An iPhone pictorial

LOOK!! this came in the mail today. and it's fall!! when i was little and all the way up until i had kids the fall season meant nothing to me. summer was the only important season. now, i still like it- but fall is my new fave. it's like the precursor to the holiday season, or a warm up to christmas.  and there's so many fun things to do with kids! it's just good family time. 

me and SL go way back, i can remember sitting at my grandmother's table looking at pretty pictures when i was little. the annual christmas yearbooks? i collect them just because of those memories.

can i tell you how much C loves his class? his teacher packs so many neat things into a day. 

this is a bathroom in a house we looked at. i'm not sure a hobbit could pee in there. i'm not sure i could and i'm all of 4'11. not to mention- well, there's a lot of not to mentions.

but THIS was the glorious front yard. i'd love to look at this everyday. all the neighbors homes around it were just as nice. 

here's collin on his first day of MMO. when he woke up this morning, as soon as his little eyes popped open he said, "i go ta school  today?" he was pumped, he's just holding it in for the camera :)

THE conversation

at dinner tonight i was telling caleb how i got to hold and feed little brielle goza- and that kendall was a big sisiter now.. and then we started teasing him about how we wanted a baby sister so he was going to have to take care of her and change pooper diapers, etc., etc.
Keith left to clear the table and THIS is the conversation that followed:

C: mama, you know what happens with boys and girls when there are babies.

(what the CRAP is he talking about!!?? okay, you can do this mama. compose your face!!)

me: umm, no buddy. why don't you tell me about that?

C: you know, the stuff with boys and girls. the stuff that goes on with them.

(oh DEAR JESUS.)

me: mmm, nope. tell me- what goes on with boys and girls?

C: you know, the mean and the ugly with boys and girls.

(i'm going to kill whatever kid has told him this stuff. KILL them. and their stinkin' sorry mama and daddy too. oh MY WORD.)

me: what's mean and ugly with boys and girls? (leaning closer).

(God give me strength. i can do this.)

C: mumbles something that i can't hear because MY HEART IS BEATING SO VERY LOUD.

me: umm, what buddy? i didn't hear you.

C: boys and girls- they're mean to each other. so if we had a baby sister we'd be mean to her and you'd say we were being ugly.

me: you know what? y'all probably would be. no babies for us.

(oh thank YOU THANK YOU THANK You God. THANK YOU THANK you THANK YOU.)

and i'm still recovering from THIS conversation. oh my.

Finally Friday

Y'all for reals- it's been a busy week. And I have to be up eaaaaarrrly in the morning for the Tri 4 Life I'm helping with. Whew!
C's had a great week. He loves his class- I've loved all the pictures I've gotten to see and the sweet emails from his teacher. C says his teacher is not bossy or yelly at all. I asked him was I bossy or yelly and he said, "No, not really." To which I replied, "Really?!" and he said, "You weren't thinking I was going to say that were you?" Ha! Funny kid.
On Fridays they do cooking and science experiments- right up his alley. So far, I really love first grade. But I really didn't think I wouldn't :)

Brave

the other day we went to the science museum with our friends. c wanted to go because the dinosaur exhibit was back.

 

collin would look at the t-rex and say, "mama he scawe me!" shiver with fear and run past. we even needed rah-rah there for support. (that's the used-to-be white lamb he carries everywhere).

 

big brother on the other hand wouldn't even go near the dinosaurs. would run past them without looking.

 

the other night he got really, really, really sick. so sick i decided to take him to the ER. they knew he was going to need lots of meds, so they went ahead and started an IV. he didn't even cry, y'all. he was SO brave. i cried.

 

that next day when we got home i told C we needed to cut his nails  "because last night in the ER i thought he looked like an orphan". he said, "mama, i'll do it." and so he did- previously having been a little scared to let me or do it himself- for YEARS it was a bit of a battle.

i don't get how you can be terrified of fake (not even all that realistic dinosaurs) dinosaurs and go to the hospital without crying even when they stick you and take your blood and do x-rays. 

i don't get it.

but i'm still proud of my big boy. i'm thankful he's facing his fears in his own time. 

Lord, help him to be brave and strong in You!

the big fat summer post

soooo. i've been slackin' a little bit on the ole bloggin' this summer. sorry 'bout that. i decided to condense it all into one BIG FAT post. to start the summer off, you may know this already- but caleb graduated from kindergarten. i'm so thankful for how God blessed us this year with a fantastic teacher and super friends. it's made it so much easier to think about first grade without the same amount of stress i had last year.

 we went with the shivers girls to the zoo. always a blast with those girlies :)

 we: built card houses, got a little muddy, made lego castles, shot our bows and arrows, and visited the disney world of hunters- bass pro shop.

 since the boys took swim lessons this summer we've been fish. after swimming yesterday C said, "mama, is all we're going to do this summer is swim?" i thought, dangit kid. what more do you want from me!! but what i said was, "yep."

 we visited my fam in tuscaloosa over the 4th of july and went to lake lurleen. you have to say lake lurleen really redneck to get the full effect. lake luuurrrrleeeeeeeen. i love lake lurleen. as a matter of fact, have y'all heard my opinion on state parks in alabama vs. mississippi? well here's the short version: alabama has the best state parks. the end.

 while we were at meme and pops the boys spent a lot of time swimming and catching bugs. since you know, all we're gonna do this summer is swim :)

 we also got a chance to visit the mcwane center in b'ham. if you've never been it's worth the trip. these boys had a good time! it's kind of like a cross between our children's musuem and the natural science museum. plus they had a dora and diego exhibit that collin was obsessed with.

