A Day in the Life of the Bartlett Boys...

Jackson's 7th Birthday Party

2011-03-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Jackson and his football cupcakes

Davis, Jackson and Gray

Jackson opening gifts

Davis and Jackson

Jackson opening CHOCOLATE!!

The crew

Landry, Kamri and Harrison

Jacob, Jackson and Gray

This is for you Jade

2011-01-12T09:55:00.001-08:00

Christmas 2010
Jackson opening a new Wii game

Harrison wondering where to go next!

Gray with is new bike and helmet

Harrison checking out the Mobigo from Nana and Pops

Gray in his new Razorback jersey

Jackson looking at the games for his new DSI

Daddy reading the note to the boys that Santa left.

Christmas Eve at Gigi and Poppa's house

After seeing the basketball goal the boys proclaimed

"This is the best Christmas EVER"!!!!! They were too cute!

2010-08-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how different things are when you don't work. Actually, it's the craziness that's gone. There's no gettting home at 5 and rushing thru the night to get dinner ready, baths done, stories read, etc. The boys get out of school at 3:10, so if you want to be in the front of the line you have to get there early. We got in line about 2:35 yesterday...Harrison had to get up from his nap early again to go get them...I have got to start putting him down earlier. He was a good sport though, since we would be sitting in the line for so long I let him out of his seat and he danced to some Phineas and Ferb music! Here he is trying out the front seat.

Love this little boy. He can be so sweet and the next minute be gritting his teeth and going after one of his bubbies! The boys are so funny when I pick them up, they do NOT want to talk about their day, they say "maybe when we get home". I let them go in and watch TV for a while since they haven't all day. Yesterday we went outside after that and the boys started getting creative with their trucks and such. I had to run an errand, aka go get dinner, we are putting a new dishwasher in here in just a few minutes so we are trying not to dirty any more dishes than we have to. When I got back J and H were driving the Jeep that H got for his birthday, they were pulling Gray in a dump truck. This is our little engineer, Gray is always coming up with things like this to do...kinda scary sometimes but they have so much fun.
We had all these bandanas from Graysons birthday party and they tied them all together to connect the jeep and the dump truck. They tried the tricycle to the jeep first, that just kept falling over...they finally got to this and it worked! Eureka!

Chad is playing (is that the right word?) Fantasy Football this year for the first time and last night he left right before 7 to go to his "draft". The boys were pretty riled up and kept getting in trouble for jumping on each other and screaming...we were supposed to watch a movie so I kept threatening them with that. Shortly after 7 I got onto Harrison for jumping around in our recliner, I thought he was going to fall out on his head, he scared me to death so I spatted his leg and brought him over to the couch and made him sit by me. Well, it broke his heart that I spanked him and he kept trying to get up and I would not let him...Here's the scary part....I picked him up to hold him facing me so I could talk to him and he started to have a seizure, I knew because he had 2 of them over a year ago, I put him down on the floor and he stopped. B.R.E.A.T.H.I.N.G. It was the scariest 30 seconds of my life. I won't go into the details but it was chaos and to make it worse I had a 5 and 6 year old thinking their brother was dead...that's hard to type. As I was on the phone with 911, he came to and started crying...everyone was crying. As Jackson said when things settled down, "at least we got to see a firetruck and ambulance!" Yeah, that's how I wanted to get to see one...they assessed him and by that time he was fine. I'm going to take him to the clinic Monday morning for his pediatrician to see him and give him the once over but looking at him now you would never know anything happened. We watched our movie, ate popcorn, and did A LOT of cuddling! The boys are now playing Fireman with their badge stickers the firemen gave them. Guess I'll go get ready for the dishwasher installation, wish me luck!

School Days

2010-08-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Gone are the long summer days of going to the pool 3 times a week and staying up until 10...Yesterday was the big day, Grayson started Kindergarten!! Notice I didn't say Gray...he wants to be called Grayson at school! Jackson stayed up late the night before and when Chad asked him why he wasn't asleep he said "My eyes just won't close, I'm just so excited for Grayson to go to school"...such a sweet brother! The day started off great, he jumped right out of bed, didn't argue about eating breakfast so soon. He's one of those kids that normally likes to be up for like an hour before he eats...no time for that anymore. They all love chocolate gravy so that's what we had for breakfast yesterday. Teeth brushed, clothes on, backpack on...ready to go! Here are a few pictures.

Guess who's not a morning person?

This heartbreaking face lasted about 2 minutes until he got to his class.

My big boys!

Waiting in line to go in...

Standing in line waiting to go in the school.

So many parents park and walk their kids on the first day
that we had to park at the park by the school and walk.

They're bad, They're bad, and they know it!

All in all, the boys had a great first day of school. Jackson was disappointed to find out that they do a lot more work in 1st grade! Grayson had lots of fun and we can't wait to hear new stories from him every day...if he'll tell us! Harrison started asking me at about 10am this morning if it was time to go get his bubbies yet....obviously he's missing them already. I'm going to start him in TLC (the Little Church), mothers day out program on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next week so he can have some interaction with kids his own age again and it will give me a chance to volunteer at school and maybe get to see the boys. Although you wouldn't know it by the pictures on the blog, they boys had a great summer. We got to swim often and they loved it. Jackson is jumping off diving boards and can swim to the end of the pool now. Grayson is still learning and will be doing it by the end of next summer...Harrison might be also! He will jump off the board to me and go under as long as I'm there to catch him. Kinda scary how brave he's gotten over the last few weeks but at least he's not scared of the water. Okay, so that's it for today...I plan on redeeming myself so no to be labeled "WORST BLOGGER EVER" anymore...Thanks Monica

2010-04-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Jackson and Gray have been going to Tiny Tim's on Wednesday nights at church, this is a program that runs from Sept-April and they learn about a book of the bible. Sunday was the program at church and since I forgot my camera I requested a few performances at home. Harrison had to give one himself also. This was after they had been playing for a while and their new favorite thing to do is dig in the dirt so they were quite dirty. Hope you enjoy the videos!

Jackson's 6th Birthday

2010-03-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is what a long weekend with no naps looks like Sunday evening.
Jackson, Jacob and Gray at their soccer games on Jackson's birthday.

Jackson, Kristin and Jacob at the party.

Kristin, Jackson, Kameron, Jacob and Grayson

The birthday boy!

We had Jackson's party at Hog Wild here in Russellville, it's our version of Chuck-E-Cheese. The kids had a great time and did not want to leave. If only we had known that Saturday was going to be in the 70's we would have planned an outside party! Jackson got a Wii for his birthday and has been having fun with it. We are only letting him play it at night before bed, it's been to pretty during the day to stay inside doing that. We finished Upward basketball and now are into soccer. Short season, we only have 4 more games to play and we are already starting t-ball practice. Chad was going to sit this sport out and not coach but has been talked into it, so he gets to coach Jackson and Gray! This will be Gray's first time playing t-ball and they are a little more gung-ho then we were in Fayetteville so we may have a few more tears when he gets tagged out! Looking forward to seeing how this goes. Will post more pictures as I get them!

All in the Family

2010-01-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, there, I think we're all caught up!

We had some visitors staying with us for a few days this past week. My sister Tara any my niece Kamri crashed at our house for a few nights because their pipes were frozen at their house. Harrison and Kamri are only 2 months apart, they are in the same class at daycare and they love playing together. Aren't these 2 little blondies adorable, looking a little sleepy in this picture!

We made a trip to Alma on Saturday to see Mom Freda, HI MOM! She took a tumble the other night and got pretty banged up and Harrison had a bruise on his forehead also, see any resemblance?

Meet Sally, this is the "neigh" that Santa, AKA Nana, brought Harrison for Christmas, actually all of the boys have had fun riding her...there's just no nice way to say that, the boys are the ones that decided she was a girl.And then you've got the "Blues Brothers", Harrison and Gray posing for a random picture on Sunday. Harrison insisted on facing this way...couldn't face the bathroom, had to have it as the background. Nice.

So last night was the first of Jackson's basketball games, he's playing Upward Bound Basketball. Chad is coaching the team. I took lots of pictures but apparntly I need to learn how to take pictures again because they all look like this: Jackson is the hologram in the middle about to shoot the ball. Nice action shot mom!

2009-12-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

BE ADVISED, UPDATES ARE COMING SOON!!!

Hey There Punkin' !

2009-10-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

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"!

2009-07-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

A Little About Me...

2009-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

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!

Hives and the ER

2009-06-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

We had our last t-ball game of the season last night. Jackson missed out, he and Gray are with Gigi going to VBS with Jacob...having a blast. Hopefully I'll have some pics at the end of the week. After the game was over Chad presented the team with a little T-ball trophy, so cute! Unfortunately I have no pictures of this because poor little Harrison had an allergic reaction to something last night. It started with what looked like a mosquito bite on his forearm. By the time that I got to the ball park, it had spread out and looked like a big rash. It went from one arm to the other, then down to his calv's, around his shins turning them bright red and a little swollen, still with the hives. It went up the back of his legs to the top of his thigh, never going onto the core of his body. The only other place it ever spread was his left cheek. We decided to take him to the ER but after about 15 minutes of being there it had started to go away. I talked to an on-call nurse and she said it sounded like a "contact" reaction, like he had gotten into something he was allergic to. He was getting into moms suitcase right before this happened but they could not find anything that he was able to actually open, so we are at a loss and have no idea what he's allergic to! Mom found a flashlight and was shining it on him throughout the night to make sure that his face was not breaking out again...she knew I was worried about him, bless her heart! Harrison's sitter is on vacay this week so mom is here until Weds with H, Chad gets him Thursday and I get the day off Friday. H and I will head down to Russellville Friday morning to see his bubba's and Saturday is Landry's birthday party! Fun Fun. Hoping to get to spend some time with my bestest friend ever this weekend! She has 2 beautiful little girls and is expecting her little boy next month! Can't wait to see them! Hopefully I'll post some new pics in the next few days...we got Jacksons t-ball pics back and they are so adorable! I'll have to scan one in to show it off. Hope everyone has a great day!

