys over so he could say a prayer for Papa Ed. As I choked up and teared up while praying, Hunter said, "mommy, don't cry. We will see Papa Edgar again in heaven." And, he is so right. Hunter has such a logical yet compassionate perspective; I hope he never loses that.

When Chad got the news that his Grandpa was not doing well, he went over to say good bye as they were going to put Edgar into a drug induced coma to make his transition to Jesus easier. They said he would probably pass in a couple days but the I believe the Lord heard our prayers and took him less then 12 hours after they induced the coma. As I continued to talk to Hunter about Papa Edgar going to see Jesus he told me, "my eyes are watering. Wait, no they are not, I think I am crying." He tried to wipe them away quickly as I reassured him that even daddy would cry. He told me that daddy was not crying, but we all know better. He sat on my lap and then discreetly got up and got a kleenex to wipe his eyes and then to wipe up Shepherd's drool.

As I prayed over the boys last night when I put them to bed, I truly hope they have some of Papa Edgar's qualities. Edgar was a wise man - he truly got it. He didn't sweat the small stuff and seemed to always keep things in perspective. He was strong and a true man, yet was not gruff or intimating. The cliche' of he would give you the shirt off his back fits Edgar to a "T." He constantly wanted to help others and was geniunely concerned with other's welfare. It was not artificial or forced; he really cared.

I could go on and on but I have a baby getting fussy, a 2 year old sitting on the potty, and Hunter wants to play; so duty calls.

Papa Edgar, give Jesus a hug from us and Jesus, give ol' Pop a hug from us too. See ya later Papa!

EDIT (about 2 hours later thus the change in the title of the post)- God is so amazing. The boys and I do a daily "school" lesson which consists of a Bible Story/ Study, the letter of the week, a color or number of the week, and normally a craft.

Today's Bible Story just happened to be The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock. Those who know Edgar can probably already see the parallels. Edgar was a builder. He owned his own construction company for years and just stopped building last year. As the boys and I discussed the rock versus the sand; I couldn't help but smile and think about how Edgar built his life on the Rock. Because he built his life on the Rock, his son built his life on the Rock, which led to my husband building his life on the Rock, which I pray will lead our sons to building their life on the Rock.

Edgar, thank you for building so many firm foundations.

Shep's 6 month stats

... marveling at how big Shepherd is getting. He had his 6 month appt today.

Weight: 20 lb (85%)
Height: 28" (90%)
Head: 18" (92%)

So, he is a growing boy. He still hates baby food but loves to suck on watermelon and he also sucked on boiled squash last night. I think once he figures out this gumming/ chewing thing then he will be ready for table foods. He lunges at everything we eat, he just doesnt want the baby version of it.

I went back and looked up his brother's stats... yes, for those who know me well, I had to look them up (gasp), I couldnt remember all of them off the top of my head.

Hunter-
weight -20.13
height- 29"
head -18 1/2"

Ashton-
weight -16.10
height -27"
head - didnt have the inches but was in 75%

So, he is sandwiched between his brothers. He is such an awesome baby, the doctor and the nurse kept commenting on how good he was during the whole visit. He did cry for the shots but the minute the nurse put the band-aids on his chubby legs and I picked him up,he was fine and ready to go.

Recent professional pics

My sister in law and I came up with the idea to get some pictures of my mother in laws 4 grandkids for mother's day. I think they turned out really good especially since the ages of the four kids are 4, 2 1/2, 21 months, and 6 months.

there's no bribing in potty training...

... or is there? One of my favorite movie lines is from A League of Their Own where Tom Hanks says, "there's no crying in baseball." I feel like there should be no bribing in potty training but here I sit with Ashton who ever so defiantly does not want to use the potty. Yes, he is only 2 1/2 but Hunter was 2 1/2 when he was potty trained and Ashton is so much more advanced than Hunter was at 2 so I do hold a higher expectation for him.

So, I pulled out all of Hunter's old undies last night and I have probably 30 pairs so I was ready to play hard ball this morning. After the 3rd pair in 10 minutes, I finally stood him beside the potty and played my best card... "if you pee a lot than I will give you some Dr. Pepper."

And, HE DID IT! Like, he peed and peed and peed until he finally said out of breath, "I done, I need Pepper." How often do I work so hard and think, "man, I need some Pepper."

I officially declare that potty training Ashton has started. He is smart as a whip and totally knows what I want him to do. After his big pee session, we went to the store and Home Depot and made it home accident free!

