Do I smell a fire?

Yes I do!!!

We are finally using our fire pit again.  One of the reason why I love Spring time!  The smell of campfires in the evening.  I think we would have a fire every night if we were home.

Tonight, we had Carson and Maddie join us. 

Blakley Doo loves her friend Maddie

Maddie follows her around making sure she isn't doing anything she shouldn't be doing.  Now that I think about it, I think I need her down here full time.  Blakley is always doing something she shouldn't be doing :) My little Stinker!  Thanks Maddie for taking such good care of her.

It'S gReAt To Be EiGhT!!!

My little Troy Troy is 8! Where did the time go? I swear I was just coming home from the hospital yesterday with this little bundle of joy in my arms and now look at him.  He's Eight!!  He is such a sweet, tender-hearted, spunky, feisty, caring, giving, bright, talkative, funny, cuddly, smart, athletic, strong, determined little boy and I LOVE him to pieces.  I am so thankful that he is part of our family.  He can brighten up the room with his huge brown eyes, his darling smile and his cute freckles.  I love his freckles!   

Looks like the Balloon Fairy made a visit to his room.  LUCKY BOY!  The kids are never sure what that sneaky fairy will do to their bedroom.  This time she hang balloons from the door frame and filled the floor with lots of tiny balloons.  It must have taken her lots of hours to fill them all up.  Good thing she had a helper! ;)

We threw him a friend party!  We had a backyard full of little boys doing what they do best.  Being wild and crazy!  Troy loved every minute of it and didn't want it to end.  We really lucked out with the weather.  YAY! 

Hot Dogs, chips, drinks and smores

Great way to fill them up after all the playing they did.

A party wouldn't be a party without gifts right?

 Troy made out like a bandit.  He got soooo many great gifts.  Gift cards, water guns, Jazz shirt, Steelers shirt, money, nerf guns, toys, games, treats....You would have thought it was Christmas!

Thank you boys!

Happy Birthday Troy!

We Love You!

xoxo

Our Life Lately .......

Our life lately revolves around WRESTLING, WRESTLING and more WRESTLING!  Seems like that's all we do.  Troy and Tanner decided that they wanted to try it out this year and found out that they love it.  Can't say that I am 100% into it but I go and support them.  I really had no idea what we were getting into when I agreed that they could do this.  They practiced for a couple of months then had two tournaments a week for 4 straight weeks.  

We walk into the high school gym for our first tournament and it was insane.  There were so many people there to watch these kids wrestle.  We start walking around trying to find our team and we notice that not only do the kids have on their team shirts but most of the parents do too.  Wow talk about getting into a sport :)  Anyone could take a look at us and realize that we have no idea what is going on here.  We finally figure out what we are suppose to do and the matches start.  And that's when the AWFUL parents come alive! You would have thought we were in the HUNGER GAMES and these kids were fighting for their lives.  The parents are yelling at their kids "pin em down, flip em over, grab their arms, control their arms, grab a leg....." Really at this point I have no idea what any of this really means, I just know I don't like the fighting.

During Tanner's very first match, he accidentally injured the other kid.  The kid was in tears holding his shoulder and saying he was done.  I watch this kid cry in pain and I start tearing up too.  I can't take this.  The little boy's dad helps him off the mat while his mom comes over and puts her arm around me and tells me that everything is OK.  This is her 4th kid to wrestle and things like this happen all the time.  I couldn't even believe it.  I jokingly tell her I wasn't cut out to be a wrestling mom.  She kind of just laughs and says oh it gets easier.  AGHHH! I so do not like this sport :) Clint keeps telling me that they are learning some really good life saving skills.  I just think he doesn't want me to worry about them.

Long story short.  We finish up the season and Tanner's coach asked if he wants to try Free Style Wrestling that starts the next week.  Free style = Way more practices and more tournaments.  He was thrilled! So we signed him up.  He is really committed to this sport.  He loves the moves that he is learning and loves trying them out on his dad and brothers!  We only have about a month and a half left. YAY!!  

SOME OF TROY'S MATCHES

SOME OF TANNER'S MATCHES

The kid above has the "Wrestling Parents from Hell" During this match, these two ended up in a tie. Which means we have to do one more sudden death round.  Well the parents didn't think it was a tie, so they start yelling "My kid slaughtered your kid" "There's no way they tied" "He is so much better than your kid" like we were the ones that were refereeing the match.  Like I said, don't think I am cut out to do this.  We watched them throughout the season and they were like that every match.  PSYCHOS! 

I know I made wrestling sound like it was all negative.  I didn't mean to do that at all.  My boys did really well and I am very proud of them.  I love that they gave this sport their best effort.  It is just so hard to watch them fight and even harder to watch them get hurt.

Valentine Boxes

 At 7:00 at night, the day before Valentines Day and Tanner and Troy both said they need boxes to take to school the next day.  Wowzers!  What can we find around the house to decorate two boxes?  Do we even have any boxes here???  

Luckily, we found enough things around the house to make something.  These two little boys put their creative minds to work and came up with some good ideas.  They worked so hard on them.  Their daddy stayed up late to help them finish.  Good job boys! I loved how they turned out.

Happy Valentines Day!

Baby Shower Time!

My cute cousin Lindsey is having her first baby!! We are so excited for her and Ryan.  Our family threw her a baby shower to help prepare for her bundle of joy!  Cyd was so sweet to host the event.

Lindsey and Leslie

Cyd, Jo and Clancy decorated the place like a tea party.  Darling!  We had a buffet of the most yummy desserts.  

 We put our skills to good use and made lots of bows and headbands for baby Jaycee.  I think she has one for every day of the month! Baby Jaycee is going to be stylin!

I'm so lame and only took a few pictures of the guests.  I was hoping I took more than I did.  Of course not!  Here's what I got:

We are excited for baby Jaycee to make her grand appearance!

Good Luck Linds!

Jessica's Jr. Prom

 She looked absolutely GORGEOUS in her dress!     

My darling niece Jessica got asked to Jr. Prom by the most charming boy ever.  He shows up to her house in this huge white stretched hummer with the biggest smile on his face. 

And you should have seen his face when she came walking down the stairs all dolled up.  It was priceless!  He just kept telling her how beautiful she was. 

She scored some extra tickets for me and my mother-in-law to go with her dad and Lela to see the promenade up at the capital building.  I loved watching them walk down the long staircase together.  Too cute!

   

Jess and her dad shared the first dance of the night together.  Not going to lie, I may have gotten a little teary eyed.  Dads and their daughters hold such a special bond!

 Oh what a night!!

(2/4/2012)

Jr Jazz

This little boy of mine LOVES basketball.  He practices every single day after school on our b-ball court.  His dream is to play in the NBA one day.  He would LOVE to play for the Jazz.  He is always asking if we will come watch him play even if doesn't get on the Jazz team.  Of course we will buddy!  We wouldn't miss a game.

Troy had a great time playing with his friends from the neighborhood.

Finally a little snow!!!

We woke up to snow!  My kids couldn't have been more excited.  They hurried and got ready to go sleigh riding before it all melted. I know it doesn't look like a lot of snow, but we are not picky around here.  Blakley LOVES "ridin down da big hill."  

After they were done sledding, the three of them got in a big bubble bath. Afterwards, Carter asked if he could pick out Blakley's clothes for her to wear.  He really wanted them to wear matching clothes. So Boxers and a T-shirt it was.  WOWZERS!  Looks like I have a great embarrassing picture to show her future boyfriend!