This is what Harrison looked like yesterday evening...hoping he doesn't break out today!
**Update, I had to take the picture off, it was grossing me out.

Batter and Cowboy UP!

2009-06-09T08:02:00.001-07:00

So in our house the boys have a HUGE playroom...well, it's huge to us anyway. We have way to many toys so we've been trying to downsize recently, and we still have to many! We used to have the boys desks in the middle of the room, they would use them to color, do puzzles, and use as a general stage for all dancing and singing....well, I got tired of them being there so I decided to make them each their own work station. Jackson's is a baseball theme and Gray's is what else??? Cowboy! Here is what I've done so far....not much, still have more to do and more toys to get rid of. Now, all I need is a table/desk for Harrison. Mom Freda, I'm calling on you! IF Marti does not come and get her little table then I want it! It would be perfect for Harrison! So here's a little peak...

These shelves need to have the pictures updated and I need a few more things on them. I found the "laugh" sign on Sunday and love it!

I got that hangy storage thing last year and have never used it. I threw in the play dough, their small notebooks and workbooks, paper and card games and still have room for a few more things. A friend gave us these white shelves a few months ago and I've been looking for a place to use them..I still have 1 more!

This is Jackson's shelf with his "J". He still needs something else, maybe one of his T-ball pics when we get them back..

And this is Gray's side. I moved the star from the big shelf to his shelf since it's a little "cowboy" or "western" style. His bulletin board and "G" have "bandanna" print paper on them, it's not pink like it looks, it's actually red. Most of the stickers were strategically placed by the boys.

Same Story, Different Saturday

2009-06-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

Just got in from playing outside this bright sunny Saturday! The boys wanted to get the slip-n-slide out of course so here are a few pics.

Harrison loves to watch people mow, if he hears a mower you are in trouble if he can't see it. The other night he was waking a little and he started crying "wanna see daddy mow, wanna see daddy mow"!

Gray looks like he's had enough!

Gray getting some water action.

Jackson apparently didn't like Gray's little attitude earlier...

Jackson eatin' some water!

Harrison mowing still....
Jackson taking a break

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!! Have a great weekend!

Out to Lunch

2009-06-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

So this is what I did Tuesday afternoon when Harrison and I were on our way to get lunch. I had my first ever accident. I rear ended this truck. Nice huh. Thankfully I was not going fast and no one was hurt. Little damage was done, just this, it pushed his bumper down. My car just got a scratch on the front bumper. I felt horrible that it happened and now I'm a little paranoid behind the wheel. Better watch out if you see me comin' as I don't have quite the confidence I had last week.

Another angle

Happy Graduation, Birthday & Anniversary!

2009-05-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday

It seems like the last week was so rush, rush. Thursday after work Chad left for his guys weekend so that left me with Jackson and Gray. He took Harrison with him and dropped him off with Gigi. It was a joint effort, she watched him Thursday night and then took him over to Tara's on Friday morning. She watched him all day and then when mom got off at 5 she watched him for a few hours and then took him back to Gigi's for the night. Here on the Hill we were rushing to get to a T-ball game. The kids had fun and were glad to get to play after all the rain outs we've had recently. After the game we ran home, washed up and then went out to have dinner. We went to Dixie Cafe because I figured they wouldn't be to crowded. Food was good & boys were good so they got to have ice cream. On the way out the door Gray kept having trouble with his shoe, he has the velcro shoes and one of them has started to not stick...so we headed over to Shoe Carnival to see what they had....45 minutes and 3 pairs of shoes later we were on our way home. I spent the next hour getting our things packed for the weekend.

Friday

After work on Friday I rushed to pick up the boys. We had to head over to Rick's Bakery to pick up Harrison's birthday cake. We picked up dinner on the way home and I got the cake in the fridge. After eating a quick dinner and changing clothes we headed back to school for Jackson's Pre-K Graduation. They had a Luau theme so everyone had on their tropical clothes and flip-flops. Jackson would not wear his flip-flops though because he said they hurt his toes. The presentation lasted about 20 minutes. Short and sweet. The kids did some cute songs of what they had learned the last few years. Jackson is one of a handful of kids that has been at that school since he was 8 weeks old. They have grown up together.

Here is a picture of Jackson and Carson.

Me and my big boys!(Not how I normally smile, I think I'd been holding the pose to long!)
Cooper, Jackson, Carson and Gray

After the graduation we rushed to Sam's Club to pick up some flowers for mom. Let me remind you that I'm no florist AND I had a 4 and 5 yr old with me. I ended up getting a few to many flowers. More on that later. So we finally get headed to Russellville and make it there at about 10:30 Friday night, I'm exhausted already.

Saturday

Saturday started off e.a.r.l.y, why? Because Jackson likes to get up with the sun. He got up at about 6am and proceeded to wake Harrison in the process...H was kind enough to stand in his pack-n-play staring at Gray and I sleeping for a few minutes before waking us up! Harrison was happy to see his mommy and bubba's, he was so sweet! Gigi and Papa decided to take the big boys fishin' at a friends pond so about 10 they left to do that. I was hoping that Harrison would tire out and want to take an early nap, no such luck, so we called aunt Tara and she and Kamri came over to play. They had fun taking books from each other. Tara and I decided it was time for lunch so we headed over to pick up Taco Villa for us and Sonic for the little ones. Yum O! Just as we started to eat the fishermen arrived home to tell about their adventures! I'll have to get some of the pics from my FB and put them on here. After that we headed over to aunt Jennys house. We had a great time playing in the yard, t-ball, swing set, wagon riding. We had planned on cutting harrison's birthday cake that afternoon but things just didn't work out that way. Tara got a call from Scott saying that the whole time he was at work on Sat he had been vomiting. He had managed to drive home (from LR) but was feeling pretty awful. She left Kamri and decided to go home to check on him. We got a call soon after that he was running a fever of 103.4, when she tried to give him some Tylenol, he couldn't even sit up to take it he was so week. The consensus was to take him to the ER. It was a good decision because he didn't have Strep like some of us thought, he had a kidney infection! He is back at work and feeling much better now. After a long day we finally headed back to Gigi's to eat some McDonald's and cut the cake. When we got back to the house cousin Skyler was there so he got to enjoy our picnic in the yard and have some cake with us! Harrison was anxious to get into and got a handful of icing before I could get the candles on! Another late night getting to bed!

Miss Kamri Dakota

Miss Landry Elise
Harrison trying to be a big boy

The grab!

Doesn't it look like the truck ran over something and is about to have an accident?

Sunday

Sunday started again, way to early. Harrison woke up during the night several times so I would rock him back to sleep and then lay him back down. He woke up again at 5:30 and there was no going back to bed that time! I had actually prepared Jackson on Saturday night, putting the TV on the right channel and a low volume and instructing him to NOT wake anyone else up when he got up. Well, Grayson was the next to get up at about 7. Jackson didn't wake up until 9am and that's because I went in to tell him I was making pancakes! He NEVER sleeps that late. I guess the last few nights finally caught up with him. When Harrison gets up early he always wants to "go outside" so this is what I heard for about the first 2 hours. He finally started crying for Gigi and went banging on her door. She was nice enough to get up and soon after had the boys outside playing. So the flowers that I mentioned,Sunday was my grandparent's 60th Wedding Celebration and mom was in charge of decorating so she had me bring the flowers down from Sam's. I brought a 5gallon tub with me to put them in so I could keep them in water. Well, I couldn't find any water and I wasn't going to drive all the way home to get it so they had to hold off until we got to Gigi's. At that point I put them in the shower and filled the tub up with water. Mom decided to take them up to Greenbrier to the church on Saturday so she didn't have to mess with them on Sunday morning...she got quite a shock when she saw all of them that I had gotten. First, let me say I was very disappointed with their selection...they had NO roses at all. Mostly we had Gerber Daises of varying colors and some spider mums, so mom made due with those and the arrangements were very pretty....any who, I got a call from Chad relatively early letting me know that he was back in town and would be able to go with us! Yippee Jesus! The boys were so excited to see Chad, it was so sweet! We finally got to the church right at 2pm! We got to spend time with family that we don't often see and family that we see only on holidays. It was good to see everyone. The church had a swing set so we took turns taking the kids outside. I think a good time was had by all! Another long day, we got back to Russellville at about 6 and ordered a pizza for dinner...anyone get the feeling I was not on my diet this weekend? Monday morning brought us rushing around to get new tires on the car, dropping it off, getting lunch and taking it back to Gigi's. Chad was exhausted because Harrison had another rough night and daddy got to spend with him and then up at 5:30 again. After getting packed up we finally got back on the road home after a few setbacks. We stopped to see Mom Freda for about an hour and then had to jet on up the mountain for T-ball pics and a game. H had started acting crabby....since Chad and I were in separate cars I had all 3 kids in the van. H had been yelling for Chad the entire time so when we stopped for a potty break in Ozark Chad put him in the car with him, he immediately went to sleep. Once we got to the ball field I decided that the boys needed to get into bed at a decent time so I took Gray and H on home. Once we got there I realized that H was running a fever, 102...nice. He's had a virus and apparently that's why he was not sleeping well. I stayed home with him for 2 days and today is my first day back at work, nothin' like starting your week on a Thursday!

Long Weekend

2009-05-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

We had a nice long ~~relaxing~~ weekend, time with family and time to thank those who serve our country and have given their lives for our freedom. One person always come to mind around this time, My Great Uncle Oscar. He's not someone we ever talk about but I've always wondered about him. My uncle posted something on his facebook yesterday that broke my heart. Oscar was my mamaw's older brother. When mamaw was 14, her brother Oscar was serving in WWII. He was 19. Oscar was killed in action and mamaw was notified by a letter from the Army. That's it. This innocent 14 yr old girl gets a letter in the mail that her brother has been killed in action. I can't imagine what she must have gone thru. By that time she was being raised by her own Uncle Charlie since both of her parents had passed. Uncle Richard posted some pics of mamaw holding a military picture of Oscar, she looks so sad that it made me cry. Another of her holding the letter from the Army that she's held on to all of these years. I'll try to jack the pics from FB tonight and post them on here.