Ok, I am going to get some "Pepper" and enjoy the silence that is nap/ rest time!

Beach- part 3

... enjoying being back home but would love another little beach trip... good thing we have one more planned this summer!

My grandparents are amazing. GrandpaGordie has been battling cancer and keeps whipping it. He did sooo good on the trip. I was the one we had to make multiple stops for (don't ask). He and GrandmaDean have such a great marriage and I can only hope and pray that me and Chad will model their example. I got a couple good shots of them on the beach. Oh, though we sang it yesterday, Happy Birthday GranpaGordie!!!!

Not a great pic of GrandpaG, he kept talking to me instead of just smiling. Oh, and GrandmaDean, I have your hat in my van.





This is mom and Aunt Christy walking to their parents.

The family of 4


Ashton seemed to stay attached to my mom's hip so there are quite a few of him and her.






And, the SHARK. Yes, the shark. We saw a dead shark on the beach. It totally creeped me out especially as I was trying to get on the dang kayak. I got a couple pictures of it. I also took the boys to see it, they wanted to touch it (yuk) so I let them. We also saw tons of jellyfish in the morning. Blah, the ocean is a bit too crittery for me.

He looks huge doesnt he/ she??

Ok, so it is not that big... maybe 2 feet but he could take off a toe, right?

Monster Jellyfish

Video of Ashton telling me to be careful of the jellyfish. I had been warning them not step on them

I also got to see my cousin, Stephanie who I have not seen or really talked to in a long time. I will do better in staying in touch. Also, met her new beau, John or is it Jon... total gentlemen.... Steph, he is a keeper!

We had such a great time. Thank you Aunt Christy and Uncle David (though I know Fuckle will not be reading this since he boycots blogs, facebook, etc etc etc) for inviting us to share in the beach and the memories.

I wish I got a picture of Christy and David together but I didnt so here they are seperate.

Happy 6 months precious boy!

... thinking about how to even begin. How can you already be 6 months old???

Shepherd, I love you to pieces and though you can say that you are the biggest surprise of my life... you can also say that you made me feel more complete than I ever thought possible. You are doing so many things. For the past couple weeks you will reach for me when I walk by and it makes me smile every time. You can sit up totally unassisted and I can walk off without fear that you are going to totally bust it. You reach for everything in sight and always try to put things to your mouth. You despise goopy cereals and purees (except last night you seem to entertain the pears... in other words, you didnt spit them back out at me) yet gummed an apple and graham cracker two nights ago. You take baths with your brothers now and have yet to EVER cry during a bath and I think you have only cried during 3 diaper changes since you were born and that is only when you are tired. You will only nurse if it is dark and your brothers are sleeping. You go to bed around 8:30, eat around 6ish and then sleep to 7ish. I am guessing you weigh close to 20 lbs!

You continually amaze me with the way you are in love with your brothers and watch them so intently. You are so happy when they are around and get quite bored and squirmy when they are not within earshot or eyeshot.

I thank God for you daily. I am so thankful we serve a God who knows what we need even when we don't realize it because my life would be incomplete without you in it.

I love you Shep Shep!

Beach Boys- Part 2

... looking at the pictures from the beach and realize I have some gorgeous little boys.

The boys, especially Hunter, were quite excited about our beach trip and they had a great time. The water was cool so they were not too keen on the idea of getting wet but sand and sandcastles and wandering around the beach house and playing baseball with Queenie and walking the beach and looking at jellyfish kept them quite busy.

It was so nice having so many hands around to haul Shepherd, console Ashton, and talk to Hunter. I truly felt refreshed when we left.

Hunter- was totally in love with the sand. I tried to pull him along the shore line in the kayak but it was a bit wobbly and he didnt enjoy it so he played with them and a tube for awhile. I think he was the only person who did not take a nap during the day so he went to bed early 7:30 while we were there. Here are some pix of Hunter...

Macho Macho Man


Telling me all the letters

I love this pic of us

Ashton- I think his favorite part was being coddled. Ashton is so emotional that, right or wrong, I don't always love on him like he thinks he needs. Needless to say, Ashton's huge love tank was pretty full by the time we got home. Here are Ashy Smashy's pix.

