Little Boys

I just screamed. Seriously. There was a cup on the edge of Nathan's bed. It was dark cause I just tucked the kids in. I picked up the cup and saw that it had water in it. I walked to the hall where there was light. In it was a frog, a toy frog of course. And then it jumped. That's when I screamed. It surprised me. I wasn't expecting a live frog!!!

Sam Houston Statue

We drive by this statue and I've always wanted to stop and get a picture. We finally took the time. It was pretty cool!

The rose bushes

Evan put some rose bushes in those pots a few years ago. They were tiny roses and I've never liked them. They were overgrown, unruly, and dominated my front porch. So I took a knife to them and cut them out, put them in the trash pile. They are gone. Done. And my porch looks so much better and open. And you won't get scratched when you come to say hello. 

It did feel a little good (okay, maybe a lot) to take those bushes out. Felt a little rebellious. Now I have to figure out what to plant there. I'm thinking topiaries. Or big, gorgeous flowers. 

Spencer lost his tooth

Spencer thinks he probably swallowed his tooth. It was in his mouth when he went to bed and gone when he woke up. No where to be found. Wonder if the tooth fairy will come? He said he wants to wait till he is at my house to write the tooth fairy a note. And I would love that. But even if he doesn't wait till he gets home to me, I hope that tooth fairy can still come. 

April Fools Day

Some of my kids have come home from school and asked my why we celebrate certain holidays. My response, because it's fun. I can't think of any other reason why I celebrate April Fools Day. I don't likw mean tricks, I don't like to waste things. But I love to play and have fun with my children, and this holiday allows me to do that. If my kids didn't like it, I would stop. But they love it. It makes them happy, makes them smile, and I'm pretty sure it even makes them giggle.

Here is what we did for supper the evening of April Fools. We had meat loaf frosted in mashed potatoes. 

The famous HUGE jello drinks.

Mashed potato sundaes, yes that's gravy.

And we ate late. Because we had swim practice. We didn't get dressed to come to the table, just came in all our swimsuit glory.

Breakfast we had yougrt and peaches. 

Lunch was a sandwich wrapped in a Ra-men noodle package. Cheetos were replaced with baby carrots. Grilled cheese sandwich was really angel food cake with orange frosting in the center. Water was Sprite. 

My school kids didn't really react, or at least they didn't tell me they reacted. They expected it. However, Gavin did not. You should have seen the look on his face when he bit into that sandwich. And the funniest was when he asked for some water and it was Sprite. The surprised, confused look on his face was priceless.

Nathan Swim Team 2014

This is Nathan's second year on swim team. He is already becoming a better swimmer and really enjoying getting in the water and racing.

This is Nathan at the ready bench chatting with friends.

The swimmers before Nathan were taking a little linger, and Nathan is a busy, curious boy, checking out the dive board.

Nathan all ready for the dive into the water.

And he takes off! Wait? Where did that good dive form go?

I love, love, love to watch my little kids dive. They really, honestly think they are diving into the water. They are so convinced that their hands and then head touch the water first. It takes them until they are about 8 to be able to dive (at least in the case of my children) hands and head first. But I love watching them "dive" and being so proud that they dove.

It always funny to show them the pictures of their dive and them going "O". 

When Nathan gets tired or needs a good breath, he rolls to his back. This is the safest thing to do and I am so glad that his coaches taught him this technique. It will help keep him safe if he ever gets into a bad situation in water.

Paisley

Things didn't end up working out well for us and having a dog. My kids loved paisley. Camie never complained about having to take care of her. 

But Gavin was relentless. He would pull her tail. Sit on her. I really don't think he was trying to be mean, but he kind of was. And paisley was fed up with it. She started nipping at him. And regardless of how long he had to stand in the corner, how many times I tried to get him to be nice to her, nothing worked. I ended up being referee way too much. 

And one evening when he was playing/picking on her, she bit. She got him good. And as much as he probably deserved it, I can't have this going on in my home. 

We all cried. We tried to justify keeping her. But in the end we decided it was best for our family AND paisley if we found her a new home. 

I put an announcement on my HOA Facebook page and the next day she had a new home. Hopefully a home that can give her the love she deserves without a 3 year old tormentor. I felt good about her new home and the people we gave her to. 

But my kids were sad. So sad. Spencer even asked me later if I was going to get rid of him if he didn't behave. I assured him I would not, but that if he hurt one of his siblings like paisley hurt Gavin, something serious would have to happen. However he is not a dog and that changes everything. 

I'm not too crazy about having a dog, but that has nothing to do with finding paisley a new home. We just have to wait till Gavin is older and until I'm ready to take on another dog. Cause they aren't easy. 

Spring Break

We spent spring break at my parents. Originally it was going to be me and my children and Jana Humpherys and her children. Well, Eric couldn't resist spending a week with me at my parents home (Eric is my brother) so he left his wife and 1 week baby at home and brought his other 3 children. So nice to give his wife a break. And then Michael, also my brother, decided to come up and visit with his family since we were all going to be there. Charles, yet another of my brothers, talked my sister Bonnie into coming. It ended up being 7 of us 8 kids and Jana. We had so much fun. Watched lots of movies, painted my moms sewing room, watched movies, went on walks, ate ice cream, and had fun hanging out. 

Charles' wife,amber, had her baby while we were there. This is a picture the day before she delivered. 

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St Patricks Day

I didn't take enough pictures! We had a great green day. Mostly green food. Green pancakes for breakfast. Green rolls for lunch in place of the sandwich and green cookies. Green Hawaiian haystacks for supper. 

The kids had fun painting and decorating their leprechaun boxes. And then enjoying the treasures after the leprechauns came. 

Those little leprechauns left feet prints all over the floor. Over turned our living room furniture. I'm assuming they weren't too happy about having to give my kids some of the treasures. 

You'd think it was Christmas morning by the way my kids wake up and can't wait to go downstairs. Except I never told them they couldn't go downstairs. But they assumed and I was okay with that. Danielle was perhaps the most excited and woke everyone up.