Gigi came up for the weekend. She was kind enough to let me get out on Saturday and go to the gym to get my work out in. The boys had a blast playing with her, as always. We weren't able to play outside much because of the rain but we still had fun. We took the boys to Chick-fil-A and let them eat lunch and play in the play area on Saturday afternoon. with the weather being blah and us being stuck inside I was not feeling very creative so the camera stayed in it's case. We ordered pizza on Saturday night and let the boys stay up and watch Horton Hears a Who as our Family Night movie. It was cute. The boys liked it so much they wanted to watch it again the next day! On Sunday morning we ventured out to Target. The boys were not to thrilled about being there but they were good none-the-less, only mini-meltdowns. I got myself a new hoola hoop and a jump rope, something active I can to while playing outside with the boys. Gigi surprised us by buying us a new Swiffer Vacuum....do you think she's trying to tell me something? haha. The bad news is I may never get to use it...the reason? The boys love it! Even Harrison had to have his turn. Harrison did the kitchen, Gray did the boys bathroom and Jackson did my bathroom.
Monday was just mommy and the boys. Gigi went home on Sunday and Chad was back at work. Again, it rained most of the day. The boys had cabin fever apparently and were trying to drive mommy insane. Let's just say they weren't very obedient, which led to mommy not being very nice. Jackson ended up in his room (in trouble) but fell asleep and had about 1hr 45minute nap...thankfully most of that was during Harrison's nap. Speaking of, I think little one is cutting some new teeth, he has sure been waking up alot the last few nights. Chad actually rocked him to sleep on Saturday night and fell asleep in the rocking chair with him. Little man will be having a birthday on Sunday...the big 2! By about 4 o'clock yesterday we were finally able to play outside. The boys decided they wanted to eat dinner outside so we grilled hot dogs...seriously blew the diet yesterday. It was still cloudy and looked like it was going to rain at any minute so we set a table up in the garage and had dinner in there. We ended up having a really good night and getting the boys to bed at a decent time. BIG weekend coming up so hopefully I'll have some good pics next week.

What's up with this?

2009-05-21T07:03:00.001-07:00

So something is going on with Jackson. I don't know if I'm just being paranoid or what but the way he's been throwing up just doesn't seem right. Friday May 8th, gets a migraine at school, once home he throws up 2 times, falls asleep on the couch and is pretty much out for the night. Next day he's fine. No issues. The next week, Thursday, gets a headache at school, comes home and starts to throw up. This time he throws up 6 or 7 times until he goes to bed, sleeps thru the night. Friday morning he's not feeling great but he's not vomiting anymore, we go to the dr and she diagnoses migraines since he's had no other symptoms, no fever, no more vomiting. That afternoon he starts getting a stomach ache/cramps, is literally rolling around on the floor/couch wherever he's sitting and grabbing his stomach crying that it hurts...this goes on for about an hour and he finally vomits again. Then 1-2 more times....feels puny, still no fever, doesn't want to play or anything. Sleeps all night Friday night, does this again on Saturday...nothing all day, just feeling puny...starts getting a stomach ache later that day, like after 5pm....vomits again, clutches stomach and complains about how bad it's hurting...this time he also has a headache with it...I give him ibuprofin and go lay in his bed with him...this is about 7pm...he still has cramps/headache for about 30 minutes until he falls asleep for a while....kinda in and out. He gets up to watch a movie with us a little while later, still feeling bad, he thinks he needs to throw up again and tries but is only dry heaving as he has not eaten much of anything in 2 days. Sunday morning wakes, dry heaves, feels fine after that. End of this illness. Then yesterday, gets a headache after waking from naptime at school....throws up at school about 4:30, comes home and vomits again about 5:30....feels puny the rest of the night. Wakes up this morning feeling fine. Does this seem normal to anyone? It just doesn't feel right. I'm waiting on a call back from the dr to see if they want to see him again. I'll let you know.

Picture Overload!

2009-05-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend! That's a little hard to say considering that Jackson was sick Thursday-Sunday, I think the reason it was so great is because of the awesome weather we had! We have had nothing but rain for about 2 weeks so seeing the sun was such a blessing! Jackson came home with a stomach bug on Thursday night and was pretty much out of commission until Sunday morning...it was so good to see him eating and playing again! He did wake up this morning saying that he was sore "here" and "here" pointing to his ribs, that can be explained by this:

I think he's trying to catch water in his mouth!

Keeping hydrated!
Aunt Jenny and Uncle Shawn got the boys this slip-n-slide for their birthday and they have been dying to break it out! It only got into the lower 70's yesterday but it was just perfect! They boys had a blast playing on it while Harrison was napping and daddy was tackling the jungle we call our back yard! It had not been mowed since early last fall and it was nearly waist high. Chad spend about 2.5 hours mowing. I think he ended up going over it twice just to chop up the remaining grass even more. Mom came up on Saturday morning and stayed the night with us. She's been wanting to get a new veh for the past several months and couldn't decide between the GMC Acadia and the Toyota Highlander...she finally decided on the Highlander and it is NICE! She was nice enough to let me sneak out for a few hours on Saturday and get my massage the boys (Chad) got me for mothers day...it was awesome...I had a masseuse the size of Shaq and I think she might have even been Swedish!
I was finally able to get my flowers potted that the boys helped me pick out on Mother's Day. I think a few of them died...I don't know anything about flowers so I don't know if they'll resprout a new bloom or not...I guess we'll wait and see. Here's Gray posing with one of the pots.

So after all the slippen', slidin', and lawn mowin' the boys gave my car a much needed bath...this was Harrison's first car wash and I think he really enjoyed it. Thanks to my favorite men for a great weekend!

This was the ONLY picture I managed to get with all 3 of them! HA!

Gray moved on to his toys when he was done with my car.

And then, Chad looked into the garage and found Jackson doing this...at least this is what he's taking away from the movie Kung Fu Panda! It could be alot worse!

Jackson, trying to get centered.

Cupcakes, Ice Cream and Toys, Oh My!

2009-05-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

We had a great, fun weekend! Saturday was the boys birthday party at Jump Zone in Bentonville. Before heading up to that Gigi and I had some shopping to do so we headed to Target and in the meantime Chad and Papa headed up to Touch-A-Truck with the boys. It was raining but they were going to brave the rain and make the best of it. I guess the Junior League decided otherwise because they post-poned the event for a few weeks. Chad didn't want to head home yet so they took the boys to the Promenade because they've recentley gotten a new carousel in the food court. The Promenade is our outdoor mall in NWA. The boys had fun, Gray was a little scared and wouldn't ride the horse, he made Chad ride with him and they sat on one of the benches...the other boys loved it! After lunch and a little ice cream they finally headed home just in time to get ready for another boys birthday party. They got to stay long enough to play for a few minutes and then had to leave for their own party. Jump Zone is an indoor facility that caters to birthday parties, they have 4 rooms set up and decorated for the kids parties. They have about 10 huge inflatable things for the kids (and parents) to play on. Even one for the toddlers! It was the perfect place considering the nasty weather we've been having. Everyone had a great time! The boys were running around chasing each other, going down the slides, jumping on the inflatables! Lot's of fun for everyone. I was not able to get any pictures of the fun until we got into the party room. All of them turned out fuzzy! Even on my sports setting! So, here are some of the pics I did get. Sunday I didn't do much of anything...I stayed home with Harrison and we both got a nice long nap. Chad took the big boys to target to spend some birthday money..pics will be coming soon Aunt Tara! After that they headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things but got sidetracked at Maggie Moo's Ice Cream Shop...Yum O! Overall a great weekend with lots of new toys to play with...guess we'll be cleaning out the playroom this week!

Jackson and Gray sharing the "throne"

Jacob, Landry, Harrison & Carson

Erika and Jackson--no wonder the boys have such a crush on this cutie!

Getting ready to blow out the candles, Jackson said afterward that he had wished that the whole world was a brownie!

Thanks to everyone for coming up to our neck of the woods for the party!

Fun with Water and Naked Babies

2009-04-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

Strike a Pose

Another week, another T-Ball game...a few pics of that. The ball park has a lot to it, including a playground and a volleyball court...we ended up at the latter on Thursday.

Fun in the sand!

We had a fun weekend! The boys and I ventured out on Saturday, we drove down to a trail near our house, the boys with their bikes and Harrison in his stroller. We rode, we walked, we pushed, we strolled. It's that time of year where there are caterpillars everywhere so we counted those along the way...just the live ones, not the ones smushed into the pavement...there were 20 in case you're wondering! :) Lot's of people out and it was a

B-E-A UTIFUL DAY! We crossed a bridge along the way and the boys got to look over and see all sorts of things, fish, a turtle and a couple of geese. Gray made it about half the way and then wanted to walk so I put his bike in the back of the stroller. He alternated between walking and riding on the top of the stroller. We ended up walking for about an hour and a half. The boys really enjoyed it so I'm sure we'll do it again! I didn't even think to bring my camera, my focus was the walking I was going to get in and I did get a pretty good work out, by the end I WAS pushing 2 kids and pulling a bike :0. After Chad got home on Saturday we pretty much stayed outside, playing in the yard. I mowed the front lawn and Chad mowed the back while I grilled chicken and sweet peppers...they turned out really good, the sweet peppers that is. Sunday was a long day, the boys got us up by 8 so we had a good start on the day! After breakfast Chad took the boys outside so I could start mopping the kitchen, when I went to put my new mophead on the mop I realized it was the wrong one so I sent Chad to Target to get the right one...he had 2 little helpers go with him so while they were gone Harrison and I took advantage and took another nice walk. It was already really warm by then and I ended up with a little pink on my arms and face. After our walk H and I stopped at the park so he could "side" (slide)...he's starting to talk so much! So cute! The rest of the day was pretty much outside playing in the yard...Jackson and Gray decided they wanted to play in the spinkler at about 5:30 so we hooked it up and let them at it. Jackson jumped right in but it took Gray a few minutes. Harrison didn't get in. You'll notice in the picture of him that he is stylin'! He had a really bad diaper rash so a lot of his time was spent running around with no diaper at all...at least he has that on in the picture! You will also notice the little tummy that jackson has acquired over the past few months...I haven't gotten new swim trunks for the boys yet and as you can see, Jackson are a little tight! He didn't mind though, he was running around like a mad man! It was fun to watch.

