Garden and Flowers

Stephen is still coughing, but the antibiotics and steroids are helping him to feel a lot better. So yesterday afternoon he tilled up the garden for me, and we went to Lowe's and bought cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, squash, zucchini, red yellow and green bell peppers, cantaloupe and watermelon, and then some herbs: basil, rosemary and cilantro. (we already had onions and corn planted). So our garden is now all planted and ready to grow! Yea! I can't wait. I love fresh fruits and veggies from the garden. Yummm!!!!

Here is a picture of our garden....can't wait for it to start producing.



While we were at Lowe's, we got some more flowers for our flower gardens also. I love these! They are so pretty, and we bought them based on where we were planting them (if we needed morning sun only plants, or full sun, etc.) These are gorgeous!

Here is a picture of my first "bouquet" of flowers that the boys picked for me, from our yard. They are so sweet. Every time they see a flower, they want to get it for me. :)

Spring is here!

I love Texas Bluebonnets! (the state flower). They grow all along the sides of the roads this time of year, and it's so beautiful to look out your window at this sea of blue flowers. LOVE IT!

Also, my boys have picked me my first bouquet of yellow flowers from our back yard....so Spring is officially here. They will keep me stocked up on fresh flowers until there are no more to pick! LOL! I cherish those boys and their sweet little hearts.

Easter Morning

It was a stormy/rainy morning. But that was OK...for everyone except Toby. Our poor Black Lab is extremely terrified of Thunderstorms. He will literally hurt himself, trying to run away from the storms. We knew there was a chance of storms, so we had brought his dog crate with us, for his safety. Sure enough, it was storming. So Stephen stood outside with Toby while he ate his breakfast, and tried to get him to go potty. Then before we left, we put him inside the garage, in his crate.

Here is my hubby, standing out on the Patio with Toby.


Before we left for church, we took some photos. (My Daddy isn't in these pictures, because he had to go to the church early).

Nana, Levi, and Seth. Aren't they cute?!

Me and My Mommy! :)

Then of course Levi begged to jump in our picture. Couldn't get Seth in here with him though...oh well.

Me, Stephen, and a sleeping Levi! LOL! :)

So I kicked Levi out of our photo, and had Mom take on of just me and Stephen. :) LOL!

Easter Egg Hunting....

After Church, and after the Pot Luck Luncheon, the kids got to hunt Easter Eggs in the Sanctuary (since it had been raining all morning).
They found empty plastic eggs, then turned them in, for a sack full of candy. This was they were able to get good candy (such as chocolate) and the church was able to get the eggs back to re-use next year. It was a win-win.

Here is Levi, looking handsome.


Our boys look right at home at Papa's church don't they. LOL! They had so much fun.


Hunting eggs...

Did you find lots of eggs?? YES!!!

I was trying to snap Stephen's picture, but he stuck his coffee cup up to his face right about the time I snapped it....ornery!

Levi was super excited about his bag full of candy.

Seth wondering if he can eat it yet! LOL!

Say cheese....

Happy Easter!!!

Easter Weekend

We went to Mom and Dad's on Saturday morning. We got there, and Nana told the boys she had hidden 7 eggs for each of them, in her living room. They were SUPER Excited! LOL! Once they found them all, they hid them and looked for them, over and over again.

Then we took the boys to the town square, and they did the community Easter Egg Hunt. They had a blast! Here are some photo's of them at the community egg hunt...

Levi, patiently waiting for it to start.

They were excited to start gathering the eggs. Here is Seth finding eggs..

Levi was so fast, I couldn't keep up with him....Thankfully Nana was there to help us keep an eye on him.

They found lots of eggs!

Sunday morning, all dressed up and ready to go... (Seth had this pirate eye patch in one of the eggs he found at the community egg hunt...he wanted to wear it constantly!)

Our silly boys....


Are they camera shy or what?! LOL!!!!

Easter....

I LOVE Easter! I love what it truly stands for; Thank You Jesus!
Of course, our kids don't understand all of that yet. So they love the new clothes, the Easter Egg Hunt, and all of the Easter Candy. LOL!

We always go to my parents church for Easter. It's nice to spend that Sunday with them, and getting to hear my Daddy preach again. It reminds me of being a little girl, sitting in church, listening to his sermons.
Anyway, every year at Easter, my Mom buys me a new Easter dress. Not because I can't, but because she always says she wants to. So I don't argue! LOL! :) I love going Easter shopping with my Mom. We always have so much fun together, trying on clothes and shoes.

Here is a picture of the Easter dress she got me this year. It's super cute....



Then I had bought some super cute shoes to go with it, but they kind of hurt my feet when I tried them on, but the next 1/2 size larger was way to big....so the sales lady told me take them, wear them around the house, then if they still hurt, I could bring them back. Well, I took them back today. If you spend that much money on a pair of shoes, they should feel like cotton on your feet, not knives. So I got myself a refund, and then went shopping. I found these ADORABLE shoes, and they match the dress perfectly. LOVE them!!!



So, what do y'all think?

