The Old House

Yesterday the boys and I went out to Bobby's Great Grandmother's house to help his mother get an old armoire out. It's really starting to show it's age but it's still soo beautiful!

Five children were born and raised here and countless memories were made.

I confess, I became slightly obsessed with the decorative trim that surrounds the front porch of the house. :)

In the front yard stands this lone windmill. My husband still tells us stories about the water he would drink from the well and still says that "windmill punch" is the best.

How beautiful is the front door?! I just nearly swoon every time I see it!

There is tons of stuff still left in the house. Each and everything is so wonderful and old.

Can you read what's on the plate above? It says "Food should be cooked with lots of love and lots of butter." LOVE it! :)

The boys just went crazy trying to get a look at everything!

I loved all the old dressers and mirrors. It boggles my mind thinking about all the ladies in the family standing in front of those mirrors getting ready over the years.

Grady and his cousin Carter were poking into everything! Who could blame them though? Everything was so interesting!

Only in Texas would you find a cactus growing right up next to a Crepe Myrtle tree.

We stopped multiple times to eat some snacks (and get out of the stickers!).

It was a wonderful day of family adventure!

Because Baby Food Is For BABIES!

To heck with chicken nuggets, mac n' cheese, banana's. "Those are for babies! " said Griffin. Well, you know, if he could talk.

If he could talk he'd also tell me that high chairs are for BABIES too. And he is.not.a.baby.

Starting back about 3 weeks ago it seems that his appetite just dropped off. I would put him in his highchair and he would just sit there, throw his food as far as he could across the room, not take one single bite, and throw a massive fit to get down.

Not long after he both learned the word "snack" AND how to break into my pantry. I caught himself multiple times helping himself to food. The boy was for sure hungry but hated both the highchair and what I was feeding him.

In the past week I've come to the realization that it's time for both a change in his foods and how and where he eats.

The past couple of meal times he's eaten at a little side table next to our couch. It's the perfect height for him to eat off. His meal choice? Why it's a Lean Cuisine! Aren't those just perfect for a 20 month old?! 

It's the Santa Fe Style Rice and Bean with a Sour cream and chili sauce. He LOVES it! 

It's not overly spicy and have other nice assorted veggies in it (ie zucchini)  that make me feel a tad less guilty.

His other favorite??

This...

It's the Thai Style Chicken Spring Rolls (from you guessed it, Lean Cuisine!)

It's time to go back to the drawing board so my precious baby isn't eating microwaved meals all the time... 

I think I already have a solution to the seating problem. We have one of these already outside...

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It's totally junky because it's been outside but I have some super fun plans to spray pain and recover it with fun oil cloth! I think he'd love to sit here to eat and it would be cute enough to put in our living room. 

What kind of things do you feed your kiddo's to keep them out of the food rut?

Grady Is A Pre-School Graduate!

Grady recently finished up his last day of Pre-School and had his Pre-School graduation! Not only did he have a blast all year long but he learned soo much too! I know that he will confidently go off to Kindergarten knowing all that he should. 

My big kid on his very last day. Gosh he's so handsome!

When we got up to the church they had all of the graduated chairs ready to go. 

They also had snacks and treats for all the families! YUMMY! The graduating 4 and 5 year olds were broken into 2 classrooms. Grady was in the Ladybug room and the other was the butterflys.

These cupcakes tasted as good as they looked!

While we waited for the graduation to begin they had a slideshow featuring many pictures of each kiddo. It was soo fun to see them doing different activities throughout the year!

Grady was soo ready to graduate!

The Pre-schoolers did a small program for the parents with songs that they learned through the year. This song was "God is Bigger Than the Boogie Man". The kids LOVED this song and they got to put their hands out and say BOO a lot. There might have also been some shouting and a ton of giggling. :)

While waiting to receive their diploma's each child got to speak into the microphone and say what they wanted to be when they grew up. Grady said that he wanted to be a policeman. Grady's teacher Ms. Robin might have been praying for him when he said that... :)

At the end of the ceremony the kids got to throw up their caps just like real graduates!

Congratulations Grady Tucker! 

Grady's great-grandmother, Nana, was able to come! 

Our perfectly posed family.... 

Grady with his Omi and Opi!

Grady and his beloved Ms. Robin. She had so much patience and love for this child all year long...

This is Grady and some of his friends, Olivia and Elizabeth. Just look at that smile on his face and tell me I'm not in trouble in about 10 years. Oh Lawd, I think we have ourselves a ladies man :). 

Babies, Babies, Babies

 But not the human kind and certainly not from me (just in case anyone is reading the title and gasping :).

