CUTENESS!

Posing with Colonel Reb:

I know I've said it before, but I LOVE having some girls!

My Newest Bike Rider

GO HENRY, GO!

Spring Break Recap

Hello Blog.  Spring Break came and went round these parts and here's what we were up to.  We split the week between families.  We hit Clayton's up first.  We all met at Aunt Susan & Uncle Walt's house.  They live south of Jackson, MS in a little town called Mendenhall.  They live out in the country and have tons of land.  They farm chickens for Sanderson Farms.  They are also avid hunters.  Since turkey season was in Susan and I took the boys turkey hunting.  Here we are all geared up and ready to hunt us a turkey:

 McCoy, William & Charlie:

 

 Ready to go:

 Y'all, we sat down in the woods and waited and waited on those turkeys and didn't see nar a one.  We heard some a couple of times but they never did come around to find us.  When we first went out to a field on the gator we saw a turkey standing in the field and what did I do?  Exactly what you're not supposed to do.  I yelled, look, look boys!  There's a turkey!  And off he flew!  I'm such a good hunter....can't you tell?  I don't think I could really ever kill anything.....I brought my camera to shoot him with, should we get so lucky to see one!  We did not get so lucky though.

So we headed to check on the baby chicks.  Here's what you see when you open the door to one of the chicken houses:

 William holding a chick:

 The girls loving on each other:

We also set some traps and attempted to catch us a coon.  All we caught was a possum.  I let him go.  He didn't act like he was gonna leave the cage at first but he eventually ran on off.

Then we headed on to Dothan and spent time playing at Nana & Pa's house.  Sadly, I took not a picture.  But we had lots of fun.  The girls got their first haircuts, compliments of Aunt Gloria!  She did a WONDERFUL job!  They look so cute!  She just bobbed it off and got them all evened up around the bottom.  And my cousin Haley discovered that my girls have VERY curly hair.  She added some mouse and wet them up and they looked like Shirley Temple!  Clayton and I grabbed a movie one night, always a treat!  All in all we had a pretty amazing Spring Break!

Ski Trip 2011

These are so super late but here are some pics from our ski trip to Colorado the end of Feb/beginning of March.

Out to eat after first day of skiing:

 Me and Melanie:  (when Mel was looking at these on her camera she said we looked just like we did in college.  me, not so much but Melanie actually does!)

 On the lift:

 it was soooo beautiful!

 we look like we're about to fall over here, ha!

 Out shopping for the kids' soveniers:

We had a wonderful time in Coloardo with our friends Mel & LE!  We had a little trouble getting to Steamboat b/c of weather but we made it and got in our three full days of skiing!  It has been about three years since we've skied and all I can say is next year I will be sure to start working out at least two months prior to hitting the slopes!  My poor body went through the ringer!  I'd do it all again in a heartbeat!  Let's just say that every night after we ate we fell in the bed and died....sometimes requiring a few advil to ease the aches, ha!  I felt like a mamaw when I'd try to get up from sitting down b/c my knees just didn't want to work.  But after about 10 or so hrs of sleep I'd feel brand new and was ready to hit the slopes again!  Clayton had some minor equiptment issues with the fit of his skis and had some major shin pains.  I did not, yeah!  So I was much more of a "go-getter" than he was this trip, which it's usually the opposite for us.  I have tried to ski on bad shins before though and I know how bad it hurts, like you just want to lay down and wait for ski patrol to come put you on a stretcher and carry you down the mountain, ha!  I even skied a black with Melanie after we got off the lift and went down what was suppossed to be a blue, but the blue was roped off and closed so down the black we went, and even hit the lift up again before it closed and did it again!  Major rush!  I had never skied Steamboat before and I really liked it!  My favorite part was skiing in and out of the trees!  They were so beautiful!  Although I did eat one or two and got buried up to my shoulders in snow!  But after 20 minutes or so I was able to muster up the strength to dig my way out, ha! I told you my body was not in shape, ha!  It was definitely a wake up call that I need to join the gym and get off my lazy tail and exercise!  Looking forward to next year already!

I hate daylight savings time

Is it just me or is just plain unnatural to get up while it's still dark outside? Last week we were out on spring break. Spring break=no setting alarm clock=wake up whenever my body/children tells me to. I like spring break. The thing about spring break this year is that it started off with changing the darn time on me. But you know, it wasn't that big of a deal to me since I wasn't living by the alarm clock. But alas, spring break is only a break and this week things are back to normal around here. Now I am no early riser by any stretch of the imagination. I tend to roll out of the bed just in time to wake, dress, feed and rush the boys off to school dropping them at the door seconds before the tardy bell rings. What can I say? I like to keep things spunky around here. My alarm is going off at 6:35ish so I have time to hit snooze a couple of times and jump up and attempt to grab a quick shower before waking the natives. That way if I accomplish nothing else that day with my personal hygiene agenda at least I won't smell bad. I have such high expectations, I know.....totally opposite of my former younger, childless self. Oh what we do for our kids! The problem is that whole shower thing before waking the natives has been kinda null so far this week. Don't worry. I have showered, it's just been after morning school activities, which means I've gotten a whole bunch of nothing else done the past few days. Do you know why I haven't showered so early in the morning? It's b/c the sun is still sleeping at that time of day and I think I should be too. Now I know back in the old days when we were all living of the land and in the middle of a depression that the whole daylight savings time was a good idea. But those days are long gone. Not that we aren't headed for another depression considering our nation's financial standings, but that's a whole other can of worms. My whole point of all this rambling is that I think we should do away with the observation of daylight savings time. Anybody else? I mean not only are we forced to get up before the sun, which is all kinds of ways unnatural to me, our kids can't get in bed at a decent hour b/c they can't successfully go to sleep until the sun goes down. And if you live close to the border of another time zone, that's well after 8:00, closer to 9:00 in the summer.