*** My favorite part of this picture is seeing the pieces of sand and chocolate on his face (you may need to click to truly appreciate it)

Look at those eyes following the ball

So precious and pouty

Shepherd- As he normally is... was perfect. He enjoyed the beach and loved squishing his feet in the sand. He woke up fairly early (around 5 am) and he would have gone back to sleep but would need to blow bubbles for about 10 minutes first and I was afraid it would wake the other two up. So, I had a fun photo session with him right when the sun was coming up. These are probably my favorites.

Though I probably have one more post for the beach, tomorrow will be all about my Shep Shep as he celebrates his 1/2 birthday! Where has the time gone?!?!?

Beachin' It -part 1

waiting for Queenie so we can start the trip to the beach

... at the beach and came to the realization that May is the time to go to the beach. WOW! The weather was amazing, we basically owned the beach, plus the company was pretty entertaining as well.

The trip started with my grandparents (in their 70's), my mom (51), my 3 boys, and me all in my van traveling around 4- 5 hours. We left Wednesday morning and arrived around 8 pm. We stayed two full days and left Saturday morning at 8 am.

We stayed in a beach house that was when you walk out the back door, you step into the sand. My wonderful aunt and her husband won a silent auction and invited us to entertain them and I think we did...

There is no way I could relay all the hilarity that occurred over the 2 days we where there, but just so I never forget; I must put it into words.

If you are not family, this will mean nothing. But Uncle David coined his new nickname as Fuckle. You must know David to see how funny this really is.

Aunt Christy got a bur up her butt to get a "boat." In Fuckle's defense, he told her not to do it and I should have listened to him but then again we would have missed out on this "memory." She asked me if I wanted to get a little boat with her. I thought a boat would be like a raft that we would sit in together and float on the ocean. Nope, she meant a single person kayak. Once I realized what she meant, it was too late to turn back. I asked her if she had done this before because I had not... she looked at me dumbfounded and said "well yes." So, while I was feeding the boys and getting ready to put them down for rest/ naps, Christy goes ahead and attempts it. I missed the first one, the second one is below, but the quality is poor for 2 reasons... 1- mom and I were laughing so hard,I was shaking and 2- I was too far away, but you get the idea... she gets knocked off. Finally, on her 3rd real attept she takes a little paddle down the ocean.

She is on it.

I come 10 minutes later and pretty much get on it rather quickly, however, it is not easy to hop up there while waves on coming plus as Aunt Christy learned, you have to get out deep enough to no have waves break on top of you. Here are some pictures of me on the kayak.

Trying to figure out how to get up there

Off and rowing

This next part is the funniest... GrandmeDean had been holding the kayaks steady for us while we got up so she was eh, knee deep in water. I was probably 30 yards away from Christy and GrandmaDean when I started to ride the waves into shore. When I was almost on the sand I look over at them, GrandmaDean is trying to help Christy up on her kayak while a pretty substantial wave catches both of them off guard. My 75 year old grandma and 55 year old aunt get totally knocked off of their feet and go under. I hop off of my kayak and sprint to them while my mom is standing there literally peeing in the sand because she is laughing so hard with my expensive camera around her neck unable to help them. Once I get to them, GrandmaDean's $600 new prescription glasses (yes, 600) and sunglasses are lost in the Atlantic, however they are both up laughing. Within 20 seconds, a small wave, Christy, and her kayak somehow get tied up together and Christy does a face plant back into the water with her kayak on top of her. The whole series of events was ... I cant think of a word that can describe it...I am laughing just reliving it.

It gets just a little bit better. The three of us decide we need a picture, so we get our kayaks up on the sand, Christy goes to sit in hers and she seriously flips out of it while ON THE SAND.

Aunt Christy flips out on the sand.

Finally, the 3 sailors... the best part is my grandpa was in the Navy, deep down, he was probably mortified!

I learned a couple things from this.
1- Aunt Christy lies like a dog!
2- However, she is one of the most persistent people I have ever met!
3- I hope I have a stronger bladder than my mom
4- My GrandmaDean can help me out anytime and I hope I have her bone strength when I get to be in my 70's.
5- Laughter is "seriously" one of the best things in the world
6- And I love these 3 women!

Next post will have my darling children and their beach adventures

NO- mamamama

... trying to get Shepherd to make the "m" sound, but following in his brothers' footsteps, he is starting to make the totally adorable soft "d" sound.

Have I mentioned how much I love this age? He is really starting to show his personality and is doing so much, but I will save that for another day.

And I havent posted one of him laughing... I am tickling is totally adorable fatty legs.

