Just a pup ...

For at least 10 months now, I have been throwing around the idea of getting another dog.

Meet Moses Chase.  He is a 4 month old hound/ lab mix born on Valentines Day.  I haven't had time to take a lot of pictures of the boys with him but trust me when I say, the boys think he is awesome. Molly is warming up to him and disciplining when she deems it appropriate.

Moses... he has huge paws and notice his one blue and one brown eye... so sweet.

We adopted him about a week and a half ago.  Since then he has eaten a poisonous plant that made him really sick and sliced a big chunk out of his tongue.  But, it is hard to beat having a sweet little puppy around the house.

Me and my newest boy.

And just because this will not get its own post but should be mentioned... Chad and me heading off for an anniversary (11 years... wow!!!)  outing which so happened to be a wedding of one of his coaches.  Kudos to my  mom for taking the boys for the night as well as bringing up Owen and Caelum and taking care of 3 dogs.  She had them all from 5:15 Saturday night until 8:00 Sunday morning!  Thank you mom!

Moses is a sweet boy who loves me a lot!  He is pretty calm to be a puppy.  He has had a couple
"accidents" in the house but a lot less than I would have expected.  Riggs has been with us the past few day and he and Moses are quickly becoming bosom buddies.  Moses has had zero accidents since Riggs has been here.  I jokingly told Nolan that Riggs is Moses' male role model. :)

The crew. 

On a side note, Moses came from a liter of 11 puppies.  His siblings and him were all up for adoption at a rescue.   My parents have also been wanting to get another dog since Abby went to dog heaven in April.  They rescued one of Mosey's sisters....  and named her Isla.  I don't have a good picture of her but she is also a precious thing.  If you live around the Clemson area and are in the market for some incredible puppies, I think there are at least 6 of these sweetie dogs left at Fox Next Vet. 


Sleepy puppy... really going to try to break the getting on the furniture habit... he was just too cute to move last night.

A Family Reunion

It is just a fact of life that as a family grows you don't get to see extended family as much.  The last time GrandmaDean's side of the family was all together was probably at her dad's funeral in 2000.  GrandmaDean mentioned a few months ago that she wanted to have a family reunion this summer. 
Here are the group shots.

I LOVE this picture.

GrandmaDean with her 8 great grandkids. 
(Hunter (8), Emse (9 months), Caelum (3), Bennett (16 months), Spencer (11 months), Ashton (6), Shepherd (4), Owen (5)

Here is a lesson in multiplication.  GrandmaDean has 2 siblings.  Jr  was the oldest; he has since passed away.  But his wife and him had 2 kids and this is their family now.

Francis is the middle child.  Her husband has also passed away.  They had 1 child- a couple members of their family were unable to come.

GrandmaDean's family now.  She and GrandpaGordie had 2 kids.  Us now.  Wow!  Talk about reproduction!  haha

And the money shot.... the whole crew.





GrandmaDean pulled off  a very nice afternoon... with the help of a few others ;)  Yesterday, everyone that fell under her mom and dad's line came to house for lunch.  Fourteen years makes a big difference!  Of course most of the kids were still my kids and Zach's kids but it was nice to see everyone again.  I hadn't even seen my cousin, who was also my maid of honor, in over a year!


The food.

 

 

 

 


The Drinks.

 

 

 

 

 

 The Fellowship

 
 

 

 


The 2013 Babes
We were blessed with 3 babies in 2013.

 

Bennett (Jan 2013), Esme' (my brother's baby- Aug 2013), and Spencer (my cousin's baby- June 2013).

 

 

Esme getting up close and personal.

 

Thank you GrandmaDean and the others who helped to pull off this reunion. 

 

Tasting Summer

Summer break is just around the corner and we cant wait.

Just this past week...

...we went to Carowinds twice

Hunter and Ashton riding a coaster (2nd row)... Shep didn't want to ride this one probably because he couldn't hold onto me. :) Below Bennett, Shep and I wait patiently on the older two.  Sheppy was in charge of the map, such a boy.

 


While Ash and Hunter are on another ride, Shepherd hops on the little plane ride for/ with Bennett.





Because we have season passes, we don't have to pay to go into the new Dinosaurs Alive exhibit.  They actually really enjoyed seeing the life-size dinosaurs.  Bennett was a bit overwhelmed as they have the speakers up really loud with dinosaur noises and the dinosaurs move, but he was fine as long as he was in the stroller.

