A Birthday Week

My middle one turned 7 this week- If your a regular reader, you indulged me with a few adorable pictures of him growing up a few days ago. We had a fun time celebrating his big golden birthday!!

I am a big believer of celebrating the birthday ALL DAY LONG. So we started with birthday baloons at the kitchen chair to white powdered donuts for breakfast (his favorite) to a special lunch and his pick for dinner (oh joy! It was McDonald's!). And Momma took cupcakes in to his class as well:

And he got exactly what he wanted as well...poor boy needed a new bike badly! His knees came up to his ears when he rode his old one!!

We celebrated with friends...approximately fifteen of them all at my house...with a Mad Science Party. I received a lot of sweet comments from my friends on facebook asking me what I did and complimenting me on a great idea for a party. My friends, the most work I did on this party was to write check to the sweet girl who was our "Mad Scientist!" Oh, and I made these fun goody bags. It's the Pop Rocks & Coke experiment!

We started the party out with the Coke & Mentos geyser, which would have been super fun, had Momma NOT knocked over the coke as she ran away to NOT get sprayed with coke! Oh well, we tried it again and got a mini-geyser. The boys loved it!
Heather, our Mad Scientist, had some fun tricks up her sleeve, including disappearing fire paper. See her lighting it??
And this flame completely disappears!!
She also made the lightbulb light up, which surprised a few boys!
And lastly, we had indoor fireworks, seen only with their super-duper cool fireworks glasses!
As a gift, she taught them all how to make slime!
Sissy, hanging with the boys!



Once all was over, Matt & I looked at each other and said "never again." But looking back at pictures and seeing how much fun Brody had, it was all worth it!! Fifteen boys and all!

I am blessed

Today is my mother's birthday. She is celebrating a big one and is choosing to ignore it. So if you happen to run into her, just don't mention it. But, I could not let this day go by without celebrating her life just a tiny bit.....

Did you have the relationship with your mom that you idolized her as a kid, hungry for her attention, only to despise her as a teenager? How crazy is that? I didn't want her to help me with anything.....except to help me buy a new pair of jeans... When they moved out of state while I was in college, I missed her so and our relationship changed for the better.

As an adult, she is one of my closest confidants. We talk daily. Sometimes two or three times. I can bounce anything off of her and get the straight and narrow from her. I hesitate to write that we are best friends because it is so much more than that. It is a different relationship that a mother & daughter have...stronger than a friendship....one that I hope to have with my daughter when she grows up.

Mom has always been there for me. She taught me how to roller skate. Took me to see Grease in the theaters (gasp! good thing it was all over my head then!!). She let me ride my bike all over the small Texas town that we lived in....gave me complete freedom to use my imagination. She took me on the best trip across the southwestern part of our country. She exposed me to new cultures (try living on an indian reservation or the middle of the Nevada desert).

She introduced me to so many opportunities that helped create the person I am today. Basketball (I was terrible), Band (I think I made it 2 days), life guarding, musical theatre (I played the villain in Jonny Appleseed), and she pushed me to achieve my best to earn an amazing scholarship for college.

And she is a loving Grandmother to her 5 grand babies. She makes each and every one of them feel special. And they adore their Grandma Texas.

Mom, congratulations on your birthday! God has blessed me with an incredibly loving mother. Thank you for always being there for me and my family. I love you!

His Golden Birthday

He is 7 on October 7...it is my sweet son's 7th birthday! I was thinking this morning that I couldn't believe I have had him in my life for seven years already. Seven years of his sweet smiles and warm hugs. Seven years of his stubborn determination (he is gonna be great in sales someday!). Seven years of his giggles and playfulness. Seven years of endless fights over food at the dinner table. Seven years of ALL BOY. We feel blessed that God has chosen us to be his parents.

This morning, I had a little quiet time with him before the bustle of the day and told him all these things...above all, I want him to know how much he is loved. How much we cherish each day with him. He leaned close to me and gave me a big hug. It was one of those moments you treasure as a parent. One I will never forget.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

Thank You!

