Seals and Croft.  Open windows.  Mom.

We went to the Cowboys/Texans game on Friday night.  We had great seats and had a great time - in spite of the fact that it was hotter than all get out and we got there at 4 pm for a game that started at 7...  But the kids loved it and they stayed in their seats.  Wilson sat in his, Gigi danced in her seat.  She danced and cheered through the whole game.  People stopped to take photos of her dancing and singing.  It was a lot of fun. 

Photos are in the album area.

Yesterday as she had unleashed a wave of havoc and unrest I told Will maybe we should invest in retinal scans for all of the doors and then she wouldn't be able to enter areas she shouldn't be.  We spent the day putting the heads back on his action figures because Gigi the Executioner had been in his toys.  She had also gotten into his closet and his drawers so we had to put everything back.  Will was frustrated with "Hurricane Reagan" by the time Chris arrived home.

My mother let me know I had not been writing.  She called to inform me of this.  "You're not writing."  She said.  "I am writing.  I'm writing papers."  "I don't want to read your papers, you need to write on your blog.  Do you know how many times you've written since August?"

She keeps statistics and monitors writing trends now.

"Mom, I started working on a Master's degree in August.  I've been busy writing for that."

"Well maybe you've taken on too much."

"No, I cut out things to make time to study."

"Well, if it's going to cut into your posting on the blog you may want to evaluate whether or not you have time for a Master's degree."

And so, for Mom, two new posts and some photos of her grandchildren which I know are the only reasons she logs on in the first place.

Jolene got quite the surprise on Thursday when she walked into her office. Thursday was Jolene's birthday, and Wilson and I snuck up to her office and put 2 lbs. of balloons in there.

Click for more pictures!

Here's Wilson resting on bench at Baylor...with his little sister.

Now he's showing her how to get to chapel...or Judge Baylor.

In the brief hours when there is no rain, we try to go outside for a little while.  Will's baseball season was almost entirely rained out - even the make-up games have been rained out. 

Yesterday though we were able to go to Terrell where Chris worked with the pyrotechnic team to shoot off the fireworks for the 4th of July.  While Chris spends 6 hours setting up before the show I get to spend 6 hours playing with the kids.  We had a lot of fun.Reagan had a great time - until the first firework happened.  She screamed.  A friend helped out by holding Reagan so I could take the firework photos that we give to the team.  The show was great.  We arrived back home at 12:30 am on the 5th.  Will and Reagan slept until 10 am. 

More rain today...  We're getting a little tired of hanging out inside.

Last weekend my brother, my sister-in-law, and my adorable niece, Adison, flew in to visit us. We were all very excited. Even though their plane was delayed several hours and there was an incident of losing the car in the parking garage, and a major storm hitting during their arrival, we were so excited to see them.

After our plans to go south for Memorial Day weekend didn't turn out (FYI, if you plan to board dogs over Memorial Weekend, waiting until the last minute to try and get a reservation isn't going to work out for you, but you all probably knew that...) we had a pretty quiet weekend at home.  Everyone we knew went out of town so until Monday afternoon we spent the time at home. 

Monday we went to a birthday party.  The birthday party featured horse and pony rides and other animals.  It was a lot of fun - until Reagan was determined to ride the horse and someone had to ride with her.  Since Chris has a camera, that meant I had to ride a horse.  I've never be on a horse.  Honestly I've never really even been close to a horse.  The first problem was that I had to get on the horse.  I really could have used a step stool, ladder, longer legs - something.  I managed to get on the horse and then had to hope and pray the horse wouldn't get freaked out by me being anxious.  Of course, if I was anxious Reagan was elated.  She clapped and laughed and squealed the whole way.  My daughter has no fear, but I make up for it.  Will, too, wanted to keep riding horses.  I was so relieved that he is old enough to ride a horse without his mother. 

Monday afternoon neighbors started to return to town and, before the rain, we had a pool party for the kids.  Great way to start off summer.

Mother's Day started a few days early for me.  On Friday I picked the kids up from school and received their handmade gifts.  I love the handmade gifts!  Reagan made me a picture with her photo on it and Will made me a card with little popsicle stick "coupon" flowers.  I can pull out a popsicle stick and give him a chore to do in honor of Mother's Day! 

