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Hey There Punkin' !

The boys had a great time picking out pumpkins at our churchs' pumkin patch! This was the first year the boys really wanted to get in there and help with cleaning out the pumpkins...Jackson jumped right in and after using the spoon for a few minutes stuck his hand right in, he loved the squishy feeling of the guts! Gray was a little more hesitant but finally gave in; he wasn't so fond of it though and went back to the spoon! Harrison wanted to help with his own pumpkin but didn't really care for the feel of it either and soon went back to his spoon. Here are a few pictures from out night.

And this picture has absolutely nothing to do with anything but isn't it adorable!!! It's Harrison's first "daycare" picture, I thought it was so cute..the quality is much better, this is a picture of the picture!

I'm BAAAAACK!

Well, sort of. The (big) boys are staying the night at their Gigi's house and Harrison is already down so I have a little free time! YAY! So it's been 2 months now and I think we are about to get settled. My work is just starting to get crazy. Tomorrow is Saturday and that's where I'll be spending my day. Everyone is really loving being home again, but we all miss our NWA friends! Last weekend we got to see alot of family at my mamaw's birthday celebration, it's great being close enough that we don't have to rush and get back home quickly. Big boys are playing soccer and really loving it. This is Gray's first year but you would never know it, regardless of his size that kid is good! Hopefully the more he plays the better he'll get. Gray and Harrison are both loving their daycare. Gray got to take a field trip this week to Barnyard Friends and had lots of fun holding baby goats and riding a horse! Every week he gets to go to gymnastics and a "jump zone" type place with school, he's loving that! Jackson loves being in kindergarten, today was grandparents day so Nana and Pops got to eat lunch with him at school, he really enjoyed that. He gets to take his first field trip next week to a pumpkin patch! We have great neighbors, lots of people we know in the neighborhood and a good family friend right next door, the fact that she has a trampoline and 2 kids for the boys to play with doesn't hurt either! :) Chad is enjoying his work, loves being outside all day and not having to work on the weekends! Hope everyone is doing well, I'll try to keep the blog updated from now on...we'll see!

Grayson with Chad's cousin Skylar

First ATU Football game, family fun before the game with inflatable slides,

jump houses and face painting!

Jackson and Gray pose after sliding.

Rub-a-dub-dub 3 boys in a tub!

This is right after Gray scored his first goal! Big brother there to give him a high 5!

And then the smile when he realizes everyone is cheering for him!

Lot's going on this week. Hopefully I'll have time to update next week! In the meantime, here are some more pictures from our weekend at the lake. Thanks Monica!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay...

Loving Brooks' expression, it looks like a "Gray look"!

This week's MckLinky Blog Hop is Favorite Kid Photo. Each of the boys have their own "signature" face that they do when we're making pictures. Jackson is more serious and gives a good smile or tries to pose. Gray tends to crinkle up his nose with either a smile or a "mean face". Harrison goes all out and smiles to his hearts content and gives the biggest CHEESE smiles! Here are just a few of my favorites!





Can't wait to see YOUR favorite kid photos!

Weekend at the Lake

It was a long time coming and took a little rescheduling but we finally got together with friends after a 5 year hiatus! Back in the day, we started a little thing called the Redneck Reunion. There were about 10-12 couples and every year we would get together with friends from high school for a weekend, usually around Labor Day. Our friends from Monticello have a house with lots of land and plenty of room for lots of people and fun, it used to be all about who was bringing the beer, the games and the food. The last time we all got together a few of us were pregnant with our first little ones...now, 5 years later, we finally found time to get together again. 6 couples, 14 kids aged 6 and under...only 3 girls! We rented a condo in Hot Springs right on Lake Hamilton. Our friend Mandy's parents own one so we rented the one a few doors down. We all showed up on Friday afternoon and got out of town late Sunday. All of the kids had a blast! We had 2 boats to use plus the pool at the condo. If we weren't in the water then we were in front of the condo playing baseball or a number of other games involving balls of all sizes! The boys got to see kids they haven't seen in a while and even got to meet some new friends that they had never met before. It was a nice weekend of late nights and early mornings. Jackson and Gray both got to go tubing for the first time. Jackson loved it, I think he would have stayed on all day if we would have let him. Gray rode once with Chad but didn't want to go again after that. Harrison had his first boat ride also. It started off pretty rough, he did NOT want to be on the boat, but once we got going he calmed down and actually liked it. We had good food all weekend but I don't feel to guilty...the condo's were 2 story and the pool & boat dock were also down a steep flight of stairs so we were all feeling the burn by yesterday afternoon! Our last meal together we decided to take the boat down to a restaurant on the lake. As we were finishing up with our meals the storm clouds started rolling in and so did the rain! All the guys jumped in the boats and made it back to tie the boats up and get them covered up, just to turn around and jump in their vehicles to drive down to the restaurant and pick us all up! It was a long 45 minutes waiting for them to get back, us having to watch all the kids in the lobby of the restaurant. It was a good place to take all the kids though, we got to eat on the deck overlooking the lake. The boys had a ball standing at the rail looking over, there were TONS of turtles and fish coming up to check out what the kids were throwing over for them to eat! Even a few ducks showed up! It eventually stopped raining Sunday but by then it was time for us to head home. We dropped Harrison off at Gigi's house for his first extended stay without mommy and daddy. He made it thru last night just fine so we'll see how the rest of the week goes. I'm posting a few pics here but I'm still waiting on some from the water...my battery died soon after getting on the boat so I had to borrow a camera! Typical!

