Pictures:

We had a great time at Cabellas.

Boys, looking cool.

Just chillin'. I was afraid they might fall asleep if they laid there very long. I know I would have! LOL!

Daddy, helping the boys with the target practice/shooting range.


Levi got pretty good at it.

Our little "wanna be" hunter. :) He keeps begging to go hunting, and wanting to know when he will be old enough to go hunting for real.

Seth had fun shooting too. The guns were a little big for him, but he did pretty good with it anyway.

Levi, looking at all the animals.

Davy Crockett?? Who's that?? LOL! boy, do we have a lot to teach this boy....

Daddy and the boys. What a fun time we all had (in spite of the cancelled half-marathon).

The boys were disappointed that they didn't get to cheer for Mommy in the race. But hopefully they will get it re-scheduled, or I can find a new one to train for.

Pictures:

These were taken right before we left the hotel. Stephen was on the phone, so the boys and I snapped some photos. :)

They boys had a blast staying the night in a hotel, mostly because it had an indoor swimming pool. LOL!

Levi took this picture of me and Seth. I would have been on about mile 6 at this time, if the half-marathon hadn't been cancelled.

My boys, on our private balcony.

Seth took this one of me and Levi. :)

Half-Marathon Disappointment

To read all about this, go to my fitness blog. (click on the word "fitness blog" and it will take you there).

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.

Spring Break

We went camping for Spring Break, last week. Talk about FUN! We went hiking everyday, had camp fires every night, and enjoyed our time together. It was so nice to be away from the tv, computers, work, home, etc. We had time to just relax and enjoy our time together.

Here are a few pictures of the gorgeous hiking trails. We really enjoyed hiking everyday, even though we were all sore and tired by the end of the week. :)

The boys really enjoyed fishing. I enjoyed it to, while they were busy fishing, I was sitting next to them, enjoying a good book. Ahh...can we say 'relaxing'.

We got home just in time for Seth to have his first T-Ball practice. Here he is, 'baseball ready'. :) Levi and Seth are playing on the same T-ball team this year. Yea! Stephen is one of the assistant coaches. He is enjoying helping the kids learn the game. He is so good with kids!

hair and injuries....

I finally got my hair done on Sunday afternoon. I've had some major roots going on, and it was past time for a color update. I also had it cut off again, simply because the ends were so dry and brittle and just looked very unhealthy. Plus with my petite frame and features, longer hair just seems to really drag my face down...frankly with me now being just past the 30 mark, I don't need anything that makes me look older...I want to look 'younger', 'cute', 'in-style', etc. So I'm loving my new cut and color!!!

Side view. you can see the color and layers a little better in this photo....

My latest appraisal injury. It's hard to see in this picture. I had a set of attic stairs fall out on me. I tried to defend myself by raising my arm, and that wood scrapped all the way down the back side of my forearm. OUCH! It was bleeding and hurt like crazy. I had to hold a paper towel on it, to get the seeping to stop...this happened on Tuesday, so it's all scabbed over now. can we say 'attractive'. LOL!

Eyes

my eyes are much better today. YEA!!!!!! I'll probably still wear my glass and continue the eye drops for the next few days, just so that it doesn't come back. I'm so THANKFUL that this pink eye stuff is finally gone!

glasses.....

click here

maybe this got me thinking, because I'm stuck in glasses for the next week or so...but still....

I've always thought "the right frames" could really make people look distinguished and intelligent. Yes, I've always hated wearing my glasses for sports and fun, but I never minded if I was wearing them while working at the computer or reading.

After seeing this video, on the part where they interview the men and what they think of women wearing glasses, I was just shocked. My husband actually loves it when I wear my glasses....but these guys said it was the "librarian" look, and made the girl less attractive. What?! So I guess now instead of carrying my "pepper spray" with me, I can just wear my glasses and men will automatically leave me alone! HaHaHa!!!!

Pink Eye Continues....

