the past few

Collin had his 3rd birthday party on the weekend before Halloween. Every other weekend it's been beautiful- this weekend it was FREEZING and windy. I really thought nobody was going to come and it was just going to be us having a party (or freezing to death) by ourselves. But he had several friends come (although not all of them stayed to the end) and he was very happy. So that made me happy :) 

I borrowed my mom's SD card because mine was full (of course) and she took it home with her, so I'll have to do another post later with full pics. We ended up taking all of his presents home with him and he had big fun opening them all up.

On his real birthday we baked him a cake with 3 candles. 

Photo-bombed. Makes me laugh every time I see it!!

The next day we went to a "Carnival Festival" as Caleb would say- but Collin couldn't say festival so it turned into "vegetable". All of his candy that he got was "vegetable canny". I love to hear him say it so I keep asking what kind of candy he got. And yes, we still have plenty of candy around here.

Cute, cute little harvest festival at a sweet church. All of the proceeds went to missions, and you could "trick or treat" through the mission booths. 

 C sang in big church with his Kingsingers group. Keith and I looked at each other at the exact same moment and said, "When did we have a kid old enough to sing up there?" Seriously, he's half grown y'all. And on another note, while I didn't get many good pictures, I did learn how to use my zoom lens. Finally!

 

C wrote a poem about our jack-o-lantern:

I am a pumpkin

sitting on the table.

And waiting to be a Jack-o-lantern

Boo!

He also wrote 1st and 2th so you'd know which came first and seconth :)

My bud and his sweet teacher Mrs. Ellingson. She's the bomb, y'all. She and some of the other teachers dressed as "Toddlers & Tiaras". Hilarious.

That night, we did a little trick o treatin'.

 

 The Shivers gals showed up and then the party really started :)

 

Look at us!! Best friends for almost 20 years. Love this gal. She makes everything we do together fun and special.

Yeah and this guy too. He's pretty alright.He tells me I'm hawt on a regular basis, so that helps.

Do y'all remember coming home from trick or treating and sorting out your loot? I do. My mom has pictures of us doing the exact same thing. So fun. 

This past Thursday night Ashley and I took our kiddos to see Disney on Ice. Of course we needed some Mexican beforehand. Ashley and I almost always eat Mexican. It started back in the day when we ate Mexican once a week at the restaurant across from our school. Ashley taught a little boy who's parents owned the place and he always hooked us up with free food. And I taught a little Vietnamese boy who's dad did nails at a shop down the street. We got the hook-up there too. Those were the days!

I caved and bought the boys those ridiculously expensive swords. I told Ashley I wouldn't and then I did. Oh well.

This is how awesome our seats were. Sooo close. I did good y'all. I'm pretty sure that's why Collin sat as still as a statue during the whole thing. After taking Caleb to a few things here, I learned the hard way that you might as well go ahead and pay for the good seats. Makes for a much better experience when they are totally engaged in the show!!

So that was our past few weeks. I am blessed, y'all.

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 :)

First day of first

Well, we made it!! C said he wasn't really nervous at all, he had a good time and got to see some of his buds on the playground. (Which is about all you're going to get information-wise out of him!)
His teacher has an instagram feed so I got to "see" him doing various activities throughout the day. Love that, what a neat idea!!
Here's a pic of my men on the way to school this morning (you can barely tell it but Collin has a shiner he got in the play place at chicfila- he did actually cry but he was too busy playing to actually need comforting)
And also one of c's homework this evening. Love that little feller so much :) So very proud of him!!

Twas the Night Before First Grade

.... and the title's where the creativity ends. Ha! Everything's ready, C's not a bit nervous (yet, but maybe he won't be), I'm a little bit nervous (but I'm always nervous about anything new!).
It's not scared nervous as much as it is excited nervous :)
I'm just thankful that he's even getting to go- he was SO sick last week with pneumonia. He got 3 rocepherin shots over the weekend and he's still limpin' a little bit- but I knew when he attempted to bungie jump off his bunk beds with some waistband elastic this afternoon he was going to be JUST FINE.
I'm praying for all the mamas and their babies starting preschool, kindergarten, junior high, high school, and college (homeschool friends- you are included!) It's like my friend Shelley said, there's only a few pity parties- but mostly celebrating! Here's to a great year ladies.

First Grade, here we come!

We went this morning to meet Caleb's teacher- who just so happens to be my favorite (and the one that I prayed he would get)!! She and I team taught a lot in first grade and I knew she would be great for him.
He loved getting to explore her topically organized library and of course play on the iPad (thank you PTO and RCSD for providing several of these for each classroom!). Thankfully I've not been nearly as stressed about sending him this year as last- it's an easy transition. We've got our school supplies, cool new under armour backpack, haircut, first day clothes... I think we're ready!

and just as a side note- i hate that my posts have been so heavy the last few days. i just felt like what should have been as simple as a) a man who owns a restaurant stating his beliefs and b) people eating at and supporting said restaurant should not have been turned into the mud-slinging fest i saw on fb. it was hard to watch. anyway, enough about that :) 

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!!

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.

the school fall party: it rocked.

can i tell you how much i love being a room mom? it's fun. different being on the parent side of things, but i'm enjoying it. it's all worth it seeing this little face.

crazy kids.

mrs. mills and her favorite boys. shhh! don't tell anybody :)

me and one of my favorite boys.