Jackson swimming in the pool
Harrison and Pax

Grayson & Harrison

Chris & Saylor; Josh pulling Jackson, Brooks & Jack on the air mattress; Chad, Gray and Silas stepping out in the back.

Hard Headed

We had a great weekend! Saturday afternoon Nana and Pops came up to visit! The boys had a great time, it had been quite a while since we had seen either one of them. Harrison was just fascinated with Pops and every time he left the room he'd say "where pops?" until he found him...it was really cute. I think he thought he was going to run off and leave without saying goodbye. The weather was just beautiful here in NWA, lower 80's. The boys were in and out of the house all day, playing in the pool for about 30 minutes at a time. That's about all they could handle it since it was so much cooler than their used to!

What's this?

Sunday morning started out normal. Chad and Pops left early to go play some golf. I make pancakes and everyone ate, except Gray. He decided about 30 minutes later that he wanted to eat some cereal, and since Harrison has to do everything that 'gaygay' does, he had to have some also! Well, he had just eaten pancakes so his tray to his booster seat was dirty, so I just pushed his chair up to the table instead. After they finished eating Gray ran off to play so I grabbed the bowls off the table and was at the sink rinsing them out. Next thing I know, out of the corner of my eye I see Harrisons chair falling backward...(insert my scream here) I get to him just as the chair back is hitting the ground...and as his head is hitting the ground. Now, normally Harrison is our brave one..he can scratch his leg and have blood coming out and will continue to play like nothing is wrong. This time it was different. He cried and cried. Could have been my scream had scared him....we'll never know. I took him in his room and rocked him because he was pretty much unconsolable. I figured in a couple of minutes he would be fine and running around playing with his brothers again. Well, 10 minutes later he was still crying and started saying his tummy hurt...this is how he usually tells us he's going to vomit, so I ran to the bathroom and held him over the sink. He didn't like the fact that I was holding him away from my body, he wanted to be right there attached to me. Mom and I started to get worried. Mom had looked at his pupils and they were fine. We had felt around on his head and there was no knot...no bruise, nothing. So we thought, well, maybe if we take him outside he'll perk up and want to play. We sat out there for a few minutes and he still didn't want to leave my lap. Now we were really worried. It had been probably 20 minutes by now. We decided that to be on the safe side I needed to take him to the ER and have him checked out. I had turned around to do something right before we were leaving and mom was holding him, next thing I know he's vomited all over the kitchen floor. Great, now he's lethargic and vomiting. The ER was relatively fast considering that I had a 2 yr old with a potential head injury. It didn't take them long to get us back into a room. After being there for a few minutes Harrison finally started to perk up...wanted to get down for the first time in about an hour and he started to ask about his fancy ankle bracelet he was having to wear. He wasn't to happy about that and tried to pull it off a few times. We entertained outselves by watching some Sunday afternoon rodeo...Harrison loved the bull riding! We finally got an EX-Ray done and it didn't show any cause for concern. In the end, the dr called it a "closed head wound" and compared it to a concussion. Thank the Lord that he is alright, I think that Someones hand had to have been under my baby's head for him not to be hurt. From now on we're going to be putting a bike helmet on his head at mealtime, or maybe just not sit him so close to the table where he can get that much leverage!

In other news, who is that in his own bed? It's GRAYSON!!!!! Last night was night 3 of him sleeping in his own bed! Hallelujah! He's come into our room and made Chad go lay in his bed for a few minutes all 3 nights but we would much rather do that than him sleeping with us. We have a big weekend coming up, we're meeting 4 other families at Lake Hamilton for the weekend! Should be lots of fun....9 little boys, mostly 5 and under and 2 little girls! WooHoo!

Just Because

A Little About Me...

This week, on TUESDAY, 7/14/09, the theme is THREE THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME (or US).

So, I've been trying to come up with 3 things that you don't know about me. There's actually a lot you don't know about me, since the blog is mostly about the boys :).

