Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh...

BATMAN!!! He was here the other day reading some books in C's top bunk. You will get to see more around Halloween... Well, I am sure you are all anxiously awaiting an update on J. Things are going really well. He is very sweet and has been very thankful for everything that so many people have done for him. I mean, he even took the trash out last night and I didn't even ask. He even makes his bed everyday...yikes!! :) The kids are really enjoying having him around as well. On Friday, J and C played tag in the backyard for about an hour. I felt bad for J, but he said he didn't mind... And here is a picture of K Bel with J. Speaking of K Bel, she had her picture taken a lot this week. It seems like she really grew up or something. She has been cooing for a while, but this week, she started really getting after it. She has had some very serious conversations especially with her monkey... She is still not a real big fan of tummy time...she would rather rest her head. So, I propped her up yesterday on this thing and she looked around for a minute and then she....yep, rested her head... AND....look how big. K Bel is sitting in one of those bumbo seats and she LOVES it. She is not strong enough to stay there too long, but she loves being able to sit up and see all around her. The kids really think it is funny to see her sitting up. I think it makes me sad that she is growing up so fast. Speaking of growing up, F has really changed in the past week. Behavior, you say? Oh NO...she is still bad to the bone :) ! But, she will walk up to me and say Mama Mama and reach her hands up!! That is huge. And....last night she walked up to Hubs and said Daaaaaada while she was hanging on his legs after he got home. Hmmmm....this makes it so much harder to think of what might be to come. uggg. But, don't worry...the only picture I have of her this week is when she ate some dirt out of the tractor in the back yard. That helps bring me back to reality :) !! That girl...gotta love her! Hubs had a 'bye' week (no game) last week, so this weekend he didn't have to work quite as much. It was really nice having him home. We miss him so much during football season. This week is forthcoming (that is what homecoming is called before you actually have graduated seniors that can come HOME for homecoming...get it?). So, it is a big game. J is number 71 I think...so maybe we need to make shirts with his number painted on the back of them...ha...just kidding. Although he said he would like that, I am afraid he is just being nice! :) But, back to Hubs and the weekend....here is a cute picture of Hubs, C, and K Bel... OH and don't let me forget to tell you about K and her nap mat. Oh my....I have never seen such an obsession in my entire life. We need about three of them. She has to take it to school with her for rest time. But she also believes that she has to take it to bed with her for night time and nap time and don't worry....she gets it out of her bed in between those times to keep it out on the living room floor. Here she is patting her nap mat and saying....'i love my nap mat'. Last but certainly not least, my very sweet friend Betsy came over for a playdate last week. We had a lot of fun. She kept the girls for me last year when I would go to work. She was also my assistant when I taught full time. I LOVE her!! She just had a baby about six weeks ago, so she came to show him off. Kynlee wanted to hold him and kiss him of course. And Coburn (her 2 year old) went straight for the toys. We had a great time with them and it was great to see them. Have a great week everyone... PS....I am getting so old. I am gearing up for my 10 year reunion. I helped with a phone blitz to old classmates yesterday and it was so weird. Wow...so much has changed. Four classmates have passed away and so many are left to 'find'. But, on the good side...so many of us are still great friends and keep in touch. We are having our reunion in November. I am still deciding if I should go...hmmmm....

Oh gosh...

Wow...what a whirlwind it has been around here...this might get kinda long so brace yourself! :) We had a great weekend. On Friday, Grammy and Nana came to visit us for the weekend, and it was wonderful. They picked C up at school, which was super important because he would not have it any other way. Then, we all went to Hubs' football game. It was a lot of fun and the kids did pretty good. K loved the mascot, which is a bird of sorts and kept yelling from the stands..."HI MONSTER!!! HI MONSTER!!". It was awesome. So, I took the kids down there to visit the monster himself (a total advantage of having a dad as a coach). They loved it and some lady took some really cute pictures, but I don't know who it was. Maybe we will get them some day.

On Saturday, we went to C's soccer game (sorry...still no pictures). But here is a picture of me and K when we got home...I was looking kinda funky, but i thought it was still pretty cute.

Later, we were able to watch our niece, Mal, play tennis. She played GREAT. It was great to watch her since we don't get to very often. Then, on Saturday night, Grammy provided a great treat. We all went to see the Lion King Musical (C is the only kid that went). It was truly amazing and I highly recommend it if you have never had the opportunity to watch it.

Sunday, one of my very best friends from college came to visit for a few hours and we had a great time. She has two precious boys, T (3) and J (1). We had lots of fun playing inside and outside with the kids. Jodi is one of the sweetest people ever and I just enjoy her so much.