YUK, YUK, YUK! I hate this stuff.
My left eye is much better today...actually turning back white, all swelling gone, no longer leaking gunk, etc. Yea!!!
However....I woke up this morning with it in my Right eye. Great. Just Great! That's just what I needed. So now my right eye is all swollen, tender to the tough, bright red, leaking yellow goo, and is burning/hurting constantly. Figures.
So, I'm stuck in glasses......who knows for how long. It just better all be gone by Saturday, because my baby boy is having his 5th Birthday party that day. Hard to believe he will be 5 years old on Sunday....{sniff, sniff}

Officially Pink Eye....Yuk!

It's official. Saturday night my eye started killing me! Then Sunday morning it was leaking some nasty yellow stuff, and just kept getting worse and worse, despite me putting the eye drops in. By last night, it was all red and swollen, and constantly leaking. So Gross!
I woke up this morning, and it was sealed shut. Yuk! I had to soak it open, with a wet wash cloth. Then I put more eye drops in. It's swollen and red today, but not leaking as much, so I guess that is good. Hopefully with me using these drops all day yesterday and today, it will be gone tomorrow, or at least be somewhat better....

dangerous job.....

Who knew appraising houses could be such a dangerous job?! LOL! This really is quiet funny. Over the last year, I've had all kinds of injuries due to measuring houses. I've had my tape whip up (while I was rolling it back in) and pop me in the knuckles and make my hands bleed. I've raised up and whacked my head or shoulder on a tree branch, or on a window ledge...etc. I've also been poked and scratched by a number of thorny bushes, and even had my hair tangled in a super tall bush (hence the reason I usually pull it back when I'm going to work now).

Yesterday was just another day. I got to my first house, was almost finished measuring the exterior, and I had my tape hooked to the top of a fence (measuring out to the edge of the house where there was a gutter, so I couldn't hook onto the brick). Anyway, I'm rolling in my tape, and I whipped it up to get it to pop off of the top of the fence, and it whipped back and whacked me right in the head! Luckily I had on my sunglasses it because it bounced off of them to. Whew. So I'm standing there going "ouch!" and thinking "dang, I've already got a knot coming up on my head....I wonder if I'm bleeding". So I looked at Seth and said "Seth, does Mommy have anything on her head, right around here?" He looked at me and his eyes got huge and he said "Mommy, it's blood!" Yikes! So I'm thinking "Great! How am I going to explain to the homeowner that I just beat myself up with my tape measure?!" LOL! Luckily I was able to wipe off most of the blood and get it to slow down on the bleeding before I knocked on the door to go in. LOL! Then I had 2 other houses to go measure after that....luckily no major injuries were involved! Ha!

Here is a picture of my head. It doesn't look as bad in this picture, but it was all bumped up and swollen and throbbing for the rest of the day. It's still pretty tender today....

Here is the culprit. The teeth on the edge of my tape measure....LOL!

I sent my husband a text with a pic of my head yesterday after it happened. He couldn't stop laughing! He teased me about it all night last night.

Weekend

I took the boys to visit my parents this weekend. It was so nice to see them again. My Dad is doing pretty good, but his leg is still really swollen. It has now been 4 weeks since he broke it, and he is supposed to stay off of it for at least another 4 weeks.

Levi has his basketball tournament game tomorrow night. We did not win a single game. Poor kids. But they sure had fun, and that's all that really matters. They think they won the last game. We only had 4 players show up, and had to forfeit, but they let us use one of our 2nd graders, and go ahead and play for fun. We did win that game by 1 point. That second grade boy was REALLY good! So the kids were excited to think they won at least 1 game. It was really good for their spirit and confidence.

Stephen and Seth are both sick today. Some kind of cold or something. I just hope Levi and I don't' get it.

Seth update....

They eye drops have worked wonders on Seth's eye. It looks so much better today. Yea! He is acting like it feels much better, and he has been a trooper about getting the eye drops done. He just lays back and lets me put them in, no complaints. He's such a sweetie pie.

