My sweet boy!

It's a birthday for my sweet, brown-eyed boy.

From Old Collin photos

He just came down....hours past his bedtime(!) and asked me to tell him a "story about today"...which is something I do with the kids...turn the day into a "once upon a time"....but tonight I told him a story about his birth day....how he came on a day of his choosing....how the sun was shining.....how peaceful he was...and how I'll never forget holding him in the sunny recovery room....he was looking at me with those big eyes....Just C and I were in the room....and we named him.....I was close to getting teary remembering that awesome day.

He listened politely...and then asked me how many minutes until I get to the part about TODAY. Which is when his birthday party was...and that is what he would like to hear, please.

Just give a mommy her moment, boy!! At least he was polite about hurrying me along!!
Precious to me, that boy is...even when he's making me crazy.

From Old Collin photos

From Old Collin photos

From Collin's 5th birthday party

Random kid pics...

The boys started their soccer season...
Here they are looking handsome:

From Sept

Here is sleeping beauty..... It was 6:30pm...we had a busy day and she just couldn't make it any longer....note her new bff, June, beside her. She loves that June!

From Sept

And here is a snapshot of my favorite nephew. He spent the day with us last week while his parents shopped for furniture (since that is WAY more fun w/o your 2yo!). I think he's a doll...and how could you argue when you see him sleeping like this!??!

From Sept

K

The hair is coming! The hair is coming!!

Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!
Miss Blaire is finally growing some hair! Not in the front...no, no...we are still in full fledged mullet mode..
But it has gotten thick and long enough to do this:



She's a champ for the styling process. Sits easily for me...tolerates the tugging (oh, how I recall the tugging....when your hair is fine, your mama has to get the bands SO TIGHT on your hair and it PULLS!!! I try to be very, very gentle on my girl...but I do remember those days..).

As soon as I'm done, she pops up....holds her arms out to me and says, "I wanna see Bwaire!"...she wants me to take her to the mirror to see her new 'do. She says "Pretty hair!".
Love that baby girl, I do!

The boys were FLOORED by her new style as well.

The first days of school...08

So off they go, to Second grade and PreK.
Both boys were very excited to start school.

That wore off by week 2 for Justin. On the second Monday, he came downstairs in the morning, crossed his arms and asked if I was going to MAKE him go to school today. Ha HA, my sweet child. You have 14 more years of this left! I have to say, whenever he's grouchy in the morning, these will get him right out of the bed!

Here are his photos:
Humoring the mother...


A gaggle of busriders:


And my silly coconut in his prek classroom. He adores his new teacher. And fortunately, his "school girlfriend" from last spring is in his class again. Try and keep it straight...that's the "school girlfriend". Not to be confused with the "across-the-street-girlfriend"...or any one of the "texas-girlfriends". Whew, busy boy.

So, eight years ago...

I was in miserable agony at this moment. Actually, that's not true. I had an epidural. I think. At some point after midnight, that was gone and I was in what felt like a battle against a c-section. Little did I know that sections aren't that bad. If I wasn't so stubborn, today could actually have been J's birthday! Lesson learned!

My boy will be 8 tomorrow! Hard to believe. I was sorting through photos tonight, looking for some to post....and the difference in the photos of Justin and I vs. the photos of me with the other two....it's unreal. I have precious photos of me with the younger ones. I'm beaming, they are peaceful...I look so happy and proud. In the photos with J, we are both flushed, swollen (18 hours of IV fluids is good for no one)...confused, exhausted....and altogether unsure of what just happened. Truly, we both look as though we just got hit by a truck.

And in a way, that's completely accurate. Clearly neither of us knew how to deliver a baby (!)....neither of us knew how to nurse...He certainly didn't know how to sleep!! But I have never felt so certain that I would figure it all out, as I did that early, early morning. I vividly remember looking over at my boy (okay, boyS...the phenergan gave me double vision...) in his bassinet once we were wheeled back to our room from the OR....and saying, "Hey, baby..." And he just looked at me with his eyes wide open.

And that was the last time Justin was ever, completely still! HA!

He's such a spirited, loving boy...and I'm so glad to be his mom. And I'm eternally grateful that the Good Lord gave him to me when I was young...so that I could attempt to keep up with him and stay on top of all his antics. I just love him so much I could pop.

Love you, Jet Plane!
:)

Shoot me now...


My sweet little fella...


The exhausted pair...


And just because I love this photo SO much...

Sky Hike...

We took the boys to Stone Mountain today to experience Sky Hike. It's a rope course that is three stories high. You are tethered...it's completely safe. It definitely makes you realize how afraid / unafraid you are are of heights.

They had a great time. Justin gets nervous...and he jumped right in and took off. We were really proud of his bravery. Collin did the entire course. THREE STORIES! And he was so brave. His little feet could hardly make some of the steps! So we were extremely proud of him, too!!