She brought K this UT cheerleader outfit. It is too big for now, but don't worry, she has already worn it twice. :)

Isn't this picture cute of the kids talking to K Bel? They are just so sweet with her...and I am so thankful.

And the big news for the weekend...we have a new member of our family. One of Hubs' football players came to live with us on Monday (yesterday). God is so amazing. His name is J. He really needed a place to live and we thought there was no better place than here with us. I haven't photographed his mug, but I promise that will come soon. I don't want to scare him with my camera happy goodness! :) Ya'll take care and have a great week...

We are still kickin!!

Well, believe it or not, I don't have any new pictures to share this week. I kept thinking that I would take some and I never did. I need to get some of C playing soccer, but that just hasn't happened yet. So, today we have for your viewing pleasure a few old pictures that I took and some pictures that my dad sent me last week from K's birthday weekend. I haven't posted in a while because I have been kind of bummed. For the past year, I have worked from home for a wonderful group of people at a pharmacy. They are a compounding pharmacy in town. Well....that super great opportunity ended Thursday of last week. It is my first feeling of defeat in the work force, and it really stinks. I am looking for something else REALLY quickly because it was a big chunk of income for me and Hubs. It is just REALLY hard to find something that is strictly from home. So, let me know if you hear of something...and please pray for us during this stressful time. Today is ballet and soccer day! Fun stuff. We are also squeezing in two dentists appointments and then we hope to take a picnic lunch to see Hubs. The kids didn't see him yesterday or this morning...and won't see him any of the evenings the rest of this week until Saturday. So, we are going to have to make some big efforts to go to see him. The kids love going up to his office though, so it will be fun for all! K Bel is getting so big (well not really BIG, but old). She is a little over three months now and I think she weighs about 11 1/2 pounds. She is ALMOST rolling over from her back to her tummy...she just can't get that arm to get out of the way. She is such a doll...seriously, we have had a lot of kids, but never one that is THIS laid back. She just loves to hang out and watch everyone else play. I love her so much... C and Hubs went to the driving range on Sunday to hit a few golf balls. C would play golf everyday and Hubs and I hope to find a way for him to play more often soon. He is VERY good at hitting a golf ball and has a great swing (he took a couple of lessons this summer). He is not a competitive soul and certainly not agressive, so golf might be a better route for him than say...soccer or football! :) He is doing great in his class at school...I have gotten all good reports on him. Yesterday I asked him what letter comes after 'e' (knowing that he knew the answer...just checking) and he said 'f' in spanish (efe). It was so cool...I don't think he realized it until after he did it and then he just smiled. K is showing us her true colors onces in a while...she is 2, so that is her job. She is hilarious though so we don't mind. She loves her class at school and is wiped out when she gets home even though she rests/naps at school. She LOVES ballet and has the sweet teacher wrapped around her little finger. All that have not seen a little 2 year old dance class doing their thing need to see it! It is worth watching. F is doing good. Our foster agency called her mom last week, but we haven't heard back from her. Hmmm...that gets us thinking....what does this mean? She didn't get the message? She is turning to some irresponsibilities already? She doesn't want her? Or she just hasn't had a chance to call? Anyway...we will just sit back and wait and that is ok with us. We don't need answers right now...God will take care of it all in His timing. Ya'll have a great week. The mom and dad at this house are doing well....just busy. That daddy is one awesome football coach. We have Grammy and Nana coming in to watch the big game on Friday night this week.

First Day of School!

Look at those cuties! My babies are getting so big. It is really hard to believe that K is old enough to go to preschool. C and K both seemed ready for their adventure yesterday morning...it was a morning worthy of some good dancing... (don't worry...we were at a stop light)

She was so VERY excited about her day and said that she had a great time. Her teachers gave her such a warm welcome...here is with her teacher.

She told me that she 'played, sleeped, and teacher pat pat me on my back and pat pat me on my hair'. She woke up this morning asking if she could go to school, so it seems like it was a success. Here she is doing a puzzle after I dropped her off.

AND...my sweet C boy said that he had a great time too. I think he really feels big in his classroom and is glad to see a couple of his old friends...one of which is his best little buddy A who lives right down the street from us.

