Heat Wave

Oh my goodness y'all! It is HOT here! I took the boys with me to the grocery store this morning and by the time we got home and unloaded the groceries this is what I found...

I guess the heat in my SUV got so hot that it started trying to cook the pizza dough in the tube! It of course expanded and popped. I saved this for last to take in (to the trash). I thought that it would be nasty but it actually smelled like bread cooking and was quite firm when I picked it up. It was for real baking it there!

You gotta love a HOT South Texas Summer! :)

In Honor Of The 2012 Olympics!

Y'all this is seriously the cutest thing I found! These athletes to me always seem just so serious and professional that it's fun to see their lighter side :).

Happy watching and good luck to the 2012 US Olympic swim team!

This Is Me...

Now and Then

Yesterday Griffin had a really sweet new friend over to play! (pictures to come but I left my camera out in the car so you'll have to just wait for those :) Brody is about a month and a half younger than Griffin but soo advanced! He is already a mover and a shaker! Sweet Griffin just sat and hung out while he watched Brody scoot all over the floor. 

All this got me to thinking about when Griffin will start his crawling adventures. I fully believe that kids reach these milestones in their own time and I shouldn't compare apples to oranges. I was still curious though so I pulled out the dusty trusty external hard drive and went searching for video's of Grady from waaaaay back when :). 

Y'all I could have just died from the cuteness!! The date on the video below was February 20, 2009. Grady was one day shy of 9 months old. (and please ignore my really dirty floors...) (Oh and this is at our old house. I don't know why I fell like I should mention that but I do.)

This next video was from sometime in late May 2009. I think he was already past his first birthday. He was cruising along pretty good while holding onto furniture! 

How old were your kiddo's when they started crawling/walking?

Who Needs A Gym Membership??

When you can mow the backyard!

Ok so maybe I mostly don't care how many calories I burned while mowing yesterday but rather I am just so dang proud of myself for getting the mower started all.by.myself.

Who am I kidding...one of you awesome peeps out there with a My Fitness Pal app look really quick for me and tell me how many calories I burned in and hour and a half of mowing :)!

Still Here!

{Insert guilty face here}


My hubby mentioned to me this past weekend just how long it had been since I had last blogged. Wowzers. Over 2 weeks I think... 


This hiatus has been totally unintentional. We've been going crazy with archery camp for Graham, swimming lessons for both boys and then Vacation Bible School the next week also for both boys. 


We have seriously been running ourselves ragged. This is our "off" week where we don't have much planned (WHOOP WHOOP!). Next week starts all over again with more busyness. 


I guess to get all caught up (if that's even remotely possible) I should probably do a fun bullet post.

• Last week at our church's VBS I was in charge of 18 3 year olds. I was not alone, I did have help from others but HOLY COW. I have never napped better in my life. 

• Grady cried almost every single day at swimming lessons. He also tried to get out and run away to get back in our car multiple times at each swim lesson. It was a very long two weeks of that mess. We still have 1 make-up lesson to go to this week. I don't expect him to act any different this time either. ::Sigh::

• Before anyone leaves a comment saying things like "just start Grady again next year" or "don't push him" and "he's going to get traumatized" don't. I've been hearing it from those around us already.  Bobby and I feel pretty strongly that our boys need to be strong confident swimmers. I'm pretty sure that Grady is just pissed off that he can't play in the baby pool and chase little toys around. He hates that he's being made to hold a kick board and blow bubbles in the water. The Horror! 

• While I was at said swimming lessons a mom that I know from Graham's school and who goes to our church asked me if we were going to try and have a girl. I put my big girl panties on and bravely reminded told her that we already had Caroline and that we were done having kids. Y'all I SWEAR she already knew about what happened to us. But who knows, maybe she just forgot. Whatever though. I was proud of myself for telling her about Caroline without crying. I have to admit that I bristled a lot when she asked if we knew why we had "miscarried" her. I hate when people use that word. She was more than just a miscarriage. She was stillborn. For whatever reason that makes a difference to me :/.

• The boys and I spent the bulk of Saturday cleaning Graham's room. It was a monumental task and took almost all day (like you could not walk across the floor anymore). I managed to convince him that at the age of 10-1/2 he didn't really need all those toys. We threw away about 3 trash bags of stuff. Pretty much none of it was salvageable to be donated. It was all broken stuff or board games that were missing half their pieces. :(. We got him narrowed down to one bucket of stuff that he really liked to play with. I think that both of us slept better that night after that purge!

