My loves

I have so many things to be thankful for, that sometimes it's good to stop and do just that. 

Wake up and thank God.

Be grateful for the blessings. 

It really keeps things in perspective for me.

 

Here are some of my highs since last Thursday:

 

Thanks to our family for watching Cameron, I've been able to work the lunch room twice for Kindergarten.  This past week, though, I got to do Big Centers.  I was there for two hours and loved meeting kids from all 5 classes.  They were sweet (I got many hugs!), silly, funny and just downright a joy to be around.  My favorite one was in my very last group.  And she had the BEST smile on her face as she walked all way down the hallway to my station, her arms wide open.  I scooped her up in my arms and she said, "I've been waiting to come see you all morning, Mommy!"

I'm so happy that I get to spend my days loving on this little girl, and that's she's getting old enough to do more fun things, like go for bike rides.  She loves to zip around the neighborhood and always tells me "more, more," when we get home.  She even whines when I take off her helmet--the girl loves to be on the bike!  We decided to venture a little further the other day when I realized that it was Lila's recess time.  We biked all the way to school and got to see Lila on the playground doing cartwheels with her girlfriends.  Made me smile even bigger to see her so happy at school.

 

Yesterday I was thankful for a beautiful Saturday morning.  It was perfect for this little girl to make her soccer debut on the all-girls Bumblebee team.  And they did fantastic!

I'm thankful that Cameron has such an attentive cousin who is always willing and excited to play with her.  They just adore each other!

I'm grateful that Jackson has found a fun group of boys who love to play football just as much as he does.  Their first game of the season is tomorrow night.  Stay tuned for details.





I'm predicting a stellar game for #12 and his team.  We can't wait!
 

 

I am very thankful to be able to go on dates with this guy.  We went to Love and War and listened to live music on Friday night, and then went to Nick & Sam's last night for Hayley's birthday.
So much food, and so much fun!

A night out with two of my very best friends is always at the top of my list.  Since there are 8 kids between the three of us now, it's a rare event, so we cherish it even more.

And finally, there are few sweeter things than turning around in the car and seeing my oldest and youngest holding hands as we head home from church.  Oh my word.  They melted my heart. 
I was so grateful that I got to witness their love for one another.

The Champs!

 Saturday at the ball fields.  Jackson's team played in a one-day tournament at Triple Creek in McKinney.  It was a marathon!  Their first game was at 11:30 and they lost it at the end 2-1. They played again at 3:00 and won that game with Jackson coming in to pitch the last inning.   It was tied at 4-4 and he held them to no runs.  Then his team scored two more runs and The Fury won!

 

 Sweet Lila had been battling an awful stomach virus since early that morning, so we were homebound.  She missed her first soccer game, as well as two birthday parties.  Such a bummer of a way to spend the day.  She took a nap around noon, woke up and got sick one more time.  After that she seemed to turn the corner, though.  Thank goodness!  It was so wonderful to see her smile and tell me that she was feeling good enough to go up to McKinney. 

It was killing me to miss all of J's games.

 

When we got there, the boys were sizing up their competition. "I think we can beat them, mom!"

We took our seats, the girls had some snacks, and Lila didn't throw up anymore:)

Let's go Bubbie!

Starting pitcher for the semi-final game was Jackson Hays! 

He came out throwing some heat, but not always in the strike zone.

No wonder, though.  That west sun was all up in his face.  They don't let the pitchers wear sunglasses, so he was basically blind up there.  He pitched two innings and only let a few runs score. 

  

Ryder came it to pitch and did his job well, with J backing him up at short stop and getting some very key outs.  They pulled it off, too, and got the win!

After the game was over, the other team's coach led all the boys in prayer.  He thanked God for such a beautiful day and prayed for the boys to play well and have a safe championship game.  Made all us parents feel good that our boys are around such good examples and feeling God's influence out on the ball field.

