Time to Reflect

This holiday season feels like it has sneaked up on me. I feel like I have barely gotten over Halloween and now Thanksgiving is gone! This last week, and a very welcome break, was the perfect time to be able to reflect and begin to get my heart in the right place for this upcoming holiday season.

These little faces are the reason that I place my life in the order that I do. I thank God that he blessed us with four opportunities to raise loving children that will someday be mommas and daddys with kids of their own. I think that there is no greater blessing and responsibility than that.

As we rush headlong into the inevitable hustle and bustle of the next few weeks, these little guys are what's important. The relationships that are being formed and nurtured, the examples that are being set, the lessons that will be taught, are all more important than any of the other "things" that will be happening and soon forgotten.

Happy Holiday Season.

Thanksgiving Hunt

We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving this year with not only Shane's grandmother in Brownwood (which is where we usually go for Thanksgiving), but also to see my family in Cisco and stay with my sister and her husband Noah. Uncle Noah is a fan favorite at our house. If he said to jump off of a cliff, I'm quite sure that all of my children would do it.

Uncle Noah planned a hunting trip to the lease and took Gibson, who couldn't have been more excited. 

They saw a bunch of deer, mainly does, and were about to take off when this big buck walked right into their sights. Gibson was so excited that he could hardly stand it. He was almost more excited about the blood and deer scent that he had all over himself as he was about getting the buck!

Thanks Uncle Noah for such a special experience!

This little heights thing...

Hayden was telling us about when he grows up he thinks that he may want to be a pilot.

"I think that it would be pretty great to be a pilot. Lots of fun... I'm just going to have to get over this little fear of heights thing."

October Spooks

 My kids were so excited about Halloween, pumpkins and fall this year. I was fiercely criticized for not having enough fall decor, so we went to a pumpkin patch and picked up some pumpkins for carving and some little gourds and pumpkins for decoration.

The kids were all really excited to "dig" in. Until they started digging out the guts. I had to step in and clean out a few pumpkins myself.

 This year we drew our own faces and then cut around them.

Excitement was running high over costumes this year. Landry was rocking a Rapunzel dress with princess Minnie Mouse ears. I'm not sure exactly what she was, but she was very proud. We also had Bobba Fet, Batman and a pirate.

We trick or treated at the city fall festival and then rocked our neighborhood trick or treat. The older two kids got a little spooked over a guy in a clown mask that jumped out of the bushes. Grace ran screaming for the other side of the street. Shane nearly busted a gut. It was a "spooktacular" evening. :)

Mom of the Year

Landry's number one phrase to anyone and everything this week has been, "That's enough! I have had it!"

Nothing like hearing your words come back from a five year old to make you realize that maybe YOU better cool it...

Tell us a college story!

"Tell us a college story!"

We hear this a lot at the dinner table. The boys love to hear Dad's scads and scads of crazy stories of all the nutty things that he did while he was in college. Some of the stories are actually high school stories and then others are from the good ole HSU days. While he sits and tells all about his adventures, I pray that my boys will have enough sense to not repeat all of their Dad's glory. I think that they probably won't if the pictures below are any indication.

We were sitting at the dinner table the other night and they started in wanting to hear a college story. 

So, Dad told all about The Mohican.

The Mohican was actually developed on a high school youth group trip, but then reappeared during his freshman year of college. The original Mohican story was that a big group of guys on a church trip, dressed with towels belted over the appropriate areas and masks on their faces, hid waiting for the youth pastor and his sidekick in the dark. Legend has it that when this band of scary looking dudes busted out of the dark, one pastor ran screaming like a little girl, while the other curled into a fetal position on the ground. The original Mohican went so well, that Dad decided to revive it his first week of college. As male freshman students were coming back to their dorm rooms from their first classes of the week, my husband was waiting for them dressed as below and would chase them down the hall, knock some of them down, and then introduce himself. I cannot even tell you how many of his very good friends that he met this way.

I do not understand boys...

Anyway, after this story, my boys couldn't wait to try it themselves.

So here they are in all of their Mohican glory.

Gibson and the Space Shuttle

 Not to long ago, we had a historic event pass right through Houston. We were fortunate to be able to see it in real life and not just on the news. The last space shuttle, Endeavor, was flown through Houston, on it's way to Florida, and spent the night at an airfield in Pasadena. The shuttle actually flew right over the kids' school on it's way to the airport.

 Once it was there, the airfield opened up for one night only and the citizens of the area descended upon it. And I do mean that. Thousands of people flooded in and out to catch one last glimpse of NASA history.

 Gibson pleaded and begged and said things like, "I will never again have the opportunity to see this." "This is the last space shuttle of our life time." "Please, please, please!" I do have to say that he was very convincing.
Because of his persuasive skills, Shane loaded him in the car and they headed into the thing that my husband hates most in life - lines and huge crowds. That is what love will do to you.

Gibson was so happy and excited that he could hardly stand it. I love looking at these pictures because he is absolutely glowing in every one of them.

                                               

He made memories that he will never forget!