Fun stuff

This soccer picture was something I was trying for a Christmas picture. Soccer is such a big part of our lives so I thought I would give it a try. While I like it it made the cutting room floor this year.


While getting down the Christmas decorations, the boys noticed two huge tubs of beanie babies that I used to collect. They begged to bring them down and have not quit playing with them or sleeping with them as you see here. Cameron is not only sleeping with the beanies but he decided last night, after I tucked him in, to get his soccer trophy and picture. I went to check on him and this is what I found. :) So sweet he is so proud of it. Of course I moved them so he did not bonk his head in the middle of the night.

These last two picture are Cameron and his Pepere enjoying a little unscheduled nap. They sat down to watch a cartoon and both were asleep within minutes.

Chandler asked his sweet girlfriend, Cathleen to the Winter formal last week. I did not know that when the boys ask the girls it is supposed to be in some creative fashioin. So her mother got her out of the house and we put streamers all over her room and balloons. ( I know you only see one in the picture but there were several) We also picked up some roses. I left so she wouldn't know he was there and when she came home her mother sent her to get something from her room and there was Chandler waiting to ask her. ( normally their bedrooms are OFF LIMITS but her mom was right there and I wasn't far behind. It was fun but what's up with this generation???? I thought you only were supposed to be creative with engagement. Oh well at least it is teaching these boys to think creatively and maybe it stick with them.
Sorry for the long post just had these pictures to share.
Have a great day in the Lord.
Blessings,

Parenting & Birthday wishes

We are trying so hard to get Carson, our 6yr old to STOP sucking his thumb. One of the things we are trying now is to put a band-aid on his thumb just as a reminder when he puts his thumb in to take it back out. The doctor said after 21 days of no sucking the thumb the habit should be broken. Well our 5 yr old, Cameron has been paying very close attention to all of this and he doesn't suck his thumb but his finger is ALWAYS in his nose. I am constantly having to get onto to him about this and ask him if he needs a tissue. The other day he walked out of the bathroom with a band-aid covering his nostrils and matter of factly stated that he would wear it for 21 days and then he would break the habit of picking his nose.

Kids......aren't they precious?????

Birthday wishes to my brother-in-law, Jimmy. Hope you have a great day!

Blessings

Fun with boys

A simple trip to Sports Authority to purchase two soccer balls turns into a one hour adventure for Carson and Cameron. Oh and dad will say he was just an innocent bystander but he was right in the middle and loving it! By the way, even thought there is not a picture we did actually purchase the soccer balls. :)

Silly Stuff

As I pointed out the very large glossy looking stomach carrying SIX babies probably about 7months pregnant of Kate (Jon & Kate plus 8) to my youngest children, Cameron, my youngest, yelled "Hey look Carson, That tummy is bigger than mommy's" Now I realize that could be perceived as sort of a compliment but when he said it what I heard was" Wow, I can't believe it Carson there is actually someone out there bigger than our big Mom" I can promise you my tummy is not that big. :) Silly kids sure know how to make their mom feel like a real beauty:)

I never know when it comes on but if I channel surf and see it we will watch it. If you do watch it you know exactly what I am talking about you know in the intro when she is in the hospital and probably having an ultra sound so she has all that jelly on her tummy.

Back to big tummies... My sisters and I are on a Journey to better health so we have started a new blog called (now do not laugh) Three hotties trapped in Fat bodies... I heard that laugh! We are just being silly and trying to use humor to tackle this really tough struggle and long journey we have ahead of us.

Changing the subject a bit. I wanted to wish my Nephew, Adam a very happy birthday. It was yesterday and he had to spend it in the desert, the VERY HOT desert. Thanks Adam for your service to our country. We love you.

Blessings,

Fun times/Soccer

Carson's birthday is in May. This is an incredibly busy month for us so it seems if there is going to be anything then just a family get together it has to be later, in this case 2 months later. We had originally planned to have a pretty big back yard party when he decided he just wanted to have some friends spend the night. Now I know 6 year olds typically don't have sleep overs but I also have a 15 year old who always has friends over so my little ones are always begging to have friends spend the night. Well I told him two friends from soccer and two friends from school could come and so it was. Now we purposily had it last night knowing my oldest would be gone that way they wouldn't bug him and he wouldn't bug them. What I was not anticipating was that hubby would be gone as well. (I'll explain further into the post).

The kids ate pizza, then Carson opened presents, then of course they played with them. I gave the kids some little toys to thank them for coming one of which was the glow necklace's which they quickly cracked open and went outside in the dark to jump on the trampoline which was a really neat sight. We all watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and ate popcorn after the sleeping bags were layed out on the living room floor. I think the last kiddo went to sleep at 12:00am. Of course all were up by 6:45am and I being on WW and being the health conscience person I am offered them cake for breakfast. :) Now I also made waffles for them but some did eat cake as well. The kids were all gone by 9:30am and I am exhausted. It really was a really fun, easy, little get together. I really enjoyed hearing the conversations 6 year olds have with one another. Bodily functions seem to be the universal topic that cracks them up. So Silly :) Which reminds me that Carson went to a Soccer camp a month ago and he loved it but when you asked him what he favorite party of the whole week was he told us that it was when his friend taught him how to make "special noises" using him arm pit and hand. Yes bodily functions are a topic of comedy for sure for 6 year olds, boys in particular.