1. I am the middle child of a family of 3 girls. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would me the mommy to 3 little boys! I love the relation ships that I have with my sisters but we could be closer. I think the fact that I live 2 hours away has a lot to do with it. I have tried to get my younger sister to blog, matter of fact I started one for her and she's been on it 1 time...so much for that! I have a great relationship with my mother and I have always wanted to be able to share that with my own daughter some day. Chad was an only child so he never had to deal with any drama, I always told him that we would either have 2 or 4 kids, so there would never be a true "middle child"...hmmm, we'll see.

2. I love NWA but I desperately want to move back to my hometown of Russellville. We have lived up here for almost 9 years now(me, Chad's been here for like 14 now). I've been telling myself and my family that by the time Jackson started kindergarten we would be back in Rsvl...well, he starts in August and we aren't there yet. I just hate the fact that he is growing up without getting to hang out with the extended family...grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, they're are all there. Rsvl is a smaller town so the job market is just not doing anything. I will continue to look until we can get back home...yes, it's still my "home".

3. I am trying to get healthy and am losing weight. I joined a gym back in April and I try to work out at least 4 times a week. Lot's of times I'm not able to go because of normal life, t-ball, swimming lessons, etc. so on those days I walk at lunch. We have a great trail/track at my work and it's a great work out. So far I've lost 26 pounds but I still have a ways to go! I have a tracker at the bottom of my blog just so friends and family will be up to date on my progress. Eventually I plan on posting before and after pictures but that will probably be closer to the fall!

So, there you have it. 3 things you didn't know about me...did anyone else watch the G.I. Joe cartoons growing up? At the end of it they would always say "And knowing is half the battle"!! Enjoy the Blog Hop this week!

A Cowboy and his Horse

So these pictures are absolutely horrible but it's all I got! On Saturday, the 4th, we took the boys to their first rodeo. This was a real treat for Gray since he has to be a cowboy about every other day...he was all decked out in his boots, jeans and belt...the rest of us were wearing our shorts! The Rodeo of the Ozarks is a 66 year tradition here in NWA and is always July 1st-4th! I forgot my camera in the car so I didn't take any pics during the rodeo. The boys did really good, we were worried about taking Harrison since he's so little and has the attention span of a monkey, but he did really good. He loves horses, or as he calls them "neighs" so he was loving all the animals. When the bareback event started he looked a little worried and after the second cowboy was thrown off of his horse his little lip turned under and I thought he was going to cry! It was so sad. I had to reassure him that the horse and the rider were both fine and nobody got hurt! We left not long after that. All the boys had been real troopers and we were there for almost 3 hours. They were having a huge fireworks show after the rodeo but the boys just couldn't wait any longer. Well, Chad has a co-worker that was in the rodeo so when we left he brought one of his horses over and let the boys take a short ride on it. While we were waiting on him to get the horse we were surrounded by tons of fireworks around the city...it was pretty cool. Other than riding on a pony at a carnival this is the only real horse they've ever ridden. I hate that this is the only picture I got but it is what it is!

Grays face is about covered up by the reigns...not a very good shot by the photographer!

Jackson's is a little better but not much. All I had was my "non-iphone" camera phone...not the greatest, especially in the dark.
We had a great time at the rodeo and can't wait for the next one! Think I'll give Ree a call and see if she could use another ranch hand for the summer...I'm sure Gray would be happy to help out! Happy Wednesday!

Family Affair

So on Friday night we finally accomplished something we've been trying to do for a month now! We had our family pics done! We have not had any pics done as a family since Harrison's first Christmas so it was long over due! I was introduced to Melissa from Preserved Photography by a friend at work who had used her. Well, we wanted outside pics since they are so much more natural and have better color. Our first appointment got rained out so we rescheduled for when the boys were due back from Gigi's...well, that didn't work out because they needed to get back into the groove of "normal life" so we rescheduled again. Our appt was scheduled for Friday evening and guess what...it rained Friday morning...luckily it was hot enough to dry up the ground and we got to get our pics done! Melissa was great with the boys, from the time we got there to when we left! I would recommend her to anyone...especially if you have 3 rambunctious little boys! Here is a peak of some of the pics she got of the boys! I can't wait to update my sidebar pics with some of these!
I'm also joining in with a few other bloggers in a weekly BLOG HOP to share a cute pic! These are my faves so far! Check out other pics down below!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Soooo, last week we started swimming lessons for the boys. A good mom would have prepared all of the meals for the week ahead of time so they would just have to be warmed up, right? Well, I certainly did not feed the boys McDonald's at least 3 times last week, just because it was so much easier than cooking. No way would I do that!
And I certainly would not get aggravated at my 2 year old during the aforementioned swimming lessons because he wanted to get out of the pool and play on the lawn chairs...Not Me! I mean, come on, he's only 2 years old and this was day 4 of swimming lessons...at least the first 3 days went smoothly. And it was Not Me that placed him on the swimming noodle and pretty much told him to stay on it or sink...and guess what? He stayed on it and was the first one in the class to do it all by himself! I was so proud! (Disclaimer: I wouldn't really let him sink, even just for a minute!)I don't know about the other mom's but I think I may have had more fun in the water than the kids! The upper 90 degree weather has been harsh! That's why there is no way that I spent 4 hours out in the yard with the boys yesterday...Not Me! I was inside preparing those meals for this week! At least I was getting some exercise mowing the lawn! I don't think the few times I jumped through the sprinkler exerted that much energy :) ! Happy Monday!

