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!