More Baseball Pics

We had our second tournament this weekend, even after days and days of heavy rain. Our Saturday schedule was pushed back later into the day and thus pushing back Sundays schedule late into the night. We got home about 10:30 Sunday night and we all ended up staying home today due to lack of sleep and just feeling completely exhausted. But it was a wonderful weekend! They boys won their first game and tied the second, this put them in the third seed for the tournament bracket. They won their next game and played in the championship game which started at 8:30pm. The boys must have given all they had in the previous games because they didnt do so well in that last game. However, this tournament did qualify them for the World Series in July and everyone is excited for that. Also, THANK YOU to Cameron's HUGE fan club this weekend. I was able to catch-up with my dearest friend Abby and her family (sweet Leah wouldnt wake up for me to hold her) and tons of our family was there as well. Cameron loved it! Here are some pics from this weekend. Notice Cameron falling back trying to avoid getting pegged from the ball. Also, please ignore Courtnie & Colton's messy faces. We were out there a really long time yesterday, almost 14 hours. They were filthy! I almost made them find a ride home with someone else! J/K

Deep Thoughts

I've had quite a few realizations recently. I'm thinking this new medicine has slowed my thoughts down enough to actually focus on one at a time. It seems lately I am pondering the same thing until I have reached a conclusion or some sort of answer that is appeasing. My thoughts don't seem to be as jumbled or bouncy as they were at one time. Anyway....

I have been around quite a few babies lately and they are all so sweet. Most are completely happy and content to just be held by anyone with loving arms. This thought led me back to my babies who liked only me (and few other people). I've always wondered why that is, why my children were so attached and fearful of strangers or people who weren't in their daily lives. Then I realized - it was me! I made them that way! I had a serious attachment to my children when they were smaller. I absolutely could not part from them and panicked with nausea when others held them or walked too far away from me. I wanted to be the one to feed them, change them, love on them and to give them every new experience. Because of my anxieties, I passed them on to my children. I also held them all day long. When someone says you can spoil a baby by holding them too much - it's so true! But I don't regret any bit of it and would do the same thing again. There is nothing wrong with holding my babies all day and you definitely can't love them too much.

This all led me to another thought.... I was BORN to be a Mommy. There is not another career or role in life I would want to be other than wife and mommy. Nothing can compare to the experiences I share with my family and children. I absolutely LOVE being a mother. I look forward to each new day and what they entail. Will Cameron run tirelessly around my house again today? Will he have fun playing ball? What outfit will Courtnie surprise us with today? Does dancing bring her joy? Could her smile get any bigger as she watches herself twirl around? What crazy story or comment will Colton have today? What goals will he have for his life?

I love this. I love watching them grow and learn every single day. This past Easter Cameron fully understood the sacrifice Christ made on that cross. The awe in his face was priceless. To watch them grow in their faith and understanding of the Bible and it's truths is incredible. To see them make a new friend is awesome, to set out for a goal and accomplish just that. I cannot ask for anything more.

Another thought-

My dearest Courtnie.... she is so hard to get to know, to understand. She is quiet, modest in most things, few reactions and at the very same time unpredictable and self-assured. I want for her and I to have this close-knit bond, a best-friend type relationship. I've been praying and praying about this. How can I possibly get down to her core, her hearts deepest thoughts and feelings. As we were reading the Easter story this past Sunday, I remembered a Bible we bought her as an infant for Mothers and Daughters. We have started reading this together and I am LOVING it! It has us talking about girly issues - honesty, obeying, self-confidence, etc. She is telling me things so easily when before it was like pulling teeth to get her to open up about anything. This Bible also has me telling her things about myself and what life lessons I have learned and she listens with these open ears and wide eyes so interested in my life. She has been asking me questions about what we've read, about her and me. It's so awesome! It's such an answered prayer. I really needed to have a closer bond with her. Life is so hard when you're older and I want her to come to me. I truly think we are doing a wonderful thing, one that will benefit both of us.