We are getting ready for the boys birthday party on Saturday. I went shopping today for a few things for goody bags...hope they like them. Can't wait to see all the family that's coming up!

Not. Quite. Sure.

Oh Yeah! Do a little dance....

Hmmm, what are they up to?

No pants, a dirty shirt, a "sassy"and to top it off he's wearing socks!!!!!

(you didn't really think there would be any naked babies on here did you?)

Let's PLAY BALL

2009-04-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

T-Ball that is! Last night was Jackson's first T-ball game and he had a blast. I'm hoping that he sticks with it better than he did the soccer that we just finished up! We have 14 kids on our team so the "innings" were kind of long, it was fun to watch these kids because they were all playing for the first time. Some started running the wrong way, some couldn't really hit the ball and others could already slide into home plate! In the video below you can see how Jackson attempted to slide, it's more of a jump & fall....he tried though! We have 2 girls on our team, 1 of which is bigger than most of the boys! Somehow we always get stuck not getting a real mascot....in soccer we were the Crew, now we are just JR Ball (Contracting)....we don't even get a dog or a beaver on our hats, just some letters! Oh well, there will be plenty of time for that in the future! It was quite a chore last night because Chad is the coach so he was on the field with the kids, Gray was running around with his dirt bike toy playing in the dirt, up and down the bleachers. Harrison of course was not going to sit in the stroller so I was having to keep him from running onto the field, up the bleachers, into the concrete "hand ball" court.....it was fun but tiring. Jackson had a bathroom emergency in the middle of the inning, thank goodness he was in the dugout and not on the field, I had to practically run across the ballpark, pushing H & G in the double stroller across the mud, hoping that I didn't fall on my hynie, all the while PRAYING that Jackson made it to the potty, he had to go #2! The fact that he was running with his hand on his bottom as if he were holding it in was not comforting. We made it though and then 20 minutes later I had to take G back! Why don't they ever have to go at the same time? We are having a BEAUTIFUL week so far here in NWA, I think it's going to hit 80 today! We have another game on Thursday so maybe I can get something planned so I'm not running all over the ball-park! Hope everyone's having a great week! Here are some pics from last night.

Concentrating during pre-game practice

Good hit, first try!

After the game, running off the field...(wrong setting so pic is blurry!)

Tax Day Baby

2009-04-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

It all started on April 14th, 2005. Chad, Jackson and I were hanging out at the house after work that day. Chad and I decided we wanted to make taco's for dinner but we didn't have all the fixin's so Chad headed out to the grocery store, which was like 5 minutes away. The ONE time in his life that he should have grabbed his phone and he left it at home! So Jackson and I were playing in the LR, I was sitting on the couch, on the very edge and jackson came running up to my very pregnant belly and kind of bounced off of it, that along with my position on the couch was just enough to break my water! It's so funny looking back now what a panic I was in, you know how they say that each labor will be faster than the one before, well the one before was like 21 hours so I shouldn't have expected anything soon but I started to freak because Chad wasn't home. I called my parents, his mom...I called my friend Melissa because she had volunteered to watch Jackson when this happened. I think by the time Chad got home,everyone but him knew! By the time we got on our way to the hospital it was about an hour after my water broke...I started having some pretty intense contractions. The hospital was about 30 minutes from our house and I remember telling Chad that I wasn't going to make it, he had to drive faster, so we're flying down the interstate with our lights flashing, no telling how fast we were going, it's amazing that we didn't get pulled over. So once we get to the hospital the nurse is like "okay, we have to test you to make sure your water DID break", another nurse walks behind me and says, "put her in a room, her water broke all right"...I had been riding with a towel between my legs and another under me and by the time we got to the hospital they were both soaked. One thing for you to remember if you haven't had a baby yet...if your water breaks, as apposed to "leaks", it will make a mess! Oh, I forgot to mention that I had just been in for my check up that same day and was like 1 cm. The dr was expecting to have to induce me the next week. So, after all the hullabaloo that goes on, I got comfy with my epidural, mind you I was going to try to do without one but after a few hours when they told me I was only at 3cm, I knew I wasn't going to make it. All the next morning I was having major back labor and could feel everything so the anesthesiologist came in to readjust my epidural. It didn't help much, I was still hurting really bad. When it was finally time to push the dr checked me...the reason I was having such pain was because Gray was turned face up with the back of his head on my backbone. The dr also discovered that in the past 17 hours ...yes, that's right, 17hrs Gray had flipped himself and was breech and face up. If anyone uses Willow Creek then you probably know Dr Seal, tiny lady...thank God for that because with those tiny little hands she was able to turn Gray to position him head down! After an hour of pushing our little Grayson Conor was born on April 15th at 12:19pm!

Easter '06--1 yr old

As stubborn as he was in his birth, he has stayed that way ever since, especially in the 2 yrs since he's been the "middle child"! Gray would never go to sleep in his own bed, for the first year of his life he slept in his swing, once he outgrew that he started sleeping with mommy and daddy. To this day he goes to bed in his own bed but ends up in our bed sometime during the night. Those of you who know us, know about his hair fetish....he is always playing with my hair at night, this is his comfort mechanism. We've tried different stuffed animals and such over the past few years but he still prefers the real thing! He started having night terrors when he was just a little over 2. We had his tonsils/adenoids out last year and that has had no effect on his sleeping or behavior. Gray may be little but he is quite the spit-fire and can take care of himself. Always' the picky eater, he sometimes chooses not to eat at all, not because he doesn't like what we're having necessarily, but he just doesn't want to eat. (He actually has an appointment later this month to address some of these issues.) Gray is the only one of the boys that is really good playing by himself. The other 2 like to have someone there with them but Gray can get a motorcycle or a race car and play for hours on his own (except of course today while I'm working from home and he wants me with him in the floor!). Mommy had a stomach bug yesterday and Gray had it when he got home from school so the poor kid is spending his birthday having bouts of the cha-cha's at home with mommy! Other than that, he feels fine. We love you Gray Gray! Happy Birthday!!!

His first worm! April 6th, 09

6 Years and Counting!

2009-04-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

Six years ago today I married the love of my life! It had been a long time comin' since we had been dating since I was 16 and a junior in high school! Chad and I started dating on Labor day weekend back in 1993, it was a forbidden romance given that he was "dating" my best friend at the time. Dating is a strong word, more like he was pining for her and she took advantage of that in every way that she could. Don't get me wrong, she was a great friend to me but I didn't appreciate the way she treated him, at all. The more I got to know Chad, the more I liked him and hated how she was using him, so when she went out of town for the weekend, I made my move. See, sometimes it does work out when the girl makes the first move! After being together for 16 years now I can honestly say that our love is stronger every day. We have been thru alot in the past 6 years, including having 3 beautiful little boys. Chad is definitely the rock in our relationship and he should get a medal for having to put up with me, the emotional roller coaster that I am. Chad, I know I don't tell you enough but I love you and appreciate you so much! You are an awesome husband and a wonderful father to our boys. Happy Anniversary. Here's a trip down memory lane over the past 16 years!

Always Your Lori.

Baby Talk

2009-04-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

So for the past several weeks I've been trying to get Harrison to say "I Love You" at night when I put him down. He knows the rhythm and would try to say it but it just wasn't coming out. So today I got off work early so I picked him up from Woody's myself. On the way back to the house I was talking to him and I said to him "say I love you"....and he did! Clear as day, it was so cute, so I immediately say, "oh, you're so cute" and he repeats that also! Precious...so right when we got home I sat him down and made this video, excuse the messy playroom in the background. We are taking the boys to the park and then daddy has a surprise for them later tonight...will blog again later about that. Enjoy the video!

Happy Birthday NANA!

2009-03-26T06:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was mom's birthday and since the boys didn't get to see her we decided to make a video! IT WAS really good...until Jackson deleted it from the camera...that's what I get for letting him play with it. So, we had to make another one and the boys were not cooperating...they were being boys! Happy Birthday Nana, hope you had fun in Branson!

Tomorrow is TODAY!

2009-03-23T11:20:00.001-07:00

You know how you always say that you'll start your diet tomorrow? Well, tomorrow is here! Friday I finally signed up for a program at our local hospitals' gym, the Washington Regional Center for Exercise. The program is an 8 week program that meets every Monday night for 1.5 hrs. Every week we focus on something different, even how to shop at the grocery store. There are 2 trainers consisting of an exercise specialist and a nutritionist. There are only 6 people in the group so it should be very hands on with lots of personal attention. I will try to post my progress on a weekly basis. I don't have a schedule of what days I'll be going to they gym yet but I hope to go at least 4 days a week. I'm really excited to get this started but hate that Chad will be dealing with all 3 boys at a soccer game every Monday night....just another thing that makes him an awesome husband! Speaking of the hubs, he just took on a new responsibility of coaching Jackson's T-Ball team! We have our first practice this week but J won't be there...he and G are going to stay with Gigi and Papa for a few days while Gigi's on Spring Break.

Not much happened this weekend...it rained pretty much all day on Saturday so I wasn't able to take the kids outside...we ended up going to the mall Sat night to let them play at the indoor play center. It was a mad house. Unfortunately we didn't let them stay long, the crowd at the mall was not one we wanted to be around for very long, let's just say that it looked as if a gun fight might soon break out. I snapped a few pics before we high-tailed it out of there...