 C had his end of the year baseball party at the m-braves game. he and his team mates got to have a milk mustache contest and say the pledge with the players out on the field.

and finally- she really needs her own post- but i'm SURE there will be more pictures to come- brielle claire goza made her appearance on july 16 at 5:46 in the morning. me and her aunt jenn jenn got up bright and early to be there and were so thrilled to meet her. love at first sight for sure!!

i think that's about it. the condensed version of our summer. school is only two weeks away. not sure what i think about that. oh well, it's coming whether i'm ready or not!!

six

zero.

one.

two.

three.

four.

five.

six.

some thoughts about blogging and then some love.

y'all every day i think of something i want to blog about. whether it be something i've done in my house or something else kind of fun- i'm thinking about a cute way to blog it. i wish it were a quicker process for me, but it's not. i'm sure y'all can tell that there's a hold up to all of this creativity because obviously it's not happening in my posts.

first, i have to find the time to actually blog (and when you add that in with stalking other blogs and pinterest, that time is nil.) also, i feel like i have to blog my family photos before i can get to other things i'd like to blog about. i think there's a reason why i feel like this. let me explain (in detail.)

you see friends way back in college i started scrapbooking with my best friend ashley. we liked to do two things: 1) scrapbook and 2) shop and if you combined those two things together by shopping for scrapbook stuff we were in heaven. so anyway, we scrapped ALL the time. if you're going to scrapbook then you have to have pictures so you must take pictures of everything. we took pictures of ourselves scrapbooking and put it in the scrapbook. we had a saying- and we still say this to each other- "if it's not in the scrapbook, it DIDN'T happen".

so fast forward a few years and we both have babies and we scrapbook about 3 times a year (if that). i started a blog as my scrapbook and decided i'd use that for the everyday events with the boys and then do just highlights in the real scrapbook.

so this leads to my thinking that if it's not on this blog IT DIDN'T HAPPEN people. i can't shake that feeling of guilt if i have pictures on my camera that are not blogged- you see, THEY MUST BE BLOGGED. y'all may be thinking at this point, isn't she being a little dramatic? well, probably so but i just get anal about stuff and i really can't help it. things such as paper towels under the sink (they cannot just sit out) and lamps instead of over-head lights and eyebrow tweezing and the like. i'm not sure how much of a blog is supposed to be for the people who read it or if it's more for the writer or what, but on this blog there will be pictures of my children from every event (even if it's a month or two after said event occured).

okay, just so we're clear on all that.

here's my baby eating something he doesn't like at his valentine's party:

checking out his valentine's box:

and the crew:


have i mentioned i'm a fan of kindergarten? because i am. and that was valentine's day for ya.

christmas cookies + christmas eve

me and C made our traditional christmas cookies. i'm pretty sure he was in his underwear again like last year. what is it about boys wanting to be nekked? i dunno, but both my boys strip off as soon as they get home.

on christmas eve we had our traditional "happy birthday Jesus" party. we usually bake a cake, but it almost always doesn't get eaten amongst all of the other goodies we usually have. this year, i decided to make waffles for dinner instead. i think this new tradition will work out just fine :)



after supper we always open one present from under the tree. collin picked his little portable dry erase easel.

caleb picked big game hunter for the wii.

this little easel has been worth it's weight in gold y'all. i think he's colored on it out every day!

after the kiddos played a little while we went to look at lights in crossgates (a neighborhood near us if you're not local.) there's two houses that have lights synchronized to music. little c was enthralled, big c was like a baby teenager in the backseat- he wasn't impressed by any of it.
after that we came home, sprinkled some reindeer food, put out cookies and milk for santa- and went straight to bed.

i'm thinking this may be my last really fun christmas with caleb. while we've never really played up the whole "magic" or "santa" thing, i could tell that this year he really wasn't buying it :( WE were more excited about the reindeer food and cookies, and while he still loved our elf henry- he did tell me that he knew keith and i were the ones who moved him. i didn't deny it, but i couldn't make the words come out of my mouth to agree with him. i just smiled and said nothing. he also told a kid at school that santa couldn't see everybody all the time because God was the only one who could see everything. well, i guess if santa's got to go- then i'm glad he's got things in the right perspective!
(however i can promise you my kid will not be the little punk who goes to school and tells everybody there is no santa!)

it's the most wonderful time... at the most wonderful place!

my boys love bass pro shop. they're kind of obsessed with it.

after looking at pictures of disney world one time c said, "mama, i really don't care about going to disney world, i just want you to take me to bass pro." okay buddy, that's a CAN DO.

of course, my boys love them some weaponry. they take after their daddy.


we went to see this guy. big c was a fan, but little c wasn't- so we all got in the pic. two things i notice about this photo:
1) our jeans were not all light/acid washed. not sure why it looks this way. well, i mean they weren't dark jeans, but family acid washed jeans are not generally our jam.
2) this is probably one of the worst pics keith and i have taken- with the exception of easter last year. i'm not putting a link to that.

collin was all pumped about seeing "ho-ho" until it was our turn. when we told him it was time, he just calmly went limp in the faux snow. it totally reminded me of this:

you know, after they slide down the slide, and they're just lying there in all that fluffy white cotton? couldn't find that exact picture, but if you've seen the movie, you know what i'm talking about!

impromptu christmas card pictures

after church one sunday we headed to see keith's memaw bonnie. she lives out in the country- and even has cows and horses behind her house. the boys love to go. especially when cousin austin comes by to let them see his big horse/truck!

while we were there, and the kids were dressed- i decided to take a few pics. this one ended up on the christmas card. this SO shows his little personality. he's a lotta boy.

this one, obviously didn't. keith laughs at me because i make them say bathroom words to smile at the camera. i'm sure someone's going to take collin's pic at school and he's going to yell out "poo-poo! tee-tee!" you do what you gotta do to make 'em smile. y'all try it sometime, if you dare :)

with a little editing, this one made the cut.

this one didn't, but i still like it.

handsome, sweet boy.