Welcome Home Tom!

My brother, Tom, has been in Afghanistan since last September. After much thought and prayer for him, we were thrilled to be able to welcome him home last weekend! He had a very quick leave time approved to come home to Texas for the weekend. He told my parents that he wouldn't be able to come back until mid-April and our "surprise" plan was off. My sister got him a plane ticket, I planned to bring in the kids for the weekend, and we got all of the brothers, sisters, and Granny and Papa together. It was the first time that we were all together since before he left for boot camp, over a year ago. A couple of the siblings and Granny and Papa knew that he was coming, but Mom and Dad had no idea.

I brought the kids in Friday night and they had a blast hanging out with Grandpa and seeing the farm. We enjoyed visiting with Granny and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Judith before everyone else arrived the next day.
Saturday morning came and they were all about manly business.
Mom and Granny were busy cooking the big lunch in the kitchen. Everyone was coming to eat because I had brought the kids in town.
They boys looked over the garden and the new plants.

My grandparent's headstones, on my Dad's side, are out at the farm and Mom has done some nice landscaping around the stones.
Granny, Gib and I checked out all the pretty flowers.
Grandpa has a back extender in his room, to align his back. My kids thought that it was like a carnival ride and hung upside down like little monkeys for most of the weekend.
The family started to arrive around 11 a.m. Aunt Mia got there and Hayden was showing her his new movie.
Granny and Papa were visiting in the living room.
Hubert and Marlene popped in to say hi to Granny and Papa. (They had no idea that Tom was coming.)
Uncle Noah, Grandpa and the kids were swinging on the porch. It was getting really hot!

Meanwhile, I was taking lots of pictures so that it wouldn't be obvious when Esther and Bekah got to the farm from picking up Tom at the airport, that I was grabbing my camera. Since they were coming in from Denton, they were the best choice to grab him and bring him home. :) Somewhere in the middle of all this, my camera battery got low and I changed them out and put them in upside down! When Tom arrived, I went to take pictures, and ... nothing. As they pulled into the drive, they stopped and Tom got out, so that when they came around the corner, it was just the twins and Bekah's fiancee, Graham. Tom ran in the other door and surprised everyone. It was great! Lots of crying, laughing, and carrying on. Grandma, a.k.a. my mom, cried and cried. She was very grateful that my camera was non-functioning as she didn't want anyone to see her like that.
After the mayhem died down a bit, it was time for lunch! All of us make a very large table.
Tom and Judith were catching up on the porch.
All of us sisters dragged everyone outside for a family picture. Landry refused to come outside and Shane wasn't there, but this is the family!
All of the girls - Esther, Naomi (Dan's fiancee), Judith, Bekah, me, Grace, and Miriam (or Mia.)
Bekah and her fiancee, Graham. They are getting married in June.
Esther and Grace were hanging out.
Gibson was attached to Uncle Tom or Uncle Ben or Uncle Dan for the rest of the afternoon.
We sure are glad that he is home and safe.
Uncle Dan.
Uncle Noah and Hayden.

It was a wonderful weekend and it was so great to see everyone. Our family is large and spread out now. It was special to have everyone in one place again.

Spring Break 2012

We have had a restful Spring Break (for most of us). Grace has been sick nearly the entire break and Shane had to work for part of it. We have spent a lot of time playing with toys, being outside and just relaxing, but there has also been mayhem and adventure too. ;)

Daddy came home the other day and decided that things weren't quite crazy enough and that we haven't been to the hospital in a while, so he went about changing all of that. (Thankfully, no visits to the hospital.)

The boys went upstairs and dragged down a spare mattress and then they all got my laundry basket, headed up to the top of the stairs and the new favorite activity of Spring Break 2012 was born. They have ridden down the stairs over and over!

To ride straight from the top causes crashes every time, so Dad sits about three quarters of the way up and down they go.

One morning I organized a scavenger hunt. Armed with clipboards, pens, cameras, and a list of 20 things to find at the park, we headed off to one of our favorite parks. The prize was ice cream sundaes. (Of course everyone was a winner.)
Landry isn't in any of these pictures because she is stomping around behind the camera crying about how she wants to go home...why have I brought her here...etc....
Hayden was having a ball.
Landry finally decided that maybe she would participate and have a little fun.
The kids were looking for something blue, green, yellow, alive, round, square, smiling, etc... They were very intent.
I found something blue...
and yellow...
and definitely alive!
After we finished our hunt, we of course had to play in the water and run a bit.
Gib pulled off his shoes and started climbing rocks, right next to the sign that says "No Wading."
Hayden was having a blast right up to the moment that he cut his foot. When he saw that tiny trickle of blood he started to cry that he wanted to go home...why have I brought him here...etc.

The girls had a good time. I should have taken pictures of the ice cream sundaes! They were the best part!
While Dad was home, he and the boys were cleaning the pool filter and found these little guys. Meet Bandit and Pokey. Bandit is the one trying to climb out of the bowl. (He's always trying to escape.) Pokey...well, just sits there.
It's been a little while since we have had a snake or turtle, so we have adopted them into our little family.
They are really cute! Although, isn't everything in the miniature state?

This kid has turned 6! I don't even know how that happened! I keep thinking of him as being 4, but, as he reminds me constantly, he is not. He is already making plans for college. I wish that I was joking, but he really does talk about college all the time.

We had a really great family party day. He chose breakfast (donuts), a movie with the family (The Lorax), which translated to popcorn for lunch, and dinner (Fuzzy's Tacos - yes, we have one down here! How random!). His cake was strawberry shortcake and he got some pretty great gifts.

We have had a great Spring Break and we are now to Friday. Just this last day and then the weekend to get ready to head back to school. Summer time here we come! :)

Flying Kites

Before I get to the kite flying, our orange tree has been blooming in the backyard. I have to say, the fragrance of the tree may be one of the most wonderful smelling things ever! It's so nice to be in the yard and smell it. I was on a run the other day and could smell it from a block away. If we get as many oranges as there are blooms, there will be LOTS of oranges. :)

It's a good sized tree.

Shane held a kite making event at the center. As is many times the case, the class filled up and we had to wait until after the class so that we could participate. (Such is the life when you belong to the programmer or the supervisor.) We still had a good time. All of the stuff was still laid out, so we spread around the room and got started.

Grace had her own table, Landry and Dad were off by themselves, and Hayden and Gibson were separate as well. It was so quiet! Maybe we should do this more often! haha!

The kites were decorated with markers, stickers and crayons. After much detail work, we decorated tails for the kite to give some weight once they were ready to fly. Meanwhile, Dad started wrapping the kites around a wooden frame and putting all of the parts together.

Pretty soon, we were ready to test them out. I wish that I could say that it was a magical, wonderful experience, but it really wasn't. The wind was a little strong and because my kids are kin to me, as the kites weren't flying with the first or the third or the twenty-second try, they were becoming very frustrated. Meanwhile, I was running all over the field hauling kites back into the sky and trying to make them fly. While they were on the verge of tears or all out bawling, I thought that the whole thing was pretty hysterical. I wish that I had gotten pictures of the tears.Grace was out in the field by herself losing it.
This was before we really started trying to fly the kite. He hadn't lost his mind yet.
That is the one picture of a flying kite. That flight lasted as long as it took me to snap the picture.

Our adventure ended with a ripped kite. This was the last straw. We finally decided that poor Dad had worked all morning helping other kids make kites, had now suffered through his own kids' kite fiasco and it was now time for some lunch and a well needed nap! :)