My next thought about my sweet daughter... Of all the things she does that drive me crazy, they are completely ME! Poor thing! That blank look she gets, the lack of emotion sometimes and the dramatics of too much emotion, her demanding way about certain things, her shyness and timidness towards others, her lack of affection and desire to be untouched. It's all me. That little girl may look like her Daddy but she is more like me than I have ever realized. But I do love her so!!

Beating the Odds

I don't really like to complain or vent on my blog. But sometimes I just want to write things off my chest. And since this is MY blog, well then I can write anything I want. Because it's my blog.

It looks like I've beat the odds. Woo-hoo.

Remember the procedure I had done awhile back (October 2008 if you want to re-read my posts about this) that would lighten or even stop my periods altogether? This procedure works for 97% of patients. Well how wonderful, that percentage doesn't include me. 9 weeks after the procedure my bleeding finally stopped. This is not normal healing time and I should have known then, but I was trying out my optimistic skills. Since then I have had a period every month but it hasn't been too bad. Heck, anything shorter than 2-3 weeks was much appreciated! But it seems now they are heading back down the torture road as I am currently having a very normal and long period. I cannot even begin to describe my level of frustration right now. I'm tired of this - the bleeding for week after week, the breakouts on my face because my body is freaking out, the inconvenience in my marriage from having a period this long among many other fun details I'm certain all women can sympathize with.

Clearly, God has other plans for me at this time in my life and being period-free is obviously not one of them. I'm not sure what those plans include but I'm open to suggestions (this is my written prayer). As I close my eyes and talk to God about His plans for me, I can't help but wonder what He has in store. A lesson to learn that I'm not picking up on just yet? A hysterectomy maybe? I'd like to keep all pieces of me, but now the idea isn't sounding as terrible as it once had. I just have to understand that there is a reason for everything and some questions I'll never have an answer for. But I'm putting my faith in knowing that through every season in life, good will come from those times.

Happy Easter!

Our Easter celebrations began Wednesday at Colton's school. They had an egg hunt there and a special lunch. He was super excited to take his eggs and candy to school. I am blessed to be in a position where I could easily go outside with his class and watch him hunt eggs and take pictures. Here he is at school, I love his face in the first one.We spent Good Friday at home. I LOVE family time! I really do. There is nothing more enjoyable than relaxing at home with no plans to run around and do this and that and simply enjoying the time together. I think I could sit outside in warm weather with the sun beating on my face watching my kids play outside for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. Really.

Saturday morning, my Dad's side of the family came over for brunch. The kids colored their Easter eggs while some of us adults hid eggs around the house. We put a fun spin on the eggs this year - we numbered the money eggs and each child had to find their own numbered egg. This definitely slowed the older boys down.

We went to Easter services on Saturday afternoon and then Jason and I slipped away for dinner together. Nothing big or fancy, just a couple of hours alone. Thank you Jason for always pushing for a dinner for two, for caring so much about us and for loving me even when I'm not so lovable sometimes. I love you Babe =)

Easter morning, the kids woke up to surprises left by the Easter Bunny. Cameron of course had figured the "bunny" thing out awhile ago but Courtnie figured it out this year. I'm sad. It's a step away towards childlike innocence. As much as I want them to keep that forever I know overtime they grow up, but really do they have to do this so quickly?

Sunday for lunch, Jason's mom came over and we grilled out lunch. She brought Easter baskets for the kids and then hid eggs inside for them to find. We spent quite a bit of time outside that morning after the rain playing with their new outside toys.

Afterwards we went to my Moms house for our last celebration. Every year they have roughly 2000 eggs (at least!) but this year with the rain they tried something different. After all, there aren't near as many kids to hunt these days as there were when we were kids. We all (kids and adults) played Easter Bingo. For each bingo there were baskets full of prizes we could pick from and then there was basket full of stuffed eggs that Mom threw at us at random times during the game. If you weren't careful and watching it might have hit you! However, if it was a money egg no one cared how it landed in their laps! I had the greatest fun and would like to do this again next year. Here are the GREAT grandkids on this side of the family.