Weekend Update

2009-03-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy the past few days! Friday was Jackson's birthday so we started off the weekend with some over night guests, Nana & Gigi. We went to Fun City on Friday and let the boys play to their hearts content! They had a blast playing all of the games and running thru the tunnels. The cookie cake wasn't bad either! This was Harrison's first time here so he just rode the little kid rides.

Saturday morning started off with Jackson's 2nd season of soccer. Daddy wasn't feeling well so Nana and I were the lone cheerleaders but we handled it just fine. Jackson stayed up to late on Friday night so was not in the mood to play soccer at all. And then it happened, Jackson took a shot to the chest so hard that I think we all felt it! He was down for a quarter but rallied and played again in the last quarter. The Crew played a great game with a lot of help from their 2 newest members!

The point of contact with the ball

Jackson and Seth

Saturday afternoon I took Gray to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party. I almost didn't take him because he fell asleep and really needed the nap after the long night that he had but in the end I knew how badly I would pay if he woke up and realized he had missed the party...I'm glad we went, he had fun playing with his friends(esp. eating the cake with blue icing...we were seeing the return from that investment for 2 days!!). While we were enjoying that Gigi took Jackson shopping for a few new spring things so after that we met up at the park for the boys to play for awhile. Gigi decided to take the boys down to Alma for Saturday night to spend the night with Mom Freda, the boys had a great time getting to eat at "Crackerbox", aka Crackerbarrel and staying up late watching tv.

On Sunday we loaded Harrison up and went to claim our oldest 2 kiddos. Papa surprised the boys by showing up at Moms and this is what I found upon our arrival:

Papa had recently had a cold so Jackson had been really worried about him and asking about him daily...it was so cute. Before lunch Jackson and I walked across the street and he gathered some flowers for Mom Freda, he wanted to make a few more trips to get some for myself and Gigi but I convinced him that it was the thought that meant the most and that we really didn't need to pick all the flowers!

All 3 boys have had haircuts this week, Harrison and Gray on Monday night while Jackson played in another soccer game and Jackson tonight. H got most of his "baby" hair cut off and loooks like a little boy now. Jackson got to choose his hairstyle and well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Harrison's hair was still wet from his bath

I think that about says it all, good night!

2009-03-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

So Rachel over at graspingforobjectivity is starting a new meme. She chooses a picture and you have to come up with a catchy caption for it...it's called Conquer the Caption. Rachel is the author of the hilarious "mom jeans" article found here. This is a picture of her daughter Ali, in her johnny jumper, she sure looks like she's getting a workout to me! My caption would be "left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, right foo...wait a sec...where was I??? Now I have to start all over!!! Here is my picture waiting for a caption...this is Harrison on his first Halloween!

Time Flies!

2009-03-05T18:55:00.001-08:00

Five years ago today Chad and I drove into Russellville excited about the 2 baby showers we would have on Saturday. We couldn't wait to see good friends and then make the trip back to Fayetteville to go thru all of our new things for our baby boy due on April 7th. We didn't know that God had other plans for us that weekend. After a fun night of playing Domino's and eating Taco Villa (YUM!) with my family we made our way back over the Gigi and Papa's house to rest up for our big day on Saturday. Just a few hours later I was awoken to a strange sensation and jumped out of bed as fast as I could....was that my water that just broke? No way...I wasn't due for another 5 weeks! I went to the restroom and by the volume of what was coming out of me I knew...I yelled at Chad and woke him up....he was out of it because we had only been asleep a little over an hour...he said "Are you sure you didn't just pee?" Uhm, no. When you're 9 months pregnant you go to the bathroom all the time and this was definitely not the same! After waking up Gigi and Papa and calling mom at her house I was upset....we hadn't prepared for this...we were registered at the hospital in Fayetteville, not in Russellville, this is not how it was suppose to happen! I wanted to jump in the car and drive home but nobody but me thought that was a very good idea...looking back on it now we did have plenty of time :). To the hospital we went arriving about 1am. Moms, sisters, everyone was there. After my initial check we could see it was going to be awhile so home went the sisters to get more sleep. After we got nice and cozy in our room Chad went down the hall to check on our good friend Josh who had just had his baby girl 2 days earlier and was still in the hospital. It was going to be a long night. It really wasn't though...I was not progressing so we slept most of the night...me in the bed and Chad in the comfy chair...haha, we all know how nice the pull out bed/chairs are! We started Saturday March 6 off with visitors...making lots of phone calls because we were suppose to be the guests of honor at 2 baby showers that day...oops, we weren't going to make it. Gigi went to one of the showers because it was a joint shower with friends of ours, after the shower she brought all of our things to the hospital to us and we had our own shower right there opening gifts! My contractions were not strong and I was still not progressing much so the dr started me on my pitocin...21 hours later and much abuse to my family later Jackson Mayer Bartlett was born at 10:31pm weighing 5lb 5oz...he was little so they cut the cord and got him to the nursery to make sure he was breathing okay...I was so exhausted that I passed out right there in my bed. Chad woke me up sometime later to come and meet my new baby boy...he was so tiny, so cute...no oxygen needed, just the tiniest IV in his little arm. I can remember how scared I was to hold him with the IV coming out of his arm, I was scared I might pull it out, but that didn't stop me from wanting to hold on to him for dear life! We really weren't prepared at all..we didn't even have our carseat with us! We had to call our good friends from Fayetteville to go buy our carseat for us and drive it down to us..they didn't mind though, they were one of the first to see Jackson! Our families were great and ran out to get preemie clothes for our tiny little guyWe had lots of visitors and after 2 days in the hospital we were free to go home. I can't believe my baby is 5 yrs old today! Looking back you never realize how fast it goes, although everyone warns you. No matter how big he gets or how many little brothers he has, Jackson will always be my "baby"! Happy Birthday Big Guy!

Family Time

2009-02-25T18:48:00.000-08:00

Last week Mom Freda had her 85th birthday, so on Sunday the family got together in Alma to help celebrate. Almost everyone was there but a few faces were missing from the crowd. We all brought desserts and the kids got bubbles to play with outside, courtesy of Aunt Kelli(Great Idea!). We were blessed with beautiful weather so the little ones stayed outside most of the afternoon and played in the sun! It was nice to see everyone and we all had a fun day. Here are a few pics from Sunday.

The Birthday "Girl"

Uncle Buddy & Harrison

Aunt Marti & Harrison

Mom Freda with Skylar, Harrison, Jackson and Chera

Chera & Jackson

Chera, Gray & Jackson

Corbin

Harrison has been picking up some new tricks from a few of the other kids that go to his daycare...here is the latest (BLOGGER will not upload the video right now...will try again later.)

Home Again Home Again

2009-02-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

So back to normal life, the fun trip to OK City is over and apparently I am NOT the Next Biggest Loser :D...since I didn't get a call back. It's okay though...everyone needs to stand out in the 30 degree cold for 7 hours once in their life! We had a blast and ate some pretty good food along the way. If you ever go to OK City you have to try Mama Roja's Mexican Kitchen...the best enchiladas I've ever eaten! An the ambiance was great, the restaurant overlooks the lake so if your with the one you love it can be very romantic! Once we stood in line for so long to get in to our "interview" the thrill of being there was kind of over so I didn't take anymore pics at that point..Here are a few that I did take.

The sun setting over the lake

The Lighthouse by the restaurant

And this is what I got to come home to, Jackson and Gray had waited up for me but ended up falling asleep on the couch. I thought it was funny how Gray was laying so I took this picture...it's good to be home!

On our Way!!

2009-02-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

So Mary and I are on our way to OK City to audition for the show The Biggest Loser! Mary's brother let us use his awesome laptop to we can update our blogs tonight and tomorrow! Auditions start tomorrow morning at 10am and you can start lining up 3 hours prior to that...we'll be there by 7 am to set up camp...Mary was smart enough to bring her lawn chairs for us to sit in.
So tonight we're going to go out and enjoy a nice dinner, maybe for the last time. This series is suppose to air in the fall so I would assume it would film in the summer...we don't really expect to get on the show but it will be a fun experience just going to the try-outs...maybe we'll meet Bob or Jillian! Okay...that's it for now...maybe we'll post again later tonight once we get settled down after dinner....wish us luck!

2009-02-12T06:00:00.001-08:00

This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win $100.

Today I've decided to participate in "Hi/Lo Thursday" over at the Riggs blog....this is the family of little Abby who you've all been praying for.
I'll start with my "hi"...it just happened last night. I was introduced last year to the teachings of John Rosemond by my sister but never really started to practice them...I finally decided to watch his video this week and thought that it was time to start making the change...anyone familiar with us knows that J & G end up in our bed every night and mommy and daddy get NO sleep...so the first step is to get them sleeping all night in their own beds. Last night was a great night, G came into our room 2 times but both times I brought him back into his room and he stayed. J never even woke up last night! I'm so proud of both of them!! H also slept thru the night so we almost got a full nights sleep.
Now for the "lo", I could talk about the economy or our water getting shut off yesterday due to a lack of communication at the water company but those things just really aren't that important when it comes to real life and the things that really matter. I've been following a blog for just a few weeks now about a family with a 10 month old little girl. She recently got sick with ear infections and just couldn't kick the sickness, then she all of the sudden developed black eyes....after blood work it was revealed that little Cora had cancer. This tiny little girl fought as hard as she could but only lived another 3 weeks, she passed away this weekend. How can I complain about anything when I have 3 healthy little boys? I remember when H was 2 weeks old and got viral meningitis...I was so scared and didn't know what to expect, I don't know what we would have done we had gotten a different outcome. God be with the McClenahans during this hard time and give them peace.

Hours of Fun!

On Sunday morning the City of Fayetteville came to our neighborhood and started collecting all of the debris from the storm 2 weeks ago. The boys LOVED it. We had roll off containers and dump trucks and "digger" type things, I don't know the technical term but they were there most of the morning and in front of our house alone for an hour. The boys stood on their bedside table watching out the window as all the debris was collected, they thought it was so cool...I'm wondering now why I didnt take a picture of that sight!