It's baby fawn season here around home.

That little baby probably belongs to one of these Momma's. Can you see another doe across the street in our neighbors yard? They are everywhere! No Joke! We have so many in fact that we have a deer path that cuts  across our front yard in the grass.

All of us just stare out our front windows half the day to watch these little cuties hang around. :)

For as fun as this time of year is I have to say, it's not quite as fun in the Fall. The bucks get the antlers in and quite often I'm scared to go and check my own mail for just in case. :) (in all seriousness, even Bobby said that I should probably just check the mail from my car when we are leaving to go somewhere as apposed to just walking out and getting it...)

Does anyone else have any interesting wildlife around their home?

Be The Match

Several weeks ago I was reading an online article about blood marrow donation. It involved a little boy undergoing a blood marrow transplant and how his little life was saved by one individual sacrificing a insignificant amount of time. Of course my heart-strings were instantly tugged.

I went online to Be The Match to see if I would qualify to be a blood marrow donor. It took me all of 5 minutes to answer the online questionnaire and provide them my home address. 

This came in the mail today!

I am feel silly saying that I was excited to receive it and tore it open just like a birthday card!

The process was soo easy from there...

They send you a small kit in which you swab the inside of your cheek for your cells.

All done!

You simply mail the kit back in a prepaid envelope that they give you. It was soo quick and easy!

After my samples are received they add my info into a national database and I wait and see if I'm ever a match for someone. I will be able to remain on the list until I'm 61 years old!

I was asked an interesting question today by a friend. (Hi Amy!) She was curious if I was worried about how painful it will be to donate the bone marrow if I'm ever a match.

One of the most interesting things I learned was that 76% of the time the doctor doing the procedure will request for a PBSC donation (peripheral blood stem cell). This is a non-surgical procedure very much like when one goes in to do a standard blood donation. Easy peasy!

The other portion of the time the doctor would request that liquid bone marrow be drawn from the pelvic bone.

It all sounds a tiny bit painful but I keep asking myself what if it were one of my boys in need??

I urge everyone to go to www.bethematch.org and see if you qualify to be a blood marrow donor!

Sponge Water Bombs!

I'm always out on a search for home-made summer fun! I'd seen other people online making sponge water bombs and decided that I could totally do the same.

I started out with about 10 sponges and cute them into 8 sections each.

I stacked them like this so that when I tied them together the alternating colors would show up well.

I had an adorable helper that just had to be in a picture. Fine by me!! I love this sweet face. :)

I used a loop of fishing line about this long. WORD TO THE WISE... If I make these again, I will use a zip tie. These were very hard to get tied and several broke during water play.

Once pulled tight they look like this! I think I was about to make about 10 of them.

I filled this container with water outside and the kiddo's had a ball!

I hope to add more colors to our bombs as the summer goes on!

Do You Think Griffin Needs A Haircut? :)

My poor baby....

This is what Mommy did to him this afternoon.

Surprisingly, once the clippy was in , he didn't mind at all! 

He reminds me of this guy...

Have you seen the movie "Grandma's Boy"? Seriously the funniest movie ever. Do NOT watch it near children who are awake. :)

Just this past week someone said "Who's that little girl over there" referring to Griffin. Yikes. I should have gone straight from the pool to the hair cut place. :/

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

True Love

Ya'll, my apologies, I have GOT to get back to blogging. This is the longest I've ever gone without posting and I've missed it terribly but just haven't had the time to do a proper job of it. Maybe this summer I should just commit to doing an improper job at it and at least it will be something :).

We've had a zillion things going all with a trillion pictures to go with it but baby steps folks. Let all just be glad that I'm here typing away. :)

Last night Graham was supposed to have let Bobby pull one of his big molars out. It's one of those teeth that dangling by a thread and starting to impede eating. (that is where Bobby and I draw a line and start to pullin')  He decided mid-attempt that he was horribly scared despite this being the 100th tooth he's lost to date and he fully knows that it won't hurt that bad. Cue water works and tears from my overly tired 11 year old. This is turn sets off Grady who starts his whining and crying.

Oy.

What's a mother to do?

I asked Grady if he'd like to sleep in Graham's bed with him for an impromptu sleepover whereupon the still weepy and sleepy Graham is cradled and hugged by his much smaller 5 year old brother. I almost cried myself. In that moment Momma no longer existed for either of them. They comforted each other and whispered for a little bit while I hovered in Graham's dark room just listening. It finally got quiet and they each feel comfortably asleep.

For as much as my boy fight and bicker they love each other just as strongly and fiercely.