Leap of Faith

Tonight was night 2 of swimming lessons. The boys did a great job tonight! Chad got a few pics of the boys to share. He wasn't able to catch the action shot of Gray jumping off the diving board, he had already landed and all you could really see was the life guard. We are so proud of him! He was really good in the water tonight. There was only 1 incident where the life guard made him go underwater, not intentionally I don't think, but he broke down and had to sit out for a few minutes...after that he hopped back in and got right back into it! Jackson is catching on really good and really likes to be in the water, he'll be a good swimmer. Harrison wanted out of the pool tonight, he wanted to "go play". He was ready to go down the slide at the end though and after doing that 3 times he wanted to jump off the diving board...by then all the life guards were out of the water though so he was out of luck. I did take them back down to the shallow water and let them all jump off the side with me catching them. They were having a blast! There are no pictures of that and I think that's where they had the most fun! Harrison only did it a few times and then Jackson and Gray took turns. Towards the end I started making them go under when they jumped in, not for long but long enough to get them used to it. They did a really good job and then Gray even started putting his face in the water when I was helping him swim over to the ladder! WOW! Gray has totally surprised me..although it is still early in the lessons! I'm hoping by the end of this week he won't be scared anymore. So far it's been a great few days of lessons. Hopefully it will just keep getting better!

Harrison coming off the slide. He did it 3 times tonight, we got to the top of the ladder last night and he backed out of doing it.
Jackson jumping off the diving board.
Jackson coming up for a breath while learning to swim.
Gray taking a break with Jackson in the background.
Jackson taking a break. They seem to do alot of this!
Harrison "floating" on his back, he was not real cooperative tonight.

Jackson posing before lessons got started.

Fun in the Sun

So Jackson and Gray are back home with us. They had a great time in VBS and enjoyed staying with Gigi and Papa. They took them swimming a few times last week and they loved that! Well, Jackson did anyway. We took them again on Friday and Gray was stuck to me like white on rice...I don't know why he was acting that way, Gigi said he was not like that the day before...I guess it's momma's boy syndrome. We finally got him to let go long enough to do some floating and kicking. We start swimming lessons tonight, all 3 boys. I'll be in the pool helping Harrison. Saturday we got to go to Landry's 3rd birthday party. She and Jacob both got to invite a few friends from school. They had it at the Train Depot downtown. It was a lot of fun but I think the highlight was when an actual train went by and the kids got to go out on the back patio and watch the train pass...like 15 feet from them...it was so loud but they loved it!

Jackson was not scared at all...loved jumping off the edge and trying to do everything that cousin Jacob could do...Jacob had his swimming lessons the past 2 weeks so was a little more advanced than Jackson.

Gray finally letting me help him in the water.

Harrison was not liking being cooped up in this little boat...he wanted out and then wanted to jump off the sides like his bubba!

Miss Landry blowing out her candles with a little help from mommy.

Sunday morning we went to Sunday school and after that the VBS kids had their presentation. They all stood up front on risers and sang songs while doing motions to them. Jackson did a really good job. Gray did a few motions but wasn't as in to it...I caught him picking his nose a few times...I didn't get any pictures this weekend because I left my camera at home! I can't believe I did that. I had mom send me some pics though so I have a few. We finally got home on Sunday at about 4:22...(not that I was watching because I had called it 30 minutes earlier..) . Jackson had decided for Father's Day that he and Gray wanted to take Chad to the movies. They went to see UP. Chad said it was good but alot of the humor was geared towards the adults. The boys liked it also though. They were excited to give Chad their home made cards, which I also forgot to take a picture of...I am slackin' big time! Hopefully I'll get some good pics at swimming lessons although I'll be in the pool. I'll put Chad in charge and hope to get some good ones....until then...

Kamri loved Landry's new car...they both did!

Landry having fun at her party.

The only girl cousins...I'm sure they'll be doing this in another 13 years in a real car!