Most of the chores are things he already does for his allowance - feed the dogs, clean his room, help sort laundry - but one chore seemed strange.  "Help staple paper."  I don't think I even staple paper at work.  I don't even think we have a stapler at home.  Maybe it's something he wants to do together?  It did make me smile. 

He also presented me with a questionnaire he filled out about his mom.  He was right about my eye color, but some of the other answers puzzled me.  For example "My Mommy's hair is ____________"  he answered "blonde maybe?"  And this one really has us wondering "My Mommy looks pretty when she ____________".  Wilson's answer "puts on her blue shoes and goes to work."  I don't have any blue shoes...  and is it me, or does it sound like I have a less than reputable job in his description?  Chris laughed.  Just wait though because next month he's up for the questionnaire!

Friday night Chris was out of town so I had a special night planned with my kids.  First we made their favorite meal, then we took a walk with the neighbors.  When we put Reagan to bed, Wilson and I pulled out a movie, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, popcorn, and root beer.  It was a nice mom-son date. 

On Mother's Day they took me out to our favorite Italian restaurant in Saginaw.  We went home and spent the day playing.  It was a very busy day (a stray dog showed up and for some reason I can't understand, we operate a catch-love-release program for strays at our house) complete with a bike race between me and the boy.  I loved every minute of it! 

Well, its that time of year again, and this year we gathered up the kids, some old friends, and the camera and headed out to Ennis, TX for their annual bluebonnet festival. We had a blast out in the flowers, and afterwards we took the kids to McDonalds for a post-photo shoot lunch. It was such a fun time, especially to see Reagan out in the flowers, just like her big brother was when he was her age. Of course, he was there with his handsome smile for a few pictures too!

Click here to start the photos!

Honey and Poppy have spent the last week on a mission trip to Guatemala.  Since their children are grown they spend their time globe trotting on mission trips - one of the perks of not having children at home who "need" you I suppose. 

While they are on these trips the church sends out updates on how their work is going and when they are due to return to St. Louis.  Friday I got news that Mom and Dad were getting a layover at DFW airport.  i grabbed the kids and rushed to the airport to spend a little time surprizing Honey and Poppy with the kids.  It was great, even if the time was short.  Even though I'm 800 miles away from Mom and Dad and don't see them every day, I missed them while they were in Guatemala and knowing they were only a few miles away - well, I wanted to see them.

The airport was a mess.  DFW is a hub airport and on spring break it is a busy place.  When we arrived at the terminal all of the parking spots were full.  I told Wilson "You'd better start praying for God to give us a parking spot, because I don't think we're going to find anything."  Wilson started praying outloud for a parking spot.  I kid you not, we turned a corner and there was one spot right in front of the terminal.  I said "Here's a spot!"  Wilson shouted out from the back seat "I love you God and your awesome way!" 

When it was time for Mom and Dad to go back to their gate, they walked us over to the parking garage and they told Wilson "we have to get on our plane" - while we were driving away from the terminal a plane was taking off.  Wilson shouted "I hope they ran or else they just missed the plane!"  i explained that wasn't theirs, the airport has a lot of planes taking off. 

i called Mom later in the night after they'd arrived home in St. Louis.  Apparently I wasn't the only kid running to see them at the airport.  They arrived in St. Louis with Amber, Nate, Christy, and Adison all there to greet them, even though they had planned on shuttling with the rest of their mission team back to the church.  They had a surprize welcome party instead. 

Mom joked that she can't even leave her grown children and their families for a few weeks, but she said it was much better than arriving home and no one noticing.  She said she and Dad must have been pretty good parents. For all three kids and their families to run out to airports, I'd agree. 

Welcome home - we missed you. 

The best thing about Texas is how quickly spring arrives.  The trees are blossoming, the grass is turning green, and the kids' noses are runny - spring is here.