Thank you

Thank You

THANK YOU!!

The Texas Darling's won

Second Place in the

YouTube/Kaleidoscope Kid's Toy Store

Video Contest!!

Thanks to all of you for helping us achieve over 649 views!! We appreciate YOU!

Brain Time Answers

Thanks for indulging me in my silly fun yesterday! Many of you got them! They were hard for me!! Here are the answers:

1. quadrupedal surface of transformation

changing table

2. linearly vacillating position on board of directors

rocking chair

3. nonhuman life forms fed beyond satiety

stuffed animals

Ahh Wednesday...one day closer to the weekend. Remember last week how I mentioned what a good baby little Bubba is? And I happened to mention in that post what a good napper he is? HA! He is out to prove me wrong.

As he has been with us just 4 short months, he has grown accustomed to Momma rocking him to sleep for his naps. I just loved cuddling with him and enjoyed every minute of it. It just to take less than 5 mins to rock him to sleep. I pushed away that nagging feeling that I was creating a bad habit and rocked my angel away.

Now, (deep breath), he fights sleep unless he is "rocked" by the car, by the moving stroller, or by me. Except our sweet moments of rocking have turned into 20 mins of fighting sleep. I'm talking the arching back, kicking legs, fussing & hitting with the fists. This ids doesn't want to sleep! And it drives me batty. He needs to rest during the day.

Yesterday, I decided to lay him in the crib at his nap time and let him fuss it out. Well, his fusses soon turned into a cry. And that cry soon turned into a wail, which soon turned into a shriek! All within 10 minutes. I gave in.

Today, I was determined not to give in. He did his whole fuss-cry-wail-shriek thing and I went into to calm him down. He started the fuss routine again and then it stopped. I though, yay!! it worked. Uh no. My kid's in there talking to himself- not napping. talking.

At least he is quiet. right?

Ladies, any advice on how you got your kids to take naps at this age?

Brain Time- Nursery Items

Just a little brain time here this morning. I came across this in our Cranium Daily calendar and though it was appropriate. Can you name the following items that belong in a baby nursery?

1. quadrupedal surface of transformation

2. linearly vacillating position on board of directors

3. nonhuman life forms fed beyond satiety

Once you get these...you realize how easy they really are. Here is a hint for #3- think toys. Answers to come. Who can get them all??

Friend Makin' Monday: You Wanna Know?

It's Friend Makin' Monday again and our topic this week is all about:

"The Top Things You Can Not Live Without!"

As there are few things in life we truly can not live without..... God, family, shelter, food...I did some serious soul searching today to think of what I truly can not "live" without.

The Message. I recently joined an online Bible study, Bloom, where we are reading through the book Crazy Love. (BTW, is anyone else doing this??) A few years back, hubby had given me The Message, which is the Bible written in contemporary language. I have been using it again with this study and was reminded of how great a tool this Bible is. Yes, it is an interpretation of the Bible, but it really puts it in a frame of mind that I understand & relate to so much better than the NIV version.

Anything Apple. I fell in love with Apple when I bought my first Mac in 2004. I have never looked back. I love my iPod. I love my iPhone. I love my Mac. And I feel shaky when I leave home with out my iPhone. Yes, I am that addicted.

Bumbo! I need to buy stock in this puppy- I have been blogging about the Bumbo all last week. Can't eat dinner without the Bumbo so Bubba Boy can join us. Seriously, we went to brunch yesterday with family and sat him in the middle of the table to watch us eat. It worked great.

Burt's Bees. You'll notice this one makes every list we blog about- favorite item, can't live without, one item to take on a desert island. It's all about the tingly feeling you get while using.

Books. I think college ruined my ability to sleep. I fell asleep every time I opened a textbook- somehow still graduated with honors though! And now I can not fall asleep without reading a book. I even have trouble falling back asleep at 3 in the morning. I have to go read in the guest bedroom to put myself back to sleep. Is that a problem?

Some of the books on my nightstand right now:

Another fun topic for Friend Makin' Monday! Hope you all have a great week!

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