Cowboys and cowgirl

Here are the pictures!

It takes a village

Ted left on Thursday for Ft. Worth.  This has become a typical, weekly pattern for the past 6-8 months.  He spends a couple of nights in Ft. Worth a week.  Only this time, it is longer.  Much longer.  His trial starts tomorrow and at the best, he will be home on Friday.  That means we are apart for 8 nights, 9 days - the longest we have been apart since my third year in law school - about 10 years ago.  And it stinks.  Of course, it would stink if it was just me, but with Ward, Ann Park and Sam, it makes things worse.  They miss their daddy and so does mommy.

Thankfully, I live where my parents live and am taking full advantage of it right now.  They normally have really busy, social schedules (they have more friends than I do!), but they are being a huge help this week!  We went to Grey Rocks over the weekend (we had Friday off for Veteran's Day) and they were a HUGE help.  Ward and Papa went lookng for wildlife every morning and late afternoon and mom kept Sam while I took the older two kids on an outing to the Bass Pro Shop in Prattville.  Sam is officially addicted to horses and can't get enough.  All three kids rode on Saturday and then Sam rode for about 30 minutes this morning before we left.  I think that he is going to be my rider - granted, he is my one without any fear!  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, but did have my phone so i'll upload some pictures from it another post.  Sam had a perma-grin on his face and it returns as soon as I mention "Red," Matt's horse, that the kids rode.

Everyone please say a quick prayer for Ted and his trial.  I am proud of all the hard work he has been putting in the past few weeks and am thankful that it will be over by Thanksgiving so he can really enjoy himself.  He deserves it!

Cub scouts take over the courthouse

Yesterday I brought Ward's cub scout den to the courthouse to meet with Judge Hancock (who is an Eagle Scout by the way). The boys are learning about being good citizens and I thought it was a good opportunity for them to learn a little bit about law and order.

After talking to them in chambers, Judge took them to the courtroom where they got to act out a little case. The jury decided "he was guilty" and sent the defendant to jail!! We had a great time and even Ann Park got into the action.

 Judge Hancock explaining a few things . . .

And then we got to the courtroom --

our Judge, Jax

Ward, the prosecution

Ann Park, the witness

Jackson, the jury

Elliot, the "guilty" defenant

everyone with Judge Hancock

The silly boys once we were all done!

Pics from the weekend

Jeanne and fam were in town this weekend and we had some fun up at Vulcan. Her kids are so much fun (and tall!!) and we are so excited for boy#3 to join this spring!!

April and Walker

For those of you who are praying for my friend's sister and nephew, I received some great news today that I wanted to share.  Here is the e-mail that she sent me this morning.  God is so good!!!  Thank you for all your prayers!  This is truly a miracle as the doctors did not know if they would ever make it to this point!!


Shannon!!! GOD IS SO AMAZING!!! April is talking!!! She first woke up saying "Walker". We assured him she was fine that he was at Children's in a regular room!! She said, "I love you", she stuck her tongue out at me HA! AND..  when Boone walked in, she said "hey boone". SO EXCITING!!! The neuro released her today. She said her CT scan  looked good and she would rescan in 30 days. She will start rehab soon. Walker is in a regular room at Children's  and has started rehab. We took the kids up to see him last night and he knew all of us! He still cannot speak,  but that will come in time. He spelled his name out with letters in rehab yesterday!! God is amazing and we are  witnessing his great works through these two!! Just wanted to update you!! Thank you and I appreciate the continued prayers!!!!!