• I missed all my blogging buddies! I've been trying to keep up when I can but I haven't really been able to read that much. I still love you all though!!

• I started the process of spraying texture on the wallpaper in our kitchen. I didn't buy enough cans of the stuff when I was at Lowe's though. It's ended up being ok. The stuff smells just awful and I worry about the boys inhaling it. I think it's better that I do it in small spurts and have the process take longer. I can't wait until I'm able to start painting!

• I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding October so I'm once again back on the dieting band wagon. I'm determined to have to have the dress I ordered taken in once it gets here from all my weight loss! :)

I hope that everyone has had a great weekend!

Friday Fun ~ Camp Edition!

Graham was so fortunate again this year to be able to go to the most amazing camp! For years now he's been going to T Bar M and loving it! 

The counselors there are such a warm, christian bunch of guys and girls that love the Lord and want to share it with all their young campers! 

Graham came home most days with awesome stories to tell and many great lessons learned!

This is front Graham's first day of camp. He was really excited to get his week there started!

This picture is a tad blurry but all those yellow shirts in the background are some of the awesome counselors. They were singing and hollering when the kids came in to welcome them to the first day of camp. So fun and so much energy!

Hmmm. Not terribly sure what's up with Graham's hair in this one...

Graham and his cousins (plus his cousin's cousin!). Graham, Colton, Cooper and Landon.

Graham, Colton, and Landon. Graham was really excited that he was able to be in a group this year with kids he knew!

This was from the last day of camp. They do an amazing little show for the family's of the campers.  It 's like a tiny showcase of what the campers learned for the week.

Graham on the last day!

The 3 counselors assigned to Graham's group. Go MATADOR! :)

Grady went up with me there the last day for all the festivities. Don't you know he quickly found his way to the sleep-away girls cabins and hung out there trying to talk to them. I am seriously going to have problems with him when he gets older... What a little player! :)

The counselors take a moment and talk briefly about each camper. Bless this guys heart. He was really young and a tad bit intimidated by all the Moms and Dad there while he was trying to speak. He was only a sophomore or junior in high school though so I think he did a pretty good job considering. :) He kept calling another poor camper by the wrong name the entire time so I guess it could have been worse! HA!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tucked Pants Inside of Butt

That is the Google search term that TWO people used to find their way to my blog this week. TWO.


I can not tell you the last time I tucked my own pants inside of my own butt.


Thankyouverymuch.

This is not me with pants in my butt.

Happy 4th of July!

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

Emma Lazarus

Riding In Cars With Boys

So far this summer has been filled with so much fun and excitement that I haven't hardly had time to blog about anything! I kinda like it that way. A life so filled with life that there isn't even hardly time to write about it :). We rush from point A to point B most days with only some small stops along the way to let sweet Griffin nap before we are off again. We fall into bed almost every night completely exhausted but with giant smiles on our faces and very dirty feet :).

We spend a lot of time together these days in my suburban.

We chat, sing very loudly to the radio, and the other 90% of the time poke our brother until someone is crying. :/

Things are usually not as perfect as the above pictures portray. (That's why I had to take pictures to record this moment. HA!)

With all the racing around with camp drop-offs etc. Graham has been temporarily promoted to the front seat. I know that the child should be 12 before being allowed to ride in the front seat (in the state of Texas you don't have to be) but for my sanity's sake there he shall ride. 

The fighting and arguing with Grady was getting on my last nerve. I figure with them separated for a bit it will actually make for a much safer drive for all those involved :).

As you can kinda see, the kids that are still in car seats (Grady and Griffin) are by both of the windows so that it's easier for me to get them both strapped in. Poor Graham was riding in the middle of the two and was literally being tortured I think. (At least all the crying fits made it sound like that.)

Look at me! I'm perfect! :)

Now that everyone is marginally happier we have all been having a great time in the car together! We've had so many great talks ranging from what savings accounts are and how credit cards work to why it's important to learn how to swim. With Graham in the front seat I find us having more in depth conversations. I love it! I'm pretty sure he's loving it too! Ok, maybe he just really likes the luxury of riding in the front seat more than talking to his Momma but that alright. :) I'll take all of him and his attention I can get!

Scrub A Dub Dub...

Can you believe that this was Griffin's very first time for a sink bath?? I don't know why we waited so long. He LOVED it! 

Please ignore the dirty dishes in the sink. I might have done them while bathing him :). Hey, a Momma's gotta multi-task!