My oldest is at Regional Olympic Development Camp for Soccer. He is having a really great time. The state teams play games in the morning against each other and from those games the regional coaches select a few players from each state to play in pool games(combination games of players from each of the different states) He was selected to play in last night's pool game and we just found out tonight's as well. My husband took him to this camp which is at The University of Alabama and said he would stay to watch if he were selected to play. Of course since he was selected last night hubby stayed.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of him playing soccer. Even thought those two other players are on his back he still has his eye on the ball.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Blessings,

Lots of trivial stuff

I have a lot to post so you might need a cup of tea or coke or something. Sit down and stay a while......and try to focus or I will lose you. This post will be a real writer's worst nightmare.(hehe)

First- On Friday April 11th I had Carson's haircut. It needed it but it was exactly one week before his Kindergarten graduation pictures and I did not want that brand new haircut look for his pictures so thinking ahead I scheduled the appointment and his hair looked adorable. Fast forward to Thursday April 17th. The day before his pictures. On the way to school he begins to cry with a tooth-ache. I knew we had been recently so the tooth could not be too bad but I assured him I would take him to the dentist after school.(He only goes 1/2 day so I new he would be okay) We go to the dentist and the tooth turned out to be abscessed! He had to have it pulled and had to have an impression for a space maintainer. We left the appointment and hurried to big brother, Chandler's soccer game where Carson began to play with other children and I did not give him a second thought until it was time to leave and he comes around the corner with a big fat lip. Now I worked as a dental assistant in a children's dentist office for 10 years and I always reminded children not to bite their lips or cheeks after dental work because they were numb and could do a lot of damage since they couldn't feel it. What a bad mom I am, not only did I not mention it.. It didn't even occur to me. Oh well needless to say, his hair looked great for his pictures but his lip.... not so much. I must say though that I have matured because had it been my first child I would have been calling the school trying to reschedule the pictures and I would have been all upset. This time I thought oh well we will look back at these pictures and remember a crazy day. All Carson cared about was that he made the 2008 lost tooth poster in his class! I have to add that I walked into the bathroom the morning of his pictures and he was laying his lip on the bathroom scale... I inquired what's up and he let me know that he was trying to lose lip weight.. (I am quite sure he was confused about how the scale works) MMMM don't people pay alot of money to have lip weight added???????


Second- My in-laws recently came back from a two week trip to Hawaii. I had only one request and that was to please bring me a pineapple. My parents lived there for 10 years and I had eaten plenty pineapple thanks to our 3 visits and my parents bringing some to us when they visited. Making a short story much longer here... the bottom line is the pineapple was carried into our home, cut with our special pineapple cutter, and devoured. All this took place in about 10 minutes. Yippee!!! I just love fresh pineapple it was so good! Thanks Mom and Dad!!



And Yes we always cut things without a cutting board and with our children on the counter don't you?(hehe)


Third- Sunday my oldest was upstairs doing his homework and he heard a some what familiar sound from his past, one that he has not heard in at least 5 years. He came barreling down the stairs and said "give me some money, hurry, quick!" turns out the Ice-cream man had just passed and that 15yr old teen quickly became 8 again. He ran out the door with the other two following him. They had to run down the street a little but came back quickly with 3 very novel, quite expensive, probably been in the truck a while, ice-creams. The smiles that come after visiting that annoying musical truck are priceless. I am sure the ice-cream man thought it parculir that my oldest only had on shorts and my youngest had on shorts, a short sleeve shirt with a long sleeve shirt on top of it and of course one camoflauge glove. I do believe my middle one was dressed fairly normally. Needless to say I am glad they had to run a little down the street to catch the truck. Maybe just maybe no body saw them come from my house.(hehe)


Lastly, I am an avid reader of this blog. She has great decorative style and is very funny. I tried some, what she calls, window mistreatments in my bathroom. Very easy just material, glue gun, trim, and upholstery tacks. Just thought I'd share. I kind of like them. I might try to glue a liner on the back. Not sure yet.


Well, I do think I have posted plenty so to my faithful few that visit often sorry and to any new lurkers I hope I did not scare you off I usually don't post so much at one time.
Blessings,

Please pray for this family & updates on ours

I would like to ask that you pray for the Luce family. If you visit their blog, Poppy Joy, you will know why. She is the grand-daughter of my former pastor. My pastor, her beloved grandfather, passed 12 hours after she delivered her first born and now she delivered her second born yesterday that resulted in the baby only living 3 hours after birth. They knew she would probably not live long. I do not know her personally but after reading her blog I know that she and her husband are two incredibly godly people.