The last game started well after 8pm and the boys had to be exhausted.  They battled, though, and were up 8-4 in the last inning.  They were out of all their starting pitchers, too.  The other team scored two runs.  Then they loaded the bases.  8-6 now.  Brock came in to try and close out the game, but he walked in the next batter.  8-7.  He just couldn't throw many strikes, and the count was 3-1 with the tying run on third base.  So intense!  Then our catcher overthrew him at the pitchers mound.  We lose, right?  Don't count us out yet!  Corbin was at second base.  He sees the overthrow, fields the ball and begins to run down the kid who was on second base.  He has to get him before the kid who was on third base crosses home plate.  Oh my gosh!  AND HE DID IT!  Tags out the runner.  Fury wins 8-7!!!

 

First championship for this team!  They earned it.  Every single one of them!

That first place medal sure looks good on him:)

So glad that Daddy got to be there to see him win it all!  The girls and I had left around 9:15 because sweet Lila just couldn't hang any longer.  I hated to miss it, but I got the play-by-play from Jared.  I am so proud of this kid.  Like Jackson said, "our hard work really paid off!"  And he's so right.  No one works harder than you, buddy.  Job well done!

  

Get out now!

Yep.  Those were the words I heard right after Jared got home the other night.  His voice was full of worry, so I listened.  "The house is full of gas--get the kids now."  We got J out of bed, Jared carried a sleeping Lila and I had the wild one already in my arms. 

We got out to the curb and Jared told us that when he pulled in the garage he was hit with the strong smell of gas. When we walked in the house, he said it almost knocked him down and was hazy everywhere.  Then he saw one of the burner knobs was on...

How long had it been on?  Let's back up 3 hours.  I had been cooking dinner--meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans.  The kids were especially wacky.  Let's keep that in mind!  During dinner, Cameron got completely nude and shimmied up into my lap.  I was trying to eat fast before she peed on me.  Then the wheels really started falling off when Jackson began yaking at the table.  Was he sick?  Nope.  Just got a hold of "one of those white things."  A diced onion?  Yep--which caused him to throw up at least four times.  At. the. table. 

So is it really any wonder that a burner got left on?  I don't think so!  Turns out it was the little burner that I was using to heat up the ketchup.  It never lit, but I didn't notice it.  I just mixed the brown sugar with the ketchup, then coated the top of the meatloaf and kept going.  All would have been fine except the gas was open without the burner being on.  So no flame.  No burnt pan.  The only sign that something was amiss was my crazy bad headache.  But again, I thought it was just dealing with the kids.  The gas leak was so gradual that none of us ever even smelled it.  That's the scary part.  What if I had lit a candle in the kitchen?  Oh my gosh.

So Jared gets home around 9:20 that night. Smells the gas, evacuates the house and calls the fire department.  They sent three firemen and within minutes were inside our house.  I felt like such a fool and was so embarassed.  How did I let that happen?  They said that although the smell was still very strong inside our house, it was safe to go back in.  We left the windows open a few more hours, the kids went to sleep and my headache finally went away. 

Thank goodness for Jared!  Our protector saved the day!

Rock Me Mama

My angel baby.  The other night this little lady just could not stay asleep in her crib.  I would get her to sleep, lay her down and she was back up in an hour.  I'd awake and hear, "Mama, Mama, Mama" over the monitor, so I'd slowly walk back up the stairs one more time.  All night long.  Then yesterday she did the same thing at nap time.  She'd been asleep for an hour and woke up crying and calling my name.  I went up there, asked what was wrong and she just held her arms out and said, "rock."  So I did.

My sweet baby fell right back asleep and I just held her for a good while, letting myself reflect on how amazing it is to be her mother.  And how lucky I have been to be able to stay home and take care of all three of our kids.  Rock me.  I remember rocking Jackson for an hour every night, singing him lullabies until I got too tired and started humming them.  Every night I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to get him to sleep.  With Lila, I remember not being afraid anymore, but just wishing that I could speed up the process. I was ready for her to lay down and go to sleep, so I wished it away.  Now with Cameron, she goes to sleep pretty easily and I no longer feel anxious or rushed.  I take in her sweet smell.  I look at her in awe.  She is my last baby and I just need to treasure these times.  So I will.  I'll rock her one more time.  And love every minute of it.