Here is just a cute picture of Shep on Ashton's lap... I swear they are going to be the same size by this time next year.

Mine and Shep's Sunday

(This is an awful picture of me (but surprisingly great pic of Chad) but we were trying to be quick because the choir had already started to sing)

... so thankful to be a mom and have the ability to dedicate my children back to the Lord. As so many churches do, Mother's Day weekend is baby dedication Sunday. Shepherd and six other babies were dedicated to the Lord and it was a nice ceremony and Shepherd, as usual, was perfect.

Charge from the Pastor

Praying over the babies.

As I was looking at my 3 precious boys on Mother's Day, I was reminded that they are not mine. I am merely their guardian while they are here on this earth. Their every path has already been established and it is my job as their mom to pray over them and guide them to follow God's direction... definitely not an easy task or one that I take lightly.

As for Mothers Day, I have been "encouraging" Chad to go shopping for me. Finally, he did and he did good. Beautiful skirt and brown capris! I also told him I wanted a double knockout rose bush. I reminded him a couple days before and when he went to get it, he told the Lowes dude he needed an exploding rose bush. Of course the salesman stared at him blankly. Thankfully, mom took the boys to Lowes on Saturday and I got one from each of them. Uncle Nolan also worked with them on saying Happy Mother's Day (I guess it is cooler to say with a gruff voice --- see clip below, I wish I could have gotten it without bribing them to say it here)

Oh, How I Love Jesus and It's a Rainy Day"

... listening to Ashton sing these two songs for weeks now and I happened to have the camera out when he started singing them with his trains.

I missed the first line and part of the second but here is what he is singing.

"Oh, how I love Jesus"
"Oh,how I love Jesussssss"
"Oh, how I love Jesus"
"Because he first loved me."

He then immediately goes into

"It's a rainy day"
"It's a rainy day"
"It's raining outside"
And I cant go out and play (he skips this line or gives his own version of it)
"why does it have to rain anywhere (anyway)"

Repeat

He always sings the two songs together. I wonder if he thinks it is one song. Also, many times he does a remix version, if I catch it, I will post it... it is quite funny.

Sweet Hunter

... answering all of Hunter's "why" questions. Went to a high school baseball game today and he asked me a couple cute ones that made me want my husband and men in general to 1) take lessons or 2) think like a little boy totally in love with their mommy.

Hunter- "Mommy, you're pretty" (he tells me this multiple times a day)
Me- "Thank you sweetie, you are cute.'
Hunter - "Why do I think you are pretty?"
Me- "I dont know"
Hunter - "Because thats how I love you"
Come on that should be a line off of a movie
Me- "You are so sweet"
Hunter - "When did you get pretty?"
Me - "I dont know"
Hunter - "hmm, I think it is when you became a mommy."

This kid is going to make a woman totally happy someday and leave me for that girl...but for now, I will take all his sweetness and hope his daddy takes lessons!

Recent projects

... longing to do something with these barstools for years.

Project 1: They are from Chad's bachin' (um does not look right nor do I think it is a real word) days and were graciously bought by his parents. Now, they are not ugly but definitely generic and they dont flow with my stuff.

Going back and forth between doing something really cool with a faux finish or just slapping on some black paint... what do you think I did?!?

Yep, black paint was my solution for two reasons...
First, I just painted our front door black so I already had it...AKA- FREE
Second- It was easy and mindless... done during nap time.

I didnt take a picture of both finished in their homes but it looks good!

Finished product= why did I not do this sooner?



Project #2- I actual did this a few weeks ago but thought it turned out really neat. A couple years ago, GrandmaDean showed me a picture out of a magazine of a hopscotch stone thingy. I had been wanting to make 10 stones with the numbers 1 to 10 in stained glass. However, I decided to go a different route again for a couple reasons.
1- GrandmaDean told me to (grandmadean always knows best)
2- So much cheaper (stained glass version at least $15 a stone for concrete, glass/ my version $2 a stone for the stone).
3- Immediate results.

It is so easy to do. I printed off an outlined template of the numbers 0-9 and then cut them out (this is the most time consuming part of the whole project). I had 4 stones that were already here when we bought the house so I just had to buy 6 more. I also had to buy a FAT sharpie for 4 bucks. Place your stencil over the stone and color. Yep,it is that easy and I only spent $15 out of pocket since I already had a few stones.

Oh, I also built the wall in the background... planning on doing another one so that will be a different post!