Baylor Homecoming weekend

Over the past weekend, our family attended Baylor University's Homecoming. Papa Bear and I haven't been back for Homecoming in 13 years, and it was a fun, quick trip. We saw the Homecoming Parade, showed our kids some of the campus, and attended the game in the awesome McLane Stadium. We had the added bonus of seeing lots of family and celebrating a few birthdays. It was an awesome weekend! Sic 'em, Bears!

Cousins enjoying the Homecoming parade

Happy birthday, M!

Yesterday we were able to celebrate Big Brother turning seven! He is such a good big brother, very thoughtful, smart, creative, and a fun kid. God blessed our family seven years ago, and we are so grateful.

We love him so much, and the celebration will continue this weekend!

About those stitches... and a hurricane.

As I previously mentioned, Baby Girl fell and got stitches on a Monday. The following Thursday (which happened to be the same day Hurricane Matthew blew through our area), Baby Girl hit her chin on Middle Brother's head when they were playing around. She hit her chin hard enough that she busted a stitch!!! I felt so many emotions (anger, concern, frustration, fear, etc.), and Papa Bear was traveling. Again. I called Papa Bear during his layover, and he (hallelujah!!!) decided to switch his ticket and fly home. Very fortunately, his flight arrived before our airport closed down, and Papa Bear took Baby Girl to get five more stitches. Miserable. Some good news: The stitches are still in place, Hurricane Matthew ended up turning east and didn't create any damage for us, and we enjoyed a fun, unplanned family weekend. What a week!

Stitches.

One kid received stitches this evening, and surprisingly it was Baby Girl. Maybe it isn't that surprising. She is a climber, but this injury occurred from smacking her chin on our wooden floors. Ugh. The process of receiving stitches was not fun (at all!!), but she bounced back quickly after the work was done. She received three stitches on her chinny chin chin. Now I hope she will be careful enough to let the area heal (she was climbing on things the moment we got home! and keep the stitches in in in. 

Celebrating little miss

In September we celebrated Baby Girl turning 2 with a family trip to Sea World. She's at a fun, spunky, sassy, talkative age where she wants to do most things herself. She is delighted by most things but especially her big brothers. She keeps up with them, jumping right in when they are wrestling sometimes. Yikes! She climbs all over things, including Big Brother's bunk bed. She keeps us on our toes, just like her brothers did. Happy birthday, Baby Girl! You're a joy, and we love you!

My Happiness Hack

Have you heard the term "happiness hack?" I've heard it a few times, and I think basically a happiness hack is a simple tip to make life "happier" or easier (assuming easier = happier). I wanted to share a happiness hack that I've adopted. Maybe it'll work for someone else.

I like to use reusable containers in my kids' lunch boxes, because it's better for the environment and all, BUT I do not like washing the little containers and lids each day. I know, I know.... the stuff is small, so it's not that big of a deal and doesn't consume that much time, but it is one.more.thing. So, I decided that on FRIDAYs I will not use the reusable containers. On Fridays, everything that goes in the lunch box is either in a plastic bag or its individually packaged container. Instructions: Throw it away! I am seriously *happy* when I open up my kids' EMPTY lunch boxes after school on Friday and hang those lunch boxes up with the backpacks until the following Monday. Welcome to the weekend!

School is back in session!

School is back in session for the boys. They both had a great first day and have friends in their classes, so it was a great start; however, it is only day two and Middle Brother began having a meltdown midday.

Everyone has done well getting out of the house the past two mornings, but the routine and activity of school days is going to take some getting used to after our slow summer.

Also, with two different pick up times, I am trying to figure out this naptime thing for Baby Girl. Unfortunately it looks like she's just going to have shortened naps during the week.

Happy birthday, Middle Brother!

We celebrated Middle Brother's actual birthday (again) this past weekend. It was a fun day, and we look forward to celebrating him more later this month when his friend is in town. I'm realizing it's tough to have a summer birthday so close to school ending or beginning.

He went to bed as a 3 year old....

...and woke up as a 4 year old!

Happy birthday, Middle Brother. You are an absolute joy, full of life, and we love you so much!

Happy birthday, Mia!

Happy birthday to the best Mia. We love you!!!

July in review

It goes without saying that I have a lot of trouble keeping up with this blog, so here are pictures from the month of July.

The boys and I saw "Beauty and the Beast" one afternoon.

We enjoyed free slurpees on 7-11. Yum! (Brooklyn also got diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease on this day. Boo.)

We celebrated Cali's 14th birthday!

Papa John and L treated us to Legoland on a visit.

We celebrated Middle Brother's birthday early while Papa John was visiting.

Most of our evenings look like this. Baby Girl likes to look for lizards (baby "ya-yas") after dinner.

Fourth of July weekend with cousins

We had a chance to spend the Fourth of July weekend with family visiting from California. We love our time with family, and my boys look forward to time with cousins - always! We spent the weekend at a place on the beach and therefore spent a lot of time on the beach and at the pool. The fireworks on the Fourth of July were awesome. People shot off fireworks on the beach, so for over an hour there were all sorts of fireworks up and down the beach in both directions. Baby Girl didn't care for the fireworks, so she went to bed (thank goodness for sound machines) just before the sun went down and the big fireworks began. The weekend was a blast (pun intended)!

One morning Papa Bear and Big Brother caught the sunrise.