Labor Day at the Lake

 We had to wait ALL SUMMER LONG for this weekend, but it finally happened.  After all the rain we got this past spring, we thought we were home free for an amazing summer at the lake.  Then the rain just didn't stop...and the water went over the spillway...and the lake flooded so much that it took out the walkway to the boat dock...and then the water went higher and the boathouse came off three out of it's four poles.  Goodness!  So much water.  Even though it hasn't rained in the last few months, it took until September for the water to recede enough for the boat ramps to be usable.

 

Happy campers about to board the boat for the first time in a year!

 

 

Let's hang loose and just chill.

Captain Lila drove us around for a little bit...

while Cami gave her best "cheese" face and took in the warm sun.

For a few minutes Jared and I even got to sit next to each other.  Wow!  Love this guy.

Then it was time to try out the new inner tube.  Lila was our guinea pig.  The girl is pretty fearless and did great, although we were going at a very leisurely speed.

Jackson was up next and had plenty of spotters to help relay his 96 messages of how the boat needed to be driven.  Seriously.  Go a little faster.  Now do some S's.  Slow down.  Right now!
I said slow down!!  Sheesh.  The kid might need to take a chill pill before his next time tubing.

Maddie went with me next and I tried to spice up the tubing adventure.  Let's go a tad faster and what if we even throw our hands in the air?  Oh my word.  The faster part threw her over the edge and she was doing the cutthroat signal like no one's business. 
Operation Fun Tubing was a big fat fail.

Lila Lou wasn't scared, though, and said she would give it a shot--hands in the air and all!  She did better than the others but then said she was done when she kept getting splashed in the face. 

We thought this was a good time to go for a swim.  I wondered how Cami would do, but I shouldn't have been surprised.  She loved it! 

Mom even got their new paddle board for us and showed the kids how it's done. 
It was a fun float, too.

Madison was a rock star on the paddle board

 

and Jackson was, too.  He even got to surf a few rogue waves!  And although he may have looked like a baby giraffe, he didn't fall off!



Now that's some big time lake tiredness.

We ended the first day with a zip around the lake. 
There's something about a guy who can drive a boat.  Right?

Sunday we were on the lake before most of the other boaters.  Love this time of day.  The water is calm and there's such an invigorating vibe going on. 

 

  It's the perfect time to go skiing or tubing.

 



Daddy even tried his hand at paddleboarding too.  He's pretty swift on that thing.



Cameron and Gigi were two bathing beauties, as usual:)

We ended that day with more tubing and broke a few unknown rules set by these two ninnies. 
They were all sorts of mad--funny to us, though!  You would think that we had thrown them off at high speeds, when in reality, they didn't even go outside the wake.



After many hours of trying to get this 19 month old to sleep somewhere other than her own crib, she actually slept all night by herself.  How could I be upset at this girl, even if I didn't need a little bit of coffee.  She's too precious.

 

Happy Labor Day!  Bring on the beautiful sunshine!

I was so happy to spend the day with these cool peeps.

And these two divas, too!

 

 

 

Everyone loves lake days:)

 

We used to have a boat at this marina and we have SO many fantastic summer memories that were made here.  A trip down memory lane.

 

We thought getting to drive the boat might get the little one to smile, but no luck.

 

  Cami was less than impressed with our nostalgic boat ride,

and very soon, she was snoozing in Gigi's arms.  The kid's gotta sleep sometime!

We decided to go to the beach and she slept on the boat while these three dug in the sand.

"Wait?  What's that?  Fun without me?  No way!  I'm up.  What is this stuff on my feet, though?"

Very soon all four kids were playing quietly and nicely.  A real treat for us!

Cameron Nicole even figured out that she wasn't going to sink in the sand and started enjoying it.

She made sure to stay properly hydrated...

Bubba played catch with dad and Boom Pa--sometimes even in an inner tube!

We had a very enjoyable day at the lake and are already planning how we can get back there at least one more day this month.

Miss Blue Eyes just can't wait another year!