Scorpion Stadium Soccer

The new professional soccer stadium here in San Antonio was recently finished and the boys soccer league was invited to play their games on it!! We were all soo unbelievably excited! 

The fields that they normal play are really nice and pretty manicured but this was amazing! All the kiddos that were in the Under 5 - Under 9 were able to play (poor Graham still has to play on his regular fields).

There was a no parent on the field policy (which made me a tad bit nervous until I saw our seating). We were able to sit super close and even had a place to park Griffin in his big double stroller.

Grady's regular coach couldn't make the game so the assistant couch handled the game. Both the regular coach and the assistant coach have boys that play on Grady's team so all was well.

The kids played a great game and had a ton of fun. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and gorgeous weather! I can't wait until the next game tomorrow!

DVD Organization

Last week I had a conniption fit for the very last time about our DVD collection.

They were everywhere. And I could.not.stand.it one more second. 

I marched my white booty to my computer and started looking for options. Here is what I came up with! 

I ordered FOUR of these Case Logic boxes. Each has 120 sleeves in them and they are double-sided. I used every last one of them too. You do the math. (it make my head spin to think that we had that many movies)

And here they are in all their glory. :)

This is the system I had before. Two or three years ago when our DVD's started taking over our living room (and when Grady was a baby and it was a huge, fun game to him to pull them out over and over and over and over...) I discarded all the cases and put our DVD's into these cases. The large one was for the kids movies and the smaller one was for the non kid-friendly movies. The only problem was that our movie stash outgrew that giant case and the movies just stated piling up again.

I debated back and forth on getting a second movie binder but frankly it was just stupid heavy and the boys hard a hard time even carrying it around to look through the movies. I needed a new system.

Viola! Meet my new system! The above picture is me being about half way through the process. For a while I though I would escape with some "room to grow" at the back of each basket. HA!

These two little baskets hold every movie perfectly. We have almost no room for movie storage so this really is the best for us.

Here is the final product! Success! I ended up with zero room to grow :(. Thankfully now that I have this system in place I'll have the room to add another basket to one of the shelves in our entertainment system. (oh and the baskets are just from Walmart) 

I think my boys will find this way much easier to find what they want to watch and easier to put back up when they are done!

Instagram!

Want to see even more little boy adorableness? Want more random pictures of my dog, yard, kitchen sink :) ?

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hillaryclaire

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Happy Sunday ya'll!

In Which I Was The Winner!

If you follow me on Facebook you saw that several weeks ago I won a giveaway from one of my most very favorite authors!

Ya'll should have seen my silly self blubbering at my computer when the winners were announced and my name was there. :) My awesome hubby just sat there looking at me like I had spiders on my face. :)

The giveaway was to receive an advanced copy of her newest book!

About a week after winning I got the copy in the mail. Now it was Graham's turn to watch me cry while I opened it. (I really really like books ya'll...) I thought that I had read something on her website about the copies being signed but couldn't really remember. I flipped to the inside cover and there was nothing. I seriously was so disappointed that I felt sick to my stomach. Graham literally stood next to me saying "It's ok Momma...". I turned on more page and THERE IT WAS!!! 

I was for real crying then. :)

Have I ever told ya'll that I really REALLY like books and that I was once a librarian? :)

And then I noticed that the handwriting on the inside of the book seemed pretty similar to that on the outside of the shipping envelope.

GASP!

Deanna Raybourn personally addressed my envelope! (I might be getting a tad bit carried away now...)

I am already half way through the book and it's just outstanding! It reminds me of that old Robert Redford movie, Out of Africa.  It's lush and delicious!

Once I finish reading the entire thing I'll do a full review!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

On My Heart And In My Mind

• I am so sad for the town of West, Texas. (This should not be confused with the region of West Texas for those of you who live out of state.) There was a huge fertilizer plant explosion last night. The last report I heard was that 60-70 people were killed and hundreds injured. The blast decimated not only a nursing home but homes around it and the local middle school. My heart is aching for this town and the people of the West community. :(.

• On a more random note, I was un-friended on Facebook this morning by a sweet girl I went to both high school and church with. My heart is sad because she couldn't "agree to disagree". We never once had words about how we felt differently in regards to various subjects. I believe I was un-friended because I shared this picture... (although I am fairly certain that I have gently sharing my gun-toting beliefs on Facebook before so hmmm...). She was very honorable and sent me a PM letting me know she was doing so. 

I still respect this girl. I think she's wonderful, intelligent, and a great mom. I hope that she reads my blog and sees this (but I'm guessing probably not.)

• In a very much related note I guess I should share with ya'll that we as a family keep guns in our house. We will use them to hunt with or defend ourselves should the need arise. I do plan on taking the classes to get my CHL (concealed handgun license). While I have zero intention to carry a handgun on my person right now (duh, I have small children) I'd like the right to do so in the future should I choose. Some of you might be a tad bit worried for us right now, but let me assure you that all of our guns are stored in a gun safe located in our garage (but in the near future our master bedroom closet). It's around 600 pounds and steel. No loaded or unloaded weapons are kept out or inside our home. It has a keypad entry not a key. Believe me when I tell you, our kids will never guess the password. I am not really into all the politics surrounding the gun control issues right now. All I am focused on is my husbands right to use his guns to provide meat for our family to eat and our right to defend ourselves and our children God forbid it should ever come to that. Any questions or concerns can be directed to my email and I'd love to share more! (hillaryclaire@satx.rr.com) I swear I could devote an entire blog post to this topic...

• Griffin seems to have hit his "terrible two's" early :). But, if I remember correctly, according to my pediatrician this can start as early as 18 month. I spend the bulk of my time with Griffin stopping him for pulling the dogs tail, digging his toys out of the dog's water bowl, washing his hands off after playing in the water bowl, fishing toys out of the toilet, telling him to stop hitting his brothers, pulling him down off the couch because he won't sit (only wants to jump :) and this list could go on and on... I know that this is only a stage but oh.my.gosh, I am worn out! We have child-proofed as much as possible but he still seems to find things to get into!

• I found this on Zulily this morning. Wow. I really need this! What a perfectly sweet and uplifting way to celebrate and honor my sweet girl! 

Angel of Loving figurine by Jim Shore

I have a small Jim Shore collection going (mostly Christmas items) and I'd love to add this! 

• I am a tiny bit excited right now because it's raining outside and that means no soccer practice tonight!! Grady goes Tuesday/Thursday and Graham goes Monday/Wednesday. Both have games on Saturday. To say that I am fair sick of soccer is the understatement of the year. But, the boys both seem to LOVE it so we will continue to commit our time and our family to it!

• I'm pretty sure that I have much more to add here but the pile of dishes in my sink are calling my name. :) 

Cutest Baby Evah

Seriously ya'll... Griffin is the cutest baby evah. 

Don't get me wrong, his older brothers are pretty cool (as they like to be called) too. But this youngest angel of mine melts my heart! 

Wednesday's Words