2 weeks, an Ice Storm and Still Kickin'

2009-02-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

It's been several weeks since my last post and much has happened! The big boys (bb) and I had a fun afternoon at Fun City one Sunday afternoon...the boys had a blast running around playing in the ball pit, playing air hockey and all sorts of other games. They actually ate the pizza there, I think it was the garlic crust that they liked so much, which is good to know having such picky eaters. So, NWA got hit very hard by the ice storm last week. We were not anticipating the extent of damage and outages that we had. We lost power at around 5:30 on Tues Jan 27. We stayed in the house that night...it was about 20degrees outside so I don't know how cold it got in the house. We bundled H up in 2 pairs of fleece pj's on top of an extra pair of socks...I also tucked a fleece blanket on top of his sheet so he was extra warm! BB also slept in socks and fleece footed pj's in between mommy and daddy, we had an additional 2 blankets on the bed that night so it was really hard to move around! Wednesday we took the boys to Chick-fil-A for a warm meal and then daddy had to go to work. I went back to the house with the boys and we played in the house for as long as we could stand it...the temperature had probably dropped to about 40 by then inside the house and I was freezing! The boys didn't really act like they minded because they were running around keeping warm, plus I was making H keep his toboggan on his head...he didn't really care for that. We finally got ready to pick daddy up since we had dropped him off and I packed a quick bag because we were heading to a hotel. In case you ever wonder, keeping 3 toddlers in a 15x15 foot motel room for 2 days is NO FUN!!! The first night was horrible...they were running around like a bunch of wild animals because they were so excited to be in a "hotel". H was afraid of the shower and there was no bathtub so we got his body washed the first night and did not get his hair shampooed...the next day I didn't' even attempt the shower so he basically didn't have a bath for 2.5 days...all he did was run around with me so it wasn't like he was dirty or anything! Friday both H's babysitter and the boys daycare was opened so I was able to head back to work. After work we hit the house again hoping for power but no luck...we headed to Alma to stay at Mom Freda's house for the night before heading to Russellville for the rest of the weekend. Thank you to MF for letting us destroy her house for the night! It is a true blessing to have her in our lives! She made homemade soup, cornbread and pumpkin pie for us and the boys ate it up! They LOVE cornbread so that was their favorite thing! After saying our goodbye's on Saturday morning we headed to Rsvl. Chad kept the boys all day bc I had to go out of town to a funeral. It was a sad occasion but it was the best day I've had in a while, I got to spend all day with my sisters and mom! We didn't see our kids again until about 8pm that night! The guys even got all the kids out and took them to dinner. On the way out of the restaurant Chad was stopped by a passing car and the woman handed him a $10 bill, it was from the gentleman in the car, Mr. RL Summers...she told him that he loved children and to go get all the kids some ice cream. So on the way home they stopped by Sonic and got 3 Sundae's...enough that the kids could not eat it all by themselves so we were all able to enjoy it! Sadly, mom called yesterday and told me that Mr. Summers had passed away on Wednesday. I didn't know this man but I can only imagine the random acts of kindness that he did throughout his lifetime and what a loved man he must have been, I'm sure he will be missed.

The kids had a fun weekend playing together and on Sunday we visited some family friends...they have grand kids the boys ages so they had all sorts of toys to play with, I think the air hockey won them over though, they had a blast playing with it; although the fact that they had ample room to run around plus a couple of trees to climb probably didn't hurt either :o

Sadly it all had to come to an end and we headed back to NWA on Sunday afternoon, I forgot to mention that we got a call from our neighbor on Friday night saying our power was back on so we got to come home to a nice and toasty house!

We started this week off to Jackson not feeling well, sore throat and all so we started him on an antibiotic and by yesterday he was feeling 100% better. The other boys are good and we hope they stay that way! Hope everyone has a great weekend, I think we're going to start it off with movie night tonight...probably Madagascar II. Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Cowboy Gray

Racin' cousins

Harrison on the tractor

Action Shot of Jackson and Jacob

Real ~~men~~ boys drive pink!

And now for the pics from ICE STORM 2009

(Most of these pics were taken from my car, don't judge!)

Mr Mikes house across the street.

These are all the street behind us

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2009-01-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

Thursday night we were having dinner and talking to the boys about their day...Jackson was wearing a shirt that he had just gotten for Christmas and he was so excited to show us what he had done to it...he had chewed a hole in the bottom part of the sleeve, where his thumb fit perfectly in it...apparently he thought he had just done something really awesome with this new hole. I proceeded to tell him how daddy and I spent money on that shirt and he had ruined it by biting a hole in it...he looked at me strait faced and said "I did not see that coming!" Needless to say, I had to hide behind my napkin I was laughing so hard...I tried to pull it off as crying but it didn't work. Where does he come up with these?

Harrison's First Haircut

2009-01-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

It was an exciting (but exhausting) weekend at our house Saturday and Sunday. Nana showed up Saturday morning with Jacob in tow...the boys didn't know he was coming so it was a big surprise. I think the boys pulled out about every toy we own, not all at the same time thank goodness! We put together the race track that J & G got for Christmas and they had fun "racing" their cars on that. Gigi also came up later on Saturday and more excitment swept thru the house. Mom Freda was sweet enough to send up some Christmas money for Chad and I so the moms let us go out to dinner. (Thank You!) We ordered pizza for the boys, got them settled and then hit the road before our moms changed their minds! We had a nice dinner despite having to send my steak back 2 times!
Sunday morning we enjoyed chocolate-chip pancakes and everybody started to get ready for a big day! Harrison's first haircut. We actually found a reputable salon that is open on Sunday so I had gotten an appt for H. Mom and I took him and dh and Gigi stayed at home with the other boys. H did soooo good. He sat on my lap and pretty much turned his head the way we needed, with a little encouragement. Mom got so many good pictures that I dont know which ones to post!!!!

Lastly, you will notice a new HTML on my right sidebar, "Praying for Harper"...any of you that read my blog probably read Kelly's Korner also. Kelly gave birth to baby Harper on Friday night to find out that Harper has some serious health issues, at this point she is at St Francis in Tulsa, they don't know if it is her heart or lungs or both...hopefully they can pinpoint it soon to give them some idea of what their looking at. They desperately need your prayers so please check out her website here.

Before

After

Cheesin' while getting his haircut.

Daddy and H

Who is that cute little blonde GIRL?

2009-01-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

That's the question that Chad was asked tonight when he went to Richard's Meat Market to buy a ham hock for our pinto beans I'm going to make tomorrow! Of course he was carrying H with him and as most of you know, he has not gotten his 1st haircut yet, so quite often we get the "Oh she's so cute" comment. His hair starts off looking okay because it's still got some of the curl in the back, but by the end of the day he is lookin' like a hot mess! This is what he looked like at dinner tonight.

I was home all last week with this little guy who had a virus all week. It took him a whole week to get over it but by Sunday he was raring to go again. Now G has come down with it...coughing, congestion, fever...this is how it started with H and it progressively got worse...I'm hoping for the best with G...if I miss anymore work I might have to become a full time blogger! Can you get paid for this?

So I spoke of the pinto beans above. I've never made "beans & cornbread" but when we were at Gigi's over Christmas she made some and they were so good! The boys loved them and it's very rare to find something they love so I decided to make them...the one thing I do know is that you have to soak the beans first, so, me trying to make sure they are good and soaked put them in water Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon I added more water and Sunday night again....so we get home from work today and I go over to the counter where I left the beans sitting and what do you know, the beans have sprouted! Now, as I said before, I've never done this before but I don't think they are suppose to do that...so Chad called Gigi and sure enough that was not suppose to happen...apparently I should have refrigerated them, or not set them so close to the heating vent, so I send Chad back to the store to get more beans so I can start re soaking because I want to start them in the morning. While he's gone I'm cooking dinner...let me note that yesterday I was cleaning in the kitchen and cleaned the front 2 burners on the stove...so I'm cooking on the back one tonight, the one I did NOT clean and what do you know...I turn around to go get something and hear a strange WHOOSH sound, as I turn around I catch a glimpse out of the corner of my eye...OH YEAH, there are flames shooting from under my pan coming out of the burner! Thank goodness I knew where the baking soda was and I doused it out fast but what the heck was under there? And why did I not go back yesterday and clean those back 2 burners? I guess from now on I'll do the job 100%! Now you can enjoy laughs on me with the pictures of my bean sprouts and burnt pan!

I can't not mention my 1st born though...so Sunday night we are putting them to bed and I'm laying with him and he asks me to tickle his back, so I'm gently tickling and the next thing I know my 4 year old says "Put your back into it Mommy"...really? Where on earth did you hear that I ask him...On the Grinch movie...maybe we should have gotten the cartoon version instead of the Jim Carrey one? So J is my budding little artist, he has his daddy's artistic talent...this is what he drew on the magnadoodle last week...it's a submarine...pretty good huh! He had a hard time going to bed Monday night and was talking for a good 45 minutes after we put them down, so he finally comes into the living room all serious and says "Mommy, I have to tell you something....When are you going to make macaroni, because we never have it?" Guess what we're having with the beans & cornbread tonight?

A Little Ditty, by Jackson

2008-12-31T19:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone!!! Nothing special went on here! Chad and I enjoyed a bottle of Moscato D'Asti and then tried to get the boys to sleep in their sleeping bags...when we woke up this morning they were both in OUR bed yet again. Our first resolution is to get them sleeping in their own beds...Here's to a great 2009!

Christmas '08

2008-12-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2008 has come and gone! The look on the boys faces and the excitement in their voices were priceless on Christmas morning. Jackson was the first to get up, crawling over me and Gray as we slept at Gigi's house. After making a trip into the living room Jackson came running back into the bedroom bursting with excitement "Santa came! He really did come!" waking up sleeping Gray and Harrison. Chad was sleeping on the couch and tried to keep him from waking us all up but there was just to much excitement to keep inside! After everyone got settled on their spot on the floor the boys opened their stockings. Jackson passed out a few of the "santa" toys and announced that "Santa didnt bring me everything I wanted"...referring to a Hot Wheels track that he had requested, so we found the wrapped up toy from Gigi and Poppa and let him open that next..he was so excited that he fell backward on the floor in a most dramatic way! The rest of the morning went pretty much the same, Gray loved his Handy Manny toolbox and his Police Helmet. Harrison really didnt get very excited about anything...but he loves putting on shoes...doesnt matter whose they are, he'll try them on, so of course he had to try on Gray's new cowboy boots from pepaw and mimi!