I know nobody else really cares about what I think about the whole time thing and would rather see pics of kids and know what we've been up these days, and I promise to deliver soon. I just thought I'd throw it out there in case anybody who reads this happens to be in good with some of those people who make decisions about such and might like to pass along my tip: let's just stick to regular old time and forget trying to save some daylight. My body sure would appreciate it. Thanks!

Ode to Love

Wow, where did the week go last week?  Let's see, this is week 2.5 of flying solo for me.  You see, we are in the midst of meeting cycle....oh joy.  Clayton was in Indianapolis for half a week, in Phoenix last week and flew out for Orlando before the sun came up this morning.  He came home from Phoenix with a flu-like virus and was literally in bed all weekend.  Of course, all the kids have been sick this week as well.  I thought they got the flu but luckily everybody is fine...snotty but fine.  Of course who isn't snotty right now?  It's like 50 something in the morning, high 70s in the afternoon and humid humid humid.....a recipe for sinus disaster if I ever heard one.  And it does not look to be letting up anytime soon.  This week promises to be more of the same.  I know people think I am insane but I could live in the middle of summer year-round I think.  Give me 90 degrees a pair of shorts, a tank top and a pair of flops any day! 

Anyway, I digress.  The point I was making is things have been hairy around these neck of the woods.  Getting five kids up and out the door every morning by 7:40 is no easy task....gives me a whole new appreciation for single moms......really don't know how they do it.  I guess they have jobs, which gives them adult interaction, which is a total must if you want to stay sane, ha!  But alas, my parents are coming to my rescue this week!!!  They should be on their way as I type (I should probably call and check to make sure!).  And when Clayton gets home we are flying to Steamboat to go skiing with our friends Melanie and L.E. minus kids!  I am so pumped!  This is going to be a much needed break for yours truly and I am sooooo looking forward to it.  Now, I may be dying when I get home considering I can't remember the last time I actually exercised and I'm going to attempt to ski for three days in a row, but it will all be worth it! 

Oh, and Valentines Day was a week ago (I'm so punctual) which is why I was writing this post.  It was just me and the kids as Daddy was away but we made sure to eat plenty of chocolate in his absence.  I didn't think you were suppossed to be alone on v-day after you got married, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, darn meeting cycle!  Clayton bought each of the kids a heart filled with assorted chocolates, not the little ones, the BIG ones.  They ate lots of chocolate, which is probably why I had such a hairy week last week.  Meme and Pop also sent each of them a chocolate marshmellow heart and some clothes.  Here are some pics of them digging in:

They ate chocolate all week and I cleaned chocolate all week.  That chocolate, it is messy.  Maybe next year I'll tell Clayton he needs to stick with conversation hearts, ha!  And that's pretty much all I can tell you we did last week.  All I know is I was ready to crash every night when I put them little boogers to bed!  I can tell you what I did not do last week and that is clean my house or do a single load of laundry.  Needless to say, the laundry piles are so huge in my laundry room they could aquire their own zip code and my house has seen its better day.  I did wash everybody's sheets upstairs and changed them on Saturday and cleaned all the upstairs bathrooms while Clayton was laid out in the bed with the funk.  But that's about it.  I've got A LOT to get accomplished today before Nana and Pa show up.  Although, they did live with me for 18 years and if they remember what my room looked like 90% of the time they wouldn't be very surprised if they walked in right now.  But that was then and this is now.  Is anybody else like that?  You were a total slob growing up but had a change of heart and try to keep things a little cleaner now that you're all grown up?  I don't know, maybe it's just me!

Hi Ho the Dairy-O, a Sledding we will go!

My text is lining up all crazy AGAIN!  Got to figure something out.  Anyway, Friday we woke up to everything covered in snow and the snow coming down.  School was out and as soon as the snow stopped falling we headed for the hill across the bridge from the lake (b/c it's much bigger than the one on the side of our house) and sledded our little hearts out.  We didn't even bother making a snowman this time, partly b/c the high was barely in the 20s and that's just a little too cold for mama to be out rolling snowballs for a snowman that will melt the next day b/c the forecast called for highs in the 50s on Saturday......gotta love Texas weather.  Anyway, here are a few pics from our snow day. 

Here's MC....looks like she's giving me a thumbs up, ha!

 MA ready to hit the hill:

 Charlie needs to readjust his hat for optimal visibility:

 William sledding:

 Our friends the Seibs brought one of their tubey things (but it's not a tube) that they use on the lake and it was a BIG hit.  Here's William and the girls:

 Here we go!!!!!

 WEEEEEE!

 Daddy even got in on the action:

 those smiles....priceless!

 Henry wins the prize for most photogenic and cooperative on this particular day.....cutie pie!

 You can't have a snow day without tasting a little snow......just make sure it's not yellow snow, ha!

 Here's Charlie going full speed ahead:

 And the crash into the brush afterwards:

 Look at these cuties....Avery and Henry.  They're hugging above. (it wouldn't let me write above that pic)  They are two peas in a pod!

 Charlie and Blake heading down....

 Margaret Ann flying solo:

 Want a taste, Mom?

 My sweet William man:

The snow didn't hang around long.  It was all melted away by Saturday afternoon.  The kids sure were glad school was out on Friday and they had a blast sledding.  Two snow days in one year.....the kids better not get too used to it.  I don't think it snows very often around here, but we'll take it!  If only they wouldn't have to make up the day at school it would be perfect!  So long Good Friday we'll be in school I'm sure.....