Acting like dinosaurs

The infamous T-Rex

....had Hunter's awards program

Receiving his award from the principal



Hunter and his teacher, Mrs Martin.  He had a really good year with her!

....finished up Shepherd's soccer season (H and A's season ends this week.)

Shep is the one that looks like he is dancing.

.... went to visit GrandpaGordie's gravespot for Memorial Day and his birthday


Talking about GrandpaGordie.

....and Chad's team had their spring game. 

Hunter, Ashton and the other ball boy.  This was Ashton's debut to being a ball boy.  He will be on the sideline with fall with Hunter.  He is sooo excited.

Spring game.

We did all this while battling another round of a stomach bug.... so a very productive week.  The boys last day of school is Wednesday. YAY!  Summertime!

Shepherd's Funnys

In honor of Shepherd's half birthday last weekend...

 

Some people have a child that is just quirky funny.  They don't mean to be funny and many people don't recognize their odd humor but in our family, in my world, we value such humor.... and its a good thing.

Though all the boys say funny things, Shepherd continually tops the cake.  This is the best and easiest way for me to keep a record of it.  Enjoy! 

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The day after Easter

Shep- "Did you buy eggs at the store?"

Me- "No"

Shep-  "I want to kill some eggs again."

Hunter looks at me horrified.  After a few moments, I bust out laughing when I realize he wanted to "dye" eggs again.  Once I explained to Hunter, he immediately went to giving Shepherd a very serious talk about the difference between "die" and "dye."

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Outside with sidewalk chalk he writes this.
    Shepherd liks mom.

Obviously, he meant "Shepherd likes mom."  Ashton immediately corrected him.

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Shep:  mommy, can I see your hammer?
Me:  Why?
Shep: Oh, I am just going to fix your car.

*** He also recently got my hammer and a nail and nailed it into the wall behind the den curtains.

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Shep:  Mommy, in the book that I am making, your power is to shoot out farts and you can think really good.

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Walking out of Hobby Lobby
Shep:  I know almost all things
Me- about what?
Shep: You know, about things.


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Shep:  Hunter, can I touch your lizard?
(ha, maybe Chad and I have our minds in the gutter, but we both laughed out loud)
Explanation- Hunter "bought" a purple sticky lizard thing at his school market and very simply Shepherd wanted to hold it.

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Shep:  Do I pee in this yard (point to backyard) or that yard (front yard)
 *** He has been told he can only pee in the backyard and for some reason, this bright child can not keep it straight.

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Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand word.  How could I post about Shepherd and not at least mention poop?  Yes, he spray painted dog poop with orange spray paint.

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All of these happened in just a one week time frame.

Shepherd has always made me melt.  He continues to be quirky and smart.  He still loves puzzles and coloring and reading with me and music.  He has hair that I am absolutely envious of and a smile that can work a room.... not to mention gives that best hugs... seriously, he is liking hugging a bear cub.

Only 6 more months until he is 5!  Wow!

Love you my poppa tarda (a nickname that we use on eachother and yet another example of his our quirkiness.)

Mother's Day Love

***forgive my lack of posting... I have had my  nose in my Kindle. 

My precious men.

We got quite a treat on Saturday with both our moms and my grandma all meeting up for the boy's soccer games.  Zach and his family as well as Nolan and Papa Hub also came. So, we celebrated an early Mother's Day.

I gave our moms these cool prints from one of my favorite design blogs.  Love this girls simple style.  Anyway, got each little print framed... I just love little things like this.

I hinted told Chad what I wanted for Mother's Day.  He somehow managed to get the wrong one and his dad and I exchanged it... Bless Chad, he tried.

Anyway, I wanted a table for 6 for our family to eat outside.  The boys LOVE to eat outside so it was logical to get a place to eat. 

I also bought myself a Kindle... which I opened early.  Amazon was running a special on their cheapest model which is normally $69, I got it for $19.  I love how simple it is.  It is small with no bells and whistles.  I have Amazon Prime so I get to check out a book a month and then my mother in law recommend that I check out electronically through the library as well.  So, I have been a bit of book worm. 

Here is a picture right before church.  One day, one day, I will get a good picture of all 4 boys and me.

Ashton was mad at me by this point because I wanted him to JUST STAND STILL

And just for grins, mom, here is the outfit you got for Bennett.  He got a TON of compliments on it.  He looked too cute!


Sportin' this awesome outfit.

Happy Belated Mother's Day to those special ladies in my life!