To kick off our weekend we had a spring soccer game.  This time the kids' soccer colors are light blue and dark blue so the name "Smashing Pumpkins" that worked so well with our black and orange jerseys wouldn't work this time.  The kids decided to be "The Polar Bears".  I personally thought we should stick with the band theme and call the kids "The Moody Blues" because if you've ever seen kids trying to play soccer during naptime you know it can be very moody. 

Reagan is completely upright these days.  No more crawling.  She's walking around and getting in to even more junk than she was before. 

Wilson and Chris practiced riding Will's new bike over the weekend too.  It worked great until one of the training wheels broke...

Pictures of our weekend are in the photo album.

Some of you may know I am planning to run in a race this spring.  I'll be participating with a group of friends from my church in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.  One of our teammates is currently undergoing treatment for a stage 4 brain tumor. 

I have to raise money and I encourage you all who feel led to do so to sponsor me or one of my teammates through the Relay for Life website http://www.acsevents.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=191558&lis=1&kntae191558=CDE33E3C0FC24C95973335AC97331CC7&team=1828366

It is an overnight relay in which our team needs to keep at least one member on the track at all times.  Participants can either run or walk, but the scariest part of it to me is the whole "overnight" part.  For someone whose bedtime is 10:30 on weekends, an overnight race is a scary idea. 

If you are able to donate and sponsor me, even if it's just a $5.00 donation, I really appreciate it.  Wilson will be accompanying me on this adventure.  We'll see if we can't keep each other up all night.

Play dough, cows, and cakes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

It's that time of year again.  Time to dress up and get the photo that goes out in the Christmas card to family and friends.  Last year we dealt with modeling primadonna Will - this year we dealt with 10 month old Reagan and her "I don't care about your Christmas card" attitude.  Will may have a supermodel attitude and tell us where he wants his "shot" and how it should be set up, but Reagan is an entirely different animal.  She's not about to sit anywhere and smile.  She'll sit for a few seconds - then she's eating leaves, crawling the other way and showing off her rear, or she's blowing raspberries. 

Most people just see our final picture that is mailed with the Christmas card.  From that photo one would never guess what a terrible chore it is to get one decent photo.  Just so you can have a laugh at the behind the scenes work, our Christmas Photo Outtakes are in the photo album.

It appears the boys have learned one only pulls the flags of the opposing team when they have the ball, so there's some improvement.  Other teams have yet to learn that this is flag football, so there is still some tackling - which the refs then give penalties for and our team marches down toward the end zone. 

This week's game was played when it was about 45 degrees outside, so the cheerleaders weren't there.  Maybe it was too cold for them.  But it meant there was more room on the sideline to watch the game, so that was fine with our team parents. 

The sideline is an important place to be because when one of our boys gets the ball and starts running we all have to stand up and point the direction to run.  If you don't do this the boys run the wrong way on the field or they run out of bounds...  You know in Forrest Gump when he's playing college football?  That's what this is like. 

Pictures are in the photo album.

Yesterday Will said "I don't feel good.  I'm sick."  He looked fine so we put him in the car and hurried off to work.  Halfway there I heard "Mom?' from the backseat.  I turned around just as the boy vomited.  So we got to come home.  As I was tucking him back into bed he said "I didn't get any in the car though, so that's something."  Yes, he's a glass-half-full sort of kid. 

Later he was lonely so he came into my room and settled in to watch his new favorite movie, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  If you haven't seen the movie, and I'm willing to bet you haven't, the motto of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is "Don't Panic".  Just as "Don't Panic" appeared in large, friendly letters on my television, the boy threw up.  All over himself.  All over my bed.  All over my floor. 

I run Will to the bathtub and stand him up in it.  I take off his nasty clothes just as he decides to get sick all over the bathtub.  Trying to decide what/who to clean up first, I said, outloud "I'm not sure what to do...." 

Wilson said "Don't panic."

Ha.

Not exactly Friday Night Lights - the game was at 8:30 am on Saturday.

Today after Will's soccer game the whole Smashing Pumpkins team went to Mainstay Farm to play and have pictures taken with the pumpkins.  Mainstay Farm is a farm south of Fort Worth that sells all sorts of things, including pumpkins and Christmas trees.

We stayed after the team photos and the kids went on a hayride, saw some Christmas trees, and played in a treehouse. 