After opening presents we all got prettied up and headed over to the Modersohns house. More opening but mostly playing with toys...Jackson was the only one really interested in opening things and I think he opened about half of his brothers gifts. Landry was the only one that appreciated her clothes...wanting to try on everything she got! Kamri had fun too, trying to open her gifts with a little help from her mommy, she really liked the Tutu that Landry got from Santa and looked super cute in it!

After eating moms breakfast casserole we all packed up and headed to Greenbrier to Uncle Richard and Lisa's house. Good food filled us up and gave us energy to yet again open more gifts! More toys, more clothes! The presents were being opened so fast that I honestly dont know who got us what...a few I know but not all of them, so thank you everyone! It was a long, short vacation that was needed but we were glad to see it come to an end. The boys had actually been in Russellville with Gigi and Poppa since the previous Sunday and they definately wore out their welcome! Thank you for letting the boys have an extended visit, they really enjoyed their time with you!

Take 2 on XMas Pics

2008-12-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

Good Tuesday morning! I tried to get some Christmas pictures of the boys last week and it didn't go very well. The only shot I got of Gray was with a wrinkled up little nose not wanting to cooperate. Take 2 went a little better last night...some of these pictures are a little fuzzy because little man kept wanting to move. Better than nothing I guess...these are their xmas pj's that they got this year, cuddly and warm. Notice Gray's hair in the pic to the left, how there are no bangs in the middle? That's because he took the kid scizzors to his hair on Saturday and hacked a good chunk of it off...when his hair is fixed you really cant tell because he cut it from the underneath side. He didn't want to leave Jackson out though so he cut a hunk of his out also, much worse looking but at least it's kind of on the side of his head and not the front! Jackson has a cough that he's had for at least a week now...there were a few times in the bed last night that I thought we would be cleaning up vomit he was coughing so hard. Hope everyone is getting their shopping done. I got 2 presents wrapped and under the tree last night and J & G were very excited...I'm sure H will pull the ribbons off and try to open them! Christmas cards have been ordered but will be another week at least before anyone gets one. Enjoy the pics.

Christmas Trees and Snow

2008-12-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

We finally got our Christmas Tree up this week! The other decorations are coming along but no garland around the front door yet..maybe tonight? It snowed on Sunday...just lightly "sprinkled" but it did it pretty much all day long! The boys played outside in it for about 30 minutes or so until mommy got to cold and made them go back in, big boys only, we snuck out while H was napping. Harrison also did not get to take part in decorating the Xmas tree, as it was bedtime by the time I got it ready for ornaments! We tried to get him to hang 1 but it didnt really work out, he would rather just play with them. Here are a few pics from the past week.

Note: I do not show favoritism, I just have one that loves posing for the camera!

The Holidays are Among Us.

2008-11-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday Chad and I got to have Thanksgiving lunch with J & G at daycare. The boys were excited that we got to join them and very well behaved. Their classes did a little song/chant for us about Thanksgiving but Gray got stage fright and would not participate, he gave us a private showing that night though...here are a few pics from that.

Thursday we went over to Uncle Buddy's and Aunt Kelli's for a while before heading to Greenbrier. The boys love to ride UB's Gator, they had a blast riding around and picking up pecans outside.

After that we made our way to Greenbrier and got to spend time with all the Weavers. We had a great lunch and lots of fun playing outside in the 70 degree weather afterward...and mamaw and papaw kind of got their lawn raked...

Making up Time

2008-11-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

So as you can tell, I've fallen a little behind on my blog updates. You would think that I would have had plenty of time when I was working from home for a week but keeping up with a 1 yr old and working at the same time is not an easy task. 2 weeks ago we got to go home for the weekend for Jacob's birthday. The kids all got to play flag football and had fun, except that it was freezing cold!!!! Chad and Tara ended up taking Kamri and Harrison over to sissy's to get them out of the cold, I followed shortly after with Landry, Jackson and Gray...you know what J asked on the way to the house? "Can we play outside when we get to Aunt Jennys?" really? Are you kidding me? We just left the park because it was 40 degrees and you still want to play outside...can you guess my answer? ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jacob and Jackson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Harrison hugging Kamri

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Wagon Ride at Gigi's
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jacob tackling a girl!!!!
So the boys got haircuts while we were in town, well the older 2 did...I'm not convinced that Harrison is needing his first cut since he has a mullet, I'll see if I have a pic of it. Saturday night here in Fayetteville was the lighting of the square, again it was very cold and on one was really in a picture taking mood so I'll let you see what I got. I wish I had gotten Jackson's face as the lights came on...PRICELESS!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!!!

2008-11-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JACOB, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! We hope you had a GREAT birthday and can't wait to see you this weekend!

A Quick Trip Home

2008-11-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

Chad had a death in his family this week so we had the opportunity to go home and spend some time with family that we dont see very often. Pepaw drove down from Dallas so we decided to go down to Rsvl so the boys could spend some time with him since he was going to say a few days, unfortunately his plans changed and he had to leave shortly after the funeral. We met up with Chad and Pepaw at the Sequoyah Park and the boys really enjoyed seeing him. I'm sure Pepaw overdid it and is paying for it today but the boys had a great time. Pepaw also comes from a family full of boys so his brothers came out to the park to see the Bartlett Boys. Everyone had fun and it was great to see everyone again. Hopefully next time it will be for a little longer and for a different reason!

Harrison gives Uncle Gary a high five!

Pepaw and Gray

Pepaw and Jackson

Harrison looks real scared of Uncle Eric..

The Bartlett Boys Extended Family!

ALWAYS WEAR YOUR HELMET!

2008-11-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

Chad took Jackson and Gray to the park this afternoon while Harrison and Mommy had a much needed nap : ) (thanks Chad!). When I woke up I was greeted by this banged up little boy showing me his battle scars. The park they went to was a school playground which also has a track. Chad had taken Gray's bicycle and Jackson's scooter for them to ride while they were there. Apparently when Jackson was going down the slope of the track the scooter got away from him and he bit the dust. As you can see in the pictures...if Jackson had been wearing his helmet and elbow pads, which he does every time he rides, then he would have been just fine. Lesson learned. As you can also see, Jackson is just fine.

He is NOT an EWOK!

2008-11-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was halloween so it was full of fun! Gigi came up Friday afternoon and brought the boys up to JBHunt to Trick or Treat. Since she was bringing Grays costume, he decided to be a Cowboy for school and wanted to leave it on for jbh also. They had lots of fun and got lots of candy. This was Harrison's first official Halloween to be able to get his own candy and boy was he a pro. If the candy bowl was left out to long then he would help himself to as much as his little hands could grab!

After this adventure we got to go home and Gray decided to put on his Spiderman costume. We drove around our neighborhood and went to Mrs. Woody's house and a few others. Harrison does not realize that we don't know these people so he was trying to walk right in their houses. The boys had lots of fun and cant wait to eat all of their candy. Hopefully we can make it last a long time! Thanks to Gigi for coming up and celebrating Halloween with us!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2008-10-23T06:41:00.001-07:00

So a few months ago Gray had his tonsils/adenoids out. He lost 3-4 pounds after the surgery and anyone that knows him can understand why we were concerned...he can't afford to lose ANY weight! So at his check up his pediatrician was telling me to pretty much feed him whatever he will eat to help him gain the weight back and she suggested adding butter to anything that it would go on. So one night I was putting some butter on peice of bread for him and he wanted more, I ended up putting about 2 tbspn on his plate and he ate it ALL! The kid loves butter! So, that leads to my story...last night the boys were taking a bath and Gray starts singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and this is how it went...
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Gently down the stream,
Merily, Merily, Merily, Merily
Like a Butter Dream!"

Happy Fall!

2008-10-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting some new fall placemats and napkins for the kitchen table ever since it started getting cooler...I finally found some that I liked so I wanted to share what I did...I usually dont decorate for seasons other than Christmas but for some reason I'm really in the mood this year. Thanks to Melissa for the pumpkins...the boys still think that these are toys for them to play with and I catch them trying to sneak off to the bedroom with them. This morning I finally had a chance to put the "napkin-scape" together, hopefully whatever was causing Jackson to be sick last night has passed and we will have a good day today. Harrison got a new carseat yesterday so we'll have to go for a ride today to check it out...Tara, this will look familiar to you! Have a great Saturday!

Fall Fun

2008-10-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

So it's been a busy week. I had a birthday last week and we took a nice wagon ride around the neighborhood. The boys love taking walks or riding their bikes down the street. We went home for the weekend to see the family and got to go to Jacob's soccer game on Saturday morning. Jacob did a great job, it was fun to watch and the boys enjoyed it. Harrison had fun playing with a football and made a couple of attempts to run out onto the soccer field, everyone got a "kick" out of him. : o We had a fun weekend and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Jackson found a turtle in Aunt Jenny's backyard and was so proud of it. He's never held a turtle before so he was very excited...Gigi on the other hand does not care for turtles so she didn't really care for Jackson showing it to her and sitting it on her lap...o what fun! On Monday Jackson had his last soccer game of the season. They ended up letting the boys play 6 on 6 the last quarter rather than the normal 3 on 3...it was a bit of a mess, several pile ups and lots of tangled little legs. Looking forward to next season, maybe Gray will want to play then!

Jacob playing soccer

Pops pushing the boys on the tire swing.

Jackson Cheesin' with the Myrtle the Turtle

Kamri wondering what all the yelling is for...

Landry hangin' out

A typical result of a group picture..