Cameron's First Job

I took Cameron this afternoon for his first ever paying job - mowing a yard! I am proud of him so much. He such a great kid and is going to be a incredible gentleman one day. He understands and appreciates the value of a dollar and was excited to make his own money. He really never even seemed shy about it, which was awesome. It took him almost an hour and half and he did wonderful. This was the first time this yard has been mowed this season so he obviously hit a few glitches as all yards do on their first mow. After tonight though, it should be fairly easy for him.

Museum of Nature & Science

Today, Colton and I went to the Museum of Nature & Science with good friends. Anna was there with her kiddos and Cassey was there with hers. I must say, we had a lot of fun, the kids especially! No really funny moments other than simply trying to get 4 kids to be still, all looking AND smiling at the camera. Here are a few of my favorite pics of Colton. All of our pics from the day are on our online photo album.

Uptown Girl

Courtnie had her out of town dance competition this weekend in Tyler. She is in four dances this year. This is the only one I recorded because one girl was out with strep today and I want to record when everyone is there (maybe the next competition). Here is a video of her and her friend Mikalah doing their duet; they have been dancing together since they were 3 years old. Courtnie is on the left. It's kinda far back but since I can't get any closer to the stage and can't zoom while recording, this is the best I can get with my camera. I still love it!!

Lufkin Baseball

We went to Lufkin this weekend for a baseball tournament and had tons of fun. The boys had fun playing ball but most of their fun was spent at the hotel - running up, down and along three floors, playing hide-and-go seek throughout the hotel, cell phone laser tag, swimming in the pool that had to be below freezing and go from room to room jumping on any bed clear of luggage. I can't say we played very well in our games but it was a memorable weekend.

One funny story from the weekend - we all went to dinner one night and two of us families went to the wrong restaurant. We had them set tables up for a large group and sat there waiting for our other guests to arrive. Once we called them and realized we were at the wrong restaurant, we decided to leave and make it to the correct destination. Here was the problem, we had already started eating chips and salsa and ordered our drinks. We felt so bad! We did leave money for the waitress for the small amount of time we cost her. This however did not appease her. We were all rolling laughing and completely embarrassed. I still cannot believe we went to a restaurant, ordered and left before food and drinks arrived. Ack!

There are some more pics on our online web album.

Busy, Busy Bumble Bees

For some strange reason our bushes in the front yard are attracting honey bees like crazy. You can stand by the front door or even by the windows inside the house and just hear them buzzing. They are kind to us though! So far they haven't minded the boys swinging hockey sticks at them, throwing things at them or Jason spraying them with wasp/hornet spray.

It is causing one problem though - Colton will not sleep in his bed at night. He cries that they are in his room and "flying around outside AND in my room!". His little finger just points and waves when he talks about them. I tried to convince him last night that the bees were jut making honey for us to eat and that they were not in his room. This did not work. I'm sure I could have done a far better job at explaining the bees wouldn't hurt him, except is was 1am and mama is tired at that hour. He threw himself on his pillow and covered his face with his blanket.

If you know anything about me, it's this one fact - Brandie does not miss out on her sleep, therefore none of her children sleep in her room/bed. And I caved last night people. My heart broke so badly for him that I told him we could make a pallet and he could sleep in my room. Tonight over dinner he and Jason talked about our bee friends and how nice they were and where they live and where they sleep at night. So here's to Colton sleeping in his bed tonight and hopefully a pot of honey when they leave!

Colton and Jillian

Over Spring Break my good friend Jaimie and I took our little ones to Build-a-Bear. Colton and Jillian have been BFFs since in utero. We had been wanting to get them together and it was perfect timing to make a day just for them when so many times their little lives are centered around their older siblings. They both got all dressed up and were very excited for their "date". Colton picked out a bear and named him Bronco and Jillian picked out a bunny and named her Patty. As we were leaving Jillian stole a few kisses from Colton, which he wiped off very quickly. Here is a cute pic of the two of them, the other pics are on our online web album.