Here are some photos:

The growing boy..

Yes. That is a photo of my foot in my not-quite-eight year old son's tennis shoe. Seriously. He now wears a size 6. Which translates into a women's 7. Look out Shaquille. Look out. Sasquatch is coming up behind you....

Laser light show....

Sunday we hiked up Stone Mountain with my sisters. I haven't done that in more than 20 years. I think it got steeper!! Beckett was mad at me, I guess....because he wanted ME to carry him a large portion of the time! It was very funny.

Collin and Justin were up for the challenge, and Miss B was perched happily on her Daddy's back. The other adults were secretly cursing my "great idea", as it was in the 90s with a humidity level of, oh...110%. But it really was fun. We took the gondola down the mountain and then hung around for some fried chicken and potato salad on a blanket while taking in the laser show. It's a GA summer tradition.

It's somewhat shocking to hear the announcement that it is the 25th anniversary of the show...and I remember going the first summer they started it! Another gray hair just came in.

We had a ton of fun. Becks and B were dancing like crazy when the music was playing. Check out these sweaty kids!!



I made it!!








Getting her bracelet fixed by aunt Katie


Super toddlers:


Being "Indiana Jones" with glowsticks:




K

Soccer camp...

The boys were in soccer camp last week. Both seemed to really enjoy it. It was good for Justin to run out that energy...and Collin was very excited to finally start soccer.

Justin practiced away from where I had to sit, but was I able to snap some photos of Collin in his gear. He is looking very grown up to me!

Days on the beach with our babes...

We have returned from a week on Seagrove Beach. It's on the gulf coast of Florida and is a quiet, residential beach...very relaxing. Well, as relaxing as things get with 3 little kids!

We had a great time relaxing with my siblings, nephew, Dad...and then D&A came in from TX and spent part of the week with us. It was so great to see them and to get to hug their kiddos. I've missed them so much!

The gulf was murky for the first few days, due to some earlier storms. But it cleared and our last several days were gorgeous. We kayaked a lot. I think we all enjoyed going out and seeing the jellyfish. Justin spent a good bit of time on the skimboard and Collin caught and studied jellyfish in his sand buckets. Blaire enjoyed the trip, and enjoyed my vacation policy of allowing juiceboxes / caprisuns whenever. I don't even want to think how many she had....but she was happy and so was I. I try to pick my battles on vacation....and the freeflowing juiceboxes / granola bars are how mommy gets to read on the beach!

Blaire and Beckett are hilarious together. She bosses him around all the time. At least once an hour you could hear "NO! BECKETT!!" And I think Beckett is already developing "selective listening" when it comes to girls. They had a lot of fun together.

So we played a lot, ate a lot and read a lot...and I still have that beautiful reminder of the beach hanging around the house.....SAND!!!
Hope all is well with you and yours!

Some photos:

C and C in the boat:


Cuddles between the little two:


BB on the beach:


Girl nap!


C:


Jellyfish hunters:




O and C together in a shirt, thrilled to look like "general grevious" from star wars:


What do they say? A picture is worth a thousand words? That is the reason I adore this crazy photo of Beckett. He's the cutest, busiest little guy...so much like Justin was at this age. I like to think this had nothing to do with it being night and the slow exposure. I think Becks just moves THIS fast:


Glow stick fun on the beach at night:


Blaire's infamous STARE. Clearly, she's not in the mood for my photography.


My babes:






Thanks for looking!!
K

The pocket

In the N. ga mountains there is a little place called "the pocket".
I used to go there when I was a kid....it's not far from my grandparent's farm.

We spent the day with family Sunday.....and took the kids to the pocket to wade. It was very, very fun. Justin didn't quite understand the concept of wading....but who cares!!

Good times at "the pocket"! :)





Oh! Don't get wet!






Thanks for looking!
K

Happy Fourth!

Happy fourth of July!! I hope yours was spent with family and friends, a good parade, and a nice cool dip in the pool!

We started our day off at the local Independence day parade. It was a tradition for us back in TX, and we were excited to see the parade here. It was smaller, but they THROW CANDY!! (picture my children screaming with joy!). Not only candy, but some floats passed out popsicles!! (more screaming here). J was good to ration his and save some for later, but I think C was on the verge of sugar shock by the time the parade was over! And B enjoyed all the excitement.

The boys waiting for the parade to start:


Our quaint little downtown:


A perfect view:


We then headed Northeast to my Aunt and Uncle's house on the Chattahoochee river. We ate (delicious!) and then the kids got in the river...and didn't get out for HOURS. They were prunes by the evening. Tired, happy little prunes.

J in the river:




C found a "waterslide"


B checking out the rocks:


We headed back home in the early evening to bathe our sleepy people and then ran back out to catch the local fireworks. It was a lovely, exhausting day.

I hope you all had a great one as well!!
K