I thought I'd pop in and give y'all a little update real quickly. Real quickly, because today I have a million and one things to do. You see, the time for our looooooooong awaited Texas trip is here. Almost here. That takes lots of prep, so that's the million and one things I'll be doing. At least it's fun stuff ;)
In May we celebrated Braxton and Hailey's birthdays. Birthdays are a celebration of life around here so we try to always make it special. Having two birthdays 10 days apart makes it a little difficult.At the end of May we are usually partied out.But their excitement makes it all worthwhile!
Braxton thought it was so,so cool being 5! One time soon after his birthday I really praised him for being obedient so promptly and he answered "well, I'm 5 now!" So I asked him if that means he's going to obey me all the time, even when he doesn't feel like it ? His reply to me was "I'm going to feel like it, I'm 5 now!" Somewhere along the way I think he lost that feeling. ;)
Choosing the cake is something we talk about months ahead of time. For him we finally narrowed it down to a fire truck. He was excited about that and it really was an easy cake to do.
His birthday is usually celebrated with lots of friends.That's usually what he requests and I usually decide it's once a year, what can it hurt.They are a fun bunch of little boys. We had a great time with them.
He thought getting a tool set would be awesome. That's what I had ordered for him so I thought I hit the nail on the head :)
We also decided that it wouldn't hurt to bring on a little responsibility for them this year, so we surprised him with a bunny. Nevermind that it just brought on more responsibility for me and Joel too. Clover joined our family and Braxton took his responisibilty very serious - for the first few days at least! ;)
We've had a little bit of an issue keeping this bunny alive because there is some dogs in the neighborhood that think a bunny would be so tasty! One night I woke up and heard a terrible ruckus in the carport. I bounded out of bed and tried to wake Joel. I rushed out to the door to figure out what was going on and saw two dogs at the bunny cage, barking and viciously grabbing the cage with their teeth, actually moving the cage. And the poor bunny was squealing in terror! I tried to chase the dogs away with little luck! When Joel finally got to the door he went running and hollering after the dogs and got them chased away.
I couldn't believe dogs were actually that vicious! but we're pretty sure they were pit bulls, at least part pit bull. I've seen them in the neighborhood since. All I can say is they'd better watch out ;)
Hailey's birthday was 10 days later. She decided she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake cake. Needless to say that cake frustrated me but we got it done. It sure wasn't perfect but she didn't mind!
For her birthday she got a kitty. Dora is the name she decided she'd like to give the kitty. It just doesn't look like a Dora to me but hey, what does it matter?
This kitty has been through a lot already! Toted in an ice chest, put into the tree and the dog pen, thrown into her own water...yea, let's just say slightly abused! But she's still alive.Hopefully she'll live and grow up and catch mice! Isn't that what cats are for!? ;)
With summer finally here It also means that Miss Jan has off of school. So we try to make the best of spending time with her while she's on summer break. We started , could you call it a tradition of going to the zoo. The kids always love it and when warm weather hits it just seems like you have to get out and do something like that!
So we packed up and headed out for a fun filled day at the zoo. We love to mosey along and take our time, so we ended up spending pretty much all day there, with a break inbetween for lunch.
One of our favorite things was the baby flamingo we saw there. It's right in the middle of the stump if you look right. They are a white ball of fur and so cute!
It's hard to believe that I have a 4 and 5 year old already! Time really does fly, just like all the little old ladies in town tell me :) And although I'm not real fond of it when people tell me to "just enjoy it. they grow up so fast" I do know that what they are saying is very true.
Braxton and Hailey are at an age that I really do enjoy! I'm not a huge "baby person" like some people. But having said that, I do LOVE my baby with everything I've got!
And I can't believe that she's already 6 1/2 months old! She has brought much laughter and joy to our family these past 6 months. She is now starting to get ALL over the place, WHEREVER she wants to get to.She's at that stage where her older siblings get so annoyed at her because she gets their toys and sits in their way. It's actually kinda funny how they get so upset about it.
Hopefully sometime soon I will share some of her 6 month baby pictures that Heidi (my favorite photographer) took.
When God made children, he was thinking joy and laughter and love and forgiveness etc.
Those days when I mess up, they still hug me and tell me they love me.
The days when I'm down they can make me laugh!
Then there's days that are going perfectly fine and they come along and make it finer!
One day Braxton brought me this dandelion and told me "I brought this because I love you."
I don't care if some people call it a weed, this weed was a beautiful flower to me!
Water colors are their new favorite. Gotta love back to school sales on those! I picked these up last year for a little bit of nothing and hope to stock up on some more this year.
And every painter needs to have some chocolate chips!
" It's the small things "
Go ahead and celebrate life, even if it's just chocolate chips and weeds.
Because it's "this moment" filled with "small things" that will make the precious memories!