Photos are in the Photo Gallery.

Go Cards!

We took Wilson and Reagan to Rombach's Farm while we were in St. Louis.  When we were little this is the farm Mom bought all of our fresh summer produce.  Interestlngly enough, in 1993 the whole farm was under about 8 - 10 feet of flood water when the Missouri River, which is just beyond the treeline of the farm, flooded.  The kids had fun playing in the pumpkin fields, seeing the sunflowers, the vegetables, and the herbs growing.  After the pumpkin patch we took the kids over to Nate and Christy's so Wilson and Adison could play more.

Last weekend we went to the Davidson Family Reunion. 

In the whole family only two of us live away from home - me and my cousin James who is serving in the Navy.  With those exceptions all kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids live fairly close to my grandparents.  Sadly, I think this is a trait more and more rare as extended families move states away from one another.

The weather was supposed to be chilly and rainy, but for once our family got lucky and the weather was perfect.  Wilson and Adison played together very nicely - Adison, concerned about Wilson's eating habits, was always there to offer her milk or food to him.  Since we came back to Texas Wilson keeps planning his next trip to see her by telling me "Adison and I are going to do this..."  and "I'm taking this to show Adison..."  I think he misses her.

Pictures are in the Photo Album.

Wilson sporting his game hair.

Wilson came in on Saturday morning and said he was ready to get his "Game Hair."  I don't know why, but all of the boys insist on wearing their hair standing straight up and spikey for game day.  "Game Hair".  I've always heard of putting on a "Game Face" but never "Game Hair."  Must be a soccer thing. 

All of the parents bought orange shirts with our child's name and number on the back and "Smashin' Pumpkins" on the front.  We all looked quite nice out there in our orange and black.  Except Reagan.  Reagan doesn't own any orange... yet.  Her pick dress didn't really match with the rest of us.  Luckily it's getting close to Halloween, we should be able to find her something in orange with a pumpkin on the front. 

Pictures are in the photo gallery.

Our neighbors and their two children came over last night for cake, ice cream, and to play in Wilson's little pool. 

Pictures of Wilson and Reagan are in the Photo Album.  I promise our neighbors were there, but since I didn't ask if we could put them online, there aren't any pictures of them.  But I promise you we have neighbors, they aren't imaginary.

This year for the 4th of July Honey and Poppy came to visit.  They brought more stuff to unpack.  For some reason my mom thinks all of us kids should have our "stuff" at our houses and not in her basement.  She's taking the "empty nest" thing seriously. 

The best part about Mom and Dad visiting is that my mom can't sit still.  She has to be doing something.  That something meant we have custom curtains hung up (Thank you Mrs. Polly!), the furniture in all of the rooms is put together, and the garage is completely cleaned. 

On the 4th we and our neighbors sat out in the empty lot next door.  From on our hill in north Fort Worth we were able to watch 5 different fireworks displays at the same time.  Next year we won't be able to do this with all of the new houses built around us, but for this year it was perfect.

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that states  - in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables - a clear picture designed to arouse a distinct emotion and suggest a specific spiritual insight.  - A Handbook to Literature

Draw your own conclusions about our spiritual insights.  Provide your own emotions.

One step closer to home ownership.

"Free" + "Air Show" = Happy Mother's Day!

In Blackwater Woods - Mary Oliver

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

For Easter we went to Victoria to see Chris' family.  It was a great trip - the pictures are in the Album area and include our stop at Baylor and Easter weekend.  I'm sad to say that after all of the effort to get Reagan in her Easter dress, shoes, and bonnet somehow we didn't get a good picture of her outfit.  Mainly because she was having none of it and wasn't really into Easter morning.  We'll have to do a retake of her because the dress was just beautiful.  But it was a lovely weekend with family and our adorable nephew Andrew. 

Just as busy as the 1904 World's Fair... 

More pictures of the kids in the Photo Album area.  This time they are hanging out in their pajamas.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys
Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks
Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys
'Cause they'll never stay home and they're always alone
Even with someone they love

They grow up. 

Junkmail and Motorcades

What we won't do for the kids to be comfy...  And to have leather seats...