C's teachers seemed very nice and, although he was a little hesitant, he walked right in to his seat to start working. After, of course, he stood with his teachers for a photo op! :) So, that is our first day of school. F and K Bel just hung out with me. We ran a couple of errands (I forgot what it feels like to just have two kids in tow) and then we came home for lunch, played for a few minutes, and were off to go pick the kids up. It was a rainy day, so we all got really wet. F loves two little plates from our toy kitchen. She is constantly carrying them around... And, sweet baby K Bel just played and looked around and wondered where all of the excitement was since the big kids were gone!! Oh, I forgot to mention that K has a Dora lunch box. Those of you that are really close to us know how important this is. K thinks that Dora was created for her. There was not an option of getting a cute hot pink lunch box and monogramming her name on it...oh no!! We did not even tell her that there was such a thing as Dora lunch boxes (I am not a character person at all), but that girl just knows. She has had that Dora lunch box in her hand for about 5 days now....asleep or awake. Take a look at the fairy princess (yes, she is sleeping in her Halloween costume, crazy girl) holding on to the lunch box (which I know you can't see, but trust me...it is Dora). And last but not least, never try this at home. Last night C and K decided to have some head crawling races. It seemed fun for the moment and looked picture worthy, but C has a rug burned forehead today as a consequence...ha!! We hope you all have a great week!!!

Speedracer...

Apparently C was foreshadowing today's events when he was riding his bike 'way too fast' the other day. Yep...I was pulled over for the first time in my life today...and bypassed the warning. I got a CITATION!! Can you believe it? Well, I can't. And those of you that know me and my sensitivity oh so well...yep, you got it...I started BAWLING in front of the police officer (but he didn't seem to feel sorry for me)!! This is probably what I looked like...

On a brighter side of things, today was 'meet the teacher' day at C and K's school. We had a good time. C was a little nervous, but that is to be expected. And K...well, she was just K. She walked right in and started playing. I don't think she will even look back for a moment when I drop them off on Monday...and I definitely think she will be much more open to learning Spanish than her sweet brother. All the teachers were happy to see C. I talked to him before we went in about speaking when he was spoken to (ha...that is really hard for him sometimes). I think he thought I meant that he had to speak in Spanish because he answered every person in Spanish that spoke to him. Such a good guy. C is in the Kindergarten classroom this year at his school. We made the decision to go ahead and put him in there for the challenge (the school approached us last year), but we will still put him in English kindergarten next year. I hope it was a good decision...he is so sensitive (hmmm...where does he get that?).

I am back to work full swing. The kids LOVE Haley (and I do too, of course). She is a good friend of our family and her sister used to be our babysitter before she went to college. I worked a little more than I hope to work most weeks, but we made it through. Hubs had his first home football game of the season yesterday...close, but no cigar. Maybe next week he will get the win. K Bel is helping him game plan.

Check this out...my baby boy is getting SOOOO big! Can you believe he can hang from a tree. I know...probably not that exciting but I thought it was pretty cool.

And here is something funny. I was sitting on my bed feeding K Bel and C started playing with some little plastic animals. A few minutes later, he said look mom...can you figure it out? Ha...I didn't know what he meant, so he told me. It was a pattern...rabbit, duck, cow, cow.

Oh...and I took F to visit her mom on Tuesday. It went well, I think. F did not really want to have anything to do with her mom, but that is to be expected. Her mom was so understanding about it though. I was really proud of her...it must be tough to be in her position. I think I would get really frustrated. But, we visited for about an hour. F threw a couple of fits when I steppped out of the room, so they saw that sweet baby's temperament. Apparently she is just like her mom! :)

Here are some other pictures from the week. Enjoy your weekend!

I just had a PARTY!!!

Well, K had her fiesta and I think she had a great time. She sat at the kitchen table for over thirty minutes waiting because the only thing she cared about was her Dora cake.

I finally talked her into opening some presents and then we could have cake. She went for it. She collected lots of things to donate to The Family Services center in our town and she even collected a few things for herself. :) We always enjoy having lots of friends and family here. The kids had a great time with Nana, Grammy, Papa, Nonny, and Mal spending a couple of days, too. Thanks everyone for a such a great weekend.

And lots of other fun pics from the party...

And...even though I am not loving my good looks these days, here is a pic of our little fam...

It is hard to believe that our little princess is two fingers.

Tomorrow, F will visit her mom for the first time since she was released from jail. They have had a few visits while she was there, but they were always short and sweet due to the location. I will take F up to the foster agency's office tomorrow and let them have some bonding time. Her mom is very excited, so I am hopeful that she is ready to make some good decisions.

C had a playdate today with his friend Austin, so it is rather quiet around here right now. K is just feeding her babies, coloring, and cooking. F is just walking around trying to take things from K...ha. K Bel is just eating, sleeping, and smiling. This baby is as good as they come!!! It is nice to have no big plans for the day. We are looking forward to hanging out with Hubs since he won't have to work too late (but, yes, he is at work on Labor Day).

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day!! Take care...