I am turning into my mom

My mom used to have this little book that she would keep in her desk drawer in the study where she would write down all the presents she had gotten various people (including family) for Christmas.  I am at such a loss at what to get my kids and I really don't think that they need anything so I decided to do something similar.  Only each kids get a small index card.  And I don't plan on filling them up.  Here is the list thus far:

WARD:
whipstick scooter (I think that is what it is called)
Leapster game
orbeez (he is begging for these)
legos - alien
cowboy pajamas

ANN PARK:
2 dresses
cowgirl pajamas
American Girl outfits (mom & dad are getting her the "just-like me" doll)
keyboard
Leapster game

SAM:
bongo drum
Thomas the Train set
Little People firetruck thingy (technical name, I know)
cowby pajamas (to match Ward)
play-doh set
Fisher Price iXL system and games (this is the little kids version of Leapster)

I will probably get each kid one or two more things and then stocking stuffers.  I think that Land of Nod has the best stocking stuffers.  They are all under $10 and are old school.  Stockings are also used for re-stocking the crayola/art products in my house - washable markers, pencils, coloring books, etc.  Learned that one from mom too.  I think that she used to shop exclusively at CVS to fill our stocking.  I am totally for buying things (like pajamas) that you would have to buy anyway and give them on Christmas.  You kill two birds with one stone.  My kids have WAY more than they need anyway!

Am I leaving anything out on their lists?

Halloween Rant

I don't know what it is about Halloween that parents think that they can just let their kids run all over the neighborhood wild without thinking twice about it.  Let me give you some examples:

1.  At around 3:30, I was preparing my house for the onslaught of people and I see this kid using the rails on the front porch of my house like a jungle gym.  Definitely not safe.  I would never let my kids hang on my own house like that, let alone someone else's house.  I have no idea who this kid is, but I go outside and tell him politely to get down.  He looks at me and continues on his merry way, climbing all over the place.  I finally yell loud enough to get his mother's attention (she is standing like 35 yards away in MY YARD by the way) and she tells him to get down.  He obeys her (thankfully), but then goes running off and she doesn't even look back.  By the way, the kids was no older than 6.

2.  Whie it is still daylight outside, there are a number of kids in our side yard (we will start construction soon, praise God).  That is where the playset is and there are some parents hanging out at the other end of the yard.  Again, I do not know most of the kids (none are mine) and I definitely don't know the parents.  This would all be okay, if they were not using the top of the playset, where the swings hang from, as a balance beam.  Parents are just standing there - not saying anything, and really not looking out after their kids.  I am thinking broken neck which would most definitely lead to a lawsuit.  I get them down. Parents say nothing.

3.  But probably the worst part was the trash.  It was everywhere.  And I am not talking about just candy wrapper trash.  That I expect.  Instead, I am talking about the 7 diet coke cans I picked up from my yard, the 5 beer cans (two of which were full), the 6 coozies, two pairs of socks, a dish towel (still not sure about this one), and I can't even count the number of costume accessories that I found.  I threw away an entire garbage bag full of trash.  And most of the trash was from ADULTS. 

What is is about Halloween??

Okay, I'm done.

Halloween

I am exhausted and don't have much to say but I wanted to post a few pictures from Halloween.  The kids had a blast, but I have to say that I am NOT a fan of the weeknight Halloween festivities.  The kids still had a full day of school (and me a full day of work) and their regular homework, but I had to get ready to have about 25 people over and move all the porch furniture to the front of the house and put out all the food.  I was exhaustd even before it began.  But it was all owrth it because the kids had a GREAT time and Papa and Cher Cher made it back from TN in time to see it all.  I have never seen Sam so excited to see two people!

Without any further ado  . . . .

Flynn Rider from Tangled, a blue dragonfly, and Jangofet (sp?) from Star Wars

Ward with the Holmes twins

I did pretty good on the make-up, huh?

Sam loving the parade!

Ta da!

Some Grey Rocks Pictures

Here are a couple of cute pics that we took at Grey Rocks a couple of weekends ago.  The kids are growing up in front of my eyes!

riding the 4 wheeler with daddy 

Prayers needed

To anyone who reads this - please say a prayer today for a good friend of mine's sister.  Her name is April and she and her 7 year old little boy, Walker, were in a terrible car accident yesterday.  Someone t-boned them on the way to school. Both suffered severe head trauma and both are in comas.  April almost bled out on the scene, had emergency surgery to have her bladder and spleen removed and has a bruise on her brain stem.   Walker has bleeding on his brain and his brain is swelling.  They are trying to avoid having ot open his head up.

Please please please pray for April and Walker.  Thank you!