I got Levi a new suit, but couldn't find one in Seth's size. So mom went shopping in her town and found him one. I'll post pictures of them, all dressed up, after this weekend.
I tried to get Stephen a new shirt/tie, but he said "I have plenty" "I just cleaned out my closet, I don't need to add anything else to it" "I don't need a new shirt", etc. So he didn't get one. Men! LOL!

Later!

Monday...

My Daddy came by last night, to deliver our half of beef to us. Mom and Dad had two calf's slaughtered. My Nanny and my Brother slit one of them, and then we split the other one with Mom and Dad. I now have a deep freezer full of beef! Yea! The best part is that we know where it comes from, and what went into it, etc. So I know that it is good and healthy and not pumped full of steroids and junk. I've got tons of steaks, hamburger meat, ground beef, roasts, briskets. Woo-hoo! Bring on the grilling season! :)

Thank you for bringing all of that down to us Daddy. Love you!

Weekend...

The weekend started out GREAT! The boys had their first T-ball games on Saturday, one at 8am and the other at 9am. My parents came over and watched them play. The boys had a blast, and Levi is really good this year! He is playing the pitcher position, and is doing a great job!
After this, Mom and I went Easter shopping. We were a little rushed, since Stephen got called into work while we were gone, and had forgotten his wallet in the car (which I was driving). So my dad drove Stephen and the boys to town, and we all met for lunch. Then Stephen went to work, while me, Mom, Dad, and the boys went shopping some more.

Sunday morning we got ready and went to church. After church we took the boys to Bass Pro. We ate there, at the restaurant. (I had grilled Talapia with steamed veggies and wild rice, and water of course). Then the boys got to meet the Easter bunny, color some Easter photos, make some bunny ears, and also did an Easter Egg Hunt; all right there inside Bass Pro! They had SO MUCH FUN!
After this we went by a sporting goods store to get Stephen some new running shoes. His are worn out, and he was in desperate need.
Then we came back home. Whew! We were exhausted, and Stephen asked me to relax on the couch with him for a few minutes before I got on the treadmill. So I sat down with him, and laid my head over on his chest and relished the peace and quiet. Right about this time, I heard Seth say "don't shoot me with that bow and arrow". I thought "that's put up; they can't reach it in the top of the closet; they must be pretending; Levi knows better anyway; He knows he can't mess with that when we aren't around and he isn't allowed to play with it in the house anyway". Next thing I hear, Seth is bawling the "I'm hurt cry", and Levi comes running, saying "Seth is hurt, Bad! I didn't mean to!". So Seth comes out, with blood all over his chin. I see what looks like a hole, with blood gushing out of it. I freaked. I grabbed him, and turned to Stephen and yelled "he's bleeding, bad, he has a hole in his chin!" (all I could see was a hole, gushing blood, and I was freaking!) So Stephen scooped up Seth, and I looked at Levi and screamed "did you shoot your brother with the bow and arrow?!" he was crying and saying "I didn't mean to". Then Stephen said "Mama, it's okay, we will deal with that in a minute...get me a wet rag." he was all calm, whereas I was frantic. So I got him a rag. Then I went to inspect the playroom, and started scrubbing blood drops out of the carpet....I just couldn't see my baby with blood all over him...so I had to keep myself busy doing something productive, while my husband dealt with the blood and accessed the damage.
After I got everything cleaned up and things calmed down, Stephen asked Levi what happened. He said he was on one end of the playroom, and he had the bow and arrow, and he was just pretending, but the arrow slipped and hit Seth, on the other end of the room. Stephen asked him how far it was pulled back and if it fell or if it stuck in Seth. Levi said he didn't have it pulled all the way back, just a little bit, and it bounced off of Seth's face and hit the floor. I was ready to MURDER him. I have never been so ANGRY with one of my children before, but I was ready to beat him! So I stayed out of it, and let Stephen handle it. I just couldn't. Stephen didn't give Levi a spanking because he said that Levi was really scared and shaken up over everything that had happened, and that was punishment enough. Levi learned his lesson, and that isn't something he will ever forget. We also had a talk with Levi later, about how this is why we tell them to NEVER point an arrow at anyone, not even if you're just kidding, because it can slip and hurt that person. I then also reiterated that this is why we do not play with guns, or point them at people either, because accidents happen, and you can really hurt or even kill someone. We talked to him about how lucky he was, that it didn't go in Seth's eye, or that he didn't have it pulled back so far that the arrow went into Seth, or that it could have killed him, etc. I think he definitely learned a lesson.

Why was the bow and arrow out where they could get to it? They had been shooting it with Daddy on Friday, and had brought it in, but it hadn't been put back up in the top of the closet yet. Needless to say, we all learned a lesson about putting things like that back up right away, and not leaving them laying around. Luckily it was their "kid's set" with the dull practice arrows. I just Thank God for protecting my baby, and not letting that arrow put his eye out, or kill him. Thank You God!!!!

Seth's chin bled for a long time, and then Stephen saw that it was deeper than he first thought, so he put a steri strip on it. It looks much better this morning. Starting to dry up some, and close. He will probably have a scar though.

Whew. What a night. I was so shaken up over the whole thing, I was exhausted and had no energy to run after that. I only wanted to sit and cuddle my baby.