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....