Evan Turns 5 Years Old!!

I've never seen anyone so excited about their birthday!! Evan needed to know the plan and he was excited about it!!

On Friday, the first present arrived!! Excitement was in the air!


OK, now I'll continue!

He thought it was funny that everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him.

Blowing out all 5 candles! He acted like he had to blow out 500 or something!
That ribbon on his shirt says "I'm 5 Today". Yes, he just HAD to have it! He wore it proudly all day long pointing out to anyone that would listen that it was his birthday!

So, here's the next one : Jaxon's birthday is in 2 weeks!! 2 weeks I said!!! I haven't even started!! Oh well! Luckily he doesn't have an opinion yet.

Evan Turns 5 Years Old!

I've never seen anyone so excited about their birthday!! Evan needed to know the plan and he was excited about it!!

On Friday, the first present arrived!! Excitement was in the air!


OK, now I'll continue!

He thought it was funny that everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him.

Blowing out all 5 candles! He acted like he had to blow out 500 or something!
That ribbon on his shirt says "I'm 5 Today". Yes, he just HAD to have it! He wore it proudly all day long pointing out to anyone that would listen that it was his birthday!

So, here's the next one : Jaxon's birthday is in 2 weeks!! 2 weeks I said!!! I haven't even started!! Oh well! Luckily he doesn't have an opinion yet.

My Ring is LOST!

In the last week, I've finally been able to put my wedding ring back on. When I was pregnant with Jaxon, my fingers swelled so bad, I couldn't wear it for about the last 4 or 5 months of my pregnancy and I haven't been able to wear it since. Finally this past week, it started to fit.

On Wednesday, I put it on but once we got going with Hallelujah Night, my fingers started swelling and I had to take it off before it got stuck. I had to put it in my pocket until I could put it somewhere "safer". Then, I got so busy that I didn't think about it again. . . until the next day when Aaron asked me where my ring was. I thought I had tried to put it on that morning, but then I realized I hadn't seen it. When I got home from Hallelujah Night, I emptied my pockets, which were full of all kinds of things during Hallelujah Night and it wasn't there.

I can't find it anywhere. My guess is that one of the several times I pulled my keys out of my pockets, my ring fell out. I'm just believing that it will be returned to me.

Mom, I have NOTHING to wear!!

Here's a video I got of Jaxon last night:



Guess he doesn't like any of his clothes!

God, Our Protector

Yesterday evening, Payton, Evan, & I were doing those little bead things where you can make shapes and then you iron them together. I'm not sure what they're called, but that's not the point.

I had the iron on medium-high heat and we were in the kitchen. When we were finished, I unplugged the iron and we were all talking, not thinking much about the iron. Jaxon went to grab the cord of the iron and Aaron said, "No Jaxon. Don't pull on that." He pulled his hand away, but he turned around to sit down and he sat on the cord. The iron came right down on his head, point first. You know that little point at the end of the iron? Yep. . that thing. Right on his soft spot. Aaron saw it happen, but couldn't grab it fast enough. He scooped Jaxon up and started praying. Jaxon was screaming. I was trying to assess the damage, but I couldn't see any blood or any burn marks. Aaron held Jaxon tight and when he pulled him away to look at him, I was expecting to see a burn or blood or something. There was nothing. He calmed down pretty quickly, too.

It didn't puncture his head. There was a dent there and it was going to bruise, for sure but there wasn't anything else wrong. Aaron called Gary Cheek to see what to do. Jaxon hadn't had a nap that afternoon, so he was already sleepy before the incident and now he was really tired. We wanted to make sure it was ok to let him go to sleep. His eyes were dilating and we could wake him up, so we just let him sleep. When he woke up from his nap, he was the same ol' Jaxon crawling all over the place.

This morning, there is a little scratch kind of thing on his head and it's got a little bump, but nothing else. PRAISE GOD!! And, he wasn't burned ANYWHERE!! I would think that after the point hit his head, it would have fallen and burned him, but it didn't. It did shatter the iron, but that doesn't matter.

One of "Those Days"

This morning, we all got up on time. I cooked breakfast. Payton was dressed before I knew it. He even beat Aaron getting dressed! When he came in, he didn't have his Texas Rangers jersey on. When I asked him if he wanted to wear it, he just said, "No, today is just a NIKE day." He had on his new NIKE shoes, his new NIKE socks, his new NIKE shorts, and his NIKE under-armor (by the way, he insists that NIKE be spelled with all caps).

He fixed his own lunch, which I was a little sad about. He ate his breakfast and finished tying his shoes. Aaron had already backed the car out of the driveway and was waiting on Payton. As Payton started out the door, I said, "WAIT! Can't I get one picture?" He turned around, smiled and said, "CHEESE." Then, I said, "Hurry! Run!" As he took off running with his Colorado Rockies backpack swishing back and forth on his back, I thought, "No, stay home with me! Are you sure you have to go to 2nd grade?" And, for the first time, I cried about Payton going to school. I didn't cry with Kindergarten. I didn't cry with 1st grade. But for some reason today, it hit me that my "baby" is growing up. Wasn't he just Jaxon's age a few months ago?

I went to the church for my meetings and this seemed to carry over. I cried in staff meeting -- I HATE IT when I do that.