An update on my father in law.... He is recovering nicely from the surgery, however, the doctor did tell him that at his age he would never fully regain all the elasticity needed in the arm. My prayer request for him now is that he will be able to at least function well enough that he can go into his workshop and do the woodworking he so loves to do. He has built some incredible things through the years and I know it would be extremely hard on him and my mother in law if he were not able to continue building.
My parents took a trip to Egypt I am asking for safe travels for them, and as always continue to pray for Adam who has been deployed.

On a lighter note we are all well. Carson had his first basketball game Saturday and we had so much fun watching. At half time the score was a whopping 0-0. Often times it ends this way so during the half time each team goes out and every player shoots a free throw. That is usually where the points come from. The opposing team made 4 and we only made 1. Carson did however, score a basket which was cool. They ended up losing 8-3.
Cameron has said that he is perfectly fine watching his brothers play sports and has no intention of playing any which is perfectly fine with us. We will just have to find that one thing that really interests him maybe boyscouts?
Chandler's soccer team has had quite an impressive 6 months. In 6 months they have won 2 state championships, competed in regionals where they beat a Texas team which was huge, got second in the premier league and then royally messed up this last tournament that they had this past weekend. It is a really big tournament and they have played well but just could not put the ball in the net. They lost both their games yesterday and they have one this morning.
David travels this week and I have a sinus infection, lucky me.
Blessings to you and your family,
Linda

First day of school, First day of school

I can just hear Nemo repeating that statement to his dad as they are swimming to the local school. Today my oldest, Chandler began high school. He has gone to the same school since K-5 so he already knows most of the students so he wasn't nervous about meeting new people. He was actually nervous that he would not know exactly where his classes were and that an upper classman would tell him the wrong way if he felt he had to ask. I remember when I started high school the upper classman would tell us that our rooms were located on the 4th floor, unbeknownest to us there were only 3 floors. We soon figured it out and all was well for that year at least. :) He started his day with about 10 min. of quite time reading from Ephesians. Something that I am trying to do not just for myself but for my children. There relationship with the Lord will determine so much in their lives the first and most obvious one is where they will spend eternity but also how their attitudes are whether or not they will have peace in the midst of their storms, how they react to things that happen to them even the good things, will they become prideful? or will they lift it up as thanksgiving to the Lord for what He has enabled them to do? I can't expect my children to just grow up and choose to have a quiet time if it has never been modeled for them. This is something I so desire for them. I know they have a free will and may even choose to turn away from the Lord but I have to know that we taught them every tool they will need to grow in the Lord.
My middle son, Carson began his first official day of K-5. He was so excited to go. We took pictures and all that good stuff (digital is broken that is why I don't have any pics right now). I even had quiet time with him and my youngest, Cameron. We read from a children's devotional and talked about the Lord being the creator of Life. When I picked him up he was still excited about going tomorrow even though he had to move his stick from green to yellow and did not get a sticker. :( Of course I am thinking GREAT, Just GREAT, the first day of school he talked too much and now I am going to teach at his school and of course I had to go there..... I had to think that the K-5 teachers are second guessing the school's decision to hire me I mean come on her kid had to move to yellow on the first day!!!! It did not help that my youngest was jumping all over the place and pulling things off the wall.:)
Yes it was a peaceful, classical musical morning around here NOT!!! Oh by the way, did I mention that my lovely dog Dallas ate a whole bar of soap while we were desperately trying not be late (but we were, another reason not to hire me) for the first day of school.
I have a favorite saying.... Worse things could happen and they absolutely could so I am smiling as I post this and praying that tomorrow will be a little less eventful, but if not, I'm sure the Lord will enable me to endure. :)
Blessings

Oh, my sister Sandy, is having a give away in honour of her 200th post, go take a peek and leave a comment.

And happy birthday wishes to our Sunday school teacher, John, and good friend, Mark.

School and a new opportunity

Well today is the last official day before school starts. I love having my kids home. I am going to really miss them. Carson is starting K-5 and will only be gone 1/2 day so it won't be too bad, but the oldest starting high school and between being gone all day doing homework and sports practices at night it can become difficult to connect oh and of course the fact that he is a teenager plays a huge part in the connecting department. Anyway I will miss them terribly.
Next year I plan to homeschool my little ones though so I am interested to see the differences within our family of having one in school and the other two at home I really wanted them to do K-5 at a school so that they could get an idea of just what structure is involved in school and that there will be a time for play but also a devoted time for learning.

The Lord has given me an opportunity this year that I could not pass up. I was asked to teach the 4-k class in the preschool program that my little ones attend. The kindergarten is there also and it will only be 3 hours a day and my children will be right there with me in the same location( which we could walk to from home) so I accepted and am looking forward to it. I am a little nervous though as the preschool begins in 2 1/2 weeks and I just found out 2 days ago and I have tons to do to prepare. I really believe the Lord will use this to jump start me into homeschooling next year. The people I will be working with are incredible and I am excited to see what the Lord will teach me this year through these new relationships with my collegues, students and parents. I am praying that as I embark on this new adventure He will give me strength and motivation to keep my home running smoothly so as not to take away from my husband and kids.
I want to leave you another nugget that my pastor would use in the pulpit.

"Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light."
Blessings