Last night Stephen said my eyes were looking red, so I started doing eye drops and wearing my glasses, just to be safe. I've wore my glasses all day, and boy is it hard to get used to, after wearing contacts everyday. Especially exercising with glasses on. I forgot how much I hated sweating with glasses on, and them sliding down your nose. But at least the eye drops are helping, so all should be back to normal soon. :)

Seth...

Now Seth has Pink Eye. His is much worse than Levi's was. His whole eye lid is red and swollen. I've been doing eye drops on him since last night. Hopefully it will start clearing up today. If not, I guess I'll be taking Seth to the doctor.
Hopefully Stephen and I can avoid getting it......

Weekend...

Friday= I went to Levi's school for his Valentine's day party. He had a great time!

Saturday=Valentine's Day. We didn't really do anything special. We had to take Levi to a basketball game at 10am, then we went grocery shopping, and did chores around the house. It was a very nice, relaxing day.


Sunday= We think Levi has pink-eye, so we did church as home. Then Stephen made the boys a tee pee outside. They played out there forever! Stephen got paged into work. So I took the boys to get medicine for Levi's eye. Then we went out to eat and took the boys to a movie. They had so much fun!

Here is what the boys learned at home church. "I'm good soil for God's seed". We read the scriptures about the parable of the seeds falling on the different types of ground (stony, thorny, good soil, etc), then we talked to the boys about how they must be good soil for God's seed to grow in them, so they can share his word and his love with others, so his word/love can multiply. We then had the boys plant seeds in 'good soil', and make this little reminder, so they can remember what they learned, as they watch them grow.





Here are the pictures of Stephen building the boys a tee pee to play in. They had a blast! They are still playing with it today. (No school today).

Seth....

My sweet little boy is growing up. Next month, he will be 5! Where does the time go?
We were driving the other day, and singing songs. He kept asking me to sing songs, and he would sing them with me. Then on one of them "This little light of mine", he didn't sing with me, he just sat there staring at me. After I finished singing, I looked over at him, and he said "Mommy, you sing really pretty! Can you sing it to me again?" That sweet baby boy! He made my day! (and of course I sang it to him again! LOL!)

One other thing, when he wants to pause a show, he says "let me re-clause it". I don't know why he said "re-clause" instead of "pause", but it's so cute, I giggle ever time he says it. :) These days will be over before we know it, and I'm determined to enjoy every moment and ever funny word.

Levi is READING! Not just words, but BOOKS! I'm so impressed with how much he has learned this year. His last few spelling tests he has made 105, and 108 (he got them all right, plus the bonus words!) He is so smart. He has all A's! I just can't believe his is almost through first grade already. Where does the time go???

Boys and hair....

For months the boys have been begging for "mohawks". I refuse! So I compromised last week, and gave Seth a haircut and spiked the top of it up. He LOVED it! Then on Friday of last week, Levi begged me to do the same to his hair. So I cut it and spiked it to. It made his day!
He went to school on Monday and his best friend told him that he looked "wicked cool"! LOL!

Here's my "wicked cool" boys, acting crazy:

They are so Nuts! :)

Nothin' much....

Nothin' much goin' on around here.
Basically we are all busy working, juggling the chores, and Levi's basketball practices and games. Busy, Busy, Busy. But it's a good kind of busy. I'm so thankful to be busy with work! Woo-Hoo! Thank you Lord!

The weather has been beautiful! It was in the 70's over the weekend, and sunny. Since then we've been in the 60's, and will be in the 70's again by Friday (and for the whole weekend!). Yippy! I love this sunny, beautiful weather. It just makes you feel so energized, and refreshed. LOVE IT!!! :)

We did watch a good movie the other night. It was called "An Unfinished Life". It had Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, and JLo. It was sooooo Good! We were laughing out loud, and it was such a wonderful heartwarming story of friendship, forgiveness, and love. We really enjoyed it!

Ok, I'm out of things to tell you, so I'm going to go put the boys in bed. Later!