When I posted this originally, I did forget to add that Jaxon was beyond fussy today. All day. During our staff meeting, he had a friend to play with, but he was more fussy than usual. I do know that he was tired, too, but that kid was just "out of whack" today. We got home and I put him down for a nap and he was still a little fussy. But when Payton walked in the door, that smile flashed across his face just as big as he could smile!! His bubba was home!! Payton picked him up and Jaxon just laid his head down on Payton's shoulder. He just followed Payton around wherever he went! He really did miss him.

Next week, Evan starts going to Mommy's Day Out. What the heck will I be like then?

Playing in the Rain

Yesterday, the boys were outside playing football, when it started to sprinkle. They came in and put their bathing suits on in case it rained. It started pouring down and they were still "working out". Payton said it was because the pros practice in the rain. So, here are my very own football pros:

All the pros do push-ups in the rain, too.
I couldn't turn down a few shots of splashing feet!
I didn't realize Evan had such a vertical leap!

I'm not sure exactly what Evan is "practicing" here. . .
I guess every pro needs to know how to swim in the driveway!

Good thing we live on a cul-de-sac! Only then can you go out and swim in the road!

Cul-de-sacs are good for being able to ride your bike down the middle of the road, too!

It's only a day away. . .

Yes, it was only a day away, but it was a fun day away!! Here's our adventures in Austin! Who knew it was only 3 hours away?!? But, because Trish & I don't like our pictures taken, here are Bear & Elephant to tell you about our trip!

7:45 am . . . time to leave. A little later than planned, but everyone is excited!



Had lunch at La Madeline. . . but nobody wanted to admit how much they ate. Here's the leftovers! It was delicious!




Here it is!! IKEA!! We spent 4 hours in there!! Found a ton of things. . . why can't money grow on trees?


Off to the outlet mall. Fossil didn't have the right watch, so we stopped to enjoy some Starbucks Passion Tea (and a small cookie)!







Off to pick up Trish's sister at the hospital where she works. Then, to her house to see about Bella. Bella's staying, so we stop at HEB. I do have to admit that it was a pretty cool HEB.



A Sugar Free Redbull for Bear for the drive home.



Back to IKEA to pick up our furniture. . . and a few other things!




OK, time to end the day. Time to head back to real life.


Enjoying the beautiful sunset (not bad for a moving shot)






As it gets darker, things aren't looking quite right.
Bear: I don't think we're going the right way. This doesn't look familiar.



Elephant: What town did we just go through?
Bear: Hamilton.
Elephant: Let's look at the map


Elephant: Nope, we missed our turn somewhere. Just take this other highway
and we'll be back on track. Glad we noticed that now!
We were heading for Ft. Worth!



So now, we're back on track headed back to Clyde.



We arrive home about 11:30 pm and I think Bear & Elephant are both exhausted!!
Thanks, Bear, for the WONDERFUL day!!
We MUST do that again sometime . . .
sometime soon!

Adventures in Cupcake Baking

Aaron's birthday was on Saturday so Evan & I made him some cupcakes. Here's some pictures to document our adventure in cupcake baking.

At first, we forgot to add the water, so we had "cupcake soup" for a little while". With a few more stirs, we had cupcake batter.

OK, just one taste

Oh, what's one more going to hurt?
No, mom. I didn't have any cupcake batter!
Now they're done. When will they be cool enough to put frosting on?

Next it's time for SPRINKLES!!

Then 31 candles . . . yes, I said 31!!

Jaxon gets his first taste of cake. That piece really wasn't that big, but he sure made a mess out of it!!
Yes, mom. I think I like cake.

Time for a bath in the kitchen sink!

Gosh! It's been a while!

Here's the catch up on us:

Payton's out of school. He played baseball for the first time this year and made the all-star team. He really had a great time playing! He has been learning how to mow the yard so he can save up his money to buy baseball/football/basketball jerseys.

Evan is just being Evan -- silly most of the time and loving the rest. He just wants to be big like Payton so bad. He is going to start going to a mommy's day out in September, which he is VERY excited about. He's going on a little vacation with his "girlfriend" on Friday to Dinosaur World in Glen Rose, TX. He is very excited about that!

Jaxon is getting bigger by the day! He is rolling all over the place and has started scooting in the last week or so. If he sees something that he wants, he is pretty quick to get from point A to point B. A month ago, he went to the doctor and he weighed 21 lbs 8 oz. He's a big boy, but I'm sure some of that will come off as he gets more mobile.



Aaron leaves tomorrow for a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon. He is very excited about that! He is going with his dad, his brother, a friend, and a cousin. The boys and I will be holding down the fort while he's gone.

So, that's it from us! Lots going on. . . little time to blog!

A budding writer?

Here are a few stories that Payton has written at school over the last week or so. How he spelled, how he worded things:

Once upon a time Joebob, Hairybob, Billybob were kings of fat pigs. And then the big bad wolf tried to blow there houses down while they were rideing their dirt bikes. One day a fat pig came up to Joebob and said how can I die?

He didn't have time to finish. This one came home yesterday:

Lady bugs can fly and they have a hard shell. Lady bugs have black spots. Lady bugs are round. lady bugs taste bad. lady bugs help farmers.

My question is . . . how does he know lady bugs taste bad?!?! And, why did the pig want to die?!?

On The Move. . .

Last week I was on the phone with my mom and Jaxon was laying in the floor. He's been trying to roll over for quite some time, but he would get stuck about 1/2 of the way. But, last night he rolled right over. Payton & Evan rolled from their tummies to their backs first because they were so fat they couldn't get over. But, Jaxon decided to do things a little different.

Here are pictures from this morning: