Misc. Pics

Here are some recent misc. pics. One is of Harmony's hair that had a lot of static from sitting on the couch. The others are from today when I was doing laundry and the boys decided to climb in...

Harmony's hair with major static....

Noah trying to do the peace sign like Joshua...

Cheesing it up....

I didn't know if Noah was being pushed out or jumped out....

Noah trying to shut Joshua inside the dryer...

Videos

So 1 video is of Joshua who took off his pj's to go take a bath and he had on a lot of underwear. The other 2 videos is of Joshua trying to take a picture of Jessie and Noah and then Jessie realizing it is on video so he takes video of Joshua and Noah...


Joshua counting his underwear

Joshua trying to take a picture of Jessie and Noah but he is video taping instead...


Jessie video taping Joshua and Noah...I thought I took off some of the end but I didn't...

Finding our Christmas Tree

So every year we go to a tree farm and find our Christmas tree. This year we found our tree within the 1st 5 minutes but we decided to keep looking and we went back to this tree 2 more times before we cut it down. I personally picked out this tree and I think it is one of the best ones we have had so far. :-) Here is a slide show of us looking for the tree and then decorating it...

Christmas Cookies

So we made Christmas cookies and then made homemade icing and used food dye to make different colors. It was fun...Noah wasn't interested in coloring his cookies just eating them.

Noah eating his cookie...

Joshua frosting his cookie....

Jessie's cookies he cut out and frosted...

Cousin Time for the Boys

So my sister came up from Houston for Thanksgiving break and stayed a week at my mom's house in Cabot. I went to see them at my mom's on Sunday before Thanksgiving and my nephew Austin who is 3 1/2 came home with me and stayed the night. It was like using the jaws of life to get my sister to let him come stay so he could spend some quality time with his cousins and boys for that matter. I told my sister that in all the pictures I have seen of her play dates he is always having to play with girls....and he needs some man time! I was giving a list of do's and don'ts by my sister that I was beginning to wonder if taking him home with me was worth the trouble. But he had a good time and they played bumper cars with the toys and had a snack and watched a movie. Andy pulled out a big mattress for them to all sleep on and I had made a pallet on the floor next to the mattress just in case one rolled off....so when we woke in the morning...Noah was in our bed and Austin was sleeping on the pallet while the other 2 where on the mattress....check out the pics below...


Joshua, Jessie, Austin, and Noah

Seth

I took this picture of Seth at Jessie's Birthday Party and this was the best quality picture I took all day....

Jessie's 8th Birthday Party

So for Jessie's Birthday Party we had some kids come to the Benton HS Football Practice Field and play flag football along with some cupcakes and lemonade. Below are some pics of the day. My camera was messed up and didn't take many pictures so I didn't get pictures of his cake and blowing out the candles but we got it on video tape. I will try to post some video later.

Jumping in a Pile of Leaves

So when the leaves started falling I told the boys that we could make a pile of leaves for them to jump in. They had a good time gathering the leaves and then jumping in them.

Dishwasher

So we bought a new house and we will have lived here 2 years in February. The dishwasher that was put in here was....well....CHEAP! So not only does it do a bad job of washing dishes but lately it would get stuck in a cycle and would run all night until you moved the knob a bit. Well we decided to just hand wash our dishes and not bother messing with the dishwasher, mainly because we didn't have the extra cash to go buy a new one. So today Andy came home for lunch and surprised me with a new dishwasher! He installed it and everything before going back to work. I can't wait to use it. He used money he earned from a side job to pay for it. I am so excited. Having a family of 5 you go through a lot of dishes!

Halloween Pics

We went to Boo at the Zoo with Josh and April and their kids. It was okay....I don't think we will do that again. Here are some pics of the night. We had a lot of cute pictures taken but we were using a new camera and we didn't have the flash on.

Family Portraits

We went to Alma on Saturday to have some family portraits taken. Our friend Dana took them for us and she did a great job! Everybody had a level of cooperation it just didn't happen all at the same time....LOL. Below is a slide show of our family pics....enjoy!

Jessie's Last Game

Well the title says it all....Jessie's football season is over and they went undefeated! This game was the one that they were 8-0 in the first quarter and then the rain came and we had to postpone to Tuesday night, 28th. So we show up and the commissioner decided to start the game over and took our 8 points away. Since we haven't lost and the team we were playing was in last place. So Jessie's touchdown for that game didn't count and that was a downer but he made two more in the makeup game so that was good.

Jessie's 7th Game

Jessie played his 7th game against the Gators. He scored 1 touchdowns and the game ended 14-0. He had some really good tackles and the 1st one shown on the video he had to run the opposite direction he was at to make the tackle.

Jessie's 6th Game

So I thought I would give video taping a try....let's just say I started and ended my video taping career all within an hour....lol so I am going to leave it to our friend Josh to video tape Jessie's games. Andy made another video of what was salvageable video tape.


So Jessie made 2 touchdowns and threw a completed pass plus some good tackles on defense. I had the video camera paused instead of on record for some of the game so I think I missed filming some of the tackles. Andy's friend Paul came to the game and commented on the fact that we were not lying about how good Jessie is. So I am glad we are not just overly proud parents but he is actually really talented...lol

Jessie's 5th Game

So if you have been keeping up with Jessie's Games then you may notice that I skipped game 4. Last week they started playing and the game got rained out so it has been rescheduled for later this month. Jessie did make a touch down in that game so they will start where they left off for the make up game. This week we played the Sooners. I have a funny story about one of the Sooner players that approached a teammate of Jessie's on Friday at school and said that, "The Buccaneers are bad! And their undefeated strike ends tomorrow!" Andy told Jessie we do our smack talking on the field. Watch the video to see who won. So we have our video camera set up on a tri-pod now to take video so the quality is much better! Andy wanted to make this video so here it is....

My Time Flys

I remember being in high school thinking that it would be forever before I graduated. Time just seemed to move so slow. Well, since graduating time seems to move faster and then being married with kids it seems to move double time. As my boys get older they become more independent and it reminds me of how fast time is moving. This hit home with me a few months back when Jessie and I, my oldest, who is seven had to go to the restroom at a local restaurant. We both get up from the table at the same time and head to the restroom and I start to the girls and he goes the opposite direction. I stop and say, "Aren't you coming in here with me," and he looked at me like I was crazy, laughed and said, "NO." And he proceeded to go in the MENS restroom. I just stood there and thought when did he become old enough to go to a PUBLIC restroom without me or his dad? When was the last time he went in the Women's Restroom with his momma? I mean we should all be glad that he prefers the MENS Restroom but he reached a milestone of independence and I missed it. There was no discussion of, 'you are getting older and it is more appropriate for you to start using the Mens Restroom and I know that it will be hard for you to start going by yourself but I will wait for you by the door...'....no that conversation didn't happen....life happened and my son, my first born is becoming a young man. Andy had taking our videos of the kids and put them on the computer and we where watching them and Joshua was less than a year old and Jessie was 3 years old and I was sitting there thinking where did 4 years go? I had heard of a couple that wrote a book about having a empty nest on the radio one night when I was driving and I almost started crying just hearing them talk about it and my youngest is 2! But I know our time with them will fly by and I hope we take advantage of every moment with them...which we honestly don't and we should because their time of wanting to sit in our lap or play a game with us will be gone before we know it.

I've been tagged

I was tagged by Pastor Susan on her blog. I have to post the rules which are to write 6 random things about myself. Then I have to tag 6 other people who have to do the same thing I did.

My 6 random things are…

1. I am an in the closet Hula Hooper...I can do tricks and dance while hooping.

2. I went to school in Mexico as a student through my college for 2 months to study Spanish.

3. When I was 5/6 years old I wanted to have 10 kids, get married, and find someone...in that order.

4. I have always wanted to learn to dance the Salsa.

5. I have been able to ski and knee board since I was 8 and haven't done it since I was 16.

6. My husband makes me a chocolate chip cookie almost every night before I go to bed and brings it to me with a frost mug of milk and he tucks me in bed every night...while calling me SPOILED in a loving tone...LOL...which I am...

So I am tagging...Maranda K., Amanda Browning, Monica F., Dana W., Andy M., and Carrie Burress...if you don't have a blog then put it in my comment section...

Fireproof and Blessings

So Andy and I went to see the movie Fireproof last night and it was REALLY, REALLY Good. If you haven't seen it yet please make plans to go see it....especially if you are married or single and wanting to be married. Below is a link to their website and has a trailer on there if you haven't seen it yet.

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

Also, at the movies last night we were waiting in line to be seated and we got there early so we were a couple away from the front of the line and their was a couple behind us that had a group of 10 couples to join them to watch the movie. And the couple right behind us gave Andy $11 to go buy the couples package for popcorn and a drink. Andy refused to take it at first and the gentleman said please I want to do something nice for someone. I was so thankful to him for that. We didn't have any cash on us and the ATM was broken so we couldn't buy anything anyway and that was a really blessing. Because who doesn't like popcorn and a big drink at the movies.

God has continued to bless in so many ways and we can't be more thankful. Andy's parents surprised us with 2 new tires for our van, had the carpets shampooed, Andy's mom cleaned the car, and they found someone to get our door fixed that was broken, and even bought us the tickets for the movie and watched our kids so we could go. And to top that all off they bought the boys a DVD player for the car that hooks to the headrest. They are constantly doing for others and they are such a good example of having a giving spirit. (Hopefully we will be able to talk them in to paying them back or working off the money...which WE would LOVE to do!)

Speaking of money since I don't work our finances are really TIGHT. I make some money watching our friends kids but it isn't enough of an addition to cover all our expenses. So I had been praying that we would be able to bring in more income and a month or 2 ago Andy mentioned a consulting job that I could possibly do from home and I went and talked to Andy's boss about it. Well less than 2 weeks ago I emailed him and asked if they got a go ahead for hiring someone and he called me and told me that he did. So I am an independent web consultant for the Bryant School District and I can work from home and get paid a good hourly rate when I work for them. It is a temporary job at this point but I am so thankful that I am able to provide additional income to our family and still be able to stay home with the boys. I don't know how many hours I will end up getting on a monthly basis but something is better than nothing! And I hope Andy doesn't mind me saying this but he had felt lead by God to fast for a week and I really think that because of his obedience it opened the door for me to have this opportunity. Because I have been waiting over a month to hear something and the way it went down his boss asked and found out something all within a couple hours on the day I emailed him and it was during the same week Andy was fasting. Some people may call it coincident but I call it a move by my heavenly father...a.k.a. GOD!

I have another cool story of someone that blessed Jessie's team with something and I will post on that sometime in the next couple of days.

Jessie's 3rd Football Game

Well the Buccaneer's win again vs the Jaguars....12-6. Jessie got another touchdown this game and another player named Carson got the 2nd touchdown. I am surprised they won because they had a lot of mistakes and fumbles at the beginning, but they got better as the game went on. I missed recording Jessie's touchdown and really didn't get any good video so I don't have anything to show you. Hopefully next week we will have our tripod set up and our friend Josh has volunteered to record it for us so we should have much better video.

Sether

So I watch our BF's 2 kiddos during the week, Harmony who is 4 and Seth who is 1. And today we went outside and played in the sprinklers and had a lot of fun. Seth really enjoyed it. Noah who is 2 wouldn't even get in the water. So I have a few pics of Seth and the other kiddos playing in the water. And I have a video that was taken later this afternoon and my 14 year old neighbor Maranda was sitting beside me when I was taping...the video is of Noah, who just figured out how to drive the battery cars, in fact he is driving Harmony's Dora car....and Seth driving around and Noah backing up to much....just watch so CUTE!

Jessie's 2nd Football Game vs. Sooners

So today Jessie played his 2nd game against the Sooners winning 14-6. Jessie made both the touchdowns....we tried getting the ball into other players hands but the Sooners defense was really good and Jessie was able to get around them to make the touchdowns. I didn't get a video of his 1st touchdown but I have a video of his 2nd. I did a little bit better getting video this week but not much better:-) He did great and had some really good tackles on defense and he got the offensive arm band for this game. I have posted 2 pictures of him wearing it on his arm. They hand 1 out for defense and offense. He got the one for defense for the scrimmage game

Jessie wearing his armband and being silly and sucking in his stomach...I don't know where he got that from...
.

Fun in the Back Yard

So the boys love to ride down the hill on anything with wheels. Here are some pictures and videos of them playing outside.

Joshua with a broken ball on his head...

Joshua and Harmony...

Close up of Joshua...

Spider-Man Noah riding down the hill...

Elvis Noah riding down the hill...

My neighbor Elvis Annette and Spider-Man Noah...

Noah riding down the hill...

Joshua and Harmony riding down the hill...

Jessie's First Football Game '08

So Jessie's team played the Gators who was undefeated last year....and won 28-0. They did awesome! Jessie got within 1/2 a yard to score his own touch down. He carried the ball 3 times and always got a first down and on one play he went 10 yards zig zagging through the line with the other team holding on to him and then getting free and then juking them and making them miss....it was crazy...I kept thinking oh they got him...because there was a pause and I couldn't see him and then all of a sudden you'd see him take off again... and I didn't get it on video either!...in fact I remembered my camera and took video but I was so busy watching him, screaming my excitement, and jumping up and down that I was not looking through the video camera so it turned out choppy, bouncy, and with shots of the sky and ground that I really don't have much to show you....hopefully next week I will do a better job of filming or have someone else take video instead. I think and may be wrong but the Gators only got 1 first down the whole game...it was awesome! I can't wait until next Saturday. So I attempted at making a movie and it has 2 videos but its choppy...one is Jessie running the ball for the first time this season after half time and getting 35 yards....and I was running and trying to video tape at the same time to keep up with him....the video is bad....and the other is him tackling one of the Gators who is pretty fast when he was playing defense...

Noah...Daddy's 'Mini Me'

So Noah not only looks like Andy but he likes the same things Andy does...also it is wise to not leave computers around Noah...he likes to change your settings and do things we didn't know possible or how to undo:)

My Followers

So on Blogger.com they came out with a cool new gadget called Followers shown on the upper right hand side of the screen. If you sign up it will show me who follows my blog and you have 2 different options...

1. "Follow Anonymously"

or

2. "Follow Publicly"

...so if you aren't embarrassed about reading my blog...PLEASE SIGN UP! :) You don't have too... but I would love to know who my readers are...

My Hubby's Birthday

Today is Andy's 30th birthday! I can't believe he is 30! We meet when he was 18 and I was 16...boy time flys! So today he took off work so he could relax and put his feet up. He is currently taking a nap with Noah. I wanted to throw him a big surprise party but he mentioned in passing that he really didn't want a party and I didn't want to do something that he wouldn't want or enjoy so we decided to have a small group go eat. So we are planning on going out to eat with our parents and our friend's Josh & April to Gaucho's, since we liked it so much for my birthday. But we haven't decided on a night yet that well work for everyone. But him getting to stay home and not have to do anything today but relax, play Wii, or play WOW on his computer is all he wants to do anyway.

I want you to know Andy that we love you and hope you have a relaxing 30th B-day and thanks for being such a good daddy and hubby!


Noah and Andy's napping

Jessie's Scrimmage Game

So Jessie had his scrimmage game tonight against the Jaguars. Last night Andy had a late meeting with 2 of the 4 coaches to decided who was going to play on defense/offense and 3 players have to play both ways b/c we only have 19 players. Well Andy wanted Jessie to play offense until the 2nd half and then put him on defense and offense for the rest of the game, but our defensive coordinator, Todd, really wanted him playing defense for him. Our head coach, Matt, agreed so Jessie is now playing both ways the whole game...hopefully he will be able to get a break in the 2nd half if the score isn't to tight. So even though it is just a scrimmage game and doesn't count and they only played half the normal time...they still scored 14-0. Jessie did not even run the ball this time as a QB, but he did a really good job passing it off. He hadn't had a chance to practice defense in his practices but he did really good...he played safety and 1 time sacked the QB for a loss of 8 yards and below is a video of him tackling a player on the opposite side of the field he was on. Now I thought I did really good by remembering my camera. I didn't do a good job of making sure the battery was charged.:( So I used my cell phone to take pics and video but the video quality is BAD! So you can't really see him make the tackle...:)





Video of Jessie making a tackle and me screaming my excitement...

Jessie on his 2nd day of Football Practice

So Jessie is in 2nd grade this year and is playing football. He played football last year and was quarterback and did really well. He was the fastest runner on his team last year and seems to be the fastest runner this year. So he ran the ball quite a bit last year and averaged 2 touch downs a game and until the last 2 or 3 games was the only one making touch downs. This year Andy is the offensive coordinator and Jessie is still QB and he is planning on Jessie running the Flex Triple Option....I kinda understand what that means after it has been explained to me a few times...LOL. So hopefully Jessie won't be running it as much and can make passes or throws that will get the ball in other players hands and we will be able to gain some yards. We tried getting the ball to the other players last year but when the play called for Jessie to run the ball he was so fast that it was hard for the other team to stop him once he broke free. I really like him playing defense and he should be playing defense after the 2nd half.....everybody has to play the same position for the 1st half. So tomorrow is his scrimmage game and then next Saturday starts his regular games. So I will be posting video and photos over the next 2 months of his games and/or practices. I am so proud of him he is a great athlete but he does really good in school too which is why we continue to let him play sports.

So this is a video of him playing defense and he is the one in red...
The thing that is so funny about Jessie is he will lay you out and then get up and walk off like nothing ever happened. He is really humble about how good he is which makes watching him even better.

This video is him playing offense and trying not to get tackled...
He isn't suppose to juke during this exercise but he can't help it so when he finally runs straight it looks like he ran the boy tackling him over instead of him being tackled...pretty funny

My Moment of Calm

So I stay home with my younger two and our BF's 2 kids and below is a picture of peace and quiet for a moment...:)

Seth H., Harmony H., Joshua M., and Noah M.
The kiddos actually sitting down at the same time and watching a movie.

Our trip to Texarkana

This weekend, Andy and Jessie went to Dallas with Andy's dad to see a professional baseball game....a tradition for the 3 of them since Jessie started playing baseball. So my mom picked up Joshua, Noah, and I to go to Texarkana to see my sister, Jennifer and her family, who was visiting her in laws while her husband Chris was working in Texarkana for a few days. Jennifer and Chris live in Houston, TX. But I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get there. We got a few miles down the freeway and Joshua says he has to pee and there isn't an exit for another 10 miles so we pull over on the side of the road so he can pee and we resume our trip...well another 20 miles down the road Noah throws up out of no where in my mom's car!....not good....she handled it well though and we were about 25 miles from Benton where I live. So we pull over at a rest stop and get Noah and the car cleaned up...and wager whether we should resume our trip or turn around and go home. I also was feeling under the weather...sinus's is my guess and wouldn't have minded going home and going back to bed...but considering Noah seemed fine and I knew my sister would be disappointed if we didn't come so we decided to resume our trip...again! Then Joshua says he is hungry and Noah had thrown up his breakfast so instead of being close to being there we still have another hour or so of driving. So we pull over at McDonald's in Arkadelphia and let the kids get out of the car and get something to eat...by the time we got to Texarkana we had been on the road for 3.5 hours for a 2 hour trip...Below are some pics of the trip and a video of the boys playing in the back yard.

The rest stop...


Joshua, Noah and Austin playing in the backyard


Mom showing Jennifer how to make a border around the luvie she is trying to make...

Funguns aren't what they used to be

So we like to go to Sam's and buy in bulk and the boys like Funguns...except what you get in the box isn't what it used to be....though it does strangely resemble Joshua...

Outside Fun

So our backyard as a pretty good incline and the kids like to get in their dump truck or anything with wheels that they can fit in and ride down the hill. Well my neighbor has a garden wagon that the kids will sit on and ride down the hill on....I have been known to do this a few times myself...and here is Maranda my 14 year old neighbor....we have the same birthday....riding down the hill with my younger two boys and our BF's kiddos that I watch during the week, Harmony and Seth. It is hard enough to ride on it with two people but she had 4 kids on there with her. Also, there are some photos of Jessie playing football with our other neighbor TJ.

Maranda trying to get everyone situated

Them going down hill...

The end of the ride...

Noah deciding to push instead of ride...he is wearing Maranda's head band on his head...who knows why...

Another pic of Noah with a shoe and hat change

Maranda and Seth

Jessie getting ready to throw the ball

TJ catching the football