Action Jackson

Catching up..

2008-10-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

So the past few weeks have been pretty busy in the Bartlett house but since my camera was down no new posts. Fast forward to last weekend...camera fixed, two birthday parties; one swimming and one at Gymboree...lots of fun for the boys. Jackson had a party at the Jones Center in Springdale for his friend Carson...it was lots of fun and we got to swim after the party...the pool was really cool and even had a huge water slide that Jackson loved! Sunday we went to a party for the Twindalls...Molly and Taylor, my friend Melissa's twins. They turned 3 and celebrated with a party at our local Gymboree Play & Music. It was lots of fun for the whole family! Harrison is cutting about 4 more teeth so he's been a peach lately. Jackson and Gray are getting bigger every day...literally. Gray has gained weight since he started taking a new medication to stimulate his appetite, it's definately making a difference. Looking forward to spending the weekend in Russellville and seeing family & friends!

Harrison grins for the camera!

Jackson's diggin' the girls!

Cool Hand Harrison I love cake!

Gray playing at the park

Having a ball at Gymboree!

Saturday Night

2008-09-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday night the boys helped make dinner. Mommy made the dough and got it all ready and then the boys helped "make" the pizza. They had lots of fun helping and eating the pepperonies! It made it that much better when they finally got to eat it! YUM O! (note: this picture was taken with my camera, thats why it's so fuzzy)

GO TEAM CREW!!

2008-09-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

This morning was Jackson's first soccer game and boy did he do great! He scored 3 goals! His team is the CREW. Everyone looked real sharp in their uniforms but mid-way thru the game we figured out that they had the wrong size! After the game we switched with the 5 year olds and told them that we had "broken in" the uniforms for them! Poppa was extra enthusiastic and might have to coach the team next season! Great Job Team Crew!!!!

Bedtime Fun

2008-09-04T18:28:00.001-07:00

So part of our nightly bedtime routine has become playing in the boys room. Harrison has learned how to climb up on the boys beds and thinks it's the most fun to run on them and bounce! I took the opportunity to take advantage of it tonight and get some pictures of them. Happy boys make good pictures!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

2008-08-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was Chad's 32nd birthday...boy is he getting old! Jackson picked out a new Nascar toy for daddy that all the boys can play with together. We had cake and sang Happy Birthday, the boys helped daddy blow out his candle and then Jackson sang his version of the song and everyone acted like a monkey. Daddy loved his card that sang "Who Let the Dogs Out" but it got put up real quick, you can only listen to that so many times! Harrison's sitter is sick today so I'm working from home today playing with Harrsion.

Better get back to work!

Oh So Big!

2008-08-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

Jackson started soccer on Saturday morning. Coach PJ is a 19 year old college student who knows nothing about the sport...just that his nephew likes to play it. Practice started off great with all the kids kicking the ball around like you would expect, they did a few drills and kicked around some cones picking them up, of course they mostly ended up on their heads goofing off for each other. Gray had decided not to play soccer this year but of course after seeing the other boys having fun he wanted to be out there, he hung around the goal a little bit and ran out on the field every once in a while. After about 15 minutes the 4 year olds had had enough and started to get ancy, so what does Coach do...what else, Duck Duck Goose!!!! All the other teams are still doing drills and our little ones are sitting in the middle of the field playing duck duck goose...we are going to be awesome! Of course Gray had to get in on that fun. Practice went about the same on Monday with a few more games of the duck.

Harrison is getting to be a big boy and has learned to use his fork. He even tried to eat some peas with his fork last night. Saturday night he ate a whole peice of pizza by himself! Today is daddy's birthday. We will sing to him again tonight and eat more of the cake that the boys and I made on Sunday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Sunday fun with Poppa

2008-08-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

And on Sunday....

Sunday Jackson and Gray went to church with Gigi and Poppa. They had lots of fun and went to Children's Church after Sunday School. Gigi had to tag along with Gray...he's not so sure about going alone yet. After church Poppa had some yard work to do but the boys wanted a ride on the "tractor" so Poppa killed 2 birds with one stone and hooked up the trailer so he could give rides while mowing the yard. Harrison had to settle for a ride in the wagon. Afterward, there was more yard work to be done so the boys helped pick up sticks in the backyard. What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

This Weekend....

2008-08-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Kamri's 1st Birthday!!!

For those of you who were not able to make it, Saturday we celebrated Kamri Dakota's 1st Birthday. Everyone had a good time watching Kamri try out her birthday cake, she's not big on sweets though so she didn't eat much of her cake....the rest of the cousins sure enjoyed it though! Kamri got lots of nice presents and had fun helping mommy open them. After the party the boys helped clean up and took all the balloons outside and popped them. For those of you who weren't able to make it, you were missed.

HEY! Get your finger out of MY cake!

2008-08-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Harrison on his 1st Birthay..pics by Angela Daniell

Jackson and Gray

Daddy and Gray at the Naturals Game.

Mommy and the boys

2008-08-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

Long time, no post. Been a busy summer. The boys are getting bigger every day! Jackson and Gray had a "vacation" from mom and daddy a few weeks ago and spent the week with Gigi and Poppa. They went to VBS at Central Presbyterian and enjoyed every minute of it. Jackson had to teach Daddy a lesson about sharing the other night, nothing gets by him. They learned lots of new songs and a few new dance moves. Gray has finally decided that he's tired of wearing pull ups so he is in big boy underwear now...hooooorrrray!!!! I was convinced that Landry would be potty trained before him but he pulled it off.
Harrison gave us a scare a couple of weeks ago, he had 2 seizures. After the ER and all the test they did there they sent us down to ARH for an EEG...of course nothing was found so it's another one of those mysteries that will never be solved. Pray that he doesn't have anymore.
We took the bigger boys to the AR Naturals BB Game a few Sunday's ago and they loved it! They have a huge blow up slide and a playground on the back side of the ballpark and the boys had a blast playing out there. Jackson will start soccer in about 3 weeks so expect some pictures then but I hope to update after Kamri's 1st birthday party this weekend! Later.

WE'VE MOVED!!

2008-04-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

So, as you may or may not know, we've moved! We moved back to Fayetteville and we like it sooo much better. Chad no longer has a 2 hour commute everyday, it's now about 5 minutes! The house is bigger than our other one so the boys have their own playroom and we have a huge backyard, it's a little desolate though...it needs something, anyone have a tree? Right now we are still getting settled in, looks like the process might take awhile, we're having to dig through the garage to find anything. Harrison is over his hand, foot and mouth virus that he had last week and he had a blast playing with Kamri this weekend..I think she's a little scared of him now, he kept trying to stand up using her as a base! He only knocked her over a few times though! Gray has an ear infection but he's acting himself...he threw his normal fit this morning when Chad tried to help him put his boots on the correct feet, so after that struggle Chad didn't even attempt to pull his pants out of his boots....oh my.
We have Jackson & Grays birthday party scheduled for April 19th so everyone is invited, the actual invitations will be in the mail at the end of this week. It will be at our new house and I will include directions, it's super easy to find. See you soon.

2008-03-26T07:25:00.001-07:00

So we found out yesterday that Gray will have to have his tonsils & adenoids out. We have thought for the last year that could be the root of his sleeping issues but they wont do surgery on kids under 3. Right now his surgery is scheduled for May 14. We might reschedule it out to June so the moms will be out of school. Gray will have to be out of daycare for 10 days and Chad and I dont know if we can take off that long. After Gray's appointment I took Jackson to the mall for some "jackson and mommy" time. He had fun playing with the other kids in the playground area and after lunch we went to the arcade and he rode on a motorcycle. I had to steer it and we had a few accidents! He had a blast though! Hope everyone has a great day!

2008-03-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Easter

2008-03-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter. The boys looked sharp for church Sunday morning but you wouldnt be able to tell by these pictures. They would not cooperate and let me take any good ones of them. It was a bit cool for our Easter Egg Hunt but we made it happen and it was a quick one! Not many places to hide eggs in our little front yard so it wasn't hard to find them!

So now the story about the chair. Jackson and Gray go into our room sometimes and lay on the bed and watch TV, late yesterday afternoon was no different. Jackson had done something to get into trouble so we had banished him to his bedroom. A while later I realized that Gray had been really quiet so I went in to check on him. Well, in our room we have the nice rocker that Chad got for me before Jackson was born...so I walk in the room and the chair is turned around backwards and Gray is standing behind it with Chad's knife in his had and blood dripping off...of course I was freaking out so I grabbed him and ran to the kitchen and wrapped his finger in a papertowel, luckily he had just poked himself with the tip of the knife so it was not a bad cut. That is the only thing I was concerned with was what could have happened...So a few minutes passed and Chad went into the bedroom and I hear "Oh My God"....so I come running and he meets me at the door and tells me NOT to go in there....so I'm thinking maybe there's blood on the carpet or something like that...oh no....Our precious Gray found a box by the dresser and he wanted to know what was in it so with his knife that he had found....the knife was on top of the dresser out of reach of the kids, so we thought, until Gray stood on the chair and reached it....So Gray put the box in the chair and started cutting, but Gray is not yet 3 so his aim is a little off still....so, as you can see, the chair suffered a little. I'm not so worried about the chair, it can be recovered. I'm just thankful that a pricked finger is all we had to deal with.

SOOOOOOO BIG...

2008-03-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

So, Harrison is almost 10 mos now! Jackson just had his birthday and Grays is coming up so we're going to do a joint birthday party for them...of course we dont know the date yet but will let everyone know when we get it planned. I'm thinking 4/12 sounds good...oh, that's our anniversary! Here is a recent pic of H that mom sent. I have some better ones but will wait until after this weekend and do a slide show of Easter and all. Hopefully we will make it down to Russellville to see all the family.

2008-01-21T12:45:00.001-08:00

See, this is what having 3 kids does to you....My mother just pointed out that Jackson's birthday is on March 6th, not the 3rd. How sad. It was a crazy weekend to say the least but I don't have time to type right now. Back later.